June 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Ted Cruz and Mike Lee outshine Rand Paul on immigration

Featured image Only 15 Republican Senators voted against the motion to allow debate to proceed on the Schumer-Rubio immigration reform bill. The 15 “no” votes were cast by: John Barasso, Wyoming John Boozman, Arkansas Mike Crapo, Idaho Ted Cruz, Texas Mike Enzi, Wyoming Chuck Grassley, Iowa Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma Mark Kirk, Illinois Mike Lee, Utah James Risch, Idaho Tim Scott, South Carolina Jeff Sessions, Alabama Richard Shelby, Alabama David Vitter, Lousiana A »
June 12, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Times Struggles to Keep Climate Hope Alive

Featured imageThe latest chapter in our climate change endgame series comes courtesy of the New York Times, which struggled mightily on Sunday to cope with the inconvenient news that temperatures have been flat for more than a decade now.  In “What To Make of a Warming Plateau,” Times reporter Justin Gillis leads with the most compelling scientific argument yet: “luck.” As unlikely as this may sound, we have lucked out in »
June 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson

¿Por qué no te callas?

Featured imageJosé Millán Astray was the founder of the Spanish Foreign Legion and a supporter of Francisco Franco. In a famous confrontation at the University of Salamanca early in the Spanish Civil War, he is said to have responded to a statement of Unamuno with the imprecation (variously reported): “¡Abajo la inteligencia!” (down with the intelligentsia). In his brilliant contribution to National Review’s fifteenth anniversary issue in 1970, Jeffrey Hart began »
June 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson

CRB: Geography and world politics

Featured imageThis past weekend I pored over the magnificent new (Spring) issue of the Claremont Review of Books. The CRB is the flagship publication of the Claremont Institute and my favorite magazine. I want to persuade you to subscribe to it, which you can do here for the ridiculously low, heavily subsidized price of $19.95 a year and get immediate online access thrown in to boot. As has become the custom, »
June 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

This day in baseball history — a prolonged duel of ace relievers

Featured imageOn June 11, 1963, relievers Dick Radatz and Terry Fox dueled for more than seven innings in a game between the Boston Red Soc and the Detroit Tigers. Boston eventually prevailed 7-3 in 15 innings. Radatz and Fox were two of the very best relief pitchers in baseball. Radatz was known as the Monster (Detroit baseball writer Joe Falls quipped that “the Red Sox don’t warm him up, they assembled »
June 11, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Immigration Disaster Moves Forward In the Senate [UPDATED]

Featured imageThe Senate voted overwhelmingly today to move debate forward on the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. Only 15 Republicans voted No. Not all the Republicans who voted to move the bill forward today will necessarily vote for its passage, but it appears to be a foregone conclusion that the bill will indeed make it out of the Senate in more or less its current form. This is, I think, mystifying. »
June 11, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Hillary’s sorry state of affairs

Featured imageThe New York Post adds detail to one of the scandals mentioned in yesterday’s CBS report in the series of scandals involving Hillary Clinton’s State Department. John wrote about the CBS report here. Now the Post reports: A State Department whistleblower has accused high-ranking staff of a massive coverup — including keeping a lid on findings that members of then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s security detail and the Belgian ambassador solicited prostitutes. »
June 11, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Another Nail in the Climate Change Coffin

Featured imageJohn observed here a couple days ago about the rapidly collapsing case for catastrophic global warming, and courtesy of the NoTricksZone, we can take in one of the most devastating and comprehensive critiques of the standard alarmist model by Prof. Murry Salby, who is a climate scientist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and author of the textbook Physics of the Atmosphere and Climate, published by Cambridge University Press (last »
June 11, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Rich Lowry: Lincoln Unbound

Featured imageRich Lowry is the editor of National Review and the author, most recently, of Lincoln Unbound: How an Ambitious Young Railsplitter Saved the American Dream–and How We Can Do It Again, published today. I asked Rich if he would write about the book for Power Line readers on the book’s publication date. Rich has graciously responded as follows: Scott, thanks so much for the invitation to tell your readers a »
June 10, 2013 — John Hinderaker

In Baseball, Hope Springs Eternal

Featured imageThe Minnesota Twins won the World Series in 1987 and 1991, but they haven’t been a serious contender since the early ’90s. Still, over the last decade or so the franchise has fielded a good, competitive team. Their typical pattern was to make the postseason, and then lose ignominiously to the Yankees. That wasn’t so bad, especially since, for the last few years, we have enjoyed the world’s best baseball »
June 10, 2013 — John Hinderaker

The State Department Joins the Parade of Scandal

Featured imageCBS News is reporting on an Inspector General’s report on a series of scandals involving Hillary Clinton’s State Department. The most troubling aspect of the OIG report, according to CBS, is the extent to which senior State Department officials have tried to quash investigations of wrongdoing. Mrs. Clinton is not specifically named in the CBS report: CBS News’ John Miller reports that according to an internal State Department Inspector General’s »
June 11, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Miss Me Yet? Yup!

Featured imageRemember this meme from a while ago? Check out this screen cap of what’s up right now on the Puffington Host: According to the attached story: For the first time since 2005, more Americans now view former President George W. Bush favorably than unfavorably, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday. Forty-nine percent have a favorable view of Bush, while 46 percent view him unfavorably, the poll found. His ratings »
June 11, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Weaver Thoughts: Should Conservatives Turn on Wall Street?

Featured imageWe’ve commented before about the strange phenomenon of the liberal super-rich, not just in Silicon Valley, but also among Wall Street bankers/hedge funders—both major sources of money and political support for Obama and Democrats.  What’s the deal here?  I always thought Republicans were supposed to be the natural party of big business and finance capital.  This is one reason why I mused about the idea of a wealth tax a »
June 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Michael Gerson’s pathetic defense of Samantha Power

Featured imageMichael Gerson becomes the latest member of the Republican establishment to dive into the tank for Samantha Power, President Obama’s anti-Israel nominee for U.N. Ambassador. Like others in this category, Gerson apparently has been charmed by his personal interaction with Power. It appears to be Power’s passion and fire that charmed Gerson. Gerson initially found her to be an unfair, partisan critic of the Bush administration in which Gerson served. »
June 10, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

A good day for the amnesty-first crowd

Featured imageToday was another newsy day on the immigration legislation front. First, Byron York reported that on Sunday, Marco Rubio made his strongest statement yet that legalization of the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants must happen before any new border security or internal enforcement measures are in place, and will in no way be conditional on any security requirements. Not surprisingly, Rubio made this statement in a Spanish-language interview with »
June 10, 2013 — John Hinderaker

The Real War on a Woman’s Right to Choose

Featured imageWe wrote here about an astonishing moment of insensitivity on the part of a Democratic member of Colorado’s legislature: A young woman named Amanda Collins mustered the courage to testify before a Colorado legislative committee on that state’s proposed gun ban legislation. Ms. Collins testified in opposition to a blanket ban on guns on college campuses, and described her own rape. She had a permit to carry a pistol but »
June 10, 2013 — John Hinderaker

The Gang of Eight’s Bill: To Know It Is To Hate It

Featured imageThe Federation for American Immigration Reform commissioned Pulse Opinion Research to conduct polling on key provisions of the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill in seven states: Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia. You can see the results here. In general, they show that if you tell voters what is actually in the bill, they don’t like it. Let’s take Ohio, a bellwether swing state. This is »