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Archive for 2013
April 22, 2013
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Gentry Liberals and Brass Knuckles: The Case of Maureen Dowd.
If Maureen Dowd’s evisceration manqué of President Obama’s gun control strategy in the New York Times is any indication, Ms. Dowd is in the wrong line of work. She doesn’t understand American politics. She doesn’t know how votes are gained and lost, she doesn’t know what presidents do or understand what powers they have, and above all she doesn’t understand how politicians think.
Column writing is dangerous work and long success in the game can lead to the stifling of that Editor Within who keeps you from looking too stupid in print. A rich self esteem, fortifed by decades of op-ed tenure and dinner party table talk dominance, has apparently given Ms. Dowd the confidence to believe that she is a maestro of political infighting, a Clausewitz of strategic insight and a Machiavelli of political cunning rolled up into one stylish and elegant piece of work. From the heights of insight on which she dwells, it is easy to see what that poor schmuck Barry Obama can’t: those 60 votes on gun control were his for the taking, if he was only as shrewd a politician as Maureen Dowd.
The President needs to get his hands dirty, our genteel and accomplished op-ed writer advises the ex-community organizer and Chicago pol. He needs to get real, get down in the dirt, muck around with the senators and exercise raw power. Don’t make empty gestures and don’t give up, she advises him: fight! fight! fight!
Perhaps because she fears that the President is too stupid to understand what she means, or simply out of her benevolent desire to show her readers just what brilliant political insight looks like, she vouchsafes us some examples.
Well, when your idea of effective politicking comes from The American President, you’re already in trouble. Even House of Cards would be better. But this is true: “The President should watch his back; there are a lot of Dowdians out there in Liberal La La Land, and as an inevitably disappointing second term unfolds they are increasingly ready to blame everything they don’t like about the state of the country on what they are sure is his incompetence, his political cowardice and his sloth.”
FROM TODAY’S JOURNALISTS, THIS COUNTS AS A GENEROUS ADMISSION: Terrorists don’t observe gun laws, notes AP.
BYRON YORK: Obama campaign plans major push for Gang of Eight immigration bill.
Going to be tougher after Boston. And the “get people out of the shadows to prevent terrorism” argument that Dick Durbin was pushing yesterday doesn’t fit very well when you remember that the Boston massacre was perpetrated by two legal immigrants who were already — supposedly — looked at by the FBI.
Of course, the real problem with increased immigration isn’t terrorism, but what it will do to low-skill workers — disproportionately black — who are already in the United States.
And is OFA a paper tiger? OFA Outnumbered By Tea Partiers At Ted Cruz Protest in Dallas (Video).
JOHN FUND: Putting Lipstick On The ObamaCare Pig: Even formerly enthusiastic Democrats now predict a “train wreck.” “Indeed, the facts today are that Obamacare remains as unpopular now as when it was passed in 2010, and Democrats are increasingly worried it will return to haunt them in the midterm election next year, the first to take place after the stepped-up implementation of the law. Reporters at the Cook Political Report, a respected Washington watcher of election trends, noted this month that ‘almost all’ of the Democratic insiders they talked to ‘voiced concern about the potential for the issue to hurt Democrats in 2014.’ At no point since its passage has Obamacare been viewed favorably by more than 45 percent of voters, and the latest Kaiser Family Health Foundation poll pegs its nationwide support at only 37 percent.”
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Did US-Russia deal in 2011 lead to Boston bombings?
LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Mich. Court Backs Anonymity for Former Student Who Trashed Law School Online. “A former student who created a website that harshly criticized Thomas M. Cooley Law School is protected by the First Amendment and should not have his identity revealed, a Michigan state appeals court ruled.”
HMM: Search still on for gunman after shootout near Watts Bar nuclear plant. “Unconfirmed reports have suggested that the suspect might have had a boat. Hopson, however, said investigators have yet to verify how the person accessed the area or escaped.”
CLARICE FELDMAN ON OBAMA: I Know Why the Lame Duck Squawks.
SARAH HOYT ON HOW MASS ENTERTAINMENT CREATES AN ILLUSION OF “NORMAL.” “You see, the human desire to mimic and fit in is one of our strongest instincts. We are social apes. And we take our cues from stories, whether those stories unroll before our eyes, are in a sacred book, are passed down in the culture, or are poured at us in books and TV. Now, here’s the thing – the Marxists understand this all too well.”
SEQUESTER PRIORITIES: House Questions IRS Decision to Send Employees to Union Conference in Vegas in Wake of Furloughs.
Remember when Obama was criticizing companies for sending people to conferences in Vegas?
STANLEY KURTZ: Boston And Immigration Reform: Yes, It’s Relevant. “Thanks to the rise of multiculturalism and bilingualism in the United States, our assimilation system now suffers from the same flaws as its European counterpart. The proposed immigration bill does little to fix this, and if anything aggravates an already critical situation.”
How can we encourage immigrants to believe in America when so many in our ruling class don’t?
HUNT FOR THE ELUSIVE TEA PARTY MURDERER CONTINUES:
Liberal hopes were dashed with the revelation that the Boston Marathon bombers were a couple of Chechen Muslim immigrants. The Left was so sure they had finally bagged the elusive Tea Party murderer! The bombings occurred in Boston on Tax Day. Surely, at long last, the opportunity to smear libertarians, small-government conservatives, anti-tax crusaders, and the whole hellish tri-corner hat crowd was at hand! ”Two plus two equals…?” Michael Moore burbled happily, retreating back into his copious shell of sub-human idiocy when the answer turned out to be “Islam.”
That’s how the junior member of the bombing team, Dzhokar Tsarnaev, explained his “outlook” on an Internet profile. Family and friends talk of the brothers growing more intensely involved in the stricter aspects of their religion over the past few years. The older brother, Tamerlan – named after a brutal Islamic conqueror from centuries past – seems to have led the way, with Dzhokar trotting after him like a “puppy.” Somewhere along the way, they became radicalized – a process that will be of great interest to investigators in the weeks ahead.
Substitute the Tea Party for Islam, and liberals would be hitting the floor in a swoon of ecstasy today, their every fantasy about the adversaries of Big Government joyously fulfilled.
Instead, they’re warning about the dangers of rushing to judgment.
TIM CARNEY ON BOSTON: Civil society, not Big Brother, is the American way. “As with every terrorist attack and high-profile killing, the Boston bombing has prompted calls for Americans to give up civil liberties for the sake of security. Rather than gun control or airport pat-downs, this time the call is for a Big Brother-like network of police cameras allowing authorities to more closely monitor people who move about the streets. But the story of the Boston bombers — the details of their crime and their capture — makes the opposite argument. We don’t need more government surveillance. We need to maintain robust civil society and public spiritedness.”
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Food stamp growth up 10x job growth, says Thune.
SCIENCE: Disputed signs of consciousness seen in babies’ brains. “Babies’ brains emit electrical bursts that signal a budding awareness of the visual world by the time they are 5 months old, a new study concludes. But some researchers are skeptical that these neural surges correspond to conscious experience.”
Of course they do. My daughter started talking at 6 months, as did I. If you’re talking at 6 months, there’s consciousness at 5.
BOSTON BOMBINGS: Lawmakers Question FBI’s Handling Of Case.
ED MORRISSEY: The Real Lesson Of The Gosnell Trial.