A Compromise Verdict, and No Winners

Andrew C. McCarthy  "Similarly, the jury was not allowed to learn that Ghailani had confessed, and that after the bombing he had become a celebrity in al-Qaeda circles.
"That is, swaddled in the protections of civilian due process, Ghailani was allowed to pose before the jury as a victim of circumstances who had no idea that the terror network was preparing simultaneous massacres at American embassies.
"It seems to have worked, at least with one juror, who reportedly held out for a complete acquittal for several days. But even without the key witness and the post-bombing evidence, the circumstantial case against Ghailani seemed strong — strong enough to convince most of the jurors."  One  juror...ONE.

Voting Present Beats Losing / With enemies like Michael Moore and Bill Maher, Obama needs fewer friends.

Victor Davis Hanson "The economy is bound to recover, especially when Americans with capital are assured that Obamism has stalled and it is time to reenter the market — to resume investing, hiring, and buying equipment. Consumers have reduced debt. The world economy is healing. Obama can do very little and take credit for very much. Things should be better by November 2012 than they are now — as long as the private sector is assured that Obama will do no more harm."

Repudiated at the Polls, Will the Left Resort to Violence?

American Thinker "Cliff Kinkaid, editor of Accuracy in Media, penned a column this week that warns of a leftward move towards violence in the wake of the Tea Party-Republican victories in the Congressional elections. His focus was nationally syndicated cartoonist Ted Rall who said on MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Show that a “revolt” is necessary. He claimed that peaceful avenues for change had been fruitless and embraced violence as a last resort. Rall was promoting his new book "The Anti-American Manifesto." "

Cartoonist Ted Rall to Appear at Communist Bookstore " Some have called Rall a crank. But his appearance at Revolution Books suggests he knows exactly what he’s doing. A critic of the Tea Party, Rall has no problem in appearing at a bookstore that celebrates an ideology that has resulted in more than 100 million deaths since the Communist Manifesto. Rall seems proud of his scheduled appearance at the communist bookstore, having posted it on his blog."  Cartoon: u2r2h.blogspot

Counterpoint: Two Overblown Scandals

PowerlineBlog "Many of our friends on the right won't agree, but I think that two scandals currently in the news are mostly faux. The first is the Transportation Security Administration's full body scanner/pat-down policy. Large segments of the country are up in arms, but, as one who flies somewhere almost every week, I haven't seen much of a problem. Relatively few airports have the new scanners; I have gone through a handful of them without incident."

Government Takeover of IRAs

Kerby Anderson "Last month Senator Tom Harkin held a recess hearing to consider a way for the federal government to take over Americans' investment plans. In previous commentaries I have talked about the possibility that the government would try to manage 401(k) and IRA plans. Until last month, this idea was mostly speculation."

The Blind Who Will Not See: The President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Iranian Death Spiral

Michael Ledeen  "I don’t get it. Is there some sort of evidence? ... So I try to imagine one of the tens of millions of Iranian opponents of the regime. Perhaps he’s got a relative in prison; he probably knows people who have lost a family member or two to the regime’s killers and torturers. He dreams of a free Iran, of an end to the humiliating circumstances in which Iranians now find themselves: widely considered to be terrorists, barbarians, and savages. And then one day somebody blows up a bunch of nuclear labs, some secret military installations, and RG headquarters in the major cities. Does that guy now rally round the supreme leader? I don’t think so.

Terror Verdict Tests Obama’s Strategy on Trials

NY Times  ..."But because a jury acquitted him on more than 280 other charges -- including every count of murder -- critics of the Obama administration’s strategy on detainees said the verdict proved that civilian courts could not be trusted to handle the prosecution of Al Qaeda terrorists. "

Does The FDA Really Need More Power?

Heritage " And the government would be reaching into a lot of new places as well. The act requires that all food “facilities”—including those home-based businesses that make jam, bread, and cheese for local markets—would be required to undertake periodic hazard analyses and produce “risk-based preventive controls.”"
Liberals being liberals.

Toy Pig's Bacon Is Saved By Angry Mums

Sky News  "A toy shop has been branded "ridiculous" by mothers after it removed a pig from a children's farm set – in case it offended Muslim and Jewish parents."

Whom should we fear more, Muslims and Jews or guilt-ridden WASP liberals?

Bernanke's `Cheap Money' Stimulus Spurs Corporate Investment Outside U.S.

Bloomberg  "Southern Copper’s plans illustrate why the Fed’s second round of bond buying may not reduce unemployment, which has stalled near a 26-year high. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues appear to be fueling a foreign-investment surge, underscoring the difficulty of stimulating the economy through monetary policy with interest rates already near record lows."

http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/MichaelRamirez

Pamela Geller, The Guardian: The Lesson of Ghailani's Trial Fiasco

Atlas Shrugs  "On Wednesday, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first Guantánamo detainee to be tried in civilian court in New York, was acquitted of all but one charge, that of conspiracy for his role in jihadist terror bombings in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, which killed 224 people. His acquittal is the first poisonous fruit of Obama's policy of treating acts of war as law enforcement issues. It also shows what is wrong with doing so.

"Apparently, the evidence charging him with 224 counts of murder could not be used in court, because "coercive" techniques were used to get information from him. The jury did find him guilty of "conspiracy to destroy government buildings". So, the al-Qaida terrorist killed 224 people and he's guilty of… destruction of public property?" Emphasis added.

Olberwomann's Worst Person in The World: Pamela Geller  "Tonight I was Keith Undershtupper's Olbermann's Worst Person in the World. And here I thought my week could not be topped. This makes the honor being given to me this on Friday night at The Breakers, the Freedom Center's Annie Taylor Award for Courage, so much richer."