Monthly Archives: January 2008

He didn’t give at the office

This week we’ve seen the news services become pure instruments of terrorist propaganda on behalf of Hamas. As Noah Pollak and Pajamas Media pointed out, even Time jumped in to lend a hand. Rest assured that the organs of the mainstream media will not pause to let their readers know how they have been used. On September 12, 2001, variants of the photo above taken by Reuters’s Ahmed Jadallah were »

Audacity we can do without

Barack Obama seems to have some good qualities, and it’s easy to sympathize with him now that he’s under attack by the Clinton machine. However, Caroline Glick finds serious fault with Obama over his association with the enemies of Israel and his support for Islamists seeking to take control of a state allied with the U.S. Building on the work of Ed Lasky of the American Thinker, Glick identifies three »

What It Takes

This cartoon by Michael Ramirez overstates the case, of course–that’s what editorial cartoons are for–but it sums up one view, at least, of Fred Thompson’s candidacy: Someone said a day or two ago–I can’t remember who, or I’d credit him–that there is a common denominator in the failure of Thompson’s campaign and the declining status of Rudy Giuliani’s. That is, both candidates refused to commit themselves to the tedious retail »

An earmark moratorium?

A source writes with news from the GOP House leadership indicating the “announce[ment of] an official policy for willingness for a one-year moratorium on earmarks; it will not be a unilateral disarmament, we are forcing the spotlight on the Democrats — we are ready and willing, so where do the Democrats really stand?” He adds: The Democrats have until the end of their retreat next week to reply — or »

The Least Repellent Republican

John McCain may indeed by the Republicans’ strongest general election candidate this year, but that didn’t stop the New York Times from endorsing him for the nomination. When the Times editorial appeared last night, the rival Republican campaigns lost no time sending out emails noting the Times’ endorsement as a black eye for McCain. McCain, as far as I could see, said nothing about it; Ed Morrissey noted that if »

Col. Rod Coffey honors the fallen

A friend has sent us the eulogy given by Lt. Col Rod Coffey, Commander 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment (Wolfpack), Diyala Province, Iraq, at the January 22, 2008 memorial ceremony for his six soldiers and one Iraqi interpreter killed in a booby-trapped house in Sinsil, Iraq on January 9, 2008 during Operation Raider Harvest. Col. Coffey spoke to honor the soldiers that died in the operation: Specialist Todd E. »

Hard to smear

John McCain has an ad out called “The Democrats’ Worst Nightmare,” in which various talking heads and Democratic operatives proclaim McCain the toughest candidate for the Dems to defeat in November. Here’s the ad: The “testimonials” are fairly impressive, but I can do better. I’m reliably informed that more than a year ago, before McCain’s poll numbers tanked, Bill Clinton himself said that McCain was the one Republican candidate he »

A tale of two phonies

The Washington Post op-ed page contains two fine columns today. First, Charles Krauthammer takes apart John Edwards, the man whose phoniness shocked even John Kerry. Krauthammer catalogs the issues as to which Edwards voted one way in the Senate but now purports to view completely differently in this election cycle. Second, E.J. Dionne points out that, though Bill Clinton now savages Barack Obama for praising Ronald Reagan, Clinton did the »

Listening to Mr. Islam

NRO has posted Claudia Rosett’s report on the case of Stephen Coughlin and Hesham Islam in “Questions for the Pentagon.” Don’t be deceived by the heading; Rosett answers more questions than she raises, and it’s not a pretty sight. »

McCain’s age

I wrote about John McCain’s memoir Faith of My Fathers in “Reading John McCain” and “Reading John McCain, part 2.” One of the things I learned from the book that I had no reason to mention in those posts is that Senator McCain’s grandfather died at age 61, and that Senator McCain’s father died at age 70. I’ve been a bit surprised, as Senator McCain has put his remarkable 95-year-old »

Darkness at noon

Our man at Solomonia has put together a revelatory fauxtographic display of Pallywood, Hamas style in “Darkness at noon.” Solomon provides the subhead “MSM plays along with Hamas photo staging.” Solomon’s fauxtograhic display catches both the AP and Reuters in the act; Solomon’s subhead does not quite capture the level of complicity both the AP and Reuters have achieved in disseminating the propaganda of the terrorists they cover. I’ll have »

Real good for free

The Atlantic is America’s oldest living magazine. Its archives contain a wealth of riches. Up to now, the magazine has protected its content and its archives behind a subscription firewall. This week it opened up both to free access. The first item I looked for was S.L.A. Marshall’s classic 1960 essay “First wave at Omaha Beach.” It is a powerful, moving document based on Marshall’s field notes from the Normandy »

Not quite straight talk

Early in tonight’s debate, John McCain denied having said that economic issues are his weak point (I’ll check the precise wording of his denial when I see the transcript tomorrow). He did so in response to a question by Russert (I think) in which that statement was attributed to McCain. Russert did not provide the sourcing of the statement, but I doubt he made it up. Moreover, when I was »

I miss Fred

The rap on Fred Thompson was that he lacked energy and spark. But tonight’s snooze-fest of a Republican candidates »

The Three-Legged Stool, Then and Now

We’ve written a number of times about economic, national security and social conservatism, and how those branches of conservative thought relate to the current Presidential campaign. Many conservatives are dismayed that most of the leading Republican candidates do not fit the “Reagan conservative” mold, which is conventionally interpreted to mean conservative on all three of these issue clusters. Some liberals have rejoiced at this fact, and have been quick to »

Saddam Speaks…

…through the FBI interrogator who debriefed him for seven months, George Piro. Piro has been interviewed by 60 Minutes; the interview will air on Sunday. This preview is interesting, but not surprising. As many have believed, Saddam misjudged the Bush administration. He expected another “four-day bombardment,” which he was willing to wait out. At some point, though, it became apparent that an invasion was inevitable. Why didn’t Saddam come clean »

Asset protection

Things have not been easy for liberals ever since they began to lose their ascendancy in the 1980s, and particularly so in recent years. Through thick and thin, however, liberals have taken solace in their domination of elite media outlets like the New York Times. Indeed, some liberals view the Times as their private preserve. This explains the outrage of so many readers, and disapproval of Times “public editor” Clark »