USDA Partners With Mexico To Boost Food Stamp Roles

by Caroline May. The Mexican government has been working with the United States Department of Agriculture to increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps. USDA has an agreement with Mexico to promote American food assistance programs, including food stamps, among Mexican Americans,  ... MORE

John Kass: Who Else, Mr. President

What a Hopium dealer can't understand about business. When President Barack Obama hauled off and slapped American small-business owners in the mouth the other day, I wanted to dream of my father. But I didn’t have to close my eyes to see my dad. I could do it with my eyes open. All I had to do was think of the driveway of our home,     ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - A Personal Odyssey


Sowell's journey from Marxist to free market advocate.

Jury Nixs Helicopter Surveillance, Warrantless Police Raid

from the Rutherford Institute.    A seven-person jury in Albemarle Circuit Court has acquitted 54-year-old Philip Cobbs of a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge levied against him after a SWAT team-like raid, aided by military helicopter surveillance and acting without a search warrant, allegedly found two marijuana stalks growing among weeds ... MORE

Mark Steyn: That's Different, He's Our Vampire

Another bane in Obama's campaign. While we’re waiting for Obama and the Democrats to return all the money they’ve taken from the vampires at Bain, let’s not forget this: One of Obama’s top campaign financiers – Jonathan Lavine – is also managing director at Bain, bundling between $100,000 and $200,000 in contributions for the 2012 Obama Victory   ... MORE

VIDEO: Drones Can Be Hacked And Turned Into Missles



While grandma is frisked at the airport, terrorists may have drones as weapons.

The Top 20% Paid 94.1% of Income Taxes in 2009

This chart is based on data in the recently-released CBO report "Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2008 and 2009," showing the share of federal income taxes paid by income group in 2009.  In 2009, almost all (94.1%) federal income taxes collected were paid by just one-fifth of Americans (top quintile) and the top 1% paid almost 39% of all taxes collected.  In contrast, the lowest and second quintiles were net "tax collectors" because that 40% of Americans received more in        ... MORE

Steve Conover: The Essential Lesson Of The Auto Bailout

Punishing success.    What do companies get when they act responsibly? Government-subsidized competition. On July 5 in the swing state of Ohio, President Obama treated voters to his campaign-2012 synopsis of the 2009 auto industry bailout: "When the American auto industry was on the brink of collapse and more than one million ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: All 3 Branches Now Above The Law

What do we do about it? The greatest distinguishing factor between countries in which there is some freedom and those where authoritarian governments manage personal behavior is the Rule of Law. The idea that the very laws that the government is charged with enforcing could restrain the government itself is uniquely Western and was accepted with ... MORE

Michael Barone: Is Success A Gift From Government?

Barack Obama obviously thinks so. Perhaps the rain made the teleprompter unreadable. That's one thought I had on pondering Barack Obama's comments to a rain-soaked rally in Roanoke, Va., last Friday. Perhaps he didn't really mean what he said. Or perhaps -- as is often the case with people -- when unanchored from a prepared text he ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - The Future Of Liberty

Elizabeth Price Foley: Restore Federalism

It isn't a bad word.    Don't change the text. Change the attitude with more judicial engagement in enforcing existing, critical constitutional features — in particular: federalism. To some, the F word is constitutional obscenity. It is relabeled "states' rights" and followed by reference to slavery and the Confederacy. This taps into deep emotions but     ... MORE

John Stossel: First Jobs

What was your first job? I stuck pieces of plastic and metal together at an Evanston, Ill., assembly line. We produced photocopiers for a company called American Photocopy. I hated the work. It was hot and boring. But it was useful. It taught me to get good grades in school so I might have other choices. Four years later, good grades got me a job as a researcher ... MORE

VIDEO: Man Shot And Killed By Cops For Defending Home


Death by government. Are police protectors of liberty or just agents of the state?

Brian LaSorsa: What's So Bad About Discrimination

It's about private property, get over it.  About two months ago I mentioned my disappointment that Raleigh, NC lacked Southern culture, only to be informed in the comment section that true sweet-tea-drinking Southerners don't even consider the city to be part of the South. The longer I stay in this godforsaken place the better I understand  ... MORE

Bill Zongker: Campaign Cash Vs. Free Speech

A red flag for First Amendment proponents. Most Americans know they have a constitutional right to freedom of speech, but a clear majority does not think that implies allowing unlimited spending by corporations or labor unions on political campaigns, according to a new survey. Americans oppose unlimited campaign spending by corporations and unions  ... MORE

Michael Tanner: Romney's Chance To Embrace Outsourcing

He should point out the benefits of capitalism.   There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, that Milton Friedman was touring the Chinese countryside when he came upon a government project where workers were digging a canal. Friedman was surprised that instead of bulldozers and modern earth-moving equipment, the workers were    ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Are Race Riots News?

Clever demagogues and gullible followers make toxic combo. When I first saw a book with the title, "White Girl Bleed A Lot" by Colin Flaherty, I instantly knew what it was about, even though I had not seen the book reviewed anywhere, and knew nothing about the author. That is because I had encountered that phrase before, while doing research ... MORE

VIDEO: Nat Hentoff - Journalistic Integrity

I'm Finally Leaving America's Crazed Police State

by David Seaman. Dudes, I'm done with this. I'm leaving the United States today, and won't be back for a while. I recently visited my childhood hometown and noticed a whole bunch of brand new surveillance cameras at nearly every intersection and street corner; this is just a town, mind you, not some city of national or    ... MORE

Breitbart: Online Purchases Soon To Be Taxed Nationwide

It you can click on it, tax it! Small companies who want to sell their products online are in real trouble. Some Republican governors, eager to enrich their thinning state coffers, are endorsing a tax that would be imposed on products sold online.According to the National Conference of State Legislatures Strapped, states could reap as much as     ... MORE

VIDEO: Cops Taser Nonviolent Man After Jaywalking



Police State: Florida police assault man for not giving I.D. after jaywalking. Zikomo Peurifoy was initially stopped by officers in Casselberry, Florida, for allegedly ignoring crosswalk signals. However, after Peurifoy refused to give officers his name, cops repeatedly tasered him.

Those Joining Disability Now Outpace Those Finding Jobs

by Daniel Halper. A new chart set to be released by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee details an alarming fact: In the last three months, more Americans have joined disability than have found a job. As the chart shows, between April-June 2012, an estimated 246,000 Americans were added to Social Security's disability insurance program. In that same time period, only 225,000 American jobs were created. These alarming numbers, though, are       ... MORE

Big Mistake In Obama's War Against Medical Marijuana

by Scott Morgan. For over a year now, the Obama Administration has been steadily escalating its assault on medical marijuana. What was already a mess has been getting worse from one week to the next, and each new attack revives the question of whether the feds have finally taken things too far. If we aren't there yet, we may well be getting pretty damn  ... MORE

A. Barton Hinkle: The Bipartisan War On Individual Liberty

Politicians of both parties want to restrict your freedom. The good people at Gallup perform a valuable public service by keeping track of what Americans consider the nation's most important problem. Five years ago, it was Iraq. Last summer, the economy weighed most heavily on the public mind. It still does this summer. Or at least that is ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Tyrants And Human Nature

There are no known exceptions to the law of demand. The agendas of liberals, progressives and assorted tyrants desperately depend on the aspects of human nature they often condemn, such as acquisitiveness, profit motive, self-interestedness and greed. This crossed my mind while reading "How Departures From Economic Freedom ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Warning Labels & Lawsuit Abuse

NY Times: The End Of Privacy?

The reasonable expectation of privacy does not exist anymore. Cellphones, e-mail, and online social networking have come to rule daily life, but Congress has done nothing to update federal privacy laws to better protect digital communication. That inattention carries a heavy price. Striking new data from wireless carriers collected by  ... MORE

Washington Times: Gov. Moonbeam's 'Hydrogen Highway'

Another half-baked idea to plague Californians. There’s no idea so crazy that you can’t find a government grant to implement it. After all, California voters approved a project to build what’s now a $70 billion bullet train between Bakersfield and Madera — two unremarkable cities situated in the middle of nowhere. Now Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown wants to ... MORE

VIDEO: How Cronyism is Hurting the Economy

Jeff Lipkes: Taking Down The Second Amendment

Fast & Furious connects to the Trayvon Martin case. Very soon after his inauguration, Barack Obama decided to move ahead with plans to use the horrific number of deaths in the Mexican drug wars as a pretext for new gun control laws. On March 26, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder proposed a ban on "assault weapons" in order to reduce violence ... MORE

Peter Ferrara: The Last Nail In The Keynesian Coffin

The only useful function of Obamanomics. Keynesian economics is the false vision of human action which says the way to promote economic recovery and renewed growth is through increased government spending, deficits and debt.  If that sounds nuts, that’s because it is. The idea is that the increased government spending and deficits will increase ... MORE

Katie Kieffer: GR8, Obama Is Texting Me

President Obama is mass-texting me although I never opted into his texts. I feel like he controls my phone remotely. So, I’m texting him back: HEY PREZ, WILL U PLS STOP TXTING ME?! AND WHILE UR AT IT, STOP SPYING ON ME W/ DRONES. I’D LIKE SOME PRIVACY. THX! Friday, July 6 was the day many Americans were on an extended 4th of July      ... MORE

Blake Hurst: And The Regulatory State Drones On

What's truly frightening goes unnoticed. Forget the kerfuffle over EPA drone flights; nobody pays attention to the things that the EPA is doing that are truly frightening. Bovines of Nebraska, take cover; Big Brother is watching! The Environmental Protection Agency has been doing aerial reconnaissance flights looking for cows disrespecting U.S.  ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - A Limit On Spending

Steve Greenhut: California's Food Truck Shakedown

How state officials mistreat mobile food vendors. We would all laugh at a man who, sinking in millions of dollars in house payments, car loans, and credit card bills, decided to fix his problem by looking for spare quarters lurking behind the cushions of his sofas. Likewise, we should shake our heads at the way the state of California—with a budget    ... MORE

The Dog-Eat-Dog Welfare State Is Lose-Lose

by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins. John Maynard Keynes—not exactly history’s greatest opponent of government spending—is reported to have said he would be worried if government outlays ever surpassed 25 percent of GDP. Well, in recent years both American and British government expenditures have hovered around 40 percent of GDP. The bulk   ... MORE

VIDEO: Don't Eat Your Dog


A Moral Case for Free Enterprise

Jack Kerwick: Liberty-Lovers And Romney

You cannot help but cast a vote for Romney or Obama. Mitt Romney is the presumptive nominee.  And libertarians have a decision to make.  If they want to make an informed decision, there are several considerations that they need to bear in mind. First, Romney is neither a conservative nor a libertarian.  He is perhaps a neo-   ... MORE

Rector/Bradley: Ending Welfare Reform As We Know It

Obama declares war on work.  This afternoon, President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive undermining the welfare reform law of 1996. The new policy guts the federal work requirements that have been the foundation of that law — one of the most successful domestic policy reforms in the 20th ... MORE