Monthly Archives: March 2011

Don’t They Know He’s the One?

One of the frustrations of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was the fact that our liberation of tens of millions of Muslims from murderous regimes seemed to get us no credit in the Muslim world; on the contrary. As has been widely pointed out, the last five or six major international efforts the U.S. has engaged in have been in large part in defense of Muslims, yet Muslims around the »

The Libya Farce Goes to 11

It is getting hard to keep track of the many farcical dimensions of the Libya enterprise without a scorecard. The hypocrisy of our anti-war President and say-anything Vice President set a new land speed record even among politicians. The vagueness of the mission has received wide comment and appropriate scorn from all sides. As Jonah Goldberg remarked on the Fox News panel last night, Obama has achieved a rare daily »

Hey, nineteen

Today is the birthday of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul. The metaphor of royal lineage has some application in Franklin’s case. Her father, the Reverend C.L. Franklin, was the renowned Detroit preacher whose New Bethel Baptist Church provided the original venue for Aretha and her sisters, Erma and Carolyn. She became a child star as a gospel singer, signing a recording contract with Columbia Records at age 18 via »

Jamie Gump For FBI Director?

Is President Obama really thinking of nominating Jamie Gorelick to head the FBI? It seems almost inconceivable that anyone would consider appointing her to run anything. The Examiner reprises her career, which has led some to call her the Mistress of Disaster: Movie patrons recall Forrest Gump’s remarkable presence in an amazing succession of notable historical events. … [T]here is no escaping the damage that would result if President Obama »

“Strong Military Leader”? Of Course Not

Drudge is headlining this Reuters/Ipsos poll on how Americans view Barack Obama as a military leader. I think my answer would have been that he is not a military leader at all, but here is how responses broke down: Strong and decisive: 17% Cautious and Consultative: 48% Indecisive and Dithering: 36% Through pretty much all of American history, those numbers would have spelled doom, but I doubt that they are »

Progressive Update

I’ve been closeted away in a recording studio the last three days working on a fancy DVD and CD project (details in due course; not to worry–it doesn’t involve my trying to sing or rap), and as such without time to blog away. In the meantime, a number of readers of my “Progressive versus Progressive” series have written in with good comments and links to supplemental material. Ed Driscoll, the »

Right Wing NotHaus

Under the rubric of QE2, the Federal Reserve Bank is engaged in the venture of increasing the money supply with the goal of moderately increasing inflation. I fear that this venture is misguided and destructive. I believe it will result in inflation exceeding the Fed’s goal, if it has not done so already, and that the Fed will apply the brakes well after the damage has been done, as is »

Peace by other means

Clifford Orwin brings the rigor of a serious student of political philosophy to his observations on the humanitarian intervention by the United States et al. in Libya: “Humanitarian military interventions such as the one under way in Libya typically face just two main obstacles. The first is, they’re humanitarian. The second is, they’re military interventions.” He seems to think humanitarian military interventions suffer from an internal contradiction, like capitalism according »

The Jerusalem bus-station bombing

More than 50 were injured and one woman — a British citizen — was killed by a bomb placed outside an Israeli bus station next to the International Convention Center in central Jerusalem yesterday. According to the Haaretz article, the bomb was hidden in a small bag situated next to a telephone pole; the victims were evacuated to the Hadassah Hospital. (Mention of the hospital brings back memories. My mom »

War? What War?

President Obama is still uncomfortably close to his roots as an antiwar candidate, so it is understandable that he and his minions would rather not refer to what they are doing in Libya as a “war.” Besides, euphemism is the soul of the Obama administration, from “man-caused disasters” to the “Employee Free Choice Act.” So it shouldn’t be surprising that the administration has come up with something more oblique than »

The New Egypt?

Ynet, via Atlas Shrugs, points out that Egypt Air’s route map suddenly shows an odd omission: no Israel. Ynet says that “Jordan’s land reaches the Mediterranean Sea.” Maybe, or else Israel has merged into an undifferentiated “Palestine.” Either way, while the other cities in the region to which Egypt Air flies are shown, there is no Tel Aviv. Click to enlarge: The odd thing is that Egypt Air does fly »

Liberals: Too Smart For Their Own Good?

Problem: liberals keep getting clobbered when they go on television opposite conservatives. Solution: Pour Soros dollars into a training program so liberals who go on television won’t look so dumb. Seriously, that is what the left is doing: Media Matters boot camp readies liberal policy wonks for the camera’s close-up. The Washington Post reports: The brick carriage house is usually the headquarters of the Mathematical Association of America, but for »

Biden Comes Out for Impeachment

Joe Biden says that if President Obama launches an attack on Libya without Congressional authorization, it will be an impeachable offense and he, Joe Biden, will personally lead the drive for impeachment. Well, not quite: it was 2007, and Biden was talking about President Bush and Iran. But the principle would appear to be the same: I’m beginning to understand why liberals believe so fervently in a “living” Constitution. They »

Uncommon Knowledge (Special Edition)

Peter Robinson convened a panel consisting of Victor Davis Hanson and Peter Berkowitz — Hoover Institution fellows both — to discuss recent events in the Middle East. Berkowitz is a frequent visitor to Israel and Hanson had a ruptured appendix removed in a nightmarish emergency procedure a while back on his bizarre Libyan holiday. They are both learned analysts of events in the Middle East. Unfortunately, the discussion was held »

Anatomy of a Smear

The Center for American Progress is generally regarded as a front for the Obama administration. Its President and CEO is John Podesta, formerly Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff and the chairman of Barack Obama’s transition team. CAP is lavishly funded by George Soros and several other left-wing billionaires. It runs, among other things, a web site called Think Progress, which cranks out a steady stream of slimy hit pieces for »

What are we doing in Libya?

Are we protecting civilians? Are we protecting the “rebels” from Qaddafi’s forces? Are we protecting civilians who support Qaddafi from the “rebel” forces? Does Qaddafi have to go? Or merely cease and desist? Are we seeking to depose Qaddafi? What is the mission? Who are the “rebels”? Are we seeking regime change? Are we promoting a democratic government to replace Qaddafi’s thugocracy? What is the applicable principle justifying our intervention? »

Nine Out of Ten Isn’t Bad

Yesterday, Scott Rasmussen released one of his periodic surveys on which party voters trust more on the issues. It is a 1,000 likely voter survey, and therefore deserves to be taken pretty seriously. Currently, voters trust Republicans over Democrats on nine of the ten most significant issues. The only exception is Social Security, which is a tie: At the moment, the GOP’s key advantages are the economy (47-39), taxes (48-37) »