Last week, both the North Carolina House and the Senate approved a state constitutional amendment that would define marriage as one man and one woman. North Carolina voters will have the opportunity to approve the amendment in 2012. The pro-marriage votes in the North Carolina legislature continue a nationwide trend to protect marriage as one man and one woman—especially through the use of democratic measures such as constitutional amendments and ballot initiatives. According to Jordan Lorence, a senior attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, North Carolina voters will join Minnesota …
Progressive Presidents love war in the shadows. During World War I, Woodrow Wilson wanted to spy on all Americans. FDR created the OSS during World War II under “Wild” Bill Donovan. Both JFK and Lyndon Johnson set records for numbers of covert operations under the CIA. The attraction is obvious. On the one hand, they can spout “we are the world” rhetoric. On the other, they can play at war with operations that lack transparency and accountability—where failures can be swept under the rug away from the media glare and, …
The White House has recently announced more details about the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), a ballistic missile defense plan for the protection of allies and friends in Europe and the U.S. homeland in its later stages. While the EPAA has certain good aspects, including advancing the Aegis sea-based missile defense capability, it would not provide the kind of robust missile defenses needed by the United States and its friends and allies. For example, it is not until the Phase Four (2020) timeframe that the plan would provide additional defensive …
In recent interview, doctor and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean tried to make the case that Obamacare will boost small-business job growth. “But the fact is [Obamacare] is very good for small business. It’s incredibly good for small business,” said the one-time Democratic presidential candidate. Incredibly, Dean breaks away from his liberal colleagues and the White House by backing the results from a recent McKinsey & Co. survey. The survey was vilified for reporting that 30 percent of companies said they would drop employee health coverage once the …
Recently elected Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is scheduled to attend the U.N. General Assembly dialogues in New York this week. Noda will be the fourth Japanese prime minister in four consecutive years to attend the conference. A new prime minister has attended the dialogues every year since 2008, due to the high turnover rate of executive leaders in Japan. Although the primary purpose of Noda’s visit is to participate in the U.N. dialogues, Noda’s agenda also includes a separate meeting with President Obama, where they will have a chance …
You wouldn’t know it if you solely paid attention to the mainstream media, but while President Barack Obama attempts to sell the country on hundreds of billions in new stimulus spending and $1.5 trillion in new taxes, his Administration is smack in the middle of several growing scandals: the Operation Fast and Furious gun-running debacle and the crony capitalism wrongdoing involving Solyndra and LightSquared. In the fall of 2009, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is overseen by President Obama’s Department of Justice, launched an effort to sell …
Driving the conversation: Mitch McConnell says no. Harry Reid says maybe. At issue is a continuing resolution the House is expected to take up today. It would fund the federal government at current levels, but the $3.65 billion increase in FEMA disaster aid funding would be offset with cuts elsewhere in the budget. Fifty Republicans have expressed doubts about the CR, though, so House leaders may need to secure support from Democrats in order to pass it. Dems, meanwhile, are not happy that the CR would cut $1.5 billion from an …
Two Solyndra executives slated to testify before a House committee Friday have announced they will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to answer any of the committee’s questions. The two had previously told the committee they would not plead the Fifth if they could push back the date of their testimony. Jan Little, the attorney representing Solyndra CFO W.G. Stover, said her client “looks forward to a time when he can assist the Subcommittee’s efforts, and make known his perspective about events at Solyndra. Unfortunately, the current …
During his Rose Garden speech Monday, the President claimed that his new “debt reduction” plan would provide $2 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax increases. A closer look at the administration’s own numbers, however, suggests the President, well, exaggerated. A realistic assessment—based mainly on table S-6 of the Administration’s plan—shows that his $1.57 trillion in tax increases are accompanied by just $130 billion in net new, policy-based spending reductions. The President’s “plan” claims credit for the following: Policies Already Enacted. The debt reduction proposal starts with two items …
According to new data from the FBI, violent and property crime rates fell in America last year, despite continued high unemployment rates. Unlike previous press reports that said criminologists are puzzled by declining crime rates during times of high unemployment, the Associated Press ran a story quoting University of Cincinnati professor John Eck’s conclusion that “The connection between crime and the economy is an illusion.” Criminologists should not be surprised at this conclusion, because the social science literature on the relationship between unemployment and crime rates is mixed. Studies tend …
