President Barack Obama’s ambitious early agenda has freed him from a
typical obligation of presidents: Keeping the party's organized
interest groups happy.
On March 10, the labor movement’s prize legislation was introduced in
Congress, and President Barack Obama celebrated by chastising teachers’
unions. In February, he (again) skipped Tavis Smiley’s State of the
Black Union. And when he fulfilled a key promise to the abortion rights
movement, he did it with minimum ceremony, on a Friday afternoon.
“He’s not a president who checks the box and does what some people
would consider the minimum to keep various constituencies happy,” said
Bill Samuel, the chief lobbyist for the AFL-CIO. “He doesn’t have to,
because he’s doing very big things.”
But even as he's publicly keeping them at arms length and saying little
on so-called wedge-issues, he's been quietly
... Read more »
John Stossel is the best-known libertarian in the news media. As the
co-anchor of the long-running and immensely popular ABC News program
20/20, auteur of a continuing series of specials on topics ranging from
corporate welfare to educational waste to laws criminalizing consensual
adult behavior, and author of best-selling books such as Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, Stossel brings a consistent message of liberty to millions of viewers on a weekly basis.
It
wasn’t always this way. Born in 1947, Stossel started out as a
standard-issue consumer reporter, working in Oregon and New York before
joining the staff of Good Morning America and, later, 20/20.
He did scare stories about everything from pharmaceutical rip-offs to
exploding coffee pots. Then, in the 1980s, he encountered reason, which radically changed his thinking about the benefits of laissez faire in economics and personal lifestyles.
“It was a revelation,” he writes in hi
... Read more »
Washington D.C. has
failed us on many levels over the last many decades. We have allowed
our elected officials to serve as politicians instead of principled
leaders. Far from being "statesmen," they embarrass themselves and mock
our democracy by spending time raising money across the nation, instead
of indicating interest in their job, which is to govern, not constantly
run for office. Why does this happen? Most of them have such a strong
desire to win re-election that they will corrupt the system and abort
their duties as stewards to see to it that this happens.
Let's take our own U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd as a prime example.
As a ranking member of the all-important U.S. Senate Committee on
Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs between 2003 and 2008, Dodd accepted
donations from the nearly defunct insurance giant American
International Group totaling nearly $225,000. In 2008, while we looked
to him to represent our best interest
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Arguably, Mark
Begich is a Democrat in name only. Alaska's new U.S. senator joined a
bipartisan group that whacked away at the economic stimulus, getting it
down to $787 billion. He allied himself with Republican Sen. Lisa
Murkowski of Alaska in a new push to allow oil drilling in the state's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And he joined several Republicans who
wish to let gun owners who have permits carry concealed weapons across
state lines.
President Obama once again makes the case for his economic recovery plan and speaks of the need for health care reform in his weekly video/radio address.
He also pledges again to bring the federal budget under control:
"Like
every family going through hard times, our country must make tough
choices. In order to pay for the things we need -- we cannot waste
money on the things we don't.
"My administration inherited a
$1.3 trillion budget deficit, the largest in history. And we've
inherited a budgeting process as irresponsible as it is unsustainable.
For years, as Wall Street used accounting tricks to conceal costs and
avoid responsibility, Washington did, too.
"These kinds of
irresponsible budgets -- and inexcusable practices -- are now in the
past. For the first time in many years, my administration has produced
a budget that represents an honest reckoning
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It's finally official: The most corrupt cops in city history will spend the rest of their lives in jail.
"Mafia Cops" Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa,
convicted in April 2006 of committing eight murders while on the
payroll of a mob underboss, received life sentences Friday in Brooklyn federal court.
Eppolito,
the son of a mobster, was sentenced to life plus 100 years. Partner
Caracappa received life plus 80 years. Each was fined more than $4
million.
Although the pair remained jailed in the years since
they were convicted of betraying their badges, their case was
... Read more »
WASHINGTON — It had all the trappings of a State of the Union address but since technically it was not, President Obama did not have to utter those traditional words: “The state of our union is strong.” Because, frankly, it isn’t.
This
was the year that pretense and pride fell by the wayside and the
president reported to the nation that things have skidded wildly off
course. Then over the course of nearly an hour, Mr. Obama soug
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WASHINGTON — After a string of costly bailout and stimulus measures, President Obama
will set a goal this week to cut the annual deficit at least in half by
the end of his term, administration officials said. The reduction would
come in large part through Iraq troop withdrawals and higher taxes on
the wealthy.
LIVONIA, Mich. — Connie from Livonia was on the line with
Representative Thaddeus McCotter during a telephone town-hall-style
meeting, sounding worried as the auto industry continued to spiral
down, taking Michigan’s economy along for the ride.
After a month of controversy, Rick Warren's performance Tuesday at the inauguration of President Barack Obama was like a good short story: in the end, it was both inevitable and surprising. The
first surprise was Warren's evident awkwardness as he stepped up to the
podium, as though his fast public rise over the past four
years—meetings with Bono and Bill Gates, trips to Davos and Aspen—have
transferred upon him none of the polish one expects from world leaders.
Warren is quite genuinely a man who looks and feels more at home at his
megachurch in sunny Southern California, wearing his Hawaiian shirts
and preaching to a crowd drinking Starbucks. The inauguration of the
44th president was exactly the kind of frigid Eastern pageant Warren
spent the early years of his career working against. (Churches, he
said, should not be constrained by traditional songs and liturgy.) A
... Read more »
President Barack Obama’s ambitious early agenda has freed him from a
typical obligation of presidents: Keeping the party's organized
interest groups happy. 
It's finally official: The most corrupt cops in city history will spend the rest of their lives in jail.
WASHINGTON — It had all the trappings of a 
WASHINGTON — After a string of costly bailout and stimulus measures, 
After a month of controversy, Rick Warren's performance Tuesday at the inauguration of President Barack Obama was like a good short story: in the end, it was both inevitable and surprising.