The New York Times reports that 27 states are planning to adopt the set of national standards developed by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) — standards being backed by the Obama administration with federal funds. Like so many of the president’s moves in the past year, this push to get states to adopt national standards has been an end-run around normal legislative procedure. National standards — “federal norms” for what’s taught in your local school, as the Times puts it — …
These days “accountable” is rarely an adjective used to describe the state of American diplomacy. With government waste running rampant, it’s easy to forget that there is congressional oversight intended to hold U.S. agencies accountable for their spending. Today, the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, a bi-partisan board, created by Congress whose members are appointed by the President, met to discuss the State Department’s performance on outreach and engagement with foreign publics. The Commission, who has been critical of U.S. public diplomacy’s performance in the past, devoted this morning’s …
Andy McCarthy has an important story over at National Review Online that does an outstanding job of demolishing many of the myths being propagated about the New Black Panther voter intimidation case. It is important, however, to highlight some specific testimony on one of those myths. One of the constant refrains heard from liberals in their attempt to diminish the importance of the New Black Panther scandal is that there is no evidence that any voters were intimidated or prevented from voting.That claim is patently false although it was repeated …
One of the common “sky is falling” claims of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) supporters like Hillary Clinton and John Isaacs of the Council of a Livable World is that unless this treaty with Russia is ratified, we’ll have nothing binding to make us continue reducing our nuclear weapons arsenal. Those claims are just plain false, and the Obama Administration should acknowledge that fact –now. Today, the levels of strategic nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Russia are governed by the Bush-era Moscow Treaty or as its technically known, …
After months of inactivity, the Senate could finally address the death tax in the coming days. It is about time it acted, because in a little over five months—January 1, 2011—the death tax will rise from 0 percent all the way to 55 percent. Proponents of the death tax make several arguments about why Congress should allow the death tax to resume hurting families and harassing family-owned businesses and farms. The most common arguments in favor of the death tax are:
Last month the Obama administration hired former Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt to coordinate state and local activities for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On the surface, Hurtt’s selection seems like a strange decision. One of his primary duties will be to “oversee and promote partnerships between federal and local officials” on immigration enforcement — responsibility that seems incompatible with Hurtt’s well-publicized opposition to having local police assist with immigration enforcement. Hurtt’s support for “sanctuary cities” is also hardly in sync with the agency’s mission. As the new state …
The President is scheduled to sign the financial overhaul bill today, yet he might want to pause a moment to consider not signing this bill because of the potentially unconstitutional racial and gender preference provisions buried in the massive bill. Four members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights have signed a letter complaining that Section 324 of the conference report titled the “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” “includes a section on race and gender that even those who pride themselves on keeping up with national affairs …
British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the White House for the first time as Prime Minister yesterday. At a time when the United States is engaged in a war in Afghanistan, when Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons, and while the world economy is teetering through a weak recovery, one would hope our press corps would focus on lasting issues of physical and economic security. Unfortunately the press conference and the media coverage focused exclusively on the Scottish government’s release of the 1988 Lockerbie bomber and whether …
Today, a team of experts from The Heritage Foundation left port at Myrtle Grove, Louisiana to tour marshes, wetlands, estuaries and lakes from Venice to Grand Isle, and spoke with officials leading the cleanup and protection efforts. One message was made extremely clear: The lack of urgency from the federal government remains. The Heritage team witnessed workers collecting boom saturated in oil and other boats maintaining and placing new boom. The edges of several marsh patches were visibly stained black and although some areas already showed signs of recovery, had …
This week, the U.S. and South Korea have initiated extensive joint military exercises and senior-level security meetings to project an image of strong solidarity, resolve, and deterrence to North Korea. Under normal circumstances, these actions would have accomplished their purpose. Although the robust naval exercises display formidable military capabilities, they are overshadowed by the perception, if not the reality, that the U.S. postponed and then altered its military plans in deference to Chinese objections. Coupled with the impotent U.N. response to North Korea’s attack on the South Korean naval vessel …
