September 2007

HuffPo2.jpg Today's Huffington Post cherry picks a four year old

Yesterday, six of the top thirteen college football teams in the AP poll--all of them heretofore undefeated--lost to lower-ranked or unranked opponents. Upsets happen in sports. And upsets happen in politics. Especially in multi-candidate fields where almost all of the leading candidates have never…

During the September 5 GOP debate in New Hampshire, Mayor Giuliani had this little noticed dig at Governor Romney: New York City was, during the years that I was mayor, the safest large city in the United States. In fact, in 2000, which was one of the last years that I was mayor, it was 191 for…

According to NBC's First Read blog, Newt Gingrich will not run for president. Apparently Gingrich received notice only yesterday that he would have to shut down his American Solutions project before running. This was enough, it seems, to prevent Gingrich from announcing. Note that it was not a…

House minority leader John Boehner of Ohio and Senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Jim DeMint of South Carolina have labored long and hard to make an issue out of Democratic phoniness in supposedly cleaning up the dubious practice of earmarks. Remember earmarks? Those are the items of special…

Fred Barnes writes in with a preview of this weekend's Beltway Boys: This week's "Hot Story" is "Talk . . . Bomb?" It's mainly about the Democrats and how bad they were in their Dartmouth debate on Iran--except for Hillary. She gets a separate "UP" arrow for her performance, especially as the lone…

THE CHINESE ANNOUNCED on Saturday that they would be buying into the company that provides the Pentagon with technology to prevent cyber-attacks--of the sort the Chinese launched a few weeks ago. Why worry? We are all free traders now, according the president and his secretary of the Treasury--all…

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The Missile Defense Agency reports on a successful test today: The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced today it has completed an important exercise and flight test involving a successful intercept by a ground-based interceptor missile designed to protect the United States against a limited…

411w.jpg Merkel says goodbye to the Dalai Lama after meeting at the chancellery.

From the Wall Street Journal: Why We're Winning Now in Iraq, by Frederick W. Kagan. From HughHewitt.com: Activism vs. Punditry, by Dean Barnett. From the Washington Post: France Flips While Congress Shifts, by Charles Krauthammer. From the Guardian: Struggling Alone, by Vaclav Havel.\ From the…

Over at Town Hall, Patrick Ruffini has what may be the most perceptive post of the week. Here are the key grafs: On Hannity last night, Newt said he would collect pledges over the Internet. That means he's almost certain to reach the $30 million goal he's set for himself. Whether he can actually…

Via Ben Smith, this Jeanne Cummings piece on John Edwards's decision to accept public matching funds makes a lot of sense. Basically, Cummings writes, Edwards had no other choice: The simple fact is that Edwards was never going to keep pace with the Democratic front-runner, New York Sen. Hillary…

It's a common refrain of Rudy Giuliani's that leadership involves doing things that are unpopular. Here's an ABC News article in which Giuliani says: Leadership is about sometimes doing the things you know are right, and then it's your job to educate the public, as opposed to just, you know, taking…

Yesterday National Review Online featured a piece on American energy policy by John McCain that can be found here. McCain writes that "America's dependency on foreign oil is a major strategic vulnerability for our nation." In short, McCain proposes to "implement an energy plan that won't be another…

This week, the world has been watching the violent government crackdown on the pro-democracy uprising in Burma. "Citizen journalists" have been responsible for much of the reporting by cell phone text messages to bloggers worldwide. But the Burmese government blocked Internet access and cell phone…

Lawmakers deplore 'frightening' state of Army readiness: Members of the House Armed Services Committee expressed concern Wednesday that the sustained combat in Iraq and Afghanistan has reduced the Army's ability to respond to any new conflict. "The Army has degraded to an intolerable point," Armed…

President Bush on 27 September: "Endless hours sitting in an airplane on a runway with no communication between a pilot and the airport is just not right." When was the last time Bush flew commercial? Any guesses? In any case, let's hope the administration has read the Wall Street Journal editorial…

Yesterday I received the following fundraising appeal from Chris Dodd: Hey, I only have a few seconds on my way back to Washington from last night's debate. The fundraising quarter is wrapping up and we're just short of hitting our goal. Will you chip in $23 and put us over the top? You can…

A reader writes: The Democrats' attitudes remind me of 1984, when it was assumed that Mondale had a lock on the election, since the people would reject Reagan (recession being fresh in their minds) and return to the "natural governing party," the Democrats. So, they pandered to their core…

Start working on those letters to the editor. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts--and again, if you don't send criticism, I won't mind!

The Pentagon's Blogger's Roundtable series featured Col. Ricky Gibbs this morning. Gibbs is the commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Multi-National Division-Baghdad, and one of the 5,000 soldiers under his command is Scott Thomas Beauchamp. I asked Col. Gibbs…

The Lombardo Consulting Group is due to release the latest edition of their election monitor. Here's a preview: For the last two months we have refrained from commenting on the national and statewide polling on the Presidential race because, quite frankly, nothing was really happening. The fact is…

Just a note to let you know that, at the moment, the email address at the bottom of our posts isn't functioning correctly. I'll make an announcement once the address is up and you can send me your thoughts, criticisms, and so forth. On second thought, if you don't send criticism, I wouldn't really…

It's been three months since Cindy McCain has penned an entry to her blog. As Fred Willard's character in A Mighty Wind might say, "Wha' happened?" Cindy McCain is a charming lady and a wonderful advocate for her husband. But if she doesn't want to blog--and really, who can blame her?--the McCain…

Via Instapundit, Mark Steyn makes a few observations about Katie Couric's problem with the word 'we:' Before Katie Couric's confession that "saying 'we' when referring to the United States" makes her uncomfortable fades from the news cycle, two observations: 1) You'd be hard put to find anything…

The folks on the Left are beside themselves today--thinking that by dint of a truncated quote, they will succeed in shutting down Rush Limbaugh and taking him off the air. Before lining up next to the folks from Crooks and Liars, FireDogLake, Media Matters, ThinkProgress, Huffington Post, and the…

According to the AP, that's the number of Americans for whom there has never "been a time when there wasn't a Bush or Clinton in the White House, either as president or vice president." I'm one of them! The rest of the AP story concerns political dynasties. It doesn't contain much new information.…

Bill Kristol called in from the road to encourage you to read WEEKLY STANDARD contributing editor John Podhoretz's latest column. Here's Pod's take on the Dems: At this point, a little more than three months before voters show up in Iowa and New Hampshire, it's clear that none of Hillary's foes has…

Beijing is taking some heat for blocking, along with Russia, a UN security council resolution condemning Burma, but the Communist party has other things to worry about besides international opinion and an Olympic boycott. The friendly junta that gives China an outlet to the Indian Ocean is facing a…

According to the Wall Street Journal, most of the GOP candidates will come up short when they announce third quarter fundraising numbers in the coming days. John Harwood reports: "Among major Republican candidates, only late-starting Thompson and longshot Huckabee claim to have beaten…

Last night on PBS, Tavis Smiley hosted a debate on minority issues. The Republican candidates for president were invited, and only six of them showed up: Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, and, yes, Alan Keyes, whose current profession seems to be running for…

IS EUROPE DOOMED? Many Americans seem to think so, and the chief reason is demography: European countries have had low fertility rates for decades, and now they face spiraling population decline. By 2050, the European Union's share of the global population is projected to plummet below 10 percent.…

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Mitt Romney has come under fire lately, and new poll showing him losing ground in New Hampshire has put his campaign on the defensive. It's worth remembering, then, that Romney's campaign has made the most impressive and specific contributions to the GOP policy discussion thus far, especially on…

USA Today has an interesting tally of insurgent casualties today, reporting that Coalition forces have killed some 19,000 insurgents since over the last four years. More than 19,000 militants have been killed in fighting with coalition forces since the insurgency began more than four years ago,…

Via Michael Goldfarb, at post time the Daily Kos poll found here shows that respondents prefer George Clinton to Hillary Clinton by an overwhelming margin. Say what you will about the Kossacks, but they have excellent taste in music.

According to this AP report, Sen. Robert Byrd has vowed that he will not "rubber stamp" the Bush administration's requested $190 billion appropriation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This got me thinking. When was the last time a member of Congress said he would "rubber stamp" an…

The Politico states the obvious--notwithstanding their protestations, Democrats in Congress are not doing all they can to end the war in Iraq: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could force a vote a day over Iraq. She could keep the House in session all night, over weekends and through planned…

Jonah Goldberg posts two comments today in response to Tuesday's season premiere of The Unit on CBS. I've been a big fan of the show for its last two seasons. It's not great television and there is no real substance to it. But it is highly entertaining, and for two years it has been hands down the…

It's not even 2008, but for John McCain's presidential campaign, you get the sense that it's already the fourth quarter. McCain is near the endzone but time is running out. Can he make it to overtime or will the senator get sacked at the one yard line? Why all the football metaphors? It must be…

Charlie Rangel (D-NY) has an intriguing personality. He can be fiercely partisan and confrontational, or affable and friendly. He is at times one of the easiest Congressional Democrats to work with on bipartisan initiatives. Yet he is prone to offensive attacks and the politics of personal…

Last night the Giuliani campaign organized more than 1,000 house parties across the country and in England to raise money and extend hizzoner's network of grassroots supporters. Giuliani attended a house party in New Jersey, where he participated in a live webcast for party-goers worldwide. That…

Here is the link to the new television and radio ads John McCain is running in New Hampshire. The first ad, "Live Free", is relatively weak. The second ad, however--"One Man"--is overwhelmingly powerful. It not only highlights McCain's service to his country and incredible life story, but also…

From the Campaign Standard: Cautious Pessimism, by Fred Barnes. From the New York Times: Myanmar Forces Fire on Protesters, by Seth Mydans. From the Danger Room: Soldier of the Future Gets His Gear On, by Noah Shachtman. From the Wall Street Journal: Bush and Iran, by the editors. From National…

Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters says it best: "Petraeus Moved the Debate." Democratic presidential candidates changed their rhetoric ever so slightly in last night's debate: Obama, Clinton, and Edwards won't commit to pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq by 2013, the end of their first presidential…

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder reports on an emerging compromise caucus and primary schedule here. Nothing is set in stone yet, but if the calendar turns out to resemble Ambinder's prediction, then Iowa's importance probably will be magnified more than we expect.

The Washington Post reports on a story leaked to Spain's El Pais about a meeting between President Bush and the former Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar weeks ahead of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It's interesting to note how Bush discusses Saddam's signals that he might accept exile from Iraq. El…

CNN.com reports that John McCain's campaign is about to start running TV ads in New Hampshire. Right move, wrong state. The path to winning New Hampshire starts in Iowa. McCain should bet his scarce TV resources in Iowa with a large TV buy. TV ads move numbers in Iowa and a new Hawkeye poll showing…

In a speech this morning at Hudson Institute, McCain once again pointed out the disgrace of America's elite universities having banned ROTC from their campuses: "This week as well, Columbia University hosted Iranian President Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust denier committed to the destruction of Israel,…

It seems that there are two camps regarding last night's Democratic debate in New Hampshire. One camp says Hillary Clinton emerged more or less unscathed. The other camp thinks Clinton's rivals, John Edwards in particular, did a serviceable job exposing Clinton's weaknesses. David Yepsen, the Des…

Byron York's well-reported take on last night's Democratic debate can be found here. Key quote: "After all the odd and sometimes perplexing answers, there weren't any winners, either." That sounds about right to me, though with the proviso that a night when no one wins is, for the moment, a good…

Here's the original video of MSNBC's David Shuster subbing in for Tucker Carlson the other night and putting this question to Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn: "What was the name of the last soldier from your district who was killed in Iraq?" Blackburn couldn't answer the question. She should have…

Or his heirs. . . . It should only be a matter of time before we see headlines like: "Crime rises despite leveling off in prison population."

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has just launched a new blog, The Campaign Standard, with an eye on the 2008 elections. It will be edited by Matthew Continetti, and it will feature a number of other contributors, with posts already up from Bill Kristol, Fred Barnes, Richard Starr...and the mysterious,…

Last night, for the first time this election cycle, I watched a Democratic presidential debate. It was appalling. But it was also, in a way, encouraging. Before last night, I thought it was 50-50 that the Republican nominee would win in November 2008. Now I think it's 2 to 1. And if the Democrat is…

Those with eagle-eyes will note the appearance of "Richelieu" in the post below. Those with eagle-eyes and access to the WEEKLY STANDARD's masthead will notice that "Richelieu" is not among our number. So who is Richelieu? He's a smart insider who's been involved with more campaigns than I would…

Editor's note: For more on the campaign go to CampaignStandard.com.

Editor's note: For more on the campaign go to CampaignStandard.com.

THIS SUNDAY'S parliamentary election in Ukraine shares at least one thing in common with next year's Presidential election in the United States. During overlong campaigns, in the parade of political personalities and the blizzard of distortions and half truths, it is nearly impossible to remember…

A long slog of a debate on MSNBC tonight. One hackneyed cliche after another. Meanwhile the state of the Democratic race stays the same. Hillary kept her hawk's eye on the general election by speaking a lot and saying as little as possible. She was adroit, practiced, and tremendously uncompelling.…

Reuters's insta-analysis of the Democratic debate in New Hampshire can be found here. But there's no reason to read it, because as best I can tell the analysis bears absolutely no relation to reality. The headline reads "In Democratic Debate, Rivals Assail Clinton." One of the examples for this…

That was Hillary Clinton's response when Tim Russert noted a disagreement between her and Bill Clinton. There's little doubt that, should Hillary become the Democratic nominee, Republicans will bring up the Clinton legacy and ask voters whether they really want Bill Clinton in the White House for…

As Democrats prepared to debate in New Hampshire tonight, local TV station WMUR, partnering with CNN, released a poll showing Giuliani pulling within a statistically insignificant one point behind Mitt Romney. The WMUR/CNN poll echoes a general trend in which Romney's New Hampshire lead is…

Mitt Romney has enjoyed a week of good press for his "Change Begins with Us" ad, earning laudatory headlines such as "Romney Tells Republicans to Reform", "Romney Issues Challenge to GOP", and "Romney, in Ad, Criticizes His Party and Calls for Change". But listen closely to the ad:

Fred Barnes mourned the end of Pete Wehner's emails when the 'one-man think tank' left the White House for a job at the Ethics and Public Policy Center last month, but the administration's loss is the blogosphere's gain. Now from his perch at contentions, the blog run by Commentary, Wehner is still…

monks.jpg From Rule of Lords, a scene from the Saffron Revolution.

Gary Hart has just posted what looks to be an open letter to the government of Iran over at the Huffington Post: Presuming that you are not actually ignorant enough to desire war with the United States, you might be well advised to read the history of the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana…

Republicans are demoralized about the 2008 election and they ought to be. By a significant margin, more voters now identify themselves as Democrats. And not only are Democrats raising more money, the party's presidential candidates are generating considerably more enthusiasm than Republican…

Jay Cost has a smart post on "what makes a frontrunner." Here's the key graf: Voters right now are paying little attention to the race. Not only that, they do not have very much information about the state of the race. Now, this might sound surprising to you, but the reality is that the ways in…

From the Politico: We Need Colombia More Than It Needs Us, by Roy Blunt. From the Christian Science Monitor: A Bipartisan Way Out of Iraq, by Joe Sestak. From the Wall Street Journal ($): Why the 'Law of the Sea' is a Good Deal, by James Baker and George Schultz. From the State: A Plan for a Stable…

On 26 September the Senate voted 76 to 22 to pass Kyl-Lieberman, an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization bill that expresses the "sense of the Senate" with regard to Iran. You can find more on the amendment here. It's worth noting that Hillary Clinton voted for the amendment, which expresses…

A few weeks ago Newsweek featured a cover story on Hillary Clinton. The cover line asked, "What sort of decider will she be?" It's still hard to answer that question, but Jonathan Darman's piece does feature this hilarious pseudo-scoop: Each weekend [Clinton] pores over "weekly reports" prepared by…

The House passed a motion today by a margin of 341-79 condemning MoveOn's attack on General Petraeus. In the key provision, the House condemns in the strongest possible terms the personal attacks made by the advocacy group MoveOn.org impugning the integrity and professionalism of General David H.…

Newsweek's recent issue on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign contained this interesting article by Michael Hirsh on the make-up of Clinton and Obama's foreign policy advisory teams. Basically, Clinton's top advisers were top advisers to her husband when he was president--people like Madeleine…

The 24 September New York Review of Books contains this revealing exchange between contributor Thomas Powers and letter-writer Bob Guldin. What's revealing about it is that neither Guldin nor Powers can accept the idea that the president of the United States actually chooses policies that he…

Christopher Jencks had a fascinating, learned take on the immigration debate in a recent New York Review of Books. Jencks articulates the contradictions involved in our Catch-22 immigration debate: The federal government's policy of opposing illegal immigration while refusing to enforce laws…

Here's the press release: The U.S. Senate today adopted a measure authored by U.S. Senators Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) that calls on the U.S. State Department to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. The measure was adopted as an amendment…

Twenty-eight members of the House of Representatives have come together to sign a statement of principles to govern future action on Iraq. Led by Congressmen John Tanner (D-TN) and Mike Castle (R-DE), the group seeks to end the fighting over Iraq policy inside the walls of Congress, and establish…

When questions were first raised as to whether MoveOn.org had received a steep discount for placing its 'General Betray Us' ad in the Times, the newspaper quickly cleared itself, reporting that everything was on the up and up. Catherine J. Mathis, a spokeswoman for The New York Times Company, said…

The New Yorker's editorialist Hendrik Hertzberg writes this week on the health-care debate: Americans already have some experience with European-style socialized-medicine plans. The two most efficient, merciful, and politically unchallengeable components of the American health-care system--Medicare…

Via Kay Steiger, apparently Aung San Suu Kyi is not the only pin-up in Desmond Tutu's office: At the Clinton Global Initiative today, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was invited to represent her country and talk about green investment in the Philippines. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in an attempt to…

This list of "The 86 Greatest Travel Books of All Time" makes for interesting reading, but is Tom Bissell's Chasing the Sea really on the same plane as Herodotus? I've enjoyed Bissell's journalism, but isn't it, you know, some two thousand years too early to tell whether his books stand among the…

Via the inimitable Blake Hounshell, here is Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi: She's my only pinup in my office. Notice the archbishop specifies she is the only pinup in his office. It's enough to make you wonder whether he has any others . . . Actually, maybe it's best…

NBC's excellent First Read blog previews tonight's Democratic debate in New Hampshire: We've noticed an interesting pattern: Whenever Clinton gets a tough question or is attacked by an opponent directly, she deflects the criticism with laughter. So, if Clinton's doubled-over in laughter most of the…

The American Prospect's Ezra Klein refers to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as "Iran's leading civil servant." I guess that's one way of looking at it. However, a more accurate description might be "Iran's leading radical Islamist and tool of the dictator Ayatollah Khamenei."

Who wouldn't want the Marines on their streets? San Francisco, apparently. San Francisco Film Commission executive director Stefanie Coyote barred the Marines' Silent Drill Platoon from filming a scene for their new recruitment commercial, "America's Marines," on California Street in downtown San…

The New York Times's Alissa J. Rubin reports today on the "Ramadan Offensive" launched by Sunni insurgents in Iraq. Sandwiched between reports of assassinations and bombings, Rubin paints a pretty favorable picture of the Baghdad Security Plan: "The main reason behind all these attacks are the…

Rudy Giuliani reiterates his claim that he is the most "electable" and competitive Republican general-election candidate in this AP interview: "I think political professionals would tell you that if my opponents get the nomination, a day after the convention, no matter what they say, the Republican…

Our colleague Patrick Ruffini points out that there is a bellwether Congressional race currently underway, in Massachusetts' 5th Congressional District. The Republican candidate -- whom polls show to be within striking distance -- is Jim Ogonowski. Ruffini has this to say about Ogonowski and the…

REMINDERS OF THE dreadful ambitions of Islamic extremists are not hard to come by. Earlier this month we learned that authorities thwarted a "massive" terrorist attack against American targets in Germany, planned by at least two German citizens who had converted to Islam. Two weeks ago, Osama bin…

The AP reports that crime is on the rise: The number of murders in 2006 increased by 1.8 percent over the previous year. In big cities of over 1 million people, however, murder jumped by 6.8 percent. The number of robberies and arson also rose, while the number of rapes and car thefts dropped, FBI…

David Brooks writes that the Democratic left is losing its war for control of the party: The fact is, many Democratic politicians privately detest the netroots' self-righteousness and bullying. They also know their party has a historic opportunity to pick up disaffected Republicans and moderates,…

JunkScience.com is sponsoring a competition: The Ultimate Global Warming Challenge. If you can prove that humans are causing catastrophic global warming, you canl win $125,000. When the contest was announced on August 7, the prize was only $100,000. But apparently the team at JunkScience is getting…

Samantha Sault has an excellent round up of the reaction to Mahmoud Ahmadinehad's appearance at Columbia, and Lee Bollinger's introduction of him. But watching Bollinger's comments make me wonder how the Columbia president can be anything other than a strong proponent of forceful and aggressive…

National Journal ranks the Republicans running for the GOP nomination. There are some surprises. Mike Huckabee is ranked Number 4, while John McCain is ranked Number 5. Giuliani remains in first place--that is, National Journal believes that, for now, he is most likely to win the nomination. Is he?…

Mitt Romney's call to indict Ahmadinejad under the Geneva Conventions seems a little vague--who would prepare the indictment? what specific crimes does Romney have in mind?--but apparently there is legal recourse, and considerable evidentiary support, to eject Iran from the United Nations. Under…

Today I had the opportunity to participate in a discussion with Congressman Pete Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. The event was sponsored by the Heritage Foundation's Rob Bluey. Hoekstra's comments ran the gamut--touching on everything from SCHIP, to Iraq, to FISA,…

From Reihan's "Facebook Commandments": An undergrad who doesn't have a Facebook profile is regarded as a Luddite, the social equivalent of leading a survivalist lifestyle complete with flintlock rifle and bandana.

Joe Klein's latest column serves as a good introduction to Hillary Clinton's most recent health plan, and what separates that plan from those of Clinton's Democratic and Republican rivals. My favorite part of this piece, though, was this: The other mandate will be far more difficult to impose,…

From the New York Sun: ...Meanwhile, in Iran, by Eli Lake. From the Wall Street Journal ($): Syria Joins the Axis of Evil, by John Bolton. From the Christian Science Monitor: Why I Want to Keep Fighting in Iraq, by Chris Brady. From the New York Times: The Center Holds, by David Brooks. From…

Rudy Giuliani's recent trip to London to receive an award from Margaret Thatcher was a publicity coup, but it was also meant to establish Hizzoner as Reagan's rightful heir. The word "Reagan" is never far from any Republican's lips, but Giuliani goes out of his way to emulate our fortieth…

I just finished the Francis Fukuyama edited Blindside: How to Anticipate Forcing Events and Wild Cards in Global Politics. I couldn't recommend it more highly. Contributors include David Landes, Richard Posner, James Kurth, Gregg Easterbrook, Walter Russell Mead, and others. It's an easy read about…

saegheh3.jpg The new Iranian-designed and produced fighter aircraft, the Sa'eqeh.

saegheh3.jpg The new Iranian-designed and produced fighter aircraft, the Sa'eqeh.

Over the weekend, David Ignatius wrote a love letter to the CIA praising the agency for its prescient analysis of the problems this country would face in Iraq. Ignatius writes: The estimates were circulated in January 2003. You don't have to take my word or Pillar's for what they said: They are…

The blogosphere is buzzing about Ahmadinejad's speech to the Columbia University community. Despite the widespread outrage at Columbia's invitation--and despite New York City's refusal to allow Ahmadinejad to visit Ground Zero--the Iranian president was given a massive forum to broadcast his…

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An interesting story from Military.com about "a novel plan to undercut the insurgency by drying up its base of hardened fighters." The operation is run by Marine General Doug Stone, and there is also an audio interview that accompanies the piece. After assuming command of detainee operations in…

IF YOU FOLLOW THE media you must think that everyone agrees that the earth is warming, and that it is our fault because we create greenhouse-gas emissions by driving, flying, heating and cooling our homes, and making other uses of fossil fuels. And you must think that everyone agrees that unless…

Samarra, Iraq

WWS pal Stuart Koehl emailed his two cents regarding the discussion here last Friday of Robert Kaplan's "Lost at Sea." Because Koehl is wicked smart, here is his response: I'm in the midst of writing a chapter on rising great powers in a book on future American strategy in which I noted that…

We posted the text of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment here last week, and here's an excerpt of the speech Lieberman gave on the floor of the Senate today offering that amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill: "{T}he war that Iran is fighting against American troops and our allies in Iraq is an…

From the Space Review: The case for withdrawing from the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, by John Hickman. From the Middle East Journal: "Al Qaeda Lost", by Michael J. Totten. From the American: Howard's End? by Duncan Currie. From Contentions: Bad Ad, by Peter Wehner. From National Review: Antiwar…

Here's the statement from John McCain: "I still find it astonishing and astounding that Columbia University would welcome the president of a country that has not only dedicated itself to a policy of extinction of the state of Israel, but as he is speaking, most of the lethal and explosive devices…

The inability of Congressional Democrats to force a change of course on Iraq has led to strained relations with the Netroots--a subject we've covered here. While Democrats in Washington try to figure out how to appeal to both moderates and their anti-war base, that base is debating whether to…

National Review posted an excellent piece over the weekend by David J. Feith and Jordan C. Hirsch, two undergraduates at Columbia University, on the school's invitation to Ahmadinejad: Certainly the ideas of a powerful world leader should be studied on American campuses. The true question is…

I'm watching Ahmadinejad's lecture right now. It is a disgrace. Ahmadinejad just said they don't have homosexuals in Iran: "we do not have this phenomenon." And yet Bollinger keeps trying to turn it into a debate, as if one can debate the existence of homosexuals, the facts of the Holocaust, or any…

Sonny Bunch picked apart some of the silliness Senator Clinton offered during her full Ginsburg on yesterday's round of Sunday shows. It's interesting to take note of her comments on Iraq, as well. She told CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "I've reached the conclusion that the best way to support our troops is…

A couple of interesting statements over the weekend in response to Columbia University president Lee Bollinger's decision to host Ahmadinejad. The first is from David M. Schizer, dean of Columbia's Law School: A controversy has developed about the invitation extended to President Mahmoud…

chang_e_1.jpg From NASA, an artist's rendering of China's

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton made the rounds this weekend, appearing on several of the Sunday morning talk shows from her home in Chappaqua, New York. Sporting a brown blazer on top of a green shirt, Senator Clinton was bubbly and boisterous, and at times confusing. Clinton made one…

To prepare for General David Petraeus's long-awaited testimony on Iraq to Congress last week, the liberal pressure group MoveOn.org wrote itself into the history books with an anti-Petraeus ad so repulsive it ranked with Lyndon Johnson's infamous 1964 TV spot in the campaign against Barry…

The Culture Broker

Until Proven Innocent

On the Road

MALIGNING MORMONS

Circling My Mother

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

The Commercial Society

Venezuela's cocksure president, Hugo Chávez, might take a sobering glance through the latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey, conducted this spring and released over the summer. Of the seven Latin American nations polled, large majorities of Chileans (75 percent), Brazilians (74 percent), Peruvians (70…

There used to be a lot of school kids crowding the Surratt House Museum in Clinton, Maryland, a few miles south of Washington. Their teachers would haul them in by the busload--more than a thousand a year. The museum is housed in the homestead of one of the conspirators who was hanged for the…

How much do you suppose it costs the U.S. Mint to produce a penny? Let me tell you--with a deeply self-satisfied howl of execration--almost 2 cents. This little brown item of pocket clutter costs twice as much to make as it's worth, and it isn't worth anything. A penny will not buy a penny postcard…

In the wake of last week's Iraq-related developments in Washington, the strongest quasi-respectable argument available to Democrats who want to oppose President Bush and General Petraeus while sounding responsible is the claim that a troop drawdown larger than the one they propose is needed to…

As a general principle, the best athletes shouldn't be our favorite athletes. We should appreciate greatness, of course. But actually rooting for Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan or Barry Bonds reflects a character deficiency. Like rooting for the Yankees.

An anniversary passed without much notice on September 9th. It was fifty years since President Eisenhower signed the 1957 Civil Rights Act. This was the first civil rights legislation to make it into law since Reconstruction, and it also marked just about the last time that commentators considered…

When congressional leaders met with President Bush last week at the White House, the Republicans were upbeat, the Democrats far less buoyant. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a more imposing figure than her Senate colleague, Majority Leader Harry Reid, took the lead in criticizing President Bush's Iraq…

New York City

WHY WE'RE NOT IN GOVERNMENT

Gordon Chang has posted an interesting rebuttal to Robert D. Kaplan's must-read in today's New York Times. Chang is dubious of Kaplan's contention that this century will be "the Asian Century": Kaplan is right to highlight the growing militarization of Asia. But he's too hasty in arguing that the…

In the week just concluded, the Senate has debated a variety of measures related to the war in Iraq. The only measure which passed was one to denounce MoveOn for for its attack on General David Petraeus. By that measure, it was the most productive week the Senate has had on Iraq in months. But if…

From the New York Times: Lost at Sea, by Robert D. Kaplan. From Congressional Quarterly: Blackwater Draws Senate Attention, by Josh Rogin. From Pajamas Media: Dam Bursts at Al Dura Trial, by Nidra Poller. From Captain's Quarters: The Bully Boys of the Internet, by Ed Morrissey. From Contentions:…

A Columbia student asked how he could effectively protest his university's invitation to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak Monday. My first response was to suggest petitions, e-mails to President Bollinger and the university trustees, letters to the student paper, peaceful protest, and…

Congressional Quarterly looks at the agenda ahead in the House and Senate -- including legislation to prevent a government shutdown: In the final week of the 2007 fiscal year, the House and Senate face packed agendas in an effort to keep the government funded and extend authorizations for a host of…

Charles Krauthammer lays out Ahmadinejad's "radically aggressive campaign to assemble, deploy, flaunt and partially activate Iran's proxies in the Arab Middle East": (1) Hamas launching rockets into Israeli towns and villages across the border from the Gaza Strip. Its intention is to invite an…

A COLUMBIA STUDENT asked how he could effectively protest his university's invitation to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak Monday. My first response was to suggest petitions, e-mails to President Bollinger and the university trustees, letters to the student paper, peaceful protest, and…

From the Swamp: Anti-war protesters barged into a speech Sen. John McCain was giving at the Capital Hilton this morning, but the interruption ended up giving McCain the high moment of his address to the National Rifle Association.... Suddenly, a young woman in a t-shirt reading "Troops Home Now"…

Via Instapundit, I see CNN's report on Majority Leader Reid's 'frustration' at finding himself powerless to end the war in Iraq. Professor Reynolds seems to suggest that Senator Reid is not speaking in earnest: HARRY REID: "Frustrated Dems will keep pushing for end to Iraq war." But not hard enough…

The recently foiled terror attack in Germany--involving several Turkish extremists and, very disturbingly, two German converts--has triggered another acrimonious political debate about how far the government can go to fight terrorism and protect the homeland. For example, does the (conservative)…

TWO WEEKS AGO, Judge Simon Cardon de Lichtbuer of the Brussels civil court ruled that he lacked authority to overturn a decision by the city's mayor, Freddy Thielemans, to ban a demonstration planned for September 11 under the slogan of 'Stop the Islamization of Europe.' The rally had been called…

From CENTCOM: Coalition forces killed an al-Qaeda in Iraq military advisor during an operation Aug. 31 west of Tarmiyah. Coalition forces conducted a precision operation west of Tarmiyah Aug. 31. The assault force followed a vehicle containing two suspected terrorists and attempted to get the…

Via Hot Air, McCain--half-jokingly--says we ought to restrain Ahmadinejad if necessary in order to prevent him from getting to Ground Zero. Allah also has some deep analysis of the options available to Bloomberg, the Port Authority, the NYPD, etc., as far as preventing this stunt.

The Senate voted overwhelmingly to condemn the recent 'General Betray Us' ad by MoveOn.org, passing by a margin of 72-25. A large number of Democrats supported the measure, but Hillary Clinton did not--which isn't at all surprising given that she's declined to condemn the ad on numerous occasions…

An excellent editorial in today's New York Sun: Of all the graduates receiving their diplomas this season, the one we salute this morning is Bret Woellner. He is the Columbia University graduate student who was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army yesterday in the first joint…

From the New York Post: Lose the Mercenaries, by Ralph Peters. From Reason: The Next Iranian Revolution, by Michael J. Totten. From Asia Times: U.S., China Vie for Philippine Military Influence, by Noel Tarrazona. From the Wall Street Journal: Chill Pill, Pete Du Pont. From the Danger Room: The…

As part of its ongoing propaganda war, al Qaeda's leaders are once again flooding the airwaves. Both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri reportedly cover a lot of ground in their two new recently released tapes. Importantly, they have once again declared war on President Musharraf and his…

Jim Geraghty has posted an excellent column about the potential effect of Hillary Clinton as nominee on Democratic hopes of holding onto seats in southern and swing states. It's well worth a read. Geraghty finds that if you're a Red State Democrat, you're probably backing someone else for the…

I wasn't going to put this up--regular readers will know I have a deep aversion to posting images of scantily clad women--but a Marine friend of the WWS emails this morning to insist that this is "a great video" that we "must watch." He adds: "The Marines' girlfriends are the most attractive."

It's been clear for a while that the Democratic party is seriously divided over what to do about Iraq. There are essentially no Democrats who support the war in Iraq, and very few who truly support the broader war on terror. But while there's strong opposition to the current anti-terror agenda,…

The Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which calls on the United States to combat, contain, and roll back Iranian violence inside Iraq, will be offered for debate in the Senate today. The amendment also expresses the "Sense of the Senate," that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps should be designated as a…

Senator McCain, who gave the commencement address at Columbia in 2006, just sent out this statement: "A man who is directing the maiming and killing of Americans troops should not be given an invitation to speak at an American university. Rather than rolling out the red carpet for the leader of a…

Just posted at THE DAILY STANDARD, the boss on Lee Bollinger's choice: In fact, the introduction with "sharp challenges" by Bollinger makes the situation even more of a disgrace. Now there will be the appearance of real dialogue, of Ahmadinejad answering challenges, which further legitimizes the…

TWO DAYS AGO, Columbia University announced that next Monday, September 24, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will speak and participate in a question and answer session with university faculty and students at Columbia. According to the university statement, "This opportunity for faculty and…

Powerline picks up reports that Columbia University will play host to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on September 24 for what the university describes as "a question and answer session with university faculty and students." Well, not really. University president Lee Bollinger elaborates: "In…

PRESIDENT BUSH MET with ten or so columnists Wednesday afternoon for over an hour, answering questions on a wide variety of topics. Much of what the president said was, naturally, familiar; and some of his most interesting comments and reflections he put off-the-record. But there was at least one…

SEVERAL FORMER CLINTON administration officials--including Bruce Babbitt, Sandy Berger, Henry Cisneros, Richard Feinberg, Dan Glickman, Leon Panetta, Donna Shalala, and Ira Shapiro--have endorsed an open letter to Congressional Democrats urging them to ratify free trade agreements with Latin…

"YOU CAN ALWAYS tell when the Republicans are getting restless, because the Vice President's motorcade pulls into the Capitol, and Darth Vader emerges," Hillary Clinton said at a town hall meeting in New York, according to a report by Politico's Ben Smith.

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Remarks just delivered on the floor of the Senate by Senator John McCain: Madame president, I think we ought to understand what this amendment is all about. In the view of the secretary of defense, he says, "as drafted, the amendment would dramatically limit the nation's ability to respond to other…

THERE'S SOMETHING NOT quite right about the 2008 presidential race. While some of the candidates are lame, that's not the trouble. What's wrong is the structure of the campaign, as boring or beside the point as that may sound. There are too many candidates, too many debates, and way too many…

Pete Wehner puts the puzzle together over at Contentions and comes to this conclusion: MoveOn.org--an angry, far-left, antiwar group--views the modern Democratic Party and its leadership as its cat's-paw, and there's little reason to dispute this judgment. The problem for many Democrats is that a…

The wise and mighty deciders at the New York Times editorialize on the plight of pro-American Iraqis: Welcoming Iraqis into the United States as refugees is not cost-free. It draws skilled people out of a country that desperately needs their talents and makes it increasingly likely that they will…

SENATORS LEVIN AND REID have introduced an amendment that would order the immediate withdrawal of American forces in Iraq--a stampede, in fact, that would require the military to pull 169,000 soldiers and their equipment out of active combat within nine months. There is no way that such a…

From THE DAILY STANDARD: Bashar's Bad Judgment, by David Schenker. From the Wall Street Journal ($): The Real Bush Record, by Dick Cheney. From the Washington Times: Al Qaeda's Third Defeat, by Claude Salhani. From Michael Yon Online: Hunting Al Qaeda, by Michael Yon. From Foreign Policy: John…

So notwithstanding the shabby treatment General Petraeus received at the hands of Democrats on Capitol Hill, it looks like Harry Reid, at least, knows how to follow orders: Less than a day after Reid met with several leaders of the antiwar movement in New York, he and other Democratic leaders took…

Jeffrey Gedmin, a frequent contributor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD and the president of Radio Free Europe, has a must-read in today's Washington Post. Gedmin writes of the "bickering" in Washington over funding democracy promotion efforts inside Iran: In the 1980s and early 1990s, the Iranian regime…

The quiet outrage of Major Troy Gilbert's widow, Ginger Gilbert, is compelling, and not only because of her "absolute moral authority," as Maureen Dowd might put it. Mrs. Gilbert's husband was killed in November 2006 when his F-16 crashed near Baghdad while providing close air support to a downed…

It's with good reason that Washington is renowned for its partisanship, but sometimes Republicans and Democrats actually work together on worthwhile proposals. That may be happening on the entitlement front. Senators Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg--the Chairman and Ranking Republican on the Senate…

The Post runs a silly item today fact-checking the claim by Fred Thompson that, "our people have shed more blood for other people's liberty than any other combination of nations in the history of the world.'' The Post proceeds to compare the losses of U.S. forces over the last 100 years to the…

Roll Call reports that Congressman Jack Murtha, chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, has received donations from every private entity for which he secured an earmark: Every private entity that Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) favored with an earmark in this year's defense bill…

Forward Operation Base Delta, Wasit Province: With the surge of U.S. forces in Baghdad and the Belts aiming at both al Qaeda and Shia extremists, Multinational Forces Iraq has also launched a significant effort to curtail Iranian influence in Baghdad and the southern provinces. Since early spring,…

ON SEPTEMBER 6, Israeli planes bombed a presumed North Korean-supplied Syrian nuclear weapons facility. The incident highlights an ongoing theme in regional politics in recent years: Syrian President Bashar Asad's profoundly poor judgment.

TPM's Greg Sargent notes that CBS's polls before and after the testimony of General Petraeus and Admiral Crocker show a surprising result: after their excellent testimony, the percentage of people favoring withdrawal from Iraq went up rather than down: Before the testimony, 65% wanted the troops…

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Danger Room editor Noah Shachtman has just returned from Iraq and his reporting is getting much deserved attention, particularly this bit tucked away in a larger piece about counter-IED technology: Sunni political and tribal leaders are increasingly throwing in their lot with U.S. forces here…

Last week, CNN's Glenn Beck aired a weeklong series of reports regarding purported plans by al Qaeda to coordinate a series of attacks at U.S. schools. Author Brad Thor, formerly of the Department of Homeland Security's 'Red Cell' suggests that the Beslan attack was a dry run, and that al Qaeda…

BEN BERNANKE FOUND that narrow path between the rock and the hard place. He had to add liquidity to a credit market that is experiencing a crunch, and recognize that the economy is slowing, on the one hand, and not send a signal to improvident lenders and borrowers that all is forgiven--inviting…

Michelle Malkin has the most comprehensive coverage of the taser incident at the University of Florida.

From the Long War Journal: Standing up the Concerned Citizens in Southern Baghdad, by Bill Roggio. From the Wall Street Journal: Osirak II? by Bret Stephens. From the Washington Post: Hillary Missed Her MoveOn Moment, by Richard Cohen. From the Middle East Journal: Hell is Over in Anbar, by Michael…

Last time we heard from the Inter Press News Service (ISP), they had manufactured a story that put Admiral Fallon calling General Petraeus a "ass-kissing little chicken-shit," a phrase which the DailyKos picked up and has now made its way into some more respectable blogs. This despite the fact that…

President Bush hosted an event on the White House lawn this morning honoring a number of veterans orgnaizations and support groups including Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission, Vets for Freedom, the American Legion, and Veterans of Foreign Wars. Here's the transcript: It's important…

Roll Call reports that former Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney appears to be planning a return to Congress in 2008: Now that former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) has withdrawn her name from consideration as the Green Party's long-shot presidential nominee, speculation is mounting that the…

MoveOn has a new ad attacking Rudy Giuliani. Jim Geraghty has the definitive analysis, calling it "a swing and a miss." He also notes the antiwar group's affinity for the language of treason: MoveOn labels Giuliani's decision not to serve on the ISG as "a betrayal of trust." You get the feeling the…

BEN BERNANKE WILL decide later today whether the recent turmoil in financial markets, and the apparent slowdown in the "real economy," warrant some action on his part--or whether to stand pat and see whether his recent moves to break the credit logjam are working. Meanwhile, and perhaps more…

From CNN: "Like most Americans I admire the integrity and the candor that General Petraeus showed in his hearings before Congress," Cheney said during a fund-raiser for Missouri Republican congressman Sam Graves. "The attacks on him by MoveOn.org in ad space provided at subsidized rates in the New…

Bob Novak reports that away from any public scrutiny, Ways and Means Chairman Rangel is preparing a huge tax increase on many Americans: Rangel, having finally achieved his coveted chairman's role after years of waiting, wants to make history. His staff is hard at work on an audacious plan that…

If Congress is in session, then Congressional Democrats must be working on a way to end the Iraq war. This week the stage is the Senate, which is taking up the defense authorization bill. The first amendments to be considered are likely to deal with the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay -- one amendment…

That's the report from the Guardian: Talks due to start this week on the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons programme have been postponed, it was announced today. The six-party talks between Russia, China, the US, Japan and North and South Korea were aimed at setting a timetable for final…

Australian PM John Howard is seeing a "stunning recovery in the polls": JOHN Howard's refusal to bow to Cabinet critics has paid off for the Prime Minister with a stunning recovery in the polls. A Newspoll survey published today shows the Government picking up four percentage points to get 45 per…

From Newsweek: 150 Seconds Over Baghdad, by George F. Will. From the Wall Street Journal ($): Let Taiwan Join the UN, by Bob Dole. From Contentions: The Delusions of Jim Moran, by James Kirchick. From the Jerusalem Post: IDF demands uncut al-Dura tape, by Caroline Glick. From National Review: Among…

The United States Naval Academy is run by . . . the United States Navy. The Columbia Spectator has the scoop: When I looked at the course catalogue, which boasted seminars about leadership and selflessness, they were in fact seminars about weaponry and leading troops into combat. The reality of…

On Meet the Press this weekend, Chuck Todd used this analogy to describe the "complicated" relationship between MoveOn.org and the Democratic party: MoveOn is sort of like this old friend of the Democratic Party. It's as if it's, you know, your, your teen - your - a friend of yours from high…

Russian President Vladimir Putin's surprise decision on Wednesday to replace his current prime minister, Mikhail Fradkov, with a loyal and low-profile ally, Victor Zubkov, has fueled intense speculation in the German media. Commentators wonder what the former KGB spy is really up to when it comes…

"In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car." Think about it: Could there be a pithier way of making the point that if you don't own something and have no stake in its long-term future, you're not going to take care of it the same way you would if it was yours? It's suitable…

You didn't see it on TV. Because when Mitt Romney was talking during last week's Republican presidential debate on Fox News, the camera was on him, not John McCain. But McCain was sending a message. He looked at Romney with disdain and rolled his eyes at nearly everything Romney said. The message…

Wilmington, Del.

The case for cutting and running from Iraq has become untenable in recent months not just substantively but politically as well. Polls show that Americans increasingly believe not only that the surge is working, but also that permanent success in Iraq is possible. So the more intelligent opponents…

In 1917 and 1918, while World War I raged across Europe, the citizens of Kansas City, Missouri, raised more than $2 million to support the war effort. Bad luck, though: The horrific slaughter ended too soon to disburse the money.

The idea of using suicide pilots to obliterate the skyscrapers of Manhattan originated in 1940s Berlin. "In the latter stages of the war, I never saw Hitler so beside himself as when, as if in a delirium, he was picturing to himself and to us the downfall of New York in towers of flame," wrote…

Daschle vs. Thune

NEW YORK TIMES FATIGUE

The Iambics of Newfoundland

The Brave One

Des Moines

Who is to blame for the intelligence disaster of September 11? The sixth anniversary of the attacks is upon us, and the finger-pointing continues unabated. Last month the CIA reluctantly made public a summary of a 2005 report prepared by its Office of Inspector General (OIG) undertaken to determine…

There is perhaps no greater danger to the success of American efforts in Iraq than the prospect of a congressionally mandated timeline for withdrawal. Depriving commanders on the ground of the ability to make decisions about required force levels dramatically increases the likelihood of losing our…

Peeling the Onion

Tempers flared as a horde of journalists jostled its way through the headquarters of Granite State Manufacturing last week. "Where are you from?" demanded a cameraman with a shaved head toting an unwieldy television camera on his shoulder. His question was directed at a tanned TV news reporter with…

Ramadi, Iraq

The Daily Telegraph that Bill Deedes edited from 1974 to 1986--the year in which Conrad Black bought the newspaper and ousted him--was an institution that would be unimaginable today, and one that must have already seemed antediluvian to its thrusting new Canadian proprietor.

The Cambridge Companion to Willa Cather

IN THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH of the atrocities of September 11, 2001, Islamist influence in U.S. federal and state prisons came under scrutiny from the Justice Department's Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Officials were informed of pre-9/11 complaints by inmates whose Islam (mainly acquired by conversion)…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that retired federal judge Michael B. Mukasey is the leading candidate to replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. President Bush is expected to announce the nomination as early as Monday.

Yesterday MovOn.org director Eli Pariser embraced the controversy over the 'General Betray Us' ad. "Sometimes you have to call a spade a spade, even if it's a respected general," was his quote in the Politico. And while this all might turn out well for MoveOn, it is causing some headaches for the…

McQ over at QandO reminds Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid of where they stood on Iraq until very recently: Nancy Pelosi said: "Months ago, House and Senate Democratic leaders suggested to the President that he implement one of the Study Group's chief recommendations - to change the primary mission of…

JUNICHIRO KOIZUMI was a tough act to follow. The former Japanese prime minister, who stepped down a year ago this month, swung into office in April 2001 like a wrecking ball, pledging to "destroy" his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) if it didn't accept free-market reforms and seeking to…

Fox News publishes the result of a very interesting poll--one that asks voters whom they would prefer to have as president to deal with a terrorist attack. Rudy Giuliani defeats Hillary Clinton in a slam dunk: The latest FOX News poll shows that if the United States were hit with a terrorist…

From the Atlantic: Bottom-Up Progress, by Robert D. Kaplan. From the Philadelphia Inquirer: A Decisive Battle Osama Must Lose, by Jonathan V. Last. From the New York Sun: Chinese Hackers, by Gordon G. Chang. From Pajamas Media: The Irrational Obsession, by Lee Smith. From Reuters: Iraqis vow to…

After largely taking his name out of the mix of possible presidential contenders, Newt Gingrich has been quiet for a few months. In July he said that he would not run if Thompson 'ran and did well.' That was probably just a recognition of reality--since there would be no room for a Gingrich…

RIA Novosti reports: The U.S. has a 14-ton super bomb more destructive than the vacuum bomb just tested by Russia, a U.S. general said Wednesday. The statement was made by retired Lt. General McInerney, chairman of the Iran Policy Committee, and former Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air…

Fred Kagan has the story at NRO: Jim Webb, the loquacious freshman senator from Virginia, is again proposing an amendment that would mandate a certain amount of time that soldiers must spend at home between deployments. At first glance, supporting this amendment looks like supporting motherhood and…

The boss's latest column for Time is now available here. A sample: What a way to begin the fall! Perennial college-football power University of Michigan was ranked No. 5 in the preseason polls. It paid little Appalachian State University of Boone, N.C., about $400,000 to have its football team…

THE WEEK DID NOT start well for former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the frontrunner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Media attention focused heavily on former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson's official entry into the nomination fight and Arizona senator John McCain's…

I can't believe people are taking seriously this report showing a shift in the political contributions of active duty personnel away from the Republican party. The report says that contributions to Democrats have jumped to 40 percent this year from just 23 percent in 2004. That would be…

From THE DAILY STANDARD: Obama's 'New Plan', by Frederick W. Kagan. From the State: The Surge is Making Progress, by John McCain. From RealClearPolitics: A New Strain of Anti-Semitism is Spreading, by Victor Davis Hanson. From the Washington Post: Consultant Probed in Bogus Interview, by Howard…

Talking Points Memo takes issue with the comments of House Republican Leader Boehner regarding the sacrifice of the United States and its men and women in uniform: BLITZER: How much longer will U.S. taxpayers have to shell out $2 billion a week or $3 billion a week as some now are suggesting the…

Giuliani is asking the New York Times to give him the same low rate as MoveOn got to run his own ad in tomorrow's paper. The audio is pretty bad, so I've transcribed the relevant bit here, but the whole clip can be found here. "I call upon the New York Times to give us the same rate--the heavily…

As far as calling General Petraeus a traitor, despite some of the left's more absurd attempts to parse the language, MoveOn isn't shying away from the charge. The Politico reports that MoveOn's executive director had this to say about 'General Betray Us': "Sometimes you have to call a spade a…

The Hill reports that Democrats have quietly ditched another of the high-profile promises they campaigned on last year: After reclaiming the majority, Democrats took aim at the alleged campaign by the GOP to use its policymaking powers to pressure trade associations and corporations to install…

He reported it first: MoveOn got a sweetheart deal for its 'General Betray Us' ad. If [Jake] Tapper's numbers are correct, MoveOn.org paid just 38.89% of a full-cost, nationwide ad, or a 61.11% discount off of a full-rate ad. While I'm fairly certain that nobody pays "sticker" prices, 61% off seems…

Combat Outpost Corregidor, Baghdad Province A crucial indicator of success or failure of the "surge"--the deployment of an additional five U.S. Combat brigades and supporting soldiers--is the ability of U.S. forces to involve the local population in the provision of security. The crux of the…

THIS WEEK, WE commemorated again those who fell on 9/11 and remembered the soldiers who continue to fight the war on terror in foreign lands. And on September 12, the Department of Defense recognized some ordinary civilians who do what they can to help our troops.

IN A SPEECH THAT will no doubt be hailed by the left as bold and original, Senator Barack Obama today unveiled "his" plan for a "responsible" withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq by the end of 2009. The plan may be bold, but it is certainly not original. In fact, Obama's plan is extremely…

Samarra, Iraq

McCain released another statement chiding Clinton for her failure to condemn MoveOn's attack on Petraeus: "Senator Clinton said that believing General Petraeus' testimony requires a 'willing suspension of disbelief.' I think it willingly suspends disbelief to not repudiate an advertisement run by a…

Jonathan Adler points to a Newsweek article by Michael Hirsh, which reports that Sandy Berger and Madeline Albright have been brought back as top foreign policy advisers to Hillary's presidential campaign: The more experienced Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has relied largely on her husband and a…

Russia's new prime minister, Viktor Zubkov.

Senator John McCain just released this statement calling on the Democratic candidates for president to condemn MoveOn's attack on General Petraeus: "I remain deeply disappointed by the failure of leading Democrat presidential candidates to personally and publicly denounce the smear tactics used…

This afternoon (US time), I had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with three Congressman currently in Baghdad. The delegation is there to review the situation on the ground and determine how much progress is being made on security and political goals. Of particular interest, Mr.…

Via Hot Air and courtesy of Tom Bevan at RealClearPolitics:

It's indisputable--even elementary--that in order to solve a policy challenge, you need to assess it and recommend an appropriate course of action. If the problem changes, then you have to reassess your approach. If your approach is simply to recommend 'something different' from the current…

From the New York Times: For Iraqis, General's Report Offers Bitter Truth, by Alissa J. Rubin. From Michael Yon Online: Hunting al Qaeda, by Michael Yon. From the Wall Street Journal: Our New National Divide, by Own West. From the Washington Post: The Assault on Petraeus, by Michael Gerson. From…

Obama is set to deliver a speech this afternoon laying out his plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq. USA Today carries the details, which were released to reporters this morning: "The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin…

The Huffington Post ran this little item yesterday accusing THE WEEKLY STANDARD of lying about MoveOn's outrageous ad in Monday's New York Times: Even before MoveOn.org's ran its controversial ad about General Petraeus in the New York Times, The Weekly Standard published an article by Peter…

Lefty blogs are making a huge deal of the fact that Petraeus didn't have an opinion on the wisdom of fighting a war in Iraq. Here, from DailyKos: The one most important thing Petraeus has been doing for the last two days, as far as the administration is concerned, is making the case for the…

The WWS has learned that House Republican Leader John Boehner has arrived in Iraq this morning, leading a bipartisan Congressional delegation. Fresh on the heels of the testimony of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, the delegation is there to review the facts on the ground for themselves.…

ANSON CHAN'S DECISION to stand in a by-election for Hong Kong's semi-democratic legislature is good news. Her admirers in Hong Kong have waited for a long time for this beloved but aloof figure to, as she put it "put my money where my mouth is." Chan reached the top of Hong Kong's civil service,…

Samarra, Iraq

IF YOU THINK that the oil cartelists in Vienna on Tuesday did you a favor by agreeing to increase output by 500,000 barrels per day, think again. The increase is too trivial to have much of an impact on oil or gasoline prices. "Our message to the consumer is that we care. We are concerned, and that…

Today's New York Times editorial on the testimony given by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker isn't surprising, but it could easily have printed under the more appropriate headline 'General Petraeus or General Betray Us.' (Which might explain why MoveOn.org was apparently given a massive…

Roll Call has looked into another beneficiary of John Murtha's earmarks, an organization called the Pennsylvania Association for Individuals with Disabilities (PAID). PAID was created by Murtha's earmarks, and it is headed by a former staffer who is also a paid lobbyist. Despite claiming to…

From the Boston Globe: MoveOn's McCarthy Moment, by Peter Feaver. From USA Today: Peace Among the Ruins, by Ralph Peters. From Armed Force Journal: Picking up the Pieces, by Christopher Griffin. From National Review: From There to Here, by Jonah Goldberg. From Mudville Gazette: Blue Skies in…

Norman Podhoretz is on the offensive, with a piece in today's Wall Street Journal and a new video at Commentary's contentions blog. In his piece in the Journal, Podhoretz compares today's hard-left antiwar movement to the early movement that sprang up against the Vietnam War. The best line of the…

The U.S. Congress appears almost dysfunctional, unable to address pressing issues of national welfare. And now there's more alarming news: Congress is failing to meet certain benchmarks--even those that have already been allowed to slip before. Congressional Quarterly says "Deadlines Are Piling up…

Thomas Joscelyn has just published an essay titled "Iran's Proxy War Against America" (pdf). The paper relies on open-source information and arrives at a number of interesting conclusions, including this one: In fact, contrary to widespread opinion, Iran has been a vital ally for bin Laden's…

Here's the letter they sent to Reid, signed by 31 senators if my counting is right. Dear Majority Leader Reid, In today's New York Times, the advocacy group Moveon.org ran an advertisement that is nothing short of outrageous. Titled "General Petraeus or General Betray Us? Cooking the Books for the…

AS YOU READ THIS, OPEC, the cartel of most of the world's oil producers, is meeting in Vienna. No, they will not observe a moment of silence in honor of those who died at the hands of Saudi terrorists some six years ago today. Instead, they will go over some data in a show of empiricism, and then…

LAST WEEK WE LEARNED of another "massive" terrorist plot against American targets, this time thwarted by German authorities, Osama bin Laden has just released another cryptic video threat against the United States, and, six years since the events of 9/11, still we ask: why do they hate us?

Apparently I agree with Fred Thompson on precisely 73 percent of the issues. I also agree with him that the Russians don't take a dump without a plan, so maybe we should round that up to 75 percent. You, too, can find out which candidate you belong with at Politalk.com. Quiz.jpg

Democratic politicians have to some degree relished the political fight over the Iraq war, which they have seen as a boon to the effort to elect Democratic politicians. They've stood firmly--even stubbornly--in support of withdrawing American troops from Iraq, regardless of the realty on the…

The Giuliani campaign put out the following statement in response to the MoveOn ad in today's Times: "Today, General Petraeus provided the first look at a strategy that is getting results and an Iraq that is making progress. "This is only the beginning, which is why we need to continue to listen to…

This statement released by Nevada senator John Ensign: "Today, ostensibly on behalf of National Democrats, Democrat front group MoveOn.org is calling a unanimously confirmed United States General a liar and betrayer of the public trust. Apparently the prospect of campaign funds is enough of an…

Just off the bat, this is the slide that I'm most impressed by: Petraeus-Slide.jpg

From Senator Norm Coleman: "The attack on the integrity and character of General David Petraeus is a detestable act that marks a new low in the defeatist politics of Moveon.org. General Petraeus represents the very best of our service men and women and to slander his name in order to advance a…

Plenty of conservative bloggers have noticed the resemblance between some of the rhetoric in Osama bin Laden's latest tape, and the comments on lefty blogs in the U.S. Arianna Huffington wrote that Bush had left bin Laden "free to offer kudos to Noam Chomsky and Michael Scheuer's Imperial Hubris,…

Just saw this statement from Senator McCain in response to MoveOn's 'General Betray Us' ad: "In today's New York Times, the anti-war group MoveOn.org launched a McCarthyite attack on an American patriot and our commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus. This is a man who has devoted his life in…

Mitch McConnell made this statement on the floor of the Senate today: "We needed a new and realistic strategy to succeed, and we got one. The president proposed, and a Democratic-led Senate unanimously confirmed, General David Petraeus on January 26 to carry out a new plan aimed at protecting the…

I won't lie, Fred Thompson has irked me with his generally cavalier attitude about running for president, but that's not to say that he doesn't have a firm grasp of the issues surrounding the war in Iraq. He was blasted over the weekend for saying that "an Al Qaeda smoking ban was one reason…

From the Wall Street Journal: Listening to Petraeus, by John McCain and Joe Lieberan. From the New York Times: Americans Feel Military Is Best at Ending the War, by Steven Myers and Megan Thee. From the New York Post: Listen to the General, by Ralph Peters. From the Los Angeles Times: Is Military…

This past week saw a spate of reports in the Chinese media on the exemplary life of Gao Ming, an honor student at Peking University (PKU) who took a leave of absence to enlist in the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Completing his two-year stint with flying colors, Gao is to resume his studies at…

At least one senator has responded to the group's attack on 'General Betray Us'--this from Senator Lieberman: "The personal attack on Gen. David Petraeus launched today by Moveon.org is an outrageous and despicable act of slander that every member of the Congress -- Democrat and Republican -- has a…

Al Qaeda In Iraq is part of the global al Qaeda movement. AQI, as the U.S. military calls it, is around 90 percent Iraqi. Foreign fighters, however, predominate in the leadership and among the suicide bombers, of whom they comprise up to 90 percent, U.S. commanders say. The leader of AQI is Abu…

One million pounds for a landscape with some sheep, painted by an amateur artist, may strike some as rather on the high side; but that was the winning bid at a recent auction at Sotheby's in London.

Republicans are so intent on pushing scandal-plagued members of Congress out of office and far from the media spotlight that the entire party--from the White House to congressional leaders to the Republican National Committee to various campaign committees--was instantly united last week in the…

The Nanny Diaries

FOOD FIGHT

The sequence of events leading to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, per media reports, goes like this: White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten sends out a directive to senior Bush officials telling them that if they are not planning to stay until the end of the administration,…

On October 1962, President Kennedy ordered the U.S. Navy to prevent foreign ships from reaching Cuba unless they submitted to U.S. inspections on the high seas to verify that they were not transporting missiles or other offensive weapons to the island. Similar measures had been adopted in wartime…

On August 19, the New York Times published an op-ed by seven enlisted soldiers critical of the Iraq war. At midnight on August 24, THE WEEKLY STANDARD posted on our website a response by seven Iraq vets. The Times had rejected the vets' response.

Now and Not Yet

Tough Liberal

BANNED IN WASHINGTON

Are you happy "merely" being human? Or do you wish your life could somehow be made into something . . . more? If you discovered a risky drug that would grant you a superhuman power--such as the capacity to heal the sick, kill enemies, or become invisible--would you take the shot? And if you…

Ivan's War

When General David Petraeus reports to Washington next week, the most important question he'll have to answer is, What happens in Iraq after the surge? With all but the most die-hard defeatists--that is, the congressional Democratic leadership--convinced that the surge has improved the security…

On March 11, Fred Thompson told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that he was giving "serious consideration" to joining the race for president. Within a month he had made his decision: He would run.

In early August, the collection of liberal blogs that refers to itself as "the Netroots" held its annual convention. The convention's name, "YearlyKos," invokes the allure of the liberal blogosphere's most powerful entity, the Daily Kos. All the major Democratic presidential candidates participated…

The scene was the headquarters of GT Solar Technologies in Merrimack, New Hampshire. It was August 17, and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani--the current frontrunner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination--was taking questions from a small audience. A woman with short brown hair…

Last month, after weeks of frustrating inactivity occasioned by an ankle injury, David Beckham finally made his debut in Major League Soccer. The owner of the most famous foot in sports, the head that launched a thousand haircuts, the talented half of one of the world's most recognizable couples,…

Red Cat

Just posted at THE DAILY STANDARD from Vets for Freedom executive director Pete Hegseth: Tomorrow--as General David Petraeus provides his Iraq assessment to Congress--the antiwar group MoveOn.org is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times under the headline: "General Petraeus or…

Tomorrow--as General David Petraeus provides his Iraq assessment to Congress--the antiwar group MoveOn.org is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times under the headline: "General Petraeus or General Betray us? Cooking the books for the White House."

Fred Kagan has an interesting piece up at National Review Online examining the dispute over the surge between the commanders in the field--Odierno and Petraeus--and General Casey, the Army's chief of staff: Press reports assert that General George Casey, chief of staff of the Army, and the other…

Yesterday the New York Times released its report on the impact of the surge in Baghdad's disparate neighborhoods. The conclusions were not encouraging. Essentially, the Times found modest gains in the security of the city, but that much of the reduction in violence could be explained by the…

OSAMA BIN LADEN'S STRENGTH as an orator has always been his ethos. He is an eloquent and seemingly honest speaker, proud of his role in the attacks of 9/11, a principled spokesman for radical Islam's war against the West. Though bin Laden may not have penned all his words personally, the force of…

THE FOILING OF AN Islamist terrorist plot this week in Germany is noteworthy for several reasons that may not have been obvious from the headlines.

ED LAZEAR USED A telephone call from the White House to explain that the jobs report yesterday isn't as bad as it seemed. After 47 months of steady growth, the economy lost 4,000 jobs in August. Keep in mind, the chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers told a handful of us…

From Congressional Quarterly: U.S. Facing the Impact of Japanese Political Storm, by Josh Rogin. From Middle East Quarterly: The U.S. Counter-propaganda Failure in Iraq, by Andrew Garfield. From Blackfive: Interview with Bill Ardolino from Fallujah, by Uncle Jimbo. From the Danger Room: The…

News that Osama bin Laden is planning on releasing a new video tape this coming September 11, has set off much speculation. I will wait to see what comes of it before commenting further, since there is a lot of uncertainty over what exactly the tape will consist of and whether or not it is…

From Fred Kaplan's Slate column today on "What Congress needs to ask Petraeus and Crocker": Stephen Biddle, a military analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, is a key proponent of the patchwork-quilt strategy. But even he emphasizes that the idea would be a political nonstarter if it resulted…

Petraeus has penned another in his series of letters to the troops. You can click here to read the full letter in pdf format, but here's a taste: Up front, my sense is that we have achieved tactical momentum and wrested the initiative from our enemies in a number of areas of Iraq. The result has…

The Politico is one among many publications covering the scrambling and division among Democratic leaders as they try and develop a new Iraq strategy now that it's clear they cannot force a precipitous withdrawal. And this piece states pretty clearly that the last strategy failed: The emerging…

The Senate has adopted the Lieberman amendment to restore funding for democracy promotion inside Iran: The amendment restores the Bush administration's original request in the Fiscal Year 2008 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for $75 million, which had been cut by two-thirds to $25…

Via the Corner, this email from an unidentified reporter for the Hill: The Democratic leaders are laying it on thick. I was at a press conference this afternoon with Reid, Schumer, Durbin and Murray. They referred to the Petraeus Report as the "Bush Report" about a half-dozen times. Reid even went…

I had the opportunity to speak with Congressman Eric Cantor yesterday evening, regarding the upcoming race in Virginia to succeed retiring Senator John Warner. Cantor stated that he's hearing strong rumors that former Governor Mark Warner will declare for the seat next week. Given the proven…

Samarra, Iraq

HARKENING BACK to "the early 20th century," Raymond Keating, chief economist for the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council and a New York Newsday columnist, recalls that "sports facilities were once private ventures. Team owners bought the land and privately funded their stadiums. What a…

From THE DAILY STANDARD: McCain Helps Himself, by Fred Barnes. From the Danger Room: Iraq Diary: Sleep Through Those Bombs, by Noah Shachtman. From the Washington Times: Dems Already Dismissing Iraq Report, by S. A. Miller. From Outside the Wire: Revisionist History, by JD Johannes. From the New…

Having bet on defeat in Iraq, Congressional Democratic leaders now glumly prepare for the worst of possible outcomes: victory. That's an exaggeration of course; victory in Iraq is a long way away. But where Democrats were once confident that the media drumbeat of bad news in Iraq would force the…

In a season five episode of The Simpsons titled "Deep Space Homer," the head of America's most famous cartoon family is selected to fly on the space shuttle as part of a NASA plan to increase public interest in launches that have become "boring." In this episode, coverage of shuttle launches has…

SINCE MAY, the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination has been characterized by an unusual dynamic. At a time when national security issues are the foremost concern of GOP primary voters, a war hero with substantial experience defending the use of American power in Iraq and beyond has…

Durham, New Hampshire

SOME IN THE MEDIA have been remarkably quick to report on leaked copies of reports about Iraq before the average person has a chance to read them. There is a reason, apart from the usual journalistic desire to be first with a story. The reports often don't say what the reporters want them to. First…

The editors at the New York Times had this to say about the president's trip to Anbar over the weekend: Iraq is a long way to go for a photo op, but not for President Bush, who is pulling out all the stops to divert public attention from his failed Iraq policies and to keep Congress from demanding…

What exactly are the Iranians doing to support the insurgency in Iraq? You can read Kim Kagan's Iran Dossier to find out. You can also read the daily press releases from MNF-I, like this one reprinted at THE DAILY STANDARD today: "Coalition forces grab high-value IRGC-QF affiliate BAGHDAD, Iraq -…

Concord, NH

Here's an official statement this morning from the U.S. military in Iraq:

If you haven't already seen, Bill Roggio has launched a new website at LongWarJournal.org. The site features reporting and analysis on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in depth coverage of developments in the larger war on terror. Unfortunately, just as he gets that site off the ground,…

From THE DAILY STANDARD: One Mission at a Time, by Jeff Emanuel. From Contentions: Correcting the GAO, by Max Boot. From HughHewitt.com: Iraq Big and Small, by Dean Barnett. From Armed Forces Journal: No Bungle in the Jungle, by Peter Brookes. From the Danger Room: Baghdad's Glamorous Life, by Noah…

Salman Pak, Iraq

At first glance--as those who leaked it last week saw--the Government Accountability Office's report on Iraq, released today, paints a dark view of progress and prospects in Iraq. Its subtitle offers the most attractive thesis to opponents of the current strategy: "Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most…

McCain.jpg

In June of 1992, right before President George H.W. Bush's scheduled visit, a group of Panamanian thugs ambushed an American Humvee north of Panama City, killing a U.S. soldier. Among the murderers, according to a U.S. indictment, was a man named Pedro Miguel González. Over the weekend, González…

Last Thursday, Beijing announced the appointment of five new cabinet ministers. The personnel reshuffle came just ahead of the 17th party congress, scheduled to convene on October 15. The all-important gathering will set China's policy agenda for the next five years. One of the five appointments is…

In addition to his feature piece on al Qaeda in Iraq in this week's issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Frederick Kagan also has a must-read over at National Review Online on the president's trip to Anbar: President Bush's Labor Day visit to Iraq should have surprised no one who was paying attention. At…

"The argument that America's presence in Indochina was dangerous had a long pedigree. In 1955, long before the United States had entered the war, Graham Greene wrote a novel called The Quiet American. It was set in Saigon, and the main character was a young government agent named Alden Pyle. He was…

Muhsin Mahdi, the world's foremost scholar of medieval Arabic and Islamic political philosophy, died last month at the age of 81. Not a single national publication has seen fit to print an obituary of Mahdi. This failure to do justice to a rare scholar, teacher, and human being underscores how…

High School Musical

My 1972 book, Ingmar Bergman Directs, begins with a long interview. After that, the first sentence runs: "Ingmar Bergman is, in my most carefully considered opinion, the greatest filmmaker the world has seen so far." Thirty-five years later, upon news of Bergman's death last month, that is still my…

THE KGB IN COPENHAGEN

The Life of the Ivy League Mind One of THE SCRAPBOOK's undergraduate friends pointed us to an amusing webcast from a Cornell freshman orientation event--or perhaps that should be indoctrination event (viewable at reading.cornell.edu/panel_discussions.htm). It was a discussion of a novel assigned to…

Reading the Man

At the Center of the Storm

Not long ago my wife, daughter, and I were driving along M Street in Georgetown, just past Wisconsin Avenue, when my wife gestured in the direction of an ancient building on the south side of M Street, now an elegant boutique.

On August 22, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, Missouri, President Bush delivered a 43-minute speech in which he compared the war in Iraq, and America's war on Islamic terrorism in general, to the three large 20th-century U.S. military interventions in Asia. The most…

In his mind's eye, Jon Voight can see the scene unfolding. Tall, self-assured Alger Hiss is waiting in the witness room to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) when a short, overweight man wearing a rumpled suit enters the room. It's Whittaker Chambers, who has accused…

Eminent domain appeared in the presidential campaign recently when Sen. John McCain addressed the Supreme Court's 2005 Kelo decision. In a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, McCain called Kelo "one of the most alarming reductions of freedom in our lifetimes." In the course of defending property rights,…

Summer People

Falluja, Iraq

Two Lives

All is not well with the long-standing Saudi-U.S. alliance. In Washington, faint murmurs of discontent may be heard regarding an infusion of $20 billion worth of new U.S. weaponry to the desert kingdom birthplace of 15 of the 19 terrorist hijackers of 9/11. Many Americans resent the proposal to…

The fascists are coming! Or rather, they're already here, installed in the White House, planning like mad to subvert the Constitution and extend their reign in perpetuity, having first suppressed and eviscerated all opposition and put all of their critics in jail. Thus goes the rant of America's…

Like a pig in muck, the left loves to wallow in Vietnam. But only in their "Vietnam." Not in the real Vietnam war.

Kharma, Iraq

With all due respect to the Associated Press, its writers or editors sometimes fail to grasp the nuances of counterinsurgency. For example, take this piece on 'Bush's mounting Iraq woes' (a stock headline editors slap on most AP pieces?) that appeared earlier this afternoon. It quoted Pentagon…

AS YOU READ THIS, the backyards of America are alive with the sound of happy families. Outside, hot dogs and hamburgers are being grilled; inside, couch potatoes are watching their favorite baseball team, the tennis matches at the US Open, and--if the remote has been misplaced--Fred Thompson…