Monthly Archives: July 2009

July 19, 2009 — Scott Johnson

A madrassa grows in Minnesota, on our nickel

We wrote at length here about the lawsuit brought by the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (MCLU) against the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy when the lawsuit was filed this past January. TiZA is a K-8 charter school located in suburuban St. Paul. The MCLU alleges that the school operates illegally as a sectarian institution on public funds. TiZA has brought a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on »
July 18, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Chappaquiddick at 40

An attorney friend of mine who describes himself as a lifelong student of the Kennedy family has circulated the following email in honor of one anniversary that will pass almost entirely unremarked in the mainstream media: I thought I would take a moment to bother you all, ladies included, to remind everyone that this is the 40th anniversary of the infamous Chappaquiddick incident in which an inebriated Senator Ted Kennedy »
July 18, 2009 — Scott Johnson

The gelded age

Mark Steyn devotes his weekly column to the Restore our American Mustangs Act, covered by John in “And now for something completely crazy.” It is a classic Styen column. Mark works a lot of his favorite subjects into it. Among other things, he notes that the the bill mandates “enhanced” contraception for horses and burros. He takes a timeout for this brief digression: John Hinderaker of the Powerline website mused »
July 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Walter Cronkite, RIP

Walter Cronkite’s death at age 92 has triggered a wave of nostalgia among his successors in the world of journalism. It’s easy to understand why. Cronkite was a giant at a time when both his profession and his medium were enjoying halcyon eras. In today’s fragmented media world, no journalist can aspire to “Uncle Walter’s” ubiquity. Nor can any journalist today pretend that the nation trusts him or her in »
July 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Sotomayor: Mission Accomplished, Sort Of

The Rasmussen survey, which initially found that the Sotomayor confirmation hearing was having little or no effect on public opinion, now finds that in the end, the nominee got a good bounce: Rasmussen Reports national telephone polling conducted Wednesday and Thursday night shows that 44% favor Sotomayor’s confirmation while 37% are opposed. That’s a big bounce from yesterday when just 37% favored her confirmation. I interpret that as a sign »
July 18, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Hugo don’t lose that number

The map of misreading that the Obama administration applies to American foreign policy is vividly on dispaly in our approach to Honduras. We find ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega, all of whom seek to reinstate the president who was removed from office with the support of the country’s Congress and Supreme Court. Now come Monica Showalter and her colleagues on the editorial »
July 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Walpin Sues

Gerald Walpin, the fired AmeriCorps Inspector General, promises to be a thorn in the Obama administration’s side for some time to come: he has sued for reinstatement, alleging that he was fired illegally by the administration. I’m not an expert in the relevant fields of the law, but to a casual observer it does appear that Walpin’s firing likely was illegal. The administration can deal with the suit in some »
July 18, 2009 — Scott Johnson

People, let me put you wise

In a long career now spanning more than fifty years, Dion Dimucci has experienced many ups and downs. Through it all, he has maintained a rare purity in his work. At every stage of his career you can hear the blues coming through. In 2003 Dion appeared as part of an oldies show at the Iowa State Fair, a show that I am reliably informed was pathetic until Dion took »
July 17, 2009 — John Hinderaker

A Year Without A Summer?

1816 was the “year without a summer.” There were several causes of the abnormally cold weather that year, as this source recounts: The year 1816 is still known to scientists and historians as “eighteen hundred and froze to death” or the “year without a summer.” It was the locus of a period of natural ecological destruction not soon to be forgotten. During that year, the Northern Hemisphere was slammed with »
July 17, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

An important day in Iran

There will be no regime change in Iran unless (a) protests continue in the face of the recent repression and (b) the regime fractures. Today brought evidence that both of these conditions (which are necessary but perhaps not sufficient) may be fulfilled. First, protests broke out in Tehran. Second, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran’s former president and a key figure in the regime, criticized the government and called for the »
July 17, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Does the Democratic Health Care Plan Ban Private Insurance?

That’s a claim that is making the rounds these days, based on this editorial by Investors Business Daily: It didn’t take long to run into an “uh-oh” moment when reading the House’s “health care for all Americans” bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal. When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely »
July 17, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

A clear path to the Supreme Court

There will be no filibuster of Judge Sotomayor’s nomination. That’s not an unreasonable result. The prevailing standard for a filibuster (to the extent there is a standard) requires that “special circumstances” be present. But Sotomayor is a garden-variety competent left-liberal appellate judge. Neither her left-liberalism nor her lack of excellence as a judge constitutes a special circumstance. Sotomayor’s speeches in which she embraced judging that is not ethnic and/or gender »
July 17, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Peter Van Buren’s depressing story

Peter Van Buren is a Foreign Service officer who has served for over twenty years as a consular officer overseas, mostly in Asian postings. He is at present serving in what he refers to as an out-of-area assignment for the State Department in Virginia. He has sent us this account of his story: Remember when Foreign Service officers objected to the threat of serving in Iraq? The Department still works »
July 17, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Paul Rahe: The road to soft despotism, part 2

Professor Paul Rahe continues his recent Powerline series regarding democracy’s drift in America: If, in the 20th and 21st centuries, the United States has gradually succumbed to what Tocqueville called “soft despotism,” it is arguably because we have abandoned the advantages that we possessed in Tocqueville’s day and that I outlined in my last post. The most important of these was local self-government. In the 19th century, state governments began »
July 16, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

Who are the fascists in Europe?

We write from time to time about European politicians and parties — notably Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom in the Netherlands — that are standing up against the Islamization of Europe. The left and liberal MSM, both here and in Europe, are quick to label these politicians and their parties “far right” or “fascist.” Unfortunately, one hears the same thing from people who should know better. There are, »
July 16, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Did the Sotomayor Hearing Matter?

My impression is that many Americans have followed the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation process fairly closely. Television coverage has been ample, to say the least. Intriguingly, however, Scott Rasmussen finds that the public’s support for Sotomayor’s confirmation hasn’t changed a bit since the hearing began. Byron York thinks the Republicans blew it by not devoting more prime-time attention to Sotomayor’s service on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and »
July 16, 2009 — John Hinderaker

The Cure That Makes the Disease Worse

Congressional Budget Director Douglas Elmendorf testified today before the Senate Budget Committee that the Democrats’ various health care proposals will increase, not reduce, federal government spending on health care: Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf warned lawmakers the legislation that he has seen so far would raise costs, not lower them. Elmendorf was asked by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., if the bills Congress is considering would “bend »