Monthly Archives: June 2005

June 23, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Your Property Will Be Better Off In My Hands

There is a lot of blogosphere buzz about the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision allowing a municipality to condemn homes for a private development project that fits the government’s development plans and promises to generate more tax revenue than the existing uses. The controlling language, of course, is the Fifth Amendment, the last clause of which says, “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” What constitutes »
June 23, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Takings: An introduction

We have received a stream of email messages today asking for our comment on the Supreme Court’s decision today in Kelo v. New London. In Kelo, a narrowly divided Court in essence upheld the City of New London’s condemnation and transfer of private property from A to B in the name of economic development. According to the Court, the rationale of economic development made the taking a public use supporting »
June 23, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Dems Try To Change the Subject

The Democrats, apparently hoping to stop the bleeding resulting from Dick Durbin’s faux pas and Howard Dean’s many miscues, went into coordinated attack mode when Karl Rove drew this distinction between the liberal and conservative reactions to the September 11 attacks: Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the »
June 23, 2005 — Scott Johnson

When Irish pennants are flying

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Jack Kelly is one of our favorites. Right Wing News has posted an excellent interview with him, and it is of interest for far more than his kind words about Power Line. I was reminded by the interview that Kelly has entered the blogosphere with Irish Pennants. I have found Kelly’s site to be a must-read. He also has the funniest, if not the most self-deprecating, autobiographical »
June 23, 2005 — Scott Johnson

An interview with Oriana Fallaci

Tunku Varadarajan has interviewed Oriana Fallaci and she has a few biting words about the European predicament related to the charges pending in Italy that her best-selling book vilified Islam: “Prophet of decline.” Among other things, Fallaci says: “Europe is no longer Europe, it is ‘Eurabia,’ a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense. »
June 23, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The crying game

The Chicago Sun Times’s Lynn Sweet purports to get inside the deep thoughts and decision making of Dick Durbin in a column that reads like a cross between a press release and an outburst from the Krazy Kos Kidz: “Offhand Daley comment spurred Durbin turnaround.” Sweet advises, “For the record, Durbin never accused the military of the mistreatment at Guantanamo. Durbin said he did not know who to blame: the »
June 22, 2005 — John Hinderaker

They’re not Buying It

The American people, that is. Rasmussen has the latest poll data on Guantanamo Bay: A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 20% of Americans believe prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have been treated unfairly. Seven-out-of-ten adults believe the prisoners are being treated “better than they deserve” (36%) or “about right” (34%). The survey also found that just 14% agree with people who say that prisoner treatment at Guantanamo Bay is similar to »
June 22, 2005 — John Hinderaker

“Uncle Saddam”

Recent press coverage of good ol’ cuddly Saddam Hussein, that lovable neatnik who dispenses advice to the young GIs responsible for guarding him, has reminded me of past coverage of “lovable” tyrants like Fidel Castro and, most of all, “Uncle Joe” Stalin. I’m somewhat hardened to this kind of thing, but Iraqi-American Haider Ajina is understandably bewildered: Recently most of the mainstream media have been promoting a human side to »
June 22, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Do not disturb

In the post below, John publishes the letter to the editor of the Star Tribune sent by Lt. Peter Hegseth regarding the American detention operation at Guantanamo in which he served. In the letter Lt. Hegseth takes issue with the Star Tribune editorial supporting Senator Durbin’s obscene condemnation of the detention operation prior to Durbin’s crying game expression of conditional regret for the terms of his condemnation. Lt. Hegseth’s letter, »
June 22, 2005 — John Hinderaker

A Guantanamo Vet Speaks

Last night we posted a partial transcript of Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Lt. Peter Hegseth, a Minnesota native who has just returned after a year at Guantanamo Bay. Today, Lt. Hegseth sent the following letter to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which editorially endorsed Dick Durbin’s comparison of our troops to Nazis, Communisists and Khmer Rouge killers: As a recent veteran of Guantanamo Bay, I’ve been troubled by the willingness of »
June 22, 2005 — John Hinderaker

They’re Not in it for the Money

A reader who is a lawyer in Minneapolis writes: I thought you’d be interested to know — I just called in to cancel my subscription [to the Minneapolis Star Tribune]. After being on hold for about 10 minutes, the service rep. who took my call asked for a reason. I told her that the editorial page writers were out of control and offensive, and she replied “I probably shouldn’t tell »
June 22, 2005 — John Hinderaker

“Smear for Profit”

John Podhoretz reviews Ed Klein’s new book about Hillary Clinton, The Truth About Hillary. He really, really doesn’t like it: This is one of the most sordid volumes I’ve ever waded through. Thirty pages into it, I wanted to take a shower. Sixty pages into it, I wanted to be decontaminated. And 200 pages into it, I wanted someone to drive stakes through my eyes so I wouldn’t have to »
June 22, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Karl Zinsmeister reports

Karl Zinsmeister is the editor of The American Enterprise magazine — one of our favorites. On Karl’s invitation we contributed “Broad ownership needs broad taxpaying” to TAE’s March issue. Karl has just returned from his third stint as an embedded reporter in Iraq. Among other things, his take on the progress of the war differentiates him from his journalistic colleagues: “The war is over, and we won.” Last night at »
June 22, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The Democratic distemper

I draw your attention without further comment to Eli Lake’s New York Sun article: “Rangel-Foxman feud heats up over war.” On a related note, the Washington Times report on Senator Durbin’s latest expression of regret is “Durbin finally says he’s sorry.” He’s sorry, but not sorry enough. And Durbin’s friends in the House have now called for an independent commission to investigate alleged detainee abuses at U.S. facilities throughout the »
June 22, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Cpl. Dunham’s gift

Last night I attended a reading at the Macalester College chapel by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Phillips from his new book The Gift of Valor. Phillips is the son of my friend, Minneapolis attorney Felix Phillips, the brother of novelist Arthur Phillips, and is himself an excellent reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Last year the Journal published Phillips’s riveting account of the service in Iraq of Marine Cpl. »
June 21, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Let’s Hear From Someone Who’s Served There

As most of our readers know, we participate in a radio show called the Northern Alliance Radio Network every Saturday afternoon. The show is broadcast on 1280 am the Patriot in the Twin Cities, and is streamed over the internet. (You can link to the stream from our site, check the sidebar on the right.) Last Saturday, we bumped into State Senator Michele Bachmann, who is running for the House »
June 21, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Advanced Boyd studies

Our friend Hugh Hewitt reports that today’s disgraceful Star Tribune editorial was written by deputy editorial page editor Jim Boyd. Our own close encounters with Jim Boyd began last August and gave rise to an extended series of posts providing a glimpse into the wacky world of the fellow we dubbed the cowardly lion of Portland Avenue. Readers interested in whatever insight may be derived from our own encounters with »