Monthly Archives: August 2006

August 23, 2006 — Scott Johnson

Two generals speak

General Robert Fry — Sir Robert Fry, the deputy commander of the Multinational Forces-Iraq and the senior British representative in Iraq — spoke by video from Iraq at a Pentagon briefing yesterday. The Department of Defense has posted the transcript here. General Fry addresses the question of civil war and defines the situation in Iraq as one of “very intense secrarian conflict.” Our friend Hugh Hewitt has also posted the »
August 23, 2006 — Scott Johnson

Hail to the chief, take 2

On the heels of John’s eyewitness account of President Bush speaking extemporaneously before a friendly group in Minnesota yesterday afternoon comes Kathleen Parker’s column with her own eyewitness account of President Bush at an off-the-record luncheon with a hundred or so supporters. Like John, Parker was impressed: What I witnessed was revealing. Not only was the man fluent in the English language and intellectually agile, he was knowledgeable on a »
August 23, 2006 — Scott Johnson

Carolina FreedomNet 2006

The John Locke Foundation of North Carolina is sponsoring Carolina FreedomNet 2006 on Saturday, Octbober 7 in Greensboro at the Sheraton Greensboro. Carolina FreedomNet 2006 is a half-day conference on political blogs and is open to all. It features two panels including Lorie Byrd, Sister Toldjah, Bob Owens, rising star Mary Katharine Ham, Scott Elliott Josh Manchester, Sam Hieb, and Jeff Taylor. Please see the linked program page for a »
August 23, 2006 — Scott Johnson

What the world needs now

is Jackie DeShannon. DeShannon’s birthday was this past Monday. She is of course the heartthrob who brought the quintessential Hal David-Burt Bacharach composition “What the World Needs Now” to life (with Bacharach’s production, if I’m not mistaken) in 1965. The song remains timely and moving, following the form of a prayer or a sermon. The form recalls the style of Johnny Mercer’s brilliant “Accentuate the Positive,” though so unobtrusivly that »
August 23, 2006 — John Hinderaker

What Else Are They Keeping Silent About?

The Swedish Foreign Ministry was delegated to investigate who knew what about corruption in the U.N.’s oil-for-food program in Iraq. The report has now been made public by a Swedish radio station. It says that Ole Kolby, Norway’s U.N. ambassador at the time and head of the sanctions committee, knew about the program’s corruption but “remained quiet for fear of angering Iraq and big companies involved in the program.” What »
August 22, 2006 — John Hinderaker

Democrats an Endangered Species?

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Arthur Brooks writes about the most intractable problem facing today’s liberals: too many of them are choosing not to reproduce: Simply put, liberals have a big baby problem: They’re not having enough of them, they haven’t for a long time, and their pool of potential new voters is suffering as a result. According to the 2004 General Social Survey, if you picked 100 unrelated politically »
August 22, 2006 — John Hinderaker

Hail to the Chief

I had the opportunity this afternoon to be part of a relatively small group who heard President Bush talk, extemporaneously, for around forty minutes. It was an absolutely riveting experience. It was the best I’ve ever seen him. Not only that; it may have been the best I’ve ever seen any politician. If I summarized what he said, it would all sound familiar: the difficult times we live in; the »
August 22, 2006 — Paul Mirengoff

The ABA — privileged partisans

Ed Whelan makes a compelling case that the Senate Judiciary Committee should displace the strongly left-leaning ABA from its privileged role in the judicial-confirmation process. Currently, a hearing on a nominee generally will not take place until the ABA has delivered its rating. As a result, notes Whelan, nominees have had to extend special favors to the ABA that no other outside group receives, such as submitting to confidential interviews »
August 22, 2006 — Scott Johnson

The love song of J. Carter Prufrock

Whatever song Jimmy Carter is singing, it’s always music to the ears of the various thugs and terror masters around the world. From Fidel Castro to Yasser Arafat, no murderer or tyrant need fear a discouraging word from the worst president in American history. At Extreme Mortman, Ari Fleishcer takes note of Jimmy’s love song to Hezbollah in Der Spiegel: “Ari Fleischer To Jimmy Carter: You’re Music To Hezbollah’s Ears.” »
August 22, 2006 — Scott Johnson

Contra Che chic

Jay Nordlinger is the formidable journalist and gifted managing editor of National Review. One of Jay’s righteous crotchets is his loathing of Che chic. As the linked NR article by Jay has it, he finds Che chic très disgusting. Reader Anthony Szulc shares Jay’s attitude and has alerted us to this retail site, which features contrarian t-shirt messages such as that above. Inspired by Jay, I took my own small »
August 22, 2006 — Scott Johnson

A word from Sergeant Thul

We have frequently written here to report on the response to the request from Sergeant Dave Thul of the Minnesota National Guard for reading material to support the troops. A reader recently wrote asking whether Sergeant Thul could still use books from readers and asked us to check with him. We just heard back from Sergeant Thul today: In addition to the Power Line library here at Al Asad, we »
August 22, 2006 — Paul Mirengoff

A reckoning in Israel

The Washington Times reports that some Israeli reservists, having just returned from fighting in Lebanon, are demanding that Prime Minister Olmert resign because of his handling of the war. The reservists are complaining about insufficient provisions, including no water (some were forced to drink from canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas), shortages of combat equipment, and indecisive orders. One group of about 200 from a particular reservist infantry brigade gathered in »
August 22, 2006 — Scott Johnson

Time loves Hillary

David Lunde lends Time a hand with the message. »
August 22, 2006 — Scott Johnson

A word from Jon Stein

Jon Stein writes to comment on “Hidden in plain view”: I especially enjoyed the Iranian hack’s view that Article 11 of the Nonproliferation Treaty allows a state to act in secret if they are threatened — a typical treaty provision, as I’m sure you know. Here’s what Article 11 of the NPT really says: This Treaty, the English, Russian, French, Spanish and Chinese texts of which are equally authentic, shall »
August 22, 2006 — Scott Johnson

Planting the flag

Our notice on the death of Joe Rosenthal yesterday prompted an outpouring of messages from readers. Several readers pointed out the 1995 AP story by Mitchell Landsberg on Rosenthal’s photograph: “Fifty years later, Iwo Jima photographer fights his own battle.” Several readers also noted the excellent book by James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers. Bradley’s father, Navy corpsman John Bradley, was one of the men immortalized in Joe Rosenthal’s photograph »
August 22, 2006 — Scott Johnson

Try to remember

Among the unheralded victims of 9/11 was the longest-running musical in history — “The Fantasticks” — running off Broadway at the Sullivan Street Playhouse from 1960 to January 2002. At About Last Night, Terry Teachout’s attendance at the press preview of the new Broadway revival of the show triggers recollections of his own involvement with an amateur production of the show thirty-four years ago: “Ghost world.” (Thanks to John Podhoretz »
August 21, 2006 — John Hinderaker

Our Covert Enemies

Michael Barone has long been known as a moderate, nuts-and-bolts observer of the political scene. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that only over the last few years, as Michael has observed the impotence–at best–of the Democratic Party in the face of existential threats to our civilization, has he come out as a conservative. In today’s column he lays it on the line: In our war against Islamo-fascist »