July 2011

Members of Congress and their staff who know and care about defense are somewhere between alarmed and panicked at the emerging shape of the debt ceiling deal. (Consider this amazing on-the-record statement by Senator Joe Lieberman’s communications director to Jennifer Rubin just a few minutes ago:…

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton just released the following statement, highlighting the danger defense spending faces in the budget deficit negotiations:

In response to last night’s Ryan-Rubio/Rubio-Ryan post, a reader sends in an image of this bumper sticker, already available at cafepress.com:

President Obama's defense secretary, Leon Panetta, sent an email message on Friday to all U.S. military personnel and all other employees of the Department of Defense about the debt ceiling.

Late Saturday night, ABC News and National Journal reported that the outline of a deal had been reached by congressional leaders and the White House.

Take fifteen minutes for the sake of your country.

House Republicans held a press conference in the Capitol Saturday to denounce what they called dangerous cuts to defense spending in Senator Harry Reid's debt limit bill. Buck McKeon (R, Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, warned that Reid's bill would cut defense by more than…

Harry Reid's debt limit plan was shot down in the House today by a vote of 246 to 173. During a press conference this afternoon, both Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and House speaker John Boehner said they were "confident" that a deal would be reached soon. McConnell said he spoke with…

Harry Reid doesn't have the votes to get his debt limit bill through the Senate. Forty-three Republican senators write in a letter:

In a stunning development on Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department accused the Iranian government of sponsoring al Qaeda. Treasury designated six al Qaeda terrorists and reported that they are working for a network headquartered in Iran. This al Qaeda network is “headed by Ezedin Abdel Aziz…

Reuters: "Growth anemic, debt row poses recession risk"

On Friday evening, the House of Representatives passed the Boehner proposal to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending. No Democrats voted for the bill, and 22 Republicans voted against it.

ABC News reports:

For the last four hours, the president's Twitter feed has been encouraging followers to tweet Republicans with the Obama talking points. Some examples:

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan agrees with conservative national security experts that Harry Reid's debt ceiling bill is much worse than Boehner's bill for our national security.

As of this writing, the president has pulled off a great political trick, with the help of some kamikaze Republicans. He has refused to offer a deficit-reduction plan, or submit a budget, or allow the Senate Democrats to do either—and has the public persuaded that he is the man who is seeking a…

In Egypt, it’s “Friday in Defense of Identity and Popular Will,” which has brought hundreds of thousands Islamist supporters to the streets, from Tahrir Square in Cairo to Alexandria.

The Hill reports that the Congressional Budget Office has scored the Boehner debt ceiling plan as reducing the deficit more than Harry Reid's plan -- and that's without resorting to gimmickry regarding assumptions about war spending:

On July 23, two high-speed trains collided on an elevated track near the Chinese city of Wenzhou, killing at least 39 people and injuring several hundred. In the days since the crash, shock and sympathy have turned to outrage as the Chinese government's propagandistic, face-saving response to the…

AEI's Dan Blumenthal delivered the following remarks at a staff briefing for congressional China caucus on Capitol Hill: 

Gallup's daily tracking poll for Barack Obama's approval rating shows a remarkable decline in the last week. On Monday, the president had 46 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval. Today, he's at 40 percent approval -- an all-time low in Gallup's tracking poll -- and 50 percent disapproval:

At a meeting this morning in the Capitol, House Republican leaders unveiled an amended debt limit plan. National Journal has the latest text of the plan, but what has Republicans more confident that it will pass the House is the inclusion of a plan to with balanced budget amendment (BBA) proposals.…

A new report from federal officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) says that Obamacare will increase nationwide health care spending. Particularly interesting are the report’s findings for 2014, the year that’s slated for Obamacare’s grand opening (if the overhaul isn’t…

President Obama's nominee for the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier this week that defense budget cuts would be "extraordinarily difficult" and "very high risk."

Last night, Speaker Boehner toyed with adding a gimmicky balanced budget amendment provision to the Republican budget bill in order to try to get the final handful of votes he needs for passage. He thought better of this last night, and didn’t do so. He should continue to avoid pointless and…

Reuters reports on the latest bad economic news:

As President Obama watches the debt ceiling developments in the House of Representatives, it’s worth reflecting on what result he is likely rooting for.

New York Times: "Boehner, Short of Support in House, Delays Debt Plan Vote"

Liberals are unhappy with the president over the debt ceiling battle.

The Washington Post reports:

Associated Press: "A federal wildlife biologist whose observation that polar bears likely drowned in the Arctic helped galvanize the global warming movement during the last decade was placed on administrative leave while officials investigate scientific misconduct allegations."

John Boehner needs 216 Republicans to get his debt ceiling bill through the House, and he's apparently not there yet. The vote has been delayed while leadership tries to lock down needed votes. Only 24 Republicans can vote no, and according to various whip counts (see National Journal and National…

Philip Klein reports: 

The Columbus Dispatch reports today:  

Pfc. Naser Abdo, the soldier arrested yesterday for planning an attack on Fort Hood in Texas, last year requested that he be given conscientious objector status so that he wouldn't  be deployed to fight in Afghanistan. CNN Headline News seemed enthusiastic, at the time, fawning over Abdo's request :

Fox News drops this big revelation following the arrest of Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, a Muslim soldier at Ft. Hood in Kileen, Texas this morning:

Despite many, many promises to the contrary, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that Obamacare will pretty substantially increase out of control health care spending:

Majority Leader Harry Reid says he will kill the Boehner plan (which Reid reportedly helped devise before it got shot down by Obama):

Economist Keith Hennessey, who has been writing extensively on the debt ceiling negotiations, writes, "I support the Boehner bill and hope House Republicans will vote to pass it." Here's Hennessey's reasoning:

Indiana congressman Mike Pence, a stalwart conservative and former chairman of the Republican Study Committee, announced today that he will vote for the Boehner bill. Pence is joined by freshman Hoosier Marlin Stutzman, who thanked the Tea Party for pushing the country to cut more.

Nancy Pelosi on today's vote: "What we're trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget. We're trying to save life on this planet as we know it today."

Despite Nancy Pelosi's obsession with political language, the former Speaker never seems to be able to contain herself from tossing off bits of rather embarassing hyperbole:

Following this write up, Joshua Foust seems to have regained an interest in the reports that Russia is responsible for bombing the American embassy in Georgia. You can read it here, but the long and the short of it: Foust remains skeptical of Georgian claims, he remains skeptical of Eli Lake's…

Indiana governor and budget hawk Mitch Daniels, who dubbed debt "the new red menace" during his CPAC speech this year, supports the Boehner plan:

“Extraordinarily difficult and very high risk.” That’s how General Martin Dempsey, the Army’s chief of staff and Obama’s pick to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff, bluntly described proposals by the president and certain lawmakers to cut national security spending by anywhere from $400 billion to $1…

Economist Thomas Sowell endorses the Boehner plan: 

In March 2010, I wrote a piece for THE WEEKLY STANDARD about some incidents in which the Moscow police had shown that ordinary citizens’ lives did not count for much in Putin’s Russia.

Jamie Fly, writing at National Review Online: 

Keith Hennessey: "Why I support the Boehner bill"

This evening, the Congressional Budget Office released its score of John Boehner's revised "Budget Control Act." 

Washington Post: "U.S. officials believe al-Qaeda on brink of collapse"

Looking at Washington these days, one suspects that this is the way things will be for a long time to come. Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day (and all that), the massive tangle of dependencies, entitlements, political payoffs, and perpetual pork barrel schemes that is our national government…

What would President Reagan do in the debt limit battle? That’s unknowable, but we do know what his goal would be: get the best deal possible under the circumstances. Reagan never let the perfect or the unattainable keep him from achieving the good.

Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey D. Feltman told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs this afternoon that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad isn’t going to survive the 5-month long uprising against his regime. “He can’t win this,” said Feltman, head of the State Department’s Bureau of Near…

Last week, Eli Lake reported on a very specific allegation by a senior Georgian official that the Russian GRU was behind a series of bombings in that country, including the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi. The charge was so detailed that it even included the name of the Russian officer who…

Michael Barone picks up on a pretty startling political trend — the youth vote is drifting away from Obama:

Former ambassador John Bolton has just released a statement of support for John Boehner’s debt ceiling plan, arguing that the speaker of the House’s plan is good for “all conservatives, especially those concerned with American national security.”

At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday morning on the domestic threat of al Shabaab, Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) warned that the Somali terrorist organization could carry out a terrorist attack in America and that it should not be underestimated.

An awkward minute on live TV as Harry Reid waits for New York senator Chuck Schumer to begin his press conference on the debt ceiling: 

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the ATF's "Fast and Furious" or "Gunwalker" scandal, which appears to reach the highest levels of the Justice Department. Read the whole magazine article here, but the short version is that the Justice Department knowingly allowed thousands of weapons to fall in the…

The Hill reports:

Al Jazeera reports:

Today's House Homeland Security Committee on al Shabaab and domestic radicalization features this testimony from WEEKLY STANDARD contributor Tom Joscelyn: 

This classic Jonah Goldberg post needs no introduction. My favorite part:

While President Obama’s notion of a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction isn’t written down anywhere, it’s quite clear that it doesn’t involve repealing Obamacare (despite the fact that the health care overhaul would cost over $2 trillion in its real first decade, from 2014 to 2023). Polling,…

Even with the fate of the republic hanging in the balance, I can’t stop myself from pausing just a few moments to recall the kind of elegance and glamour we once associated with Hollywood in those halcyon days when actors and actresses had dashing affairs but few annoying political opinions.

Washington Post: "House Republicans delay vote on Boehner debt plan"

To govern is to choose. To vote is to choose. To vote against John Boehner on the House floor this week in the biggest showdown of the current Congress is to choose to vote with Nancy Pelosi. To vote against Boehner is to choose to support Barack Obama. It is to choose to increase the chances that…

The next presidential election is about fifteen months away. And even though the outcome is highly uncertain, we nevertheless can get an early read on the “fundamentals”--and these do not look good for President Obama.

House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon has just sent around a memo to fellow Republicans on his committee, warning that Harry Reid's debt ceiling budget plan (which has been endorsed by President Obama) drastically and dangerously slashes defense spending.

Reuters: "A small majority of economists -- 30 out of 53 -- surveyed over the past two days said the United States will lose its AAA credit rating from one of the three big ratings agencies -- Standard & Poor's, Moody's or Fitch."

On July 21, the most respected Kosovo daily, Koha Ditore (Daily Times), reported that two lawyers, a writer, and an ordinary citizen of Pristina, capital of the territory, had commenced civil legal measures against Shefqet Krasniqi, imam of the city’s Grand Mosque, for his hateful remarks about…

Ben Smith catches a Navy Times report that Capt. Wade Sanders -- best known for vouching for John Kerry's dubious war record and introducing the candidate at the 2004 convention -- has been stripped of his Silver Star by the Navy:

Students for Solvency released its first ad today, suggesting that failure to reform Medicare and other entitlement programs is tantamount to throwing our kids off cliffs:

At a House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing, titled “Total Force Readiness,” Congressman Randy Forbes just delivered the following opening statement: 

The New York Times reports that "China already has some of the world’s most far-reaching online restrictions," and now it's getting worse.

Last week, the Obama administration issued the following veto threat for the "cut, cap, and balance" bill: 

The White House briefing room is often known as the place where news goes to die. Reporters try hard to get the press secretary to “make news” – or say something useable for their television/radio/print/web stories of the day. They often fail, in part because the job of the press secretary, in many…

Yesterday, Allen West gave John Boehner's plan the Tea Party cred it badly needed. Now movement conservative hero Fred Thompson, who has bucked the Republican establishment before, has a message for the House Republicans: "[A]ccept a well-won victory and move on."

No thanks to President Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner seems to have come up with a plan that will avoid a government shutdown and possible default, cut spending, and not increase taxes. Some details are here.

As noted earlier, Democratic congressman David Wu says he'll resign following a vote on the debt ceiling. With sex scandals becoming a bipartisan and all too common affair in Washington, it's important to emphasize that the allegations Wu faces are not typical and extremely serious. According to…

Oregon Congressman David Wu has just resigned. Dave Weigel has his statement:

President Obama portrays himself as the nonpartisan adult in the room in the struggle over raising the debt limit. In his nationally televised speech Monday, he placed himself above Washington’s “three-ring circus,” as someone who has “put politics aside” and is desperate for a bipartisan…

In his speech last night, President Obama once again did his reverse Harry Truman impression, showing that the buck stops anywhere but with him: “For the last decade, we have spent more money than we take in. In the year 2000, the government had a budget surplus. But instead of using it to pay off…

Reporting on its latest poll with ABC News, the Washington Post notes that Americans, including the president's base, are "unhappy" with Barack Obama's performance on jobs and the economy. Congressional Republicans, the Post writes, are also blamed for the poor economy and lack of jobs:

After hearing the president's speech last night, CNN's Gloria Borger pointed out that "nobody today is talking about tax increases, except Barack Obama."

How refreshing it is to see the actual lawmaking process finally proceeding — in the light of day — as the secretive closed-door meetings favored by this White House finally recede! This is how things are supposed to work in our republic.

Keith Hennessey: "President Obama says no to a bipartisan debt limit plan"

I was struck by these sentences in President Obama’s speech:

This afternoon President Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney endorsed Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s debt ceiling proposal:

Here's the full text of Speaker of the House John Boehner's response to President Obama's debt ceiling address, as prepared for delivery:

Here's the full text of President Obama's debt ceiling speech, as prepared for delivery:

New York Times: "Senate and House Split as Obama Is to Address Budget"

As Fred Barnes writes, it's not clear that there are enough Republican votes for John Boehner's new debt ceiling plan. But the speaker got a big boost on his right flank today from Congressman Allen West (R, Fla.). Jamie Dupree reports that West, an outspoken conservative and Tea Party favorite, is…

Why, exactly, do we need to extend the debt limit to the point where the federal government can borrow another $2.4 trillion (hardly a nice round number) — about the same amount of money, even in inflation-adjusted dollars, that we borrowed to fight all of World War II? Because, as Treasury…

Senate majority leader Harry Reid introduced a proposal today that he says would give Republicans everything they want in a debt ceiling deal: It would reduce the deficit by $2.7 trillion over 10 years, without raising taxes. But the plan was light on details of what gets cut--and when.

House speaker John Boehner’s new plan to cut spending while raising the debt limit faces two obstacles. It must win the votes of most of the 240 Republicans in the House. And the plan, or something like it, needs to be accepted by Senate majority leader Harry Reid. At the moment, overcoming the…

While there are a lot of specifics that have yet to emerge, the current deal being offered by Harry Reid in the debt ceiling debate -- $2.7 trillion in cuts and now new taxes or revenue -- is surprising. (Republican leaders are holding a press conference at 4 p.m. Perhaps the state of play will…

Peter Beinart has a doozy of a column up over at the Daily Beast, rather breathlessly titled, "Why Norway Could Happen Here." Since I suspect that Beinart managed to repeat every left-wing myth about the violent tendencies of Christians and conservatives, let's take a look at the key paragraph:

President Obama, at a speech earlier today at the National Council of La Raza, indicated that he "need[s] a dance partner here -- and the floor is empty."

Yesterday morning, the boss went on Fox News Sunday and said that "the rating agencies are idiots." He was, of course, referring to Standard & Poor's and Moody's, who "have been wrong about everything."

As of today, President Obama’s approval rating is only 42 percent in Gallup, while Rasmussen’s Presidential Approval Index shows that only 23 percent of likely voters “strongly approve” of Obama’s performance as president, compared to 44 percent who “strongly disapprove” — matching the highest…

As Lewis Carroll’s Alice might have said, the relationship between Argentina and Iran just keeps getting “curiouser and curiouser.”

The horrific events in Norway last Friday have been difficult to process, and killer Anders Breivik's 1,500 page manifesto is a lot to digest. Fortunately, there have been some exceptionally good pieces written about the tragedy that help provide some context and understanding for what happened and…

After cracking down on protesters and killing 1,500 of its own citizens, Syria seems to be changing its tactics: 

NPR reports, “Former President Bill Clinton said if faced with default, he would single-handedly raise the debt ceiling using the 14th Amendment and he’d do it ‘without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me.’”

Associated Press: "Norway suspect borrowed from Unabomber's manifesto"

Residents of California do not have nearly enough insurance to cover rebuilding costs following a big earthquake. One proposal to deal with this problem, a bill before Congress called the Earthquake Insurance Affordability Act, would not make things better and would drain billions from federal…

The intentions of Democrats are only the best. They want all of the old to have lavish retirements, all of the young to have scholarships, verse-penning cowboys to have festivals funded by government, and everyone to have access to all the best health care, at no cost to himself. In the face of a…

‘I’m the president of the United States, and I want to make sure that I am not engaging in scare tactics. And I’ve tried to be responsible and somewhat restrained so that folks don’t get spooked.” So said President Obama at his June 29 debt ceiling press conference. Two weeks later, CBS Evening…

Soon after Mitch McConnell joined the debt limit talks, his suspicions grew. An agreement with President Obama on raising the limit by $2.4 trillion​—​and tied to serious spending cuts​—​looked impossible. The more he heard from Obama and his aides in the private sessions at the White House, the…

Wanderlust

God of Liberty

To have served as the intellectual architect of the stalest presidential campaign of the modern-media era, to have lost a record number of states, to have gained a reputation for ruthlessness and secrecy in the process—only in Washington is that a recipe for success. Running the 1984 effort of his…

It used to be thought that, when England’s uxorious Henry VIII made his sixth attempt at matrimonial bliss in 1543 and took on the twice-widowed (but childless) Katherine Parr, he had at last got things right and that, bloated and diseased, he was able to spend his last years consoled by a homely…

The Obama administration’s Justice Department has been no stranger to controversy. Attorney General Eric Holder has staked out controversial policies on everything from terrorist detainee trials to the decision not to pursue voter intimidation charges against two New Black Panther party members…

Unseen Hand

The debt ceiling negotiations have become a tedious game of dorm room poker. Barack Obama is the dealer, and the deck is stacked in his favor. He’s enjoying the game. Even so, he’s not as good as he thinks he is: Witness his comment last week to House Republican leader Eric Cantor, “Eric, don’t…

The Tree of Life

At a press conference early last week, Barack Obama used the first question posed to preempt another that he was certain to receive. In the summer of 2009, Obama had explained at some length that raising taxes in an economic downturn was “the last thing you want to do” because doing so would “put…

The disappointing employment report made public on July 8 provided fresh evidence that economic growth is slowing and the state of the economy will be the central issue in next year’s presidential election. As if in anticipation of the jobs report, David Plouffe, senior political adviser to…

In late March, as Boston emerged from winter, so did the city’s protest community. On the 24th of the month I watched as antiwar students joined forces with partisans of the Palestinian cause and Nation of Islam members in their immaculately pressed suits and distinctive bow ties, to gather in…

Merritt Island, Florida

A Scrapbook correspondent in the state of Washington mails us the June 24 front page of the Seattle Times, reporting the arrest of two men who were plotting a suicide attack on a U.S. military office in Seattle. On July 7, a federal grand jury indicted the two, Walli Mujahidh and Abu Khalid…

The man squeezing his way through to the window seat smells of manure. Not a bad, rotten smell, exactly. Just that faint, fresh odor that farmers can’t ever quite get rid of. “He smells funny,” announces the little girl waiting in the aisle, and everyone stares carefully down at the airplane’s…

Philanthropy magazine features Albert Barnes on the cover of its summer issue, the latest in a growing number of newspapers and magazines to run feature stories about Barnes and his museum in Pennsylvania. James Panero, writing in Philanthropy:

Here's an unusually lively Panel Plus discussion, the additional Internet-only segment of Fox News Sunday, highlighted by the boss volunteering the opinion that "the rating agencies are idiots."

Judy Shelton makes the case in the new issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD for the “Gold Standard or Bust.” Sound finances, she points out, require sound money, and sound money, it turns out, seems to require a dollar as good as gold—i.e., a return to a gold standard. As she puts it, “monetary policy…

Sure the heat index is 116 degrees. But Jaleo does have air-conditioning, and with several locations in the D.C. area, those of you who can make it to the 9th annual Paella Festival ought to do so this week—the festival (really, a special menu of limited-time varieties of exotic paella) is going on…

American counterterrorism officials have long worried about the possibility of a “lone wolf” jihadist committing a terrorist attack. Such individuals, inspired by ideology alone, can come out of nowhere. And if they are truly unconnected to the international terrorist network then they can be…

The Norwegian terrorist seems to have penned a long Unabomber-style manifesto, "2083: A European Declaration of Indpendence," which can be downloaded, for now at least, at this link.

On Friday, the Czech Republic became the latest country to pull out of the upcoming U.N. “anti-racism” extravaganza known as Durban III. Canada, Israel, and the United States have already given thumbs down to the event, which the U.N. is bringing to U.S. shores on September 22, 2011. While…

Earlier this week, as reported first in Süddeutsche Zeitung, the remains of Rudolf Hess were disinterred from a Protestant cemetery in Wunsiedel, Bavaria. (Der Spiegel has also reported on this in English.) Ever since the suicide of Hitler's deputy in 1987 at age 93 (he was the sole inmate at…

If you want to have a relaxed summer break, definitely do not include on your beach reading list This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. Based on a massive multi-nation data base covering 800 years the authors conclude that, in the case of…

Shortly after news of the terrorist attacks in Norway broke, online jihadist forums considered credible began claiming responsibility. Those claims were a big part of the early media coverage. But now, the press is reporting that officials have arrested a Norwegian man named Anders Behring Breivik…

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg: "I have message to the person who attacked us and the people who are behind it: You're not going to destroy us. You're not destroying our democracy and our work for a better world. We're a small country but a very proud country. No one can bomb us to be…

Watching Obama's press conference this afternoon, I was reminded of Jimmy Carter's malaise speech.

"I have decided to end discussions with the White House and begin conversations with the leaders of the Senate in an effort to find a path forward," John Boehner writes in a letter to House Republicans this evening. You can read it in full here:

“Be afraid,” Max Boot warns about the so-called Gang of Six budget proposal. “Be very afraid.” Boot is here referring, specifically, to the drastic budget cuts in the proposal, and what that might mean for America’s future role in the world: “If, like me, you care about the future of American…

As Bill Kristol writes, the House Republicans have been the only responsible players in the debt-ceiling debate, having passed actual legislation in the light of day, to increase the debt limit.  Now, with all due respect, it’s time for House leaders to stay away from the White House.

UPDATE: The initial media reporting on the terrorist attack in Oslo focused on possible connections to jihadist terrorist groups. This story was updated the same day, see here, to reflect new information about the terrorist responsible. It was also updated that same dayhere. Another updated story…

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced the failure of "Cut, Cap and Balance" on the Senate floor: "We just completed a very important vote. We've now demonstrated that the House Republicans' Cut, Cap and Balance is over, done, it's dead."

“Sectarian violence in Syria raises fears,” screamed the headline of a Washington Post article on the murder Tuesday of 16 Syrians in the city of Homs, which lies 100 miles north of Damascus. Admitting that "confirming details" of what happened are hard to come by in a city under siege, the Post's…

The Newark Star-Ledger recently published a lengthy article portraying the state’s “unregulated” homeschoolers as wide-eyed fringers, not on the opinions page but as straight-facts reporting. When I emailed the editor to protest, he replied (and later courteously gave me permission to quote): “We…

Eli Lake has a pretty big scoop today on Russian espionage in Georgia: A bomb targeting the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi has been linked, by Georgian intelligence, to a series of bombings around the country over the last 12 months that all lead back to Russia's GRU.

The Senate has voted, along party lines, to table the Cut, Cap, and Balance debt ceiling legislation passed by the House. Is that the end of the story?

A Washington Post editorial today correctly notes that, despite the policies of the Obama administration, "There has been no change in Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons or in its aggressive efforts to drive the United States out of the Middle East." The sanctions were supposed to prevent Iran from…

O tempora, o mores! O Cicero, if thou couldst be with us now! The corruption of our age is approaching that of your own! But who speaks for the ancient Roman—and modern American!—virtues of civic duty and personal responsibility?

Forty-two years ago yesterday, Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ascended from the surface of the moon and rendezvoused with Michael Collins in the command module Columbia for their trip home from mankind’s maiden voyage to the moon. All three men are now in their 80s, and no human being…

UVA professor and Weekly Standard contributor Paul A. Cantor recently reflected on the passing of TV legend Sherwood Schwartz, who died last week at age 94. Writing in the Washington Post, Cantor shares his correspondence with the creator of Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch. (Cantor, who wrote…

Bloomberg: "Democrats Balk at Possible Debt-Limit Deal as Deadline Looms"

Steve Wynn’s comments about the Obama administration caused quite a stir this week. The Las Vegas tycoon said:

John Merline of Investor's Business Daily interviews Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot. Marcus tells IBD that Home Depot "would never have succeeded" as a retail business if it were founded today because of the regulatory burden. Here's a taste of the interview:

Bloomberg: "Obama Aide, Boehner Say No Debt-Limit Deal as Deadline Looms"

According to a poll conducted earlier this week by CNN and Opinion Research Corporation, 66 percent of Americans would support a plan that would raise the debt ceiling "only if a balanced budget amendment were passed by both houses of Congress and substantial spending cuts and caps on future…

Journalist and Arab media specialist Hussain Abdul Hussain links to a remarkable film about the Syrian uprising, Syria’s Youth Revolutionaries:

The American Islamic Leadership Coalition is a gathering of more than 25 organizations and leaders (including C. Holland Taylor’s LibForAll) that is broadly representative of moderate Islam here in the United States. Now the outfit has just released its response to the Obama administration’s…

The Obama administration’s Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that, since the official end of the recession over two years ago (in June 2009), the percentage of Americans who are employed has actually dropped, while most Americans who are employed are now making less money (in inflation-adjusted…

First lady Michelle Obama, at a Joining Forces screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two earlier today, revealed that her husband, Barack Obama, is a fan of the megahit Harry Potter series.

Senator Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), a member of the so-called Gang of Six, slams the Senate for dodging votes and offers support for the House Republicans’ recently passed legislation to raise the debt limit in exchange for cutting, capping, and balancing federal spending.  The House plan is the only…

In a piece in today’s Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger writes, “Next to generalized distemper in Republican circles over their presidential candidates, the second most-offered opinion on the race is that people wish Paul Ryan were running. The Wisconsin congressman and House Budget chairman…

In the month of June, the United States saw stagnant jobs numbers: The unemployment rate was at 9.2%, and the country made a net gain of a mere 18,000 jobs.

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, has released a statement on the Gang of Six deficit reduction proposal:

A friend alerted me to George Will's latest column on the debt ceiling fight. You won't be surprised to learn that I agree with every single word, including pronouns and transitive verbs. Here's the gist:

Since Michael Barone literally wrote the book on American politics, he's worth paying attention to when it comes to discussing election trends. In his latest post over at The American, Barone makes a key insight -- for the first time in two decades House of Representatives might be a good lens for…

Today's Washington Post editorial includes a nonsensical admission from Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist:

The foremost obligation of the federal government is to provide for the safety of the American people. Yet as the budget debate continues, it’s becoming increasingly clear that certain politicians want to trim the defense budget in order to repurpose money for social entitlement programs, such as…

Stand still in Washington these days and you're likely to be hit by a deficit reduction plan. There's the Bowles-Simpson plan, the Coburn plan, the Coburn-Lieberman Medicare plan, the Rand Paul plan, the Paul--Graham–Lee Social Security plan, the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan, the Ryan plan, the Gang…

On Tuesday night, the House of Representatives voted to increase the debt ceiling in exchange for cutting, capping, and balancing the out of control spending that has left us $14.5 trillion in debt. In marked contrast, the Senate has not voted to increase the debt ceiling, and President Obama has…

Remember when Egypt made front-page news for an entire week? But then came Libya, Syria, the debt ceiling, and Casey Anthony. And though it seems to have been forgotten by the media, there are still important developments taking place—and as a new report tells us, things aren't as bad as they may…

Fred Barnes, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

James C. Capretta: "The Gang of Six Disaster: The Worst Plan So Far"

Jennifer Rubin: "The Senate adviser told me, 'I think a bunch of Republicans are buying into the Gang of Six talking points too quickly.' He predicted, 'I think most will scurry as soon as the real bill is written and all the promises prove false.'”

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ranking member of the Budget Committee, has just released a statement today that criticizes both Senate Democrats and President Obama for lacking leadership on producing a budget. Noting the Gang of Six plan's "serious flaws," Sessions says the president needs to show…

First, Public Policy Polling -- a Democratic Firm -- reports "Obama in Peril": 

An officer at the State Department awarded more than $52 million in contracts to a company owned by her husband and operated by her daughter, the Daily Caller reports: 

The Hill reports: 

The AFP reports that the Syrian army is on the march: 

For the last year or two, USA Today has really been doing some terrific analysis on the federal workforce, and as you might expect, much of what they've discovered is pretty damning. The latest:

The U.S. embassy isn’t the only diplomatic compound that’s been stormed in Damascus. The Qatari embassy was attacked twice, compelling Doha to withdraw their ambassador last week.

There’s no blast wall around the Syrian embassy in Washington. Nor is the wrought iron gate crowned with barbed wire. During a handful of peaceful protests outside the embassy in the Kalorama neighborhood in recent months, no one threw tomatoes or attempted to scale the fence. The embassy and its…

Mike Allen reports on Chris Christie's meeting yesterday in Manhattan with top Republican donors who begged the New Jersey governor to run for president:

The Military Times reports that President Obama will award a medal of honor to former Marine Dakota Meyer:

On Tuesday, the Vatican appointed Archbishop Charles Joseph Chaput to lead Philadelphia’s Catholic population. Formerly the archbishop of Denver, Colorado, Chaput brings years of experience to the job – which he’ll need in a diocese that has been rocked by sexual abuse scandals.

By a margin of 32 points (63 to 31 percent), independents favor the repeal of Obamacare, according to the latest Rasmussen survey of likely voters. Independents who feel “strongly” (one way or the other) support the repeal of Obamacare by a margin of 31 points (52 to 21 percent). Likely voters as a…

On Fox News Sunday, the boss observed that "There is no empirical evidence [the debt ceiling debate is] helping the president, you know? If you look at the different polls, Gallup, Rasmussen, etc cetera. The president's approval rating has drifted down over the last two, three, four weeks...

AP: "GOP pushes huge deficit-cutting bill through House"

 As the debt limit battle drags on, my mind has gone back to the two previous instances in the postwar era when a Republican Congress was forced to square off against a Democratic president. The first was in 1947-1948, when Harry Truman was pitted against the 80th Congress. The second was 1995-1996…

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds some not-so-great numbers for The Great Compromiser. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans think President Barack Obama is "not willing to compromise on the budget deficit," while 77% say the same of Republican leaders.

Paul Ryan says: 

The cut, cap, balance plan passed the House of Representatives Tuesday night on a largely party-line vote 230 to 194.

Ben Smith: "Report: NRSC, Obama donor arrested as Pakistan agent"

New Jersey governor Chris Christie had a message for congressional Republicans and Democrats today: A pox on both your houses.

I don't know if I'd read too much into this, but what the hey. Here's a an email that recently landed in THE WEEKLY STANDARD inbox:

On Saturday, Benjamin Wittes and Robert Chesney published another response at the Lawfare Blog to questions I think Matthew Olsen, who has been nominated for the position of National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) director, should be asked at his forthcoming Senate confirmation hearing. Wittes and…

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was thrown back on his heels last week when ABC's Jake Tapper asked a simple question: Is a short-term debt limit deal worse than default?

In response to a question about whether now would be a good time for the president to present his own debt ceiling budget plan, White House spokesman Jay Carney had this to say: "Leadership is not proposing a plan for the sake of having it voted up or down and likely voted down..."

President Obama repeatedly insists that the debt ceiling must be raised by at least $2.4 trillion. Why this particular amount, rather than, say, an even $1 trillion or $2 trillion? Because $2.4 trillion is Obama’s estimate for what it would take to get him through the next election without needing…

As Obama threatens to veto the GOP's Cut, Cap and Balance, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sends out an email reminder that six Democratic Senators have publicly supported a balanced budget amendment:

John Boehner has decided to make his case directly to the American people regarding the GOP's proposed debt ceiling solution. It's a smart move in at least one crucial respect -- Boehner is trying to force debate over a balanced budget amendment (and spending restraints more broadly), as public…

Democrat Christie Vilsack, the wife of Secretary of Agriculture (and former Iowa governor) Tom Vilsack, announced today that she is running for the newly created Fourth Congressional District in Iowa:

Margaret Hoover appeared on the Today Show this morning to discuss her new book, American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party:

Florida senator Marco Rubio grades President Obama for the Daily Caller: 

The Israeli navy prevented a French ship called the Dignity from running its blockade of Gaza today, according to news reports in the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz. "The Dignity was carrying 17 pro-Palestinian activists. It was part of the Free Gaza Movement’s flotilla that was canceled earlier this…

Business Insider: "Wynn CEO Goes On Epic Anti-Obama Rant On Company Conference Call"

This afternoon Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) unveiled his own proposal to reduce to deficit. The plan, which purports to reduce the deficit by over $9 trillion over the next decade, does so by cutting discretionary spending and entitlements as well as by raising some revenue and counting savings on…

Investor's Business Daily: "Budget-Cap Math Is Hard: Center for American Progress Misstates GOP Proposal"

I suppose this is just, well, the sad rantings of a senior citizen. But O schadenfreude, you capricious sprite!:

Politico reports that Buddy Roemer will officially announce that he's running for president on Thursday in New Hampshire:

Jackson Diehl asks a pertinent question in his column today for the Washington Post: "If we retreat from Iraq, will Iran take over?"

"President Obama Calls for Shared Sacrifice and a Balanced Approach to Reducing America’s Debt," from the Democratic National Committee website, July 15:

The Obama administration issued a press release this afternoon to declare that the president would not sign the "Cut, Cap, and Balance" legislation if it were pass in the House of Representatives:

In a letter to new Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week, Senators Carl Levin and John McCain, the top men on the Senate Armed Services Committee, suggested it was time to look into terminating the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Angered by cost increases for the first three lots of low-rate…

The Washington Post reports:

Mike Haridopolos, the Republican president of the Florida state senate, announced this morning that he is dropping out of the race for the United States Senate. In a press release, Haridopolos says he wants to focus solely on his current job:

FPI provides "Five Steps to Hasten [Syrian strongman Bashar] Assad's Exit."

One of the least covered aspects of the debt limit negotiations has been defense spending. Obama administration officials and congressional Democrats have indicated that the White House would like to include significant defense cuts as part of an eventual deal, even beyond the $400 billion in cuts…

Bill Kristol, with John Podesta, Liz Cheney and Juan Williams, yesterday on Fox News:

Detainee policy and "Seven Errors in Today’s New York Times Editorial"

Ravel

W ith the afternoon off from a conference near Lisbon, I hired a guide to take me to Sintra—stronghold of the Moorish invader 1,200 years ago, center of monastic learning in the Middle Ages, pleasure garden of Portugal’s monarchy in the 19th century, and all of it spread across an upland pine…

Scribble, Scribble, Scribble

Opinion polls consistently show that the U.S. military is the most trusted institution in America. Republicans have benefited indirectly from that hard-won reputation because since the 1970s they have been seen as the strong, hawkish party, while Democrats have had to fight the stigma that they are…

Larry Crowne

The Republican presidential field is beginning to take shape, and candidates and maybe-candidates are figuring out where they stand and what to say. Sooner or later, they will need to say something about education. May we suggest a few talking points?

Last month, a unanimous Supreme Court held that a Pennsylvania woman named Carol Bond may challenge a federal law under which she was prosecuted, on grounds that Congress had exceeded its powers and intruded upon the sovereignty and authority of the states. Until Bond v. United States, it was…

The problem with socialists, according to Margaret Thatcher, is that “they always run out of other people’s money.” We haven’t hit that point just yet, but we have hit our nation’s legal credit limit of $14.3 trillion. To avoid defaulting on our loans, policymakers must raise that limit.

Wild Bill Donovan

Reading, Writing, and RuPaul

President Obama and the Democrats claim that the Medicare reforms proposed by Paul Ryan and the Republicans would shift the burden of health costs onto the backs of seniors. This has been the central—and essentially the only—argument the Democrats have made against the GOP plan. But the Democrats’…

At Barack Obama’s White House, the presidency and the president’s reelection campaign have merged. Totally. In the past, presidents have exploited their office to boost their reelection prospects. But never like this.

Covering political campaigns can be a dull, remorseless duty, but at least the reporters who gathered in Liberty State Park, New Jersey, on June 21 to see Jon Huntsman announce his presidential candidacy have this compensation: Someday they’ll be able to chuck their grandchildren under the chin and…

The administration’s policy toward Syria is shaping up to be the greatest missed opportunity of Barack Obama’s presidency. His failure of vision and nerve, paired with an acute Republican fatigue with the Middle East and foreign policy in general, has allowed Syria to drop off Washington’s radar…

It was bad enough when Moody’s Investor Services placed America’s credit rating under review for a downgrade because our politicians can’t agree to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Now Standard & Poor’s has taken an even tougher stance. It is putting U.S. debt on “Credit Watch negative,” with…

Andrew Biggs and Matthew Jensen: Cutting spending, not raising taxes, is the path to prosperity.

Consider these two quotations, both of which are provided by members of the Egyptian intelligentsia: “The Holocaust is a lie,” and “The victory of the Zionist ideal is also the victory of my ideal.”

On a conference call with bloggers today, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich offered advice to congressional Republicans who are currently in the middle of debt limit negotiations, saying it was their “moment to stand up to Obama.”

In his press conference today, President Obama shamelessly and condescendingly said, “Congress has run up the credit card, and we now have an obligation to pay our bills.” Yet Obama’s average annual rate of deficit spending in his first three years in office (including his 2012 budget) has been 9.7…

There’s a report of a U.S. airstrike in Yemen’s restive southern governorate of Abyan that seems to have targeted Fahd al Quso, a Yemeni al Qaeda operative on the FBI’s most wanted list. In any case, Quso survived the strike. He was traveling along a coastal road between Shaqra and Zinjibar,…

My suggestion that Matthew Olsen answer questions about his work on the Guantanamo Review Task Force during his Senate confirmation hearing has clearly struck a nerve at the Lawfare Blog. There are two posts replying to my original piece – one by Benjamin Wittes and another by Robert Chesney.

At his press conference Friday, President Barack Obama repeatedly claimed that the American people support a “balanced approach” and “shared sacrifice” when it comes to a debt and deficit solution.

The State Department announced this morning that the U.S. would recognize the rebels in Libya "as the legitimate (governing) authority."

Recently the Obama administration confirmed that it intends to resume official contact with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the Middle East's first, and foremost, Islamist organization. A few days ago, Michael Totten sat down with Brotherhood official Esam El-Erian in Cairo for a long interview. Totten…

This morning, on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Paul Ryan blasted the president for not doing what needs to be done to avert a crisis. “The president is just unwilling to go anywhere close to the kind of spending cuts we’re going to have to have if we want to avert a debt crisis," Ryan said.

The Henry Jackson Society yesterday released an important report titled, “The Tipping Point: British National and the UK’s Future World Role.” The report is written by sitting Tory MP Bernard Jenkin and HJS director of global security George Grant. 

Republicans are looking with new interest at the House seat in New York of Democrat Maurice Hinchey, buoyed by the entry in the 2012 race of Tom Engel, described by a GOP strategist as “a good candidate with resources.”

WSJ: "Bin Laden Plotted new Attack"

Contemporary journalism is much more episodic than systematic, focusing on one-off events and the colorful personalities involved rather than the long-term trends that brought about the current situation. Beltway reporting on the current debt ceiling battle has been no exception, relentlessly…

A core group of conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives is standing firm against any deal on the debt limit that doesn’t include major budget and spending reforms. Thirty-six House Republicans have signed the “Cut, Cap, and Balance” pledge, which demands Congress make “substantial”…

Gallup finds that a generic Republican is beating President Obama by eight points.

Harry Reid isn't sure if not raising taxes is worse than default.

From the latest Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraising email:

Majority Leader Harry Reid and the rest of the Democratic leadership held a press conference in the Capitol today with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to warn of the financial calamities--market turmoil, cuts to seniors and the troops--that they say will occur if the debt ceiling is not raised…

Earlier this week, Keep America Safe released the following ad, criticizing President Obama for not taking his military commanders' advice and for prematurely withdrawing from Afghanistan:

Winning the sweepstakes for the most hysterical piece of political journalism in recently is no mean feat, but I think Joshua Green at The Atlantic might have done it:

The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler offers a highly misleading account of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, saying they were “passed for the wrong reasons” and implying that, since there was no real need to cut taxes then, there’s no real problem with raising them now.  (Kessler makes his claim in the…

George W. Bush pollster Jan van Lohuizen considers some of the Republican candidates who are running (or considering a run) for president. What's particularly interesting are the liabilities that van Lohuizen notices.

The latest Rasmussen poll finds that "Just 34% think a tax hike should be included in any legislation to raise the debt ceiling. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 55% disagree and say it should not." In the debt ceiling debate, President Obama and the Democrats have…

It’s been five months since the revolution that ended the 30-year tenure of Hosni Mubarak, but the upheaval in Egypt is far from over. Large protests have become routine if not habitual in Egypt. In late June, 1,000 civilians criticizing the slow pace of reform were injured in clashes with riot…

Cairo—By the time I arrived at Tahrir the morning of July 8, the iconic square was already flooded with tens of thousands of activists for what the Egyptian media dubbed “Persistence Friday.” For the first time since the 18 days of protests earlier this year that brought down Hosni Mubarak, nearly…

Israël Peut-il Survivre? (Will Israel Endure?)

Speculation over the medical condition of former Chinese Communist leader Jiang Zemin continues unabated since a Hong Kong television station, ATV, broadcast an unattributed news story of his death on July 6. Jiang’s health has been thought to be in decline for some months, but when he did not make…

Two years ago today, President Obama finally took ownership of the economy: 

No, Rupert Murdoch does not pay negative income taxes: "Oh David Cay Johnston, You’ve Done It Again! Reuters Nixes Serial Misreporter’s Debut Column"

The debt ceiling fight has now reached a point typical of many dramas of this kind, when participants and commentators alike start to lose sight of the forest for the trees. That's inevitable. Trees are what Congress and pundits do for a living, and in any case which trees are left standing just…

The U.S. women's national team will advance to the finals of the women's World Cup.

Louisiana senator David Vitter just released the following statement, expressing disapproval of Mitch McConnell's proposed debt ceiling plan:

On MSNBC this afternoon, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fl.) told Andrea Mitchell that Republicans ought to be willing to sacrifice their "sacred cows" in a debt ceiling deal if they want to see reductions to the deficit. She said the GOP should follow the lead of her own party:

In this week’s newsletter, Matt Continetti writes:

How is Obama’s policy in the Middle East working at this juncture, two and a half years into the president’s term? Two news items reveal the very dismal picture.

The author Liao Yiwu has left China. Repeatedly denied the right to travel abroad, Liao recently slipped out of China to Vietnam, and arrived last week in Germany.

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member on the Budget Committee, spoke today on the Senate floor about his plan to raise points of order against all appropriations bills until the Senate passes a budget. Here's an excerpt of Sessions's remarks explaining the procedure:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended the Independent Patient Advisory Board (IPAB) and attempted to redirect focus from IPAB to the House GOP’s proposed Medicare reforms at a House hearing this morning on Capitol Hill.

Recall the old saying: Be careful what you wish for. In the struggle over raising the debt limit, it applies to President Obama as well as to congressional Republicans.

My wife sent me a link to this video. It's ironic: she, having spent a good chunk of her teenage years in Saudi Arabia, found it really funny; and I, who have never been and have no intention of going there, found it really sad. Of course, the "I want to get out, but can't" attitude rings true, but…

Here are two clips from yesterday’s House Budget Committee hearing on Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). In the first, Chairman Paul Ryan asks Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about her views on competition and choice:

On July 1, President Obama announced that he was nominating Matthew Olsen for the position of National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) director. Olsen has served in a number of national security-related government positions, including as the head of Obama’s Guantanamo Review Task Force.

Just a few minutes ago, on Fox News, House Republican whip Kevin McCarthy came out against Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell's debt ceiling budget plan. Asked whether he likes the McConnell plan, McCarthy said, "No." It seems that last night some House Republican members were tepid on the…

Despite press reports that have indicated Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia would not support a debt ceiling deal that involves tax hikes, the senator won't reveal, when asked in person, where he actually stands on the contentious issue. 

The Los Angeles Times reports:

New York Times: "Hopes Dwindling for Compromise in Budget Talks"

Pity poor John Boehner: He really, truly is fine with hiking taxes by $800 billion, but his political coalition – hijacked by those deranged Tea Partiers – has moved his party so far to the right that he just can’t agree to such a hike! This is the 10-cent version of Dana Milbank’s latest column,…

Mitch McConnell’s plan, as Eric Cantor and Jim DeMint said tonight, is “going nowhere.” Which is where it deserved to go. It was too clever by half, transparently cynical, probably unconstitutional, and Rube Goldberg-like in its incomprehensibility.  

The results of the six Wisconsin state senate Democratic primaries are in: Five of the six "real" Democratic candidates beat the "protest" candidates (Republicans who ran as Democrats) by 30 to 40 points in expectedly low turnout elections.

Shortly after Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell unveiled his “contingency” plan for a debt limit increase, the Associated Press bulletin read: “GOP Leader McConnell proposes giving Obama new power for automatic debt limit increase.”

Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry of the United States Army was presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor today.

CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley asked President Obama whether he “can tell the folks at home that, no matter what happens, the Social Security checks are gonna go out on August the 3rd?” President Obama replied that it wasn’t just Social Security checks that would need to go out and that “I…

Roll Call: 

President Obama had lunch today with "four business leaders to discuss ideas to grow the economy and create jobs," according to the White House. The participants met to "discuss the importance of working with the private sector to promote job training efforts, including ways that companies have…

Alan Blinder’s Wall Street Journal column today, “Our National Jobs Emergency,” unwittingly provides an answer to why all the Obama administration’s machinations to improve our economy have failed. Professor Blinder is surely a smart guy, but, like the president himself, he seems to view…

Yesterday, Claire Berlinski wrote about meeting a couple of Syrians from the city of Hama, which was leveled by Hafez al-Assad in 1982 and is now again threatened by Hafez’s scion, Bashar al-Assad. Today,  Berlinski explains why events in Syria matter to the U.S., from Ambassador Robert Ford’s trip…

Senate Republicans mounted a bold offensive today against President Obama’s effort to force them to accept a tax hike as part of a bipartisan agreement to raise the debt limit.

Downplaying the role of the controversial Independent Patient Advisory Board (IPAB), Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today that the Affordable Care Act “leaves all final decisions” on changing Medicare payment costs in the hands of Congress. “IPAB is a backstop, a…

After going more than 800 days without releasing a budget, the Senate Budget Committee has leaked a draft of a preliminary budget “blueprint” to the Washington Post. 

Fox News publishes a transcript of John Boehner's remarks to the GOP Conference today. Here's Boehner on tax reform:  

President Obama repeatedly insists that we need a “balanced approach” to dealing with our annual deficits, which have been twice as high during his tenure as during any other post-World War II presidency. In a memo sent yesterday to Republican colleagues, Paul Ryan responds to Obama’s claim with…

Another campaign in the battle for Wisconsin is getting under way today. Republicans won the legislative struggle in March, and then narrowly won the judicial election in April that ensured their collective bargaining reform would not be struck down by liberal judges. 

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell challenged President Obama’s claim to support trillions in serious spending cuts as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling – cuts the president says show he’s ready to anger Democrats to get a deal.

Politico's Manu Raju reports: 

While Americans’ support for the repeal of Obamacare remains unwavering, the Obama administration continues to push the implementation of its highly unpopular overhaul. The administration is trying to coax states into implementing Obamacare’s government-run “exchanges” — with some success. But…

In the wake of rising Democratic — and universal Republican — opposition to Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will appear on Capitol Hill this morning to testify before the House Budget Committee, chaired by Paul Ryan. IPAB,…

Keep America Safe is out today with a new ad, blasting the president for taking "more risk" in Afghanistan than his generals recommended:

Megan McArdle: "Euro in Crisis: Is the Italian Domino Falling?"

Irwin Stelzer: "Good ship Eurotitanic" heading toward icebergs Italy and Spain.

In tomorrow's special election in California’s 36th Congressional District, Los Angeles city council member Janice Hahn, a well-known Democrat, leads Craig Huey, a Tea Party-backed Republican and businessman. The race, long considered a sure bet for Democrats, seems now to be a little closer than…

Yuval Levin writes: 

"Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected," President Obama joked earlier this month at a Jobs and Competitiveness Council in North Carolina. The joke was in reference to a key element of the president's failed stimulus plan, which was meant to provide cash for quick projects that in…

The rocker was midway through a virtuoso guitar solo on the stage of the 9:30 Club in downtown DC when he tried a back-flip. Instead of landing on his feet he landed on his head, smacking it against the stage so hard the vibrations could be felt in the front rows.

Speaking in Iraq, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reportedly told U.S. troops: “The reason you guys are here is because on 9/11 the United States got attacked. And 3,000 Americans — 3,000 not just Americans, 3,000 human beings, innocent human beings — got killed because of al-Qaeda. And we’ve been…

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows that, by a margin of 13 percentage points (53 to 40 percent), Americans support the repeal of Obamacare. In the 28 weekly polls that Rasmussen has taken in 2011, the average margin of support for repeal has been 15 points (54 to 39 percent). Only…

At a solo press conference this morning, the fifteenth of his presidency, Barack Obama was asked why a sizable part of the public does not seem convinced that the debt ceiling ought to be raised. "The public is not paying close attention to the ins and outs of how a Treasury option goes," Obama…

The fiscal crisis, President Obama declared at a White House press conference today, consists of two problems: the deficit and debt.  Spending? That’s something he’d like to see more of, only House Republicans won’t let him.

What should the Obama administration do in the wake of the attack on the U.S. embassy in Damascus? Elliott Abrams rightly counsels the White House either to raise the stakes or withdraw Ambassador Robert Ford. We'll see how it plays out in the Syrian and Arab media over the next few days, but right…

I was busy on Friday sipping the finest Spotted Cow beer at my little sister's wedding in Madison, Wisconsin, so I'm a little late getting to the bombshell story that Talking Points Memo dropped on Paul Ryan as last week came to a close.

Poor Juan Cole. The University of Michigan professor never had a chance against the vast powers arrayed against him over the last several years. It seems the academic was the target of a conspiracy, engineered by the Bush administration, with the connivance of the intelligence community and that…

The BBC reports that Syrians loyal to strongman Bashar al-Assad have attacked America's (as well as France's) embassy in Damascus:

Politico reports that Republicans are standing up for a strong national defense:

Steve Hayes, with Mara Liasson, Juan Williams and Brit Hume, yesterday on Fox News Sunday's "Panel Plus:"

New York Times: "Petraeus Confident as He Leaves Afghanistan"

In a 75-minute meeting Sunday night, President Obama once again demanded that more than $1 trillion in tax increases be part of any deficit reduction package attached to a vote on the debt ceiling. In the session, Obama rejected a Republican proposal to seek $2.5 trillion in spending cuts and…

Omri Ceren writes at Commentary, 

House Speaker issued the following statement tonight: 

As the number of states passing voter ID laws is increasing, Democrats are up in arms about disenfranchisement of voters. Despite this, there are good reasons to believe that fraud might be widespread and producing identification hardly seems like a difficult barrier.

Streamlining our patent process? Yes, that was one of the remedies President Obama offered Friday in response to news the unemployment reached 9.2 percent in June and job growth was pitiful.

Streamlining our patent process? Yes, that was one of the remedies President Obama offered Friday in response to news the unemployment reached 9.2 percent in June and job growth was pitiful.

This is a tale of two cities. Well, two streets, Wall Street and Main Street, with a stop on Pennsylvania Avenue along the way. On Wall Street all is cheery, if you don’t count the investment banks that are faced with rising costs, lower incomes, and the need to pare staffs. Investors have watched…

James Pethokoukis: The jobs report from hell.

Secretary Clinton had nothing but glowing remarks for Malaysia’s leadership when she stopped there in November of last year.  “We already have a strong partnership based on common values like respect for cultural diversity, pluralism, religious tolerance… We know that Malaysia is a leader in this…

Syrian protestors greet US ambassador Robert Ford with roses as his car entered Hama this afternoon during the midst of more Friday protests against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Ford wished to show his solidarity with the opposition, but is he also signaling a change in American policy?

The House Budget Committee on Thursday released a report “demonstrating that economic hardships have been made worse by Washington’s misguided interventions and the lack of a credible plan to lift the crushing debt burden."

WEEKLY STANDARD executive editor Fred Barnes writes in the Wall Street Journal today:

With under a month left until the U.S. hits its statutory limit to borrow more money, Republicans and Democrats continue to disagree about what exactly would happen if Congress and the president fail to reach an agreement that raises the debt ceiling. 

Maybe it's the TSA agents, not the passengers, that need to have their crotches patted down:

White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee on Friday cautioned against overreading a dismal June unemployment report showing just 18,000 jobs added. Don’t “read too much into any one monthly jobs report,” he said.

Last night, Koch Industries posted the following letter addressed to Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Patty Murray on their website Kochfacts.com:

Quick, go and read super-wonk Keith Hennessey's dissection of the fuzzy math surrounding a possible budget deal. The numbers being tossed off are staggering: $4 trillion in savings over 10 (or is it 12?) years, $2 trillion over 10 years, etc. But what are these "savings" being measured against?…

We are $14.481 trillion (and counting) in debt.  That’s up from $293 billion 50 years ago.  It’s up from $9.986 trillion when President Obama was poised to take office at the end of 2008 (see Table S-9).  Heck, it’s up $14 billion (more than the annual profits of Coca-Cola, Disney, or…

There is a possibility that Republican congressional leaders will capitulate Sunday to President Obama and the forces of the status quo, by agreeing to a deal in which 1) we take on trillions more debt without any guarantee of fundamental structural budget reforms; 2) our tax burden is increased,…

The latest jobs numbers arrived this morning and are especially devastating -- the number of jobs added was the lowest in nine months:

Reality-based community?: "Top Obama adviser says unemployment won't be key in 2012"

On Wednesday, Peter Wehner drew an interesting contrast between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama:

"Obama move on Social Security puts him at odds with Dem leaders Reid, Pelosi"

Mark Albrecht, the former head of the Space Council, writes in today's Washington Times that NASA has become a "symbol of bloated, disorganized agency":

Well, this is rich. Wayne Crews at Forbes notes that Cass Sunstein, Obama's regulatory "czar", is insisting that government regulations cost no more than $62 billion. What's more, Sunstein is actively dismissing the conclusions of the Small Business Administration, who note that government…

Well, you don't see this every day -- Olympia Snowe and Jim DeMint have teamed up to produce this Wall Street Journal op-ed about the need for a balanced budget amendment:

James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal flags this AP report from the weekend about the growing impatience of the left with Ruth Bader-Ginsburg:

One of biggest impacts of Obamacare is the law's expansion of Medicaid. A program designed to help the poor will now balloon to cover as many as 84 million Americans.

If you obsess about demography for long enough, eventually you find all sorts of off-speed proposals to deal with the world's falling fertility rate. One of which is called "Demeny voting."Named for demographer Paul Demeny (who is now the editor of the Population Council's Population and…

James Capretta has a must-read over at NRO: "Budget Danger Ahead: How Republicans could get snookered again." 

In the two months since the SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan and it was revealed that a military dog accompanied the team, much attention has been given to the highly-trained dogs that accompany soldiers in the field. General Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan,…

Freshman senator Ron Johnson, Republican from Wisconsin, expressed frustration today that most members of Congress are in the dark on debt ceiling negotiations.

By a margin of 23 percentage points (53 to 30 percent), Americans now think it’s likely, rather than unlikely, that ObamaCare will be repealed — according to a recent Rasmussen poll of likely voters.  That’s the high-water mark to date for Americans’ expectation for repeal.  By a margin of 14…

There are many reasons to be skeptical that any likely budget deal would be worth supporting. And it’s long past time for Republicans to be planning strategically, and laying the groundwork legislatively and politically, for an outcome of no deal (or possibly a mini-deal that doesn’t sacrifice…

Be sure and watch Rubio's speech in the Senate below, but here's the money quote:

As Henry Kissinger used to say, at times it is more dangerous to be America’s friend than its enemy. Further confirmation of this sage observation came on June 24 when the Obama State Department blocked another request by Taiwan to purchase 66 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighter aircraft. These are…

Via Hot Air: Public Policy Polling reports that Michele Bachmann is far more popular in the key state of New Hampshire than she was just three months ago:

Jim Geraghty: "Obama Uses Some of that Political Rhetoric Left Outside the Door"

"A bill to require California public schools to teach the historical accomplishments of gay men and lesbians passed the state Legislature on Tuesday in what supporters call a first for the nation."

President Barack Obama hosted the White House’s first-ever Twitter town hall meeting Wednesday afternoon in which he answered questions on the American economy and jobs. All questions, submitted via Twitter, where answered in a live forum to a small audience. Many of the questions were preselected.

Test cheating has for years provided ammunition for critics of public school accountability, and the latest out of Atlanta on the country's apparently largest test-cooking scandal to date only amplifies their crows. As Mark mentioned earlier, that's the quick conclusion even "objective" reporters…

The Supreme Court in Nevada yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision allowing central party committees to nominate a single candidate in the upcoming special election, despite the Secretary of State’s decision that the election should be a “free-for-all.”

Earlier today, James Pethokoukis noted THE WEEKLY STANDARD is hardly alone in pronouncing the stimulus a failure:

Today, The New York Times weighs in on the challenges the Obama administration EPA faceso — especially with regard to enforcing carbon regulations. It contains this rather revealing bit about the EPA's mindset:

Today it was reported that a massive cheating scandal among Atlanta teachers was uncovered:

While President Obama and other Democrats frequently talk about the need for "shared sacrifice" and a "balanced" approach to deficit reduction, their proposal to raise taxes $418 billion is a grab bag of liberal favorites: ending tax breaks for oil companies and corporate jet companies, as well as…

On Friday, July 1, Pristina, the capital of the Kosovo Republic, saw some 1,000 Albanian Muslims praying in the main, downtown open-air square, while demanding space for a new and large mosque. The demonstration was the second such event in two weeks.

On Sunday, I noted that an estimate from President Obama’s own economists shows that the economic “stimulus” has cost taxpayers $278,000 per job and that, without the “stimulus,” 288,000 additional jobs would have been added or saved over the past six months.  Yesterday, the White House fired back.…

The New York Times has published a remarkable article on the murder of Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad. It is not the story’s central allegation that makes the piece remarkable – it is all too believable that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate had Shahzad killed. The…

"Bloggers bop New York Times's David Brooks"

Eugene Robinson is outrageously outraged over Republican perfidy:

"U.S. Officials Behind 'Fast and Furious' Gun Sales Should Be Tried in Mexico, Lawmaker Says"

Here’s a chance to help Purple Heart Family Support (PHFS) win a $25K grant from the Pepsi Refresh Everything Challenge. I know volunteers who work with PHFS at Bethesda Naval Hospital, and can vouch for their activities. At Bethesda, they serve dinner twice a month to families of severely wounded…

Steve Hayward makes the case that we do need to raise taxes -- but not on the rich:

In today's Wall Street Journal, Dan Blumenthal and Michael Mazza note that the China's growing military might should give American leaders something to think about with regard to our defense budget:

The Pawlenty campaign has snatched up Mike Huckabee's daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who managed John Boozman's successful Senate race in Arkansas in 2010. Team Pawlenty announces via email:

In his New York Times column today, David Brooks writes that Republicans opposed to tax hikes as a part of a debt limit deal "have no sense of moral decency." The column happens to include a rather conspicuous typo:

The Palin question for 2012 is still far from resolved, and Scott Conroy of RealClearPolitics files this curious report from Iowa:

Flotilla organizers are always insistent that their mission to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza is strictly humanitarian. So although the latest flotilla has been prevented from leaving Athens by Greek authorities, one might think that the organizers would at least be willing to accept…

George Gilder writes in the Wall Street Journal:

"Global race on to match U.S. drone capabilities"

Time magazine is nothing if not direct. Featuring a picture of the Constitution, the bottom half of which has been run through a shredder, today’s cover asks: “Does it Still Matter?”

Will President Obama replace Joe Biden as his running mate in 2012? I've always thought it’s a real possibility. Biden was perhaps useful in bringing experience to the ticket of challenger Obama in 2008, but he does nothing for incumbent Obama in 2012, whereas a fresher and younger face might add…

This week we celebrate the fact that 235 years ago, our Founding Fathers declared our independence. We should never forget though, that the freedom proclaimed in words on July 4, 1776, did not become reality for five more years – only after the Continental Army sacrificed untold amounts of blood,…

Two months ago, I wrote about the plight of a private, Tocquevillian-style civil association in the small town of Orcutt, California. That group, the Old Town Orcutt Revitalization Association (OTORA), has raised $60,000 in private donations to build a flagpole — from which the American flag would…

Returning home the other evening to an empty house from a three-day trip, I checked the thermostat in the darkened vestibule and noticed that the temperature was a few degrees higher than the setting. My alluring wife, who is more cost-conscious than I about such things, had left the air…

Super 8

How far will President Obama go to advance the interests of organized labor? Awfully far. We know this not only from the effort to keep Boeing from building a plane in a right-to-work state, South Carolina, but also from the way Delta Airlines is being railroaded into recognizing unions its…

In 1992, my friend Frances committed suicide on her 76th birthday. Frances was not terminally ill. She had been diagnosed with treatable leukemia and needed a hip replacement. Mostly, though, she was depressed by family issues and profoundly disappointed at where her life had taken her.

Don’t look now, but the fiscal mountain blocking our path is rockier than usually advertised. Why? Because even if House Budget chairman Paul Ryan prevails on every contentious detail of his long-term plan for prosperity, family fragmentation​—​more severe in the United States than in any other…

"America, it is time to focus on nation building here at home.” This was the core sound bite in President Obama’s speech announcing the drawdown of forces in Afghanistan, and it was an extraordinary statement. Of course, such sentiments have been uttered many times over the years. George McGovern’s…

The City of Man

"At some point this must end. With a permit, or without.” With those words, an exasperated federal judge punctuated his latest decision ordering the Obama administration to process applications to drill for oil and gas offshore. More than a year after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused the…

Last year I gave a reading in New York City, and talking to people afterwards I was struck by how many were also travel writers, or at least survivors of a travel-writing course. It was refreshing to be around literate travelers. At home in Florida I usually address seniors, who like to ask me…

If she’d fallen backward, she’d have been killed. It was September 2009, during her second term in Congress, and a magazine had sent a photographer to shoot Michele Bachmann. He escorted her to the third floor rotunda in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, where he positioned a large…

Joe Biden finally won an argument. President Obama’s decision to draw down U.S. forces in Afghanistan seems to move American policy toward Biden’s long-held view that the U.S. military should narrow its approach to a selective, counter-terrorism-focused mission. In this view, targeted raids, like…

On July 1 Moroccans will vote on a set of constitutional changes proposed by their king, Mohammed VI. These new amendments guarantee the full equality of women and the rights of minorities, like the Berbers, whose language, Amazigh, will now be an official language alongside Arabic; they…

Monarchy Matters

The Turbulent World

On June 22, the Congressional Budget Office released its annual “Long-Term Budget Outlook.” To call the document grim would be a grave understatement. It describes a massive wave of debt that threatens very soon to drown us—and that, thanks to the weak economy and the continuing growth of spending,…

The mass email from BarackObama.com evaded our spam filter and made it into our inbox at 1:03 a.m. on June 24. What was Jim Messina, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, urgently telling us as we slept?

When the Obama administration releases a report on the Friday before a long weekend, it’s clearly not trying to draw attention to the report’s contents. Sure enough, the “Seventh Quarterly Report” on the economic impact of the “stimulus,” released on Friday, July 1, provides further evidence that…

You've reread the Declaration of Independence. You've once again enjoyed Jefferson's extraordinary 50th anniversary letter of June 24, 1826, addressed to Roger Weightman. But you're up for still more reading this weekend, and you think you wouldn't mind something that deals seriously—but also in a…

June was the deadliest month in Iraq for U.S. forces in more than two years, with 15 servicemen killed. Jay Solomon of the Wall Street Journal explains why: “The U.S. has attributed all the attacks to Shiite militias it says are [sic] are trained by the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards, rather than…

The Economist magazine thinks the Space Age is probably over, and the discussion of our space future (or non-future) in its new issue is intelligent and informative. I've found over the years, though, that in many instances, the Economist's suave articulation of the not-so-cutting edge of…

We worry as we prepare to fire up our barbeques, head for the beaches and ballparks, and otherwise celebrate our hard won independence from British despotism. That’s the good news, because it reflects a realization that a policy shift can no longer be postponed. By 44 to 34 percent, we have told…

"Obama campaign to go on the offensive against conservative critics of Israel stance"

While President Obama and other Democrats frequently talk about the need for "shared sacrifice" and a "balanced" approach to deficit reduction, their proposal to raise taxes $418 billion is a grab bag of liberal favorites: ending tax breaks for oil companies and corporate jet companies, as well as…

Gary Schmitt writes:

Tim Pawlenty's campaign has just announced that it's raised $4.2 million in the second quarter. "Gov. Pawlenty will report that his campaign has raised about $4.2 million, and begins the third quarter with more available cash-on-hand than the Republicans who won the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire…

Conn Carroll points out that the fight over the debt ceiling is one that the Democrats chose: "The Democrats decision not to raise the debt limit when they still controlled both houses of Congress was a calculated political gamble. They wanted to use the debt limit vote to separate newly-elected…

Imagine the reaction if President Obama and congressional Democrats had released a sweeping health care bill, drafted in closed-door meetings, and demanded its approval by Congress immediately. There would have been national outrage over the secrecy, lack of time for public hearings, and the…

The AP reports that the latest flotilla has been prevented from sailing to Gaza by Greek authorities:

Despite the Wisconsin political circus of late, state Republicans have expanded the oldest voucher program in the nation within a much-needed deficit-cutting budget. Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed the bill Sunday. It included a provision axing the cap on Milwaukee's school vouchers program…

General Jack Keane, Senator John McCain, and Senator Joe Lieberman discussed the war in Afghanistan yesterday at an event sponsored by the Institute for the Study of War:

Following on Matt Continetti’s cover story this week, “Queen of the Tea Party,” a host of writers seem to have awakened to the charms, and the potential, of Michele Bachmann. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza insightfully describes her “unique appeal” in an account of a town hall meeting in Rock…

Yesterday, Harry Reid cancelled a planned Senate recess for the week of July 4, which Republican senators such as Jeff Sessions and Marco Rubio had been pushing, since the government is rapidly approaching the debt ceiling deadline of August 2. But will the Senate actually make any movement toward…

"Strauss-Kahn Case Seen as in Jeopardy"

In Wednesday’s press conference, Barack Obama said: