Monthly Archives: March 2008

Obama: Still Not Ready for Prime Time

For a guy with a reputation for being smooth, Barack Obama stumbled badly when he was pressed, only mildly, by a reporter in a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania yesterday: It is striking how naive Obama sounds when he talks about foreign policy. He proposes keeping a “strike force” either in Iraq or somewhere nearby–presumably closer than Okinawa–to “deal with potential problems that might take place in the region.” But that »

Post-modernism or wishful thinking?

Yesterday, I pointed out how the Washington Post, in a display of post-modern thinking, had discerned a lack of progress in Iraq from the government »

With the help of grade inflation, Nationals Park passes the Socialist Realism test

The new baseball park here in Washington seems to be getting excellent reviews from the folks who matter — baseball fans. Moreover, the Washington Post’s highly-regarded baseball writer, Thomas Boswell, has given it a thumbs-up. He calls it “a vibrant, intimate new ballpark already basking in praise.” The park has at least one flaw, however; it is not politically correct. That’s the underlying verdict of what purports to be an »

Children’s Entertainment in Gaza

An artifact of a sick society: Hamas television features a puppet show in which a child murders President Bush, after telling him that the White House has been turned into a mosque for the “nation of Islam.” Via MEMRI TV. To comment on this post, go here. »

April May Be the Cruellest Month…

…but here in Minnesota, it’s not because lilacs are soaking up the spring rains. On the contrary, we’re still eating dried tubers; in fact, I can barely see across the street because of the heavy spring snowfall. Somewhere between four and eight inches are forecast to be on the ground by the time the Twins open their home season at 7:00 tonight. Newfallen snow is a rather bizarre setting for »

McCain and the Bloggers

The Washington Times contrasts John McCain’s good relationships with conservative bloggers with the rocky reception he’s gotten on talk radio: Even as talk radio was brutalizing Sen. John McCain in the Republican presidential primaries, conservative bloggers reached a respectful truce with the Arizona senator over touchy issues and gave him what the campaign called a “tremendous positive psychological” boost. As the Times notes, McCain’s outreach to the bloggers has been »

Is more less?

The Washington Nationals opened their 2008 baseball season, and their brand new ballpark, in story-book fashion last night. The Nats jumped out to a 2-0 in the first inning and then failed to get even another hit until the ninth. By that time, the Atlanta Braves had tied the score. However, “face-of-the-franchise” Ryan Zimmerman sent the fans home delirious with a two-out walk-off home run. The baseball season now starts »

William Katz: “I appreciate the chance to explain…”

Occasional contributor Bill Katz coments on the news of the day at Urgent Agenda, though he continues to save some of his deepest relections on life and politics for us. Bill wrote for us most recently about Hollywood justice, Hollywood being the place where he spent a part of his career working for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. Today Bill takes a look back at Richard Nixon’s famous Checkers »

Liberals Have No Class

President Bush threw out the first pitch as the Washington Nationals inaugurated their new stadium tonight. It was a fun, festive event, but the liberals in the audience couldn’t refrain from making a political statement: It’s a constant effort to remind oneself that not all liberals are jerks. »

Good news, at least for non post-modernists

The main military objectives of our surge in Iraq were to crush al Qaeda and substantially to reduce the sectarian violence in Baghdad. The first objective focused on Anbar province but also required military action elsewhere. The latter objective required military action not just in Baghdad but also in surrounding areas. However, neither objective entailed fighting in the south, where the Shia are in control and al Qaeda is not »

Hwaet!

“Hwaet!” is the opening of Beowulf in the original Old English, the equivalent of “Listen!” Chanting his poem, the poet is calling his audience to attention. In the video below, Karl Rove’s recent speech to the ladies and gentlemen attending a Young America’s Foundation conference is interrupted by moonbats operating undercover in order to exploit the opportunity to accuse Rove of war crimes. Asked afterward why he has become such »

Derby disappointment

Liverpool dominated the first half of today’s Mersyside Derby (what were we saving it for, a seven-against-seven in Huyton?) en route to a 1-0 victory over Everton. Liverpool were so in control of the first 45 minutes that we were lucky to be down by only the one goal. On the other hand, Liverpool owed that goal to a horrible piece of play by Yakubu, who inexcusably lost possession after »

We are all Rockefeller Republicans now

So suggests our own John Hinderaker in the newsletter of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences, of whose board of visitors John is a member. »

“A kinder, gentler nation” goes global

When George H.W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for the presidency at the 1988 party convention, he sought in part to distinguish himself from Ronald Reagan and the Reagan administration. In his administration, Bush assured the American people, he would work to make America “a kinder, and gentler nation.” Bush’s aspiration tacitly incorporated the left-wing critique of Reagan and foretold the weakness of his own presidency. Republican presidential candidate John »

Epistle to the Timesians

Jodi Kantor is a New York Times reporter who has covered Barack Obama’s relationship with Jeremiah Wright. Kantor interviewed Wright in early 2007 for a profile of Obama’s religious views, but first used a snippet of the interview in her March 2007 story covering Obama’s disinvitation of Wright from giving the invocation at Obama’s announcement of his presidential candidacy. Kantor quoted Wright: »

Sadr Says “Uncle”

Muqtada al-Sadr apparently has had enough; he’s offered a “truce” if the Iraqi government will stop attacking his men. I’m not close enough to the situation to know whether it would be better to accept the truce or continue disabling Sadr’s militia, but the proposal seems like a clear indication that things haven’t gone as Sadr intended. This episode might prove to be, as President Bush suggested, a defining moment »

Democrats unnerved

Yesterday, after learning that Howard Dean had called John McCain a “blatant opportunist” for producing an ad that alluded to his record of military service and heroism, I suggested that McCain’s stature (and the popularity that goes with it) had unnerved Dean. It seems to me that the Democrats are also unnereved by another phenomenon — the success to date of the surge in Iraq. After the 2006 election, many »