Decision ‘08 » 2005

Archive for July, 2005

Sunday, July 31st, 2005

Bonus Quick Shots: Jimmy, We Barely Knew Ye

In the department of “I’m not the only one to notice that”…
a. …Jimmy Carter is a tiresome bore;
b. …this stem cell thing is kinda out of hand.
Enjoy your week, everyone…

No Comments » - Posted in Linky Love by Mark

Sunday, July 31st, 2005

Quick Shots: The End of the Weekend Already?

Ryan James has taken a quick look around the Coalition and uncovered some gems…please see for yourself…
From the New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin says the next big SCOTUS battle may be over gay rights (hat tip to RealClearPolitics)…
A must-read by Paul Johnson on the intellectual disease of anti-Semitism in Commentary…
Note to Barbara O’Brien: don’t mess with […]

No Comments » - Posted in Linky Love by Mark

Sunday, July 31st, 2005

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back In The Water…

…here comes the return of PlameGate. I was rather enjoying the lull in breathless leaks, but Time Magazine is stirring the pot up again with a story that suggests that Rove learned of Plame’s identity from the Administration, and not from a journalist as he has said all along. Trying to make sense […]

No Comments » - Posted in PlameGate by Mark

Sunday, July 31st, 2005

Weekly Jackass Number Thirty-Seven: Simon Jenkins

At Arianna Huffington’s vanity project known around these parts as Huff’n’Puff, you will currently find a denunciation by Simon Jenkins, columnist and former editor of the London Times, of the ‘useful idiots’ who ‘have signed up to the League of Friends of Terrorism.’ Strong words, those - but naturally, some backlash against the politically collect […]

5 Comments » - Posted in Radical Islam / GWOT, Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots®, Weekly Jackasses by Mark

Sunday, July 31st, 2005

Barone: Change May Be Incremental, But It’s Real

The always-interesting Michael Barone takes a look at the Republican legislative agenda and concludes it is moving forward, fitfully but surely. The whole thing is worth a read, but here’s the money quote:

Many conservatives have expressed dissatisfaction with the Bush administration and the Republican legislative record on the grounds that it hasn’t produced the […]

No Comments » - Posted in Elephants by Mark

Sunday, July 31st, 2005

Hiroshima: The Critics Are Wrong

Yesterday, I highlighted a piece by Max Hastings examining the pros and cons of the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Today (with the hat tip to RealClearPolitics) I want to bring a long, well-reasoned piece by Richard Frank, writing in the Weekly Standard, to your attention. Using communications intercepts to examine the […]

9 Comments » - Posted in Foreign Affairs by Mark

Sunday, July 31st, 2005

Carter: Bush Should Do Nothing, Or Fail Miserably, Like I Did

Former President Jimmy Carter, by any measure the least impressive president of the last 75 years, has once again gone on the record criticizing the Iraq War and Guantanamo Bay:

Carter also criticized the U.S.-led war in Iraq as “unnecessary and unjust.”
“I think what’s going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to […]

8 Comments » - Posted in Donkeys, Radical Islam / GWOT, Iraq by Mark

Sunday, July 31st, 2005

Did Bill Frist Betray His Principles?

Did he misrepresent himself to pro-lifers? In a word, no.
With a touchy issue like embryonic stem cell research, our passions sometimes obscure reality. When I review the remarks of Bill Frist on the floor of the Senate, I find it even more difficult to credit the proposition that he has somehow sold out. […]

15 Comments » - Posted in Elephants by Mark

Saturday, July 30th, 2005

Another Sign That The Tide is Turning

France has expelled a radical preacher with pro-jihad ties.
[Intererior Minister Nicolas] Sarkozy said France did not have to tolerate radical preaching “which on the pretext that it is happening in a place of worship calls for hate and murder”.
Couldn’t have said it better myself…

6 Comments » - Posted in Radical Islam / GWOT by Mark

Saturday, July 30th, 2005

Disagreement = Treachery?

Is that the equation now? On the very day that I speculated on whether Republicans wanted to base the party on the very narrow issue of abortion comes this headline by Augustine at Red State: Bill Frist : Traitor. A sample:

Today, on the floor of the Senate, Dr. Frist betrayed the conservative movement, President […]

21 Comments » - Posted in Elephants by Mark

Saturday, July 30th, 2005

No Longer Secure In Their Monopoly, MSM Chases the Fringe

That’s the message of this New York Times piece highlighted by our good friend Tom Maguire. It’s a fairly comprehensive, well-reasoned piece summarized by the MinuteMan thus:
Low costs of entry to the media business have driven news outlets away from the political center in search of readers who want entertainment and validation rather than […]

2 Comments » - Posted in NY Times/Media Watch by Mark

Saturday, July 30th, 2005

There Is Still Hope…

To say that Michael Jackson’s latest CD is struggling is, thankfully, a vast understatement…but a plea to the UK: if you love him so much, take him…PLEASE!!!…

1 Comment » - Posted in Celebrities / Pop Culture / Sports by Mark

Saturday, July 30th, 2005

Michael Moore Has HMOs Terrified: In Other News, Airline Pilots Forced to Dodge Flying Pigs

Pompous blowhard and faux populist millionaire Michael Moore is set to do to HMOs what he did to the Bush administration: i.e., nothing. It’s a sign of the ego on the relentless publicity hound that he actually thinks the multi-billion dollar health industry is nervous about his upcoming documentary ‘Sicko’:
Michael Moore says his next documentary […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Progressive Nonsense / Nutroots® by Mark

Saturday, July 30th, 2005

Does Rudy G. Have to Change His Abortion Stance To Win It All?

If he does, then I fear for our party in 2008. Here’s what sent me down this path: writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, Thomas Roeser apparently thinks the path to the presidency for Rudy is an opportunistic ‘change of heart’ on abortion. Says Roeser:
Social conservatives will oppose Giuliani for his pro-abortion views. It’s up […]

16 Comments » - Posted in Rudy Giuliani, Republican Candidates by Mark

Saturday, July 30th, 2005

Hiroshima: Right Then, Wrong Now

That seems to be the conclusion of noted historian Max Hastings, writing in the Guardian. Hastings examines the evidence on the side of both those who feel Hiroshima was a tragic mistake and those who think it was brutally necessary, and concludes both are right, depending on the prism that the event is viewed through.
Knowing […]

3 Comments » - Posted in Foreign Affairs by Mark

Saturday, July 30th, 2005

From the Mosque to the Prison

Theodore Dalrymple, a retired prison doctor, writes in the London Times on the lure of radical Islam to the convict. Interestingly, in London, the majority of radical Islamic prisoners are Pakistani. I say interestingly because in the U.S. there is a long history of prison proselytizing to the black community in prisons. […]

No Comments » - Posted in Radical Islam / GWOT by Mark

Friday, July 29th, 2005

The Dangers of Willing Illiteracy

What am I talking about? Tim Blair can enlighten you…

1 Comment » - Posted in Linky Love by Mark

Friday, July 29th, 2005

Friday Night Quick Shots: More Good Buzz For Huckabee

Blue State Republican has enlightened us before on Mike Huckabee’s health initiatives, but today he’s spotlighting some great education results in Arkansas…
Jay at Stop the ACLU has a new address, and a request to join the Coalition of the Chillin’…welcome aboard, Jay!…
It’s been quiet on the Coalition front for a bit…I wonder, can we still […]

2 Comments » - Posted in Mike Huckabee, Linky Love, Republican Candidates by Mark

Friday, July 29th, 2005

Is Islam a Terror Organization?

Michael Graham has been suspended from WMAL for calling Islam a terror organization, under pressure from CAIR; AJStrata is trying to put together a blogroll of his supporters, so please check it out, and read AJ’s post, too. AJ’s one of the favorites around these parts, and he lays out a good justification for his […]

22 Comments » - Posted in Radical Islam / GWOT, NY Times/Media Watch by Mark

Friday, July 29th, 2005

Found In the Comments At Huff’N'Puff

You aked about BushCo: Does anyone support these guys anymore? We’re too drugged too care.
Drugged by false propaganda post 9/11Drugged by patriotic fervorDrugged by stories like “missing in Aruba”Drugged by poor LaciDrugged by voting irregularitiesDrugged by the “blue dress”Drugged by Ken StarrDrugged by FundamentalismDrugged by rampant materialism on borrowed money
We are […]