April 2009

ABC runs a report showing the names and faces of two CIA contractors who may have had a role in the waterboarding of KSM and Abu Zubaydah. The network apparently outsourced this report to a freelancer named Matthew Cole, whose record in Nexis includes just three bylines -- two stories for Salon…

There have been at least two noteworthy pieces of Gitmo-closing news in the past 24 hours. First, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee today that as many as 50 to 100 Gitmo detainees cannot be tried but are too dangerous to be released. The implication being…

Likely Illinois Republican senatorial candidate Mark Kirk has a strong showing in an early poll. Remember how zealous Republicans abandoned relentlessly campaigned for Specter in 2004? Fred Barnes' Election Day prediction that we were in for a "lurch to the left" is unfortunately looking on target.…

J Street has drawn a line in the sand: you're either with the President or against him. There's only one problem. J Street, accidentally one imagines, have put themselves in the against him camp. Ami Eden has the story at JTA, where he notes a statement the pro-peace, pro-Palestinian group put out…

If her interruptions interview of Liz Cheney about interrogation wasn't enough to show her true colors, she was just on MSNBC fretting about just how loyal a Democrat Arlen Specter might be. Interviewing Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell about whether he had made a deal with Specter to clear the…

According to a new Quinnipiac poll: American voters oppose 55 - 38 percent a law in their state allowing same-sex couples to marry, but support 57 - 38 percent allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions. TEXT TEXT

As Goldfarb noted earlier, Obama said last night that he "was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II, when London was being bombed to smithereens, had 200 or so detainees. And Churchill said, 'We don't torture' " We asked…

It seems that one of the most important parts of Arlen Specter's deal to change parties is the assurance that he won't face a Democratic primary next year. Specter's votes for Justices Alito and Kennedy, his opposition to Card Check, the support he has received from people like George Bush and Rick…

A lovely moment, and glimpse inside the audacity of the Obama communications shop, at the press briefing just now. Jake Tapper pointed out that travel-industry officials had characterized Vice President Joe Biden's comments about swine flu and public transportation as "fearmongering." Biden made…

In the coming months, with little fanfare, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna will select a new Director General for the organization. This person will play an integral role in international efforts to curtail the nuclear weapons ambitions of countries…

President Obama invoked Winston Churchill last night as an example of a leader who refused to resort to torture no matter the threat. Obama said he "was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II, when London was being bombed to…

The vice president's foot-in-mouth disease is flaring up again. Tom Harkin is not pleased.

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, wants you to believe there is nothing to worry about in Pakistan and his country is taking the fight to the Taliban. And everything would be fine if the U.S. would just give Pakistan more money and weapons and stop being so critical of his…

From an email floating around the Hill: During his 100-day commemorative press conference last evening, President Obama criticized the enhanced interrogation techniques because he asserted, without any empirical support, that "we could have gotten that same information without resorting to these…

Before California Rep. Darrell Issa came to Congress, he founded a company called Directed Electronics, whose most well-known product was the Viper car alarm system. Turns out securing automobiles may be the least of Issa's talents. As the senior Republican on the House Oversight and Government…

Tonight President Obama said he was "absolutely convinced" that he had made the right decision in putting an end to the use of the harsh interrogation techniques employed by the Bush administration. After eight years of President Bush, it certainly is refreshing to have a leader who doesn't let…

First, the earth moved briefly when the words "Bush administration" and "good job" came out of Barack Obama's mouth in the same sentence. Apparently he's finally inherited something he likes-stockpiles of Tamiflu and the infrastructure to deal with a pandemic. From now on, we're calling this sucker…

Fred Barnes on Specter's defection. Bipartisanship you can believe in: 53 senators--all Democrats--vote for Obama's budget; 43 senators--including Democrats Bayh, Byrd, Nelson, and Specter--vote against it. Obama clears 13 more detainees for release. AP: Obama disowns deficit he helped shape. House…

It comes at about the 5:50 mark. Cliff May asks Stewart whether Truman's use of the atomic bomb was a war crime, Stewart ruminates and then responds with an unequivocal "yes." He's certainly not the only American who would take that view, but it's a useful reminder that the most vocal and popular…

Barack Obama took a few moments at a town hall in Missouri today to address the 300,000 activists who showed up at Tax Day Tea Parties across the nation, protesting out-of-control spending and a growing deficit piled on by the new administration. With his signature eloquence and respect for…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained a letter now circulating among members of the Senate and calling for Secretary Gates to maintain production lines for both the F-22 and the C-17 "until the final publication of the next Mobility Capability Study and the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review." The push…

The Washington Post published one of its trademark editorials this morning ("Keeping the Polls Open") about a Supreme Court case that may decide the fate of Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which requires 16 Southern states to obtain approval from the Justice Department before altering…

As Israel celebrates its sixty-first year of existence, it marks a growth spurt as well: its population has risen from 7.3 million a year ago to 7.4 million today. The breakdown: 75.5 percent Jews; 20.2 percent Arabs; 7.5 percent foreigners. Again: 20.2 percent of the citizens of the Jewish state…

How's this for synergy? You know, maybe the American Prospect is right, after all. This guy's sounding awfully reasonable...

Geneva

I think I just spotted part of Obama's $100 million in savings. Is there a line item for scaring the mess out of New Yorkers traumatized by 9/11, 'cause I think we can let that go: President Barack Obama ordered a review of a publicity-photo shoot with one of the planes that serves as Air Force One…

That's President Obama's description of his economic team's philosophy in this fascinating interview with the Times's David Leonhardt. Run, don't walk, to read it. Two takeaways. In the first, Obama describes his touchstone for economic policy: [D]oes it allow the average American to find good…

(1) Michael Barone analyzes Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic party and concludes: "When [Winston] Churchill left the Liberals, they had led governments for 16 of the preceding 18 years. They never did so again. A party in decline should adapt its basic philosophy to new policies and…

The New York Times reports: President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan announced on Wednesday that Beijing officials had dropped their objections to Taiwan's participation as an observer at a United Nations body, a step forward in Taiwan's effort to win greater international recognition.... Mao Qunan, the…

The U.S. Department of Defense is delighted to see the Pakistani military -- or at least the poorly trained Frontier Corps -- take on the Taliban in Buner and Dir, two districts neighboring Swat, where the Taliban run the show. The DoD "hopes for sustained effort" by the Pakistani military against…

Everyone and their momma is running for senate in Pennsylvania. Pick a party, any party! Morality and interrogation. Chris Buckley: "Enough with the torture sanctimony, huh?" Pakistan clamping down on militants. U.S. military to Taliban: "No poppies for you." Carter totally wants to get back…

First, some credit to President Obama. The AP reports: Australia announced Wednesday it will increase by almost one half its troops in Afghanistan to about 1,550 as part of the U.S.-led surge of international forces to bolster the faltering fight against Taliban insurgents. Prime Minister Kevin…

I've read that 100 days is about 1/14 of President Obama's first term. So look on the bright side: only 13/14 left to go! What to say about Obama's presidency thus far? He has continued or expanded many of the policies of the late Bush administration, in both domestic (bailouts) and foreign (Iraq,…

Joe Biden has been pressuring Arlen Specter to switch parties for six years, FOX News's Major Garrett reports: "I have been working on [Specter's party switch] in earnest for the past four years and double time for the past 100 days [as vice president]," the vice president said yesterday. Well,…

Joseph Abrams reports for Fox: The New York Times reported last week that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, was waterboarded 183 times in one month by CIA interrogators. The "183 times" was widely circulated by news outlets throughout the world. It was…

Allahpundit: FAA memo: Feds knew Scare Force One would cause panic On a 65 to 31 vote, the Senate confirms tax delinquent and darling of partial-birth abortionists Kathleen Sebelius as HHS secretary. Could high unemployment numbers drag Obama down? Pew: Half of U.S. adults have switched religions.…

Ramesh Ponnuru: When Jim Jeffords became an "Independent" in 2001, Specter wasn't happy. He said, "I intend to propose a rule change which would preclude a future recurrence of a Senator's change in parties, in midsession, organizing with the opposition, to cause the upheaval which is now…

Between Arlen Specter, swine flu, and runaway trucks, it's hard to remember those quaint issues of yesterday like Iran trying to get a nuclear weapon. Nonetheless, they still are - and a few people are still trying to stop them. The Bayh-Lieberman-Kyl legislation was introduced today with a quarter…

The boss says Specter's defection is good news: I wonder if today's Arlen Specter party switch, this time to the president's party, won't end up being bad for President Obama and the Democrats. With the likely seating of Al Franken from Minnesota, Democrats will have 60 seats in the Senate, giving…

Fatah Party member Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian National Authority, and "peace" partner extraordinaire-or, otherwise put, chief administrator of the corrupt and useless body that is "governing" parts of the West Bank and will continue to do so until the inevitable Hamas takeover…

Those of us in the Cheney-Hayden-Mukasey, pro-reasonable-interrogation, anti-making-mock-of-those-who-guard-us camp, might wish to remind our fellow citizens: The OLC memos reminded their recipients that torture is illegal, and conscientiously advised their recipients how to carefully conduct…

You know you're in trouble when you start a sentence with "as bad as the Nazis were." Another sure sign you're headed in the wrong direction is when you must stipulate from the outset that you don't know what you're talking about, as in "I'm no military historian, but..." Today Christopher Orr, the…

The New York Sun is back, or at least the editorial page is. The editors write in response to Ross Douthat's first column in the Times: "Cheney for President" is the headline today over the first column by the New York Times's newest op-ed regular, Ross Douthat - a delightful debut suggesting that,…

Joe Torsella, the current front-runner for the Democratic Senate nomination in Pennsylvania, has vowed not to step aside and let Specter have the Democratic nomination. Unless he pulls a Specter and changes his mind in two weeks to serve his political ambition, that could make things slightly more…

With Arlen Specter's defection and Al Franken's expected win this summer, Democrats will have 60 seats in the Senate for first time in 30 years. According to Senate.gov, Democrats have held 60 or more seats in the Senate during two periods since there have been 50 states in the union: 1959 to 1969…

Michael Steele readies for a fight: Some in the Republican Party are happy about this. I am not. Let's be honest-Senator Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary…

Joe Klein can't believe that the editors of the Los Angeles Times would allow someone as "overwhelmingly limited" as Jamie Kirchick to criticize Barack Obama in their pages. In particular, Kirchick's limitation seems to be a failure to grasp the moral imperative that all nations be treated equally:…

Human Events is reporting it. Filibuster-proof majority, here we come. As if we didn't pass enough the first 100 days. The statement: "I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary," said Specter in a statement. "I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and…

Kristol_Comic.jpg

Joe Klein can't believe that the editors of the Los Angeles Times would allow someone as "overwhelmingly limited" as Jamie Kirchick to criticize Barack Obama in their pages. In particular, Kirchick's limitation seems to be his Klein writes that because of the unilateralism and warmongering of the…

The NYT assures us that Obama was "incensed" over yesterday's incredibly bone-headed idea to buzz the Manhattan skyline with a 747 and several F-16s, momentarily freaking out New Yorkers in a fashion reminiscent of Mohammed Atta. CBS says he was "furious." He should be, since the orders came right…

New York Times reporter Brian Stelter puts on a clinic this morning with a front-page story about John Kiriakou, the former CIA officer who claimed in a 2007 interview with ABC (available here) that the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah "disrupted a number of attacks, maybe dozens of attacks." Kiriakou…

Quoth Allahpundit: Next Obama "photo op": An unannounced overflight of Pearl Harbor by 200 or so unmarked fighter/bombers.

Jamie Kirchick writes in the Los Angeles Times: At a stop on his grand global apology tour this spring, President Obama was asked by a reporter in France if he believed in "American exceptionalism." This is the notion that our history as the world's oldest democracy, our immigrant founding and our…

With Iran sanctions legislation pending in Congress, Iran's nuclear program continuing to draw headlines, and U.S. Iran envoy Dennis Ross headed to the Persian Gulf to attempt to assuage concerns about negotiations with Iran, the folks at AEI have set up a useful website for tracking the latest…

Seriously, White House? "It's so stupid because they tell you about every fire drill, but they didn't tell us about this." But don't worry. Obama is reportedly "incensed." Oddly enough, the WSJ is the only paper giving this colossal blunder front-page treatment. Update: I meant to add an "online…

We are learning all sorts of lessons, very early on, about what President Obama means by "reaching out" to find "common ground" with pro-life Americans. When it came to rescinding the regulation prohibiting federal family-planning money for foreign abortionists, it meant that the president…

In a 2006 national referendum, Panamanian voters approved a $5.2 billion project to expand the Panama Canal. As the Panama Star reports, "Percentage wise, the canal expansion dwarfs any stimulus project the United States is planning. The project represents nearly a quarter of Panama's $23 billion…

The Bronx, New York (pop.1,332,650), Pinkham's Grant, New Hampshire (pop. zero), and Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One (pop. 3,500) in Travis County, Texas share a special status under our nation's civil rights laws: All are covered by Section 5 of the landmark 1965 Voting…

A majority of Americans (55%) say that the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques was "justified," which according to the nattering nabobs of the net-left means that more than half of all Americans are un-American torture apologists. I was struck by a line in Paul Krugman's…

More on interrogations from Jennifer Rubin and Paul Mirengoff. BBC: Spain's jobless rate soars to 17% Allahpundit: Left: Republicans love swine flu or something CNN Poll: Obama more popular than his policies Low-flying plane causes scare in NYC. Update: It was a photo-op for Air Force One.

TEXT Mike Potemra TEXT TEXT "truth is seldom pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter. There is some bitterness in my speech today, too. But I want to stress that it comes not from an adversary but from a friend."

Harry Reid turned his Searchlight on Barack Obama in 2006, he says in a new epilogue to the paperback version of his 2008 auto-bio, The Good Fight, and, listening to the senator from Illinois speak, he was struck by the Obamic brilliance. But more wonderful still was the modesty of The One:…

Joementum delivered a speech at AEI this afternoon previewing new bipartisan legislation for tighter sanctions on Iran specifically targeting the country's dependence on imports of refined petroleum products. The full text of the speech is after the jump, but the key excerpt: To be clear, I am not…

No raise for you, Teleprompter: Laying his plan for a President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Obama began to name the members of PCAST listed in his prepared remarks - before realizing he'd already introduced them, earlier in his speech. "In addition to John - sorry, the - I just…

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune conducted a new poll last wek: Franken's favorable rating of 47 percent just before the election has dropped to 43 percent in the current Minnesota Poll. Forty-eight percent said they had an unfavorable impression of Franken, while the remainder said they didn't know or…

A prototype of the Sukhoi Su-35 Super Flanker exploded during take-off at the Komsomolosk-na-Amure Aviation Production Association's (KNAAPO) Dzemgi flight test aerodrome on 26 April. Spokesmen for KNAAPO told Russia's Novosti news service that the fighter caught on fire and burst into flames…

You can rename an "F" whatever you want-call it an "A" if you like-but guess what? Nobody's gonna be fooled. Especially not the failing student whose history you think you are rewriting by calling his "F" an "H." That's "H" for "Held." School districts all over the country are experimenting with…

Politico's Patrick O'Connor has a story up today on the early delays in climate change legislation in the House. O'Connor quotes John Dingell, who was unceremoniously pushed aside as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year, calling for a more transparent regulatory scheme:…

Following in the footsteps of reform-minded Dartmouth alumni who have won insurgent campaigns for governing boards in Hanover, two Harvard alumni, Harvey A. Silverglate and Robert L. Freedman, are running their own campaign to bring "change" to Cambridge this year. At Minding the Campus,…

Former British prime minister Tony Blair gave an important speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs last week. Everyone should read it. And while you print it out, you might as well print out Blair's March 18, 2003, speech to the House of Commons arguing for the deposition of Saddam Hussein…

Is Rudy Giuliani about to make the same mistake that doomed his 2008 presidential candidacy? Jacob Gershman reports in this week's New York that Giuliani hasn't declared his intention to run for New York governor in 2010 because, according to some advsiers, he "has to lull the Democrats into…

Henry Waxman (anthem below)* is so passionate about saving us, and our tainted air, from ourselves that he will brook no opposition. Every cause needs its Savonarola (Republicans=evil Medici)-why not our melting globe? Yet do we sense a blackening effluence emanating from the pure, unstained…

Over the weekend I caught the latest episode of the FX series Rescue Me, which features a discussion of PNAC, the defunct think-tank at the heart of so many conspiracy theories about the Bush administration. The scene features one of the show's characters explaining that 9/11 was an inside job --…

He's 1-for-11 on his promise to put bills online for five days before signing: President Obama promised on the campaign trail that he would have the most transparent administration in history. As part of this commitment, he said that the public would have five days to look online and find out what…

Aside from the cheap shots at Palin, this is a pretty good alternative history. Just imagine: But as his presidency nears the 100-day mark, nothing better symbolizes McCain's man-in-the-arena emulation of TR than his impromptu mid-February flight (the White House press corps was given 45 minutes'…

In case you missed it yesterday, Jordan's King Abdullah appeared on Meet the Press where he accused the United States of engaging in torture and praised Barack Obama for the transparency with which his administration was dealing with Bush-era interrogation techniques. Gregory, to his credit, notes…

The entire column is a simultaneously smart and emotional appeal to the British government to avoid punishing wealth creators, but this is the most important sentence: So, I beg readers not to confuse overpaid bankers with the rest of Britain's entrepreneurs. Indeed, that is exactly the confusion…

As Pakistan wrestles with the Taliban takeover of large swaths of its territory and the encroachment on Islamabad, its Inter-Services Intelligence agency tells us that Osama bin Laden is dead. President Asif Ali Zardari said Monday that Pakistani intelligence believes Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin…

The Los Angeles Times reports: Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration, already on treacherous political ground because of its outreach to traditional adversaries such as Iran and Cuba, has opened the door a crack to engagement with the militant group Hamas. The Palestinian group is…

Several data points suggest appointed Colorado senator Michael Bennet is headed for some rough political sledding as he approaches his first statewide election next year. Bennet was appointed by the state's Democratic governor to fill the seat vacated when President Obama picked Colorado senator…

Ha! Barack Obama finally learns how to tell a joke. The "citrus plot." Blame it on the juice. Jimmy Carter writes an op-ed. No good can come of this. Are you ready to ration!?!? Britain's entrepreneurs vote with their feet. The Democratic scandal scorecard. Dear Barack Obama: How many times must I…

Edenton, North Carolina

The arrival of six-month-old Portuguese Water Dog Bo at the White House--and especially the first photograph that was making the rounds of the Obama family, which has never had a dog, greeting him in a rather strained-looking pose--has put me in mind of my own checkered history with dogs, and that…

As isolated as Republicans appear to be in Washington, they often find allies in the struggle to keep the federal government from becoming the command-and-control center of American life. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have stymied organized labor's drive for legislation…

Imagine a world in which virtually all private and public transportation is powered by computer-optimized electric motors except for the largest diesel engines and aircraft. With the prospect of some promising near-term improvements in battery storage technology, it's time to assess what obstacles…

Not with a Bang but a Whimper

Mr. Jefferson's Women

This past January a pastry chef named Gaston Lenôtre died in France at the age of 88. He never had a cooking show on the Food Network. His first foray in this country was a pastry shop that opened its doors in 1974 in New York and closed a year later. Chances are, most Americans have never heard of…

The Spy Who Came in from the Co-Op

Third-term representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers doesn't fit the mold of the female member of Congress. Unlike at least three-quarters of them, she's a Republican. And unlike about seven-eighths of them, she's staunchly pro-life.

So how is Fed chairman Ben Bernanke going to get all that toothpaste back into the tube? The Fed has been cranking money out like water over Niagara Falls. The monetary base has increased by a trillion dollars in just the last six months. And he's not done, furiously printing dollars (bank credits,…

State of Play

Everyone knows the old joke about New Jersey--"What exit?" I grew up just off Exit 4 of the Turnpike, and the entire premise of the gag is ridiculous. People in New Jersey don't calculate the geographic and social differences among them by highway off ramps. We use malls.

The state of the "Republican brand" has become a ubiquitous discussion topic among Washington wonks, journalists, and politicians over the past year. Last May, then-congressman Tom Davis of Virginia sent a memo to his House GOP colleagues arguing that "the Republican brand is in the trash can.…

San Antonio, Texas

The Many-Splendored Couric

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women once told Libya to reinterpret the Koran so as to fall within committee guidelines. It instructed Belarus that a national celebration of Mother's Day violated women's rights by perpetuating a negative…

Marc Thiessen has a very thorough and important post at NRO pushing back against claims that the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and KSM didn't break up a terror plot in L.A.: In his post, [Timothy] Noah calls the West Coast plot "Thiessen's claim" and Andrew Sullivan calls it "Thiessen's LA Tower…

In a powerful op-ed in today's Washington Post, the former House intelligence committee chairman and CIA director slams the administration and his former colleagues on the Hill: I am speaking out now because I feel our government has crossed the red line between properly protecting our national…

Sam Stein: Kerry: Detainee Photos Could Be Terrorist Propaganda, But Truth Is Important Jay Cost: Does Jon Stewart Influence Public Opinion? David Freddoso on budget reconciliation. Ed Morrissey: Video: Frank in 2005 - Bubble? What bubble? Rasmussen: Pennsylvania Senate Primary: Toomey 51% Specter…

Never mind pressing Israel for concessions in pursuit of "peace." The Palestinians themselves are incapable of making the necessary concessions to one another to provide the Israelis with an interlocutor. "The past week has seen an escalation in the confrontation between Hamas and Fatah, both in…

Of course, everyone's first choice for president in 2012 is Dick Cheney. But Liz Cheney's boffo performance yesterday in the lefties' den, MSNBC, defending sensible interrogation policies in the war on terror, surely puts her in contention for the runner-up position.

Ben Smith digs up an amazing video from the Obama archives: Samantha Power appealing to the Armenian community on behalf of her candidate in February 2008. Power praises Obama's "forthright statement" on the Armenian genocide, tells us he's never afraid to "call a spade a spade" and assures us that…

Both the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times are reporting that the Obama administration may be preparing to release as many as seven Uighur Gitmo detainees into the U.S. The LA Times reports that the release plan is being considered despite the objections of the Department of Homeland Security.…

From a press release: "Earlier today, I called and congratulated Scott Murphy on a hard-fought contest and wished him well as the next Congressman of the 20th Congressional district. I also expressed my willingness to work with him to ensure that the families of Upstate New York are not left behind…

So Obama has broken another campaign promise. As a candidate, Obama pledged in no uncertain terms to call the Armenian genocide just that. The statement that appeared on his campaign website: "The Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely…

The most ethical Congress ever combined with the most transparent White House in history are making deals to pass a fundamental reshaping of the American health care industry before any of us get a look at it: Top Democrats on Capitol Hill have reached tentative accord on a budget blueprint that…

Secretary of State Clinton yesterday issued a warning to Israel: negotiate "peace" with the "Palestinians" or risk losing the support of the Arab world in your efforts to counter the Iranian threat. At the same time, she suggested the Obama administration's diplomatic outreach to Tehran was the…

The New Jersey governor's race is heating up. This week's Quinnipiac poll shows the top two Republican candidates, ex-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie and ex-Bogota mayor Steve Lonegan, defeating or tying incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine. Corzine's disapproval rating is at a whopping 54 percent. The poll…

As they like to say in Minnesota, uff-da this sure has been a long recount, and it just got a little longer. Oral arguments for the supreme court appeal will begin on June 1, which is later than the Franken campaign requested. So there won't be a Senator Franken until this summer at the earliest.…

In a shocking turn of events, The Nation magazine's liberal editor has joined nefarious corporate backers and Fox News' dishonest trumpeters in giving credence to the utterly inauthentic, "Astroturf" Tax Day Tea Parties, which drew 250-300,000 protesters on April 15, around the country. At the…

With the move to reimpose a moratorium on offshore oil drilling, to impose a cap-and-trade system or a straightforward carbon tax, and to block the establishment of a permanent storage site for nuclear waste, the Obama administration is setting the U.S. on a course to much higher energy costs. But…

Following up on Joe Klein's statement against interest yesterday regarding the apparently tenuous position of Jim Jones as National Security Adviser, Laura Rozen also hears that Jones isn't exactly meshing with the rest of the Obama team: Several sources have in recent weeks described Jones as…

When you rely on somebody named "emptywheel" for your news, you're unlikely to get a straight story. But when emptywheel "reported" that KSM had been waterboarded 183 times, he/she failed to convey what precisely that meant. In response, Cliff May reports the rules of waterboarding: According to…

Is the most ethical Congress ever obstructing global warming skeptics? The Roxana Saberi effect. Larry Summers hears lullabies when the president speaks. Is Glenn Beck right? 30 percent of Democrats prefer socialism. Taking the terrorists' word for it. Blagojevich flies. Can you hear me now? I'm…

On the front page of today's Washington Post we can see the outline of what may become a devastating narrative for the Obama administration and the left. Yesterday's brutal attacks in Iraq, which left more than 80 dead, are tied directly to President Obama's push for a hasty withdrawal: Two large…

From page 242 of his book: "After we received written Department of Justice guidance on the interrogation issue, we briefed the chairman and ranking members of our oversight committees. While they were not asked to formally approve the program, as it was conducted under the president's unilateral…

Captain's Log, Stardate -313696.7861491628 (Earthdate April 21, 2009), Starship USS Too Many Red Bulls: Met today with UFOlogists from the Paradigm Research Group (PRG) in the National Press Club's First Amendment Room. Our subject: We Are Not Alone. Addressing the gathering were three powerful…

The Washington Post's front-page report on internal deliberations over the release of the top-secret memos detailing Bush-era interrogation techniques notes that one of the Obama administration's primary motivations was entirely political: A source familiar with White House views said Obama's…

At the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fielded questions from three congressmen who asked her about abortion. New Jersey representative Chris Smith asked Clinton about her praise of Planned Parenthood founder and eugenicist Margaret Sanger at a…

Barack Obama is unhappy with much that preceded his occupation of the White House, and not only his predecessors conduct of foreign policy, for which he is a serial apologizer. Pre-Obama domestic policy also displeases him: any prosperity the nation enjoyed, he says, was built on a foundation of…

Headlines from Drudge: URGENT: OBAMA GRACES COVER OF 'TIME' [FOR 13TH TIME IN PAST YEAR]... JOE KLEIN DECLARES 'OBAMA AT HIS BEST' EXCLUSIVE PHOTO ESSAY! SEE OBAMA MOVE CHAIRS AROUND! ..GAZE AT JFK... THROW FOOTBALL Next week's cover? WStandard.HIM_cover.v2.jpg

The New York Times has an interesting update on the Yemeni detainees at Gitmo today. It turns out that the Obama administration took a second look at Yemen and did not like what it saw. Thus, for the time being, it looks like the Yemeni detainees will not be returned to their native country, which…

Remember the near-revolt at the State Department when then-Secretary Rice announced that diplomats might be compelled to take assignments there in late 2007? Here is what a senior diplomat said at the time. Note his revulsion in being deployed to a war he doesn't believe in: "Incoming is coming in…

That's what we ought to call the men and women who interrogated the worst of the worst. For those most committed to the ridiculous crusade for terrorist rights, "enhanced interrogation" is not only immoral and illegal, it's ineffective. That argument, like Khalid Sheik Mohamed, doesn't hold water.…

Nancy Pelosi refuses to shut the door on the idea of impeaching Judge Jay Bybee, who gave the CIA the green light on enhanced interrogation in 2002. Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, said lawmakers must determine whether Mr. Bybee lied during his 2003 confirmation hearings, which won him a lifetime…

First, they were tricked into war, and now we find they were tricked into accepting enhanced interrogation techniques they found morally unacceptable and worthy of criminal prosecution for those who devised them. Oops! But if Hoekstra has anything to do with it, the play-dumb Democrats will be…

Lebanon's parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for June and which will essentially be a showdown between Hezbollah's patrons in Damascus and Tehran and a coalition of pro-Western-or at any rate anti-Iranian-actors including Saudi Arabia, will likely hinge on who among the crowded field of…

Porter Goss, former CIA Director and past chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, blasted the Obama administration for releasing Justice Department memos on harsh interrogation techniques. "For the first time in my experience we've crossed the red line of properly protecting our national…

This New York Times article sympathetically conveys the argument that because their staff could not be briefed, "few lawmakers are equipped to make difficult legal and policy judgments about secret programs." My experience with highly classified programs such as this is that even within the…

As if the "teabagging" jokes weren't bad enough, there's this from Larry King. The national media is all about staying out of people's bedrooms, unless the bedroom belongs to a Palin.

When Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez gave President Obama a copy of Eduardo Galeano's left-wing screed Open Veins of Latin America last week, Obama laughed it off, saying, "I'm a reader." Let's hope Obama also reads Alvaro Vargas Llosa's takedown of Galeano. Llosa: "Everything that has happened in…

Politico reports: "If you criminalize legal advice, which is basically what they're going to do, then it has a terribly chilling effect on any kind of advice and counsel that the president might receive," McCain said during an interview on CBS's "Early Show."[...] McCain compared the potential…

In the most daring piece of journalism since FDR was elected, Joe Klein writes about how Obama is the greatest president since Caesar and has accomplished more in his first 100 days than God did in seven, but amidst the fawning and preening and numerous synonyms for stupendous comes one interesting…

A new AP survey finds that despite worries about jobs, job losses, the economy, and the federal debt, Americans are feeling good about the president and the direction of the country: 64 percent of those polled approve of Obama's job performance, down just slightly from 67 percent in February, and…

Gasp! David Paterson is just as bad as Miss California! Another tan, Republican silver fox may want to run for president. Mitt Romney, call your barber. Creeping protectionism. TARP is "inherently vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse, including significant issues relating to conflicts of interest…

From yesterday's energy committee hearing: SEC. LAHOOD : Mr. Chairman, I have a letter here from John M. Reilly correcting the statement that they made -- and it's a letter to the Republican leader -- which has a much lower cost per family. And if it's possible to have this put in the record -- if…

Bill Sweetman reports at Aviation Week's Ares blog that U.S. demands that the Netherlands uphold their obligation to purchase two Joint Strike Fighter test aircraft this year may well bring down the current government. The Defense Minister has made his case to the Dutch Parliament in favor of the…

It's no surprise that "change-minded" Democrats are mute on the issue of transforming the so-called toxic effect of money in politics. Since Democrats now have an overall cash advantage, why alter the game?

The St. Petersburg Times Politifact reported last month that the Republicans were telling a "Pants on Fire" falsehood by claiming that cap and trade would cost the average household $3,100 per year. MIT professor John Reilly, whose study the GOP used to make its estimate, told Politifact that the…

Congressman Pete Hoekstra writes in the Wall Street Journal: "It was not necessary to release details of the enhanced interrogation techniques, because members of Congress from both parties have been fully aware of them since the program began in 2002. We believed it was something that had to be…

Congressman Pete Hoekstra writes in the Wall Street Journal: "It was not necessary to release details of the enhanced interrogation techniques, because members of Congress from both parties have been fully aware of them since the program began in 2002. We believed it was something that had to be…

Creepster gossip blogger Perez Hilton, the non-ideologues kind of ideologue, votes against and trashes Miss California for saying she supports traditional marriage during pageant: "I personally would have appreciated it had she left her politics and her religion out of it," and endorsed gay…

NY-20 seat's a goner--Democrat Murphy takes 365 vote lead. MoveOn.org wants Obama to take the scalps of Bush administration officials behind the interrogation memos. Hillary Clinton v. Congressman Fortenberry on eugenicist Margaret Sanger. Ace has a must-watch Earth Day appropriate video to watch.…

Henry Waxman: "I also want to warn you that as hard as we've been working, the pace is going to accelerate over the next four weeks." We better get to reading, as the U.S. Congress prepares to pass yet another gigantic overhaul of fundamental American systems really, really fast. This time, they're…

Nancy Pelosi knew three years ago her fellow California Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman was being wiretapped by the NSA and didn't lift a finger to let her know. "When you are briefed on something, it isn't your information to share with anybody else," she says. "Even if I wanted to share it…

On Monday night, former vice president Dick Cheney said on Fox News that he had "formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well…

And get yourselves criminal lawyers who have some experience with political persecutions. For no one, Attorney General Holder warns the memo lawyers, is above the law. Oh yeah, except for certain tax evaders, FALN terrorists, and, of course, Marc Rich.

The Obama administration is going to press ahead with efforts to broker an agreement between Israel and the "Palestinians" that will include a "two-state solution." There's nothing new about this, of course--Bill Clinton pursued the vision of two states, "Palestine" and Israel, living side by side…

Another one of those "tough choices"- paying out $5.7 billion of your money to increase "vounteerism." Hmm, volunteering for money? Where I come from, they call that "working:" AmeriCorps offers a range of volunteer opportunities including housing construction, youth outreach, disaster response and…

(1) Pew poll master Andrew Kohut studies the commonalities between Ronald Reagan's and Barack Obama's approval ratings and concludes: "[T]he most important lesson for Barack Obama is that the public will be patient with their new leader in his dealing with an inherited problem - as long as things…

Ya don't say: "President Obama promised CIA officers that they won't be prosecuted for carrying out lawful orders, but the people on the firing line don't believe him." Miss California: One of us. The U.S. Army vs. Ashton Kutcher? Some will be disappointed this is a Twitter contest, not a live-fire…

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius writes on Obama, the CIA and the memos in today's paper. His column will be the most important you read all day. Ignatius, who is extraordinarily well-sourced at the Agency, writes that the consequences of the release have been swift and damaging: President…

Last night, several news outlets reported that Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair contradicted claims from the White House on enhanced interrogations. Blair, in a letter to his intelligence community colleagues last week, wrote: "High value information came from interrogations in which…

It's just another inconvenient truth: If Americans want any of the government remedies that would supposedly save a planet allegedly imperiled by global warming, it's going to cost them.

On the eve of the United Nations World Conference on Racism, Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, delivered a sharp warning about the problem of racially motivated hate speech. She recalled the effect of radio broadcasts in Rwanda, 15 years ago this month, which dehumanized its Tutsi…

Admiral Dennis Blair, the top intelligence official in the United States, thanks to his nomination by Barack Obama, believes that the coercive interrogation methods outlawed by his boss produced "high-value information" and gave the U.S. government a "deeper understanding of the al Qaeda…

Somali pirates have freed a Japanese tanker and its crew of 23 Filipinos after holding them for five months."

Rich Lowry: "The Case for the ‘Torture Memos'" Mitch McConnell slams Obama on Gitmo. McCain v. Minuteman Diane Feinstein's husband's firm cashes in on financial crisis. No, Ruth Marcus, Sarah Palin is not pro-choice on abortion.

On the first day of the Durban II Conference, I interviewed a member of the Cuban delegation to the conference about human rights. Here are a couple of the excerpts. A link to the full interview is below. Jamie Weinstein (JW): Do you think they should have exchange of ideas in Cuba? Do you think…

Earth Day falls on the calendar today, April 22, just a week after April 15, Tax Day. The proximity of the two days is a reminder to Americans that if they want any of the government remedies that would supposedly save a planet allegedly imperiled by global warming, it's going to cost them.

One good indication that something is worth a read is when it's cross-posted at two highly-trafficked sites at the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Such is the case with Adam Baldwin's account of his participation in Ride2Recovery -- the Texas Challenge. (Huffington Post and Andrew…

Well, there's at least one young, charismatic leader in Washington who is actually willing to make "tough choices" and go through the budget instead of just talking about it. Congress might want to take a gander at D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty's budget when it reaches the Hill for approval in June, for…

In a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations today, Sen. Lieberman called for a significant expansion of the Afghan military: "Most important of all, what is needed is an immediate commitment to a significant expansion in the end strength of the Afghan National Security Forces, in particular…

Fox News: President Obama left open the door Tuesday for charges to be brought against Bush administration lawyers who justified harsh interrogation techniques, though he continued to argue that CIA agents who used those tactics should not be prosecuted. The president showed wiggle room on the…

Gavin Newsom could be governor.

CNN's Ed Henry asked White House spokesman Robert Gibbs about the claim that the Obama administration "selectively declassified" some of the Justice Department memos in order to avoid disclosing information demonstrating that the interrogations produced valuable intelligence. (See here for…

Yesterday, Jed Babbin at HumanEvents.com reported that there is some tension within the Obama administration over how to handle the seventeen Uighur detainees held at Gitmo. Reportedly, the inter-agency review team President Obama authorized has concluded that the Uighurs are too dangerous to…

My friend Juan Williams gets righteously angry about just the right thing today- the Obama administration's killing of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship. Where's the hope and change, and the promise to do what works for kids? In a politically calculated dance step the Obama team first indicated that…

Yesterday, Sen. Joe Lieberman said the following about the release of the interrogation memos on Fox News's "On the Record": "I thought release of the memos was a bad idea. ... It wasn't necessary. It just helps our enemies. It doesn't really help us. Again, the president can decide what tactics he…

This is rather extraordinary. The Obama administration -- the self-declared most transparent administration in history -- has released interrogation memos that included descriptions of the valuable intelligence obtained by using coercive techniques. But while Obama advisers thought it appropriate…

President Pin-Up of the Oddly Shaped Pectorals Eugene Robinson slaps Obama on Chavez and Ortega. Paul Krugman slaps Obama on his fiscal discipline. "Imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall.…

In a rage, he pens a blistering piece about the dismantling of the D.C. voucher program: The National Education Association and other teachers' unions have put millions into Democrats' congressional campaigns because they oppose Republican efforts to challenge unions on their resistance to school…

Jon Stewart must be an incredibly sick individual to work so hard to get laughs out of something he considers to be torture. And his audience too, must be awfully sick to find so much humor in it: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c We Don't Torture thedailyshow.com Daily Show

"I haven't talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country," he said in an interview with Sean Hannity last night. "I've now formally asked the CIA to take…

Prishtina, Kosovo

AP: The Senate also voted 73-17 to end a filibuster - and allow a vote this week - on the nomination of Christopher Hill to be ambassador to Iraq. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., was critical of Hill's performance when the diplomat was the Bush administration's top negotiator with North Korea. CNN on…

C.J. Chivers continues to provide excellent reporting on the war in Afghanistan for the New York Times. Last week, Chivers wrote on the "Good Friday" U.S. ambush of the Taliban in Korangal Valley, and today he follows up with a report on the Taliban's ambush of a U.S. platoon in the same region.

Earlier today, Pakistan's prime minister said the situation in Swat is "returning to normal," despite the fact that four members of the security forces were kidnapped, and the cleric that the government negotiated the peace deal with called the Pakistani government illegitimate and advocated for…

The Chicago Tribune reports that "Illinois is getting more stimulus money for road and bridge projects than any other state, federal and Illinois officials have said." Now, I know what you're thinking: a Chicagoan president plus a Chicagoan chief of staff plus a Chicagoan Illinoisan Transportation…

Via Hot Air, the White House press corp calls out Obama on his budget cut stunt (fast forward to the 1:21 mark in the video if you're pressed for time): Embedded video from CNN Video

David Rivkin and Lee Casey: "The Memos Prove We Didn't Torture" Jennifer Rubin on Obama's projection of weakness toward Iran. Do you now, or have you ever, opposed gay marriage? The politicization of the Miss USA pageant. The case for a 99 percent estate tax: CNN reports on Meghan McCain's Daily…

When the United States captured In response to the anthrax scare, the fevered mind of Andrew Sullivan concluded: "The terrorists have launched a biological weapon against the United States. They have therefore made biological warfare thinkable and thus repeatable. We once had a doctrine that such a…

Yesterday, former CIA director Michael Hayden put to rest the notion that harsh interrogations 'didn't make us safer': The facts of the case are that the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did work. The president's speech, President Bush in September of '06,…

TEXT close to a ticking time bomb scenario chopping off fingers, electrodes to genitals. yelling, loud music, facial holds

The Europeans who declined to boycott the Durban II racism-fest now expect credit for walking out when Ahmadinejad launched into a tirade calling for the eradication of Israel. "We don't want to repeat what happened in Durban [I]" pronounced France's UN ambassador Jean Baptiste Mattéi. "It's not…

Geneva Before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the stage and spouted his racist drivel at the UN Durban II Anti-Racism conference, I got a preview of what was to come while interviewing a delegate at the conference who is a part of an Iranian NGO. The self-proclaimed Tehran University Professor of…

Later this year, the United States will join other U.N. members in negotiations in Copenhagen to update the Kyoto accord on greenhouse gas emissions. While the Obama administration says it is devoted to the treaty, reaching an agreement will be difficult. One of the most contentious issues facing…

Rasmussen reports: While half the nation has a favorable opinion of last Wednesday's events, the nation's Political Class has a much dimmer view-just 13% of the political elite offered even a somewhat favorable assessment while 81% said the opposite. Among the Political Class, not a single survey…

Are we melting? Or are we freezing? I need to know what supplies to buy.

Rasmussen: Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans have a favorable view of the "tea parties" held nationwide last week, including 32% who say their view of the events is Very favorable. Thirty-three percent (33%) hold an unfavorable opinion of the tea parties according to a new Rasmussen Reports…

Not only do Pakistani leaders often make statements on the security situation that contradict the reality on the ground, they make them at the most ill-advised times. Take Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani's statements about Swat, the district the government recently turned over to the Taliban…

"Donkey Ball Stubbornly Holds On Despite Criticism" is the boss's favorite New York Times story of the past six months. You'll want to read the whole thing.

There was the gift to President Obama from Venezuelan president-for-life Hugo Chavez (democracy, anybody?) of a book about the international (read U.S.) rape of Latin America penned by noted Uruguayan leftist intellectual Eduardo Galeano, which elicited this response from Mr. Obama: "It was a nice…

Remember how the video of the flogging of a young woman who had the temerity to leave her home with a man who wasn't her husband or relative was supposed to change the psyche of the Pakistani people and give them the fortitude to fight the Taliban? Here's what Husain Haqqani, the Ambassador to the…

Congressional Quarterly reports that Representative Jane Harman was caught on tape promising to lobby for reduced charges against two accused spies, in exchange for help securing the chairmanship of the House Committee on Intelligence: Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime…

Greg Mankiw: To put those numbers in perspective, imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall. How much would he or she announce that spending had be cut? By $3 over the course of the…

Fox News reports: "To move forward, we cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements. I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old. Too often, an opportunity to build a fresh partnership of the Americas has been undermined by…

Former CIA director Michael Hayden was on Fox News Sunday this morning. Via The Hill: Hayden said that those who object to the CIA's ability to use such enhanced interrogation techniques are acting "honorably," but are avoiding the "inconvenient truth" that the use of such techniques have made the…

If you ignore it, it will go away. Is this "diplomacy" for the president and secretary of state of the United States--to respond without a single word of criticism or dispute to an hour of anti-American spewings by Nicaragua's Communist president Daniel Ortega? Apparently so. As a "senior…

After a secret trial lasting less than a week, American journalist Roxana Saberi has been found guilty of "espionage" by Iran's Revolutionary Court and sentenced to eight years in prison. It is horrific enough to contemplate the sentences Tehran from time to time metes out to its own citizens, but…

The Washignton Post's Garance Franke-Ruta wrote As the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate last year, Palin said little about her son's condition or the circumstances surrounding his birth. Her reticence prompted wild, Internet-fueled allegations about Trig's parentage, rumors that still…

Charles Krauthammer seeks a research assistant for one or two year term. Email resume to job[at]charleskrauthammer.com.

Yuval Levin sheds some light on why the NIH decided not to fund research on cloned embryos: In a phone conference with reporters after today's announcement, the director of the NIH was asked several times to explain why the agency excluded cloning and the creation of embryos for research and his…

Hayden & Mukasey v. Obama & Holder White House defends top Obama auto adviser Steve Rattner, the Democratic financier allegedly involved in a pay-to-play scheme in New York (and who financed laughably bad movies in the process). First Things: "Generals and Admirals Oppose Repealing 'Don't Ask,…

Peter Wehner reminds us of this Washington Post story: In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included…

Aviation Week has "some snazzy photos of the Avenger, i.e., General Atomics' new Predator C, which appears to take the old standard and make it stealthy and more deadly." predator.Large.jpg See more pictures here. Update: Stuart Koehl emails: The main purpose of Predator C was not really enhanced…

The Times of London reports: A woman died in labour in a hospital lavatory after her induction was delayed because of a lack of specialist staff, an inquest was told yesterday. Sarah Underhill, a policewoman aged 37, was in her 36th week of pregnancy when she was admitted to hospital suffering from…

In his joint press conference with Mexican President Calderon yesterday, Barack Obama reaffirmed his support for an assault weapons ban. At the same time, he seems to regard it as an essentially unachievable goal: I have not backed off at all from my belief that the gun -- the assault weapons ban…

This has to be embarrassing: U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd appears to have looked everywhere but his home state to fuel what pundits anticipate will be one of the most hotly contested races in the nation in 2010. The five-term incumbent reported raising just $4,250 from five Connecticut residents during the…

While al Qaeda in Iraq has suffered serious setbacks over the past two years, the terror group still has the capacity to carry out suicide attacks in central, northern, and western Iraq. Yesterday's suicide attack at a military base in Habbaniyah in Anbar province is the ninth major attack in Iraq…

Last month, Obama lifted regulations on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research and outsourced the decision on new guidelines to the NIH. The initial guidelines were just released on the NIH website: Human embryonic stem cells may be used in research using NIH funds, if the cells were…

According to Guenther Nooke, a former CDU MP who now serves as the German foreign ministry's Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid, there is "a very high probability" that Berlin will boycott the Durban II UN Anti-Racism Conference which is set to open in Geneva on Monday. In an…

In place of the ritual chanting of the list of Ten Plagues brought upon the Egyptians by God to force Pharaoh to release the Hebrews from bondage, which is performed at every Passover seder by Jews around the world, I think the Obami ought to consider uttering the list of "enhanced interrogation…

Defense Secretary Robert Gates continued his whirlwind world tour of service war colleges, speaking at the Army's Carlisle Barracks yesterday. He also repeated the punch-line about the rescue of the captain of the Maersk Alabama from Somali pirates "not requiring a billion-dollar ship," although…

It's true Mr. Fisk couldn't possibly top his own lunatic 9/11conspiracy-mongering: I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11. It's not just the obvious non sequiturs: where are the aircraft parts (engines, etc) from the attack on the Pentagon? . . . Why did…

It wasn't really a surprise that President Obama sided with leftist lawyers in his Justice Department and released, over the objections of the intelligence community, four Office of Legal Counsel memos that concluded certain interrogation techniques used in the last several years by CIA officers on…

Diseconomies of scale and scope. If that bit of economists' jargon is unfamiliar to you, you are not alone. It means that some companies are so big (have such grand scale) that they are less efficient than smaller rivals, and so diversified (have such a wide scope of activities), that they are…

Obama releases DOJ interrogation memos. At White House's request, "Christian symbol covered up during Obama's Georgetown speech." Hundreds of thousands attended tea party protests. "Only five state residents contribute to Dodd" Napolitano stands by DHS report on right-wing extremism.

It's starting to look as if yet another Republican candidate has won the vote counting on election night, only to fall behind as absentee and other ballots are counted: This morning, the state elections board, updated its numbers and now shows Murphy widening his lead to 167 votes (79,404 to…

You know, CNN reporter Susan Roesgan really doesn't need to be so hypocritical: Allahpundit has the video of Roesgen's puff piece on lefty protests from January.

One of the topics to be addressed today by President Obama and his Mexican counterpart is the unilateral violation of NAFTA signed into law by Obama: The trucking pilot program was created in 2007, and statistics show that the few Mexican trucks allowed to operate in the U.S. do better on safety…

Will Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brian Moran return the $50,000 donation he has received from a man who's had run-ins with the police, whom some believe has committed both spousal abuse and child abuse, and who has a history of anti-Semitic remarks? I'm speaking of course about…

John Madden is retiring. Truly these are dark times.

Saudi Arabia, modern-day: A man finds his daughter exchanging messages with a male friend on Facebook and murders her. A young woman caught sitting in a car with a man who is not her relative gets gang-raped, is then sentenced to 90 lashes (or 200, depending on which news report you read) for…

There were many travesties in yesterday's coverage of the nation's tea parties. There was a CNN reporter's brave attack on a father and his two-year old. There was the implication by NBC's Chuck Todd that the parties were orchestrated by the RNC, and the JournoList-approved talking point that that…

If the Obama administration has taken flak for suggesting that conservative groups might be home to domestic terrorists, it looks like some House Democrat leaders are willing to go even further: But in an interview on Fox TV in San Francisco, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) chalked up the GOP…

"As we saw last week, you don't necessarily need a billion-dollar ship to chase down a bunch of teenage pirates." Defense Secretary Robert Gates was pretty pleased not only with the marksmanship of the Navy SEALs that ended the confrontation with the Somali pirates who tried to hijack the Maersk…

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage-a man whose physical bravery and feats of derring-do in Vietnam have been widely documented-allows as how he hopes he'd have had the courage to resign if he'd known the CIA was using water-boarding to get information from enemy combatants. But…

LA Times columnist Rosa Brooks once wrote that al Qaeda was "little more than an obscure group of extremist thugs, well financed and intermittently lethal but relatively limited in their global and regional political pull. On 9/11, they got lucky. . . . Thanks to U.S. policies, al Qaeda has become…

WEEKLY STANDARD contributing editor Reuel Marc Gerecht has a must-read op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today: 'The United States is not at war with Islam and will never be. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths…

A friend passes this along from yesterday's Wall Street Journal: Today is the dreaded April 15, but at least in Oregon it's even going to cost you more to drown in your tax sorrows. In their sober unwisdom, the state's pols plan to raise taxes by 1,900% on . . . beer. The tax would catapult to…

In the April 4-5 NATO meetings in Europe, most European nations backed former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for the new head of NATO. Turkey, however, objected -- so strongly that it took President Obama's personal intervention with Turkey's President, Abdullah Gul, to have Rasmussen…

Barack Obama tied down a series of big legislative victories in his first few months in office--an expanded health-care program for kids, massive economic stimulus legislation, and substantially increased funding for this year's federal budget. Yet ironically these notches in his accomplishment…

Via Hot Air, CNN reporter Susan Roesgen tries to make a guy holding an Obama-as-Hitler photo the face of the Tax Day tea party protests: You've got to love how Roesgan expresses the same level of indignation toward the completely reasonable guy with his child. (I'm still searching for footage of…

Jennifer Rubin on the DC tea party. Noemie Emery: "Why we love Reagan, JFK, but not Carter, Nixon" Dan Blumenthal on how Obama's defense cuts will destabilize Asia by emboldening China and North Korea. More on the myth of the "moderate" Taliban. In case you forgot, the Obamas are millionaires.

Nicolas Sarkozy has had it with Barack Obama. Reports leaking out of the Elysée Palace indicate that le président français is "needled by the adulation for an unproven US leader whose stardom has eclipsed what he sees as his [own] established record as a world troubleshooter." The American…

A friend passes along this little ditty in light of the new DHS report on "right-wing extremism": I am the very model of a rightwing homegrown terror threat/ I like the Constitution, Publius, and military vets.

During a White House press briefing yesterday, ABC's Jake Tapper pointed out that unemployment is right about where an Obama economic adviser predicted it would be without the stimulus. Tapper also noted that Obama had announced the 2,000th stimulus project the day before, but it turns out that…

Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted Planned Parenthood's Margaret Sanger Award, named after the founder of the American Birth Control League, which changed its name to Planned Parenthood in the 1940s. In her remarks, Clinton singled out the namesake of the award for praise: Now,…

The Republicans are in a terrible position. The party is at its lowest ebb since Watergate. They no longer control an elected branch of the federal government. President Obama remains popular and has the public's trust. And while the public is ambivalent about some of Obama's policies, that still…

Former Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Toomey announced his primary bid against Arlen Specter today, Tax Day, in a video message on his website. Following his announcement, in an interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Rep. Toomey responded to Republican concerns that he would be a weaker candidate than Sen.…

We're all right-wing extremists now, according to the Department of Homeland Security's report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." You may think you're just an average entrepreneur disgruntled with the debt, but Janet…

Last Election Day, Barack Obama had most Americans convinced they could trust him as much as anybody with their taxes.

Democrats frequently claim that government-run health care is more affordable than privately run health care. Too often, Republicans don't challenge this wild assertion. If they don't start doing so, the costs will likely be extraordinary--both to Americans' finances and to their freedom.

Rich Lowry on Obama, Gates, and Defense cuts. Gen. Odierno is on facebook. Jim Treacher: "Staged Military Photo Ops Suddenly Awesome" Ed Morrissey: "American Legion to Napolitano: Apologize" NRSC endorses Arlen Specter.

Kamran Shafi, a Pakistani journalist, provides the most scathing and revealing look at just how the recent negotiations and the legalization of sharia in northwestern Pakistan have emboldened the Taliban. After their blitzkrieg takeover of the district of Buner, which is just 60 miles from the…

From the department of "now, who could have really guessed this?": The Pakistani government's peace accord with the Taliban in the Swat Valley (or to be more precise the Malakand Division) has led to an influx of terrorists, expanded recruitment, and the establishment of new terror camp. The Wall…

You know things are really, really bad when they send the first baseman to the mound and he does better than the starting pitcher.

American journalist Roxana Saberi, who has been held in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison since her arrest in January on charges she was working without proper press credentials, stood trial for espionage yesterday in Iran's Revolutionary Court. This frightening Soviet-like raising of the stakes comes…

Via Mark Hemingway, the AP reports: In response to questions from the Senate Finance Committee, Sebelius wrote that she received $12,450 between 1994 and 2001 from one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers, Dr. George Tiller. But records reviewed by The Associated Press show that Tiller…

North Korea has responded to the nonbinding (i.e. virtually meaningless) UN Resolution Presidential Statement issued yesterday that condemns its April 5 missile launch, calling the statement "brigandish" and threatening to continue its nuclear program. And, in what the Obama administration will…

When former speaker of Florida's house of representatives Marco Rubio (R) formed a Senate exploratory committee in the beginning of March, he told Politico that he would run for governor if Republican Gov. Charlie Crist sought the U.S. Senate seat. But, as of April 3, Rubio had changed his tune,…

Last late week, Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S., wagged his finger at critics of the peace negotiations with the Taliban in Swat. He assured us that President Zardari wouldn't sign the bill that would impose sharia, or Islamic Law, in a large region of northwestern Pakistan until…

The Center for American Progress's Lawrence Korb emails the following response to this post by Jamie Fly: In Jamie Fly's post "Dems to Gates: Cut Deeper" he presents a distorted version of what me and my co-authors presented in our "Building a Military for the 21st Century" report. His post leaves…

Amsterdam

During the 2008 presidential campaign, vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden cryptically warned voters that Barack Obama "will be tested" in the early days of his administration. The latest test arrived barely 10 days ago when, in defiance of the United Nations Security Council, North Korea…

Rare is the politician who cites Ali G to explain a touchy situation. Cem Ozdemir, co-chairperson of Germany's Green Party, was detained by security personnel upon his stateside arrival at Washington's Dulles International Airport recently. No official explanation has been given concerning…

Greg Sheridan: "Obama is Dubya's acceptable face" "Ohio wants to spend $57 million in federal stimulus money on highway projects that won't begin for years" John Cornyn on missile defense. Pirates beware the Curse of Davy Jones' Locker and guided sniper bullets (but mostly sniper bullets). NRCC…

Is there any better case to be made for the return of the Fairness Doctrine than the anti-pirate media echo chamber of the last 24 hours? Just about everyone is praising the Navy SEAL snipers' three shots/three kills, but I have yet to see a story in the mainstream media on the pirates' families.…

"If she is not sick, and if she does not have another problem, it is the right of a man to ask for sex and she should make herself ready for it." Thus Afghani Shiite cleric Mohammad Asif Mohseni, a principal drafter of a new law whose Article 132 effectively subjects Shiite women to forcible rape…

Now, this is just getting mean. A newly Democratic Congress effectively killed the Washington, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship in March, shutting down the $14 million pilot program for public school vouchers, which serves 1,700 inner-city minorities in the District, as of the end of next school year.…

Over at the First Things blog Wesley J. Smith notes an amazing tidbit from the New York Times' correspondence page. The letters concerning the NYT's fascinating Freeman Dyson profile were, naturally, quite hostile to Dyson, who has the gall to question climate change science. No surprise there.…

Eli Lake reports in the Washington Times: Two European companies - a major contractor to the U.S. government and a top cell-phone equipment maker - last year installed an electronic surveillance system for Iran that human rights advocates and intelligence experts say can help Iran target…

Despite President Obama's preference for Washington-based solutions to everything that worries Americans, some believe there are alternatives. President Reagan in the 1980s, and congressional Republicans in the 1990s, promoted the devolution of money, power and influence out of Washington and…

The CNN piece I linked to yesterday inaccurately reported that the captain who was held hostage by pirates had jumped into the water prior to his rescue. In fact, he was bound inside the hijacked boat until he was freed by the Navy SEALs. Per the Washington Post: SEAL snipers, who were positioned…

Michael Rubin has a very good piece on Iran in the Wall Street Journal: On Apr. 9, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's atomic energy agency, announced that the Islamic Republic had installed 7,000 centrifuges in its Natanz uranium enrichment facility. The announcement came one day after the…

Unsustainable pensions: The Berkeley City Manager is "now set up to earn more each year in retirement than the governor of California is entitled to annually while on the job." The Nation discovers unintended consequences. Eating crow: The New York Times tricked by guy who said he designed a…

You can learn a lot from a budget. President Obama's $3.6 trillion behemoth isn't just a bunch of numbers and tables. It's a vision of where America ought to be in the future. Obama would ramp up government spending in health care, energy, and education. Taxpayers would foot the bill for a larger,…

As April 15 rolls around let us take a moment to recall why we Americans pay taxes: Because some of our country's good-for-nothing bums are too chicken to rob us at gunpoint. That would be members of Congress and the executive branch. How come we keep electing politicians who will tax the bejeezus…

One group of those involved in the present financial crisis has so far escaped notice--the economists. They are masters in the science of prediction, but as a group, if not to a man, they failed to predict a crisis that has wiped out nearly half the wealth invested in the stock market and elsewhere…

Recent turmoil in Pakistan has altered the political landscape in ways that should register with policymakers in Washington. Events have cast something of a pall over the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, a champion of the fight against Islamic militants, while elevating populist opposition…

Book-Banning at the Supreme Court

Tranquility

As They See 'Em

I Am Murdered

The Lost History of Christianity

W.C. Handy

President Obama's appointees, so diverse in many ways, have certain underlying similarities. In the standard categories of race, age, and sex, they are as diverse as any administration's before them--though they adhere to a standard of good looks quite unlike the most recent Democratic…

In early summer of 2005, I was preparing to go to Afghanistan to examine the state of U.S. international broadcasting there when a friend suggested I call on Illinois representative Mark Kirk.

In the April 1966 issue of Esquire, Gay Talese published a famous article called "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold." All I remember of the article is its moral: which was that, when Frank Sinatra has a cold, the world had better stand by with plenty of Kleenex.

The Price of Butcher's Meat

The Eagle and the Crown

Foul Bodies

Flannery

In football, it's called misdirection. When the ball is snapped, offensive linemen pull from the line of scrimmage and head to the right or left. A running back takes off in the same direction. But it's a deception. The play, a run or a pass, actually goes in the other direction. It's a clever…

The Spanish Inquisition was established in the late 15th century to stamp out heretical deviations from Catholicism. By the time it petered out in the early 19th century, the Inquisition had expanded to cover political deviants. It is this latter tradition that Spanish judge Baltasar…

Collected Critical Writings

My Two Polish Grandfathers

Joe Queenan is an essayist whose jaundiced eye, sharp tongue, and sharper humor have dissected the great American insect, to great effect, in these pages. But in Closing Time: A Memoir (Viking, 352 pp., $26.95) the microscope is turned inward in a genuinely remarkable--certainly startling and…

Animal Spirits

Barack Obama's weekly radio address Saturday: I speak to you today during a time that is holy and filled with meaning for believers around the world. Earlier this week, Jewish people gathered with family and friends to recite the stories of their ancestors' struggle and ultimate liberation.…

CNN: The American captain of a cargo ship held hostage by pirates jumped overboard from the lifeboat where he was being held, and U.S. Navy SEALs shot and killed three of his four captors, according to a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the situation. Capt. Richard Phillips was helped out of…

Okay, Pyongyang has shot the missile, and the president's promised "appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it can't threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity" have now been taken. What are they? The U.N. Security Council has agreed to issue a strong presidential…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has been off this week, so there won't be a new issue posted tomorrow. But you can begin to make up for that grievous loss by reading the Exurban League exclusive, "Obama reaches out to Moderate Pirate Community," along with the follow-up post on Vikings.

Barack Obama used to rail against the use, and misuse, of supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Except now he's submitted his own supplemental and it looks an awful lot like the Bush supplementals. Nathan Hodge details some of the more questionable items. Among them, four more…

Via Hot Air, Townhall's Jillian Bandes highlights this gobsmacking quote from Chuck Schumer, who appeared on Rachel Maddow's show earlier in the week: "The world has changed. The old Reagan philosophy that served them well politically from 1980 to about 2004, 2006 is over. But the hard right, which…

Barack Obama's good luck holds steady. When, for the first time in more than two centuries, pirates seized an American-flagged ship on April 8th, the 20-man American crew recaptured their ship hours later a few hundred miles east of the Somali coast. Although the captain remained a hostage, the…

Spencer Ackerman passed along statements made by Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, at a forum in Washington yesterday. Ambassador Haqqani has been a vocal critic of Islamist extremists operating in Pakistan, so it is very disappointing to see him defend the government's…

CNN covers the bow:

A few weeks ago CQ reporter Josh Rogin noted the discrepancy between statements by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair on the question of whether Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon. Mullen takes the view that they obviously are…

As bizarre and disturbing as it was to see Barack Obama bow to Saudi King Abdallah, it is certainly true, as White House spokesman Robert Gibbs claimed today, that there are more important issues facing the country. But how odd it is that the White House -- first on background and now on the record…

Ramesh Ponnuru on health-care reform. The fight against Harvard's anti-military bias continues. When will the anti-'torture' crowd denounce the cruel and unusual punishment of Saddam Hussein? Brown University abolishes Columbus Day. National Review on the future of marriage.

As late as Friday last week, few in Washington had any idea that the Obama administration was going to end production of the F-22. The administration had defended hundreds of millions of dollars to re-sod the national mall as part of their stimulus spending, who would've thought they would halt…

Roger Cohen continues his credulous defense of the Iranian regime today in the pages of the New York Times, alleging that Israel has "cried wolf" over the threat, and the imminence, of a nuclear Iran. Cohen assures us that Iran will not obtain a nuclear weapon for at least "a couple of years,"…

Remember when candidate Obama said "Presidents need to be able to do more than one thing at a time." It would be nice if we had a president like that -- a president who could deal with, say, pirates and housing issues at the same time. Instead we have Barack Obama:

The two-month old peace agreement that essentially ceded more than 1/3 of one of Pakistan's four provinces to the Taliban collapsed today after the pro-Taliban negotiator complained that the government wouldn't sign the law allowing for sharia. Sufi Mohammed, the leader of the radical pro-Taliban…

Newsflash to the president: Passover is a celebration of the redemption and transformation of the Hebrews from slavery to freedom, from idolatry to the worship of the one true God--not a Democratic party hoe-down. Maybe that's the reason the guest list for your seder tonight is mostly made up of…

Yesterday's hijacking of the U.S. owned and manned cargo ship in the Indian Ocean has created quite a stir. Somali pirates overtook the ship and its crew of 20 Americans about 400 miles off the coast of Somalia. The crew regained control of the ship, although the ship's captain is being held by the…

Let's set aside Stephen Walt's, um, Israel issues for a moment. Is this the quality of thought we should expect from Harvard? "From those conservatives who think it is dangerous for the United States to cooperate with others, no doubt Obama's trip looks like a disaster...Imagine: an American…

Big shifts among independent voters toward Democrats caused Republicans to lose the majority in Congress in 2006 and then shed even more seats in the House and Senate in 2008. Some argue these trends presage a permanent GOP congressional minority--or maybe even signal Republicans are on a path…

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley gets creative. Wow.

Mothers of liberal bloggers never warned them about giving away the milk for free. Taking Communism away from the Communists. The trouble with sending Barney Frank to exact "cosmic justice." Headline of the day? GOP radio ads take aim at molester's ally A defense of the not-so-cold hearts of…

Ben Smith appears to be the first reporter to ask the White House why Barack Obama bowed before the King of Saudi Arabia, a violation of more than two centuries of tradition and protocol holding that American presidents never bow before royalty. The answer the White House gave Smith: "It wasn't a…

Liberal poll watcher Nate Silver takes exception to my statement that "Democrats in Congress will be hard pressed to side with the District [of Columbia's] Council on gay marriage when such measures have been soundly rejected in solid blue states like California." As evidence he produces some…

While inexplicably forgetting to deploy the "you are a big fat toad" line of debate on Rep. Barney Frank, this conservative Harvard student gets the congressman satisfyingly riled about his role in the financial crisis and bailout-mania. The well-spoken student is at first snickered at by a room of…

Camille Paglia is a woman after my heart. First, there was her delicious and unexpected tribute to the "muscular American feminism" of Sarah Palin. Then, there was her righteous spanking of fellow liberals for backing the Fairness Doctrine. And, although she was an Obama supporter, she's spent the…

Rand Beers has been nominated to serve as undersecretary for National Protection and Programs in the Department of Homeland Security. Beers has a long history in government, but resigned in 2003 to protest the invasion of Iraq. He subsequently served as an adviser to the Kerry campaign and in 2008…

That's how Tom Donnelly and Gary Schmitt describe the result of decisions by the Obama administration to terminate the F-22, reduce the size of the Navy's surface fleet, "restructure" the Army's Future Combat Systems, and gut missile defense. The announcement that the Air Force's procurement of…

This may be an ongoing series: US Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday the new Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be "ill-advised" to attack Iran, but stressed that it was unlikely to do so. "I don't believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that. I think he would…

Great idea if you can get the other guys to play ball, but -- let's face it -- the other guys never play ball. Which is precisely why the idea has been unsuccessfully advocated during the tenures of the past five US presidents. In today's world, America's nuclear arsenal is as important as ever.…

Monday's Washington Post noted that the war between Israel and Hezbollah during the summer of 2006 has sparked concern in the U.S. military: U.S. military experts were stunned by the destruction that Hezbollah forces, using sophisticated antitank guided missiles, were able to wreak on Israeli armor…

Thomas Donnelly and Gary Schmitt: "Obama and Gates Gut the Military" (Donnelly debunked the claim that Obama was boosting the defense budget in his March 9 WEEKLY STANDARD article "Indefensible") Joseph Kristol and Daniel West: "Harvard and the Marines" David A. Shaywitz & Thomas P. Stossel: "It's…

The future of America's long-running dominance of the seas is under threat. The Department of Defense reported recently that the Chinese navy is continuing to modernize at a rapid clip. It is adding guided missile destroyers and nuclear and diesel-electric attack submarines to its fleet, and is…

Israeli missile defense system not so unproven or untested. Being President Obama means always having to say you're sorry. Chas Freeman finally finds his audience. Rahm fu**ed up. Anne Applebaum and Bill Kristol mind-meld on Obama's talk of a world without nukes.

It could have been bliss causing the North Korean masses to chant as they watched their country's rocket launch the other night (one supposes every single one of the four Nork television stations brought it to them live), but it could also have been their diet of acorns and ferns triggering all the…

The champion of climate change realists blasts the Obama administration for cutting the defense budget in a time of war, which amounts in his words to "a budget to disarm America." Inhofe makes clear that he'll be using his seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee to push back on the announced…

The District of Columbia's Council voted today to recognize gay marriages performed in other states, setting Republicans on the Hill up for a great opportunity to hit an issue that polls well. As the Washington Post puts it, "The unanimous vote sets the stage for future debate on legalizing…

The District of Columbia's Council voted today to recognize gay marriages performed in other states, setting Republicans on the Hill up for a great opportunity to demagogue one of their favorite issues. As the Washington Post puts it, "The unanimous vote sets the stage for future debate on…

With the announcement by Secretary Gates yesterday of significant cuts to key defense programs, you would think that liberals would be celebrating. Surprisingly, some think that Gates didn't go far enough. The lead article in today's "Progress Report" put out by the Center for American Progress…

Lieberman puts out a statement (in addition to yesterday's letter on missile defense) hitting Gates over cuts to FCS and other modernization programs. Joe wants more troops and he wants them to have equipment, too. Obama campaigned on increasing the Army's end strength and vowed "a sacred…

Eleven months of testing body armor by strapping it on pigs and simulating IED blasts has provided military researchers extremely useful information about soldiers wounded in roadside explosions, reports USA Today. Contrary to Defense Department worries, the protective gear does not increase the…

The New York Times has an earth-shattering report today uncovering the existence of a massive political campaign being run by the city's mayor right under the noses of regular New Yorkers. The paper accuses Michael Bloomberg of push-polling, or rather it allows others to make the allegation and…

The poll has been conducted and the verdict is in. President Obama is the nation's prom king, reports the New York Times: "These sometimes turbulent weeks - marked by new initiatives by Mr. Obama, attacks by Republicans and more than a few missteps by the White House - do not appear to have hurt…

Credit is the lifeblood of an economy. But too much of a good thing can lead to excess and disaster. That's the lesson you'll draw from Steven Gjerstad and Vernon L. Smith's excellent piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. Gierstad and Smith want to know why some asset bubbles (i.e., tech…

The Center for American Progress concedes "the fact that Obama briefly bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia." Nobody there is terribly troubled by it, but just the fact that they are willing to concede it happened seems like kind of a big deal. I don't read too much into the bow, but it's the…

In its recent order, the three-judge election contest court in Minnesota reiterated a common theme during the Coleman versus Franken Senate recount--notwithstanding the numerous questions raised regarding the fairness of the election, "Citizens of Minnesota should be proud of their electoral…

Contrary to early reports quoting sources close to DoD's budgeting process, Secretary Gates announced today that the Obama administration plans to terminate production of the F-22 this year, capping the total number of aircraft at just 183. Ending production of the F-22, a far more capable air…

Jackson Diehl asks if Obama is pragmatic or just weak. TNR's Sahil Mahtani assembles some Nork propaganda giving us our sentence of the day: "Saying that our army, which is playing a key and leading role in kindling the flame of a great revolutionary upswing, is performing miracles and…

When Obama bowed before the Saudi King, it was only slightly more unseemly than Bush's romantic, hand-in-hand walk with the same monarch, but unlike Bush's bromance with Abdullah, Obama violated protocol. American presidents do not bow before foreign dignitaries, whether they are princes, kings, or…

The effort to scuttle Chris Hill's appointment as Ambassador to Iraq has been spearheaded by Senator Sam Brownback, who claims that Chris Hill lied to him, and by extension the United States Senate, in hearings last summer on the course of the Six Party talks. On Friday Brownback, along with…

The arms control expert has an op-ed on the Nork missile test: North Korea's thinly disguised missile test violates U.N. resolutions and should be condemned. But it is not a serious threat to the United States, nor does it justify a crash program to deploy an expensive, unproven anti-missile…

Tomorrow's Washington Post column goes online today: In Prague on Sunday, President Obama committed his administration to putting us on a "trajectory" towards "a world without nuclear weapons." Of course, we had a world without nuclear weapons not so long ago -- say, in 1939. The war that began in…

The video of a young woman being beaten in Pakistan's Taliban-infested district of Swat has sparked considerable controversy inside Pakistan. The Pakistani president and prime minister ordered an investigation of the incident, and even Pakistan's Supreme Court got involved. The newly restored chief…

Republican Senators Murkowski, Sessions, Inhofe, and Kyl joined Democratic Senators Lieberman and Begich in sending a letter to President Obama calling on him "to sustain the ability of the Missile Defense Agency and the military services to develop an integrated, layered defense against the threat…

Newt, defender of Western civilization, continues his assault on the administration: The U.S. is at greater risk of terrorist attack because of the Obama administration's actions, Newt Gingrich said Monday. In a chat with POLITICO readers, Gingrich also called the administration's response to the…

Our friend Tom Cotton, currently serving in Afghanistan, emailed us his thoughts on this article in the Washington Post describing a public ceremony honoring our fallen at Dover Air Force Base: The article quotes soldiers in my home unit, Charlie Company of The Old Guard, about a ceremony known as…

Harvey Mansfield's piece in our new issue is well worth your time. Professor Mansfield explores the role that the "science" of economics -- and social science more generally -- may have played in the financial crisis. Warning: This piece includes political philosophy! Here's Mansfield: The…

The Obama administration's attempts to get various European nations to take dozens of Guantanamo detainees continue to be met with uneven results. Austria has now joined several other European nations, including the Czech Republic, in declining to take any Guantanamo detainees at all. "If the…

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says he was the one who woke the president at 4:30 a.m. yesterday. Michael Crowley wonders whether the president needed to be disturbed at all. I'm struck that it fell to Gibbs to wake the boss up. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel would presumably be the first to get the…

WEEKLY STANDARD contributing editor Reuel Marc Gerecht sends an email to Jeffrey Goldberg in response to a post that sought to clarify just what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meant when he threatened to wipe Israel off the map: It matters not whether it's from a map or from our memories, it's the verb that…

You can read about the mayor in 12 languages, including Haitian Creole, Hindi, Arabic, and Yiddish. The site also features a blog by Howard Wolfson. Wolfson's first entry is about the political diversity of the staffers hired for the Bloomberg reelect: On most campaigns this exercise is similiar --…

Pew released a poll last week showing the partisan gap in President Obama's approval numbers is the largest in modern history. Like many recent surveys, Pew finds Obama's overall approval rating at 59 percent. But unpacking those numbers demonstrates the largest variability among self-identified…

The Times of London reports: Barack Obama made an impassioned plea to America's allies to send more troops to Afghanistan, warning that failure to do so would leave Europe vulnerable to more terrorist atrocities. But though he continued to dazzle Europeans on his debut international tour, the…

Well, it's about time. The Beltway is waking up to the realities of President Obama's budget plan, which taxes, spends, and borrows as far as the eye can see. The president's vast new commitments in the areas of health care, energy, and education have already spooked small-government Republicans…

The Letters of George Santayana

Caitrin Keiper reviews Norah Vincent’s ‘Voluntary Madness’: Sometimes crazy ideas make a certain sense.

When it premiered to high ratings in 1978, the producers of Battlestar Galactica promised their show would bring feature-film standards to network television. It didn't. Although it offered state-of-the art special effects, cute kids, furry space pets, an over-the-top score from the London Symphony…

The good news is that, according to the Obama administration, the rich will pay for everything. The bad news is that, according to the Obama administration, you're rich.

Kuwait City

Everyone has a ball in Vienna.

Life Imitates P.J.

When he met in early February with Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, about possibly challenging Sen. Christopher Dodd in Connecticut, Rob Simmons was a little skeptical about his chances against the five-term senator in a Democratic state. But then an RSCC…

A lot of ink has been spilled on what might be called the Roosevelt and Reagan models of the presidency. In the recent past, the conventional wisdom has been Reaganite: New presidents should focus on one or two clear objectives, as Ronald Reagan emphasized tax cuts and a defense buildup. Barack…

One upside of the recession is that I cut through the newspaper as never before. Since the news is too bad to actually read, I skip it, assuming I know what's there--the sky is blackening, plagues are being unleashed, the rivers are running red with blood--and I instead skim for pretty pictures of…

In his press conference last Tuesday, Barack Obama said that America must reject the "borrow and spend" policies of the past in favor of a strategy of "save and invest." Sounds good. So why is Obama proposing to borrow and spend more than any president in the history of the republic? Already in the…

Jan Lievens

Blind Spot

Once the House passed a 90 percent tax on AIG bonuses, a mad rush was on in the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid went to the Senate floor to propose a quick vote on similar legislation. A single senator could object, delaying a vote for weeks. But fear of siding with reviled AIG executives…

They marched southward from Ramallah one windy morning in March 2012. Sheikh Nasser a-Din al-Masri led them--a slim man with a short black beard that half-hid a puckered scar on his neck. They filled the road to Jerusalem, a long procession of men, women, and children wearing white robes to show…

In diplomacy and espionage, there is no worse mistake than "mirror-imaging," that is, ascribing to foreigners your own actions and views. For Westerners this is especially debilitating, given our modern proclivity to assume that others pursue their interests in secular, material, and guilt-ridden…

West Side Story

Just days after Chinese warships harrased an unarmed U.S. naval vessel, the USNS Impeccable, in international waters off the coast of China, Barack Obama's Secretary of Defense is set to announce massive cuts to the U.S. naval fleet. Just days before the expected launch of a North Korean missile in…

Charles Krauthammer: "Obama's Ultimate Agenda" Continetti does Bloggingheads. Specter smeared Toomey with false attack ad. Habeas rights for detainees at Bagram. Rich Lowry on Obama's Moscow delusion. Allahpundit: "DNC lies shamelessly about support for Obama's horrific budget"

On March 31, Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn-in as Israel's new Prime Minister. His speech to the Knesset has garnered much attention here but it provides some additional insight into just what his return to power will mean for the peace process and for the standoff over Iran's nuclear weapons.…

President Obama put North Korea on notice today, warning Pyongyang that if it persists with plans to launch a long-range rocket in the next couple of days, the U.S. will "take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it can't threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity."…

The Iowa supreme court has ruled unanimously that the state's law defining marriage as between one man and one woman is a violation of the constitution's equal protection clause. See Ed Whelan's takedown of the court's preposterous ruling here.

NICS-Mar09.jpg

If you are relying on American newspapers for your news you'll most certainly know that Michelle Obama snuggled up to the queen of England, who quite liked it, that J Crew dressed her for the occasion, that she towers over the queen and all the other G-20 first ladies, that she is the reincarnation…

Just over six weeks ago, the Pakistani government cut a deal with the Taliban to impose sharia, or Islamic law, in a region that encompasses more than one-third of the Northwest Frontier Province, one of Pakistan's four provinces. The government claimed the agreement was negotiated from a position…

That's the headline of Carrie Budoff Brown's story in Politico. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told Sebelius at the outset that he takes "tax matters here seriously" and wanted to hear why she recently paid almost $8,000 in back taxes and interest. "I'm eager for you to address those matters today,…

Paul Singer's op-ed in the Journal is a must read. Here's an excerpt: In the past decade, most global financial institutions built highly leveraged balance sheets -- sometimes as high as 30 to 1 -- that were stuffed with risky assets. These institutions also bought on a large scale for their own…

The countries of Central America are being hit hard by the global economic crisis, and Nicaragua is no exception. Last week, at a meeting of the Central American Integration System in Managua, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista party leader and close friend of Hugo Chávez, proposed…

April is Genocide Prevention Month in the United States--marking the anniversaries of six genocides around the world--and the month has gotten off to a dismal start. Arab leaders have just concluded their annual summit by showing solidarity with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the Arab dictator…

A press release from Lieberman's office, announcing the passage of an amendment this evening: The United States Senate today adopted an amendment to the budget resolution, introduced by Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), to increase the end strength of the United States Army by 30,000 personnel. Sens.…

Republicans boycott "drive-by" hearing of Obama judicial appointment. Democrat Rod Blagojevich and friends indicted. Republican Connie Mack isn't running for Senate in Florida. Barney Frank says Republicans have a "psychological disorder." Karl Rove: "The President Is 'Keeping Score'" Obama bows to…

Hans von Spakovsky writes on the shameful disenfranchisement of military voters in NY-20: In New York, ten counties make up the 20th congressional district, and nine of them sent their absentee ballots to overseas voters too late for them to be received and returned in time to count in this…

I don't often weigh into health care issues on this blog because I don't understand the subject well enough. Sometimes I get the sense that bloggers who do write frequently on the subject also don't understand it well enough to offer any real informed commentary. As a test case I sent the following…

...Said Terry McAuliffe, right before taking exception to this utterly routine, and kinda funny, crack from Gov. Mike Huckabee: During a recent appearance on behalf of Bob McDonnell - the Republican candidate for governor - Huckabee wisecracked that if McDonnell's supporters bump into someone who…

Jimmy Vielkind of PolitickerNY reports that, as voting machines are re-canvassed and election night typos corrected, Republican Jim Tedisco has now taken a 12 vote lead ... for now. Of course, the lead could change again as re-canvassing continues and 6,000 to 10,000 absentee ballots are counted.…

Contrary to what you might have read in other publications, Chris Hill's appointment as Ambassador to Iraq remains stalled by Senator Sam Brownback, as it has been from the outset. Leadership is expected to bring the nomination to the floor today, but Brownback will object as Republicans continue…

An amusing exchange from yesterday's SASC hearing with General Petraeus: MCCAIN: General Petraeus, an individual who is, I understand, a young Taliban leader named Masood. PETRAEUS: Baitullah Masood, Pakistani Taliban leader. MCCAIN: He said that he would orchestrate -- he would arrange an attack,…

As I've learned time and time again from our friends on the Left during my time in Washington, it is the hallmark of serious political thinker to deal in the "larger truths." The larger truths are so important, in fact, as to justify twisting the smaller truths to illuminate them for the masses, at…

In a couple of posts at NRO, Ed Whelan explains why the case against Harold Koh should not rest on his comments about sharia: see here and here.

A legal eagle and TWS friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, writes: Dahlia Lithwick, Slate's top writer on legal issues, has an essay today complaining that Republicans are being too rough on Harold Koh (Obama's nominee to be the State Department's legal adviser). Her specific criticism -- that…

The names may have changed, but the U.S. government is still serving up the same great neocon policies that kept the country safe for the last seven years. The New York Times says that "for all the shifting words, Mr. Obama has left the bulk of Mr. Bush's national security architecture intact so…

Goodbye, Global War on Terror. They're all doin' the J-Street Jive. Which, incidentally, is like the jitterbug, but more anti-Israel. "The Geithner plan works only if and when the taxpayer loses big time." OpenSecrets is now tracking lobbyist action on legislation. They may need a new donor to…

First Read reports: Mr. President, Are You Looking For A New Peace Corps Director? A brand-new Quinnipiac poll is the latest evidence showing that Chris Dodd is REALLY in trouble for 2010. The survey shows him trailing Rob Simmons (R) in a hypothetical match-up by 16 points (50%-34%), as well as…

In the coming days, North Korea will likely launch what it claims is a satellite, using what the U.S. intelligence community believes is a Taepodong 2 missile. Iran and North Korea have in the past used supposed satellite launches to test and improve their long-range ballistic missile systems,…

A recent Bee story headlined "Islamic laws of finance a cushion in hard times," glowingly reports that Muslims aren't allowed to charge or pay interest, and they're "shielded by socially responsible retirement plans because Shariah-Islamic law-forbids investments in banks and mortgages as well as…

A little less than a year ago, I participated in a meeting in Washington, D.C., with some prominent political analysts forecasting the 2008 election. One topic focused on trends in the youth vote. For Republicans, the patterns were ominous. George W. Bush lost to John Kerry among 18-29-year-olds by…

Ret.General Scott Gration, President Obama's new special envoy on Sudan, faces baptism by fire. He visits Sudan this week in the hope of resolving an aid crisis in which over a million Darfur refugees are being brought to the brink of death by the expulsion in March of a dozen international relief…

Eric Holder v. the U.S. Constitution Obama gives the Queen of England an iPod with his speeches on it. Paul Ryan: "The GOP's Alternative Budget" Judd Gregg: "A Budget To Beggar Us" Kirsten Powers: "Abortion-rights activists sneer about anti-abortion advocates ignoring science. But the reality is…

Democrats tell the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza that Scott Murphy will defeat Jim Tedisco by 210 votes, once all of the absentee votes are counted in the 20th District. This number hasn't been pulled out of thin air, but it's a dubious prediction. Cillizza reports that the Democrats' projection…

Speaking of neocon sleeper cells, Eli Lake reported yesterday that "U.S. military, intelligence and financial specialists are continuing to target the finances and operatives of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in part to gain leverage for diplomacy, U.S. officials and analysts say."' Is this the work…

It's April Fool's Day, and the country is consumed by news that President Obama gave the Queen of England an iPod. What little news there is out of Iraq seems to be bad news. The New York Times reports that Iraqi militants are showing "new boldness" in their campaign of terror, which "like bubbles…

Only Sy Hersh believes that neocon sleeper cells are controlling U.S. foreign policy, but yesterday's launch of the Foreign Policy Initiative has captured the imagination of several writers. The New Yorker's George Packer wrote that FPI was the "ideological descendant" of the Project for the New…

peeved off Rush Limbaugh fans TEXT "since Republicans boast a 70,000 voter edge in registration, he should not have been able to catch him" John B. Judis claims that "Murphy's election night edge of 65 is a vote of confidence for President Barack Obama and his economic program." Not quite. endorsed…

It's been only a matter of days since the U.N. Human Rights Council issued its five latest anti-Israel resolutions, bringing the number of censures of Israel to 26 out of 32 resolutions censuring countries all told--you do the math--but when "engagement" is the object, bad behavior is apparently no…

The not-so-covert U.S. air campaign has expanded yet again beyond the traditional hunting grounds of the Taliban-controlled tribal agencies of North and South Waziristan and Bajaur. Earlier today, at least one unmanned Predator strike aircraft struck in the Arakzai tribal agency. Twelve Taliban…

Time magazine reports that Israel's January attack on an Iranian arms shipment through the Sudanese desert consisted of a strike package of "dozens of aircraft." The successful raid, which was a fusion of UAVs for recce work, F-15i fighters for air superiority, F-16's for ground attack, and tanker…

The media is conducting serious mental gymnastics in an attempt to tout reconciliation with the Taliban. This headline from Reuters, "U.S. holds out olive branch to non-violent Taliban," really takes the cake. This headline raises the question: If there are non-violent elements of the Taliban, why…

In his confirmation hearing last week, Senator Roger Wicker asked Christopher Hill about reporting that showed he defied the wishes of President George W. Bush and the direct instructions of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in order to meet bilaterally with the North Koreans. Hill, now Barack…

Many of the initiatives by President Obama in the Middle East and Muslim countries rest on unrealistic expectations--desert mirages, one might say--surrounding the motives of terrorists and other enemies of freedom. The most obvious example has been Obama's flattery toward the Iranian dictatorship,…

Wow: With 610/610 precincts reporting, Democrat Scott Murphy leads Republican Jim Tedisco by just 65 votes (77,344 to 77,279). Via Jim Geraghty, a local news station reports: "Absentee ballots and emergency paper ballots in the 20th Congressional District special election have been impounded under…