The Pentagon’s top intelligence official this week indicated that although Iran has been developing the means to build nuclear weapons, his agency has discerned no sign that Tehran has made a final decision to do so. Lt. General Ronald Burgess, the chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Voice of America in an interview that “We have not seen indication that the government has made the decision to move ahead with the program. But the fact still remains that we don’t know what we don’t know.” Given Iran’s long …
The world needs American leadership. In the interwar years, we saw that the enemies of freedom advance when the great liberal and democratic powers of the day failed to lead. We saw it again in the dark years of the Cold War under President Carter. The alternative to an America willing and able to lead is not a paradise of peace through engagement. It is a world where the undemocratic, the unsatisfied, and the illiberal powers of the world advance at the expense of American ideals, American interests, and America’s …
In the course of an eventful week, the People’s Republic of China has had a chance to display the full range of modern capabilities that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is acquiring. At one end, on January 11, the Chinese announced that they had successfully engaged in a mid-course interception of a missile. While the Chinese have not been forthcoming with much information about the test, including the type of interceptor, the target, or the location of the test, the test, which has been confirmed by the US DOD, puts …
Advocates of traditional marriage filed an appeal in the District of Columbia today, as expected, seeking review of yesterday’s D.C. Superior Court ruling that a public referendum on the issue would violate the city’s Human Rights Act. The appeal will place the issue before the D.C. Court of Appeals, which will be asked next week to make an expedited decision on the issue. The Superior Court decision represented a victory for advocates of marriage redefinition in the District. The D.C. City Council’s decision to allow same-sex couples to marry is …
After a long-week of negotiations, unions have won an exemption from the excise tax on high-cost “Cadillac” health insurance plans. The excise tax would fall on health insurance plans that cost more than $8,500 for individuals and $23,00 for families (the union deal reportedly slightly increases these thresholds) starting in 2013. It is one of the many tax hikes proposed by Congress to partially offset the cost of its take over of the health care system. Under the terms of the deal cut between Congressional negotiators, union leadership and the …
President Obama and other supporters of increasing government spending on preschool have argued that “investments” on early childhood education yield big results later in life. As President Obama told an audience last March, “For every dollar we invest in these programs, we get nearly $10 back in reduced welfare rolls, fewer health care costs, and less crime.” The president and other preschool backers generally base these claims on impressive results from one or two small-scale preschool programs that existed decades ago and that have not been replicated since. Unfortunately, a …
While some people are trying to determine if Pat Robertson or Danny Glover made the more egregious comment on the cause of the earthquake in Haiti (was it a deal with the Devil or failures in Copenhagen), others are getting to the root of the problem: Haiti is very poor and does not have the resources or infrastructure to prevent damage, react properly to a natural disaster or rebuild after the damage has been done. And proposed environmental solutions, both here and internationally, will do much more to hurt the …
President Barack Obama’s $787 trillion failed stimulus included a $4.3 billion set aside for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s “Race to the Top” fund. States that jump through the right Obama administration hoops can win up to $750 million in stimulus cash. But yesterday, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) announced that Texas will become the first state not to participate in this next step toward the creation of national education standards. Brooke Dollens Terry of the Texas Public Policy Foundation explains why: Education has historically been a state issue, with power …
Earlier this week, The Foundry carried a post by Jim Roberts, a Heritage Senior Research Fellow in Freedom and Growth, which wisely recommended that President Obama appoint former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to lead U.S. recovery efforts in the earthquake-stricken nation of Haiti. This type of high-level bipartisan leadership is critical in raising U.S. support and resources for the effort, as was demonstrated by Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush during the Tsunami relief effort in 2004. Some liberal voices including Daily Kos, Rachel Maddow and …
New media is playing a critical important role in the rush to save Haiti. Almost immediately after the earthquake struck the White House and State Department appealed the American people to donate $10 by texting HAITI to 90999 on their cell phones. Even celebrities such as Haitian born rapper Wyclef Jean are setting up text messaging services accepting donations. In Jean’s case, cell phone users can text YELE to 501501 to make a donation that goes to his Yele Foundation for reconstruction. So far, more people have given money in the first …
