Monthly Archives: July 2011
July 15, 2011 — Steven Hayward
One of the most famous lines about Theodore Roosevelt came from the British ambassador Cecil Spring-Rice, who, after observing TR rolling around on the floor in the Oval Office, told another diplomat: “You must remember that the president is about six.” One suspects that Spring-Rice would place President Obama as a two-year old. Certainly his tantrums are about as immature. Two days ago he walked out of a meeting with
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July 15, 2011 — John Hinderaker
As you know if you have been paying attention, the deadline for entries in the Power Line Prize competition is midnight tonight. Entries in any format that seek to draw attention to the federal debt crisis are welcome. When we kicked off the contest, I expected that we would hardly get any entries at all until the last 48 hours. As it happened, quite a few people sent their products
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July 15, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Algis Valiunas is one of the best writers published in the Claremont Review of Books. For one thing, he is always entertaining. That suits him perfectly to write about H.L. Mencken. In the new issue of the CRB that we have been previewing this week, he takes up the two-volume Library of America collection of Mencken’s complete Prejudices. Here is a quote from the review: “Mencken’s style has prolonged his
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July 14, 2011 — Scott Johnson
We are late getting to the current edition of Uncommon Knowledge with Yuri Yarim-Agaev. A distinguished young physicist in the early 1970s, Yarim-Agaev was a graduate student at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology when he joined a dissident movement. In 1978 he joined the Moscow Helsinki Group, the dissident organization that monitored Soviet compliance with the human-rights provisions of the Helsinki Accords. Now a financial analyst in New
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July 14, 2011 — John Hinderaker
In what may have been a historic vote, forty Republicans voted today to sustain Senator Jeff Sessions’ point of order objecting to the Democrats’ violation of the Congressional Budget Act by passing an appropriation bill when there is no federal budget in place. The Republicans voted for legal process, for transparency and for honesty in budgeting. Every Democrat voted to violate the Congressional Budget Act. Four Republicans who presumably can
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July 14, 2011 — Steven Hayward
He’s baaack! Al Gore that is, with a brand new climate initiative that is just darn tootin’ sure to solve the climate campaign’s “communications problem” that has kept it from getting across the goal line with earth-saving legislation. And his newest idea? Imitate reality TV. I’m not, as the saying goes, making this up. His new “Climate Reality Project” will launch with a live-streamed event in September called “24 Hours
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July 14, 2011 — Scott Johnson
I started following the story that I called Minnesota Cage Match for two reasons: I thought, given the constellation of forces at work, that events here would foreshadow events in Washington, and I found the slant of the incompetent media coverage driven by the Minneapolis Star Tribune to be sickening. As in the national mainstream media, Democrats here control what Glenn Reynolds calls “the master media narrative,” only more so.
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July 14, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Gallup currently finds that “the “Republican Party’s candidate for president” leads President Obama by eight points, 47-39, among registered voters. Presumably the margin would be even greater among likely voters. The generic Republican has been pulling steadily ahead since May. Meanwhile, it seems doubtful that Obama can help himself much with the current debt standoff. Scott Rasmussen finds that likely voters oppose including tax increases in any debt limit deal
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July 14, 2011 — John Hinderaker
We wrote yesterday about Senator Jeff Sessions’ pledge to oppose the Democrats’ efforts to circumvent the Congressional Budget Act by getting unanimous consent of the Senate to pass appropriations bills even though that practice, in the absence of a budget, is forbidden by the Act. This is an important front in the battle to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington. This morning, the Senate has been debating this issue. We understand
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July 14, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Here in Minnesota, Governor Mark Dayton has agreed to the Republican legislature’s June 30 proposal to resolve the state’s budget impasse and end the partial government shutdown, with several conditions added. The most important of these conditions appears to be the Republicans’ agreement to a $500 million bonding bill “to put people back to work throughout Minnesota.” I don’t have a handle on the numbers, but I assume that any
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July 14, 2011 — Steven Hayward
Hogamus higamus, men are polygamous; higamus hogamus, women monogamous. —Ogden Nash Somewhere in a comment thread over the last couple of weeks a critical reader wondered why none of us here were weighing in with thoughts or comments on the New York legislature’s vote to legalize gay marriage. Look mister, I thought to respond, you’re just trying to stir up trouble, aren’t you? Can’t you just leave well enough
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July 14, 2011 — Scott Johnson
I am something of a connoisseur of the deeply malicious idiocy of Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison. I have followed his career closely on Power Line, and I wrote the Weekly Standard article “Louis Farrakhan’s first Congressman” about him, introducing him to a national audience as he was about to become the first Muslim elected to Congress. A friend sent me a video of Ellison’s recent remarks on Minnesota
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July 14, 2011 — Scott Johnson
The Summer 2011 Claremont Review of Books features a piece by Conrad Black, the Canadian press lord. An interesting, wealthy, eloquent, and controversial man, he has run afoul of the U.S. authorities. He has emerged from the encounter with his honor intact, which is more than can be said of the authorities. See, for example Mark Steyn’s note on Black’s reincarceration as well as Seth Lipsky’s column on his resentencing.
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July 13, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Conservatives are debating whether Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s floated fall-back position is a good idea. A long-time reader offers these thoughts: Mitch McConnell went on Laura Ingraham’s show today to defend his “contingency plan” in the debt ceiling negotiations. Most Power Line readers know the basics of that plan. In short, McConnell proposes that, if no good deal can be reached (and he plainly doubts that one will), the president
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July 13, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Tonight’s big news story is President Obama pushing back against Republicans who refuse to be intimidated by him: “Don’t call my bluff,” Obama says, by passing a short-term debt limit increase, which Obama says he will veto. It is a small point, but the Obama quote that the wire services are trumpeting makes no sense. If, in fact, he is bluffing, the Republicans should by all means call his bluff.
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July 13, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Barack Obama is leading the country down a path to bankruptcy, as the federal government spends trillions of dollars that we don’t have. Does the impending fiscal crisis deter him from more excesses? Of course not! Unless he is stopped by the voters, Obama will borrow and spend until the United States of America is–economically speaking–only a memory. As usual, Michael Ramirez puts the day’s headlines in perspective:
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July 13, 2011 — John Hinderaker
If you want to be prosperous, happy, live in a clean environment and enjoy civil liberties, the verdict is in: you need to live in a country that prizes free enterprise. Economic liberty is the key to pretty much every other human good. This video makes the case beautifully. The appalling fact, however, is that the United States, long a leader in economic freedom, has in recent years fallen back
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