Back on Memorial Day we talked about one of the more famous allied operations during World War 2 which took place during the relief of Bastogne in France. Today marks the anniversary of the end of another major engagement, this one in Italy. Known as Operation Shingle, later combined with Operation Diadem, it was first envisioned by Winston Churchill and somewhat reluctantly embraced by the Americans as a way to break into the Italian mainland and drive the Germans out of Rome and back to the north....

Here’s an interesting topic for us to kick around. Today, during the second half of The Ed Morrissey Show, Ed will be interviewing Dr. Sally Satel of the American Enterprise Institute and they will discuss the ethics and potential of “a compensation system for live kidney donors.” Yep… you read that correctly. We’re talking about allowing people to legally sell their kidneys to those in need of a transplant. You can tune in at the link (and do a quick, free registration...

I was pointed to this story from Minnesota Majority by Hot Air and Yid with Lid. Normally one only finds stories of miraculous resurrection either in Easter services or the South Side of Chicago, but apparently the phenomenon has spread to the frozen wastelands of Minnesota. Today, Minnesota Majority announced the discovery of individuals who were deceased prior to November 4, 2008, yet have voter history records on the secretary of state’s files that indicate they voted in the 2008 General Election. Minnesota...

I watched the entirety of President Obama’s speech this morning, and I have to say I was impressed. I was a critic of our nation’s foreign policy under the Bush administration for nearly the entire two terms and I’ve been waiting to see a more even handed, neutral approach to matters in that part of the world, as well as a clear definition of our wars and America’s attitude toward the religion of Islam. Today, while not completely to my tastes, we got most of that. The speech...

While my conservative friends continue to rail against the idea, it does indeed feel like we’re seeing a re-run of the same bad movie we watched during the 90s. Why is it that whenever a Democrat is in the White House it seems like the crazies come out of the woodwork? This is the subject of my column at Pajamas Media this week, and I invite you to read and comment. In addition, though, I’ll share one item which doesn’t appear in the column. Our family had some personal experience...

This is one subject which, even more than its important value in analyzing our cultural and political shift, should remind the readers of TMV exactly how much your authors here lay it all on the line for you. We provide live reporting of breaking events when possible, varied analysis from the full spectrum of opinions, and as with today’s column, we risk exposing ourselves to all manner of hazards and report back here so you won’t have to. In keeping with this tradition, last night I...

The news this past week has simply been too dark and depressing for words, so this morning let us take a moment out for something lighter. I’m not only a film buff when it comes to the big studio offerings from Hollywood (both past and present) but I’ve also developed an affinity for independent films. (or “indies”) That’s why I’m very much looking forward to the month of June when, every Tuesday at 4 pm eastern time, I will be joining author and film critic Betty...

The President may have described it as keeping a campaign promise, but should he have taken the First Lady out for dinner and a show on Broadway in the Big Apple last night? Or is this one promise that needed to be broken and just hope that Michelle would still vote for him in 2012 anyway? The president and first lady jetted to a date in New York late Saturday afternoon, aides and media in tow. After dining a little more than two hours at Blue Hill, a West Village restaurant touted by New York magazine...

I believe that I’ve let enough time slip by for everyone to digest the story, but now I’ll need to ask for some help here. The readers of this site provide a more diverse set of opinions than virtually any other political blog I visit, so perhaps this is the only place where a cogent explanation might be found. And please keep in mind that I pose this question coming from a position of having repeatedly said that Judge Sotomayor meets all the qualifications for a spot on the Supreme Court,...

As Holly already pointed out, President Obama will go before the nation this morning and officially nominate Sonia Sotomayor from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, to the United States Supreme Court. Assuming she is seated, this would make Justice Sotomayor the first Hispanic justice and only the third woman to take one of these seats. It looks to me as if Obama has taken a quite predictable path and is openly laying a bear trap in front of the Republican Party which they may not be able to...

If you plan on taking a moment at 3 pm local time today to reflect on the veterans who have sacrificed for our nation, you probably already know of some service members who have fought to protect our country. But in case you don’t, or if you would like another one, I’ll provide you with a brief story of a hero… my father, Roger. He’s been dead for more than a quarter of a century now, but on Memorial Day it’s worth taking a moment to recall him. In 1943, Roger was going...

I think I’ve found the book I’ll be picking up for my summer vacation to the mountains. Let’s start with an introductory handshake from this NY Times article based on the upcoming book. When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an assumption that they had no other options. We idealize them as the salt of the earth and emphasize the sacrifice for others their work may entail. Such sacrifice does indeed occur — the hazards faced...

For some interesting weekend / holiday reading, I would direct you to this editorial from Tallahassee, Florida, which debates the merits of having the RNC throw its backing so quickly to Charlie Crist in his upcoming bid for a Senate seat. We can dispense with my opinion on the subject fairly quickly here: I think primary races are always good. Sometimes it can be difficult to man up and stick to that policy, such as during last year’s Democratic presidential primary. Yes, it was too much of...

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one, because I’d begun to worry that the 2 to 3 Knob Creek to Folgers breakfast mixture was taking an early toll on me. Apparently it was not just my imagination, and as Steve Benen points out, Liz Cheney has been on virtually every television channel in the nation twenty-four hours per day for the last two weeks. I know that I personally caught her on CNN, Fox, ABC and MSNBC myself. And, as Benen points out, her visit to Morning Joe amounted to more than...

I wasn’t expecting it until the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012, so you can imagine my surprise when all hope was lost on Memorial Day weekend of 2009. At first I thought that all hope was lost because of a horrible experience in telemarketing gone wrong with The Queen and Her Family. In a post titled, simply enough, “Phone Sex” we learn of a young, teenage telemarketer who called the Queen’s home, obviously from a prepared list of target donors, and found herself unable...

As we head into a holiday weekend, I gird my loins for an online debate over the place of moderates like Colin Powell in the GOP. This takes place starting this morning, as my latest column at Pajamas Media is paired up head-to-head with Melissa Clouthier’s explanation of why the former Secretary of State should be ridden out of town on a rail. The short version should be that the Rockefeller Republicans of the Northeast would like a word with Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and the “real”...

I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t see this one coming. Apparently some of the Powers That Be are getting on board with the POTUS and looking down the line toward the future of the automotive industry in terms of cutting down the carbon emissions and boosting the fuel usage standards. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers provides the details. Washington, DC – On Tuesday, May 19, automakers will join with President Obama, federal agencies, governors and environmental leaders to...

The cat is not only out of the bag, but well into the next county by now. Originally exposed by thejoshuablog at TPM Cafe, it was obvious that Maureen Dowd, in her Sunday column, lifted some of Josh Marshall’s prose from Talking Points Memo. To her credit, and that of her taskmasters at the Gray Lady, she quickly owned up to the “error” and issued a correction in the online version of the column. But what sort of an apology did we get? New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, in an...

David Weigel at the Washington Independent takes a look back in anguish at the day Larry Johnson’s few remaining shreds of credibility died. It was one year ago, on May 16, 2008, when Larry claimed definitive knowledge of a video tape of first lady Michelle Obama ranting about white people and yelling “whitey.” This explosive video, we were assured, was about to be released to the public, thereby sinking any chances Barack Obama had of seizing the Democratic nomination from Hillary...

The subject of my Pajama’s Media column this week deals with how Sir Isaac Newton would craft his basic laws if he had chosen to study politics rather than mathematics. Here’s number three: ON matters of warfare in the political arena, when seeking equal footing for the battle, each issue-based action must be balanced by an equal and opposite reaction. Do all political issues elicit an “equal and opposite” reaction from potential opponents? Or do traditionally “social...

Just a quick hit on this one, since I’m technically on blogging hiatus for a week or two. I’ve watched the Nancy Pelosi, “The CIA Lied to Me” story unfold for some time now, and one thing has become clear. The Speaker has been caught red-handed in a “pants on fire” situation and no amount of spin in the world is going to change this. Accusing the CIA of lying took what was arguably just a garden variety case of political mendacity and turned it into a national...

With all of the brouhaha over the first 100 days of the Obama administration, some sympathy should be shown for the paltry amount of fanfare given for Michael Steele’s 100 day anniversary of leading the GOP. Thanks to the folks at Think Progress, there is a tidy video compilation available which can bring you up to date. Enjoy.

There is some huffing and puffing going on out in Oklahoma this month, where Republicans in the legislature have decided to issue a slap in the face to their Democratic Party oppressors by raising the specter of state sovereignty and the tenth amendment. HCR 1028, which, if passed, would be sent to Democratic President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress, would not jeopardize federal funds but would tell Congress to “get back into their proper constitutional role.” The resolution...

We’ve been around this particular block too many times for me to get my hopes up, but the Washington Times is claiming a scoop, saying that President Obama may be ready to bring discussions of the secret everyone already knows to light. President Obama’s efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel’s nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear...

A lot of you out there have finally and officially lost your minds. I can’t help you any more. I know that now, and I’m just going to have to accept it. Strangely enough, I had to learn this lesson at the alter of Carrie Prejean, first runner up in this year’s Ms. USA pageant. During her failed bid for the crown, the bejeweled baton and the flowers (or whatever it is they get at these things) she grabbed her fifteen minutes of fame by answering a question from Perez Hilton on gay...