Politics

The new deal with Iran:”Exit question: What happens when Iran doesn’t close the deal? Answer: America will offer more. Just watch,” writes AEI’s Danielle Pletka. (AEI)

“Wednesday’s meeting on Iran’s nuclear program will be a competition of fears. Who is sufficiently terrified of an atom bomb in Iranian hands to credibly threaten military action? Who fears the immediate economic consequences of Persian petroleum coming off the market more than the longer-term menace of a nuclear-armed state that supports terrorism? Who dreads above all else an Israeli preemptive strike?” write Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz. (Washington Post)

CFR’s Peter Orszag on the budget: History shows U.S. can stimulate now, cut later. (Bloomberg)

“If Republicans are such great budget cutters, how come we continue to spend more, run more deficits, and accumulate more debt?” asks Cato’s Michael Tanner. (National Review)

“Congress and the White House cannot agree on anything budget-related -- not even on the question of whether the president’s 2013 proposed budget will raise or lower the deficit. The White House calculates its 2013 budget will reduce the deficit by $4 trillion, whereas the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the same budget will raise the deficit by $3.5 trillion,” writes Manhattan Institute’s Diana Furchtgott-Roth. (Washington Examiner)

“Team Romney should have seen this coming. If Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry were willing to rip Romney for being too capitalistic in the Republican primary, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to expect that Obama and Vice President Joe Biden would happily do the same in the general election,” writes AEI’s Jonah Goldberg. (National Review)

Victor Davis Hanson says that coolness gives people like Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg an exemption to the rules everybody else abides by. (National Review)

Room for Debate asks: Can Euro bonds save the union? (New York Times)

Heritage’s Peter Brookes: A pathetic pact for safety on the seas. (New York Post)

Manhattan Institute’s James Copland: Justice Department may be in the next cubicle. (Bloomberg)

Washington Post colleague Erik Wemple reports on the ongoing scrutiny of Arnaud de Borchgrave, the prominent foreign correspondent who is accused of plagiarizing parts of many of his recent columns for the Washington Times and United Press International.

Arnaud de Borchgrave (Harry Naltchayan - The Washington Post) But the claims hit the think tank world, too.

De Borchgrave, director and senior adviser of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), wrote an introduction to a 2007 report (“Force Multiplier for Intelligence”) that has a striking resemblance to a BBC news report published earlier that year. Other CSIS reports by de Borchgrave have similar problems.

To their credit, CSIS has taken a stand against plagiarism and promises a review, as Wemple reports:

CSIS, on the other hand, examined evidence of literary overlaps and declared that it would look into the matter. “We do have in our guidelines that plagiarism is not something that’s tolerated here,” said H. Andrew Schwartz, CSIS’s senior vice president for external relations. “We’ve never had to discipline anybody for anything like this, so I think the consequences of plagiarism could vary depending on the context. They could include serious penalties.”

Bain Capital and financial industry gave over $565,000 to Newark Mayor Cory Booker for 2002 campaign. (ThinkProgress)

Politicos Arena asks: Should Democrats stop the Bain Capital attacks? Cato’s Roger Pilon answers. So does Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Dean Baker.

James Capretta: Democrats’ budget blame game. (National Review)

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.) seemed to be the perfect national security perfect vice president running mate for Romney. “But now McDonnell’s national security credentials have come into question, thanks to his mishandling of a bill passed by the Virginia General Assembly that disassociates the commonwealth from the military detention of al-Qaeda or its terrorist affiliates who happen to be U.S. citizens. The bill, HB 1160, would effectively bar Virginia state troopers from arresting a terrorist like Anwar al-Awlaki if they knew he would be put in military detention. McDonnell didn’t raise a finger to stop this odious legislation as it made its way through the Virginia legislature. As a result, it passed 97-3 in the House of Delegates and 39-1 in the state Senate,” writes AEI’s Marc Thiessen. (Washington Post)

Cato’s Gene Healy: Drones pose a threat to Americans’ privacy. (Washington Examiner)

AEI’s Fred Hess does some content analysis of Naomi Schaefer Riley’s Chronicle of Higher Education writing. (National Review)

Manhattan Institute’s Heather Mac Donald: Stop and frisk facts. (New York Post)

Room for Debate asks: After all the attempts to reform and rein in banking practices after the 2008 financial crisis, how could the JPMorgan Chase $2 billion loss have happened? What kind of regulation would have prevented this disaster? (New York Times)

Two conservative organizations, the Heritage Foundation and the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, have announced they will offer awards to commemorate Andrew Breitbart, the controversial media entrepreneur who died suddenly in March.

The Heritage Foundation and the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity have announced the Breitbart Awards to commemorate media entrepreneur and conservative activist Andrew Breitbart. (Brendan Smialowski - Getty Images)

The awards, according to the Web site, “seek to ensure that [Breitbart’s] legacy is honored and that the movement he spawned continues on with the army of citizen activists that he cultivated and inspired.”

According to Heritage and Franklin, nominees for the awards should be “driven by an indomitable pursuit for truth and accountability” and “advanc[e] those causes on behalf of the public good.”

Nominations are due Friday, and awards will be given in the categories of journalism, blogging and citizen activism:

Full-time Reporter: In a media environment that tells reporters to go along to get along, a few still consider it a sacred trust to keep the people informed. A few still recognize the awesome responsibility in belonging to the only profession to be enshrined in the Bill of Rights. We’ll present one Breitbart Award to a full-time news reporter to honor courage and honesty in telling the real stories that matter to people’s lives.

Blogger: When the legacy media fails to do its job, we are fortunate to have an army waiting on the Internet to hold the institutions of power accountable. We’ll honor a blogger for intrepid reporting that goes over the heads of the legacy media to communicate directly to the people.

Citizen: The fight for freedom requires a constant stream of new recruits willing to make time in their lives to serve as watchdogs in their local communities. We’ll honor an information activist committed to digging up the truth.

The Heritage Foundation already has a working relationship with Breitbart.com. In April, Heritage announced a partnership with the Breitbart News Network to bring the think tank’s popular weekly Blogger’s Briefing to Breitbart TV’s national conservative audience.

“The back-and-forth about Bain Capital, Mitt Romney’s old company, is part of something larger. So is the inquest into the implications of multibillion-dollar trading losses at JPMorgan Chase. Capitalism can produce wonders. It is also capable of self-destruction, and it can leave a lot of wounded people behind. The trick is to get the most out of what capitalism does well, while containing or preventing the problems it can cause,” writes Brookings’ E.J. Dionne. (Washington Post)

Judd Legum: Newark Mayor Cory Booker defends Bain Capital, attacks Obama campaign. (ThinkProgress)

AEI’s Michael Barone: Raise taxes, growth be damned. (National Review)

Heritage’s James Carafano on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: “Under Reagan, America’s ambition was to build and maintain a 600-ship navy. Under President Obama’s defense agenda, the U.S. won’t be able to field half that number. Yes, today’s naval ships are better than those built 30 years ago -- but the world is still the same size, and even modern ships can only be in one place at a time.” (Washington Examiner)

Room for Debate asks: Is segregation back in U.S. public schools? (New York Times)

“Last week, a set of arbitrators gave a small MTA union, covering Staten Island and Queens bus workers, the same generous contract that a different arbitration panel awarded to the Transport Workers Union three years ago. It’s a bad sign for the MTA’s future — including its near future, because the TWU contract is up again,” writes Manhattan Institute’s Nicole Gelinas. (New York Post)

For Thomas Sowell, the census data showing the number of white babies is exceeded by non-white babies means a permanent shift left leading to the conclusion: “Unless this fashionable balkanization is stopped, demography can become destiny — and a tragedy for all.” (National Review)

Cato’s Andrew Colson: ‘Useful’ idiots and the American Community Survey. (Cato)