Monthly Archives: June 2010

June 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Today’s Radio Show

I will be on the air from 11 to 1 central time today, as usual, with Brian Ward. You can listen on the web by going to AM 1280 the Patriot. Along with the usual discussion of current news, the Loon of the Week and This Week In Gatekeeping, we will be joined at noon central by Peter Robinson. Among other things, we will talk about the new web site/podcast, »
June 19, 2010 — Scott Johnson

On board the Mavi Marmara

Ynetnews reports reports that Israel’s Foreign Ministry has released an illuminating new video filmed on board the Mavi Marmara before the IDF’s interception of the ship. The footage was found among the possessions of one of the flotilla’s passengers and shows Bulent Yildirim, leader of the IHH group that organized the flotilla to the Gaza Strip, speaking to the passengers on board. Islam seems to have something to do with »
June 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

More Profligate than the Europeans

It was bad enough when France’s President Sarkozy lectured Barack Obama on how to conduct a strong foreign policy. Then, it was: the Obama administration–weaker than the French! Now, it is: the Obama administration–more profligate than the Europeans! Germany’s Angela Merkel rejects Obama’s call for more government debt, world-wide: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday spending cutbacks are needed following the spate of throwing money at the global economic »
June 18, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Truce or consequences

Mitch Daniels, Governor of Indiana and former director of OMB, has been making the rounds in Washington. Work and other commitments prevented me from meeting him. That’s unfortunate for me. Given the flaws of many who are mentioned as possible Republican candidates for president in 2012, Daniels seems well worth a look. Daniels is pitching the notion that we may need a truce in divisive culture war controversies in order »
June 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Absolutely Safe?

On Tuesday, I wrote about the numerous false statements in President Obama’s Oval Office speech on the oil spill in Obama’s Long Nose. Byron York points out one that I missed: “Who told Obama drilling is ‘absolutely safe’?” There was one particularly striking moment in President Obama’s widely panned Oval Office speech on the Gulf oil disaster. About midway through his talk, Obama acknowledged that he had approved new offshore »
June 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Gusher

Michael Ramirez, as usual, hits the nail on the head. The gusher in the Gulf will do great damage, but that will be dwarfed by the damage being done by the gusher in D.C.: »
June 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

A Question of Perspective

We’ve written several times about Congressman Bob Etheridge’s encounter with two young activists and a video camera. Etheridge’s arrogance and sense of entitlement come through loud and clear on the video, and that’s before he assaults one of the pair. As we noted yesterday, the incident appears to have hurt Etheridge seriously with his North Carolina constituents. But Washington insiders have quite a different perspective, as this story in The »
June 18, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Coattails, but for whom?

In all likelihood, President Obama won’t be needing to divert much time from his usual pursuits — such as looking busy in the Gulf region and badgering Israel — in order to campaign for congressional Democrats. The latest poll by PPP shows there is almost no significant demographic group that would not be more put off than impressed by Obama’s endorsement of a candidate. Specifically: * 42 percent of the »
June 18, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

World Cup questions

If Argentina wins the World Cup, which will be the more remarkable coaching accomplishment by Diego Maradona, leading Argentina to victory or nearly failing to qualify with so outstanding a talent pool at his disposal? If the success of South American teams continues, will that continent finally get six automatic bids to the World Cup (presently it has four, plus the opportunity to play a North American team for a »
June 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Obama Still Sinking

The latest Rasmussen survey of likely voters shows President Obama at the low point of his administration so far, with only 41 percent approving of his performance, while 58 percent disapprove. The Approval Index, the difference between the number who strongly approve and those who strongly disapprove, stands at -21, which I believe matches Obama’s low-water mark: More than two-thirds of these interviews were conducted after Obama’s Oval Office speech »
June 18, 2010 — Scott Johnson

Finest hour

Seventy years ago today Winston Churchill exhorted his fellow countrymen to fight the Battle of Britain to save the world from Hitlerism. Churchill brought all his awesome literary and rhetorical power to bear on the speech. The Telegraph draws on Churchill’s papers to tell the story in “Winston Churchill ‘agonised’ over finest hour speech, papers reveal.” Here is the famous peroration of Churchill’s speech: What General Weygand has called the »
June 18, 2010 — Scott Johnson

The Three Terrors

Elise Cooper’s Pajamas Media column tells the story behind Caroline Glick’s “We Con the World” video. The video was produced for Glick’s Israel-oriented satirical site Latma with a message for the English-speaking world: My team and I were very angry for the way Israel was being demonized, and for the way our soldiers were being demonized by the international media, by the UN, and by the Arabs. We were responding »
June 17, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

No time for roller-coaster rides

Earlier this week, Gen. Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “the conduct of a counter-insurgency operation is a roller-coaster experience.” In other words, it’s too early to conclude from the disappointing start of the surge in Afghanistan that the surge will fail. I don’t doubt that Petraeus knows what he’s talking about. However, we should not take the early poor returns lightly. In Iraq, the early problems we »
June 17, 2010 — John Hinderaker

A Reader Does the Math

The Obama administration has bullied BP into putting up a $20 billion fund to pay victims of the Gulf oil spill. I’m all in favor of companies paying amounts for which they are found to be legally liable, but this sort of pre-emptive government diktat is problematic, to say the least. A reader sent me this Facebook message: In response to the notion (not necessarily yours, I understand) that Obama’s »
June 17, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Anatomy of a Post

We get material for posts from a wide variety of sources. Sometimes, my posts come from information I get on Facebook. When this photo of Florida Governor Charlie Crist on the beach came over the Facebook transom, I thought: I gotta think of a reason to post this picture: On Facebook, the photo came with the implication that it was taken while Crist was scoping out the current oil spill. »
June 17, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Voters: More Discerning Than The Washington Post

Scott wrote here and here about Congressman Bob Etheridge’s encounter with two young conservatives, one of whom asked him whether he is on board with the Obama agenda. This led Etheridge to assault the young man, who, unfortunately for the Congressman, was equipped with a video camera. Let’s remind our readers one more time of how bizarre Etheridge’s behavior was: In his second post, Scott referred to Chris Cillizza, a »
June 17, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

A poor cross from the left wing

In the early 1970s, it was fairly common for commentators to introduce hack leftist political analysis into discussions about sports. Then, we grew up and this sort of chatter faded from mainstream discourse. Apparently, though, it is still popular in left-wing precincts. The leading practitioner seems to be Dave Zirin. Zirin has written a piece for NPR and The Nation about the World Cup, which serves mostly to remind us »