Monthly Archives: October 2009

Obama remembers to forget

There is something profoundly disgusting about President Obama’s October 23 anniversary statement on the 1983 attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans. Here is Obama’s statement in its entirety: We remember today the 241 American Marines, soldiers, and sailors who lost their lives twenty-six years ago as the result of a horrific terrorist attack that destroyed the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The military personnel serving »

A word from Kristofer Harrison

Kristofer Harrison served as the Chief of Staff to the Counselor of the Secretary of State during the Bush administration. Mr. Harrison writes to comment on Paul Mirengoff’s post “No class, bad character” on Dick Cheney’s speech this past week, Stephen Hayes’s Weekly Standard article “Obama’s minions are ingrates,” and my post “No class, bad character: The inside story” on both of them. Mr. Harrison writes: You, Paul and Stephen »

The “Chicago Way” Won’t “play in Peoria”

It’s pretty clear to me that if the economy is not perceived as having staged a solid recovery by next year at this time, the Democrats will take quite a beating in the mid-term elections. But the opposite conclusion doesn’t follow — a solid recovery doesn’t guarantee Democratic success. The economy had recovered from the 1991 recession by 1994, yet the Republicans still won a staggering victory in that election. »

Politicized intelligence — will the Democrats investigate the real thing?

The intelligence community’s incorrect assessment of whether or to what extent Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction led to an outcry from the left that the intelligence process had been politicized. This charge was leveled even though the intelligence services of our allies, where the politics of going to war with Iraq were quite different from here, all made basically the same incorrect assessment our intelligence community did. The outcry »

The Loin in Winter

John Hinderaker went on to major in philosophy as an undergraduate at Dartmouth, but I believe it was Hugh Hefner who awakened John’s interest in philosophy. Before Wittgenstein, there was Hef. In “Perjury penumbra,” John spoke for both of us when he wrote: For those who don’t remember, Hefner’s “Playboy Philosophy” was a monthly staple of the magazine for what seemed like three or four decades. Every month, along with »

Quote of the day

Benjamin Netanyahu, from an interview by Lally Weymouth: Q: What do you think of President Obama? A. There is much greater cooperation and transparency between the Obama administration and my government than people know. We speak openly. I recommend reading the entire interview of this master of clear thinking and clear speaking. »

An Unlikely Salute

Stereotypically, one might think of George Will and Michele Bachmann as inhabiting opposite poles of the conservative movement. But Will has a nice column on Michele in tomorrow’s Washington Post. He tells the story of how she got into politics: The state senator from her district in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul had been in office for 17 years, had stopped being pro-life and started supporting tax increases, so that morning Michele »

In defense of Israel

On October 16 the UN Human Rights Council held an emergency debate on the Goldstone Report condemning Israel’s conduct during Operation Cast Lead. According to UN Watch, the debate featured the usual “line-up of the world’s worst abusers condemn[ing] democratic Israel for human rights violations.” The hearing was in all respects but one the typical of Orwellian world of the UN in which Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace, and »

No class, bad character: The inside story

In his post on Dick Cheney’s speech this week, Paul Mirengoff focused on Cheney’s account of the Bush administration’s reassessment of its strategy in Afghanistan. Paul wrote that Cheney’s speech at the Center for Security Policy “blew the whistle on some egregious dishonesty by the Obama administration.” Paul quoted this passage of Cheney’s speech: Recently, President Obama’s advisors have decided that it’s easier to blame the Bush Administration than support »

Paul Rahe: Petty tyranny

In this post by Professor Paul Rahe, the gentleman Bill Buckley customarily referred to in his columns as the sainted junior senator from New York (i.e., his brother James) makes a surprise appearance. Ronald Reagan appointed the former Senator Buckley to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1985; he took senior status in 1996. Professor Rahe writes: This weekend, I will spend my Saturday morning in a fashion »

An Easy Decision, But A Sound One

Here in Minnesota, someone in state government decided to buy 24 50-inch flat screen television sets for a facility in Moose Lake that houses sex offenders. The logic behind the purchase isn’t clear, but when Governor Tim Pawlenty heard about it he called it “boneheaded” and had the TV sets removed. Instead of entertaining sex offenders, the 50-inch units are now being distributed among four Minnesota homes for veterans. It’s »

Another Self-Inflicted Wound

The Obama administration has an uncanny ability to alienate America’s friends, most recently French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Reuters reports: French President Nicolas Sarkozy, initially dubbed Sarko the American for his pro-U.S. stance, is finding it much tougher to deal with Washington than he had anticipated and is recalibrating his policies accordingly. Stung by perceived snubs from U.S. President Barack Obama and encouraged by the growing importance of the G20, Sarkozy »

Voters Trust Republicans Across the Board

For the first time in some years, likely voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on all ten major issues in the Rasmussen survey. On five issues the Republican lead is double digits: Really, though, we could skip the other nine and just note that the Republicans lead 49-35 on the economy. As we’ve said many times, all of this could turn around if the economy rebounds next year. And to »

No class, bad character, Part Two

The Obama administration has apparently given up hope of a Democratic victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race and is, in the words of the Washington Post, “laying the groundwork to blame [the] loss of a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully embrace President Obama until days before the election.” The candidate in question is Creigh Deeds, who is running far behind Republican Robert McDonnell. The »

Bring it on

On Wednesday night, the Philadelphia Phillies clinched their place in the World Series by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the post-game celebration, several Phillies made it clear that they hope to meet the New York Yankees in the Fall Classic. “Bring on A-Rod,” said Phils reliever Soctt Eyre. “Everyone dreams of playing in Yankee Stadium in the World Series, pitcher Cole Hamels added. Super-shortstop Jimmy Rollins explained: “Everyone knows »

Those Republicans just “don’t know how to behave”

John wrote about the “great escape” by Democratic members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It consisted of that group leaving a hearing, via the back door, after Republican Darrell Issa made clear that he planned to subpoena Bank of America for documents relted to Countrywide’s infamous “Friends of Angelo” VIP mortgage program. Democratic Senators Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad were, of course, among Angelos “friends.” A Republican »

A dirty mainstream, part 2

Yesterday I recalled Anderson Cooper’s invocation on CNN of an advanced sexual practice involving oral sex to derogate the widespread popular resistance to Obama. David Shuster on MSNBC and Cooper on CNN invoked the “teabagger” epithet against anti-Obama protesters. I’m not sure which one of them might deserve the pride of authorship. In any event, the epithet immediately caught on among the left-wing media and pundits. in the case of »