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Relevance: 28% Posted on: March 1, 2012
Ancient societies were mostly closed societies. Modern society (at least as conceived by most of America’s “founding fathers”) was to be something very different: open. But today there’s way too much “managed” competition, basically closing out businesses not on some insider list. Julie Crowe, a veteran of the armed forces…
Relevance: 28% Posted on: November 12, 2009
Government is a business — a big business, employing more people than any other. It dominates by regulating, restricting, taxing and subsidizing. Government is also “too big to fail,” which is why, increasingly, politicians and public employee union bosses have ascended to the top of the heap of a growing…
Relevance: 28% Posted on: October 11, 1999
Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities begins with these famous words, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness . . ." But Dickens's immortal words come in handy today. Arkansas is experiencing…
Relevance: 28% Posted on: December 24, 2002
We're a wealthy nation and that's a good thing. But often when we hear someone referred to as "wealthy" as in "wealthy contributor" the speaker is implies that that's a bad thing. As if to be wealthy is more likely a consequence of corruption than of hard work and character.…
Relevance: 28% Posted on: August 3, 2020
The president’s July 30 tweet reminded us he can still manipulate the news cycle. “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can…
Relevance: 28% Posted on: June 23, 2014
Time, gentleman, please! North Dakota legislators had introduced HCR 3034 and passed it at the pleadings of Secretary of State Al Jaeger. The old-timer had argued his office needed more time: time to review petitions, time to accommodate legal challenges to ballot measures. Democracy can be such a fast-moving target,…
Relevance: 28% Posted on: November 20, 2014
“What too few in Washington appreciate — and what the new Republican Congress must if we hope to succeed — is that the American people’s current distrust of their public institutions is totally justified.” So wrote Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) in The Federalist shortly after the big election earlier this…
Relevance: 28% Posted on: October 11, 1999
It was career politicians against the people. The case was U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton . Back in 1995 in a controversial 5 to 4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the 23 state laws limiting congressional terms. Most of these laws did not actually stop incumbents from being…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: September 8, 2003
Yeah, right. Congress passed the McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan campaign finance law to clean up corruption and even the playing field supposedly. My biggest concern is that the law gives Congress the power to regulate what groups like U.S. Term Limits and others can say about incumbents. Our Founders forbid such an arrangement…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: January 17, 2000
The best argument for voting for the Democrats is they aren't the Republicans. On the other hand, the best argument for voting Republican is they're not the Democrats. With choices like these, no wonder we're fed up with both parties. One of few things Congress did to change the corrupt…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: February 14, 2008
We won. They lost. I mean the February 5 defeat of Proposition 93 in California. Final tally: 46 percent Yes, 53 percent No. The end game of another huge effort by Golden State politicians, spending $17 million to trash term limits. Most California voters like term limits, like how they…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: September 18, 2000
If I told you that anarchy reigned in L.A., you might suppose I was referring to corruption and criminal activity by Los Angeles police. Actually, this particular anarchy is taking place in Los Angeles County and it has to do with the desire of career politicians there to trash democracy…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: October 4, 1999
On too many tough streets it's a jungle where young people are often pressured into joining gangs. One place you don't expect gang activity is the halls of our nation's Capitol. Yet, in Congress pressure to join the gang is enormous. The congressional gangs are organized by the leadership of…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: May 18, 2016
How does that old, pithy anti-term limits slogan go, again? “We already have term limits, they’re called indictments!” Wait . . . is that it? Must be. This election year — the year of the outsider, the year of unbridled contempt for establishment, Washington, D. C., politicians — has seen…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: April 26, 2013
Suppose you get a 4 percent pay cut. Suppose you can’t borrow; you can only reduce your spending. Your household budget includes rent, videos, food, saving for a rainy day, and a front-door lock to replace the one destroyed when your home was broken into yesterday. What’s the first thing…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: December 21, 2010
Some big players at the game of politics misinterpret the nature of today’s general political discontent, and offer only hollow novelty in response. Take the “No Labels” movement. A number of big-name politicians, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, push the idea of a centrist,…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: August 2, 2021
An “expensive friend” — in documents obtained by federal prosecutors, that’s how former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones sized up former Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder. What made the Speaker so Big Ticket? “Republican Larry Householder hatched a plan to cement his hold on power for an additional 16…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: May 16, 2014
Can the American people squeeze out the middle . . . like popping the world’s biggest zit? Ralph Nader thinks the answer is Yes, if by “the middle” we mean the political center, where the Republican and Democratic Party higher-ups want to be, and where most folks in Congress find…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: September 15, 2003
As I speak, the highest court in the land has been considering the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill. All 456 pages of it. In the aftermath of the McCain-Feingold law incumbent congressmen are raising more money than ever, out-raising challengers nine to one by last report. Has the…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: April 17, 2016
The presidential race gets more and more interesting on the Democratic side, as the nation's most famously corrupt insider beats off the mostly savvy charges of a demagogic socialist. Click on over to Townhall.com for this weekend's Common Sense update. Then come back here for more reading: CNN: Transcript of…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: May 2, 2019
“The Democratic Party leadership is choosing machine politics,” charged Alexandra Rojas, the young executive director of Justice Democrats, “over ushering in a new generation of leaders and the fundamental idea of democracy.” She specifically assails the DCCC’s blacklist of political professionals working for Democratic Party candidates who dare to challenge…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: November 24, 2003
What's going on in Russia? It's starting to look like the Soviet Union again. In some respects it probably never changed, but this isn't exactly a step forward. Russian President Vladimir Putin arrested a wealthy businessman, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who also happened to be a political opponent of Vladimir Putin. The…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: March 4, 2020
Lord Acton’s Law of Power states the chief problem of government: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It has broad application. Take traffic lights. They are there to prevent accidents and make navigating roads a better experience for all. The basic idea is to establish and enforce…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: May 4, 2018
Yesterday, jurors convicted former Arkansas State Senator Jon Woods on 15 felony counts consisting of conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. Woods was at the center of a corrupt scheme to reward cronies at Ecclasia College and AmeriWorks with GIFs — state General Improvement Funds — in return…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: January 10, 2017
Former Arkansas State Rep. Micah Neal pled guilty last week to a felony charge of conspiring “with an Arkansas state senator to use their official positions to appropriate government money to certain nonprofits in exchange for bribes." Neal, who embraced graft his first month in office, received $38,000 in “legislating-around”…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: April 10, 2000
Our Constitution begins with the words "We the People." Was that just a typo? I ask because David Broder, the Washington Post reporter, has written a book attacking the right of voters to enact laws directly through the initiative process. Broder argues that the process destroys representative government, has no…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: January 28, 2011
Some reform proposals are so modest they have scant hope of passing. Why? Because the people who pass the bills are so immodest. Congressional egos would be severely bruised if Representative Michael McCaul’s proposal were enacted. His bill would prohibit lawmakers from erecting monuments to themselves glorifying the fact that…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: April 24, 2012
Hopes for a “Tea Party”-based revolution sputter against the rocks of partisan politics. The non-partisan nature of the movement has dribbled away as Republicans — not Democrats — have courted Tea Party support. And GOP leaders have remained firmly in control. James Hohmann, writing in Politico, shows that the old…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: January 26, 2010
Haiti has suffered horrific devastation. It didn’t have to. There was no way to prevent the 7.0 earthquake itself. But estimates of as many as 200,000 dead? That didn’t have to happen. Economist Donald Boudreaux recalls that in 1989, an equally powerful quake hit the San Francisco Bay area. It…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: July 20, 2017
I’ve studied totalitarianism. I’ve often wondered how societies slide into The Big Lie. And I know it has something to do with sins of omission. Jordan Peterson, on the Mark Steyn Show. The full context of this quotation regards his fracas with the University of Toronto, where he teaches, regarding…
Relevance: 27% Posted on: February 17, 2012
On Monday I reported on the Ron Paul campaign’s “open secret” strategy: Gaining delegates in the caucus states, while letting the caucus-night straw poll numbers basically take care of themselves. The “popular” vote on caucus nights in states like Iowa and Minnesota and Maine may show Santorum or Romney as…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: June 15, 2012
Party politics is often underhanded. Many of our country’s founders knew this all too well, and tried to avoid the factionalism of party politics. But still, two political factions emerged, and our politics has been dominated by two parties ever since. And believe me, the two insider parties work mightily…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: August 29, 2017
August 27, 2017 (Townhall.com) “Previous attempts at restarting a new — and more politic — version of the Trump Administration have been dashed along the rocks of the President’s desire to be applauded and loved by his base,” warned former Washington Post writer turned CNN editor-at-large Chris Cillizza, just prior…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: December 26, 2011
Twenty years ago yesterday, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned his position as head of the Soviet Union. It was a momentous occasion. It was also slightly comic, since he was resigning from a government that didn’t quite exist any longer. December 25, 1991, was the last day of the Union of Soviet…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: December 24, 2017
We have the names of the bureaucrats responsible. But the scandal? Don't call it that! (Says the insider press.) Click over to Townhall for the precise words to describe this sad recent history. If you return here you can read more on the subject: Washington Post: Fallout from allegations of…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: March 30, 2014
Some simple solutions are really complex problems in disguise. This weekend, at Townhall.com, your Common Sense columnist expands on a very popular meme, covered earlier: that the federal debt is no problem because the government, after all, can just print more money. Amazing. It's like we, wow, never thought of…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: July 9, 2001
We hear a great deal about money corrupting politics these days. But Paul Farago, with the Cascade Policy Institute, says politics is corrupting money. He points out that much of the problem is created by politicians dispensing special favors or threatening to bludgeon the market to shake down contributions from…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: February 5, 2020
The Democrats’ impeachment of Donald Trump has made us all familiar with Joe Biden’s son, Hunter — for his Burisma boardroom gig, anyway. Raking in millions despite lack of knowledge of the country or the business of the Ukrainian corporation in question certainly has the appearance of corruption. But don’t…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: May 25, 2010
America has a relatively robust tradition of respecting freedom of speech. Nevertheless, our government officials often find criticism not only annoying but actionable. But actionable how? Campaign finance regulation offers officials one avenue to go after political critics. The CFR regime is so ambiguous and complex that it often seems…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: January 21, 2018
Over at Townhall.com, war is waged against death and madness. Click over, come back. Let Common Sense be your guide.... Washington Post: A new U.S. air blitz in Afghanistan isn’t stopping for winter. But will it stop the Taliban? Al Jazeera: US and NATO Troops in Afghanistan Counter Punch: Time…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: November 14, 2011
“There’s no such thing as too much power.” That’s the word from Democrat Herb Wesson, former Speaker of the California Assembly. Wesson was defending the Speaker’s awesome control over the purse strings. In a story headlined, “The power of one: Perez controls Assembly with money,” the Sacramento Bee reports: “Assembly…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: November 28, 2014
For two days my message has been about thankfulness. I’m going for the trifecta. This may disappoint Sheldon, a commenter at ThisisCommonsense.com, who pooh-poohed my earlier expression of gratitude. “It sounds as though one of the guests invited to your Thanksgiving table will be your very distant relative Pollyanna,” he…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: February 2, 2012
On February 2, 1980, details of ABSCAM, an FBI operation to uncover political corruption, were released to the public. FBI agents had posed as representatives of Abdul Enterprises, a fictional business owned by an Arab sheik. Under FBI video surveillance, agents met with the officials and offered them money or…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: August 7, 2014
The Good Ol’ Boy Network is under attack. And there’s no nicey face, kiss-and-make-up from its enemy, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich), to his just-defeated primary opponent, Brian Ellis. Ellis called Amash to congratulate his opponent on election night, after Amash defeated Ellis by a rather large margin. Amash refused to…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: December 4, 2014
A woman starts a new job. She has experience in accounting, learning, getting things done; no experience in that particular job in that particular office. Within days, though, she impresses her new boss with her skill and productivity. She knows what to do and she’s doing it. True story. Perplexed?…
Relevance: 26% Posted on: May 9, 2012
Voters in yesterday’s Indiana Republican Primary made history. U.S. Senator Richard Lugar became only the second senator in history with 36 years or more of incumbency to be defeated in his own party’s primary. It wasn’t close, either — State Treasurer Richard Mourdock trounced Lugar, winning three of every five…
Relevance: 25% Posted on: January 4, 2014
On Townhall.com, in the year 2014 A.D., columns by Paul Jacob: January 5: A Movable Voter Fraud Feast? — Boy, have Colorado's insider Democrats whipped up something for (that is, against) the voters this time! January 12: Embracing Economic Justice — Want social justice? Want peace? Give liberty a chance.…
Relevance: 25% Posted on: November 10, 2015
Why do career politicians even bother with elections? Well, increasingly they don’t. After all, to professional politicians, elections are dangerous events that place their expert rule at risk. Best to avoid them altogether. Who knows when we proles might throw, as ABC’s Peter Jennings put it in 1994, “a temper…
Relevance: 25% Posted on: February 21, 2013
Guilty. That’s what Jesse Jackson, Jr., former congressman, pleaded in court yesterday. Fraud. That’s the name of his crime, though it was a particular kind of fraud, the taking of campaign contributions for personal use. Partnered. The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s famous son was not alone, nor did he merely “fall…
Relevance: 25% Posted on: December 2, 2015
My brother, Tim Jacob, blames me for sucking him into politics. And I have reason to feel guilt, for politics is filled with — ugh — politicians. Back in 1992, I urged Tim to join Steve Munn and Lance Curtis, who were launching a petition drive to put term limits…