by Brad Heath. The U.S. government started keeping secret records of Americans' international telephone calls nearly a decade before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, harvesting billions of calls in a program that provided a blueprint for the far broader National Security Agency surveillance that followed. For more than two decades, the Justice Department ... MORE
by Mike Allen. Sen. Rand Paul gave POLITICO a sneak peek at the slogan he will unveil at his presidential campaign announcement on Tuesday: “Defeat the Washington machine. Unleash the American dream.” The slogan, beneath the RAND PAC logo of a torch flame, will set the tone as the Kentucky Republican kicks off a five-day, five-state ... MORE
by Mara Liasson. Rand Paul is not like other potential presidential candidates. The Kentucky senator, who announced his candidacy for the White House on Tuesday morning, doesn't fit neatly into the molds of either party. Socially liberal on issues of crime and punishment — especially when it comes to drug sentencing — against a federal ... MORE
Bystander video reveals inconvenient truth. In a column
last December, I noted that video footage, while not necessarily
decisive in cases where police use deadly force, can make a crucial
difference. Here is a good example: Today police in North Charleston,
South Carolina, arrested
one of their own, Patrolman Michael Slager, and charged ... MORE
Throwing Israel to the wolves. By abandoning virtually all its demands for serious restrictions on Iran's nuclear bomb program, the Obama administration has apparently achieved the semblance of a preliminary introduction to the beginning of a tentative framework for a possible hope of an eventual agreement with Iran. But even this ... MORE
by Ira Stoll. A lesson in basic economics courtesy of an old Toyota. The odometer on my 1999 Toyota Camry hit 100,000 earlier this week. It triggered a small family celebration and some reflection on what might be learned from the achievement. One takeaway is that newer isn’t always better. You don’t have to be an adherent of Judaism (older ... MORE
How to sustain a lasting passion for liberty. What does it mean to be an effective advocate of liberty? It means to love what you do and adopt sustainable patterns of thinking and living that contribute to making the world a freer place. Sustainability is key. Most of today’s attacks on freedom lovers include a dismissal that libertarianism is an ideology for idealistic (or maybe deluded) kids, not one for adults. ... MORE
No one can defy the law of demand. If all other factors remain equal, the higher the price of a good,
the fewer people will demand it. That's the law of demand, a fundamental
idea in economics. And yet there is no shortage of politicians,
pundits, policy wonks, and members of the public who insist that raising
the price of labor will not have the ... MORE
What happened to the labor force? Corporate profits are sky-high, Wall Street is on an historic winning streak – and President Obama must be extremely grateful that commentary about his framework nuclear deal with Iran sucked up all the media oxygen so that the terrible jobs report that came out on Friday was largely ignored. Zero Hedge gives ... MORE