September 2009

John and Elizabeth Edwards are more vile than you could possibly have imagined. Ferguson on the president's "high-handed refusal to be high-handed" at the UN. Michelle Obama says the "gloves are off" in the fight for Chicago's Olympic bid. But even David Corn has to ask "Is President Obama serious…

Today, on a 13 to 10 vote, the Senate Finance Committee rejected an amendment offered by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to prohibit taxpayer money from paying for elective abortions. Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine were the only senators to cross party lines…

Credit to Kurt Campbell. At today's Burma hearing he acknowledged that State has handled the Burma policy review very poorly. Last Friday, two senior state officials briefing Hill staff on the results ran into a buzz saw of complaints over the process State used in rolling out their review. The…

How bad of a year was 2008 for the GOP? This guy narrowly defeated a four-term Republican incumbent in Orlando, Florida: The good news: after saying on the House floor that the GOP health-care plan is for Americans to "die quickly" if they get sick--and then doubling-down today, calling the current…

Allahpundit: And now, an important message from non-celebrities on ObamaCare

Obama's special envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, said this week that in dealing with rogue states like Sudan, "We've got to think about giving out cookies...Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement." So, in that spirit, Ben Smith reports that…

The AP reports: Iran's foreign minister made a rare visit to the U.S. capital Wednesday on a visa granted with unusual speed by the State Department one day before the start of nuclear talks in Geneva. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley played down the significance of the U.S. decision to…

Today the Supreme Court agreed to rule on one of the challenges to Chicago's handgun ban -- an important ruling that will decide the scope and power of the Second Amendment. From SCOTUSblog, which has a detailed breakdown of all the cases the Court has chosen to hear for its coming session: The…

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) has begun his 2:30 pm hearing on Burma and a friend emails to report that the room is "packed with Burmese democracy supporters. Taking up the front row are 15 saffron robed monks who traveled from New York and are led by U Pyinya Zawta" -- one of the leaders of Burma's 2007…

In Osama's latest audio recording, he says: There is a lesson for you in the situation of your sister Georgia. Its people were bombed and humiliated, so they asked for help from America, to restore sovereignty over what had been seized from them, but the latter provided them with nothing but empty…

JTA's Eric Fingerhut reports: A new survey shows that a majority of American Jews would support a U.S. military strike on Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons -- a significant increase from a year ago. Fifty-six percent of American Jews would support the "United States taking military…

Senator Jim Webb is holding his much-anticipated hearing on the Obama administration's Burma policy today and Burma's democratic opposition is crashing the event in a likely futile attempt to shame the Virginia senator for his coddling of the junta. The press release says that "In a sign of protest…

Palestinians used to be considered the best educated and most cultivated-and secular-of all the Arabs, before the gore-spattered Arafat and his bloody-handed cronies returned from Tunis in the mid-90s to murder their opposition, immiserate their brethren, and destroy the Palestinian civil-society…

A reader emails: The government is playing down Iran's missile tests as scantly more than "provocative," while some political pundits are calling them gravely serious. What's the real story? Just how far along are they in [missile] development? Short skinny: It's serious. Iran's test provides some…

I'm very sympathetic to the liberal, good-government argument that building big sports complexes with public money is a bad idea because it benefits owners and teams and disadvantages taxpayers. But here's liberal blogger/economist Ryan Avent discussing Chicago's Olympic bid and (a) admitting the…

The way Hollywood is closing ranks around Roman Polanski, you'd think he was Alger Hiss come back to life and sent back to prison--instead of a convicted pedophile who drugged and raped a little girl three decades ago and then fled to France to escape punishment. The list of celebrities outraged…

Leslie Gelb: Are we now to understand that he made all those previous declarations and decisions without a strategy he was committed to? Prior to his recent statements, it seemed clear that the president and his advisers had adopted a strategy already-the counterinsurgency one-and that Gen. Stanley…

The president vows to pay for health care reform in large part by rooting out WFA (waste, fraud, and abuse) in Medicare and then in the rest of the health care system. It would be helpful for him to tell us what he thinks is wasteful and abusive.

Frank Rich is an Afghan war hypocrite, cont. Dan Rather to headline pro-abortion fundraiser. Run, Rudy, Run! (for Senate). Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu sentenced to 24 years in prison. Tim Carney: The Obama revolving door spins. Allahpundit: Video: Even Jon Stewart laughing at western threats…

That's the view of a couple retired generals who've been trotted out by Human Rights First. They do not blame Greg Craig or Barack Obama for the failure to meet the January 22nd deadline to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. They also don't blame the ninety senators who voted to deny the…

Yesterday's Washington Post piece on Scott Gration and his milk and cookies approach to dealing with the indicted war criminals that rule Sudan and have committed genocide in Darfur has prompted push-back from the White House. "This article wildly misrepresents the policy discussions that have…

TEXT "I think the First Lady would have been and should have been the lead here," said the RNC Chair. "Let her go and sell Chicago. But the goal should be creating not job opportunities seven years from now but job opportunities today. And I think that what the president is doing is not necessarily…

General Stanley McChrystal acknowledged during a television interview that aired Sunday that he's spoken with President Obama just once since arriving in Afghanistan more than two months ago. At today's press briefing Robert Gibbs provided "a little context," noting that the "President receives a…

The New York Times reports: The [Senate Finance] committee on Tuesday afternoon voted, 15 to 8, to reject an amendment proposed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, to add a public option called the Community Choice Health Plan, an outcome that underscored the lack of…

The New York Times quotes a senior administration official on General McChrystal's troop request and how the numbers are being viewed inside the administration: "The figure of 40,000 would be what one official described as the ‘we're in this to win' option, which would include ambitious goals for…

The Hill reports that election to fill the seat of Republican John McHugh, who is now Obama's Army secretary, will be held on November 3. Democrat Bill Owens against liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava and conservative Doug Hoffman.

A prediction: President Obama will add a "surprise" visit to Afghanistan to his Olympics-lobbying trip to Copenhagen. The president and his advisers must realize, in Mark McKinnon's words, that "people elected Obama to be president--not the head of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce," that a large…

AFP reports: New York's iconic Empire State Building will light up red and yellow Wednesday in honor of the 60th anniversary of communist China. The Chinese consul, Peng Keyu, and other officials will take part in the lighting ceremony which will bathe the skyscraper in the colors of the People's…

It occurred to me last year that Obama's theory of foreign policy, which ventured past soft power and into the realm of "smart power," might be more aptly described as "iPower." That's because it centered largely on the belief that -- by dint of his background, intellectual, and charismatic gifts…

In the wake of the last week's revelation that Iran has a clandestine facility designed to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs, the New York Times has an interesting look at the ongoing debate between American and her allies over Iran's nuclear program. Behind their show of unity about Iran's…

A little while ago I wrote about the comic-book industry's obsession with Barack Obama. Since then, the pace has only picked up. The second issue of IDW's Barack Obama biography is out now, titled The First 100 Days. The Obama's dog, Bo, has gotten his own comic book. This week brings yet another…

It is hard to know if Thomas L. Friedman's love affair with China, already reaching approval of autocracy, is so intense that he is blind to reality or that he simply likes to pick and choose facts from China to buttress whatever he thinks we should do in America. His recent column in the New York…

Scott Gration, Obama's gaffe-prone special envoy to Sudan, boils it down: "We've got to think about giving out cookies," said Gration, who was appointed in March. "Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement." This from the man who took it upon…

Christopher Caldwell: Obama's age of atonement. Ross Douthat: Obama needs to become a war president. You Mislead!--Michael F. Cannon and Ramesh Ponnuru fact-check Obama's statements about the health-care overhaul. Palin's memoir "Going Rogue" due to hit bookstores November 17. Rich Lowry notes that…

Today, the Washington Post's Del Quentin Wilber tells the heart-tugging story of two Uighur detainees held at Guantanamo. The two detainees, Bahtiyar Mahnut and Arkin Mahmud, are brothers who are held at Gitmo, according to the Post, for no good reason. The brothers, along with other Uighur…

A Republican sends over this video of the State Department press briefing today, in which Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley calls Gitmo detainees "refugees" at about the 24-minute mark. QUESTION: Talk to us a little bit about response and talks and any commitments that you may have gotten from our…

So far unremarked upon in Obama's about face in deciding to go to Copenhagen to press for Chicago's Olympic bid is the potential fallout for U.S. relations with Brazil. Brazil is an emerging regional power (one of the BRIC countries), and critical for efforts to balance the subversive leftism of…

As Venezuelan President-for-life Chavez strutted around Italy recently as if he were playing Benito Mussolini, his Honduran wannabe, deposed President Zelaya, continued to receive strong support and advocacy from the Obama administration. Speaking for the United States, Secretary of State Hillary…

It is not a good sign that General McChrystal has spoken only once, and by teleconference call, with President Obama during the past 70 days. This would suggest that the commanding general of allied forces in Afghanistan is at significant odds with the White House, and close to resigning his…

Here's an interesting Briefing Room back-and-forth on Iran's successful Sajjil-2 missile test (emphasis mine). Q: Robert, what's the White House's reaction to Iran's test-firing of missiles and how will that affect the atmosphere for the October 1st talks? MR. GIBBS: Well, a couple things. I mean,…

At the White House press briefing today, Robert Gibbs said, "I assume that any decision [on sending more troops to Afghanistan] is a number of weeks away." Later Gibbs added, "We have seen the movie before where you put a bunch of resources in a place and then you decide your strategy. I don't…

Nobody took more guff from the left for backing the surge in Iraq than Michael O'Hanlon -- though O'Hanlon, of course, turned out to be right on the money in his analysis of the war there. Today O'Hanlon co-authors an op-ed with Bruce Riedel, the man who oversaw the Obama administration's first…

The Iranian military has test fired the Shahab-3, a ballistic missile that is capable of reaching Europe and is thought to be the delivery platform for a an Iranian nuke. The test has Western governments up in arms, and comes just days after news of a secret nuclear facility in Qom put the Obama…

Kimberly A. Strassel's column in the Wall Street Journal, Obama's Swing-State Blues, focusing on the gubernatorial race in Virginia, is both thoughtful and accurate in detailing the importance and dynamics of the race between Republican Robert F. McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds. A win for the…

What is it about the Burmese junta that Jim Webb just can't get enough? After traveling to Burma to meet with the junta's top brass in August, he ran over to the Burmese embassy in Washington last weekend to meet with Nyan Win, the junta's foreign minister whom Webb helped secure a visa for a jaunt…

A Republican emails this morning: Is Obama really jetting off to Copenhagen to lobby for a giant 2016 send off party in Chicago just as Iran's testing nuclear missiles? Amazing... Personally, I don't think I'd mind as much if the beneficiaries of this lobbying campaign by the president were not his…

Rasmussen's latest poll shows 56 percent disapprove and 41 percent approve of the health-care overhaul.

This is certainly a unique interpetation of "wartime presidency." What does it say about your Commander-in-Chief when he's spoken with David Letterman more than his key guy in Afghanistan? The military general credited for capturing Saddam Hussein and killing the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq says he…

For the last eight years, Democrats criticized the Bush administration for its supposed cowboy diplomacy and mishandling of U.S. international alliances. A Democratic administration, we were told, would be filled with savvy diplomatic hands who knew how to use leverage and American smart power to…

President Obama's decision to cancel plans for U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic is a knife in the back for those countries. The implications for U.S. security and the transatlantic relationship are profound. Critics rightly note that the sudden announcement Thursday sends…

Trotsky

With a black baseball cap pulled tight over a mop of stringy long hair and a patchy, close-cropped beard, Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali looked more like a Metallica roadie than a disciple of Ayman al-Zawahiri. He addressed the scrum of reporters in a clipped, heavily accented Swedish and accused the…

Philadelphia

Perhaps the most discussed passage in Barack Obama's Inaugural Address was his peace offering to dictators and leaders of rogue states.

Tel Aviv

Speaking Up

"Oh my," said Dorothy Gale, waving off the candy-colored cloud that trailed some departing witch, "people come and go so quickly here." As it was in Munchkinland, so it is in Washington, D.C. Less than a month has gone by since the death--I guess we're supposed to say "passing" nowadays--of Edward…

The Democrats have a new message to justify a massive government intrusion into health care: "consumer protection."

My grandmother Eastland liked to talk, and she considered it her duty to share family history with me, her only grandchild. So whenever we visited her down in Hillsboro, Texas, she and I would sit at her kitchen table in chairs stiff as pews, and she'd speak late into the night.

Barack Obama is, you might have heard, America's first postracial president. In his celebrated speech to the 2004 Democratic convention, he assured viewers that "There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America." And, early in…

The Sound Bites and the Fury

Edgar Allan Poe, whose bicentennial we celebrate this year, holds a troubled and unique place in our national literature.

Give President Obama credit for persistence. And stubbornness. And lack of imagination. He declared again last week that his health care plan "will slow the growth of health care costs for our families and our businesses and our government." And this historic achievement will be accompanied by a…

Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese

At 6pm local time, Germans found out who won today's election. With roughly 48 percent of the vote, the CDU and the FDP will form the next coalition government. But more impressive, the Free Democrats garnered an unprecedented 14.8 percent. At the FDP party hall, the crowd erupted in a deafening…

The Obama administration's Arab-Israeli peace process is in more trouble than even the White House realizes. To be sure, the Israelis and Palestinians are both dug in, and when the president sought baby steps from the Arabs toward normalizing relations with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait…

Magnanimous praise and shrewd advice from an unlikely source: President Bush made a courageous decision in the summer of 2006 to reverse direction, but not the reversal sought by Congress (including then-Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden), the American public, the overwhelming majority of the press…

James Taranto:TEXT New York Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt writes that James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, the two undercover journalists who exposed ACORN's criminal activity, "were sloppy with facts. One Acorn employee who bragged about killing one of her former husbands said she knew she was being…

Why would Colorado Public Television broadcast two 9/11 Truth propaganda videos? Good question. Colorado Public Television has enjoyed a fundraising boost after airing "9/11: Blueprint for Truth" and "9/11: Press for Truth." And they had help from 9/11 Truthers -- volunteers from a 9/11 Truther…

John McCormack points to this piece in the New York Times, which says that former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Senator John Kerry and Senator Jack Reed are the three people outside of the administration "considered by White House aides to be most influential in" the current debate over how to…

Berlin One of the strange things about my trip to Germany has been the weather -- downright balmy and mostly blue skies. Those Central European dark clouds and rains lasting for days that have greeted me in the past are mysteriously absent. I suspect they will return next month along with the…

The New York Times reports on the internal divisions in the Obama White House on Afghanistan: While Mr. Obama is hearing from more hawkish voices, including those of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, some…

So what makes those Germans different from us, aside from their wearing black socks and Birkenstocks? For starters, they don't spend as much on political races as we do. In total, all the parties spent the combined amount of 50 million euros (about $70 million). That's it. Compare this to the Obama…

It's strange to be sitting here in the middle of Pariser Platz, directly in front of the Brandenburg Gate, awaiting the arrival of the chancellor candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to take the stage. Thousands have gathered to support a party in danger of getting a…

Veni, vidi, dixi. That about describes President Obama's week. Five, count them, five Sunday morning talk shows, a comedy talk show on Monday, followed by talks at an international conference on climate change, at the UN General Assembly to apologize for America's sins in the years before he moved…

David Brooks: The Afghan Imperative. Because they can: interim replacement for Ted Kennedy's seat is sworn in five years after the legislature said such appointments would corrupt the democratic process. Kasich 46, Strickland 45 in Rasmussen poll of Ohio 2010 gubernatorial race. Club for Growth…

Ralph Peters had an ill-considered piece in yesterday's New York Post which seemed to blame American casualties in Afghanistan on 'politically correct' rules of engagement forced on the military by the Obama administration: In Afghanistan, our leaders are complicit in the death of each soldier,…

This weekend CSPAN will air Pete Hegseth's interview with Kim Kagan on her latest book, The Surge: A Military History. The hour-long interview airs Saturday at 10pm, Sunday at 9pm, and midnight on C-SPAN2 (all times Eastern).

Texas Governor Rick Perry came to Washington last week and I had a chance to hear him talk for about an hour on a wide range of issues before a small number of journalists. Perry is engaged in a tough primary battle against Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has much of the Texas Republican…

In November of 2007, the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) drafted a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran's nuclear program. In its publicly released "Key Judgments," the IC concluded: "We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." A footnote at…

You can read the magazine's excellent appreciation here.

Politico reports on the consequences of not paying the $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance under Obamacare: Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900…

These are the original sponsors of the Iran sanctions bill now before the Senate: "The discovery that Iran has been hiding a secret uranium enrichment facility adds fierce new urgency to the collective, comprehensive effort to stop Iran's nuclear breakout. "For years, Iran has cheated and lied to…

Wait a minute: Do 8 months of self-mortification and public pleading -- to the point of swallowing whole its bloody brutality to its own people -- on behalf of the peaceful applications of the Iranian nuclear program while in full possession of intelligence on its hidden nuclear facility not make…

Al Qaeda is stepping up its propaganda offensive to split the U.S. from its European allies. In his latest audiotape, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden offers Europe an out from Afghanistan, and threatens to attack if the countries do not leave. One interesting part of the short tape is is bin…

Rep. Howard Berman, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and one of Congress's most vocal advocates for sanctions on Iran's gasoline imports, releases a strong statement as predicted here this morning: "The news that Iran has been secretly constructing a second uranium enrichment plant…

Chas Freeman couldn't have said it any better: The Egyptian candidate who lost a bid to head the U.N. culture and education body after a row over remarks last year that he was ready to burn Israeli books has blamed the United States and Jewish lobby for his defeat.... "The campaign against me in…

Here's what we'll get in return for unilaterally killing European Missile Defense: Russia will "consider other options" for dealing with the Tehran. During this morning's Q & A at the University of Pittsburgh, Medvedev said: I do not believe sanctions are the best way to achieve results. Sanctions…

The Telegraph has a disturbing story on Germans flocking to Pakistan's Taliban-controlled Waziristan tribal region and setting up their own village: The village, in Taliban-controlled Waziristan, is run by the notorious al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which plots raids on Nato…

I read the Internet (yes, all of it) everyday. Man Bites Frog, Ctd. by Christopher Orr Readers yesterday may have seen the video clip in which Glenn Beck, seeking to make a point about the resiliency of his anti-Obama populist revolutionaries, seemed to prove the falsity of the "if you throw a frog…

Via the Corner, Major Garrett tweets from a briefing by a senior administration official: + deets: Iran facility NOT operational, had abt 3K centrifuges & cld produce 1 or 2 warheads if run to produce highly enriched uranium. Significant. It takes several thousand centrifuges running for…

I've been waiting for this, and I like it. Bob McDonnell's daughter Jeanine pushes back on the notion that her father has some sort of retrograde attitude toward women because of a thesis he wrote decades ago. Since then, he's raised three daughters. Jeanine was a platoon leader in Iraq. Hard to…

Here's the Huffington Post take on left-wing protests in Pittsburgh yesterday, which erupted in violence, as globalization protests always do: Protesters have taken to the streets of Pittsburgh in opposition to the Group of 20 summit taking place Thursday and Friday. The protests have turned…

In 2005, Karl Rove told an audience in New York that "In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban; in the wake of 9/11 liberals believed it was time to submit a petition." He went on, "I am not joking.…

In light of this morning's revelation about a secret Iranian uranium enrichment plant, it is worth recalling Iran's mocking response to the Obama administration's request for negotiations. The Iranians said that they wanted to talk about: Promoting the universality of NPT [the Non-Proliferation…

1) Iran has a covert, underground nuclear enrichment facility, yet knowing this -- as the United States apparently has for years -- Obama has continued to insist that Iran might have a legitimate need for nuclear power ("Without going into specifics," Obama said this summer, "what I do believe is…

The GOP whip joins theStart Over Caucus.

Senator Cornyn proposed an amendment this evening that would require any amendment voted on in the Senate Finance Committee to be scored first by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Tax Committee with the estimates made publicly available on the web 24 hours before the vote. The amendment…

This morning at the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, the leaders of the United States, France, and the United Kingdom issued statements on the news that Iran has secretly built a site to enrich uranium near the city of Qom. Obama said: It is time for Iran to act immediately to restore the confidence of…

Obama is going to keep the prison at Gitmo open at least a little while longer: With four months left to meet its self-imposed deadline for closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Obama administration is working to recover from missteps that have put officials behind schedule…

Do not miss Charles Krauthammer's appreciation of Irving Kristol in his syndicated column today.

Oxford

With last Wednesday's decision to scrap plans for a promised missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, President Obama put the finishing touches on a new and dangerous entity: post-allied America. With his declaration a week later before the UN General Assembly that "alignments of…

Obama is giving $400,000 in cash (your cash) to the Qaddafi family. Really. Administration officials to Politico: we've got the Israelis and Palestinians right where we want them. Scientists have "lost" all the data that no on has ever seen and which proves global warming is real. Hannah Giles has…

Today, the American Principles Project sent a coalition letter, asking questions about the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, to the House and Senate committees on foreign relations and Homeland Security. The letter asks, "What was the U.S. administration told about the…

The Cable points to a report in Roll Call quoting the new ranking Republican on HASC, Buck McKeon: House Armed Services ranking member Howard McKeon (R-Calif.) said Wednesday that Gates told him on a July trip to Afghanistan that Obama "wasn't inclined to send troops over there." McKeon said Gates…

It's been a rumor since the 2008 presidential campaign that Bill Ayers ghost-wrote or co-wrote Barack Obama's memoir, Dreams from my Father. The story seems to be on fire again, though, because a new Obama-friendly book by best-selling author Chris Anderson, perhaps without realizing it, seems to…

Bibi's speech today at the UN was unapologetic in tone and uncompromising in its substance. The Israeli PM questioned the legitimacy of a United Nations that says and does nothing in the face of terrorism against Israel but passes resolutions and launches inquiries at the mere prospect of an…

In my last post on Burma, I reported the second meeting in as many months between Senator Jim Webb and Nyan Win, the foreign minister for the Burmese junta. This time the meeting was in Washington, which required that Win be granted a visa waiver (he, like the rest of the junta's senior figures, is…

John Noonan recently wrote here on the Obama administration's plans to reduce the size and scope of the U.S. strategic arsenal independent of arms reduction negotiations with nuclear rivals Russia and China. John touched on one downside of the president's initiative, specifically the unilateral…

Yesterday the Obama administration held a conference call in which a "senior administration official" assured the participants that the Obama administration would not allow the Goldstone Report, a work product of the UN's Human Rights Council that indicts Israel for war crimes in Operation Cast…

It is looking more and more like Najibullah Zazi, the Afghan immigrant recently arrested on terrorism-related charges, had intended to unleash a July 7-style attack in New York. Today, the Justice Department announced that Zazi has been indicted on charges alleging he was: "committed to detonating…

"Are we not friends of the persecuted Coptic Christian in Egypt? Are we not friends of the North Koreans enslaved in the gulag? Are we not friends of the repressed Cuban or Iranian democracy activist?" Those were the questions asked by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) on the floor of the House yesterday. But…

Is there a totalitarian regime on the planet that the President hasn't yet coddled, emboldened, or outright supported? How about... China? Goldfarb notes that the Obama Administration is looking to develop a partnership, if not an "alliance" with the Chinese Communist government. Step back and soak…

After Speaker Nancy Pelosi's press conference this morning, I asked her if she supports a measure to put the final health-care bill online for 72 hours before the House votes on it. "Absolutely," she replied. "Without question." Yesterday, Pelosi's Senate Finance Committee Democratic colleagues…

Well, let's give him some credit. Sen. Max Baucus, author of the middling, middle-ground health-care bill currently satisfying no one and confusing everyone, at least gives the opposition credit for having valid points. It is a step up from the Obama administration's and Democrats' summer efforts…

The new video Drudge has up is a truly disgusting example of today's gutter politics. Listen closely to how these kids are "supporting" our president "Mmm-mmm-mmm, Barack Hussein Obama!" It's sad that we live in a time when even schoolchildren are taught to smear the president.

Anyone who's been following this story should have noted by now the major difference between Manuel Zelaya, the ousted former president, and Roberto Micheletti, the current president. It isn't that Zelaya is a communist and Micheletti a liberal democrat (though that much seems clear). No, the real…

Yesterday Sarah Palin delivered a major speech with what Rogin says "included some of the most critical statements about the Chinese Communist Party by a American political leader in years." She talked bluntly about China's massive military build-up and the threat it poses to America's allies and…

"It may sound strange to the rest of America." Yes. Yes, it does. Surprise: Media distorted D.C. Fire Department's crowd estimates for 9/12. 60K was a preliminary estimate for LaFayette Park, alone. The AP searches in vain for the grand conspiracy and big money behind the ACORN videos. Gee, why…

Who knew the Germans loved their parties? Whereas most Americans tend to choose between Republicans and Democrats, in Germany there are five parties that could plausibly share power. The five are the Christian Democrats and Bavarian partner Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), the Social Democrats…

The 2010 midterm elections are quickly approaching and congressional Democrats are already feeling some ominous symptoms. If history is any indicator, the prognosis promises only to get worse. The president's party nearly always loses seats in off-year elections--shedding 22 House seats on average…

John Noonan notes this line from President Obama's speech today: "No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed." Over at Power Line, Paul Mirengoff excerpted a few more lines surrounding that sentence: "In an era when our destiny is shared, power is no longer…

Politico reports that ACORN is suing undercover journalists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles in Maryland for taping two ACORN employees advising O'Keefe and Giles on how to avoid paying taxes on a brothel staffed by 13 to 15 year-old prostitutes. Just yesterday, Barney Frank called for a federal…

Be sure to drop by the Mercedes-Benz Museum. It's like the Fortress of Solitude operated by Disney. The elevators look like something out of Minority Report. The actual design is a double-helix and the lifts are meant to symbolize time machines complete with motor sound effects. There's a Boeing…

A friend emails: According to the new memorandum issued by Attorney General Holder, the Obama Administration will use the long-established "state secrets privilege" to dismiss lawsuits "only when doing so is necessary to protect against the risk of significant harm to national security." In other…

Quoth the Great Orator: No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. Fair enough -- the UN was designed to be the great level playing field for all nations and it's failed spectacularly. Impotent, corrupt, and a diplomatic forum for anti-Semitism, the United…

The most transparent Congress ever: Senate Finance Committee Democrats have rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes.

Via The Hill: "The original Obama administration position seemed to suggest the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East was the Israeli policy of building on territory [believed to be Palestinian]," Lieberman told MSNBC [on Wednesday]. "The real threat to peace in the Middle East is Iran." "If…

President Obama said during his speech today: "For those who question the character and cause of my nation, I ask you to look at the concrete actions we have taken in just nine months." So the goodness of America is found in the Obama administration?

In May, Hillary Clinton gave an interview with al Jazeera in which she laid out the administration's position on Israeli settlements. "We want to see a stop to settlement construction, additions, natural growth -- any kind of settlement activity," Clinton said. By all accounts, that position…

There continue to be many gracious and heartfelt remembrances penned in memory of Irving Kristol. Here are some additional reminiscences that have appeared since I posted my last round-up Sunday evening. Be sure to read AEI's Christopher DeMuth on Irving's practical liberalism. In the Telegraph of…

Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised the most "honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history." Shouldn't an institution committed to those lofty ideals give its members the chance to read legislation before voting on it? We might find out the answer soon. A bipartisan effort is underway to force…

I can't really tell what Qaddafi is saying to scattered applause from members of the U.N. General Assembly right now because his interpreter is speaking a dialect of Arablish I don't recognize. But I'm hoping against hope he beats Fidel Castro's 1960 record of four-and-a-half-hours, and heads…

ABC's Jake Tapper, from the United Nations: so far, people more polite than @CongJoeWilson during POTUS speech: Chavez, Qadaffi, Mugabe. Kudos. gents!

Regular readers of this space know that Michigan Senator Carl Levin is one of the smartest and least intellectually honest members of Congress. (See here, here, here, and here.) His favorite trick is simply to leave out inconvenient arguments, embrace what he likes and completely change the meaning…

With the eyes of the world focused on President Obama's handshakes at the UN, that crafty, secretive cabal of neocons gathered in Washington in a dark basement at the W Hotel, where the Foreign Policy Initiative held its 2009 forum on "Advancing and Defending Democracy." You can check out the…

"I served in al Anbar [Iraq]. I tried to conduct a comprehensive counterinsurgency campaign with insufficient resources . . . I didn't have enough boots on the ground." The Iraqi insurgents killed his troops. They blew up his economic projects. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations…

According to Reuters, Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win "has arrived in New York after being granted permission to visit the Burmese embassy in Washington, a US official said yesterday." The unnamed source quoted by Reuters stated that Nyan Win "made a side trip" to the embassy in Washington, but…

Merkel. Steinmeier. The Grand Coalition. Schwarz-Gelb. The Traffic Light Coalition. The Free Democrats. The Far Left Party. The Greens. Rising unemployment. Opel. Afghanistan. Immigration. That's right-it's election time in Germany and beginning tomorrow I will be reporting from Stuttgart and…

Hey, he's been working this thing for eight months and he wants to see some results: President Obama's central message to the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York today was simple, a U.S. official said: He's running out of patience. "The President of the United States is impatient," said the…

Reuters reports on a "gag order" against Humana: Republicans, health insurers and others blasted the U.S. Medicare agency on Tuesday for what they called political interference over companies that want to directly contact customers about the impact of pending healthcare reform legislation. The…

The McChrystal Report on Iran's hand in Afghanistan (emphasis added): Iran plays an ambiguous role in Afghanistan, providing developmental assistance and political support to [Government of Afghanistan] while the Iranian Qods Force is reportedly training fighters for certain Taliban groups and…

At the Atlantic, D.B. Grady offers a really smart take on the current state of play now that the McChrystal report has leaked. First off, Grady is dubious that the administration is having trouble deciphering the assessment: The Obama administration is still "reviewing the document," according to…

Will the Obama administration give Afghanistan a pass on credible allegations of material fraud in its recent election? We don't know yet. But it shouldn't.

A senior administration official points the finger at McChrystal. A Pentagon spokesman says Gates doesn't believe that's true. Spencer Ackerman suspects Admiral Mullen, but is dissuaded by one of his sources. Ben Smith offers a fanatastic scenario in which an Obama loyalist leaked the document "to…

At First Read, Luke Russert reports: In his weekly pen-and-pad session with Capitol Hill reporters, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) echoed the recent demands of Republican leaders that Afghanistan Commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, testify before the House and Senate on the current strategy in…

This is how one of the world's most odious regimes treats students who challenge its authority: RFE/RL: When did the rape take place? Sharifi: The fourth day, when they said they were going to execute me -- it was a mock execution they subjected us to. I protested and said: "What is this? If you…

Just one day after General Stanley McChrystal's report on the way forward in Afghanistan was leaked to the press, the Obama administration is floating the idea of expanding the U.S. air campaign in Pakistan to defeat al Qaeda instead of ramping up forces in neighboring Afghanistan. From the…

There are at least three aspects of the ongoing investigation into suspected al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in Colorado and New York that are especially troubling. First, Najibullah Zazi, the Afghan immigrant at the heart of the case, has reportedly admitted that he was trained in an al Qaeda…

Fred and Kim Kagan have produced a report arguing for an additional 40,000 to 45,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2010. You can read their report here. Fred Kagan explains in a press release: "The report illustrates where U.S., NATO, and Afghan forces are now and where additional forces are needed…

Imagine if this had happened in the age of camera phones and Facebook. Boris Yeltsin got so drunk during a 1995 visit to Washington that Secret Service agents found him a few hundred feet from the White House clad only in his underwear and trying to hail a cab - because, he explained, he wanted a…

"Every time you resist Democratic health-care legislation, you make James Madison cry in heaven." The Wall Street Journal on Obama's nontax tax. Robert J. Samuelson on Obama's tire tariff. Ross Douthat on George W. Bush's self-correcting presidency. Goldfarb does Bloggingheads. Obama calls New York…

In an interview with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Jeb Bush criticizes the "national party" (meaning the National Republican Senatorial Committee) for throwing its support behind Charlie Crist in the Florida Senate primary: Bush said national party leaders should not be trying to push Crist as…

Disturbing report, from The Guardian Obama has rejected the Pentagon's first draft of the "nuclear posture review" as being too timid, and has called for a range of more far-reaching options consistent with his goal of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons altogether, according to European…

The New York Times reports: As President Obama welcomes world leaders to the United States this week, he has gone a long way toward meeting his goal of restoring the country's international standing. Foreign counterparts flock to meet with him, and polls show that people in many countries feel much…

Reuters reports: Russia's top general said on Monday that plans to deploy missiles in an enclave next to Poland had not been shelved, despite a decision by the United States to rethink plans for missile defense in Europe. But a former Russian diplomatic negotiator indicated he thought the…

Josh Rogin sat down with Senator Jim Webb last week and tried to get some answers on Burma. According to Webb, everything that's been written about his botched Burma diplomacy is wrong, a lie, a distortion, or a misunderstanding. But there is one incontrovertible fact: Webb's meddling has gotten…

Obama Missile Decision May Smooth U.S.-Russia Arms Talks, says the Washington Post. Preemptively removing contentious issues from a debate will make any diplomatic summit easier, but that's not really the point of negotiations, is it? Doesn't it make more sense for diplomacy to be focused on goals…

Consider these alternative futures for Afghanistan in the year 2014. In one future, the United States and NATO are beginning to draw down troops from the levels they reached in 2010. That was a bloody year, as were the two that followed it, but the level of violence has been dropping steadily since…

This highly disturbing video of Yousef al-Khattab preaching jihad on the streets of New York City just days ago comes courtesy of Jarret Brachman. It serves as a reminder of the radicalism that exists here in the United States. From Brachman's website: Here is a video from 4 September 09 of Yousef…

General Stanley McChrystal's classified assessment of the situation in Afghanistan has been obtained by the Washington Post. According to the Post's report, McChrystal warns that without the deployment of additional U.S. forces, the war "will likely result in failure." McChrystal has already put…

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

A Successor to 'The Public Interest'

The single most damning story about President Obama so far is one we know courtesy of his national security adviser, Jim Jones. Visiting the newly installed military commanders in Afghanistan in late June, Jones told General Stanley McChrystal that if he requested more troops any time soon, Obama…

A Failure of Capitalism

This is the poll number that drives supporters of Obamacare crazy: Eighty-nine percent of Americans in a June 2008 ABC News/USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation survey said they were satisfied with their health care. Put another way, more than 270 million Americans (I'm including kids) are reasonably…

The year 2009 has been a financial disaster for nearly every industry save one: the motion-picture business. Hollywood's box office receipts are up nearly 20 percent from 2008. The eight most successful movies over the course of the year's first eight months have collectively grossed $2.7 billion,…

Representative Bart Stupak isn't the type to yell "You lie!" while the president is addressing a joint session of Congress. But according to the soft-spoken pro-life Michigan Democrat, Barack Obama isn't telling the full truth when he says, as he did last Wednesday night, "no federal dollars will…

During a visit to London in the 1990s my wife and I attended a service at St. Clement Danes, a once-bombed-out Wren church in the Strand, now station church of the Royal Air Force. By pure chance it was September 15, Battle of Britain Day. Half a century had passed since the stooped, graying…

So Van Jones now takes his place as the Lani Guinier of the Obama administration, undone by his radical views. Like Guinier, the ousted "green jobs" czar will doubtless employ his political martyrdom to transform himself from a minor celebrity of the left into a major celebrity of the left, with a…

A Moveable Feast

The war in Afghanistan obviously isn't going well. Depressing critiques from all quarters underscore Afghanistan's appalling poverty, warlordism, religious conservatism, corruption, poppy fields, and retrograde matrix of ethnicity and tribe. Many of those who wanted to cut and run from Iraq have…

The Global Achievement Gap

The partisan and misleading speech that President Obama delivered to a joint session of Congress last week revealed the president's preferences--more government mandates, regulations, and taxes--when it comes to refashioning the American health care system. It also showcased the contempt for debate…

When the insurance giant American International Group was threatened with collapse in late 2008, its credit default swap business and other international operations were cited as the heart of its troubles. But the largest consequence of AIG's uncontrolled failure on consumers' pocketbooks could…

If Hogwarts were a school for politicians, there would be a required class on "Defense Against the Dark Arts of Demagoguery." President Obama considers his health reform effort a target of this dark art--indeed, he seems to view it as the main reason reform has faltered on Capitol Hill.

When I was around the age of 20, the National Football League started to annoy me, and it hasn't stopped annoying me since. There are few institutions--none outside of academia--that mix pomposity and anti-intellectualism with quite the gusto the NFL does. You have the Roman-numbered Super Bowls…

Portland, Oregon

On August 29, the North Korean government released four South Korean fishermen whose boat had strayed into Northern waters a month earlier. The return of the crew came shortly after the freeing of a South Korean manager in the Kaesong industrial zone, detained in March for making derogatory…

A familiar refrain haunts Virginia politics these days. Democrats in the Old Dominion are whistling their favorite number: Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bob McDonnell is--cue the scary tune--"too extreme for Virginia."

The agreement by the United States and other world powers to launch negotiations with Iran on October 1--despite the regime's refusal to discuss ending its uranium enrichment program--makes clear that there will be no meaningful progress to stop Iran's drive for the bomb when world leaders, led by…

Krakow, Poland

The White House has pointedly refused to say whether President Obama will read the 1,000+ page health care bill--HR3200--now pending before the House of Representatives. If Obama does read the bill, he will find it full of densely technical terminology and proposals that were clearly constructed by…

There have been plenty of generous, heartfelt, and insightful reminiscences of Irving Kristol published since Friday. I've collected the ones that I thought might interest you the most, along with links to some of Kristol's uncollected writing online. Together you can develop your own sense of his…

A transcript of the president's appearance on Meet the Press: DAVID GREGORY: Let me ask you about another important issue facing you and your administration, and that is Afghanistan. We've now been in Afghanistan for eight years. The Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan after ten years. Are we…

Over at the new National Affairs website, you can access the full archives of Irving Kristol's essays in The Public Interest from 1965 to 2005. Commentary has also made available online the full archives of Kristol's writings, which first appeared in 1946, in its pages. A special thanks to Yuval…

In 2007, the Bush administration held a conference in Annapolis that brought together the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. This was the first time all sides were able to agree on a two state solution as the path toward a lasting peace…

In a little noticed interview with the Daily Beast (presumably little noticed because serious people don't read the Daily Beast), Zbigniew Brzezinski suggests that Barack Obama do more than just refuse to support an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites -- the American president must give the…

Earlier, I wondered what intelligence the Obama administration was relying upon to justify its decision to cancel the deployment of land-based missile defense systems in Eastern Europe. The press has sniffed out a partial answer. The Obama administration is relying upon a National Intelligence…

Our Secretary of State gives a lengthy interview to the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler that includes some remarkable exchanges. The bizarre contradiction in this administration's approach to authoritarian Iran on the one hand and democratic Honduras on the other is offered by Clinton without any…

The New York Post reports on the victims of a false rape allegation at Hofstra: "My name is forever tarnished," said 19-year-old Stalin Felipe. Via JWF.

With democracies from Israel to Eastern Europe to Honduras scratching their heads about U.S. foreign policy it's probably not the worst time in the world to hold a conference on democracy and American policy. On Monday September 21 through Tuesday September 22, FPI is hosting their 2009…

Alex, the organizer, took the mic. A doughy 20-something, he wore the hallmark thrift-store t-shirt and scraggly beard of the modern, urban liberal as he addressed a small group of wilting protesters on a humid Sunday in the shadow of the Capitol.

Irving Kristol, 1952, writing about Leo Strauss in the pages of Commentary: No doubt, there will be scholars who will respectfully dispute Professor Strauss on just about every point. They will find, as many already know, that he is a most formidable opponent. And if in time the victory goes to…

Robert Kagan writes at the Washington Post on the passing of Irving Kristol: He was a truly great man, a great intellectual, and a great, patriotic servant to his country. He was also a unique inspiration, to me personally, and to untold thousands of other young people for whom he provided a model…

This is a bipartisan group, including Michael Hayden, Porter Goss, George Tenet, John Deutch, Jim Woolsey, William Webster, and James Schlesinger. As they note at the beginning of the letter, these men have served presidents in that role for more than 35 years, and they "respectfully urge [Obama]…

Senator Joe Lieberman has issued the following statement in memoriam of Irving Kristol: We have lost an intellectual giant. Irving Kristol was an inventive entrepreneur of ideas who was boundless in his wit, creativity, and insight. Irving understood that ideas have consequences - and his immense…

"The Neoconservative Persuasion," by Irving Kristol, August 25, 2003 "My Public Interest," by Irving Kristol, December 18, 2006 "It Wasn't Inevitable," by Irving Kristol, June 21, 2004 "Farewell to 'The Public Interest,'" by David Skinner, April 25, 2005 "Irving's Whodunit," by William F. Buckley…

Irving Kristol, writer, editor, and social philosopher, has died in Washington at the age of 89. His wisdom, wit, good humor, and generosity of spirit made him a friend and mentor to several generations of thinkers and public servants.

Irving Kristol, writer, editor, and social philosopher, has died in Washington at the age of 89. His wisdom, wit, good humor, and generosity of spirit made him a friend and mentor to several generations of thinkers and public servants.

Irving Kristol, writer, editor, and social philosopher, has died in Washington at the age of 89. His wisdom, wit, good humor, and generosity of spirit made him a friend and mentor to several generations of thinkers and public servants.

A friend texted me early yesterday, wondering "what's the big deal?" with our tail-tucked missile defense retreat from Eastern Europe. This is coming from a guy who just finished a masters in security policy. And no doubt the Great Orator will be trying to convince a distracted citizenry that Czech…

From a deliciously wicked Dana Milbank item in today's WaPo: Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do? Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon: The Secret Service and the D.C.…

Have you noticed that with every passing, depressing day, with each new demoralizing revelation of Obamic foreign-policy malpractice, our secretary of state comes more and more to resemble the "telescopic philanthropist" of Charles Dickens's Bleak House, Mrs. Jellyby? Yes, the modern version's a…

The Nobel Prize winner unloads on Obama: "Americans have always cared only about their interests, and all other [countries] have been used for their purposes. This is another example," Mr WaÅ‚Ä™sa told TVN24. "[Poles] need to review our view of America, we must first of all take care of our…

Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and the subject of the 2005 Oscar-nominated documentary Street Fight, is once again at the center of a new 5-part docu-series, Brick City, airing on the Sundance Channel all next week. In one way, Brick City is a sequel to Street Fight. Now that Booker…

Joel Kaplan, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy for President Bush, writes in: Stephen Hayes's post yesterday on Matt Latimer's book gently chides former Bush staffers for criticizing the book on the basis of the excerpts Matt's own publishers shared in advance with GQ. This strikes me as as a…

Health care, which the president acknowledges is not a crisis, requires us to act and act now. It's urgent and if people don't pass his plan (whatever that is) "people will die." That's what President Obama said before a joint session of Congress the other day. War, apparently, is different. Obama…

During a press briefing on Thursday, President Obama explained his administration's decision to cancel the deployment of land-based missile defense systems in Eastern Europe this way: "…we have updated our intelligence assessment of Iran's missile programs, which emphasizes the threat posed by…

A new poll from Gallup shows that Obama didn't get a bump from his speech to Congress last week: galluphcare.jpg As you can see, disapproval actually ticked up a couple points. Rasmussen also shows that Obamacare is unpopular: Just before President Obama gave his speech to Congress last week, 44%…

Max Boot says Obama is giving off a pretty heavy weakness vibe. Heritage is making a missile defense movie...just in time for awards season. "Every book gets the readers it deserves." Pletka thinks she finally understands the president's strategy and vision. Creigh Deeds is going to raise your…

March 20, 2009. Obama, obsequious, greets the leaders of "the Islamic Republic of Iran," who have the blood of Americans on their hands, on the eve of the Iranian New Year: So in this season of new beginnings I would like to speak clearly to Iran's leaders. We have serious differences that have…

The senators write Harry Reid to "request that you immediately instruct the appropriate Senate committee chairs to open investigations and hold public hearings concerning the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)." The document notes the videos that have blown up this week…

A letter from Van Jones to his supporters urges people to buy his book (or check it out from the library -- so much greener) and join online groups including "I Stand With Van Jones and I Love Van Jones." However, it turns out Jones is not quite as delusional as his supporters, like Arianna…

You can be sure he would have picked up the phone for Bill, and he might even have picked up the phone for Hillary if he thought that she was willing to "channel" her husband and offer his view of the Obama administration decision, but when Hillary calls at 3 AM -- well, unless you're married to…

"Speech - less," a new book by former White House speechwriter Matthew Latimer, is causing quite a stir. After a brief excerpt of the book was published this month in GQ magazine, cable television and talk radio exploded with discussion of that piece and speculation about the book. Former Bush…

Roll call vote here -- all 75 'no' votes were Democrats. This bill is separate from the Senate's vote earlier in the week to deny HUD and transportation funds to ACORN. The House bill would deny all federal funds to the group, which means Senate has to vote on the same piece of legislation still…

Joe Klein writes: I do hope that this anti-missile move has a Russian concession attached to it, perhaps not publicly (just as the US agreement to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey was not make public during the Cuban Missile Crisis). The Obama Administration's diplomatic strategy is, I…

Today's suicide attack in Kabul comes as the debate over European involvement in Afghanistan heats up. Apparently the Taliban carefully chose their latest target well: six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghans were killed in the attack, which took place very close to a U.S. military base and outside the…

One final note from the Pelosi press conference today. Asked if she was concerned about anti-government rhetoric inciting violence, the speaker responded: "I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw--I saw this myself in the late 70s in San Francisco. This kind of…

Tom Donnelly goes big picture on the administration's missile defense capitulation at the new Center for Defense Studies blog(which is THE WEEKLY STANDARD blog's new favorite blog) under the apropos headline "A Bad Day for Freedom." He leads with a quote from former Czech PM Mirek Topolanek, this…

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius held a White House press conference today to announce a series of demonstration projects as part of Obama's heath care reform. These projects would include "$25 million in grants to states for a pilot program that would seek to lessen the…

On the same day the Obama administration caves to Kremlin pressure and undermines our NATO allies in Poland and the Czech Republic, we learn via Vlad Socor's precise analysis that the Russians remain active in their illegal occupation of Georgia. Russia just signed 49 year military cooperation…

At her Capitol Hill press conference today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the growing ACORN scandal that "a few individuals at ACORN did what I think is--what would be the appropriate word? Some have said despicable, but in any event totally unacceptable and in my view inexcusable." Later she…

McCormack is down on the Hill at her presser and sends in these quotes: "I think this is brilliant." ... "bilateral relationship with Russia is very, very important." ... "I congratulate the administration." I have 2010 campaign ads dancing in my head...

The White House has put out a "fact sheet" on their policy of Russian appeasement/missile defense surrender. The fact sheet says that the new approach -- focusing on SM-3 and sea-based systems (presumably in Turkey) -- will "augment our current protection of the U.S. homeland against long-range…

The statement from Joementum: "This deeply regrettable decision sends the wrong message to Tehran, Moscow, and our European allies at a critical time in our effort to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program," Lieberman said. "Moreover, it means that we will have a less capable missile defense system to…

We slouch ever closer toward Obama's waiting room, where the sick sicken further and the frail and elderly are hastened with all dispatch to their demise. And all the while, medical advances are expanding the universe, explosion by explosion. Inserting a plastic lens into one of her teeth-her…

Here's the statement from Jon Kyl, the Republican leader on missile defense: "The decision announced today by the Administration is dangerous and short-sighted. Not only does this decision leave America vulnerable to the growing Iranian long-range missile threat, it also turns back the clock to the…

The Obama administration chose an historic month to appease the Russians by reneging on the U.S. proposal to place ballistic missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic. September 1st of 2009 was the 70th anniversary of the Nazis' unprovoked attack on Poland. In the middle of the same month…

Ten days before the Bundestag (federal) elections scheduled for September 27, the race pitting Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) against her foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), is suddenly tightening up. For a long time, the…

A gathering sense of unease is spreading across America. It's more than worries about the economy or jobs. Those have been around for a while and will no doubt persist.

Update II: The AP confirms our report and adds that Secretary Gates will announce the administration's missile defense plans on Thursday morning at 10 am. A source tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the team in the air to Europe will be making stops in Warsaw, Prague, and Brussels. It sounds like the…

AEI launches the Center for Defense Studies today. Bookmark it! A leading Iranian dissident tells CBN he's "disappointed" in President Obama. Jon Stewart shames the media for getting scooped on ACORN by a couple of kids. Hannah Giles. Gilad Shalit to spend another Rosh Hashana in Gaza -- a "triumph…

Vets for Freedom has a new petition calling on President Obama to give Gen. Stanley McChrystal the resources needed to win the war in Afghanistan (you can sign it here): We, the undersigned U.S. war veterans and patriotic Americans, petition you with one simple request: Listen to the commander on…

I emailed Fred Kagan for his take on the administration's metrics for progress in Afghanistan, first reported by FP's Josh Rogin earlier today. Here is his response: The most important thing about the metrics leaked from the Obama Administration today is that they indicate a continued commitment to…

The Asia Times has notable piece published today in the commentary section by Georgetown University's David Steinberg, a faculty member in Georgetown's Asian Studies School of Foreign Service. Steinberg steps forward to defend the recent August visit of Virginia Senator Jim Webb (D) to Burma where…

Per our post earlier today on cap and tax, Jim Jeffries sends over this statement from Senator Lamar Alexander, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate: "The current administration claims to be the most transparent in American history, yet it's been hiding a report showing its cap-and-trade energy plan…

Josh Rogin gets the administration document containing the various metrics they plan to use in determining their own success or failure in the war in Afpak -- and the document does indeed have metrics for both sides of the Durand Line: The three-page paper, which is marked DRAFT but is…

Anthony Cordesman writes: What Senator Karl Levin proposed in his speech on September 11, 2009 is a narrow approach to the war that can only lose it. It is not a strategy, but rather an effort to avoid a commitment of more US troops and resources by rushing the development of Afghan forces as a…

In April, China warned President Obama not to meet with Nobel laureate the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of Tibet. Of course, dictating who a foreign leader can meet would usually be considered interfering in a sovereign country's internal affairs -- something the Communist…

All is not well at the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan as the top diplomats battle over handling the result of the country's highly contested presidential election. The Times Online reported that the top UN representative kicked out a senior American aide after he took a tough stand on the…

TEXT Afghanistan: No longer the Dems' 'good war'?

CBS reports: The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent. A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the…

This might be the most interesting exchange from yesterday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing with Admiral Mullen (though Mullen's insistence that additional Afghan forces will not be sufficient to defeat the Taliban or even slow the deterioration of security conditions there has gotten the…

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department has declared that President Obama can disregard a law forbidding State Department officials from attending United Nations meetings led by representatives of nations considered to be sponsors of terrorism. Based on that decision, which echoes Bush…

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Military.com's superb defense blog, DoD Buzz, blogs from the Air Force Association conference in Washington, DC: The U.S. military's historic dominance of the skies, unchallenged since around spring 1943, is increasingly at risk because of the proliferation of advanced technologies and a buildup of…

Anthony Flint's new book Wrestling with Moses has led to some great journalism on social critic Jane Jacobs, New York master builder Robert Moses, and urban life in general. Jacobs's most famous book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, is required reading for anybody who has the nagging…

In the latest ACORN sting video, ACORN organizer Tresa Kaelke says that she killed her allegedly abusive ex-husband and laid some "groundwork" beforehand to cop a self-defense plea and avoid going to jail. But Ben Smith has a statement from the San Bernardino police saying that Kaelke's known…

After a long and tortuous path of allegations of illegal subsidies and analysis of financial records, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled last week that the European Airbus consortium has been receiving illegal assistance from the relevant governments. The target of the ruling, which runs over…

Today, September 15, is "Battle of Britain Day" in the United Kingdom, the day on which they recall what Churchill called "their finest hour". Sixty-nine years ago, the blue skies over London were marked by thin white contrails marking the path of hundreds of fighter and bomber aircraft, contesting…

Mark Hemingway, with an assist from Mary Katharine, notes that the total number of people who took the Metro last weekend seems to show that the number of Tea Party protesters in D.C. was well into the six-figure range.

Democrats censure Joe Wilson -- can you feel the bipartisanship that Obama brought to Washington? Taiwan is waiting for its F-16s, but for Obama it's just not a good time to send arms to Free China. In fact, Obama doesn't have much time for any of our allies in Asia. Matt Labash dissects Mad Men…

Early Monday morning, law enforcement authorities raided three apartments in the Queens borough of New York City. The apartments housed a number of Afghan men who were allegedly engaged in suspicious activity. Thus far, the FBI and NYPD are saying that they did not uncover any explosives or other…

Secretary of State Clinton will be delivering several speeches and attending three swearing-in ceremonies today including Kurt Campbell's, the new Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs. I have written previously of Campbell's trials and travails in making it through the…

Former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie and respected pollster Whit Ayers have joined forces to launch Resurgent Republic, what Ayers describes the "Democracy Corps" of the right. Founded by James Carville and Stanley Greenberg, Democracy Corps-like Resurgent Republic-conducts…

Andrew Breitbart has nearly finished the job...a few more shovelfuls of dirt and one more smile from Miss Hannah Giles and this whole thing should be over, leaving the organization a mere shadow of what it once was and permanently severing its relationship with the federal government. Here's my…

Four of the Uighurs detained at Guantanamo are reportedly going to be transferred to Palau, a tiny island nation in the South Pacific. That leaves nine Uighurs who the Obama administration still has to relocate. Resolving the Uighurs' cases was supposed to be easy, but it hasn't turned out that…

The fourth installment of James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles's undercover report on ACORN is supposed to drop within the hour at BigGovernment.com and will be aired on Glenn Beck at 5:00 p.m. This time the duo took their sting operation to California, where an employee named Theresa confesses that she…

Ben Smith reports on a new letter urging Obama to give up on Afghanistan. The signatories are the usual suspects of so-called foreign policy realists. We noticed on the list two of Osama bin Laden's favorite authors, Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, and wonder whether or not the letter to our…

As the left tries to lay the groundwork for an alternative to sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, Carl Levin and others in the Senate have proposed an increased focus on training and deploying indigenous forces to compensate for inadequate U.S. force levels. Here is the key exchange today…

Rasmussen reports: n what is currently a difficult political climate for Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid trails two potential Republican challengers seeking to unseat him as he faces reelection next year in Nevada. The first Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of the 2010 race…

Let me get this straight. On the mall on the very same day was a giant crowd of raging, unstable racists protesting Obama and a crowd of black families and artists celebrating the Black Family Reunion. So, what happened in this steaming cauldron of redneck racism ready to boil over? As they left…

Via Glenn Thrush, the Democratic Congressman shows Joe Wilson a thing or two about civility: Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif), was getting the tea party treatment at a meeting with seniors in Fremont when a 65-plus guy in the audience launched into a diatribe about the public option. The man, to the hoots…

You know how the Obama administration's most dire economic forecasts turned out to be far too optimistic? Well, that's actually great news for the environment. As Climate Progress reports, it's "the perfect storm: a weak economy, low natural gas prices, state renewable energy standards, and a…

As Steve Hayes noted last week, the person Obama chose to put in charge of tort reform is an ex-trial lawyer lobbyist: Now Obama says he's going to study the issue. "I am directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative today," he said. That would be Secretary…

Michelle Malkin notes that NBC's Norah O'Donnell criticized the sting operation on ACORN because it "might be viewed as entrapment. That some conservative activists used hidden cameras to get this stuff on camera."

In an interview with CNBC yesterday, President Obama rejected any comparison of the war in Afghanistan to Vietnam and made clear that he understands the importance of having boots on the ground as part of any war against al Qaeda and their Taliban allies (and credit to CNBC for even asking about…

Just to keep you informed of the logic of many of our friends on the Left when it comes to Nazi imagery: Plastering every protest for eight years with Bushitler imagery: Fine. A much lower concentration of Nazi imagery used by town hall protesters to attack Obama (mostly misattributed LaRouche…

(1) Like the Washington Post / ABC News poll, USA Today / Gallup finds that Obama's speech last week hardly changed support for health care reform. Susan Page writes: "The president's speech apparently failed to galvanize public opinion in the way the White House had hoped. While it drew a national…

Yesterday's bold raid in Somalia by U.S. Navy SEALs that kiled senior al Qaeda leader Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan was a big victory for those seeking justice in two of East Africa's most deadly terror attacks. SEALs swooped in on helicopters near the southern town of Barawe, shot up Nabhan's car,…

During the 2008 Presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama stated repeatedly that he would engage America's enemies to resolve disputes. In foreign policy, engagement is not always a bad thing if it is done correctly. When combined with leverage -- threats of military action or economic…

Iftar is a ritual observed by Muslims at the end of the daily fast during the month of Ramadan. Muslims break the fast at sundown--a time prescribed by local clerics, based on astronomical calculations--by drinking water and eating dates. Families, other social groups, and mosques then hold…

"We face a defining moment," Mexican president Felipe Calderón said earlier this month in his third state of the union address. While he was talking about more than just the war on drugs, that is clearly the paramount security challenge facing Mexican authorities. Calderón has taken unprecedented…

Senate votes 83 to 7 to cut off ACORN funding after conservative activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles expose group in undercover sting. Ross Douthat: The Ghosts of 1994. Josh Rogin takes over the Cable and breaks news: Murtha says no more troops for Afghanistan. The NRA backs Bob McDonnell in…

Every time we try and capitulate, they slap us around some more: Asked about reports that the US has offered selling Boeing planes to Iran and what the media called the "Boeing diplomacy", Javanfekr noted, such offers by the US signals its demagogical and deceiving approach. "The offer for an…

They both recommend you read The Israel Lobby and U.S Foreign Policy by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Osama also recommends that you read Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace not Apartheid and warns Americans that their government is still being controlled by the dread neocons. Now the left can…

Marc Garlasco, Human Rights Watch's senior military analyst, is shaking things up in the human rights community. It wasn't always cool to wear Nazi insignia while drinking beers with your fellow anti-Israel activists. Some in the human rights community even frowned on that kind of behavior. But not…

Politically speaking, the war in Afghanistan is starting to appear more and more like how the war in Iraq looked in 2007. The Democrats are looking to cut America's losses by running; the Republicans (for the most part) are advocating that the United States hunker down and seek victory. But there…

Earlier today William Daroff, vice president of the United Jewish Communities, a massive umbrella organization for the country's Jewish federations and communities, offered some harsh truths about J Street, the pro-peace, pro-Palestinian lobbying group which describes its primary mission in a New…

Earlier today William Daroff, vice president of the United Jewish Communities, a massive umbrella organization for the countries federations and communities, offered some harsh truths about J Street, the pro-peace, pro-Palestinian lobbying group which describes its primary mission in a New York…

A GOP aide emails: During his remarks this afternoon, President Obama seeking to stress bipartisanship, noted that his Administration was working "closely" with leaders in the House and Senate. Apparently not closely enough, since the President went off script and referred to Congressman Spencer…

Last week, on the night of Obama's speech to the joint session, I posted this: Obama, then: First, no matter what you've heard, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor under the reform proposals that we've put forward. If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep it. If…

Danger Room reports that Venezuela has just taken out a $2.2 billion line of credit for Russian military hardware. Appearing yesterday on Aló Presidente, his weekly talk show, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that Russia had extended a credit line worth $2.2 billion toward new arms…

The AP reports on the likelihood of the GOP drubbing the Democrats in 2010: From New Hampshire to Nevada, House Democrats also will be forced to defend votes on Obama's $787 billion economic recovery package and on energy legislation viewed by many as a job killer in an already weak economy. Add to…

Via The Hill, Blagojevich copped the honest crook defense on Fox News this morning: "I could have named my wife if I wanted to," Blagojevich said of his Senate appointment, adding that his team had looked into such possibilities as Oprah and Valerie Jarrett. "Look at what Gov. [Charlie] Crist (R)…

The 2009 Transatlantic Trends survey is out and guess what? Europeans love Barack Obama. I kid you not. They love the guy. The survey, organized by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, among other foundations, was conducted between June 9 and July 1 and covers 11 European nations, both in…

If you haven't yet read the document that is reportedly Iran's response to the Obama administration's request for negotiations, you should. At a time when Iran is arming the Taliban in Afghanistan, waging proxy war against America and her allies in Iraq, waging proxy war against Israel, harboring…

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs subcommittee, has taken a real interest in the Obama administration's approach to dealing with Burma's military junta. Earlier this year, he placed a "hold" on the nomination of now-confirmed…

Who's to Say What's Obscene?

In an idle moment in an otherwise indolent life, I recently counted my neckties. I have, I am slightly embarrassed to report, 86 of them, some purchased as long ago as the late 1970s. The preponderance are bow ties, though I've bought a few brightly colored knit four-in-hand ties in recent years…

The Sisters of Sinai

In his September 1 Washington Post column, George Will offered a prescription for U.S. retreat from Afghanistan: "Do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, air strikes and small, potent Special Forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border…

The moon belongs to everyone

There are three President Obamas. There's the Obama who defers, the one who dithers, and the one who's out of touch. The Obama presidencies have one thing in common. They're all weak.

Artists to the Rescue!

What national interest does the United States have in Afghanistan? According to recent polls, more and more Americans doubt there is any--or at least enough to warrant escalation of the war. This flagging support partly reflects the inadequate job the Obama administration has done explaining its…

CIA director Leon Panetta has had a tough year. He's lost a series of high-profile battles with his White House bosses--over releasing Bush administration enhanced interrogation memos, the naming of a special prosecutor to -reinvestigate CIA operatives, and retaining the CIA's lead role in…

Congress returns this week, and here's hoping that its members, Democrats in particular, learned a little something from this summer's town hall meetings. The lesson to be drawn from these occasionally raucous events is that America is on the verge of--or already knee-deep in--one of those moments…

Is God a Mathematician?

Her Fearful Symmetry

A couple of weeks ago, political handicapper Charlie Cook alerted his subscribers that "the situation for President Obama and congressional Democrats has slipped completely out of control." Politico asserted the Cook Political Report special "should send shivers down Democratic spines."

Maurice Bowra

It had been a rough month by the time 67-year-old Bert Stead of Redding, Calif., stepped to the microphone at an August 18 town hall meeting with Republican representative Wally Herger. It was about to get rougher.

Zhukovskiy, Russia

It's not very often that there is agreement between the leadership of the American Civil Liberties Union and officers at the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA jealously guards the nation's most highly classified secrets; the ACLU is a crusader for government transparency. CIA operatives risked…

The Marriage-Go-Round

In his 60 Minutes interview to be aired tonight, President Obama apparently says, "I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it....I'm the one who's going to be held responsible. So I have every incentive to get this right." No, Mr. President. It's not about you. If…

With all 40 of the eyes of G20 finance ministers riveted on the questions of bankers' bonuses and exit strategies when they met in London, the issue of creeping protectionism seems to have been ignored, or at least kept out of public view. Not a bad idea from the point of view of the world leaders…

"We have a crucial stake in Afghanistan," said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., speaking at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington D.C. On this eighth anniversary of September 11th, the ambassador took aim at Nancy Pelosi's remarks about Afghanistan…

The Jerusalem Post reports that Congress is gearing up to move ahead with new sanctions on Iran in the event that the Iranians do not offer a serious response to the Obama administration's diplomatic overtures. And the Iranians have not offered a serious response to the Obama administration's…

The memo being circulated by Republicans on the Hill: The Columbia Law School this week announced that Professor Sarah Cleveland has been appointed Counselor in International Law with the State Department Legal Adviser's Office, in which "she will advise the State Department and the executive…

An e-mail from my friend Michael Anton, who gave me permission to pass it on: I visited West Point today for a series of business meetings, mostly with faculty and some with Cadets. Not to go into too much boring detail, but the purpose was to get some feedback for some work my boss and colleagues…

As I explained in my piece yesterday, Peter Bergen, a CNN commentator and senior fellow at the New America Foundation, does not believe the intelligence Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) gave up on al Qaeda's sleeper agents was all that important. The facts and evidence, as accumulated by American…

The Michigan Free Press reports: Harlan Drake, 33, of Owosso, was arraigned this afternoon on two counts of first-degree murder, one count of using a gun in commission of a crime, and carrying a gun with the intent to commit a crime. James Pouillon, 63, was shot multiple times at around 7:30 a.m.…

The decision comes on the heels of Andrew Breitbart's release of two undercover video investigations, which found ACORN employees in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. more than happy to aid and abet underaged prostitution with advice on tax status, getting grants, and avoiding notice by law…

Yelling "you lie!" at a president: A group of black newspaper publishers on Friday charged Republican Rep. Joe Wilson with racism for yelling, "You lie," at President Obama during his nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress. "As African-American newspaper publishers we stand in…

Tomorrow, the 9/12 protest will take place in Washington, D.C. An offshoot of the Tax Day Tea Party movement, and hyped by Glenn Beck and conservative activist groups, the turn out promises to be healthy. But Democratic leadership is even more sanguine about the possibilities than organizers: A top…

The statement from McCain: "The Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, my friend Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), today articulated his desire to significantly accelerate the growth of the Afghan security forces. In this, I agree, and have called for several years now for aggressive measures to…

This post is part of Project 2,996, an attempt to honor each and every person murdered on 9/11. finnerty.tim.jpg Tim Finnerty was a bond trader during the workday, a member of the firm with the devastating distinction of losing more employees than any other company during the terrorist attacks of…

Today is quite a day for Obama foreign policy: We see the benefits of the "reset" with Russia as Lavrov shuts the door on real sanctions. While Obama is pressuring Israel on settlements and reaching out to Damscus, we learn that Syria has more nuclear sites. Hariri has given up on trying to form a…

Senator Webb continues to make -- or try to make -- news on Burma. Yesterday his office issued a press release to "announce his intention to hold a hearing on the impact and effectiveness of United States Policy towards Burma." Webb's policy foray into Burma has so far been extremely successful --…

Human Rights Watch is in the bunker, imagining that their legions of supporters are out in the field just awaiting new orders, but the end is near. HRW's latest feeble attempt to push back on the true story of how they came to hire a wanna-be Nazi as their senior military affairs specialist…

Obama will take his health-care pitch on the road again for a speech in Minneapolis Saturday. On Sunday, he'll be on "60 Minutes." On Monday, he'll give a speech on the financial crisis, marking the one-year anniversary of the Lehman Bros. collapse. My brother happened to be in a doctor's waiting…

Well, yes, and we know that because as Fred Barnes pointed out on the night of the speech, Obama did nothing to reach out to Republicans and everything to rally wavering members of his own party in his address to Congress. Further evidence of the White House's preference for pushing health care…

Just about everyone in Washington seems agreed that Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., committed a terrible gaffe the other evening when he shouted 'You lie!' during a pause in President Obama's address to Congress on Wednesday. I am not certain that he did, but this episode does nicely illustrate Michael…

Read all about it in the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly's news blog.

Secrecy News, a publication of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), has posted a transcript of a televised interview Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan recently gave. Khan was asked about Iran's nuclear program (emphasis added): [Interviewer] What about Iran? [Khan] Iran was interested in…

Update: CNN mistakes audio from Coast Guard for the real thing, and reports it. The White House went after CNN, saying, "Before we report things like this, checking would be good." Update: Sounds like a combination of extremely ill-advised military exercise and media misinterpretation of it led to…

911RTRS_468x683.jpg It's very easy to forget about these smaller events, but for a long time after 9/11, you woke up every morning with the sense of, "what the hell is coming next today?" Why is there no price to pay for Trutherism? The future seen from NYC on 9/11 never came to be. Obama marks…

You would think the identification and arrest of sleeper agents working for al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), and operating on U.S. soil in 2003, is a success story our intelligence and law enforcement agencies can rightly trumpet, no? Not according to Peter Bergen, who is a senior…

So Charlie Sheen wants a meeting with Barack Obama. Why? Sheen believes that the US government might have been behind 9/11.

Two of my favorite bloggers -- Jim Ceaser of the University of Virginia, and Sarah Palin of the University of Real America -- were particuarly struck by one line in President Obama's speech last night. As was I. This is it: "Now, add it all up and the plan I'm proposing will cost around $900…

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's rejection of President Obama's much-touted AfPak strategy is sure to be causing heartburn in the White House. Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, has rejected the Obama administration's strategy of linking policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan in an effort to…

After running about a dozen stories in print and more than two dozen items online about Bob McDonnell's 20-year-old socially conservative graduate thesis, the Washington Post has decided to focus like a laser on revelations that Creigh Deeds expressed shockingly similar views on homosexuality…

Robert Gibbs was asked in the briefing twice today, with follow-up, about whether the health care proposals would cover illegal immigrants: Later in the briefing, Gibbs asserted that despite what was in other legislation, last night "the president outlined a plan that doesn't cover illegal…

Q: Will you support an up-or-down vote allowing an up-or- down vote on Representative Stupak's amendment to keep abortion funding out of the health care bill? Speaker Pelosi. It's out of the health care bill... Q: He thinks that that amendment (inaudible) wants to introduce a limit on the floor of…

Joe Wilson offered the most succinct and effective Republican response to Obamacare since Sarah Palin attacked Obama's "death panels" -- and, like Sarah, he did it in just two words: "You lie." It is also incontrovertibly true that Obama was lying. Illegal immigrants will get health care for free…

This story just keeps getting better. As noted here earlier this week, another member of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division has found himself in a compromising situation. This isn't the HRW staffer who praised "the achievement of the Munich action" in which Palestinian terrorists murdered 11…

After running about a dozen stories in print and more than two dozen items online about Bob McDonnell's 20-year-old socially conservative graduate thesis, the Washington Post has decided to focus like a laser in the sixth paragraph of this blog post by Anita Kumar on Creigh Deeds's opposition to…

The government is too involved in the recovery of our economy. It's a bad thing. It sets a bad precedent. Part of the problem stems from the last recession, in which interest rates were held at 1 percent, lower for a longer period of time than was good for the country. Next thing you know, you've…

Rep. Joseph Wilson of South Carolina shouted 'You lie!' from the floor when President Obama told Congress that his health care 'reform' proposals would not insure illegal aliens. As it happens, it was Joseph Wilson, and not Barack Obama who spoke the truth in that exchange, and I leave it to others…

Change you can believe in? In his speech to Congress last night, Barack Obama threw a bone to Republicans on tort reform. Many in this chamber - particularly on the Republican side of the aisle - have long insisted that reforming our medical malpractice laws can help bring down the cost of health…

Charlie Cook has changed his category: The Cook Political Report just changed rating on the Nevada U.S. Senate race from Likely Democrat to Toss Up. Polls have consistently shown Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) behind potential GOP challengers.

Tuesday's ambush in Gangigal in Kunar that killed four U.S. Marine military advisers, eight Afghan soldiers and policemen, and an Afghan interpreter will surely raise serious question about the current rules of engagement which U.S. forces operate under in Afghanistan. Jonathan S. Landay, a…

South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson got plenty of press for an outburst during Obama's speech that came just as the president was assuring the audience that all the scary stuff they'd heard about the bill were lies. Wilson got caught yelling "you lie" at the tail end of an applause burst, in…

We have known for a long time just how much Barack Obama wants to reach out to the terrorist regime that rules Iran. After all, during the campaign, he repeatedly stuck to his stated desire to meet unconditionally with Ahamdinejad, even in the face of criticism from other Democratic candidates such…

A 1999 statement from Creigh Deeds's spokesman in the Staunton Daily News Leader: Republicans have challenged Deeds' 1994 vote on a budget amendment that would have prohibited extending state insurance benefits for homosexual partners of faculty members at state colleges and universities. Deeds…

Last night, President Obama repeated claims that his opponents are not telling the truth when they say the Democrats' health-care legislation would cover illegal immigrants and pay for abortions. Ramesh Ponnuru explains in the most recent issue of National Review that Obamacare opponents are not…

It is almost irresistible for conservatives to snicker as Democrats in Massachusetts hold hearings and seek ways to justify an attempt to change the law in Massachusetts to allow the Democratic governor of the Commonwealth to appoint a Democratic senator--presumably available to vote for President…

The president's plan to reduce health-care costs mostly depends on reducing the cost of the premiums of those "villainous" insurance companies. This plan is premised on the idea that insurance companies have large profits and administrative expenses that can be pared down without any real impact on…

President Obama's performance among young voters in 2008 was an electoral tour de force. He thumped his rival John McCain by 34 points (66 percent to 32 percent) among those 18 to 29 years old.

President Obama's speech to Congress last night can be summed up rather easily. It was 40 minutes of boilerplate followed by a socko, emotional finish exploiting the death of Senator Teddy Kennedy. Which leads to this question: was Obama's finishing kick sufficient to achieve his goal of…

Kill it and start over: But isn't health care a crisis? No. Indeed, the president acknowledged it isn't: "But we did not come here just to clean up crises. We came to build a future. So tonight, I return to speak to all of you about an issue that is central to that future -- and that is the issue…

Obama, then: First, no matter what you've heard, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor under the reform proposals that we've put forward. If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep it. If your employer provides you health insurance on the job, nobody is talking about…

The Washington Post has been trying to paint Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell as a right-wing extremist this summer by running dozens of pieces related to the Republican's 20-year-old socially conservative graduate thesis. In today's installment, the Post tries to portray McDonnell as…

Something more than impoverishing small businesses and knocking off old people hangs in the balance of the president's speech tonight. The fate of Maureen Dowd's imaginary Obamic love life may rise or fall with it, as well. She knew from the start her fling with him would be tricky: He was going to…

What is it they call this in the Obama White House? A distraction? A source sends on the talking points the White House is circulating to allies in advance of President Obama's speech, most of them reiterating familiar themes of momentum and security. But the White House has also chosen…

The boss hears from two sources that Hillary Clinton is considering stepping down as Secretary of State this fall in order to run for Governor of New York.

The Washington Post has been trying to paint Bob McDonnell as a right-wing extremist this summer by printing dozens of pieces related to the Republican's 20 year-old socially conservative thesis. With all of their reporters digging through Deeds past comments, the Post seems to have overlooked…

In his pro-autocracy New York Times column today, Tom Friedman complains that "on both the energy/climate legislation and health care legislation, only the Democrats are really playing. With a few notable exceptions, the Republican Party is standing, arms folded and saying 'no.'" Friedman has been…

As I wrote in this week's issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Senator Jim Webb has made a real mess of things with his foray into Burma last month -- or as Webb calls it, in deference to the ruling junta, Myanmar. After emerging from a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the Burmese democracy…

No, not that kind of page! The disgraced former congressman's got a brand new bag: he's been hired as a commentator by a North Palm Beach radio station. His show will be called "Inside the Mind of Mark Foley." (Errggg?) Says station manager Joe Ranieri: It will be general public interest, and…

Mickey Kaus takes on Marc Ambinder, who wrote yesterday on "why Obama won August" (more victories like that please), and Andrew Sullivan, who claims to agree with David Brooks even though Sullivan has, per Kaus, taken "pretty much the exact opposite" position as Brooks on the core point. In another…

For what it's worth, I have five questions I'm looking for President Obama to answer in his health-care speech tonight. The idea is to determine if Obama is serious about moderate, preferably incremental reform the American public wants or is still seeking reform that delights Nancy Pelosi, Harry…

As Radio Free Europe reports, a piece in the new issue of GQ, "Vladimir Putin's Dark Rise to Power," will not be available online and was not included in the magazine's Russian edition. The author, Scott Anderson, sits down for an intereview with RFE/RL: RFE/RL: Did the editor in chief of American…

Jim Geraghty takes apart the Washington Post's latest front-page story on Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell. The Post story is the latest in a series of stories that could all be titled: "Post Runs Another Story About Its Story ".

If the president walks away from the public option and caves in to the smears and lies of the Republican super-minority in Congress, I think there's really only one choice for the progressive left: a Van Jones primary challenge in 2012.

The Washington Times reports on the Obama administration's use of the state secrets privilege: "This administration is continuing to use the enlarged executive powers of the Bush-Cheney administration," said Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, who oversaw the report. ... "In cases…

"is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by-dare I say it-death panels?" Glenn Thrush

When it comes to 9/11, Richard Cohen is all about the revenge. Sort of. "The horror of Sept. 11 resides in me like a dormant pathogen. . . . I vowed vengeance that day -- yes, good Old Testament-style vengeance -- and that ember glows within me still," he has written, and he's still burning today.…

In Tuesday's Washington Post, Elliott Abrams critiqued a recent op-ed by Jimmy Carter. The former Democratic president and Republican deputy national security adviser have gone another round online -- see here and here.

Primary care medicine: An empty promise in health care reform? There is an article of faith among proponents of health care reform that expanding the primary care workforce, particularly at the expense of medical and surgical specialists, is a critical component of "bending the cost curve" and…

On Monday and Tuesday, Iranian police raided offices connected to top opposition leaders and former presidential candidates, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. Many fear that the move signals that the regime's efforts to extinguish Iran's post-election unrest is moving to its next, perhaps…

Friday's deadly air strike on two Taliban-hijacked tanker trucks, which was called in by German Bundeswehr forces and carried out by USAF fighter jets, has prompted a sudden barrage of domestic and international criticism vis-à-vis Berlin's handling of this particular incident and, by implication,…

In an op-ed for Sunday's New York Times, former FBI special agent Ali Soufan wrote: Supporters of the enhanced interrogation techniques have jumped from claim to claim about their usefulness. They have asserted, for example, that harsh treatment led Mr. Mohammed to reveal the plot to attack the…

Byron York: When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings. Elliott Abrams: What Carter missed in the Middle East. Liberals declare 9/11 Trutherism is mainstream. Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany will give the GOP rebuttal to Obama's health-care speech tomorrow night. Progressive…

The Hill's Mike Soraghan and Michael M. Gleeson report: At least 23 House Democrats already have told constituents or hometown media that they oppose the massive healthcare overhaul touted by President Barack Obama. If Republicans offer the blanket opposition they've promised, Speaker Nancy Pelosi…

From the press briefing today: Gibbs says August was not a HC setback. "Not at all." Cue the #BaghdadBobGibbs tag on Twitter. In other delusional news, the DNC is sending around Marc Ambinder's "Why Obama Won August, Really" (a title which he seems to have since thought better of and changed to…

I don't think we should jump to any conclusions over this: Marc Garlasco, HRW's "senior military analyst" and a frequent critic of Israel...as disclosed by Omri at Mere Rhetoric, has an interesting avocation: he writes about and collects Nazi paraphernalia. He has contributed almost 8,000 posts to…

At the White House press briefing today, Robert Gibbs didn't field a single question about the avowed communist/black nationalist/cop-killer supporter/9-11 Truther Van Jones, who resigned from his White House post shortly after 12:00 a.m. Sunday. In fact, a search for the name "Van Jones" doesn't…

In July, the news broke that the U.S. military decided to end publishing reports on how many Taliban and allied insurgent group fighters were killed during clashes in Afghanistan. "We send the wrong message if all we talk about is the number of insurgents killed. It doesn't demonstrate anything…

Via Jim Geraghty on Twitter: "Politico's Jim Vandehei on CNN: 'There's not going to be a public option in this bill.' Says White House tells him OTR they know it." Blue Dog Mike Ross of Arkansas comes out against a public option, in a move that may embolden other Blue Dogs: "I have been skeptical…

Before today's speech, Obama was asked by a student "if you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?" The president replied: "I think that it might be Gandhi, who is a real hero of mine." I would have thought the president would want to dine with Lincoln, but Lincoln was such…

Skimming through the text of President Obama's Labor Day speech yesterday in Cincinnatti, a few days before the anniversary of 9/11 and with the president facing a decision about sending more troops to Afghanistan, I was struck by Obama¹s failure to mention the war, or our servicemen and women.…

Bret Stephens writes in the Wall Street Journal: So George Will has noticed that Afghanistan is a backward place ill-suited to nation-building, and Nicholas Kristof thinks that war is a tricky, dirty business, and Tom Friedman is hedging his bets on yet another conflict he once supported but which…

The art world's love affair with the Obamas has now widened from visual arts to music with news of the Jazz Institute of Chicago's new epic composition, "Honoring Grace: Michelle Obama.: Though some minor flaws need to be addressed, Chicago flutist Nicole Mitchell's "Honoring Grace: Michelle Obama"…

I question the GOP's wish to put a tonsil-stealing, foot-pilfering profiteer on TV to make their case. Nonetheless, the Republican Party has chosen Rep. Charles Boustany, a Louisiana surgeon, to deliver the response Wednesday: Boustany, R-La., is a cardiovascular surgeon who was first elected in…

Arianna Huffington joins a parade of other lefties who've come to the defense of Van Jones now that the war is over and the battlefield already lost. Huffington's take is that the left owes a great debt to Glenn Beck, who should "have done everything in his power to keep Van Jones right where he…

If you were going to pick a general to command a counter-terrorism operation relying on the precise use of Special Forces teams, Rangers, SEALs, AC-130 gunships, and all the other paraphernalia of high-end counter-terrorism missions, that man would be General Stan McChrystal.

Let us be among the first to welcome, with trumpets and fanfare, the new quarterly, National Affairs.

The August sales pitch that failed. Van Jones resignation earns Obama liberal wrath: "It isn't an arms-length relationship between these groups and the administration." Is HRW's lead investigator an avid collector of Nazi paraphernalia? Making excuses for Van Jones. An English court found three…

Let us be among the first to welcome, with trumpets and fanfare, the new quarterly, National Affairs.

If you were going to pick a general to command a counter-terrorism operation relying on the precise use of Special Forces teams, Rangers, SEALs, AC-130 gunships, and all the other paraphernalia of high-end counter-terrorism missions, that man would be General Stan McChrystal.

Well, if he goes ahead and does the right thing in Afghanistan. The Foreign Policy Initiative, formed by Bob Kagan, Dan Senor and the boss, and directed by Jamie Fly, today released an open letter to President Obama. It expresses support for the U.S. effort in Afghanistan, and calls upon President…

Let me live in a house by the side of the road, Where the race of men go by; The men who are good and the men who are bad, As good and as bad as I. --from Sam Walter Foss's 'House by the Side of the Road,' the first poem Marion Barry recited in church as a boy In most conceptions of Washington,…

Men to Boys

We've always suspected that fear of angering trial lawyers was the only reason President Obama refused to embrace tort reform as a crucial part of achieving his goal of reduced health care costs. Now we know for sure. A moment of candor by Howard Dean, the former chairman of the DNC and an…

God in the White House

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to ask a special prosecutor to investigate for possible criminal prosecution CIA operatives who interrogated terrorists in overseas locations is the latest and most egregious instance of political gamesmanship by Holder, who strode into office promising to…

Since there is so little of it, let's start with the good news about the release from prison and triumphant return to Libya of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the terrorist who was supposedly serving a life sentence in a Scottish prison for his role in blowing Pan Am 103 out of the sky over Lockerbie in…

During the "cartoon crisis" of early 2006--when mobs in Nigeria, Pakistan, Libya, the Palestinian territories, and elsewhere attacked embassies, looted buildings, and murdered bystanders to protest the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten--Jytte…

The Next Founders

Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies

Robert Novak was a world-famous columnist when I met him in 1974. I was a reporter for the Evening Star newspaper in Washington. We were covering a trip to Delaware by Vice President Gerald Ford, who was a few months away from succeeding Richard Nixon as president. The Watergate scandal was raging,…

Scottish Men of Letters and the New Public Sphere

On March 1, 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the principal planner of the September 11 attacks, was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. U.S. interrogators quickly went about the business of getting him to talk, and for good reasons. KSM's operatives were already here, inside America, planning…

The Essential Herman Kahn

Old timers insist that if you go to a baseball game, you will always see something you never saw before. On Sunday, August 23, I saw something at Citi Field in Queens that nobody had ever seen before: the first unassisted game-ending triple play in the history of the National League.

Waiting for the Kent Brockman Award

According to the Washington Post, "Van Jones's Resignation Reveals Vetting Lapse." Well, yes. But what's interesting in the Post story (apart from the comical description of Jones as "a towering figure in the environmental movement") is this claim by "a White House official, who spoke on condition…

With more politesse than is perhaps warranted, a "senior Whitehall aide" (Prime Minister Gordon Brown? Foreign Minister David Miliband?) has dubbed the U.S. government's ire over the release of the Lockerbie bomber "disingenuous," the Daily Mail reports. Statements issuing from Washington -- Mr.…

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, appearing Sunday on ABC's This Week, reiterated that "the president thanks Van Jones for his service in the first eight months." "His service?" What service? I trust Gibbs will explain on Tuesday just what services Jones did as "green jobs czar." That he…

Last week I speculated as to which member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) might have been the source of a leak of classified information that, as first reported by the Washington Times, the CIA has now referred to the Department of Justice for further investigation.…

Former Democratic party presidential candidate and National Chairman Howard Dean appeared today on Fox News Sunday. Advocating the use (or rather the abuse) of budget reconciliation to jam Obamacare through the Senate, he said: "I don't think the American people care about the process. They care…

Washington Post: White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned Saturday after weeks of controversy stemming from his past activism. "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones, special adviser…

"Who's the real terrorists? Uncle Sam." That according to a record put out by Freedom Fighter Music, a label created by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which Van Jones founded. There are a number of different voices on the record, including that of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal and…

"Let the good times roll . You gotta go out and spend some cash . I don't care if you're young or old let the good times roll." So advised blues singer B.B. King in 1999. Whether it is good advice today depends on how you read some complicated data. Most consumers will look at last week's job…

Even some military lawyers will argue anything on behalf of their clients, including senior al Qaeda terrorists. From the Miami Herald: Pentagon defense lawyers this week appealed the war crimes conviction of Osama bin Laden's media secretary at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on free speech grounds. They…

Elliott Abrams: Hillary v. Honduras. MSNBC's First Read blames the "conservative media machine" for making Van Jones a news story. Content warning: On Twitter, you can keep track of actual things Van Jones has said -- the Twitter feed is inspired by this one. It appears that readers of this blog…

A new SurveyUSA poll of likely voters conducted September 1 to September 3 shows Republican Bob McDonnell leading Democrat Creigh Deeds 54 percent to 42 percent in the Virginia governor's race. But, hey, the 35th Washington Post story about Bob McDonnell's 20 year-old thesis is sure to bring the…

NATO launched an airstrike in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, where the Taliban have been gaining strength despite a series of Afghan and German operations designed to reestablish control. The strike is controversial: scores of Taliban fighters and civilians are reported to have been killed…

The latest edition of the British Army Review is dishing out some serious criticism of the British military's performance in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers and military historians alike are critical of Britain's efforts. The Times Online provides some excerpts: A soldier is critical of the ongoing…

Bob Beckel said on Fox this morning that Obama White House green jobs czar Van Jones will be canned by Tuesday. Beckel reasoned that Jones's background is simply indefensible for a White house appointment, and wondered if the FBI screwed up because they must not have uncovered this in the vetting…

Ed Morrissey has the rundown here.

Energy-saving light bulbs-you know, those squiggly-looking things that say "Earth Friendly" and "Lasts 13 Times Longer" and "Uses 75% Less Energy" on their packages-don't actually give off very much light, as anyone who is forced to use them because they cannot find incandescent bulbs at Safeway…

Eli Lake and Sarah Carter have a big scoop this morning on news that the CIA "has asked the Justice Department to examine what it regards as the criminal disclosure of a secret program to kill foreign terrorist leaders abroad." As a result of those leaks, the head of the firm formerly known as…

Yesterday Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor in California and former eBay CEO, got caught up in the growing controversy over the statements made by White House green jobs czar Van Jones. A tape surfaced of Whitman praising the "marvelous job" Jones had been doing in his…

There is an obvious compromise available to end the Honduras crisis--or there was, anyway, until Secretary Clinton rejected it on Thursday.

A classic from the Post (via the Newseum), "Mazel-tough guys gunning for terrorirsts":

In late March, when President Obama announced a first wave of reinforcements for the war in Afghanistan, an Obama administration official said approvingly, "He's gone all in." Now the New York Times reports that Defense Secretary Gates and President Obama are likely soon to receive a memorandum…

Email your answer to wws [at] weeklystandard.com. First prize: a glamorous WEEKLY STANDARD tote bag (if there are many winners, we'll pick randomly among them); and, of course, we'll print a selection of witty accompanying comments. Choose wisely: 1. Today (Friday) 2. Over the weekend 3. Tuesday 4.…

Yesterday, in light of evidence that Obama's "green czar" Van Jones signed a 2004 9/11 Truther petition, Jones released a statement claiming the petition does not "reflect my views now or ever." The White House also claimed Jones said he did not carefully read the language in the petition before…

The details of the Tate-La Bianca slaughters are too gruesome to repeat here-for those who weren't around and would like to know, there's the condensed version from Wikipedia; the full account, Helter Skelter, by Vincent Bugliosi, the man who prosecuted Charles Manson and three of his ghouls for…

David Brooks is absolutely right to recommend that the president (and New York Times readers) check out David Goldhill's essay in the Atlantic on American health care. Thing is, if the president were to read Goldhill's piece, he'd find it contains substantive, compelling criticisms of the…

One of the most embittered complaints from critics of George W. Bush was his use of religious imagery to promote a domestic agenda. Religious liberals lamented that God and the Bible had been "hijacked" by Bush and his social conservative allies. Self-styled "prophets" such as Jim Wallis of…

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Asia subcommittee. Webb, whose "hold" on the nomination of now-confirmed Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell was so strong a North Korean nuclear detonation could not break it…

Well, William Rice didn't actually give MoveOn the finger -- his pinky was forcibly removed by an Obamacare supporter's teeth. Rice, a 65-year-old real-estate appraiser from Newbury Park, Calif., expected some heated arguments when he went to a health care protest in Thousand Oaks. He did not…

Ramesh Ponnuru dings Howard Kurtz for writing: "WP overplayed macaca, but VA gov nominee opposing working women in master's thesis - at age 34! - is big campaign news. Not a stray remark." As Ponnuru notes, it's not fair or accurate to say that McDonnell "opposed working women."

On March 20, 2003, the FBI released a "Be on the Lookout" alert for Adnan G. El Shukrijumah (aka Jafar al Tayyar, or Jafar "the Pilot"). In the days that followed, press outlets reported some of the details on el Shukrijumah's suspicious career. El Shukrijumah had lived in the U.S. for years, and…

Aaron Keyak, the press secretary for the National Jewish Democratic Council (the Democratic counterpart to the Republican Jewish Coalition), takes to the Huffington Post to ask that eternal question: "Why is Pat Buchanan Defending Hitler?" (Michael Moynihan has tried to answer that one on numerous…

The DNC sends around E.J. Dionne's column in today's Washington Post, called "The Real Town Hall Story," and note this key point: "There is an overwhelming case that the electronic media went out of their way to cover the noise and ignored the calmer (and from television's point of view 'boring')…

Gallup released a report yesterday highlighting a significant narrowing in the self-reported party identification gap since January. Democrats began the year with a 17-point advantage (52%-35%). Some of the spread back then reflected post-election Obama euphoria. Many like to be on the winning…

A member of MoveOn.org bites off the finger off a conservative protester and MoveOn responds by calling the incident "regrettable." The group's spokesman also says that "MoveOn condemns violence in all forms." Which is no doubt true, but also a deeply revealing statement from a group that was --…

Via Dave Weigel, it turns out that Obama "green jobs" czar Van Jones isn't just an avowed communist who likes to call Republicans "assholes" -- he's also a 9/11 Truther (or, more accurately, a 9/11 denier). Update: As MKH notes below, Gateway Pundit got here first.

MSNBC's Schultz: "I believe Jesus would vote yes for a public option." Member of MoveOn health-care vigil crowd allegedly assists 65-year-old Obama critic in finger amputation during a fight. Rangel donated to three of five Dems investigating him on ethics committee. Rangel staff just as forgetful…

You expect it from Time and Newsweek, but this is from the official White House photo stream:

In a fascinating profile of Linda Abu-Aziz Menuhin, an Iraqi-born Israeli forced to flee her native Baghdad in the paroxysm of anti-Semitic violence that erupted there after the Six Day War, the Jerusalem Post's Lela Gilbert reminds us that Palestinians weren't the only refugees created by the 1948…

In a fascinating profile of Linda Abu-Aziz Menuhin, an Iraqi-born Israeli forced to flee her native Baghdad in the paroxysm of anti-Semitic violence that erupted there after the Six-Day-War, the Jerusalem Post's Lela Gilbert reminds us that Palestinians weren't the only refugees created by the 1948…

Josef Joffe has an excellent long essay on the durability of American primacy in the September / October issue of Foreign Affairs. Unfortunately, the piece is subscription-only. Not to worry, however. Turns out Joffe published a shorter version of his essay in the New York Times last month. The…

So sayeth Yuval Levin, in a definitive post: For the Progressives, the world is too complex to be understood in human terms - in terms of sentiment, experience, honor, habit, and piety. For the Burkeans, the world is complex precisely in those human terms, and is too complex to be understood in…

Willem de Kooning, the Dutch-American painter of lurid, owl-eyed women, declared in 1950 that "flesh was the reason oil paint was invented." Using that famous sentence as its cornerstone, "Paint Made Flesh" gathers 43 figurative paintings by artists from the last 50 years, including de Kooning,…

Summer is not the only thing sliding away. When Congress returns next week, Democratic leaders will get an earful of advice from rank-and-file members about how to stop their political slippage. But it's unclear whether much can be done. That's because independent voters are the catalyst behind…

Obama "green jobs czar" and avowed communist Van Jones says Republicans "are assholes." Rasmussen shows Bob McDonnell leading Creigh Deeds 51 percent to 42 percent, despite the Washington Post's best efforts to sink the Republican candidate. Maine voters will get to vote on gay marriage ban…

And here it is: 0_61_090109_molecule.jpg Is science glorious, or what?

The Washington Post has an article today describing just how laborious and complicated it is to buy and register a handgun in the District of Columbia, even though handguns are now legal. For the assignment, reporter Christian Davenport went through the whole process, which consisted of: "$833.69,…

News that the president will address a joint session of Congress on September 9 brought to mind Fred Barnes's recent piece on Obama-as-salesman: Between July 20 and July 30, President Obama was a busy man, barely out of the public eye while campaigning furiously for his health care initiative. He…

Organized labor has all but given up on what was once its top priority. No, I'm not referring to card check. It's section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act that's no longer being targeted by the AFL-CIO. If that provision sounds arcane, it's not. It allows states to enact right-to-work laws that are…

Update: Ante, upped. He'll be addressing a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9. So, he'll be doing the same thing he's been doing, but in a very serious venue. I wonder if the joint session will be assigned as homework watching during the president's speech to schoolkids on Sept. 8. You don't say.…

Jonathan Cohn has a piece in the new issue of TNR that makes a rather serious allegation. Specifically, Cohn accuses PhRMA (the drug industry group that happened to buy the ad space on the back page of TNR this week) of extortion: It's the kind of quid pro quo that generally raises eyebrows, as…

In the middle of an article on an apparent (though also superficial and largely irrelevant) GOP split, Thomas B. Edsall writes that immigration is "an issue likely to be taken up by Congress next year." I have my doubts, since it's unlikely that House members, in an election year, will be eager to…

Via the AEI blog, the Journal runs a piece by Richard Fisher looking at China's efforts to acquire a fifth-generation fighter. As Fisher points out, the F-22 was killed by the Obama administration on the grounds that, per Secretary Gates, by 2020 "nearly 1,100 [combat aircraft in the U.S. Air…

When it comes to putting your foot in your mouth, few exceed the skill and frequency of Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Minister. While saying Pakistan is "not obliged" to arrest Hafiz Saeed, a known terrorist that leads the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is banned by Paksitan and was designated a…

Don't say you weren't warned. When Obama appears simultaneously in every class room around the country to tell students about...what? The smears and lies his opponents are spreading about health care reform? The right-wing mob that's trying to destroy his presidency? The illegal Israeli settlements…

The Chicago Tribune reports: With little fanfare, a deal is moving forward to direct billions in U.S. tax dollars to an unlikely beneficiary -- the giant British liquor producer that makes Captain Morgan rum. Under the agreement, London-based Diageo PLC will receive tax credits and other benefits…

In late August, the Obama administration transferred two Syrian detainees from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Portugal. Judging by the few press accounts about the transfer, no one seems to have batted an eyelash at the decision. That is curious because at least one of the two, Moammar…

When swimming pools opened around Memorial Day, according to the Gallup daily track, President Obama's approval rating stood at 64 percent. Now, as we approach Labor Day and the lifeguards get ready to go off to college, Obama's approval in the Gallup track is 52 percent. Meanwhile, while Congress…

Well, this should have made for some interesting dinner conversation. Atlanta imam Plemon El-Amin, who's on the guest list for last night's Ramadan dinner at the White House, once compared U.S.-led raids on mosques held by insurgents in Iraq to white supremacist attacks on African-American churches…

Republicans point to a deep contradiction remarks by DHS chief Janet Napolitano this morning: This morning on the Today Show, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, was asked about the decision of Attorney General Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to re-investigate certain matters…

Ben Smith quotes from a release put out by Archdiocese of Washington backing a ballot initiative that would let the District's resident's have a say on the question of gay marriage: "A ballot initiative will give voters in the District of Columbia a voice on this critical issue. Earlier this year,…

Dr. House is just the latest villain to fight Obama's health care reforms. Will passing a health bill no one likes save Democratic majorities? Organizing for America removed its "fight domestic right-wing terrorists on 9/11" call to action, but it's been saved from the memory hole. Obama will not…

The Second Amendment Foundation, along with several individual plaintiffs, has filed a lawsuit challenging the District of Columbia's ban on carrying handguns in public. The Supreme Court struck down D.C.'s total ban on guns last year in District of Columbia v. Heller, affirming that the Second…

Rasmussen shows Obama's approval rating at 45 percent, and congressional Democrats polling poorly as well. Ramesh Ponnuru on Bob McDonnell's thesis. Harry Reid: Ted Kennedy's death is "going to help us" pass Obamacare. Schumer says the U.S. should enact sanctions against Britain if Scotland freed…

It's shameful. An ad by the World Wildlife Fund that tries to turn 9/11 into...something that has to do with animals -- and not the animals who flew those planes into the World Trade Center. The text on the ad reads, "The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally…

The Sunlight Foundation has a good video on YouTube encouraging people to read the health-care bill: Both Democratic and Republican members of Congress have admitted that they haven't read the health-care bill(s). Press Secretary Robert Gibbs won't say if President Obama will read health-care…

Obama National Security Adviser James Jones has an idiosyncratic view of what constitutes a successful defense against a foe with blood on his mind. In an interview with ABC yesterday, General Jones disputed Dick Cheney's charge that we are at vastly greater risk because of actions taken by the…

From the New York Times Opinionator Blog's write-up of reaction on the web to news that the lovely and talented Jenna Bush will be working as an occasional correspondent for the Today Show: Kind of amazing that you run all these comments about Jenna Bush, but none of the[m] squawk about the 4th and…

Ivan's making a list and checking it twice: August 30, 2009: Russia is naming the fourth of its Borei class SSBN (ballistic missile carrying nuclear submarines) Syvatitel Nikolay (Saint Nicholas). That's the same Saint Nicholas who serves as the model for Santa Claus in the West. In Russia, Saint…

George Will echoes the concerns of many on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. There's no doubt that killing a dedicated insurgency is frustrating, indeed dislodging an indigenous enemy force from the local population could be the trickiest maneuver in warfare. But winning there, in the…

If Barack Obama needs a diagnosis for his agenda's decline, it's in this lede, improbably dated "Sept. 1, 2009:" Next week, President Obama is going to give Democrats a health care plan they can begin to sell. The Obama plan, which Democrats can "begin to sell" after six months of selling the…

From a not-to-be-missed takedown of Richard Cohen by Jennifer Rubin at Contentions today: This is roughly the state of the argument now: the Left can't claim with much (if any) credibility that we will get anything of value with the Obama interrogation rules or that the pre-Obama interrogation…

As President Obama's September deadline for Iran to conduct negotiations on its nuclear program approaches, Iran's nuclear chief indicated that his country is ready for a new round of talks. While Iran's signal must be welcome for the administration, the Economist explains that the Iranian…

An open letter to the president in the Claremont Review of Books summer issue from political philosopher Harry Jaffa: President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Sir: In your Cairo speech [June 4, 2009] you referred to the West Bank as "occupied" by…

Boeing announces a successful test of the Advanced Tactical Laser: he Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and the U.S. Air Force on Aug. 30 defeated a ground target from the air with the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) aircraft, demonstrating ATL's first air-to-ground, high-power laser engagement of a…

Bush-era Krugman vs. Obama-era Krugman on deficits and spending. Is there a bail-out for drug dealers? Is the government really seeing profits on bank bail-out money? Classy: An Organizing for America event proposes Sept. 11 as a day for fighting "our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are…

The release from the number two Dem in the House: "As Congress considers legislation to provide greater health care stability for all Americans, I believe that an open and thorough discussion, including the experiences and views of my constituents, is critical," stated Rep. Hoyer. "Health care has…

David Brooks warns the president: Obama's challenge was to push his agenda through a Democratic-controlled government while retaining the affection of the 39 percent of Americans in the middle. The administration hasn't been able to pull it off. From the stimulus to health care, it has joined…

The House Republican Conference is out with a new document today on the deal between the White House and drug industry group PhRMA announced in June. Though the terms of the deal remain murky, the lobbying association agreed to cut millions in drug costs for seniors in exchange for ... well, a…

A new survey from Quinnipiac: Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine is losing the battle of the attack ads in his campaign for reelection and now trails Republican challenger Christopher Christie 47 - 37 percent among likely voters, with 9 percent for independent candidate Christopher Daggett,…

Forget health care, the Iraq war, and economic stimulus -- "the big issue of [the] 2008 [election] was voter registration." So says Doug Chapin, the director of election initiatives for the PEW Center on the States, which yesterday hosted a meeting introducing the new 13-person Committee to…

The boss writes at the Washington Post's Post Partisan blog: George Will is dismayed by American casualties in Afghanistan, unhappy about the length of our effort there, dismissive of the contributions of our NATO allies, contemptuous of the Afghan central government, and struck by the country's…

In his latest column, George Will says that we should be "rapidly reversing the trajectory of America's involvement in Afghanistan". Be sure to check out a few smart responses to Will's piece by Rich Lowry, Peter Wehner, Fred Kagan, and Jules Crittenden.

The Obama administration has been trying out a new policy toward Syria since the day it came to office. The Bush cold shoulder was viewed as a primitive reaction, now to be replaced by sophisticated diplomacy. Outreach would substitute for isolation. Thus there have been six visits to Damascus by…

President Obama may think of himself as a Robin Hood of sorts--taking from the rich, giving to the poor. But what happens when a privileged constituency of the Obama administration--organized labor--forces President Obama to choose some working Americans' jobs over others and break campaign…

The invasion of Kosovo by Islamist radicals, including assaults on moderate Muslims (see here, here, and here) now includes threats of a "religious war" against Albanian Christians, some of whom have left Islam for the Catholic faith of their ancestors.

Forget health care, the Iraq war, and economic stimulus -- "the big issue of [the] 2008 [election] was voter registration." So says Doug Chapin, the director of election initiatives for the PEW Center on the States, which today hosted a meeting introducing the new 13-person Committee to Modernize…