Topic - Power Line

(Scott Johnson) What is the provenance of the Muhammad video in the Benghazi talking points? Our inability to answer the question is in itself a clue. Steve Hayes follows the paper trail and reconstructs what his reporting has revealed to date in the Weekly Standard article “What about the video?” Steve characterizes the attribution of causal effect to the video a “quadruple bank shot,” but leaves open the question of who was

(Scott Johnson) What did President Obama do on the evening of 9/11/12 when our men were under attack in Benghazi? The invaluable Andrew McCarthy reminds us that Obama and Secretary Clinton had a 10:00 p.m. phone call of which many (including, I think, Chris Wallace) have lost sight. This morning when Wallace asked Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer what Obama was up to that evening, Pfeiffer declared the line of inquiry “offensive.” Translation:

(John Hinderaker) Rob Ford, the Mayor of Toronto, has been in the news lately because someone allegedly has a video of him smoking crack. I have no idea whether the video is genuine or not, but Ford is a distinctly odd character. He makes Rahm Emanuel look like a normal human being; in some respects, anyway. New York Magazine compiled a list of 20 things you should know about Rob Ford. Not

(Steven Hayward) It’s about time we start turning our attention to law professors who belong on the Power Line 100 list, and we’ve got a long list of them. As with the rest of the field of finalists, there is no particular order, so we’ll start with Jonathan Adler, the well-known interior designer whose baubles you can find at Bed, Bath & Beyond—no, wait, not that Jonathan Adler! We mean the Jonathan

(John Hinderaker) Former acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee today; Paul live-blogged his appearance. My friend Jeff Davis compiled this video of highlights of today’s proceedings. As usual, the highlights consist more of the Congressmen’s questions than Miller’s answers, but the video is nevertheless revealing. Miller comes across just as Paul described him:

(Steven Hayward) Hadley Arkes of Amherst College (since 1966!) would make the top of the Power Line 100 Best Professors list if we went either by alphabetical order or any kind of semi-objective scoring system. Hadley is the Edward Ney Professor of American Institutions at Amherst, and is also affiliated with our friends at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the Jurisprudence of the Natural Law, whose fine blog, right-reason.org, is worth bookmarking.

(Steven Hayward) And thank goodness it doesn’t. Time for our monthly installment from the Paso Wine Guy, this month extolling the virtue of Viognier. I heartily approve. Can’t get enough good Viognier. Just picked up the new 2012 Viognier from Denner Vineyards, but it needs a couple more months in the bottle before it’s ready to drink. So I’ll be thirsty for a couple of months I guess. Anyway, here it is,

(Steven Hayward) With the Obama Administration having moved fully into the “limited modified hangout” stage of its multiple scandals (Jay Carney: Ron Ziegler is on line two for you right now), some of the cartoons and memes are piling up too fast to wait for Power Line’s weekend photo wrap. So here we go. You know you’re in trouble when this headline appears in the Puffington Host, as it does right now:

(Scott Johnson) When Ronnie White (of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles) brought Steveland Morris over to the Motown offices in Detroit in 1961, Berry Gordy was at first unimpressed. After Morris sang the Miracles’ “Lonely Guy” and performed on piano, harmonica and bongo, Gordy signed signed the 11-year-old boy to his label. According to Nelson George’s Where Did Our Love Go?, “Berry, in one of his more inspired name changes, decided [Morris]

(Scott Johnson) Two of my all-time favorite books of history unraveled the fraught controversies deriving from cases involving Communist spies. In Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case, first published in 1978, Allen Weinstein settled the case referred to in the subtitle. Random House published an updated edition in 1997 and the Hoover Institution has just issued a third edition (the one linked above) in honor of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the book’s publication. Was

(Scott Johnson) I learn via Twitter that the video below featured this past Wednesday on the Tonight Show has gone viral. BuzzFeed explains: “Pumpcast News” is a Tonight Show sketch in which actor Tim Stack, posing as the anchor of a (fake) news show aired at gas station pumps, starts to talk directly to the unsuspecting gas station patrons. While usually the intention of the sketch is to frighten and shock normal

(John Hinderaker) If you want to see just how befuddled the Obama administration is by the Benghazi scandal, watch Jay Carney twist in the wind when asked the simplest of questions about his previous misrepresentations: I offer three conclusions: 1) Carney, apart from the fact that he looks like a teenager who has been summoned to the principal’s office, is utterly inept. 2) The Obama administration is unused to being questioned by

(John Hinderaker) This American Crossroads video does a good job of laying out, in a simple and understated way, the basic facts of the Benghazi cover-up, in light of Wednesday’s hearing. If you have friends who haven’t been following Benghazi and don’t know what the fuss is about, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to email it to them: Whether the Benghazi lies make a difference depends in part on whether you

(John Hinderaker) Being a reserved sort of guy, I tend to disapprove of social pressures to do things like kiss your girlfriend or wife. Or whoever that woman to your left might be. Still, I’ve gotten used to the Kiss Cam, which is a fixture at Target Field and most sports venues. At this point, if I saw myself on the screen along with my wife, or someone else who looks reasonably

(John Hinderaker) As I wrote here, I am not a fan of trying to “fix” the Senate Gang of Eight’s immigration bill through amendments. I think it is fundamentally flawed in multiple ways and cannot be fixed, least of all by adding more provisions relating to border enforcement. But the Senate Judiciary Committee is marking up the immigration bill, and Republicans have offered a wide variety of amendments. To the extent this

(Scott Johnson) The bombshells were flying Fast & Furious, you might say, at the House Oversight Committee hearing on Benghazi today. The former deputy chief of mission in Libya told the committee: “The YouTube video was a non-event in Libya.” We commenced this series in response to Obama administration spokesman Susan Rice’s round of Sunday post-attack gabfest appearances asserting: ”What happened this week…in Benghazi was a result, a direct result of a

(Scott Johnson) Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings is the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee before which the Benghazi hearing was held today. He did his best to carry water for the White House. Rep. Cummings earns his own entry in this series, as both a fool and a knave, for his advice to the Benghazi witnesses, before the families of the loved ones in attendance, that “death is a part of

(Steven Hayward) It is not necessary to be a Trekkie (but really, why wouldn’t you be?) to appreciate the intergenerational rivalry of this Audi ad featuring the original Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) versus the “rebooted” younger Spock, Zachary Quinto. And kudos to Nimoy, for being game to spoof the most embarrassing moment of his entire career; and no, I don’t mean that Trek episode where he got the seven-year Vulcan itch. Rather,

(Scott Johnson) As the massacre of our fellow Americans in Benghazi returns to the news in a big way today, with the hearing scheduled in the House, it is well to remember the promotion of the Muhammad video by President Obama and Secretary Clinton in this context. It shows the politicization of the massacre by the Obama administration from the first moment on. The Obama administration’s attribution of responsibility for the massacre

(Steven Hayward) One of our regrets here on the Power Line 100 selection committee is that we didn’t get Yale’s Donald Kagan into our sequence soon enough to feature him before his recent retirement, which Scott noted here the other day. So we don’t want to slip up by letting the same thing occur with Pamela K. Jensen, professor of political science at Kenyon College, who has retired as a full-time instructor

(Scott Johnson) The Obama administration has politicized the Benghazi scandal from day 1, protecting Obama from exposure of his nonfeasance, creating an alternative universe in which the attack on the consulate grew out of a “spontaneous” protest, and kicking the whole thing past the election. On Friday Steve Hayes kicked off the latest round of exposures with his excellent Weekly Standard article “The Benghazi talking points.” Now come Bob Schieffer and Rep.

(Steven Hayward) Either Hinderaker is too busy right now, or we’re in that in-between period like we suffer after the Super Bowl and before baseball opening day when we only have the NBA to tide us through for sports, but there’s clearly a dearth of coverage of beauty pageants on Power Line right now. Thank goodness for the NRA, which has been holding its convention this weekend. And thank goodness for Robert

(Scott Johnson) Visiting the site of the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale to watch Professor Donald Kagan’s farewell lecture, I found the video below — the first of four, the rest following automatically — of George Will’s lecture to the group this past January. The lecture provides a short course in the Constitution and the revolt of the Progressives against it, from Wilson to TR and FDR, to LBJ and

(Steven Hayward) So what should be our theme of the week? Maybe how the White House is still passing Benghazi all the time? Or how the media is still (fill in the blank)? Or perhaps the story about the heroism of apparently the first-ever person to come out publicly as gay? Why don’t we start with the unintentionally revealing photo that the Wall Street Journal ran yesterday about the annual shareholder meeting

(Scott Johnson) Last month Time’s Joe Klein decried the Obama administration’s “incompetence” implementing Obamacare. This week Klein expressed relief in an “Exclusive” report. In his “Exclusive” Klein praised the administration for streamlining the complex 21-page online Obamacare application to a mere three pages. Klein called it “a spiffy, new three-page application for individuals (find it here)” (footnote omitted). He added: “There will be a seven-page application for families (11 includ...

(Scott Johnson) Yale Sterling Professor Donald Kagan retires from the faculty at the end of this academic year. The author of a classic four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War and other formidable works of learning, he is an old-fashioned scholar and teacher. To say he has had a long and distinguished career at Yale understates matters considerably. On April 25 he gave his farewell lecture to a packed audience assembled by The

(Scott Johnson) National Review helped launch Marco Rubio to prominence in his seemingly quixotic quest for the GOP Senatorial nomination against Charlie Crist and National Review has now declared the Gang of Eight immigration bill of which Rubio is a chief sponsor to be Rubio’s Folly (cover below). NR senior editor Jay Nordlinger appeared on Morning Joe briefly this morning to explain why, and Jay’s critique of the bill on the show

(Scott Johnson) I’ve struggled with my weight ever since I quit smoking thirty years ago, going up and down 30 pounds several times. All I can tell you is that it’s a helluva lot easier going up than it is coming down, though you probably already knew that. Five months ago I took up the cues offered occasionally by Glenn Reynolds to the work of science writer Gary Taubes. Glenn had linked

(John Hinderaker) For readers of a certain age, that might sound like the title of a Playboy article of the 1960s or 70s. But no: it is the NRA’s latest volley in its pro-gun rights campaign. It makes a lot of sense, too. Women are the fastest-growing demographic of gun purchasers, and manufacturers are increasingly catering to them with firearms designed specifically with women in mind. Ammunition makers, too: I recently saw,

(Scott Johnson) Country singer George Jones died this past Friday at the age of 81. I think the consensus is that Jones was the best country singer of the era. You can certainly hear his influence in just about every younger country artist worth listening to. Jon Pareles gives Jones his due in the New York Times obit “His life was a country song.” Pareles renders a fine appreciation of Jones’s life

(Steven Hayward) How did I miss these two 30-second videos last week while compiling the Week in Pictures? The first is a recording, via YouTube, of NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston speculating that the Boston bombing was likely the result of right-wing extremists because Hitler’s birthday was about to be observed. Even though this video has only sound but no images, you have to hear it, not to believe it–much better than reading the

(Paul Mirengoff) Aquille Carr is a 5’7 (maybe) high school point guard. He’s nicknamed “the Crime Stopper” because during his games in a tough area of Baltimore, Carr’s must-see play was said to bring a halt to crime. Today, in a less impressive feat, Carr was “the blog stopper” as far as I’m concerned. That is, I put blogging and all other pursuits aside to watch Carr play in a high school

(Scott Johnson) Rep. Hank Johnson is, as they say in presidential nominating speeches, “the man who.” Rep. Johnson is the man who worried that the island of Guam might capsize. In 2010 Johnson expressed concern at a hearing that the planned military buildup on the island of Guam might cause the island “to tip over and capsize.” The testifying naval officer struggled manfully to reassure Rep. Johnson that the island would survive.

(Scott Johnson) In my tribute to Ella Fitzgerald on her birthday last week, I mentioned mentioned that, after he sold the Verve label, Norman Granz founded the Pablo label to continue recording Ella. To test the market for a new label, Granz put together an all-star concert featuring Ella and the Count Basie Band at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in June 1972 that was to be recorded and released (unsuccessfully, with

(Scott Johnson) President Obama really poured it on in his speech to Planned Parenthood yesterday (video below). Taken together with the introduction by Planned Parenthood’s president, we get a full airing of the sacramental view of abortion that underlies the Democrats’ mania on behalf of the practice. Obama’s speech begins at about 6:30. In the gospel according to Barry, we now have the blessing for the abortionist: “As long as we’ve got

(Steven Hayward) Just in time for the Weekly Winston comes the fabulous news that the Bank of England has decided to put Churchill on the five-pound note. Now, can we please put Reagan on the twenty, or something? Speaking of Winnie, who according to legend (surely apocryphal) was the inspiration for A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, loyal Power Line reader RS sends along this adaptation of Milne to remind us of why

(Scott Johnson) The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has its roots in the October 27, 1993 conference at a Marriott Hotel in Philadelphia that was attended by 25 supporters and members of Hamas. The 1993 conference had as its purpose the subversion of the Oslo Accords. Israel had to be destroyed, not accommodated. Among those in attendance was Nihad Awad. The FBI monitored and recorded the meeting. The evidence derived from the

(Scott Johnson) Today is the anniversary of the birth of Ella Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Song. The lady was a remarkable artist. Each period of her long career is rewarding, though she deepened her art as she got older. She excelled in a wide variety of material and in every musical setting. There is an emotional reserve or detachment in her singing, but there is also joy and an irrepressible sense

(Scott Johnson) The powers that be at Dartmouth College have canceled classes for all-day left-wing indoctrination today. Like the warden in Cool Hand Luke, they mean to get the students’ minds right. Where can I go to get my daughter’s pro rata portion of tuition back? Dartmouth senior Blake Neff hasn’t answered that question, but the same issue is on his mind and he has kindly responded to our request for a

(Paul Mirengoff) Yes, for the reasons set forth below, via Eliana Johnson and Mediaite. When Rubio was running for the Senate in 2009, he told a Florida political blogger that, with regard to immigration, “the most important thing we need to do is enforce our existing laws.” He added: If you go to people and say: “Look, well you’ve been here for so long that even though you broke the law we’re

(Scott Johnson) Singer/songwriter Richie Havens died today at the age of 72. Havens grew up in Brooklyn singing with a choir in church and with doo wop groups on street corners. He crossed the river to figure out how to make a go of it in Greenwich Village as a performer until he signed a recording contract with Verve. In 1967 Havens seemed to materialize out of nowhere with Mixed Bag, a

(Paul Mirengoff) I’ve written before about Luis Suarez, Liverpool’s star forward. He is, in my opinion, the best player in the English Premier League this year, and arguably one of the best 11 players in the world. He is also, in my opinion (and by consensus, I believe) the biggest cheat in the EPL. It’s an unusual combination. Fowards of Suarez’s quality may “dive” to draw fouls (see Cristiano Ronaldo). They may

(Steven Hayward) Herewith a second installment of my recent interview with Peter Schramm of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, where he discusses the extraordinary effect of Harry Jaffa, how students should be approached and regarded in the classroom, and the Bowdoin report. About 7 minutes long.

(Scott Johnson) In his five years with the Minnesota Twins, David “Big Papi” Ortiz struck me as a player with awesome potential who persistently underperformed, partly as a result of injuries and poor coaching. The Twins sought to turn him into a singles hitter. As he put it, “They tried to make me hit like a girl!” There’s actually a lot of that going around. Regardless of his level of performance with

(Scott Johnson) President Obama’s statement last night on events in Boston (with postscript on the Texas catastrophe) conveys at its heart the obligatory multicultural teaching: Obviously, tonight there are still many unanswered questions. Among them, why did young men who grew up and studied here, as part of our communities and our country, resort to such violence? How did they plan and carry out these attacks, and did they receive any help?

(Paul Mirengoff) Marco Rubio appeared on Mark Levin’s program yesterday to argue in favor of the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform bill. In my view, Levin asked good question and received, for the most part, weak or slippery answers. You can listen to interview, which is well worth 17 minutes of your time, here. Levin devoted most of the interview to border security. He got Rubio to admit that the efficacy of

(Steven Hayward) It’s been another terrible, no good, very bad week for the left, and it isn’t over yet. We could still get another Democrat or trade union running for cover over the disaster that is the unfolding of Obamacare. We certainly haven’t seen the last of the left’s bitter clingers complaining about the four Democratic Senators who extended their own right of self-preservation to the rest of us by voting down

(Scott Johnson) John Hinderaker posted a moving account of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral here yesterday, noting the reading by Baroness Thatcher’s 19-year-old granddaughter Amanda. I wanted to see Ms. Thatcher’s reading and I assume many of you do as well. Looking for an embeddable video without a preceding advertisement, I found ITN’s video posted on YouTube below.