2013 Politics Archive Stories

Democrats terrify Hispanics into thinking they'll be lynched if they vote for Republicans, and then turn around and taunt Republicans for not winning a majority of the Hispanic vote. This line of attack has real resonance with our stupidest Republicans. (Proposed Republican primary targets: Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham

China will almost certainly pass the United States in the total size of its economy within a decade or so. But if one looks also at military and "soft power" resources, the United States is likely to remain more powerful than China for at least the next few decades. Does it matter? When nations worry too much about power transitions, the

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has been leading the charge against the sexual assault crisis in the military, which has been struggling to curb the culture that yielded 26,000 cases of "unwanted sexual contact" in the ranks last year. A champion of the bill that repealed the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has pushed welcome legisla

One in five American women gives birth to a child before age 20, the highest rate of any developing nation. So, by all means, morning-after contraceptives should be available over-the-counter to women of all ages. But that availability, which apparently will happen now that the Obama administration has decided to drop its insistence on a

Sixty percent of kids in Richmond, Va., are without a dad in the home, reports First Things First of Greater Richmond. First Things First works to help men become actively involved in their children's lives in that city because, as the group explains, often "it's the fathers that leave the family... (W)e have a major father absenteeism i

The best thing we can give dads this Father's Day is support for paid family leave. "Take Time to Be a Dad Today!" exhorts a nationwide public service announcement promoting fathers' involvement with their children. But if the U.S. government really wants to promote fathers' involvement, it should adopt a proven policy: paid family leave

It's no news to anyone that I disagree strongly with President Barack Obama Obama on just about any issue or policy position you can name. But I'm not the least bit uncomfortable saying I admire something about the president that transcends politics and makes him a role model for every man in America. President Obama is a good fa

Instead of showing endless loops of IRS employees wasting taxpayer dollars line-dancing — Breaking news: Government employees waste millions of your dollars every single day! — I think it would be more useful for the public to hear a few crucial facts about the exploding scandal at the Internal Revenue Service. At Tuesday's c

Congress and the president are jousting once again over the cost of college loans, a perennial dilemma that faces a July 1 deadline to avoid a doubling of federally subsidized interest rates that would discourage thousands of potential students from seeking a college diploma. Everyone seems to be in agreement that something has to be don

How can "comprehensive immigration reform" benefit our American children and grandchildren, who will prosper from or suffer the consequences of our decisions? American immigration policy should be designed to enhance the economic, cultural and social wellbeing of Americans. On a planet of 7 billion people, millions would sacrific

Throughout our nation's history, the world's biggest risk takers, boldest thinkers and hardest workers have flocked to America's shores in pursuit of greater freedom and opportunity. Their contributions to our society and economy are no less important today than they were 200 years ago. In the face of changing demographics, shift

A sharply and oddly divided Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that police can collect DNA evidence from those arrested for serious crimes. "Taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment," Justice Anthony Kenned

There's something touchingly amusing in Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia adamantly defending the rights of the criminally accused, a group he typically has no sympathy for in other contexts. But there he was this week, arguing with authoritative condescension that letting police take DNA mouth swabs of arrested suspects is offensive

What happens when a big government study undermines the assumptions made by the writers of another pricey official report? Obvious, isn't it? When studies or parts of studies contradict each other's basic conclusions and assumptions, the ones that monied interests dislike will usually be ignored. So it is today, with four big gov

People are looking for the wrong "scandal" about Attorney General Eric Holder. The problem with Holder is the plain fact that, in the judgment of a wide range of legal colleagues, he has been a mediocre attorney general. Holder's mistakes in management and judgment are clear in the current controversy about leak investigations. He was si

DUBLIN — During a trip to Ireland, one thing stood out to me that explains most of Europe's high unemployment and slow economic growth: a lack of entrepreneurial spirit. It has led to economic malaise, and it has spread to the United States. Our bus driver in Ireland was an affable, fiftyish gentleman. He had worked union jobs in N

Fears abound as California faces the reality that besides all its other natural wonders, it sits atop an Arabian-sized oil and natural gas bonanza that can only be exploited via the process of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. One fear is that when oil drillers insert the mix of water, sand and chemicals used to force raw p

It's been a bad few weeks for cultural assimilation. Last month, two welfare-receiving immigrants in the United States, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds. By the end of the week, they had murdered a cop and engaged in a wild shoot-out and bomb-throwing melee with the

Chilly weather aside, most of the Jersey Shore's towns were back in business for the Memorial Day weekend, which was capped by another joint appearance of President Barack Obama and Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday. Those who would criticize the "bromance" between the Democratic president and the Republican governor should consider that this is wh

America's 100 million cable and satellite subscribers are forced to pay ever-higher bills for a growing number of channels they do not watch. The American people are being ripped off. Meanwhile, services such as iTunes and Netflix have led a revolution in how consumers purchase and experience music and video entertainment. They have upen

As someone who lives near the border with Mexico, I object to a part of the Senate's immigration bill. It includes $1.5 billion for new border walls and the waiving of laws for any "physical infrastructure" that Customs and Border Protection can dream up along the border. My home is 10 miles north of both the Rio Grande and a sec

The world's gun makers have a devil-may-care approach to the firearms violence that claims thousands of lives a year in America and causes billions of dollars in medical bills and other costs for unfortunate families: Bad stuff happens, and don't expect us to do much about that. Gun manufacturers such as Taurus, Glock, Browning,

Scandal after Obama scandal. Outrage upon Obama outrage. Remember the Benghazi cover-up story? Forget it. It's been thrown out like last week's garbage and is now buried deep in the mainstream media's landfill with previous underreported Obama scandals such as Solyndra and Fast and Furious. The Big Media have fres

As the election neared last year and it became clear that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney could not possibly win without more Latino support than he had so far earned, the national GOP made a symbolic move. The party hired Bettina Inclan, once an Arnold Schwarzenegger operative in California, to spearhead outreach to Hispanic

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911 forever made workplaces safer in the United States. The Rana Plaza factory tragedy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, must be this generation's equivalent. When the eight-story building that housed at least five garment factories collapsed last month, information revealed in the aftermath