The Corn & Miniter Show -- # 10

Who won and who lost in the GOP debate in South Carolina? How does the health status and age of the candidates affect their prospects? And the never-dying question: will Al Gore finally run? David Corn and Richard Miniter discuss these topics in this week’s who, along with, of course, Fred Thompson’s latest article addressed to Pajamas Media and friends.

Click above and watch! (MP3 audio-only version available HERE)

Waiting for It to Happen

Spain’s Prime Minister Zapatero hopes that by playing nice with Basque separatists ETA he can bring their 40 years of terror to an end, and seduce them to the negotiating table. In the process, he has become a virtual hostage to the terrorist group in the expectation that they won’t strike again anytime soon. But will they?

by Robert Latona

Sitting Ducks in Sderot

An Israeli student crouches under his desk as he attempts to safely study for his Bible exam after a Kassam rocket hit his high school.

By Allison Kaplan Sommer, PJM Tel Aviv editor

Folks who live in the city of Sderot in southern Israel know full well that they are being used as pawns in a deadly game of chicken by Hamas. They don’t like it one bit.

Voices From The Field: Max Boot shares an email he received from a Lieutenant Colonel in Iraq.

Big Ben Bolton: How the BBC’s John Humphries fared against an exercised John Bolton, from an EU Referendum.

The Tomb of Ahmed Shah Massoud: A memorial has been raised to the Afghan who was Osama Bin Laden’s mortal enemy and who was killed by suicide bombers disguised as journalists just four days before 9/11. (Blackfive)

Lest We Forget: The 10th Mountain Division and 6th Iraqi Army Division have 14 company sized units experiencing an average 20 “incidents” per day in their search for 3 missing American soldiers. (Defense Link News)

The Tattered Internet: “A report released today by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) concludes that the scale, the scope, and the sophistication of state-based Internet filtering have all increased dramatically in recent years.” (MIT Technology Review)

$20 Billion Dirty Dollars Laundered Through Dubai: The Secret Dubai Diary describes how a money laundering ring which pushed twenty billion dollars of dirty money through the country was busted. “Much of the dirty money originated in Colombia and came from drug dealing and assasinations.” He notes it would buy “185 million brunches at the Burj Al Arab.” A lot of money.

City at War: JD Johannes spends time embedded in the Dora and West Rasheed districts of Baghdad. He sees evidence of happier times past and the hope for their return.

Many Meetings: Tigerhawk recalls the little known fact that former Senator Bill Frist saved the life of General David Petraeus in 1991 when Petraeus took an M-16 round through the lung from a rifle range accident.

Don't Worry, It's Too Late: Front Page notes the IAEA now believes Iran has mastered the process of uranium enrichment. “From now on, it is simply a question of perfecting that knowledge. People will not like to hear it, but that’s a fact,” and grumbles that after years of warning against panic they suddenly say its too late.

Clearing the Air: The National Center for Public Policy Research challenged Greenpeace to disclose the sources of its 2006 donations exceeding $50,000, saying it will match the disclosure, after Greenpeace suggested think tanks which disagreed with its environmental conclusions were tainted by funding from ExxonMobil.

"The secret Iraq documents my 8-year-old found." At Salon, Pete Moore’s son inadvertently discovers how to read the redacted portions of Iraq CPA documents by selecting the “Mark up” option in Microsoft Word. Documents here.

Microsoft's Big Move in the Online Ad Space: Google got his big fish for $3.1bn, now Microsoft has snatched aQuantive (which owns media buyer Avenue A, web shop Razorfish, and other pieces of the online advertising market) for a whopping $6bn. (Valleywag)

The Lesson From Wolfowitz's Resignation: “The World Bank is a seriously flawed institution dominated by a staff association acting like a thuggish American-style union. They never wanted Wolfowitz as president in the first place and sought his ouster almost from the start.” (Sean Hackbarth @ American Mind)

Getting Sarkozy - and France - Wrong: Will Sarkozy disappoint the White House? (Bernard Chazelle @ Rootless Cosmopolitan)

The Missing Republicans: “Two shadows loomed over last night’s Republican debate in South Carolina - the men who weren’t there.” (Dick Morris @ TownHall)

The Weight of the Law, Literally:

A friendly Senate staffer took a picture of a hard copy of the immigration bill whose text is not yet public (placed next to the Bible for comparison). It’s 400 pages, but the final version may expand to 1000+ once it’s printed in the “official format.” (The Truth Laid Bear)

Fairness Doctrine As Political Intimidation: “In preparation for the 2008 elections, Democrats in Congress are trying to intimidate radio and TV broadcasters into including more Democrat views into their programs.” (Bruce Kesler @ Democracy Project)

Good, Bad and the Ugly: Marc Cooper writes about the agreement on comprehensive immigration reform.

When do you Lie? When it’s convenient, when you’re protecting yourself, or only to protect somebody else’s feelings? Amy Alkon answers to a guy whose girlfriend lied about her age. (Advice Goddess)

Trading Barbs: Bush and Blair’s joint press conference yesterday was, shall we say, spirited: “The British press got off on the wrong foot with President Bush, literally. When he and Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom walked into the sunny Rose Garden just before lunchtime on Thursday, most of the foreign reporters stayed in their seats, while the White House press corps followed tradition and stood in respect.” (Politico) And then the questions started…

The Man Who Wasn't There: Fred Thompson isn’t yet running, but he’s running a great campaign, says Peggy Noonan. (OpinionJournal)

The Sarkozy Fifteen: Manny @ Auspundits takes a quick look at the new French cabinet announced today.

Five Reasons Why British Prime Minister-Elect Gordon Brown is even more American than Tony Blair. (Daniel Finkelstein)

Big Roundup on the Immigration Deal @ HotAir.

Rock And Roll Hall of Famer Bo Diddley is improving after suffering a stroke. (Ed Driscoll)

What if You Had a Mass Grave Day and no Western media noticed? (Gateway Pundit)

The Magic Johnson Paradox: Is he undermining his own anti-AIDS advocacy work by being, well, so healthy many years after he was diagnosed? (Eric Scheie @ Classical Values)