Monthly Archives: November 2010

November 18, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Why Is It Only “The Rule of Law” When We Lose?

State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley used Twitter to defend yesterday’s verdict in the Ghailani case. A disaster for the Obama administration? Not at all! A triumph for “the rule of law.” A jury of 12 Americans convicted Ahmed Ghailani of a terrorist conspiracy. Miscarriage of justice? No, it’s called the rule of law. The Ghailani case shows America practices what it preaches, protecting our national security through a transparent »
November 18, 2010 — Scott Johnson

The Kesler proviso

Sitting in for Bill Bennett this morning, our friend Seth Liebsohn had Claremont Review of Books editor Charles Kesler on to discuss the state of conservatism, the purpose of the CRB, and the meaning of the midterms we just went through. We posted Professor Kesler’s recent salute to the CRB on its tenth anniversary here. The CRB is my favorite magazine; you can subscribe to it here for the absurdly »
November 18, 2010 — Scott Johnson

Uncommon Knowledge with Gary Becker

Last week we posted Peter Robinson’s interview with Gary Becker. Given our format, the interview rotated off the site after a few days. We’ll have another installment of Uncommon Knowledge next week. In the meantime, here is the interview with Gary Becker, once more once, after a brief introduction. Gary Becker is one of the most prominent and lucid economists in the United States. In the course of a long »
November 18, 2010 — Scott Johnson

Revolt against the TSA

The revolt against the TSA seems to me a sign of the times. Popular frustration with the TSA dates back to its establishment during the Bush administration. It is another big government bureaucracy that appears inconvenient and inept. It provides more security theater than security. The TSA It is bound by a form of political correctness that has long rendered it a joke. With its newly implemented scanning and patdown »
November 17, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Is Barack Obama a socialist? Part Two

This is the second in series of posts that, inspired by Stanley Kurtz’s compelling book Radical-In-Chief, considers whether Barack Obama is a socialist. In Part One, I suggested two ways to analyze the question — biographically and doctrinally — and then proceeded to examine Obama’s ideological biography from his time in college until 1996 when he first ran for elected public office. I found that Obama unquestionably was a socialist »
November 17, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Can She Beat Him?

Sarah Palin is being widely quoted tonight, telling Barbara Walters that she thinks she can beat President Obama in 2012, and is indeed exploring a Presidential bid. Is this a surprise? Of course not. As her party’s Vice-Presidential candidate in 2008, Palin is on the short list of 2012 contenders, and right now it looks as though whoever the Republicans nominate will be the favorite. So, sure, Palin could beat »
November 17, 2010 — Scott Johnson

The failure option

The first former Guantánamo detainee to be tried in a civilian court was acquitted today of all but one of more than 280 charges of conspiracy and murder in the 1998 terrorist bombings of the United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was the defendant brought to a trial of the absurd by an administration of the absurd. The verdict today was foreshadowed »
November 17, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

High floor, low ceiling

Politico reports that “Lisa Murkowski’s victory is all but sewn up.” With nearly all of the write-in votes counted, Murkowski had 92,715 votes as of Tuesday evening, while Joe Miller had 90,468. Murkowski’s total did not include the thousands of challenged ballots that were, at least provisionally, counted for her. With that vote, her lead would be about 10,000 votes. In short, Murkowski is ahead right now even if Miller »
November 17, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Pro Musica Hebraica presents. . .

I wrote here and here about the last two performances presented by Pro Musica Hebraica, an organization devoted to presenting Jewish classical music — much of it lost, forgotten, or rarely performed — in a concert hall setting. Pro Musica Hebraica is the project of Charles and Robyn Krauthammer (respectively, the chairman and the chief executive officer). On Thursday night, Pro Musica Hebraica will present a program devoted to musical »
November 17, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Whither the European Union?

In the Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wonders whether the current monetary crisis will bring down the European Union. I rather hope so: In a speech this morning, EU President Herman Van Rompuy (poet, and writer of Japanese and Latin verse) warned that if Europe’s leaders mishandle the current crisis and allow the eurozone to break up, they will destroy the European Union itself. “We’re in a survival crisis. We all have »
November 17, 2010 — Scott Johnson

License to kill: The sequel

Four years ago Koua Fong Lee killed three Minnesotans when he rammed his 1996 Toyota Camry into the rear of another car at the Snelling Avenue exit of Interstate Highway 94 in St. Paul. Lee careened into the other car somewhere between 70 and 90 miles per hour and was, not unreasonably, convicted of negilgent vehicular homicide. Lee’s particular Toyota model was never part of the controversy over the alleged »
November 16, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Political Hit-Job from Obama’s DOJ

The politicizing of the Department of Justice under President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder is one of the scandals of the administration’s first two years. Last week, the DOJ released a rather weird report on five U. S. Attorneys who stayed in hotels that were more expensive than generally permitted by Department guidelines between 2007 and 2009. The point of the report would be difficult to grasp without the »
November 16, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Who’s Divided?

I’ve had several good laughs in recent days over claims that the Republican party is dangerously divided between Tea Party activists and establishment traditionalists. On most policy issues you would be hard-pressed to find any distance between these ostensibly feuding groups. Plus, the Republicans won a smashing victory earlier this month. It is defeat, not victory, that generally produces disunion. Which brings us to the Democrats: Fractious House Democrats feuded »
November 16, 2010 — John Hinderaker

More on QE2

A knowledgeable reader with a background in banking weighs in on the Fed’s quantitative easing plan: It is a good thing we are having the QE2 debate, but more than anything it shows a breakdown in respect for America overseas – an irony for an administration that was supposed to restore our standing supposedly “lost” due to our Cowboy ways. The world has always expected us to the be the »
November 16, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

A stinging indictment of Michael Steele

Gentry Collins, political director of the Republican National Committee, has resigned. His parting letter is aptly described by Politico as a “stinging indictment of Chairman Michael Steele’s two-year tenure at the committee.” According to Collins, the RNC’s weak fundraising meant that it couldn’t afford to run an independent expenditure ad campaign on behalf of their candidates, didn’t fund a paid voter turnout operation for Senate and gubernatorial races, left its »
November 16, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

The matter of Fred Upton

Fred Barnes presents “the case for Fred Upton for Chairman of House Energy and Commerce Committee.” Barnes finds that Upton “is especially well suited to be chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.” But instead of presenting evidence of Upton’s special fitness for the position, Barnes devotes his column to downplaying the objections conservatives have raised against Upton’s elevation. These objections include Upton’s support for the TARP bailout (this, Barnes »
November 16, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Is there a conservative case for QE2?

I haven’t written about the Federal Reserve’s QE2 program, a loosening of monetary policy for the purpose of stimulating the economy. The reason for my silence is straightforward — I don’t know whether QE2 is a good idea. Initially, I was surprised by the vehemence with which Sarah Palin and other Republican politicians lashed out at the program. For it was not clear to me that these figures have a »