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Race Card Fraud

By THOMAS SOWELL

alt Credit card fraud is a serious problem. But race card fraud is an even bigger problem.
Playing the race card takes many forms. Judge Charles Pickering, a federal judge in Mississippi who defended the civil rights of blacks for years and defied the Ku Klux Klan back when that was dangerous, was depicted as a racist when he was nominated for a federal appellate judgeship.

No one even mistakenly thought he was a racist. The point was simply to discredit him for political reasons-- and it worked.

This year's target is the Tea Party. When leading Democrats, led by a smirking Nancy Pelosi, made their triumphant walk on Capitol Hill, celebrating their passage of a bill in defiance of public opinion, Tea Party members on the scene protested.

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It’s time to shift spending to states

By Jeffrey A. Miron
Cato Institute

The U.S. fiscal path is unsustainable, primarily because of out-of-control entitlement spending.

Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, which currently equal about 10 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, will expand to more than 30 percent by 2085, according to recent projections from the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget. The national debt is estimated to jump from the current 60 percent of GDP to several times the GDP.

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Keep your fingers crossed; maybe Congress will gridlock

By TOM BRENNAN

alt Things are looking up in Congress. With the virtual concession by President Barack Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs that Republicans will regain control of the U.S. House this fall, the possibility of gridlock is out there.

And what would do more good for this country than for Congress to do absolutely nothing for the next couple of years? When the legislative branch of our federal government is in session and free to act, it spends money at an unbelievable clip and has stood by while Obama launched full or partial takeovers of many private enterprises, including some whole industries, passing enabling legislation as he directed.

As it spends, the government grows larger, ever expanding in a frightening way that can only end in disaster. Better to tie their hands, let them hoot, holler and argue, and have nothing happen. The savings in tax money would be enormous. The country could breath easier – for a while. And count its pennies to see what’s left.

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Borrow your convictions; slather with butter

By WES PRUDEN

alt Politicians are not often burdened with convictions. They can always borrow some when survival is at stake. Each party has an archive of convictions that have worked in the past, and a governor or a senator in trouble can always get a little help from temps.

Temporary convictions are available online, and a governor, senator, mayor or even an alderman need only to dial in to party headquarters to download a useful dump, pretested by the pollsters.

Panic in election years is an occupational hazard for politicians. The Obama administration, for example, is suing Arizona for its sheer effrontery of trying to do what the federal government has a responsibility to do but won't. The Arizona law makes it a crime to be an illegal alien in the state, enabling police officers to ask someone they stop for speeding or running a stop sign for proof of his immigration status if there's a "reasonable suspicion" of violation of federal immigration law.