 |
 |
|
|
|
||
The pizza joints are making a killing in Madison, Wisconsin. Normally at this time of year Ian’s Pizza by the Slice is doing good business because the state high school wrestling tournament is in town and the venue, the Kohl Center on the University of Wisconsin campus, is a block down Frances Street. But they [...]
Congress should think twice before forcing a government shutdown, as the consequences could be the loss of the power of Congress to control spending through authorization and appropriation bills. Congress permitted President George W. Bush to accumulate new powers in the executive, and these powers have passed to Obama. Bush succeeded in establishing that, as [...]
Apart from courageous comments by Senator Rand Paul, there has been little serious consideration of cutting the many programs supported by the government that provide no benefit to the American people. I have been given a copy of a letter sent out recently to congressional Republican chiefs of staff by the office of the esteemed patriot Representative [...]
Filed under: Foreign policy
In the 1980’s the United States funded Iraq’s Saddam Hussein yet considered Palestine’s Yasser Arafat and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi terrorists. And they were. But so was Saddam, who at that time was terrorizing his own people, gassing Iraqi Kurds while receiving America’s financial and political support. In the 1990’s, the US declared Hussein a menace [...]
Filed under: Foreign policy, World
Last year, Barack Obama committed his administration to doubling U.S. exports in half a decade. The good news: He is on the way. U.S. exports of goods and services grew in 2010 by 16.6 percent. Bad news: U.S. imports, starting from a higher base, surged by 19.7 percent. Result: The U.S. trade deficit in 2010 [...]
To someone who has been writing about the military’s Massive Message Machine for a few years now, or as the military more politely puts it, Strategic Communications, a whopping $4.9 billion of our taxpayer money for winning hearts and minds here and abroad in 2009 alone, Michael Hastings’ latest piece, “Another Runaway General: Army Deploys [...]
Marc Lynch makes a tentative case for the U.S. to take action — but not too much action — against Gaddafi. The measures he has in mind include, “the declaration and enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya, presumably by NATO, to prevent the use of military aircraft against the protestors [sic]. It could also [...]
The reasons for the current protests in Wisconsin are somewhat complex but ultimately represent the need to address an unsustainable status quo versus a deep, although understandable, attachment to it. Naturally, government and union workers don’t want their pay or benefits reduced, just like those in the private sector don’t like it when they are [...]
Filed under: Foreign policy, World
As a large and furious demonstration was under way outside and inside the Capitol in Madison last week, Barack Obama invited in a TV camera crew from Milwaukee and proceeded to fan the flames. Dropping the mask of The Great Compromiser, Obama reverted to his role as South Chicago community organizer, charging Gov. Scott Walker [...]
Filed under: Politics
This weekend I had a chance to read Rand Paul’s new book, The Tea Party Goes to Washington. It is a much bolder book than Rand skeptics would have expected, and it is also a strategically clever book, for reasons I’ll get to in a moment. To be sure, Rand’s anecdotes from the campaign trail [...]