Peace group raises issue with Obama Afghanistan move

Contributors

President Obama’s announcement of a limited troop withdrawal from Afghanistan — America’s longest war — is bound to disappoint members of Congress and an electorate tired of the conflict. As has been reported, senior White House officials confirmed that the President plans to remove 10,000 troops by the end of this year and another 23,000…

Ken Plum: Obamacare in Virginia

Ken Plum

President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Obamacare, into law on March 23, 2010. On the same day Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed the first lawsuit in the nation to challenge the provision in ACA that most individuals be mandated to have health insurance. Eastern District Federal Judge Henry Hudson ruled in…

Senators, generals urge large Afghanistan troop withdrawal

Contributors

A bipartisan group of 27 U.S. senators sent a letter today to President Obama asking for a “sizable and sustained reduction of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, beginning in July 2011.” Paul Kawika Martin, the political and policy director of Peace Action — a group founded in 1957 and the largest grassroots peace organization in…

Webb, Corker issue joint resolution on Libya

Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) today introduced a joint resolution requiring the Administration to provide a detailed justification of U.S. operations in Libya and prohibiting the deployment of U.S. troops on the ground there. It further calls on the president to request authorization for the continuation of U.S. involvement in NATO activities…

Ken Plum: Virginia’s energy future

Ken Plum

President Barack Obama declared a “Sputnik moment” for our country to recognize the dangers involved in our unquenchable need for oil and the civil unrest that marks the countries that supply us with petroleum. He established as a goal that 80 percent of U.S. energy come from clean generation sources by 2035. Just as engineers…

Claire Coleman: Family planning – an essential part of American life

Contributors

If you’re an average woman, you want two children, according to various surveys. That means you’ll spend about five years of your life trying to become pregnant, being pregnant or recovering from pregnancy, and 30 years trying to avoid it. You can do that thanks to the June 1965 landmark Supreme Court decision Griswold v….

Ken Plum: A frugal, well-run government

Ken Plum

A slick postcard mailed by the Republican Party of Virginia arrived in the mailboxes of many voters in my district last week just as many people were completing their tax forms. In the standard Republican charge against Democrats, the card text read that I wanted “to take even more” of my constituents’ tax money. The…