From the Telegraph…

Around 70 per cent of the African-American voters who overwhelmingly backed Mr Obama also approved Proposition 8, helping pass the controversial ballot measure despite a small majority of whites voting against the ban on same-sex unions. Hispanic and Asian voters were split on the issue.

The state’s black turnout jumped to 10 per cent of the electorate, up from 6 per cent in 2004, as voters inspired by Mr Obama flocked to the polls for the first time. The Democratic candidate took the state with 61 per cent of the popular vote.

Although the president-elect opposed the gay marriage ban, it appears his supporters may have helped pass the measure that was vociferously opposed by many white Democrats.

I think the thing that most surprised me about Obama’s win is how small of a margin of victory that he got in the popular vote. It’s kind of hypocritical of me to say that, because only a couple of months ago I thought that the election was going to be close. But that was Click Here to continue reading.

From RedBlueRichPoor comes an excellent snap analysis of the election. Nothing much to say about it except read it.

From Calculated Risk comes a discussion of who the next Treasury Sectary will be. I am suprised to see Larry Summer’s name mentioned. I thought he was on a black list.

From Rod Dreher comes a story about a direct decedent of a slave voting for Obama. It drives home how much has changed in a short amount of time. Me being me, this kind of worries me. Rapid change can be for the worse as well as for the better.

From the Economist…

After storming into a police station on July 1st and stabbing six officers to death and injuring three others and a security guard, Mr Yang was shown remarkable understanding by China’s voluble internet users.

How do you pull something like that off? I can see stabbing one or two police officers to death. But 6?

Are the police in China so used to facing no resistance that they have no training or equipment to deal with one man with a knife? The article says that the police were unarmed, but still…..

From The New York Times…

On a rainy Friday evening in early August, six Taliban fighters attacked a police post in a village in Buner, a quiet farming valley just outside Pakistan’s lawless tribal region.

The militants tied up eight policemen and lay them on the floor, and according to local accounts, the youngest member of the gang, a 14-year-old, shot the captives on orders from his boss. The fighters stole uniforms and weapons and fled into the mountains.

Almost instantly, the people of Buner, armed with rifles, daggers and pistols, formed a posse, and after five days they cornered and killed their quarry. A video made on a cellphone showed the six militants lying in the dirt, blood oozing from their wounds.

And why did the people of Buner take matters into their own hands? Because they did not want the Taliban and the Pakistan army to use their hometown as a battle ground.

Good luck to them. But I don’t think they will be able to escape. Still, one should never make the mistake of thinking that ever one in Pakistan is the same or that none of them are trying to avoid the catastrophe that is overtaking their nation.

From The Times…

In the time-honoured tradition of covert US operations in the Middle East, this one seems to have gone spectacularly wrong. The Syrians, who had agreed to turn a blind eye to a supposedly quiet “snatch and grab” raid, could not keep the lid on a firefight in which so many people had died.

The operation should have been fast and bloodless. According to the sources, Syrian intelligence tipped off the Americans about Abu Ghadiya’s whereabouts. US electronic intelligence then tracked his exact location, possibly by tracing his satellite telephone, and the helicopters were directed to him. They were supposed to kidnap him and take him to Iraq for questioning.

According to defence sources, when the four US helicopters approached the Syrian border, they were detected by Syrian radar. Air force headquarters in Damascus was asked for permission to intercept.

So what went wrong? For latter on in the article….

It is not clear what went wrong, but it is believed that the helicopters were spotted by the militants on their final approach and a gun battle broke out. That is supported by an account from a local tribal leader, who said a rocket-propelled grenade had been launched from the compound at the helicopter. The firefight blew the cover on a supposedly covert operation.

From Spiegel…..

He is the foreman of a working party and has been digging for the past eight months. During that time two of his friends died underground. One was electrocuted, the other was killed when the Egyptians released poison gas into his tunnel. Mohammed was there when the gas canisters burst. “We heard the explosion and crawled back as fast as we could. Imad was behind us, the gas got him.” He says a short prayer, and also includes the two men who died last night.

A little throw away line in a Spiegel article. Who cares if Arabs use poison gas to kill Arabs?

That is the problems with the critics of Israel. If they actually believed what they said they believed and they actually fought for it, they might be a force for good in the world. Instead, they have one standard for Israel, and another for the rest of the world.