Jennifer Harper

Inside the Beltway: Conservatives man up and go on the offense

"The culture in Washington must change. And if we do the right things in the coming months, conservatives have a real opportunity to start calling the shots. It's time to go on offense. That is why we created a road map called the Conservative Policy Agenda," declares Michael Needham, CEO of Heritage Action for America, the feisty grass-roots offshoot of the Heritage Foundation.

August 5, 2014

Paging Al Gore: NASA says that global warming could be ‘on hiatus’

NASA truly has the 100,000 feet viewpoint on this one. The nation’s space agency his noticed an inconvenient cooling on the planet lately. Atmospheric scientist Norman Loeb now asks: “The recent pause in global warming: A temporary blip or something more permanent?”. Mr. Loeb's reasoning “explores how global warming may be on vacation,” NASA helpfully explains.

August 5, 2014

Poll finds Americans worried about Ebola and queasy about the media coverage

Media coverage is intense and often alarming on the Ebola outbreak in Africa, and the recent arrival of two patients in the U.S. to receive treatment. Is the nation worried? A new survey finds that 58 percent of Americans are concerned personally about the threat of Ebola disease, and a substantial number are aware of shrill press coverage.

August 5, 2014

Inside the Beltway: Will Hollywood turn on silver screen conservative Jon Voight?

It's almost Emmy Awards time. Will Hollywood freeze out silver screen conservative Jon Voight following his recent vigorous protests against President Obama, the Democratic party and his fellow actors who are critical of Israel? The Oscar-winning veteran actor is indeed up for the Best Supporting Actor Emmy himself for his portrayal of a crime family patriarch on the popular Showtime series "Ray Donovan.''

August 4, 2014

‘Combat journalism’ at The Washington Free Beacon goes into fearless profit-making mode

The Washington Beacon has shed its privately owned non-profit status and gone over to the free market, the news organization announced Monday. Founded in 2012, the precise and often lethal collection of investigative journalists began as a project of the Center for American Freedom, targeting the realms of public policy, government affairs, international security, and errant media. Now there will be investors and advertisers for the newly realized for-profit journalistic enterprise.

August 4, 2014

Inside the Beltway: Conservative author takes on publishing giant over Reagan

No wonder the public is wary of the media in all its permutations. The information universe has become a kind of freewheeling exercise in news aggregation and instant content sharing, driven by buzz and enabled by the Internet.

August 3, 2014

America’s Cold War with Russia may be a Cool War now, or even a tepid one

The planet still puzzles over this question: Is the United States in a new Cold War with Russia? President Obama already told journalists this week that there is no new version lurking. Maybe it’s just a Cool War now. Or even a tepid one.

August 1, 2014

Inside the Beltway: The Ben Carson surge continues

It appears to be a genuine, independent grass-roots phenomenon, and it keeps growing. More than 100,000 eager fans have contributed to the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee, a political action committee that has raised $8 million in less than a year, all of it dedicated to the idea that the author and former pediatric neurosurgeon should definitely, positively run for the White House in 2016.

July 31, 2014

An exercise in journalism: Climate change, a tempest, and one F-bomb

Oh, the humanity. A veritable tempest, a storm of coverage and one f-bomb have erupted after a Washington Times story this week that pointed out a little case of global warming irony during a big EPA public hearing in Colorado this week.

July 31, 2014

Paying attention: 85 percent of wary Americans take immigration ‘personally’

The nation is keenly interested in the immigration issue; Americans consider it a serious matter, say it is personally important to them - and a majority disapprove of the White House role in it all.

July 31, 2014

Inside the Beltway: Everybody’s hot on the Cold War

It is Cold War chic, a fixation on the dire days when B-52s thundered overhead, "peace through strength" proved a viable strategy and diplomacy was terse indeed. Press, pundits and politicians have bandied about Cold War talk with relish, so much so that President Obama himself came out to assure everyone that the United States was not engaged in a new Cold War with Russia. The Russians may not agree.

July 30, 2014

John Bolton endorses Scott Brown, the newest ‘national security candidate’

There's some new support for Scott Brown in his quest for the U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire. Citing the candidate's "national security credentials", John Bolton has stepped forward to endorse Mr. Brown, and also contribute a tidy $10,000 to his primary and general election campaign.

July 30, 2014

Ron Paul giving away a Colt AR-15 in the name of ‘freedom’

"Each and every one of us has a God-given right — and duty — to defend freedom. That's why Campaign for Liberty is giving away a brand new Colt LE6920MP-B AR-15 equipped with a red dot sight. And so says Ron Paul to fans of his nonprofit activist group, which champions liberty, fiscal responsibility and lots more.

July 30, 2014

Inside the Beltway: Immigration rage festers on all sides

They will sing. They will pray. They will risk arrest. A coalition of faith groups promises "a massive act of civil disobedience" at high noon on Thursday in front of the White House.

July 29, 2014

Alaska’s language challenge: translating tax forms into Siberian Yupik (at $50 an hour)

Alaska is currently wrestling with a native language challenge: how to translate the state's longest tax measure for local populations? Due on the public ballot in August, the tax forms and informational pamphlet that accompanies the measure are some 50 pages long - and both documents must be translated into Yup'ik, Inupiak, Siberian Yupik, Koyukon Athabascan and Gwich'in Athabascan - the local dialects in the region.

July 29, 2014

Inside the Beltway: Republican posse rides out to fire Harry Reid

When Republicans talk about "43" on Tuesday, they won't be referring to George W. Bush. They will be referring instead to the 43 bills passed by the House that are languishing on the hallowed — or hollow — desk of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Now it's pushback time.

July 28, 2014

Third time the charm? Americans wish certain presidents had stayed beyond two terms

For some presidents, once is enough in the White House. A lucky few managed to eke out two terms, and only one stayed on for four. And while Americans get a little nervous when it comes to multiple presidential terms, a substantial amount still wish that certain presidents had stayed on beyond their eight years in the big mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue.

July 28, 2014

The border crisis could prove a ‘big boost’ for Republicans as the midterms approach

"If Republicans unite around the position that all or substantially all of the most recent wave of illegal entrants should be sent back to their home countries as soon as possible, it will give them a big boost as the election season begins to heat up," one analyst advises.

July 25, 2014

Inside the Beltway: Just a little media protection for the White House

Broadcasters have offered lengthy broadcasts about Gaza and Ukraine but scant criticism about the White House role in the double crises. On the "Big Three" networks, in fact, the criticism amounted to less than a minute — in almost six hours of recent news coverage.

July 24, 2014

Some federal help for old American battlefields: $1.3 million to spruce them up

This might be some federal funding that even the most frugal patriot would approve of. The National Park Service has awarded $1.3 million in preservation grants to help protect, document and interpret 75 of America’s significant battlefield lands. Time and urban progress have taken their toll on such sites, which are heavy with history.

July 24, 2014