Monthly Archives: November 2006

The Lineup for 2008

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced that he will not run for President in 2008. You can read his statement here. Frist’s announcement didn’t make a very big splash; many observers hadn’t taken him seriously as a Presidential candidate in any event. I see Frist’s withdrawal quite differently, for two reasons. First, while I have spent only a samll amount of time with Frist, I found him very impressive. »

“Sad” Nancy Pelosi

The other day, Nancy Pelosi was asked about President Bush’s statement that al Qaeda is responsible for the surge of violence in Iraq. Pelosi responded that “the 9/11 Commission dismissed that notion a long time ago and I feel sad that the President is resorting to it again.” But of course the 9/11 Commission said nothing about al Qaeda’s involvement in post-invasion Iraq. Its findings pertained only to the situation »

Power Line Forum Reorganized

The Power Line Forum has turned out to be very popular, but not quite in the way that we’d envisioned. We thought most people would make their way to the Forum via the News site by clicking on a “discuss” button to comment on a news story or blog post. Some do that, but most go straight to the Forum and start a topic on whatever they’re interested in at »

Happy Birthday, Winston!

Winston Churchill was born 132 years ago today. Blog of the Week Gay Patriot has an appreciation. Which reminds me that I must have missed the Claremont Institute’s annual Churchill Dinner this year. Probably because I wasn’t invited… Our situation is a little different from the one Churchill faced in the 1930s. Rather than being a voice in the wilderness, our Churchill is actually President. But taking a firm stand »

It’s Official: Iran Arming Iraqi Militias

ABC News reports that according to U.S. defense sources, incontrovertible proof now exists of Iran’s material assistance to Iraqi Shiite forces: U.S. officials say they have found smoking-gun evidence of Iranian support for terrorists in Iraq: brand-new weapons fresh from Iranian factories. According to a senior defense official, coalition forces have recently seized Iranian-made weapons and munitions that bear manufacturing dates in 2006. Iranian-made munitions found in Iraq include advanced »

Dartmouth’s Indian wars — President Wright speaks

Here is what the president of Dartmouth College, James Wright, told a group that attended a rally to protest what some perceive as offensive conduct towards the college’s Native American community: Dartmouth is a place that values traditions-as do I. The Native American tradition is deeply embedded in our history. Two hundred and thirty six years ago, a group of native students came here to study. The first native student »

The coming debate

Cliff May has been a member of the »

More troops for Baghdad?

The latest National Review editorial calls on President Bush to send more troops to Baghdad. The editors hope that by defeating “the Sunni insurgency” there we can increase our prestige and the prestige of president Maliki, at the expense of the increasingly popular anti-American thug Moqtada al-Sadr. In my view, sending more troops into Baghdad now would be a major mistake. First, Anbar province, not Baghdad, should be our highest »

The moral vanity of the dissociated left

Would the Chief Justice of the United States be welcome to teach a course in constitutional law at the University of Minnesota Law School? Apparently not, if current events at the law school are any indication. One of the law school’s constitutional law professors will be on leave next spring. The law school therefore invited University of St. Thomas Law School Professor Robert Delahunty to fill in for him in »

Dartmouth’s Indian wars: The transcript

Dartmouth’s Two Minute Hate against the Dartmouth Review yesterday went under the Orwellian rubric of the “Solidarity Against Hatred Rally.” Big Brother has posted transcripts of the rally speeches, including those by President Wright (here), Dean Carol Folt (here), Acting Dean Dan Nelson (here), Native American Programs Director Michael Hanitchak (here), Sexual Abuse Awareness Program Coordinator Leah Prescott (here) and several students. The Two Minute Hate ran a little long »

The Star Tribune digs Hendrik Hertzberg, take 2

We reported that the Minneapolis Star Tribune had plagiarized one of its editorials from a New Yorker commentary by Hendrik Hertzberg in “The Star Tribune digs Hendrik Hertzberg” and noted the credulous conclusion of Star Tribune editorial page editor Susan Albright that the plagiarism was accidental in “A failure of a different order.” Even Star Tribune reader’s representative Kate Parry found that conclusion a bit difficult to swallow. As we »

Eggshell victims

The Washington Times reports that air marshals, pilots and security officials have expressed concern that, in the aftermath of the flying imams episode, airline passengers and crews will be reluctant to report suspicious behavior for fear of being called “racists.” I’d like to think that the survival instinct of Americans will continue to trump fear of such accusations, but who knows? It is certainly true that, in the words of »

Dartmouth’s Indian wars, cont’d

Earlier today Paul prematurely sought to “revisit” Dartmouth’s Indian wars through the superb articles in the new issue of the Dartmouth Review. The new issue of the Review, however, prompted Dartmouth’s version of the Two Minute Hate today — transformed via the magic of doublethink into a “rally for civility.” Joe Malchow reports here and has compiled his Indian war dispatches here. »

Tutu much

At an appearance in Boston in 2002, Bishop Desmond Tutu succinctly described his view of Israel: “Israel is like Hitler and apartheid.” So when the UN Human Rights Council went looking for someone to head a fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, where an IDF artillery barrage killed 19 civilians earlier this month, Tutu naturally came to mind. Today’s Jerusalem Post reports: “Tutu to head UN »

The Last Refuge of a Drunken Scoundrel…

…in Hollywood, anyway, is Bush-bashing. You’ve no doubt heard about Danny DeVito’s drunken, obscene tirade against President Bush on the View. If you want to see it, it’s on Power Line Video, courtesy of NewsBusters. It appeared that quite a few people in the audience enjoyed DeVito’s performance. To her credit, Barbara Walters at least looked uncomfortable. »

“Can Republicans embrace Hagel?”

David Ignatius ask this question in the context of talk by Sen. Hagel about a bid for the presidency. Here’s a hint: no. JOHN adds: Deacon, I have to disagree with you on this one. I would say: Hell no! »

Dartmouth’s Indian wars revisited

I hesitate to plunge back into Dartmouth’s Indian wars, a topic on which I have disagreed with Scott and probably John too. However, since I expropriated the “last word” on the matter, I’d like to link to this excellent editorial in the Dartmouth Review by Daniel Linsalata, which tends strongly towards Scott’s position and has prompted these few additional thoughts. It seems to me that the heart of the current »