Monthly Archives: May 2003

A faulty road map

Frank Gaffney brilliantly elaborates the point I made last night regarding the adverse effects of the “road map” on American security: “A road trap for America too.” And Charles Krauthammer does likewise: “Let’s hear talk of peace in Arabic too.” (Courtesy of RealClearPolitics.) »

Professor Qumsiyeh’s “discovery”

Mazin Qumsiyeh is a professor of genetics at the Yale Medical School and a rabid hater of Israel. Earlier this week the New York Sun reported an incredible story by James Kirchick regarding Qumsiyeh. According to Professor Qumsiyeh, the alleged overlap of Jewish student members of Yale College Students for Democracy and the Yale Friends of Israel revealed the existence of a “Jewish pro-war cabal.” Qumsiyeh circulated the names of »

Washington’s betrayal?

Caroline Glick makes a powerful case in her Jerusalem Post column that the Bush administration’s adoption of the “road map” is deserving of harsh condemnation from the standpoint of Israel’s security: “Washington’s betrayal.” She concludes by stating, “We must accept the truth. As presently constituted, the Bush administration’s Middle East policy is hostile to the national security interests of the State of Israel.” If her case is sound, the policy »

Calling John Carroll

Hugh Hewitt has brought a multimedia punch to the recent saga of Robert Scheer. Today his site links to Scheer’s latest outrage in the Los Angeles Times and the blogospheric reaction to it. »

More Hysteria: This Time, the Budget

Today’s most outrageous news story originated with London’s Financial Times, which headlined a supposed scandal: “U.S. Faces Future of Chronic Deficits.” The story begins: “The Bush administration has shelved a report commissioned by the Treasury that shows the US currently faces a future of chronic federal budget deficits totalling at least $44,200bn in current US dollars….[T]he Bush administration chose to keep the findings out of the annual budget report for »

Some encouraging political news

is contained in this piece by Donald Lambro chief political correspondent for the Washington Times. Lambro reports that Democrats are losing support among black and Hispanic voters. He points to survey results showing that only 63 percent of black voters now call themselves Democrats, down from 74 percent in 2000. Ten percent now identify themselves as Republicans, as opposed to 4 percent in 2000. Moreover, the Republicans are believed to »

Thanks for the memories

A few weeks ago we posted Mark Steyn’s terrific tribute to Bob Hope in contemplation of Hope’s 100th birthday. Today on Hope’s birthday S.T. Karnick does the honors with a fine overview of Hope’s career: “Hope’s memories.” »

It’s the BBC that’s kidding, right?

Rocket Man, I have to agree that Saddam Hussein was certainly acting like a guy with something to hide. If he was “clean,” why didn’t he let the U.N. inspectors talk to his scientists at will? Why, for that matter, were the inspectors expelled in the late 1990s? However, if it all turns out to be a big misunderstanding, I suggest that Saddam (if he’s still alive) come out of »

BBC: Saddam Was Just Kidding

Liberal news organizations both here and in England lay low briefly after the successful conclusion of the Iraq war to give people time to forget about their dire predictions of “quagmire,” “massive civilian casualties,” etc. But now they’re back in full force, trying to deprive the Bush and Blair administrations of credit for their successful policy. The effort to retrospectively discredit the Iraq war takes a number of forms–the claim »

George W’s Tax Cut and the 2004 Election

Dick Morris hails what he calls “an unparalleled act of political brilliance,” President Bush’s tax cut “compromise.” Morris notes that ordinarily, one problem with passing landmark legislation is that you lose it as an issue. Here, because the tax cuts enacted this year are slated to expire in 2006, “Bush can send refund checks of $400 for each child to 25 million households this summer, slash the tax on dividends »

Blaming the Clintons

The excellent John Fund has a piece in the WSJ Opinion Journal in which he argues that the Clintons are hurting the Democrats by “crowding out” and “inhibiting the development” of fresh, electable presidential candidates. Fund cites the grievance to this effect voiced by Democratic commentator and one-time Dukakis campaign manager Susan Estrich. To me this grievance is lame. The failure of the Democratic presidential contenders to impress has little »

Rising to the challenge

In yesterday’s Bleat Lileks the Great responds to Hugh Hewitt’s assignment to the Northern Alliance of Blogs to comment on the leaked John Carroll/Los Angeles Times memo. HINDROCKET adds: My take on this memo is different from Lileks’. I think the memo is really quite astounding. The Los Angeles Times has long been regarded as one of the nation’s most liberal, and most obviously biased, papers. It really appears that »

Not a good idea

In his Weekly Standard column Hugh Hewitt warns of California’s impending giveaway of authority over real property including every “site that is associated with the traditional beliefs, practices, lifeways, and ceremonial activities of a Native American tribe.” What’s the problem with that? Hugh suggests that in addition to the obvious problems it creates for housing development, it is unconstitutional: “Gray Davis rolls the dice.” »

Slippery roads to peace

While all the papers this morning carry the announcement of a summit meeting in Jordan including President Bush, Prime Minister Sharon, and Daddy Mazen, WorldTribune.com reports that “U.S. threatened sanctions if Israel blocked roadmap.” And the Wall Street Journal has a cautionary editorial: “Missing Mideast momentum.” Also worth a look is Clifford May’s “Slippery roads to peace.” »

Portrait of the playboy as an old man

As former teenage students of the “Playboy philosophy” — Hugh Hefner’s encylopedic exposition of his deep thoughts in a monthly Playboy column during the sixties — Rocket Man and I should not have let Hefner’s seventy-seventh birthday pass without notice. George Will makes up for us today in his column: “Hef the winner.” HINDROCKET adds: It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that, for better or worse, Hefner was one of »

This just in from the Krugman truth squad

As we have noted previously, Donald Luskin has organized a truth squad to monitor the utterances of the increasingly desperate Paul Krugman of the increasingly desperate New York Times. In today’s piece for National Review Online, Luskin explains how Krugman purports to find that Bush’s policies are about to unravel due to deflation and the “liquidity trap.” Luskin’s refutation of Krugman’s economic analysis sounds persuasive, but I don’t really know »

Slandering the military in the name of racial preferences

The article by Larry Purdy posted below about the pro-quota brief filed by a small group of retired military officers in the University of Michigan cases is well worth reading. Buried in the middle of the piece is Purdy’s critique of the officers’ suggestion that the military needs black officers to provide leadership for black enlisted personnel. The implication is that blacks won’t fight as hard unless they are led »