Monthly Archives: April 2013
April 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Earth Day wasn’t kind to the Twin Cities, dumping up to ten inches of snow on the metropolitan area. Over the last week, low temperature records have been smashed all across the Upper Midwest. It looks more like Christmas than May Day: The Twins were snowed out last night for, I believe, the third time this season–can you imagine trying to play baseball in that? But I think they are
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April 23, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In a New York Post column Ralph Peters draws five “Lessons of Boston,” all of them worthy of discussion. Lesson no. 3: “Our immigration system is one of terrorism’s best allies.” Victor Davis Hanson elaborates at length in the course of his NRO column “Obama’s psychodramas.” Analyze this: The checkered immigrant family of the two Boston bombers is a tragic advertisement of almost everything wrong with our current immigration policy.
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April 22, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the Gang of Eight immigration bill seemed calculated to prevent reasoned debate. Both hearing dates occurred within less than a week of the release of the nearly 900-page bill, making it impossible for witnesses fully to analyze the Gang’s proposal. Moreover, only five of the 20 witnesses called during the two dates oppose this legislation. Two of these five adverse witnesses admitted that they
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April 22, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Singer/songwriter Richie Havens died today at the age of 72. Havens grew up in Brooklyn singing with a choir in church and with doo wop groups on street corners. He crossed the river to figure out how to make a go of it in Greenwich Village as a performer until he signed a recording contract with Verve. In 1967 Havens seemed to materialize out of nowhere with Mixed Bag, a
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April 22, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Liberals like to tell us that not all mass murderers are Muslims, and that is true, of course. Some mass murderers (or would-be mass murderers) are left-wingers whose views would get them beheaded in some parts of the world. Like Floyd Corkins. In case you have forgotten, Corkins is the militant homosexual who tried to shoot up the Family Research Council last August. He is in the news because his
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April 22, 2013 — John Hinderaker
An initial hearing has been conducted in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s criminal case. It was held at Tsarnaev’s hospital bedside, with the prosecutor, a court-appointed defense lawyer and a federal magistrate in attendance. Tsarnaev’s rights were explained, and he apparently uttered a word or two. You can read the transcript of the bedside hearing here. I found it rather bizarre. Tsarnaev has apparently been questioned, to some degree, although no substantive interrogation
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April 22, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
We have written about Michael Ellis before. He’s a family friend, Dartmouth man, aide to Karl Rove (in 2004 and during Rove’s early Fox News days) and Mitt Romney (in 2007-08), Yale Law grad, Naval Reserve officer, and federal court of appeals clerk. To this impressive list, we can now add: Jeopardy winner. Tonight Michael held off strong competition to win his first Jeopardy match, along with more than $16,000.
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April 22, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
That’s the question posed by the Daily Caller. The answer, unfortunately, appears to be that Rubio did not tell the truth to Levin and his audience. During his appearance on Levin’s program on April 17, Rubio referred four times to the creation of a commission led by border governors. This statement is typical of how he described the commission and its role: If, in five years, the plan has not
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April 22, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Earlier this afternoon, Paul described today’s immigration hearing, including the testimony of Mark Krikorian, one of the few witnesses called so far who are critical of the Gang of Eight’s proposal. I thought it would be of interest to our readers to post Krikorian’s testimony verbatim; this is, of course, just his prepared testimony and not his answers to the Senators’ questions. His testimony, while measured and even understated, shows
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April 22, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Hey everybody—it’s Earth Day! I know, you can hardly contain your excitement. I’m planning to observe it as I do most sunny days on the coast: by lighting up my carbon-intensive barbecue and roasting some green weenies. I’m behind on a lot of things these days, one of them being the update of my Almanac of Environmental Trends. I have managed to complete an update of the air quality section,
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April 22, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I’m spending the day watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the Gang of Eight immigration bill. Thus far, there have been two panels and a total of 11 witnesses. Unfortunately, none addressed, or is qualified to address, the core issue of border security. The first panel dealt with the issue of agricultural workers. All three witnesses testified in favor of the legislation, which would provide a path to a
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April 22, 2013 — Scott Johnson
A knowledgeable reader writes from Boston: You may already know this, but the ISB mosque in Cambridge referenced in your Power Line post has a long history, and the group I belong to has been part of it. You can learn more at this Web site. It will be very interesting to see what turns up from various investigations, including our own. As for the Boston Globe, they have responded
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April 22, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I first became aware of the Gosnell case through Joseph Bottum’s February 2011 Weekly Standard article “To live and die in Philadelphia” and Clarke Forsythe’s January 2011 Weekly Standard online column “The Supreme Court’s back alley runs through Philadelphia.” Bottum’s and Forsythe’s pieces were based on the grand jury report in the case, which has now gone to trial. The Standard takes another look at the Gosnell case today, not
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April 21, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Paul Ryan is scheduled to discuss immigration reform during a joint appearance in Chicago on Monday with Luis Gutierrez, a left-wing, pro-amnesty representative from Illinois. Gutierrez is part of the House’s “Gang of Eight” which is working on comprehensive immigration reform legislation along the same basic lines as its Senate counterpart. I take the fact that Ryan is appearing in Chicago with Gutierrez to be a bad sign. So too
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April 21, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Supporters of the Schumer-Rubio comprehensive immigration reform legislation are arguing that enacting this bill into law will make America safer. Dick Durbin made the argument on Meet The Press today, and it seems to be emerging as a Gang of Eight talking point. Durbin cited four aspects of the Schumer-Rubio bill that, he claims, will maker us safer: (1) securing the border (allegedly), (2) allowing 11 million people to come
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April 21, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I’ve written before about Luis Suarez, Liverpool’s star forward. He is, in my opinion, the best player in the English Premier League this year, and arguably one of the best 11 players in the world. He is also, in my opinion (and by consensus, I believe) the biggest cheat in the EPL. It’s an unusual combination. Fowards of Suarez’s quality may “dive” to draw fouls (see Cristiano Ronaldo). They may
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April 21, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that Secretary of Defense Hagel is taking his “charm offensive” to Israel. At first blush, this seems like a difficult task. Most of the few people Hagel has ever been able to charm (the Steve Clemons’ of the world and, to be fair, apparently Barack Obama) seem to have been won over in part by his anti-Israel barbs. But we shouldn’t forget about handwritten thank-you notes.
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