National Politics

It’s the demography stupid! (At least partly…)

By Marc Comtois | October 10, 2007 |

Mark Steyn pithily sums up a little-discussed truism undergirding many social welfare programs: This is why I’m opposed to universal social programs – because they were set up on the basis of mid-20th century birth rates. Defined benefit plans and the pending Social Security crisis seem to prove the point, no? He also links to…

Whitehouse Plays Politics with His State

By Justin Katz | October 3, 2007 |

The Providence Journal editorial board is dead on in its criticism of Sheldon Whitehouse for furthering delays of judicial appointments in Rhode Island: Two important local federal judgeships on the U.S. District Court in Providence and U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (a seat long held by a Rhode Islander) have gone unfilled for 10 months.…

Revisited: Rediscovering Civility and Purpose in America’s Public Discourse

By Donald B. Hawthorne | September 30, 2007 |

Sharing this March 2005 blog post with someone today was a pleasant reminder to me of how much I still agreed with what I wrote back then. Which naturally means I now encourage you to read it again as well!

There’s Only 1 Party of the Rich?

By Marc Comtois | September 28, 2007 |

The Anchoress makes a keen observation: Chelsea Clinton works for Avenue Capital and makes an estimated 6 figure salary. Not bad for a woman in her mid-twenties and I certainly don’t begrudge her; Chelsea seems to be a private and perfectly nice person, and if either of my kids could make that kind of sugar…

American Solutions Day in Rhode Island

By Carroll Andrew Morse | September 26, 2007 |

Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future organization will be holding a number of events in Rhode Island this Thursday and Saturday. Here’s the welcoming statement from the organization’s website…We recently launched American Solutions for Winning the Future, a unique non-partisan organization designed to rise above traditional gridlocked partisanship, to provide real, significant solutions…

Shame on You, Sen. Reed

By Mac Owens | September 21, 2007 |

Yesterday the Senate passed a resolution condemning the disgraceful “General Betray-Us” ad in the NY Times sponsored by the despicable Moveon.org. The resolution reads: To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor…

An Informed Patriotism Grounded in Thoughtfulness, Knowledge & Discussions Around the Dinner Table

By Donald B. Hawthorne | September 19, 2007 |

An excerpt from Ronald Reagan’s Farewell Address: …Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in presidential farewells, and I’ve got one that’s been on my mind for some time. But oddly enough it starts with one of the things I’m proudest of in the past eight years: the resurgence of national pride that I…

The Propriety of Responding to the President

By Marc Comtois | September 14, 2007 |

Feeding into the WPRO ad, “Where do bloggers go….”, Dan Yorke brings up an interesting point. Why was there a need for a “Democrat response” to the Presidential speech on the status of the conflict in Iraq? Dan talked to Brown University’s Darrell West about it, and they came to the following conclusions: 1) There…

Finding Common Moral Ground

By Marc Comtois | September 14, 2007 |

John Miller–in the recent National Review–calls attention to a set of moral initiatives and legislation that the moral and religious of left/right/center have been putting forward: Halting the international and domestic trafficking and enslavement of millions of girls, women, and children. Promoting international religious freedom as a core element of U.S. human-rights policy. Eliminating domestic…

Yet More News You Can Hsuse

By Carroll Andrew Morse | September 13, 2007 |

According to the Associated Press, Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has moved from returning campaign contributions received directly from Norman Hsu ($23,000) to returning all contributions raised and/or bundled by Mr. Hsu (about $850,000). According to the Wall Street Journal, many other prominent Democrats have also announced that they will be returning any of their…