WhatFinger


Al Kaltman

Al Kaltman is a political science professor who teaches a leadership studies course at George Washington University. He is the author of Cigars, Whiskey and Winning: Leadership Lessons from General Ulysses S. Grant.

Most Recent Articles by Al Kaltman:

The BBC Disgraces Itself by Self Censoring Its reporting of Charlie Hebdo’s Latest Edition

This morning the first edition of Charlie Hebdo to hit the streets since 10 members of the staff of the French satirical weekly and 2 policemen were murdered in cold blood by Islamic fundamentalists sold out. In Paris and across France people lined up before dawn at newsagent kiosks to purchase a copy, and even the print run of over 3 million, 50 times the usual number of copies printed, was not enough to satisfy the demand. In France, the murders have been a wake up call, and the words Je suis Charlie a rallying cry in defense of freedom of expression.
- Wednesday, January 14, 2015

To Islamist demands, the British media submits

There is a neon sign on the back wall of the Waitrose on Cromwell Road near the Gloucester Road Underground Station. Instead of the usual advertisement, yesterday the sign simply read, "Je suis Charlie." That evening, a man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties to mid-thirties used his iPhone to take a selfie of him grinning broadly while standing in front of the sign.
- Saturday, January 10, 2015

Our two faced friends: the Saudis, Qataris and other Gulf Arabs

David Cameron is the first world leader to acknowledge that the civilized world is engaged in “a generational struggle against a poisonous and extremist ideology,” a struggle that did not begin on 9-11 nor will end with the defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
- Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Hillary Clinton: The Light Princess

Someone who didn't know better, reading Hillary Clinton's interview (Hillary Clinton: 'Failure' to Help the Syrian Rebels Led to the Rise of ISIS) with Jeffrey Goldberg in the August 2014 edition of The Atlantic would find it hard to believe that she had been the US Secretary of State during President Obama's first term in office. Rather that person would conclude that she had not been involved in the making of US foreign policy, and was now speaking out about the Obama administration's failures on the world stage.
- Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Obama Unilaterally Promises to “Fix” Our Immigration System: The Nightmare Scenario

President Obama has pledged to “fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress.” In announcing that he plans by the end of the summer to take unilateral action to deal with the issue of illegal immigration, Obama said, ““I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue, and Congress chooses to do nothing. And in this situation, the failure of House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, it’s bad for our economy, and it’s bad for our future.”
- Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Instead of bleating like sheep Republicans could stop the flood of illegal minors and get to the bottom of the IRS scandal

The Democrats could be likened to a flock of docile lambs which go where their shepherd herds them. The Republicans can also be likened to sheep. They bleat loudly for the TV cameras and on the Internet, but bleating is about all they seem capable of. They allow the President to herd them and the country in the direction he is going and to the ends he intends. Let’s take the two current hot domestic political issues as examples.
- Sunday, June 29, 2014

The Unimpeachable President

Professor Richard Neustadt began his classic study of the presidency, Presidential Power, with the assertion that “even a ‘strong’ President is weak.” This, of course, is what James Madison and the other delegates to the Constitutional Convention intended when they designed a tripartite governmental structure in which a President’s actions were to be constrained by a system of checks and balances.
- Sunday, June 22, 2014

Whipping Our Universities into Shape

In a speech on June 6, 1788 urging the Virginia Convention to ratify the Constitution, James Madison made this prophetic comment, “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
- Monday, May 19, 2014

Barack Obama Dreams of Ed Miliband

“Wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation…that’s what I’m going to do.” Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, January 28, 2014 In 2008, Barack Obama campaigned on a promise of hope and change, his hope that once elected he would be able to transform the United States into a nation that conformed to his image of a progressive socialist state. His first term started off promisingly with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, legislation he is proud to hear to referred to as ObamaCare. Foolishly, from his perspective, this landmark legislation was misunderstood by the American people, who reacted negatively to its passage by taking control of the House of Representatives away from his faithful follower Nancy Pelosi.
- Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Syria: The Unanswered Questions

President Obama has asked Congress to authorize him to take military action against the Syrian government because it has allegedly used chemical weapons. Secretary Kerry citing photographs and videos of the corpses of women and children who he claims were the victims of the Assad regime’s chemical attack has said we cannot allow the slaughter to continue.
- Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Are California’s Public Schools Adopting Joseph Goebbels’ Educational Model?

With 325,000 members the California Teachers Association is our nation’s largest teachers union, and as such the CTA should be expected to be in the forefront of the fight to insure that California’s students receive quality education. The CTA does list as one of its primary goals the planning and executing of “programs and strategies to enhance the quality of education for students.” Does this mean that the CTA is leading the charge to improve the educational performance of students in California’s public schools?
- Thursday, July 11, 2013

Barack Obama’s web of health care lies continues to unravel

Ulysses S. Grant believed that the best way to insure the repeal of a bad law was to vigorously enforce it. Barack Obama seems to believe that the best way to keep a bad law on the books is to delay the implementation of it. His decision to delay the implementation of the employer mandate sections of the Affordable Care Act make sense only if you accept the premise that the law is so flawed that it would be disastrous to put it into effect, and therefore it needs to be amended or repealed.
- Wednesday, July 3, 2013

A Look at the UK’s NHS—A Cautionary Tale

The head of the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS), Sir David Nicholson, has refused to accept responsibility for the needless deaths that occur daily at NHS hospitals by claiming that these deaths are not a result of mismanagement but instead are due to inherent "systemic" failings.
- Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Romney fails to face up to the issue of illegal immigration

When Ronald Reagan campaigned for the presidency, the American people knew where he stood on every issue. They understood that Reagan had strong convictions, and that he was clearly and consistently enunciating the policies he would follow if elected. Mitt Romney is no Ronald Reagan, but when it comes to addressing the problem of illegal immigration the American people deserve better than the candidate that the Governor has morphed into.
- Friday, June 29, 2012

An Open Letter to Governor Romney

Dear Mitt, I received your letter asking me to pledge my support and make a contribution of up to $2,500 to your campaign for the presidency. The letter is disappointing. In its four single-spaced pages, there are only two short substantive paragraphs that criticize President Obama’s performance. In those you discuss the increase in the Federal budget, the growth in the deficit and the number of unemployed. What I find sad is that you got two out of the three wrong, and your errors are in the President’s favor.
- Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Obama’s Half-Truths and Big Lies

Joseph Goebbels was of the opinion that it was easier to get people to believe a big lie than a small one. President Obama seems to agree, but not completely. He thinks that the way to get people to believe in big lies is not to have them stand alone but rather to wrap them in half-truths.
- Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Obama’s Attempt to Reshape Capitalism

In People of Plenty: Economic Abundance and the American Character, published in 1954, David Potter made a compelling case for the proposition that the United States is a nation whose national character has been shaped by the perception that there is limitless economic abundance. He argued that Americans believed that wealth could be created while Europeans believed it could only be redistributed. Americans and Europeans would both answer “I do!” to the question “Who wants to be a millionaire?” The difference was that Americans believed it was possible, with the right combination of intelligence, hard work, a little luck and good timing, to become a millionaire. Europeans held no such illusions.
- Friday, February 3, 2012

Obama’s Orchestration of the Republican Nomination

While pretending that Mitt Romney is the Republican they fear most, the Obama Reelection Campaign, with the help of the mainstream media, has been doing what they can to help the Governor secure the nomination.
- Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Icy Arab Spring

He left us and we rejoiced; then an even more unbearable person came.—Arab Proverb The euphoria that followed the initial outpouring of support for the protestors in Tunisia and Egypt has started to fade, and even the liberal media outlets are starting to acknowledge the harsh realities that are flowing from the Arab Spring.
- Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Obama’s Rush to Announce the Death of bin Laden Will Prove Costly

President Obama deserves a great deal of credit for authorizing SEAL Team 6 to take out Osama bin Laden. While some Americans have been outraged by his self-congratulatory pronouncements, most have been so delighted that bin Laden finally got what he deserved that they seem willing not to notice that instead of heaping praise on the men and women of our intelligence services and the military who are the real heroes of this story, Obama acts as if he did everything himself, everything that is except pull the trigger. One can forgive the President for self aggrandizement. Obama is a politician, and the death of bin Laden has given his approval rating a much needed boost in the polls.
- Wednesday, May 4, 2011

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