Don’t Jump to Conclusions on Afghanistan Civilian Deaths, U.S. General Cautions

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan says the U.S military may have had nothing to do with the deaths of scores of civilians in western Afghanistan. Some reports say those civilians were killed in U.S. air strikes, but Gen. David McKiernan has indicated the Taliban may be responsible.

UK Minister Who Blacklisted American Talk Show Host May Lose Her Post

The senior British government minister who included U.S. radio talk show host Michael Savage on a list of people banned from the U.K. for “stirring up hatred” may lose her post in a forthcoming cabinet reshuffle.

Barney Frank, asleep at the switch once again

By his own account, Barney Frank isn’t the most observant guy around. Years ago, his live-in boyfriend ran a male prostitution ring out of Frank’s apartment. Frank claimed he did not know about it.

Now Frank is again pleading inattention to the obvious, this time in a less dramatic but more significant context. Frank is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee (a travesty in itself, given his role in bringing about the financial services meltdown). By a unanimous vote, that Committee approved the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act. As Keven Mooney reports in The Examiner, one provision in that legislation, inserted by Michele Bachmann, would prevent organizations that have been indicted for voter registration or voting fraud from receiving housing counseling grants and legal assistance grants.

ACORN, the voter fraud outfit with which President Obama and other Democrats are closely allied, is under investigation for voter fraud in a dozen states and some of its workers have been indicted. Therefore, ACORN’s eligibility for grants awardable under the new legislation would be jeopardized by the provision Bachmann inserted. Not that ACORN is in any risk of being left high-and-dry. Even in a worst case scenario, it would remain eligible for up to $3 billion through the stimulus package and up to $5.5 billion in the 2010 budget. Clearly, it won’t get all of that money, but given its influence among Democrats it likely will do well enough.

Nonetheless, Barney Frank wants a do-over. He plans to strip Bachmann’s provision out of the legislation even though he voted for it in committee. Frank explains that he did not “read [the legislation] carefully.”

Translation: “I voted for the legislation, along with my entire committee, because no reasonable person would approve funding an organization that is under indictment, but I forgot that ACORN is in trouble with the law.”

Bush Attorneys Who Wrote Terror Memo Face Backlash

Defense Secretary Gates Says U.S. Troops Will Not Be Sent to Pakistan

There are no plans to deploy U.S. ground troops to Pakistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday, despite concerns over increasing violence between Pakistani troops and Taliban militants.

Obama Seeks Hikes in Domestic Spending

Video Games Doing Well in the Recession

New Hampshire Governor Promises ‘Best Decision’ on Same-Sex ‘Marriage’

100 of America’s Darkest Days

What Hopey Change has meant so far:

We have over 1,000 days to go before this nightmare is over.

Via Gateway Pundit, on a tip from Burning Hot.

Petering Out

The “torture” controversy is winding down, with the Obama administration letting it be known that the lawyers who wrote memos interpreting Congress’s broad prohibition of “torture” won’t be criminally prosecuted. (Nor will the Congressional Democrats who knew all about the interrogation techniques and endorsed them.) Of course not: the idea that they could convince a court that writing a legal analysis with which Eric Holder disagrees could be a criminal act, or convince a jury to convict, was ludicrous from the beginning. Instead, the administration says it may refer the matter to various state bar associations to see whether their ethics arms might want to impose some penalty on the offending lawyers. That’s a little more like it: it is at least barely possible that some state bar’s ethics committee might be staffed with liberals who would make a politicized decision to impose some sort of discipline. The real purpose, of course, is to discourage lawyers and others from serving in any future Republican administration.

Meanwhile, far from actually believing that the most notorious “torture memo,” written by Jay Bybee and John Yoo in 2002, was a criminal act, the Obama Justice Department has just filed a brief in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in which is adopts and endorses the Bybee/Yoo thesis. Andy McCarthy has the details. Of course, it shouldn’t be surprising that DOJ has adopted the Bybee/Yoo analysis as correct, since the same approach was endorsed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Pierre v. Attorney General, on a 10-3 vote. So the “criminal” policy of the Bush Justice Department is also the law as elucidated by the Third Circuit, en banc, and the policy of the current Department of Justice.

What we’re witnessing here goes far beyond mere hypocrisy. In three months, Barack Obama and Eric Holder have succeeded in politicizing DOJ and bending it to their partisan ends, to the point of threatening their predecessors with baseless criminal prosecution as a form of political harassment.

Most Americans, fortunately, are having none of it. CNN finds that by a 50 percent to 46 percent margin, Americans approve of the use of waterboarding, etc., in interrogating terrorists.

The Anointed One Refrains From Asking for Grey Poupon at Ray’s Hell Burger Diner

Just a regular guy. He doesn’t ask for arugula either:

On a tip from AC.

Pelosi Says She’s ‘Unaware’ of Obama Adviser’s Claim that Pope Benedict is ‘Discredited Leader’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she was not aware of the negative comments about Pope Benedict XVI made by an appointee of President Barack Obama.

Jim Carrey, the Environmental Guy

Via Theo Spark, on a tip from Steve.

Same-Sex Marriage Not a Priority for House Democrats, Pelosi Says

While recognizing that homosexual marriage is a pressing issue in several states and the District of Columbia, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it is not a priority for Congress.

Pelosi Says She’s ‘Not Heard’ from Obama Administration on Whether Congress Needs to Approve Automaker Bailout

The auto bailout and government-supervised restructuring plan is an executive branch matter, and it is not something that Congress will get involved in unless asked, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday.

Close ‘Gun Show Loophole,’ Dems Say

Democratic lawmakers and one Republican told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that the so-called "’gun show loophole" should be closed.