Assange is an enemy of the U.S., but the U.S. keeps too many secrets. Nov 30, 2010 WSJ Regarding the latest WikiLeaks dump of U.S. secrets, our friends at the New York Sun (at nysun.com) have taken to asking, What would Lincoln do? Their implication is that the President who suspended habeas corpus during the [...]

The permanent crisis-management fund will only make permanent crisis more likely. Nov 30, 2010 WSJ European Union finance ministers agreed late Sunday on more than just an €85 billion bailout for Ireland. They also turned the currency union into a de-facto debt union by choosing to turn May’s €750 billion rescue fund into a permanent [...]

President Obama takes a first step toward downsizing government. Nov 30, 2010 WSJ American Federation of Public Employees President John Gage yesterday derided President Obama’s federal pay freeze as a “slap at working people.” It might better be described as a small but symbolic first step toward reining in a ballooning federal payroll that is [...]

The Obama administration is taking a hard line on secrecy. Why did it take so long? Nov 30, 2010 WSJ By BRET STEPHENS So WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is guilty of “a reckless action which jeopardizes lives.” That’s according to John Kerry, on this week’s unauthorized release of a huge tranche of State Department cables. [...]

Liberal Democrats don’t have to worry about the president making nice with Republicans for long. Nov 30, 2010 WSJ By WILLIAM MCGURN John Boehner knows that today’s White House get- together with Barack Obama is a distraction. Yes, the Democratic president will exchange much-photographed smiles and handshakes with the Republican House speaker-to-be. Yes, each side [...]

Foreign leaders will continue to talk to us. It is the way of power to brag, and to tempt visitors from afar. Nov 30, 2010 WSJ By FOUAD AJAMI The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is no Daniel Ellsberg. Say what you will about the man who put out the secret history of the Vietnam [...]

Sometimes, concerns about “civil liberties” are just an excuse. Nov 29, 2010 WSJ By JAMES TARANTO The war on Christmas continues. Last year it was the “underpants bomber,” this year 19-year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who allegedly planned to blow up a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., but was foiled by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism [...]

Rep. Peter Hoekstra says the Pentagon should never have created a system which allowed so much information to be stored in one place and then pilfered. Nov 30, 2010 WSJ By JOHN FUND One lesson from 9/11 is that government agencies needed to share more critical information with one another. But the Wikileaks scandal shows [...]

China props up the Kim regime, South Korea is feckless, and the U.S. is tied down militarily. Nov 30, 2010 WSJ By EDWARD N. LUTTWAK If North Korea were an island, it would now be under a strict blockade—minimum punishment for sinking a South Korean warship and killing 46 sailors in March, for building an [...]

Beijing Chided Pyongyang, Declined U.S. Call to Stop Tehran Missile Sales, Cables Show Nov 29, 2010 WSJ By JEREMY PAGE in Beijing and JAY SOLOMON in Washington China has expressed frustration with North Korea, with one official calling it a “spoiled child,” at the same time as brushing off U.S. requests to choke off the [...]