The speech Richard Baehr gave to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, whose transcript we published yesterday, is now available for viewing online. It is in two parts, and is accessible here, along with comments by Senator Lieberman, Mayor Giuliani, Gary Bauer, and other... More

The image of a New Orleans looter carrying a tub of Heineken beer has become an icon of the lawless chaos in that community, and even inspired a website. For some reason or other, no such images have emerged from Texas. Hmm. Hat tip: Byron More

One of America's strongest allies in the war on terror is the middle of a growing legal debate that has major implications for diplomatic relations across Asia.  Two conflicting court decisions in Tokyo and Osaka have pushed Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi repeated visits to a... More

Frank Gaffney picks up on a securities transaction that is raising alarm bells among conservatives, in Front Page Magazine. Saudi  Prince Al—Waleed bin Talal has purchased a 5.46% share in the voting equity of the parent of Fox News, News Corporation. Given the nature of the Saudi... More

David Gelernter identifies and names a plague which has engulfed America over the last few decades: "machisma." The feminine counterpart of machismo is a mirror—image form of bullying, basically the requirement that someone share his or her feelings. Picking up on Senator Dianne Feinstein's... More

Ed Lasky, who plays a major behind—the—scenes role at AT, wrote a great two—part series on meritocracy in America. Today, Ed will be a guest on the Jerry Doyle show, which is syndicated to 220 radio stations throughout the United States. Ed is scheduled to appear at 1:30 PM... More

Mediacrity has begun a new feature clled "template watch" cataloguing what does and doesn't make the pages of the New York Times, unaccountably still regarded as "the newspaper of record" among those who don't much attention to facts. It looks like a long—running feature. The first example is... More

The latest person appointed to be a chaplain of the New York Fire Department embraces the lunatic assertion that the collapse of the World Trade Center, which killed so many brave firemen, was an inside job, a conspiracy, in other words. And where did he learn this? Why in his studies in Saudi... More

Amy Sullivan, an editor of the liberal Washington Monthly, writes in the liberal Boston Globe about all the havoc the pro—abortion (euphemistically called "choice") extremists are creating for the Democrats. She cites the disastrous NARAL ad against Chief Justice Roberts, trying to tie him to... More

Senator Harry Reid has gotten himself into a difficult position. Of colurse, the national media is uninterested in publicizing Democrat lapses, so don't look for anything resembling the feeding frenzy surrounding the trumped—up inductment of Tom Delay, when it comes to this story. The Las... More

Jay Homnick writes a fascinating essay today at The American Spectator on two topics he thinks are closely related: secret Republican voters and fiscal discipline. He identifies a vast segment of the Republican frequent voters, those people who do not publicly admit that they vote for the GOP.... More

Chivalry is not dead. Isn't it comforting to know that the United States Senate is one of the few remaining bastions of chivalry? Where else could Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco go and receive kid glove treatment in the aftermath of one of the most incompetent exhibitions of leadership in... More

Melanie Phillips recalls a bit of history the Islamofascists and their friends on the world left would rather forget: the kidnapping and enslavement of Western Christians in the name of jihad. Facts are stubborn things, though the airbrushers of the left do their best to confine them to the Memory... More

Another letter about Steven Warshawsky's article yesterday is worth sharing. Sir:  My Faculty colleague, Arthur Pontynen, sent me a copy of Mr. Warshawsky's prescient commentary in American Thinker for September 28.  I think he is right on track, and arguing a point I've been trying to... More

Conservatives by definition respect tradition. Not all traditions are worth retaining, of course, but when they offer enduring values, they are to be treasured. The oldest restaurant in San Francisco, the Tadich Grill, is one such tradition. When I entertain out of town visitors in downtown San... More

Bill Palmer, of Orange County, California, wrote us a thoughtful letter about Steven Warshawsky's article published here yesterday. It is worth sharing: Dear Editor, I enjoyed Mr. Warshowsky's article in the American Thinker. Three observations immediately come to mind. 1. There is nothing to... More

Victor Davis Hanson, the incomparable historian and commentator, makes a small error today in an article today. He says: 'Russia, India and China are Iran's new apologists.'  India!?  I agree with the rest of the piece, but this reference to India is surprising.  VDH needs to read... More

According to the Brussels Journal, polygamy has been legalized in the Netherlands and Belgium in all but name. Last Friday saw the first wedding of three people, a man and two women. However, the Netherlands recently confirmed its three—day waiting period for a divorce, so that if anyone... More

Here is Tom DeLay's win—spin at the end of his interview with Brit Hume the evening of 28 September: HUME: Tell me about the caucus today where the decision was made that Roy Blunt would step up to assume most of your duties? DELAY: That's the best part of it. HUME: What about it? DELAY: The... More

In recent months the mainstream media has been overflowing with articles discussing the economic threat that China poses to the global economy in industries ranging from textiles to autos.  But according to a report recently released by the World Economic Forum, China's overall global... More

If you think of your phone company as a fat monopoly that has stood in the way of fast home internet connections for at least a decade, well, you're right. On the other hand, for a good laugh check out yesterday's story in the London Telegraph by Claire Millington, its Italian correspondent. She... More

The Times of London reports that in 1995 Osama Bin Laden sought asylum in Great Britain which was denied.   HE CLAIMS to hate everything the West stands for. But yesterday it emerged that Osama bin Laden sought asylum in Britain even as he was planning the September 11 attacks on the US.... More

It sounds like a bad joke but sure enough, Bolivia's leftist dictator wannabe, Evo Morales, seeking to join the Cuba—Venezuela axis of Marxism, declared his rabidly anti—American campaign platform to his pals in the castroite press this morning. Cuba's state—owned Prensa Latina... More

The Times of India reported today what is a major victory over Iran in the Global War on Terror.  India voted with the US, the EU, Japan, and several other countries on an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution to bring Iran before the UN Security Council if it does not cooperate... More

I owe Representative Steve King (R—Iowa) a personal thank—you. Congressman King rallied Republicans to defeat an effort to name the Berkeley Main Post Office for Maudelle Shirek, long an ultra—leftist member of the Berkeley City Council. The most left wing member of that body,... More

Barcepundit discovers that Spain's socialist government (courtesy of the 3—11 train bombers) finds Cuba and Venezuela more accepatble than America, when it comes to military parades: REMEMBER THAT last year US troops were disinvited for the October 12 parade in Madrid? Remember that one year... More

American feminists love to celebrate the "first woman" to smash all sorts of barriers. I await Patricia Ireland and Gloria Steinem commentary on this exploding of gender seterotypes. Hat tip: Lucianne.com Thomas Lifson   9 28 05 More

The blogosphere is having a red letter day today pointing our the embarrassing behavior of the men and women paid substantial wages to put together the New York Times. Mediacrity deconstructs its fact—chellanged editorial today on the violence in Gaza. Thomas Lifson  9 28 05 More

The Democratic National Committee is making an embarrassing slur of the President into something like official party doctrine. The New York Sun reports that the party declines to repudiate Charles Rangel's absurd comparison of President Bush to Bull Connor, the racist Southern sheriff of four... More

The New York Times has been careening wildly in recent days with its corrections of false material it is caught publishing. Just the other day it created the concept of "figurative reference" (as opposed to "factual assertions") in its correction of Alessandra Stanley's libel of Geraldo... More

Mike from Kennesaw, Georgia writes us about what he heard this morning on taxpayer—supported NPR: This morning, NPR aired a story ("Coroner: No Evidence of Evacuee Murders", ) that smells like an excuse for its false reporting of horrific crimes in the Super Dome, including the... More

Don Surber takes apart the basic economic errors of a silly Washington Post editorial on taxing gasoline, while at the same time getting in a dig at Paul Krugman, Enron consultant and economics professor at Princeton, at least when he isn't writing lies in his New York Times op—ed column. Now... More

As the glow of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's stunning victory in recent parliamentary elections fades away, a newly uncovered report from the country's defense department is bound to fan the flames of anti—Japan sentiment across the rest of Asia.  The left—leaning... More

Like many American conservatives, I tend to regard the UK newspaper industry as more diverse than our own. At least some of the major papers, the Telegraph and the Times, are overtly conservative, while the Independent and Guardian are reliably left wing. But British blogger Peter Glover, of Wires... More

The report that a hospital in West Yorkshire has banned visitors from cooing at new—born babies is, in fact, only the second dumbest thing the Brits have lately done. They've also removed science from the school curriculum.  New regulations just announced by the Blair government,... More

Some kind of milepost has been passed in the realm of political correctness, whereby one of the most powerful forces of nature — the natural human response to newborn babies — has been declared off—limits by a British hospital. That's right: no cooing at newborns. I swear that I... More

Just One Minute asks a very interestign question, in light of all the criticism the President has endured over Iraq and katrina: Its hard to believe we will see a wholesale revision of the Katrina story, but (and we are just thinking out loud here) — might we look forward to a story praising... More

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is 'under no restrictions' in conducting both air and ground operations to halt terrorist rocket attacks on Israeli territory.  Residents of Sderot and the western Negev were placed on full alert after an IAF Apache... More

Today's New York Times reports something no other media outlet seems to have mentioned in its coverage of the conviction of Pvt. Lynndie England on several counts of abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, in a story as related by David S. Cloud, its own staff member. Cloud ends his... More

E. J. Dionne sees the "Democrats in disarray" today, in his Washington Post column of the same title. And he actually gets it right on a couple of points. But he can't quite put together the bigger picture. Although an intelligent and fairly perceptive observer, he may be too firmly entrenched... More

Whether the rank and file in the Republican party are out of touch with the leadership, or, as seems more likely from the gist of this piece over at The American Spectator, the leadership is faced with an increasingly vocal conservative wing demanding spending discipline. The worried Republican... More

Mark Shields, the Democrat CNN pundit/activist, is worried that the public has caught on to the fact that the Democrats are pawns of their interest groups. In explaining his opposition to Judge Roberts, Reid told the Senate he had been "very swayed" by the public testimony of, and his private... More

The strongest evidence of Iraqi complicity in 9/11 , the reports of the Czechs that Atta met in Prague with Iraqi intel prior to 9/11 were dismissed by the Commission on the basis of a jiggered timeline. Spain has a Commission looking into AQ activities on its soil which cast considerable doubt on... More

In a piece explaining why Arnold Schwarzenegger excluded the Los Angeles Times from a round of interviews granted last week, the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reports that Mike Murphy told a Times reporter in an e—mail: "I'm sorry to say it but your paper is so deep in the anti—Arnold... More

Jed Babbin makes the case that Justice Ginsburg's public comments require her to recuse herself from considering cases on abortion and opther issues. He cites the precedent of Justice Scalia. The problems in actually forcing such a recusal are enormous. But I agree with Babbin that impeachment is... More

Where Thomas Lifson sees despair I see dawning awareness. Isolated, the Katrina spending may be debatable as policy. But as a predictable pattern of spending it cannot be debated. The Administration's conservative approach is always theoretical, the currency spent is always hard dollars.... More

A Film on Kerry's presidential campaign to be released this week. This should kill his chances for 2008. Lloyd Grove of the New York Daily News reports: I hear that John Kerry loyalists are kicking themselves for cooperating last year with filmmaker Steve Rosenbaum on "Inside the Bubble," a... More

With an obvious tin ear to the anger directed at the state's misuse of levee and Homeland Security funds and its pervasive corruption, the Louisiana congressional delegations has tagged on at least $10 billion in pure pork projects in its breathtaking request for $250 billion for hurricane relief.... More

Crain's Chicago Business reports on some interesting circumstances suggesting that federal prosecutors may be targeting the substantial campaign war chest of incumbent Illinois Governor Blagojevich. This would be a first, and raises some disturbing questions. It is all very speculative, but... More

The lies have been spread all over the world, defaming America and sullying its president who is blamed by the same media spreading the lies. The death toll in New Orleans was exaggerated to a degree of magnitude impossible to explain by mere incompetence. The New Orleans newspaper's website... More

Last week, Phil Donohue was on the O'Reilly Factor, locked in a debate about Cindy Sheehan and the anti—war movement that has been Donahue's passion his entire career. 'Do you really want to send more young men and women to die in Iraq?' asked the former daytime talk show host. 'If... More

It is a rare day when I take issue with the great Mark Steyn. But The Master has given in to despair on the subject of President Bush's response to Katrina in his Chicago Sun—Times column today. He laments to scope of spending that has been promised, and predicts massive theft of the... More

BBC calling again, as usual, with a biased error betraying its true leftist agenda. This time, they were caught giving aid and succor to none other than Bolivia's Marxist Evo Morales' identified in Investor's Business Daily this week as Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's 'second willing domino.'... More

In the past week, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez gave a number of interviews to journalists, including Ted Koppel of Nightline and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! Koppel did the best he could, and Goodman spent most of her time flattering the thug, but there was one interview — published today... More

Common Sense Political Thought, a blog new to me, has a sensible and thoughtful reaction to the question I raised yesterday about the future job tenure of New York Times public editor Byron Calame, after his rebuke of the paper's failure to live up to its own editorial standards. "...by taking a... More

Many in the media and the Democratic Party spotlight black suffering only as a way to score political points against George Bush and the Republican Party. The media, in particular, routinely ignores black victims of crime and focuses attention only on white victims. The Washington Post goes through... More

Dr. Steven Lerner, a physician who dropped everything to fly to Louisiana in the wake of Katrina, writes in the Washington Post about his experience — which turned out to be a waste of time. Not because Bush failed at anything, but because the media had portrayed an unrealistic picture of the... More

It is hard to believe that the Washington Post would publish such an attack as this. Even in a piece of opinion journalism. The writer accuises her neighbors, basically, of supporting Bush because they are in a panic, stupid , helpless, homophobic, anti—intellectual, xenophobic and are... More

Byron Calame, the New York Times' "public editor" has taken to the web and (apparently) print to upbraid Alessandra Stanley's lie about Geraldo Rivera, and opinion editor Gail Collins's failure to follow the Times policy on corrections. Calame has been relentlessly criticized here and elsewhere for... More

Mother Sheehan has had with people paying too much attention to Hurricane Rita. Why, doesn't CNN realize that she sacrificed her only begotten son? She took to the Daily Kos site very quickly after addressing the "biggest rally in DC since Vietnam" to reprimand the media for insufficient attention... More

To George Soros and Teresa Heinz (the latter via the Tides Foundation) for funding today's "anti—war" rally. By all accounts running a tape of it will be all the advertising the Republicans will need to win the 2006 mid term elections handily. Maybe I'm being too hard on Soros. Maybe he... More

Terry Michael, former press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, takes to task media and politicians who rush to pronounce racism as the explanation for so much at Real Clear Politics. A half century ago, right—wing zealots could see a communist behind every bush. Today,... More

Jeff Jacoby's excellent new article illustrates an important point about human behavior and buyer psychology. His main contention is that our national fuel consumption would not decrease even if vehicle fuel efficiency markedly improved. This may very well be true. By way of everyday example, let's... More

Our frequent contirbutor Olivier Guitta has a startling article today on the Weekly Standard website about Muslim (and black) rappers in France, a nation with very strong anti—"hate speech" laws, usually used to suppress even mild criticism of Islam. Some of our own rappers are frightening... More

The Wall Street Journal ($link) highlights the extensive recent domestic Chinese press coverage of growing social and political tensions arising out of the sustained rapid economic growth China has experienced. If the hand—wringing about income inequality in China translates into policies... More

Democrat senators are more concerned with Roberts's heart than his head. What? Is Ameirca now the Land of Oz and is Roberts the Tin Man? Or does this just play to the Democrats who believe no Republicans have a heart? First you get Feinstein justifying her no vote by referring ot Roberts not giving... More

The Boston Globe's Scot Lehigh takes to task Massachusetts senators Kerry and Kennedy for their opposition to the nomination of John Roberts. HOW SHOULD Senate Democrats respond to the example Ted Kennedy and John Kerry set Wednesday in declaring their opposition to John Roberts in a... More

France's intelligence services target America, in order to steal our business and technology secrets, according to Colonel David Hunt, a retired senior officer in the CIA's Directorate of Operations. While perhaps unknown to the general public, this targeting of American businesses has been... More

Charles Rangel, the Democrat Congressman from New York, continues the new party tradition of ludicrous comparisons of President Bush with historic symbols of evil: "Bush is our Bull Connor...." The New York Sun reports: Comparing President Bush to the Birmingham, Ala., police commissioner whose... More

As President Bush gets blamed for the death toll of Hurricane Katrina, China continues to keep its own disaster death tolls secret, despite the ap[earance of reform. The South China Morning Post reports (paid subscription only): Beijing will not revise or offer new information about death tolls... More

Last week it was reported in the New York Times that New Orleans law enforcement officials had ordered that all private citizens would have their personal firearms confiscated.  ABC News also reported that the New Orleans deputy police chief said that, 'No one will be able to be armed. ... More

The New York Sun reports that Hamas is  planning to convert a former Synagogue to a weapons museum, featuring weapons used to murder innocent civillians. From a house of God to a charnel house.: Emboldened by Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and part of the West Bank, Hamas yesterday announced... More

Iraqi Forces Show Signs Of Progress In Offensive The Tall Afar offensive, which began Sept. 2, is the largest urban military operation in Iraq since November's siege of Fallujah. Unlike many previous joint offensives, however, it is the Iraqi army that has the majority of the soldiers on the... More

Household Net Worth Rises ($link) The net worth of American households climbed again in the second quarter, bolstering the ability of families to weather soaring energy prices. In its quarterly "flow of funds" report, the Federal Reserve said U.S. household net worth rose for the... More

Michael Barone continues to demonstrate that he is one of the most insightful thinkers in America.  To meet the costs of Katrina (and now Rita?) he passes along a proposal from a public servant in Louisiana: sell bonds backed by future royalties from oil and gas production from the... More

The stranglehold of the left wing extremists on the Democratic Party is once again demonstrated int he decision of Hillary Clintoin to meet with moonbat Cindy Sheehan, coiner of the immortal phrase "occupied New Orleans." Front Page Magazine analyzes the situation. More

Edward Jay Epstien wants to believe that Hollywood studios are run by rational intelligent executives. But then he takes a look at some of the evidence to the contrary. And he does not neglect to mention the ket three—letter word: ego. Ed Lasky   9 22 05 More

Mickey Kaus is one of the most honest and preceptive liberals in the public square. His latest posting at Slate takes on unions, and imagines liberalism without unions. If more liberals start thinking this way, there might be hope of more victories for the left. But don't count on it. Ed... More

The New York Times editorializes on the Afghan situation, where a successful election was carried out for second time since the Taliban was ousted by America and its allies. But the Times does not credit America or, it seems. the Afghan people with being responsible for success. Yep, all... More

Jeff Jacoby celebrates one man who has made a difference: blogger Arthur Chrenkoff, whose posting of the considrerable good news from Iraq has bypassed the mainstream media filter, which seeks only bad news. Ed Lasky   9 22 05 More

Imagine a Jerry Lewis telethon to support children killing children. Would you send in your money? No, don't bother. I know your answer. But not the Saudis, apparently. The Saudi Government—sponsored Iqra TV had a charitable telethon a few weeks ago, not for the Katrina victims, but for the... More

What a joy to see Jet Blue #292 land safely at LAX with its front landing gear 90 degrees out of alingnment. Even though I have been a very frequent flyer for over 3 decades, I still experience a slight repressed sense of anxiety every time I land. There is so much that can go wrong. And I have... More

Surely I'm not alone noticing that there is an Irony Meter somewhere, pegged out. For decades "environmentalists" fought to prevent New Orleans' levee projects on the basis of irreversible damage to Lake Pontchartrain's eco—system. How many decades it will take to remediate Lake... More

While much of America's attention has been focused on hurricanes, the Supreme Court, the close German election and unpredictable North Korea, Japan and China have continued their fighting over natural resources beneath the East China Sea. Both of these economic powers claim different boundaries for... More

Austin Bay has an insightful analysis on Real Clear Politics of the recently—announced deal with North Korea to, well, continue to negoatiate to end its nuclear weapons program. A nuclear—armed, impoverished rogue in one of the planet's most economically productive corners is trouble.... More

The San Francisco Chronicle joins the Los Angeles Times in endorsing John Roberts as the nation's next Chief Justice. But is has the appearance of a tactical retreat, inspired by a desire to oppose whomever is nominated for the vacant Associate Justice seat, pending. In the meantime, the existence... More

Threatened by a black Republican, Maryland Dems engage in some black—bag type of operations to break the law and get a credit report on prospective Senate candidate Michael Steele. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said Tuesday that two of its employees obtained the credit report... More

Congressman Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who was narrowly defeated in his run for governor by the hapless Governor Blanco, demonstrates again why he is one of the most promising figures for the future of the Republicans in an op—ed in the Washington Times. Let us rebuild all that is great... More

France shows signs of understanding that the trend toward educated and professional career women avoiding motherhood can be fatal to the life of a nation, a point our own Herb Meyer superbly made in his DVD, The Seige of Western Civilization. The Washignton Times reports: Middle—class French... More

The great American folk philosopher Sam Goldwyn once said,"If people don't want to go to the picture, nobody can stop them." And he's proven right again, as the readers refuse to go along with the partisan reportage of America's newspapers. The New York Times Co. said Tuesday it would cut 500... More

The Gaza—Egyptian border breakdown  that has resulted in increased arms smuggling, warfare between rival Palestinian factions and violent chaos in general, though 'worrisome to Jerusalem,' are not unexpected to Ariel Sharon and the IDF. The withdrawal of Israeli settlements from Gaza was... More

Many on the Right, conservative columnists and talk show hosts in particular, have been puzzled as to why the Bush administration would keep calling on William Jefferson Clinton to be part of the team.  Like Hawaii 5—O's Jack Lord, they can't quite figure out what Bush is up to, but are... More

North Korea seems to be following the same playbook as their brethren in Iran.  That is, agree in principle to a deal that would allow development of a nuclear commercial power reactor in exchange for giving up on its weapons program, and then add a condition that effectively nullifies the... More

If you are a parent or concerned citizen, you have probably bemoaned the schools' lack of attention given to teaching the basics of financial common sense*. While op—ed writers and pundits criticize the lack of personal savings by Americans, the foolhardy financial choices they... More

Am I the only person in the cable news television audience who finds the frequent ads from TIAA—CREF (the pension fund manager for teachers, professors and other groups*) downright creepy? I refer to the ones which end in the tagline "For the greater good." Such verbiage, especially when... More

John F. Kerry is using email and a speech to attack President Bush on Katrina and to raise money. Not for the victims, but for himself. The man is never without an ulterior motive. Ed Lasky   9 20 05 More

Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, no fan of the president, admits that George W. Bush is no racist. But Cohen still attacks him indirectly by saying he is supported by Republicans who are racists. The GOP, after all, became a safe haven for Southern bigots who fled the Democratic Party... More

The idea that North Korea has been playing games with the world received new support today when the New York Times reported that the last Stalinist regime has demanded billions of dollars to build nuclear reactors in exchange for giving up nuclear weapons. This is similar to the Clinton... More

Within days after Israel withdrew from Gaza, Palestinian mobs have burned down twenty—five Jewish synagogues. Warfare has broken out between Palestinian factions, including the murder of Yasser Arafat's cousin Moussa Arafat and his son. The Palestinian Authority has not been able to maintain... More

Haaretz investigates a report of an amazing gaffe by the French Foreign Minister, and finds it true: The French satirical magazine Le Canard Enchaine reported in its September 14th issue that during the visit of French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste—Blazy to the new... More

The comic strip Gaggle has a particularly cutting number today, relevant to coverage of the katrina disaster followup by ABC. More

Our friend in Britain Peter Glover is taking his gloves off in addressing the Church of England House of Bishops, who want to apologize to "the world" for Britain's part in the war in Iraq as the government "is not going to show remorse." The bishops in the Church of England want — in the... More

Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, was blown away by the reality that befalls a city armed with a category three defense in the face of a category four hurricane. Whereas Noah heard from God and followed His instructions to survive the coming flood, with his family and the world's animals... More

Wal—Mart, the company liberals love to hate, has pulled off a triumph in the nation's most politically left wing big city, Oakland, California. It has opened a very large store there, and it is a hit, even among locals who profess disdain for the union—free environment the company... More

This is my shortest blog ever: if you've been reading AT for the past year, this is not earth—shattering news. Doug Hanson   9 19 05   More

Salvador Allende Gossens of Chile was an icon of the American left, the first Marxist to assume office via the ballot box. The CIA has been blamed for his overthrow and death, further enhancing his cult standing in Cambridge, Berkeley, and Ann Arbor. Now, 35 years after his election, a book being... More

Howard Dean appearance on ABC television's The View followed Danny Bonaduce and a guy who has lived in a college frat for 15 years. Enough said about his esteem (self or otherwise). Ed Lasky   9 19 05 More

Mediacrity takes New York Times public editor Barney Calame to task for burying the correction of  Paul Krugman's blatant misrepresentation of the facts (A.K.A. "lies") in his columns, a topic we addressed here. Krugman made his goof in his print column, the one read by over a million people.... More

Every other Monday, The New York Times makes space for what it calls "a critic's perspective on arts and ideas." Today, we are treated to a bit of sanity from Edward Rothstein on the subject of hate crimes. Although tailored to the delicate sensibilities of Times readers (Rothstein prominently... More

It is fairly comical to see the uproar among some conservatives reacting to the President's New Orleans speech.  Have they been asleep for five years? From day one of his Administration George W. Bush has been nothing if not consistent in his free—spending ways. Each year federal outlays... More

In New York this week, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez blustered continuously about a U.S. naval ship port call to Curacao last February, arguing against our own American Thinker scoop that said a minor contingent of U.S. troops who visited the island were just tired U.S. sailors on rest and... More

Fatuous, hypocritical, self—obsessed, a parody of himself? It is all here in the New York Times Magazine Q and A with the comic who despises religion, hates George Bush, and has a very sour mood about America—while he lives it up in Beverly Hills.   Ed Lasky  9 18... More

Allow me to flesh out Thomas Lifson's very perceptive point about the de—population of Siberia, and Russia's growing concerns about hanging onto its oil: Russia covers one—sixth of the earth's land surface, and its birth rate is so low that by 2050, the population of Russia will be... More

This week's CENTCOM Report highlights combat operations around Iraq.  Action in Tall Afar is important in stopping Syrian support of terrorists in the fledgling democracy.  As many AT readers know, the Horn of Africa is critical to prevent further expansion of terrorist regimes in the... More

Mediacrity is spot on with its criticism of the New York Times for downplaying the orgy of violence and the systematic violations of agreements in the handover of Gaza to Palestinian control. One of the most prolific yet easy to overlook forms of bias is just that —— overlooking. Not... More

Yale Law School Professor Ian Ayres is to be commended for his New York Times op—ed on the problem of textbook prices in college. He identifies a key problem: IN time for the new school year, the Government Accountability Office has released a sobering report on the soaring price of... More

That's Jim Hoagland's term for Vladimir Putin, because Russia is now such a big oil exporter, and benefitting mightily from high oil prices on its 6 million barrels a day sent abroad. All very true, though I think oil is doing nothing to solve Russia's structural problems like the entrenched... More

Walter Russell Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations, a genuine establishment thinker, writes in the Los Angeles Times of the virtues (for America) of "sending" our elderly to retirement in low wage countries like Mexico and Costa Rica, where over a million Americans have already... More

David Ignatius writes in the Washington Post of the internal battle within the Dar al Islam over the future of that faith of over a billion people. The Salafists, or radical Islamists, are a cult, Ignatius avers, and it is up to Muslims to take back their religion from them. America is... More

Britain's Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, reassures the United Nations Assembly in this report from the BBC: Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said there is no fundamental difference between the Islamic world and the West. He told the United Nations Assembly, meeting in New York, that Arab peoples... More

In a bizarre marriage of satellite technology, mid—Twentieth Century American pop culture, and medieval Arab concepts of martyrdom and historical vengeance, the first jihadist television game show is being beamed to households throughout the Middle East. Hizbullah—controlled satellite... More

The European Jewish leftists used Stalinist propaganda methods wherever they could to discredit capitalist/conservative Jews. In the face of the Nazis' destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, the leftist Jews refused to cooperate with the rightist Jews i  the Uprising. I've met both Old Country... More

Many commentators and historians have heavily blamed the United Nations, and specifically Kofi Annan, for a level of apathy regarding the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia which was tantamount to complicity in the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. This has been true across... More

From the post—election edition of Newsweek we learn that Kerry was willing to outsource the role of Commander in Chief to John McCain if the latter agreed to run on the ticket as the vice—presidential candidate: The "Outlandish" McCain Offer.  Kerry's courtship of Senator John... More

Ah, remember those good/bad/indifferent days when school was just reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic?  There is more to education than those stripped down basics these days, as every want or need is crammed into the yearly curriculum.   As future citizens, students should learn... More

In today's Washington Times we learn that the US and the EU have secured pledges from over 80 countries and organizations to provide economic and security assistance to the newly democratic Iraq.  The conference in Brussels resulted in all of the participants endorsing the Iraqi Prime... More

That's the title of a wonderful Investors Business Daily editorial, which lays out the weakenss and unpopularity of this supposed man of the people. Read the whole thing. More

For those of you not familiar with Anthony Daniels, pen name 'Theodore Dalrymple', I would like to suggest that you get to know him. Reading his work is getting to know him. He mostly writes in the first person and from personal experience that is deep and wide from his travels, reading and work as... More

The Lafayette (Indiana) Journal and Courrier has taken note of the tribute Matt May wrote here for Coach Keady, who is retiring from his long tenure as basketball coach at Purdue University in Lafayette. The article also gives some background on Matt himself. Basketball fans, Purdue fans, and... More

James K. Glassman, nationally syndicated columnist, host of the website TechCentral Station  and former resident of New Orleans, has written an article regarding Hurricane Katrina and the exploitation occurring. Some are trying to blame the hurricane on global warming and... More

The hypocrisy of the left regarding public broadcasting: while demonizing CPB head Ken Tomlinson for wasting money when he hired consulatants to examine the issue of bias at CPB, the ruling powers—that—be have been doing the same (and much worse) with public money for years. Not only... More

T. Bevans of realclear politics.com continues to deconstruct the vicious race baiting campaign being whipped up by Bob Herbert and Paul Krugman in the New York Times. Herbert has now tried three times to turn a legitimate vote fraud investigation centering on a mayoral election in Orlando into an... More

The New York Times received a body blow this morning. Peter Bart, the editor of Variety, former film industry executive, former New York Times staffer, and co—host of a weekly television program, very popular in Hollywood, covering the movie industry ('Sunday Morning Shootout' on the AMC... More

The Weekly Standard's website has posted an article by our frequent contributor Olivier Guitta, on the Jersey City Jihad. Read it here. More

We have received the following letter from a Mr. Katz, a graduate of Bard College, Class of 1971: Matt May, in his recent article, erroneously states that Cornelius "Chevy"Chase, is a graduate of Bard College. This error may be due to Chase himself falsely claiming to having graduated from Bard.... More

Reader Lee Young, of Brevard, NC, writes about Greg Palast: Palast's basic premise is that everyone who wants to vote, should have their vote counted ... whether or not they are at the right polling place, in the right state, on the right day, at the right time and whether or not they comply with... More

Lawrence Tribe is one of the legends of the left. The Harvard law professor argued Bush v. Gore in the federal courts in 2000 (though David Boies replaced him for the final losing battle before the US Supreme Court in December, 2000), and has appeared numerous times before the highest... More

I would like to comment on the Chicago Tribune article featured today, partially crediting American Thinker with the backlash against Dick Durban. There were two paragraphs that particularly struck me: Peter Daou, who compiles blogs from both the right and the left and summarizes what they're... More

The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger compared the Democrat's judicial nomination fight to the stupid strategy of drawing to an inside straight. This poll in today's Washington Post suggests he knows what he's talking about. By 47 to 39%, those polled prefer conservative judges and... More

Olivier Guitta, who has published many AT articles, reports on the Daily Standard that Syria is infiltrating Lebanon by naturalization of its citizens, and even its army members, making them "Lebanese." Thus, when Syria continues to occupy Lebanon, despite its promise to leave, it will be portrayed... More

Needles to say, the New York Times has a negative spin on why Bush watched the movie Paper Clips: "avoid feeling clueless about the national conversation on movies."  Ah, yes, Bush the clueless. There's an old meme of the smug Northeastern elites ready to be flogged. They just can't... More

DiAnne Rivette of Atlanta, writes us with an important note to add to Donald Baker's article "The roots of root causes" Mr. Baker, Please, please, when naming Christian denominations, remember that there is more then ONE group using the name "Presbyterian." You are speaking, in this... More

How is this for a lead sentence: "Under pressure from Democratic senators, the board that rates video games assigned the latest installment of the Grand Theft Auto series an adults—only label yesterday, effectively removing it from the shelves of most major retail stores." The article goes... More

Investors Business Daily adds to the cry for Kerry to sign form 180 releasing his military records for public scrutiny. It also asks some very important questions, such as: Did Kerry commit war atrocities? This charge would seem unduly harsh to level at someone who fought in a war more than three... More

A New York Times author portrays Bush as "hell—bent on war with Iraq" in the first sentence of her article. But then DISPROVES her own spin by later on, by depicitng a questioning and wavering Bush disparaging Tenet's and the CIA's evidence of WMD. Here:As anyone paying the slightest... More

Our military affairs correspondent Douglas Hanson is interviewed by the website worldthreats.com. Doug's insights are always worth reading. Link here. Thomas Lifson  1 28 05 More

Israel and American Jewish groups are again sending aid to the beseiged Sudanese in Darfur. The Jerusalem Post reports on the response: Muhammad Yahya, a native of Darfur and founder of a group called Representatives of the Massaleit Community in Exile, said his countrymen are grateful for the... More

Alex Beam, of the Boston Globe, has a wryly funny article directed at American liberals thinking of departing for Canada. But he doesn't go for the jugular, the way I would. All of the defects he cites are excesses of PC—style leftism. Which leads me to conclude that the punsihment fits the... More

From Reuters: J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. <JPM.N> hired Rick Lazio, former U.S. Congressman from New York and past Senate candidate, as executive vice president in charge of government relations and public policy, effective Oct. 1. He will also join the bank's executive committee. Seems to me... More

The New York Times seems to have a fetish for taking the statements of Muslims who claim to be victimized by America as being of probative value.  This was so in last week's lachrymose front—page coverage  of an illegal alien teenage girl deported to Bangladesh because of... More

Our contributor Rick Moran, who blogs at Right Wing Nuthouse, has been subjected to emails demanding he do something about his brother Terry, who agressively questioned Scott McClellan, causing much comment. Rick has posted a response that bears reading in whole. But here is the nub: I happen to... More

When are the members of the board of directors of the Tribune Company (TRB) going to wake up and serve their shareholders? Management of that company has permitted its subsidiary, the Los Angeles Times, to become the servant of a left wing political agenda, at the expense of the best interests of... More

The indignation that civilians can work up when they are injured cruising around in a war zone never ceases to amaze me.  What a massive sense of entitlement!  If she is upset at anybody, it should be at her driver who didn't stop.  Yes, it is certainly a tragedy that the Italian who... More

Donald MacQueen writes with some further thoughts on the problem of attracting highly capable idividuals to government service. Unions are not the only reason bright people, especially white men, shun government service.  The Clinton administration graded civil service managers on how many... More

In a favorable review of the book The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia, the August 2005 issue of Scientific American says that a statue of a woman's head dating from the ninth or eight century B.C. 'suffered severely' from the 'sack of Baghdad in 2003.'... More

Captain Ed is on fire this morning, over at Captain's Quarters. Cooly, clearly, and logically, he lays out the stupidity with which the Kerry campaign is handling the Swiftvets. ...the Kerry campaign enlisted the hometown Boston Globe to write an editorial denouncing the Swiftvets. The paper, a... More

update: ebay appears to have taken down the item in question. The auction is no longer available for viewing. Up for auction right now on ebay is a classic example of what Charles of the Little Green Footballs website aptly calls 'Palestinian child abuse.' The object in question is a calendar the... More

Accuracy in Media is all over the other CBS News scandal, the one you haven't heard about yet. While the media were abuzz over the release of the independent review panel report on CBS's  "memogate" scandal,  another CBS scandal was emerging.  Coinciding with the release of the CBS... More

A.M. Mora y Leon, whose writing often graces this website, has a new distinctions. A website which tracks the emergence of new words in the English Language, Double Tounged Word Wrestler, has cited her distinctive contribution to the language of Shakespeare, in importing the term "carcerolazo" from... More

I'd advise Roz Smith to be a bit bolder. Remember that the most lasting event in Richie Daley's father's reign was the chaos of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. There is no love lost between the Daleys and angry anti—war protestors. Also note that the Chicago Police... More

The contrast between John Podhoretz's wonderful analysis of the decline and fall of the establishment media and David Broder's pathetic attempt at same could not be greater. Astonshingly, Broder blames the influx of star—power opinion commentators for Dan Rather's slipshod journalism. It's... More

Because the Chicago Tribune has published its version of the process by which Senator Durbin's Nazi/Stalin/Pol Pot analogy entered the public debate, it might be of some interest to look back on the timeline of the story that most MSM newspapers tired to ignore. J. James Estrada... More

There is so little to credit the EU for doing right, when it does, let's not neglect it.  PRAGUE/BERLIN — A Czech senator and a German member of parliament were expelled from Cuba for planning to meet dissident opponents of Cuban president Fidel Castro, officials in Prague and... More

Having had my own brushes with the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), I am pleased to see this Opinion Journal editorial on the unexpected tax—cutting zeal of the likes of Senator Barbara Boxer. Becuase the AMT penalizes those with large deductions, including large deductions of state income... More

As for the tragic killing of the Italian bodyguard who helped negotiate the release of the Italian reporter held hostage, Little Green footballs reminds us Ms. Sgrena was a devoted communist writing for a communist paper.   The killing was sad but the car was speeding. Ms. Sgrena denies this,... More

Walter Williams has an interesting article that puts the current price of gasoline into an historical context. He also raises the question of the OPEC countries possibly being allied with US environmental interests to restrict domestic exploration and production, as that restriction ensures OPEC's... More

Yesterday the ratings numbers for talk radio  indicated Rush Limbaugh was a hit in deep blue New York. And that's no one city quirk.  Apparently the man those tolerant liberals love to hate is also wildly popular in bluest Chicago and Los Angeles. Limbaugh's popularity transcends... More

Kerri Frances Dunn, a psychology professor at prestigious Claremont—McKenna College in California, has been convicted of lying to police and attempted insurance fraud for falsely reporting to detectives and her insurance company that her car was vandalized in a hate crime in March.  Our... More

Political correctness has indeed gone mad. As widely reported across the British press today, British Muslim women won't have to show their faces on Britain's new identity cards, which will be launched in a few years time in order to fight terrorism. This exemption is being allowed on the grounds... More

Mistaking the ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz with the Academy Awards, reporters devoted several hundred words to Vice President Dick Cheney's outfit, a sensible parka with boots.   Using the same snide tone devoted to a garishly attired... More

The family of California Democrat House member Maxine Waters have earned over one million dollars from comhe Representative has helped out in her role in Congress. The Los Angeles Times, which has been recently been publishing some good journalism for a change, is all over the story. She is far... More

Reader Roz Smith, a former Chicagoan now living in North Carolina, begs to differ with Bruce Thompson's take on Mayor Daley of Chicago: Little Richie may well be part of the Democrats problem. His father maintained a modest brick bungalow in ethnic Bridgeport and eschewed, at least in public,... More

John Podhoretz has written what I hope is a synopsis of a forthcoming book about the Rathergate scandal and the end of the Media Establishment. His Weekly Standard article traces the roots of the mentality which today keeps Rather and CBS in adamant denial of the reality of their tenuous... More

So much for comity and the spirit of agreements. The Democrats again show themselves as being vindictive, petty obstructionists who figure out every possible loophole to frustrate the will of the people. The senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee has warned the Pentagon that he may... More

Lastango, of Daily Pundit, agrees with me about the seriousness of food attacks on speakers. The irony of progressives claiming to fight fascism by denying others a constitutional right to free speech has been much discussed, but let's look past the incidents to date and consider where this might... More

It must take courage like Sharansky's or Havel's, but Cuba's brave dissidents — and only North Korea's could be braver — have announced their first conference to outline a new democracy in Cuba after the Monster, Fidel Castro, is gone. And they are doing it inside Cuba. Like the... More

Monica Davey, in the New York Times, writes about the BTK killer. I was astounded by the implied theme of the article that an "ordinary life" lived "intensely" was somehow the basis for BTK's homicidal activities. He was too good to be true and so it was that he was not good at all. What crap.... More

Cindy Sheehan continues to say such embarrassing things that the left is beginning to shun her, according to Bill Sammon of the Washington Times. But that isn;t stopping her from attracting other lefty icons, intent on demonstrating their lack of gravitas. Once again, Sweetness & Light ties... More

Did you know that 60 million Christians in the United States have converted to Judaisim? No? Well, neither did I. But Hizbullah's Al—Manar TV presented retired Lebanese general and public relations expert Dr. Hisham Jaber in a discussion of  "global Zionism" and its purported hand... More

Last week the Guardian (U.K.) carried a story  which suggested that the family of Danny Pearl was upset at Vice—President Cheney's reference to the slain Wall Street Journal reporter.     The family of the murdered journalist Daniel Peral has appealed to American... More

You just have to love the way EU bureaucrats use their hatred of the US in order to scare the British public into voting for the undemocratic EU Constitution. In today's Sunday Observer newspaper, Chris Patten, the EU's Commissioner for External affairs, waxes lyrical about his reasoning for an EU... More

Joining Prince Harry in just plain stupidity, the president of the Irish Republic, who should really know better, compares the Irish Protestant and Irish Catholic dispute to Nazism.  This in the week commemorating the 60th year of the liberation of Auschwitz where real Nazi horrors.  So... More

On Venezuela, the Los Angeles Times has written a superb editorial, correctly realizing that dictator Hugo Chavez is emerging as Little Fidel in Caracas and preparing to assume the full world mantle of his dying tyrannical hero.  For Americans, it's more important than the mainstream... More

Wall Street Journal:  As Arafat had already told an Arab audience in Stockholm in 1996, "We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion . . . . We Palestinians will take... More

Probably, everyone who reads this site also reads Mark Steyn. So it might be superfluous to link to his latest column on John Kerry. But Steyn calls Kerry on his disgraceful behavior toward Prime Minister Allawi with the kind of graceful humor few if any other human beings can manage. So go here... More

On the same day Mexico detained and released a possible al—Qaeda in Baja California, a less noted story is Ecuador's breakup of a drug ring believed to ship 70% of its narco—profits to the monstrous Middle Eastern terrorist group Hezbollah. It's a disturbing case because it... More

Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez's growing influence in the Caribbean, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Colombia and Mexico has received inadeuqate media attention. Chavez's regional clout is important to watch, because it is a growing menace that edges ever closer to us in the... More

As I am an Arizona resident, John McCain is my Senator.  When I call his office in Phoenix to express my disappointment in McCain's latest vote (against the Bush tax cuts; against drilling in ANWR; against the repeal of the estate tax, etc.), I find that his staffers are often embarrassed to... More

Obscured by the recent pseudo—controversy is Larry Summers's bold program to recruit poorer students to Harvard. This might be a way to address the entire affirmative action program issue since many feel that poverty is what needs to be addressed, not discrimination. Larry Summers gets... More

Our friend Steve Collins, a distinguished cancer researcher and professor of medicine, writes regarding the question of Darwin and the creation of life: Darwin did not concern  himself with how life was initially established on Earth but rather his theory explains how life, once... More

The World Trade Organization (WTO) announced yesterday that it will flormally investigate charges of illegal subsidies to Airbus, and the counter—charges of illegal subsidies to Boeing. We have previously written about the combat between the two jetliner makers, which involves hundreds of... More

The American Thinker posted a news story on President Jacques Chirac's refusal to meet with Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon because the  PM told 600,000 French Jews to immigrate to Israel due to rampant anti—semitism in France. The French President resented Sharon's "negative"... More

Reuters reports  that there were three suicide boat attacks on Iraq's Basra oil export terminal, which is off the Southern coast of the Al—Faw peninsula.  A Fifth Fleet statement said that there were two coalition dead and four wounded in the attacks.  There was no damage to... More

Once again, the United States acted unilaterally in the international sphere as it sent Vice President Dick Cheney to attend commemorative services at the site of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. Although England's Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister did attend a separate ceremony at... More

Talk show host, columnist, radio host Dennis Prager clears up confusion again in his latest column. He says that the Left plays down public displays of patriotism and Christmas, yet compares this to not giving your wife a present or a dinner out on your anniversary: public displays & rituals of... More

Our reader and faithful correspondent Allen Heidt, of Houston, Texas writes us: A few days ago, Bloomberg released the new October jobs report the day before the election. Bloomberg reported the addition of 175,000 new jobs. They were the initial tentative numbers, and now, it appears that number... More

Stilll yet another survey on an issue of vital importance to voters——candidate's hair.  As this blurb admits, a candidate's looks may influence voters. Indeed many observers believe Richard Nixon's infamous five o'clock shadow during his debates with the then relatively unknown... More

Like the proverbial stopped clock, Hillary Clinton and I now agree on something (gag!)——the flag burning amendment (gag!) just passed by the House of Representatives is unnecessary and should not be approved. WASHINGTON — A constitutional amendment to outlaw flag burning cleared... More

Lawrence Henry catches The Educational Testing Service, publishers of the SAT examinations, telling the truth about what their goals really are. Written with style and wit, the item lets us know what lies in store for our young folks as they contemplate the competition for what passes as "elite'... More

There aren't many things worse than a communist dictator who's actively confiscating land and driving his private sector out of business scolding local entrepreneurs with "to be a rich man is a bad thing"  Or intoning to them that they should "donate" half their companies to the government in... More

Thanks to Russia — again — Iran looks to be a player on the world stage, this time moving to take the strategic high ground.  The Jerusalem Report, via the Independent Bank of Alabama's website,  reports that Russia has agreed to launch two Iranian spy satellites between April... More

Gary DeYoung of San Antonio writes with an excellent idea and a kind offer: With the thousands of displaced families spreading out from New Orleans looking for a place to live while their city is rebuilt, you might think that one of the larger relief organizations would have a means in place for... More

We have an interfesting prospect at hand: John G. Roberts Jr.Born Buffalo, NY (more likely Hamburg, NY, a conservative suburb)Attended St. Bernadette's (Catholic) Grammar School until 2nd grade.Father, an electrical engineer for Bethlehelm Steel who was transferred to Gary, IndianaGrew up in Long... More

Today's Los Angeles Times prints an op—ed offering convincing evidence of the intellectual bankruptcy of many on the labor—left, including the editors of the LAT. David Bacon, 'a labor journalist and photographer,' lives in the fantasy land where supply and demand have no necessary... More

Kudos to Nicholas Kristof, one of the more reasonable left wingers at the New York Times, for recognizing the vileness of the common attitude of hatred and religious bigotry toward evangelical Christians among far too many of his fellow "enlightened" friends and neighbors. There's still plenty to... More

Alek boyd on vcrisis reports that the first reporter's house has been raided by security services in Venezuela. This is bad stuff — the bloggers have always told me that so long as the mouthy reporters weren't being touched, they weren't that worried. Now they have been, with a raid. This has... More

We've discussed Jimmy Carter's legacy of friendship and warm support for the world's dictators many times already, notably on Venezuela,  but a return to Carter's Cuba legacy may be an even worse experience, because of an unmistakable whiff of treason. Where do we start? Remember Jimmy... More

Thrilling news from Louisiana: Bobby Jindal has been elected to Congress. If you don't know him, click on the above link to Powerline and read about a man destined for leadership. I have no doubt that Bobby Jindal will make a huge contribution to the nation when he joins Congress. The sky is... More

Charges and counter charges of media bias, "Yes the media are overwhelmingly liberal," "no we're not, we're objective" have been flung around for years.  Despite numerous studies demonstrating most reporters and commentators at the major news outlets vote Democratic, denial runs deep,... More

The Rasmussen poll, which had the best track record in the past presidential election, has polled Americans on the treatment of Gitmo prisoners. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 20% of Americans believe prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have been treated unfairly.... More

I had never encountered the name Nick Denton when I read a report that a pie had been thrown at him. There are obviously people who still think it is cute to assault someone with food at a public event. I don't care what his politics are, it is wrong to humiliate people, and risk injury with this... More

Kofi Annan is now saying the UN Oil—for—Food scandal is all our (and the UK's) fault. According to Benny Avni in the New York Sun: He insisted that most of the illicit gains Saddam made under oil for food were not the fault of the United Nations but the result of oil smuggling that... More

Jill Stewart is the pre—eminent journalistic truth—teller about California politics. Naturally, she is a free—lancer, who lives column—by—column, without the benefit of s fulltime job for one of the state's newspapers or TV stations. Fortunately, the San Francisco... More

What universe does the New York Times report from? Their  version of an attack against insurgents in Iraq focuses on claims that only civilians were killed — ignoring the fact that rival tribes exist in the area and that one tribe is supporting the insurgents. Can we guess that... More

Wednesday July 20th 2005 was the 36th anniversary of one of mankind's greatest achievements. On that day in 1969, Apollo 11 landed safely on the moon, in the monumentally—historic '...one giant leap for mankind.' Our family was at Fenway Park in Boston, watching a double—header between... More

Virginia Postrel of the Dynamist website draws our attention to Chuck Freund, an ex—Washington Post employee, who is disgusted at the way his former paper finds anti—Semitism to so unremarkable as to overlook entirely, and instead chooses to implicitly bash Bush for having... More

Marc at USS Neverdock, doesn't miss much and this time he's uncovered what can only be described as a huge scandal at the BBC. The BBC news website has released an article titled: 'Picture emerges of Falluja siege.' The whole report is an anti—war diatribe, with sensational stories about the... More

Reader David Broadus of Houston, clues us in on something we should have known about: Have you people seen Clinton's Blog? Why has no one mentioned it or linked to it before. (If you have, I missed it. I just saw the link this morning on RadioBlogger when I was checking out the Davos quotes from... More

Not a day goes by without another aspect of personal freedom being revoked in Venezuela. The twisted rope around lady liberty's neck today targets freedom of movement. Venezuela's communist authorities have arbitrarily shut down the main private airport near Caracas, known as 'La Carlota,' in... More

Our Poet Laureate, Russ Vaughn, has updated an old favorite in light of yesterday's events: Their Veterans' Day Some said let you apologize But that wouldn't do it in our eyes. A man astride of each position Could we believe your true contrition? And on deaf ears your words would fall To those... More

In a follow up to my piece on Syria, Al Hayat reported that Khaled Al Fahoum, a Palestinian official, told them that all the Damascus offices of Palestinian "factions", i.e. terrorists organizations, have been closed and their phone lines disconnected. Also Al Hayat mentions that an Arab... More

By now, everyone knows the outrageous comments spoken last week by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin.  No, wait, I'm talking about these comments:  President Bush, Durbin said,  "doesn't understand what every American understands: As long as our economy depends on the OPEC cartel, we... More

For all the problems I have with CBS News and Terry Moran of ABC News, among many others in the American television establishment, nothing here comes even close to level of grotesqueness that Iranian television does with an appalling blood libel, caught by MEMRI.org, and featured on Little Green... More

Oh that Ben Stein.   A few days ago he had the nerve to oppose common wisdom by calmly explaining why the rising chorus demanding Tom DeLay's ouster is so off tune. Today he adds two more solid reasons:   The reasons the liberals and the MSM are after Tom DeLay are two: He... More

Bill Clinton's remarks at Davos may end being more controversial than Eason Jordan's. Other blogs, especially Little Green Footballs, have been all over the story. Here is the latest. It is now fully evident that a gloablist left—leaning elite uses Davos as an exercise to get... More

The suburban Chicago newspaper, the Daily Herald, reports a guilty plea expected from a Congressional spouse: Bob Creamer, the husband of U.S. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, is scheduled to appear in federal court today to plead guilty to at least some of the charges he has been fighting since... More

Late Night TV King, Johnny Carson, died last year.  Now, Gerry Thomas is gone.   If you've ever pulled a serving tray over your knees while sitting to watch the flickering light coming from a rectangular box in the living room, you should know Gerry Thomas. Mr. Thomas is the inventor... More

Reader Leonard Nalty of New Orleans emails a valuable reminder on the question the role of combat experience (John Kerry's principal selling point) for a president. With his permission, here it is: Many people are unaware that Gen. Eisenhower had ZERO combat experience. For some reason he was... More

Front—page, bottom right—hand corner: fate of Tillman (death) contrasted with fate of returning black female soldier from Iraq (homelessness, with child). Meanwhile, the Sudanese genocide is on page 2, while stories of Einstein's personal idiosyncrasies are page 1... More

Watching the ceremonial swearing—in of Secretary of State Rice, I was moved by the occasion, especially by the President's remarks. Faithful readers know that I regard Dr. Rice as an inspirational figure for all Americans, albeit one of special significance for African—Americans... More

As I hinted in one of my comments back in October, Arafat was indeed treated by a French Jewish doctor at the Clamart hospital. It was revealed in Maariv on December 15 that this Jewish doctor was part of the medical team in charge of Arafat. Maariv added that this doctor did not hesitate when... More

Our buddy Jack Risko, whose Dinocrat.com site is always worthwhile, has updated his earlier posts on the long term decline of the Democrats. This is never reported in the Mainstream Media, which are the megaphone for the powerful money/media axis of the party, primarily in New York and Los... More

Here is a refreshing story about a Palestinian "collaborator" who tells it like it is. He is a very courageous man, and we need more of them to reach peace. Olivier Guitta   9 24 04    More

It is not only the New York Times that is obsessed with genetics as destiny in all the wrong places. Discovering more about the human condition is valid scientific inquiry; distorting the discoveries is not.  And distortions abound.  Maybe the recent earthquakes in the Pacific have... More

After decades of censoring press mentions of so—called "honor killings" within the Islamic communities of Europe, the press in Germany is starting to pay attention. For those who don't know, "honor killings" occure when relatives of a woman kill her because she has been sexually defiled... More

Still doing your taxes but missing a form, have a question?  We're here to help: http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/   Now help yourself next year by advocating for a simpler system and less government with lower taxes.    You're welcome.   Ethel C. Fenig    4 15... More

Matt May reviews Ken Auletta's New Yorker profile of Dan Rather. Neither man comes across very well.   More

The federal government isn't getting a proprotionate share of the best and the brightest, fret Linda Bilmes and W. Scott Gould in the company town rag, the Washington Post. It seems to me that unions are a big part of the problem. [emphasis added] The federal government is losing the battle for... More

I read this offensive New York Times article  late in the day and was going to do some research on he author and the subject of the article (civilian body counts in Iraq). I thought that one of he more offensive parts of the article was the new euphemism for terrorists—"unknown agents."... More

The Rasmussen tracking poll reveal a startling development: only 39% of the public believes Kerry is telling the truth about his Vietnam experiences. Thirty—one percent believe he is exaggerating, and another 15% believe he is lying. In other words, 46% believe his version of events... More

The world of sports often can be characterized as consisting of pampered, egotistical athletes who threaten coaches, have criminal histories, and abuse women, and take performance—enhancing drugs. The world of the military consists of disciplined men and women who believe in something other... More

I am mystified by the treatment Dr. Rice has recieved both over this piggish Chavez incident as well as her rise to Secretary of State. One might think the NAACP would rise to both exult in her achievement as well as raise their voice in indignation over the Chavez slurs. I have enclosed the NAACP... More

God bless Charles Krauthammer. His Washington Post column today says everything which needs to be said about the attempt to separate Christmas from Christ. He even quotes Washington's letter to the Touro Synagogue inNewport, one of my very favorite documents of the Founding. Thank—you, Dr.... More

Along with other things that should go in the trash today, is the notion that we are "a bitterly divided nation", something all the bien pensants picked up from the cocktail napkins at the conventional wisdom bar and grill: Quote: I don't think it's a "bitterly divided country" when: 1. The... More

Dan Rather's animus toward working with those linked toRepublicans goes back to the Diane Sawyer days, she revealed on Wednesday's Larry King Live. As reported in Thursday's New York Times, the appointment of Richard Thornburgh to be one of two investigators to look into why CBS used forged memos... More

Airbus Industrie counters United States accusations of unfair subsidies with its own claim that Boeing receives subsidies from state and local governments when it builds factories. But Airbus is not above playing the very same game in America. Because of criticism that Boeing was charging too... More

D.J. Drummond of Polipundit notes that BP has provided a model for Newsweek and its corporate parent, the Washington Post Company, in stepping up and taking responsibility for their own lethal negligence — in BP's case a refinery explosion. Noel Sheppard's argument seems all the more... More

I hope the West Virginia GOP will not waste Shelly Capito in a run against Byrd. While she might run close, she is still likely to lose. And if she gives up her hard earned House seat to run, the seat could well be picked up by a  Democrat. The state is turning quite red at the Presidential... More

Blogger Alek Boyd keeps a close eye on Venezuela's pro—Chavez propaganda groups actively operating in the U.S. He asks questions about their many claims and does his research.  Today he's got a scoop on one of them, the loathesome Eva Golinger group called 'Venezuela Solidarity... More

The liberal pundits are endlessly denigrating the Republican South as the land of boobs, underfunded educational programs, creationist—acracy. Yet, this  Boston Globe op—ed notes studies highlighting the importance of full—day Kindergarten for the development of our children.... More

The left has now published TWO phony counts of civilian deaths in Iraq.The first (100,000) in Lancet has been thoroughly debunked, though it still shows up everywhere. Now there's a figure one—fourth as high, but it's no better: SPLASHED ON THE front page of The Independent yesterday, was... More

The Kerry campaign currently alleges illegal coordination between the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the Bush campaign. It is therefore doubly startling to find this apparent confession of an illegal link between the Democratic Party and the vastly larger Bush—bashing 527 organization... More

Rutgers University has an anti—Semitism problem. The University was to be the host of a pro—Palestinian conference which would have included terrorist sympathizers and people who made anti—Semitic statements, which was fortunately cancelled. Now, there is evidence of an... More

Koffi Annan and the UN have been mired in the oil—for—food scandal for the past year. To deflect criticism, they appointed Paul Volcker to engage in one of those internal investigations which are usually a prelude to absolution of those involved in crime. Volcker, an ex—Federal... More

Charles Johnson, of Little Green Footballs, is essential daily reading. Today, he has a number of startling items well worth reading (as usual). But he has outdone himself in pairing together a story of utterly inspirational valor with one of despicable exploitation and cowardice. I will leave the... More

Hold the applause for now, but review my election prediction article on Monday on The American Thinker. I got 49 of 50 states right, missing only on Minnesota , which was my upset flyer (51—48 for Kerry). And I got 33 fo 34 Senate races right — missing only on  Alaska. ... More

AFP, the French news agency, is reporting that North Korea has threatened to immolate Japan in a nuclear holocaust, should the United States take military action against it. The paranoid dictator Kim Jong—il probably does believe that the United States is planning a sneak attack to remove... More

Richard Daley, the mayor of Chicago, sometimes seems like the only Democrat who gets it. Where was Joe Lieberman when Dick Durbin handed terrorists and America—haters ammunition? Deferring to his Senate colleague? Close ties within the Illinois Democratic Party did not inhibit Richie (as he... More

Frank Barnako of Marketwatch.com reports: The nation's newspapers have about four more years to dominate the real estate ad business. [emphasis added] Borrell Associates, a newspaper industry consulting firm, estimated Thursday that by 2009, more marketing dollars related to real estate will be... More

The trial of the 16 year old girl who slashed an elderly woman's neck to the bone faces a possible delay. "Misunderstandings" between the Alameda County Probation Department and the Alameda County Health Department in setting up court—ordered psychiatric testing evidently are to... More

At least 7,000 slaves in Niger, who were to be freed in a first—ever slave—freeing ceremony, will apparently remain in their wretched state, because carrying it out would amount to admitting to the world that slavery still exists there. Apparently this had not occurred to the geniuses... More

Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson manages to sneer at the intelligence of Republicans, cast doubt on their integrity, and simultaneously put in play the very same questions about himself. He writes: It seems that the advocates of fast—forward "intelligent design" —— the... More

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R—Col.) said that if terrorists used a nuclear weapon against us, we should bomb Mecca. His comment is wrong, and he should apologize for it. We should not punish nearly a billion people by destroying their holy site, just because some extremists detonate a nuclear... More

An article in the Washington Post today causally misinforms its readers, while adding to the Michael Moore mythology about President Bush's immediate response after learning about the first attack on 9/11. This goes to demonstrate not outright mendacity on the Post's part, but rather an unthinking... More

Colin Powell has often taken dubious positions on issues, and our nation's chief diplomat certainly can make some suspect statements. In the past, he has commented that "Hamas does some good things" which would be the logical equivalent of stating that Mussolini did some good things (because he... More

Ah, the left with its romantic naive dream of helping those who needed help, of increasing prosperity and equalityаthrough forced government intervention, all for a greater good of creating aаnew type of person living and thriving in a new type of world.а а Ah, but when the dreamers toiled to... More

Rupert Murdoch is reportedly paying $44 million for one of the best apartments in New York, a triplex penthouse across from the entrance to the Central Park Zoo, with 8000 square feet of living space, and 4000 square feet of terrace space, on each of the three levels. I am very pleased for him. It... More

All of America should say "Thank You" to the Swiftvets today! There has been a further update on the USNI article previously linked. This is a terrific site that has plenty of photos to illustrate the action seen by the Swiftvets. Every American should see it.   Bruce Thompson More

Larry Henry has a terrific column today on the American Spectator site, titled, "Regular Folks Know a Lot." The basic point is that in order to NOT spot the Rathergate memos as phonies, the CBS mandarins had to be far, far removed from the realities the rest of us face in the course of a normal... More

Honestreporting.com has an excellent article, complete with a video link, on the case of Wafa al Bas, a female Palestinian suicide bomber apprehended before she could kill. This episode highlights three important points that remain largely ignored or misrepresented in media coverage of the... More

I also think the Star Wars movies are terribly overrated as fantasy films. I remain a fan of the first, however, as a cultural signpost.      It is easy to forget how very different the first Star Wars movie was from... More

Don Surber, the remarkable writer for the Charleston Daily Mail, has a terrific column today on the re—election prospects for 88 year old West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd. Once upon a time, Byrd won his seat by a 30 point marging. But The National Republican Senatorial Committee did a... More

Iowahawk has trained his satirical sights on MoveOn.org, and lands a direct hit today, with a supposed op/ed from tMoveOn's  "Special Deputy Assistant for Grassroots Direct E—Marketing." Warniing: do not read this while drinking coffee. While you are at his site, don't miss his satire at... More

This is the mindset of a liberal columnist. Our armed forces are not seen as defensive but offensive (in more ways than one). They are, of course, defending America, not making war for war's sake. Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe would undoubtedly have all the money going into the military... More

Iowahawk is up to his usual tricks, hilariously skewering the left wing intent to oppose any Bush nominee for the SCOTUS. Read it here. Clarice Feldman   7 20 05 More

The San Francisco Chronicle publishes an article hailing the revival of the city's treasured fancy restaurant scene, with numbers of splashy new multi—million dollar investments in expensive eatieries paying up. Even at the cheaper neighborhood places, business is up. But guess what gets no... More

The EU has now officially become a police state. In order to stifle criticism of the blatant corruption at the heart of just about every EU institution, Euro bureaucrats ordered police to ransack and steal vital evidence against them from a German journalist, Hans—Martin Tillack. Belgian... More

More response from readers: From Andrew Sumereau's column:"As individuals Almighty God calls us to transform the world.  President Bush has confused his sense of personal mission with a national one. We as a nation are not called to transform the world. It is unhistorical, unpatriotic,... More

Victor Davis Hanson has yet another must—read essay on National Review Online today. I do not know how the man manages to be both so prolific and so profound. A sample: What is preached in the madrassas on the West Bank, in Pakistan, and throughout the Gulf is no different from the Nazi... More

Porn entrepreneur Larry Flynt has spent a good part of the the last four years trying to uncover some dirt about George W. Bush. (Please don't snicker.)  Why? He believed Bush would try to uhm, gag the porn industry. Larry Flynt digging for dirt on Bush. Well, Flynt is still entrepreneuring... More

The New York Times runs a  book review column by Charles Kupchan, who has previously written an anti—Bush book The End of the American Era: US Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the 21st Century. He reviews two books, War and the American Presidency and The Folly of Empire: What... More

Democrats have engaged in hyperbole and mudslinging in trying to frustrate Ken Tomlinson's efforts to ensure that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting obey its legal mandate to provide unbiased and objective programming. They have used an age—old Democratic trope to claim that these... More

I was not crazy. Republicans are indeed making an effort in predominantly black cities. Ed Lasky   5 19 05 More

He's baaack. Tongsun Park, the man at the center of the Koreagate scandal of 1978, has been indicted for allegedly funneling bribes to UN officials in the Oil—for—Food scandal, as an unregistered agent of Iraq. Koreagate was never fully excavated. I always thought there were too... More

Almost any Mark Steyn column is worth celebrating, not merely reading. His latest number for the UK Spectator is an utter gem, in which he mocks the "Not in Our Name" crowd for being on the wrong side of history, and now unable to take any credit for the positive changes rocking the Middle East. I... More

Let's hope this is the end of Fukuyama. After all, the book that made him famous and worthy of a New York Times op—ed was The End of History and The Last Man, whichаasserted that the endpoint of world history was near and would lead to a world filled with capitalist liberal democracies.... More

We are in for a lively confirmation process. To be sure, there will be serious discussion of legal issues, somewhere. But the most entertaining aspect will remain mostly  unspoken. Because it is all about vanity. New York's senior Senator, Charles Schumer, has a very high opinion of his own... More

The National Annenberg Election Survey, a part of the Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania, confirms the power of the new media  to smash the information blockade the old media threw around the allegations of the Swiftvets. It confirms that more than half the country has seen or... More

Readers may remember that we reported on a the Daily Telegraph slandering the American military stationed in Iraq, as allegedly thinking of the Iraqis as "untermenschen," a Nazi term for racially inferior groups, quoting an anonymous British source. Today, the Telegraph has shown itself to be... More

Why would a UN official care about democracy? The chief of the U.N. Electoral Assistance Division, Carina Perelli, was asked in a press conference about reports that American troops helped Iraqi officials distribute information on the electoral process to Iraqi citizens, and encouraged them to... More

Hugh Hewitt deserves major credit for breaking the story of Target Stores eviucting the Salvation Army kettles and bell—ringers from the front of its stores. At first alone, he has forced this story into the national news. Now, there is evidence that he is being heard in Bentonville,... More

The political maxim "Vote early and vote often" originated in Chicago and is still enforced today.  Qualify that with "only if you're a Democrat, others don't count." Remember, John F. Kennedy became president because the Cook County (Illinois)Democratic Organization stole the election for... More

Reader Gary DeYoung of San Antonio, Texas writes us with some interesting observations: (Full disclosure:  I am a Major in the Air Force Reserve and in 2003 I missed a mandatory dental appointment) 1.The left is beating the drum that there's 'no direct link between Saddam Hussein and Al... More

We are not alone. Other thinkers are joining Richard Baehr in noting that the Democrats are sliding down the slippery slope toward becoming the party of anti—Semites. This is a tragedy not just for American Jews and Israel, but for the Democrats and for all Americans. Writing in The... More

The president of the Newspaper Guild is doing her best to compound the damage done by Newsweek, by repeating the discredited claims of Eason Jordan, formerly of CNN. Ed Lasky   5 19 05 More

Now it appears that the lawyer, Greg Craig, who helped Clinton during the Elian Gonzales immigration issue, and helped him avoid impeachment regarding the Monica Lewinsky affair, has been the lawyer for Kofi Annan.  Craig is representing Annan free of charge. If only the skills of such lawyers... More

Ryan Lewis, a 21 year old young man, languishes in Sacramento County jail, facing charges of domestic terrorism. His alleged crimes implicate him in Earth Liberation Front bombings of housing projects which failed to meet their standards for proper construction siting and/or design. Acording to the... More

Richard Clarke, the counter—terror official on whose watch Able Danger warnings were ignored, has apparently taken his reported 7 figure book advance and founded a consultancy. That might explain why he makes some downright peculiar comments in an interview with Walter Pincus of the... More

Tony Blankley delivers a well—deserved thrashing to a recent report of Chatham House, aka the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a venerable organization once highly respected. Chatham House, formerly known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, announced its considered... More

MEMRI has a translation of a breathtaking official document published in a journal of the Saudi Armed Forces. To say that it repeats the blood libels of the past, amplified and distributed to people with guns, and protecting the holiest sites of Islam, only begins to approach the sheer awfulness of... More

Spanish troops are not happy about being pulled out of Iraq by their new Socialist government. According to French news agency AFP,  privately some said the "honour of the Spanish army" might have been tarnished by the sudden withdrawal, especially in the light of recent attacks by Sadr's... More

Just a little historical perspective on a big idea, freedom & liberty.а In 1788, the United States became the world's first largeаDemocracy.а By 1945, there were approximately 40 Democracies.а At the end of the past year, the world was approaching 200 Democracies.а So why have more Democracies... More

The de facto Arab Foreign Minister, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, who has long courted the Arab world and counts among his hosts Arab dictators across the region, now may be tinged by an unfolding scandal involving Saudi Arabia. Over two years ago, Tom Friedman introduced to American... More

Alas, Guam has no electoral votes. But better to win than to lose. Ethel C. Fenig  11 2 04 More

Donald Trump knows marketing.  Donald Trump knows branding.  And one of the brands Donald Trump  markets best is Donald Trump himself. That's not to say he's totally successful; after all his casinos are doing quite poorly, unlike most of his other real estate... More

The New York Observer today highlights an issue which has great importance in its own right, but which also has the potential to affect domestic patterns of political alignment: the extreme pathological hatred of homosexuality by militant Islam. The softness of the Democrats on fighting Islamism... More

Imagine if Bush had done this to save money. Thousands of dollars in expenses, including more than $1,000 worth of rose petals, disappeared from a budget for a fund—raising gala on orders of David F. Rosen, who was the national finance director for Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2000 Senate race, a... More

Yesterday, Ben Stein, and today, Tony Blankley.  Eloquent defenses of Tom DeLay are finally coming from the leading minds of the conservative cause. The Majority Leader's only genuine offense is being an effective parliamentarian. Make that a spectacularly successful parliamentarian. We are... More

Gerard Baker of the London Times places in proper context the carping of critics of President Bush's alleged cowboy foreign policy: he likens their views to a scene in a Monty Python movie. Read it here and enjoy a good chuckle, as well as a nice feeling of hope. Thomas Lifson  3 04 05 More

Sweetness & Light catches Cindy Sheehan's promoters airbrushing out of a picture the hulking presence of America's foremost propagandist. S&L has been doing fantastic work gicing us the real picture (literally) of what's doing in Crawford. I expect further delight from the web's foremost... More

Well, look who are the top talkers in the bluest of the blue areas, New York, New York, according to Drudge:  LIMBAUGH TOP POLITICAL TALK NYCAPRIL—JUNE 2005[ALL LISTENERS] LIMBAUGH 139,000 [QTR HOUR]HANNITY 99,100O'REILLY 72,700SAVAGE 61,900 AL FRANKEN 61,400... More

As a followup to today's shocking front page news story that some of the Swift Boat Veterans are Republicans, and some of the money for their ads came from Bush supporters, the New York Times has learned, though, not yet reported on its front page, that some of the contributors to various 527... More

Drudge has broken the story that vicious clown Michael Moore is outsourcing hi tech jobs from deserving American workers to Canada. Both the design and hosting of his web site are done in Canada, robbing aspiring Americans of the opportunity to work in the jobs of their dreams. Of course, such... More

Simon Tisdall of The Guardian (UK) reports that the situation in Kosovo is deteriorating rapidly, and goes so far as to say, Kosovo is fast becoming "the black hole of Europe" and could descend into renewed violence within weeks unless the EU takes urgent action... Readers of AT were... More

Nathan Diament, writing in Haaretz, addresses the tendency of American Jews to shun the open hand offered to them by President Bush. He notes that the President has institutionalized a Hanukkah party on the White House schedule, one attended by over 6000 guests, and made time to meet for an... More

Under the democratic principles of this country, the winners of the election govern according to their vision while respecting the rights of the opposition.    Losing candidates and their supporters are not jailed, they just pick up the pieces of their failed dreams and move... More

Unconquered Men(With veneration to Ralph Waldo Emerson's Concord Hymn) From Swift Boats they did brave the flood,Their flag to autumn's breeze unfurled,Here again, embattled sailors stood,And fired the shot heard round the world. Their foe no longer silence kept,Believing that the veteran... More

Ethel, you are a mature individual.  You must not gloat; you must not declare "I told you so;" you must not shriek "Nah, nah, nah, nah."But of course what else could anyone's reaction be upon reading this? TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —— Broke and without enough money in the bank to pay its... More

I guess some in the mainstream media are getting tired of being used and abused by people who have axes to grind, personal vendettas, enjoy their moment in the sun, like feeling important, expose us to their cathartic releases or give vent to the same dark impulses that those who spread internet... More

Blogger Bat One, posting on Pennywit.com, has noticed an item in the Bennington (Vt.) Banner which reports that  Socialist Congressman Bernie Sanders used campaign donations to pay his wife and stepdaughter more than $150,000 for campaign—related work since 2000, according to... More

Ward Churchill may have been able to enjoy lucrative speaking engagements on many campuses, until the general public found out about his blame—the—victims slur of the dead bond traders and other capitalist lackeys in the World Trade Center, and until his alleged misrepresentations,... More

Nina Easton, of the Boston Globe (and recently of Fox News, too), writes a preposterous column today about Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's religion (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and the electorate. She raises the question of resistance by Christian evangelical Christians to a... More

Compare the solicitous attitude that New York Times managing editor Bill Keller shows for Judith Miller to the complete apathy shown by Mainstream Media for the plight of the Iranian pro—democracy activist  and journalist Akbar Ganji who is thought to be near death as a result of a... More

Da Ali G Show on HBO is my guilty pleasure. Guilty because it is infantile. Guilty because it takes advantage of its victims' goodwill. Guilty because its language and occasional visuals are X—rated. But a pleasure because it is outright hilarious. Shawn Macomber has a piece on NRO today... More

Updated  Despite almost 60 years as a Communist dictatorship, North Korea remains strongly influenced by Confucian concepts of governance, which are in many ways congenial to a tyrannical dictator. One key aspect of Confucianism is the notion of the "mandate of heaven." Major disasters, such... More

Where are the human shields? You remember the Westerners who flocked to to Iraq to "protect" it from America. Now that democracy itself is under attack, why aren't they pouring into Iraq to protect the polling places? Two possible answers: (a) Because they think the jihadis, unlike the Coalition,... More

They are old now; their numbers are dwindling rapidly.  But 60 years ago American soldiers were involved in the largest battle US troops have ever fought——The Battle of the Bulge.  It was bloody (an average of 500 US soldiers died each day) and it was huge.  And an... More

Quoted in NRO's The Corner today: 'We simply do not defeat an incumbent president in wartime.' The quote above is from Mark Mellman. Mark is a Democratic pollster. And he's very partisan. And he's been working for Kerry this year. But Mark is no fool and he has a reputation to maintain. He explains... More

Yesterday, the New York Times had a front—page article reminding us that the internet has become a tool used by terrorists to spread their noxious beliefs, gather supporters,  raise money, and to plan murder. Rachel Ehrenfeld also had an article in Front Page Magazine regarding the use... More

Moral blindness to the evils of Communism, the murderous philosophy responsible for the deaths of scores of millions in the last century, is endemic to Europe, and certain circles in America. Even the United Kingdom, which is generally a bit more grounded than its Continental EU brethren, has many... More

Remember the Shining Path of Peru? Two decades ago, these Maoist narcoterrorists were the world's foulest guerrillas. They blew up every marketplace in sight, terrorized the countryside, kidnapped countless innocent people, tortured and killed at least 35,000 people, cost Peru $25 billion and... More

La Nacion of Argentina reports, with a savage photo,  that Paraguay's ambassador to Venezuela was physically attacked in broad daylight in Caracas as she left the cathedral mass honoring Pope John Paul II. Unknown goons set upon her, and worse yet, when she sought help from a Venezuelan... More

John Shaw, the former Deputy Undersecretary for International Technology Security, provides detailed information on Russia's role in first, helping Saddam acquire WMDs, and second, providing the means to transport them out of the country prior to the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The report can... More

Mark D. Tooley, writing in the Weekly Standard, reveals another reason why the National Council of Churches is skewing leftward: it is raising increasing amounts of money from liberal and left wing foundations, such as the Teresa Heinz Kerry—supported Tides Foundation. Aware that the... More

Ray D., writing on DavidsMedienkritik, critically dissects the Schroeder — Fischer — German Media "Axis" and how it warps German public opinion. Long and worthwhile. More

One of my favorite activist groups is Protest Warrior, which began right here in San Francisco about 18 months or so ago. The hothouse environment of dominant leftism breeds its antithesis in a Hegelian process, so beloved of Marxists, except in this instance. The Protest Warrior group is informed... More

Business Week magazine's website has an amusing account of John Kerry's investments in the sort of corporations he has termed "Benedict Arnold" companies, for "traitorously" exporting jobs overseas. Companies like General Electric and IBM, for instance, not to mention H.J. Heinz. Kerry tries... More

Reader Allen O'Donnell from Wayne, Nebraska has compiled and analyzed the list of Senators voting against the confirmation of Dr. Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State. It is well worth reading: Senators who voted against confirmation of Dr. Rice for Secretary of State Barbara Boxer, D—Calif.... More

Peru is one of the world's economic bright spots, a poor nation lifting itself out of the mud that can report 37 straight months of economic growth, and an end to one of the worst guerrilla wars ever to plague the South American continent. In no small measure, this is due to the good policies of... More

The Corrections column in the New York Times is frequently an unintentional humor column. Today's is a prime example: Because of an editing error, a front—page article yesterday about the final Sunday of campaigning before the presidential election misstated the party affiliation of people... More

1. In Ashraq Al Awsat, we learn that some Egyptian Congressmen want to ban Madonna from entering Egypt because she converted to Judaism and spent the New Year in Israel.2. In Al Quda Al Arabi, we learn that an Iranian woman sued her husband because he was beating her every day. She asked... More

A 12—year—old Ethiopian girl who was in the pitiful state of beating off a pack of thugs who wanted to force her to marry one of them, got help from an unexpected source. Three magnificent black—maned Ethiopian lions, leaping and roaring from the wild, intervened to chase off the... More

For those who may not familiar with MEMRI.org, you may want to read the National Review Online piece, "Thanks for the MEMRI (.org)",  by Jay Nordlinger, originally published 05/06/02. Even the New York Times has verified MEMRI's accuracy as noted in the body of the article. Not that this... More

As French leftist intellectuals and chauvinistic cultural warriors demonize America and disparage capitalism, they are finding an increasing number of their top scientists and entrepreneurs are departing  for America to fulfill their ambitions. A growing number of biotech companies are... More

Publicly admitting to an Orwellian manipulation of words, National Public Radio will no longer attach the word "reform" to George Bush's plan to reform (I am not bound to this dictat) Social Security. According to the Media Reserach Center: Gladstone told listeners: "You just heard CNN, NPR,... More

Phil Gallagher writes us: A really fine piece today by James Lewis. The paralells between our Constitution and the Iraqi document are striking. It is odd how our media would chose to focus on the former masters (but now a small minority) would react to the document. Does the US media think that the... More

Caleb Carr is a talented novelist, whose first delightful book, The Alienist, presented social and intellectual history in the guise of a thriller. I think that I remember seeing indications in the press that he was more—or—less politically acceptable in the lefty New York literary... More

Captain Ed   takes apart the New York Times article attempting to discredit the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which I mentioned in 'The two elections.' He does an excellent job. Thanks to Powerline  for the heads—up before I got to Captain's Quarters this morning. Posted by... More

CBS News has trumpeted something that's already on the public record, and nevertheless sold much of the American media on the notion that they have a great and disturbing revelation. Apparently understanding that the 'previously secret stories' they revealed from Bob Woodward's new book rate a big... More

No, not the dopey John Lennon song, imagine what it is like to be an Iraqi today, with the start of democratic elections coming in four days. The blog Right WingNutHouse has an interesting essay on the subject. Be sure to scroll down to read the previous essay on Robert Byrd, too. Thomas... More

He gave Yasser Arafat a seal of approval despite seriously flawed and manipulated election results years ago—thereby playing a part in the years of terror and the thousands of deaths and injuries to follow. He gave Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez a victory despite fraud and intimidation... More

In a totally unrelated and otherwise bipartisan election day editorial, the New York Times managed a gratuitous shot at the Bush administration's success in Afghanistan and the leadership of our new ally.  In urging everyone to "Vote, No Matter What", it just couldn't resist including the... More

A prime example of the most egregious, oxymoronically titled article to be published in the Washington Post in the past year — perhaps decade. Where do they find these people? (Said in the manner of Jack Nicholson in "Batman")  The entire article contains not one shred of "Reality" and... More

Christopher Orlet has a delightful tongue—in—cheek article today on The American Spectator about the proposed Museum of Tort Law that Ralph Nader wants to establish in his home town, Winstead, CT. Thomas Lifson   6 21 05 More

Concerning our esteemed editor's unaccountable taste in films: actually, I think movies are not the best medium for science fiction. Novels are much better in that one's own imagination fills the visual canvas. A couple of attempts were made to bring Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles" to the... More

Whereas it is the opinion of the majorities of the House and Senate that their joint directions to the 11th Court of Appeals have been ignored; and Whereas it is the duty of the Congress to safeguard the taxpayers money; and Whereas Article III, Section 1 requires that judges ... More

Israel's political crisis over the removal of settlers from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, the topic of today's Exchange between Rachel Neuwirth and Richard Baehr, is also the topic of a thoughtful article by Hilel Halkin in Commentary Magazine. More

French President Jacques Chirac makes yet another empty gesture. He wants to add a fee to airline tickets to and from France, and send the proceeds to a fund designed to combat AIDs, TB, and other diseases in Africa. He calls it a "solidarity levy" and hopes that it will spread worldwide,... More

George Soros is making an investment in training, [make that 'empowering'] the next generation of left wing activists. Campus Progress, a project of billionaire George Soros's Center for American Progress, just held a national student conference, supposedly to work on the intellectual... More

Al Gore, Mr. Environment, has been given a speeding ticket in Oregon. He was driving 20 miles over the limit, doing 75 in an 55 mph zone. But wait! He was all alone, driving a Lincoln! Let's see: going 75 instead of 55 increases fuel consumption dramatically, even in a Prius. But riding alone... More

It is always refreshing to see intellectual honesty concerning the matters of war between Western civilization and the Arab Islamic extremists. A fine example of this is Captain Peter Layton's article in the March 2003 issue of Proceedings, published by the Naval Institute. Captain Layton, of the... More

Noel Sheppard, whose appears work appears here with some regularity, has written an excellent column in the Orange County Register on one of the most fundamental problems in balancing California's out—of—control budget. More of Gray Davis's handiwork. More

The Miami Herald publishes an excellent editorial today about Venezuela. Finally, the MSM is beginning to wake up about the nature of the dictatorship being installed on the northern coast of South America. Some excerpts: Beware what you wish for: Six years ago, disgusted with a corrupt political... More

The news today contains a report of the murder of a Dutch film maker who had the audacity to create a film critical of Islam's treatment of women. In San Francisco yesterday, Palestinian students physically assaulted Republican students. But Tom Daschle's campaign in South Dakota launched a lawsuit... More

In case anyone still doubts that a twisted, evil theology is at the root of the terrorists, and not poverty, the Palestinian problem, political grievances, and so on (which I still read from the popular press and scholars), then one needs only to link here and here for evidence that should... More

PBS appears to be using public resources (its publicly funded broadcasts and the publicly—owned airwaves) to engage in political lobhbying on its own behalf. The Media Research Center reports: PBS viewers in and around Washington, DC, as well as across the country, are being repeatedly... More

In case you have any doubt about what the "war on terror" is really about (hint: it's not just about tactics"), our good friends at the Palestinian Television Authority have clarified the issue. MEMRI found it, and Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs brought it to our attention: In a Friday... More

A number of us have noted that the New York Times, which disgraced itself by agreeing to supress reporting of contrary viewpoints when it received an advance copy of Columbia University whitewash of its anti—Israel classroom atmosphere, has compounded the offence. In profiling Professor... More

Don Surber, who is both a columnist for the Charleston Daily Mail and also a blogger, has taken—on Senator Robert Byrd, an act which probably qualifies him for some sort of medal for courage. Here is an excerpt from today's column: ...Byrd failed to mention his most famous filibuster. The... More

August is over, September is here and the French have the Monday morning blues.  As mentioned earlier, the French are in a funque. And now another Brit expands on the theme, duly noting terrorism and the nanny state are contributing to French decline, not to mention Polish plumbers... More

Mark Levin today on NRO "This is the real scandal. Plame lobbied repeatedly for her husband (to go to Niger), and she knew full well that he was hostile to the war in Iraq and the administration's foreign policy. ... there can no longer be any pretense about him being a nonpartisan diplomat who... More

Frederick Turner has an essay on Tech Central Station about the press, fully consistent with my writings on the lost credibility of the traditional press. He goes into considerable analytic detail on the intellectual roots of the left wing politicization of the public elites. Highly... More

Undocumented youths, i.e, illegal aliens, are marching on Washington today to demand their right to pay in—state tuition at public colleges. We live in an age of mounting problems in our educational systems. Is it fair to be asked to pick up the tab for students whose parents have violated... More

Acting in accordance with its evident aim of making itself the laughingstock of those who cherish freedom and liberty, the United Nations has added Cuba to their action panel on human rights.  Yes, you read that correctly, Cuba is the newest member of the UN's "human rights" panel. It... More

Is there an agenda at the New York Times cultural page? A forthcoming book, its premises and the methodology behind it, has been widely criticized yet the Times gives it some rare space on its cultural page. For instance, Larry Kramer—an often bombastic gay rights advocate and a... More

In case anyone is wondering why the Los Angeles Times lost 6% (or more) of its circulation in the last half year, Robert Scheer provides a clear explanation today. His article, "The U.N. Deserves an Apology," manages to bash America and exalt the corrupt United Nations, with absolutely no... More

Reader Ken Russell, of Clarksville, MO, a veteran Marine and Navy flier, writes us with even more evidence of the cluelessness of the Democrats' attack on President Bush's TANG service record. With his permission, we quote: Yep, they were forgeries.  Something that several of us former and... More

The New York Times is obsessed with genetics and biology—as—destiny these days. The Gray Lady finds biological reasons that may be  responsible for homosexuality, Jews being smarter than other groups, and now one's political orientation. This type of thinking lead to the Harvard... More

Aleksander Boyd has discovered that a UK civil servant, who works for the Greater London Council, and indirectly for London mayor "Red Ken" Livingston, has used his official email account to register a website for the Venezuela Information Office, a propaganda arm of the Hugo Chavez Castroite... More

Eric Fettman of the New York Post lays out a promising scenario for the GOP to pick up the governorship of New Jersey. It seems some interesting tapes exist, compromising the probable condidacy of wealthy Senator Jon Corzine. explosive tape recordings ... have rocked New Jersey after being... More

In an editorial today, entitled "My Little Chickadee," the New York Times  reveals that:   "We take the range of personalities among individuals in our species for granted, yet it seems surprising to think of similar diversity in other species. Many people find the implications of that... More

While many Americans are focused on Iraq and the Gaza pullout, tensions in East Asia between Beijing and Tokyo continue to escalate.  While these two Asian giants have continuously argued over Japan's wartime aggression, the current debate involves natural resources and each country's claims... More

From an online discussion with David von Drahle, author of the Washington Post article cited here. Orange County, Calif.: Mr. von Drehle, I linked to your article from a favorite blog, americanthinker.com, and was delighted. Thanks for a great piece. The "Founding Fathers as bloggers"... More

The Manchester Union Leader is running a provocative and telling editorial regarding John Kerry and the truth. No, not the Swift Boat Vets, but a lie which the Union Leader says Kerry is knowingly repeating. Repeatedly throughout his campaign, Kerry has held up Hudson resident Mary Ann Knowles as... More

Two from Bob Woodward: 1)  After Gerson was finished, he joined the president and all the others who were about 10 minutes into the Mel Gibson movie "Conspiracy Theory." Bush loudly summarized the plot, and during the rest of the movie he made fun of it as fairly predictable.—This was... More

This is the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. My mother and her three sisters survived that place. My grandfather did not. His wife, my grandmother, was transported from there to Bergen—Belsen in Germany where she died two days after the British Army liberated the camp. My... More

Once again proving the rule that the people who whine and scream the most about how politically divided the nation seems to be these days are the people who do most to keep it that way, the Washington Post details a rant delivered by Chevy Chase at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday evening. Chase,... More

In response to many helpful suggestions from readers, we are finally able to implement our first round of software enhancements, making our site easier to use. It is now possible to generate a print—formatted version of articles by clicking on a link appearing at the bottom of the page. In... More

The Allahpundit site, which combines serious invetsigative blogging with seriously funny humor, from time to time, is also on the case of Bill Burkett's connections with Lukasiak, noted here by Steve Gilbert. We are pleased to acknowledge this, this, and this article. One of the deep pleasures of... More

The AP reports this morning that Gov. Bill Richardson and his staff were pulled over by New Mexico state police for speeding. An Albuquerque police officer in an unmarked cruiser saw an SUV speeding on a local interstate and tried to pull the vehicle over. The officer not realizing who the SUV... More

The American press corps is showing its usual level of maturity, and customary contrition when one of their members screws up in a way that costs lives and damages our national interest. Drudge posts some choice dialogue between Scott McClellan and a pressie, presumably Elizabeth Bumiller of the... More

New York Times op—ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof is shocked, shocked, shocked and pained, pained, pained to learn that  Americans of all backgrounds, "not just right—wingers who distrust the media these days," he condescendingly adds, are wary of the media.   His easy... More

If it had been Americans killing civllians, we'd be reading little else in the papers:   United Nations peacekeepers have gone on the offensive against a militia group in Congo, deploying helicopters and killing nearly 60 people in the biggest battle fought by the world body in more than a... More

The New Scientist publishes a startling short article summarizing the findings of John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist, who says that small sample sizes, poor study design, researcher bias, and selective reporting and other problems combine to make most research findings false. But even large,... More

What is the sound of one Bilderberger conspiring? More

The Kerry campaign is complaining about access to intelligence briefings, a help normally provided to major Presidential candidates by incumbents. According to Dana Milbank in the Washington Post Those on Bush's side say the Kerry campaign is insisting on having briefings outside of Washington... More

Credit the Washington Post with noticing one of John F. Kerry's most egregious reversals of opinion: whether or not to stay the course in Iraq. Today's lead editorial calls it "troubling and mistaken." Posted by Ed  04 21 04 More

Poor Ted Turner, reduced to being another bold faced name in the New York Post's gossip column alongside such air head as Paris Hilton.  And now comes word from another NYPost gossip columnist that ex wife Jane Fonda is writing a book about her life so far.  Will it include details of her... More

The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) has collected opinion commentary from Middle Eastern press outlets demonstrating the vision of President Bush in boldly committing to the democratization of the Middle East. In  their words: Snooty Europeans have been telling him that... More

Front Page Magazine today carries a shocking account of political violence yesterday on the campus of San Francisco State University. While campus police looked on doing nothing, Palestinian students (a highly organized and powerful campus presence) physically assaulted Republican students manning... More

From of all places, the leftwing press, comes a critical view of the character of Fidel's right hand man. Tells the lowdown on what it was like living with the kooky, deadbeat Guevara family over in Argentina. Nice to see this icon for bozos bite the dust. A.M. Mora y Leon   9 22 04   More

Don Surber is raising hackles among the lefties by comparing Al Jazeera content and their own. Don't miss the comments. More

Newsweek really stirred a stormThey managed to really roil it.Problem was it should have beenJane Fonda's book in the toilet. Russ Vaughn Russ Vaughn is the Poet Laureate of The American Thinker. More

Ben Stein has a powerful and direct defense of Tom DeLay on The American Spectator today. I can only add my thanks to him for stating what needs to be said. When you shine the light of truth on those who are attempting to undermine this man, the facts mutely accuse the accusers. Thomas... More

It appears that newly arrived EU units rotating into Bosnia for peacekeeping duties are not getting the latest intelligence on the tactical situation.  According to an AFP dispatch in EU Business News, British Major Sebastian Wade was amazed to learn that there are still large numbers of... More

Reader Christian Toth  writes us about challenges to Darwin: This is a reply to "Why Intelligent Design Theory Ought to Be Taught" by Jonah Avriel Cohen as it appeared on 8/25/05.   I would like to thank Prof. Cohen for his thoughtful article, with which I agree. I'd also like to... More

This is how the BBC reports on America. It's a crazed place, where 11—year old Mexican girls are persecuted for throwing a stone at a group of boys. The Euromedia drop these stories in an endless stream. In many cases, it is the only way Europeans know anything about America. It explains a... More

The Washington Post has a useful graphic illustration of the Saudi "religious pipeline" funneling money to religious extremists. Worth a close look. Posted by Ed   8 19 04 More

The left—leaning traditional media seem to take every possible opportunity, no matter how unrelated to the subject matter at hand, to slip in nasty comments alluding to their contempt for George W. Bush. A good example is found in today's New York Times, where a  review of a TV program... More

The headline in the New York Sun  reads like a bad joke but makes perfect sense: "Venezuela Outsources Intelligence Activities To Cuba." In a global society, where what economists call 'comparative advantage' rules, each country does the most of its specialty. And in Cuba, its only production... More

Grassroots people power in the form of blogs, the internet and interested groups reshaped the last election and will continue to do so in future elections according to former Clinton advisor Dick Morris.   Simultaneously money power, organized political campaigns and even the... More

Sure, I'm voting for Bush for the usual reasons: That he puts more weight on defeating global terrorism than on passing the "global test." That he is a man of conviction not calculation. That he doesn't speak a word of French.  But I have more personal reasons as well. Here's my top... More

In the recent rush of news events many delightful stories have slipped by with little notice. For instance Boston radio personality Howie Carr's report last week, wherein he located John Kerry's yacht, Scaramouche, on blocks and under plastic in a hangar in Middleton, Rhode Island. A photographs... More

The battle over renovating and recommissioning battleships continues this morning in the Washington Times. We have addressed the issue here and here. And we still don't know what should be done. This is obviously a highly technical and important question. More

I have never liked Star Wars. When the first one opened, I walked out of the theatre completely puzzled about the fuss everyone was making. It was childish and boring. I have never watched another in the series. There are plenty of science fiction films I like  — the brilliant parody... More

This new Karl Rove documentary coming to Frontline on PBS follows their production of a few weeks ago on the "coming civil war" among the Jews in Israel over the Gaza disengagement. PBS is trying hard to wrest its bias championship title back from NPR. When the New York Times finds a... More

Far be it from us to recommend anyone listen to anything NPR has on the air. But if the New York Times can actually give Bush credit for some positive changes in the Middle East, maybe we too can bend a bit and recommend readers listen to this interview with the producer and the subject of a... More

Today a New York Times editorial continues the campaign to spring reporter Judith Miller from the confinement imposed on her for defying a federal court order requiring her to disclose her source of information regarding the Valerie Plame story. The Times is oh—so respectful of Europeans'... More

The biggest companies in America are oil companies. And why shouldn't they be? For just one speculative oil well, drilling to seek commercially extractable oil, the bill can easily come to $50 million. And that's just to find it. Getting  it out of the ground usually costs a lot more.... More

Apparently, Kerry was not in combat when he received his first Purple Heart. This is a requirement of the medal. He states in his biography that two weeks after he purportedly was wounded that his crew had not yet been shot at! As a former prosecutor, Kerry must realize that a witness may be... More

Fresh from his recent visit to President Bush's home in Texas, Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak takes time for an interview with the America—hating, French newspaaper Le Monde. Mubarak is a dictator who has permitted the government—controlled media in Egypt to spew forth... More

Editor & Publisher is reporting that Marcel Matley, the documnet expert cited by CBS News to bolster claims of authenticity for the fraudulent Texas Air National Guard memo, is claiming professional defamation, and demanding corrections both from CBS News and from the "independent" report... More

BobLee Swagger, the Southern humorist and blogger, has a post up today on academia, making fun of the "academic mill town" of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. But, as a recovering academic myself, I was struck by the popignancy of this observation: The occupation of 'college professor' carried prestige... More

Sunday night, its last show before the election, 60 Minutes ran a story indicating the troops had been ill—supplied for  task to which they had assigned. Again, the evidence that they had been seeking to influence the election  and that they'd been working hand in  glove with... More

Reader Herb Martin in Austin, Texas writes us with an excellent question: What if the forgeries had been just a bit more competent? Practically every other major media organization gives CBS and Rather a pass or claim 'no bias, just bad reporting' but had the documents been created as competent... More

There is obviously a lot of Congressional heat on Kofi Annan. Why else would he write an article highlighting how effective the UN has been in promoting progress in Iraq. He is trying to justify continued US funding of the UN, of course. But he just could not bring himself, though, to even... More

Franco Aleman, whose Barcepundit blog is an endless source of fascinating information from Spain, is onto a very,very strange set of circumstances surrounding responsibility for the 3/11 terror attacks. America's ABC News plays a role in the somewhat murky drama, according to Madrid's El Mundo... More

Hugh Fitzgerald, writing on Jihad Watch,  is the perfect accompaniment to today's articles by James Arlandson  and Andrew Bostom  covering the problematic nature of Islam, as handed down by Muhammad and practiced through many centuries. Fitzgerald is scathing in his criticism of Bush... More

Our frequent correspondent, Manuel Guanipa, of Whitinsville, MA, has written us a letter well worth sharing: It was a sobering experience to see Iraqis demonstrating against the evil which is being perpetrated by a few barbarians who think raw violence will be able to stop the rise of democracy in... More

The Associated Press reports via FoxNews.com the arrest of a top terrorist fugitive in Serbia.  A Moroccan by the name of Abdelmajid Bouchar was arrested at a Belgrade railway station this past June.  He was wanted for complicity in the train bombings in Madrid, Spain that killed nearly... More

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs had earlier renamed the UK's left wing newspaper with an appropriately Arabic prefix. Now, a rival lefty (but saner, usually) UK newspaper The Independent has discovered that al Guardian emplys a member of a hard—line Islamist... More

Marwan Barghouti, the jailed leader of the Fatah terror group, is supposedly leading other prisoners on a hunger strike. Except that Israeli authorities have secretly videotaped him eating, after covering his window and door with a cloth. Naturally, the Israelis are showing the tape to other... More

David Frum, the deep—thinking former speech—writer for George W. Bush and astute political commentator, makes an excellent point this morning in his column on National Review Online. The rumors sparked by Bob Woodward's new book, that some kind of deal was struck between the Bush... More

Alek Boyd at VCrisis has an interesting new article out about what London's oil traders say about Venezuela's Marxist president, Hugo Chavez who controls one sixth of our oil. Boyd points out that not only does Chavez raise oil prices by his trash talk, but also by cutting available supply.... More

Slowly, the story of the Christmas decorations in Havana, highlighting the 75 dissidents jailed by Cuba, is spreading from the internet (ahem....) to prominent MSM outlets. See the Wall Street Journal and BBC coverage. AP has also finally picked up the story revealed. Now, how... More

I suppose the ACLU and Human Rights Watch will piously deplore the fact that a former Gitmo detainee didn't keep his promise and and outright lied about his forced pledge to renounce violence.  But then they will probably continue to press for additional detainees to be released, reasoning it... More

In August Bill Burkett took it upon himself to review a work by Paul Lukasiak, "Deserter: The Story Of George W. Bush After He Quit The Texas Air National Guard." Lukasiak is a Philadelphia caterer who claims to have some connection with the University Of Pennsylvania. He has made it his life's... More

Regime Change Iran highlights the work of Iranian blogger, Hoder.com: Things are really getting nasty here. After Karrubi's unbelievably blunt letter to the Supreme Leader, everything is suddenly changing. All non—fundamentalists are rallying behind Rafsanjani. Many are talking about a... More

That is, the New York Times versus the Washington Post. What follows is a lesson I've constructed for myself. A writing lesson. A 'how to' and 'how not to' comparison of two articles on the same subject, namely, Newsweek's retraction of its Guantanamo Koran flushing story. Or is that Qur'an? I can... More

The incident at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, in which Pat Buchanan was prevented from continuing a speech by being doused with Caesar salad dressing (it was "Caesar Chavez Day" — get it?) continues to throw off emanations and penumbras. Dan Flynn investigates... More

The Rocky Mountain News, which has impressed me with its coverage of Ward Churchill, has an interesting editorial about her successor: The acting chair of the University of Colorado ethnic studies department seems in some respects to be picking up where her predecessor, Ward Churchill, left off. In... More

As Hurricane Katrina passes over New Orleans, the first concern is potential loss of life. The second is cultural and aesthetic, when when consider the potential destruction to one of America's most treasured cities. But the third is most likely to be felt all through the U.S. as we begin to look... More

Imagine how angry you would be as a shareholder of a company which sat back and watched its home market share slip to third place from its perennial first place tradition. What if it had lost 30% off its share price in the last year, while the overall market went up 10%. You are 40% poorer... More

The International Herald Tribune (owned by the New York Times Company)  says there is a perception of massive vote fraud in the Venezuelan recall election and details why that perception appears warranted. On the same day the NYT editors say this: It is time for President Hugo... More

The New York Daily News is not giving up in its crusade to deny US and UK GIs combat proven depleted uranium armor plating and armor piercing ammunition.  The paper's latest attempt at subverting returning soldiers has apparently taken a new twist.  Perhaps stung by my article ... More

As the oil—for food investigation widens its scope, it now appears that a previous UN Secretary General, the Egyptian Boutros—Boutros Ghali, may also be implicated in the bribery scandal. Apparently, Ghali's nephew had set up an "oil company" in Panama, a nation renowned for its fast... More

While I'm saddened by this man's pain over his son's illness and subsequent suicide, despondency over Bush's re—election should not be a factor in suicide.  What kind of people hate Bush so much that they'd take their own life?  The longtime wetlands advocate, who friends said was... More

Like his mentor, Fidel Castro, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez hates everything about the U.S. His generalized opprobrium is such a known quantity that only the quality of his enmity for different Americans is worth watching. There is a big difference between what Chavez says about George Bush... More

Tommy Franks noted: Last December Kerry said "those who believed the world was safer with Saddam Hussein in power don't have the judgment to be President".Gen. Tommy Franks (Ret.) today issued the following statement on Senator Kerry's speech today on Iraq: "Senator Kerry's contradictions on Iraq... More

The American Library Association, whose campaign to keep America's libraries free from FBI scrutiny so that al Qaeda feels free to read bombmaking books in comfort, recently won a court victory against the Patriot Act. But that is not enough for leftist useful idiots. They now have a new pet... More

The U.K. Telegraph has a too—short article today about a report just piblished by two academics in France, regarding attitudes toward the French by their EU neighbors. In the Telegraph's summary: "one glue binds the continent together: hatred of the French." It seems that nobody has a... More

Every now and then, reports surface in the Western press of a riot somewhere in China. The latest example is a Reuters dispatch from Beijing on thousands rioting in Huankantou village in wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang. The current instance is a relative wealthy province where Police had... More

CNN is in the grip of a crisis. Variety reports that its prime time ratings slipped 21% in February, while the FNC juggernaut added 18% to its viewership. FNC now has just under two and a half times the audience of Ted Turner's baby. Extrapolating from the reported figures, FNC added 240,000... More

The country Democrats seem to most admire, France, is down in the dumps. Reuters reports that less than a third of the French are optimistic that their children will enjoy  better life, an astounding drop of 28 points in 19 months. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has a plan to restore... More

Mediacrity has spotted the Jew—baiting site Counterpunch engaging in what might be fraud. Of course I am not a lawyer and I don't know all the facts, so this is not a libelous accusation.  Not in the least. You be the judge. Thomas Lifson   7 17 05 More

This Olympic Committee website is very revealing for what is lists and what it doesn't. Click on the flag bearers and lo! a non existent country called Palestine marched with its flag.а Isn't that the non existent country under whose name Olympic athletes were slaughtered 32 years ago in the... More

A French judge had information on the man arrested, by chance, in the Millennium plot to bomb the Los Angeles airport. But his information was ignored beforehand by the Clinton Administration, and by the Canadian government.  An alert Customs officer happened to note nervousness on the part... More

PBS was founded to provide high quality programming that is non—biased and objective. PBS was envisioned as providing a forum for a diverse variety of views. The Frontline program which aired Tuesday night, January 25th was called "Al Qaeda's New Front." The entire show was basically a... More

"The air of corruption that clouds the United Nations these days cannot simply be fanned away by forcing the resignation of Kofi Annan as Secretary—General." Philip Gourevitch. The New Yorker  While the legacy media ignored Rossett's  brilliant reporting in the Wall Street... More

Reader Smith Kinney, of Golden Valley, Minnesota writes us with some thoughts worth sharing: On the doorstep of the election I have a question: When did having to prove your identity with a photo ID become discrimination or racial intimidation. Why is having to prove you are who you say you are a... More

Eric Fettman, writing in the New York Post, draws our attention to CBS's handling of the overblown "scandal" involving AIPAC and supposed access to secret documents. The bottom line is expressed here: CBS said arrests were imminent — yet none have materialized. And no one is talking anymore... More

An enterprising blogger,Daly Thoughts, has uncovered some interesting links between Conyers,LaRouche and the playhouse hearing star witness,McGovern: On Friday, Mississippi State Rep. Fleming [D] announced his candidacy in 2006 against incumbent US Senator Trent Lott [R]. "It is my hope that my... More

Dennis Sevakis continues to offer us valuable insight at Constitution Alley, as only a former jet jockey posesses, on the incident last week causing an evacuation of the Capitol and White House. I consider the topic extremely important, because we apparently are extremely vulnerable,... More

The Washington Times has joined Michelle Malkin, David Horowitz and us in decrying the wave of left wing violence against conservative speakers on campus. the Times editorial makes a couple of points worth serious attention: 1) The MSM largely ignores this violence, just as it ignored the... More

Michelle Malkin has a round—up of ratings data for Air America, a year into its life. the signs are not terribly encouraging. In most of its major cities, it has a found a niche audience of roughly one—third or less of the leading conservative talk radio station in the market. In... More

Saudi clerics have now declared football (presumably, they mean the game we call soccer) un—Islamic. Because the players wear shorts and waste valuable Jihad time. Via Little Green Footballs: Ulema in Saudia Arabia have issued a fatwa (religious decree) declaring football an un—Islamic... More

No, they do not behave in a manner at all reminiscnet of Nazis, no matter what Senator Durbin says. Consider Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer: During a routine patrol in Baghdad June 2, Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, a medic, was shot in the chest by an enemy sniper, hiding in a van just 75 yards away.... More

Glenn Reynolds of Intsapundit does a terrific job of taking down fatuous left wing blowhard Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who had the gall to call VP Cheney a 'coward.' Harkin, who should have long retired from public life in disgrace for falsely claiming to have been a combat fighter pilot in... More

One of the most visually beautiful blogs of all is Sisu, published by Sissy Willis. In addition to many humorous and intelligent takes on the news, Sissy features architectural commentary, and many, many pictures of cats, along with a lot of other beautiful photography. Sisu never fails to please... More

Apparently Ted Turner feels anyone who disagrees with him is a Nazi.  Fox News is much more popular with viewers than CNN so it must use tactics similar to Nazi propaganda according to his warped thinking.    But this isn't the first time Turner has displayed his historical... More

Columbia University has been the subject of a scandal regarding biased professors who inflict their anti—Semitic and anti—Israel views on students and who abuse them if they object to this treatment. The New York Sun has been a leader in bringing this state of affairs to light,... More

Reader Bruce Opheim of Fargo, North Dakota wrote us a request we'd like to share: To The American Thinker, Thank you for printing your excellent article, "Dear Senator Daschle"..  Unfortunately, Senator Daschle doesn't take criticism kindly, and I'm certain he won't pay much attention to... More

David Szady, the senior FBI counter—intelligence officer heading up the pseudo—scandal investigation involving the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has a controversial background regarding Jews, according to a report by the prize—winning investigative journalist Edwin... More

Karla Homolka, a grotesque sex criminal/killer with a beautiful face, is being released by Canadian authorities at the ripe old age of 35, after only 12 years in prison for multiple counts of drugging, raping, torturing, and killing teenage girls, along with her husband. There is every reason to... More

The Discovery Channel is running a series of programs on the 100 greatest Americans, as derived from online polling. Such ventures are nearly always disastrous, reflecting current—day media appearances more than any collective wisdom. The always—brilliant Stephen Bainbridge has gone... More

The Boston Globe, a New York Times—owned newspaper. today publishes an op ed peice by Israeli Jeff Halper which argues that the Israeli disengagement plan is a ruse, and part of a scheme by the Sharon government to retain large swaths of the West Bank and continue the imprisonment of... More

I confess to a deep fascination with North Korea. It seems horrible beyond imagination, starving its people while building nuclear weapons and ICBMs. The very idea of society so totally regimented is almost incoprehensible. Yet there it is, still somehow functioning. In the 1950s and 60s, arguably... More

No the political kind, rather the literal drama, as in stories told by actors. South Korea's television soap operas are finding big audiences overseas, including here in the Bay Area, as well as other major American cities with large Asian populations. Japan was the first Asian country to... More

When is an insurgent not an insurgent?  When is a militant no longer a militant?  When does an activist cease being one? The Dallas News answers. These children were not collateral damage. They were targets. The SUV driver was no insurgent. He was a terrorist. People who set... More

Along with academia, public schools, librarians, and most of the national media, the museum world has largely gone leftist. To be other than a 'progressive' is to be isolated in professional meetings, and shunned in fund—raising circles, grant—making committees, and all the best... More

Goerge Soros, the closest living approximation to one of Ian Fleming's James Bond villains, in my opinion, is issuing an apparent warning to the new Eastern European members of the EU to hurry up and adopt the Euro as their currency. Bloomberg quotes Soros as warning that they appear... More

Jane Finda's ex—husband has invoked Adolph Hitler in explaining Fox News Channel's dominance of his creation CNN. According to Drudge, speakiong at the NATPE Convention in Las Vegas (the National Association of Television Programming Executives annual meeting is the pre—eminent... More

A friend — let's call him Bucky — went to a preview showing in an upscale neighborhood of a coming movie called Back in the Day, evidently targeted at a black audience. The free tickets were handed out as a promotion at another movie.  It was so full of gangsta... More

If there is any better indication of how some journalists become emotionally committed to terrorists and permit their bias to overrule any sort of ethics, check out this BBC report. The reporter cries at Arafat's departure, while others express incredulity that Palestinians were not upset. Ed... More

The Chicago Tribune, no friend of the GOP, takes note of the revelations of contact between the Kerry campaign and Bill Burkett, including yesterday's revelation that Lcokhart told Mary Beth Cahill, who informe the candidate himself about the phone conversation between Lockhart and Burkett —... More

Dick Durbin does support the troops —  when there's money in it for his state. (AP) — The Pentagon has yet to give Illinois' U.S. senators thousands of documents they need in order to evaluate whether proposed changes to the state's military bases make sense, Sen. Dick Durbin... More

Bill Moyers, the former LBJ hatchet man and left wing ideologue, is attacking those who seek to rescue PBS and NPR from their leftward lurch toward death. For decades, PBS and NPR have violated the law which requires they be "strictly fair, objective and balanced." In the age of satellite... More

Sixty years ago World War ll was drawing to a close.  And so with the distance of time the last eyewitnesses speak about an unspeakable time. On the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the notorious Buchenwald death camp  a British officer describes the Gate of Hell. I will... More

Olivier Guitta, our frequent contributor, has an excellent essay in The Weekly Standard, on the increasing backlash to Saudi Wahhabi evangelism abroad. Highly recommended. More

The New York Times has reached a new low, if that is possible. Interviewer Deborah Solomon in the New York Times Magazine interviews Prince Turki, new Saudi Ambassador to the US. Here are the two smartest questions of the interview: Q: I don't mean to make you feel unimportant, but aren't you one... More

Last year the Wall Street Journal ran a front—page story regarding the role that Muslim imams who visit prisons might play in radicalizing prisoners. This may no longer be simply a theoretical possibility as it seems that some Los Angeles gang members were recently arrested who may have been... More

Earlier this month, I opined that the movement to grant felons the right to vote in all states is gathering momentum. Today, the Washington Post is jumping on the bandwagon  with an an op—ed by Kevin Krajick, who gets right to the point in the first paragraph, casting his principal... More

Jamie Gorelick, 9/11 Commission member and future witness, wrote a column this morning in the Washington Post (dubbed "The Ministry of Truth by our Douglas Hanson), attempting to exonerate herself from any responsibility for the intelligence failures leading to 9/11. It is the sort of piece which... More

Bush, Coleman, and Rupert Murdoch push Annan to make amends (for now). Benny Avni reports in the New York Sun: Secretary—General Annan worked hard to guarantee that yesterday's special session of the United Nations General Assembly concentrated on Holocaust—related themes, avoiding any... More

The wonderful Babalublog has a picture of the Havana Christmas light display, as well as further information on the looming "crisis" with threats emanating from Cuba's dictator. The MSM remains clueless on the story. A.M. Mora y Leon   12 15 04 More

Bloomberg is reporting that for the second straight month, Iraq's oil exports have been uninterrupted by terror attacks. As a result, oil exports hit 1.84 million barrels per day. The improvement in security is an obvious testament to the effectiveness of the interim regime and the occupation... More

I recently noted that Reuters, once a respected news organization, is now merely a propaganda organ because of their refusal to label any action terrorism.  This blurb accompanying the photo of Mohamed  ElBaradei reinforces that observation.  Blandly describing ElBaradei as an "anti... More

Real Clear Politics noticed an odd news dispatch buried last Friday. Edward Kennedy, the moral voice of the Democrats, has "ruled out" Clarence Thomas as a possible Chief Justice. This sounds a lot like a threat of a filibuster. If the Democrats want to prevent the first black nominee for Chief... More

It's time for America's trial lawyers to grab their briefcases and head over to the scenes of the toiletgate riots. Sign up as plaintiffs the families of the 16 dead and 100 injured in the Newsweek lie—inspired riots. Treat is as they did the Bhopal disaster. Certainly, Newsweek's... More

Newsweek's  Wolffe and Bailey wrote an article suggesting that the President's special outreach to Pope John Paul II was politically motivated and not reciprocated, concluding: That account barely grasps the extent of the Holy See's opposition to the war in Iraq, as Clinton suggested in his... More

Lest anyone think that President Bush deserves any credit for the changes in Lebanon, the promise of elections with actual opposition in Egypt, and oither favorable developments, the Los Angeles Times publishes an editorial today reminding us that all the problems have not yet been solved. I guess... More

Jesse Jackson visits Caracas, and a Chicagoan looks homeward. Richard J. Daley, da mare of da people uh da city uh Chicago, recently declared one of the five best mayors in the nation because of his admitted ability to make the trains run on time, is in really big trouble. The Feds are looking... More

Who is the Martin Luther of Islam? More

C—SPAN 2's  weekend Book TV programming is a gift to the American reading public. All the more so this weekend, when a three hour In Depth segment with Victor Davis Hanson will be re—broadcast this Saturday, from 4 to 7 PM (Eastern), repeated Monday early morning, midnight to 3 AM... More

Readers of The American Thinker may remember that last Sunday we reported about Will Hutton, a British Pro—European and visceral anti—American, who categorized Christian fundamentalism as the evil twin of Islamic radicalism. Will Hutton was also once editor of the Observer... More

Kissinger, of the realist school that nurtured Scowcroft et al, departs from that ideology.   Ed Lasky   1 25 05   More

We reported earlier  this week that we've got one gutsy U.S. diplomatic mission in Cuba under President Bush. It seems the bully on the block in Havana has taken note — and like an enraged mobster losing a turf war, has gone ballistic. The U.S.' showy Christmas light display, along... More

Polipundit explores the internals of a CBS/New York Times poll, which provide some comfort to supporters of President Bush. Highlights: John Kerry has a 41% favorable, 47% unfavorable rating. This is his worst rating ever. President Bush has a 48% favorable, 41% unfavorable rating. That is his... More

Eurabia is a concept and geo political reality that is over 30 years old but one that most Americans know very little.  But we should.  Bat Ye'or's facts on the depth and width of European—Arab/Muslim ties are revealing; its implications frightening.   We need to learn... More

The world should donate Antarctica to Amnesty International so ALL it's members can move there with all the people they want to protect from the big bad industrialized world. The BBC examines conditions in UK detainment camps for illegal aliens. "Torture"? Joe Crowley   6 20 05 More

"There's no doubt that the Mexican men and women _ full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work _ are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States," said Mexican President Vincente Fox over the weekend. So, now, the political trick of treating blacks as pawns has... More

Berkeley is justly famed for its culinary glories. The so called "New American cuisine," also known as "California cuisine," began here, as Alice Waters and a host of chefs, bakers, vintners, and other foodies developed new methods for producing and serving fine food and drink, based on the... More

At long last, it appears that television in Iraq is being used as a propaganda tool against the terrorists (known as "insurgents" to the MSM) currently brutalizing the Iraqi people. The Los Angeles Times takes note: The one—hour tapes constitute a sort of reality TV whose aim is to win the... More

The Times of London casts doubt on the ability of John Bolton or anyone else being able to reform the UN, without a threat by Congress to withold funding, and introduces an interesting new book. Gotta love that title. Pedro Sanjuan, a former political affairs director, argues in his book The UN... More

People are voting with their wallets and their appetites. They have an appetite for America that is not shared by the New York Times and other liberal outlets which propagandize that the world hates America. How about a new index: the McDonalds—Coke—Pepsi—Phillip Morris... More

Two prominent members of the blogosphere have made cross—border Swift Boat raid of their own, delivering a cache of intellectual weapons to the readers of the Minneapolis Star—Tribune. John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson, known to readers of the superb Powerline website as Hind Rocket and... More

The BBC appears to realize that it has serious problem with its left—wing bias. Regrettably, the Beeb is not publicly acknowledging the problem, and is keeping secret its internal response. Even more regrettably, the action it is taking to remediate the problem is likely to be completely... More

Our friend Gary Larson (the pundit, not the cartoonist) has not forgotten about a scandal that once made national headlines, caused the appointment of a Special Counsel, and implicated a Clinton Cabinet member. The Supreme Court handed a ruling recently, and nobody in the national press noticed.... More

The UK's Independent is reporting that the BBC's share of the British television audience has fallen to an all time low. This is of particular importance because the BBC's 10 year charter comes to an end in 2006, and renewal of its ability to impose a ｣121 ($236) mandatory license fee (a.k.a.,... More

With apologies to Richard Baehr, herewith is my totally unscientific election prediction.  The ever—shifting poll results and the refusal to acknowledge the pollsters' bias in these surveys causes pundits to focus on the minutiae of sample size, confidence levels, etc. ... More

Well known investor, trader and investment commentator James Cramer is a Democrat. On the subscription—only Wall Street Journal site, he discusses the "W boom" and its impact on candidate Kerry. Brief excerpts: Imagine the difficulty John Kerry faces in explaining what's wrong with the... More

Well whaddaya know.   Bob Geldof, who is organizing the Live 8 concerts to draw attention to the plight of Africa's poor, has some decent things to say about President Bush and the US. GELDOF America doesn't have a lack of empathy; they just don't know the issues as well. Actually,... More

It is great news that the Supreme Court has decided that states may not discriminate against out—of—state wineries by banning direct shipment of wine, while permitting in—state wineries the same privilege. If states want to ban all direct shipments to consumers, they may still do... More

Now that GW is well into his second term, The Washington Post (aka The Ministry of Truth) finally comes clean to inform us that there is no homeland security (HLS) funding shortfall as charged by the Kerry campaign last year. Last June, readers of AT were told of John Kerry's campaign visits... More

One out of eight members of the German workforce is unemployed. Slightly more, actually: 12.6%. This figure is the highest since the dark days of the 1930s. Certain changes in measurement may have slightly added to the figure, but whatever the technicalities, this is a catastrophic level. Given the... More

Hurricane Katrina may well be a historic catastrophe for New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and our oil supplies. Of course, our Islamist enemies will portray this as the wrath of God visited upon the Great Satan. When Muslims were hit by the massive tsunami, we sent the first help, and provided a... More

The progress made among the younger cohort bodes well for improvement in the years ahead. Older children are not benefitting as well because they have had years of weak schooling that has hurt their potential. Now, under George Bush's No Child Left behind Act the younger children have some hope. Ed... More

I recall during the height of tension between the US and France/Germany that some wag proposed we erect billboards in Europe advocating emigration of the "best and the brightest" from Europe (and proclaim the opportunities for success available to them here), and that we expand the number of green... More

To the editor: Reports indicate al—Sadr may be allowed to go into exile in Iran till July when an interim government takes over. At which time he can return to "face Iraqi justice" or stay where he is. Have we not learned the Khomeini lesson and his being sent into exile in 1964/65 and... More

When acknowledging true evil, a positive and a negative commandment are imposed upon Jews: remember; don't forget.  At first glance these commandments are synonymous, one the flip side of the other.  And basically that is correct; it is the comprehensiveness of the commandment that is... More

National Review Online today has a good article by Aaron Mannes about the raid on Caracas's Jewish school, the Colegio Hebraica, and the bad situation in Venezuela under Chavez. These are topics about which we have posted many times, and which we follow closely in the future. We are... More

Muslims are trying to control the US Government. Has it struck anyone that the age—old canard about Jews trying to control governments has not only been totally refuted but that the theory is more applicable when it comes to Muslims trying to choose a leader?   This is not only the... More

Ralph Nader is absolutely correct in blaming John Kerry and Terry McAuliffe, plus the Democrats in general. for denying him access to the ballot across the country.  He's not a spoiler stealing votes that are owned by Kerry and the Democrats; he's an American citizen running for office,... More

What if?  What if?  A useless question to be sure but one that haunts us all as we wonder about the path(s) not taken and ponder the one(s) we did.  And so with the current situation in Iraq.  What if we hadn't gone to war in Iraq?  Robert Kagan discusses what... More

It is interesting that some filibuster—happy Senate democratic leaders readily conjure up Alexis de'Tocqueville's coined dictum " The Tyranny of the Majority" when expressing their disdain for the so called nuclear option, and then turn around and declare that there are significant numbers in... More

Really and truly, I'm not in a get—the—New—York—Times mode, but lately that paper of record has been indulging in behavior worthy of a high school paper with rebellious adolescent editors.  Therefore, the Times' peers at the New York Post give them some basic reporting... More

Val Prieto at the estimable Babalu Blog has scored a major coup in getting his hands on a Castro—critical movie coming out of Cuba and downloading it onto his blog. The fifteen—minute film depicts a Cuban dissident who's paid a visit by two of Castro's secret police, and the ensuing... More

The Democrats revere John F. Kennedy as a sainted figure, even though his actual policies often were those which would be demonized today. Tax cuts. Strong national defense. Willingness to exercise military force in the national interest. Now comes news that Kennedy pondered the feasibility of a... More

"Fatuous creep" is Roger L. Simon's description of Charles Schumer, everyone's favorite senior Senator from the Empire State. As a safety precaution, last night Brit Hume reminded the "Panel" and his viewers that the most dangerous place in Washington is between Schumer and a TV camera. I'm... More

Yassir Arafat and the overwhelming majority of American Jews agree: Kerry's the one. According to a poll sponsored by the National Jewish Democratic Council (which hardly seem to be an unbiased source), 75% of American Jews plan to vote for Kerry.  Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post... More

Hat tip to Marc (An ex Navy American living in the Scottish boonies) at USS Neverdock. He's dug up some really ridiculous comments from one of the EU's robustly anti—American Commissioners — Chris Patten (the man who turned over Hong Kong to the Chinese communists): The Iraq conflict... More

Our frequent contributor Bruce Thompson has noticed in his blog Machias Privateer that Iraq recently had a zero—casualty day. No car bombs, no snipers, no political deaths. Bruce has previously compared the death rate in Iraq with the murder rate in Chicago, and found that they are not so... More

As television and radio reel from new censorship laws in Venezuela, there are also signs of intimidation appearing against Venezuela's bloggers. We've recently reported that "media" like VHeadline* aligned with Venezuela's dictatorship have targeted the fearless Aleks Boyd, whose blog VCrisis.vom... More

Rick Richman of Jpundit has a terrific review of a review of Dennis Ross's new book (you probably have seen Ross on Fox News Channel, where he is a Middle East analyst) The Missing Peace. You should read it in its entirety, for it convincingly demonstrates that until the Palestinian side gives... More

On Monday, Sept. 20, a day before President Bush was due to speak before the UN and ask for support, Kerry criticized Bush's failings in Iraq. One of the proposals that Kerry offers is to get out of Iraq by next summer. Read the Kerry campaign's version here and read David Brook's analysis here.... More

Matt May engages in some useful fantasy, imagining what he would say about Dick Durbin if he were a Senator. Read it here. More

Here's a real bombshell that's been ignored by the mainstream media: Quick, name the last time you saw 'Venezuela' mentioned in a financial news story about rising oil prices at the pump? World oil prices have been above $50 a barrel for more than a month now, and all you ever read as reasons are... More

Ah, now we know that Condoleezza Rice is making a difference——fashion reporters are discussing her clothes.   None of these stylists ever commented on predecessor's Colin Powell's suits did they?  And even the outfits of the first female Secretary of State, Madeline... More

Venezuela's fraudulent recall referendum lit the fuse. Then the nation's Marxist consolidation of power. After that, we watched the forced land confiscations and the beginnings of collective farms. We saw vast corruption, Colombia's dreaded narco—terrorists walking freely, and... More

Jesse Jackson's traveling circus reportedly flew to Caracas yesterday  for a grandstanding visit with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. The announced visit came in the wake of ill—considered remarks from televangelist Pat Robertson who declared that the U.S. ought to try to assassinate... More

Joseph Wilson: "My wife was not a covert agency when Novak wrote his column" Clearly, Wilson himself could have said this years ago, but for political reasons he wished to use his wife as a targeted weapon against the Bush Administration. Much energy, money and dissension could have been avoided... More

Did you notice that after days and days and days of front page stories on Abu Ghraib, the NYT on Satuday August 7, 2004 buried on page 7 a small piece indicating the trials had revealed not evidence at all that the abusers were operating on orders? Posted by Clarice Feldman  8 16 04 More

No more than 24 hours after my article "Numbers Racket," showing how troop levels were gutted during the Clinton Administration, was posted on The American Thinker, The Ministry of Truth (The Washington Post) published one of the most blatant pieces of Orwellian disinformation ever seen. ... More

Many thanks to Rachel Neuwirth for so clearly not only explaining the important stakes to America in her article Disengagement: a euphemism for ethnic cleansing, but also explaining why Israel's proposed plan to expel Jews Gaza is so dangerously wrong for everyone. .   In contrast,... More

As genrally happens with a sharp currency devaluation, the size of the trade deficit initially grows rather than shrinks. The devaluation change is a bigger percentage change than the growth in the volume of raw exports compared to imports, affected by the price change. China trade deficit is now... More

Is CBS's 60 Minutes trying to capture the title for lowest standards in the news industry? We already know about their questionable coverage driven by political considerations — the supposedly stolen tons of Iraq weapons, Abu Ghraib, and, at CBS itself, the forged Bush service documents. But... More

Clearly and carefully, in words that even Reuters can understand, an editorial in The Ottawa Citizen defines terrorism.  In so doing not only do they counter Reuters' absurd claim that militant is a more neutral word than terrorism but demonstrate that the m word is bogged down with its own... More

In an earlier AT article, The Arab Constituency in Israel, we took favorable note of the surge in the number of Arabs in the Labor Party of Israel. This development represents a sea change in Israeli politics, since there are parties that are recognized as being the natural "homes" for Arabs,... More

' It's like déjà vu all over again.' That quote from Yogi Berra fits to a tee an editorial in today's OpinionJournal.The reprint from September 13, 1984 is titled, 'Liberal Fundamentalism — Who are the intolerant extremists?'  Save yourself a copy and reread it whenever you hear the... More

Mark Steyn has an instinct for getting to the heart of a matter over a path both erudite and humorous. Today he offers a suggestion for saving on our CIA "intelligence" budget by taking a lesson from our E.U. friends since, as he so aptly observes, that although we spend $30 billion per annum on... More

A scientific discovery, sure to upset those who blame evil capitalists for the thinning ozone layer because of polluted air, proves solar storms and other space weather are the real culprit.  In other words, nature itself, in the guise of the sun, did it! Junk science propagandists... More

I respect the BRAC process, but I am a bit disturbed that Ellington Field in Houston is losing its F—16s, leaving the nation's 8th largest city, and even more importantly, our largest oil/petrochemical complex vulnerable. I could be wrong, but it seems to me placing the closest fighters 3oo... More

But wait, I thought (according tho the Democrats) that America was creating terrorists around the world? And that terrorists are created by the Israel Palestinian conflict. So says Tony Blair.   Ed Lasky  7 15 05   More

La Shawn Barber does a take—down of the NAACP's report on "voter intimidation." Illustrated by a dinosaur, standing for the NNACP, no less. What a terrific blog! Bookmark her site, of you haven't already. La Shawn rocks. Posted by Thomas  8 16 04 More

Stephen Bainbridge writes one of the most intelligent blogs anywhere, Professorbainbridge.com. A specialist in corporate law at UCLA Law School, he has taken up the extremely important subject of CALPERS, the nation's largest pension fund, consisting of the retirement investments of California's... More

Unbelievable. Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, a sitting head of state, described a United States Secretary of State designate in the crudest sexual terms yesterday on his national television show. Like some toilet—mouth lowlife sitting in a... More

Fertility and marriage taken together explain voting patterns (Bush v. Kerry) to an almopst astonishing degree. Steve Sailer's analysis makes for great reading. Hat tip: Polipundit Richard Baehr   12 14 04 More

Although raised in the Midwest of the United States, Caroline Glick has lived in Israel for many years.  She understands the US.  She definitely understands the impact of terror and how to deal with it.  And she realizes that Bush understands the realities of terror in a way... More

First CBS is careless with verifying the authenticity of questionable documents, and now a slip up from the famed New Yorker fact checkers.  Who can you believe nowadays? Maybe bloggers?  Ethel C. Fenig  9 21 04 More

Olivier Guitta, a frequent contributor here, has an op—ed in the Jerusalem Post today about France's Dominique de Villepin, elevated to Prime Minister recently by President Chirac. Born in 1953 in Morocco, he lived most of his privileged life abroad. He only moved back to France in 1992... More

Even before the Newsweek outrage, it appeared a significant gap has grown between the public and the media. From the seething outrage evident on the internet, this gap will likely become a chasm in short time.Trust lost is not easily——if ever——regained. Quote: NEW YORK... More

Hamseh Kianfar, accused of being an accessory after the fact in the Berkeley blood feast attack, is now claiming seemingly contradictory excuses for driving away from the scene with the attacker and failing to report the incident to the police. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Kianfar... More

Lucianne.com reports the wonderful news that Tony Snow's cancer surgery was a complete success. I have been among the many whose prayers have included Tony, and I am delighted that this thoroughly admirable man is on the path to a complete recovery. Tony will remain in my prayers. Thomas... More

The latest attack on the Internet by two young men, one from Morocco and the other from Turkey, once again underscores the vulnerability of the World Wide Web.  It is believed that these men wrote the Zotob and Mytob worms that "caused computer outages at more than 100 US companies, including... More

You hit them and they dispense candy. The day after the London bombing attack Blair proudly announces $9 billion in aid to the Palestinians. Now he will seek to push Israel to give more concessions . I prefer a BOBO DOLL (you hit it and it keeps bouncing back) to a pinata that breaks apart in an... More

Will John Edwards do for America what he did for North Carolina, if elected? We'd better hope not. His home state is currently in the midst of a crisis situation, according to the American Medical Association, due to the malpractice consequences of his many million dollar plus verdicts as a tort... More

The BBC has once again exhibited their anti—Israeli bias in reporting a suspected suicide bombing at the border crossing between Israel and the Gaza strip. Most of the article only deals with the breaking news about the incident, but at the end of the report they just cant help... More

The invaluable Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has compiled a series of political television commercials from Iraq, for the upcoming January 30th elections. Theare profoundly encouraging. First and foremost, the Iraqi television viewing public is being asked for its support, something... More

When I first viewed The Siege of Western Civilization, the 42 minute DVD television documentary produced and hosted by Herb Meyer, I was thunderstruck by its importance to Americans, especially those whose understanding of the stakes we face in our battle for the survival of our way of life is... More

Congratulations to our own Ed Lasky! This morning, the Sunday New York Post cites Ed as one of three pundits to have convincingly warned of the danger Kerry as president would pose for Isarel. The other two? Charles Krauthammer and William Safire. We knew all along that Ed is a brilliant... More

Stoically ignoring the fast—breaking news about CBS's blatant complicity in forwarding the Democrat Party's agenda, Newsweek's famously courageous reporters Howard Fineman and Michael Isikoff take the time to light into the lavishly financed dirty tricks of the Republican Party in the current... More

Our contributor Edward Bernard Glick applied contemporary attitudes of the left toward Iraq to World War II, and came up with a revealing set of questions and answers. You can read the entire essay on the Hudson Institute's American Outlook Today website. If 1941 were 2004, here are some of the... More

Proof, again, that there is a God: horrible movies hurting horrible newspapers: NEWSPAPER publishers are facing a potential Hollywood problem. Movie studios have significantly increased their ad spending in newspapers in recent years, but with shrinking ticket sales and an array of new places to... More

No real confession of having been wrong, wrong, wrong, and reasoned from an improper premise, but still to be applauded. That is, Nicholas Kristoff, New York Times columnist. Today, he comes out in favor of nuclear power. Of course, his reasoning is based on the global warming hoax, which is... More

In a story that illustrates the growing paranoia of Venezuela's Marxist dictatorship, the country's navy chief has warned that U.S. troops docked in Curacao may be planning an invasion of Venezuela. Coming from dictator Hugo Chavez itself, such an accusation might easily be hot air because he often... More

Look what's running in The Arab News (of all places): End the Debacle Ms. SheehanSteve Darnell, Arab News It is time to put an end to the 'Cindy Sheehan debacle' in Crawford, Texas. Since I am not one to sugarcoat a subject I will start by simply saying: Ms. Sheehan is a liberal nut case who needs... More

"Consumer Prices Stable" The absence of bad economic news continues to anger the liberals.  Consumer Inflation Absent Again in June By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer 37 minutes ago WASHINGTON — Consumer prices in June were well—behaved for a second month, while consumer... More

Bloomberg reports that pollster John Zogby makes the point that Hurrican Charley may help President Bush's re—election efforts: 'Getting money, concern and compassion to the people who were hard hit could turn the tide in Florida to be sure and could turn the  tide in the president's... More

Two of the three Japanese hostages recently released in Iraq have stunned Japan by announcing their intention to remain in Iraq, despite the obvious hazards. French news agency AFP reports that volunteer worker Nahoko Takato, 34, said on the Arab satellite television station Al—Jazeera that... More

Liberals believe they have a right to do anything when they want, how they want. If informed they can't or must abide by certain restrictions they yelp and whine.  But the reverse is not true.     Take the holy matter of free speech, free expression.  In the... More

Los Angeles Times corrections: Joel Stein — Stein's Dec. 5 column said a photo showed President Bush holding a fake Thanksgiving turkey during his 2003 visit to U.S. troops in Iraq. The turkey he was holding was real. Also, the name of Nicole Richie, co—star of "The Simple Life," was... More

Is this just another instance of elitist Democratic college professors demonstrating their belief in diversity, pluralism and multi culturalism?  If the victim were not a college student would she still have apologized?  And does the college sanction violence on the part of its staff,... More

Ferocious legal maneuvers such as this make a mockery of democracy.  Major parties, minor parties, goofy parties, one issue parties——all should all be allowed on the ballot.  Rather than discredit democracy, California's recent gubernatorial election enhanced it  when so... More

I have to assume that nearly everyone who reads this website follows the work of Mark Steyn, the impossibly brilliant and funny columnist. That Steyn has never won a Pulitzer while Maureen Dowd has is, to paraphrase Senator Durbin (or maybe actually Iowahawk), a war crime worthy of the Nazis. In... More

This is one of those "Death of morality by a thousand small cuts" stories. (Not unlike Selwyn Duke's Laura Bush piece.) Iron Eyes Cody is not what you'd call a household name. But I bet every red white and blue blooded American who's owned a TV since at least the early '70s remembers listening to a... More

The Washington Post is improving its performance lately. Today, it publishes an insightful article on the concern that Russia may be facing a second revolution. It was a good story idea when Herb Meyer published it here, and it still is. Thomas Lifson  4 9 05 More

Nigeria is a huge, strategically important state in Africa that is one of the top six oil producers in the world. Its churning political unrest regularly rocks world oil prices, but we rarely hear any in—depth coverage of this country from the mainstream media. Today, the Wall Street Journal... More

Vi Adkins, of the QT Monster blog has started a left hand column blogroll of Able Danger postings. Looks like a good place to keep current on the story, which could be the biggest political scandal since Watergate. Covering up a petty burglary versus covering up responsbility for making it... More

It is ironic that  the University of California system is dropping National Merit Scholarships offered by the school because of lack of recipient diversity as diversity of another sort——some would call it outright discrimination——is built into the allocation of... More

According to Byron York of NRO's The Corner, MoveOn.org is buying TV ads in the same markets where Swift Boat Vets ads, questioning Kerry's veracity on Vietnam, appeared. The Democrats famously attempted to intimidate television stations into killing the Swifties' ad, by claiming they were untrue,... More

Business Week magazine is featuring a story which The American Thinker first brought to your attention more than a month ago. In a previous TAT exclusive, we outlined the steps that the Saudi rulers are taking to help ensure the electoral defeat of their nemesis, President Bush.... More

The plot continues to thicken, implicating Venezuela's Hugo Chavez with the narco—terrorist FARC movement attempting to undermine democratic Colombia. Aleksander Boyd provides some new information on these links. Meanwhile, The Washington Times Insider (free subscription required) provides... More

Hey you, members of the Presbyterian and Episcopalian church denominations boycotting or thinking of boycotting Israel!  And you university types.  And especially all you anti—Israel lefties.  All of you who want to boycott Israel.   Well, go ahead and do it.  Or... More

Polipundit alerts us to critical editing ("doctoring" as Clinton's folks used to call it when incriminating tapes of his conversations with Gennifer Flowers turned up) of the recent bin Laden tapes as shown on al Jazeera. They left out all the parts which could help Bush: Officials said that in the... More

So Michael Moore has finally acknowledged John F. Kerry is a lousy candidate.  But never fear, Michael Moore is here, to save the day, revive the faithful.  But his prescriptions are whistling in the dark.  Sure the polls show the election is close and of course much can happen... More

Some time ago, I wrote up a blog item about Richard Cohen's idiotic column, in which he claimed he knew who Deep Thorat was but wrote that it could have been a secret service technician. The New Republic has ridiculed him in the current edition . I googled the subject and came up with other... More

Newsweek's weakly sourced, highly incredible Koran down the toilet at Gitmo story has led to riots and death throughout the Muslim world. Today it offers a pathetic explanation which doesn't rise to the level of apology the offense warranted.Scott Johnson lets them have it.  The shoddy... More

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Still smarting from a Carter Center visit to Caracas, Venezuelan essayist Gustavo Coronel takes a closer look at Jimmy Carter's organization's previous efforts in Havana to flatter Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The Carter Center's oily, obsequious praise to the longtime tyrant of the Caribbean... More

Mark Edelstein is the president of Diablo Valley Community College in suburban Contra Costa County, a few miles east of Berkeley. He is also a public official who is willing to condone the indictrination of students with porven lies. For Edelstein, it is a matter of different perspectives and... More

The University of California continues to flout the spirit, if not the letter, of the law passed by the voters of California requiring no state agency discriminate on the basis of race. UC, you see, desperately wants to engineer what it deems an appropriate racial mix for its student body (athletic... More

Nobody, not even the Arabs, has outdone the Europeans in denouncing Israel's barrier fence, which has succeeded in reducing brutal terror attacks on Israeli civilians. It is almost always called a 'wall,' so as to liken it to the Berlin Wall. An international tribunal in The Hague (where else?) has... More

The mainstream British media — left and right — have completely gone silent over the amazing revelations that Greg Dyke considered starting a political party while he was still the boss at the BBC, in order to oust Tony Blair. As reported only on the internet by The American Thinker and... More

You read here recently about the sad situation in Guyana as heavy rains and floods devastate the country. Ms. Mora y Leon hoped that once again the U.S. would help. But of course.  Without fanfare, without prodding, George Bush, in the midst of inaugural festivities, plus other government... More

Our pal Jack Risko, of Dinocrat.com, has a terrific analysis of the structural problems facing the Democrats, including geographic analysis of voting and fundraising patterns, as well as demographic trends. While overconfidence is never wise, the Democrats show no signs of coming to grips with the... More

The New York Post (hat tip: Polipundit) cites Chris Heinz, as quoted in Philadelphia Magazine: "Heinz accused Kerry's opponents — 'our enemies' — of making the race dirty. 'We didn't start out with negative ads calling George Bush a cokehead,' he said, before adding, 'I'll do it now.'... More

Those of us addicted to the unfolding Rathergate scandal are barely able to contain our eagerness to hear CBS's statement today, making it the last to admit that CBS presented forgeries to the American people. Press reports indicate that CBS will play the victim role ("misled"), and promise to... More

I have often read that Tom DeLay was a former exterminator and that Dennis Hastert was a former wrestling coach. These characterizations have been a way to disparage these Republican leaders. Why is Senator Robert Byrd never mentioned as having been a former butcher? If he were a Republican,... More

Mark Steyn has once again shown everyone else how to write a great political column. He treatment of the John Bolton nomination is simultaneously amusing, edifying, and outraging. Simply stunning work. Thomas Lifson   5 15 05 More

Aleksander Boyd, of the invaluable Vcrisis website, has done some digging into Spain's arms sales to Venezuela. More details will be forthcoming in May, but the indications are all rather grim. Hugo Chavez is building a military force which can threaten his neighbors and cause serious trouble for... More

The Berlin Wall has fallen. From the editorial of today's New York Times on Mideast Climate Change: (is this headline supposed to be an insidious link to global warming): "The Bush administration is entitled to claim a helathy share of the credit for many of these advances." Richard Baehr  3... More

'Tis the weekend and talk of politics and war can bore. If nothing else, save this link for a later read, because this Weekly Standard essay by Christopher Hitchens is not to be missed. The insularity exhibited by the Bush Administration and it's impact on public opinion was this past week... More

Positioning herself as an oh so concerned parent/citizen Senator Hillary Clinton (D—NY) has published a six step plan for healthier living for children in her New York state constituency's largest newspaper. At first glance packed with common sense and helpfulness, this plan masks an... More

Every so often I get an email from a European reader asking why we are so critical of the EU here at The American Thinker. We are sometimes accused of being 'anti—European.' I always write back that I am in awe of the cultural contributions Europe has made to the world. I am largely of... More

In today's print version of the Financial Times, an article titled: 'Al—Qaeda tries to split west from Iraq', includes a list of terrorist attacks which the champagne Socialist newspaper claims Al—Qaeda are only 'suspected' of having committed. According to the FT,  9/11 may have... More

A reader writes: Rachel Neuwirth does not seem to understand the notion of a two state solution. Most Israelis, (unlike her, people who actually live there), want to give peace a chance. They are not prepared to let a few thousand settlers, many of whom are religious fanatics, stand in the way of... More

A couple things stand out about the U.S.'s assessment of Cuba these days. Number one, the U.S. diplomats in Havana have started openly stating that Castro is on his last legs.  We don't usually see this kind of bluntness from these guys. What does it mean? Is there a new Cuba diplomatic... More

The strange ways of thinking of the Democrats' left wing often baffle me. Perhhaps it is simply the embrace of anger, which causes them to say absurd things and behave in ...well, bizarre ways. The latest evidence comes in an AP report on President Bush's rally in Minneapolis. The rally drew... More

Defending their whitewashing of terror, Reuters orders Can West—the large Canadian newspaper chain—to stop using a Reuter's byline when the papers substitute the term "terrorist" for the bland, nonjudgmental "activist" that Reuter's stylists use. Guess the people at Reuters don't want... More

The Washington Post's Jim Hoagland rightly points out the absurdity of EU people telling Iraqis how to write a constitution. Ed Lasky   6 19 05 More

Neal Phenes, who writes the Et Tu Bloge website, catches the New York Times up to its usual propaganda tricks, this time in a book review by Jim Holt, of the much—noted new book Freakonomics. Neal helpfully provides a link to a much better review of the book. Thomas Lifson   5 15 05 More

Bill Clinton would make an ideal Pope — in the eyes of the American media at least.  Bill the Beloved would bring a liberal slant to the Papacy. He would bring 'a bridge to the 21st Century' to the 2000 year—old institution.  He would inspire a whole new priesthood... More

Democrats are loudly proclaiming that moral values are paramount. their first action demonstrating said commitement? Giving felons the right to vote. Yeah, that'll show 'em. Ed Lasky   3 1 05 More

Frederick Stakelbeck, Jr., a frequent contributor to this site, is in very good company in a symposium published by Front Page Magazine, regarding China's potential as a threat to the United States. You can read Fred's most recent article for us on China here. We are fortunate to his coverage of... More

The following headline and article are just too, too ripe for stale, sour, perverse, predictable and also extremely funny comments. Go ahead.  Clinton Urges Inquiry Into Hidden Sex in Grand Theft Auto GameWASHINGTON, July 13 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling on federal... More

Bravo! to Dan Wetzel, of Yahoo! Sports, for taking up the outrageous conduct of the Iranian judo champion who refused to fight an Israeli athlete, hiding behind a contrivance to disuise his utterly indefensible conduct: And now the International Olympic Committee, backed by the civilized world,... More

So, now we know the truth about Greg Dyke, ex—Director General of the BBC, who resigned in disgrace following the Hutton inquiry's findings which severely criticized the BBC's editorial management.  Today, as reported by Tom Mangold in the London Evening Standard, it has emerged that in... More

Yourish.com notices a huge change in the UN's stance toward Palestinian terrorists and Israel. I can't help but believe that the Bush Administration deserves credit, because of the energetic pursuit of the UN Oild for Food Program scandal. The supporting role of the New York Sun, Fox News, ... More

As bad as Venezuela's vile media law is, dictator Hugo Chavez's rubber—stamp parliament has passed an even worse law along with it, known as 'the Penal Law.' This MercoPress item cuts right to the chase. This law would make it a crime to protest with pots and pans against politicians,... More

Richard Baehr has written an article for The Chicago Jewish News, which is too good not to share with our readers. It is reprinted below, but the original can be found here. In years past, a Jewish Republican might have behaved a bit sheepishly before letting a friend know his or her political... More

Now that she's middle aged, marriage and motherhood  seemingly have mellowed Madonna, oops! Esther.  Looking for the meaning of life or whatever, she has glommed onto a form of kabalah, a mystical offshoot of Judaism that traditionally only a few married Jewish men over 40, who were well... More

Listen up Amnesty International!  Pay attention Senator Durbin!  All your flippant torture talk, which is really a cover for your anti American, anti Bush vendetta, is distracting attention from real torture.  In Iraq for example. The American military has found torture houses after... More

After Sen. Harry Reid violated the rules to smear Judge Saad, it was clear that the remaining sentient mambers of his party were embarrassed. The tv interview I saw of Senator Feinstein showed a clearly chagrined woman. Yesterday, it was Congressman Frank's turn to blush with shame and the... More

Haaretz reports: [Isarel's] President Moshe Katsav, who was at the Vatican as part of Israel's delegation to the funeral of Pope John Paul II, twice shook hands with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday. The two men were in close proximity to one another throughout the procession due to the fact... More

Former President of Lebanon Amin Gemayel is interviewed by Time Magazine, and predicts a Syrain withdrawal from lebaHe also thanks President Bush. We await apologies from Democrats who employed the word "quagmire." Ed Lasky  3 1 05  More

Some members of Congress are not too pleased about the votes cast by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission to close and realign our nation's military installations.  We don't need a crystal ball to tell us that politicians will fight to keep federal dollars flowing into the... More

Chirac, the Jacques—ass, languishes in the polls, but another figure, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, is soaring. Strangely enough, the French populce is backing a man who seems imbued with common sense. And, wonder of wonders, he commends Tony Blair and George W. Bush as leaders from... More

The country's leading Sunday newspaper, The Sunday Times, has just published a review of the major charges against Kerry by the Swift Boat Vets. Unfortunately, the country and newspaper in question are in South Africa, picking up on articles already published in the Telegraph of the U.K. It tells... More

We know that the BBC reads The American Thinker, because we have received email from them about our reporting on their misdeeds. After we mocked their report that 94% of casualties in Falluja were comprised of women and children, the BBC went and changed the web page in question, eliminating the... More

There have been huge disastrous floods in Guyana this week and the nation is now openly appealing for help from the American military. This may seem like an old story, but it's not. I hope we help Guyana. There are some good reasons, and it's in everyone's interest. The tsunami relief effort got... More

Is there something about this report that make sit seem like a self adulating trip back to the old days for this reporter? Or is it just me?  The focus seems to be on herself as much as the movie/subject matter. "Pinch" Sulzberger himself was a late 60s wannabe revolutionary, and writer... More

Suha Arafat, wife of ailing murderer and terrorist Yasser Arafat, is coming under criticism from Palestinians, for living a billionaire's lifestyle in Paris, while her husband has spent the last three years in the wreckage of the Mukata compound in Ramallah, according to the Jerusalem Post. "It... More

It's official: no freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia. What took so long? Ethel C. Fenig  9 20 04 More

Care to know just how bad the Iranian election is? It could not be more unlike Iraq's....Blogger Robert Mayer at PubliusPundit has taken the trouble to check out the polling up close in the states, reporting from Tucson. His fellow bloggers have joined him in other U.S. cities like... More

A few months ago  when Ward Churchill out in Colorado was unmasked  having phony credentials and defaming victims of 9/11  he retained his job by retreating into the untouchable sanctum of freedom of speech and academic freedom. But when an instructor dared question some Arab... More

Franco Aleman, who blogs from Spain as Barcepundit, highlights a Spanish news agency report about a a serious dimension to the arms deal between Spain and Venezuela already worrying geostrategists. It is a scoop in the English language reporting on the subject. Hugo Chavez, the... More

Typical of the refusal of the left to acknowledge that Bush was right is Richard Cohen''s column today——an acknowledgement that while change is coming to the Middle East it may not be what we want. When Baghdad fell and the statue of Hussein in Firdaus Square was initially draped... More

Lawrence Henry makes the case in The American Spectator for shutting down terrorist websites, and makes it well. The matter is more complicated than y=one might assume, because they also provide intelligence to us (not to mention disinformation, quite possibly). It is a matter worth... More

Mass. Democratic politicians have roundly attacked Senator Santorum's recent comments regarding how the liberal culture of Boston may have contributed to the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. This was to be expected, given that Boston is sacred ground for liberals and Santorum is vulnerable in... More

Just in case anyone forgets, under the barrage of biased press treatment, Israelis are The Good Guys in the Middle East conflicts, a free and functioning democracy, under tremendous stress from ongoing attacks of the most barbaric sort. Here are a few necessary reminders: Comforting Arab Muslims... More

The BBC is reporting that At least 87 US soldiers have died in action this month while aid agencies counted at least 470 Iraqi dead in the Sunni city of Falluja alone last week, with 243 women and 200 children among them. This would mean that over 94 percent of the casualties in Falluja are... More

The much hyped flu vaccine crisis turns out to be not much of a crisis, as the electoral season fades into memory. Don't expect Kerry, who exploited the topic, or the MSM, which eagerly jumped on board, to have anything to say.   Ed Lasky  1 22 05   More

Dave Kopel has a terrific article on Slate about Chanukah as "Armed Jews Week." It is a must—read. Via Instapundit Thomas Lifson  12 11 04 More

This is a touchy subject: I am surprised Slate addresses this topic. Compare this invasion of the personal sphere with Kerry and Edwards making Mary Cheney's sexuality a political attack (though they deny hostile intent) to energize their base (or depress the Republican base) and the complete... More

In 2002, Bill Burkett went public with a demand for integrtity, and for "severe penalties when integrity is not delivered." If he turns out to be the source of the Rathergate forgeries, perhaps he will have some particularly severe penalties in mind.  We must demand integrity.... More

The University of California is in the process of shamelessly rigging the awarding of scholarships under a merit—based system, because certain racial groups (Asians and Caucasians) win too many awards, while certain more—favored minorities do not perform well. A key faculty committee... More

Dennis Sevakis, a former jet fighter pilot, has some rather alarming observations about the incident which led to the evacuation of the Capitol and White House on the Constitution Alley blog. Anyone who takes comfort that the systems worked in a kind of test drill is uninformed. More

The Oakland Tribune provides an account today of the surrender of Hamaseh Kianfar, the subject of an AT article yesterday. The Trib's front page offers a photograph of Kianfar, accompanied by her father and her sister. The San Francisco Chronicle article on the surrender mentions some of the... More

At the 2004 Academy Awards memorial tribute to industry people who passed on during the previous year to the great film vault in the sky, Leni Reifenstahl was acknowledged.  Sure her films glorified Nazi Germany but hey——she was a female pioneer in a male (sh—h—h,... More

So what's with the New York Times and its fabled fact—checkers? Is ideology driving facts——or non facts——to fit the mind set of the increasingly out of step editors?  It sure does seem that way.  Consider some recent examples which are definitely not casual... More

The latest salvo has been fired in the ongoing debate between those who want to modernize old battleships and those who want to fund a new fleet of destroyers. Many billions, not to mention our military effectiveness, are at stake. Doug Hanson   7 14 05 More

Both the Financial Times and Deutsche Welle  announced the official US plan to withdraw 70,000 troops out of Europe and Asia, with two—thirds of the reductions occurring in Germany.  Most of these troops would return to bases in the US along with about 100,000 support staff and... More

A Fairleigh—Dickinson Public Mind poll, reported in Newsday (hat tip to Real Clear Politics) shows Bush 48, Kerry 44, Nader 5. Without Nader, Kerry is up 1. Gore won the state by 15% last time. If Bush were competitive in New Jersey, that would be a real shock. It might simply be a... More

Mr. Bush, 58, whose career in elective politics began only a decade ago as the governor of Texas, took the oath of office —gratuitous disparaging (i.e., he is a rookie—how did we end up with this guy as President?) did not mention the two wars he waged in response. Well we fully... More

The MSM have mostly ignored the miracle in Afghanistan, and this is wrong. We see more coverage on car bombs in Iraq than on the miracle. In the end, the MSM will be proven wrong about Iraq, too, even though the struggle there is harder, simply because of geography: terrorists can drive their... More

Given the fact that the Pew Global Attitudes Project (which operates under Madeleine Albright's reign) has loudly broadcast the decline of America's image under President Bush, can we assume this poll is really bias—free? We are all aware that there are lies, damned lies and... More

From the Associated Press:Fri Sep 17, 7:13 PM ETNavy Says Kerry's Service Awards OK'd By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer WASHINGTON — The Navy's chief investigator concluded Friday that procedures were followed properly in the approval of Sen. John Kerry's Silver Star, Bronze Star and... More

Yet another case of fraud in science has come to light.  A highly cited 1997 paper on transcription—coupled repair was retracted by Science this week, after coauthor Steven Leadon, formerly of the University of North Carolina, was found guilty by a university committee of fabricating... More

We have often heard threats of the "Muslim Street" rising up and finding an issue which unifies all of Islam against us. Leave it to one of our own media outlets to find the one thing that has the potential for creating havoc through out the Islamic world. In this May 9th issue of... More

Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, some in areas where Jews lived before being pushed out in the 1948 war, others in areas where Jews lived much longer ago, are almost always described in the mainstream media and by many government officials  as illegal, and built in violation of... More

The so—called "Islamic Human Rights Campaign" is launching a boycott of Starbucks Coffee, whose CEO is Jewish and who supports Israel. You can read about their complaints here and here. From now on, I am buying Starbucks Coffee whenever possible — I am already a frequent customer... More

Some in the U.K. are having second thoughts about new hate crime legislation that allows police to add racial or religious prejudice to underlying crimes, and requires courts to take the additional offense into account. The newly criminalized word is "boyo." The Herald of Scotland notes: A Labour... More

Investors Business Daily this morning editorializes with great clarity on the necessity of ridding ourselves of those who incite actions like the London bombings. We do not need anyone preaching hate. An increasing number of foreign imams preaching in America have been tied to terror and... More

  The Athens Olympics have already descended into a moral morass. Iran's world judo champion Arash Miresmaeili has refused to compete against an Israeli Sunday, explicitly violating the Olympic ethos, which bans race, creed or color from interfering in sport. The International Judo Federation... More

At long last, serious questions surrounding the legitimacy of the three Purple Heart medals awarded to John Kerry for his Viet Nam service have broken into the traditional press. His home town's larger paper, the liberal Boston Globe, has made a good start at probing into the circumstances which... More

As we noted yesterday, Colombia has produced conclusive evidence that Venezuela's Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez is harboring savage terrorists in Caracas — the brutal leftist kind who have plagued Colombia with necklace bombs, schoolyard landmines, kidnappings, village massacres, disco... More

Silvio Berlusconi, the tax—cutting forthright ally of the United States and defender of Western Civilization, has been found not guilty in his trial on corruption charge which had been allege against him. This is a victory for us all. Thomas Lifson  12 10 04 More

Regular American Thinker readers have understood that the Administration and our military forces have not only had to contend with a determined enemy on the field of battle, but have also had to deal with adversaries within their own organizations.  These agents of influence routinely use... More

The Bush—Cheney campaign is recommending an  HBO documentary about the 2001 New York Yankees. No doubt unintentionally, it apparently comes across quite favorably to the President. Here is what they are emailing to supporters: Earlier this week, HBO premiered a new documentary entitled... More

In a short editorial — just 265 words excluding title and date — the New York Times gleefully congratulates the House Republicans who joined the Champions—of—Freedom Democrats in voting to eliminate the library and book store records seizure provision of the Patriot Act. 'In... More

It seems to me that the weakest link in academia is the failure of Boards of Trustees to adequately exercise their fiduciary and managment oversight. Too often internal election procedures assure that rubber stamping boards are elected .Tenured faculty and partisan interests run roughshod... More

The behavior of President Bush (and his father)  and ex—President Bill Clinton in Rome tells us what we already knew. The Bushes behave like gentlemen, while Clinton is a self—promoter who hogs the spotlight at every opportunity. Bill Sammon writes in the Washington... More

Berkeley's teachers are protesting their lack of a pay raise for the past four years by refusing to perform more than the minimum duties required by their contract, strictly within the hours specified. Papers arenot being graded during after—hours, various extra—curricular activities... More

Coming just days before Chinese President Hu's visit to Washington, a new report is bound to fan the flames anti—Chinese feeling and strengthen the hand of hawks in the Pentagon calling for a stronger policy 'to contain' the Middle Kingdom. According to the Washington Post,... More

A Wall Street Journal editorial  (subscription required) entitled 'The Silicosis Sheriff' covers the painstaking efforts by Texas federal Judge Janis Graham Jack, a Clinton appointee, to uncover the massive fraud in nationwide silicosis litigation.  Lawyers, doctors, plaintiffs and... More

Scott Johnson, Big Trunk at Power Line, has once again proven himself to be a man of erudition. In linking to my commentary on the press, entitled 'Twilight of the press gods,' he suggested that a more apt title would be 'Twilight of the Idols.' He's right, at least intellectually, if not... More

Vanity Fair reporter Craig Unger, author of the Bush—bashing book, "House of Bush, House of Saud", has charged that the Bush Administration expedited the departure of several prominent Saudis in the days after 9/11 via airplanes during a time when he said that American airspace was... More

Practioners of what is labeled social justice and its sibling, social responsibility, claim the high moral ground on a wide range of economic, political and yes, social issues.  Their premise generally consists of  claiming the U.S. is usually wrong, but the government should solve all... More

A note to Move On: "Now it's our Party: we bought it, we own it, and  we're going to take it back." Not so fast.  You claim you bought it——was it listed publicly for sale?  Did Eliot Spitzer approve of the sale for New York State residents? Did it meet all... More

The Tribune Company announces steep circulation declines in their Chicago and Los Angeles papers, while also reporting equally equally deep drops in profits. Its largest rag, The Los Angeles Times, discredited itself with last—minute allegations against Arnold Schwartzenegger just prior... More

Kudos to the Chicago Tribune today, for publishing a long and important story on the Muslim Bortherhood in America. Save this! Ed Lasky  9 19 04 More

Like Captain Nicole Malachowski, Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester got her military honors, in this case a Silver Star, the hard way: she earned it.  Hester's squad was shadowing a supply convoy March 20 when anti—Iraqi fighters ambushed the convoy. The squad moved to the side of the... More

From the msm we've been given the impression that the public wants to keep the filibuster. As I recall this was based on its usual tactic of presenting a very skewed picture of the debate and then running a phony poll and giving the poll which supported their take front page treatment. (The old... More

Appearing last night on David Letterman's CBS Late Night show, book—peddling Jane Fonda indulged in a bit of self—pity. After denouncing the war which liberated 25 million Iraqis from a hideous and murderous dictatorship, the following took place: Letterman had just held up the infamous... More

The brilliant Christopher Hitchens notes the disappearance of the appeasers' "Arab Street" and wonders if "Islamophobia" will be follow suit. The return of politics to Iraq has had many blissful secondary consequences, one of them apparently minor but nonetheless, I think, important. When was the... More

Peter Glover notes an extraordinary attack on John Bolton in the UK Independent in his blog Wiresfromthebunker. I knew instantly I was going to love this when I read on the paper's website the opening line: "America's controversial new ambassador to the United Nations is seeking to shred an... More

While the world is preoccupied with the Middle East, a serious conflict is brewing in East Asia, between two powers with a history of military conflagration rather fresh in mind. For centuries Japan and China have disputed the ownership of the small island chain which the Japanese call the... More

I am anxiously scanning the heavens for airborne swine. I never thought I would see the phrase 'the damage done to French work habits by decades of Socialist administration' in the New York Times. This startling admission is contained in an article describing a new French bestseller urging the... More

France's prisons are becoming Islamic strongholds. Not only do Muslims commit a disproportionate percentage of crimes in France, but non—Muslims are increasingly choosing to convert to Islam behind bars. Such conversions offer them physical protection and fellowship with other Muslims,... More

It is bad on campus, as we know. However, when it happens to your kid, it seems worse. Yesterday was the first day of an American History course for the child of one of us (blogger and child will remain anonymous, out of fear of retaliation) on one of America's most famous campuses. Here is a... More

The New York Sun delves into the composition of the committee appointed by Columbia University president Lee Bollinger to investigate charges of anti—Semitism and harrassment. The results are very, very discouraging: Mr. Bollinger has, at the most important crisis of his tenure at Columbia,... More

Whether or not you agree that these are the  worst of the media distortions, how nice to have them available, with counterpoints, in one convenient package.The Ten Worst Media Distortions of Campaign 2004  Placing the distortions and the mudslinging and even the name calling in... More

I have long believed that humor is one of the most powerful political weapons. Derisive laughter is an argument that cannot be contested. Laughter is also contagious. Once a candidate slips into the nether—region where the parody expresses more truth than his own words, his future is... More

Just when America needs him most, Iowahawk has returned from his hiatus with a collection of letters from the desk of Senator Dick Durbin. Here is an example of the web's leading satirist's much—needed perspective: Customer Relations DepartmentUnited AirlinesElk Grove Village, IL Dear Sir or... More

Belinda Board, whose ridculous hit piece found space on the New York Times op—ed pages, has already been questioned by us here and here. One of 70 graduate students at a provincial British university, she has nevertheless been a busy little bee these past few years, spreading her... More

The New York Times has a fawning interview with the Columbia University assistant professor, Joseph Massad, at the heart of the storm over anti—Semitism and intimidation among the faculty at Columbia University. The New York Times had ignored this year—long controversy, until... More

A key element in the sudden cooperation of the Iranian mullahs with Russia and the IAEA is their increasing fear of the combined capabilities of the United States Armed Forces, with a huge industrial base, the so—called "military—industrial complex" of President Eisenhower's farewell... More

Solomonia asks: "Where do Islamist journalism students go when they graduate?" And answers: "Why, to NPR, of course." Our tax dollars are at work. Sigh.   More

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is a unique political body, serving as the legislative arm of the only government in California (and probably America) which combines the functions of a city and a county. It is also home to one of the most appalling collections of bozo—politicians to be... More

San Francisco has a hit on its hands: a new streetcar line   which uses vintage cars, painted in the liveries of various historic streetcar companies from across the nation and around the world. The F—line runs down Market Street from Castro Street (the gay mecca), and then on... More

Apart from the usual anti—Bush and anti—American bias from the BBC, they are now adding hypocrisy to their stable of tools to denigrate President Bush. They have just published an analysis of the President's news conference last night, titled: 'More theatre than substance,' reaffirming... More

The American Digest offers an exit strategy from Iraq, in response to Senator Boxer. Doug Hanson  1 20 05 More

Greg Richards writes us about Olivier Guitta's latest article: A good column as far as it goes. But I am bemused that the "search for peace" seems to be seen as an intellectual exercise like the search for the neutron, for example.  If we can just find a brilliant enough scientist, then we can... More

After Jordan and Egypt refused to host and possibly cure Palestinian Authority Chairman, France— who else?— has offered to treat the long time terror master.This should come as no surprise to our readers, knowing the long love affair between France and the PLO. This has a precedent... More

Charles Johnson, of Little Green Footballs, has an important post exposing the extent of the MSM agenda to discredit the blogosphere — apparnetly on the theory that those who expose their agenda must be involved in a vast right wing consiracy. The concept propounded by Hillary Clinton has... More

It's been with us for ages: hot rodders arguing over cubic inches vs turbo charged high tech engines, massive mainframe computers serving hundreds of users, against a distributed network of linked personal computers.  Now this argument is applied to the battleship vs DDX debate.  In... More

Freedom of speech is embedded in the Constitution but freedom not to listen is implied.  And in full force as Hyundai executives learned to their amazement. Most Hyundai customers really, really, really don't want to listen to Howard Stern. They were so emphatic about this that they... More

Apparently, it pays big dividends to 'mysteriously uncover' classified documents and to illegally obtain evidence in a criminal trial.  AP's Television Writer, David Bauder, reports that  a Peabody Award  will be given to CBS News for its story on the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal... More

The civilized world is celebrating the "capture" of Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan, half—brother of Saddam Hussein, by Syrian forces and his turnover to Iraqi government forces. Many view this as the result on pressure on Syria by Western powers. But an alternative viewmay be taken... More

Are they migrants or illegals?  In any event, they now own a ranch in Janet Napolitano's Arizona.  It seems two men from El Salvador had an encounter with a group called Ranch Rescue.  One of the men said he was pistol whipped by Ranch Rescue leader Casey Nethercott, the man whose... More

It is never surprising to learn about the association between Nazism and radical Islam. Both groups are obsessed with Jews, and share the same ultimate goal of world dominance. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem spent World War II as a guest of Der Fuhrer in Berlin. The Baath parties were modeled on the... More

Kerry, with the aid of the economically stupid media, grossly distorts the just released Congressional Budget Office study of Effective Federal Tax Rates Under Current Law, 2001 to 2014.  Kerry declared on Friday that the CBO study shows that as a result of the Bush tax cuts, "Over the last... More

James S. Robbins, writing in National Review Online, discusses more effective ways to deal with hostage—takers. Being "nice" does no good with a hydra—headed monster. Posted by Thomas  04 12 04 More

Like you, probably, I get a lot of email asking me to reveal my bank account information, to help some poor person just waiting for millions to pour in, and not able to find anyone esle with a bank account who can help, thus turning to a complete stranger to receive fabulous sums as a... More

Columbia University has finally begun an investigation into charges that several faculty members intimidate pro Israel students and use their classroom authority to preach anti Israel activism.  It's about time. Ethel C. Fenig  12 10 04  More

Further reinforcing the notion that a few looters couldn't make off  with huge amounts of banned nuclear material, conventional explosives, or entire 'research facilities,' a Multi—National Force — Iraq (MNF—I) press release publishes an interview  with the commander of... More

P.J. O'Rourke is in fine form in the Telegraph (U.K.), with an excerpt from his new book. Don't read this one while you drinking any liquids that might leave stains or mess up your computer. Hat tip: Dennis Sevakis  Thomas Lifson  9 18 04 More

Ultima Thule is a terrific new blog from a name very familiar to me as an eloquent poster on Lucianne.com, with the handle of Aussiegirl. She describes herself this way: An American citizen of Ukrainian heritage, who washed up on these blessed shores by way of Australia, takes a look at American... More

At least one paper has finally admitted what every other form of media piously denies——it is liberal.  Not only liberal but by contract must remain so for at least the next five years.    CHICAGO When Lee Enterprises Inc. agreed to purchase Pulitzer Inc. for $1.46... More

The sons of the Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are understandably bitter about the execution of their parents in 1953 as spies for the Communist Soviet Union. They were helpless and innocent victims who lost their parents. But their bitterness is misplaced. Fifty years later they still can't... More

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, former Harvard Kennedy School lecturer, and now professor at Brandeis University, outlines, on today's New York Times op—ed page, the liberal fallback position on what one might call "The Wal—Mart Question." The more pragmatic among those who... More

Just got back from transferring buses from the 42nd Street Crosstown to the First Avenue line —— right at UN headquarters. Thousands of UN employees were streaming out of the building and being guided by UN security/police, some equipped with bullhorns, down First Avenue to an... More

Someone finally gets homeland security funding right The New Hampshire Union—Leader, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, and Senator Judd Gregg are to be commended for understanding the solution to the homeland security funding boondoggle.  In the wake of the terror bombings in London, the... More

Coincidentally, shortly after The American Thinker published two articles replying to the standard beliefs about the causes of terrorism, two editorials and a story appear that repeat those wrong answers. First, Graham Allison, founding dean of the Kennedy School of Government and now a Kerry... More

A tip of the hat to the Media Research Center, for catching Andy Rooney, who plays a grump old man on the CBS News program Sixty Minutes, compounding the disgrace of Dan Rather, in slandering thos who fight in Iraq, as soldiers or contractors. Here is some of what Rooney wrote in his syndicated... More

The Counterterrorism Blog has discovered that the so—called reformist regime in Iran has just reaffirmed the death fatwa against author Salman Rushdie. Moreoverm the Euros, who are interested in maintaining their lucrative trade with Iran, and who pressure the US to be "less... More

There is an update from the JTA news sevice on the raid on the Jewish school in Caracas, Venezuela, an incident we have been following. Ethel C. Fenig  12 9 04 More

The two candidates should be asked whether as president they would send a high ranking individual to an Arafat funeral. It would be very interesting to see how Kerry handles that one. Mike Nadler  10 28 04 More

According to an article in the New York Times: Mr. Burkett's letter to Senator Barrientos was part of a running battle that he waged with the National Guard after retiring in January 1998. In it, Mr. Burkett complained of "severe retaliation" from General James for what he said was reporting... More

Wouldn't you know it, Halliburton has been contracted to build a new prison at...Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  It all comes full circle (if you're a leftie) doesn't it? The $30 million dollar job will be carried out by KBR, a subsidiary of the company that has been under fire for its previous... More

With 60th anniversary commemorations of the end of World War ll in full mode,  the revisionist historians have been crawling out of their comfy holes, slamming America——of course——for their insensitivity during that horrible conflict.  Whoops!  America's... More

Yet again, a conservative speaker has been attacked speaking on a college campus. David Horowitz was assaulted with a pie shortly after he began speaking at Butler University in Indianapolis yesterday. Enduring the humiliation, he completed his speech. Regrettably, although the attackers were... More

The invaluable RegimeChangeIran website draws our attention to a startling article in India Daily, predicting that the regime could withstand a serious American invasion of Iran for only a few days. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on Feb. 25 that Pakistan would remain... More

Hugh Hewitt signals he is speaking in fun ["on a "lighter note"] when he proposes outlawing team building efforts as described in a New York Times article. Fair enough. Some activities amount to an excuse to go enjoy a fun time with colleagues in a luxurious resort setting. And the trendiness, such... More

Fewer than one third of French citizens surveyed has confidence in Jacques Chirac as their leader, according to UPI: a day before President Jacques Chirac delivers his annual Bastille Day address, a poll published in Le Parisien newspaper found only 32 percent of respondents had "confidence" in... More

Today's New York Times has finally been compelled to address the oil—for—food scandal in a prominent way, by giving the story a tiny foothold on the front—page and more expansive coverage within the first section. Whereas, many news outlets have directly blamed the program's... More

This piece of BBC analysis really is farcical. The article is titled:'In Blair Bush trusts?' This kind of anti—Bush bias from the Beeb is almost funny except for the fact that the British taxpayers' have to fund it.  The commonly—held European view of President Bush — let's... More

What do the CIA, the New York Times, and the government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan all have in common? Why, the attempt to torpedo the political career of Ahmad Chalabi, as the New York Sun makes clear today in an excellent article by Eli Lake. (link requires subscription). They have failed... More

Arguing from the facts——that black students admitted to law schools under affirmative action programs which place them in more competitive schools than they would otherwise be admitted to drop out more frequently, do less well than their classmates, fail the bar more frequently, inter... More

Paul Johnson, the eminent British historian, has written many invaluable works, my favorite being The Intellectuals. He turns his formidable judgment to the American election, and unsurprisingly asserts that George W, Busgh must be re—elected. Hat tip: Carlos Garcia Thomas Lifson  10 28... More

Ernest Miller has done an amazing job putting together a chronology of the Rathergate/Danron scandal. He does so more out of sorrow than anger, it would appear. He gets is exactly right on the failures of the press in this matter. It is disappointing to me that the major media has been mostly... More

We are counting the hours, waiting for NOW and other feminnazi leaders to hail the latest milestone in feminine achievement. According to CNN: Just weeks after a high—profile debate about the role of women in the military, the Air Force is putting a woman in one of its most prestigious and... More

Right Wing Nuthouse looks into the Newsweek article which has set off riots in the Muslim world. The "brief Newsweek report" printed in its May 9 issue, has apparently been used by instigators and provocateurs to stir up the massive anti—American activity among students, tribesmen, and the... More

How does one gauge the success of the Minuteman Project? They are monitoring only 24 miles of border. Illegals are not deterred. They are now crossing the border east of Douglas, AZ and west of Deming, NM.  Bands of 30 are now trying to cross the Chiricahua Mountains —— which top... More

How Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld keeps from tearing his hair out, I'll never know.  He has to put up with regular confrontational testimony sessions with Congress, constant criticisms from retired flag officers, and, most recently, a group of senators proposing their own long—term... More

As the argument heats up between proponents of Intelligent Design and proponents of evolution, perhaps a word of advice from one of history's greatest scientists might be helpful to those of us struggling to follow the debate. As developer of the polio vaccine, Dr. Jonas Salk is among the handful... More

Virginia lives up to its history as the home of many of our founding fathers. The Washington Post reports: A prominent Islamic scholar who exhorted his followers after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison. Ali al—Timimi... More

Thomas's brief article today regarding Mr. David Alston and the further unraveling of John Kerry's self—appointed hero status, brings up, at least referentially, a terribly important point.  Partisan politics and the upcoming election aside, the old days of centralized media power are... More

Once again the BBC has decided that a terrorist attack on Israelis should be dubbed an 'anti—Israel' plot. According to the Beeb, it's as if terrorism which is plotted against Jews, is for some reason a lesser type of crime than 'terrorism'. Another interesting aspect to note about this BBC... More

MSM, in this case ABC News, has joined CBS News in desperately disgracing itself through an obvious attempt to neutralize the joy of innauguration day.  ABC News was going to honor George Bush's inauguration with special coverage of funerals from soldiers killed in Iraq.   Of course... More

The WaPo this morning reports that U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that an Arkansas National Guardsman must return to his unit in Iraq, denying the soldier's claim that the Army 'tricked him' by involuntarily extending his term of enlistment. David Qualls and seven other soldiers... More

The French have announced they are seeking renewed good relations with the U.S., calling it a "a new alliance" with the U.S., no matter who wins Tuesday's election, according to The Telegraph of London. For fun, I called up my favorite French diplomat at a distant embassy and asked him what... More

Writing in Human Events, Donald Lambro, chief political correspondent of the Washington Times, confirms my article of September 15th, Kerry the executive, portraying ineptitude in the management of campaign. Tony Coehlo, Democrat insider, has gone public with his criticism. Lambro concludes (as I... More

Rep. John Conyers (D—Michigan) apparently leads a rich fanatsy life. And he is using government facilities and resources to live out his fantasies in public. In the Capitol basement yesterday, long—suffering House Democrats took a trip to the land of make—believe. They pretended... More

Iowahawk has posted a classic column of his originally written for CNS News Service, satirizing the New York Times, written in the style of an earnest Times report on a failing mill in a backwater town. Fans of the 'Hawk know that he is peerless in his ability to mockingly mimic the style of all... More

Bravo to Senator Jeff Sessions for introducing legislation aimed at pressuring the United Nations for more thorough accounting: Last fall, President Bush approved a $1.2 billion, low—interest loan to the United Nations for the purpose of renovating its headquarters at Turtle Bay. Concerned... More

Bruce Thompson, our technology correspondent, has a decidedly different view of the Russia—Iran nuclear fuel deal. His post to his blog Machias Privateer makes the case that it is a pretty good thing, especially if the US succeeds in attaching a condition or two to it.   More

David Kaspar of DavidsMedienKritik, the invaluable German political and journalistic blog, writes about the post—Schroeder scene, once he loses the forthcoming election. The rhetoric may be milder, but the policies won't change much: I'm just not sure what a new government will mean for... More

Josh Bently writes us from Fayetteville, Arkansas:  Apparently Rod Blagojevich considers himself to be the King of Illinois.  Yesterday the Land of Lincoln's governor announced that he would be spending $10 million of his subjects' money on stem cell research.  As reported today in... More

Chip Johnson is an honest and courageous columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, a rare voice at that left—leaning journal. I have no idea what his personal politics are, beyond honesty, and that's the way I like my journalists. Today, he tells the story of yet another "community group" on... More

As reported by today's Independent newspaper, seven Chinese nationals have been taken hostage by armed Iraqi militia. If the world needed any proof that the insurgents distinguish citizens from nations that opposed the war to one's that supported it, this event should put that fantasy to bed once... More

Cynically,  Kofi Annan states  : The evil that destroyed 6 million Jews, and others, in those camps is one that still threatens all of us today," Anna told a news conference. "It is not something we can consign to the distant past and forget about it." "Every generation must be on... More

Diversity, pluralism and multi culturalism——in addition to pretentiousness, lack of humor and hot air——are guaranteed on the radio for two more years now that Air America has obtained additional funding.  That means Al Franken and Randi Rhodes might be coming to a radio... More

This week, Fidel Castro announced that come Nov. 8, the U.S. dollar will no longer be legal tender in Cuba. Anyone in Havana who has a bank account in U.S. dollars will now have to accept newly stamped out "convertible" pesos as a substitute. Forget your dollar savings. And too bad if you don't... More

David Singer is a legendary artist, whose posters for rock concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco and rock groups like the Grateful Dead are highly valuable collectors' items, and featured in books on the era. They are the visual emblems of the musical era. In more recent times, he... More

Animal cruelty is certainly despicable, and there are plenty of studies suggesting that chidren who are cruel to animals, frequently turn into miserable adults — as child molestors, wife beaters, and  criminals who commit other violent acts. So what are we to make of the fact that the a... More

A couple of days ago, we rhetorically asked how low the New York Times is willing to go to slime Republicans. The occasion was this ridiculous claptrap op—ed purporting to show that John Bolton shares the psychological characteristics of psychopaths (and business executives!). The author of... More

We heard from our friend Lastango at Daily Pundit that no thought experiment is necessary to compare the situation along Iraq's border with the current efforts of the Minuteman Project in Arizona. One month before we ran our item, he had the same idea, plus the facts on the "pop—up"... More

Blogger Miguel Octavio has a fascinating set of diagrammed photos showing that crowd pictures in Hugo Chavez's party's political propaganda have been photoshopped to make their numberss appear bigger than they are. It goes to show Chavez's declining popularity, and even more so that of his... More

If you're in for a change of metaphor, Mr. Timoth Garton Ash of The Guardian substitutes the Boer War for Vietnam as the basis for analyzing what Iraq means for the U.S., its role in the world and the staggering burden of world—wide hegemony. If you're looking for advice regarding how we... More

While most of our elected leaders in Washington are focused the global war on terror and the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation battle in the Senate, the American people seem to be overlooking other key trends and events around the world. One worrying trend that deserves much more attention is the... More

Arnold Schwarzenegger is encouraging the discussion of a Constitutional Amendment to permit naturalized citizens to be President. It is obvious why he is doing so. I heartily support the governor, and greatly admire his political skills. But I wish he would stop.   I am against playing... More

The Los Angeles Times highlights some of the issues which might adhere to Teresa Heinz Kerry as First Lady. Her philanthropic activities, if continued from the White House, would raise questions. However, the LAT doesn't bother to mention her support of the Tides Foundation, which has supported... More

Alek Boyd of VCrisis  has a fascinating bit of breaking news up about President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia handing over to the Venezuelan government a list of FARC Marxist narcoterrorists. To those of us from afar, it might not look like anything earth—shattering. But it is.... More

Ratherbiased.com, the website in Dan Rather's nightmares, is tracking a CBS News outreach to the blogosphere — to the left wing blogs only, of course. Specifically, CBS was promoting a 60 Minutes (Wednesday version — the same show which brought us the bogus Rahergate memos) story on... More

With Fidel Castro and his hated regime rapidly heading toward the ash heap of history, one wonder what it must be like to be in Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez's shoes, watching his hero wither away?   In writing that splendidly resembles magic realism, one of Hispano—America's... More

Daniel Wiener, of Wienerlog, has concocted an intricate and rather persuasive scenario to explain all the publicly—known facts of the Rathergate scandal. I have to confess that I am in awe of his ability to imagine the circumstances which could have produced the observable behavior. But don't... More

Matthew May, our frequent contributor, has made a superb observation on his blog site, Matt May. Why hasn't Sen. John McCain taken to the Senate floor to denounce Sen. Richard Durbin for Durbin's remarks comparing the United States prison guards down at Gitmo to the Soviet work camps, the Nazi... More

One liberal writer has walked out of  the fever swamps of the conspiracy theorists, and concluded that there is no evidence that Ohio's 20 Electoral College votes were stolen from John Kerry in November, despite the presence of the evil Diebold voting machines in the state and the errant... More

So how do you justify killing a cop in cold blood?  Easy.  Proudly announce on the internet you were eliminating the tools of an evil government, an evil system.     At 1:27 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2002, Officer David Mobilio of the Red Bluff Police Department was... More

President Bush and Russian President Putin seemed to get along famously last Thursday in Bratislava.  And at their post—meeting press conference, President Bush was visibly pleased when Putin stated publicly that Russia's choice of democracy will never be reversed.  Unfortunately,... More

If the troops are really this pumped up, guess I should be patient a tad longer. Dennis Sevakis   8 24 05 UPDATE: Even more encouraging than the attitude of our troops in Iraq... if, and only if, this is substantially true. More

"Trade gap narrows due to strong demand for American products" While liberal pundits and politicans decry the rise of anti—Americanism around the world, our sales to foreigners seem to be rising. Pepsico just reported strong growth for its products in overseas markets, Boeing exports are... More

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit has become the de facto clearinghouse for information on the continuing changes in Kerry's Swift Boat story. Thank God! We need a central source, and Glenn has earned the distinction. Now, as Instapundit shows, and Powerline follows—up and expands,... More

The Canadian website Small Dead Animals posts news of a Harvard professor, who conned friends, colleagues, and internet acquaintances out of $600,000, only to lose the entire amount to a fraudulent internet offer promising a huge return on his investment of the swag. It asks the key question:what... More

The firestorm over the remarks by Harvard President (and former Clinton Treasury Secretary) Lawrence Summers continues to demonstrate the intellectual McCarthyism of the feminist left and major media, such as the New York Times. Certain hypotheses must not be entertained. Nevermind all the verbiage... More

A Putin ally is apparently manipulating Russian laws to weaken a competitor cell company which just happens to be run by a Jewish businessman. Russia is reverting to form. This is sickingly reminscent of the Nazis' practice of using German laws to strip Jewish businessmen of their assets. The... More

Talk is cheap.а Oh how easy to utter pious, feel good, warm fuzzies so listeners feel good and warm and fuzzy also.аOnly meanies will disagree.а а Ah but what good is talk unless there is action?а Volunteer regularly.а No time?а Well, write a check or two for a worthwhile charity.а That... More

Among the many wonderful ironies of this campaign season, we see the efforts of the Democrats and MSM to attach the Swiftees' advertising to the Bush campaign backfiring badly. The absurd charts showing the 'web of connections' between Republican activists and the SBVT ad campaign made their... More

The editor of a newspaper is the journalist responsible for selecting which news stories are deserving of being published, and who determines their placement within the newspaper. By doing so, he signals his judgment about the levels of importance of each story. But he also tips his hand regarding... More

Leave it to the European Community to warn us of the dire consequences of free competition. One of the funniest examples of Europe's market—phobia is the so—called "banana wars" which have been fought over the alarming prospect of giving up an arcane system of colonial (!) preferences... More

Yes, of course the media have a need to present all sides of an issue——provided the presenters are all responsible.  A serious geography discussion would not offer a forum to a member of the Flat Earth Society; an important panel of economic experts would not include an alchemist... More

ClassicalValues.com has flagged an earlier quotation of interest: Hunter S. Thompson on Billy Jeff Clinton: Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson tells the New York Post that supporting President Clinton was "one of my greatest tactical errors in politics." . . . . "I don't want to go down in history... More

The putative newspaper of record has broken some "news" that is 38 years old.  A hand—wringing article in today's (August 26) edition of the New York Times blares the 'fact' that: Israel Confirms Plan to Seize West Bank Land for Barrier By GREG MYREPublished: August 25,... More

The Los AngelesTimes publishes an op—ed on the dearth of women columnists, claiming that women are more liberal than men, and that the media, cowed by conservative criticism, won't publish them. Yep, that is it...the media only likes conservatives to give opinions. Puh—leeze!... More

Yet another thread in the whole cloth woven by John F. (for fraud) Kerry, in which to wrap his military service, is coming loose. Pulling on this particular strand may further unravel the fabric, which is already showing a major hole around the Christmas in Cambodia chapter, already used by Kerry... More

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the United States will change its poicy of 37 years, and no longer ask Israel to withdraw to the cease—fire lines of 1949, as part of a Middle East settlement. If this report is true, this marks a major change. Stay tuned. Posted by Richard  04 12... More

The creative class championed by Democrats may lose their clout and their left wing ideology, as more mainstream and popular entertainments are supported by suburbanites.  Disaggregation of the city is underway, as more people telecommute, work part time, engage in independendt pursuits,... More

Race baiter, bigot, con man, and oh yes, Democratic presidential candidate, the Rev. Al Sharpton received a tidy sum from the John F. Kerry campaign for "political consulting."  This "political consulting" consisted of Sharpton leading the cheers for Kerry to mainly black... More

There they go again.  Political vandalism continues.  While of course minor illegal incidents occur against both candidates, they appear to be occurring more frequently and more seriously against the Bush—Cheney ticket.  Is this a sign of desperation by the Democrats?  A... More

Bill Burkett's Burkett's claim that he had contracted meningoencephalitis while on temporary duty in Panama in early 1998 has been disputed by the doctor who was state surgeon at Guard headquarters in 1997.  Steve Gilbert  9 17 04 More

Jonah Goldberg has a very moving tribute to his father, Sidney Goldberg, on National Review Online today. Although I never met Sidney, I almost felt that I knew him via his frequent appearances on the Lucianne Live! syndicated talk show, which I had the pleasure of co—hosting on a weekly... More

Manfred Gerstenfeld provides a lengthy and thoughtful analysis of European anti—Semitism, its old varieties and its newer fashions. Much of the new anti—Semitism is ostensibly linked to anti—Israel hatred, but Gerstenfeld convincingly argues that its roots are older, deeper, and... More

The results are in! The new mayor of Berwyn, Illinois will be Michael O'Connor. For those who saw my previous report, he was Mr. Rocky Road, the JFK era Democrat. Congratulations.   A few observations are in order. Despite a heavy presence of outside workers brought in by the Democratic... More

Polipundit links to and comments on a Jerusalem Post article detailing the manner in which a hideous blood libel was spread around the world, that Israeli soldiers supposedly killed a defenseless 12 year old Palestinian child in his father's arms. It now appears that the child was shot by... More

I can't help wondering why there's so much doom and gloom about the war in Iraq.  You do realize that the resistance movements in Iraq are basically ineffective.  They don't imperil our major objectives, they can't stop the formation of a democratic government, and they aren't interfering... More

Thomas Friedman compares some Israelis to fascists. Hmm...isn't this just one smidgen away semantically from calling them ...Nazis? Clever, this journalist may be. This type of comparison got a lot of Democratic politicians (and Republican Senator Santorum) in trouble.  He... More

Many of us who live in large cities, or in smaller left wing enclaves like Boulder. Colorado or Missoula, Montana, are surrounded by people for whom there is no question that George Bush is an incompetent bumbler, a religious zealot incapable of meeting the demands of complex diplomacy. In today's... More

Richard Baehr adds: A good piece of work, Steven!  It is worth noting that, now basking in the glory of five Pulitzer prizes, with no other paper winning more  than two, the LA Times' hubris, and self—righteousness will only worsen. The Schwarzenegger smear  campaign is old... More

Reader Phil Gallagher writes us with a most interesting question on Rathergate: After several requests by email and finally a call to the justice department without a response I see a UPI story that the Department of Justice had looked at the CBS fraud and an unnamed official opined that "no... More

Reader Bob Silver writes us about reports that Americans are being sold tee shirts proclaiming themselves Canadian, for travel in Europe, due to America's unpopularity. The hype about traveling to Europe disguised as a Canadian is just so much agit—prop. I lived in Europe for two months... More

Jack Risko looks at Mohammed El Baradei and the phony New York Times story on the "missing" explosives at Dinocrat.com. It is well worth reading. More

Oakleaf, at the excellent Polipundit site may have cracked the case on the missing pay stubs for President Bush's Air National Guard service while in Alabama: A search of the web led me to AF Form 1288 (front/back) in which 1LT Bush requests duty in Alabama on May 24, 1972. Block 17 shows that the... More

Suspected masterminds of a hostage taking and killing incident  were handcuffed and in their underwear. Bruises could be seen on their faces and one had stitches across his forehead. Surprisingly Senator Dick Durbin (D—IL) hasn't denounced this treatment; Amnesty International and Human... More

As noted earlier, the Cannes Film Festival head stated this year's awards will be given solely for artistic merit, not on political correctness.   While the jury is still out on that America bashing continues in the film community, European subdivision. Speaking before the... More

President Bush called the citizens patrolling the border "vigilantes," even though they merely function as an extended neighborhood watch operation, notifying authorities of what they observe. Here is a thought experiment: Imagine that 500 Iraqis showed up at the Iraq—Syria border to... More

Now it seems that the offensive class project  letters were sent by a male New York City Social Studies teacher to one G.I. stationed just below the North Korean border who is shortly scheduled to go to Iraq. The New York City Board of Education is totally embarrassed (that they got caught and... More

The New York Times editorial page has been in retreat mode this week. It began with the serious savaging by many informed critics of Paul Krugman's column from last Friday, and a partial  but incomplete surrender by Krugman on Monday. Now add its Israel coverage. Marty Peretz of the... More

A New York Times op—ed columnist pines for good speeches of Jimmy Carter—affection for "malaise" speech. Of course, some would blame Jimmy Carter's dithering and refusal to support the Shah of Iran as leading to the ascendancy of Khomeini and the rise of radical Shia Islam. Some... More

The current issue of the Hoover Institution's Policy Review has the first English translation of a remarkable document ("Outline of a Doctrine of French Policy") written  in 1945 by French philosopher Alexander Kojeve, and given to Charles de Gaulle. This appears to have become a guiding light... More

The Dutch, spurred by the assasination of Pym Fortuyn, are beginning to toughen—up on the inflow of (mostly Muslim) immigrants and asylum—seekers, according to an AP story. Although the article supplies a number of alarming statistics, the most alarming of all — that a majority of... More

"Remember!"  Jews are commanded. "Remember Amalek and what he did to you," the Biblical commandment continues, referring to the demon leader who attacked the rear column of fleeing Jews; slaughtering the most vulnerable, the women and children, the aged and ill.   "In every... More

The San Francisco Chronicle finally read the fine print on Proposition 71, the stem cell research initiative, which voters approved last month. It discovers that the voters have bought into a commitment to spend billions of dollars of borrrowed money with little or no supervision or accountability,... More

R.L.A. Schaefer of Dubuque, Iowa begs to differ on the comparison between Harry Truman and George Bush: Unfortunately, Truman 1) was not informed about all of the Communist infiltration of the U.S. government, and 2) overdid loyalty so that he did not take seriously the internal threat in the way... More

The Washington Post publishes a puff piece on Bill Burkett, the man m,any are pointing to as the likely source of the Rathergate memos. The title kind of gives you a clue where it is going: Suspected CBS Source Is Well—Regarded Texan. First, an obligatory mildly negative note: somewhat... More

The rule of government bureaucracy is to reward failure upward and define deviancy downward. By any rational calculation, Airbus has been a resounding failure. To be sure, it has bought market share in civilian airliners at the expense of Boeing, at a cost to European taxpayers never tabulated, but... More

Realizing George Bush is absolutely correct stating Social Security and its British equivalent can't properly provide in one's maturing years, that London School of Economics grad, Mick Jagger, is defying his  former college profs.  Announcing another world tour that will keep him and his... More

Tony Serra was once a superstar left wing defense lawyer. So much so that Hollywood made a pretty good fictionalized movie about his life, called True Believer, starring no less than the wonderful James Woods as the Tony character. He defended Huey Newton, one of the Symbionese Liberation Army... More

There's been a lot of spilled ink and wasted pixels on the complicated effort to eulogize the suicide of "new journalism" writer Hunter S. Thompson, with most of it coming out insincere, overwrought, or just not quite getting it. Steve H., the immensely talented blogger at Hog on Ice, is another... More

Bill Clinton once faced—down an angry parent of a soldier killed in action, a Medal of Honor winner, no less. Herbert Shugart refused to shake Bill Clinton's hand following the ceremony at which the Medal of Honor was posthumously awarded to his son. Strangely enough, the media baerly... More

A Saudi prince who supports anti—Semitic, anti—American , pro—Jihad media gives millions to Carter Center in the presence of Representatives Conyers (D—MI) and Rahall (D—WV). He is also a major giver to the American—Arab Antidiscrimination... More

A poem from Russ Vaughn, who served with the 2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, in Vietnam, 1965—66. We are proud to share it with our readers: The Veteran in the Wall Here I lay within this wall, And cry out to be heard. I committed no crimes I... More

As reported by UPI, this weekend Palestinians protested in support of the uprisings in Iraq. They claimed that the tactics used by Coalition forces in Iraq were similar to those used by the Israelis against the Palestinians. '"The people in Nablus and Jenin are facing the same challenges as the... More

Alex Beech is a Venezuelan former television journalist, living in New York. She and some other Venezuelans have started a new website, The Sixth Republic, to cover the ongoing crisi brought on by the dictatorial Hugo Chavez. Here is the latest post, which will give you an idea of the high quality... More

I do not know how much credibility Zogby has these days, but his latest poll indicated that George W. Bush received 36% of the Jewish vote this time, a sixteen percent increase over the vote in 2000. UPDATE: Zogby is now debunking the 36% figure, saying it is an extrapolation from partial data.... More

Last night the National Review Online wrote: NBC BLOWS A HOLE IN THE KERRY ATTACK ABOUT THE EXPLOSIVES Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News pretty much dismantled the New York Times attack on behalf of Kerry today. NBC News: Miklaszewski: 'April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, NBC News was... More

The Australian publishes a hard—headed op—ed piece by Michael Costello on the stark choice facing Israel as Iran pushes ahead on the path to nuclear weapons: either strike to destroy the nuclear program, as it did in Iraq long ago, or be destroyed. The UN's International... More

The U.S. Open at Pinehurst, N.C. is underway.  Tiger Woods is among the early leaders this morning.  Mr. Woods, having already won the Masters in April, is chasing the Grand Slam...that is, winning all four majors in one year.  This is just one of the storylines sportswriters have... More

On February 1st, 1993, a "news" story in the Washington Post famously referred to followers of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as "largely poor, uneducated and easy to command." Although the Post learned a lesson in the wave of criticism for its blatant (and inaccurate) stereotyping of... More

Olivier Guitta, whose work has appeared in The American Thinker many times, has a sobering article today on the Weekly Standard website. The Muslim racism Olivier has so well—documented is becoming more aggressive and more visible to the French. Responsible observers are warning the French... More

 Yes, it's just a Web poll and no it's not scientific, but it's distinctly satisfying to look at a Japan—based newspaper's poll on global warming in the land of the Kyoto accord — and note local sentiment finds it wanting.  To the poll question of: "Is the Kyoto Protocol the... More

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission voted today to close five major Army posts in Georgia, New Jersey, Virginia and Michigan.  The also panel voted to close nearly 400 Army Reserve centers and National Guard armories and to consolidate these into about 125 joint Reserve and... More

Our mainstream media are curiously uninterested, indeed silent, on the subject of Jihadist violence in Thailand. Perhaps it is because the predminantly Buddhist Thais, like the Hindu Indians, do not fit into the prism of Christian—Muslim violence, and Israel is of no conceivable... More

R. Emmett Tyrrell, in The American Spectator, asks an important question. Why hasn't the 30th anniversary of Nixon's resignation received more than cursory attention from the press — a group never known to favor the man previously. The answer, of course, is simple: Is it possible that the... More

The AP carries a story of US contractor Thomas Hamill, who was kidnapped while he was securing a fuel convoy West of Baghdad.  Mr. Hamill works for Kellogg, Brown, and Root, a subsidiary of (horrors!) Halliburton. According to the AP story, Mr. Hamill, who hails from Macon,... More

Truly the Euros and Americans inhabit two universes. We capture and bring to justice war criminals; they celebrate them and make them best—selling authors. No wonder they supported Hussein, Arafat, etc.   Ed Lasky  1 18 05 More

Benon Savan, according to the New York Post, may have been using an elaborate money—laundering scheme involving relatives in Cyprus to make his bribes from Saddam appear to be inherited wealth. Ed Lasky  12 8 04 More

I have been writing about the scandals roiling the newspaper business for some months now. Circulation fraud, which means that advertisers have been charged for readers not seeing their advertisements, is rampant. This is theft. Today's New York Post carries shocking allegations of circulation... More

On the same day that I published an article on the rage of the left, a Kerry supporter was arrested  on air rage charges on a Northwest Airlines flight to Anchorage, after getting into an argument with a Bush supporter. I rest my case. Thomas Lifson  9 16 04 More

Reader Scott Wright raises an excellent point regarding Senator Durbin's comments: Senator Durbin's comments comparing mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay by U.S. military interrogators to that of Nazis are particularly ironic considering the fact that most of the allegations of... More

They support abortion, fetal stem cell research, and fooling around with mother nature so they can create a chimera that is "cool". Meanwhile, why don't they spend some money on the homeless problem?  DARJEERLING and Bunnicula are two kittens who prefer shrimp cocktails and steak frites to pet... More

Jayson at Polipundit highlights the results of Kansas's election yesterday, including a referendum on homosexual marriage. As in every other state to put the issue to the voters, it was rejected, this time by a margin of 71—29. Jayson notes that proponents continue to press the issue,... More

Venezuelan Information Minister Andres Izarra is stomping his feet and crying because the mean ol' US media is being so nasty to Marx—crazed tyrant Huga Chavez. According to Izarra, continuous publication of information disclosing false data and making baseless accusations in US media has... More

Reader Irwin Baker, of Grand Rapids, MI, has written us with a valuable citation of source material, used by Richard Baehr in this article. Just a quibble: Since you are a stickler about Mr. Krugman's sources, I'd thought I'd let you know that the basis of your joke — 'When Krugman left MIT... More

As noted here yesterday  the Brits now have a website  in defiance of the bombings in London. And wouldn't you know, a critic for the New York Times damned it because——get ready for this——"there's a brutish flaunting of wealth and leisure." Yes,... More

A reader wrote a very interesting response to earlier posts about John Kerry's mortgage on "his half" of his Beacon Hill Louisburg Square mansion. With permission, we reprint it below: Regarding Thomas Lifson's cogent and insightful article on "Sista Theresa": Mr. Lifson rightly mentions that... More

Will Hutton, who has always displayed naked anti Americanism, has outdone himself in this Sunday's Observer. 'Heed Not the Fanatics' is the title of this piece which stretches the concept of analogy past its reasonable boundaries. He's basically making the assertion that Islam and American... More

It is inevitable perhaps that there are those who will profit from the tsunami tragedy in a rather tasteless manner, giving the self righteous another arrow to hurtle at capitalism.   Oh, I'm not referring to the corruption and rip offs skimmed from the massive amounts of aid that are... More

The raid on Caracas's Jewish school by the thugs of the Chavez government has sparked at least one critic in the Venezuelan press to say what needs to be said. Michael Rowan, of El Universal, wrote a particularly notable column: If government investigators believed there was potential evidence... More

William Stuntz, writing on TechCentralStation, makes a fascinating comparison between the 1948 Dewey—Truman race and the current presidential election. In both elections, a haughty Northeaterner battled a somewhat inarticulate uncumbent president who was an  object of scorn by the... More

The online sites allowing wagers on the election have turned strongly against Kerry. Tradesports: Bush is now 68—32. Iowa Electronic Market: Bush now 59—41. The leads grow every day. Richard Baehr  9 16 04 More

Senator Richard Durbin (D—IL) outraged many by equating American interrogation at Guantanamo with the methods used by the Nazis and the Soviets.     However, not only has he refused to apologize he insists ...the Bush administration should apologize for abandoning the Geneva... More

Cannes film festival head Gilles Jacob called for this year's top prize to be awarded for film—making, not politics.  "...it was a question of a satirical tract that was awarded a prize more for political than cinematographic reasons, no matter what the jury said. "...the jury's... More

According to The American Spectator, former president Jimmy Carter — through his lackeys at the Carter Center — inundated the White House with requests not only to be a part of the American delegation to the Vatican for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, but with requests to actually... More

Medienkritic reports that there will be a pro—American rally in Mainz on February 23rd. David will be live—blogging the event, and notes that at least some media coverage is expected. Hat tip: Matt May Thomas Lifson  2 21 05 More

Tony Blankley is thinking serious thoughts about the War in Iraq, and achieving victory. His logical approach is highly meritorious. Like our own Herb Meyer and Dennis Sevakis, Tony is worried that we may not have enough troops there, and that we may not be pushing for victory as hard as we... More

God bless the British. They are not afraid, and have the website to prove it. Enjoy it. Joseph Crowley   7 12 05 More

Kevin McCullough, a radio talk show host on WMCA in New York, is having way too much fun not to share with everyone. His web site contains the hilarious entry, "Kerry is making it far too easy." As FOX NEWS' Carl Cameron reported: Lie #1. —  "I  proudly and I think rightly... More

Writing in today's Sunday Observer newspaper — which is part of the Guardian group — Tony Blair, the British PM, once again articulated his support for the war in Iraq and the US leadership. Perhaps the British army in Iraq should be reading Tony Blair's article as opposed to listening... More

It has always struck me as ironic that the word we Americans use for creative business visionaries, the men and women who go out and start a new business, thereby generating wealth, jobs, tax revenue, economic growth, and many other positive consequences, is of French derviation" entrepreneur." The... More

Athletic 29 year old males do not usually die in their sleep. When the young male doing the dying happens to be an anti—terror researcher working for Steve Emerson's Investigative Project, the frequent subject of death threats, there is every reason to ear the worst. The FBI is reported to... More

Now that NBC News has exposed as a fraud the combined efforts of the UN, The New York Times and the Kerry campaign to criticize President Bush over the "missing" explosives in Iraq, it can only be a matter of time until Josh Marshall starts muttering dark thoughts about Karl Rove... More

An American Thinker exclusive One claim that Bill Burkett, identified by the New York Times as the source of the CBS memo, has made for years is that he contracted a deadly disease back in 1998: From an article "What do you say?" by Bill Burkett in the Online Journal: March 19,... More

The ever changing, ever sensitive Oscar winner, Sean Penn, on assignment for the San Francisco (naturally) Chronicle bravely told a film student during a visit to Iran's Film Museum in Tehran on Monday that the "Death to America" slogan chanted each week at Friday Prayers hurt Iran—U.S.... More

From The Antelope Valley Press in California comes the story of our K—9 contingent in Iraq. Chief Warrant Officer Peter Zorba, of Squadron HMM—764 "The Moonlighters" writes: I fly into Baghdad almost every night, but this night's mission was a special ASR (assault support request). A... More

Much as with the launch of Air America, get ready for a string of New York Times articles on this new web log (blog, for the uninitiated). Maybe there is something to this new media if such well versed intellectuals as Gwynneth Paltrow will be writing forаthe new Hollywood collective website... More

Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, has some revealing comments in a speech given at a fundraiser for the Columbia University student newspaper, the Spectator: Keller also sees 'blogging,' or online writing that blurs news and commentary, as a mixed blessing. While he... More

The controversy over Intelligent Design theory has become one of the most fascinating intellectual disputes of our era. Particularly remarkable is the tendency of one side to affirm that it is the sole custodian of scientific inquiry, while at the same time refusing to debate the issues, on the... More

The invaluable MEMRI website has collected various Arab press reactions to London. Well worth a read. James Lewis   7 12 05 More

Powerline has been in the forefront of the blogosphere's inquiry into Kerry, Cambodia, and the Swiftvets. Today, it presents a few of the questions that a normally inquisitive press should be asking of the Kerry campaign. Of course, nobody in the establishment press is going anywhere near these... More

After having followed the Financial Times for quite a while now, the other day I called the editors' very pleasant PA, and expressed my conviction that they were increasingly playing the anti— American card. She didn't seem too perturbed by my outrageous suggestion, so I guess I'm not being... More

The Belmont Club has a report today that highlights the critical role that hostile press organizations and journalists play in helping our adversaries in the war on terror.  The article specifically cites a piece in the Jerusalem Post that deftly debunks the myth of 'objective journalism'... More

Bloomberg is reporting that once again Russia's leader Putin is crushing private a publicly—listed company with onerous tax claims. This current new claim is remiscent of Putin's attack on oil company Yukos, whose controlling shareholder was leading advocate of further democracy. AO... More

Ralph Peters makes some outstanding points in his comparison of how Muslims in Europe and Muslims in America differ in their approach towards Western society.  He points out that Europe faces a much greater threat from terror because of a large number of unhappy Muslims on that continent. They... More

 It seems the town of Hurley, New York has cashed in  big time on the homeland security pork barrel.  At least previous instances of frivolous spending in other communities have involved medical first responders, police, and fire departments.  But Hurley, a bustling metropolis... More

Awhile back, the New York Times, in an unexpectedly excellent (and not just for them) story, exposed an incredible array of mismanagement over at Citgo, the U.S. oil refiner and marketer of Venezuelan crude oil that has had the misfortune of experiencing a Hugo Chavez management takeover by... More

Frederick Staklebeck's conclusion in his article on North Korea today, "All this leaves the U.S. in the  unenviable position of possibly having to make certain uncomfortable  concessions that are counter to its stated policy concerning North  Korea's nuclear weapons program," is the... More

Former UN human rights lawyer Kenneth Cain says the secretary—general could finally redeem himself by saving lives — after years of lethal passivity. Does the timing strike anyone as suspicious? Ed Lasky  4 6 05 More

Babalu blog's Val Prieto, who was profiled recently on the front page of the Miami Herald as a brilliant new voice of the often—dismissed Cuban—American community, has a striking update about the Elian Gonzalez case. Back in 2000, the rescue of the 6—year—old Cuban... More

The Big Pharaoh, a blogger in Cairo whose writing I enjoy, makes a provocative and possibly very useful suggestion for confronting the mullahs of Iran. He notes that they are infiltrating Iraq and sponsoring terror, as well as putting in place an apparatus to control southern Iraq. Not to mention... More

The other day I suggested that it may well have been a reporter who "outed" Valerie Plame. Looking at today's New York Times story in which they buried the bone, my suspicions are growing that Miller was the source, and I am not alone. The National Review's Media Blog is on the case. Quote: The... More

National Review Online raises the subject of black bloggers today, a topic of potentially great importance to the evolution of American political opinion—writing. Only recently did we discover one of the most prominent black bloggers, La Shawn Barber, who has very kindly linked to a number of... More

Fortune Magazine carries an excellent review of the implications of the world's demographic trend toward below—replacement fertility levels. Not just the usual suspects in the developed world, but also still—poor nations such as Mexico, are to experience the historic transition toward... More

Today's article on Columbia University in the New YorkTimes was extensive, if very late. That's progress.  Here is a telling excerpt: Pro—Israel professors on campus, who have been conspicuously quiet, say they feel cowed and nervously out of fashion. "Many Jewish faculty members... More

Bob Weir, a former New York City police detective, now a newspaperman, has a better understanding of economics as it relates to Social Security than Paul Krugman, Princeton UJniversity economist and former adviser to Enron. Yesterday, Weir wrote here about George Bush's plans to privatize... More

Josh Gerstein of the New York Sun has uncovered another embarrassment for John F. Kerry: apparent plagiarism. ...11 passages in Senator Kerry's published writings that appear to have been taken from other works without attribution, though experts disagree about whether the copying should be... More

CBS's performance today was bizarre. First, they put—off for more than six hours the promised issuance of a statement. Then the Tiffany network released a puzzling vague promise ('we believe we should redouble our efforts to answer those questions, so that's what we are doing') and misspelled... More

We are very pleased to have played a small role in bringing to public attention the ridiculous vile accusation of Senator Durbin that the United States is comparable to the regimes of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot in its treatment of Gitmo prisoners. J. James Estrada's post was picked up by Rush... More

The Arizona Republic ran a story on May 11th with the headline 'Valley Hispanic boycott called a success'. On the same day, The Washington Times headline on the story was 'Test of Hispanic boycott fails in Arizona'. Why the boycott?  The Washington Times reports that: Activists are angry... More

The EU official who whitewashed Palestinain funding report might be new auditor of the UN! From the Transatlantic Intelligencer: ...look here for who has turned up in the short list of four candidates to replace Dileep Nair, the embattled outgoing head of the UN's internal auditing agency. (The... More

As we've written earlier, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is obsessed with assassination plots, and this weekend he's come up with some new ones.  On his Sunday talk show, called, "Hello, President!" he claimed the U.S. is planning to kill him, in a stream of bravado and anger. This... More

The Kurdistan Observer reports that Ayatollah Sistani, Iraq's revered Shiite religious leader, says an emphatic "no" to the Kurds reclaiming Kirkuk for themselves. Never mind that historically it was the Kurds who occupied Kirkuk until Saddam engaged in an Arabification of the city by booting out... More

Kennewick Man, the nickname for an nearly complete 9000 year old human skeleton found near Kennewick, Washington, is beginning to tell his story to scientists. It was a tale which was almost lost to us. Using the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act as their excuse, the Umatilla,... More

For years, counter—terrorism officials have charged that drug—dealing has become a prime source of money to fund terror. Usually these charges have concentrated on opium growing in Afghanistan and drug manufacturing in (and export from) the Syrian—controlled Bekka Valley in... More

Canada, whose free speech rights are already quite limited by legislation against so—called hate speech, may be on the verge of ending freedom of religion, for all intents and purposes. Its House of Commons has already passed C—250, a bill sponsored by a longtime "gay rights advocate,"... More

This New York Times article brings to a light the long—time practice of German legislators being permitted to accept salaries from private companies while serving in office. While the law permits the practice, it also requires a disclosure, a requirement which seems widely flouted.... More

I have no desire to disguise my American identity because I have no desire to travel to Europe.  Luckily my parents left the place. Those who need such a disguise deserve it; they deserve anything the Europeans will dish out to them — but then again they'd probably agree with the... More

Lefty blogger Josh Marshall (who some say is the sock puppet of Clintonista  Sid ("Vicious") Blumenthal seems to be operating under some weird curse this election cycle. Earlier this election season I showed how he was the first to leak the now—exploded phony Bush TANG memos story... More

Further proof, as if any were needed, that the entertainment industry leans wa—a—y left.  Even in the joke industry.  While Jay Leno, host of NBC's late night show,  has no Republicans on his joke writing staff, several are former professional speechwriters for... More

Spain's cowardly, anti—U.S. Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has finally gotten what was coming to him, as Spain's voters realize just what a loser they have in front of them. Franco in Barcelona writes that Spain's polls are showing his voter approval rate slithering down to... More

What do you get when you cross the New York Times editorial page with a pschoanalyst? Compound absurdity (or assininity?). A hybrid personality disorder? Today, Gail Collins, opinion editor of the Times, has seen fit to give coveted op—ed space to ridiculous article by Belinda Board, "a... More

The French have a habit of behaving in such a transparently self—serving manner that they discredit the fine—sounding rhetoric they (and many others) use to attack American "unilateralism," "aggression," "crimes against humanity," and so many other sins of the nation which has liberated... More

Herb Meyer's Open letter to Europe is absolutely spot on.  Not only is it a 'willful blindness' that prevents Europe from confronting the assault on Western civilization, it is the scrambling to financially make up for over 30 years of failed socialist policies. Germany is being... More

Today's Washington Post reports on a team of scientists who have met in secret, and who have pronounced that Iran does not have a 'clandestine' nuclear weapons program. And how do they know this?  Because they found traces of weapons—grade uranium (generally above 90% enriched)... More

The Sun newspaper in the U.K. editorializes today on a piblic speech by Tariq Ramadan. Extremist Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, who backs suicide bombings, is to address a London conference part—funded by police. This man's suspected links with terrorists are strong enough for him to be... More

The Washington Post, in an editorial today, finally acknowledges the Swifties' charges, concentrating on the ad, not the book. The editors make credibility judgments without even interviewing the Swifties or their spokesmen, or engaging in independent investigation. And, worst of all they ignore... More

Belmont Club is making waves all across the blogosphere, with its report of Jeruslaem Post's star columnist (and Chicago native) Caroline Glick's report that Hizbullah is behind the attacks on out troops in Iraq, which most American media are characterizing as an "uprising" ( which reminds me of... More

Relations between Venezuela and its neighbor Colombia are extremely strained, with a suspension of certain bilateral trade and other accords. and the withdrawal of Venezuela's ambassador to Bogota. According to the Financial Times: Alleged Venezuelan support for leftwing Colombian guerrillas has... More

Reader Burt Keimach in the United Kingdom send us this thought: Richard Baehr's piece "Why Europe Went Wrong on Israel" mentioned the "Elites" without explaining the unique anti—Semitism steered and managed by the toffs (upper class) in Britain.These people run the state—financed BBC... More

Reader Glenn Dundas asks some good questions regarding the "looted" missing explosives in Iraq: How do looters carry—off 380 tons of weapons materials?  In backpacks?  It would take more than a few truckloads.  Isn't it more likely that it was hauled off by Sadamn just prior to... More

Finally realizing appeasement doesn't work; preaching love doesn't work, a Catholic official has announced "We have entered the Fourth World War."  The war is on terrorism. And furthermore, because it is so pervasive and so unpredictable "Every state has to put in place the best possible... More

Reader Greg Richards writes us regarding J. James Estrada's characterization of  Senator Durbin's  disgraceful comments: Of course, we know what he is on — his high horse.What Sen. Durbin doesn't understand is that there is a purpose to these interrogations.  Not... More

As the pace of farm confiscations accelerates in Venezuela, the outlook is grim for the tiny private ecological reserve called Hato Pinero, a jewel box of rare wildlife full of orchids, anacondas, flamingos, pumas and parrots. Although Venezuela's government already owns 60% of the land in the... More

Omigosh!  The MoveOn people and complaining Democrats were absolutely correct——an important demographic was disenfranchised in the last election. But you won't hear  much wailing from them because apparently that disenfranchised demographic consisted of soldiers and overseas... More

This group of anti—war letters were received by soldiers in Iraq from grade school students in Park Slope (Brooklyn, NY), one of the most liberal—left neighborhoods in NY. Despite the denials of negative intent by the teacher, apparently the left now is trying another avenue to attack... More

The New York Sun shines the light of investigative journalism on the Council on Foreign Relations, and its point man on the Middle East, Henry Siegman, 'senior fellow and director, U.S./Middle East Project.' Siegman has leant a veneer of seriousness and respectability to views also pushed by... More

Writing in the Telegraph, Mark Steyn once again proves himself the Master: ...the danger in separating "Islam" from "terrorism" is that it leads the control—freaks of the nanny state into thinking that "terrorism" is something that can be dealt with by border security, ID cards, retinal... More

While perusing Daniel Drezner's always stimulating blog,  I came across his praise of the book "The Power of Productivity:Wealth, Poverty and the Threat to Global Stability" by William Lewis, a management consultant and founding director of the McKinsey Global Institute. The praise is... More

Unexpectedly, America's largest (by sales) corporation, an employer of one million people, Wal—Mart, has become a major issue in domestic politics, as well as a cultural dividing line. Steven Malanga, writing in City Journal, does a superb job of delving into the deeper meaning of it... More

The Washington Post has another article on the looming resurgence of Marxism and dictatorship in Latin America. It is pretty good, although it does in the end start blaming Bush. I am becoming convinced that the MSM will take up Venezuela as a topic as soon as it realizes that it can bash Bush by... More

Reader R.L.A. Schaefer of Dubuque, Iowa has some further thoughts on Brian Lamb: Matt May's fine article on Brian Lamb called up these thoughts: Lawrence Cunningham's book, The Catholic Heritage, pinpointed dominant models of holiness in historical eras. I concluded that a model for the next kind... More

Barron's has an amusing piece on the world's most fully digitalized building, a hotel in Lublijana, Slovenia. It sounds almost painful to stay there, so hip and so fully up—to—date with the latest flat panel, wireless, digital gadgets everywhere. I'm not certain how I would feel about... More

The importance of John Kerry's Silver Star to his political career cannot be overstated. Without the medal, it is fairly safe to say, we would have probably never heard of him. Kerry used his Silver Star to run for Congress (unsuccessfully) as a returning war hero in his first political campaign.... More

PBS is claiming that it began a review of its standards for political balance before there was any threat of a funding cut, now something that is a very real possibility. The AP reports: PBS, which rejects accusations of liberal bias, said it has been reviewing its procedures since before... More

Remember those howls by Democrats of voter fraud last November?  Well, it seems they were right.  There was voter fraud.  Lots of it. By Democrats.  Newsday.com: Possible Voter Fraud Found in Milwaukee  MILWAUKEE —— About 4,500 more ballots than registered... More

We have had our differences with the Reuters news agency, principally over Middle East coverage and coverage of American policies and politics. But it is nonetheless a delight to see A.M. Mora y Leon's article on Mexico quoted in a Reuters dispatch from Mexico City, describing the financial impact... More

The New York Times has an unusually deliberately obtuse editorial this morning, once again flogging Big Bird into the corral, to plead for public funding of left wing propaganda on PBS. It contrasts the departure of the "respected Bill Moyers," whose "slight liberal flavor might be dug out" with... More

John Fund had a characteristically excellent article yesterday on Democrats and their obsession with claims that they have been cheated out of victory by electoral fraud. It makes a great companion piece to Selwyn Duke's article today. Isn't it about time for a major official investigation of vote... More

"Higher—paid jobs rise at faster clip"   The New York Times  and other liberally—inclined media outlets have cast cold water on employment figures ever since George Bush won his first election . Either a rise in employment did not match population growth (a measure... More

The Jim Romanesko media website, a product of the Poynter Institute, which purports to be an authoritative source on issues relating to journalism, is ignoring the issue of Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia and the Swift Boat Vets. Despite the fact that the blogosphere is exploding with information... More

I have often taken issue with journalists who engage in behavior that motivates more violence and terror. For instance, their oft—criticized custom of referring to terrorists as "freedom fighters," "militants," or "activists," and their perspective of the Palestinian—Israel conflict as... More

Reader Evelyn Palmeri of Flagler Beach FL has a wonderful idea: Someone should start selling bracelets saying:  Color Me Red, White & Blue.   Might be the next hula hoop.  There are a lot of people in the so—called blue states who don't want to be associated with... More

A reader has drawn our attention to an op—ed in the Washington Times by Yoram Ettinger making the case that any successor to Arafat under the current Palestinian Authority regime is unlikely to be much of an improvement. It is worth reading. More

John Kerry is having embarrassing problems with the truth. The Washington Times appears to have caught him in an outright lie in a presidnential debate about having met with all members of the UN Security Council. But this is no isolated incident. His claim to have spent Christmas in Cambodia has... More

Blogs, blogs, blogs.  The clerks at Borders Bookstore display their contempt for customers whose opinions they don't respect on their union site.  And apparently the lowest of the low are those backward types who want to purchase Unfit For Command.  Their naked revulsion combined... More

Gopinion.com is a new website featuring selected articles from the blogosphere, in a very readable newspaper—like format. So far, the selection of sites and information has been very promising, indeed. We are happy to welcome them to the blogosphere, and wish them the best. This is one to... More

Proving 60 is now the new 30, the Rolling Stones, still gathering no moss, just announced their new world tour. Yeah!  Forever young! Ethel C. Fenig  5 11 05 More

I have always liked Denzel Washington's work as an actor. He has the ability to reach audiences with the sheer force of personality and intelligence which marks true movie stars. But I did not dare hope that the integrity and qualities of heart he projects from the screen are genuine. Apparently... More

This letter could easily be worded as an attack, but more can be accomplished by making it an inquiry. The questions regarding your actions of late are so great that I, for one, am really not capable of understanding what it is you are trying to accomplish. Do you really feel your efforts will... More

Once in a blue moon the BBC gets things right about Islam on their own soil. This report on Panorama (equivalent to Sixty Minutes) offers some hard—hitting interviews with British Muslims. The reporter, John Ware, does not back down. The Muslim leaders squirm between telling the truth... More

Buried deeply in the anti—Rovian fluff of the New York Times, the very paper which is trying to sanctify Judith Miller for not talking, while pillorying Rove for cooperating with the investigation (the Times demanded) by talking only to the grand jury: The e—mail message from Mr.... More

Brian Lamb of C—SPAN has announced that the December 5th edition of Booknotes will be the last show in the series. That will mark the 800th book discussed for an hour by Lamb interviewing the author. Unlike so many other author interviews, it was always obvious that Brian Lamb took the... More

Well they are all doing it. As reported by the BBC — it would be them — the last Conservative British Foreign Minster, Douglas Hurd, has called for a British minister to take over the Coalition's management in Iraq. He has also accused the Americans of not winning 'hearts and minds,'... More

Our frequent contributor Bruce Thompson has posted an interesting comparison of the murder rate in Chicago versus that in Iraq on his blog site Machias Privateer. While Iraw would need a population of 32 million, instead of its actual population of 25 million, in order for the two places to have... More

Reader Mark Eichelaub writes us about the cover story in Time Magazine on Kofi Annan: As we all know, the mainstream media's and liberal extremes have a passion for protecting each at whatever sneaky cost and this time article is a perfect example of that. The story says that the only people... More

For two nights in a row the dimming stars can't rally their troops!  That is assuming there are any troops to rally. Once again very few people  showed up to disco for Kerry, even with Rosie O'Donnell ("there's only like, you know, maybe 38 of us here") as host.  The night before,... More

Kudos to Roger L. Simon, who heaps scorn on newspaper folk heaping scorn on the blogosphere. Editor and Publisher got predictable responses when it asked editors to comment on the blogosphere's rise. Roger's brilliant comparison of them with the old nomenklatura of the Soviet Union had me laighing... More

The British medical journal, The Lancet, which is no conservative organ, has warned its readers of the hype surrounding stem cell research, especially embryonic stem cell research, according to a dispatch from the Cybercast News Service. So great has been the brainwashing that California voters... More

Another example of MSM anti—military, anti Bush—economy reporting:On May 10, MSNBC's website had a major story about armed forces recruiting where they gleefully trumpeted: (headline) Army, Marines miss recruiting goals again (Sub head)More cash and appeals to parents, patriotism... More

As always, Mark Steyn says profound things in an amusing way. His treatment of the press reaction to John Paul II's passing is worth reading in full. But here is his conclusion: The secularists, for example, can't forgive him for his opposition to condoms in the context of Aids in Africa. The Dark... More

Europe is in big trouble.  It's economies are stagnant — jobs aren't being created, and today the unemployment rate in Germany is higher than it was on the day Adolf Hitler took power.  The continent's demographics are catastrophic.  The birth rates are so far below replacement... More

Oh—so—liberal Seattle has seen an elected public official has let slip some blatant anti—Semitic rhetoric. When will America's Jews wake up and recognize where the locus of anti—Semitism lies? Sam Ser of the Jerusalem Post reports: An elected official involved in a... More

French school examinations, developed and paid for by the French government, are using a hideous cartoon making light of the World Trade Center collapse, as it asks students "How was American power contested on September 11, 2001?" The Transatlantic Intelligencer reports. Scroll down for the... More

Iran, which is failing to honor its earlier commitment to suspend its uranium enrichment program, has 'stunned'   Britain, France and Germany, by demanding that they supply it with conventional arms, advanced dual—use (i.e., militarily useful) nuclear technology, and commit to... More

Belgium's Jewish community have been put on notice of a pogrom planned by an established group, the Euro—Arab League (AEL in French): "We want to warn Antwerp's Jewish community in its entirety to be on its guard. The community's support for Israel is no secret," Ahmed Azzuz, head of the AEL... More

Reader Michael Easton writes to us with some thoughts on Michael Newdow's attempt to end the custom of prayer at presidential innaugurals: I am so thankful this fool's latest lawsuit has been thrown out.  Finally, a judge has said just what I've been wondering about with regard to the... More

The British Broadcasting Corporation is cutting 3000 jobs, and moving about 1800 employees from London to Manchester. While these are positive developments, meaningful reform of the broadcaster would consist of full privatization and an end to the amndatory "fee" (a tax) paid by the owners of... More

Richard Rushfield conducted an interesting experiment: he wore a Bush—Cheney T—shirt in several "blue state" neighborhoods, and a Kerry—Edwards T—shirt in several "red state" neighborhoods. I was not in the least surprised at the results. He encountered hostility and... More

Our poet laureate is collecting overtime pay. Russ Vaugh, a Vietnam Vet himself, has written a poem for John Kerry, meant to be sung to the tune of Credence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son." Unfortunate Son Few liberals are born to wave the flagOoh but John, he's red white and blueLonging to be... More

Several weeks ago The American Thinker informed its readers about the plight of Professor Thomas Klocek, who was fired for daring to question the rabid anti—Israel display by some Moslem students at DePaul University, a Catholic university, in Chicago. Klocek, who is not Jewish, was an... More

As revealed by a report in the New York Sun  and other news outlets, fully 81% of New York City's eighth—grade students failed a statewide exam in social studies. This represents a huge jump in the failure rate of the 2001—2002 school year's test, which was 62%. Statewide, results... More

The Washington Times reports on very suspicious coincidences involving the Minority Leader: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi helped secure $3 million last year for a nonprofit transportation—research organization whose president gave money to her political action committee as the group was... More

As Bush jets off to Europe on what the worshipful Europundits label a "fence mending trip," the totally unworshipful Mark Steyn accurately summarizes the US attitude towards the continent we liberated 60 years ago: No giggling.  Now this is really hard to do but as Archie Bunker said,... More

We've recently made the acquaintnce of Tyler Cowan of the Marginal Revolution blog, a wonderful free market economics site of very eclectic and wide—ranging nature. You will find really smart, interesting, and yes, funny, economists taking on all kinds of topics. Their perspectives are often... More

It looks as though the French may be eating less bouillabaisse and more vichyssoise this year. The EU has slammed them over their flouting of regulations on fishing. The perfect compliment to the potato soup would be tarte de corbeau. Joseph Crowley   7 12 05 More

Fraters Libertas is one of the blogs I make a point of reading daily. Its recent redesign makes it all the more attractive to visit. Today, the Elder writes from Amsterdam about his visit to a museum dedicated to the Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation: After I finished the tour, I stopped by a... More

The Ciniza Refinery fire yesterday in Gallup, NM is a vivid reminder of the exposure to danger we have with our oil refineries operating at full capacity. It has been almost impossible to open new refinery capacity in the United States for many years. We are paying a higher and higher... More

Courtesy of Ratherbiased.com, here are two links to view last night's Saturday Night Live skit having fun at the expense of  Dan Rather. The segment down plays any political bias, in favor of sheer absurdity, but Darrell Hammond does his usual fine job as a mimic. Windows Media... More

From Davids Medienkritic, a terrific site which provides translations from the German (mostly) press, we have a translation of an attack by Matthias Döpfner, Chief Executive of the huge German publisher Axel Springer AG, against the cowardice of Europe in the face of the Islamic threat. From the... More

Powerline has exposed a truly dirty trick. The Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) ballot looks to be deliberately misleading. While voters desiring to vote Kerry/Edwards merely punch the chad next to where the arrow by their name points, voters for Bush/Cheney who do the same thing will miscast their... More

Perhaps concerned over his prospective role as moderator of a presidential debate, CBS's Bob Schieffer told the Sioux City Journal that CBS News has an affirmative duty to prove its memos are genuine: "I think we have to find some way to show our viewers they are not forgeries,'' Schieffer, CBS'... More

Senator Dick Durbin's remarks from the Senate floor last night will lead one to conclude that the man is crazy.  Durbin was on the floor to debate a portion of the Energy Bill and then went off on this tangent about prisoner abuse at Gitmo: On one occasion, the air conditioning had been... More

to discuss the Nuclear Nonproliferaton treaty. She joins Bono and Angelina Jolie in being welcomed by that august body.. But we know George Bush, John Bolton, any Israelis, etc. would not be welcomed.Ed Lasky More

The New York Sun reports with approval that Harvard University's endownment fund is divesting itself of shares in Petro—China, the state—owned oil company with oil operations in Sudan, among other locations. The Sun also notes that many of the American business leaders who have... More

Spain is much more important to Americans than most of us realize. Aside from its importance to Europe, where its rising economic might is being felt, the cultural and historic ties of Spain to the Western Hemisphere make it a cultural superpower, far more important than the French pretend to be.... More

The New York Times' Elizabeth Bumiller fudges facts today, writing about the first meeting Cindy Sheehan had with Bush. Bumiller writes that Sheehan met with Bush in June 2004 when she said "he was disrespectful' for calling her "Mom". Bumiller leaves out the fact that this is the second and later... More

Well, that didn't take long. A bus bombing within a mile of its London headquarters actually jolted the BBC into using the word "terrorism" to describe the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians — well, as long as they weren't Israelis. But only briefly. The Jerusalem Post reports that... More

James Bowman has an interesting essay on The American Spectator this morning, reconsidering the politics of the remake of The Manchurian Candidate. The film's director has been explicit on claiming to be anti—Bush, and the obvious intention to cast a firm reminiscent of Halliburton as the... More

As reported by the Daily Telegraph, Robin Cook, the former Foreign Minster who resigned over Tony Blair's decision to go to war, has had a pop at US soldiers by complaining that they act too much like 'warriors'. What are they supposed to act like, social workers? Posted by Michael  04 09... More

In an otherwise decent article, Tom Friedman, as always, needs to  include a throwaway line trashing the President's performance in Iraq as "pathetic."  Friedman's arrogance is astounding. Since he has probably never managed  anything more than his keyboard, maybe he should stop... More

A glorious era in television broadcasting came to a quiet end just before 9:00 eastern time on Sunday evening when, without fanfare or mention of this particular edition's significance, C—SPAN's Brian Lamb held a book that had been under discussion for an hour, named the author of the book,... More

Ralph Peters has a superb column in the New York Post, demonstrating the illusion under which Euroweenies live — that Islamofascist terrorism can be "managed" int he same way they have lived with the terrorism of Basque separatists, for example. Peters does a great job showing the fundamental... More

One of the continuing sources of anger toward the MSM's coverage of the Middle East is the failure to pay much, if any, attention to the victims of terror. We see plenty of coverage of the death cult bombers and their complaints against Isarel, though. Finally, one of the television outlets... More

Odder pairings have happened in history than an alliance between New York Senator Hillary Clinton and News Corp. honcho Rupert Murdoch. The Hitelr—Stalin Pact, for instance. But it is nevertheless a surprising speculation, as laid out by Ben Smith in the New York Observer. In its own... More

Just over two weeks ago, radio talk show host Laura Ingraham was diagnosed with breast cancer.  After two surgeries and on—going radiation treatment, Laura has only missed a few days behind the microphone.  Conservatives are glad to hear that she remains the same: hard on liberals,... More

The Pope is receiving almost universal adulation following his passing, even from liberals who mostly opposed his moral teachings and sought to influence the Catholic Church in directions opposed by His Holiness. But one exception exists: the hardline press in Iran. John Paul II is being excoriated... More

The Score? American Thinker 1, New York Times 0. Less than a week ago, we debunked a trashy propaganda effort by the New York Times to paint Colombian President Uribe's war against Marxist terrorists as a losing effort. We called it The Fallujah Treatment  because it duplicated what they... More

Paul Krugman, tries to respond today to withering attacks on his column from last Friday in which he declared that a full statewide manual recount would have given Al Gore the victory in Florida in 2000.  Somebody at the New York Times may have gotten concerned about how far from the truth... More

The Palestinian Authority calls on UN to punish Israel over the security barrier it has built to protect itself from terror attacks. The terror—supporting PA says "we want to see concrete measures." Well, they have a concrete measure, all right. Of course, to be noted is that the... More

Instapundit has been running fine commentary on the developing story of Kerry's turn to a more hawkish position on Iraq —— stating that he would have gone to war knowing all we know now, even without he discovery (so far) of WMD. Here is my take:  Kerry did not get the... More

As reported by the Daily Telegraph, London's communist mayor Ken Livingstone has been ferociously speaking his mind once again. With comments such as: 'I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi royal family are swinging from lampposts', it's good to see Red Ken hasn't lost any... More

I think Quentin Letts, writing on Opinionjounral.com got the Prince Harry/Nazi uniform situation right.   What he surely did not intend to do was to portray himself as an acolyte of the evil master plans of Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels. Yet this was the way the media slant started to go... More

Many secularists assume that religious conservatives, especially the Christian variety, are like Mr. Potter in the movie It's a Wonderful Life: narrow—minded, mean—spirited, shriveled—soul money—grubbers and bigots (and I have met a few like that, sadly). However, topics... More

A federal appeals court ruled Saturday that provisional ballots Ohio voters cast outside their own precincts should not be counted, throwing out a lower—court decision that said such ballots are valid as long as they are cast in the correct county. AP This is very important, indeed. Now, both... More

Another indication that Kerry is getting desperate ——he's calling on his big brother, fellow Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, to campaign for him.  Kennedy plans to run interference for Kerry in the Senate plus make personal campaign apearances with him.  This... More

The financial disclosure form of Sen. Jon Corzine (D—NJ) shows the former head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. did quite well — between $425,000 and $1.6 million worth of well — last year, after those who handle his blind trust managed his investments bet that Goldman stock would... More

Today's WSJ (p. A4) tells us something about the "watchdogs" attacking DeLay which I'm certain you won't find elsewhere.   Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Executive Director worked for Democratic lawmakers John Conyers and Joe Biden, and documents filed with the IRS... More

Watch out Air America and PBS——you're about to have some broadcast competition.  Yes, the man who invented the internet, the former vice president of the United States, is about to invent a new television network, officially, proudly liberal, targeting young liberal... More

Sixty years ago World War ll was beginning to end.  Yes, there were battles still to be fought with tragically still more deaths for the United States but finally 5 1/2 years after Germany invaded Poland in September, 1939 and 3 years after Pearl Harbor  there was some hope. The... More

Seemingly, Senator Chuck Hagel's service in Vietnam has endowed him, in the minds of Democrats and the mainstream media, with the aura of having the absolute moral authority that Maureen Dowd and others have granted Cindy Sheehan. As Eliot Cohen points out in his book,  Supreme Command:... More

As long as 9/11 families followed our script they were admirable: not now, though.  Isn't that the main theme of this insensitive, arrogant editorial?  As long as 9/11 families could be used to attack Geoge Bush they deserved our praise and should be treated with utmost respect and... More

The AP is reporting that Mauritania's ruling party claims to have suppressed an attempted coup by military officers and radical Islamists. Details remain sketchy. Ruling party officials blamed military officers, civilians and radical Islamists in the alleged plot against President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed... More

The New York Times headlined today, "In Testimony to 9/11 Panel, Rice Sticks to the Script." That's an odd use of the term "script" in a headline, even for a news analysis of Rice's testimony.   Condeleeza Rice and Colin Powell have been characterized as "house slaves" by those in... More

Isn't America wonderful?  Some Americans who are still obsessing over Bush's decisive victory and forthcoming inauguration might now make a tidy profit publicly showcasing their displeasure by selling anti—Bush blue bracelets.  And unlike many societies they probably... More

The Jewish holiday of Chanukah which tonight, commemorates several politically incorrect themes:  miracles, successful resistance to assimilation by practicing Judaism which had been banned and the ultimate——a military victory by the outnumbered Jews against the oppressive... More

As you may recall last week, we interpreted sudden moves by Indonesia's bureaucrats to arrest terrorists plaguing Indonesia, after a long period of neglect, as a sign of a very different new president about to take power. Dodge City, to which Jakarta is often compared, was about to get a new... More

Reader John Swails Ph.D., Associste Professor and chair of the Department of History, Humanities and Government at Oral Roberts University, wrote us with an interesting analogy for the Rathergate scandal, as well as other useful perspectives. With his permission, we publish it: Instapundit... More

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is one of many testing the waters for 2008 by making the obligatory visit to New Hampshire. Richardson, a competent and respected Cabinet member in the Clinton administration, is attempting  to create a Western regional primary for the Democrats in... More

Teddy Kennedy has been among the most vicious critics of President Bush, never hesitating to brand errors or mistakes as "lies." Now, however, the shoe is on the other foot. The Boston Herald reports that the Senator has been illicitly receiving thousands of dollars a year in tax credits to which... More

How does $444 an hour sound for a job requiring no high school diploma, and training which is measured in a the days of a single week? Fair? That's what forklift operators at a public facility, McCormick Place in Chicago, earn for work on Sundays. The ultra—high costs for hourly labor at the... More

Jack Risko of Dinocrat.com refers to the decadent wing of American culture — exemplified by the Sundance Film Festival — as Little Weimar. Funded by foundations, given tenure, or otherwise insulated from the marketplace, it turns inward and self—referential, establishing "truths"... More

With the hard—fought U.S. passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, there are signs of a welcome new alliance beginning to blossom — the permanence of the treaty means that Japan is looking to invest in poor, but stable Central American countries. CAFTA makes this... More

Dennis Prager demolishes the claims of those on the left that they support the troops while opposing the war in Iraq. In order to understand this, we need to first have a working definition of the term "support the troops." Presumably it means that one supports what the troops are doing and... More

You can count on outsourcing of jobs to receive even more frenzied coverage from journalists, now that Reuters has announced it will be outsourcing 20 editorial jobs to India. It will be interesting to see if the Indian editors will toe the Reuters company line about Muslim terrorists being... More

Bravo for Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumo, who is refusing to yield to Iraqi terrorists whi have kidnapped three Japanese journalists, demanding the withdrawal of Japan's contingent of troops in Iraq. The Japanese Self—Defense Forces in Iraq are performing humanitarian task. Japan's... More

Iowahawk is on a roll. Among his recent pieces I found this hilarious send—up of the Scandinavian UN—crats and their self—serving response to disasters: Today, less than three weeks after global warming triggered the fearsome ocean waves that devastated the region, the needy... More

Steven Plaut has a terrific short article on the subject of legitimacy and soverignty in the land of Israel or Palestine, if you will. Read it and save it. Richard Baehr  12 6 04 More

Sh—h—h—h, now the secret is out.  Again. Celebrities often lip synch their songs in so—called live performances.  But they fake it.  And sometimes the fakery is exposed like this minor incident.  Now if they'd only quit faking political and social... More

Russ Vaughn, from the Texas Hill Country, sent us his latest poem. Danny Boy Do you know what I would rather think? I'd rather think that Dan will blink. Unable to defend his blather, From pajama'd fiends that round him gather, With keyboards blazing out their scorn, As this great Samson's locks... More

Reader Michael Easton of Kansas City, MO writes us about Richard Baehr's article today: I'd like to think this "gambit" story is a mistake. Mainly because I think it is a mistake. Certainly, McCain can appeal to moderates on both sides of the aisle. But as has been pointed out by pundits, polling... More

The failure of PBS, the Public Boradcasting Service, to answer the telephone cost it very dearly. A New York Times article describing the (left wing) Ford Foundation's new commitment of $50 million to non—profit (left wing) television production lets slip a revealing nugget of... More

Captain's Quarters, a very fine website, has earned a new distinction: banned in Canada. For reporting on testimony revealing the corruption of the Liberal Party government. Canadian websites linking to Captain Ed's web page are now threatened with prosecution. Glenn Reynolds reports that... More

A reader who prefers to be identified as Big Temple writes: There is an old adage that generals always fight the last war. By last war, they mean that military leaders usually focus too much on the lessons learned in the previous war and forget to predict the vagaries of the coming one. The... More

Over at the American Spectator Jed Babbin reinforces opinion expressed here at American Thinker. This is a good example of an instance in which having one's thoughts affirmed confers no satisfaction whatsoever. Today is Day 1 of the President's 5—day campaign to counter growing public... More

The headline of an AP report at FoxNews.com is 'Body of Missing SEAL Found in Afghanistan.'  His name is being withheld pending notification of family.  When will the follow—up story come and tell us his story?   And what of the other 16 Americans who were aboard a... More

Historian Niall Ferguson, tongue possibly in cheek, proposes an intriguing hypothesis to explain the widening differential between Western European and American work hours. He notes that the decline in European working hours —— due to an increase in holidays, vacation days, and limits... More

With more prisoners converting to various sects of Islam, we can expect the movement to allow felons to vote to take on a religious coloration, in addition to its racial edge. John Sample writes today on National Review Online about the political impact of extending the franchise to felons, in and... More

This is an outstanding letter from a commander in Iraq about the shortcomings of media coverage on the war and how it has lent itself to the terrorists' aims. Clarice Feldman   1 15 05 Douglas Hanson adds: The blog Blackfive has an outstanding essay by Lt. Col. Tim Ryan who is the... More

Ben Stein has a great essay on the American Spectator site, describing the reality of having to whisper and hide one's political beliefs in a hostile blue state environment. As a Berkeley resident and sociologist, I could probably trump his Beverley Hills/Malibu/movie industry trauma. Ben adaopts... More

Haiti's interim leader castigated the international community Saturday, saying it has sent too few peacekeepers to prevent violence that has left some 55 people dead in two weeks. —AP dispatch from Haiti Where is the UN and Kofi Anan——not to mention John... More

Here's a copy of the transcript of the Unsolved Mysteries show on Vince Foster's suicide. Every document examiner said it was a forgery——except for Mr. Matley, the "expert" hired by CBS to "authenticate" the Killian memos. Clarice Feldman  9 14 04 More

"State Budgets Get Relief"  Wall Street Journal Strong gains in corporate profits, household income and home sales are swelling tax revenues for states nationwide, helping to close budget gaps and boost spending. State—tax revenue for the July—March period of the fiscal year... More

François Pinault is a billionaire art lover, one of the richest men in France. He had wanted to build a private $195 million art museum on an island in the Seine River, to display some of his vast collection of modern art. But he has given—up on his plan, despite having commissioned world... More

Berkeley has become a banana republic: "build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything." The latest example is a center for the disabled, being contested on the basis that the new structure would not harmonize with its historic surroundings. I happen to enjoy much of the work of the Berkeley... More

Bill Clinton spent eight long years sucking up to Irish Republican Army terrorists, repeatedly bringing Gerry Adams to the White House lending him respectablility and continuously touting the democratic viability of this murderous crime—fueled organization.  But avowed terrorists don't... More

Little Green Footballs caught and saved an image from the BBC home page, showing the Israeli flag in flames. It appears that once people noticed and complained, the image was removed. UPDATE: Al Jazeera now uses the same image. More

After spending nine whole days in Japan, the UN's "special rapporteur on racism and xenophobia" Doudou Diene pronounces his verdict on the nation of 130 million: racism in Japan is deep and profound, and the government does not recognise the depth of the problem. It must be nice to have a job... More

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund, apparently another 527 group, has a television commercial posted to its website. I urge all of readers to view it, in order to get a sense of the low intellectual level to which the primary abortion advocacy group has sunk. If I were an abortion  (what... More

Israel has been castigated around the world for the erection of a security barrier meant to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks. The media has roundly condemned the barrier, and likened it to an "apartheid wall"; "a prison"; a new Berlin Wall, designed to impoverish the Palestinian people... More

Blogs have been one of the powerful forces affecting and diminishing the power of the mainstream media. This has led to a flourishing culture of people who exchange or broadcast ideas regarding national issues. Pundits talk about the fragmentation of  the viewing public. Now, some enterprising... More

Fox News has clearly become a powerful force in American society and politics. Now Fox has become available to Canadian viewers. In the meantime, this bit of news is favorable.   News Corp.'s Fox News has reached an agreement to become the primary news provider to radio giant Clear Channel... More

You have one vote. Even in vote—early—vote—often—Chicago I will onlyhave one vote. Promise. And Cher, no matter how often she changes her face through plastic surgery, has one vote. Just like the rest of us. And not too many people even care how she votes——or... More

In today's Saudi newspaper Asharq Al Awsat, a reporter claims that Arab countries stopped a diabolic plan. In fact, according to him, Israel tried to export via European countries beauty products whose main characteristic is their 'cancer power.' But the alert Arab customs authorities are on the... More

The New York Times is zealous in framing all issues as contests between religious forces (associated with backwardness) and "secular" forces associated with sophistication and intelligence. Here they impose the same framework reporting the Italian vote to ease fertility laws — which... More

Oh sure, everyone believes s/he is a rational, centered, objective individual——it is just those other people who are so well, extreme. And no one believes this more than all the mass media. But of course all the masses out there just don't believe it, accusing the general media of well,... More

The German CEO of one of Europe's largest publishing companies has finally had enough. In a blistering essay published in Die Welt, called 'Europe, thy name is cowardice,' he laid into Europe's long string of appeasements to tyrants and terrorists that have made it the object of so much contempt in... More

Franco Aleman, of Barcepundit.com, provides us shocking suggestive evidence that the massive fire which destroyed a thirty—two story skyscraper in Madrid may have been the result of foul play. A videotaper caught what appears to be people with flashlights on lower floors of the building as... More

J.D. Pendry has written an open letter to Cindy Sheehan, well worth reading. Authentic voices refuting  her message are important. A highlight: When I enlisted into the Army, I didn't intend to stay one day more than my three year enlistment. No matter the reason that a man or woman enters... More

So many of us were outraged last week when the British tabloid The Sun totally ignored the multiple terrorist attacks in Israel in its map Evil Across the Planet that they were forced to add this updated correction "We have not included the unforgivable Palestinian terror attacks and suicide... More

Israel gets credit for a "positive step," and the Europeans are urged to weigh—in to pressure Arafat. In an editorial in the Los Angeles Times? Pinch me! I must be dreaming. Yet there it is, on the pixels of my computer monitor, and , if you click on the hyperlink, yours too. Posted by Edа 8... More

France's Ambassador to the US wrote an op—ed in the leftist Los Angeles Times, defending his country from American critics. Ed Lasky gives him a fisking — the internet art of inserting analytical comments in a text. The original article can be found here. A year ago, when the question... More

Hugh Hewitt does an admirable job fisking Howard Kurtz's recent coverage of the Rathergate scandal. It is well worth reading. More

The Simon Wiesthenthal Center has condemned the recent raid on a Caracas Jewish school, reported here via the Aleksander Boyd of the Vcrisis.com blog. The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the government authorities break in at the Jewish school and the Hebraica Jewish Community Center in Caracas,... More

Only in America?  Under 35; living in America only a few years, they made it on their own. The multi—billionaires Sergey Brin and Larry Page created something of enormous value to others.  Ethel C. Fenig  10 24 04 Thomas Lifson adds: Not only in America, but mostly... More

Below is a transcription of the purported after action reports recently unearthed by "The Point." If authentic, this material is very significant in that it confirms many of the claims made by John O'Neil in "Unfit For Command" and other Swift boat veterans' account of the day and contradicts... More

The AP reports that Harvard University's admission office altered the image in a brochure being sent to 150,000 prospective applicants: A Harvard brochure sent to thousands of prospective students included a doctored photo of the student newspaper's front page that removed a headline about the... More

This is what passes for an expert at the Council of Foreign Relations (publishers of Foreign Affairs). The author David L. Phillips writes a book "describing" the "fiasco" of Iraq without ever having set foot in Iraq during the reconstruction period he critiques so harshly!   Ed... More

The evil done by the Pew Foundation's secret maneuvers to stampede Congress into passing, and President Bush into signing, the free speech—regulating McCain—Feingold campaign finance reform act continues to spread. The Supreme Court's acquiescence to limitations on political speech has... More

The San Francisco Chinese New Year's Parade, happening today, is a big event, drawing a half million or more spectators, and serving as the largest public event for the Bay Area's large (and growing) Chinese population. Unfortunately, this year's event is marred by gross poltical bias. The Falun... More

Despite his service in Vietnam, Sen. Hagel's comparison of Iraq to Vietnam is incorrect and is a harmful influence on public opinion and troop morale.  What's up with this guy?  Is this just posturing as he contemplates a presidential run?   Frederick Kagan from the... More

The BBC is notorious for refusing to call terrorists the t—word (when attacking American soldiers, Israelis, and Jews, at least), instead preferring "militants" and "insurgents." Now it is using another term: "misguided criminals." Golly. Who misguided them? Maybe the... More

Recently there has been a spate of articles comparing America's economy to Europe's economy. Many of these have pointed out that the American economy is in far healthier shape than Europe's  (based on different  economic  policies, tax policies,  regulatory approaches, work... More

Left wing blogger Justin Felux declares that "Air America is a Joke," and he doesn't mean that listeners are enjoying a lot of laughs from the comedians who fill its airwaves. Picking up on a theme earlier raised in these pages, Felux savages the fledging network for displacing established... More

A glorious chapter in the history of commercial aviation was closed today, when Boeing announced the end of 717 airliner production at its Long Beach, California facility. The 717 is the successor model to the DC—9 series, later rechristened the MD—80 series when McDonnell acquired... More

Dennis Byrne of the Chicago Tribune has a terrific column exposing the utter propagandistic approach taken by the MSM in reporting on stem cells. A remarkable advance has taken place with a pateint named Hwang in Korea, with stem cells. But they are not embryonic stem cells, so the story has been... More

So reads the headline on an op—ed by film historian/leftwing press critic Neil Gabler in today's Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, Tom Friedman, writing in The New York Times, likens the Israeli far right to Hezbullah, as if they engaged in comparable terror tactics. What is going on among the... More

The not surprising revelation in the NY Post that Matley is kind of a kook and not a qualfied document examiner raises an interesting question. How many real document examiners told CBS these were fakes? (They had them for quite some time before going public with them.) Isn't it obvious that had... More

Today is Flag Day. To commemorate the occasion, Stars and Stripes, the daily military newspaper, is publishing a special section honoring the heroes of the War on Terror. You can link to a DoD announcement about it here. The supplement is not yet available online, but will be made available soon. More

Says political activist Laurie David, wife of the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star Larry David:   "Early every morning, we're at the kitchen table reading the papers, and within three minutes one of us is screaming. This is going to be a channel for that."   In Pajamas?   Ed Lasky ... More

Oil hit a record—high $58 a barrel this morning in Europe. This time the market talk is not about refinery capacity (bad as we know that is) but about weakened production.  The producer the market's looking at is Venezuela. Its biggest refinery shut down last week on an electrical... More

The Taxpayers League of Minnesota has started a great feature, which highlihgts extravagent government structures in that state, The "Taj Mahal of the Week." Nearly every day, I drive past a stunningly beautiful and extravagent public school campus in berkeley. Perched on a prime hillside lot, with... More

William Tate believes he has identified what amounts to the smoking gun in placing responsibility where it belongs for the failure to connect the dots on Atta and his gang. He points to a memorandum issued by Jamie Gorelick in 1995. Writing on whatsinthenews.com, he notes that others... More

Yesterday we noted  a very strange AP correction. Correction: Bombings—Blair Story  LONDON, United Kingdom —— In a July 9 story about Prime Minister Tony Blair's comments on overcoming global terrorism, The Associated Press erroneously reported that he spoke of easing... More

The only acceptable bigotryPBS has produced a documentary on George W. Bush's faith, and its influence on his Presidency. The media elite are appalled. A prime example is Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times. Chris Weinkopf, an editor of the Los Angeles Daily News outs her for her bigotry in... More

As is the tradition on the left wing British newspaper The Independent's online discussion groups,  a few anti Western lunatics are always present. Today, some bright young thing has opened up a debate entitled: "Today we are all Iraqis." It starts off by saying: 'Today the Iraqi people have... More

CBS News mocks the failure to discover WMD stockpiles in Iraq, and bashes Bush on their website: Just as some hardcore inconvincibles believe that hundreds of thousands of stolen Democratic votes are hidden somewhere in Ohio, some will forever be sure that Iraqi bio—bombs are hidden in Syria.... More

The United Nationas had its award dinner for corresponsents covering it. Benny Avi of the New York Sun noted some interesting aspects: The black—tie affair, which at times had an eerie Titanic feel to it, celebrated "serious" journalism, which describes the important work the United Nations... More

The Des Moines Register this morning covers a widespread phenomenon as it exists in Iowa: the fear of speaking out honestly about their political views which grips many conservative students. The article is "balanced" in the sense of noting that conservatives, a beleagured minority, are... More

I happened to be watching the Fox News Channel when the pajama meme was born. You know what I mean — the now—infamous remark by Jonathan Klein, a former CBS executive that Americans should trust REAL news professionals, not the bloggers, whom he characterized as 'a guy sitting in living... More

Jason DeParle, a New York Times writer adept at sneering through his word processor, cannot help himself and lets the envy show a bit in his article today about the 64 summer interns working at the Heritage Foundation. The familiar lament that the well—funded conservative movement is... More

Dr. Zin, of Regime Change Iran, who has been a leading source of information on the Iranian opposition movement, is raising alarms over the support he sees from David Horowitz's Front Page Magazine for the MEK group of Iranian dissidents. His arguments seem reasonable, and he does not wish to deny... More

It has started. The UK's Guardian could restrain itself no longer. This great man was getting entirely too much praise, too much adoration, and worst of all, winning too many hearts and souls to a doctrine opposed to secular humanism and twisted utopianism. His passing has not silenced him: far... More

Crosswalk.com has a well—deserved tribute to Michelle Malkin, who continues to amaze me with her guts, insight, energy, and all—around excellence. How she can function at such a high level professionally, while raising two small kids is a mystery I will never solve. I think that Kevin... More

Mediacrity holds Frank Rich responsible for what he wrote today about Mother Sheehan on the op—ed page of the New York Times. It isn't pretty, but it is worth reading. Ed Lasky adds: Notice the whitwashing of the anti—Semitism—swept under the rug. The NYT just cannot report any... More

A crack in the wall; Muslim worshippers shouting down anti—American "sermons" by Imams. The counterterror blog reports: From the Al—Siyasah newspaper (received June 6): "The Imam of al—Jabiriyah preached against the Americans and the Worshippers shouted 'O' Allah, make America... More

The American newspaper industry has a new circulation scandal. This time, it is the Dallas Morning News, which is admitting overstating circulation, and thereby cheating advertisers. Correcting its erroneous figures, parent company Belo no admits that the paper has suffered a 5% daily circulation... More

One of our readers, Paul Ford, has kindly brought to our attention an interesting update on the British play named 'Follow the Leader', written by Mr Alistair Beaton. As we reported last week, this satirical play included footage of 9/11, and also encouraged the audience to sing an... More

Kim Jong il, as seen by the unfortunate North Koreans who must endure starvation, repression, and lunatic denial of reality in their official media (there are no other kind), in this snippet from North Korean television. It is subtitled in English at the top, and in Japanese at the bottom of the... More

Suggestions are pouring in for a new, more appropriate location for the United Nations. Jack Kemp reminds us of Dennis Prager's article two years ago, with the following thought: In fact, why wait for an attack? Move the United Nations to Saudi Arabia before it ever gets attacked. New York can use... More

Dabiel Aronstein, of The Astute Blogger, notes that John Kerry strayed over another border, and this time isn't bragging about it. Accompanied by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson on a campaign swing, he found himself in Texas. The AP's Nedra Pickler reported: Kerry stopped by the Red Rooster... More

Reader James Beam contributes a useful perspective on the fate of Dan Rather, and more broadly, the 60s generation, which once exulted in challenging authority. With his permission, we excerpt: My perspective as an elementary school student in the sixties, and son of a WWII vet, was that my older... More

It strikes me that the coalition that won WWII was forged when the Left flipped after Hitler invaded Russia. The anti—Communist coalition in the US won when the labor movement expelled Stalinists. The war against Islamist terror may be won when... well, you get the picture. There may be... More

Girls as young as 10 years old are being given prescriptions for birth control as underage sex in Britain becomes increasingly common. You can read about it here if you haven't just eaten a meal.  Joseph Crowley    5 09 05  More

Look who is complaining about National Public Radio now——a black columnist whose criticism is encapsulated in the article's title White Noise.  NPR is not diverse enough, doesn't relate to minorities he asserts. Well, that may or may nor be true depending on one's... More

Iain Duncan Smith, one of the most prominent Tory Euroskeptics, has an opinion piece today in the UK Guardian (of all places!) on the impact of blogs in the United States, and their likely future impact on British politics. Well worth reading. Excerpt: ...the blogosphere will become a force in... More

John Hinderaker's critique of Paul Krugman's Big Lie" column is not to be missed. Once a distinguished academic, Krugman, who still teaches at Princeton, has fallen hard, and now openly engages in deception. Does Princeton University require that its faculty embody the disinterested pursuit of the... More

A leader of the Egyptian Parliament claims that Jews and Christians are responsible for the 7—7 bombings in London. Recall that Egypt has received and still receives billions in US and European aid. Ed Lasky  7 11 05   More

Today, the New York Times let rocker Bruce Springsteen strut his stuff in a banal op—edаwhich promotes a concert he and fellow musicians are taking on to the road to drum up support for the defeat of President George Bush.Does anyone have a problem with the Times letting some of the most... More

As reported by The Sunday Telegraph this morning, Michael Grade, the BBC's new Chairman has kicked off his tenure with an early crisis. Apparently he is unwilling to give up his shares in Pinewood Studios, which rents studio space to the BBC. These transactions are worth millions of pounds every... More

Hallelujah! An MSM outlet has finally noticed that Venezuela is rapidly slipping down the Communist tyranny skids. Congratulations to the Washington Post for its editorial today, which gets it competely right. We even learned something we had noticed already: The same day Mr. Chavez signed the... More

Earl McRae of the Ottawa Sun reports on a heart—warming encounter between President Bush and a Canadian Member of Parliament, during his visit last week to Ottawa. With all the focus on Canadian politicians and Canadian media critical of the United States, it is easy to forget how many of our... More

The Jerusalem Post joins Debka in reporting that Yasser Arafat may be sriously ill. Tunisian doctors have been given permission by Israel to enter Arafat's terrotry and treat him for the "flu" which is said to ail him. Let's see: Castro falls (on live TV) and breaks bones in his arm and knee.... More

According to leading employment firm Manpower, about 28% of American employers plan to increase hiring during the fourth quarter. Another new economic measure, revenue in the service sector, showed good growth in the last quarter. The service sector accounts for 55% of the nation's GDP. This area... More

Two brave members of the Berkeley Unified School District Board have expressed doubts about renaming Jefferson Elementary School, because the Founding Father and president owned slaves. Faculty and staff of the school have already voted to re—name it Sequoia Elementary School — not that... More

Betsy Newmark, whose Betsy's Page blog is one of the very best, is a social studies teacher in North Carolina. How nice to learn that her charter school has been ranked #9 in the entire country by Jay Matthews of the Washington Post, who is, by far, the best education writer in the country. With at... More

Sure, school work has changed since we were kids——heck it has changed since last year.  And now even the color of the teacher's marking pen has changed. Out with the red——in the with the purple.    It seems that many parents object to... More

Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs has caught Dotty Lynch — who is the senior political news editor at CBS News, and thus a shaping force for the entire network's political coverage — imagining something and then reporting it. As Charles puts it, "unbelievable." It certainly is a... More

Daoud Kuttab has written a piece in the New York Times which raises the question of whether they have any regard at all for the truth. My comments on the story are in brackets and appear in italics. SOMETHING strange happened last week: Israeli settlers and Jewish extremists appeared human on Arab... More

Al Qaeda itself avers that poverty does not a terrorist make. They seem to be experts in the terror line of work, so maybe we should  listen to them and end the cliché of  poverty being the root cause of terror. AL—QAEDA is secretly recruiting affluent, middle—class Muslims... More

Our friend and fellow—blogger Gary Larson (not the cartoonist) has performed a wonderful community service by writing a book review   calling Garrison Keillor, of the Prairie Home Companion public radio empire, exactly what he is: hate—filled. Gary took the time to read... More

As reported by the Sunday Telegraph, Tony Blair authorized a deal with the Romanian PM (Adrian Nastase) last October, which lifted visa restrictions on Romanians entering the UK, on the condition that they not apply as asylum applicants. This revelation, tied in with the fact that Tony Blair made a... More

In addition to the tsunami disaster unfortunately there are other tragedies wracking the world.  Although they don't have the sudden, unexpected impact of a large wave or moving ground, illness and death plague many.   For instance, malaria is still common in other parts of the... More

Nora Jacobson, a sociologist and self—described bluestocking blue—stater, who pursued a career opportunity in Canada, has rueful column in today's Houston Chronicle. She describes how the anti—Americanism she encouters in Toronto has turned her off as far as regarding Canadians as... More

Conceding the likelihood of a Bush win despite their ill—conceived and counter—productive drive to get Euroweenies to change the minds of heartland voters, the Guardian hopes he'll be assassinated:  On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses.... More

Rep. Ros—Lehtinen makes one fatal error in her otherwise reasoned argument on the European Union's hypocrisy.  She concludes that the members of the EU are "our allies in the global war on terror."  Unfortunately this is not correct.  While a few  individual countries are... More

I admire Peggy Noonan's writing and I enjoy her style. She has a wonderful way of being "soft—hard": that is, she can express hard—edged opinions with softness and subtlety. It's masterful, elegant, and sophisticated. But as much as I like to read her columns, she's just plain wrong in... More

Time and Newsweek are now at odds from their two biggest DNC copywriters over Hillary's ability to become President: Joe Klein and Anna Quindlen. Both praising her as much as possible, trying to convince readers that she is really not as bad as everyone thinks she is. She is really much more... More

The worlds of Brave New World and 1984 aren't more bizarre than the information from Freedom House listing the 18 governments considered most repressive The report, "The Worst of the Worst: The World's Most Repressive Societies 2005," includes detailed summations of the dire human rights situations... More

Andrew Sullivan will be defending academic freedom this weekend on the Chris Matthews show (check for local bradcast time). Here is his item: I let rip on the academic Stalinists baying for Summers' blood on the Chris Matthews Show this weekend. I cannot believe the hysteria. Well, actually, the... More

I appreciate Mr. Vaughn taking the time to respond to my article but I fear that we are bloggers passing in cyberspace. Essentially, we are talking past one another. First, I cannot quarrel with any of what Mr. Vaughn relates in his third and fourth paragraphs regarding the critics of our adventure... More

The New York Times is planning to launch a weekly newspaper targeting a largely black community in Gainesville, Florida. This seems a bit odd from the titan of liberal newspapers. After all, segregating the reading public in this way smacks of a world view that is usually not found in much of the... More

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is reporting that Israel is undertaking a far—reaching crackdown on Palestinian Authority control over the Muslim Waqf on the Temple Mount, and curtailing its penetration of East Jerusalem. In the PA's place, the Hashemite regime in Amman is enhancing... More

As reported widely, Spanish Coalition forces have fired on protesters in Najaf, killing 19 or more Iraqis who were protesting at the closure of a pro—Moqtada Sadr newspaper, which had been inciting violence against Coalition forces. Reports suggest that armed protesters had fired on the... More

Barcepundit In English, the authoritative source on just how far to the bottom Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero  is taking Spain, says French colonization of Spain continues at a brisk pace. Zapatero's big—mouth foreign minister, who sounds like he's had a few, can't... More

A must read — the New York Times finally editorializes on the oil for food scandal today and blames, get ready, ...the United States for it. Richard Baehr  12 5 04 Thomas Lifson adds: Note the emotive language employed to prejudice the reader: "gaggle of conservatives" "the wrath of... More

The blogs are abuzz with comment on Lawrence O'Donnell's on—air breakdown last night on MSNBC. Michelle Malkin does  agreat job, and no doubt will continue to update. see also Polipundit. But best of all, see it for yourself, courtesy of the Daily Recycler. Be prepared to do other... More

In purely pragmatic terms,  the Democrats understandably want to remove Nader from the Florida presidential ballot (and others nationally).  And equally understandably, the Republicans are working to add his name to the ballot across the country. Reuters reports that, as of today,... More

Senator Chares "Chuck" Schumer, during an Executive Session of Congress on May 18th, accused Janice Rogers Brown of standing for the 'philosophy of the 1890's'. Senator Schumer was attempting to demonstrate the merits of the Democrats' vehement opposition to Judge Brown and justify the... More

OK, its an easy shot to criticize the New York Times, but often they deserve it.  As a newspaper read by many of the nation's most influential the paper exerts a power far beyond its numbers and so deserves extra scrutiny.  But let's give some credit where due. The paper does realize news... More

If you are an American shopper buying ice cream for the family, what flavor would you be most likely to buy? The "correct "answer is vanilla for most people. But we all know that there are many variations on that basic theme! You can get old—fashioned high butterfat naturally flavored, or... More

When someone is too afraid to try something new and unfamiliar like the Democrats now, they are said to be like drunks who lose their car keys on the dark side of the street but look for them under the street lamp (across the way) because the light is better. They keep looking at changing their... More

The following comments are in reponse to Dennis Sevakis's column on August 19th, Today I Tipped. 'Today I tipped?' Nossir, with all due respect, I 'd say you slipped. Yep, slipped big time on the Liberal Democrat banana peel of trying to put the Bush administration in a damned if you do and damned... More

As Hurricane Dennis bears down on the U.S. this evening, it's done some of the worst damage, ever, in Castro's decaying island tyranny on Cuba. But something's happening. Cubans, long deprived of technology like the Internet and cell phones, except in the most controlled circumstances, somehow... More

The Washington Post reports that rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr has declared a "revolution" against U.S.—led security forces in Iraq. Fighting is underway in Najaf, with a U.S. helicopter already downed. Coicidentally or not, Grand Ayatollah Sistani is reported to be ill with heart problems. I... More

I have a simple message to those Britons and other foreign nationals who object to being fingerprinted when visiting the USA: We upped our security. Up yours. Okay, it's an old joke, but it really works well in its latest incarnation. Posted by Thomas   04 03 04 More

When Congressmen die their survivors often become their successors—either by appointment (Carnahan in Missouri) or by running in the next election (sometimes a special election called due to the death of a Congressman). Does anyone have a problem with this form of nepotism? Are we to assume... More

Memo to Kerry supporters, Bush haters:  The election is over.  Bush won!  Kerry lost!  Get over it! If purists are really concerned about honest elections and eliminating vote fraud where were they in say, 1960, when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley the Elder  so desperately... More

Mona Charen, one of the most sensible of commentators, echoes thoughts I expressed earlier this year, about voting. The welfare of the Republic is not enhanced by people voting, if they have not bothered to inform themselves, or if their preferences are determined by the quality of the advertising... More

The Washington Post jumps all over Rathergate this morning, with a stroy headlining the non—authentication of CBS's Killian memos by the very expert CBS cited, Marcel Matley. Even worse, from Rather's standpoint, the Post examines critically CBS's latest arguments for legitimacy, and finds... More

Not a phoenix, but KKK kleagle Robert Byrd, who, as our friend Don Surber points out, rose from the ashes of burning crosses to first win election to Congress in 1952. In that year, six blacks were lynched. Don can write up a storm — read the column. We are looking forward to the... More

Noting the fallout from Pewgate——increased attention in the blogosphere to the activities of philanthropic foundations——this author notes why we cannot count on the legacy media to do this. Pewgate signaled a big change. It revealed a new and extensive conservative... More

With regard to this offer: It is difficult,if not meaningless for a physician  to make a diagnosis, of  "persistent vegetative state"on the basis of  a head CT scan alone.  Physicians, in general, do not rely on a single test to make a diagnosis. In fact in medical school they... More

Alan Greenspan yesterday warned of a housing price real estate bubble "in certain areas." I wonder if he has been reading The American Thinker? On January 3rd, Noel Sheppard wrote for us an article on the same subject. Doug Hanson  2 18 05 More

It was reported today that Islam will be the main source of Iraq's law and her parliament will observe religious principles.  Parliament will also be restricted from passing laws that contradict Islamic principals.  This news will not be greeted well by the country's women or religious... More

And just how did this happen?   quote LONDON, United Kingdom —— In a July 9 story about Prime Minister Tony Blair's comments on overcoming global terrorism, The Associated Press erroneously reported that he spoke of easing the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Blair... More

America's press is largely uninterested in the story of Christian evangelism overseas. Few people realize that Christianity has become a major force in South Korea, or that Christianity and Islam are completing vigorously for converts in Africa. One nation, Uganda, has arguably been... More

A bomb with detonator found yesterday on the train tracks between Madrid and Sevilla, contains the same explosive type as that used in the 3/11 attacks. The Spanish Interior Minister insists it is still too early to say whether there is direct link to an al—Qaeda connection. Of course there... More

The Philadelphia Inquirer is hemorrhaging circulation, to the degree that the Circulation Department has gotten members of the editorial staff to start harassing...umm calling former subscribers, asking them to pretty please start reading the rag again. "If the people I call say, 'Yes, I was mad... More

Aleksander Boyd, who publishes the blog Vcrisis from London, has proven to us to be a relaible source of news on the Castroite Chavez regime of Venezuela. Most recently, he scooped the world press in reporting on a nonsensical raid on a Jewish school in Caracas. Another blog, Vheadline.com,... More

I am not the only person seriously concerned about the rise of political violence. In a syndicated column of a few days ago, Thomas Lipscomb focused on polling place disruption, in particular, along with attacks on campaign offices. He brought out the fact that even Warren Christopher,... More

Maybe the union printers fired by the liberal New York Times can go into business producing forged documents.  (Sorry I couldn't resist.) Reuters reports: Publishing company New York Times Co on Monday said it reached an agreement with its printing pressmen's union to slash jobs at two... More

The next time you are warned about the dangers of global warming, or the need for fetal stem cell research, consider this report. ...according to the first large—scale survey of scientific misbehavior. More than 5 percent of scientists answering a confidential questionnaire admitted to... More

Isn't it a sign of the Times that the former paper of record has to set up a panel to address the issues of credibility? It now faces deep questions about its reliability under the leadership of Pinch Sulzberger: a post—Vietnam pseudo—radical heir to a paper that he has turned into... More

Matthew May has his own tribute to Pope John Paul II on his blog site. All of us are grappling with both the enormity of the loss and and the joy in having enjoyed the gift of this man's presence among us. More

For the umpteenth time, I have read a David Limbaugh column and thought to myself, "Why didn't you say that? You agree with every word of it." We have proudly published our own tribute, written by military historian John B. Dwyer. But I have been sadly deficient in expressing the gratitude I feel... More

Now that Israel has forcibly deported thousands of its crying and praying citizens from their homes in Gaza,  I have a question for Dr. Rowan Williams. Dr. Williams is the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England. As such, he started the ball rolling for a massive campaign... More

D. J. Drmmond of Polipundit neatly sums up the reasons why I am so optimistic about the fate of the Supreme Court. Tbe Democrats have backed themselves into a corner with the deal they cut on filibusters. If they attempt to filibuster a SCOTUS nomination, they will be nuked. And for all their... More

San Francisco's gay—marrying mayor Gavin Newsom, and his oh—so—chic wife, television commentator Kimbery Guilfoyle—Newsom, are the subjects of a flattering photo spread and article in Harper's Bazaar, entitled, "The New Kennedys." San Franciscans of a certain sort are beside... More

Our friends at Powerline have a characteristically excellent review of the Democrats' pattern of hate speech, following the desecration in Fallujah. The blogosphere is stepping to the fore as America's premier venue for political speech, with Democrats disgracing themselves, and conservative... More

Now here is Democracy: Iraq allowing Israelis of Iraq origin to vote. Ed Lasky   1 13 05 More

John Hinderaker of the wonderful Power Line site is raising suspicions about the fall of oil prices since the re—election of George W. Bush. Was the price pushed higher by those (The Saudis? Soros?) who would have preferred President Kerry? Way back last March, our own Ed Lasky wrote the... More

Oh, please, Lord,  make it so. The Boston Herald reports that John F. Kerry is considering a visit to the World Series while the Sox are playing in Fenway Park, where Kerry could bask in the team's glory. Kerry notoriously fudged the name of his favorite Red Sox player, was unable to throw... More

Laws apparently don't mean much to leftist political fundraiser Danny Scher. Despite the objections of his neighbors, and previous fines for holding illegal large scale fundraisers, featuring amplified outdoor performances, Scher has persisted in holding the prohibited gatherings. Yesterday, he... More

The notable Ben Stein, of television, film, literary, and American Spectator fame, has joined Ed Lasky in noting the disgraceful story in the New Yorker about a traitorous journalist. Ben joins Ed in noting that not journalist quoted in the lengthy piece mentioned the deaths of American soldiers... More

AFP and Time Magazine are reporting that the US Senate subcommittee headed by Sen. Norm Coleman will be naming names of those found to have received corrupt Oil—for—Food program allotments, essentially bribes from Saddam Hussein. Foreign embassies are being notified in advance. The... More

Captaid Ed of Capatin's Quarters has broken the publication ban and gives us the scoop on the Canadian  Liberal party scandal that's about to blow them out of office: On Thursday, Jean Brault began his testimony, subject to the publication ban, and revealed a massive pattern of corruption... More

Detailing the Administration's unsung victories on the Middle East, Victor Davis Hanson makes an observation so true and brilliant it ought to be etched in stone and prominently displayed in newsrooms, universities and on Capitol Hill: As a rule of thumb in matters of the Middle East, be very... More

There's been an upswing in pro—Chavez and pro—Castro propaganda in the mainstream media that is getting a little disturbing. Two instances are obvious from the past day. Today's New York Times, in an atrocious news "analysis"  makes an effort to downgrade a very serious... More

The San Francisco Chronicle lionizes a communist, Lester Rodney, 97 years old now, and living in suburban Walnut Creek (a place noted for its paucity of African American residents or shoppers in its busy downtown retailing mecca), for his work forcing baseball to integrate by allowing Jackie... More

The Grand Ayatollah Sistani, a voice for moderation among Iraq's Shiite majority, is reported to be sufferiung from a heart ailment. Even worse, violence in Najaf may be affecting his access to medical care. I hope that American military medical facilities can be made available to this particular... More

The news of yesterday's excellent US employment data is hard to find in the liberal British press. The Independent and Guardian newspapers seem not to believe in the concept of a global economy, at least when it's good news from the US. On both their homepage news sections there is not one jot... More

Tim Goddard make a convincing case that if the judges of the Washington Supreme Court are open—minded,  as opposed to wildly partisan (say, like the King County vote counters),  there is plenty of law and evidence  to support throwing out the "election" of... More

Reader David Boyles has a suggestion for moving the UN out of New York City: I read your article regarding the UN's desire to have New York's tax payers pay for the UN's renovation and expansion.I have an alternative suggestion: Relocate the United Nations to Cuba. This has distinct... More

We learned, via Powerline and Digital Brown Pajamas, that Nuradin Abdi, a native of Somalia charged with plotting to blow up a Columbus, OH  mall, has been registered to vote. Local election officials had no way of catching this fact, either. It only came to light through the investigation of... More

Michale Fumento has a column up today on Tech Central Station Central, about the use of adult stem cell technology to regenerate heart and blood vessel tissues. In the future, this may obviate the need for traumatic bypass surgery of the sort from which ex—President Clinton is now... More

Jack Shafer delivers a well—deserved thrashing to Tom Friedman for his relentless self—promotion via his column in the New York Times. in addition to mentioning his new too much, Friedman is also endlessly recycling his old ideas. If he can't think of something new to say, he should... More

Proving once again that Comedy Central's Jon Stewart has nothing on real news, Al Gore, the self proclaimed inventor of the internet will receive a lifetime achievement award for internet development  from one of the real internet inventors. As befits a Democrat official, Gore authorized... More

Dr. C.B. Boyle, a radiologist who has interpreted over 10,000 brain CT scans is offering a $100,000 reward for any neurologist who can predict more than 60% of the time which patients have PVS on the basis of a CT scan. He is disgusted by the parade of "experts" who are not experienced in the... More

Robert Kagan contrasts the unwillingness of the usual suspects (the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other members of the lib—left establishment) to see any overarching Communist connections in the international left wing movements of the past, with their current eagerness to pronounce... More

Does a spider give control of her web to other arachnids that have contributed nothing towards its creation?  The question is absurd for creatures in the insect world, but in the human domain it has become a topic of discussion.  To be sure, it is not a controversy concerning the... More

The left cites the 9/11 Commission Report as definitive on the subject of there being supposedly no connections between Iraq and al Qaeda. The report never claimed to be the last word, and, indeed, a lot more has been learned since then. The Weekly Stndard publishes an important report on what we... More

Oh, those fun—loving Germans! The Subway restaurant chain's German shops have withdrawn their offensive tray liners, quoting Michael Moore (a strange endorser of anti—obesity campaigns) and showing a fat Statue of Liberty. But according the CNS News Service, even more offensive material... More

The invaluable Media Research Center has issued a cyber alert this morning (not yet posted to its excellent website www.mrc.org) about a CBS News story's political slant, which is simultaneously beyond both parody and contempt. We quote their email alert this morning: "The long job slump," in... More

Val over at Babalublog is reporting that anti—Castro graffiti has suddenly started appearing in Havana. 'Abajo Fidel.' Cuban cops are frantically trying to scrape it off. Something's made the Cubans bolder, they must recognize something going on, the regime is crumbling.  And Castro has... More

Some medical doctors among the free—spirited Dutch, who have been living in a half—century reaction against their Calvinist past, have now instituted the Groningen Protocol,  which permits an independent committee to euthanize the terminally ill who do not have "free will": namely,... More

"Stronger at home, respected abroad" is John Kerry's slogan.  Shhh, don't tell Kerry and friends, but not only are most Americans disinterested about respect from abroad, they're opposed to it. Just look at what happened in Clark County, Ohio.  An arrogant British paper, the... More

Our friend Jack Risko has an excellent post on his website Dinocrat, linking CBS's response to the blogosphere's challenge to the broader sweep of deregulation. Like many "legacy corporations" born and bred in the comfy competitive environments of the past, CBS does not know how to be energetic in... More

If British taxpayers pay for  iPODS to be given to students to bribe them to attend school, how much will you have to give them to get them to stop committing mayhem and violence against teachers and fellow students? Ed Lasky   6 9 05 More

The other day you read how "Cleaner (read:greener) air is actually contributing to global warming". Today I want you to see how millions of taxpayers hard earned green—backs are being wasted on so—called environmentally friendly Green—buildings. You'll read how "One Tacoma... More

It's become quite noticeable that SoS Rice is, according to the pictures we are lately getting from the MSM, MIA.   Gone are pictures of Condi, beautifully coifed and dressed, striding purposefully around the globe with a beatific smile and a head crammed full of knowledge and... More

Kofi Annan has provided abundant evidence of what kind of man he is. He is not cooperating with the Oil—for—Food investigation, telling his employees not to testify before the US Congress, called the Iraq War "illegal" thereby interfering with President Bush's re—election... More

Hugo Chavez, the left wing dictator of Venezuela, is declaring war on America's War on Drugs, ending all bilateral antidrug cooperation, and expelling Drug Enforcement Administration employees. The Boston Globe reports: On Wednesday, the head of the Venezuelan antidrug agency said DEA agents... More

Married to the leader of one of the most important nations of the free world, she is a successful high powered lawyer in her own right.  Backing just about every popular liberal left cause around, including opposition to George Bush and the war on terror in Iraq while speaking sympathetically... More

The Cortez (CO) Journal proudly reports  in its July 13 issue that the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office and the Search and Rescue team has managed to receive over $85,000 in grants from the Homeland Security Office for Domestic Preparedness.  Of course, what's $85,000 in the big scheme... More

On AOL, the 308,000 jobs growth is NOT the top new story. Not even highlighted. When job growth came in at 21,000 last month, disappointing job news was the top story. I am sure this in not deliberate.  Maybe they will have a headline later today on increase in unemployment rate.  Posted... More

The House of Political Incorrectness, a British blog, is also on the case of the BBC: The Beeb has effectively become a tabloid. One only has to listen to the world service or see their programmes to feel nauseated. It's an all out war against the Yanks. Now they're capitalizing on the attention... More

You've read here previously and in other places about PESTS, people suffering from "Post Election Selection Trauma."  Not to be too unkind but the afflicted were so upset by the loss of John F. Kerry to George W. Bush that many simply could not function. Eager therapists, ready for a... More

Aside from the Simon & Schuster and CBS partisan activities on behalf of the DNC, the ties between Viacom's MTV, the 527 Rock the Vote and the DNC are exposed in this protest against the channel's round the clock pumping of the fake draft story:   MTV/Rock the Vote called CCR Chairman... More

William Safire has a good column ont he CBS bogus memo scandal. Mor eimportant than the specific content is the specific location it first appears: on the op—ed page of the New York Times. Everyone Dan Rather and CBS management considers important reads the New York Times on paper every... More

Ed Feulner argues in the Washington Times that the absence so far of major investment capital into embyronic stem cell research is telling. When medical research has to rely on the public sector for funding, it is often an indication of weak prospects. Investment capital, on the other hand, is... More

Gutenberg——call the future.  You have seen the future and it is blogs. Well, you're reading a great one aren't you?  And unlike Gutenberg it is not the Christian Bible but the intent is the same —— reading material available to everyone not just the... More

Did you see Paul Krugman's column the other day when he voiced his fear that right—wing conservatives would start assasssinating their opponents?As usual, the good doctor has it backwards.  Where is the violence these days?  In the last campaign, two Republican offices were hit with... More

I never liked Arthur Miller's plays, even when I was a young man who accepted most of the ideology of the left. His plays always seemed bleak, the language unnatural, and the characters not very memorable, except for Willy Loman and maybe Bif. I endured a few performances, noticed him when he... More

Let's see: we have not seen a lot of press about terrorist attacks in China but in a Financial Times article entitled 'China sets up squads to combat terrorism' it says "...the authorities dealt with 74,000 protests and riots nationwide last year, involving more than 3.7m people, compared with... More

The Mediacrity website, which has become a great favorite of mine, has a heads—up on this Sunday's New York Times Magazine cover story on the Middle East's Fun Couple, Dr. and Mrs Bashar al—Assad. Just when you thought the Times had hit bottom, they haul out the jackhammer and... More

The New York Times routinely dismisses as flimsy or fabricated evidence that has come from a single source or a few sources which supports the Bush Administration's War on Terror. Yet, in this front—page article, the paper relies on one imprisoned 17 year—old Muslim to impugn... More

The long sought—after job gains have started to appear. As the Bush Recovery roars along, fuelled by pump—priming tax cuts, the lagging indicators, such as job creation, are responding. Settling a longstanding grocery workers strike in Southern California helped, too (just as it earlier... More

Has Mary Mapes found a job at the Washington Post? It almost appears so, given the evidence Michelle Malkin has uncovered. Covering the Abu Ghraib trial, The Post headlines "Graner Ordered to Beat Prisoners." Michelle compares the WaPo story with that filed by the AP (headline: "Witness:... More

Jay Tolson of U.S. News & World Report asks if Tariq Ramadan should be allowed into the USA. The answer is obviously no. And Nortre Dame should not be hiring him either. Ethel C. Fenig   12 4 04 More

Reuters reports that Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick, one of the soldiers charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal, has pled guilty to various charges of abuse and photographing naked prisoners. American Thinker readers may remember that Sgt. Frederick figured prominently in the chain of connection in... More

The Jihadwatch website contains a fairly alarming account, consisting of translations from the Swedish press (with hyperlinks to the originals) about the city of Malm (presumably the city known as Malmo to Americans), Sweden's third largest. As Muslim immigration has increased, unaccompanied... More

This is what happens when you have mob rule—a group of people led astray by similarly wrong—headed people:   A protest organized June 1 by MoveOn, a liberal political action committee, drew about 20 people to the Michigan Avenue office of U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R—Brighton.... More

I doubt this starling fact has anything to do with Liberty, Equality, Fraternity or love of nation.It is economic insecurity. And since when is a civil servant civil? Especially a French one? The emasculation the work ethic by pandering politicians who enact laws meant to vitiate this ethic has... More

The MSM——particularly the AP——distorted the facts in this case, ran a phony biased poll, publicized what it turns out was a fake "GOP Talking Points Memo," all to create (as Pew did with Campaign Finance Reform) the notion that American public opinion opposed intervention in... More

When you think of a government information office, do you think of much more than dusty information pamphlets and glossy tourist brochures full of pleasant platitudes, putting the best face forward on a particular nation? Such is perfectly natural for friendly, and even some... More

If you are a UN official, you'd better hope that President Bush doesn't praise your work. Carina Perelli, the UN's top elections official won praise from him, and now stands accused by the U.N.'s personnel department of presiding over an office that tolerated sexual harassment of staff, U.N.... More

D.J. Drmmond of Polipundit makes a case that the filibuster deal may ultimately represent a triumph for Majority Leader Bill Frist: Bill Frist lost a lot of his credibility as an effective leader when 7 supposed Republican Senators left the huddle to go work out a special deal with 7 from the... More

If you have the stomach to sit through a commercial, and then plow through an exercise in sophistry, you can view an article today, Unchecked anti—Semitism  in left wing website Salon.com, which starts by writing about anti—Semitism in France, and ends up deciding that the... More

As reported today in the Financial Times, the Bush administration will start cranking up the pressure on EU nations that are considering lifting the arms embargo to China, which has been in place since the Tiananmen Square massacre. If the EU does lift the arms embargo, the US may have to cut down... More

Well beneath the MSM radar screen, Syria has become a de facto major problem for the United States, and for peace in the Middle East. It is quite likely that the Baathist remnant conducting the terror campaign in Iraq is receiving sanctuary, and using materiel and money secreted across the border... More

Commentary carries an excellent article by David Pryce—Jones on the appeasment of radical Islam gripping Europe (it is certianly not confined there, of course). An excerpt: One form of Islamist fellow—traveling masquerades as a call for 'tolerance,' or 'diversity,' and has penetrated... More

Get the ER rooms and pysch wards ready for your liberal friends who know that liberals are always smarter. Just in one week— we have learned that Republicans have better sex  lives than Democrats. Now Bush reportedly has a higher IQ than Kerry. What is next? The Red Sox win the World... More

Despite the protestations, pluralism doesn't seem to have taken root in Hollywood. Time to remedy that. Perhaps a little of that affirmative action championed by the entertainment world for others would enable those of other political persuasions to produce the entertainment that truly... More

It seems the post 'non' mood around Paree wasn't as gay as usual. So on Wednesday the new French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepinhead gave his subjects what we less sophisticated yanks like to call a pep talk. You can read his exhortation in it's entirety here if you're so inclined, but below... More

The BBC earnestly reports: There is growing concern among Palestinian human rights workers after the killings of at least six young women in recent months. [emphasis added] The killings in question are so—called "honor killings" of women who are thought to have dishonored their families by,... More

A reader writes to remind us that the Battle of Okinawa began 60 years ago today. Neither side expected this to be the last major battle of World War II, but it was, thanks to Fat Man and Little Boy. The Okinawan civilians suffered enormously, sometimes at the hands of the Imperial Japanese forces,... More

Steven Warschawsky responds to Mattehew May's article yesterday: In 'The Bandwagon,' Matt May presents an impassioned defense of his and others' support for Condoleezza Rice for President in 2008.  I respect his point of view and acknowledge that there are plenty of smart people who disagree... More

Ann Coulter's columns are famous for being caustic and bitingly sarcastic. Her over—the—top style often overwhelms the legitimacy of her writing, and therefore many people just tune her out. But every once in a while she just gets it so right, so correct, that it has to be shared. This... More

Once again, the "newspaper of record" tells us what is and isn't news. In its eyes, at least. It is amazing to me how, in this entire article, the journalist can find room to quote the grievances of Muslims about the policies of America and England, and how they policies led to the bombing, but... More

The Wall Street Journal's Political Diary (bt subsription)today has an item on a statewide ballot initiative in Colorado to change the winner—take—all system of allocating the state's Electoral College votes. Instead of a statewide contest for all the Electoral Votes, the votes would be... More

The BBC has been appointed a new Chairman to fill the role vacated by Gavin Davies, who resigned after the Hutton Report found there had been a total lack of care within the editorial management of BBC News. Michael Grade is an ex—BBC employee — it being rather difficult to find anyone... More

Well the secret is out — the one that will doom Michael Chertoff's nomination as head of Homeland Security: he's the son of a rabbi who sent his children to private Jewish religious schools.    Yes, he's obviously part of Bush's right wing religious cabal——a religious... More

The New York Sun, which has become an invaluable new player in the world of New York journalism, deconstructs a fatuous New York Times editorial on education spending and taxes. May the Sun propser, and gain circulation at the expense of the old gray lady. Ed Lasky   12 4 04   More

Reader Allen Heidt, of Houston, TX has been keeping score of more than the National League Championship Series. He writes us about the most recent polls: Not that it is anything concrete, but of the past 50 major polls. Bush has won 39 of them, seven of them were ties, and kerry won only... More

alReuters' willingness to serve as a propaganda arm for Arabs/Moslems continues with this incredibly duplictious article.  From the misleading headline, to content, to misstatements (Rachel's Tomb is revered, but "holiest shrine"?  Judaism doesn't have shrines.) to moral equivalency... More

The David M blog catches Howell Raines in an embarrassing quotation. You remember Howell Raines, don't you? He used to be editor of the New York Times  — before he got fired. "Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I'm sure the candidates' SATs and college... More

As the press covers the ever less substantial Dem charges against DeLay, it has been almost totally silent about the charges involving Hillary's fundraising scandal. The New Orleans Times —Picayune printed a partical transcript from that case: It appears to support the... More

France has discovered that its latest cultural threat is google. The American search engine plans to convert the contents of British and American university libraries to digital format, to enable them to be searched. The tremendous contribution to the research capabilities of billions of ordinary... More

A new Quinnipiac poll  shows Robert Casey (a pro—life Democrat)  up 5 points, 46—41 on Pennsylvania's Republican Senator Rick Santorum. Interestingly, Santorum leads other possible Democratic nominees who are pro—choice.  This suggests the wisdom of the Hillay... More

Our dear, sainted Mother, Mary Louise Dwyer, the love of our lives, the heart of our hearts, died peacefully last Friday surrounded by her loving family. Mom's 89 years were energetic and joyous.  In our family, headed by a strict, Irish Catholic father, she was the go—to mother. ... More

The New York Times continues its campaign to show how the Plame affair will lead to the chilling of press freedoms. Here it covers the Cleveland Plain Dealer's claims it is withholding from publication two investigative stories based on leaks for fear of prosecution. A reporter is quoted as being... More

The failing Air America Radio Network is getting a boost from cable television's Sundance Channel. Starting on September 7th, a hour—long edited version of The Al Franken Show (formerly known as The O'Franken Factor, until the network realized how lame that derivative title was), in the late... More

When Spanish voters ousted the ruling Conservative Popular Party from power in the wake of an apparent Islamic bomb attack against riders on Spanish trains, this was interpreted by many as a bid to forestall further terror attacks. Voters were presumably agreeing to terrorist demands that they... More

Hmmmm.  Maybe the problems with schools is not that they're bad but that the students are like, you know, uhm...young.  Like their brains haven't fully developed you know.  And like, you know their sense of humor, especially males of the late adolescent stage, is like totally... More

The United Nations wants to build and renovate in New York City, but it needs to take over land from a city park, and it needs about $600 million. It had hoped to get the State of New York to sell some bonds, offering a vague and legally unenforceable commitment to repay the bonds with dues from... More

The custom of throwing pies at speakers with whom the thrower disagrees has been treated as a harmless prank for far too long. It is a violent assault, and throwers should do significant time in jail. Otherwise, no one can feel secure addressing any public gathering on a controversial topic. A pie... More

You can usually expect that the most elite journalists will be farthest behind, when it comes to reckoning with the new realities of the news business. They have the greatest investment in protecting the ancien regime. Instead of powdered wigs, they wear good suits and expensive make—up. But... More

Several weeks back, we described the almost unbelievable situation surrounding De Paul Professor Thomas Klocek, who lost his job at  the Catholic university for the "crime" of daring to argue with some Muslim and Palestinian students in a cafeteria about some inflammatory... More

Victor Davis Hanson  notes that the Democrats are committing suicide by, among other things affiliating themselves too much with the elites in this country and being out of touch with the rest of us.  His point is underscored in the Real Estate section of today's Washington Post. The... More

Pat Buchannan was doused with salad dressing while delivering a speech at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo last night. Shouting, "Stop the bigotry," the attacker succeeded in silencing the speech of which he disapproved. Regrettably, the free speech suppressor was released on a mere $100... More

Today's New York Times column  by Tom Friedman is on the Syrian assassination of Lebanese leader Rafiq Hariri, who was attempting to put together an alliance to challenge Syria's occupation of Lebanon. Friedman outlines Syria's maniacal history of assassination of opponents,... More

The NYT has reported that The Secret Man, Bob Woodward's book that officially outed Deep Throat of Watergate fame, has sold far fewer copies than the publisher (and the NYT) expected.  Here was a book from the author who brought us Deep Throat actually naming the name and explaining the... More

Oh, the poor bien pensants! It seems a survey of the Arab world establishes that they, like Bush, think their problems are related to the lack of the rule of law and their corrupt, tyrannical governments: Quote:What do Arabs really think about the problems that afflict them, and how is this... More

Jonathan Stein usefully highlights Kerry's successful obscuring of his record on national security. By pre—emptively denouncing 'negative attacks,' the candidate has so far escaped much press attention to his track record of being wrong on nearly every national security issue which has... More

Reader Martin Kelly, of Glasgow, Scotland, writes of a plan to address the problems created by the BBC's notorious political bias, while it enjoys the status of a government monopoly receiving compulsory license fees from all UK television owners., With his permission, we reproduce the letter... More

A Gaza newspaper is testing the pledge to end corruption of newly—elected Abbas: Buoyed by newly—elected Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's pledge to stamp out corruption, a Palestinian newspaper in Gaza City on Wednesday published a story about a civil lawsuit filed by a... More

Bruce Thompson, whose work here is familiar to regular readers, makes some interesting comparisons between Chicago and Iraq, as far as casualties and fighting violence are concerned, on his own blog site Machias Privateer. The number of American casualties in Iraq is roughly the same as the number... More

Charles Krauthammer asks the obvious question: how will John F. Kerry deliver on his promise to engage our "allies" in Europe? The answer is blindingly obvious: by selling out Israel: You want to appease the "international community"? Sacrifice Israel. Gradually, of course, and always under the... More

The Washington Post is supposed to be the dominant daily newspaper in the nation's capital, more influential than any other source of news and opinion, and its political writer Dan Balz is well—reputed. I was therefore amused — and a bit provoked — to see a column published... More

This guy hacks into the Pentagon and NASA systems and it released on bail and told not to go online? This, while some brainwashed kid points a gun at an American soldier in a remote mountain range in Afghanistan and is locked up like he's the eleventh most wanted man on earth! We are... More

I wonder just how far Senator McCain's well—deserved reputation as a Vietnam war hero and POW will manage to carry him? His flirtations with his buddy, Democratic party presidential candidate John Kerry; his efforts to extend McCain—Feingold restrictions to the blogosphere; and his... More

Lawrence Henry writes of his own medical situation today on The American Spectator's website, in the context of Terri Schiavo's death. Larry has had two kidney failures — first his own, and then his transplaneted kidney, and today is on dialysis. It is a deeply moving, highly personal... More

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco has issued a silly decision, upholding the right of the City of Oakland to remove from a municipal bulletin board a flyer announcing the formation of a group to promote the "natural family" while conitnuing to allow various gay, lesbian,... More

Byron Calame, the NYT's second "public editor" (their term for ombudsman), has finally admitted in his web journal that the paper was slow in covering the Air America scandal. Mediacrity is all over the case. Here's my analysis. Calame wrote pieces of the unfolding story fell in the domains of... More

Christopher Adamo makes a superb case today about Hillary Clinton's glaring weakness as an ambitious 2006 presidential candidate — her far—left agenda. One additional detail was seen in today's Investor's Business Daily editorial that further shows Hillary's leftist agenda:... More

John Kerry has lauded the work of international institutions, such as the United Nations, and expressed plans to transform our foreign policy to place more responsibilities on these multilateral bodies. Kerry should be more cautious regarding the company he keeps. Many of these... More

The BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner, was predictably sailing close to the wind again on Wednesday with some off—the—cuff remarks on BBC News 24, just after 3:00pm GMT.   Mr. Gardner and the afternoon anchor were chatting about the letter sent by the Muslim Council of... More

Aleksander Boyd, the courageous anti—Chavez Venezuelan blogger, operates his site Vcrisis from London. He writes to us in response to James Lewis's article today, Is BBC News a figment of the imagination? Please allow me to rephrase that; BBC News is not a figment of the imagination, rather... More

The L.A. Weekly has a lengthy story on an American Caucasian convert to Islam, one of roughly 80,000 white and Hispanic converts. (A much larger number of African—Americans are also believed to have conversted.) What makes the story especially compelling is that the young man profiled,... More

The news director of the state—run radio network Radio France Internationale (RFI) resigned on Monday after he was accused of making anti—Semitic and anti—Zionist statements in the promotion of his new book on Israel's separation fence. Alain Menargues, speaking last week on... More

Many have noted that America seems to be re—fighting the Vietnam War in the election of 2004. With the telecast tonight of a History Channel documentary on the War of 1812, and a New York Times review of the program, it would appear that America is re—fighting that war as well. This... More

Remember Proposition 200?  This is the Arizona initiative which passed with 56% of the vote last November.  It calls for 'proof of citizenship to register to vote, photo ID to vote, and proof of eligibility for non—federally mandated public benefits.' Last night, I was at a dinner... More

Victor Davis Hanson pens a masterful essay in the Washngton Times about the lessons we gfail to learn from history. That such a short piece should be full of such profound insight is nearly astonishing. VDH, writing about how indebted we are to our predecessors, inspires us to think about how... More

Remember Nancy Hopkins who said she had to leave the room or else she would become ill when Lawrence Summers, president of Harvard University, speculated about the reasons fewer women than men go into science?   Well, she undoubtedly will become ill  because she can't escape. ... More

David Limbaugh has a wonderfully sarcastic post about SecDef Donald Rumsfeld declining the transfer of the CIA's paramilitary operations to the Pentagon, as recommended by the 9/11 Commission. It is a rare two—fer, making fun of those who have impugned Rumsfeld as power—hungry, and... More

Enron adviser and NYT columnist Paul Krugman has also been employed by ex—Malaysian strongman Mahathir Mohammed. Krugman absurdly defended him against charges of anti—Semitism and ignored his role in framing deputy Prime Minister Anwar as corrupt... More

"US Budget Deficit Estimate Falls 24%" July 8 (Bloomberg) —— Rising tax payments and a growing economy may push the U.S. federal deficit down to $325 billion or lower, a 24 percent decline from the previous estimate, the Congressional Budget Office said. The agency, in a monthly... More

Positive eschatology consists of discussion of the afterlife and of the end of the world that uses specific images of what those states are like. For example, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Negative eschatology means discussion of the after—life and the end of the world that primarily states what... More

The UK's Immigration Minister, Beverley Hughes, finally resigned today following mounting evidence which showed that her department was approving visa claims which consisted of forged documents.   Her conduct has also caused immense friction between the British government and the civil... More

Robert Kaplan has an insightful essay — The Media and Medievalism — on the role that journalists play when they recklessly and irresponsibly exercise their power in such a way to weaken the authority of our leaders. Kaplan, himself an acclaimed journalist, characterizes his peers... More

As technological innovations rapidly increase the applicable law lags further behind leaving gaps and questions. Case in point: blogs, like the one you're reading.  Are they fish or fowl?  Are they another form of journalism?  If they are, do the laws of journalism apply?Eugene... More

The Washington Post/ABC poll is just out wth their daily tracking: Bush up 51—45 (yesterday 50—47).  So for the 4 daily 3—day  tracking polls, yesterday, Bush was tied, up 1, up 1 and up 3, for an average of up 1.25%. Today he is up 3,3,1 and 6, for an average of up... More

The media don't much like to play images of the planes hitting the Twin Towers, and American TV has never really shown people jumping to escape the killer heat from 90 some stories above the street. Here's a website to save, so you never forget. http://911.navexpress.com/   Ethel Carol More

Tony Blankley mulls the deeper significance of the sudden rise in usage of the word "schadenfreude." As you might expect, it does not say anything good about us. Hat tip: Joe Crowley More

Courtesy of the usual suspects (follows the French effort to create its own worldwide news (agitprop) service. Read about it here.   Ed Lasky   5 07 05   A.M. Mora y Leon adds:   The whole thing is utterly awful. Bad news. But what I wonder is who will watch this... More

During Secretary of State Rice's recent visit to India, and important joint statement was issued on March 25th, portending a great geostrategic realingment. Boldly stated, the US agreed to help India become a major world power. This forthright declaration received astonishingly little attention in... More

Byron York reports this morning on National Review Online that none other than George Soros is a major funder of Lynne Stewart's criminal defense effort. Supposedly, the Open Society Institute, Soros's "charity," believed that civil liberties issues were at stake in the case. Soros, of course, was... More

The Los Angeles Times reports that Pakistan's public schools are teaching jihad and hatred. America provides hundreds of millions of dollars to aid to Pakistan. Why shouldn't come with some requirements? Is a nation training its youth to hates us and fight us really an ally in the war on terror? Ed... More

The Sun of the U.K. runs a list of the evil perpetrated by Islamic terrorists. But there are very, very curious ommissions. The thousands of Israelis killed and maimed in the name of Islam as they were riding a bus, shopping or dining are ignored; the hostage taking and deaths in a Chechen school... More

Emily Berns has a wonderful essay today on the Weekly Standard Website  discussing the European reaction to Lance Armstrong's sixth win in the Tour de France bicycle competition. She uses the Movie Chariots of Fire as a point of comparison. In both the film and present day Europe, an attitude... More

Left wing media, such as the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, have descended to the level of self—parody, in their eagerness to promote the new liberal talk radio network, Air America.   Today's Chron goes so far as to actually have a pointless major story, complete with... More

Drudge has a brief item on radio talk show ratings in New York City. As Ethel Fenig reported here yesterday, Air America's star Al Franken is a falling star, whose ratings in liberal NYC are now below those of Bill O'Reilly, and barely a third of those of the mighty Rush Limbaugh, the once and... More

Because the French demand the approval of the UN for any military intervention, especially an American one. it is surprising that they forgot about asking Kofi Annan if they could "intervene" in the Ivory Coast. It looks like that France, which still considers the Ivory Coast as its colony, is... More

Bob Just, a lifelong Democrat Richard Baehr and I both went to college with, has written a lament over the capture of his party by an anti—Semitic fringe. It is very well worth reading. Thomas Lifson  10 21 04 More

The Washington Post today has a lengthy article on the Muslim Brotherhood, a scary organization which some, in and out of government, want to treat with respect, on the theory that they sometimes don't engage in bloodthirsty acts or rehtoric, so maybe we can co—opt them. One of the "experts"... More

Daniel Pipes is the rarest of pundits, one who openly revises his views when he gets new and contradictory information. Here, he revises his pessimmistic view on Turkey's prospects for Islamist government, though he leaves the question open. Thomas Lifson   6 8 05 More

Gunter Grass, the communist, anti—Israel and anti—American ideologue who is also a Nobel Prize—winning novelist, dismisses capitalism's role in the rejuvenation of Germany and blames capitalism for the destruction of Germany. The last remaining ideology—gimme a break. How... More

If you recall, the MSM, relying on  unnamed sources repeatedly tarred the Iraqi National Congress and Ahmed Chalabi with being the source of false intelligence information on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Leaving aside for the moment that those sources undoubtedly were located... More

Lynne Stewart is a registered Democrat. As Rocco DiPippo demonstrates today on this site, her belief in the perfectability of man through political means has led her to embrace the death cult of Islamist terror, not just as a legal representative, but as an illegal adjunct to terror. Is it fair to... More

Why is the world so uninterested in Israeli Arabs? Could it be that they are modern, that women enjoy full rights, that they are well—educated, enjoy great medical care, and have hope for the future in a dynamic Western democracy? . If Al—Jazeera covered Israeli Arabs, it would... More

Mediacrity's exchange with the New York Times over the failure of the Times to credit the blogger with diggin up certian information continues. Huffing and puffing by the Gray lady doesn't seem to be working as well as it used to. More

The National Legal and Policy Center has protested the Subway restaurant chain's use of advertising in its German which denigrates Americans. According to them, tray liners in  the German shops (apparently, not translated into German and named "U—Bahn") feature tray—liners and... More