One week ago, President Bush hosted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House. The Israeli head of government received American endorsement of his plan to achieve security and, hopefully in the process, peace for his country, while effectively placing the Palestinians in the position to have their own state.

In fact, the Palestinians haven't been this close to a state since Arafat walked away from a more-generous-than-expected offer from Ehud Barak in 2000. But as they have consistently done in the past, Arafat and his officials have rejected the path of negotiations and measures that would indicate a serious commitment to resolution. There continues to exist a terrible despotism built on a terrorist infrastructure fueled by gross miseducation of Palestinian youth and the blood of innocent Israelis. [Read article]

Over the past week and a half, the United States and its allies have experienced dozens of troop fatalities in Iraq during the bloodiest days of the war since the fall of Baghdad. And with these deaths and the general rise in instability, as would be expected, there has been a new intensity added to the political firestorm.

The left has been hitting the president hard, both in Congress and in the press. Former Clinton administration drug czar and retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey commented in this week's Time Magazine that "there are no more U.S. troops to send to Iraq." Several senators have taken issue with the administration's handling of the situation in Iraq, and in particular, the originally planned handover of control to the Iraqis on June 30. These attacks are in addition to those thrown at the president by John Kerry. [Read article]

On Feb. 29, Lynne Cheney, Vice President Dick Cheney's wife, spoke at the University of Maryland, College Park. The speech itself was not as controversial as the storm that emerged a little over a month after it was delivered.

One might assume that college students would have learned basic skills of polite human interaction at least 10 years prior to enrolling, but there's a reason that assessing things based on assumptions is generally accepted as bad policy. [Read article]

Last week in New York, a meeting on governance and regulation of the Internet took place at the United Nations among diplomats, computer industry representatives and U.N. officials. And, in typical U.N. fashion, there were aspects of the meeting that resembled a group of kindergarteners rushing with raptor-like vigor for a chance to play with one of their classmate's new toys.

In the case of this meeting, the nations of the world were making it clear they wanted more of a say in how the Internet is regulated. Apparently, there is widely held disdain for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and the power it holds. The nonprofit organization is charged with distributing Web addresses and setting the minimum standards for registering for a site; perhaps its most undesirable characteristic is that it's located in the United States. [Read article]

Effective marketing is perhaps the most important tool for success in a highly competitive climate, and few are as competitive as the United States in an election year.

The array of advertisements that have already begun to flood network and cable channels from candidates and interest groups that have an obvious candidate bias are, for the most part, taking a tone that pundits, politicians and - as poll numbers and the media suggest - the public think are "negative." [Read article]

Last week, when the State Department dropped its 23-year-old ban on Americans traveling to Libya in response to the Libyan government's actions over the past 60 days, the American people and the world got a clear indication of how well American foreign policy is working. While it has come under fire ÷ literally and figuratively ÷ from many directions, Bush's foreign policy finally has a significant success that can be used to undercut the criticism. [Read article]

Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion · to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

French lawmakers ÷ officials serving a state that agreed to the above as a member of the United Nations ÷ seem to think that doesn't apply to certain members of their electorate. [Read article]

As the Bush-Kerry matchup seems more and more likely, the Democrats are taking issue with the president's military service, the proposed budget and, most fiercely, the general state of the economy.

Some legitimate questions come up about what the administration is going to do about the unemployment rate and why it proposed such a high-cost budget in the face of a large deficit. However, some assertions, with historical references attached to them, are illegitimate. Someone who wishes to discern between constructive questioning (that could yield solid answers from the president) and those catchy claims floating around would be best-advised to take a look back at the timeframe invoked. [Read article]

The race among the Democrats has, thus far, been an interesting one to watch, and even more so with the drastic change in the political climate over the past couple of weeks that actual vote-casting has brought. There is no doubt that, as sad as it may be for Democrats that their party has been unable to come to a unified position, the race has nevertheless been entertaining thanks to the candidates who don't stand a chance now, and never did, but still find themselves in the pack. [Read article]

Many critics of the war against terrorism have, from its outset, used the term "crusade" as a descriptor. Unfortunately for them, the parallel between the United States' actions in response to an attack killing thousands of its citizens and Christendom's wars with Islamic civilization over possession of sacred land is, at best, a superficial one.

In fact, as this grossly mislabeled "crusade" continues, there is an actual occurrence in the realm of international affairs that fits the spirit of the term far better than what the United States and its allies are doing - the European Union's attitude and actions in dealing with Turkish membership aspirations. [Read article]

Last night, President Bush presented his third State of the Union address to the nation at a time when the political tensions surrounding his January policy statement are perhaps even higher than his inauguration in 2001.

It's an election year, U.S. military forces are engaged in several missions around the world, Bush's positions on the issues are being called into question by individuals across the political spectrum, and some intense campaigning is to be expected. What is not to be expected, however, is the form of speaking out against Bush that seems to have increased in popularity over the past weeks ÷ the comparison of the president of the United States to Adolf Hitler. [Read article]