October 29, 2009
 
Oscar E. Dillon, PhD
508 North 4th Avenue
Hopewell, VA 23860-2604
 
Good Morning:
 
I question a lot of the rhetoric coming from the US Congress.  For instance:
 
Ÿ         Why does the ability to purchase health insurance have to come from a new health care bill?  For years the Federal Government prohibited shopping across State lines for health insurance [...]

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Pension middlemen get investigated; lawyers get a pass.
Oct 31, 2009
Pay-to-play schemes involving public officials and the pension funds they oversee are finally getting the hard look they deserve. Some 36 states are investigating how financial brokers and other middlemen have used kickbacks and campaign contributions to gain access to retirement funds. Now if only [...]

A Honduran compromise provides Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with an elegant diplomatic exit.
Oct 31, 2009
The big news in Honduras is that the good guys seem to have won a four-month political standoff over the exile of former President Manuel Zelaya. Current President Roberto Micheletti agreed yesterday to submit Mr. Zelaya’s request for reinstatement as [...]

Tony Blair is too big for Europe’s Lilliputs.
Oct 31, 2009
The Lisbon Treaty appears to be on the cusp of final ratification, and with it Brussels will gain something it has long sought—a President of the European Union. That in turn may finally answer Henry Kissinger’s famous question about what number to call to reach “Europe.”
But [...]

The next hemispheric crisis could involve Venezuela and Iran.
Oct 31, 2009

By WARREN KOZAK
“All war is based on deception.” —Sun Tzu
In the summer of 1962, the leader of the great Soviet empire, Nikita Khrushchev, faced a serious problem. His huge intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) didn’t work. Their launchers were unreliable, their aim was off and the [...]

Strunk and White taught us that clear thinking and clear writing go together.
Oct 30, 2009

By MARK GARVEY
A reader of “The Elements of Style” once sent E. B. White a clipping of a book review that misquoted William Strunk as having advised writers to “Use less words!” White wrote back: “I often wish Strunk could come [...]

October 31, 2009

 
by John Boehner

Time after time, Republicans have reached out to President Obama and congressional Democrats to work together on common-sense solutions to lower health care costs for families and small businesses. President Obama promised the American people a bipartisan process.  Unfortunately, Democrats have chosen a partisan, go-it-alone approach.  It’s yet another broken promise, [...]

Oct 30, 2009
By Matthew Lee
Frustrated by Iran’s continued defiance of demands to come clean on its nuclear program, the Obama administration is leaning toward imposing new sanctions, even if it must act alone.
Administration officials acknowledged growing concern that there may not be international consensus to expand the existing U.N. sanctions, despite Tehran’s apparent rejection of [...]

By Michael Barone · Saturday, October 31, 2009
The recession is over, we are told. The Commerce Department announced Thursday that the economy grew in the third quarter of 2009 by 3.5 percent. Great, huh?
Maybe not. About half that growth came from the Cash for Clunkers program, which transferred into the third quarter auto sales [...]