
Iran: Khameini Trounces Ahmadinejad in Iranian Elections
With an initial turnout of 65 percent in Iran’s parliamentary election on Friday the political future of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looks bleak. Iran’s ultra-conservative Islamic clerical leadership is eager to restore the damage to its legitimacy, caused by the violent crackdown on dissent and claims of vote-rigging after Ahmadinejad’s re-election in 2009. Supreme Leader Ayatollah […]

Iran ‘May have Tested Nukes in N. Korea in 2010’
The Sunday morning edition of Germany’s Die Welt, quoted by leading journalist David Goldman in Pajamas Media, reports that Western intelligence agencies detected two nuclear weapons tests in North Korea in 2010, and that one or both of them might have been conducted for Iran. The author is the respected German analyst and former top official […]

China’s Rise and India’s Obvious Partner (the US)
The release last week of an Indian think tank report entitled “Non-Alignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the 21st Century” has prompted robust discussion about Indian foreign policy in the age of a rising China. Indian national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon provided remarks at the report launch and apparently participated […]

Geithner Draws Wrong Dodd–Frank Lessons and Forgets Fannie Mae
There were plenty of lessons to learn after the financial crisis of 2008. Unfortunately, neither Congress nor the Obama Administration was willing to take the time to learn them. Instead, they acted before they understood the causes of the crash or what to do to avoid similar bailouts in the future. The result was the […]

Chinese Defense Spending Continues Rise as U.S. Budget Declines
As China prepares for the final plenum of the 17th Party Congress, it has announced that the new defense budget would amount to 670 billion RMB (approximately $106 billion), which equates to a 11.2 percent increase. This is in sharp contrast to the United States, which, despite a so-called “pivot to Asia,” is busily reducing […]

Obama Hearts Israel . . . Oh, Really?
At the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) meeting in Washington today, President Barack Obama delivered a speech on US-Israeli relations under his presidency, but with the bad parts left out. “I have kept my commitments to the state of Israel,” Obama declared, “At every crucial juncture – at every fork in the road […]

Sen. James Inhofe Says Global Warming Is ‘The Greatest Hoax’
In a new book out this week, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) traces the history of global warming hysteria and concludes it’s a downright hoax. He also reveals how climate-change champions are benefiting financially by promoting the idea. Inhofe’s book, “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future,” is sure to inspire heated […]

Setting Biden Straight on Obamacare’s Anti-Conscience Mandate
Vice President Biden didn’t get the story quite straight. As the Obama Administration reels from the backlash for Obamacare’s anti-conscience mandate that forces religious employers to provide coverage and pay for abortion-inducing drugs, Biden yesterday set out to convince America that the Administration has a “new” version of the mandate that respects religion. The only […]

National Standards: Costly in Dollars and Liberty Lost
Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s comments last week, in which he equated state lawmakers who question the Common Core national standards push with conspiracy theorists, are another indication that the Common Core Initiative is not the states-based movement the Administration claims it to be. Indeed, national standards have become the cornerstone of the Department of Education’s […]

Edwin Meese III on the Death of James Q. Wilson
“Jim Wilson was one of America’s greatest thinkers, scholars, and patriots, as well as a good friend. He had a major influence on the modernization of policing in our nation and was also one of the most profound writers on moral philosophy. His teaching at several institutions inspired young Americans and provided a series of […]

HR Forces Financial Times Hamas Clarification
Back in December 2011, the Financial Times refused to correct an error during an email exchange with HonestReporting. Covering the 24th anniversary “celebrations” of Hamas, the paper reported Hamas boasts of killing 1365 “Zionist soldiers” taking the statement to mean “Israeli soldiers”. Despite the fact that other media and Hamas itself understood the figure to include Israeli […]
