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Thursday, July 09, 2009

None Dare Call It Meddling

Posted by: Duane R. Patterson at 3:21 PM

President Barack Obama is wrapping up his meeting with the G-8 leaders and a stop in Russia. And with it comes some very troubling developments regarding the Middle East, and our changing policy vis-a-vis meddling in Iran.

First, you wouldn't know it listening to the silence out of the Obama administration, and the mainstream media still coming down off of their Michael Jackson wall-to-wall coverage, but the Iranian protestors are still protesting. They are literally in the streets fighting for their lives, hoping that somebody in the free world, anybody, hears their cries for freedom and self-determination. The thuggish theocracy is still brutishly cracking down on any public dissent against the regime. Michael Ledeen is consistently following the latest developments. You should as well. President Obama was slow to respond to the Iranian crisis, citing that he didn't want to be seen as "meddling". Obama eventually publicly deplored the violence taking place, because after the violence escalated, he couldn't not speak out on it. Yet this week, when the rest of the G-8 leaders hinted they wanted to impose stiffer sanctions against the oppressive regime in Tehran, it was President Obama who worked to derail that idea. Meddling for the regime must not seem to count as actual meddling.

In Iraq, as the much-promised withdrawal of American forces is underway so that the President can make good on his campaign pledge, violence is beginning to pick back up. During the surge, many insurgents were killed. Some were captured, including some members of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds forces. Today, the Obama administration ordered the release of five of those Quds forces to Iraqi officials, for the specific intent of turning them back over to the Iranians. No trial, no quid pro quo from the Iranian regime, just good faith appeasement on our part.

In a speech to Moscow's National Economic School graduates, Barack Obama signaled that he was willing to cede former Soviet bloc satellites in Eastern Europe by withdrawing plans for covering them under our missile defense umbrella if Russia stepped up and took care of the growing Iranian nuclear threat. In one part of his speech, President Obama said, "In 2009, a great power does not show strength by dominating or demonising other countries. The days when empires could treat sovereign states as pieces on a chess board are over." I wonder how Ukraine and Georgia reacted to this line, especially when they have just been declared to be pawns. Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton notes that Russia is having their way with the young President.

And then there is the Joe Biden factor. Last Sunday, the Vice President appeared on American television and gave the green light for Israel to do what it needed to in order to protect against the existential threat posed to them by the Iranian nuclear program. Yet not even 24 hours later, the President had to quickly reverse course, specifically not giving permission for the Israelis to act, hoping that he can somehow engage in direct negotiations with the Iran theocrats.

I'm sure glad the President is keeping his word about not meddling, because I'd sure hate to see what would happen if he did.

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Thursday, July 09, 2009

Some Things Need To End

Posted by: Jude at 12:23 PM

Yesterday I had the chance to fly to the Hoover Institute for a free lunch and to see Victor Davis Hanson speak. I highly recommend the trip. It's funny, because as a recording artist, I've had my share of nervous and admiring fans approaching me in all sorts of strange and awkward ways, for an autograph, a handshake and a picture, or just a hug. As I recall (from those golden times of yore... ) there is a particular look and demeanor you take on when someone is barely stammering out kind words in your direction. You want them to know everything's cool, that you won't rush them off, and that you're genuinely flattered, and that maybe they're being a little silly, because we're all just people. Oh, and that you have to keep on moving, so you know, out with it, already. It's FUNNY because I recognized that exact look in Professor Hanson's eyes when I stopped him before his lecture to make a fool of myself attempting to lay out all the ways in which I knew his work and admired him. Total fan crash and burn. I felt myself going down and blurted out something about how I know Hugh. It was really really pathetic. He ended my suffering with a smile and a handshake, telling me to "say hi to Hugh." So yeah. Hi Hugh. Awesome. Now all I have to do is bump into Mark Steyn and start mis-quoting large portions of the American songbook.

That was yesterday. On Tuesday, I joined many of my worldwide friends in watching an amazingly dysfunctional family parade its grief across a stage only their brother could provide. There was beauty and sadness, there was pomposity and the uncomfortable. I especially liked the moment when they let his daughter break down in front of the world. Geez, looking back on it, the Kennedy funeral would have been much more memorable - better TV, really - if only a reporter had put a microphone in front of John John or Caroline and asked, 'Do you miss your Daddy right now? How do you feel, are you sad?'

The best take I've found on the whole event is by the satirical genius Iowahawk (whose "The Idiossey, Poem of Obamacles" I hope VDH has enjoyed) :

Fans Flock to Mourn California, 1849-2009.

     Sweet, golden California...what happened? How can it be that after Gray Davis the most frightening words we could here from Schwarzenegger are actually "I'll be back" ? Sometimes, things need to end, preferably bad things. I said on the air last week that this whole Michael Jackson madness and coverage would essentially end once they put him in the ground. Yet, now we understand that they're not burying him yet... People, sometimes you've got to know when to leave the stage! But no, it's going to drag it out for one reason or another, and we'll all keep feeling the effect in the media. Iran has a important protest going on today... unemployment heads toward 11%... an unread health care takeover bill threatens to end many kinds of freedoms over time, yet it looms at the end of this very month... all the while, many reporters will be dedicated to watching the 14k gold coffin of a former pop idol.
That may not be just what happened to California, but from other parts of the country it probably says enough.

     Yesterday, Hanson spoke of war, its origins and the perceptions of it across time and today. Among much else, he mentioned that wars ended when the reasons for those wars were no longer. In other words, the argument was over because there was no lingering question, no angry defeated biding their time to return to battle, no "conflict resolution" by an international body to hold the pieces in place until they re-collide decades later. When one side wins and one loses definitively, it may not jibe with our post-modern sensibilities, but it surely stops the hand wringing and the talking in circles. For example, as the professor mentioned, there was no 4th Punic war because Carthage simply was no more after the 3rd. As in, it was gone, utterly destroyed. Rome decided to end Carthage, and that was the end of that. Today we call it being 'wiped off the map', and we seem to be very dedicated to keeping that from ever happening to anyone.
     Fine, but if we're dedicated (well, many of us) to keeping all these nations intact, can we at least allow some ideas to end? Lately, it seems as though Obama and his fellow travelers are using his latest round of appeasements to put more flowers on the golden coffins of bad ideologies. With Russia, Iran, Honduras and elsewhere, whether in words or through actions, Obama seems to keep putting off the funeral of authoritarianism and the triumph of freedom. I know that sounds harsh and I don't want to believe it's true, but after reading sections of his speech in Moscow, I think at least his speechwriter could apply for a position writing WWII history for Japanese schoolbooks if he ever loses his first gig.
     Here at home, it seems as though we need to walk our representatives up and past the coffin of nationalized health care, hold their sobbing shoulders as they let go of the chance to control more of everything so they can eventually mess that up, too, and put that damned coffin in the ground.

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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Understanding Tribalism In Afghanistan

Posted by: Duane R. Patterson at 4:21 PM

Hugh continues fiction thriller week with Steven Pressfield today, author of Gates of Fire, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and Killing Rommel, which will be discussed at length in the last two hours of the show today.

But in the first hour, Hugh and Steven will talk about the part of the world the Marines are getting to know real well - Afghanistan. Steven has done a lot of research on the Pashtunwali lifestyle practiced by the millions of tribesmen living along the Pakistani-Afghan border, and has come away with some insights he has compiled in a series of five video op-eds which you can view on his website here.

Each video in the series is about five minutes long, is shot very professionally, and is something every American interested in foreign policy should watch. It is wise to study the ways of those you are fighting, and Steven Pressfield has made it easy to do so.

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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Thriller Week

Posted by: Duane R. Patterson at 10:15 PM

Don't be alarmed. We're not talking about wall-to-wall Michael Jackson coverage. This week is fiction week as Hugh interviews many of America's most popular thriller writers practicing the craft. Today's program featured interviews with Brad Thor, the immensely talented writer of the Scot Harvath novels, and with Alex Berenson, author of the John Wells series.

Brad Thor's website is here, and his latest novel is The Apostle. Order it here.

Alex Berenson's website is here, and his latest novel is The Silent Man. Order it here.

Steven Pressfield will join Hugh on Wednesday, Daniel Silva on Thursday, and Vince Flynn on Friday.

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Monday, July 06, 2009

An Intelligent Discussion About Health Care Reform

Posted by: Duane R. Patterson at 11:39 PM

Much of mainstream media is still consumed by Michael Jackson. On today's program, we were consumed by the proposed government-run health care scheme, something that actually will have a long-lasting, negative impact if Americans don't make their voice heard soon. There are plenty of real experts out there, on all sides of the political spectrum, and they're available to talk. They should be on cable news every day until the votes take place. Will they? Probably not. In the meantime, here is a good compilation of information from earlier today that will get you up to speed.

Dr. Robert Moffit of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Healh Policy Studies. His interview transcript is here. The audio of Hugh's discussion with him today is here.

Professor Clayton Christensen of the Harvard Business School, co-author of The Innovator's Prescription. His interview transcript is here. The audio of Hugh's discussion with him today is here.

Dr. Irwin Redlener is the co-founder and president of the Children's Health Fund, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, clinical professor of pediatrics at Columbia University. His interview transcript is here. The audio of Hugh's discussion with him today is here.

The flaw in the government option is apparent. The stakes of keeping the government out of the insurance business is very high. Don't sit July out. Get in the game.

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Monday, July 06, 2009

A Little New Media For The Afternoon

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 3:49 PM

, especially of authors

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Monday, July 06, 2009

The Health Care Reform Show

Posted by: Duane R. Patterson at 2:05 AM

Monday's program promises to be one of the most important we've ever broadcast in the nine year history of the Hugh Hewitt Show. Congress is set to begin a month-long debate in both the House and Senate on what American health care will look like once the politicians are finished with it.

The House version of the legislation is well over a thousand pages long, and the Senate version is not much shorter. Both contain the Trojan horse called the government option, or the public option, or the single payer plan. This must be stopped if Americans don't want to be dumped by their employers into a vastly expensive expansion of Medicare which would not only bankrupt the country, but ration care and cause lines waiting for care that would make Great Britain and Canada look efficient by comparison.

What can you do to help stop the public option from passing? Get educated. That's exactly what Monday's program is all about. Hugh will bring on three experts in the health care field, left, center and right on the political scale, and not only discuss the pros and cons of the current proposed legislation, but offer real alternatives to the nightmare that is coming if Obamacare passes.

Dr. Irwin Redlener, co-founder and president of the Children's Health Fund and doctor of pediatrics at Columbia University, Professor Clayton Christensen of the Harvard Business School and co-author of The Innovator's Prescription, and Dr. Robert Moffit of Heritage Foundation's Center for Health Policy Studies will all join Hugh for an hour. The transcripts and appropriate links to their work will follow in a subsequent post. Your mission? Listen to all three hours. Listen to the podcasts that will be posted after the show. Get informed as to what is being proposed, what you think about it, what alternative solutions are, and then by all means, get engaged in the debate. Americans are only going to have one window of time, July, to stop the ruination of America's health care system. Now is the time to get involved. Listen, learn, and then get in the game.

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Happy Fourth Of July

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 2:19 PM

Guest post by Jude

      Now that my quixotic application for lifetime membership in the Sarah Palin Defenders Club is complete in the post below, let me say a humble hello to the intimidatingly smart readers and listeners who make up Hugh's audience. Hugh has asked Duane to put up with me while I write here occasionally in his absence. My thanks to both.
     Listening to Hugh on the air played a large part in my "coming-out-as-a-conservative" in the music business. I'm no big name, by ANY stretch of the imagination, but I have made my living writing and touring for the better part of the last fifteen years while living in Hollywood, so I'll try to write from that perspective where it applies.
     As we commemorate nothing less than revolution with hot dogs and fireworks, here's an appropriate post by film-maker Chris Burgard over at Big Hollywood, where I'm something of a crony. Now I'm off to don my red, white and blue pants (and if I can ever figure out how to import photos with this Townhall software, I'll post a picture of their embarassing glory...) Happy 4th to you all, and smooth sailing to Hugh and the gang!

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Friday, July 03, 2009

Sarah Palin Is Running A Marathon

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 8:29 PM

Guest post by Jude

Sarah Palin Is Running A Marathon.

It's called life.

It was quite a news day to be off in the canyons and away from cell signal or wifi. Although I might be the last person to comment on the Alaskan Governor’s announcement today, please indulge my being late to the pity party, because I still love me some Sarah Palin. By the time I heard, the spin had already begun, but I didn’t want to hear any of it. I just felt that this must be a terrible move on her part, or a really unfortunate choice she felt compelled to make for some reason we might find out about later. Either way was depressing. As so many have already said, being labeled a quitter isn’t going to help her make a run for national office any time soon.
But Sarah Palin isn’t a quitter. I know this because, well, because just last night I read her interview in Runner’s World. Sample quote (noting that she is, to my knowledge, the only political figure who is consistently quoted phonetically: (RW)"What about in a race? Could you beat the president?
(SP)"I betcha I'd have more endurance. My one claim to fame in my own little internal running circle is a sub-four marathon. It wasn't necessarily a good running time, but it proves I have the endurance within me to at least gut it out and that is something. If you ever talk to my old coaches, they'd tell you, too. What I lacked in physical strength or skill I made up for in determination and endurance. So if it were a long race that required a lot of endurance, I'd win.”

Sarah Palin is running a marathon.

I drove home to sit at my computer and watch the video, ready to see this meandering statement I was hearing about. As so many times before though, when I finally saw her own, un-edited words - instead of the punditry - I came away understanding. The explanations were right there, some in her voice, and some in the things she couldn’t quite say, but alluded to. Here, I’ll say a few of them for her:

- I’m a lightning rod for attacks, and they will not stop. I am attacked in sexist ways no Democrat would be expected to tolerate, my family is treated like a bunch of drug-addled reality stars, and the media is trying to marginalize me into some sort of Brittney Spears (the bad times) figure. This is because they fear my ever being respected, and they hate the way we are, but that’s not a fight I need to have on your dime. This is making it almost too difficult to govern, too difficult for Alaska to be properly stewarded by me, your elected representative. The assaults I’m under, both frivolous lawsuits and the media blasts that have to be responded to in some way, are costing both me and (she did say this part) Alaska more money than it is responsible for me to allow any longer.

- The Left declared me “fair game”, and I can’t afford to fight it alone and do right by you. In fact, if I stay it harms Alaska, because that’s how bad it has become. And it’s not just the media, believe me… Basically, you don’t need my target on your head!

- I use the basketball analogy because it’s a kind way of describing what has happened to me and my family, not so wannabe cool kids can make fun of it, even though they will. When you’re being triple-teamed constantly, the responsible thing to do is pass the ball. Get it? No one else is a strong enough player to help draw the coverage right now – God knows Newt doesn’t have the game he used to, and Rush is busy in the locker room fighting off thirty Alinskyites with nothing but girth and a golden microphone he’s swinging. I am being swarmed, swamped and kicked in the knees, and there is no drawing a foul in this game, because the ref is only wearing media credentials.

- Steve Schmidt is a jerk. (End bad Palin channeling.)

When I heard Old Man McCain had picked Sarah Palin for VP I shuddered. Her talent and character don’t come along together very often, she had good work ahead of her in office, and going down with that ship was not what she needed. Same with Jindal. Yet, there I was at the convention, (probably with better seats than Duane, I'm just saying...) trading elbows with Andrew Breitbart as we declared our love for the most charismatic GOP’er since Reagan. On the way home that night I was called by a musician friend who wanted my take on her, because she was intimidating as a new candidate. I told him – and I’m not claiming any kind of prescience here, because it was plain to see – that now the race was on to define her. It was the Media vs. the RNC, and we all knew who was going to win that one. ‘Aww, no,’ I recall him saying, ‘ it isn’t like that. You’re paranoid.”
Cue the Trig garbage, brutal magazine covers, NBC/SNL, etc. Some of the smartest people I know have told me that Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from her house...
As Hugh said on the air the other day while talking to Jim Geraghty, “everything she is is the antithesis of everything that liberal urban elites are, so it's not just enough to say, 'I disagree with you,'; she has to be repudiated and crushed." And she almost has been. They said she was a fool. They said she was a criminal. They said she had had an affair. They said Trigg wasn’t her child. Now they’ll call her a quitter, and they’ll be wrong again.

So where does she go from here? Well, as she might say, a Mama bear fights back when her cubs are threatened, but at some point, when the attacks are relentless and show no signs of ending…she may just pull her cubs back into the cave if she can. The problem with that move is that Palin’s domicile is a looong flight from the lower 48 (what we all call America). As governor, every time she pops her head up they try to take it off. Think about it - what kind of a governor can she be if the only business she really gets done by going to New York is to affect Letterman’s ratings? The conventional wisdom has been that she should stay in Alaska, do well and get “better” at stuff. The problem with that strategy is that she’d be too far from the media centers to fight back against the head-shots that will keep coming at her anyway. She’s no quitter. She’s just running her own race.
Imagine the kitchen table conversation at the Palin house. ‘Hey, would you guys like this stuff to stop for a while, and for Dad and I to have the option to fight back against it when does happen, and to fight for good people more often, at our own pace, on our own schedule? Would you like it if I can be home more often but also do more for America? Oh, and do you think I should be responsible and step aside as governor since the bad guys have made every day I remain in office more damaging to the state?’
‘Hell, yeah.’ (I like to think that one was Piper.)

Sarah Palin is the biggest star in politics after the sophist in the oval office, and Sarah Palin has been abandoned by too much of the Right. Mitt Romney is a cyborg and probably has 2012 in hand already, which I think is great. Love the guy, think we should be so lucky. But how can the GOP and the RNC fail to defend and champion Palin? She is a superstar media talent who’s natural charisma could light the sun. Don’t listen to the garbage about how she hurt the ticket - that’s something Democrats tell themselves to sleep at night. She is a major voice in the conservative movement, the most prominent female Republican, and on and on. Is it so hard to defend her at parties that we have to say she’s finished, or that we never thought she could make it back anyway? If she’s taking herself out of politics, then fine, we can let her be… but don’t bet on it. Sanford has clearly taken himself off the board, but she’s securing and defending her place. Palin has a remarkable killer instinct and she climbed the political ladder in a way no one expected. She may very well be passing the ball because she believes it’s the right thing to do, but she’s also going to become a more effective national figure by doing so. We might see more of her, not less, and if that’s the case, will the RNC want to help her? More importantly, will it even know how? I think it’s just as likely that she’s going to learn how to play the national media all by herself, and she may be better for it in the end.

And if I’m wrong and this is the beginning of the end of Palin’s political career? Well, as I said at the top of the post, this race is called life, and no one could blame her for making sure she wins that one.

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Friday, July 03, 2009

What Does The Future Hold For Sarah Palin?

Posted by: Duane R. Patterson at 4:37 PM

It's been a wild series of news stories this week, and just because today is a national holiday, the news hasn't gotten any less weird. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced in a press conference today that not only is she not going to re-run for a second term as governor, she is resigning as governor in two weeks, turning the job over to Lt. Governor San Parnell.

What was a meteoric rise to national prominence after being selected as John McCain's vice president candidate last fall, Palin's announcement today all but ends any speculation that she is a front-runner for the presidency in 2012.

I was at the Xcel Center in St. Paul when Governor Palin gave her acceptance speech, which was a remarkable moment in electoral politics. Conservatives instantly fell in love with her energy, spunk and toughness. She injected much-needed enthusiasm into the GOP campaign, and regardless of the attacks on her by the media, continued to this day to be talked about as a potential 2012 contender.

The speculation now, of course, will be to determine why she is resigning during her first term. Some Sarah fans will try to spin this as a shrewd political move to a possible presidential run, but what remains to be seen is if Governor Palin can not only overcome all of the stereotypes and ridicule the left has heaped upon her and her family, with much aid and assistance from mainstream media, but if she can overcome the stigma of being a quitter on top of that.

We thank Governor Palin for her impact on politics, and for bringing new voters to Republican ranks last fall. We wish her continued success on whatever new ventures she undertakes.

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Friday, July 03, 2009

Will Our Fireworks Be Smarter Than North Korea's?

Posted by: Duane R. Patterson at 1:34 PM

As America prepares for a weekend of watching fireworks, the Pentagon is apparently ready to shoot at least the North Korean-made one down, if necessary. Some are calling a potential missile shoot-down a bold move. I disagree. A bold move, and maybe a more proper one, would be to blow the missile up on the pad in North Korea before it gets launched.

If Kim Jung Il does fire off the rocket as expected in the general direction of Hawaii, and the military deems it to be on a trajectory that could do damage and has to shoot it down, will the media recognize and thank George W. Bush for allowing for the defensive capability to become realized? Will a reporter go visit Michigan Senator Carl Levin, who has always been the point man for the anti-missile defense crowd in Congress, and ask him if America truly would have been safer allowing the missile to hit wherever on Hawaii it was aimed?

Furthermore, will there be one question asked of Barack Obama in his next press conference about whether it's really a good idea to cut missile defense spending in the military budget precisely when it's turning out it's a really, really good idea to have that weapon in the defense arsenal?

Meanwhile, we hope that Hawaii is able to enjoy a safe and sane 4th of July, free of Taepodong-2 rockets.

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Thursday, July 02, 2009

Steyn, Romney and Botkin; Reynolds and White; Jaffa and Jude

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 9:12 AM

My new Townhall.com column looks ahead to the weekend.

Transcripts of yesterday's conversations with Mark Steyn about Michael Jackson as well as the offensive in Afghanistan and the turmoil in Honduras, and with Mitt Romney about President Obama's push for the "government option/public plan" are posted.

Today's program begins with an interview with Richard Botkin about his new book, Ride the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Triumph and Honor.

Ride the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Honor and Triumph

Botkin's book is a history of Vietnam told through the stories of five Marines: three American and two Vietnamese. Though the heart of the book is the desperate days around the 1972 Easter Offensive, the book begins with the first deployments of American troops and ends with the reeducation camps and the long journey to America of some of our greatest allies in the long war we eventually gave up on. As the country watches the pull-out of our troops from Iraq's cities and the deployment of thousands of Marines into Helmland River Valley yesterday, the book could not be more timely or more riveting. The peril that our military faces in combat competes with a thousand silly stories every day, and Botkin's book helps civilians understand what it is like for the warrior, then and now, to fight for freedom --our own and that of our allies.

The third hour today continues the set-up for our Fourth of July celebrations by asking Biola University's John Mark Reynolds and David Allen White, just retired from three decades of teach at the United States Naval Academy, what it was the Framers thought they were borrowing from the ancients and why we even ought to care today.

Tomorrow's program is a long conversation with one of the country's greatest intellects, Professor Harry Jaffa on the central ideas surrounding the American founding.

I know that today and tomorrow aren't all Michael Jackson all the time, but the genius and courage of Philadelphia 1776 deserve some attention even as the LKMs (see below) pile up around Jackson.

If any of the conversations prompt you to appreciate the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines of today, please consider marking the holiday with a contribution to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

Now a blogging note. I won't be totally missing from these pages over the next two weeks, but I am trying to get the tendonitis in my elbow to move on, which my doctor tells me won't happen until I move away from the keyboard. So that's what I'll be doing, which means less blogging and far fewer e-mail responses for a couple of weeks.

Duane will pick up his blogging pace, and to pitch in, my pal Jude will throw in as well. If you haven't yet become acquainted with this exceptional musician and very thoughtful commentator via his posts Big Hollywood, you will quickly come to agree with me that he is a much-needed voice of reason from within a portion of the entertainment industry that doesn't often provide center-right commentary. Thanks in advance to Jude and Duane and to you for your patience as I slack off for a couple of weeks.

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Thursday, July 02, 2009

When Hope Doesn't Change

Posted by: Duane R. Patterson at 9:00 AM

The June jobs report is out, and almost half a million Americans who had employment at the beginning of June have now lost their jobs. Do you remember the rhetoric used by the Obama administration earlier in the year to sell the non-stimulus stimulus bill, which turned out to be a trillion dollars, more or less, of pork projects?

Larry Summers told Wolf Blitzer on CNN back in February that, "You'll see the effects begin almost immediately. Christina Romer told Fox News around the same time that, "We will start adding jobs, rather than losing them at more than a half million a month."

Let's face it - they were wrong. And Republicans said they'd be wrong, and voted en masse in the Congress against the bill. For a stimulus to be effective, it has to be targeted, temporary and actually stimulative. President Obama and the Democrats put forth no such bill, and the results speak for themselves.

We're now four months later, and the same Democrats who brought you the non-stimulus bill, that hasn't stimulated anything except the deficit and national debt by any measurable standard, are not only trying to say, 'trust us' again with the cap and tax and tax and tax bill, but trust us with taking over the entire country's health care system.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice and thrice, shame on me. Call your Senators. The dollars proposed are too massive to cede to a group of people who just went to the well and came up rocks. 202-224-3121. It doesn't matter whether they're Democrat or Republican. Just say no.

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Wednesday, July 01, 2009

"LKM" --The Measure Of Celebrity

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 8:46 PM

"LKM" stands for Larry King Minutes --the number of broadcast minutes that Larry King would devote to your death if it occurred today. Michael Jackson has set a very high standard, swamping all other coverage from Larry's show and triggering hours and hours of extra programming from Larry.

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Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Steven Pressfield's "Tribalism" Videos

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 6:39 PM

Steven Pressfield has written some of my favorite novels --Gates of Fires, The Tides of War and Killing Rommel.

Now Pressfield has produced a series of op-ed videos, available at this website. He's my guest today and will be back next Wednesday during fiction week.