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May 23, 2013

Benghazi Interview: Pickering Dissects Congressional Follies, Media Coverage and 'Cover-Up' Charges By Joe Conason

No doubt the degraded quality of congressional oversight astonishes Thomas Pickering, the distinguished American diplomat who oversaw the State Department's Benghazi review board -- although he tries not to say so too directly. For his demanding and difficult effort -- only the most recent in a long history of public service under both Republican and Democratic administrations -- Pickering has found himself under sustained attack by Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the excitable partisan who chairs the House Government Reform Committee.

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May 22, 2013

Sublet My People Go By John Stossel

My kids moved out! I have two empty rooms in my apartment. Maybe I can rent them? A tourist visiting New York City could have a different experience, and save hotel money. I'd make money. Wouldn't it be great?

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May 21, 2013

Tea Party Rage: Nothing Fails Like Excess By Froma Harrop

Back in their day, the tea party folks were riding high, fueling indignation over alleged government-run death panels, a treasonous Federal Reserve and the like. They commandeered sparsely attended Republican primaries, managing to nominate for Senate seats a dabbler in witchcraft in Delaware, holders of strange views on rape in Missouri and Indiana, and in Nevada, a candidate suggesting armed insurrection if her people didn't win elections.    

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May 20, 2013

IRS and AP Scandals Cast a Big Chill on Free Speech By Michael Barone

Chilling effect. That's the term lawyers and judges use to describe the result of government actions that deter people from exercising their right of free speech.

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May 17, 2013

Consumers Not the Best Drivers in Health Care By Froma Harrop

For years, conservatives have pushed for a health-insurance model emphasizing catastrophic coverage. It works as follows:    

May 17, 2013

Controversies Doom Obama's Effort to Restore Faith in Government By Scott Rasmussen

It's impossible to predict the lasting impact of the controversies now besetting the Obama administration, but the risks to the president's agenda are sizable.

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May 16, 2013

The Newsmaker Memo: an Interview With Ron Wyden, the Senate's Powerful Policy Wonk By Joe Conason

Having served in Congress for more than three decades -- and in the upper chamber since 1996 -- Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden has established a reputation as one of the Senate's more serious and diligent members. Over the years on Capitol Hill, he has watched the Republican Party veer constantly further rightward, and yet he continues to believe against all evidence that bipartisan legislative cooperation is possible -- even likely. His habitual reaching across the partisan chasm has generated much controversy, notably when he floated a Medicare reform plan with House Budget chair Paul Ryan.

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May 16, 2013

Benghazi and IRS Targeting: Politics by Other Means By Michael Barone

What do the Benghazi cover-up and the IRS scandal have in common? They were both about winning elections, under false pretenses.   

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May 15, 2013

True Grit By John Stossel

Are you a real man (or woman)? Do you have "grit"?

Compare yourself to the man on the $20 bill: Andrew Jackson, our seventh president.

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May 14, 2013

Democrats and the 'Ethics' of Max Baucus By Froma Harrop

Max Baucus' reputation as one of the most ethically challenged members of the U.S. Senate is well earned. The Montana Democrat's decision to retire in 2014 can't help but improve the chamber's sorry record of self-enrichment at taxpayers' expense. But Baucus has over a year left to do more mischief.    

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May 13, 2013

Did Clinton and Obama Believe Their Benghazi Baloney? By Michael Barone

What were Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton thinking? Why did they keep pitching the line that the 9/11/12 Benghazi attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans started as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim video?    

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May 10, 2013

Three Girls Lost in Cleveland By Froma Harrop

The story of three girls grabbed from the streets of Cleveland and caged in their neighborhood for some 10 years demands scrutiny beyond expressions of shock. We can't let this gruesome tale of Ariel Castro allegedly imprisoning, impregnating and tormenting young women simply pass into the annals of true crime -- not just yet. But how are we to process it? The man was clearly a sicko, but what kind of sicko was he?

May 10, 2013

Why the Benghazi Hearings Are Likely to Be a Bust by Scott Rasmussen

Foreign policy matters rarely top the list of voter concerns. That's especially true in times of challenging economic news. In recent weeks, though, national security topics have been working their way into the headlines. First came the Boston Marathon bombings and questions about terrorist connections. The civil war in Syria entered the news with reports of chemical warfare followed by an Israeli bombing near Damascus. Finally, congressional hearings have provided additional details about what happened in Benghazi, Libya, on the day Ambassador Christopher Stevens and other Americans were murdered during a terrorist attack.

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May 9, 2013

Watergate Revenge: Republicans Yearning to Impeach Obama Over Benghazi 'Cover-Up' By Joe Conason

Less than four months after Barack Obama's inauguration, the right-wing propaganda machine is already promoting the only imaginable conclusion to a Democratic administration that dares to achieve a second term: impeachment. Once confined to the ranks of the birthers, the fantasy of removing President Obama from office is starting to fester in supposedly saner minds.

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May 9, 2013

College Bubble Bursts After Decades of Extravagance by Michael Barone

Markets work. But sometimes they take time.
That's the uncomfortable lesson that proprietors of America's colleges and universities are learning.

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May 8, 2013

Live Free or Move By John Stossel

Forty-three million Americans moved from one state to another between 1995 and 2010 -- about one-seventh of Americans.

It's good that we can move! Moving provides one of the few limits on the megalomania of state bureaucrats.

Americans have moved away from high-taxed, heavily regulated states to lower-taxed, less-regulated states. Most don't think of it as a political decision. They just go where opportunities are, and that usually means where there's less government.

They're leaving my state, New York, in droves. California, despite its great weather, also lost people, and wealth. Other biggest losers were Illinois, New Jersey and Ohio.

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May 7, 2013

Bangladesh and Us By Froma Harrop

You know a corner's been turned when someone in a legion of foreign sweatshop workers is given a face. That's happened in Bangladesh, home of hideous factory conditions -- as seen in the ruins of Rana Plaza, a former eight-story work warren. Death toll: over 600.

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May 6, 2013

Fewer Border Crossings, E-Verify System Justify Bill By Michael Barone

Many loud voices in the debate over immigration have been insisting that effective border enforcement must precede any steps that legalize the status of current illegal immigrants.  

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May 3, 2013

How to Get Fit Without Really Trying By Froma Harrop

We may not have time for exercise, but there's always time to read about exercising. And while the motivation to exercise may not be tops, the motivation to shop for "aids" to exercise seems forever strong.   

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May 3, 2013

Voters Don't Like Political Class Bossing Them Around By Scott Rasmussen

There are many ways to describe the enormous gap between the American people and their elected politicians. Most in official Washington tend to think that their elite community is smarter and better than the rest of us. Many hold a condescending view of voters and suggest that the general public is too ignorant to be treated seriously. Only 5 percent of the nation's voters, however, believe that Congress and its staff members represent the nation's best and brightest.

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