June 8, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The government’s war on the rights of conservatives isn’t just being waged by the IRS; the U.S. Army apparently is also participating. According to this report from Fox News, Master Sgt. Nathan Sommers, a 25-year Army veteran and conservative Christian based at Fort Myer in the Washington, D.C. area, has been harassed and persecuted for expressing conservative views and for reading books by Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and David Limbaugh.
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June 7, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I always expect the worst from Lindsey Graham, and he rarely disappoints. Today, Graham strongly backed Samantha Power for the U.N. ambassador post. But that wasn’t the worst. The worst was his statement that Power “will be a strong supporter of our close friend and ally Israel.” As I said, Graham rarely disappoints. I wonder what evidence Graham would cite in favor of his claim that Power, with her record
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June 7, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I agree with John that, from all that appears so far, the NSA’s collection of phone records is not a scandal. No law appears to have been violated; the administration proceeded with permission from the appropriate court; Congress was in-the-loop; and there is no evidence (to my knowledge) that the information NSA obtained was used abusively, oppressively, or in a discriminatory or partisan way. Moreover, as John explained, NSA’s data
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June 7, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Eric Holder’s interview with Pete Williams of NBC News is, as John says, a classic. It seems to me that Holder’s statements during the interview nail down the case that he lied to Congress or to a court. According to NBC’s account of the interview [note that NBC's written account does not appear to track word-for-word the video of the interview NBC posted along with its account], Holder said: I
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June 6, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this week, the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens visited President Obama at the White House. The reports I read noted that a few members of the championship squad were unable to attend because they were practicing with a new team. But I saw no mention that any member skipped the event as a protest. It turns out, however, that center Matt Birk did just that. Birk, who retired after
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June 6, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Although the Obama administration scandals that have emerged since Election Day are hurting the Democrats a bit, Obamacare remains the real threat to the Dems in 2014. As Tevi Troy points out in Commentary, by most every measure, things are going badly on the Obamacare front: Health-insurance premiums are becoming more expensive, which is particularly striking when you consider that the act’s advocates promised it would decrease costs by $2,500
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June 6, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The label “neoconservative” has been misused and abused so frequently that it has lost most of its substantive meaning. Without getting deep into the details, consider that the most famous neoconservative article ever published, Jeanne Kirkpatrick’s “Dictatorship and Double Standards,” argued against democracy promotion as a guiding principle of American foreign policy: Although most governments in the world are, as they always have been, autocracies of one kind or another,
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June 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
A Power Line reader from New Jersey agrees generally with my assessment of Chris Christie’s decision to hold a special election in October of this year to fill Frank Lautenberg’s seat, but adds some nuance. Our reader notes that, although Christie could win reelection if the special Senate election occurred on Election Day, the governor gains two advantages by holding that election earlier. First, by getting the Senate race out
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June 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier today, I described Samantha Power, President Obama’s nominee for ambassador to the U.N., as “virulently anti-Israel” and “Israel hating.” These are harsh words. Even some good faith supporters of Israel may consider them unfair. But let’s look at Power’s harsh words about Israel. For example, as I noted in this post: Power has expressed outrage at the way Israel has treated the U.N.’s faux peacekeepers in South Lebanon, the
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June 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
It was always just a matter of time until President Obama, once elected to a second term, handed a major position to his favorite foreign policy analyst, Samantha Power. Now, with Susan Rice moving from the U.N. to the White House as National Security Adviser, Obama is set to nominate Power as ambassador to the U.N. Power’s selection for a highly visible position had to await Obama’s second term because
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June 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Two distinguished law professors and star bloggers — Jonathan Adler and Orin Kerr — have, in separate posts, argued that there is no case for the proposition that Eric Holder lied when he testified to Congress that he has never been “involved in” “potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material.” Many, including me and John, have suggested that Holder’s testimony doesn’t square with statements in an affidavit,
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June 4, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg left Chris Christie in a difficult spot. Christie’s national party now would want him to appoint a Republican to serve out Lautenberg’s term, which doesn’t expire until the end of 2014. By doing so, Christie presumably would provide the GOP with a non-liberal vote in the Senate for a year-and-a-half. Through this course, however, Christie might alienate New Jersey voters at an inopportune time
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June 2, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
We have a faithful reader who spent a long career at the Criminal Investigation (CI) Division of the IRS. Our reader prefers to remain nameless but he knows whereof he speaks and he has been supplying us with a steady stream of commentary on the IRS scandal, expanding like the universe. He writes to comment on today’s update to the scandal: An administrative note about today’s news and the 88
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May 31, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Colonel Jerry Cadick’s recounting of some of his “ejection” experiences reminds me of a story about Ted Williams that John McCain told a group of us one New Hampshire day aboard the “Straight Talk Express.” McCain, a Boston Red Sox fan and (of course) an ex-fighter pilot, greatly admired Williams, who served as a fighter pilot in two wars. During a mission in North Korea, Williams’ fighter plane was crippled
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May 31, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
At PJ Media, Christian Adams points out that former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman “isn’t the only non-cabinet member from the Obama administration to visit the White House an extraordinary number of times.” Tom Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights, made 83 visits during the period covered by White House logs examined by the Daily Caller. This makes Perez the third most frequent visitor to the White House. Only Shulman
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May 30, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The mainstream media, on behalf of the left, treats Ted Cruz as if he were a knee-jerk, obstructionist right-winger, devoid of subtlety and nuanced thinking — a nastier version of Sarah Palin, as the MSM portrayed her. But that’s not the Ted Cruz I see. Sure, he is capable of serving up red meat, as any ambitious modern politician must, at times, do. But on the issues, he generally comes
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May 30, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
During his brief visit to Syria last weekend, John McCain posed for a group picture that reportedly includes two men who kidnapped 11 Shiite pilgrims in Lebanon. The two men, Mohamed Nour and Abu Ibrahim, are identified as kidnappers by The Daily Star of Lebanon. A spokesman for Sen. McCain said that if anyone in the photo was among the kidnappers, that is “regrettable.” The spokesman added that “it would
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