Verbosities

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Phillip Klein at the American Spectator blog reports on Newt Gingrich's appearance before the American Enterprise Institute. According to Klein, Gingrich remained coy about whether he would run for president, but suggested he may be able to accomplish more by staying out of the race and focusing on developing and spreading ideas for confronting our nation's challenges.

Gingrich had kind words for Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson. He was more critical of John McCain, stating that McCain faces the "greatest challenge" in terms of capturing the nomination. Gingrich also referred to McCain-Feingold as the first legislation to try to silence dissent since the Alien & Sedition Acts, and he blasted the McCain-Kennedy immigration legislation.

And, my prediction to you is that ether before we lose a city, or if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people before they get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while destroying us.

This is a serious problem that will lead to a serious debate about the first amendment, but I think that the national security threat of losing an American city to a nuclear weapon, or losing several million Americans to a biological attack is so real that we need to proactively, now, develop the appropriate rules of engagement.

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(The phrase "a nation of immigrants") has an ideological purpose, to downgrade and delegitimize America before the beginning of mass immigration in 1848, or maybe even before 1880. It is, in a sense, the unofficial motto of multiculturalism. America is much more a "nation of settlers" and a "nation of slaves" that it is a nation of immigrants.

Compare two holidays. Columbus Day began a century ago in this country as an attempt by Italian immigrants to attache themselves into the founding of America. Move forward to today and see what's happened to the Fourth of July; the main public ceremony that occurs on that day is no longer public readings of the Declaration of Independence but new-citizen swearing-in ceremonies. It has turned into Immigration Day rather than Independence Day...

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For now with Thompson, analysts are left to examine his growing campaign team for clues as to what his policy agenda will be. So what does the likely addition of former Bush economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey reveal about the nature of Thompsonomics?

• Assistant to the President (GWB) for Economic Policy

• Former Board Member, Enron

• The Guy Who Said The Iraq War Would Cost $200 Billion On The High End

• Fellow Scholar to Fred Thompson at the American Enterprise Institute

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(Paul) Weyrich: “Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome — good government. They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.

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They can complain all they like that (Bush) hasn't been "fiscally conservative", but they not only supported his war and his tax cuts, but they refused to so much as question the fact that he ran it in the most expensive way imaginable - not just pseudo-privatizing the functions of the armed services, but actually giving the private companies they outsourced to incentives to overspend and generally waste resources. (And they let him force them to pass the drug-benefit bill with a clause forbidding negotiations to keep prices down.)

I say "pseudo-privatizing" because outsourcing government functions but still paying for them from the tax base isn't real privatization, it's socializing it at a higher price. Actually privatizing the invasion and occupation of Iraq would mean that you told all the people who wanted to invade Iraq to go do it themselves. They could club together and raise an army on their own dime and leave the taxpayer out of it. But they didn't do that - they raided the US treasury instead.

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I had a delightful conversation recently with a very smart and experienced political observer who told me that Romney would likely end up being the GOP nominee --- he was the establishment choice, business guy, good brand, looks good on TV. The elites had signed off on him just as they'd signed off on Junior, Dole, Senior etc and that's how it's done.

Since a truly open primary on both sides is unusual (and Bush has badly damaged the establishment along with everyone else) it will be interesting to see if they have the same power they usually do.

[snip]

(O)ld Mitt really is one them --- a rich, white businessman who will reliably advance the interests of the tribe and that is what matters. After all, their boy Bush may have screwed up the whole world, but he delivered for them. They'll back whichever candidate will do that the best.

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Islamic terrorists are engaged in a "media jihad" in which they encourage jihadists to pose online as Americans to foster anti-war sentiment in the U.S.

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A new Pew Foundation report just out this morning tells us that 37% of American Hispanics now identify as Evangelical Protestants, making it the second-largest religion after Catholicism in that group.

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Presidential brother Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, is not running for the White House in 2008. But he could emerge as a major kingmaker while a rather lackluster field of candidates scrambles for the Republican nomination.

He also could end up on the ticket as a vice presidential candidate. After all, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has said Jeb would have to be on any GOP candidate's short list of possible running mates.

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During his confirmation hearing this morning, Lute clarified that his new authority means that National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley’s portfolio will no longer include Iraq and Afghanistan. Shocked by the revelation, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) argued Hadley should be fired if he’s taken a hands-off approach to the most important national security issues:





REED: That I find interesting. I mean, frankly, Afghanistan, Iraq, and, related to that, Iran, are the most critical foreign policy problems we face. And the national security adviser to the United States has taken his hands off that and given it to you? Is that your understanding?





LUTE: Sir, that’s the design, yes.





REED: Well, then he should be fired, because, frankly, if he’s not capable of being the individual responsible for those duties and they pass it on to someone else, then why is he there? Well, that’s my view.

Archives officials said the note is significant because it reveals Lincoln's momentary optimism that the war would end quickly -- short-lived when Lee's army escaped across the Potomac River a few days later. The war went on for another year and a half, ending in the spring of 1865.

A sense of proportionality argues in favor of eliminating Libby's prison term. This was an unusually harsh sentence for a first offender convicted of a nonviolent and non-drug-related crime. Sandy Berger, national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, was not sentenced to prison for sneaking documents out of the National Archives, destroying them and then lying to investigators. For his actions, Berger received no jail time, a fine one-fifth of that imposed on Libby and 100 hours of community service.

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Peter frames his article ("Libby pardon poses quandary for GOP hopefuls") on a false dichotomy between a pardon and the rule of law. Yet pardons do not disturb the rule of law; they are part of the rule of law.

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While the decision not to renew RCTV's license is still being challenged in court, [12] due to a possible violation of due process and equal treatment under the law, it is clear that the decision is legal to the extent that it is the prerogative of the state to decide which broadcasters are to receive licenses to use the airwaves, maintains pluralism in Venezuela's media landscape, does not violate principles of freedom of speech for Venezuelans, and contributes to the democratization of the country's airwaves by granting more Venezuelans access to these than before, via the new television channel TVes.



It is thus very disappointing to see international human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, the Washington Office on Latin America, the Carter Center, and the Committee to Protect Journalists condemn the government's decision. These groups, just as Venezuela's opposition, claim that the decision sends a chilling effect on freedom of speech. This supposed chilling effect, though, has been invoked over and over again by the government's critics, but they have yet to point to a single instance of a story or a criticism that has not been aired due to this supposed effect. Globovisión continues to be as critical of the government as ever, just as the country's most important newspapers and radio programs--arguably some of the most critical in the western hemisphere. RCTV, when it comes back via cable, will, no doubt, also continue to be as critical as ever. In effect, the groups that condemn Venezuela's sovereign decision to change the way its airwaves are used are defending the right of corporate media to use the airwaves, to the detriment of the poor majority, who prior to Chavez have never had access to the country's corporate-controlled media complex. Ideally, all broadcast frequencies should be under collective democratic and not private control. That, however, will take more time and will receive far more condemnation by the world's establishment.

One reason [The American Enterprise Institute] stands as the capital's premier research organization is that it alone would think to assemble a quartet of intelligent and accomplished people to debate the implications of Darwinism for political thought and public policy.

(T)he subject of their panel wasn't the primary question of whether Darwinian theory is true; it was the secondary question of whether Darwinian theory and political conservatism abet each other as ways of understanding and shaping the world: "Does Darwin's theory help defend or undermine traditional morality and family life? Does it encourage or discredit economic freedom?"

Barring extraordinary events, the United States will always feel obliged to defend, if possible, a democratic nation under attack from nondemocratic forces, external or internal...

[snip]

Suddenly, after two decades during which "imperial decline" and "imperial overstretch" were the academic and journalistic watchwords, the United States emerged as uniquely powerful... With power come responsibilities, whether sought or not, whether welcome or not. And it is a fact that if you have the kind of power we now have, either you will find opportunities to use it or the world will discover them for you.

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The Associated Press reported that Mr. Cheney’s office ordered the Secret Service last September to destroy all records of visitors to the official vice presidential mansion — right after The Washington Post sued for access to the logs. That move was made in secret, naturally. It came out only because of another lawsuit, filed by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the names of conservative religious figures who visited the vice president’s residence.

An FBI official who declined to be named tells TPMmuckraker that the JFK bomb plotters aren't connected to any international terrorist organizations or other foreign powers. "They were not associated with anyone else," the official says.

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Remember, the whole point of terrorism is to sow terror. Every time a conservative or the Bush Adminsitration freaks out at a potential act of terrorism, the terrorist win. They don't actually have to set off the bomb, they just need to scare people. So every freak out is a victory for the enemy.

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The law, the SAFETY Act of 2002, shields companies from liability for damages if they use technologies approved by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Two major Clinton donors, speaking on the condition their names not be used, said they thought it likely that Obama would raise more than Clinton this quarter. Others close to Clinton claim Obama could top $40 million, which could be an example of artful expectation-setting.

An Obama aide responded: "First of all, their estimate is hysterical. We would be thrilled to get to $20 million, but we're mostly focused on increasing the strength of our grass-roots fundraising."

Most political fundraisers are hosted by lobbyists and filled with representatives of special interests.

But our campaign is different.

Our funding comes from a movement of Americans giving whatever they can afford, even $5, and Barack wants to sit down with supporters like you.

You were there before the beginning, and you helped spark something new in American politics. Renew your support now and you could potentially meet Barack in person.

In the next week, four donors will be selected for a new kind of fundraising dinner. If you make a donation in any amount between now and 11:59 pm EDT on Wednesday, June 13, you could join Barack and three other supporters for an intimate dinner for five.

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From the male side, one of Ben's best buds [in the movie Knocked Up], Jonah, kicks the termination terminology up a notch. "I won't say the A-word, but it rhymes with shmashmortion," Jonah says, suggesting that Ben and Alison go down to the shmashmortion clinic, see a shmashmortion doctor and just "take care of it and move on."

So what is it about adding the "a" to "bortion" that goes too far beyond Apatow's cracks about butt cracks, vaginas, penises and bong hits?

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Apparently, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) all decided they did, indeed, owe an accounting of their personal religious beliefs -- a televised recitation, in fact -- to an audience assembled Monday at George Washington University by the left-liberal-worthy Rev. Jim Wallis and channeled through a television anchor aptly (or at least euphoniously) named Soledad O'Brien.

The front-runners' pandering to "people of faith" is the latest expression of Religion Lite advocated by the consultant wing of the Democratic Party.

[snip]

The worst offender in the trinity of poll-directed faith hailers was, of course, Edwards, a trial lawyer to the underclass (he represented the middle class in 2004) and now the political servant of his "Lord Jesus Christ."

Yes, he actually used the whole coded-for-evangelicals phrase -- though, for some reason, those three words, which revealed just how much this former-Baptist-turned-Methodist was willing to prostrate himself before the pious, were omitted from news coverage of the affair in both The Washington Post and The New York Times.

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The ghost of Joseph Heller is channeled by Bernstein and O'Reilly to reflect 15 years of reporting on the Clintons. (click the link above to read the piece in its entirety)

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Sources close to the (Fred) Thompson campaign have passed along the following first-day results for ImWithFred.com:

- Averaged close to 1,500 people per hour signing up as friends
- Averaged $12,000 per hour in contributions
- Raised more than $220,000 dollars via the website

(From the Washington Post): "Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney raised $6.5 million for his presidential exploratory committee yesterday, sending a powerful message to his potential opponents about the seriousness of his bid for the Republican nomination.

"Romney gathered about 400 of his largest financial backers for an all-day call-a-thon at the Boston convention center.

"I'm proud to tell you that, after the first quarter of the campaign, we've exceeded all of our hopes and expectations," Obama said in an e-mail to supporters yesterday, adding that the total is a "measure of just how hungry people are to turn the page on this era of small and destructive politics and repair our American community."

Obama surpassed Clinton in several areas that could be critical to their competition: He reported donations from 100,000 individuals, double the 50,000 people who gave to the former first lady. More than half of those donors, largely giving in small increments, sent money over the Internet. He raised $6.9 million online, compared with Clinton's $4.2 million.

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the last CNN-sponsored debate had the network pulling far more strings than it should have, skewing the process in a way that it wanted.

As noted by Howard Mortman, the liberal dominated network deliberately placed the three highest-polling candidates right next to each other, thereby minimizing the exposure the "lesser" candidates received. Moderator Wolf Blitzer also took more time for himself than every candidate except Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

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Almost the only thing that distinguishes (Fred Thompson's) Senate record from that of Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) is the sound of the voice votes. "Thompson fervently backed the Iraq war, railed against an expanding federal government, took stands that occasionally annoyed his party and rarely spoke about his views on social issues," The Washington Post reported in early May. Sound familiar? Not to mention that he backed McCain-Feingold -- and McCain for president in 2000.

Today, Thompson has broken sharply with McCain over immigration reform and otherwise shifted right enough to win kudos from conservative columnist Robert Novak, who effused that Thompson's tone, "in a soft Tennessee drawl, is less harsh than that of other Republican candidates -- a real-life version of the avuncular character he plays on TV."

If the South has been overrepresented in the White House lately, claiming three of the last five occupants, one reason is the thrall of the drawl. In the national political arena, no accent telegraphs more information faster than a Southern one. It exudes approachability, an absence of pretense and a penchant for plain talk. It promises funny analogies and anecdotes. No other politician, except maybe one from New Jersey, is quite as capable of winsome jokes at his or her own expense as a Southerner.

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HAMPTON, Va. (AP) -- Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Tuesday that the Bush administration has done nothing to defuse a "quiet riot" among blacks that threatens to erupt just as riots in Los Angeles did 15 years ago.

The first-term Illinois senator said that with black people from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast still displaced 20 months after Hurricane Katrina, frustration and resentments are building explosively as they did before the 1992 riots.

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Will Bush pardon Libby? Apparently not--even if it means a man who worked closely with him and sought tirelessly to do what was right for the country goes to prison. Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino, noting that the appeals process was underway, said, "Given that and in keeping with what we have said in the past, the president has not intervened so far in any other criminal matter and he is going to decline to do so now."

So much for loyalty, or decency, or courage. For President Bush, loyalty is apparently a one-way street; decency is something he's for as long as he doesn't have to take any
risks in its behalf; and courage--well, that's nowhere to be seen. Many of us used to respect President Bush. Can one respect him still?

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We haven’t started the surge — the full surge — yet. So let me have a few months.

Petraeus: We’re only about two months into the surge.

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A spokesman for the news network said this afternoon, though, that the
comment has been taken out of context and that it is "irresponsible" to suggest Scarborough was employing sexual innuendo. "Works the pole" could have been a reference to poles that some strippers use in their acts. MSNBC says it was a reference to an exercise routine that a growing number of women are performing.

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