Writing from the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Atlantic’s Megan McArdle recounts a Thomas Friedman presentation on global warming where Friedman mused “about how great it would be if we could be China for a day — have the government get in, totally reorganize the energy market, and then go forward from there.” Friedman is spending a little too much time away from Washington. According to the Advanced Notice for Proposed Rulemaking leaked widely last week, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to do just that. Using authority derived from the Clean Air …
Noting the U.S. military’s return of Anbar Province to Iraqi control, the Christian Science Monitor’s Sam Dagher reports from Fallujah: This is a city literally rising from the ashes. While reminders of two major US assaults here in April and November 2004 are inescapable, signs of rebirth are plenty. Men in jumpsuits busily work on construction sites, sewers are being installed, and a hospital is nearly completed. … In the past two years, a strategy of turning tribal leaders against [Al-Qaeda in Iraq] worked and led to a significant turnabout …
Details are emerging today about Sen. Barack Obama’s proposal for a new “Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.” While information is still being released, there are two immediate concerns with the proposal: The announcement emphasizes government funding — not changing the character of government to allow more space for civil society solutions. But even worse, Obama’s plan says that when a faith-based organization takes federal dollars, it would lose its ability to preserve its faith-based character through maintaining hiring standards consistent with its mission. It could be forced to hire …
Lebanon’s long-suffering history took a turn for the worse in the last couple of days, as Hezbollah, the Shi’ite terrorist army “made in Iran,” occupied the capital city Beirut. Ten people were killed in fierce fire fights and dozens wounded, yet the Lebanese Army sat out the fight. The violence came as response to a feeble attempt by the Lebanese government to shut down Hezbollah’s fiber optic network and begin dismantling its control of Beirut’s international airport. The violence comes as President Bush is planning to embark on a Middle …
Next week the Labor Department will propose changes to its union financial reporting and disclosure requirements in an effort to improve transparency and accountability. The proposed rule will give rank-and-file union members more information about union finances. It is the latest effort by the Bush administration to increase transparency for labor unions after years of decline during the Clinton administration. (Visit UnionReports.gov for more information.) The proposed rule modifies a 2003 change to the LM-2 form, which is required for unions with annual receipts of $250,000 or more. It also …
Here’s a preview of the week ahead in Washington. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGtSIVoMj9Y[/youtube] The liberals continue to block President Bush’s conservative judicial nominees in the hope they can pack the courts with liberal judges in a potential Democrat administration. The federal courts are important because they are the training ground for our future Supreme Court nominees. Conservatives need to make sure that the table is not set for judges that will legislate a so-called constitutional right of same-sex marriage, take away the right to keep and bear arms and strike down any mention …
The White House isn’t buying the Senate housing bill. As Benton Ives reports in Congressional Quarterly, President Bush is not too thrilled with the bailout proposal. Why? “The bill will likely do more harm than good by bailing out lenders and speculators and passing on costs to other Americans who play by the rules and honor their mortgage debt obligations,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in a Tuesday briefing. A key official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) isn’t buying the House housing proposal, either. …
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today announced she will ask Democrats to alter the rules that would have required Congress to vote on a proposed Free Trade Agreement with Colombia in 90 days. In doing so, she and her liberal colleagues will alter the rules of procedure to suit their partisan ends and seek to end quietly discussion of a pesky trade agreement. To justify this action, Pelosi remarked: That many people were concerned about losing their jobs, many were concerned about losing their homes. But that was not most people. …
Liberals love to claim the Bush administration has broadly weakened regulations at the behest of corporate interests. And the media lap up these claims. Problem is, the nation’s regulatory burden has grown significantly under President Bush and it looks like the situation is going to get worse in the final months of his presidency. Many federal regulations are justified, some even necessary for a properly functioning market (like those that reinforce property rights and market mechanisms). Nevertheless, all rules come at a cost, and according to a 2005 study by …
It has now been 22 days since the House of Representatives asked for a 21-day extension to pass legislation that would bring U.S. intelligence law into the 21st century. This is on top of the 15 days they asked for and were granted on Feb. 1. In total the House has had 214 days since the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was temporarily reformed on Aug. 5, 2007, to prove to the American people that they are serious about national security. We are still waiting. Director of National Intelligence Mike …
