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Monthly Archives: December 2008
Philippe Sands, dishonest journalist of the year
Dishonest journalism was rampant in 2008, a presidential election year after all. But the most flagrantly dishonest journalism that I know of this year was committed outside the immediate context of presidential politics by Philippe Sands in his book Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values. In this book Sands peddles what we might call “the torture narrative” – the view that the Bush administration was hostile »
Media Alert
Scott is going to be on Hannity & Colmes, or Hannity, or whatever the show now is, talking about the Minnesota Senate recount and (I think) Caroline Kennedy in around a half hour. Should be fun. UPDATE: Wow. Awesome job by Scott, who crushed a Democratic Party consultant who had no idea about the basic facts of the recount. FURTHER UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds, on the Caroline Kennedy segment: Just saw »
Obama Absolves Himself
Barack Obama’s campaign has investigated itself, and has found itself to be beyond reproach. Bernie Madoff can only envy the press relations that allow Obama’s self-exoneration to be reported straight. The Obama report was done by Greg Craig, who is about to become Obama’s White House Counsel. You can read his report here. In some respects, it is humorous. Craig, having interviewed Obama aides Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and Valerie »
Recount Update: The Duplicate Ballot Issue
The recount in the Coleman-Franken Senate race is drawing to a close, and the result depends on the outcome of the motion that the Coleman team argued before the Minnesota Supreme Court (minus two of its members who are serving on the Canvassing Board) this afternoon. The motion relates to duplicate ballots that have been counted, giving Franken an extra 130 or so votes. If Coleman prevails on the duplicate »
Being presidential
I haven’t commented on the bitter complaints by gay activists over Barack Obama’s selection of Rick Warren as one of the two pastors who will bless the inauguration. Warren will offer the invocation; veteran civil rights leader Joseph Lowery will provide the benediction. Warren opposes same-sex marriage and voiced his opposition during the campaign over California’s referendum on the subject. Lowery supports same-sex marriage. Warren’s views are in line with »
Coleman Effort Rebuffed
This morning the Coleman campaign asked Minnesota’s Canvassing Board to reconsider its decisions on 16 ballots that it either awarded to Al Franken or decided not to count. The Board denied Coleman’s request, either declining to reconsider its earlier decisions, or reaffirming them. Coleman’s argument was that the Board’s decisions on these ballots were inconsistent with the judgments it made on other ballots. So far, at least, Franken seems to »
Liberators (and Peace Democrats) then and now
Mackubin Thomas Owens addresses the mainstream media’s comparisons of Barack Obama with Abraham Lincoln. The comparisons are manifestations of the media’s infatuation with Obama. Not surprisingly, Owens finds the comparisons to be wanting. He argues that the more apt comparison is that of Lincoln with Bush: [W]hen it comes to actions, the true parallel between Lincoln and a contemporary is between the sixteenth president and George Bush. It was Bush, »
Mostly Quiet on the Malmo Front
We noted here the riots by Muslim “youths” in Malmo, Sweden, that have been underreported by the world’s media. Things seem to have calmed down some. But Gates of Vienna has good background on the riots, including this key observation: The interesting thing about the Swedish Intifada is that international anarchists and “anti-fascists” are acting as an accelerant in the conflagration, with explicit connections to the rioting that has broken »
Shoe-Thrower a Sadrist After All
In its zeal to make Muntader al-Zaidi, the goofball who threw his shoes at President Bush, into an Iraqi everyman, the Associated Press placed Zaidi in the middle of the Iraqi political spectrum: Over time, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a 28-year-old unmarried Shiite, came to hate both the U.S. military occupation and Iran’s interference in Iraq, his family told The Associated Press on Monday. … “He hates the American physical occupation as »
Minnesota Senate Recount Heads for a Photo Finish
Minnesota’s Canvassing Board has now allocated most of the ballots which the Franken and Coleman campaigns had challenged, but subsequently withdrew those challenges. As a result, Franken’s lead has dwindled from 251 on Friday to 48 at the end of the day today. It’s hard to say what this means, as not all of the withdrawn challenges have been tabulated. Presumably that process will conclude tomorrow. At that point, I »
Speaking of Expanding Executive Power…
I’ve generally been a fan of Vice-President Cheney, and think the often-repeated criticism that he has promoted excessive growth of executive powers in foreign policy is wrong. But I do not understand how anyone can defend the legality of the executive branch’s decision to lend billions of dollars in TARP money to the auto companies. You can read the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-343) here. I do »
Congressional Approval Back to Single Digits
In the Rasmussen survey, Congress’ approval rating has fallen back to single digits, with only 9% saying Congress is doing a good or excellent job. 54% say “poor.” It will be interesting to see whether passage of Obama’s massive “stimulus” package will do much to improve popular perceptions of Congress. If not, the stage could be set for Republican gains in 2010. To comment on this post, go here. »
Punked Again!
This morning, the New York Times published a Letter to the Editor from Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor of Paris. Delanoe criticized Caroline Kennedy’s campaign to be appointed to Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat: As mayor of Paris, I find Caroline Kennedy’s bid for the seat of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton both surprising and not very democratic, to say the least. What title has Ms. Kennedy to pretend to Hillary Clinton’s seat? »
Fort Dix Five Convicted
A federal jury has convicted five men of conspiracy to murder American soldiers at Fort Dix. All of the defendants were Muslim immigrants who lived in New Jersey. This is the prosecution that was triggered when an employee at a retail store alerted the FBI to “disturbing” material that he had been asked to copy on to a DVD. To comment on this post, go here. »
Just the man for diminished vice presidency, Part Two
Pursuant, I take it, to his goal of diminishing the role of the vice president, Joe Biden is set to oversee a task force on strengthening the middle class. The task force’s “charge,” according to Biden, is to “look at existing and future policies across the board and use a yardstick to measure how they are impacting the working and middle-class families.” It will also determine whether “the number of »
Just the man for a diminished vice presidency
Joe Biden said yesterday that he intends to “restore the balance” in power between the presidency and the vice presidency. Biden was referring to the fact that Vice President Cheney was highly influential during the Bush years. Cheney’s influence stemmed from his stature (former White House Chief of Staff, former Secretary of Defense, etc.), from his command of the issues (even arch-critic Barton Gellman of the Washington Post acknowledges this »
Bailout of the day
The Wall Street Journal reports: “Developers ask for U.S. bailout as massive debt looms.” Our massive national debt and other government obligations, however, and the inflation that may be implicit in ithem — somehow they’re not looming. They’re over the rainbow. To comment on this post, go here. »
