For more than 50 days — ever since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded — Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) has been “shocked.” She’s been moved by “tragic” and “heartwarming” TV scenes of the disaster. And she’s been confused by President Obama’s “weird,” “bizarre,” “odd” and “infantile” response to the oil spill. But she hasn’t been impressed. And she doesn’t expect to be impressed tonight when the president delivers his first prime-time Oval Office speech. “It appears what we’re going to hear tonight is a call for more legislation,” Bachmann said …
Just days following the passage of a new round of sanctions against Iran, the Associated Press obtained copies of Iran’s Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi’s book which stated that “the most advanced weapons must be produced inside our country even if our enemies don’t like it. There is no reason that they have the right to produce a special type of weapons [sic], while other countries are deprived of it.” Even though Yazdi does not speak for the Iranian government, he is a strong radical voice in Iran’s revolutionary establishment. …
As a college student in his late 20s, Arthur Brooks had never heard of the American Enterprise Institute. Nor had he read the work of conservative author and noted libertarian scholar Charles Murray. After traveling the world as a musician, Brooks had a completely different outlook on life. Today he’s the president of AEI – and the author of a book former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says “will take its place with Charles Murray’s ‘Losing Ground’ as one of the pivotal books around which American history turned.” That book – …
When President Barack Obama first responded to the retirement of former Supreme Court Justice David Souter he outlined his preferred judging philosophy: I will seek …. someone who understands justice and isn’t about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book, it is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people’s live whether they can make a living and care for their families whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation, I view that quality of empathy of understanding and …
In the 1990s, Gatorade ran its “I wanna be like Mike” campaign – a series of advertisements of kids aspiring to be basketball legend Michael Jordan. In light of the oil spill, President Obama is ramping up his “I wanna be like” campaign when it comes to America’s energy policy. In his May 27th speech on the oil spill, after calling for Congress to pass cap and trade legislation, President Obama said the United States should be more like China when it comes to our green economy: It’s time to …
President Obama promised a federal government that is dedicated to greater openness and transparency. But does the Obama administration believe in openness and transparent government when it comes to homeland security grants managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)? Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Heritage Foundation requested basic grant information on the Transit Security Grant Program and the Port Security Grant Program. The transit security grants provide taxpayer funds to mass transit and passenger rail systems to “protect critical surface transportation infrastructure and the traveling public …
Going into the Review Conference of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Kampala, Uganda, it was clear that the highest priority on the American agenda was to defeat an amendment that would grant the ICC jurisdiction over the crime of aggression. At the very least, the U.S. wanted to convince the delegates (America is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, and thus did not have a vote at the conference) to grant the court jurisdiction over aggression only in cases where the U.N. …
In The Matrix, EMP (electromagnetic pulse) was used to stop the Machines during the Machine War. Even Agent Smith used EMP to take out the Hovercrafts. It all sounds like the work of science fiction and Keanu Reeves, but the real threat of electromagnetic pulse isn’t fiction at all—but a growing threat that Congress and the Administration have failed to take seriously. If used effectively by an adversary, a nuclear weapon detonated high in the Earth’s atmosphere could generate a radio frequency capable of destroying all of the electronic devices …
Two weeks ago former Sen. George Allen (R-VA) visited The Heritage Foundation’s weekly Blogger Briefing to promote his book What Washington Can Learn From the World of Sports, which includes a chapter on national security titled “Defense Wins Championships.” Heritage Foundation senior research fellow for national security James Carafano picks up the theme in his weekly Washington Examiner column: Of course, national security challenges are not the same as sports challenges. The former is a matter of life and death. Moreover, sports have rules. People like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad …
Just as opposition was building in the House to the unconstitutional and burdensome DISCLOSE Act, which is intended to help Democrats in the November election by stifling the political speech of corporations and many non-profit advocacy organizations (but not unions), the National Rifle Association has apparently sold out. Politico and others are reporting that the NRA has reached a deal to withdraw its opposition to the bill in exchange for an exemption for the NRA from its disclosure provisions. The exemption would apply to “organizations which have qualified as having tax exempt …
