While Americans tuned into the political gyrations of a handful of elections yesterday and political operatives pontificating what it all means today, it remains dwarfed by what happened in Afghanistan. Five British soldiers embedded with locals were shot and killed by an Afghan policeman with whom they were mentoring at a security outpost in Helmand Province. The embedded NATO troops were carrying out a key part of the counter-insurgency strategy to train Afghan army and police. The assailant escaped...

Tell your friends you read it here first. Don’t bother watching the wall-to-wall cable television coverage of today’s handful of odd-year elections. Robert McDonnell, the Republican candidate, will be elected governor of Virginia. Barring a minor miracle, incumbent New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine will lose to Republican Chris Christie. Douglas Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate, will trounce Democrat Bill Owens in the 23rd Congressional district of New York. UPDATE: (12:15 a.m. Wednesday)....

The style book says elected politicians be identified by abbreviations of their political party and state after their names which is why I find it rather amusing that Sen. Joe Lieberman is (I-Conn). That Lieberman is conning progressive Democrats is paramount in their frustration directed at the man selected as their party’s vice presidential candidate in 2000. They overlooked a quirk in Lieberman’s cover-all-bases political style because he simultaneously ran for reelection of his senate...

The Washington Post breathlessly tells us today that 33 lawmakers are being investigated for questionable conduct that includes defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling. Granted, this is a legitimate story in Washington. But for the rest of the nation, it most likely will produce a collective yawn. “What else is new?” they might ask. The report was prepared in July. It was accidentally leaked by a junior staffer who used software from his home computer known as “peer-to-peer”...

If there was ever any doubt why California is known as la la land, I offer these stories ripped off the wires. 1) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was heckled recently when he crashed a Democratic Party fund raiser, vetoed a bill authored by one of his hecklers and despite the fact the Legislature approved the measure unanimously. Here’s the veto message. Now follow the first letter in the left margin of each line. Here’s the set up as compiled by the Wall Street Journal. In Left...

For those of you who believe our mission in Afghanistan is a war of futility as I do then this article in today’s Washington Post reaffirms that notion. As you will learn, Matthew Hoh is no peacenik rabblerouser but a seasoned combat Marine, civil engineer and member of an elite Foreign Service team whose resignation shocked the top civilian foreign policy leaders in the Obama administration. “I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’...

A Saudi Arabian court sentenced a female journalist to 60 lashes because she worked for a television station that aired the sexual confessions of a Saudi man, she and her attorney said today. The Reuters news agency said the woman, who requested only her first name used, was unaware her Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. did not have proper authorization to operate in the Islamic kingdom. “The verdict was just because I cooperated with LBC,” Rosana, 22, the female journalist, told Reuters. By...

Reports from Bratislava, Slovakia, today indicate NATO defense ministers support Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recommendations to increase counterinsurgency strategy, nation building and additional troops in Afghanistan. Easy for them to say. More than two-thirds of the 28-country NATO forces totalling 104,000 troops are American and far less than those one-third are involved in combat operations. The ministers did not discuss the number of additional troops expected. Reports claim McChrystal wants...

The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday voted 20-9 to remove federal antitrust exemptions the health insurance industry has enjoyed since the 1940s. Majority leader Harry Reid said a companion bill will be voted on soon in the Senate. Finally the Democrats in Congress have showed some spunk. If the final bill is signed by President Barack Obama, the nation’s insurers would be liable for certain antitrust violations including price fixing. In the Beltway, the proposed legislation is considered...

The White House must end its fight with Fox News now. Enough already. David Gergen, White House advisor to three former presidents, said it is “risky strategy.” I agree and add it’s stupid and unproductive. While Fox commentators may have succeeded in tweaking President Obama’s massive ego, retaliation from the Oval Office violates a very simple rule: You can’t win a fight when cable news television is on the air 24/7, radio talk show commentators three hours a day five...

For critics claiming we cannot afford health care reform for our own people in which 45,000 uninsured die annually — a report I admit may be high — consider these apples. It costs about $400 a gallon to deliver fuel to our troops in Afghanistan. The Pentagon reports it costs about $1 billion for ever 1,000 troops in that land-locked nation which has an infrastructure worse than the poorest barrio in Tia Juana, Mexico. The military is asking for an appropriation of $1.3 billion this year...

I am a native Southern Californian, love baseball, played it as a youth and because my hometown San Diego Padres suck, don’t follow it that much on television until the playoffs. Watching Friday night’s game in New York with the Yankees playing the Angels I may have caught a case of pneumonia in my own home 3,000 away from home plate. Believe me, it was a lot warmer at Yankee Stadium than Coors Field in Denver when the Rockies played the Philadelphia Phillies last week and the World Series...

The mere mention of the Westboro Baptist Church in any form of the media is a victory for the gay-bashing anti-Semite demented hate mongers. I’m sorry but I will risk being struck by a bolt of lightning by saying the group will be protesting at a number of San Diego area churches Saturday night. Here’s a blurb from their website: Since 1955, Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has taken forth the precious from the vile, and so is as the mouth of God (Jer. 15:19). In 1991, WBC took her ministry...

Biting the hand that feeds me, I think it is a bad idea that President Barack Obama is urging Congress to kick in an extra one-lump $250 to each of the 57 million seniors, veterans and people with disabilities because they will not receive cost-of-living increases in 2010 from Social Security benefits. It’s not that I prefer to go without. If Congress goes along with the president, and key leaders say they like the idea, I would prefer it be paid in 12 monthly $20.83 increments added to the...

It’s not official but early returns of talk radio conservative mega voice Rush Limbaugh’s bid to become part owner of the St. Louis Rams is all but dead before arrival. It seems the money earned by the mouth that roars is not good enough for one of the most exclusive clubs in America. “I’ve said many times before we’re all held to a high standard here, and I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a National...

The Senate Finance Committee finally voted 14-9 its sweeping health care bill out of committee Tuesday with the lone Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine on board. Whoopty doo. Now maybe we can get down to business and fix the system. This bill is a massive subsidy to private insurance carriers who are not happy because it falls short of universal coverage which would mean more bucks in their pockets with little guarantees it would stop inflating premium prices and rising costs. All this to gain one...

Charlie Rangel is a charming, engaging fellow. The kind of man you would enjoy having a beer. Most of the journalists who deal with him in Congress like him because he is forthright even when spinning a topic in his favor. A Korean war hero, Rangel’s Harlem voters have elected him to 20 terms, vaunting him to a position of power and by seniority his Democratic comrades have selected him as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the second most powerful job in the House of Representatives....

After being bombarded with spin, stonewalling and lies, it doesn’t take long for a journalist to become a cynic. Skepticism grows along with a thick skin and a demeanor where one needs to ask the tough questions. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. If not the journalist, then whom? In my column yesterday questioning the merit of President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize after only nine months in office, I wrote that neither Obama nor the White House staff knew he had been nominated,...

President Barack Obama being awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize is akin to me winning a Pulitizer Prize in journalism. Neither one of us accomplished enough to earn it. The world’s most prestigious award is diminished to the level of an Academy Award nominee finishing fifth. Hey, Obama talks the talk but has failed so far to walk the walk. The Saturday Night Live spoof that he has accomplished nothing is closer to reality. It pains me to say that because I have been a faithful advocate and...

Excuse me, but I have some reservations and a bunch of questions about the various healthcare reform bills both houses of Congress could vote on as early as this month. The biggest concern I have is why we taxpayers are subsidizing the private carriers to insure us. The bills are aimed at guaranteeing growing private insurance profits without regard to improving our health. Oh, there are a few caveats thrown in to eliminate companies from dumping us because of pre-exiting conditions and a bunch of...

Shame on the established America media for giving so much air time to convicted former Congressman James Traficant who offers nothing but a populous sound bite and venom to his former colleagues. Since his release from prison last month, Traficant has spent much of his time on the air waves pleading his innocence to a racketeering conviction and vendetta against the Justice Department and the Jewish lobby. He spent seven years in the slammer, much he said in isolation. In the interviews he has threatened...

Where have you heard this before: “We believe that the decision to perform a medical or surgical procedure should be made by the ____ in consultation with their ____.” If you filled in the blanks with “patient” and “physician,” you were wrong. The correct answer is your cat and veterinarian. In California, it seems the health care debate has spread to cats. Specifically, the declawing of cats, a procedure technically known as onychectomy or flexor tendonectomy....

It must be a bittersweet experience for my mother-in-law and hundreds of cannery workers being honored today for their contributions to a city’s industry that was snuffed a generation ago. The San Diego Unified Port District spent a half-million dollars to erect a bronze sculpture and commemorate the site honoring tuna and albacore fishing and cannery workers at the waterfront. The story in the San Diego Union-Tribune featured Eloise Osuna, my mother-in-law, as a primary spokesperson for the...

The building of a prisoner of war camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba was as big a screw-up by the Bush administration as is attempts by the Obama administration to close it. Neither administration understood the long-range problems inherent in the system that was created. That’s the analysis we observe in stories today reported in three major newspapers. Retiring Marine Major Gen. Michael Lehnert was the commander of Joint Task Force 160 which built Camp X-Ray in 2002. He was given little guidance...

Headline writers for newspapers and the larger Internet websites have the power to sell, taint, cajole, tease and distort the writer’s works in order to lure the reader to take the bait. I took the bait, hook, line and sinker this morning from the following headline on MSNBC’s web page: WHY OBAMA WISHES HE WERE KING Or at the very least, he wishes he were Mel Brooks The article was written by Bill Pascoe, a guest columnist for CQ Politics. I enjoyed the story. A good read. It explained...