Monthly Archives: September 2011
September 20, 2011 — John Hinderaker
That is how Drudge is headlining this McClatchy-Marist survey which finds support for President Obama evaporating, so that “even” Sarah Palin trails him by only five points, 49-44. I would say that if there is a shock, it is that Obama–an awful president who acts as though he barely cares–can lead any Republican contender. More significant is that, by a margin of 49 percent to 36 percent, respondents said they
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September 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Here’s more from a long-time reader about the 1961 home run race. On September 20, 1961, the New York Yankees played their 154th game of the season. Roger Maris had 58 home runs at the start of the day. This meant that he needed to swat two more to match Babe Ruth’s record for a 154 game season. Although the season had been expanded to 162 games, baseball commissioner Ford
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September 20, 2011 — Steven Hayward
I’ve had occasion to remark here and elsewhere before that the Washington Post’s left-leaning columnist Richard Cohen often goes off the reservation, especially about Obama. Tuesday’s Cohen op-ed column is a bit of a puzzler, though. It’s a meditation, prompted by Mad Men winning another Emmy for best drama, about the agony of the middle class. But does this passage make any sense at all: The dream of Americans, as
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September 20, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Every election season, a variety of newspapers and other entities set themselves up as arbiters of the accuracy of politicians’ statements. These “fact-checkers” nearly always turn out to be liberal apologists who don a false mantle of objectivity in order to advance the cause of the Democratic Party. Maybe there are exceptions, but I can’t think of one offhand. A case in point is Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post,
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September 20, 2011 — Steven Hayward
I’ve got a short squib up tonight about the Solyndra fiasco on the New York Times “Room for Debate” blog. I’ll have a much, much longer treatment of Solyndra coming out this weekend. Stay tuned.
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September 20, 2011 — Steven Hayward
Over on American.com our pal Jonah Goldberg points out something that’s been on my mind for a while (darn you Jonah for beating me to it! darn you all to heck!), namely, that “shovel ready jobs” do exist, but “What we don’t have is shovel ready government.” Among other stories told about this misadventure is the greenie “weatherization” projects that were held up for months while the Department of Labor
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September 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A bipartisan group of fourteen United States Senators has forwarded an open letter to President Obama regarding his speech at the United Nations later this week. The letter was signed by Senators Menendez, Lieberman, Kyl, Casey, Collins, Gillibrand, Kirk, Blumenthal, Hatch, Cardin, Rubio, Schumer, Isakson, and Coons, and can be found here on Senator Gillibrand’s Web site. Here is the letter: Dear Mr. President: As you prepare to address the
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September 20, 2011 — John Hinderaker
That’s the question Ed Morrissey posts in The Week. Ed’s question is not whether Obama has quit running for re-election, but rather whether he has quit trying to govern. Ed points out that Obama did not even go through the motions of trying to get either Son of Stimulus or his most recent spending/debt package through Congress: Obama has offered two major proposals this month in an attempt to change
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September 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A perceptive eyewitness writes to report on the appearance of National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Jim Leach last week at Bowdoin College and to make a special contribution to this series. Our correspondent writes: NEH Chairman Jim Leach visited Bowdoin College last week to meet with faculty who had received NEH grants and those who were applying for future grants to hear about their projects. Mr. Leach also spoke
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September 20, 2011 — Steven Hayward
My review of Daniel Yergin’s new book, The Quest, which I’ve been previewing here on Power Line for the last couple weeks, is out in today’s Wall Street Journal. Enjoy! Meanwhile, what is the Fed up to now? I was listening to NPR on my way to the airport in Columbus this morning, and hearing the news that the Fed is considering a new “stimulus” plan of their own to
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September 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Reading the Wall Street Journal’s Review section over the weekend, I came across Edward Jay Epstein’s fascinating review of two new books on the post-9/11 anthrax attacks. It is a lucid and illuminating review that displays some of Epstein’s many virtues as a writer and analyst. I learned from the tag appended to the article that Epstein’s latest book is James Jesus Angleton: Was He Right? How could I not
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September 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Palestinian Media Watch picks up the story of the representative — the perfect representative — chosen by the powers-that-be in the Palestinian Authority to launch the PA’s statehood drive at the United Nations. What can we learn from this story? Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik report: The Palestinian Authority chose the mother of 4 terrorist murderers, one of whom killed seven Israeli civilians and attempted to killed twelve others,
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September 19, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A long-time reader files this report on an epic 50 year-old home run race. After the New York Yankees swept their three game series with the Detroit Tigers on Labor Day Weekend of 1961, the only remaining suspense in the American League centered on the race for home run leadership between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, and on the quest of both to break Babe Ruth’s single season record of
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September 19, 2011 — John Hinderaker
The Obama administration vehemently objects to charges that it engages in crony capitalism:
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September 19, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee have now had an opportunity to analyze the spending plan that President Obama put forth this morning, and the results are as disappointing as one would expect. The plan includes no net spending cuts at all. Jeff Sessions issued a statement that said in part: Today marks the president’s fourth attempt to deliver a credible deficit plan in just 8 months. Regrettably, the president
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September 19, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Justice Clarence Thomas was in Council Bluffs, Iowa, a few days ago talking with students. As usual, he was a breath of fresh air. He was asked about his judicial philosophy: Justice Clarence Thomas rejects suggestions he’s a follower of originalism in interpreting the Constitution. “I am a follower of get-it-rightism,” he says, bringing laughter from law students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Thomas says it’s important to understand what
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September 19, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Global warming alarmists have long been embarrassed by the fact that the Earth isn’t heating up to the extent that their models predict (assuming that it is heating up at all). In the world of science, when empirical observation contradicts a theory, the theory is deemed to be refuted. But global warming alarmism exists in the world of religion, so when empirical observation contradicts the theory, its proponents merely tinker
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