HOT5 Daily 2/11/2011

1. "Failure of Analysis" Foreign policy/intelligence incompetence.

Representative Sample: the observations of the CIA Director and the DNI (likely) reflected the consensus of our intelligence community. That means that a lot of senior analysts got together and decided that Mubarak would resign (based on our intelligence), and the jihadist group that wants to replace him (the Brotherhood) is really a bunch of Jeffersonian Democrats in disguise.

2. "Liberal foreign policy explained" That pretty much covers it. Includes video.

Representative Sample: America to blame? Check. Fawning over our enemies while insulting our allies? Check. Childlike notions of “fairness” as a basis for national policy? Check.

3. "Was Lincoln the Father of Big Government?" A defense of Lincoln.

Representative Sample: In reality, big government is a Progressive invention, designed by Progressive thinkers such as Herbert Croly and John Dewey and perpetrated by Progressive presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. These men embraced big government, because they held certain principles opposed to the limited government framework set forth in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

4. "Stratfor on the Mexican Gun Canard" Links an excellent article debunking the common claim that U.S. guns are the main source of arms for the Mexican drug cartels.

Representative Sample: It has now become quite common to hear U.S. officials confidently assert that 90 percent of the weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels come from the United States. However, a close examination of the dynamics of the cartel wars in Mexico — and of how the oft-echoed 90 percent number was reached — clearly demonstrates that the number is more political rhetoric than empirical fact.

5. "California GOP: Walking Zombies" Ideas for reviving the GOP in California.

Representative Sample: The Republican brand has died in California. Many folks have been doing the post mortem. In the last election cycle, despite the Republican resurgence throughout the country, not a blip of hope was on the screen here.

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