'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
After briefly pumping the brakes, House Republicans were poised Tuesday night to pass the deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" despite deep misgivings about hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending included in the compromise foisted on them by Senate Republicans and the White House.
Congressional and executive oversight of the federal budget is in turmoil. The political aversion to tackling federal overspending is enhanced and enabled by the inadequate processes that govern the budget.
The House on Thursday passed a bill banning Congress and executive branch officials from insider trading, but it brushed aside a provision aimed at reining in those who pry financial information from Congress and sell it to investment firms.
U.S. officials are monitoring developments in Nigeria, where massive protests and a series of bombings by a shadowy Islamist group have rocked the West African nation, a key U.S. oil supplier.
The scene in Nigeria's northern city of Kano unfolded like a script that could only have been written by al Qaeda: Several explosives-laden cars driven by suicide bombers hit multiple police stations with choreographed attacks over the course of a single hour.
The United States is going deeper and deeper into debt, and no one in Washington can agree on what to do about it. For over a year now, the federal government has operated off a series of continuing resolutions instead of a long-term, binding budget. Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, wants to repair this broken process.
In a just world, Hollywood's higher-ups would follow a simple rule regarding remakes and updates: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Instead, they systematically take the opposite route: Find what works, then make it worse.
The nation's largest casino trade group is going all in to legalize online poker, calling Tuesday for a proposed regulatory framework even as the Justice Department continued its crackdown on offshore gambling websites.
Some rich Americans will not rest until Washington boosts their taxes.
D.C. Lottery officials are gearing up for unprecedented gambling over the Internet through "demonstration games" that will allow players to get their feet wet before wagering real dollars.
An angry full house of poker players descended on Capitol Hill Tuesday to protest the federal crackdown that abruptly closed down three of the leading Internet poker sites in April.
Irish Ambassador Michael Collins proudly noted that his small country is the ancestral home of two American presidents, one Democrat and one Republican. The Democrat — President Obama — will visit the home of his "great-great-great-great-great-grandfather" on Monday.
The United States is beginning to decide what its responsibilities will be in Afghanistan after U.S. combat troops leave, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday, but he ruled out permanent military bases in the strategically important country.
The Obama administration will identify Pakistan's continuing support for terrorist havens and the absence of good governance in Afghanistan as key factors that are undermining U.S. and coalition efforts in Afghanistan.
An Army general has summed up the military challenge in Afghanistan: "We can't kill our way out of this thing."
"While the Islamist insurgents do not offer a viable political alternative and remain divided among themselves, the threat they pose to Nigeria's political and economic future are significant, as Jonathan's state of emergency recognizes," Mr. Campbell wrote in an analysis published Wednesday by the Council on Foreign Relations.
With some soldiers sent to assist in the French-led anti-jihadist operation in Mali and others serving elsewhere in Nigeria dealing with other security challenges, the 76,000-man force is creaking under the pressure, said John Campbell, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria.
