With their institution at all-time lows in public popularity and trust, it is no wonder that members of Congress are looking to improve the body’s image. The “Clean Up Government Act,” which is coming before the House Judiciary Committee this week, is one of the most prominent attempts to do so. But a closer look shows that Congress is merely extending its streak of overcriminalization and overfederalization in the name of “good governance.” In July, a hearing on the bill showed that there were clear problems with the legislation. Rep. …
A screen grab made on October 21, 2010 in Kano from a video allegedly released by the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram in northern Nigeria reportedly shows two alleged sect members standing against a background of a Google Earth shot of the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi with the triangular city prison visible. Boko Haram ‘spokesman’ claims responsibility for the attack on the UN building in Abuja that killed 18 on August 26, 2011. It’s about time Congress started paying more attention to terrorism in Nigeria. This morning, Congressman Patrick …
In an unfortunate exercise of naval muscle-flexing, a flotilla of Russian warships will be sent to the anchorage and naval base of Tartus in Syria for a port call next spring, led by the only Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov. According to the Russian navy representative, this exercise was planned since 2010 and has no ties to the current situation in Syria. Yet, in view of the Bashar al-Assad regime’s agony, any reasonable government would cancel the visit. Moreover, the squadron may even appear too late, just as the Assad …
The Fed has shocked us once again, and it’s probably right. There’s a firestorm on the horizon. It starts in Europe, but it threatens the U.S. economy just as surely, and the Fed is getting ready. The most fundamental role of any central bank is to deal with a financial market crisis, to ensure markets operate as normally as circumstances permit. A central bank does this primarily by ensuring an adequate flow of liquidity to market participants, whether banks, other financial institutions, or other central banks. It is in this …
Industry analysts are predicting a massive bout of bankruptcies for hundreds of American solar firms as the market for solar panels, inflated by zealous government backing, begins to cool down. The fallout could be dramatic, CNN reported Wednesday. “Of the few hundred or so solar panel makers worldwide, just 20 to 40 are expected to remain standing in a few years time, said Mark Bachman, a renewables analyst at Avian Securities.” “A combination of slack demand and massive oversupply” is leading to rapidly declining prices for solar panels, CNN reports. …
The 2011 hurricane season ends today. Other than Hurricane Irene, which was nearly just a tropical storm when it hit land, no hurricanes hit the United States in 2011. Of the 455 FEMA declarations issued by the Obama Administration, only Hurricanes Irene and Alex (August 2010) have qualified for Major Disaster Declarations, FEMA’s highest disaster declaration. That is great for America. The problem is that, despite the rare appearance of hurricanes and only three declarations for earthquakes—yes, the weak tremor that hit Virginia and Washington, D.C., in September earned two …
America’s unemployment rate is still stuck at 9 percent and nearly 14 million people are out of work, yet since the recession ended, job losses have fallen well below their pre-recession rates. So why are so many still out of work? Record-low job creation is the problem. In a new paper, Heritage’s James Sherk explains that unemployment remains high because job creation has fallen. In the following chart, you can see how private-sector employment would have changed if job creation returned to pre-recession levels in June 2009. (Article continued below …
All this time, we thought conservatives were the ones pining for the past. Turns out we didn’t look back far enough in time. The stone age, when sex came easy and all were equal, may just have been the halcyon era of liberalism. Intelligent Life magazine, an offshoot of The Economist, asked a panel of writers “what was the best time and place to be alive?” Lucy Kellaway, an associate editor at the Financial Times, answered, America 10,000 to 20,000 years ago: Men and women in these hunter-gatherer tribes were …
What does it take to bring an airline to its knees? Uncompetitive union-negotiated labor contracts and a fundamental unwillingness to recognize that in a down economy, unions have a hard time raising wages without destroying jobs. That was a lesson that unions refused to learn in the case of American Airlines, which yesterday announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the last large U.S. full-fare airline to seek court protection from creditors. American was forced to take that action when the airline pilots union refused to budge on …
A constitutional amendment offered in the House of Representatives would strip American companies of all protections guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. While the amendment is aimed at curbing free speech rights afforded third party groups by the Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC, it would, whether intended or not, open the door to a host of gross violations of Americans’ civil rights. The proposed amendment, offered by Rep. Theodore Deutch (D-FL) on Nov. 18, is wholly a product of the violent and subversive “Occupy” protest movement currently unwinding across the …
