Blog Heap of Links for the day 29 July 2011

US officials thought they would catch Mexican criminals in a bold gun-running sting called 'Fast and Furious.' Instead, they inadvertently armed drug cartels as the operation spiraled out of control, a congressional report finds. ... According to whistleblowers and key witnesses, however, the real lesson behind Fast and Furious, a two-year operation that ended in January 2011, is how "groupthink" clouded decision-making at the highest levels of government, causing an agency to go against its basic instincts — which is to not allow arms to be trafficked illegally — and consequently contribute, not detract, from border violence. "These guns weren't going for a positive cause, they were going for a negative cause," ATF attaché Carlos Canino told the congressional oversight committee. "The ATF armed the [Sinaloa] cartel. It's disgusting."

Whatever his critics may say, Obama does know how to lead. He understands exactly where he is taking us. What strikes many as policy confusion or timidity is really just the tension between Obama's pragmatist cover and his deeply ideological long-term goals. Oddly, Obama's apparently quirky and confused Libya policy may now be the most effective example of how his seemingly reluctant leadership-style dovetails with his long-term transformative aspirations, foreign and domestic. ... up to now, Obama's policies in Iraq and Afghanistan have been pragmatic concessions to political reality. They also show how Obama's sometimes conventional-sounding foreign policy pronouncements mask goals that are far more "novel and grand," the displacement of national interest as the core guide to American foreign policy and its replacement with an effort to bring about equality among nations.

Let me give you some small idea of how screwed up Washington math is, and how much it favors those who are in power over those of us who foot the bill with our blood and treasure: If we JUST CAPPED SPENDING-- spent the same amount next FY as we did this FY, the CBO would score that as a $9.5 trillion dollar cut. So before anyone can claim we're "cutting" anything, the number they are talking about has to exceed $9.5 trillion. The Boehner plan, with all its actuarial tomfoolery, claims to cut something in the neighborhood of $850 billion. And only $20 billion of that is this year. So John Boehner is saying to you that spending $20 billion less than Obama's opening offer is worth giving him a blank check for a trillion and more.

Why is it that liberals always think in terms of 'shared sacrifice' and conservatives think in terms of 'shared prosperity'? [Commenter Greg at Sister Toldjah]

Marie Claire tells the story of Frank Rodriguez, a Texas carpenter who is listed on his state's sex offender registry because he pleaded guilty to "sexual assault of a child." That "child" was his high school girlfriend, Nikki Prescott, who was nearly 16 at the time; today she is his wife and the mother of his two daughters. The state of Texas treated their relationship as a crime, and they have been living with the consequences ever since: Rodriguez had to move out of his parents' home because his 12-year-old sister lived there, and even living in the same house with his wife and daughters was illegal until he completed seven years of probation. His sentence completed, he and his family were still dogged by the stigma of his lifetime registration, which disrupted his education plans, impaired his job prospects, and scared away neighbors. Now he is petitioning for removal from the registry under a new law that loosened the requirements for the state's "Romeo and Juliet" exception...

21 percent of white fathers, 44 percent of black fathers, and 35 percent of Hispanic fathers live apart from their children. Twenty-seven percent of absent fathers say they have not seen their children even once in the past year. ... 26-year longitudinal study which says that the strongest factor indicating whether children practiced high levels of empathic concern for others in their adult years was whether they had an involved father in their life.

In the wake of Abdo's arrest, Courage to Resist removed a page on their website that detailed Abdo's plight, but it was preserved through Google cache. Reached by Raw Story, Jeff Paterson, the group's project director, acknowledged that they had tried to cover up their involvement with the soldier and said they would be issuing a statement in the coming hours. He added that his impression of Abdo was a young man with "mental health issues" who was "very difficult to work with." ... Abdo was the first Muslim soldier to seek CO status due to his faith. In televised interviews, he claimed that his beliefs would not permit him to kill other Muslims. In spite of this claim, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy said last year that he should not be granted CO status and instead face a military tribunal for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. [h/t to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air linked to by Joy McCann at Conservative Commune

I just wanted to highlight the detail that was the most fun for me: the guy went into a gun store, and started talking about explosives. ... "(We) felt uncomfortable with his overall demeanor and the fact he didn't know what the hell he was buying," Ebert said. "I thought it prudent to contact the local authorities, which I did."

Anders Behring Breivik is now commonly referred to as "deranged", "insane", "crazy", a "madman", a "lunatic", etc. These descriptives are an attempt to put last week's events in Norway into a context that makes sense to the rest of us, but they are misnomers: based on the available evidence, he is a psychopath. A psychopath is not clinically insane. He is quite rational, often more rational and lucid than most people. He is able to stay calmly focused on his goals over a long period of time. His behavior is not erratic or capricious. His reasoning and methodology are not impaired, but that does not mean he is not mentally ill. What makes the psychopath abnormal are his goals, which are to varying degrees violent, destructive, depraved, monstrous, and inhuman. His focused lucidity is directed towards deeds that lie beyond the pale of our common humanity. The psychopath's world contains nothing but himself, and all his actions are informed by a grandiosity that culminates in massive, murderous, bloodthirsty deeds that will glorify him forever in history, as presented on the stage of his own mind. (video)

But no one is talking about the Dexter Factor, which is this: "Andrew Berwick" liked the Dexter cable series about a ruthless and completely deceptive serial killer.

But there has been one incident, more than any other, that illustrates the brutality of this 10-year-old war, and the depths of the violence that still exists in Helmand today, despite the hopes of transition and the continuing presence of international troops. Last Friday a boy was kidnapped from his home in Gereshk by a group of insurgents. His name was Ibrahim. Officials said he was just eight years old, though his family say he had just turned 12. Either way he was an innocent bystander in this conflict. The insurgents told Ibrahim his father had been injured in a car accident and promised to take him to the local hospital. In reality they wanted Ibrahim to blackmail his dad, a local police officer called Daoud. While they held Ibrahim the insurgents rang Daoud saying he would have to handover his green police pick-up truck, for the safe return of his son. At first Daoud thought it was a joke. When the voice on his phone started swearing, he simply refused. The gang of insurgents were deadly serious. Days later Ibrahim's body was found dumped in a ditch. He had been strangled. The Taliban have denied responsibility, but Daoud is certain they were behind his son's murder. He asks who else would have wanted a truck with police markings?

All-Buddhist militias in southern Thailand must defend themselves against Islamic militants. Their temples have become fortresses ringed with razor wire. [h/t to War News Updates]

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a classified report late last year that Russia's military intelligence was responsible for a bomb blast that occurred at an exterior wall of the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, in September. [h/t to War News Updates

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a classified report late last year that Russia's military intelligence was responsible for a bomb blast that occurred at an exterior wall of the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, in September. ... Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona... "It seems incongruous for the administration to pursue a cooperative missile-defense agreement if, at pretty high levels, the GRU and their government is authorizing the bombing of our embassy...."

Federal officials have charged several men with planning to use money from sales of heroin on U.S. streets to buy missiles to help arm Hezbollah. The suspects were allegedly trying to purchase military-grade weapons, like Stinger missiles, with profits from drug sales in the U.S., including in New York. But DEA agents posed as weapons dealers in the sting operations and arrested the men with the help of Romanian authorities. Two others were arrested in the Maldives.

NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted.... study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.... "There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans." ... data show the atmosphere begins shedding heat into space long before United Nations computer models predicted.

Just five years ago, Charles Monnett was one of the scientists whose observation that several polar bears had drowned in the Arctic Ocean helped galvanize the global warming movement. Now, the wildlife biologist is on administrative leave and facing accusations of scientific misconduct. ... pending the results of an investigation into "integrity issues." A watchdog group believes it has to do with the 2006 journal article about the bear, but a source familiar with the investigation said late Thursday that placing Monnett on leave had nothing to with scientific integrity or the article.

A graduate student asked him about replacing "the war on drugs" with "a more sophisticated and cost-effective program of rehabilitation such as the one in Portugal." Here is Obama's response: I have stated repeatedly—and it's actually reflected in our most recent statement by our office of drug policy—that we need to have an approach that emphasizes prevention, treatment, a public health model for reducing drug use in our country. We've got to put more resources into that. We can't simply focus on interdiction because, frankly, no matter how good of a job we're doing when it comes to an interdiction approach, if there is high demand in this country for drugs, we are going to continue to see not only drug use but also the violence associated with the drug trade.... Just to make sure that I'm actually answering your question, am I willing to pursue a decriminalization strategy as an approach? No.

In Arizona, meanwhile, the Medical Marijuana Act approved by voters last November remains on hold thanks to Gov. Jan Brewer, who worries that it conflicts with the federal Controlled Substances Act. Brewer, a Republican who proudly advocates a "new federalism" that "protects the States and [their] citizens against an over-reaching federal government," in this case seems happy to let the Obama administration override the will of Arizona's voters.

Today the NAACP has taken a major step towards equity, justice and effective law enforcement. These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidenced-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America. ... So far, so good, although I'm not quite sure what policy the NAACP is endorsing.

Upon originally hearing about The Undefeated, Youth for Palin wanted to be involved in promoting the film because of the message that the film would share with the public. So Youth for Palin contacted Victory Film Group, offering to bring awareness to The Undefeated. ... Within 24 hours this video attracted at least 10 comments that advocated the beheading, killing and/or violent gang rape of Gov. Sarah Palin and her daughters.

There's no way to appreciate fully the contributions of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006), who would have turned 99 years old this weekend, to the growth of libertarian ideas and a free society. (Video)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspectors returned 33 Mexican soldiers on Tuesday who inadvertently crossed over the Rio Grande river into Texas, authorities said. The soldiers, packed into four Humvees, crossed over the Donna-Rio Bravo International Bridge into south Texas ... In a statement late Tuesday, the Mexican military said the troops "unintentionally" crossed over the bridge while they were carrying out reconnaissance on the border. After clarifying the error with U.S. authorities, they returned to Mexico and continued their "routine activities," it said. ...

Police say a man who robbed a business in north Houston is dead after apparently being run over by the person he robbed. Kenneth Kobobel Sr., a 72-year-old Marine veteran chased down his attacker in his car pinning him against a fence. The assailant attempted to shoot Mr. Kobobel, but his injuries from being hit by 4000 lbs of car ended his life before he was able to commit any additional crimes. [h/t to Smitty at The Other McCain]