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From January 20, 2021 Sec. 6. Revoking the March 2019 Permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline. (a) On March 29, 2019, the President granted to TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P. a Presidential permit (the "Permit") to construct, connect, operate, and maintain pipeline facilities at the international border of the United States and Canada (the "Keystone XL pipeline"), subject to express conditions and potential revocation in the President's sole discretion. The Permit is hereby revoked in accordance with Article 1(1) of the Permit. (b) In 2015, following an exhaustive review, the Department of State and the President determined that approving the proposed...

The Biden administration is now almost halfway through its proverbial Hundred Days and appears likely to be able to jam through its coronavirus relief package of $1.9 trillion, of which under 10 percent bears any relationship to alleviating the impact of the virus. Tens of millions of Americans will enjoy receiving $1,400, and some of the more egregious ingredients of outright logrolling, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s subway system to Silicon Valley and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s redundant bridge to Canada. In his formidable address to the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Orlando on Feb. 28, former...

Woodrow Wilson. Here's Why. If you wanted to identify, with confidence, the very worst president in American history, how would you go about it? One approach would be to consult the various academic polls on presidential rankings that have been conducted from time to time since Harvard’s Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. pioneered this particular survey scholarship in 1948. Bad idea. Most of those surveys identify Warren G. Harding of Ohio as the worst ever. This is ridiculous. Harding presided over very robust economic times. Not only that, but he inherited a devastating economic recession when he was elected in 1920...

Haditha: Where Are They (the Accusers) Now? Diana West January 18, 2012 Eight charged; seven cleared; one, please, let’s hope, to go.Finally, the last “Haditha” trial is in progress, and, thanks to Nat Helms at Defend Our Marines, everything you need or want to know about the proceedings, the witnesses, the facts about the case of SSGT Frank D. Wuterich, the last of the Marine Mohicans, is here. Tim McGirk, source of the Haditha myth-acre. Of course, I still have a few questions — the exact same questions I had when I first looked at the case back in late...

Why do Washington and Moscow keep talking past each other? Prospect theory offers a plausible explanation. At its core, prospect theory argues that people are willing to take greater risks to avoid losses than they are to achieve gains. Instead of making decisions that maximize their overall expected utility, people focus on a particular reference point and give more weight to losses from that reference point than comparable gains. .... This explains why the United States and Russia keep talking past each other: U.S. leaders have ‘renormalized’ their reference point after the Maidan revolution, accepting the West-leaning interim Ukrainian government...

The grossly obese Syrian officer was coming in the door of the King Khalid Military City exchange while I was coming out. I saw instantly that this was no soldier; this was a thug, a threat only to the unarmed civilians that are his kind’s prey. My eyes fell downward from his cruel face to the piece of flair gracing his olive green fatigues. “Nice Assad button,” I sneered. Real warriors don’t wear pictures of dictators on their uniform. He glared back at me with his dark, rat eyes, not understanding my words but fully appreciating my contempt. Though Syria...

Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far. -- Teddy Roosevelt Barack Obama knows that America's military is a big stick, but unfortunately Roosevelt's advice about speaking softly doesn't seem to have stuck. Because Barack Obama recklessly shot off his mouth about a "red line" in Syria, he's demanding that our nation insert itself into a civil war between terrorist groups, both of which have chemical weapons, to protect his ego. Happily, the American people recognize what a foolish move this would be. A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that only 9% of Americans currently support bombing Syria....

Recommend watching the great video at the source for an example of how Cruz conducts himself as a constitutional conservative and patriot. Jim SEAN HANNITY: Here with reaction to this and much more is Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Senator, thanks for being with us. What should the response be from your perspective? SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TEXAS: Well, Secretary Kerry is right that Assad using chemical weapons is an outrage and it's wrong. But unfortunately missing from his statement and from the president's approach so far has been a focus on what the touchstone should be, which is the vital U.S....

CINCINNATI – A prominent longtime opponent of abortion has died in Cincinnati. Barbara Jean Willke was 90. She died Sunday at a hospital; no cause of death was released immediately. Willke co-authored the influential 1971 "Handbook of Abortion" with her husband, obstetrician John C. "Jack" Willke. The book has shaped the thinking of generations of anti-abortion activists.

The federal government has spent millions of dollars to help farmers nationwide buy greenhouse-like structures called high tunnels that can add valuable weeks and even months to their growing seasons by protecting produce from chilly temperatures. About $13 million has gone to more than 2,400 farmers in 43 states to help pay for the low-tech tunnels that look like a cross between Quonset huts and conventional greenhouses. The structures, also known as hoop houses, have been particularly beneficial in the north, where they allow farmers to plant as much as four weeks early and keep growing later in the fall....

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is playing with fire. And Israel is getting burned. Over the past week, it has been widely reported that the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government are conducting secret negotiations regarding future Israeli land surrenders to the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem. According to the reports, the Obama administration has presented Netanyahu with a plan whereby Israel will cede its rights to eastern Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley to the Palestinians and then lease the areas from the Palestinians for a limited period. The reports on the length of the lease vary. Some claim...

Strong banks will be allowed to repay bail-out funds they received from the US government but only if such a move passes a test to determine whether it is in the national economic interest, a senior administration official has told the Financial Times. “Our general objective is going to be what is good for the system,” the senior official said. “We want the system to have enough capital.”

Why the sudden concern about Darfur? We know it’s not because the left actually cares about the people there. If they did, they would have made an issue of this a long time ago. (Besides, in case the lefties haven’t noticed, these folks are black.) So why are they suddenly holding rallies, with the willing connivance of the mainstream media, demanding that we do something about the plight of the people in Darfur? The answer is simple: There is nothing about the Darfur situation that impacts our vital national interest, but they can use it to divert needed resources away...

The contracts former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham bullied the Defense Department into awarding two contractors who showered him with money and gifts were not in the national interest, according to documents filed by prosecutors Tuesday. Instead, the prosecutors said, “Cunningham and his co-conspirators fleeced the people of the United States to the tune of millions of dollars, earning profit margins on some contracts in excess of 800 percent.” In the most detailed description yet of the former congressman's bribery case, prosecutors offered graphic examples of how Cunningham browbeat and intimidated government officials and his own staff into ensuring that millions...

China National Offshore Oil Corporation is considering a nearly $14bn (£7bn, €10.6bn) takeover of Unocal of the US. Sinopec, another Chinese state-controlled oil group, has struck a $70bn deal to buy Iranian crude oil and liquefied natural gas over three decades. China has sent $6bn to Rosneft, the Russian company that bought the main production unit of the embattled Yukos oil group, as advance payment for oil supplies. India has just reached a $40bn agreement to import LNG from Iran and develop Iranian oilfields, and is promoting pipeline projects to bring oil and gas across neighbouring countries to supply its...

October 07, 2004 Drive-Thru Diplomacy Gregory A. Borse HERE’s the slippery thing about credibility. You can earn it in one of two ways: you can prove that you are trustworthy by following through on instructions that you have been given. Or, you can earn trust by following through on what you say you are going to do. In the Vice-Presidential debate, it became clear which side each campaign is on in terms of credibility. The Kerry-Edwards ticket, via the “global test” for the use of military force in defense of U.S. interests, is clearly interested in establishing credibility via the...

The National Interest versus Corporate InterestBy William R. Hawkins Thursday, November 13, 2003 On November 7, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the conference report on the 2004 Defense Authorization bill (H.R. 1588) with a much weakened version of its "buy American" program. Under the original proposal as crafted by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), all critical components in a weapon system would have had to be American-made and the overall system had to be 65 percent American. Those two requirements were eliminated under intense pressure from the Bush Administration, whose commitment to the recovery of American...

National Interest Alone What is a “governmental humanitarian imperative”? By Christopher Preble Roger Carstens offers an impassioned, but ultimately misguided, prescription for humanitarian intervention: first in Liberia, and, by extension, in every country in the world where tyrants rule, or where terrorists might operate. While I cannot speak to the emotions of being prepared to conduct a mission in Rwanda in 1994, and of the stomach-wrenching experience of watching the slaughter of thousands unfold on television, I can speak (as a former military officer) of the emotions of long separation from family and friends. I have therefore opposed dubious missions...