TBILISI — Arriving in this city and driving down George W. Bush Street, you’d be hard pushed to identify Georgia as a country that recently underwent a short but brutal war. Of course the war never reached Tbilisi, but ordinary Georgians are seemingly untouched by Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion on August 7. As the global conservative movement congregates in Tbilisi for the fifth annual European Resource Bank, including former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar and State Chancelor of Georgia, Kahka Bendukidze, the Georgian think tank New Economic School has …
According to the Tax Policy Center, Barack Obama plans raise the tax burden on all Americans by $627.1 billion over the next 10 years. Defending this policy on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Joe Biden told Americans they should enjoy paying higher taxes because “it’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut.”Apparently, the rest of the world does not view higher taxes as “patriotic” as Biden does. Over the last decade almost every …
Despite promises to withdraw their troops, Russian forces are still manning checkpoints in undisputed Georgian territory and demanding advance notification of all travel through the central Georgian city of Gori. Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utishvili commented: “This is ridiculous. If they ask you to get a Russian visa if you want to travel from Washington to Baltimore, that’s what it looks like.” How did we get here? For the first time since the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) was created in 2002, President Vladimir Putin attended the April 2008 NATO Summit …
No wonder Europe loves Barack Obama: while Obama is promising unilateral withdrawal from NAFTA unless Mexico agrees to new terms to protect U.S. union jobs, the European Union is working to reduce trade barriers with Mexico. The AP reports: The European Union’s executive commission on Tuesday proposed to upgrade ties with Mexico, recommending the North American nation be made a “strategic partner” for the 27-nation EU. … The plan, which still needs the backing of EU nations and the European Parliament, was also seen to improve European access to Mexico’s …
News, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, that the UK intends to extend its proscription of Hezbollah as a terrorist group to include its entire military wing is a long overdue step in the right direction. The proscription means that it will soon be a crime to be a member or supporter of the military wing of this violent entity, which has supported terrorist acts on both coalition forces and civilians in Iraq. It’s now time for the EU to follow suit and add Hezbollah to its common list …
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s decision to finalize an agreement with Prague in early July to station part of the “third site” anti-missile system there arrives at a critical point in the proliferation debate. The news comes at the same time a former U.N. arms inspector is set to report that plans to build a nuclear weapon — compatible with Iran’s ballistic missile technology — could have fallen into the hand of the rogue regime and other dangerous actors. The radar in the Czech Republic, together with the possible stationing …
Since liberals took over Congress, they’ve chosen to abandon the pro-free trade policies of President Bill Clinton in the ’90s and embrace a neo-protectionism that is costing the U.S. economy millions and undercutting our reputation as a reliable ally in South America. Heritage scholars James Roberts and Ray Walser lay out just some of the costs: A race is on for influence and, ultimately, for power in the Western Hemisphere. Strangers from the Eastern Hemisphere, from China to Russia, from Europe to Iran, are interested in trade and secure supplies of resources, …
Possibly the scariest outcome from Super Tuesday is that the top three candidates to become president all support a cap-and-trade approach to global warming. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are all smart and capable leaders, but they also have been completely engrossed in White House politics for more than a year. Hopefully when they have the time to examine recent evidence they will reject their current proposals, which include costly carbon limits that will harm our economy without positively affecting the climate at all. …
The Los Angeles Times reports today that “the climate may be right for a global warming bill” due to “big chunk of industry” just wanting to get something done. Unfortunately much of the legislation on Capitol Hill is modeled after the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme, and that effort has abjectly failed. Since the program was implemented EU emissions from relevant sectors have risen .8% and are well above the Kyoto target (See here for why the EU scheme has failed). Now the EU has launched a “20 20 by …
It has only taken six years, but according to reports that surfaced today, the United States and Poland have finally reached a tentative agreement on the development of a Ground Based Midcourse defense site, which will initially include the placement of 10 interceptors in Poland. Although discussions concerning the radar site in the Czech Republic have not been concluded, the agreement between the U.S. and Poland comes as somewhat of a surprise, as the Polish public opinion looked unfavorable and requests for cooperation on security and other matters were prolonging …
