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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter joined nine other Nobel Peace Laureates in sending a strongly worded letter to President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, urging them not to approve construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The letter opened as follows: "You stand on the brink of making a choice that will define your legacy on one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced – climate change. As you deliberate the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, you are poised to make a decision that will signal either a dangerous commitment to the status quo, or bold leadership that...

When Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Revenue Act of 1913, it probably sounded like a good idea. Most people would pay less in taxes and the prices of everyday goods would drop, he promised. And the rich would — finally! — start paying their fair share. In those days, tax collection was a highly diffuse business with various states and localities collecting taxes at various rates. The federal government mostly skidded by on exorbitant and uneven tariffs, and on booze and tobacco taxes. This was always tough and disorganized business for the federal government. Those hardships became especially acute...

Thirty-three years ago today, on the thirtieth day of the third month of 1981, a gunman attempted to assassinate President Ronald Wilson Reagan. This is not only a major historical event; it is also an American healthcare first: the only time a president was shot in office and survived.

I looked into his eyes once, and what I saw scared me half to death.In June 2001, George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin ended their first face-to-face meeting with an outdoor news conference beneath a craggy mountaintop in Slovenia. "Is this a man that Americans can trust?" I asked Bush as Putin glared at me. "Yes," Bush replied, before allowing Putin to answer a separate question. A few minutes later, the American president elaborated: "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to...

When Putin Met Reagan Written by Alex Selwyn-Holmes December 7, 2009 In May 1988, President Ronald Reagan travelled to Moscow for his 4th summit with Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviets prepared a grand welcome; buildings across from the Kremlin were repainted, streets repaved and trees and flowers planted along the boulevards. The president’s schedule included attending the Bolshoi Ballet, speaking to students at Moscow’s State University and visiting Danilov Monastery, while First Lady would tour Leningrad.The visit was not without its own share of diplomatic incidents. The First Couple took an unscheduled walk through the Arbat, a Moscow shopping pedestrian street,...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is expressing concern about Venezuela's escalating political crisis and wants to meet with leaders on both sides in an upcoming trip. Carter, a mediator of past political conflict in the deeply polarized South American nation, made the offer in private letters he sent this week to President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles. Expressing "grave concern" about the loss of life in recent protests and the risk of more conflict ahead, Carter in the letter to Capriles said that for dialogue aimed at easing tensions to succeed both side must...

This is amazing history. Be sure to read the quotes in BOLD at the end. Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started learning very early in life and never stopped. At 5, began studying under his cousin's tutor. At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French. At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages. At 16, entered the College of William and Mary. Also could write in Greek with one hand while writing the same in Latin with the other. At 19, studied law for 5 years starting under George Wythe. At 23, started his own law practice. At...

What are we supposed to -do- on President's Day? The Lawless One occupying the White House would no doubt make it a day to celebrate himself as one would expect from a Fidel Castro or Kim Jong Un. This President's Day, try to forget about the sabotage being daily employed by this person known as Barack Hussein Obama and instead reminisce about a time when we had a President who didn't daily work to undermine the foundation of this nation. Articles of impeachment would be the most appropriate President's Day gift this year. However, that's obviously a fantasy since John...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential ticket, according to most political pundits. The presidential hopeful’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, has made millions on lucrative book deals and more than $100 million on the speaking circuit. Secretary Clinton has recently begun to earn that kind of money as well. Secretary Clinton received an estimated $14 million advance on her new book last year, and she has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars for each speaking engagement, figures that rival her husband’s. In all, the couple’s net worth is estimated by 24/7 Wall...

An Italian exchange student once asked me what he should know in order to understand America. The best I could come up with on the spot was the U.S. Constitution, jazz and baseball. Later it would come to me that to study each of those only in the abstract, as just a rule book or a series of notes on a page, would be less than useful to someone trying to understand America. The notes would be there, but not the music. The rules of the game would be there, but not the spirit. That spirit cannot be appreciated...

President Lincoln has been all but deified in America, with a god-like giant statue at a Parthenon-like memorial in Washington. Generations of school children have been indoctrinated with the story that “Honest Abe” Lincoln is a national hero who saved the Union and fought a noble war to end slavery, and that the “evil” Southern states seceded from the Union to protect slavery. This is the Yankee myth of history, written and promulgated by Northerners, and it is a complete falsity. It was produced and entrenched in the culture in large part to gloss over the terrible war crimes...

WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama is bringing together university presidents from across the country together to exact commitments from each other to expand access to higher education.

As many of you know, there was an hiatus between Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown (October 19, 1781) and the Treaty of Paris (September 3, 1783). Washington stayed with his army and did not return to his beloved Mount Vernon until word of the treaty’s signing reached him, and he would see the British Army and Navy depart NYC on Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783. New Yorkers had made up a rhyme, “From Kip’s Bay to Evacuation Day” that had much meaning to them since Kip’s Bay (near present day First Avenue and 30th St. on the East River) was the...

Barack Obama is facing poll numbers that are now in the same territory as President George W. Bush´s following Hurricane Katrina. The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute released numbers on Tuesday showing that just 38 percent of registered voters approve of the job Obama is doing as president, with a whopping 56 percent saying they disapprove. The president has lost his landslide electoral edge among young voters, too, with a negative 41–49 percent rating among 18- to 29-year-old voters. His once formidable support among Hispanics has also evaporated: They now support him by an historically small 50–43 percent margin.

This month, our nation has two pivotal anniversaries: the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address by President Abraham Lincoln (Nov. 19), and the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Nov. 22). The first anniversary reflects the core message of remembrance, forgiveness, rebuilding and honor. The second, the assassination of a president who embodied youth and hope, reminds us how an instant can not only end the life of an individual, but upend a nation. The Gettysburg Address is one of the most well-known, and often memorized speeches. Lincoln was not the main speaker at the...

Had there been no Dallas, there would been no Camelot. There would have been no John F. Kennedy as brilliant statesman cut off in his prime, had it not been for those riveting days from Dealey Plaza to Arlington and the lighting of the Eternal Flame. Along with the unsleeping labors of an idolatrous press and the propagandists who control America's popular culture, those four days created and sustained the Kennedy Myth. But, over 50 years, the effect has begun to wear off. The New York Times reports that in the ranking of presidents, Kennedy has fallen further and faster...

And the Cuban Missile Crisis, on some subsequent readings of history, was not a triumph of bold statesmanship as it was hailed at the time, but a piece of foolhardy grandstanding that unnecessarily humiliated the Soviets and precipitated the arms race that defined the Cold War. Even on civil rights – the subject of one of Kennedy's greatest speeches in June 1963, when he vowed that "Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as he would wish to have his children treated." – the reality never matched the myth. Kennedy...

<p>In a recent study of U.S. presidents' personality traits, Lyndon Johnson ranked highest in grandiose narcissism.</p> <p>While it frequently gets a bad rap, grandiose narcissism may predict both positive and negative leadership behaviors, according to a group of researchers who published a paper in October in Psychological Science.</p>

It’s been a rough fifth year in office for President Obama, with overwrought sequestration scare tactics, Scandalpalooza, and the Syrian debacle all chipping away at his leadership street cred, among other things — but this disaster of an ObamaCare rollout is really hammering the heightened disapproval home with what’s starting to look like a majority of Americans. During past job-performance dips, O’s job approval rating has been reliably bolstered by his personal favorability ratings and Americans’ sense of trust in him — but the health care law is helping to erode those usual go-to’s, and quickly. Via the WSJ: