HOT5 Daily 2/5/2011

1. "More Smart Diplomacy " It's hard to believe even the Obama administration would do such a thing.

Representative Sample: Wikileaks cables reportedly indicate that, consistent with its policy of selling out friends in order to curry favor with enemies, the Obama administration betrayed British military secrets to Russia as part of the New Start treaty.

2. "Overcriminalization: Attacking a Dangerous Precedent" Another feature of the War on Drugs.

Representative Sample: The Florida legislature decided in 2002 to eliminate from almost every drug possession case one of the most essential safeguards that the rule of law provides to the innocent. In such cases, the State of Florida need no longer prove that the accused acted with any form of criminal intent. The government need not prove that the individual even knew that what he possessed was drugs in order to send him to decades in prison.

3. "Democrats Put Out “Call To Arms” To Special Interest Groups To Oppose Republican Spending Cuts" The party of tax & spend isn't going to stand by while their spending is cut.

Representative Sample: Once you’ve built the programs and subsidies and cronyism into government, whenever some group of reformers threatens the status quo you can call to all those who have been made dependent on such programs – or at least profit mightily from them – to grind said reformers into the dirt.

4. "New Helmet Blocks Rifle Shots" If this report is correct, this is a major advance in personal armor.

Representative Sample: "It's really a huge leap forward in terms of head protection capability," Cole added. "The data that we were getting from prototypes is even better than we'd hoped."

5. "Muslim Jihadists now targeting Bars and Taverns for attacks in Southern Russia" Another reminder that Russia has major Muslim terrorist problems.

Representative Sample: In largely Muslim provinces of southern Russia, militant Islamists are seeking to impose Sharia Law with a complete ban on alcohol. The terrorists are specifically targetting establishments that sell alcohol as a symbol of Western values.

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