Current Events: In Our Opinion
One year ago, the devastating tsunami took more than 220,000 lives and wrought untold destruction across a massive area that encompassed most of the Indian Ocean. And in a testament to the better virtues of human nature, people from across the globe were moved to do and give what they could to help...[more]
The Specter of Switching Sides
The infamous history reaches all the way back to 1987, which is a long time when you're talking about a sitting United States Senator. He is the Senior Senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and he has played a primary role in the Senate's "advice and consent" on every nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States for nearly a quarter century...[more]
Federal Telephone Excise Taxes and You
Some readers undoubtedly know that they pay a three percent federal excise tax on telephone service. Fewer may recall that the tax was enacted in 1898 as a temporary tax to fund the Spanish-American War and remains in place to this day, which is as good a reason as those countless others to be cynical about any government promise...[more]
Economist Explains Why Wal-Mart's Business is Good for America
Boycott threats are not keeping consumers away, however, as they continue shopping at their local Wal-Mart for the convenience and low-prices they offer...[more]
Regular readers of this space know that we've been a frequent critic of today's media. And, to be sure, most editorial cartoonists are on the leftward edge of the ideological spectrum...[more]
Terrorism Journalist Discusses Media Myths
Top White House officials, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney, have been on speaking tours lately promoting progress in Iraq. Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld delivered a speech at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in which he criticized the news media's coverage of the war, claiming it emphasized negative stories, and said Iraqis themselves are more optimistic about their country...[more]
Flying with Scissors: The TSA Changes the Rules
Yes, fellow travelers, that ever-consistent paragon of national security, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), is changing its policy, allowing scissors (less than four inches long), screwdrivers, wrenches and pliers (less than seven inches long) to once again be taken aboard airline flights...[more]
No matter how you slice it, the college football post-season is not an appropriate topic for Congress, whose powers are supposedly limited by a little document called the Constitution...[more]
Yet that is not the case this holiday season, as gas prices have fallen substantially in recent weeks. Nonetheless, Congress is debating a measure that would impose a multi-billion dollar windfall profits tax on U.S. oil companies, following the industry's recent good earnings announcements...[more]
Provably Qualified: President Bush's Supreme Court Short List
The professors did not have high expectations for the five judges who were frequently mentioned as President Bush's "short listers" for seats on the Supreme Court. In fact, the law professors bluntly stated their "expectation ... that the Bush Five" — Judges Samuel Alito, Emilio Garza, Edith Jones, J. Michael Luttig and J. Harvie Wilkinson —"would fare abysmally in the tournament (given [the law professors'] perception of ideological focus of the current administration)..."[more]
Judge Samuel Alito, Jr., Answers Judiciary Committee Questionnaire
This week, Judge Samuel Alito, Jr., President Bush's nominee to be the next Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, filed his written answers to the questionnaire submitted to him by the Senate Judiciary Committee...[more]
"The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions..."[more]
Nearly two years ago, stories first started to appear that provided the first hints about the monumental corruption of the U.N.-Iraq Oil for Food program. And like so many other tales of scandal, the Oil for Food story has now come full circle...[more]
Slanted Alito Scholarship from a Prejudiced Professor
It's about time the U.S. Senate or the mainstream media vetted those publicly attacking Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito as thoroughly as the Judge himself...[more]
Examining the Presidential Powers of War and Peace
On November 7th, the United States Supreme Court announced, over strenuous objections by the Bush administration, that it will review the legality of the administration's planned military commissions for accused terrorists, setting up what could be one of the most significant rulings on presidential war powers since the end of World War II...[more]
America's New Love Affair with Taxes: Uh Huh
Immediately after last week's off-year state elections, a host of liberal screech monkeys loosed a litany of overblown claims regarding what selected outcomes would mean for federal elections in 2006...[more]
The newly released film “Good Night, and Good Luck,” chronicles famed journalist Edward R. Murrow’s running duel with Senator Joseph McCarthy during the early 1950s...[more]
Gunning for Limited Government
Nearly a decade ago, Judge Samuel Alito, Jr., asked whether “the Commerce Clause still imposes some meaningful limits on congressional power”...[more]
The Revolutionary Governor: Schwarzenegger Stalls
In his long string of action movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger played characters who were invincible. In his focused business ventures, he has been shrewd and successful...[more]
Annan Fudges the Facts about U.N. Control of the Internet
Once, in a fit of spontaneous candor, President Reagan famously declared, “Facts are stubborn things.”...[more]
Author Discusses Similarities Between Reagan and Churchill
President Bush’s approval ratings are at all-time lows. But as far as second-term presidents go, he is not alone...[more]
Live Free Taxed or Die and Be Mad as Hell
When the tax-nabbing city burghers of New London, Connecticut decided to set a record for greedy government by confiscating private property to give to developers...[more]
Internet Free Speech: Simplicity Itself
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives struck yet another blow against the First Amendment by refusing to pass a bill that would clearly protect free speech on the Internet...[more]
A Great Month for Legal Reform, Sort Of
October was a great month for legal reform in Washington. Well, sort of...[more]
Former NRA President Exposes the Lies and Misinformation Aimed at Florida’s “Castle Doctrine” Law
There are some folks who would like us to believe that the Wild, Wild West now starts in the Sunshine State...[more]
Caution: Your Printer is a Government Spy
It seems like there’s a conspiracy theory for everything...[more]
At 60, It’s Time for the U.N. to Shape Up or Shut Down
A recent Presidential proclamation declared Monday, October 24, to be United Nations Day here in the
Former Presidential Advisor Dick Morris Talks about Condi vs. Hillary in 2008
Who will be elected president in 2008? If you ask Dick Morris, former President Clinton’s political consultant for decades, he will tell you that it will be Hillary Clinton...[more]
Freedom of the Press Is Not Temporal
Faced with confusing and conflicting speculation, supported by few uncontested facts, we pass for now on yet another bloviation. There's already plenty of that, distinguishing neither mainstream nor new media, revealing mostly the ignorance of some, the viciousness of others, the bloated egos of many...[more]
Several bills are being considered in Congress to increase border security between the United States and Mexico. These proposals are part of a larger effort at immigration reform...[more]
Just Say No to United Nations Control of the Internet
You're an international organization. You've spent the last few years perfecting corruption by managing the largest financial scandal in the history of the world. Your peacekeepers are routinely committing repulsive acts of sexual abuse and pedophilia...[more]
How Long Could Your State Run on ANWR Oil?
Recent disruptions in oil production caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, coupled with
Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law:
It Ain’t What the Bradys Say It Is
Most readers of this website will not be surprised that some anti-gun advocates have serious difficulties with facts, truth, logic and the derivatives thereof...[more]
Given the suffering and anarchy that followed Katrina’s devastation of the Gulf Coast, it’s tempting to look for scapegoats...[more]
This is the second of a two-part interview with Erik Jaffe, a constitutional law expert and appellate attorney who clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas...[more]
Silly Questions for the Week of October 7
Don’t you wish that Harriet Miers were still head of the State Bar of Texas so she could launch an investigation into misuse of office by Travis County Prosecutor Ronnie Earle?...[more]
Agreeing With Professor Tribe…
Two months before the Rehnquist Court recessed for the final time, Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe announced...[more]
New U.N. Scandal, Same Old U.N. Scandal
Like the Oil for Food scandal before it, the latest disclosures indicate corruption and conflict-of-interest at the highest levels of the world organization’s leadership...[more]
‘No Comment’ from the Washington Post
Michael Getler, the ombudsman of the Washington Post, must not have liked the complaint we sent him two weeks ago...[more]
CFIF Urges Massachusetts to Reject New Red Tape for Cell Users
This week, CFIF joined a coalition of major organizations to urge Massachusetts legislators to reject a proposal to increase taxes and regulatory red tape on cell phone users...[more]
An Insider’s Look Behind the Curtain: An Interview with a Former
The United States Supreme Court began its new term this past Monday...[more]
Silly Questions for the Week of September 30
Is Cindy Sheehan more credible than Baghdad Bob? Will her credibility with the media be enhanced when she reveals she was abducted by space aliens?...[more]
Midday Thursday, the U.S. Senate confirmed John Roberts to be the 17th Chief Justice of the
Senator Russell Feingold didn’t ask Judge John Roberts any questions about the constitutionality of campaign finance “reform” during his four-day-long confirmation hearing...[more]
Undocumented Outcomes at the U.N.
Earlier this month, the United Nations claimed to have attracted the largest ever gathering of world leaders and heads of state...[more]
Medal of Honor Recipient Colonel Bud Day Takes On Anti-War Activists
The recent anti-war rally was a first for many protestors. Others, like folk singer Joan Baez, simply dusted off their peace shirts for their latest march on Washington...[more]
Silly Questions for the Week of September 23
If Native Americans of Louisiana originally warned the French against building New Orleans below adjacent sea, lake and river levels, were they smarter than the Army Corps of Engineers?...[more]
Who You Gonna Trust: CFIF or the Washington Post?
On September 20, the Washington Post published “Alaska Natives Offer a Herd of Reasons to Block Oil Drilling” by Vanessa de la Torre...[more]
The “Truth” about ANWR: Tell It All, Sarah James
Larry Schweiger, President of the National Wildlife Federation, has e-mailed supporters that Sarah James, spokesperson for the Gwich’in tribe of native Alaskans, is in Washington to tell Congress the “truth”...[more]
How quickly the Democrats forget their own history....[more]
Michael Graham Takes On FEMA, the Government and the Media After Hurricane Katrina
Despite being forced out by Washington radio station WMAL-AM for refusing to soften his description of Islam as a “terrorist organization,” radio talk show host Michael Graham held nothing back in his recent interview...[more]
The United States Constitution is an extraordinary document. It protects our rights and freedoms. It outlines the blueprint of our government. And it limits the government’s power...[more]
Silly Questions for the Week of September 16
U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and Supreme Court nominee John Roberts are both lawyers. If you were accused of a crime, which one would you choose to represent you?...[more]
Pledging Allegiance to More Constitutional Uncertainty?
Just as we predicted, the Supreme Court didn’t do anyone any favors a year ago by relying solely on a legal technicality to overturn the 9th Circuit’s misguided Pledge of Allegiance decision...[more]
Gov. Schwarzenegger Now Playing Role of ‘Nutrition Nanny’
At the California Health Summit today, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law California Senate Bill 965, which adds additional restrictions to the sale of soft drinks...[more]
Gauging the Katrina PR Crisis and Reining In the Supreme Court Media Circus
Hurricane Katrina caused heavy damage along the southern Gulf Coast of the
Remembering Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
With the passing of William H. Rehnquist, the 16th Chief Justice of the United States, America lost a universally respected jurist and a supremely dedicated public servant....[more]
A Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Is Coming to Town
You’d think Christmas was coming early to our nation’s capital given what several Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have been doing...[more]
Truths and Myths of Hurricanes, Global Warming and Fuel Shortages
Over the last year the Gulf Coast has been devastated by hurricanes, most recently Hurricane Katrina...[more]
Ward Churchill ‘Indicted,’ His Lawyer Claims Victory
Well, okay, Ward Churchill hasn’t really been indicted. Indictments in the non-academic world mean something...[more]
Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?
This is not a piece about Cindy Sheehan. We don’t want to write a piece about Cindy Sheehan. There have been too many pieces about Cindy Sheehan...[more]
The T.S.A. Gets Retired Teacher, Able Danger Got Lawyers
Phyllis Dintenfass is now a criminal. On July 26, a federal jury in Green Bay, Wisconsin, convicted her. Phyllis Dintenfass is 62 years old, a retired teacher...[more]
Bernard Goldberg Targets ‘100 People Who Are Screwing Up
Author Bernard Goldberg spoke with the Renee Giachino about his recent bestseller 100 People Who Are Screwing Up
Confirmation Process Shouldn't Be a Political Quest for Legal Outcomes
In the abstract, federal judges have a relatively simple sounding mission: administer our justice system by interpreting and applying the law...[more]
States Race to Restore Private Property Rights
Less than two months after five justices on the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was constitutional for local governments to seize private property for private development...[more]
By Reid Alan Cox: I never thought I’d be rooting for Florida State. After all, I’ve been a fan of the Florida Gators for years...[more]
Kofi Annan Stained by Oil for Food Scandal
This week, the U.N. Commission investigating the Oil-for-Food scandal issued a devastating report concluding that two senior U.N. officials took bribes...[more]
It was only a month ago that Republicans couldn’t raise their hands fast enough in defense of property rights and home ownership...[more]
The Smithsonian’s Museum of Political Correctness
Last week, the U.S. Senate approved legislation sponsored by liberal Republican Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) to create National Women’s History Museum....[more]
Former Congressman Bill McCollumn Discusses John Bolton, Filibusters and More
Former Florida Congressman Bill McCollum discussed the recess appointment of John Bolton and national security issues...[more]
CFIF Praises Bolton Appointment
The Center for Individual Freedom praised President Bush for bypassing obstructionists in the U.S. Senate and using his constitutional authority to appoint John Bolton as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations...[more]
CFIF Tells to Congress to Slash Technology-Squelching Red Tape
This week, CFIF joined more than 30 groups representing millions of Americans to urge Congress to eliminate cumbersome regulations that are preventing new providers from competing with monopolistic cable companies...[more]
The Privileged Press, May We All Enjoy the Freedom
America learned just how privileged the press is after the Federal Election Commission released one of its rulings last week...[more]
Why Politicians Think We’re Stupid: An Interview With Herman Cain
Herman Cain, the former pizza magnate and U.S. Senate candidate, recently talked with CFIF's Renee Giachino about his new book They Think You’re Stupid — Why Democrats Lost Your Vote and What Republicans Must Do to Keep It...[more]
Dellinger’s Weather Vane Imitation
In a column in the Washington Post, former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger does his best impression of a weather vane, swinging at the direction of the hot air blowing from liberal interest groups...[more]
Roberts’ Nomination Leaves Liberals Scratching Their Heads
To a live primetime television audience Tuesday night, President George W. Bush announced his long-anticipated choice to serve as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the
Judge John Roberts: Legal Top Gun
In general, Americans aspire to have the best of everything ― the best food, the best sports, the best military ― and the best Supreme Court...[more]
CFIF Praises Judge Roberts’ Nomination to the Supreme Court
President Bush today nominated Judge John Roberts to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. In response, Jeff Mazzella, President of the Center for Individual Freedom, made the following statement...[more]
President Bush Introduces Supreme Court Nominee Roberts
On July 19, 2005, President Bush nominated Judge John G. Roberts to be Associated Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Here is the full text of the President's remarks...[more]
While The New York Times and other media outlets try to monopolize the news cycle speculating about what Karl Rove did or did not tell reporters, it’s worth recounting that liberal leakers didn’t make such headlines when their lips went loose...[more]
Will Florida’s School Choice Program Be Expelled?
Florida’s Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in the case challenging the state’s school voucher program. Clark Neily, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, joined the Center’s Corporate Counsel Renee Giachino to discuss the case...[more]
Fairness Isn’t Part of the Obstructionist Playbook
As President Bush deliberates on whom to nominate to fill the first Supreme Court vacancy in more than a decade, it’s worth contemplating the other side of the confirmation equation: the U.S. Senate...[more]
Each summer
The President Consults with Liberal Senators
(a Double Super Secret Transcript)
President Bush has been consulting with liberal Senators about his Supreme Court nominee, and CFIF has the transcript...[more]
Liberals Play the Terrorism Blame Game
In the aftermath of last week’s London bombings, most Britons and Americans turned their thoughts to the victims and their families. Many liberals, however, immediately turned their thoughts to the blame game...[more]
Michael Reagan Discuses His New Book, 'Twice Adopted'
Michael Reagan joined CFIF's Renee Giachino on "Your Turn -- Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense" to talk about issues that confront our culture today and his recently released book Twice Adopted...[more]
Londoners Stand Firm, And So Must Americans
London was originally built as a Roman fortress. And since that time, toughness and resilience have remained fundamental traits for all of those who have made their homes beside the Thames...[more]
Judith Miller Goes to Jail…for You
A journalist — Judith Miller of The New York Times — is in jail today. Her lost freedom is ours. Long before some of this country’s judges decided that the Constitution does not mean what it says, that Constitution prioritized freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press first and foremost against government intrusion...[more]
The Center for Individual Freedom has expanded its effort to educate Virginians about the major differences between Governor Mark Warner’s and Lt. Governor Tim Kaine’s records on the Second Amendment and the death penalty...[more]
Author Bill Gertz Discusses ‘Treachery’
Bill Gertz, the national security reporter for The Washington Times, recently discussed his latest bestselling book, Treachery: How America’s Friends and Foes Are Secretly Arming Our Enemies...[more]
Why the Supreme Court Should Matter to You…
And It’s Not for the Reasons that You Think
Last week’s announcement that Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is retiring created the first Supreme Court vacancy in more than 11 years and set off a high-stakes, high-profile battle over who will replace her...[more]
CFIF Urges New Supreme Court Justice to Protect Constitution
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced today that she would retire after more than 20 years on the Supreme Court. In response, Jeff Mazzella, President of the Center for Individual Freedom, made the following statement...[more]
CFIF: TV Issue Ads Expose Tim Kaine’s Real Record on the Death Penalty and Second Amendment Rights
The Center for Individual Freedom today began airing a television issue ad across Virginia educating the public about the major differences between Governor Mark Warner’s and Lt. Governor Tim Kaine’s records on the Second Amendment and the death penalty...[more]
Update: Kaine Runs from His Record in Response to CFIF Issue Ads
“Tim Kaine can try to run from his anti-Second Amendment, anti-death penalty record, but he won’t ever escape it."...[more]
CFIF Warns Senate about Drug Importation Liability Risks
Any new litigation or liability that results from legalizing the importation of drugs from foreign countries will only add to the litigation and liability crisis that currently plagues our courts...[more]
Jed Babbin Explains Why the United Nations and Old Europe Are Worse Than You Think
Former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Jed Babbin recently joined Renee Giachino to discuss his new book Inside the Asylum: Why the United Nations and Old Europe are Worse than You Think...[more]
Brazil’s Legislation Breaking Drug Patents Could Cost U.S. Companies Billions
Today the Center for Individual Freedom urged the Bush Administration to consider imposing trade sanctions against Brazil if the country breaks American patents. Brazil has been threatening to violate drug patents for years...[more]
The Caribou Con: In Search of ANWR Truth
As Congress once again contemplates the wisdom, necessity and consequences of oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), one of the most persistent arguments against it has been the alleged potential threat to the Porcupine Caribou herd, so-named after the Porcupine River, which is within the herd’s range...[more]
First Amendment Attorney Floyd Abrams Talks About Three Decades of Free Speech
Noted lawyer Floyd Abrams recently appeared on "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense," to discuss his new book Speaking Freely that recounts his career-long defense of the First Amendment...[more]
Henry Saad got thrown under the bus. Plain and simple...[more]
The Short Life of Rehnquist’s Long View
Chief Justice William Rehnquist may or may not retire in the next few weeks, but a U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down Monday suggests that the curtain has already fallen on his jurisprudential legacy...[more]
House Committee Votes to Slash U.N. Budget
This week, the House International Relations Committee took long overdue action. By a vote of 25 to 22, the committee moved to cut
Rocky Mountain News Publishes “The Churchill Files”
Since the inception of controversy over University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, the Rocky Mountain News has led all other media in news coverage, investigation and analysis...[more]
Reporting Media Bias: A Discussion with Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in the Media’s Cliff Kincaid recently appeared on the radio program “Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense” to discuss media bias and how it has become more blatant...[more]
CFIF to FEC: Soften Proposed Internet Regulations
The Center for Individual Freedom today urged the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to soften its proposed regulations of political speech on the Internet in order to minimize the new rules’ impact...[more]
CFIF Urges Supreme Court to Take Reporters’ Contempt Cases
The Center for Individual Freedom filed an amicus curiae brief asking the Supreme Court to grant review of a lower court’s decision to hold New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time Magazine correspondent Matthew Cooper in contempt...[more]
Discussing The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy with Author Byron York
CFIF's Renee Giachino recently interviewed National Review’s White House Correspondent Byron York about his new book, The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, and the shadow Democratic political machine that emerged in the 2004 elections...[more]
Keep the Ball Rolling on Asbestos Legislation
After months of negotiations, the Senate Judiciary Committee last week endorsed a bill to create a privately-financed asbestos victims trust fund...[more]
It is now little more than a day after the infamous gang of 14 in the U.S. Senate decided that they would control the fate of President Bush’s judicial nominees...[more]
Last night, fourteen so-called “moderates” temporarily hijacked the U.S. Senate, defying the President of the
Frist: Agreement Falls Short of Principle
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) made the following statement on the Senate floor on Monday evening, May 23 after the announcement of an agreement betwen 14 Senators to scale back the use of filibusters to block judicial confirmations...[more]
Senators Strike Deal on Judicial Filibusters
On Monday, May 23, fourteen Senators -- seven Republicans and seven Democrats -- reached an agreement that they say will limit the use of the filibuster to obstruction judicial confirmation. Here is the full text of that agreement...[more]
The Magnificent Seven Confront the Dirty Dozen
As the debate over judicial confirmations rages on the Senate floor, a Dirty Dozen Senators have been trying to cut a backroom deal that would allow them to avoid voting on the Constitutional Option...[more]
Senate Democrats Distort ‘Checks and Balances’
The Senate’s ‘Advice and Consent’ role in the confirmation process is to approve or reject Presidential appointments by simple majority vote, as the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent make clear...[more]
Don't Buy the Democrats' "Rules Change" Spin
The assertion that Republicans are planning to “change Senate rules” is creative political spin by Senate Democrats and their surrogates...[more]
Liberal BS v. Senate Horse Puckey
If Priscilla Owen is confirmed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Republic as we know and love it will not much longer survive...[more]
Judicial Confirmation Hypocrisy
As the Senate moves closer to a vote on the Constitutional Option – a vote to end the filibusters against President Bush’s judicial nominees – Senate Democrats have ramped up their rhetoric in an effort to defeat the measure...[more]
Majority Leader Frist Opens Judicial Debate
Opening the debate on Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen’s nomination to a federal appeals court, Majority Leader Bill Frist made the following statement...[more]
The Constitutional Option Explained
Today, the Senate begins an historic debate aimed at ending the Democrats’ unprecedented obstruction of the President’s judicial nominees...[more]
A Brief History of the Use of the Constitutional Option
The Constitutional Option is nothing new. Senators have used it or tried to use it a number of times over the years...[more]
CFIF Launches Ad Campaign on Judicial Nominees
As the Senate this week begins its long anticipated debate on ending the filibusters against President Bush’s judicial nominees, the Center for Individual Freedom today announced an ad campaign urging an end to the Democrats’ obstruction...[more]
CFIF Files Ethics Complaint Against Minority Leader Reid
Complaint says Minority Leader broke Senate Rules by referening confidential FBI report in public...[more]
Senator Frist Takes Final Shot at Judicial Compromise
Table Now Set for Vote on Constitutional Option
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist offered a final compromise plan to end the partisan obstruction of the judicial confirmation process in the Senate once and for all...[more]
WHO’s Infantile Preoccupation with Baby Formula
The human race is facing serious health challenges from HIV/AIDS, bird flu, SARS, and drug-defeating super bacteria to name only a few. So what will the World Health Organization debate in two weeks at its annual assembly? ...[more]
Supreme Court Rules
Certain Convicted Felons May Have Guns:
So Where’s the Liberal Outrage?
According to several recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have outraged conservatives, foreign court decisions should have a bearing on U.S. jurisprudence. Most of us contrarily believe that the job of U.S. judges, hard enough as it is, is to apply and interpret U.S. statutes and the U.S. Constitution, which do not in them say refer to the Most Excellent High Court of Tergoolistan to interpret this...[more]
Lies, Damn Lies and the Fight Over Judicial Confirmations
In today’s political climate, partisan street brawls are the norm, not the exception, in our nation’s capital. Whether the issue is Social Security reform, the war in Iraq, a national energy plan...[more]
Last week, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan opined that Saddam Hussein collected most of his ill-gotten oil booty “on the American and British watch,” not as a result of the massive corruption in the U.N.-run Oil for Food program...[more]
Making the Right Choice on Drug Importation
Drug importation is not only illegal, it is unsafe. Unfortunately, far too many Americans, particularly seniors, are unaware of or simply ignoring those facts...[more]
CFIF Joins With Coalition to Correct Misinformation About the Constitutional Option
In a letter to Senate leaders, CFIF joined 50 other national organizations to make clear that while we strongly support measures to overcome the partisan obstruction of the President's judicial nominees, we oppose any action to limit the use of the filibuster on legislation...[more]
Importation Legislation Plays ‘Russian Roulette’ With America’s Health
Rising prescription drug costs have Americans, especially our nation’s seniors, scrambling to find affordable medicines...[more]
John Bolton, President Bush’s nominee to be Ambassador to the United Nations, is a certified tough guy. That’s one of the reasons we support him wholeheartedly and without reservation, for the job...[more]
Earlier this month, the U.S. Trade Representative granted
In political circles, it is common knowledge that Democrats at all levels rely on generous financial support from plaintiffs’ lawyers...[more]
CFIF Urges Court to Overturn Louisiana Election Law
The Center for Individual Freedom filed a brief Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, urging the court to strike down a Louisiana campaign finance law that regulates independent political speech...[more]
True Heroism: An
Interview with the Spokesman for the Coalition to Salute
Renee Giachino recently interviewed J.R. Martinez, a young American soldier
injured in
CFIF: U.S. Must Stop Brazil from Stealing American Patents
While the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office this week announced a new initiative to end overseas counterfeiting (“STOP!”) to much fanfare, it decidedly turned its back on protecting American patents abroad by allowing Brazil to proceed with plans to violate the patents of three U.S. drug makers...[more]
LOST at Sea: The Treaty that Wouldn’t Die
In Congress, bad ideas are like zombies — always rising from the dead and finding new ways to cause trouble. The latest example is the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), formally known as the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea...[more]
Last week, Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) said he would block Stephen L. Johnson’s confirmation as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unless the EPA cancelled a research study to be conducted in Duval County (Jacksonville), Florida...[more]
USA Freedom Corps Director Discusses Volunteerism in America
Desiree Thompson Sayle, Deputy Assistant to President Bush and Director of USA Freedom Corps, talks about America’s increasing desire to volunteer and President Bush’s creation of USA Freedom Corps...[more]
CFIF Urges California Court to Recognize Privilege for Online Newsgatherers
The Center joined a group of webloggers, online publishers, law professors and free speech advocacy organizations arguing that online journalists have the same right to protect their confidential sources as the mainstream media...[more]
CFIF Tells Senate to Overcome Obstruction of Judicial Confirmations
The Center for Individual Freedom today joined more than 150 national and state organizations, representing millions of voters across the country...[more]
Social Security Reform: An Interview with Leanne Abdnor
Leanne Abdnor, President of For Our Grandchildren and founder of Alliance for Worker Retirement Security recently traveled with President Bush to Florida to promote the President’s Social Security plan....[more]
The Right Medicine for the Senate
When those who wrote our founding documents and crafted our constitutional system contemplated the Congress, they envisioned a group of citizens assembling for brief periods a few times a year to do the nation’s business...[more]
Congress: Don’t Drive Fannie and Freddie Into the Wall
It seems that everybody you talk to is watching NASCAR. Last year, 13 million people attended NASCAR events, with millions more tuning in from home...[more]
Welcome to the Hotel Colorado:
Once, Current and Future Asylum of and for Ward Churchill
The University of Colorado has completed the first baby step in its dragonquest to decide the employment fate of Ward Churchill...[more]
CFIF Tells Congress to Restore Free Speech
In a letter reproduced here, the Center urges Conress to consider and approve H.R. 1316, the “527 Fairness Act of 2005,” so that Americans’ free speech rights can begin to be restored...[more]
U.N. Reform Should Start with Annan’s Resignation
Mired in scandal, plagued by corruption, and facing irrelevance, the United Nations is in desperate need of repair. In response, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan last week unveiled his long-awaited proposal for reforming the troubled world body...[more]
American Justice Partnership President Discusses Legal Reform
Legal reform was the topic of discussion when Dan Pero, President of the American Justice Partnership, joined the Center’s Corporate Counsel, Renee Giachino, on “Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense."...[more]
Considering the Reporter’s Privilege … Secretly
Over the past few months, courts across the country have issued a flurry of decisions on whether and to what extent newsgatherers may assert a privilege to protect their confidential sources...[more]
Weighing the Risks of Social Security Reform
Much of the national debate on Social Security reform has focused on the potential risks involved with President Bush’s proposed personal retirement accounts...[more]
Forgetting Facts While Making Law
The facts really should matter — especially when the justices of the highest court in the land exercise their most awesome power to strike down laws duly enacted by our elected representatives...[more]
We’ve been to our share of Congressional hearings, and most are about as dull as infield dirt. But a House Government Reform Committee hearing slated for March 17 on the use of steroids in baseball ought to be full of fireworks...[more]
Character and Chaos at the University of Colorado
“It’s what you do after you find out things have gone wrong that tests your character.” We agree with that comment by former University of Colorado Regent Jim Martin...[more]
Oliver North Discusses ‘War Stories II: Heroism in the Pacific’
Lt. Col. Oliver North was a recent guest on “Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense,” with Renee Giachino. In his most recent book, War Stories II: Heroism in the Pacific, Oliver North honors our Nation’s soldiers...[more]
CFIF Applauds Selection of John Bolton for U.N. Ambassador
“This is an outstanding selection. John Bolton has repeatedly demonstrated
that Americans can count on him to be an unwavering advocate for
Of all the selfish exploitation schemes that greedy trial lawyers have perpetrated on our justice system, their abuse of asbestos litigation is certainly the worst...[more]
A Personal Message From CFIF President Jeff Mazzella
I want to thank each and every one of you who has participated in CFIF’s blast fax campaign to end the obstructionist filibusters blocking President Bush’s judicial nominees...[more]
An Open Letter to Colorado University's President
Significant issues regarding the employment of Professor Ward Churchill by the University of Colorado are cascading so quickly that it is difficult to know where to begin...[more]
So. You bought some tin-can hybrid econotoy powered by a burble motor, greased with biodegradable, recycled chicken fat. Saving that gas. Doing your thing for the environment...[more]
Exorcising Salt: In Whose Interest?
America’s food police are a spooky lot, providing alternate doses of humor and consternation, crying for essays asking “can’t we all just get along,” and then delivering more explaining why we cannot...[more]
Spitzer’s Overreaching Finally Coming Back to Haunt Him
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has made himself the darling of the media and a “hero” for the little guy through years of aggressive legal action against any corporate boogieman he could dredge up and bully into a headline-grabbing settlement...[more]
Roosting Chickens: Ward Churchill and the University of Colorado
Ward Churchill, the justifiably embattled ethnic studies professor at the justifiably embattled University of Colorado, is a walking case history of much that is wrong with publicly-funded universities...[more]
Florida Justice Reform Institute Director Discusses Legal Reform
Recently, on the radio program “Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense” the Center’s Renee Giachino interviewed Pam Philp, the Executive Director of the Florida Justice Reform Institute, about the goals of the recently-formed organization and the need legal reform in Florida...[more]
Injudicious Secrecy and an Unfree Press
Apparently the public doesn't have a right to know. That's the lesson that will be learned from Tuesday's federal appeals court decision announcing "there is no First Amendment privilege protecting journalists ... from testifying ... or otherwise providing evidence ... regardless of any confidence promised by the reporter to any source." But reading further into the decision, it only got worse...[more]
U.N. Reacts to Scandals: “It’s Not Our Problem”
For months, the United Nations has been rocked by one report after another of scandal, corruption, mismanagement, misconduct and abuse. And incredibly, for the U.N.’s senior leaders, it’s never their problem...[more]
SBC’s Acquisition of AT&T: Win-Win for Consumers and Telecom Industry
What was once a market consisting solely of the infamous Ma Bell monopoly — broken up in 1984 — the telecommunications industry has exploded in the past couple of decades with many vendors offering new, competitive low-cost services...[more]
Volcker Releases First Report on U.N. Oil for Food Scandal
Last week, the U.N. committee investigating the Oil for Food scandal released its first “interim” report of its findings and recommendations...[more]
More Coverage of the Volcker Report:
Sevan, Spare Parts, and Smuggling
U.N. apologists have tried to downplay the Oil for Food scandal by arguing that Saddam Hussein's ill-gotten funds came more from oil smuggling than from corruption in the U.N. Oil for Food program. Last week’s report from the Volcker Committee thoroughly undermines this argument...[more]
Findings on Kofi and Kojo Delayed
Readers will find many interesting tidbits in last week’s interim report from the U.N. committee investigating corruption in the Oil for Food program. But they won’t find a single word addressing possible wrongdoing by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan or his son, Kojo...[more]
Audit Problem Reflects Culture of Mismanagement
An entire chapter of the Volcker committee’s interim report is dedicated to a review and analysis of the U.N.’s internal auditors...[more]
Interview with M-Law's Bob Dorigo Jones
Recently, on the radio program “Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense,” the Center’s Renee Giachino, interviewed Bob Dorigo Jones, about his organization, national efforts at legal reform and the “Wacky Warning Label” contest...[more]
Center Supports 'First Amendment Restoriation Act'
The Center for Individual Freedom today announced its support for the First Amendment Restoration Act (H.R. 46), re-introduced by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) for the 109th Congress...[more]
Last Sunday, in living rooms, dens, basements and bars across the country, Americans gathered to watch a major event. For some, the event was a football game...[more]
The Return of the Campaign Finance Crusaders
As if the restrictions on political speech in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) — better known as McCain-Feingold — weren’t enough, the “reformers” are at it again...[more]
Ads Urge FCC to Reject Cost Increase for Pre-paid Calling Cards
The Center for Individual Freedom this week joined the Concerned Veterans Communications Coalition, a group made up of more than a dozen grassroots and military organizations, in launching a national ad campaign...[more]
Iraqis worldwide turned out to vote this past week in the first free elections
in more than a half century. Inside
Urge Congress to pass REAL Immigration Reform
In today's post 9-11 world, it is inconceivable that people who entered
Thinking About Social Security
We like Social Security reform. We love the politics of it. We readily acknowledge that we suffer adult attention deficit disorder during discussions of Social Security economics. While that would seem to disadvantage us against those who create economic projections with abandon, we do understand a factor that is far more important...[more]
CFIF Joins New Legal Reform Alliance
In an effort to bolster legal reform in the states, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) today officially launched the American Justice Partnership (AJP). The partnership brings together leading national and state organizations to coordinate the fight for effective legal reform... [more]
The McLawsuit is back yet again. A federal appeals court has reinstated the case nearly a year and a half after a federal judge dismissed (for a second time) the class action complaint, which claims that McDonald’s is responsible for the weight, girth and health of two named teenagers and countless “other similarly situated persons.”...[more]
Volcker Panel Postpones Report after Missing Key Information
To no one’s great surprise, the much anticipated release of an interim report from the U.N. committee investigating the Oil for Food scandal has been postponed, and the reason for the delay raises fresh doubts about the committee’s investigation...[more]
Interview with Law Professor John Yoo
Last week, University of California-Berkeley law professor John Yoo spoke with the Center's Renee Giachino on radio talk show “Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense," about the U.S. Supreme Court’s position on foreign court decisions, likely vacancies and President Bush’s current and impending judicial and executive nominations...[more]
Famous Excerpts Of Inaugural Addresses
Since George Washington took the first Presidential Oath of Office in 1789, the inaugural address has been one of our nation’s most treasured political rituals. Traditionally, Presidents have used inaugural addresses to outline the principles which will guide their administrations...[more]
CFIF Presidential Inauguration Quiz
Do you know which President gave the longest Inaugural Address? Or the shortest? Do you know which President had the Oath of Office administered by his father? Or who was the only woman to administer the Oath? Answers to these questions and many more are included in CFIF's Presidential Inauguration Quiz. Take the the Quiz and see how much you know about the rich history behind U.S. Presidential Inaugurations...[more]
CFIF Urges FCC Not to Increase Calling Card Costs
In a letter to the FCC, the CFIF urges the commissioners to resist any temptation to allow regulatory changes that would increase the cost of a phone call home for the men and women serving in America’s armed forces...[more]
Limited Oil for Food Disclosure Hints at High Level Corruption
As reporters and commentators have digested the 58 internal audits and a briefing paper released this week by the U.N. commission investigating the Oil for Food scandal, many have concluded that they contained little significant information...[more]
Report Finds ‘Clear Conflict of Interest’ in CBS-Kerry Campaign Contacts
The news was all bad this week for CBS when an independent panel led by former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh and former Associated Press President Louis Boccardi issued its report about how "60 Minutes" erred so badly in airing a segment attacking President Bush based on memos that were apparently forged...[more]
Interview with Johnathan Zuck on European Court's Microsoft Decision
Last week, on the radio program "Your Turn – Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense," the Center's Corporate Counsel, Renee Giachino, spoke with Jonathan Zuck, President of Association for Competitive Technology, about the recent ruling issued by a European court against Microsoft...[more]
On Advice of Counsel: The Media vs. Robert Novak
Specifically, the story focused on Novak’s silence in the aftermath of his naming Valerie Plame as the CIA officer who recommended that her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, be sent to Niger to investigate an alleged sale of nuclear bomb-making stuff to Iraq. Big flap, Novak’s story caused, still Energizer Bunnying along...[more]
U.N.-Fit to Lead Relief Effort
The recent tsunami in Southeast Asia killed more than 150,000 people and decimated countless communities. The world’s response to the devastation has been unprecedented. Governments and individuals around the globe are contributing billions to help the victims and aid the recovery...[more]
Interview with General Tommy Franks
On the radio program "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense," the Center’s Corporate Counsel, Renee Giachino, interviewed General Tommy Franks about his recently released book, American Soldier...[more]
The United Nations has reversed its decision to fire Dr. Andrew Thomson, co-author of the revealing book Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, according to the Associated Press...[more]
CFIF Condemns European
Court’s Decision Against Microsoft
The Center for Individual Freedom today condemned the refusal of the
European Court of First Instance to delay the imposition of sanctions on Microsoft
while its appeal of the European Union antitrust case is being decided. The
decision forces Microsoft to immediately pay a whopping $664 million fine to
the EU, and compels the company to make parts of its Windows operating system
available to its competitors...[more]
The re-election of President George W. Bush by a solid majority of American voters apparently made no difference at all … at least when it comes to how the Left is handling confirmations...[more]
Last week, we urged Congress to make two common sense immigration proposals a top priority when the House and Senate return to work in January. While they’re at it, they should also correct an unfortunate injustice in our existing immigration laws: the inflexibility of an obscure edict known as the 2-year rule...[more]
U.N. Employee Speaks Out, Gets Fired
In June, we commented on the extraordinary book Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, which was co-authored by three veterans of U.N. peacekeeping and humanitarian missions: Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson. At the time the book was released, Cain had already left the U.N., but Postlewait, an administrator, and Thomson, a physician, remained. This week, in an outrageous display of heavy-handed revenge, the U.N. began to purge the remaining authors, notifying Thomson that his contract would not be renewed...[more]
As President Bush looks below cabinet level for those in his administration who need to be moved on down the road, he would do well and good to whip a pink travel ticket on Centers for Disease Control Director Julie Gerberding...[more]
Imagine for a moment, a day about a year from now.Two men, dressed similarly in khaki pants, button-down shirts and sensible shoes walk simultaneously into different ends of a shopping mall in Towson, Maryland, a suburban community just outside of Baltimore and only 45 miles from Washington, D.C. It is 2 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, just three weeks before Christmas, and the mall is packed with frazzled holiday shoppers. Many are children, waiting impatiently for a photo on Santa's knee...[more]
Last month, an Indian drug maker that specializes in producing knock-off versions of brand-name medications removed all its antiretroviral drugs from the World Health Organization's list of approved pharmaceuticals...[more]
Super Size Me and Morgan Spurlock… Let's keep them both out of our schools.
Morgan Spurlock has been pushing his misleading portait of obesity through his movie Super Size Me. Now, he wants to take his message into our schools. But he's the wrong messenger with the wrong message...[more]
Another winter has come in Washington and brought with it another pork-laden omnibus spending bill. That’s right. Thanks to Congress’s continued inability to do its job, taxpayers are once again left holding the bag as billions of our hard-earned dollars are wasted...[more]
On the radio program "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense," the Center’s General Counsel, Renee Giachino, recently interviewed Kevin Ring, author of Scalia Dissents: Writings of the Supreme Court’s Wittiest, Most Outspoken Justice, about the U.S. Supreme Court and Justice Antonin Scalia’s place on its bench...[more]
A Letter to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture
This week, the Center urged New Jersey officials to reject a proposed plan to ban certain food and beverages from New Jersey Schools. The Center argued that such would ban would not address childhood obesity, but instead would reduce choices for students and abandon an opportunity to teach children to eat and drink in moderation...[more]
Post Election Selection Trauma: Political Epidemic
Among the ironies of the failed presidential candidacy of John Kerry is that he who expressed such concern for the state of health insurance may now have imposed significant new burdens on the system by losing...[more]
Make no mistake, the issue of judicial confirmations played a pivotal role in President George W. Bush winning a second term and a stronger majority in the United States Senate...[more]
Volcker Should Save His Credibility and Resign His Post
Last April, bowing to intense pressure, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan named a supposedly independent panel to investigate charges that the world body’s administration of the Oil-for-Food program was corrupt...[more]
Eric Schlosser’s bestselling diatribe against the fast food industry, Fast Food Nation, is a monumental self-contradiction built on inconsistencies and misleading statements reported as facts. Most fundamentally, Schlosser bemoans the homogenization of American culture and alleges a decline of American individualism...[more]
CBS, CNN and ABC: Caught in the Tank with Kerry
On November 4, Jodi Wilgoren of The New York Times reported details of election night television coverage that are yet to get the attention they deserve. Buried deep in a story, far from the front page, here’s what Wilgoren wrote: "The critical moment came at 12:41 a.m. Wednesday, when, shortly after Florida had been painted red for Mr. Bush, Fox News declared that Ohio — and, very likely, the presidency — was in Republican hands...[more]
On the radio program "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense," the Center’s General Counsel, Renee Giachino, recently interviewed Terry Eastland, Publisher of The Weekly Standard, about the impact of "values voters" on the 2004 election...[more]
It’s Time for Congress to Kill the Pig
President George W. Bush has put forth an ambitious agenda for his second term in office. From working to pass legislation putting the shackles on opportunistic plaintiff’s attorneys who abuse our justice system to simplifying the tax code; from winning the War on Terror to reforming Social Security, the President’s agenda is one of freedom and prosperity for the American people....[more]
Make no mistake about this. The President and his brilliant, disciplined political team won the election. They did so against a stacked deck. But as impressive as the President’s victory was, Senator Kerry got close. The irony-in-chief is that he only got that close as a result of the same factors that ultimately produced his loss...[more]
In every generation, America has been graced with heroes who have gone to war to protect our freedom and defend our ideals. These heroes have worn all colors of uniforms — Army green, Marine Corps khaki, Air Force and Navy blue. But no matter the color of their uniform or the manner of their service, they’ve always been there, under the Stars and Stripes, fighting America’s battles...[more]
You would think that with managing the Oil for Food scandal, working to undermine U.S. foreign policy, pushing for global taxes and advocating a sweeping restructuring of the Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would be going out of his way to avoid creating more problems for himself and the world body...[more]
On Election Day, voters in several states made their voices heard on legal reform. In California, voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 64, an initiative to stop trial lawyer shakedowns of small business owners...[more]
CFIF Launches 'Litigation Watch 2004'
In anticipation of one of the closest and, indeed, most litigious presidential contests in U.S. history, the Center for Individual Freedom today launched Litigation Watch 2004, the definitive online clearinghouse for the status of and up-to-the-minute news and analysis about election-related litigation in key battleground states and across the country...[more]
Wimps in Paradise:
The New York Times Disclaims Voter Abuse, By the Sun
"In Florida, which has begun early voting, elderly people have waited for as long as three hours, sometimes in the blazing sun, to cast ballots." Thus begins a New York Times editorial entitled "The Three-Hour Poll Tax," which argues for "acceptable" waiting times to vote...[more]
CFIF Files Amicus Brief in Reporters Contempt Cases
The Center for Individual Freedom has filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, arguing that the First Amendment prevents a federal prosecutor from forcing New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper to reveal the identities of confidential sources...[more]
Kofi Annan: Stealing from Iraqis, Again
Just when we thought the corruption of the U.N.-Iraq Oil for Food program couldn’t get any more egregious, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan announced on October 13 that he was going to pay for the world body’s internal investigation with proceeds from Iraqi oil sales...[more]
U.N. Gives Alleged War Criminal Back Pay
A U.N. panel recently awarded 13 months back pay to a former employee charged with killing some of his colleagues during the Rwanda genocide in 1994, the New York Times reports. The United Nations Administrative Tribunal made the award on September 30 after another U.N. board recommended that the employee, Callixte Mbarushimana, receive sixth months of back pay...[more]
Peter Kirsanow Speaks with Center’s General Counsel About Elections and Voter Disenfranchisement
This week, Renee Giachino who hosts the radio talk show "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense," interviewed Peter Kirsanow, Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, about claims of voter disenfranchisement in the 2000 election and legal challenges in the upcoming election...[more]
Morgan Spurlock did not eat "three meals a day" at McDonald's. It's a hoax. He really ate the equivalent of six or more meals every day, and snacked...[more]
Loosey Goosey John Kerry: A Paradox of Politics
We would not be writing this had we not, only scant weeks past, found it necessary to opine on California’s new law to end crimes against goosemanity. Urgently, however, it came to our attention that John Kerry went, gasp, goose hunting on a fine Ohio swing state morning, media in tow but kept at an appropriately safe shooting distance. That raises questions, some of serious import, some not...[more]
Kofi Annan: Ignorant or Naïve?
Investigators are now tripping through evidence that Saddam Hussein was using money obtained through the corrupt U.N.-Iraq Oil for Food program and illegal oil smuggling to buy friends in a number of countries including France, Russia and China...[more]
John Banzhaf: In His Own Litigious Words
Say what you will about John Banzhaf, George Washington University law professor and leader of the litigious anti-food crusade, at least he makes no attempt to conceal his scurrilous designs. On the contrary, this litigating busy body has clearly articulated his utopian vision: an America in which everyone’s stomach is empty and every lawyer’s wallet is full...[more]
Blame John McCain for the Campaign Ads
During the course of this rotten-to-the-core campaign year, some phrases have been repeated über ad nauseum. We may not have picked your most detested, but ours is, "Hi, I’m Johnny Scum, and I approved this message."...[more]
Stopping Trial Lawyer Shakedowns in California
Imagine. … You own a small travel agency that you spent all of your savings to start a few years ago. You have three employees. With airlines and cruise lines cutting back on commissions, you have to work very hard to make ends meet, but you manage. Thanks to the Internet and that new website you’ve launched, you’re finding new customers. Your profit margins are...[more]
Presidential Debates? Bah, Humbug, Squared!
Presidential debates, the new reality programming that have threatened even the primacy of the Trumpmeister and bikinied bimbettes scarfing worms, are not the way to select a President. You are being told otherwise, in the most reverential of terms, by everyone with a stake in the debate industry, undoubtedly the most lucrative seasonal work available, but don’t believe them...[more]
John Kerry vs. John Kerry on Legal Reform
His Record Reveals the Truth Behind His New Rhetoric: Kerry is a Consistent Opponent of Legal Reform...[more]
New Details Emerge: France and Russia Bought and Paid for by Oil for Food
Since the first hints of the massive Oil for Food scandal, many have suspected that Saddam Hussein used the program to buy friends in France, Russia, and states that neighbor Iraq...[more]
‘The Antitrust Paradox’ Continues
More than a quarter century ago, Robert H. Bork noted the conflict between the pro-consumer policy behind the antitrust laws and the pro-competitor approach developed through their enforcement. In his seminal book The Antitrust Paradox: A Policy at War with Itself, Judge Bork, argued that antitrust enforcement had "led to the protection of inefficient competitors, the punishment of successful firms, and, ultimately, the detriment of the interest of consumers, which the antitrust laws were designed to protect in the first place."...[more]
Let Them Eat Cardboard in California
We write about food a lot, because we like food a lot. What we don’t like a lot, to put it mildly, are people who mess with our food. That would include trial lawyers who see deep pockets to be looted from the purveyors of fast food, which can’t help but raise the price of our chili cheese fries...[more]
At least 25 U.N. employees have been arrested by Israel for participating in or aiding Palestinian terrorist attacks, according to the Associated Press...[more]
Marshall Manson Offers Written Testimony Before Committee Hearing on "Reducing Childhood Obesity"
Given the report earlier this year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrating that obesity and diseases caused by obesity are now leading killers in the United States, there can be no question that obesity is and ought to be a major health concern for all Americans. In recent months, this "obesity crisis" has attracted significant public and media attention...[more]
CFIF Applauds House Passage of Provision to Split the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The Center for Individual Freedom today applauded House passage of a provision to split the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the federal appellate court notorious for its long delays and radical rulings, including recently finding the phrase "one Nation under God" in our national Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional...[more]
They Shoot Pollsters (and Evangelical Christians), Don’t They?
It is one of the strangest political ads of the season. A full page in the September 28 New York Times, it was placed by MoveOn.org, which has spent millions of dollars supporting the presidential candidacy of John Kerry. The ad does not attack a candidate. It attacks the Gallup Organization for its polling on the presidential campaign...[more]
Overcoming Rhetoric with Thanks
Not unexpectedly, the war in Iraq has become the focus of this year’s presidential campaign, with the candidates and their partisan puppets trading charges and counter charges. While we share President Bush’s view that the war in Iraq is a critical component in the War on Terror, we do not excuse either campaign from responsibility for the shameful rhetoric that’s being carelessly tossed back and forth...[more]
In March of 2003, the Center for Individual Freedom began offering a forum for those wishing thank America’s fighting men and women, many of whom are abroad, defending our freedom. Since then, thousands of people have posted messages of thanks. Some of the authors gave only a first name, and some gave no name at all. But their comments convey an unparalleled sense of appreciation for our men and women in uniform...[more]
Laurence Tribe: Plagiarist Harvard
Law School
Professor at Large (with Tenure)
So now we know. Based on a tip from an anonymous law professor and richly detailed literary sleuthing by Joseph Bottum in the October 4, 2004, issue of the Weekly Standard, Laurence Tribe is a plagiarist. For his 1985 book, "God Save This Honorable Court," the prominent liberal Harvard Law School professor now acknowledges that he lifted direct passages and paraphrased others, all without proper attribution, from the 1974 book, "Justices and Presidents,"...[more]
CFIF Challenges Louisiana Campaign Finance Laws
The Center for Individual Freedom this week asked a federal district court in Louisiana to strike down the state’s campaign finance laws as an unconstitutional restriction on the rights of free speech and free association...[more]
CFIF Files FEC Complaint Against CBS, Kerry Campaign
The Center for Individual Freedom today filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging that CBS and Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc., illegally coordinated election communications. The complaint charges that CBS and the Kerry campaign violated federal campaign finance laws when they colluded to attack President Bush based on claims and documents now believed to be fake...[more]
CBS Conduct, Handling of Memo Story Condemned
Experts on journalism and journalistic ethics continue to criticize Dan Rather and CBS News for their handling of apparently fabricated memos used in a 60 Minutes II story disparaging President Bush’s military record. They are also condemning CBS News for acting as a "matchmaker" between the source of the phony documents and John Kerry’s Presidential campaign...[more]
Isn’t it great that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is around to opine on the legitimacy of things? Just last week, Annan told the BBC that the U.S.-led war in Iraq was “illegal.” This week, he told the U.N. General Assembly that all nations should respect the rule of law. In some parts of our country, this is what’s known as “the pot calling the kettle black.”...[more]
The Center offers expert written or witness testimony on BCRA’s catastrophic effects on First Amendment and election law...[more]
The Truth? CBS Can’t Handle the Truth
After decades of gotcha journalism (television division), CBS (News) 60 Minutes (II) and Dan Rather have taken a well-deserved and overdue boomerang between the eyes. As within days became legend, the over-the-hill gang at Black Rock set about to recycle charges about President Bush’s Vietnam-era National Guard service with fresh material. So fresh, it turns out, that the effort could not withstand the first wave of scrutiny by the new media, thus promulgating the second wave by the mainstream media, which have now begun to eat their own, with good reason...[more]
U.S. Should Oppose United Nations Non-Reform
The U.N. General Assembly opened its 59th session this week in New York. Did anyone notice? Did anyone care? A report on the mood of Americans toward this event might describe the reaction this way: "Apathy sprinkled with occasional loathing, irritation and exasperation."...[more]
Last week, the Center for Individual Freedom’s Renee Giachino, who hosts the radio talk show "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense" on WEBY 1330 AM in Northwest Florida, spoke with Clark Neily, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, about school choice and the Florida voucher program...[more]
Here we go again. Another day, another "scientific" study and another group of doctors using junk science to scare the public. A new study entitled, "Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Weight Gain, and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Young and Middle-Aged Women," appeared in the August 25 edition of the Journal of The American Medical Association (JAMA)...[more]
CFIF ‘Study’ Reveals Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Sex Discrimination Hypocrisy
The Center for Individual Freedom today released a "study" that raises questions regarding potential gender bias at law firms suing a bevy of major corporations … for gender bias...[more]
Sexual Hypocrisy: Turning the Tables on Plaintiffs’ Lawyers In Class Action Discrimination Lawsuits
Mimicking their own class action lawsuits against asbestos, tobacco and food, many of the big plaintiffs’ firms are now putting gender on trial in search of a new con game to play for jackpot justice. These law firms’ new marks include Costco, Wal-Mart, Merrill Lynch, Boeing, Home Depot and others, while the pawns are those companies’ employees, who allege gender bias and sexual discrimination...[more]
This week, historian and foreign policy expert Bruce Herschensohn (also a member of CFIF's Board of Directors) spoke with the Center for Individual Freedom's Renee Giachino, who hosts the radio talk show "Your Turn -- Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense" on WEBY 1330 AM in Northwest Florida, about the U.N.'s scandal-plagued Iraq Oil for Food program and the world body's desire for global taxes...[more]
Disenfranchising Our Overseas Troops
Nearly 500,000 Americans are abroad, defending our freedom as members of our armed forces. In standing their post and protecting the rest of us back home, they make enormous sacrifices. They live in tiny compartments aboard submarines and in tents on the gritty desert. They spend months, even years, away from their families. Some give up their lives in service of their nation...[more]
CFIF General Counsel Talks With Veteran CBS Reporter Bernard Goldberg About Media Bias
Last week, veteran CBS News reporter Bernard Goldberg spoke with the Center for Individual Freedom’s Renee Giachino, who hosts the radio talk show "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense" on WEBY 1330 AM in Northwest Florida, about his bestselling books "Bias and Arrogance"...[more]
The Master of Everyone Else’s Domain
New Yorkers elected Eliot Spitzer to be the state’s chief law enforcement officer — and they very nearly didn’t choose him even for that post. But, in the span of just a few short years, Spitzer has unilaterally and unapologetically expanded his domain, at the expense of everyone else’s, while single-handedly installing himself as America’s lead investigator, chief prosecutor and primary regulator, to name but a few of the titles he has bestowed upon himself...[more]
Global Taxes Are Back, Watch Your Wallet
Like a bad sequel to a rotten horror movie, the debate over global taxation once again is rearing its ugly head — courtesy of the United Nations. And, despite lacking the requisite hockey mask and chain saw, the seemingly countless proposals for the imposition of global taxes are truly terrifying...[more]
Subway Halts ‘Super Size Me’ Promotional Campaign in Germany
The Center for Individual Freedom today recognized Subway’s responsiveness in halting the promotional campaign of Morgan Spurlock’s controversial film "Super Size Me" at the company’s restaurants in Germany. A spokesman at Subway’s corporate headquarters publicly stated earlier this week that the company was pulling the campaign and apologized on behalf of Subway’s German franchisees...[more]
Two weeks ago, eight state attorneys general (representing California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin), joined by corporation counsel of New York City, announced a federal lawsuit against five power companies (American Electric Power Co., Cinergy Corp., Southern Co., the Tennessee Valley Authority and Xcel Energy Inc.)...[more]
Letter to the Mayor of Independence, Kentucky
On August 5, the Center's Assistant General Counsel, Reid Cox, submitted this letter informing the Mayor and City Council of Independence, Kentucky, that limiting when political signs can be posted raises constitutional concerns...[more]
American Tort Reform Association’s Victor Schwartz Comments on Tort Reform and the Upcoming Election
On the radio program "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense," the Center’s General Counsel, Renee Giachino, recently interviewed the American Tort Reform Association’s General Counsel, Victor Schwartz, about his thoughts regarding Democratic Presidential-hopeful John Kerry’s selection of former trial attorney John Edwards as his running mate, and the implications for tort reform should Kerry-Edwards win the upcoming election...[more]
Spitzer: Surrendering to the Temptations of Power
In the name of fighting crime, government prosecutors have tremendous power to investigate, charge, and sue those suspected of wrongdoing. But that power can lead to abuse. Easy access to favorable publicity lures ambitious prosecutors into pursuing politically popular cases, even if those cases aren’t always legally sound. And prosecutors can be tempted to use their posts to further their own political or ideological agendas...[more]
Republican Political Strategist Mary Matalin Talks About Her New Book ‘Letters to My Daughters’
Last week, Mary Matalin spoke with the Center for Individual Freedom’s Renee Giachino, who hosts the radio talk show "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense" on WEBY 1330 AM in Northwest Florida, about her recently released book, Letters to My Daughters, and about our current political climate...[more]
Slam Dunking the First Amendment in the Kobe Bryant Case
A bare majority of the Colorado Supreme Court last week found what even the U.S. Supreme Court had never found before — a perfectly "constitutional prior restraint." In so discovering, four Colorado justices injected uncertainty into one of the few areas of constitutional law that had been completely clear. In other words, make that one less constitutional certainty...[more]
U.N.-Just Tribunal Is Another U.N. Failure
Defenders of the United Nations have long held up the world body’s war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as a key success and evidence that the organization can make a positive difference in the world. On July 29, however, the appeals panel of that celebrated tribunal handed down a ruling that revealed the supposed triumph of international justice to be nothing more than another U.N. failure...[more]
Recently, eleven Democratic Members of Congress sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan requesting the world body dispatch election monitors to oversee this fall’s U.S. Presidential voting. Yes. That’s right. These eleven Democrats want the United Nations, that bastion of honesty, fair play and good sense, to supervise the Presidential election in the world’s leading democracy...[more]
On the radio program "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense," the Center for Individual Freedom’s General Counsel, Renee Giachino, recently interviewed former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo about what it was like to work at the U.S. Department of Justice following September 11th and the impact of the Supreme Court’s rulings on detainees and the War on Terrorism...[more]
The Unabashed Arrogance of Kofi Annan
This week, a who’s who of world leaders convened in Bangkok, Thailand, with the objective of "advanc[ing] the global response to HIV/AIDS" at the 15th International AIDS Conference. Indeed, a noble and worthy cause. However, as is generally the case at such meetings, the stated focus of developing strategies to combat the worldwide epidemic quickly shifted to one of blaming the United States and American drug companies for the rapid spread of the deadly disease in developing nations...[more]
Super Size Me vs. Down Size Me
Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has attracted loads of attention by eating a McDonald’s-only diet for 30 days. Rejecting personal responsibility, Spurlock wolfed down 5,000 or more calories per day for a month while dispensing with any exercise.
Soso Whaley’s Golden Arches diet hasn’t attracted nearly as much attention, perhaps because her behavior wasn’t so over-the-top. Whaley ate McDonald’s for 60 days and limited her consumption to a responsible 2,500 calories per day while exercising occasionally. The result: Whaley actually lost 18 pounds and ended up feeling "excellent" and "energized."
The Center wanted to compare Spurlock’s "Super Sized" sensationalism with Whaley’s "Down Sized" demonstration of personal responsibility in order to tell the whole story. To view the comparison chart, click here.
Charter Chuck Caught with Public Bucks; Schumer Blames "Accounting Errors"
The Other America is peopled by government officials who have access to their money, money they hondle from contributors dedicated to the furtherance of good government and our money. We learn of the misuse of ours only when someone is caught. So it was that several weeks ago Charles Schumer, the Democrat senior senator from New York, got caught...[more]
Just two weeks. That’s the amount of time it took Justice John Paul Stevens to reverse his considered position as to when the U.S. Supreme Court should wade into murky jurisdictional waters to clear up contentious constitutional questions raised by cases of obvious importance...[more]
As radio talk-show host Michael Graham recently pointed out in National Review Online, several months ago, Presidential hopeful John Kerry handed five very clear criteria to his search committee when charging its members with building a list of potential running mates. Kerry wanted "someone with a distinguished record of leadership, someone committed to Kerry's core agenda, someone with the ability to campaign in all parts of the country, someone compatible with Kerry 'on every level' and someone immediately ready to assume the presidency at any moment."...[more]
Liberals vs. Limbaugh: The Harkin Fumble
In an institution like the U.S. Senate where blowing hard is a career prerequisite, it is difficult to stand out. Tom Harkin (D-IA) manages, usually with no substance and less grace. In the corn-fed liberal’s current foray, he has decided to join the silly and counterproductive pile-on of Rush Limbaugh...[more]
The Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo Talks About His New Book ‘Presidential Leadership’
"Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House," a recently released must-read book that examines our Nation’s leaders in a collection of refreshing, enlightening essays, written by a distinguished and diverse group of historians, journalists, and current and former high-ranking government officials. The list of essay authors reads like a Who’s Who list of American politics...[more]
On June 29, the Center's General Counsel, Renee Giachino submitted written testimony to the Texas Joint Interim Committee on Nutrition in the Public Schools...[more]
Conduct Unbecoming a United States Senator
More than forty years ago, it was simply "routine" when President John F. Kennedy recess appointed 25 judges to the federal bench in the span of a little more than a year. Amongst those judicial recess appointees was Griffin B. Bell, a Georgian, who was selected to serve as a circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which was then responsible for cases in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas...[more]
Book Review: Desperate Measures to Overcome U.N. Failure
"Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures" — A new book by three experienced United Nations staffers provides an unusual and candid look at the incompetence and corruption that has plagued the organization’s peacekeeping efforts over the last twelve years...[more]
The Poetry of Clinton’s "Because I Could" Confession
When asked by CBS News Anchor Dan Rather why he had an affair with White House Intern Monica Lewinsky, former President Bill Clinton answered: "I think I did something for the worst possible reason — just because I could..." [more]
CFIF
General Counsel to Become Regular Host of Talk Radio Show ‘Your Turn’
The Center for Individual Freedom today announced that its General
Counsel and Senior Vice President, Renee Giachino, will be a regular host on
"Your Turn," a listener call-in, public affairs talk radio show aired
weekdays from 4 pm to 6 pm CST on 1330 AM WEBY in Northwest Florida...[more]
The Pledge of Allegiance Decision: Imprudently Standing on a Technicality
On Monday, when eight of America’s preeminent legal minds decided a constitutional challenge to the public acknowledgement of our nation’s common religious heritage, the result was nothing less than jurisprudential incoherence...[more]
U.N.-Checked U.N.-Ethical Behavior
As details of the U.N. Oil for Food scandal continue to drip forth, a new internal survey of U.N. employees provides further evidence that the organization is rife with corruption, scandal, unethical managers, crooked bureaucrats and shady deals...[more]
Update: U.N. Oil for Food Investigation Hampered
As details of the scandal involving the U.N.’s Iraq Oil for Food program continue to dribble from inside and outside the world body, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has pledged a complete investigation and promised that those found guilty of corruption or improper behavior will be punished. To that end, Annan recruited former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to lead a U.N.-sponsored probe...[more]
Litigation Won’t Make America Thinner
In the hours after midnight, cable TV is saturated with ads for diet pills promising big and easy weight loss and ads for law firms promising big and easy legal judgments and settlements. Until recently, there was no direct connection between the two groups trolling for customers, but leave it to America’s trial lawyers to find one. Welcome to the brave new world of obesity litigation...[more]
Talking Football in the Off-Season: Why the Clarett Decision is Good for Young Athletes
Our daily sports sections are filled with examples of athletes who operate quite comfortably under the presumption that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want. Thanks to the National Football League and our nation’s courts, the validity of that assumption is under review. Last month, on the eve of the National Football League’s college draft, the Supreme Court rejected the plea of running back Maurice Clarett to be allowed to enter the NFL draft after his sophomore year at Ohio State...[more]
Apparently it is possible for consumers to know too much about the products they buy and use everyday. After all, that is precisely the message being sent by a growing number of restrictions and lawsuits that target advertisements for stating — wait for it — just the facts. That’s right, for products ranging from food and drugs to alcohol and tobacco, companies are increasingly being forced not to tell the public the truth for fear of being hit with draconian penalties simply because those facts are packaged in a 30-second television spot or a glossy magazine layout...[more]
Given the recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrating that obesity and diseases caused by obesity are now leading killers in the United States, there can be no question that obesity is and ought to be a major health concern for all Americans. The central questions now are: whether and if so how the federal government should respond...[more]
They fought and died in the hedgerows of France and tiny islands of the Pacific, in dank submarines and fragile merchant ships, in the ancient cities of North Africa and the jungles of the Philippines. They sacrificed everything to defend freedom in its greatest hour of need...[more]
Air Travel: Leave Your Swiss Army Knife at Home but Bring Your Medical Records
It’s getting more difficult and time consuming to board a plane these days. With increased security measures and random passenger searches, the lines are longer and so is the wait to get on board. It may soon get even worse — not because of terrorist threats or NTSB regulations, but, rather, because of trial lawyers...[more]
Oil for Food’s U.N.-Inspections
Over the last two weeks, the Center for Individual Freedom has reported on the growing U.N. Oil for Food scandal. This week, the inexorable dripping of incriminating information continues...[more]
Democrat Memogate: Standoff at the Civil Rights Commission
The United States Commission on Civil Rights did not meet on May 17, the date marking the 50th Anniversary of the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that mandated integration of America’s public schools...[more]
This week, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) unveiled the results of its latest "study." CSPI was horrified to learn that a large percentage of food products sold in school vending machines are sodas, chips and candy. And, in a shocking disclosure that seemed straight from a Dave Barry column, the group also revealed that these products are not nutritious...[more]
CFIF Opposes Federal Plan to Ban Certain Foods from the Nation’s Schools
The Center for Individual Freedom today announced its staunch opposition to a new federal proposal to restrict food choices in the nation’s schools. Senator Tom Harkin (D-NE) and other members of Congress pressed for such a plan at a Capitol Hill press conference today...[more]
Update: U.N. Oil for Food Scandal Continues to Grow
Last week, the Center for Individual Freedom outlined the growing scandal surrounding the United Nations’ Oil for Food program (see "Oil for Osama"). But in the last few days, even more information evidencing the breadth of the scandal and the possible extent of the cover-up has come to light...[more]
The Kerry-Kennedy Court: Tribe and Tested
Nine seats have been occupied for nearly a decade now. But sometime after January 20th, several seats on the Supreme Court will surely become vacant. The list of possible retirements that could occur during the next four years is long by Supreme Court standards, and includes a majority of the current Court. Based on age alone, there are four likely departures, all of whom are in their 70s or 80s: Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 79, and Justices John Paul Stevens, 84, Sandra Day O’Connor, 74, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 71. Add to that list Justice Antonin Scalia, who many commentators believe is frustrated with the cloistered nature of Supreme Court life, and the distinct possibility exists that five justices will hang up their robes during the next presidential term...[more]
The United Nations’ Oil for Food program scandal continues to swell. Recall that documents discovered after the liberation of Iraq revealed that the U.N.’s self-described flagship humanitarian program was wracked with bribery, kick-backs, smuggling, under the table deals and influence peddling. Among other revelations, evidence uncovered in Baghdad implicated long-time U.N. official Benon Sevan who was responsible for managing the program and reported directly to Secretary General Kofi Annan...[more]
World War in the Courts? Microsoft’s Transatlantic Divide
With the hundreds of thousands of recent global innovations, from international cellular telephone service to intercontinental jet service to the Internet, our world is truly shrinking. What obviously has not caught up with modern technology, however, is the manner in which our national legal systems handle international civil litigation...[more]
Democrat Memogate: Chasing the Red Herring
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have gotten their way. On Monday, the Justice Department announced a criminal investigation into the downloading and leaking of Democrat memos that discuss the strategy and tactics of opposing President Bush’s nominees to the federal bench...[more]
From Texas to Connecticut, state legislators are working on education initiatives to better our public schools and to fund them. As they debate these critical issues, their attention must also focus on new and proposed policies that will rob public schools of desperately needed funds...[more]
The United Nations has long been a bastion of hope for the naïve idealists who seek a Star Trek-like nirvana under a benevolent global government...[more]
Democrat Memogate: As the Wagons Circle
On April 19, Jonathan Groner published a brief piece in Legal Times. The lead sentence read: "The Virginia State Bar has rejected an ethics complaint filed last December against Elaine Jones, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund."...[more]
Letter to Kerry calls
for acknowledgment of possible criminal action by his campaign manager
In a letter to presidential candidate
John Kerry, the Center for Individual Freedom asks that Kerry condemn his campaign
manager's roll in memogate...[more]
Current Events: Guest Commentary
By Professor John Yoo: Suppose that the
By Professor John Yoo: As official Washington starts investigating the government's tardy response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush floated an idea of his own. [Recently], he called on Congress to consider a new law to allow presidents to deploy the military immediately after a natural disaster...[more]
Susette Kelo Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Committee
By Susette Kelo: I thank Chairman Specter and the rest of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the opportunity to testify about legislation to cut off funding to governments that abuse eminent domain law....[more]
The U.N.'s Spreading Bribery Scandal: Russian Ties and Global Reach
By Claudia Rosett and George Russell: How widespread is the corruption at the United Nations? The multibillion-dollar Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal was just the beginning...[more]
Spurlock Food Scare a Super Size Scam
By Radley Balko: Morgan Spurlock seems to be everywhere these days. The F/X cable channel just slotted his new series "30 Days" for a second season, and he also just inked another show on Comedy Central...[more]
By Alexander Schwab: Revelations of last-minute lobbying and shady negotiations may transform CAFTA into a pyrrhic victory, as Americans increasingly learn the hefty cost of congressional collusion: pork barrel spending...[more]
The U.N.: Celebrating 60 Years of Anti-Semitism, Corruption and Incompetence
By Alexander Schwab: To envision the gross ineptitude and unfathomable worthlessness of the United Nations, consider the deluge of bureaucracy and champion of inefficiency that typifies our common conception of government...[more]
By Alexander Schwab: A California toad is creating quite a stir in Judge John Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court of the
Safire Urges Federal Journalist Shield Law
By William Safire: On July 13, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to consider a proposed federal law that would protect journalists' right to protect the identities of confidential sources...[more]
By Alexander Schwab: It’s ironic that, in the world’s freest nation, it takes only five individuals out of a population of 280 million to empower tyranny, savage liberty and assault the legal foundations of our country...[more]
Teacher Tenure Protects Jobs Instead of Education
By Alexander Schwab: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career as an action hero is only getting started...[more]
A Worst-Case Scenario for Federalism: Massachusetts and the Minimum Wage
By Alexander Schwab: Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ conception of individual states as "laboratories of democracy" would aptly describe Massachusetts should its legislature pass a bill raising the state minimum wage from $6.75 to $8.25. Sadly, this is one experiment destined to go up in smoke...[more]
Filibuster Fight Left Rumblings Along the Sidelines
By Senator John Cornyn: More than four years ago, President Bush nominated Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to the federal court of appeals...[more]
By Michael J. Lynch: Oil exploration in Alaska’s Artic National Wildlife Refuge has once again become possible, if not probable...[more]
The Collapse of Big Media: Starting Over
By Terry Eastland: It’s premature to write an obituary, but there’s no question that America’s news media — the newspapers, newsmagazines, and television networks that people once turned to for all their news — are experiencing what psychologists might call a major life passage...[more]
Lax Immigration Enforcement Leads to Tragedy
By Michael Lynch: Imagine this… Your 18 year-old daughter graduates from high school and enrolls at a local college. It’s quite an exciting time for her and the whole family....[more]
Scalia: Constitutional Interpretation the Old Fashioned Way
By Justice Antonin Scalia: It’s a pizzazzy topic: Constitutional Interpretation. It is however an important one. I was vividly reminded how important it was last week when the Court came out with a controversial decision in the Roper case...[more]
Coleman Renews Call for U.N. Reform in CPAC Speech
By Senator Norm Coleman: The United Nations, for better or for worse, plays a role in world politics. It gives us an opportunity to have dialogue with both our allies and our adversaries...[more]
Splitting the Ninth Circuit Is Inevitable
By Congressman Mike Simpson: Every few decades, Congress must exercise its Constitutional authority and realign the United States Courts of Appeals into more efficient and manageable circuits that best represent the people within the circuit and provide them with an expeditious judicial process...[more]
Clarence Thomas Is in the Right Seat
By John Yoo: Rumors are flying in Washington about who will replace William H. Rehnquist as chief justice. On the campaign trail, President Bush mentioned Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas as his ideal judges. Apparently some politicians have leaked the idea that it is Thomas who will ultimately be selected, a move that would receive widespread approval among conservative Republicans...[more]
By Senator John Cornyn: The nomination of Judge Alberto Gonzales to serve as our nation's 80th Attorney General — and our first of Hispanic descent — is the American dream come true. Yet his nomination faces noisy, if ultimately futile and unjustified, opposition...[more]
By John Yoo: This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general. It comes as no surprise that he is likely to face hard questions...[more]
By George Hawley: Five months after banishing "junk food" from their premises, Los Angeles public schools have stumbled upon a remarkable discovery: children won't spend their allowance money on carrot sticks and broccoli. Banning soda also had another, equally predictable result: the soft drink companies ended sponsorship deals that had previously brought campuses tens of thousands of dollars...[more]
By Senator Norm Coleman: It's time for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign. Over the past seven months, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, has conducted an exhaustive, bipartisan investigation into the scandal surrounding the U.N. Oil-for-Food program...[more]
By George Hawley The disciples of the left have abandoned some of their more enthusiastic calls to action in recent years ("workers of the world unite" just isn’t turning out the big crowds anymore). But whenever they need an excuse to assault American society, both then and now, there is still a handy phrase that always helps advance their goals: "social justice."...[more]
By George Hawley: Utopian visionaries, who honestly believe the United Nations is an altruistic organization, have never looked so ridiculous. The Oil-for-Food Program has proven to be one of the biggest scams in history. And, as time goes on, we continue to learn of diplomatic betrayals by our ostensible allies. Nations that have just as much at stake in the War on Terror as we do seem to continually backstab the United States...[more]
I Tried to Tell You... Democrats Repel Voters, Who Put Faith in FreedomBy Senator Zell Miller: America's faith in freedom has been reaffirmed. With the re-election of President Bush, America recommitted itself once again to expanding freedom and promoting liberty. Only the 1864 re-election of Abraham Lincoln, the 1944 re-election of Franklin Roosevelt and the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan rival this victory as milestones in the preservation of our security by the advancement of freedom...[more]
Iwo Jima, If Covered By Media Today
By Senator Zell Miller: What if today’s reporters had covered the Marines landing on Iwo Jima, a small island in the far away Pacific Ocean, in the same way they’re covering the war in Iraq?...[more]
By George Hawley: In the fall of 2002, President George W. Bush laid down a challenge to the United Nations, stating: "It's time for them to determine whether they'll be the United Nations, or the League of Nations. It's time to determine whether or not they'll be a force for good and peace, or an ineffective debating society."...[more]
By Bernie Marcus: Excessive litigation has created a crisis in America. The time has come to recognize this crisis and demand that our elected officials work together to achieve a solution...[more]
Fattening Government, Slimming Choice
By George Hawley: Earlier this year, the federal government discovered yet another crisis of catastrophic proportions — we’re too fat. Bowing to incessant media coverage spurred on by those who continually insist that the "sky is falling," the U.S. government officially recognized that America is weighed-down in an "obesity crisis." And, what’s more, we can’t save ourselves, at least not without the help ofthose in Washington, or so they say...[more]
Elections and the Fate of Economic Liberty
By Sam Batkins: This fall, voters in many countries around the world — including here in the United Statesthis one — will go to the polls and elect their leaders. In making their choices, voters will consider an assortment of issues, including their candidates’ economic proposals...[more]
The U.S. and The U.N.: The End of a Bad Romance
By Bruce Herschensohn: It should be understood that from the beginning she wasn’t faithful and had no intention of being faithful. After the United States of America and its World War II allies created the United Nations Organization, the United States fell in love with her. He thought the two of them had a lot in common. But the United Nations Organization, dressed in apparel given her by the United States and wearing jewelry given her by the United States, spent many New York nights of romance with enemies of the United States. And so it went for 59 years of hand-holding beneath the moonlight and stars on the East River near the magnificent home that John D. Rockefeller of the United States had given her...[more]
Down the Slippery Slope to ‘Newspeak’
By Vanessa Legget: This is not about another journalist going to jail. This is not about federal officials getting locked up for media leaks. Though any or all of these people could end up behind bars, and the government has already decreed the journalist should be the first. This is about every American losing a significant measure of freedom, a certainty if the federal government succeeds in strong-arming Matthew Cooper or any other journalist into betraying confidential sources...[more]
ABA Retains Little Objectivity in Nomination Process
By Sam Batkins: The nation’s largest lawyers’ organization, the American Bar Association, has played a prominent role in the confirmation of federal judges for more than a half century. Since 1952, the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary has examined and rated the professional qualifications of potential federal judges before the U.S. Senate considers them for confirmation...[more]
9-11 Commission: There is a Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda
By Congressman Jeff Miller: It is astonishing to hear how some media outlets "know" so much and have the gall to think they can make our decisions for us. Allegations of a partisan 9-11 Commission do not hold much water when both political parties see a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. Even a quick glance readily shows the support that the two terrorist groups extended to one another. The facts are in plain sight...[more]
It's a Fight for Survival — Pull Out All Stops
By Bruce Herschensohn: It may seem to be a radical idea, but why not use every means possible — without politically correct detours — to win the war against terrorism? Our victory in World War II was not achieved by trying to win the hearts and minds of Germans and Japanese. We did not dominate the newsreels with pictures of those things a few American troops did to captured enemies. We did not call for an end to domestic profiling. We did not demonstrate against our military involvement. There was not the outrageous political complaint that "I support the troops but oppose the war."...[more]
By Senator George Allen: The growth of the Internet over the past 10 years has provided greater opportunity for everyone — from the largest multinational corporation to the smallest mom-and-pop start-up business. By giving more people access to knowledge and information, the personal computer and the Internet have empowered tens of millions of Americans as consumers and entrepreneurs, and as citizens in our free society...[more]
Obstructionist Tactics Only Strengthen the Case for Medical Malpractice Reform
By Erin Murphy: For the third time in the past year, Senate Democrats last week successfully filibustered an attempt to bring medical malpractice reform legislation to a vote. But apparently the obvious refusal of these senators to even consider the issue is not enough for some reform opponents, who are calling yet again for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to recuse himself from voting on any bills affecting the healthcare industry...[more]
The United Nations Organization
By Bruce Herschensohn: Imagine that you and your family move to a new home in a neighborhood of 190 other residences. As you carry in some of your possessions, you are welcomed outside your front door by the Chairman of the Neighborhood Community Services Organization. He extends his hand and introduces himself. "Welcome! We have 190 members in our Neighborhood Community Services and we would like to have you in our organization as our 191st member! We had a meeting yesterday and all of your neighbors would like you to join."...[more]