While hosting Syria’s President-for-life Bashar al-Assad on June 25-26, Venezuela authoritarian populist and aspiring president-for-life Hugo Chavez was quick to promise ever-closer ties with Syria. Assad’s Syria is the longest running country on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Chavez described the Syrian leader’s visit as part of a “strategic project of cooperation to build the Caracas-Damascus axis” linking two socialist countries. Chavez made clear that he shares common enemies with Syria: “We have common enemies: “the Yankee [U.S] empire” and “the genocidal state of Israel.” Chavez continued: Arab civilization …
For a country that is still heavily dependent on coal power, news of a more efficient (read: lower-carbon-emitting) coal plant should be greeted with roaring applause from the environmental community. Unfortunately, under the Obama Administration, the U.S. Export-Import bank can’t see past the black and white idea that coal and other fossil fuels are the enemies of the environment, and only renewables can save it. This mentality creates double standards, as when White House denied a $250 million Ex-Imp Bank loan to a coal power plant in India equipped with …
Tim Starks recently penned a piece for Congressional Quarterly titled “Republicans Take Pause at START Accord’s Missile Defense Implications.” His bottom line: “No matter how often Democrats or Obama administration witnesses try to sway them, Republicans continue to express doubts about whether a new arms treaty would constrain U.S. missile defense plans.” Who can blame them? There are many reasons to hate the treaty. Consider just these five: 1. The Administration’s “Trust Us, Don’t Verify” Policy. Turning Reagan’s old arms-control dictum on its head, White House officials continue brushing aside …
Deputy Director of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation Robert Alt is scheduled to testify as a minority witness this Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the nomination of Elena Kagan to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Throughout the hearings, he and his colleagues will be providing real-time updates here at The Foundry. This post will remain at the top of the page throughout. Please look below for other fresh perspectives on the day’s news and …
Following the release of the 2,000-page Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill last Friday, fixed-income portfolio manager Christine McConnell told Businessweek: “Clarity is good. [Once financial institutions] understand the rules of the road they’ll be able to accommodate their business models.” There is only one problem: passage of the Dodd-Frank bill doesn’t provide any clarity. In fact, it does the exact opposite. The New York Times explains: “The bill, completed early Friday and expected to come up for a final vote this week, is basically a 2,000-page missive to federal agencies, instructing …
In the nearly 160,000 pages of recently released documents that relate to Elena Kagan, precious little appears about Paula Jones — even though Kagan was intimately involved in President Clinton’s sexual harassment lawsuit in her capacity in the White House Counsel’s office. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) today had something to say about that. “The people who decide which documents we get are representatives of President Clinton and President Obama,” Sessions told bloggers in a preview to the Kagan confirmation hearings to bloggers. “Would President Clinton want to release something that …
We didn’t hear any questioning of Elena Kagan in the first day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but we did get the opening statements of all of the senators on the Committee and we heard from the nominee herself. The Democrats have 12 members including the chairman, Patrick Leahy (VT), and Herb Kohl (WI), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Russ Feingold (WI), Arlen Specter (PA), Chuck Schumer (NY), Dick Durbin (IL), Benjamin Cardin (MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Ted Kaufman (DE), and Al Franken (MN). The …
On June 28, 2009, Latin America’s populist authoritarian movement led by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez suffered a major setback. Vigilant Hondurans defended their representative institutions and Constitution by removing Manuel Zelaya from power. They did so after Zelaya attempted to alter Honduras’ strict, one-term limit on executive power and adopt the “Chavez method of destroying democratic institutions using street mobs.” The removal of Zelaya created a firestorm of diplomatic controversy. The Organization of American States (OAS) condemned Zelaya’s removal and expelled Honduras for defending its constitution. The Obama Administration first …
After our government claimed that we did not need or could not obtain larger ships to skim the Gulf oil spill, a giant-capacity skimming ship has arrived in U.S. waters. Yet our government has us wondering whether it will permit the ship to join the cleanup effort. The problem is not simply the Jones Act; it’s also that our Environmental Protection Agency may squelch the ability to use this giant ship. The S. S. A-Whale is not like the mere 4,000-barrel-a-day vessels we’ve been using. Its owners say this ship, …
Although Canada’s taxpayers were forced to spend one billion dollars for security at the G-20 Summit in Toronto last weekend, more than 600 people were arrested after a roving bands of protesters shattered shop windows for blocks. At that point, as Mark Steyn points out, the “insecure dweebs of the Toronto police” started threatening law-abiding passers-by. Meanwhile, on substance the G-20 ended up being the flop many predicted. That didn’t stop President Obama, who talked on and on from the beginning of the confab through his wrap-up press conference trying …
