http://corner.nationalreview.com The Corner is the premiere blog of National Review Online, the Internet's number-one source for conservative opinion and analysis. en-us © National Review Online 2009. All Rights Reserved webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Webmaster) Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:31:01 -0500 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:31:01 -0500 NRO RSS Generator v1.0 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 5 http://www2.nationalreview.com/images/nro_rsslogo.jpg http://corner.nationalreview.com 144 80 National Review Online webmaster@nationalreview.com (Iain Murray) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGIwMTIyYWE0ZjBlZTgyMjBmNGY0NTY5MjZiYTU2NGQ= You can go to something like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man">Wikipedia</a>, or you could just read <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/opinion/18friedman.html?_r=2&bl">Thomas Friedman's column last week</a> and see a perfect case study set out in black and white for you.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGIwMTIyYWE0ZjBlZTgyMjBmNGY0NTY5MjZiYTU2NGQ= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:30:18 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTkyMzBmM2FlOTg5NGQ5YjNkZTkyZWY0MGQ3Y2NkZmE= <p class="blog_text">From a $100 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p>What can I say that hasn't already been said? I doubt that you all fully appreciate how much you add to the national debate and to your readers' confidence in the wisdom of our shared positions. Something truly special.<br /> <br /> Effective today (actually last month when I subscribed to the magazine) the freeloading is over.</p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>. (And subscribe to <em>NR</em> <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/subscribe/nr.p">here</a>.)</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTkyMzBmM2FlOTg5NGQ5YjNkZTkyZWY0MGQ3Y2NkZmE= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:20:03 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmJkOTk5MDcyZmUyYmViOTczNTAyMDA0NzA1NGY5M2U= <span style=",sans-serif,sans,serif; color: #000000;">Why is Texas </span>Gov. Rick Perry<span style=",sans-serif,sans,serif; color: #000000;"> so u</span><span style=",sans-serif,sans,serif; color: #000000;">pset about illegal immigration? Kevin Williamson <a href="http://tv.nationalreview.com/offthepage/post/?q=M2FjOWIxNDM3MTkyMGU0NWZkYTRkNWVlODY3NTlhNGY=">explains</a> in an episode of Off the Page.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style=",sans-serif,sans,serif; color: #000000;"><a href="http://tv.nationalreview.com/offthepage/post/?q=M2FjOWIxNDM3MTkyMGU0NWZkYTRkNWVlODY3NTlhNGY="><img src="http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/11/20/descriptionkevinotp.jpg" alt="Kevin Williamson goes off the page." width="450" height="254" /></a><br /></span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmJkOTk5MDcyZmUyYmViOTczNTAyMDA0NzA1NGY5M2U= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:00:24 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjNhOWNmYjQzMmViY2VjNzY3NTRmMDZiOGI5OTA2YmI= <p class="blog_text">From a $100 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">There is no telling how much more productive I could be if I didnt spend every morning on NRO. Since I am a trial lawyer, I have to assume you have mesmerized me as part of your vast right-wing conspiracy.</span></span><span><span style="-small;"> </span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjNhOWNmYjQzMmViY2VjNzY3NTRmMDZiOGI5OTA2YmI= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:00:01 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Veronique de Rugy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGE4NjRlNTczNzY2NDRhMjZmZjc0MTlmMTNlOWE5NTk= Havard economists Alberto Alesina and Silva Ardagna have a <a href="http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/alesina/files/Large%2Bchanges%2Bin%2Bfiscal%2Bpolicy_October_2009.pdf">new working paper</a> on whether tax or spending policies work the best. They are using OECD data from 1970 and 2007.</p> <blockquote> <p>"Fiscal stimuli based upon tax cuts are more likely to increase growth than those based upon spending increases. As for fiscal adjustments those based upon spending cuts and no tax increases are more likely to reduce deficits and debt over GDP ratios than those based upon tax increases. In addition, adjustments on the spending side rather than on the tax side are less likely to create recessions."</p> </blockquote> <p>Are you listening, Mr. Obama and Mr. Krugman?</p> <p>via <a href="http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-research-on-fiscal-policy.html">Greg Mankiw's blog</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGE4NjRlNTczNzY2NDRhMjZmZjc0MTlmMTNlOWE5NTk= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:55:57 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Veronique de Rugy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTc3NmZlYTNiMGVkNjNhMTQ0YjgzYTAxZDkzNTUwNTM= Paul Krugman <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/opinion/23krugman.html?_r=1&ref=global">outdid himself this Sunday</a> in his <em>New York Times</em> column. Once again, the former economist is calling for a new stimulus, more aid, and more and bigger government. It's not new -- he has been asking for more government spending for over a year now. In fact, it is clear here that Krugman can't conceive of any other way to create jobs than for the government to spend money.</p> <p>However, this time he goes after Obama for being a wimp on the issue. He blames the president for being a little concerned about the level of debt facing America. Krugman writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>However, Mr. Obama is lending his voice to those who say that we can't create more jobs. And a report on Politico.com suggests that deficit reduction, not job creation, will be the centerpiece of his first State of the Union address.</p> </blockquote> <p>Krugman suggest that Obama is heeding the fears of Wall Street about high long-term interest rates, which he calls a "phantom menace."</p> <p>Interestingly, this morning's <em>New York Times</em> has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/business/23rates.html?ref=global-home">a front-page story</a> today talking about the debt we all face. It doesn't look like a phantom menace to me. According to the article, the U.S. government is "financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.'s on terms that seem too good to be true." But Treasury officials "now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed."</p> <p>With the national debt "now topping $12 trillion, the White House estimates that the government's tab for servicing the debt will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year, even if annual budget deficits shrink drastically."</p> <p>And it's about to get much worse. The deficit and the debt have reached gigantic levels, with no hope of shrinking anytime soon, just at the time when the nation’s oldest baby boomers are approaching 65, setting off what will be a fiscal nightmare for the government. This retirement time bomb is upon us and yet Krugman is calling for more debts and more government spending.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTc3NmZlYTNiMGVkNjNhMTQ0YjgzYTAxZDkzNTUwNTM= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:54:02 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjJhZDAyMTM4Mzg3ZWU1NjYwMWJkZTUzYzgxNmZjN2Q= <p class="blog_text">From a $100 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">This is way past due. I consider NRO the first and best source for anything and everything a conservative needs to stay informed. This conservative attorney -- surrounded by hard left co-workers -- is grateful for NRO! Thanks.<br /> </span></span><span><span style="-small;"> </span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjJhZDAyMTM4Mzg3ZWU1NjYwMWJkZTUzYzgxNmZjN2Q= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:40:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Denis Boyles) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmZkNGUyN2VlNWFlOTU5MmY5MWExNzY2ZTg2Y2JhMGE= A "masked gunman" -- which is how many armed, radical Islamic apologists must now find themselves described -- took a theological dispute to a church in Moscow and found a priest to hear his complaint:</p> <blockquote> <p>A masked gunman entered a church and murdered a Russian Orthodox priest who had received death threats for converting Muslims to Christianity and criticizing Islam, prosecutors and church officials said Friday.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5AJ1D320091120">Reuters</a> has the details. The priest, Fr. Daniil Sysoyev, was indeed an outspoken critic of Islam, but had managed to hold his fire during the 34 years he lived.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmZkNGUyN2VlNWFlOTU5MmY5MWExNzY2ZTg2Y2JhMGE= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:32:42 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmQ3MmQ0ZDgyOWUwMWFjMGUxZWI4YTNlZjllNDAxMzg= <p class="blog_text">From a $54 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">Love every moment of NRO.  I just as soon stop breathing, eating etc. without The Corner, et al. I gave $54 for 54 years (and the fact is I can't afford much else). Would love to give more if I could.<br /> </span></span><span><span style="-small;"> </span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmQ3MmQ0ZDgyOWUwMWFjMGUxZWI4YTNlZjllNDAxMzg= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:20:54 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTQ2YjJlMzI2OGMzOWEzMmExMzU1NGVkODdkOGQ2NDI= <span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="New Roman;">Here’s <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzdiYTRkYTg4NjNmOTMwNzE3MmNlMDY3YWJmOWNhZTc=">my column</a> this week. The bottom line? </span></p> <blockquote><span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The U.S. political process must stop its infantile wrangling and show cause for the world to believe that it will defend the financial integrity of the country, before discussion of U.S. default — which will otherwise become audible, soon — spooks the whole world</p> </span></blockquote> </span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTQ2YjJlMzI2OGMzOWEzMmExMzU1NGVkODdkOGQ2NDI= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:18:23 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Yuval Levin) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGYwMDBkZjVhMzgxMWFlYTAxZGViMGRhNmY1YTM4YjI= The health-care bill the Senate will take up after Thanksgiving offers so many rich targets for criticism it’s hard to know where to start. But the folks over at e21 offer a great <a href="http://www.economics21.org/commentary/payroll-tax-increase-loophole-and-ticking-time-bomb">brief analysis</a> of one of the most dishonest and cynical ploys in the bill -- the increase in the Medicare payroll tax, which would raise money not for Medicare but for the new health-care entitlement (though, thanks to an accounting gimmick, would nonetheless also be counted as part of the Medicare Trust Fund), and which would not be indexed for inflation, and so would raise taxes on more and more workers each year.</p> <p>And more generally, if you haven’t discovered e21 yet, you should take a look at the rest of <a href="http://www.economics21.org/">their site</a>. It’s a great one-stop shop for both accessible economic analysis and the best new pro-market economic ideas.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGYwMDBkZjVhMzgxMWFlYTAxZGViMGRhNmY1YTM4YjI= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:09:41 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Nzk0OTViMzc5M2FhYjBlYTM0ZTZmYzQ5MDcyMmEwNDU= <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">From Friday's <em>Fox News All-Stars</em>.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">On Senate passage of the health-care reform bill</span>:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <blockquote> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">You asked what Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas will ask for. Well, after watching Louisiana get $100 million in what have some have called "The Louisiana Purchase," she ought to ask for $500 million at least.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="verdana1"><span style="font-family: "> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Obama said he would end business as usual in Washington. If you look at section 2006, the Louisiana money, it looks as if it is a provision for all states which have had a proclamation of a disaster area in the last seven years -- and then the fine print inside eliminates all the others except Louisiana. It's a new kind of business as usual. ...</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">There is almost no way imaginable that the vote [to allow debate to proceed on the health-care bill] will fail tomorrow. If it is, it is the ultimate humiliation [for Obama]. It's the rejection of the debate even before it starts.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The Democrats, even Lincoln who will have to be [up] for reelection, will have a second shot at killing the bill later, after the amendments. …</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Now, you've got [Sen. Ben] Nelson, who is against the abortion provisions. He will allow debate, but if it's [the abortion language] not changed in the course of these amendments, he will oppose the bill at the end, which is why I think the bill at the end is going to strip out all the abortion stuff.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">And then on the … public option, they're going to lose [Sen. Joe] Lieberman in the end -- not tomorrow night -- but in the end if it stays in. But they could possibly gain Olympia Snowe of Maine if a trigger [for the public option] is in.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">So it can in the end pass, but it has to be amended in precisely the right way.</p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">On Sarah Palin’s popularity: </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">She's a rock star. She's this year's Barack Obama -- incredible charisma and a strong constituency.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">She will not be the [Republican presidential] nominee. She shouldn't be. But she will be decisive in deciding who is.</p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="hit1"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">On the end of the <em>Oprah Winfrey Show</em>:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="hit1"><span style="font-weight: normal; "><span style="color: #cc0033;"> </span></span></span></p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I'm not sure I can take it. My afternoons will be empty.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Nzk0OTViMzc5M2FhYjBlYTM0ZTZmYzQ5MDcyMmEwNDU= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:00:26 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGZkZTM0ZGJlMmZmNWVhZGQ3MjAyNDk2Nzc4NDdhYjY= <p class="blog_text">From a $50 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">Been reading for years since I was about 16 in high school. Now 25 and finally have spare money to contribute. Keep up the good work and fight the good fight.</span></span><span><span style="-small;"> </span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGZkZTM0ZGJlMmZmNWVhZGQ3MjAyNDk2Nzc4NDdhYjY= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:00:25 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTMxNTIyMDkxNGYwN2MyMTViN2FkNjc3NmNiOGQ2MGM= <p class="blog_text">From a $25 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">I'm a conservative Baptist pastor with 4 kids, so my contribution must be minimal. I've read NR through the years both online and "dead tree" but still wasn't planning to contribute.<br /> <br /> Jonah's announcement of the returning G-File pushed me over the edge. I've enjoyed his prose greatly throughout the years. I've even enjoyed "Liberal Fascism." Sometimes in the dark hours when I have flubbed a sermon or presentation, my spirit sinks so low that I think, "If I could only preach like Jonah writes" . . . but then I get right with the Lord and it passes.<br /> <br /> In all seriousness, I appreciate the wide range of conservative thought. It challenges my thinking, and reminds me that the right answers are rarely easy.<br /> <br /> Thanks . . .</span></span><span><span style="-small;"> </span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTMxNTIyMDkxNGYwN2MyMTViN2FkNjc3NmNiOGQ2MGM= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:30:59 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzFkZDBjNjQ5NDdiZjQyNTYwODZkMWRjNTJiMzM1YTk= The approval numbers of renowned moron Sarah Palin and global colossus Barack Obama are about to <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/not-that-it-matters-politically-because-shes-a-republican-idiot-and-hes-a-democrat-geniusbut-sarah-palins-poll-numbers-are-c.html" target="_blank">meet</a>.</p> <p>Oh, my. Maybe the White House should call in the Climate Research Unit to (as the settled scientists say) "<a href="http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/wear_the_decline/" target="_blank">hide the decline</a>".</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzFkZDBjNjQ5NDdiZjQyNTYwODZkMWRjNTJiMzM1YTk= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:27:28 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTdhNGM1ZGQ4NDJhMWYzMjc0MTNlODJmMDZiMTZjOGU= The view from post-"reset button" Europe. A headline from<em> <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662822,00.html">Der Spiegel</a></em>:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Obama's Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>This presidency is shaping up as a tragedy -- for America, and the world.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTdhNGM1ZGQ4NDJhMWYzMjc0MTNlODJmMDZiMTZjOGU= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:00:56 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjQ2ZjQ1ZmZiNjUyNTcwNzBlYTY2OTczNTkzYzJhODQ= I'm thinking of heading over to Elizabeth Scalia's house after reading <a href="http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2009/11/19/pumpkin-bread-pudding-2/">this pumpkin-bread-pudding recipe</a> on her blog.</p> <p>This reminds me that in years past, Thanksgiving recipes have found their way in and around The Corner. <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGU1NTE1YzgwYTY2ZDQ1MjFkNzQ5ZTdkYmViZTYwZDU=">This cranberry-sauce thread</a> was a winner. So was <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGY0MTYxNDA3YzRhNzNhMGFkYjg1OGU3Yzc1ZmE0ODY=">this cornbread dressing recipe</a>. More <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/symposium/thanksgiving200311260900.asp">here</a>. And <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback-mcevoy112702.asp">a fried-turkey classic</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjQ2ZjQ1ZmZiNjUyNTcwNzBlYTY2OTczNTkzYzJhODQ= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:00:37 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTU3NjIzMGI5MzY3MjQ5ZTNkOTc4NDlhODVmNDBmMjk= <p class="blog_text">From a $50 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">In deepest blue Boston, you keep hope alive. Not a day (or some days, an hour!) of my life goes by without The Corner and NRO's other blogs, and I am happy to pay for the privilege.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTU3NjIzMGI5MzY3MjQ5ZTNkOTc4NDlhODVmNDBmMjk= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Rick Brookhiser) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTNjNTAxODYzOTY5NzY5NzRmNTY2NmFmMmIxOTEyYTQ= Even Luther believed in consubstantiation.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTNjNTAxODYzOTY5NzY5NzRmNTY2NmFmMmIxOTEyYTQ= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:55:31 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDU4OTI3NTE2NTQ5MjE3M2YyNDI0MGNhZDFhNDdkNDc= But before despair over the quality of our citizenry overtakes me, I read Thomas Friedman's latest sigh about China and our own suboptimal democracy. He writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>Mr. Obama was elected for similar reasons. People had hoped that his unique story, personality and speaking skills could bring the country together, overcome paralysis and deliver nation-building at home. A lot of the disappointment settling in among Obama voters today is prompted by their dawning realization that maybe, like Arnold, he can’t.</p> </blockquote> <blockquote><strong>China’s leaders, using authoritarian means, still can. They don’t have to always settle for suboptimal. So what do we do?<br /><br />The standard answer is that we need better leaders. The real answer is that we need better citizens. We need citizens who will convey to their leaders that they are ready to sacrifice, even pay, yes, higher taxes, and will not punish politicians who ask them to do the hard things. </strong>Otherwise, folks, we’re in trouble. A great power that can only produce suboptimal responses to its biggest challenges will, in time, fade from being a great power — no matter how much imagination it generates.</blockquote> <p>This sort of thing makes me want to hunker and bunker-down with my family in a Nockian cubbyhole until this all blows over.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDU4OTI3NTE2NTQ5MjE3M2YyNDI0MGNhZDFhNDdkNDc= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:52:50 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTA2OTJkYjY3MGQwNzUyOGZiOWE1OGU3ZjIyZTI4YTc= I was in Florida, at the Breakers Hotel, this weekend for the David Horowitz Freedom Center Restoration Weekend (say that ten times fast). It was a great event. Delightful -- and enthusiastic! -- people. While lounging at the pool -- I am an accomplished lounger -- I listened to some businessmen (not with the Restoration bunch) talking in the pool. It was a very common conversation. Both men were preening over the fact that they are independents. "I call 'em like I see 'em," a particularly loud-mouthed fellow said. "I'm not extreme right or extreme left," he explained as if he was saying, "I'm not dumb or ugly." And the conversation went on -- and on. Then they turned to health care. The loud-mouthed guy kept singing the praises of a documentary he saw on health care. It was "very intellectual" and "very controversial" and he enjoyed it a great deal. It was made by Michael Moore. "The one thing I can't figure out," he confessed, "is whether [Moore] was coming from the right or the left.</p> <p>Then just a few minutes ago, I was listening to the morning call-ins on C-Span radio. Viewers were asked what newspapers they read. One woman explained that she used the Google translator function to translate foreign newspapers. In particular, she says she gets a lot of her news from Argentina's newspapers. She doesn't like China's newspapers because they're just like America's -- "full of right-wing propaganda."</p> <p>Geniuses!</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTA2OTJkYjY3MGQwNzUyOGZiOWE1OGU3ZjIyZTI4YTc= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:49:49 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDgxNDhkYjNkM2RjNTI0OGFlNTEwODg5NDU5ZjMwMzY= I second the experience outlined by John J. Miller in his post below re Amazon's "reader reviews."  My novel, <span class="Normal__Char"><em><a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTU1ZTZmMTJiZDdlZTkzOTY1OTA5NTkyNGVkYmY0MjI=">Hostile Intent</a></em></span>, debuted at No. 1 on Amazon Kindle when it came out in September, rode high on the Barnes & Noble mass-market lists for more than two months, and twice reached the <span class="Normal__Char"><em>New York Times</em></span> extended mass-market bestseller list in October -- not bad for my first foray into the international thriller market.  It was so successful that the publisher has extended the series by three more books, making a total of five (the next installment in the "Devlin" series, <span class="Normal__Char"><em>Black Widow</em></span>, comes out next fall), and the franchise is now the subject of a bidding war in Hollywood  And yet it, too, has been subjected to a barrage of one-star review attacks, some of them personal, some of them illiterate, many of them still coming, and all of them characterized by the trademark lefty sneer.  <br /> <br />It's a shame.  Once Amazon was an author's best friend: Now, it's an enterprise that undercuts a writer's sales almost instantly by offering second-hand copies along with new ones, and allows an army of trolls to attack, apparently completely unmoderated.  I flagged a couple of the reviews as inappropriate, but of course nothing was done.  Listen: I was a critic for 25 years at the <em>Rochester </em><span class="Normal__Char"><em>Democrat & Chronicle</em></span><span class="Normal__Char">, </span>the <span class="Normal__Char"><em>San Francisco Examiner, </em></span>and <span class="Normal__Char"><em>Time</em></span> magazine.  I used to tell Horowitz how to play the piano and Pavarotti how to sing.  I can dish it out and I can take it.  But this is a new, and ugly, phenomenon indeed.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDgxNDhkYjNkM2RjNTI0OGFlNTEwODg5NDU5ZjMwMzY= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:49:22 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWFkZTYwYmYwYTgzYzU3YTJiM2UzMGJhNWQ3NzA0ZWM= <a href="http://www.911neverforget.us/">New Yorkers are not taking it well</a>, thank goodness; via Debra Burlingame: </p> <blockquote> <p>NEW YORKERS TO HOLDER:<br />“WE WILL FIGHT YOU ALL THE WAY!”</p> <p>Last Wednesday, a group of 9/11 family members and New York first responders attended the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which Attorney General Eric Holder testified about his decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the 9/11 co-conspirators in a New York City federal court. Mr. Holder stumbled through several tough and pointed questions about the dangers of giving war criminals the same rights as American citizens and blurring the mission of our war fighters. He was visibly unnerved by the presence of the families and the first responders. We want to keep the pressure on him, as well as President Obama, who we were shocked to learn was AWOL on this reckless decision.</p> <p>Nearly two weeks ago we sent a letter signed by 300 family members to President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. After Mr. Holder’s announcement last Friday, another 120,000 people (as of today) have signed the letter in support of our position. Many of these individuals are family members from all three attack sites, active & retired FDNY, PAPD & NYPD, first responders from throughout the country and active, reserve and retired members of the military.</p> <p>We are holding <strong>a press conference on Tuesday, November 24</strong>, at <strong>noon in Battery Park, Clinton Castle for the 9/11 families </strong>and first responders/survivors. We chose to hold it on Thanksgiving Week in the hope that our fellow Americans will join us in sending our prayers and messages of thanks to our troops and first responders, who will bear the brunt of these dangerous decisions made in Washington.</p> <p>At that time we will announce the details for a large rally in <strong>New York City on Saturday, December 5  at noon</strong>, to tell Attorney General Eric Holder, President Barack Obama and their supporters in Congress: <strong>“We will fight you all the way!”</strong></p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWFkZTYwYmYwYTgzYzU3YTJiM2UzMGJhNWQ3NzA0ZWM= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:35:27 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjEyYmRkYzIzNDQ0M2UyN2Q5Y2U2NTc3Mjg2MmU3MzY= <p class="blog_text">From a $25 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;"> I receive the magazine . . . LOVE IT!! Love online, but don't have time to read it -- four kids and husband on fourth deployment. Still, I'm making a donation to get me karmic conservative brownie points. Soldier on, guys!</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjEyYmRkYzIzNDQ0M2UyN2Q5Y2U2NTc3Mjg2MmU3MzY= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:30:37 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mona Charen) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGMzMDQ5Y2UyYzc2Nzg4MmQyYTk3ODc3YWUxMzc3M2Y= From <em><a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/69003-mccaskill-still-reading-healthcare-bill">The Hill</a></em>: </p> <blockquote> <p>McCaskill still working toward goal of reading the healthcare bill</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGMzMDQ5Y2UyYzc2Nzg4MmQyYTk3ODc3YWUxMzc3M2Y= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:17:25 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGM0ZDFmNjc2MTVhZTVmNDUxZmM2ZDQ5Y2RlZmZkZjA= Conrad Black writes: </p> <blockquote> <p>Until the risks of being awash in newly created money were finally recognized as the 800-pound self-inflating tiger in the room, the administration and congressional leadership were hinting at a new stimulus package. As was widely seen at the time, the $787 billion stimulus bill was a disaster, a riot of children left to ransack the candy store and gorge themselves. It stuffed money into the districts of prominent Democrats in Congress, on a delayed trip-wire to coincide with upcoming elections, as less than a quarter of the money has been spent; but it has been a very inefficient job-creator. The whole concept of stimulus is bogus, as the borrowing of the money consumes at least as much stimulus as it generates.<br /><br />There was no excuse for such a bumbling program by this administration. The procedural playbook, if not all the substantive policy, was written by Franklin D. Roosevelt 75 years ago: Prepare a precise program, round up public support for it, send completed bills to Congress and ram them through, alleviate unemployment with low-paid conservation and infrastructure workfare, and solve banking problems with <a class="iAs" href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzdiYTRkYTg4NjNmOTMwNzE3MmNlMDY3YWJmOWNhZTc=" target="_blank">investments</a> in the banks, not in their worst assets. Instead of that, we have witnessed a bunch of grumpy boy scouts trying to put up a pup tent in the dark.<br /><br />With Social Security, Medicare, and the <a class="iAs" href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzdiYTRkYTg4NjNmOTMwNzE3MmNlMDY3YWJmOWNhZTc=" target="_blank">FDIC</a> (totalling $125 trillion of obligations) as well as the Federal Reserve itself now confronting appalling debt scenarios (the Fed’s loans and other advances, some of them vulnerable, are backed by hard assets of only about one half of 1 percent of the obligations), the administration projects trillion-dollar annual deficits for ten years. Obviously, the Chinese and Japanese are not going to go on buying this debt, and have already moved much of what they hold to short-term Treasuries, to translate into U.S. assets at knock-down prices. To sell on any real market any serious amount of this debt in the next decade would require torqued-up interest rates, which would be steroids for bulging debt, while strangling economic growth. It would be the 30-year-old bugbear of stagflation. And most is already being bought by the Federal Reserve: a straight open-faucet addition to the money supply, future inflation, and the reduction of the dollar’s value.<br /><br />The present health-care bills include large tax increases. The proposed cap-and-trade bill to reduce carbon emissions would pile increased heating and air-conditioning costs on homeowners and employers, but would neither reduce emissions nor raise government revenues. The whole program is based on the unproved eco-terror arguments that have made Al Gore a Nobel Prize laureate centimillionaire, and the bill is ill-conceived if not insane.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzdiYTRkYTg4NjNmOTMwNzE3MmNlMDY3YWJmOWNhZTc=">More here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGM0ZDFmNjc2MTVhZTVmNDUxZmM2ZDQ5Y2RlZmZkZjA= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:10:30 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Peter Robinson) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWZjMzg2YzdiZGM4MGU5ZmJmN2RjYjBjZmYyYTVjMGE= <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/11/20/503847a6aff80d83b744f7aca1a792a7.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="310" /></p> <p>This week on <em>Uncommon Knowledge</em>, from Toqueville to Obama -- and from a republic characterized by individual liberty to the vast, yawning maw of the welfare state.<span> </span>Our guest, Dr. Paul A. Rahe, professor of history and political science at Hillsdale College, and the author, most recently, of <em><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=030014492X" target="_blank">Soft Despotism</a>.<br /></em></p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Soft despotism comes, Tocqueville thinks, when very gradually within a liberal democratic polity the government offers a helping hand to people. <span> </span>It’s always welcome. <span> </span>Businessmen who argue against government interference in the economy are always willing to have government help in their particular area of the economy. <span> </span>And very gradually, very slowly, unobtrusively, without anyone’s quite noticing what’s going on, the government ends up helping in a thousand and one ways and there are <em>always</em> strings attached.</span></p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><a href="http://tv.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge/">Click here</a>.<br /></span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWZjMzg2YzdiZGM4MGU5ZmJmN2RjYjBjZmYyYTVjMGE= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:03:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzFlNDA4ZjM0ZGQ3YzRmOWM0YzEyM2VlZGFhNzY4ZmE= From a $50 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">I've never donated before . . . figured my subscription to the Dead Tree edition would suffice, but...Because I believe Ponnuru would be a great SCOTUS addition. Because Goldberg told me to rent Deadwood (oh, and also happened to write the most important political book in ages). Because Derb used the phrase "Marmite Motorway" to describe England's future in an email to me. Because K-Lo knew Father Callaghan in my local parish would be the one priest to reference NRO in a Christmas Eve sermon. Because if I miss it, you reprint Krauthammer's Fox News take. Because Steyn is Steyn. Because Nordlinger loves music even more than politics (I think). Because Miller's a rock and roll animal in conservative clothing. Because I want Lowry to start handing out raises. Because NRO is the only stimulus package I need to get through these dark days. Because someday I want to work for NRO and this is the closest I can get to a bribe.  Because of Barack Obama, Nancy "Pants-on-Fire" Pelosi, and Harry Reid. I wish it could be more, folks, I truly do. This should be enough to buy a beer for everyone. Keep fighting the good fight.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzFlNDA4ZjM0ZGQ3YzRmOWM0YzEyM2VlZGFhNzY4ZmE= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:00:43 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzExNDY1YTVjMGYzNTU2ZDZiYjI1MDQwNjM3YmE1MmU= From a $100 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">Where else can you find Cthulhu, zombies and sparkling political commentary?  Speaking of which, how about a new blog, "Cthulhu Calls?"  Plenty of eldritch evil around these days.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzExNDY1YTVjMGYzNTU2ZDZiYjI1MDQwNjM3YmE1MmU= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:30:31 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjlhY2E5Y2UxYzUxMjc5YWFjMzVjZjE5MjczYjNmNDY= Is there anything more important than the issue of terrorism? Domestic terrorism and foreign-based terrorism that aims to strike us internally? I well recall the 2006 Nickle Mines Amish School massacre of six children. And I recall Jay Nordlinger saying: “This is what we would have thought would have been one of the last safe places in America.” Who would have thought a health care center . . . run by the Army . . . in a Fort . . . in Texas, would not have been the last safe place in America, safe from terrorism, safe from our own U.S. military hosting an officer-terrorist. Of course, as we all know, it was not safe. On November 5th, 14 people were shot to death by a Radical Muslim in Army uniform. He had a laser sight on his gun.<br /> <br /> Why has terrorism, how has terrorism, come to be such a rare and indeed controversial identifier here? Let’s look at what the American people think. <br /> <br /> Americans themselves apparently have mixed feelings over characterizing the rampage as terrorism. A recent Fox News poll found that 49 percent of those interviewed preferred to describe the incident as “a killing spree” and that 44 percent thought “act of terrorism” was more accurate.<br /> <br /> The older the respondent, the more likely he was to call it terrorism. Forty-five percent believe the outburst involved the shooter mentally snapping, and 38 percent consider him a Muslim extremist protesting American foreign policies.<br /> <br /> We have carved out for our culture and ourselves categories that are completely meaningless in and of themselves to whitewash the notions of reality before our eyes, realities such as good and evil. In the days following 9/11, many of us thought a lot was morally clarified; that for the first time in a generation, the true hand of evil and the true face of evil could be seen for what they were, without psycho-babble, without moral unseriousness, without politically correct norms, without the language of mush. And we, in fact, were there. It didn’t last. We have a Muslim terrorist, who called for jihad, who shouted “Alahu Akbar” as he was killing unarmed soldiers in a health center, who had cards made up that said “Solider of Allah,” who spoke of pouring boiling oil down the throats of infidels, who has regular correspondence with a radical imam who preached to 9/11 terrorists . . . and, and, and, and . . . we call it not terrorism but a “killing spree” as if that is what it was and not a terrorist trying to kill as many Americans as possible for political motives.<br /> <br /> There is a rot that spreads outside of Washington into the larger culture. It begins with a confusion of terms, and by not calling things by their proper names, it begins with a disassembling of the moral categories. We don’t hear about terrorism or radical Islam so we are surprised to find it in our midst, and when we do, we don’t even recognize it. We have Army generals who elevate diversity over life, we have a president who speaks not of radical Islam or terrorism -- though life is what we are fighting for and radical Islam and terrorism is what we are fighting against. And so we are reminded again of the notion that the chief purpose of education is to know when a man is talking rot. Because, if unchecked, the rot will settle, it will metastasize. Soon we no longer know anymore what we are fighting against . . . or more importantly, what we are to fight for.<span class="bioline"><br /><br /><em> -- William J. Bennett is host of </em><a href="http://www.billbennett.com/">Morning in America</a><em>. </em></span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjlhY2E5Y2UxYzUxMjc5YWFjMzVjZjE5MjczYjNmNDY= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:21:47 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmQ4NjYxN2JkMGEzMjIwYmQ4ZjRjZmU0N2YyZGNmMjE= From a $50 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">In the days of our American Revolution, patriots had Committees of Correspondance to bring them the news in the fight for liberty. NRO is today's patriot's C of C. Each morning I eagerly await my internet browser, like some modern day Paul Revere, to bring me NRO galloping onto my screen.  "Standing athwart history and yelling stop" has always seemed to me to be our generation's "to arms, to arms!"  Keep up the great work!</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmQ4NjYxN2JkMGEzMjIwYmQ4ZjRjZmU0N2YyZGNmMjE= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:00:42 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Peter Wehner) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDMyMmQxYWRkM2EzNTdlMDdhMWRiODg3NmFiNTU1MzI= <span class="Normal__Char">In every important public debate, many myths rise up. Some of them are factual mistakes; others are based on false premises. Whichever is the case, there is a need to swat them down in a careful and accessible manner. The Foreign Policy Initiative’s Fact Sheet, making the case for a fully resourced counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy for Afghanistan, does just that. It can be found </span><span class="Normal__Char"><a href="http://foreignpolicyi.org/node/13391">here</a></span><span class="Normal__Char">. </span><span class="Normal__Char">It’s a useful primer showing why the arguments against a significant increase in troop strength and COIN strategy in Afghanistan are wrong. But see for yourself.</span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDMyMmQxYWRkM2EzNTdlMDdhMWRiODg3NmFiNTU1MzI= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:30:36 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDczMDNhNTA0YjZiODBmNzYxMzk4NTBjYzVjMzk1MDU= From a $150 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">The barrage of inside-joke references in Goldberg's "Appeal" reminded me what a huge presence my friends on the Corner have been in my life over the last ten years. Almost every day for a decade I have been able to enjoy conversation with people much smarter, wittier, and more fun than anyone who would ever talk to me in real life. Please accept my meager donation as token of affection and esteem.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDczMDNhNTA0YjZiODBmNzYxMzk4NTBjYzVjMzk1MDU= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:30:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODg3NjM2NjRiZjMwNGMyMDJhMThkNjNhMjM5N2E3NTM= It was hard to miss <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hrHqh9axvidETkOE3_YpbVsK1D3A">this</a> from the AFP on Sunday on Patrick Kennedy's continuing church issues: </p> <blockquote> <p>Communion is a church ritual that involves the sharing of bread and wine meant to represent the body and blood of Jesus Christ.</p> </blockquote> <p>Patrick Kennedy is Catholic -- or, at least, says he is, which is the issue. Catholics don't believe it's a representation. AFP doesn't have to buy in. They just have to report accurately.</p> <p>Kennedy's bishop, BTW, <a href="http://www.thericatholic.com/news/detail.html?sub_id=2678">has responded</a> to the congressman's comments over the weekend: <br /><br /> </p> <p> <blockquote> <p>On February 21, 2007, I wrote to Congressman Kennedy stating: "In light of the Church's clear teaching, and your consistent actions, therefore, I believe it is inappropriate for you to be receiving Holy Communion and I now ask respectfully that you refrain from doing so." My request came in light of the new statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that said, "If a Catholic in his or her personal or professional life were knowingly and obstinately to repudiate her definite teachings on moral issues, he or she would seriously diminish his or her communion with the Church. Reception of Holy Communion in such a situation would not accord with the nature of the Eucharistic celebration, so that he or she should refrain." (Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper, December, 2006)</p> <p>In the same letter I wrote to Congressman Kennedy, "I am writing to you personally and confidentially as a pastor addressing a member of his flock . . . At the present time I have no need or intention to make this a public issue." I also indicated, "I am available to discuss this matter with you in person at any mutually convenient time and place. I would welcome the opportunity to do so."</p> <p>On February 28, 2007, the Congressman responded to me, "I have the utmost respect for the work you do on behalf of the Catholic community in Rhode Island. . . I understand your pastoral advice was confidential in nature and given with the best intentions for my personal spiritual welfare."</p> <p>I am disappointed that the Congressman would make public my pastoral and confidential request of nearly three years ago that sought to provide solely for his spiritual well-being.</p> <p>I have no desire to continue the discussion of Congressman Kennedy's spiritual life in public. At the same time, I will absolutely respond publicly and strongly whenever he attacks the Catholic Church, misrepresents the teachings of the Church, or issues inaccurate statements about my pastoral ministry.</p> </blockquote> </p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODg3NjM2NjRiZjMwNGMyMDJhMThkNjNhMjM5N2E3NTM= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:18:55 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDE2MjY0ODJmMGYzZmY3MjM5M2ZkYjdjMjM2N2I1N2Q= From a $25 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">OK, OK . . . you got me with the pseudo-G-File! I have 2 daughters in college and not a heck of a lot extra cash laying around, but I've been reading The Corner every day since the 2000 elections and this is just a small token (granted .  . . really small) of how much you guys mean to the rest of us out here.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDE2MjY0ODJmMGYzZmY3MjM5M2ZkYjdjMjM2N2I1N2Q= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:00:53 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWUwMzRjYjVjNTU0Zjg2NzdhNDI3ZjQ1NGU3YTA5NGE= <p class="Normal">The best the defenders of President Obama’s trip to Asia can say at this moment is that the resounding chorus of criticism is premature. Of course, no presidential visit can be fully assessed until months -- and sometimes years -- after the event.</p> <p class="Normal">But the president has united the political spectrum against him for his abandonment of human rights as a central element of the American dialogue with China. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/opinion/21sat1.html?hp">The </a><span class="Normal__Char"><em><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/opinion/21sat1.html?hp">New York Times</a></em></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/opinion/21sat1.html?hp"> gently put it this way</a> this weekend: “The American president must always be willing to stand up to Beijing in defense of core American interests and values.” </p> <p class="Normal">What the president does not understand is that American values <span class="Normal__Char">are</span> American interests. American diplomats tend to separate the two and sometimes think that promoting the former can undermine the latter. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton obviously subscribes to this view.  After all, this February she famously <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/21/clinton.china.asia/">said</a> that the issue of Chinese human rights cannot be permitted to “interfere” with important topics of discussion with Beijing. The president, for his part, broke the precedent of the last three administrations and refused to see the Dalai Lama during His Holiness’s trip to Washington early last month. The administration indicated Obama did not want to rile the Chinese before his visit.</p> <p class="Normal">What Obama and Clinton fail to comprehend is that America derives its security because of its values. Peoples around the world support our policies precisely because they share our beliefs. And with the Chinese there is another dimension: Beijing’s ruthlessly pragmatic leaders see our failure to press human rights as a sign that we think we are weak. And if they think we are weak, they see little reason to cooperate. So promoting human rights is protecting American security.</p> <p class="Normal">Chinese officials were reported to have been ecstatic when Secretary Clinton issued her February remarks. Since then, they have been noticeably less cooperative on the great issues of the day. And in March, just one month after her statement, they felt bold enough to order their vessels to harass two of our unarmed ships in international waters in the South China and Yellow Seas. The Chinese even <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/20/us.china.navy/index.html">attempted</a> to sever a towed sonar array from one of the Navy vessels. That hostile act constituted an attack on the United States.<br /><br /> <em><span class="bioline">— Gordon G.</span><span class="bioline"> Chang is the author of </span></em><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=1400062942"><span class="bioline">Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World</span></a><em><span class="bioline">. He lived and worked in China and Hong Kong for almost two decades.</span></em></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWUwMzRjYjVjNTU0Zjg2NzdhNDI3ZjQ1NGU3YTA5NGE= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:00:18 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGMxODg1YmIwYWM4MGQ5MDAyMDI3ODAwMjhiNjQwNmE= I listened to this defense attorney explain what's to come on local New York news last night. I thought I had fallen asleep and was having nightmares. <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hLzK033Jh4aJFhUF_nmu7SO9QY8gD9C4PIN80">But here it is</a>: </p> <p> <blockquote> <p class="hn-byline">By KAREN MATTHEWS (AP)</p> <p>NEW YORK — The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday.</p> <p>Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but "would explain what happened and why they did it."</p> <p>The U.S. Justice Department announced earlier this month that Ali and four other men accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S. will face a civilian federal trial just blocks from the site of the destroyed World Trade Center.</p> <p>Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.</p> <p>Mohammed, Ali and the others will explain "their assessment of American foreign policy," Fenstermaker said.</p> <p>"Their assessment is negative," he said.</p> </blockquote> </p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGMxODg1YmIwYWM4MGQ5MDAyMDI3ODAwMjhiNjQwNmE= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:50:15 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDJmMzk5NDVmNDcyMjlhODFmMTAyOTdhODg0ZmJiNTU= On Friday, a left-wing website launched a coordinated attack on my new novel, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=1449532438"><em>The First Assassin</em></a>. It encouraged its minions to post fraudulent one-star reviews on Amazon.com -- in other words, to trash a book they haven't bothered to read. They also tagged the book with strange terms such as "wingnut assassination fantasy," "wingnuts are go," and worse. Their behavior is a case study in illiberalism -- an online book-burning party that ought to embarrass honest liberals. I'm hardly the first <em>National Review</em> writer to face such abuse. Just ask Jonah.</p> <p>This calls for a counterattack. Readers of The Corner can go on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/First-Assassin-John-J-Miller/product-reviews/1449532438/ref=pr_all_summary_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1">Amazon.com's customer-review page for <em>The First Assassin</em></a> and rate the customer reviews. By clicking a button, you can describe which reviews are helpful and which are unhelpful. These decisions matter. Reviews deemed most helpful rise to the top of the section. Also, if you're able and willing to contribute your own customer review of <em>The First Assassin </em>-- now or at some point in the future -- this would be even more valuable.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="new roman,times;">Many NROniks already have purchased <em>The First Assassin</em>. I’m grateful for this support. You are the best readers in the world. Thanks for letting us do what we do.</span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDJmMzk5NDVmNDcyMjlhODFmMTAyOTdhODg0ZmJiNTU= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:53:34 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjYzNmJiNTMzM2U5NDMyZmM3NDQ3MWM4YmE0ZTllMTg= I'm surprised this man didn't go mad. It's <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1230092/Patient-trapped-23-year-coma-conscious-along.html" target="_blank">a remarkable and sobering tale</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>A man thought by doctors to be in a vegetative state for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time, it was revealed last night.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjYzNmJiNTMzM2U5NDMyZmM3NDQ3MWM4YmE0ZTllMTg= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:44:20 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzIzN2IyNmYxOWRkZTVjYmVmM2ZiZDI3MDczMTAzODg= The paper's position on those <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/private-climate-conversations-on-display/" target="_blank">revelations of "climate change" shenanigans</a> I wrote about earlier:</p> <blockquote> <p>The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won’t be posted here.<a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/private-climate-conversations-on-display/"></a></p> </blockquote> <p>(Please note: This policy does not apply to Republican candidates showing any signs of life in the polls.)</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzIzN2IyNmYxOWRkZTVjYmVmM2ZiZDI3MDczMTAzODg= Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:22:26 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Rich Lowry) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGVkM2Q1MGIwMmE4ZTY5ZDhiMDcxZDIxMmEzMWZlZDg= <span style="new roman,times;"><span>Thus says a tribal elder in Afghanistan in this </span></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/world/asia/22militias.html?pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper"><span style="new roman,times;"><span>encouraging <em>New York Times</em> story</span></span></a><span style="new roman,times;"><span> about Afghan militias fighting the Taliban.</span></span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGVkM2Q1MGIwMmE4ZTY5ZDhiMDcxZDIxMmEzMWZlZDg= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:43:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Stephen Spruiell) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTkwNmM5NjI5MThiOTMwODZjZDYyODYwYmYxNjllOGE= That's how Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn <a href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/11/blackburn-health-care-by-the-numbers.html">characterized</a> the preventative-care sections of the Democrats' health-care bill:</p> <blockquote> <p>BLACKBURN: And, George, this is exactly how it happens.  If you go to page 1,296 of the House bill, the engrossed copy, and you began to read in title three of that bill, on preventive and wellness services, and you get down to section 2301, this is what happens.  In section 3131 of that bill, it changes the Preventive Services Task Force to the Clinical Preventive Services Task Force. Then, you go back and you see that that task force on preventive clinical services is tasked with rating A, B, C, D, or I all preventive services.  Then you go back into section 222 of the bill..."</p> <p>(CROSSTALK)</p> <p>BLACKBURN:  Yes, I have read this bill.  And that indicates what would be paid or covered.  And this is where the actual link comes, and I'll read it for you.  In section 2301, it says, "All recommendations of the Preventive Services Task Force" -- that's the group that did the mammograms -- "and the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, as in existence on the day before the date of the enactment of this act, shall be considered to be recommendations of the Task Force on Clinical Preventive Services." [...]</p> <p>BLACKBURN:  And when you look at what is going to happen with these 118 new bureaucracies with 62 directives that are given by the health choices commissioner on what insurance can be offered in this country after 2013 and what is going to be paid, you know that this is the bureaucrat in the exam room.  This is how it's going to happen.</p> </blockquote> <p>Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius <a href="http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=1&subcatid=1&threadid=3322933">released a statement</a> stressing that the task force's recommendations "do not set federal policy and they don’t determine what services are covered by the federal government." But under the Democrats' health-care legislation, they would. In the <a href="http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3962eh.txt.pdf">House bill</a>, only preventative services receiving grades of A or B from the task force would be part of the "essential benefits package." The task force's <a href="http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspsbrca.htm">new recommendations</a> on mammography downgrade routine screening in women aged 40 to 49 years to a C grade.</p> <p>Of course, many states already require insurance companies to cover at least one mammogram per year. These and other mandates have driven up the cost of insurance and led conservatives to call for reforms that would enable people to buy health insurance across state lines. The point is not that all mammograms should be covered, or that none should be. It is that people should be allowed to buy insurance coverage that meets their needs, based on their family health histories, their doctors' advice, etc. They should not be required to buy coverage -- or denied coverage -- based on the edicts of some task force in Washington.</p> <p>As James Joyner <a href="http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/medical_backtracking/">pointed out</a> last week, the vacillations of the medical community on issues like mammography draw into question "the rigors of medical scholarship, which seems to frequently draw wide conclusions based on studies of very small, self-selected samples." We shouldn't be forced to buy one-size-fits-all insurance policies in any case, but certainly not when they are designed by bureaucrats reacting to the health crisis du jour.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTkwNmM5NjI5MThiOTMwODZjZDYyODYwYmYxNjllOGE= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:21:53 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mzg0NWQ3NDU3ODg5ZmE3ZTM3NjhhYjc5M2MzZjI1Njk= From a $50 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">It's worth $50 just to be able to read lines like, "you keep us on our toes like Robert Reich at a urinal".  Thanks for the light words during a dark time. <br /></span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mzg0NWQ3NDU3ODg5ZmE3ZTM3NjhhYjc5M2MzZjI1Njk= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:00:55 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzVhNDE5ODJkZDFiNTgxYWNhODljZjZiMGYzNzU5ZWE= From a $100 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">For [all the authors] who always keep me entertained. Thanks for always supporting me in Iraq and at my job as a casualty officer at Bethesda.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzVhNDE5ODJkZDFiNTgxYWNhODljZjZiMGYzNzU5ZWE= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:00:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDZmZTAwY2Y4ZDhjOWU5MjJmNDlmM2VhY2VmZjAyZjg= From a $25 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">As you might expect (I live in Vermont) I feel somewhat under siege. Fortunately I have NRO and NRODT to keep me sane.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDZmZTAwY2Y4ZDhjOWU5MjJmNDlmM2VhY2VmZjAyZjg= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:00:01 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzEyMWE0MGVjMDQwMTdiNmYyYmZkMzZhZTdhMDk0NjQ= From a $50 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">The conservative media is in the ascendancy because of your work.<br /> <br /> How could anyone miss a website with Mark Steyn.<br /> <br /> God Bless -- The Corner!<br /> <br /> Long Live -- Doctor! Doctor!<br /> <br /> Hallelujah -- The Campaign Spot!</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzEyMWE0MGVjMDQwMTdiNmYyYmZkMzZhZTdhMDk0NjQ= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:00:29 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Yzk5NjUwNjMwZDcxNjg0MWQyMThjYzEzMGM3ZjY4MmE= <a href="http://www.kalifornistan.com/Main/Home.html">The movie</a>. Coming sooner than you think.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Yzk5NjUwNjMwZDcxNjg0MWQyMThjYzEzMGM3ZjY4MmE= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:31:16 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmFiZjdkY2UxYWFjOGYwZDg3MDkwYTZkNjdjZWIwMDE= From a reader in response to<a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjQxOTI1YmIzYzg4MmIyNjE4YTI4YmE0N2FiYmVmNzk="> my appeal</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The new most useful all purpose line in Internet Punditry: "And even if that's not exactly what you're saying, I'm sure that's the gist of it."<br /><br />If I hadn't already donated, that would of done it.<br /><br />Cheers, and thanks for the good work.</p> <p>[Name withheld]</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmFiZjdkY2UxYWFjOGYwZDg3MDkwYTZkNjdjZWIwMDE= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:07:06 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mzc1MTkzNDc3NWE0ZDc2NzljOTZjZjU4YTAyYTE3YmE= It all depends on how you look at it. From <a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1213483&srvc=business&position=recent" target="_blank">the <em>Boston Herald</em></a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>In an embarrassing blow to the movement to combat global warming, hackers have posted hundreds of e-mails from a world-renowned British institute that show researchers colluding to exaggerate warming and undermine skeptics.</p> </blockquote> <p>From <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/20/climate-sceptics-hackers-leaked-emails" target="_blank">the <em>Guardian</em></a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The alleged emails illustrate the persistent pressure some climatologists have been under from sceptics in recent years. </p> </blockquote> <p>Yes, it's awfully stressful having to develop models to "<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikaqlFpp9jCRHWN0zNuamKXfyeMgD9C441LG0" target="_blank">hide the decline</a>" in global temperatures, "<a href="http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/012694.html" target="_blank">balance the needs of the science and the IPCC</a>", <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/" target="_blank">pressure scientific journals to exclude dissenting views</a>, and <a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/11/024996.php" target="_blank">delete (illegally) material requested under the Freedom of Information Act</a>.</p> <p>"Climate change" and "health care" are different ends of the same stick: They're both all-purpose pretexts for regulating every aspect of your life. Don't take my word for it -- listen to the Belgian nonentity upgraded on Friday to <a href="http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/012691.html">the Holy Roman Emperor <em>de nos jours</em></a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>2009 is also the first year of global governance.</p> </blockquote> <p>Did you get that memo? And, if you disagree, who do you call? Who do you vote out of office if you want a change in "global governance"? Previewing Copenhagen, global warm-monger Tim Flannery is entirely <a href="http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/10/29/gullible-eager-beaver-planet-savers/" target="_blank">upfront about the end-game</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>We think of them as being concerned with some sort of environmental treaty. That is far from the case... <strong>They deal with every aspect of our life</strong> and they will influence every aspect of our life, our economy, our society.</p> </blockquote> <p>And surely that admirable goal justifies a little bit of "hiding the decline" and other sleights.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mzc1MTkzNDc3NWE0ZDc2NzljOTZjZjU4YTAyYTE3YmE= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:04:25 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDUzZDEzNWY5YWFkZmE4OWE3YTdjMzE3OTgwN2UyYzk= From a $100 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">In many ways, you guys make us readers feel like we're part of the NR family.  And where I come from, family takes care of family.  Thanks for all you do.  Keep it up.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDUzZDEzNWY5YWFkZmE4OWE3YTdjMzE3OTgwN2UyYzk= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:00:03 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDE0NDYxMzYzYjYyY2ZkYmFmZGYyZjgzNDNmNWU3NDc= In the <em><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/opinion/22wright.html">NYT</a></em>:</p> <blockquote> <p>IN the case of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and the Fort Hood massacre, the verdict has come in. The liberal news media have been found guilty — by the conservative news media — of coddling Major Hasan’s religion, Islam.<br /><br />Liberals, according to the columnist Charles Krauthammer, wanted to medicalize Major Hasan’s crime — call it an act of insanity rather than of terrorism. They worked overtime, Mr. Krauthammer said on Fox News, to “avoid any implication that there was any connection between his Islamist beliefs ... and his actions.” The columnist Jonah Goldberg agrees. Admit it, he wrote in The Los Angeles Times, Major Hasan is “a Muslim fanatic, motivated by other Muslim fanatics.”<br /><br />The good news for Mr. Krauthammer and Mr. Goldberg is that there is truth in their indictment. The bad news is that their case against the left-wing news media is the case against right-wing foreign policy. Seeing the Fort Hood shooting as an act of Islamist terrorism is the first step toward seeing how misguided a hawkish approach to fighting terrorism has been.<br /><br />The American right and left reacted to 9/11 differently. Their respective responses were, to oversimplify a bit: “kill the terrorists” and “kill the terrorism meme.”<br /><br />Conservatives backed war in Iraq, and they’re now backing an escalation of the war in Afghanistan. Liberals (at least, dovish liberals) have warned in both cases that killing terrorists is counterproductive if in the process you create even more terrorists; the object of the game isn’t to wipe out every last Islamist radical but rather to contain the virus of Islamist radicalism.<br /><br />One reason killing terrorists can spread terrorism is that various technologies — notably the Internet and increasingly pervasive video — help emotionally powerful messages reach receptive audiences. When American wars kill lots of Muslims, inevitably including some civilians, incendiary images magically find their way to the people who will be most inflamed by them.<br /><br />This calls into question our nearly obsessive focus on Al Qaeda — the deployment of whole armies to uproot the organization and to finally harpoon America’s white whale, Osama bin Laden. If you’re a Muslim teetering toward radicalism and you have a modem, it doesn’t take Mr. bin Laden to push you over the edge. All it takes is selected battlefield footage and a little ad hoc encouragement: a jihadist chat group here, a radical imam there — whether in your local mosque or on a Web site in your local computer.</p> </blockquote> <p>He goes on. I find it all pretty unpersuasive. But we're going to try to work out a bloggingheads session out of it. So I'll reserve my comments until then,</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDE0NDYxMzYzYjYyY2ZkYmFmZGYyZjgzNDNmNWU3NDc= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:59:48 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Andy McCarthy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTc4MGU3NWU3M2IwZTRlODUyMjhkYjk3NzA2NTI3NWM= I have an <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/11/22/2009-11-22_how_obama_is_courting_danger_civilian_trials_set_back_the_war_on_terror.html">op-ed</a> in the <em>New York Daily News</em> this morning on the Obama administration decision to transfer KSM and the other 9/11 jihadists to Manhattan for a civilian trial. Here's the wrap-up:</p> <blockquote> <p>Our enemies will be given a full-blown civilian trial with all the rights of the American citizens they are sworn to kill. They will get a year or more to sift through our national defense secrets. They will have wide latitude to turn the case into a trial of the Bush administration - publicizing information about anti-terrorism tactics that leftist lawyers will exploit in their quest for war crimes prosecutions in foreign courts against current and former U.S. officials.</p> <p>In the military system, we could have denied them access to classified information, forcing them to accept military lawyers with security clearances who could see such intelligence but not share it with our enemies. In civilian court, the <a title="U.S. Supreme Court" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/U.S.+Supreme+Court">Supreme Court</a> has held an accused has an absolute right to conduct his own defense. If KSM asserts that right - as he tried to do in the military commission - he will have a strong argument that we must surrender relevant, top-secret information directly to him. And we know that indicted terrorists share what they learn with their confederates on the outside.</p> <p>Finally, as policy, the administration's decision is perverse. A half-century of humanitarian law, beginning with the Geneva Conventions, sought to civilize warfare. To receive enhanced protection, combatants must adhere to the laws of war and refrain from targeting civilians. Under Obama-logic, the Cole bombers get a military commission while the 9/11 savages are clothed in the majesty of the Bill of Rights.</p> <p>So here's the message to terrorists: If you kill thousands of civilians, we will give you better rights than if you attack military assets. That is dangerously irresponsible.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTc4MGU3NWU3M2IwZTRlODUyMjhkYjk3NzA2NTI3NWM= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:41:39 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGI2ZTdkNGI1NDc5MjIxYTFlNTBjMjVlOWY1MDZlNzI= Readers of The Corner have contributed to a first-rate discussion about conservative novels on my personal website, <a href="http://www.heymiller.com/">HeyMiller.com</a>. As of right now, there are 146 entries in the comment section. Please feel free to add your own or just enjoy the conversation. I've come away with many excellent suggestions for books to read and hope you do the same.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGI2ZTdkNGI1NDc5MjIxYTFlNTBjMjVlOWY1MDZlNzI= Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:09:10 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjMzMDZjMzg0MjlmMTkxNWM0MDg0MTU3OWM4OWZkZjQ= <p class="MsoNormal">So what does tonight’s vote mean? Can the Senate’s week off for Thanksgiving change the politics of the health-care debate? What happens if the debate ends up stretching through December and into 2010?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">For answers, <em>NRO </em>asked Larry Sabato, the astute professor of politics at the University of Virginia, for his take.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Three elections guaranteed the 60 votes: 2006 and 2008, which gave Democrats the White House and large Hill majorities, and 2009,” says Sabato. He continues: “What's that, you say? Didn't Republicans win the day in '09?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Yes, and the Republican interpretation of ‘09, as applied to health care, was that the victories of Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell would deter the Democrats from moving forward on the bill,” says Sabato. “But Democrats drew precisely the opposite lesson from ‘09. In their analysis, if they didn’t hang together and re-energize their party activists with a health-care win, they'd hang separately in November 2010. Worried senators and congressmen began to see their names etched on the wall of losers, right after Jon Corzine and Creigh Deeds.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“The conclusion, as always,” says Sabato, “is that elections matter -- and so do the prevailing interpretations of those elections.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“It is always possible that some new rationale will take hold after Thanksgiving, especially if this debate drags on and on, but there is no compelling substitute for the classroom of elections,” he adds. “Rallies, demonstrations, and protest letters are vastly inferior to the ballot box, if one's goal is to influence legislative behavior. The pro-reform forces have a big advantage in this sense.”</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjMzMDZjMzg0MjlmMTkxNWM0MDg0MTU3OWM4OWZkZjQ= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:44:05 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDQ3NjA5MzM1YzVlMGI3NGQ4MGI3OTYwM2JlODEzYmM= <blockquote> <p><br /><img src="http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/11/21/descriptionburka.jpg" alt="" width="468" height="286" /></p> </blockquote> <p>From the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1229760/Its-Barbie-burka-World-famous-doll-gets-makeover-hammer-50th-anniversary.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0XYG6ZWOy"><em>Daily Mail</em></a>:<em><br /></em></p> <blockquote> <p>One of the world's most famous children's toys, Barbie, has been given a makeover  - wearing a burkha.</p> <p>Wearing the traditional Islamic dress, the iconic doll is going undercover for a charity auction in connection with Sotheby's for Save The Children. </p> <p>More than 500 Barbies went on show yesterday at the Salone dei Cinquecento, in Florence, Italy.</p> <p>Makers Mattel are backing the exhibition which is the work of Italian designer Eliana Lorena.</p> <p>The auction is part of Barbie celebrations for her 50th anniversary this year. The UK's biggest Barbie fan Angela Ellis, 35, has a collection of more than 250 dolls.  </p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDQ3NjA5MzM1YzVlMGI3NGQ4MGI3OTYwM2JlODEzYmM= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:41:58 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGU5ZGI0YTdhOTFkNzE1ZTY5MTMxMGNkZDFlYjliZjI= An e-mail: </p> <blockquote> <p>K-Lo,<br /><br />Not only does Dodd's comments show that he's after a full government takeover, it's also delusional. No one claims that this reform will cover <em>everyone. </em><a href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=2795b41280b74b7a8db0bbb472d60bbc&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nytimes.com%2f2009%2f11%2f19%2fhealth%2fpolicy%2f19health.html" target="_blank">No fewer than 24 million will still be uninsured by 2019</a>. <br /><br />That's a point that conservatives cannot hammer enough. This bill doesn't even pretend to do the thing that its supporters say it does. This is not universal coverage, it's just more expensive coverage.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGU5ZGI0YTdhOTFkNzE1ZTY5MTMxMGNkZDFlYjliZjI= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:41:44 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2Q4ODg1YzU4NmQwOTUxNDFmZjgzZTZlOGJiNTViMjU= Senator Dodd said right before the vote:   </p> <blockquote> <p>I ALSO WANT TO PAUSE FOR A MOMENT, IF I CAN, MR. PRESIDENT, TO RECOGNIZE A COLLEAGUE WHO IS HERE TONIGHT ONLY IN SPIRIT, TED KENNEDY... <strong>TONIGHT WE AND IN THE DAYS TO COME WILL PAY HIM THE HIGHEST COMPLIMENT AS OUR COLLEAGUE BY FULFILLING THAT QUEST OF ACHIEVING THE GOAL THAT ALL AMERICANS ASPIRE FOR, AND THAT IS <span style="text-decoration: underline;">A NATIONAL HEALTH CARE PLAN THAT SERVES EVERY ONE OF OUR CITIZENS.</span><br /></strong></p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2Q4ODg1YzU4NmQwOTUxNDFmZjgzZTZlOGJiNTViMjU= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:16:49 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGEwMTU0OTM2ODdjMTJhOGU3ZTE4NjMzNTk2ZTE4NmM= Senator Reid tonight: </p> <blockquote> <p>Today we vote whether to even discuss one of the greatest issues of our generation - indeed, one of the greatest issues this body has ever face: whether <strong>this nation will finally guarantee its people the right to live free from the fear of illness and death</strong>, which can be prevented by decent health care for all.</p> </blockquote> <p>Silly me, skeptical and opposed all this time to the panacea this legislation will be. Obama<em> is</em> savior -- his plan is immortality! </p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGEwMTU0OTM2ODdjMTJhOGU3ZTE4NjMzNTk2ZTE4NmM= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:05:56 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjI2OWVhZTMxM2U5Yzc2NWE4YjUzMWMzNzQ3YjE2MGE= Saturday <a href="http://tweet.nationalreview.com/">Tweet Tracking</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjI2OWVhZTMxM2U5Yzc2NWE4YjUzMWMzNzQ3YjE2MGE= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:02:44 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGE2ODExMDRlMTUzNTVkY2QzNjIwMTQyY2E0NTBkMzc= From <em>Politico</em>, <a href="http://www.politico.com/livepulse/">right before the vote</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The Senate galleries are filled with spectators. Senators are starting to filter in and take their seats. Sen. Joe Lieberman is sitting on the floor next to Sen. Susan Collins on the Republican side of the aisle, listening to Mitch McConnell speaking.</p> <p>The senators will vote from their seats, which is done only on big, historic votes. Sen. John McCain mocked the formality of a virtually preordained vote saying loudly with a laugh, "What's going to happen?"</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGE2ODExMDRlMTUzNTVkY2QzNjIwMTQyY2E0NTBkMzc= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:56:43 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDRlZTNmZWU3ODY0NzM4MTIxYTY1MDU2NTA3YzkyMjc= An e-mail (AND IT'S NOT ABOUT FUNDRAISING): </p> <blockquote> <p>Santorum is all over this: It was a terrible mistake for opponents to allow tonight's vote such a dramatic buildup. We had no hope. What Democrat is going to deny his party even the opportunity for floor debate on such a historical piece of legislation? Wasn't going to happen. I hope the hype will not feed despair on our side. I am very optimistic that much of the worst mischief will be stripped from this bill before final passage. In fact, it is entirely possible that there will be no final passage.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDRlZTNmZWU3ODY0NzM4MTIxYTY1MDU2NTA3YzkyMjc= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:51:32 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTEwOTE1ZTgzODMwMDNjY2E3MjNjNzFmOTQzMDMwZjY= From White House press secretary Robert Gibbs:</p> <blockquote> <p>The President is gratified that the Senate has acted to begin consideration of health insurance reform legislation. Tonight's historic vote brings us one step closer to ending insurance company abuses, reining in spiraling health care costs, providing stability and security to those with health insurance, and extending quality health coverage to those who lack it. The President looks forward to a thorough and productive debate.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTEwOTE1ZTgzODMwMDNjY2E3MjNjNzFmOTQzMDMwZjY= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:41:59 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjE2YzI2MzU3Y2M4N2E4YzJjY2FlOTU0OWFkZjI0Njc= Doug Johnson's response:</p> <blockquote> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><a title="http://www.mmsend3.com/ls.cfm?r=124891322&sid=8013741&m=873066&u=NRLC&s=http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/Release111809.html" href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=2795b41280b74b7a8db0bbb472d60bbc&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nrlc.org%2fAHC%2fRelease111809.html" target="_blank"></a></p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><a title="http://www.mmsend3.com/ls.cfm?r=124891322&sid=8013741&m=873066&u=NRLC&s=http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/Release111809.html" href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=2795b41280b74b7a8db0bbb472d60bbc&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nrlc.org%2fAHC%2fRelease111809.html" target="_blank">As National Right to Life has previously noted</a>, Senator Reid's bill [on page 118] would authorize the federal government to pay for any and all abortions through a huge new federal health insurance program, the "public option," and also to subsidize purchase of private plans that cover abortion on demand.  President Obama and Reid know that the substance of these abortion-promoting policies is <a title="http://www.mmsend3.com/ls.cfm?r=124891322&sid=8013742&m=873066&u=NRLC&s=http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/AHCPollsSummary.pdf" href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=2795b41280b74b7a8db0bbb472d60bbc&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nrlc.org%2fAHC%2fAHCPollsSummary.pdf" target="_blank">deeply unpopular</a>, so they seek to conceal the reality with layers of contorted definitions and money-laundering schemes.</p> <p class="x_MsoNormal">Obama and Reid wanted debate - so now they’ll get debate, on their cloaked provisions that would cover abortion on demand in proposed new government-run and government-subsidized insurance plans.</p> <p class="x_MsoNormal">Obama and Reid are seeking to block enactment of the bipartisan Stupak-Pitts compromise, adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives on November 7 by a vote of 240-194. This amendment would prevent government funding of elective abortion through the proposed “public option," and would also prevent federal subsidies from paying for private insurance plans that cover elective abortion.  </p> <p class="x_MsoNormal">During the weeks ahead, National Right to Life will continue to fight the efforts of President Obama and congressional Democratic leaders to cover abortion on demand in two huge new federal health programs.  The Senate bill faces additional 60-vote hurdles in the future.  Moreover, a courageous group of pro-life Democrats in the House of Representatives will oppose final approval of health care legislation if the Stupak-Pitts Amendment is gutted or removed.</p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"> </p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjE2YzI2MzU3Y2M4N2E4YzJjY2FlOTU0OWFkZjI0Njc= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:38:41 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODY5ZmFmYjNhMWI2M2ZhMTA1ZjUzZmViZGMxNDg0MzI= <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz) on tonight’s 60</span>-<span>39 vote:</span></p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Any pretense or claim that this is a bipartisan bill is gone.  Every Senator who voted for tonight’s procedural motion ignored the American people and instead voted with the leaders of the Democratic party.  At a time when our nation is facing its highest unemployment level in almost three decades, American families and small businesses do not need a job-killing bill that rations their care, raids Medicare, and increases taxes and premiums for everyone.</span></p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODY5ZmFmYjNhMWI2M2ZhMTA1ZjUzZmViZGMxNDg0MzI= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:36:04 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDY3YTFjNGQ0ZjRmZjY5NDY1YTQ2OWFjOGZhN2I2ODQ= In a post-vote press conference, Chris Dodd just clarified that Americans have the right only to certain things to be provided by the government, "not all things."</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDY3YTFjNGQ0ZjRmZjY5NDY1YTQ2OWFjOGZhN2I2ODQ= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:21:40 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTZiZjc4Y2ViYWIyYmM0YjczOWJlOTVmNDNiNGY0NTI= Statement, via e-mail:</p> <blockquote> <p>“If this health care bill makes it to conference committee without an authentic abortion exclusion, Senators Casey, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson and Reid will be held especially accountable.”  <br /><br />Washington - In response to this evening’s advancement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act in the U.S. Senate, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser offered the following statement:<br /><br />“It's gravely disappointing that pro-life Democrats in the Senate failed to show the same courage and conviction shown by their counterparts in the House of Representatives.  <br /><br />“Senators should consider themselves on notice: America is still waiting for you to strike government funded abortion from this legislation.  Votes have consequences, and if this health care bill makes it to conference committee without an authentic abortion exclusion, Senators Casey, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson and Reid will be held especially accountable.  <br /><br />“Their first opportunity to defend Life was on the motion to proceed.  Their last chance will be on the final cloture vote to end debate. A vote to close debate without the addition of strong pro-life language will be a vote for government-funded abortion. That would be the ultimate betrayal of pro-life constituents and even self-described pro-choice Americans who oppose government-funded abortion.” <br /><br />Unlike the House version of health care reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act explicitly authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to include abortion coverage in the public option.   The bill also allows the use of government subsidies to purchase insurance policies that include elective abortion coverage.   This is a departure from current federal policy, which bans the use of taxpayer funds for abortion and health plans that cover abortion.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTZiZjc4Y2ViYWIyYmM0YjczOWJlOTVmNDNiNGY0NTI= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:17:01 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjkwZWJjZDM3MjI3YzQzY2VhNGI2YWI3MWNhMTVjZGY= Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum comments to <em>National Review Online</em> on tonight's vote: "I never wanted this to be considered a critical vote -- it wasn't one we could win. This is just the start of the process; the majority leader getting a vote tonight was <em>almost</em> a given. Pressure was a good thing, but only because it helped focus attention and dramatically increases pressure for the next cloture vote."</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjkwZWJjZDM3MjI3YzQzY2VhNGI2YWI3MWNhMTVjZGY= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:16:26 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Yjc4M2RjYmRmNjhkNDA5OWVhOTE2YjRjZjM1NmI2ZWE= That's the final tally. Reid's bill now moves to the Senate floor for a final debate. That debate will begin on Monday, November 30th.</p> <p><strong>Update:</strong></p> <p>Sen. George Voinovich (R., Ohio) did not vote.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Yjc4M2RjYmRmNjhkNDA5OWVhOTE2YjRjZjM1NmI2ZWE= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:09:25 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDZjNWY1YTRjMzQ5ZTEzZDk3MTA1NDQyNTI2YTgxOWM= <p class="MsoNormal">From a senior GOP Senate aide about the future of the abortion language in Reid's bill:</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">Republicans will have to offer amendments that mirror the Stupak language and hope that they get 60 votes for passage, which is highly unlikely...HENCE our pressure on that issue before tonight's vote. It only gets more difficult from here.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDZjNWY1YTRjMzQ5ZTEzZDk3MTA1NDQyNTI2YTgxOWM= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:04:29 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTIwZTJlYzRkMmMwMjg0MDhkYWFkMDJkMDZkZGE2NzA= As expected -- frankly, since before he was elected to the Senate -- Sen. Robert Casey just refused to cast a vote in defense of the most vulnerable among us. As Frank Cannon <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTc2YTNhOWEwYTVhYzE3YmI5MzVlYWRmYWM1ZmJlMDM=">wrote</a> earlier this week: </p> <blockquote> <p>If he votes for cloture on the motion to proceed on the health-care bill, he will be making possible the greatest expansion of abortion since <em>Roe </em>v.<em>Wade</em>, and mandating that all citizens participate through federal funding. Senate majority leader Harry Reid needs all 60 Democratic senators to bring the legislation to the floor and make it the order of business. So Senator Casey has the fate of the bill completely in his power. If he adds his vote, that will mean that any effort to add the pro-life Stupak language from the House bill will require 60 pro-life votes, which, as Senator Casey knows, are not there. Casey’s original vote to proceed will have stacked the deck against defending life.</p> </blockquote> <p>So much for taking that opportunity. So much for being a pro-life leader. </p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTIwZTJlYzRkMmMwMjg0MDhkYWFkMDJkMDZkZGE2NzA= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:02:13 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjExZmQ5NmJlODhlOGQ5NGMwYTM5YWVmZmQyMDI5NDk= <p class="MsoNormal">From the end of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s speech:</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">All it would take, Mr. President and my colleagues, is just one member of the other side of the aisle, just one, to give us an opportunity not to end the debate, but to change the debate in the direction the American people would like us to go.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjExZmQ5NmJlODhlOGQ5NGMwYTM5YWVmZmQyMDI5NDk= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:58:45 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTVlZDE5M2E3ZjM4ODczOTlhYTIxZTg5YjA2ZWI1YzM= The 8 p.m. cloture vote is upon us.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTVlZDE5M2E3ZjM4ODczOTlhYTIxZTg5YjA2ZWI1YzM= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:54:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTU0ZGM3ZDA4MzU0YTE0MDlkZTcwN2JiOGU1ZjliMDI= From Alex Koppelman <a href="http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/11/21/lincoln_landrieu">at <em>Salon</em></a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>[T]his is just one procedural vote. The more daunting hurdle of the cloture vote to break a filibuster and hold an up-or-down vote on the bill itself still lies ahead, and there Reid may have serious trouble, especially if a plan to create a government-run insurance provider -- the public option -- remains in it.</p> <p>Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who is a member of the Democratic caucus, has already said he'll vote to filibuster a bill that contains any form of the public option. (He is voting for cloture tonight, but not, he says, the next time around.) And on Saturday, Lincoln too threatened to support a filibuster of the legislation if it includes the public option.</p> <p>Both will be tough nuts for Reid to crack. Lieberman's not up for re-election next year, and has already been taunting liberals by saying he's not afraid of possible retribution. Lincoln, on the other hand, <em>is</em> up for re-election -- and that's the problem. She's seriously vulnerable, and is looking at polling numbers that seem to indicate voting with her party to support a public plan would only put her in a more precarious position.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTU0ZGM3ZDA4MzU0YTE0MDlkZTcwN2JiOGU1ZjliMDI= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:52:57 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDc4MjkwNzc1NWZiZDNlNTVjMzFhMTJjNmI5MWExMGY= <p class="MsoNormal">Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) just trotted out that old Democratic staple on the Senate floor by calling Reid’s bill “historic.” We’ve heard that word from Democrats for months now. Which reminds me: Earlier today, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn) also called this bill “historic,” but “truly historic . . . in its arrogance.” Indeed.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">More from Alexander:</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">It’s arrogant to dump 15 million low-income Americans into a medical ghetto called Medicaid that none of us or any of our families would ever want to join. It’s arrogant to send to the states, which are going broke, a big chunk of the bill. It’s arrogant to tell the American people that the bill will only cost $849 billion and think they’re not smart enough to read it and figure out that it will actually cost $2.5 trillion when it’s fully implemented. It’s arrogant to say paying for the physicians’ reimbursement is not an important part of a health care bill — even as they run over here in the dead of night and run up the deficit with a separate quarter-trillion-dollar bill to fix that. It’s arrogant to cut and tax Grandma’s Medicare, which is going broke, and then spend it on somebody else. It’s arrogant to tell us that it’s going to reduce premiums for most Americans when, in fact, it increases premiums for most Americans.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDc4MjkwNzc1NWZiZDNlNTVjMzFhMTJjNmI5MWExMGY= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:45:14 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGFiYmZkMjdlMWU5MzdhZTA4OTljNzc4NzI0ODY0NGY= is that there was any drama today at all. Byron York <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Why-is-so-hard-for-Dems-even-to-start-the-health-care-debate-70714742.html">writes</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The Democrats' problems in keeping their side together, in the face of united Republican opposition, is an indicator of how public opinion is beginning to dominate the health care debate. Dozens of polls show that Americans are deeply divided over the issue, with a slight plurality opposing the Democratic health care plans currently under consideration in Congress. Clear majorities of Americans don't believe their health care will improve under the plan, and don't believe the plan will not increase the deficit. Given that, Democrats are trying to pass the biggest piece of legislation in decades, one that will create an enormous and permanent new entitlement, with less than majority support among the public. And they're racing to do it with less than a year to go before mid-term elections that most observers believe will result in fewer Democrats in Congress. No wonder it's hard.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGFiYmZkMjdlMWU5MzdhZTA4OTljNzc4NzI0ODY0NGY= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:09:46 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjBjOTQwNzVlMTk3MmJkMWEzNWVhOGVmODg1NmFkMzc= <p class="x_MsoListParagraph">From just a bit ago: </p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"> <blockquote> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span>Mr. President, We are rapidly approaching perhaps one of the most important votes for each of us here in the United States Senate. This is bigger than us, our parties or our ideologies.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span>This about the very future of the greatest nation in the history of the world. It is about your children and my children. It is about your grandchildren and my children. It is about giving our future generations the same opportunities and the same sense of pride. It is about every American life and every American business that will be subject to this 2,074-page edict from Washington.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span>I am going to spend my time before this historic vote to highlight some very important numbers, so every member of this chamber understands what they are voting to advance. Make no mistake, our actions today will not be without consequences. History and our future generations will judge us on this.  Here are some numbers:</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>0 - the number of provisions prohibiting the rationing of health care.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>0 - the number of government-run entitlement programs that are financially sound over the long-term.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>10.2 percent - our national unemployment rate, the highest in 26 years.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>70 - total number of government programs authorized by the bill.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>1,697 - times the Secretary of Health and Human Services is given authority to determine or define provisions in this bill.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>2,074 - total pages in this bill.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>2010 - the year Americans start paying higher taxes to pay for this bill</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>2014 - the year when this bill actually starts  most of the major provisions of this bill</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>$6.8 million - cost to taxpayers per word</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>$8 billion - the total amount of new taxes on Americans who do not buy Washington-defined health care.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>$465 billion - Cuts in Medicare at a time when it faces a $38 trillion unfunded liability to finance more government spending.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>$494 billion - total amount of new taxes in this bill</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>$2.5 trillion - the real cost of the bill</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><span>$12 trillion - our total national debt</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span> </span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span>These numbers are facts. They are undisputable.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span>Let me finish by reading an excerpt from a letter from one of my fellow Utahans from Provo, who is worried just like me about what this bill will mean for our country:</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span>“I am writing out of deep concern over the increasing expansion of government. I moved here from Germany 20 years ago. I love America because it is free - freer than Germany in that I have the freedom to choose, among other things, how I want to insure my family (we have six children). I’m all for affordable health insurance which requires affordable health care. I am self-employed and have been hit hard by the economy.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span>There is a good chance that we would actually benefit from [this bill]. Business has been so bad that we would qualify for free school lunches if we asked for it. But I don’t want more government handouts.</span></p> <p class="x_MsoListParagraph"><span>I don’t want the government telling me what kind of insurance I need to have. I don’t want the government telling me what services I can receive when I need them. I don’t want them taking an ever greater part of my income to help finance government programs such as the ‘public option’ and the army of government employees it will take to administer such a program. I do not want more government. I want less. A lot less.”</span></p> </blockquote> </p> </p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjBjOTQwNzVlMTk3MmJkMWEzNWVhOGVmODg1NmFkMzc= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:31:43 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjFhYmNhY2Q0ZmU2MWU0NmMzZmMzZjA2YzAxNWJlMmM= You missed John McCain's "death panel" crack during a colloquy. (It was anti-death panel, and not anti-Palin, as I remarked on Twitter. It was also done with a McCain mischievousness.)</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjFhYmNhY2Q0ZmU2MWU0NmMzZmMzZjA2YzAxNWJlMmM= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:21:58 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzIyNmJlMTMxZThiOTkyZTg2YTEyOTQ2ZjBkNWFkMmI= From a $75 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">The return of the Goldberg File (even if it is only in email newsletter form) sealed my decision to donate this year. That, and 75 bucks is totally worth the chance to have my comments reprinted in The Corner.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzIyNmJlMTMxZThiOTkyZTg2YTEyOTQ2ZjBkNWFkMmI= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:00:08 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjUzYWU0MmNlZmUxNjE5YTQyODljMmI1NWNlMWEzYTg= This summary comes from the Republican Policy Committee in the Senate: </p> <blockquote> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span>Even though Democrats likely have enough votes to get onto the bill, below are quotes from conservative Democrats where they condition their vote on the second cloture motion on changes to the bill.</span></p> <p><span lang="EN"><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><em><span lang="EN">Senator Nelson</span></em><span lang="EN">:  “Throughout my Senate career I have consistently rejected efforts to obstruct. That's what the vote on the motion to proceed is all about. It is not for or against the new Senate health care bill released Wednesday.  In my first reading, I support parts of the bill and oppose others I will work to fix. <strong>If that's not possible, I will oppose the second cloture motion—needing 60 votes—to end debate, and oppose the final bill</strong>.”</span></p> <p><span lang="EN"><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><em>Senator Lieberman</em>:  "I've told Sen. Reid that I'm strongly inclined, I haven't totally decided, but I'm strongly inclined to vote to proceed to the healthcare debate, even though I don't support the bill that he's bringing together, because it's important that we start the debate on healthcare reform, because I want to vote on healthcare reform this year. …  <strong>I also told him that if the bill remains where it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage.”</strong></p> <p><span lang="EN"><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><em>Senator Landrieu</em>:  “My vote to move forward on this important debate should in no way be construed by the supporters of this current framework as an indication of how I might vote as this debate comes to an end.  I have decided that there are enough significant reforms and safeguards in this bill to move forward, but much <strong>more work needs to be done</strong>.”</p> <p><span lang="EN"><span>·<span>         </span></span></span><em><span lang="EN">Senator Lincoln</span></em><span lang="EN">:  “</span>In fact, madam president, this vote for or against a procedure that allows us to begin open debate on health care reform is nothing more and nothing less. … I will vote to support -- will vote in support of cloture on the motion to proceed to this bill, but, madam president, let me be perfectly clear: I am opposed to a new government-administered health care plan as part of comprehensive health insurance reform, and i will not vote in favor of the proposal that has been introduced by leader Reid as it is written. I, along with others, expect to have legitimate opportunities to influence the health care reform legislation that is voted on by the senate later this year or early next year. I am also aware that there will be additional procedural votes to move this process forward that will require 60 votes prior to the conclusion of the floor debate. <strong>I've already alerted the leader, and I'm promising my colleagues, that I'm prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as a government-run public option is included</strong>.”</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjUzYWU0MmNlZmUxNjE5YTQyODljMmI1NWNlMWEzYTg= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:15:52 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzIzZmUyZWUzYjAyNmU4YWFiMzUyYWU2MTk4YjRjNmQ= Polar bears are <a href="http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/it1/" target="_blank">falling from the skies</a>.</p> <p>Don't worry, I'm sure this is all <a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/11/024995.php" target="_blank">peer-reviewed data</a> with a <a href="http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmE2MzdiZGE4ZDYyNDYzN2Y2Y2FmMTBlODEwY2E2OTk=">side-order of tree rings</a> from the <a href="http://jaycurrie.info-syn.com/the-dirt/">First Church of the Settled Scientist</a>. </p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzIzZmUyZWUzYjAyNmU4YWFiMzUyYWU2MTk4YjRjNmQ= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:07:34 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2UwZmU0N2JjZWQwNDJiNjNmZTM2ZTRhODBlMGMzNmQ= From a $25 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">I read NRO religiously each day and I like the fact that contributors feel free to debate each other. Reasonable people can hold different opinions after all, something liberals should remember.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2UwZmU0N2JjZWQwNDJiNjNmZTM2ZTRhODBlMGMzNmQ= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:00:56 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjAwYzY2ODYzZDM2NWFkNTU3ZWFkMGQ5M2JkM2Q4NTc= From Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) on the Senate floor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="x_MsoNormal">It should be abundantly clear to each member of this body that the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed pro-life language exactly two weeks ago markedly different from that contained in the Reid proposal.</p> <p class="x_MsoNormal">The House provisions, in contrast to the terribly flawed provisions in the Reid bill, contained language that would not only safeguard the rights of the unborn but also would prevent medical providers from being coerced into performing procedures that violate their conscience.</p> <p class="x_MsoNormal">The Stupak/Pitts amendment was adopted by a significant margin - 240 to 194. That represents 55 percent of the House of Representatives, including 25 percent of the Democratic caucus.</p> <p class="x_MsoNormal">Even more telling is two polls released this week by the <em>Washington Post</em> and ABC News and CNN.  They confirmed that 61 percent of the American population does not support federal funding for abortion. This vote should serve as a strong signal to each member of the Senate that these protections cannot be ignored and must be contained in any measure that we adopt.</p> <p class="x_MsoNormal">Unfortunately, the language in the Reid bill explicitly allows what the Stupak/Pitts language would prevent. The Reid language authorizes abortion in the government operated health plan (or the public option) and federal subsidies for insurance coverage that includes abortion.  It is not the Stupak/Pitts language.  And the sanctity of life is not an issue that can be traded away for political expediency.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjAwYzY2ODYzZDM2NWFkNTU3ZWFkMGQ5M2JkM2Q4NTc= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:33:47 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Nzc3YTE2MjBkZjc1MjhlYmRmNDJlM2Q2MTVlZjg5NTg= Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzkyZTFjNGZmYzhjNzg4Y2EwMTdiMGZkM2FhNDdmODk=&w=Mw==">to <em>NRO</em></a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Regardless of Saturday’s outcome, it will be important for Republicans to “keep going out to the American people,” says McCain. “I intend to try and get out of Washington during the final weeks of debate to have town-hall meetings. We need to keep the American people stoked up and informed and do everything we can to galvanize support. The American people overwhelmingly do not want this legislation. They’re already fired up and frustrated in a way I have never seen before. We have to help make sure that their voices are heard and engage in an extensive debate.”</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Nzc3YTE2MjBkZjc1MjhlYmRmNDJlM2Q2MTVlZjg5NTg= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:30:44 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTE5NTZmOTVlZjRhOTQwYWMwNzQyYWE0MmQ2NTQ4NjE= There are a few things you need to know about tonight's vote and what it means.</p> <p>-- One, Obamacare (in the form of a cloture vote on Senate majority leader Harry Reid's bill) needs 60 votes tonight to be eligible for <em>a final Senate-floor debate</em>. Tonight's vote, in other words, is the last procedural roadblock for Democrats as they push to bring their health-care bill to its final legislative stage.</p> <p>-- Two, if Reid does get his 60 votes tonight, and the bill moves to the floor, it's a big win for Democrats -- if but for a moment. The Senate would then go on Thanksgiving break and come back to start the final health-care debate on Monday, November 30th.</p> <p>-- Three, if the bill moves to the floor for a final debate, that debate could stretch on for a long time. Why? Reid will need <strong>60</strong> votes to <em>end</em> the final debate. However, Reid <em>does not </em>need 60 to <em>pass </em>the bill. He only needs <strong>51 </strong>for that.</p> <p>Think of it like this: tonight's vote to move the bill to the floor needs <strong>60 </strong>to pass. Then, to end the debate on the bill once it's on the floor and move to a final vote, Reid needs <strong>60 </strong>votes again. If he can clear these two hurdles, the bill will come to a final vote in the Senate, where it needs <strong>51 </strong>votes to pass. Even if it passes in say early 2010, then the bill will then head to a conference committee between the House and the Senate, where issues will be hashed out even more before it has any chance of reaching President Obama's desk.</p> <p>So, it's a long road ahead. Stay with us through the fight.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTE5NTZmOTVlZjRhOTQwYWMwNzQyYWE0MmQ2NTQ4NjE= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:23:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDY0ODlkMjM2NDM5OTQ4ZDZkMjk0MjNiZTEyMDUyZWU= $100 just came into <em>NRO</em> for our <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">fundraising drive</a> with this message:</p> <blockquote> <p>See what you can do about reclassifying Pluto as a planet again.  Yeah, it's a little off topic, but where will it end?  Mercury next? Then Venus?  Pretty soon there won't be any "planets" left and then how will the Federation be formed?  I have a stake in this as Captain Kirk is due to be born just down the road in a couple of hundred years, so I need you folks to get on this now.   (Okay, just a little ST tweaking of K-Lo.)</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDY0ODlkMjM2NDM5OTQ4ZDZkMjk0MjNiZTEyMDUyZWU= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:15:39 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmU5ZWViOWI2Mjc4NzViNjk2MjZiNGRmNTljYzIxODg= From Sarah Palin's Twitter:</p> <blockquote> <p><span class="status-body"><span class="entry-content"><strong>@SarahPalinUSA</strong>: Not sure I can convince Sen. Lincoln to vote no - but will do everything in my pwr to convince my friends in Arkansas to vote against her.</span></span></p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmU5ZWViOWI2Mjc4NzViNjk2MjZiNGRmNTljYzIxODg= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:04:55 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzQ0ZTE1ODEyZTI4OGU3MTNlN2JjOTM0MmE0YjI0MzM= From a $100 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">You got me! Having read comments by other donors over the past week I have to donate. My husband is a family physician and I don't know what the future will bring. Your site is a God send.<br /> </span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzQ0ZTE1ODEyZTI4OGU3MTNlN2JjOTM0MmE0YjI0MzM= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:00:13 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGUzZDNmNDYwYzM1Y2ZmY2EzMzA1N2FjNmQyMzE4MjI= I'm getting a lot of e-mails like this one today: "I tried to call my Senator [Bayh] today, but all I got was a message that said the mailbox was full. Glad I could express my opinion . . . "</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGUzZDNmNDYwYzM1Y2ZmY2EzMzA1N2FjNmQyMzE4MjI= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:47:52 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmZiZGZkOTRiMDhkYTQ1NzhmYzUyZTVjZjVmNjFlY2Q= <p class="x_MsoNormal">Soon to appear on the Senate floor: Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), chair of the GOP conference. Sources tell us that he's going to talk about how the Democrats' plan is, in large part, just a punt to the states. He believes Reid's bill will drop millions of Americans into Medicaid -- and leave states with the bill.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmZiZGZkOTRiMDhkYTQ1NzhmYzUyZTVjZjVmNjFlY2Q= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:43:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTBlOWI0YTM1ODIwMmU2NTg1ZGZiYmExNDVjODJkNGQ= <a href="http://www.pjtv.com/v/2728">An enlightened discussion</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTBlOWI0YTM1ODIwMmU2NTg1ZGZiYmExNDVjODJkNGQ= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:42:44 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmEyODlkNTQ4Y2Q0MzE2MGFkNGY4MWMzYzBmMGJhZTc= You might want your senator to read <a href="http://keithhennessey.com/2009/11/21/penalty-tax-inequity/">this</a> from Keith Hennessey.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmEyODlkNTQ4Y2Q0MzE2MGFkNGY4MWMzYzBmMGJhZTc= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:24:03 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmJiZjRhY2Q3ZTQ0NDliYjU0ZWE3Y2VjMzNjYThmMGI= How key Democrats are voting on tonight's cloture vote:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.) --  <strong>Yes</strong></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Sen. Mary Landrieu (D., La.) -- <strong>Yes</strong></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) -- <strong>Yes</strong></p> <p>So, by 3 p.m., it looks like Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has reached the 60-vote threshold he needs to approve the procedural motion that will move his health-care bill to the floor for a final debate. Having 60 also enables Reid to prevent a GOP filibuster on the motion to proceed.</p> <p>Keep watching C-SPAN 2, and stay on The Corner of course, until 8 p.m. tonight. In politics, and especially in the fickle Senate, a lot can happen in a few hours.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmJiZjRhY2Q3ZTQ0NDliYjU0ZWE3Y2VjMzNjYThmMGI= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:09:12 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTI4ZDYyYzZiOGFmZmM1ZWJmNGVkYjAyNjMwNGIyYWU= From a $100 <em>NRO </em>contributor:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blog_title_holder"><span><span style="-small;">If it wasn't for National Review, I would have spent my entire life without seeing Breaking Bad, Veronica Mars or 30 Rock. Nor would I ever have read John Macdonald. That's worth $100 at least.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Contribute to <em>NRO</em> <a href="https://store.nationalreview.com/donate/">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTI4ZDYyYzZiOGFmZmM1ZWJmNGVkYjAyNjMwNGIyYWU= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:00:51 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Nicole Gelinas) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWZiZDI2ZGNmOGIxODA1ZjZiNDg3YjIxYTJmYTAzZjU= Goldman Sachs has a new risk to manage: mob rage. News that the Wall Street firm has already set aside $16.7 billion for bonuses and other employee pay this year has provoked a visceral reaction.</p> <p>Goldman has spent the past couple of weeks groping for a proper response to this anger. CEO Lloyd Blankfein has gone from saying that Goldman is “doing God's work” to saying that “we apologize” for an unspecified catch-all category of “things that were clearly wrong and [that we] have reason to regret.”</p> <p>The firm also announced an initiative through which new politically powerful “partners” -- including the National Federation of Independent Business and the National Urban League -- will help it to direct $500 million to certain small businesses (at the likely expense of entrepreneurial start-ups without political backers).</p> <p>And Goldman has once again cancelled its holiday party and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-tells-employees-not-to-have-christmas-parties-in-their-homes-2009-11" target="_blank">even asked employees</a> not to hold their own traditional at-home parties for workers in their divisions.</p> <p><span>These efforts have only provoked more -- and uglier -- anger. “Blood money. A propitiation,” <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704538404574542243543724398.html#articleTabs=comments#comment644428" target="_blank">wrote</a> a </span><em><span>Wall Street Journal</span></em><span><span> commenter in response to an <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704538404574542243543724398.html#articleTabs=article" target="_blank">article about the small-business initiative</a>. A </span></span><em><span>New York Times</span></em><span><span> commenter <a href="http://community.nytimes.com/comments/roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/is-goldmans-charitable-gesture-enough/?permid=77#comment77" target="_blank">agreed</a>. Another </span></span><em><span>Times </span></em><span><span>commenter <a href="http://community.nytimes.com/comments/roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/is-goldmans-charitable-gesture-enough/?permid=65#comment65" target="_blank">called it</a> </span></span>“a drop in the bloody bucket of GS profits.”</p> <p>It would be comforting to dismiss such sentiments as extreme outliers. But the <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/inside_the_great_american_bubble_machine" target="_blank">pop-culture verdict</a> that Goldman is “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” has stuck. Wall Street itself seems to have uneasily settled for treating this disturbing imagery as a joke.</p> <p>Many other critics, of course, do justly complain that it's not fair that the government has protected the investment firm from losses while allowing small businesses to fail.</p> <p>Goldman itself has done nothing wrong, though. All it has done is to master a business that operates within a dysfunctional regulatory system. Washington does not allow for the marketplace credibly or consistently to discipline Wall Street firms, including Goldman. Goldman acts rationally within this irrational regime.</p> <p>If people don't like it that Washington's 2008 bailout of AIG allowed Goldman to avoid billions of dollars in likely losses on AIG contracts, they should blame Washington, not Goldman. Goldman only got its share of what Washington's bailout menu had on offer.</p> <p>If people don't like it that an implicit taxpayer “too big to fail” guarantee helps Goldman to pay billions of dollars in bonuses as unemployment rises, they should blame Washington, not Goldman. Goldman is a player, not a referee, and it cannot change the rules.</p> <p>Should Goldman “give back” more, maybe give the feds back some of the money it got from the AIG rescue, as a sign of goodwill? No -- because a market system that depends on goodwill is no system at all.</p> <p>Washington must create a system in which the markets provide predictable, rules-based discipline of the vital financial industry. Without fair rules, as we see, popular opinion, including its dark side, will try to provide its own rough form of discipline. </p> <p><span>And as the fury at Goldman </span><em><span>and</span></em><span><span> Goldman's attempts to address it both show</span></span><span>, this method uses a blunt instrument that misses its target and often does collateral damage -- not good for the country economically or socially.</span></p> <p><span class="bioline"><em>— Nicole Gelinas, contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s </em>City Journal<em>, is author of the forthcoming </em><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=1594032610">After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street — and Washington</a>.</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/After-Fall-Saving-Capitalism-Washington/dp/1594032610/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258382175&sr=8-1"></a></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWZiZDI2ZGNmOGIxODA1ZjZiNDg3YjIxYTJmYTAzZjU= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:58:23 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzFmYTJjYzBkYjc0ZmNkZDk3NjIyYmM4NGNiZWI0OTk= Sen. Mike Johanns (R., Neb.) just led, along with GOP senators Sam Brownback (Kan.) and Orrin Hatch (Utah), the Senate floor debate on the abortion language in Sen. Harry Reid’s health-care bill. He tells <em>NRO</em> that his hope for “one Democrat to stand up for life” and vote against moving Reid’s bill to the floor are dimming this afternoon.</p> <p>“I still hold out hope, but I must admit that it’s a fading hope,” says Johanns. “I hope that there may be one Democrat, even if they’re quiet now, to stand up tonight. It comes down to someone in their heart being pro-life.”</p> <p>“If one Democrat were to stand up to Senator Reid, and say ‘I can’t support this,’ then Senator Reid would be forced to put the Stupak language in, since he needs every vote,” says Johanns. “There has never been a greater moment of leverage for pro-life Democrats. We still have a few hours before the vote. If it passes, and heads to the Senate floor, then our chances really don’t look good, since no one can count 60 pro-life senators.”</p> <p>Keep calling your senators, urges Johanns. “We have to keep our energy up,” he says. But for now, he adds, the debate on the floor is “just terrible.”</p> <p>“I’m shocked that in this kind of economic atmosphere that they want to push this,” he says.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzFmYTJjYzBkYjc0ZmNkZDk3NjIyYmM4NGNiZWI0OTk= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:57:58 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Zjg1NTJhZTViM2YwZDc4YjJlYTZkODgyNWNhOWI0Yjg= <p class="MsoNormal">Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.) on the Senate floor earlier today:</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ">My colleagues on the other side of the aisle continue to claim this bill costs about $800 billion. That's the number they say has been reached as the expenditure on this bill. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a totally dishonest number. That is the ultimate shell game. That is Washington cynical politics. You know how they get to that number? Which is a ten-year number, by the way. How they get to this number of $800 billion as the cost of this bill, which, by the way, that's a lot of money, $800 billion. That would run the state of New Hampshire for, I don't know, probably 100 years. Literally almost 100 years.  It would run Missouri, a bigger state, for a while. Probably run Alabama for a little while, too. South Dakota could run for 200 years, for all I know.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ">It's a lot of money, $800 billion-plus. But that is not the cost of this bill. The way that number was arrived at was that they don't start spending money on this bill until the fourth or the fifth year. They couldn't get the score they wanted from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), so they changed the starting point. They moved back another year in the ten-year cycle. They went from four years to five years as to the starting point of most of the spending in this bill. What they claim to the American people is that a ten-year bill is going to cost about $800-plus billion.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: ">What they don't tell the American people is they're not spending anything in the first four or five years of the bill. No. They do raise your taxes throughout the ten-year period. They do cut Medicare throughout the ten-year period. But they don't spend the money. They don't start the spending programs until the year 2014, when this bill is fully phased in, when all these new programs, these massive expansion of entitlements are created, these brand-new entitlements. When all this new spending occurs, this bill will cost $2.5 trillion over that ten-year period. $2.5 trillion. That's the real cost of this bill. That's how big this government is going to grow in a ten-year window as a result of this spending. </span></p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Zjg1NTJhZTViM2YwZDc4YjJlYTZkODgyNWNhOWI0Yjg= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:47:43 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDdmM2RhMjhmNDZmZmNlNjUwMTkxOTQ4N2U3MmU4NzI= Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.) on the Senate floor:</p> <blockquote> <p>Although I don’t agree with everything in this bill, I have concluded that I believe it is more important that we begin this debate to improve our nation’s health care system for all Americans rather than just simply drop the issue and walk away.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDdmM2RhMjhmNDZmZmNlNjUwMTkxOTQ4N2U3MmU4NzI= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:46:13 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDQ1ZDdkODQwYmNmYzgwN2Y5NjY3NWVmNTlmYTA4YTE= Sen. Mike Johanns (R., Neb.), fresh off the Senate floor, just gave <em>NRO</em> a call to defend <em>Washington Post </em>columnist David Broder, who earlier in the day was derided as a “man who has been retired for many years and writes a column once in awhile” by Senate majority leader Harry Reid. <br /><br />What set off Reid’s comment: Senator minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) had cited a Broder column on health care, calling the longtime <em>Post</em> writer “a distinguished senior columnist.” Reid shot back that to focus on a Broder editorial is “not where we should be.”</p> <p>“Why did [Reid] have to vilify Mr. Broder?” asks Johanns. “I’ve only met [Broder] here and there. We sometimes agree, we sometimes don’t. But I’ve always thought that he was thoughtful and a genuinely nice person.” Johanns adds that he often reads Broder’s <em>twice-week-column</em> and that Reid’s comments simply “drives me nuts.”</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDQ1ZDdkODQwYmNmYzgwN2Y5NjY3NWVmNTlmYTA4YTE= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:38:23 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWM4MTliNDM3ZDNmZTZhNjBhYjMxNjIzMTFkYzMxMTI= The National Republican Senatorial Committee has this out now: </p> <blockquote> <p>Lincoln To Cast 60^th Vote <span>For Obama’s</span> $2.5 Trillion Government Health Care Takeover . . .</p> </blockquote> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><strong></strong></p> <blockquote> <p class="x_MsoNormal">“Blanche Lincoln’s vote tonight is unequivocally a vote in favor of President Obama’s $2.5 trillion government-run health care plan.</p> <p class="x_MsoNormal">“Obviously the pressure from the left wing of her party finally got to Blanche Lincoln.  She not only reversed her previous statements that a government-run plan was too costly, but she completely ignored the increasing unemployment rate in her state and the growing national deficit when she announced that she will cast the 60^th vote in favor of President Obama’s costly health care plan tonight.</p> <p class="x_MsoNormal">“There’s no doubt that this vote will be a critical issue for Senator Lincoln as she embarks on her uphill re-election bid, and the people of Arkansas will have an opportunity to hold her accountable when they cast their ballots next November.”</p> </blockquote> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><strong></strong></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWM4MTliNDM3ZDNmZTZhNjBhYjMxNjIzMTFkYzMxMTI= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:38:20 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Robert Costa) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDMwMmIxNGEyNjAxMDljMjFkMjIzNGIzNmIwYzAyZjQ= Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) just finished a long and winding speech on the Senate floor. Even Harry Reid had more enthusiasm. It's a shame that Franken has lost that ol' <em>SNL </em>spark, at least in his style. Then again, Stuart Smalley was never really that entertaining.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDMwMmIxNGEyNjAxMDljMjFkMjIzNGIzNmIwYzAyZjQ= Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:18:33 -0400