Monthly Archives: June 2011

Minnesota cage match, cont’d

The Star Tribune’s Mike Kaszuba and Rachel Stassen-Berger report on the latest events in the Minnesota budget standoff. Having agreed to meet alone with the Republican legislative leaders in a marathon session this weekend to avoid a government shutdown, Governor Dayton introduced wrinkles that put the agreement in doubt by the end of the day. It’s an interesting story. As I read it, Dayton is making it hard for his »

Thinkin’ of Lincoln

Here is the text of President Obama’s speech last night on our war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Here is the video. Against the advice of his military commanders, Obama announced a drawdown of forces on a transparently political timetable — the timetable of American presidential politics. I don’t profess to know the right thing to do, but whatever it is, that ain’t it. And placing the context of the »

Uncommon Knowledge with Andrew Breitbart

Last week we posted Peter Robinson’s interview with Andrew Breitbart. Given our format, the interview rotated off the site after a few days. We’ll have another installment of Uncommon Knowledge next week. In the meantime, here is the interview with Andrew, once more once, after a brief introduction. Our friend Andrew Breitbart is the consequential fellow who stepped out from behind his work for the Drudge Report and the Huffington »

A Less Than Magnificent Obsession

We wrote here, here, here, and here about Robert Greenwald, a failed Hollywood director who, after being responsible for one of the biggest bombs in show business history, retreated to making paid propaganda videos on behalf of far-left causes. Currently, Greenwald is working on a series called “Koch Brothers Exposed.” These videos try to blame everything under the sun on Charles and David Koch. The latest in Greenwald’s series is »

More Environmental Gore

People in the marketing trade refer to proprietary research called the “Q-Ratings” (or “Q-Scores”) for public figures, celebrities, and brand names. Like Nielsen ratings for TV shows, an individual’s “Q-Rating” refers to the trust and esteem their image has with the public. Q-Ratings, unlike Neilsen ratings, are not publicized. The actor Wilfred Brimley supposedly had off-the-chart Q-Ratings, which is why he did so many TV commercials for healthy breakfast cereals »

On Liberal Nostalgia

One of the more familiar liberal dismissals of conservatives especially back during the Reagan era was that we want to take the country “back to the 1950s,” to the time of Ozzie and Harriett, Levittown, and the conformity of the “organizational man” in the grey flannel suit. The 1985 feature film “Back to the Future” seemed to fit the moment perfectly. Of course, Reagan couldn’t have brought back the 1950s »

Thrilled to Be Aboard

Thanks, Scott, for the warm welcome, and to the bunch of you for the try-out period of the last few months. I feel like I’ve been promoted from Triple-A ball to the Major Leagues now. I’ll be proud to call Power Line my exclusive home for blogging, and I hope I can keep up with the fast pace you guys have set for this great space. »

God and damage control at Yale

Having just killed its interdisciplinary program for the study of anti-Semitism, Yale University announced on Monday that it is launching a new program for the study of anti-Semitism. JTA reports that Monday’s announcement of the creation of the Yale Program for the Study of Anti-Semitism comes less than three weeks after the university said the Yale Interdisciplinary Initiative for the Study of Anti-Semitism would be disbanded at the end of »

Obama’s Job-Destroying NLRB

This Michael Ramirez cartoon nicely captures the viciousness of the union bosses and their henchmen at Obama’s National Labor Relations Board, and of their attack on American workers. Click to enlarge: »

Minnesota cage match, cont’d

In Minnesota, we are engaged in an epic budget battle between a highly liberal and highly medicated Democratic governor who is contending with newly crowned Republican majorities in the state House and Senate. A state government shutdown is looming, scheduled to kick in on July 1. How goes the battle? Acting as the media adjunct of Governor Dayton’s office, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and lead political reporter Rachel Stassen-Berger have »

A message from Mark Steyn

James Paterson writes from Australia’s Institute for Public Affairs with news that Andrew Bolt, Australia’s most prominent conservative columnist, is currently being prosecuted under appallingly restrictive racial tolerance laws. Mark Steyn recorded this special message for an event held by the IPA in Australia to defend free speech. Andrew Bolt comments:”[O]f all that was said on the night and sent, Mark Steyn’s contribution was the one that brought down the »

How Badly Is the Obama Administration Hurting Our Economy?

Conservative critics have long alleged that the Obama administration is systematically hampering our economy through excessive regulation and by creating needless uncertainty. The administration’s sorry record is circumstantial support for this critique, but the Heritage Foundation supplies hard evidence via Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks. For example, Dennis Lockhart, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said: We’ve frequently heard strong comments to the effect of “my company »

The Age of Hayward

Steve Hayward originally joined us as a guest blogger this past January when we were looking for help to fill the hole left by the departure of Paul Mirengoff. We have enjoyed Steve’s work so much we never arranged to replace him. Over the past week we have decided to ask Steve formally to join us as a regular contributor and partner, and he has accepted. I first met Steve »

Power Line Prize Update

The days are dwindling down to a precious few, so if you haven’t yet gotten to work on your entry in the Power Line Prize contest, it is time to get going. Or if, like me, you are not at all creative, it is time to prod a creative friend to get going. The Power Line Prize, as you no doubt know, will be awarded to whoever comes up with »

The “Dismal” World of Public Finance

Scott has been covering the epic budget battle now going on here in Minnesota. The state’s dominant news organ, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, weighs in daily on behalf of the state’s public employees and the Democratic Party. Today its contributions included this headline: “U adopts ‘dismal’ $3.7B budget.” “U” is the University of Minnesota, which for budget purposes includes five campuses: The University of Minnesota adopted a $3.7 billion budget »

Annals of Government Medicine

From the United Kingdom, the latest advances in socialized medicine: Hospital chiefs have apologised after giving elderly patients a tambourine to call for nurses in an emergency. The musical instrument was left in a day room after older patients feared they were too far away for nurses to hear any cries for help. A pair of maracas were also handed out as a back-up — in case the tambourine failed. »

Is Economic Growth Now a Partisan Idea?

Our friend Bill Voegeli notes over on NoLeftTurns that Governor Tim Pawlenty’s goal of a sustained 5 percent economic growth rate is being met with derision practically across the political spectrum but especially from the know-it-all left, and yet the 1960 Democratic Platform called for exactly that same target: “We Democrats believe that our economy can and must grow at an average rate of 5% annually, almost twice as fast »