Year: 2005

When there’s an election coming up, you hear a lot of talk about how liberals “support the troops” and in some cases, it’s true. There are certainly liberals out there who respect the bravery, sacrifice, and risks our troops take to keep this country protected from its enemies. However, the ugly truth is that there […]

Because of the battle over judicial filibusters, there has been a lot of talk about Abe Fortas, who is commonly considered to have been the only judge ever filibustered prior to 2003. But when you actually examine the Fortas debate in the Senate back in 1968, what you find is that it bears very little […]

Tom Delay’s prosecutor gives a public speech in which he calls his quarry a bully. The speech raised money for local Democrats. Details: Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who denies partisan motives for his investigation of a political group founded by Republican leader Tom DeLay, was the featured speaker last week at a Democratic […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Bush is hopeful the recent Darth Vader comparisons he’s experienced during the past month will soon overtake previous comparisons to Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin and other ruthless dictators known for murder, genocide, torture and oppression. “The President is hopeful that his image will continue to soften during and after the premiere […]

“Mace Rumsfeld, how can you justify the attack on Geonosis when there was no attack by them against us first?” asked a reporter. A low rumbling was heard, and all the press grasped at their throats and fell dead to the ground. “These press conferences take too long,” Mace Rumsfeld grumbled. * * * * […]

Variations of this lame “we think Bush is a liar so the media should get a pass when it screws up” defense of Newsweek have been showing up all over place. Here’s the general thrust of this “argument” from Bill Press at the Huffington Post: “Newsweek relied on faulty intelligence to write a magazine article. […]

Howard Dean in 2004, on Osama bin Laden: I’ve resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found. I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials. Howard […]

Say what you want about Donald Trump, the man made a name for himself (and a fortune) building snazzy skyscrapers and he has the right idea about rebuilding the Twin Towers: “New York property tycoon Donald Trump unveiled his design for “bigger, stronger and better” twin towers to replace the World Trade Center originals destroyed […]

From a conversation I had yesterday morning with another blogger on instant messenger, the chat was edited just a bit for clarity’s sake and to clean up the grammar: Blogger X: Remind me again why we want to change the Senate rules in a way that would prevent Republicans from blocking liberal nominees in a […]

“Almost twenty years ago President Bush declared the War on Drugs. I was present at a high level strategy meeting between representatives of Federal Law Enforcement, DOD, and the State Department regarding the urgency of sealing the Mexican border to stop drug smuggling. When DOD stated that they were capable of detecting and interdicting any […]

As many as 25 people died and dozens more were injured during riots in Afghanistan today which erupted over what one Muslim cleric called “the U.S. media’s desecration-by-mispelling” of the name of Islam’s most holy book. Indeed, American editors have failed to reach consensus on how to render the holy book’s name. Some spell it […]

So, first we had the Jayson Blair scandal over at the New York Times. And then cBS had no choice but to fire a bunch of senior drones over the memo-gate scandal. While all that was going on, the ratings (circulation) for the liberal newspapers were crumbling, as they have been for over a generation. […]

There are a variety of reasons that I don’t read Andrew Sullivan anymore including the fact that he’s a pretend conservative who voted for John Kerry, is inconsistent, confused, intellectually dishonest, obsessed with gay marriage, & loathes religious people. But today, via via Glenn Reynolds (“SULLIVAN seems to think that I should be blogging more […]

There are a lot of ridiculous boondoggles that our Federal tax dollars have been wasted on in the past like pork projects in West Virginia named after Robert Byrd & “art” that consists of a crucifix dipped in urine. However, in terms of ridiculous things our tax dollars may be spent on, there’s going to […]

“At least Dan Rather’s forged documents didn’t get anybody killed, as the phony Newsweek story did. What is even more revealing — and appalling — about the mainstream media is that they are now circling the wagons around Newsweek, to protect it from criticism, just as they circled the wagons around Dan Rather last year, […]

“Still, the majority of the news professionals don’t believe bloggers deserve to be called journalists.” Why not? Because there’s no filter? They didn’t go to University of Missouri J School, didn’t go to Harvard, didn’t go to Columbia, they don’t have a degree? Why shouldn’t they be called journalists? They’re just sitting around telling people […]

Decorah, IA – The debris-strewn streets of this remote Midwestern hamlet remain under a tense 24-hour curfew tonight, following weekend demonstrations by rock- and figurine-throwing Lutheran farm wives that left over 200 people injured and leveled the Whippy Dip dairy freeze. The rioting appeared to be prompted, in part, by a report in Newsweek magazine […]

Jonathan V. Last wrote a fascinating article called, “The Case For Empire.” Last is the online editor for the The Weekly Standard and a blogger at Galley Slaves. [Note: I didn’t realize the article was written in 2002. I wondered why it was spoiler-free.] I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed Sci-Fi speculation, analysis, and present-day […]

The Huffington Post is the gift that keeps on giving to the rest of the blogosphere! Just take a look at this blog entry from “business futurist” Steven G. Brant, the man with the real scoop on the Newsweek “Qu’ran in the toilet” fiasco. Some people might chalk up Newsweek’s mistake to sloppy reporting or […]

“Muslims from Jalalabad to Indonesia are agitated because of a rumor the Qu’ran landed in a toilet. Fair enough. But the real problem is that the collective reaction of the West has been to prostrate ourselves apologizing for something that, even if true, did not result in anything worse than clogged plumbing. Has our perspective […]

This decision may lead to more short term dollars for the New York Times, but it’s a mistake that will cost them money and influence in the long-term: “NEW YORK The New York Times announced today that it will start charging for some online content, beginning in September. …Home-delivery subscribers will automatically receive TimesSelect membership. […]

Traffic wise, blogs certainly aren’t competitive yet with cable news, radio talk shows, or even bigger websites like the Drudge Report. Given that, why have blogs been able to break huge stories and how is it that they seem to be getting so much attention from the mainstream media? My theory has always been that […]

Pajamas Media, the brainchild of Marc Danziger, Charles Johnson, & Roger L. Simon, has got the blogosphere talking. There are lots of big name bloggers involved, blogger syndication is in the works, and then there’s the ad revenue. In order to find out a little bit more about the hottest project in the blogosphere before […]

While there has been an enormous amount of discussion about the nuclear option and judicial filibusters, one thing that hasn’t been discussed is the poor political strategy of the Democrats throughout this whole fight. This hasn’t come into clear focus because the nuclear option hasn’t been used as of yet. But, given that Frist is […]

Hat tip to WILLisms & DANEgerus for the graphic.

“The media does in fact have an impressive fact-checking system. If a quote or purported fact portrays Republicans, the military, or America generally in a positive light, they check it to death to make sure they’re not spreading propaganda. But… if the quote or purported fact portrays those things in a negative light, it pretty […]

Given that Europe’s streak of economic underperformance can now be measured in decades, perhaps a better question to ask is: Why does anyone think that a system of generous welfare benefits, high taxes and harsh restrictions on hiring and firing would ever produce anything like a dynamic, growing economy? Why does anyone assume that there […]

An overnight poll of Maverick voters shows widespread support for Maverick Sen. George Voinovich’s opposition to President Bush’s nominee for U.N. Ambassador. Maverick voters, those who support Republican candidates in hopes that they’ll scuttle Republican initiatives, universally praised Mr. Voinovich for bucking the White House on John Bolton’s nomination. “This is why we sent Voinovich […]

— Harry Reid’s smear of Judge Henry Saad’s reputation was despicable: “Henry Saad would have been filibustered anyway. All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI, and I think we would all agree that there is a problem there.” Not only will the […]

“One of the great traditions, customs and unwritten rules of the Senate is that you do not filibuster judicial nominees. You certainly do not filibuster judicial nominees who would otherwise win an up-or-down vote. And you surely do not filibuster judicial nominees in a systematic campaign to deny a president and a majority of the […]