Think Tank West

Here’s a great example of a recurring problem in news coverage: reporters too often seem to think it’s their job to act as uncritical mouthpieces for government officials. This is a particularly grievous problem in reporting on education, where they think that covering both sides of the story means calling a school district rep and [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

Vice President Biden is the latest member of the Obama administration to declare the administration’s intent to use shock and awe to ram through their statist agenda in a crisis atmosphere: “Opportunity presents itself in the middle of a crisis,” Biden said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” HT: Johan Norberg, the author of a devastating [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

The Bush administration was good to lobbyists, especially in its final year, when lobbyists earned $3.2 billion, the most ever. But the Obama administration promises to be even better, according to those who follow the field. Marketplace Radio reports: Washington lobbyists earned a whopping $3.2 billion last year. That’s the highest amount in the decade [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

Matthew Yglesias takes me to task for sniping at poor little Iceland, which is thinking about closing its Defense Agency.  And I will grant that they are nice people who have just gone through an economic crisis worse than our own.  Still, there is something very tiresome about other countries being perfectly content to rely [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

Lives likely would be saved if hotels stocked defibrillators.  Having even one might make a critical difference for a patient having a heart attack.  But hotels hesitate stocking the devices, which, while not cheap, are well within reach for most hotels.  However, reports the Wall Street Journal: Hotels worry that if they have the devices, [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

President Barack Obama’s first address to Congress laid out a laundry list of new spending contained within the stimulus legislation and provided hints as to what will be contained in the budget – a so-called “blueprint for America’s future” – he’ll submit to the legislature. Cato Institute scholars Chris Edwards, Jim Harper, Gene Healy, Neal [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

The Senate is taking up, and looks ready to pass, legislation granting the District of Columbia full representation in the House of Representatives.  And the bill is co-sponsored by Utah’s Orrin Hatch, whose state would also get one additional House member — but only until 2012, when the new census will again reapportion representatives nationwide. [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

As I blogged yesterday, Congressional Democrats have incorporated language into the 2009 omnibus spending bill that would spell the beginning of the end of the DC voucher program. According to Capitol Hill sources, the new language apparently flowed from the pen of Senator Dick Durbin (D – IL) . But if so, Durbin is not [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

David Brooks went completely off the deep end last night in critiquing Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s Republican response to Barack Obama’s address to Congress. According to Brooks, “in a moment when only the federal government is big enough to actually do stuff- to just ignore all that and just say ‘government is the problem, corruption, [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »

Interesting interview with Robert Novak (AKA  The Prince of Darkness). Some snippets: Q: The atmosphere in politics today is so bitterly partisan. What do you ascribe that to? A: I don’t agree that partisanship is more bitter now. In the 19th century, the overriding issue was slavery, and there was no more partisan issue than [...]

Filed under: American Domestic Policy, American Foreign Policy by
No Comments »