Iraq’s provincial council elections went off smoothly under the watchful eye of the military, the BBC reports, and the country’s Sunni minority turned out in force this time after boycotting similar elections in 2005, losing political representation as a result. The head of the Iraqi electoral commission in Anbar province – a centre of the…
Author: marc
Marc is a software developer, writer, and part-time political know-it-all who currently resides in Texas in the good ol' U.S.A.
Democrats and Taxes: Math is Hard
When Barack Obama selected Tom Daschle to be his secretary of Health and Human Services one of the last thinks he could have imagined was that Daschle was a 6-figure tax evader. Yet here we are again. What is it with Democrats and taxes? According to Vice-President Joe Biden, paying taxes is a patriotic duty. …
Obama Planning to Slash Defense Budget
Fox News is reporting that Barack Obama has asked the military’s Joint Chiefs for Staff to cut the defense budget by 10% for FY 2010. This is an unfortunate “request” given the massive expenditures being planned in virtually every other area of the budget. These proposed cuts are not a good idea for national security…
Culture War’s End in Sight? Not Likely.
Damon Linker writes at The New Republic that it’s not beyond the pale to think that Barack Obama may be able to lead liberals to a victory in the decades-old culture war. How? By subtle, gradual conversion away from conservative positions on 3 traditional value issues: Church/State Separation, Homosexual Rights/Gay Marriage, and Abortion. Not bloody…
Ch-ch-ch-change
Obama’s Immigration Czar to Rid U.S. of Criminal Aliens – if We Can Figure Out Who They Are
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wants to expel what she calls “criminal aliens” from the United States, starting with those already in custody. Napolitano also says that she’s looking at existing immigration enforcement programs to see if taxpayers are getting their money’s worth. The agency estimates there are now as many as 450,000 criminals in…
New Jobs Under-Stimulated by Dem’s Plan
Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) had some unpleasant words to say about the Democrat’s economic stimulus plan: Not since the passage in 1909 of the 16th Amendment – which cleared the way for a federal income tax – has the United States seriously entertained a policy so comprehensively hostile to economic freedom, nor so arrogantly indifferent…
Iraq Partnering with U.S. Universities
Iraq and the United States recently announced a cooperative education agreement that will allow Iraqi students to study at universities here in the U.S. The goal? Sending 500 Iraqi students to universities overseas as part of that country’s ongoing effort to educate its citizens. Larry H. Dietz, [Southern Illinois University Carbondale] SIUC’s vice chancellor for…
House Does the Right Thing, Keeps Digital TV Moving
The House of Representatives rejected President Obama’s plan to delay the mandatory conversion to digital television. The delay had been approved earlier by the Senate and would have extended the deadline until June of this year. Congress originally authorized the distribution of an additional broadcast channel to each broadcast TV station so that they could…
Stimulus
Jim Manzi at NRO’s Corner blog feels the same way I do about the contents of the so-called Stimulus Package but draws a different conclusion about whether the spending is a good idea: consider the gigantic—as in close to $100 billion—amount of extra federal money these guys are proposing to spend on education. Study after…