Monthly Archives: August 2003

August 22, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Shut up, he explained

The Washington dimmocrats would prefer that Attorney General Ashcroft not tour the country to speak out in defense of the USA Patriot Act: “Ashcroft criticized for talks on terror.” You know, it’s, like, illegal… Do you suppose we should introduce the Washington dimmocrats to the Texas 11? You know, the ones who claim, like, a First Amendment right to run away and hold press conferences on state time in New »
August 22, 2003 — John Hinderaker

The U.N., Feckless As Always

American and U.N. investigators apparently believe that the terrorists who carried out the deadly explosion at the U.N.’s Iraq headquarters may have been aided by some of the U.N.’s own guards. It turns out that the Iraqis who were guarding the U.N.’s headquarters in the Canal Hotel were largely the same people who were originally placed there by Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of spying on U.N. weapons inspectors. Incredibly, »
August 22, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Kathy Boudin Paroled

In a surprise reversal of its decision just a few months ago, the New York State parole board has granted parole to Kathy Boudin, who was serving a twenty-years-to-life term for murder. The Washington Times has an excellent summary of her case and of the parole board’s decision. Our younger readers may not know much about the Communist movement of the 1960’s and early 1970’s. Boudin was a member of »
August 22, 2003 — Scott Johnson

The blue ribbon rubber room prizewinner

The invaluable Middle East Media Research Instititute has issued a special report on the newest front to be opened by the Arabs in the war against the Jews: “Egyptian Jurists to Sue ‘The Jews’ for Compensation for ‘Trillions’ of Tons of Gold Allegedly Stolen During Exodus from Egypt.” Charles Johnson awards the story the blue ribbon referred to in the headline above in his comment on the item: “Funny farm, »
August 22, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Who was Ismail Abu Shanab?

Who was Ismail Abu Shanab, the person decribed as “a political leader of Hamas” in the story on his assassination by the Israelis in today’s Washington Post? I don’t have the answer. After reading every story on Shanab that I was able to find online this morning, I still don’t know. I do know, however, that the Hamas charter — a document that is easily accessible online — seems rather »
August 21, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Can you believe it?

Just as the Palestinian Authority was about to crack down on Hamas, the heavy-handed Israelis butted in. Ever since Oslo, for more than ten years, we’d been waiting for this moment. And it was only hours, no minutes, away. To add to the tragic irony, the guy the Israelis killed wasn’t even a militant. He was just a political guy, a Hamas moderate. Well, we can forget about the crackdown »
August 21, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Why not victory?

As a distant lover of Israel, I have been genuinely puzzled by its failure to produce a statesman equal to the challenges faced by the country over the past 20 years. In every area of modern life the country boasts a genius that on a per capita basis must be unrivaled. Yet on the world stage its politicians seem almost retarded. The country has never had a public accounting for »
August 21, 2003 — Scott Johnson

The Modern Prince

Today’s Wall Street Journal carries a review of a new book by Carnes Lord. The book is The Modern Prince. Most books with names like this one are inferior works filled with an ersatz cynicism that pales beside the real article. But I suspect that Lord’s book is a different creature entirely. I first met Lord when he was a young assistant professor of government at Dartmouth in the early »
August 21, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

The Godfather, Part II

I’m still a bit staggered by Irving Kristol’s piece on the “second life” of neo-conservatism. From a movement that had been “absorbed into the mainstream of American conservatism” to a “persuasion” that will “convert American conservatism, against its will, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy” — that’s quite a swing. Still anything that the “godfather” of neoconservatism writes on this (or any) subject »
August 21, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Don’t return to sender

Today’s good news is the discovery of an unreleased (apparently on grounds of excessive raunchiness) Elvis acetate. The acetate was discovered in the basement of the New Jersey home of one of the song’s composers. The songwriting team responsible for “I’m a Roustabout,” the newly discovered song, had its biggest success with Elvis’s post-Army number one hit “Return to Sender.” Here’s the New York Times story on the song and »
August 21, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Gamemanship

Hugh Hewitt is all over the games being played in California by the Indian Gaming interests. The tribes support Democrat Cruz Bustamante, but Hugh notes that there is only so much one can do directly for such a lightweight. So the Indians apparently are contemplating pumping money into the campaign of conservative Republican Tom McClintock in order to take votes away from Arnold in conservative strongholds like Orange County. Here »
August 21, 2003 — Scott Johnson

What’s Danish for “cojones”?

The Daily Telegraph has helped us identify our hero of the week. He’s the Danish pizza parlor proprietor who’s going to jail for refusal to serve German or French customers because of their countries’ refusal to support the United States: “Jail for pizza man who barred Germans.” Power Line readers, please note that he is planning on selling frozen pizzas over the Internet to Americans. “My internet home page will »
August 21, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Happy anniversary to me

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of my association with Power Line (or my “maiden blog,” as Trunk put it). In June 2002, when Rocket Man e-mailed me about his new blog, I had no idea what he was talking about. I didn’t even make it to the end of his message where (I later realized) he had invited me to join. Fortunately for me, he persisted. Thanks for bringing me »
August 21, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Invoking their rights

Out in the west Texas town of El Paso, the newspaper has a hilarious story about the refugee Democrats’ newest claim. They have brought a lawsuit alleging that their flight to New Mexico is a form of expression protected by the First Amendment. Or as Marty Robbins sang so memorably, “I had but one chance and that was to run.” The AP photo caption reads: “Texas state Senate Democratic Caucus »
August 21, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Freedom and its counterfeit

The new issue of Imprimis features the commencement address of Princeton Professor Robert George to the graduating class of Hillsdale College. As a refresher course in the forgotten philosophy of the American founding, it is more timely than anything in the news today: “True freedom consists in the liberation of the human person from the shackles of ignorance, oppression and vice…True freedom, the freedom that liberates, is grounded in truth »
August 21, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Moving the immigration debate

John Fonte’s review of Victor Davis Hanson’s Mexifornia is itself an important contribution to the immigration debate. »
August 20, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Study of Laurie Mylroie

The American humorist Josh Billings was not horsing around too much when he observed that, “As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.” The dogged Laurie Mylroie puts me in mind of Billings’ observation. In her awesome 2000 book Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein’s Unfinished War Against America, Mylroie argued that Saddam Hussein was the man behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. »