By Tala Dowlatshahi This month, the United Nations launched UN Women, a global division tasked with the goal of improving gender equality and the empowerment of women. United States Ambassador at the United Nations, Dr. Susan Rice warmly congratulated the General Assembly for the unanimous adoption of the UN…

By Sarah Mamula – Talk Radio News Service
The White House predicts that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation next week will go smoothly, despite unease among Republican Senators over still unreleased documents.
In a conference call Friday with David Axelrod, Senior Advisor to the President, and White House Counsel Bob Bauer, the two emphasized the backing Kagan has received from both parties.
“One of the more striking features … is the breadth of support that Elena Kagan … has received from Democrats and Republicans and from lawyers on any side of the political divide,” Bauer said.
While there were initial rumors that Republicans could boycott the hearings over 1,600 documents withheld from the Committee from Kagan’s days as a Clinton appointee, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the Ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has promised that the minority party will be in attendance when the hearings open. However, during an interview with ABC, Sessions would not reject the possibility of a filibuster against the nominee.
In addition to the documents, some in the GOP are worried over Kagan’s background. Axelrod dismissed concerns that Republicans could use the hearings to cast Kagan as a “judicial activist” for her history as a political appointee during the Clinton administration, arguing that her experience studying, teaching and practicing law while working as Solicitor General of the United States and working as Dean of the Harvard Law School will outweigh the label.
“I don’t think this is going to be the issue at the end of the day on which this nomination rests,” said Axelrod.
Kagan goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday. According to Axelrod, Kagan, who once described the confirmation process as a “ritual dance,” will be well prepared.
“In the last week or so, she has spent several hours a day fielding questions,” said Axelrod. “She has thought a lot about these issues.”

By Linn Grubbstrom
Talk Radio News Service
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is afraid that the U.S.’s mounting debt could match Greece’s in a number of years.
“Our debt levels right now are above Spain, Ireland and Portugal,” Ryan said Thursday. “That’s the most important statistic. In five years, our debt level, on our current trajectory, is going to be up there with Greece and Italy,” said Ryan.
One possible solution, said Ryan, would be modified the tax system.
“I would replace the current tax system with a modified flat tax. It’s a boon to progressivity, meaning 10% on the first 100,000 dollars for couples 25% above that. No other tax on capital or saving. Meaning no dividends, capital gains or death tax. Those are taxes that are double taxes on capital, they retard economic growth and innovation,” he said.
Ryan, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, also suggested changes in health care, social security and job training programs.

Americans are growing increasingly weary of immigrants, with 54% of the population viewing legal immigration as a problem rather than an opportunity says a recent survey. The Transatlantic Trends survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and presented to Canadian and American Immigration Department officials in New York yesterday evening, also revealed that 48% of Americans believe there are too many immigrants in the country.
Public opinion on immigration is often drawn along the lines of political affiliation, a fact that is even more obvious this year with 73% of Republicans seeing immigration as a problem, up 15% from last year. The percentage of Democrats who view legal immigration in the same light also grew from 45% to 48%. Immigration policy is gearing up to be a hot button issue in the coming election, with over two thirds of Americans saying it would influence their choice of a political candidate.
But the study also denotes an important disconnect between public perception of immigration and reality. For instance, when asked to estimate what percentage of US population was foreign born, respondents said 35 %, when in reality the number is around 14%.
“The gap is huge. This leads us to believe that education is very important here, that we don’t know alot about our immigrants” says Zsolt Nyiri, Director of Transatlantic Trends, “There is alot of talk about how immigrants should learn more about their host society, and that is true, but perhaps this could be a two a way street, and that the general public can benefit from learning about the immigrants among them.”
“I think the elephant in the room is the Comprehensive Immigration Reform issue and that probably has a big impact on what we are seeing in terms of public perception” says Rebecca Carson, head of the Office of Citizenship, a branch of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. “”The fact that we have not dealt with this issue as a country and the distinction between legal immigration and illegal immigration really muddies the water.”

By Alexa Gitler
Talk Radio News Service
Sens. Kit Bond (R-MO) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) unveiled a new report they co-authored entitled “Kerry-Lieberman: A Multi-Trillion Dollar Gas Tax.” The report criticizes the proposed American Power Act and sheds light on the $3.4 trillion in new gas taxes that Americans stand to pay under the new legislation.
“It is so important that the public learn just how large a burden the Kerry-Lieberman cap and trade bill would place on American families and small businesses,” said Hutchison.
Rather than imposing a new gas tax on Americans, Bond and Hutchinson suggested America invest in different forms of energy technologies like hybrid and electric vehicles, as well as low-carbon biofuels.
“We can come together on new incentives for hyrbid and electric cars, advance fuels, but what we do not want to do is to punish American families and workers with a $3.4 trillion dollar gas tax,” Bond said.

Robert Hune-Kalter-Talk Radio News Service
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) will continue to serve as Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee despite the Texas Republican’s widely criticized apology to BP.
“Joe Barton recanted his apology to BP last week, and apologized to colleagues today,” Boehner said during a press briefing at the Republican National Committee headquarters.
The White House had suggested that House Republicans reconsider Barton’s status, pointing out that it may be unwise to let somebody with the Congressman’s views to have such a prominent voice in shaping energy policy.
Boehener was joined at the briefing by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Republican Conference Chair Mike Pence (R-Ind.). The Republican leaders blasted the Democrats’ for declining to submit a budget.
Barton’s apology came during BP CEO Tony Hayward’s Capitol Hill appearance last week. Barton described the White House’s attempt to have BP set up a $20 billion escrow account to handle claims arising from the Gulf Coast spill as a “shakedown.”
“I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that … amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize,” Barton said.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday that it’s possible Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, could be fired over disparaging comments he and some of his aides made about President Obama and others in the administration during an interview with Rolling Stone that will hit magazine stands later this week.
McChrystal was summoned by Mr. Obama to travel from Afghanistan to Washington today after excerpts of the story were leaked to various news organizations overnight. When asked whether the President might relieve the general of his duties, Gibbs replied, “all options are on the table.”
Gibbs said he showed Mr. Obama particularly incendiary parts of the story on Monday evening, and that the President was visibly “angry.” Mr. Obama had not spoken directly with McChrystal as of today, said Gibbs, but that will change when the two meet tomorrow. The purpose of the meeting, according to Gibbs, will be “to find out what the hell [McChrystal] was thinking.”

By Brandon Kosters
Talk Radio News Service
Andrew Kohut, President of the Pew Research Center, told reporters on Monday that a recent survey done by his organization found that European nations possess a fairly favorable view of the United States and President Barack Obama.
“In many respects, [Obama] is more popular overseas than he is in the United States,” said Kohut, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in downtown Washington, D.C. The U.S., he added, is generally more popular globally than it was during the presidency of George W. Bush.
Kohut said 24,000 interviews were conducted with residents from 22 nations between April 7 and May 8, 2010.
According to the poll, the U.S.’s favorability rating in France is 73%. A similar poll taken in 2008 found that that number to be just 42%. Moreover, 84% of those polled in France said they support Mr. Obama’s policies. “Only the Kenyans gave Obama a better rating then did Western Europeans,” he said, adding that Western Europeans generally expressed positive views about Obama’s economic policies.
Yet, approval ratings among predominantly Muslim countries were quite low, due to many expressing disappointment with how Obama has handled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In fact, said Kohut, President Obama’s approval rating in Egypt is currently 17%, the lowest it has ever been there.
The Pew survey also found that approval ratings in Mexico have dropped sharply, a fact Kohut attributed to the recent illegal immigration law that was passed in the state of Arizona.

Bureau Chief Ellen Ratner is in Orange Beach, Alabama and Gulfport, Mississippi covering the BP oil spill.
White House Correspondent Victoria Jones will be covering the White House press briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Legal Affairs Correspondent Jay Goodman Tamboli will be covering the release of opinions by the Supreme Court.
The Washington Bureau will be covering:
The New America Foundation (NAF); and The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is holding a briefing on Burma’s suspected nuclear program. Robert Kelley, former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will be talking.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is holding a discussion on the findings of the Pew Global Attitudes Project 2010 Survey of 22 nations, which examines attitudes toward the United States, including confidence in President Barack Obama and views of American foreign policy. Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, will be talking.
Public Citizen is holding a discussion on “Lightning-Rod Issue: Executive Pay at Firms Rescued by the Troubled Asset Relief Program.” Public Citizen Robert Weissman; and Ken Feinberg, special master of executive compensation at the Treasury Department will be talking.

By Linn Grubbstrom
Talk Radio News Service
The top elected official of a Northern Virginia county located less than 40 miles from the nation’s capital says he wants his state to pass a very similar version of the anti-illegal immigration law passed earlier this year in Arizona.
Corey Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, says he will lobby Virginia lawmakers this year in an effort to persuade them to pass a measure that would increase the power of state and local law enforcement to capture, detain and deport illegal immigrants. The plan Stewart is pushing would also outlaw day laborer centers, places where illegals are known to gather.
Stewart, who earned national notoriety in 2007 for instituting a county-wide crackdown on illegals, told Talk Radio News Service that adopting the Arizona bill would drastically decrease Virginia’s crime rate.
“The first two years after the crackdown on illegal immigration in Prince William we had a 37 % drop in the violent crime rate,” he said. “Based upon that experience we believe that we would have similar results in the rest of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
In fact, of the 2,000 people arrested last year for major crimes — including violence — in Prince William County, only 121 were found to be living in the state illegally. That figure represents a significant decline from the level recorded before Stewart initiated the crackdown two years ago.
However, on a statewide level, over 17% of those arrested in Virginia last year for violent crime offenses were found to be non-residents: A frightening statistic in Stewart’s view.
“We need to bring the rule of law to all of Virginia,” he told the Washington Post in an interview this week.
Though Arizona has faced mounting threats of economic boycotts by cities and businesses in neighboring states, Stewart insists that enacting such a bill in Virginia would have minimal negative impacts on the state’s economy.
“Businesses do even better, because when you crack down on illegal immigration, the quality of life improves and the crime rate goes down and that’s the type of environment that businesses want to move to.”
Stewart said he expects to encounter push-back on the effort from federal officials, but added that a lack of federal enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws has created a need for action on the local level.
“In their typical political fashion I would expect that the Obama administration will try to intimidate the Commonwealth of Virginia, try to sue the Commonwealth of Virginia. But we have to do what is right precisely because the federal government has refused to do anything about illegal immigration.”