THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: Firehouse flunkies

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s obsession with racial grievance-mongering could get Americans burnt to a Published March 7, 2011

EDITORIAL: The Internet kill switch rebooted

Dumb ideas never die in Washington; they're just re-invented. One chestnut that simply refuses to expire would grant the president Mubarak-like power over the handful of private companies whose services provide the backbone of the Internet. Last month, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut Independent, reintroduced legislation that had been widely panned last session as the "Internet kill switch." Now the scheme has been re-imagined with a warm-and-fuzzy title meant to allay concerns. Published March 7, 2011

EDITORIAL: King charges the Saracens

The White House and left-wing activists are vigorously opposing congressional hearings on homegrown Islamic radicalism. Apparently they don't think there's a threat, or that if the government ignores it, danger will go away. Published March 7, 2011

BLANKLEY: Obama’s incumbent advantage

The media tend to be filled with many items that are either untrue or obvious. Last week - from Politico to cable television, from Karl Rove to Mike Huckabee - was a moment for the obvious to be stated and restated: "The GOP should not underestimate how hard it will be to defeat President Obama next November; indeed, he has to be considered the favorite to win the next presidential election." True. Published March 7, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama to the Internet: No ICANN

Freedom of information and communication on the Internet is playing a key role in supporting pro-democracy demonstrators in the Middle East and developing norms for civil society elsewhere around the world. But just when freedom is beginning to flicker, the Obama administration is seeking to give authoritarian regimes more power to impose censorship on the Web. Published March 4, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama’s energy transformation

President Obama has intentionally hamstrung domestic energy production under the delusional theory that the U.S. economy can thrive on so-called green power. As Mideast turmoil threatens the oil supply, the price of domestic crude has jumped above $100 a barrel and gas at the pump now exceeds $3.46 a gallon. This shows just how dangerous the Obama administration's economic and energy policies can be to our wallets. Published March 4, 2011

EDITORIAL: High-speed derailed

Florida's Supreme Court on Friday dealt a serious blow to President Obama's $53 billion high-speed rail pet project. The seven jurists sided unanimously with Republican Gov. Rick Scott's right to forgo $2.4 billion in federal taxpayer-backed grants the Obama administration wanted to blow on an 84-mile train track linking Tampa and Orlando. More and more, Republican governors are rejecting this type of federal bribe in the name of fiscal responsibility. Published March 4, 2011

EDITORIAL: Department of Redundancy Department

Every time a member of Congress sees a news story or is annoyed by something, he thinks, "There ought to be a law." Such laws go on to become programs that continue indefinitely, even after they have outlived whatever usefulness they might have once had. Given the limited creativity of politicians, these eternal programs frequently overlap one another, resulting in a duplication of effort that costs us at least $100 billion a year, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued Tuesday. Published March 3, 2011

EDITORIAL: Close the EPA

As Congress looks for ways to trim the budget, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) represents an opportunity for up to $9 billion in savings. This outfit has become little more than an advocacy group for trendy leftist causes operating on the public's dime. Many liberal policies being promoted are so unpopular that congressional Democrats can't muster the votes to get them through the proper legislative process. So they go to the EPA instead. Published March 3, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama’s state of Islamic denial

U.S. troops are gunned down by a shooter who screams “Allahu akbar!” before opening fire. Official statements are rushed out: The perpetrator was a lone wolf; his motive was unclear; there are no links to terrorism. Sound familiar? It should, because when Islam is the cause of American tragedy, President Obama hides his head in the sand. Published March 3, 2011

EDITORIAL: Republicans squander historic opportunity

If there's one thing politicians are good it, it's avoiding hard choices. The new Republican majority in the House appears - at least for the moment - not to be an exception. Despite having a clear mandate to make deep cuts in the current budget, the House proposed a mere $4 billion in pain-free reductions while putting off the question of a government shutdown for another two weeks. The timid approach met with overwhelming 91-9 approval in the Senate yesterday and a 335-91 vote in the House on Tuesday. Published March 2, 2011

EDITORIAL: Holder ill serves his ‘people’

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. played the race card in congressional testimony on Tuesday, referring to blacks as his "people" while neglecting the rest of Americans. That race-based lens pervades his Justice Department, causing consistently skewed enforcement of the law. Published March 2, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama is enabling jihad

Al Qaeda and Iran are cheering on the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, so why does the Obama administration think the Islamic extremists are losing? Published March 2, 2011

EDITORIAL: No hope for gun grabbers

The left has permanently lost the argument on gun control. Despite their best efforts to take advantage of the tragic shooting in Arizona to promote pointless restrictions on things like the size of handgun magazines, the propaganda campaign is unlikely to go anywhere. Instead, the right to keep and bear arms continues to gain steam as state lawmakers around the country are enacting measures that would have been unthinkable not so long ago. Published March 1, 2011

EDITORIAL: Leash law for lawyers

The Republican-led House of Representatives is fighting back against big-money plaintiffs' attorneys who use campaign cash to control congressional Democrats. Published March 1, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama’s Gadhafi waffle

Libya is engaged in a civil war. New protests have broken out in Oman, Bahrain and Yemen. The uprising in Tunisia, the pioneer state of the so-called "Arab Spring," is entering a second phase. As usual, the amateurish Obama administration has no idea what to do about any of this. Published March 1, 2011

EDITORIAL: The end of the American age

Frank Buckles, the last surviving American veteran of World War I, lived through the rise of the United States as a major world power and survived long enough to see the beginning of its decline. He died Sunday, aged 110, and much of America's greatness passed along with him. Published February 28, 2011

EDITORIAL: Medicare case could nix Obamacare

Otherwise free people suffer "direct, tangible harm" when forced into a government medical system. That's the argument in a Feb. 11 brief in a court case with direct ramifications for Obamacare. The plaintiffs protest that citizens must enroll in Medicare to collect Social Security benefits for which they paid a lifetime of taxes. The tangible harm is caused because Medicare hampers their ability to secure - with their own resources - the best health care available. Published February 28, 2011

EDITORIAL: Stopping the government land grab

The Virginia General Assembly last week gave its first approval to a constitutional amendment restoring the sanctity of private property in the commonwealth. The measure was made necessary by the reckless 2005 Supreme Court decision Kelo v. New London, which gave towns and cities free rein to grab land for the use and benefit of well-connected developers. Published February 28, 2011

EDITORIAL: Shutdown showdown week

By week's end, we should know whether the House majority has what it takes to stand up for fiscal responsibility against President Obama and Senate Democrats. As the stopgap measure currently funding the federal government runs out Friday, the House is proposing to vote Tuesday on a two-week extension that includes $4 billion in cuts, but Democrats appear insistent on maintaining the current inflated spending levels. Failure to reach a settlement by the weekend would result in a shutdown of the non-essential functions of the federal government. That wouldn't be a bad thing. Published February 25, 2011