smagar's blog
Posted at 10:45am on Jun. 22, 2008 NYT Apparently Unconcerned if a CIA Agent Is Harmed, Due to One Of Its Articles
By smagar
That's the obvious conclusion I draw from this explanation from the NYT editors on why it chose to publish the name of a CIA operative who questioned Khalid Sheik Muhammad....AFTER the CIA specifically asked them not to, in part of of concern for the interrogator's safety.
Read on to see how the editors justified their decision to act in a way that could easily expose that agent to heightened risk. I think many of you will agree with me, when I conclude that the New York Times doesn't care if the agent, or his family, get harmed in the future or not.
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Posted at 9:59am on May 21, 2008 Another argument for federalism and smaller federal government...
By smagar
We can no longer count on getting qualified people to fill the key positions in Washington.
As we gear up to fight the 2008 election battles,we need arguments that will resonate with the American electorate. I propose this one:
Democrats want to put more and more of our nation's future in the hands of a centralized federal government. ANY organization rises and falls on the quality of the people in it.
Unfortunately, the current environment in Washington repels good people. Given that, how can we expect sustained, quality work out of a Washington-driven national government apparatus?
Read on...
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Posted at 11:00am on May 11, 2008 Will a Contributor please take apart THIS Newsweek swoon over Obama?
By smagar
Hat tip to RealClearPolitics.
This article by Richard Wolffe and Evan Thomas on how Saint...er, Barack Obama plans to deal with the GOP Visigoths left me speechless.
Hey, we all loved that SNL skit on how much the media is in the tank for Obama...
But, that was over a month ago. And they're still writing pieces like THIS? The fawning tone of this piece, written by two of Newsweek's lead political reporters, made me wonder if I'd pulled up the Onion's website by mistake.
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Posted at 11:15am on May 9, 2008 Michael Oren's condescending review of America's spotty history as Israel's ally
By smagar
Michael Oren uses the occasion of Israel's 60th birthday to point out that America hasn't always been the most trustworthy of allies for Israel.
May I retort? And, raise a few gripes of my own? Specifically, that some in the Israeli and American Jewish communities don't fully recognize the burdens that America shoulders, as a result of its alliance with Israel?
Read on
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Posted at 9:41am on May 7, 2008 Hey Ericka---yoo hoo! I'm down here---may I comment on your Redhot?
By smagar
Yes, look over the edge of your Redhot balcony. That's right---down here. See me waving? Yoo hoo!
Sorry, Ericka, but this is the only way I can comment on your piece on the NYT.
I am sick of it and so is at least half the country.
I hope McCain makes the NYT and the WaPo targets in this election. He can point to many, many things that these papers have done that will irk, IMO, more than half the country.
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Posted at 1:15pm on Apr. 27, 2008 McCain's unpredictability and hair trigger finger threatens to choke off initiative
By smagar
The Army has nine principles of war, one of which is "Initiative." Successful Army organizations empower their subordinates to act. The organizations's leaders give clear guidance on what actions are/aren't acceptable, give their folks the latitude to act, and do their best to be understanding when a subordinate's actions don't go precisely as the leadership would have liked. (That's the tradeoff for letting your subordinates run with the ball in the first place).
If, on the other hand, you leave your staff and rank/file guessing as to what you will/won't accept...and then kneecap anyone whose in-good-faith actions displease you...the end result can be an organization (worst case) paralyzed into inaction or (still pretty bad) not nearly as efficient and nimble as it could be.
Does John McCain grasp that he might be hamstringing his own people? I'm not so sure.
Read on
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Posted at 10:27am on Apr. 26, 2008 McCain. My candidate, my conservative colleague. NOT my boss!
By smagar
For those of us frustrated with SEN McCain's recent criticisms of the Bush Administration's efforts in New Orleans during/after Hurricane Katrina, and/or his decision to take Howard Dean's bait and criticize the NC GOP for its ad linking Obama with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, may I recommend we respond to the Senator with this message (or, something like it):
Senator McCain. We are Republicans TOGETHER. I am not now your Republican, bound to follow your direction because you are our de facto Presidential nominee. I look forward to working with you AND for you in this upcoming election. But, I refuse to let you place a bit in my mouth, whose reins you hold.
Or...again...something like that.
Read on
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Posted at 4:10pm on Apr. 20, 2008 How can we turn the Obama-Clinton dustup into CONGRESSIONAL electoral advantage?
By smagar
In the interest of using the electronic pages of Redstate to search for/elicit concrete ideas on what specific things we can do to improve the GOP's fortunes in November, I'm wondering if the Obama/Clinton civil war might improve our chances for averting, or perhaps limiting, the impending damage we seem to be facing in House and Senate races this election cycle.
Is it possible that some of the Congressional seats we might/seem doomed to lose could now be back in play? If so--which ones? IMO those are the seats we should target with our money and time.
Adam C and absentee, are you out there?
Read on
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Posted at 11:56pm on Apr. 10, 2008 IMO, it's unseemly to pile on Sekula-Gibbs
By smagar
Erick, I think you went a wee bit too far with that picture.
Schadenfreude is one thing; picking on someone when they're down is quite another.
While I join you in cheering Olson's victory, IMO it's poor form to rub her nose in it. Not to mention ungentlemanly and/or ladylike.
My 0.02...
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Posted at 9:50am on Mar. 12, 2008 Let the thing be pressed on FISA
By smagar
In the midst of Lee's retreat toward Appomattox, Grant sent Lincoln a note which said "If the thing is pressed, I think Lee will surrender." Lincoln's reply: "Let the thing be pressed."
This USA Today article (hat tip to formerly-Captain Ed, now the First Officer at HotAir), gives me the sense the House Dems are flailing over the FISA mess they themselves created.
Read on
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Posted at 3:00pm on Mar. 7, 2008 Is the GOP playing games with FISA? Oh, it had better not be...
By smagar
Promoted by Jeff
From Ed Morrissey that past week at his new home, HotAir: (emphasis added)
Good news for politicians, bad news for American security: the FISA bill remains stalled and perhaps dead in the House. According to Politico, both Democrats and Republicans feel they can benefit from the current status quo. Democrats can suck up to their trial-lawyer contributors, Republicans can cast Democrats as more concerned with contributions than national security — and meanwhile, the bipartisan effort to protect national security remains buried:
If someone in the GOP has decided to play political football with this issue, I say we demand to know who they are. And, when we find them, we tar and feather them.
Memo to GOP: If you're indeed doing this, you do not have my permission to put me, my wife, my son, my neighbors and my former students who now patrol Iraq and Afghanistan, at risk.
It's Friday. We're about to enter another weekend with a castrated FISA regime. Why isn't our side of the aisle---the adult side when it comes to national security---rattling cages and kicking posteriors on Capitol Hill.
This had better not be why.
Read on
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Posted at 11:52pm on Mar. 1, 2008 If I were the AG, we're in the midst of an "emergency situation" re. FISA
By smagar
Former US prosecutor Andrew McCarthy's NRO entry from today on Sen McConnell's FISA op-ed, is a useful read on the subject. In it, he raises the concern that, as FISA is currently written, the Attorney General has to authorize any extraordinary (i.e., warrantless) electronic surveillance. McCarthy lists that as one of the de facto impediments that Team Pelosi's cowardice on FISA reform places upon our intelligence community.
Only if you let it be a hindrance, Mr. McCarthy.
Drastic times call for drastic measures. If I were the AG, I'd authorize with abandon, and dare the Pelosi Dems to try and stop me.
L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace. If it's good enough for Frederick the Great and Patton, it's good enough for me. And, IMO, should be good enough for AG Mukasey.
Read on.
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Posted at 8:07pm on Feb. 15, 2008 The President needs to be bold on FISA--IF things really are that bad
By smagar
Call the Congress back into session, if he can. Or, postpone or even cancel his trip to Africa.
If the FISA situation is as bad as the GOP and White House is saying that it is, then boldness is called for.
Is our country at increased danger or not, because of Team Pelosi's inaction? If it is, then our commander needs to act.
For, if he doesn't, when the stakes are as high as we've been told they are, then he'll reinforce the Dem's meme that this whole issue has been overblown.
Is this really that bad?
Read on
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Posted at 12:30pm on Feb. 9, 2008 Son, may you grow up to be a man...not a Leon Fleisher
By smagar
I am going to print out and save this article by Leon Fleisher. Pianist, composer, 2007 Kennedy center honoree...and one first-class, self-absorbed jerk.
"Son," I'm going to say, as he grows up and I begin to mentor him into manhood, "become a man. Not a Leon Fleisher."
Read on
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Posted at 8:52am on Jan. 10, 2008 From BLACKFIVE: Robin Williams experiences a military tradition
By smagar
Here's the link---thanks, Blackfive
I know we're not supposed to post links to items posted on other websites, without us doing our own analysis.
But, IMO, there are times for rules to be broken, and this is one of those times.
Watch what happens when Robin Williams, touring overseas to entertain our troops in harms' way, comes face-to-face with a military tradition.
Read on
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