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After 74 Years, FCC Starting To Flex Its Muscles

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Sun - By Harold Furchtgott-Roth - Jun. 18 (Opinion) - By many accounts, the FCC is just beginning to flex its muscles. During its first 60 years, the FCC was one of the more obscure federal agencies. In recent years, however, editorial pages -- some with praise, some with a tut-tut, and some with uncontrolled hysterics -- have commented frequently on FCC decisions, or lack thereof.

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Senate Okays Telecom Immunity in Secret Surveillance

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Sun - By Paul Kane - Feb. 13 (News Report) - The Senate yesterday approved a sweeping measure that would expand the government's clandestine surveillance powers, delivering a key victory to the White House by approving immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies that cooperated with intelligence agencies in domestic spying after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

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Slight of King Could Linger for Voters

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Sun - By Seth Gitell - Jan. 10 (News Report) - "It was hard to escape the distasteful implication that a black man needed the help of a white man to effect change."

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Obama's Hypocrisy

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Sun - By Robert Samuelson - Jan. 09 (Opinion) - The big lie of campaign 2008 -- so far -- is that the presidential candidates, Democratic and Republican, will take care of our children.

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Giuliani Will Back a 'Surge' in Afghanistan

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:15:00 -0800

New York Sun - By Eli Lake - Jan. 02 (News Report) - Mr. Giuliani will call for a new military surge in Afghanistan, a change in the way America's spies are promoted so that officers are rewarded for finding actionable intelligence and not just the number of agents they recruit, and a new war on Al Qaeda's intricate network of Web sites, sites used both to communicate with its agents in the field and to recruit new jihadis.

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Journalist: U.S. Should 'Rape' Israel

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

New York Sun - By Staff Reporter - Dec. 27 (News Report) - "Israel, after 40 years of failing to resolve its problem of occupation," needed a push from America. "Rape it into resolving the problem," he told Ms. Rice.

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Bush's Very Good Year

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

New York Sun - By Lawrence Kudlow - Dec. 26 (Opinion) - The troop surge in Iraq is succeeding. America remains safe from terrorist attacks. And the Goldilocks economy is outperforming all expectations.

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Hillary Clinton's Radical Summer

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:44:32 -0800

New York Sun - By Josh Gerstein - Nov. 26 (Special Report) - In a life marked largely by political caution, one entry on Senator Clinton's résumé stands out: her clerkship in 1971 at one of America's most radical law firms, Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein. One partner at the firm, Doris Walker, was a Communist Party member at the time. Another partner, Robert Treuhaft, had left the party in 1958, several years after being called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and labeled as one of America's most "dangerously subversive" lawyers. The Oakland-based firm was renowned for taking clients others rejected as too controversial, including Communists, draft resisters, and members of the African-American militant group known as the Black Panthers. To this day, Mrs. Clinton's decision to work at the unabashedly left-wing firm is surprising, even shocking, to some of her former colleagues there and to those supporting her bid for the presidency. To the former first lady's enemies and political opponents, her summer at the Treuhaft firm is yet another indication that radical ideology lurks beneath the patina of moderation she has adopted in public life.

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We're way past 2006

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:14:48 -0700

New York Sun - By Michael Barone - Oct. 22 (News Analysis) - Things are not working out as Democratic congressional leaders expected. For the first eight months of this year they struggled to find some way to shut down the American military effort in Iraq. They took it for granted that we were stuck in a quagmire in Iraq, with continuous high casualties and very little to show for them. They pressed hard to get the Republican votes they needed to block a filibuster in the Senate and were cheered when some Republicans, like John Warner, seemed to lean their way. They worked hard over the August recess to pressure Republican House members to break ranks and vote with them. But the Republicans mostly held fast. ... Democrats are coming face to face with the fact that there's a war on -- and that Americans prefer success to failure. If the choice is between stalemate and withdrawal, as it seemed to be in November 2006, they may favor withdrawal; but if the choice is between victory and withdrawal, they don't want to quit -- or to undermine the effort. Last week, Democrat Niki Tsongas won a special election with only 51% of the vote, in a Massachusetts district where John Kerry won 57% in 2004 and would have run much better in 2006. History doesn't stand still -- we're not in 2006 anymore.

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Confronting 'The Israel Lobby'

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 07:32:02 -0700

New York Sun - By Seth Gitell - Sep. 10 (Review) - For people who say their ideas can't get heard, those who contend "the Israel Lobby" has a poisonous grip on American foreign policy are getting a lot of airtime these days. Stephen Walt, co-author of "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," appeared on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" on Tuesday. Another NPR program, "On Point," featured Mr. Walt of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and his writing partner, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, on Wednesday. In her heavily promoted " God's Warriors" series, CNN's Christiane Amanpour featured a one-two punch of Mr. Mearsheimer and President Carter, the author of " Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," in a special, "Jewish Warriors," broadcast three times in the week following its August 21 premiere. Into this environment steps the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, whose new book, "The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control," attempts to counter the allegations and claims, errors and hyperbole of "the Israel Lobby" set. Mr. Foxman, who spent his early years in Vilna, Lithuania, hiding from the Nazis with his Roman Catholic nanny, is challenging calumnies that many believed to have been eradicated from polite discussion in America and elsewhere around the world. The book contains highly detailed and well-sourced refutations of the charges of Messrs. Carter, Walt, and Mearsheimer, as well as a new account of his involvement in last year's controversy surrounding a speech of historian Tony Judt, from whom Mr. Foxman is demanding an apology for being called a "fascist." The book also contains a powerful foreword by George Shultz, a secretary of state in the Reagan administration.

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Al Qaeda Cell May Be Loose in U.S., British Plot Hints

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:35:00 -0700

New York Sun - By Eli Lake - Aug. 06 (News Report) - E-mail addresses for American individuals were found on the same password-protected e-mail chains used by the United Kingdom plotters to communicate with Qaeda handlers in Europe, a counterterrorism official told The New York Sun yesterday. The American and German intelligence community now believe the secure e-mail chains used in the United Kingdom plot have provided a window into an operational Qaeda network in several countries. "Because of the London and Glasgow plot, we now know communications have been made from Al Qaeda to operatives in the United States," the counterterrorism official said on condition of anonymity. "This plot helps to connect a lot of stuff. We have seen money moving a lot through hawala networks and other illicit finance as well." But this source was careful to say that at this point no specific information, such as names, targets or a timeline, was known about any particular plot on American soil. The e-mail addresses that are linked to Americans were pseudonyms

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Hamas Goes 'on Trial' in Texas in Case Over Muslim Charity

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:30:06 -0700

New York Sun - By Josh Gerstein - Jul. 16 (News Report) - The federal government's largest and most aggressive effort to prosecute alleged Hamas financiers in America is to be put to the test beginning today in a Dallas courtroom.

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Exposing AIDS

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:09:58 -0700

New York Sun - By Sirrid Fry-Revere - Jun. 13 (Opinion) - Could the lure of federal dollars be the motive behind a law being proposed that would weaken the informed consent requirements for HIV testing in New York? Assemblyman Dick Gottfried and Senator Dunane, both Manhattan Democrats, plan to introduce a bill some time this month requiring health professionals to test most, if not all, patients for HIV "as a standard part of diagnostic services." Mr. Gottfried, the chairman of the New York state assembly health committee, is gathering support before finalizing the language and introducing the measure. It could very well be that when you go in for your next routine physical exam, you'll get an HIV test, too. No one admits as much, but this bill, like similar proposals elsewhere, is probably driven by new Ryan White Grant Program requirements, under which states must provide the names of actual HIV patients -- not just anonymous numbers -- to receive federal funding for HIV/AIDS related programs. States will receive funding based not only on actual reported AIDS cases, as was the standard last year, but also on the number of HIV positive residents.

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Military May Pull the Plug On Musharraf

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 05:00:08 -0700

New York Sun - By Eli Lake - Jun. 12 (News Report) - As a political crisis boils in Pakistan, American analysts both inside and outside the government are expressing new doubts that President Musharraf will be able to hold onto power through the summer. Over the past month, the military regime in Islamabad has faced a rising threat of violent jihadis in its capital, as well as the struggle between the president and the suspended chief justice of the country, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The twin challenges have led some analysts in the American intelligence community to begin questioning whether Pakistan's military, traditionally General Musharraf's most reliable ally, will support the current regime for much longer.

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Islamic Groups Named in Hamas Funding Case

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 05:20:00 -0700

New York Sun - By Josh Gerstein - Jun. 04 (News Report) - Federal prosecutors have named three prominent Islamic organizations in America as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to support a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas. -- Prosecutors applied the label of "unindicted co-conspirator" ...

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GOP Solons May Defect Over Iraq

Tue, 08 May 2007 10:25:12 -0700

New York Sun - By Russell Berman - May. 08 (News Report) - The congressional debate over Iraq war funding is putting pressure on lawmakers of all political stripes, but none more so than Republicans who are facing tough re-election battles in 2008.

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New Technique Lets Bloggers Tackle Late-Night News Dumps

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 09:16:48 -0700

New York Sun - By Josh Gerstein - Mar. 21 (Special Report) - A time-honored Washington practice of trying to extinguish, pre-empt, or redirect news coverage by dumping stacks of previously secret government documents on the press may be in for some changes after a headlong collision with hundreds of liberal Web loggers in the wee hours of yesterday morning.

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Obama Rebuffs Soros

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 07:30:01 -0700

New York Sun - By Eli Lake - Mar. 21 (News Report) - Yesterday, Mr. Obama's presidential campaign issued a dissent from the Hungarian-born billionaire's assessment. " Mr. Soros is entitled to his opinions," a campaign spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said. "But on this issue he and Senator Obama disagree. The U.S. and our allies are right to insist that Hamas -- a terrorist organization dedicated to Israel's destruction -- meet very basic conditions before being treated as a legitimate actor. AIPAC is one of many voices that share this view."

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Clinton Sets Health Care as Key Issue

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 08:28:37 -0800

New York Sun - By Russell Berman - Feb. 15 (News Analysis) - Senator Clinton, moving with a speed that has startled some observers of her presidential campaign, is making health care the premier domestic plank for her 2008 bid. Whether criticizing President Bush's budget, co-sponsoring legislation in the Senate, or joking about her failures during the 1990s, Mrs. Clinton has been talking about health at nearly every turn. When the senator appeared at a Capitol Hill press conference yesterday announcing a bill aimed at lowering the cost of generic versions of biologic drugs, it was her fourth event devoted to health care since January 20, the date she officially launched her presidential campaign. The legislation has the support of some Republicans and a variety of business groups and unions, but it faces opposition from two leading pharmaceutical industry groups that contend it risks stifling innovation by decreasing the incentive for the development of cutting-edge drugs.

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America's Budget

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 06:01:12 -0800

New York Sun - By Diana Furchtgott-Roth - Feb. 06 (Opinion) - President Bush's 2008 budget released yesterday offers solutions for America's needy that dramatically differ from those offered last week by many witnesses at hearings before two House committees. The Ways and Means and the Education and Health committees were looking into the supposed insecurity of America's middle class. The hearings focused on the need for government-provided health care and child care, employer-provided paid sick leave and family leave, and the need for increased unionization. The major question, voiced by Maryland's Rep. John Sarbanes of the Education and Health Committee to Yale professor Jacob Hacker, was how much more does the government have to spend to remove insecurity from the middle class. With the growth of America's gross domestic product at a high 3.4% last year, unemployment at 4.6%, and real after-tax incomes almost 3% higher than a year ago, it's not clear that much of the middle class is insecure. Spending by the middle fifth of families was 11% higher than 20 years ago, and 34% of American families earned above $75,000, in inflation-adjusted dollars, compared to just 22% 20 years earlier. And the president's budget shows the deficit has shrunk to 1.9% of gross domestic product. Although there are always people in our society who need support, most Americans can make better decisions for themselves than can the government.

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Iraq Civil War Set To Erupt - At Least Among the GOP

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 06:45:55 -0800

New York Sun - By Eli Lake - Feb. 02 (News Report) - The first rhetorical shots of a Republican civil war will be fired Monday when the Senate begins debate on a resolution rebuking the president's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq. While Republican critics of the surge policy persuaded their Democratic colleagues to tone down a version of the resolution passed nearly along party lines in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, those Republican senators who said they would vote for such a resolution are now under fire from the party's base.

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The Fog of a Long War

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 08:19:00 -0800

New York Sun - By John Batchelor - Feb. 01 (Opinion) - The Iraq civil war now comes to the floor of the Senate as 99 men and women rise to debate resolutions that have no more authority and much less style than does a teddy bear in a car seat. Senators from both sides of the aisle are already making remarks that, from the melodrama of the rhetoric, point to their powerlessness. "This is a ping-pong game with American lives," declares Senator Hagel. "It is a targeted civil war," opines Senator Dodd. "The Congress was never meant to be a rubber stamp," asserts Senator Boxer. "It's the failed policy of this president," measures Senator Biden. "This is the last chance for the Iraqis to step up," warns Senator McConnell. The president and vice president have responded dutifully that, sworn to defend the Constitution with the power of commander in chief, they do not heed the posturing of scolds and Potomac fever victims. Mr. Cheney also advises that the impatient Senate settle in for an epochal contest in Iraq. "It's a problem that I think will occupy our successors, maybe for two or three or four administrations."

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An Important Moment

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 06:21:30 -0800

New York Sun - By New York Sun Editorial - Jan. 31 (Editorial) - President Bush is scheduled this morning to visit New York City, where he will give a speech about the economy while standing on ground once trod by Washington and Hamilton, who believed in the economic principles on which Mr. Bush has staked his presidency. Mr. Bush has much of which to be proud. Asked what country is the biggest exporter in the world, lots of people would probably guess China or Japan. Not so -- as Mr. Bush said yesterday, America is the largest exporter in the world. Or, as the chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, Edward Lazear, who is on leave as a professor of economics at Stanford, put it, "The American economy is very strong right now. The unemployment rate is down to 4.5%, which is not only low by historic standards, but a rate that many economists consider to be full employment. Real wages grew last year at a pace that exceeded that of the late '90s, and inflation is in the mid 2% range. Last year saw exports grow at 13% while imports only grew at 5%, and our trade deficit came down as a result."

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Debate Erupts Among Spy Services Over Iran's Role in Battle of Iraq

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:48:57 -0800

New York Sun - By Eli Lake - Jan. 26 (News Analysis) - As America's generals prepare for an increase in troops in Iraq, the American intelligence community has been fiercely debating the extent to which operatives directed by Iran's security services have penetrated the Iraqi government.

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New in America: Not Muslim, No Taxi

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:23:08 -0800

New York Sun - By Youssef Ibrahim - Jan. 08 (News Report) - slamic taxi drivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are refusing passengers carrying alcohol and blind folks with seeing-eye dogs because the animals' saliva is sacrilege according to Sharia law. The enterprising Muslims during the past year have stranded 100 passengers a month, sometimes for more than an hour, according to the Metropolitan Airports Commission, since three-fourths of the 900 taxi drivers servicing the airport are Somali Muslims who have decided to participate in the new discipline. To make matters worse, a local outreach director of the ever-obliging Council on American-Islamic Relations, Damon Drake, dismissed the issue, saying, "Now that the Muslims are here, they need to be accommodated." The issue originated 12 months ago when the airports commission received a fatwa, or religious edict, from the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society. It stated that "Islamic jurisprudence" prohibits taxi drivers to carry passengers with alcohol "because it involves cooperating in sin."

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