County News Online Blogs

Personal Liberty Digest... You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, by Ben Crystal
July 21, 2011 - Bill Maher recently called Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann “boobs.” Sometime after June Cleaver turned in her apron and retired to guest spots on “The Love Boat,” the feminist movement took center stage in what some called “the gender wars.” I wasn’t around during the nascent years of feminism, but I’ve always thought that the boys lost to the girls right about the same time we started pretending we liked movies with Sally Field — and without the Trans-Am... read more

Toledo Blade... Kasich’s jobs budget
7/21/11 - Lucas County’s Workforce Development Agency sent pink slips to four employees last week. They are just the tip of an iceberg created at the end of June when Gov. John Kasich signed a two-year budget that was balanced largely on the backs of schools, local governments, libraries, nursing homes, and social-service programs. Mr. Kasich has dismissed the idea that the $55.8 billion budget approved by the Republican-controlled General Assembly created a problem... read more

FoxNews.com... If I Were President, I’d Create the ‘Elimination Commission’ By Patrick Dorinson
Published July 22, 2011 - “It costs ten times more to govern us than it used to, and we are not governed one-tenth as good” -- Will Rogers - Over the last few weeks and months the President and Congress have been arguing about the need to raise the debt ceiling before August 2, so the country won’t default on its financial obligations and have its American Excess card canceled. Both are blaming each other over who drove the country into the ditch. It doesn’t matter who drove it... read more

FoxNews.com... Washington, It’s Time to Put On Your Big Boy Pants, By Penny Young Nance
Published July 22, 2011 - Many families in this great country have been forced to look at their monthly budgets and see where they can make cuts. Maybe they can spend a little less on food, eating more vegetables than meat one week or maybe they need to cancel cable or forgo their summer vacations. Maybe they even need to look at the future and cut back on contributing to their retirements or their kid’s college savings account. Some folks sadly have to dig even deeper and... read more

Townhall... It Should All Be Free, By Mona Charen
7/22/2011 - Free medicine! That’s what Obamacare has brought you -- or should bring you, at least according to CNN. The story’s opening sentence set the tone: “Contraceptives, sterilization and reproductive education should be covered by health insurance plans with no cost to patients under the health reform law, a new report recommends.” In a tone that can only be called cheerleading, CNN tells its... read more

Townhall... The Beltway Industry Full-Time Employment Act, By Michelle Malkin
7/22/2011 - Dodd-Frank, the 2,300-page financial “reform” monstrosity spearheaded by Capitol Hill corruptocrats, turned 1 this week. It made too-big banks bigger. It made too-risky incentives riskier. It made a lousy economy lousier. Billed as a “consumer protection” act, Dodd-Frank has succeeded phenomenally -- in protecting and stimulating the business-stifling business of government. Dodd-Frank is... read more

Townhall.com’s Washington Beat, By Katie Pavlich
July 19, 2011 - In this edition of the Washington Beat, Townhall’s Guy Benson sits down with Rep. Paul Ryan to discuss the continuing debt ceiling debate in Washington. DEBT CEILING DEBATE STILL STUCK GOING NOWHERE - This week, the House of Representatives, after gridlocked talks between Congressional Leaders and President Obama, will vote to pass Cut, Cap, and Balance while rumors swirl that the Senates’ “Gang of Six” have reached a deal. Problem is... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Lost in the exchange
July 18, 2011 - Listen to Gov. John Kasich and his lieutenant, Mary Taylor, on Ohio’s direction with health care, and you will appreciate the confusion when rigid ideology trumps sound policy. Last week, the governor visited Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He was so impressed with the research and collaboration among children’s hospitals, he pledged $2 million (source unidentified) to promote a care coordination program by pediatric hospitals. A key element of Medicaid reform... read more

Friday, June 24th, 2011 in a radio interview... Josh Mandel says Sen. Sherrod Brown rates as the most liberal in the United States - Half-True - 7/21/11 - When a Republican calls someone a liberal, it’s not meant as a compliment. Add the modifier “most liberal member of the U.S. Senate,” and you’ve got red meat, especially in a middle-of-the-road state like Ohio. You’ve also got, as you may have guessed, the rap against Sherrod Brown. Josh Mandel, the Ohio treasurer who’s been raising money to run as the Republican nominee against Brown, laid out that accusation... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Extreme measure
July 18, 2011 - China, one of this country’s largest creditors, has voiced concern about the contentious budget discussions in Washington. So have the International Monetary Fund and other global players in finance. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, has warned about a “huge financial calamity” if President Obama and Republicans in Congress fail to reach a timely agreement on raising the debt ceiling. How has the Republican majority in the House... read more

Townhall... The Real Effects of Gambling, By Steve Chapman
7/21/2011 - Gambling has proliferated in America in recent years, and it’s not about to stop. The Illinois legislature has approved a bill authorizing more casinos as well as slot machines at race tracks. Ohio has four new casinos in the pipeline. Maine voters approved a new one last year. Massachusetts lawmakers plan to consider a gambling expansion this fall. To critics, this spells trouble: more gambling, more... read more

Townhall... The New Battleground of Child Custody Reform: Shared Parenting
By Rachel Alexander - 7/19/2011 - Child custody and support laws have become more onerous over the last 50 years due to fewer parents staying together and women becoming equally as capable as men at earning a living outside the home. Instead of reflecting these changes, the laws have lagged behind, continuing to favor mothers over fathers. The laws generally award primary custody to the parent who... read more

Foxnews... Gang of Six Plan Brings Hope Washington Can Still Rescue America, By Douglas E. Schoen
Published July 20, 2011 - It is hard not to be excited by the news of the Gang of Six’s resurrection. Their $3.7 trillion plan to reduce the budget deficit over 10 years coupled with lowering tax rates, eliminating loopholes, and ultimately raising $1 trillion in new revenue meets the broad outlines of the Bowles-Simpson Plan that was unveiled last December, and addresses most, if not all, the central concerns of centrist Democrats like myself. By linking the debt ceiling increase to a... read more

Redstate... Thirty Problems with the “Gang of Six” Proposal, Posted by Michael Hammond
Wednesday, July 20th - Analyzing the six-page “Gang of Six” proposal for rewriting the federal budget is like measuring a bucket of water by holding the water in your hands. Having said this, it looks like Coburn, Crapo, and Chambliss got their clocks cleaned. TAXES - First, by crafting the tax increases in the Senate Finance Committee, the Gang of Six proposal allows Democrats (plus Olympia Snowe) to determine their parameters. And, incidentally, Democrats’ notions... read more

Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Fine choice
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - Cordray’s practical leadership would set new agency on right path - Making the new federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a success will require the skills of a fair-minded pragmatist who commands wide respect, and that makes former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray an excellent pick to run it. President Barack Obama announced Cordray’s appointment yesterday to the new post; he will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate... read more

Redstate... Now House Republicans Must Fight The Gang of 6's Gangrene Plan
Posted by Erick Erickson - Wednesday, July 20th - Think of the Senate “Gang of 6″ Plan as the “Gangrene Plan.” It will slowly, but surely, rot away the nation. It was presented yesterday with a few claims: (1) It was not designed to play a role in the debt ceiling debate; (2) It was not meant to undercut the House Republicans’ “Cut, Cap, and Balance” plan; and, (3) It would not be a tax increase... read more

Townhall... Will College Bubble Burst From Public Subsidies? By Michael Barone
7/21/2011 - When governments want to encourage what they believe is beneficial behavior, they subsidize it. Sounds like good public policy. But there can be problems. Behavior that is beneficial for most people may not be so for everybody. And government subsidies can go too far. Subsidies create incentives for what economists call rent-seeking behavior. Providers of supposedly beneficial goods or... read more

Townhall... Ten Ways Progressive Policies Harm Society’s Moral Character, By Dennis Prager
7/19/2011 - While liberals are certain about the moral superiority of liberal policies, the truth is that those policies actually diminish a society’s moral character. Many individual liberals are fine people, but the policies they advocate tend to make a people worse. Here are 10 reasons: 1. The bigger the government, the less the citizens do for one another. If the state will take care of me and my neighbors, why should I? This is why Western Europeans, people who have lived in welfare states... read more

Townhall... 5 American Economic Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind, By John Hawkins
7/19/2011 - “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space.” -- Douglas Adams - Like Douglas Adams’ description of space, the economic issues in this country have become quite big. In fact, most people are, in a very real way, unable to comprehend how “vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big” our problems have become. It’s all “trillions” this, default that... read more

Townhall... California’s Costly Attack on the Internet, By Meredith Turney
7/18/2011 - When it comes to Internet entrepreneurship, California is the place to be for aspiring Mark Zuckerbergs. Silicon Valley is known around the world as the technology mecca. The explosion of new technology in the last two decades has helped drive California’s economy and made it the center of the Internet-based business world. But California’s reputation as the home of innovative Internet technology is about to end—all because of the state government’s... read more

Townhall... A Surprising President, By Rich Galen
7/18/2011 - Barack Obama may be the most surprising President in the history of the Republic. In his two-and-a-half years in office, no matter what has happened, it seems to have come as a surprise to him. Shovel-ready projects? Unexpectedly, they didn’t exist. The only shoveling that went on was shoveling about $700 billion of our tax dollars into projects that didn’t help jump-start the economy way... read more

Townhall... Time for some pain in the debt talks, By Armstrong Williams
7/18/2011 - Well folks, if you didn’t think it was crunch time for lawmakers in Washington, it’s clear now. Talk is cheap. That’s not me saying it. That’s the world’s three credit agencies, Moody’s, Finch and now Standard & Poor’s, which all have threatened that the U.S. risks losing its top-notch credit rating if it cannot fix the debt mess. Some Democrats would see this month’s announcements as proof positive that... read more

Townhall... Zinging a New Song of a Culture Gone Wrong, By Marybeth Hicks
7/20/2011 - I’m working the refreshment tent this week at the music festival in my hometown, putting in my volunteer hours for our children’s school, when I realize I am not shocked by the tattoo-covered, fifty-something woman walking toward me in Daisy Duke shorts and midriff-baring bustier. Her stiletto sandals, black nail polish, pigtails and pierced, red lips don¹t faze me in the least. I turn to her without... read more

FoxNews... Were the First Ten Years of the 21st Century Really the Worst In American History?
By Martin Sieff - Published July 17, 2011 - The first decade of the 21st century was the worst in American history: Did you know that? That’s what Thomas Friedman of the New York Times told a packed, applauding worshipful audience at the annual Aspen Festival of Ideas in Colorado in late June. Well – the past decade was certainly no great shakes – ongoing low level wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 3,000 innocent Americans killed on 9/11 and a very bad but least not terminal... read more

Redstate... Seven Reasons Why August 2 Isn’t the End of the World, by Dean Clancy
Monday, July 18th - Washington is currently borrowing about 43 cents out of every dollar it spends, and is close to maxing out its credit limit. Current law says Uncle Sam cannot borrow more than $14.3 trillion. A few months back, the Obama Administration demanded that Congress increase the national credit line by $2.5 trillion by May 16, or else, it warned, the United States would default on its debts, causing an “economic Armageddon.” ($2.5 trillion is just enough to... read more

Redstate... Palin Again, Posted by Erick Erickson
Monday, July 18th - CNN did a brilliant job covering the launch of the Sarah Palin documentary, “The Undefeated.” As CNN notes, The film’s distributor, ARC Entertainment, said the film averaged $5,000 per screen Friday and Saturday night, with sold-out screenings at several locations. ARC Entertainment said in a statement “… with the strong initial showing, the film is going to a wider release footprint later this month.” In fact, the Palin film is dazzling people by just how well a... read more

Townhall... Doing More By Doing Less, By Ed Feulner
7/15/2011 - Each month, the federal government releases its unemployment report. As measurements of economic health go, you can’t get more basic than how many jobs we’re adding. And the simple fact is, we aren’t. The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, the highest this year. Some 445,000 Americans became jobless. The economy added 18,000 jobs -- a paltry number in a country of more than 300 million... read more

Townhall... What Democrats Must Ignore or Deny, By Mona Charen
7/19/2011 - To be a Democrat means to live in denial. Consider all of the things you must ignore or explain away. The PIGS. Not the chauvinist pigs whose transgressions preoccupied 1970s feminists, but PIGS as in Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain -- nations facing sovereign debt crises because they pursued exactly the sort of policies Democrats favor for this country. The PIGS share bloated... read more

Townhall... The Marilyn Monroe Doctrine, By Cliff May
7/14/2011 - In 1957, Marilyn Monroe starred in “The Prince and the Showgirl.” In the movie’s most memorable scene, Monroe (as Elsie Marina, an understudy in The Coconut Girl in 1911 London who is soon hobnobbing with the royals) overhears a telephone conversation (in German – but Elsie is from Milwaukee so she’s bilingual as well as gorgeous) about a plot against the Prince Regent of Carpathia, played by Laurence Olivier. “It is most unfortunate that you should have... read more

FoxNews.com... President Obama Doesn’t Know the First Thing About Economics, By Iain Murray
Published July 16, 2011 - As the Oscar buzz surrounding actress Meryl Streep keeps growing -- thanks to her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, it’s worth remembering one of the real Iron Lady’s most famous observations: that any housewife could manage the British economy. President Obama should heed that advice, and realize that economy begins at home. Unfortunately, his recent statements on the economy give little reason for hope on that front. The president’s press... read more

Washington Post... Rob Portman, the boring Midwesterner who could bring sanity to the debt debate
By Dana Milbank - Published: July 15 - Seems just about everybody in this town has gone mad. President Obama and congressional leaders storm out of meetings and exchange taunts. As the nation nears a calamitous default on the national debt, Senate Democrats waste much of a week debating a symbolic resolution about taxing millionaires. Republicans opt for a fight on the House floor over light bulbs. But one man, Sen. Rob Portman, continues to do the... read more

Townhall... Who’s Irresponsible? By Mona Charen
7/15/2011 - Count on it: In the coming days and weeks, Republicans will be accused -- not just by Democrats, but by the chattering class that includes some self-styled conservatives -- of wild irresponsibility regarding the nation’s fiscal health. It isn’t that Republicans are models of rectitude on the subject -- see the Bush deficits. And it’s true that some Republicans, like Americans for Tax Reform’s... read more

Human Events... The Expanding Catalogue of Obamacare Fables, by Michelle Malkin
07/15/2011 - Is there a health insurance horror story disseminated by the White House and its allies that ever turned out to be true? Obamacare advocates have exercised more artistic license than a convention of Photoshoppers. Now, a prominent sob story shilled by President Obama himself about his own mother is in doubt. It’s high past time to call their bluffs. The tall-tale-teller-in... read more

Townhall... America’s Financial Restoration vs. Obama’s Ideology, By David Limbaugh
7/19/2011 - There is an overarching reason we can’t move toward a balanced budget, which underscores why we face ongoing stalemates over debt ceilings and continuing resolutions: President Obama doesn’t want to balance the budget. I don’t say this out of extremism or to be gratuitously controversial or even provocative. It’s just that his words and actions lead to the inescapable conclusion that he is... read more

Townhall... Take a Stand Against Rand, By Marvin Olasky
7/15/2011 - For nearly a decade Democrats have sought a religious wedge issue that could separate big chunks of white evangelical voters from their Republican home. Now they’ve found it, and are thrusting at the Social Darwinist/Ayn Rand underbelly of American conservatism. First, a bit of recent history: Democrats have not gained much white evangelical support on healthcare and environmentalism. In 2008 they successfully used guilt over segregation to elect the first... read more

Townhall... Republican Show-and-Tell, By Jonah Goldberg
7/15/2011 - A lot of conservatives are having fun at President Obama’s expense after his latest gaffe. In the midst of testy debt-limit negotiations, Obama told House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, “Don’t call my bluff.” The first rule in bluffing is to keep it a secret that you’re bluffing. So, technically speaking, that’s like a con man saying, “Don’t give any weight to the fact that I’m lying.” And while I do think Obama is not telling the truth about a great number of things, conservatives... read more

Redstate... The EPA Must Be Stopped, and I’m Not Talking About Light Bulbs, Posted by Ben Howe
Thursday, July 14th - There’s been a lot of talk these days about light bulbs. The Hill is reporting on how it’s shedding light on the “new Republican party,” one that is so “out of touch with the mainstream” because it only listens to it’s “extremist elements.” The New York Times has declared victory for the green movement, while some in the blogosphere have taken to referring to the bulb issue as a “fatal conceit,” referring to the White House’s fulfillment of Hayek’s description... read more

Human Events... Harry Reid Threatens To Close Schools, by John Hayward
07/15/2011 - Debt ceiling hysteria reaches new lows. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened to shut down the nation’s schools via Twitter on Thursday, if his Party’s demands for higher taxes are not met: This man is, quite simply, deranged. As Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner pointed out, “federal funding pays for only 8.5 percent of the cost of the nation’s elementary and secondary schools,” and... read more

Townhall... New Reality Emerging on Illegal Immigration, By Michael Barone
7/14/2011 - The United States is a country that has been peopled largely by vast surges of migration -- from the British Isles in the 18th century, from Ireland and Germany in the 19th century, from Eastern and Southern Europe in the early 20th century, and from Latin America and Asia in the last three decades. Going back in history, almost no one predicted that these surges of migration would begin -- and almost... read more

Townhall... Character Development, By Jackie Gingrich Cushman
7/14/2011 - I’m not sure how it started, but at some point over the past year, when my children begin to relate some hardship in their lives -- tough tests, tough teacher or coach -- I began responding that they should think of the obstacle as “character development” rather than as an insurmountable challenge. “Character development.” I must have been using this phrase more than I realized, and of course it has come... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Ohio’s ‘Lost Decade’
Monday, July 11, 2011 - Need for ‘jobs budget’ is vividly illustrated by economic analysis - An economic report prepared for U.S. mayors makes a strong case for why Ohio urgently needs Gov. John Kasich’s “jobs budget.” It predicts seven of Ohio’s big cities face another “lost decade” before employment fully recovers - if ever. These formerly bustling communities are among 37 in the nation not expected to return to prerecession peak employment for another decade. Mainstay... read more

Redstate... The American People Are Fast Becoming More Furious, Posted by Repair_Man_Jack
Thursday, July 14th - USG Property - Last Seen Somewhere in Tijuana - “Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks Mark R. Chait Assistant Director Field Operations.” - Townhall.com - The ATF went statistic-shopping in support of a proposed rule to limit the freedoms of firearm owners and dealers. Operation Fast and Furious was an effort to create... read more

Reason... Reason.tv: 3 Reasons Why The Debt-Ceiling Debate is Full of Malarkey
By Nick Gillespie & Meredith Bragg - July 15, 2011 - All anybody in Washington can talk about these days is the debt limit or debt ceiling – the total amount of money the federal government is authorized to borrow at any given time. After a decade in which spending increased by more than 60 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars and the debt limit was raised no fewer than 10 times, the government is about to max out... read more

Townhall... Public school systems cheating nation’s youth, By Marybeth Hicks
7/13/2011 - Benjamin Franklin said, “Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, it is forbidden because it is hurtful.” Someone ought to hang that quote in every doorway of every school and office of the Atlanta Public Schools system. Last week’s release by GeorgiaGov. Nathan Deal of an investigative report on widespread cheating within APS on the state’s standardized curriculum tests raises... read more

Townhall... One President Left Behind: McConnell Schools Obama on Debt
By Ann Coulter - 7/13/2011 - Democrats don’t want to cut any government spending programs, not now, not ever. The country is on a high-speed bullet train to bankruptcy (the only kind of bullets liberals approve of), and the Democrats’ motto is: Spend! Spend! Spend! Democrats are at an advantage in the “should the U.S. go bankrupt or not?” debate because, based on their economic policies so... read more

Townhall Finance... The One Becomes The Jerk, By John Ransom
7/14/11 - Obama finally solved the budget crisis the White House really cares about yesterday when he announced that he hauled in $86 million in campaign contributions for the three months ended June 30th. The budget crisis facing the rest of us? Obama’s really mad at the rest of us because we are all acting very immaturely by withholding a blank check for the bills he’s run up. The White House reacted to the breakdown in budget talks at the White House yesterday in characteristically... read more

Townhall... Republicans Must Vote Against Raising Debt Ceiling or Face Political Annihilation
By Matt Towery - 7/13/2011 - The Republicans surged to majority status in the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2010 thanks in large part to the support of many independent voters who shifted their allegiance to the GOP. But the party’s candidates risk losing that support, and also losing the voter intensity and enthusiasm they would otherwise likely enjoy in November 2012, if congressional Republicans sign on to any legislative scheme that raises the federal debt ceiling... read more

Townhall Finance... Obama Out on Called Third Strike, By Bill Tatro
7/14/11 - They say that things of consequence occur in groups of three, usually with very bad results. A prime example is three deaths in a row, or three strikes and you’re out. Let’s give this phenomenon further examination from an economic and financial standpoint. Back in the 1980’s, President Ronald Reagan was influenced to believe that if he would only renege just a little on his tax cut pledge, Congress would decrease spending. He was told a combination of increased... read more

Townhall... One Way To Make a Conservative, By Mona Charen
7/8/2011 - It’s impossible to read Ying Ma’s fascinating memoir, “Chinese Girl in the Ghetto,” without wincing. She was born in Guangzhou, China’s third largest city. Throughout her mostly carefree early childhood years, she kept her family’s secret: that her parents repeatedly sought permission to emigrate to the United States.
Her family was not poor, at least not by Chinese standards of the late... read more

Townhall... Shaping Citizens, Saving Souls, By Suzanne Fields
7/8/2011 - A neighbor of mine, age 15, left the picnic on the Fourth of July expecting to set off fireworks in the family. He had a declaration of his own: “I’m off to play one of those violent video games the Supreme Court says are protected by my First Amendment rights.” He got a groan or two (probably less than he had hoped for), but one of the grown-ups expressed the hopeful view: “Well, at least the... read more

Redstate... Our Petulant Child President, Posted by streiff
Wednesday, July 13th - From AFP... WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama stormed out of tense debt-limit talks Wednesday with his top Republican foes after declaring he was ready to stake his reelection on the outcome, a Republican aide said. After Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor proposed to raise the US debt ceiling in more than one catch-all vote, Obama got “heated” and insisted on one comprehensive deal, said the aide, who requested... read more

Foxnews... America Is Too Dumb to Know Obama Is Always Right, By Michael Goodwin
Published July 13, 2011 - When President Obama started talking at his news conference Monday, I listened intently for 15 minutes or so. Then I got fidgety as his half-truths about the debt grew into full-blown whoppers. As he droned on, I did something I never did before during an Obama appearance: I turned off the TV. Enough. He is the Man Who Won’t Listen to Anybody, so why should anybody listen to him? Tuning out and turning off the president does not fill me with... read more

Townhall... 5 Signs Of American Decadence, By John Hawkins
7/12/2011 - “In a free society, government reflects the soul of its people. If people want change at the top, they will have to live in different ways. Our major social problems are not the cause of our decadence. They are a reflection of it.” -- Cal Thomas
You’ve undoubtedly heard the old wives’ tale about frogs and boiling water. If you toss a frog into boiling water, he’ll immediately jump out -- but supposedly, if you increase the temperature just a bit at a time, the frog will sit... read more

Townhall... Ten Reasons Why Even American Liberals Should Root for the GOP
By Larry Elder - 7/14/2011 1) Incredibly weak recovery: President Barack Obama’s tax/spend/regulation policy -- “stimulus”; continuation of TARP; bank, insurance company and auto industry bailouts; “quantitative easing” (aka the printing of money); cash for clunkers; minimum wage hikes; new regulatory rules on businesses; tripling of the deficit; addition of $4 trillion to the debt -- failed miserably to... read more

Redstate... Dear Mr. Speaker, Posted by Erick Erickson
Thursday, July 14th - Last night the President engaged in off Broadway theatrics trying to scare the Republicans into folding on debt ceiling negotiations. Playing the role of Hollywood President, not the real President, the President said he didn’t care if this brought down his Presidency and he would not yield. He then dared Eric Cantor to call his bluff. Mr. Speaker, this is a man giving away the game... read more

Rebuttal to Riding a Dead Horse, By Bob Rhoades
You have obviously overlooked a couple of key points in your assessment of the dead horse problem which I will take a moment to point out. 1. Buying a stronger whip. Fallacy with this is the amount of time it will take to write a lesson plan on whip operation as well as the overtime needed to bring all employees and supervisors up to speed on whip operation. 2. Changing riders. Once again it’s not that... read more

Columbus Dispatch... Teachers across region acknowledge that hard times require sacrifice
Saturday, July 2, 2011 - The recent wave of central Ohio teachers unions agreeing to pay freezes or smaller increases will help school districts and students cope with the financial impact of a battered economy that still hasn’t gotten its legs under it. Forgoing pay raises is necessary if strapped school districts are to offer students the best education possible. Salaries and benefits make up the vast majority of any school district’s operating budget. So holding the line on pay and benefits... read more

Townhall... Jobless Presidencies Should Result in Jobless Presidents, by Jon Sanders
7/11/2011 - In the religious ecstasy of early 2009, when Barack Obama was yet in mid-ascension operating the “Office of the President-Elect” (complete with custom-made seal), he was campaigning hard for his stimulus plan. On January 10 of that year, the Obama “administration-in-waiting” released a report by its chief economists Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein titled “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.” The thrust of the report was to... read more

Townhall... Obama Makes Us Eat Our Peas, by Bill Murchison
7/12/2011 - “This is part of the problem with a political process where folks are rewarded for saying irresponsible things to win elections.” No! Couldn’t be! Saying things like “hope and change”? And now -- so as to strike the pose of adult calm amid riotous kids -- “Pull off the Band-Aid. Eat our peas. Now is the time to do it.” President Obama’s inability to rise above the silly and superficial -- in tribute perhaps to the silliness and superficiality he apparently attributes... read more

Townhall Finance... Remember: It Could Have Been Pelosi, By Bob Beauprez
7/12/11 - As the political tug-of-war wears on in Washington over a deal on reducing the deficit as part of a compromise to raise the debt limit, some conservatives are beginning to fret about the possibility of the GOP “caving” (there’s a plethora of definitions of what “caving” would be). And, today the media’s attention is focused on differences – perceived or genuine – within the GOP Leadership.
... read more

Dead Horses and Live Husbands...Verities & Balderdash, By Bob Robinson
One of the positives of the computer age is the unceasing flow of humor and creative anecdotes you see when people have you on their email lists. One of the negatives of the computer age is our growing dependence on it. One of the negatives of a representative government is its absolute ineptitude in so many areas, especially regarding strategies for the future (note the current deadlock in... read more

Townhall... The President’s Excess Income, and Ours, By Mona Charen
7/12/2011 - It is becoming a verbal tic -- the tendency on the part of the president to tell wealthy Americans (“people like me” he’s always careful to add) that they have made more than enough money and will have to cough up more of it for the government. Speaking for himself on July 11, the president offered that he had “hundreds of thousands of dollars that I don’t need.” The president is of... read more

Editor’s Note: This is a Must Read - Townhall Finance... Stuck On “Stupid Liberal” Mode, By Mark Baisley
7/11/11 - BLACK MARKET TOILETS - My dad builds custom homes in California and the regulators at all levels routinely give him new, maddening impediments to practicality. The example that I remember most had to do with toilets. In response to the apparent public outcry about excessive tank capacity, sales of toilets that exceed 1.6 gallons per flush have been banned throughout America. United States Senator Rand Paul recently told a senior bureaucrat at a Senate hearing... read more

Townhall... Watch Out for the Gimmicks and Promises, By Michael A. Needham
7/11/2011 - With just 1 in 5 Americans having a favorable opinion of Congress, selling the details of any debt deal struck with an upside down President will be hard work for Republican and Democrat leaders alike. The American people understand our nation is on an unsustainable path, but they are not willing to accept a gimmick-riddled deal cloaked in bipartisan rhetoric and feel-good promises. President Obama must have an eye on 2012 as he tries to craft a major deal on the... read more

Columbus Dispatch... Budget remarkable; hurdles remain
Sunday, July 3, 2011 - Gov. John Kasich’s $55.8 billion state budget - which the General Assembly sent him Wednesday - is: • Remarkably good, to the governor’s fellow Republicans. • Remarkably bad, to Statehouse Democrats, especially those elected from city districts. • Just plain remarkable, compared with typical Ohio budgets. Until now, every two years, when Ohio wrote budgets, it’s been “same old, same old.” But “same old, same old” - a tweak here, a tweak... read more

Townhall... In Obamaland, the Past is Irrelevant, By Guy Benson
7/11/2011 - President Obama inhabits a very special world. It’s a world in which his entire slate of previous statements, policy preferences, and actions is apparently wiped clean every time he delivers a new speech or press statement. As my friend Mary Katharine Ham likes to quip, what Obama said -- or did -- last week, last month, or last year is regarded as irrelevant, so long as he’s making... read more

Townhall... Agency Girl Goes Wild, By Katie Kieffer
7/11/2011 - Elizabeth Warren has literally gone wild. No, she did not strip off her matronly suit on a Girls Gone Wild spring break tour bus. Rather, she appears to be on a mission to strip Congress, small businesses and individual Americans of authority by instituting her own rules for how to play the financial game on both Wall Street and Main Street. Liberals in the media hail Warren as the “protector... read more

Townhall... Step by Step, By Rich Galen
7/11/2011 - It is important to remember that these sorts of things are a process. Just as most of us can’t go up a flight of stairs in one step from the bottom to the top, a major undertaking like this has to go one - or maybe two - steps at a time. While the process of going from one step to the next is going on, it is useful to remember the goal: Get to the top. The three major players are the President of the United States... read more

Townhall Finance... O’Bummer: The Tax Scam Faileth, By John Ransom
7/11/11 - Obama’s into big stuff, says chief of staff Bill Daley on ABC’s This Week. “I do firmly believe that one of the wet blankets on this economy and on companies, on the system right now is a question as to whether or not our political system, whether the leaders can get together, whether they can solve big problems,” Daley said. So let’s define the “big, wet blanket problem” in which Obama and his Chicago friends now find themselves... read more

Redstate... Operation: Chaos, Posted by Ben Howe
Sunday, July 10th - One might recall a recent contentious special election which took place in NY-26 in which an otherwise favored to lose candidate Jack Davis, pretended to be a tea party candidate and disrupted the otherwise bellwether election. In fact, the trickery in this election went so far as to create entire fake websites dedicated to spreading misinformation to the voters in the hopes of confusing them and getting them to vote the “right” way... read more

Townhall... Beached economists, By Paul Jacob
7/10/2011 - In a Wall Street Journal profile of Michele Bachmann, last month, the Minnesota congresswoman claimed to adore economist Ludwig von Mises. She said she liked nothing better than to take a Mises book with her to the beach. Ah, glorious summer reading! As when former President George W. Bush claimed to be reading Albert Camus’s The Stranger, Bachmann’s confession was widely seen primarily as a political one. Could Camus upgrade Bush’s... read more

Townhall... Entitlement Abuse - Here, There, and Everywhere, By Lurita Doan
7/11/2011 - President Obama and other Democrat leaders in Washington are spending their time trying to figure out ways to continue expanding entitlement benefits. They tell us that these benefits are needed to provide a myriad of services to an ever-growing percentage of the population that could not make it on their own. Republicans, correctly, point out that the nation can no longer afford... read more

Townhall... Home and Away, By Mike Adams
7/11/2011 - Sending your children to college has become an increasingly unwise investment. Parents save all of their lives in order to send their children to institutions bent on turning them against their parents and, more specifically, their parent’s values. Those who think the indoctrination begins during the first semester of college are incorrect. It begins the summer before the first semester of college... read more

Townhall Finance... Green Projects Are Hogging Resources, By Bob Beauprez
7/10/11 - The environmental left has been relentless with their efforts to shape public policy and opinion in favor of renewable energy sources while waging all out war on the oil, natural gas, and coal industries. Over the last several decades, the radical left has convinced politicians as well as the voters to support vast amounts of taxpayer funded research, direct subsidies of green technology, and more recently mandated use of green energy sources... read more

Townhall... Oops I Forgot To Create Jobs: A Review Of Obamanomics, By Austin Hill
7/10/2011 - How seriously are we to take President Obama on economic matters? Is anybody still expecting him to “create jobs?” Since the early days of his presidential bid in 2007, many have marveled at Barack Obama’s dulcet-toned voice and charming demeanor, while applauding at every word he utters – including what he says about the economy and employment. Now, roughly two and a half years into his presidency, it is painfully apparent that mere charisma and smooth talk... read more

Townhall... Lack of Jobs Could Cost Obama His, By Salena Zito
7/10/2011 - Where are the jobs? Not the stimulus signs, not the rhetoric about “shovel-ready” economic voodoo, not the propping-up of an anemic manufacturing sector, but real jobs? Polls showed at the beginning of July that President Obama is in an increasingly hazardous position with voters when it comes to jobs and the economy. The McClatchy-Marist poll put his economic-approval favorable rating at just 37 percent of registered voters, and a Gallup poll found U.S. economic... read more

Townhall... Let the Good Times Commence, By Kathryn Lopez
7/9/2011 - Want a little wisdom? Given we’re a culture that tends to be self-help hungry, odds are that you and I aren’t hostile to a little good advice. Who would be? Well, May and June were months populated by commencement addresses. Some were memorable; some were political; some were self-indulgent. Some need to be reread now that the parties are over, internships are being settled into... read more

Townhall... Beware of Dr. Jihad, By Michelle Malkin
7/8/2011 - Splendid news: Our homeland security officials have sent fresh warnings to foreign governments that “human bombs” may try to board planes with surgically implanted explosives. The ticking terrorists are reportedly getting help from murder-minded Arab Muslim physicians trained in the West. Infidels beware: Dr. Jihad’s version of the health care oath omits the “no” in “Do no harm.” The death docs... read more

Townhall... It’s... Back! The Misery Index Rises Again, By Paul Greenberg
7/7/2011 - Remember the Misery Index? It tends to reappear whenever the economy exhibits a couple of unwelcome trends in unusual tandem: not just a high unemployment rate but more inflation, too. Talk about a double whammy. Add those two figures together and you get the Misery Index. So if you combine the current 9.1 unemployment rate with the 3.6 inflation rate, the rate of misery in the American economy is 12.7. The country hasn’t seen that kind of number in almost... read more

Townhall Finance... In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash, By Bill Tatro
7/8/11 - Traveling through the countryside recently, I had the opportunity to stop and fill-up for gas at an old fashioned country store. I meandered inside to pay my bill because the gas pump did not have a credit card slot. No problem, it was a hot summer day, time for some ice cream. I noticed a sign in front of the store that contained a message I had seen once before as a youth traveling south with my family. The sign read: IN GOD WE TRUST, ALL OTHERS PAY CASH... read more

Townhall... Brighter Days Still Ahead for the United States, By Rich Tucker
7/1/2011 - With the country mired in debt ($14.3 trillion and counting), entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security running out of money and unemployment seemingly stuck above 9 percent, some wonder if it’s twilight time for the United States. “I know why America is falling into a cataclysm of debt and can’t get out,” wrote Henry Allen, a former Pulitzer Prize winner, in The Washington Post on June 17. He blames, “a squalor of doom and debt that prompts the best sort of... read more

Townhall Finance... Obama’s Stimulus Waste: $7 million per House on Internet Access
By Bob Beauprez - 7/8/11 - In our blog post of July 5, 2011 we cited analysis of the recently release quarterly summary report of Barack Obama’s Stimulus that concluded the Administration spent $278,000 per job they claimed to have “saved or created” with the $666 billion the White House has spent thus far of the more than $800 billion authorized by the legislation approved in 2009. The Administration used... read more

Townhall... An Establishment in Panic, By Pat Buchanan
7/8/2011 - By refusing to accept tax increases in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, Republicans are behaving like “fanatics,” writes David Brooks of The New York Times. Anti-tax Republicans “have no sense of moral decency,” he adds. They are “willing to stain their nation’s honor” to “worship their idol.” If this “deal of the century” goes down, as he calls the Barack Obama offer... read more

Townhall... Just One More Thing, By Paul Greenberg
6/29/2011 - Editor’s Note: A tribute to Lt. Columbo for all the fans who miss him. Thomas Friedman was right. The world is flat, or at least it seemed so last week when the news came that Peter Falk, aka Columbo, had died at 83. For 30 of those years, he had regularly delighted television audiences as a not-as-dumb-as-he-looks detective. Every third week, he invariably caught the killer, who of course was depicted as the very soul of sophistication, and at the end of the show wound... read more

Ohio.com... Success in budgeting
July 7, 2011 - Making changes in the Medicaid program always is a delicate juggling act involving costs and the widely different needs of beneficiary groups and providers of health-care services. Reformers face the test that they not create new problems while trying to fix existing ones. It is a big credit to Gov. John Kasich, his Office of Health Transformation and the Republican-controlled legislature that the new state budget launches reforms that promise to improve the structure and... read more

Townhall... Goodbye, Washington, By Linda Chavez
7/8/2011 - After nearly 40 years in Washington, I’m leaving the nation’s capital pretty much as I found it when I arrived. The players have changed, but the problems haven’t. Richard Nixon occupied the White House then, and the United States was involved in a long and unpopular war and faced economic problems at home. In 1971, to combat nearly 6 percent inflation, and a trade and balance-of-payments deficit... read more

Townhall Finance... Retirement Without Work, By Carrie Schwab Pomerantz
7/5/11 - Dear Carrie: Can you put money in an IRA or a Roth IRA if you don’t have wage income? -- A Reader - Dear Reader: Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) were introduced in the mid-70s to help employees save for retirement and reduce their taxable income. So, it stands to reason that to make a contribution -- and get the tax benefit -- you’d need to have income from a job. And in fact, contributions to both... read more

Townhall Finance... Competition for Resources Between Young and Old, By Mike Shedlock
7/7/11 - America is beginning to show its age as the baby boom generation advances toward full-fledged senior-hood. But the pace of this aging will vary widely across the national landscape due to noticeable geographic shifts in the younger population, with implications for health care, transportation, and housing, and possible impacts upon our ability to forge societal consensus. An analysis of data from the 1990, 2000, and 2010 decennial censuses reveals that... read more

From Gov. Kasich... Wall Street Journal Editorial: The Buckeye Budget Lesson
Ohio cuts spending and taxes—and still balances the books. The reform-minded GOP Governors across the upper Midwest have sustained a lot of political damage lately, but at least they’re delivering on their campaign promises and will be judged on the results. The latest is Ohio’s John Kasich, who signed an ambitious budget late last week that will help the Buckeye State’s economy and finances. Mr. Kasich took office this year facing the largest deficit in Ohio history... read more

Human Events... A New Day in Politics, by John Stossel
06/29/2011 - Most Americans used to call themselves Republican or Democrat. These days, more call themselves independent. What does that mean for American politics? A lot. “Independents are everywhere, and they’re becoming the largest single voting bloc in the country,” Reason magazine Editor Matt Welch says. “ (T)hey can determine every national election and every ... election for state... read more

Daily Events… Thursdays with John Hayward... Government is force
06.30.11 - England is dealing with a massive public union strike today, “the first in what unions say will be a wave of action against steps by the British government that will cut the value of public sector pensions,” according to a Reuters report. Thousands of strikers have clogged busy intersections, while 85 percent of British schools will be fully or partially shut down. The same thing is happening in Greece, but... read more

Townhall... Federal Court affirms “human physical life” begins at conception, By Steven Aden
6/30/2011 - On Friday, June 24, a federal court temporarily suspended portions of Indiana’s House Bill 1210, which contained a provision aimed at defunding abortionist organizations, like Planned Parenthood, within the state. And although this suspension was disappointing, other aspects of the court’s decision were a boon for pro-life groups in Indiana and the whole nation. The reason is because the court upheld a key portion of the bill that requires women seeking abortions to be... read more

Townhall... Will the Kingdom Have a Candidate? By Lincoln Brown
7/7/11 - “A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!” - Richard The Third Act 5, scene 4 - Okay, so my kingdom is about an acre in size. And I live in the west, so chances are, I could find a horse if I really needed one. Hell out here people ride ‘em to the 7-11. In fact I can look out the window of my study and see several right now. And my neighbors are nice people, so if I needed to borrow a horse I’m sure they would accommodate me. But we don’t need a horse. We need a candidate... read more

Townhall Finance... American Farmers Still Deliver Bumper Crop, By Mike Shedlock
7/7/11 - Grain futures are sharply lower across the board as traders had positioned themselves for shortages because of Midwest flooding and increasing demand from emerging markets and China. Instead, corn stocks were 11 percent bigger than analysts expected and a bumper crop could be on the way according to the report. Please consider Grain markets plunge on US acres, stocks... read more

Townhall... President Nixon, er, Obama, By Mona Charen
7/1/201 - How many times have we heard awestruck references to Barack Obama’s history as a law professor? Many came from the man himself, as when he told a crowd at a 2007 fundraiser, “I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president, I actually respect the Constitution.” Does he? At his press conference on June 29, the president was asked whether he thought the War... read more

Townhall... Is Democracy Viable? By Thomas Sowell
6/29/2011 - The media have recently been so preoccupied with a Congressman’s photograph of himself in his underwear that there has been scant attention paid to the fact that Iran continues advancing toward creating a nuclear bomb, and nobody is doing anything that is likely to stop them. Nuclear weapons in the hands of the world’s leading sponsor of international terrorism might seem to be something... read more

Townhall... Bureaucratic Deception Vs. Economic Reality on Regulation, By Raymond J. Keating
6/29/2011 - President Obama recently touted his credentials as a job creator, highlighting the 49% increase in foreign investment experienced by the U.S. in 2010. Unfortunately, the $194 billion invested in the country by foreigners falls substantially short of the $328 billion figure seen in 2008. While a slight rebound in the economy has led to some increased investment, an uncertain business atmosphere continues to divert needed capital from the U.S. or simply keep it on... read more

Columbus Dispatch Editorial: Extreme demand
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - No survey needed to show that health-care law will worsen doctor shortage - The United States faces a daunting shortage of doctors, a problem that President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul would critically exacerbate as it seeks to provide 32 million additional people with health insurance. That total includes 16 million expected to sign up for Medicaid, the federal health-care program for the poor. Officials are recruiting “mystery shoppers” to... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer... Josh Mandel gets another national endorsement for U.S. Senate, By Stephen Koff
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel looks, acts and raises money like a Republican young-gun-style national candidate. Never mind that he said again last week that he is still deciding whether to run for the U.S. Senate. He put another notch in his candidate’s belt today with an endorsement from the Club for Growth PAC, the electioneering unit of an influential conservative policy group in Washington. Like Jim DeMint’s Senate... read more

Townhall… Democrats Need a 12-Step Recovery Program on Taxes
By Larry Kudlow - 7/5/11 - Here’s a question: Why is repealing the Bush tax cuts such a constant obsession for the Democratic Party? Especially the top rates for the most successful earners and small business entrepreneurs? It seems this is the Democratic answer for every single issue, every problem, every debate. This, of course, saddens me enormously. And so, always ready to help... read more

Human Events... The Future of Marriage, by John Hayward
06/27/2011 - New York legislates in favor of gay marriage. What’s next? The campaign to re-define marriage scored its biggest win in years last Friday night, when New York’s legislature voted to recognize same-sex marriages. As the New York Times notes, “New York is now the sixth and largest state in the country where gay couples will be able to wed legally; when the state’s law goes into effect... read more

Dick Morris... Obama Faces Angst on the Left, By Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
Published on DickMorris.com on June 28, 2011 - President Obama’s decision to begin to withdraw from Afghanistan reflects a deepening rift between his Administration and his former sycophants on the left. On a score of issues, the liberal community has begun to tire of their president. Indeed, at the Netroots Conference, liberal activists convened a panel on “What To Do If The President Is Just Not That Into You.” And liberals are getting the feeling that he is not... read more

Redstate... On Immorality, Posted by Erick Erickson
Tuesday, June 28th - The Democrats, in particular Joe Biden and Barack Obama, are out to make the moral case for tax increases. They claim the Republican position is immoral. This is what happens when we debase morality in our American political culture. For perspective, when Barack Obama was a state senator in Illinois, he was the only state senator to speak in opposition to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. He stood up and made the case that if an infant is born alive in the... read more

Redstate... The Immigration Policy of Absurdistan: Legal is Illegal; Illegal is Legal
Posted by Daniel Horowitz - Tuesday, June 28th - The ACLU and Obama are doing the jobs that Americans won’t do - Imagine for a moment that a pack of strangers – ranging from hooligans to plain homeless – illegally entered your home and started raiding the pantry, stealing your possessions, stuffing up the toilets, and sleeping on your bed. When you call the police to come down and remove them, you are told they cannot assist you because they lack the power to profile... read more

Townhall... Obama’s Economic Irrelevance, By Michael Gerson
6/27/2011 - WASHINGTON -- If there is a single moment that symbolizes President Obama’s dramatically altered re-election prospects, it was his visit to a Jeep plant in Toledo on June 3. Obama’s remarks that day were familiar. America had faced the worst recession “in our lifetimes.” His opponents had wanted to do “nothing.” The president, in contrast, had acted. As a result, “American... read more

Townhall... Wrong Marriage Debate Again, By Mona Charen
6/28/2011 - If only lower income heterosexuals were as keen to marry as some homosexuals, the United States would be a much stronger country. Supporters of gay marriage (most prominently The New York Times, which reported New York’s legalization of such unions last week with about as much hoopla as it did the Japanese surrender in 1945) are ecstatic. Actually, the first sentence of this column... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Buckeye bests
Friday, July 1, 2011 - Ohio gets bragging rights as Honda and Battelle lead pack in their fields - Gov. John Kasich, as he courts businesses to move to Ohio, can point to Honda and Battelle as examples of the Buckeye State’s innovative spirit and industrious work force. Battelle and the national laboratories it oversees won 19 of the R&D 100 Awards handed out this year, which are called the “Oscars of Innovation” for a good reason. R&D Magazine recognizes technologies that... read more

Redstate... The Drunk On The Beltway: Two Obama Tricks That Are Going To Clean Boehner’s Clock
Posted by Michael Hammond - Monday, June 27th - Watching House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell negotiate with Barack Obama is like watching a drunk try to run across the Beltway. Whether it’s ObamaCare, the financial reform bill, the Kagan nomination, the disastrous Lame Duck agenda, the Senate rules battle, the pathetic “continuing resolution deal,” or the current debt limit fight, you know both of them will end up as... read more

Townhall... A Question of Principle, By Ken Connor
6/26/2011 - In modern politics, the “single issue voter” gets a pretty bad rap. He is seen as unrealistic and intellectually myopic, a disservice to his party and, ultimately, his cause. Politics, after all, is about pragmatism; it is the art of the possible, and no thinking person allows themselves to be guided by their feelings on one single issue. Of course, this is pure bunk. Anyone with a basic grasp of the ideological identities that characterize modern American society know that... read more

Townhall.com’s Washington Beat, By Katie Pavlich
June 28, 2011 - In this edition of the Washington Beat, Steven Crowder shows us that middle class warfare doesn’t really exist. OBAMA’S $600 BILLION TAX INCREASE - President Obama finally decided to sort of show up to debt ceiling talks in Washington this week. What was his bright new idea? $600 billion in tax increases! Of course, the White House is framing their argument by calling their plan “new tax revenue.” The plan would end all subsidies to oil and gas companies... read more

Townhall... Big Government Gets Ugly, By Steve Chapman
6/26/2011 - It’s not unusual for the federal government to provoke widespread retching among its citizens, but it rarely does so intentionally. The new warning labels required on cigarette packs, however, have that goal. Designed to evoke disgust with smoking, they may also induce revulsion at excessive uses of power. The old cigarette warnings inform consumers of straightforward facts, such as... read more

Townhall... Clearing the Air, by Paul Driessen
6/25/2011 - Trying to correct all the disinformation about “mercury and air toxics” is a full-time job.
Ever since public, congressional and union anger and anxiety forced the Environmental Protection Agency to postpone action on its economy-strangling carbon dioxide rules, EPA has been on a take-no-prisoners crusade to impose other job-killing rules for electricity generating plants... read more

Youngstown Vindicator... GOP will flex redistricting muscle
Fri, July 1, 2011 - With Ohio moving its 2012 presidential primary to May, the Republican-controlled state Legislature will have more time to mess with the congressional redistricting lines to make it more difficult for Democrats to get elected to seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. But before that’s done, the Ohio Apportionment Board must redistrict the 99 state House and 33 state Senate seats with those lines taking effect in the 2012 election and used for the next decade... read more

Townhall... Transparency and totalitarianism, By Paul Jacob
6/27/2011 - The camera eye is not minatory. It is not, by itself, menacing, or evil. It merely aims, focuses, and (if the mechanisms behind it are sound) records. And yet, in some contexts, it seems alien, like the red orb of Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey, or invasive, like the public cameras all over Britain, and increasingly in these United States. Personally, I’ve never minded the cameras in 7-Eleven, or the uptown mall. I know they are recording my sauntering... read more

Canton Repository... Winner-take-all politics wins again
Jun 30, 2011 - The issue: Showdown on Senate Bill 5 - Our view: Up-or-down vote on collective bargaining won’t reflect Ohioans’ views - Thousands of opponents of Senate Bill 5 paraded through the streets of Columbus on Wednesday, accompanying a tractor-trailer rig that carried more than 1,500 boxes of petitions to the secretary of state’s office. You’d want to create a dramatic made-for-TV moment, too, if you had set a record for the number of signatures gathered... read more

Fridays with Erick Erickson... Hold the Line
06.24.11 - Last night, Eagle Publishing’s softball team held the line against the Heritage Foundation with a final score of 16-12. As much as I love the Heritage Foundation, the visiting team gave them a drubbing. Well done guys! On another matter of holding the line, there is a lot of handwringing out there about how to actually implement the Cut, Cap, and Balance Pledge—the new conservative pledge... read more

Townhall... The New Desperation of Team Obama, By Lurita Doan
6/27/2011 - Team Obama is looking more desperate these days. The signs of desperation are clearly visible—Obama playing to a half-packed house in Miami, Obama using increasingly shrill arguments that his job creation efforts are working, Geithner’s threats regarding the debt ceiling and the Democrat-influenced mainstream media’s increasing criticisms of the Republican slate of presidential primary... read more

Townhall... Ignore the mainstream media: Americans still believe in one man, one woman
By AWR Hawkins - 6/26/2011 - For years, the mainstream media has done their level best to make the redefinition of marriage seem inevitable. As if in concert, local, regional, and national outlets have published the results of poll after poll under headlines like “Majority of Americans Now Supports Same-Sex ‘Marriage,’” all in an attempt to silence opposition and create an atmosphere wherein they can finally see the fabrication of same-sex “marriage” achieved. But in order... read more

Townhall... Saving the Republic from Saving Itself, By Bill Tatro
6/30/11 - The further we get away from those fateful election of 2008, the more revisionist history takes hold. Most recently, I keep hearing how the choice for the next election is between the guy who saved us from the Great Depression Part II and everyone else who wants to take us back to the policies that created those problems. I’m told by people of all political persuasions that if the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, and the President hadn’t acted, I’d probably be in a bread line right now... read more

Townhall Finance... Where the Jobs Are, by Kathy Fettke
6/28/11 - Job growth may be weak across the nation, but several industries are poised to outperform the rest, according to data release from IBISWorld. “After compiling the list of fastest hiring industries, some trends were apparent,” explained IBISWorld industry analyst Justin Molavi. “Each industry on the list fell into one or more of five sectors: environmental preservation, construction, automotive, real estate and insurance.”... read more

Townhall... Disney Entrepreneurship: ‘Pure Awesome’ by Katie Kieffer
6/27/2011 - Apple pie. Baseball. And Disneyland? I never thought of visiting Disneyland as “All-American” recreation on par with watching a baseball game—beer in one hand, hot dog in the other. But, last week, I vacationed in California. Before I left, my friend insisted, “You have to go to Disneyland. It’s practically un-American not to go.” The first time I visited Disneyland I was... read more

Townhall... The Mother of All Movements, By Kathryn Lopez
6/24/2011 - SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Andrew was clearly taken with the woman. “She symbolizes so much, a resignation to His will, an utter awe and reverence for the beauty of life -- regardless the circumstance -- and she provides a voice for those without a voice.” The beauty got to him. Considering how often we can be attracted to that which is harmful to us, her pure loveliness seemed to offer protection and... read more

Townhall... Defunding Planned Parenthood One State at a Time, By Steven Aden
6/24/2011 - As the fight for life over death continues, the battlefield has shifted to the states, where legislatures realigned politically as a result of the November 2010 mid-term elections are doing yeoman’s work in the defense of innocents. This work consists in defunding the mammoth tax-payer funded abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. Three states prominently highlighted in this cause are Kansas, North Carolina, and Indiana—all of which have taken serious steps toward... read more

Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Historic achievement
7/1/11 - New state budget closes Ohio’s fiscal chasm and launches overdue reform - Ohio lawmakers have approved a budget that should set the state on a far better course for the future. It’s a two-year spending plan that erases an $8 billion deficit left by the Strickland administration, doing so without raising taxes, a campaign pledge by Gov. John Kasich that many doubted was possible. But it also is a transformational budget containing fundamental policy changes. Kasich is expected... read more

Townhall... The Over-Employed and the Mal-Employed, By Janet M. LaRue
6/24/2011 - Roughly 14 million people are formally labeled as unemployed, but “there’s probably 22 million to 23 million people who are unemployed, mal-employed or under-employed,” said Andrew Sum, an economics professor at Northeastern University in Boston, as reported by DailyCaller.com. The professor didn’t define “mal-employed,” but I’m thinking it includes the over-employed—those in full-time jobs way over their heads who screw up life for the rest... read more

Townhall... Don’t Know Much About History, By Suzanne Fields
6/24/2011 - First, the good news: The nation’s eighth-graders are doing better in history class. Now, the bad news: They’re not doing much better. Gains in test scores are small, made by the lowest performers, and only 17 percent of those tested are “proficient,” or competent. It gets worse. Only 12 percent of high-school seniors, who are getting ready to vote for the first time, have a proficient knowledge... read more

Townhall... The Reckless Folly of the “Undocumented Immigrant” by Michelle Malkin
6/24/2011 - With great fanfare and elite media sympathy, Jose Antonio Vargas publicly declared himself an “undocumented immigrant” this week. “Undocumented” my you-know-what. In the felony-friendly pages of The New York Crimes -- er, Times -- the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist turned illegal-alien activist spilled the beans on all the illegal IDs he amassed over the years. He had documents coming... read more

Redstate... Why Did Obama Open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Posted by Steve Maley
Sunday, June 26th - On Thursday, the Department of Energy announced a release of thirty million barrels of crude oil over the next 60 days from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the nation’s stockpile supposedly set aside for emergency supply disruptions. Washington, DC – U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that the U.S. and its partners in the International Energy Agency have decided to release a total of 60 million barrels of oil onto the world market over... read more

Townhall... Even Bedtime Stories Get Profane, by Brent Bozell
6/24/2011 - The mass-marketing of profanity just won’t stop. Now it’s topping the best-selling book list -- in children’s picture books. You might have heard by now that there’s a “subversive” little bedtime book for adults. It should not be read to children. It’s called “Go the F-- to Sleep.” Anyone who’s ever been up at 2 in the morning with a baby or toddler knows exactly the feeling that is being exploited here. “Total genius,” says the blurb on the front cover. Genius it is not. Anybody... read more

Foxnews... Obama’s Release of Oil Reserves Just Makes Our Energy Problems Worse, Not Better
By Sen. John Barrasso - June 24, 2011 - When President Obama said that America hopes to be Brazil’s best energy customer, Americans shook their head in confusion. Apparently, the White House didn’t understand or care about their concern. The administration repeated the exact same mistake this week when it irresponsibly released 30 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). On Thursday, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu explained that... read more

Townhall... Just When You Thought Our Fiscal Nightmare Couldn’t Get Any Worse, By David Limbaugh
6/24/2011 - I’ll make you a deal: I’ll quit accusing Democrats of obstructing spending and entitlement reform when they quit obstructing spending and entitlement reform. Now we even have the nonpartisan, sterile, unflappable Congressional Budget Office virtually predicting a “fiscal crisis,” yet the Democratic Senate hasn’t passed a budget for 785 days. There ought to be a law. At what point will we go into panic mode? Frankly, I can’t comprehend how people are so calm... read more

Townhall... Feds Crack Down on Campus Flirting and Sex Jokes, By Michael Barone
6/23/2011 - When I was growing up, it was widely believed that colleges and universities were the part of our society with the widest scope for free expression and free speech. In the conformist America of the 1950s, the thinking ran, few people dared to say anything that went beyond a broad consensus. But on campus, anyone could say anything he liked. Today, we live in an America with enormous... read more

Townhall... Big Media Suicide Compact, By Cal Thomas
6/23/2011 - Is there a profit-making business -- other than TV networks and The New York Times -- that so disrespects its audience it works overtime to offend them? What other business metaphorically flips the bird to those who don’t subscribe to their social, cultural and political worldview? That is precisely what big media does to a large number of potential viewers and subscribers. Three recent... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Half-cocked
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - Bill allowing most anyone to carry handguns almost anywhere is frightening - Can anyone seriously doubt any longer that the true agenda of the National Rifle Association and its willing servants in the General Assembly is not the defense of a reasonable, regulated right to own and use firearms, but the unfettered proliferation of guns everywhere in public life? Why gun-lobby supporters are so keen to see more weapons in more places is mysterious... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Meet in the middle
Friday, June 24, 2011 - Pensions need outside review, but that’s no reason to delay change - State legislators and heads of Ohio’s five public-employee pension systems are having a needless argument. Lawmakers say an independent consultant should review the pension plans to ensure that planned changes will make them fiscally sound, and the pension officials, who oppose the review, say they shouldn’t have to wait for a study to make needed changes to the plans... read more

Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: School districts are wise to start planning for merit-based teacher pay
School districts that are taking steps to develop merit-pay plans for teachers and administrators are wisely embracing a future that could include stronger staffs and more-effective schools. Though it’s unclear whether the 2012-13 state budget will require merit pay, it’s crystal-clear that education, as in every other important profession, needs a system to identify, reward and promote its best practitioners. The current system prevalent in American schools - steady pay increases based... read more

Townhall... The Brave New World of Media, By Robert Knight
6/23/2011 - When I was a reporter years ago in Ocean City, Maryland, I learned the hard way that freedom of the press can be expensive. In the dark days of winter, ad revenue was scarce. Both weekly papers lived to a great extent off the city’s legal ads. Our editorials regularly chided Mayor Harry Kelley, while our competitor paper remained mayor-friendly. So when Kelley got teed off, he yanked our legal ads but not theirs. I can still recall racing with our staff to the local bank before... read more

Townhall... Another Texas Republican for President? By Steve Chapman
6/23/2011 - The Republican presidential field looks less like an assemblage of candidates than a collection of fatal mistakes and irreparable flaws, with occasional embodiments of one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins. Mitt Romney? A flip-flopper who inspired Obamacare. Tim Pawlenty? A too-bashful critic of Romneycare, with a sleepy persona. Newt Gingrich? Serial adultery and terminal hubris... read more

Townhall... Who’ll Volunteer to Save the Socialists? By Rachel Marsden
6/21/2011 - As a free-market, limited-government conservative, I find the total implosion of the Greek economy to be the most stunning example of everything I’ve ever tried to warn about in regard to socialism. Despite the rest of Europe and the International Monetary Fund promising last year to give Greece 110 billion euros over three years, the country remains in a death spiral, with its budget deficit at about... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Broken pledge
More Ohioans are smoking. It’s no surprise why - June 24, 2011 - The federal Food and Drug Administration this week stepped up the fight against smoking, slapping on cigarette packs graphic pictures of the health damage, from breathing disorders to cancers, that results from tobacco use. The high cost of treating smoking-related diseases, the rationale goes, warrants the strongest warnings possible to prevent tobacco use and to help smokers quit. Ohio made the same case... read more

Wall Street Journal... Democrats and Dying Cities, By William McGurn
6/28/11 - What South Bend tells us about the 2012 election. South Bend, Ind. Folks get a mite touchy when someone declares their hometown dead. So when Newsweek earlier this year ranked this Hoosier town in its top 10 list of dying American cities, the mayor huffed and puffed about the criteria and complained that the magazine relied on preliminary census estimates for its conclusion. When the actual census figures came out a few weeks later, it turned out that the population drop... read more

Toledo Blade... House OK of bill may doom Raceway Park, By Jim Provance
COLUMBUS -- The Ohio House Thursday gave Penn National Gaming, Inc., the green light to ask state regulators to move its Raceway Park racetrack license to the Youngstown area. The bill doesn’t specifically mention Penn or its Toledo racetrack, but Rep. Matt Szollosi (D., Oregon) said there’s “very little doubt’’ who the target is. Penn has already told the racing commission that, if racetrack slot machines become reality, it will seek permission to relocate Raceway Park... read more

Townhall... The Presidential Race Made Easy, By Emmett Tyrrell
6/23/2011 - WASHINGTON -- In the weeks ahead, I shall be in Europe to speak on American politics. What will I say to old Europe? Well, I shall give them my broad view of American politics and end with the present election cycle, in which I believe Barack Obama will be retired to private life, though he cannot really conceive of private life. He will continue his public life as he has for all his adult life. That is how Democrats live. He will be a community organizer to the world, as Bill Clinton... read more

Townhall... Obama’s Audacity of Hype, By Ken Blackwell
6/21/2011 - President Obama got a good laugh from his liberal audience at the nationally televised meeting of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. At least all those who joined in the laughter there had jobs.
‘Shovel-ready was not as . . . uh . . . shovel-ready as we expected,” the president jibed. He certainly seemed to be a good sport about it all. One half expected the Daily Show’s puckish Jon Stewart to chime in: “Maybe you better not quit your day job, dude!” There’s a real problem when the... read more

Human Events... White House Insists Campaign Against Children’s Cereal Is Voluntary
by John Gizzi - 06/22/2011 - After spelling out the latest government offensive against cigarettes—including warning labels featuring graphic pictures of the negative side of smoking—two top administration officials backed off from suggestions that the same heavy hand of government would be applied to makers of cereals, chocolate bars and other foods favored by children. Both Health and Human Services... read more

Townhall.com... Washington Beat, By Katie Pavlich
June 21, 2011 - HUNTSMAN IN, PERRY CIRCLING - Jon Huntsman is the latest man to join the ever-expanding GOP presidential field as he announced his bid for the White House in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty this week. Huntsman worked as an ambassador to China for the Obama Administration and supports cap and trade. In his announcement speech, Huntsman avoided attacking President Obama by name and focused on providing solutions to deal with the national debt... read more

Redstate... Silence of the Lambs, Posted by Erick Erickson
Tuesday, June 21 - Yesterday, I called on conservatives and conservative organizations to actually dare to retaliate against Republican members of Congress who refuse to cut, cap, and balance before raising the debt ceiling. If any Republican dares to raise the debt ceiling without first ensuring (1) cuts in the budget; (2) caps in spending; and (3) the Lee-Cornyn-Hatch Balanced Budget Amendment makes it out to the states, conservatives must agree to at least attempt... read more

Townhall... Money, Money, Money, By Jackie Gingrich Cushman
6/23/2011 - Dr. Carl J. Arnold taught the money and banking class at Presbyterian College when I was a student there. I can still picture him in 1986: dark, crewcut hair; pressed khaki pants; white, short-sleeved, buttoned-down shirt; dark, plastic-framed glasses; and a pocket protector. Ok, maybe he didn’t wear a pocket protector. In any event, he should have worn one if he didn’t. Dr. Arnold was known for being tough. Before taking his class, I had thought that multiple... read more

Redstate... Senate Plans to Abdicate its Confirmation Duties
Tuesday, June 21 - The Obama Czars will trump the constitution. Posted by Daniel Horowitz - In recent years, the job of United States Senator has evidently been added to the list of ‘jobs that Americans won’t do.’ Harry Reid’s Senate has categorically shirked its core constitutional responsibility by refusing to pass a budget for over two years. Concurrently, the Senate has been preoccupied with feckless, unconstitutional legislation that fails to deal with any of the paramount public... read more

Human Events... The Dumbing-Down of America, by Patrick J. Buchanan
06/21/2011 - “Is our children learning?” as George W. Bush so famously asked. Well, no, they is not learning, especially the history of their country, the school subject at which America’s young perform at their worst. On history tests given to 31,000 pupils by the National Assessment of Education Progress, the “Nation’s Report Card,” most fourth-graders could not identify a picture of Abraham Lincoln or a... read more

Human Events... Obama’s Food Police in Staggering Crackdown on Market to Kids
by Audrey Hudson - 06/21/2011 - Tony the Tiger, some NASCAR drivers and cookie-selling Girl Scouts will be out of a job unless grocery manufacturers agree to reinvent a vast array of their products to satisfy the Obama administration’s food police. Either retool the recipes to contain certain levels of sugar, sodium and fats, or no more advertising and marketing to tots and teenagers, say several federal regulatory... read more

Townhall Finance... Government Needs a Low-Obama Diet, By John Ransom
6/24/11 - When it’s gotten to the point that advertisers won’t be able to market milk to kids because of restrictions placed on them by the Obama administration, you know we’ve met more than just a crisis of confidence in the country. New regulations proposed by Obama’s FTC would prohibit putting a kid’s favorite athlete on a carton of whole or 2% milk within the next four years. Every day, people go to work across the country and try to figure out how to sell more products so they can... read more

Townhall... 10 Ways Conservatives Should Give Liberals Exactly What They Say They Want
By John Hawkins - 6/22/2011 - There’s way too much fussin’ and fightin’ in politics, isn’t there? In Rodney King’s immortal words, “I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?” CAN WE all get along, folks? Can we conservatives cooperate and show just a little bit more of that unity that our valiant President, Barack Obama, promised us all back in 2008? Many of you reading this column are undoubtedly saying, “No, we can’t afford to cooperate with the Left! When liberals say... read more

Townhall... Energy Independence, Jobs Within Reach, by Matt Barber
6/20/2011 - This article was coauthored by Jared Barber - Fuel prices got you down? Need a job? Well, prepare to unlearn everything you’ve learned about domestic energy production. Don’t ever let another green “warmer” tell you, “We can’t drill our way out of this mess.” That’s a lie. Contrary to environmentalist talking points, we know that by conservative estimates, the United States enjoys three times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Additionally, we have enough natural gas reserves... read more

Townhall... How Entrepreneurship Benefits Animals, By Katie Kieffer
6/20/2011 - I’m going out on a limb with the koalas to say that entrepreneurs are better caretakers of animals and endangered species than politicians who call themselves environmentalists. Last month, the journal Nature published a study showing that mathematical models for determining species extinction are unreliable and may be leading us to overestimate extinction probabilities by up to 160 percent... read more

Townhall... Government Looks to Past, Free Enterprise to Future, By Michael Barone
6/20/2011 - Two years ago, in June 2009, the American economy emerged from recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. But as this week’s Economist noted, with typical British understatement, “The recovery has been a disappointment.” And maybe not a recovery for long. Robert Shiller, the economist who first identified the housing bubble, said last week that we may be headed for... read more

Townhall... Normalizing Deviance, By Cal Thomas
6/21/2011 - In the aftermath of the exposure and resignation of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) from Congress, his colleagues, some journalists, ethicists and pundits are trying to sort out what it means. Has a new standard been created in Washington? How can Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) remain in office under an ethical cloud about money and Weiner be forced to resign because he had fantasy sex? It wasn’t even “real” sex, like Bill Clinton had. Clinton also lied about sex and was impeached... read more

Redstate... One Network, Under Secular Elitism, Posted by hogan
Sunday, June 19th - UPDATE, NBC “Apologizes” (Fairly pathetic one I might add - notice what is missing from the “apology?”): The NBC crew (I believe it was Dan Hicks) just announced that “We began our coverage of this final round just about 3 hours ago, and when we did, it was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open Championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation’s capital for the third time - regrettably a portion... read more

Townhall... Who cares about American history? By Jeff Jacoby
6/20/2011 - WHEN THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION last week released the results of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress -- “the Nation’s Report Card” -- the bottom line was depressingly predictable: Not even a quarter of American students is proficient in US history, and the percentage declines as students grow older. Only 20 percent of 6th graders, 17 percent of 8th graders, and 12 percent of high school seniors demonstrate a solid grasp on their nation’s... read more

Townhall... Citizens Not Politicians Make America Great, By Terry Paulson
6/20/2011 - What makes America great? It’s not our politicians; it’s our people. A government can only be as good as the people it governs. America has always been blessed by people who have balanced a commitment to personal responsibility with a shared commitment to the commons. It’s all too tempting to focus on the devastation of the recent series of tornadoes that ripped apart cities from... read more

Foxnews... Obama as Dad -- A National Treasure and Role Model, By Juan Williams
Published June 19, 2011 - Last week the First Husband and First Daddy, better known as President Obama, was asked if losing next year’s election would devastate him. “I’m sure there are days when I say one term is enough,” he told The Today Show. “Michelle and the kids are wonderful in that if I said ‘You know what guys I want to do something different,’ they would be fine. They are not invested... read more

Foxnews... Connecticut Teens Can Get an Abortion But Can’t Get a Tan? By Kristi Stone Hamrick
Published June 20, 2011 - A bill that would have required parental approval to allow teenagers to go to a tanning parlor died when it came into conflict with an amendment that would require parental notification for abortions. Apparently judging that to be a toxic combination, the Democratically controlled Senate refused to bring the measure forward. It occurred to Connecticut State Sen. Michael McLachlan, (R-Danbury), that it was just as important to have parental involvement in... read more

Dayton Daily News... Paul Leonard: Consolidating government inevitable, so let’s plan for it
Monday, June 20, 2011 - This commentary was written by Paul R. Leonard, a former Ohio lieutenant governor and mayor of Dayton. He was chair of the State and Local Government Commission during his tenure as lieutenant governor. I admit it. I am a “regionalist.” But not because I think regional government will result in a more efficient government. Quite the contrary. If and when Greater Dayton adopts some form of regional government, public officials will have to work like... read more

Redstate... Another Charming Aspect of the ObamaCare Minefield, Posted by Repair_Man_Jack
Thursday, June 16th - Beginning January 1, 2013, ObamaCare imposes a 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income, including the sale of single family homes, townhouses, co-ops, condominiums, and even rental income. - Congressman Jeb Hensarling. (GOP.gov)... I would like to praise our President for his political courage and honesty. While running for office, Barack Obama flat-out told Joe the Plumber he intended to spread the wealth. I think he sincerely believes that... read more

Townhall... A Failure to Communicate, By Salena Zito
6/19/2011 - DETROIT – Elaine Holder fussed over her elderly parents while waiting for a flight home to New Philadelphia, Ohio. “We just returned from a funeral,” said Holder, who appears to be in her 50s, “but it was a good thing. “I was one of eight children, one of 32 grandchildren. There were cousins and grandchildren and nieces and nephews who never laid eyes on each other, all seeing each... read more

Foxnews... Just ‘Go the F*** to Sleep’ -- When Did We Become So Crude? By Eric Metaxas
June 17, 2011 - I’m the author of several books, including children’s books. But my latest children’s book -- a gorgeously illustrated lullaby titled “It’s Time to Sleep, My Love’ -- was recently parodied by someone... The parody is a #1 bestseller, and the title is, umm... “Go the F*** to Sleep.” Sorry, but I’m not joking. Perhaps you’ve seen it? It’s been hard to miss. It’s all a bit bizarre, especially because the author... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Ohio Republicans go off the rails
Sunday, June 19, 2011 - Republican state legislators’ Trash Ohio plan is moving along smartly, given two lunatic votes Wednesday (joined in by a few Democrats who evidently think the word principle is just a typo for someone who leads a school). The Senate, run 23-10 by Republicans, gave its final approval to a House-passed bill that’ll allow oil and gas drilling in state parks. The only Republican to vote no was Sen. Timothy Grendell of Chesterland, who - give Mr. Weathervane... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Fiscal prudence, please
Sunday, June 19, 2011 - Additional state revenues should be used to pay debt, rebuild rainy-day fund - Remember when Ohio had a rainy-day fund of more than $1 billion? A lot has changed since then - mostly for the worse, in terms of the state’s economy and financial management. After the debacle of the 2010-11 state budget, the fund stands at $1.78 - as in, less than two dollar bills - and former Gov. Ted Strickland and the politically divided legislature still couldn’t produce that budget... read more

Toledo Blade... Reform Ohio’s tax system, By Matt Mayer, John Begala, and Lavea Brachman
6/21/11 - Our three groups often take different approaches to addressing the challenges that face Ohio. Yet we have joined forces over the issues of tax expenditures — exemptions, deductions, credits, and exclusions — and tax reform. We propose bringing common sense to our state’s tax system. Three specific changes would contribute to substantial improvements in Ohio’s tax climate. First, we urge the repeal of specific tax expenditures in the 2012-13 budget that takes... read more

Townhall... Why Bill O’Reilly & Rachel Maddow Are Both Wrong! By Kevin McCullough
6/17/2011 - Playing the blame game with Anthony Weiner this week became wildly popular. Once the Congressman refused to stick it out any longer, punditry tried to erect a whole series of straw man reasons, both for blame or justification, arguing that Weiner was treated with a double standard. Viewing Weiner’s resignation as either unnecessary or unjust, the opinion class claimed that he... read more

Townhall... The 11th Commandment is Alive and Well, by Michael Reagan
6/17/2011 - They stood up there on the stage, shoulder to shoulder, and voiced their opinions freely, often disagreeing with each other over the various details, but they did it like the gentlemen and lady that they are; attacking positions on the issues without attacking each other. My dad, Ronald Reagan, would have been proud to see them strictly observe his 11th Commandment -- that Republicans shall not... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer... Busybody Senate’s budget busts home rule: editorial
Saturday, June 18, 2011 - Tucked into the Senate-passed version of Ohio’s proposed budget is yet another assault on municipal home rule in Cleveland and all Ohio cities and villages. A Senate-House conference committee must delete that and other nonbudget riders before conferees clear the budget for final passage. At issue is the city’s Healthy Cleveland plan. The Plain Dealer’s Reginald Fields reported from Columbus that GOP senators -- at the last minute... read more

Toledo Blade... Columbus’ priorities
Ohio lawmakers are working out the small differences in the budget bills passed by the state House and Senate. But the key themes of the two-year budget that the General Assembly will approve and Gov. John Kasich will sign by the end of the month are already distressingly clear. It’s a budget whose idea of “shared sacrifice” is slashing support of essential public services on which middle and working-class and low-income Ohio families rely, while giving preferential tax... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Get merit pay right
Sunday, Jun 19, 2011 - Better to take care changing the way teachers are paid than rushing a new program through the state budget - There’s no doubting the strong support in the Statehouse to enact a teacher merit pay system in Ohio. Witness the various pay-for-performance provisions included in Senate Bill 5 on collective bargaining, in Gov. John Kasich’s budget plan and in the House version. The Senate pulled the merit pay language from its budget bill. As William... read more

Townhall... More Regulations Are Not a Plan for Job Creation, By James Lankford
6/16/2011 - There must be something in the water coolers on the other side of the aisle. Earlier this year, at an Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing concerning reducing regulations, a Democrat colleague expressed his “concern” over reducing the regulation on business and stated boldly that increased regulation on businesses creates jobs in America. According to his logic, more regulation... read more

Townhall... A New Paradigm for the Left? By David Limbaugh
6/17/2011 - If you compare the Carter malaise with the Obama debt doomsday machine, any GOP 2012 presidential candidate should sail to victory with greater facility than Ronald Reagan did in 1980. But will she or he? I am optimistic but also believe that in making his economic case, the Republican candidate will have different challenges because of the ongoing growth of our welfare state... read more

Redstate... Barack Obama Thinks an ATM Ate Your Job - Posted by Erick Erickson
Wednesday, June 15th - Yesterday, Barack Obama gave away the game. Without actually using the words, Barack Obama admitted he is completely and utterly ignorant about job creation and economics. In an interview with the Today Show, Barack Obama declared that the unemployment rate remains so high because of ATMS. Sadly, many people will agree with him because they lack the vision to see the whole picture. They see less bank tellers and more ATMs... read more

Redstate... Dozens of Republicans Vote for Handouts to Big Labor, Posted by Daniel Horowitz
Tuesday, June 14th - Big Labor GOPers supporting Obama’s administrative power grabs, crony capitalism, wage controls, and fleecing of taxpayer. Yesterday, the House passed the largely non-controversial Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations (MilCon) bill for FY 2012. Unfortunately, it is these non-controversial bills which provide a safe haven for meretricious policy initiatives through the rapid fire amendment process. While everyone was... read more

Townhall... Indoctrination Fridays: California Federation of Teachers Works Unionizing Propaganda into Curriculum, By Kyle Olson - 6/17/2011 - The California Federation of Teachers thinks it’s important for kids to learn how to run a business. I come from a small business family, so I’m cool with that. The curriculum immediately starts off on the wrong foot, though, because it’s not from the perspective of an entrepreneur, but rather a disgruntled employee. A “Labor Studies Curriculum for Elementary Schools,” entitled “The Yummy Pizza Company,” takes up to 20 classroom hours over... read more

Redstate... Agriculture Appropriations Bill Update, Posted by Daniel Horowitz
Wednesday, June 15th - There are some jobs that should be eliminated, even without the help of Obama’s ATM. Today, the House is debating the annual Agriculture Appropriations bill, which appropriates funds for the Department of Agriculture and similar agencies. The committee-passed bill provides a spending level of $17.25 billion, which is $2.7 billion less than FY 2011 appropriations. While $2.7 billion is a good start - enough to invoke the most vile class warfare... read more

Redstate... Operation Fast and Furious’ fast and furious unraveling, Posted by Moe Lane
Wednesday, June 15th - So. Somebody in the Obama administration is telling lies to the House Oversight/Government Reform Committee. That’s not smart. When people tell lies to House committees, people go to jail. Background on this: this is all about the BATF/Justice Department Operations Gunrunner and Fast & Furious, which were originally purported to be methods by which [illegal purchases of] guns could be detected and arrested*. However, they instead turned into... read more

Townhall... What Teachers Unions Won’t Tell You About School Layoffs, By Kyle Olson
6/16/2011 - The media and education establishment’s hair has been on fire over the thousands of layoffs that are occurring in American public schools. They’ve bought into the union line that school funding is in crisis, when in reality, spending is unsustainable. Because of collective bargaining agreements, many school districts’ hands are tied and layoffs are the only option. They can’t save money by changing employee health insurance policies, or obtaining salary... read more

Human Events... ATM a tool of prosperity, John Hayward
06.16.11 - Earlier this week, President Obama attempted to blame high unemployment on automation, specifically the rising popularity of ATMs and airline ticketing kiosks. The idea is that such machines wipe out jobs by making human bank tellers and ticket counter attendants obsolete. In reality, such machines are among the tools that help us realize a level of wealth beyond the dreams of our forefathers... read more

Human Events... Romney in Front as Feisty Bachmann Gains on Pawlenty
by Michael Barone - 06/16/2011 - Barack Obama did not watch the Republican presidential candidates’ debate in Manchester, N.H., on Monday night, we are told. He was busy addressing a campaign fundraising event in Miami. If Obama had Tivoed the debate, he would have seen a full crowd in the glitzy cavernous hall in St. Anselm’s College. Something of a contrast to the empty seats at the top level of the... read more

Townhall... Blood On Their Hands: Giving Guns to Criminals Was the Plan All Along
By Katie Pavlich - 6/15/2011 - “Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.” –Special Agent John Dodson ATF Phoenix Field Division. Damning new evidence from Capitol Hill shows that ATF Directors and Justice Department Officials knew about and encouraged the purposeful trafficking of thousands of weapons across the southern border, despite strong objections from ATF agents. Thousands of innocent lives were... read more

Townhall... The Obama Job Lies Pile Up, By John Ransom
6/19/11 - This is all you need to know about Obama’s economic program to understand why joblessness remains so persistent: The number one recommendation that the White House economic team and his jobs council – a council made up of the two top executives at GE and American Express- can come up with to jump start our economy is spending $2 billion on remedial training for our high school graduates. It’s true. This is even worse than the energy plan that Obama proposed... read more

Townhall... Our Reactionary President, By Victor Davis Hanson
6/16/2011 - Barack Obama is the most reactionary president in the recent history of the United States. Obama seems intent on turning back the clock to the good old days of the 1960s and 1970s, when rigid political orthodoxy, not an open mind, once guided government. Take the economy. The 1980s implosion of communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union proved that state control of the means of production guaranteed poverty and worse. The current insolvent... read more

Townhall... The Law and Civil Liberties, By Cal Thomas
6/16/2011 - I bet you didn’t know that federal law enforcement officers representing the Department of Education (DOE) can break down your front door if you are suspected of violating the law. I was not aware of this until I heard what happened to Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif. On June 7, at 6 a.m., Wright was awakened by a knock on his door. According to his account, he came downstairs in his boxer shorts... read more

Human Events... The Money Hole, by John Stossel
06/15/2011 - America is falling deeper into debt. We’re long past the point where drastic action is needed. We’re near Greek levels of debt. What’s going to happen? Maybe riots -- like we’ve seen in Greece? We need to make cuts now. Some governors have shown the way. You know about Chris Christie, Scott Walker, Rick Scott, John Kasich, etc. But you probably don’t know about Luis Fortuno. Fortuno is governor... read more

msn.money... The coming global financial crisis, By Jim Jubak
6/13/2011 - Politicians in the US, China and Europe are all postponing tough financial decisions until after next year’s elections. But in 2013, we’ll have to face the (bigger) problems. Politics virtually guarantee that the global economy won’t go into crisis in 2011. Politics make it extremely unlikely that the global economy will slow down as much as the market seems to fear. Politics, in fact, put a safety net under the global economy this year. And politics also virtually guarantee another... read more

Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Don’t miss the chance
Governor, lawmakers should make historic changes to benefit Ohio - Sunday, June 12, 2011 - When the Ohio House and Senate have finished harmonizing the differences between their budget bills, the finished product should maintain the governor’s $427 million cut in nursing-home funding and include an effective reform of the rules governing public contracting, as well as a system for rewarding teachers based on merit. State agencies and local governments, along with universities... read more

Townhall.com’s Washington Beat, By Katie Pavlich
June 14, 2011 - In this edition of the Washington Beat, Benny Johnson of Accuracy in Media gives us a humorous and historical look at politicians’ bad behavior. OBAMA LAUGHING ABOUT $1 TRILLION DOWN THE DRAIN - President Obama, coming off of a terrible month full of depressing economic news and a jump in unemployment to 9.1 percent, decided it would be a good idea to joke about the situation after playing his 72nd round of golf over the weekend. When discussing the... read more

Townhall... ‘Generation Opportunity’ Targets Coveted Demographic on Economic Issues
By Elisabeth Meinecke - 6/15/2011 - When you talk in Facebook statistics, you’re speaking the language of a young demographic. That’s what the new nonprofit Generation Opportunity aims to do, and it’s telling that organization President Paul T. Conway, former chief of staff for the United States Department of Labor under Elaine Chao, includes in his pitch for the new group that it already has... read more

Redstate... SEIU On California’s Conservatives: ‘If we can’t get them out, we’ll breed them out.’
Posted by LaborUnionReport - Saturday, June 11th - There is a scene in the movie Braveheart in which King Edward I (Longshanks) laments that there are too many Scots. His solution is to declare reinstatement of the old practice of primae noctis, which is to allow his nobles to have the right to take the Scots’ newlywed wives to their beds on their wedding night. Upon declaring primae noctis, Longshanks states (in obvious reference to impregnating the Scots’ brides), “If we can’t get them... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer... Mayors want Kasich budget reforms restored
Saturday, June 11, 2011 - Mayors and city managers in Northeast Ohio greatly appreciate the efforts by The Plain Dealer to call attention to the impact of proposed cuts to local communities by state legislators. While we acknowledge the difficulties the state’s budget crisis has created, local governments are fighting a similar battle with our own budgets. That is why we are asking the General Assembly to restore many of the reforms proposed by Gov. John Kasich in the... read more

Townhall Finance... Tax Cut Talk Shows Obama Desperation, By John Ransom
6/14/11 - Six weeks of stock market losses, poor jobs data, high prices in food and energy have the Obama administration casting about for policy methods by which they can get the economy going again. As I predicted, on June 2nd in Obama’s Nuclear Option on Economy, they’ve become so desperate that they are even considering tax cuts on evil corporations. Since previous methods to gin up the economy are off the table, such as more stimulus spending and another round of... read more

Townhall... Our Moral Dilemma, By Walter E. Williams
6/15/2011 - Most of our nation’s problems are a direct result of our being immune, hostile or indifferent to several moral questions. Let’s start out with the simple and move to the more complex. Or, stated another way, let’s begin with questions that generate the least hostility, moving to those that generate the greatest. If a person benefits from a hamburger, a suit of clothing, an apartment or an education... read more

Townhall... Will the Buck Ever Stop on Obama’s Desk? By David Limbaugh
6/14/2011 - If I’d heard the following words, instead of reading them, I might have assumed they were being delivered by a President Obama impressionist on “Saturday Night Live.” But the words were from Obama himself in his latest weekly radio address. “I wish I could tell you there was a quick fix to our economic problems,” he said. “But the truth is we didn’t get into this mess overnight, and we won’t get... read more

Townhall... Rejecting American Pessimism, By Mike Needham
6/13/2011 - Well, that didn’t take long. Less than one month after Osama bin Laden’s demise, President Obama’s poll numbers dropped back below 50%. According to a Washington Post / ABC poll, the bin Laden bounce is gone, replaced by growing concern over the state of America’s economy. This is not merely a political challenge, but a challenge for our nation. President Obama and his big-government allies are creating a liberal welfare state where government dependency is a way... read more

Townhall... Catastrophic Wildfires? Thank the Greenies and Forest Service, By Katie Pavlich
6/11/2011 - Arizona is burning and the Forest Service, pressured by green environmental groups are to blame for their massive, uncontrollable devastation. The Wallow fire, raging in eastern Arizona near Alpine, Nutrioso and Springerville has burned 408,887 acres, over 600 square miles and is the second largest fire the state has ever seen. The largest in Arizona history was the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire, which burned 468,638 acres or 732 square miles of Ponderosa Pine forest... read more

Dick Morris... The Debate Inside the Republican Debate
Published on DickMorris.com on June 13, 2011 - Posted 6/15/11 - To help understand the debate (June 13), let’s review the debates within the debate that will be taking place: The Tea Party Debate: Bachmann vs. Cain - Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain are rivals for the affection of Tea Party and evangelical voters. Each boasts a charismatic style and a focus on hot button issues. They will vie for the support of the GOP grass... read more

Townhall... The End of a Surprisingly Good Political Career, by Michael Barone
06/13/2011 - Exit Newt Gingrich. Well, not quite yet, officially. On his Facebook page, Gingrich says he will endure “the rigors of campaigning for public office” and “will carry the message of American renewal to every part of this great land, whatever it takes.” Without, however, the assistance of his 16 top campaign aides, some of whom had been with him for years, who resigned en masse last Thursday... read more

Townhall... Fear Not, Buy an iPad, By Katie Kieffer
6/13/2011 - If Steve Jobs’ name were Lindsay Lohan and he were looking for work starring as the wife of John Gotti Jr. in a mobster film, confrontation with the law would be the best thing that ever happened to Apple.
We all know Lohan can serve jail time and then spend weeks defending herself in court on new charges only to walk away flashing an ankle monitoring bracelet above her five-inch heels and... read more

Townhall... What Kind of a Country Do You Want? By Bill O’Reilly
6/11/2011 - Throughout the ages, Robin Hood has carried a very positive image: a dashing hero who steals from a corrupt kingdom and distributes the loot to the poor. Errol Flynn was among the first to bring Robin to life in the movies, and more recently, Russell Crowe advanced the legend. President Obama, I believe, sees himself as the noble Robin. Certainly, his tax-the-rich mantra and health care giveaways demonstrate a strong desire to redistribute income from the affluent to the poor in... read more

Reason... The Ends Didn’t Justify the Means, By Matt Welch
From the July 2011 issue - Our complicity in the devastating war on crime - At the first presidential debate of the 2012 campaign, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson implored Republican voters to conduct a “cost-benefit analysis” of the criminal justice system. “Half of what we spend on law enforcement, the courts, and the prisons is drug related, and to what end?” Johnson asked a South Carolina audience in May. “We’re arresting 1.8 million a year in this country; we now have... read more

Townhall... States: “Help Us, Criminal Illegals Swamp Budgets, Prisons”, By John Ransom
The General Accounting Office estimates that as of 2009 there were currently about 350,000 criminal aliens in U.S. prisons, “the majority from Mexico.” At $30,000 per year, per inmate, that’s $11 billion annually, with most of the costs born by the states. While not all of the criminal aliens are here illegally, criminal illegals are putting a strain on budgets, especially in the states with large illegal immigration populations such as Arizona, Colorado, California, Florida, New York, and... read more

Townhall... Missing The News, By Hugh Hewitt
6/10/2011 - Two enormous stories are waiting for the MSM when it recovers from the Weiner implosion. One concerns domestic policy and the other foreign. “Fast and Furious” is the name given to a Department of Justice/Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms investigation into gun running into Mexico. The Feds decided to try and tag and follow heavy weaponry into Mexico with the idea of charting... read more

Townhall... Concerns Over Illegal Immigration Becoming Mainstream, By Rachel Alexander
6/9/2011 - Once upon a time opposition to illegal immigration was championed by a few special interest groups and outspoken leaders like Tom Tancredo and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Not so anymore. Regular sheriffs like Arizona’s Paul Babeu of Pinal County and Larry Dever of Cochise County are speaking up loudly about their frustrations dealing with it. The Obama administration gets credit for mainstreaming the... read more

Redstate... Unapologetic Public School Officials Turning Children Into Good Little Comrades
Posted by LaborUnionReport - Thursday, June 9th - For decades, even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, stories of collectivist indoctrination of children to be “good” members of Soviet society had been reported. Vladimir Lenin, who stated, “Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever,” knew that indoctrination was the key to having a uniformly obedient collectivist society. His successor, Josef Stalin, was even more blunt (and brutal) in his... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Punishing talent
Sunday, June 5, 2011 - Seniority rules hobble schools in making best staffing decisions - Look no further than Pickerington Local Schools to see what is wrong with seniority as the primary driver of staffing decisions in public schools: When budgets have to be cut, principals can’t preserve the best staff. They have to preserve the longest-serving staffers, and those might not be the same people. Of the 14 “teacher of the year” winners for 2010-11 in the Pickerington district, five are... read more

Townhall... 3rd Graders Indoctrinated in School Budgeting by Milwaukee Teacher, By Kyle Olson
6/10/2011 - I was seeing red this morning when I read this first-person account of 3rd grade socialist indoctrination in Millwaukee Public Schools. It came from Dale Weiss, an MPS teacher and devoted radical. “The process of addressing budget cuts with my students taught me an incredible amount,” Weiss recently wrote. “I learned that laying a social justice foundation for young students is a complex process. I learned when issues are addressed, they need to be revisited many, many times... read more

Townhall... Obama’s Dilemma -- and Ours, By Pat Buchanan
6/10/2011 - Seventy-one years ago this spring, after the German army had broken through the French lines, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill flew to France to consult his embattled allies on how to stop the advance. “Where is the strategic reserve?” Churchill urgently asked the French commander in chief, Gen. Maurice Gamelin, and then he repeated himself in French: “Ou est la... read more

Townhall... Gutter Journalism at Newsweek, By Armstrong Williams
6/9/2011 - If you ever needed a reason for why news magazines are starving for attention and consumer dollars, just stroll down the aisle of your favorite supermarket and you can judge this industry by its cover(s) alone. They’re pathetic. They continually fight against their very core to deliver cutting-edge journalism that compiles the top stories of the week, and instead look increasingly like their neighboring... read more

Redstate... How The GOP Sabotages Obama’s Brilliant Economy, Posted by Repair_Man_Jack
Thursday, June 9th - And now Obama says he’s not worried about a double-dip recession. Easy for him to say: For Americans not feeding at the government trough, the first recession never ended. We are witnessing the total failure of academic Keynesian economics, with its heavy emphasis on high taxes and exorbitant government spending - Michael A. Walsh (NY Post) - So Harry Blodget of Business Insider asks what the Democratic Party hopes will be a helpful... read more

Libertarians say marriage equality only one step toward ending legal discrimination
WASHINGTON - While supporting steps taken over the past several years to end the unequal treatment of gays in the area of marriage, Libertarians say a just society is one in which no law depends on one’s sexual identity. “Permitting couples to marry when they are of the same gender is a step in the direction of equality before the law, but a truly free society would not have government in the business of defining relationships at all,” said LP Chair Mark Hinkle. “Frankly, the idea... read more

Townhall... Where Are You, Norman Lear? By Ben Shapiro
6/8/2011 - This week has been a shocking one for Hollywood. Shortly after releasing my syndicated column last week, I handed The Hollywood Reporter a bevy of tapes showing tremendous liberal bias in the entertainment industry -- and a tape of one top Hollywood creator, Vin Di Bona (“America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “MacGyver”), celebrating anti-conservative discrimination in Hollywood. Matt Drudge linked the piece, sending my book, “Primetime Propaganda... read more

Newark Advocate... Sentencing reform a good start toward balancing budget, By Rep. Jay Hottinger
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - Ohio’s current fiscal crisis has forced the state legislature to revisit and examine all of the state’s spending, including Ohio’s criminal sentencing process. Sentencing reform is one of the areas the Ohio House and Ohio Senate are looking at to solve the budget crisis, provide financial improvements to the state’s future and refining our justice system. My colleagues and I think we can diminish the cost of our criminal justice system for Ohio’s taxpayers... read more

Townhall... The Stupidest Immigration Reform Idea You Haven’t Heard About
By Rachel Marsden - 6/7/2011 - As Barack Obama inches toward reforming the immigration mess in America -- whenever that might be -- here’s a stunning example of political rhetoric over substance. The idea comes courtesy of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, a serious contender for the French presidency in next year’s elections. That is, until she self-immolated with this doozy... read more

Human Events... The Government Job-Training Juggernaut, by Michelle Malkin
06/10/2011 - President Obama campaigned this week for “new and innovative approaches” to America’s economic crisis. So naturally, the futurist-in-chief filched his fresh, bold ideas straight from ... the 1930s. The grand new solution to the jobs deficit, according to the White House, is more FDR-style federal job-training spending. Sounding every bit like the whiteboard eggheads... read more

Redstate... Debt Limit Surrender, Posted by RedState Insider
Wednesday, June 8th - Members of the Tea Party and the conservative movement need to be prepared for some serious disappointment if news reports are correct. News reports have emerged indicating that that “dollar for dollar” cuts to spending promised as part of a grand bargain to increase the debt ceiling may be pro-rated over 10, 20 or even 25 years. It is easy for politicians to promise future cuts to spending when many of these politicians cutting the deal... read more

Tuesdays with Jason Mattera... If Sarah Palin can... then this man can...
06.07.11 - What was Anthony Weiner expecting? That’s what you get for having Bill Clinton officiate your wedding! Lots of bad karma with that Bubba gene. Poor Huma--Weiner’s wife. While Weiner’s pervert factor has definitely risen to defcon 5 status by now, the New York City Congressman still has his defenders in the media. In other words, while it’s gotten so bad for Rep. Stub that even Nancy Pelosi is calling for an investigation, there are sycophants in the press who are coming... read more

Townhall... Crafting a Moral Budget, By Ed Feulner
6/8/2011 - Can the federal government’s spending spree last forever? Of course not. Even when economic growth is strong (hardly the case now, of course), it’s foolish to keep spending more than we take in. Congress is going to have to make some serious cuts. Otherwise, we’ll face a day of serious financial reckoning -- and sooner than we think. But you know the charge common sense like that opens you up to from some on the Left: You’re heartless. You’ll gut the social safety net. Toss... read more

Townhall.com’s Washington Beat... Economy Still Tanking & More, by Katie Pavlich
June 7, 2011 - ECONOMY STILL TANKING - Well folks, unemployment is back up to 9.1 percent, proving once again that massive government spending doesn’t stimulate anything. Economists are predicting a double dip recession, but many Americans feel the economy never came out of the first recession as unemployment hasn’t dropped below 8 percent since the beginning of President Obama’s first term. The private sector only added 57,000 jobs, far less than the nearly 177,000... read more

Human Events... Free Market, Not Government Policy, Drives Energy Boom
by Michael Barone - 06/09/2011 - There’s an awful lot that’s stale in the debate on government energy policy. Some stale arguments are nevertheless valid: It’s dangerous to depend heavily on Middle Eastern oil. Others have increasingly been seen as dubious: that global warming caused by human activity will result in catastrophe. There’s stale talk about federal and state laws that promised great change but... read more

Townhall... The Cancer of Regulation, By John Stossel
6/8/2011 - Politicians care about poor people. I know because they always say that. But then why do they make it so hard for the poor to escape poverty? Outside my office in New York City, I see yellow taxis. It’s intuitive to think that government should license taxis to make sure they’re safe and to limit their number. It’s intuitive to believe that if anyone could just start picking up passengers, we’d have chaos... read more

Daily Events... From John Hayward, Staff Writer
06.09.11 - “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion,” wrote John Adams. “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” It’s not hard to appreciate the wisdom of Adams in practical terms. A profoundly immoral people would be an unruly mob. Huge amounts of compulsive, often violent, force would be needed to maintain... read more

Townhall... 7 Responsibilities You Have As An American, By John Hawkins
6/7/2011 - You hear a lot about “rights” in America. You have a right to an attorney. You have a right to remain silent. You have a right to free speech, a right to “keep and bear arms,” a right to “due process,” and a right to have “equal protection under the law.” Cruel and unusual punishment? Unreasonable search and seizure? Being tried twice for the same crime? Those would be violations of your rights. We’re told that we have a right to privacy, a right to have an education... read more

Townhall Finance... Stock Tip: Don’t Take Stock Tips, By Gil Morales and Chris Kacher
As legendary investor Jesse Livermore once wrote, more money has been lost by those who take stock tips. There is a difference between taking a stock tip that has no inherent or proven logic behind the tip compared to acting on stock suggestions based on stock market trading strategies that have proven themselves over many market cycles. If one is going to follow sites that provide daily stock tips, know the basis of the tip and know the track record of the tipster. Picking through... read more

Townhall... It’s Education, but Higher Is a Misnomer, By Mona Charen
6/3/2011 - I will not get sentimental, or so I keep telling myself. Well, maybe a little sentimental, but never maudlin at the approaching departure of my 17-year-old son for college in the fall. Fall? Did I say fall? No, he leaves in August -- cruel calendar! If I sometimes find myself leafing through photos of him at 2 and 5 and 11 -- here nodding off in the stroller, there in his Harry Potter costume... read more

Townhall... Why 2012 looks like 1860, By Star Parker
6/6/2011 - As the season of presidential politics 2012 unfolds, I’m struck by similarities between today and the tumultuous period in our history that led up to the election of Abraham Lincoln and then on to the Civil War. So much so that I’m finding it a little eerie that this year we are observing the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. No, I am certainly not predicting, God forbid, that today’s... read more

Townhall Finance... Living Within Smaller Means, By Carrie Schwab Pomerantz
Dear Carrie: I just graduated with a business degree and was lucky to find a job in Los Angeles. I’m excited, but a bit worried, too, because the job doesn’t pay that much and I know it costs a lot to live in LA. It’s the first time that I’ve been completely on my own and money will be tight. Can you give me a heads up money-wise? I don’t want to blow this opportunity. -- A Reader Dear Reader: Congratulations... read more

Chillicothe Gazette... ‘Optional’ Medicaid services are critical, cost-effective
Jun 9, 2011 - Ohio’s policymakers have had to make many tough choices during deliberations about the state’s budget. In this challenging environment, Gov. John Kasich and members of the House of Representatives should be applauded for recommending “optional” Medicaid services, such as dental, vision and podiatric care for adults, continue to be made available to our most vulnerable citizens. This policy decision not only is the right thing to do to ensure the... read more

Dayton Daily News... Editorial: Tax breaks not free; they put drain on budget
Thursday, June 9, 2011 - For weeks now, the news out of Columbus has been about the budget — how big the cuts are going to be, who is going to be hit. With a June 30 deadline to pass the next two-year spending plan almost here, and the House and Senate both having taken their turn at changing the governor’s proposal, the issue is heading to a small committee made up of House and Senate members. That’s where the real decisions will be made... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Short takes
Thursday, June 9, 2011 - INNOVATION OHIO, a recently created liberal think tank, says it is wrong for the Kasich administration to claim that its budget proposal fills an $8 billion hole left by former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland. Never mind that for the past two years, virtually everyone has accepted the $8 billion figure as a reasonable estimate of the budget mess Strickland left behind. In fact, Janetta King, president of Innovation Ohio, implicitly endorses the $8 billion figure... read more

Townhall... Young Americans Face A Brutal Summer, By Lurita Doan
6/6/2011 - Young Americans graduating from colleges across the United States are facing limited job prospects, high debt and the likely necessity of returning home to live with parents in order to survive, a bitter harvest from the Obama Economy. Our current economic policies that continue to find new and even more inventive ways to punish the prudent, destroy the entrepreneurial , reward the most irresponsible... read more

Foxnew.com... Four Dirty Secrets about Clean Energy, By Alex Epstein
Published June 03, 2011 - For years, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has demanded that the U.S. and other industrialized countries cut carbon emissions to 20% of 1990 levels by 2050. While most countries claim to support huge carbon caps, in practice they have resisted implementing them. The reason is simple: fossil fuels provide nearly 90% of the energy we use--the cheap, abundant fuel that powers modern farming, manufacturing, construction... read more

Townhall... EPA: Environmental Propaganda Activists, by Willie Soon
6/6/2011 - The Environmental Protection Agency recently issued 946 pages of new rules, requiring that U.S. power plants sharply reduce (already low) emissions of mercury and 83 other air pollutants. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson claims that, while the regulations will cost electricity producers $10.9 billion annually, they will save 17,000 lives and generate up to $140 billion in health benefits. There is no factual basis for these assertions. To build its case, EPA systematically... read more

Townhall... The Myths About Legal Gambling, By Steve Chapman
6/5/2011 - Illinois is on the verge of a major gambling expansion, and citizens are being pelted with competing claims. The advocates envision a gusher of jobs and tax revenues. The opponents brace for an epidemic of bankruptcies, crime, divorce and suicide. Which side to believe? Neither. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is now considering whether to sign or amend a measure authorizing five new casinos, including one in Chicago, and slot machines... read more

Townhall... Different Decisions, By Thomas Sowell
6/7/2011 - Two unrelated news stories on the same day show the contrast between government decisions and private decisions. Under the headline “Foreclosed Homes Sell at Big Discounts,” USA Today reported that banks were selling the homes they foreclosed on, at discounts of 38 percent in Tennessee to 41 percent in Illinois and Ohio. Banks in general try to get rid of the homes they acquire by foreclosure... read more

Townhall… Protecting Consumers from Themselves, by Nicole Kurokawa
6/7/2011 - Last year’s monstrous Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill contained a number of awful little programs – one of which was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor. Ostensibly, this bureaucracy was created to protect consumers from a predatory financial system by creating new disclosure requirements, promoting “fair competition... read more

Townhall... Don’t Root for Failure, By Rich Galen
6/3/2011 - The economic news this week has been dreadful: Housing prices: “Home prices have double dipped, dropping to new post-Recession lows.” -- US News & World Report. Foreclosures: “Foreclosed homes, selling at bargain-basement prices, are dragging the market down, and homeowners are still desperately trying to stay out of foreclosure.” -- LA Times - Stock Market: “As of June 1, 2011, the Dow Theory gave a warning of a significant downside correction for the... read more

Townhall Finance... Obama’s Job Recession, By Larry Kudlow
Political advantage can be fleeting. A couple of months ago, during the winter quarter, job gains looked to be picking up, unemployment was easing lower, and President Obama’s reelection hopes looked more secure. But things sure have changed. In recent weeks, a whole bunch of new economic stats have been pointing to a sputtering economy -- maybe even an inflation-prone, less-than-2-percent-growth recession. Stocks have dropped five straight weeks, as they look... read more

Townhall... Poverty and the President, by Bill O’Reilly
6/4/2011 - This time next year, we should have a Republican in place to challenge President Obama for the title of ‘World’s Most Powerful Man.” The campaign, of course, is the ultimate reality show, and it could get nasty. As it stands now, Obama has to be considered the favorite despite the shaky economy. The Osama bin Laden takedown was huge for him, and the Medicare debate is going his way, as well. The president is a shrewd campaigner and may have as much as a billion... read more

Townhall... Obama Tunes Out, and Business Goes on Hiring Strike, By Michael Barone
6/6/2011 - Last week, I noted that various forms of the word “unexpected” almost inevitably appeared in news stories about unfavorable economic developments. You can find them again in stories about Friday’s shocking news, that only 54,000 net new jobs were created in the month of May and that unemployment rose to 9.1 percent. But with news that bad, maybe bad economic numbers will no longer... read more

Townhall... Tennessee Trumps Wisconsin: Kills Teacher Collective Bargaining
By Kyle Olson - 6/6/2011 - To fix public schools, you have to control public schools. And there’s little control when teachers unions, with their self-serving agendas, question every cost-cutting proposal and reform on the table. That’s why so many state governments have taken swift action to limit the power of organized labor in public schools. Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Idaho... read more

From Associated Press... FACT CHECK: Democrats distort GOP Medicare plan
By Calvin Woodward, Associated Press - June 2, 2011 - WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are distorting the fundamentals of a Republican plan to reshape Medicare, falsely accusing the GOP of pushing a proposal that tells the elderly “you’re on your own” with health care and that lets insurers deny coverage to the sick. Medicare always pushes hot buttons with voters. Both parties know this and spare no effort to exploit the issue, with truth as the frequent casualty. That’s the... read more

Daily Events... Fridays with Erick Erickson: Obama is Beatable
I may be one of the few people in America convinced the Republicans will beat Barack Obama, but I really think that is the case. It is not easy to say that just because the unemployment rate is over some number that the President will be beaten. But when the unemployment rate is so high and inflation is on the rise and the take home pay of Americans brings home less and less, yes, I think the President is beatable. More so, the President has no real solutions to fix the... read more

Townhall... What Seniors Have to Fear From ObamaCare, by John C. Goodman
6/4/2011 - While charges and counter-charges about Medicare are flying back and forth in Washington, hardly anyone seems to have noticed that Medicare’s financial problems have already been solved. They were solved by the health reform bill enacted last year, what some people call ObamaCare. So why isn’t this front page news? Why aren’t people dancing in the street? Why isn’t the Obama administration boasting about this accomplishment far and wide? Probably because... read more

Townhall... Putting Children First, By Linda Chavez
6/3/2011 - For the first time in history, less than half of Americans now live in married-couple households. The new finding by the Census Bureau reflects the most profound change in the nature of American society ever to have occurred, yet practically no one talks about it. Only 48 percent of American households are made up of married couples. These numbers reflect a sea change in living arrangements. In 1950, married... read more

Columbus Dispatch Editorial, Build it Right
Ohio Senate shouldn’t weaken efforts to reform public contracting - Friday, June 3, 2011 - Of all issues confronting Ohio Senate members in the state budget bill, one decision should have been easy: keeping Gov. John Kasich’s provision to eliminate absurd and antiquated rules for public construction projects that waste time and taxpaysers’ money. The budget proposal passed by the Ohio House of Representatives left Kasich’s construction-reform proposals intact, and would... read more

Townhall... Education and Its Discontents, by Paul Greenberg
6/2/2011 - Dear Fellow Fan, It was wholly a pleasure to hear from another fan of that endangered species on American campuses, liberal education. It seems the more bureaucratic types in American education, whether they’ve burrowed into administration or become tenured members of the faculty, are busy transforming our universities into trade schools in every way but the name. Recommended Reading: “Mission Lost/ California’s state university system offers everything... read more

Toledo Blade Editorial... Victory tour
6/3/11 - Candidate Barack Obama visited the Toledo area frequently. President Obama makes his first trip here today to laud his administration’s success in helping to pull Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors back from the brink of collapse. He’s entitled to gloat, a little. Mr. Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, initiated the federal bailouts of Chrysler and GM. When the $17 billion in loans Mr. Bush provided the automakers proved insufficient to avert disaster, the... read more

Romney’s Primary Path, By Dick Morris
Published on TheHill.com on May 31, 2011 - With the visceral negativism of politics today, candidates must advance masked by the shadows of their opponents. For example, Obama could achieve credibility and strength in 2007-08 only when attention focused on Hillary. When the spotlight shifted to him in April and May of 2008, he nearly lost the nomination amid the Rev. Jeremiah Wright... read more

Townhall Finance... Boneheaded Stimulus Never Works, By Larry Kudlow
With a flamboyant downgrade of the outlook for economic growth, jobs, and profits, Wednesday’s 280 point Dow plunge to launch the so-called June stock swoon is a warning shot across the bow. The Dow tanked alongside a batch of dismal economic data. The ISM manufacturing index, ADP employment, Case-Shiller home prices, and consumer confidence are all pointing to 2 percent growth or less, rather than... read more

Townhall Finance... Tea Partiers Unite! Nothing to Lose but Election, Savings, Job... By John Ransom
You’ve rallied, you’ve worked, you’ve organized. You’ve made progress, you’ve made waves, you’ve made enemies. You’ve won some campaigns and you’ve lost some. Politically, you’ve grown up quite a bit over the last few years. And here’s the kicker: Between now and 2012 you have an historic opportunity to get America back on the right track on education, on spending, on taxes and much more. Almost uniquely in the history of our country, you, the grassroots- the ordinary... read more

Townhall... Gates Turns Off the Lights, By Frank Gaffney
6/1/2011 - I have been in Washington now for nearly forty years and, in all that time, I can’t recall seeing anything quite like Robert Gates’ ongoing farewell to arms. In a series of speeches over the past few days - at Notre Dame, at the American Enterprise Institute and at the Naval Academy - the outgoing Secretary of Defense has sounded a series of warnings that the ship of state, or at least the carrier battle group that protects it, is headed for the rocks. That is surely so. But... read more

Redstate... “Official Time” or Unofficial Scam? Your tax dollars are being used for union business.
Posted by LaborUnionReport - Thursday, June 2nd - One would think that, when union members pay union dues, the money would pay for the time their union representatives spend representing them on the job. Well, that’s not always the case. Both, in the private sector and the public sector, it is not unheard of for an employer to agree to pay for the union representatives’ time spent in talking with members to drum up investigate grievances and meet with management. In the... read more

Townhall... Why College is Not For Everyone, By Katie Kieffer
Peter Thiel is rocking the boat of higher education. The libertarian entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and co-founder of PayPal is sending liberal college administrators into a tizzy with his latest push to encourage young innovators to ditch college for two years and pursue entrepreneurship. Last week, Thiel awarded 20 young people with “20 Under 20” Thiel Fellowships: $100,000 and two years of mentorship to develop... read more

Human Events... What Must We Defend? by Patrick J. Buchanan
05/31/2011 - “We need to be honest with the president, with the Congress, with the American people” about the consequences of cutting the defense budget, said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in his valedictory policy address to the American Enterprise Institute. “(A) smaller military, no matter how superb, will be able to go fewer places and do fewer things.” Gates seeks to ignite a debate the country... read more

Townhall... Oceans, Hope and D-Day, By Jackie Gingrich Cushman
6/2/2011 - Like many Americans, we packed up after the last day of school and headed out of town for a Memorial Day vacation. We spent the weekend at the beach, where our schedule was dictated not by the clock but by the sun, tides and weather. Reading, romping in the surf, playing tennis and walking the dog on the beach were our major activities this past weekend. Without outside appointments or commitments, it was easy to lose track of time, day and date... read more

Townhall Finance... Obama’s Nuclear Option on Economy, By John Ransom
In the latest surprise regarding the economy, Wednesday’s job report from ADP showed that private employers added only 38,000 jobs in May. Surprise! Economist expected private companies to add about 175,000 jobs for the month. The report is the next in a series of disappointments on the economic front. Home sales have continued to lag, GDP has been revised sharply downward, and inflation has taken a larger bite out of corporate and family budgets... read more

Huffington Post... An Evangelical Social Gospel? By Tim Suttle
05/28/11 - Evangelical Christians are committed to something called the gospel. It’s central to everything we do. The word gospel itself means “good news,” and this good news is all about how Jesus came into this dark and broken world to make a way back to God. Over the past few centuries the evangelical version of the gospel has changed and is now something quite different... read more

foxnews... Does Your Dog Watch Too Much TV? By Jennifer Quasha
Published June 01, 2011 - We’ve all done it. We’ve turned on the TV and made it into the electronic babysitter. Everyone seemed happy but who knows? No, I’m not talking about my kids, I’m talking about television for my dog. And that has led me to the following question: So is watching too much TV going to rot your dog’s brain? We know television can hinder... read more

truthout... The Truth About the American Economy, Robert Reich
Wednesday 1 June 2011 - The U.S. economy continues to stagnate. It’s growing at the rate of 1.8 percent, which is barely growing at all. Consumer spending is down. Home prices are down. Jobs and wages are going nowhere. It’s vital that we understand the truth about the American economy. How did we go from the Great Depression to 30 years of Great Prosperity? And from there, to 30 years of stagnant incomes and widening inequality, culminating in the Great Recession? And from the... read more

Columbus Dispatch... Op-Ed: Merit pay should stay in budget, By Terry Ryan
For as long as anyone can remember, in Ohio as in the rest of America, a public-school teacher’s effectiveness and performance in the classroom have had little to no impact on decisions about whether she is retained by her district or laid off, how she is compensated or assigned to a district’s schools or how her professional development is crafted. Instead, these critical decisions are made on the basis of quality-blind state policies, like the notorious “last-in, first-out” mandate governing... read more

Townhall... GOP Condemns Democrats’ ‘Breathtaking’ Refusal to Produce Budget
By Byron York - “Let’s see it,” a frustrated Sen. Jeff Sessions said on the Senate floor recently. “Let’s bring it forward.” By “it,” Sessions meant a Democratic proposal for a 2012 federal budget. In recent days, Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, has been asking, pushing, pleading, cajoling and begging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to put forward a Democratic plan. So far, Reid... read more

Townhall... Crying Rape, By Mike Adams
People often assume that self-described liberals are more supportive of due process than self-described conservatives. That certainly isn’t the case when we talk about the illiberal bureaucrats who run the United States Department of Education. The notion that an adult charged with a felony should be put on trial using the same standard of evidence used for someone who has been issued a parking... read more

Townhall Finance... Chu Pimps Your Budget at the Pump, By Bob Beauprez
Memorial Day normally kicks off the summer vacation and heavy driving season, but with gas prices at the pump more than twice as expensive as they were two years ago, American families are being forced to stay close to home and pull back on normal family expenses. The cost to fill up the tank is consuming 40% more of the family budget than it did last summer. According to AAA, 17 cents of every consumer dollar is spent at the pump, up from 12 cents one year ago... read more

Townhall... Enough with Liberal Name Calling, By Carrie Lukas
In January, the assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords by a mentally ill assailant became an occasion for media elites to preen about the need for more civil political discourse. Somehow, the liberals fashioned a connection between Rush Limbaugh’s radio show and Jared Loughner, despite the complete lack of any evidence that Loughner had ever listened to conservative radio or was anything other than an apolitical madman... read more

Who’s Left on the Right, By Dick Morris
Published on TheHill.com on May 24, 2011 - On arriving at the Democratic Convention of 1960, reporters asked Adlai Stevenson who would emerge as the nominee. “The last survivor,” he answered. Perhaps the 2012 Republican nomination will be determined by the same criterion. With the departures of John Thune, Mike Pence, Mike Huckabee, Haley Barbour, Donald Trump and, now, Mitch Daniels, we have constantly to revise our scenarios of the likely outcome... read more

Verities & Balderdash... A Pin Drop, Ford & your PC, By Bob Robinson
For those of you who have been waiting with baited breath for the return of Verities & Balderdash… well… a few of you have mentioned them… well… actually, one person did… a long time ago… so here we go again. The first is one more “thank you” to those who serve us… if you tend to be touchy about our foreign relations, I suggest you skip Pin Drop. If you tend to be touchy about your PC... read more

Townhall... Democrats Can’t Win 2012 With a Health-Care Attack, By Donald Lambro
WASHINGTON - If the Democrats are counting on making a come back in the 2012 elections by demagoguing the Republican Medicare reforms, they’d better think again. The No. 1 political issue for the remainder of this year and most likely in 2012 will be the lackluster, persistently high unemployment, Obama economy that Republicans will nail to the Democrats hide from Maine to California... read more

Townhall... Soft-on-Crime Cycle Repeats, By Debra J. Saunders
The good news: Last year, California’s homicide rate dropped to its lowest level since 1966. Violent crimes were down from the year before. The bad news: Federal judges and California lawmakers juggling to run a state government despite a huge budget deficit are making decisions that threaten to dismantle a system that has made California a safer place to live. If they get their way, today’s state prison... read more

Townhall Finance... Dems: Greed is Good as a Tax Credit, By John Ransom
The Democrats’ predilection for “stimulating” the economy with tax credits that redistribute wealth, instead of tax cuts that preserve wealth, has created conditions of rampant fraud amongst government agencies including the IRS, government sponsored corporations, like General Motors (aka Government Motors), and individual tax filers according to several recent reports from the federal government and government watchdog groups. And a new report may indicate that... read more

Foxnews... Obama 2012 Win a Sure Thing? By Bernard Goldberg
May 27, 2011 - For all of my conservative friends who think that Barack Obama will never be re-elected if the economy is still in the doldrums next year, I have three words for you: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR was re-elected in 1936 and the economy was in a very bad way -- far, far worse than it is today or likely to be in November 2012. That’s the good news for President Obama. The bad news is that FDR is the only president in the last 75 years to be re-elected when the economy was... read more

STOP Deliberately Misleading Americans on Energy, By John Fleming
Washington D.C. – Congressman John Fleming, M.D. released the following statement responding to deceptive claims by Senator Durbin (D-Il) that the United States only has 2% of the world’s oil reserves. This is on top of claims by President Obama and the Interior Department that oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is at an all time high, an assertion refuted by his own administration’s data. “Once again Democrats would rather deliberately mislead Americans on the state of our... read more

Townhall... Time for GOP To Implement Full-Frontal Budget Assault, By David Limbaugh
My advice for the GOP: No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more putting the pretense of civility above the best interests of the nation. Democrats are playing cynical games with our national debt crisis, and it’s time they were called out on them -- directly, volubly and repeatedly. Senate Democrats haven?t passed their own budget plan in more than two years, despite having strong control of that body. Meanwhile, the... read more

Daily Events... Fridays with Erick Erickson - Party of No
05.27.11 - Back in 2009 and 2010, the chattering class labeled the Republican Party “unserious.” It was the Party of No. It had no plans to fix the healthcare crisis. It had no plans to fix the economic crisis. It had nothing. The chattering class held firm in the conviction that voters would reject the Republican Party because it was unserious and lacked any sort of plan. But the GOP did have... read more

Townhall... People of, by and for the government? By Paul Jacob
Are Colorado citizens unconstitutionally infringing on the right of state government to hike up taxes and spend as legislators choose? That’s what a lawsuit filed last week in federal court alleges. The plaintiffs are a thoroughly bipartisan collection of 34 sitting legislators, former legislators, former U.S. congressmen, school board officials, local politicians and other assorted bigwigs of the state’s political class. Their complaint in Kerr v. Colorado states, “An effective legislative... read more

Townhall... Mmm, a Prescription for Kool Aid, By Bill Tatro
Has America really drunk all the Kool-Aid? Or, has denial set in so deeply that if people were transported back in time to the Titanic and were told to get into the lifeboats, disaster dead ahead, they would probably respond with “Oh no, not me, I have a state room, I can’t give that up.” Or, “Tomorrow night, we’re dining with the Captain; we don’t wan to miss that.” Reality has a way of being pushed to the back burner when our comforts and needs are challenged. Just recently, a national... read more

truthout... Remembering the Quiet, Unsung Heroes of America, by William J. Astore, Truthout
Monday 30 May 2011 - This Memorial Day, let’s remember and learn from our heroes who are gone from us. For me, my heroes are my parents, both of whom grew up in single-parent families during the Great Depression. Let’s start with my Mom. Our concept of “hero” today often works against moms; our culture tends to glorify our troops and other people of action: police, firefighters, and other risk-takers who help others. But to me my Mom was a hero. As a young woman... read more

Daily Events... Sarah Palin’s documentary “The Undefeated” By John Hayward
The news this week was filled with reports that Sarah Palin contracted filmmaker Stephen Bannon to produce a big-budget documentary about her years as the governor of Alaska, called The Undefeated. The level of buzz is remarkable, considering that hardly anyone has seen the rough cut. The Undefeated has the feel of a campaign video, and is widely seen as a sign that Palin might be inching closer to a... read more

CAGW Names Sebelius Porker of the Month
5/20/11 - (Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius its May Porker of the Month for the consistently murky process by which HHS grants or denies waivers from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Sec. Sebelius received the dubious honor in the wake... read more

Townhall... The Die Is Cast, By Jonah Goldberg
Alea iacta est. That’s what Julius Caesar proclaimed as he crossed the Rubicon river in 49 B.C. It means “the die is cast.” By crossing the Rubicon with his army, against Roman law, Caesar guaranteed a head-on conflict with the overconfident Roman ruler Pompey. Outnumbered, Caesar was presented with the choice: win or die. The recent special election in the 26th congressional district of New York was a political Rubicon. The Democrat, Kathy Hochul, ran against... read more

Reason... General Motors Will Never Repay Taxpayers, By Shikha Dalmia
Obama’s spin on GM’s latest profit report is pure baloney - May 24, 2011 - The Obama administration, and its media backers, have seized upon news that General Motors made a $3.2 billion profit in the first quarter of 2011 as proof positive that its auto bailout is a success. President Obama is so buoyed that he is reportedly planning to make the bailout a major part of his reelection campaign. But by this standard, Charlie Sheen’s comedy tour ought to be declared a smash hit. Sheen’s... read more

Townhall... Obama Economy Worse Than 1970s, By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown
The worst economic conditions in recent memory were during the Jimmy Carter era of stagflation. Stagflation was a term coined in the 1970s to describe high unemployment with high inflation. Stagflation is back. Translation: America’s middle class is getting poorer; a record number of middle class workers are out of work. If you are lucky enough to have a job, your wages aren’t going up, but you are facing higher prices for everything. “Recent data suggests that the current economic... read more

Townhall... Apocalypse Now or Never, By Rich Galen
The prediction that the world would end last Saturday was the biggest bust since Geraldo opened Al Capone’s vault or Lenin’s Tomb (or whatever it was) and found it empty. For those who took Saturday off as a personal day, there is this preacher in - where? - California named Harold Camping who has made something of a career out of predicting the end of the world. His most recent prediction was that... read more

Human Events... Obama Skirts Rule of Law to Reward Pals, Punish Enemies
by Michael Barone - 05/26/2011 - Question: What do the following have in common? Eckert Cold Storage Co., Kerly Homes of Yuma, Classic Party Rentals, West Coast Turf Inc., Ellenbecker Investment Group Inc., Only in San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, International Pacific Halibut Commission, City of Puyallup, Local 485 Health and Welfare Fund, Chicago Plastering Institute Health & Welfare Fund, Blue... read more

Townhall... Someone to Remember on Memorial Day, by John Ransom
This Memorial Day weekend there will be thousands of parades, picnics and remembrance events for those who died fighting for the United States. There will also be sales and bargains for those that choose to spend the holiday traveling or shopping. Like all holidays, Memorial Day is sometimes at risk of losing its meaning in our commercial society, as shoppers and travelers forget about the sacrifices all of our troops and their families make. So here’s a gentle reminder while we all... read more

Townhall... Memorial Day 2011, By Oliver North
QUANTICO NATIONAL CEMETERY -- When I was a kid, we called May 30 “Decoration Day.” It was an occasion for Boy Scouts to be up before dawn and report, in uniform, to the American Legion hall. There, Cub Scouts would be paired with older Boy Scouts, organized into detachments of a dozen or so and issued bags of small American flags. The groups then “deployed” in station wagons and pickup trucks to local cemeteries and churchyards, where we placed Old Glory... read more

Townhall... Memorial Day Thanks and Devotion, By Jackie Gingrich Cushman
Flip through the local paper, and you’ll see that Memorial Day notices appear as sales headlines and attention-grabbers. Memorial Day Sale and Pre-Memorial Day. Pretty soon we’ll see post-Memorial Day sale advertisements. Similarly, television and radio are full of Memorial Day advertisements. I’ve even received a few Memorial Day Sale notices by e-mail during the time I’ve spent writing this column. Sales and BBQ are the two things that many people think about when... read more

FoxNews... On Memorial Day -- Keep the Memory of Those Who Died In Your Name Alive
By Judge Patrick Dugan - May 27, 2011 - For most of my life, I was like most people: I knew what Memorial Day stood for, but I didn’t really stop to think about what it truly meant. That changed after I went to Iraq in 2004 as a civil-affairs soldier with the Army Reserves. When you serve with people who don’t come home, Memorial Day means something different. Memorial Day is not about politics. Whatever your feelings about current or former wars, remember this: All military... read more

Townhall... Memorial Day 2011, By Rich Galen
“Because of your selfless acts, we stand in the capitals of those who would do our citizens harm.” Col. Michael Ceroli, Ft. Bragg, NC - We went to Arlington National Cemetery to attend the annual Memorial Day observance. The entrance to Arlington National Cemetery is directly across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial. These two historical, mystical, sites are connected by the Memorial Bridge. At the entrance to the Cemetery there is a sign which asks visitors... read more

Thoughts from the Editor, and the Internet... A Memorial Day Tribute
On this Memorial Day, my thoughts turn to my natural father, Capt. William A. Baldwin, who lost his life in service to our country, my adopted father, Lt. Col. John H. Robinson, who served our country faithfully throughout his entire career, and 1st Lt. James Neely, an Aggie buddy who lost is life in Viet Nam. I will remember them with gratitude. And I wish to thank my lifelong... read more

Townhall... Louis Zamperini and Memorial Day, By Cal Thomas
Perhaps you’ve heard of him, perhaps not. Louis Zamperini has had fame, lost it and seen it restored more than once. That happens when you are 94 years old and must be re-introduced to succeeding generations.
Zamperini was a juvenile delinquent, then an Olympic distance runner who competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany (he met Adolf Hitler and his chief propagandist... read more

Redstate... The Fight of the Century, Posted by Erick Erickson
Wednesday, May 25th - Much of the rhetoric coming out of Washington today is, not surprisingly, related to medicare and the impact it had on the special election in New York. I am of the opinion that it did not have as much impact as other issues, but there is no denying it had some impact. It just wasn’t, despite left-wing spin, the foundation of the GOP’s disaster. But, coming out of Washington today, the GOP is wringing its hands saying the public just doesn’t understand... read more

Foxnews... Searching for the GOP’s Mr. Perfect, By Andrea Tantaros
May 25, 2011 - The Republican Party is in search of what seems to be the perfect candidate to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012. After a poor showing at the polls with 2008 nominee John McCain, the GOP is determined to do better—and rightfully so. Driven by disgust over where Obama’s policies are taking the country, and anxiety over a thin field (a notion that is being stoked by the mainstream media) Republicans are getting restless, but are they mistaken in their quest... read more

Townhall... There’s Something About Marriage, by David Harsanyi
When an actress -- no, an artist -- the caliber of Cameron Diaz weighs in on the future of social institutions, America has an obligation to listen. And listen we did. In a widely discussed interview with Maxim magazine, Diaz offered America a peek at her body, her relationship with Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez (which, needless to say, is “awesome”) and her views on the future of matrimony. Does she think marriage is a dying institution? “I do,” she explained. “I think we have... read more

Townhall... Memo to Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Media -- There Are No Illegitimate Kids, Just Illegitimate Parents, By Michael Reagan - My adoptive parents told me I was “chosen,” but the kids at school told me I was a “bastard.” The recent headlines about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s infidelities and the son he fathered out of wedlock have stirred many old memories and emotions. I was four years old when I learned I was adopted. It was just before my sister Maureen’s eighth birthday. I told her, “I know... read more

Townhall Finance... Sucker: Free Properties Aren’t Cheap, By Kathy Fettke
Bank of America has announced it will give away as many as 150 vacant and abandoned properties in the Chicago metro area. This is part of a new effort to help the city clean up neighborhoods littered with vandalized, vacant homes. But before you run out and grab some free houses, think about it first. There’s probably a reason the bank can’t sell them. Vacant homes are often enjoyed by vagrants, drug addicts... read more

Redstate... Conservatives Stand to Lose Big in 2012, Posted by Erick Erickson
Tuesday, May 24th - Editor's Note: Regarding who we need to win in Ohio, Erickson says: "Two words: Josh Mandel" - After the historic gains made by conservatives — not just Republicans — in 2010, the conservative movement stands to slide back and lose in 2012. I’m not talking about the race to the White House. I’m talking about the United States Senate. At a time when Senate Republicans refuse to lead and Mitch McConnell is doing his best to marginalize the solid... read more

Redstate... The GOP Loss In New York Was About New York, Not Paul Ryan, Posted by Erick Erickson
Tuesday, May 24th - Republicans suck in New York. Period. End of Story. The GOP lost the special election in NY-26 and the media and Democrats are heralding it as proof that the GOP is getting punished for wanting to reform medicare. Back when the GOP lost the 2009 special election in New York featuring Dede Scozzafava, et al, the Democrats heralded the GOP defeat as proof that Republican opposition to Obamacare and being the “Party of No” was a clear sign that... read more

Redstate... Tim Pawlenty comes out against farm subsidies. In Iowa. Posted by Moe Lane
Monday, May 23rd - In his official speech kicking off his campaign: I’m here today to tell Iowans the truth, too. America is facing a crushing debt crisis the likes of which we’ve never seen before. We need to cut spending, and we need to cut it…big time. The hard truth is that there are no longer any sacred programs. The truth about federal energy subsidies, including federal subsidies for ethanol, is that they have to be phased out. We need to do it gradually. We need... read more

Human Events... The Tornado Year... Struggling to understand an awful tragedy
by John Hayward - 05/24/2011 - CNN has an oddly phrased sub-head for today’s story about the unusual number of killer tornadoes we’ve seen this year: The tornado that killed 117 people in Missouri this week puts the U.S. on track for a record-breaking year, despite improved forecasting and warning systems. “Despite?” Why would “improved forecasting and warning systems” reduce the number of tornadoes... read more

Townhall... The Miseducation of America, By Armstrong Williams
Back in the ‘good ole days’ (which usually tend to have occurred exactly one hundred years before the phrase is uttered), doing business in America was simple. Entrepreneurs completed deals using only back of the envelope calculations and a firm handshake. They didn’t need any of those Wall Street wizards with their fancy forecasting and analysis methods. Big Government wasn’t looking over... read more

Townhall... 5 Reasons We Need To Reform Medicare Right Now, By John Hawkins
Are we going to reform Medicare before 2012? No, unfortunately the Democrats have decided that using Medicare as an election issue is more important than actually doing the right thing for the country. So, they’re going to lie and tell every senior in America that the GOP is going to take their Medicare away. Then the mainstream media will echo their charges without pointing out that the Ryan plan won’t affect “anyone now 55 or older.” Their strategy may even work and if so... read more

Obama’s War on Israel, By Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
Published on DickMorris.com on May 23, 2011 - No American Jew who values the existence of the nation of Israel can kid himself any longer. President Obama is against the Jewish state. His speech on Thursday overtly embraces the position of the Palestinians and is designed to force Israel to surrender to their domination. How else are we to interpret a demand that Israel return to its 1967 borders and that this be the starting point for further negotiations? The 1967 borders... read more

Townhall.com’s Washington Beat, By Katie Pavlich
May 24, 2011 - ISRAEL ON THE FRONT LINES - It’s been a rough week for the Middle East peace process as President Obama has called for Israel to retreat back to it’s 1967 borders. Obama suggested the bold move in a major Middle East policy speech Thursday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately rejected the idea in a written statement, in the Oval Office after a long meeting with Obama Friday and again in a speech given to a joint meeting... read more

Townhall... Porkulus: Cash for Tax Cheats, By Michelle Malkin
When President Obama signed the trillion-dollar stimulus law in 2009, he proclaimed that he was “keeping the American dream alive in our time.” The stimulator-in-chief failed to mention that billions would be spent keeping American tax scammers afloat on our dime. At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, federal auditors reported on the latest porkulus spending gone wild. According to a new General Accounting... read more

Townhall... Betraying Israel, By Cal Thomas
With friends like President Obama, who needs enemies? If you’re Israel, you already have quite enough of those. On May 14, 2011, the State of Israel observed the 63rd anniversary of its independence. But if the proposals made by President Obama in his State Department speech are implemented, that observance could be its last. It is difficult to say if the president is self-deluded... read more

Foxnews... On Arab-Israeli Conflict Obama Manages to Infuriate Almost Everyone
By Judith Miller - Published May 20, 2011 - President Obama’s second Middle Eastern speech on Thursday was very different in tone and substance from his first in Cairo back in 2009. His first “new beginnings” speech was defensive, an effort to repair longstanding mistrust between the Arab Muslims and America. Now with the killing of Usama bin Laden behind him, Obama could gloat that Al Qaeda had failed. But on the democracy front, he was largely responding to... read more

Townhall... Blame Taxes, not “Big Oil”, By Andrew Moylan
Politics often mimics theater. And – displaying elements of drama, intrigue, and a fair bit of fantasy – this month’s elaborate production by Senate Democrats to frame oil companies as the reason for high gas prices merits a Tony nomination.
Beyond entertainment, the push to single out U.S. oil and gas firms for additional tax burdens holds little value. In fact, if the Senate were to pass the kind of proposal it voted on this week, the Congressional Research Service... read more

Townhall Finance... A Peak Underneath, By Bill Tatro
When Walmart and Target both recently announced improvements to their top-line (revenues), the mainstream media was quick to point out how the consumer was back. After all, weren’t we seeing the same thing across all consumer sectors? In addition, as usual, the same companies were beating the analyst’s expectations for bottom-line (net income.) Never mind that expectations are usually dumbed down, so to beat the number is almost always guaranteed... read more

Human Events... Adult Baby Syndrome, by Michelle Malkin
05/20/2011 - Welcome to the land of the freeloaders and the home of the depraved. No image captures America’s regressive ethos better than that of 30-year-old Stanley Thornton Jr., self-proclaimed “Adult Baby.” Profiled on a recent National Geographic reality television show, Thornton claims to suffer from a bizarre infantilism that leads him to wear diapers, lounge around in an oversized crib... read more

Townhall... Moralizing Against McDonald’s, by Steve Chapman
Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, we can turn our attention to another remorseless enemy who for years has sown death and destruction among blameless innocents. I refer, of course, to Ronald McDonald. The McDonald’s mascot may qualify as one of the more annoying characters on the planet. But to his credit, he doesn’t compound his unappealing personality by bossing you around. In that respect, he is... read more

FoxNews... Time to Fight Back Against Political Bullies Blocking Immigration Reform
By Juan Williams - Published May 17, 2011 - Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) has it right on immigration reform. President Obama has it only half right. They agree it is time to flip the script on congressional opponents of legislation to modernize the nation’s failed immigration system. The current system amounts to a mindless set of laws that makes it next to impossible to get the world’s brightest and most talented people into the country, and punishes employers and hardworking... read more

Reason... Marine Survives Two Tours in Iraq, SWAT Kills Him, Tim Cavanaugh
May 16, 2011 - “Please send me an ambulance and you can ask more questions later, please!” Guerena tells the dispatcher that her husband had returned home about 6:30 a.m. after work and was sleeping. Prompted by the dispatcher, Guerena says her husband was shot in the stomach and hands. The dispatcher asks Guerena to put her cheek next to her husband’s nose and mouth to see if he’s breathing, but she replies in Spanish that her husband is face- down... read more

Townhall... ABC’s Partial-Birth Hero, by Brent Bozell
As far as I’m concerned, there’s a circle in Hell reserved for late-term abortionists. But this is the Obama era, so Hollywood makes TV shows casting them as heroic figures. Such is the state of our popular culture. On the May 12 episode of ABC’s “Private Practice,” Dr. Addison Montgomery (played by actress Kate Walsh, a real-life Planned Parenthood activist) spewed the strongest pro-abortion -- “pro-choice” -- rhetoric as she performed a partial-birth abortion on a woman who... read more

Daily Events... The Essence of Fidelity, By John Hayward
The news this week is dominated by two cases of sexual impropriety involving famous and powerful men. There are many differences between Arnold Schwarzenegger and ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, not least of which is the difference between the former’s consensual affair, and the charges of sexual assault filed against the latter. One notable similarity is that both are married, and each has... read more

Townhall... Complying With ObamaCare Costs Small Businesses...Jobs
By Renee Ellmers - As I spend time with constituents and small business owners during National Small Business Week, I’m dismayed to hear about the daunting challenge that lies ahead for many of these entrepreneurs who desperately want to hire more employees, but aren’t confident enough in the economy to do so. Yesterday, I held a small business listening forum in Clayton, North Carolina, and was told that... read more

Redstate... Oil Company Profits Are the Solution, Not the Problem
From an unrepentant free-market capitalist. Posted by Steve Maley - Wednesday, May 18th - Left to its own devices, the oil industry is its own worst enemy. Relatively low barriers to entry have made the industry freely competitive. The reward goes to the quickest and the most efficient companies; just like in a Gold Rush, we remember the big winners and quickly forget the also-rans. Since the days of Colonel Drake, Patillo Higgins and Dad Joiner, twas ever thus. The consumer... read more

Townhall... Blackmailing Taxpayers, By Cal Thomas
One of Dictionary.com’s definitions of blackmail is “to extort money from (a person) by use of threats.” Substitute “taxpayers” for “person” and you have what the White House and congressional Democrats are doing with the debt ceiling. In case you weren’t paying attention (and too few are) the United States officially reached the debt ceiling on Monday. Treasury Secretary Tim (“I forgot to pay my taxes”) Geithner informed Congress of difficult decisions he was forced to make to keep... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Coverage pool
Health benefits represent big slice of school and government costs. The Senate has good reason to revisit proposal to require pooling - Published on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 - Ohio’s 612 school districts make schools a prime target in the search for efficiencies and savings during budget crises. Few aspects of school budgets generate as much concern as the rapid growth in health-care costs. Not surprisingly, health-care benefits for school employees once again are... read more

Townhall... California Bill Respects Authority of Parents, By Marybeth Hicks
I have to confess my initial reaction to the headline was to roll my eyes in contempt for yet another government entity that I assumed was trying to legislate good parenting. After all, it’s a trend that has gained traction of late. Some states are mandating the content of school lunches. Others have laws about how old kids must be to baby-sit. All states now have rules about bicycle helmets and federal... read more

Human Events... Why Scott Walker Drives Liberals Crazy, by John Hayward
05/20/2011 - When Scott Walker arrived in the Wisconsin governor’s mansion, he found that every window had a commanding view of the state’s enormous budget gap. Wisconsin was $3.3 billion in the hole. Governments usually try to fill such holes by finding a shovel and a big pile of taxpayer money, but Wisconsin’s economy was already buried under job-killing taxes and regulations... read more

Townhall... She Turned Him into a Newt, By John Ransom
The biggest problem with Newt Gingrich has always been that he’s Newt Gingrich. And, as the Monty Python joke goes, he hasn’t gotten better yet. He‘s the Republican ying to Bill Clinton’s Democrat yang. Both have the massive egos and the big intellects. The combination tricked them into the conclusion that most problems have sophisticated solutions that only their minds could bring to bear. When Newt gave us a negative appraisal of the Ryan budget by tossing off “I don’t think... read more

Townhall.com’s Washington Beat, Katie Pavlich
May 17, 2011 - In this edition of the Washington Beat, we bring you fire breathing, pitchfork carrying GOP presidential candidates. GINGRICH ANNOUNCES PRESIDENTIAL RUN, FALLS SHORTLY AFTER - He finally did it. Newt Gingrich officially announced he is running for President last week and by the weekend, his campaign was basically over after Gingrich nearly committed political suicide by calling Rep. Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity, which reforms Medicare, “right-wing social... read more

Townhall... Obama Turns His Sights to Israel. God Help Her. By David Harsanyi
Word is that President Obama will deliver a comprehensive speech on the Middle East any day now. And as you know, there’s nothing -- and I mean nothing -- Americans want to talk about more during a prolonged economic downturn than Palestinian statehood. Hey, the White House might not be able to sign a budget, but it’s going to fix 2,000 years of strife halfway around the globe. You just watch. According to a Bloomberg report, Obama will urge Israel to halt West Bank... read more

Townhall... Waive Me, by Michelle Malkin
Hear that? It’s the escalating cry of American employers and workers trying to hold on to their health care benefits in the age of stifling Obama health insurance mandates: Gangway! Gangway! Save me! Waive me! Obamacare refugees first began beating down the exit doors in October 2010. As I’ve documented since last fall, waiver-mania started with McDonald’s and Jack in the Box; spread... read more

Daily Events… Boots on the ground, well, sort of, By Audrey Hudson
“Boots on the ground”-that’s what President Barack Obama says is protecting our southern border-20,000 border patrol agents, 40,000 boots on the ground. He said it last week during a speech in El Paso, Tex., and a new investigation by HUMAN EVENTS concurs. Well, the boots on the ground part anyway, because Border Patrol agents have to abandon their vehicles at makeshift Normandy-style fences... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer... Gun-toting foolishness: editorial
Monday, May 16, 2011 - No need to ask an Ohio House Republican why his or her forehead is brush-burned: It’s from kowtowing, yet again, to the insatiable handgun lobby, which wants to allow guns in bars. In a 56-40 vote, mostly cast on party lines, the Republican-led House last week agreed that concealed-carry permits entitle holders to carry their weapons into “any premises . . . that have been issued a D liquor permit.” That, the Legislative Service Commission... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: A rock and a hard place
Health-care overhaul, Medicaid rule spell trouble for state budget - Sunday, May 15, 2011 - A proposed federal Medicaid rule would put states between a rock and a hard place, even more than they already are, and illustrates one of the unintended consequences of the federal health-care overhaul. States, trapped between huge budget shortfalls and ever-growing Medicaid rolls, need to freeze or lower the rates paid to Medicaid providers if they are to balance their budgets... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Suburban voters likely in dark about redistributive taxation
By Thomas Suddes - Sunday, May 15, 2011 - When house prices rebound, as someday they will, voters in suburban Ohio - as in, “taxpaying” voters - may be primed for a full-scale tax revolt, based on school-finance rumbles. Here’s why: State taxes are “redistributive.” When you pay Ohio’s gasoline tax (28 cents a gallon) at a Sunoco pump, your money doesn’t necessary fill any potholes in the street that leads to the service station. Same goes with Ohio’s income... read more

Townhall... Lose Money in Real Estate Today, by Kathy Fettke
Real estate professionals often preach about all the ways you can make money buying property. Rarely are we told about how we can lose money. I’m a real estate professional, and I’m here to set the record straight. Here are ten sure-fire ways to lose money: 1. Not Understanding the Deal - Never put money into something you don’t understand. Get advice from a professional who does. My attorney is... read more

Townhall... Education Freedom is Civil Rights Issue of Today, By Star Parker
Criminal charges against one single black mother and conviction of another for sending their children to schools in districts in which they are not residents provide yet more indications of deep seated problems festering in our country. Moreover, it makes you wonder about how long it is going to take for blacks to wake up to their real problems and who and what holds up black progress. In one case... read more

Dayton Daily News... Editorials: Extra elections do nothing to help voters
Monday, May 16, 2011 - The bipolar course of American politics during the last few years has shown even the most thickheaded denier that elections matter. A lot. If Barack Obama hadn’t been elected in 2008 — along with big Democratic congressional majorities — universal health care coverage would not have happened, period. If John Kasich had not been elected in 2010 with a general Republican tide, collective-bargaining changes and more wouldn’t have happened, period... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Gusher of vouchers
Sunday, May 15, 2011 - Are private schools ready for what the Statehouse proposes? The Statehouse is not disappointing school-choice advocates who long have clamored for a massive expansion of Ohio’s scholarship programs. Stinging criticism may yet put the brakes on the House’s bid to remove restrictions on for-profit operators of charter schools. But it hardly is slowing the drive to alter dramatically the landscape for options. The extent — and the haste — of the... read more

Redstate... Tell the White House We’re Running on Empty, Posted by Chairman Reince Priebus
Monday, May 16th - The summer of 2010 was supposed to be the Summer of Recovery. That’s what President Obama told us. It wasn’t and now nearly a year later, unemployment remains unacceptably high. With gas prices at nearly $4.00 a gallon and on the rise, the forecast for the summer of 2011 isn’t looking much better. America is $14 trillion in debt. We’re running trillion dollar deficits which President Obama says are necessary to dig us out of the recession. The problem is Hope... read more

Townhall... Profiles in Tolerance, By Mike Adams
Last month, I was standing at the podium getting ready to give a lecture when I noticed a young woman had her laptop computer out. I was amused when I saw that the outside of her computer was adorned with a bumper sticker that said “TOLERANCE” in big white letters. I ignored her plea for tolerance as I demanded that she put her computer up during the lecture. I simply don’t “tolerate” students who pretend... read more

Daily Events... Plentiful Fuel, by John Stossel
05/18/2011 - I just learned I’m going to save money! My apartment building in New York will switch from heating oil to cleaner natural gas. Gas is much cheaper than oil now because energy companies found ways to get more of it out of the ground. Even more astounding is that by using this technique, America won’t run out of natural gas for 100 years or more! Time to break out the Champagne? Not so fast, say... read more

The Big Winner: Romney, By Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
Published on DickMorris.com on May 16, 2011 - Now that two of the top three candidates for the Republican nomination have pulled out of the race, the big winner is the one candidate left standing: Mitt Romney. The polling before Huckabee and Trump pulled out was -- in my survey -- Romney-22, Huckabee-20, Trump-15, Gingrich-11, Palin-9, Bachmann-6, Pawlenty-3, and Daniels-2. Now, Romney will inherit a large proportion of the votes left on the table by Huckabee’s and Trump’s... read more

Guest opinion Chicago Tribune... The budget debate we all deserve, By Paul Ryan
May 16, 2011 - Despite Washington coming to grips with the fact that the debt threat is real, policymakers still are not having the debate Americans deserve. The talk is too often restricted to “shared sacrifice.” This sets up a debate where we are really just arguing over whom to hurt and how best to manage the decline of our nation. It is a framework that accepts permanently higher taxes and bureaucratically determined access to health care as givens. A better name... read more

Redstate... The Left’s Outrage Over Teaching Free-Enterprise in Universities
Posted by LaborUnionReport - Saturday, May 14th - For the last few years, America has been slowly awakened to the level of Marxism taught in American classrooms. From the of taking public school students to Cuba and the NEA’s recommendation of Saul Alinsky to the most recent revelation of the University of Missouri’s “Introduction to Labor Studies” taught by two Marxists who, in addition to allegedly giving a Communist organizer two hours of class time to recruit, also... read more

Townhall... Obama’s Hypocritical Rhetoric on Immigration Reform, By Michael Barone
Barack Obama’s immigration speech in El Paso May 10 was an exercise in electioneering and hypocrisy. Hypocrisy because while Obama complained about “politicians” blocking comprehensive immigration bills, he was one of them himself. In 2007, when such a bill was backed by a lame duck Republican president and had bipartisan backing from Senate heavyweights Edward Kennedy and Jon Kyl... read more

Human Events... ‘We’re Open for Business Now’--Ohio Gov. John Kasich
by John Gizzi - 05/16/2011 - Anyone who interviewed John Kasich during his days in the U.S. House (1982-2000), and especially as House Budget Committee chairman (1994-2000), will recall that asking the Ohioan about budgets or spending brought forth a very lengthy answer. Along with explaining the numbers and spelling out their long-term impact, Rep. Kasich would spice his... read more

Redstate... Huckabee Is Out. The Down and Dirty on Who It Helps and Hurts.
Posted by Erick Erickson - Saturday, May 14th - The down and dirty analysis of who it helps: Tim Pawlenty. He becomes the evangelical governor in the race. Herman Cain. He remains the Huckabee of 2012. Sarah Palin. She and Huckabee would largely be fighting for the same crowd. Who it hurts: All of us. Some of you won’t agree, but I think Huckabee would force the other candidates to bring their A game on message and rhetoric. Just for that alone, I wanted him in the race... read more

Daily Events... A Nation of Immigrants, John Hayward
“We define ourselves as a nation of immigrants,” said President Obama in his El Paso speech on immigration Tuesday. This is the most tedious talking point dragged out by the amnesty crowd. We are not a “nation of immigrants.” The current population of the United States is 307 million people. Of that number, about 40 million are legal immigrants, and perhaps 12 million are illegal aliens. That makes about 13% of our population naturalized citizens. Include the illegals and you... read more

Truthout... Actually, “the Rich” Don’t “Create Jobs,” We Do, by Dave Johnson
Saturday 14 May 2011 - You hear it again and again, variation after variation on a core message: if you tax rich people it kills jobs. You hear about “job-killing tax hikes,” or that “taxing the rich hurts jobs,” “taxes kill jobs,” “taxes take money out of the economy, “if you tax the rich they won’t be able to provide jobs.” ... on and on it goes. So do we really depend on “the rich” to “create” jobs? Or do jobs get created when they fill a need?... read more

Human Events... The Mobility of Capital, by John Hayward
How about a gutsy call on the NLRB, Mr. President? 05/11/2011 - South Carolina governor Nikki Haley held a press conference with business leaders and Republican lawmakers today, where they demanded President Obama address the National Labor Relations Board’s attempt to drag Boeing kicking and screaming out of right-to-work South Carolina, back to the unions of Washington State... read more

Townhall... The Feds, The Economy, Your State And Your School Board, By Austin Hill
The wisdom of the American people is prevailing in some of the most unlikely places. Unfortunately, the local public school board is typically not one of those places. As the federal government goes deficit-crazy and state governments continue to feel the recession’s impact, some good things are actually starting to develop. Fiscally conservative ideals are emerging in states as diverse as Wisconsin... read more

Townhall... Bin Laden’s Death Doesn’t Vindicate Torture, By Jeff Jacoby
When US Representative Steve King learned that Osama bin Laden had been killed by US troops in Pakistan, he couldn’t resist a little crowing about the efficacy of torture. “Wonder what President Obama thinks of water boarding now?” the Iowa Republican tweeted on May 2. It was an outrageous remark, but King wasn’t going out on a limb. A parade of others, mostly Republicans, have joined him in claiming that the death of bin Laden had vindicated the use of waterboarding... read more

Townhall Finance... Myths About Oil and Gas, By Bob Beauprez
As voters around the country wince at rising gas prices, panicked Democrats, in a rush to cover the failure of their all-or-nothing bet on the alternative energy industry have started singing a familiar tune – blame the oil and gas industry. Instead of facing the reality of his owned failed policies, President Obama is calling for an end to the “tax giveaways” he claims amount to $4 billion in “subsidies” to the energy industry. This tactic isn’t surprising given the effect that rising gas prices... read more

Townhall... Pulling the Plug on Obamacare, by Matt Barber
Obamacare is like turnip greens: bitter and hard to swallow, but Mommy made you choke them down anyway. The difference is that turnip greens are constitutional (though perhaps they shouldn’t be). They’re also likely to extend your life rather than cut it short. As demonstrated by the 2010 Election Day massacre, the government takeover of health care, the euphemistically tagged “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” infuriated voters as Democrats cooked it up and... read more

Townhall... Minimum Wage’s Discriminatory Effects, by Walter E. Williams
As if more proof were needed about the minimum wage’s devastating effects, yet another study has reached the same conclusion. Last week, two labor economists, Professors William Even (Miami University of Ohio) and David Macpherson (Trinity University), released a study for the Washington, D.C.-based Employment Policies Institute titled “Unequal Harm: Racial Disparities in the Employment Consequences... read more

Daily Events... They care that you care (about the price of gasoline)
by Audrey Hudson - Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are scrambling this week to show their constituents back home that they care, that you care, about the price of gasoline. The consensus isn’t even close. House Republicans are making a big splash passing two bills today to reverse President’s Obama’s crackdown on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon... read more

Redstate... More Residual Effects of Obama’s Anti-Oil Policies, by Daniel Horowitz
The depletion of our oil production is corroding the Alaska pipeline and widening the trade deficit. Wednesday, May 11th - Obama’s oil free utopia is precipitating yet more mayhem on our economy. Today, two major news stories concerning our lack of oil production highlight just how profoundly oil affects our economy. The first story concerns the Trans Alaska Pipeline. The pipeline employs 2,000 workers and delivers 11% of our domestically produced oil to the other... read more

Toledo Blade... Keep the game honest
Penn National Gaming feels unappreciated. All it wants to do is create good jobs in Toledo and elsewhere to help Ohio’s ailing economy, but Gov. John Kasich, other state officials, and the parent company of the Columbus Dispatch won’t let them. At least, that’s what the gambling company bets you’ll believe. Governor Kasich made clear during last year’s campaign that he thought Ohio got a raw deal from the constitutional amendment voters passed in 2009 giving Penn National... read more

wsj online... Ugly Modeling, By Veronique de Rugy
Will spending cuts ruin or improve America’s economy? In February, the Goldman Sachs economist Alec Phillips predicted on ABCNews.com that a Republican proposal in the House of Representatives to cut $61 billion from the federal budget in fiscal year 2011, would, if enacted, shave two full percentage points off America’s gross domestic product in the second and third quarters of this year. A few days later, The Washington Post described a new study by Mark Zandi, the... read more

Townhall... Right of passage, By Paul Jacob
It’s that time, again: Young people in tuxedos and fancy dresses (and stretch limos), celebrating their near-completion of a dozen years of compulsory schooling with one big dance as they prepare to enter the larger world. Thirty-three years ago, my wife went with me to our high school senior prom on our first official date. That day marks the jumping off point for a long and fruitful journey that has included... read more

Obama’s phony oil company tax, By Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
Published on DickMorris.com on May 12, 2011 - In a desperate effort to divert anger from his Administration over gas prices and to stop people from focusing on how his anti-drilling policies have caused us to be so vulnerable to these price fluctuations, President Obama is pushing anti-oil company rhetoric, demanding increases in oil company taxes. He is confident, in doing so, that... read more

Redstate... 5.1.11, Posted by Erick Erickson
Tuesday, May 10th - As many of you know, I’m a big fan of the Stoneridge Group and typically encourage candidates running for office to check them out. They do visually stunning mail and websites. They really are my favorite in the business. To honor the SEALs and what they did on May 1, 2011, Stoneridge designed the poster above. If you want a print, go here. All profits will go to the Navy SEAL Foundation... read more

Toledo Blade... Both sides of abortion issue rally in Columbus
Versions of ‘Heartbeat Bill’ competing - By Jim Provance - COLUMBUS -- Foes and advocates of abortion rights squared off Tuesday at the Ohio Statehouse as Republicans decide how far to push their renewed grip on political power. Competing bills to narrow the window during which a woman may have a legal abortion are moving in the House and Senate with opponents of the bills questioning their constitutionality and foes of abortion rights debating which stands a better... read more

Redstate... The Strategic Wisdom of Barack Obama
yet another gutsy call - Posted by streiff - Tuesday, May 10th - The killing of Osama bin Laden has been characterized by two distinct phases. In Phase I the White House simply could not tell us what happened during the raid and eventually just decided to stop talking about it. Phase II has been a demeaning and unseemly grubbling for credit on the part of the administration under the guise of Obama having made a “gutsy call.” Not only has the administration actively promoted this... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Uncontrolled spending
The governor forgot one tool for improving government: An analysis of the state’s nearly $8 billion a year in tax breaks - Friday, May 13, 2011 - Will Republicans at the Statehouse listen to the Ohio Chamber of Commerce? Ordinarily, the answer would be a resounding yes. Yet in the matter of tax expenditures, neither Gov. John Kasich nor the Ohio House has followed the recommendation of the chamber, proposed in its recent report, Redesigning Ohio: Transforming... read more

Townhall... Bin Laden’s Half-Life, By Rich Galen
I watched the first 45 seconds of the scheduled debate among people who are pretending to be GOP candidates on the Fox News Channel last night. Bret Bair, the moderator, said the word “Fox” at least 15 times in those 45 seconds and I clicked over to an NCIS rerun. The BIG QUESTION in Your Nation’s Capital this week was: What will be the effect of whacking bin Laden on Obama’s re-election chances 550 days... read more

Human Events... Weak Dollars, Strong Oil, by John Hayward
05/09/2011 - Behold the power of the true global currency. Reuters reports that “oil rebounded by more than $4 on Monday,” a bounce analyst Carsten Fritsch of Commerzbank said was due to “a combination of the weaker dollar and bargain hunting,” as “some market participants consider the lower price levels after the sharp drop on Thursday a good buying opportunity.” An earlier report from Reuters noted... read more

Dayton Daily News... Editorial: New poverty numbers even worse than you might think
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - For as long as poverty statistics have been kept, people have debated their value. What is real poverty? Should government benefits be counted in deciding whether people are in poverty? What is the point of having one poverty standard — X number of dollars per year for a family of a certain size — when we know that the cost of living differs from one place to another? The Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies participates in a project that... read more

Townhall... No National Curriculum, Thanks, by Bill Murchison
The good old American inclination to wave a magic wand and say to an urgent problem, “Begone!” is on display in the fast-emerging movement for a national K-12 curriculum. Ah, you didn’t know there was such a movement, far less that it was emerging. Here’s the lowdown. Various analysts representing mostly the education establishment are pressing for a so-called “common curriculum” -- one that would supposedly engage the minds of all American students, aligning their performance with... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Invest in consolidation and collaboration among local governments
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - Local governments absorbed heavy blows in the House budget bill. The revenue-sharing Local Government Fund was slashed, for starters. The House then eliminated by 2013 another revenue source for local governments, the estate tax. That wasn’t contemplated in John Kasich’s original budget plan. To make matter worse, the House stripped out the governor’s proposal to shift part of pension costs from public employers to employees... read more

Townhall Finance... Dave Says Make Him Earn It, By Dave Ramsey
Dear Dave, I recently received a beneficiary IRA when my mother passed away. I also received a small part of her estate. I’d like to share some of this with my 24-year-old son. He’s a good boy, but he’s pretty impulsive and not good with money. Do you have any suggestions? Kimberly - Dear Kimberly, I’m sorry to hear about your loss. It’s tough enough losing your mom without having to worry about a... read more

Redstate... John Boehner’s Line in the Sand, Posted by Erick Erickson
Tuesday, May 10th - Last night, Speaker John Boehner addressed the Economic Club of New York and drew a line in the sand in the debt ceiling fight. It was a monumental game changer for the GOP and puts them back on offense. Let me back up briefing and note that the Washington Post’s own left leaning editorial board came out swinging on Sunday against the Democrats’ opposition to the Republicans’ Medicare plans. Yes, *that* Washington Post. It is with that buttressing... read more

Redstate... Collective Money!? When Did Anybody’s Earnings Become the People’s Dollars?
Posted by Repair_Man_Jack - Monday, May 9th - “Big Oil certainly doesn’t need the collective money of taxpayers in this country,” said Senator Robert Menendez. “This is as good a time as any in terms of pain at the pump and in revenues needed for deficit reduction.” - (HT: New York Times) It seems that The Democrats have a strategy for addressing the higher gas prices that are killing American consumers. They intend to blame oil companies and saddle them with revenge taxes... read more

Fox News... Will We Soon Be Paying Taxes On Every Mile We Drive, Too? By Doug Heye
May 10, 2011 - When Republicans get together they talk a lot about how much Democrats love to find new and novel ways to raise taxes. This talk could almost risk becoming a worn-out cliché, except that when it comes to new ways to tax Americans, Democrats just can’t help themselves. Case in point: as if the money collected from income taxes, corporate taxes, excise taxes, death taxes, gas taxes and the like were not enough, the White House is now floating a new tax... read more

Townhall... The ‘Education’ Mantra, By Thomas Sowell
One of the sad and dangerous signs of our times is how many people are enthralled by words, without bothering to look at the realities behind those words. One of those words that many people seldom look behind is “education.” But education can cover anything from courses on nuclear physics to courses on baton twirling. Unfortunately, an increasing proportion of American education, whether... read more

Townhall... More Than We Paid For, By Rich Tucker
My grandparents had a sign on the wall: “Thank God we don’t get all the government we’re paying for.” How quaint, how very 1980s, that seems now. These days the biggest problem isn’t that we pay too much for government (although we do). It’s that we get so much more government than we’re willing to pay for. We then borrow the difference. How large is the problem? Last year “a record... read more

Townhall... Truth vs. Ideology, By Bill O’Reilly
Frustrating! That’s the appropriate word for what is happening in the wake of the Osama bin Laden raid. Besides the precision of the Navy SEALs, the big story to emerge from the action is that coerced interrogation gave the CIA vital information used to track bin Laden to his lair. Current CIA Chief Leon Panetta has confirmed that. Of course, that exposition is embarrassing to the left, including President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton, who are... read more

Redstate... Obama has Green Dreams of Car Taxes, Posted by Ben Howe
Friday, May 6th - As Tabitha Hale noted yesterday, there seems to be no shortage of ways that this administration and the Democrat party can think of to tax away every bit of our nation’s prosperity. But the “car tax” simply defies logic and begs the question, “What are they thinking?” Aside from their apparent love of taxation, what is the underlying reason this administration would want to levy more taxes on America’s driving? Environmentalism? Money... read more

Townhall.com’s Washington Beat, by Katie Pavlich
May 10, 2011 - OBAMA GIVES AMNESTY SPEECH... President Obama laid out his plan for “comprehensive immigration reform” this week in El Paso, Texas, saying “immigrants” are the way to expand the middle class, make America more competitive on a global level and said immigration reform is an economic imperative, which it is considering illegal immigration costs Arizona and California over $12 billion per year. Obama failed to distinguish the difference between... read more

Townhall... Democrats Announce New Assault On Small Business, by Lurita Doan
It’s déjà vu all over again. Democrats in congress have re-introduced a small business –jobs bill that has no hope of helping small business. Pandering to labor union interests, filled with Democrats’ flawed understanding of what creates private sector jobs, and crammed full of recycled regulations from the failed Waxman-Markey Energy bill, H.R. 870 is dangerous legislation that uses buzz words rather than sound... read more

Townhall... Hope in the Abortion Fight, By Kathryn Lopez
In New York City, 41 percent of babies are aborted. It’s even worse than that, actually. As the Chiaroscuro Foundation, a group that supports abortion alternatives, has pointed out: “Sixty percent of African-American pregnancies in New York City were aborted in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available. In a 10-year period beginning in 2000, more than 900,000 pregnancies in the city... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer... What would Sherrod do? And Kevin and Josh? By Stephen Koff, The Plain Dealer
Friday, May 06, 2011 - WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After Sherrod Brown yesterday sent a letter to the White House saying that at least 50 Senate Democrats won’t accept a GOP budget with Medicare vouchers, the Republican Party responded with a question that essentially asked: OK, Mr. Liberal Democrat, where’s your plan for saving Medicare? It is a fair question. We put it to Brown. But we also thought it was fair to ask anyone else who has filed a statement of candidacy or... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Descent into torture
Monday, May 09, 2011 - ‘Enhanced interrogation’ didn’t aid the search for Osama bin Laden in a decisive way. It diminished the country’s moral authority. Not long after word arrived about a Navy SEAL team slaying Osama bin Laden, the debate resumed about the use of ‘’enhanced interrogation,’’ or torture, during the presidency of George W. Bush. John Yoo, a former Justice Department official whose legal memos claimed room for torture in the fight against terrorism, saluted... read more

Townhall... Obama’s Scandalous War Against Domestic Oil, by David Limbaugh
Do you remember the terrible things the left was saying about President George W. Bush when gas prices soared under his watch? Yet President Obama, whose policies and actions are actually contributing to rocketing gas prices today, gets the usual mainstream media pass. Is it that the liberal media exempt Obama from accountability because they’re on his team in general? Is it because... read more

Human Events... How to Create a Job: It’s easy if you’re allowed to try, by John Hayward
05/10/2011 - There’s a lot of talk about the importance of “job creation” these days. How do you create a job? The easy answer is that you find someone willing to work, and pay them for their time. That’s not really “job creation,” though. It’s just a simple description of the mechanics of employment. A job is actually “created” by demand. If carpentry is needed, carpenters are hired. However, jobs only form... read more

Redstate... Wasserman Schultz: ‘We’ve really concentrated’ on oil production, by Steve Maley
The best time to plant an oak tree is ten years ago. The second best time is now. Friday, May 6th - There was an undeniable uptick in U.S. oil production in 2009 and 2010. But new DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) tried to take credit for it: Like I said, domestic oil production is at its highest point in recent years. So we’ve actually really concentrated on that. Democrats patting themselves on the back for oil production increases? Ba. Lo. Ney... read more

Columbus Dispatch... Editorial: Well done
Kasich and House put Ohio on sustainable path after predecessors failed - Considering the budget nightmare facing Gov. John Kasich and the legislature, the measure passed by the House last week is a remarkable achievement. An $8 billion budget hole has been eliminated, and though the pain of cuts will felt throughout the state, Ohio will be on a sounder fiscal footing in two years when the next biennial budget is put together... read more

Townhall... Personal Liberty 101, By Mike Adams
“Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question of whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of its life. And that is nothing... read more

Townhall... Vanishing American Footprint, by Pat Buchanan
With his order to effect the execution of Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALs, 40 miles from Islamabad, without asking permission of the government, Barack Obama made a bold and courageous decision. Its success, and the accolades he has received, have given him a credibility as commander in chief that he never had before. The law professor, it turns out, is a gunslinger. Should the president now... read more

Redstate... Congress to Examine “Inappropriate” and “Devastating” Use of “Geronimo” Codename in bin Laden Mission, by Erick Erickson - Wednesday, May 4th - As if Congress had nothing more important to do, ABC News brings us word that Congress will hold hearings on the use of the code name Geronimo as a reference to Osama Bin Laden. “The hearing was scheduled well before the Osama bin Laden operation became news, but the concerns over the linking of the name of Geronimo, one of the greatest Native American heroes, with the most hated enemies... read more

Redstate... Some Thoughts on Inheritance, Posted by Academic Elephant
Thursday, May 5th - “Inheritance” is a neutral word–it can be bad and good depending on the circumstance. You don’t get to pick what you get any more than you can pick your parents. On the one hand, you have things like photo albums and trusts funds. On the other you have the lasting repercussions of bad behavior, the sins of the father if you will, that can reach down across generations. Most of us inherit a combination of the two from our predecessors, hopefully with more... read more

Townhall Finance... Are We Done in Afghanistan? By Larry Kudlow
In the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden, I found myself agreeing with Charles Krauthammer that this was a global game-changer for American greatness. It was a gutsy and courageous decision by President Obama, brilliantly executed by the Navy SEALs and all the intelligence and support behind them.As Krauthammer put it, after the tough slogs in Iraq and Afghanistan, this amounts... read more

Human Events... Al-Qaeda: Yeah, He’s Toast, by John Hayward
Observing the formalities. 05/06/2011 - Al-Qaeda has made it official, releasing a statement that confirms the death of its leader, Osama Bin Hidin In His Bedroom For Five Years. The New York Post relays an excerpt from the statement, which is still being reviewed by terrorism experts for authenticity: “We in al-Qaeda organization pledge to Allah the almighty and ask for his help, support, and steadfastness... read more

Redstate... The Winter of Republican Discontent, by Erick Erickson
Wednesday, May 4th - Republicans are unhappy with the present crop of candidates for the White House. Over last weekend, while overshadowed by bigger news, Republicans gathered at an NRA event, a Heritage Foundation event, an AFP event, and a few other gatherings. Grassroots activists lamented together about the current crop. Certainly each candidate has their acolytes, but largely the field is uninspiring. Republicans are on the verge of a self-fulfilling prophecy that their... read more

Daily Events... Amazing Administration, By Adam Tragone
Well, well, well. This Administration never ceases to amaze when it comes to getting their stories straight. “We had multiple series of sources that provided information with regards to this situation…clearly some of it came from detainees [and] they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of those detainees.” That’s our outgoing Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta speaking to NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams regarding the information... read more

Townhall... Fed Up with the Fed? By Thomas Sowell
When people in Washington start creating fancy new phrases, instead of using plain English, you know they are doing something they don’t want us to understand. It was an act of war when we started bombing Libya. But the administration chose to call it “kinetic military action.” When the Federal Reserve System started creating hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air, they called it “quantitative... read more

Human Events... Gasoline and Onions, by John Stossel
05/04/2011 - The speculators are ripping us off! “The skyrocketing price of gas and oil has nothing to do with the fundamentals of supply and demand, and has everything to do with Wall Street firms that are artificially jacking up the price of oil in the energy futures markets. ... (T)he same Wall Street speculators that caused the worst financial crisis since the 1930s through their greed, recklessness and illegal... read more

Foxnews... On Becoming My Mother, By Liz Peek
Published May 06, 2011 - A few days after my mother died, several years ago, a strange thing happened. I opened an old jewelry box and found a bracelet with her name – Judy – engraved on it. It was one of those tinny keepsakes you win at county fairs; I had never seen it before, and had no idea how it came to be in my possession. I am not especially spiritual, but it was crystal clear to me that my mother had sent a message. She wanted me to know that she was still close by... read more

Townhall... Americans Appreciate Bush, By Matt Towery
I’m a nonpartisan pollster, but I’m also a columnist with a strong Republican background. So let me be clear right from the start: I believe President Barack Obama and his national security team performed admirably in the near-flawless effort to capture and kill Osama bin Laden. It’s disingenuous and just plain silly for anyone to say otherwise just because the president is a Democrat or because they disagree with his other policies. The snuffing out of the world’s top terrorist demonstrated... read more

Townhall... My Miracle Mom, by Jackie Gingrich Cushman
I am blessed to have a mom who is special. She is a woman of will. More than simply headstrong and determined, she is indomitable -- someone who cannot become overcome or subdued. Spunky, determined, funny -- all these words describe Jackie Battley Gingrich. Her sparkling blue eyes, upturned mouth and constant activity belie her age. She is helpful, involved and active. She has shaped me... read more

Townhall... Culture Challenge of the Week: When Money Trumps Motherhood
by Rebecca Hagelin - “But Mom, I don’t wanna eat breakfast at school! Why can’t I stay home and eat?” wailed Kirsten, nine-years-old. She looked plaintively at her mom and waited for her to answer. Connie was miffed. I don’t need this, she thought. An engineer and mother of two, she had scaled back to part-time work when Kirsten was born. It was ideal---professional continuity, business networks, and limited hours... read more

Redstate... ‘Why does my gas cost $4.00 per gallon?’
by Steve Maley - Tuesday, May 3rd - Everybody is asking that question these days. The average nationwide price for all grades this week is $3.96/gallon; Californians are paying on average $4.26, the highest in the nation. Why does it cost so much, especially considering that the price was below $2.00/gallon just within the last couple of years? Nearly seventy percent of the price of a gallon of retail gasoline is the price of the crude oil it is refined from. Two graphs from the Energy Information... read more

Townhall... Why Rebuffing the Legal Attack on the National Day of Prayer Matters... Especially at a Time Like This, by Kevin Theriot - The timing of the National Day of Prayer with the events of this week couldn’t be more appropriate if one would have planned it that way. And recent court decisions rebuffing the ability of anti-religious groups to go to court to strike down the event also couldn’t come at a better time. First, it was the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2007 ruling in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation that anti-religionists had no legal standing to challenge... read more

Townhall Finance... Obama’s Super-Secret Presidency, By John Ransom
Nothing displayed Barack Obama’s Achilles’ heel better than the presentation of his birth certificate last week. Geez. Was that so tough? I thought. It’s not possible to overstate the lengths to which O’s administration and campaign apparatus go in order to keep secrets from the press and the American people and themselves. In doing so, they have only succeeded in fooling the last on... read more

Townhall... 9/11 Became a Primer on Virtue and Values, by Marybeth Hicks
Like every other American, I remember with crystal clarity where I was and what I was doing the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. My children were off school for a teacher in-service day. I had taken the dog to the vet for an 8:30 a.m. appointment, leaving behind a pajama-clad assembly in the den watching “SpongeBob SquarePants.” My plan was to rally my troops for a morning of chores, then reward them... read more

Townhall... Politicization of the Fed a Dangerous Trend, By Star Parker
It might help getting our minds around what is so wrong in America today by thinking about the local police force. It’s not hard to understand that the job of the police is to protect lives and property. Suppose we decided to broaden their mandate. Suppose each municipality decided that the job of the police was not just protection but to make every community more fair and just and to improve the quality of life... read more

Townhall... Beating Back Our National Debt, By Mattie Corrao
After compelling the President to axe almost $80 billion from his desired spending levels for the fiscal year, House Republicans are once again faced with the prospect of negotiating with a recalcitrant President on the next spending battle: the approaching debt ceiling. In keeping with his inflated rhetoric on the threat of a government shutdown, President Obama is feigning exigency once again, claiming a “clean” debt limit vote is necessary to prevent government default and certain... read more

Townhall.com’s Washington Beat, May 3, 2011
THE DEVIL IS DEAD - Well folks, after nearly 10 years we finally got him. On Sunday night, Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by an elite team of Navy SEALS. He was shot in the head and in the chest. Reports about the raid show he may have used one of his wives as a human shield during the special operation and firefight. If true, Townhall Political Editor Guy Benson summed it up perfectly: “Sick, selfish, misogynistic, and craven to the bitter end. Given the... read more

Redstate... Governor Kasich on Obama: Why doesn’t he do his job? By Tabitha Hale
Friday, April 29th - Opinion on Kasich’s Opinion... Ohio Governor John Kasich recently signed controversial Senate Bill 5, which restricted the much-abused collective bargaining power of public sector unions. The bill, similar to what passed in Wisconsin, inspired a similar level of vitriol from the unions and supporters. Obama jumped into the conversation earlier this week saying “public employees should... read more

Townhall... Slouching Towards Insolvency (The California Way), By Austin Hill
The U.S. Federal Government is on a collision course of debt and deficits. And California may be the best example yet of “the feds on steroids.” As state governments continue to feel the recession’s impact and are staring-down daunting fiscal challenges, the wisdom of the American people has been prevailing in some of the most unlikely places. In states as diverse as Wisconsin, Idaho, New Jersey... read more

Townhall... Is Government Protecting Us or Limiting Us? By Rich Tucker
Children learn a lot in school. Maybe more than we intend to teach them. CNN recently reported: “One Chicago public school is telling students they can either eat cafeteria food or ‘go hungry.’” No homemade lunches will be allowed without a medical excuse. The goal is to make certain children eat well. But that needs to be a parent’s job, not a school bureaucrat’s job. This school is teaching kids that they aren’t capable -- and that their parents aren’t capable -- of making... read more

Dick Morris... Danger: Tax Trigger Ahead, TheHill.com on May 4, 2011
A diabolical plot is being hatched between Senate Democrats, the White House and three Republican accomplices -- Tom Coburn (Okla.), Mike Crapo (Idaho) and Saxby Chambliss (Ga.). The concept is to enact an amendment to the debt-limit extension specifying certain targets for deficit reduction and then mandating automatic spending cuts AND tax increases to take effect if the goals are not met. This formula permits backdoor tax increases on which nobody votes and... read more

Daily Events... Social engineers face resistance, By John Hayward
The great obstacle facing social engineers is resistance. The re-distribution of wealth is an act of aggression against those who provide the wealth. The forced transition to a planned economy produces high unemployment, for the central State will never be as good at assigning jobs as a great body of free people, seeking each other out for mutual advantage. Movement to a virtuous regime of “alternative” energy... read more

Al Jazeera... Osama’s death ‘a good career move’? By Robert Grenier
May 2, 2011 - Al-Qaeda’s leader might appear to have died with a bang, but he had long since died with a whimper. For Osama bin Laden, violent death must have come as a blessing. It has given him, at least fleetingly, a seeming prominence that in fact had long since ebbed away, not only in the Muslim world, but even within al-Qaeda itself. To many in the US, for whom bin Laden’s demise is indeed... read more

Investors.com... Obama’s Other Hand
Posted 04/29/2011 - Regulation: While we were distracted by the president’s birth certificate show-and-tell, his EPA releases its guidelines for expanding federal power under the Clean Water Act. America’s economy and freedom are at stake. President Obama’s long-form birth certificate wasn’t the only thing released last Wednesday, but it was probably the least important. The Environmental Protection Agency also released its guidelines for expanding federal power over... read more

Townhall... Drug Control vs. Pain Control: A Crackdown on Opioid Prescriptions Will Hurt Patients, By Jacob Sullum - Last week, unveiling a plan to curtail “diversion” of opioid painkillers, Obama administration officials said they aim to “strike a balance between our desire to minimize abuse of prescription drugs and the need to ensure access for their legitimate use.” This balance will never be achieved because the two goals are fundamentally irreconcilable. Since pain cannot be verified... read more

Human Events... Government Creates Poverty
by John Stossel - 04/27/2011 - The U.S. government has “helped” no group more than it has “helped” the American Indians. It stuns me when President Obama appears before Indian groups and says things like, “Few have been ignored by Washington for as long as Native Americans.” Ignored? Are you kidding me? They should be so lucky. The government has made most Indian tribes wards of the state... read more

Townhall Finance... End the Federal Monopoly on Energy, By John Ransom
Let’s get to the truth about energy security. The biggest problem with our energy policy in this country isn’t the lack of direction by the federal government. Nor is it speculation. Sure loose money policies by the Fed have pushed prices up this year substantially. But that not our biggest problem either. No. Instead, it’s lack of free markets for energy. We lack free markets because the federal government gets involved in our energy decisions. The feds, in short, act as a kind of monopoly... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Cavalry of expectations
What the governor didn’t say about Teach for America - Friday, Apr 29, 2011 - John Kasich signed legislation on Wednesday that would open Ohio classrooms to Teach For America teachers in the 2012-13 school year. There is no reason Ohio should not avail itself of the opportunity to place young and enthusiastic graduates in needy schools. The governor’s support for the program is by no means misplaced, but it is best not to get carried away and oversell it. ‘’The cavalry is coming... read more

Investors.com... Don’t Let Debt Limit Get In The Way Of The Party, By Mark Steyn
April 29, 2011 - The other day Paul O’Neill said that ... Oh, wait. I suppose I ought to explain who Paul O’Neill is. A decade ago, he was George W. Bush’s first Treasury secretary. I have no very clear memory of him except that he toured Africa with Bono and they were photographed in matching tribal dress looking like Col. Gadhafi’s Mini-Me twins at a Tripoli sleepover. Other than the dress-up fun, I’ve no idea... read more

Townhall... Carbon and Carbon Dioxide: Clearing Up the Confusion, By Paul Driessen
We are constantly bombarded with information – much of it inaccurate, misleading, even deliberately so. We are frequently told we must reduce carbon emissions, support “carbon disclosure” and invest in “carbon trusts” – to prevent catastrophic global warming, global climate change or global climate “disruption.” News stories, advocacy and lobbying activities, and corporate “ethics” promotions frequently use... read more

Toledo Blade Editorial... Fueling gas prices
Americans want to blame someone for gasoline prices that have hit $4 a gallon locally and in some parts of the country are even higher. There is plenty of blame to go around, but there are few real villains. At least one finger should be pointed at fickle consumers. Too often, drivers swear off gas-guzzling vehicles when the cost of crude oil soars, only to be tempted by size and horsepower when prices dip. High gas prices make it more expensive to fill up the family car or... read more

Townhall... Are Sky-High Gas Prices Good? By Victor Davis Hanson
Are high gas prices a good thing? That is not as dumb a question as it sounds. Examine a few revealing past remarks from President Obama and the Cabinet officials who are now in charge of the nation’s energy use and oil leases on federal lands. Then decide whether the current soaring gas prices are supposed to be good or bad. In 2008, then-Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar -- now the secretary of the Department of the Interior in charge of the leasing of federal oil lands... read more

Townhall... Is the Party Over? by Ken Connor
Let’s not kid ourselves: The policy train in American government has largely been driven by powerful special interests. These enterprises invest enormous amounts of time and money in political campaigns in order to ensure that their agenda is advanced on Capitol Hill. Over the years, particular interests have become allied with particular parties, becoming entrenched in the American political zeitgeist. Big... read more

Townhall... Obama Foreign Policy: Moral Muddle, By Mona Charen
The Obama foreign policy is a mess. In the first 12 months of his term -- let’s call it the contra-Bush era -- the president’s chief aim seemed to be to undo, to the degree possible, what his predecessor had done. The U.S. would close Guantanamo; eschew the term “war on terror”; withdraw from Iraq on a fixed timetable; befriend Iran, Syria, China, Russia, and even Sudan; stiff-arm Israel; and make a concerted... read more

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