It’s Round 2 in President Obama’s effort to get the U.S. Senate to agree to ratification of a major international treaty. Late last year, the President successfully pressed the Senate to ratify the New START treaty with Russia, which dealt with nuclear weapons. Now, it’s ramping up pressure on another treaty, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Back in May, then-Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg said the Obama Administration and Senator John Kerry (D–MA) were working to secure the necessary number of Senate votes …
Everyone’s heard that Moody’s has threatened to downgrade our bond rating unless the debt ceiling is raised. We get that—crisis pending, yada, yada, yada. But if you read the announcement closely, there are important new points they added to the mix. First, Moody’s really doesn’t believe–that the President really will let Geithner default on our Treasury bonds—despite all of President Obama’s foot-stamping, scaremongering, and high stakes “This may bring my Presidency down” retro-drama. Moody’s says that “there is a small but rising risk of a short-lived default” (emphasis added), that …
This week the 49th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is meeting at the U.N. to review how Costa Rica, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Italy, Nepal, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Zambia have complied with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In the recent issue of Policy Review, Christina Hoff Sommers’ Feminism by Treaty identifies the threats that U.S. ratification of the CEDAW treaty would pose to many of the freedoms that Americans enjoy today. As Sommers explains, longtime …
In an article for a Catholic Web site, Representative Paul Ryan (R–WI) has again clarified the role he thinks faith and social doctrine should play in creating public policies. Ryan states that, in his role as a policymaker, he takes seriously the teachings of his church, especially the call to care for the poor. But he doesn’t equate this moral norm with increasing the size of the welfare state. Social teaching is not the monopoly of one political party, nor is it a moral command that confuses the preferential option …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. Heritage Foundation comes out against McConnell plan – Amanda Carey Sea Treaty puts U.S. interests in deep water – Peter Brookes Voters get strange polling calls – Alissa Smith Regime Change May Be Needed To Cut Deficit – Charles Krauthammer Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law – Michael W. McConnell The Real Truth About Voter ID – Hans Von Spakovsky Economy tilts debt-deal win to GOP – Neil Munro Time …
Fox News haters are circling in the water so furiously that the sharks are calling their lawyers. The phone-hacking scandal that led to the closing of one of the world’s oldest papers, the News of the World, has shaken Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire, and the whiff of blood in the water is obviously exhilarating for his enemies. So we’re visited by that rarest of events: an overseas news story receiving wall-to-wall coverage by domestic news outlets. Any American who hasn’t yet heard that the Murdoch-owned British tabloid hacked into people’s …
The McConnell Plan to hike the debt limit has only one thought behind it — fade the political heat. The Plan purportedly makes the Democratic President bear the political burden for increases in the debt limit to the benefit of Republicans, but the Plan does nothing for the good of the country. The McConnell Plan, if enacted, would immediately raise the amount of money the government can borrow by $100 billion above the current debt ceiling of $14.294 trillion. The McConnell Plan would then allow the President to make this …
This week, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov visited Washington to sign agreements on child adoption, visas, and nuclear safety. In reality, however, what Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration are hailing as symbols of closer cooperation between the two countries are only a façade to cover up the lack of progress on the more critical issues dividing the two countries: Iran, missile defense, and human rights. Lavrov and Clinton both agreed that it is time for Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi to go. In Lavrov underscored that the Libyan leader should …
President Barack Obama declared in a press conference today that he is against the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act and a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution (BBA). Obama said that a BBA is not needed for Congress and the President to balance the budget. The facts contradict the President’s statement and tell a different story. If it is so easy for Congress and the President to balance the budget, why are they running a $1.5 trillion debt or more this year? Ironically, the President submitted a budget to Congress …
Members of Congress are vowing to hold Planned Parenthood accountable for its use of taxpayer funding in the wake of a new report from Americans United for Life. Representatives Renee Ellmers (R–NC) and Randy Hultgren (R–IL) invited AUL President and CEO Charmaine Yoest to Capitol Hill yesterday for a news conference about the release of AUL’s “The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood.” Ellmers opened the discussion by thanking AUL for its groundbreaking report that “lays the foundation for further inquiry.” She said that regardless of how people feel about abortion, …
