Monthly Archives: July 2009

July 29, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Eight Years Later

Byron York puts President Obama’s declining poll numbers in context by recalling the early days of the George W. Bush administration: Just look at the last ten polls listed in the RCP average. If you take out the two extremes, the most recent ABC/Washington Post poll, which had Obama at 59 percent approval, and the Rasmussen, which had him at 49 percent, this is the trend in Obama’s job approval »
July 29, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Everton on ESPN2

Tonight Everton will take on the Major League Soccer All-Star team. Here’s how Toffeeweb previews the match: The BIG game… in a small stadium… in a soccer backwater that is Sandy, Utah (near Salt Lake City), United States of America. That’s the venue for this season’s MLS All-Star game against Everton, the prestigious match that will finally answer the question on the lips of all US soccer fans: “Who is »
July 29, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Forms of Madness

One of the very good local talk radio shows invited me to be on this morning to debate a “birther” on whether those who argue that Barack Obama is not a citizen, and therefore is ineligible to be President, should give it up. I do think they should give it up, but I haven’t studied the issue closely and won’t debate anything I haven’t studied, so I declined the invitation. »
July 28, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Israel moves towards “normal” relations with Obama

U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell was in Israel today. He met one-on-one for two-and-a half hours Prime Minister Netanyahu. According to this report, Mitchell failed to obtain any agreement from Israel regarding the total freeze on settlements President Obama has demanded. In fact, all Mitchell obtained was a statement by Israeli officials that the two sides are “getting close” to “finding that common ground to enable progress.” It doesn’t »
July 28, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Obama A Racist?

I’ve never been a Glenn Beck fan. Nothing against him, but I’ve never seen his show on Fox and I’ve read only a handful of his columns. Many people think he does a great job, and I have no reason to disagree. Nor is it my normal practice to bash fellow conservatives. However, this is pointless and stupid: Fox News Channel commentator Glenn Beck said he believes President Barack Obama »
July 28, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Funniest Thing I’ve Ever Read on the Web?

It might be. It also is the most incisive commentary on the “Skip” Gates affair that I’ve seen yet. It’s by IowaHawk. Don’t follow the link if you’re offended by the word “a******.” PAUL adds: IowaHawk takes the gold for humor. I think I’d give the silver to the New York Times for this: Professor Gates has dozens of honorary degrees and is such a fixture of Harvard Square that »
July 28, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Don’t mess with Joe

Talkin’ Joe Biden has me scratching my head once again. This time it’s the result of Biden “calling out” the Russians as weak sisters. Specifically, in an interview following his visits to Ukraine and Georgia (the Ukraine girls really knocked him out), Biden opined that Russia’s economy is “withering.” He suggested, moreover, that this trend will force Russia to make accommodations to the West on a wide range of national-security »
July 28, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Sotomayor receives Judiciary Committee’s seal of approval

The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted in favor of the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. The count was 13-6. It was nearly a straight party-line vote. All 12 Democrats voted in favor of Sotomayor; six of seven Republicans voted against. The one Republican who voted with the Democrats for President Obama’s left-liberal, disingenuous nominee was Lindsey Graham, who thought it would be a nice gesture. The rest »
July 28, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Ascent of the flying imams

The case of the six flying imams who were removed from a USAirways flight in Minneapolis for questioning by law enforcement authorities is pending in federal district court before Judge Ann Montgomery. In addition to our own notice, the case has drawn national attention including the attention of Congress, which passed a law protecting private citizens who report suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities. The flying imams had named USAirways »
July 28, 2009 — Scott Johnson

How much damage did the Times do? part 4

I discussed the unclassified report of the Inspectors General on the NSA terrorist eavesdropping program here and here. I found the New York Times story on the IGs’ report by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, who had exposed the highly classified program in the Times on December 16, 2005, to be ludicrously dishonest. Having blown the NSA program, Risen and Lichtblau (and the Times itself) have a vested interest in »
July 27, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

The road ahead for Sarah Palin

This story by Dan Balz of the Washington Post contains quotes from two Republican strategists, for lack of a better description, that make a good deal of sense to me (I don’t know where either stands in the great Palin divide). The first comes from pollster Neil Newhouse. He says: “It’s unquestionable that [Palin] has a future in the GOP, but it’s a bit more in doubt whether she has »
July 27, 2009 — John Hinderaker

How Red Are the Blue Dogs?

I’ve never much believed in the concept of a “blue dog Democrat.” As far as I can tell, the only thing that determines whether a “conservative” or “moderate” Democrat votes with his party’s leadership is whether the party needs his vote. If it does, it’s bye-bye blue dog. On this interpretation, being a conservative Democrat is just a pose that is adopted to the minimum amount necessary to gain re-election »
July 27, 2009 — Scott Johnson

William Voegeli: A response to Paul Rahe

Professor Paul Rahe’s recent book (linked below) has provided the grist for several posts by Professor Rahe on this site. William Voegeli’s thoughtful review of the book appeared in National Review. Mr. Voegeli now responds to Professor Rahe’s most recent post (also linked below): I have enjoyed Paul Rahe’s recent contributions to Power Line, even as I profited from reading and was grateful for the chance to review his fine »
July 27, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

The mother of all New York Times corrections

John has the New York Times corrections beat, but this one, pertaining to Walter Cronkite, is too rich for me to pass up: An appraisal on Saturday about Walter Cronkite’s career included a number of errors. In some copies, it misstated the date that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and referred incorrectly to Mr. Cronkite’s coverage of D-Day. Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968, »
July 27, 2009 — John Hinderaker

A New Customer

One of the Bush administration’s signal foreign policy successes was its cultivation of an excellent relationship with India. We and others have criticized the Obama administration for failing to build on this legacy, but Pravda tells us that the pro-US trend continues: From now on India will be buying American weapons. The USA and India came to such an agreement during Hillary Clinton’s visit to Delhi on July 20. India »
July 27, 2009 — John Hinderaker

That Was Then…

Remember the heady days of 2005 and 2006, when the New York Times and other newspapers blew the cover of one secret national security program after another? In those days, the fact that the Bush administration was doing confidential things to protect Americans against terrorist attack was deemed scandalous–by liberals, anyway. You may recall the SWIFT program, in particular. We wrote about it here and elsewhere. The history of the »
July 27, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

The pledge

Reprinted below is a pledge pertaining to health care reform that the two Senators from Virginia have been asked to sign. There’s not much chance that either of these Democrats — Senator Webb or Senator Warner — will actually take the pledge. However, if they refuse to do so, it will help sharpen the debate. Readers may wish to present this pledge to their Senators and Representatives. My Pledge to »