Monthly Archives: August 2011

Rule by decree

Featured image The Obama administration announced last week that it would suspend deportation proceedings against many illegal immigrants who pose no threat to national security or public safety. Robert Pear explained the new policy this way in the New York Times: The new policy is expected to help thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the United States as young children, graduated from high school and want to go on to college »

If I Were A Banker…

Featured image …I might actually understand what happened in 2008, when the world’s financial system seemed on the brink of collapse and the Fed stepped into the breach, lending what is now understood to be $1.2 trillion to the world’s major financial institutions: Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) were the reigning champions of finance in 2006 as home prices peaked, leading the 10 biggest U.S. banks and brokerage »

America Suffering Shortage of Millionaires

Featured image To the extent the Democrats have a plan for dealing with the nation’s budget crisis, they intend to get the trillions of dollars they need from the country’s “millionaires and billionaires.” So this is highly inconvenient: the country’s supply of millionaires is dwindling: [B]ased on 2009 IRS figures,…the number of taxpayers reporting annual income over $1 million fell 39 percent between 2007 and 2009; the number of super-wealthy individuals making »

Barack Obama, One-Termer

Featured image Every day, thousands more Americans are giving up on Barack Obama’s presidency. We see this anecdotally as well as in poll data. This, I think, is the real reason why Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard vacation is so out of tune. It is not just that the economy is lousy; it is the fact that millions of Americans are looking askance at the president, weighing whether they should continue supporting his administration, »

Egypt’s Misdirected Wrath

Featured image We wrote here about the terrorist attack in which 15 to 20 armed Gazans made their way into Sinai and attacked Israel across the Egyptian border, without interference from Egyptian forces which were either oblivious or compliant. The attack was coordinated with other assaults and followed up with a series of rocket barrages on southern Israel, which continue. Altogether, eight Israelis were killed by the terrorists. IDF troops killed several »

Al Sharpton finds he has grown

Featured image Although Al Sharpton is accorded an absurdly respected role in the Democratic Party, he is easily one of the most vile men active in American public life. Jay Nordlinger reviewed Sharpton’s record as of early 2000 in his brilliant National Review feature article “Power Dem.” Jay updated his take on Sharpton in his Impromptus column “Words from Pope Al.” From his promotion of Tawana Brawley’s hoax and his defamation of »

What the world needs now…

Featured image …is Jackie DeShannon, who celebrates her birthday today. She is of course the artist who in 1965 brought the quintessential Hal David-Burt Bacharach composition “What the World Needs Now” to life with Bacharach’s inspired arrangement/production. Following the form of a prayer or sermon, the song remains timely these many years later. The form recalls the style of Johnny Mercer’s “Accentuate the Positive,” though so unobtrusively that it’s easy to miss. »

This Is a Test of the Emergency Blogcast System

Featured image Well, not really a test of the emergency blogcast system, but I am certain this is a Power Line first: I’m flying for the first time ever on a United plane with in-flight high-speed Internet. So far it is working smoothly. But if it breaks down, I’m going to say loudly, “Well this sucks!” (Maybe you know the comedy reference to perhaps Louis C.K.’s best bit ever. If you haven’t »

Malcolm’s moment revisited

Featured image We posted Professor Joyce Malcolm’s commentary on the British riots in “Malcolm’s moment” earlier this week. A commenter going under the handle of the scotsman has posted a vehement critique of Professor Malcolm’s commentary at Free Republic. Professor Malcolm responds: The information I have written, while obviously exciting the scotsman to the point of hysteria, happens to be accurate. To take just a couple of points: When the British police »

A Josh Mandel update

Featured image We have written a lot here about Ohio state treasurer Josh Mandel. Joel Mowbray first brought Josh to the attention of our readers when Josh was running for reelection to the state legislature in the 2008 post “Star on the rise” (a post which hasn’t made the transition to our new archives yet). Josh completed two terms in the Ohio legislature before winning the race for state treasurer last year. »

More Unfair Criticism of President Obama

Featured image Sure, it’s true: the economy wouldn’t get any better if Obama canceled his vacation. And, of course, all presidents take vacations and most play golf (just not this often). And tony shops on Martha’s Vineyard need business too. But is that going to stop us, or anyone else, from ridiculing Obama’s obliviousness? Of course not! Michael Ramirez piles on: »

Travel Day Notes

Featured image Maybe my favorite line from G.K. Chesterton comes from the beginning of chapter 4 of Orthodoxy (“The Ethics of Elfland”): As much as I ever did, more than I ever did, I believe in Liberalism.  But there was a rosy time of innocence when I believed in Liberals. Come to think of it, this could serve as the motto for Power Line, except that the Power Line Old Guard has »

Darrell Issa Sticks It to the Times

Featured image Darrell Issa is a brilliant businessman who made a lot of money the old-fashioned way: he earned it, rather than marrying or inheriting it as so many Democratic politicians do. Which is another way of saying that he is just the kind of man we need in Washington. The Left, of course, doesn’t see it that way. The New York Times hates Issa because, as Chairman of the House Oversight »

Charles Koch Responds to Warren Buffett

Featured image In response to Warren Buffett’s op-ed urging higher taxes on the rich, fellow rich person Charles Koch makes a simple but vital point: Much of what the government spends money on does more harm than good; this is particularly true over the past several years with the massive uncontrolled increase in government spending. I believe my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more »

The Inspector Clouseau of the Cold War Speaks

Featured image In my lengthy research that went into writing The Age of Reagan, I read a lot of translated Soviet documents, and a ton of the secondary literature, trying to reach a conclusion about Mikhail Gorbachev and his role in the end of the Cold War under the spur of Ronald Reagan’s aggressive policies.  I came to the conclusion that Gorbachev was in fact a person of authentic liberal reformist inclinations, »

Action this day, Obama style

Featured image Over at Business Insider, Russell Halley considers the news of the day with an attitude appropriate to the occasion: Summertime blues? Credit rating downgraded, economy crumbling, markets crashing and support collapsing? People clamoring for the plan you know you don’t have? Best to get out of town, let them think you’re sweatin’ out the strategy. Of course, before you go, you can still exercise the privileges of office. Quietly. Through »

Green Jobs Epic Fail

Featured image The failure of the “green jobs” scam is becoming so obvious that even the New York Times has noticed, with a story today headlined “Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises.”   And even some Democrats are starting to notice!   The whole “green jobs” enthusiasm is likely to go down in policy history as the energy/environment equivalent of the Great Society/War on Poverty/”Model Cities” social engineering of »