At the 2011 Space and Missile Defense Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, one could sense increasing concerns from engineers and scientists who support and contribute to the U.S. defense industrial base. The U.S. defense industrial base put a man on the moon, allowed the country to win the Cold War, and developed numerous technologies Americans use in everyday life. The type of education and advanced skill sets these men and women possess are invaluable to national security and the U.S. economy. These resources, once lost, would be difficult, expensive, and time-consuming …
We’re proud to share with you video of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Angie Johnson and the band Sidewinder performing a cover of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” They’re currently deployed in the Middle East. The band includes Staff Sgt. Ransom Miller, son of Ambassador Terry Miller of The Heritage Foundation. Their video has gone viral on YouTube with more than 900,000 views as of this posting. Thank you to our men and women of the armed forces who dedicate themselves to protecting our country and our freedoms, at home and abroad. Please share …
Tensions remain high as the United States moves closer to the 10-year anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. The threat of an attack remains real, although the nature of that threat has changed over the course of a decade. President Obama recently remarked on this phenomenon. “The most likely scenario that we have to guard against right now ends up being more of a lone wolf operation than a large, well-coordinated terrorist attack,” Obama stated. The President’s remarks come on the heels of a security memorandum jointly issued …
Some 14 million Americans are jobless, but there just aren’t enough qualified sheepherders or goatherders to meet demand. The federal government, therefore, is allowing ranchers to “import” foreign shepherds to temporarily tend their flocks, but only if they comply with the full range of regulations specified by the official Labor Certification Process for Employers Engaged in Sheepherding and Goatherding Occupations. For 60 years, in fact, the federal government has actually regulated sheep and goat shepherds to ensure that nonimmigrant foreign workers don’t dare deprive Americans of the job. The U.S. …
Driving the conversation: Americans’ approval of President Obama’s handling of the economy hit a new low yesterday. According to polling company Gallup, 71 percent of adults disapprove of the president’s economic performance. Just over a quarter of respondents said they were happy with his economic record. The last time Gallup asked the question was in May. At the time, 31 percent approved of Obama’s economic performance, while 60 percent disapproved. The decline is likely to feed an ongoing debate at the White House over whether the president should actually push …
Next month, America will honor the anniversary of September 11, 2001, when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens. In the days after 9/11, Americans stood together as one, setting aside partisan fervor and recognized a common enemy in Islamist terrorist groups, particularly al-Qaeda. National security was rightfully restored as our nation’s highest priority. Ten years later, Osama bin Laden is dead, delivering to victims’ families and the rest of America a bit of justice for the heinous acts we all witnessed. But one terrorist’s death does not justify …
First we showed you the photos, now there’s a video. Missing in both is the golf course that Rep. Darrell Issa’s district office supposedly overlooks. The New York Times described the California Republican’s office in the first sentence of Monday’s front-page article this way: “Here on the third floor of a gleaming office building overlooking a golf course in the rugged foothills north of San Diego, Darrell Issa, the entrepreneur, oversees the hub of a growing financial empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars.” Reporter Eric Lichtblau has defended the …
Thursday marks the 91st anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. We often hear that the amendment gives women the right to vote. But that is not the case. Women were exercising the right to vote long before 1920. At the time of the Founding, women were voting in New Jersey—a first in recorded history! Wyoming, first as a territory and then as a state, has always granted women suffrage (Wyoming became a state in 1890, 30 years prior to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment). In fact, prior …
Various news outlets are reporting that Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), intends to leave the organization next July. For those who are not familiar with ICANN, the organization is a nonprofit corporation charged with regulating and managing the Domain Name System under which Internet Protocol addresses and registration of top-level domains (such as .org and .com) are assigned. “Governance” of the medium has been historically minimal—led by nongovernmental entities and overseen by the U.S. government, which has exercised a light regulatory …
The Fitch ratings agency announced on Wednesday that it has downgraded New Jersey’s bond rating to AA- from AA. A press release from the ratings agency placed the blame for the downgrade squarely on the state’s massive unfunded pension liabilities – estimated at about $55 billion. The release notes recent efforts by the governor and legislature to reduce those liabilities, but maintains, “meeting the requisite increases in pension contributions will be challenging and is likely to conflict with other long term challenges, such as property tax relief, school funding, and …
