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Political Commentary

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July 9, 2011

Obama's Raw Deal? By Joe Conason

Suddenly Republican leaders in Congress, after months of staring down the Democrats over a potentially disastrous debt default, began blinking so fast that they might be signaling in Morse code. Although their message is muddled and illogical -- with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., saying he can accept closing tax loopholes only if such measures are "revenue neutral," thus canceling their budgetary value -- the Republicans now appear to understand that they will be blamed by voters if the negotiations collapse.

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July 8, 2011

Why the Budgetary Game Is a Big Taxpayer Scam By Lawrence Kudlow

Here's some friendly fiscal advice: Anytime some Washington big-shot like Ben Bernanke or Tim Geithner claims that immediate spending cuts in the debt deal will harm the economy -- ignore them. Completely. You know why? Because in this great country of ours, spending never goes down. Never.

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July 8, 2011

Getting Away with Murder By Susan Estrich

Casey Anthony killed her daughter. She may not have meant to, and she may have been much more interested in her own social life than in her daughter's well-being, but I have absolutely no doubt that she was responsible for her daughter's death.

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July 8, 2011

U.S. and Europe Listing in the Same Boat By Debra J. Saunders

Three years ago this month, then-Sen. Barack Obama told an enthusiastic throng in Berlin, "In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common."

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July 7, 2011

What the Strauss-Kahn Case Is Not About By Froma Harrop

The twisting rape case against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has set off a whirlwind of journalistic creativity. Commentators are whipping a couple of broken eggs into a grand souffle of sweeping statements about the United States, France and their peoples. The facts still point to a violent sexual encounter between Strauss-Kahn and the African immigrant who accused him of attempted rape in the Manhattan hotel where she cleaned rooms.

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July 7, 2011

Racial Quotas, Speech Codes and the Thought Police By Michael Barone

It's racially discriminatory to prohibit racial discrimination. That's the bottom line of a decision issued last Friday, just before the Fourth of July weekend, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

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July 6, 2011

Newt's Ideas Worth Considering By Tony Blankley

One would be hard-pressed to find a better example of sheer misguided reporting than the story in The Washington Post last weekend in which it was reported that "Newt Gingrich thinks he can revive his debilitated campaign by talking about Alzheimer's. ... For most presidential candidates, Alzheimer's is a third- or fourth-tier subject, at best. But as Gingrich sees it, Alzheimer's, as well as other niche topics such as military families' concerns and pharmaceutical issues, are priorities. ... By offering himself as a champion of pet causes, Gingrich believes he can sew together enough narrow constituencies to make a coalition -- an unconventional one, yes, but a coalition nevertheless."

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July 5, 2011

The People Want Higher Taxes By Froma Harrop

Poll after poll shows that the American people want higher taxes. That's not the same as liking higher taxes. The people have simply concluded that higher taxes are preferable to the alternative -- so vividly portrayed in the Republican plan to do away with government guarantees in Medicare.

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July 4, 2011

Replacing Property as a Source of Wealth Creation By Michael Barone

One of the interesting things about our country, the independence of which the Founders declared 235 years ago today, is that we have been a property-holders' democracy.

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July 1, 2011

Big Steps and Baby Steps By Susan Estrich

Just days after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and the coalition supporting similar legislation in that state effectively conceded defeat.

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July 1, 2011

Four Trillion for War -- and Rising By Joe Conason

Anyone paying attention to the costs of U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan must have known that the president badly underestimated those numbers on June 22, when he told the nation that we have spent "a trillion dollars" waging war over the past decade.

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June 30, 2011

Exactly Why Are the Kids Coming Home? By Froma Harrop

The age of "residential adolescence" is upon us, apparently. Nearly 45 percent of adults ages 20 to 24 now live at home with their parents. That's 1.7 million more than in 2005.

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June 30, 2011

Democrats Need a 12-Step Recovery Program on Taxes By Lawrence Kudlow

It seems this is the Democratic answer for every single issue, every problem, every debate.

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June 30, 2011

Why the Civil Service Is No Way to Run a Business By Michael Barone

What's the fair way to run a large organization? That's a question that is squarely, and interestingly, raised by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissenting opinion in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, a Supreme Court case decided last week.

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June 29, 2011

When It Comes to Oil, Where's the Beef? By Tony Blankley

It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes. In that context, the recent rise in oil prices seems to have turned the Obama administration into true believers (at least rhetorically) when it comes to the best method to keep gas prices down and the American economy growing.

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June 29, 2011

Go Michele By Susan Estrich

For a Democrat, it's too good to be true. Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney running neck and neck in Iowa. Romney having to worry about the one in five who won't vote for a Mormon, and Bachmann hiring a cadre of top Republican consultants, starting with Ed Rollins and Ed Goeas.

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June 28, 2011

Yes, Let Government Control Medical Costs By Froma Harrop

"Centralizers," a conservative wrote disapprovingly in Reason magazine, "say that the responsibility for making tough decisions about how to keep health care costs under control ought to be made by enlightened, well-intentioned policy elites."

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June 27, 2011

Like Chauncey Gardiner, Obama Is Profoundly Aloof By Michael Barone

Which past leader does Barack Obama most closely resemble? His admirers, not all of them liberals, used to compare him to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

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June 26, 2011

The Ruinous Rant of John McCain By Joe Conason

The decline of the Grand Old Party into an angry mob is gaining momentum, with crackpot rage displacing common sense on every major issue from public finance to marriage rights.  

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June 25, 2011

Did the IEA Just Deliver a QE3 Quick Fix to Save Obama's Skin? By Lawrence Kudlow

Did the International Energy Agency (IEA) just deliver the oil equivalent of Quantitative Easing 3?  

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