June 1, 2007
The Republican National Committee no longer has operators standing by to take your call -- reportedly because you haven't been calling. Their staff of call-center employees got pink slips yesterday, and while the RNC denies it, the fired employees say that donations have dropped precipitately: The Republican National Committee, hit by a grass-roots donors' rebellion over President Bush's immigration policy, has fired all 65 of its telephone solicitors, The Washington Times has learned. Faced with an estimated 40 percent falloff in small-donor contributions and aging phone-bank equipment that the RNC said would cost too much to update, Anne Hathaway, the committee's chief of staff, summoned the solicitations staff and told them they were out of work, effective immediately, fired staff members told The Times. Several of the solicitors fired at the May 24 meeting reported declining contributions and a donor backlash against the immigration proposals now being pushed by Mr....
Many people believe that the two major political parties offer so little difference as to be virtually identical. Certainly some of the politicians of either Democratic or Republican stripe focus more on power than policy, and in that sense and in those examples, they have a point. However, some may find themselves surprised by E.J. Dionne's latest column, as he somewhat inadvertently demonstrates why we have two political parties -- and what fundamentally separates them: Our two political parties and their candidates are living in parallel universes. It's as if the candidates were running for president in two separate countries. Their televised debates next week will be productions as different from each other as "American Idol" is from "P.T.I." The parties do have some things in common -- Iraq and the economy are concerns for both. But beyond these two issues, what matters most to Republican voters is hugely different...
Senator Jon Kyl has acknowledged placing a hold on a bill that would strengthen the Freedom of Information Act, which open-government reformers see as key to exposing government processes to sunlight and criticism. Kyl insists that the Department of Justice has concerns that must be addressed before proceeding, even though the bill has strong bipartisan support and was co-sponsored by John Cornyn (R-TX). The other co-sponsor, Pat Leahy (D-VT), will attempt to get a vote despite Kyl's hold: Kyl revealed his identity Thursday, days after the bill's backers launched an e-mail and telephone campaign, urging supporters to help in "smoking out 'Senator Secrecy.'" They pointed out the irony that an open government bill was being blocked using a rule that allowed secrecy. Supporters say the bill would plug loopholes in the FOIA law by, among other things, clarifying when federal agencies would have to pay attorneys fees if they miss...
My interview with John McCain earlier this week has been transcribed and is now posted at Heading Right. The Senator and I discussed the controversial comprehensive immigration-reform proposal, but also talked about Iraq and the upcoming Iowa caucuses. McCain acknowledged the difficulties in convincing people to trust that the government would actually secure the borders: EM: ... I think the issue is, for them, how to get them to trust that Congress and the enforcing agencies are actually going to follow through on those border triggers and border security triggers and employment triggers in a way that they feel safe about proceeding on to the next level. I think that this is basically saying we just don’t trust Congress to do it. SM: And that skepticism is well justified because of what happened in ’86. Look, we all love and revere Ronald Reagan. We want to do everything exactly like...
The Iranians extended their response to American diplomatic overtures by arresting another American in Iran. Ali Shakeri, who ironically works as a peace activist in Irvine, California, now faces charges of espionage and potentially the death penalty: The United States confirmed that a missing Irvine peace activist has become the fourth Iranian American detained by Iran on suspicion of espionage, and warned U.S. citizens against traveling to the country. "American citizens may be subject to harassment or arrest while traveling or residing in Iran," the State Department said after confirming that Ali Shakeri, who has been missing in Iran for more than two weeks, is being held at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. ... Shakeri, a founding board member at UC Irvine's Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, had been scheduled to leave Iran and fly to Europe in the first half of May. The UCI-CCP advertises itself as "tak[ing] an...
Peggy Noonan, one of my favorite columnists and always a great read, today turns her substantial rhetorical guns on what she sees as the biggest threat to the Republican Party -- George Bush. Accusing him of following his father in squandering a great political inheritance, Noonan calls for a Republican repudiation of Bush and his family: What political conservatives and on-the-ground Republicans must understand at this point is that they are not breaking with the White House on immigration. They are not resisting, fighting and thereby setting down a historical marker--"At this point the break became final." That's not what's happening. What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the...
Fred Thompson continues his virtual campaign today by asking an important question about our efforts to spread democracy and liberty. Why have we neglected the most powerful weapon in our arsenal -- the truth? Thompson argues that our Radio Free broadcasts helped bring down the Soviet empire, and their neglect has allowed socialism to surge again in Latin America: Well, he's done it. Hugo Chavez was already systematically silencing criticism of his autocratic rule through threats and intimidation. Journalists have been threatened, beaten and even killed. Now he's shut down the last opposition television networks in Venezuela and arrested nearly 200 protesters – mostly students. It’s a monumental tragedy and the Venezuelan people will pay the price for decades to come. Americans are also at risk as he funds anti-American candidates and radicals all over Latin America. It’s equally tragic that the U.S. is in no position to provide the...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), I'll talk with the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, who writes prolifically for their political blog, The Fix. We'll talk about the impact of the immigration bill on the McCain campaign, and the impact of Fred Thompson's toe-dipping on the entire GOP primary field. In the second half of the show, Mark Tapscott joins us to talk about the warnings of a Republican meltdown. Mark is the editorial page editor for the Examiner series of newspapers and a well-known conservative essayist and thinker. We'll talk about the Peggy Noonan piece in the Wall Street Journal and the secret hold by Jon Kyl on FOIA expansion. Be sure to call and join the conversation at 646-652-4889! Addendum: My boss talks about BlogTalkRadio on CBS's Wallstrip. And Heading Left's James Boyce will appear on MS-NBC today to provide the liberal point of view on the...
How bad has life in Gaza become? Palestinians have begun to recognize that they cannot govern themselves -- and that life under Israeli authority was preferable. Not only are they saying this out loud, but as MEMRI reports, they're writing it in their newspapers (via QandO): Papers reported that some people in Gaza even want the Israelis to return to the Strip. Faiz Abbas and Muhammad Awwad, journalists for the Israeli-Arab weekly Al-Sinara, wrote: "People in Gaza are hoping that Israel will reenter the Gaza Strip, wipe out both Hamas and Fatah, and then withdraw again... They also say that, since the [start of the] massacres, they [have begun to] miss the Israelis, since Israel is more merciful than [the Palestinian gunmen] who do not even know why they are fighting and killing one another. It's like organized crime, [they said]. Once, we resisted Israel together, but now we call...
Yesterday, I wrote about the Dutch television show that was to air today, where a dying woman would select the person who would receive her kidney for a transplant. The show created a firestorm of controversy, as people around the world accused the producers of exploiting the sick and dying for entertainment. Now it looks like they have exploited the contestants for an elaborate hoax (h/t: CQ reader David B): A Dutch reality television show in which a supposedly dying woman had to pick one of three contestants to whom she would donate a kidney was revealed as an elaborate hoax on Friday. The show, which the broadcaster had said aimed to focus attention on a shortage of donor organs in the Netherlands, was condemned by Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende before broadcast Friday night and sparked controversy worldwide. Identified only as "Lisa," the 37-year-old woman who had been...
June 2, 2007
A small group of Islamists suddenly appeared in a remote Somali village, attempting to set up a new base of operations. Local authorities assume they escaped from the trap at Ras Kamboni, bringing guns and small boats, and almost immediately picking fights. They thought the dense foliage around their position made them safe from concentrated attack. The US Navy has disabused them of that notion: At least one U.S. warship bombarded a remote, mountainous village in Somalia where Islamic militants had set up a base, officials in the northern region of Puntland said Saturday. ... A local radio station quoted Puntland's leader, Ade Muse, as saying that his forces had battled with the extremists for hours before U.S. ships arrived and used their cannons. Muse said five of his troops were wounded, but that he had no information about casualties among the extremists. A task force of coalition ships, called...
The move by Hugo Chavez to shutter a television broadcaster that has criticized him and his dictatorial rule over Venezuela has apparently alerted more than just the Venezuelans to his megalomania. Nations that didn't get the clues from his bizarre behavior at the UN or when he demanded and received dictatorial powers have suddenly awoken to the fact that Chavez is an imbalanced dictator who means to quash all opposition to his aspirations of Castro-like rule: While condemnation from the Bush administration, an ideological foe of Venezuela, was expected, criticism has come from many quarters around the world, some of them surprising. Spain's Socialist government, in a joint declaration with the United States, called Friday for Chávez to renew RCTV's license. The European Parliament voiced concern, and Brazil's Senate passed a resolution calling on Chávez to reconsider, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Venezuelan leader. "A head of state who...
Do you like your irony so thick that it drips? The Guardian has a nice, juicy slice of it for you today. The main organization used by Europe to trade carbon credits has mismanaged the process so badly that they have created an increase in greenhouse-gas emissions as a result: The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is supposed to offset greenhouse gases emitted in the developed world by selling carbon credits from elsewhere, has been contaminated by gross incompetence, rule-breaking and possible fraud by companies in the developing world, according to UN paperwork, an unpublished expert report and alarming feedback from projects on the ground. Possible fraud in the developing world? Who'd have ever thought that might happen? It gets better: One senior figure suggested there may be faults with up to 20% of the carbon credits - known as certified emissions reductions - already sold. Since these are used...
According to Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein, the Department of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld may have aggravated China's paranoia over Taiwan by deliberately undermining the long-standing US policy on relations between the two. Colin Powell's chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, claims that the Pentagon encouraged Taiwan to declare independence against the policy of the Bush administration -- a move that would have touched off a military confrontation with Beijing (via Memeorandum): The same top Bush administration neoconservatives who leap-frogged Washington’s foreign policy establishment to topple Saddam Hussein nearly pulled off a similar coup in U.S.-China relations—creating the potential of a nuclear war over Taiwan, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell says. Lawrence B. Wilkerson, the U.S. Army colonel who was Powell’s chief of staff through two administrations, said in little-noted remarks early last month that “neocons” in the top rungs of the administration quietly encouraged Taiwanese politicians...
The FBI has three people in custody in the fourth domestic terror conspiracy stopped in less than a year, and are seeking a fourth suspect. The quartet planned to use a jet-fuel line to attack John F Kennedy Airport in New York, according to sources close to the investigation: Three people were arrested and one other was being sought Saturday in connection to a plan to set off explosives in a fuel line that feeds John F. Kennedy International Airport and runs through residential neighborhoods, officials close to the investigation said. The plot, which never got past the planning stages, did not involve airplanes or passenger terminals, according to the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the arrests had not yet been announced. ... According to sources, the suspects have been identified as: Russell Defreitas, Abdul Nur, Kareem Ibrihim and Abdul Kadir. Last summer, the...
The Northern Alliance Radio Network will be on the air today, with our six-hour-long broadcast schedule starting at 11 am CT. The first two hours features Power Line's John Hinderaker and Chad and Brian from Fraters Libertas. Mitch and I hit the airwaves for the second shift from 1-3 pm CT, and King Banaian and Michael Broadkorb have The Final Word from 3-5. If you're in the Twin Cities, you can hear us on AM 1280 The Patriot, or on the station's Internet stream if you're outside of the broadcast area. Today, Mitch and I will discuss Peggy Noonan's column about her disillusionment with the Bush administration. We'll also talk about my trip to Iowa and interview with Mitt Romney and also with John McCain. We'll keep an eye on the developing story in New York about the thwarted terror plot at JFK, and we'll want to debate the immigration...
June 3, 2007
John Shadegg, one of Arizona's conservative Congressmen, writes about his opposition to the proposed comprehensive immigration bill in today's Arizona Republic. As he outlines the reasons for his unhappiness with the bill, he warns Republicans on all sides to tone down the emotion: The recent personal attacks leveled at Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl are inappropriate and counterproductive. It is appropriate for any of us to express our views on the merits or flaws of any proposed legislation. However, personal attacks or challenges of individuals' honor or patriotism are unbecoming and out of place, especially on issues of such magnitude. At the same time, the criticism by President Bush and Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez of those who disagree with them are equally inappropriate and counterproductive and only serve to further divide the nation on this issue. President Bush's comment that those who disagree with the bill “don't want...
A new ABC/Washington Post poll shows Rudy Giuliani maintaining a strong lead over most of the Republican challengers for the presidential nomination. However, the underlying internals of the poll show that his popularity has softened, which leaves room for Rudy's opponents to make inroads on his lead: A softening of underlying confidence in Rudolph W. Giuliani, including some damage on the abortion issue, could hearten his current -- and future -- opponents for the Republican presidential nomination. Giuliani's hardly in trouble; he maintains large leads over his opponents on key personal attributes including leadership and electability. But he's lost ground on empathy, honesty and inspiration; his support is not strong -- and a third of Republicans now flatly rule him out because of his position on abortion, up from just under a quarter earlier this year. Giuliani remains the Republican frontrunner, with overall candidate preferences stable compared with an ABC...
June 4, 2007
Iraqis who have worked with the US to help bring peace and stability to their country now want some guarantees about their future if the troops start withdrawing in the face of terrorists. They want assurances that they will not become the second Montagnards: With pressure building in Washington for an American troop pullout, Iraqis who have worked closely with U.S. companies and military forces are begging their employers for assurances that they will be able to leave with them. "They must take care of the people who worked with the Americans," said Hayder, an Iraqi who has worked for several U.S. companies since coalition forces entered Iraq. ... A woman who has worked closely with the U.S. military said she was deeply worried about what will happen when the Americans leave. "Who is going to protect us?" she asked during an interview near her home in downtown Baghdad. When...
Federal prosecutors have named the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as an unindicted co-conspirator in support of the terrorist group Hamas. CAIR joins Islamic Society of North America and The North American Islamic Trust as accused terror-supporting organizations in the case against The Holy Land Foundation's officers, as well as 300 other individuals and entities: Federal prosecutors have named three prominent Islamic organizations in America as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to support a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas. Prosecutors applied the label of "unindicted co-conspirator" to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust in connection with a trial planned in Texas next month for five officials of a defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. While the foundation was charged in the case, which was filed in 2004, none of the other groups was. However,...
Newt Gingrich hinted in even stronger terms this weekend that he will run for President. He plans to spend the summer lecturing, and after a workshop series in late September will make his decision, he told Fox News: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) fueled further speculation Sunday about entering the Republican race for president by taking shots at the Bush administration. “The government is not functioning,” Gingrich said on Fox News. “It’s not getting the job done, and Republicans need to confront this reality.” The face of Republican opposition to President Clinton’s administration, Gingrich said he will hold workshops on Sept. 27 and 29 to discuss “fundamental change.” He hinted he will make a decision about running after the workshops. Asked about his favorites in the GOP race, Gingrich said Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and prospective candidate Fred Thompson each “bring their unique strengths." But they need to do...
One of my favorite bloggers needs your assistance. Rick Moran, of Right Wing Nut House, will hold his third annual fundraiser, as he tries to keep his time free for free-lance writing: This is the third June in a row that I have forthrightly and without any qualms asked the readers of Right Wing Nuthouse to donate funds to this site. And it is the last time I will make such a request. This is because by next June, I either won’t need the money or will have given up trying to write for a living. Of course, you are not exactly donating to “this site.” You would be giving money to me, Rick Moran – someone who no doubt has made you laugh, angered you, made you think, or perhaps moved you with his writing. I make no pretense to having a corner on truth, being a superior writer,...
The transcript from my one-on-one interview with Mitt Romney is now available at Heading Right, and I think that CQ readers and CQ Radio listeners will find it very revealing. As I noted when I first broadcast the interview, I wanted to press Romney on foreign policy, a topic that has not received much attention so far in this campaign other than the war on terror. Before we got to that, though, I asked the Governor about immigration. He had talked about his opposition to the current compromise under consideration in the Senate based on the Z-visa plan, and I asked him to elaborate on how he would change that part of the legislation: EM: ... Now, your main problem in this bill as you explained in the interviews today, has been the “Z” provisions which is something that kicks in, it’s supposed to kick in after the triggers but...
Mike Allen at The Politico reviews the use of the word "amnesty", as the Washington Post's Shankar Vedantam explains why we offer them so often. Both reasons come from a lack of definition in the law and an inability to enforce it: “Amnesty” now is a political dirty word – the favorite slur of the bill’s opponents. But it was not always thus. The Googling monkeys discovered that McCain himself embraced the term during a news conference a few years ago in his office in Tucson, Ariz. “McCain Pushes Amnesty, Guest-Worker Program,” reported the Tucson Citizen of May 29, 2003. The senator is quoted as saying: “Amnesty has to be an important part because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here and pay taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it.”...
The strategy for Fred Thompson's presidential run has begun to coalesce, reports the Wall Street Journal, and to no one's great shock, it relies heavily on the Internet. However, the WSJ points out an opening that hasn't seen much reporting -- and one that Fred could easily use to his advantage: As a late entry into the crowded, expensive, presidential campaign, Fred Thompson's first big test of viability will be his ability to raise money quickly. A major part of the former Tennessee senator's strategy is a heavy reliance on the Internet to get his message out and to raise funds. He is also trying to tap into the large number of well-heeled Republican financiers who have yet to commit to a 2008 hopeful, amid widespread disaffection among party loyalists with the current field. Yet a late start and signs that Mr. Thompson may adopt an unconventional campaign style --...
Joe Scarborough offers his keen insight and classy analysis into today's political scene in an interview this morning with Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford. During the Morning Joe program on MS-NBC, Scarborough suggested that Fred Thompson's wife is a whore (via the Palmetto Scoop): SCARBOROUGH: Have you seen Fred Thompson’s wife? CRAWFORD: Oh, yeah. SCARBOROUGH: You think she thinks she works the pole? CRAWFORD: That’s what a Hollywood career will do for you, I guess. SCARBOROUGH: What do you mean? CRAWFORD: You get wives like that. SCARBOROUGH: I mean, look at that guy. God bless him, I love his voice. But I mean, you know. He ain’t Robert Redford in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” CRAWFORD: Well I would like to see him back into politics because I think he’s a lousy actor. Anyone who has watched Scarborough for any length of time knows that Scarborough can be an ass....
I've started to read The Reagan Diaries, edited and collected by Douglas Brinkley, which cover his entire presidency. It's quite remarkable, and even more useful as a reference guide thanks to the helpful index in the back of the book. So far, it shows that Reagan had been quite involved in policy matters, in contrast to his commonly-accepted persona as a hands-off CEO. Today as I began my tour through the book, I noted an interesting passage that has direct relevance to today's Middle East problem: Sunday, June 7 (1981): ... Got word of Israeli bombing of Iraq -- nuclear reactor. I swear I believe Armageddon is near. ... (Israeli PM Menachem) Begin informed us after the fact. Tuesday, June 9: ... Ended day with an N.S.C. meeting re the bombing of Iraq. Begin insists the plant was preparing to produce nuclear weapons for use on Israel. If he waited...
Federal authorities will indict Rep. William Jefferson on several counts of corruption today, CBS News reports. The move comes long after a series of raids triggered a Constitutional showdown between Congress and the Department of Justice: Sources tell CBS News that authorities are seeking an indictment against Congressman William Jefferson, D-La., on more than a dozen counts involving public corruption. Jefferson has been the subject of a ongoing probe in which FBI agents allegedly found more than $90,000 in cash in his freezer. CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that the Justice Department is expected to unveil the charges later today. This was the latest development in the 16-month international investigation of Jefferson, who allegedly accepted $100,000 from a telecommunications businessman, $90,000 of which was later recovered from a freezer in the congressman's Louisiana home. The indictment puts Nancy Pelosi in a tough spot. She removed Jefferson from the Ways...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), I'll talk with Rick Moran of Right Wing Nut House. We're going to talk about Rick's BlogTalkRadio show, his current fundraiser on the Nuthouse, and the developments on immigration and maybe even the indictment of William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson. We're going to be wide open for your phone calls, so be sure to join us at 646-652-4889! We're already looking to make this week a special one at CQ Radio. Tomorrow I'll have Fausta and Val back on the show, talking about NBC's decision to air Today from Cuba. They're already posting on the subject, so make sure you keep up with the blogging. On Wednesday, we'll have Patrick Hynes to review the Republican presidential debate -- which we'll live blog at Heading Right and follow with our normal Debate Central roundtable afterwards at 9 pm ET....
In the debate over health care, many people support the idea of a government-run, single-payor system that will supposedly guarantee equitable distribution of treatment. However, in granting government the authority to ration all medical care, we grant them the power to withhold it for whatever purpose they see fit. The British have begun to discover this dynamic, as the Daily Mail reports that the National Health Service will begin denying smokers access to medical care until they prove they have quit -- through a blood test. At Heading Right, I note how this demonstrates the power we will grant government over the most personal of choices as a necessary end result. Where does it stop? Do we refuse service to the obese? To those who engage in sex without condoms? Every risk factor adds cost to the delivery of nationalized medical care, and at some point the single payor will...
CQ readers know that The Sopranos has been one of my must-see television series, perhaps one of the best episodic television series in history. The series is known for its violent and strong sexual connotations, but it handles these themes in a manner which most series and movies do not: it remonstrates the characters (and the audience) for the degrading nature of immorality in both areas. The show goes so far as to almost scold the viewers for their fascination with Mafia stories, as it shows how those involved in organized crime slowly get corroded by its effects. Last night, I skipped the Democratic debate, because I knew I'd turn it off for the second-to-last episode in the series. I have TiVo, but the anticipation would have frustrated me, and I expected more resolution from the show than from the debate. On this point, I was not disappointed. (SPOILERS --...
Continue reading "The Sopranos Heads To Its Conclusion" »
As CQ readers know, I have advised keeping an open mind and a close eye on the details. The immigration bill could have some benefit, if properly amended and loopholes closed. However, now the Washington Times has a report from the Congressional Budget Office that shows that the bill will fail -- and fail rather spectacularly (via Confederate Yankee): The Senate's immigration bill will only reduce illegal immigration by about 25 percent a year, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report, Stephen Dinan will report Tuesday in The Washington Times. The bill's new guest-worker program could lead to at least 500,000 more illegal immigrants within a decade, said the report from the CBO, which said in its official cost estimate that it assumes some future temporary workers will overstay their time in the plan, adding up to a half-million by 2017 and 1 million by 2027. .... And in...
June 5, 2007
Craig Thomas, Wyoming's quiet Senator, lost his battle with cancer yesterday at age 74. Re-elected in a rare bright spot for Republicans in last year's midterm meltdown, Thomas had hoped to recover for his full term, but his leukemia turned out to be too advanced: Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, a three-term conservative Republican who stayed clear of the Washington limelight and political catfights, died yesterday. He was 74. The senator's family issued a statement saying he died Monday evening at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. He had been receiving chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia. Just before the 2006 election, Thomas was hospitalized with pneumonia and had to cancel his last campaign stops. He nonetheless won with 70 percent of the vote, monitoring the election from his hospital bed. ... "Wyoming had no greater advocate, taxpayers had no greater watchdog, and rural America had no greater defender than Craig...
Now that the other shoe has finally dropped on Rep. William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson, the next question is what the Democrats intend to do about him. Under indictment on sixteen counts of corruption, Jefferson represents just about everything against which the Democrats campaigned last year, with their attacks on the supposed "culture of corruption", and they'd like to be rid of the albatross. However, the Congressional Black Caucus smells a double standard, and they're not likely to go along with any plan that could railroad Jefferson out of the House without having been convicted first: Democratic leaders fear that Rep. William J. Jefferson's indictment yesterday on racketeering and bribery charges, coming exactly one year after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi engineered his ouster from the powerful Ways and Means Committee, could rekindle a smoldering dispute between the speaker and black lawmakers who were once pillars of her power. For months, the...
The Bush administration has rightly scotched the idea of a revival for a particularly inane Jimmy Carter policy -- the Olympic boycott. Both the White House and the USOC have immediately rejected a suggestion by Governor Bill Richardson that the US boycott the Beijing Olympics for its indifference to the genocide in Darfur: The Bush administration and American Olympic officials are rebuffing calls to consider a boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing next year to protest China's sluggish response to the genocide in Darfur. The U.S. Olympic Committee pointedly rejected the idea of a boycott, which was floated by Governor Richardson of New Mexico on Sunday night during a debate for Democratic presidential candidates. "We completely disagree with the point of view expressed by Governor Richardson," a spokesman for the committee, Darryl Seibel, said yesterday. "The Olympic movement is about sport, not politics, and, as has been demonstrated in...
Boston's WBZ-TV reports on an unusual disturbance on a Northwest flight from Minneapolis to Boston's Logan Airport. Police detained two men after they exhibited bizarre behavior -- and two other passengers took action to subdue them: Before the flight even took off, [Bob] Hayden said a man, who appeared aggravated, was walking up and down the aisle of the plane. The flight attendant had to force him into his seat after asking him to do so a few times. Hayden said after the aircraft finally got in the air, he noticed there was some sort of commotion. The same man had started screaming and fell into the aisle. Initially, Hayden said he thought the guy was having a heart attack, but he quickly realized the incident might have been staged. According to Hayden, two flight attendants helped the man back into his seat where he continued to yell for the...
Bruce Kesler does yeoman work today at the Democracy Project, looking through the CBO report on the immigration compromise legislation to understand its conclusions. He concludes that the CBO, which actually seems rather sanguine on the cost-benefit ratio of the bill, does not project costs far enough to cover the entitlement burden properly: 1) There’s some disconnect between the CBO estimates and others: The Center for Immigration Studies, in testimony before Congress, estimated that for 2002 that “if illegal aliens were legalized and began to pay taxes and use services like households headed by illegal immigrants with the same education levels, CIS estimates the annual net fiscal deficit would increase [from $10.4 billion at the federal level] to $29 billion.” Part of that is due to differing data, methods of analysis and laws considered. The rest needs further analysis. Nonetheless, although the amounts are not intolerable, of themselves, in an...
It's amazing how far a non-candidate can go in a race. Fred hasn't begun to run for the Republican presidential nomination, and Rasmussen shows him almost within the margin of error for the lead: With former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson taking his first formal steps towards a Presidential run and the immigration debate creating challenges for Arizona Senator John McCain, the race for the Republican Presidential nomination has an entirely different look this week. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) remains on top, but his support has slipped to 23%. That’s down two points from a week ago and is his lowest level of support all year. Earlier, Giuliani had consistently enjoyed support in the mid-30s. That was before Thompson’s name was added to the mix and before Giuliani stumbled on the abortion issue in the first GOP debate of the season. Thompson, who just formed an exploratory...
With NBC broadcasting the Today show live from Havana this week, we can expect to see plenty of media hyperbole on the Cuban health-care system and general ignorance of all the circumstances surrounding the relationship between Cuba and the US. However, the UK's Prospect Magazine gives a much more intimate look at the Cuba beyond the camera lenses in Castro's controlled access to the island. Bella Thomas actually lived there, and knows the Cuba that Western romanticists refuse to see: What observers at this time most underestimated was the power of the regime's nationalist rhetoric and Castro's strategic skill. Unlike in eastern Europe, where nationalism helped to erode communism, Cuban nationalism has shored up the regime. Castro was always a nationalist in communist clothing, and, throughout the 1990s, the communist references in his speeches were gradually replaced by nationalist ones. The continuing hostilities with the US have played into Castro's...
Two major prosecutions for abuse of power make the news today. First, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will go to prison for perjury and obstruction of justice: Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, stood calmly before a packed courtroom as a federal judge said the evidence overwhelmingly proved his guilt. "People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem," U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said. Regardless of the ludicrous nature of a three-year investigation where the perpetrator never got charged with the initial suspected crime, Libby got what he deserved, having lied to investigators and the grand...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), I'll talk with Fausta and Val, about NBC's decision to air Today from Cuba. They've both been following the story closely. We'll talk about what that means for the Cuban people and the Castro regime as well. We'll also talk about Venezuela and the start of an opposition movement that could put Hugo Chavez in a bind. You can join the conversation by calling 646-652-4889! And don't forget that we will be live-blogging tonight's Republican debate at Heading Right, and then reviewing the debate at Debate Central at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT....
Tonight, the crew at Heading Right will live-blog the Republican presidential debate ob CNN. Afterwards, we'll conduct a roundtable with Rick Moran, Frank P, Macranger, and Jim Lynch at Debate Central, starting at 9 pm ET. Be sure to join the conversation!...
The third GOP debate is over, although there may be some who haven't realized it yet. What it lacked in firepower, it more than made up in pointlessness. And while CNN may not have been anywhere near as bad as MS-NBC, they should still be embarassed that their audience asked better questions than CNN's journalists. The format for tonight's debate seemed forced and odd. First, Wolf Blitzer promised everyone that he wouldn't let the candidates dodge questions -- and then asked questions that made little sense. He wanted the candidates on stage to talk about Fred Thompson. He wanted answers on Genesis, and he wanted them now. Romney got to answer the same old question about his Mormonism. The audience participation section went better than it did with MS-NBC -- and in fact better than the first half of CNN's show. The candidates got to actually answer questions on policy...
June 6, 2007
The immigration compromise appears headed for the rocks, as Republicans threatened a filibuster yesterday after Democrats attempted to block them from offering amendments. Neither side has compromised as yet on a list of amendments, and Harry Reid has warned that he will take the bill off of the calendar after this week: The immigration deal foundered yesterday, on the verge of collapse under its own weight just days after it appeared to have a clear path to pass the Senate. By late in the afternoon, Republicans were accusing Democrats of trying to "stuff" them, and Democrats said Republicans were trying to kill the bill by obstructing the process. Both sides were saying they don't know whether the process can be put back on track. A showdown is scheduled for tomorrow, when Democrats said they will force a vote to set a time limit on the bill, and Republicans have promised...
Fred Thompson took another small step towards his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination yesterday. He launched his new web site, I'm With Fred, the first overt act he's made since dropping big hints in March. Right now, the site has little content, other than his introductory message. He has a postscript to it that promises "a lot more coming," and asks viewers to return often. The site has functions for donations and volunteers, and even includes a web widget for supporters to place on their websites to pass through donations to his campaign. Given the amount of essays Fred Thompson has written in the last few weeks, I'm guessing the content -- his policy positions -- will shortly arrive. In the meantime, for those interested in supporting Fred, the website gives them the opportunity....
Last night, I complained about the repetitive nature of the questioning at the debates. For the third straight debate, Rudy Giuliani had to state his position on abortion, and Mitt Romney had to answer for his change of position over the last two-plus years. As it turns out, though, CNN may have had a good reason to ask the same plodding questions over and over again, as Pew Research discovered that less than half of the voters have paid attention: The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted May 30-June 3 among 1,503 adults, finds that overall voter engagement in the presidential campaign remains somewhat limited, despite intense press coverage of the race. Just 33% of all voters say they have given a lot of thought to the presidential candidates, up only modestly from December (27%). However, Republican voters have caught up...
Federal agents conducted a series of raids across California to shut down a private army that intended to conduct a coup d'etat against the Communist government of Laos. General Vang Pao, a former CIA client in Laos, wanted to purchase explosives to conduct a terrorist attack on Vientiane and remove the Communists he failed to defeat decades ago: The ageing former leader of the CIA's "Secret Army" in Laos was in an American prison last night, accused of mounting a coup against his and Washington's old Communist enemy. General Vang Pao, 77, and nine other people were arrested in dawn raids by more than 200 federal agents in dawn raids across California. The detentions were the culmination of 'Operation Tarnished Eagle', a six-month investigation into an attempt to bring down Laos' Communist government. According to prosecutors Vang Pao and his co-conspirators planned to spend almost USD 10 million (pounds 5...
Megan Stack writes a fascinating account of her experiences as a woman in Saudi Arabia, stationed there for the last four years by the Los Angeles Times. If anyone wonders what being a woman in Saudi Arabia means, Stack gives a firsthand account of the demeaning and oppressive existence that all women -- Western or otherwise -- endure in the Kingdom. For Stack, the abaya that Saudi law required her to wear not only symbolized her oppression, but actually seeped into her psyche: As I roamed in and out of Saudi Arabia, the abaya, or Islamic robe, eventually became the symbol of those shifting rules. I always delayed until the last minute. When I felt the plane dip low over Riyadh, I'd reach furtively into my computer bag to fish out the black robe and scarf crumpled inside. I'd slip my arms into the sleeves without standing up. If I...
To read Ruth Marcus this morning, one would believe that the Democrats had begun a revival tour rather than a presidential primary. She describes the latest talk from the campaign trail as a conversion movement that will roll holy rollers to the Democrats, but manages to miss the fact that none of these stories involve any influence on actual policy: You know it's a different kind of candidate forum when Hillary Clinton allows that she sometimes prays (no doubt, she says, to some divine eye-rolling) "Oh, Lord, why can't you help me lose weight?" and describes how "prayer warriors" sustained her through the public dissection of her husband's infidelity. When Barack Obama muses on the nature of good vs. evil. When John Edwards recounts that he "strayed away from the Lord" in adulthood, only to find that "my faith came roaring back" after the death of his 16-year-old son. ......
Today's Wall Street Journal reveals more about the offensive against the US in the war on terror -- on the judicial front. Last week, the Islamic Society of Boston withdrew its lawsuit against critics of a land deal, but not before the discovery process turned up proof of the critics' allegations of terrorist ties to the IS. At Heading Right, I discuss how this lawsuit turned out to be a big bluff, an attempt to use the American judicial system into silencing critics of Islamist groups. This dovetails with the Flying Imams' attempts to silence tipsters by creating an environment of legal intimidation. Be sure to read the whole thing. I first covered the lawsuit in December 2005....
Turkey sent thousands of troops into northern Iraq, chasing Kurdish insurgents after an apparent attack on a Turkish base. The move threatens to destabilize the area most successfully adjusted to the new status of Iraq and bring the US and Turkey into diplomatic conflict: Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials told The Associated Press. Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks. “It is not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands,” one of the officials told the AP by telephone. The official is based in southeast Turkey,...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), I'll talk with Patrick Hynes, both of Ankle Biting Pundits and of the John McCain campaign, about last night's debate. We'll talk about who won and who lost, and we'll also talk about immigration, the war, and much more. Join the conversation! Just call 646-652-4889. Tomorrow, I'll have Dr. Kevin Fleming to talk about single-payor health care. Dr. Fleming wrote an interesting study on this topic for the Heritage Foundation, and we'll ask him about current political postures on renovating the American health-care system....
ABC News reports that NATO officials have proof that the Iranian government supplies the Taliban in their war against Afghanistan. The materiel includes C-4, heavy arms, and roadside bombs not unlike those deployed against the US in Iraq: NATO officials say they have caught Iran red-handed, shipping heavy arms, C4 explosives and advanced roadside bombs to the Taliban for use against NATO forces, in what the officials say is a dramatic escalation of Iran's proxy war against the United States and Great Britain. "It is inconceivable that it is anyone other than the Iranian government that's doing it," said former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stopped short earlier this week of blaming Iran, saying the U.S. did not have evidence "of the involvement of the Iranian government in support of the Taliban." But an analysis by a senior coalition official,...
June 7, 2007
When I live-blogged the progress of the First Mate's kidney transplant, we had a strange and interesting coincidence. One of the friends supporting the donor's family turned out to be the mother of a graduate student at Stony Brook University who had recently requested a link to a survey. Neither of us realized it until we started talking about our sons in college, and when she told me her son's name, I recognized it and looked up the e-mail. After I told that story and linked to it, many CQ readers graciously took the survey. Now they have a follow-up survey, and I hope you take the time to take it as well. Chris writes: Immigration Attitudes Survey Increasingly, Americans are turning to the web for news about politics. This is a survey about online news coverage of the immigration issue. We are interested in your thoughts on this important...
All this week, Republicans have tried to find a "killer amendment" that would fracture the coalition supporting the comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate. Ironically, it may have come from a Democrat, as the Senate surprisingly approved Byron Dorgan's amendment to end the guest-worker program after five years: A fragile compromise that would legalize millions of unlawful immigrants risks coming unraveled after the Senate voted early Thursday to place a five-year limit on a program meant to provide U.S. employers with 200,000 temporary foreign workers annually. The 49-48 vote came two weeks after the Senate, also by a one-vote margin, rejected the same amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan. The North Dakota Democrat says immigrants take many jobs Americans could fill. The reversal dismayed backers of the immigration bill, which is supported by President Bush but loathed by many conservatives. Business interests and their congressional allies were already angry that...
The reports that al-Qaeda in Iraq had been attacked by another terrorist group, Islamic Army of Iraq, turns out to be true -- and unfortunately short-lived. Instead of the prospect of two insurgent groups decimating each other, they have announced a truce: A Sunni insurgent group that waged a deadly street battle last week against the rival group al-Qaeda in Iraq in a Sunni neighborhood of west Baghdad announced Wednesday that the two forces had declared a cease-fire. The Islamic Army of Iraq, a more moderate and secular Sunni group, said it had reached the cease-fire with al-Qaeda in Iraq because the groups did not want to spill Muslim blood or damage "the project of jihad." Last week, the two groups fought for several days in the Sunni neighborhood of Amiriyah, leaving about 30 of their fighters dead. Residents of the neighborhood and leaders from the Islamic Army, which reportedly...
Robert Novak reports that John Edwards has problems within the Democratic Party, even though his candidacy seems to have gained some momentum in Iowa. He has disenchanted the power brokers with his move towards class warfare, and the revelations of his financial dealings make the Democrats very nervous about Edwards as a potential nominee: Even though Edwards may end up being the party's nominee, prominent Democrats are surprisingly candid about him. Mark Siegel, a 35-year party insider, told me: "He came to Washington as a 'New Democrat,' but he's not that kind of Democrat anymore. He's into class warfare." Edwards has not worn well with party colleagues. Campaign consultant Bob Shrum was enthusiastic about Edwards after working on his 1998 Senate victory in North Carolina and unsuccessfully advised Gore to make him his 2000 running mate. But Shrum chose Kerry over Edwards as his 2004 presidential client. In his newly...
I've been following the coverage of the immigration bill by Michelle Malkin, who really redefines the term "tireless". No one else could stay awake through hours of Senate coverage a day and make it seem exciting in the recaps, and people should make sure they're keeping pace with her live-blog posts. Start at the top and keep scrolling. Michelle also picked up this story about a contretemps between Lindsay Graham and Barack Obama, when the latter introduced an amendment that would have capped the points-based entry system. Graham apparently took great exception to this amendment. He berated Obama on the floor of the Senate, and then continued scolding the freshman Senator outside the chamber: The amendment infuriated Graham, a South Carolina Republican with close ties to another presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Pacing the Senate floor and waving Obama's amendment, Graham loudly accused Obama of undermining a delicate agreement...
Daniel Henninger takes his fellow conservatives to task for their emotional opposition to the comprehensive immigration reform bill currently under debate in the Senate. At Heading Right, I answer his question -- and remind him that conservatives support solutions that work instead of putting process on the pedestal....
The sentencing of Scooter Libby has created a firestorm of protest in the blogosphere, and even in the Republican presidential primary contest. Most of the candidates said they would consider a pardon, if elected and if George Bush has not issued one before then. Most of those have based their point on the notion that Libby should never have been prosecuted in the first place. However, the man who helped get Caspar Weinberger his pardon disagrees, but suggests that a commutation may be a better option (via Power Line): Scooter Libby should not be pardoned. But his punishment -- 30 months in prison, two years' probation and a $250,000 fine -- is excessive. President Bush should commute the sentence by eliminating the jail term while preserving the fine. There is a legal principle at stake in this case greater than either Libby or the politics of the moment. It is...
The Senate's immigration-reform coalition took a big hit a few moments ago. The upper chamber refused cloture on the comprehensive reform bill, meaning that unlimited debate will continue for the foreseeable future. The motion asked to limit the debate to 30 more hours, which would have produced a vote early next week at the latest. This puts Harry Reid in a tough spot. He originally said that he would take immigration off the calendar if it could not be resolved by Monday. He now has to ask for another cloture vote, which would have to take place tomorrow at the earliest -- and given that only 33 people voted to end debate, he has an almost insurmountable obstacle to success. I think the immigration bill just died. More in a moment. UPDATE: All of the Republican caucus voted to block the bill, and got 15 Democrats and Vermont's Independent Bernie...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), I'll talk with Dr. Kevin Fleming about single-payor health care. Dr. Fleming wrote an interesting study on this topic for the Heritage Foundation, and we'll ask him about current political postures on renovating the American health-care system. His commentary here at CQ has generated some controversy, and CQ Radio listeners can ask him questions directly at 646-652-4889! UPDATE: Tomorrow, Duane Patterson -- the Generalissimo from the Hugh Hewitt show -- joins me again for a review of the week and to talk about the immigration plan. I have the live player in the extended entry, so click on the link below for the stream to automatically start!...
Continue reading "CQ Radio: Dr. Kevin Fleming & Health Care" »
I probably should post this as an update to my earlier post on Bill Otis' suggestion of a commutation, but this post by Andy McCarthy sums up my feelings about Scooter Libby and his conviction and sentencing. The long-time federal prosecutor explains why conservatives do themselves no favors by engaging in partisan invective -- and do Scooter Libby no favors, either: Not that Scooter Libby has asked for my advice, but I also must say that that the ardor of his supporters — including, I believe, NR — has hurt him, and hurt the conservative movement, in very fundamental ways. As to him personally, all this passionate rhetoric about his heroic service to the United States, how the investigation should never have happened, and how he got unfairly singled out and screwed (all of which I agree with) would be fine if it weren't obscuring something fairly important: Lying to...
Rep. William Jefferson finds himself almost back to square one regarding his finances as a result of the corruption investigation of his alleged corruption. The year after the FBI found $90,000 in cash inside Jefferson's freezer, a judge has frozen his assets: A federal judge in Virginia issued a restraining order to freeze the assets of Louisiana Democrat, Representative William Jefferson, including stocks he owned from two West African companies. Jefferson was indicted Monday on charges he solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. The congressman is facing 16 criminal counts including a forfeiture count. Federal prosecutors have said they will seek to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars from Jefferson that they believe he obtained illicitly by peddling his influence to help broker business deals in Africa. The man who redefined cold cash will now have to watch his accounts and assets frozen by federal authorities. They'll need...
The Senate has now begun voting on what Harry Reid threatened would be the final cloture vote for the immigration reform bill. So far, while the counting still has taken place, I have counted 32 votes against cloture. Opponents of the bill only need nine more to defeat the bill altogether, and they have a few Democrats among them. NOTE: They have added four more, all Democrats. This seems to be the end of the compromise. 7:40 - Michelle Malkin is also live-blogging this, and I've heard four more against. All they need is one more, and I think they'llhave it shortly. 7:43 - As I count it, Rockefeller's No pushed it over the edge, but Landrieu and McCaskill presented some insurance. If no one changes their vote -- and they still can -- the bill is toast. 7:44 - Jon Kyl voted against cloture. So did Bingaman. 7:46 -...
June 8, 2007
In the thirteenth century, the fabled (and almost certainly mythical) Children's Crusade set out to bring peace to the Holy Land. According to the legend, a young boy proselytized throughout central Europe that Jesus had told him in a vision that an army of pure children could liberate Jerusalem just by showing up, and that the waters of the Mediterranean would part to greet them when they arrived in Italy. They set out in boats instead, sail to Tunisia -- where they all get sold into slavery and are never heard from again, even in legend. One might think that anyone relying on this kind of strategy 800 years later would automatically discredit himself as a leader. However, John Edwards thinks this is a better way to fight terror than actually fighting terror: Senator Edwards is outlining a new national security strategy that hinges on the creation of a 10,000-person...
The "grand compromise" died in an ignominious fashion last night, with supporters of the bill unable to garner even a simple majority to end debate in the Senate. In the end, the bill's overall opponents seized on a poison pill amendment that they knew would fracture the coalition supporting it, even though they themselves didn't really support the thrust of the amendment itself. Does that mean that they managed to kill the bill altogether, or will it arise from its current coma? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) immediately announced that he would pull the bill from consideration and move on to energy legislation. But he left open the possibility that lawmakers could still reach a decision on immigration legislation and called on Bush to do more to help. "Even though I'm disappointed, I look forward to passing this bill," Reid said after the vote. "There are ways we can...
The Hill reports on an old-fashioned pork pull at the House Armed Services Committee, but only a few select guests can enjoy the festivities. Appropriators on the HASC have earmarked millions of dollars that primarily benefit their lobbyist friends. The top two offenders show the bipartisan nature of pork: Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.), ranking member of the Air and Land Forces defense subcommittee, reaped the most money from employees working at firms that would benefit from his funding requests. During the last election cycle and the first three months of this year, Saxton’s campaign collected 118 contributions worth $91,000 from the employees and political action committees (PACs) of firms such as Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications, Price Systems and NetIDEAS. Saxton has also requested millions of dollars in project spending for these companies. He solicited $3 million for L-3 Communications, which has a facility in Camden, N.J., to develop a high-resolution...
The London Telegraph headlines the agreement of George Bush to significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions as part of a global effort. They hail his "dramatic" shift on the issue of global warming. Did Bush change American policy -- or did he change the ground conditions for the climate-change debate? At Heading Right, I explain that the only dramatic change came from the rest of the G-8 nations. They decided to stop short of economic suicide, and Bush pulled the gun away from their temples. UPDATE: Kimberly Strassel at The Wall Street Journal agrees (h/t: CQ commenter onlineanalyst): Under the vaunted Kyoto, from 2000 to 2004, Europe managed to increase its emissions by 2.3 percentage points over 1995 to 2000. Only two countries are on track to meet targets. There's rampant cheating, and endless stories of how select players are self-enriching off the government "market" in C02 credits. Meanwhile, in the U.S.,...
The blogosphere has spent most of the morning scratching its collective head over an op-ed article at Time Out London. It purports to outline all of the beneficial aspects of an Islamist takeover of London, and castigates those who believe in a "hysterical, right-wing nightmare" of dhimmitude. People are unsure whether the author, Michael Hodges, is either a capitulationist or a satirist non pareil. You decide: On the surface, Islamic health doesn’t look good: the 2001 census showed that 24 per cent of Muslim women and 21 per cent of Muslim men suffered long-term illness and disability. But these are factors of social conditions rather than religion. In fact, Islam offers Londoners potential health benefits: the Muslim act of prayer is designed to keep worshippers fit, their joints supple and, at five times a day, their stomachs trim. The regular washing of the feet and hands required before prayers promotes...
The advent of Fred Thompson has been seen by analysts as a challenge to the top three Republican candidates for the presidential nomination -- Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. Conservatives dissatisfied with the options have wanted a traditional conservative with less political baggage to enter the race as a white knight, and so far, Thompson fits the bill. Today, though, the Washington Post reports that McCain may be especially vulnerable to Fred's entry, especially at the organizational level: John Dowd represented Sen. John McCain in his darkest hour, the "Keating Five" scandal. He supported McCain the first time he ran for president in 2000 and signed up to be a major fundraiser for him in this year's presidential race. But when former senator Fred D. Thompson began thinking about running, the Washington lawyer changed his mind. For McCain (Ariz.), who started off as the favorite to win the...
The midterm election theme of the "culture of corruption" functioned as an argument for Democratic control of Congress, after several scandals rocked the Republican caucuses. The Democrats apparently like the theme so much that they plan to incorporate it into their presidential campaign -- but perhaps not in the manner some might expect (via Big Lizards): The Clinton Campaign today announced that Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Congressman Alcee Hastings have been named national Campaign Co-Chairs. "We need a leader with a clear vision and sound judgment, who can work with a Democratic Congress to renew the promise of America. Hillary is that leader," Rep. Wasserman Schultz said. Rep. Hastings said, "When we elect the next President Clinton, this country will be a much better place for the African-American community, Floridians and all Americans." Both Reps. Wasserman Schultz and Hastings serve in the Democratic leadership in the House of...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), Duane Patterson -- the Generalissimo from the Hugh Hewitt show -- joins me again for a review of the week and to talk about the immigration plan. Duane and I will also discuss the state of the presidential race, Hillary's choice for national co-chair for her campaign, and much more. Be sure to join the conversation at 646-652-4889! UPDATE: Duane couldn't make it today, but he will be on the air with me Tuesday instead. The live player will start automatically if you click on the link to the extended entry. You can also listen from the player on the sidebar....
Continue reading "CQ Radio: The Generalissimo Returns!" »
It is said that the only meaning in some lives is to serve as a warning to others. Former Selma sheriff Jim Clark's viciousness doubled back on itself to defeat him in the long run. Unfortunately, he seems to have been one of those examples.
June 9, 2007
The Paris Hilton saga has become so compelling that many political bloggers who swore off mentioning her have weighed in on the topic, including myself. Hilton got hauled off screaming and crying to jail after having been released by Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca five days into a 45-day sentence, reportedly for becoming too hysterical. Judge Michael T. Sauer ruled that Baca had violated the court's order in releasing her, and sent her back to serve the entire sentence for violating probation on a drunken-driving conviction: Hilton, who was brought from her home to the court in handcuffs in a sheriff's car, entered the courtroom red-eyed and trembling, and she cried throughout the hour-long hearing, dabbing her face with tissues, biting her knuckles, and shaking her head. She sat slumped at the table throughout the proceeding, wearing a gray sweater, her blond hair pinned up. Hilton was released from the...
The Washington Post reports that the comprehensive immigration reform bill may still rise from the dead as its backers try to cobble together agreement on process. Republicans want ample time to amend the bill and debate the various adjustments, while the Democrats want to spend as little time as possible working on what they see as a White House initiative. Harry Reid has become the center of the puzzle, as people question his real motivations: Republican and Democratic negotiators believe they can reach agreement by early next week on the official sticking point: which conservative amendments would be considered before final passage. The list must be short enough for time-conscious Democrats, yet substantive enough for Republicans demanding to be heard. But a second act will come only if Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) allows the immigration issue to return to the floor. And exactly where Reid stands on...
Yesterday on CQ Radio, I explained why legislators already had an animus for the immigration reform bill outside of its policies. The New York Times follows up on similar lines today (h/t: Gary Gross): The creation of the bill, too, was highly unorthodox. Even participants in the private negotiations that led to the so-called grand bargain say their very approach created problems, producing contentious legislation embraced by the participants but met with skepticism by other lawmakers, the public and groups like organized labor and conservative research organizations. “The chance to create meaningful immigration reform legislation was lost the moment the bill emerged from its closed-door meeting with an immediate path to amnesty for anywhere from 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants,” Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, said in hailing the defeat of the bill. “This agreement was reached between a handful of senators,” said Senator Jeff Bingaman...
Last night, law enforcement sources told the AP that the investigation into the terror plot to blow up JFK Airport in New York City has expanded beyond the four men now in custody: The investigation into the thwarted plot to bomb Kennedy International Airport is widening beyond the four men in custody, with more suspects sought outside the U.S. for their suspected roles, a law enforcement official said Friday. The defendants identified last weekend were "just a piece of it," the official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to speak publicly. "We are definitely seeking more players. We are targeting others overseas." The official declined to provide details about the possible suspects, or in what countries they are being sought. All of this is preliminary, and many times investigations go down channels that turn out to be dead ends. However, the men...
The Northern Alliance Radio Network will be on the air today, with our six-hour-long broadcast schedule starting at 11 am CT. The first two hours features Power Line's John Hinderaker and Chad and Brian from Fraters Libertas. Mitch and I hit the airwaves for the second shift from 1-3 pm CT, and King Banaian and Michael Broadkorb have The Final Word from 3-5. If you're in the Twin Cities, you can hear us on AM 1280 The Patriot, or on the station's Internet stream if you're outside of the broadcast area. Today, the entire NARN will be at the dedication of the Minnesota World War II Memorial, broadcasting live from the state Capital. We'll get a chance to interview the heroes of the war and others, as well as review the week's news, including immigration. Be sure to call 651-289-4488 to join the celebration!...
Reports coming from diplomats in Pyongyang have Kim Jong-Il so debilitated that he can no longer walk 30 feet without assistance. He apparently needs heart surgery, which has kept him from making public appearances on his normal schedule: Kim Jong Il, North Korea's reclusive leader, has been so unwell that he could not walk more than 30 yards without a rest, western governments have been told. Diplomats in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, are increasingly convinced that the 65-year-old dictator needs heart surgery to restore his apparently flagging health. He has had to be accompanied by an assistant carrying a chair so that, wherever he goes, he can sit and catch his breath. ... Kim's public appearances have been curtailed this year and he has appeared in public only 23 times, compared with 42 times at the same point last year - an indication, observers say, of his declining health....
June 10, 2007
It's a measure of George Bush's impact and visibility that every little action gets wide exposure and viewed outside of context. It's also a measure of his low popularity that some of these get used to paint him in the worst possible light. That appears to be the case with Bush's latest so-called gaffe -- responding to Pope Benedict with a "sir": US President George W Bush drew gasps at the Vatican on Saturday by referring to Pope Benedict XVI as "sir" instead of the expected "His Holiness", pool reporters said. They could clearly hear the US leader say "Yes, sir" when the pope asked him if he was going to meet with officials of the lay Catholic Sant'Egidio community at the US embassy later during his visit. James Joyner makes the point that Bush is not Catholic, while Michael van der Galien claims that anyone addressing the Pope should...
Democrats and the NRA have opposed each other for decades. Democratic activists have long railed at the power of the NRA lobby, while the NRA has long accused Democrats of wanting to disarm law-abiding Americans and violating the Second Amendment. However, the Washington Post reports that the two sides have come together to create legislation that promotes security while reinforcing the right to purchase firearms: Senior Democrats have reached agreement with the National Rifle Association on what could be the first federal gun-control legislation since 1994, a measure to significantly strengthen the national system that checks the backgrounds of gun buyers. The sensitive talks began in April, days after a mentally ill gunman killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech University. The shooter, Seung Hui Cho, had been judicially ordered to submit to a psychiatric evaluation, which should have disqualified him from buying handguns. But the state of Virginia...
Stephen Hayes reviews the Draft Fred movement, which most believe started last March, but in reality began just after the midterm elections. In one sense, the narrative Hayes gives Weekly Standard readers shows that the notion of a draft is somewhat fanciful, but it also shows that the grassroots response to the Fred Thompson candidacy has exceeded everyone's expectations: On November 29, 2006, Tennessee senator Bill Frist said that he would not be running for president. The same day, the Wall Street Journal noted that the announcement "leaves a Republican void in the South, and underscores the absence of any major center-to-right Southern figure in the Republican Party's presidential field thus far." Others saw the same void. Thompson fielded calls from several friends and former colleagues in the following days. Spencer Abraham, who had resigned as George W. Bush's secretary of energy shortly after the 2004 election, knew Thompson from...
Sally Denton uses today's Los Angeles Times op-ed page as a launching pad for the movie based on her book, "American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857," and as a means to propagate more anti-Mormon bigotry at the expense of Mitt Romney. Denton insists that Romney has to respond about the nature of his faith if he expects to win the nomination for the Presidency -- and uses a lot of 19th-century examples to "prove" her case: MITT ROMNEY'S Mormonism threatens his presidential candidacy in the same way that John F. Kennedy's Catholicism did when he ran for president in 1960. Overt and covert references to Romney's religion — subtle whispering as well as unabashed inquiries about the controversial sect he belongs to — plague his campaign. None of his responses so far have silenced the skeptics. Recent polls indicate that from 25% to 35% of registered voters...
Earlier this year, the disputes over the strategy for Iraq could get boiled down to three directions: go big, go home, or go long. Today's Washington Post reports that the third option has begun to get the most traction in both DC and Baghdad, as the two governments look for the best way to fight terror while ending the appearance of an occupation: U.S. military officials here are increasingly envisioning a "post-occupation" troop presence in Iraq that neither maintains current levels nor leads to a complete pullout, but aims for a smaller, longer-term force that would remain in the country for years. This goal, drawn from recent interviews with more than 20 U.S. military officers and other officials here, including senior commanders, strategists and analysts, remains in the early planning stages. It is based on officials' assessment that a sharp drawdown of troops is likely to begin by the middle...
How powerful a force has The Sopranos become in American culture? Our friends across the pond have even written articles today about its valedictory episode tonight. Both the left-wing Guardian and the conservative Telegraph note the passing of the series (HBO, 9 pm ET). Somewhat fittingly, both focus on the impact the final episode will have on Sopranos tourism in New Jersey. First, the Guardian: Marc Baron was putting a brave face on his future employment prospects last week. Baron is the lead guide for one of New York's most successful tourist enterprises - The Sopranos Tour - in which visitors are taken round 45 locations used in filming the TV series The Sopranos Now, after 86 episodes, 18 Emmy awards and some of the most lavish critical approval in TV history, The Sopranos - an everyday story of Mafia folk - ends today. An expected audience of 10 million...
Some movies lose the audience in the first ten minutes, with unrealistic characterization and uncomfortable plot points. Knocked Up comes close to doing that by presenting us with perhaps the most ineligible bachelors seen yet on screen. However, if people wait out the first half-hour of the movie, it develops into something rather touching, in its own way. ** Spoilers -- be warned! ** Knocked Up tells a story about the consequences of one's actions and poor decisions. Katherine Heigl ("Gray's Anatomy") plays Alison Scott, a young woman with a future in television. She finds out that E! wants to make her an on-camera talent, and she goes out to a hot nightclub with her sister Debbie, a frustrated thirtysomething wife and mother played by Leslie Mann. She hooks up with Ben Stone at the club (played by 40 Year Old Virgin supporting actor Seth Rogan) and celebrates a little...
In the end, all of the predictions failed. ** Spoilers -- click on the link below to read more....
Continue reading "Sopranos Finale" »
June 11, 2007
See Eli Lake's response below. The New York Sun offers a tantalizing headline that makes it appear that Colin Powell has changed his political affiliation from Republican to Democrat. In an Eli Lake article titled "GOP's Powell Is Now Advising Obama", the Sun appears to report that Powell has joined Obama's team: Colin Powell, who only a decade ago was being discussed as a possible Republican presidential nominee and who more recently served as President Bush's first secretary of state, is advising a Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Obama of Illinois. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday, Mr. Powell said it was "too soon" to say whether he would endorse the Republican nominee for president, and he added that he is reserving judgment for now. Lake doesn't clarify what this means until the third paragraph: "I've been around this town a long time, and I know everybody who is running...
British courts have trouble taking sex offenders seriously, the London Telegraph reports this morning. Over 1600 cases of pedophilia and 230 cases of rape have resulting in nothing stronger than a warning, rather than formal charges and jail time: Thousands of sex offenders including paedophiles and rapists have escaped with cautions rather than being jailed over the past five years. A nationwide survey of police forces conducted by the BBC found that 1,600 sex offences involving children and 230 cases of rape were dealt with by the use of cautions instead of formal charges, which could lead to a fine or a prison sentence. Another 350 cautions were given for sex crimes involving victims under the age of 13, while cautions were also handed out for offences of bigamy, exploitation of prostitution, indecent exposure, sex with animals, incest and sexual grooming. .... But police forces and Government agencies insisted that...
I am pleased to invite former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to write a guest post at Captain's Quarters, as he kicks off the ONE Vote '08 campaign to help save the poor in Africa. Senator Frist has dedicated himself to humanitarian projects after retiring from the Senate, and he will appear on CQ Radio later today to talk about the ONE Vote '08 project and how he sees it as part of the solution to the complicated problems in Africa. More than a decade ago I began traveling to Africa each year to complete medical mission trips in countries such as Sudan and Rwanda. I’ve witnessed the devastating effects of extreme poverty and disease, which is why today I helped kick off the ONE Vote ’08 campaign. ONE Vote ‘08 is an unprecedented campaign to energize presidential candidates – and voters – concerning issues of extreme poverty and global...
A major media segment has indicated that the Internet has pulled down a significant portion of their profits through the proliferation of free content. The net effect of amateurs supplying content where the professionals had a near-monopoly has the industry contemplating pay-for-play Web presences, focusing on Web-exclusive content. The long-term outlook for this segment looks bleak, as its players try to revamp their infrastructure to meet tougher profitability conditions than they have faced in their entire history. Is this the newspaper industry? Weekly news magazines? Not exactly: "Free porn" just might be the two most exciting or frightening words in the English language, depending on your point of view. And they're especially threatening to the adult film industry, which has made billions through the sales of DVDs, videos, and sex products. After two decades of phenomenal growth in profits, the porn industry is facing some major challenges as its X-rated...
I have been one of the few conservatives who have expressed opposition to the death penalty, on several bases. While I have not specifically tied my opposition to the lack of deterrent value in executions, a number of pro- and anti-capital punishment advocates have argued over that precise point for decades. Now the AP reports that several new studies show a deterrent effect of between 3 and 18 uncommitted murders for every execution. Does this change the debate over the death penalty? At Heading Right, I examine Cass Sunstein's suggestion that this may create a moral imperative to execute murderers, and ask whether deterrence is the only question, or even the main question, in this debate....
Robert Novak paints a depressing vision of the George Bush White House in today's column. The administration doesn't fight for the friends it should, and fights for those who bring nothing but misery and disappointment instead: The Gonzales-Libby equation is symbolic of Republican discontent with the president. He failed utterly to narrow the divide within the party over his immigration reform. Time is running out -- to less than three months -- on GOP forbearance on Iraq. In the closing months of the administration, key posts are unfilled and what old hands call "children" fill others. Facing multiple investigations, Bush aides without personal fortunes are threatened by daunting legal fees. The treatment of Lewis Libby, once Vice President Cheney's influential chief of staff, enrages Republicans far more than their public utterances suggest. The president's studied distance from the CIA leak case led to the appointment of a special prosecutor by...
George Will attempts to pop the Fred Thompson boomlet in his latest Newsweek column. Unfortunately for Will, Fred Thompson is not the lightweight cipher he dismisses so casually, and the normally excellent Will winds up looking a little bit of a lightweight himself: Some say he is the Republicans' Rorschach test: They all see in him what they crave. Or he might be the Republicans' dot-com bubble, the result of restless political investors seeking value that the untutored eye might not discern and that might be difficult to quantify but which the investors are sure must be there, somewhere, somehow. One does not want to be unfair to Thompson, who may have hidden depths. But ask yourself this: If he did not look like a basset hound who had just read a sad story—say, "Old Yeller"—and if he did not talk like central casting's idea of the god Sincerity, would...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist joins us at the top of the hour. Senator Frist launched his effort on behalf of ONE Vote '08 today, complete with a guest post here at Captain's Quarters, and we'll talk about his plans for African aid and his post-retirement plans as well. At 2:30, we'll welcome Matt Lewis of Townhall, who attended the event today in Washington DC, for his perspective on the event and the project. Be sure to join the conversation by calling 646-652-4889! Tomorrow, Duane Patterson -- the Generalissimo from the Hugh Hewitt show -- joins me again to talk about the immigration controversy, the state of the presidential race, Hillary's choice for national co-chair for her campaign, and much more. UPDATE: CQ Radio reaches around the world! We took a call today from Gambia -- in fact, from the bush....
Continue reading "CQ Radio: Senator Bill Frist And ONE Vote '08" »
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) refers to itself as America's largest Islamic civil-rights organization. Perhaps they still are, although that may say more about the state of Islamic groups than it does about CAIR. According to tax records gleaned by the Washington Times from a Freedom of Information Act request, CAIR has lost 90% of its membership since 2001: According to tax documents obtained by The Times, the number of reported members spiraled down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to less than 1,700 in 2006, a loss of membership that caused the Muslim rights group's annual income from dues to drop from $732,765 in 2000, when yearly dues cost $25, to $58,750 last year, when the group charged $35. The organization instead is relying on about two dozen individual donors a year to contribute the majority of the money for CAIR's budget, which reached nearly $3 million...
An interesting, (mostly) non-political debate has arisen between Meghan O'Rourke at Slate and Jonah Goldberg at The Corner today on a ubiquitous American cultural imperative: the diamond engagement ring. Interestingly, it is O'Rourke challenging the customary decimation of a young suitor's finances, and Goldberg submitting to the inevitability of the custom. O'Rourke starts by asking what this one-sided exchange really means: The retail fantasy known as a "traditional" American wedding comprises many delicious absurdities, ranging from personalized wedding stamps to ring pillows designed for dogs to favors like "Love Mints." Of all these baubles, though, perhaps the most insidious is the engagement ring. Most Americans can say no to the "celebrity garter belt" on offer for a mere $18.95 from Weddings With Class. But more than 80 percent of American brides receive a diamond engagement ring (at an average cost of around $3,200) before they get married. Few stop to...
Democrats once more failed to deliver on a promised blow to the Bush administration. Earlier this evening, they followed their failure to block Iraq war funding with a failure to press ahead on a no-confidence vote against Alberto Gonzales: Senate Democrats fell short this afternoon in their effort to hold a vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales but still registered a strong, if symbolic, rebuke of the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. The Senate voted 53 to 38 to end debate and allow a vote on the no-confidence motion itself. Since 60 votes were required to shut off the debate, or invoke cloture, supporters of the motion were lacking seven votes. But Mr. Gonzales’s critics could console themselves with the knowledge that they mustered a majority, and that several Republicans sided with them . The outcome left the attorney general’s critics in Congress uncertain about what...
As many CQ readers already know, the First Mate and I volunteer our time at Twin Cities Marriage Encounter. We are the current president couple for the TCME board, which really means that we get to meet a lot of very dedicated couples who deliver retreat weekends for husbands and wives looking to give their marriage some attention. We have made many friends in the organization, and two of them have donated kidneys to the FM in the last three years. Every year we have a fundraising banquet where we hold silent auctions for items donated by a number of local businesses. One of the more unique items for bid comes from one of our friends in the Marriage Encounter community. William Kent Krueger is a well-known mystery writer and one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet, and he has offered to name one of the characters...
June 12, 2007
Harry Reid has insisted that George Bush has to put his higher popularity ratings on the line and guarantee more votes from the Senate Republican Caucus on the line before Reid will resurrect the comprehensive immigration reform bill from the table. Bush takes that so seriously, he's going to do something he hasn't done in five years -- eat lunch with the Senate Republicans: The top Senate Democrat said yesterday that President Bush must prove he can deliver more Republican votes before Democrats will put the immigration bill, which collapsed last week, back on the Senate schedule. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Mr. Bush that the only hope for the bill is if he delivers the votes of more than 20 Republican senators to break a filibuster and pass the measure. The Nevada Democrat had a frank assessment of the bill's prospects, saying the 51-member Democratic caucus was "about...
Analysts have begun warning that Pervez Musharraf may not remain in power much longer, and that the American effort against Islamist terror groups may suffer as a result. The Pakistani strongman looks decidedly less strong at this point, and some question whether the Pakistani Army remains loyal at the moment, let alone in the future: As a political crisis boils in Pakistan, American analysts both inside and outside the government are expressing new doubts that President Musharraf will be able to hold onto power through the summer. Over the past month, the military regime in Islamabad has faced a rising threat of violent jihadis in its capital, as well as the struggle between the president and the suspended chief justice of the country, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The twin challenges have led some analysts in the American intelligence community to begin questioning whether Pakistan's military, traditionally General Musharraf's most reliable ally,...
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the military cannot detain people who have legal residence in the US for crimes committed here, even if those crimes include acting as a foreign agent in service to an enemy at war. Instead, the divided ruling instructs, the government must transfer custody of Ali al-Marri to civilian authority and provide the normal due process of criminal prosecution for his alleged crimes (via Memeorandum): The federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled yesterday that the president may not declare civilians in this country to be “enemy combatants” and have the military hold them indefinitely. The ruling was a stinging rejection of one of the Bush administration’s central assertions about the scope of executive authority to combat terrorism. The ruling came in the case of Ali al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar now in military custody in Charleston, S.C., who is the only...
The latest cease-fire between Palestinian factions has collapsed almost before it got announced as Gaza slides into an all-out civil war. Refugees have begun to flee to Egypt, and Hamas-controlled mosques now serve as broadcast stations for war announcements: Palestinian infighting, almost daily Israeli air strikes, and a steadily worsening economic situation triggered by an international aid boycott has made life unbearable for many Palestinians. Those who can are leaving. European Union monitors at the Rafah border crossing from the Gaza Strip to Egypt say that more than 14,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza since Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005 and the rise to power of the Islamist Hamas five months later. In the past year alone, the average number of people leaving Gaza per day has doubled from 15 to 30. The rising number of Palestinians seeking to emigrate has prompted Jerusalem's Mufti, Mohammad Ahmed Hussein, to issue...
The new Los Angeles Times poll shows Democrats in trouble in both Congress and the presidential race. Support for Congress has dropped to historic lows, and the luster has worn from Nancy Pelosi's historic win as House Speaker. Hillary Clinton looks stronger than ever for the nomination -- but that may be bad news as well. At Heading Right, I dissect the poll, check the sample, and determine that it looks better for Republicans than one might think. One Republican will certainly delight in the survey -- and may light up a cigar to celebrate. UPDATE: Meanwhile, Rasmussen has even better numbers for Fred (via Hot Air): Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has to share his spot atop the field of Republican Presidential hopefuls this week. The newest face in the race, former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, is now tied with Giuliani. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone...
In what appears to be a fatal blow to the Palestinian Authority, Hamas launched a large-scale attack on northern Gaza today. They claim to have captured key security positions from the PA and Fatah, and in response, Fatah has threatened to withdraw from the PA altogether: Hamas launched a full-scale attack Tuesday afternoon against Fatah security bases and positions in Gaza, and succeeded in taking over a number of them, Israel Radio reported. Hamas-affiliated television said that the organization overtook the entire northern section of the Gaza Strip. After airing the report, the station was attacked by PA security forces and forced to play pro-Fatah songs. ... Also on Tuesday afternoon, Fatah announced that within several hours, the faction would decide whether to stay in the unity government with Hamas, or leave the Palestinian Authority government altogether, Israel Radio reported. The announcement coincided with a Hamas attack on the National...
In the aftermath of the failure to get cloture on the immigration bill, many pundits suggested that the Republican caucus got cold feet after hearing from their constituents. Instead, I wrote that the compromise doomed itself to failure through a process that cheated legislators of access to crafting changes and generally arrogated power to a selected few Senators. (I went into greater detail on my CQ Radio show the previous day.) Now, as The Corner reports, a memo circulating on Capitol Hill has confirmed my analysis: There are three primary reasons the bill failed: * The complicated legislation, constantly being tweaked by the White House and Deal-Makers, is full of loopholes and problems that deserved amendment and full consideration -- consideration denied by the Democrats. * The White House, certain Democrats and the Deal-Makers blatantly disregarded the legislative process -- drafting the bill behind closed doors, skipping the committee process,...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), Duane "Generalissimo" Patterson joins us from the Hugh Hewitt show. We're going to talk about immigration, the presidential race, Hillary's choice for national co-chair for her campaign, and much more. Be sure to join the conversation by calling 646-652-4889! Tomorrow, we'll have Robert Bluey and Brian Darling from the Heritage Foundation (Fausta's got them today!). Thursday, I'll talk with Mark Tapscott on the polling and whether it indicates a need for a new political party. The live player will start automatically if you click on the link to the extended entry. You can also listen from the player on the sidebar....
Continue reading "CQ Radio: Duane Patterson" »
Yesterday, I interviewed former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist about his new project with ONE Vote '08 -- the effort to push aid for poverty relief into the presidential campaign. Senator Frist spent a half-hour discussing the topic for the benefit of CQ Radio listeners, and I asked him a number of questions about how to avoid yet another Band-Aid application of aid. Based on these questions and similar ones from other interviews, he responded on his blog this afternoon: Governments must now be accountable for the assistance they receive . . . and when they fail to meet those accountability standards, America shifts resources to the private sector and non-governmental organizations to meet local needs. But those governments that demonstrate the effective use of funds are more likely to receive future assistance – a good incentive to use funding wisely. And debt forgiveness can enable governments to spend billions...
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will leave office soon -- and in one respect, perhaps not soon enough. Blair's valediction to the press revealed a bitterness that his ten years in power hid behind politically-correct comity, and an endorsement for speech policing that will shock some of his ardent admirers: Tony Blair hinted today at new restrictions on internet journalism, saying online news coverage had become "more pernicious and less balanced" than traditional political reporting. In a farewell lecture on public life, he said that much of the British media behaved like a "feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits". But he had particularly harsh words for non-traditional media outlets, particularly the internet. ... "In fact, the new forms can be even more pernicious, less balanced, more intent on the latest conspiracy theory multiplied by five." British journalism has more bite to it than its American counterpart. For...
June 13, 2007
Katie Couric continues as America's Victim at CBS. Last month, CBS VP Linda Mason told its Public Eye blog that Couric's lack of success came from an innate sexism in the America, which she said preferred to get its news "from white guys". Yesterday, CBS made that their official stance when CEO Les Moonves told a Newhouse School of Communications group that people don't want their news from a woman (via Memeorandum): Leslie Moonves, CBS chief executive, on Tuesday suggested that sexist attitudes were partly to blame for the faltering performance of Katie Couric, the news anchor he recruited to the network with a $15m annual pay package. “I’m sort of surprised by the vitriol against her. The number of people who don’t want news from a woman was startling,” Mr Moonves said of the audience’s reaction to Ms Couric, who this month brought ratings for the CBS Evening News...
Norm Coleman will face his first re-election campaign to the US Senate next year, and so far, he's looking like a lock. Polls show him consistently ahead of his presumptive Democratic challengers, Al Franken and Michael Cerisi, by twenty points in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans. He has maintained a remarkable cushion of support by steering a moderate course in Washington, sometimes frustrating his supporters but normally reliable on key issues. Now, however, that moderate position may inspire a primary challenge, and from a former Coleman supporter and advisor. Colonel Joe Repya, a friend of mine and a formidable force in state GOP circles, told The Hill that he will decide within the next two months whether to launch his bid to unseat Norm Coleman: An Iraq war veteran and former adviser to Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) yesterday said he is considering a primary challenge against the lawmaker in...
Hillary Clinton announced her opposition to a free-trade deal with South Korea this weekend, citing concerns over reciprocity and an imbalance in existing trade. Today, the Washington Post editorial board scolds her for short-sightedness, and wonders what kind of pandering to both labor and manufacturing we can expect from her as President: THERE ARE pluses and minuses, it's often said, to having a former first lady running for president. On the debit side, for example, is the oligarchical aura of two families passing the presidency back and forth for 24 or possibly 28 consecutive years. On the positive side is the experience Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) gained during eight years in the White House, experience that ought to translate into a broader national perspective than a senator or governor can attain. But has it? That's the question raised by Ms. Clinton's announcement over the weekend that she will oppose...
The civil war in Gaza has apparently imposed a two-state solution on the Palestinian Authority, at least for the moment. Hamas has taken over security installations in Gaza and has pushed Fatah out, attempting to create a protostate under its total control on the Mediterranean: Jamal Abu Jadian, a top Fatah commander, fled his home in the northern Gaza Strip Tuesday evening dressed as a woman to avoid dozens of Hamas militiamen who had attacked it. He and several members of his family and bodyguards were lightly wounded. But when Abu Jadian arrived at a hospital a few hundred meters away from his house, he was discovered by a group of Hamas gunmen, who took turns shooting him in the head with automatic rifles. "They literally blew his head off with more than 40 bullets," said a doctor at Kamal Udwan Hospital. In fact, Hamas has tried over the last...
Nancy Pelosi, who campaigned on a platform of ending lobbyist influence and the "culture of corruption" in Congress, has unveiled a new strategy to do both. She wants people to call pork-barrel line items something other than "earmarks" so that Congress can get back to stuffing legislation full of pet projects and keep their leverage with the lobbyists: The congressional spending season began with a blowup over earmarks in the House yesterday, as the first bill to reach a vote prompted a White House veto threat and scores of amendments from Republicans furious with Democrats' handling of pet-project spending in the measures. Debate on the $36 billion homeland security bill, which would fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency, border security and counterterrorism measures, bogged down last night as Republicans pushed scores of amendments aimed at banning the use of counterterrorism money for designer handbags, puppet shows and other programs included...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), we'll have Robert Bluey and Brian Darling from the Heritage Foundation talking about the latest on immigration, pork-barrel shenanigans, and much more. Be sure to join the conversation by calling 646-652-4889! Tomorrow, we will have Mark Tapscott to talk about polling, party affiliations -- and to announce the winner of the Rename Earmarks contest here at CQ. Don't miss it! The live player will start automatically if you click on the link to the extended entry. You can also listen from the player on the sidebar....
Continue reading "CQ Radio: Robert Bluey, Brian Darling" »
Fred Thompson’s entry into the presidential race will raise the flag on another feature of the campaign: opposition research and attack. The Politico reports that other campaigns have prepared for Fred’s entry, and they are poised to dent his momentum by focusing on his professional career and his track record, certainly legitimate targets. Some of the selected topics appear overblown, however, and veer more into the nature of personal attack -- such as Thompson's status as a trial attorney and his limited lobbying career. However, the nature of these pushbacks may backfire on the other campaigns, and calls into question whether they have forgotten the long-term goal of the primaries. At Heading Right, I ask whether this will help the party elect a Republican to the White House, and also talk through some of the points that the other campaigns hope to use as traction against Fred. In short, they...
I just received an e-mail from the staff of Senator Tom Coburn, one of the best in the Republican caucus and a strong fighter on behalf of clean government. The Senator had to have surgery to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland: Dr. Coburn underwent successful surgery this morning for the removal of a benign pituitary tumor. The procedure involved no complications and he is expected to make a full and speedy recovery. We don’t have a date certain for his return, but we do expect him to be able to resume his Senate duties full-time by the end of the month. I found information on pituitary tumors here. The traditional pituitary surgery will leave no external scar, and from what I gather in the release, nothing more was necessary. That's why the staff expects him back to work so soon -- great news indeed. Our prayers go out...
After George Allen's macaca blunder, his campaign took too long to address the controversy and attempt to defuse it. They seemed stunned and unprepared for political campaigning in the YouTube era, and they paid a high price for their education. Now the Republican Party has distilled that experience into a set of guidelines for future damage control: The Macaca moment has morphed into an official learning tool for the Republican establishment. It's right there, on pages 18 and 22 of an Internet guide from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee that its chairman, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), hopes will become scripture for the 2008 candidates. Always assume you're being recorded, and always record your opponent. The blogs -- oh, scratch that -- the Republican blogs are your friends, so use them for rapid response in good times and bad. "The paradigmatic example of failure to do so is the 'macaca'...
June 14, 2007
For a woman who promised an end to the free ride for politicians in Washington DC, Nancy Pelosi seems awfully intent on providing -- free rides. Pelosi wants the Pentagon to provide air travel to the adult children of House members without reimbursement when the spouses cannot accompany them on trips. The Pentagon says that request is against longstanding policy: “It has been longstanding policy that, in the absence of a congressional spouse, the adult child of a member of Congress may accompany the member on official U.S. government travel abroad for protocol reasons and without reimbursing the U.S. Treasury,” Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said. “Speaker Pelosi believes that a modern policy must reflect the professional responsibilities or health realities that might prevent a spouse from participating, and instead permit an adult child to fulfill the protocol needs of the official trip.” Pentagon officials say the policy is that the...
Hamas has overrun a critical and strategic security center in Gaza today, bringing them closer to their goal of controlling the entire region. Mahmoud Abbas has finally ordered retaliatory strikes, but he may not have many to respond to the call, as Hamas has begun executing Fatah militants in front of their wives and children: Hamas fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and killed them in the street. The capture of the Preventive Security headquarters was a major step forward in Hamas' attempts to complete its takeover of all of Gaza. Hamas later called on Fatah fighters to surrender the National Security compound within the hour. The moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, for the first time in five days of fierce fighting, ordered his elite presidential...
The Washington Post reports that a Pentagon statistical and operational analysis of the Iraq war delivers mostly bad news. Civilian deaths have begun to rise again, the Iraqi government has yet to engage on political reform, and violence has risen in some areas. This report will certainly fuel the pessimism that has overtaken the majority of Americans on Iraq. However, at Heading Right, we look at some of the points that many will miss in the commentary over the report. Specifically, the new strategy has had a positive effect in the areas of focus, and the report itself warns against jumping to conclusions too quickly....
Angelina Jolie has begun promoting her new film, A Mighty Heart, which tells the story of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Last night's premiere benefitted the anti-censorship organization Reporters Without Borders, but Jolie's approach to interviews on behalf of the film seems more reminiscent of the tinpot dictators that the organization fights (via Memeorandum): Reporters from most major media outlets balked Wednesday when they were presented with an agreement drawn up by Jolie's Hollywood lawyer Robert Offer. The contract closely dictated the terms of all interviews. Reporters were asked to agree to "not ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships. In the event Interviewer does ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships, Ms. Jolie will have the right to immediately terminate the interview and leave." The agreement also required that "the interview may only be used to promote the Picture. In no event may...
Yesterday I explained at Heading Right that primary campaigns should chiefly focus on positive promotion of their own candidates rather than spend much of their time attacking their colleagues in the primaries. According to The Politico, John McCain's campaign has not taken that advice. Instead, they have decided to focus their guns on another Republican presidential hopeful -- and it's not even one that's ahead of them: In another sign of John McCain's plan to assault former Mitt Romney over his alleged flip-flops, the Arizona senator's campaign has purchased the website "www.mittvsfact.com" and will launch it in the coming weeks as a compendium of what they say are the former governor's differing stances. The McCain camp yesterday attacked Romney on abortion under a "Mitt vs Fact" letterhead that aped their rival's campaign logo. Late in the day, a tipster pointed out that a URL of the same had been purchased...
The winner is ToddG! We'll send him the book, and thanks to everyone who participated! Yesterday, I asked CQ readers to help Nancy Pelosi with her strategy to fight the "culture of corruption," which consists of forgetting the term "earmarks" rather than getting rid of them altogether. We have to call them something, though, and I offered a free copy of The Reagan Diaries to the CQ reader who submitted the replacement that most captured the spirit of earmarking. And we got a terrific response! In fact, it was so good that I had a tough time selecting the top ten responses. Many of you like acronyms, and several of the best made the list. I took into consideration endorsements of nominations in the comments, too. If your entry didn't make the Top Ten, it's only because we had so many excellent suggestions. Cast your vote for the best of...
A spot audit conducted by the FBI found more than a thousand violations of the laws and procedures governing the intercept of communications. These results point to a much bigger problem than initially reported last March, and the audit undermines the credibility of the nation's premiere law-enforcement agency at a time when national security remains the primary concern of many Americans: An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional criticism. The new audit covers just 10 percent of the bureau's national security investigations since 2002, and so the mistakes in the FBI's domestic surveillance efforts probably number several thousand, bureau officials said in interviews. The earlier report found...
... then you'll also think that this suggested ending for the Harry Potter series shows artistic flair as well: Each time the bell rang and another wizard walked into the pub, Harry looked up warily. Voldemort may have been dead, but there were still plenty of people who'd be thrilled if Harry was the victim of a Bat-Bogey Hex, or worse. Was that man in the corner booth, stirring sugar into his tea, from the Ministry of Magic? Or a Death Eater, burning for revenge? Or was he just some bystander who couldn't help noticing the famous scar on Harry's forehead? Ron, his red hair cut short and a thin beard running along his jaw, came through the door and sat down. Harry took his hand for a second, a little overwhelmed. After the depression, and the suicide attempt in the fifth-floor prefects' bathroom, it was good to see Ron...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), Mark Tapscott joins us for the first half of the show. Mark and I will discuss the LA Times' poll as it regards party identification, and we'll also talk about porkbusting and earmark news on the Hill today. Mark will join me in naming the winner of our Rename Earmarks contest as well. NZ Bear will join me afterwards to continue the review of David Obey's machinations on earmarks, the pork-laden energy bill, the Sopranos finale, Paris Hilton's jail sentence, and anything else that crosses our minds! You can join the conversation by calling 646-652-4889. Tomorrow, I'll have two excellent guests. U.S. Congressman Tim Walberg joins me in the first half of the show to talk about his new tax hike prevention bill, which already has 80 co-sponsors, as well as his impressions about being a freshman Republican in a Democratic majority....
Continue reading "CQ Radio: Mark Tapscott, NZ Bear, And Contest Winner!" »
Many conservatives took affront to the Supreme Court ruling in the Kelo case, in which the court upheld the right of a city to use eminent domain to force property from one private owner to another. The decision was seen as yet another judicial overreach, an expansion of the notion of "public use" that left private-property owners vulnerable to the whims of state and local politicians looking for favors from developers and monied interests. It started a legislative reaction to curb the use of eminent domain around the nation. Today the New York Times reports that some courts have heard the message. New Jersey's state Supreme Court slapped down a similar use of eminent domain, upholding the appeal of a property owner whose use displeased the town's leadership: In a decision that could affect redevelopment battles across New Jersey, the State Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that a town had...
Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority and declared a state of emergency after Hamas took control of Gaza today. The moves comes after many in his own Fatah faction demanded his resignation for his lack of action over the last five days: President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led unity government and declared a state of emergency Thursday after four days of fighting that has left Hamas in control of much of Gaza. Hamas has seized control of all Palestinian Authority security installations in the territory. Shortly before midnight (5 p.m. ET), Hamas sources told CNN, the presidential compound also fell. If confirmed it would mean all Abbas-controlled security installations are under Hamas control. CNN is reporting now that the ruling factions in both areas have started political cleansing. Hamas has rounded up Fatah members in Gaza, executing some openly on the streets and taking others...
Be sure to read the updates. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid showed his support for the American military by calling two of its top leaders "incompetent". Pandering to liberal bloggers, Reid made the comments in explaining his strategy to make Republican Senators sick of voting on the Iraq war and bludgeoning them into declaring defeat: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "incompetent" during an interview Tuesday with a group of liberal bloggers, a comment that was never reported. Reid made similar disparaging remarks about Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said several sources familiar with the interview. This is but the latest example of how Reid, under pressure from liberal activists to do more to stop the war, is going on the attack against President Bush and his military leaders in anticipation of...
John Boehner and the House Republican Caucus have won their battle against Nancy Pelosi and David Obey on earmarks. Boehner sent the following memo to House Republicans: I’m writing to update you on the status of our united Republican effort to compel the Democratic majority to abandon its plan for slush funds for secret earmarks. A tentative agreement has been reached between Republican and Democratic leaders – an agreement that represents a victory for House Republicans. The terms of the agreement are as follows: * Democrats will abandon their plans to pass appropriations bills with slush funds for secret earmarks. The plan announced last month by Chairman Obey to keep all earmarks secret until “air-dropping” them into conference reports will be dropped, effective immediately. Two appropriations bills (Homeland Security, Military Quality) that include little or no earmarks will move forward. Following consideration of these two bills, all 10 remaining appropriations...
June 15, 2007
I've been asked over the last couple of years by CQ readers why I haven't written a book. I usually tell them because I haven't had the time, but with the recent changes in CQ-land these days, I've begun to reconsider my long-term goals. I'd be interested in talking with a reputable, legitimate literary agency about a couple of projects I have in mind. Please send me an e-mail at my address on the sidebar with the subject heading "Representation" if anyone has an interest....
On Wednesday, I wrote about comments made by Les Moonves to explain the failure thus far of their new anchor, Katie Couric, to attract viewers. Did he blame himself for hiring Couric? No. Did he blame CBS for producing a lousy news broadcast that sent viewers scrambling for their remotes? No. He blamed the viewers for their sexist attitudes. Today, the New York Post prints my column blasting Moonves for ducking responsibility for the low ratings and shifting blame to the CBS audience: "I'm sort of surprised by the vitriol against her. The number of people who don't want news from a woman was startling," Moonves told his audience. Got that, America? It's not Katie's fault, and it's not that CBS stinks at putting together a compelling news show. It's that you're all a bunch of misogynistic bigots. CBS has a problem, all right - but it isn't audience chauvinism,...
Vladimir Putin has tried his best to fight the missile shield the US wants to create for Europe against the threat of Iranian attack. The Russian president has both fallen back on Cold War threats against Europe and the US, and also tried to divert the effort by offering Azerbaijan as a base -- but under Russian control. Neither have worked to intimidate the US or its European allies, and now Russia appears to have shifted into a less-antagonistic tone: Russia dropped its threat to aim nuclear weapons at European cities yesterday in an abrupt change of tactics after weeks of Cold War-style brinkmanship. Sergei Ivanov, the hawkish deputy prime minister who is seen as a possible successor to President Vladimir Putin, said that only the sites in Poland and the Czech Republic where the United States wanted to erect an anti-missile system would be targeted. Commentators suggested that the...
It's baaaa-aaaaack. The immigration bill will return to the Senate floor next week after a a flurry of deals between Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, and the White House reinvigorated the compromise. Each party will get eleven amendments, and the White House has agreed to spend over $4 billion immediately to secure the border: Senate leaders agreed Thursday to a list of amendments to be considered, clearing the way for debate to resume. The decision followed President Bush's announcement that he supports a move to immediately set aside more than $4 billion to beef up enforcement of immigration laws. The two actions significantly improve the chances that the Senate will pass the comprehensive bill, which would provide a path to citizenship for many of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. "We believe that there are enough votes," White House spokesman Tony Snow said Thursday. A senior Democratic aide said that...
The transcendent Hamas leadership in Gaza has decided not to execute captured Fatah leaders, and will release them soon as a gesture of goodwill. Hamas continues to consolidate its power in Gaza, however, and the government in the West Bank has started to shed itself of Hamas as a result: Victorious Hamas gunmen rounded up senior military leaders of the Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip early Friday, then announced a general amnesty in a sign the Islamic movement is seeking to reconcile with its secular rivals after five days of fierce fighting. The announcement defused worries that Hamas, which completed its swift military seizure of Gaza hours earlier, would begin dispensing victor's justice in the strip. In announcing the arrest of the commanders of the vanquished Fatah-controlled security services, Hamas officials called them "collaborators," a label indicating they work on behalf of Israel and can often mean a death...
Republicans face a daunting task of determining their identity in the next sixteen months before the 2008 elections. With the immigration bill infuriating the base, the war in Iraq frustrating the nation, and the lack of enthusiasm shown thus far in a wide-open field of presidential contenders, that process looks to be painful as well as daunting. E.J. Dionne wonders in his column today whether the Republicans can recapture the optimism of the Reagan years, even with a new candidate entering the race as the Reagan banner-carrier. Dionne, as always, writes a thought-provoking column, but I think he's misdiagnosed the problem. Republicans don't have an identity crisis as much as a competency crisis. At Heading Right, I explain why the "national security imprint" is not a Bush-era change, and how Republicans can get their groove back....
Joe Lieberman has struggled mightily to maintain American backing for the war in Iraq, amd today he writes what amounts to a rebuttal of yesterday's Washington Post analysis for the Wall Street Journal. The Senator just returned from a trip to Iraq and other Middle East nations, and claims that he sees major improvements since his last visit in December: I recently returned from Iraq and four other countries in the Middle East, my first trip to the region since December. In the intervening five months, almost everything about the American war effort in Baghdad has changed, with a new coalition military commander, Gen. David Petraeus; a new U.S. ambassador, Ryan Crocker; the introduction, at last, of new troops; and most important of all, a bold, new counterinsurgency strategy. The question of course is--is it working? Here in Washington, advocates of retreat insist with absolute certainty that it is not,...
Today on CQ Radio (2 pm CT), I'll have two excellent guests. U.S. Congressman Tim Walberg joins me in the first half of the show to talk about his new tax hike prevention bill, which already has 80 co-sponsors, as well as his impressions about being a freshman Republican in a Democratic majority. In the second half, Senator John Ensign joins me to talk about the NRSC and its efforts to win back the majority -- and we'll be sure to ask him about his Nevada colleague Harry Reid and the immigration bill. If you want a chance to talk directly to the Senate about this bill, you'll have your chance! Call 646-652-4889 to talk wth Senator Ensign. Next Thursday evening, I will debate James Boyce of the Huffington Post at BlogTalkRadio's Debate Central at 7:30 pm ET. The topics: Fred Thompson's impact on the Republican race, and Bill...
Continue reading "CQ Radio: Rep. Tim Walberg, Senator John Ensign" »
On today's CQ Radio show, I interviewed Senator John Ensign, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), and asked him about the immigration bill. Ensign -- who voted twice against cloture on June 7th to kill the bill -- said that he believes a comprehensive approach is necessary to solve the problem. He also emphasized that America has to do something about the status quo, because it is simply so bad that we should not tolerate it any further. However, he disputed the notion that an agreement has been reached to resurrect the bill. Ensign said that rumors of agreements keep swirling on Capitol Hill, but that the terms change every time they get close to a deal. He also pledged to torpedo any bill that did not have actual funds for border security and that allowed illegal aliens to receive Social Security benefits that they fraudulently acquired....
Peter Hamby of CNN talked with a number of conservative bloggers about the immigration bill pending on the Senate table, and all agreed on one thing: our e-mail has almost unanimously declared the bill a disaster. It has provided a unity among conservative bloggers against the White House that has not been seen since Harriet Miers, if even then: Different conservative blogs have different pet issues -- government transparency, federal judges, Fred Thompson, to name a few. But no issue in recent memory has united conservative bloggers like the debate over immigration. Their frustration has culminated in a full-scale revolt against the Bush administration and a Senate bill that activists say does little to solve the country's border security problems. ... It's increasingly clear from Web postings and interviews with top conservative bloggers that the immigration bill has done serious damage to the president's credibility among the conservative netroots, the...
June 16, 2007
Khaled Mashaal, the international head of Hamas, has made clear that he has directed the group's actions in Gaza, including the rebellion that has split the Palestinian Authority. While he announced yesterday that he recognized Mahmoud Abbas as the head of the PA, he also said that he refused to recognize Abbas' actions as the leader -- and dictated to Abbas that Ismail Haniyeh and the Hamas leadership must be retained: Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal said Friday evening that Hamas recognizes Mahmoud Abbas as the head of the Palestinian Authority, and that his group wants to cooperate with him for the sake of the Palestinian people. Mashaal also said that Hamas did not want to take over the Gaza Strip, but was "forced" to, Israel Radio reported. Referring to Abbas's proposed emergency government, Mashaal said that it had no legal standing and that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh would remain the...
The debate in one thread of the immigration topic here at CQ -- and we have many of them, I know -- offered up an interesting fact about the current bill. RBMN, a longtime commenter and voice of reason here at CQ, made this comment yesterday: I'd be very surprised if most of the public, who've been answering pollsters on this, have any clue about 21st-century database search technology, or the law enforcement value of just having this large database full of new names, faces, fingerprints, addresses, and vital record information for millions of resident aliens in the country now, that we don't know anything about. The law enforcement value of that is tremendous. When you're looking for an anonymous needle in an anonymous haystack, for a Mohammed Atta type, it helps a lot to cut the size of the haystack by 3/4. Z-Visas will make the haystack a lot...
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong resigned suddenly yesterday, in a tearful press conference. He had just completed his testimony to the North Carolina State Bar, where he faces almost certain disbarment for his reckless actions in the Duke rape case that wasn't: Michael B. Nifong, the Durham County district attorney, announced Friday that he would resign, as he faces disciplinary charges for his handling of a sexual assault prosecution against three former Duke University lacrosse players who were later declared innocent. Speaking in a barely audible voice in testimony before a disciplinary hearing panel, Mr. Nifong apologized to the players, their families and the North Carolina justice system. His resignation came as a surprise on the fourth day of a hearing by the North Carolina State Bar, which has charged him with “systematic abuse of prosecutorial discretion” for withholding evidence and making improper pretrial statements. Undoubtedly, Nifong spent the...
North Korea has invited inspectors to Pyongyang to start talks on the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear breeder plant that fuels their nuclear-weapons efforts. The move indicates that the Kim Jong-Il regime has been satisfied that their sequestered $25 million will soon be returned, and it could mark the start of a denuclearization program that will leave Iran more isolated than ever: North Korea announced Saturday that it has invited U.N. inspectors to return for discussions on closing down its main nuclear reactor, suggesting the end of a long stalemate. The announcement, on the official Korean Central News Agency, indicated that the tangle over $25 million in frozen North Korean funds is nearing an end and held out promise that international efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program may be revived in the weeks ahead. The chief U.S. nuclear negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, expressed hope...
The Northern Alliance Radio Network will be on the air today, with our six-hour-long broadcast schedule starting at 11 am CT. The first two hours features Power Line's John Hinderaker and Chad and Brian from Fraters Libertas. Mitch and I hit the airwaves for the second shift from 1-3 pm CT, and King Banaian and Michael Broadkorb have The Final Word from 3-5. If you're in the Twin Cities, you can hear us on AM 1280 The Patriot, or on the station's Internet stream if you're outside of the broadcast area. Today, all three NARN shows have great guests. Volume I has the Washington Post's film critic Stephen Hunter talking about the summer offerings. Mitch and I have Eric Black, the longtime Star-Tribune editor who took their buyout and moved to the more openly partisan Minnesota Monitor. My NARN colleagues and I considered Eric one of the best people at...
The mullahcracy in Iran has apparently unleashed its latent paranoia, resulting in a crackdown on dissent not seen since the 1979 Revolution. The Iranian government has moved to quell academic debate, silence citizen groups, purge their internal security systems, and generally tighten the screws on the Iranian people: Iran is in the midst of a sweeping crackdown that both Iranians and U.S. analysts compare to a cultural revolution in its attempt to steer the oil-rich theocracy back to the rigid strictures of the 1979 revolution. The recent detentions of Iranian American dual nationals are only a small part of a campaign that includes arrests, interrogations, intimidation and harassment of thousands of Iranians as well as purges of academics and new censorship codes for the media. Hundreds of Iranians have been detained and interrogated, including a top Iranian official, according to Iranian and international human rights groups. ... The widespread purges...
Mike Nifong's legal career came crashing to an end today. After finding Nifong guilty on a number of counts of unethical behavior for his actions in the Duke lacrosse non-rape case, the North Carolina State Bar disbarred Nifong, who had resigned as Durham County DA yesterday: Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong has been disbarred after being found guilty of a battery of ethics violations for his handling of the Duke lacrosse investigation, a North Carolina Bar disciplinary committee announced Saturday evening. ... "We are in unanimous agreement that there is no discipline short of disbarment that would be appropiate in this case," said F. Lane Williamson, the committee's chairman. Before the panel announced its punishment, Nifong said he believed disbarment would be appropriate and that he planned to waive all rights to appeal the findings of the bar panel, his attorney David Freedman said in court Saturday afternoon. The...
June 17, 2007
Vladimir Putin surprised George Bush at the G-8 summit by offering to help the US place the missile-shield system in Azerbaijan rather than Poland and the Czech Republic. Given the conditions of the offer, which was that the system would remain in Russian control rather than American, the US has responded cooly to Putin's horsetrading. Now it looks as though Putin had no intention of staging our system anywhere, as Iranian diplomats have told reporters: Iran said Sunday it had received indications from Russia's president that he would not follow through with an offer to allow the U.S. to use a radar station in neighboring Azerbaijan for missile defense against Tehran. Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed Washington use a radar station in northeast Azerbaijan — rented by Moscow — to counter a potential threat from Iran. It was a surprise counteroffer to U.S. plans to install a...
Critics of the BBC have long complained of its liberal bias, contending that the political views of its management regularly seep into its reporting. Viewers and readers of the service have begun discounting its product as a result, and earlier formed a committee to investigate. They have returned a verdict that attempts to have it both ways: The BBC has failed to promote proper debate on major political issues because of the inherent liberal culture of its staff, a report commissioned by the corporation has concluded. The report claims that coverage of single-issue political causes, such as climate change and poverty, can be biased - and is particularly critical of Live 8 coverage, which it says amounted to endorsement. ... After a year-long investigation the report, published today, maintains that the corporation’s coverage of day-to-day politics is fair and impartial. But it says coverage of Live 8, the 2005 anti-poverty...
The Times of London reports that Israel's new minister of defense, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, has drawn up plans for a massive strike on Gaza. Instead of police actions on limited scales, Barak would launch an all-out war on Hamas in the Strip, now that Fatah has no assets remaining there -- and would intend on wiping out all Islamist offensive capability in the region: ISRAEL’s new defence minister Ehud Barak is planning an attack on Gaza within weeks to crush the Hamas militants who have seized power there. According to senior Israeli military sources, the plan calls for 20,000 troops to destroy much of Hamas’s military capability in days. The raid would be triggered by Hamas rocket attacks against Israel or a resumption of suicide bombings. Barak, who is expected to become defence minister tomorrow, has already demanded detailed plans to deploy two armoured divisions and an infantry...
It's not easy being a freshman Congressman in any circumstances, but especially in the session after your party loses its majority. Tim Walberg, one of only 13 Republican freshmen in the House this year, has plenty of reason to act like a backbencher and spend the session learning from his colleagues. Instead, he has decided to take action against those who want to rescind the Bush tax cuts and effectively deliver the largest tax increase in American history -- and he's calling out those Blue Dog Democrats who won in Republican districts last year to stand up and be counted: Democrats in Congress are discounting advancements made possible by the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts passed by Congress and are trying to slap U.S. taxpayers with a $400 billion tax increase that will slow our economy's current progress. If Democrats follow through on their budget promises, the American people will...
Today is Father's Day, and Americans will celebrate with their families. Some are fortunate enough to spend the day with their fathers and grandfathers, while others only have memories to recall today. My good friend Joe Gandelman, for instance, just lost his father three weeks ago. Dr. Helen also points out that there are plenty of fathers for whom today serves as a reminder of the children who don't want to remain in contact with them. I'm fortunate today, because I get to celebrate two fathers in my life. The Admiral Emeritus is still hale and hearty at 75, but he's 1500 miles away today. Normally, he's even farther away than that, because he's spending his retirement traveling the world. We catch up with Dad between trips, with plenty of new stories and adventures to recall. Even so, Dad's always near enough to lean on when necessary. When I hurt...
Mahmoud Abbas swore in a new cabinet today and outlawed Hamas militias, two moves that will widen the gulf between the West Bank and Gaza. His counterpart, former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, insists that Hamas still controls the government, but at this point they have found themselves isolated on the Gaza Strip without any lines of communication back to the Palestinian Authority's power base: The hurried swearing-in ceremony of the new Cabinet left the Palestinians effectively with two governments the Hamas leadership in Gaza and the new Cabinet in the West Bank led by respected economist Salam Fayyad. Abbas issued decrees Sunday annulling a law requiring the new government to be approved by parliament, which is dominated by Hamas, and outlawing the Islamic group's militias. "There is one authority, one law and one legitimate gun in all areas of our homeland, in the West Bank and Gaza," he said later....