Geert Wilders has become famous as a ferocious critic of Islam and of the Netherlands’ large and growing Muslim minority. He may soon find himself the elected leader of a bitterly divided country on an angry and unstable continent.  more

It’s CPAC weekend – the grand rallying of the conservative clan here in Washington. It’s a season where conservatives from across the country meet to compare notes, share stories, and seek political consensus. The consensus forming this year however is an ominously dangerous one – ominously dangerous to conservatives themselves that is.
Conservatives live in   more

The hatred of professionalism. Tucker Carlson mildly suggests that conservatives need more than their feelings. That, whatever you think of the bias of the New York Times, they at least care that they spell your name correctly, and they actually do something: gather news. 
He was booed and challenged by the audience of course.
Joe the Plumber   more

The Obama Administration formally launched its budget blueprint yesterday. They did a masterful job of cultivating the press in pre-release preview commentary and by and large got a favorable hearing. Too bad, because this budget plan falls short in so many ways. My reflections on the plan:
1.      How it works. The budget architecture is simple. There are a   more

It was a dud – that’s the consensus on Bobby Jindal’s response to the President’s address. Indeed, the criticism has been heated. He’s been panned by Republicans and Democrats, dismissed by commentators, and even mocked on late-night television. Needless to say, many of his fans – count the Weekly Standard and Rush Limbaugh among them – insist that   more

John McCain took a lot of criticism last year from conservatives who thought he wasn’t sufficiently conservative on questions of the judiciary and the Constitution – this despite a great speech on judges and the rule of law (which annoyed a lot of the right people to annoy) and one on property rights and his   more

That smart new couple across the way, Barry and Michelle, dropped by for a quick visit last week. It was their first time out of the house since Barry started his new job and we were positively giddy when they showed up at the door.
That’s how it felt last week when President Barack Obama and   more

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder used the occasion of his four day visit in Tehran last week to criticize Iranian Holocaust denial. “The Holocaust is a historical fact,” Schröder is reported to have said in a speech to the Iranian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, “and it makes no sense to deny this unparalleled crime.”   more

“Mr. Gibbon, You can’t understand black people! We are too raw – – R – A – W – RAW!” 
This was said to me as I tried to get my athletes settled down on a bus ride across the city before our first race. One of them had thrown a full Styrofoam cup of soda   more

Ezra Klein over at the American Prospect disputes this last blogpost of mine. He offers three points in reply. Answers to each in turn:
[David Frum] says that the Obama administration plans to “use the revenues generated by cap and trade to pay for health care tax credits for lower-income people.” That’s not true. The revenues from cap   more

Revealed here the secrets of the president’s rhetorical success: he’s hypnotizing people. Literally.
http://www.pennypresslv.com/Obama’s_Use_of_Hidden_Hypnosis_techniques_in_His_Speeches.pdf  more

Today the Obama administration let loose two big exploratory ideas in a first (but surely not the last!) nervous attempt to wring more revenues out of a distressed economy.
Idea 1: Use the revenues generated by cap and trade to pay for health care tax credits for lower-income people.
Idea 2: Disallow about 25%   more

One week into the Stimulus regime and the conservative Republican establishment is confident it has the issue. Republicans must attack spending and big government. As the party of fiscal responsibility, they first fought the “Porkulus.” Now they are gearing up to go after “more than 9,000 earmarks” in the Omnibus. 
Republicans are rightly concerned with the President’s historic efforts   more

Lost in the discussion over Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s “stress tests” for banks, which began Wednesday, is this important question: what happens if the government and the independent external auditors reach different conclusions about a bank’s financial condition?
In brief, the stress tests are supposed to determine which banks are viable and which are on their way   more

As conservatives gather this weekend for the first Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference since the 2008 debacle, they need to consider one fact as they contemplate rebuilding the movement and party.  Understanding this fact will help them meet their political challenge.
The Fact: 42% of John McCain’s vote came from white evangelical or born-again Christians.
That’s   more

Clever! President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress was not written –  it was polled. Paragraph by paragraph, the address anticipated the most dangerous objections to the new president’s program and responded to them in turn.
The great overarching theme of the speech:
I am a conciliatory pragmatist, not a militant liberal. Have I   more

It’s a growing meme among budget-oriented Democrats that “there is no entitlement crisis,” as the Brookings Institution’s Henry Aaron writes. Obama budget director Peter Orszag made a similar argument at yesterday’s fiscal responsibility summit, saying that “Health care reform is entitlement reform.” Aaron and others argue that future budget shortfalls are almost entirely due to   more

With the economy tanking, and the Dow heading to its lowest level since 1997, the country finally seems ready to tighten its collective belt.
I’m seeing it in my own part of the world; none of my friends who tend to make their own are suddenly buying store-made. Just the opposite; my friends who normally buy   more

This is part three of a three part series. Read part one here, and part two here.

It is not smart to revile and condemn a president who is not only very popular, as Barack Obama is, but who is also as deft at deflecting anger. (Watch for example Obama’s easy outmaneuvering yesterday of John McCain’s   more

This is part two of a three part series. Read part one here, and part three here.
The scary thing about the Obama administration is not that they are guided by some sinister socialist masterplan. The scary thing is that they seem to have no plan at all.
It’s been more than a month since President Obama   more