Category: Column

Words mean what they say. That’s the basis for the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Halbig v. Burwell invalidating the Internal Revenue Service regulation approving subsidies for Obamacare consumers in states with federal health insurance exchanges. The law passed by Congress, Judge Thomas Griffith explained, provided for subsidies […]

Liberal megadonor Tom Steyer, failing to raise any significant outside money for his global warming Super PAC, turned to one of his San Francisco neighbors for a million dollar check. It was Herb Sandler, the subprime mortgage lender at the heart of the housing crisis, and like Steyer a huge hypocrite. Tom Steyer made his […]

Although Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said nothing new in her carefully manicured semi-annual testimony to Congress last week, her performance there, taken within the context of a lengthy profile in the New Yorker (that came to press at around the same time), should confirm that she is very different from any of her predecessors in […]

A teacher in South Dakota with a bachelor’s degree and 10 years of experience earns $33,600 per year, which is less than the average auto repair worker. This grievance against salary injustice is nothing new, of course, but this particular example comes to us from a new national study by the Center for American Progress, […]

Over the past three weeks, one Republican has gained more national attention than any other: Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX).He has been everywhere – calling up the Texas National Guard, appearing on network interviews, headlining: Sunday: shows, touring the southern border with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, appearing on The Blaze with Glenn Beck. Perry has penned national op-eds […]

The White House pretended to champion American workers this week with gimmicky initiatives on federal job training and “workplace innovation.” But far from the Beltway dog-and-pony show, a group of American workers ruthlessly shafted by the Obama administration was finally getting some real support — and inching toward justice. It was five years ago this […]

As legend has it, Groucho Marx sent the Friars Club a telegram that read, “Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” At least the Friars Club had standards. What to make of the United Nations? It has a single criterion for membership: existence. […]

It’s no wonder President Obama tries to lock his normally fawning liberal media out of his fundraisers. He says things he doesn’t want even them to hear — or report. Sometimes they complain, but their disgraceful loyalty never wanes. On the West Coast earlier this week to meet donors from two top Democratic super PACs, […]

Following the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision, one of the key talking points that emerged from enraged opponents of the ruling was: “My boss shouldn’t be involved in my health care decisions.” California State Senate candidate Sandra Fluke says on her official website that such a perspective is “common sense.” An Ohio Democrat is introducing […]

Hamas, with perhaps unwitting help from President Barack Obama, is achieving its war aim: to legitimize Islamic supremacism and Jew-hatred, and take it global. Jews are no longer safe in Europe or even in some places in the U.S. Who now recalls that when Hamas was elected, the world responded with disgust? Hamas was on […]

Nearly 70 years ago, on Aug. 1, 1944, Lieutenant General George S. Patton took command of the American Third Army in France. For the next 30 days they rolled straight toward the German border. Patton almost did not get a chance at his summer of glory. After brilliant service in North Africa and Sicily, fellow […]

Secretary of State John Kerry is the latest to think the power of his personal diplomacy can bring “peace to the Middle East.” But, once again, when one side publicly calls for the destruction of the other, what is there to discuss? Hamas, designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., has governed the Palestinian […]

Why isn’t Mexico doing more to deter unaccompanied minors from Central America from traversing Mexico to cross the U.S.-Mexico border? If this is a humanitarian crisis, then shouldn’t Mexico be taking in its neighbors? Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs, Jose Antonio Meade, met with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board Tuesday, so I had a […]

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas plans to order 1,000 National Guard troops to his state’s border with Mexico in an effort to stem the tide of immigrants illegally entering from Central America, dispersing around the country once they’ve made it into Texas. Critics will call it a stunt and accuse Perry of showboating, but at […]

This could be a terrifying tale right out of the Book of Meat Science Fiction, only this one isn’t fiction. It involves the elemental bond between humans and the critters we like to cook on a grill, or roast, or saute. But that could all end, because a tiny bloodthirsty bug known as the lone […]

I want the police to be better armed than the bad guys, but what exactly does that mean today? Apparently it means the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security equip even the tiniest rural police departments with massive military vehicles, body armor and grenade launchers. The equipment is surplus from the long wars we fought […]

Earlier this month, the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act was celebrated. During the act’s legislative debate, then-Sen. Hubert Humphrey, responding to predictions, promised, “I’ll eat my hat if this leads to racial quotas.” I don’t know whether Humphrey got around to keeping his promise, but here’s my question: Is it within the capacity […]

By sending 1,000 National Guardsmen to the Texas/Mexico border, Governor Rick Perry is stepping up to challenge the president and fill the vacuum left by Barack Obama’s lack of leadership in a way other possible presidential candidates cannot match. His boldness and courage come as a welcome relief for the legions of Republicans and Independents […]

Philip Gara LaMarche is a secretive political operative who funnels billions of dollars from undisclosed donors to nonprofits and astroturf groups. But you won’t hear unhinged Harry Reid railing Queegishly about him on the Senate floor. Why? Here’s why: LaMarche is a militant leftist philanthropist. He’s a protected elite — Columbia University grad, former ACLU […]

The nation’s No. 2 court on Tuesday slapped down the Obama administration in a 2-1 decision that could kill the president’s signature health-care law. A less-prestigious federal appeals court issued a contradictory opinion the same day, but if the Supreme Court upholds the D.C. Circuit’s ruling, it will force Congress back to the drawing board […]

On Monday, four days after Vladimir Putin’s minions in Ukraine shot down a passenger airliner carrying 298 people, including an American citizen, President Barack Obama emerged from the White House to issue a statement. Scowling at the camera, Obama stated: “Russia has extraordinary influence over these separatists. No one denies that. Russia has urged them […]

Here we go again with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry leveraging a tragedy to make another “strong case” based on limited evidence. We have already seen this in the case of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and chemical weapons. Now it’s Russian President Vladimir Putin’s turn for the global smear treatment. Presumably we’re supposed to […]

It was a really nice try. Heritage Action (the activist arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation) invited Sen. Elizabeth Warren to speak at an event dedicated to phasing out the Export-Import Bank. The Ex-Im, as it’s known inside the Beltway, has become a favorite target of populist forces on right. The Ex-Im gives U.S. taxpayer-backed […]

In a recent confrontation between protesters against the illegal flood of unaccompanied children into the United States and counter-protests by some Hispanic group, one man from the latter group said angrily, “We are as good as you are!” One of the things that make the history of clashes over race or ethnicity such a history […]

Forty-five years ago, there was a day like few others that rallied Americans and changed America forever. Yet I could find but one or two news stories about that momentous occasion and triumph. Do you remember what it was? It’s the type of event that America needs now, maybe more than ever before. If you’re […]

Efforts to proclaim moral equivalence are not always misguided; sometimes each side is equally at fault or close enough. But these efforts are often misguided and unhelpful — and sometimes harmful. Throughout my life, there has been an increasing trend to attach moral equivalence to all kinds of disputes and conflicts, such as Israel vs. […]

Who will be the GOP nominee in 2016? I don’t know, but I have a pretty good idea who the running mate will be: Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Unless Paul is the nominee. A new NBC News/Marist poll found that Paul would be the top GOP vote-getter against Hillary Clinton in critically important Iowa […]

When I was a graduate student at Columbia University’s Russian Institute, there was a great debate: Was the communist Soviet Union an organic Russian development or was it largely a cancer imposed on it? Those who held the organic view argued that the change from czar to commissar was only one of degree. Both were […]