By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 20th at 05:30 PM  | 

“U.S. Ponders Ways to Use Force on Iran” “Here’s How the U.S. Could Invade Iran” “U.S. Said Set to Attack Iran” “Does [the U.S. President] Plan to Invade Iran?” “Saudis Deny U.S. Planned to Attack Iranian Oilfields” “U.S. May Attack Iran Missiles: White House Mulls Ways to Protect Gulf” “[U.S.] Navy Denies Plan to Attack Iranian Ships in Persian Gulf” “U.S., Allies Setting Stage to | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 13th at 12:01 AM  | 

TEN YEARS HAVE passed since terrorists hijacked airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  In that period, America has fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, carried out hundreds armed drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen (among other locations), and conducted covert operations around the world, all in the name of what President George W.  Bush termed the “Global War on | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 11th at 09:00 PM  | 

Despite strident opposition from supporters who maintain that Rick Santorum is a “true conservative” in the mold of – you guessed it – Ronald Reagan, the already huge mountain of evidence that he is, at heart, a ‘big-government conservative’ continues to grow. As Erick noted previously, in 2008 Santorum said: This whole idea of personal autonomy, well I don’t think most conservatives hold that point | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 11th at 12:01 AM  | 

WHAT ROLE DO culture myths – the stories civilizations tell about the beginning of law, medicine, arts and sciences, and civilization itself – have in defining a group’s legitimacy within society? In Founding Gods, Inventing Nations: Conquest and Culture Myths from Antiquity to Islam, Will McCants, a Middle East expert at CNA’s Center for Strategic Students and adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University, addresses this issue with | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 10th at 02:30 PM  | 

The U.S. State Department takes a lot of heat from us on the right, most of which is well-deserved. However, when someone within America’s diplomatic apparatus does something that’s simply awesome, it’s important that we give them credit. The awesomeness in this case is courtesy of the American Embassy in Beijing, which used twitter to strong-arm the Chinese government into releasing accurate data on Beijing | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 9th at 04:00 PM  | 

Let me go ahead and stipulate that Mitt Romney has presidential height and hair, and appears to have presidential composure in debates and interviews (at least, when not being mauled by the Great Grizzly of Interviewers, the always fearsome Bret Baier). He also has a history of business success and has the longest private sector career of any participant in the GOP primary – though | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 5th at 03:00 PM  | 

President Obama, Secretary of Defense Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dempsey gave a brief press conference this morning on America’s new defense strategy, crafted in the face of massive national debt and looming budget crises (actually, it would be more accurate to say that the latter two gave a press conference; the president gave a statement, and then departed without | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 3rd at 05:30 PM  | 

2011 may not have been the Year of the Infographic, but it was certainly a year that saw a significant increase in the proliferation of pint-sized but powerful visual aids, both on the web and in print. However, though infographics can convey a wealth of information in a compact, creative, and engaging format, the usual principle of caveat emptor applies. Yes, infographics can convey information | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  December 29th at 11:30 AM  | 

The Fraser Institute has released their latest report on charitable giving in the U.S. and Canada, and once again North America’s leaders in charitable donations from the Rio Grande to the Arctic Circle reside overwhelmingly in red states. This has been the case for some time, and the reason for it almost certainly comes down to a difference in philosophy regarding charity and the role | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  October 25th at 05:00 PM  | 

“I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do. I support what they do.” This quote, from Massachusetts Democratic senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren, can be found in this otherwise unremarkable (and poorly written) article by Daily Beast writer Samuel Jacobs. It’s nice, in a way, that the true creator of the Occupy Wall Street movement has stepped forward to announce herself; after all, | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  October 19th at 02:00 PM  | 

UPDATE: Jim Geraghty crunches some numbers in this post on the topic. Via Adam Bitely, that direct quote can be seen in the video below: For context, here’s Sen. Reid’s (D-NV) statement from the Senate floor today: “The massive layoffs we’ve had in America today-of course they’re rooted in the last administration-and it’s very clear that private sector jobs are doing just fine. It’s the | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  October 18th at 07:45 PM  | 

Herman Cain is taking a beating – at least judging by my email inbox – over a line he uttered in the interview below with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer earlier today: The part that folks are taking serious issue with takes place between 0:48 and 1:09, and the transcript is as follows: BLITZER: Imagine if you were President – we’re almost out of time – uh, | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  October 12th at 03:00 PM  | 

Five years, three months, two weeks, and three days ago, Hamas militants from Gaza tunneled under the sequestered Strip’s border with Israel and popped up near the Kerem Hashalom crossing, where they attacked an Israeli tank, killing two crewmembers and injuring five. The militants grabbed Corporal Gilad Schalit from the tank, and escaped back into the Gaza Strip with him. He had been a captive | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  August 31st at 06:00 PM  | 

AT A TIME when so many books on politics, religion, and world events are little more than puffed-up pamphlets which are simultaneously high on hyper-partisanship and low on facts, J. M. Berger‘s Jihad Joe, a treatment of the radicalization and actions of American Muslims who have dedicated themselves to “violent jihad” (the author’s chosen term), is a breath of fresh – and troubling – air.  | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  August 26th at 04:00 PM  | 

The far-left Center for American Progress (CAP) today released a report on the “Islamophobia network” it claims is responsible for the “genesis of anti-Muslim propaganda” in America, which coincidentally began, the report claims, ten years ago (“[S]even foundations over the past decade have helped fan the flames of anti-Muslim hate in America,” writes Faiz Shakir at the CAP’s ThinkProgress blog). It’s both typically ironic and | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  August 22nd at 07:00 PM  | 

This weekend brought good news for those who have lived under the oppressive regime of Moammar Qaddafi for all or part of his 42 year reign of terror, as the dress-wearing perma-Colonel and his regime have been largely overthrown after a months-long civil war.   As has been noted across the international affairs-sphere over the course of the last 24 hours, the toppling of Qaddafi’s | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  August 7th at 07:21 PM  | 

Bow your heads… This weekend saw the deadliest day in the almost ten years of America’s war in Afghanistan, as well as the deadliest day in the history of the U.S. Navy’s Special Warfare community, when an Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter and crew carrying Navy SEALs and direct support personnel, Air Force combat controllers and pararescuemen, Afghan commandos and an interpreter went down in Wardak | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  August 1st at 11:00 AM  | 

Note: This is an updated version of my original post on Naser Abdo and the Fort Hood terrorist plot which was prevented last week. The updates have been made in-text due to an increase in the amount of information available on the case. A second terrorist attack on soldiers stationed at Fort Hood, Texas in under two years was discovered last week, and its plotter, | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  July 29th at 03:00 PM  | 

The headline of the day is that a second terrorist attack on Fort Hood, Texas in under two years was discovered this week, and its plotter, Private First Class Nasser Jason Abdo, arrested before the attack could be carried out.  The latter fact, of course, differentiates this plot from the successful attack carried out by Major Nidal Hasan in November 2009, when the Army officer | Read More »

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  June 23rd at 01:52 PM  | 

As the two houses of Congress debate resolutions that run the gamut from authorizing and limiting President Obama’s Libya action to defunding the Libya war altogether, and as the NATO begins to complement its ineffectiveness with internal discord, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is questioning her former legislative colleagues’ patriotism. “Who’s side are you on?” she demanded today, lashing out at Congress while on an | Read More »