Monthly Archives: June 2009

Hot dogs all over the world

As John noted last night, Barack Obama’s formulaic denunciation of the Iranian crackdown stopped short of giving up on his hot dog diplomacy with Iran. FOX News reports: Iranians will have to decide whether they want to attend Fourth of July celebrations at U.S. embassies, President Obama said Tuesday, linking their attendance to the potential for warming between the two nations. The United States and Iran don’t have formal diplomatic »

Now Newspapers, Tomorrow the Evening News

This is a link off Drudge, so it’s not exactly a scoop, but both CBS and ABC evening news recorded all-time low viewerships last week. There are still quite a few people watching the TV network news, of course; CBS bottomed out at between four and five million viewers. That compares with, say, 40,000 to 70,000 people who visit this site 80,000 to 100,000 times on a typical weekday. Still, »

He Thinks You’re Stupid

In his press conference today, President Obama talked about the cap-and-trade energy tax that the Democrats are trying to ram through Congress. Obama’s nose grew a couple of inches as he uttered this howler: At a time of great fiscal challenges, this legislation is paid for by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air we breathe. The idea »

Barack Mounts the Barricades

Rhetorically, anyway. President Obama began his press conference today with the ringing endorsement of the Iranian protesters that he should have delivered a week ago. It was good. To give him full credit, I’ll quote the whole thing: First, I’d like to say a few words about the situation in Iran. The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings and imprisonments »

Iranian internet user stumps Obama

At his press conference today, President Obama, in a pre-arranged move, invited a reporter from the Huffington Post to ask a question submitted by one of the Iranians with whom that reporter has been communicating via the internet. The reporter, Nico Pitney, transmitted this question: Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad? And if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn’t »

Please, pretty please come to our party

A State Department spokesperson said yesterday that the Obama administration is not considering revoking invitations to Iranian diplomats around the world for vaious Fourth of July celebrations: QUESTION: Do you think it’s still appropriate to have Iranians come to these July 4th parties under the circumstances? I mean, is there any thought being given to like, rescinding invitations? MR. KELLY: No, there’s no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian »

The trouble with Harry

Here’s the good news about Everton youth player Harry Simmons: Everton’s staff consider him better than Wayne Rooney was at the same age. Here’s the bad news: Harry is seven years old. »

Hot dog diplomacy still on with Iran

Caroline Glick notes that there may be an “Obama effect” different from the one hallucinated by the mainstream in inventing new reasons to celebrate Obama. Glick postulates an “Obama effect” on our mainstream media that is impairing our understanding of events in Iran and elsewhere. Glick’s Exhibit A is Helene Cooper’s exploration of “Iran’s unrest and the Obama factor.” Glick’s Exhibit B is the Times account of Ayatollah Khameni’s Friday »

What Bill Keller learned from George Bush

On Sunday we wrote about the escape of New York Times reporter David Rohde from his captivity with the Taliban. In its page-one story on Rohde’s escape, the Times disclosed that it had kept Rohde’s kidnapping and detention by the Taliban a secret for the past seven months. Speaking on Howard Kurtz’s CNN program, New York Times managing editor Bill Keller provided additional comments on his decision to keep the »

Taking Ownership

The radical measures the Obama administration has taken in an ostensible effort to rescue the economy–never let a crisis go to waste!–are increasingly causing voters to hold Obama responsible for our ongoing economic doldrums. In today’s Rasmussen survey, 39 percent of respondents say that economic problems are caused mostly by the Obama administration’s policies, compared to 54 percent who attribute them mostly to the recession Obama inherited. That 39 percent »

Unimpeachable Source

In an interview with Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC today, Senator John Cornyn was asked how Republicans and some Democrats can try to hold out against government health insurance when the New York Times/CBS poll published yesterday shows overwhelming support for that measure. Cornyn replied that this Power Line post demonstrated that the NYT poll was “skewed.” You can see the video at Real Clear Politics Video. Of course, that didn’t »

Netanyahu parts company with Obama

Yesterday, in a post called “Why Netanyahu Should Part Company With Obama,” I suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu would be well-advised to speak more forcefully than he has in support of the protesters in Iran. As of today, by virtue of an interview just published in the German newspaper Bild, Netanyahu has done so. Asked whether a victory for Hossein Mussavi would be good news for Israel, Netanyahu replied: »

Judicial modesty in action, Part Two

In my first post about today’s Supreme Court decision in Northwest Austin Utility District Number One v. Holder, I described how the Court, in a major act of “judicial modesty,” avoided striking down the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act (Section 5) despite the fact that a majority of the Justices seemed convinced that this key provision is unconstitutional. In this post, I’ll consider where things stand as a »

Judicial modesty in action, Part One

During his confirmation process, John Roberts spoke in favor of “judicial modesty,” the approach under which courts attempt to do their job with as little encroachment as reasonably possible on the work legitimately performed by the other branches of government. Roberts also made it clear that, if possible, he would like to see more agreement among the Justices and fewer highly fractured decisions. Critics have accused Chief Justice Roberts of »

Let it be said one more time

We make a few simple points about the events transpiring over the past week in Iran. The Iranian regime is an evil tyranny. It supports terrorists and terrorism. The United States has a debt of honor to settle with it for the kidnapping and mistreatment of American hostages thirty years ago. That disgrace is not simply a matter of history. It is a disgrace in which Iran’s execrable president personally »

Support Trader Joe’s

Beneath the attention of major media coverage, the boycott of Israeli products has arrived in America. Its first reported target over this past weekend was the couscous at Trader Joe’s. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg comments: “My recommendation: Head to Trader Joe’s and buy anything made or grown in Israel. I hear the Israeli couscous goes well with grilled scapegoat, by the way.” Rabbi Isaac Jeret of Congregation Ner Tamid in »

U.S. team defies its critics at Confederations Cup

The Confederations Cup is an eight team soccer tournament that consists of the champions of six continents, the holders of the World Cup, and the host of the upcoming World Cup. This year that field was comprised of Spain, Brazil, the U.S., Egypt, Iraq, New Zealand, Italy, and South Africa. The competition is not a huge deal. but given its proximity to the World Cup, which will be played next »