Eric Holder’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an all-out war on voter-ID laws and other measures designed to safeguard the electoral process. Although Holder’s actions are purportedly to prevent African-Americans from being disenfranchised, the reality is that they serve the crass political purpose of ensuring that Holder’s boss gets re-elected next year. (more)
It was good to see President Obama link his Osawatomie speech to Kansas history. Some commentators said Mr. Obama was “channeling the Roosevelts,” especially Theodore. It delighted some that Mr. Obama donned the mantle of the Republican Roosevelt. (more)
The Obama administration has offered in two high-level addresses the crystallization of all that is wrong in its course. (more)
Writer and thinker George Gilder has challenged Americans throughout his career. His book Wealth and Poverty ought to be required reading at the White House, but isn’t. There’s no indication from the disastrous policies pursued by this administration that anyone there has ever read this important work. (We might suggest it, though, for all those Occupiers of Wall Street. It would do wonders for their grim employment prospects.) Similarly, Men and Marriage was a Gilder work that laid out the secular case for social improvement and which — not incidentally — showed how the polygamy that is endemic to the Arab Middle East was a root cause of the ceaseless turmoil in Muslim societies there. (more)
Governor Perry created a buzz recently when he said that President Obama is a socialist, though he was quick to add that the president loves his country and simply doesn’t understand how America’s market-based economy works. If the president understood the private sector, Governor Perry explained, he wouldn’t pursue tax and regulatory policies that crush job-creators and prevent wealth creation. (more)
Gov. Rick Perry stated at the outset of his presidential campaign that he is running for president based on his principles and leadership accomplishments, not his oratorical skills. By focusing on Perry’s debate missteps, the media is deliberately ignoring his record and charisma. (more)
On Sunday night’s “Geraldo at Large” on the Fox News Channel, Ken Blackwell — a black conservative politician, activist and Rick Perry supporter — questioned the willingness of Cain and his supporters to raise the race card in the middle of the controversy. (more)
The headlines are stark indeed: “Israel Readies a Pre-Emptive Strike.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be working to persuade reluctant members of his coalition cabinet to go along with such a military option against Islamist Iran. The Huffington Post’s British edition reports Netanyahu saying this: (more)
Reuters’s Paul Chapman has filed a report from Tunis. There have been elections there, less than one year after an uprising ousted dictator Zine al Abidine Ben Ali. The former Tunisian strongman is said to be enjoying his retirement in Saudi Arabia. There, Ben Ali doubtless has seen news coverage of the bloody end of his neighboring desert despot, Moammar Gadhafi. Ben Ali is probably offering prayers of thanks that he got out of Dodge in time. (more)
The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki last week has sparked spirited discussions in the prestige press and on the Web. Awlaki was an American-born Muslim cleric who once headed a mosque in Falls Church, Virginia. But he traveled to Yemen, where he became a leader of al Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula. He urged fellow jihadists to take up arms and to engage in terror attacks on the United States, the country of his birth and citizenship. (more)
Daniel Webster was the most famous lawyer of his day. In 1819, the “Godlike Daniel” stood before the U.S. Supreme Court and argued passionately for the right of Dartmouth College to govern itself, and not to be brought under the rule of the New Hampshire legislature. Webster appealed to the Constitution, arguing that New Hampshire’s actions would violate the provision that forbade states to “impair the obligations of contract.” But the emotional power of his argument caught the attention of Chief Justice John Marshall and Justice Joseph Story — and, in truth, captured the hearts of the country. (more)
The normally sensible Forbes magazine recently named Hillary Clinton the second-most-powerful woman in the world. That’s absurd. She’s clearly not even the second-most-powerful woman in the Obama administration. For influence on this president, she clearly walks behind Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett and Kathleen Sebelius. (more)
In liberals’ frenzy to elect Barack Obama in 2008, no one was quite as far out to sea as Andrew Sullivan, a respected columnist for The Atlantic. He served up his “Daily Dish” by the plateful. Here’s perhaps the hottest example of his rhetoric — quoted endlessly around the blogosphere — back then: (more)
His appeal to comity — defined as a friendly social atmosphere, social harmony — was undoubtedly Barack Obama’s greatest attribute as a candidate. He promised a new politics, a new cordiality. No more red-state/blue-state divisions. He touted his Senate friendship with Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn. It was genuine. On the campaign trail in 2008, Sen. Obama offered his sitting down with Tom Coburn as an example of how he could reach out to opponents and bring disparate groups together. (more)
President Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is on a job-killing rampage. It’s claiming unprecedented powers far beyond what federal law allows. In the context of Obama’s other agencies’ decisions, these executive actions paint a picture of what has become an imperial presidency. (more)
Forbes magazine, which is a respected resource for business leaders, recently came out with a list of the world’s most powerful women. Not surprisingly, Forbes chose German Chancellor Angela Merkel as No. 1. This is doubtless because the conservative Merkel has been trying to get the European Union to shape up. Putting out economic fires in Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal, Germany’s financial strength has been put to the test. Just how much longer can the E.U. rely on Germany’s productivity to subsidize European sloth? Merkel is like the old E.F. Hutton ads on TV: When Angela talks, Europeans listen. (more)
For almost two hundred years, the Monroe Doctrine has been a cornerstone of American foreign policy. First proclaimed in December 1823, the message from President James Monroe to the imperialist ruling houses of Europe was bold and unmistakable: The Western Hemisphere, including the Latin American colonies that were throwing off European rule, was not open to further colonization, and the U.S. would view any attempts by Europeans to extend their existing colonies into independent American states or to interfere with those states’ attempts to achieve independence as hostile acts against us, the United States of America. (more)
Liberals are trying to kill the prospect of a balanced-budget amendment (BBA) in the ongoing battle over the debt ceiling. Some on the right respond that they might settle for a “clean” BBA. But there are two types of clean BBAs, one of which would be worse than no BBA at all. (more)
“Revenge is a dish best served cold” is an old French expression. Maybe American politicos ought to pay attention to the wisdom of our overseas friends. We’ve had almost 11 years to contemplate the 2000 election. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore resolved that election some 43 days after Election Day. It was a wrenching experience for millions. Still, we can take pardonable pride in the fact that the mail went out every day, no tanks rumbled through our nation’s capital and we didn’t have any fistfights in Congress over the result. (more)
I learned in science class that no two snowflakes are exactly the same — their uniqueness is owed to the fact that tiny droplets in clouds cool and freeze at different rates. Determining whether a student understands this or any other level of science is where tests come into play, and for students considering college, the standardized admissions test has an important role. (more)
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