Senator Saxby Chambliss cruised to a decisive win in the Georgia run-off, and GOP activists are smiling across the country.  Not only is a theoretical filibuster safe, but this is evidence that the Obama coattails are short indeed.  If the GOP gets its house in order, there's every reason to expect 2010 and 2012 to be very good years for the Republicans as the "change" mantra runs its course and voters begin to recollect that the Democrats took over the Congress in January of 2007 --before the economy cratered.

Victor Davis Hanson, a guest on today's show, was at a loss for words on whether the U.S. ought to be expecting a subsidy for our naval operations if our ships are going to protect sea shipments of Middle east crude.

The Atlantic's Robert Kaplan joins me on today's program to discuss his recent trip to India, touched on here.

More background from Kaplan here.

The transcript of today's conversation will be posted here later.

There are two long conversations with Kaplan in The War Against the West.

Kaplan's two most recent books are Imperial Grunts and Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts.

I have yet to meet a member of the active duty military who had read Kaplan's stuff that didn't greatly admire his reporting.

The Wall Street Journal has a detailed reconstruction of the attacks.

It is run-off day in Georgia and Saxby Chambliss needs every vote to avoid a Minnesota-style cliff-hanger.

So call or e-mail your pals in Georgia and remind them to get over to the polls.

Shmuley Boteach pens a column certain to spark debate across the theological spectrum.  (HT: Contentions.)  Two paragraphs from the column:

 

As for my Christian brethren who regularly quote to me Jesus' famous saying, "Love your enemies," my response is that our enemies and God's enemies are different parties altogether. Jesus meant to love those who steal your girlfriend, cut you off on the road or swindle you in a business deal. But to love those who indiscriminately murder God's children is an abomination against all that is sacred. Is there a man who is human whose heart is not filled with moral revulsion against terrorists who target a rabbi who feeds the hungry? Would God or Jesus ask me to extend even one morsel of my limited capacity for compassion to fiends rather than saving every last particle for their victims instead?

Could God really be so unreasonable, could Jesus be so cruel, as to ask me to love baby-killers? And would such a God be moral if He did? Could I pray to a God who loves terrorists? Could I find comfort in Him knowing that He offers them comfort as well? No, such a god would be my enemy. He would abide in Hades rather than heaven. And I would be damned before I would worship him. I will accept an eternity in purgatory rather than a moment of celestial bliss shared with these beasts.

Here is an account of the funerals in Jerusalem of some of the victims of the attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai.

The Wall Street Journal's Bret Stevens wonders whether terrorists are absorbing the worst narratives about their enemies that the media can serve up, thus allowing the killers to justify to themselves their atrocities.

Sensationalism can have terrible consequences, Stevens warns:

But it's worth wondering why a media that treats nearly every word uttered by the U.S., British or Israeli governments as inherently suspect has proved so consistently credulous when it comes to every dubious or defamatory claim made against those governments. Or, for that matter, why the media has been so intent on magnifying genuine scandals (like Abu Ghraib) to the point that they become the moral equivalent of 9/11. Some caution is in order: Terrorists, of all people, might actually believe what they read in the papers.

I still haven't found one MSM article pondering whether the New York Times'/Los Angeles Times' compromise of the Swift program two years ago might have made the task of tracking and discovering the Mumbai terrorists more difficult.  It is the sort of question I guess we shouldn't expect the MSM to ponder.

Perhaps after terrorists strike the U.S. with WMD, media critics will begin to wonder whether the self-anointed guardians of the truth within the MSM were really serving the public's interest or their own.

Conversations with the new House GOP whip Eric Cantor, and would-be RNC leaders Michael Steele and Saul Anuzis.

One key test of the GOP's resolve to reconstitute its reformist credentials will come when the House Steering Committee meets in January and parcels out committee assignments.  If the GOP's big spenders are back at Appropriations en masse, don't expect much in the way of even rhetorical change going forward.

Anuzis and Steele are both committed to closing the tech gap quickly which will be fairly easy if resources are applied, and Eric Cantor promises that the NRCC under Pete Sessions will be much more aggressive than in years past.  If this is the case, Congressman Sessions will have an overhauled web presence and a list of the top fifty targeted seats posted asap, as well as a "challengers' fund" established that will take contributions only for the purpose of winning back seats in 2010.

Former Los Angeles Times managing editor Douglas Frantz is author of The Man from Pakistan: The True Story of the World's Most Dangerous Nuclear Smuggler (along with Catherine Collins.)  He joins me in hour three today.



An extensive interview with Frantz and Collins is included in The War Against The West.

Christopher Hitchens writes on India after the Mumbai attacks.

Along with co-artists Jessica Martin, columnist-to-the-world Mark Steyn has released his first single "A Marshmallow World," which received what I think was its first national airplay on today's show.

The CD is available with Mark's new book, "A Song for the Season" via SteynOnline.com.

The perfect Christmas present package!

Former Los Angeles Times managing editor Douglas Frantz is author of The Man from Pakistan: The True Story of the World's Most Dangerous Nuclear Smuggler (along with Catherine Collins.)  He joins me in hour three today.



An extensive interview with Frantz and Collins is included in The War Against The West.

Conservatives should acknowledge that this is as strong a team as they have a right to expect having lost the election.

The biggest challenge facing the new president and his advisors after protection of the homeland is keeping Iran out of the nuclear club, with force if necessary.

The second biggest challenge is to maintain at least the status quo in the Middle East intact, with Israel secure and the emerging democracy in Iraq protected. 

It is difficult to imagine any Democratic team better positioned to achieve both goals.  And that is a cause for celebration.

Here's a story on killings in Mexico near the border:

 

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - New details on a deadly discovery across the border from El Paso. This morning police in Ciudad Juarez say at least 12 masked gun men opened fire inside an upscale seafood restaurant and killed at least eight people. The attack comes a day after seven men were found executed in a school soccer field in an upper class neighborhood in Juarez.

In all, 40 murders were reported over the holiday week along the border near El Paso. Police say the men were armed with AK-47 and fired off more than 100 rounds.

Mexico is wracked by this sort of violence, but it makes little impression on the American MSM.  Here's another grisly story.  There are 14 murders a day attributed to the government's assault on the drug cartels, and the Mexican economy is staggering under the exodus of tourism and related trade.

The MSM has got to figure out that while Iraq is moving towards stability, Mexico is moving away from it.

My friend Frank Dowse is the head of Agemus Group, a security-consulting firm.  Frank's been in the business since his retirment as a Lt.Col from the Marien Corps a few years back. 

Frank was my guest on Wednesday's show as the terror attacks in Mumbai were unfolding. I asked Frank what a CEO should do when he discovers he has employees in an area where a crisis develops.  Frank sent along the this follow-up:

I would like to provide for you and your audience a more direct answer to the question…which was (paraphrasing) “If one is a CEO/COO tonight with people in Mumbai, what can they do?  I’ll preface this with the situation that the attacks are already underway, and that the CEO is reacting, vice mitigating or preventing, security and crisis challenges in the future. A planning assumption is that there is communication with one’s employees, or at least we know what hotel they are staying, and their basic schedule of events.

“I felt totally helpless…What was needed was a Crisis Management Group in addition to the National Authorities to deal with this crisis”

Ratan Tata, CEO of the TATA Group, owner of the Taj Hotel, Mumbai, India

                                        

1. Initiate/Designate a Crisis Response Team: If this is not an inherent function or area of responsibility within your organization, then assign a Point Man (COO/Vice President Level, with PR reps to assist) who can lead, authorize, and decide on behalf of the management, in order to best affect plans and responses as events unfold, and information is gathered. This needs to be a 24 hour operation, and should be given top priority for resources, and manpower.
2. Start a Log, capturing time lines, significant events, persons, and exterior contacts and players.
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