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April 30, 2009

Combating Epidemic Ignorance By Joe Conason

In the turbulent imagination of the hard-core conservative, American foreign policy should be about telling off the rest of the planet. According to the right-wing mind-set, a manly foreign policy would curtail any effort at seeking influence abroad, cut off assistance to developing countries, forget about improving our global image and, above all, withdraw from the existing international organizations, especially the United Nations, which is nothing more than a gargantuan waste of money and a hive of parasitic bureaucrats.

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April 30, 2009

Specter's Party Switch Is All About Winning By Michael Barone

Only his most sycophantic admirers might compare Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter with Winston Churchill, but the two do have something in common. Both had long and turbulent political careers, and both switched parties twice.

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April 30, 2009

100-Day Lurch to the Left By Lawrence Kudlow

In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan's popularity and policies moved American politics firmly to the right. In only 100 days, Barack Obama's politics and policies have shifted America way to the left.

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April 29, 2009

RIP to a GOP By Susan Estrich

The Republicans don't want him. The Democrats do. They would have booted him out. We'll do everything we can to support his re-election. It's a tough day when you leave your party, but being a hero certainly beats being reviled.

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April 29, 2009

Public's Right To Know? By Tony Blankley

Several events in recent months bring back to the forefront the perennial assertion that, on grounds of both efficacy and ethics, the public's "right to know" is the best guide to good government and good institutions.

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April 29, 2009

Barack Obama’s First 100 Days: Will They Lead to Lasting Change? By Scott Rasmussen

As Barack Obama’s administration reaches the 100-day mark, partisans and ideologues on both sides are spinning furiously to define what has happened so far and what it means going forward.

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April 28, 2009

What Happens Politically If The Economy Improves? By Scott Rasmussen

If the U.S. economy improves, it seems safe to assume that will be good for President Obama’s job approval ratings. It will probably help congressional ratings as well.

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April 28, 2009

Throwing Out Utah Stereotypes By Froma Harrop

SALT LAKE CITY -- American flags and lush spring grass lined the long drive of a Mormon meetinghouse here in the desert capital of Utah. Television trucks parking outside. Utahans were gathering last week for the funeral of Bill Orton, a Democrat who had represented an especially conservative congressional district in this most Republican state for three terms.

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April 28, 2009

The Opposite of Intelligence By Debra J. Saunders

The mantra from the left during the Bush years went something like this: The world is not black and white. Sophisticated minds should seek out different, nuanced opinions.

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April 27, 2009

Is The Beltway GOP Irrelevant? By Scott Rasmussen

To be relevant in politics, you need either formal power or a lot of people willing to follow your lead. The governing Republicans in the nation’s capital have lost both on their continuing path to irrelevance.

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April 26, 2009

More Than a Silly Strip Search By Debra J. Saunders

When she was a 13-year-old student at Safford Middle School in Arizona, Savana Redding was strip-searched by school officials in search of -- this is no joke -- ibuprofen. Now she is suing the district and the officials for violating her Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

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April 25, 2009

The Left's Angry Mob Recalls Madame Defarge By Michael Barone

It's tough trying to please people who crave vengeance almost as much as Madame Defarge, the unsparing French revolutionary in Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities."

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April 24, 2009

Hounded and Stressed, but Not by Technology By Froma Harrop

Consider Cary Grant in "North by Northwest." Sinister forces may be chasing him for reasons he can't comprehend, but this is 1959, and neither the BlackBerry nor the Global Positioning System chip that goes inside it has been invented. And so the mysterious crop-duster has no way to pinpoint which cornstalks he's hiding under. The truck Grant steals also lacks a GPS that could help enemies foil his getaway.

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April 24, 2009

I Had a Dream By Susan Estrich

Her name is Susan Boyle. If you haven't heard of her, you need to listen to her. Consider it my gift to you. Go to YouTube, along with the tens of millions of others who already have, and listen to the voice of an angel -- a plump, unemployed, 47-year-old "spinster" (as she was described by more than one British newspaper) who lives with her cat.

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April 24, 2009

Los Angeles or Waterboarding? By Debra J. Saunders

After 9/11, Americans wanted one thing from Washington: to prevent future terrorist attacks. President George W. Bush, the CIA and other hard-working officials delivered. For their trouble, a handful of those individuals now have reason to fear that they may be ruined.

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April 23, 2009

Obama Lets Congress -- and Lobbyists -- Do the Work By Michael Barone

The balance between the executive and legislative branches in writing laws has changed over the centuries. In the 19th century, Sen. Stephen Douglas wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act, with President Franklin Pierce just an interested bystander.

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April 23, 2009

Reagan (and Nixon) Greeted Despots, Too By Joe Conason

Few aspects of American politics are as ridiculous and dangerous as the right-wing urge to substitute macho posturing for foreign policy. That irrepressible habit surfaces constantly now that President Obama is in the Oval Office, most recently when he shook hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas, a smiling moment that provoked calls for impeachment among the most deranged conservatives.

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April 23, 2009

The Death of Democratic Capitalism? By Lawrence Kudlow

How far will the Obama administration move to assert regulatory control over key sectors of the economy? Are we moving away from democratic capitalism and toward some sort of corporatist state-directed economy? That could be the biggest stock market and economic-growth issue facing us today.

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April 22, 2009

Honest Talk About Chinese Currency Manipulation By Tony Blankley

Last week, the Obama administration declined to cite China for currency manipulation despite the fact that most experts -- including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner during his confirmation testimony -- do not deny the obvious currency-rate fixing by China.

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April 22, 2009

Greatly Depressing By Howard Rich

History is written by many people, but those who write government school textbooks tend to hold disproportionate sway.

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