Monthly Archives: May 2005

Preview of a coming controversy

President Bush has said that he will veto legislation Congress is likely to pass calling for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research on stem cell lines other than those previously approved by the administration. It would be the first time Bush has used his veto power. This issue divides conservatives and it’s easy for me to see why, since I’m of two minds about it myself. On balance, while »

Hail the Champions

Liverpool are the champions of Europe, having defeated AC Milan in a remarkable match. Milan were up 3-0 at the half. If there is any team in Europe one would bet on to hold that lead, it’s Milan. Yet in 15 minutes the lead had vanished. Then, after an hour of deadlock, Liverpool won the penalty kick shoot-out. Their hot and cold goalkeeper Jerzey Dudek saved two penalties, just as »

Saddam and His Terrorist Friends

A number of readers have pointed us to this story about Premier Allawi’s cataloging of Saddam’s support for al Qaeda: The number two of the al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a false name in September 1999 to take part in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. In an interview, Allawi made public information discovered by the Iraqi secret »

Lies, Damned Lies, and…

There has been considerable buzz about a Houston Bar Association judicial survey that came out a few days ago and purported to show Justice Priscilla Owen with relatively poor ratings by Houston lawyers. This survey was prominently featured in the Reuters hit-job on Owen that I linked to earlier today. It was pretty obvious what happened: now that the Democrats’ filibuster of Justice Owen is topping the news, Democratic lawyers »

Today’s Misleading Headline Award…

…goes to this Reuters story: “FBI memo reports Guantanamo guards flushing Koran”. Sensational story, huh? That’s what the lefty who emailed us the link thought. He wrote: Will this make your front page? I hope you do the right thing and acknowledge that Newsweek was correct in it’s [sic] story, but I doubt it. Unfortunately for our correspondent, who so badly wants the Newsweek story to be true, the article »

Helping or hurting?

Mike Moran of MSNBC and the Overseas Press Club of America has put together a panel to discuss whether blogs are hurting or helping the American public remain informed about international news. The panel will consist of Moran, Rebecca MacKinnon, Joe Trippi, Marshall Loeb of CBS’s MarketWatch, and me. Sreenath Sreenivasan of Columbia University’s School of Journalism will moderate. The discussion will take place on June 1 at the Club’s »

At long last

After four years of mostly needless delay, the Senate has confirmed Priscilla Owen by a vote of 56-43. Three members of the gang of 14 crossed party lines. Senator Chafee voted no; Senators Byrd and Landrieu voted yes. The Senate will now move on to a debate on John Bolton. JOHN adds: It is sad that the Democrats have voted en masse against a judge who by any rational standard »

The Latest Zarqawi Rumor

We didn’t mention yesterday’s report, based on a posting on an al Qaeda web site, that Zarqawi had been wounded, because there have been so many rumors of his capture or demise that haven’t panned out. For what it’s worth, however, we’ll pass on the latest: the wounded Zarqawi has supposedly been evacuated from Iraq, “with the help of doctors from the Arab Peninsula and the Sudan.” This report has »

My favorite Democrat, part 19

It’s part 19 for us, but part two for the Red State Rant interview of our favorite Democrat: “Zell Miller: Multi-blog interview, part 2.” Here’s today’s key question and answer (just kidding): Scott at Powerline: I loved your “favorite books” section of your senate web site. I was struck by how serious and substantial your favorite books are. I was wondering if you would be willing to pick one out »

Thank you, Michelle

Michelle Malkin takes issue with a couple of errors in today’s free online Wall Street Journal feature. One of the errors is made by Ana Marie Cox, who is quoted speaking at the “All Things Digital” conference. The other error is made by the Journal in its reference to our site address. Thus spake Ms. Cox: Ms. Cox…noted how blogs themselves are changing, observing that more-political blogs that have served »

Of big bands and a big man

Justice George Nicholson serves on the California’s Third Appellate District Court of Appeal. Our post on the occasion of Artie Shaw’s birthday earlier this week prompted the following message from Justice Nicholson: I just read your post on Artie Shaw. We lost a remarkable jurist, Presiding Justice Robert K. Puglia, a few weeks ago to cancer. Too soon! Justice Puglia was a Big Band expert. He maintained a collection of »

The political fall-out

There’s lots of speculation about what The Deal means for various potential presidential contenders on the Republican side. Here’s mine. First, I think that if a single nominee is denied an up or down vote, all seven Republicans who entered into the deal are eliminated. Under that circumstance, Senator Hagel, who seemed to be aligned with the seven, is virtually eliminated. The same for Senator Frist. In his case, I »

Call me unimpressed

I’ve been watching Senator Graham lecture the Senate about the power he thinks he has to make sure the Democrats don’t go back to business as usual when it comes to filibustering President Bush’s judicial nominees. I’m unimpressed for two reasons. First, it’s all well and good for Graham to make unambiguous statements after the fact about his right to vote to change the rules during this Congress, but why »

“The Only Good American Soldier Is A Dead American Soldier”

That’s how the indispensable Arthur Chrenkoff titled his email to us tonight: Ted Koppel will be again reading out the names of American soldiers fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan sice last year. I’ve got a modest proposal to Ted Koppel and “Nightline”: why don’t you read one day the names and show the pictures of the 170,000 or so American servicemen and women stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan who every »

Cloture Voted on Justice Owen

A little while ago, the Senate voted 81-18 to close debate on the nomination of Justice Priscilla Owen to the Court of Appeals. Eighteen Democrats voted “no;” it’s a pretty good roster of the far left: BIden, Boxer, Cantwell, Corzine, our own Mark Dayton, Dodd, Dorgan, Feingold, Kennedy, Kerry, Lautenberg, Levin, Lincoln, Murray, Reed, Sarbanes and Stabenow. Hillary C. voted “yes” along with 25 other Democrats. All of the Republicans »

Win some, lose some, and some get rained out

My appearance on MSNBC today was basically rained out. With the story still developing and Senators being interviewed, I got very little time. Imagine — the network prefers to hear from Senators rather than bloggers. Even the Congressman on before me to talk about stem cell research got his time cut. That’s live television. But at least I got to take quick shots at John “Kumbaya” McCain and Robert Byrd. »

Media Alert II

I’ll be on MSNBC Live at 12:45 central time, talking about the filibuster compromise. »