Two weeks ago, two British Tornado F3 fighter aircraft were scrambled from the Royal Air Force base Leuchars, the United Kingdom’s most northerly air defense station, to pursue two Russian Tupolev 160 bombers which were approximately one hundred nautical miles to the west of Stornaway on the northwest coast of Scotland. More than twenty of […]
The health-care reform bill must to back to the House for a revote. Democratic lawmakers in the Senate now have the possibility of including a public option after all.
Since the recent Federal Universal Healthcare Legislation has been made into quasi-law, state governments have been taking a stand for their constituents arguing that it is unconstitutional to force citizens to pay a penalty for refusing to participate in the federal health-care program. This includes states that Barack Obama both won and lost in the […]
The Parti socialiste won France’s second round of regional elections conclusively this Sunday, gathering over half the votes nationwide while President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives trailed in second place with just a third of the electorate. The socialists already controlled twenty out of France’s 22 departments in Europe, gaining the island of Corsica this weekend. The […]
Retired US Marine Corps General John Sheehan’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee of March 18 caused quite a stir on both sides of the Atlantic last week. Sheehan was asked to remark on the proposed repeal of the American military’s infamous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy which allows gay men and women to […]
Health care reform may have passed through Congress but individual states are lining up to contest its constitutionality, in court, if need be. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia was the first to announce on Monday that he will file a legal challenge as soon as the president signs the reconciliation bill into law. Cuccinelli’s […]
Health care reform passed in the House of Representatives last night. A bloc of pro-life Democrats gave the party the 219 over 212 votes needed to enact the health insurance overhaul previously accepted in the Senate. Thirty-four Democrats voted against the measure. The House also voted 220 to 211 to support a “reconciliation” bill that […]
“President Obama could become de facto Prime Minister Obama.” So much predicts Harlan Ullman, columnist for The Washington Times and a member of the Strategic Advisors Group of the Atlantic Council, at the New Atlanticist. Washington isn’t just “broken,” writes Ullman. The very political foundation of the United States as envisioned in the Constitution has […]
Republicans go about Washington infuriated these days. Their opposite numbers in Congress are proposing a little-used parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation to pass a final health-care reform bill. Reconciliation, say Republicans, isn’t supposed to be used for “regular” lawmaking. Right-wing commentators are similarly outraged and refer to reconciliation as “the nuclear option.” Is it? Reconciliation […]
Local elections show the nationalist Freedom Party and the right-wing liberals on the rise.
Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is “very disappointed” with the suggestion that a new consumer protection agency might be placed under supervision of the Federal Reserve. The Senate Banking Committee has been working on a financial regulatory reform bill for several months now. A new agency is to […]
Appearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, offered an aggressive defense of the central bank’s role in the future supervision of the financial sector. “Stripping the Federal Reserve of supervisory authorities in the light of the recent crisis would be a grave mistake,” he said. The Fed […]
The governing coalition in the Netherlands was brought down Saturday, unable to bridge a divide between Christian Democrats and socialists over whether or not to keep forces in Afghanistan after 2010. For the fouth time, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende had to announce that a government of his had come to its end prematurely. His […]
Housing is too dependent on government.
The Pentagon confirmed on February 16 what Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn had announced the day before — that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will be delayed with approximately one year. The delay is due to the integration of additional test craft that were mandated under an aggressive restructing of the program initiated earlier […]
