In her recent op-ed, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D–NH) expresses her favorable opinion about the New START Treaty that was voted out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. However, the op-ed, as well as the committee vote, raises more questions than answers. First, there were only 12 open and classified hearings examining the implications of New START for the national security of the United States. And as usual, the devil is in the details—with more than 20 witnesses, the minority was only allowed to hear testimony from three of …
A Florida TV reporter this weekend quickly learned that a journalist’s job is not to dig for facts and a beach is no place for a shovel — at least not in the eyes of government officials. Dan Thomas, a reporter at the local ABC affiliate in Pensacola, Fla., took a shovel to the Gulf Island National Seashore to investigate just why BP workers can’t dig more than six inches in the sand to look for oil. Park officials promptly stopped him. “We had come out here to the National …
There has been quite a bit of talk these days about obstructionism, the filibuster, and one party obstructing the work of another party. The fact of the matter is that both sides in the United States Senate have engaged in a game of procedural chicken, with the American people on the losing end of this inside-the-beltway game. Today the Senate will have yet another vote on cloture on a motion to proceed to the Defense Authorization Bill. Although this will be spun by the left as Republicans obstructing the will …
In Washington last Friday, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced that Russia will supply P-800 Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria, confirming the rumors about the contract between the two countries that appeared in October 2009. The contract was signed in 2007 according to Moscow. A ram-jet powered Yakhont (“Ruby” or “Sapphire” in Russian) is a universal supersonic anti-ship cruise missile. It can be launched from land, sea, air, and submarines. Because it flies at 2.5 Mach at water-skimming altitudes, it is virtually cloaked from radar detection. It also has a …
The left wants you to believe that we must pass the Obama tax hike because low taxes on wealthy Americans are the cause of our nation’s budget deficits. For example, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told Christiane Amanpour on This Week last month: “I don’t see any reason why we should renew a tax cut that only gives a tax cut to the wealthiest people in America, increases the deficit and doesn’t create jobs.” Don’t believe her. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), extending all the 2001 and 2003 tax …
President Obama has finally stopped ignoring the Declaration of Independence altogether, but he still seems averse to certain elements of the founding document. In his remarks to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute annual awards gala, President Obama stressed the importance of Hispanics in American history, and declared that what “made us all Americans” was “faith and fidelity to the shared values that we all hold so dear.” He continued: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed…with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the …
It seems that many in Washington had their books upside down when they studied economics. In the midst of a serious recession, they are proposing to jack up income tax rates, which would add hundreds of thousands to the already sky-high unemployment rolls. Now we hear that the Senate is thinking about forcing high-cost electricity on already struggling businesses and households, a policy that could put hundreds of thousands more out of work. Senator Harry Reid (D–NV) recently indicated that legislation mandating a renewable electricity standard (RES) is a possibility …
One of the foremost responsibilities of the federal government is to ensure the security of our nation. It is right there in the Preamble to the United States Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” This week the U.S. Senate is scheduled to take …
Each week, The Heritage Foundation features one of its more than 250,000 Facebook Fans on its “Featured Fan” page. This week’s fan is Michelle Creek, a college student in Spokane, Washington. Read her story, below, and be sure to become a fan on Facebook! Michelle Creek knew she had strong values while growing up on the banks of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington. She just wasn’t sure how to label them. “I was raised in a conservative Christian home, so that really framed a lot of the issues for …
The appearance of a government-sponsored Putin 2012 cyrillic websites pretty much clinches the major question in Russian politics: Will Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, “National Leader” and the former President of Russia, run for (and, by definition, win) the Russian presidency? There are no “Medvedev 2012″ websites registered so far. In addition to Putin’s none-too-subtle references to Franklin Roosevelt’s four terms in office while in Sochi a couple of weeks ago, the appearance of these websites answers the question of who is running for Russia’s presidency: Putin. And no one else. …
