Monthly Archives: January 2007

Reporting From Mosul

There might have been a time when war correspondents (some of them, anyway) were people like Michael Yon. If there was such a time, it is past. If you want reporting from Iraq that gives you a sense not only of what is happening but of what it’s like, you pretty much have to turn to alternative media. Which is a long way of saying, don’t miss Yon’s latest report »

Nice Going, John

Yesterday we noted John Kerry’s disgraceful performance at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Today, in the Power Line Forum, Glenn Bowen points out the follow-up from the Middle East. Click to enlarge: And, from the FARS News Agency: Kerry Backs Up Iran’s N. Rights Former US presidential nominee John Kerry voiced full support for the Islamic Republic’s right to use civilian nuclear technology on the basis of the rules »

Media alert

I taped a short segment of the Danger Zone radio program with Ambassador Richard Carlson and Col. Bill Cowan that will be broadcast on tonight’s show. In the segment I briefly recount the story told in the Weekly Standard article “How Arafat Got Away with Murder.” Danger Zone airs on Sunday nights from 9-10 p.m. (Eastern) on 630 WMAL in Washington and on the Internet here. Danger Zone shows are »

2008 summitry

I started my legal career as a brief writer for a federal agency. Sometimes when my crusty boss commented on my draft brief she would start by saying, “well, it’s all there.” That meant the brief was pretty good, that nothing important had been left unsaid, but that it hadn’t quite come together and, above all, wasn’t sufficiently concise. The brief wouldn’t need major surgery, but would require more than »

Flying Imams: The Sequel

We have written repeatedly about the strange case of the six flying imams, who, following an imams’ convention, were kicked off a flight originating in Minneapolis for what appeared to be deliberately provocative behavior. We have speculated that the event may have been a set-up designed as the predicate for anti-racial profiling legislation in Congress. The latest news from the Associated Press is consistent with that speculation: The repercussions of »

Joel Mowbray reports: The case for Romney

Joel Mowbray ([email protected]) continues his reports from the three-day conference in Herzliya, Israel that concluded this past Wednesday. Today Joel provides his take on Governor Romney’s speech at the conference. Joel titles his report “Romney REALLY gets it.” Of all the speakers this past week at the Herzliya Conference, Israel »

Making the Case Against Genocide

That’s the title of Caroline Glick’s current column in the Jerusalem Post. Time, she says, is running short: Due to his understanding and his abilities, Ahmadinejad has achieved significant success in advancing his policy aims of defeating the United States, destroying the State of Israel, and acquiring nuclear weapons. Over the past week evidence of Ahmadinejad’s success was legion. On Wednesday, London’s Daily Telegraph reported that Iranian-North Korean nuclear collaboration »

Forum Post of the Day

John Kerry disgraced himself yet again earlier today, when he launched a salvo against the Bush administration at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (What is it about Davos that brings out the worst in temporarily expatriate Americans?) This Power Line Forum thread addresses Kerry’s latest folly. You could spend a long time taking apart Kerry’s attack on President Bush, but let’s just focus on one aspect of it: »

Lunch at the summit

Jeb Bush was the lunch-time speaker at the conservative summit today. Kathryn Lopez has a good account of what he said, so I’ll just add my impressions and thoughts. Bush is a terrific speaker — funny, knowledgeable, and very much at ease. He was also an amazingly successful governor of Florida. 2006 was a terrible year for Republicans. Yet, in something of a swing state, Gov. Bush left office with »

What Makes A Protest Newsworthy?

This point is closely related to the “Grim Milestones” post immediately below. Earlier today, “tens of thousands” of demonstrators gathered on the Mall in Washington, D.C. to protest the Iraq war. The cast of speakers was less than impressive: Dennis Kucinich, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Jane Fonda. Scrappleface parodies the demonstration in a post called “D.C. Rally Demands Iraq War End, Better Celebrities:” Organizers said the biggest challenge facing the »

Grim Milestones

At the Forum, people are talking about a statistic that has been kicking around for a while: illegal aliens murder approximately 12 Americans a day. Is this accurate? I’m not sure; this isn’t a statistic that is officially kept, so estimates are based on more informal surveys. The number seems to have been popularized by Congressman Steve King. While I’m not sure that it’s right, the 12 per day figure »

Foreign policy summitry

This morning’s round of National Review’s conservative summit featured, among other panels, a discussion of foreign policy moderated by Andrew McCarthy. John O’Sullivan gave the lead presentation; then David Rivkin and Cliff May responded. O’Sullivan believes that the “main facts” regarding the big foreign policy picture are “mildly encouraging.” We remain the world’s leading power; trading and other economic arrangements are mostly sound; the international institutions that would constrain us »

Park, he said

Does anyone beside me remember Jeremy Larner’s 1960’s relic of a novel Drive, He Said? Larner took the title of his novel from Robert Creeley’s poem “I Know a Man.” Someone at the New York Times also remembers Larner’s novel or Creeley’s poem and varied the line for the heading over Calvin Trillin’s funny column on the new self-parking Lexus LS 460L: “Park, he said.” »

A Reminder…

…of the fact that in the Islamic fanatics, we confront evil in its purest form, from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. These are the people that those who work for our defeat in Iraq are trying to empower. SCOTT adds: The murder of American soldiers captured and murdered in Karbala also serves as a similar reminder of what our enemies have in mind for us. The New York Post editorial on »

At the summit: Amb. Bolton speaks

Don’t miss Paul’s report from National Review’s Conservative Summit conference last night. The Conservative Summit program continues today. Kathryn Lopez alerts us to the live blogging of the event here by Ragnar Danneskjold at My Pet Jawa. Last night it kicked off with a reception in honor of the great John Bolton, whose remarks frame the event. NR’s Corner has posted a video of Ambassasdor Bolton’s remarks at the reception »

Skepticism and disgust

Diana West probably captures the sentiment of many conservatives and perhaps a decent number of non-conservatives — deep skepticism about the “surge” and disgust with those so eager to pass a resolution that might undermine the efficacy of the surge. »

Friday night summitry

National Review kicked off its conservative summit tonight before a very full house. I’ll see if I can get an official head count tomorrow, but in the meantime I can report that the ballroom for tonight’s session was packed. Before and after the session, I had the pleasure of meeting a good number of Power Line readers, and hope to meet more as the weekend progresses. At the end of »