'Captain Kinetic' receives Military Cross for holding off Taliban's Zulu-style attack with his men using fixed bayonets

UK Daily Mail  "The combat was so fierce that soldiers were ordered to fix bayonets as the insurgents pushed to within just 30 metres of the tiny compound's mud walls.

"Had the patrol base been over-run, it would have been a catastrophic defeat that could have threatened the UK mission in central Helmand.

"But at the end of six weeks of attacks, the soldiers of 5 Platoon, No 2 Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards had killed at least 84 of the enemy while barely suffering an injury themselves."

Bristol the Pistol

Jeannie DeAngelis  "How ironic, liberals blaming excessive voting for an "undeserving" contestant being in contention to win the "whole shebang." If the coveted, oversized mirror ball trophy finds a home with Bristol ‘the pistol' way up in Wasilla, Alaska, liberals are the reason. Wasn't it two just years ago that "democracy at work" taught Dancing with the Stars viewers to vote for an unqualified, "ubiquitous" candidate who ended up walking away with the ultimate prize? "

New battle lines in the fog of ObamaCare

American Thinker "An assortment of unions, including the United Federation of Teachers, are among 111 entities receiving ObamaCare waivers, reports the Examiner. Also notable on the waiver list are health insurers Aetna and Cigna."

A Time for Strength‪

National Review  "The current environment requires clear, decisive leadership, and President Obama is not providing it.
"The ruling in the Ghailani case makes clear that President Obama’s decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Gitmo detainees in civilian courts was a mistake and will not work. The Ghailani case was supposed to be the easy one, yet the Obama administration failed. "....
"...we should all have grave concerns about President Obama’s overall approach to national security. His artificial 2011 deadline to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan has led to confusion and a guessing game on the ground about Washington’s long-term intentions."

Terror-trial travesty    "Defense lawyers had argued that Ghailani's disclosures were inadmissible because they were coerced -- and prosecutors were loath to risk having their entire case tossed by the judge.
"Under normal circumstances, that's fine. But this case involved a foreigner making war on America.
"The result: A bloody-handed terrorist will now largely escape accountability for his heinous acts.
"Yes, Ghailani is facing 20 years to life -- but that's only about a month for each of the 224 people he helped kill.
"Team Obama is still trying to figure out what to do about KSM & Co. There's no longer any question: Trying them in a civilian court would invite disaster. "

Carville defiant on Obama comment

CNN  via Lucianne  "Democratic strategist James Carville compared President Barack Obama to his Democratic primary rival and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday, implying in rather lewd terms that Obama needs to toughen-up.
"And he's not sorry for it."

The derailing of the “Peace Train”

Stand for Israel Blog "In a better world – a saner world, in fact – Yusuf Islam and those who hold similar views would not be invited to share the podium at high-profile events. They would be called on to disavow, strongly and in no uncertain terms, their previous support for violence against innocents, and to back up those disavowals with actions. Until they did, it would be made clear to them that they stand outside the bounds of civil society.
"But this is not our world. Today radical Islamists, who use religious convictions to legitimize their oppression and murder of Jews, Christians, and anyone else they disapprove of, have found allies in a legion of apologists in the West.

Obama to present US Israel-Palestinian border map within 3 months

DEBKAfile "Our sources disclose that the boundaries the US map will adhere a lot more closely to Palestinian territorial aspirations than to Israel case. While no one is talking about imposing it on Israel, a rejection by the Netanyahu government would place it on a collision course with the Obama White House."....
"According to our Washington sources, Obama believes that leaving Israel with no more than 4-4.5 percent of the pre-1967 West Bank area should satisfy its essential security requirements. In terms of population, this would entail the evacuation of dozens of settlements plus two important towns, Efrat in Gush Etzion in the south which has a population of 8,000, and Ariel in Samaria which has 20,000 inhabitants."  Logo: standforisrael

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."