October 2009

The McChrystal review was done by August 1st. It is now the end of October. According to today's Washington Post ("Obama seeking options on forces; President looks to send fewer additional troops"), we'll get a decision by the end of November. That's four months. And it's evident that the review at…

As 60 Minutes reported last week, Medicare fraud is rampant and has now replaced the cocaine (ahem) business as the major criminal activity in South Florida. Both 60 Minutes and the Washington Post report that Medicare fraud now costs American taxpayers roughly $60 billion a year. That may sound…

Over at the Corner, Marc Thiessen points out that recently released excerpts of the CIA's Inspector General Report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program further undermine former FBI agent Ali Soufan's story. Soufan, you will recall, is the former FBI agent who claims that the enhanced…

This week saw several prominent columnists add their two cents to the debate about whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan. Some had useful insights based on recent trips to Afghanistan, not necessarily all supportive of General McChrystal's entire request for 40,000 additional troops, but…

The NRCC won't need to pull any of its ads off the air in the NY-23 race because both of its spots are attacks on Democrat Bill Owens. While Politico reported last Sunday that the NRCC would spend $200,000 to $300,000 on ads during the final 10 days of the race that would "focus on Owens and…

Steve Hayes wrote this morning that, as high-risk people such as pregnant-mothers and young children are unable to get Swine Flue vaccinations, the Obama administration has decided to give the scarce shots to the detainees housed at Gitmo. The AP reported last night that 114 children have died from…

TEXT HAMSHER: Well, as you say, there are people who do have influence over Joe Lieberman. Joe has his committee chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, that's his power base in the Senate. He's a very vain man and were that to be stripped from him, he would be like Rumpelstiltskin putting…

A statement from John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Pete Sessions: "As the House stands on the cusp of the forthcoming vote on a trillion-dollar healthcare reform measure, it is vital that we unify behind a candidate that will support reining in massive government spending and work with Republicans in…

The Democratic firm Public Policy Polling was in the middle of conducting a poll on the NY-23 race when Scozzafava dropped out. It showed conservative Doug Hoffman beating Democrat Bill Owens by 19 points--but it didn't yet have a full sample. PPP writes on Twitter: With about 200 interviews down…

Political operative linked to Crist, Fla. GOP admits helping create anonymous anti-Rubio site By MICHAEL C. BENDER Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau TALLAHASSEE - An anonymous Web site aimed at embarrassing Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's political rival appears to have backfired after one of Crist's…

As a new Siena Poll released this morning showed Democrat Bill Owens (36 percent) and conservative Doug Hoffman (35 percent) neck and neck--and liberal Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava at 20 percent--Scozzafava withdrew from the race. Josh Kraushaar has the statement: Dear Friends and…

See if you can tell what's missing from this Associated Press story about the release of an FBI overview of a Dick Cheney interview during the CIA leak case. There are obvious mistakes -- the reporter repeats the myth that Joe Wilson cast doubt on CIA reports about Iraq-Niger uranium claims when he…

Last week, President Obama declared a national emergency because of the H1N1 virus. What had been a matter of concern, was elevated, in the minds of many, to something that is cause for panic. Citizens across the country have spent hours trying to schedule an appointment for a vaccination. Others…

There's a profile of the Obama marriage by Jodi Kantor coming out in this Sunday's NYT Magazine which, while I can't recommend it due to the incredibly high stultification factor of its subject and prose, I did find compelling on account of a) its confirming what I have thought about the two of…

Steve Hayes and Andrew Hayes correct the record on Brett Favre. Bibi shouldn't take it personally, Ben-Ami thinks his own father is a terrorist." What he meant to say. Former Secretary of State George Shultz on communicating with Iran: People say we didn't communicate with Iran, but we did. When…

Since the 19th century, there have been calls for America to adopt a parliamentary form of government -- you know, like Britain or Canada. Woodrow Wilson, in his days as an academic, favored this. More recently, liberal intellectuals and activists have recommended we move to a parliamentary system.…

The "kings" and "princes" of sand and oil who rule Saudi Arabia may have signed on to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1997, but the daughters of their subjects-and no doubt some of their own, as well-still live under the sick tyranny of shariah-interpreting that endorses the…

For two months now, the Obama administration has been weighing the heavy decision to send more U.S. troops to help fight and win the war in Afghanistan. Sending American men and women into battle is one of the most difficult and important choices a commander-in-chief can ever make, so it is right…

The White House's stimulus program is a joke. Indeed, the Obama administration would be better served if it handed out money on the side of the street, than it is by its current job creation program. Consider the current numbers: Reports to be released Friday on the government Web site Recovery.gov…

The Odds: This is a race that Hoffman "shouldn't" win; he's too conservative for his district. But sometimes, the "wrong" candidate does win, if he runs a superior campaign, motivates stronger turnout, or is the beneficiary of unusual circumstances, all of which apply here. I wouldn't call Hoffman…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained a document authored by Judge Richard Goldstone that is now being circulated on Capitol Hill. The document was written in response to HR 867 -- the resolution sponsored by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Howard Berman condemning Goldstone's report on Israeli war crimes in…

Rep. Grayson's self-importance will not be available for comment during the weekend: "No Grayson until Monday? Shut down the servers." Hot Mormon moms pose for calendar. (Hey, it's Friday.) NYT caught taking out a section of its story on Obama's Dover photo-op that indicated it was a photo-op. The…

George Pataki endorsed conservative Doug Hoffman last night. This is significant. The former New York governor is a moderate and part of the New York establishment. He won by big margins in the 23rd District when he ran for governor. A friend notes also that Pataki waited until after Hoffman…

The Obama administration's diplomatic efforts on North Korea have stalled, the peace process is going nowhere fast, and now the negotiations with Iran have collapsed entirely. The Telegraph reports on the Obama administration's now failed attempt to talk the Iranians out of their nuclear materials:…

So when do we think Margaret Carlson files her column for Bloomberg? In a column datelined yesterday, Carlson takes after Sarah Palin for meddling in the NY-23 race. Carlson writes, "Early October saw Scozzafava in the lead. She now trails Democrat Bill Owens. Hoffman is within a few points of…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported last week on a Congressional resolution sponsored by Reps. Howard Berman and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that would strongly condemn the Goldstone report and call "on the President and the Secretary of State to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of…

The bill that passed out of Dodd's committee yesterday was built on the legislation crafted by these three. For more background on how this went down in committee yesterday, see here. And with the Iranians thumbing their collective nose at Obama over the shipment of uranium to Russia, the timing of…

A new proposal from Medicare has been published in the Federal Registry and it provides a window on how medical care will be delivered in the future under a government-run system. Medicare is proposing to provide a fixed budget for the medical care of dialysis patients and the details of the plan…

Politico reports: The House Republican leadership is prepared to welcome Doug Hoffman into its ranks, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said Thursday, a sign that the GOP establishment is recalibrating its approach toward the contentious New York special…

Two Democrats, pro-life Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan and pro-choice Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, talked about abortion in the health care bill on Hardball with Chris Matthews tonight: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

From the FBI press release on last night's Dearborn, MI raid-turned-shootout that left radical Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, aka Christopher Thomas, dead: Abdullah was the leader of part of a group that calls themselves Ummah ("the brotherhood"), a group of mostly African-American converts to Islam,…

Earlier today the FinanceBanking Committee debated amendments to the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act of 2009, a piece of legislation that is built around the Bayh-Kyl-Lieberman Iran sanctions bill that has garnered some 76 cosponsors in the Senate. Dodd's bill, which…

A poll of 600 likely voters by Research2000 for the left-wing blog Daily Kos shows conservative Doug Hoffman and Democrat Bill Owens neck and neck while liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava is sinking like a stone. Allahpundit writes that the pollsters "did miss an opportunity, though, by failing to…

Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled the House Democrats' merged health-care bill today. It weighs in at 1,990 pages--you can read them all here. Tevi Troy has compiled a good list of who will be unhappy with the bill here. The bill purportedly costs just under $900 billion over ten years (though the…

The bill contains the word "shall" 3,425 times. But I'm sure all those are used to tell you how the government "shall" stay out of your health-care decisions, right? Pg. 1516 regulates vending machines: In the case of an article of food sold from a vending machine that ‘‘(I) does not permit a…

The Democratic National Committee makes the kind of stupid mistake we've come to expect from their Republican counterparts -- promoting an ad that features...the desecration of the American flag. Politico's Jonathan Allen reports: One of the 20 finalists in health care video contest run by Barack…

US News reports that J Street will allow it's university affiliates to drop the "pro-Israel" label and remain affiliated with the J Street organization: "The student groups don't need to say they are explicitly pro-Israel so long as their programming and outreach operate from the premise that the…

It appears that President Obama has ended up pretty much nowhere with the Chinese on climate change, despite making this the sine qua non of US-China relations over the past nine months. Yesterday, Todd Stern, the administration's climate change negotiations czar, tried to lower expectations about…

No kiddin': Politicians butt in at bailed-out GM Obama: Pelosi is the best Speaker ever. (No, really. He said it.) "Representative Grayson, I hear that your sister is a superior whore." Obama writes a letter to 330,000 voters in Virginia, to get the vote out. Pelosi unveils your $894 billion…

Yesterday the Republican Jewish Coalition was taunting its Democratic rival, the National Jewish Democratic Council, over the appointment of former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel to serve a co-chair of the President's National Intelligence Advisory Board. As the RJC was quick to point out after…

In his book Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, historian Rick Perlstein argues the seeds of today's polarized politics were sown during the 1960s and 1970s. He traces the fault lines of contemporary controversies such as marriage, abortion, the environment, the role…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to release the text of the Democratic health care proposal tomorrow, with the hope of bringing it to the floor as early as next Friday. Pelosi will claim that the Congressional Budget Office has scored the Democratic bill as deficit neutral over the next ten…

Josh Rogin reported today that former Senator Chuck Hagel will serve as co-chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. Hagel was also the keynote speaker at last night's J Street gala dinner. Naturally, Hagel is not a big supporter of Israel (this seems to be a theme among J Street…

From Jeff Flake, in response to questions about why he voted against a bill "honoring the 2560th anniversary of the birth of Confucius and recognizing his invaluable contributions to philosophy and social and political thought." "He who spends time passing trivial legislation may find himself out…

Mixed messages coming from NJ today. The first is a shock poll from Quinnipiac suddenly jumping Corzine to +5. This result looks a little suspect. Quinnipiac's last poll (whose survey period ended 8 days before this one's began) had Christie +1. That's an awfully big, awfully fast swing. Casting…

An interesting story from the Republican primary in Connecticut, where the front-runner has flip-flopped on the public option in the wake of Joementum's announcement that he would vote against cloture on any bill that has a public option like the one currently being pushed by embattled Senate…

Newt Gingrich continues to be Dede Scozzafava's most prominent and most vocal defender. Among the reasons to support her, Gingrich writes today, is that she "opposes the health care plan being pushed for by President Obama and Nancy Pelosi." That may be true, but the NRCC is unable to cite a single…

The annual Soldiers' Angels Project Valour-IT is on again! That means you can use three minutes of your day and your credit card to bring some serious help to a wounded veteran by clicking here: AF V-IT.png Project Valour-IT brings voice-activated laptops, Wii game systems, and GPS systems to…

Students explain how to write a cover letter that will get you that dream job working for Carlos Slim at the New York Times. The lesson seems to be, "if you bash Fox News, you might land an unpaid internship at Mother Jones."

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich continues to be Dede Scozzafava's most prominent and staunchest defender, but some points he makes in Scozzafava's defense don't withstand scrutiny.

The New York Times reports that President Obama plans to amalgamate General McChrystal's COIN strategy with General Biden's (snark) counter-terrorism strategy, focusing on protecting cities instead of villages and towns. President Obama's advisers are focusing on a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at…

The AP reports: Former Vice-President Dick Cheney will throw his support behind U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign for governor. The Hutchison campaign confirmed Wednesday that Cheney will endorse the Texas Republican's March primary challenge of Gov. Rick Perry at a fundraiser next month.…

A good little hit from the Senate Republican Conference:

You likely won't see this poll result elsewhere, so I thought I'd highlight it here. This is a Pew Political IQ test conducted over the phone with 1,002 adults from Oct. 1-4. They were asked 12 questions, and answered an average of 5.3 questions correctly, according to Pew. But here's the part you…

My favorite columnist, TMQ's Gregg Easterbrook, writes about health care reform in this week's column. Check it out! Here's a sample: I don't really understand what's in the congressional health care plan at the moment -- and since it changes daily, I bet most members of the House and Senate don't…

They're spinning this as an "in the off chance sanctions don't work..." contingency plan, but it sounds like an administration succumbing to its own impotence: The Obama administration is quietly laying the groundwork for long-range strategy that could be used to contain a nuclear-equipped Iran and…

This was bound to happen, as most American wars have experienced their share of mid to high level defections. This time around, State loses a talented FSO who was serving in one of the toughest regions in Afghanistan. A former Marine who fought in Iraq, joined the State Department after leaving the…

John Steele Gordon destroys the National Endowment of the Arts head: one sentence of one speech, five errors. Video: Hoffman attacked from both sides. Uh-oh, feminist writers pile on Obama's boys' club: Obama Not Comfortable With Women in Basketball, Golf ... or Anywhere Else What if Bush did it?…

As most of the world has come to know, Saudi Arabia has many unique characteristics. These are not mere tourist attractions associated with date palms and camels. Rather, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world named after its "owners," the Al-Saud family. It is the only country in the world…

The incomparable and irrepressible Edward N. Luttwak has a short article in the November/December issue of Foreign Policy called "Take Me Back to Constantinople: How Byzantium, not Rome, can help preserve Pax Americana." Still one of America's leading strategic minds, Luttwak literally wrote the…

Be on guard for the day when this anecdote falsely attributed to Antonin Scalia becomes lefty "fake but accurate" conventional wisdom about the Supreme Court justice: Earlier today, an Arizona newspaper, the East Valley Tribune, attributed remarks to Justice Scalia that were quite stunning: Using…

In the tradition of Walter Duranty, Herbert Matthews, and Joe Klein, Steve Clemons interviews the mass-murderer Khaled Meshaal. One hard-hitting question from Clemons: "[Are you] a Palestinian patriot or a Muslim patriot?" See it to believe it ...

Obama national security adviser Jim Jones spoke today to the assorted Zionists, anti-Zionists, and social justice advocates who had assembled for J Street's inaugural conference. Genuine supporters of Israel would find little to object to in Jones's speech. There are two possible explanations for…

LIeberman: Mr. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with the Democrats, told reporters Tuesday that he would vote in favor of a procedural motion allowing debate of the bill. But he said that, unless the bill changes substantially, he would vote with Senate Republicans against a motion…

Alert to the New York Times, NPR, and other enlightened folk: The GOP's anti-intellectualism has reached new heights -- or new depths! Take a look at today's press release from House Republican leader John Boehner. It mocks the House's lax work schedule, and chides the Democrats for wasting…

He's the man the Washington Post calls a "Harvard graduate with a soft voice." Now, from the man who brought you "Republicans want people to die quickly" and the health-care system as "holocaust in America," comes this temperate exchange about Federal Reserve employee Linda Robertson: "This…

Is he the greatest senator ever? He fought for victory in Iraq, he's fighting for victory in Afghanistan, and he's fighting to save us all from Obamacare. Who needs Olympia Snowe when you've got Joementum?

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that veteran and widely-respected Rep. Tom Cole (R, Okla.), former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and a member of the GOP Steering Committee and a Deputy GOP House Whip, will be endorsing Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 race. This is…

Today is the first anniversary of the death of our friend and colleague Dean Barnett. We loved him, and we miss him. But we are inspired by his memory-by his strength of character, his extraordinary courage, his gift for friendship, and his zest for life. Here's a link to what we wrote about Dean a…

Focus group alert: Pelosi picks new name for deceiving voters about the "public option." Yep, this "taxing the rich for everything" scheme is gonna work great. What do they say about a gaffe? It's when a politician accidentally speaks the truth. "Treasury Department's failure to implement…

When the news broke that President Obama was not going to meet with the Dalai Lama during his recent visit to Washington -- ending a practice that has spanned the past two decades and three previous presidents of both parties -- some China hands and Obama sycophants applauded the decision as a…

I suspected J Street wasn't pro-Israel in any meaningful sense of the term, and the conference seemed to confirm my suspicions, but never did I imagine that J Street would drop the pretense on the final day of their conference: J Street's university arm has dropped the "pro-Israel" part of the…

After noting the new Gallup poll showing conservative self-ID at a high-water mark, the boss writes in the Washington Post: The implications of this for the Republican Party over the remaining three years of the Obama presidency are clear: The GOP is going to be pretty unapologetically…

The Playbook reports: Vice President BIDEN today 'will travel to Wilmington, Delaware. Vice President Biden will be joined by Governor Jack Markell and other Delaware officials to make a major announcement about the future of the former General Motors Boxwood Plant.' An administration official:…

President Obama isn't taking kindly to a television ad that criticizes his opposition to a popular scholarship program for poor children, and his administration wants the ad pulled.

The extra imaging study, the extra day in hospital at the end of an admission, the repetitive laboratory testing, the admission to the hospital to be "sure" about the diagnosis are all inherent in the culture of American medical care. The avoidance of litigation has become ingrained into all…

On October 18, Rahm Emanuel said on CNN that, with respect to the war in Afghanistan, "there's a set of questions that have to have answers that have never been asked. And it's clear after eight years of war, that's basically starting from the beginning, and those questions never got asked."…

The "independent" blogger panel at J Street's conference can only be described as clownish. The panel consisted mostly of crackpots and self-described anti-Zionists and "one-staters" (J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami calls the one-state solution a "nightmare," but it seems to be the dream of many…

New Washington Post poll: McDonnell beating Deeds 55 to 44 percent. Ross Douthat on Pope Benedict's attempt to reconcile the Anglicans with Rome. Reihan Salam argues Charlie Crist is the worst governor in America. Paul Bedard takes a look at The Persecution of Sarah Palin. Tim Pawlenty endorses…

I made my way over to the J Street conference today to see for myself just how "pro-peace, pro-Israel" the organization really is, and there can be no doubt, J Street is pro-peace. But while the leadership of J Street may be pro-Israel, the conference they've organized was at times openly…

Politico reports: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will announce this afternoon that he plans to push ahead with a public option vote - most likely one that includes an opt-out provision for states - even though he's currently short several votes for passage, according to people close to the…

CNN notes Senator Carl Levin doesn't quite acknowledge his flip-flop on the Iraq surge: KING: Having a good staff and a good library comes in handy when a politician says something now that doesn't match up with what they said back then. You remember the big political debate over President Bush…

A former State Department official who is a completely reliable source on the subject tells me that when you were in apartheid South Africa in the 1980s seeking out human rights activists, Helen Suzman was the person you went to see; the name Richard Goldstone was never uttered. So it's not exactly…

NRCC chairman Pete Sessions refused to comment on the NY-23 special election for my piece in the magazine this week, but a top NRCC official has stepped forward to defend Scozzafava in an interview with Politico, which reported yesterday that the NRCC will spend $200,000 to $300,000 on "TV ads…

A president who's more sports-obsessed, a bigger work-out fanatic, and more addicted to golf than Bush. But the media's not complaining. Odd. Ouch: "Congressman Kennedy continues to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church and to the citizens of the state of Rhode Island." Samuelson: "In reality,…

A young eastern European girl survives the Holocaust, but she has lost all. First, perhaps, like so many countless others, her father is shot in the street before her eyes among scores of men rounded up in the ghetto in which her family has been living in starvation and rising terror; next,…

A Rush to Slander

Democrats see the job market and have to concede that what they have wrought isn't good. Unemployment has risen to almost 10 percent despite the huge stimulus bill enacted last winter (and the smaller bipartisan stimulus of early 2008). Democratic leaders are slowly discovering that the economy…

An Education

Fires of Faith

Hammer and Tickle

In 1934, a small band of veterans of the First World War gathered at Sunrise Rock, an outcropping of stone in the Mojave Desert. There they raised a modest, handmade white, wooden cross, about five-feet high. At the foot of the cross they placed a plaque that read, "The Cross, Erected in Memory of…

Since taking office, President Obama has consistently asserted that one of his foremost priorities is to transform America's energy landscape and move us away from high levels of carbon emissions and imported energy toward clean energy and less foreign dependence.

In early 2008, a week after his defeat in the New Hampshire primary, Barack Obama sat down with the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle. "The problem is," Obama said about global warming, "can you get the American people to say this is really important and force their representatives to…

The Age of Reagan

"As is" was the description attached to the garage when my wife Cynthia and I bought this fixer-upper a couple of years ago. The house itself was habitable, more or less, but the garage was four slanting walls and a roof with holes, some big enough to pass a basketball through. Our insurance…

Eloquence and Reason

Three times in the past several weeks, fortune has seemed to beam on conservatives, in unexpected and unprompted ways. Not that they've won much, but their tormentors keep losing. Three days in fall 2009 damaged or neutralized three liberal institutions, whose powers have now been curtailed.

On July 30 of this year, a regional office of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) notified Belmont Abbey College, a small Catholic institution not far from Charlotte, N.C., that its policy of not covering contraception in its employee health insurance plan violated Title VII…

In heartrending news for fans of half-baked information everywhere, the top guns at Wikipedia have announced that they will no longer allow the Great Unwashed to go online and add or delete material from Wikipedia entries. From now on, any changes will have to be approved by an editorial review…

Speaking publicly about the role of Iran in Afghanistan--which is substantial, and about which we have considerable information--seems to be taboo for our current leaders. This is neither new nor surprising. Iranians, and Iranian-trained terrorists from organizations such as Hezbollah, have been…

Ft. McMurray, Alberta

Needless to say, if you're going to watch only one Sunday talk show, you should watch Fox News Sunday. But, as a fair and balanced kind of guy, I have to admit there are occasional moments of insight on the others. Today, sometime TWS contributor Dan Senor appeared on the Meet the Press roundtable,…

During a trip to Germany and the Czech Republic earlier this month, I was surprised to find that many of the Europeans I spoke to seemed more cognizant than the Obama administration of how important it was to commit the resources necessary to win in Afghanistan. This has not always been the case.…

In the end, the public and political outrage was simply too big to ignore. Tens of thousands of French citizens used emails, call-in radio shows, letters to the editor, and online petitions to express their profound anger and disappointment at President Nicolas Sarkozy's attempt to have his…

If you want to see just how little credence Vice President Joe Biden's plan for Afghanistan has inside military circles, look no further than this paragraph from an article written by Peter Spiegel and Yochi Dreazen for the Wall Street Journal: People familiar with the internal debates say Mr.…

In the new issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Stephen F. Hayes debunks two Obama administration talking point on Afghanistan: "First, that the Bush administration had no real Afghanistan policy and failed for eight years to ask the important questions about the war there. And second, that the Bush…

Kyle and Joseph Nevins, respectively the brother and father of a Marine serving in Afghanistan, write on the homepage: As family members of a Marine deployed in Afghanistan, we know the importance of timely decisions in the heat of battle--indecision in the field puts troops at risk and leads to…

"Dollar murdered. Drowned in red ink. Clues point to the White House." So might a tabloid headline read as the angry mourners gathered to affix blame for the end of the era in which the dollar served as the currency in which the world does business -- its reserve currency, to use the economists'…

As family members of a Marine deployed in Afghanistan, we know the importance of timely decisions in the heat of battle--indecision in the field puts troops at risk and leads to casualties. Likewise, the president's indecision about the next steps in Afghanistan is placing the overall mission and…

An authoritative source informs THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the Democratic Senator from North Carolina, Kay Hagan, has asked J Street to remove her name from the host committee for its inaugural Israel-bashing conference this weekend featuring anti-Semite Salam "Zionism is Nazism" Al-Maryati. This is…

In the course of an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg this morning, J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami says that his organization is "refusing to embrace the Goldstone report." Is that the same as condemning the report? No, it's not. J Street has released two statements on Goldstone and neither one…

Yesterday Andrew Sullivan defended Human Rights Watch from a growing chorus of critics including HRW's founder, who took to the op-ed page of the New York Times this week to castigate the organization for its obsession with Israel at the expense of real human rights abusers in the Middle East like…

National Journal reports: A handful of centrist senators from both parties met this morning to discuss withholding their votes to send a healthcare overhaul bill to the floor if it includes provisions they disagree with, such as a public option. Their concerns might undermine Democratic leaders'…

The START treaty has provisions that ban the development of new ICBMs that carry multiple reentry systems (read: nukes). For years now, Russia has bent that provision by modifying their Topol-M ICBM into the newer RS-24 system, a road-mobile ICBM with a whopping ten bombs per missile. Once START…

It comes from today's classic Krauthammer column on the White House's war on Fox: Defend Fox from the likes of Anita Dunn? She's been attacked for extolling Mao's political philosophy in a speech at a high school graduation. But the critics miss the surpassing stupidity of her larger point: She was…

wiesel.jpg Elie Wiesel chooses CUFI.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD just received a statement from Sarah Palin endorsing conservative Doug Hoffman for Congress: The people of the 23rd Congressional District of New York are ready to shake things up, and Doug Hoffman is coming on strong as Election Day approaches! He needs our help now. The votes…

The White House sent out an alert today to the press pool that "Pay Czar" Kenneth Feinberg would be doing a press availability- a round robin with the major news networks, in which Fox is customarily included. The administration specified that everyone was invited except Fox News, according to Bret…

A surprisingly strong editorial on Afghanistan from USA Today. Rogin says the American embassy in Baghdad is a disaster -- and he's not even reporting on Chris Hill. Rubio's making a move. Pelosi says it's "undignified" for Cheney to 'call 'em out' -- but a sitting president... Paging Scozzfava…

Cheney's speech last night on Afghanistan was sublime, laying out the simple realities of a war that we must win. My favorite from the Cheney archives, however, is his 2008 missile defense speech to the Heritage foundation, where he calmly and deliberately laid out the strong case for a robust…

Another speaker on J Street's "independent" blogger panel rises to the defend his copanelist Helena Cobban, whose advocacy on behalf of Hamas and disdain for Israel was detailed here earlier today: Another strike against Cobban, making her deserving of expulsion from our session, is that she…

The anti-Israel poetry slam is back on: WE WILL NOT BE SILENT: POETRY ON PALESTINE AND ISRAEL with Kevin Coval and Josh Healey Sunday, October 25 4:00-5:30pm Busboys and Poets, Langston Room 2021 14th St, NW (near U Street Metro station) Washington, DC This past week, Kevin Coval and Josh Healey…

Rahm Emanuel, October 18, 2009: What will the Afghan government do or not do? Where are we on the police training? Who would be better doing the police training? Could that be something the Europeans do? Should we take the military's side? Those are questions that have not been asked. And before…

Tyler Cowen has a wonderful piece in the Wilson Quarterly on what the Web means for culture. An excerpt: The arrival of virtually every new cultural medium has been greeted with the charge that it truncates attention spans and represents the beginning of cultural collapse-the novel (in the 18th…

This is a simple post with a simple request for Michelle Obama. The First Lady said yesterday, during a kids' health fair at the White House: "My mother would tell us, 'dessert is not a right. It's a treat.'" To which I say: Extrapolate, please. I'll also add that I think it's pretty cool that the…

If what the White House and Obama supporters have been saying for two years is true, the weighty decision on Afghanistan's troop strength is one that Obama shouldn't have to make. From airy speeches in Berlin, to campaign rallies boasting that The One would renew "tattered" alliances abroad, to…

Common sense dictates that if you have a nuclear deterrent, you need to verify that it works. If your enemies suspect that it doesn't (or won't) work, deterrence fails and nuclear war evolves from a distant threat to a frightening possibility. The United States hasn't tested a nuclear device since…

This Tuesday, Turkish state-owned TRT channel aired the second episode of "Ayrilik" ("Farewell"), a highly controversial prime-time TV series set against the backdrop of "Operation Cast Lead" in the Gaza strip that shows Israeli soldiers shooting a smiling young girl in the chest, killing babies,…

And by consensus, I mean a consensus among the American people: There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising. And fewer also see global warming as a very serious problem - 35% say that today,…

The fall-out from President-mandated pay cuts: "Chaos will be created at these firms as top people leave in droves. Will the administration then order people back to work?" Uh-oh. Obama suffers worst third-quarter drop in approval since 1953. B-b-b-but, didn't anyone see that awesome speech he gave…

Every October, the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) holds its annual convention in Washington, DC, at which the Army's leadership outlines its plans and vision for the Army, and the Army's suppliers of everything from tanks and artillery to boots and beer nuts put their latest wares on…

When J Street canceled a scheduled poetry slam at their inaugural conference, J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami told Politico's Ben Smith that "as J Street is critical of the use and abuse of Holocaust imagery and metaphors by politicians and pundits on the right, it would be inappropriate for us to…

Steve Clemons is very excited that Kadima Party chief Tzipi Livni has sent "a knock-the-ball-out-of-the-park...letter of affirmation to J Street, recognizing potential differences but affiriming a shared strategic vision for the best interests of Israel." No doubt this is a momentous occasion in…

Several decades after its founding as the Western Hemisphere's premier democratic forum, the Organization of American States (OAS) is in danger of becoming irrelevant. As a former Latin America diplomat, I say this with great regret. The OAS should be a powerful vehicle for defending democracy and…

Democrats face a growing political crisis with federal spending and debt, a self-inflicted quandary they created in some obvious and non-obvious ways.

John Kyl says we need to test our nukes. Donnelly goes on counter-attackerman. Another former detainee killed in a shootout. Marty Peretz goes to town on HRW and J Street. Ludacris at the National Press Club? Just say no to blasphemy laws. Momentum in the Virginia race going all in one direction.…

JTA's Washington bureau chief has become the latest name to disappear from the J Street program in advance of next week's conference. Kampeas was to moderate a panel titled "What does it mean to be pro-Israel?" When I called Kampeas for comment, he referred me to JTA editor in chief Ami Eden. Eden…

Dick Cheney that is, who will be speaking at the Center for Security Policy tonight. The speech is a real humdinger. Check back here at 6 for the full text of the former vice president's remarks. Update: Highlights from the Cheney speech... Most anyone who is given responsibility in matters of…

Even the Washington Post is not on board with the Senate's latest efforts to pass ObamaCare: Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) now says that "we need to fix the Medicare doctors' payments first, outside of health reform" -- thereby allowing $247 billion in new deficit spending to be…

Kentucky Republican Rep. Geoff Davis had not signed on to J Street's host committee for their conference kicking off later this week, but he was, as of yesterday, listed as a participant in a panel discussion titled "View from the Hill: Congress and the U.S.-Israel Relationship." You can see the…

Look how serious the UN is about the threat from terrorism: A report by U.N. Special Rapporteur Martin Scheinin that is awaiting approval by the United Nations General Assembly says that security measures taken to detect terrorists "risk unduly penalizing transgender persons whose personal…

Both Goldfarb and I have offered a collective head scratch over the Obama administration's decision to cut the valuable F-22 Raptor while pouring trillions into economic black holes. Lockheed's F-22 program was a nexus for tens of thousands of defense manufacturing jobs, the preservation of which…

If, as Obama has said, he accepts the (formerly? arguably?) prestigious Nobel Peace Prize on the international stage on behalf of "American values" and "leadership," is he not violating a central part of his world view and plan for global betterment, as expressed in his speech at the UN in…

Kevin Coval and Josh Healey, the two poets cut from the J Street conference for what J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami described as "the use and abuse of Holocaust imagery and metaphors," put out a statement: When he called My jaw dropped, my eyes welled and I found my pen. Welcome to the new…

Gov. Paterson deals with the tough choices the federal government doesn't ever make: "I promise I will put (the soda tax) back in my budget address and give the Legislature another chance to do it," Paterson said during an interview on WNYC. "But you can't keep voting down the ways to create…

Another congressman has pulled his name from J Street's host committee -- Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-CA). Bilbray's office called THE WEEKLY STANDARD last night to say they were dropping their support for the event, bringing the total number of congressmen to bail to a dozen even. I've spoken with…

The Scozzafava campaign has retracted spokesman Matt Burns' earlier accusation that WEEKLY STANDARD reporter John McCormack "screamed questions (in-your-face-style)" at NY-23 Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava. The raucous behavior the campaign claimed prompted them to call the police on…

Senator Lamar Alexander is set to deliver the following remarks on the floor of the Senate in just a few minutes, pleading with the president to take a less adversarial approach in his dealings with Congress, the media, and American industry and banks. "As any veteran of the Nixon White House can…

"At Yale, if we stand for anything, we stand for the free expression of ideas."

Pakistani Taliban in the crosshairs. The problem with half-measures in Afghanistan. The long road to indecision on Afghanistan. Lenny Ben-David has some questions for Jeremy Ben-Ami. Is Ron Kampeas saying J Street is an obstacle to peace?

It has been a rough couple of months for Human Rights Watch. The organization's reputation has taken so many hits of late- all of its own making-that its founder Bob Bernstein has taken to the pages of the New York Times to voice his serious concern. I must do something that I never anticipated: I…

Regarding the large number of senators and representatives who seem to have ended up on J Street's host committee without their knowledge (a not insignificant portion of the dozen or so who have now pulled their names off the list), the group's spokesmen have offered a fairly consistent defense. We…

Cable guy Josh Rogin quoted J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami last week on the controversy surrounding the group's inaugural conference that kicks off next week: "We are at the center of debate and controversy after only 18 months, and this is a real impact and a success," he said, adding, "We are…

Staggering, yet obvious admission from the Grey Lady -- the use of force is the only effective form of diplomacy in the Middle East. The payoff from the use of force in the struggle between Israel and the Palestinians is evident. It was only after the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s…

AP090122023634.jpg The White House battle with Fox News, which Fox's direct competitors have already been forced to cover, has now become a press pool question, via another competitor-ABC. Helen Thomas, the New York Times and The Nation have all declared the fight a dumb one. But the administration…

Sarah Palin will begin her book tour with an appearance on the O-Lady's show. A book about the collision between Palin and the media that I happen to like will be out by then, incidentally. Hat Tip: The Page.

Donald B. Marron writes: "If Congress enacts a $245 billion doctor fix without paying for it, why should anyone believe it would ultimately allow the payment cuts and tax increases included in the health bills?" That's just a taste of Marron's excellent blog entry on the "Medicare Doctor Fix" over…

The Israeli ambassador has turned down an invitation to speak at J Street's anti-Israel conference because of -- well, "concerns over certain policies of the organization that may impair the interests of Israel." In other words, Oren isn't at all convinced that J Street is pro-Israel. And…

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea from Uighurs detained at Guantanamo who are challenging their detention and seeking the right to be released in the U.S. The chain of legal events is as follows. Last year, a federal appeals court determined that 17 Uighurs were not properly detained at…

A knotty question. I'd point to their continued support of the Iranian regime's nuclear program, their use of energy reserves to blackmail democratic Eastern Europe, their aggressive export of high-tech weapons to thuggish regimes, disconcerting upgrades to their nuclear forces, chest-thumping…

On June 3, Rachel Maddow said during her TV show that Rush Limbaugh is the "guy who says the assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. should get the Medal of Honor." On Saturday, Sunday, and again Monday, I emailed MSNBC spokespersons asking if Maddow had ever apologized and retracted the remark. (A…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has confirmed that North Carolina Republican Howard Coble has become the latest member of Congress to have his name pulled from the host committee for J Street's inaugural conference. Coble spokesman Ed McDonald said that when Coble was first asked whether he would add his name…

My colleague John McCormack called me last night, as I was watching the Phillies-Dodgers game, from his car in a parking lot in Lowville, N.Y. He had attended a Scozzafava campaign event, tried to ask the candidate a few questions -- and the Scozzafava campaign had called the police. John was…

No worries. You can finish reading the Baucus bill in just under a week, as long as you read for eight hours a day. Wah. Only 34 percent of Californians approve of Pelosi's job performance, which explains why the Cult of Competence presidency put her in charge of crafting his major legislation.…

Dalia Mogahed has enjoyed a varied career. Born in Egypt, she was brought to America as a child and climbed a fairly ordinary professional ladder. She earned a master's in business at the University of Pittsburgh and pursued success in corporate life. But she became an American Muslim celebrity…

Yesterday a source close to Secretary of Defense Gates told THE WEEKLY STANDARD that Gates didn't get so much as a heads up from Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel before Emanuel went on CNN to declare that "it would be reckless to make a decision on U.S. troop level if, in fact, you haven't done a…

Lowville, N.Y.

Why is J Street cancelling an anti-Israel poetry slam at their conference? Could it be White House pressure? According to a statement from J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami to Ben Smith, the poetry slam was cancelled because, as J Street is critical of the use and abuse of Holocaust imagery and…

Yesterday, in light of Rahm Emanuel's comments on delaying the decision on troops for Afghanistan, I asked: "Are Sunday talk show declarations by Emanuel and political advisor David Axelrod an appropriate way to announce the considered judgment of the president at this stage of a long Cabinet-level…

Jeffrey H. Anderson looks at the Census tables and comes up with a surprising figure: The Census is the source for the much-cited figure of 46 million uninsured. Yet the very same table plainly indicates that 9 million of those are not US citizens. That leaves 37 million uninsured who are…

Close on the heels of his shock over the resolution issuing from the Human Rights Council last week that ignores Hamas's cowardly barbarity and demands a referral to the International Court of Justice of a non-cooperative Israel, Richard Goldstone materializes in the pages of the Jerusalem Post to…

Ross Douthat's column in the New York Times, titled The Catastrophic Option, got right the purpose of insurance -- to protect people against bankrupting expenses. However his definition of a catastrophic plan as one that "would seek to insure Americans only against costs that exceed a certain…

Over the weekend, Sen. John Kerry provided some covering fire for President Obama's dithering about his strategy for Afghanistan, telling CBS News that: "I don't see how President Obama can make a decision about the committing of our additional forces or even the further fulfillment of our mission…

The most recent book on the senator's reading list? "Twilight." Despite the overdone campaign criticism of him as old and out-of-touch, McCain's late-night appearances and flair for comedy have always been far, far superior to supposedly hip Obama's.

A press release from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce trumpeting its sudden and surprising flip from opposing to backing climate legislation was too good to check for CNBC and Reuters today.

Last week we noted the appearance of "poet" Josh Healey on the list of speakers for J Street's conference next week. We also posted the video of Healey performing his poem "Queer Intifada," which declares that "Guantanamo is Auschwitz" and "Anne Frank is Matthew Shepard." Healey authored another…

AP060801020235.jpg Well, it's not the first time the Grande Liberal Dame of the press corps has had words for the Obama White House, but today Helen Thomas is voicing more unlikely sentiments by telling the White House attack dogs to heel in the Fox News fight. In an interview with MSNBC, the…

A Washington law firm has just issued a press release on its multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit against Turkey regarding domestic property issues in the northern third of Cyprus (aka Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, or TRNC), which Turkey seized by military force in 1974 and has…

Here's a sharp take on Obama's strange decision to hold off the troop decision until after Afghanistan's runoff election. A Marine Lt Col serving in Afghanistan writes: We have here a conundrum: sorting out the clear and fair winner of an election, according to the law, is of course the proper…

The Baucus bill sure does a lot of preserving the status quo we've been hearing has to go. Ross Douthat dreams of a catasrophic insurance option, instead of a government-run one. Sarah Palin gets....wonky? Believe it. The green-jobs "economy" in Spain costs shows America would stand to lose nine…

A Typical Nobel

George Will suggested last week that President Obama's self-referential speech on behalf of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics may lead to his being known as the "vain" president. Maybe, but worse things have been said about a president and probably will be if Obama declines to send substantially…

Manchester

The weathervanes of conventional wisdom are engaged in another round of angst about America in decline. New theories, old slogans: Imperial overstretch. The Asian awakening. The post-American world. Inexorable forces beyond our control bringing the inevitable humbling of the world hegemon.

Two months ago I had the distinct pleasure of witnessing the devaluation of print journalism. It was a weekend performance of Christopher Wheeldon's Morphoses at Central Park's Summerstage. I was caged in the press section, right of stage and on ground level. Robert Greskovic from the Wall Street…

Jytte Klausen's book on the Danish cartoon crisis of 2005-06 opens in an unusual way--with a hand-wringing preemptive apology from Yale University Press for not reprinting (despite its profession to be "an institution deeply committed to free expression") the 12 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad…

Who was David Galula?

I read that the moviemaker Ken Burns spent six years filming his new PBS documentary, which is roughly twice as long as it takes to sit through it. I started to watch it last week but lost interest pretty quickly and moved on to other things. For all I know it's still on. Every time I wander by the…

Galileo Goes to Jail

In The Jefferson Image in the American Mind (1960), Merrill Peterson of the University of Virginia patented a new kind of history--the history of a great reputation. Peterson traced the "image" of Jefferson as it evolved and showed that Jefferson had been a mirror in which each age saw itself…

Lived in London

Perhaps President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize will spur a sudden global outpouring of love and affection for the United States, but the American Political Science Association (APSA) thinks our image problem runs deeper: Its 20-member blue chip task force (minus two dissenters) has concluded that U.S.…

Democrats, liberals, and the mainstream media (but we repeat ourselves!) want to convince us that Montana senator Max Baucus's "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009" is a serious, moderate effort at health care "reform." It's not. It's a tax hike dressed in a lab coat.

President George H.W. Bush thought that after the victory in the Gulf war we had "kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all." How wrong he was.

The Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibet, was in Washington last week and President Obama did not meet him. "Big mistake," said my Eritrean taxi driver on the way over to hear the Dalai Lama speak at an awards ceremony at Sidney Harman Hall on Wednesday.

A Serious Man

"It would be reckless to make a decision on U.S. troop level if, in fact, you haven't done a thorough analysis of whether, in fact, there's an Afghan partner ready to fill that space that the U.S. troops would create and become a true partner in governing the Afghan country." -- White House Chief…

The Washington Post runs a depressing piece in Outlook today by Patrick Welsh, an Alexandria, Virginia high school English teacher who is struggling with the academic failures of his "virtually all-black class of 12th-graders." Mr. Welsh, who may risk being dismissed as a racist by the mafia of…

Haaretz explains http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1121716.html In Israel, there is concern that AIPAC will interpret participation as an act against it. "You don't turn your back on someone who has acted in your favor for decades," said a senior Israeli official. "Certainly not in favor of an…

Credit to the Washington Post, which reports this story with all the context necessary to demonstrate how truly cynical and pathetic this Nobel laureate-led administration is on the issue of human rights: After lengthy debate, the Obama administration has settled on a policy toward Sudan that…

The entire pro-Israel community, ranging from Republicans to Democrats, from Middle East hawks to peace-processing doves, has been (quite properly) united in condemning the Goldstone Report as fundamentally biased and extraordinarily reckless and irresponsible. Everyone except J Street. J Street…

The names of Reps. John Salazar (CO-03) and Ed Towns (NY-10) have been scrubbed from the list of congressmen serving on the host committee for J Street's inaugural conference. That brings to ten the number of congressmen, Republicans and Democrats, senators and representatives, who have bailed on J…

Americans should be hoping that the Chinese will be kinder to us than we were to the Brits after World War II. Readers of a certain age will remember, and the few younger ones who study history will have learned what creditor Uncle Sam did to debtor John Bull when Britain sent John Maynard Keynes…

The Center for American Progress's Amanda Terkel issues this apology for writing that Rush Limbaugh praised slavery and wanted Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassin to get a posthumous Medal of Honor: The quotes attributed to Limbaugh of him praising slavery have not been substantiated. We have amended…

The anti-Israel organization J Street has been hemorraghing sponsors for its conference as Senators and Congressmen learned of its true agenda. Just in the last few hours, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Leonard Boswell (D-IA), have asked to have their names removed…

'Twas bitter cold/And Tina was sick at heart, to paraphrase the Bard. "All over the country," she caviled in Newsweek last year from Hillary Clinton's campaign trail, there are vigorous, independent, self-liberated boomer women . . . who possess all the management skills that come from raising…

On Friday, October 9, the Obama administration announced the transfer of a Kuwaiti named Khaled al Mutairi, who had been held at Guantanamo for nearly eight years, to his home country. In its announcement of al Mutairi's transfer, the Justice Department cited District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's…

The statement from Senator Lincoln's office to THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Senator Lincoln did not personally know her name was put on the list and when she learned of it, asked that it be removed. It's clear that some of these names were only on J Street's list because of confusion among staffers who…

On Friday, October 9, the Obama administration announced the transfer of a Kuwaiti named Khaled al Mutairi, who had been held at Guantanamo for nearly eight years, to his home country. In its announcement of al Mutairi's transfer, the Justice Department cited District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's…

Will Dede Scozzafava, the liberal Republican running in the November 3 special election for Army Secretary John McHugh's open upstate New York seat, stay in the Republican party in the (unlikely) event that she wins? Would she run in 2010 as a Republican-facing what would likely be a tough primary?…

My colleague Michael Goldfarb is too modest to call attention to this, but I know he wears the scorn of the disreputable pseudo-pro-Israel organization, J Street, as a badge of honor. Here's a taste of a desperate J Street email, reacting to undisputed reporting on positions J Street has taken and…

On October 1, the House voted - by a count of 258 to 163 - in favor of a non-binding resolution that would prevent the Obama administration from transferring Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. for any reason. The politics behind the vote were fairly simple. The idea of bringing detainees here is…

A new poll in the November 3 special election for the congressional seat, NY-23, vacated by Army Secretary John McHugh, confirms what knowledgeable observers have suspected for a while: The candidacy of the official Republican nominee, liberal Dede Scozzafava, selected by local party officials and…

Intrinsic to the legislative plans now under debate is the idea that we will constrain the growth in health care costs by cutting insurance premiums. This is like reducing automobile accidents by reducing auto insurance payments. It makes no sense at all. Reducing health care costs by reducing…

It looks like CNN has been so busy the past 24 hours running news stories on its website and on air about Meghan McCain's existential Twitter crisis, that Rick Sanchez's own Twitter page was only place where he could find the space to issue a mealy-mouthed apology for falsely attributing a racist…

The Huffington Post has retracted two quotes author Jack Huberman falsely attributed to Rush Limbaugh. Huberman wrote on the liberal website in 2006 that Limbaugh said James Earl Ray "deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor" and that Limbaugh praised slavery because "streets were safer after dark"…

The statement from Cochran's office: "Sen. Cochran will not be co-hosting the event." That makes five members of Congress who've yanked their support for the conference in less than 12 hours. When was the last time a conference had that kind of problem? How many more will drop out tomorrow? What…

The floodgates have opened. As members of the House and Senate either learn for the first time that their names are on the list of J Street's host committee or learn for the first time just what being "pro-Israel" means over at J Street, they're heading for the exits. Ben Smith reports: One more…

Satire alert: A friend emails with a sneak peak at the first day's schedule for the J Street conference: J street schedule of events. 8:00 AM: Should Israel join the Arab League? How a Jewish demographic majority in Palestine hinders Israel's regional diplomacy. Daniel Levy 9:00 AM: Panel…

Tom Brokaw is worried about the controversy that "will dog [Obama] all the way to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony," and he's got a proposal that, in his cunning formulation, "may lift this discussion out of the partisan soup that is now the main course on our national agenda . . . ." To…

A new poll shows that Charlie Crists's approval rating in Florida has now dropped to 48 percent. This dip is most likely due to the fact that Crist is running for Senate now and working part-time as governor while the state is experiencing 11 percent unemployment. The argument that Crist is much…

We reported this morning that Delaware Rep. Mike Castle, the front-runner for that state's open Senate seat in 2010, had withdrawn his name from the host committee for J Street's inaugural conference later this month -- his staff insists that Castle himself was "totally unaware" that his name had…

The Washington Post reports: Human rights groups and lawmakers are ratcheting up pressure on the Obama administration this week over its approach to ending violence in Sudan, saying the White House and the State Department are treading too cautiously in dealing with the government in Khartoum. A…

Over at Small Wars Journal, I sat down with Peter Godwin -- author, war correspondent, and veteran of the Rhodesian Bush War-- for a discussion on counterinsurgency tactics and strategy. Godwin's experiences with the British South Africa Police -- a Rhodesian police/paramilitary outfit -- were…

At the center of the controversy surrounding Rush Limbaugh's bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams are some apocryphal quotes attributed to the the king of talk radio. On Monday, CNN's Rick Sanchez attributed this quote to Limbaugh: Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm…

At the center of the controversy surrounding Rush Limbaugh's bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams are some apocryphal quotes attributed to the king of talk radio. On Monday, CNN's Rick Sanchez attributed this quote to Limbaugh:

In case you can't keep track of the quickly shifting rules about civility in public discourse, here's a video primer from Chris Matthews. In his book 67-year-old veteran Bert Stead is a harbinger of the fall of the Republic because he satirically called himself a "right-wing terrorist" at a town…

J Street has lined up more than a hundred members of the House and some 30 members of the Senate to serve on the host committee for its inaugural conference later this month. Among the few Republicans on the list was Rep. Mike Castle, who has already thrown his hat in the ring for the race to fill…

The Examiner on the latest polling from Gallup: Obama's favorable rating has fallen most markedly among Republicans: In January, 60 percent said they had a favorable impression of him, versus just 19 percent today. More ominous for the president's political prospects is the fact that he is also…

One day after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell noted the NFL's "high standards" and expressed concern about "divisive" language hurting the league, Rush Limbaugh was dropped from a group of investors looking to buy the St. Louis Rams. Goodell's comments followed similar remarks from DeMaurice Smith,…

Think back, if you will, to a time when Obama actually did close a sale. November, 2008? Putting the government in charge of health care will definitely eliminate this kind of thing. CNN finishes fourth in prime-time ratings for a straight week. Will conservatives soon need their own professional…

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the most well-known lawmakers in history. But will her notoriety help Democrats or swell Republican ranks next year?

The Chattanooga Times reports: Gov. Phil Bredesen warned Tuesday that pending federal health care legislation could cost Tennessee far more than the $735 million "best estimate" his administration previously has cited. The $735 million would stretch over five years, but "in addition, there are huge…

"President Obama looks to have been taken to the cleaners by the Russians." Daniel Inouye, head of the all-powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, backs McChrystal. Leader of "reality-based community" says Biden should resign in protest over Afghan escalation. Reuel Gerecht on the "neo-Taliban."…

Hillary Clinton tells students at Moscow State University: I will be the first to tell you that we have people in our government and you have people in your government who are still living in the past ... They do not believe the United States and Russia can cooperate to this extent. They do not…

Barack Obama, speaking at a stimulus-sponsored construction project in Fairfax County, Va. today: "Our goal is not just to rebound from this recession, but to start building an economy that works for all Americans, where everyone who's looking for work can find a job; and not just a temporary job,…

Eric Alterman in the Nation on January 15: And yet even this criticism--misguided in my view--sounded positively Gandhi-esque compared with that of Peretz's assistant and informal mini-me, James Kirchick, who termed J Street an American Jewish "Surrender Lobby." The Weekly Standard's Michael…

The AIPAC release: AIPAC applauds the House of Representatives' passage of the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2009, authorizing state and local governments to divest from companies investing in Iran's petroleum and natural gas sector or doing business with Iran's nuclear industry. The bill also…

Reuters reports: Clinton said she would have liked to have seen Putin but that their agendas did not coincide. Putin left for a trip to the Russian Far East and China before her arrival in Moscow. That isn't humiliating at all. The Russian strong-man would rather go visit Siberia than meet with the…

If there were any objectivity in political journalism, there would be far more (or at least equivalent) coverage of shirtless Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) as there is of the less impressively shirtless President Barack Obama. As it is, we will have to make do with the Washington Post's story on…

No real surprises here from one of the architects of the Iraq surge at an HASC hearing this morning: "A loss of Afghanistan is a win for the Taliban and the Al Qaeda in Pakistan with potential serious consequences for Paksitan…It is not about how many Al Qaeda fighters are in Afghanistan but how…

The Washington Post has a revealing look at the problems the Obama administration is facing in trying to find a home for at least some of the 97 Yemeni detainees held at Guantanamo. The administration wants to send some, perhaps most, of them to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation, but the Saudis don't…

Yesterday, President Obama hailed the fact that one Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe, voted for the Senate Finance Committee's healthcare legislation, saying that the "proposal has both Democratic and Republican support" and "includes ideas from both Democrats and Republicans." Perhaps the president…

In case you haven't heard, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has come under tremendous criticism back home as news emerged over the weekend that his 23-year-old son Jean is set to become head of the public development agency running La Défense, one of Europe's biggest business districts located on…

The Examiner's Tim Carney reports: As the White House dismissed the insurance lobby's critiques of the Senate health care bill as self-serving corporate disinformation, President Obama used his weekly radio address to laud four former Republican officials for supporting the push for "reform." But…

Reuben Johnson writes for the website today on the ChiCom parade two weeks ago celebrating Mao's victory over Chiang. He notes that "the female troops were all marching in miniskirts and fancy leather 'these boots were made for walkin' boots." Indeed, it's not clear the women of the People's…

I missed this ridiculous A-1 encapsulation of the media's summer of hand-wringing on Sunday, but it's worth reading for a crystal-clear look at the world view within major media. The opening anecdote for "In Today's Viral World, Who Keeps a Civil Tongue?," is telling. Let's hear about the horrors:…

As Republican candidate Bob McDonnell maintains his lead in the Virginia gubernatorial race, everyone is turning to the New Jersey contest. And for good reason! At first glance the election there is much more interesting than in Virginia. Despite a horrible approval rating, incumbent Democrat John…

September 24, 2009: The White House claimed a key victory Wednesday in its effort to create momentum toward sanctions against Iran for its pursuit of nuclear weapons, saying that comments by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev after a meeting with President Obama represented a shift toward favoring…

While we're continually being told al Qaeda and the Taliban are not working together in Afghanistan, Al Jazeera and al Qaeda continue to tell us differently. Last week Coalition forces and the Afghan army teamed up to kill Ghulam Yahya Akbari, a Taliban commander, in the western province of Herat.…

Yesterday was Margaret Thatcher's eighty-fourth birthday. Let's all have a pint to celebrate.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said yesterday that he had concerns about Rush Limbaugh's efforts to become a minority owner of the St. Louis Rams. "I've said many times before we're all held to a high standard here, and I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about." In other news,…

Jon Stewart dings CNN. Pawlenty proposes health care changes that would allow for-profit and out-of-state insurers to do business in his state. Because the changes might actually bring an Obama talking point-"more competition"-to fruition, and maybe actually lower prices, Democrats are predictably…

Jeffrey H. Anderson, author of the "small-bill" health-care reform proposal, has a piece in today's New York Post on the Baucus bill's skyrocketing cost. He emails: Through yesterday's Senate Finance Committee vote, Senator Max Baucus managed to keep the focus on the projected 10-year costs of his…

Douglas Holtz-Eakin writes in the Wall Street Journal: Most astounding of all is what this Congress is willing to do to struggling middle-class families. The bill would impose nearly $400 billion in new taxes and fees. Nearly 90% of that burden will be shouldered by those making $200,000 or less.…

In case you missed it, the New York Times Magazine this past Sunday rolled out its "food issue." It would not be the Times, nor would it be a true media food fiesta without the appearance of Michael Pollan, the cultural elite's perennial guiding light, and the lord mayor of the Saturday morning…

Keetmanshoop, Namibia

Beijing

Ben Smith has a story today on the launch of Keep America Safe, a new group founded by Liz Cheney, Debra Burlingame, and the boss that's dedicated to, well, keeping America safe. From the group's mission statement: The mission of Keep America Safe is to provide information for concerned Americans…

In case you missed it, Lewis Sorley, author of A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam, had a good article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, "The Real Afghan Lessons From Vietnam." Fred Barnes reviewed Sorley's book in 1999 and wrote here last…

Richard Fontaine and John Nagl: The illegitimate Afghan election doesn't keep America from winning the war. Allahpundit: Michael Steele launches new blog called, um, "What Up?"Cringe. Mark Kirk leads by 7 points in Illinois Senate poll. McDonnell up 7 points in Virginia gubernatorial race. Charlie…

The lede from the Washington Post report: A prominent Democratic fundraiser and ally of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) is attempting to secure a lobbying contract with the pariah regime in Sudan, which has embarked on an aggressive effort to enlist U.S. support against allegations of genocide and war…

Fred Kagan writes in the Washington Examiner: President Bush left a confused situation. A mission undertaken with reasonable clarity had become vague and muddled. Many feared that the mission was creeping away from its initially limited aims to a full-up attempt at nation building in a collapsed…

Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat, the authors of Grand New Party, sat down with the Winston Group's Kristen Soltis to discuss the GOP and the middle class. Check it out: The Right Idea, Episode 31 - Middle Class Voters from The Winston Group on Vimeo.

In the wake of the Senate Finance Committee's approval of the Baucus health-care bill, 14-9, with the help of key moderate Republican Olympia Snowe, McConnell emphasized that the bill that will be brought to the senate floor is being crafted by Senate and House leaders without input from the…

Sen. McConnell responds to the Finance Committee's impending vote with some remarks on the floor Senate today: "At a time of nearly 10 percent unemployment, Americans don't need higher taxes and higher health insurance premiums. And yet one thing that's perfectly clear about the administration's…

Obamacare will jump over another hurdle today when the Senate Finance Committee passes the Baucus bill with the support (for now) of Republican senator Olympia "When History Calls" Snowe. But health care reform is still far from a certainty. Baucus's health bill needs to be merged with the Senate…

The Washington Post reports: Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Me.) said that she will vote for the $829 billion reform legislation under review by the Senate Finance Committee. She said her support signals her desire to "continue the process" of reviewing reform legislation and should not be interpreted as a…

Nashiri.jpg Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri

The Hill reports: Grassley, the ranking member of the Finance Committee, said that Chairman Max Baucus's (D-Mont.) healthcare bill would pass 13 to 10, suggesting that the closely-watched Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would vote against the proposal. "It'll pass probably on a party line vote of 13…

This morning on the Don Imus show, Joe Lieberman said he opposes the Baucus bill in its current form: IMUS: Do you support the Baucus bill? LIEBERMAN: Not, not, no. I mean, not the way it is now. IMUS: Ok, what about it don't you like? LIEBERMAN: Well, here's my concern, as I watch the way it took…

olympia_snowe2.jpg The thread of bipartisanship the Democrats so desperately wish to cling to is in the hands of moderate Republican Olympia Snowe, as she decides whether to vote yes or no on the Senate Finance Committee version of the health-care reform bill today. The Politico analyzes what her…

Pence's W. impression is better than SNL's Obama impression. Five for Fighting is out with a new album. When Astroturf pawns of the Republican turn on the Republican Party. Media...confused. Media now declares Glenn Beck the head of the Republican Party. Parents protest outside New Jersey's…

Ross Douthat: Heckuva Job, Barack. Matthew Continetti's new book, The Persecution of Sarah Palin, will be released one month from today. Allahpundit: The obligatory "Today interviews Rush Limbaugh" clip. Big Bird is a birther; I hear Snuffy is still investigating Trig Palin's provenance. Jim…

Greg Mankiw has an important post on the CBO's analysis of what the Baucus bill would do to marginal tax rates: According to CBO, a family of four making $54,000 would pay $4,800 for health insurance. The rest of the premium would come from government subsidies. If the family's income rises to…

McClatchy reports: WASHINGTON -- As the Obama administration reconsiders its Afghanistan policy, White House officials are minimizing warnings from the intelligence community, the military and the State Department about the risks of adopting a limited strategy focused on al Qaida, U.S.…

The Democratic party is ruling all kinds of things anti-American these days -- protesting unpopular legislation, mocking the president, rooting against the Olympic bid of a corrupt city -- so it was only a matter of time before they stumbled upon something that was actually anti-American and wasn't…

AEI's Kevin Hassett looks at the Joint Committee on Taxation's analysis of the "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009" and concludes: Ostensibly the excise tax is a tax on insurers. But as with other excise taxes (gasoline, cigarettes), the cost would undoubtedly be passed on to the consumer, in the…

During the online-only portion of yesterday's Fox News Sunday panel discussion, the boss makes the point that the Obama administration, if it continues to fight the war in Afghanistan but fails to adequately resource the commanders there, may be setting the country up for another Blackhawk…

Niall Ferguson has a must-read report at the Centre for Policy Studies on the dangers of the Too Big To Fail (TBTF) mentality. Ferguson writes: It is not often that I quote Lenin approvingly. But one of the lessons of the recent -- and in my view continuing -- financial crisis is that not…

Via Ed Morrissey, on ABC's This Week Senator Dianne Feinstein was very supportive of General McChrystal's counterinsurgency strategy. "Now, if you're going to stay, you have to have a way of winning. The question is, what is that way? And I think the counterinsurgency strategy, which means…

That bastion of right-wing extremism the BBC had an article over the weekend, What happened to global warming?, that begins: This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998. But it is true. For the…

The Washington Post reports on a new study commissioned by America's Health Insurance Plans: "The report makes clear that several major provisions in the current legislative proposal will cause health care costs to increase far faster and higher than they would under the current system," Karen…

On July 4, 1995, Myrna Lebov, age 52, committed suicide in her Manhattan apartment. The case generated national headlines when her husband, George Delury, announced that he had assisted Lebov's suicide at her request because she was suffering the debilitations of progressive multiple sclerosis.

A bipartisan chorus in Congress, along with a bevy of conservative activists, has denounced President Obama for appointing an unprecedented number of "czars"--special advisers, envoys, deputies, and board chairmen who coordinate the policy efforts of the White House but are not subject to…

Berlin

The appearance in Washington last week of Iran's foreign minister, while the blood is not yet dry from his government's continuing suppression of student protests, is a reminder of the disastrous foreign policy path the Obama administration has chosen. Not so long ago, proponents of a stronger U.S.…

Reporting on the prospective dismissal from the Air Force of a decorated combat veteran, Lieutenant Colonel Victor Fehrenbach, because he had been identified by somebody else as gay, the Washington Post recently wrote:

"To defeat an enemy that heeds no borders or laws of war, we must recognize the fundamental connection between the future of Afghanistan and Pakistan--which is why I've appointed Ambassador Richard Holbrooke .  .  . to serve as Special Representative for both countries." That "fundamental…

Googled

The modern World Series began in 1903 with the Boston Americans beating the Pittsburgh Pirates five games to three in a grueling 13 days. (Boston's rubber-armed Bill Dinneen pitched four complete games, winning three with two shutouts.) For much of their storied histories, the National and American…

Britain's Labour party has come a long way from 1994, when a charismatic Tony Blair, the new leader of a party then in opposition, forced through the repeal of clause four of its constitution--the one that promised nationalization of the means of production and distribution. Not all of the…

Three weeks ago I walked out of my front door at 6:30 A.M., headed for the office. I made three turns in short succession, bringing me to Old Bridge Road, the local thoroughfare that leads, four miles away, to an entrance to I-95, the main north-south artery into Washington. After 20 minutes on Old…

So Roman Polanski has landed himself in a Swiss jail. Expecting garlands from cineastes at the Zurich Film Festival, the celebrated director--whose working career spans nearly 50 years, from the Academy Award-nominated Knife in the Water (1962) to the Academy Award-winning The Pianist (2002) and a…

President No

The Protest Singer

After a summer of setbacks on health care reform, Democrats on Capitol Hill again seem to think they have found a formula for success. The latest iteration of Obamacare, emerging this week from the Senate Finance Committee, is said to be a move to the center, avoiding the albatross of a government…

The Lover's Guide to Trapping

Louis D. Brandeis

Histoires Grecques

Lansing, Mich.

Ever since the 1972 Democratic convention nominated George McGovern over the objections of the AFL-CIO, the standard wisdom has been that organized labor's power in American politics has declined dramatically. The failure of the current Democrat-dominated Congress to pass labor's highest…

Ignore anyone who says Republicans have no chance of winning 40 seats in next year's midterm elections and grabbing control of the House of Representatives. A landslide of that dimension is quite possible. All it would take is for current political trends to continue. If that happens, Republicans…

Here's a poll of purple-state (and Harry Reid's home state) Nevada that suggests the tax hikes needed to pay for Obamacare could doom it. Incidentally, the 77 percent of Nevadans who think Obamacare (or Baucus-care) will require tax increases are right. The Baucus bill has $500 billion of tax…

There seems no end to contractor abuse scandals in countries fighting terrorism or undergoing "nation-building." The latest to be reported in the media involves ArmorGroup North America, a private security firm guarding the American embassies in Iraq and Afghanistan. It began in Baghdad on August…

The AP reports: President Barack Obama pledged to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military in a speech Saturday, but acknowledged to a cheering crowd that the policy changes he promised on the campaign trail are not coming as quickly as they expected. "I will end 'don't ask-don't…

In a Washington Post op-ed, Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, argues that Afghanistan does not matter as much as General McChrystal and our military leaders think. Haass says Afghanistan is not a "war of necessity," but a "war of choice." His reasoning does not…

A new Rasmussen poll suggests that the task now is to educate the public about the Senate Democrats' health-care legislation--to show that "it's a tax hike dressed in a lab coat," and in particular that it's a middle-class tax hike masquerading as middle-class-friendly health reform. If the tax…

The Obama administration recently announced the results of its long-awaited Burma policy review. On the face of it the outcome is sound. The United States will maintain existing sanctions on Burma's brutal regime, while attempting a dialogue with the generals. The combination of engagement plus…

Eli Lake reports: Human rights groups are beginning to question President Obama's commitment to their issue as the administration engages authoritarian regimes, retains the option of sending terrorist suspects abroad to places where they might be tortured and puts off a presidential meeting with…

European nuclear researcher arrested for suspected links to al-Qaeda. If you were amused by Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, the DNC says you've sided with "the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas." But the White House is content to merely call you an "a--hole." Reason.TV (or perhaps Al-Manar, I can't…

Jeffrey Anderson lays out the three biggest political vulnerabilities of the Baucus bill: 1. Seniors have nothing to gain and everything to lose. The Baucus bill pays for itself largely by shifting hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicare. The last thing seniors want is to have their…

While some unpatriotic cynics were critical of the Nobel Committee handing the Peace Prize out to President Barack Hussein Obama, Harvard was proud to support its distinguished alum with a quickie press release, helpfully explaining that "International leaders immediately lauded the selection of…

The AFP is reporting that despite pulling the ground based mid-course interceptor from Europe, the Russians remain unhappy with Noble Laureate Obama's missile defense plans. Ivan is, of course, playing the classic Russian game here -- push until you meet resistance. In a terrible lapse of judgment,…

A good story from the TNR archive by Peter Beinart argues that there are two kinds of Nobel Peace Prize winners -- the diplomats and the dissidents. Among the former are the men who pushed disarmament in the 1920s and 1930s, the men who negotiated the peace in Vietnam in the 1970s and the peace in…

No, write Thomas Joscelyn and Bill Roggio: As General McChrystal noted in his analysis of Afghanistan, the insurgency is primarily conducted by Afghans (that is, the Taliban and its "native" allies). However, al Qaeda does play a significant role. In addition to conducting some joint operations…

A statement from the Senate Majority Leader: "By ushering in a period of optimism in American politics, President Obama has become a great source of pride and inspiration for many Americans. I congratulate the President on this tremendous honor that he has earned with his dedication to a new type…

Meanwhile, the mill of ludicrousness elsewhere in Europe grinds on unrelenting. "I got into the habit of paying for boys. . . . All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excited me enormously . . . the abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a…

President Obama says, "I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations. " Full statement after the jump... THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary…

Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama will come to Oslo to collect the Nobel Peace Prize, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday after speaking with Obama. The prize is handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of the award's founder Alfred Nobel. "Obama said he…

The statement from the DNC this morning: The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize. If that's true, than an awful lot of liberals -- from Ezra Klein to Peter Beinart to…

ABC reports that "Obama senior advisor David Axelrod said on MSNBC this morning that he could not say if Obama would go to receive the award in person, saying it was 'all news to us.'" But last week, Rahm Emanuel told CNN's Ed Henry: "It's clear Oslo beats Copenhagen any day of the week." That was…

Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. A year later, he was out of power and the Soviet Union had dissolved. I don't mean to compare Barack Obama to Gorbachev, who was, whatever his faults, a truly historic and courageous figure. But let's hope the parallel extends this far: that a…

Sima Samar, women's rights activist in Afghanistan: "With dogged persistence and at great personal risk, she kept her schools and clinics open in Afghanistan even during the most repressive days of the Taliban regime, whose laws prohibited the education of girls past the age of eight. When the…

The downside of this Nobel Prize for Obama-the mother of all stereotype reinforcements-is that we've now reached the point where RNC press releases sound remarkably like mainstream news commentary instead of political P.R.: "The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama…

Reality reportedly shrugged and exited stage right, allowing for his understudy Parody to take over the lead role for the next four years or so. At the deadline for nominations for the prize, Obama had been in office for 11 days. The decision to award the prize to him was unanimous. Mickey Kaus has…

There is no need to pick a parody for this week's issue of The Weekly Standard. As the boss notes, the news is more ridiculous than anything we could create. Also a suggestion for the Nobel Committee of an American who might have deserved the prize: Instead, we'll do something we do occasionally,…

Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. This is too perfect. Obama could turn it down on the grounds that not all his peace plans have come to fruition yet, but why should he? And the Swedes could have waited a year on the same grounds, but why should they? Update: It's the Norwegians, not the…

Rio de Janeiro

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's second term in office has not been a happy affair for Spain. Soundly re-elected on a post-modern platform of Socialism, pacifism and feminism just 18 months ago, Zapatero has since stumbled badly in the face of an economic crisis that shows no…

For Yankee fans, the pleasures of the regular season were manifold: Derek Jeter played ball with all the joy of the little guy who dreams of playing for the Yanks all his life, then finds he's doing just that! (Which in Jeter's case happens to be the true story.) But his teammates were right behind…

Tom Donnelly explains the difference between McChrystal and Shinseki. The DNC says support for Polanski is just like Scientology, or rooting for the Redskins. Obama's going to Asia -- and snubbing our Aussie allies just like Clinton. Shocker: French minister likes sex with young boys. The House…

Remember when Obama declared that America was one of the largest Muslim countries in the world"? Guess what, it's not. A new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life that is being billed as the most comprehensive of its kind puts the number of Muslims living in the United States at 2.45…

The text of an amendment just proposed by Senator Graham: (a) PROHIBITION ON USE OF FUNDS FOR PROSECUTION OF 9/11 TERRORISTS IN ARTICLE III COURTS.-None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available for the Department of Justice by this Act may be obligated or expended to commence or…

So the Obama administration is sending an openly gay man to serve as America's ambassador to New Zealand. This is apparently meant to be a statement to the world of Obama's deep commitment to gay rights both at home and abroad, coinciding as it does with what is being billed as a major speech by…

CBS News reports (emphasis added): A soldier from 7th Group Special Forces finds rocket propelled grenades in a hard-core Taliban village that he knows from experience, are made in Iran. "Like right here, it says 82 mm "h-e" lot 02 slash 87," the solider said. "The Iranians pretty much copy all of…

Here's a strange bit of logic from the White House spokesman (who never really understood missile defense in the first place): Gibbs said the Polish, Czech and Romanian governments support Obama's decision, which he said would deploy "a missile defense system that protects a greater geographic area…

In a bizarre and confused attempt to defend the Obama administration's new policy of "strategic reassurance" (read: appeasement of Red China), a blogger for the New Yorker argues that the president's refusal to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama is an eminently reasonable concession to the…

CBS reports: Gen. Stanley McChrystal wanted to ask President Obama for 50,000 more troops for Afghanistan on top of the 68,000 already stationed there, but he was convinced to lower the request to 40,000, reports CBS News White House correspondent Chip Reid. Sources tell Reid that McChrystal, the…

The release from Joementum: Bipartisan Group of Senators encourage Senate Leadership to Impose "Aggressive and meaningful" Sanctions on Iran WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of six U.S. Senators have written to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell encouraging…

A well-informed friend emails: This is just truly surreal: "..warned that the Taliban remain linked to al-Qaeda...." My Allah in Heaven, they are more linked today than they were in 2001. They are more linked to Pakistan's militants than they were in 2001. Pace Jeffrey Goldberg's odd ruminations…

According to some in the Obama administration, decimating al Qaeda, not the Taliban, should be the sole focus of the war in Afghanistan. The two groups really aren't all that intertwined, these officials reckon. But Al Jazeera reports that al Qaeda has become an integral part of the Taliban's…

The Afghan women who risked their lives to go to the polls this summer are not afraid of much. But one thing we need not doubt is their terror at the notion that America might abandon Afghanistan and return them to the hands of the Taliban. Eviction from school and work at the least, rape and…

It takes four New York Times reporters to tell us what we already knew: the Obama administration is completely disconnected from reality. "President Obama's national security team is moving to reframe its war strategy by emphasizing the campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan while arguing that the…

It's not just the famously unreasonable ideologue Olympia Snowe who cares about these things, apparently. Seven Democrats and Joe Lieberman sent a letter Tuesday to Sen. Harry Reid asking him to make sure the final legislative text of the bill and the final CBO score for it are online, and…

Following up on earlier reports, it turns out that the Democrats have in fact decided to allow the transfer of Gitmo detainees to the U.S. to face trial. The Washington Post reports: Key Democratic lawmakers agreed Wednesday to allow detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be transferred to the…

The D.C. voucher movement is picking up steam and is poised to become "a mass movement."

In his State of the Union address a little over 13 years ago, Bill Clinton proclaimed "the era of big government" was over. After a year of butting heads with the new Republican majority in Congress, President Clinton signaled a willingness to change course and acknowledge the message voters sent…

A statement from Sen. McConnell on the CBO's report on the Finance Committee bill: "This partisan Finance Committee proposal will never see the Senate floor since the real bill will be written by Democrat leaders in a closed-to-the-public conference room somewhere in the Capitol. The real bill will…

He's moved on from cooing over the president to making excuses for Roman Polanksi: There is, apparently, more to this crime than it would seem, and it may sound like a hollow defense, but in Hollywood I am not sure a 13-year-old is really a 13-year-old.

The poor reporter thought he was trashing the GOP candidate to someone in Senator Blanche Lincoln's office. He accidentally sent it to the Republican candidate instead. Oops.

An exchange between White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and CNS News reporter Fred Lucas at today's briefing: Q: In a letter to senators last week the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said that, I'm quoting, 'So far the health-reform bills considered in committee, including the new Senate…

The bottom line seems to be it will cost $829 billion (paid for with taxes, penalties, and savings), will lower the projected deficit by $81 billion, and will leave 25 million uninsured (one third of those illegal immigrants). The CBO letter cautions: The Chairman's mark, as amended, has not yet…

I came across this link to a series of Winston Churchill "motivational posters" that are sure to brighten any office. My favorite is the one on "Constancy," which features the quote, "The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is."…

Tom Donnelly explains why Afghanistan's Nuristan province is prone to such bloody battles: But it is important to remember why U.S. units ended up in such far-flung valleys: It is an extension of the larger success they have enjoyed in "Regional Command-East," the official designation of the…

Robert Gibbs reported at today's press briefing: "The president received from Secretary Gates General McChrystal's resource request last Thursday afternoon prior to traveling to Copenhagen."

From the Associated Press: President Obama's troubled plan to close the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has cleared a key obstacle in Congress. Congressional negotiators unveiled a compromise Wednesday that would continue allowing Guantanamo Bay prisoners to be transferred to…

A huge heel turn by Linda McMahon -- the wife of WWF/WWE founder Vince McMahon and newly-minted Republican candidate for Senate in Connecticut -- this afternoon as her campaign sends out a release that includes the email addresses of hundreds of people. Whether all the emails on the list are "real"…

It's as if he chose his artwork based on the thesis of this Richard Cohen column.

As Obama's Hamlet like performance on Afghanistan continues, as General Biden pushes his "plan", and Jim Jones minimizes the Taliban threat, a friend emails this quote from Candidate Obama in New Hampshire on August 14, 2007: "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough…

Rep. John Carter, Republican of Texas, offered a resolution this morning to remove Rep. Charlie Rangel from his Ways and Means Committee Chairmanship. The resolution, stemming from Rangel's myriad tax discrepancies and copious creative crookery, first reported by the New York Times, is being…

"Hispanics basically want to have dreams and have a realistic shot that if they work hard and play by the rules of accomplish that Older Hispanics want their kids have all the things they couldn't have, all the opportunities they couldn't pursue. And when I look at that I say, ‘How does that make…

Goldfarb notes that Vice President Biden is trying to split the Afghan baby, proposing a big bump in kinetic operations (read: airstrikes) instead of complying with General McChrystal's request for more troops. Have we learned nothing in the past eight years? Neither Generals Petraeus and…

President Obama's dithering over what to do in Afghanistan has renewed interest in Lewis Sorley's powerful, revisionist book on the Vietnam war, A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam. Sorley's and another book, Lessons in Disaster by Gordon…

A must-read on last night's mayoral debate in Memphis, Tennessee: Of all the mayoral debates and forums that have been held so far this campaign season, perhaps the most bizarre was the one sponsored Tuesday night at the University of Memphis' Rose Theatre by the NAACP. Three of the 12 candidates…

This is a must-watch video by Eye on the UN's Anne Bayefsky of responses to the Goldstone Report by Human Rights Council members Iran, Libya, Yemen, Venezuela, and Sudan. Do not miss her j'accuse moment at the end, nor the disgusting pusillanimity of the Council's president, Alex Van Meeuwen.

kal_penn2.jpg Kal Penn, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, White House Office of Olympic Sport, and future U.S. bobsled brakeman. This is the bureaucratic equivalent of tripping, catching yourself, and then jogging it out, as if to say, "Yeah, I totally made a…

CNN reports: President Obama is turning to a handful of Hollywood stars to judge a contest that asks grassroots supporters to create a television commercial promoting health care reform. Musician Will.I.Am, actor John Cho, actress Rosario Dawson, actor Dulé Hill, "Family Guy" creator Seth…

The New York Times reports on the White House meeting with members of Congress: Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden made it clear that the option Mr. Biden had proposed was not a pure counterterrorism alternative, relying only on drones and Special Forces to track down leaders of Al Qaeda. Instead, Mr. Biden's…

Roger Kimball has some very interesting thoughts provoked by Bill Kristol's short post from last night calling attention to Philip Larkin's "Homage to A Government" (1969).

"A few days ago, The New York Times admitted online (Sept. 27) that its magazine piece on J Street (Sept. 13) was a bit one-sided." Both Obamas gave heartfelt speeches about . . . themselves. Gallup: Approval of Congress falls to 21 percent. Four swing votes on health care, examined. It ain't just…

Did you ever wonder why there are so many elements of the health-care industry supporting Democratic health-care proposals? Doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, academic medical centers, and Bill Frist are all pro- â reform. â Certainly there can be truly admirable instincts at work here:…

Ronald Reagan believed in America.

At today's White House meeting, President Obama, I'm told, reminded the congressional leaders that every thousand troops sent to Afghanistan would cost about a billion dollars a year, and asked whether the lawmakers would really support $40 to $50 billion a year of additional spending for the war.…

Michael Crowley writes: Obama spoke at the National Counterterrorism Center today: We know that al Qaeda and its extremist allies threaten us from different corners of the globe -- from Pakistan, but also from East Africa and Southeast Asia; from Europe and the Gulf. And that's why we're applying…

Sarah Palin issued a statement on Afghanistan: For two years as a candidate, Senator Obama called for more resources for the war in Afghanistan and warned about the consequences of failure. As President, he announced a comprehensive new counterinsurgency strategy and handpicked the right general to…

Carefully, and with moral equivalence. In August we took note of the fury of Gazans over the possibility their children would be learning about the destruction of European Jewry-for the first time ever-in classes on human rights at their UNRWA-run schools; we were treated, as well, to a cringing…

In his column today, Eugene Robinson writes that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the president's hand-picked general to lead the Afghan campaign, has "no business" outlining his preferred strategy in public. McChrystal and the generals who support more troops and a focus on population security in…

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) just wrapped up a conference call with reporters following a meeting he attended with other members of Congress, the president and his advisers at the White House this afternoon. Cantor said that during the meeting President Obama made "very clear" his goal is to "dismantle…

Two days ago, London's Sunday Times confirmed what many close to the Iran debate already knew -- that Russian scientists are actively assisting the Iranians in their nuclear program. If you omit the disastrous 2007 NIE from the strategic calculus here, most credible intel estimates had identified…

Well, one can't blame them for reading the president's lips while he was courting their votes: Fifty-nine percent (59%) of U.S. voters favor putting a provision in the health care reform plan that would prohibit any new taxes, fees or penalties on families who make less than $250,000 a year. A new…

He'll likely face Beau Biden for the seat vacated by his father, Vice President Joe Biden, this year. Biden, the younger, returned from Iraq in late September, and was planning to make a decision about his political future shortly. Castle's presence in the race could complicate that decision…

CNN is now fact-checking comedy skits critical of The One. Sycophancy you can believe in, right this way. In other news, upon further investigation, CNN has discovered that those two guys weren't "wild and crazy," but merely socially awkward and Eastern European. For more goofs on CNN, which would…

sheehansharpton2.jpg The enchanting treble warble of the Peace Mom will be heard incessantly outside the White House, even though Obama is its occupant. Sheehan, the activist anti-war mom of fallen Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, once made her home in Crawford, Texas for several months in 2005, nestled…

Petraeus diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer this spring. The treatment was deemed "successful," according to his spokespeople. Buzz is Castle will run for Senate in Delaware. Feingold going all Glenn Beck in a subcommittee hearing today on the constitutionality of czars. Dems gang up on…

It means never having to say "regime" again: Today marks the Obama administration's first foray into discussion of its Iran policy before the Congress. Stuart Levey, Undersecretary of the Treasury (and not incidentally the single most effective U.S. official to confront the Iran threat in either…

The DNC, which has spent some $6 million on the VA governor's race, targets McDonnell with a web ad that looks like it could have been done by a couple of 12-year-olds on an Apple IIGS. Meanwhile, Republican Deleware Rep. Mike Castle is set to announce he will make a run for Deleware's open senate…

From Bret Stephens's "news analysis from the near-future": Mr. Netanyahu also provoked the administration's ire after he was inadvertently caught on an open microphone calling Mr. Obama "worse than Chamberlain."

While Nancy Pelosi is busy attacking the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Secretary Gates has made it pretty clear that he supports McChrystal's request for more troops. Gates said last night, "Because of our inability, and the inability, frankly, of our allies, (for putting) enough troops…

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has reportedly told prosecutors in Manhattan that the Obama administration will not seek the death penalty for Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, an al Qaeda terrorist who is accused of participating in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Earlier this year,…

The St. Petersburg Times reports: Charlie Crist ought to start worrying. The Marco Rubio campaign says the underdog Republican candidate Natrev for U.S. Senate raised nearly $1 million in the last fundraising quarter - a giant improvement over his last quarter and a number sure to help eliminate…

Pamela Key does not work for the Republican National Committee. She has no formal training in journalism. An illustrator of children's books, she never finished college. And yet, her oppositional research, her investigative journalism, and her philosophical convictions have all come together to…

The American people haven't been shy about expressing their views on health-care reform. In the polls and at public events nationwide, they've made it clear that they don't want a behemoth bill that would fundamentally transform a health-care system that works well for most Americans and which…

E.J. Dionne, who's as plugged-in to the Obama White House as any columnist, writes today: some administration officials are asking why it is that al-Qaeda has weakened even as the Taliban has grown stronger? These skeptics now question whether routing the Taliban is actually essential to Obama's…

As the DNC throws more money at Virginia, McDonnell widens his lead. Marty Peretz diagnoses Obama. Hugh Hewitt blows out the Sacramento Bee for sloppy, poorly sourced "agenda journalism." "The Olympics is not a terribly important event in the life of this nation; losing a war, however, is." Andrew…

Following that three-month study by McKinsey, Condé Nast has decided to shut down four magazines, the most surprising of which is Gourmet. (No one seemed too shocked that Cookie was closing. The other two are bridal publications.) As Stephanie Clifford of the New York Times reports: "None of the…

The first week of August, Robert Gibbs declined to say whether or not President Obama would read the entire health-care legislation in full before signing it. At today's White House press briefing, Gibbs punted again on this fairly straighforward question when asked by THE WEEKLY STANDARD: TWS: ...…

When Under Secretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 24, she said that in order for Secretary Gates to support the new missile defense architecture in Europe, he had to be reassured that "we are going to continue the development of the…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD Blog reported this three weeks ago, but today we read in the Washington Post that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been unceremoniously barred from the White House until President Obama travels to China in November. Sinophiles in the White House are in Nirvana having successfully…

Zelaya Chavez Ortega A'jad Kim Jong Il Andrew Sullivan Dalai Lama Michelletti McChrystal Stupak Chris Wallace

As John Noonan notes below, Iran's favorite nuclear watchdog, IAEA director general and Nobel laureate Mohamed Elbaradei announced yesterday that the greatest threat to the Middle East is Israel. Though he is due-long overdue-to retire from the UN agency in November, the Cairo native told Spiegel…

Following up on our post this morning about continued Congressional recalcitrance on the administration's (non-existent) plan to close the detention camp at Gitmo, Republicans send around this report from the Hill that finds it's not just the White House that's in complete disarray on this issue:…

Is there an antonym for "leadership?" According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week. The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One…

Perhaps he meant "Israeli nukes number one threat to Arab plans to decimate Israel." This coming off Israel's 40 year track record of nuclear restraint, even after the near collapse of IDF lines during the Yom Kippur War. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed…

Noted Republican obstructionist Olympia Snowe, famed for her intransigence in the face of moderate and liberal legislation and her stubborn commitment to conservative principles above all else, is requiring a CBO score before she votes on the Senate Finance Committee's version of the health-care…

The Hill reports that Congress is once again jamming Gitmo provisions into spending bills -- at least five different bills between the House and Senate. This on the heels of the administration finally conceding that they are nowhere near meeting the January 22 "deadline" for closing the detention…

They're not even pretending any more, and why should they? Brandishing the Goldstone Report that correlates their own barbarous behavior-waging war from behind the skirts and cribs of Gazan women and children and the hospital beds of the sick and dying-with that of Israel, Hamas has devised a plan…

A friend emails to point out that Jones is "finally doing what he was hired to do -- going after McChrystal and Petraeus and providing the president cover to go against his commander's advice. This is why he will keep his job. He's irreplaceable." This is the fundamental rationale for the Jones…

Your foreign policy is in such nerve-racking disarray that even the president of France is horrified; your public relations outfit at the New York Times has begun to reconsider signing you as a client; every step you take heightens tensions with your opposition; you're a war-time president with a…

Womenomics

As the last of the New York intellectuals depart the planet, it becomes apparent that Irving Kristol, who published less than most of them, had a wider and deeper influence on his time than all of them. Just how and why is not all that clear, but it is so. Nor is it clear how best to describe…

D Is for Disgraceful

President Obama has announced his intention to conduct a review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan from first principles before deciding whether or not to accept General Stanley McChrystal's proposed strategy and request for more forces. This review is delaying the decision. If the delay goes on much…

The following remarks were delivered by William Kristol at the funeral service for Irving Kristol, Congregation Adas Israel, Washington, D.C., September 22, 2009.

In-N-Out Burger

Bright Star

Medicare Advantage (MA) is the crown jewel of government health care programs. It allows seniors to choose a health insurance plan that fits their needs. It gives them extra benefits, including eyeglasses and hearing aids, and pays for preventive care such as physical exams. Under MA, seniors don't…

A young woman came by to visit the Policy Review offices a few weeks ago. Fresh out of a prestigious graduate school, enamored of both philosophy and creative writing, she'd been sent by a mutual friend and was looking for work. How, she wondered, might someone who loved reading and writing, but…

When Barack Obama strode on stage to scold Iran for its failure to disclose the existence of a second uranium-enrichment facility in the country, his message was timid and at times almost apologetic. When the tough language came, it was because French president Nicolas Sarkozy had taken the podium.…

Whew, I'm pooped. Jimmy Carter has got me run ragged with all the hating I'm supposed to do. Jimmy says I'm a racist because I oppose President Obama's health care reform program. Even Jimmy Carter can't be wrong all the time. And since Jimmy Carter has been wrong about every single thing for the…

In his speech to the United Nations last week, President Obama really broke the presidential pattern. At a glance these annual turns before the General Assembly are all alike. The president stands alone, dwarfed by the absurdly outsized dais angled together from blue-green granite, while the…

The Anti-Communist Manifestos

Charles McCarry, the spy novelist, has a number of bestsellers to brag about, if not the numbers or recognition of John le Carré.

The Pilgrim's Progress

Unemployment is close to 10 percent. The government is embedded in the auto, banking, housing, and insurance sectors. The president's domestic agenda hangs in the balance. Things aren't rosy on the global front, either. Public opinion has turned against the war in Afghanistan just as a major…

For a talented man who ran a textbook campaign and was declared a great president before he even took office, Barack Obama has been having a rather hard time. The Midas Touch of 2008 has seemed to desert him. The famed oratory has not made a difference. The uniting president has turned into the…

The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats…

Last week John McCain accused his old, dear friend Jim Jones of playing politics with the war in Afghanistan. On the floor of the Senate, McCain charged that in counseling the president, Jones was trying a little too hard not "to alienate the left base of the Democrat Party." Today Jones replied on…

Obama's national security adviser skipped his Sunday bike ride to do interviews on CBS and CNN, where he assured viewers that contrary to the assessment of General Stanley McChrystal, Jones doesn't "foresee the return of the Taliban and I want to be clear that Afghanistan is not in imminent danger…

The Van Jones flameout was spectacular, but keep watching for the Kevin Jennings conflagration, which could be just as brilliant. Jennings's June appointment as Obama's school-safety czar was greeted by the vast right-wing conspiracy with some outrage, as members of its bullying anti-gay homophobic…

"Now, the same crowd that says they support the troops didn't support the United States getting the Olympics," MSNBC left-winger Ed Schultz said on his show last night. "What the Republicans did, I think, rivals Jane Fonda sitting on a gun in North Vietnam." Allahpundit writes: "Truly, celebrating…

A funny thing happened on the way to the collapse of market capitalism in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. It didn't. Indeed, in Germany voters relieved Chancellor Angela Merkel of the necessity of cohabiting with a left-wing party, allowing her to form a new…

Now is the time for the mainstream media to show it's not totally in President Obama's pocket. The Washington press corps will never fault Obama for pushing hyper-liberal policies in a moderate-to-conservative country. Ideological criticism by the press is reserved for Republican presidents. But…

Earlier this week, House Republican Leader John Boehner criticized Obama's Olympics lobbying jaunt to Copenhagen. "Listen I think it's a great idea to promote Chicago but he's the president of the United States, not the mayor of Chicago," Boehner said. "And the problems we have here at home affect…

Well, looky here. The New York Times makes many of the same observations conservatives are making about Obama's very public effort to bring the Olympics to Chicago. Will it be accused of "rejoicing" in America's loss? It doesn't have the snarky tone of some conservative commentary, but the paper…

Republicans have always loved Rio. Donnelly says the president was "gambling with America's reputation, not just his own." Newsweek profiles McChrystal. Abu Muqawama blows out senior administration official for insulting McChrystal on background. "Moscow was spoiling for a fight, preparing for a…

Yesterday everyone was all excited that the Iranians were going to ship some of their enriched uranium to Russia. Today the AP reports the Iranians denying any such deal was made. Maybe they decided to ship it to Rio: Western officials at the session said the Islamic republic had also agreed to…

A particularly cruel and clever stroke by the fiends who have held him prisoner for 1,195 days, to release a video of a very much alive-as of September 14-Gilad Shalit addressing a plea to Bibi to make the deal that will set him free, and a loving message to his family. Now that we've seen the…

And, I have yet to hear his plan for equally distributing the ownership rights and earnings of his film, "Capitalism: A Love Story," to the workers who toiled to bring it to life. Could it be that Moore, as an artiste, believes his unique brand of documentary filmmaking, his audacity in creating…

Barack Obama staked his entire campaign for the presidency on the premise that the world doesn't have to be the way it is. Obama promised a new brand of "direct, presidential diplomacy" that would resolve the conflicts between the United States and its adversaries and he promised to remove the…

Ever since the triumph of China's communist revolution--sixty years ago yesterday--left-leaning intellectuals have convinced themselves of cheerful falsehoods about the regime. Visitors to China, even during the heyday of Mao Tse-tung's ruinous economic policies, saw a "uniquely creative" and…

Via Drudge, the BBC reports Chicago was eliminated in the first round at the IOC meeting in Copenhagen. As a citizen of the world who believes that No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation, I'm glad that the Obama White House's jingoist rhetoric and attempt to pay back Chicago…

During the course of the past week the Washington Post has run a series of stories which are the product of a campaign of on-the-record interviews and coordinated on-background leaks from administration officials, the overall aim of which is to diminish General McChrystal's case for a better…

The article about Afghanistan policy in today's Washington Post is full of snide, self-confident, anonymous criticism of General Stanley McChrystal, the man Obama chose to lead U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The tone of the criticism is consistent with the arrogance of the Obama White House. But in…

Barack Obama met with General Stanley McChrystal for about 25 minutes this morning in Copenhagen, after McChrystal flew to Denmark from London to meet with the commander-in-chief. A meeting is better than no meeting, to be sure. But the circumstances surrounding this one are revealing. Obama's…

The Palin book cover. Government corruption surpasses the economy on list of issues important to likely voters. Garrison Keillor: "Thirty-two percent of the population identifies with the GOP, and if we cut off health care to them, we could probably pay off the deficit in short order." Jimmy…

A transcript Robert Gibbs's press gaggle aboard Air Force One: MR. GIBBS: About 15 minutes ago, the President began a meeting with General McChrystal. The President called General McChrystal Wednesday prior to the three-hour meeting that happened in the Situation Room that General McChrystal, among…

Irantracker.org takes a look at how gasoline sanctions would work against the mullahs and creates a database of companies doing business in Iran. Jimmy Carter is kinda sorry for calling you a racist. Use this flow-chart to find out if your criticism of Obama makes you a racist. Pew: Support for…

When people gripe about the U.S. sanctions regime now in place in Burma, they tend to point out the fact that sanctions have been in place for more than a decade but the junta remains in power -- ergo, the sanctions are a failure. But this kind of misses the point. Sanctions were never intended to…

The release from Boeing: Fyi, attached is newly available video of the in-flight Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) aircraft precisely firing its laser at a stationary ground vehicle target during an Aug. 30 test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. As you can see, the laser damaged the vehicle. (Video is…

iran_talks_1001.jpg

Maybe it's not just the loony, right-wing Tea Partiers (unfair characterization courtesy of MSNBC and the NYT) who have the feeling that creepy, heavy-handed government interference isn't serving them or their communities. Health-care workers, many of whom are unionized and not generally renowned…

As Think Progress notes, last night the boss floated a very well-sourced rumor that Secretary Gates will be out by the end of the year and replaced by Chuck Hagel, who the boss described as an "advocate of retreat everywhere." Indeed Hagel is not only an advocate of retreat everywhere, he is set to…

Carl Levin has been on the floor of the Senate this afternoon, reiterating his case against sending the additional combat troops to Afghanistan that General McChrystal says are needed to execute a properly-resourced counterinsurgency strategy. Instead, Levin argues, the U.S. should focus narrowly…

Michael Deacon of the Telegraph has unearthed a wonderful little quotation from an interview Roman Polanski gave to Martin Amis in Tatler in 1979, one that, along with the original grand jury testimony, should be spread far and wide: "If I had killed somebody, it wouldn't have had so much appeal to…

Mrs. Huffington visits Israel -- a lifelong dream -- and a disappointingly boring series of sketches is all she manages to wring out of her visit. The "progressive populist," who laughably tells the Jerusalem Post that "At The Huffington Post we really avoid looking at American politics with the…

Do you ever wonder if maybe the arrest of Roman Polanksi was just another clever scheme cooked up by James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles, and Andrew Breitbart to prove the long-held belief of conservatives that Hollywood is indeed a den of iniquity and moral decrepitude, which would leap en masse to a…

Ambassador John Negroponte, who served as the first Director of National Intelligence (DNI) from 2005 to 2007, was on FOX News early this afternoon. He pegged the prospects of talks with Iran working at "less than 50-50." Negroponte insisted that he doesn't think Iran ever gave up its pursuit of…

In an "unprecedented" performance for a non-fiction book, Palin's forthcoming "Going Rogue," in the wake of its release date announcement, is at the top of the Amazon and Barnes and Noble lists. John McCain was asked about the book today, which takes its title from criticism of her performance on…

Welcome to the finally-back-from-out--of-town edition: National Science Foundation: NSF or NSFW? What next for the public option? Chicagoans pretty pumped about maybe getting the Olympic Games. Palin is No. 1. Entrepreneur brings Costco to Manhattan. "In five or six or seven years," said Christoph…

The president at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh: It is time for Iran to act immediately to restore the confidence of the international community by fulfilling its international obligations. We remain committed to serious, meaningful engagement with Iran to address the nuclear issue through the…

Joementum talked Iran this morning at an AEI/Brookings event on the Hill this morning. Lieberman is skeptical, to say the least, of the prospects that any real progress will be made on the nuclear issue at today's P5 +1 meetings: I have supported President Obama's decision to make a good faith…

The New York Times writes up the general's speech under the headline "McChrystal Rejects Lower Afghan Aims." The lede: "The top military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, rejected calls for scaling down military objectives there on Thursday and said Washington did not have…

Per Michael Crowley, Marc Lynch asks: "What's wrong with muddling through in Afghanistan?" ...what's so terrible with muddling through for a while, giving the new tactics a chance to work at the local level while preventing the worst-case scenarios from happening? Why choose between escalation or…

On Tuesday Florida Rep. Alan Grayson got into trouble for saying, on the floor of the House, "If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly." Grayson also brought a helpful chart that read: "The Republican Health Care Plan: Die Quickly." To mere dabblers in politics…

Remember how the uncouth behavior of the Republican rank and file at the August town halls was supposed to scare off independent voters. More than that, their radicalism and racism and generally uncivilized conduct -- or at least that's how MSNBC and the DNC described it -- was supposed to drive…

U.S.-Russia diplomacy is currently dominated by issues such as Iran, missile defense, and the post-Soviet republics. But the Obama administration must not ignore Moscow's role in facilitating the dangerous Venezuelan arms buildup and the nuclear ambitions of Hugo Chávez.

Once the health care debate ends, President Obama faces another daunting challenge: curbing an unsustainable level of debt in the federal budget. This is more than next year's problem because the two issues are also linked in a non-obvious way. Due to how Congress addresses deficit reduction,…