Monthly Archives: March 2006

No turmoil please: we’re Chinese

More evidence that our only options with respect to Iran’s development of nuclear weapons are (a) to tolerate a nuclear Iran or (b) to take or support miltary action to block Iran from going nuclear now. Meanwhile, you’ve got to love China’s excuse for not supporting economic sanctions against Iran: “There has already been enough turmoil in the Middle East. We don’t want new turmoil being introduced.” No turmoil, then; »

If McCain won’t forget, neither should we

Ed Whelan reports (via “a senior staffer in Senate leadership”) on the outlook for stalled judicial nominees. According to Ed’s source, the Senate “will likely turn to floor action” on Terrence Boyle (4th Circuit) and Brett Kavanaugh (D.C. Circuit). William Myers (9th Circuit) remains stalled while “Republican Senators sort[] out how his testimony on one issue meshes with the documentary record.” Finally, Ed’s source reports that John McCain is committed »

“Think Progress” rallies to the defense of terrorists

Some conservative commentators, including John, have criticized the statement of Jill Carroll, the reporter held hostage by terrorists in Iraq, that she was well-treated by her captors. As John explained, far from treating Carroll well the terrorists threatened to cut off her head and kept her in fear of her life for nearly three months. John and others suggested that Carroll’s willingness to view her captors in an absurdly favorable »

Follow the money

David Frum follows the money in understanding Mexico’s posture in the illegal immigration debate. He finds: In 2005, Mexicans in the United States remitted some $20 billion home. That’s 3% of Mexico’s entire national income. Remittances have. . .emerge[d] as the country’s top single source of foreign exchange. For the 6% of Mexican households that receive remittances, these funds can mean the difference between extreme poverty and an income roughly »

McKinney: “I’m a Victim!”

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is in hot water for slugging a Capitol Police officer who tried to stop her from entering a House office building without going through security. Today her lawyer, James W. Myart Jr., pronounced her a victim of racial prejudice: Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, like thousands of average Americans across this country, is, too, a victim of the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials because of how »

Hitting Back on Censure and Impeachment

The RNC has put out a good ad responding to the loony Dem call for censure or impeachment of President Bush, on account of his aggressive pursuit of terrorists. You can watch it here. As usual, I wish they’d spend the money to put it on television, not just on the web. »

State vs. Defense

Blog of the Week Big Lizards describes the two real branches of government, and distinguishes Presidencies based on whether they are State or Defense administrations: Just forget everything. Forget everything They ever taught you — it’s garbage anyway. Yeah, yeah, I know what you learned; I learned it too. There are three branches of federal government, not two: 1. Excutive 2. Legislative 3. Dictatorial But those are just the branches »

Power Line News Video Is Here

As I mentioned last night, we have been working for some time on developing a unique video capability to complement this site and Power Line News. We’ve been delayed by a series of technical issues, which have now been solved (I think), mostly by the remarkable Joe Malchow. You probably remember the woman who spoke up at President Bush’s appearance in West Virginia a week or two ago, pointing out »

Whose backlash?

RealClearPolitics has an excellent lineup of columns weighted to immigration this morning, foremost among them Victor Davis Hanson’s “What backlash?” He writes: If many thousands of illegal aliens marched [last weekend] in their zeal, many more millions of Americans of all different races and backgrounds watched–and seethed. They were struck by the Orwellian incongruities–Mexican flags, chants of “Mexico, Mexico,” and the spectacle of illegal alien residents lecturing citizen hosts on »

In search of Taliban Man at Harvard

The New York Post’s dogged Deborah Orin gets the runaround from the authorities at Harvard in her search for Taliban Man at Harvard: “Taliban at Yale — and Harvard?” And the Yale Daily News opens its pages to John Fund: “University must address Hashemi issue head-on.” »

Alan Dershowitz on deck

In a column for the New York Sun, Alan Dershowitz discusses his challenge to the Mearsheimer/Walt’s execrable “Israel Lobby” paper: “High stakes at Harvard.” The Boston Globe reports that Dershowitz’s request to post a response to the paper on the Kennedy School site has resulted in the adoption of a new policy: “Harvard dean opens faculty papers to rebuttal.” On the subjects of Israel, American foreign policy, and the other »

And Now, For Something Completely Different

Watch this. Really. Then there’s this. Don’t try it at home, or anywhere else. The driver apparently didn’t get caught, but we’re told the film-maker was later arrested. Video of various kinds is everywhere on the web. For some time, we’ve been working on developing our own unique news video capability. It should be ready to unveil soon. Stay tuned. »

Critical mass

Yale freshman Daniel Gelernter announces a new blog to unite college conservatives: The renaissance of American culture will be the work of conservative students now on college campuses. We have seen religion in America grow weak and we want to make it strong again. We have seen Americans forget the meaning of good and evil, and of man and woman; we want to remind them. We have seen teachers politicize »

A stand too far

We have written about the U.N.’s laughable attempt to reform its Human Rights Commission (HRC). That reform purports to address issues that made the HRC such as embarrassment, including the fact that some of the world’s worst human rights offenders, such as Sudan, Libya, participated in and even chaired the body. However, the new plan does not establish strong membership eligibility criteria and, in fact, provides no reason to believe »

The Censure Farce Continues

The Associated Press reported today that Russ Feingold has invited John Dean, former White House counsel who was imprisoned and disbarred following Watergate (great witness!), to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in favor of censuring President Bush for using electronic surveillance of international communications to catch terrorists: Dean, a one-time White House counsel under President Nixon, testified before the Senate committee investigating the events that eventually led to »

Educating citizens

The current debate over issues of immigration also brings to the fore issues of American principles and the nature of citizenship. As part of its contribution to the debate, the Claremont Institute is posting relevant essays by Claremont scholars. First up is Christopher Flannery on multiculturalism and educating Americans. »

First things first

George Will argues in favor of a fence to seal the Mexican border and a guest worker program to supply what the U.S. economy demands. I agree in principle. However, I’m not convinced that we have the combination of resources, will, and competence to effectively prevent continued illegal immigration. Since the public reasonably considers doing so a vital element of any immigration reform package, my view is that we should »