Monthly Archives: February 2010

February 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Entitlements

As is so often the case these days, Michael Ramirez sums up one of the great political problems of our era; click to enlarge: Entitlements–Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, the creation of “rights” without limits–are the worst idea that Congress ever came up with. Worse than the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Worse than the Smoot-Hawley tariff. Worse, even, than the NIRA. Pretty much everyone understands that entitlements are destroying the federal budget and »
February 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Views From Space

I’m on Twitter, and you can follow me if you want. I tweet with medium frequency. Before I got the hang of it, I wrote this haiku: Twitter: hundreds are Following me, but I’m not Going anywhere. Twitter clearly has its uses, however. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi has been orbiting the earth and posting photographs on Twitter. They are lots of fun. You can see them here. This is Aruba; »
February 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

What Friends Are For

Marc Thiessen, author of Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack, has been denounced by any number of ill-informed liberals. But when Mike Potemra went after Thiessen at The Corner–plainly without having read Marc’s book–Andy McCarthy swung into action. There is a certain aesthetic pleasure in reading a refutation this powerful, thorough and relentless. If you’re ever under attack, you »
February 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Time for a New Speechwriter

Governor Tim Pawlenty’s CPAC speech got a generally favorable, but not wildly enthusiastic, reception. The speech’s most commented-upon moment was when he urged conservatives to emulate Elin Nordegren by taking a 9-iron to the federal government: This strikes me as a weirdly inappropriate analogy on several levels. Today I (and many others) got an email from Peter Wehner that, after quoting Pawlenty’s 9-iron comment, said: I’m told from those who »
February 19, 2010 — Scott Johnson

The Dems’ dependency agenda

Matthew Continetti draws attention to “by far, the best speech of the [CPAC] conference,” which Matt identifies as “George F. Will’s talk from last night.” This is an important and needed speech, featuring the government takeover of Detroit up front and center. When Will gets to the subject of taxes, he updates some of the data we reviewed in “Obama, Joe the plumber and the gospel of envy.” Will makes »
February 19, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

He’s back and better than ever

Everton takes on Manchester United tomorrow. The match will be shown on ESPN2 at 7:30 a.m. (Eastern Time). It comes during quite a stretch for Everton. Our last two league games were against Liverpool (a 0-1 loss, away) and Chelsea (a 2-1 win, at home). In addition, in mid-week we defeated Sporting Lisbon 2-1, at home. Tomorrow’s match will also be at home, and thus will feature the return of »
February 19, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

My son the terrorist’s lawyer

Byron York reports that nine Obama Justice Department appointees represented or advocated for terrorist detainees before joining the Justice Department. The admission comes in answer to a question posed last November by Republican Sen. Charles Grassley. Holder did not disclose the names of the nine. Two are already known: Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal represented Osama bin Laden’s driver and Jennifer Daskal previously advocated for detainees at Human Rights »
February 19, 2010 — Scott Johnson

Congratulations, Ed

Minnesota’s own Ed Morrissey is a friend of all three of us at Power Line. We are both friends and long-time fans of Ed’s work. Ed hangs his shingle at Hot Air, where he is joined by the mysterious Allahpundit and where he has continued the great work he started at Captain’s Quarters. Today Ed was named CPAC’s blogger of the year. That is a great honor in a number »
February 19, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Remembering William Miller

My post yesterday mentioning William Miller, Barry Goldwater’s selection for vice president in 1964, prompted these reflections from my conservative cousin in New York: Your comparison of Bill Miller and Sarah Palin brought back memories of Miller’s very effective stint as a celebrity endorser for American Express. The ad showed Miller trying to purchase merchandise from a department store cashier who is reluctant to approve his transaction. He turns to »
February 19, 2010 — Scott Johnson

The Fatah fairy tale

Caroline Glick’s Jerusalem Post column tells the of the odyssey of Fahmi Shabaneh, “an odd candidate for dissident status.” Shabaneh is a Jerusalemite who joined the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service in 1994. Glick writes: Working for PA head Mahmoud Abbas and GIS commander Tawfik Tirawi, Shabaneh was tasked with investigating Arab Jerusalemites suspected of selling land to Jews. Such sales are a capital offense in the PA. Since 1994 »
February 19, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

The plot thickens in the NBA

In basketball, there are triple doubles and then there are triple doubles. Lebron James’ triple double last night (43 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists) falls into the latter category. However, James’ Cleveland Cavaliers lost the game in overtime, 118-116, to the Denver Nuggets. Carmelo Anthony, drafted two picks behind James in 2003, had 40 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. Cleveland, which had won its previous 13 games, played short-handed. »
February 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

“Obama Flip-Flops on His Own Record”

That’s how Byron York headlines his own shrewd observation: President Obama can’t keep his story straight when it comes to evaluating his own legislative record: In his speech at a Denver fundraiser yesterday, President Obama repeated what has become a key talking point for Democrats — that the Senate “doesn’t get anything done” and the reason for that is that some Republicans, who “don’t believe in government,” are happy to »
February 19, 2010 — Scott Johnson

Murder more or less incorrect

Yesterday at NRO Daniel Foster posted video accounts painstakingly cataloging the sequence of events that led up to the January assassination — by smothering — of a Hamas terrorist and weapons smuggler in a swanky Dubai hotel. It is not yet clear who performed the operation. The Hamas man — Mahmoud al-Mabhouh — had been in Israel’s sights for the murder of two IDF soldiers in 1989 and for his »
February 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

The Cure Is the Same as the Disease: How Convenient!

Michael Ramirez sums up much of our recent economic history with admirable concision; click to enlarge: One of the most annoying aspects of contemporary politics is Barack Obama’s incessant complaint that he inherited a big deficit. The obvious question is, was that a good thing or a bad thing? Obama’s whining implies that it was bad, but then: a) why did Obama, as a Senator, vote for it, and b) »
February 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

CAIR Spots A Terrorist Attack

You can’t say our friends at CAIR are oblivious to terrorism–nope, they know it when they see it. Hence this CAIR press release on Joe Stack, the desperate or demented pilot who flew an airplane into the IRS building in Austin, Texas: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) tonight called the apparent airborne suicide attack on an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office in Austin, Texas, an act of “terror.” … »
February 18, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Murder most incorrect

Israel is receiving mounting criticism in connection with the murder in Dubai of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. The slaying is assumed to be work of Israel’s spy agency, Mossad. Mabhouh was a founding member of Hamas’ military wing and was linked to the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers years ago. More recently, he has been involved in supplying arms and money to Hamas militants in Gaza. In light »
February 18, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Obama for the Supreme Court?

Jeffrey Rosen suggests (not completely in jest, it appears) that President Obama appoint himself to replace Justice Stevens on the Supreme Court. Rosen must be awfully disillusioned with the Obama presidency. As I contended here, when folks like Rosen reach this state, one must seriously entertain the idea that Obama is undervalued. But perhaps Rosen’s proposal is the result of Justice Scalia getting too far inside his head. In a »