House Cloakroom Analysis: This week, the House returns from a week of recess to take up a bill that would require the President to produce a date by which his proposed budget will balance. The Require a PLAN Act would be triggered when the President sends his budget to Congress and it does not balance […]
Fang Zhe/Xinhua/Photoshot/Newscom Former Senator Chuck Hagel (R–NE) repeatedly fumbled his responses on important Middle East security questions at his confirmation hearing this week. He sought to sidestep Senator John McCain’s (R–AZ) question about whether the surge of U.S.troops in Iraq succeeded. Although he had opposed the troop surge and denounced it at the time as […]
Cindy Yamanaka/Orange County Register/Newscom Recent events involving the Boy Scouts of America have once again raised concerns about attempts to shove people and groups with traditional viewpoints on issues such as marriage, family, and sexuality out of the public square. As recently as July 2012, the Boy Scouts reaffirmed its long-standing membership policy regarding open […]
Former Senator Chuck Hagel’s (R–NE) responses regarding his stance on the future of the U.S. nuclear deterrent were misleading. Hagel stated during his confirmation hearing yesterday that his position has never been “unilateral disarmament ever, never.” He said that he doesn’t agree with “any recommendation that would unilaterally take any action to further reduce our […]
The story of the late Dr. Peter Gleason, a Maryland psychiatrist who devoted much of his practice to serving the poor and underserved populations, is a tragic reminder of the real-life impact that overcriminalization can have on individuals. Before a drug can be sold in the United States, it must first be evaluated by the […]
Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s congressional testimony (here and here) failed to deliver new information regarding the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. If anything, the hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee more or less offered Secretary Clinton an opportunity to […]
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently made comments that have fueled speculation about the looming confrontation with Iran over its nuclear weapons program. In an interview published by the Daily Beast on Friday, Barak was asked if there was any way that Israel could launch a military strike at Iran’s nuclear infrastructure without dragging the […]
The regime in Tehran has started tightened censorship beyond its customary draconian rule in anticipation of potential unrest caused by Iran’s upcoming elections in June. On Sunday, a mass arrest of at least 14 reporters for independent news media took place, the largest media crackdown since the presidential election of 2009, which gave birth to […]
Patsy Lynch/Polaris/Newscom The Senate today confirmed John Kerry to be the next Secretary of State by a vote of 94-3. As expected, the former Senator and Foreign Relations Committee chairman had no trouble sailing through his confirmation process. The only three dissenters were Republicans Jim Inhofe (OK), John Cornyn (TX), and Ted Cruz (TX). Kerry […]
Sergei Magnitsky. Photo: PhotoXpress/ZumaPress/Newscom The Russian government is set to posthumously try the brutally murdered whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky for tax fraud. While working for Hermitage Capital, formerly one of Russia’s largest foreign investment firms, Magnitsky uncovered a massive fraud and accused Russian police and tax officials of embezzling $230 million from the Russian treasury. For […]
