What do we learn from the latest Osama videotape? (1) He’s alive. (2) He looks like crap, between his dyed beard and his cadaverous mien. (3) The appeal he’s making is to the useful idiots in the US whom he … Continue reading →
Bill Clinton referred to himself as “The Comeback Kid” during the 1992 campaign, when his moribund candidacy was revived in the state of New Hampshire. Now Clinton might be poised to quite literally come back—to the White House, that is, … Continue reading →
Remember those tests of perception known as figure/ground drawings? As a child I was fascinated by their magical “now you see it, now you see something else” mutability. Here are two of the most popular—the vase/profiles one and the young … Continue reading →
Yesterday I saw my first one of these: Can’t say as I do. But that’s just me. I was never a big fan, even though I voted for him—twice, with vigor. But in the NH primary of 92, I was … Continue reading →
Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is a Catholic, although—as this column by Richard Cohen points out—his marital history isn’t precisely what the Catholic church would consider ideal. Cohen compares Giuliani’s recent answer to a question about his Catholicism with that of … Continue reading →
This NY Times article describes how the Democratic Presidential candidates are starting to offer a few more ideas about how they might manage an Iraqi pullout, if elected. I guess they’ve given up on their earlier strategy of pressuring Bush. … Continue reading →
It seems the gloves are off—not that they ever were really on. Senator Schumer has flung down the gauntlet (can’t resist those glove metaphors) and said that the Democrats need to oppose all of President Bush’s future Supreme Court nominations, … Continue reading →
I don’t know whether it shocks you, but it still has the capacity to shock me that the Democrats don’t seem to care about the consequences of their current stance on Iraq. Perhaps that’s the best indication that they are … Continue reading →
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has presided over a legislature that so far has done very little that the Democrats set out to do when they won the 2006 election, except to further political squabbling. The country remains bitterly divided … Continue reading →
Recent developments in Gaza indicate what happens when broken-down, hate-filled, dysfunctional states gain autonomy. So what are the choices for the West in dealing with such societies? Either (a) install a (hopefully) relatively benevolent dictator of your choice, who is … Continue reading →
I wondered here why the Democrats pursued a “withdraw the troops” strategy they knew was doomed to failure with a President who was bound to veto every bill they sent with no hope of override. This particular post-mortem on the … Continue reading →
The consensus appears to be that the Democrats in Congress have blinked on the issue of troop withdrawal (see this and this and this, for starters). This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has followed the story. From the … Continue reading →