Monthly Archives: May 2012

Obama administration ignores its own warnings, opens up to Hollywood on bin Laden raid

Featured image Josh Gerstein at Politico reports that just weeks after Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency officials warned publicly of the dangers posed by leaks about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, top officials at both agencies and at the White House granted Hollywood filmmakers unusual access to those involved in planning the raid and some of the methods they used to do it. Gerstein bases his report in part on »

An Evening with Charles Krauthammer

Featured image Last night, the Center of the American Experiment held its Annual Dinner at the Hilton in downtown Minneapolis. For, I believe, the seventh year in a row, I was privileged to be the master of ceremonies for the event. It’s a great role–the less you do, the better people like it. Our keynote speaker this year was Dr. Charles Krauthammer. He was insightful as always, analyzing the Obama administration as »

Stories from the Obama Economy [Updated]

Featured image The Romney campaign’s newest web video keeps the focus where it belongs. Titled “Stories from the Obama Economy,” it begins with a clip of President Obama saying in a press conference earlier this week that Bain Capital is what the campaign is all about. “No, Mr. President, it’s about this,” the ad says, followed by shots of Americans talking about the hardships of the Obama economy: It’s a good ad, »

Some thoughts on Tom Cotton’s victory

Featured image Let’s begin by looking backwards and sparing a thought for the pathetic leftists who, when Tom first appeared on Power Line (writing to us from Iraq), claimed that he didn’t exist. The idea that a Harvard educated lawyer would leave a top-flight law firm to fight for his country was simply too alien for these poor souls to accept. This level of patriotism didn’t compute. We feel sorry for them. »

A statement from Susan Vass

Featured image Our friend Susan Vass has released a statement: For immediate release…Susan Vass, Former Person of Pallor, having remembered that her sister has naturally curly hair and that she and her brother both have an excellent sense of rhythm, is pleased to announce her application to become the second Womyn of Color at Harvard Law. “My color is Fish-Belly White,” explained Mrs. Vass, “but my family lore has always included the »

CRB: Against the Globalistas

Featured image This morning we continue with our preview of the new (Spring) issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here). Yesterday we took a look at Professor James Ceaser’s essay “Restoring the Constitution,” the first wallop in a one-two punch that is followed by John Marini’s “Abandoning the Constitution.” John Fonte’s book Sovereignty Or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves Or Be Ruled By Others? considers the epic struggle between the »

Are Democrats Ready to Dump Obama?

Featured image That is probably too much to hope for. But something is definitely happening here–in the Democratic primaries, that is–and what it is, is pretty clear. Democrats across the country are expressing revulsion at the prospect of Barack Obama continuing to lead their party. Arkansas and Kentucky held primaries today. The Democrat establishment was worried about Arkansas, because polls suggested that a flake named John Wolfe was running uncomfortably close to »

Democrats Violate Budget Control Act

Featured image The Budget Control Act is the compromise on federal spending that the Republicans and Democrats entered into last summer, as part of the deal whereby the Republicans agreed to increase the federal debt limit. That increase was conditioned on spending restraint that was spelled out specifically in the BCA. Thus, for the current fiscal year, discretionary spending was capped at $1.047 trillion. That couldn’t be any clearer. But when Kent »

Palin endorses Sen. Hatch

Featured image Sarah Palin has just announced that she is endorsing Sen. Orrin Hatch in the Utah Senate primary. Palin revealed this on Greta Van Susteren’s show. She emphasized Hatch’s record and position on balancing the budget. I’m happy about this news. Hatch has fought, and often led, the good fight for decades, and in my opinion deserves to be re-elected. I believe he’s in pretty good shape in his primary contest, »

Tom Cotton takes an early lead

Featured image Our friend Tom Cotton has jumped ahead in the Republican congressional primary in Arkansas’ Fourth District. With 2 of 33 counties reporting, Tom has 74 percent of the vote and leads his main rival Beth Anne Rankin 418 votes to 113. Clearly, there’s a very long way to go, and we’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, in the Arkansas Democratic presidential primary, President Obama leads someone call John Wolfe by 58 »

English Premier League All-Stars, 2011-12

Featured image Every year for some time now, Power Line has selected an English Premier League team of the year. Last year, in my absence, a long-time reader made the picks. I thought he did a pretty good job. Now that I’m a pensioner, with plenty of time on my hands, I thought I would pick three teams, to give EPL fans more to shoot at. Please rest assured that the players »

Winston Churchill, Harvard Minority

Featured image I had somehow forgotten that Winston Churchill’s grandmother was one-quarter Iroquois indian, which makes Winston (if I’ve done my genealogical math correctly) one-sixteenth native American–twice as much as Elizabeth Warren supposedly is.  Let’s see the diversity-mongers explain this away. Roosevelt commented to Churchill during one of WSC’s wartime visits, “You know, Winston, my Dutch ancestors were among the very first settlers in what was then called Nieuw Amsterdam.” Churchill answered: “But, »

Overcoming “Mr. Snuffleupagus Republicanism” in the Fast and Furious investigation

Featured image Republican leaders in the House are moving cautiously towards requiring Attorney General Holder to produce documents relevant to the investigation of DOJ’s “Fast and Furious” program, or else be held in contempt of Congress. Previously, Holder was to face a Memorial Day deadline for coughing up the documents. Now, a letter sent to Holder last Friday gives him until mid-June. Moreover, the scope of the documents demanded has been scaled »

Washington Post poll generates insignificant lead for Obama

Featured image A new Washington Post/ABC News poll has Barack Obama leading Mit Romney 49-46 among registered voters. The 3 point lead is within the margin of error, which is plus or minus 3.5. Properly analyzed, the poll presents better news for Romney than meets the eye. That’s because, as Ed Morrissey points out, Republicans are woefully under-sampled by the Post. The sample includes 32 percent Democrats, 38 percent independents, and only »

Who Reads Power Line?

Featured image You just never know where you’ll run into a Power Line reader.  Why here’s Peter Schramm (famous for being the world’s best-looking fat man), director of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, in Times Square, of all places, succinctly extolling the virtues–well, one of them, any way–of this humble site: To recommend Power Line to your friends, click below: »

CRB: Restoring the Constitution

Featured image It must be Spring, because the Spring issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here for the absurdly low price of $19.95) has just been published and is available online to subscribers. It is an incredibly rich issue. The CRB is the flagship publication of our friends at the Claremont Institute. The mission of the institute — “to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent »

Obama’s Attacks on Bain: Are They Working?

Featured image This survey by Scott Rasmussen, released yesterday, suggests that they are not: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters believe that Romney’s track record in business is primarily a reason to vote for him. Thirty-three percent (33%) see his business career as chiefly a reason to vote against him. Twenty-two percent (22%) are undecided. This suggests that Romney is probably on the right »