“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” For the sixth time, I have been blessed to stand up before God and Country and promise to defend t...
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WASHINGTON – Representative Rob Wittman (VA-1), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, today supported passage of the Conference Report for the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This legislation, the final version of the bill that establishes the funding authorizations and priorities for the nation’s military, passed the House of Representatives by a bipartisan vote of 375-34. “This bipartisan bill is designed to support the most essential compo...
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In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War and the adoption and ratification of the United States Constitution, there remained a heightened level of anxiety about the kind of power the President might wield. The nation—in its early infancy—needed an executive who was strong enough to protect the national interests, but not so strong that his rule was oppressive to the people (who had just come out from under the thumb of the tyrannical King George III). He had to be balanced, level-headed, and ab...
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Hurricane Matthew battered Florida’s East Coast early Friday, and experts maintain that the worst effects are yet to come. It looks like the weather system is tracking away from Virginia’s coast, but it remains to be seen whether the entire storm center will cross over land. According to National Hurricane Center Director Richard Knabb, the storm “is going to get a lot worse before it [has] a chance of getting better.” The fact is that weather is unpredictable, and it pays to be ready for any co...
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A few weeks ago, I met a young woman named Sarah. She was smiling, and it was the smile of a student who just solidified her future, her success. She just completed a career and technical education program in manufacturing technology. She is already far on her way to achieving her dream of becoming a manufacturing engineer, even before receiving her high school diploma. Not all careers start with a bachelor’s degree—some begin before students have even started high school. Credential and two-yea...
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As a boy, I remember hearing a fable about a scorpion and a frog that goes something like this: A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion says, “Because if I do, I will die too.” The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they will both drown, but has...
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What does it mean for a civilization to contend with the true costs of war? Here in the United States, most of us remain significantly untouched by war. Our conflicts are confined to remote places and our battles are fought by other people’s sons and daughters. Most of us are living the same lives we lived before Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. We go to the same stores, we wear the same clothes, and we love the same people. But I think that if you look hard enough, you will find that there is some...
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Most of us are familiar with the idiom “never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” It’s the mantra of the industrious. Want to see progress? Want to find success? Want to reach the next rung on that ladder? Finish the task at hand and move on to the next one. That’s how we get from where we are to where we want to be. Mark Twain had a slightly different play on the phrase. “Never put off [until] tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well,” he said. For too long, that’s b...
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David Nelson Drew Griffin (CNN) Stephen Hayes (The Weekly Standard) Sen. Ted Kennedy Rep. John Lewis What do an actor, two journalists, and two elected officials all have in common? Well, at one point or another, all of these folks have mistakenly been placed on the federal government’s “no-fly list.” That’s right … they’ve been placed on the list the federal government maintains to keep suspected terrorists out of the skies and planted firmly on the ground. Needless to say, accuracy hasn’t been...
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Last weekend, American-born radical Islamist and self-proclaimed ISIS loyalist Omar Mateen entered Pulse night club in Orlando, Florida and opened fire. It was three long, harrowing hours before law enforcement officials were finally able to storm the night club and end the gunman’s reign of terror. By the time the ordeal had finally drawn to a close, 49 American men and women were dead and 53 more were badly injured. It was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil, second only to...
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