Monthly Archives: June 2011

June 26, 2011 — John Hinderaker

A New Low In Wisconsin

The apparent death struggle between liberals and conservatives in Wisconsin reached a nadir yesterday with Supreme Court Justice Ann Bradley claiming that fellow Justice David Prosser choked her during an argument in her chambers: Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley late Saturday accused fellow Justice David Prosser of putting her in a chokehold during a dispute in her office earlier this month. “The facts are that I was demanding that »
June 26, 2011 — Steven Hayward

Time for Carville’s Razor?

James Carville is famous for the slogan that helped elect Bill Clinton in 1992: “It’s the economy, stupid!” You’d think there’d be a few of the old posters with this slogan from the famous Clinton campaign war room floating around someone’s flooded basement that the Obama people could dust off. Of course, what I’m calling “Carville’s Razor” would just as likely nick the Obama campaign’s jugular vein. So they’ll try »
June 26, 2011 — Scott Johnson

Quotations From Chairman Jim: End of the road

I’ve been following the tenure of National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Jim Leach as he has undertaken a series of speeches seeking to spread the gospel according to Barack Obama. Shortly after his installation as chairman Leach commenced a 50-state “civility” tour preaching the gospel. Not even Bruce Springsteen has thought to pull off a 50-state tour, but then again Springsteen has to pay his own way. Like Springsteen, »
June 26, 2011 — Scott Johnson

Sunday morning coming down

I’ve been listening to country artist Suzy Bogguss pretty much nonstop since I saw her perform live last month in Minneapolis at the Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant. During the show Bogguss warmly recalled having performed in Minneapolis several times at the late West Bank hippie dive, the Coffeehouse Extempore, as she was working her way up in the business. It was a key to understanding that Bogguss started out »
June 25, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Crime, Punished and Unpunished

Mark Steyn comments on the Justice Department’s apparent persecution of Conrad Black, and adds this contrast: As to white-collar crime, what about the one type of white-collar crime that goes entirely unpunished? For an accounting fraud of $567 million, Enron’s executives went to jail, and its head guy died there. For an accounting fraud ten times that size, the two Democrat hacks who headed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Franklin »
June 25, 2011 — Steven Hayward

More Earth-Toned Car Alarms

So the other day I ventured into Al Gore’s latest tantrum about global warming in Strolling Bone magazine, speculating that he’s got terrible “Q-Scores” with the public. I should have simply borrowed an idea from New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, and called Gore “a human car alarm,” which fits better. Back in 2005 Kristof, who ordinarily retails conventional environmental opinions, went off script with a column attacking the environmental »
June 25, 2011 — Scott Johnson

The rise of Michele Bachmann

I first saw Michele Bachmann speak in June 2000 after she had knocked off a long-time incumbent state senator for the Republican nomination to run for his seat. The Republican incumbent was a squish; Michele and her supporters at the district convention had had it with him. She appeared before the Twin Cities metropolitan Republican women’s group to tell her story and ask for their support for election to the »
June 24, 2011 — Scott Johnson

Too hot for the HuffPo

American Jewish Committee executive director David Harris emails: Nearly two years ago, I was invited by The Huffington Post (HuffPo) to become a blogger on their site. I was honored. It is one of the most heavily trafficked news sites anywhere, and it reaches an influential audience. Since September 2009, I have published nearly 50 articles there, and look forward to publishing many more. This week, for the first time, »
June 24, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Too little, way too late: The cartoon

We noted last night that the Obama administration’s decision to release 30 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve reveals the folly of the Democrats’ energy policies. We didn’t really comment on the administration’s motivation, which Obama made little effort to hide. Michael Ramirez does comment; click to enlarge: »
June 24, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Al Qaeda In Eclipse

This report on a letter that was found in Osama bin Laden’s compound sheds light on the extent to which nearly ten years of relentless pursuit by American intelligence and military forces has devastated al Qaeda: As Osama bin Laden watched his terrorist organization get picked apart, he lamented in his final writings that al-Qaida was suffering from a marketing problem. … In other journal entries and letters, they said, »
June 24, 2011 — Steven Hayward

What’s Missing from this Story?

Nature magazine–not exactly on the top of the sales rack even at Barnes & Noble (I subscribe)–last week reported a bizarre story that is receiving no attention in the U.S. media that I’ve seen: The Eurocrats in Brussels have uncovered a massive organized crime effort that secured $72 million in fraudulent scientific research grants. An excerpt: The fraud has been conducted in a “highly sophisticated manner, resembling money laundering”, by »
June 24, 2011 — Scott Johnson

Minnesota cage match, cont’d

Today Minnesota Democratic Governor Mark Dayton and state legislative leaders go into an extended discussion seeking to avoid the looming government shutdown on July 1. The Republican legislative leaders caved on the format of the meetings. They are to include Democratic legislative leaders, even though Dayton had initially agreed to meet without them. It gives new meaning to my cage match metaphor. All I can say is that for the »
June 24, 2011 — Scott Johnson

The vacant space in the Republican field

I don’t think that the mainstream media are off entirely in considering the field of Republican presidential contenders wanting. The entry of Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman really brought it home to me. Who is their constituency? Huntsman is the perfect Republican candidate — of the Washington Post, perhaps. The Wall Street Journal article on Huntsman’s announcement asserted that independents were his target, which may be the case. The guy »
June 23, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Too Little, Way Too Late

The Democrats have been blocking oil companies from developing America’s fossil fuel resources–the largest in the world–for decades. Whenever their anti-drilling policies are challenged, they assure us that increasing domestic production would do little or nothing to bring down the cost of energy. Yet, whenever the price of gasoline becomes politically embarrassing, what do they do? They take “emergency” action to increase the supply of petroleum by opening up the »
June 23, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Bachmann On Israel

Michele Bachmann posted this YouTube video stating her support for Israel ten days ago, but not many people seem to have noticed it until today. Pamela Geller calls it “The greatest speech by an American leader on Israel.” Please watch the video, and then I have two comments about it: First, Bachmann has been consistent in her support for Israel. In December 2006, immediately after her election to Congress, Scott »
June 23, 2011 — John Hinderaker

“We Don’t Estimate Speeches”

The Democrats’ failure to propose a budget, let alone vote on one, is perhaps the most important of the many scandals now swirling around that party. President Obama submitted a FY 2012 budget in February, but it was dead on arrival. It made no effort to deal with the country’s burgeoning debt crisis, and no one took it seriously. When it was eventually brought to the floor in the Senate, »
June 23, 2011 — Steven Hayward

China’s Voracious Energy Path

If you want to understand why an international climate agreement like the Kyoto Protocol is hopeless, and especially why the Chinese say over and over again that they will not agree to any serious limit on the growth in their greenhouse gas emissions, have a look at the 25-second video below, which shows United States and Chinese total energy consumption, measured in BTUs, from 1980 and projected out to the »