May 9, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday’s Benghazi hearing provided important information about the cover-up that occurred following the attack, and the leading role of Hillary Clinton in that cover-up. We already knew that the talking points Susan Rice used on five Sunday talk shows had been changed to provide false information about the Benghazi attack. Gregory Hicks, the State Department’s number two man in Libya when the attack began, confirmed yesterday that there was no
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May 9, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday’s Benghazi hearing tended to confirm my view that, looking back, the four Americans who died during the attack (which occurred in two distinct phases) were doomed due to the inadequate security provided by the State Department. In other words, there probably was nothing we could have done once the attack commenced that would have saved them. However, the hearing also confirmed that the U.S. declined to take actions that,
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May 9, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Last night, I watched the replay of the House Oversight Committee hearing on Benghazi. The hearing enhanced my knowledge of key events before, during, and after the attack. This post focuses on events before the attack. We already knew that the embassy in Libya had requested that the State Department beef up security, and that, instead, the number of people providing security had been slashed. And we already knew that
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May 6, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
When it first became clear that the CIA’s Benghazi talking points had been altered, many of us viewed the White House as the prime suspect. After all, it served President Obama’s political purposes to claim, at the height of a political campaign in which he was taking credit for the fall of al Qaeda, that the death of a U.S. ambassador was down to spontaneous outrage over a video, rather
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May 6, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Heritage Foundation has released its long awaited study of the cost to American taxpayers of legalizing the current population of illegal immigrants. The study, available here, estimates the cost at $6.3 trillion, at a minimum. Andrew Stiles at NRO does a good job of summarizing the study’s methodology and findings: The study seeks to calculate the total amount of taxpayer-funded benefits and services illegal immigrants would, if given legal
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May 6, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Mark Krikorian shows how the Schumer-Rubio immigration reform bill falls short of what Sen. Rubio promised when he touted it in advance on conservative Talk Radio. Here are some of the particulars Krikorian presents: 1. Rubio emphasized that to gain legal status, immigrants would have to pay their back taxes. But the bill Rubio helped write requires only that applicants “satisfy any applicable federal tax liability” that has previously been
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May 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
We’ve been saying for some time that Obamacare will be a central issue in the 2014 election, and that it offers Republicans the hope, if they nominate solid candidates, of taking control of the Senate. Now, Senate Democrats have figured this out, as well. Ron Wyden is latest example. He frets: There is reason to be very concerned about what’s going to happen with young people. If their (insurance) premiums
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May 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
In the aftermath of Israel’s attacks on Syrian weapons facilities, I’ve seen reports that Israel fears a response from the Assad regime. In such a response, Syria would target nearby areas in Northern Israel — the same ones that were pounded in the 2006 Lebanese War. But according to the Jerusalem Post, residents of Northern Israel are not worried that Assad will bomb them. They see Assad as too weak
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May 4, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Everton and Liverpool last met in late October, when the teams produced an eventful 2-2 draw at Goodison Park That result left Everton in fifth place, 8 places ahead of their cross-park rivals. Looking ahead, I wrote that “there’s a good chance [the two teams] will be close together in the Table when the Derby is played at Liverpool in early May.” Sure enough, with the Derby set for Sunday,
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May 4, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
It turns out that those Israeli air strikes inside Syria were directed at a shipment of advanced surface-to-surface missiles from Iran that was intended for Hezbollah. Iran and Hezbollah both back Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war. But the weapons shipment may have been as much or more about strengthening Hezbollah in a post-Assad Syria as about helping Assad retain power. In any event, Israel was not about to
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May 4, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Outgoing South Carolina Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian told a Democratic rally that next year his party will win the gubernatorial election and “send Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from.” Haley is an Indian-American who was raised in South Carolina. Her parents are Sikh immigrants. Harpootlian claims he meant the election results would send Gov. Haley back to Lexington County where she used to live. Last year,
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May 3, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Israeli planes reportedly entered Syrian air space today and bombed Syrian targets. The targets are said to be one or more weapons facility. It isn’t clear whether, assuming the veracity of the reports, the targets were chemical weapons facilities. But if the Syrian government has used chemical weapons, bombing chemical weapons facilities is an appropriate response, for it diminishes the chemical weapons capability of both the Assad regime and its
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May 3, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
A new Associated Press-GfK national survey finds that 79 percent of the public believe the Washington Redskins name should not be changed. Only 11 percent think it should be changed. Some Redskins fans have criticized the Washington Post — which has championed a name-change — for delaying its posting of this result on its website, and then putting up a story that seems to bury the poll results. However, the
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May 3, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Byron York challenges the idea that supposedly is driving the Republican Party’s cave-in on amnesty — the notion that the Hispanic vote was a key element in Mitt Romney’s defeat. Byron shows that President Obama would have won the election even if Romney had captured a majority of the Hispanic vote. Republicans are barking up the wrong tree in pandering to Hispanic voters. First, as Byron indicates, they don’t seem
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May 2, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Please dont’t miss John Fonte’s piece on NRO about provisions in the Gang of Eight bill (see pages 370-94) that will funnel federal dollars to left-wing activists so they can organize illegal aliens who obtain amnesty. The money is cleverly earmarked as intended to help integrate immigrants. Thus, it is designated for programs that will promote “linguistic, economic, and civic integration.” But who will get the money? According to the
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May 2, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama told fellow leftists yesterday to put aside concerns over the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. He assured them that once Congress locks an overarching plan into place, his administration will be able to revisit the specifics and figure out how to address them. It’s natural that both Obama and Marco Rubio are holding out the prospect of “fixes” to the immigration bill; they need to assuage nervous constituent
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May 2, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that he doesn’t think his immigration bill can pass in the House. “It will have to be adjusted,” he told radio talk show host Mike Gallagher, “because people are very suspicious about the willingness of the government to enforce the law now.” Rubio didn’t stop with this interesting prediction. He went on to agree that his bill needs to be improved. The Senator described suspicion
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