Monthly Archives: June 2003

June 23, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Bill Clinton’s justices have their say

In an oily little concurring opinion, the two Clinton appointees to the Supreme Court — Justices Ginsburg and Breyer — put just enough distance between themselves and Justice O’Connor’s “expectation” of an end to preferences after 25 years. In the true Clinton internationalist spirit, Ginsburg (the author) starts with the odd and (one would have thought) irrelevant observation that O’Connor’s aspiration accords with “the international understanding of . . .affirmative »
June 23, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

A pathetic decision

I finally have some time to digest and ponder the Supreme Court’s rulings in the Michigan cases, although I must say I’d rather not. Here is the Washington Post’s account. The fact that the Court upheld the blatantly discriminatory law school admissions scheme means that colleges now have a “road map” they can use to discriminate against whites. The CIR’s notion that uncertainty about the outcome of litigation will deter »
June 23, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Civil rights versus affirmative action

I have not collected my thoughts on the Gratz and Grutter cases yet, although I hope to do so later this week. Having followed the issue avidly since the Court decided the Bakke case, it strikes me that the Court’s decision in Grutter today disgraces the Court as an institution. Rather than giving vent to the disappointment of the moment, however, I would like simply to post the column Rocket »
June 23, 2003 — Scott Johnson

In search of a silver lining

Our friend Kirk Kolbo has kindly forwarded the press release issued by the Center for Individual Rights on the Gratz and Grutter cases this afternoon. The press release is wildly overoptimistic, but it may help moderate our depression over the disgrace the Supreme Court has wrought. We will have more to say about the cases when we can lift our chins off the floor. In the meantime we thought you »
June 23, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Democrats Misfiring, So Far

The latest poll data collected at Real Clear Politics indicate that President Bush has lost no more than a point or two off his approval rating in the last couple of weeks. Given the intensity of the Democrats’ attacks during that time on “missing WMD’s” and other issues, and the amount of news coverage given to those attacks, this is encouraging. On the other hand, public opinion–consisting mostly, as it »
June 23, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Supreme Court Upholds Race Discrimination

Here is the Associated Press account of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Gratz and Grutter, the two University of Michigan cases in which the University’s racially discriminatory practices were challenged. The Court upheld race discrimination at the University’s law school on a 5-4 vote, with Sandra O’Connor siding with the liberals and writing the Court’s opinion. The Court overturned the undergraduate school’s discriminatory practices on a 6-3 vote. The key »
June 23, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Ship Carrying Explosives Seized

Greek special forces have captured a freighter carrying 680 tons of explosives, along with detonators and fuses, bound for North Africa. The freighter is said to have been en route from “the Black Sea,” leaving the origin of the explosives up in the air. »
June 23, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Saddam Bargaining for Safe Passage?

Who knows whether any of this is true. But London’s Evening Standard claims that Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam’s recently-captured top aide, had a letter from Saddam in which he offered to surrender. His key demand: safe passage for himself and his family to another Arab country. That was a deal the U.S. was willing to make before the war started, when Saddam still had some bargaining power. It’s too »
June 23, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Awaiting Gratz and Grutter

The Minneapolis Star Tribune carries an article on the pending decisions in the Gratz and Grutter cases that are expected today: “Colleges poised to rethink race policies as ruling looms.” The article is not a good one. It quotes several commenters to the effect that nothing “works” like “affirmative action” — you know, there really is no substitute for racial discrimination when race is what you care about most — »
June 22, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Is Tony Blair in trouble?

Cal Thomas in the Washngton Times reports that Tony Blair’s poll numbers are in decline. It’s not because the British think the war with Iraq was a bad idea. Most of those polled say that the war was justified. Blair’s problems seem to arise on two fronts. First, many British apparently believe that Blair wasn’t honest on the question of weapons of mass destruction. Why is Blair experiencing this problem »
June 22, 2003 — Scott Johnson

A cog is born

Both Andrew Sullivan and No Left Turns steered me to this brilliant ad for Honda automobiles. The ad — called “the Cog” –features Honda parts, is filmed in real time without special effects, and is so ingenious as to be inspirational. The site showing the ad has also compiled a set of articles about it that can be accessed by scrolling down beneath the viewbox. The Daily Telegraph’s “Lights! Camera! »
June 22, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Counterweight or lightweight?

Jim Hoagland on why Europe may not make much of a “counterweight” to the United States. First, Europe itself is “multipolar.” Second, the former Western Europe is experiencing negative population growth. I would add a third factor — the EU’s dirigiste economic model is not promising. As Hoagland concludes, “after an admirable run of success, France, Germany and other nations in Western Europe face serious prospects of economic decline and »
June 22, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Is the Bush doctine at risk?

George Will believes that “the failure — so far — to find, or explain the absence of, weapons of mass destruction” places the Bush doctrine of preemptive war in jeopardy. Will argues that “preemption presupposes the ability to know things — to know about threats with a degree of certainty not requisite for decisions less momentous than those for waging war.” Will presents, and seems to find plausible, James Woolsey’s »
June 22, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Is this profile really necessary?

Here’s the Washington Post’s profile of Dennis Kucinich. The Post graciously omits some seedy episodes from what Kucinich calls “the dark night of my soul.” Good for the Post, but would it have done the same for a conservative candidate? By the way, here the Post reports that “Ben” from Ben and Jerry’s ice cream company has just endorsed Kucinich. Apparently Ben’s home state governor Howard Dean wasn’t anti-establishment enough. »
June 22, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Serena Warms Up for Wimbledon

I don’t think I have much of a feminine side. But I appreciate those who do. »
June 22, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Saddam Dead?

The Observer is reporting that a convoy en route from Iraq to Syria, believed to include Saddam Hussein and at least one of his sons, was detected and blasted into non-existence last night. The Observer claims that American officials are “cautiously optimistic” that Saddam was killed; remains of those killed are undergoing DNA analysis, the results of which are supposedly to be received “imminently.” It is unclear whether the attack »
June 22, 2003 — John Hinderaker

The Latest from Victor Davis Hanson

…is called “Winning After All”. As Glenn Reynolds says, read it all. But here is the conclusion: “[F]or all the doom and gloom we are making amazing progress. If on the evening of September 11th, an outside observer had predicted that the following would transpire in two years, he would have been considered unhinged: Saddam Hussein gone with the wind; democratic birth pangs in Iraq; the Taliban finished and Mr. »