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Thank Goodness for Joe Biden
Tweet Share on Facebook January 31, 2007 CommentBe sure to read Jason Horowitz's account in the New York Observer of his interview with Sen. Joseph Biden. He's running for president, and he knows he doesn't have much chance to win. Which leaves him willing to say just what he thinks of the front-runners, and it's not all complimentary. Here's Horowitz's summary:
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Serious Thinking About the Middle East
Tweet Share on Facebook January 30, 2007 CommentAre things moving in the right direction in the Middle East? Most Americans, I think, would say no. But perhaps they should ponder a trio of interesting columns. Two weeks ago, the military historian Edward Luttwak wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal arguing that George Bush's policies have created a Middle East much more hospitable to American goals. Here is his summation:
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More on the Pipes-Livingstone Debate
Tweet Share on Facebook January 29, 2007 CommentHere's a video of the debate last week between London Mayor KenLivingstone and Daniel Pipes, and also their seconds, Salma Yaqoob and the formidable Douglas Murray. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but am looking forward.
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Hollywood's Terrorism Problem
Tweet Share on Facebook January 26, 2007 CommentIn this column in the Los Angeles Times, writer Andrew Klavan ponders the question of why moviemakers aren't making movies about the war on terrorism. His conclusion is that they don't because they're uncomfortable with the notion of Americans being the good guys and people of color/residents of the virtuous Third World being the bad guys. Hey, we're "less than a lifetime from Jim Crow," so therefore how can we be the good guys?
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Rudy Giuliani, Daniel Pipes, and Executive Pay
Tweet Share on Facebook January 25, 2007 CommentAfter he was defeated for mayor of New York in 1989, Rudy Giuliani spent a lot of time at Manhattan Institute seminars. They helped to shape his thinking on issues like crime, welfare, and taxes. Now Steven Malanga of the Manhattan Institute reminds us how successful a mayor he was and how he achieved that success. Under Giuliani, crime was reduced by 64 percent and welfare dependency by a similar proportion. He took on established liberal interests, most notably the editorial writers of the New York Times, and prevailed. It is an executive record second to none. A more detailed and, I think, definitive account of Giuliani's achievements is Fred Siegel's The Prince of the City, to the latest paperback edition of which he has appended an afterword. America knows how Giuliani performed on September 11. But Republican voters who must choose who the party's nominee will be should at the very least read Malanga's article and will profit from reading Siegel's book.
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Live Reactions to the State of the Union Address
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2007 Comment (1)Ending on a Good Note
10:08: Fox is broadcasting the audio of members talking to the president. Cliff Stearns of Florida tells him the best line was "We did not vote for failure." I'd love a transcript of this; can't take it all down fast enough. One woman member--I think it's freshman Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann--kisses Bush. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen tells Bush that "Jeb is my constituent now." Ralph Hall, the oldest member of the House, slaps Bush on the shoulder. Bush is schmoozing in the hall with Tom Harkin, who is very cordial. Russ Feingold is very pleasant.
Immediate post-speech thoughts:
Democrats were not as hostile as I thought they might be. Part of this is a response to the ceremonial nature of the occasion, and Bush played on this ably at various points in the speech.
10:04: Bush shakes hand with Pat Leahy, who will do his best to reject his major judicial nominees.
10:02: Hails America in the last paragraph. Hits a very good note. I'd like to quote it in full.
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Pajamas Media Straw Poll
Tweet Share on Facebook January 22, 2007 CommentPajamas Media is running a weekly straw poll on the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations. You can vote for both Democrats and Republicans. The sample is obviously not representative of the general public and undoubtedly leans to the pro-Iraq war right, but the results are interesting nonetheless.
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Social Security
Tweet Share on Facebook January 22, 2007 Comment (1)The problems with Social Security are not going away. That was the message Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered in his testimony this week to the Senate Budget Committee. He points to a possible quadrupling of the federal budget deficit by 2030–which sounds like a long time from now but is only 23 years away.
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Net Internal Migration
Tweet Share on Facebook January 18, 2007 CommentThat's the term the Census Bureau uses to describe the net number of people leaving or moving into a state or county; the other components of population increase/decrease are natural increase (the number of births minus the number of deaths) and international migration. The net internal migration in the entire country is, by definition, zero. I took a look the other day at the internal migration in counties and found that internal immigration and outmigration in the period 2000-05 is staggering. In 24 counties, there was a net immigration of more than 50,000. In 33 counties, there was a net outmigration of more than 50,000.
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Progress in Iraq
Tweet Share on Facebook January 17, 2007 CommentListen to this radio interview of blogger Michael Yon, who spent most of 2005 in Iraq and has now been back there for three weeks. His conclusion: Iraq is winnable. Here are three more on-the-ground reports from Bryan Preston, Michelle Malkin, and Bill Ardolino. And here's a report from Rich Miniter that al Qaeda forces are leaving Baghdad in anticipation of the U.S. troop surge.
