01071003 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 3 – After a replay of the Mark Steyn interview, Hugh talks political news of the week with the Young Guns, then mixes it up with New Republic lefty, and brand new blogger, Jonathan Chait.
01071002 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 2 – Hugh talks about the same sex marriage decision today in New Jersey with Princeton professor and ethicist, Robert George, prospects in Massachusetts for Scott Brown’s Senatorial campaign with former Governor Mitt Romney, Senatorial prospects in Connecticut with Rob Simmonds, then all the news of the week with humorist, columnist, author and blogger, James Lileks.
01071001 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 1 – Hugh opens up Thursday’s program with three very powerful guests to analyze the news and political landscape this fall – Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn, Hot Air founder, blogger and author Michelle Malkin, and The Architect, Karl Rove.
President Obama has been talking “tough” lately, which usually means he said “make no mistake,” then vowed we would do something or other. It’s better than apologizing for everything – “for too long we have allowed planes to fly on Christmas and serve alcohol, heedless of the offense this may cause” would have been out of bounds, but not quite out of character – but his speeches have struck two notes discordant with his supposedly Hard Stance.
1. The President cited poverty in Yemen as a contributing factor to terrorism. This is terribly relevant to the Undiebomber, since he’s from Nigeria, was educated in Great Britain, and has a rich dad. Yemenese poverty was to blame, eh? This is like singling out a Pakistani-born man who was educated in Tokyo but got his go-ahead-with-the-jihad telegram wired to him in Alabama, and blaming the attack on country music. There may be some vague, incoherent belief that the infidels have impoverished Muslims, and if enough planes are blown up the Jews will power down the magic Anti-Muslim rays that prevent Yemen from being, oh, Dubai.
2. Gitmo. Under this theory, the Undiebomber could have killed Muslims on the plane – indeed, the wreckage of the airplane could have fallen on a mosque – and his imprisonment in Gitmo would enflame new recruits. It’s a rather arrogant theory, since it sees the struggle through our cultural and historical prism: They hate us because we support Israel, invade Muslim lands – like Kuwait, or Bosnia – and the rest of the sins that naturally follow from being a swaggering hyperpower. We can sooth their fevered brows with cool words, preferably high-flown nonsense like “Our greatest strengths can be found when we are all weak together,” or some such sonorous tripe. If you believe that, then of course you’re surprised when the election of a globe-healer with supranational appeal doesn’t cool the Islamist’s zeal. Actually, the list of reasons they want to kill us can be summed up thus:
a) We do not believe exactly everything they believe, and so we must submit or die
b) See point A
If you believe otherwise, you will be constantly calibrating your response to the placate individual complaints. But if the Gitmo rationale is true, then imagine the hard times ahead at the recruiting office. Scene: London. The door opens, and a young man walks in, uncertain.
Recruiter: Welcome! Sit down! Join us! Help us strike a blow against the Crusaders!
Prospective Jihadi: Tell me more; I am intrigued by your fervor.
Recruiter: They are moral degenerates, their rotten society permeated by sodomy and lingerie! Their children make a god of Michael Jackson and their elders consume beer while watching “Fiddler on the Roof” and their women are permitted to enjoy sex or use mechanical devices to prepare bacon while dogs roam the house! They have converted minarets into cellphone towers! They think we did 9/11 instead of the Jews! Okay, they’re technically correct there, but in a larger sense it was a Zionist plot –
Prospective Jihadi: I am inflamed with righteousness, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Tell me more, so I may guide myself on the path to turning myself into a shower of nails in a shopping mall, as God surely intends.
Recruiter: The Crusaders have taken our comrades, denied them access to lawyers and dynamite, and placed them in prisons around the United States –
Prospective Jihadi: I thought Guantanamo was in Cuba.
Recruiter: It was, but they closed it down; their perfidy is matchless, I tell you, for they have dispersed our brethern into the cold bowels of their Midwestern prisons –
Prospective Jihadi: Hold on, no more Guantanamo? Seriously? That’s what brought her here. Your flier said – here, I have it in my pocket. Look. “Join now, avenge Guantanamo, your first suicide bombing free with membership.”
Recruiter: You may still avenge!
Prospective Jihadi: Sorry. If they’ve closed Guantanamo, well, that changes the game. I’m going to immigrate and see if I can get into the Marines.
Recruiter: (Sigh) Yes, my young friend, I see your point. I too have trouble maintaining my fury, now that the stain of Guantanamo has been washed away. Can I interest you in something against the Russians? They have –
Prospective Jihadi: No thanks. Those guys chop off your parts.
Recruiter: It will grow back in Paradise.
Prospective Jihadi: Sorry, no. Uh, here’s my parking receipt; do you guys validate?
01061003 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 3 – Hugh talks about the decision to Mirandize the undie bomber with the Smart Guys, concludes his chat with Fox exec Bill Bradford, then covers the upcoming trial over the validity of Prop. 8 in California with Austin Nimocks of the Alliance Defense Fund.
01061002 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 2 – Hugh talks new media and television with Fox Entertainment’s Bill Bradford, Iran and foreign policy with Michael Rubin of AEI, the launch of Big Journalism with Andrew Breitbart, and assessing Obama’s foreign policy with Max Boot of the Council On Foreign Relations.
01061001 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 1 – Hugh talks politics with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, then bores in on the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat with Republican contender, Scott Brown.