July 2009

Okay, fine. I'll pay for the privilege of lunch with the president. (Hope he's got the Bud Light on tap.) But please-don't make me eat Michelle's sludgetables!

Personality cults are a traditional fixture of totalitarian communist dictatorships. Generally they become less banal and intrusive on the lives of everyday people as those nations modernize and traverse the onramp to Al Gore's famous Information Superhighway. As it happened in the former USSR and…

Today, the Washington Post told the crushingly sad story of 12-year-old Cortavia Harris. The Maryland 7th-grader is searching for solace this week in the sentencing of her little sister's killer. It has been almost a year since the August night when Michael Eaton, on his way from a bar, slammed his…

That's the lead story from Ha'aretz today, whose plugged-in diplomatic correspondent Barak Ravid writes that, in meetings this week in Israel, National Security Adviser Jim Jones told the Israelis that the Obama administration has begun thinking about imposing tough new sanctions on Tehran, if the…

Chomsky on Iran: "Putting aside the details of the election, about which we don't know much, the whole structure of the regime is oppressive and authoritarian, and undermines basic civil and other human rights. Protest against it is not only honorable but courageous, because it faces extreme…

Obama's always talking tough...he's from Chicago, he brings guns to knife fights, he was editor of the Harvard Law Review, etc. But it seems not everyone inside his campaign was terribly convinced that Obama had what it takes to survive the rough and tumble of a national political campaign. From…

The press secretary of Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) emails: "Congressman Matheson has numerous concerns with the current bill and will be voting against it in Committee." The press secretary of Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) emails: "The Congressman is strongly pro-life, and voted in favor of the…

Francisco Toro writes at TNR: More than one month after the coup in Honduras, the Obama administration's quiet-but-canny diplomacy is starting to pay off. The New York Times reports that de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, has agreed, for the first time, to restore the…

There are a bunch of reports out suggesting that the recommendations of a review done by General McChrystal and an as yet unidentified group of ten or so civilian advisers (including Anthony Cordesman, who made his participation public earlier this week) will include a request for more troops. The…

Democratic congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio hailed the passage of the Capps amendment as precisely the kind of "common ground" solution he proposed last week to disagreements about abortion coverage in the health care bill. In a phone interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD on Friday, Ryan, who describes…

Four men, four different beers. (Really three different beers and one nonalcoholic beverage.) It remains unclear what Obama was hoping to have achieved with the summit. Would Professor Gates admit he lost his temper and said things to a law enforcement officer he shouldn't have? Would Officer…

"Susan Rice is one of my dear friends. There are few women in the world that I would say, 'I love you' to, and Susan is one of them. I love Susan Rice," he added. That was Scott Gration, the Obama administration's envoy to Sudan, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The response came…

The American people act on incentives. When the incentive is free wads of $4,500 for cars that would likely never qualify for such trade-in values on the free market, there will never be enough money to satisfy demand. That's why the cash-for-clunkers program, meant to incentivize the trading in of…

Last night, the House Energy and Commerce Committee narrowly passed the Stupak-Pitts amendment to prevent the bill from mandating that private insurance plans cover abortions, but when Chairman Henry Waxman brought the amendment up for reconsideration, Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee flipped his vote…

The New York Post reports: Mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson sat by silently as a guest at a campaign event loudly called City Council Speaker Christine Quinn a "whore" who could "kiss my ass," The Post has learned. The slur was made by Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett, the co-owner of the restaurant Tea and…

Bill Sweetman reports on US Strategic Command's symposium on deterrence, where our new undersecretary for arms control was talking about a "path to zero," which she said would be "one of the leading accomplishments of the 21st century." The rest of the delegates then proceeded to talk seriously…

Japan Today reports: Japan will continue to collect information on the U.S. F-22 fighter jet as a candidate to succeed its aging F-4EJ fighter fleet, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Friday, despite the U.S. House of Representatives' decision to ditch funding for the aircraft. Katashi Toyota,…

Blow-by-blow of the beer summit. Cash-for-clunkers went bust in four days. But don't worry ; they can totally handle revamping 15 percent of the economy. "If they can't administer a program like this, I'd be a little concerned about my health insurance." Boehner: "Democratic chairmen of the three…

AP: "Bad Bridges Passed Up for Stimulus Cash."

On Wednesday, a D.C. District Court judge ruled that the U.S. government should "take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate the release" of a Guantanamo detainee named Khaled al Mutayri. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's full opinion remains classified, so it is not possible to…

We knew it was coming. Once there was a knighthood, could America's highest civilian honor be far behind? Indeed not: the White house announced today that Ted Kennedy, Lion of the Senate and driver extraordinaire, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In presenting the complete list of…

Folks on the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) e-mail list got slightly harsher rhetoric than they bargained for when they opened a Tim Pawlenty-bashing missive from the state Democrats today. At 5:11 p.m., Deputy Communications Director Kristin Sosanie of the DFL sent out the "DFL…

A report from Hill sources: As of now, Chairman Henry Waxman only has two Blue Dogs--Zack Space of Ohio and Bart Gordon of Tennessee--on board to vote the health bill out of committee. The other Blue Dogs are unwilling to commit to a 'yes' vote because they have not seen written language that would…

TEXT

I knew Saab made fine cars and even finer fighter jets but I wasn't quite familiar with its other products, namely its man-portable weapons systems, including the AT4 84mm recoilless anti-tank rocket. As advertised on its website, "Using AT4 CS AST the soldier will always have access to an accurate…

Via Glenn Thrush, "about 50 House liberals"--enough to defeat the bill in the House if Republicans joined them--have signed the following letter: We regard the agreement reached by Chairman Waxman and several Blue Dog members of the Committee as fundamentally unacceptable. This agreement is not a…

Jennifer Rubin has the details on Mary Robinson, the former Irish PM who went on to serve as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and who will soon be awarded the nation's highest civilian honor -- the Freedom Medal -- by President Obama. Robinson presided over the Durban conference that passed…

Will the Obama administration release Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad, thereby pleasing the ACLU crowd? Or, is it going to move forward with a criminal prosecution, as the DOJ has suggested? Here is the background, in brief. Jawad is accused of throwing a hand grenade at a vehicle carrying two…

For several years Pakistani government and military elites have accused India, Israel, and even the United States of backing Taliban leaders such as South Waziristan's Baitullah Mehsud and Swat's Mullah Fazlullah. This week, Pakistani officials claimed the government handed over evidence of Indian…

America's Health Insurance Plans, an association of "nearly 1,300 member companies providing health insurance coverage to more than 200 million Americans," sent this statement when I asked them about Rep. Nancy Pelosi's classification of insurance companies as "immoral" "villains," "carpet-bombing"…

After liberal Democrats forced the Energy and Commerce Committee to delay its health-care bill mark-up last night over objections to the deal that Chairman Henry Waxman had cut with four Blue Dogs on the committee, mark-up started back up again this morning and will continue until midnight, Capitol…

Sixth Seventh times' a charm. So much for Russia's sparkling new nuclear arsenal -- the Bulava was purportedly Putin's baby. For the uninitiated, this is not an optimal missile trajectory. ivanslbm.jpg They point those things at us, so I'll hoist a beer to this epic snafu. Credit to the Ruskies…

Gallup released some new polling today suggesting Democrats will face stiffer political challenges in 2010 than in the past two electoral cycles. Democrats currently hold a slight 50%-44% lead in the generic ballot ("if the election were held today, which party would you vote for"). But as Gallup…

Illustrating once again that the newest research must tell Democrats to find a health care bogeyman and beat the mess out of him in order to get their government-centric health care reform passed, Nancy Pelosi lit into insurance companies today at her weekly press conference with some seriously…

The Washington Post's Jeffrey Smith reports: House Seems To Be Set on Pork-Padded Defense Bill The Democratic-controlled House is poised to give the Pentagon dozens of new ships, planes, helicopters and armored vehicles that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says the military does not need to fund…

Yesterday we wrote about the stimulus we might want or wish to have, and today Fox News reports on the stimulus Obama and Pelosi gave us. The federal government is now funding pornography and even a live production of Perverts Put Out: The NEA was given $80 million of the government's $787 billion…

See below for some excerpts of the testimony that is being given this morning before the Senate Banking Committee, which is holding hearings on possible economic and financial sanctions against Iran, including sanctions against companies that sell refined petroleum products to Iran. These sanctions…

As the Washington Times reports, the Department of Justice's already-infamous decision to drop charges against Black Panthers who menaced Election Day voters in Philadelphia was approved by the DOJ's number three official, Thomas Perrelli. But Perrelli's no stranger to controversy. In 2005, he…

The AP reports on the latest protests in Iran: TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian police fired tear gas and beat anti-government protesters with batons to disperse thousands attending a graveside memorial Thursday for victims of post-election violence, witnesses and state television said. Police barred…

The absurdly pro-Obama magazine Newsweek has a cover story saying "The Recession is Over! But Not For You -- Yet." The piece, by Dan Gross, is a well-written look at the current economic scene, and includes the caveat that, while macro-economic conditions may be improving, the job outlook will…

Politico's Glenn Thrush reports: Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Raul Grijalva said some of his members will hold a 2:30 pm presser on Thursday to protest the Waxman-Blue Dogs compromise. [...] CPC Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.): "Our goal is health care reform for all Americans - not…

The boys get beer; she gets scorn. Cantor: "At last count, there were at least 32 active czars that we knew of, meaning the current administration has more czars than Imperial Russia." "Support for President Barack Obama's health-care effort has declined over the past five weeks, particularly among…

Just a few minutes ago the Senate Banking Committee began what should be an interesting hearing on options for economic and financial sanctions against Iran. Pressure in Congress at last seems to be building for the kind of tough-minded actions that, just a few months ago, seemed unlikely --…

Surely, there can be no other explanation for this headline: Obama's weapon: A dose of homecoming king charm Tom Shales is the Washington Post TV critic whose critical assessment of Obama is he's "too good to be true." It looks like this CNN writer is following in his footsteps.

Legislative proposals don't suffer massive heart attacks, but health care reform experienced some serious chest pains over the past couple of weeks. Part of the diagnosis for President Obama's signature policy initiative is straightforward: the transition from feel-good slogans to specific plans…

The White House's favorite blogger wants Obama to produce his original birth certificate. Repubilcan Bob McDonnell is beating Democrat Creigh Deeds by 15 points in new poll of Virginia governor's race. Allahpundit: Obama: Stop scaring people by talking about the horrible unintended consequences of…

All would be right with the world. These two should go on tour. The American people would be the winner. I think it's clear who the loser would be, starting around three minutes in (although the whole thing is good):

The big news on Obamacare this afternoon was Henry Waxman's "breakthrough" on a deal with the Blue Dogs to markup the health bill this afternoon and presumably report it out of committee by Friday. "I'm especially grateful that so many members, including some Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce…

Here's the section of today's town hall meeting in which Obama forgot that he was the one insisting the 1,000-page bill be passed before August recess. A man who is clearly an Obama supporter nonetheless asks the president if a month or so to read the bill might neutralize a central argument…

It looks like spending right away on defense requirements really does put people to work: Truck maker Oshkosh Corp. last month won a $1.05 billion contract to produce military vehicles built to withstand the rugged terrain of Afghanistan. The hitch: The Pentagon wants 2,244 of them ready by year's…

Yes, that's right: Hispanic support for Obama has cratered at 93 percent--just kidding; it's actually 72 percent according to Gallup. That's still high, but it looks the Sotomayor appointment isn't paying the political dividends it was supposed to. Perhaps aversion to socialized medicine is…

"We enacted the most sweeping economic recovery package in history. And by the way, we did so without any earmarks or wasteful pork-barrel projects--pet projects that we've become accustomed to. Not one was in there." "quarter has been committed"

As the United States prepares to draw down in Iraq, the military has begun to free senior-level Iranian Qods Force detainees captured over the past two years. In return, Iran has begun turning over the bodies of British hostages its proxies captured in 2007. Last month, the U.S. military released…

The men's websites of America are doing the heretofore unthinkable on August 4th- going a day without Megan Fox. It's for her own good, they say, as they fear the starlet has become overexposed: A dozen male-focused Web sites including AOL's men's lifestyle/humor site Asylum.com - as well as Ask…

Michael Gerson writes: Six months on, how fares the Obama doctrine? Concerning North Korea and Iran, the doctrine is on its deathbed. North Korea responded to administration outreach by testing a nuclear weapon, firing missiles toward U.S. allies, resuming plutonium reprocessing and threatening the…

Over at RealClearWorld, George Friedman of Stratfor has an interesting analysis of Vladimir Putin's Russia, in light of Joe Biden's Georgia-Ukraine trip and President Obama's Moscow sojourn. In sum, the vice president didn't so much "tell the truth" about and to Russia as he repackaged the…

Here's President Obama yesterday: "And I got a letter the other day from a woman. She said, 'I don't want government-run health care, I don't want socialized medicine, and don't touch my Medicare.' (Laughter.) And I wanted to say, well, I mean, that's what Medicare is, it's a government-run health…

Thirty years ago the Carter administration made a number of foreign policy blunders that cost the United States dearly. In 1979 alone, four nations fell into the hands of our enemies: Iran, Grenada, Nicaragua, and Afghanistan. Is the Obama administration about to make a similar mistake today in…

It's true, for the longest time it was only shlub morons like the rest of us who knew it might not be kosher to claim domiciles in two separate states as our primary owner-occupied residences, and if we wanted to refinance the mortgages on them both with sweetheart loans and special discounts on…

Voinovich is going to save the Republican Party from itself by making fun of Jim DeMint's accent. DeMint, whom Voinovich thinks is the problem with the Republican Party, rebuffs the birthers. TARP: "By that measure, the government has been a poor investor, losing about $148 billion so far--$1,233…

In re Obamacare: The facts are bad, and public opinion is bad. Otherwise it's doing fine! Chuck Blahous of the Hudson Institute has an important article in today's Politico. He points out that President Obama makes it seem as if his health insurance reforms won't add to the deficit over the next…

Ezra Klein has posted a blog criticizing the claim (made by Bill Kristol on the Daily Show Monday night) that the costs of government-run health care have greatly outpaced other health costs. But Klein is mistaken. Advocates of ObamaCare like to rely on studies comparing the cost-increases of…

Dear Skip,

Last week in Washington, D.C., more pressure was exerted on Turkey to recognize the widespread depredation and pillage of religious sites and objects in the northern third of Cyprus. This third, otherwise known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus--an illegal, unilaterally declared state…

This is the same Barack Obama who asked the entire federal government to come up with $100 million in savings over the next year and couldn't deliver on deadline. Yet the military, actively engaged in two hot wars and fighting a global war on terror, or counterinsurgency, or contingency operation,…

Well, that didn't take very long. Less than one day after officials touted the peace agreement with the Taliban in Badghis province, the Taliban denounced it. Some of us never saw this one coming. The Christian Science Monitor reports: Within hours, however, clashes broke out in the region, and a…

They also have an odd take on summer camp

Democrats have informed John Boehner's office of the schedule, according to the Politico: From: Cavicke, David Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 4:51 PM To: REDACTED Subject: Schedule Democratic Leadership has told Mr. Boehner's staff that there will be no vote on Health on the Floor before recess and…

Remember when it was rumored that some drinks in New York City were costing as much as $10? Now, of course, cocktails can cost as much as $20 at a trendy District bar. But in this economy, things couldn't possibly get worse, could they? According to the beverage giant Diageo, the answer is yes.…

On Sunday I popped out of the heat and into the cool of the National Gallery to see two exhibitions on Spanish art: "Luis Melendez, Master of the Spanish Still Life" (warmly reviewed for TWS here) and "The Art of Power: Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain." In the latter I found one of…

It doesn't happen terribly often, but I'm with Andrew Sullivan on the need to lay Obama birther-ism to rest- a subject on which he's been blogging with some energy over the last day. Indeed, it's almost as if birthers have allowed an intense and sometimes irrational dislike of a political figure to…

As I predicted in THE WEEKLY STANDARD Online on July 22, Change, the new opposition in Kurdistan, did very well against the "Kurdistani list," the electoral combination of the two ruling parties, Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kudistan (PUK) that has ruled in the southern province of Sulaimani…

Only Lindsey Graham broke Republican ranks and supported her: The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to approve Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice over nearly solid Republican opposition, paving the way for a historic confirmation vote. The panel voted 13-6 in…

The New York Times reported last week: Hamas Shifts From Rockets to Culture War even months after Israel started a fierce three-week military campaign here to stop rockets from being fired on its southern communities, Hamas has suspended its use of rockets and shifted focus to winning support at…

Obama thanked the organization for doing "what it does best" by "organizing" and "letting people know the options that are out there." This is how the allegedly nonpartisan AARP lets its members know the options: Why is AARP not standing up for seniors when Obama says he will cut Medicare to help…

A friend passes along an interesting report on China's "Project 048," the PLA Navy's strategic plan to construct six nuclear and conventionally powered aircraft carriers. The first two conventionally powered carriers will reportedly be laid down this year, with more quickly to follow. Once…

In case you missed it, WEEKLY STANDARD contributor David Skinner has a terrific piece in the current issue of Humanities, which he edits. Entitled "Ain't That the Truth," the essay tackles Webster's Third, "The Most Controversial Dictionary in the English Language." Why controversial? Where to…

Well, he's calling it a town hall, but who can miss the message of the setting? President's town hall will be in the perishables section of the store, which will close several hrs Wed "So, your grandma is kinda like this week-old cantaloupe: wrinkly, slowly dying, overly sweet, and frankly, not…

You end up 400 miles away, in beautiful downtown Carpi.

The Vineyard Gazette ("Martha's Vineyard's Newspaper of Record Since 1846") is reporting that the Obamas have chosen Blue Heron Farm, a 28-acre property in Chilmark, MV, for their holiday this summer. Of course it's got to be a bit of a thrill for the vastly rich lefties who own properties on the…

There's been some pretty egregious stuff floating around about the detention facility at Gitmo, but a recent blog post at the American Prospect takes the cake. According to the Prospect, the Guantanamo stockade apparently has the same effect on inmates as the Overlook Hotel from The Shining. The…

Some very sympathetic police officers are going after the president on national TV, and what a surprising coincidence, Joe Biden has suddenly decided to make a donation to the Fraternal Order of Police -- for $1 billion: BREAKING -- "Philadelphia, PA - Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General…

Professor John Evans Evans-John (from the ever-ingenious Iowahawk). Slight content warning for the language: Eventually my arrest record was expunged and I agreed to meet the loathsome arresting officer at President Faust's office for a conciliatory off-record "beer chat." As the University Counsel…

One-man RNC Joe Pounder, whose releases frequently appear on this blog, is leaving the Whip's office to join Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign along with Jeff Sadosky, another McCain alum, who now works for KBH's Senate office. It's a testament to Cantor having a good team that other Republicans are…

From the New York Times report on the gang of six: Often a single topic can consume an entire day or more. On Wednesday of last week, it was Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for low-income people that was likely to be expanded but was also a major factor in the legislation's high cost.…

With the JSF two full years behind schedule and the F-22 program dead, the USAF's fleet projections for the next 7-8 years are pretty ugly. Fortunately, the Obama administration will be retaining the Navy's robust fighter force to meet our air defense demands. Or... not: At a discussion this week…

Less than a month after the U.S., Britain, and a smattering of Coalition and Afghan forces launched a limited operation to secure central and southern Helmand province, some are looking for the "exit." A concerted effort to start unprecedented talks between Taliban and British and American envoys…

Mamoun Darkazanli -- the subject of tonight's The Wanted on NBC (9 pm) -- is probably one of the most interesting terrorists in the al Qaeda network. In addition to the financial assistance he provided the al Qaeda's Hamburg cell for the 9/11 attacks, Darkazanli compiled one of the more intriguing…

How often is it that one hour of TV viewing can annoy terrorists, the New York Times, and Human Rights Watch? Take advantage of this infrequent confluence by watching "The Wanted" on NBC tonight at 9/8 c. Here's the premise: Eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks and the beginning of the war on…

As the U.S. and Britain are pushing for greater "integration" of the Taliban into Afghan society, the Afghan government cut a deal with the Taliban in the northwestern province of Badghis. The ceasefire agreement calls for the Taliban not to interfere with the upcoming elections in one district in…

At the White House press briefing today, left-wing Air America radio talk show host Bill Press asked Robert Gibbs, "Is there anything you can say that will make the birthers go away?" To which Gibbs replied, Oh, please, please don't make me talk about an issue that makes conservatives look like a…

Former CIA boss: Wiretapping was lawful, effective and necessary. If the beer-soaked assertions of some colleagues in the intelligence community are true, it also saved an awful lot of innocent lives.

A friend emails in response to this Washington Post story on the F-22 (which Noonan wrote up below): [I]t contains an amazing error that, I think, reflects the way the playing field is tilted against defense; all the more remarkable because Greg Jaffe, who's a good defense reporter, contributed to…

Around Thanksgiving time last year, the FBI and NYPD suddenly warned of a terrorist threat against the commuter rail lines in the New York metro area. Security was stepped up. There was the usual round of reporting on whether or not the threat was legitimate. And then the story died. That is, the…

From National Review's August 10, 2009, issue's "The Week" columns: "In 2001, Robert Fisk, the hard-Left, jihad-sympathetic British journalist, was attacked by Afghan refugees along the Afghan-Pakistani border. He wrote that ‘young men ... Began smashing stones into my face and head. I couldn't…

From the indispensable Small Wars Journal, a biting reality check to Secretary Clinton's Mid-East trumpet blast: ...anyone who remembers the Cold War should recall that U.S. security guarantees for Western Europe, Japan, and South Korea were not easy, cheap, or simple. A U.S. guarantee for the…

An interesting report from the Washington Post claims that the White House launched an "aggressive, coordinated effort" to slash the fifth generation fighter from the defense budget: When a showdown vote loomed on July 15, Senate Democratic leaders who backed Obama's effort to scuttle the program…

Washington, D.C.--It is both painful and amusing to watch the crowing over this week's vote by the Senate to delete $1.75 billion in funding for the continued production of the Lockheed-Martin F-22A Raptor. There are numerous parties in the Obama camp calling this a spectacular victory, but so far…

During his crusade for health care reform, Obama has often warned us about the high costs of "inaction." Sure, health care reform (or, "health insurance reform," as he's calling it now) will cost a lot of money, Obama told us, but it's an "investment" in eventually lowering costs, which is vital to…

We're constantly told that the "surge" of U.S. forces into Iraq failed because Sunni, Shia, and Kurds have refused to look past sectarian views and have rejected reconciliation. So when news of some real attempts at reconciliation arise, it is often ignored, but not here. Today, the Iraqi…

Or, 52 easy payments of $19,231,769,235! The pacing is a tad slow, but stick with it, and you'll find Jimmy Fallon is both funny and right in one segment. Historic!

Dallas Tea Partiers outnumber MoveOn.org organizers. DNC has to remove anti-DeMint ads in South Carolina. Chris Caldwell: California's fiscal charade. Rasmussen's presidential approval index is in post-honeymoon territory. Challenging Paul Krugman's assertion that the free market "just doesn't…

In January, Rasmussen reported that only 20 percent of Americans "strongly disapproved" of Obama. Now, Rasmussen reports that 40 percent strongly disapprove of Obama. Also: Forty-eight percent (48%) now see him as Very Liberal, up 20 points since he was elected

It's official. German conservative CSU economics minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has just overtaken Chancellor Angela Merkel to become the country's most popular politician. According to a recent poll, the 37-year-old shooting star - whose friends refer to him as "KT" - scores an impressive…

Tegucigalpa

When KFC announced its latest marketing ploy--grilled chicken--and started calling itself "KGC," two thoughts came to mind. The first was that Kentucky Fried Chicken without the fried is, to paraphrase Sam Kinison, "like Christmas without Christ." Why is there so much shame when it comes to…

Cambridge, Mass.

Human Rights Botch

A Jury of Her Peers

Liberty and Tyranny

It is axiomatic to many people that the movies, to take one medium, are more questionable today than ever; that they feature more sex and violence than ever before, and that the values they preach are not values at all, but narcissistic hedonism in disguise.

Late Friday afternoon, Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, announced that his panel would be undertaking a formal investigation of the CIA. The ostensible subject of the probe is a highly classified program that targeted al Qaeda leaders for assassination and which CIA…

Liberals like big systems: mass transit, yes; the individual motor car, no. A massive electric grid, yes; regional electric grids relying on informal arrangements among companies, no. A massive government health care insurer, yes; individual customers using competing insurers, no. It has to do with…

Luis Meléndez

President Obama is ushering in an era of politicized capitalism. Since he took office, corporate heads and business executives more and more look to Washington as the wellspring of financial success. And politicians and government officials have much to offer them: grants, loans, loan guarantees,…

On the first day of the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the Washington Post led with a story about how the hearings were "not just about" the nominee and the Senate's response to her. They were also about the struggle between the two parties over the direction of our courts.…

Pina Bausch, the legendary tanztheater director, died last month in Wuppertal, Germany. She was 68 and had appeared onstage with her company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, just the week before. A diminutive, soft-spoken master of her craft, Bausch was, to many American dancers and choreographers, the most…

While the Chinese state often appears masterful in its dealings with the non-Chinese areas of the People's Republic of China (PRC) like Xinjiang and Tibet, it also seems alarmed at the volatility of its vast semi-empire.

Rosh Pina, Israel

In his speech in Cairo, President Obama mentioned no less than three times the headscarf sometimes worn by Muslim women. Each time, his purpose was to stress "the right of women and girls to wear the hijab"--but never their right not to wear it. It was as if it had never occurred to the president…

Today, on Fox News Sunday, Juan Williams came up with a fine formulation, in the context of the Henry Louis Gates imbroglio: "But in this situation, the president spoke without the facts. And so you can't have a teachable moment if it's based on a lie." Amid all the blather about "teachable…

supertucano.jpg Christian Lowe reports: A top Pentagon official told a small group of defense reporters this morning (July 23) that the upcoming QDR will likely propose the formation of an aviation cadre devoted solely to irregular warfare. The Pentagon's guru for special operations and low…

As Goldfarb pointed out, the key to ballistic missile defense is redundancy. European deployment of the system affords Western allies a critical level of protection, as well as the first line of a robust, layered defense of the US mainland. The threat, however, isn't limited to Iran. Proliferation…

Politico's Chris Frates reports: For the second time this month, congressional analysts have dealt a blow to Democrats' health reform efforts, this time by saying a reform touted by the White House as crucial to paying for the bill would actually save almost no money over 10 years. A key House…

A friend sends along this link, apropos my comment last night on the Special Report panel that President Obama's instinctive identification with Professor Gates (and his willingness to attack Sergeant Crowley without knowing the facts) was as much about class as race. In a short note in the August…

Interesting concept art of Russian's new Sukhoi PAK-FA fighter jet, informally dubbed the "Raptor Killer" by Russian aficionados. Scheduled for its maiden flight later this year, the PAK-FA purportedly boasts many of the F-22's bells and whistles: stealth, supercruise, advanced phased array radar,…

That the American health care system needs reform is conventional wisdom. We are told anecdotally that having an appendectomy in France is performed efficiently and no bills ever appear. Ask someone in the United States with appendicitis and you probably will hear that it was performed efficiently…

Three inter-related forces are beating on the economy: cyclical, secular, and presidential. Dispensing with economic jargon, the recession, longer-term trends, and Obama. Here are some guesses as to the shape of some of the industries that will emerge from the interplay of these forces.

Clifford Asness has a must-read on Health Care Mythology. The Hill: "House healthcare negotiations dissolved in acrimony on Friday, with Blue Dog Democrats saying they were "lied" to by their Democratic leaders." House Democrats censor congressional GOP health-care mailer. Obamacare: Sacrifice for…

On Wednesday Senate Democrats narrowly defeated the Thune amendment, a broad-sweeping law that would have made state-issued concealed handgun licenses (CHL's) valid across state lines. To be sure, there was a valid concern with the Thune amendment--the superseding of state laws by the federal…

This following comes from Senator Lieberman's floor statement on the Lieberman-Sessions Amendment, which was adopted by voice vote into the National Defense Authorization Act yesterday afternoon. If you want to know why the Senate voted unanimously in favor of the amendment, expressing the sense of…

From a Reuters report on U.S. economic diplomacy with China: "China is committed to growth, growth and growth and, in that circumstance, anything that looks like caps on emissions, or whatever, is going to be seen as something boxing them in and as a luxury that they can't afford," said Dan…

In a surprise appearance at the White House briefing room this afternoon, President Obama addressed the controversy surrounding his statement Wednesday night that police who arrested Harvard's Professor Gates had been "acting stupidly". "In my choice of words, I unfortunately gave the impression…

The military has decided to stop reporting enemy casualties in Afghanistan and to put out positive press releases. The Los Angeles Times reports: Under the order, issued last month by Navy Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, the military will not release specifics on how many insurgents are killed in…

This should come as no surprise to those who closely watch Pakistan's military operations in the tribal areas. According to a senior politician, the government is conducting a faux offensive against Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban leader behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and scores of…

It's conventional wisdom now that Obama's health care initiative is in deep trouble. But that's wrong. It's in deep, deep, deep trouble. Again contrary to Washington wisdom, neither the cost of ObamaCare nor the squabble among congressional Democrats is the main reason. The biggest problem is…

The Danger Room's David Axe reports on some cool new kit: "The ability of the [NLOS-LS] missile to defeat a moving target is a first for the U.S. Army," said Col. Doug Dever, the Army project manager. He said Missiles in a Box will give soldiers the ability to "precisely engage moving targets" on…

Read Ed Morrissey's description of the show here. It is, as he says, "the best show you're not watching." The video below is an episode that has host Adam Ciralsky and his team tracking down the the founder of Ansaar-al-Islam, who was living the good life in Norway. Watch and find out what happens…

Joe Klein: let's assume the worst: say Iran is working on a bomb; say it acquires one in the next few years. Only Benjamin Netanyahu and assorted American neoconservatives believe - or pretend to believe - that Iran might actually use it, given Israel's overpowering ability to strike back.…

Bill Sweetman runs down the seven memes that dominated the arguments against F-22. And then he explains why they are all based on "assumptions that are, at best, unproven." Meme No. 1 is my personal favorite: The F-22 hasn't been used in Afghanistan or Iraq. In itself this is a statement of the…

Republicans are highlighting Laura Meckler's report in the Wall Street Journal: Last Saturday [budget director Peter Orszag] went to Camp David. While his two children played basketball and tennis with other administration kids, Mr. Orszag reviewed the situation with the president and prepared to…

Just a little note to the president who told ABC news that "victory" is not the goal in Afghanistan because "I'm always worried about using the word ‘victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur." Apparently your…

When people asked what fundamentally caused the financial crisis, my answer is not what they expect. I respond with one phrase--the fall of the Berlin Wall. By the early 1990s, after the collapse of the socialist model, emerging market economies such as China, India, Eastern Europe, and the…

One of the most controversial cases in Gitmo's history is coming to a head. According to the New York Times, a federal judge has given the Obama administration's DOJ until today to decide if it is going to continue to defend the detention of Mohamed Jawad during Jawad's habeas corpus hearing.

CQ's Josh Rogin has a massive scoop that has the potential to upset administration plans to kill the F-22 after a Senate vote earlier this week seemed to seal the fate of the air supremacy fighter. According to Rogin, "An internal Pentagon oversight board has found that the F-35 Joint Strike…

Put this in your Chloraseptic bottle, and spray it: "We, too, are in favor of evidence-based medicine that supports quality patient care. President Obama's statement highlights the complexity of medical decisions like this. However, the AAO-HNS is disappointed by the President's portrayal of the…

Several hundred Bundeswehr soldiers, backed by heavy "Marder" tanks and fighter jets, are currently helping about 1,200 Afghan National Army forces conduct major anti-terrorist operations near the Taliban stronghold of Chahar Dara, southwest of the city of Kunduz, where the bulk of Germany's…

The Senate just passed the missile defense amendment to Defense Authorization -- unanimously on voice vote. The Lieberman-Sessions Amendment would: Deploy Effective, Affordable Missile Defenses to Europe This amendment would express the sense of the Senate that while the administration reviews its…

In a stomach-turning piece in Time today, former White House counsel Fred Fielding proudly unmasks himself as the person chiefly responsible, after the former president himself, for preventing Scooter Libby from receiving a presidential pardon in the Plame leak case-a pardon that ought to have been…

We've had two posts since yesterday on Hillary's attempt to articulate a coherent policy on that rogue of rogue states, Burma. If it was not such a serious issue it would almost be comical. She called for ostracizing the notorious military regime -- "Kick them out of ASEAN" -- and the next day…

The Tripoli Post reports: Farrakhan: Congress Must Side with US President Not The Israeli Lobby Despite the sincerity of his heart, the United States President Barack Obama's ambitious Middle East Policy will fail unless the American Congress sides with the American President instead of siding with…

He's taught it for five years, in tandem with a black officer, to good reviews from the academy head, and was appointed to the position by a black police chief: Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley, the cop at the center of a firestorm over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., has…

One of the administration's key arguments in killing F-22 was that the F-35 was coming down the pike soon enough and it would have much of the capability of F-22 but at a much lower cost. Apparently not everyone in the Air Force is convinced that F-35 is an adequate substitute. Aviation Week's…

Spencer Ackerman reports: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opened the door for the first time Thursday to the prospect of a U.S. military presence in Iraq after the December 2011 deadline for troop withdrawal set by last year's bilateral accord - something President Obama appeared to rule out…

Yet another partisan ideologue pushes for delay on the health care bill on- well, looky there-the same grounds conservatives have. Harry Reid: "It's better to have a product based on quality and thoughtfulness rather than try to jam something through." The Senate Finance Committee will likely have…

After finally pulling off her symbolic burqua as part of the 2009 ASEAN Asia Tour Relaunch, Secretary of State Clinton yesterday gave a long, diplomatic French kiss in the form of investment incentives to Burma's military regime if they released one of the world's most famous political prisoners --…

Honestly, I was only joking about Governor Schwarzenegger going (literally) ballistic with legislators over the budget. But in the spirit of life imitating art, the Governator seems to be taking things one step further with this video of him brandishing the very knife I previously described. Not…

Any message Obama was trying to convey about health care last night is being quickly eclipsed by his o'er-hasty answer to a question about the arrest of black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates: Obama answered a question about his friend Henry Louis Gates's run-in with the Cambridge cops, after…

A friend emails about the Obama/Maliki press conference yeseterday: The President again failed to utter the words 'democracy' or 'terrorism.' Note that Maliki mentioned both, and also stressed our joint efforts to combat Al Qaeda. The full transcript can be found after the jump.

Tom Shales on last night's presser: Though polls show his popularity in slight decline, Obama did nothing at the news conference -- other than preempt or delay some prime-time shows -- that would seem potentially harmful to his image. About the most justifiable criticism that could likely be made:…

House Democrats are pushing hard to get the health-care bill passed, and to help it along they want to give doctors $245 billion to ensure political support. So wouldn't this addition cause the bill to no longer be budget neutral? Not according to White House budget director Peter Orszag who said…

As Bill Roggio reports, U.S intelligence officials believe that Saad bin Laden, Osama's son, may have been killed in an American air strike earlier this year. If true, and we still await final confirmation either way, then this is a major kill. And press reports drawing into question Saad's…

Hillary is a "funny lady." Why I don't feel sorry for Henry Louis Gates. Cantor distances himself from "Waterloo" comment. A couple liberals on health care reform. All our energy is going down the drain... Presser fact check on whether Obama's been blaming Republicans. "Obama also vowed at a…

Channeling Woody Allen on Health Care For nearly two decades--and probably longer--Republicans lagged Democrats when it came to voter trust on health care. But for a variety of reasons, that deficit is easing.

President Obama made several trenchant points in his press conference last night. He offered a reason for public skepticism about his plan for health-care reform. Americans "haven't seen a lot of laws coming out of Washington lately that helped them," Obama said. Too true. What's they've seen, most…

Over at the Washington Post's Post Partisan blog, the boss didn't stoop to respond to Obama's little jab at him during tonight's press conference--clearly, the boss knows it's not about him--but focused on Obama's disdain for docs and cops: at press conferences there are often throwaway lines and…

His remarks as prepared for delivery may be found after the jump...Good evening. Before I take your questions, I want to talk for a few minutes about the progress we're making on health insurance reform and where it fits into our broader economic strategy. Six months ago, I took office amid the…

TEXT

Yesterday Hillary Clinton talked about the Obama administration's concerns over North Korean proliferation of nuclear technology to Burma. And yet today...she's talking about easing sanctions against the regime: The release of Suu Kyi is "critical" to easing the strained relations between Burma and…

Barack Obama, discussing deficits and the stimulus, in an interview with the Washington Post's Fred Hiatt: "The reason that it hasn't been at the forefront of my agenda is because I walked in when we were about to slip into the Great Depression -- or the next Great Depression. And so I had to start…

There are a few, and one of them is reading Matt Welch as he adjusts his aim to the left.

From an administration that made its bones arguing that our defense resources are stretched dangerously thin: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Iran Wednesday that the United States would extend a "defense umbrella" over its allies in the Persian Gulf if the Islamic Republic obtains a…

Rich Lowry posts what he calls a "shrewd" email on Republican positioning on the economy. It would be a blunder of the highest order for the Republicans to make the case that the economy won't recover if Obama persists with his policies. The credit markets have improved dramatically, the economy…

This is the kind of business sense $50 billion will buy you: I wanted a Chevy Camaro. I'd never really liked American sports cars before. But the 2010 Camaro -- a revival Chevrolet has been talking up since 2006 -- is so much more sleek than your typical muscle car. And since my BMW 330 started…

Tomorrow Shona Holmes will testify before Congress about Obama's proposed health care plan, but unlike most of the people debating health care on the Hill, Holmes is not a lobbyist, a doctor, a policy wonk or even an American. Shona Holmes is a Canadian who almost went blind waiting for vital brain…

Christians United for Israel has been holding its annual conference in DC this week. There's good coverage of events at JTA's Capital J blog, including a quote from Las Vegas Rep. Shelley Berkley, who was so pleased with the reception that she declared "If I wasn't so Jewish, I'd think about…

Today, Nancy Pelosi said: "I have no question that we have the votes on the floor of the House to pass this [health-care] legislation." But Joe Pounder of the GOP Whip's press office emails: Today, the President will hold a primetime press conference where he will inevitably employ a straw man…

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/07/22/tenncare_lessons_for_modern_health_care_reform_97570.html

Because we learned yesterday (and will hear again from Obama tonight) that anyone who would like to delay the consideration of a health care reform bill is a partisan hack who only wishes to destroy the president, I thought I'd make a list of the destructive fear-mongers the president is up…

William Gale, an economist at the liberal Brookings Institution, does not like soak-the-rich proposals to fund health care. He really, really doesn't like it. "Choosing to finance health care reform by taxing the rich is bad economic policy, bad health policy, bad budget policy and poor…

Rasmusssen: The health care reform legislation working its way through Congress has lost support over the past month. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% of U.S. voters are at least somewhat in favor of the reform effort while 53% are at least somewhat opposed.…

You'd think it would be hard to come up with a more shameful example of cravenness than the Bush administration's pandering to North Korea over years of fruitless negotiating in the Six-Party Talks. But the Obama administration has surely trumped it. Just days after a sickening piece appeared in…

New Q-Poll: Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's 2010 reelection lead over Republican challenger Pat Toomey has shrunk to a tie with 45 percent for Specter and 44 percent for Toomey, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. And voters say 49 - 40 percent that Sen. Specter does not…

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From yesterday's press conference: Q So it's incorrect to say he supports any of these bills? MR. GIBBS: Well, I think, again, I think there are aspects of each of these bills that meet his principles. I think if you want to know how he feels, again, I think the letter that he sent to Congress…

So much for the special relationship: Hague's speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies was billed last night as the Tory leadership's most significant overview of its approach to foreign policy as it prepares for government. Hague aims to show that a Conservative government would…

The AP's Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar reports "nearly 90 percent of employer-based private insurance plans routinely cover abortion." That is not true. As the New York Times reported the other day, Kathleen Sebelius testified in April: "Most private plans do not cover abortion services except in limited…

"Must hate the Federal Reserve, neocons and the Trilateral Commission. Having your own tin foil hat a plus. Seeking strong man to envelop me in his protective arms once the coming race war erupts." $23 trillion. I know that story's from a couple of days ago, but it will be haunting us the rest of…

Here's a piece of advice for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: I'm sure it's been frustrating being cut out of decisions by the Obama White House. But it's not worth currying favor with your boss by following in his footsteps and, when abroad, boosting him and his administration at the expense of…

On July 25th, the Kurdish region of Iraq is scheduled to have its first major election since 2005. The election is pivotal, and vital to U.S. interests, because it will determine whether Kurdistan takes a first step toward genuine democracy or, through another stolen election, lurches toward…

David Brooks: Liberal Suicide March. Meghan L. O'Sullivan: Biden's rhetoric could harm U.S. prospects in Iraq. Rich Lowry: Obama is an ideologue in a hurry. Health-care special interest groups give lots of money to the Democrats. Wild and crazy guy Joe Biden really digs the Ukrainian foxes.

More job cuts expected in U.S. defense sector : Big defense contractors could be poised to shed jobs as the Pentagon cuts traditional weapons spending, while smaller, niche companies may ramp up their hiring as the United States expands resources to protect ground troops and computer networks.…

Just in case you have any illusions that the health care reform Obama's pushing is meant to be constructed with anything other than reckless abandon and just enough haste and favors to get the government-run plan running for the "greater good," enjoy these tidbits from last night's conference call…

In a conference call today, several House Republicans blasted Obama's health care reform plan, specifically its effect on rural health care providers. Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) said the plan will create "an economic tsunami in rural areas." Fleming said rural areas were already losing hospitals and…

One of the main justifications for killing the F-22 program was that the hyper-advanced fighter was irrelevant in a world of small wars and contingency actions. Secretary Gates is fond of pointing out that the jet has never flown a combat sortie over Iraq or Afghanistan -- an argument that's…

Radical Islamists of the world, rejoice! Your cause is protected speech here in America. On Sunday, Obama's adopted home town played host to a conference titled "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam," which was put on by Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), a world-wide Sunni network devoted to the…

The JPost reports: US lawmakers from both the Democrat and Republican parties stepped up pressure on President Barack Obama to level tough new economic sanctions on Iran in the event that Teheran fails to freeze its nuclear program by late 2009, AFP reported on Monday. Republican Senators Jon Kyl…

They're getting out ahead of the F-22 decision, and they still have their editorial independence.

Today, for the second day in a row, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs attacked the boss's blog post on the need to scrap the current Democratic health-care bills. As much as we here at the blog appreciate the White House's attention and loyal readership, surely Gibbs should update his criticism and go…

The latest Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll continues to show a large number of Garden State residents unhappy with the second term of Governor Jon Corzine, giving him a C- rating and a 37 percent approval. Forty-nine percent of those polled disapprove of his performance. He also trails…

One defense expert emails his thoughts: Clearly the White House and Gates were able to strong-arm wondering Dems, like Kerry in particular. I would say prospects in conference not good; House provision was weaker and so are the House politicians involved. At a little higher level, this is what…

The final vote is 58 to 40. With that victory the Obama White House has eliminated the last major threat to the largest and most expensive defense program in history, the F-35, and guaranteed the elimination of thousands of jobs throughout the country. If there is any consolation to be had here it…

An amusing write-up of Britney's Russian tour from the Moscow Times: Spears may be well-versed in outrunning the paparazzi, juggling frappuccinos and attempting to revive a career whose unraveling will go down in the history books of pop culture. Navigating Russia is another story. The singer, on…

The Obama administration's detention policy task force released its preliminary report last night. The report falls well short of providing a comprehensive strategy for detaining and trying terrorists and suspected terrorists captured abroad. For example, the report's authors say they would prefer…

Senator McCain, whose acted as a key administration ally in President Obama's war against the F-22, doesn't seem terribly confident that his amendment, introduced last week but pulled once already for a lack of support, will pass if it's put to a vote today (though Politico reports that the tide…

The Obama administration's detention policy task force released its preliminary report last night. The report falls well short of providing a comprehensive strategy for detaining and trying terrorists and suspected terrorists captured abroad. For example, the report's authors say they would prefer…

"The time for talk is through." -- President Obama, talking to liberal bloggers on a conference call Monday night. The Democratic bills in the House and Senate are a thousand pages long. They're still changing as committees try to mark them up, or as they mark up other versions of health insurance…

Pretend that Iran has a late night variety-comedy show hosted by a Johnny Carson-like personality. One whose off-color jokes send the network's legal department scrambling to affect some manner of damage control and negotiating out-of-court settlements.

Robert J. Samuelson: The Squandered Stimulus. Ross Douthat on affirmative action. Heritage study shows that 83 million would lose their private insurance under Obamacare. Mark Kirk announces Senate run. Fred Barnes: The Obama agenda bogs down.

In July 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama told a group of Planned Parenthood activists that he would require coverage for abortion in both his public plan and in private insurance plans: In my mind reproductive care is essential care. It is basic care, and so it is at the center, the heart…

In perhaps the ultimate example of the media's if-a-Republican-had-said-it double standard, New York Rep. and Senate hopeful Carolyn Maloney apologized today for using the n-word: "I apologize for having repeated a word I find disgusting. It's no excuse but I was so caught up in relaying the story…

Apparently Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish isn't the only blog they read at the White House.

Fred Barnes writes in today's WSJ on how the Dems got bogged down (for now at least): He made a rookie mistake early on. He let congressional Democrats draft the bills. They're as partisan as any group that has ever controlled Congress, and as impatient. They have little interest in the compromises…

An AP story which ran Sunday covering the crash of an American jet in Afghanistan, apparently from mechanical causes, contained a significant detail about the way U.S. military spokesmen are doing business: Col. Greg Julian, a United States military spokesman, said the pilot of a second fighter…

Statement from Lieberman's office: Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) today lauded the decision by President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to increase the Army's active duty end strength by 22,000 soldiers over the next three years. "I commend Secretary Gates for making this…

The new numbers from Gallup: A new USA Today/Gallup poll puts President Obama's approval rating at 55 percent, which ranks him 10th among 12 post-World War II presidents at the same point in the survey. His approval is down from 61 percent in late May. This comes on a day that Rasmussen shows…

ShiftyPowers.jpg Darrell "Shifty" Powers, 1923-2009 Sometimes, in between uploading videos of stupid cat tricks, sustaining the careers of such blights on pop culture as Lindsay Lohan, and obsessively critiquing Jennifer Love Hewitt's bikini bod, the Internet community can up and do something…

FP's Laura Rozen had a must-read over the weekend that takes another look at Obama's meeting with the Saudi King. According to Rozen, a very plugged-in lefty, says "the meeting did not go well," and she quotes one source saying that "It was the first time that President Obama as a senator,…

Throughout his push for health-care reform, President Obama has held up the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota as an example of great medicine at lower prices-something that could and should be emulated all over the country with guidance from his health care overhaul: Obama, June 11: "And so what you've got…

A Marine emails: "The troops are tired, the American people are pretty tired." Pretty insulting. Not something you like to hear from the second highest link in the chain of command when you have buddies fighting, getting wounded, and dying overseas. And everything I've heard directly contradicts…

Back in 2007, US intelligence officials -- fearing an overestimation of WMD capabilities similar to Iraq circa 2002 -- severely lowballed their analysis of Iran's nuclear weapons program. Their product, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, put the Bush administration on the defensive and…

News from Afghanistan has been -- admittedly -- less than stellar lately. Here's a little ray of hope from the estimable Michael Yon, embedded with the US Marine Corps: The U.S. Marines are flooding in, and you might think that every Marine helicopter in our arsenal is here. I'll not give numbers…

CQ's Josh Rogin reports: It took more than a decade for the Clinton and Bush administrations to negotiate agreements with Japan to reduce the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, including relinquishing a Marine Corps airfield on the crowded southern end of the island. Now some influential members of…

Many people will write tributes today to the Apollo 11 astronauts on the fortieth anniversary of man's first steps on the moon, including a lot of "where were you?" memoirs (I was thirteen, and glued to our television set, trying to decipher the fuzzy images being transmitted over CBS to the…

Lots of interesting data from the ABC News/Washington Post poll today. Read a summary of the top line findings here. The four-month trend in the question below is probably producing a Rolaids moment for Obama. The overall results are troubling enough. But I suspect the numbers are even worse among…

If you are concerned the Obama administration may be heading for the exit in Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Gate's statements to the Los Angeles Times should worry you: "After the Iraq experience, nobody is prepared to have a long slog where it is not apparent we are making headway," Defense…

The day the news broke that the Taliban captured a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, it was noted here that the media would fall all over itself to give out the details of the soldier's life. The Associated Press, CBS News, and most every other news outlet failed to disappoint. About the only thing the…

Are Independents acting more like Republicans, now? "This is the first time in his presidency that Obama has fallen under 60 percent in Post-ABC polling, and the rating is six percentage points lower than it was a month ago." Your tax money is for signs advertising the stimulus and abortions. Have…

With Obamacare on the ropes, there will be a temptation for opponents to let up on their criticism, and to try to appear constructive, or at least responsible. There will be a tendency to want to let the Democrats' plans sink of their own weight, to emphasize that the critics have been pushing…

The Next 100 Years

There are reasons enough to take a swing through the French Riviera, but for the art lover, here's one more. The palm-tree-lined town of Le Cannet, just north of Cannes, has established the first and only museum devoted to the painter Pierre Bonnard. Located in a classic villa, the museum will be…

Ardent Spirits

American Babylon

A Safe Haven

Right now millions of Americans are thinking: staycation.

As Ali Fathi, the pseudonymous Iranian journalist for Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, has sadly observed, the most fearful words inside his homeland are now Gom shodeh ("he has disappeared"). In 1999 during student demonstrations against the regime, Fathi himself vanished into the country's secret…

In early July, while most Americans were preparing for a long weekend of celebratory parades, charred meats, and noisy fireworks, Sarah Palin made some plans of her own. The Alaska governor had been the object of endless media attention and assorted calumnies since she became John McCain's vice…

One of Barack Obama's most politically adept decisions upon winning the White House was to ask Robert Gates to remain in place as the nation's secretary of defense. By choosing Gates--who had served with distinction at the CIA, the National Security Council, and most recently at the Pentagon under…

Imagine you are a cattle rancher looking for liability insurance. You meet with your broker, who, as expected, asks a series of questions to gauge your suitability for coverage:

I was up three mornings in a row last week and at my post--a comfortable chair next to a lamp table upon which my coffee sat--watching the semifinal and final matches at Wimbledon. Tennis is the sport I played best as a boy and, when played well, the sport I enjoy watching above all others. Nothing…

In his first week in office, President Obama issued an executive order overturning the Reagan-era Mexico City regulations, which had prohibited American foreign aid from going to organizations that finance overseas abortions. Just a few weeks later, the Gallup organization revealed that the…

The air is seeping out of the Great Liberal Hot Air Balloon. American liberals have been hoping, wishing, and praying--okay, maybe not praying--for over a quarter-century for an end to the ghastly interlude of conservative dominance ushered in by Ronald Reagan. Surely it was all a bad dream, a…

Four years ago, Wimbledon's lawns were seen as a problem. "The U.S. Open and Australian Open championships get the best games, you get a better standard of tennis at those," David Lloyd, a former British Davis Cup captain, told the Times of London in 2005. "The grass will eventually go." Grass…

Nearly all of the voluminous commentary on the death of Robert McNamara has focused on his conduct of the Vietnam war. This is as inevitable as it is natural. Vietnam was not merely McNamara's Egyptian campaign, Austerlitz, Moscow retreat, and Waterloo all rolled into one. It was also the defining…

The New York Times's Gilded Age

I will Twitter the Constitution of the United States of America. And the Bill of Rights. You may well ask, why? The Constitution is readily available, in print and online, set down in full without the distraction or annoyance of abridgments, elisions, abbreviations, acronyms, emoticons, and…

Public Enemies

Newsweek Managing Editor Daniel Klaidman explains that his magazine decided to ask Sen. Ted Kennedy to author a cover piece on health care, because "his absence during this historic debate had been so palpable, yet here was a way for this respected voice on health care to weigh in and be part of…

Newsweek Managing Editor Daniel Klaidman explains that his magazine decided to ask Sen. Ted Kennedy to author a cover piece on health care, because "his absence during this historic debate had been so palpable, yet here was a way for this respected voice on health care to weigh in and be part of…

Michael Oren, the new Israeli ambassador to the U.S., was issued a summons by the State Department "over the weekend," as news reports are putting it, and given a message to send back home: The government of the United States of America requires you to halt plans for construction of a housing…

Patrick Leahy, perhaps the most partisan member of the US Senate, scolded Republicans this morning for racist attacks on Sonia Sotomayor. The fact that there weren't any didn't stop him. Rather than focus on what happened during the hearings, he worried about hypothetical attacks during some…

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration is considering creating a new special interrogation team for handling high-value terrorists. The team is reportedly the brainchild of Obama's Task Force on Interrogation and Transfer Policies and would draw in specialists…

The Washington Post reports that the Iraqi government has placed restrictions on U.S. forces that have "startled American commanders and raised concerns about the safety of their troops." These restrictions include an end of joint patrols in Baghdad and an end to running resupply convoys during…

Iran erupts. McConnell will vote against Sotomayor. The chairman of the Black Chamber of Commerce says Sen. Barbara Boxer treated him like "some ignorant jigaboo up there." The end of the Electoral College as we know it? Is the health-care battle Obama's Waterloo?

Picture 4.png There once was a man with a prayer That all could receive "free" health care. Despite help from Rahm, His plan was a bomb. So, he passed the thing off to Bill Ayers.

Unlike the company that makes Sharpie markers, which took advantage of Terrell Owens's touchdown stunt (signing a football with a Sharpie tucked in his shoe), the Gorilla Glue company wants nothing to do with Zell Miller's endorsement: The former senator, complaining about our jet-setting…

I recommend Stephen Spruiell's piece in its entirely. Wading through the acronyms is worth it to learn the illuminating history of the federal government and the student loan sector. Here's the short version. In 1965, Congress created a government-guaranteed loan called the Stafford loan, which…

Earlier this week, Gov. Charlie Crist said that the stimulus is working. Today, the St. Petersburg Times reports: Florida's unemployment rate jumped to 10.6 percent in June, the highest in more than 34 years, with the Tampa Bay area among the leaders in job losses over the year. The jobless figure,…

Scott Horton's national-security analyses have drawn a fair amount of attention on this blog in recent days. But when it rains, it pours. In his latest Harper's post, he mocks John Yoo's recent op-ed discussion of FDR's defiance of statutory restrictions on national-security wiretapping activities:…

Right now, the nation (or, at least the press corps, daytime TV watchers, and the Dems Obama's preparing to threaten) is waiting for President Barack Obama to give an unexpected address on health care, just announced this morning. It was planned for 3:15 p.m., but as I'm sure Obama will tell us…

Fox News reports: The House Intelligence Committee will launch an investigation to determine whether the CIA broke the law by not informing Congress earlier about a secret plan to train teams to kill Al Qaeda leaders abroad. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., chairman of the committee, announced the…

Trade skirmishes are one thing, full-blown trade wars quite another. Politicians, even the most fervent believers in the virtues of free trade, sometimes have to bend to constituents' demands for protection. Ronald Reagan urged Japanese auto manufacturers to accept "voluntary quotas" on their…

The American Conservative Union gets caught in flagrante delicto -- and not for the first time. What's really amazing about this story is that anyone thought they could pull a fast one on Fred Smith, who was awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts for his service in Vietnam…

In inveighing against the Bush administration, Vice President Cheney, and allegations of a recently-terminated CIA program, liberal pundits have repeatedly mischaracterized the legal provision that, they say, renders the administration's alleged conduct illegal. They argue that the Bush…

Joe Biden in Virginia yesterday: "To those who say that our economic decisions 'have not produced jobs, have not produced prosperity, and simply have not worked' I say, take a look around." Joe Pounder on Virginia today: A day after the Vice President touted the success of the stimulus in Richmond,…

File under innovations we can't believe President Clinton didn't come up with: When President Obama left the White House on Thursday for Andrews Air Force Base, the Marine One helicopter that lifted off from the South Lawn was piloted by the first female helicopter aircraft commander in Marine One…

The House GOP released this video today, which is pretty effective. Barack Obama will almost always oblige a video editor by holding at least two transparently irreconcilable positions on a given issue, and stating them on camera (as I found when I was putting together campaign-era clips for my…

The speech Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates presented at the Economic Club of Chicago was purported to present the administration's case for its defense budget, especially to clarify the strategic vision that animates opposition to the efforts in Congress to keep the F-22 Raptor line open.…

Presumably, the Democratic Congress will have giant-fake-sounding-number envy and deliver unto us a new health care bill that costs in the quadrillions: A New Hampshire man says he swiped his debit card at a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and was charged over 23 quadrillion dollars. Josh…

Kaboom goes Obamacare: Just 35% of U.S. voters now support the creation of a government health insurance company to compete with private health insurers. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 50% of voters oppose setting up a government health insurance company as President…

Kaboom goes Obamacare: Just 35% of U.S. voters now support the creation of a government health insurance company to compete with private health insurers. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 50% of voters oppose setting up a government health insurance company as President…

"The president, and certainly I and our entire administration, are 100 percent committed to the closure of Guantanamo and to proceeding with the transfer of those who can be transferred, the trial of those who can be tried, and the continuing detention of those who pose a grave threat," Secretary…

Thank you and et cetera. Clichés and truisms. Many. Platitudes, plus a definition of our mission: "And with more states facing common challenges, we have the chance, and a profound responsibility, to exercise American leadership to solve problems in concert with others. That is the heart of…

No wonder the Senate works the way it does: "We're gonna do that crack cocaine thing you and I have talked about before." How does one send Doug Elmendorf flowers? Barack Obama's campaign rhetoric would require that he veto his health care bill. Whew! Joe Biden probably thinks your state is ugly.…

Electoral College opponents may be nearly halfway to their goal of eliminating America's unique presidential election system. But you won't hear anything about it from the media that are understandably obsessed with health-care reform, cap and trade, and the troubled economy. And you certainly…

That's the grade Ed Whelan gives her for "brazen doublespeak": She emphatically rejected the lawless "empathy" standard for judging that President Obama used to select her, but she denied the plain import of her many statements contesting the possibility and desirability of judicial impartiality.…

UN names Muammar Qadhafi's daughter as goodwill ambassador to build Muammar Qadhafi School in Gaza. The NRA opposes Sotomayor's confirmation. Joe Biden: "we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt." Byron York: Why didn't Republicans explore the PRLDEF connection more thoroughly? Gallup…

Mark Hemingway reports on how Obama science czar John Holdren supported eugenics in his 1970s tome Ecoscience: Among the suggestions in the book: Laws requiring the abortion or adoption of illegitimate children; sterilizing women after having two children; legally requiring "reproductive…

Bill Moyers recently interviewed a member of the Center for Media and Democracy about how evil the health insurance industry is. Brent Bozell reports that Moyers failed to disclose that he helps provide funding for CMD: A man named Wendell Potter was the star of the hour on PBS's "Bill Moyers…

Slate's Juliet Lapidos delves into the neocon view of assassination: Of course, a neocon might argue that if the CIA kills a terrorist in a foreign country (even if that country does not condone our presence), it's kosher because it's a form of self-defense, where the "self" in question is the…

Ben Smith links a new report from CAP on the Obama administration's strategy for moving the peace process forward: The communications campaign cannot only be directed toward the Arabs and Palestinians. The Obama administration will achieve its goal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian…

Michael Shear reports: Vice President Biden plans a political broadside this afternoon in the home district of Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), accusing the senior Republican lawmaker of joining in his party's smear of the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act. "To those who say that our economic…

For the second time in just the last month California Senator Barbara Boxer has embarrassed her state and herself with he condescending approach to those who come to testify before her committees. Last time it was Boxer telling Brigadier General Michael Walsh to call her "senator" instead of mam.…

ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports: Here's a blow to President Obama and Democrats pressing health care reform. One of the main arguments made by the President and others for investing in health reform now is that it will save the federal government money in the long run by containing costs. Turns out…

Ben Smith observes that he and a number of other journalists, apparently basing their reports on pre-speech spin and/or a few excerpts that had been released, had written that Hillary Clinton's speech yesterday would be "muscular". Smith writes today that's not quite the speech she delivered: the…

The next round of diplomatic negotiations aimed at defusing the political crisis in Honduras will begin on Saturday in Costa Rica. The mediator of these negotiations, Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, has requested that ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya show patience while the talks move…

The dinner at the White House took place June 30th, and was kept secret for some reason that remains unexplained by the U.S. News and World Report story. Maybe it was because Obama was still riding high enough in the polls that he didn't need flacks in the press to tout his intellectual prowess.…

http://bench.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Yzc0Njg2YjQwZWQxZWFmZDBjMDZlNjRmZDk4ODk1MGQ= http://bench.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTY0NjRlZWU3YjJjNTUxMjhkNmViYTM5M2ExNGQxYmE= http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/73482

Greg Sargent points out that Palin's favorable rating among Republicans (72 percent) in a new Gallup poll

Are you a college student or alumnus? Does your institution have a position when it comes to religion? Is it affiliated with a faith? Perhaps it is supposed to be affiliated but, in this day and age, is willing to cover up symbols of Christ just to get the president to speak on campus? Does it…

The Hill: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) said that the stimulus was working in his home state, bucking other national Republicans who have sharply criticized the measure. Crist, however, said that he did not anticipate the need for a second stimulus bill. "It's pretty incredible that 26,000…

Increasing the role of government during economic turmoil is not a novel concept. Some believe people are hungrier for an extra helping of Washington stew at times like this. And President Obama, along with Democrats in Congress, seem more than willing to serve it up.

Mousavi will attend Friday prayers. Noemie Emery skewers the Palinophobes, again. Keith Hennessey on Obamacare. Allahpundit: 'The Al Franken decade begins.' Ben Smith: 'Diageo/Hotline sees a 15% drop in support from independent voters since June.' Toomey matches Specter's fundraising.

Early word was that it had happened in or near a Senate office building, and several Capitol entrances were on lock down. D.C.'s ABC affiliate reports the most detail I've seen thus far, and puts the shooting a block or two from Dirksen Senate office building: A U.S. Capitol Police officer shot a…

Our Senate source pointed to "the ambivalence of Air Force testimony and other communications to Congress this year" as the fuel for Congressional concern about the administration's decision to kill the F-22. If you're wondering what "ambivalence" this aide was referring to, here are some of the…

Gary Schmitt sees Obama on the verge of repeating some of the worst mistakes of the last administration: In an AP wire report from late yesterday, President Obama signaled that his long-term plan for Afghanistan is in fact a short-term hope to get out as quickly as possible. Having committed…

Ed Whelan writes: Judge Sotomayor says "eminent" when she means "imminent," "providence" instead of "province," "story of knowledge" instead of "store of knowledge," and so on. Does the fact that she is a Latina immunize her from attention to that sort of (admittedly not uncommon) foible? To answer…

Both sides expect that Carl Levin will, later this week or next, reintroduce an amendment that would strip F-22 funding from the Senate's defense authorization bill, but so far, despite support from both the administration and Senator McCain, Levin has been unable to corral enough votes to strip…

The Wall Street Journal reported the hard to believe facts of the story earlier this week and now Jeffrey Goldberg has confirmed that report in an exchange with HRW's executive director. Goldberg's takeaway: In other words, yes, the director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division is…

Well, if there was one area in which I thought Obama was both knowledgeable and sincere in his allegiance, it was his love of sports-particularly the Chicago White Sox, whose jersey he donned last night during his opening pitch in St. Louis. So much for that. Bob Costas gets Obama talking about his…

Politico reports: The effort to strip $1.75 billion from the defense authorization bill to fund F-22 Raptors has stalled. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has pulled the amendment he and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) co-sponsored that would have yanked funding for the controversial jet fighter, Levin's…

When Obama met with Jewish leaders at the White House earlier this week, he was asked about the perceived imbalance in his approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict -- the perception that he has made explicit demands on the Israelis while putting no real pressure on the Palestinians or their Arab…

One of the weirder aspects of Obama worship is the insistence that he's some sort of athletic demi-god. There was the incredible report of him doing curls with 70-lb dumbbells in sets of 10. Then the talk about how he was able to hang with Div. I players on the basketball court. And now we have the…

A source reports that a new Kyl-Lieberman amendment urging "crippling" Iran sanctions will be introduced in the Senate shortly, and that an attempt will be made to attach it to the Defense Authorization Act, which is currently on the floor.

Bonus: Stewart makes fun of Chuck Schumer's crying (at the 2:45 mark). The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c White Men Can't Judge www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show

There's good news coming out of Ramallah for a change: Thanks to some occasionally successful efforts by the "Palestinian Authority" to control the security situation, and some real interest on the part of Bibi Netanyahu in establishing an "economic peace" with the Arab denizens of Judea and…

If you listen to Nancy Pelosi, the $1.04 trillion bill is a "starting point and a path to success to lower costs to consumers and businesses." Believing that, however, requires ignoring quite a few facts. This is not a victimless bill, not by a long shot. The bill is most explicit in its promise to…

Excellent quote from Sen. Whithouse about Sotomayor: It gives me goosebumps to think about the path that brought you here today. Remind you of the famous Chris Matthews' leg tingling?

Jen Rubin takes her down: It is perhaps not surprising that Sotomayor would see the need to finesse or distance herself from past positions. Her speeches and advocacy for the left-wing PRLDEF might incline significant numbers of senators to vote against her. But it is quite another thing to…

Introducing your new right to health care. Introducing your new 50+% top tax rate. The flow-chart for the Dem health-care plan. The WaPo editorial page: "House Democrats would have us believe that the rich can pay for it all." In the words of none other than Jon Stewart: "That's great. Now, fix the…

The most notable development in the Sotomayor hearings yesterday was her rejection of her sponsor's approach to judging. President Obama has made clear over the years that the rule of law, or legal process, is not enough to decide a small percentage of cases, and that in those cases judges have to…

capt.photo_1247623923531-1-0.jpg There once was an All-Star named Barack Whom no one could manage to mock. It must have been fate His pitch reached the plate, But his pants did not reach his socks!

This is stolen & from a current article on The Weekly Standand site.

Kiev

It's bad enough we're forced to listen to him pitching a domestic policy derived from Alinskyesque community-organizing principles and a foreign policy based on plain old appeasement. It's bad enough he's threatening to hurl us tailspinning back into the malaiseous 1970s with his Carteresque…

Here's what that figure accounts for: Among other things, those provisions would establish a mandate for most legal residents to obtain insurance, significantly expand eligibility for Medicaid, and set up insurance "exchanges" through which certain individuals and families could receive federal…

Press release: Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) today introduced an amendment to the FY 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that will reduce the strain on military personnel by giving the Secretary of Defense new authority to grow the U.S. Army by an additional 30,000 active duty soldiers.…

On the surface, Marco Rubio's campaign against Gov. Charlie Crist for the Florida GOP 2010 Senate nomination looks increasingly quixotic. Crist recently posted a $4.3 million fundraising haul in the second quarter--more than ten times as much money as Rubio took in during the same period.On the…

The Washington Post reports: Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) introduced a resolution today to rename Girard Park in Columbia Heights "Barack Hussein Obama Park." The recent renovated park, located at 14th Street and Girard, features a basketball court and play equipment. "The park is a jewel,"…

Senators Hatch and Inhofe cobyline an op-ed in the Desert News pushing back against last week's Washington Post piece that was itself pushback against Congressional efforts to overturn the administration decision to kill the program. The senators attempt to rebut the allegations made in the…

Haaretz reports today: "Obama to U.S. Jewish leaders: Israel must engage in self-reflection" And not just any old self-reflection. According to the article, Obama told Jewish leaders at the White House yesterday that Israel would need "to engage in serious self-reflection." "Serious…

AFP reports: Two Israeli navy ships made a rare crossing of Egypt's Suez Canal on Tuesday, headed from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, a port source told AFP. One of those ships is the INS Hanit, which was hit by an Iranian-supplied, shore-to-ship missile during Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah.…

I think all us feminists can agree on one simple principle: equal pay for equal work. So THE WEEKLY STANDARD decided to take a second look at the salaries of employees at the White House with an eye toward any possible discrimination against the fairer sex. During the campaign Obama was knocked…

At today's confirmation hearing, Sen. Kohl asked Judge Sotomayor how she would have decided Kelo v. City of New London, the controversial "eminent domain" case decided by the Supreme Court four years ago. According to National Journal, Judge Sotomayor "dismissed" the question: Kohl asked her about…

Everyone makes mistakes. It's not a crime for a reporter to have to make a correction to a story every so often. But isn't Scott Horton past the point of reasonable error and deep into reckless territory? Today Adam White catches Horton deliberately misreading stories from the Wall Street Journal…

This via the sports blog Hugging Harold Reynolds, a 2002 clip of "baseball's Chief Justice" Bob Costas blowing out Sonia Sotomayor over her ruling ending the baseball strike. As HHR notes, Costas would make an interesting witness at Sotomayor's confirmation hearings. And of course, Sotomayor's…

I was underwhelmed by the initial New York Times report on this controversy, which failed to identify the nature of the CIA program in question, reported that the program never became operational, and then hyped the fact that Congress was never briefed on this unindentified, non-operational…

Yesterday John McCain took to the floor of the Senate to make the administration's case on cutting F-22. He asked Carl Levin when there would be a vote on the amendment stripping F-22 funding from the defense authorization. Levin replied that the Senate would vote by noon today. A source on the…

Just when you thought Democrats might drive Republicans into Chapter 11, this survey released by Rasmussen last week shows major gains for Republicans on key electoral issues. The poll finds voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on eight of ten major electoral issues, a stunning turnaround…

TWS contributor Adam White emails: Harper's Scott Horton doesn't always let the lack of factual evidence get it the way of an exciting conspiracy theory. Last time, he ended up retracting wildly incorrect accusations against National Review Online's Ed Whelan, whom he called a "torture-enabler" and…

CQ reporter Josh Rogin reports on Obama's agreement with the Russians on new cuts to the nation's nuclear arsenal -- cuts that face considerable opposition in the Senate and for which the president might not be able to muster the necessary two-thirds super majority required for ratification: "It…

One of the big races for Republicans next year will be the primary battle between Kay Bailey Hutchison and two-term incumbent Rick Perry. Whoever wins the primary will most likely have a sure thing in the general, and KBH is gearing up (and staffing up) for a major fight. Her campaign just blasted…

The Jamestown Foundation's Eurasia Monitor reports: Obama had a "Russian style" working brunch with Putin with smoked beluga and black caviar. At present, the commercial production, sale and consumption of beluga or black caviar is illegal in Russia to protect endangered species. It was speculated…

Scott Gration, the Obama administration's envoy to Sudan, recently returned from that country to declare that the genocide was over, and that what remained were mere "remnants of genocide." This despite the fact that Obama's ambassador to the United Nations had just two days earlier described the…

Which sounds better, Senator Cheney or President Cheney? The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that running for political office is on her horizon. "It's something I very well may do," said Elizabeth "Liz" Cheney, a lawyer and State Department appointee who has worked on two…

Key passages from the judge's opening statement: "Throughout my seventeen years on the bench, I have witnessed the human consequences of my decisions. Those decisions have not been made to serve the interests of any one litigant, but always to serve the larger interest of impartial justice." And…

See the boss's take on why Sotomayor doesn't matter (politically) at the Washington Post's Post Partisan blog.

Our contributor Stephen Schwartz points out a recent editorial from a Baghdad newspaper that provides an interesting Iraqi perspective: Thank You America - And Damn You, You Bastards By Jabr Al Jabouri Al-Bayyna Al-Jadida [Baghdad] July 1, 2009 America chose to save us from the most evil party, and…

It looks like we're well on our way. According to iCasualties.org, the number of coalition troops killed in just the first two weeks of this month is no less than forty. Roughly half of those killed have been Americans, the other half largely a mix of British and Canadian troops. Prior to this…

Here's how you know that a reporter doesn't have anything new to report: he tells you he's conducted a bunch of interviews and he tells you what those interviews mean -- because you might be confused or dubious that there is anything fresh at all in those interviews if you weren't told ahead of…

The outlook for cap and trade in the Senate is bleak: President Barack Obama's plan for climate change legislation faces an extraordinarily tough climb in the Senate. For proof, look no further than to some of Obama's closest allies. "We've got to be very careful with what we do with this…

This week I had been chatting online with a friend of mine in Beijing about the uprising in Urumqi, the capitol of Xinjiang province. Although the "Great Firewall of China" that has been created by the security services does a marvellous job of filtering many websites that the state does not want…

Senator Dick Durbin yesterday on the "secret Cheney program": "To have a massive program that was concealed from the leaders in congress is not only inappropriate, it could be illegal." Senator Dick Durbin today on Morning Joe: "I don't know that it was a massive program..."

A twitter from Senator John McCain: Heading to the floor to manage, for the Republicans, the Department of Defense Authorization bill.

Ad Age has a great story about Burger King's attempt to force a $1 double-cheeseburger onto its menu. The $1 double-cheeseburger is a fast-food white whale--enormously seductive, but ultimately elusive. It simply can't be sold for profit. McDonald's has tried, and failed. Burger King, whose…

The widespread criticism of Sonia Sotomayor's dismissal of the New Haven firefighters' claims must have struck a chord: Slate's Dahlia Lithwick has published an attempted character assassination of Frank Ricci, the namesake plaintiff of the infamous Ricci case. Lithwick's move isn't surprising --…

And as ever, she takes no prisoners when it comes to our national security: There are two different versions of the story of the end of the Cold War: the Russian version, and the truth. President Barack Obama endorsed the Russian version in Moscow last week. The Obama administration does seem to…

In discharging their constitutional duty to provide advice and, if they deem appropriate, give consent to President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, Senators should examine the critical importance the president attaches to empathy as a judicial virtue and to…

Have you been racking your brain these past few weeks, trying to figure out what makes the Obama administration's Iran policy "realistic"?

Chicago

Tel Aviv

A PHILOSOPHIC ASIDE

I was only a Michael Jackson fan of the third rank. Too young to have known him in his Jackson Five days, I glommed on when Thriller was released in 1982. I was 8 years old then, and his music was geared precisely to my sensibility. Despite my descent into a lifetime of fandom, I never owned either…

On June 20, after a week of post-Iranian-election presidential mealy-mouthing, and a day after both houses of Congress had passed resolutions condemning the behavior of the Iranian regime, the White House put out a statement from President Obama. It began:

With Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor about to get under way, you can feel the usual sense of anticipation building. Reporters, Senate aides, and interest-group activists are all busy. They are sifting through her judicial opinions and speeches,…

There Is No Alternative

Last Monday, on the final day of its 2008-09 term, the Supreme Court decided its most controversial recent case, Ricci v. DeStefano. This concerned the now-famous claim by a group of firefighters--17 white and one Hispanic--that New Haven unlawfully discriminated against them on the basis of race.

Brüno

Friendlyvision

While Iranian citizens demonstrate against the dubious results of their presidential election, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims that America is interfering in Tehran's affairs. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accuses outside forces of fomenting riots, declaring "the enemies of the Iranian…

The 'Argentine Firecracker'

First President Bush, then President Obama poured billions into General Motors and Chrysler to keep the companies alive but barely breathing. That was just for starters. Next came Obama's creation of an Auto Task Force to oversee the auto companies. To head the task force, the president picked…

For more than a week now, U.S. warships have been tailing a North Korean vessel suspected of carrying illegal weapons while it sails round in circles off the coast of China. The latest U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea (RES. 1874) has proved to be nothing to laugh at, and may well…

The Stoning of Soraya M. is an intense film. It is a beautiful film. It is a disturbing film. Mostly, though, it is an important film--one that reminds us, powerfully and without apology, what evil looks like, what it feels like, and why it's crucial that we recognize and condemn evil when we see…

In President Obama's op-ed on the topic of the economy, here are some words you won't find: profits, investment, incentives, taxes, risk, enterprise or markets. Or freedom, or liberty. So, though he claims to want to build a "foundation for growth," Obama ignores the real drivers of economic…

A statement from McConnell spokesman Don Stewart in response to the President's op-ed on the stimulus: Noticeably absent from the President's op-ed on the stimulus today are the words "save or create 3.5 to 4 million jobs." In their place, a new definition of success for the stimulus: "it will…

In a Friday afternoon news dump, the administration quietly announces that my sister Rachael Goldfarb will be serving as Counselor to the Undersecretary for Agriculture. Meanwhile, over at NewMajority.com, the appointee's father has written a devastating critique of the Obama health care plan.

Three pieces you'll want to check out: Time's David Von Drehle and Jay Newton-Small: The Outsider: Where Is Sarah Palin Going Next? National Journal's Charlie Cook: Palin's Move Is Unorthodox, Not Crazy THE WEEKLY STANDARD's Matthew Continetti: Movin' Out: Sarah Palin on why she resigned and what…

When President Obama first announced his Afghan strategy, John McCain warned that the failure to commit enough troops to the fight would inevitably lead to a "Lyndon Johnson-style" incremental escalation. Indeed, in early June the Pentagon "quietly" sent an additional 1,000 special operations…

I made the mistake this morning of reading a front-page profile of Sonia Sotomayor in the New York Times. If that information alone isn't enough to prove I should have known better, this was the headline: "To Get to Sotomayor's Core, Start in New York: Milestones in Work and Life, Set to a City's…

Sometimes we might be better off if this globalized world of instant communication were less global and less instant. This week we benefited, if that is the right word, from simultaneous news from London, England; Sun Valley, Idaho; Washington, D.C.; and L'Aquila, Italy. Integrating all of this…

It looks like the administration is pushing back hard in the face of Congressional efforts to maintain the F-22 production line despite a veto threat from the White House. Both House and Senate subcommittees put money back into the defense authorization for as many as 12 F-22s, seven of which would…

Roll Call: House Democrats' health care bill has been delayed indefinitely as leaders continue negotiations with fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats. Committee chairmen had planned to release their bill on Friday and begin marking it up on Monday, but notices were sent out this morning noting…

The DNC sends out a letter from Joe Biden to their own list as well as Obama's Organizing for America. The full letter follows after the jump, and it's pretty standard stuff -- Sotomayor's been the subject of unfair attacks, we need your help, blah blah blah. It is interesting though that the…

Yesterday Haaretz claimed that Bibi was privately referring to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod as "self-hating Jews." You knew it wasn't true because 1) Haaretz, like most foreign papers, reports a lot of things that aren't true (see last month's reporting in the same paper on the imminent release…

The other day we described Joe Pounder as a "one-man RNC." Apparently that was enough to prompt Politico to do a mini-profile of the Cantor spokesman, along with some very similar praise from the ubiquitous Kevin Madden: "He's a machine," says Republican communications consultant Kevin Madden, who…

White House: Economy is simultaneously worse and better than expected! ABC tirelessly examining video of Obama ogling to determine a thousand reasons he wasn't actually ogling. Biden's private meetings. Western European health care and cancer survival rates. If only the AP had told us before the…

The Hill catalogues the spelling errors made by the White House this week, prompting one commenter to suggest: Maybe the President should appoint a spelling Czar.

The Bagram Four: Abu Abdallah al Shami (upper left); Abu Nasir al Qahtani (upper right); Abu Yahya al Libi (lower left); Omar al Farouq (lower right).

An advance copy of Matthew Continetti's cover story on Palin for the new issue is posted on the homepage.

Today marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, the French theologian who helped carry the Protestant Reformation into the heart of Europe and shatter the spiritual hegemony of the Catholic Church. Though Calvin was never the theocratic thug of popular imagination, neither was he a…

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said today that the US government is very concerned about the five Quds Force operatives released from US custody and transferred to Iraq. According to the AP, Kelly "told reporters that the U.S. released the five to the Iraqi government because it was obliged…

Hey, I've got a great idea, guys. Let's bring the heads of an industry that has brought convenience to an ever-rising number of Americans at ever-lower prices with ever-improving features into a Congressional hearing to interrogate them about competiveness in cell phone text-messaging rates...for…

Noemie Emery: Sarah Palin hits the RESET button. Senate punts on cap and trade until September. EPA admits cap and trade won't work without China and India. Matthew Continetti on Palin. Stanley Goldfarb on Obamacare. Obama climate czar acting shady: "put nothing in writing, ever." I suspect…

Alec Baldwin attacked Jack Cafferty today with a level of invective he usually reserves for his own daughter, hitting the CNN anchor for "being convicted of leaving the scene of an accident in which you struck a cyclist and then ran two red lights while you were pursued by the police." I was…

Obama moved against Israeli settlements without regard for Israeli public opinion and while at the same time making grand gestures to the Arab world. The result, as has been pointed out here several times, is that Obama has lost his best leverage in dealing with Bibi: Israeli public opinion. A vast…

I must admit, this is not the household item I would have expected Anderson Cooper to be unfamiliar with, but alas. While filling in for Regis on "Live w/ Regis and Kelly" this week, Cooper illustrated that between partying with Michael Jackson at Studio 54 and ridiculing the protesters of the Tea…

Glenn Thrush has a list of the witnesses. Lt. Ben Vargas--the Hispanic fireman who was also denied a promotion because of his race--will testify as well. (Vargas claimed he was physically attacked for challenging New Haven's discriminatory policies.) Hopefully his testimony will remind Americans of…

After the US military and intelligence services put years of hard work into dismantling Iran's Qods Force activities in Iraq, these efforts are now being flushed down the drain: Five Iranian diplomats held by the US military in Iraq since January 2007 were freed on Thursday, the official IRNA news…

If the Obama administration is so insistent on "reseting" Cold War relations, why are they using an outmoded Cold War paradigm for nuclear arms reductions? The major allied nuclear powers -- Great Britain, France, the United States -- have all steadily reduced both nuclear stockpiles and delivery…

There's certainly a sense that Republicans may have bottomed out and at least started to look for a way out of the wilderness. We've thought as much before only to see the party rocked by some ridiculous sex scandal or to watch helplessly as Obama's numbers climb in tandem with the Dow, but…

Well, Recovery.gov (or is it Recvoery.gov?) needs more than nifty diagrams of money that may or may not have already been spent, so the tech-savviest administration ever went looking for a vendor. It succeeded in getting one to redesign the site for a mere $18 million: The new Web site promises to…

Time's Karen Tumulty concludes her latest column with some rather surprising figures: On July 6, the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) released a poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted by the Mellman Group indicating that 71% favor including reproductive services such as birth control and abortion…

An instant-classic from yesterday's New York Times letters page: The solution to binge drinking problems on campuses is simple: college curriculums need to be more rigorous. If college programs required their students to put in a significant number of hours per week doing work related to their…

A sop to the right people who don't want to honor a man who had slumber parties with little boys? I'll take it: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear today that she disagrees with Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee on whether the House should vote on a resolution honoring the life and…

Rasmussen does the breakdown: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is the top choice for those Republicans who put national security first and ties Romney for first among voters who list economic issues alone as the priority. In a perfect world national security conservatives would probably choose Cheney as…

Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring points to this this report from AFP: G8 plans for deep cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions began unravelling on Wednesday shortly after leaders signed on to the deal as Russia rejected a key plank as "unacceptable". G8 leaders agreed to bear the brunt of steep…

National Journal's Erin McPike reports: House Democrats are starting to worry that Republican efforts to put a dent in the support of newer members who voted in favor of climate change legislation are having an impact, in part because allies on the left have left them hanging. "This is a troubling…

The latest in a never-ending series of gaffes from the RNC chairman: Having already lost control of Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008, the party has been battered in recent months with admissions of infidelity by two prominent party members -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Nevada…

The German Bundestag elections, set for September 27, are approaching fast, and the campaign is shifting into a higher gear. Faced with abysmal polling numbers hovering in the low 20s, the left-wing SPD party has been desperately trying to find the silver-bullet issue that can turn public opinion…

The Obama administration has decided to release five Iranian Quds Force operatives held in Iraq for 18 months on suspicions that they facilitated terrorist attacks in Iraq. Stunning.

"Interracial Roommates Can Reduce Prejudice," the New York Times informs us today. That's terrific. Who knew, when Alan Keyes (black), Steve Rosen (half-Korean), and I decided to live together for the 1973-1974 academic year that we would be contributing so much to the public good? We thought we'd…

Some political commentators label Barack Obama as America's first "urban president." As Quinnipiac University's Peter Brown explained in the Wall Street Journal last November, "Let's be clear: Urban is not meant as a euphemism for black or liberal, although the president-elect is both. Mr. Obama is…

ABC News's Rick Klein reports: "For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site." It appears that Klein is too polite to point out that the GSA email…

Jake Tapper: G-8 will not call for new sanctions against Iran. Tucker Carlson interviews Jeb Bush. Mark Kirk of Illinois will run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. Times of London: Obama to Russia: stop Iranian nuclear weapon and US will scrap missile defence. John Fund on why Palin quit.

Per Gary Schmitt and Tom Donnelly a little after noon today: On Monday, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a "Joint Understanding" on the parameters for a follow-on to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which expires this December. The White House press release…

CQ reports: The director of the Air National Guard, in a statement that has added afterburners to the case in Congress for continued production of F-22 fighters, has told lawmakers that the jet is the optimal choice for replacing aging aircraft that patrol U.S. airspace on homeland security…

Taro Aso gives the Pope a Sony video camera. As a friend points out, better to have a camcorder than an iPod with Obama's speeches on it.

The AP reports: U.S. Marines trapped Taliban fighters in a residential compound and persuaded the insurgents to allow women and children to leave. The troops then moved in - only to discover that the militants had slipped out, dressed in women's burqa robes.... On Monday, images from a Predator…

ABC News's Rick Klein reports: When Vice President Joe Biden announced a new $3.3 billion grant program to upgrade the nation's electricity network, the rationale was simple: "This is jobs -- jobs," he said in April. But the Obama administration is now saying it will not take the potential for job…

At least that's one view from Tehran: AFTER weeks of efforts to find someone to blame for the post-election insurrection, the Khomeinist regime in Tehran has finally found the ideal culprits: Liz Cheney and George Soros. Never mind that the financier and Dick Cheney's daughter are on opposite ends…

chris-dodd.jpg CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf and study author Phil Ellis testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) on the new draft of the Kennedy health care legislation today. The old version of the bill was estimated to cost $1 trillion over 10 years…

During President Obama's almost six months in office, support for two key aspects of his national security policy has been greater on the right than on the left. This fact has been curiously underreported. On Afghanistan, conservatives were quicker than their counterparts on the left to praise and…

(Greenwald-style update below - Update II) The Obama administration has been forced, once again, to make a false choice between our ideals and our security, and like President Bush before him, Obama chose security. In January White House counsel Greg Craig was telling reporters that this…

The music is sad...because the Democrats are ruining the country. According to Greg Sargent, the "footage of Franken is actually of him delivering a tribute to the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone." Sargent suggests this is problematic because Republicans were beat up for using the same…

Lisa Madigan, the strongest potential U.S. Senate candidate in Illinois's 2010 race, has declined a bid for the Senate.

Fox News: A former Guantanamo Bay inmate is leading the fight against U.S. Marines in the Helmand province of Afghanistan, a senior U.S. defense official confirmed to FOX News on Tuesday. Mullah Zakir, also known as Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, surrendered in Mazar-e-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan in…

Health care stocks rise on news that government-run option may be tanking. Your daily reminder from the Democratic Party that dissent is no longer patriotic. We the people will track your Swingline purchases without mercy. California screaming. Yesterday was the anniversary of sliced bread. Perhaps…

"The status quo simply is not where America is." -- Sen. Harry Reid HT: Jim Geraghty

Kiev

Palin still playing well in Peoria: a new Rasmussen poll shows a Romney-Palin-Huckabee dead-heat. Tony Blankley on the Sarah agonistes. Times of London: Al Gore likens fight against climate change to battle with Nazis. Republican McDonnell leads Democrat Deeds by 6 points in Virginia gubernatorial…

"Richard talked about Minnesota taking a little bit longer than Florida. In Minnesota we counted the votes," Franken said, prompting laughter from the packed room. http://politicalblogs.startribune.com/bigquestionblog/?p=1360 Al Franken was sworn in as Minnesota senator yesterday (you can watch the…

Dan Blumenthal writes on the latest crackdown on Chinese dissidents, this time ethnic Uighurs: The death count is at 156, while the Chinese security forces have arrested more than a thousand protesters. Beijing's response has been true to form: block Internet access, keep reporters out, put down…

Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander discusses how the Post's cutbacks have resulted in fewer copy editors and a growing number of errors, grammatical, typographical, and factual. "Copy editors are the unsung heroes of the newsrooms," he writes. "Unknown to the public, and often…

The left is going bananas because Palin said: If she were in the White House, she said, the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations."I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged…

David Hutchinson didn't join the Army Reserve to be a hero. He joined because of a family tradition of service to save money for college. But soon after he enlisted, Hutchinson was deployed to eastern Afghanistan. On his fourth day in country, the 21-year-old private first class was on his first…

Who knew that Mark Penn was a secret admirer of Christina Rosen? Penn's WSJ column on smartphone addicts is great and contains this fantastic bit: I once worked with a candidate for Senate who emailed me from the podium during a debate.

I've never seen any polling data on this, but my guess is that Starbucks baristas probably vote, as a class, like Prius owners. I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't go 75-25 for Kerry and 85-15 for Obama. Walking these guesses a little further down the lane, I suspect that, in general, baristas…

It would be the finishing touch on their decade-long dismantling of Her Majesty's Armed Forces: The U.K. should re-examine its commitment to the Lockheed Martin F-35, a left-leaning think tank suggests, as part of a broader review of defense procurements. The Institute for Public Policy Research…

Suppose, from a purely hypothetical standpoint, the crisis in Honduras was mimicked in the United States? A fictional American president, lacking the votes in Congress and the judicial nod from the Supreme Court, circumvents the constitutional process and holds an illegal national referendum to…

A story from Canada, in which the U.S. medical system is an escape hatch for a woman who would likely be blind or dead if she had waited for public health care to help her. "All my life, I've lived in this country, with public health insurance, and I always thought that I would be okay, that…

Cantor spokesman Joe Pounder is like a one-man RNC (which is nice because the real RNC doesn't even bother sending me emails anymore -- I'm looking at you Gail Gitcho). He sends out a release noting the multiple fronts on which different White House players seem to be pulling in opposite…

Obama's approval rating slips below 50 percent in Ohio.

If you like watching baby seals get clubbed, then you'll love this post by Reason's Matt Welch. Michael Moynihan piles on here.

Don't fault Biden, he was just sticking to the same script politicians have used for decades with regard to friendly allied countries who are threatened by hostile authoritarian regimes. But Obama has now entered the fray to correct the record -- the United States will no longer sit idly by as a…

The boss writes in the Washington Post: I like Sarah Palin (though I don't know her well). I respect her (though I'm aware of some of her limitations). I wish her well (though I'm not convinced she should be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee). I am convinced, though, that she should have a…

New York Times reporter Nelson Schwartz finds the French are doing a better job of spending stimulus money than their counterparts in Washington. It's a fascinating story of how bureaucrats who've perfected the art of government waste got an extra $34 billion to fritter away, but Schwartz focuses…

Is Robert Gibbs biting Chuck Todd's look? About Medicare's low administrative costs... Econo-blogger smackdown over Medicare administrative costs. (Most interesting headline ever?) "I don't think you could have found anyone in the state that would have even guessed that she would quit midterm." The…

Via Andrew Sullivan, blogger Freddie DeBoer is outraged at claims that some attacks on Sarah Palin were motivated by classism: Sarah Palin's family makes better than five times the national median household income. Five times! The Palins own a huge mansion, four other properties, two boats and a…

Last week, a large number of FBI memos written after interviews and "casual conversations"--that's how the FBI described them--with Saddam Hussein were released to the public. The press is, predictably, hyping the memos as evidence that the FBI extracted valuable intelligence from Saddam through…

The Washington Post reports: Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, appearing in public for the first time in nearly three weeks, vowed Monday that protests against the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "will not end" and predicted that the new government would encounter problems…

A memo circulated by Republicans on the Hill in response to Obama's joint statement with Russian President Medvedev today follows. The author notes that Obama's expectations for the speed at which the new treaty on arms reductions will be ratified does not conform to precedent. Obama says that…

Seven U.S. troops were killed in Afganistan today. You can read about it at the Huffington Post under if you scroll deep enough, following about 20 other stories, including two stories about Michael Jackson, a banner headline on Social Security numbers, the outrage (outrage!) at a National Review…

Christopher Hitchens: Did the Toppling of Saddam Hussein Lead to Recent Events in Iran? Ross Douthat: Palin and Her Enemies. Andrew Malcolm: Russian TV grills Obama on heroes, favorite movie, his nice wife. Ed Morrissey: IRGC takes control of all security functions. Gary Schmitt: Government…

This was not the cheeriest of holiday weekends. Yes, we still celebrated our Declaration of Independence from the British oppressor some 233 years ago. And yes, many towns had parades and fireworks to celebrate that event. And yes, "Big Pay Packages Return to Wall Street", headlined the Wall Street…

For acts of valor in Afghanistan, four soldiers have been awarded a prestigious medal, the highest of its kind. The men reacted to a suicide bomber in Kunduz who blew himself up as well as two other soldiers and five children. Despite a fire and exploding munitions, the four sergeants did…

Gallup: Despite the results of the 2008 presidential election, Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, say their political views in recent years have become more conservative rather than more liberal, 39% to 18%, with 42% saying they have not changed. While independents and Democrats most often say their…

Tom Friedman is at it again, igniting a bunch of worn-out clichés and drowsy aphorisms to launch another one of his hot-air balloons. This time he's getting his consciousness raised (and his "clock cleaned," as he might say) by the Chinese--of all people!! Doesn't that just beat all?--about energy…

FBI denies any investigation of Palin. Palin attorney warns press against defamatory material. Obama's summer of judgment. Joe Biden rides...again. Stimulus money being spent $1200 at a time...to advertise stimulus projects! Bipartisanship on stimulus FAIL. What's behind the foreclosures? Gee, why…

"I would think, if you want to run for president - and I'm not sure that's got anything to do with what she's doing - that the forum of a governorship would be a better forum than just being a private citizen" -- Senator Chuck Grassley In that phrase, "just being a private citizen," Senator…

On the homepage, Reuel Marc Gerecht writes about the profound significance of the Association of Religious Scholars' call for new elections in Iran.

The New York Times's Saturday story about Qom's Association of Religious Scholars' call for new elections is worth further commentary. Stanford's always-insightful Abbas Milani is probably guilty of understatement when he remarked that Qom's declaration is "the most historic crack in the 30 years…

Forget about Sarah Palin as the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 and probably ever. She may have no interest in seeking the GOP nomination. But if she does, her chances of winning the nomination have been minimized by her decision to resign as governor of Alaska. She's knocked out one of…

Representative David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, has vowed to block earmarked projects that bear the name of their congressional sponsors. Perhaps he can call it the "Obey Ban."

I've heard from many people regarding Palin in the last 24 hours. About 80 percent think my somewhat pro-Palin take is crazy. But I was heartened that a couple of those inclined (more or less) to agree with me are among the most astute of my friends. One (we'll call her "A") was terse. She emails:…

I don't have any deep insight into why Governor Palin decided to step down, but I think there is at least one possibility that we can rule out: Max Blumenthal. The blogger takes credit for her decision in a column for the Daily Beast: On July 1, CBS reported that a story authored by me and…

Unfortunately, this doesn't really come as much of a shock: Mr. Emanuel said he knew the Obama-mania was waning in his household when he told his son recently that they would again be savoring father-son bonding time at the White House on a Saturday. The 12-year-old did not jump for joy. He set…

I spoke to a few friends in Alaskan Republican politics yesterday. None of them had a clue that Palin was going to resign her office, and none has any idea what her motivation might be in doing so. It was widely assumed in Alaska that Palin wouldn't run for a second term. But this? One friend…

If Palin wants to run in 2012, why not do exactly what she announced today? It's an enormous gamble - but it could be a shrewd one. After all, she's freeing herself from the duties of the governorship. Now she can do her book, give speeches, travel the country and the world, campaign for others,…

You can find the governor's complete statement here. For what it's worth, on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell is reporting that Palin is done with elective office.

We live in strange times. How strange? Well, the politician whom Republicans like the most is resigning her office, while the embarrassing Mark Sanford is clutching to his.

If Palin wants to run in 2012, why not do exactly what she announced today? It's an enormous gamble - but it could be a shrewd one. After all, she's freeing herself from the duties of the governorship. Now she can do her book, give speeches, travel the country and the world, campaign for others,…

One takeaway from Palin's speech today is how tired she's become of the frivolous ethics complaints launched against her since she returned to Alaska in November 2008. Even Palin critics will admit that these complaints don't hold water and distract from state business. The complaints also bring…

Sarah Palin will resign her office effective July 25. Here is the statement from her press team. One thing you learn about Sarah Palin when you study her career is that she never, ever does things by the book. I think it's safe to say today's events are a further example of this tendency.

Jonathan Martin has the story here. For semi-professional Palin watchers like myself, this doesn't come as much of a surprise. On a recent trip to Alaska for my forthcoming book on the governor, I picked up a lot of chatter to the effect that Palin wouldn't run for a second term. Palin's term ends…

One hopes the irony of today's protests to Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Iraq are not lost on the vice president himself. Biden is in Iraq to help further reconciliation between Sunnis, Shia, and Kurds just three years after pushing his his plan to divide Iraq into Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish…

As the Obama administration finalizes its preparations for the Obama-Medvedev summit next week, their vaunted "reset" of U.S. relations with Russia is experiencing some technical difficulties.

President Obama says the pie at the White House is "the best pie I have ever tasted, and that has caused big problems with Michelle and I." (Note to lefty grammarians and literary critics: can we assume you will be parsing this president's errors with the same strict and offended attention with…

(To the tune of "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp") You know it's hard out here for the Post (cash flow slowin') We just tryin' to get some money from the folks (not much showin') cause without it our reporters will be toast (money owin'). Cause the 'net an' all the bloggers got the poop and the…

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Forbes reports on Wal-Mart joining forces with SEIU and the Center for American Progress: As for the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress, it has an added incentive to welcome Wal-Mart into polite company. While the left has shunned the corporate behemoth for years, according to its Web…

Jeremy Scahill tweets: i heard joe biden tried to pay the Post $25k to have access to the obama administration Mike Allen has the report on the Washington Post's new lobbying business.

Remember how the media conspired to hide the capture of New York Times reported David Rohde by the Taliban? We were told the media did the right thing to deliberately not report on his capture in order to ensure the reporter's safety and not allow the Taliban to use the media to manipulate the…

Looking for lunch-hour reading? I'd recommend Justice Samuel Alito's concurring opinion in Ricci v. DeStefano. Alito's devastating narrative argues that the real reason the city of New Haven threw out the results of its fire-fighter exam was "the desire to placate a politically important racial…

The Washington Post reports on Obama's "town hall": "The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a…

To say that people in Latin America are sensitive about military coups would be an understatement. Due to the often tumultuous and bloody histories of their respective countries, they have a strong aversion to anything that looks like military interference in civilian politics. Recent events in…

Health care reform moves into high gear this month in Congress, as lawmakers move beyond slogans to concrete ideas. Accompanying the heightened legislative activity is a chorus of new surveys, studies and think tank analyses--all intended to underscore one point or another.

A widely discussed topic around kitchen tables across America today is how people who worked hard their whole lives are going to rebuild their nest eggs that were wiped out by the economic tsunami. It's going to take a lot to restore confidence (and maybe an innovative government initiative) for…

"This, in her mind, is how the system is supposed to work." In case you wanted to hear too much information, straight from Mark Sanford's mouth. If Mr Schmidt is trying to warn Republicans, good luck with that: Mr Kristol has the stage. Hawking "better" health care. Glenn Reynolds asks Gov. Rick…

I find it not at all "shocking," as Thomas asserts, that the White House would hold a town hall event tailored to suit its needs, so she's going down the road to Loopytown on that one, but some of this exchange definitely goes in the Helen's "even a broken clock" file. At least both she and Chip…

Hillary Clinton was caught off guard when her boss claimed at his June 23 press conference that he was "appalled and outraged" after days of watching the Iranian regime brutally cracking down on protesters, because she didn't know he was going to use language she'd been urging him to use from the…

A group of American foreign policy experts and rights advocates asked President Barack Obama to focus on democracy and human rights when meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev next week. In a letter, they asked Obama to act on his statements in Cairo about the universality of human rights…

Matt Continetti buries the lede: The big news in the Palin Runner's World interview is that she ran a sub-4 hour marathon a couple of years ago--3:59:36. That's after the age of 40 with four kids behind her. That's pretty awesome. (Compare that to Al Gore's 4:58 in in 1997 or Michael Dukakis's 3:31…

The New York Times is covering President Obama's health care town hall-style meeting today in Northern Virginia rather credulously. This is the orchestrated political event that will feature a hand-picked audience and pre-screened questions about Obama's health care plan for the nation. In one…

This seems reasonable: Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the first time is outlining potential Obama Administration plans to selectively enforce the "don't ask don't tell" ban on gays in the military so that some gays could serve. Gates says he is now looking at ways to make the ban "more humane"…

Cheney's role, real and imagined, in managing U.S. policy in Iraq earned him the title of most powerful vice president in U.S. history. Now his successor, Joe Biden, has been officially handed handed the Iraq portfolio and with it responsibility for a theater of operations that is host to two to…

Shortly after the Supreme Court's decision against SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor's legal reasoning in the Ricci case, Ramussen Reports finds in their most recent poll that support for her nomination is slipping: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, conducted on the two nights…

Sarah Palin mentions a (perhaps apocryphal) quote from Plato in her fascinating interview with Runner's World.

Washington Times: Toss your red-light cam tickets! Up next, an Olbermann special on how the paper and its fellow travelers at Fox News incite dangerous civil unrest. Has Iran started hanging Mousavi supporters? Israeli navy vs. Cynthia McKinney: I know who I'm rooting for. I never thought I'd see…

In the past decade, American commentary on Russia has been sharply divided between "idealists," who deplore the rise of neo-authoritarianism under Vladimir Putin and urge a tough stance toward the Kremlin, and "realists," who argue that U.S. policy should emphasize practical cooperation rather than…