Short Takes: Worth Mentioning 08/04/08

Short takes is my way of cramming a lot into a small space for you..kind of like the young gentleman above is doing! Here's a brief rundown of some of today's items of interest for Joshua's Army:

*The latest RASMUSSEN Poll has McCain ahead in the presidential race, 47% to 46%. This is a statistical tie and it's early days, but this is the first time McCain has been ahead in this fashion since he became the nominee. Aside from the act that Scott Rasmussen is one of the more reliable pollers, this is important because of the internals: A week ago today, Obama had a three-percentage point lead and the candidates were even among unaffiliated voters. Today, McCain leads 52% to 37% among unaffiliateds.

McCain now has a favorability rating of 55% of the nation’s voters, Obama is seen favorably by 51%, the lowest rating for Obama since he wrapped up the nomination.

And over 60% of the electorate now sees Obama as 'liberal' while 65% sees MCain as Conservative. I think Mr. Hope N' Changes halo is starting to tarnish a bit.


* Russia and the world morns the death of writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who passed away yesterday. His works like "The Gulag Archipelago", a chronicle of his own and others
experiences in communist concentration camps won him a Nobel Prize for literature in 1970. One of the most ironic tributes came from Russia's Prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who called Solzhenitsyn's death from heart failure `a loss for all Russia.' Putin, of course, was an apparatchnik in the KGB responsible for sending people like
Solzhenitsyn to the gulags in the first place.

*Speaking of Putin and Russia, Ol' Vlad now says Russia needs to renew its commercial and military ties with communist Cuba. Russia claims this is a reaction to the US missile shield now being erected in Europe, which the US says is a NATO response against Iran but Russia claims is targeted against them. They may very well be right, given Russia's history of imperialism and conquest in Eastern Europe and their recent behavior.

It would also probably be rude to point out that if the Russians weren't building the Iranian nuclear facilities for the mullahs, the missile defense shield they're so wound up about would be unnecessary.

*The Race Issue Isn't Going Away - Juan Williams in the Wall Street Journaltoday, has an interesting and largely balanced take on the race issue in this campaign, and ends by pointing out Obama's primary dilemma...does he actually become the post racial candidate he claims to be
by forcefully distancing himself from race pimps and radicals like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Jeremiah Wright..or does he simply grease by the issue?

*The Forgotten Christians of Lebanon
Bloggers Sigmund,Carl And Alfred have an exemplary article on the last stand of the Lebanese Maronite community in a country dominated by Hezbollah and resurgent Shiites.

* Hit with what amounted to a smoking gun during talks with the US Pakistan has finally acknowledged that its intelligence agency, the infamous ISI has Taliban allies It remains to be seen what they do about the matter.