AND YET, NOW HE’S UNDER THE BUS: McChrystal The Liberal. “The story about him voting for Obama is not contrived. He is a political liberal. He is a social liberal. He banned Fox News from the television sets in his headquarters. Yes, really. This puts to rest another false rumor: that McChrystal deliberately precipitated his firing because he wants to run for President.”
THE INJUSTICE OF “social justice.”
CHANGE: “Is the ‘shabby chic’ trend coming back? Because I lived through that in the 1970s — and stayed clear of it myself — and it goes to a terrible place where you do not want to go.”
FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL vs. the Second Amendment.
MARKDOWNS ON men’s shorts.
UPDATE: A reader emails: “Don’t tell Ann Althouse.” Heh.
WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON: Obama Takes Petraeus Out Of 2012 Race. “Obama has reason to be delighted with himself right now: He has sacked a recalcitrant big-mouth; he has entrusted said big-mouth’s job to a certified hero and military star; and he’s taken that star out of contention for 2012, making his own re-election that much more likely, given the headless turkey that is currently the GOP.”
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: McChrystal’s Tragedy.
LUCKILY, THIS COULD NEVER HAPPEN HERE: “The head of Canada’s spy agency says foreign governments have infiltrated Canadian politics, CBC News reported Tuesday night.”
XENI JARDIN tests out video recording on the iPhone 4. Amazing video for a phone, and good sound, too.
KEVIN RUDD WILL BE MISSED BY FEW: Julia Gillard is Australia’s new Prime Minister.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY: 7th-Graders Discover Mysterious Cave on Mars. “A group of seventh-graders in California has discovered a mysterious cave on Mars as part of a research project to study images taken by a NASA spacecraft orbiting the red planet. The 16 students from teacher Dennis Mitchell’s 7th-grade science class at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found what looks to be a Martian skylight — a hole in the roof of a cave on Mars.”
ROGER KIMBALL: No Representation Without Taxation.
MARKDOWNS ON point-and-shoot digital cameras.
REASON TV: Sweden: A Supermodel For America?
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, THOUGHT POLICE WOULD ARREST PEOPLE FOR PASSING OUT LITERATURE THAT OFFENDED RELIGOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Video: Cops arrest Christians for handing out gospel at Dearborn Arab festival?
JAMES TARANTO offers some racial perspective to the Associated Press.
MARK TAPSCOTT: Big Government Is Dying In The Gulf Oil Spill. Well, regulators droppped the ball and let it happen, and now all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t seem to plug that hole . . . .
OH, GOOD GRIEF: Al Gore implicated in sex assault on Portland masseuse.
UPDATE: More on the case here. I’m underwhelmed, but if he were a Republican this would be a huge scandal and proof of the entire party’s hypocrisy on sexual morality or something.
ANOTHER UPDATE: On Facebook: “He wanted her to warm his globe.”
MORE: Reader Heather McFarlane writes: “You may be underwhelmed, but I am not. Gore, according to the masseus’s description, is not only deeply weird, but also a thug who committed a sexual assault upon that woman. As far as I am concerned, that is serious stuff.” If true. Stay tuned.
TUNKU VARADARAJAN: Are the World Cup Refs Against the U.S.?
MORE PEOPLE ARE HAVING SEX, but fewer single people are using protection. That seems unwise.
FASTER, PLEASE: Scientists Crack Chemical Code that Controls Bacterial Swarms.
IS THERE A growing geek iPhone backlash?
SERVING UP “a yummy plate of Eliot Spitzer.”
FASTER, PLEASE: Steps toward an actual cure for AIDS?
THE GULF’S “LITTLE PEOPLE” FIGHT BACK — against Obama.
EPIDEMIOLOGY SUPERHEROES.
NURSE IN ICONIC TIMES SQUARE PHOTO dies at 91.
JOHN STOSSEL: Why Chicagoans Need Guns.
MCCHRYSTAL FIRED, Petraeus asked to take over. Will MoveOn and Keith Olbermann reprise their “General BetrayUs” routine?
UPDATE: A reader emails: “What’s it say about the MSM that a Presidential Candidate and a Commanding General were taken down by the National Enquirer and Rolling Stone Magazine? They’re not exactly bastions of journalistic integrity-or did things suddenly invert over the last 10 years?” Well, they still do actual reporting.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Obama Votes “Present” — And That’s A Good Thing.
MORE: Michael Yon emails:
The United States has again called upon General David Petraeus during crisis. There have been other times, the most remarkable being in January 2007 when we were on the cusp of losing the war in Iraq. The chances against success were increasingly remote. I was there through the entire surge, and more, and saw the remarkable transformation under command of General Petraeus and due to the incredible efforts of our armed forces and civilian counterparts. No book that I have read, including the one that I wrote, has fully conveyed the magnitude of those days. You simply had to be there.
Here we are again. This time on the cusp of losing the war in Afghanistan. The situation is worse than ever before. Again, the United States has asked General David Petraeus to step into a situation that seems hopeless to many people. It is not hopeless, just extremely bad. All is not lost, just nearly lost. Our people can turn this war around.
I’m pulling for them, God knows.
Plus this comment: “Brilliant choice by the President. He removes his hand-picked choice for someone he had no confidence in just 2 years ago.” Yes, underemphasized in all of this is that McChrystal was Obama’s hand-picked choice, for whom the previously serving general, David McKiernan, was unceremoniously removed. That switch was one of Obama’s first major decisions as commander-in-chief.
Meanwhile, look whose bacon Petraeus is being called in to save.
STILL MORE: Victor Davis Hanson:
It is one of ironies of our present warped climate that Petraeus will face far less criticism from the media and politicians than during 2007–8 (there will be no more “General Betray Us” ads or “suspension of disbelief” ridicule), because his success this time will reflect well on Obama rather than George Bush. It is a further irony that Obama is surging with Petraeus despite not long ago declaring that such a strategy and such a commander were failures in Iraq. And it is an even further irony that he is now rightly calling for “common purpose” when — again not long ago, at a critical juncture in Iraq — Obama himself, for partisan purposes on the campaign trail, had no interest in the common purpose of military success in Iraq.
Indeed.
MORE STILL: What MoveOn was saying.
Plus, from Michael Barone: President Obama took command. And this: “Incidentally, the appointment of Petraeus to replace McChrystal was recommended yesterday by the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol. Does the president read the Weekly Standard’s The Blog?” Better that than some other blogs he’s taken direction from . . . .
FINALLY: MoveOn Scrubs “General Betray Us” Page From Website. Have you noticed how these people are always airbrushing? It’s kind of an admission that their stuff won’t sell if they tell the truth. . . .
IT’S AN OLD TRICK: Canadian Heritage Minister smears DMCA opponents as “radical extremists.” Just ask the Tea Party folks. . . .
FIVE YEARS AFTER KELO: The Sweeping Backlash Against One of the Supreme Court’s Most-Despised Decisions.
GENETIC COUNTING: Chicks count from left to right – just like us. “Rugani says animals and humans may instinctively count from the left because the right hemisphere of the brain – which processes the left field of vision – is dominant in visual tasks. This suggests counting from the left may be instinctive rather than culturally learned, say the team.”
POLL: 42% Oppose Kagan’s Confirmation, 35% Favor. Shockingly, this represents an improvement in her numbers.
Related: Looking at Elena’s Inbox.
THE POLITICS of zombies.
MAKING A MUCH BETTER LITHIUM BATTERY by adding carbon nanotubes.
IN THE MAIL: From Sheena Iyengar, The Art of Choosing.
DAVID HARSANYI: Obama: Lord Of The Rigs.
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD on Chinese wages, automation, and unrest.
LEE SMITH: The Next Lebanon War.
DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY: Inflation is good for you!
CLAUDIA ROSETT: Getting To Know The General:
Rolling Stone’s piece on The Runaway General hit the web, and presto! before the print edition was even on the newsstands, Gen. Stanley McChrystal was ordered back to Washington for a sitdown with President Obama. If only Obama had been as eager to clear time on his calendar for McChrystal back in 2009. That’s when really getting to know the general — the man entrusted with winning the war in Afghanistan — should have been one of the top priorities of the new president.
I’m not suggesting that with earlier close acquaintance Obama might have spotted the seeds of McChrystal’s “enormous mistake” — as White House spokesman Robert Gibbs described it at press briefing Tuesday. I’m suggesting that better leadership from Obama himself would have averted this mess altogether. Whatever comes next for McChrystal, the biggest lesson here is one the commander-in-chief himself has yet to master.
Since Obama removed Gen. McKiernan from command and replaced him with McChrystal — an unusual move — it would have behooved him to know what he was doing. It makes things a bit awkward now.
IT ONLY WORKS IF YOU’RE TREASURY SECRETARY: Tax Court Rejects Geithner/TurboTax Defense.
WOMAN WITH NO ARMS gets black belt in taekwondo.
FORCING A VOTE on “Jobs-Gate.” “Earlier this month, House Judiciary Committee ranking member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Constitution Subcommittee ranking member Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) introduced a resolution demanding that the administration turn over information about the Department of Justice’s involvement in the White House’s efforts to drive Joe Sestak and Andrew Romanoff out of their Senate primary races. That resolution will be taken up by the House Judiciary Committee today.”
LOOKING AT THE FORD GT: “Seeing this thing at the Wednesday night cruise-in lurking among the hot rods and Fox-body Mustangs was sort of like going to the county airport and finding an F-117 Nighthawk parked in the middle of a row of Cessna Skyhawks.”
BILL WHITTLE: The Haters’ Guide To “Football.”
AREN’T WE SUPPOSED TO “LISTEN TO OUR ALLIES?” Merkel Tells Obama Spending Cuts to Boost Economy, Not Put Brake on Growth. Of course, when they were saying that they were also saying “listen to the generals. . . .”
YOU DON’T SAY: Business leaders say Obama’s economic policies stifle growth. “The chairman of the Business Roundtable, an association of top corporate executives that has been President Obama’s closest ally in the business community, accused the president and Democratic lawmakers Tuesday of creating an ‘increasingly hostile environment for investment and job creation.'”
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Hoyer: Yeah, we’re punting the budget this year. “The primary responsibility of Congress under the Constitution is to pass a budget for the federal government. The Democrats have a 77-seat majority in the House and an 18-seat majority in the Senate, where filibusters won’t apply anyway on budgetary matters. Barack Obama’s presidency gives them a clear path to passing whatever budget Democrats desire for FY2011. And so, obviously, all of this has proven too much of a hurdle for Democrats to overcome, as Steny Hoyer admitted today.”
OBAMA TO GULF COAST: DROP DEAD. Federal Gov’t Halts Sand Berm Dredging: Nungesser Pleads With President To Allow Work To Continue.
HOW LONG BEFORE OUR GOVERNMENT DOES THE SAME? Britain becomes latest to slash budget, freeze salaries.
“I TOLD YOU SO?” Michael Yon on McChrystal back in April.
DECIDING THE FATE OF THE INTERNET in a back room at the FCC?
POLITICO: Obama’s real McChrystal problem: Afghanistan plan in trouble. The halfhearted approach seldom succeeds.
OBNOXIOUS FOOD NANNIES complain about feeding the poor.
REALLY, IT’S A BAD IDEA TO THREATEN BLOGGERS.
SHOULDA DONE IT YEARS AGO: In Budget Crisis, States Take Aim at Pension Costs. You know, before there was a crisis.
AND YET THE SOLUTION TO EVERYTHING IS MORE RELIANCE ON REGULATORS: Regulators Failed to Address Risks in Oil Rig Fail-Safe Device.
GENE HEALY: It’s Time America Had A Fat President.
UNRAVELING The Secrets Of Rogue Waves.
WOULD HE DO THIS IF THINGS WERE GOING WELL? Peter Orszag Flees White House.
A WIN FOR Nikki Haley.
OLD WISDOM: Cute and Cuddly. New Wisdom: Chimps, Too, Wage War and Annex Rival Territory.
REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A Roundup of Book Reviews From All Over.
ED DRISCOLL: All The President’s Rubes.
HIGH YIELD AGRICULTURE cuts CO2 emissions. Plus this: “Genetically engineered crops reduce CO2 emissions. Funny but true. So Europeans opposed to genetic engineering of crops (and the center of such opposition seems squarely in Europe) are inadvertently working against a goal that the vast majority of them support: reduction of CO2 emissions in order to prevent global warming.”
FROM THE 278TH ACR, A REPORT FROM IRAQ.
A LESSON FOR AFGHANISTAN? In this review of Jim Michaels’ story of the Surge in Iraq, A Chance In Hell, there’s this passage:
When al Qaeda in Iraq challenged this intrusion, the Americans fought back with overwhelming firepower. Unlike other American commanders at the time, who sought to minimize their losses, Col. MacFarland did not relent when American casualties mounted. “My measure of effectiveness would not be low friendly casualties,” he told Mr. Michaels. “My measure of success would be defeating the enemy.”
Mr. Michaels explains that Col. MacFarland’s military operations helped to convince Sattar that the Americans—then at a low point in their effort to reshape Iraq—would persist and prevail in Anbar Province. So did Col. MacFarland’s personal diplomacy. “Instead of telling [the Iraqis] that we would leave soon and they must assume responsibility for their own security,” Col. MacFarland recalled, “we told them that we would stay as long as necessary to defeat the terrorists.”
I don’t think this is our approach in Afghanistan.
JOHN HINDERAKER: Supply And Demand Hits The Law Business. More on that higher ed bubble.
THOUGHTS ON TEACHING EVALUATIONS: I read mine carefully — however the numerical, fill-in-the-bubbles forms that the University uses are largely useless. I find the fill-in-the-blanks handwritten ones (which only I see) quite helpful, as they often contain specific suggestions from students. The most amusing thing about the numerical forms was that the one question with a single clear, objective answer — the number of classes cancelled during the semester — always produced a spread of responses, with a significant number of students choosing each possible choice. (They’ve since removed that one). Still, it was a thirteenth-chime-of-the-clock sort of thing: Not only wrong in itself, but calling into question everything else from the same source.
JON VOIGHT: Dear Mr. President.
THE ARGUMENT OVER AGING: Can a drug extend good health and postpone the effects of aging?
JIM TREACHER EMAILS:
Question 1: Which is longer, that Rolling Stone piece or the Arizona immigration law?
Question 2: Which one has Obama actually read?
Heh. Related: Did Obama Reap What He Sowed With McChrystal?
UPDATE: McCain: Fire The Ambassador To Afghanistan. “We need to have a look at the functioning of the whole team.”
THE JOYS OF CAST-IRON COOKWARE.
WHY U.S. MEN’S SOCCER will now decline.
LOOKING AT the downsides of the drilling moratorium: “Offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is an industry that, like fishing, provides the livelihood for many people along the coast. The six-month moratorium on exploratory drilling will cost workers as much as $330 million a month in lost wages, according to the industry. Even with the costs of the oil spill pushing past $2 billion already, will the moratorium ultimately outweigh the benefits?”
WHITE HOUSE ART.
THE DANGER OF ARMCHAIR LAWYERING. “BP is, in all likelihood, chiefly responsible for this disaster. At the same time, the Obama administration’s habit of dragging CEOs before Congress can certainly be seen as a pattern of highly calculated government shakedowns. Just ask Mr. Toyoda. Or the CEO of Humana, who was investigated by the administration, because his company warned customers about the pitfalls of ObamaCare. Or the former CEO of GM who has forced to resign by the administration. A pattern is clearly emerging.”
TALKING ABOUT WHAT TO DO WITH MCCHRYSTAL, over at The Hill. Plus, a reader emails: “Is it just me, or is Michael Yon on the cusp of total, absolute vindication regarding his harsh criticism of McChrystal?” Well, this suggests his concerns had some basis, doesn’t it?
UPDATE: Flashback: Media Promoted Military Criticism Of President Bush. Well, sure. Under a Republican President, it’s listen to the generals. Under a Democratic President, it’s all about civilian control of the military.
COLD, DARK, and teeming with life. No, not my office refrigerator. “In 1984, scientists found that the heat was not necessary. In exploring the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, they discovered sunless habitats powered by a new form of nourishment. The microbes that founded the food chain lived not on hot minerals but on cold petrochemicals seeping up from the icy seabed.”
OBAMA DRILLING MORATORIUM struck down by federal court.
J.D. JOHANNES is back in Afghanistan.
THE REAL VICTIM IN THAT MCCHRYSTAL/OBAMA FIGHT — Lady GaGa! “She posed for the cover in a big machine-gun bra and a nearly naked ass and purports to ‘tell all,’ yet everyone’s talking about McChrystal, whose name isn’t even on the cover!”
THE AUDACITY of Golf. Suddenly timely again!
ROAD TRIP: Three Months in a 1989 Mustang.
TEST-DRIVING the Nissan Leaf.
IN THE MAIL: From Bill White, Platinum Moon.
CONGRESS AND SPENDING: “Emergency” is a term of convenience.
