Those who imagine that an American bug out in Iraq would calm a roiling region suffer from an acute case of tunnel vision. Or is it myopia? Read a newspaper. Look at a map. A crescent of crisis is building from the Iran-Afghanistan border to the shores of the Mediterranean. Radical Islam is on the march and vital American interests are threatened across a 2,000-mile front. Giving up in Iraq wouldn't solve this problem. Rather, ... [full story]

The black community, especially black-owned business, lost a major ally in Parren Mitchell, the former Maryland congressman who was instrumental in pushing through legislation requiring 10 percent of government contracts to go to minority firms. The so-called 10 percent set-aside helped open the door for countless black businesses to the government contracting world, which up until then had been largely elusive to minorities. Late last month, Mitchell, 85, who led the U.S. House Small Business ... [full story]

Philadelphia has big city problems. The murder rate is on the rise, and gangs make some areas unsafe even in the daytime.  It’s no secret that fatherless, undisciplined boys are the main reason the streets are deadly. So what is the city doing about it?  Let’s imagine for a moment that we’re in a Philadelphia City Council discussion. “How about a crackdown on gangs? Or a crackdown on drug dealers?” “Nah. Those people shoot back. ... [full story]

PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland - There are two ways to destroy a nation. One is from without by an invading military force. The other is from within when the people of the nation no longer embrace and promote the history, language and culture that brought it to prominence and power. Britain has chosen the second option, which is national suicide.In addition to its indefensible immigration policy, which is rapidly diluting British culture, the nation's public schools ... [full story]

Landslide Republican gubernatorial loser moves on to Washington to work with Tony Perkins' Family Research Council Over the years he's carried enough water for the GOP to fill up a good part of Lake Erie. He's done enough dirty work to pave the Interstate from Cleveland to Columbus. He is credited with being part of the team that helped double President George W. Bush's vote count among Blacks in Ohio in 2004, and is charged, by ... [full story]

Hardly anyone predicted that the Bush-Kennedy-Kyl-Reid steamroller could be stopped. But as the New York Times reported on page one, the "Grass Roots Roared, and an Immigration Plan Fell." The American people are fed up with the six years of "silent amnesty" President Bush has given us by his refusal to enforce the laws against illegal entry into our country, against hiring illegal aliens, and against allowing visitors to overstay their visas. The American people ... [full story]

As Congress returns from spending time in our districts for Memorial Day, House Democrats are eager to build upon the significant progress we have made over the first five months of 2007 on the issues that matter to the American people - defending our country, growing our economy, protecting children and strengthening families, preserving our planet, and restoring accountability and effectiveness to the federal government. Democrats' top priority in the 110th Congress is the defense ... [full story]

If there is one public official I don't envy at this moment, it's Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Convicted on four counts of obstructing a federal grand jury investigation, Vice President Cheney's longtime aide has been sentenced to serve 30 months in prison and fined $250,000. And talk about a double whammy. Libby's first misfortune was the timing of his troubles. They come at the moment an entire nation is hearing talk of "celebrity justice" occasioned by ... [full story]

Dear Barack (cc: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and all Democrats), We've only met a few times, but we went to the same college, Occidental in Los Angeles. I graduated 50 years ago and went into the NFL, while decades later you ended up graduating from Columbia and Harvard and practicing law in Illinois. Like so many on both sides of the political aisle, I appreciated your speech to the 2004 convention and your wonderful message ... [full story]

Former senator and probable Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson brought Virginia Republicans to their feet last Saturday night in Richmond when he said the public no longer believes in politicians who promise to secure the U.S. border as part of a bipartisan immigration bill."You've got to secure the border first, before you do anything," said Thompson. "The members (of Congress) say it's right here in this bill: the border. The response is, 'We don't care ... [full story]

In early April, officials in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, agreed to bar any public funding of religious activities as part of a settlement in a lawsuit challenging a local "faith-based" ministry for prisoners. The lawsuit, filed in 2005 by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania, and the national law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP, argued that Bradford County and other governmental agencies were unconstitutionally funding ... [full story]

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, please call your boss and urge him to read your May 9 speech to the National Summit on America's Silent Epidemic in Washington, D.C. Your eloquence in describing the silent epidemic was exceeded only by our shock at the facts you described. "The dropout rate for African-American, Hispanic, and Native American students approaches 50 percent. ... Every year nearly a million kids fail to graduate high school .... The United ... [full story]

The top three Democratic presidential candidates participated in a forum Monday on the connection between their religious faith and political positions. The unusual gathering, broadcast live by CNN, was co-hosted by Sojourners, a Christian social justice network.Rev. Jim Wallis, editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, and an organizer of the forum, has been telling Democrats not to cede religion to Republicans. He has spoken at several Democratic Party retreats, teaching Democrats how to speak about faith.Sen. Hillary ... [full story]