Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

The daily update from the IDF

NY Times:

Times:

Israeli troops fought heavy battles with Hamas fighters in two densely populated Gaza towns today as the Army sought to split the strip into three sections to cut off the Islamist groups supply lines.

...

The Israeli strategy of splitting Gaza into north, central and southern sections mirrors a similar tactic employed when settlers used to come under attack in the strip.

It enables the military to stop Gaza City being supplied from the south, stops Hamas movements and gives troops distinct areas to clear.

Israeli troops also took up positions in the old Jewish settlement of Netzarim which controls the main north-south road.

As all members of The Cube know, there is no more enlightened, tolerant, incorrupt or peaceful group than The Party. True believers can go through life, doing whatever is necessary to achieve Party goals, secure in the knowledge that they are always right.

Unless they dare to help out anyone the Party has deemed an enemy of the People.

(Hat tip to Cassy Fiano at Right Wing News)

LINK(Caution: Reich-wing hate site)

The short version. Austin, TX "activist" Brandon Darby discovered that a couple of fellow "peace activists" were heading to the 2008 Republican National Convention to hold a cocktail party for local police and possibly Republican conventioneers.

Cross-posted by gary fouse
fousesquawk

Obama Administration to Lead US into Second Vietnam?J. D. Longstreet***********************

Israel National News:

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency/ISA) chief Yuval Diskin told the government Sunday that "there are initial signs that Hamas is becoming less intransigent about the possible ceasefire.""Their leadership is under heavy pressure and wants the Israeli operation halted, while looking for an honorable exit that will not humiliate them," he told the ministers in the weekly cabinet session

...

"There is a willingness on the part of Hamas to reach an accomodation," Diskin said. "The Hamas leadership abroad and in Gaza is under pressure and is acting to achieve a ceasefire," he explained. "It is disappointed with the Arab countries which are not standing by its side."

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

William Ayres
Distinguished Professor of Education
at University of Illinois at Chicago

Politico:

President-elect Barack Obama is naming Leon Panetta, a former congressman from California and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, to be CIA director. Obama also has picked retired Navy Admiral Dennis Blair to be director of national intelligence, overseeing all the nation's spy agencies, a Democratic official said.

By James Shott

It is difficult to know just where to start in discussing the column in last Fridays local newspaper by Bonnie Erbe titled How can Obama fix so much that went wrong?

Washington Times:

The Catholic Church is taking on a growing political role in opposing President Evo Morales, whom it accuses of seeking an "excessive concentration of power" in his bid to remake Bolivia as a socialist state. The hostility is mutual, with Mr. Morales and officials in his government warning the church to stay out of politics.

Politico:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson announced Sunday afternoon that he is withdrawing as President-elect Barack Obamas nominee for secretary of Commerce because of unanswered questions about a federal grand jury investigation back home.

"I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process," Richardson said in an e-mailed statement issued by the transition.

Obama accepted the withdrawal with regret, saying in an accompanying statement that he looks forward to Richardson's "future service to our country and in my administration."

Over at The Century Foundation's blog, Taking Note, Patrick Radden Keefe highlights five books that anyone who wants to dig into the DNA of the G.W. Bush era could use as a down payment on future penetrating exposes that we can expect once the incumbent office holders get back to baseball, ranching and oil-drilling.

Three of the books are high on my list -- and two I have not read but will do so right away.

Jerusalem Post:

LA Times:

It's a sad truth of the urban landscape: Today's street tree is tomorrow's mulch.

The nominees for the top five positions at the Obama Department of Justice -- Eric Holder and today's announcees -- have been pretty impressive legal minds with a broad range of experience inside and outside the government. But a DOJ veteran now in academia e-mails to complain:

Comrades! Heres a chance for you to be a part of history!

You and a friend/life partner/cell mate/protest buddy/appliance could be selected to receive the GRAND PRIZE weve all been waiting for, lusting after, yea, even slobbering over for the past eight yearsthe chance for a front row seat at the Bush Crimes Tribunal!

Yes, you and another lucky pod could be flown to The Hague in the charming, picturesque, delightfully Progressive land of The Netherlands, where you may actually see the evil George W.

Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael B. Oren:

The images from the fighting in Gaza are harrowing but ultimately deceptive. They portray a mighty invading army, one equipped with F-16 jets that have bombed a civilian population defended by a few thousand fighters armed with primitive rockets. But widen the lens and the true nature of this conflict emerges. Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, is a proxy for the real enemy Israel is confronting: Iran. And Israel's current operation against Hamas represents a unique chance to deal a strategic blow to Iranian expansionism.

There was an air of a lost era, of the days of the Roosevelts and Henry Stimson, about Senator Claiborne Pell, who passed away a few days ago, and who Tim Fernholz eulogized appropriately the other day. Like his colleague John Chafee -- who was several degrees below Pell in the social register but still far above the rest of us Joe-the-Plumbers, he developed an unbreakable bond with the working-class, Catholic voters of Rhode Island.