Obama Reaches Out To Iran, Again 

During his address to the U.N. General Assembly today, Barack Obama reached out yet again to Iran. Obama used his U.N. speech to announce that he is directing Secretary of State John Kerry to pursue the diplomatic overtures that have been coming from Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani.

But despite those overtures and nice words, Iran has done nothing of substance to suspend its nuclear weapons program. Obama is being played. And Rouhani has done this before. 

It is worth recalling that Rouhani served as Iran's top nuclear negotiator during the Bush Administration. He repeatedly used diplomacy as a delaying tactic, and to drive a wedge between the U.S. and our European allies. He even bragged about it. 

Today Republican senators on the Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees sent Obama a letter warning against "Iran’s track record of obfuscation and delay." You can read it here. 

Why Lerner Left 

According to the Washington Times, former top IRS official Lois Lerner suddenly decided to retire because "an internal investigation found she was guilty of 'neglect of duties' and was going to call for her ouster." 

Congressional Republicans have been demanding Lerner's dismissal for weeks. Evidently the bureaucrats at the IRS agreed that she needed to go. As a result, Lerner likely decided to leave on her own in order to salvage her pension, which may be as much as $50,000 a year. 

Lerner is not out of the woods yet. Responding to her departure, Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said, "We still don't know why Lois Lerner, as a senior IRS official, had such a personal interest in directing scrutiny and why she denied improper conduct to Congress. Her departure does not answer these questions or diminish the committee's interest in hearing her testimony." 

Moreover, congressional investigators have seen only a fraction of the information they have demanded. CNSNews reports that the IRS has handed over just 10% of the documents Congress has asked for. Having seen perhaps just the "tip of the iceberg," this investigation is far from over. 

Government Too Powerful 

A new Gallup poll finds that a record number of Americans -- 60% -- feel the federal government has amassed "too much power." That figure previously peaked at 59% just before the 2010 elections.

Republicans (81%) and independents (65%) overwhelmingly feel the government is too big and too powerful. But even among Democrats, who are likely sympathetic to Big Government, 38% say it is too powerful. That figure is up 13 points from September 2009. 

From the IRS scandal to the NSA scandal, Obamacare to our burgeoning federal debt, it's no wonder so many Americans are concerned about the growing federal leviathan in Washington, D.C. Every day brings more disturbing news of Big Government encroaching upon our liberties and consuming more and more of our tax dollars. 

The Battle Of Britain 

Today our British hosts took us on a tour of historical sites that dramatize what Britain did when she stood against Hitler's fury. One of the saddest examples of the failure of U.S., and frankly English education, is that we are not teaching this history. Had Great Britain fallen, a new Dark Age would have fallen across Europe and the world would have been a very different place. 

Since I doubt U.S. students know much about great American battles, I suspect they know little if anything about the Battle of Britain. From the fall of 1939 through the summer of 1940, one by one the nations of Europe, from Poland to France, fell before the Nazi blitzkrieg. England stood alone.

After the fall of France, Hitler began devising plans to invade England. But the German Navy was in no position to attempt an invasion. It was decided that the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, had to achieve air superiority over the English Channel. Thus the Battle of Britain began in July 1940. On August 20, 1940, Winston Churchill delivered his famous speech praising the heroism of the Royal Air Force pilots saying, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." 

Frustrated by his failure to break the British Royal Air Force, in September 1940 Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to target London and other British cities. At one point during the London Blitz, the British capital was bombed for 57 consecutive nights. One million homes were damaged or destroyed and 40,000 people were killed. 

Every night, the British people would head for bomb shelters and prepare for the worst. But one night the bombers didn't come. Hitler had paid a tremendous price and just couldn't keep losing pilots and planes. He gave up. 

A headline ran in one of the British papers, "Is That All You Got, Adolf?" 

That is a culture that knows what is worth fighting for. Can anyone imagine the New York Times or the Washington Post running such a headline today? 

It is astonishing to think that just a few years prior, the men of the Oxford Union voted never again to go to battle for "King and Country." The Blitz demonstrated that moral courage can be rediscovered when the reality of evil intrudes. 

Churchill stood up to Nazism. Reagan and Thatcher stood up to Soviet Communism. I pray the West is still capable of producing such leaders.