Best Steyn Ever

Mark Steyn is the best columnist on Earth. And this, published on the Spectator, is the best article written in the last months (non only by him). Here the comments on FreeRepublic. A short excerpt follows: "[...] I enjoy the politics of personal destruction as much as the next chap, and one appreciates that it’s been a long time since the heady days when Dems managed to collect the scalps of both Newt Gingrich and his short-lived successor within a few short weeks. But, as I’ve said before, one reason that the Democratic party is such a bunch of losers is because they’re all tactics and no strategy. Let’s suppose they succeed in destroying DeLay, Frist, Libby and a bunch of other names the majority of Americans aren’t familiar with. Then what? Several analysts are suggesting that the 2006 elections are shaping up like 1994, when Newt’s revolution swept the Democratic old guard from power. It’s a bit early for my reckless election predictions, but I’d bet on the Republicans holding both the House and Senate. Though the electorate was disgusted by the sheer arrogance of Democrat corruption, 1994 wasn’t just a throw-the-bums-out spasm [...]. Au contraire, it was also a throw-the-bums-in election. Voters liked the alternative — a coherent conservative agenda. It’s quite possible that the electorate will have a throw-the-bums-out attitude to the Republicans in 12 months’ time, but I’d say it’s almost completely unfeasible that they’ll be in a mood to throw the Dems in. There are not a lot of competitive Congressional districts and those that are are mostly in Democrat blue states that, if not yet red, are turning distinctly purple. The Dems’ big immovable obstacle remains their inability to articulate a set of ideas that connects with the electorate".

Supreme Court: Miers Withdraws

Harriet Miers gives up and (almost every) Conservative breathes a sigh of relief. Now we'll see if Bush understands how dangerous is it to go against his own electoral base. In RealClearPolitics' short-list, Camillo chooses Michael McConnell. We don't dislike also Michael Luttig. While Nickie Goomba bets on Janice Rogers Brown. In any case, these are three excellent candidates.

MSM: National Review, Washington Post, Fox News, New York Times, The Times, USA Today, Tech Central Station.
Blogosphere: Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, Instapundit, Patterico's Pontifications, ScotusBlog, Captain's Quarters, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Jawa Report, Newsbusters, Musing Minds, Cao's Blog, Stop the ACLU, Wizbang, The Political Teen, ProfessorBainbridge, Poliblog, Confirm Them, Rhymes with Right, Shot in the Dark, La Shawn Barber, Polipundit, Ankle Biting Pundits, Below the Beltway, Decision '08, California Conservative, Right Wing Nut House, Outside the Beltway, Gall&Wormwood, Conservative Outpost, Point Five, All Things Beautiful, Donkey Stomp.

Double Standard [reloaded]

Geoffrey Dickens is right. As he writes on Newsbusters (the fantastic Media Research Center's blog), when Pat Robertson asked for the United States to think about assassinating the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, media chased him like a pack of rabid wolves, but when Al Franken "jokes" about the execution of Bush, Rove and Libby (he did it again yesterday on NBC, after Letterman), nobody says anything. That's weird, because Robertson and Franken do the same job: both are low-level comedians.

Half Carnation for Two

"The symbol goes to the new secretary, which is me, and through me to its members". Bobo Craxi has no doubts about the future of the New Socialist Party. But Gianni De Michelis has a different point of view: "We think that there hasn't ever been a conference, and so everything remains as it was". One percent (barely) of the votes and two parties. Only in Italy socialists are more pathetic than communists.

Quick Sunday Night Round-Up

►Al Franken, guest of David Letterman’s Late Show, avoids answering the questions on Air America’s scandal (video from Political Teen via The Radio Equalizer) and asks for death penalty for Bush, Rove and Libby. Joking, but not that much. ►According to The Washington Times (via QandO), White House is weighing an exit-strategy to withdraw the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, on The Truth Laid Bear, there is a page to discover the bloggers that are publicly against the nomination (and the few ones that support it). For Byron York on NRO (via Nickie Goomba), Miers’ support team is by now "demoralized". Hugh Hewitt doesn’t share this opinion at all. ►London’s Times (via Independent Sources and Ace of Spades) investigates on the mystery about UN charges to Syria after the assassination of Rafik Hariri. ►New York ‘s public schools don’t like Jesus: the details of an unbelievable story of liberal intolerance on Hyscience. ►Reportage by Michael Yon (from Weekly Standard via Jawa Report) on constitutional referendum in Iraq. ►The Washington Post (via Captain's Quarters) gets rid of one more urban legend on hurricane Katrina. ►Thousands of Bolivian workers march in front of American embassy in La Paz: they ask less socialism and more free market (via Publius Pundit). Meanwhile, in Paris, Chavez says that United States are in the verge of invading Venezuela (via California Conservative). Bush could kill two birds with a stone. ►On My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Beth has a wonderful list of open trackback: Adam’s Blog, Basil’s Blog, Big Dog, Blue State Conservatives, Cafe Oregano, Cao’s Blog, Jo’s Cafe, MacStansbury, Mudville Gazette, Oblogatory Anecdotes, Outside the Beltway, Publius Rendezvous, Soldiers’ Angel, Stop the ACLU, The Indepundit, The Political Teen, Two Babes and a Brain, Mad Dog Vinnie, Point Five.

Election Mode/3

Special thanks to Rachel Jurado (who blogs at A Commonplace Blog), for writing about The Right Nation on AI cont'd, The American Interest's blog. We are really honored, thanks Rachel! (italian version)

Caretto, the Misunderstood

So the Corriere della Sera in today’s front page (lower part): "The Ciagate is putting at risk the credibility of both the White House and The New York Times. The scandal, after obliging to resign the two strategists of Bush, could cost the job to Judith Miller, the daily’s journalist that spent 85 days in jail for not having disclosed the name of her informer...". This, on the contrary, the start of the inside article on the event, signed by the correspondent Ennio Caretto: "Suddenly, the Ciagate is putting at risk not only the credibility of the White House, but also that one of The New York Times. In addition to Karl Rove and Lewis Libby, the two strategists of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, the scandal could cost the job also to Judith Miller, the daily’s journalist that...". For the staff of Corriere della Sera, in short, Rove e Libby resigned without even waiting for the conclusion of the investigation run by attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. A huge scoop, as Camillo, defines it, considering that no other paper in the world gives that sensational news. Or maybe, more simply, even his colleagues in Via Solferino (the street in Milan where Corriere’s headquarters are) gave up trying to give a sense to the Caretto’s reporting from Washington. And now they draft headlines and summaries without reading (with care) his articles.

Coprophilia

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent", said the philosopher of language Ludwig Wittgenstein. But Daniele Luttazzi crossed the frontier of ridiculous since too long a time to care and think about such trifles. So, he decided to explain to the readers of his blog the Plame’s Case. For his disgrace, however, Christian Rocca met with this fancy reconstruction, sold as a sort of journalistic investigation. And he discovered that Luttazzi "doesn’t make a single guess. I swear, read it, not a single one, not even by a mere chance, absolute zero. Obviously, I am not talking about his witty remarks (which, apart from the latest one, produce no laughs), neither about his political evaluations (phenomenal that one according to which Rove sent to all the evangelists the documentary "Faith"), but I am talking about the facts he brings as an evidence". Follows, in Camillo, a pitiless list of his nonsense. Poor Luzzatti. Once he ate shit in television. Now he shit-talks on the Internet. From coprophagia to coprophilia. *Note for American Readers: Luttazzi really ate (fake) shit on public television. It's not a manner of speaking. (italian version)

America, Market, Individual

They couldn’t have chosen a better headline for their first public performance. The Riformatori Liberali (Free-Market Reformers*) of Benedetto Della Vedova and Marco Taradash, the “right-wing” of the Radical Party, will meet on Saturday in Milan for the rally "America, mercato, individuo" (America, Market, Individual), in which will be debated the “free-market and civil liberties reform" necessary to the government of the CdL (Casa delle Libertà = Home of Freedoms: the name of the center-right coalition). An engaging program, but really very stimulating. Among the spokesmen, in addition to Della Vedova and Taradash, we point out the presence of Peppino Calderisi, Carmelo Palma, Raimondo Cubeddu and Arturo Diaconale. Among other expected speeches, those of Alfredo Biondi, Sandro Bondi, Antonio Del Pennino, Dario Fertilio, Ignazio La Russa, Tiziana Maiolo, Cristiana Muscardini, Iuri Maria Prado and Dario Rivolta. For further informations just check the website www.riformatoriliberali.org. (*) "Liberale" (not Liberal) is roughly translated with "Free-Market" but a better definition would probably be "Classical Liberal". More on this subject in the next days. (italian version)

Election Mode/2

Many thanks (and welcome to their readers) to Richard at Hyscience (and Freedom's Zone), Nickie Goomba and Wesley at Independent Sources.

The Low Expectations Game

Kagliostro, on Blogs 4 Cdl, is right to complain about the way many people - within the center-right coalition - underestimated the potential outcome of so-called center-left's primaries. Indeed, in cases like this one the trick is always the same: lower as much as possible the level of expectations among the public opinion, and then shout "miracle!" when you reach a barely normal result. Before Bush-Kerry television debates in 2004, democrat spin-doctors (in trouble with polls) did the same thing. And a substantial draw between the two candidates was magically transformed in a 3-0 win for Kerry. To complete the operation, of course, US Democrats and Italian lefties needed the media echo chamber, to pander the low expectations game and amplify the enthusiastic statements after the event. There is no need to imagine an obscure conspiration to realize that, in both cases, mainstream media were accomplices to a partisan strategy. But we can't hide the fact that in the United States the Republican Party was able, after few hours, to organize an effective counteroffensive (on talk radios, the Internet and alternative media), while in Italy the center-right coalition doesn't have the necessary tools to counter the leftist hegemony on the media. Nevertheless, this time, the stuff to work with was excellent and ample - Berlusconi's immediate reaction ("the only way they can win is when only their voters are allowed to vote"), the Mastella's detailed charges of fraud, Prodi's psychedelic statements about American primaries. It's absolutely necessary to learn from this experience, to be less unprepared next time. (italian version)

Election Mode

In the next six months this blog will switch to "election mode" and will deal nearly exclusively with the electoral campaign for 2006 Italian general elections. In the next days, and expecially for our American readers, we will prepare a series of short profiles - both in Italian and English - to explain Italian politics (people, parties, electoral system) to those who never followed it accurately, both on this and on the other side of the Atlantic. As usual, you won't get a neutral point of view. The Right Nation supports initiatives such as Blogs for CdL or Rete delle libertà, which openly side with the center-right coalition. We don't think we need to explain the reasons of this choice. We only need to look at Prodi's face for a few seconds. And in the following months, we will ignore the enormous gap between the center-right we want and the one we (unfortunately) have. We deeply believe that the majority of Italian citizens do not want to be governed by this left. These next six months will be devoted to them. (italian version)

Happy Birthday, Maggie

Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.

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We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state.

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There is no such thing as Society. There are individual men and women, and there are families.

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All attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail. It must be business as usual.

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The desire to win is born in most of us. The will to win is a matter of training. The manner of winning is a matter of honour.

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Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.

(Margaret Thatcher)

Townhall 2.0

It's restyling-time (and not only an exterior one) for Townhall.com: since 1995, the home of American Conservatives on the Web. First reactions from the blogosphere (all positive ones) arrived at The Corner, Wizbang!, The Club for Growth and Polipundit. Born more than a decade ago, thanks to a Heritage Foundation's intuition, Townhall is the most authoritative and largest website in the world for conservative news and opinion. In 1998, the organizations virtually hosted by Townhall were around thirty. Nowadays they're well above one hundred. And if it's not enough for you to have two blogs (the legendary C-Log and the newborn Capitol Report), an incredibile amount of news arranged by issue and the "action" section, there are over 170 contributors choosen by Townhall among the best columnists of the Right Nation. Just to mention some of the most renowned ones: Ann Coulter, Brent Bozell, Charles Krauthammer, David Horowitz, Debra Saunders, Edwin J. Feulner, George Will, Jack Kemp, Joe Scarborough, Jonah Goldberg, Kathleen Parker, Marvin Olasky, Michael Barone, Michelle Malkin, Oliver North, Rebecca Hagelin, Rich Lowry, Robert Novak, William F. Buckley. If you find something better around, you're probably reading this blog by accident. (italian version)