Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The House on Friday authorized $638 billion in military spending for the coming fiscal year, including $86 billion for the war in Afghanistan, while attempting to address reports of the rising number of sexual assaults in the military.
The senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee says Republican obsession over the White House's handling of the inquiry into last year's deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, is hurting the investigation.
Had Julius Caesar met George Washington in 1760, he would not have experienced much of a cultural shock. Both belonged to a small class of elites who enjoyed the fruits of slave labor and land rents. For most people, barely anything had changed in terms of standards of living or life expectancy during the 1,800 years separating the Roman statesman from the leader of the American Revolution.
Four House Democrats are asking fellow party members to consider blocking funds for the Army's battlefield intelligence processor, citing the system's huge costs and failed operational tests.
Senators had vowed to use the annual defense debate to clear up lingering questions about indefinite detention of U.S. citizens after last year's go-around — but the bill they cleared this week only added to the confusion.
Guest lineups for the Sunday TV news shows:
Guest lineups for the Sunday TV news shows:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, reiterated his opposition to forming a select committee to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Libya in a sharply-worded letter to Republican senators, writing Nov. 16 that "I refuse to allow the Senate to be used as a venue for baseless partisan attacks."
In his first testimony since stepping down last week, former CIA Director David H. Petraeus told a closed Capitol Hill briefing Friday that the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya "was a terrorist attack and there were terrorists involved from the start," Rep. Peter T. King said Friday.
A new book by Ronald Coase, age 101, is an event in itself. Mr. Coase, the 1991 Nobel laureate in economics, revolutionized the field by challenging conventional wisdom regarding the nature of business firms and how so-called public goods can be provided. One of his main contributions is the concept of "transaction costs," which are the costs individuals incur in making an economic exchange.
A brewing conflict between Congress and the Obama administration broke into the open Thursday as several lawmakers were critical about a briefing on the Sept. 11 anniversary attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya, which the administration had said was a spontaneous response to an anti-Islam video.
Charles R. Kesler is a nationally renowned professor of politics who has benefited from the tutelage of some great teachers. William F. Buckley is said to have discovered Mr. Kesler at the tender political age of 16, when the teen sent a well-beyond-his-years letter to the flame-spotting editor.
Dear Sgt. Shaft: Can you tell me if a spouse of a living veteran is eligible of the same honors of a spouse of a passed veteran interned at a national cemetery?
New Virginia Tech men's basketball coach James Johnson has landed his first player.
More than 10 years after Congress authorized the war in Afghanistan, American voters and many lawmakers said it's time for troops to come home in an orderly withdrawal — but Republicans denied them a chance to have that debate on the House floor this week.
"The bottom line is we do not need Guantanamo," said Mr. Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
"Until it is closed, it will remain a symbol of attempts to avoid the rule of law," Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in an op-ed on the Huffington Post.
Obama defends drone strikes, reignites Gitmo debate in crucial speech →
