Monthly Archives: February 2009

February 19, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Reverend Wright lives on in the Obama administation

Meghan Clyne of the Weekly Standard reports that President Obama has appointed Reverend Dr. Otis Moss Jr. to serve on the President’s Advisory Council established as part of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (did you get all that?). Moss is the father of Reverend Otis Moss III, who succeeded the infamous Jeremiah Wright as the spiritual leader of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, »
February 19, 2009 — John Hinderaker

That Was Then, This Is Now

That’s the consistent theme of the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress. All those issues that were so important when we were grasping for power? Forget about them! They’ve served their purpose. You know it’s getting bad when even the Associated Press notices: “Democrats strike different tone on Katrina.” The economic stimulus signed by President Barack Obama will spread billions of dollars across the country to spruce up aging roads »
February 19, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Moving forward, with or without Kadima

Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Israel Beiteinu party, has announced that he’s ready to join a coalition government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. This means that Netanyahu should be able to form such a government, consisting of his Likud party, Lieberman’s party and the religious parties. This government would not be very stable. For example, the mentor to one of the major religious parties has referred to Lieberman as the devil. »
February 19, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Collateral Damage

Vicki Iseman, the lobbyist who was smeared by the New York Times as part of that paper’s effort to damage John McCain in last fall’s Presidential race, has settled her defamation case against the Times. We wrote about the case here. The Times’ front-page story dredged up old (in some cases decades old) smears against McCain, one of which was the implication that he had had an affair with Iseman »
February 19, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

The constant hatchetman

The Washington Post reports today that the Johnson administration agreed to an FBI investigation into the sexuality of one of LBJ’s top aides, Jack Valenti. It seems that J. Edgar Hoover wanted to determine whether Valenti maintained a sexual relationship with a male photographer. Johnson balked at first but eventually permitted his close friend to be investigated. But it wasn’t just Hoover who was checking the sex lives of LBJ »
February 19, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Voting With Their Wallets

Bill Otis sent us this email today: McCain’s bounce had evaporated, and Obama re-took his lead in the polls, in mid- to late-September. At that time (September 19, specifically), the Dow Jones stood at 11,388. By the end of September, as Obama’s lead widened and solidified, the Dow had fallen to 10,325. It continued its slide through October. The day after the election, it dropped 486 points to 9139. By »
February 19, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Coleman’s quagmire

Yesterday the three-judge panel hearing the Coleman-Franken election contest denied Senator Coleman’s request to reconsider their ruling this past Friday on the standard applicable to the 4,800 rejected absentee ballots raised by the Coleman campaign in the election contest. In their ruling the three-judge panel insisted on compliance with Minnesota’s absentee ballot statute. The Coleman campaign complains that enforcing compliance with the absentee ballot statute creates inconsistencies in the treatment »
February 19, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Smokey’s fire

The arrival of the singer/songwriter phenomenon in the 1960’s contributed to the death of Tin Pan Alley and the decline of popular songwriting as a profession. While some of the singer/songwriters such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon have consciously aspired to a place in the firmament of songwriters, the writerly workmanship even of the best singer/songwriters does not rise to the level set by the composers of the Great »
February 18, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Who is the coward?

Attorney General Holder has called America “a nation of cowards” when it comes to “things racial.” According to Holder, “average Americans” are afraid to “talk enough with each other about race.” By using the word “cowards,” Holder has gotten himself some attention, at least for today. That’s ironic because his long-winded speech is 99 percent content free. To add to the irony, in the one place where Holder introduces a »
February 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

The Crisis In Context

Earlier this evening, my wife had the Hannity show on television as she was working on dinner, and Sean showed clips of Barack Obama talking about his mortgage plan in which he used the word “crisis” probably 20 or 30 times to describe the current economic climate. This is one of the weird aspects of today’s news: rather than trying to reassure businessmen and consumers, the Obama administration seems determined »
February 18, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Meanwhile, back in Alaska. . .

The Washington Post has a front-page story about Sarah Palin which essentially provides an open mic to her Alaskan detractors in both parties. Most of the criticism seems self-serving and frivolous (which is not to deny that there may be valid non-frivolous criticisms of Palin’s approach to governing). Let’s start with the criticism from the Dems. The Post notes that, where Palin was once on decent terms with some of »
February 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

The Cure Is the Disease

The current economic crisis was caused largely by easy credit and a mountain of imprudently-incurred debt. So it seems curious to me that anyone would think the solution is for the federal government to join in with another two or three trillion dollars worth of barely-considered borrowing. Today Michael Ramirez made a similar point that is timely in light of the mortgage assistance plan that was unveiled today; click to »
February 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Who’s A Chimp?

Today’s silliest controversy relates to this cartoon in today’s New York Post, in which Sean Delonas uses the bizarre case of the crazed chimpanzee who attacked a woman and had to be shot to comment harshly on the Democrats’ “stimulus” package; click to enlarge: Readers of the Huffington Post and–who else?–Al Sharpton construe the cartoon as a possibly racist attack on President Obama: Civil rights activist Al Sharpton called the »
February 18, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Lincoln at 200, part 7

Lincoln’s arrival in New Salem, Illinois as a penniless young man, and his rise to prominence there, form a memorable chapter of his career. It is a chapter that also strikingly illuminates Lincoln’s personal qualities. Christopher Flannery captures important elements of the story in “O captain! My captain!” We know much of Lincoln’s career in New Salem thanks to Lincoln’s law partner William Herndon. Following Lincoln’s assassination, Herndon devoted himself »
February 17, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Dems will be dems

If our curent economic woes continue for, say, two years or if the economy crashes to new depths, a populist backlash is almost inevitable. As I have argued ( here, for example), the conduct of the Democrats since taking power will intensify that backlash, and cement the Democrats’ status as its main target. That conduct includes the selecting for high office of wealthy individuals who did not comply with the »
February 17, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Bring Back the Neanderthals?

John Tierney raises a provocative question: contemporary science would allow us to bring Neanderthals back to life, in Jurassic Park fashion, for a modest $30 million. Why not do it? Tierney thinks it’s a pretty good idea: Granted, it would be disorienting and lonely for the first few Neanderthals, but it would be pretty interesting for them as well as us. (What would a Neanderthal make of Disneyland, or of »
February 17, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Another Shoe Drops

Illinois Senator Rod Burris has now admitted that after Robert Blagovejich asked him to raise money for his brother Rod–apparently in connection with the Governor’s decision whom to appoint to Barack Obama’s Senate seat–Burris tried to do so. Burris says, however, that his efforts to put together a fundraiser for Blagojevich failed. So Burris’ position now appears to be that there was no quid pro quo for his appointment because »