Remember the Pepsi Challenge? All across America in the 70s and 80s, Pepsi held blind taste tests to prove that Americans prefer its soda pop to Coca-Cola. Now Pepsi faces its own challenge and a choice. Would it rather do business in a city that slaps “sin taxes” on its product or move to a friendlier clime? Guess which choice it made. Last year, the Baltimore city council passed a 2-cent tax on bottled beverages. This week, Pepsi decided to cease manufacturing at its Baltimore plant and lay off 77 …
In a move one blogger called “Huck Finning the Constitution,” the 112th Congress left out the infamous “three-fifths compromise” in their much-publicized reading of the Constitution on the House floor. The “three-fifths compromise” is a clause in Article I, Section 2, which states the number of Congressional representatives from a state will be calculated, in part, by including “three fifths of all other Persons” who are neither “free Persons” nor “Indians not taxed,” and was understood to apply to the counting of slaves. This clause was later nullified by Section …
President Obama’s seven-person Oil Spill Commission released its long-awaited final report this morning and includes details on the “before, during and after” of the Macondo well explosion that occurred on April 20 last year. The commission’s site also has a “Recommendation for Decision Makers” section that has drawn much of the media attention. This post will largely draw from that section as well. The bipartisan report predictably calls for tougher regulations and more government control with regard to offshore drilling and continually refers to systemic flaws of the oil and …
The Heritage Foundation, led by its President Ed Feulner, along with partners at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and Taiwan’s Institute for National Policy Research (INPR), hosted a remarkable program in Taipei yesterday entitled “Democracy Building in Interesting Times.” The first panel was chaired by close Heritage Foundation friend and Korean National Assemblyman Park Jin and was composed of Indonesian legislator Eva Sundari, Hong Kong Legislative Councillor and 2007 pan-democrat candidate for Chief Executive Alan Leong, and former Taiwan Legislative Yuan (LY) member Parris Chang. This panel set the tone …
According to a report in The New York Times, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Tuesday that North Korea is becoming “a direct threat to the United States” and was within five years of developing a missile with the potential of hitting Alaska or the West Coast. The Times adds: “Mr. Gates’ new assessment on North Korea is a significant shift for the Obama administration, which until now has viewed Pyongyang as a proliferation threat, fearing that it might sell its existing missiles and nuclear devices to other countries, …
The big news out of a majority of state capitols is that Obamacare’s Medicaid mandates will exacerbate state budget problems and drive many states to the brink of insolvency. Thirty-three Republican governors and governors-elect have signed a letter to the White House and Congress making an emphatic appeal that Obamacare’s Medicaid provisions be repealed. Medicaid pays health care and long-term care expenses for certain categories of individuals. Medicaid has many problems, but the central one is that it costs taxpayers nearly $400 billion annually without providing recipients a high quality …
After the House of Representatives’ reading last week, the Constitution is suddenly the talk of the town. Congressmen and women on both sides of the aisle are eager to display the latest “must-have accessory” – their pocket Constitutions. This renewed interest goes beyond simply reading the document; people actually want to understand and apply it. One section that deserves such detailed attention is the Tenth Amendment. The words of the Tenth Amendment are unambiguous: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to …
Last night’s BCS Championship game pitted the Auburn Tigers from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) against the Oregon Ducks from the Pac-10. To guard against biases that could have influenced the game’s outcome, officials were provided by the Big 10. If football-crazed fans from Auburn and Oregon can understand why referees from the SEC and Pac-10 shouldn’t call the BCS Championship game, surely legislators can understand why investors shouldn’t have to rely on potentially biased officials to mediate international investment disputes. Not everyone sees it that way. Critics of the proposed …
President Obama’s oil spill commission will release its long-awaited final report this morning, recommending new government regulations and limits on drilling. These conclusions could shape the future of the oil industry — and impact our nation’s energy policy for years to come. The commission’s primary focus was determining the cause of the spill. Last week it revealed that errors by BP, Transocean and Halliburton contributed to the blowout of the Macondo well, resulting in the deaths of 11 people and the worst spill in history. But the commission’s members have …
The Obama administration is not known for its pro-British track record, but this is by far the strongest indication yet that the current White House has little regard for the Special Relationship and its unique role in modern American history. During a White House photo-op with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, President Obama had this to say: We don’t have a stronger friend and stronger ally than Nicolas Sarkozy, and the French people. Quite what the French have done to merit this kind of high praise from the US president is …
