John Bolton has a piece in the WSJ entitled Let’s Take Bureaucracy Out of Intelligence. My initial reaction is that taking the bureaucracy out of a governmental is impossible (one might as well say that we need to take the government out of government).  Government is bureaucracy (and really, any large organization as readers in corporate America can attest—or anyone who has had to deal with an...

That’s a play on the old joke, “A nuclear bomb could ruin your whole day.” Or, put differently, not only is Al Qaeda not made up of stupid people, but apparently they’re a lot smarter than our political class is:

Controversial filmmaker Oliver Stone has a new mission: in his upcoming Showtime series “Secret History” he wants to put 20th century German dictator and Nazi mass murderer Adolf Hitler “in context.” Director Oliver Stone’s upcoming Showtime documentary miniseries “Secret History of America” promises to put mass murderers such as Stalin and Hitler “in context.” “Stalin,...

And that seems entirely reasonable to me:

James Cameron’s film Avatar is proving to be a kind of global Rorschach test. Here are two articles that show the way people see a reflection of their own circumstances in the film, which is being lauded as a revolution in cinema. From Belgium, De Standaard columnist Oscar van den Boogaard writes about his extraordinary experience seeing Avatar, and why the film is a landmark in modern history: The world...

Yesterday I had some fun wearing one of only several conservative stripes in my closet and managed to tweak some of my more liberal friends. I suggested foreign terrorists not be tried in our federal courts. I stand by what I wrote. My brief was these cases be tried by military tribunals. We’ve done it before. The Bush administration botched the process badly before and after the combatant prisoners reached...

If there really is a “war,” why are all the images of it defensive and reactive, from the White House’s talking heads this week to yesterday’s arraignment of a young man in a T-shirt looking in the artists’ sketches like a teenager caught swiping fruit? As two generations of Cheneys fault Barack Obama for not being Jack Bauer of 24, real questions persist about how to fight an aggressive...

I’d hate to have to work at the TSA these days. A thankless job on the best of days and responsible for horrific disaster when you fail. Some of their rules make sense, while others are just plain silly. We take a bit of a more light hearted look at the TSA today in my latest column at Pajamas Media. Please enjoy and share you own suggestions here as to how they could do things better.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech yesterday to commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the first International Conference on Population and Development. That gathering included a total of thousands of delegates from 179 countries. You can watch the entire presentation here on CSPAN-2 (and it includes remarks by the first ever Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer...

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani told George Stephanopoulos this morning on Good Morning, America, that “We had no domestic attacks under Bush” — a statement that, obviously, is flat-out false. Stephanopoulos apparently (I didn’t see the show, personally) did not challenge Giuliani on this point on the air, so he does so now in a post on his political blog, George’s Bottom...

The turning point for me was earlier this week when President Obama said we are at war with al-Qaeda. Then why try foreign enemy combatants in our federal courts? Why give them the rights enjoyed by U.S. citizens? Why read them our Miranda rights so they can lawyer up? Why are we as a nation so preoccupied with our true values that we bestow them to people who never had them where they came from and want to...

Who’s in charge?: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a Russian ski resort near Sochi, Southern Russia, Jan. 3. How much influence does Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wield over foreign affairs almost two years from stepping down as Russian president? According to this article from Russia’s pro-opposition Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, Putin regularly steps on President...

He’s forgetting little things…

Quelling public panic is part of a President’s job description, but yesterday’s homeland security dog-and-pony show, while necessary, was not Barack Obama’s finest hour. He offered classic bromides–”The buck stops here” and “connecting the dots,” along with the newest, “systemic failure”–followed by a laundry list of proposed bureaucratic “improvements”...

Now that Al Qeada has moved airport security into a new era, where passengers will be nervously eyeing the person seated besides them to see if the person in their neighboring seat is scratching his or her crotch, will the terrorist organization move to the next “logical” murder-source step? Think it about it…it makes sense. And The New Republic’s Senior Editor Michael Crowley raises...

True, there’s no silver bullet for terrorists to be closed off ever and always, Mr. President. True, there’s no foolproof method of surveillance, even though many of us feel strength and honor in those who run security for our government. But in the systems you oversee, there are issues you barely covered or omitted entirely today in your speech on tightening down on terrorists. The following core...

For those who missed the President’s address live, the White House has posted a copy of the remarks as written. The NYT Caucus blog reports that the president’s remarks were delayed twice this afternoon because “declassifying the security review took far longer than expected.” Patrick at Political Byline chimes in: “I look forward to seeing what the Government does. Speeches...

Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

For many months I have been writing in support of publicly honoring our fallen heroes when they touch American soil at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware—of course, with the approval of the family of each hero. On February 26, 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced a policy consistent with what we presently have at Arlington National Cemetery which allows the family to decide whether to allow...

Aislin, The Montreal Gazette This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Cam Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

After nearly 30 years of on and off coolness, the Obama administration is resetting relations with the United Nations because no other organization offers access to dialogue with so many countries. Among other things, Barack Obama wants to be remembered as the President willing to talk sincerely to America’s enemies before imposing sanctions or picking up the gun. In 2010, the UN could be a useful facilitator...

President Barack Obama emerged from a major huddle with officials on national security, airline security and the failed Christmas day underwear bomber attack to issue a stern statement that didn’t mince words. He said there had been enough info behind the scenes on the attempted Christmas Day attack to stop it. The bottom line, he said, is that the system “failed…to connect the dots”...

UPDATED: Darleen Click at Protein Wisdom simultaneously links to this post, and embraces her inner sixth-grader. Click and laugh. The right is all over this story about Michael Yon being handcuffed and questioned at the Seattle airport. For them, this is an open-and-shut case of overzealous airport security hassling an obviously harmless American citizen. Now, I’m not saying that Yon needed to be arrested,...

A Continental flight attendant booted comedian Joan Rivers off a flight from Costa Rica because the agent found her passport suspicious. The story is surprising for two reasons: (1)She’s Joan Rivers and so far there have not been many elderly female Jewish terrorists blowing up airplanes (but whatever). (2)Stopped due to her PASSPORT? It would have been understandable if the news story was that an agent...