Showing posts with label waste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label waste. Show all posts

Gene Healy: Homeland Security Grants Subsidize Dystopia

The war on terror has come home. "Do I think al Qaeda is going to target Pumpkin Fest? No, but are there fringe groups that want to make a statement? Yes." That's the police chief of Keene, N.H. (pop. 23,000), justifying his decision to buy a BearCat armored personnel carrier with a federal Department of Homeland Security grant. After all, you      ... MORE

VIDEO: California Taxpayers Soaked By Lifeguards


Exposed: California lifeguards paid $200,000 and retire at age 50.

John Ransom: Another Obama Billion Dollar Green Loser

Chevy Volt jolts taxpayers in a big way.       This is getting redundant. If you want investment losses for tax purposes, Barack Obama is your guy. Now, if the country could only figure out how to write off the five trillion dollars we’ve lost during his presidency. As the man said: A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon were talking about Barack ... MORE

Baylen Linnekin: Is Organic Food A Waste Of Money?

New study challenges conventional wisdom.   Everyone knows by now that organic foods are aren’t objectively superior to their conventional counterparts. Right? Exactly. Many of us have been told for years that organic food was healthier (for people, streams, bees, cows, Gaia, etc.) than conventional alternatives. But others have disagreed.        ... MORE

Government-Subsided Automaker Recalls Hybrid Firetrap

by Becket Adams. Electric-car maker Fisker Automotive is recalling all of its $100,000 Karma sports sedans to fix cooling fans that can catch fire. The recall comes after Fisker and a private fire investigation firm finished probing an Aug. 10 fire in a Karma in Woodside, CalifIt was the second of its kindThe company said the probe found that the blaze started in   ... MORE

VIDEO: Ronald Reagan - America 2012


Ronald Reagan directs his words toward the 2012 election.

Martin/Snyder: Taxpayers Bitten By Crony Capitalism Again

Another Solyndra-type boondoggle goes up in smoke.   Abound Solar Inc., a U.S. solar manufacturer that was awarded a $400 million U.S. loan guarantee, will suspend operations and file for bankruptcy because its panels were too expensive to compete. Abound borrowed about $70 million against the guarantee, the Loveland, Colorado-based company said  ... MORE

John Hinderaker: Is Welfare Spending Futile?

That’s the question raised by this chart, plotting federal welfare spending against the poverty rate. When President Johnson announced the War on Poverty, he said his intention was to abolish poverty in America. That hasn’t happened, of course. And I doubt that any liberal today would proclaim such a goal. Today, welfare spending is mainly a way to funnel dollars into the pockets of Democratic Party constituencies; therefore, for Democrats, the more the better, with no end in sight or even desired. The explosion in    ... MORE

Lou Rom: Jury Nullification In The Roger Clemens Verdict?

Perhaps a protest against minutia.  The Rocket launched another unbelievable shutout Monday, leaving federal prosecutors holding their bats in disbelief at the end of a costly, drawn-out perjury trial. A day after the verdict, the consensus is that Clemens' acquittal doesn't mean he's innocent, but rather that the jury was unconvinced of his guilt   ... MORE

Steve Chapman: The Futility Of Chicago Gun Turn-Ins

Attracting cheap guns from those with no criminal propensity. If you've got some clothes you don't need anymore, you can give them to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. If you have an old car, you can call various organizations to take it away. And if you're in Chicago and have a gun that's burning a hole in your pocket, you can get rid of it on Saturday,    ... MORE

John Ransom: Darrell Issa's Discovery Summer

Shining light in dark places.   With the presidential campaign in full gear, expect Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform to expand his public probe of the Obama administration’s green crony program that included risky loans to below-investment-grade companies like now-bankrupt Solyndra.  The      ... MORE

Cal Thomas: The Citizen And The Government

A moral, political and economic lesson.  In the Aesop Fable "The Grasshopper and the Ant," there are moral, economic and political lessons for our time, or any other. As the story goes, the lazy grasshopper wiles away his summer days singing and hopping and having an all-around good time while industrious ants work and march and struggle to carry ... MORE

J D Tuccille: The Terrible Truth About The TSA

It's a failure at everything it does. We don't all all agree on whether the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has any business groping toddlers and destroying expensive medical equipment in the pursuit of its appointed mission of keeping travelers safe from scary terrorists. Quotable security expert Bruce Schneier calls it all pointless and oppressive  ... MORE

NY Post: The Senate's Foolish USPS Bailout

A good reason for taxpayers to go postal. The US Postal Service is so mired in debt that nothing can save it from going bust — but the Senate is trying to dump a $33.7 billion bailout in its lap anyway. Against the Postal Service’s wishes. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe did something brave last year: He tried to bring USPS into the age of instant electronic  ... MORE

Washington Times: More TSA Lies

Obnoxious agency caught fibbing to Congress again. Frequent flyers are no fans of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The blue-gloved bureaucrats are experts in making trips to the airport as unpleasant as possible. As a joint congressional panel revealed Wednesday, the agency’s biggest failing is its inability to grope the truth.     ... MORE