Monthly Archives: April 2013
April 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, as John noted, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and four other House committees provided a report to GOP members on the investigations into the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi on 9/11 of last year. The report shows that the Obama administration continuously denied requests for additional security prior to the attacks, and then attempted to hide responsibility for those decisions. Today, the heads of the
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April 24, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Senator Jeff Sessions’ staff has begun assembling summaries of key provisions of the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. They released the first one, which deals with how the act treats “dreamers,” this afternoon. It is titled, “Immigration Bill S. 744 Allows Milllions of Illegal Immigrants to Become Citizens in 5 Years – And Bring Their Relatives On An Expedited Basis.” * Those who qualify for the broad DREAM Act fast-track
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April 24, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Ken Masugi’s long post about “The Big Bang Theory” (the TV show, not the theory) at the LibertyLaw site deserves more notice than just a link in our Picks section. Do read it; it is philosophical-scientific-cultural criticism at its best, with a special bonus of James Schall. I’ve been meaning to comment on BBT myself, but keep putting it off. BBT is clearly the best TV science fiction comedy since
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April 24, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The powers that be at Dartmouth College have canceled classes for all-day left-wing indoctrination today. Like the warden in Cool Hand Luke, they mean to get the students’ minds right. Where can I go to get the pro rata portion of my daughter’s tuition back? Dartmouth senior Blake Neff hasn’t answered that question, but the same issue is on his mind and he has kindly responded to our request for
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April 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
On Monday, the literal answer was: alongside left-wing Congressman and longtime amnesty advocate Luis Gutierrez at a rally held by a Hispanic activist group: Appearing at the Erie Neighborhood House and a City Club of Chicago lunch with the Democrat, Ryan forcefully pushed back on conservatives like former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who think opening the gates to legalizing undocumented immigrants will plunge the nation
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April 24, 2013 — Steven Hayward
When even the New York Times calls you “the Solyndra of the electric car industry,” you know you’ve had it. Fisker, another Obamanation that cost taxpayers over $500 million in subsidies and props, was losing more than $500,000 per vehicle. (But I’m sure they made up for it in volume.) I especially like this droll bit of narrative in the Times’ story: “Fisker, with its technical problems, management turmoil and
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April 24, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Boston Globe has been engaged in serious damage control on behalf of the Cambridge mosque attended by Tamerlan Tsarnaev. In “About that mosque,” we noted the mosque’s well known Islamist flavor. There’s a story there, and Oren Dorell glimpses it in USA Today’s “Mosque that Boston suspects attended has radical ties.” Dorell’s article is must reading in its entry. One highlight is the purported refutation of its thesis by
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April 24, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Gang of Eight immigration bill is an adjunct and analogue to Obamacare. Claims by proponents on its behalf lack veracity. Indeed, the operative assumption should be that the opposite of such claims is closer to the truth. Heather Mac Donald cuts through a lot of blather in “The real risks of amnesty.” It sounds like 1986 all over again, only worse. She writes: Mickey Kaus has demolished the Senate
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April 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yes, for the reasons set forth below, via Eliana Johnson and Mediaite. When Rubio was running for the Senate in 2009, he told a Florida political blogger that, with regard to immigration, “the most important thing we need to do is enforce our existing laws.” He added: If you go to people and say: “Look, well you’ve been here for so long that even though you broke the law we’re
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April 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Early this morning, Scott linked to this article by Anne Bayefsky. I want to give it some further attention. Anne pointed out, and responded to, a repellent column in Foreign Policy Journal by a man named Richard Falk, titled “A Commentary on the Marathon Murders.” You almost have to read it to believe it, but here are a few excerpts: [T]he neocon presidency of George W. Bush was in 2001,
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April 23, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Daily Mail has a colorful report on the release of Elvis impersonator Kevin Curtis from custody for sending the ricin-laced mail to Senator Roger Wicker and President Obama: Charges have been dropped against a Mississippi man charged with sending ricin-laced poison letters to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a state judge after his lawyer argued that he has been framed by a former friend. “I’ve never heard
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April 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Earlier today, the House Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform, and Intelligence committees issued a joint interim report on the investigation of Benghazi. At U.S. News, Peter Roff has a straightforward account of the report’s contents: To put it mildly, the findings of the investigation thus far are damning. The product of combined investigations by the House Committees on the Armed Services, Judiciary, Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and
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April 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Hope springs eternal. Whenever an act of political violence occurs, liberals eagerly wish for the perpetrators to be Tea Partiers. Alas, they are always disappointed. Via InstaPundit, Tim Blair points out that the disease isn’t limited to the U.S. The Sydney Morning Herald ran a very silly column by one Waleed Aly, who said, among other howlers: But it’s possible, too, that this reticence is a product of the very
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April 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
“Miss me yet?” the billboards asked, early in Obama’s first term. It took a while, but more voters than ever are missing George W. Bush. His approval rating is now up to 47%, right around where President Obama has been in recent weeks. Expect it to keep rising, as Obama makes him look good by comparison. When President Bush left office, I gave his two terms a B-. I won’t
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April 23, 2013 — Steven Hayward
In my Weekly Standard article out a few days ago (“The Climate Circus Leaves Town”), I predicted: What [Obama] may do is tentatively approve Keystone along with a major policy shift that will please environmentalists and subject Keystone to further and perhaps fatal delays. There is talk that the administration may expand the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to require that proposed projects like Keystone document their
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April 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Janet Napolitano is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the comprehensive immigration bill. Naturally, she supports this legislation, which is a crucial element of her boss’s agenda. In response to questioning from Sen. Cornyn, Napolitano has admitted that the “90 percent effectiveness rate” standard cannot reliably be calculated because we don’t know who is crossing the border undetected. Yet the 90 percent effectiveness rate is a key criterion for
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April 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Max Baucus has announced that he will not seek reelection. Baucus has served in the Senate since December 1978. Clearly, his retirement should improve the prospects for a Republican pick-up in Montana next year.
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