Osama Bin Laden Planned 9/11 Anniversary Train Attack

At New York Times, "Data From Raid Links Bin Laden to Newer Terror Plots":

WASHINGTON — After reviewing computer files and documents seized at the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, American intelligence analysts have concluded that the chief of Al Qaeda played a direct role for years in plotting terror attacks from his hide-out in Abbottabad, Pakistan, United States officials said Thursday.

The C.I.A. had Bin Laden’s compound under surveillance for months before American commandos killed him in an assault on Monday, watching and photographing residents and visitors from a rented house nearby, according to several officials briefed on the operation.

The documents taken at the Abbottabad compound, according to American officials, show that Bin Laden was in touch regularly with the terror network he created. With his whereabouts and activities a mystery in recent years, many intelligence analysts and terrorism experts had concluded that he had been relegated to an inspirational figure with little role in current and future Qaeda operations.

A rushed examination of the trove of materials from the compound in Pakistan prompted Obama administration officials on Thursday to issue a warning that Al Qaeda last year had considered attacks on American railroads.

The documents include a handwritten notebook from February 2010 that discusses tampering with tracks to derail a train on a bridge, possibly on Christmas, New Year’s Day, the day of the State of the Union address or the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials said. But they said there was no evidence of a specific plot.

More at the link above, and at Los Angeles Times, "Al Qaeda had U.S. trains in its sights, U.S. officials say."

Added: From ABC News, "Osama Bin Laden Evidence: Al Qaeda Considered 9/11 Anniversary Attack":

President Obama Disses Debra Burlingame

Via Atlas Shrugged and Pat Dollard (at Memeorandum):

Details on Operation Neptune Spear

WaPo has some background, "Operation Neptune Spear: Code name for killing Osama bin Laden."

And check Barbara Starr's report:

Also, at NYT, "In Bin Laden’s Compound, Seals’ All-Star Team."

Ann Coulter on Bin Laden Photos

She's in fighting form!

RELATED: From William Bennett, "4 reasons to release bin Laden photos."And at The Hill, "Watchdog group is prepared to sue for photos of bin Laden."

President Obama Wreath Laying Ceremony at Ground Zero — VIDEO

At USA Today, "Obama giving NYC its moment of justice on bin Laden," and at New York Times, "Obama Honors Victims of Bin Laden at Ground Zero":

President Obama laid a wreath of red, white, and blue flowers at ground zero on Thursday, honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 2001 terrorist attacks and marking the death of its perpetrator, Osama bin Laden.

The hushed ceremony on a sunny, breezy day was a somber coda to a triumphal week that began with Mr. Obama’s announcement that commandos had killed Bin Laden in his fortified compound in Pakistan.

Now, in the wreath ceremony and in a series of meeting across Manhattan on Thursday, the president had a chance to meet one-to-one with the people whose lives were changed most deeply by Bin Laden — relatives of the victims, as well as firefighters and other rescue workers who lost comrades that morning.

“Obviously, you can’t bring back the friends you lost,” Mr. Obama said to the crew at a firehouse in midtown Manhattan that lost 15 men, an entire shift, at the World Trade Center. “What happened Sunday sent a message: When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.”

It was Mr. Obama’s first visit as president to ground zero, a patch of lower Manhattan that Bin Laden turned into hallowed ground ...

Pamela has commentary, "State Media." And from Elise Cooper, "Obama snubs 9/11 families at Ground Zero today."

I Got No Friends 'Cause They Read the Papers...

Alice Cooper, "No More Mr. Nice Guy":



From yesterday morning's drive time, at The Sound LA.

Killer set, especially while getting slammed in some serious traffic:

9:37am You're My Best Friend by Queen

09:30am Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot

09:21am Mainstreet by Bob Seger

09:18am No More Mr. Nice Guy by Alice Cooper

09:15am Lady Madonna by Beatles (remastered)

09:12am Blue Morning Blue Day by Foreigner

09:05am Suite Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby, Stills, And Nash

09:00am One of These Nights by Eagles

08:51am Cold Shot by Stevie Ray Vaughan

8:46 - Empty Spaces / Young Lust by Pink Floyd

8:42 - Sunshine of Your Love by Cream

8:39 - Rock The Casbah by Clash

8:35 - Saturday In The Park by Chicago

8:26 - I Still Haven't Found... by U2

8:20 - Ready For Love by Bad Company

The Editors at the New York Times are Living in Another World

I wrote on this earlier, before I read today's big New York Times' editorial. See, "CIA Detainees 'Produced Enormous Amounts of Valuable Intelligence Information' in Decade-Long Manhunt for Osama Bin Laden."

I can understand the editors' position, since they did their darnedest to weaken national security during the Bush years, and more recently with WikiLeaks. But in attacking coercive interrogations they conveniently ignore that President Obama not only has reneged on his pledge to close Guantanamo, he also praised the intelligence gathering the led American forces to Osama Bin Laden --- and that intelligence-gathering process by all counts included enhanced methods at both Guantanamo and at off-shore black sites. See, "The Torture Apologists." It's boilerplate and predictable, but it's mostly the dishonesty and omissions that are bothersome. Folks can correct these by reading the commentary from Marc Thiessen and John Yoo, both of whom published essays yesterday, Thiessen at WaPo ("Obama owes thanks, and an apology, to CIA interrogators") and Yoo at WSJ, "From Guantanamo to Abbottabad").

Folks should read those carefully. Thiessen argues that critics of the CIA haven't a clue as to how the interrogations work in the first place, and thus the attacks that "enhanced interrogation doesn't work" are false, ignorant, and misleading. Thiessen argues that President Obama should apologize for dissing program officers and follow through by reestablishing the intelligence regime that brought success in Abottabad.

Also, Yoo makes an especially interesting point, and it's worth quoting:

Early reports are conflicted, but it appears that bin Laden was not armed. He did not have a large retinue of bodyguards—only three other people, the two couriers and bin Laden's adult son, were killed. Special forces units using nonlethal weaponry might have taken bin Laden alive, as with other senior al Qaeda leaders before him.

If true, one of the most valuable intelligence opportunities since the beginning of the war has slipped through our hands. Some claim that bin Laden had become a symbol, or that al Qaeda had devolved into a decentralized terrorist network with more active franchises in Yemen or Somalia. Nevertheless, bin Laden was still issuing instructions and funds to a broad terrorist network and would have known where and how to find other key al Qaeda players. His capture, like Saddam Hussein's in December 2003, would have provided invaluable intelligence and been an even greater example of U.S. military prowess than his death.

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Monday that the SEAL team had orders to take bin Laden alive, "if he didn't present any threat," though he correctly dismissed this possibility as "remote." This is hard to take seriously. No one could have expected bin Laden to surrender without a fight. And capturing him alive would have required the administration to hold and interrogate bin Laden at Guantanamo Bay, something that has given this president allergic reactions bordering on a seizure.

That's an extremely interesting line of argument, and a devastating indictment of this president and the administration's counterterror policies. Americans are pleased that we killed Bin Laden, and as I also noted yesterday, only a small percentage in Rasmussen's polling said Bin Laden should been taken alive and put on trial. But it's highly likely that President Obama indeed would have had fits of apoplexy in deciding how, when, and where to try Osama. In short, he had no choice to be tough in ordering the hit on Bin Laden, because he's such a pussy. And of course by now we've seen how badly the White House has botched the post-killing public relations campaign. It's almost frightening to observe the government's incompetence.

It's a pity. Seriously. In any case, check those links. I'll have more on all of this tomorrow.

Related: See Michelle's essay, "Non-shocker of the day: Most transparent prez ever decides not to be transparent; : GOP Rep. Mike Rogers said what?"

Rise of Freedom: 9/11 Memorial to Display the Victims' Names

At Fox News:

Well, Yeah, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye is Hot!

And she's the first Asian Chief Justice in California history, but turns out Democrat Assemblyman Charles Calderon is taking progressive heat for suggesting she's an attractive woman. At Los Angeles Times, "Senator demands apology for assemblyman's comments on the chief justice":

The head of the state Legislative Women’s Caucus called Tuesday for a state assemblyman to apologize for remarks that referred to the physical appearance and personality of the chief justice of the California Supreme Court.

Sen. Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) sought the apology from Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Whittier) for comments he made during a legislative hearing on a bill he introduced to give judges more say in the running of the state’s courts. Calderon said he meant no disrespect to Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye.

A transcript and tape of the Judiciary Committee meeting were not immediately available, but the assemblyman said in an interview that he was making a point that the bill was being advocated on policy merits rather than based on some bias against the chief justice. The assemblyman recalled saying his support for the bill has nothing to do with how "smart" or "nice" the chief justice is.

"It isn’t that she isn’t pretty," he said in the interview, recounting his comments in committee.

Evans fired off a letter asking for a formal apology.

"Your remarks regarding the chief justice were degrading and inappropriate," Evans wrote. "As the leader of California’s Judiciary, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye should be taken seriously and not spoken about in such a dismissive and frivolous manner."

"It is crucial that women be valued for more than just being 'nice' or 'attractive,' " Evans added.

The letter is here.

No, no! You just can't objectify women, just ask (freakin' PC asshole) Scott Eric "I'll End You" Kaufman!

Hey, Little Scotty, does Calderon get a pass because he's a Democrat? Or are you going to "end him" for not toeing the left's totalitarian line? Okay, check back with me on that, will ya? Thanks bro. Freakin' dickwad loser.

RELATED: I'm throwing this post into the ring for "National Offend a Feminist Week 2011."

CIA Detainees 'Produced Enormous Amounts of Valuable Intelligence Information' in Decade-Long Manhunt for Osama Bin Laden

Two key updates on the waterboarding controversy.

First, Weasel Zippers has the longer version of the clip below. Secretary Rumsfeld has clarified his messaging: "Part Two: Yes, Waterboarding Helped Get Osama""

Rumsfeld says waterboarding "absolutely" produced enormous amounts of information intelligence. And be sure to check that link to Weasel Zippers, which includes a segment from O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo," smacking down Alan Colmes.

And the Los Angeles Times has a careful analysis and complex analysis of the evidence-gathering process, and credits the coercive interrogations at Guantanamo as providing the initial clues about Bin Laden's courier, "Trail to Bin Laden began with CIA detainee, officials say":

An Al Qaeda suspect who was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques at a secret CIA prison in early 2004 provided a clue, the nom de guerre of a mysterious courier, that ultimately proved crucial to finding Osama bin Laden, officials said Wednesday.

The CIA had approved use of sleep deprivation, slapping, nudity, water dousing and other coercive techniques at the now-closed CIA "black site" in Poland where the Pakistani-born detainee, Hassan Ghul, was held, according to a 2005 Justice Department memo, which cited Ghul by name. Two U.S. officials said Wednesday that some of those now-prohibited practices were directed at Ghul.

Ghul was not waterboarded nor subjected to near-drowning, the most notorious interrogation technique and one that critics describe as torture.

Two other CIA prisoners — Al Qaeda operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his successor, Abu Faraj Libbi — gave their interrogators false information about the courier after they were waterboarded repeatedly, U.S. officials said.

Those lies also played a role in the decade-long manhunt, however. Over time, they were viewed as evidence by CIA analysts that Bin Laden's top deputies were trying to shield a figure who might be a link to the Al Qaeda leader's hide-out, according to U.S. officials briefed on the analysis. "The fact that they were covering it up suggested he was important," a U.S. official said.

In the end, intelligence gleaned from interviews with numerous detainees, high-tech eavesdropping and surveillance, and other investigative spadework provided insights on people close to Bin Laden. No one source or bit of intelligence was so decisive or critical that it instantly solved the puzzle or ended the painstaking hunt for the world's most wanted terrorist, officials said. They stressed that none of the three most critical pieces of information — the courier's name, the area of Pakistan in which he operated and the location of the compound in which Bin Laden was living — came from detainees.

The nuances of that complex chain of events were often lost Wednesday amid a renewed public debate about the efficacy and morality of coercive interrogations that the CIA carried out under President George W. Bush.

"I think the issue has been mischaracterized on both sides," said a former CIA official who was involved in internal debate over the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques program at the time. "The people who say 'enhanced interrogation techniques' directly led to catching Bin Laden are wrong, and the people who say they had nothing to do with it are also wrong."

That closing remark there is probably about the best we're gonna get. Waterboarding was a key factor, but not the decisive factor. No one source was crucial; the range of methods and our ability to use them was central.

Osama Raid Death Photos Traffic Surge

Click on the image for the Sitemeter link:

And check the Feedjit page as well. Pretty interesting to watch the visitors arrive in real time.

Top Secret Stealth Helicopters Used in Raid Against Osama Bin Laden

Interesting report, at ABC News, "Top Secret Stealth Helicopter Program Revealed in Osama Bin Laden Raid: Experts":

Also, "Navy SEALs Who Captured, Killed Osama Bin Laden Return to United States" (via Memeorandum).

Reuters Releases Pictures From Osama Bin Laden Raid! — ADDED! Reuters Updates With Report and Photos!

It won't be long until we see Osama Bin Laden's bloody corpse.

HERE'S A PICTURE OF AN UNIDENTIFIED BODY.

And see iOWNTHEWORLD, "Reuters releases photo of unidentified victim of America’s raid on bin Laden’s compound":

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE, IN TERMS OF INFLAMING MUSLIMS, IF THEY RELEASE ‘OTHER’ VICTIMS OF THE RAID?

Also, "Warning: These photos might be too graphic if you’re a progressive pussy."

Amazingly, I'm scooping Left Coast Rebel on this!

But check Ironic Surrealism. Turns out the Reuters' page has been taken down [now restored at the update].

ADDED: At Yeshiva World News, "Reuters Releases Graphic Images From Bin Laden Compound After Raid." Following the link takes us to a Yahoo page featuring a Reuters icon:

The unidentified body of a man is seen after a raid by U.S. Navy SEAL commandos on the compound where al Qaeda leader bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad...

More, at Bungalow Bill's, "The Reuters Images of the Attack Against Osama Bin Laden That Were Removed From Reuters Web Site," via Left Coast Rebel, who updates, "(PHOTOS) Reuters Releases, then Pulls, Graphic PHOTOS from Osama Bin Laden Raid (GRAPHIC WARNING"

UPDATE 3:21pm PST: At Reuters just now, "Photos show three dead men at bin Laden raid house":

(Reuters) - Photographs acquired by Reuters and taken about an hour after the U.S. assault on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan show three dead men lying in pools of blood, but no weapons.

The photos, [see sidebar at left] taken by a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday, show two men dressed in traditional Pakistani garb and one in a t-shirt, with blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths.

The official, who wished to remain anonymous, sold the pictures to Reuters.

And the sidebar report: "Photos from the Bin Laden Compound."

Also, at Jawa Report, "Photo: Dead Man at bin Laden Compound Had ... WATER GUN???" (via Memeorandum).

Justice Stayed? Osama Bin Laden's Killing and Theories of International Justice

From Charli Carpenter, at Duck of Minerva, "Was "Justice' Served?"

Charli cites left-wing sources almost exclusively, and the others are largely academic links (and leftist by default). Interesting discussion, despite the high-falutin nature of the debate. Most regular folks couldn't care less if Osama Bin Laden got a trial. See Rasmussen, "86% Approve of Obama’s Decision to Kill bin Laden":

Americans overwhelmingly endorse President Obama’s decision to kill Osama bin Laden and don’t believe a greater effort should have been made to bring the terrorist mastermind to trial.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 86% of American Adults approve of the president’s decision authorizing the mission to kill bin Laden. Just five percent (5%) disapprove of the president’s action, while nine percent (9%) are undecided.

Only 14% say the special operations forces involved in the weekend mission should have tried harder to capture bin Laden so that he could have been given a fair trial. Seventy-five percent (75%) disagree and say there was no need for the Navy SEALs to try harder to capture the man behind the 9/11 attacks on the United States and several other major terrorist incidents. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.

This puts Charli Carpenter down there with less than one-sixth of the population, as she suggests that with America's actions, "justice ... has been stayed, not served." All is not lost, however. Charli's in good company with the folks from Human Rights Watch, "Human Rights Watch Condemns Bin Laden Killing: Odious Immoral Equivalence" (via Memeorandum).

World's Largest Google Bomb!

Seriously.

This puts Robert Stacy McCain to shame.

See Tim Daniel's post, "Left Coast Rebel's 'Osama Dead Photo' Google Bomb."

Congratulations are in order! Jeez, that is working it!

Code-Name Geronimo

The code name for Osama Bin Laden, "Geronimo," is offensive to Native Americans. See ABC News, "Congress to Examine "Inappropriate" and "Devastating" Use of "Geronimo" Codename in bin Laden Mission." And at the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Onondaga Nation leaders blast 'Geronimo' codename for Bin Laden":

Onondaga Nation Territory -- Leaders of the Onondaga Nation blasted as “reprehensible” the code name used for Osama bin Laden in the commando assault that killed him: “Geronimo.”

“We’ve ID’d Geronimo,” U.S. forces reported by radio Sunday to the White House. Later, word came that “Geronimo” was dead.

Geronimo was an Apache leader in the 19th century who spent many years fighting the Mexican and U.S. armies until his surrender in 1886.

“Think of the outcry if they had used any other ethnic group’s hero,” the Onondaga Council of Chiefs said in a release Tuesday. “Geronimo bravely and heroically defended his homeland and his people, eventually surrendering and living out the rest of his days peacefully, if in captivity.”

“Geronimo is arguably the most recognized Native American name in the world,” the chiefs said, “and this comparison only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes about our people.”

More at the link.

Not the brightest idea for a code name. Good thing they didn't take out Osama with a Tomahawk missile.

Also at Wall Sreet Journal, "Osama Bin Laden Was No Geronimo."

U.S. Safer From Terrorism After Death of Bin Laden

For years analysts have argued that al Qaeda had matured into a many-tentacled global multinational actor, with offshoots, copycats, and official subsidiaries all vying for attention from the national security bureaucracies in the West. Killing Osama Bin Laden is most importantly a signal of American endurance, perseverance, and military effectiveness. His death brings a turning point and closure to the war of retribution that followed September 11. We are now in a much more complicated, developed competition with the forces of religious extremism around the world, with the United States and Israel in the crosshairs of totalitarian Islamist jihad. I don't believe we are necessarily safer. But I'm confident we're capable of defending our interest against our foes.

In any case, at Gallup, "Majority in U.S. Say Bin Laden's Death Makes America Safer":

Americans express mixed views on how Osama bin Laden's demise will affect U.S. national security, according to a Monday night USA Today/Gallup poll. A slight majority (54%) believe bin Laden's death will make the U.S. safer from terrorism, nearly double the 28% who fear it will make it less safe ...

Bottom Line

While fearful that a retaliatory attack could be imminent, Americans are guardedly optimistic about the longer-term national security ramifications of the dramatic U.S. military operation that killed al Qaeda leader bin Laden at his residence in Pakistan.

Americans are twice as likely to consider the United States safer rather than less safe as a result. However, they continue to believe the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan -- initiated in October 2001 to destroy al Qaeda terrorist training camps -- is needed. And they have fairly modest views about what the U.S. military's success at locating and killing bin Laden means for the war on terrorism more generally. Although three-quarters say their confidence that the U.S. will win that war is at least somewhat higher as a result, fewer than half, 39%, say it makes them a lot more confident. Similarly, not quite a third of Americans, 32%, say bin Laden's death gives them a lot more confidence in Obama as commander in chief.

RTWT (via Memeorandum and Los Angeles Times).

Military Families Reassess After Death of Bin Laden

This was a front-page report at yesterday's Los Angeles Times, "For friends and family of fallen troops, celebration and reassessment at news of Bin Laden's death":

Margot Stengel went to bed Sunday on the early side, with a heavy heart, as she had ever since her son died during his tour in Afghanistan. She was surprised when the phone rang a little before 10, and even more surprised to hear the voice of her grandson.

An often taciturn teenager, Jessee had a lot on his mind. Osama bin Laden, he told her, was dead. And it had come too late for his father, who died in December saddled with doubt about his slog through a dangerous pocket of Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border.

It had seemed a confounding mission, both to California Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Vincent W. Ashlock and to his family back home, with an objective as concrete as a handful of water. But here was a moment, Stengel told her grandson, of clarity — finally, mercifully.

"Your father," she told her grandson, "is tap-dancing in heaven."

Since 2001, more than 1,500 Americans have died supporting the war in Afghanistan, including 161 Californians, according to military databases. For the friends and relatives of those troops, the announcement that U.S. special forces had killed Bin Laden was cause for celebration. It was also an opportunity to reassess sacrifices, to wrest a historic and tangible result, at long last, from a murky war.

"He is a part of this," Stengel said of her son. "Every step he took over there was one step toward freedom. I believe that. I'll spend the rest of my life missing him. But his circle, his goal, is complete."

More at the link.

RELATED: "Osama bin Laden killing may shift Afghan strategy."

And that's Debra Burlingame above, who shares her thoughts and emotions on the death of Bin Laden.

U.S. Should Release 'Gruesome' Photo of Osama Bin Laden

Jay Carney, at today's press conference, described the photo of Osama Bin Laden's corpse "gruesome." He discussed the tremendous "sensitivities" surrounding the possible release, but they'd better get a move on, because the administration f**ked up with the burial at sea, big time, which is likely to fuel conspiracy theories. Not only is a speedy release politically necessary, but people won't get full closure until they see Osama's obliterated remains.

Canada's Conservative Party Returned to Office

Blazing has a roundup, "No. 1 - Deport all Hippies Starting with Margaret Atwood":

Tell me your dreams for the new conservative majority.

And from Mark Steyn, "Liberal Party of Canada Buried at Sea After Dying in Firefight."

Bin Laden Not Armed and Wife Not Killed: White House Backtracks on Official Account of al Qaeda Raid

At CNN, "Bin Laden unarmed when killed, White House says," and New York Times, "White House Corrects Bin Laden Narrative."

That's a really big lie, that Osama resisted U.S. forces. And why? The administration didn't want backlash against targeted assassination? How lame? The president's been doing so well. I didn't think I'd be going back to calling him "Obambi" so soon. Sheesh.

And from Jimmy Bise at Hot Air, "The Story Shifts on the Abbottabad Raid; UPDATE: Carney Revises Again, Says There Was “Resistance” from bin Laden." (Via Memeorandum.)

ADDED: Well, maybe this was just epic incompetence. See Michelle, "Brennan and the bin Laden story bungle":

Why the changes? As the famous situation room photo shows, Brennan was in the room watching the raid video along with President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and others.

He probably disclosed more than he should have and it’s possible his betters were forced to walk back his comments for opsec reasons. What’s your best, good-faith guess?

I'll update if I find more info, but my best guess is that the White House embellished --- as if our Spec-Ops guys needed that?

Rep. Peter King: Initial Information on Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti Was Obtained by Waterboarding in 2003

The debate continues today.

My previous post indicated that waterboarding put intelligence officials "on the trail" of Abu Ahmad. No doubt my ace commenter James B. SpongeBob has some questions for Representative Peter King, and of course J.B. SpongeBob didn't provide all the information on Donald Rumsfeld's comments, for example, speaking on The Today Show yesterday, Rumsfeld that the intelligence on Bin Laden may well "have come from interviews at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

And Matt Lewis quotes Karl Rove from his appearance on Fox & Friends yesterday:

Look, there is continuity in these kind of things and the tools that President Bush put into place, GITMO, rendition, enhanced interrogation, the vast effort to collect and collate this information, put it in a usable form obviously served his successor quite well because this served the information of the courier several years ago and moved forward to this administration.

And Thomas Joscelyn's leaning that way as well, "Did Enhanced Interrogation of the 20th Hijacker Help Identify Bin Laden’s Courier?"

And John Yoo yesterday, "Bush-Obama Continuity Is the Key to Terror War Victories":

Anonymous government sources say that the al Qaeda courier who led our intelligence people to bin Laden was a protege of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks who was captured in 2002, subjected to enhanced interrogation methods, and yielded a trove of intelligence on al Qaeda. Those same sources admit that interrogation of al Qaeda leaders, presumably by the CIA, yielded the identity of the courier. That identity was then combined into a mosaic of other information from other detainee interrogations, electronic intercepts, and sources in other countries, to eventually identify bin Laden’s hideout.

And here's this at The Atlantic, "Rethinking Guantanamo After Detainee Info Led to Bin Laden." Can't block quote that one without decontextualizing it, although it's noted that conflicting reports "are being used to support arguments in both directions."

There's a big report on Abu Ahmad at Telegraph UK. It's Hassan Ghul who gave up the Ahmad's name, but again, would that have been possible without the earlier intelligence from harsh interrogations?

More later.

Jack Grisham of T.S.O.L.

Has a new book out, and he's featured at O.C. Weekly. I never met him, but T.S.O.L. was huge back in the day, and reading this piece is a blast from the past. Grisham, though, was a vicious criminal, a remorseless bully, and a pathetic drug addict. I think he found God:

Grisham first started going straight in 1984, but the birth of his daughter, Anastasia, a few years later acted as a catalyst to cement his sobriety. He says he's been clean since Jan. 8, 1989.

"For me, when I got sober, it was like a tidal wave came, and I was swept along with it," he says. "I'm not really seeing what's happening, and it's dropped me off, and as the water recedes, I start to see things — just not right away. The water sucks back, and I'm 26 years old, living with my mother. It sucks back some more, and hey, you've got a daughter you're not seeing. It sucks back more, you owe $20,000 in child support. Sucks back more, you've got warrants out for your arrest. Sucks back more, you've got a father whose death you were blamed for. Sucks back more, you can't stand to be touched. Sucks back more, you've never been able to be intimate with anybody. The more it receded, the more I was able to see the damage and look at this behavior. It was like a coroner's blanket had been pulled off a frightening mess. I started waking up."

It's a long essay, but worth the time.

And at Amazon, Grisham's book: An American Demon: A Memoir.

War on Terror Goes On

At ABC News:

Osama bin Laden's death puts an end to a chapter that has cost the United States thousands of lives, billions of dollars and countless resources. But it's unlikely to end the U.S. war against terrorism or reduce the resources spent on such missions, though how they are allocated will likely change.

U.S. Navy SEALs killed -- in the words of President Bill Clinton -- "public enemy number one" in a top-secret, risky operation in Abbotabad, Pakistan Sunday night.

The mission itself was unlikely to have cost the U.S. military a substantial amount, experts say. It was conducted by 40 SEALs in the dead of night with four helicopters and lasted about 40 minutes. Any costs associated with the mission would come from the Department of Defense's overall operations and maintenance budget.

It's the hunt leading up to the raid that experts believe was more costly. It likely included aerial predators, unmanned surveillance aircraft, satellite imagery and other high-tech means to pin down bin Laden's location.

U.S. intelligence officials for years had been looking for a messenger close to the al Qaeda leader. They were able to track down his name in 2007 and finally spotted him in 2009. In August, they received a crucial tip that bin Laden was hiding in a mansion in Abbottabad, a city near Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

The mission that killed bin Laden was only a part of a wider effort, lasting more than a decade, to take out the man who declared in 1998 that it was every person's duty to "kill Americans wherever they are found."

More at the link.

And related, from Andrew McCarthy, "A Different Kind of Justice."

Bin Laden Dead Photo Could Be Released Today

According to Jake Tapper: "A top source tells ABC News that President Obama and White House officials are discussing the possibility of releasing a photograph of Osama bin Laden's corpse today."

Waterboarding Works!

Rep. Peter King makes the case at the video.

And Andrew Malcolm notes:

The trail to Monday morning's assault on Osama's Pakistan compound began during someone else's presidency. That previous president authorized enhanced interrogation techniques which convinced folks like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to give up, among many other things, the name of their top-secret courier, now deceased. His travels ultimately led the CIA back to Osama's six-year-old suburban home.

And the New York Times has the background, "Detective Work on Courier Led to Breakthrough on Bin Laden." Also, at ABC News, "Phone Call by Kuwaiti Courier Led to Bin Laden."

RELATED: Last night David Beamer, whose son Todd Beamer died fighting terrorists on Flight 93 on 9/11, told Sean Hannity that the U.S. government should continue to do what works in fighting our mortal enemies. And he's quoted, with video, at Freedom's Lighthouse:

I really wish I could have seen the look on Osama Bin Laden’s face when he realized, ‘Uh-oh – these are the Navy SEALs, and they’re right here.’ . . . He got American justice delivered by U.S. Navy SEALs. Moments thereafter, he received Divine Justice by God Almighty. . . . There’s a heaven and there’s a hell. Osama Bin Laden knows all about that now.

All of this is really driving progressives crazy, like McJoan at Daily Kos, "Waterboarding did not reveal Osama bin Laden trail." Check the post for a really, er, tortured attempt to tamp down the waterboarding worked meme. Seriously. The fact that this president is simply completing the job of his predecessor drives progressives nuts.

Warrior in Chief

I mentioned it earlier, that the killing of Osama Bin Laden ushered in the signal transformation of President Obama as the unequivocal wartime leader. Roger Simon, at Politico, made the point yesterday as well, "Barack Obama is Now Warrior in Chief." It's a partisan take, that exempts the previous administration's resolve and ultimate success in Iraq, but these are some points worth considering:

Make no mistake: The United States is now the gang that can shoot straight.

Our reputation for being able to carry out successful military missions has been in some doubt ever since former President George W. Bush stood under a ridiculous “Mission Accomplished” banner during the Iraq War, a mission that he did not accomplish in a war that he did not win.

But President Barack Obama managed to kill Osama bin Laden on Sunday, using a small special operations force, and in so doing, he sent a clear message to terrorists everywhere: You’re next.

We have seen Obama be the professor in chief and the orator in chief. Now he is the warrior in chief.

We should not get crazed with bloodlust. War should always be our last choice, not our first.

But bin Laden had it coming. And he got it. Twice. In the head.

He had not spent the past several years crouched in a cave, as we thought. He lived like the billionaire he was (his family is in construction in Saudi Arabia): in a fortified mansion behind high, thick concrete walls topped with barbed wire and protected by guards.

It didn’t matter. In a precision operation, our Navy SEALs found and killed him in 40 minutes.

So if you are just an ordinary terrorist, without billions of dollars and extraordinary protection, think how short a time it might take us to find and kill you. Maybe it’s time for you to retire before the United States retires you.

More at the link above. Notice how Simon shifts abruptly from "Mission Accomplished" to Obama's order to kill Osama Bin Laden. That said, one has to be thrilled that U.S. Navy Seals went in and did the job, not drones or bunker busters, and without casualties or civilian deaths. I'm just awed by this and anxiously awaiting more information.

IMAGE CREDIT: The White House Flickr page, "President Barack Obama listens during one in a series of meetings discussing the mission against Osama bin Laden, in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011."

Hoax? Viral Video Claims Dude Survives Lightning Strike — Twice!

At London's Daily Mail, "How unlucky can you get! Man survives being hit by lightning TWICE in remarkable CCTV footage":

Looks pretty real, but check MSNBC, "Lightning striking twice? Maybe not even once":

The first sign that the video might be fake, according to Vladimir Rakov, electrical engineer and co-director of the University of Florida Lightning Research Group, is that people almost never survive direct lightning strikes like the one shown in the video. "The chance of survival in the case of a direct strike is essentially zero," Rakov told Life's Little Mysteries. That's because lightning bolts emanating from storm clouds convey a gigajoule of energy, he explained — which is about enough to melt a ton of steel.

The vast majority of the 240,000 people who survive lightning strikes worldwide each year do not actually get hit directly. "They are struck by 'side flashes,'" Rakov said. "Lightning might strike a building near them, for example, and there's a side flash that jumps to them carrying a small fraction of the original lightning bolt's energy. In that case, they can survive and even walk away."

Rally 'Round the Flag After Killing Osama Bin Laden

Discussed this with my students today, and Frank Newport has some background, "History Suggests a Rally in Obama's Job Approval Rating as a Result of Bin Laden's Death."

Victory in Abbottabad

At Wall Street Journal, "A measure of justice for the thousands he killed, and a warning to others":

Mr. Obama ... deserves credit for ordering a special forces mission rather than settling for another attack with drones or stand-off weapons from afar. Drones have their uses, but a target as valuable as bin Laden was worth the gamble of a U.S. military raid both to reduce the chances of his escape and to end once and for all the myth that he couldn't be taken. The skill and success of the raid is also a boost to American prestige and pride at a moment of too much national self-doubt ...

That's about all I should quote. It's a sober and accurate commentary, and the editors suggest "burying" Osama's body at sea might have been a mistake --- one of the main points I raised in my classes today. So go RTWT.

PHOTO CREDIT: The White House Flickr page, "President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011."

See also CNN, "Obama watched live video of bin Laden raid, U.S. official says."

Inside Osama's Compound (VIDEO)

At LAT, "Osama bin Laden's death: ABC correspondent Nick Schifrin discusses network's 'exclusive' video," and "Osama bin Laden's death: ABC News releases video of inside of mansion where terrorist leader was killed."

And at ABC News, "EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Compound Where Osama Bin Laden Was Killed: Photos from Inside the Osama Bin Laden Kill Zone."

Teachers Scramble to Incorporate News of Bin Laden's Death Into Lessons

Well, I wasn't scrambling.

I had the presidency scheduled for two classes today anyway, and it was interesting, especially because lots of students were shocked to find out that the death pictures of Osama Bin Laden were fake. But we had some great discussion. It occurred to me especially that President Obama's tenure will be defined more than ever as a wartime president. He's already presiding over three wars, and the frequency of U.S. predator drones strikes accelerated under this adminsration, but we're now at a turning point in the war on on terror, and last night's success will redound to this president's benefit. (See CSM, "Osama bin Laden's death will boost Obama approval rating, but for how long?") Indeed, one student asked how developments will help Obama's public approval ratings?

In any case, here's this at the Orange County Register, "Schools quick to integrate bin Laden death into lessons":

Across Orange County, many teachers scrambled Monday to change lesson plans to incorporate news about Osama bin Laden's death.

Teachers led discussions of the significance of killing the world's most-wanted man, while students debated everything from whether the world is now a safer place, to the root causes of terrorism.

At Dale Intermediate in Anaheim, seventh-grade world history teacher Grant Schuster began his classes Monday with a slide show of images from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He followed that with the video from Sunday of President Barack Obama's announcement that bin Laden had been killed by American special forces.

Students in all three of his morning classes applauded at the conclusion of Obama's recorded speech.

"Many of students don't have memories of 9/11 because they were too young," he said. "Some of my students are asking if terrorism is over. But others are quick to explain that no, it's not. And we still have to be very careful."

Schuster also explained to his classes that bin Laden's death will allow families of victims of the terrorist attacks to continue their emotional healing.

"I would have been remiss if I didn't spend at least half of the period today talking about bin Laden," he said. "This served as a valuable teaching tool."

More at the link above ...

The Secret Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden

A report from Mark Ambinder, at National Journal, "The Secret Team That Killed bin Laden."

And at ABC News, "White House Officials Debate Releasing Photographs of Bin Laden’s Corpse."

More updates throughout the day.

Progressives Claim Credit in Osama Bin Laden Killing

Little Miss Attila snarks:

A lot of the people celebrating this victory would have impeached Bush for doing the same thing; some of them didn’t even want us to collect some of the intel that helped us accomplish this.

And Michelle's got it, "All About Obama: Who’s politicizing bin Laden kill?":

Leftists are swarming Twitter to chastise any conservatives who dare give any credit to President Bush for his resolve and role in leading the post-9/11 counterrorism/national security response to the worst attack on American soil.

Meanwhile, Democrat hacks are burning the midnight oil making this All About Obama.

Steve Benen's first update appeared after he Googled around a bit, and found: "On March 13, 2002, George W. Bush said of bin Laden, 'I truly am not that concerned about him'."

The Obama White House acted and that is good. But the killing of Osama should be a victory for America and Americans. Politics is never far behind, but the left's sheer dishonesty in claiming credit on this --- after nearly ten years of the most intense demonization of GWOT hawks --- is no doubt digging deep for some news depths of progressive depravity.

Image via Markos "American Taliban" Moulitsas' Daily Kos.

Americans Cheer Death of Bin Laden!

Updating from my live blog earlier.

We still don't a lot of what happened. I've been communicating with Bruce Kesler and we were speculating on an abrupt U.S. withdrawal from Af-Pak as quid pro quo for Pakistani cooperation. More on that later as full details become available.

Meanwhile, at LAT, "Crowd celebrates bin Laden's death outside White House."

And check Patrick Ishmael's huge roundup at Hot Air.

More later ...

Debra Saunders: 'Intolerant Left Strikes Again'

At Rasmussen (via Memeorandum):

On April 25, gay-rights advocates -- led by the Human Rights Campaign -- scored a victory after the HRC applied pressure on a law firm hired to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and woman and denies federal benefits to same-sex partners. The firm fired its client. There are two reasons you should be outraged, no matter what your position is on DOMA.

Go read it all. One of the more outraged commentaries I've read on the case. Earlier I meant to juxtapose William Jacobson's commentary on this, "Is There Now A Hostile Environment For Pro-Traditional Marriage Views At King & Spalding?", to that of Dale Carpenter's. William writes, for example:

For whatever their reasons, the supporters of gay marriage have chosen the path of intimidation rather than persuasion. I think this is a mistake, but time will tell.

The comment assumes that this kind of intimidation is new, unprecedented. But is it? Dale Carpenter had an interesting piece at the New York Times the other day, "How the Law Accepted Gays:

THE prestigious law firm King & Spalding has not fully explained its decision this week to stop assisting Congress in defending the law that forbids federal recognition of same-sex marriage. But its reversal suggests the extent to which gay men and lesbians have persuaded much of the legal profession to accept the basic proposition that sexual orientation is irrelevant to a person’s worth and that the law should reflect this judgment. The decision cannot be dismissed simply as a matter of political correctness or bullying by gays.

Well, folks should finish the essay, and they might be a little more convinced, although I'm not. There's something fundamentally different about the struggle for civil rights for gay Americans, and since 2008 that difference has been a level of demonization and intimidation of the opposition that's unprecedented in my political lifetime. But go back and read Debra Saunders once more. Even the leadership of HRC admits they're again ready to pounce and destroy at the next instance of politically incorrect non-compliance to the gay narrative.

Dead Pictures of Osama Bin Laden

Here, said to be shown on Pakistani television.

PREVIOUSLY: "Osama Bin Laden Dead."

Added (May 2nd, 9:50am PST): At Astute Bloggers, "Osama bin Laden: is this photo a fake? YES!" Also, at N.Y. Daily News (12:22pm PST), "Osama Bin Laden dead: Gruesome photo is hoax, but White House debates release of real ones."

Osama Bin Laden Dead!

Greta says it's confirmed.

Updates coming ...

8:11pm PST: CNN's report: "Osama bin Laden is dead, sources say." A live feed for the president's address at CNN's homepage.

8:25pm PST: Bethany Murphy tweets: "Okay, this made me cry. Thank you George W. Bush. G-d bless you:

8:45pm PST: The president just spoke. It was a good speech. I'll be checking around from some analysis and will update. There's a feeling of celebration, obviously, but deliverance as well. The president closed his address with the unifying conclusion to the Pledge of Allegiance: "... one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

9:00pm PST: Bruce Kesler comments, at Maggie's Farm, "President Obama's Mushy Announcment That Osama Bin Laden Is Dead."

9:05pm PST: Via Blake Hounshell on Twitter, a Facebook page in Arabic, "We are all Osama Bin Laden."

9:30pm PST: Checking some progressives on Twitter, Karoli's not pleased with the response on the right.

9:37pm PST: Here's the president's address:

And at New York Times, "Obituary: Osama bin Laden was the Most Wanted Face of Terrorism."

10:30pm PST: Lots of stuff becoming available.

* At New York Times, "How the bin Laden Announcement Leaked Out," and check this striking image from the Times.

* At ABC News, "Osama Bin Laden Killed By Navy Seals in Firefight."

* At National Journal, "Osama’s compound already mapped on Google Maps."

* And at Los Angeles Times, "Former president George W. Bush calls bin Laden death 'momentous achievement'."

11:05pm PST: Glenn Reynolds has a roundup, and note this from Austin Bay:

Would that we had him in Fall 2001. However, time has worked against Bin Laden. He dies tarnished. A man who hides in a cave for ten years is no martyr. He quickly lost the aura of divine sanction — he was driven out of Afghanistan, and the US stayed. Moreover, the US took it’s counter-terror war into the heart of the politically dysfunctional Arab Muslim world. What’s the choice between tyrant and terrorist? Iraq provides a choice. Al Qaeda made Iraq a battleground and lost — lost to the Iraqi people and the US.

Holocaust Remembrance Day

Falls on May 1st this year, the same day as international workers' solidarity day. There's some profound puzzle in that coincidence, but I'll unravel it later. Jeff Jacoby, of the Boston Globe, lost family members in the Holocaust, and he writes: "A demon gone, but evil remains":

The Germans slaughtered 1.3 million human beings in Auschwitz, of whom 1.1 million were Jews. Six of those Jews were my father’s parents, David and Leah Jakubovic, and their children Franceska, Zoltan, Yrvin, and Alice. Gassed to death in 1944, they represent 1 one-millionth — 0.000001 — of the 6 million European Jews annihilated in the Holocaust.

On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, it hardly needs to be said that mass murder didn’t end with the defeat of the Third Reich. In the decades since 1945, innocent men, women, and children beyond number have been massacred — in Mao’s China and Pol Pot’s Cambodia, in the Soviet gulag and North Korean slave camps, in Rwanda and Bosnia, Sudan and Syria, Congo and Uganda. Yet even in an epoch that has shattered every record for bloodiness and barbarity, the Holocaust is unique. What sets it apart from other campaigns of butchery is not its body count or its brutality or its genocidal nature. Nor is it the rapidity with which it was carried out, or the international indifference against which it unfolded.

The destruction of European Jewry stands alone because it was not a means to any end. The “Final Solution’’ was an end in itself. Jews were not murdered by the millions in the context of a struggle for power or land or wealth. There was no political or economic rationale for wiping out the Jews; they had nothing the Nazis coveted, and Germany gained nothing by their deaths. There was only the maniacal ideology of eliminationist anti-Semitism — the determination to track down and kill anyone born of Jewish ancestry. “It was precisely this — the fact of being born — that was the mortal sin, to be punished by death,’’ the historian Yehuda Bauer has observed. “That had never happened at any time — or anywhere — before.’’

RTWT. No need to guess where today's evil resides.

Violence at 'Day of Anger' Protests Calling for 'Worldwide Social Revolution' Against Capitalism (VIDEO)

At Monsters and Critics, "Skirmishes Mar May Day Protest in Berlin":

Berlin/Hamburg - Radical left-wing demonstrators clashed with police in Berlin on Sunday, while May Day marches remained mostly peaceful across the rest of Europe.

At 6 pm (1600 GMT) more than 9,000 radical left-wing protesters began their annual 'Revolutionary May 1 Demonstration' in Berlin, where more than 6,000 police officers were on duty.

Demonstrators dressed in black and masked with sunglasses and hoods threw stones at banks and shops, and in isolated incidences police officers were targeted with bottles and fireworks.

Protesters carried banners proclaiming a 'Day of Anger' and calling for a 'Worldwide Social Revolution' whilst rallying against capitalism, the political establishment and the police.

The march expressed solidarity with the uprisings in the Arab world. From the top of a building protesters unveiled a huge banner proclaiming 'Yalla,' or 'let's go!' in Arabic script, as they set off fireworks.

The riot police initially held back as the mood became heated but later emerged in large numbers to face demonstrators with water cannons. Shortly after the onset of darkness, the authorities ended the march. Police said they made several arrests.

More at Deutsche Welle, "Police Battle Rioters in May Day Clashes."

James B. Webb: The SpongeBob of 'Sophisticated' Political Analysis

JBW's back in the comments this weekend making an eminent ass out of himself. Hey, I can dig it. The lulz are precious.

Now, I've considered Donald Trump worthy for his blustery circus value --- it's been great political theater of late --- although I haven't given him much thought as a serious contender. He's soaking up media attention, which is discombobulating the GOP field. But JBW, now promoted to ace SpongeBob commenter status, gives me his Athenian wisdom on Obama's ill-advised attention to Trump and the birther issue:

One doesn't become president by being stupid, one does so by taking advantage of the stupidity of the other side, which your party has cultivated in spades in recent years.

Really. Stupid is as stupid does, then, since going after Donald Trump last night at the White House Correspondents' Dinner wasn't too smart. As Glenn Reynolds indicates, "Sucker":

You don’t punish Donald Trump by giving him attention. A more experienced politician would know that. Nor is building Trump up good for Obama — Trump has actually hurt him more than all the others combined. Because, you know, Trump has actually been willing to criticize him without being afraid of the Big Media retribution. The various traditional GOP candidates still have the old cringe-reflex where Big Media criticism is concerned.

Exactly.

Not only that, responding to Trump makes Obama look desperate and unpresidential. Dumb, in other words, like SpongeBob (and James B. Webb --- and scroll forward to about 2:30 minutes at the clip for JBW-level of sophistication.)

And speaking of JBW's "sophisticated" political analysis (from last year), if I were a betting man my ace commenter SpongeBob would owe me $100:

If however Don is so certain about Obama's dismal approval ratings translating into epic failure then I'll offer him this meager yet serious wager: $100 says that the Republicans fail to gain a majority in either house of congress this November.

Crack analysis!!

Well, maybe JBW should send that money to Obambi! He's gonna need it for reelection!!

Photo Essay: The Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, at Los Angeles Times

It's from Michael Hiltzik, who I rarely read any more for obvious reasons, but check it out for the photography especially, by James Stillings: "High and Mighty."

Republicans Push to Widen the Field of Candidates for 2012

Following up my previous essay on GOP efforts to break away from Donald Trump's shadow, the New York Times has a piece along the same lines, "Republicans Are Pursuing a Wider Field for 2012 Race."

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican leaders, activists and donors, anxious that the party’s initial presidential field could squander a chance to capture grass-roots energy and build a strong case against President Obama at the outset of the 2012 race, are stepping up appeals for additional candidates to jump in, starting with Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana.

“I’m getting letters from all over the damn country, and some of them are pretty moving,” Mr. Daniels said in an interview last week at the Capitol in Indianapolis, where his friends believe he is inching closer to exploring a candidacy. He added, “It can’t help but affect you.”

The first contests of the primary are about eight months away, and most of the candidates have yet to fully open their campaigns. But some party leaders worry that Republicans are making a bad first impression by appearing tentative about their prospects against Mr. Obama and allowing Donald J. Trump to grab headlines in the news vacuum of the race’s early stages.

“The race needs more responsible adults who can actually do the job,” said Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.

RTWT at the link above.

Things definitely feel different this pre-primary season. A good comparison would be 2004, when folks might recall that Howard Dean had campaigned for over a year for the Democratic nomination. Dean was in fact widely expected to take either Iowa or New Hampshire on the strength of his antiwar message. We know what happened of course. The people spoke in Iowa and Dean when down in a screaming fit of fury immortalized in political lore as the "Dean Scream." Howard Dean was the antithesis of tentative, and look what it got him. So for Republicans in 2012, while it seems late in terms of the "invisible primary" of money, media, and polling, in fact there's still plenty of time for other candidates to throw their hats in the ring, and the field shaping up isn't as bad as the media makes out. Mitt Romney's going to be formidable, despite talk that RomneyCare is a killer (and I've even suggested RomneyCare's an albatross). All Romney has to do is denounce his own healthcare record in Massachusetts as a colossal mistake, make reference to polling there looking for a change, and then turn around and say never again! It might be tough in the primaries against fellow Republicans, but with a GOP Congress looking to repeal ObamaCare, Romney can ride his mea culpa on top of a wave of conservative opposition to big government. He's telegenic and an experienced campaigner, and the press will take him seriously, unlike Donald Trump.

Beyond that, I don't know much about Tim Pawlenty, although he looks pretty self-assured at the clip from New Hampshire above. We'll know more after a round of GOP pre-primary debates. Robert Stacy McCain reports on Herman Cain, by the way, who topped an AFP poll coming out of yesterday's event: "Herman Cain Wins 2012 Presidential Forum in Manchester, New Hampshire" (with video). I like what I've seen of Herman Cain, and at this point it's hard to figure out which would be a better ticket, Herman Cain and Allen West or Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, although I think this is still super long-shot territory.

But notice that discussion of Governor Mitch Daniels, who was Budget Director in the George W. Bush White House. Hmm ... Should he take the adoration seriously and enter the race, he'll likely end up an also-ran who leaves the grassroots wanting. The Times gives cursory discussion to Sarah Palin. Perhaps her moment to enter the race has passed (doesn't bother me, since I've long suggested she run in 2016). There's also mention of Chris Christie, Rick Perry, and Paul Ryan, and who knows, maybe one of them will surprise us (I like Christie)?

In any case, like I said, let's get on with the debates and see how things shake out. And keep an eye on the money. Michele Bachmann's been raising funds like the devil, and fundraising's one of the factors facilitating media coverage, so things can snowball for a candidate that way.

RELATED: Check the 2012 GOP primary calender at Frontloading HQ.

Royal Wedding in 60 Seconds

Pretty cool, via Business Insider.

Republican Candidates Strain to Break From Trump's Shadow

See Los Angeles Times, "GOP candidates try to refocus."

It's pretty fascinating that Donald Trump's sucked up so much oxygen in a relatively short period of time.

Maybe these folks need to bulk up on the opposition research, because Trump's pretty vulnerable on precisely those issues that matter most to voters: the economy and jobs. See earlier at Los Angeles Times, "Trump's tower a sore spot on the Strip":

Reporting from Las Vegas - Speaking to Republican activists here, Donald Trump touted something other than his potential presidential bid and hit reality television show: Trump International Hotel and Tower, a gleaming luxury high-rise and his sole Las Vegas venture.

"It's one of the greatest signs of all time," Trump said Thursday of the building's marquee, rising 64 stories above Las Vegas Boulevard. "You drive down that Strip, what do you see?"

"Trump!" the crowd shouted in unison.

"We got it built, it's doing great and we're very proud of it," the real estate mogul said, in remarks that were otherwise laced with profanity and attacks on President Obama.

But the reality of Las Vegas' tallest residential building — which Trump described as "very, very successful" — is different from the hype.

Conceived as a high-end hotel-condominium development in Las Vegas' go-go years, the project opened in 2008 amid the economic meltdown. Most investors pulled out and demanded their deposits, leaving Trump and his partners holding the bag.

The casino-free building, wrapped in 24-karat-gold-infused glass, now rests in the boneyard of the Las Vegas Strip, a collection of vacant lots, barren scaffolding and silent cranes left over from abandoned resort projects.

These days, the 645-foot Trump tower might be a metaphor for his nascent campaign: lots of splash, little in the way of substance.

As Trump touts his own business acumen, his Las Vegas hotel makes it clear that he fell prey to the speculative fever that gripped the nation — and particularly wounded Nevada, a state that will play a key role in determining the Republican presidential nomination next year.

More at that link above.

Maybe there'll be more critical reporting on Trump's business success. So far only Michelle Malkin's had anything to say that contradicted's the fawning MFM reporting.

Also at Politico, "'Sorry' state of affairs at GOP forum."

The Paranoid Style: The Persistence of Conspiracy Theories in American Politics

An interesting piece from Kate Zernike at the New York Times. An excerpt:

The fact that many Americans — and many Republicans in particular — have told pollsters that they doubt the president’s citizenship is less surprising when you consider the sizable percentages of Americans who subscribe to other conspiracy theories, said Robert Alan Goldberg, a history professor at the University of Utah and the author of “Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America.”

Eighty percent of Americans, he said, believe that President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy, rather than a lone gunman, as a government commission affirmed. Thirty percent believe that the government covered up aliens’ landing in Roswell, N.M., and a third of American blacks believe that government scientists created AIDS as a weapon of black genocide. Sept. 11, of course, has inspired conspiracy theories — it was plotted, variously, by “the Jews,” the Bush administration or Saddam Hussein.

By definition, Professor Goldberg said, a conspiracy theory is a belief that cunning forces are seeking to bend history to their will, provoking terror attacks or economic calamity to move the world in the direction they wish.

“I look at this birther conspiracy as a typical example,” he said. “This is far beyond the issue of whether this is a legitimate president. The real issue for them is this belief that this is a ploy by this hidden group to get power, to move Americans toward socialism or globalism or multiculturalism using Barack Obama as a pawn.”

RTWT at the link.

This is the Day the Lord Hath Made

Via Blazing Cat Fur, "Blessed Respite ... John Rutter's anthem from the Royal Wedding."

A close-up of William and Catherine at 3:40 minutes:

Also, at Los Angeles Times, "Britain celebrates the royal wedding."

RELATED: From Mona Charen, at National Review, "A Wedding: Not Just For Royals."

Camp Pendleton Memorial for Fallen Marines

At Los Angeles Times, "Tribute is paid to 25 'Dark Horse' troops who died and more than 200 others who were wounded while routing the Taliban from the Sangin district of Afghanistan's Helmand province":

"These Marines did what Marines always do," Lt. Col. Jason Morris, the battalion commander, told the gathering. "They took the fight to the enemy and they won."

When the Marines of the 3/5 arrived in the Sangin district of Helmand province in late September, Taliban flags flew boldly throughout the region, the schools were closed by Taliban order and the marketplace was virtually abandoned.

Seven months later, after hundreds of firefights and the discovery of hundreds of roadside bombs, Sangin is a different place. The Taliban flags are gone; the schools, including those for girls, are open; and the marketplace is flourishing.

The long-term future of Sangin, indeed all of Afghanistan, is yet to be determined, but for the moment, the Afghan government has a chance to establish itself in a region that has long been a stronghold of the Taliban, the narcotics cartel and their allies in neighboring Pakistan.

In those seven months, 25 Marines from the 3/5 were killed in combat and more than 200 were wounded — more dead and wounded than from any Marine battalion in the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

May Day! — Democrat-Socialists Rally Around Unions

Of course.

It's May Day, the "International Day of the Worker."

And right on cue, at Los Angeles Times, "California Democrats rally around unions":

Framing the union battles taking place across the nation as a fundamental attack on working Americans, Democratic leaders on Saturday accused Republicans of scapegoating public employees for political gain.

"They are intent on dismantling the very economic ladder that lifted our middle class and made California the richest and greatest state in the greatest nation in the world," Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris told thousands of delegates and supporters gathered at the Democrats' annual convention in Sacramento.

As cities, counties and states struggle to balance budgets, public employee unions have come under fire from critics arguing that their benefits, especially their pensions, are overly generous. Some of the most notable battles are in Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker sought to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many state workers, and Ohio, where an anti-union measure is the subject of a proposed voter referendum.

Several speakers tied the Wisconsin controversy to Costa Mesa. A budget shortfall in the Orange County city led officials to issue layoff notices to much of its workforce and to push to privatize many city services.

Orange County Employees Assn. General Manager Nick Berardino described Costa Mesa as "ground zero for working men and women in California" and said the actions there "represent a direct threat to the Democratic Party and democracy itself."

Right.

Because for socialists "democracy" is always defined in terms of economic redistribution. Like as found at University of Missouri's labor studies seminar, which featured Tony Pecinovsky, Communist Party USA, who indicates:

In my opinion... I think in the opinion of the Communist Party, politics is all about nuance. Just like there’s different trends and tenedencies within the labor movement, the Democratic Party is very much the same. It’s not one hegemonic whole. There’s different perspectives and points of views within a spectrum, right? And so we tend to focus on and help those candidates who as Don said, share our values.

"Don" would be Don Giljum, who was fired by the university for advocating violence.

This are what Democrats are all about.

May Day! — Police Prepare for Communist Open-Borders Rally in Los Angeles

At Los Angeles Times:

This year's May Day rally is expected to draw fewer immigrant rights activists to downtown Los Angeles than in past years, but police said they would be prepared for any problems that might occur.

Marchers will assemble at 10 a.m. Sunday at the intersection of Broadway and Olympic Boulevard and walk north on Broadway toward City Hall, officials said. The march will conclude with a rally on Broadway between First and Temple streets near City Hall.

Organizers said the demonstration could draw more than 50,000 people, but permits sought for the march estimate a crowd of about 10,000.

Whatever the turnout, police said, they would be ready with a significant deployment of officers.

"We are going to have a large enough deployment to handle anything," said LAPD Deputy Chief Jose Perez. "Our posture will be consistent with what we've had the last two years. We want to keep a lid on anything, but, ideally, we are going to maintain a low profile and facilitate allowing everybody to express their 1st Amendment views in a peaceful and organized manner."