James Webb leads Jamie Allen.

We were wending our way around downtown D.C. looking for a good parking spot. We had come down from Baltimore so we could show my pal Robert Hernandez’s 8-year-old niece Aniya, who lives in Havre de Grace, out in the Maryland country, the museums and sites. Rob’s girlfriend, Stephanie, was driving with Aniya sitting next to her.

Aniya and I have one thing in common: We’re both Hispanic and Jewish. It’s a rare blend, but more common than many people think. Fidel Castro is probably a Latin Jew.

About 10 blocks north of the Mall, I started seeing signs of a protest: small Lebanese flags and handwritten fliers too small to read from a distance. I am always glad to see demonstrations. We kept driving closer downtown.

I advised Stephanie to try the east-west streets, as they tend to have more free spots. We were cruising the borders of a park just north of the White House when we came upon the pro-Lebanon demonstration.

There, as many as 300 people were beginning the day’s activities, wearing the red, white and green national colors and setting up activities under the flag of Lebanon.

But throughout the crowd people carried signs with Israeli flags covered in barbed wire or dripping with brightly markered blood. There were posters drawn with skulls and gas masks and printed with slogans such as “Israel: Country of Murderers,” “Stop Jewish Genocide” and “Die Israel.” If you needed one, there was a bin of more such signs on the sidewalk when you walked in.

I have always been outspoken in my support of the Muslim peoples of the Middle East. Israel seemed to have had itself covered: A full third of all U.S. foreign aid goes there, the economy is good. For a nation only half a century old, it is coming along well.

But over the past month of conflict in south Lebanon, I have heard from so many people I know, read in so many news sources and heard from organizations I respect how terrible Israel is. It is almost a reflexive thing. Not many people feel particularly bad about trash talking the world’s only Jewish state.

And for a long time, I’ve endured people making anti-Semitic jokes and remarks to my face. And when I protest, I am told that things aren’t so bad anymore and it’s much worse for others.

But it is deadly, and the people of my own bloodline in Israel are dying for it daily, as we have for thousands of years.

This summer, I have seen that when the chips are down and war is on (or when Mel Gibson is blowing up again), very few people and organizations will defend us but us. And though I believe devoutly and without hesitation in the rights of all people, when someone is attacking my people, I will stand firmly with my people.

Our car was slowly turning the next corner and Stephanie was trying to explain to the 8-year-old Aniya what the protest was about. And just as we were turning away from it, we saw a man on the corner wearing a red, white and green sort of doo-rag and red, white and green sweat pants, T-shirt and sunglasses standing tall with his arms thrust to his hips. The tension was relieved and all of us in the car laughed when Robert joked: “Look, everyone, it’s Captain Lebanon!”

The latest news is the White House is finally asking Middle East experts that don't work at either the Pentagon or American Enterprise Institute their opinions about Iraq and other problems in the Middle East.  The article provides very little information on their advice to the President but does portray a man frustrated that the Iraqi people don't fully embrace all the "freedom" we've given them or appreciate all the money and dead Americans either.  After seeing that Baghdad's been in chaos for the last year and almost 18,000 Iraqis have been killed in the first seven months of this year alone, I too find it hard to understand why they aren't more appreciative. 

Also, it appears all the other experts who've been briefing the President before this meeting told him that a majority Shiite government in Iraq, made up of parties formed in exile in, and allied with, another majority Shiite nation, Iran, would obviously be pro-Israel and a reliable American ally at a time when Israel is attacking another Shiite political organization also formed by, and allied with, the Iranians known as Hezbollah.  Evidently these other briefers also didn't tell him Prime Minister Al-Maliki's Dawa party is a revolutionary Shiite religious party similar in organization and ideology to Hezbollah that participated in terrorist attacks on Americans in Lebanon during the 1980's and since Mr. al Maliki was one of the heads of the Dawa organization in Syria during the 80's he is probably quite familiar with Hezbollah and naturally more inclined to support them over the Israelis.  Oh well.

Congrats to the White House for finally talking to some "outside" experts even if its three or four years too late.  Unfortunately, I suspect they won't actually take any advice given into consideration.....

Yesterday, Conservative Leader David Cameron unveiled the new Tory platform, "Built to Last."  From the looks of the presser he put on yesterday, it seems clear that he is running to Blair's left on quite a few issues.  The document includes links to such anomolous websites as www.socialjusticechallenge.com and www.globalpovertychallenge.com.  Wow.  According to the Guardian, it stresses the dangers of climate change and focuses on quality of life issues.  "Corporate Responsibility" was another key aspect of the plan. A "huge increase" in drug rehabilitation places for young offenders was also on the table.

It gets better.  During the presser, he came out in favor of a written Bill of Rights for Britain and against government ID schemes.  His shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, described the technical aspects of Labour's ID card scheme as a joint FBI-Microsoft project.

Cameron was unhappy with the fact that recruiting drives to find women and minority candidates had fallen short of his goals. 

Last week he criticized Israel, saying "he recognizes the right of Israel to defend itself against attack, but that measures taken to achieve that defense should always be proportionate."

Ralph Nader, watch out.

Word is that the Justice Department will be studying the British anti-terrorism laws to see how we need to change current U.S. law.  What is this country coming to?  What's next, the U.S. government studying how well the Dutch do education, or the French do health care, or the Norwegians do vacation?  Give me a break!!! 

Oh, sorry....no clear idea what will happen with the DOJ study but prepare yourselves for talk about how we might just have to get rid of that pesky Bill of Rights; after all the Brits don't have to deal with it and its only hampering our efforts to protect our freedoms. 

If you haven't seen George Allen's classy new campaign video, here it is.  Although there has been some effort to deflect what Senator Allen meant by calling a young Indian-American gentleman (and native Virginian) taping his appearance for the Webb campaign, "Macaca" or "Macaque", we do have a few choices and none of them reflect well on the Senator:

1. 'Macaca' - French : racist slang; similar to English 'nigger,' used to describe Arabs.
2. 'Macaca' - English : racist slang; similar to 'nigger' used to describe Arabs.
3. 'Macaca' - English : racist slang; used by American white supremacists in 'insider' talk about African-Americans.

Then again Jason Zengerle points out his mom was French Tunisian and he does know how to speak French.  Probably thought his audience wasn't that sophisticated right?

Update(8/15/06):  Sorry, looks like Youtube is down right now but check back later....

What is that old saying: "When faced with the choice of voting for a real Republican or a Democrat who sounds like one, the people tend to go with the real Republican."  Should be interesting?

(via TPM cafe)

If you ever wondered how much our current diplomatic effort regarding the fighting in Lebanon has helped change the Middle East, you only need to look at what is becoming the most popular name for newborns in Egypt: Nasrallah.

I think its clear from this quote from an unnamed Bush Administration official, that the Bush people place a higher premium on one of the two and it ain't Fighting Terrorism.  After the Lieberman/Cheney quote yesterday I was trying to find the recent report about a bipartisan majority of American foreign policy experts who think we're losing the "War on Terror" and here it is... not pretty.  Remember that when you see the odd phenomenon of struggling Republican candidates around the country suddenly endorsing Joe Lieberman's independent run or Administration officials timing terror alerts to change the news cycle for partisan purposes.  Better yet, since the President's poll numbers dropped one more time and Republican candidates around the country don't want him around , I'm guessing you'll probably see more terror alerts and talk about terrorism in the next couple months because frankly the Republican Party doesn't have anything to run on and scaring people seemed to work the last two election cycles so why not bring it out again.

Ah yes, Joe Lieberman, Man of Principle?  Perhaps someone would stop long enough to ask Lieberman (I-Washington Media establishment) what exactly he's done or proposes to do that effectively, yes I said effectively, fights terrorism and makes this country truly safer in the long run, cause I gotta tell ya the policies he's supporting aren't working.

I think Simon Rosenberg offers a pretty compelling list of 3 things Joe Lieberman did wrong over the last year that pretty much cost him the Democratic nomination last night and oddly enough none of them have anything to do with the power of the "netroots" or the blight of "blogofacism".

John Aravosis at AmericaBlog takes a pin and punctures the latest Republican meme that Ned Lamont's victory means a takeover of the Democratic party by the loony liberal left-wing of the Party (whatever that is...) by pointing out that if we are to believe that then certainly someone as left and conspiracy minded as incumbent Cynthia McKinney should have won her run-off election going away.  The fact that she lost badly and the DCCC left little doubt it wanted her gone among other fine examples kinda muddies what you're going to hear every RNC and Republican elected official, as well as the mainstream and conservative media establishment, whip like a dead horse for the next two months, but keep it in mind nonetheless. 

The Democratic Party has lost its SOULLLLLLL!

Joe, who? Nothing to see here, move along....

Okay, we're talking about a relatively unknown moderate Republican from Michigan and a former Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate who gets more Sunday morning face time than the leadership of his own Party ( which now I guess is truly "his own" Party) but pretty much the same story: two incumbent politicians out of step with their constituents and Party who get booted.  Ned Lamont doesn't have to apologize for knocking off Joe Lieberman any more than Al D'Amato did for ending Jacob Javits career or Lloyd Bentsen did for ending Ralph Yarborough's career...yes, this sort of thing has happened before even the "netroots" and somehow the Republic, as well as the Republican and Democratic Parties, did survive.

(Updated 8/9/06:12:21pm)

I listened with dread yesterday morning when they announced on the radio that British Petroleum would be shutting down one of the largest oil fields in the country due to a problem with a corroded section of pipeline.  I have an hour commute everyday and the last year has seen our monthly fill-up bill basically triple so I wasn't happy, but the radio report made it seem like a relative small and easily fixed problem.  Imagine my surprise when it was announced later in the day that BP was replacing 73% of its 22 mile pipeline at Prudhoe Bay! 

73%??  How do you get into a situation where "suddenly" you find out that three fourths of the pipeline you "oversee" is so corroded it has to be replaced?  Wouldn't regular maintenance or diagnotistics catch this sooner or was a decision made not to do anything until too late?   

(via The LeftCoaster)

(Update 8/8/06): If you needed any more bad news about how badly managed BP's Alaska operations are, check out this report from last week about how the DOT demanded BP's safety and maintenance logs after reports of numerous pipeline leaks.  No doubt this and an ongoing EPA and DOJ investigation helped prompt BP to finally do something but it doesn't say much for the folks Congressional Republicans want to turn ANWR over to does it?

So much for listening to the commanders on the ground in Iraq?  Its especially refreshing to know that the President thinks events in that country have gone into some sorta weird stasis where nothing much has happened since the people there voted in the last elections.  I guess the fact that they did vote somehow prevents the unthinkable, kinda like when the United States dodged a bullet in the 1860 election?

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rep. Bob Ney, dogged by an influence peddling probe in Washington, will not seek re-election.