Monthly Archives: August 2005

Much Hype, Little Impact

ABC News has released a poll which suggests that, while 75% of respondents have heard of Cindy Sheehan, and about half “support” what she is doing, her media spectacle has changed few, if any, minds. Nine percent say her protest has made them more likely to oppose the war, but a slightly greater number, ten percent, say it has had the opposite effect: they are more likely to support the »

The Krugman Korrection, take 2

Last week we noted the case of the Krugman Korrection here and in “Into your life it will creep.” Krugman appended his “corrections” to his kolumn this past Friday, in part reiterating one of the key misrepresentations of his previous kolumn. The case of the Krugman Korrection implicated the Star Tribune because the Strib had run Krugman’s kolumn on August 22, after it had already been exposed as a fraud »

Overwhelming Support for Vote on Iraqi Constitution

Haider Ajina sends us these poll results, which he has translated from today’s edition of the Iraqi newspaper Alhayat: A poll taken by »

Will “peace” give Schroeder a chance?

The other day, I wrote about German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s effort to once again stave off defeat by presenting himself as the “peace chancellor,” defying Americn plans for war, this time against Iran and North Korea. In today’s Washington Times, two German analysts, Andreas Jacobs and Karl-Heinz Kamp, argue that, given Schroeder’s foreign policy record since the 2002 election and the absence of any acute foreign policy crisis, the “peace” »

Senator McCain nails it

Many people tend to associate Chuck Hagel with John McCain, and not without reason. But here’s a big difference — while both can be spectacularly wrong, McCain can also be spectaculary right. Consider Senator McCain’s statement to CBS News about the analogy between Vietnam and Iraq that Senator Hagel has posited: Vietnam never had a legitimate government in Saigon that the people believed in and trusted. There was superpower engagement »

Kerry me back to old Virginny

John Behan at the Commonwealth Conservative reports on the lame effort of Democratic gubernatorial candidate to appeal to Virginia’s important sportsmen’s vote. It was bad enough when Kaine, in this year’s equivalent of a “message I care” moment, told reporters that “Having a sportsmen »

From the Belly of the Beast

Reader Curt Loftis spent two days in Crawford, Texas, carrying out a first-hand reconnaissance of the anti-American forces assembled there. He writes: I arrived at the original Camp Casey at 2:30 in the afternoon. It was hot and dry and the assembled demonstrators were in a melancholy state. I quickly made friends, stressing »

Lessons From a Pro

We sometimes wonder why successful professional journalists would want to become bloggers. One reason, I think, is that some journalists have more to say than can be squeezed into a couple of columns a week and an occasional book. Michael Barone is clearly in this category. His blog is brand new, but already a favorite of ours. Today he wrote an essay on the history of New Orleans and a »

What a Puzzle!

The Associated Press reports on the exhumation of Israelis who were buried in the Gaza strip, and their reburial on the Mount of Olives and elsewhere. This is one of those doughnut stories, with a big hole right in the middle. On the AP’s telling, the transfer of Israeli dead out of Gaza becomes a story about Jewish burial customs. Completely absent is any reference to the reason why Jewish »

Power Line News Updated

Power Line News has been very popular, as the first site on the web where you can get both up to date news and blog commentary via RSS feeds, along with access to dozens of foreign newspapers, news aggregated by subject, market information, and more. Since the site debuted two weeks ago, we have been working on updating and improving it to make it more useful for our readers. A »

What’s Happening in Crawford

Documentary filmmaker Andrew Marcus is in Crawford, Texas, observing the demonstrations there, taking pictures, and interviewing some of the participants. Check out his site Lights Camera Protest. Andrew has posted video interviews with one of the leaders of the Crawford “Peace House,” who says, in the course of the interview: “There weren’t any terrorists in Iraq prior to our invasion. That’s a historical fact which the administration admits.” This is »

Hurricane Update

Hurricane Katrina has been downgraded to a category 3 storm, and has turned somewhat toward the east, toward Mississippi and away from New Orleans. So, while it is still very dangerous and will no doubt do considerable damage to New Orleans, the devastation may not be as extensive as was predicted yesterday. Via Power Line News. »

Iraqi Constitution Translated

You can read the final version (so far) of the draft Iraqi constitution here. I’m still working my way through it, but it generally looks good, despite being a little “liberal,” in the American sense, in places. »

Media quagmire

The Standard has posted my column on media coverage of the war: “The media quagmire.” On a related note, Lorie Byrd has compiled a set of must-read items on the war at Polipundit. I missed the article by Stephen Hayes in the new issue of the Standard when the new issue was posted on Saturday: “See no evil, hear no evil.” Thanks to RealClearPolitics for including it on the honor »

Fearing the Worst in New Orleans

Doomsday predictions are everywhere; 60% to 80% of New Orleans’ homes destroyed, the entire city submerged, thousands stranded in the Super Dome like the people you sometimes see perched on the roofs of their houses during a flood; thoudands, perhaps, killed. Michelle Malkin has a good roundup. Still, things might not turn out so badly. New Orleans has had a number of near misses in recent years; this might be »

Studied calm vs. mindless bombast

David Von Drehle in the Washington Post takes a look at John Roberts’ style of answering questions before the Supreme Court, and considers how that style — calm, agreeable (at least on the surface), and prepared — will play before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Von Drehle suggests that Roberts’ style may frustrate Democrats on the committee, but otherwise will play quite well. A major difference between the questions of a »

A positive accounting

Christopher Hitchens delivers a brilliant essay in the Daily Standard called “A War to Be Proud Of.” His positive accounting of our accomplishments in the Bush administration’s proactive war on terrorism includes: 1) The overthrow of Talibanism and Baathism, and the exposure of many highly suggestive links between the two elements of this Hitler-Stalin pact. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who moved from Afghanistan to Iraq before the coalition intervention, has »