"Along with normal first-day jitters and excitement, students in this tiny district started school Monday wondering which teachers might be toting firearms...Several parents said they had no idea that employees of the K-12 school were allowed to carry concealed guns on campus until recent publicity about the school board's policy, approved quietly last fall. They said they were upset that the rural community near the Oklahoma border had not been able to give input."

Ya know...if people are worried about people bringing weapons into schools, I'd really prefer metal detectors & guards at the doors just like we have in Federal buildings. I support people having concealed weapons permits but I don't think teaching in a school is a valid reason for one.

Here's a case where one side has successfully whipped up panic. How often do school attacks happen? Rarely. Supporters would say even one is too many and arming the populace will deter that. Me, I say your wanting to go back to the days of the wild west is not appropriate civilized behavior. I want civilization to go forward, not fall back to the lowest common denominator.

by Christian missionaries in eastern India, killing one woman and seriously injuring a priest, police said.

Throw another log on the fire. Move over Islam, now you have Hindu's to keep you company.

While I think giving minority religions the same rights as majority religions would enable everyone to practice freely, all too many people out there only want freedom for their own views and won't give others the same capability. We aren't that far removed though. Christians are doing that here in the US. They are still bombing the occasional Planned Parenthood and threatening & restricting the staffs & doctors all in the name of their religious convictions.

Same thing in my mind.

As conservative bloggers and mainstream media sources work overtime to try and force Barack Obama to explain his relationship with former Weatherman Bill Ayers, John McCain still has questions to answer about his own relationship with a criminal. The criminal in question is McCain's father-in-law, the late Jim Hensley. At the time of his death in 2000, Hensley was one of the richest men in Arizona and owner of one of the largest Anheuser-Bush Distributorships in the nation:

"Jim Hensley vs. Bill Ayers

Felony Convictions: Hensley 1, Ayers 0.

Comment: In 1948, Hensley was given a six-month suspended sentence for falsifying liquor records to conceal illegal distribution of whiskey against post-war rationing regulations. Ayers has never been convicted of a felony.

Connections with Organized Crime: Hensley 2. Ayers 0.

Comment: Hensley and his brother were the owners of Ruidoso Downs racetrack, along with "silent partner" Clarence "Teak" Baldwin who had been banned from any ownership role due to illegal bookmaking activities. Long-time business associate Kemper Marley, Sr. was also connected with organized crime.

Illegally Acquired Liquor Licenses: Hensley 1, Ayers 0.

Comments: Hensley acquired a liquor license in Arizona despite the fact that he was not allowed to have one due to being a felon.

Divorces: Hensley 1, Ayers 0.

Comments: Like his son-in-law, Hensley divorced his first wife after having an affair and remarrying. Ayers has been married to Bernardine Dohrn for nearly 40 years.

Abandoned Children: Hensley 1, Ayers -1

Comments: Hensley abandoned his first child, Kathleen Portalski. Ayers and Dohrn raised two of their own children and adopted a third.

As anyone can see from the plain facts, Jim Hensley was far more dangerous man than Ayers has ever been, and profited wildly from his illicit activities. It is time for John McCain to stand up and explain his ties with the felon Jim Hensley."

Don Bourdeaux gets really feisty around election time when journalists start heaping praise at the feet of politicians.

In the link, he sends a rebuke of one editor's article praising Obama's humility.

No truly humble person - no person who understands the limits of his own intelligence and capacity - parades around posing as the first plural pronoun in the outrageously narcissistic chant "we are the change we have been waiting for." No one with genuine humility utters anything so cocksure as Mr. Obama's promise to get one million 150-mpg cars on the road by 2015, or his vow to reduce Americans' carbon emissions by 80 percent (!) by 2050. Genuinely humble people don't presume to know how much profit earned by private companies is "windfall" - and they certainly don't formulate plans to confiscate such profits.

Indeed, no one within a light year of humility wants the kind of power and gaudy glory that Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain so desperately seek.

Ha. I love that he just had to throw McCain's name in there lest anyone think he was taking sides. :)

Anyway, the rebuke is dripping with the insights of Hayek on the limits of human knowledge and ability at any given point in time...one of many ideas Hayek tied into the "Fatal Conceit".

There is a gathering storm on Iraq's horizon. Over the last several weeks, its central government has embarked on what appears to be an effort to arrest, drive away or otherwise intimidate tens of thousands of Sunni security volunteers -- the so-called Sons of Iraq -- whose contributions have been crucial to recent security gains. After returning from a trip to Iraq last month at the invitation of Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, we are convinced that if Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and his advisors persist in this sectarian agenda, the country may spiral back into chaos.

Much of Iraq's dramatic security progress can be traced to a series of decisions made by Sunni tribal leaders in late 2006 to turn against Al Qaeda in Iraq and cooperate with American forces in Anbar province. These leaders, outraged by Al Qaeda's brutality against their people, approached the U.S. military with an offer it couldn't refuse: Enter into an alliance with the tribes, and they would turn their weapons against Al Qaeda rather than American troops.

Throughout 2007, U.S. commanders capitalized on this Sunni movement, the so-called Awakening, to create an expanding network of alliances with Sunni tribes and former insurgents that helped turn the tide and drive Al Qaeda in Iraq to near extinction. There are now about 100,000 armed Sons of Iraq, each paid $300 a month by U.S. forces to provide security in local neighborhoods throughout the country. In recognition of the key role the Awakening played in security improvements, President Bush met with several Sunni tribal leaders during his trip to Anbar last September, and Petraeus, who cites the program as a critical factor explaining the decline in violence, has promised to "not walk away from them."

But Iraq's predominantly Shiite central government seems intent on doing precisely that. Maliki and his advisors never really accepted the Sunni Awakening, and they remain convinced that the movement is simply a way for Sunni insurgents to buy time to restart a campaign of violence or to infiltrate the state's security apparatus. In 2007, with Iraq's government weak and its military not yet ready to take the lead in operations, the Maliki government acquiesced to the U.S.-led initiative and grudgingly agreed to integrate 20% of the Sons of Iraq into the Iraqi security forces. Now, a newly confident Maliki government is edging away from this commitment.

Source.

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said Monday there would be no security agreement between the United States and Iraq without an unconditional timetable for withdrawal — a direct challenge to the Bush administration, which insists that the timing for troop departure would be based on conditions on the ground.

"No pact or an agreement should be set without being based on full sovereignty, national common interests, and no foreign soldier should remain on Iraqi land, and there should be a specific deadline and it should not be open," Maliki told a meeting of tribal Sheikhs in Baghdad.

Source.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq says it's going to revive a $1.2 billion oil deal with China that was canceled after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The country's Oil Ministry says an initial agreement with China is expected to be signed at the end of August to develop the billion-barrel Ahdab oil field south of Baghdad.

Source.

So what does this all mean? It sure looks like Maliki is distancing himself from the US, probably in anticipation of Iraq's elections, although god only knows when those will happen since the Iraqi government can't seem to settle the issue. In the mean time Maliki is flexing his muscle in ways that runs contrary to the U.S. GOP interests.

If Maliki moves against the Sunni tribesmen expect the violence to go back up. Especially if he does so without the overwhelming firepower of US troops to back him up. As we saw in Basra the Iraqi army is not exactly fearsome.

In fact in many respects (except particular sectarian faith, of course) Maliki is coming to resemble Iraq's last strongman leader every day. I fully expect us to start hearing the neocon warmongers rattling sabers about the dangerous madman Nouriki who represents a grave threat to the US in a few years. Saddam was their ally originally, too.

didn't watch Hillary's speech.

Well, yea my bad but The Daily Show was classic. I figured I'd catch the Cliff Notes at other sites. So yea.....but I don't feel bad about it.

I'll go review the speech now.

Republicans are already mocking the stage.

What will they think of next.