As the interim Iran deal goes into effect–on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day, no less–it seems timely to note that Iran was identified as one of the most racist countries in the world last year, in a study conducted
The interim, six-month nuclear deal with Iran officially takes effect today, Jan. 20. Though the deal was called an “historic mistake” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Barack Obama believes it marks an opportunity for a new era
California’s severe drought could have wide-ranging effects beyond familiar water restrictions, ranging from higher food prices to a power shortage in the state. The Fresno Bee reports that farmers in parts of California are leaving fields to lie fallow, bulldozing fruit
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry plans to release his “framework” for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement in the next several days. The details, yet to be confirmed, have been criticized by both sides, but now Kerry’s effort faces a direct
The passing of Nelson Mandela last month sheds new light on the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King’s struggle for civil rights was different from Mandela’s struggle in two ways: first, in the U.S., non-violence
Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator whose filibuster for abortion rights made her a Democratic superstar and launched her campaign for governor, has admitted to the Dallas Morning News that she lied about key events in her life, including her first
A ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday to overturn a defamation award against a blogger has affirmed that bloggers enjoy the same freedoms and constitutional protections as other journalists. A blogger, Crystal Cox, made a false
The State of Israel is expected to launch a new missile defense system, Iron Beam, that will use lasers to heat up and destroy small rockets and mortars that are airborne too briefly to be shot down by the existing
The artists who created a new statue of Nelson Mandela outside South Africa’s administrative capital in Pretoria secretly sculpted a rabbit into Mandela’s ear that has only recently been noticed. Sculptors Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, when confronted,
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor is using a billboard campaign that it calls “provocative” to campaign for a $15-per-hour minimum wage. The billboards resemble the signs posted on municipal boundaries and read: “Los Angeles: City Limited, Poverty Wage
This story begins with the first bailout the Tea Party ever stopped. In May 2010, I helped the Illinois Tea Party organize a demonstration on LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago outside the offices of Shorebank, which was about to be
The left and the media are taking President Barack Obama to task for reversing himself on the question of whether the federal government should have the broad surveillance powers exercised by the National Security Agency. The president himself has admitted
President Barack Obama announced Friday that John Podesta, his new “counselor” and the political operative responsible for creating the institutional left in Washington, will be the appointed “to lead a comprehensive review of big data and privacy” in the aftermath
President Barack Obama has named two Chicago cronies with no foreign policy experience to coveted ambassadorships. One, Colleen Bell, is a writer for The Bold and the Beautiful who married into “Chicago’s soap opera dynasty,” reports Carol Felsenthal of Chicago magazine. The other
A sudden, massive fire that began in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles just before 6:00 a.m. PST has produced an enormous cloud of smoke that has spread rapidly across hundreds of miles and is visible throughout Southern
Sir Hew Strachan, a senior advisor to the Chief of the Defense Staff in Britain, has blasted President Barack Obama’s military and foreign policy skills, saying that the president is “chronically incapable” of military strategy and that unlike George W.
Veteran Republican political mastermind Karl Rove writes in his Wall Street Journal column Thursday that the key to victory in the 2014 midterms is to win independent voters not aligned with either party: “This could be a Republican year if the
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s speech against the Kirk-Menendez bill, which would slap new sanctions on Iran in the event that it cheats on the interim nuclear deal that takes effect Monday, has triggered controversy with her comments about Israel (“we cannot
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) triggered controversy with a fiery floor speech in the Senate on Tuesday night, accusing supporters of the bipartisan Kirk-Menendez bill on Iran sanctions of wanting “regime change” and declaring that “we cannot let Israel determine when
In Nelson Mandela’s celebrated 1994 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, the late South African leader and Nobel laureate was careful to distance himself from communism. However, in the original manuscript–quietly published online in 2011 and 2012, and only recently noticed–Mandela
Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, who led his country’s delegation to nuclear talks in Geneva in November, paid a visit Monday to the gravesite of Imad Moughniyeh, the “mastermind” behind a string of attacks in Beirut in the early 1980s,
Israel’s defense minister, Moshe “Boogy” Ya’alon, delivered an entirely accurate, if somewhat rude, assessment of Secretary of State John Kerry’s “messianic” pursuit of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal on Tuesday. In response, the Obama administration’s State Department has blasted Israel–angrily, and
The U.S. State Department has blasted recent comments by Israel’s defense minister, Moshe “Boogy” Ya’alon, about Secretary of State John Kerry as “offensive.” Ya’alon had accused Kerry of “misplaced obsession and messianic fervor” in his efforts to push for a
President Barack Obama threatened Congress today, warning Congress that he will use executive orders and administrative actions if they fail to pass the legislation he wants: “I’ve got a pen,” he told the Cabinet. Until he stages a coup, the
Israel’s Defense Minister, Moshe “Boogy” Ya’alon, is facing criticism from the opposition after slamming U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported earlier on Tuesday that the outspoken Ya’alon had said that Kerry, who recently completed his tenth
An exclusive report by the Reuters news agency says that Egypt’s military leaders plan to “undermine” the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after “crushing” the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the
Iran’s “moderate” president, Hassan Rouhani, tweeted this morning that “world powers,” including the U.S., had “surrendered” to the “Iranian nation’s will” in confirming a six-month interim nuclear deal that will allow the Iranian regime to continue its advanced centrifuge program
The Jerusalem Post reports that Palestinians fired two rockets near the funeral site of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was laid to rest at his farm in southern Israel with dozens of foreign dignitaries present. In response, the Israel Air
Less than a year ago, President Barack Obama predicted that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi would be Speaker of the House of Representatives again after the 2014 elections. Less than two months ago, he was still fundraising for Democratic candidates
President Barack Obama offered a polite (if generic) salute to the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Saturday, and Vice President Joe Biden honored Sharon (and Israel) by participating in today’s funeral. Yet both Obama and Biden actually betrayed
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s allies seem so worried about his political future, and so desperate to save him, that they are willing to trade away key issues to restore his image, now severely damaged since it emerged last week
Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was laid to rest on his family farm in the south of Israel. Grieving relatives were joined by international leaders and officials representing the Israeli government and military. Among the most memorable eulogies of
The negotiators from the P5+1 nations (the U.S., plus the other permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) have managed to make the bad deal reached with Iran in Geneva in November over its nuclear program even worse.
I’m observing a conference in Los Angeles today organized by the American Freedom Alliance and Freedom Advocate entitled The Globalization of California: Will an Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucracy Soon Be Running Our Lives?. It is well-attended and well-organized, as American Freedom
This morning, at 10:12 a.m. PST, I spotted a rare funnel cloud over Los Angeles, CA. The air was calm and the temperature was about 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius), with mostly overcast skies and high ceiling. The cloud
Conservatives are eagerly anticipating the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’s hearing later this year of a lawsuit, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, brought by a group of public school teachers against the state’s powerful union over the collection of dues
The post-Ariel Sharon Middle East really began eight years ago, when he was incapacitated by a stroke. Within less than seven months, Israel’s enemies struck: Hamas in a daring attack from the Gaza Strip that resulted in the kidnapping of
I had the rare opportunity to meet with Prime Minster Ariel Sharon for roughly 45 minutes in 2005, in the company of South Africa’s then-opposition leader, Tony Leon, for whom I worked at the time as a speechwriter. It was
Former Israeli leader Ariel Sharon has passed away at the age of 85. The former prime minister, defense minister, and general had been comatose since Jan. 2006, when he suffered a series of strokes that resulted in his permanent hospitalization.
It would be easy enough, at this stage, to add to the voluminous commentary on Gov. Chris Christie’s bridge scandal. But there is not much new to say, other than to observe that petty political retaliation is what blue-state conservatives