en-us jgoss@blern.com (Blern Admin) jgoss@blern.com (Blern Admin) http://blern.com/ http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/nws/th/main_142b.gif http://blern.com/5npB3 The Christian Science Monitor - The idea that the American Century is over may seem well founded. At home, the financial meltdown and imminent deep recession have exposed massive policy, regulatory, and enforcement failures. Overseas, the United States Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:22:13 -0500 http://blern.com/5npA6 RealClearPolitics.com - There are, I suspect, quite a few jobs in government for which having no experience is not a liability. But few would list CIA director among them. Which is why Barack Obama's pick of Leon Panetta is causing so much Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:20:36 -0500 http://blern.com/5np90 HuffingtonPost.com - President-elect Obama ran on a platform of "real change." Here's my proposal which would make good on that promise: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:18:03 -0500 http://blern.com/5nbW9 The Nation - The Nation -- Today at the gym I happened upon a report[PDF] from World Public Opinion about international attitudes towards human rights. (That's DC for ya.) There's a ton of interesting stuff in it: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:53:58 -0500 http://blern.com/5nbW6 The Nation - The Nation -- By now, you've probably seen the very, very excellent news that Tom Geoghegan is running to replace Rahm Emmanuel as the congressman from Illinois' 5th district. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:53:54 -0500 http://blern.com/5nbW4 HuffingtonPost.com - There are lessons to be learned from Sen. Dianne Feinstein's reaction to the nomination of Leon Panetta as CIA head. One is that powerful Democratic Senators can be no less sensitive or arbitrary than their GOP counterparts. Another Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:53:49 -0500 http://blern.com/5nJ49 The Weekly Standard - We've stopped counting the number of times we've been told over the past few years that conservatives can't govern. Everywhere you turn, someone is saying that a conservative government is naturally incompetent and naturally corrupt. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:14:38 -0500 http://blern.com/5n0O6 Mona Charen - It was lost amid the news of Israel's counterattack on Hamas in the past few days, but Hamas' leadership passed several new laws for Gaza in December. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:19:13 -0500 http://blern.com/5n0N1 Pat Buchanan - About the appointment by Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate, somebody big is lying, big-time. It is either the governor or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:18:44 -0500 http://blern.com/5n0M4 The Christian Science Monitor - Hamas and Israel: problems in comparing their actions Regarding the Dec. 31 Opinion piece, "Israel, Hamas, and moral idiocy": It seems to me that the distinction drawn in author Alan Dershowitz's commentary between the Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:18:13 -0500 http://blern.com/5n0L5 The Nation - The Nation -- I decided to bike to work on Capitol Hill yesterday because I wanted to survey the city, now playing host to the president elect and I have to say (maybe I'm projecting) there was an undeniable electricity in the air. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:17:55 -0500 http://blern.com/5n0K4 The Christian Science Monitor - If the crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip is a reminder of the durability of Arab-Israeli antagonisms, it is also, in its troubling and costly way, a potential blessing to the incoming administration of Barack Obama. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:17:20 -0500 http://blern.com/5n0K0 The Christian Science Monitor - The new millennium may have begun in 2000, but in the US at least, 2009 looks like an historic threshold: An African-American becomes president in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:17:05 -0500 http://blern.com/5n0J3 The Christian Science Monitor - These days, a modern depression seems almost within the realm of possibility. To avert this, we need an enormous, immediate stimulus. But unless it's well designed, it may not pass Congress; it may not achieve its Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:16:40 -0500 http://blern.com/5mlb5 Georgie Anne Geyer - WASHINGTON -- Again. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:00:05 -0500 http://blern.com/5mlb0 Ann Coulter - Fresh off my triumph over Kwanzaa, I thought I'd mention a couple of other facts that some of us are forced to keep repeating because liberals refuse to learn. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:59:50 -0500 http://blern.com/5mla6 Richard Reeves - RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Exactly a year ago, like almost everyone else, I knew only a couple of things about Sen. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:59:45 -0500 http://blern.com/5mlZ4 Georgie Anne Geyer - WASHINGTON -- World history is filled with dramatic, often heartbreaking and occasionally redemptive stories of great marches. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:59:31 -0500 http://blern.com/5mlY8 RealClearPolitics.com - Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg doubtless wishes she had heeded this admonition. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:59:19 -0500 http://blern.com/5mlX1 RealClearPolitics.com - Opponents and enemies of Israel are in full hue and cry over Israel's attack on the terrorist organization Hamas and its government and military installations in Gaza. The main criticism is that the Israeli response to the Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:58:40 -0500 http://blern.com/5mlW0 HuffingtonPost.com - The stories about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich have been stunning -- with revelations of his boundless intent on corruption, as well as a knack for unceasing profanity. Yet Blagojevich has also displayed a canny audacity at his Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:58:10 -0500 http://blern.com/5mTQ3 Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:28:58 -0500 http://blern.com/5mTQ1 The Weekly Standard - NOW WE KNOW how President Bush reads so many books. It's a "discipline deal," the president says. "I don't watch TV," he says. And he reads every morning while doing an hour of exercise and on the many long flights aboard Air Force Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:28:54 -0500 http://blern.com/5mTP9 The Weekly Standard - Americans have a deep and understandable aversion to gasoline taxes. In a culture more single-mindedly devoted to individual freedom than any other, tampering with access to the open road is met with visceral opposition. That's why Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:28:50 -0500 http://blern.com/5mTP8 Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:28:47 -0500