The Middle East's Third Wave

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02/28/2011 The Middle East's Third Wave In a private phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, almost two weeks after the unrest began, President Barack Obama finally called for Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi to step down. While the President's inertia may have been mitigated by the need to get Americans out of the country so Qadhafi could not take any hostages, the incident demonstrates again that the wave of revolution currently sweeping North Africa and the Middle East took the Obama Administration completely by surprise. And for good reason: President Obama's "engagement" strategy toward the "Islamic world" is thoroughly outdated and irrelevant. The first wave of revolutions in the region came in the middle of the last century and was made up of nationalist revolts against European colonialism. The next wave, the Islamist revolt, came a generation later, upending corrupt monarchies and nationalist regimes set up after the colonial era. Each of these movements—nationalist and Islamist—pretended to be "pan" movements of some kind. But they never caught on because their universal claims were myths, undermined by tribal, religious, and nationalist divisions. The third wave we are witnessing today is completely different. Heritage Foundation Vice President and former Assistant Secretary of State Kim Holmes explains: Arab nationalism was largely an elite phenomenon that drove and exploited popular sentiments. Islamism is driven by clerics and political ideologues like the Muslim Brotherhood who likewise exploit peoples' religious beliefs and social resentments. The current third wave of revolt is truly a bottom-up, people driven movement. It's driven not by nationalism, Islamism or any other 20th Century "ism," but by a 21st Century socially linked-up mass movement of people who are sick of corruption, the lack of representative government, and being poor. … Despite the unique national and tribal features of each movement, it is united by the same emotional revulsion to the ruin and corruption created by the first two waves of revolution in the Middle East. The people of Libya are no less disgusted with Qadhafi than the people of Iran are with Ahmadinejad. One may be largely Sunni Arabs and the other Shiite Persians, but both are utterly finished with the ideologies, pretentions, and results of the Middle East's first two failed revolutions.

Next Step in Congress' Fight for Marriage

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02/25/2011 Next Step in Congress' Fight for Marriage This Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder sent his own version of a "Dear John" letter to the Speaker of the House, informing him that President Barack Obama's Justice Department will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court. The letter clearly states that the decision was personally made by the President himself, who, supposedly just this week, came to the conclusion that DOMA violates "the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment" of the U.S Constitution. This purely partisan act is completely consistent with both President Obama's unprecedented politicization of the Justice Department and the same-sex marriage movement's end-run around for democracy. DOMA was enacted by overwhelming majorities of both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. DOMA has two core provisions. First, it defines the words marriage, spouse, husband, and wife wherever they appear in the U.S. Code as referring only to the union of a man or a woman. Second, it defends the right of each state not to be forced to accept the redefinition of marriage in a handful of other states as a result of state court decisions or laws. Nearly 40 states have enacted state-level DOMAs, and 31 have embraced traditional marriage in their state constitutions. No state's voters have ever voted to the contrary.

Will Harry Reid Also Hide in Illinois?

 

02/24/2011 Will Harry Reid Also Hide in Illinois? Over the past week the nation witnessed the spectacle of Wisconsin and Indiana Democrat lawmakers fleeing across state-lines into Illinois, Bonnie and Clyde-style, though in this case in hopes that their absence would stave off having to make tough decisions. Back home, their votes were needed to rescue their states from dire fiscal problems, and that is the case in states across the rest of the Midwest and the rest of the nation. Budget deficits are bulging and competition for scarce financial resources is growing more alarming. This Prohibition-era retro replay may indeed spread to the federal government and Washington, as a new Congress grapples with its first tough budget debate. Will liberals duck responsibility again? The federal government has been operating under a Continuing Resolution that will expire on March 4th.  The House, led by Republican Speaker John Boehner (R-IL) has already passed a new Continuing Resolution (CR) that cuts approximately $61 billion from the current year's budget and keeps the government otherwise functioning through year's end. It is now up to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and President Obama to decide if they will accept this modest first step towards fiscal responsibility or continue to push our nation down the unsustainable path that voters rejected in November 2010.

Government Unions vs American Taxpayers

 

02/23/2011 Government Unions vs American Taxpayers The Washington Post reports today that "the daunting tower of national, state and local debt in the United States will reach a level this year unmatched just after World War II and already exceeds the size of the entire economy, according to government estimates." But there are a number of big differences between our national debt now and the debt in 1946. The Post reports: "State and municipal governments from Sacramento to Madison to Harrisburg have racked up about $2.4 trillion in debt, or more than 15 percent of GDP." And even this total is understating the problem. Recent studies show that state and local governments are severely underestimating their pension and benefit promises, including a $574 billion shortfall for the nation's top major cities and a possible $3.4 trillion shortfall for the states. The cause of these crippling pension and benefit obligations is no secret. The Post explains: "Public employees often enjoy more generous pension and health-care benefits, and these are at the root of the long-term budget problems confronting many states." How did this happen? Why did so many state and local governments not only spend too much today but promise future spending far beyond the means of taxpayers to pay for it? Government unions. And across the country, legislators and governors are beginning to fight back.

Gov. Scott Walker Sits Down With Heritage and Answers the Tough Questions

 

02/21/2011 Gov. Scott Walker Sits Down With Heritage and Answers the Tough Questions MADISON, Wis. -- Teachers' unions and representatives of every liberal interest group in the country may have taken over the streets of Madison for demonstrations, marches and speeches, but inside the Wisconsin governor's mansion its chief tenant remains calm and resolute. The Badger State's budget will be balanced, Gov. Scott Walker (R) assured The Heritage Foundation in an one-on-one interview. The stakes in Wisconsin are high not just here, but across America. "I've said all along the protesters have every right to be there, but I'm not going to let tens of thousands overload or overshadow the millions of people in Wisconsin, the taxpayers of the state, who want us to do the right thing and balance the budget," Gov. Walker told us. (Click here to watch the interview.)

Help Libyans Free Themselves from Qadhafi's Murderous Regime

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02/22/2011 Help Libyans Free Themselves from Qadhafi's Murderous Regime Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi, the longest ruling Arab leader, appears to be on the verge of becoming the latest authoritarian leader to be ousted by his own people. Massive crowds of protesters have taken control of Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, and much of eastern Libya, long a hotbed of opposition to the regime. Libya's repressive regime has reacted with ruthless violence, shooting at peaceful demonstrators from rooftops, helicopters, and warplanes. At least 233 Libyans have been killed since the protests began on Thursday, according to Human Rights Watch. Although Qadhafi once enjoyed substantial popular support on the Arab street due to his confrontational anti-American, anti-Western, and ant-Israeli policies, the mercurial Libyan tyrant had recently become irrelevant in regional politics and increasingly unpopular and isolated within Libya. The quirky Qadhafi, long-plagued by major mood swings, became a hated figure for many Libyans. His murderous police state created bitter resentment and fierce opposition, while his erratic regime wasted billions of dollars on white elephant projects and massive oil revenues monopolized by a corrupt elite. Despite Libya's oil wealth, an estimated one-third of Libyans live in poverty. More than half the population is under 25 years old and faces a bleak economic future due to high unemployment, estimated to run about 20 percent.