DOCSLIB.ORG

The Case for Romney

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Case for Romney 2012_09_10 postal_cover61404-postal.qxd 8/21/2012 10:56 PM Page 1 September 10, 2012 $4.99 CONVENTIONSPECIAL ISSUE GOP 689 REASONS TO DEFEAT OBAMA TheThe CaseCase forfor RomneyRomney MICHAEL KNOX BERAN w JAMES C. CAPRETTA w NOEMIE EMERY w VICTOR DAVIS HANSON STEVEN F. HAYWARD w KEITH HENNESSEY w FREDERICK M. HESS w ROB LONG ANDREW C. MCCARTHY w JOHN O’SULLIVAN w RAMESH PONNURU w MICHAEL RUBIN REIHAN SALAM w GEORGE WEIGEL w KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON w THE EDITORS www.nationalreview.com base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/20/2012 1:41 PM Page 1 WESTINGHOUSE AP 1000 RECEIVES Final Design Certication. A N Y L L C WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC COMP First andnd stills rst. Sixty y ears a go, WWesestinghouse Electric Company established its r epuutation ffoor n uclear en ergy t echnologlog y leader ship w ith th e de velopment of t he w orld’s r st pressurized wa teerr r eactor. TToodaayyy,, that o ngoing tradiradi tion of in vestment a nd inn ovation is a gain r eaffrrmed. e US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has grantted Final Design Certicication to the WWesestinghouse AP1000 design, t he s affesest a nd m ost ad vanced n uclear energyer plant aavavailablele in tthe gglolobal markketetplace. rough t he u se of ad vanced-p assive s affetety sys tems, the AP1000 reactoor is deemed to be 200 times safferere thant regulations requiree. Modular design and standardizadization result in s table a nd p redic table co nstruction, ffueuel a nd operating and mainintenance costs. Plus, deploymentt ofo the AP1000 reactor will createe ttens of t housands of g oood j obs, in cluding 700 w ell-p ayying permanent j obs to o pera te e ach p lant. e WWesestinghhouse AP1000 plant is r eeady to p rovide ffuuture g enera tions w ith saffee, clean and reliliable electricityy.. Check us out at wwwwww.w.westinghousenuclear.com toc_QXP-1127940144.qxp 8/22/2012 2:03 PM Page 1 Contents SEPTEMBER 10, 2012 | VOLUME LXIV, NO. 17 | www.nationalreview.com REPUBLICAN CONVENTION SPECIAL 18 ROMNEY’S REVELATION by Michael Knox Beran He knows the president is burying the American Dream. 22 FAREWELL TO ALL THAT by Noemie Emery There will never be another FDR. 23 PROGRESSIVISM’S WORST NIGHTMARE by Steven F. Hayward Paul Ryan can make the case against it as no one else can. 24 ENERGIZING THE ECONOMY by Kevin D. Williamson Leash the regulators and unleash the oilmen. 28 OBAMA VS. THE CONSTITUTION by Ramesh Ponnuru The rule of law is on the ballot. 34 THE ENTITLEMENT CROSSROADS by Reihan Salam Do we want a system based on centralization or competition? 35 A STARK TAX CONTRAST by Keith Hennessey COVER: ROBERTO PARADA Romney believes in incentives; Obama doesn’t. 38 ALL IN FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT by George Weigel BOOKS, ARTS The stakes for our fundamental freedom. & MANNERS DECONSTRUCTING THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY 40 by John O’Sullivan 64 RUBIO RISING The errors of Obama’s immigration policy. Sean Trende reviews An American Son: A Memoir, by Marco Rubio, 42 THE FOREIGN POLICY THAT WASN’T by Victor Davis Hanson and The Rise of Marco Rubio, It would be nice to have one for a change. by Manuel Roig-Franzia. 44 OBAMA AND THE ISLAMISTS by Andrew C. McCarthy 66 FILM: REGIME CHANGE The president’s disastrous policy of appeasement. Ross Douthat reviews The Queen of Versailles. 46 IRAN ENDGAME by Michael Rubin Romney could bring strategy where it has dangerously lacked. 67 CITY DESK: IMPORT-EXPORT Richard Brookhiser evaluates the 47 WHAT TO SAY ABOUT HEALTH CARE by James C. Capretta transatlantic exchange. Romney and Ryan can offer a compelling alternative to the president’s massive entitlement. SECTIONS 49 A PRIMER FOR EDUCATION POLICY by Frederick M. Hess What the GOP ticket has right; what more it could do. 2 Letters to the Editor 4 The Week 50 DATA, INSTINCT by Rob Long 62 The Long View . Rob Long Mitt Romney appreciates the value of both. 63 Athwart . James Lileks 65 Poetry . Lee Oser 52 689 REASONS TO DEFEAT BARACK OBAMA 68 Happy Warrior . Mark Steyn NATIONAL RevIeW (ISSN: 0028-0038) is published bi-weekly, except for the first issue in January, by NATIONAL RevIeW, Inc., at 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. © National Review, Inc., 2012. Address all editorial mail, manuscripts, letters to the editor, etc., to editorial Dept., NATIONAL RevIeW, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Address all subscription mail orders, changes of address, undeliverable copies, etc., to NATIONAL RevIeW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015; phone, 386-246-0118, Monday–Friday, 8:00 A.M. to 10:30 P.M. eastern time. Adjustment requests should be accompanied by a current mailing label or facsimile. Direct classified advertising inquiries to: Classifieds Dept., NATIONAL RevIeW, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 or call 212-679- 7330. POSTMASTeR: Send address changes to NATIONAL RevIeW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015. Printed in the U.S.A. RATeS: $59.00 a year (24 issues). Add $21.50 for Canada and other foreign subscriptions, per year. (All payments in U.S. currency.) The editors cannot be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork unless return postage or, better, a stamped self-addressed envelope is enclosed. Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors. letters--ready_QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/22/2012 2:04 PM Page 2 Letters SEPTEMBER 10 ISSUE; PRINTED AUGUST 23 The Iraqi Rotary EDITOR Yuval Levin hit the nail on the head with “The Hollow Republic” (August 13). Richard Lowry I was reminded of a speech I heard in 2004 by an administrator in Paul Bremer’s Senior Editors Coalition Provisional Authority after the Iraq invasion. He said that one of the Richard Brookhiser / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones biggest problems to overcome was the absence of a tradition among the Iraqi Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts people of doing things for themselves, at the local level. Literary Editor Michael Potemra Executive Editor Christopher McEvoy The Iraqis had no Rotary clubs, no PTAs, no Little League baseball in which Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson people selected leaders for themselves and solved problems peaceably through National Correspondent John J. Miller Political Reporter Robert Costa voting or consensus. All they knew was the family patriarch and the supreme Art Director Luba Kolomytseva leader, who for a generation had been Saddam Hussein. His dictatorship decid- Deputy Managing Editors Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz ed and directed everything. Under President Obama and the Democrats, this Robert VerBruggen Editorial Associate Katherine Connell would be our fate: an all-powerful federal government controlling everything Research Associate Scott Reitmeier about the lives of its residents. (“Citizens” is too meaningful a term to apply to Assistant to the Editor Madison V. Peace the subjects of such a government.) Contributing Editors Robert H. Bork / Shannen Coffin This tendency of socialists was perfectly summarized in an essay called “The Ross Douthat / Roman Genn Law” by the Frenchman Frédéric Bastiat, written over 150 years ago. Socialists Jim Geraghty / Jonah Goldberg Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow / Mark R. Levin claim, he wrote, “that we reject fraternity, solidarity, organization, and associa- Yuval Levin / Rob Long / Jim Manzi tion; and they brand us wi th the name of individualists. We can assure them that Andrew C. McCarthy / Kate O’Beirne David B. Rivkin Jr. / Reihan Salam what we repudiate is not natural organization, but forced organization. It is not NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE free association, but the forms of association that they would impose upon us. It Editor-at-Large Kathryn Jean Lopez Managing Editor Edward John Craig is not spontaneous fraternity, but legal fraternity. It is not providential solidar - National Affairs Columnist John Fund ity, but artificial solidarity, which is only an unjust displacement of responsibil- News Editor Daniel Foster Editorial Associates ity. Socialism . confounds Government and society.” Charles C. W. Cooke / Katrina Trinko Unjust displacement of responsibility—it’s hard to say it better. Technical Services Russell Jenkins Web Developer Wendy Weihs Web Production Assistant Anthony Boiano Derek Lane EDITORS- AT- L A RG E Via e-mail Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan Contributors Hadley Arkes / Baloo / James Bowman Eliot A. Cohen / Brian Crozier Romney, Evolved Dinesh D’Souza / M. Stanton Evans Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman In “Like a Boss” (August 27), Kevin D. Williamson uses evolutionary biology James Gardner / David Gelernter George Gilder / Jeffrey Hart to assert Romney’s superiority as a presidential candidate—especially where Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler women are concerned. Noting that the man has great wealth and five sons, David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune D. Keith Mano / Michael Novak Williamson concludes that “from an evolutionary point of view, Mitt Romney Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons should get 100 percent of the female vote.” Terry Teachout / Vin Weber Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Actually, from an evolutionary point of view, at his age, Mitt Romney should Accounting Manager Galina Veygman be dead. From an evolutionary standpoint, America would be run by the biggest, Accounta nt Zofia Baraniak Business Services strongest male. We could settle the presidential race in the UFC Octagon. Alex Batey / Kate Murdock I know, I know: Williamson isn’t being literal. He does say that “given that Elena Reut / Lucy Zepeda Circulation Manager Jason Ng we are no longer roaming the veldt for the most part, money is a reasonable WORLD WIDE WEB www.nationalreview.com stand-in for social status.” But that’s the problem with using evolutionary biol- MAIN NUMBER 212-679-7330 SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES 386-246-0118 ogy to score points in debate: There’s always a “reasonable” exception to its WASHINGTON OFFICE 202-543-9226 ADVERTISING SALES 212-679-7330 harsher laws for the people you want to win.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Annual Report 2006-2008 FINAL
    WEATHERHEAD CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS H A R V A R D U N I V E R S I T Y two2006-2007 thousand six – two thousand seven ANNUAL REPORTS two2007-2008 thousand seven – two thousand eight 1737 Cambridge Street • Cambridge, MA 02138 www.wcfia.harvard.edu TABLE OF CONTENTS PEOPLE 2 Advisory Committee 2 Executive Committee 2 Administration 3 RESEARCH ACTIVITIES 5 Small Grants for Faculty Research Projects 5 Medium Grants for Faculty Research Projects 5 Large Grants for Faculty Research Projects 5 Large Grants for Faculty Research Semester Leaves 6 Junior Faculty Synergy Semester Leaves 7 Distinguished Lecture Series 8 Weatherhead Initiative in International Affairs 8 CONFERENCES 10 STUDENT PROGRAMS 31 RESEARCH SEMINARS 45 Africa Research Seminar 45 Challenges Of The Twenty-First Century: European And American Perspectives 46 Communist and Postcommunist Countries Seminar 47 Comparative Politics Research Workshop 47 Comparative Politics Seminar 52 Cultural Politics: Interdisciplinary Pespectives Seminar 52 Director’s Faculty Seminar 53 Economic Growth and Development Workshop 53 Economic History Workshop 54 Ethics And International Relations Seminar 56 Faculty Discussion Group On Political Economy 56 Futue of War Seminar 63 Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution 63 International Business Seminar 65 International Economics Workshop 66 International History Seminar 68 International Law and International Relations Seminar 70 Middle East Seminar 71 Political Violence and Civil War 73 Religion and Society 75 Research Workshop in International Relations 75 Research Workshop on Political Economy 77 Science and Society Seminar 83 South Asia Seminar 84 Southeast Asia Security and International Relations 85 Transatlantic Relations Semimar 85 U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Party Foul: Inside the Rise of Spies, Mercenaries, and Billionaire Moneymen -- Printout -- TIME
    Party Foul: Inside the Rise of Spies, Mercenaries, and Billionaire Moneymen -- Printout -- TIME Back to Article Click to Print Monday, Mar. 03, 2014 Party Foul: Inside the Rise of Spies, Mercenaries, and Billionaire Moneymen By Alex Altman; Zeke Miller On a cold Saturday in January, a spy slipped into a craft brewery in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, where Hillary Clinton's standing army was huddled in a private room. The 43-year-old operative lurked in the corner with a camera on a tripod, recording the group of old Clinton hands as they plotted her path to the presidency. "Nobody," veteran Democratic strategist Craig Smith told the group, "had ever done it like this before." Within hours, a clip of the gathering was shipped to the snoop's employer, a for-profit research firm in northern Virginia. From there, it was packaged for a conservative magazine and subsequently went viral online. It was an early score in a presidential election that won't officially begin for another year--and it happened without any involvement from a candidate or either party. The Clintonites were members of Ready for Hillary, a super PAC that is spending millions of dollars to assemble a grassroots battalion for the former Secretary of State's campaign-in-waiting. And the infiltrator was one of more than two dozen "trackers" dispatched across 19 states by a company looking to damage Democrats. This is the dawn of the outsourced campaign. For decades, elections have been the business of candidates and political parties and the professionals they employed. People with names on the ballot bought their own ads and wielded the ability to smite enemies with a single phone call.
    [Show full text]
  • How Propaganda Works How Works
    HOW PROPAGANDA WORKS HOW WORKS PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS JASON STANLEY Princeton Oxford Copyright © 2015 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu Jacket design by Chris Ferrante Excerpts from Victor Kemperer, The Language of the Third Reich: LTI, Lingua Tertii Imperii, translated by Martin Brady © Reclam Verlag Leipzig, 1975. Used by permission of Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. All Rights Reserved ISBN 978– 0– 691– 16442– 7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014955002 British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon Next LT Pro and League Gothic Printed on acid- free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This will always remain one of the best jokes of democracy, that it gave its deadly enemies the means by which it was destroyed. — JOSEPH GOEBBELS, REICH MINISTER OF PROPAGANDA, 1933– 45 CONTENTS Preface IX Introduction: The Problem of Propaganda 1 1 Propaganda in the History of Political Thought 27 2 Propaganda Defined 39 3 Propaganda in Liberal Democracy 81 4 Language as a Mechanism of Control 125 5 Ideology 178 6 Political Ideologies 223 7 The Ideology of Elites: A Case Study 269 Conclusion 292 Acknowledgments 295 Notes 305 Bibliography 335 Index 347 PREFACE In August 2013, after almost a decade of teaching at Rutgers University and living in apartments in New York City, my wife Njeri Thande and I moved to a large house in New Haven, Connecticut, to take up positions at Yale University.
    [Show full text]
  • While Slipping in Polls, Mitt Romney Assures Voters 'I Care'
    THURSDAY Today THE DAILY CHIEF-UNION September 27, 2012 Single Copy 50 Cents Upper Sandusky, OH 43351-0180 Showers High upper 60s Low upper 40s Weather details on page 2 Jury finds Locally Forest man Rural Upper guilty of sharing Sandusky man porn with teen sentenced on By NICK MARLOW Staff writer weapon charge A 47-year-old rural Forest man was found A rural Upper Sandusky guilty on two counts of disseminating matter man who pleaded guilty to harmful to juveniles having a weapon while under Wednesday morning at the disability received a 12- close of a two-day trial in month prison sentence in Wyandot County Common Wyandot County Common Pleas Court. Pleas Court on Sept. 18. Robert J. Buckingham, According to court docu- 17295 CH 215, Forest, was ments, two additional charges released on a continued bond against Jeffrey G. Grove, 49, to await sentencing after a were dropped via a joint sen- Submitted photo jury decided enough evidence tence agreement between the Wyandot County contingent attends Jordan-Latta dinner was provided to convict him. Because the jury dubbed an state of Ohio and Grove. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s son, Matt (center), was the featured speaker at a dinner adult video and pictures “The honoring Congressmen Bob Latta and Jim Jordan recently held at Camden Falls in Tiffin. With Robert allegedly shown to the victim court finds redistricting, Latta will assume some of Jordan’s former territory and as a result, all of Wyandot Buckingham obscene. The victim, who now (Grove) has County now will be in Latta’s congressional district.
    [Show full text]
  • The Growth & Opportunity Project
    GROWTH & OPPORTUNITY PROJECT GROWTH & OPPORTUNITY PROJECT 1 GROWTH & OPPORTUNITY PROJECT A ONE-YEAR CHECK-UP March 17th, 2014 The definition of insanity, according to the over-used proverb attributed to Einstein, is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Many political organizations don’t understand that principle. But the RNC, under Chairman Reince Priebus, does. After 2012’s disappointing election, he vowed to end the cycle of repeating the same thing—and to do things differently. The five of us served as co-chairs of the Growth and Opportunity Project, an independent review panel that Chairman Priebus convened after the presidential election to make recommendations about how to grow the party and win more elections. We spent three months and received input from over 52,000 individuals—from surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one meetings. While the report provided recommendations on what the party at large needed to do, we’re pleased to see that the RNC has made tremendous progress on many of our recommendations in the course of the past year. Likewise, many of the other party committees and outside groups have also embraced aspects of the report and should be commended for their progress. We touched on a broad range of issues, but the most important recommendations centered around three areas: engaging more voters with a positive message through a permanent, nationwide, diverse field operation; modernizing data and digital capabilities to provide tools for state parties and campaigns for voter contact; and updating the presidential primary, debate, and convention process to strengthen the eventual nominee.
    [Show full text]
  • Lord Ashcroft's Republican Convention Diary. Day
    Lord Ashcroft’s Republican Convention Diary. Day One: Trump begins as he means to go on An American political convention makes a British party conference look rather like a village fete. This year’s Republican National Convention is taking place in Cleveland, Ohio, in the twenty-thousand seat arena that is home to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the city’s world championship- winning basketball team. I am among the fifty thousand people visiting for the event, along with 2,472 delegates, many of the stars of American politics (including Karl Rove, architect of George W. Bush’s two presidential victories, whom I caught up with yesterday pictured), and the fifteen thousand members of the media, who comprise the biggest international press corps outside that of the Rio Olympics. Cleveland itself inspires mixed views. Some like to refer to it as “The Mistake On The Lake”, or to remind you that the Cuyahoga River which runs through it was once so polluted that it caught fire. This is unsporting, since the city has plenty of merits, not the least of which is the world- class Cleveland Clinic, of which I am both a proud trustee and a grateful former patient. I spent a total of twenty-nine days in its intensive care unit last year recovering from septic shock. At one point I found myself surrounded by fifteen doctors. This was a new experience for me – fifteen lawyers in a room, yes, but never doctors. I had to tell them I preferred the lawyers. As the reader will know, the Republican Convention was last held in Cleveland eighty years ago, when the party nominated Alfred M.
    [Show full text]
  • Super Pacs and 501(C) Groups in the 2016 Election
    Super PACs and 501(c) Groups in the 2016 Election David B. Magleby* Brigham Young University Paper presented at the “State of the Parties: 2016 and Beyond”, Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, University of Akron. November 9-10, 2017. *I would like to acknowledge the research assistance of Hyrum Clarke, Ben Forsgren, John Geilman, Jake Jensen, Jacob Nielson, Blake Ringer, Alena Smith, Wen Je (Fred) Tan, and Sam Williams all BYU undergraduates. Data made available by the Center for Responsive Politics was helpful as were two interviews with Robert Maguire, whose expertise in political nonprofits was informative. 1 Super PACs and 501(c) Groups in the 2067 Election David B. Magleby Brigham Young University In only a short period of time, Super PACs have come to be one of the most important parts of American electoral politics. They raise and spend large sums of money in competitive federal elections. They have become fully integrated teammates with candidates, party leaders, and interest groups. While initially they were most visible in paying for television advertising, by 2016 they expanded their scope by providing a wide variety of campaign services once thought to be funded by candidate campaign committees (campaign events) or party committees, (get-out-the-vote, voter registration, list development). Where does the money come from that funds Super PACs and other outside groups? While much of the attention on sources of funding for Super PACs was initially on corporations and unions, the reality has been that most of the funding for Super PACs has been individuals. Publicly traded corporations have been infrequent funders of Super PACs, while unions have been more active in using Super PACs.
    [Show full text]
  • December 19, 2017 Records, FOIA, and Privacy Branch Office of Environmental Information Environmental Protection Agency 1200
    December 19, 2017 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL Records, FOIA, and Privacy Branch Office of Environmental Information Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (2822T) Washington, DC 20460 [email protected] Re: Freedom of Information Act Request Dear Freedom of Information Officer: Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, and the implementing regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 40 C.F.R. Part 2, American Oversight makes the following request for records. On December 15, Mother Jones and the New York Times reported that EPA signed a $120,000 no-bid contract with Definers Public Affairs to provide media services.1 Definers was founded by Joe Pounder and Matt Rhoades, two longtime Republican political operatives. Mr. Pounder and Mr. Rhoades previously founded America Rising, a Republican political opposition research firm. The Times also reported that since President Trump took office, at least 40 FOIA requests have been submitted to the EPA by Allan Blutstein, a vice president for both Definers and America Rising. Many of those requests sought records about EPA employees who had been critical of the Trump administration. Earlier today, it was reported that EPA had decided to cancel the contract with Definers Public Affairs.2 However, many questions remain about the initial decision to award a no-bid contract to 1 See Rebecca Leber et al., The EPA Hired a Major Republican Opposition Research Firm to Track Press Activity, MOTHER JONES (Dec. 15, 2017, 6:00 AM), http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/the-epa-hired-a-major-republican-opposition- research-firm-to-track-press-activity/; Eric Lipton & Lisa Friedman, E.P.A.
    [Show full text]
  • December 19, 2017 SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY Honorable Arthur A. Elkins Jr. Inspector General EPA Office of Inspector General 1
    December 19, 2017 SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY Honorable Arthur A. Elkins Jr. Inspector General EPA Office of Inspector General 1200 Pennsylvania Ave, NW (2410T) Washington, D.C. 20460 Re: Suggestions for Audits and Evaluations Dear Mr. Elkins, The mission of EPA’s Office of the Inspector General is to “prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse through independent oversight of the programs and operations of the Environmental Protection Agency.”1 We respectfully request that the Office of the Inspector General immediately open an investigation into EPA’s decision to award a $120,000 no-bid contract to Definers Public Affairs Corporation for “news analysis and brief service focusing on EPA work and other topics of interest to EPA,” as well as EPA’s interactions with key Definers affiliates and staff members.2 Although EPA reportedly intends to terminate its contract with Definers3 in light of widespread concern,4 a full investigation is essential to determine whether EPA’s multi- faceted interactions with Definers and its affiliates has led to improper uses of agency resources. In particular, EPA’s no-bid $120,000 contract award to Definers Public Affairs Corporation raises serious questions of potential “waste, fraud, and abuse”: the organization’s partisan character and on-going promotion of Administrator Pruitt suggest that inappropriate 1 EPA Office of Inspector General, About EPA’s Office of Inspector General, https://www.epa.gov/office- inspector-general/about-epas-office-inspector-general#who_what_why. 2 https://www.usaspending.gov/Transparency/Pages/AwardSummary.aspx?AwardID=59978626. 3 See, e.g., https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/12/19/epa-to-end- controversial-contract-with-conservative-media-monitoring-firm/?utm_term=.6e3f99ccd0da; https://twitter.com/PounderFile/status/943172637202755584.
    [Show full text]
  • Farmers Can Still Flex Muscles in Mid-Term Elections
    WE SEE NEW WORLDS IN EVERY ACRE. From scientists in our laboratories to our agronomists and sales professionals working in every farming community, we meet new challenges every season and provide new opportunities one field at a time. The DuPont Oval Logo is a registered trademark of DuPont. ®, TM, SM Trademarks and service marks of Pioneer. © 2014 PHII. 14-2499 Farmers can still flex muscles in mid-term elections By Sara Wyant WASHINGTON, July 28, 2014 – If a recent poll is any indication, Sen. Kay Hagan appears to be holding onto a small lead in a hotly-contested mid-term race that could determine whether Democrats retain their control of the U.S. Senate next year. There are 36 Senate seats in play this year and 21 are held by Democrats like Hagan with 15 in the hands of the GOP. If Republicans hold all of their own and pick up six additional seats, they can gain control of the Senate, setting the stage for Republican control of both chambers during the last two years of Barack Obama’s presidency. In North Carolina, Hagan leads her Republican challenger, state House Speaker Thom Tillis, by 7 percentage points, according to a July 17-20 survey by Public Policy Polling, with a margin of error of plus or minus three points. However, polls offer just a snapshot of public sentiment at any given time. In political terms, it’s still a long way until the November elections, and pundits and political operatives are watching and videotaping almost every move – waiting for something akin to “a Todd Akin moment,” where members of the Missouri Senate hopeful’s own party faced the troubling reality of disavowing their own candidate because of some of his comments.
    [Show full text]
  • The Smell Test
    The following chapter was provided by John McManus and describes The SMELL Test, “a way to distinguish ethical journalism from propaganda, fake news and junk journalism.” The chapter comes from his recent book, Detecting Bull: How to Identify Bias and Junk Journalism in Print, Broadcast and on the 8 Wild Web, and includes several classroom activities The SMELL Test Everybody is sitting around saying, 'Well, jeez, we need somebody to solve this problem of bias.' That somebody is us. ~ Wilma Mankiller, late Cherokee leader Some fake news is obviously ridiculous. Take a gander at this image from a website called Worldnewsdailyreport.com. “It tastes like heaven!” simply puts [sic] Rakim Shaheed, newly employed at a downtown Toronto butcher shop. “I took one bite of a club sandwich my boss prepared for me and I almost fell off my chair,” he told local reporters. “It was like a burst of flavor hit my taste buds and shook me like an earthquake” he recalls, visibly still emotional. “I can’t believe no one ever told me it was so good,” he adds.1 But other fabricated articles have fooled many citizens, been shared widely on social media and perhaps changed been shared widely on social media and perhaps changed the outcome of national elections.2 The simplest way to discover if a news article is misleading or fake is to check it out on a legitimate fact-checking website, such as Snopes.com, Poltifact.com, or Factcheck.org. However, these sites only examine the most popular frauds, and rarely as soon as they appear.
    [Show full text]
  • Croptimism Online: Iowa Farmers Pleasantly Surprised by Year’S Turnout by Jared.Raney @Iowastatedaily.Com
    Iowa State Daily, October 2012 Iowa State Daily, 2012 10-11-2012 Iowa State Daily (10-11-2012) Iowa State Daily Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iowastatedaily_2012-10 Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Journalism Studies Commons Recommended Citation Iowa State Daily, "Iowa State Daily (10-11-2012)" (2012). Iowa State Daily, October 2012. 4. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iowastatedaily_2012-10/4 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State Daily, 2012 at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Iowa State Daily, October 2012 by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 THURSDAY, OCT. 11, 2012 Inventors AMES247 make music SPORTS Choose Lucious, Clyburn bring skills OPINION carefully Harvest FIND US ONLINE: iowastatedaily.com @iowastatedaily facebook.com/ iowastatedaily Croptimism ONLINE: Iowa farmers pleasantly surprised by year’s turnout By Jared.Raney @iowastatedaily.com With harvest season well under way, Iowa farm- ers are finding a pleasant surprise as the numbers roll in: Things are not as bad as they thought. At the end of summer when the drought was in full force, farmers had dire predictions coming their way. Original estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture had the national yield at 122.8 bushels CYCLONES SWEEP per acre, which is 24.4 bushels lower than last year’s WEST VIRGINIA average. iowastatedaily.com/sports Those numbers would have put this year’s har- vest at the lowest average yield in nearly 20 years, according to USDA statistics.
    [Show full text]