In the wake of 9/11, our antiquated laws on enemy combatant detention and foreign surveillance were exposed. Designed to regulate state-on-state action, our laws did not adequately address the detention of the enemy during wartime. Not until the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 did Congress adequately fill in the gaps …
According to the Los Angeles Times, “After Backlash, Berkeley Welcomes Marines,” and according to the Associated Press, “Berkeley Eases Anti-Marines Stance.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The San Jose Mercury News got it right: “Berkeley Council Becomes Home to Intolerance.” In order to arrive at their misleading headlines, …
Writing in Human Events, W. Thomas Smith, Jr. reminds us of Adam Smith’s first duty of government: “protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies.” To that end Republican lawmakers are pushing a proposal to set a floor on military spending at 4% of GDP. Congressional …
House Republicans scored a significant victory in their war on earmarks today when influential Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, broke with party leaders to call for an immediate moratorium on earmarks in 2009 spending bills. I think our best approach would be to …
Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) stopped by the weekly Heritage bloggers’ lunch today in part to promote his Green Eyeshade blog at Townhall.com. Campbell is the House sponsor of the “Semper Fi Act,” which was first introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) to strip Berkeley, Calif., of more …
Roll Call reports today that “House Democrats are crafting scaled-down immigration reform legislation” that creates new “five-year visas for illegal immigrants who pay fines and pass criminal background checks.” A major reason amnesty legislation failed last summer is because Americans knew the Department of Homeland Security could never process the …
House Republicans made a valiant stand on earmark reform today, falling just short in their effort to institute an immediate moratorium. By a vote of 204-196, the GOP’s procedural effort failed. Just seven Democrats voted with all Republicans: Reps. Joe Donnelley (Ind.), Tim Mahoney (Fla.), Baron Hill (Ind.), Brad Ellsworth …
