It has been one year since the 2008 national election. During this period, the cause of missile defense has suffered serious setbacks. The overall budget for missile defense for this fiscal year will be $1.6 billion less than the amount allocated in fiscal year 2009. The number of fielded long-range defense interceptors in Alaska and California will be 30, as opposed to 44. The Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) program for countering decoys and countermeasures designed to overwhelm or confuse the defense has been terminated. The Airborne Laser (ABL) program has …
On October 30, the United States voted with the majority in the General Assembly to support U.N.-sponsored negotiations to regulate the conventional arms trade. The vote was 153-1, with the pariah state of Zimbabwe the lone hold out. More significantly, some of the world’s more ethically challenged arms traders – the states of China, Russia, Iran, Syria, India, Pakistan, and Cuba – abstained in the vote. U.S. support for the negotiations reversed the policy of the Bush Administration, but the U.S. agreed to participate only if the negotiations were conducted …
When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Munich in March she presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a gift intended to symbolize the Obama administration’s desire to “push the reset button” on U.S. relations with Moscow. Problem is, the lettering on the little red button said “overload” (peregruzka), not “reset” (perezagruzka). This high level gaffe is just about the perfect symbol for how Obama’s Russian relation relaunch has gone. White House wordsmiths seem to also have forgotten that if you push the reset button, old software bugs get …
Yesterday in a victory that was not as close as the final pre-election polls had suggested, voters in Maine adopted a “people’s veto” to protect the traditional definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The margin was 53-47. The voting was closely watched for several reasons, as each of the other 30 states that have held popular votes on marriage redefinition has seen popular majorities approve the traditional understanding. Even more important, had proponents of same-sex marriage prevailed in Maine, it would have marked the …
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding confirmation hearings this afternoon for five nominees. One of the nominees, Jide J. Zeitlin, is being nominated to be Representative of the United States to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform and to hold the rank of Ambassador. There are a number of issues the Committee should explore during their deliberations on Zeitlin’s nomination. As discussed in an article today in The Washington Post, Zeitlin “has faced some financial setbacks and clashes as a private investor, including legal complications involving a …
Conservatives may have defeated Hillarycare fifteen years ago, but in the intervening years the left succeeded in passing a slew of incremental reforms that have led to a slow but steady march toward a government takeover of health care in this country. These Hillarycare-lite measures include adding more middle-class kids to the children’s health care program (known as SCHIP), along with expanding Medicaid eligibility. As of 2007, the federal government controlled 46% of every health care dollar spent compared to 44% in 1993. But should Obamacare become law (specifically the …
International expectations went through the roof one year ago today with the election of Barack Obama. The United Stated had elected the man whom many across the globe expected to be the anti-Bush. As controversial abroad as President Bush’s stance on the long war against terrorism had been, just as euphoric was the reaction to the election of the Democratic presidential nominee. The jubilation reflected a belief that as president, Obama would think less like an American and more like the rest of the world – however that was defined. …
Visiting the complicated world of emerging adults (young people between the ages of 18 and 29, with data now available up to age 23), Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker report back with findings that raise challenges for the future of marriage as an institution. Some of their findings, which will appear next year in a volume from the Oxford University Press titled Premarital Sex in America, were presented last week at a Heritage Foundation conference on what scholarly research says about religious practice in America. The good news is that …
On the anniversary of the November 2008 election, it seems appropriate to assess the impact of the Administration on America’s relationship with the United Nations. After all, one of President Obama’s sharpest criticisms of the Bush Administration was its supposed resistance to multilateral efforts—particularly U.N.-led multilateral efforts—to resolve international problems. Well, we can’t say we weren’t warned. In its first 9 months, the Obama administration has sought to purchase goodwill at the U.N. by conceding U.S. policy positions, downplaying the U.N.’s many problems, and seeking to engage with the U.N. …
On May 12, 1990, 28-year old Jimmy Cotaling of Michigan drove his car to a store to buy his mother a Mother’s Day card. When he failed to return home, his family filed a missing person’s report. His car was found in Ohio. The police investigated the two occupants of the car, one of whom had suffered a stab wound to the stomach. Three days into the investigation, one of the suspects confessed that she and the co-defendant lured Jimmy into a house and killed him. Further investigation revealed that …
