Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Without question, the Obama administration has been slow in coming up with a strategy to counter the threat from ISIS terrorism. This week, Rick Stengel, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, made the case for soft power. He told a packed audience at the American Security Project his office faces challenges as momentous, but far…
Once again, university officials have shown how progressive and tolerant they are by forcing Young Americans for Freedom at Pennsylvania State University to remove its table from a so-called “free speech zone.” The YAF activists’ crime? Handing out copies of the Constitution on Constitution Day, Sept. 17. Sound familiar? It should. Last year, Robert Van…
Of late, Hollywood has given us all kinds of movies about the military. The worst of them—such as “Green Zone,” a dreadful 2010 film that rightfully bombed at the box office—demonize and diminish our men and women in uniform to feed Tinseltown’s impulse to please the Code Pink crowd. But sometimes, a maverick movie breaks…
The White House yesterday released a list of executive actions to “combat climate change” with “solar deployment and energy efficiency” regulations that promise to cut 300 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2030 and allegedly billions from electricity bills. For the most part, the list doesn’t consist of anything new or grand but…
Does this "team" look like it's ready to challenge ISIS?
In an appearance on Fox News on Thursday night, before the results were finalized, The Heritage Foundation’s Nile Gardiner warned about the ill effects Scottish independence could have. >>> Photo Essay: Streets of Scotland During the Big Vote
At the first public hearing of the Benghazi Select Committee, Democrats and Republicans alike expressed frustration with the State Department’s actions and responses with regard to diplomatic security. Yet, the committee failed to get to the bottom of the most crucial security question of all. Did former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally sign a…
It’s Sept. 2014 and the country is $17.6 trillion in debt. In Jan. 2009, when President Obama was inaugurated, the nation’s debt was $10.6 trillion. Yes, the United States has added $7.06 trillion of debt under Obama. That breaks down to $61,000 per American household — and roughly 38,365 $1.59 cheeseburgers from McDonald’s. Ouch. Read…
This week, a rare bipartisan majority in the House approved a $1.1 trillion stopgap spending measure that will keep the government funded through Dec. 11. The temporary measure, called a continuing resolution, likely will pass in the Senate today. Although the CR likely will be heralded as a successful bipartisan effort that avoided a government…
Both the White House and the National Football League needed videos to get them to do the right thing. That was the analysis made by talk radio host Dennis Miller on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor last night, saying that neither President Obama or NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell were willing to go the mat until videos…
Russian propaganda specialists, political technologists if you will, are flooding the Internet with redrawn maps of Ukraine, shrinking the country to half its actual size. On the new Russian maps, all that’s left of Ukraine is western Ukraine. Eastern Ukraine has been renamed Novorossiya (New Russia). The brain behind the Russian propaganda surge is former…
The recently launched al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) attempted to hijack a Pakistani Navy frigate on September 6 in order to use it to target American naval assets in the Indian Ocean, according to an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. Pakistani officials downplayed the attack, but the boldness of the plan and the…
In an effort to increase transparency and reduce complaints, the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., will issue body-mounted cameras to a test group of officers to record their interactions with the public. The six-month program will begin Oct. 1. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier introduced the idea in January and since has discussed the…
The Census Bureau released updated data this week showing that the so-called “gender pay gap” between men and women reached a record low, with women earning 78 cents for every dollar a man earns. But does this mean that a woman who performs the exact same job as a man gets paid 22 cents less…
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., outlined his views on the role of America in the world, why we need American power, and his position on what the U.S. military should look like in a speech today. Here is a brief recap of what Rubio said: 1. “Foreign policy is domestic policy.” “Never before have our people…
If you are looking for information on how Americans are engaging with the Affordable Care Act, the Census Bureau’s recently released latest annual estimates of health insurance coverage is probably not the place to look—at least for now. The Census Bureau, which derives its information on healthcare from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement—the same…
With large-scale attacks against Christians by groups such as ISIS in Iraq, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and Al-Shabab in Somalia, religious intolerance has been much in the news lately. Christians, of course, are not the only religious group subjected to persecution. Whether it is Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and Falun Gong in China, Baha’is and…
Today, the Constitution turns 227 years old. To “celebrate” the occasion, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, tried to gut the First Amendment. Last week, he and other Senate Democrats proposed an amendment, related to electoral fundraising and spending, that would have considerably restricted the free speech rights of Americans. Thankfully, the proposed amendment did…
Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., spoke to The Daily Signal’s Genevieve Wood about immigration and energy policy in an exclusive interview Tuesday. He also weighed in on President Obama, saying, “I think this president is both the most incompetent and the most ideologically extreme president I’ve ever seen.” >>> Read More: Gov. Bobby Jindal Says Americans…
President Obama announced today additional efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The Ebola crisis has been ongoing for more than six months. Here are answers to your questions. What is Ebola? Ebola is a severe, often fatal virus that is in the hemorrhagic fever category. The symptoms include sudden onset of fever,…