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Monthly Archives: September 2013
A Gullible Fool at That
I’ve known all along that Obama is a fool, and probably a knave too, but I didn’t think he was totally gullible. (Well yes, he did pick John Kerry for secretary of state, so I should know better.) His “hopeful” phone call with Iran’s new “moderate” President Rouhani brings to mind all of the jokes arising our of our bitter experience with Iran in the 1980s: What’s an Iranian “moderate”? »
A Boehner Blunder?
I’m afraid so. Yesterday the House passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for the next few months, with multiple riders: a one-year delay in Obamacare, repeal of the medical device tax, protection of servicemen’s salaries, and postponement of Obamacare’s requirement that employers pay for their employees’ birth control. The House package violates the most basic principle of negotiation: you should bargain for something that 1) you want, »
Reading Rouhani
Staying over at a friend’s home on Long Island in the summer of 1969, I overheard my friend’s father blowing a gasket late one night as he contended with his youngest daughter on the telephone. At the end of his rope, he lashed out into the phone (please forgive the vulgarity): “That’s the goddamndest bunch of bullshit I’ve ever heard.” It was more than 40 years ago and I can »
When Hitler didn’t meet Churchill
President Obama’s palpable excitement over the phone call he had with the president of “the Islamic Republic of Iran” — Obama bows verbally even when he can’t execute his 90-degree dive in person — put me in mind of Winston Churchill’s failed meeting with Adolf Hitler. It’s a story I’ve mentioned here before and ask your indulgence in mentioning again as the occasion seems to warrant. Among the many qualities »
Cruz 2016 revisited
A new poll by PPP finds that Ted Cruz is now the top choice of Republican primary voters to be their candidate for President in 2016. 20 percent of the Republican primary voters surveyed favor Cruz. Rand Paul is next with 17 percent. He is followed by Chris Christie (14 percent), Jeb Bush (11 percent), Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan (10 percent), Bobby Jindal (4 percent), and Rick Santorum and »
Plan B unveiled, but what is Plan C? [UPDATED]
The House has determined its next step in the ongoing Continuing Resolution drama. It will pass a CR keeps the government running provided that Obamacare is delayed for one-year and a medical-device tax included in Obamacare is repealed permanently. Will the Senate go along with delaying Obamacare for one-year? I doubt it. The House’s move does create the possibility that Democratic Senators facing reelection in Red States will go on »
The Week in Pictures: Dueling Armageddons Edition
So where are we this fine weekend? Looks like the liberal establishment can’t decide on which end-of-the-world scenario to run with. Global warming! It’s our fault! The end is near! Grab your ankles (or cankles, if your name is Hillary2016)! No wait: it’s the imminent government shutdown! The power to Obama’s teleprompter might go out! The government will be on Cruz Control! Grab your ankles (or cankles if your name »
How not to save the world
Nina Munk is the author of The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest To End Poverty, her new book on Columbia Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs is the renowned author of The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities For Our Time (foreword by Bono). Sachs is the man with a plan to end poverty and it has made him a celebrity. He starred in the MTV movie The Diary of Angelina Jolie »
The Occasional Winston
Listening to Barack Obama advertise his man crush on Hassan Rouhani makes my skin crawl. Rouhani is a man with whom the United States has many scores to settle but he and the mullahs have Obama’s number, not that it’s all that hard to pick up. Fresh off his diplomatic “triumph” in Syria, Obama is all but shrieking: “I am a chicken ripe to be plucked.” As it happens, a »
Cruz declines to endorse Cornyn
Today, Ted Cruz was asked again whether he endorses John Cornyn for re-election. Cruz again declined to endorse his Texas Senate colleague. Cruz’s explanation, at least as reported by Politico, wasn’t impressive. Cruz said, “I think it is very likely I’m going to stay out of all incumbent runs.” But why? Does he disfavor the reelection of every single Republican incumbent? Or is he simply indifferent about the composition of »
Who Are the Real Suicide Bombers?
This is really too easy: President Obama is willing to negotiate with Iran, but not with the House of Representatives. Commentators have been all over it, and I don’t really have much to add. Except to note that not only has Obama refused to negotiate with the House, he has also had his spokesman describe Republicans as suicide bombers. The irony is rich: those who are concerned about $17 trillion »
Today’s Senate Votes, and What Lies Ahead
Today’s votes in the Senate were rather anticlimactic. Harry Reid pursued his announced strategy of bringing the House’s continuing resolution, which defunds Obamacare, up for a vote. The cloture motion passed 79-19, a disappointment to some conservatives who had hoped for more “no” votes. (A Senate staffer told me today that cloture opponents had hoped for 25 “no” votes.) The senators who voted “No” were Mike Crapo (Idaho), Ted Cruz »
The short ride from “Soft Power” to No Power
It requires little discussion to show that the U.N. approved resolution on chemical weapons in Syria is a joke. As Brett Schaefer and Baker Spring point out, the resolution is toothless because it fails to establish a direct enforcement mechanism for assuring the complete application of Chemical Weapons Convention requirements in Syria. The resolution provides that in the event of non-compliance with its terms, the Security Council will impose undefined »
How Crazy Are the Democrats? This Crazy
Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan, whose district includes Madison, Wisconsin, on the House floor. I guess this is his way of defending Obamacare: These people are completely nuts. Via Twitchy. »
Why Only I Can Solve Global Warming
Well, this is fun. Our pals at the center-left Breakthrough Institute, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, suggest today that if global warming is truly a catastrophic problem the only people who could solve it are . . . conservatives. And there’s my happy mug on their web page display today, next to Dr. Evil the Koch brothers (and my sometimes debate partner Robert Bryce): This fits with what I’ve been »
Rep. Goodlatte keeps hope alive for comprehensive immigration reform [UPDATED]
Rep. Bob Goodlatte is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He has come under fire from conservatives who oppose amnesty-style immigration reform for signaling his desire to bring a series of immigration bills to the House floor as early as next month. One such bill reportedly could make it possible for illegal immigrants to obtain legal status and to apply for citizenship through existing channels, as opposed to providing a »
The Ultimate Ted Talk
A number of observers have noted the media hypocrisy over the treatment of Ted Cruz’s impressive 21-hour speech and Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis’s similar effort recently in the Texas legislature. (Obama must surely be wondering how Cruz was able to talk cogently for 21 hours without a Teleprompter. Cruz’s bravura performance was, as I say, the ultimate TED Talk.) We know how this story goes for the media: Davis »