President Barack Obama has apparently been quite desperate to meet his Iranian counterpart–so desperate, according to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, that he has persevered despite being rejected over five times. Contrast that with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told
National Public Radio’s David Greene introduced Friday’s Morning Edition by pronouncing: “Obamacare rolled out as planned.” He repeated the phrase in introducing NPR’s news story, “Ready or Not, Obamacare Rolls Out As Planned.” The story did cover the “computer glitches and slowdowns” that
The Obama administration asked Congress on Thursday to delay a new round of sanctions against Iran, citing new negotiations and the progress made in recent overtures between President Barack Obama and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. Until now, the administration has
Becoming a parent really does change your perspective on things. And there’s no way for me to look at that picture of police taking Miriam Carey’s 18-month-old daughter–the same age, roughly, as my own daughter–out of her bullet-riddled Infiniti without
The partial shutdown of the federal government is on its third day, but the political fight is effectively over. The GOP has fought to a draw–and, as predicted, the shutdown is now part of a bigger, and more consequential, debt
The Huffington Post is running a tally of the twenty House Republicans who are prepared to buck party leadership and cave to President Barack Obama’s demands to fund the government without conditions. The media are very interested in the dissenters,
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani told reporters on Wednesday that he turned down five requests from U.S. President Barack Obama to meet at the United Nations, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency. Rouhani said: “Before my trip (to New York),
Lindsay Leveen, the expert behind greenexplored.com, sent along this alarming YouTube video, taken by passing drivers, of a new Tesla Model S on fire in Washington state (no injuries, language warning): The video garnered nearly 200,000 views since it was
The Wall Street Journal ran a very interesting analysis Wednesday about new pressures facing foreign companies in China: old Maoist tactics. Those amount to using threats of investigation to force concessions–such as price cuts–as well as public confessions of wrongdoing, not
The nation once again owes the heroes of World War II a debt of gratitude. The veterans who stormed the barricades that the federal government tried to erect around the WWII memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. reminded us that
The failure of the Obamacare exchanges–two-thirds of which, according to CNN, are not working after launch–is more than just a fulfillment of conservative skepticism of government in general. It also highlights a key feature of Barack Obama’s personality: his absolute
Tom Friedman of the New York Times, who never misses an opportunity to praise Chinese autocracy, has articulated a new argument that Democrats are using against the Republicans’ insistence on changes to Obamacare: “Our Democracy Is at Stake,” he warns,
Israel’s Deputy Minister of Defense, Danny Danon, told Breitbart News on Tuesday that Israel was prepared to act alone in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power. His message echoed that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who addressed the United
I’ll admit nursing a grudge against Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel ever since he traveled back to his native Venezuela to play for Hugo Chávez’s funeral. Chávez was a thug, though some in Hollywood might prefer to pretend
Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio interviewed President Barack Obama on Monday, as a government shutdown loomed. To his credit, Inskeep asked an interesting question about why President Obama has seen economic inequality grow rapidly on his watch. But to
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday and sent a clear message that Israel was prepared to attack Iran, alone if necessary, to prevent the Iranian regime from emerging as a nuclear-armed power. His
President Barack Obama told National Public Radio recently: “I shouldn’t have to offer anything.” That sounds tough, but those are words the president and his party may live to regret. As Republicans scrambled to find a way to pass funding
Though the media and the Democrats are describing the hours-old partial federal government shutdown as if Republicans can be expected to cave on their positions at any moment, it is far more likely that the shutdown will continue through the
President Barack Obama’s telephone call with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani took place on the 75th anniversary of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s appeal to Adolf Hitler for peace in Europe. Roosevelt urged that “negotiations [between Germany and Czechoslovakia] be continued until
Former President Bill Clinton recently parroted a line that President Barack Obama likes to drag out whenever the debt ceiling deadline looms–that Congress must “pay its bills.” It is one of the most cynical and insidious lies in American politics
The End is Nigh. So say the media, counting down the seconds to a partial shutdown of the U.S. government. Certainly Americans will miss some federal functions, and the media will focus eagerly on victims–real and imaginary–of the impasse (though,
South Africa’s City Press reported over the weekend that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency had warned the local Jewish community in South Africa that Samantha Lewthwaite (a.k.a. the “White Widow”) had entered the country and was a known threat, having been recorded
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) put on a masterclass in his appearance on NBC News’ Meet the Press with David Gregory on Sunday. In less than twenty minutes, Cruz not only demolished Democrat arguments–as transmitted by the ever-eager Gregory–but also showed a keen
Democrats have provided New Yorkers with a shockingly poor choice for mayor in Bill de Blasio, whose left-wing resumé not only includes helping the Sandinista communists in Nicaragua but also welcoming butcher Robert Mugabe to City Hall in 2002. Yet
By the time Robert Mugabe visited New York’s City Hall in 2002, he was already well into his campaign of terror and murder in Zimbabwe. His regime was torturing its opponents brutally–with the help of a recently-deceased man who embraced
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Barack Obama today, he will do so against the backdrop of vastly changed circumstances. President Obama’s bungling of the Syria crisis has established that the U.S. is no longer a deterrent force
Last week, President Barack Obama assured the United Nations General Assembly that Iran did not actually seek nuclear weapons. However, the basis for Obama’s defense of Iranian intentions is an elaborate hoax. Obama said that a “fatwa,” or religious ruling, by
Recognizing that Americans are going to have to deal with Obamacare on Tuesday, even though most don’t want to, Consumer Reports magazine has published a helpful 11-page article explaining the legislation. It’s no surprise that a private company has produced a
There’s a word missing from Bill Maher’s recent ode to liberal governance in California: unemployment. The state has the fourth-highest jobless rate in the country. So while the budget might be balanced–thanks to Gov. Jerry Brown’s accounting tricks, taking $500
After being snubbed by Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani at the UN last week, President Barack Obama clawed back some respect–in the eyes of the American media, if not the world–with a 15-minute telephone call. It was the first time presidents
Despite being likened to ruthless terrorists, and in the face of alarmist criticism from the press, Republicans have achieved something positive (and small-d democratic!) for the American people in standing against the implementation of Obamacare. The offer to renew funding
National Public Radio’s Scott Horsley continued his cheerleading for President Barack Obama with a story Wednesday about the president’s latest attempt to promote Obamacare to a highly skeptical public. Horsley allowed Obama’s claims about the cost of Obamacare premiums to
On Tuesday evening, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) appeared on the Senate floor to support the filibuster-style stand by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for defunding Obamacare. Paul had originally revived the “talking filibuster” in March during a famous stand against the
The pundits in D.C. jeered as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) began his lengthy speech (a “fauxlibuster,” they joked) on Tuesday. Some cast it as a self-serving gesture, done to impress “dumb” people outside the Beltway who don’t get that defunding
Fresh from rejecting President Barack Obama’s attempt to meet him at the United Nations, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani launched a blistering anti-American attack from the rostrum at the General Assembly on Tuesday, accusing the United States of bigotry, “crimes,” and
The media are saddened that President Barack Obama will not be, after all, meeting with Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani today. The decision deprived them of a handshake they were already praising for having altered the course of history. But the
The media are saddened that President Barack Obama will not be, after all, meeting with Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani today. The decision deprived them of a handshake they were already praising for having altered the course of history. But the
Perhaps because I have spent considerable time in the world of opposition politics abroad, I find it surprising when my fellow Americans, conservatives in particular, fail to see how and why an opposition tactic, like defunding Obamacare, is necessary. In
President Barack Obama’s address to the opening of the United Nations relied heavily on a rhetorical device he has used often, but never to quite the same extent–namely, describing both sides of an argument and then suggesting that his own
President Barack Obama struck an apologetic tone at the United Nations on Tuesday, reassuring the General Assembly that the U.S. had “shifted away from a perpetual war footing,” and describing new limits on America’s use of soldiers, drones, and intelligence.
