December 2008

TEXT TEXT TEXT We see this as a three-act drama. If, by this time next week, Al or Norm is declared the winner of the recount - that is, at the end of Act II but before Act III - there will be a rush to put that man in the seat immediately. We could imagine a scenario where the Democratically…

From a very smart Barry Rubin piece at Pajamas Media: In some ways, the most important - or at least second most important - thing to happen in the Middle East this week is that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah went too far, calling for the overthrow of Egypt's government. Egypt's Foreign Minister…

Speaking of things that could kill a prayer, there is a new lawsuit by Michael Newdow (the guy who tried unsuccessfully to get "under God" struck from the Pledge of Allegiance) that takes aim at inauguration prayers as well as the practice (it started with George Washington) of a president's saying…

This alone ought to disqualify Roland Burris from being appointed as a United States Senator. Its amazing how the left has been able to rally around Burris without knowing anything about him, declaring him qualified to serve if only he hadn't been appointed by a governor on the verge of impeachment…

On CBS's "The Early Show" this morning: RODRIGUEZ: I'm fine, thank you. Yesterday we heard you say that they shouldn't hang and lynch the appointee to punish the appointer. But do you believe that this is the way the only African-American Senator should be seated? Tainted, rightly or not, by a…

mays.jpg How's this for encouragement in the new year? Obama and Senate Dems can't shake the resilient Rod Blagojevich, House Dems can't rid themselves of the scandal-ridden Charlie Rangel, and now, it is revealed that none other than Billy Mays is a Republican. The interview is actually a couple…

Egypt cancels New Year's in solidarity with Palestinians. Too bad they didn't ever cancel all that smuggling into Gaza. Beware the cycle of ceasefires. Adding a million or so drunk revelers to a city renowned for its high levels of crime and low levels of competence? Happy Inauguration Day! Wear a…

The other day I emailed a few questions to Rick Warren, who has accepted Barack Obama's invitation to give the inauguration prayer, and he's now responded. Warren says, among other things, that the invitation was "completely unexpected" and that "several dozen" other pastors would do "a better…

Seemingly none of the recent obituaries of Avery Dulles, a renowned theologian and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, has mentioned his crisp, theoretical defense of capital punishment. The Cardinal's careful explanation of his church's teaching responded to the popular impression of blanket…

You've got to love the Pakistani government's sense of humor, which is so vividly on display with its official position on Ajmal Amir Kasab, the surviving terrorist involved in the execution of the Mumbai terror assault. Pakistan has repeatedly denied that Kasab is even a Pakistani, let alone a…

Ramesh Ponnuru bats down the newfangled (and nonsensical) proportionality standard promoted by many critics of Israeli military action. Cynthia McKinney's voyage to Gaza doesn't go quite as it was planned. Vicki Iseman sues the New York Times for $27 million. Remember when Joe Biden vowed there…

Can Harry Reid really deny Roland Burris a Senate seat? As Pejman Yousefzadeh points out, the Supreme Court seems to have ruled definitively on whether or not the Senate can refuse to seat a designee simply because they oppose the governor who named him. Yousefzadeh reviews the Supreme Court's…

Eric Trager says that's the best possible outcome for Israel: ...Israel should move towards asserting a quick victory - immediately. At the moment, Israel has Hamas cornered: through its air strikes on key Hamas targets, Israel has achieved a peak in its military offensive, and the threat of a…

Alan Rogers of USA Today captures one of the central dilemmas facing the new Obama administration here: President-elect Barack Obama vowed on the campaign trail to shut down the terrorist detention center at Guantánamo Bay. But he never said what he would do with the prisoners there. What to do…

IF YOU THINK Caroline Kennedy is following her family's lead in trying to start at the top in a big job in politics (which has sometimes been referred to as show business for ugly people) with much too much chutzpah and too few credentials, you would be right, but you might also be somewhat…

As Israel continues its retaliatory strikes against the Hamas stronghold in Gaza, so the left increases its collective j'accuse, specifically bemoaning the use of 'disproportionate force.' The manner in which a nation conducts war, and achieves victory, can be as important as the war itself.…

Most retailers won't report their sales results until the customary 1st Thursday after the 2nd, which is January 8. Still that hasn't stopped the downbeat headlines trumpeting the plummeting of retail sales, mostly based on the SpendingPulse Holiday Wrap-up Report put out by MasterCard Advisors.…

There's a 3 p.m. news conference scheduled for today. This guy is not joking around: Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected today to name former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. The action comes despite warnings by Democratic Senate leaders…

The Pakistani government has shut down NATO's vital supply link to forces based in Afghanistan as the military has launched an offensive to clear the Taliban in a region just on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Peshawar. This is the second such operation launched in this area by the…

In an effort to combat skewed media reports on the current fighting in Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces launched a YouTube channel. The IDF has video of airstrikes on smuggling tunnels and rocket launch sites, the movement of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the deployment of IDF tanks to the Gaza…

Sarah Palin's a grandma! Congrats, and a big welcome to little Tripp. Now, I want to see Piper-as-aunt pictures, pronto. Obama will raise taxes on wealthiest Americans while lowering them for the middle class, all while passing a $775 billion stimulus package. Also, unicorns. Atheist says only…

Gasoline is selling for less than $1.50 per gallon, about half the price that prevailed a few months ago. Mortgage rates are lower than they have been in almost four decades, so applications for mortgages are soaring to levels not seen in five years. The unemployment rate is 6.7 percent, not bad by…

The boss looks forward to Obama's inauguration with a hopeful eye. Mackubin Thomas Owens and Reihan Salam pay tribute to Samuel P. Huntington. Six out of ten active duty service members not too keen on Obama. Briton with fatal disease waits in emergency room line for 6 hours. Iraqis will take…

Seeing Gaza from the lookout on the Israeli side of the border, it's not obvious that the Palestinian enclave is among the most miserable spots one could possibly live. Still, we know it to be true. But perhaps it is lost on many Americans that living next to Gaza is likewise a miserable…

I've been tuned out the last week and missed this amazing story which features the New Republic(!!!) exposing phony war reporting "first-person meditations." If that wasn't enough, Noam Scheiber has this graph attacking Harris Solomon, the man producing a movie based on the bogus story and who…

What does it take to become president of the United States? The ability to say more or less the same thing, again and again, for two years straight. Here is Barack Obama to Steve Kroft, in early 2007, on why he should be president: "We have a narrow window to solve some of the problems that we…

From the paper's esteemed editors: Before Mr. Bush spoke, the State Department announced that the United States and its partners would halt deliveries of heavy fuel oil because Pyongyang refused to agree, in writing, on a plan for verifying its nuclear stockpile and facilities. China and Russia…

From the BBC: The number of civilians killed by violence in Iraq has fallen by two-thirds in 2008, researchers say. Official Iraqi figures say 5,714 people were killed in 2008 compared to 16,252 the previous year. The non-governmental organisation Iraq Body Count also said the number of deaths was…

Several days ago, about 200 hundred prominent Turkish intellectuals launched a first-ever online petition apologizing for the "Great Catastrophe" in connection with the massacres of up to 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey during 1915-1917. Titled "I apologize", the brief statement reads as follows:…

Yesterday the Taliban conducted a heinous suicide attack in the eastern Afghan province of Khost. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives outside of a government center just as a group of school children was passing by. A U.S. military surveillance camera captured the bombing, and the…

After the expiration of a "truce" with Hamas, terror groups in Gaza pounded the Israeli south with rocket attacks. The Israeli government has responded forcefully, with waves of air strikes targeting Hamas's security infrastructure. More than 280 Palestinians, mostly Hamas members, have been killed…

... At least when building new roads, bridges, and runways is the issue. Brookings scholar Clifford Winston: One of the biggest killers of all is that states insist on allocating federal transportation funds through a politically devised formula. The result? Smooth, well-paved rural highways and…

Gov. Paterson is splashing righteously cold water on the Princess' Senate ambitions. Meanwhile, Caroline, you know, really wants to be Senator, you know, because of Obama and change, and you know, new opportunity for the country and, you know, 9/11 and stuff. I'm trying to remember the last…

From earlier this year, Ken Levine reviews mega-blockbuster The Dark Knight: "Why would anyone live in Gotham City? Jesus! You can't swing a dead cat without hitting six mob bosses. And then there's the town's super psycho villain -- they couldn't find someone a little more aesthetically pleasing?…

Rep. Bob Inglis and tax cut guru Arthur Laffer must be reading the Standard -- their call for a carbon tax offset by reductions "in income or payroll taxes" dovetails nicely with our cover story this week. It's an idea worth considering, especially if the offset is a reduction in the regressive and…

Until last week, the most important and most famous man of the cloth with whom Barack Obama was associated was the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his longtime pastor from Chicago's South Side. Today, that distinction belongs to the Reverend Rick Warren, best-selling evangelical author (The Purpose…

The Lights That Failed

A little over 12 years ago I brought home a beagle pup to the welcoming arms of my son and daughter, then aged 11 and 5. The last of our three hounds had died two years earlier, and the interregnum had merely intensified their longing for a new beagle.

Sex and the Soul

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

On December 5, Montana District judge Dorothy McCarter ruled in Baxter v. Montana that the state law banning assisted suicide violates not only the right to privacy guaranteed in the Montana constitution but also the constitutional clause that reads, "The dignity of the human being is inviolable."…

Frost / Nixon

On April 21, 2008, the day before Pennsylvania's Democratic primary, Barack Obama sat at the counter of the Glider Diner in Scranton. Senator Bob Casey Jr., who had endorsed Obama and was traveling with him throughout the state, occupied the next stool. It had all the makings of a great…

Time has killed off a lot of modernist art. College courses that teach Gertrude Stein must be awfully undersubscribed today, assuming they are offered. Modernist sculpture and painting still receive respectful attention, but this is largely because people have so much money invested in them. It…

Except for the distraction (or worse) caused by the Blagojevich scandal, President-elect Barack Obama has had a wonderful transition. His cabinet picks have been widely praised. His press conferences have been short, orderly, and mostly sweet. And the excitement over his inauguration as America's…

On Thinking Institutionally

Reporters in Extremis

Early on the evening of November 25, I was met at the reception desk of WTTW, the PBS station in Chicago, by a pretty intern named Jennifer. She led me to what passes for the station's green room, a handsome conference room with a plasma television set playing along the far wall. I was left to…

This is the place where bad times get sent to make them belong to somebody else, thus, it seems easy to agree about Detroit because the city embodies everything the rest of the country wants to get over.

Angler

New Year's is just a few days away, which means it's time for Dave Barry's annual Year in Review column. Here's a taste, from the July 2008 news summary: "Barack Obama, having secured North and South America, flies to Germany without using an airplane and gives a major speech -- speaking English…

AP: "Hawaii Island Where Obama is Vacationing Loses Power."

Make sure you read Mark Shields's column this week on the D.C. Council's decision to keep the bars open an extra hour during Barack Obama's inauguration celebration.

One month after the Mumbai terror assault, Pakistan and India appear to be moving closer to war. Tensions have been high the past two weeks as both nations' militaries have been placed on high alert. Pakistan has refused to hand over terror suspects and has taken minimal and token action against…

On Christmas Eve, the Minnesota Supreme Court handed down a decision that ensures the Franken-Coleman recount will not be resolved for at least a few more weeks. Norm Coleman, who trails Franken by 46 votes, had filed a petition with the state supreme court to seek redress for the alleged…

I'm not saying the Washington Post's Eli Saslow is in love with Barack Obama, but with passages like this: "The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games." Well, maybe just a little.

Via Allahpundit, Brit Hume

From today's Thomas L. Friedman column: "China may have great airports, but last week it went back to censoring The New York Times and other Western news sites. Censorship restricts your people's imaginations. That's really, really dumb." I can think of about half a dozen other things Chinese…

One day after a jury convicted five Muslim immigrants of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, two Muslim groups claimed the outcome of the trial was unfair. Mohamad Younes, president of the American Muslim Union, questioned the jury's decision. "I don't think they actually mean…

It's Christmas time, when we like to recommend the best books we read over the last year. Here are mine: Novels There are two. Joshua Ferris's Then We Came to the End is one of the best books I've read, period, which is saying something as it's only two years old. Highly recommended. The other good…

Don't miss Martin Feldstein's Wall Street Journal op-ed calling for additional defense spending as part of next year's economic stimulus bill.

Tomorrow, as much of the world is observing the birth of Jesus Christ, looks like we'll also be observing the cultural death of Britain. Channel 4, a British TV station (publicly owned, according to Wikipedia), will be playing an "Alternative Christmas Message" tomorrow night from none other than…

Early in November, the popular online dating company eHarmony settled with the New Jersey Attorney General's Division on Civil Rights (DCR) over allegations that the company violated the state's anti-discrimination law by limiting its matching service to heterosexual couples. In 2005, gay New…

Joe Biden vows that the nearly $1 trillion stimulus package won't contain any earmarks. Fortune projects that 9 8 of the 10 worst housing markets in 2009 are in California. Joe Carter on the perennial Christmas culture wars. George Will looks back at 2008. Jeb talks to Esquire. Texas will gain 3…

As expected, the Obama Team's internal investigation of the transition team's contacts with indicted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich showed that there was no "inappropriate" contact. Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, did not make a statement about the findings, but his incoming White House press…

Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban who is accused of being behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, said he'd back the government if war breaks out with India. Baitullah promised the Taliban would to send "thousands of our well-armed militants" and hundreds of suicide bombers…

The time and date dictated by Patrick Fitzgerald for releasing Team Obama's internal investigation just happen to fall at the most convenient time of the year for burying bad news. Does that mean there necessarily is bad news? Biden told reporters this morning it will confirm Obama's assertions…

Recent reports from Afghanistan claimed the Taliban are willing to negotiate with the Afghan government and NATO forces. A report in Iran's Press TV said Mullah Omar offered a seven point plan to end the insurgency, which was sent to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. The plan, according to the news…

Melissa Etheridge: "Hey, you know who's kind of an awesome guy who may herald a new era of good will between the religious community and gays and lesbians? Rick Warren. That's right, I said it." Arab leaders outdo the RNC accessory budget with $300,000 in jewels for Condi. 44 percent of Americans…

Over on the homepage, Stuart Koehl responds to a New York Times editorial that called for a variety of cuts in defense spending.

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP): The United States can no longer support a proposed Zimbabwean power-sharing deal that would leave Robert Mugabe, "a man who's lost it," as president, the top American envoy for Africa said Sunday. Jendayi E. Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs,…

Be sure to check out this Bret Stephens column on why the incoming Congress should just go ahead already and establish the Barack H. Obama Presidential Monument Commission. Yes, the piece is slightly tongue-in-cheek. But, as Stephens points out, there is a case that, "even if Mr. Obama turns out to…

Long before the recent election, Barack Obama often liked to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln. An adoring press followed suit. Googling "Obama and Lincoln," results in over 14 million hits. Now many are of these are redundant and many have nothing to do with either Obama or Lincoln. But it is…

On Sunday, December 21, that paragon of strategic acumen, the New York Times editorial page, offered up its suggestions regarding how President-elect Barack Obama should shape his next defense budget. Entitled "How to Pay for a 21st Century Military," its prescription is quite simple: Cut just…

Five convicted of plotting to kill U.S. soldiers at Ft. Dix. Vice president Cheney says Democratic leaders agreed that we didn't need Congress's approval for warrantless wiretapping. 77 percent of Americans don't think Cheney is the worst VP ever. The Atlantic has diverse views on the relative…

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The situation in Iceland has not improved since the county's financial system went into meltdown in October. The krona was refloated on currency markets early this month and has sagged dramatically since then. It now sits at about 177 kr per euro. And now comes word that the unemployment rate has…

The Times falls for a prankster posing as the mayor of Paris.

One can only assume that it was their haste to reach the zenith of self-parody before the New Year by seeing a gay, French Socialist write upon their pages about the Kennedys, that caused NYT editors to forget to call the office of Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe to make sure he had actually written…

Ben Smith writes: Matthew Yglesias, who now blogs on the website of the Center for American Progress, wrote Friday that Third Way, another Democratic group, puts out "shallow" policy and that its domestic agenda is "hyper-timid incrementalist bull***." This isn't the worst thing anyone ever said…

The New York Times, never really in their element when it comes to national security, decided to lend their defense expertise to the masses this past weekend. I must admit, their editorial -- How to Pay for a 21st Century Military-- was immensely edifying, in that we learn the Old Gray Lady feels…

I comment on Balgojevich's selective quotation from Kipling's "If" in a New York Times column this morning. A colleague notes that many Democrats might have preferred that Blagojevich had sought guidance (metaphorically, not literally, one hastens to add) from another Kipling work, "The Young…

The United States is planning to surge an estimated 30,000 additional troops into Afghanistan in an attempt to beat back the resurgent Taliban. The Economist details the plan to utilize the troops: secure the Ring Road, the vital roadway the links the major cities throughout the country; provide…

President Bush approved a short-term bridge loan to Detroit on Friday averting a pre-New Year's bankruptcy for one or more of the auto companies. But the White House action also kicked the can to the Obama administration to figure out a longer-term solution. Many national polling organizations have…

At a press conference Friday, Rod Blagojevich quoted Kipling's poem "If". Claudia Rosett has come up with a version of the poem revised to better fit Blago's current circumstances.

Racing Odysseus

Little Lord Jesus no crying he makes and What the gladsome tidings be and We three kings of Orient are--to say nothing of if thou knowst it telling: Have you ever noticed just how weird the grammar and syntax of Christmas carols are? Or I guess that should be: The songs of Christmas, noticed thou,…

Inaugural Doggerel

ANTI-SEMITISM IN IRAN

In the final days of his presidency, George W. Bush will face an avalanche of requests. Well-connected political hands will inquire if so-and-so could receive a coveted pardon, lobbyists will ask for that last-minute executive order, obscure foreign leaders will finally call in chits for having…

William Wilberforce

The attack on Mumbai was in a way a primitive terrorist operation--individuals using machine guns and grenades. There were no high explosives, use of chemical weapons, or the like. The difference between ordinary terrorists, who kill at most hundreds, and mass-casualty ones, who aspire to kill…

Khost and Kandahar Provinces

Wonderland

"Saddened and sobered"--that was Barack Obama's first response to the corruption charges against Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, charges that include an attempt to sell Obama's old Senate seat to the highest bidder. "Obviously, like the rest of the people of Illinois, I am saddened and sobered…

Making the Cut

Jesus for President

West Point, Georgia

After devastating losses on November 4, Republicans finished the 2008 election cycle on a high note. Immigration lawyer and community leader Anh "Joseph" Cao (pronounced "gow") last Saturday narrowly defeated indicted Democratic congressman William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson in Louisiana's Second…

Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain had much of value to say about the financial crisis as it raged through the headlines this fall. Rather than shred their campaign strategies, they played it safe, as most politicians would have. But in the name of justice we ought to recall that there was one…

As Beijing celebrates the 30th anniversary of its reform era this month--generally considered to have begun with the accession of Deng Xiaoping--the dominant narrative in the world is that this is China's century. This perception is almost entirely based on the country's roaring economy, which has,…

A Great Idea at the Time

At a press conference today, Al Franken's lead lawyer said said "There is no evidence that any of the ballots were counted twice. None."

There is plenty of criticism to direct at the Bush administration for its failure to develop a coherent strategy to deal with the al Qaeda-backed insurgency. But Matthew Yglesias's criticism is far wide of the mark. Yglesias demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of the situation in the region,…

McCain opposes auto bailout. The Employee Free Choice Act is unconstitutional. California towns face bankruptcy. Czechs won't ratify EU treaty without approval of missile defense in Europe. Where the $350 billion in TARP funds have been sent.

A new Research 2000 poll for Daily Kos: Republican Primaries Senate Murkowski 31 Palin 55 [General election] Murkowski (R) 49 Knowles (D) 41 Palin (R) 53 Knowles (D) 39

Rick Warren is the kind of man the Left loved until Obama made him an inauguration speaker in the wake of his support for Prop. 8. He confounded stereotypes, speaking frequently and acting generously on behalf of AIDS patients. He made all the right people mad, breaking with the old guard of the…

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel did in fact have direct talks with Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich about the open Senate seat: "Emanuel talked with the governor in the days following the Nov. 4 election and pressed early on for the appointment…

Via Tom Bevan, a new Rasmussen poll shows that "just 37% of U.S. voters believe Caroline Kennedy is qualified to be in the U.S. Senate ... but 67% have a favorable view of Kennedy." As Obama might say, she's "likeable enough."

USA Today reports on Minnesota Muslims heading to Somalia to join the jihad: Mohamud Ali Hassan once told the Somali grandmother who raised him that he'd become a doctor and care for her. The Somali immigrant, who moved to the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" when he was 8, had good grades at the University…

Bill Richardson has broken the first rule of political scandals: don't let yourself be filmed running from questions. Jim Geraghty has more. Richardson's staff offers the implausible claim that Richardson did not hear the KRQE reporter. But if that's all it was, why is his spokesman unwilling to…

The furious backlash against Obama's selection of Rick Warren continues. On CNN, Jane Hamsher said Obama might as well have invited the "grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan" and argued that Warren is worse than Ahmadinejad and Chavez. Markos Moulitsas wonders when Obama will send out the invitations…

Blago to speak at 3 p.m. EST press conference. Bush offers $17 billion to Big Three, Ford says "no thanks," making me far more inclined to buy Ford. Only 37 percent think princess status confers upon one the ability to be senator. Source says Rahm talked directly to Blago. Can you imagine the bleep…

Mike Allen: President Bush is announcing a $17.4 billion bailout for auto manufacturers, with the loans contingent on the firms proving that they can become "viable" ongoing firms. Of the total, $13.4 billion will be paid out in December and January The last $4 billion is contingent on the second…

The AP puts Norm Coleman's lead at 2 votes, causing Allahpundit and Kathryn Lopez, among others, to despair. There may be good reason to be anxious, if not desperate, but not because of the AP count. Tomorrow morning the AP will show Franken rapidly pulling away with the lead--but this number is…

I have spent the last few weeks talking to economists who are plugged into the policy establishments in both parties, to politicians, and to policy-makers in the think tank community. There is broad agreement on several important points.

Johnny Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban" who was captured by U.S. forces and was at the prison uprising that resulted in the first U.S. combat casualty after September 11, 2001, is back in the news. His parents are petitioning President Bush to issue a pardon after Johnny has served nearly seven…

The New York Times seemingly dropped a bombshell this morning, reporting that Iraq's Counter-Intelligence Bureau, which is exclusively under the command of Prime Minister Maliki, rounded up 35 Interior Ministry officials, including a senior general. The officials, according to the New York Times,…

Minnesota Supreme Court orders local election officials and the Franken and Coleman campaigns to agree upon a procedure for identifying and counting wrongly rejected absentee ballots. WikiLeaks posts information on bomb-stopping frequency jammers that have reduced killings in Iraq. Bush enacts…

A raise. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Let me get this straight: A 20-year association with a radically leftist, anti-American, racist preacher whom Obama referred to as a spiritual adviser meant absolutely nothing about Obama's judgment or philosophy, and illustrated only the bigotry of those who dared criticize it. A 20-minute…

Since Obama announced that he has asked pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, liberals have at long last, with a jolt, realized that Obama is a man who professes many stands on issues, but rarely stands up for any of them. The Warren pick is a political one, and a…

During his press conference today, Obama defended his choice of Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation, as reported here, by saying that the country needs to "come together," even when there's disagreement on social issues. "That dialogue is part of what my campaign is all about."…

The conservative movement lost a leader today. Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation and Free Congress Foundation and philosophical father of numerous other organizations, spent his life confounding the Left. He built coalitions and pushed conservative principles when the idea of…

Yesterday British PM Gordon Brown announced that British forces would be largely withdrawn from southern Iraq by the end of July. Once numbering 46,000 troops, British forces have been reduced to around 4,100--the bulk of which were deployed to the Basra area in southern Iraq. As British forces in…

Pakistani security officials have uncovered a plot to murder former President Pervez Musharraf. The plot was organized from a Pakistani jail in Hyderabad, and was led by none of than senior al Qaeda leader Omar Saeed Sheikh, The News reported. Omar contracted out a local Pakistani terror group…

So the president-elect has asked Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. It's an interesting decision. Warren, a Southern Baptist, is pastor of Saddleback, the evangelical megachurch in Orange County, Ca. When I was at the church in August for the debate between Obama and McCain…

Very smart column this morning by Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal. By "smart," of course, I mean that I share his views. Rove writes that while Barack Obama is receiving good grades for his appointments thus far -- Cabinet and top staff -- the president-elect may be creating problems for…

Hope 'n' Change hits the line-up: The Obama '08 Mugshots Obama picks pro-life pastor Rick Warren for inauguration invocation. The Left reacts with...grace, tolerance. Obama evading presser questions is nothing new. What does the Left do when a "lump of cells" can Twitter from the womb? Isn't the…

Laura Meckler writes in today's Wall Street Journal: As they face Democrat-controlled Washington, antiabortion activists are gearing up to fight the Freedom of Choice Act, or FOCA, which would codify Roe v. Wade into federal law. Mr. Obama said last year that he would sign the bill. Depending on…

Gateway Pundit posts this clip of Iraq's U.S. ambassador explaining to Code Pink why they're foolish for defending shoe-thrower Muntader al-Zaidi. Ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie tells the women holding "Free Al-Zaidi" signs: "Mr. Muntader al-Zaidi is very very lucky that it was Mr. Bush and Mr. Maliki…

Russia "to give" Lebanon 10 MiG 29 fighter jets. US Navy's first tail-less, stealthy unmanned aircraft unveiled. Obama's energy secretary said in 2005: "the risk-benefit equation looks pretty good for nuclear." Michael Gerson v. John O'Sullivan Sam Brownback will retire in 2010. Madoff gave big…

Streaming video of the Minnesota canvassing board reviewing challenged ballots may be viewed here. For the latest on the Franken-Coleman recount, see here.

She was in a meeting with Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll today, reportedly touting her experience and listening to ways in which Washington can help the state of New York. As she left, she read her first public statement about the seat, but took no questions from the press, demonstrating the same…

Politico confirms that California congressman Xavier Becerra turned down Barack Obama's offer to become the U.S. trade representative. The other leading candidate is rumored to be former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk. Kirk was elected Dallas's first black mayor in 1995 and earned a reputation for being…

The Taliban has been actively targeting the disparate tribal groups that have been formed in Pakistan's northwest to oppose the expansion of the extremists. The Taliban has been effective at destroying these groups by targeting leadership with suicide attacks and kidnappings, and in some cases with…

The Minnesota canvassing board making final rulings on ballots challenged by Al Franken for the second day. You can view a selection of the ballots reviewed yesterday here and read a liveblog here. The Franken campaign has withdrawn most of its frivolous challenges, leaving about 400 ballots for…

NBC's First Read did some counting and discovered that Barack Obama, Time's person of the year, appeared on 27 percent of the magazine's covers in 2008. If you include mentions of Obama's name along with his face, the figure shoots up to 48 percent.

Come back, Sarah! ComScore says that traffic to the joint venture between News Corp.'s (NWS) Fox and GE's (GE) NBC fell 10.8 percent from October to November, dropping from 5.3 million unique visitors to 4.8 million... This makes plenty of sense: Hulu was one of two places were you could (legally)…

TEXT X-47B unmanned combat air system (UCAS) demonstrator - the US Navy's first tail-less, stealthy unmanned aircraft, was unveiled at Northrop Grumman's Palmdale, Calif., site on Dec.1

Looky there: AP finally notices Obama is "young and inexperienced." Betty Currie back on board, in the Obama transition. Obama to depend on heavily federally subsidized, economically non-viable system to get to Inauguration. Illinois governor's website disappears Blago/Obama photos. Looking to Old…

Jay Carney, former Time magazine bureau chief and vice president-elect Joe Biden's new director of communications, wrote in 2007: "Biden's penchant to talk too much can get him in trouble (see the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on Sam Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court.) But he's likable…

Marc Ambinder reports that Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln -- who faces re-election in 2010 -- has declared her opposition to Card Check: That's.... 57 votes in favor of cloture now. In-cycle Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas formally opposes the Employee Free Choice Act. She says it's "not necessary"…

Three guesses as to whom Time magazine chose as its person of the year.

Max Boot was very happy to report that the Department of Defense is at long last going to allow the military to recruit foreigners to fill "critical need" positions such as translators and cultural affairs specialists. He notes that

Continetti on Caroline Kennedy and dynasties. George Bush thinks brother Jeb "would be an awesome U.S. Senator." Palin talks about the arson committed at her church. Fed cuts interest rate to 0.5 percent. Rahm Emanuel is "reportedly on 21 different taped conversations by the feds -- dealing with…

Prior to announcing his appointments to the EPA and Department of Energy yesterday, Barack Obama held a meeting with his national security team. CBS News reported: The meeting will include Mr. Obama, Vice President-elect Biden, White House Chief of Staff-designee Rahm Emanuel, Secretary of State…

If you find the coverage of the Arab street's reaction to the shoe-throwing incident a bit much, make sure to read Bill Roggio's post yesterday on the New York Times report. Roggio points out that one of the folks quoted in the Times report just happened to be a senior aide to Moktada al-Sadr.

According to Pew Research, nearly one out of four Americans under 40 has a tattoo. The new poll finds 36% in the 18-25 age group and 40% of folks age 26-40 sport this form of "self expression." Pew writes this: Gen Nexters, Americans in the 18-25 age bracket, are not afraid to express themselves…

Washington area readers of the Washington Post might have missed in yesterday's paper a small notice "To Our Readers" informing us that the price of an issue on newsstands and in vending machines will go from 50 cents to 75 cents. This followed Sunday's announcement that the paper will be…

During a recent interview on ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney said the following with respect to waterboarding senior al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM): "There was a period of time there, three or four years ago, when about half of everything we knew about al Qaeda came from that…

Rod Blagojevich will keep the power to appoint the Senate successor to Barack Obama while Illinois Democrats embark on an impeachment process that could take weeks. The Democrats, who hold a majority in the state house, deferred taking away his authority to appoint when they were unable to come to…

Rasmussen: 45 percent suspect Team Obama involved in Blago scandal. Don King on Dubya: "He's got unbelievable reflexes!" Caroline Kennedy's inexperience making it pretty hard for Dems who bashed Palin to support her. Surprise: Time mag bureau chief to become Biden's communications director.…

Forbes's Jerry Flint points out an important difference between Ford and the other two Detroit-based automakers: Ford doesn't need a federal bailout: Long run, Ford has the ability to grow. For the past two months the Dearborn, Mich., manufacturer has held its own in share against the prior year,…

The coincidence can best be described as macabre: The terrorist assault on Mumbai occurred just as a House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, headed by Democratic Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey, initiated an inquiry into the conviction of a radical Muslim hatemonger, Ali Al-Timimi, for recruiting…

The boss on left-wing and right-wing Detroit bashing. Caroline Kennedy wants Hillary's Senate seat. Seventy-four percent of public universities have unconstitutional speech codes. Shock report: Obama isn't Lincoln. Detroit embraces clean, green, and paperless newspapers. Via Instapundit, some…

The New York Times's Baghdad Bureau Blog does a good job of rounding up opinions of Iraqis on yesterday's shoe-throwing incident by an Iraqi "journalist" that targeted President Bush during a press briefing in Baghdad with Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. Clearly there is a wide range of opinions by…

Via Ben Smith, the Denver Post reports that Senator Ken Salazar is the leading candidate to become Obama's secretary of the Interior. Salazar's term is set to expire in 2010.

Time magazine's Mark Halperin reports that his colleague Jay Carney, the mag's Washington bureau chief, will be director of communications for vice president-elect Joe Biden. I would normally be inclined to make a snarky comment about the Obama administration/mainstream media revolving door, but…

The Obama transition office just sent out this release about its internal "review" of contacts with disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich: "At the direction of the President-elect, a review of Transition staff contacts with Governor Blagojevich and his office has been conducted and completed…

It's been five days since Pres-Elect Barack Obama called for the resignation of indicted Ilinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and the coiffeured Chicago corruptocrat seems no closer to the door than he did last Wednesday. The call for resignation came through Obama's spokesperson Robert Gibbs one day…

In light of John Dingell's and Jennifer Granholm's recent statements attacking the patriotism of Republicans who opposed the auto bailout, John Henke rounds up a few other recent examples of Democrats' criticism of "un-American" and "anti-patriotic" Republicans: "[Some Southern Senators]…

Over the weekend, I noted that Pakistan's "house arrest" of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba / Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader Hafiz Saeed was largely for show. Today, the London Times notes that the Jamaat-ud-Dawa headquarters in the city of Muridke is still open for business. Pakistan claims that it ordered the…

Pakistan is complaining that it needs more weapons from the United States in order to fight the Taliban insurgency in the northwest regions bordering Afghanistan, Newsweek's Ron Moreau and John Barry report uncritically. "We are on a war footing," Pakistan's national-security chief, retired Army…

Would the election have been different if Obama had chosen the ridiculous exclamation point logo instead of the O? Jesse Jackson, Jr.: "I want my good name back." American people: "You're gonna have to talk to your dad about that." McCain won't say whether he'd support Palin if she ran for…

When Mel Martinez reached Jeb Bush last week to tell him that Martinez would shortly announce his decision not to run for reelection to the Senate, Bush expressed no particular interest in succeeding him in Washington. It was early in the morning, and Bush was working out on an exercise machine.…

While the financial crisis has gripped the rest of the world, my investments have been doing quite well. Not my traditional investments, mind you. My house is worth a fraction of what I paid for it in 2004, and my 401(k) is more like a 201(k) these days.

If you're out of power, you might as well take advantage of it. Surely this moment calls for some creative conservatism. The economy has been in recession since December 2007. The financial, housing, and automobile sectors are in disarray. You need to take a healthy dose of anti-anxiety medication…

By choosing a seasoned Washington operator like former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle as secretary of health and human services, President-elect Barack Obama has made his health care priorities clear. He will promote an aggressive legislative agenda with far-reaching effects not only on…

Nothing To Be Frightened Of

Globaloney Updated

On Monday, December 1, Barack Obama, who had kicked off his campaign a year earlier touting his opposition to the war in Iraq, introduced his national security team to the public. As secretary of state there was Hillary Clinton, his opponent in the primaries who had voted for the war in Iraq; as…

A painter's painter and one of Italy's most admired, Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), took his time.

Just two days after the gunmen's siege in Mumbai ended, Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari went on CNN's Larry King Live to plead his case. Even before the Indian authorities had brought the rampage to an end, they were laying blame on their neighbor to the north. And Zardari wanted the world to…

It looks like Sarah Palin won't be fading away. Not if Saxby Chambliss has anything to say about it. "I can't overstate the impact she had down here," said Chambliss shortly after his surprisingly solid 15-point victory in the December 2 Georgia Senate runoff. Chambliss, who went from a 49.8-46.8…

Once upon a time there was a man named Richard Simmons. Richard was a sweet man with a big heart, and if you were fat, Richard would be your friend. Thanks to television you could aerobicize with Richard or deal your meals through Richard, and you lost a little weight.

Milk

The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, which squats like an immense, unopened crate of machine parts on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., closed its doors for a two-year renovation in September 2006, and here's the interesting thing: Hardly anybody seemed to notice,…

Belo

Imagine a writer who, by his mid-thirties, had published more than a million words in the New Yorker. Imagine one who turned out trenchant fact pieces, cutting yet perceptive criticism, finely wrought short stories, and hilarious vignettes. Imagine him doing all that despite a loveless childhood,…

Even before their Election Day drubbing, conservatives had begun to reexamine their positions on a variety of issues. Conspicuously absent from the intramural debate, however, has been "originalism"--the theory that judges should decide constitutional cases in accordance with their best estimate of…

By now, you may have heard that an Iraqi Journalist threw his shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad: Though Bush's ninja-like reflexes thwarted this evildoer's plans, I can't help but wonder how the president would have responded to a successful shoe pelting. I imagine it…

Patterico flags this LA Times story on the failure of the auto bailout: Republican opposition killed a $14-billion auto industry bailout plan in the Senate on Thursday night, putting the future of U.S. automakers in doubt and threatening to deliver another blow to the economy. [...] Senate…

Ezra Klein takes a shot at conservative efforts to "defund Planned Parenthood -- a policy that will almost surely result in more abortions ... This is how the pro-life movement also becomes, in effect, the pro-herpes movement and the anti-birth control movement." TEXT Indeed, the Pence amendment…

I've been particularly hard on Pakistan the past several weeks. Watching the developments in Pakistan closely the past four years, I've learned that all is not what it seems, and there is significant institutional support for the Taliban, al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the alphabet soup of jihadi…

Pakistan is making a big show of its "crackdown" on Jamaat-ud Dawa, the charity that serves as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba. The government claims to have rounded up scores of members and closed multiple offices since the United Nations declared the group behind the Mumbai attacks a terrorist entity…

Megan McArdle writes: I am not trying to punish the UAW. I am thinking about how the company can be made profitable. The company cannot, in my estimation, be made profitable with higher labor costs than the competitors. Labor costs are not the issue at banks, or AIG; balance sheet impairment is.…

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports: DFLer Al Franken's campaign scored significant victories in the U.S. Senate recount Friday, as the state Canvassing Board approved the use of Election Day results for 133 Minneapolis ballots that can't be found and also recommended that counties sort and count…

Joseph Bottum writes: Word has reached us that Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., died here in New York early this morning. Created cardinal for his theological work by John Paul II, Avery Dulles was one of the great figures of the twentieth century: a theologian, an intellectual, a teacher, a writer, a…

Sen. Tom Coburn's porkbusting goes too far in downright un-American criticism of bailing out "Spanky's Liquor World". The scene at Club Gitmo. Ed Rendell: "Did Rahm Emanuel who took Rod Blagojevich's seat in Congress have contact with Rod Blagojevich? Of course he did." Did White House intervention…

As agreed upon in the inconsistently observed oversight rules for the Treasury Department's $700 billion in TARP funds, the Congress must approve Treasury access to the second half of the sum. The first half was doled out mostly to failing banks, and only $15 billion remains. After the auto bailout…

George Washington University political scientist Henry Farrell posts this item today reporting on a conference he recently attended at Harvard about the political applications of the Internet in the 2008 campaign. Farrell includes some comments from Obama campaign representatives who note that…

For much of this week and last, I've noted that the Pakistani government's action against the Lashkar-e-Taiba and its front group, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, would tell us much about their seriousness in rooting out the multitude of terror groups operating withing its borders. The New York Times report on…

Earlier this week in Washington, I had the opportunity to listen to Maajid Nawaz, Co-Founder and Director of the London-based Quilliam Foundation, which describes itself as "the world's first counter-extremism think tank". Both Mr. Nawaz and Co-Founder Ed Husain are former activists of the radical…

Via The Hill's Michael O'Brien "It is unacceptable for this un-American, frankly, behavior of these U.S. senators to cause this country to go from a recession into a depression," Granholm said during a radio interview Friday morning. I suppose everyone will shrug this off. But to ask the obvious…

After pledging not to use TARP funds to bailout the auto industry, the White House indicated this morning that, well, President Bush was open to using TARP funds to bailout the auto industry. Offering significant concessions with no hope of changing decades-long bad behavior... Does Bush think…

LAT gets critical: "It took three tries in as many days for President-elect Barack Obama to roll out a strategy for defusing the crisis over Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich's alleged attempt to put his old Senate seat up for sale." The uncharacteristic silence of Rahm Emanuel. Volokh: Parts of…

Nancy Pelosi says that Senate Republicans were "irresponsible" for opposing the auto bailout, which failed on a cloture vote last night 52 to 35. Senate Republicans' refusal to support the bipartisan legislation passed by the House and negotiated in good faith with the White House, the Senate and…

The government of Malaysia made a curious announcement this week: Yazid Sufaat, a known al Qaeda operative, and four other alleged terrorists have been released from jail. It is not clear why Malaysian authorities thought it was time to set them free. Malaysia's home minister, Syed Hamid Albar,…

"World Markets Plunge as U.S. Auto Bailout Fails." In other news, the dollar has fallen to a 13-year low against the Yen. Have a great day!

National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) chief lobbyist Richard Cizik has won plaudits from the New York Times and criticism from his own constituency for shifting NAE to the left, on global warming and other issues over the last 6 years. But endorsing same sex civil unions on National Public…

"Don't project beyond the range of the known observations" is a rule followed by careful economists. In plain English this means, for example, that we know how American consumers behave when gas prices move between $1 and $4 per gallon, "the range of the known observations". But we haven't much of…

The AP reports: "A $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers collapsed in the Senate Thursday night after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts." In a statement Mitch McConnell first expressed hope that the Senate might ultimately come to a…

MR. RUSSERT: Is it a time to do away with "don't ask, don't tell" and allow openly gay people to serve in the military? GEN. POWELL: I think the, the country has changed in its attitudes quite a bit. "Don't ask, don't tell" was an appropriate response to the situation back in 1993. And the country…

Reuters: "U.S. conservatives rubbed their hands with glee on Wednesday over news that the Democratic governor of Illinois has been accused of attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama." I was actually twirling my moustache while sipping Scotch at the yacht club. Rep.…

AP reports: A Russian man working for a nuclear company in Iran has been found dead after disappearing 18 days earlier, Iranian media and a Russian spokeswoman said Thursday.... Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the state-run Russian company coordinating the Bushehr project, Atomstroiexport, said the…

In his press conference today, he said he's confident none of his aides are involved. He's downgraded his claim regarding Blagojevich to "no discussions regarding (the Senate seat)" from "no contact." Embedded video from CNN Video

The United Nations Security Council has stepped up to the plate and declared the Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa a front group for the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group. The UNSC has placed Hafiz Saeed and three other senior leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba / Jamaat-ud-Dawa on the list of terrorists associated…

As U.S. forces prepare to "surge" an estimated 20,000 soldiers and Marines into Afghanistan, the focus in the media has largely centered on where the forces will deploy. Will they be placed in the East along the border with Pakistan to stem the flow from the Taliban infested tribal areas? Will they…

Via Newsbusters, Chris Matthews and Bill Ayers had an interesting exchange on Hardball last night: MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about this quote. I read it in the New York Times, the other day. And honestly it, it bothered me, but you know, I certainly shared your anti-war views. I demonstrated and did…

Is it Jim Lindgren day on The Blog? For those of you following the contours of the Blago scandal, check out Lindgren's various posts at the Volokh conspiracy. He was the first person (or at least the first person I read) to focus on Valerie Jarrett, the importance of the November 8-12 time period,…

Roll Call scoops everyone with an interesting piece that suggests how Governor Blagojevich may have sounded out Barack Obama about his vacant Senate seat, as well as giving a candidate for identifying 'Adviser B': Blagojevich has relied heavily on political advice from inside-the-Beltway…

Obama mob flagging questions about Blagojevich as inappropriate on Obama's "open questions" section of the Change.gov. That Chicago TV station that reported Obama met with Blagojevich is revising and pulling its stories on the meeting. Dear Big Three: Bankruptcy doesn't make assets disappear. House…

L'affaire Plaxico inspires Ken Levine to name some of his "other favorite stupid professional sports injuries." Among them: "Atlanta Braves' pitcher/genius John Smoltz once burned himself while ironing a shirt. He was wearing the shirt at the time. I wish I making that up."

Jim Lindgren has two interesting ideas on how to reduce the gigantic federal debt. The most interesting: selling off large swaths of federal land to private owners. Individuals would develop the land, and the government would get a new revenue stream. What's not to like?

Sometime early next year, the six commissioners who run the Federal Election Commission will face an interesting dilemma--whether to approve a "for cause" audit of the presidential campaign of a sitting president, Barack Obama.

Continetti obtains unpublished sections of the Blagojevich wiretaps. George Stephanopoulos swoons: "Blagojevich himself is the President-elect's best character witness." Jesse Jackson Jr. says he did nothing wrong. Jindal says he's not running for president in 2012. Seriously. Obama picks…

On December 9, federal agents arrested Democratic Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich on charges that he had put president-elect Barack Obama's senate seat up for sale--though not on eBay, which probably would have made things a lot easier. The Blagojevich portrayed in the 76-page criminal complaint…

Ben Smith: Perhaps the best way to see him is as a neutral in the (lopsided) battle between machine and reformers in Illinois. That's the stance he took in a defining battle, the 2006 contest for the presidency of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Reformers fault him for failing to support…

Did Axelrod misspeak, and this TV station's report get it wrong? From Nov. 5: Now that Barack Obama will be moving to the White House, his seat in the U.S. Senate representing Illinois will have to be filled. That's one of Obama's first priorities today. He's meeting with Governor Rod Blagojevich…

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs says the president-elect thinks it's time for Blagojevich to step down.

Brian Ross reports: Chicago Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., is the anonymous "Senate Candidate No. 5" whose emissaries Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich reportedly offered up to $1 million to name him to the U.S. Senate, federal law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

The Trust for America's Health has issued its annual report card on how states are doing in preparing for disease, disaster, and bioterror. Five states earn a perfect 10 out of 10: Louisiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin. At the bottom of the scale -- earning just 5 out of…

"The democratic process is often messy," Axelrod wrote in the op-ed. "Diverse constituencies fight fiercely for their priorities. Their elected representatives use the influence they have to meet those needs, including sometimes the exchange of favors - consideration for jobs being just one. White…

Just three days after the Mumbai attacks, a senior U.S. military intelligence officer described the Lashkar-e-Taiba to me as "al Qaeda junior." Lashkar-e-Taiba has vast resources, an extensive network, and is able to carry out complex attacks throughout its area of operations, the official…

RECENT EVENTS SUGGEST that Barack Obama will be facing a veritable perfect storm of challenges in Latin America. The death toll in Mexico's war on drugs is mounting. The future of Plan Colombia, which began as a U.S.-backed anti-drug initiative, is uncertain. Argentina may be on the verge of yet…

Sixty years ago, when the United Nations was debating the creation of an international statement on human rights, Eleanor Roosevelt, then serving as head of the Human Rights Commission, delivered a caustic speech at the Sorbonne. "We must not be deluded by the efforts of the forces of reaction to…

I'm not a big fan of arms control agreements for the simple reason that, more often than not, their effect is mainly cosmetic and they do nothing at all to rectify the problem they are meant to address. Thus, to go back into "ancient" history, the 1896 Hague Convention banned the use of unjacketed…

No need to wait for Obama to frame the issue when the Associated Press knows his favorite words already. They are great students of his oratory, after all: Though Barack Obama isn't accused of anything, the charges against his home-state governor - concerning Obama's own Senate seat no less - are…

In the run-up to election day we heard a great deal about Tony Rezko, and how his criminal associations reflected poorly on Obama. Little did we suspect then that the biggest crook Rezko knows is the governor of Illinois. With the arrest of Governor Blagojevich this morning, it becomes clear that…

The anti-Prop 8 inquisition continues. Obama's plan for er, um, agrarian reform. Palin on Hillary as secretary of state. The LA Times finds it newsworthy to report that a talking-points memo on Bush's legacy "mentions none of the episodes that detractors say have marred his presidency". In the race…

The Washington Post reports on the newfound stardom of Joseph Cao, the GOP's newest congressman. Cao (pronounced "gow") scored a stunning 3-point victory over scandal-plagued William Jefferson on Saturday in Louisana's 2nd congressional district, the most Democratic district in the country. The…

Our long national nightmare is over: Word is out in tech circles that all of Fox broadcasting will be in HD starting in 2009. Which includes Fox News Channel. No longer will the visages of Brit Hume and Megyn Kelly be clouded in hideous low-definition. It's a great day for America.

The supreme nuance of Team Obama reared its quisling little head again today, at a press conference: Asked what contact he'd had with the governor's office about his replacement in the Senate, President-elect Obama today said "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I…

A local Chicago TV report suggests that the busting of Blagojevich came together so fast because the governor reached out to none other than Rahm Emanuel about working some angles on the Senate seat, and Emanuel blew the whistle on him. Update: Sen. Dick Durbin is suggesting the Illinois…

The complaint on Blagojevich involves but does not implicate members of the Obama transition, most notably Valerie Jarrett, a high-level Obama adviser to whom Blagojevich was interested in selling the Senate seat. Blagojevich was convinced that President-elect Barack Obama wanted senior adviser…

I don't know anyone who's completely happy with the proliferation of television ads for all manner of new drugs. I suspect we'd all be happy never to see "Bob, the Enzyte guy" again. But the general distaste over drug ads notwithstanding, Henry Waxman's cure seems likely to be worse than the…

The New Republic's John Judis is ticked off about Politico's reporting on Obama's absence from church: This is the kind of reporting one would expect from the Christian Broadcast Network, whose editors and reporters presumably view less than weekly religious observance as an offense against God,…

TEXT

Allahpundit has a great thread on the unfolding Blagojevich story. This video of a press conference yesterday is priceless:

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: Gov. Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested at their homes this morning in a probe involving the governor's quest to fill Sen. Barack Obama's Senate seat. The charges also include alleged attempts by the governor to influence the Tribune…

The Hill reports on the coming of Big Hollywood: After playing supporting roles to big names in media and politics, Andrew Breitbart is poised to become the protagonist in his own story. The publisher of the online news aggregator Breitbart.com helped launch and run two of today's most influential…

Susan Rice: "I can haz transition team at State, Hillary?" Hillary: "Grrrr." Hey, where's the transparency at Center for American Progress, since they're running Obama's transparent transition? Alaskan governor media's been bashing as a blatant spotlight-chaser since the election ended has been…

The Chicago Tribune leads with a stunner: Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been taken into custody by the Federal government: Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges. Blagojevich and Harris were accused of a…

The Thanksgiving-eve terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, were a startling reminder that Islamist terrorists remain a persistent threat to the West and its allies--and that extremist groups are constantly striving to exploit the deficiencies of police and intelligence services. But they should have…

George de Forest Brush (1855-1941) is far from being a household name, but his early paintings of Indians garnered him the attention, admiration, and purse of the 19th-century art world. Little of this work has been seen in public, however, since private collectors bought the paintings as soon as…

Over the past two days Pakistani security services have targeted offices and camps run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terror group behind the Mumbai terror siege. At least nine operatives, including Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, a senior Lashkar leader and one of the operational masterminds of the Mumbai attack,…

Via Patrick Appel, the Wright ad that never aired:

Mark Steyn skewers the politically correct responses to the Mumbai massacre. Jeremiah Wright says Obama is "still my child." Rich Lowry and Byron York talk to President Bush. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and friends are ready to confess to the 9/11 attacks. Mac Owens on General Shinseki. Nate Silver…

On Saturday, William "I don't regret setting bombs" Ayers took to the op-ed page of in the New York Times to inform the world that the Weather Underground wasn't a terrorist organization: The Weather Underground crossed lines of legality, of propriety and perhaps even of common sense. Our…

The U.S. military and NATO received a rude awakening this weekend after Taliban military units raided three separate terminals in Peshawar. More than 200 Humvees and trucks carrying supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan were destroyed in the attacks, which took place over the course of two days.…

We keep hearing that the grownups are back in charge, but not everybody is convinced. The Daily Beast, for example, gets its panties in a bunch at the "The Hillary Groping Incident And Other Signs We're Back in 1950." Apparently the pictures showing Obama's 27-year-old chief speechwriter Jon…

So Obama didn't make the cover of Newsweek today. Instead, a traditional-looking Bible with a rainbow ribbon bookmark did. The attendant story, penned by Lisa Miller, makes "the religious case for gay marriage" and is called "Our Mutual Joy." Here's the first graph: Let's try for a minute to take…

From yesterday's Meet the Press: MR. BROKAW: ... What are the circumstances under which you would open a dialogue with Iran? PRES.-ELECT OBAMA: Well, I've said before, I think we need to ratchet up tough but direct diplomacy with Iran, making very clear to them that their development of nuclear…

The logic is elegant: One Black lawmaker from the Motor City, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), weighed in following the presentations of options by the automakers that appeared to be filled with gloom and doom. Conyers wants the new administration to elevate United Auto Workers President Ron…

Via Ace, a heartwarming story of a soldier reunited with his daughter for Christmas:

Kristol: Conservatives should be careful how they argue against big-government liberalism. Bill Richardson joins the birth certificate debate? "Obama is an immigrant." Dennis Kucinich really wants in on the Team of Rivals: "I was as rivalish or more so than a lot of the so-called rivals he's…

The Genius

Amid the cold gusts of winter, Republicans will soon be ushered out of power after controlling Congress, the White House, or both for 14 years. Here's a further chilling thought: Since 1896, with only one exception, when a party has taken over the White House, it has held it for at least eight…

Manhattanville, New York

Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?

Holes are opening in the populated landscape. Outside the attic window where I write this is an abandoned house. A "For Sale" sign, hanging from a yardarm by the front walk, creaks eerily in the wind. It has a permanent look to it, like the soggy "War Is Not the Answer" placards that have lined our…

The Radical and the Republican

The Private Patient

The 100 Greatest Desserts of the South

Last week the excellent David Brooks, in one of his columns in the New York Times, exulted over the high quality of people President-elect Barack Obama was enlisting in his new cabinet and onto his staff. The chief evidence for these people being so impressive, it turns out, is they all went to…

The Summer the Archduke Died

Holy Smoke

This year marks the 75th anniversary of one of the most horrific chapters in the history of the Soviet Union: the great famine the Ukrainians call Holodomor, "murder by starvation." This catastrophe, which killed an estimated 6 to 10 million people in 1932-33, was largely the product of deliberate…

Sally Quinn, Spiritual Adviser

World of Faith and Freedom

Patty's Got a Gun

Arizona voters last month approved an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as "only a union of one man and one woman"--just two years after they rejected a similar though broader amendment, making Arizona the first state in the Union to reject a ballot initiative aimed at…

Barack Obama wants to give the economy a jolt. So far, though, the biggest jolt we've seen is the one the economy has given to Obama. That jolt, in the form of a plummeting stock market, upset Obama's desire for a leisurely transition. It made him virtually America's acting president.

The Model T Ford

The November 15 hijacking 450 miles east of Mombasa, Kenya, of a thousand-plus foot oil tanker carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil forced international recognition that the seas have been dramatically added to the world's list of outlaw space. According to the International Maritime…

The Mighty Wurlitzer

Mrs. Astor Regrets

"Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go" cheerfully sing Snow White's diminutive friends as they head out for a day of toil. And they're 71 years old. So why do so many of us less vertically disadvantaged worry about the talk of extending by a few years beyond age 62 or 65 or 67 the date on which we…

Hafiz Saeed, the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader who is wanted by the Indian government for his involvement in last week's Mumbai terror assault, has given an interview. Saeed, the founder of Lashkar, denied involvement with the group, claiming he relinquished his leadership after the Pakistani government…

The hand recount of the Coleman-Franken Senate race concluded yesterday, but the winner may not be declared for quite some time. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Coleman is leading Franken by 192 votes, but roughly 6,000 ballots that have been challenged by the campaigns remain to be…

David Freddoso writes that Rep. William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson just might lose tomorrow's election in Louisiana. Ken Blackwell jumps in the race to be the next RNC chairman. Jamie Kirchick v. Sean Penn Mexico considers bringing back the death penalty. The Supreme Court will hear another enemy…

Are you having a hard time finding the perfect gift for that special someone who supports abortion and child abuse? Have no fear. Planned Parenthood's holiday gift cards are just what you're looking for: Planned Parenthood of Indiana has suspended a nurse after the release of an undercover…

ABC News reports that congressional Democrats are giving President Bush an "ultimatum": extend billions in taxpayer-funded loans to Detroit, or else: "Your decision to utilize the TARP funds, or to work with the Federal Reserve to make available assistance through its existing lending programs, or…

Rasmussen released a poll yesterday gauging a head-to-head match-up between Republican incumbent Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter and Democrat Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball. The survey of 500 registered voters in the state shows Specter leading by a slim 46 percent to 43 percent…

Where is the Obama campaign's renowned hypocrisy when we need it? Austan Goolsbee himself assured us (via a meeting with Canadian officials) that Obama's NAFTA bashing was just political posturing, not indicative of policy. But now he's reportedly offering the job of U.S. Trade Representative to a…

After taking on a more active political role during the election, ABC's sources say David Paterson may be considering Caroline Kennedy, and she may be considering the offer: A Democrat who would know tells ABC News that New York governor David Paterson has talked to Caroline Kennedy about taking…

Chicago Bears fans are shoveling snow at Lambeau Field for money. That's a bad sign. (H/T Cheesehead.tv)

Christopher Beam tries to answer the question: Since the election, conservatives have consoled themselves with the idea that Obama may have won, but America is still a "center-right nation." But the phrase is tossed around with little evidence-possibly because there is none. Even if there were…

For the past year, we've been inundated with news of radical Iraqi cleric Muqtada al Sadr's power and influence. Last year, the American Spectator's George H. Wittman asked if Sadr was a kingmaker or a king. This spring, just days after the fighting in Basrah began, Time magazine's Charles Crain…

MKH links this story about a picture that recently popped up of Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau groping a cardboard cutout of our former first lady and future secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Asked to comment, the Obama transition team said that Favreau had "reached out to Senator Clinton to…

The political windfall of inactivity is not nearly so large when you're supposed to be leading something more substantial than a rally. Obama's incoming director of speechwriting caught groping a cardboard cut-out of Hillary at a keg party. Gotta love Facebook. Charles Rangel paid more for his…

Tuesday night, when it became clear Saxby Chambliss would emerge from his run-off with Democrat Jim Martin the overwhelming winner, RNC Chairman Mike Duncan took the stage to introduce him. The normally quiet Kentuckian slipped on his reading glasses before giving a rousing speech about Republican…

... about Iraqi approval of a Status of Forces Agreement with the United States (Krauthammer). ... about Obama's worrying flirtation with the teachers' unions (Brooks). ... about the next president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank (the Wall Street Journal editorial page).

I'm sure you've noticed that the economic news is not exactly designed to start you off to work in a good mood. Unless, of course, the fact that you have work to go to is cheer enough. On the international scene, Islamic terrorists slaughter innocent people in Mumbai, targeting especially Americans…

Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi examine the "global force behind Mumbai's agony." Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison takes initial steps to run for governor in 2010. George Will ponders Obama's absurd pledge to "save or create 2.5 million jobs." David Kopel wants to free Plaxico Burress. Israel…

Word on the street is Obama will head to an Arab capital for a major speech in his first 100 days. I doubt anyone in the United States will care much one way or the other, preoccupied as we are by our own economic problems, but that's not to say such a speech couldn't have a real effect in the Arab…

As of last night, with 98 percent of votes recounted, the Franken campaign's internal numbers showed Franken leading Norm Coleman by 10 votes. But Franken is ahead by 10 votes only if you assume (1) the Franken campaign's internal numbers--which Coleman's people dispute--are accurate and (2) that…

It's subscriber-only, but Edward Luttwak's critique of the American declinists is worth your time. Cliff's Notes version: The future of both the United States and Europe will be shaped by their true strengths - private innovation on one side of the Atlantic, local and regional authenticity on the…

Hey, if you're not a rival he needs to neutralize, life can be tough: The Massachusetts senator helped to launch Obama on the national stage. As his party's presidential nominee, Kerry chose Obama as the keynote speaker for the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Ever since then, Kerry did…

Saxby Chambliss' flattening of Jim Martin, 57-43, Tuesday night in Georgia ensured the Democrats cannot get to a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate, but what else did it do? It changed the cost-benefit analysis for Democratic senators on jumping into the fray for Al Franken, whose close battle…

The next chairman, or any chairman, of the Republican National Committee must possess three skills: management ability, fundraising prowess, and press savvy. Given the current disarray of the party, it would seem obvious that management ability would be the most important of these three qualities.…

You got the feeling at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver that if Barack Obama were to win the White House, his party's first domestic policy priority would be universal health insurance. The financial crisis has changed that somewhat; now universal health care is Obama's number two…

Marc Ambinder ran a post yesterday titled "Discourse Watch: Obama's Citizenship A Legit Topic?" Ambinder's question was prompted by a Townhall newsletter which featured a paid ad by a group that aims to prove, in court, that Barack Obama is not an American citizen, and is therefore ineligible to…

The great Ken Levine reveals a long-kept secret: This is very hard so I hope you'll allow me a stumble or two. I've never actually admitted this in public. Deep breath. Okay. Here I go. I can't see 3-D. It doesn't work on me. Jesus, it's terrifying seeing that in print. My astigmatisms combined…

Classy Ed Rendell: "Hey, Janet Napolitano is perfect for that job because she has no life or family." The RNC race: A look at six serious contenders. UAW may briefly cease squeezing auto companies for billions to allow said auto companies to strangle the taxpayers for billions. Greatest NYT…

USA Today reports: U.S. combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan last month dropped to the lowest combined level since the United States began fighting the two wars more than five years ago. Eleven American servicemembers died in combat in the conflicts in November. Seven others died in non-hostile…

This morning I mentioned the difficulty Pakistan would have in turning over senior leaders from the Lashkar-e-Taiba, as the group has essentially become a state within the Pakistani state. Today, India expert Shlok Vaidya said Pakistan has the same problem dealing Dawood Ibrahim, the South Asian…

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that chances of a nuclear or biological attack on a major city are now "better than even" according to a bipartisan congressional study. How will we avoid this catastrophe? The United States should push for a global consensus banning states such as Iran and…

With 93 percent of votes recounted, the Minneapolis Star Tribune showed Norm Coleman ahead by 303 votes, but at a press conference today, the Franken campaign claimed that their candidate leads Coleman by 22 votes. Why the different numbers? The Franken campaign claims their figure is based on the…

Jeb! to the Senate? GM wants an $18 billion bailout; Republican senator Bob Bennett says the bailout probably won't happen. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen hangs up on Barack Obama (and Rahm Emanuel). D.C. bars will stay open until 5 a.m. during Inauguration week. Chicago will only plow snow off…

Michael Scherer flags this quote from Dianne Feinstein in today's Times: Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who will take over as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in January, led the fight this year to force the C.I.A. to follow military interrogation rules. Her bill was…

Robert Kagan offers an interesting potential solution to Pakistan's problem of Islamist extremist groups threatening the viability of the state: "Have the international community declare that parts of Pakistan have become ungovernable and a menace to international security. Establish an…

Not happy with the shape of the US Air Force? Propose your own! The Dew Line reports: Pierre Sprey -- father of the A-10, co-father of the F-16 and ardent F-22/F-35 critic -- has teamed up with ex-Vietnam fighter jock Col Robert Dilger to propose a fascinating vision for an "effectiveness-based"…

narciso.jpg Obama in Narciso Rodriguez on Nov. 4

From CNN: A new national poll suggests that six in 10 Americans oppose using taxpayer money to help the ailing major U.S. auto companies. Sixty-one percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday are dead set against the federal government providing billions of…

From Holman Jenkins in today's Wall Street Journal: Maybe Washington will succeed in forestalling a deep and prolonged recession. Maybe all the money ($8 trillion by one count) being printed to acquire or insure mortgages, student loans, credit card receivables, commercial paper and banking shares…

The Indian government issued a diplomatic protest to Pakistan yesterday, requesting that Pakistan turn over about 20 senior terrorists in response to last week's attacks in Mumbai. At the top the list are Laskhar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Maulana Masood Azhar, and mafia…

With 97 percent of Georgia precincts reporting Senator Saxby Chambliss has won reelection, taking 57.4 percent of the vote; Democrat Jim Martin has garnered 42.6 percent. On November 4, Chambliss edged out Martin by a mere 3 points, so it's clear that Obama's coattails significantly helped Martin.…

On election day 2008, voters decided the vast majority of races for the House and Senate, but sent three separate races to runoffs. Barack Obama endorsed Jim Martin over Saxby Chambliss in the Georgia Senate runoff, in which Chambliss prevailed. Now Obama has weighed in to help Democratic…

Military.com has the full account of an absolutely incredible engagement between a platoon of 2/7 Marines and over 250 Taliban. Spoiler alert: the Marines whup Tali-tail.

So far, so good. According to the USA Today / Gallup poll, more than three quarters of the country express approval for Obama's conduct during the presidential transition. Sixty-nine percent approve of his selection of Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State. More - 80 percent - support his…

Thomas Friedman spends the first half of his column today expressing his heartfelt wish that ordinary Pakistanis will take to the streets in solidarity with the victims of the Mumbai Massacre. And he asks a fair question: "When Pakistanis and other Muslims are willing to take to the streets, even…

Mario Cuomo, one of America's most entertaining political figures, has refused to sit for his official portrait ever since leaving his post as New York governor in 1995. ""I went to electric razors so I would not have to look at myself in the morning," Cuomo tells the Times. Fair enough. Lucky for…

It turns out that - I am not making this up - Dave Barry has a blog. Which he updates frequently! Here's Dave on his worst Christmas tree memory. Enjoy.

Sunday's attack against the cruise ship, Nautica, owned by the American company, Oceania Cruises, took place as the luxury vessel sailed between Somalia and Yemen enroute Oman from Egypt. According to press reports, the attack occurred during daylight--which would have aided the ship's crew in…

Pristina, Kosovo

Ramesh Ponnuru writes that social conservatism isn't what ails the GOP. Charlie Gibson interviews President Bush. The number of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq in November was a wartime low. There's more evidence that Lashkar-e-Taiba was involved in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai. Bill Clinton will not…

The AP reports: In 2008, as the stock market cratered and the housing market collapsed, more young members of the Army, Air Force and Navy decided to re-up. While several factors might explain the rise in re-enlistments, including a decline in violence in Iraq, Pentagon officials acknowledge that…

What are these people going to do for a muse when their "terrorist-in-chief" is gone? Even their protest art, fueled by such all-consuming righteous indignation, has proven banal and predictable at every turn, fraught with hackneyed Hitler imagery and the occasional bodily fluid. How very 1990s.…

The classic Drudge headline: MEET THE DEPRESSED; GREGORY NAMED HOST OF FADING FORMAT... DEVELOPING... Ben Smith says it's a "safe choice." Sure, but the right won't respect Gregory they way they respected Russert, and this will do nothing to repair the damage Olberman, Shuster, and company have…

Eli Lake, the world's only known performer of freestyle neoconservative rap, debates the Nation's Christopher Hayes in an entertaining episode of Bloggingheads TV.

The New York Times reports on Obama's designate for Attorney General: Mr. Holder's supporters portray him as having been a relatively uninvolved bystander caught in a Clinton-era controversy, the remarkable granting of a last-minute pardon by President Bill Clinton to a fugitive from justice. But…

Florida senator Mel Martinez announced at a press conference in Orlando today that he will not run for reelection in 2010. Though some preliminary polls showed that Martinez might have had a difficult reelection, the GOP will probably have a more difficult time holding on to an open seat.…

Could John McCain lose in 2010? FDR vs. Fannie and Freddie? David Gregory gets "Meet the Press." Yesterday, the world talked only about the Clintons and their drama. Change! Chris Wallace stands up in defense of Bush at a screening of "Frost/Nixon," whose director Ron Howard compares Nixon's crimes…

Although it is no surprise conservatives are unhappy with Eric Holder's nomination for attorney general, one interesting dissent comes today from within the ranks. It seems that Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen is still up in arms about the pardon of Marc Rich: Soon after Bill Clinton…

TEXT

ABC reports: In Philadelphia for a National Governors Association meeting Tuesday to address the nation's floundering financial world, now Vice President-elect Biden and Gov. Palin came together once again. "I want to thank all of you for being here," Biden told the assembled governors. "And…

In 2002, Lisa Murkowski was appointed to the Senate by her father, Frank Murkowski. Alaskan voters were so taken aback by this blatant self-dealing that the legislature passed a law preventing the governor from making a long-term appointment to the U.S. Senate. In 2006, Sarah Palin walloped Frank…

The lead story in today's New York Times is headlined, "Recession Began Last December, Economists Say." The story reports that yesterday the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the U.S. economy has been in recession since December 2007. Then you get to the second paragraph (emphasis…

Georgia is in the news today. In the U.S. state of Georgia, a runoff election will determine the victor in the race between GOP senator Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin. Chambliss has a slight edge in the polls heading into runoff day. If the Democrats win, they will hold 59…

Robert Kagan on sovereignty in the age of terror: Rather than simply begging the Indians to show restraint, a better option could be to internationalize the response [to the Bombay attacks]. Have the international community declare that parts of Pakistan have become ungovernable and a menace to…

Former Georgia Gov. and Sen. Zell Miller switch hits once again as a surrogate for a Republican ticket, touting Saxby Chambliss at a rally today. A couple special, Zellian highlights: "I don't like this spreading the wealth thing-to steal money from Peter to give to Paul, even if it gets Paul to…

Beyond the possibility of a war breaking out between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai terror siege, how might this event impact the security situation in South Asia? The short answer is the security situation in Pakistan's northwest could spiral out of control, impacting NATO's ability to…

Sen. Saxby Chambliss opens up a 7 point lead over Democrat Jim Martin on the eve of Georgia's runoff election. Peter Beinart writes: "It's precisely because Obama intends to pursue a genuinely progressive foreign policy that he's surrounding himself with people who can guard his right flank at…

India's foreign minister called the Pakistani ambassador to the foreign ministry to deliver the Indian government's demands in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack. "He was informed that the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai was carried out by elements from Pakistan," Reuters reported, based on a…

For at least 10,000 of the more than two million Iraqi refugees currently stranded in neighboring countries such Syria and Jordan, last Thursday will probably be forever remembered as a special day of Thanksgiving. That day, the EU interior ministers meeting in Brussels agreed to admit up to 10,000…

The Star reports on the plans of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to present parliament with a new stimulus package to address the problems of Canada's Big 3: Flaherty stressed that the government has tried to stave off an economic slowdown by using lower taxes - he brought in a six-year, $60…

Washington Post: "Survey Finds Growing Deceit Among Teens."

Only one terrorist was taken alive after the attacks in Mumbai, but he's singing like a bird: The Pakistani connection would have been almost impossible to prove if not for the lucky break -- the capture of Mr. Kasab alive, at a roadblock on Mumbai's Chowpatty beach after a long shooting spree…

The National Bureau of Economic Research announced today that the economy has been in recession since December 2007.

spray and pray.jpg

The New York Times profiles Susan Rice today under the headline "Choice for U.N. Backs Strong Action Against Mass Killings." The Times heaps praise on Obama's choice to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, saying that the selection of Rice "will also send to the world organization a prominent…

It's time to play Spot the Policy! The game is simple. First, read Fareed Zakaria's Newsweek cover story this week (guess who's on the cover?). Next, be impressed by sentences like "[Obama] must have his administration build a broader framework through which to view the world and America's…

A recent Pew Research report reinforces other polling on American political ideology, but it also reveals some interesting twists in public opinion. First, as the 2008 exit polls demonstrated, Republicans' problems this year had more to do with fewer voters self-identifying with the GOP than a…

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The ABC investigative team reports on President Bush's blatant hypocrisy in pardoning a turkey before eating a turkey. The White House spokesperson's comment is sufficient: "You should try your hand at open mic night at the Laugh Factory," said Stanzel.

hillandb.jpg Barack and Hillary, together again. The new New Deal gets whacked again. The market's death by success. Hugo Chavez has already lost one referendum for "president-for-life" reforms in Venezuela. Last week, he lost major ground to the opposition. Next step? Call for another…

Elizabeth Economy writes in today's Washington Post that China should wait before "extend[ing] itself globally." Good advice! Here's Economy: Above all, China's leaders need to sort out where they are going politically. It is hard to lead globally when your domestic political system is in massive…

Robert J. Samuelson on the many economic challenges facing Obama: The temptation will be to press ahead with a 'bold' legislative agenda - to ape the New Deal. This would be a mistake. The psychology of bruising legislative battles will not bolster confidence. The country does need to face its…

In his column today, Paul Krugman notes that trying to budget-balance in the middle of a "liquidity trap" is a bad idea. He gives two examples (emphasis mine): The first took place in 1937, when Franklin Roosevelt mistakenly heeded the advice of his own era's deficit worriers. He sharply reduced…

As the transition progresses and Barack Obama's inauguration draws closer, it's a good moment to mull the gifts George W. Bush has left for the incoming president. Bush has made the world a better place, and if Obama wants to do the same, he will take the good things Bush has done and move forward…

Hello? Bailout people? Mr. Secretary of the Treasury Paulson? Aren't you forgetting somebody? Like me? I'm a print journalist. Talk about financial meltdown! Print journalists may soon have to send their kids to public schools, feed dry food to their cats, and give up their leases on Prius…

The U.S. government's efforts at containing the financial crisis have to date been aimed at shoring up institutions and households that are in trouble. Several hundred billion dollars have been injected into troubled financial institutions, with more on the way, and a whole array of negotiated…

On Sunday, November 16, CBS News's 60 Minutes broadcast the first interview with President-elect Barack Obama. The exchange touched on a wide range of topics, from Obama's distaste for college football's computerized selection of a national champion to his plans for changing course in economic and…

Every year just before Thanksgiving, the Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington holds an "oyster riot"--an event featuring a live band, copious amounts of wine, and a limitless supply of oysters (at last year's riot, 50,000 oysters were devoured in two days). Customers pay $115 a head and many dress up for…

Religion in American Politics

I wouldn't recommend John Milton's sacred epics, or even his short poems, to a newcomer to the English language.

Night Wraps the Sky

At the Massachusetts Historical Society's library, an American classic lies open before me: Henry Adams's The Education of Henry Adams, privately printed in 1907. A century ago Adams sent copies of this text to his close friends for comment. This edition belonged to Henry Adams. In the margins,…

Puff, Puff, Puff

Set out a giant honey pot, and the bears will come. And the more bearish they are about their prospects, the faster they will come and the louder they will grunt. The Bush administration presides over a giant honey pot, containing some $350 billion. And a smaller one, with a mere $25 billion…

Art and China's Revolution

For a while, movie theaters were getting better. After decades in which the grand palaces were either allowed to run down into rot or torn down entirely, while new venues were slapped together in strip malls and configured in odd and distressing shapes, companies like Cineplex Odeon and National…

The Islamic Center in Washington, D.C., is among the most prominent and opulent Muslim prayer houses in America. It displays the national flags of Muslim countries out front and makes obvious to thousands of passing motorists that the faith of Muhammad has a place in America.

We're beginning to get a sense of what the next four years will look like. It won't be a conservative era, that's for sure. Nor will it, despite appearances to the contrary, be a reprise of the Clinton era. Bill Clinton's version of economic liberalism meant slightly higher tax rates on income and…

St. Paul, Minn.