February 2009

Have you recently discovered that your teenage son is an aspiring jihadi? That all those hours he was spending holed up in his room scouring the Internet he was not looking at porn sites, as you thought, but communing with other martyrs-in-waiting just like him? Not to worry, help may be only a few…

After last year's reported talks with the Taliban met a dead end and were mocked by Mullah Omar, more negotiations are underway. Al Jazeera reports "secret" talks between Hezb-i-Islami leader Gulbaldin Hekmatyar and the Western and Afghan officials are underway. The talks, between Taliban-linked…

Christian Brose evaluates Barack Obama's Iraq speech and points to a missed opportunity that struck me as I watched it. Obama only got to give the address he did because he was wrong about the surge. And George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain and others were right. At the risk of heading into…

First Read factchecks Obama's Iraq speech. CNN: "half of all Americans think the United States is winning the war in Iraq, the highest percentage since that question was first asked in a CNN poll in 2004." Sonny Bunch on why Hollywood and the left love JFK assassination conspiracy theories. Matt…

"Hey big spender, spend a little time with me." It is not certain that Cy Coleman's and Dorothy Fields' lyrics from "Sweet Charity" were used by Barack Obama when he invited British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to visit him next week, but it is possible. After all, both men believe that the way out…

As is always the case, Newt Gingrich delivered a speech that did not bore on Friday at CPAC. Entering the hall to a mob of college students, "Eye of the Tiger," blaring in the background, he was perhaps inspired by the pugilistic soundtrack. He opened his speech with a challenge for Attorney…

The Washington Post reported on Saturday: Restrictive U.S. policies toward Cuba are ineffective, have failed to achieve their stated purpose of promoting democracy and should be reevaluated to take advantage of recent political changes on the island, according to the senior Republican on the Senate…

Here's the last part of today's speech by Obama: Finally, I want to be very clear that my strategy for ending the war in Iraq does not end with military plans or diplomatic agendas ­ it endures through our commitment to uphold our sacred trust with every man and woman who has served in Iraq. You…

Yesterday Susan Rice got into a bit of a catfight with the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations. Rice came out and declared that the United States would "seek an end to Iran's ambition to acquire an illicit nuclear capacity and its support for terrorism." The Iranian ambassador, Mohammad…

It's an oldie, and there's no link, but this passage from Irving Kristol's "The Shaking of the Foundations," published in his On the Democratic Idea in America (1972), leaped out at me today: It is less comforting but more realistic to reflect that we don't live in the world; we live in a…

Eli Lake does some more work on the Chas Freeman story in today's Washington Times: Since 1997, Mr. Freeman has been president of the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC), a Washington think tank. In 2007, he accepted a $1 million donation from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud that,…

President Obama delivered his Iraq withdrawal address at Camp Lejuene today: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

As Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar push a 10 year, $15 billion non-military aid package for Pakistan as well as a one-time aid package estimated between $4 and $5 billion, Senator Carl Levin has questioned the wisdom of such a move. The Press Trust of India reports: An influential US Senator…

In a highly symbolic gesture, Berlin has offered to grant German citizenship to the children fathered by Wehrmacht soldiers during the 1940-1944 occupation of France. Estimates indicate that about 200,000 babies were born as a result of such romantic Franco-German liaisons in WW II. After the war,…

The LA Times reports on the plans for an investigation by Senate Democrats into the CIA under the Bush administration. Does anyone doubt that this will be a total sham? It will allow the Senate Democrats to "investigate" the evidence they want to look at without considering the national security…

19 Georgia lawmakers preparing resumes for Obama Cabinet positions by getting behind on taxes. Tancredo obliges Think Progress by assessing the Bobby Jindal speech in his characteristically sober way. Obama's audaciously hopeful budget predictions vs. private prognosticators. Somewhere, Ayn Rand is…

Some interesting testimony by William Happer, Professor of Physics at Princeton University: I believe that the increase of CO2 is not a cause for alarm and will be good for mankind. I predict that future historians will look back on this period much as we now view the period just before the passage…

Peter Baker reports: Republicans emerged from a White House meeting more supportive than several key Democrats, who complained earlier in the day that the president was still leaving behind too many American forces. Mr. McCain said during the private meeting that he thought the withdrawal plan was…

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will address CPAC shortly. TWS has gotten an early look at what he will say regarding Gitmo: Conservatives also believe that the government has no more solemn duty than to protect the people who established it. And on this last point, let's be very clear about…

Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor cum candidate cum Fox News host, spoke on the first day of CPAC, using his considerable communication skills to bring the audience through a 30-minute vision of the revitalization of the Republican Party, on everything from nuclear energy to health care. And,…

Senate passes an unconstitutional bill to give the District of Columbia representation in Congress. Congressman Keith Ellison attacks Jon Kyl's decision to invite Geert Wilders to screen Fitna at the Capitol. Patrick Ruffini on the Joe-the-Plumberization of the GOP. Dawn Johnsen, Obama's nominee to…

One of the most strident defenses of Chas Freeeman came from Robert Dreyfuss, writing at the Nation. A friend now forwards us a snap of the back cover of Dreyfuss's book, Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, which features...a blurb from Chas Freeman. Other…

The Hill's Mike Soraghan writes: Attorney General Eric Holder raised the prospect Wednesday that the administration would push to bring back the ban. But Pelosi (D-Calif.) indicated on Thursday that he never talked to her. The Speaker gave a flat "no" when asked if she had talked to administration…

Roll Call's Emily Pierce writes that senior Democrats are expressing skepticism about Obama's reported plan to leave a residual force of 50,000 troops in Iraq: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the number is "a little higher than I expected." But he said he was heading to the White…

The notification to Congress: The Director of National Intelligence has selected Charles W. Freeman, Jr. as the Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC). The Chairman of the NIC will report to the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis (DDNYA) and the Director of National…

Jeffrey Goldberg noted this exchange at State yesterday: QUESTION: Can you give us - well, what is the State Department's definition geographically of Southwest Asia? What countries does that include? MR. WOOD: Matt, I didn't -- QUESTION: No, you guys named an envoy for Southwest Asia. I presume…

Contradicting Obama's language on the trail and his press secretary's comments in the briefing room, there's a $7.7 million earmark in the $410 billion spending bill with Barry's name on it: President Obama, who took a no-earmark pledge on the campaign trail, is listed as one of dozens of…

AG Eric Holder told reporters yesterday that the Obama administration intends to enact an "assault weapons" ban. In 1994 the House passed such a ban, which outlawed any semi-automatic rifle with a combination of two features such as a scope and a pistol grip, by a 216 to 214 vote. The ban expired…

Nancy Pelosi appeared on MSNBC last night and discussed Obama's much-hyped withdrawal strategy: MADDOW: Doesn't 50,000 seem like an awful lot for a residual force. PELOSI: I completely agree with that. And the president hasn't made a statement, so I don't know what he's going to say. I know what…

Nicole Gelinas has a smart piece over at City Journal on Bobby Jindal's missed an opportunity to make the case for limited government Tuesday night: In the Republican response to President Obama's speech last night, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal could have used his state's searing Hurricane…

Canoes and tattoo removal: Your tax dollars at work. It was "savings" two days ago. Now, it's "deficit reduction." Will the new White House rely too heavily on Obama's ability to give a grand-slam speech? Top 5 best conservative movie moments. Good news: You'll be paying for the affluent Bay Area's…

Notwithstanding the president's righteous campaign talk about how committed he is to the separation of church and state, White House aides are now in the business of vetting prayers said before Obama rallies by individuals whom they've asked to do the praying. Read this remarkable story by the…

Even before Wall Street imploded and the U.S. economy sunk deeper into a nasty recession, Americans were souring on free trade. In recent months, the backlash against globalization has been exacerbated by rising unemployment and a sense of economic crisis. During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama…

CONGRESSIONAL SPECIAL ELECTIONS don't normally generate much national buzz. But the race to fill the House seat previously held by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand might be an exception. The election in the state's 20th Congressional District--now scheduled for March 31--pits New York Assembly…

The House passes the $410 billion Omnibus spending bill on a mostly party-line vote. Obama plans tax increases and spending cuts to build up a $634 billion government health care fund. Chris Matthews says that the GOP "outsourced" its speech last night to Bobby Jindal. What is it with Democrats and…

It is the overwhelming consensus that Bobby Jindal's delivery of the response to the President's address last night was not good. It is truly too bad that Jindal didn't shine last night, but it was not his last chance to do so. There seems to be a panicky vibe to the panning of Jindal's speech,…

AG Eric Holder: "I did not witness any mistreatment of prisoners. I think, to the contrary, what I saw was a very conscious attempt by these guards to conduct themselves in an appropriate way....It does not in any way decrease our determination to close the facility, even though as I said it is…

President Obama announced the appointment of former Washington Gov. Gary Locke to head up the Commerce Department, but Politico's Kenneth P. Vogel reports that Locke's work for some corporations may cause another "hiccup" for the smoothest transition evah: Locke, a partner in an international law…

Did Helen Thomas crack a "Slumdog Millionaire" joke about Bobby Jindal this morning? She said it to a film crew, so I look forward to the video. According to Washington Times reporter Christina Bellantoni, she did. Don't worry. It's not racist or even insensitive. Jindal's a Republican, which makes…

Sadly, last week's great snack-bar takeover at NYU came to an end after only three days. The courageous (if minuscule) group of students who occupied the food court in NYU's Kimmel Center really spoke truth to power, demanding, among other things: "The establishment of a student elected Socially…

That's the boss's message to conservatives in a column for the Washington Post: Obama's speech reminds of Ronald Reagan's in 1981 in its intention to reshape the American political landscape. But of course Obama wishes to undo the Reagan agenda. "For decades," he claimed, we haven't addressed the…

Senator McCain is just now delivering a speech at AEI on the war in Afghanistan. Some highlights: "Success is possible in Afghanistan. Afghans reject the Taliban. Just 4 percent of Afghans wish them to rule the country, and they rate the Taliban as by far the most dangerous threat to their nation.…

bredesen.jpg Gov. Phil Bredesen talks with reporters Wednesday in the Capitol in Nashville, Tenn. AP Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D-Tenn.) is joining Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) and Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) in the small chorus of politicians who are openly wary about taking all of the federal…

Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan famously told the Washington Post that "If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office." The Saudis have few better friends than Chas…

Some back-of-the-envelop math on Barack Obama's speech last night. Although he acknowledged that we are "a nation at war," in a speech of 6182 words the president used just 468 of them to talk about national security - the military and diplomacy, together - approximately 7 percent. Of course the…

Gallup has evaluated first-month job approval for U.S. presidents going back to Richard Nixon. A few points deserve note. First, Obama's 63 percent approval level is about the same as the average of all presidents (62 percent) going back to 1968 during their first month in office. Barack Obama's…

Pakistan continues to complain about the U.S. Predator campaign against al Qaeda and Taliban leaders and operatives in Pakistan's tribal areas, even after it has been disclosed that bases inside Pakistan are being used to conduct the strikes. Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency told the…

A statement from U.S. Congressman John M. McHugh (R-NY), ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, on Obama's reported decision to withdraw all U.S. combat forces by August 2010: "Having just returned from my 10th trip to Iraq, I heard nothing from our military and civilian leaders that…

Consensus: Jindal speech great on paper, delivery not so great. The AP fact-checks Obama. Did America invent solar technology and the automobile? The scariest image of the night? Looking forward to seeing the $2 trillion in waste Obama's rooting out. In other words, Secretary Clinton is now asking…

Kristol weighs in at the Washington Post: You'd never know from the one-sentence discussion of Afghanistan that just last week the president had ordered an additional 17,000 troops there. Obama doesn't seem to think his responsibility as commander in chief is in any way special. He certainly felt…

This may come back to haunt him: But let me perfectly clear, because I know you'll hear the same old claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I…

In the rare moments that public intellectuals have not been extolling President Obama's supposed new philosophy of pragmatism, they have turned their efforts to writing requiems for conservatism. These contributions offer variations on the same theme. The conservative movement is dead or dying, the…

Listen closely as Jindal approaches the mic and Matthews lets out an exasperated "oh God" before he even opens his mouth.

Officials say Obama will withdraw all combat troops by August 2010 and leave a force of 30,000 to 50,000 troops to train the Iraqis. Reagan 1, Wieseltier 0. Tom Daschle must be weeping again: Hilda Solis, another cabinet appointee with tax problems, is confirmed as Labor secretary. William Shatner…

Ralph Peters has an op-ed in the USA Today questioning U.S. interests and U.S. policy in Afghanistan. At Commentary's website last week, Max Boot addressed the arguments advanced by Peters and others on the right who are skeptical of our policies in Afghanistan.

If you add up the stimulus bill, Obama's proposed foreclosure fix, and the omnibus spending bill House Democrats are preparing, the administration is kicking off its tenure by spending a whopping $1.4 trillion. There's money for green golf carts. There's money for ACORN. There's money for…

Jake Tapper: "President Obama has accomplished more in 30 days than any president in modern history," a senior White House official said this morning in a background briefing for TV reporters. Of course, no president in modern history had the help of "the most experienced vice president since…

From Gov. Bobby Jindal's prepared response to Obama's not-quite SOTU tonight: As I grew up, my mom and dad taught me the values that attracted them to this country - and they instilled in me an immigrant's wonder at the greatness of America. As a child, I remember going to the grocery store with my…

Last week a Rasmussen poll showed that only 38 percent of Americans support Obama's mortgage plan, but a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that 64 percent of Americans somewhat or strongly support Obama's plan. Why the wildly different results? How the poll questions were phrased might…

Jennifer Loven can tell the future. Maybe Obama should put her on his economic team. See Instapundit for a brief history of similar "laphamizations."

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) met with rogue Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) this morning for about 45 minutes, but was rebuffed by Bold Blago's protege when he asked him to resign: "I told him under the circumstances that I would consider resigning," Durbin told reporters. "He said he would not resign."…

Like Tom Daschle, Charlie Rangel, Timothy Geithner, et. al. Here.

The Progressive Policy Institute is holding a forum this week titled "New Threats and Tough Choices: A Discussion on Obama's First Defense Budget." The keynote speaker will be Rep. John Spratt (D-SC), chairman of the House Budget Committee and member of the House Armed Services Committee. According…

The Star-Tribune reports: FBI Director Robert Mueller said Monday in Washington, D.C., that a Somali-American man from Minnesota who was one of several suicide bombers in a terrorist attack in Somalia had apparently been indoctrinated into his extremist beliefs while living in Minneapolis. I just…

It's rather fitting that even when it comes to selling the "sniper's perch" where Lee Harvey Oswald fired his rifle at President Kennedy, there is confusion over who owns the real perch. Parris Mayhew says he possesses the actual window, removed by his father in 1971 when he owned the Texas…

The Florida state cosmetology authorities launched a preemptive strike on an imminent threat to the well-being of its citizens this week, outlawing the trendy "fish pedicure" despite the fact that it has yet to be offered anywhere in the state. The procedure, popularized in Asia and introduced to…

We already noted his egregious remarks on Tiananmen Square here, and there's more. Freeman on Israel: "American identification with Israeli policy has also become total. Those in the region and beyond it who detest Israeli behavior, which is to say almost everyone, now naturally extend their…

As one of the conditions to ending the fighting in Swat, Taliban chieftain Mullah Fazlullah has demanded the government pay reparations to the Taliban. And the guy who is footing the bill? The U.S. taxpayer, according to Pakistani reporter and Taliban expert Syed Saleem Shahzad. At least $6 million…

First Read: Attorney General Eric Holder is the cabinet member who will not attend tonight's presidential speech. By custom, one member of the cabinet is designated to go to -- as we say these days -- "a secure location," in case that person is needed to carry on as head of the government. Since…

Chas Freeman, who has reportedly been offered and accepted a job as chairman of the National Intelligence Council, offered his take on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 on a listserv in 2006. Here is the full text of his email to that group: From: CWFHome@cs.com [mailto:CWFHome@cs.com] Sent:…

Joe Klein apparently understands the Russians better than they understand themselves, and certainly better than anyone else in the press corps. In his latest dispatch for Time, the self-styled bane of neoconservatives untangles the latest Jewish deception in foreign affairs: Today Jackson Diehl…

Whatever that means...it's part of the pitch for "Aspire: A Plan for Princeton." The Aspire campaign has three principal goals: to encourage all Princetonians to engage more fully in the life of our remarkable University and to help shape its future; to expand our capacities in such critical areas…

liebermans.jpg U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman meets Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman in Jerusalem last week. Lefty bloggers--go wild! Via Ben Smith.

Confidence in War on Terror has dropped dramatically in last two weeks. The greasy taste of reform: $410-billion omnibus spending bill contains 9,000 pork projects. Obama ready to give $900 million for shovel-ready projects in Gaza. Yeah, about the polar ice caps melting... McCain confronts Obama…

Yesterday's New York Times blockbuster article on the secretive U.S. military trainers in Pakistan isn't quite the secret it was made out to be. Here's what the Times reported: More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed…

Andy McCarthy has a long post at the Corner suggesting that the Obama administration's decision to send $900 million to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency) in Gaza is, in effect, giving the money to Hamas. It's worth remembering Barack Obama's words from last April, when Jimmy Carter…

Kiev

Military families cut an ad protesting Obama's decision to release Gitmo detainee Binyam Mohamed. Democrats longing to make the GOP conduct an old-fashioned phonebook-reading filibuster will be disappointed. Geert Wilders wants a First Amendment for Europe. The cramdown cometh. Sean Penn is "very…

If President Obama is to sell his mortgage bailout plan to the public, an important argument will be his claim that preventing foreclosures actually helps all homeowners by preventing housing prices from dropping: "This plan will not save every home, but it will give millions of families resigned…

The Washington Post story (linked below) declares that Guantanamo is "one of the toughest prisons on the planet." Last May, in an attempt to put to rest some of this nonsense about Gitmo, Rear Admiral Mark Buzby, then commander of Joint Task for Guantanamo, explained the difference between "the…

President Bush offered job as greeter at Dallas hardware store.

The New York Times is happily reporting, with credulity, that the President plans to "slash deficit, despite stimulus spending.". The Washington Post reports on his "stern speech," which rapped the Bush administration for leaving Obama with a record deficit. Nevermind that large parts of that…

At the New York Times Opinionator blog, Tobin Harshaw points out that "The Times didn't report on the Holder speech in print, only on the Caucus blog." The Times op-ed page has featured one piece on Holder's "nation of cowards" speech: Charles M. Blow wrote on Saturday that he takes "exception to…

The New York Times sends an ambassador to visit a Potemkin synagogue in Esfahan and, surprise, he finds some Jews willing to say they are as appalled by Israel as he is. Does he stop to wonder whether it could be their dhimmitude speaking? Nah. That's not a language Times columnists are required to…

Jane Mayer delves into the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri in last week's issue of the New Yorker and quotes Greg Craig discussing the false hard choices this administration will have to make: Obama's legal team is aware that every step it takes will be seen as an indication of core convictions.…

On Fox News Sunday, Bill Kristol pointed out that in Eric Holder's "nation of cowards" speech, the attorney general mentions 18 African Americans of distinction, but not a single military hero: KRISTOL: Here's the big deal, though. Sean Delonas is a cartoonist for the New York Post. Phil Gramm, who…

In the second part of a series on how Gitmo makes and justifies terrorism against this country, the Washington Post describes the detention facility there as "one of the toughest prisons on the planet."

The Times of London reports that Binyam Mohamed, a Gitmo detainee who was rendered to Morocco and allegedly tortured, has been released to the UK where he will reportedly live in freedom: [Mohamed's lawyer] confirmed that Mr Mohamed has reached a deal with the Home Office over his living…

Obama's egghead methods not working, and Holder was wrong to call us all "cowards," says... MoDo? Another view on aid to Africa, with a dash of moral authority. If Chris Dodd had a TLC real-estate show, it would be called something really catchy like, "Trading Favors." Why the long faces? When…

Jerusalem

An Impactful Appointee

Returning from Palo Alto a few weeks ago, as our plane was about to land at O'Hare, I gazed down at the gray, snow-covered landing field, and braced myself for more of the grim gulagian Chicago winter. The weather in northern California had been in the mid-60s, the skies unfailingly blue and sunny,…

Me and Kaminski

Reading tea leaves is a dangerous business when it comes to a new administration. There is always a fair amount of floundering around that comes from having too few senior people in place, unsettled policymaking processes, and indecision over which campaign promises to keep and which to toss…

The Jewish Body

Elections have consequences. That is what democracy is about after all. Barack Obama is correct when he states that his victory last November gives him the right, or more specifically the power, to have things his way when it comes to handling the nation's economic challenges.

Le Corbusier

Truman & MacArthur

We live in strange times. The federal budget deficit is higher than at any time since World War II as a percentage of GDP, yet the president and Congress are not in budget-cutting mode. Rather, they are seeking to make that deficit even larger by spending sums that, before now, seemed beyond the…

Vice President Joseph Biden has told the Europeans that the new administration wishes to "reset" relations with Vladmir Putin's Russia. But the January 19 slaying of two dissidents, 34-year-old human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalism student Anastasia Baburova, 25, on a Moscow street…

One of many highlights of the stimulus bill the Democrats just rammed through Congress is $8 billion for high-speed rail. What makes this appropriation special is that there was no money for high-speed rail in the original House legislation. The Senate bill had $2 billion. The legislation coming…

During the final months of the Bush administration, top U.S. counterterrorism officials engaged in an intense debate about the fate of the Yemenis detained at Guantánamo Bay. There are a lot of them there--nearly 100 out of the total population of 248--and most can be directly tied to al Qaeda's…

Back in May, when the furor over Jeremiah Wright threatened to derail the Obama campaign, the candidate mournfully explained his decision to leave the controversial Trinity United Church of Christ. "We don't want to have to answer for everything that's stated in a church," Obama said. "On the other…

Right

On a recent Friday morning, there was an auction for a Nintendo Wii on the website Swoopo.com. At 9:45, the auction was set to end in 20 seconds, and the Wii was about to sell for $34.05--a bargain for an item that retails for $250. But Swoopo uses a very curious auction process, one that may not…

Bill Press's professional life, such as it is, has been very complicated in recent years.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Amid our current economic and financial turmoil, Japan's experience during the 1990s looms large in the minds of American policymakers. The 1990s were a "lost decade" for Japan, a period of deflation and widespread economic misery. In just a few short years, Japan went from being the world's model…

Colin Clark reports: The Air Force's chief of staff was careful to withhold his professional military advice until Defense Secretary Robert Gates gets it, but Gen. Norton Schwartz told reporters [Tuesday] morning that he would not "dispute" comments by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs late last…

Charles Krauthammer on Obama's supine diplomacy. Jindal won't take stimulus money for unemployment insurance because of concerns it would require tax hikes. Chris Dodd suggests some banks may have to be nationalized. Report finds Gitmo meets Geneva Conventions standards. (Just a reminder: al Qaeda…

Many thanks to Eric Holder and his calumny against America as a "nation of cowards" for the maddening reminder of one of the reasons we yanked our children out of the D.C. public school system and fled to Virginia 15 years ago. Black History Month was a particular trial, during which the children…

Late Wednesday night, I emailed RNC spokesman Alex Conant to see if Chairman Michael Steele would be willing to comment on Attorney General Eric Holder's remark that America is a "nation of cowards" on matters of race. Conant informed me Thursday that Chairman Steele was "traveling" and thus unable…

Ramesh Ponnuru takes apart a shoddy report on the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) by Time magazine's Amy Sullivan. Sullivan states that FOCA would codify a right to abortion until an unborn child is viable, when it would actually codify a right to abortion effectively throughout all nine months of…

President Obama named Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official and Brooking Institution scholar, to head up a review team for overhauling U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan. Via the Christian Science Monitor, a big part of Riedel's grand strategy for winning in Afghanistan is, um, securing a…

On the homepage, Thomas Joscelyn tells the story of Gitmo detainee Binyam Mohamed. Mohamed was reportedly tortured, and there have been a number of calls for his release. But as Joscelyn points out this doesn't make Mohamed an innocent. The Times of London now confirms that next week Mohamed will…

Is it possible that every part of President Obama's economic recovery plan is flawed, but the whole might prove greater than the sum of the parts? The short answer is that no one knows. But we now know enough to make some reasonable guesses.

Starry-eyed optimism in light of Zimbabwe's new unity government aside, peace in the former Rhodesia remains as elusive as ever. The primary opposition to Robert Mugabe's murderous ZANU-PF, the Movement for Democratic Change, insisted on several key conditions prior to signing on to the much touted…

Need a break (already!) from the Age of Obama? Escape this weekend into more interesting fictional worlds. Occasional TWS contributor and Harvard political philosopher Harvey Mansfield recommends his five favorite crime writers at Forbes.com. Apart from the criminal omission of Rex Stout from his…

This past week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown found himself answering questions about a terrorist suspect held at the detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The detainee, Binyam Mohamed, has become something of a martyr in Brown's nation. Daily press reports recount the horrible torture…

It only seems like Barack Obama has been president forever. Actually, as of today, he's been in office for exactly one month. Granted, with 47 months to go in his term, it's too soon to render a verdict on the Obama presidency. But surely a few early reflections on the Obama Revolution in…

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger owes Abel Maldonaldo. He's the California Republican state senator who on early Thursday morning agreed to vote for Schwarzenegger's budget. And so Maldonaldo guaranteed that the budget--a combination of tax and fee increases, spending cuts, and borrowing…

An interesting look at the behind-the-scenes wrangling that led to Michael Steele becoming chairman of the Republican Party from Brad Todd. Todd, one of the smartest of a young generation of Republican strategists, describes a sophisticated national campaign to get Steele elected. The core of…

ROTC returns to Colgate. Just 38 percent support Obama's mortgage plan. George Will explains how we got hosed on the stimulus. Lobbyist settles libel suit against the New York Times in McCain story. Kyrgyzstan parliament votes to close key U.S. air base. Egyptian political prisoner Ayman Nour has…

The Pakistani establishment is going out of its was to promote Sufi Mohammed, the man behind the peace agreement in northwestern Pakistan, as a moderate cleric only interested in peace. This article, passed along by Chidu Rajghatta at The Times of India, who is closely following the Pakistan peace…

When John McCain's economic adviser Phil Gramm said that this country is a "nation of whiners" when it comes to the economy, the Washington Post featured its 1100 word story on Gramm's controversial remark on the front page: "Gramm Remark Adds to McCain's Difficulty Addressing the Economy"…

So, the vice president (Mr. Cheney, not Mr. Logorrhea) waged and lost a just war with an increasingly irritated and ultimately implacable George Bush (and God-knows-how-many-other forces of pusillanimity who were whispering in the president's ear) over a pardon for Scooter Libby. It was a noble…

As questions swirl around Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.), Gov. Rod Blagojevich's appointment to fill Obama's seat, the L.A. Times has joined the chorus of papers calling for Burris' resignation. It doesn't matter whether there was a quid pro quo behind Burris' appointment. By failing to level with…

While a lot of criticism of Pakistan's agreement to impose sharia and end military operations in the Malakand division focus on the government's ceding of territory, Pakistan's unwillingness to confront the extremists, and the extension of a safe haven in the northwest, few analysts have explained…

Politico's Ben Smith identifies Peter Orszag, Obama's budget director, as the delinquent who nearly burned down the Executive Office Building during his first week on the job. Lesson learned: Ask first if a fireplace works before starting a fire. The budget director spoke to Politico on the he…

The AP reports that "Republicans are preparing to pounce on any wasteful spending" in the stimulus package. House Republicans are setting up "a stimulus-watch program" that will allow watchdog groups and private citizens to report findings as contractors and agencies start spending billions of…

Sen. Richard Burr polling under 50 percent in newly blue North Carolina. Other electoral shifts in New Jersey and Virginia? Indicted Baltimore mayor miffed she wasn't mentioned during Obama's pre-inauguration stop in B'more. She's letting him off easy; she could have asked for a Cabinet spot.…

The Washington Post story today on the FBI's investigation, under J. Edgar Hoover, of the sexuality of a White House aide to Lyndon Johnson includes this anecdote about our good friend Bill Moyers: Even Bill Moyers, a White House aide now best known as a liberal television commentator, is described…

SO MUCH TIME HAS passed since the crack epidemic of the 1980s that some only remember it for "48 Hours on Crack Street" (a June 1986 special in which Dan Rather took to the streets with a thundering herd of 18 camera crews and 25 producers) or the cocaine-induced heart attack three days later that…

ILLINOIS CONGRESSMAN Mark Kirk wants to take a bite out of suburban crime. And in doing so, he also hopes to curb the growing Democratic advantage on some political turf Republicans used to dominate. Last week Kirk unveiled a list of the "Top 10 Most Wanted Gang Members" in Lake County, Illinois, a…

On January 20, President Obama gave an eloquent and visionary inauguration speech. On January 23, he cut the legs out from under it. By rescinding the "Mexico City Policy," restoring federal funding to organizations that promote or perform abortions outside of the United States, the president has…

The pope rebukes Pelosi during a private meeting. Time magazine's list of favorite blogs runs the ideological gamut from the Huffington Post to Paul Krugman. Utah Sen. Bob Bennett may face a primary challenge in 2010. Jennifer Rubin: "In case you haven't noticed, California is fast becoming a third…

Gee, I wonder why it is, Atty. Gen. Holder, that Americans of all creeds and colors don't feel perfectly free to talk more with "each other about things racial?" Oh, that's right.

A few days after Obama's inauguration, the Washington Post's Dana Priest wrote that Obama effectively ended the war on terror--excuse me, Bush's "war on terror"--by signing executive orders to close Gitmo and CIA prisons and limit interrogation methods. President Obama yesterday eliminated the most…

Our new attorney general: Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that despite advances, the United States remains "a nation of cowards" on issues involving race. "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been, and we, I…

David Brooks: "The administration has taken its faith in government to such an extreme I'm turning into Ayn Rand. Help!" The whole thing is worth reading.

As House Democrats set their sights on producing a new energy and climate change bill by Memorial Day, voters tell Rasmussen they support increasing supply versus reducing demand by about a two-to-one margin. When asked, "Which is more important, finding new sources of energy or reducing the amount…

President Obama is set to unveil a new plan today to stem rising foreclosures by empowering the government to renegotiate loan terms to keep people in their homes. The price tag for the measure is expected to be between $50 and $100 billion. Details remain scarce, but officials are looking to help…

The Telegraph is reporting that U.S. officials in Islamabad have secretly backed the ‘peace agreement' between the Pakistani government and the Taliban which ends military operations in Swat in exchange for the implementation of sharia or Islamic law: American officials in Islamabad said they…

Yeah, this guy probably didn't deserve any of the blame for Katrina, right? Following in the McCain campaign's footsteps, the House GOP violates copyrights, provoking cranky liberal bands, and earning two news stories for every web video released. Jindal: I will assess the money provided to…

VENEZUELAN DEMOCRACY SUFFERED another major blow this past weekend with the abolition of term limits for elected officials. This will enable Venezuela's autocratic leader, Hugo Chávez, to run for president indefinitely. It will allow him to consolidate his budding dictatorship and further undermine…

Thus far, the young Obama regime has been marred by three major dust-ups relating to three different things: the tax-skipping schemes involving nominees to the Cabinet, the flap over the disposal of his Illinois seat in the Senate, and the disposal of the Senate seat of New York's Hillary Clinton,…

Saudi Arabia may have finally begun its long-predicted turn toward significant reform, as reported over the past weekend in Gulf media. King Abdullah ibn Abd Al-Aziz has effected a series of major decisions that could impose a dramatically new and modern direction on the kingdom.

Gabriel Sherman has a piece in the new issue of TNR examining the early success of the Politico as a business and a journalistic enterprise. There are a few bits that stick out from the piece, among them the odd claim, made repeatedly by the author, that Politico only produces small stories that…

Tom Ricks believes that the peace accord between the government and the Taliban is a good idea. Here's why: I know it looks like a setback but I suspect this might be a smart move. Give the people of Swat sharia law, and see how they like it. Meanwhile, bolster your security forces in the area so…

Jindal may not take stimulus money. Dire poll numbers for New York's Gov. Paterson. Japan's economy shrank at a 12.7 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter. Why seven Democrats voted against the stimulus. Michael Moynihan on the Britain's shameful treatment of Geert Wilders.

President Obama issued a statement this afternoon announcing the deployment of an Army Stryker brigade and a Marine Expeditionary brigade to Afghanistan this spring. Obama's full statement: There is no more solemn duty as President than the decision to deploy our armed forces into harm's way. I do…

Tom Ricks: Apparently Robert Mugabe, who is third on my list for jerk of the year, after Rupert Murdoch and Bill O'Reilly, has bought an expensive house in Hong Kong. You know who else is really bad? That Kim Jong-Il guy -- that's why I put him right behind Luke Russert on my jerk list.

A former detainee at Guantanamo who went on to become a field commander for al Qaeda in Yemen has reportedly turned himself into the Yemeni government and been repatriated to Saudi Arabia. The former Guantanamo detainee is named Abu al Hareth Muhammad al Oufi. Al Oufi was captured in 2001, taken…

Mark Bowden's amazing profile of Col. Cesar Rodriguez makes as good a case as you'll ever see for the F-22. Bowden's over-arching argument is that air supremacy is the sine qua non of American war fighting and that said air supremacy comes at a cost. The question is simply whether we pay that cost…

The American Prospect's Courtney Martin explains the meaning of true patriotism in a piece that includes this: In 2000 I met a little girl in South Africa who asked me in utter amazement, "So in America, people of different races all live right next door to one another?" I took a look around and…

The deed is done, but I still find it puzzling that Obama didn't wait until tomorrow--a full five days after posting the bill online--to sign it. On the campaign trail Obama pledged: "when there's a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you the public will have five days to look online and…

Bill McGurn writes in today's Wall Street Journal: In a passage from his 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope," [Obama] sounds like a Republican complaining about the stimulus. "Genuine bipartisanship," he wrote, "assumes an honest process of give-and-take, and that the quality of the compromise is…

In the NY Post, Damon Root takes up the cause of Nick Sprayregen, the landowner who's standing up to Columbia University in their attempt to use eminent domain to expand their campus. In the latest development, Sprayregen filed a petition with the state appellate court; but this is just the first…

Tom DeFrank reports that Cheney was aggressive in pursuing a presidential pardon for his former chief of staff, Scooter Libby. That news is getting a lot of attention, but as DeFrank also notes, Steve Hayes wrote the story for THE WEEKLY STANDARD a month ago. You can read Cheney in his own words…

A couple weeks ago we had word of a forthcoming Austen-meets-horror novel mash-up called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Well there must be a real Austen boomlet going on in the Fangoria world because yesterday Variety reported that Will Clark is set to direct Pride and Predator, which seems to be…

The AP headline says "Fallen oil prices a chink in Sarah Palin's armor." Huffington Post adapts that to read "Sarah Palin In Trouble As Oil Prices Fall: AP." The actual piece quotes Larry Sabato saying that tough economic times will limit the governor's ability to travel and Sen. Kim Elton, a…

A timely front page article in the February 4th Washington Post provided desperately needed insight into the most misunderstood term in Washington today. Of course, I refer to the term "bipartisan."

Anne Bayefsky has a good synopsis of where things now stand with Durban II, the United Nations Conference also known as "Zionism is Racism." The Obama administration has agreed to attend in a major reversal from its predecessor and despite intense lobbying from Israel. According to officials at the…

Compare and contrast the following two takes on Iran's role in Afghanistan. (1) Richard Holbrooke: "It is absolutely clear that Iran plays an important role in Afghanistan," Holbrooke said on Tolo TV, a private Afghan television network. "They have a legitimate role to play in this region, as do…

Half of Illinois voters approve of new Gov. Pat Quinn. Other half unsure that you can even be governor without an indictment. Obama ousts Churchill from Oval Office. Sheriff Joe vs. John Conyers (D-elusional). Fallen Marine awarded Navy Cross for saving 30 Marines, 25 Iraqis from suicide attack in…

Just two days after a Predator strike in South Waziristan, the United States conducted yet another strike, this time in the tribal agency of Kurram. The target was a camp run by an Afghan Taliban commander who trains fighters inside Pakistan for attacks against NATO and Afghan forces. More than 30…

The Chicago-Tribune's Jill Zuckman has taken a job in the Obama administration. ABC's Jake Tapper rounds up a list of other journalists who have joined Team Obama: Zuckman becomes at least the fourth reporter to join the Obama administration. Others include former TIME Washington bureau chief Jay…

I've written quite a bit in the past about the Pakistani government's misguided negotiations with the Taliban. Agreements from 2006-2008 only allowed the Taliban and al Qaeda to regroup, rearm, and consolidate their power in the tribal areas and the greater northwest, while serving to demoralize…

The United States conducted an airstrike on a Taliban compound in Pakistan's tribal agency of South Waziristan Saturday. The attack, which killed at least 25 people, largely Uzbeks fighters and a few Arab al Qaeda members according to reports, is the third such strike inside Pakistan since…

Baghdad

During the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama promised to meet the leaders of Iran "without preconditions." He appears a man of his word. Within days of his election, the State Department began drafting a letter to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intended to pave the way for face-to-face…

John McCain is on to something. No stimulus bill--that is, no "economic recovery" package at all--"is better" than President Obama's bill, McCain says. Sure, he'd prefer his own alternative. At $445 billion, it would cost roughly half Obama's bill. And Republican senators unanimously voted for it.…

Sergey Prokofiev and His World

In 2001, Brink Lindsey wrote Against the Dead Hand, in which he contrasted the "dead hand" of central economic planning with the "invisible hand" of the market. The distinction is memorable. It is also slightly misleading. These days, the "dead hand" is very much alive.

A recent edition of Newsweek ran a photograph of Barack Obama that was taken in the White House the morning of January 20, just after the Obamas and the Bushes had finished coffee and were about to leave for the inauguration. The caption noted that Obama was fussing with his tie, which he was, but…

Leading by Example

At last reliable count, Abraham Lincoln had been the subject of more books than any historical figure other than Jesus of Nazareth--running with scarcely a pause for breath from the quirky portrait assembled by his former law partner "Billy" Herndon. With the advent of his bicentennial year,…

Editor's note: Jack Kemp passed away May 2, 2009. R.I.P.

Rachel Getting Married

When Barack Obama was asked last Monday if he still supported Tom Daschle, his embattled Health and Human Services nominee, the president gave a firm one-word response: "Absolutely."

Joe Biden was right.

Turkey's reaction to the recent Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has scared many of us who believed that anti-Semitism could never take root in our country. The mass protests outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, the defacing of a synagogue in Izmir, the anti-Semitic graffiti and newspaper articles…

Lula of Brazil

No sooner had Russia turned off the gas flowing through Ukrainian pipelines in the first days of the new year, sending tens of thousands of Europeans into a deep freeze, than German economy minister Michael Glos pointed out that "if we already had the Nord Stream pipeline," which would bypass…

Under God

Tel Aviv

Presidential Command

From the AP: The Obama administration said late Saturday that it would participate in planning for a U.N. conference on racism despite concerns the meeting will be used by Arab nations and others to criticize Israel.... During the Bush administration the United States and Israel walked out of the…

Sam Stein writes at the Huffington Post: Democrats are growing increasingly frustrated with the brash political attacks Sen. John McCain has launched against Barack Obama in the weeks since the new president took office. No one expected the Arizona Republican to be a legislative ally for this…

The Blagojevich-Obama-Durbin earmark is the most expensive earmark ever. Max Boot on Afghanistan. A Democratic congresswoman "pocketed more than $200,000 of political contributions by charging as much as 18 percent interest on money she loaned to her own campaign." A list of stimulus waste. And a…

A note from Anna Christopher, Senior Manager, NPR Media Relations: I read your post last night, and would like to correct your misconceptions about NPR: NPR is not "government-funded" - and since that misconception provides the basis for your argument, your entire post is inaccurate. NPR receives…

If, like John Maynard Keynes, you believe that spending, any spending, will revive a flagging economy, the freshly minted, 1000-page American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, calling for $504 billion in deficit-financed spending is for you. Well, not quite. It seems that most of the money…

Bow down and worship.

The stimulus passes, but again without a single Republican vote in the House. More than that, of the ten Democrats who initially crossed the aisle to vote against the bill, only three changed their votes in the final tally. So what does this tell us? Well, Republicans were clearly pleased with the…

The House just passed the stimulus package with no Republican support, and eight "no" votes from Democrats. Rep. Aaron Schock, whose llinois district is home to Caterpillar, spoke on the floor about the president's speech to his constituents and their telling response. Caterpillar has been a…

From one of my favorite blogs, Information Dissemination, comes the news that Senator Dianne Feinstein has divulged that the United States is conducting strikes in against al Qaeda's network in Pakistan's tribal areas from a secret base inside Pakistan: A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that…

Back in January of last year, as the Democratic primary was just heating up, the candidates gathered in Nevada for a debate hosted by Tim Russert. Russert asked the candidates to tell the audience about what they perceived as their own greatest strengths and weaknesses. John Edwards, whose real…

Another highlight from Congressman Barney Frank's meeting with reporters this morning: Frank said that most of the $700 billion allocated for TARP is "going to be repaid" and it's a mistake to compare the "hundreds of billions spent the TARP and the hundreds and hundreds of on Iraq, which isn't…

NBC's First Read: Despite his gracious words at his press conference yesterday, Republican Judd Gregg's decision to withdraw his nomination to be Commerce secretary was a blow to the administration. One, it became the latest nomination problem for Obama (Daschle, Killefer, and Richardson), and the…

At a breakfast this morning sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Congressman Barney Frank said he would like to implement the policy of allowing gays to openly serve in the military sooner than he had previously indicated. Last month, Frank told the New Yorker that he wanted to wait until…

ACORN money, pet projects...back in the stimulus! Hey, remember when fixing the AMT was too expensive, and Democrats were pay-as-you-go? You could buy, literally, two whole Quarter Pounder meals a week with your middle-class tax cut. House begins debate on stimulus, after the public has a whole 12…

Over at the Washington Post's "Post Partisan" blog, Bill Kristol offers his take on why Gregg withdrew. It increasingly looks like the White House's census power grab is the reason Gregg walked.

The U.S. is only one of many of the world's advanced economies considering dramatic moves to promote economic growth. Among our leading trading partners, Australia and China are both considering how to accomplish this feat -- and both have considered retaliation against the U.S. for the 'Buy…

House Democrats plan to vote on the stimulus at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow and thus break their pledge to post any bill online for 48 hours before voting on it. Paul Bedard of U.S. News reported this afternoon that lobbyists have copies of the bill but congressional staffers do not. As of late this…

Kiev

The LA Times reports: Little more than a year after U.S. spy agencies concluded that Iran had halted work on a nuclear weapon, the Obama administration has made it clear that it believes there is no question that Tehran is seeking the bomb. In his news conference this week, President Obama went so…

Judd Gregg says he "probably" won't run for reelection in 2010. Dana Milbank protests David Plouffe. The total cost of the stimulus could end up at $ 3.27 trillion. Stimulus support rises. It might be too late for the stimulus to do any good. The end of welfare reform as we know it. Britain arrests…

Juan Williams has been attacked by the ombudsman at National Public Radio for comments he made while appearing in a segment on Fox's O'Reilly Factor along with our own Mary Katharine Ham. The quote that got him in trouble: "Michelle Obama, you know, she's got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer…

Senator Judd Gregg withdraws from consideration for the post of Commerce Secretary. From the release: "I want to thank the President for nominating me to serve in his Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce. This was a great honor, and I had felt that I could bring some views and ideas that would assist…

Politico: New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg has abruptly withdrawn as President Barack Obama's nominee to run the Commerce Department, another blow to an administration trying to build a bipartisan cabinet. Gregg cited his problems with the economic stimulus bill, as well as disagreements over how to…

The Wall Street Journal reports on a minor rebellion in the drug war and includes this counterpoint: U.S. law-enforcement officials -- as well as some of their counterparts in Mexico -- say the explosion in violence indicates progress in the war on drugs as organizations under pressure are…

Yesterday Pakistani police detained a New Zealander as he attempted to enter South Waziristan. He was captured in Tank, a district that borders South Waziristan, the center of gravity for the Taliban and one of al Qaeda's primary havens. The New Zealander, identified on his passport as Mark Taylor,…

Bill Sweetman posts an extremely cool video of the Harpy-2, the latest "lethal UAV" from Israel Aerospace Industries. The Harpy-2, Sweetman explains, is a loitering missile that is capable of being guided to a strike on a moving target or can guide itself using with an anti-radar homing system.…

The Jerusalem Post's Hillary Krieger reports: US officials are publicly taking a wait-and-see approach to the formation of a new Israeli government, but privately many have expressed concern that Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu might preside over a right-wing coalition. "There would be great…

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who fiercely clashed with the Bush administration over the 2003 Iraq War, has published an essay in the weekly Der Spiegel on "The Way Forward in Afghanistan". While Schroeder strongly rejects pacifist calls for Germany's unilateral withdrawal from the…

As you may have heard, Abraham Lincoln was born 200 years ago today. THE WEEKLY STANDARD's resident Lincoln expert and Lincolnphile-in-chief Andrew Ferguson recently sat down with the folks over at NewMajority to talk about his book Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America. You can read…

Obama on the stimulus at Monday night's press conference: What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark The Washington Times's S.A. Miller reports: Talk about a pet project. A tiny mouse with the longtime backing of a political giant may soon reap the benefits of…

In a moment of weakness, Goldfarb sent me this brilliant essay on Battlestar Galactica by Robert Farley. Writing as a concerned Colonial citizen, Farley makes that case that during the recent unpleasantness, Vice President Tom Zarek and Lieutenant Felix Gaeta--who lead a mutiny onboard the…

in history? Claudia Rosett reports that the Obama administration appears to be easing -- lifting? -- sanctions on Syria, designated by the State Department as a state sponsor of terror. Trouble is, the most transparent administration in history won't talk about it. (H/T, Andy McCarthy, The Corner)

Campaigns are generous forums. They allow politicians to make claims difficult to refute. Only the most coldhearted could oppose more hope, change and bipartisanship.

As preparations begin in Iran for the festivities marking the Islamic republic's 30 year anniversary, another somber Iranian anniversary is commemorated. Twenty years ago, some 10,000 political prisoners and regime opponents were brutally killed following a fatwa from then supreme leader Ayatollah…

What is most remarkable about the public debate about the stimulus bill is not the partisan bickering or even the astonishing price tag of the bill's congressional pet projects. Rather, it is the lack of an open debate among policymakers about what kinds of activity a "stimulus" bill is supposed…

DeNeen L. Brown writes in today's Post about Michelle Obama's appearance on the cover of Vogue: Even if you take race off the table, there is an awe of how this new administration can bring energy to the conversation around how beauty can intersect with power. And how power can be beauty. There is…

Rasmussen: "Forty-four percent (44%) voters also think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation's problems than the current Congress, but 37% disagree. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided." Harkin wants the Fairness Doctrine. Norks prep for…

Secretary Clinton, who it must be said has managed the early weeks of this administration far better than many of her peers, will head to Asia next week for her first trip abroad. Asia isn't a bad place to start, and given the proliferation of special envoys in the Obama administration, it seems…

Tim Johnson samples the comments appearing on Chinese websites in the wake of a very suspicious fire at the CCTV building in Beijing earlier this week: "It doesn't make sense. How can fireworks set concrete, glass, and metal on fire like that? In order for fireworks to stick to, I'm assuming, a…

At around 3 p.m. today, stimulus negotiators held a press conference announcing a deal on the bill, thanks to deal-making meetings to which GOP conferees were reportedly not invited. At around 4 p.m., the New York Times reported that the deal is not cemented yet, as Pelosi doesn't yet have her…

Ruth Madoff is in the news again. Reuters reports: "The wife of accused Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff pulled $15 million out of a brokerage account only days before her husband was arrested, Massachusetts' top securities regulator said on Wednesday." Earlier, the New York Times reported that…

Well, as Allah notes, we don't know for sure she's a conservative, but it's a decent bet. Yesterday, Henrietta Hughes asked The One for a home at a town hall meeting in Florida: "I have an urgent need, unemployment and homelessness, a very small vehicle for my family and I to live in," she said.…

Jeffrey Goldberg has a post on the Israeli elections noting, among other effects, that this victory for the right essentially means "the peace camp is dead." Of course, we already knew this -- the election only confirms a reality that has existed since Hamas first came to power in Gaza. As long as…

Big Democrats just can't seem to get right with Big Government, lately. Tim Geithner "mistakenly" avoided more than $40,000 in taxes. Nancy Killefer withdrew her nomination over word that she failed to pay employment taxes for household help. Tom Daschle "honestly" overlooked more than $100,000 for…

The relevant portion of the statute governing administration of the census: The Bureau shall be headed by a Director of the Census, appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Director shall perform such duties as may be imposed upon him by law, regulations, or…

Criticism for Barack Obama's plan and his selling of it is coming from all quarters. John Dickerson writes in Slate: He was probably more effective in this gambit, if for no other reason than some of these quotes will be replayed over the next 24 hours. The attacks are still disingenuous, though.…

Apparently Obama has discovered a small problem with having Republicans in his cabinet: he can't trust them. With the nomination of Judd Gregg to the post of Commerce Secretary, the Obama administration is making what looks like an unprecedented move to control the census. Typically, the census is…

When Barack Obama nominated Timothy Geithner for the post of Secretary of the Treasury, he said Geithner had the right skill set for getting the economy back on track: Having served in senior roles at Treasury, the IMF and the New York Fed, Tim Geithner offers not just extensive experience shaping…

Eli Lake reports: As President Obama weighs options for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq, the country's military is purchasing American helicopters, cargo planes and tanks equipment that typically requires a prolonged U.S. presence for maintenance and training. Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, who…

"Giving up being liked is the ultimate public sacrifice." Perhaps something Kathleen Parker should have pondered herself, before the election. Blago had that hair in high school, too! "This marks the lowest level of support for the Democrats in tracking history and is the closest the two parties…

A survey of the morning headlines: Washington Times - Obama Bank Plan Skids on Wall Street Washington Post - Wall Street Slams Plan with Sell-Off Wall Street Journal - Market Pans Bank Rescue Plan New York Times - Bailout Plan: $2.5 Trillion and a Strong U.S. Hand You can always count on the Times…

The rumors are true. First Lady Michelle Obama is the March Vogue cover girl, the Washington Post reported yesterday. And MSNBC revealed the secret cover, photographed by Annie Leibovitz at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, D.C.: Image

Rasmussen shows Democrats only ahead by one point on the generic congressional ballot survey. The day the global economy almost died. A new slogan for national health care: Don't you think you're too old to enjoy that new hip, eh? Hillary likes to say 'you know' just like someone we never really…

Christian Brose has an excellent piece on FP's Shadow Government blog running through some of what he took away from the Munich Security Conference vis-à-vis our situation in Afghanistan. Brose emphasizes first and foremost that the war in Afghanistan can still be won, but he cautions that the…

This Thursday, Kimberly Kagan will be on Capitol Hill to moderate an Institute for the Study of War panel on the Iraqi elections. Sounds like it will be a very interesting and informative event. Details, including info on how to RSVP, are below the fold. WHAT: ISW Capitol Hill Event: Iraq Elections…

The Paksitani government has asked Richard Holbrooke, the envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan to "talk to Taliban moderates," Reuters reports. Pakistan advised President Barack Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday to reach out to reconcilable elements of the Taliban movement…

Should the United States continue the policy of striking at al Qaeda's network inside Pakistan? Over at Danger Room, Noah Shachtman interviews Dr. David Kilcullen, a counterinsurgency expert who has advised CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Dr.…

The Los Angeles Times reports: The administration has launched a review of the individual detainee cases, aimed at determining who can be prosecuted in federal courts. "Miranda is an issue -- it is a potential issue in prosecution," said a senior Obama administration official, speaking on condition…

"So, you know, we -- we can differ on some of the particulars, but, again, the question I think the American people are asking is, do you just want government to do nothing, or do you want it to do something? If you want it to do something, then we can have a conversation. But doing nothing, that's…

Remember those buses last December that were side-slapped with slogans like "Why believe in god? Just be good for goodness sake"? Well, the British Humanist Association has decided to start something similar across the pond. The new ad campaign, funded by the association, has won the support of…

Headline 1, wherein Mary Katharine tries her best to avoid any puns. Is the White House's census power grab unconstitutional? Meet the new guy in charge of the census. Gerry. Gerry Mander. Israeli turnout in national elections up 3 percent despite forecasts of possible apathy, rain, and a 30…

HIS HAGIOGRAPHERS WILL ALWAYS think otherwise, but what President Barack Obama said about America's relationship with the Islamic world during his interview with al Arabiya--namely, that "Americans are not your enemy"--only restated what American presidents have been saying in word and deed for…

The most striking comment in tonight's press conference was President Obama's statement that his administration and Iran, a state sponsor of terror, may soon find a way to interact with "mutual respect." Perhaps President Obama can respect a regime that stones women for adultery, tortures and…

In a new poll released today, Rasmussen reports 62% of voters want the stimulus bill to include more tax cuts and less spending. These results are consistent with a CBS poll released last week. Rasmussen writes: With the Senate poised to vote Tuesday on an $827-billion version of the economic…

Harry Reid's spokesman mocks Heath Shuler for criticizing lack of bipartisanship on stimulus bill: "Let me get this straight - this is coming from a guy who threw more than twice as many interceptions than touchdowns?" Harkin pledges Dems will bring up card-check when (if) Franken is seated.. More…

In Arab, Alabama, a "social experiment" garnered the kind of result not likely to garner many media reports. Credit where credit is due to CNN for reporting this story, and reporting it like this: Hailey Woldt put on the traditional black abaya, expecting the worst. The last time she'd worn the…

President Obama will hold his first press conference as commander in chief (you can watch the streaming video here) at 8 o'clock tonight. As a candidate, Obama used his massive warchest to purchase airtime on all three networks, preempting the World Series (or at least the pre-game show). Now, as…

AP090209017632.jpg

If Hillary Clinton bothered to read the papers yesterday, she would have learned that her role in the crafting of American foreign policy will likely be a small one. The Washington Post ran a rather stunning interview with National Security Adviser Jim Jones in which Jones "made it clear that he…

I was sorry to read over the weekend of the death of Dan Seligman, whose "Keeping Up" column was for years not just the best thing in Fortune magazine, but the best column of its kind in American journalism. Though the tone was unfailingly light and witty, the man swung a mean bat with telling…

Last week, Tom Ricks asserted that al Qaeda isn't behind the Afghan insurgency because the United States has taken out an inordinate amount of senior leaders. I laid out the reasons why I disagreed with Ricks' assessment in this post. Now there's one more reason why his premise is false: al Qaeda…

Kenneth Harbaugh writes in the New York Times: SINCE the Vietnam War, R.O.T.C. programs have been banned from operating on campus at elite universities like Yale and Harvard. These institutions have also long hindered the military's efforts to recruit their students. But in March 2006, the Supreme…

On Saturday, Max Boot wrote in the LA Times that we're now hearing many of the critics of the Iraq war apply the same arguments for withdrawal--it's a quagmire; democracy won't work; more troops won't help, etc.--to Afghanistan. On Sunday, Richard C. Holbrooke, the State Department's envoy to…

Tom Donnelly and Gary Schmitt had an op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post laying out the case for a defense stimulus. The authors point out that the Obama administration could, with the relatively small sum of $20 billion, boost several military procurement programs with the effect of "sustaining…

Last year's assassination of Imad Mugniyah, Hezbollah's military commander who was wanted for his role in scores of high-profile attacks, was facilitated by the capture of a senior Hezbollah officer in Iraq, an Israeli newspaper reported. The report claimed that important details used to plan the…

It's so nice to have a universally admired man as president who never bumbles. Equally at home with the simple management of doorway height and the complex navigation of a pork-filled monstrosity through Congress while its approval ratings drop precipitously enough to signal electoral backlash, it…

Daniel Gross is making sense: Things have been going downhill in America since the very beginning: Imagine the economic forecasts made in Plymouth in the bitter winter of 1619. In the early 1990s, a recession lengthened, executives took huge paychecks while firing thousands of workers, and…

Over the weekend the New York Post ran a long piece by Charles Platt about working at Wal-Mart. Platt, a former staffer at Wired, took an entry level job at Wal-Mart in an attempt to see what the company looks like from the inside. His account is quite interesting, and worth the read. Some tidbits:…

Bill Kristol reports from Munich that the highlight of the security conference was Gen. David Petraeus's speech on Afghanistan during the Sunday morning session. Below the fold, you can find a transcript of Gen. Petraeus's speech as delivered. It's well worth reading.Remarks for Panel Discussion:…

When Obama supporters gathered this weekend to build support for the first major legislation of the new president's tenure, those who had campaigned for change found themselves talking about something unexpected- politics as usual. "I trust Obama. I'm disappointed in what has been put out here for…

From the Borowitz Report: A-Rod Backs Stimulus Says Economy Needs Shot in Arm

Yesterday on Meet the Press, David Gregory interviewed Thomas Ricks, whose new book The Gamble comes out this week. The interview was informative. I recommend watching it or reading the transcript. But the interview was also amazingly dour and pessimistic. Last week Iraq held provincial elections…

Senator Barbara Mikulski succeeded in getting the Senate to incorporate her proposal for a tax break for new car buyers in its version of the stimulus bill: Interest payments and sales taxes on new autos would become tax deductible under a measure approved. A bill passed by the House does not have…

Caroline Kennedy's swipe at a Senate seat in New York ended in debacle last week, and Governor David Paterson bore the brunt of the blame. With some reason: His dithering, ineptitude, and needless dissembling reminded New Yorkers of the squalid circumstances that had brought him to the governorship…

When a choreographer's centennial year rolls around, the public can count on a few sure things. There will be at least one celebratory video montage, plus one earnest, yet chummy panel discussion. A few rarely seen ballets will be performed throughout a year that will culminate in a blowout evening…

Mozart's Operas

On January 22, 2009, two days after Barack Obama took the oath of office, the new president issued an executive order requiring that the detainee facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, be closed in one year. With cameras capturing the president affixing his signature to the document, Obama said the…

Political dynasties die in different ways, and the ends are not pretty. The Adamses eased themselves out by degrees, becoming more self-absorbed and less consequential over four generations. Theodore Roosevelt's oldest son Ted made an effort to follow his father, but was displaced early on by his…

In 1975, I moved back to Washington after several years away and started working as a freelance editor from home. It was lonely work, and sometimes I'd go stir crazy.

Many countries have a national saint. Scotland can boast the distinction of also having a national sinner: His name is Robert Burns. Burns (1759-1796), the poet who penned tender lyrics such as "O my Luve's like a red, red rose," scorching satires on high-Calvinist hypocrisy such as "Holy Willie's…

The other day, an Irishman committed suicide. Patrick Rocca, who was described in the Times of London as "a poster boy for Ireland's Celtic tiger economy" and "seemed to embody the shiny world into which Ireland transformed itself after decades on the periphery of Europe," shot himself in the head…

The United States needs a new military strategy in Afghanistan. In 2008, NATO casualties rose to an all-time annual high of 294, 155 of them U.S. soldiers. Roadside bombs and kidnappings doubled last year. Underscoring the gravity of the situation, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral…

In the span of four months, Iceland's financial crisis became an economic meltdown which in turn became a political one. Last week the country's prime minister, Geir Haarde, called parliamentary elections for May, two years ahead of schedule. Three days later, Haarde resigned, his coalition unable…

World War II Writings

Part of the achievement of John Updike, who died on January 27, was that he became the preeminent all-around man of letters in our cutthroat literary culture without ever losing his reputation as a generous and gentle person. He did so while being derided by half the country as an unadventurous…

For years, financial leaders, advised by highly paid experts, have bought and borrowed to acquire a portfolio of world-class assets, the intrinsic value of which has never been in question. A few bears jeered, but were quickly priced out of the market. Those days--so recent--are no more. Asset…

The killjoys are back in charge--the mopes, the fusstails, the glum pots. Their wet blanket has been thrown over the White House and Congress. They're worrying up a storm. (Good thing that George W. Bush is no longer in charge of the weather and FEMA the way he was during Hurricane Katrina.)…

The economy is in recession. There's no end in sight. The number of unemployed continues to rise. Equities markets are in the dumps. The real estate sector hasn't hit bottom. The banks are drowning in a sludge of toxic assets. Excuse us while we break out the Prozac.

The Peculiar Life of Sundays

The singular advantage of being in the opposition is that the majority has to make the first move, and unlike chess, going first conveys no advantage the majority doesn't already enjoy. What was striking last week about the House's consideration of the stimulus package was the glimpse it offered of…

Chris Myers Asch, who came up with the idea, says the U.S. Public Service Academy would be just like a military academy, "but without the guns." If you too can imagine such a mind-bending concept--a bull without horns, a sow without teats--then this, as the president says, is your moment; now is…

Updike on LBJ Derangement Syndrome

Gran Torino

As if there were not enough reasons to be worried about what is going on inside Yemen, the Yemeni government has decided to release more than 170 al Qaeda suspects. Reportedly, 95 of them have been released already. This news comes at an inauspicious time. As Steve Hayes and I discussed in a recent…

Munich-- We were already swimming in a sea of bloviation here at the Munich Security Conference. Then Joe Biden spoke shortly after noon today. It was more of the same. Vague generalizations, tired formulations--and no substance. It doesn't matter much, one supposes--it's just a speech at a…

Pakistan's High Court freed nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan from house arrest yesterday. The move is certainly controversial as Khan was the point man for a massive nuclear proliferation ring. Khan first came onto the radar of Western intelligence agencies in the late 1970s. But little was done to stop…

According to Agence France Presse, an ABBA tribute group called Bjorn Again claims to have recently performed for an exclusive audience that included Russian president Vladimir Putin. One of the singers, Aileen McLaughlin, "described a nine-hour drive through icy countryside to a military-style…

The Senate moderates who put together a tentative deal to pass a $780 billion stimulus bill are now speaking on the floor. You can watch a live stream at CSPAN.org, if you're into that kind of thing on a Friday night. Joe Lieberman: "It wasn't easy to get 60 votes, but tonight, we're gonna do it."…

Meet the Generator Man, capitalism's answer to FEMA's ineptitude. "I'm your huckleberry gubernatorial candidate." Pelosi can't wait 'til conference: One, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, told reporters he and others hoped that some of the funds on the chopping block would be restored next week when…

Do not mess with Diane Feinstein, people. She already sent a shot across the President's bow when she was not informed of Leon Panetta's nomination to CIA chief, knocking Barack's lack of communication and indirectly knocking Panetta's qualifications. Then she broke with the rest of the Senate…

Sen. John Kerry took to the Senate floor today to pace, rant, and raise his voice in a monotone simulation of human passion as he spoke up for the massive spending bill the Democrats want to pass today under the guise of "stimulus." During his speech, he addressed the argument made by fellow…

That's what Steve Rattner's wife, the man likely to be nominated as Obama's "Car Czar," told the policeman who found her "stopped at the raised EZPass gate, failing to proceed through, with a line of vehicles honking" behind her Mercedes Benz. When the cop approached, Rattner's wife "stared…

And, then there were three moderate Republicans. Sen. George Voinovich has left the team of moderates attempting to craft a $100-billion cut in the current size of the stimulus plan, leaving Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Olympia Snowe, and Sen. Arlen Specter to haggle with Democrats. Voinovich left a…

Over at Foreign Policy's blog, Tom Ricks gives us a prime example of making a correlation between two pieces of information that aren't necessarily related, then drawing a bad conclusion from the correlation. Ricks endorses the idea that since attacks in Afghanistan are increasing even though the…

From a transcript of Biden's remarks at the House Democratic Issues Conference: The president and I were talking about something yesterday in the Oval Office -- which, to the press here, I'll not suggest what it was -- but the response was to the folks that were in the office with us -- was, you…

CNN has a story on the situation in Swat, the Taliban-controlled region in Pakistan's northwest outside of the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Hina Khan, a 14-year-old Pakistani girl, talks about how the Taliban are in control of the region and are expanding thier influence: "Right now, [Swat…

Be sure to check out the front-page story in today's Times on Japan's decade-long experience with massive government spending to combat economic downturn. Here are the numbers: In total, Japan spent $6.3 trillion on construction-related public investment between 1991 and September of last year,…

Ben Smith reports on the Zinni mess: "They handled this in an extremely amateurish way and then they compound this by letting the world know that they don't really care who's ambassador to Saudi Arabia," said Flynt Leverett, a foreign policy official under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who said…

Hilda Solis shouldn't get too flustered about this, there's always room for more under the Obama bus, and the House Ethics Committee might give her the same treatment they're giving Charlie Rangel: ...According to the report, American Rights at Work collected "at least $1 million in contributions…

Sarah Palin just got hotter: She named her daughter after the home of ESPN headquarters. "Obama has only been President for 17 days. It's mind-boggling how many screw-ups there have been. . . . It seems to me that the mode of ambulation is the stumble." Mitch McConnell seems to be taking advantage…

The Boston Globe reported this week that the Obama administration is not moving instantly to drop the "don't ask, don't tell" policy: The Obama administration is telling the Pentagon and gay-rights advocates that it will have to study the implications for national security and enlist more support…

The president is scheduled to meet today with the families of 9/11 victims to explain his decision to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. According to the Post, among those who will be in attendance are family members opposed to the decision. Also quoted in the story is Retired Navy…

AS THEY DEAL WITH a collapsing world economy, policymakers in Washington and around the globe must not forget that when a depression strikes, war can follow. Nowhere is this truer than in Asia, the most heavily armed region on earth and riven with ancient hatreds and territorial rivalries.…

HOW REVEALING THAT President Obama, in his first post-election interview, chose the powerhouse Arab world network al-Arabiya to deliver America's new message to Muslims. He did not enlist America's own Arab-language TV station, Alhurra, which was created precisely to compete with al-Arabiya and…

Congress continues to include "Buy American" provisions in the stimulus package, albeit in a watered-down version. This has set off alarm bells in the free trade community. With reason. During his presidential campaign Barack Obama made it clear that he is unhappy with the way the world trading…

Greg Mankiw delivers his policy recommendations. They include a payroll tax cut! Here's Mankiw on tax-cuts versus spending: Some traditional Keynesians would object that government spending has a larger multiplier than tax cuts. Even though that is the prediction of standard Keynesian models, the…

The White House has its signals crossed. President Obama flew to Williamsburg, Va., tonight to address the House Democrats. Originally the speech was supposed to be off the record. But the White House decided to let the cameras in so that the president's appeal for the economic stimulus bill could…

So much for having the votes for the bill tonight, huh? Isn't this the same mistake Pelosi made on the bailout package the first time around- coming to the floor and overpromising without the votes to make it happen? At least Harry saw the writing on the wall and bailed before an actual defeat on…

The results of Iraq's provincial elections are in, and the parties backed by Muqtada al Sadr's political movement fared poorly in regions of southern and central Iraq where he is considered to be influential. In Maysan province, which used to be run by the Sadrist movement, the Sadrists received…

Justice Ginsburg has pancreatic cancer surgery. The hope that Judd Gregg might keep the Democrats from cooking the books on the 2010 census has been dashed with news that the census director will bypass the Commerce department. Baucus and Kennedy want a national health care bill this year. Dr.…

Laura Rozen updates her story with this correction: *Correction: Zinni says it was the vice president who called him, not the president. FP regrets the error. God love him, he just can't help himself.

A testy exchange at a White House press briefing: Is it just me or does Helen Thomas glower at the questioner, ABC's Jake Tapper, toward the end of the exchange?

Hilda Solis, in addition to violating House ethics rules by serving as the treasurer of an organization that was actively engaged in lobbying her fellow legislators, has now had her nomination held up by (what else?) tax problems. USA Today reports: Solis and [her husband] Sayyad were unaware of…

Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown reports: Obama's 5 p.m. signing [of the children's health insurance bill] came barely three hours after the House approved the bill, breaching Obama's promise to have a five-day period of "sunlight before signing," as he detailed on the campaign trail and on his…

Via Hot Air, the Washington Times's Stephen Dinan reports: President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said…

We live in a service economy. There are more people providing business and professional services and working in retail than there are making goods or building things. The Democrats' stimulus package is, in a way, more oriented toward the economy America used to have - a manufacturing and industrial…

Asharq Al Awsat, a newspaper that is controlled by the Saudi royal family, published a report today claiming that al Qaeda is using Iran as a "base of operations" for attacks inside the Saudi Kingdom as well as Jordan. The allegations are consistent with other evidence--including that found in the…

A Republican sends over this taxpayer-funded newsletter that DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton sent to her constituents to inform them of the economic benefits the current stimulus bill would offer residents of the District of Columbia. Among the items listed: Parks. Repair neighborhood parks owned…

Will Obama let this aggression stand?

Noah Schactman on the drone surge: In 2008, 71 Predator robo-craft flew 138,404 combat hours -- a 94 percent increase from the year before, according to an Air Force presentation obtained by National Security Drone's Frank Naif. That's a just one part of the nearly 400,000 flight hours that…

Surprisingly, President Obama didn't mention the Second Great Commandment--love thy neighbor as thyself--in his inaugural address. But he did this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast. Obama described it as "one law that binds all great religions together," quoting equivalents to the…

Can any Representative or Senator (or President) defend this plan? Congress's own budget office -- whose current Director was selected by Democrats, and whose former Director now heads up OMB for President Obama -- says that each of the 'stimulus' plans being debated in Congress would reduce…

The Washington Post runs a front page story today on Holder's confirmation as attorney general, which the paper headlines "a chance to right racial wrongs." Included in the piece is this description of Holder's responsibilities: Holder will oversee civil rights enforcement, crime prevention and…

After all, what better to fix the ailing economy than a giant, cumbersome product of questionable value and exorbitant expense? Update: A slightly more risque, great stimulus parody from Reason.tv. Click the pic to watch: Picture 9.png

The following is from someone close to Zinni: I agree that Holbrooke orchestrated, along with [Bill] Burns and DirGen of the Foreign Service to overrule Clinton. And that is what happened. She actually shook hands, said "welcome aboard" etc so that is no chance that there was a miscommunication.…

Two weeks after being sworn into office, the left is in full retreat. They're scattered and panicked. Michael Hirsh opens his column as though Obama's presidency will be determined by the events of the next few days: Barack Obama began making his comeback Wednesday, apparently aware that he has all…

Bill Kristol's first contribution to the Washington Post "Post Partisan" group blog is on the GOP's stimulus opportunity. A taste: Republicans should stop trying to improve the unimproveable with small-bore amendments to the current legislative package. Instead, they can point out that Obama is…

Ed Glaeser: One attractive, Reagan-like alternative to the stimulus package is to focus on a temporary reduction in the payroll tax, particularly for less wealthy Americans who are most likely to spend the money quickly. Such a tax cut would give people a strong incentive to work by letting them…

LAST JUNE, CALIFORNIA was abuzz over Tesla -- the car, not the inventor. That Arnold Schwarzenegger could convince the makers of the high-end, electric vehicle to relocate from Bill Richardson's New Mexico to the Golden State was hailed as skilled strong-arming by the strongman-turned-governator.

Over the past several weeks, the Canadian press has reported that at least six detainees currently held at Guantanamo are interested in seeking refugee status north of America's border. But the Canadian government should be wary of accepting them. Canadian officials should carefully evaluate their…

"CONGRESS IS LIKE A whiskey drinker," President Lyndon Johnson once observed. "You can put an awful lot of whiskey into a man if you just let him sip it," he said. "But if you try to force the whole bottle down his throat at one time, he'll throw it up."

Just how badly did the Obama team treat Anthony Zinni? FP's Laura Rozen quotes Zinni saying that the president actually called to congratulate him on his appointment. Zinni then proceeds to "unload" on the administration's handling of the affair: "To make a long story short, I kept getting blown…

Barack Obama's week just got a little worse. When the Inauguration Committee announced Beyonce would sing "At Last" for Michelle and Barack's first dance, many wondered why the couple didn't ask Etta James herself to sing her signature song. Either they knew she wasn't keen on Obama, or Etta is…

Mitch McConnell: "To give the proposed economic stimulus plan some perspective, "if you started the day Jesus Christ was born and spent $1 million every day since then, you still wouldn't have spent $1 trillion." Some members of Congress are trying to cut the beer tax in half. Ryan T. Anderson on…

Steven Chu, our new Secretary of Energy, tries to spook the public: "I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," he said. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California." And, he added, "I don't actually see how they can keep their…

I just had a conversation with one Republican who speculated that Richard Holbrooke may have been at the center of the current mess over who will serve as U.S. ambassador in Iraq. According to the scenario he laid out, despite Jones having offered the job to Zinni -- an offer from one retired…

Today, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) offered amendments to the "stimulus" bill that would increase defense spending. The Inhofe amendment would allocate $5.3 billion for equipment, infrastructure, and personnel, while the Cornyn amendment would provide $2 billion primarily…

From last night's interview with Anderson Cooper: COOPER: I've noticed you don't use the term "war on terror," I think I read an article that you've only used it once since the Inauguration. Is that conscious? Is there something about that term you find objectionable or not useful? B. OBAMA: Well,…

The news that Saudi Arabia has now released a wanted list for 85 jihadis that have cycled through the jihadi "rehabilitation program" has caused quite a stir in the ongoing controversy on closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Eleven of the 85 wanted jihadis were released from Guantanamo to…

As Biden so inartfully predicted during the campaign, the world is testing Obama. Victor Davis Hanson writes at the Corner: Abroad, some really creepy people are lining up to test Obama's world view of "Bush did it/but I am the world": The North Koreans are readying their missiles; the Iranians are…

I wonder if Markos Moulitsas has started hanging around with Republicans. I've heard this joke a few dozen times over the last week or two, but it's now apparently OK for liberals to recite as well: The Moulitsas Deficit Reduction Act of 2009 by kos... Here's how it works: Since the only time rich…

Barack Obama wants to invest billions in green energy -- such as wind and solar -- because it is the wave of the future, and because it will give birth to millions of good-paying jobs here in the United States. There's just one problem: according to a study by a coalition of liberal and…

And the left can't stand it. After eight years, or maybe seven, in which the left seemed to be rooting for catastrophe -- in Iraq, in the economy, in the war on terror -- they're getting a taste of their own medicine. Did Democrats want to see the economy go belly up in 2004, when the biggest story…

At least Tom Daschle still has his friends. Hardly had the would-be Health and Human Services secretary exited stage left before his Washington defenders got to work. A former HHS secretary went on TV lauding Daschle as "honorable." Members of the Senate praised their former colleague as "a great…

In the past 24 hours, more evidence of former Guantanamo detainees rejoining their terrorist friends has resurfaced. Saudi Arabia released a list of 85 most wanted terrorists. The list includes 11 former Guantanamo detainees who were placed in Saudi Arabia's rehabilitation program, but the rehab…

The Washington Times reports: The Obama administration asked retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni to be U.S. ambassador to Iraq but abruptly withdrew the appointment without explanation, Gen. Zinni said Tuesday. Gen. Zinni, a former commander of Central Command, told The Washington Times that he had…

Wow, Hillary's thank-you to Bill: So awkward you may not get through watching it. Clooney set to star in scintillating blockbuster about habeus corpus. Joe, the professional shark-jumper? Biden muffs yet another oath after mocking Roberts. Support for stimulus among economists dropping like, well,…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that later this morning Rasmussen Reports will release new survey data showing that a plurality of Americans now oppose the stimulus package (37-43%); two weeks ago, support for the legislation stood at 45-34%. There is now greater support for a plan that includes…

DURING HIS 39-YEAR rule as Libya's undisputed dictator, Muammar Qaddafi has picked up various titles, including "Brotherly Leader," "Guide of the Revolution," and "king of kings." The latter title was recently bestowed by 200 African kings and tribal rulers in a ceremony whose pomposity was…

Rep. Jim Cooper, a conservative Democrat from Tennessee, told a liberal radio network that the Obama White House encouraged him to pick a fight with Nancy Pelosi on the stimulus bill. According to Glenn Thrush at Politico, Cooper said: "Well, I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I actually got…

She will be the first female class day speaker at Princeton. It's a real milestone in our struggle for gender equality. The selection was made by the students and endorsed by the administration: While every member of the senior class might not be thrilled with the selection, Associate Dean of…

Here we go again. CIA officials are gloating over the effectiveness of the U.S. airstrikes in Pakistan's tribal areas. NPR reports: CIA-directed airstrikes against al-Qaida leaders and facilities in Pakistan over the past six to nine months have been so successful, according to senior U.S.…

Minnesota court ruling may help Coleman. Continetti does Bloggingheads. Scrappleface on Obama's innovative plan to boost government revenue. North Korea 'prepares to test long range missile'. Iran launches satellite on rocket that could become ICBM.

Yesterday, Michelle Obama, prominent mother of two Sidwell Friends students, gave the first remarks on her listening tour of federal agencies at the Education Department, detailing her commitment to public schools. She entered the room to loud applause, working a long receiving line before she…

Gareth Porter, the left's favorite reporter, filed a dispatch yesterday alleging that a cabal of generals, led by David Petraeus, was seeking "to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy." Lending further credence to his report, Porter quoted an unnamed source as saying that Petraeus…

The stars must be aligned. On the very same day that Barack Obama acceded to Tom Daschle's "request" to withdraw his HHS nomination, Detroit's Democratic mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is released from jail and is beginning a job search: Kwame Kilpatrick regained his freedom early Tuesday morning, emerging…

While Obama deals with the assorted tax problems of his nominees, the world continues to turn. The AP reports that "Kyrgyzstan will no longer allow US to use airbase that supports military operations in Afghanistan." This as the Kyrgyz president arrives in Moscow for a state visit the agenda for…

The New York Times reports on the trend of mainstream journalists going to work in the Obama administration and gets this stunning quote from Jay Carney: Mr. Carney, the former Time bureau chief who now works as Mr. Biden's spokesman, said he did not view his job as particularly political either,…

The Plum Line posts this picture from Vanity Fair's photo-spread of Obama's "cabinet," though perhaps the magazine jumped the gun a little bit given today's news about Daschle. Also in the photo is Hilda Solis, who is no shoe-in herself given her own ethical lapses, including lobbying her own…

Daschle has withdrawn, according to several breaking news alerts, but very few details thus far. Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination to be Health and Human Services secretary. That's according to a joint White House statement from President Barack Obama and his former nominee. Obama said…

William Shawcross writes in the Guardian on the Iraqi elections: There were lamentable failures in the subsequent US occupation, which allowed the rise of the hideous sectarian violence that threatened to tear the country to pieces. But in the last two years the "surge" of US troops under General…

That's the official number of jobless Chinese migrant workers who have returned to their rural communities. Xinhua also reports that China's annualized growth rate in 2008 reached a seven-year low. Remember: These are the official statistics released by the Chinese government. The actual numbers…

The Pakistani military is yet again on the offensive against the Taliban in the district of Swat, which is well outside of the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. This is the third time the military has tried to eject the Taliban in the past two years. The two previous efforts ultimately failed,…

Thomas E. Ricks: "That sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach is caused by the course of Obama's cabinet picks: Richardson blew up on the launch pad, two of the more prominent picks have tax problems, his CIA pick seems inexplicable, his no. 2 guy at the Pentagon needed a waiver from his new…

Before Tom Daschle was evading taxes for his chauffeur service, he was running as a jalopy-driving man of the people. My, how times have changed. This is Daschle in 1986. Before he succumbed to the siren song of luxury car services and the tantalizing red glow of designer eyewear, he had a simple…

So, has the Obama team just dispensed with vetting entirely now? President Obama's new candidate to run the Commerce Department voted in favor of abolishing the agency as a member of the Budget Committee and on the Senate floor in 1995. Sen. Judd Gregg , R-N.H., whose nomination was expected to be…

Don't fly Aeroflot: Flight attendants initially ignored passengers' complaints and threatened to expel them from the Boeing 767 jet unless they stopped "making trouble". As the rebellion spread, Aeroflot representatives boarded the aircraft to try to calm down the 300 passengers. One sought to…

Yes, that's the actual title. Coming to stores in May is Seth Grahame-Smith's mash-up which features the full text Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with zombie scenes added in. And yes, there is a Facebook group for it. The End Times will commence in 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . .

And, that makes three. It's unclear how serious "Chief Performance Officer" Nancy Killefer's problems with the IRS are. She may have been pushed to withdraw given the aggregate public relations hit the Obama administration is taking due the revelation that NO DEMOCRATS PAY THEIR TAXES. When Obama…

No, it's not Tom Daschle -- at least not yet. A few weeks ago Barack Obama proudly named Nancy Killefer as the first Chief Performance Officer of the federal government. Her chief responsibility would be to root out waste in the federal government. Although curiously enough, in her previous career…

Barack Obama signed an executive order late in the afternoon on Friday, January 23 to allow taxpayer funds to go to groups overseas that perform or promote abortions. To minimize press coverage, he signed the order in the absence of reporters and photographers, and the White House waited until 7:00…

Ouch: "Daschle is dispensable." Army private lands safely with dying instructor at his back during first skydive. Newsflash: Working at Wal-Mart may not be as soul-sucking and terrible as liberals think, a data point they could have gleaned from the thousands who line up for applications at every…

It looks like this college Democrat didn't get the memo about Obama's post-partisan America: Crosses used in an antiabortion demonstration at George Washington University were defaced last week, and the school's College Democrats organization has apologized for the vandalism. The crosses had been…

A seemingly innocuous letter sent to the Clerk of the House of Representatives last Thursday by President Obama's Secretary of Labor nominee Hilda Solis raises serious and troubling legal questions about her nomination and apparent violation of House ethics rules. Not only was she involved with a…

Osman Musliu is a moderate Muslim mullah and Kosovar Albanian patriot. He demonstrated his commitment to both causes during the Kosovo war of 1998-99, when he was the sole Islamic cleric in the territory willing to officiate at the funeral of Adem Jashari, the main founder of the Kosovo Liberation…

Milwaukee public schools would receive $88.6 million in "stimulus" funds to build new schools "even though the district has 15 vacant school buildings, a large surplus of property and no plans for new construction." President Obama stays classy, makes light of tabloid article on Jessica Simpson's…

The White House cocktail party was a lovely symbol of Obama's commitment to bipartisanship, but it looks like Obama's reaching across the aisle with a bottle of gin in one hand and a knife in the other. According to Greg Sargent's new Plum Line blog at the Washington Post, the Obama administration…

The White House cocktail party was a lovely symbol of Obama's commitment to bipartisanship, but it looks like Obama's reaching across the aisle with a bottle of gin in one hand and a knife in the other. According to Greg Sargent's new Plum Line blog at the Washington Post, the Obama administration…

Politico's Manu Raju writes: Political insiders in Washington and New Hampshire say Sen. Judd Gregg's nomination as Barack Obama's commerce secretary is nearly a "done deal" - with Republicans signing off as long as Gregg's Senate seat goes to another Republican, and Democrats in agreement as long…

Aretha Franklin's Inauguration Day hat, featuring a gigantic wool bow sparkling with Svarovski crystals, has already made a splash on the Internet. Since January 20, it has been Photoshopped onto countless pop culture and political icons, not to mention personal pictures. It's spawned more than 25…

Simple question: Has the Obama White House had discussion with New Hampshire Governor John Lynch (D) about a successor to Senator Judd Gregg (R) if Obama chooses Gregg as his next Commerce Secretary? White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, at his afternoon briefing: The Obama administration ""has…

The chief of staff on Meet the Press two weeks ago: So while he has talked about the need--and everybody I think from economists on the left to economists on the right realize that we must make critical investments at this time. And yes, they'll add to our obligation. It has got to be coupled with…

I spent a lot of time in the car this weekend, and while driving up I-95 I had the chance to hear Jack Welch speak at a forum hosted by Donna Shalala at the University of Miami. The forum had taken place just a few days before the inauguration, but one of the points that Welch made would seem to…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, to back the planned Nord Stream gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea. According…

What did we learn from the last week's unanimous rejection of the Democratic stimulus package by House Republicans? We learned President Obama, who ardently wooed Republicans, is more charming than he is persuasive. We learned Republicans, though they can't win a vote, can win an argument. We…

ON SATURDAY THE New York Times published an investigation into a "secret U.S. exit poll" in Kenya's 2007 presidential election. In December of that year, Mwai Kibaki defeated Raila Odinga to win a second term as President of Kenya. According to the official results, Kibaki overcame Odinga's…

The comedy world's aversion to mocking President Obama is well documented. But this morning I heard a new radio ad for the local fast-food chain Jerry's. For years, Jerry's has run a radio campaign based on the idea that the founder, Jerry, is having little conversations with various celebrities,…

Republican pollster and communications strategist Steve Lombardo weighed-in recently on a couple interesting questions related to the Bush presidency. First, Lombardo argues that the 43rd president's approval is what I would describe as "term dependent." And second, while a high percentage of…

Time's Michael Scherer writes: At the start of the year, Barack Obama's team announced, to some significant fanfare, that the president wanted 40 percent of the stimulus package, or about $300 billion, to come in the form of tax cuts. On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office scored the bill…

President vs. Pop Star: Obama keeps it classy by picking on Jessica Simpson's weight. Nice. Pollster Geoffrey Garin, a top Democratic strategist, says Steele puts "a better, friendlier face" on the GOP, but the party's problems are deep-seated. "He has a very steep hill to climb" to change that,…

One of the less appealing aspects of art scholarship and criticism in the past half-century has been the extent to which it has wasted its time defining art. To be sure, presented with the spectacle of a row of bricks or Richard Serra's "Tilted Arc" or a dead shark suspended in formaldehyde, one…

The Longevity Revolution

Republicans' 2008 election losses have spawned a spate of self-reflection. Was it just President Bush and the economy? Was it too much religion or ineffective candidates? Was opposition to immigration reform the death knell with minorities, or did Republicans fail to explain tried and true…

The British Library has just released an anthology of recorded interviews with famous 20th-century American and British writers that bears a telling title: "The Spoken Word." As much as the authors here carry on about the perennial writerly subjects--getting paid, obtuse critics, and, especially,…

The ceremonies, unity, and patriotism of Inauguration week were nice. The bloviating, fawning, and gushing from celebrities and the media were a bit much. It's not surprising that we are beginning to hear expressions of frustration from the Republican grass roots, and exhortations to action: "Why…

It grieves me to say so, but President Obama's conservative critics just don't get it. The new president has put forward a plan for economic recovery that is more coherent than they are willing to admit. Start with the stimulus package of some $825 billion. A lot of money, more even than George W.…

Sweating the Small Stuff

Revolutionary Road

Lincoln or Reagan? TR or Ike? Washington or Wilson? Camelot or Campobello? Offshore oil drilling may be stalled for the duration, but nothing can stop the round-the-clock mining of clichés and the deep-earth probes in search of historical metaphors for President Obama. Journalists are running three…

Jerusalem

We see better when we recognize and can name (at least for our own purposes) the things we see. If you can tell a delphinium from a daylily, or a Titian from a Rubens, or a Honda Civic from a Lotus Elise, you see the world in sharper focus than someone who can't.

A good friend was planning a surprise party for her husband, also a good friend, and she asked me to contribute a poem to the celebration. Now, I was busy at work and behind schedule on two freelance assignments, which unlike this commission promised financial reward. But my ego is fragile and…

In 1994, congressional Republicans carried laminated copies of their Contract With America (tax cuts, term limits, etc.) in their pockets. They may now want to laminate President Obama's inaugural address and carry it around.

Barack Obama is the most religious Democratic president since Jimmy Carter. In announcing his campaign two years ago in Springfield, Illinois, he explicitly declared his Christian faith, and on the stump he regularly described himself as "a devout Christian." He made "religious outreach" a key part…

Politicians are in agreement: Government must spend, spend, spend to solve the economic "crisis." The words "economic crisis" are accepted as fact. Why? Why is America in "crisis"?

Wake Us When It's Over

Barack Obama was supposed to make his first presidential foray into the culture wars last Thursday, January 22, by signing an executive order that would please the pro-abortion lobby. He didn't.

On his second day in office, President Obama issued an executive order to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp within one year. He also ordered a suspension of military trials for Guantánamo detainees--including the prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an admitted 9/11 plotter--and a review of…