Monthly Archives: June 2008

June 24, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

The capitulation begins at Dartmouth

I’m told that Dartmouth’s Association of Alumni (AoA) has filed papers to dismiss its lawsuit against Dartmouth for the college’s breach of contract, specifically the violation of its 1891 agreement that half of the trustees will be elected by alumni. This, of course, was what the elected slate of AoA executive committee members promised to do if successful in the recent election. The abandonment of the lawsuit which, by all »
June 24, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

Jimmy Carter’s revenge

When Jimmy Carter ran for president in 1976, he promised a foreign policy that would reflect the basic decency of the American people. In practice, that meant a foreign policy designed to project far less American power and influence than we had done throughout the heroic Cold War years. Thus, the U.S. remained indifferent when Iran, a key ally in the Middle East, faced the prospect and then the reality »
June 24, 2008 — Scott Johnson

Richard Holbrooke’s cheap shot

The New York Times maintains a uniformity of thought on the American effort in Iraq that suppresses reports of contrary views and encourages expression of the approved point of view even in unlikely and inappropriate places. Thus Richard Holbrooke concludes his review of a new book on the Cuban missile crisis by Michael Dobbs in the Times Book Review this past Sunday with a jibe at the Bush administration’s handling »
June 24, 2008 — Scott Johnson

Under Western eyes

This morning we continue our preview of the Summer 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here) with Claremont Institute fellow Mark Helprin’s “Rich country, strong arms” on the rise of China China grows stronger every day. As the world turns its eyes eastward for the Beijing Olympics, we ought to remind ourselves that what looks like an effort to impress — a plea for approval — is »
June 23, 2008 — John Hinderaker

Obama’s Energy Policy

In the post below, I critique John McCain’s energy policies, as articulated in his speech today. We can only emphasize, however, that, flawed as McCain’s approach to the issue may be, it is light years beyond Barack Obama’s indifference to the country’s economic future. In today’s AOL Hot Seat poll, we asked whether the Democrats’ plans to sue OPEC and regulate the American commodities market would do anything to reduce »
June 23, 2008 — John Hinderaker

McCain’s Energy Policy

John McCain gave a speech on energy policy today. It reminds us that while McCain’s energy policies are much better than Barack Obama’s–Obama wants the price of gasoline to remain high so that Americans can’t afford to drive their cars–McCain’s policies are still an ill-assorted jumble. McCain thinks the federal government has a key role to play in encouraging people to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles, and in forcing automakers to »
June 23, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

The Bush doctrine’s fourth pillar — the debate continues

In World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, Norman Podhoretz identifies the four pillars of the Bush Doctrine. They are: (1) rejection of moral relativism and commitment to fostering the spread of democracy in the Middle East, (2) treating terrorism proactively, on a global basis, and not as law enforcement issue, (3) willingness to engage in preemptive attacks against terrorists and terrorist supporting states, and (4) unwillingness to support »
June 23, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

Times reporter’s story on “War and Decision” finally sees light of day. . .in a different paper

I wrote here about the unwillingness of MSM organs to review or write about Douglas Feith’s important book, War and Decision. The New York Times went so far as to kill three stories about the book by its Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter, James Risen. Though Risen is hardly a neo-conservative or an administration supporter, he recognized the signifcance of Feith’s book. The Times, however, is happy with the current »
June 23, 2008 — John Hinderaker

War Coverage Fades Away

The New York Times confirms what we’ve all observed: as violence in Iraq recedes, our news outlets take less interest in events there: According to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been “massively scaled back this year.” Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for »
June 23, 2008 — Scott Johnson

Encounter bids the New York Times farewell

Roger Kimball is the publisher of Encounter Books in additon to his duties at the New Criterion. Encounter is the outstanding publisher of books including, for example, Andrew McCarthy’s Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad. This morning as publisher of Encounter Roger is bidding farewell to the New York Times. He writes: I have long been aghast at The New York Times’s treatment of conservative books. By and large, »
June 23, 2008 — Scott Johnson

Does Obama know what he’s talking about? (NYPost remix)

This past Thursday RealClearPolitics picked up my post “Does Obama know what he’s talking about?” for its afternoon update. An hour or two after the post showed up on RCP I got a call from New York Post op-ed editor Mark Cunningham asking if I would turn the post into a column. This morning the Post runs my column under the heading “Anti-terror oops” together with a photographic close-up of »
June 23, 2008 — Scott Johnson

Joel Mowbray reports: 60 Minutes limps in to cover Al-Hurra

Joel Mowbray ([email protected]) writes to comment on the 60 Minutes segment on Al-Hurra last night: Raising the concern of many on Capitol Hill, CBS last week teased on its web site that 60 Minutes would air on Sunday, June 22, an investigation that “finds anti-Israel rhetoric on U.S. taxpayer-funded Al Hurra TV.” What aired last night, however, hardly lived up to the advance billing. While this report could have been »
June 23, 2008 — Scott Johnson

His grandfather’s son

Our friends at the invaluable Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here) have just put the Summer issue to bed. We are featuring pieces from the new issue each day through Wednesday. The new issue features Wendy Long’s review/essay “Bearing Witness” on four recent books related to Clarence Thomas together with the justice’s own autobiography. A former clerk to Justice Thomas, Long traces Thomas’s life from its humble beginnings in Pinpoint, »
June 22, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

Not this time

It wasn’t really a silky performance, but Spain outplayed Italy for two hours today (without mangaing to score) and then kept its nerve in the penalty shoot-out. Spain thus overcame a series of omens, including three penalty shoot-out loses on June 22nds past. The Spaniards advance to play Russia in one Euro 2008 semi-final. Spain beat Russia 4-1 earlier in the tournament. Gemany and Turkey will square off in the »
June 22, 2008 — John Hinderaker

More Mush From Obama

“Mush From the Wimp” was the title of a Boston Globe editorial about Jimmy Carter in 1980. The title, of course, was a mistake; it had been inserted as a joke by a headline writer who assumed it would be changed when the paper went to print. But it pretty well sums up how the public–even the Boston Globe!–felt about Carter by the last year of his Presidency. The phrase »
June 22, 2008 — John Hinderaker

Obama: The Early Years

If, like me, you’ve wondered what a “community organizer” is, and what Barack Obama was up to in the early years of his career, check out “Who ‘sent’ Obama?” and a follow-up dated June 19 titled “That ‘guy who lived in my neighborhood'” by law professor Steve Diamond. Diamond is a liberal with an interest in the international labor movement. Although a man of the left, he is hostile toward »
June 22, 2008 — Scott Johnson

A modern Maimonides

Moses Maimonides is the great medieval Jewish sage. “From Moses to Moses, there was none like Moses” is the epitaph on his tomb. He was a physician, a philosopher and a profound religious scholar. Maimonides had an abiding concern for the survival of the Jewish people. His reputation was such that Jews throughout the world turned to him for advice. In his “Epistle to Yemen” (1172), Maimonides advised the Jews »