Monthly Archives: November 2005

The Good Economic News Keeps Coming

GDP grew at a remarkable 4.3% clip during the third quarter, despite hurricanes and high gas prices. Some economists reportedly say that growth would have exceeded 5% if the hurricanes had bypassed the U.S. High energy costs have taken a bite out of the economy; this graphic tells the story clearly: With oil prices declining rapidly since September, prospects for current and future economic growth appear excellent. »

A Great Speech

President Bush’s speech at the Naval Academy today was a brilliant exposition of his strategy in Iraq and in the war on terror. It was thematically similar to a number of other excellent speeches he has given over the past four years, many of which we have quoted and linked to, but it included a more detailed analysis of the progress of Iraqi units in taking over the defense of »

A parent’s right to know

Our friend Charmaine Yoest was at the Supreme Court today for the oral argument in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood. Afterwards, she held forth before the press and then, we understand, appeared on Paula Zahn’s show. The case concerns the constitutionality of a New Hampshire law that requires notification of parents prior to a young girl getting an abortion. As Charmaine explains, Planned Parenthood sued the state because the law doesn’t »

No fool like an old fool

Shimon Peres, who partnered with Yitzhak Rabin, in the disastrous Oslo process, now wants to revive his act (and his career) by partnering with Ariel Sharon in the latest attempt to make peace with the Palestinians. Thus, he has left the Labor party, which had no use for him, to join Sharon’s new Kadima party. Peres may be of use to Sharon in the sense that he will bring some »

Don’t Believe A Word of It!

That’s the Associated Press’s admonition with regard to President Bush’s speech on Iraq today. AP reporter Calvin Woodward gets my nomination for the most ludicrously biased story of 2005. His article, headlined “Bush Attempts Hard Sell on Iraq Progress”, begins–and, no I’m not making this up: WASHINGTON – President Bush’s depiction of Iraqi security forces as “helping to turn the tide” is difficult to square with persistent setbacks in handing »

If Colin Powell didn’t exist

the MSM, in conjuction with the State Department, would have to invent him. Judging from this piece by David Ignatius, they have. »

President Outlines Strategy On Iraq

This morning, the White House released a document outlining the administration’s strategy for victory in Iraq; it is accessible here. From a quick review, it looks good, although I doubt that anything in it will be new to those who have been paying attention. At this moment, President Bush is delivering a speech on Iraq, its centrality to the war on terror, and the administration’s strategy for victory, at the »

Thanks for the MEMRI

MEMRI announces that its MEMRI TV site has had over one million hits this month. It must be a genuine milestone for an organization of which few have heard. As of today the television site’s most recent post is “Al-Jazeera TV Staff in Ramallah in Anti-Bush Demonstration: Down with Fascist America.” MEMRI has also posted a special dispatch that is of interest: “Iraqi Author: George Galloway, You Will Be Tried »

At the law schools

The folks at the New York Observer have sent us their editors’ advance table of contents for the new issue. One long article of interest takes a look at Harvard Law School: “Heterodox spree, listing to right.” I would love to hear from any readers in a position to comment knowledgeably. Elsewhere on the law school front, George Mason University Law School Dean Daniel Polsby is debating Yale Law School »

A few questions for Senator Reid

GOP.com has posted an excerpt from John Fund’s subscription-only Political Diary: “Senator Sieve.” Fund reports: Is Senator Harry Reid all that swift when it comes to U.S. Intelligence matters? Last Wednesday, the Minority Leader appeared on KRNV-TV’s “Nevada Newsmakers” program and dropped a stunning revelation. He had been informed just that day that Osama bin Laden was killed in the giant Pakistan earthquake last month. “I heard that Osama bin »

About those shoeboxes

Thanks to Mark Arnold and many, many other readers who wrote to correct my description of the politician who left shoeboxes full of cash behind after his death. Contrary to my description of the politician as a Chicago alderman, our readers reminded me, it was in fact the late Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell. Mr. Powell left behind shoeboxes filled with $800,000 in the hotel room that was his »

The war the CIA believes in

Please don’t miss John’s excellent, important Standard column on the CIA’s covert war on the Bush administration: “Leaking at all costs.” As a postscript to John’s column, see Cliff Kincaid’s Media Monitor column for Accuracy in Media: “Columnist confirms CIA plot.” John’s column methodically addresses the issue I tried to raise with respect to the Wilson/Plame case in “Three years of the Condor.” »

Leaking At All Costs

My article in the Daily Standard this week is about the CIA’s war on the Bush administration: “Leaking At All Costs.” It begins: THE CIA’S WAR against the Bush administration is one of the great untold stories of the past three years. It is, perhaps, the agency’s most successful covert action of recent times. As they say, read it all. »

Hillary Takes A Stand

Hillary Clinton has been under considerable pressure to join antiwar Democrats in attacking the administration and bailing on the war effort. Today she finally issued a statement of her position on the war, in the form of a 1,600-word email to supporters. Clinton took what was probably the most predictable approach. She bashed President Bush: I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the president and his administration to take »

Monsieur Irrelevant

According to a poll conducted by CSA Polling Institute for Le Parisien newspaper (as reported by The Washington Times), 72 percent of the French consider President Jacques Chirac’s influence over what happens in France to be “weak.” Two-thirds characterize his clout on the world stage the same way. And even with respect to European politics, only 36 percent find his influence to be significant. Chirac’s standing with French voters is »

The European Party

Michael Barone asks whether the United States will become more or less like continental Europe. Considering how poorly Europe is faring economically (10 percent unemployment; minimal job creation in the past 25 years) and socially (e.g., low reproduction rates; rioting in France) it is hard to imagine how we could elect to move in the European direction. However, as Barone points out, that’s where one of our two political parties »

The flexible defeatism of Richard Clarke

Richard Clarke proposes that the U.S. announce that “we anticipate the final withdrawal of U.S. combat forces will occur sometime in 2007.” Nothing noteworthy in this if one considers the source. But this passage caught my eye: Precisely when [in 2007 we withdraw] will depend on how events unfold. Such a formula provides the Bush administration flexibility, while sending the message that the end of the U.S. occupation is in »