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National Review has an obit for Kurt Waldheim who was perfect for the United Nations.
Kurt Waldheim was one of the most despicable — and most despised — public figures in the West since 1945. His whole career was an exercise in craft and evasion. As secretary general of the United Nations from 1972 to 1982, he helped to put in place the standard approach of that body, which is above all to blame the United States for the world’s ills, and therefore to obstruct its foreign policy. He and the Soviet Union, needless to say, were mutually supportive in that critical stage of the Cold War. Under him too, the U.N. discovered that anti-Israeli agitation served to broaden the attack on the United States. In 1975, he did nothing to oppose the resolution that “Zionism is racism.†The following year, the Israelis rescued passengers on an aircraft hijacked to Entebbe, in Uganda. For Waldheim, this famous blow for freedom was “a serious violation of the national sovereignty of a United Nations member state.†Leaving office, he purloined a large amount of silver that he himself had commissioned for the U.N. Now that he has died at the age of 88, these stolen goods must form part of his estate. The shamelessness is characteristic. …
John Bolton, interviewed by the Jerusalem Post says he is very worried about Israel.
Gabriel Schoenfeld gives us two items. First he posts on bluffing as foolish strategy. Next he draws a line from Tenet’s memoirs to Leahy’s recent subpoena.
Is Tenet simply passing the buck by blaming Congress? I don’t think so, but since he does a lot of other buck-passing in his buck-passing memoir (see my analysis of it here), I can’t be sure. But Tenet has no particular reason to cover his tracks in this instance. For once, he had helped put in place an effective program.
If senior members of Congress of both parties rejected the idea of congressional action to amend FISA, the Judiciary Committee’s grandstanding now on this critical matter of national defense is even more disgraceful than it already appears.
Michael Barone with some quick analysis of the immigration vote today.
One other factor is important. The seats of eight of the 18 switchers are up in 2008: Coleman, Collins, Domenici, Harkin, McConnell, Pryor, Stevens, Warner. That leaves the Senate sharply split between those whose seats are up in 2008 and those whose seats are up in 2010 or 2012. The 2008 senators voted 24 to 9 against cloture, with Johnson not voting. The 2010 and 2012 senators voted 37 to 29 for cloture. That’s a pretty stark difference.
Shorts from National Review.
Paul Jacobs in Townhall picks up the two Americas theme. His is reminiscent of Michael Barone’s Hard and Soft America.
Could Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards actually be right about something? Not where to go to get a haircut, mind you, I mean about there being two Americas.
There is the vibrant America . . . and the stagnant one.
There is the America of ever-increasing wealth, innovation, creativity, of a dynamic economy, new jobs, new products and services. Choices galore. Information overload. The abundant work product of freedom.
And there is the politician’s America: The regulated America, the subsidized America, the earmarked America. The failing America. …
WSJ looks at gov run health care.
… Canadian doctors, once quiet on the issue of private health care, elected Brian Day as president of their national association. Dr. Day is a leading critic of Canadian medicare; he opened a private surgery hospital and then challenged the government to shut it down. “This is a country,” Dr. Day said by way of explanation, “in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two to three years.”
Market reforms are catching on in Britain, too. For six decades, its socialist Labour Party scoffed at the very idea of private medicine, dismissing it as “Americanization.” Today Labour favors privatization, promising to triple the number of private-sector surgical procedures provided within two years. …
Carpe Diem has a health care anecdote from France. It’s only an anecdote, but it is telling.
Hit & Run posts on eagles.
In 1967, there were fewer than 500 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the lower 48 states. The national bird was in danger of disappearing from much of the United States.
Though the eagles were never in danger of extinction—the vast majority, over 100,000, were in Alaska and Canada—Americans understandably wanted to protect a national symbol.
Today, the bald eagle is doing well. On June 29 the bald eagle in the lower 48 states will be officially removed, or delisted, from the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Yet delisting the bald eagle from the ESA has been a decade-long process that shows how even the most well-intentioned policy can be overcome by politics and ulterior motives. …