How L.A.’s New Minimum Wage Could Hurt the Poor

by Monica Potts.  A liberal argues that higher wages will just negate government subsidies. This week, the Los Angeles City Council voted to increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour, from the current $9, by 2020, joining the ranks of other liberal cities like Seattle and San Francisco who are acting despite federal inaction on the issue. But L.A. is the  ... MORE

Political Correctness: Tyranny Of The Mind

by Pastor Chuck Baldwin.    In a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, dated September 23, 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote: “I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” By any definition that Jefferson could have envisioned, today’s political correctness can only be regarded as “tyranny over   ... MORE

So Far, Rand Paul Is Winning His Fight: Senate Rejects USA Freedom Act & Rejects Extending NSA Collection Authority

by Scott Shackford.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was right. The Senate did not have enough votes to pass the USA Freedom Act, the compromise law that would have restrained, but not eliminated, mass data collection by the National Security Agency (NSA). The vote was 57-42 late this evening (technically early this morning), just    ... MORE

VIDEO: Edward Snowden - The Future Of Digital Security

Radley Balko: How Controversial Patriot Act Powers Are Now Overwhelmingly Deployed In Drug Investigations

Read by Rand Paul during his Patriot Act filibuster.  One of the more controversial provisions of the Patriot Act was to broaden the “sneak-and-peek” power for federal law enforcement officials. The provision allows investigators to conduct searches without informing the target of the search. We were assured at the time that this     ... MORE

Warren Beatty: Is The End Of Free Speech Near?

Want hate speech laws? Go to hell.  The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states (in part): "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech[.]" Regarding free speech, the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1964, with unanimity, said:  "... we consider this case [NEW YORK TIMES CO. v. SULLIVAN, 376 U.S. 254] against the background of a     ... MORE

VIDEO: Eminent Domain Abuse - Kelo Tenth Anniversary

Warren Buffett Knows Minimum Wage Hurts Workers

by Chris Matthews.    Billionaire suggests education instead. Warren Buffett is a favorite of the American left for his support of such policies as higher taxes on the rich and healthcare reform. But advocates for workers rights may be a little less pleased with the billionaire investor after he published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal Friday, decrying   ... MORE

PCN Editorial: The Surveillance State Is Illegal

Court gives NSA thumbs down.     A U.S. appeals court's ruling that the National Security Agency's metadata collection was illegal turned the spy state upside down in almost 100 pages of common sense and solid understanding of the rights Americans have under the law. It shows, once again, that both common sense and a respect for the rights      ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: What If We Didn't Have A Constitution?

What if the rule of law is an illusion?    What if we didn't have a Constitution? What if the government were elected by custom and tradition, but not by law? What if election procedures and official titles and government responsibilities merely followed those that preceded them, and not because any of this was compelled by law,    ... MORE

National Contempt For 1st Amendment: 51% Of Democrats & 37% Of Republicans Want “Hate Speech” To Be A Crime

Enough to make lady liberty cry.   Since 1994 people convicted of federal crimes motivated by the 'actual or perceived' identity of victims have faced tougher sentences. Many other states had passed 'hate crime' statutes in earlier years, and in recent years many states have been adopting laws which make crimes motivated by the victim's   ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - Central Planning

10 Great Points In Rand Paul’s Patriot Act Attack

by Matt Welch.     I don't know whether Rand Paul's ongoing Senate talkfest will succeed in running out the clock on the Patriot Act, or (as he is seeking) opening up a debate and amendment process, but I do know that—just like his 2013 exercise—these have been some of the most invigorating hours on C-SPAN in recent memory. Warrants need   ... MORE

Sarah Longwell: A Call To Ditch Sobriety Checkpoints

Big hassle, lots of money and a tiny reward.   Americans should buckle up and brace themselves for particularly heavy traffic this Memorial Day weekend. According to estimates from AAA, more than 37 million vacationers will drive to a destination for the three-day break this year, the most in nearly a decade. Unfortunately, crowded highways  ... MORE

VIDEO: Warsaw's Blinking Lights

Veronique de Rugy: The Tip Of The Regulatory Iceberg

Crippling innovation speeding the growth of government. In 2014, the government issued 2,400 new regulations, including 27 major rules that may cost $80 billion or more annually. They range from forcing restaurants to list the number of calories in food—even though past experiments have revealed that such measures fail to change     ... MORE

The Fancy Way Of Saying State-Sanctioned Theft

by Matt Vespa.      Welcome to the upside down world of civil asset forfeiture. On Monday, FreedomWorks and the Center for American Progress (CAP) joined forces to invite bloggers, writers, and some think-tank analysts for a daylong conference on justice reform. One of the aspects I liked about the conference is that it shows on some     ... MORE

Walter E Williams: The True Black Tragedy

Keeping blacks on the liberal plantation.     Hustlers and people with little understanding want us to believe that today's black problems are the continuing result of a legacy of slavery, poverty and racial discrimination. The fact is that most of the social pathology seen in poor black neighborhoods is entirely new in black history. Let's look   ... MORE

Derrick Broze: Introducing REVERSE DRUG STINGS: The Latest Tool For Creating Criminals In The War On Drugs

More criminal tactics from government.   "The time has come to remind the Executive Branch that the Constitution charges it with law enforcement — not crime creation,” one California judge writes in a damning indictment of the practice, while another describes agents as “trolling poor neighborhoods.” Since Sept. 11, 2001, law       ... MORE