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October 29, 2007
Notable for 10/29/07
• Of course Ann Coulter hangs out with gay men. Why are people surprised? Because she once implied that John Edwards is a “faggot”? Feh.
• Anxious to avoid waiting lists and nosocomial infections, thousands are fleeing Britian’s National Health Service. Take note of where they’re fleeing to. If Hillary becomes president, you’ll be headed there as well.
• Pope to Catholic pharmacists: Don’t fill immoral prescriptions.
• Theodore Dalrymple to neo-atheists: Lay off the religion bashing.
October 25, 2007
Huckabee rising?
Reports like this one are worrisome. Mike Huckabee is a nanny state, big government “conservative.” And you and I would greet his selection as the Republican nominee with, uh … limited enthusiasm.
Innocent man spends 22 years behind bars
If you could order the state to compensate this man, how much would you give him?
Justice Ginsburg seeks to "propel legislative change"
This is an excellent example of what conservatives mean when they complain of judicial activism. Does Justice Ginsburg sound like a) a disinterested jurist who’s simply saying what the law is, or b) a judge with an agenda to push?
GOP strategists still trying to change California's winner-take-all electoral vote
The problem is they’re trying to change it by ballot initiative, which is unconstitutional.
Article II, Section 1 tells us how electors must be appointed, and it ain’t by plebiscite. (For more, see the concurring opinion by then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist in Bush v. Gore.)
Bush bigger spender than LBJ
During his first term, discretionary spending rose 48.5 percent.
October 24, 2007
LA Times poll: Rudy +17
But the support is soft. (Link opens pdf.)
October 22, 2007
Hillary Clinton on being romanced by Bill Clinton
I’m warning you: It’s a brief but painfully embarrassing read.
October 21, 2007
U.S. officials worried about Pakistan
The situation there is volatile and bears watching:
The scenes of carnage in Pakistan this week conjured what one senior administration official on Friday called “the nightmare scenario” for President Bush’s last 15 months in office: Political meltdown in the one country where Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and nuclear weapons are all in play.
White House officials insisted in interviews that they had confidence that their longtime ally, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, would maintain enough influence to keep the country stable as he edged toward a power-sharing agreement with his main rival, Benazir Bhutto.
But other current and former officials cautioned that six years after the United States forced General Musharraf to choose sides in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, American leverage over Pakistan is now limited. And General Musharraf is weakened.
[…]
Almost every major terror attack since 9/11 has been traced back to Pakistani territory, leading many who work in intelligence to believe that Pakistan, not Iraq, is the place Mr. Bush should consider the “central front” in the battle against terrorism. It was also the source of the greatest leakage of nuclear arms technology in modern times. [Emphasis added.]
October 20, 2007
Military mistakenly advertises for gays
Fortunately, the ads were for people the military doesn’t actually need — like, uh, nurses and Arabic translators:
The Army, Navy and Air Force unwittingly advertised for recruits on a website for gays, who are barred from military service if they are open about their sexual orientation.
When informed Tuesday by USA TODAY that they were advertising on GLEE.com, a networking website for gay professionals, recruiters expressed surprise and said they would remove the job listings.
Texas governor endorses Giuliani
Gov. Rick Perry, R-TX, has endorsed Rudy:
Perry cited the former mayor’s success in reducing crime and cutting spending during his tenure, in addition to his preparedness in dealing with terrorism, as reasons for supporting him.
[…]
… when asked whether his conservative views sync up with Giuliani’s more left-leaning social opinions, Perry echoed his presidential pick’s often-cited Reagan quote that “if you’re my 80 percent friend, you’re not my 20 percent enemy,” with a bit more southern-folksy flare. Said Perry: “When I go to buy a pickup truck, if it has one option on it that I’m not fond of, it doesn’t mean I disregard that pickup truck.” He added that his main concern is that the next president nominates “strict constructionists” to the Supreme Court — something he said he is assured Rudy will do.
This is Rudy’s first endorsement from a sitting governor.
Notable for 10/20/07 ...
• Terence Samuel wonders whether it’s time for Democrats to start panicking.
• Robert Novak says there’s a message in the “surprisingly poor showing by the victorious Democratic candidate in Tuesday’s special congressional election for Massachusetts’s 5th District.”
• William Kristol thinks the American people won’t elect as president “the candidate of a party that has tried its best to lose a winnable war.”
• Patrick Ruffini believes “we can finally dispense with the talk of 2008 being another 2006 for Democrats.”
• The Washington Times examines Rudy’s risky strategy for the primaries.
• The Chicago Tribune casts doubt on Hillary’s electability.
Bobby Jindal favored in today's election
Louisiana voters seem likely today to make a nonwhite Republican the state’s next governor:
It would be an unlikely choice for a state that usually picks its leaders from deep in the rural hinterlands and has not had a nonwhite chief executive since Reconstruction.
But peculiar circumstances have combined to make Representative Bobby Jindal, a conservative two-term Republican, the overwhelming favorite.
UPDATE — JINDAL WINS
He took 53% of the vote:
Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal, the 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants, won the Louisiana governor’s race Saturday, carrying more than half the vote against 11 opponents to become the state’s first non-white governor since Reconstruction.
Rudy to 'Values Voters:' honesty is a value
When the man is in the zone, he’s impressive:
“Isn’t it better that I tell you what I really believe instead of changing all my positions?” Giuliani told an audience of 2,000 at the Family Research Council’s Values Voters Summit at a Washington hotel. “I believe trust is more important than 100 percent agreement.”
I don’t know if he made headway with the social conservatives, or with their leaders. But I know he showed leadership under pressure. He adopted a conciliatory tone and emphasized areas of agreement, but refused to pander. Excellent.
ADDED —
From the New York Times, which has a video clip of Rudy’s speech:
… Rick Scarborough, an influential conservative leader who heads the group Vision America, said Mr. Giuliani might have succeeded in defusing [the possibility of evangelicals supporting a third-party] and helped his chances in the general election among Christian conservatives with his performance Saturday.
“He might have derailed the effort to a third party today,” Mr. Scarborough said.
Britain's top rabbi: multiculturalism threatens democracy
Everything he says is also applicable to the multicultural fetish in the U.S.:
Multiculturalism promotes segregation, stifles free speech and threatens liberal democracy, Britain’s top Jewish official warned in extracts from his book published Saturday.
Jonathan Sacks, Britain’s chief rabbi, defined multiculturalism as an attempt to affirm Britain’s diverse communities and make ethnic and religious minorities more appreciated and respected. But in his book, “The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society,” he said the movement had run its course.
“Multiculturalism has led not to integration but to segregation,” Sacks wrote in his book, an extract of which was published in the Times of London.
“Liberal democracy is in danger,” Sacks said, adding later: “The politics of freedom risks descending into the politics of fear.”
Sacks said Britain’s politics had been poisoned by the rise of identity politics, as minorities and aggrieved groups jockeyed first for rights, then for special treatment.
The process, he said, began with Jews, before being taken up by blacks, women and gays. He said the effect had been “inexorably divisive.”
“A culture of victimhood sets group against group, each claiming that its pain, injury, oppression, humiliation is greater than that of others,” he said.
October 19, 2007
Clinton opens 33 point lead
How the hell did I miss this? It’s from Oct. 4:
Hillary Rodham Clinton has jumped to an astounding 33-point lead over Barack Obama, topping her main rival among every major slice of the electorate and widening a dominating advantage she has held all summer.
Clinton got support from a full majority for the first time in any national survey about the Democratic presidential field. She is backed by 53 percent in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll.
I’ve thought for a long time that Hillary was inevitable. And though people will say there’s still a lot of time between now and the election, that’s only true of the general election. Both parties may have their nominees by Feb. 6, which is less than four months from now.
What’s especially notable about this poll is that Clinton is above 50 percent. So Obama and Edwards must do more than woo the undecided; they have to peel away voters who’ve declared themselves for Hillary. That’s a tall order.
I say she’s a lock.
Martinez resigns as RNC general chairman
Good. The guy has the personality of dish water:
Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) resigned Friday as general chairman of the Republican National Committee, leaving all top-level leader duties for the embattled GOP to Mike Duncan, the current chairman.
Martinez’s approval rating is at 37%, and he’s “facing a much tougher than expected re-election race for his Senate seat in 2010 …”
Report: Israel struck Syrian nuclear facility built with North Korean expertise
Mossad either turned one the facility’s employees or put an agent on scene:
Israeli officials believed that a target their forces bombed inside Syria last month was a nuclear facility, because they had detailed photographs taken by a possible spy inside the complex, ABC News has learned.
[…]
[A senior U.S.] official said the suspected nuclear facility was approximately 100 miles from the Iraqi border, deep in the desert along the Euphrates River. It was a place, the official said, “where no one would ever go unless you had a reason to go there.”
Limbaugh letter sells for $2.1 million
Wow:
After Rush Limbaugh referred to Iraq war veterans critical of the war as “phony soldiers,” he received a letter of complaint signed by 41 Democratic senators. He decided to auction the letter, which he described as “this glittering jewel of colossal ignorance,” for charity, and he pledged to match the price, dollar for dollar.
On Thursday night, Mr. Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk show host, said he thought the letter would bring in as much as $1 million. But he was wrong.
When the eBay auction closed Friday afternoon, the winning bid was $2.1 million. It is the largest amount ever paid for an item sold on eBay for the benefit of a charity.
October 18, 2007
Today was a good day for the libertarian right
The House failed to override Bush’s veto of an expanded SCHIP, and word came that the execrable Sam Brownback will end his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
October 17, 2007
For Republicans, a victory in defeat
In a special election for Congress, the Republican candidate is narrowly defeated in a heavily blue district.
The death penalty is on hold
The United States is now under a de facto moratorium on death sentence by lethal injection. SCOTUSBlog has analysis.
October 16, 2007
I'm back!
I neglected to tell you I was going on a long business trip, didn’t I? My apologies. But I am back. Regular blogging resumes presently.
October 11, 2007
Ann Coutler calls for "perfecting" the Jews
She only wants them to come to Jesus, but that’s enough to get her condemned.* Meanwhile, when a radical Muslim tells the Jews to convert or die, he gets invited to speak at an elite university.
(*Christians try to convert people? Who knew?)
Poll: Government care for you, not for me
Well, imagine that. According to Rasmussen, Americans support government-sponsored universal health care. But only if it’s not universal, universal :
… support [for universal care] falls dramatically if the plan requires everyone with insurance to “change their coverage and join a program administered by the government.”
Lithwick and Greenburg on bloggingheads.tv
Their diavlog covers Justice Thomas’ new book, among other things.
October 10, 2007
Log Cabin's anti-Romney ad draws media attention
The conservative Washington Times has a page one story on Log Cabin’s anti-Romney ad:
Mitt Romney is portrayed in a new ad by a Republican group as a serial flip-flopper, and a former senior Bush administration official says the description is beginning to stick.
October 8, 2007
Justice Thomas on precedent
He’s a lot more likely to follow stare decisis in statutory cases than in constitutional ones. Read why.
Are Republicans in for a surprise?
Don’t look now, but Dan Balz says Mike Huckabee is coming up fast.
As Giuliani is to evangelicals, Huckabee is to libertarians: ugh.
October 6, 2007
In MA-5, the Democrats are running scared
I’ve mentioned this special election before, because it’s worth watching:
MA-5 … would signal the beginning of a real reversal of fortune, and give Republicans confidence to go after purple and blue districts again after a long time in the doldrums.
Voters in MA-5 go to the polls on Oct. 16.
Rush was right about "phony soldiers"
It’s completely clear what Rush Limbaugh meant by the phrase “phony soldiers,” which he muttered on September 26th: He was referring to the hit parade of actual, literal phony soldiers — as in fake, fraudulent, ersatz — using phony atrocities to denounce the Iraq (or Vietnam, or Korean) war. [Emphasis in original.]
Dafydd has the list of fakes.
Democrats were afraid that MoveOn’s “General Betray Us” ad had done real damage to their party, and they wanted to deflect the public’s attention. So they manufactured a fake controversy about fake soldiers. That is all.
October 5, 2007
Jan Crawford Greenburg interviews Justice Thomas
The Larry Craig scandal will never end; no, not evah
Oh, goodie: fresh allegations.
ADDED —
Shut up, Mickey: “It looks like the only Republican who’s not quitting the Senate is Larry Craig.”
Video: Log Cabin ad aims to undercut Romney among religious conservatives
This is classic battle space preparation. The idea is to discourage Romney’s religious supporters and keep them at home.
Short bus evangelicals will miss the satire and assume that the sodomites are actually endorsing Romney. Of course, that’s exactly what Log Cabin wants them to think. It’s a mind fuck for the stupid.
Log Cabin doesn’t plan to endorse a candidate before the primaries, or so Patrick Sammon claims. But in view of the objective here, you probably have an idea of whom they favor, yes?
Despite judge's ruling, Craig won't go
Oh, well. Our party’s in the toilet for 2008 anyway. Viewed in that light, who better to stay?
Then again, nothing says we can’t go from toilet to sewer pipe. What happens if Craig has another wide stance between now and the election?
Mark this post. A year from now, Republicans will suffer the dreaded October Surprise. I submit to you we already know the nature of it.
October 4, 2007
News you can use ...
“Last month, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists warned against cosmetic operations for the vagina.”
October 3, 2007
In California, they're deporting criminal aliens
In a “massive” two-week operation, ICE has nabbed more than 1,300 illegal aliens, “most of whom either have criminal records or have failed to abide by deportation orders — part of an intensifying but controversial effort across the nation to remove such violators:”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement … called the sweep the largest of its kind in the U.S. Nearly 600 of those arrested at homes, workplaces and in jails have already been deported.
“Where these laws may not have been enforced in the past, that has changed,” said Jim Hayes, Los Angeles field office director for ICE. [Emphasis added.]
Predictably, the critics are caterwauling:
The arrests break up families and create an unfair and inaccurate impression of the immigrant community, which is by and large law-abiding, said Reshma Shamasunder, director of the California Immigrant Policy Center. Enforcement actions also cause fear in immigrant neighborhoods and families that may include U.S. citizens.
• All arrests have the potential to break up families. That’s not an argument — not a persuasive one, anyway — for letting criminals go free.
• Enforcement of the law often creates fear among those who are violating it. So what?
“It directs public attention away from the real need to reform the immigration system overall,” she said. “This is not going to solve our problems …
• It doesn’t direct attention away from anything. As the cliche has it, people can walk and chew gum at the same time. And at least in part, this does solve the problem of criminal aliens lose on the streets. We don’t have to fix everything to fix something.
Rudy skirts evangelical leaders
Call him Runaround Sue. Hey, hey …
I'm glad I didn't buy an iPhone
 |
|
iBrick. Maybe Apple does have the legal right to reach out and break your phone. But it’s still shabby. |
[Apple spokeswoman Jennifer] Bowcock did not offer much hope to iPhone owners with problems: “If the damage was due to use of an unauthorized software application, voiding their warranty, they should purchase a new iPhone.” [Note: The software that actually damages the phone is an official Apple update. — Ed.]
Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, has said the company wanted to maintain control over the iPhone’s functions to protect carrier networks and to make sure the phone was not damaged. [Emphasis added.]
To save your phone, they must destroy it.
Watch this race
In a special election on Oct. 16, voters in the Fifth District of Massachusetts will pick a replacement for former Democratic Rep. Marty Meehan.
Don’t expect the Republican candidate to win. But if the vote is even close, it’ll give the GOP hope. (Uh huh: audacious!)
October 2, 2007
Immigration policy: the GOP's unavoidable trade-off
Richard Nadler’s essay for Opinion Journal is an example of what I call the fallacy of no trade-offs.
Even if everything he says is true, none of it answers this question: What price would the GOP pay for alienating enforcement-first voters? Until Nadler answers that question, he can’t say whether the party’s immigration policies are politically rational.
Here’s the cipher. Group A makes up 6% of the electorate and never gives you more than 40% of its vote, i.e., 2.4% of the total national vote. Group B makes up 30% of the electorate and routinely gives you 100% of its vote, i.e., 30% of the total national vote.
Would you rather suffer a 50% reduction in support from Group A, or a 10% reduction in support from Group B?
Sometimes there are no happy solutions; sometimes there are only cold trade-offs.
Are the polls overstating Rudy's Republican support?
Rasmussen says other pollsters are “overestimating Giuliani’s strength” among Republican primary voters. Read why.
But note that even by Rasmussen’s standards, Rudy is doing comparatively well.
October 1, 2007
Guy to girlfriend: Here's a $100K check; if ever again I go out for tang and blow, you can cash it
The check has cleared.
60 Minutes interviews Justice Thomas
If you missed it when it aired Sunday night, see the 60 Minutes interview with Justice Thomas.