Are you tired of anonymous voices on the phone telling you to "Press 1 (or sometimes 2) for English"? The ability to speak and communicate in English is the litmus test of whether immigrants are assimilating into U.S. culture. To become a naturalized U.S. citizen, the law states that the immigrant must demonstrate "the ability to read, write and speak ordinary English." All public opinion polls confirm by majorities approaching 90 percent that this is ... [full story]

The stunning turnaround in U.S. military fortunes in Iraq is now so obvious that it's getting Page One treatment and network/cable broadcast time by an American press long preoccupied with reporting this war's negatives. There are lessons here for anyone who will examine the facts in Iraq, perhaps even for Democrats in Congress and those running for president whose unchanging mantra remains "we've lost, get out now." The evidence, building month by month since the ... [full story]

Believe it or not, federal spending has been stable at around 20 percent of the gross domestic product for more than 50 years, ever since it settled down after World War II. Conservatives have been relatively successful in holding down the growth of big government for the last half-century. The bad news is that this will change over the coming decades. According to the latest projections of the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accounting ... [full story]

For a handful of Americans, their first glimpse of a new thing called television occurred in 1939. They witnessed its unveiling by RCA at the New York World Exposition. Despite widespread excitement, the event marked a journalistic embarrassment for The New York Times. A Times reporter covering the event wrote accurately of the new technology, whose development would be slowed by the onset of World War II. But he couldn't see a promising economic future ... [full story]

Promises, promises. They range from that oft-heard pledge to quit booze or cigarettes to the ecclesiastical vow of poverty, chastity and obedience. More familiar at this moment are the promises that become a part of any political campaign. And there's no reason to object, I suppose, until we hear every candidate in sight uttering the same guarantee. Then maybe someone should ask - "Anyone out there who's for protecting the public interest?" Except for such ... [full story]

Radical feminists have devised a scheme to cash in on the flow of taxpayer money in a big way. Their good buddy, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., has just introduced Senate Bill 2279, called the International Violence Against Women Act. The act earmarks at least 10 percent of its program funds to be granted to a certain type of women's organizations. Biden's press release identifies the favored groups: NOW's Legal Momentum, Family Violence Prevention Fund, Women's ... [full story]

The United States and Mexico are doing something historic in the struggle against Mexico's drug cartels, responsible for 90 percent of all illicit narcotics on America's streets. To a greater extent than ever before, they are joining forces, thereby advancing the only strategy with a hope of success. The Bush administration calls it the Merida Initiative, a $1.4 billion, multiyear security partnership linking the United States, Mexico and Central America in a new regional counternarcotics ... [full story]

One of Ronald Reagan's most remembered comments in his first debate with Jimmy Carter was, "There you go again." People remember little or nothing about the serious debate issues, but they do recall that phrase. If Reagan were still alive and looking at the topsy-turvy political events we read about daily in our newspapers, he might well say to the American people, "There you go again." We seem to invent new oddities daily as we ... [full story]

Both political parties in Congress are fundamentally anti-military. The was clearly demonstrated on Nov. 8 by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 400 to 15 in the House of Representatives and an unopposed unanimous voice vote in the Senate on a new Department of Defense Appropriations Act to fund peacetime Pentagon programs for the current fiscal year. President Bush joined the anti-defense throng on Nov. 13 when he signed this legislative monstrosity into law. Anti-military monstrosity? ... [full story]

What was Newsweek thinking of when it added Karl Rove to its stable of columnists?  This is the political consultant who gave President Bush a domestic policy every bit as catastrophic as his Cheney-driven foreign policy disasters-- no easy task.  Angry voters had their say in the 2006 mid-term elections – restoring control of Congress to the Democrats-- and the outlook is even grimmer for the GOP in 2008. So maybe it was subtle satire ... [full story]

Take the word of a man willing to stake a million dollars on it: the U.S. tax system has been turned upside down. In a recent interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw, billionaire investor Warren Buffett disclosed the results of a voluntary survey of his employees. They reported paying an average of 32.9 percent of their income in federal payroll and income taxes last year, compared to the 17.7 percent paid by Buffett, America's second richest man.  ... [full story]

I have said it before and I will say it again: Economic empowerment is the civil rights struggle of the 21st century. The civil rights movement of the 1960s helped the black community take great strides in terms of political and social empowerment. Doors long closed to people of color were pried open with the enactment of civil rights legislation, affirmative action and other reforms designed to give them a voice on Capitol Hill, in ... [full story]

This will probably kill his career, but I rise to praise Sen. Joe Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut.In a speech last week before Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Lieberman said, "Since retaking Congress in November 2006, the top foreign policy priority of the Democratic Party has not been to expand the size of our military for the war on terror or to strengthen our democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East ... [full story]