Adios FEMA?

Critics insist that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is corrupt, incompetent, and combines the worst aspects of unthinking, irrational bureaucracy with the exigencies of dealing with huge natural and man-made catastrophe. It was the early 1990s, and the critics were...
Posted by Mitch on April 27, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

OK...Just One More Time

From the who'da thunk it department: rumors of "guest worker"/amnesty programs spark a surge in illegal immigration:The shelter's manager, Francisco Loureiro, said he has not seen such a rush of migrants since 1986, when the United States allowed 2.6 million...
Posted by Mitch on April 13, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wages Of Deceit

The left - and the media - whipped a fair chunk of the nation into a frenzy last autumn in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, passing on rumors as news, and closing ranks behind Democrat mayor Ray Nagin and governor...
Posted by Mitch on April 07, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Another Nasty Season

It's apparently going to be another nasty hurricane season. Mora from Babalu Blog is philosophical:What bugs me about it is that they were right last year and the year before. I guess if fate wants you to eat mierda [Spanish...
Posted by Mitch on March 07, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Schizo Nation?

South Korean youth seem to draw no distinction between Washington and Pyongyang:Nearly half of South Korean youths who will be old enough to vote in the country's next elections say Seoul should side with North Korea if the United States...
Posted by Mitch on February 22, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Abramoff - Not Just For Republicans Anymore

Reid lies down with dogs, wakes up with fleas. Pricey fleas:Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, and the senator's staff regularly had contact with the disgraced lobbyist's team...
Posted by Mitch on February 09, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (27) | TrackBack

Fifteen Shopping Days...

...until Reaganmas. More later....
Posted by Mitch on January 14, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Death Rides!

During the winter of 1990 - a rough one, with two major blizzards, the legendary Halloween Blizzard and another big one a month later, in time for Thanksgiving - I first encountered the term "Sport Utility Vehicle". During the Halloween...
Posted by Mitch on January 03, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (14) | TrackBack

Bork on Alito

Robert Bork on Sam Alito. Key section:overturning Roe v. Wade should be the sine qua non of a respectable jurisprudence. Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito will hear a lot about stability in the law, the virtues of stare decisis,...
Posted by Mitch on November 04, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (23) | TrackBack

Ant America, Grasshopper America

There was a time when Americans - at least in stereotype, but then many stereotypes exist because they occur just often enough to be accepted as, well, stereotypes - were a self-reliant people. Of course, the black 'n white liberal...
Posted by Mitch on November 02, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (34) | TrackBack

Illin'

The President laid out his bird flu strategery today. WASHINGTON — President Bush, warning that the United States is at risk in a possible worldwide flu outbreak, said Tuesday he is asking Congress for $1.2 billion for enough vaccine to...
Posted by Mitch on November 01, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Stoked

While I was a lukewarm supporter of the Miers nomination, largely for procedural reasons (it's the President's prerogative, dadgummit!), I'm genuinely excited about Alito. And even more excited about not only his long-term prospects - as Ed notes...:I expect that...
Posted by Mitch on October 31, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Note to President Bush

To: President Bush From: Mitch Berg, GOP flunky and bag man Re: SCOTUS Mr. President, OK, you might have dodged a bullet. Now, go out and do it right this time. As to your next pick, the women of Sparta...
Posted by Mitch on October 27, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (70) | TrackBack

Miers: Elitism

I still haven't completely come down one way or another on the Harriet Miers nomination. I'm inclined to be disappointed; I had hoped for a Rogers Brown or a McConnell. This is the moment we conservatives have been waiting on...
Posted by Mitch on October 11, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12) | TrackBack

"You Must Not Ask Questions. It Is Imperative That You Continue Making Your Payments."

The Strib's institutional editorial this mornng gives its customarily-muted praise for the President's 2.6 billion dollar effort to help public schools educate the school-age refugees from Hurricane Katrina. But only the right kind of help, mind you....
Posted by Mitch on October 10, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Miers: My Theory

Everyone who knows anything has already sounded off about Harriett Miers. Now it's the turn of all of us who don't really know jack. The WaPo says:IN REPLACING Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, President Bush could have...
Posted by Mitch on October 04, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (18) | TrackBack

RIP Living Constitution

The big casualty of the Roberts hearings? According to Curt Levey, it's the concept of the "Living Constitution"While liberals have traditionally embraced the living Constitution, conservative legal thinkers abhor it. They see it as nothing more than an excuse for...
Posted by Mitch on October 03, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

I'm Not Sure...

...what astounds me more; the story that the feds never delivered $100,000,000 worth of ice intended to help out Katrina victims...:Ninety-one thousand tons of ice cubes, that is, intended to cool food, medicine and sweltering victims of the storm. It...
Posted by Mitch on October 01, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Best. News Conference. Ever.

Louisiana National Guard Adjutant-General Russell Honore, as transcribed by Generalissimo Duane, whacks a bunch of bubbleheaded bleach-blond reporters on the knuckles:Male reporter: General, a little bit more about why that's happening this time, though, and did not have that last...
Posted by Mitch on September 21, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12) | TrackBack

You Were Warned

The City Pages' Steve Perry carps about the Department of Homeland Security, among his usual topics. Which brings up the question; "who warned you that centralizing all national security in one federal uberagency was a stupid idea?" Why, we conservatives...
Posted by Mitch on September 19, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Reaganmas Present to the Nation

Congressman John Kline has proposed putting Reagan on the $50 bill. It probably says something about my personal financial habits that I had to Google who was on the $50 today, but I digress.Ronald Reagan has an airport, an aircraft...
Posted by Mitch on September 19, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Wanted: Whistleblowers. Any Whistleblowers.

I was listening to MPR while driving to work this morning. The reporter was interviewing a Mr. Borstein, a disaster recovery employee of some sort or another, who has apparently (according to the report) worked extensively with the Federal Emergency...
Posted by Mitch on September 16, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Disaster Management

Deaths per year in the US due to hurricanes have been dropping for decades. Katrina might change that....
Posted by Mitch on September 15, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Setting The Record Straight

For the past week, any attempt to focus on the ball that the New Orleans' city and Louisiana state governments dropped has earned one a hearty "you're spinning for the right wing noise machine!' This amuses me, in part: If...
Posted by Mitch on September 14, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (13) | TrackBack

Serial Failure?

One of the reason the left has kept up such fearsome volume about federal slipups in New Orleans is that if they don't maintain control of the message, they may be dragged into confronting the failure of the Great Society...
Posted by Mitch on September 13, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (25) | TrackBack

No, We're The Party of State's Rights

The John Roberts confirmation hearings kicked off yesterday. I'll leave the legal analysis to guys who do this for a living - and among those that matter, Roberts seems to have gone over well. But among the nattering left -...
Posted by Mitch on September 13, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Rumors...

...of New Orleans' demise might be exaggerated:Burnt-orange rubble from terra-cotta tiles, wrenched from roofs and scattered about the French Quarter, wait in neat piles for collection along the curb. Bourbon Street is cleaner than it ever is during Mardi Gras....
Posted by Mitch on September 12, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (27) | TrackBack

Among The Refugees

Brad Monkey's mom is a professional grief counselor currently volunteering among the refugees in Phoenix. Brad posts her first-hand account of her job and the people she's working with:Her first words were, "You would have been so impressed by the...
Posted by Mitch on September 10, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Could Have Been Worse

I remember on September 11. I was out back at Flash's place. We were both dazed (I from the events of the day, he with that plus his day in court), pondering what the final toll might be. I'm paraphrasing...
Posted by Mitch on September 09, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Disaster Pr0n

I read this and this yesterday, and laughed so hard I nearly passed out. I hope there's a Part 3. Via Kathy....
Posted by Mitch on September 08, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Midstream

You're ready to go out to Ridgedale (a mall on the far west side of the Twin Cities); you've just turned the car onto westbound I94... ...when you get a cell call, telling you you need to go to Hudson...
Posted by Mitch on September 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Indictment

Bob Williams on the local and state screwups leading to the disaster:The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor. President Bush declared an emergency prior to Katrina hitting...
Posted by Mitch on September 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

The Slander is Collapsing?

Wes Pruden in the WaPo notes that despite a full court media press (not to mention a full-out effort by the yapping far left)...:The vultures of the venomous left are attacking on two fronts, first that the president didn't do...
Posted by Mitch on September 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Dilbert Lives

Hillary Rodham-Clinton speaks on the disaster:Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., reiterated her calls for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be made autonomous from the Department of Homeland SecurityWasn't it just a few years ago that the left was demanding...
Posted by Mitch on September 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Situation Named!

Neighbor and (if memory serves) blogger Peter Hoh writes: My name for all the bureaucratic snafus, the confusion about who was in charge of what, the ensuing blame game, and the coming reorganization: Operation Bureauqi FiefdomIt's official! (What's that blog...
Posted by Mitch on September 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Politicize This

John Tierney in the NYTimes elucidates a key truth of leadership in time of crisis:What the city needed most was coldly effective local leaders, not a president in Washington who could feel their pain. It's the same lesson we should...
Posted by Mitch on September 06, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (29) | TrackBack

Conjuring Brickbats

Ann Rice in the NYTimes, on what America would miss without New Orleans:I know that New Orleans will win its fight in the end. I was born in the city and lived there for many years. It shaped who and...
Posted by Mitch on September 03, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Count Three and Preen

I seem to have gotten a few local leftybloggers' lace panties in a whirl. I've called - repeatedly - for people to send help to New Orleans. I'll do it again - pick an organization from this list of excellent...
Posted by Mitch on September 03, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12) | TrackBack

The Cavalry?

The military is on the scene in New Orleans:More than four days after Hurricane Katrina struck, the National Guard arrived in force Friday with food, water and weapons, churning through the floodwaters in a vast truck convoy that was met...
Posted by Mitch on September 02, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Of This, I Approve

Via Limbaugh - resistance to the looters and corrupt NOPD cops, in the Big Easy: All is not lost....
Posted by Mitch on September 01, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (18) | TrackBack

New Orleans

The greatest catastrophe ever to hit a major US city is still well underway. Blogs from the left and right are joining today to urge you to contribute to the rescue and recovery efforts. Instapundit has the definitive list of...
Posted by Mitch on September 01, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Katrina

Like much of the blogosphere, I'm going to spend tomorrow trying to help raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief. Hugh recommends Samaritan's Purse, and Ed is all about Catholic Charities. We'll talk about more tomorrow....
Posted by Mitch on August 31, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (11) | TrackBack

Jeremiad

I started in radio back when every station had an Associated Press teletype clicking away in a newsroom. Oh, yeah - I started in radio back when every station had a newsroom! In that time, I saw a zillion forecasts,...
Posted by Mitch on August 30, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

New Orleans Spared. Why?

It seems Hurricane Katrina may have swerved to miss New Orleans, sparing the nation a disaster of (weatherpundits assure us) epic proportion. People want to know: Why? The answer: after predicting in sequence that Wesley Clark, then Howard Dean couldn't...
Posted by Mitch on August 29, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12) | TrackBack

Whew

Discovery lands....
Posted by Mitch on August 09, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Wages Of Kelo

Dafydd Ab Hugh, writing at CQ, cites a Deb Saunders column in the SanFranChron about another gross misuse (to untrained legal mind) of eminent domain. A LETTER on the front of what used to be Revelli Tires in Oakland warns:...
Posted by Mitch on August 03, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

The Fight That Should Have Been

Bush finally nominates Bolton to the UN.President Bush sidestepped the Senate and installed embattled nominee John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations on Monday, ending a five-month impasse with Democrats who accused Bolton of abusing subordinates and twisting intelligence...
Posted by Mitch on August 01, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

"There Is Complacency In A Union"

The NewPats ponder the AFL-CIO split. I've been a union member. I'm all for unions. Collective bargaining is a perfectly fine thing. I support it - as an element in a competitive process, mind you. Oh, I doubt I'd want...
Posted by Mitch on July 27, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Reason To Like Roberts

I found at least one:"The generally accepted notion that the court can only hear roughly 150 cases each term gives the same sense of reassurance asthe adjournment of the court in July, when we know the Constitution is safe for...
Posted by Mitch on July 26, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Everything's Extraordinary

Schumer is goint to fight Roberts no matter what.Democrats said yesterday they will demand that the Bush administration hand over internal legal memorandums written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. while he was a government lawyer -- something...
Posted by Mitch on July 22, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Requiem for a General

First Ringer has the best obit of General Westmoreland that I've seen yet. Long, and worth it....
Posted by Mitch on July 20, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Review

Power Line's Rocket Man on Roberts:Pop the champagne corks, conservatives. Roberts is a fantastic choice, a brilliant and bulletproof conservative. And it was fun to see Pat Leahy and Chuck Schumer on television tonight; they looked just awful. After President...
Posted by Mitch on July 20, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Let Slip the Dogs of Bork and Thomas

It's Roberts. I know Supreme Court inside baseball like Hugh Hewitt knows music, of course, but I think it's a great call on the President's part. Hugh, fortunately, knows law like I know music, and he's impressed:A home run for...
Posted by Mitch on July 19, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (14) | TrackBack

The Whistleblower

A government employee gives a sweetheart deal to a relative. The relative uses the gig to enhance not only his reputation, but his bottom line via proceeds earned through business outside of government. Neither of them would have happened without...
Posted by Mitch on July 13, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

When Hatchets Backfire

Byron York on the "outing" that seems, increasingly, not to have been:In an interview with National Review Online, Luskin compared the contents of a July 11, 2003, internal Time e-mail written by Cooper with the wording of a story Cooper...
Posted by Mitch on July 13, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

That Darned Bush Economy

Unemployment back to pre-9/11 levels. Not a boom recovery, but not the disaster that the left desperately wants, either....
Posted by Mitch on July 08, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Confirmation Whoppers

Yesterday, Hugh Hewitt asked for someone to start a "Confirmation Whoppers" blog to track the extreme distortions and outright lies we can expect during the upcoming SCOTUS confirmation hearings. Gary Gross is taking the challenge at his new blog, Confirmation...
Posted by Mitch on July 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Just In Case One Wondered

A reader asked in a comment section:What's your point, Mitch? Do you want this flag burning amendment?Well, gosh. I've only said both for years and recently that I opposed legislation banning flag burning, especially a Constitutional amendment. Oh, I think...
Posted by Mitch on July 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Independence Day

Give or take the usual fudge factor for historical apocrypha, it was 229 years ago that 56 delegates signed the Declaration of Independence, committing our nation to a long, vicious war against the world's most powerful nation, with an aim...
Posted by Mitch on July 04, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (34) | TrackBack

Protecting the Sacrament of Abortion at All Costs

Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring from the SCOTUS. Watch for the left and the mainstream media to pull out all the stops to portray any sign of religious faith, judicial restraint or constructionism as "extreme":we have to find a way...
Posted by Mitch on July 01, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (31) | TrackBack

Justice, Poetic?

Just desserts to be served in New Hampshire in the aftermath of the Kelo decision?Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported...
Posted by Mitch on June 28, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Submitted Without Comment

Your IQ Is 135 Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Genius A Quick and Dirty IQ Test (Via King)...
Posted by Mitch on June 22, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Trimming The Fat

The House has voted to slash UN funding, and the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut some of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's funding. The 221-184 vote, which came despite a Bush administration warning that such a move could actually...
Posted by Mitch on June 17, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Hentoff On Brown

Nat Hentoff takes on the Times in re Janice Rogers Brown. Editorials in The New York Times are the plenary voice of that newspaper. Accordingly, editorial writers should be as accountable as the Times' reporters—when the editorial sages ignore the...
Posted by Mitch on May 18, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Blink

The Democrats blink on judicial nominees. Senate whip Mitch McConnell says the GOP has the votes to block the Dems' filibuster.A spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada promptly questioned the claim, while another Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden...
Posted by Mitch on April 25, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Oh, Holy Christ

As much as I oppose the death penalty on principle, I not only favor it for the perp of this, perhaps the most ghastly murder I've read about recently (Warning: awful story, capable of sucker-punching your opinion of humanity in...
Posted by Mitch on April 21, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Schiavo

Terri Schiavo passed away within the past hour or so:Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose 15 years connected to a feeding tube sparked an epic legal battle that went all the way to the White House and Congress, died...
Posted by Mitch on March 31, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (41) | TrackBack

But Where's The Oil?

Adesnik notes something you're unlikely to see in the major media - the administration's response to an anti-democratic coup in the African nation of Togo:After my initial criticism of the administration, one liberal realist chided me for assuming that this...
Posted by Mitch on February 22, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Reaganmas 2005

Today is the 94th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan. Why do I make a fuss about it? Two reasons:It irritates the bejeebers out of my liberal friendsThere are things about the history of the last thirty years that...
Posted by Mitch on February 06, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

The Dem Response

I missed most of Dingy Harry's bit, but the part I caught intersected with the thing that jumped out at me about Pelosi's response; they both invoked the "F" word (Faith) and, for that matter, G-d himself, very prominently. I'm...
Posted by Mitch on February 03, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The Power To Move

Peggy Noonan had a lukewarm review of the President's inaugural speech. I didn't hear the speech proper, other than a few excerpts on Hewitt's show last night. I read the transcript - but 3/4 of a speech is in its...
Posted by Mitch on January 21, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

No Class

From the AP:The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Wednesday to confirm Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state after two days of hearings in which she faced strenuous Democratic assaults on the Bush administration's handling of Iraq. Pending approval by the...
Posted by Mitch on January 19, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (11) | TrackBack

Yates Conviction Overturned

Andrea Yates, convicted of capital murder in the drowning deaths of her five children, has had her convictions overturned. Apparently, a forensic psychiatrist - the pseudocelebrity shrink Park Dietz - involved in the prosecution allegedly provided false testimony. More on...
Posted by Mitch on January 06, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Reality Sets In?

Shortly after the election, a liberal talk host - the loathsome Fast Eddie Schultz - declared "the election was all about God, Guns and Gays to those people!" At the time, of course, we knew it was a crock; it's...
Posted by Mitch on December 15, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

LaShawn Cracks the Code

LaShawn Barber - one of my favorite bloggers - writes:Now that I know just how much Ann Coulter irritates liberal bloggers, I’ll be linking to her columns more often. I even lost a Weblog Awards endorsement of a feminist blogger...
Posted by Mitch on December 10, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Above All, The Agenda

Kweisi Mfume saved the NAACP, nearly ten years ago. Now, public pronouncements aside, he's been kicked to the curb. Armstrong Williams' story on the subject in Human Events ends like this:The final tear came after the election. Mfume suggested sending...
Posted by Mitch on December 06, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Ashcroft In Review

Jeff Jacoby on John Ashcroft:IRRATIONAL hysteria is never pretty, and the demonizing of John Ashcroft during the past four years has been just about the ugliest spectacle in US politics. As the attorney general prepares to return to private life,...
Posted by Mitch on November 19, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Stifle a Joyful Noise

I have a soft spot in my heart for the Salvation Army....
Posted by Mitch on November 18, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Thanks, Veterans

It's Veteran's Day today. Thank a veteran - as, indeed, I thank any vets reading this today....
Posted by Mitch on November 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Follow The Money

One of the left's more moronic tropes is that the Blue states are net exporters of tax money, while the Red states get more tax money in than they send out. This, of course, is yet another case where the...
Posted by Mitch on November 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Referendum

The Australian election passed with relatively little note in the US media. John O'Sullivan notes that it deserves coverage:...
Posted by Mitch on October 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Reason to Prefer Microbrews, #225

I saw Pete Coors on the Russert show yesterday. Oy. I'll give him the benefit of a doubt - he may have been jetlagged. Or perhaps someone drugged him. I don't know. But someone in the party needs to work...
Posted by Mitch on October 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

What A Nightmare

I'm trying to imagine evacuating an entire major city, in this case New Orleans....
Posted by Mitch on September 15, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The Enron of the Left

Remember Enron? Here's a recap: A major - industry-leading, really - business collapsed as a result of immense corruption. The collapse helped punctuate a recession, and undermined the moral climate of the entire nation in those uncertain days before and...
Posted by Mitch on September 13, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Good Hands

Jay Reding noted about Clinton's surgeon:Thankfully he was in very good hands. Dr. Craig Smith is one of the world’s foremost cardiac surgeons. Not only that, he's also a major donor to the Bush campaign...Need I say more?...
Posted by Mitch on September 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

No Blood For Tyrants

Yet again, notes Jay Reding, the French are abetting the spilling - no, the filling of the gutters with - blood... ...for oil. What will the American left say about this? Prediction: "How is America coping in the two months...
Posted by Mitch on July 12, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Another Sign the Economy is Picking Up Steam

While walking to the office from my parking garage in downtown Minneapolis, I'm pretty used to seeing bottles in the street; winos leave them lying around in odd corners, at bus stops, and wherever the urge strikes them. Their tastes...
Posted by Mitch on June 24, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4)

Another Sign the Economy is Picking Up Steam

In addition to the surliness and frequent non-fluency of telemarketers noted in this space in the past, I saw another big sign. The local Taco Bell has a huge "Help Wanted" sign in the window, offering $8 an hour to...
Posted by Mitch on June 24, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Nobody's Business

Yesterday's revelations about the Jack Ryan Sex File has started, beyond a doubt, the most moronic firestorm in my whole political-watching life.Republican U.S. Senate nominee Jack Ryan's ex-wife, TV actress Jeri Ryan, accused him of taking her to sex clubs...
Posted by Mitch on June 23, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3)

Walesa's Eulogy

It should go without saying that Lech Walesa was a hero of mine - which long predated my becoming a conservative, and in the end he was a key factor in my conversion. His memoria to Reagan in Opinion Journal...
Posted by Mitch on June 14, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

What's In A Funeral

Rocketman from Powerline brought the live-blogging skills he honed on the Miss Universe Contest to bear on the Reagan funeral - with very powerful results, in one of the best synopses of the event I've read yet....
Posted by Mitch on June 14, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Signs the Economy is Picking Up Steam

How can we really tell how the economy is doing? After all - while one side is saying this, the other side continues to believe this, and nothing will change their minds (save a Kerry victory in the fall). But...
Posted by Mitch on June 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

For The Gipper

Ronald Reagan passed away today. I grew up in a fairly left-of-center house; my dad was a teacher who would have described himself fairly accurately as a moderate Democrat; I'm convinced that if my mother hadn't been married with three...
Posted by Mitch on June 05, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4)

Powerquote

Re: Tenet, courtesy Powerline:So the very people who neutered the CIA are now gleeful because George Tenet, who did his best to repair the consequences of their folly by rebuilding the intelligence-gathering and operational capabilities of the agency, was left...
Posted by Mitch on June 04, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Set The Record Straight

I heard my Congressional "representative", Betty McCollum, today on MPR Morning Edition. She was bloviating about the need for us to get the UN, and especially our French and German allies with their "Financial Resources" and "Militaries capable of helping...
Posted by Mitch on May 26, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3)

Society Sees Red

I've always had a jones for redheads. Which is no big shakes, societally-speaking. But as I waited to pick up my kids at the movie theatre the other day, I noticed something for the first time in my poster-observing life;...
Posted by Mitch on April 30, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Columbine Anniversary

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the Columbine Massacre. Katie Couric noted that "the horror of Columbine still reverberates" She was right - but not in the way she figured....
Posted by Mitch on April 21, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2)

Was Mylroie Right?

New allegations have surfaced - in the major media, no less - of video evidence that Timothy McVeigh did not act alone:...
Posted by Mitch on April 21, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2)

Dum Komsrvativs.

Brian at Boviosity noted this:Oh, I also learned that right-wingers have an easier message to get across because they simply tie everything into smaller government and personal responsibility, messages that stupid people like. And these stupid people ignore the left...
Posted by Mitch on April 20, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2)

From The Left...?

From The Left...? - So yesterday, Attorney General Ashcroft gutted Jamie Gorelick. It barely made headlines. What did the left-wing blogosphere have to say about it? This is all the Daily Screw 'em Kos had to say - along with...
Posted by Mitch on April 14, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

The Fraudier Fraud

It refers to the 9/11 commission.

Posted by Mitch on April 14, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7)

Misery

Now as far as I'm concerned, the only legitimate index is the Berg Consumer Confidence Index, which jumped from a 12 well into the seventies last year when I finally got a job after four months' unemployment and five months...
Posted by Mitch on April 14, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Too Much Show

Too Much Show - Tomorrow's Northern Alliance Radio Network is going to be a great one. First hour - my favorite, every week - the week in Review, this week with Rocket Man (from Powerline), King (from SCSU Scholars) and...
Posted by Mitch on April 02, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Just Walk Away

Just Walk Away - The Clarke story is sinking faster than Michael Jackson's chart vitality. As I mentioned on the Northern Alliance show last Saturday, now that the Republicans on the 9/11 panel have cut the guts out of Clarke's...
Posted by Mitch on March 30, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Thanks, Gilligan

Thanks, Gilligan - "Hey, great party! Your house is on fire, though - I gotta run!" That's the essense of this week's Democrat scam - the "Clinton Staffers testify they warned Bush about 9/11" trope. This may be the lamest,...
Posted by Mitch on March 22, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

The Stewart Verdict

The Stewart Verdict - The Today show is interviewing four of the Stewart jurors - a hindu woman, a black guy, an older, very brahminish-sounding woman... ...and a blond woman - Dana D'Alessandro - that sounds like she should play...
Posted by Mitch on March 08, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Suicide - The left has

Suicide - The left has been gravely intoning the number of suicides among US troops stationed in Iraq. This German report is the latest. The suicide rate among GIs in Iraq is around 13.5 per 100,000 troops - higher than...
Posted by Mitch on February 26, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

The New Era

The New Era - In the mid-eighties, historian Edwin Luttwak - one of the world's foremost military historians - published "The Pentagon and the Art of War", a sweeping critique of the Pentagon of the era. Published in the wake...
Posted by Mitch on February 24, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

The Jobless Recovery - Now,

The Jobless Recovery - Now, as far as I'm concerned, the moment I got a long-term contract, the recovery was a jobful one. Of course, I'm not the entire measure of the economy... ...well, actually, as far as life in...
Posted by Mitch on February 23, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Foreign Policy Via Cliff Notes

Further proof today of Berg's Law of Liberal Iraq Commentary, the iron-clad law I defined last summer, and which has never been challenged:No liberal commentator can simultaneously address more than one of the justifications for the liberation of Iraq. To...
Posted by Mitch on January 28, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

A More Concise SOTU Summary

A More Concise SOTU Summary - A friend on another listserve posted this summary of the State Of The Union:Bush: "We big." (30 seconds of applause.) "We bad." (1 minute of applause.) "And we kick ass whenever we want." (1...
Posted by Mitch on January 21, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

State of The Union

Many, many bloggers - from Sullivan to Reding - covered the SOTU. I didn't watch, due to a prior commitment. My second-hand impressions? Not going wobbly on the war - good.Going wobbly on spending - bad.I have to confess; I...
Posted by Mitch on January 21, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

The Good Liberal. The Bad Ruling

Nat Hentoff writes about the Supreme Court's decision to let the McCain-Feingold Speech Rationing Law stand:As Justice Anthony Kennedy, dissenting, wrote, by way of example, "[The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act] makes it a felony for an environmental group to broadcast...
Posted by Mitch on January 20, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Note to Democrats

Please, please, please chase Jimmy Carter's endorsement. Thank you....
Posted by Mitch on January 19, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

A Legal Matter

Mark at Classically Liberal comments on my post from over the weekend, about the Dems' propensity for frivolity at foreign policy. I said the Dems demonstrate a misguided urge to consider the War on Terror a law-enforcement operation, with one...
Posted by Mitch on January 13, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Priorities

Priorities - Joshua "Micah" Marshall noted yesterday in re the O'Neill flap:CNN's headline story on the O'Neill story reads: "Cabinet members defend Bush from O'Neill" And then, when you click through, it turns out the cabinet members are Don Evans...
Posted by Mitch on January 13, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Armchair Rocket Scientists

Geoffrey Forden and Theodore Postol take a long, elaborate whack at the administration in a Boston Glob op-ed last week. They're concerned about airliner security. They have a shopping list of suggestions:It is time for the Bush administration to abandon...
Posted by Mitch on January 12, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Levis Departs

The usual suspects are bemoaning this week's closure of the last Levi's manufacturing plant in the US. Levis Jeans will now be made overseas. "This week, the last of the Levi Strauss & Co. manufacturing plants in the United States...
Posted by Mitch on January 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Nothing Happens. Dean and Democrat Underground Bereft

New Years, under tight security, came in like a lamb. Powerline has film....
Posted by Mitch on January 01, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

I'll Take Rice With That

The Captain reaches the same conclusion I did a while ago; Condi Rice need to be on the ticket in '04, or at least before '08. Read the Captain's reasoning. It's different than mine - that it'd gut the...
Posted by Mitch on January 01, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Much Ado About Tom

I'm a conservative. No bones about it. In a perfect world, Tom McClintock would be the lone Republican in the California recall race right now. Would he be winning? Ex Post Facto polls taken in the context of an...
Posted by Mitch on October 01, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Handicapping Arnold

I haven't written much about the recall effort; I don't live in California, and while I have a broad understanding of the issues, there are many better local bloggers, to say nothing of Hugh Hewitt, who are experts on this...
Posted by Mitch on September 24, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Steyn on Arianna

Steyn on Arianna - Via Instapundit, here's Steyn in the WSJ, in a (per usual) sidesplitting critique of the Huffington campaign: "If I had a pair o' dime for every time she's disdained the old paradigm, I'd be rich enough...
Posted by Mitch on August 17, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Juiceless

Watching news coverage this morning, you'd think things were hunky-dory everywhere but New York. The Canadian government is blaming the outage on a lightning strike - on a Lake Erie-area power plant, in an area that experienced no lightning yesterday....
Posted by Mitch on August 15, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Fascism: 1. First Amendment: 0

The California Supreme Court has ruled that Nike corporation is not allowed to defend itself in the court of public opinion. One hopes the US Supreme Court will have the common sense to pound a stake through the heart of...
Posted by Mitch on May 19, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

What we really meant...

I'm not one of those conservatives that gets off on holding liberals up to their endless predilection for rewriting history - especially as it regards their own gaping mistakes in appraising the world around them. But I do like to...
Posted by Mitch on February 10, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Reagan Watch

Many of my liberal friends (yes, I have quite a few of them) simply can't understand why so many of us on the right still care about Ronald Reagan, much less honor the accomplishments of his administration. For starters, they...
Posted by Mitch on February 09, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Clinton's Military

One of the right's campaign platforms was rebuilding a military that atrophied badly under the Clinton administration. The Army, which had 18 ground divisions during the Gulf War (and sent seven of them to the Gulf), has exactly ten now,...
Posted by Mitch on February 08, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Happy Birthday, Ronald Reagan -

Today is Ronald Reagan' s 91st birthday. I brought cupcakes to work, and put them under the lunchroom whiteboard. "We begin eating in five minutes!" For those who don't already know, here's why he was - and still is -...
Posted by Mitch on February 06, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)