Monthly Archives: November 2005

November 20, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

A captive audience

I’ve been watching a replay on C-SPAN of the press conference earlier this year held by Laurence Silberman and Chuck Robb of the Committee on Intelligence Capabilities. They both noted that the committee’s views on the major flaws in the CIA are consistent with the findings of other bodies over the years. This led someone to ask why little was done to change fundamentally the way the CIA operates. Robb »
November 20, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

Outside the box

The tireless Thomas Joscelyn, writing in the Daily Standard, debunks the claim of Daniel Benjamin that there was no relationship between Baghdad and al-Qaeda prior to our attack in 2003. Joscelyn relies on claims and findings by the Clinton administration, which Benjamin served, and on Benjamin’s own defense of the bombing of the Sudanese pharmaceutical plant at al-Shifa in 1998. Although some suggested at the time that Clnton attacked the »
November 20, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Speaking of Zarqawi

There’s another report that he may be dead: The Elaph Arab media website reported on Sunday that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the al-Qaida in Iraq terror group, may have been killed in Iraq on Sunday afternoon when eight terrorists blew themselves up in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The unconfirmed report claimed that the explosions occurred while coalition forces surrounded the house in which al-Zarqawi was hiding. »
November 20, 2005 — John Hinderaker

The Democrats Aren’t Paying Attention, But…

…the war in Iraq is steadily being won. And, since the terrorists in general and al Qaeda in particular have chosen to make conquering Iraq their number one priority, the victory is far more important than the original ousting of Saddam and his Baathists. The latest evidence that things are going our way appeared today in the form of advertisements in three Jordanian newspapers, paid for by 57 of al-Zarqawi’s »
November 20, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Greatness on C-SPAN

Earlier this month my friend Steven Hayward gave a lecture at the Ashbrook Center on his book Greatness: Reagan, Churchill and the Making of Extraordinary Leaders. Tonight C-SPAN2 will broadcast Steve’s Ashbrook Center talk at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time. The C-SPAN2 notice is here. If you can’t watch it, you can listen to it online here. Peter Schramm’s review at No Left Turns: “It is, by the way, excellent!” »
November 20, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The linguini triangle

In his weekly Sun-Times column, Mark Steyn combines the Senate’s efforts to name federal buildings after its members with the Senate’s adoption of the resolution regarding Iraq last week. It’s a flammable combination: “Senate adopts ‘exit strategy’ from reality.” Here’s Steyn’s harshest paragraph: I know what Bush believes: He thought Saddam should go in 2002 and today he’s glad he’s gone, as am I. I know what, say, Michael Moore »
November 19, 2005 — John Hinderaker

It’s Hard to Keep Those Countries Straight

Chris Muir sent us tomorrow’s Day By Day cartoon; he’s noticed, as we have, that the Democrats can’t seem to keep their countries straight; click to enlarge: »
November 19, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Anti-Terror Demonstration in Amman

We’re a day late with this, but it’s worth noting, for anyone who missed it, that yesterday more than 200,000 people demonstrated against terrorism and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Amman, Jordan. This photo is from the rally: Al Qaeda is obviously nervous about the furious reaction to its attacks in Jordan and throughout the Muslim world. Now Zarqawi is trying to deny, ludicrously, that his bombers intentionally targeted a wedding »
November 19, 2005 — Scott Johnson

To whom it may concern

Charles Kindt writes: It’s galling, is it not, when someone like Murtha, who, as did I, served in Vietnam when the Democrats did, IN FACT, make us cut and run, can now espouse the identical spineless, pant-wetting, humiliating, hollow and death-dealing tactic as then? What did Murtha say about the abandonment of the South Vietnamese? No doubt, if we did as they loudly advocate, and Iraq returned to what they »
November 19, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Hot Petition

Scott Hennen of WDAY’s Hot Talk writes: I have an idea. I’m fed up with Democrats and Republicans not supporting the President and our troops with the war effort in Iraq. So what better way to stop it than a grassroots Talkradio/Blogosphere led effort to gather signatures and call on Congress to STOP THE MADNESS? I floated the idea by email to Sean Hannity to lead the talk radio effort…he »
November 19, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Chris Muir Comments

Here is Day By Day’s take on the Democrats’ sophisticated analysis of the situation in Iraq. Click to enlarge: »
November 19, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Fake but accurate, take 2

Jonathan Alter embarrasses himself with his pathetic review of Mary Mapes’s book on Rathergate in tomorrow’s Times Book Review: “Network error.” Here’s one key paragraph: The most illuminating parts of the book are those in which Mapes strikes back at the cyber-lynch mob. Her description of a right-wing veteran of the Paula Jones case, masquerading as an expert on the technology of 1970’s typewriters, should help dispel the myth that »
November 19, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Tommy Dorsey at 100

Today is the centennial anniversary of the birth of trombonist and bandleader Tommy Dorsey. It was Frank Sinatra’s nearly three-year tenure with the Dorsey band that prepared him to launch his solo career in the fall of 1942. In his first post-Capitol recording on his own label, Sinatra paid tribute to Dorsey twenty years later in his beatiful “I Remember Tommy,” with arrangements by former Dorsey arranger Sy Oliver. The »
November 19, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Friends, Romans, clowns

Continuing the Shakespearean theme from John’s “much ado” post below, my heading reflects the clownish words and behavior of the Democrats on the floor of the House: “Pullout rejected 403-3.” Is there a difference between immediate withdrawal from Iraq and withdrawal “in a safe and orderly manner”? That’s the distinction between the resolution put to a vote by the Republicans and the resolution supported by Rep. Murtha, according to the »
November 18, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Much Ado About Nothing, I’m Afraid

The House leadership had a golden opportunity to make the Democrats put up or shut up tonight, and I’m afraid they blew it. Rep. John Murtha offered a resolution demanding surrender in Iraq within six months (at least, that’s how the New York Times describes it; I haven’t seen the actual text, and news reports have varied.) If the House leadership had precipitated a vote on what Murtha actually proposed, »
November 18, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The Murtha Plan elucidated

Reader David Lunde has kindly forwarded the photograph below of Senate Minority Leader Reid explaining the Murtha Plan for Iraq. »
November 18, 2005 — John Hinderaker

While We’re At It, How About the Unclassified Ones?

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts are asking the administration to declassify 35,000 boxes of documents maintained by Saddam Hussein’s regime so that they can be translated and analyzed using non-governmental resources. The documents are currently housed in Qatar, and it appears that due to a shortage of linguists, they never will be translated. In all probability, they contain valuable information about Saddam’s »