Monthly Archives: January 2011

Whole Lotta Dumb

Jimmy Page is the former Led Zepellin guitarist (Robert Plant was the Led Zep vocalist) — and he didn’t say much during his visit to Cuba — so we can only say “shut up and sing” metaphorically. In any event, Humberto Fontova says all that needs to be said far more eloquently in his Big Peace post “Whole Lotta Stupidity: Jimmy Page visits Cuba, honors Che Guevara.” Fontova quotes a »

Meet the New Boss

Following up on yesterday’s announcement by President Mubarak, Egyptian state television said today that Mubarak’s cabinet has resigned. It announced further that aviation minister Ahmed Shafiq has been named as the new Prime Minister, while Mubarak has also, for the first time, appointed a Vice President: Omar Suleiman, the head of military intelligence and a Mubarak confidante. This is no youth movement; Suleiman is 74 years old, and today’s announcements »

No Bounce

Three days have now passed since President Obama’s State of the Union speech, which means that Scott Rasmussen’s Presidential Approval Index, which is based on a three-day rolling cycle, is now entirely post-SOTU. Thus, if Obama were to get a bounce from his speech, it should show up by now. And it hasn’t: As of today, Obama’s overall approval rests at 49/49. Just before the SOTU, Obama’s numbers were a »

Six Weeks that Shook the World

Lee Smith dates the onset of the current turmoil to this past December 17, when a 26-year-old fruit vendor in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid set himself aflame. Since then we have had six weeks that are shaking the world, perhaps most notably today in Egypt. Anyone looking for guidance in today’s commentary on what we can realistically hope for out of the turmoil in Egypt will, I think, »

Politics Reigns At Obama’s Justice Department

The corruption of the Department of Justice under Barack Obama and Eric Holder is one of the saddest of many sad stories that have emerged from the Obama administration. Under Obama, the Department has been politicized to a degree this country has never experienced; certainly not in its modern history. Yesterday the Civil Rights Commission released its final report on its investigation of the New Black Panthers case. That case »

Obama and Egypt: The Scorecard So Far

As events in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world spiral out of control, the Obama administration has tried to portray itself as ahead of the curve, as in David Axelrod’s interview with Jake Tapper of ABC News. Axelrod tries to convey the impression that the administration has been on the case for a long time: TAPPER: Hosni Mubarak is not a good guy and that government tortures, is repressive, »

Vindication?

At Commentary, Peter Wehner argues that the current uprising across much of the Arab world vindicates President Bush’s freedom agenda: As popular unrest sweeps the Middle East and North Africa, from Tunisia to Yemen to Egypt, it’s worth recalling the words and warning of President George W. Bush – in this case, his November 19, 2003, address at Whitehall Palace in London, where Bush said this: We must shake off »

New Government In Egypt?

The Jerusalem Post and the Associated Press are reporting that “[a]s protests continued into the night, Egyptian authorities were holding talks to establish a ‘transitional government.'” Huge news if true. The same sources say that the headquarters of Mubarak’s ruling party in Cairo are on fire. The administration continues to try to keep up with events; Secretary of State Clinton made public remarks about Egypt today: As President Obama said »

Farewell and thank you

I have made the decision to discontinue blogging at this time. I thank John and Scott for bringing me along on this ride and I thank our readers as well. I couldn’t have hoped for better writing partners or for better readers. Best regards to all. »

Those Pesky Republicans–Still Republican!

The New York Times is disappointed that its campaign to de-legitimize conservative thought has not brought the surrender of Arizona Republicans: “Talk of Bipartisan Progress Fading in Arizona.” As the days pass since the Tucson shooting spree, all that talk of bipartisan handholding, toning down the decibel level and working shoulder-to-shoulder for the betterment of the voters is losing some of its edge here as Arizona appears to be slipping »

Reagan at 100

Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday is February 6. The Examiner has a series of appreciations titled “Ronald Reagan at 100.” Michael Barone’s contribution reminds me how deep Reagan’s roots went into our history. Here are a few excerpts: The way to make a living, he decided, was in the new mass medium of radio. Dixon is 100 miles straight west of Chicago, and the signals of Chicago’s clear channel radio stations »

Rioting in Egypt Continues

Violence increased in Cairo today, and the Egyptian government responded by imposing a curfew, cutting off all internet service and disabling cell phone and text communications. These videos show some of the rioting and violent encounters between demonstrators and police. As usual in these situations, most of the violence seems surprisingly ineffective; yet people do get hurt. Reports indicate that at least five people have been killed: Is this the »

Our Sputnik moment

President Obama’s State of the Union had a number of themes and crosscurrents that don’t really add up, but taken together they send an important message. He’s willing to say just about anything — something we learned during the debate over Obamacare — regardless of its relationship, or lack thereof, to the truth. And the Age of Big Government isn’t over. It may be on life suipport, but Obama won’t »

What Really Matters

One doesn’t generally associate Tunisia with world-historical events, but Tunisians may well have lit the spark that many have expected for decades, and that will bring down authoritarian governments across the Arab world. For many years, Western policy toward Arab countries has tried to straddle an uneasy conflict between maintaining stability and favoring, in principle at least, more open and democratic societies. The most active effort to help bring about »

Blood Libel, One More Time

Caroline Glick draws a parallel between the American Left’s attacks on Sarah Palin and the Israeli Left’s attacks on conservatives in that country. As usual, Ms. Glick argues her case well: For Israelis, the American Left’s assault on Sarah Palin and the conservative movement in the wake of Jared Loughner’s murderous attack in Tucson was disturbingly familiar. Just as the American leftist media and political leadership immediately sought to blame »

Moscow Airport Bombing Update

Russian authorities reportedly have identified at least one suspect in the Domodedovo Airport bombing: Security sources have named an ethnic Russian Christian who converted to Islam as the prime suspect in Monday’s deadly suicide bombing at a Moscow airport. Sources close to the investigation said that Vitaly Razdobudko, a 32-year-old from the southern Russian city of Stavropol, was being sought in connection with the attack, the Kommersant newspaper reported yesterday. »

Genghis Was Green!

After all these years, Genghis Khan has been rehabilitated–as an eco-warrior! My nominee for today’s weirdest headline: Was Genghis Khan history’s greenest conqueror? Genghis Khan’s Mongol invasion in the 13th and 14th centuries was so vast that it may have been the first instance in history of a single culture causing man-made climate change, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology. Unlike modern day »