“Bush Administration” on The Daily Caller

Friday, Michael Gerson became the latest former Bush operative to escalate the post-election war on the Tea Party and Sarah Palin when he published a Washington Post column entitled “The GOP’s Sarah Palin Problem.”  In his column, Gerson mangles the facts terribly, even blaming Palin and Senator Jim DeMint for Sharron Angle’s ill-fated nomination in spite of the fact that neither endorsed Angle until after she won the nomination.  Doug Brady dismantled the rest of Gerson’s specious argument at Conservatives4Palin.  But most ironic was his closing statement that “the leading figure of the Tea Party movement seems increasingly indifferent to Republican fortunes and increasingly tolerant of disturbing extremism.” (more)

Interview with “Fair Game” director Doug Liman (more)

It is an equation that is as certain as two plus two equals four: Sean Penn + Iraq War + Hollywood movie = something less than the truth. (more)

Willie Sutton was one of the most prolific, and famous, bank robbers in history. When asked why he robbed banks, Sutton is credited with the famous response, “Because that’s where the money is.” It makes perfect sense: if you’re after something, you go to where you have the best chance of getting it. The same applies to government — if you want to beat an industry, you don’t rail against them in the opinion pages of the New York Times, you don’t sue them continuously in the courts, you join the government in a capacity that gives you control over them and regulate them until they become what you need them to be in order to advance your agenda. It’s the 21st-century version of “heads I win, tails you lose,” and it’s happening right now in the Obama administration. (more)

Do yourself a favor and don’t even bother going to the movies this November. Read more about why pretty much every movie coming out this month will suck below. (more)

Drama. Starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. Directed by Doug Liman. (PG-13. 108 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.) (more)

Speaking at packed and partly-packed venues, President Obama warns voters about “going back to the failed policies of the past decade.” Which policies might those be? Bailouts? Ineffective stimulus packages? Massive government spending? It’d be impossible to go back to those policies because we’ve never left them. (more)

During the darkest days of al-Qaeda/Baathist terror and sectarian violence in Iraq in 2006-2007, the American and European media were replete with predictions that the country was sliding into a full-fledged civil war or indeed had already done so. Supposedly scientific studies, like the 2006 Lancet study estimating that some 650,000 Iraqis had died as a consequence of the American-led intervention, fueled such speculation and even gave rise to accusations that the Bush administration and the American military were somehow responsible, whether directly or indirectly, for “genocide.” (more)

With Republicans poised to gain seats in Congress on Election Day, the issue of government spending is set to rocket to the top of the agenda in Washington – along with fresh promises to rein in the nation’s record budget deficit. (more)

Unemployment remains high, with Washington politicians clamoring for job creation.  China is ever more confident, challenging the U.S. economically and politically.  The People’s Republic of China (PRC) even has displaced America as the number one trading partner of such leading East Asian states as South Korea. (more)

When President Obama appointed Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state, it was rightly viewed as a masterful stroke of Machiavellian politicking; a modern day demonstration of the philosopher’s famous creed: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. (more)

To understand the nation’s anti-incumbency, look no further than the economy’s anti-recovery, which appears to be reversing former House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s dictum that all politics is local.  Anti-incumbency is threatening to make all politics national. (more)

Basic government spending rose by 9 percent in fiscal 2010, driving the country to a $1.291 trillion deficit down $125 billion from 2009, but still the second-largest hole on record, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday. (more)

Is Islam a religion of peace? Last night, Christopher Hitchens took on Tariq Ramadan in a spirited debate at 92nd Street Y on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, 110 blocks north of the proposed mosque in Lower Manhattan that helped turned the summer of 2010 into an angry national discussion on that very topic. (more)

It has been six months since the Democrats blatantly defied the will of the American people, turning a deaf ear to the overwhelming opposition to their $2.6 trillion overhaul of our health care system.  For years, health reform dominated the national debate, and across the spectrum, improvements are necessary.  Our current system leaves some individuals with limited or no access to affordable care and leaves employers with concerns over the spiraling costs of providing health coverage to their employees. (more)

Ask Americans about the pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers along the Mexican border and brace yourself for a torrent of opinion.  Some will say they’re necessary; others will say they’re ugly.  Some will say they’re an effort to stem massive law breaking; others will say they’re symbols of an immigration system in collapse. (more)

“Fear God (more)

The recent announcement that Larry Summers will be departing as head of President Obama’s National Economic Council (NEC) has prompted rampant speculation about what this will mean for future White House economic policy and process direction. (more)

The Obama administration is set to lower its estimate of the cost of the troubled asset relief programme when it celebrates the end of the bail-out effort next week, senior administration officials say. (more)

Colombia has been intermittently on and off the Obama administration’s agenda since it took office in 2009. When Hillary Clinton delivered her foreign policy address at the Council on Foreign Relations last week, she remarked that Mexico is “looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago.” Shortly thereafter, President Obama rebuked the comparison in an LA-based Spanish newspaper. The turnaround is characteristic of Washington’s unjustified ambivalence towards one of our greatest and most promising Latin American allies. (more)