Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
The Obama administration was forced to punt once again at the talks on Iran’s nuclear program when the Iranians refused to budge on their maximal demands on uranium enrichment and sanctions relief. When they failed to strike a deal by Monday’s deadline, Iran and the P5 +1 (five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council…
Sen. Rand Paul castigated politicians in an op-ed today about the unrest in Ferguson, Mo. “In the search for culpability for the tragedy in Ferguson, I mostly blame politicians,” wrote the Kentucky Republican in Time. “Michael Brown’s death and the suffocation of Eric Garner in New York for selling untaxed cigarettes indicate something is wrong…
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act seems like an unending nightmare. Desperate for some good news, the White House is justly relieved and celebrating the fact that the government website is not plagued with last year’s disasters. But other big challenges loom, including the administration of the law’s hideously complex insurance subsidy system, as…
A new report on Benghazi does little to resolve the ongoing controversy about what happened. The U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence issued its investigative report last week on the terrorist attacks on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya. Those attacks, which occurred on Sept. 11-12, 2012, resulted in the deaths of…
A picture says a thousand words but the recent picture tweeted out by the White House needs just two: fear mongering. In promotion of its website http://toolkit.climate.gov/, the Obama Administration tweeted a picture of a fire about to destroy a community. You can see it here. The fact of the matter is the Administration is…
Ming Ton Liu’s story highlights the problems with civil asset forfeiture. Liu, a Chinese-born American citizen, had $75,195 seized from him by a sheriff’s deputy at a traffic stop last year—and he was never charged with any crime. Using civil asset forfeiture, law enforcement officials can seize cash or other property they believe is related…
The Arlington County Board just gave taxpayers another reason to give thanks on Thursday: It canceled a planned streetcar program. The Board’s 4–1 decision reflected concerns over the project’s cost, effectiveness, and ability to spur development in blighted neighborhoods. Officials overseeing Washington, D.C.’s streetcar project should follow Arlington’s lead and wind down its streetcar program…
After news of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s resignation Monday, analysts immediately predicted that Hagel will be made a scapegoat for the administration’s poor leadership on issues such as the Islamic State’s rise and the spread of Ebola. But is that fair? Two of Hagel’s predecessors argue that challenges in implementing sound national security policy have…
The Kurdish people are often described as the largest ethnic group in the world without a nation-state; nevertheless, they have greatly influenced regional events—most recently in combating the Islamic State (IS), which now controls large swaths of territory within Iraq and Syria. Historically a nomadic people, the Kurds (today numbering about 20–30 million) inhabit a…
Secretary Chuck Hagel served as the head of the Department of Defense (DOD) for a grand total of 21 months and, like those previous to him, was an enabler to President Obama’s misguided foreign policy. As the world continues to deteriorate, the next Secretary of Defense will have to do what previous Secretaries have failed…
Should guides have to pass a multiple-choice history test, background check and drug screen to be eligible to provide tours in cities? The Supreme Court could be taking up that question soon. The Institute for Justice has asked the Court to consider an important First Amendment case from New Orleans, which requires its tour guides…
If you’re a worker and you have a pension, there’s a government agency that will pay that pension if your company is unable to fulfill the financial promises made to you and your colleagues. There’s just one catch: That government agency has a massive deficit right now. According to the recently released 2014 annual report…
It comes as no surprise that the U.S.–China cybersecurity talks at the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) largely failed. While Obama was in China The Washington Post reported that the Chinese were the prime suspects in hacks against both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The USPS announced that…
The federal government’s mandate to require Americans to use expensive, inefficient biofuels is so broken and dysfunctional it can’t even decide the ideal target amount of production. On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency again announced that it would not determine the amount of ethanol and biofuels required to be mixed into every American’s fuel tank for…
When Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel entered the Obama administration, he was a proponent of U.S. unilateral nuclear weapons reductions. He believed that nuclear weapons are irrelevant and that the U.S. would be better off getting rid of them. Now, he’s resigned—and his change of opinion on nuclear weapons might surprise you. Hagel leaves after having proposed…
Republicans are rightly and predictably infuriated by Barack Obama’s immigration executive action power play. What has been remarkable has been the silence from the left to President Obama granting legal status to some 5 million illegal immigrants. Such Nixonian abuses of White House power once elicited howls of protest from Democrats and their lap dogs…
Congress doesn’t have to take this sitting down. Last week, President Obama announced executive actions on immigration that would defer deportation for millions of illegal immigrants. Members of Congress should rightfully be concerned that the president is usurping their legislative power and, at a minimum, not faithfully executing the law. There are a variety of…
Last week, the House of Representatives filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in Washington challenging the Obama administration’s unilateral actions that have effectively amended the Affordable Care Act. Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other Republicans had threatened for several months to sue in an attempt to rein in the Obama…
At stake in the fight over President Obama’s executive action on immigration could be the future voting patterns of Hispanics—not just of the 5 million or so illegal immigrants he expects to legalize, but also the 46 million or so potential voters who are here legally. If Obama can assimilate all of them into his vision of…
That sound you’re hearing from across the Pacific is the Chinese rulers and Beijing laughing at us. President Obama and the “green” lobby actually think China is going to honor the new U.S.-China climate-change agreement that pushes both nations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions over the next 15 years. China agreed to a “target” of deriving…