Monthly Archives: April 2003

April 30, 2003 — Scott Johnson

He ran in a straight line

On the first day of testimony in the current trial of Lemrick Nelson, two police officers who observed Nelson after he murdered Yankel Rosenbaum said they saw no signs he had been drinking. The New York Post headline of course puts it more colorfully: “‘Drunk’ Lemrick a crock: Cop duo.” »
April 29, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Dafydd ab Hugh interviews Linton Weeks

Dafydd ab Hugh has alerted us to today’s Washington Post story by Linton Weeks on Hillary Clinton’s soon-to-be-published memoirs: “Senator Clinton’s memoir to hit stores in June.” Mr. ab Hugh reports that he phoned Weeks to follow up on his suspicions that the manuscript may not exist. Mr. ab Hugh’s account follows: I just got off the phone with Linton Weeks, the reporter at the Post who wrote the story »
April 29, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

It may not matter. . .

now that corporate America, the military, academia, and the rest of the elites have spoken, but 64 percent of Americans believe that racial minority group members should not receive preferential admission to colleges, accordng to »
April 29, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Renewed questions about the Clinton intelligence record

The unearthing of documents in Iraq linking al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein provides the occasion for Mansoor Ijaz, writing for National Review Online to describe the Clinton Administration’s intelligence failures during the months leading up to the 1998 bombings of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. During this period, the new Sudanese intelligence chief offered, unconditionally, to provide the U.S. with comprehensive information about the terrorists that had lived in »
April 29, 2003 — Scott Johnson

A history made possible by a book

The review of Anne Applebaum’s “Gulag: A History” by Stephen Sestanovich in the Wall Street Journal today is superb, a tribute both to Applebaum’s history and the shattering book that made it possible: “Chain of misery.” Here is Sestanovich’s conclusion: “Compared with its predecessor, ‘Gulag: A History’ is a mere book, not an experience. But it is a valuable and necessary book, the kind that Mr. Solzhenitsyn hoped for and »
April 29, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

The Invasion of the EU Body Snatchers

In addition to the piece by Randy Barnett, National Review Online also features David Frum’s excellent diary entry from London. In the most substantive part of the entry, Frum reports that friends in London are wondering why the U.S. apparently is keeping quiet about the upcoming series of referenda in which seven Eastern European countires will vote on whether to accede to the European Union. Frum does not necessarily advocate »
April 29, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

A recess from Senators Kennedy and Leahy

Law professor Randy Barnett offers a strategy for combatting the Senate Democrats’ successful efforts to prevent the Senate from confirming President Bush’s conservative judicial nominees. The strategy, which has also been proposed by our hero Hugh Hewitt, is to use the power to make “recess-appointments.” Through this power, the president can fill vacancies on the bench until the end of the congressional session. Although the appointment is temporary, the judges »
April 29, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Reading Hillary Clinton

After giving us a lesson on how to read the Washington Post last week, our eagle eyed reader Dafydd ab Hugh now gives us a lesson on how to read a Clinton press release circulated via the Washington Post. Yesterday’s Post carried the AP story regarding the Clinton memoirs scheduled for a June 9 release: “Hillary Clinton’s memoirs to hit stores.” Mr. ab Hugh writes: “[T]here is something intriguing about »
April 29, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Getting away with murder

At the third trial for the 1991 murder of rabbinical student Yankel Rosenbaum, the attorney for Lemrick Nelson admitted in his opening statement, 12 years after the murder, that Nelson in fact murdered him. In 1992 Nelson was acquitted for the murder when his attorneys successfully fabricated the claim that the New York police had framed Nelson with incriminatng evidence. According to Nelson’s present attorney in a retrial on the »
April 29, 2003 — Scott Johnson

The crippled State Department

In an editorial that was clearly written by Tony Blankley, the Washington Times lends its support to Newt Gingrich in the debate that he initiated on the adequacy of the department in representation of American interests. As with most of Blankley’s columns, the editorial is worth reading both for its thoughtfulness and its bite: “The crippled State Department.” »
April 28, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Polaroids

Just before she became a star in the mid-’90’s, Shawn Colvin released “Fat City,” a set of songs with one knockout after another, brilliantly produced by John Leventhal and Larry Klein. Listening to the radio in my car yesterday, I happened to hear “Polaroids,” the first song on the disk, and it grabbed me powerfully like a work of art can do when you least expect it. Set to a »
April 28, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Does Iraq need a strongman?

Here, courtesy of Real Clear Politics, is Daniel Pipes’ piece in the New York Post calling on the U.S. to select a “democratically-minded strongman” to rule Iraq. Pipes cites Ataturk in Turkey and Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan as models. This solution makes sense if, as Pipes believes, the alternative is an Iranian-style militant Islamic state. But, with all respect to Pipes who is far better informed on these matters than »
April 28, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

So far, not so good

The May issue of Commentary contains an excellent analysis of the “road map” to peace in the Middle East by Abraham Sofaer, a former federal judge and legal advisor to the State Department under President Reagan, who is now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute. Unfortunately, this article is not available on Commentary’s website. The essence of Sofaer’s analysis is that the road map is fatally flawed because it »
April 28, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Suitcase full of anthrax

Reuters reports that an Egyptian sailor on his way to Canada appears to have died from exposure to anthrax contained in his suitcase: “Egyptian sailor dies in Brazil from anthrax.” (Courtesy of Laurie Mylroie.) »
April 28, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

There’s no substitute for competence

In this Washington Post op-ed piece, Rachel Belton explains why rebuilding Iraq is “no job for a coalition.” Belton, who is writing a book on nation-building, notes that the only two successful attempts at postwar democratization occurred in Japan and Germany, where defense officials took full responsibility. She attributes this to the fact that “the centralized defense structure allowed America’s core values to remain consistent and penetrate every aspect of »
April 28, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Fakers and fakirs

Mark Steyn seems to have been inspired by recent disclosures involving Labour MP George Galloway: “I have excellent Korea prospects — I mean career prospects.” William Safire, on the other hand, has been inspired by the invective aimed at Newt Gingrich that Deacon referred to below: “Invective’s comeback.” On National Review Online, Professor David Schaefer offers an informative history lesson on the intellectual perils of pacifism: “What did Gandhi do?” »
April 28, 2003 — John Hinderaker

“Saddam No, Bush Yes”

Two hundred Iraqi prisoners of war are released from an internment camp in the desert near the southern port of Umm Qasr: “Chanting ‘Saddam no, Bush yes,’ some 200 Iraqi prisoners of war were let go Sunday at the coalition’s main internment camp…. “The men, many of them barefooted, shook hands with the American soldiers guarding the camp before boarding buses and trucks to be driven to nearby Basra, southern »