Monthly Archives: September 2009

Are you with me, Dr. Chu?

“When it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions,” the Wall Street Journal reports, “Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees Americans as unruly teenagers and the Administration as the parent that will have to teach them a few lessons.” That, of course, is the Obama administration’s patented scientific approach to the American people. In an update, the Journal’s Ian Talley added Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow’s explication of the text: “Secretary Chu was not »

Nothing to fear but Fears himself

We have not heard anything from Washington Post reporters Darryl Fears and Carol Leonnig in response to “Sliming James O’Keefe: A case study.” I think it’s fair to conclude that Fears and Leonnig have no quote from O’Keefe to support their imputation of racial motives to him, and that what the Post has done to O’Keefe is disgusting. John Rosenberg of the Discriminations site writes to point out that he »

The art of corruption

Mike De Heus urges readers to visit the site of National Endowment for the Arts hover over Resources, click Health Insurance and check out the following statement: “Health care reform is a critical issue for the arts community. At this moment we have a unique opportunity to improve our quality of life by demanding affordable guaranteed-issue insurance.” Thus speaks the NEA. Where did you go, “Épater la bourgeoisie”? What is »

Paul Rahe: Obama’s gestures, part 3

Hillsdale College Professor Paul Rahe writes to comment on the Obama administration’s announced abandoment last week of the so-called Third Site of missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. Claremont Institute President Brian Kennedy addressed the subject in the Wall Street Journal Asia column “Obama’s strategic confusion.” Kennedy writes: “The cancellation of the Third Site demonstrates the Obama administration’s complete confusion over strategic defense.” Professor Rahe argues that »

Looking back at Gaza and ahead to Iran

Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post notices that, from Israel’s perspective, the December invasion of Gaza has proved to be a huge success. During a seven and a half period ending in December 2008, more than 4,000 rockets and more than 4,000 missile shells were fired into Israel from Gaza. They killed 14 Israelis, wounded more than 400, and made life in Southern Israel miserable at times. Since April of »

Were two ways to win better than one?

Yesterday’s Washington Redskins game against the St. Louis Rams was a pretty dull affair. But in the dying minutes Redskins coach Jim Zorn made a fascinating decision. Leading by two points with just under two minutes remaining, the Skins faced fourth down and half a yard to go on around the Rams two yard line. The Rams were out of time outs. Zorn had to decide whether the kick a »

Reciprocity, Russian style

President Obama’s decision not to proceed with the Eastern European missile shield was, I assume, intended to increase the likelihood of Russian cooperation in dealing with Iran’s impending nuclear threat or, perhaps more plausibly, to facilitate the renegotiation of the START treaty. But today we learn that it may not even bring about a far more modest result – the shelving of Russian plans to deploy missiles in an enclave »

The Rest of the Story

In recent weeks, the Obama administration has been mired in setbacks and scandals. One of these, at least, has not yet received the attention it deserves–that is, the administration’s effort to enlist artists in support of its policy agenda. Most likely, you’re generally aware of the story. It was broken by Patrick Courrielche at Big Hollywood. Courrielche received an email invitation from Yosi Sergant of the National Endowment for the »

Sliming James O’Keefe: A case study

James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles are the young activists who have blown the lid off the criminal left-wing enterprise known as ACORN. If they were left-wingers exposing some conservative or religious organization, government-funded or not, the mainstream media would have hailed them as heroic whistleblowers, perhaps worthy of a Time cover. Instead, the media are doing their damndest to slime them. Michael Barone reflects here on how the Washington Post »

This weekend in baseball history

Fifty years ago this weekend, the National League pennant race took a decisive turn. On Saturday morning, the San Francisco Giants led the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Braves by two games. By Sunday evening, the Giants were in third place, a game behind the Dodgers and half a game behind the Braves. The Dodgers had swept a three game series in San Francisco. The key to the series »

How regents should reign — the Dartmouth “wars” in context

Our friend Joe Malchow, who somehow manages to find the time, on top of all his other activities, to keep Power Line humming along, has written a memorandum on the fiduciary duty of college trustees, its history, and the oddities of its performance at Dartmouth. Joe’s co-author is Harvey Silvergate, the distinguished civil liberties lawyer. Silverglate is a man of the left, but he shares common ground with conservatives who »

Change you can scarcely believe

The Obama administration promised us a new day in foreign affairs. The president’s vision, savvy, and status as a “citizen of the world” were going to produce bold new initiatives to take us beyond the false choices, and resulting quagmires, of the past. Friend and foe alike would see the U.S. in a new light and, riding our newfound popularity, we would reshape the world along more just and peaceful »

How the Conservative Movement Looks from the Outside

Way outside, in the case of Adam Nagourney of the New York Times. He attended (or maybe sent someone else to attend, it isn’t clear) the Values Voter Summit in Washington, and offers observations on conservatism, much as an amateur apiarist might try to interpret a beehive: Less than a year after an election that nearly wiped them out politically, conservatives are showing signs of life. This is wishful thinking. »

Why Does Jimmy Carter Think We’re All Racists?

At The Corner yesterday, Hans von Spakovsky offered a compelling explanation: Carter himself has a history of virulent racism. The facts, drawn from A Voting Rights Odyssey by Laughlin McDonald, director of the ACLU’s Voting Project, are astonishing: When Carter returned to Plains, Georgia, to become a peanut farmer after serving in the Navy, he became a member of the Sumter County School Board, which did not implement the 1954 »

Sweden Slashes Income Taxes to Promote Job Growth

We noted here that the United States has the most progressive income tax system in the developed world. That’s right–embarrassingly enough, more progressive than Sweden’s. Actually, a generation of economic stagnation has taught the Swedes a lesson. They’ve learned that government does not produce wealth, and if they want more people to work, jobs have to pay better, after taxes. Sweden is therefore in the midst of a series of »

Headline of the Day

“Insane killer escapes on field trip to county fair.” Only the narrow-minded would wonder why anyone would take an insane killer on a field trip to a county fair in the first place. Perhaps government lawyers have discovered a constitutional right to corn dogs and deep fried Snickers bars. By the way, do you remember the climactic scene in Strangers on a Train? (That was an amusement park, but the »

Are You A Racist?

These days it’s hard to tell. If you think government-run medicine is a bad thing, former President Jimmy Carter and many other Democrats say you’re most likely a racist. So Missourah.com explains everything in this handy chart; click to enlarge: I could be wrong, but I suspect that this is the last time any partisan faction will be able to broadcast the charge of “racism” and have it taken even »