Protesters set up camp in New York City more than a month ago and have spread to other cities around the country, prompting many Americans to ask: What exactly do they want? The decentralized nature of the protests makes official demands difficult to come by, but the movement has released a number of positions that are fairly representative of the left-wing, anti-capitalist tenor of the protests. We decided to examine one such list of demands, and to give readers a sense of the conservative approach on the varied goals of … More

Introduction to Judge Andrew Napolitano’s latest must-read book…

Driving the conversation: The Senate will vote today on a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government through Nov. 18 and provide $3.65 billion in disaster aid funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If Congress does not act, the government will partially shut down at the end of the week, and FEMA’s disaster aid coffers will dry up by Wednesday. Last week, the Senate rejected a House-passed CR due to budget offsets for the increase in disaster aid in the form of cuts to Energy Department loan programs. … More

The dust has not yet settled over the Libyan capital of Tripoli since rebels took control over the weekend. But already, a draft constitutional charter for the transitional state has appeared online (embedded below). It is just a draft, mind you, and gauging its authenticity at this point is difficult. There is also no way to know whether this draft or something similar will emerge as the final governing document for a new Libyan regime. As both the Morning Bell and Washington in a Flash noted today, Heritage Fellow Jim … More

A man with “big ideas.” That’s Alan Gross, a 62-year-old Maryland resident who had the best of intentions when he brought communication devices to the small Jewish community in Cuba. But those good intentions went horribly wrong when he was detained and placed in Villa Marista, the Cuban state prison, in 2009. When Gross, a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), went to Cuba as a tourist, he had no idea that it would end in a 15-year prison sentence. Two years later, he remains in prison, … More

Fortunately for New York City’s pregnancy care centers, a politically motivated ordinance slated to take effect in mid-July was declared “unconstitutionally vague” by a federal district judge. The ruling is a victory for volunteer organizations and freedom of speech. The court order will keep the city from fining pregnancy centers that were singled out by the ordinance and required, oddly enough, to highlight the services they do not offer, particularly abortion and emergency contraception. The ordinance also required the centers to emphasize to potential clients whether they have licensed medical … More

This week the U.S. Supreme Court rounded out its session by striking down an Arizona law that provided publicly funded candidates with funds matching those of their privately funded opponents. Heritage expert Hans von Spakovsky explains in more detail here. Campaign finance reform nerds of the conservative persuasion cheered, but the decision actually has far-reaching implications for all Americans’ First Amendment rights, even if they never run for office or even bother to vote. A Wall Street Journal report notes today: The majority [of Supreme Court justices] is reaching these … More

The leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once said that Israel must be “wiped off the map.” And now Iran stands poised to have its finger on the trigger of a nuclear weapon, yet the Obama Administration continues to remain virtually silent on the nascent threat, all while the clouds amassing over the Iranian Peninsula are…

A prominent group of retired military chaplains has written a letter to current chief chaplains in the Armed Forces urging them to support conscience protection for currently serving chaplains and service members regarding homosexual behavior. The 22 chaplains, each of whom has held a leadership post as an endorsing agent for military chaplains, called on…

Companies like General Electric and Caterpillar might sound as American as apple pie, but like many other multinational firms, which employ a fifth of all American workers, they’re cutting back on their domestic workforces and increasing hiring overseas. That disturbing trend points to a serious problem in the United States: the Land of the Free…