THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: Obama’s Iran talks will fail

Talks set to open Thursday between Iran and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany (the G5+1) are bound to fail. All the earnest good faith in the world won't change the character of the Iranian regime.

September 30, 2009

EDITORIAL: Loophole creates toothless tobacco ban

Until last week, all cigarette flavors were equal, then new Food and Drug Administration regulations made one flavor more equal than all the others. Because of a loophole written into the law, the FDA banned all flavored cigarettes except menthol. The only flavor sold by Philip Morris, the FDA's industry ally in passing legislation to allow the ban, just happens to be menthol.

September 30, 2009

EDITORIAL: Sex scandal double standard

When Republican Rep. Mark Foley was caught chasing congressional pages, he got exactly what was coming to him. In a blizzard of coverage (1,400 stories, according to Google news), Mr. Foley's creepy behavior was examined from every possible angle. Nobody wanted to hear that the congressman's stupid and objectionable behavior was confined to e-mails and text messages. His immediate resignation didn't quiet the furor. When two years of investigations found no crime, the results got barely a peep.

September 29, 2009

EDITORIAL: Medicare money malpractice

House lawmakers want to freeze a small increase in Medicare premiums for physicians' services next year. Once again, Congress is choosing to ignore the massive federal entitlement's dire fiscal picture for fear of angering older voters. This move only digs Medicare into a deeper hole.

September 29, 2009

EDITORIAL: Thoughtless tax undermines reform

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Montana Democrat, made it clear last week that he has no plans to tax Q-tips, Band-Aids and toothbrushes. Such an announcement is a Washington cliche - literally true but functionally false. A $4 billion annual "fee" that Mr. Baucus has proposed on manufacturers of "medical devices" is still a $4 billion fee, and its costs still will be passed on to consumers. Even if those same consumers won't see a direct price increase on their basic store-bought thermometers, their temperatures should rise when they realize that innovative technology is being strangled in the crib by punitive fees the industry can't afford.

September 29, 2009

EDITORIAL: Democrats try to pack the courts

Democrats aren't satisfied with the one-party state in which they control Congress and the White House and can politicize the Justice Department and take over the banking and automotive industries. Now liberal Democrats are pushing a court-packing scheme as well.

September 28, 2009

EDITORIAL: Leader of the Free World no more

Israel is looking like the new leader of the Free World. The previous leader, the United States, resigned this role last week at the United Nations to take the position of global community organizer. This was made plain by President Obama in his speech, titled "Responsibility for Our Common Future," in which he heralded "a new chapter of international cooperation." By contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a blunt and forceful call to action in the central challenge facing free people today. This is the struggle of "civilization against barbarism" being fought by "those who sanctify life against those who glorify death."

September 28, 2009

EDITORIAL: At the president’s pleasure

A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an "older man." At the very least, statutory rape occurred. Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse. That former teacher, Kevin Jennings, is President Obama's "safe school czar." It's getting hard to keep track of all of this president's problematic appointments. Clearly, the process for vetting White House employees has broken down.

September 28, 2009

EDITORIAL: Obama’s taxing logic

President Obama says Democratic health care proposals do not involve tax increases. That's simply not the case.

September 27, 2009

EDITORIAL: Unanswered questions from the NEA

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman and the White House finally responded to a controversial effort by political appointees of both the White House and the NEA to "leverage" government funding of the arts into cultural support for the administration's legislative agenda.

September 27, 2009

EDITORIAL: Obama’s nuclear-free fantasy

When it comes to the nuclear-weapons issue, President Obama wants to be a global community organizer. However, what we really need are some tough beat cops with a mandate to clean up the neighborhood.

September 27, 2009

EDITORIAL: Death panels by proxy

Yes, there are death panels. Its members won't even know whose deaths they are causing. But under the health care bill sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Montana Democrat, death panels will indeed exist - oh so cleverly disguised as accountants.

September 25, 2009

EDITORIAL: Silencing opposition to government health care

Seeing how the world works inside the Beltway is to receive a lesson in the arrogance of power. Anyone who has been to a ritzy Washington party has witnessed industry barons and corporate executives chortle at dumb jokes made by politicians and bureaucrats. Such fawning by titans of the private sector reveals how powerful government is. With the swipe of a pen, a bureaucrat can ruin a company or industry while enriching another. With the colossal expansion of government under President Obama, the subservience of the private sector to the public sector is growing, and with it comes increasing government intimidation. Today, the purveyors of nationalized health care are trying to silence opposition to an attempted government takeover.

September 25, 2009

EDITORIAL: No, you can’t read the legislation

Democrats don't want lawmakers to know what's in health care legislation before Congress votes on it. President Obama and Democratic leaders apparently recognize their chances of ramming through a vote are hurt if members of Congress actually have a chance to read the bills.

September 25, 2009

EDITORIAL: Federalizing medical records

President Obama claimed Monday that spending taxpayer money on electronic health care records would save lives and dollars. But the only thing assured is high upfront costs. Establishing an integrated national health information system isn't as easy or as beneficial as it sounds.

September 24, 2009

EDITORIAL: How to win a war

A U.S. president is engaged in an unpopular long-term counterinsurgency effort, ground commanders are asking for more troops, a skeptical Congress is pushing back. Haven't we been here before?

September 24, 2009

EDITORIAL: Squashing Internet freedom

Hardly anyone predicted the Internet and its consequences, with the amazing new freedom to communicate with almost anybody across the globe and easily look up facts. Who would have thought that someone could pull out a cell phone at dinner and have the most comprehensive encyclopedias in hand to peruse for information? All this was created without the federal government protecting us from the companies that were providing the service.

September 24, 2009

EDITORIAL: Worst foreign policy ever

Tomorrow, President Obama will chair a special nuclear-disarmament meeting by the United Nations Security Council. The White House bills this as a historic first, but it is typical of Mr. Obama's emphasis on style over substance. He will appear before the body with the weakest foreign-policy record of any new U.S. president in recent memory. An around-the-world tour of international hot spots shows that for all the president's lofty rhetoric, he can point to precious few accomplishments.

September 23, 2009

EDITORIAL: ACORN keeps falling

As scandals concerning the left-wing "community" group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) continue to metastasize, the organization seems to think it can handpick allies to "investigate" its own transgressions. Fortunately for the rest of us, the growth of independent writers and researchers using modern communications means there are plenty of other outfits that can and will expose corruption.

September 23, 2009

EDITORIAL: Depends on what the meaning of ‘tax’ is

President Obama seemed to be channeling President Clinton's disquisition on the meaning of "is" during his weekend media blitz. On ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Mr. Obama told George Stephanopoulos that the dictionary definition of the word "tax" isn't reliable. If the president doesn't like the dictionary, perhaps he ought to consult the very bill he was favorably discussing when he said a tax isn't a tax.

September 22, 2009