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Bench Memos - National Review Online

Covering The Supreme Court -- from National Review Online

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Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 05:00:54

Obama's Second Chance -- By: Stephen Spruiell

Posted on September 14, 2009
During his first term, President Bush signed a protectionist farm bill and imposed tariffs on imported steel. Similarly, as a senator running for president, Barack Obama voted for the 2008 Farm Bill, and he has now decided to <a href="http://online...

Beyond Economics -- By: Kevin Williamson

Posted on September 14, 2009
One hopes Ben Bernanke and the Fed gang are reading the Drudge Report, where the top news items one day last week were: Enlarged U.S. deficits allow Switzerland to displace the United States as the world’s most competitive economy; Obama asks the Senate to raise the debt ceiling beyond its current $12...

Yet Another Washington Flop in the Making -- By: Deroy Murdock

Posted on September 14, 2009
As the health-care reform debate roars on, Uncle Sam resembles a restless college senior who is flunking economics, finance, and management. Despite a report card full of Fs, he suddenly announces: “I want to go to medical school!” Similarly, Pres...

The Problems with Special Ed -- By: Jay P. Greene

Posted on September 14, 2009
Officially reported disability rates in public schools are entirely unreliable and are almost certainly inflated ‎indicators of how many students are actually disabled...

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Straight Outta Oakland -- By: Mark Hemingway

Posted on September 14, 2009
Tales of Dr. Ben Chavis have been drifting out of the Bay Area for a while now. However, there have been few high-profile media stories, and the educational apparatus in this country is no doubt doing its best to squelch reports of his accomplishments...

A Revealing Term -- By: Jonathan H. Adler

Posted on September 14, 2009
Newly confirmed justice Sonia Sotomayor took her seat for the first time on Tuesday. Though she’s been at work on cases since taking the oath in August, and has already cast her first votes on motions before the Court, this was her first public sitting as a justice...

Compulsive Disorder -- By: The Editors

Posted on September 14, 2009
During the Democratic presidential primaries, Barack Obama argued against forcing people to buy health insurance. But on Wednesday night, he flip-flopped and endorsed the idea. President Obama argued that people who do not have insurance raise the premiums of those who do...

A Scandalous Affair -- By: Kathryn Jean Lopez

Posted on September 14, 2009
EDITOR’S NOTE: This column is available exclusively through United Media. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact Carmen Puello at <a href="mailto:cpuello@unitedmedia...

The Wikipedia blues, &c. -- By: Jay Nordlinger

Posted on September 14, 2009
Got a note from a reader yesterday, saying, “Have you seen your Wikipedia page? FYI, there’s a little gotcha in there about your ignorance of ‘Monica Goodling...

Where Is Obama's 'Center'? -- By: Mark Steyn

Posted on September 12, 2009
So why can?t the silver-tongued post-partisan healer seal the deal on this health-care business? Surely it should be the work of moments for the greatest orator in American history to whip up a little medicinal Gettysburg, a touch of Henry V-in-the-Agincourt-casualty-tent, and put this thing away...

Our National 9/11 Schizophrenia -- By: Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on September 11, 2009
Ninety-six months ago, 19 Islamic terrorists -- led by Mohamed Atta, organized by Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and ordered by Osama bin Laden -- hijacked four American airliners. They destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon, and murdered 2,974 people...

Missing in Action -- By: NRO Staff

Posted on September 11, 2009
It?s hard to believe, but nearly three weeks into a major crisis involving Syrian sponsorship of terrorism in Iraq, the United States is feigning neutrality. That?s a big mistake. Given that almost 130,000 U.S. troops remain in harm?s way trying to bolster Iraq?s stability, and given America?s longstanding concern with Syria?s role in fomenting violence in Iraq, the United States has a huge stake in supporting the Iraqi government?s efforts to pressure Syria out of the terrorism game...

Long Hot Summer in Konduz -- By: Vincent G. Heintz

Posted on September 11, 2009
In 2008 I worked in the Konduz River Valley, known locally as the Valley of Four. The mayor, a former Taliban government minister, told me that the name (Chahar Darreh in Farsi) was a tribute to the four groups -- Tajik, Uzbek, Turkomen, and Pashtun -- that have lived together for decades in the valley, a floodplain dotted with mud-walled villages...

Hard Truths about End-of-Life Care -- By: NRO Staff

Posted on September 11, 2009
The political process on health-care reform is stymied. Despite enjoying sizable Democratic majorities in Congress, President Obama has not yet devised a health-care reform that would attract sufficient votes. To be politically viable, a bill will need at least 70 percent support to provide Democratic leaders plausible political evidence of the bill?s bipartisan nature...

A Ring of Truth(ers) -- By: Jonah Goldberg

Posted on September 11, 2009
Herewith, two scenarios.Scenario A: The supposedly inept president of the United States carefully planned and orchestrated the worst terrorist attack on American soil in our history. Though ?only? 3,000 people died, the plan was to kill many more by simultaneously attacking the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and either the U...

Obama's Trouble with Numbers -- By: Mona Charen

Posted on September 11, 2009
Let?s stipulate that it was wrong of Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.) to shout ?You lie? during President Obama?s health-care speech. It was a violation of courtesy and etiquette. Wilson apologized -- which is more than the Democrats who booed President Bush?s State of the Union address in 2005 ever did...

An Obama Speech in 13 Easy Steps -- By: Rich Lowry

Posted on September 11, 2009
EDITOR?S NOTE: This column is available exclusively through King Features Syndicate. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact: kfsreprint@hearstsc.com, or phone 800-708-7311, ext. 246.Everyone marvels at Barack Obama?s rhetorical prowess...

The Van Jones Matter -- By: Charles Krauthammer

Posted on September 11, 2009
So Van Jones, the defenestrated White House green-jobs czar, once called Republicans ?a--holes.? Big deal. I?ve said worse about Democrats. I?ve said worse about Republicans. I?ve said worse about members of my family (you know who you are).How prissy have we become? Are we allowed no salt in our linguistic diets? Having once written a column praising Vice President Cheney?s pithy deployment of the f-word -- on the floor of the Senate, no less -- I rise in defense of Jones...

Charlatan-in-Chief -- By: Thomas Sowell

Posted on September 11, 2009
?Hubris-laden charlatans? was the way a recent e-mail from a reader characterized the Obama administration. That phrase seems especially appropriate for the Charlatan-in-Chief, Barack Obama, whose speech to�the joint session of Congress was both a masterpiece of rhetoric and a shameless fraud...

Eight Years Later -- By: Steven Stalinsky

Posted on September 11, 2009
?We are patient.#...#Our patience will only end with the collapse of America#...#?-- Al-Qaeda?s Abu Salma Al-Hijazi, on Islamist internet forum Al-Qal?a, November 2003 In the days leading up to the attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans paid inadequate attention to what was being said in Arabic in the mosques and media of the Middle East...

Song of Loss -- By: Tim Graham

Posted on September 11, 2009
Pop music today is almost all nightclub bump-and-grind, with little focus on what can happen on the morning after. But there are some exceptions.The popular all-girl Christian-rock trio BarlowGirl has a brand-new album out with a song about the emotional pain women frequently experience after an abortion...

Of Me I Sing -- By: David Kahane

Posted on September 11, 2009
I woke up this morning with a song on my lips. Well, not exactly a song -- more like a tune, a song without words. I?m sure you know it. It goes something like this: ha-huh-ha-huh-ha-huh-ha-HUH#...#ha-huh-ha-huh-ha-huh-ha-huh#...#ha-huh-ha-huh-ha-huh-ha-HUH#...

We Don't Need a Public Option -- By: NRO Staff

Posted on September 10, 2009
Health-care reformers who want a public health-insurance option to keep private health insurers competitive have a point: If there were ferocious competition in the private health-insurance markets, prices would be better controlled. In Switzerland, for example, competition among that country?s 85 private health insurers resulted in negative price increases since 2005 and considerable public support...

No Direction Home -- By: Robert Costa

Posted on September 10, 2009
As he walked out of the Capitol last night, just after President Obama wrapped up his health-care speech, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R., Utah) was told by a security guard to head down another path, since the president?s visit had caused his usual route to be blocked...

What the President Should Have Said -- By: Tevi Troy

Posted on September 10, 2009
[EDITOR?S NOTE: The material in italics actually appeared in President Obama?s speech of Sept. 9, 2009. The other material is an improvement suggested by health-care-policy expert Tevi Troy.] Madam Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, and the American people: ...

Understanding Poverty in America -- By: Robert Rector

Posted on September 10, 2009
Today, the U.S. Census Bureau will release its annual poverty report. The report is expected to show an increase in poverty in 2008 due to the onset of the recession.�It is no surprise that poverty goes up in a recession.�What is surprising is that every year for nearly three decades, in good economic times and bad, Census has reported more than 30 million Americans living in poverty...

Monetary Muddle -- By: David Gitlitz

Posted on September 10, 2009
Brighter economic fortunes are usually met with expectations of less-easy monetary policy from the Federal Reserve. When recession sets in, the Fed loosens its stance to spur recovery. When recovery takes hold, the Fed tightens policy to stave off higher inflation...

You never really win, &c. -- By: Jay Nordlinger

Posted on September 10, 2009
It was in January 1996 -- the State of the Union address -- that President Clinton proclaimed, ?The era of big government is over.? (He then said, ?But we can?t go back to a time when our citizens were just left to fend for themselves.? Was there ever such a time? Really?) Obviously, the era of big government is back -- or there is a new, big-governmental era or something...

Would Obama Really Fight the War? -- By: Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted on September 10, 2009
They had me up until ?free Afghans from the chains of tyranny.? That is, the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) had me. The group, founded by the excellent Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan, and Dan Senor, has assembled a number of similarly impressive people to submit a letter to President Obama, urging him to be steadfast in Afghanistan...

Rangel, Sign of the Times -- By: Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on September 10, 2009
Rep. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is becoming a metaphor for almost all the sins of our age.Let us count the ways.How about corruption? Currently, Rangel is under investigation by two House subcommittees for illegally holding four rent-stabilized apartments in New York and not disclosing more than $75,000 in income from a rental villa he owns...

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