Monthly Archives: July 2008

July 21, 2008 — Scott Johnson

Fiddling while Burns roams, part 3

In his most recent Wall Street Journal column last week, Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton discussed Iran’s nuclear threat. The column appeared before the Bush administration authorized Undersecretary of State William Burns to attend the ongoing EU-3 talks with Iran on its nuclear program in violation of its previously stated policy requiring the suspension of uranium enrichment by Iran as a precondition to direct American »
July 20, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

I’ll teach the seminars around here

This low-quality article in the Washington Post reports that, when it comes to the Supreme Court, “Some Legal Activists Have Hearts Set on ‘True Liberal.'” Imagine that. The article, by Robert Barnes and Kevin Merida, is an uncritical presentation of the leftist legal community’s dogma regarding the Supreme Court and its politics. The presentation is uncritical because, by all appearances, Barnes and Merida agree with that dogma. Thus, they state »
July 20, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

“Misunderstood and mistranslated”

Some have made much of an alleged statement by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki to the effect that he agreed with Barack Obama that U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq on a 16 month timetable. The statement appears in an interview Maliki gave to the German magazine Der Spiegel. However, a spokesman for Maliki has said that the Prime Minister’s remarks “were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately.” The spokesman explained »
July 20, 2008 — Scott Johnson

Fiddling while Burns roams, part 2

By all accounts, President Bush adamantly insists that there is no discrepancy between the major foreign policy positions he took during his first term with those he has taken in his second term. Indeed, he is said to become irate when the question of such discrepancies is put to him. He denies that such discrepancies exist. What about the abandonment of the “roadmap” approach to the creation of a Palestinian »
July 20, 2008 — John Hinderaker

Blowing the Whistle on Global Warming

David Evans was a consultant to the “Australian Greenhouse Office” from 1999 to 2005. He is a former global warming alarmist; however, he is also a scientist who goes where the evidence leads him. In this important article in The Australian, he blows the whistle on the fraud that many of the world’s governments are in the midst of perpetrating: I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for »
July 20, 2008 — Scott Johnson

Free speech in an age of jihad

This past April our friends at the The New Criterion co-hosted (together with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies) a symposium on the related themes of “libel tourism,” “hate speech” and political freedom. Among the speakers were Roger Kimball, Stanley Kurtz, Robert Spencer, Andrew McCarthy and Mark Steyn. Their presentations have now been revised for publication and bundled into a special New Criterion pamphlet “Free speech in an age »
July 20, 2008 — Scott Johnson

Obama Road

Via Lundesigns. To comment on this post go here. »
July 19, 2008 — John Hinderaker

Off to ANWR

Someone, somewhere, may have more energy than our friend Michele Bachmann, who represents Minnesota’s 6th District in Congress. But I haven’t yet met such a dynamo. Michele has delved deeply into the energy issue, and has become a leading spokeswoman for developing our domestic energy resources and reducing the price of gasoline. Now, Michele is off to ANWR with several House colleagues. Their trip is intended to draw attention to »
July 19, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

1976, a footnote

Scott has already linked to and engaged Michael Barone’s column comparing this year’s presidential election to the one in 1976. At the end of that column, Michael suggests that the McCain team give a call to Doug Bailey, Mal MacDougall or James Baker, all of whom were deeply involved in the ad campaign that fueled Ford’s comeback. The McCain campaign might also call Vice President Cheney. Cheney served as Ford’s »
July 19, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

Con job

As I argued last night, Barack Obama’s vanity and egomania, so skillfully explicated by Charles Krauthammer, help account for much of what is odd about the candidate’s speeches and public pronouncements — for example, the ease with which he contradicts himself and his claim, notwithstanding his uniformly liberal voting record, to be “post-partisan.” These traits obviously also help explain the way people react to Obama, the easiest example being the »
July 19, 2008 — Scott Johnson

I’m Feeling Good About John McCain?

Michael Barone likens this year’s election to the election of 1976. I think he has a point. The current political environment has something in common with the aftermath of Watergate and the toxic political environment that confronted Republicans in 1976. In tracing the source of Ford’s comeback nearly to catch Carter by election day, Barone credits the Ford campaign with altering the mood of the nation. Among other things, he »
July 19, 2008 — Scott Johnson

Fiddling while Burns roams

In his intensely reported June 2 Weekly Standard cover story on Secretary Rice, Stephen Hayes took a look at the major areas of foreign policy committed to Rice’s care during Bush’s second term: North Korea, Syria, Iran and Iran’s terrorist proxies. In these areas, the administration’s record is one of miscalculation, retreat and failure. Why? In May Secretary Rice hailed the Lebanese government’s capitulation to Hezbollah as “a positive step »
July 19, 2008 — Scott Johnson

William Katz: Sweetness and greatness

Jo Stafford died Wednesday at 90. Terry Teachout paid tribute to her and collected links to her obituaries in “Jo Stafford, RIP.” Our occasional contributor Bill Katz of Urgent Agenda observes: There are respectful obituaries, but it has not been headline news. There are no front-page stories, as with Sinatra, no huge remembrances from TV commentators. In fact, some younger readers may not even know her name. But Jo Stafford »
July 19, 2008 — John Hinderaker

A Legend In Their Own Minds

Michael Ramirez observes, as Barack Obama sets off for Europe and Asia accompanied by his biggest fans, other than himself: To comment on this post go here. »
July 18, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

Ehud Olmert and the decline of Israel

Israel continues to face many serious threats and potential threats: a nuclear Iran, an emboldened Hezbollah, and the dislike or hatred of various European states and some on the American left. But one senses that a greater threat is posed by what looks like rampant corruption within Israel itself. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert symbolizes the problem. Golda Meir resigned after the Yom Kippur war, which Israel won. Olmert did not »
July 18, 2008 — Paul Mirengoff

Gramm resigns

Phil Gramm has resigned from his role as John McCain’s campaign co-chairman, following the uproar over his comments that the United States has become a “nation of whiners” and that we are in a “mental recession.” The comments were not baseless, but they were highly impolitic. As part of the McCain campaign, Gramm’s role when speaking to the media was not, in my view, to make every conceivable true statement »
July 18, 2008 — Scott Johnson

“One day my faith came alive”

In 2000 NPR’s Terry Gross conducted a terrific interview with Dion Dimucci, whose birthday we’re celebrating today. It’s an utterly engrossing interview, no pun intended, by turns funny and moving, equal parts talk and song. Listen to Dion sing “Jambalaya” and recall that when he started performing the song at age 13 he had no idea what gumbo was. Listen to Dion recall Father Joe, the neighborhood priest. The interview »