The tents still occupy two parks in Washington, D.C., but there are fewer people living in them as protesters with the Occupy movement flee for warmer quarters. The desertion of the Occupy D.C. is fueling class divisions within the movement among “those who can’t go home again and those who chose not to,” according to the Washington Post. Homeless people flocked to the parks this fall and are now apparently among the few remaining. One of them is Blair Rush, a 41-year-old homeless woman interviewed by the Post. She told …
“We need the energy, we need the jobs, and it can be done in a safe way.” That was former Obama administration official Steve Rattner’s take on the would-be windfalls of the Keystone XL pipeline. “My instinct is [Obama] should approve it,” Rattner told a panel on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday. Rattner was the administration’s “Car Czar,” appointed to oversee the bailout of General Motors and the ensuing restructuring agreement. Jobs, energy, and safety are all laudatory goals, and Keystone meets all three, as Heritage’s Nick Loris has pointed …
The White House announced Wednesday that President Obama would recess-appoint Richard Cordray as chairman of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and three new members to the National Labor Relations Board. There’s just one problem: The U.S. Senate is not in recess. The decision to appoint these officials nonetheless appears to contradict the Obama administration’s own stated position on the issue. According to Obama’s own Justice Department, the president is in the wrong. During a 2010 Supreme Court hearing, Chief Justice John Roberts and Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal had this …
Last fall Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) visited Heritage to talk about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the “unaccountable” nominee to head the agency. At the time, there was speculation President Obama would attempt to bypass the U.S. Senate to install Richard Cordray as CFPB director. That’s exactly what happened today in what Heritage’s Todd Gaziano calls a “tyrannical abuse of power.” At the time of his visit in October, Shelby said bluntly, “I think it would be devastating if we let [Obama] make a recess appointment.” Of course, this …
Indiana lawmakers are bracing for another high-profile fight over a right-to-work bill when the legislative session opens Wednesday. Last year Democrats fled the state in protest, preventing the legislature from conducting business for five weeks. The right-to-work bill would end forced unionization for private-sector workers in Indiana. Its supporters say the bill would increase jobs and choices in the Midwestern state with a 9 percent unemployment rate. Unions complain it threatens their existence. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) is speaking out in favor of the bill, even recording a 60-second …
College campuses would seem to be ripe environments for intellectual diversity to flourish. But rather than celebrate free speech, academic institutions across America routinely censor student publications and individuals. Such was the case recently at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Professor James Miller came under attack from the campus administration when he posted a picture and quote from the science-fiction show “Firefly” outside his office door. It was removed by campus police because it was perceived to be a threat to others. When Miller fought back by posting another sign condemning …
Over the past 50 years, 10 U.S. presidents have made annual budget requests to Congress, projecting deficits both big and small. But no other president compares to Barack Obama when it comes to the size and scale of the current budget deficit facing the United States. The country is facing an 8.3 percent estimated average national deficit of a two-term Obama administration — the biggest of the past 50 years. By comparison, the current estimate for Obama is nearly double the percentage under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush — and …
Before he became president of MF Global, the bankrupt brokerage firm that lost $1.2 billion in client money, Bradley Abelow spent time as New Jersey’s treasurer and former Gov. Jon Corzine’s chief of staff. In those roles, Abelow served alongside Lisa Jackson, who led the state environmental protection department and eventually succeeded Abelow as Corzine’s chief of staff. Jackson now directs the Environmental Protection Agency in the Obama administration, and Abelow, despite a full-time job at MF Global, is still serving alongside her. The former Goldman Sachs executive holds the title …
The violent crime rate in Washington, D.C., is up 13 percent since the Occupy D.C. protest began this fall as police officers have been pulled out of local neighborhoods and reassigned to the protest. The chairman of the local police union pinned the blame on the city’s redistribution of resources, noting that on some shifts between two and 18 neighborhood patrol officers have relocated to Occupy D.C. Those protesters are primarily based in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, two downtown locations near the White House. Fraternal Order of Police Chairman …
New polling data reveals that voters in Iowa and New Hampshire overwhelmingly believe the federal budget deficit is the most important economic issue facing the United States today. Despite the nation’s persistent high unemployment rate, voters in the two early-voting states chose the deficit by wide margins. The CNN/Time/ORC poll was conducted before and after Christmas with 999 registered Republicans in Iowa and a total of 1,508 adults in New Hampshire. The results, released Wednesday, paint a clear picture about what voters are thinking about heading into 2012. They also …
