As if President Barack Obama’s decision to undermine the rule of law and give the United Auto Workers their own taxpayer bought auto company wasn’t bad enough, now President Obama has again chosen to punish the American people by choosing narrow big labor interest over free market principles. This time the issue is trade and as we noted this weekend, President Obama has chosen to apply heavy tariffs to passenger car and light truck replacement tires made in China. University of California at Berkeley economics professor Brad DeLong notes that …
MOSCOW – In meetings with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the leading Russian foreign policy experts one thing becomes blatantly clear: the Obama Administration did not receive any quid-pro-quo for significant concessions it provided to Russia as a part of its “reset button” policy. Since January of this year, the Obama Administration has resumed the START strategic arms talks, and is trying to complete them before the current nuclear weapons agreement expires on December 9th. It looks like it will abandon ballistic missile deployment against Iran …
The Sunday Times reports: The legitimacy of the $100 billion (£60 billion) carbon-trading market has been called into question after the world’s largest auditor of clean-energy projects was suspended by United Nations inspectors. SGS UK had its accreditation suspended last week after it was unable to prove its staff had properly vetted projects that were then approved for the carbon-trading scheme, or even that they were qualified to do so. As we have noted before, among the many reasons carbon cap and trading is destined to fail is because auditing …
On a visit to Prague in April, President Obama stated that nuclear non-proliferation would be a flagship policy of his Administration, with the long-term goal of total nuclear disarmament. If he is serious, then stopping Iran’s relentless ambition to join the club of nuclear weapons states must be a top priority. A nuclear-armed Iran would be not only an existential threat to Israel, but a potential nuclear proliferator throughout the Middle East. Combined with its closeness to Hezbollah (Iran is already the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism), the ramifications …
The Los Angles Times did something The New York Times shamelessly did not. The “times” on the left-leaning West Coast at lease admitted that all the recent hub-hub linking national security to global warming is all about politics as usual in Washington, DC. “It’s a deliberate, anxiety-themed effort,” the paper reported, “to press a handful of fence-sitting moderates to support a [Waxman-Markey] bill that will probably be the administration’s next great legislative push after health care.” That admission is certainly more than the Big Apple paper acknowledged when it shamelessly …
In socialist Sweden, universal school choice allows every parent to choose the best school for their child. The voucher program, which has been in effect since 1992 and was created to tackle the kind of problems plaguing the U.S. educational system, provides families with the opportunity to send their child to any type of school they like – public, private, religious, or even for-profit. Stuart Butler, Heritage Vice President of domestic policy studies, explains in Washington Times: These independent schools, like the public schools, get a voucher payment for each …
MOSCOW – Last week a number of Russian democratic-leaning online publications posted a Dmitry Medvedev essay titled Forward, Russia! It is an unprecedented and open criticism of Russia’s backward economy, its humiliating raw material orientation, corruption and other woes. Medvedev also offered a critical analysis of the political factors that define Russia’s development – a fledgling democracy, negative demographic tendencies, and volatile Caucasus. Tellingly though, Medvedev’s target audience, Russia’s young internet readership, had a lukewarm response to their President’s insights. His comments failed to make the spotlight in numerous blogs, …
Press reports herald the release of a new Osama Bib Laden tape. Among the words of “wisdom” from the perpetrator of 9/11, a warning to America that Afghanistan is unwinnable. We should remember this is from a guy who has been hiding in cave for some time now. A “fearless” leader who also predicted death and destruction would accompany US elections. It did not. That the US would fail in Iraq. We have not. Since 2004, the head of al Qaeda’s man function seems to be to serve as an …
This Saturday, tens of thousands of Americans marched on Washington to protest the unprecedented amount of power being concentrated in Washington, DC under the Obama administration. And even the New York Times admits they have a point: “The government is the nation’s biggest lender, insurer, automaker and guarantor against risk for investors large and small. Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the nation’s economy — 26 percent — than at any time since World War II.” And on the …
John Bolton, former UN ambassador under George W. Bush, wants to deliver results at the United Nations by making member country’s funding a voluntary contribution, not a mandatory payment. Bolton believes such a reform would enable the US to have influence commensurate with their level of UN funding, currently 22% of the overall UN budget. “The result of [mandatory funding] is that our contribution becomes like an entitlement,” he said. “There’s no incentive for effective performance, or responsiveness or transparency.” “If the main UN couldn’t count on its budget being funded by the United …
