Archive for December, 2009

Dan Calabrese

I suppose some will agree with a mouthful of ashes: “Damn right Bush is the man of the decade – a decade that sucked!”

As you prefer. But the argument here is that George W. Bush ought to be the man of the aughts mostly for the right reasons. I would also argue that he is smack dab at the center of what was best and worst about this decade.

When presidents threw like men.

The best, because Bush was a rare president who saw governing as a higher calling than his own political self-preservation. This frustrated his opponents – who couldn’t intimidate him with polls and attacks – as well as many of his supporters, who couldn’t get him to fight back with the sort of ferocity it seemed might be necessary to fend off attacks from Democrats and the media.

The worst, because Bush’s presidency is a good example of how willing people were in the decade now past to believe the hints, innuendos and impressions they received from the popular discourse, without really thinking for themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bob Franken

Don’t you get a kick out of us? Isn’t it cute how we pretend we have any clue whatsoever how the 2010 mid-term elections will go?

By definition we cannot predict the surprises that will intercede in the next 11 months. They could very well dominate the agenda as the voters’ “be-all-end-alls” by the time November rolls around when they decide between their congressional and statehouse candidates and, just as importantly, the two parties.

Let's get ready to rumble!

Still, it’s the end of the year. Wherever we turn someone has come up with a List. Except me. If I don’t come with something I’ll lose my Pundit Permit. We can’t have that, now can we? So to prevent anything of the sort, let’s catalogue some of the invective we can expect that Republicans and Democrats will try and use to heap scorn on each other when they inevitably go more and more negative to try to make their followers give a damn. Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Sherrier

In case you didn’t know, it’s hard work being the president. So hard, it tires even the great Barack Obama!

That’s the basic gist of a recent AP article, (which was pointed out on Michelle Malkin’s Web site.) If you thought that the honeymoon might be nearing its conclusion, think again:

He's so tired.

“After a sleepless, overnight flight to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month, President Barack Obama made a not altogether surprising admission. He was tired,” the article begins. “Who could blame him?”

Is it naïve of me to expect objective reporting from the AP? Or any news outlet that claims to be objective?

Yes, being president is hard, no matter who you are. This is not news.

Reading further, we learn how the poor man can’t even take a vacation in peace. Yeah, not news either. Read the rest of this entry »

Kelly Anderson Wright

Attorneys general in 13 states are threatening legal action, if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi don’t remove Nebraska’s Medicaid deal from the federal health care reform bill, according to a letter sent to The Associated Press Wednesday.

Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?

“We believe this provision is constitutionally flawed,” wrote South Carolina AG Henry McMaster and 12 other state attorneys general. The letter was addressed to Pelosi and Reid and delivered to them Wednesday.

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Bob Franken

So let’s get this straight: Federal officials say they had responded to modesty concerns by blurring out the images of those airport security devices that see beneath a traveler’s clothing.

But doesn’t that also defeat the purpose of these “Body Scanners”, which is to detect what danger might be hidden under the layers…not to obscure them?

What we've got here is a failure to communicate.

Don’t you just hate it that those troublesome privacy advocates raise a ruckus about the obvious potential for abuse and embarrassment? They get in the way of those who only want to protect us from dangerous terrorist lunatics.

Well here’s another idea that might enhance that effort. Let’s work on the ridiculous incompetence that pervades the ranks of those who have mismanaged their billions of dollars and near-authoritarian powers. Read the rest of this entry »

Brett Noel

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Large version for newspaper publication.

Grayscale version for newspaper publication.

Bob Maistros

I know, I know.  If the attack on Northwest Flight 253 had been successful, none of us would be chuckling about any of the inanities involved on both sides. It’s all pretty much gallows humor at this point.

But while perusing coverage of the Christmas Day incident, I couldn’t help but notice that ABC News’ online site had the first photos of the rather special underwear worn by young Mr. Abdulmutallab. Or the fact that the site noted that hidden inside the briefs, right you-know-where in the crotch, was an “explosive packet.”

Is that an explosive package or are you just happy to see me?

(Pregnant pause.)

Nope. Nope. Not going to say it. Wouldn’t be prudent. Not in a family column.

Oh, heck with it. An “explosive packet?” If I remember correctly, the last time we were all talking about an explosive packet in someone’s pants, it had to do with the strategic airbrushing of Al Gore’s Rolling Stone cover photo during the 2000 campaign.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Sherrier

The National announced yesterday that editor in chief Dan Calabrese’s novel, Powers and Principalities, has been released. I interviewed Dan yesterday about the novel, which he describes as an edgy Christian spiritual thriller.

Here is our conversation in full:

A spiritual thriller by Dan Calabrese. Click the image to buy.

SHERRIER: Let’s start off with the basic questions: What’s the novel’s main theme, and what motivated you to pursue it?

CALABRESE: About six years ago, my pastor at the time, Dick Robinson – since retired – asked me to teach a class on spiritual warfare. It was a totally new subject to me. He supplied me with a study book, the name of which I maddeningly cannot remember, which explained scriptural doctrine about the Holy Spirit, angels, Satan and demons. I had never really given that much thought to the scriptural doctrine that basically explains there is much more out there than what we can see, feel, hear, smell and touch.

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Bob Franken

Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and all the rest need to watch their backs as they make their thinly disguised runs for their party’s presidential nomination (make that “anorexically disguised”). While they might present themselves as the champions of Dark Ages Republicans there is someone else out there who personifies everything the national GOP stands for. It can be completely summed up in three words: “Destroy Obama’s presidency”.

Marketing himself as the next president.

The leader of that band is not Palin nor Gingrich, shameless partisans though they may be. The Obstructionist-in-Chief title goes to Jim DeMint, R (of course), South Carolina. You had probably figured that out, now hadn’t you?

This is the guy, after all, who had summed up his view of health care reform as nothing more than an opportunity to severely weaken the president. That’s it. He made no bones about it. His exact words were “If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” Read the rest of this entry »

Bob Maistros

Famous quotes in national security history:

Ahimelim, son of Baalup, Commander of Forces at Jericho: “Yes, the walls came tumblin’ down, but one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked.”

It's all goooood!

Blovius Magnus, Head of Security in Rome: “Certainly, the Visigoths overran us and sacked the city, but I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have.”

Jean LePetit-Fit, Adjutant to the General at Waterloo: “Sacre bleu, that Wellington had his act together. But we trained for this. We planned for this.” Read the rest of this entry »