301 articles
President Barack Obama said last night at a Democratic fundraiser in Rhode Island that the terrorism from ISIS "doesn’t immediately threaten the homeland." The reason? The security measures taken by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according…
At a fundraiser last night in Newport, Rhode Island, President Obama played down the threat from the terrorist army ISIS. "We have to be vigilant," he told the group of donors, "but this doesn’t immediately threaten the homeland."
Free trade is a huge benefit if you are a Walmart shopper. All those microwave ovens, lamps, sneakers, and other stuff available for a relative pittance. It’s a tragedy if you are a domestic manufacturer or worker attempting to compete with cheap labor and subsidized Chinese manufacturers pouring…
Continetti: Remilitarize the world police.
Even after yesterday’s promising first time claims and GDP numbers, the state of the economy – especially on the jobs, employment, wages side – remains uncertain and troubling as we enter the Labor Day weekend. As Mark Gimein of Bloomberg reports:
John Kerry chose the third anniversary of U.S. citizen Amir Hekmati’s "detention on false espionage charges" during a visit with his family in Iran in 2011 to "respectfully" call on the government of Iran to release Hekmati and several other U.S. citizens held or missing in that country. Saeed…
New rule for investors: Don’t listen to stock tips from White House flacks. As Steven Dennis of Roll Call writes, then White House press secretary Jay Carney said at the March 18 daily dog and pony show, when asked about the effects of sanctions on Russia:
President Obama is spending today attending three fundraiser (two in New York and one in Rhode Island). And the White House doesn't seem to care what others might think of the president's use of time.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said today that President Obama "is determined as ever" to take executive action to deal with the issue of immigration:
Josh Earnest appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe Friday in damage-control mode after President Obama's "we don't have a strategy yet" remark during his press conference on Thursday. Almost immediately after the president made the comment in response to a question by Chuck Todd, Earnest took…
Russia has "outright lied" to the United Nations about its actions in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power charged during an emergency meeting Thursday of the Security Council. "At every step, Russia has come before this Council to say everything except the truth," Power said. "It has…
New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen is hitting her likely opponent for the U.S. Senate, Scott Brown, in a new TV ad over the Republican's ties to "Big Oil"—even while Shaheen invests in energy companies herself.
The Palm Beach Post reports that Florida Blue CEO Pat Geraghty is characterizing as “unfair” Marco Rubio’s argument that American taxpayers should not be forced to provide a bailout for health insurance companies that lose money under Obamacare. It’s not entirely clear whether Geraghty thinks it’s…
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior editor Lee Smith on the President's speech on his non-existent ISIS policy in the Middle East.
President Obama told reporters today that "we don't have a strategy yet" for dealing with ISIS:
The Washington Post reports that Democratic senator Mary Landrieu doesn't own a home in her state of Louisiana, instead listing her residence on federal election forms as either a mansion she owns in Washington, D.C. or her parents' home in New Orleans. Landrieu, who is facing a tough reelection…
At the Washington Post, Christopher Ingraham demonstrates through one chart "why it feels like the recession never ended." Here's the chart, with part of Ingraham's explanation below:
Noemie Emery, writing at the Washington Examiner:
THE WEEKLY STANDARD Books & Arts Podcast with Philip Terzian, on the September 1st Issue's Books and Arts section.
The Republican Governors Association is running a new TV ad in Nebraska, attacking the Democratic candidate for governor, Chuck Hassebrook. The ad knocks Hassebrook for supporting Obamacare. Watch it below:
Less than a week before President Obama and other NATO leaders gather in Wales for a two day summit, NATO is accusing Russia having "well over 1,000 troops" in Ukraine where Russian-backed separatists continue to skirmish with Ukrainian forces. This latest development underlines a statement on the…
The VA has created a small public relations problem for itself. Which, to say the least, is something it did not need.
After news broke this morning of Russia furthering its invasion of Ukraine, the White House announced that President Obama will meet with the National Security Council later this afternoon in the Situation Room:
Jeanna Smialek and Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg reports that:
Kateryna Choursina, Volodymyr Verbyany and Bryan Bradley of Bloomberg are reporting that:
With lawmakers ratcheting up pressure on Obama to take action in Syria, few in the administration have been paying close attention to Libya, apparently. As Fox News's Jennifer Griffin reported last night on Special Report with Bret Baier, the United States was baffled for days as to who conducted…
Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm is lined up, as Derek Draplin of the College Fix reports, to teach:
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on Senate Democrats, Syria, and the 2014 midterm elections.
Supporters of Iowa Democrat Bruce Braley will raise money Wednesday night at the home of an attorney who once defended a Catholic bishop accused of molesting young boys. Trial lawyer Tim Bottaro will host the fundraiser at his home in Sioux City along with other supporters of Braley's Senate…
The man who is described by his mouthpiece as “the constitutional lawyer in the Oval Office” is increasingly bored with the routine demands of his job (so much so that even Maureen Dowd has noticed) and finds the Constitution a darned nuisance and an obstacle. So, as Coral Davenport of the New…
The editorial board at the New York Times says it's not endorsing in the Democratic primary for governor of New York. In a lengthy editorial, the Times writes that the sitting governor, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, "broke his most important promise" to root out corruption in the Empire State. The paper…
Slow growth is bad for everyone. Including the government, which depends (sort of) on tax revenues to do its job. Now, as Kasia Klimasinska of Bloomberg reports:
The Immigration & Customs Enforcement agency renewed its search this week for "Transportation Services for Unaccompanied Children" crossing the border into the United States. An earlier notice posted in January of this year seeking "escort services" for an estimated 65,000 unaccompanied children…
The Department of Health and Human Services is looking to school the entertainment industry media when it comes to reporting on substance abuse and mental health disorders. In a notice posted this week on behalf of HHS's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the agency…
Do Washington Republicans smell blood in New Jersey? The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP's Senate campaign apparatus, issued a press release Wednesday knocking New Jersey's Democratic senator Cory Booker for being a "tax & spend liberal."
The death of James Foley has changed Obama's foreign policy.
During President Obama’s second term, about the only thing more common than seeing him out on the golf course has been seeing polls highlighting the striking unpopularity of his signature legislation. Obama has golfed a reported 79 times so far in his second term (compared to a reported 24…
The latest attack ad from the Mark Pryor campaign is, well, absurd. Here's Politico's description of the 30-second spot: "Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) is citing the recent scare over the Ebola virus in a new attack ad against his GOP opponent, the first mention of America’s preparedness for a possible…
In politics, the preferred way to deal with a negative story is, of course, to ignore it. Act as though it is of such slight importance, so obviously untrue, and peddled by such disreputable sources that it isn’t worth your attention. You have far more important things to do. Much loftier…
The BBC is reporting that:
Jeffrey Herf, writing for The American Interest:
The federal government issued sixty contracts from 2009 to 2014 in efforts to build Healthcare.gov, the federal insurance marketplace. According to a report issued today by the inspector general (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the government had already paid out just…
Perm-36, also known as ITK-6, is the only intact facility remaining in Russia from the Soviet-era gulag system of political prisons and labor camps. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Perm-36 was turned into a Gulag Museum, “to promote democratic values and civic consciousness in contemporary…
The National Republican Senatorial Campaign has developed a multi-level online computer game. The game, called "Mission Majority," is programmed to look like an 8-bit-era video game and features an elephant named Giopi (sounds like "GOP") as a playable character. The player runs and jumps,…
One United States senator believes that the Obama administration “has not yet done enough to earn the lasting trust of our veterans and implement real and permanent reforms at the VA.”
From the boss's weekly newsletter:
Florida Polytechnic “University” (it isn’t accredited) is making headlines this week by opening a bookless library. Instead of checking out traditional codex books, students will be forced to read class material on tablets, e-readers, and/or laptops. According to the middle-aged librarians and…
Earlier today, the news broke that Peter Theo Curtis, an American who had been held hostage in Syria since 2012, has been released by his captors. Coming just days after another American hostage, James Foley, was brutally beheaded by the Islamic State, Curtis’s freedom brings a sense of relief.
Things are getting more expensive, and the American people know it. A new poll from Rasmussen Reports found three-quarters of Americans say they are concerned about inflation, with 81 percent saying they are paying more for groceries and 71 percent saying they expect to pay even more for groceries…
Cornel West has some harsh words for President Barack Obama in a recent interview with Salon.com. The first question West answers is, "how do you feel things have worked out since then, both with the economy and with this president?"
A Virginia Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives is getting blowback after saying his Republican opponent has never "had a real job." The Washington Post reports:
Vice President Biden wrote in the Washington Post last Friday that:
Forget Bill Clinton. And Richard Nixon. And, for that matter, George W. Bush. The president who has faced the greatest "level of obstruction" is, according to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the current president of the United States -- Barack Obama.
On Sunday, the boss joined George Stephanopolous, David Plouffe, Peggy Noonan, and Donna Edwards on ABC's This Week to talk about Iraq, Ferguson, Rick Perry's indictment, and a potential 2016 run from former Democratic senator Jim Webb. Stephanopolous referred to a recent WEEKLY STANDARD blog post…
Rep. Donna Edwards, a liberal congresswoman from Maryland, had very nice things to say about Jim Webb and his possible run for president of the United States:
Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is publicly criticizing President Obama's response to the beheading of American journalist James Foley by the terror group ISIS.
Congratulations to you, Tom Montag, named sole chief operating officer of Bank of America this past Wednesday. And first thing Thursday morning asked to sign a check to the government for $16,650,000,000 to settle complaints that the bank sold flawed mortgage securities in the days preceding the…
The great Washington insider scam rolls on. As Peter Schroeder of The Hill reports:
Dennis Wagner of the Arizona Republic writes that:
The dictionary defines a deadline as “the latest time or date by which something should be completed.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency obviously defines it another way, at least when it comes to renewable fuels.
Via The Blaze, former deputy director of the CIA Mike Morrell talked to CBS News about the threat that the Islamic State poses to the United States:
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on the supposed "good failure" the Obama administration is touting in their failed effort to save the late James Foley, who was brutally killed by ISIS.
The various wars in the Middle East and the apparent re-involvement of the U.S. there have temporarily overshadowed tensions in Ukraine. But today, as Jake Rudnitsky, Daryna Krasnolutska and Patrick Donahue of Bloomberg report:
Republican Shelley Moore Capito leads her Democratic opponent Natalie Tennant by 17 points, according to a new poll of the West Virginia Senate race from Rasmussen Reports. An even 50 percent say they support Capito, the congresswoman and daughter of former governor Arch Moore, while just 33…
What, you sometimes think, is it with these people? Why are they so infatuated with death? First, the execution of James Foley by ISIS, carried off like a punk schoolyard stunt. And now, as the Chicago Tribune reports:
Scott Brown, the Republican Senate candidate in New Hampshire who has struggled to gain traction against his opponent Jeanne Shaheen, is within two points of the incumbent Democrat in a new poll from WMUR and the University of New Hampshire. The poll shows Shaheen with 46 percent support and Brown,…
General John Allen, who is retired from the military, says that the Islamic State (known as ISIS, ISIL, or IS) must be destroyed now.
Matthew Continetti, writing for the Washington Free Beacon:
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with frequent contributor Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, on the White House's approach to the War on Terrorism.
Ever since President Obama pulled forces out of Iraq, he has been unequivocal in his statements about "boots on the ground" in that country. As recently as August 7, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that the "President has also made clear that American military action in Iraq would not…
The world is exploding, as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said last week. But President Obama is going golfing -- again.
Yesterday, in response to the news that jihadi savages had killed an American journalist on YouTube, the Obama administration revealed that there had been a special forces operation that attempted and failed to rescue James Foley. For the life of me, I can't figure out why this was necessary…
Yesterday, in response to the news to the news that jihadi savages had killed an American journalist on YouTube, the Obama administration revealed that there had been a special forces operation that attempted and failed to rescue James Foley. For the life of me, I can't figure out why this was…
The killing of James Foley was done, it seems, by someone who spoke with a British accent. This is disturbing, of course, but not surprising. The first of these ritual executions, that of Daniel Pearl, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, was organized by a man named Omar Sheikh who was born in London…
First time claims were expected to be come in at 303,000. The actual number was 298,000. As Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg reports:
An email from TWS friend and occasional correspondent Dr. Alexander Vuckovic:
Speaking at a recent town hall meeting, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont tried to have it both ways on Gaza. Wrong, he said, to shoot rockets. But Israel overreacted. This is the progressive equivocation. The precise, moderate, and acceptable reaction by a nation that his under rocket attack…
Bill Clinton enjoys a Gurkha cigar, "the Rolls Royce of the cigar industry." He "loves the Gurkhas," Gurkha chief executive officer Kaizad Hansotia, maker of the HMR cigar, which stands for His Majesty's Reserve. It is, according to Hansotia, "the world's most expensive cigar."
Vice President Joe Biden told a reporter today that the beheading of American journalist James Foley by the ISIS will not alter the approach to the terror group. An "AP reporter asked if Foley's beheading changed the U.S. approach to ISIS," the White House pool report reads. "Biden said no, but it…
Thomas Joscelyn, talking about the beheading of James Foley, earlier today on the Wall Street Journal Live:
As Michelle Maitre at EdSource reports, when people learn more about the Common Core educational standards, they like them less. The Common Core is the latest attempt to apply universal standards of instruction and performance across American schools. It has the support of big names like Bill…
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on President Obama's comments on the horrific killing of American journalist James Foley by Islamic terror group ISIS.
The president is appalled. Indeed he said this afternoon that "the entire world is appalled by the brutal murder of Jim Foley by the terrorist group, ISIL." The act of violence that killed Jim Foley, the president continued, "shocks the conscience of the entire world."
In a few minutes, President Obama will address the nation about the beheading of an American by the terrorist group ISIS. But before facing the cameras, Obama sent out a fundraising appeal.
Here are the two best responses I've seen so far to the latest barbarism from ISIS.
When Paul Ryan takes over as chairman of the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in 2015, expect him to develop a tax reform plan that specifically lays out which tax breaks he would scrap or reduce in order to lower tax rates.
Elizabeth Warren, the popular Democratic senator from Massachusetts, declined an opportunity to say whether Hillary Clinton is the best choice to be president in 2016:
Negative employee feedback has prompted a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to seek development of a training program for supervisors on having "difficult conversations." In response to focus groups, the National Ocean Service's (NOS) 200 supervisors will be…
Former Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said on CNBC this morning that he "would love to see" Mitt Romney run for president again, but that he doesn't think it's likely:
American voters says they would prefer President Barack Obama work with Congress rather than use executive action to address the illegal immigration crisis at the border, according to a detailed new opinion poll on immigration, illegal immigrants, and the state of the American worker. The poll,…
The Islamic State’s official media arm, Furqan Media, has just released a video showing the beheading of American photojournalist James Wright Foley. The terrorist organization claims that the murder of an American citizen who went missing in Syria in 2012 comes as a warning to the White House to…
The Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot, has released a grisly video of one of its fighters beheading a man who appears to be James Foley, an American journalist who was kidnapped in Syria on Thanksgiving Day 2012. The images from the video are horrifying, as they are intended to be. The Islamic…
Yesterday Pope Francis endorsed military action to stop the Islamic State (formerly the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) from persecuting religious minorities, especially Christians and Yazidis, in Iraq. The pope’s statement is to be welcomed—albeit with serious reservations.
John Bolton, in a fundraising email, makes the case for defunding UNRWA--and more:
Justin Sink of The Hill reports that:
The United States may be withdrawing its combat troops from Afghanistan but that does not mean the war is ending. To the contrary as Hamid Shalizi of Reuters reports:
If the economic recovery is dismissed as a chimera by half the population, there is a reason. As Aki Ito, Ian Katz, and Ilan Kolet of Bloomberg report:
Frank Bruni writes in the New York Times:
Kentucky's Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes was recently listed as a "special guest" for a fundraiser in New York City hosted by EMILY's List, a PAC dedicated to supporting female candidates who support abortion-on-demand. But Grimes's name has quietly been dropped from the list…
Erica Payne, founder and president of the left-wing Agenda Project, is encouraging people to deface the cover of Paul Ryan's new book, which is hitting shelves today.
Nevada reporter Jon Ralston rips Hillary Clinton for demanding "royal treatment" in an upcoming visit to Las Vegas:
The editorial board of the New York Times has plenty of nasty things to say about Texas governor Rick Perry. But the editors still think the indictment of Perry "appears to be the product of an overzealous prosecution."
How does a Democratic Senate candidate running in a conservative state in 2014 try to win? There are many strategies, from Louisiana’s incumbent senator Mary Landrieu emphasizing her ties to the energy industry to Michelle Nunn of Georgia running as a business-friendly moderate willing to work with…
Writing in The Week, James Pethokoukis asks the troubling question: “Is the U.S. economic recovery almost over — already?”
Possible 2016 presidential candidate Chris Christie refused speak out against the police in Ferguson, Missouri, following the ongoing unrest there.
Natan Sharansky, writing for the Washington Post:
Economic factors alone cannot, of course, account for the tensions and violence in Ferguson, Missouri which are undeniable and alarming. Still, one wonders how much less volatile things might have been if the community were not experiencing the following, as detailed by Brookings:
Thom Tillis of North Carolina says the Senate needs "more people who had to sweat for a living" in a new TV ad. The 30-second ad features the Republican Senate candidate speaking directly to the camera inside a diner.
The legislative fix has been passed and signed into law, along with a generous appropriation of new money. Also, a new top person has been named and confirmed. So time to move on from the VA and its woes. But before doing so, consider the magnitude of the problems and their duration. As Brad…
Marc Lamont Hill, a CNN contributor, reported late last night that out of towners from Oakland might be the ones responsible for inciting violence in Ferguson, Missouri. He made the comments when talking about the continued unrest last night:
There aren’t many things that tie together Belgian monks, lederhosen-wearing Germans, and American crowds packing the infield at a stock car race, but the common thread between these disparate groups is beer. Beer is the world’s most interesting beverage because of the endless local differences in…
It was something of a puzzle, according to the headline in the August 7 New York Times: “Islamic Militants in Iraq Are Widely Loathed, Yet Action to Curb Them Is Elusive.” On the one hand, the article pointed out, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, “is on nearly every nation’s public…
The Scrapbook is in receipt of a timely piece of verse from Paul Lake, the poetry editor of First Things, and owing to its manifest excellence has received special dispensation from the editorial authorities here to violate, just this once, The Weekly Standard’s no-poetry rule:
Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) was undeniably one of history’s greatest Army officers. During a remarkable career of 48 years, he graduated first in his class at West Point, fought in three wars, and earned numerous decorations, including seven Silver Stars, a couple of Purple Hearts, many…
The lizard—a dirty, yellowish-orange creature several feet long—had been doggedly working on that shallow hole for quite a while. Alternating its short, lateral legs, it finally managed to get half of its body covered. Charles Darwin couldn’t stand it any longer. Impatiently, the young naturalist,…
We accept that a certain degree of pomp and circumstance is part of having a presidency, and, with a tolerance born of Washington’s summer languor, we can even find a certain pleasure in the extravaganza with which President Obama feted the African leaders who were in town for a few days last week…
Julie Gunlock is one mother who’ll welcome the return of pink slime. As the Wall Street Journal reported recently, the beef product processed from scraps left over from butchered cattle all but disappeared two years ago when critics on social media and television turned the filler—colorfully known…
There is a story, probably apocryphal, that Franklin Roosevelt, when informed that Whittaker Chambers had named Alger and Donald Hiss as Soviet agents, responded by derisively dismissing the possibility that two products of Harvard Law School and elite East Coast law firms could possibly betray…
One summer morning almost exactly 20 years ago, I drove out to Leesburg, Virginia, to meet a courtly businessman named B. Powell Harrison and discuss the fate of Dodona Manor. Dodona Manor, a plain, early-19th-century Federal-style residence, had been the home of General George C. Marshall: His…
The rollout of Hillary Clinton’s new memoirs, Hard Choices, was not a resounding success for the former secretary of state. She stuck her foot in her mouth regarding her family’s vast fortune. She had trouble answering questions about her evolution on gay marriage. Critics, on the whole, found the…
This is partly a story about reporting my new book on Bill and Hillary Clinton—Clinton, Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine—but it’s mostly about something more important, a window into how the Clinton team operates and how they will try to manage criticism throughout the 2016…
It was a big week in Washington for what blogger Steve Sailer puckishly refers to as World War T: Now that gay rights are utterly in the ascendant, the next Most Important Civil Rights Issue in History is transgender “rights.”
For over a generation now, America’s elites have willfully ignored a substantial segment of the public that has misgivings about ever-increasing levels of immigration. Whenever possible these elites—in the academy, religious institutions, the media, politics, and business—have responded to such…
Before Robert Baratheon or Ned Stark, from the hugely popular Game of Thrones series, there were Beowulf and Hrothgar; and Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons have nothing on their prototype, a fearsome beast called the Guardian of the Hoard, which Beowulf fights to the death.
Simon Schama’s choice of “Story” in place of “History” in the title of this impressive new work is fitting, for the history he recounts is not history conceived of as a chronicle of important events, but rather as a compendium of thematically linked stories told throughout the ages by, and about,…
If you’re in your 20s or 30s and still living with Mom and Dad, remind them, next time they nag you about getting your own place, that James Madison wrote the Constitution while still living off his parents. Note, however, that this retort will only be effective if you, too, have created,…
Readers can well imagine the excitement in these precincts when The Scrapbook learned the news about Fareed Zakaria. If you haven’t heard it, here’s what we’re talking about: It was announced last week that Dr. Zakaria, after stints at Foreign Affairs, Slate, Newsweek, Newsweek International, Time,…
This will undoubtedly serve as the standard work on Stephen Crane’s life for many years. Paul Sorrentino was one of the first scholars to reveal the many inaccuracies of Thomas Beer’s 1923 biography, which was entertaining enough but thoroughly unreliable. John Berryman and R. W. Stallman wrote…
Until recently, Italian mystery writers did not loom large in the criminous hierarchy, and the genre was not viewed respectfully by Italian critics. Andrea Camilleri got a late start in the field. Born in Sicily in 1925, he came from a solidly Fascist background and, as a schoolboy, allegedly wrote…
You don’t have to be an Eisenhower Memorial groupie—yes, there are such people—to enjoy a new 56-page congressional report called “A Five-Star Folly.” But it helps. The mound of detail will bury all but the sturdiest student of what is shaping up to be one of the most memorable Washington fiascoes…
In the summer of 1864, the Union cause rested with Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. They commanded the most formidable armies ever seen on the continent, yet neither had been in uniform four years earlier, when the war began. Both were West Point trained and had served,…
Republicans had Barry Goldwater. Democrats now have Elizabeth Warren. What do they have in common? Years back, he pointed the way for his party, and now she’s doing the same thing for hers.
On June 23, something very rare appeared in the pages of the New York Times: an admission by a Times columnist that he had made a reporting mistake. The columnist was David Carr, who acknowledged that he had erred in an earlier piece which implied that the Washington Post had not paid sufficient…
Slim biographies of the most famous people tend to have a more philosophical slant than the big life-of-so-and-so books. That 200-page volume on Napoleon, say, isn’t going to be some soup-to-nuts treatment, jammed with quotidian minutiae and copious excerpts from letters, but rather a study in how…
In his preface to this well-researched and witty retelling of the famous Ampthill Succession case, Bevis Hillier recalls how he chose his subject after researching a proposed Oxford Book of Fleet Street. He went to a dealer of vintage newspapers in Covent Garden and came away with a sheaf of old…
Gardening, as an idea, has always seemed like a great way to spend time. What could be more fulfilling than to transform a barren plot of ground into a landscape bursting with brightly colored flowers and rows of nutritious vegetables?
Condemnation of Israel for its conduct of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza continues unabated. The chief accusation, heard time and again, is that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have either been cavalier about civilian casualties or are intentionally inflicting them. Israel and its defenders, for…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD Books & Arts Podcast with Philip Terzian, on the August 18-25 Summer Reading Issue's Books and Arts section.
Following Texas governor Rick Perry's grand jury indictment yesterday, even David Axelrod cast significant doubts on the merits.
At long last we are emerging from the blind alleys down which the debate about income inequality seems to have wandered. The first such dead end was marked “fairness.” The top tenth of one percent of earners feel the tax system unfairly expropriates too large a portion of their incomes, bloated…
The Kurds need heavy weapons in their fight (also our fight) against ISIS. And as Mitch Swenson of War is Boring reports:
It was a threat Europe’s security services had long feared coming true. In June, Mehdi Nemmouche, a French-born jihadist who had returned to Europe after fighting in Syria with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, shot four people to death in an attack at the Jewish museum in Brussels. While the…
Yesterday’s first time claims number was disappointing. Today, as Renee Dudley of Bloomberg reports, Walmart's
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on Hillary Clinton's recent remarks may prompt Elizabeth Warren to run against her in the Democratic primary, and the events in Ferguson, Missouri.
The National Treasury Employees Union is an independent union representing, according to its own figures, "some 150,000" federal workers from many different agencies. The union claims to fight for the "dignity and respect" of its members, and it maintains a "legislative action center" to keep tabs…
The tide may have temporarily turned in Iraq, as the administration is saying. But the long view regarding ISIS is somewhere between challenging and bleak. As Greg Jaffe and Greg Miller of the Washington Post report:
Joe Miller, the Alaska Tea Partier who defeated Republican senator Lisa Murkowski in the 2010 GOP primary but was defeated by Murkowski's write-in campaign in the general election, is seeking the GOP nomination again in 2014. Miller is unlikely to win Tuesday's primary, but he has caused some…
Democrat John Tierney, a nine-term House incumbent from Massachusetts, couldn't answer a straightforward question about whether his constituents are better or worse off than they were two years ago. At a Democratic primary debate Thursday, each candidate was asked to give a one-word, "yes or no"…
Healthcare.gov has had its share of problems over the ten months since its launch, but those looking for information about appealing a Marketplace decision are facing a brand new one: nonsense. The inquiry How to Appeal a Marketplace Decision is answered with, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,…
Western nations should intervene militarily in Iraq to stop ISIS, argues Max Boot in a new article for the Spectator (UK). Boot cautions against the "wrong-headed" belief that intervention, not the retreat of Western forces, is the cause of the current problems in Iraq:
Matthew Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon, calls Republican Senate candidate Jeff Bell of New Jersey the "most interesting candidate in the world." Here's an excerpt:
A friend of mine and I were discussing Hillary Clinton’s putative presidential candidacy over email, and he flagged for me a YouTube video of a debate from the fall of 2007. In it, Tim Russert queried her thusly:
THE WEEKLY STANDARD Casual Podcast, with Philip Terzian reading his casual essay "Guided Torture."
Georgia Democrat Michelle Nunn experienced a week of embarrassment late last month when National Review's Eliana Johnson published a leaked memo from Nunn's Senate campaign. The memo was essentially Nunn's plan for how to win her race in Georgia, a state her Democratic father represented in the…
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece of August 6 about “the surge of poisonous anti-Semitism around the world, particularly in Europe,” Andrew Nagorski had the temerity to note that “the president [Obama] has not prominently addressed the subject of rising anti-Semitism in Europe, much less its…
The latest poll from Rasmussen shows Republican Thom Tillis opening up a significant lead over Democratic senator Kay Hagan:
President Obama went directly from giving remarks on Iraq and the ongoing situation in Ferguson, Missouri to the golf course.
The race to replace retiring Democratic senator Tom Harkin of Iowa was considered to have favored the Democrat. At first, Republicans didn't appear to have an obvious candidate, and the state has been trending toward the Democrats for years. But the current GOP nominee, state senator Joni Ernst,…
Michelle Jamrisko of Bloomberg reports that:
As part of the U.S. Crisis Support Package for Ukraine announced by the White House in April, the State Department awarded a $435,000 contract to B.K. Engineering System in Kyiv for razor wire to help "defend the newly imposed borders between Ukraine's mainland and the Crimean peninsula." The…
The American Enterprise Institute will hold a Google Hangout Thursday morning, at 9:30 Eastern Time, with scholars Fred Kagan and Michael Rubin about the state of affairs in Iraq. Here are more details from AEI:
The White House gave this summary to reporters of President Obama's activities last night:
Secure America Now, a non-profit national security organization, has a new ad reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson's 1964 "Daisy" ad, updated for the security challenges of the modern era. Using the original ad's imagery of a little girl in a field and a massive explosion, the spot urges the United States…
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz told reporters Wednesday that the White House is studying ways to go after U.S. corporations that elect to undergo a process known as “inversion” and become a foreign-based corporation.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich recently spoke at the American Enterprise Institute about a new way to think about caring for America's veterans. Gingrich argues the federal bureaucracy that has failed in the case of the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital scandal can be replaced with…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD Books & Arts Podcast with Philip Terzian, on the August 11 issue's Books and Arts section.
Senator Jeff Sessions says Americans should be asking where their elected representatives in Washington stand on "executive amnesty," which the Alabama Republican says "could be increasingly imminent and broad in scope." Here's an excerpt from his statement:
Kristina Wong of The Hill reports that:
Republican senator Pat Roberts of Kansas may be in trouble for reelection, if a new poll from Rasmussen Reports is to be believed. The survey of likely voters found just 44 percent said they would support the incumbent Roberts, with 40 percent saying they would support his Democratic opponent,…
Kentucky GOP senator and likely 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul is "not saying [he's] completely opposed" to "maybe even bombing" the genocidal Islamist terrorists known as ISIS. But Paul also isn't saying that he supports bombing ISIS. Politico reports Paul has "mixed feelings":
Frederic Hof, a former State Department adviser in the Obama administration, writes in Politico magazine about President Obama's dismissive opinion about arming Syrian rebels in 2012 as a "fantasy." Here's an excerpt:
With the overwhelmingly bipartisan vote for the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014, Congress passed the most significant reforms to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in decades. And, right on cue, here come the grumblings from the second-guessers.
The new inquisitor has just been appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to “investigate” Israel’s conduct of Operation Protective Edge, following in the footsteps of Richard Goldstone, who famously, incompetently, and unjustly “investigated” Israel's 2009 Operation Cast Lead. The new Goldstone—an…
Optimists have been hoping for robust GDP growth in the 3rd quarter and had pegged their hopes on improved consumer performance. As is often cited, consumer spending accounts for some 70 percent of GDP. It now seems that last month it did not match expectations. As Lorraine Woellert…
Fresh off a trip to India and Australia, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel addressed a group of Marines in San Diego, California Tuesday, and may have delivered a line that will show up in Republican campaign ads this election cycle. After updating the troops on some issues in the Pacific region and…
Gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley defeated state senator John McKinney in Connecticut's Republican primary last night.
At the Washington Examiner, Noemie Emery pinpoints why Hillary Clinton is sounding so hawkish these days:
Vice President Dick Cheney tells radio host Hugh Hewitt that Hillary Clinton might not be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016.
Manitowoc, Wisc.
New York congressman Tim Bishop has a new ad out today—well, it depends on your definition of "new." The Democrat's ad features 10 seconds of testimonials from constituents whose jobs were saved, they say, by Bishop. The ad closes with Bishop giving his own pitch. Watch it below:
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on Hillary Clinton's recent remarks on President Obama's foreign policy failures, and how they'll be a liability in 2016.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD Casual Podcast, with Jonathan V. Last reading his casual essay "Game of Yawns."
Editor’s note: I think it was the great Maimonides who taught us, “You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes.” So THE WEEKLY STANDARD is happy to feature this special guest editorial on President Obama's foreign policy failures (excerpted verbatim from Jeffrey Goldberg’s fine…
Comforting as it is to speak of the world in the language of policy and politics, strategy and tactics, there is this other element. This chord of madness that stirs the enemy as, for instance when, as Reuters reports:
Air power can do only so much. As Jon Harper of Stars and Stripes reports, Lt. Gen. William Mayville Jr., director of operations for the Joint Staff, told reporters:
David Axelrod appears to be responding to Hillary Clinton's criticism of President Obama by reminding everyone of the future presidential candidate's support for the Iraq war. Obama, of course, was against the war from the beginning.
The Bidens are arriving today in the Hamptons to start their third vacation in a month.
Here's an excerpt from the boss's newsletter this week:
Besides centrifuges, uranium enrichment, and sanctions, this month the State Department turned to sets, digs, and spikes in diplomatic efforts with Iran. Samuel Werberg, a press and public diplomacy officer in the U.S. State Department, invoked the spirit of Jesse Owens to tout the Obama…
In the midst of rioting in St. Louis over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager, the New York Times decided to stoke the embers of racial animus even further with an incendiary op-ed titled, "Can the G.O.P. Ever Attract Black Voters?"
On June 29, 2011, John Brennan, who was then a senior adviser to the president and is currently the CIA director, explained the Obama administration’s counterterrorism strategy.
The campaign of Democratic senator Jeff Merkley turned away three people from a "private event" in Hillsboro, Oregon, despite the fact that the people said they were invited to the event. A tracker with the campaign of Merkley's Republican opponent, Monica Wehby, captured the exchange between the…
Islamic State terrorists, formerly known as ISIS, have killed at least 500 members of Iraq’s Yezidi religious minority in and around the city of Sinjar and taken hundreds of women as slaves. Some of the victims were buried alive. Their only crime: not being Muslims.
Republican Senate candidate Cory Gardner is going after Democratic senator Mark Udall for voting for Obamacare in a new TV ad. The 30-second spot shows the GOP congressman holding up a cancellation letter he received from his health insurance provider.
Two GOP Senate candidates in blue states are running new TV advertisementss knocking their Democratic opponents over immigration. In Michigan, Republican Terri Lynn Land's campaign has released an ad knocking Democratic congressman Gary Peters for "flip-flopping" on border enforcement and being…
As the world watches the strengthening of global jihadist movements – from ISIS to al Qaeda to dozens of affiliated and like-minded groups – one of those inside the U.S. government who was most vocal about the growing threats is leaving his position. General Michael Flynn served as head of the…
On July 4, 1863, as he stared across the fields near Gettysburg at Robert E. Lee’s battered army, George Meade issued a general order expressing his thanks for the “glorious result” of the previous three days’ fighting. The victory already won would be “matters of history ever to be remembered,”…
Can the United States maintain a "limited" military force in Iraq to stop the Islamist militants targeting ethnic minorities in that country? At Politico, Philip Ewing notes how difficult that strategy may be for President Barack Obama:
Not, normally, an easy thing to do. But with so much going so badly in the rest of the world, it is possible to overlook China’s increasingly assertive – not to stay “aggressive” – presence in world affairs. Kyaw Thu and Sangwon Yoon of Reuters are reporting on:
White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes publicly responded to criticism from Hillary Clinton of Barack Obama's foreign policy back in June, just as Hillary's book tour was starting up. "On the broad thrust of our foreign policy, she was fully on board," Rhodes tells Politico.
As the date for the Obama administration's scheduled end of the war in Afghanistan draws near, the U.S. government is arranging security for U.S. personnel who will remain in the country. One agency, the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL),…
This was the first time in nine years that the Bolshoi Ballet had performed in New York, and rather than bring any of Alexei Ratmansky’s contemporary ballets, which helped catapult the company into the 21st century—under Ratmansky’s direction, the Critics’ Circle named the Bolshoi “Best Foreign…
It wasn’t so long ago that visitors to the National Archives, in Washington, D.C., were expected to ascend. A trip to see the nation’s founding documents was an uplifting experience, literally. A broad flight of stone steps drew visitors up from the summer glare and clamor of Constitution Avenue to…
An unquestionably eminent, manifestly distinguished, and conspicuously bipartisan -congressionally appointed panel has produced a report on the state of our nation’s defenses.
Los Angeles
There isn’t much left in life that is unregulated and without some degree of government supervision or protection. You get used to it, I suppose. And, anyway, you don’t have much choice. But you do need to pay attention because nothing is off limits.
George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire might be the most daunting mountain in the history of fantasy fiction. The cycle includes five fat books so far, totaling over 4,500 pages, and Martin suggests that at least two more volumes will be needed to conclude the story. Compared with Tolkien’s…
The age of the male movie star has passed. Welcome to the age of the female movie star.
When he’s in trouble, President Obama changes the subject to the economy. And in speech after speech, he utters some version of this line: “We know from our history, our economy does not grow from the top down, it grows from the middle up.”
In his often-cited but little-read On War (1832), Carl von Clausewitz observes that “in war, the result is never final.” His observation can be applied to the historiography of war as well. A case in point is this study by Gregory Daddis, an Army colonel who earned a doctorate at Chapel Hill,…
Last week something unusual happened: “Weird Al” Yankovic, the 54-year-old parody singer, captured Billboard’s number one slot with the release of a new album, Mandatory Fun. It’s hard to overstate how weird (sorry) this is. Yankovic’s first hits came in the 1980s with send-ups like “Eat It”…
Everyone involved in the Kabuki theater surrounding the nine-month extension of revenue for the highway trust fund has so far played their parts perfectly.
Maybe you won’t be surprised to hear that The Scrapbook wishes Keith Olbermann had never gotten into political commentary. But don’t misunderstand: The problem isn’t his terminal case of Bush Derangement Syndrome, or his feud with Bill O’Reilly, or his unintentionally hilarious and pompous policy…
For anyone who follows national politics, there is no shortage of scandals and harrowing economic figures to buttress the opinion that our leadership is corrupt and incompetent. My own pessimism about government, however, is born of experience. I was foolish once and young; I even believed in The…
"So, obviously Israel has a right to self-defense, but . . . ” -(Hillary Clinton, in a July 28 interview on America with Jorge Ramos).
Henry and Emily Folger had a magnificent obsession. They spent a life of virtually indiscriminate acquisitiveness compiling the largest collection of Shakespeare manuscripts and associated arcana in the world—and then gave all that they had acquired to the American nation, wrapped in the handsome…
Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin is the affirmative action case that won’t go away. It’s been to the Supreme Court once and may return. It is a case that could well turn on a failure to define terms—“critical mass” being the critical term.
Keith Olbermann’s derisive reference to the “designated kraken” reminds The Scrapbook of a classic anti-designated-hitter article by Christopher Caldwell, published in these pages in April 1998. Longtime readers may yet remember it: “A DHuMB Idea at 25.” It’s still a great read, all these years…
The United States entered the Great War with its eyes wide open. The mechanical slaughter in Europe had already left millions dead. In the trenches, men had to contend with lice, rats, sickness, mud, extreme temperatures, human waste, rotting corpses, and boredom as well as the threats of poison…
The best novel of the 20th century was written as an argument against the ruling French literary critic, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve. He held that a writer’s life was the key to his or her literary work and that the life and letters must be parsed along with the work. Marcel Proust disagreed:…
Before leaving for vacation on Saturday, President Obama spoke briefly about the genocidal Islamist terrorists who are taking over large swaths of Iraq. When one reporter asked the president if he regretted not leaving any U.S. troops in Iraq, Obama replied that that wasn't even an option:
Bank of America likes to top rival J.P. Morgan Chase in as many ways as possible. Except one. The $16-to-$17 billion check it is about to write to cover the fine for sins committed before the financial crisis tops the previous record of $13 billion paid by J.P. Morgan Chase just nine months ago.…
At National Review Online, Eliana Johnson has a piece documenting many of the unanswered questions about the life and career of New Jersey senator Cory Booker. Johnson provides this example for how the Democratic senator's stories about himself don't always add up:
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on President's humanitarian action against ISIS in Iraq, and why while it's good, it's no substitute for an actual foreign policy.
One aspect of the three-week-long conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas that has gotten curiously little play is the Egyptian angle, especially the Rafah Crossing, controlled by Egypt. The conflict was in a sense largely about this issue. Hamas’s war was intended to create a situation whereby…
The fight over television blackouts of NFL games is on again. The league, which may be the most successful, powerful, and popular sports conglomerate in history, is lobbying Congress for some of its famous protective services. The thing comes down to the issue of whether or not games that have not…
Senior editor Andrew Ferguson joined Reason's Nick Gillespie to discuss his recent WEEKLY STANDARD article, "The Common Core Corruption." Ferguson explains how the education reform-industrial complex keeps getting it wrong. Watch the video below:
The boss was on the set of MSNBC's Morning Joe Friday to discuss Iraq, the Tea Party, and the midterm elections. Watch the videos below:
President Obama announced last night "two operations in Iraq -- targeted airstrikes to protect our American personnel, and a humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and water and facing almost certain death."
Republican senator Lamar Alexander has won his primary in Tennessee, according to the Associated Press:
Iowahawk: "'Yazidi' is Kurdish for 'unarmed Israeli.'"
The New York Sun editorializes:
The numbers in a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll got the attention of Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post who reacted this way:
While a ceasefire between Hamas and Israeli military forces continues, a Thursday rally in Gaza City organized by the terrorist group featured plenty of young children, some of whom were carrying toy guns. Associated Press photographer Lefteris Pitarakis captured the scene:
The EU evidently believes that if you launch sanctions in an economic war, then it is unseemly, unfair, and just not nice for the other side to fire back. The EU has issued a press release (quick, to the shelters) deploring the Russian restrictions on imports of certain foods. One suspects that…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD Books & Arts Podcast with Philip Terzian, on the August 4 issue's Books and Arts section.
Victoria Stilwell of Bloomberg reports that:
Tennessee senator Lamar Alexander is making his final pitch to primary voters with a radio ad in which the two-term Republican claims he has voted to "end amnesty" for illegal immigrants. Alexander has been hit hard on the issue of immigration by his chief GOP challenger, state representative Joe…
Vice President Biden's trip to Brazil in mid-June for the USA versus Ghana World Cup game and meetings the following day with the president and vice president of Brazil required rental of vehicles for Biden and his entourage costing over $900,000. Added to the $2.2 million cost of hotels we…
Aaron Wolf, the Democrat running for Congress in New York's 21st Congressional District, runs a grocer in Brooklyn that's received "83 Health Department violations," according to the New York Daily News, "for live mice, filth flies and roaches."
Now into its second day, the 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions continues to hold. With Hamas’ missile arsenal depleted by roughly 50 percent and, according to Israeli assessments, 32 attack tunnels destroyed, Israeli officials are claiming a clear victory. “The…
Republican challenger Jeff Bell trails incumbent New Jersey senator Cory Booker by just 10 points, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac. Among registered voters in the Garden State, just 47 percent say they support Booker, the Democrat who won a special election to the Senate last fall and is…
The big bill to reform Veterans Affairs will be signed tomorrow. With, no doubt, much ceremony and patting of backs. Washington has done it again. Rescued the rest of us from … Washington.
Writing at the New York Times, Thomas Edsall makes a provocative and counterintuitive argument about earmarks:
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on the Tuesday GOP primaries.
Yesterday, the National Gallery of Art put out a solicitation for nuclear ordnance, giving interested parties until the end of October to respond to the solicitation notice.
Thanks to the marvels of the digital epoch, citizens can now track the government’s spending of public money. On a website, of all things. Of course, while the technology may change and improve, the eternals still apply. So one is not especially astonished to learn, as Gregory Korte of USA…
President Obama talked about his commitment to Africa in personal terms last night at the White House. "I stand before you as the President of the United States and a proud American," Obama told the U.S.-African Leaders Summit at dinner last night.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich told radio host Laura Ingraham Tuesday that if President Barack Obama proceeds to amnesty thousands of illegal immigrants through executive order, Republicans should make the case against such a move the party's "number one" campaign issue for the 2014 midterm…
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior editor Lee Smith on the ceasefire agreed to in Gaza by Hamas and Israel.
Here, in the parlance of the times, is a “pro-tip.” When attempting to rebut the notion that anti-Semitism in Europe is largely a problem caused by young Muslim men, don’t cite two horrific anti-Semitic atrocities perpetrated by . . . young Muslim men.
Abulghasem Salavati, who heads Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, is known as one of Iran’s “hanging judges.” As the London Guardian reported recently, Salavati and his colleague, Mohammad Moghiseh, are most prominent judges in a drive to suppress independent journalists and political…
In the latest episode of Conversations With Bill Kristol, the boss sits down with Paul Cantor:
The fight, in the view of Hamas, is one to the finish. Of Israel, that is. And so, it is now time to prepare for the next battle. This means rearming and as Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times reports:
Sanctioned, but so far undeterred, Vladimir Putin is making the Russian presence felt on the Ukraine border. As Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt of the New York Times report:
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Jimmy Carter takes to ForeignPolicy.com to argue that the key to ending the current war in Gaza is "recognizing Hamas as a legitimate political actor." Writing along with fellow "Elder" Mary Robinson (part of an "international group of elder statesmen"), the former…
The government looks inward at times. The Office of the Inspector General recently posted a solicitation for credit card sized audio recorders to be disguised as Department of Defense (DoD) ID cards.
Health insurance is going to be more expensive in 2015 for those in Florida who purchase it on the individual market's exchange set up by the Obamacare. The Miami Herald reports:
On CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday, frequent WEEKLY STANDARD contributor Elliott Abrams debated Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal over the issue of how the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has been covered by the media. Watch the clip below:
Back in the day when it was fashionable for the press to criticize the president and senior military officials for mismanaging a war--that is, from 2003 to 2009--such stories often focused on the colonels, majors, and captains who saw firsthand the practical problems with their superiors' approach…
For the most part, Republican candidates for Congress have been quiet about the immigration crisis on the border, with a few exceptions. But Rep. Tom Cotton, the GOP Senate candidate in Arkansas, has put his Democratic opponent's support for amnesty for illegal immigrants at the center of his new…
GM’s woes continue. As James R. Healey of USA Today reports:
David Adesnik goes on camera to explain what World War I wrought:
School bakes sales, that is, and the authority to regulate them. Agrarian types thought, quaintly, that authority as to the suitability of chocolate should be reserved to the states. Those who dreamed of a mightier union thought otherwise.
Bill Kristol, with Joaquin Castro, David Remnick, and Greta Van Susteren, yesterday on ABC News:
First Lady Michelle Obama created buzz with her remark at the recent Summit of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders that "the blood of Africa runs through my veins." But later in her speech, she had some observations about the country of her birth as well. Mrs.…
We are in an odd situation. President Barack Obama is trying to coerce and cajole Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to compromise on his nuclear quest without using America’s only possible trumps: more sanctions and a serious threat of force. These negotiations are unlikely to end well, unless…
Moments of clarity often come when you least expect them. In a speech to contributors last week in Seattle, Barack Obama made the case that his presidency has made America better. In most respects, it was precisely the kind of political pablum you’d expect from a president who seems more concerned…
I don’t know what it says about the movies these days that the best one I’ve seen so far this summer is a completely insane thriller set on a train in perpetual motion around a post-apocalyptic earth on which the have-nots are packed like sardines in the caboose while the wealthy live in splendor…
The sad thing about plagiarism, aside from the act itself, is that examples are always plentiful. Just a few weeks ago The Scrapbook took note of the serial larceny of antiwar polemicist Chris Hedges (“War Is a Force That Makes Us Plagiarize,” June 23). Now, courtesy of the New York Times’s…
In 1978, Republicans in Minnesota, astonishingly, won all three statewide races: both Senate seats and the governorship. It became known by DFLers (Democrats here run as Democratic-Farmer-Laborites) as the “Minnesota massacre.” Republicans preferred to call it their Minnesota miracle. This year…
Simon Sebag Montefiore is best known for his monumental biography Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (2003), which offered a mesmerizing, richly detailed portrait of the Soviet tyrant’s inner circle—and how he could alternately, even simultaneously, ooze charm and terror in his dealings with them.…
Contrary no doubt to what she expected, Hillary Clinton has hit some serious snags in the rollout of her unannounced campaign for president. She has made Romneyesque comments about the size of her fortune, such as that she was “dead broke” when she bought her two mansions. When queried about events…
In 1983, Barack Obama was a senior at Columbia University. He was not well known. He lived off-campus, had a few close friends, and spent a lot of time reading. He went to some meetings of the Black Students Association, but no one remembers seeing him there. He majored in political science, with a…
Ever since the death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972, journalists and disparate authors have pored over his life in order to dissect its mysteries. There have been books about his (alleged) gay activities and darker allegations that he used his powers as director of the FBI for manipulative political…
Jeremiah A. Denton Jr. had three careers in the course of his 89 years. He was a Navy pilot. He was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for seven years and seven months. And he was a U.S. senator from Alabama.
Nashville
Israel’s Operation Protective Edge was only a week old when Human Rights Watch charged that “Israeli air attacks in Gaza investigated by Human Rights Watch have been targeting apparent civilian structures and killing civilians in violation of the laws of war.” The report quoted Sarah Leah Whitson,…
On Tuesday, President Obama visited the Dutch embassy in Washington to pay his respects to the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, shot down over Ukraine by forces armed and backed by Vladimir Putin. Obama wrote in the embassy’s condolence book, “We will not rest until we are certain that…
A mighty republic, having fought a considerable war to a victorious end, vindicated its plighted word by removing its arms from the realm where so many of its young men had fallen for the liberty of strangers. But then, compelled to regard fresh wars arising in that place—infestations of new…
Last week, while Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria burned, and the immigration crisis intensified along the Texas-Mexico border, President Obama was hard at work for two days in Los Angeles raising funds for the Democratic party.
Vladimir Putin “has taken thugs, thieves, rapists, ex-cons and vandals and turned them into a paramilitary force. He has permitted ad hoc commanders of separatist groups to kill or chase off intellectuals, journalists and other moral authorities in the cities of . . . ” (Bernard-Henri Lévy, New…
The main link between 2014 and literature is, inevitably, the outbreak of the First World War and the war poets such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Rupert Brooke. (Though a virtuoso technician, Brooke is nowadays held in less regard than the other two, as he depicted war as glorious, they…
One of the realities of Christianity is that the church has always been forming and reforming. This evolutionary phenomenon goes back to the church’s earliest days, when believers identified themselves in various ways, such as followers of Paul or Apollos or Cephas. The divisions were so evident…
The Gaza war of 2014 will end in a cease-fire, just as the previous rounds between Israel and Hamas and the 2006 battle with Hezbollah ended. But the war will be won or lost less in the streets and tunnels of Gaza this summer than when the fighting is over. Israel must not only damage Hamas on…
On July 16-19, the online progressive community held its annual “Netroots Nation” conference in Detroit. The irony of holding such an event in a desiccated husk of a formerly great metropolis undone by unionism and unfettered liberal governance was mostly lost on the crowd, and the gathering made…
During the first two weeks of the Gaza conflict, Hamas landed at least two significant punches. In firing missiles at Ben Gurion Airport, Hamas convinced the Federal Aviation Authority and European air carriers to temporarily suspend flights to Israel. The fact that relatively primitive rockets…
Craig Shirley, a prominent biographer of Ronald Reagan, has accused historian Rick Perlstein of plagiarism in his new book, The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan. Shirley has cited 45 instances in which he says Perlstein uses information and passages from his 2004 book,…
Former Democratic congressman Barney Frank has some tough words for President Barack Obama about his handling of Obamacare.
At last, some good news about the U.S. economy. Sort of. The government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reckons the economy grew at an annual rate of 4 percent in the second quarter of the year (data subject to revision). If that rate continues, five years of a lackadaisical recovery would be…
Ninety minutes into the 72-hour unconditional ceasefire announced this morning, Hamas launched a suicide attack in which two IDF soldiers were killed and another was kidnapped. Word on the ground in Israel is that Palestinian Islamic Jihad, rather than Hamas, may be responsible for the operation.…
On July 30, Chinese communist authorities indicted Ilham Tohti, a Uighur intellectual, on charges of separatism, a charge that could carry the death penalty. Tohti was detained in mid-January, and the timing of the indictment seems related to an attack the Chinese authorities claim was carried out…
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with William Kristol on the pro-amnesty, anti-Israel media and why the gap between the liberal media and the American public has never been greater.
The Emergency Committee for Israel released the following statement Friday regarding the Obama administration's response to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza:
Some Democrats and members of the media are pointing to Texas senator Ted Cruz as the person who convinced enough GOP congressman to sink the House GOP's original border crisis legislation on Thursday. But the honor (or blame, depending on your point of view) really belongs to Senator Jeff Sessions…
An increase in non-farm payrolls of 209,000. Less than the expected 230,000 but breaking 200,000 allows for the glass-half-full brigade to call it a good report. Six straight months of better than 200,000 new jobs.
Matthew Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon, offers a solution to the cycle of violence in the Gaza Strip. Here's an excerpt:
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended after it had barely begun Friday morning when the terrorist organization committed a suicide attack that killed two Israeli soldiers and kidnapped a third. In a fact sheet sent to journalists, Omri Ceren of the Israel Project explains where the broken…
Online editor Daniel Halper appeared Friday on MSNBC's Morning Joe to talk about his New York Times bestselling book, Clinton, Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine. Halper discussed how the Hillary Clinton rebuilt her brand with Republicans after her husband Bill left the White…
The Kaiser Family Foundation's latest poll on public opinion of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has found the law is more unpopular with Americans than ever before. Kaiser found in its July survey that 53 percent of Americans say they have an unfavorable opinion of the law, with just 37…
A key figure in the security failures surrounding the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya is fighting alongside members of Ansar al Sharia, which is one of the terrorist groups responsible for the assault on the U.S. mission and annex that night.