Tag Archives: review

William Hartung: From Gates to Panetta: Room for Improvement

At last Thursday’s confirmation hearings for Leon Panetta’s nomination to serve as Secretary of Defense, one question loomed over the proceedings: will he be as good as Robert Gates? The assumption behind the question — an assumption shared by virtually every member of the Senate Armed Services Committee — was that Gates has been one of the most effective leaders in the history of the department. Would that it were so. Continue reading

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OBAMA’S BIG MISTAKE: Ambivalent Regulator Cass Sunstein

When President Barack Obama let it be known in January 2009 that he had selected Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein to be his regulatory czar, it was an early example of how some of his staffing decisions would undercut his lofty campaign promises. Continue reading

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DJ Jaffe: Improve Care For Mentally Ill: Eliminate Mental Health Agencies

In this week’s National Review , Dr. Continue reading

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Michael Likosky: From Shared Sacrifice to Shared Prosperity

President Obama announced an executive order in the Wall Street Journal not long ago to revisit our regulatory agencies to make sure that they promote economic growth and other public values in the areas of safety, health, and the environment. The point was widely misunderstood as an attempt to cozy up with business. Instead, the idea is for government agencies to stop coaching from the sidelines Continue reading

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Joanne Carter: A Special Relationship to Save Lives

This is a joint post with Aaron Oxley . This week during his first official state visit to the United Kingdom, President Barack Obama will meet with Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss pressing issues faced by the allies Continue reading

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Jonathan Kim: ReThink Review: The First Grader — Reading, Writing and Rebellion

The First Grader tells the true story of Kimani Maruge, an 84-year-old veteran of Kenya’s Mau Mau Uprising who enrolled in the first grade when the Kenyan government announced that it would make an elementary school education free to all, earning Maruge a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest primary school student. If it had been released during Oscar season, The First Grader could very well be the type of dark horse small film that seemingly appears out of nowhere to snag major nominations, especially for Oliver Litondo, the Kenyan former anchorman who plays Maruge, and Naomie Harris, who plays the principal of the school he attends. Beautifully shot on location in Kenya at a rural school with the students who go there, The First Grader is the kind of small, inspirational, feel-good true story of triumph over adversity that helped make The King’s Speech such a hit with audiences and critics, paving its way to four Oscars and twelve nominations Continue reading

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B. Jeffrey Madoff: Donald: The Duck

I was having dinner with two clients when a large man with a larger orange coif approached our table with his associate. “Excuse me,” said the dark suited associate. The large man with the large orange hair was quickly sizing everyone up; his eyes darted from one to the next, pausing the longest at the attractive woman at the table. Continue reading

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Mark Potok: Let’s Call the ‘Birthers’ What They Are

Perhaps the time has come to state the obvious. The people who have been selling claims that President Obama is not American — the Donald Trumps, the Orly Taitzes, the miserable state legislators hawking their snake-oil laws insisting that presidential candidates prove their citizenship — are mostly a pack of racists Continue reading

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Michael Sigman: Hello, the Marx Brothers Must Be Coming

My passion for the absurd may derive from early childhood exposure to my mom’s twisted song parodies. My fave was ” I’ve Got the World on a String ,” in which “what a world, what a life” became “what a world, what a string…” Then there were my dad’s songwriting collaborations with the certifiably zany Bob Hilliard, one of which began, “I left the one I love on one of the Thousand Islands , but unfortunately I can’t remember which one.” (The pair also penned the less well-known ditty, “Our Horses Are Falling In Love.”) In any case, I’m told I got my first big laugh when I was barely beyond toddlerhood and reacted to a scene of Jesus on the cross with, “His father must be very proud.” Worked for my father… The power of world-class absurdist humor hit me like a pie in the face when a couple of elementary school friends and I took in a double feature Marx Brothers matinee and laughed till our solar plexuses ached Continue reading

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Haley Barbour To New Hampshire Voters: Boehner’s Budget Deal Is ‘A Single In The First Inning’

BOW, N.H. –- Potential GOP presidential candidate Haley Barbour on Wednesday night defended the deal House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) cut with President Barack Obama to fund the federal government through September. Barbour described the deal in measured terms as a first step toward larger federal spending cuts, but that left him considerably more bullish on the package than increasingly-dissatisfied grassroots conservatives — as well as as least one other possible 2012 hopeful. Continue reading

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