Monthly Archives: July 2014

House Republicans Vote to Take Obama to Court

Featured image Today, the House voted 225-201, nearly along party lines, to authorize litigation against President Obama. This is the long-awaited challenge to Obama’s usurpation of power via executive decree. The vote was on House Resolution 676. Here is the text of the resolution: Bills 113hres676rh House leadership decided to focus the resolution only on Obama’s actions with respect to Obamacare. This seems counter-intuitive; I would think it would be helpful to »

Breaking: The (Leftist) Billionaire Boys Club

Featured image This afternoon there’s an important update on the story of the epic hypocrisy of Tom Steyer, the billionaire promising to spend $100 million on behalf of Democrats, and John’s long analysis of the Democracy Alliance. The Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have released a new report entitled The Chain of Environmental Command: How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and »

The Evil Empire Is Back

Featured image So Obama, ever the bright and prompt one when it comes to foreign affairs, has declared the Soviet Union Russia to be in violation of the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty—Ronald Reagan’s famous “zero option.”  The violation occurred in 2009.  Guess it would have got in the way of that whole “reset” thing to have brought it up at the time. As it happens, I’m working on a new »

Hillary Clinton and the decision to intervene in Libya

Featured image Hillary Clinton has been working full-time to control the story of her time as Secretary of State. That was the point of her clunky, largely unread book, and the point of her awkward, gaffe-laden book tour. Clinton argues (plausibly) that she wanted a more activist approach to Syria than that served up by her boss. She argues (implausibly) that she wasn’t really sold on the “reset” with Russia. As to »

Tweeting Jake Tapper

Featured image We think more highly of Jake Tapper than we do of the standard cable talking head, and I follow him on Twitter, but his take on the current Hamas-Israel conflict demonstrates his limitations in a big way. Yesterday he tweeted out a sympathetic Hamas propaganda point: “More Palestinian children killed in last 3 wks than Israeli troops killed in military ops since 2006.” Maybe, but it’s a point that reflects »

Ms. Hillary’s pinpoint strikes

Featured image In an interview with Jorge Ramos Fusion TV, Ms. Hillary was asked about civilian deaths in Gaza. Hamas treats civilian death statistics as propaganda and carefully nurtures them. They are treated as gospel and routinely recited by the media without reservation. Bret Stephens took up the issue in an important Wall Street Journal column yesterday, addressing the officials and policymakers who use the statistics to criticize Israel or promote a »

The Great War and Modern Memory

Featured image Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia—the official beginning of hostilities of what became World War I.  There’s a ton of new books about the Great War (as it was called before the sequel caused a re-numbering), but in many ways my favorite remains Paul Fussell’s treatment of the literary legacy of the war from the 1970s, The Great War and Modern Memory. A few »

To Finish Off the Evening, the World’s Best Three-Year-Old Drummer

Featured image I have written nothing today, having spent my *free* time lining up guests and otherwise preparing to host the Laura Ingraham radio show tomorrow and Thursday. (To listen online between 9 and 12 Eastern, go here.) So, just to brighten your day, this is something I came across while searching for something more serious: the world’s best three-year-old drummer, Lyonya Shilovsky, a Russian, performing with the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra. It »

Pelosi parrots Qatar’s description of Hamas as “humanitarian”

Featured image Nancy Pelosi says that the United States must look to Qatar for advice in resolving the war between Hamas and Israel. And the beginning of the wisdom Qatar has imparted to Pelosi “over and over again” is that “Hamas is a humanitarian organization.” Qatar, of course, is the main ally and financial backer of Hamas. Indeed, Hamas’ leader, Khaled Meshaal, operates from Qatar. For that matter, Qatar is believed to »

Media Alert [Updated][Updated Again: How to Listen Online]

Featured image I will be guest hosting the Laura Ingraham radio show both tomorrow and Thursday. The show airs from 9:00 a.m.-noon Eastern time. I am expecting a good lineup of guests for the two shows, including Jeff Sessions, John Thune, Marco Rubio, Steve Hayward, Stephen Hunter and Katie Kieffer. Please tune in if you can! UPDATE: I have also added Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, to the lineup. »

American Sniper on trial: The verdict

Featured image I wrote about Jesse Ventura’s defamation claim against the estate of Chris Kyle in the post “American Sniper on trial.” I attended closing arguments in the case in federal district court in St. Paul this past Tuesday morning and am disappointed to report that, after declaring itself deadlocked yesterday, the jury returned with a verdict in favor of Jesse Ventura against the estate of Chris Kyle this afternoon. The 10-person »

Hamas and the libertarians

Featured image The libertarian movement apparently is divided over Hamas and Israel. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, has made a libertarian case against Hamas. In essence, the case is this: Hamas stands behind an ideology which expressly seeks to deprive individuals of their rights. As Walter Hudson puts it: “Islamic totalitarianism manifest in the entity of Hamas presents a common enemy to the United States and Israel. Neither »

Who You Calling Extreme? [With Comments By John]

Featured image My old pal and occasional sparring partner Norm Ornstein and his trusty sidekick Tom Mann have been arguing for years now that our current political gridlock owes to the asymmetric extremism of Republicans.  And they have a chart to prove it! This chart, based on an analysis of roll call votes in the House, supposedly shows that Republicans have become more conservative while liberals have only nudged a wee little »

What was Kerry doing?

Featured image David Harsanyi tries to account for John Kerry’s decision to hand Israel a proposed ceasefire agreement, driven by Qatar (Hamas’ sponsor) and Turkey, so favorable to Hamas that Israel was bound not only to reject it, but to take offense. This is what Kerry proposed: • Rather than empowering Fatah, recognizing Hamas as the legitimate authority in the Gaza Strip, though it is considered a terrorist organization by the Justice »

The case of David Ignatius, cont’d

Featured image David Ignatius is the prominent Washington Post columnist who specializes in foreign affairs. He writes highly regarded espionage novels in his spare time. His column “John Kerry’s big blunder” leads the honor roll at RealClearPolitics this morning. I find Ignatius to be a vile columnist and, if his humanity is reflected in his journalism, a vile human being. In the course of his column this morning, he can’t help himself. »

Reporting live from Gaza, suppressed and deleted

Featured image Hamas threats don’t account for the relentless ignorance and stupidity of the coverage of the Gaza hostilities, but they account for some of it. Reporters and their media employers cooperate with Hamas not only in suppressing stories that do not serve Hamas’s purposes, but also by failing to report on the restrictive conditions under which they are working. By email alert disseminated last night CAMERA alerts us to two examples »

“A Twitter Exchange For the Ages”

Featured image That’s what Mark Hemingway called it; who are we to argue? Via InstaPundit, here it is. But first: the exchange stars Scott’s daughter Eliana, whom I have known since she was maybe six years old. Eliana is now doing tremendous work for National Review, and the only people prouder of her than me are her parents. Well, probably her sisters too. Anyway, here it is. It has to do with »