The American Dream Is Not All About Money By Froma Harrop
We always talk about "The American Dream" -- about living it, saving it, wondering what happened to it. Few bother to define it.
Political Commentary
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December 2, 2010
December 1, 2010
Entrapment By Susan Estrich
Defenders of Mohamed Osman Mohamud are already arguing to the press that he was set up and in court that he was entrapped. Every state recognizes a defense that argues a defendant was "entrapped," but most of them define it narrowly, as do the federal courts.
December 1, 2010
The Great American Funk By Tony Blankley
I suppose it is to be expected that the Great Recession should be accompanied by a sweeping national pessimism in which our purported leaders and commentators express historic despair, while the people and corporations mope about, convinced that the sun will not come up tomorrow.
November 30, 2010
The Nuclear Threat Is Not a Partisan Issue By Froma Harrop
The recently leaked diplomatic cables reveal both Arab and Israeli horror at a nuclear Iran. Last year, Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, evidently told the American ambassador that the world had 18 months or less to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, warning "any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage." Bahrain's King Hamad sent a cable saying, "That program must be stopped," and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed said, "Ahmadinejad is Hitler."
November 30, 2010
You Can Stop Paying for Al Gore's Mistake By Debra J. Saunders
In Greece earlier this month, Al Gore made a startling admission: "First-generation ethanol, I think, was a mistake." Unfortunately, Americans have Gore to thank for ethanol subsidies. In 1994, then-Vice President Gore ended a 50-50 tie in the Senate by voting in favor of an ethanol tax credit that added almost $5 billion to the federal deficit last year. And that number doesn't factor the many ways in which corn-based ethanol mandates drive up the price of food and livestock feed.
November 29, 2010
For Tottering States, Bankruptcy Could Be the Answer By Michael Barone
We won't be able to say we weren't warned. Continued huge federal budget deficits will eventually mean huge increases in government borrowing costs, Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of Barack Obama's deficit reduction commission, predicted this month. "The markets will come. They will be swift, and they will be severe, and this country will never be the same."
November 26, 2010
Calling A Shamrock A Shamrock By Howard Rich
As the European economy grapples with yet another bailout of a bankrupt sovereign state, a storyline is emerging that seeks to frame this latest instance of government interventionism along deliberately disingenuous lines.
November 25, 2010
Confessions of a Non-Foodie By Debra J. Saunders
I am the opposite of a foodie. My favorite green vegetable is the pea -- fresh or frozen. My second favorite is celery. I like iceberg lettuce. At restaurants, I have been known to look longingly at the children's menu.
November 25, 2010
Make Levies, Not War, on the Rich By Froma Harrop
Most Americans dislike class-warfare talk aimed at rich people. It does not follow that they don't want the wealthiest among us to pay more taxes. Polls show they do. That puts Democrats in the mainstream on such matters. But Democrats still need a sophisticated way to discuss this, one that does not rely on simple-minded formulations pitting a "greedy rich" against an "oppressed poor."
November 24, 2010
Pat Me! By Susan Estrich
A revolt is apparently growing at the grassroots level -- being fanned by politicians and right-wing talking heads -- against the new procedures being used by the TSA to ensure that people with bombs and weapons don't get on airplanes with you and me and our loved ones. If you ask me, it's ridiculous. The revolt, I mean.
November 24, 2010
Save Our Troops from Futile Death in Afghanistan By Tony Blankley
The administration's Afghanistan War policy seems to be settling into a dismal combination of confusion and cynicism. Before the November elections the administration was adamant that the troops would start coming home by July 2011. This, it is presumed, was to keep the president's liberals calm.
November 23, 2010
The Hard Work of a Downtown Christmas By Froma Harrop
NEW YORK CITY -- Friday night in the big city, I'm bopping along Fifth Avenue with my brother, and the place is one huge construction site. But this evening's industriousness differs from the usual after-hours midtown work. Guys aren't pouring new cement, climbing out of sewer manholes or replacing air-conditioning systems. They're not unloading truckloads of girders or elevator parts.
November 23, 2010
Not TSA Pat-Downs, but Freedom Fondles By Debra J. Saunders
The latest controversy over Transportation Security Administration body scans and enhanced body pat-downs leaves no doubt: America truly is a nation of whiners.
November 22, 2010
Ways to Come to Grips With American's Fiscal Mess By Michael Barone
Is there any chance we can come to grips with our short-term and long-term fiscal problems -- the huge current federal budget deficit and the huge looming increases in entitlement spending?
November 19, 2010
On Earmarks By Joe Conason
It isn't the earmarks, stupid. Bullying Republican Senate leaders into a "voluntary" ban on earmarks may represent a political triumph for the tea party movement, but as a measure to reduce the federal deficit it is a meaningless substitute for real action.
November 18, 2010
See You at Thanksgiving By Susan Estrich
And so another class of high school graduates left home this fall, or said goodbye to their friends who left.
November 18, 2010
EPA to California: Go for It By Froma Harrop
Has the recent Republican sweep of the House doomed President Obama's clean-energy agenda? Possibly. Has it doomed America's? Hardly.
November 17, 2010
A Race Against Time To Balance the Budget By Tony Blankley
"If only we had sold our stocks a few weeks ago." "If only I'd had the brakes checked before she drove up to the mountains."
November 17, 2010
“Give Us Gridlock” By Howard Rich
While it lacks the panache of Patrick Henry’s impassioned “give me liberty” cry (which the Virginian borrowed from Cato, incidentally), the reality is that Republicans looking for a modus operandi in Washington next year could do a lot worse than “give us gridlock.”
November 16, 2010
Liberals Have Much to Like in Deficit Plan By Froma Harrop
Many liberals went bananas over the new plan to reduce deficits. The ideas put forth by the chairmen of President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission ignore their priorities, they lament.
