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Iraq and Afghanistan Recommendations
Tweet Share on Facebook December 29, 2006 Comment (41)I can remember reading a couple of years ago an argument that the reason George W. Bush followed the recommendations of the so-called neoconservatives–in Afghanistan as well as Iraq–is that the neoconservatives had an analysis of and a plan of action for dealing with Islamofascist terrorists and their state sponsors and aiders and abettors; and that no one else did.
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The Latest Census Figures
Tweet Share on Facebook December 28, 2006 CommentThe Census Bureau has issued its population estimates for the states for July 1, 2006, and they make for interesting reading. Over the decade, 2000-06, growth has been much higher in the West (9.7 percent) and the South (8.8 percent) than in the Midwest (2.8 percent) and the East (2.1 percent). In 2000 there were more people in the Midwest than in the West; in 2006 it was the other way around. And in 2006 there were more than twice as many people in the South as in the East. The regional breakdown looks like this, with populations rounded off to the nearest thousand, and with tenths of a percentage indicated:
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Daniel Pipes: The West Could Lose
Tweet Share on Facebook December 28, 2006 Comment (37)The invaluable Daniel Pipes is suspending his column for three months while he teaches at Pepperdine University in Malibu, but his final column of the year, "The West Could Lose," is very much worth reading. I wish I had paid more attention to Daniel, and also to Steven Emerson, before September 11, for they were two prophets whose words went unheeded. I'm temperamentally an optimist; Daniel is temperamentally a pessimist, and as a scholar fluent in Arabic and with a deep knowledge of Islam, he finds plenty to be pessimistic about.
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Gerald Ford
Tweet Share on Facebook December 28, 2006 Comment (13)Gerald Ford, 38th president of the United States, has died at age 93. He lived longer than any other American president, just a few months longer than Ronald Reagan. The longest-living previous presidents were John Adams and Herbert Hoover, who both died at 90. Hoover lived for 31 years after leaving office, Ford for 29 years. Hoover and Ford were both defeated by Democrats, but they responded very differently. Hoover bitterly opposed Franklin Roosevelt; Ford became friends with Jimmy Carter. Ford served longer in Congress than any other president: 25 years (it would be 26 years if you counted his year's service as vice president, in which capacity he was president of the Senate, but by the same token that would mean that Lyndon Johnson served 27 years). He was House minority leader from 1965 until he was confirmed as vice president in 1973.
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For the Latest on Iran
Tweet Share on Facebook December 22, 2006 Comment (105)You should check out Michael Ledeen's new blog Faster, Please! on Pajamas Media. And here's his latest on National Review Online.
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Polls for the Republican Nomination
Tweet Share on Facebook December 21, 2006 CommentPollster.com has an interesting summary of the poll standings for the Republican nomination in 2008. It makes the point, largely overlooked by political writers of all stripes, that Rudy Giuliani has been leading John McCain in the large majority of polls, albeit usually by narrow margins. Political writers seem to be assuming that Giuliani can't win the Republican nomination because of his liberal stands on cultural issues. I have disagreed for some time. Yes, Giuliani's stands on these issues are a liability in Republican primaries. But they could be trumped by the very strong positive feelings people have had about his performance on and after September 11.
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What Next in Iraq?
Tweet Share on Facebook December 20, 2006 Comment (15)The Democrats' victory in the November 7 elections, the resignation the next day of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and the unveiling of the Iraq Study Group report December 6 all have led le tout Washington to suppose that we would be withdrawing soon from Iraq. And not illogically. But it's looking increasingly likely that George W. Bush will decide to increase our troop presence there. It's pretty clear that he has rejected the advice of James Baker and Lee Hamilton to negotiate with the leaders of Iran and Syria and to pressure Israel to give up the Golan Heights and allow Palestinians "the right of return" to Israel–the latter being a Palestinian demand that no American administration has ever backed. Instead, he seems to be looking more favorably on the proposals by military historian Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute and retired Army Gen. Jack Keane to create a surge of large numbers (PDF) of additional U.S. troops to secure Baghdad and Anbar province. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard writes that Bush looks very favorably on the Kagan-Keane plan.
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Good News: The Third World Is Growing Richer
Tweet Share on Facebook December 13, 2006 CommentGood news from the World Bank's Global Economics Prospects 2007, released today. Growth in developing countries will reach a near-record 7 percent in 2006. That's much higher than the economic growth in high-income countries, a still respectable 2.6 percent, which is held down by slow growth in many of the sluggish welfare states of Europe. But the chief point is that the huge gap between the developed and the developing worlds is narrowing. This is wonderful news.
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Augusto Pinochet
Tweet Share on Facebook December 12, 2006 CommentThe longtime (1973–90) dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet, has died at age 91. For years he has been vilified by the left, the press, and the academy as the most despicable tyrant of the second half of the 20th century. But there's some serious competition for that title. For more rounded treatments, see this editorial in the Washington Post, this column by John O'Sullivan, and this blog post by David Frum.
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Lobbying and the Way the World Works
Tweet Share on Facebook December 11, 2006 CommentDairy Industry Crushed Innovator Who Bested Price-Control System
So reads the headline over a story on the front page of Sunday's Washington Post. It's well done, too, as one would expect from the lead reporter, Dan Morgan. It's about a Dutch-American farmer who figured out how to produce milk outside the federal subsidy system so as to undersell producers who are part of the subsidy system.
