• Cox & Forkum,  Ethiopia,  Somalia

    Cox & Forkum: Somalian Front

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    Cox & Forkum: Somalian Front

    CNN: Somalia’s prime minister: Major fighting over.

    Somalia’s prime minister said Tuesday he does not expect any more major fighting against rival Islamic fighters, and his Ethiopian military backer described the operation as within weeks of being completed.With attention shifting to suspected al Qaeda fighters believed to be sheltered by the hard-line group, a security official in neighboring Kenya said 10 foreigners who had fought with Somalia’s Islamic movement had been captured. They had told interrogators the militia was doomed by internal rifts, the official added.

    Somalia Watch: Somalia Offers Islamists Amnesty

    A militant Islamist movement fled from rapidly advancing government forces into a rugged, forested corner of Somalia, as the prime minister offered the Islamist rank and file amnesty if they surrendered.

    Diplomats from the region were working to arrange the speedy deployment of African peacekeepers to help the interim government establish its authority in the country, which has known only anarchy for 15 years.

    As the last remaining stronghold of the Islamic group was overrun by government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and MiG fighter jets, the net began closing on suspected al-Qaeda fighters believed to be sheltered by the hardline group.

    Neighboring Kenya vowed to seal its frontier to prevent any extremists, now wedged against the sea and their border, from escaping the 13-day military offensive.

    Sea routes from southern Somalia were also being patrolled by the U.S. navy, hunting three al-Qaeda suspects believed to be among the Islamic group and wanted for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa.

    CBC News: Kenya arrests as many as 2 men with Canadian passports: reports. (via Little Green Footballs)

    As many as two Somali Islamic fighters who claim to be Canadian were among 10 fighters arrested by Kenyan police, according to separate reports Tuesday.The 10 were arrested on Monday at the Liboi border crossing in Kenya as they tried to flee Somalia, the Kenya Daily Nation reported.

    Two were reportedly carrying Canadian passports, while the remaining eight were said to have Eritrean passports. According to the newspaper, all 10 militants were being detained in the Kenyan town of Garissa. It is not known whether they have been charged.


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  • Barack Obama,  Hillary Clinton,  President 2008

    Hillary Clinton Watch: Barack Obama’s Presidential Candidacy Will Diminish

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    Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (R) talks with former President Bill Clinton (L), Senator Hillary Clinton (2nd L) (D-NY) and Chelsea Clinton (2nd R) before the funeral of former U.S. President Gerald Ford at the National Cathedral in Washington January 2, 2007.

    Drudge is reporting on a soon to be published New York Times piece:

    HILLARY PREDICTS: OBAMA CANDIDACY WILL DIMINISH

    Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton views Barack Obama as her biggest obstacle to nomination, the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report, but she believes the threat of his candidacy will diminish — as voters learn how inexperienced he is in government and foreign affairs!

    NYT reporter Adam Nagourney has filed a high-impact story, newsroom sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.

    Publication time: Unknown.

    Clinton has engaged in a series of nearly nonstop political consultations since Election Day, in what her advisers say are preparations for, in all likelihood, announcing her interest in running for president.

    [That announcement could come in weeks.]

    Dining recently with allies in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton was “probing and absorbing, and clearly informed,” reports Nagourney.

    The topic turned to the Democratic sweep in New Hampshire in November.

    Hillary wanted to know how did the Democrats managed to unseat the state’s two Republican members of Congress, and what were the key issues?

    Clinton told Democrats that she viewed her two strongest potential Democratic opponents as Obama and John Edwards.

    U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at a state Democratic election celebration party in Manchester, N.H., Dec. 10, 2006. New Hampshire voters take their presidential primary responsibilities very seriously, and while Democratic party activists were clearly excited about Obama’s first visit to the state Sunday night for a sold-out rally and standing-room only book signing, some made it clear that he’ll have to keep coming back for more intimate chats if he wants their support.

    Hillary is attempting to clear the field of Obama by outlining the case against him – before she resorts to her particular brand of negative politics – personal character assination . Has Obama not accepted the invitation by Begala and Carville to join the ticket or has the Al Gore experience decided the issue for him?

    Obviously, Hillary must be worried about internal poll numbers otherwise this story (leak) would not have been floated.

    But, will Obama have the COJONES to go for a race against the Clinton cabal?

    Stay tuned…….

    Previous:

    Hillary Clinton Watch: Clearing the Field

    Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Continues to Lead Clinton, Gore

    Hillary Clinton Watch: Iraq War – “Wouldn’t Have Voted That Way”


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  • Los Angeles Times,  Media Bias

    Los Angeles Times Watch: Dog Trainer Year in Review 2006

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    Patterico (Via Michelle Malkin): Patterico’s Los Angeles Dog Trainer Year in Review 2006

    This year’s installment covers a number of topics, including the Michael Hiltzik sock-puppetry controversy; the alleged Ramadi airstrike; the paper’s decision to reveal the Swift counterterror program; the firing of the paper’s editor and publisher; the Iraq war and the war on terror; the paper’s shilling for Democrats during the 2006 election; and my decision to cancel the paper — among many others.

    This post summarizes an entire year’s worth of work documenting omissions, distortions, and misrepresentations by this newspaper. I have made an effort to document my arguments that this paper is a regular practitioner of liberal bias. As with my previous posts, the proof is voluminous. As a consequence, don’t feel that you need to read the entire post in one sitting. Feel free to bookmark it and return to it in the coming days, browsing through the categories as they interest you.

    Read it all……

    One of the blogosphere annual gems and Patterico is a member of the Bear Flag League.

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    Los Angeles Times writer Michael Hiltzik and a sock puppet


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  • President 2008,  Rudy Giuliani

    Rudy Giuliani Watch: The Purloined Presidential Campaign Strategy Book

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    Rudy Giuliani, left, and his wife Judith Nathan visit the casket of former President Gerald Ford in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, Monday, Jan. 1, 2007, in Washington.

    AP: Giuliani campaign strategy is out

    The presidential campaign strategy for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — complete with a $100 million fundraising target for this year — is out of the bag.

    The 140-page schedule for the Republican’s budding presidential bid was reported in Tuesday’s editions of the New York Daily News.

    The New York Daily News story is here: Revealed: Rudy’s ’08 battle plans

    Apparently the campaign strategy 140 page briefing book was stolen from the Giuliani campaign.

    The paper said an anonymous source obtained the document after it was left behind on a campaign swing in 2006, but Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel claimed it was actually pilfered from luggage from a private flight.

    “This wasn’t left in a hotel,” Mindel told The Associated Press. “This is clearly a dirty trick. The voters are sick and tired of this kind of thing.”

    Mindel said that while working on the 2006 campaign trail, a Giuliani aide lost a piece of luggage containing the paper.

    “After repeated requests over the course of a few days, the bag was finally returned with the document inside. Because our staffer had custody of this document at all times except for this one occasion, it is clear that the document was removed from the luggage and photocopied,” she said.

    She did not say exactly where or when the strategy paper was lost, or what was in it, but Mindel played down its importance, saying it is “simply someone’s ideas which were committed to paper over three months ago.”

    So, is this a dirty trick?

    Hugh Hewitt discussed/reminded the blogosphere about this type of Black Blog Ops the other day. Was it a premonition of 2008 campaign “dirty tricks” to come?

    Or will someone surmise/pontificate it was a willfull Giuliani campaign leak to trial balloon the Mayor’s campaign weaknesses?

    Probably a theft

    The Giuliani campaign will have to keep closer track of internal campaign documents. As far as the content of the campaign playbook:

    It’s no secret that Rudy Giuliani’s personal life could cause him trouble in a 2008 presidential bid, but now that the former New York mayor’s game plan has been laid out in a newspaper for all to see, it is clear he is worried his past may do him in. A realistic appraisal wouldn’t one say?

    And there is also no secret that Presidential campaigns must raise millions of dollars to fund media campaigns and a national campaign operation.

    The Presidential campaign of 2008 is reminding Flap of the Cold War.

    Stay tuned……

    Discuss this blog post and MORE…. at the FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blogs Discussion Forums, My Dental Forum.

    giulianijan2bweb

    Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his wife Judith enjoy the festivities, along with Bahamian Prime Minister Perry G. Christie, right, at the Boxing Day Junkanoo parade in downtown Nassau in the Bahamas on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2006. This marks Giuliani’s first trip to the Bahamas while his wife has visited previously.

    Previous:

    Rudy Giuliani Watch: Bill Simon Building a Network of California Conservative Support

    Rudy Giuliani Watch: Michael Barone – Giuliani is a Front-Runner

    Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Continues to Lead Clinton, Gore

    The Rudy Giuliani Files


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