Mitt Romney is working hard to position himself as the “conservative GOP presidential hopeful”, reports the Examiner. He is already attacking Rudi Giuliani and, especially, John McCain for not being – in his eyes – conservative enough. The issue – of course – gay marriage: Romney was less charitable to McCain, who on Sunday told ABC News: “I believe that the issue of gay marriage should be decided by the states.â€? McCain also said, “I believe that...

Bush 41 had an incredibly difficult time in Abu Dhabi. Former President George H.W. Bush took on Arab critics of his son Tuesday during a testy exchange at a leadership conference in the capital of this U.S. ally. “My son is an honest man,” Bush told members of the audience harshly criticized the current U.S. leader’s foreign policy. More: A college student told Bush his belief that U.S. wars were aimed at opening markets for American companies and said globalization was contrived...

My University: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG) CNN has an interesting article up – at least for me, being a student myself at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen – about the fear of the “Americanization of higher education” in Europe: German universities are trying to charge tuition. Paris schools are considering selection instead of open admission. Dutch colleges are pushing students to finish faster. Greece wants to lift a ban on private universities. Change is rattling Europe’s...

John Bolton rightfully criticized the United Nations for its anti-Israel bias. From Powerline: Bolton was furious over the adoption by the General Assembly of a resolution which said the assembly regretted the deaths of 19 civilians in an attack by the Israeli military in the town of Beit Hanoun last week. Despite the resolution being significantly watered down at the behest of the United States, and being passing by 156 votes to seven, Bolton launched a blistering attack on the UN, and many of...

More trouble for Bush: The weekend after the statue of Saddam Hussein fell, Kenneth Adelman and a couple of other promoters of the Iraq war gathered at Vice President Cheney’s residence to celebrate. The invasion had been the “cakewalk” Adelman predicted. Cheney and his guests raised their glasses, toasting President Bush and victory. “It was a euphoric moment,” Adelman recalled. Forty-three months later, the cakewalk looks more like a death march, and Adelman has broken...

Jules Crittenden published a post at his own blog today, relating to a column he wrote for today’s Boston Herald: The talk of exit strategies for Iraq has me wondering. Who was the last man to die for what John Kerry called a mistake? Was it that American soldier whose name is the last name on the last panel of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.? Was it a soldier in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, whichever true believer didn’t strip off his uniform and desert in the end?...

Crooks and Liars reports that Laura Ingraham might be in serious trouble: Now this would be just a little justice. via email: Pat Leahy at a hearing on voter fraud all but demanded that the Justice Department investigate and even prosecute Laura Ingraham for her election-day call to her listeners to jam the phone lines Democrats set up for reporting voter machine problems and the like. It’s a dirty trick, obviously, but prosecute her for it? That might be exaggerating it just a little bit,...

Pelosi writes for the Huffington Post that she is more committed than ever to bringing the war in Iraq to and end. This morning, I visited our brave men and women at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center. It is a place of prayers, of honor, of respect, and reflection. And I left there more committed than ever to bringing the war to an end. I told my colleagues yesterday that the biggest ethical issue facing our country for the past three and a half years is the war in Iraq. This unnecessary pre-emptive...

The BBC reports that the Dutch government supports a plan by Dutch immigration and integration Minister Rita Verdonk to ban the burqa from all public spaces. The burqa, a full body covering that also obscures the face, would be banned by law in the street, and in trains, schools, buses and the law courts. The cabinet said burqas disturb public order, citizens and safety. The decision comes days ahead of elections which the ruling centre-right coalition is expected to win. Immigration Minister...

Conservatives seem to be more generous than liberals: Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is about to become the darling of the religious right in America — and it’s making him nervous. The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in the liberal arts, Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income. In the book, he cites extensive...

As usual, I have to do some research for a project for my study (as you all know I switched from law school to American Studies). This time – however – I do not have to write an essay: I have to hold a presentation. Subject: the social (security) system in the US. Finding data etc. is not that difficult, but I like giving the perspective of Americans on subjects like this as well. So I am wondering what you all think of your social security system, should it be improved, if so how?...

It seems that Senator John McCain (mostly) understands why the GOP suffered a tremendous loss. He said ‘that Republicans had lost the midterm elections because “we abandoned our principlesâ€? on fiscal policy and government restraint, inviting a backlash from Americans over what they saw as widespread hypocrisy.’ “Hypocrisy, my friends, is the most obvious of political sins — and the people will punish it,â€? said Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona. “We...

Hot Air explains how readers can support conservative blogs: People occasionally e-mail us asking for a PayPal button so that they can donate. That’s kind of them, but there are other ways to help the site that don’t require quite so much largesse. For one thing, you can buy stuff at the HA store and get something for your money in return. Alternatively, what you can do is sign up at Digg and start putting the “Digg It� button on your favorite conservative blogs to use....

Amir Taheri writes for the New York Post that Islamists around the world celebrate the outcome of the US elections. Calling the election “the beginning of the end for Bush,” Ayatollah Imami Kashani told a Friday congregation in Tehran that the Americans were learning the same lesson that last summer’s war in Lebanon taught the Israelis. Tehran decision-makers believe that the Democrats’ victory will lift the pressure off the Islamic Republic with regard to its nuclear program....

Strangely, the conservative policies of the Dutch government coalition are beginning to pay off. For years and years the poverty level rose. Now, however, they are once again decreasing. The CDA and VVD had to clean up a lot of the mess left by the coalitions in the 1990′s (and of course from before that decade). Reforms like that always increase the povery rate for a limited amount of time, but if all goes well – as planned – that situation will improve after a couple of years....

Two questions: 1- Why didn’t he just show his ID card? 2- What the heck was that police officer thinking? It was beyond grotesque,” said UCLA graduate David Remesnitsky of Los Angeles, who witnessed the incident. “By the end they took him over the stairs, lifted him up and Tasered him on his rear end. It seemed like it was inappropriately placed. The Tasering was so unnecessary and they just kept doing it.” Campus police confirmed that Tabatabainejad was stunned “multiple”...

What do facts have to do, have to do with it? Don’t you just hate them? Those annoying things called ‘details’ I mean.

The leaders of the left. From left to right: Femke Halsema (GroenLinks), Jan Marijnissen (SP) and Wouter Bos (PvdA PvdA leader Wouter Bos received more and more criticism for being too friendly towards the CDA. Before the campaign for the (November 22) elections began it was quite clear that the PvdA hoped to form a coalition with the CDA: he enforced that idea during the first weeks of the campaign. Now with only one week left to go, Bos listens to those who criticized this approach and says that...

Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman died earlier today. CNNmoney points out that he “helped interpret and popularize modern free-market economics that came to dominate much of U.S. public policy in the second half of the 20th century. Free-market economic theories, which included tight fiscal discipline and deregulation of markets, grew influential in the United States after Ronald Reagan became president in the United States. Friedman was regarded as the leader of the Chicago School of monetary...

Mitt Romney has sent a strong signal to everyone by hiring “Alex Castellanos, a veteran of presidential campaigns known for his tough ads against Democratic candidates.” Alex is one of two or three people in the country who you don’t run a presidential campaign without,” said Dan Schnur, who was communication director for Senator John McCain of Arizona during McCain’s run for president in 2000. Schnur added, “You don’t hire Alex Castellanos unless you’re...

Pelosi suffers first political defeat since this month’s elections I reported a few days ago, that Nancy Pelosi wanted Murtha to become House majority leader. Sadly for her, she lost that particular battle: House Democrats picked Rep. Steny Hoyer to be House majority leader on Thursday, spurning Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s handpicked choice moments after unanimously backing her election as speaker when Congress convenes in January. A Marylander and 25-year veteran of Congress, Hoyer defeated...

As you all might have noticed, I am quite addicted to reading. As such I try to read two or three ‘extra’ books per week (extra as in not required reading material for my study). Anyway, I am wondering whether you all have any suggestions for good and interesting books (for me to read): works of fiction, (auto)biographies, poetry, books about / related to politics… all suggestions are welcome. Have you read a good book (recently)? Want to read a review on it here at TMV? If so,...

Kinda.

The Godmother of the Democratic party? It seems that Nancy Pelosi calls the shots: House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will ensure that Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) wins his race for majority leader, a key Murtha ally said Monday night. “She will ensure that they [the Murtha camp] win. This is hard-ball politics,” said Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), a longtime Murtha supporter. “We are entering an era where when the Speaker instructs you what to do, you do it.” [...] Pelosi...

Two interesting articles about Iran: Traces of highly enriched uranium found in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and, according to the Telegraph Iran is working on taking over Al Qaeda. From the first article I link to above: International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday. The report, prepared for next week’s meeting of the 35-nation...