Author: Donald Douglas

This entry is cross-posted in full at American Power. My RWN weekday blogging’s been a little slow off the start, but will pick up as my New Year’s schedule gets under control. I’m going to be getting back into my hiking regimen, since us bloggers can’t be sitting around all day! Here’s an excerpt from […]

From Michael O’Hanlon, et al., “States of Conflict: An Update.” And from the conclusion: In Afghanistan, 2009 was the year of decisions – by President Obama, of course, by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and by the Afghan people as they re-elected Hamid Karzai as president. Afghanistan had a bloody year, with more than 300 Americans […]

At Big Government, Dana Loesch reports on “The Most Underreported Stories of 2009.” It’s a phenomenal essay, and breathtaking in peeling back the journalistic malpractice in the country today. But while Dana discusses Fort Hood and the home-grown Islamist threat, it’s clear that the administration’s gotten a free ride on its disastrous foreign policy altogether. […]

That’s not my title, actually, it’s Ace’s: “The Left’s Permanent War on the War on Terrorism.” I can claim a little originality here, since my Spencer Ackerman post from the other day is pretty much the font for Ace’s philosophizing, and William Jacobsen’s work as well. (See, “Leftists Spin Attempted Northwest Airlines Attack as Evidence […]

Yeah, yeah. I know. Both sides do it, right? No matter how many times radicals say it, there remains an unmatched demonological death-wish culture on the left. DaTechGuy predicted it yesterday, with reference to Rush Limbaugh. See, “Let’s see how nice liberals can be…“: …now that Rush apparently is in the hospital with chest pains… […]

The cached version is here, “Passengers Took Security Into Their Own Hands.” Charles Johnson spends his times trolling around the Internet, looking for freaked out “wingnut hysteria,” and here we have LGF dismissing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s radical Islamist ties. This was on Saturday, and by that time we already knew the suspect’s deep ties to […]

I’m having a hard time taking seriously this article by Harvard’s Jessica Stern. Her essay is titled, “Mind Over Martyr: How to Deradicalize Islamist Extremists.” Considering all that’s happened in the last week — and not counting Fort Hood and earlier incidents — I’m convinced that the Ivory Tower is a bit removed from what’s […]

From ABC News, “Did Obama Respond Too Late to Terror Plot? Critics Assail President? Democrats Say the President Reacted Appropriately, Security Reviews Are Important“: The Obama administration has come under fire from critics who said the president waited too long to address the nation publicly about the Christmas Day terror plot, and that his administration […]

Warner Todd Huston, my colleague at Right Wing News, has written an important analysis of the challenges for the tea party movement in 2010. See, “Tea Parties: The Biggest Mistake We’ll Make in 2010.” I’m especially interested in this passage: There was no unifying single goal of the Tea Partiers and no agency or party […]

From the Los Angeles Times, “Deaths reported amid chaos and violence in Iran“: The Iranian capital erupted in massive and fiery morning-to-dusk protests as tens of thousands of demonstrators clashed with security forces on the occasion of an important Shiite Muslim holiday. Several witnesses told The Times that Iranian security forces opened fire with live […]

William Jacobson wrote an important post this morning on the leftist reaction to the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines 253. See, “Terrorist Attacks Plane, Think Progress Attacks Pete Hoekstra.” Checking William’s essay we find that the first reaction of radical bloggers is to deny conservatives a partisan advantage on national security. Steve Benen’s entry was […]

I went out to get a couple of things this morning. This is Santa’s house at South Coast Plaza (can you see Santa down there, at center, posing for pictures with visitors?): The full photo-essay is over at American Power.

Okay. Right. At ABC News, “Obama: Health Care Bill Would Be Most Important Legislation Since Social Security Act” (via): President Obama praised the Senate’s 60-39 passage of the $871 billion health care overhaul bill despite the fact that not a single Republican voted in favor following 24 consecutive days of often bitter debate and deep […]

Okay, here’s an update to my previous post, “Will Alabama Democrat Parker Griffith Be RINO?‘ It turns out the basic point is not lost on voters in the district. Griffith will face a challenge in the GOP primary, accoding to Politico, “Griffith Getting Primaried” (via Memeorandum): Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith may be switching parties to […]

This post is updated, here: “Parker Griffith, a Blame America Democrat, to Face Conservative Primary Challenge.” ********** Everyone’s getting all excited about Alabama Representative Parker Griffith. A first-term Democrat, Griffith has announced he’s switching parties. Griffith serves Alabama’s 5th congressional, and by changing parties he’ll “become the first Republican to hold the historically Democratic, Huntsville-based […]

A couple of points need to be highlighted regarding Paul Krugman’s opinion piece at New York Times today, “A Dangerous Dysfunction.” (Via Memeorandum.) The first is that the essay’s a good indication of the outsized influence of unhinged radical bloggers have on people like Paul Krugman, a Princeton professor and Nobel prizewinner. For example, just […]

Really, is it any wonder why Americans hate this administration? From the Wall Street Journal, “Change Nobody Believes In“: A bill so reckless that it has to be rammed through on a partisan vote on Christmas eve. And tidings of comfort and joy from Harry Reid too. The Senate Majority Leader has decided that the […]

There are a lot of different memes on what’s happening with the ObamaCare debate. For one thing, the legislation’s not passed yet. And while I’m not sure if we’ll stop it, protesters are gearing up. See Nice Deb, “EMERGENCY HEALTH CARE RALLY, Omaha, NE, Sunday 12/20.” Plus, watch the opposition on the House side. See, […]

I dropped off a $15 “Bionicle” toy yesterday at the annual “Stuff-a-Bus” toy drive at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Those giving toys walk right into the buses, which are loan from the Orange County Transit Authority. And seriously, the buses are filled to brim with toys! The NHL’s Mighty Ducks play at the Honda […]

I’m reading a lot of international relations theory, just not blogging that much on it. I’ve been hoping to write a longer entry on the current debate on American decline (see especially Niall Ferguson, at Newsweek, “An Empire at Risk“). But since I just found two real cool posts at TigerHawk on foreign holdings of […]

From the New York Times, “Gillette to Limit Role of Tiger Woods in Marketing“: One day after Tiger Woods said he was taking an “indefinite break” from the PGA Tour to try to repair his marriage, Gillette became the first of his major sponsors to distance itself, saying it would limit his role in its […]

From yesterday’s Washington Post, “‘Tea Party’ Movement Preps for 2010 Vote“: The energized “tea party” movement, which upended this year’s political debate with noisy anti-government protests, is preparing to shake up the 2010 elections by channeling money and supporters to conservative candidates set to challenge both Democrats and Republicans. Buoyed by their success in capsizing […]

From the Los Angeles Times, “Denmark’s green credentials obscure some unpleasant facts“: Though lauded for adopting wind power, its high recycling rate and its progressive policies, Denmark generates the most waste per capita in the EU and most of its energy still comes from coal. Something is rotting in the state of Denmark. Lots of […]

The photo shows one of the many HOT signs from yesterday’s Orange County tea party protest against House Speaker Nance Pelosi. See especially, “Tea Party America’s Christmas Wish List: ‘Kiss My Astroturf’ – STOP Health-Care Take-Over, and More!!

There are two MSM reports out tonight, and in print newspapers in the morning. From the New York Times, “Secret Service Interviews Gate-Crashers“: As part of a broadening inquiry into presidential security, Secret Service agents have interviewed the Virginia couple who sneaked into a White House state dinner last week, a senior federal official involved […]

The mainstream press is right to note the major implications of Tuesday night’s security breach at the White House state dinner. For example, today’s Los Angeles Times reports, “State Dinner Crashers Met President Obama“: The Secret Service says it’s ‘deeply concerned and embarrassed.’ The agency is looking into how such a security breach happened at […]

Look, the New York Times first broke the news that Tareq Salahi, the White House gate-crasher now under investigation for the massive state dinner security breach, had ties to Palestinian rights organization, ATFP. After I saw that, I looked into it, and published my report, “Tareq Salahi, Gate-Crasher at White House State Dinner, Tied to […]

My wife and oldest boy went shopping at midnight last night. It turns out the much heralded “Black Friday” launch of the holiday shopping season kicked off at midnight Friday morning at Wal-Mart stores around the country. (Wal-Mart stores actually stayed open 24-hours, kind of like a preemptive strike against other merchants. Not far behind, […]

You can’t have a bigger security breach, and if this were a Republican White House the press would be hammering the administration for it’s near-catastrophic security lapse, but there’s almost a breathless fawning over Michaele and Tareq Salahi, who crashed the White House state dinner on Tuesday night. See the New York Times, “At the […]

There’s lots of debate on the procedural moves in the Senate to start the floor debate and amending process for the Democrats’ ObamaCare monstrosity. Here’s how the Los Angeles Times explains things: Without a vote to spare, Democrats pushed their healthcare legislation over its first obstacle on the Senate floor Saturday, as the chamber voted […]