Gov. Mitt Romney wants to remake the Department of Homeland Security into something more efficient. That, he says, would require major restructuring.
We have an idea on remaking DHS. Let’s remake it into an artifact of history, one that would remain locked away forever in the dustbin of mistakes of the past.
President George W. Bush Wednesday barred his political guru Karl Rove from testifying to Congress in a furious political row sparked by a mass firing of federal prosecutors.
Bush invoked “executive privilege” to prevent Karl Rove and Scott Jennings, deputy White House political director, from providing documents and testimony under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
John McCain’s slide in the presidential race shows up everywhere on the campaign trail.
His staff drastically reduced and his organization nearly broke, McCain flies commercial instead of on private jets, carries his own luggage and relies on supporters to drive him to events, including one that pulled away from a Rotary meeting last week with a flat rear tire.
It’s a far cry from the “Straight Talk Express” tour bus that once was packed with reporters, staff and hope.
The 5-year-old No Child Left Behind Act is relatively simple as federal laws go. School districts must test their students annually in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school. And they must show improving proficiency across all demographic groups, with the perhaps-unreachable aim of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.
Some years ago through a newspaper ad, I found a roofing contractor to put a tar roof on an addition to my home. It was a sweltering July day. When I arrived from work, I found the roofing crew, all Mexicans, spreading the hot tar on the flat roof.
Seeing them toil in the blazing sun, I climbed the ladder to offer them some cold drinks, and we struck up a conversation. I asked the crew leader how long he had been doing this kind of work. For ten years, he said.
“Ten years? Why don’t you start your own roofing company?”
Mr. President, here’s a draft of your next major speech. Even though you didn’t actually request it — you will see that it is your best and maybe last chance to see if there is perhaps a sliver of high ground beneath the quicksand that has become your legacy:
Newspapers today still count for something — and in some societies they can count for a great deal.
That Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. are to become the new proprietors of The Wall Street Journal is a matter of concern not only for us in America. It is a matter of interest for everyone in the world — especially, with the rise of China, for Asians. The quality of American society overall, from the White House to the newsroom, has impact elsewhere. World stability depends on well-informed political decision-making, including and especially in Washington.
It’s tough being a member of Congress. Even if you’re in the majority, as is Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda of Kansas, you never know when your ears may be assaulted by outrageous and offensive ideas.
Like what? At a recent hearing of the Armed Services Committee, retired Gen. Jack Keane said “progress is being made” by U.S. military forces in Iraq; “We are on the offensive and we have the momentum,” he added. The freshman congresswoman was so distressed by these remarks that she got up and walked out.
I was crossing my fingers that the Hillary Rodham Clinton cleavage story would die a much-deserved media death, when up cropped another angle this week. You are unfortunately probably all too familiar with the story to which I’m referring. Last month, The Washington Post ran a much-maligned Style-section article about Clinton’s appearance on the U.S. Senate floor with a tiny bit of cleavage peeking out from above her otherwise tasteful black V-neck sweater.
On a cross-country road trip more than three decades ago, I visited the Jackson County museum in Oregon. I remember one display in particular about the Chinese community there.
An exhibit card apologized for the forced removal and intimidation of its Chinese citizens. That community acknowledged the racist attitudes and behaviors of the late 1800s, later legislated into the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.