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Commentary by Debra J. Saunders

Most Recent Releases

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May 24, 2011

Supreme Court's Scary Power Grab By Debra J. Saunders

The U.S. Supreme Court effectively ordered California on Monday to release 33,000 inmates over two years from an in-state prison population that numbers about 143,000.

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May 18, 2011

The Tale of the Governator and the Baby By Debra J. Saunders

In 2004, Maria Shriver told Vanity Fair that many people were surprised that a Kennedy clan member would marry Hollywood bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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May 17, 2011

Ensign Disgraced Himself and Senate By Debra J. Saunders

Before John Ensign resigned as Nevada's junior senator on May 3, the Republican faced a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into a possibly illegal cover-up that followed an affair between Ensign and Cindy Hampton, a campaign aide who was married to the senator's administrative assistant. Last week, the committee released a report on the probe -- and it is ugly.

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May 15, 2011

Sarah Palin's Birther Baptism by Fire By Debra J. Saunders

As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin "demonstrated many of the qualities we expect in our best leaders," The Atlantic's Joshua Green reports in a must-read story.

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May 12, 2011

Immigration Flight Clutters the Path By Debra J. Saunders

President Obama addressed an enthusiastic crowd Tuesday when he spoke in El Paso, Texas, about liberalizing federal immigration laws. Audience members exhorted the president to "tear down" the border fence and called immigration hard-liners "racist." 

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May 10, 2011

Obama Values: Kill But Don't Waterboard By Debra J. Saunders

At the end of his "60 Minutes" interview, President Obama said of Osama bin Laden's death, "Justice was done. And I think that anyone who would question that the perpetrator of mass murder on American soil didn't deserve what he got needs to have their head examined." 

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May 8, 2011

Brown Wants To Cut Prison Population by a Fifth By Debra J. Saunders

How small is the California prison population likely to become if Gov. Jerry Brown has his way? In three years, California's prison population would be 20 percent smaller.

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May 6, 2011

Insecure Communities By Debra J. Saunders

San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey explained in The San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday Insight his opposition to Secure Communities, the federal program that automatically passes new arrestees' fingerprints to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The program applies to "everyone booked into a county jail," Hennessey complained -- "even (in) a minor matter, such as having no driver's license in one's possession in a traffic stop."

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May 3, 2011

Bin Laden Fall Means Afghanistan Spring By Debra J. Saunders

Nothing succeeds like success. In the years since 9/11, Americans have had to live with the fact that President George W. Bush failed to take Osama bin Laden "dead or alive" -- to use the phrase that the former president came to regret. 

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May 1, 2011

Intolerant Left Strikes Again By Debra J. Saunders

On April 25, gay-rights advocates -- led by the Human Rights Campaign -- scored a victory after the HRC applied pressure on a law firm hired to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and woman and denies federal benefits to same-sex partners. The firm fired its client. There are two reasons you should be outraged, no matter what your position is on DOMA.

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April 28, 2011

Happy Birth Certificate, Mr. President By Debra J. Saunders

Behold the damage Donald Trump hath wrought. Every credible fact check has established that Barack Obama was born in this country. Yet on Wednesday, a reality TV show ringmaster forced the president of the United States to prove it.

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April 26, 2011

What Would Jesus Cut? By Debra J. Saunders

It wasn't that long ago when Democratic members of Congress were warning about conservative colleagues trying to insert their religion into politics by trying to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. For issues concerning family planning, the left generally agrees that it is wrong to impose religion on politics. 

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April 24, 2011

Cult of 'Three Cups of Tea' Should Have Known Better By Debra J. Saunders

The first tip-off that Greg Mortenson's memoir "Three Cups of Tea" has some credibility issues comes in the book's introduction. Co-author David Oliver Relin writes that as Mortenson is flying over Pakistan, the helicopter pilot marvels to Mortenson, "I've been flying in northern Pakistan for 40 years. How is it you know the terrain better than me?"

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April 21, 2011

No Poking President at Facebook By Debra J. Saunders

Last year, when President Obama wanted to convince Americans that his policies were paying off and creating jobs, he visited a solar-panel plant in Fremont, Calif. "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra," quoth the president.

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April 19, 2011

The War on Users of Cold, Allergy Drugs By Debra J. Saunders

You know the war on drugs has gone too far when politicians keep ratcheting up restrictions on cold and allergy medications in order to prevent kitchen drug labs from buying pills and converting them into methamphetamine.

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April 17, 2011

Department of Obstruction of Justice By Debra J. Saunders

President Obama well may have begun another undeclared war -- this time on states that try to enforce their own death penalty laws -- on the dubious grounds that the Food and Drug Administration has not approved drugs intended to kill convicted killers.

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April 14, 2011

Romney and Obama -- Bipartisan Brothers By Debra J. Saunders

Mitt Romney is too much like Barack Obama. I don't see how he'd win the 2012 GOP nod because he's got too much in common with the guy he wants to replace. 

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April 12, 2011

Academic Mission or UCLA Speech Code? By Debra J. Saunders

If you think that academia is not the exclusive playground of the academic left, consider the fate of UCLA epidemiologist James Enstrom.

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April 10, 2011

GOP: Do Less, but Better; Dems: Do a Lot, and Worse By Debra J. Saunders

President Obama has dedicated his time in office to soaking up applause and shifting blame. Last year, when Democrats owned the White House, the House and the Senate, Congress didn't even bother passing a budget. Obama didn't seem to mind. But when Republicans put together a stopgap measure to fund the military and prevent a government shutdown, Obama promised to veto it. Obama called the measure "a distraction from the real work that would bring us closer to a reasonable compromise for funding the remainder of fiscal year 2011."

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April 5, 2011

Immelt, the Jobs Czar from Hell By Debra J. Saunders

The New York Times reported last month that General Electric earned $14.2 billion in international profits, including, $5.1 billion in the United States. Yet GE did not pay a dime in federal income taxes last year.