May 24, 2013 — Scott Johnson

On section 1203: A footnote

Featured image A knowledgeable reader who asks us to withhold his name writes to comment on our post “On section 1203.” Our reader writes: I’m writing to comment on your post on the IRS and section 1203. Like the retired CID agent you quote, I’m a regular reader and a fan. I’m also an attorney with many years of service with Chief Counsel’s Office of the IRS. I agree with most of »
May 24, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Weiner envy

Featured imageSince the rancid Weiner (Anthony) announced his campaign for the mayoralty of New York, I’ve been looking for an excuse to enter the Weiner (punning) sweepstakes. Now I think the Houston Chronicle may have provided the fodder. Finding the local angle in a New York story, the Chronicle reports on Weiner’s incredibly efficient rehabilitation in Houston: Anthony Weiner’s New York mayoral candidacy was only made more improbable today after he »
May 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Obama signals retreat in the fight against terrorism

Featured imagePresident Obama delivered an address today at the National Defense University called “The Future of our Fight Against Terrorism.” Actually, part of the speech was about the past, including much self-congratulation and some shots at President Bush. This part of the speech is revisionist rubbish. As Max Boot explains: Obama said, for example, that after he came into office, “we unequivocally banned torture, affirmed our commitment to civilian courts, worked »
May 24, 2013 — Scott Johnson

The Ailes manifesto

Featured imageI have greatly admired the work of James Rosen over the years. He seems to me a classic old-fashioned reporter, as the events of the past week have strongly suggested. And while working his day job at Fox News, he also wrote an intensely interesting biography cum history, The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate. Rosen’s biography of Mitchell was unjustly neglected upon its publication in 2008. »
May 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

The Breadwinners

Featured imageJohn Hay’s The Breadwinners: A Social Study (1883) is hardly a great novel. But it is, I’m confident, the best novel ever written by a future U.S. Secretary of State. And it’s a nice send-up of the “professional reformer” of the late 19th century — precursor of the modern “community organizer.” Indeed, the only fully realized character in The Breadwinners is its villain, a professional reformer. Claiming a commitment to »
May 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Two Presidents In One

Featured imagePresident Obama’s response to criticism over his Justice Department’s seizure, without notice or the opportunity for a hearing, of phone records from the Associated Press and emails in Fox reporter James Rosen’s personal account has been surpassingly strange. Whenever he has addressed the issue, he has cited his own support for a media shield law as if that were somehow exculpatory. Thus, in today’s national security speech he said: I’m »
May 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Obama on the verge of becoming one of America’s most successful presidents ever

Featured imageWith so many scandals in the picture or looming, it’s easy to miss the fact that President Obama may soon become one of the most successful presidents in American history. I’m defining success as fulfilling Obama’s mission of substantially transforming America. The Obama administration scandals matter because, to one degree or another, they involve scandalous conduct. But step back for moment. In 20 years, very few people will remember any »
May 23, 2013 — Steven Hayward

They’re Right: Obama Is No Tricky Dick

Featured imageThere’s an old adage in the public relations trade that if you’re on the defensive, you’re losing the PR battle.  And so it is rather delicious to watch Obama’s defenders on the left furiously spinning that no, no—no way is any of this like Nixon!  Scott already took down Steve Chapman’s “false equivalence” column; the Washington Post editorial board—and who is more authoritative on Watergate than them??—thinks the comparison risible.  »
May 23, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Judge Davis and the Muslim-American muddle

Featured imageMinnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, numbering at least 25,000. If it takes a village, we have a couple. Yet we know amazingly little about the Somali community, probably because we are afraid to ask the relevant questions. We know they are mostly Muslim — we can see the hijabs, we are familiar with the many local controversies to which their faith has given »
May 22, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Investigate reporters, but only when there’s something to investigate

Featured imageThe emerging conservative line on the Obama administration’s aggressive investigations of journalists is that national security leaks should be dealt with by going after the leaker, not the reporter. I’ve heard this line from a number of conservative commentators, most notably Karl Rove. I couldn’t disagree more. Reporters are not above the law. And, as John has explained, the law (per the Espionage Act, 18 US Code Section 793) prohibits »
May 22, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Obama keeps hands off Benghazi terrorists while lawyers build criminal case

Featured imageWe’ve always viewed the Benghazi scandal in terms of (1) the Obama administration’s failure to provide requested security before the attack, (2) its conduct, or lack thereof, during the attack, and (3) its cover-up after the attack (along with, as we recently learned, its retaliation against those who didn’t feel comfortable about the cover-up). But there’s always been a fourth element — the administration’s failure to bring the attackers to »
May 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Is Europe Giving Up on “Green” Energy?

Featured imageLeaders of the 27 European Union countries met yesterday to discuss energy issues. The meeting, as described by AFP, represents a turning point in European energy policy. Europe’s leaders are ready to join the shale oil and gas revolution to avoid being left behind economically: EU leaders agreed Wednesday to face up to the challenge posed by the shale oil and gas revolution which has slashed US energy prices, undercutting »
May 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

White House counsel met with top treasury lawyer three times last year after learning of IRS audit

Featured imageThe Daily Caller reports that White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler had three unprecedented one-on-one meetings last year with the Treasury Department’s chief lawyer, Chistopher Meade. The meetings were in September and December of 2012. Meade had known about the inspector general’s investigation of the IRS’s targeting of conservative nonprofits since at least June 2012. According to the Daily Caller, Ruemmler had never previous met with Meade one-on-one. Meade and Ruemmler »
May 23, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Environmentalists for Nuclear Power

Featured imageI’ve had occasion to write before about my enviro-dissident pals Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger of the Breakthrough Institute in Oakland (here, here, here, and here, and also in National Review), describing them on one occasion as “my existentially-challenged progressive pals.”  Well, now they’ve really done it: a piece in today’s Wall Street Journal on why environmentalists should support nuclear power. Along the way, they really deliver some well-deserved smack »
May 22, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Did Lois Lerner waive her Fifth Amendment protection?

Featured imageWilliam Taylor III, the lawyer Lois Lerner selected to represent her before the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, is part of a firm that’s about as tight with the Obama administration as it could be. According to Washingtonian Magazine, the firm, a boutique litigation shop called Zuckerman Spaeder, has sent a higher percentage of partners into the Obama administration than any other law firm. But did Lerner’s lawyer do »
May 22, 2013 — Steven Hayward

The Great Liberal Death Wish, London Edition

Featured imageThere’s an old saying in journalism—a story just “too good to check out.”  You can tell the media’s bias not only from what they won’t check out, but what they won’t even consider checking out, let alone reporting. News item: a deranged young man, James Holmes, shoots up a Denver theater last summer killing 12, and ABC News’s Brian Ross goes on the air to note that there’s a “James »
May 22, 2013 — John Hinderaker

I Think They’re Trying to Tell Us Something

Featured imageOne of my favorite adages goes like this: Any damn fool can learn from his own experience, what you want to do is learn from other people’s experience. Actually, you could say that the ability to learn from other people’s experiences is the only thing that makes human progress possible. The Europeans have had a lot of bad experiences. A few of them we have learned from; most, sadly, we »