Monthly Archives: February 2007

RCP: The Romney interview

Governor Romney sat down for a recorded interview with Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics. RCP has posted the interview here. It is an interesting interview that is worth reading in its entirety. Toward the end of the interview Tom asks Governor Romney to name his favorite president. Great question! Governor Romney names several favorites and good-naturedly professes love for all former presidents. I think that the unlovable James Buchanan has earned »

Letters From Home and Iraq

The two most noteworthy items I’ve seen today are both from the Power Line Forum. In the Global War on Terror Forum, Tom Glennon posts this fine tribute to his son: At 2:30 PM EST, Friday, February 23rd, my youngest son recited his reenlistment oath to serve his country for another four years. He was on duty at the time, but was relieved by a fellow Airman so that he »

D’Souza goes native, once more once

I had to rub my eyes to make sure it was my piece that is posted at OpinionJournal this morning, but I have confirmed that it is indeed mine: “D’Souza goes native.” Thanks to OpinionJournal and The New Criterion, which is running the piece as the lead essay in its March issue. PAUL adds: Dinesh is now blogging with us over at the AOL Newsbloggers site. This morning he has »

Was he hoping for John Edwards or Jimmy Carter?

Al Sharpton recently learned that his great-grandfather was owned by an even more distant relative of one-time arch-segregationist, Strom Thurmond. Sharpton said the revelation “was probably the most shocking thing in my life.” There was no word on whether slave or owner practiced polygamy. »

Not seeing the ape

Frank Luntz first came to prominence as Ross Perot’s pollster and adviser in 1992. As far as I know, he’s still a well-respected analyst of American public opinion. Thus, I found his article in the outlook section of the Washington Post a bit disappointing. According to Luntz, the Republicans lost in 2006 because the “mad as hell” voters who fueled the Perot campaign and then largely migrated to the Republican »

In with a vengeance

The red-hot University of Maryland’s men’s basketball team punched its ticket for a return to the NCAA tournament with a rousing come-from-behind 89-87 victory over fifth ranked North Carolina. With 8 ACC victories and 22 wins overall (including victories over Carolina and Duke), there’s now no way we’ll miss out on the “big dance.” The Terps overcame an early 13 point deficit to tie the game early in the second »

Media Alert

If four hours of Ellen DeGeneres and Al Gore sounds like more than you can bear, there is an alternative: a new Fox News show, starring Michelle Malkin and Kirsten Powers, debuts tonight. It’s called It’s Out There, and starts at 10:30 eastern, 9:30 central. The show “takes you inside the most explosive blogs on the Web!” I did a cameo appearance on the show, which was taped yesterday. My »

What’s the Story?

This story in the London Times is getting a lot of attention: “US generals »

There’s something about Jack

The Washington Post reports that House Democrats are no longer pleased with their champion Jack Murtha, and his attempt to impose a defeat on the U.S. through a “slow bleed” strategy. However, as I suggest at the AOL blog, the displeasure may have less to do with the cynical nature of the Murtha’s plan than with his inability to disguise and conceal its cynicism. »

There’s Something About Mitt

The Associated Press has done some research–it isn’t hard in the genealogy-conscious Mormon Church–and has found that, sure enough, Mitt Romney had ancestors who were polygamists: While Mitt Romney condemns polygamy and its prior practice by his Mormon church, the Republican presidential candidate’s great-grandfather had five wives and at least one of his great-great grandfathers had 12. Polygamy was not just a historical footnote, but a prominent element in the »

Oscar Preview

During the second hour of our radio show today, we interviewed Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post. It was a great three segments; we talked about the film industry today; about movies that should have been nominated but weren’t; about the studio politics that drive the award of many Oscars; took some fun calls; and much more. Stephen gave us his predictions for tomorrow night’s program »

Thanks for Your Support, Congress!

Sam Ryskind is the rare political cartoonist who isn’t a liberal. Here, he depicts the Democrats’ idea of supporting the troops: Ryskind doesn’t just draw; he writes, too, and along with this cartoon, he speculates about what would happen if Congress decided to support al Qaeda: One day the U.S. Congress may change allegiance and support al-Qaeda instead of the sons and daughters of their own constituents… . They will »

The Peretz Hilton video

At Youtube someone has posted the video of the Israeli Minister of Defense formerly known as Peretz, now to be known by another (Yiddish) word that begins with p and ends with z. It’s a video worth a thousand words; John Podhoretz dubs it the Peretz Hilton video — “not a sex tape, a dumb tape.” To comment on the video, go here. »

Wazwaz (not Wazwaz)

Below I write about the multi-count indictment of the Wazwaz “family” that was handed up by a Minnesota federal grand jury this week. In an informative and funny post at Junkyard Blog, See-Dubya follows up with a description of the modus operandi underlying the indictment and recalls a few of its earlier practitioners in Charlotte, North Carolina. »

The Flying imams: The ambush interview

Charles Johnson has posted a video of the KSTP (Twin Cities) News report on the case of the flying imams. KSTP reporter Bob McNaney gets an ambush interview with flying imams’ ringleader Omar Shahin in which Shahin lies about the seat belt extension he requested and placed beneath his seat on the flight from which he was removed. The KSTP report contrasts Shahin’s statement now with his news conference at »

The world according to D’Souza

There are a number of weird qualities to Dinesh D’Souza’s new book, The Enemy At Home. One of them is D’Souza’s assumption of the role of lawgiver, issuing pronouncements to conservatives. At one point in the book, for example, D’Souza asserts that conservatives »

Who Wazwaz that masked man?

Yesterday’s Star Tribune carried a story that I know something about through my day job: “13 charged over tobacco sales fraud.” It’s a story that has a subtext the reporters don’t touch. Here is some text: Thirteen people face federal charges of defrauding the state of more than $2.5 million in sales tax by concealing revenues from cigarette sales, according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday. The indictment, which according »