Monthly Archives: November 2006

His year inside radical Islam

In February the book by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross chroncling his year as a convert inside radical Islam will be published. In yesterday’s San Franicisco Chronicle, Debra Saunders had a good preview. Today’s International Herald Tribune profiles Gartenstein-Ross. The book can be pre-ordered here. »

A day that will live in infamy

Yesterday I proposed, if the Bush administration were going to cave on negotiations with the mad mullahs on Iran and their Syrian lackeys, that it call for a conference with the Axis powers in Munich. No such luck. According to Eli Lake in today’s New York Sun, the big day may be December 7 in Riyadh, “though last-minute hiccups are expected to push the date back.” Pearl Harbor Day with »

The flying imams: Another look

In today’s Washington Times Audrey Hudson reviews the behavior of the flying imams: “How the imams terrorized an airliner.” Here is information on the seat belt extenders that I have not seen reported elsewhere: Three of the men asked for seat-belt extenders, although two flight attendants told police the men were not oversized. One flight attendant told police she “found this unsettling, as crew knew about the six [passengers] on »

Let’s not live down to expectations in Anbar province

According to the Washington Post, a Marine Corps intelligence report on the situation in Anbar province finds that U.S. troops currently are unable to defeat the insurgency there, and that al Qaeda has become “the dominant organization of influence.” The Post’s report downplays several other findings of the report, however. First, the report concludes that the rise of al Qaeda in Anbar province is due in part to the conviction »

Rogan update

As I noted two weeks ago, President Bush has nominated former Rep. James Rogan to be a United States district judge. Ordinarily, district court nominees sail through the Senate, but Rogan was a House “manager” during the impeachment of Bill Clinton, and thus must overcome the wrath of Hillary “Stand by Her Man” Clinton. The Washington Post reports that outgoing Senate Judiciary Chairman Specter is “not optimistic” about Rogan’s prospects. »

The flying imams: Senator Boschwitz speaks

One of the weird sidebars to the story of the flying imams is the decision of the local chapter of the Jewish Community Relations Counciil to inject itself into the controversy over US Airways’ treatment of the imams. I won’t even try to reconstruct the thinking behind the JCRC statement on the incident; it isn’t worth the effort. The statement has nevertheless provoked some heated opposition in the Jewish community »

Forum Post of the Day

This post is actually a couple of days old, but it’s too astonishing not to share: My son »

“Manage the Defeat”

A stampede toward defeat is in progress in the mainsream media and much of the political class. It was on display last night, when CBS correspondent Lara Logan interviewed General John Abizaid on 60 Minutes. The whole interview was interesting; you can read about it here. This was the climactic moment, when Ms. Logan suggested that the task in Iraq is “how to manage the defeat”: Defeat: it’s getting so »

Robert Gates — a scorecard

Rowan Scarborough of the Washington Times looks at some of Robert Gates’ public pronouncements on key issues over the past decade. I don’t know for sure that his sample is representative, but let’s consider how the calls of the Secretary of Defense to-be look now: 1997 – Gates advocates military action against Saddam Hussein It’s not clear from Scarborough’s article what military action Gates advocated, but it’s hard to argue »

Story of Sunnis Burned Alive Going Up In Smoke

You undoubtedly have seen the headlines about one of the horrific acts of violence reported recently from Iraq: last Friday evening, six innocent Sunnis were dragged from a mosque, doused with kerosene and burned alive by Shia militiamen. Here is how the Associated Press story began: Revenge-seeking Shiite militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left Friday prayers, drenched them with kerosene and burned them alive, and Iraqi soldiers did nothing »

Peace train

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize Concert includes a featured artist (hint: his last name is “Islam”), courtesy of the peace prize committee that is (according to Bruce Bawer) “sending a grim message.” The artist may be available just in time to swing by Munich and provide the musical accompaniment to the Munich conference I propose below. »

Let’s talk it over in Munich

David Sanger reports in today’s New York Times that the Baker-Hamilton panel’s draft report on Iraq “urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria but sets no timetables for a military withdrawal, according to officials who have seen all or parts of the document.” The Bush administration has of course already agreed to talk to Iran on the condition that it suspend its uranium »

On the Minneapolis front

On the home front in Minneapolis, we have the airport taxi drivers who are represented by the offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in connection with their refusal to transport passengers carrying alcohol. We have the congressman from CAIR. We have the flying imams. And now we have the “makings of a bomb” found in an Avis rental car at the airport. Don’t worry, be happy: FBI agents interviewed the man »

Non-verbal communication

Foreign policy “realists” like James Baker and ninny-Dems like Nancy Pelosi agree that when it comes to foreign policy we should talk to our enemies, not just our friends. But, as Jim Hoagland points out, there are often better ways to find out what our enemies want than through talk. By murdering Lebanese politicians and journalists opposed to Syrian control of Lebanon, the Assad regime has communicated quite clearly one »

Can We Please See More of Charlie Rangel?

One of the problems of being part of the minority for twelve years is that not many people pay attention to you. Then, when the spotlight finally seeks you out, you may be ill-prepared to act like part of the mainstream. Thus, Charlie Rangel, seemingly (and inexplicably) unaware of the brouhaha over John Kerry’s insulting of the troops, repeated the insult today on Fox News Sunday. You really have to »

Now the Post tells us

During this year’s political campaign, Republicans accused the Democrats of having no ideas other than opposition to whatever President Bush is for. To counter that perception, Nancy Pelosi announced a legislative program the centerpieces of which were raising the minimium wage (how’s that for an original idea?) and freeing the government to negotiate lower drug prices in connection with Medicare’s new prescription-drug benefit. To say that this agenda was no »

Forum Update: Problems Fixed, We Think

Just three weeks ago, we launched a completely revamped Power Line News site and accompanying Power Line Forum. The good news was that these immediately became very popular; the bad news was that this strained the capacity of the server they shared with Power Line. So, over the holiday weekend, our hosting service transferred the News and Forum sites to two new servers. This required a change in the sites’ »