Rumor has it that conservative radio talk-show-host and best-selling compiler Bill Bennett will soon join CNN as a political analyst. Oh, where to begin. The natural thing to recall is that Bennett made national headlines a few months ago when he declared on his radio program that if “you wanted to reduce crime … if […]
To a limited extent, The U.S. Family Network, primarily a project of Tom DeLay, was already somewhat controversial. In April 2004, a Federal Election Commission investigation found that the group had illegally received $500,000 from the National Republican Congressional Committee. (The U.S. Family Network then funneled the money to another group, Americans for Economic Growth, […]
Guest Post by Morbo This Saturday marks my last day as a regular blogger on this site. Things are fine between the Carpetbagger and me, and I’ve really appreciated the opportunity he so generously gave me to write posts for the past year or so. I also appreciate everyone who took the time to read […]
There are plenty of reasons to worry about immigration “reform” measures recently passed by the House, but there’s one provision in particular that’s generating quite a bit of attention. Churches, social service agencies and immigration groups across the country are rallying against a provision in the recently passed House border-security bill that would make it […]
There are plenty of great museums in Washington, but Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) has an idea for one more: a national health museum near the Smithsonian. To hear Gingrey’s pitch, it sounds like a pretty straightforward and non-controversial concept: there would be one museum near the national mall devoted exclusively to medicine and health. “My […]
The bad news is 2005 was an awful year for tech security. The worse news is the federal government could invest more in cybersecurity, but doesn’t appear interested. 2005 saw the most computer security breaches ever, subjecting millions of Americans to potential identity fraud, according to a report published Thursday. Over 130 major intrusions exposed […]
Take a look at your phone bill sometime and you’ll notice that the telecoms charge something called a “federal excise tax.” Of course, a phone bill is filled with a series of modest fees for one thing or another, so most of us just pay the bill and never give these line items a second […]
Two weeks ago, at his year-end press conference, Bush responded to a question about whether the Justice Department would investigate the leak that exposed his warrantless-search program. “There is a process that goes on inside the Justice Department about leaks, and I presume that process is moving forward. My personal opinion is it was a […]
The New York Times noted today that “a surprise awaits the nation’s highest earners when they file their 2006 tax returns” because “their taxes are going down again.” It’s not the new tax-cut package congressional Republicans are working on as part of their budget deal; the NYT is referring to already-passed tax cuts that are […]
The idea of an American invasion of Canada is not entirely new. The U.S. first gave it a shot in 1775, and tried again during the War of 1812, but the campaigns were never successful. A couple of centuries later, we can all look back at the “incidents” as quaint misadventures. But as the Washington […]