President Obama seems intent on riding his high speed rail idea to the end of the line. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood reaffirmed the Obama administration’s commitment to its marqee infrastructure project at a House Transportation Committee hearing Thursday. The Washington Post reports: Undaunted by the looming fiscal crisis, the Obama administration said Thursday that it […]

Here at Via Meadia we’ve been following America’s energy revolution with great interest, but the MSM isn’t doing enough to cover some of the political fallout. The shale gas bonanza has pitted President Obama’s economic instincts against his need to appeal to his environmentalist base. In an excellent new piece at the Daily Beast, Joel Kotkin […]

About a month ago, the Republican Study Committee published a policy paper arguing for copyright law reform, only to rescind its publication almost immediately. The paper argued that current copyright law only serves the interests of big businesses, and that changing the law could encourage innovation. Needless to say, this enraged several of those big […]

Last year, the United States okayed a weapons shipment from Qatar to Libyan rebels. Now the New York Times is reporting that some of these weapons fell into the hands of Islamist militants: “The weapons and money from Qatar strengthened militant groups in Libya, allowing them to become a destabilizing force since the fall of […]

In early 2011 protestors stormed the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, to protest Governor Scott Walker’s plans to reduce collective bargaining rights for most of the state’s public unions. A similar drama has been playing out in Michigan. Once again, a mix of union members and rank-and-file Democrats stormed the streets of the capital to protest the state’s […]

Obama administration foreign policy took a turn once again toward the aggressive, with Secretary Clinton vowing to do more to promote democracy and human rights in Russia and among its neighbors: “There is a move to re-Sovietize the region,” Clinton lamented.“It’s not going to be called that. It’s going to be called customs union, it […]

A number of plans have been proposed to help New York deal with the fallout from Hurricane Sandy. Many of them are unworkable, but there are a few gems in the mix—if it weren’t for the fact that rebuilding the city’s destroyed infrastructure will be extremely costly and New York isn’t exactly flush with cash at the […]

India’s movement towards economic reform has been painstakingly slow and halting at times, but a vote Wednesday by the lower house of Parliament may be a good sign of things to come. After two days of debate, the lower house voted to allow foreign  supermarket investment (read, Walmart) into India. While it is the upper house […]

American counterterrorism officials are pushing the Obama administration to allow U.S. forces to pursue terrorists in Africa, even if they aren’t affiliated with al-Qaeda. The WSJ has the story: The move, according to administration and congressional officials, would be aimed at allowing U.S. military operations in Mali, Nigeria, Libya and possibly other countries where militants […]

With Assad reportedly activating his chemical weapons stash for potential use, the Obama administration is tying itself up in knots trying to parse nuances in the meaning of the word “move” and backing away from previous threats to intervene: When Mr. Obama warned against moving chemical weapons, administration officials said he did not mean shifting the […]