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Bill Steigerwald, born and raised in Pittsburgh, is a former L.A. Times copy editor and free-lancer who also worked as a docudrama researcher for CBS-TV in Hollywood before becoming a reporter for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and a columnist for The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He recently retired from daily newspaper journalism.
A father of five and a long-time libertarian, Bill Steigerwald once identified himself at the end of a column as "a lapsed Catholic who believes peaceful individuals, markets and society should be as free as possible and governments should be so small, poor and weak that no one interested in money or power would want to enter politics. Bill Steigerwald is against the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty and the War on Iraq. And he tries to stay out of bars and government buildings as much as he can."
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Bill Steigerwald (Dec 29, 2008)
The crash of the economy and the rise of Barack Obama were the big stories of the last year, and both were hot topics in interviews with pundits, authors, think tank... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Dec 22, 2008)
Don't hold your breath waiting for economic historian Thomas DiLorenzo to show up as a guest lecturer at your local Republican Party's next Abraham Lincoln birthday gala. The... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Dec 17, 2008)
With Christmas bearing down on us, here are six interesting, smart and/or provocative books about geography, war, the New Deal, the environment, Andrew Jackson and Alexander... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Dec 10, 2008)
There's a beautiful thing President-elect Obama could do on his first day in office to prove he's serious about being an instrument of real change.
It'd be politically... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Dec 08, 2008)
Bill Sammon has been the deputy managing editor of the Fox News bureau in Washington only since August, but he's no rookie inside the Beltway. A former White House... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Dec 01, 2008)
The more you know about Ben Wattenberg, the more you understand why Ronald Reagan called him his favorite Democrat. Wattenberg, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Nov 24, 2008)
Conservative author and radio talk-show host Bill Bennett has been a prominent American political and cultural figure since 1981, when he became President Reagan's chairman... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Nov 17, 2008)
Is the impending collapse of America's Big Three automakers the next "crisis" that must be solved by a massive federal bailout? Most politicians of a certain ideological or... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Nov 10, 2008)
Mr. Obama, bring on the change.
Bring on that new dawn of American leadership you say is at hand.
Bring on your soaring rhetoric, your mandate from the media, your party’s... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Nov 03, 2008)
Just in time for this year's electoral excitement, Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund has revised and updated his 2004 book, "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Oct 27, 2008)
Gov. Rendell first blurted the ugly truth about Western Pennsylvania back in February.
"You've got conservative whites here," he said, no doubt thinking of the rolling... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Oct 21, 2008)
Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher, the Republican Party's newest working-class hero from Ohio, has been ridiculed and had his private life probed since he had the nerve to... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Oct 20, 2008)
Russell Roberts is pretty good at spreading free-market economic ideas into places where they might not ordinarily be appreciated -- namely, National Public Radio and the... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Oct 13, 2008)
Catching up with author and syndicated columnist Pat Buchanan during this election season is almost impossible. Up at 5 a.m. weekdays and still up many nights at... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Oct 06, 2008)
It's no surprise that someone who named his company FreeMarkets Inc., as founder and CEO Glen Meakem did, is a foe of the gargantuan financial bailout bill that President... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Oct 02, 2008)
Christopher Buckley's latest satire about an unpopular president who nominates a sexy TV judge to the Supreme Court is kind of spooky. "Supreme Courtship" -- which he... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Sep 29, 2008)
You can't pin any blame for the country's financial meltdown on Congressman Ron Paul. The libertarian Texas Republican and former Pittsburgher has been warning for two... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Sep 24, 2008)
As Bill Maher watched Roseanne Barr deliver her inane rant on the Sept. 12 "Real Time With Bill Maher," it looked -- for half a millisecond -- that he, too, realized what a... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Sep 22, 2008)
Erin Burnett of CNBC is not just another frequently appearing pretty TV face in the world of big-time business reporting. The anchor of CNBC's "Street Signs" (2-3 p.m.) and... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Sep 16, 2008)
Long before Sarah Palin gave Republicans a reason to go on living, it was a good bet that Barack Obama would not win Pennsylvania in November.
It’s not because Sen. Obama is... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Sep 10, 2008)
Good thing George Stephanopoulos wasn't a Sunday morning TV pundit in 1912.
That was the year an egghead named Woodrow Wilson won the Democrats' nomination for president... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Sep 08, 2008)
Are John McCain’s economic values and policies sound? Does he really believe in free markets and cutting taxes and regulations? Is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a real... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Sep 05, 2008)
National Review political reporter David Freddoso hasn’t thrown the first unfriendly book through the stained-glass windows of the Barack Obama crusade. And “The Case Against... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Aug 25, 2008)
For the last 18 months, Denver Post staffer Chuck Plunkett's beat has been next week's Democratic National Convention and the logistical preparations his city has been... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jul 31, 2008)
Economic journalist and author Garet Garrett (1878-1954) is largely forgotten by history. Only libertarians and "Old Right" conservatives who still believe in individual... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jul 28, 2008)
On Jan. 20, 1981, when Ronald Reagan delivered his inaugural address to a nation battered by high inflation, punitive taxes and a stagnant economy, he said famously, “In... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jul 21, 2008)
When the Federal Reserve Board is in the news, there’s no better source of expertise than political economy professor Allan Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon University. Meltzer... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jul 15, 2008)
Belated birthday greetings to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The DEA, which our great moral leader Richard Nixon created in 1973 and charged with the impossible but... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jul 07, 2008)
They don't make American presidents like George Washington anymore, and they never will. As Richard Brookhiser points out in his book "George Washington on Leadership,"... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jun 30, 2008)
Constitutionalists everywhere cheered the Supreme Court's decision on Thursday, June 26, affirming that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms.... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jun 16, 2008)
After writing three major cover stories about Barack Obama’s books, his speeches and his tony Chicago neighborhood, Andrew Ferguson of the Weekly Standard probably knows as... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jun 10, 2008)
As any recent television viewer can attest, the American Petroleum Institute - the main lobbying group for the oil industry - has launched a huge ad campaign designed to tell... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jun 09, 2008)
Two weeks ago Cliff Kincaid, president of the conservative group America’s Survival Inc., called a press conference in Washington to challenge the mainstream media to look... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jun 05, 2008)
In 1958 liberal John Kenneth Galbraith wrote his classic “The Affluent Society,” an enormously popular book on the “economics of abundance” that complained that while... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jun 03, 2008)
So, asked Washington Post star political reporter Dana Milbank, are you saying Barack Obama "is a communist"?
Milbank was -- by default -- the most charismatic member of... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jun 02, 2008)
Unfortunately, the Port Authority of Allegheny County – Pittsburgh’s government mass-transit bus and rail monopoly -- is a typical example of how far the American... more
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Bill Steigerwald (May 26, 2008)
Victor Davis Hanson, a former classics professor, is a renowned conservative scholar of ancient history and military affairs who's recently become a nationally syndicated... more
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Bill Steigerwald (May 19, 2008)
With the announcement that he'll seek the Libertarian Party’s 2008 presidential nomination, former Georgia Republican congressman Bob Barr has added another twist to an... more
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Bill Steigerwald (May 09, 2008)
When Al Gore and his global warming alarmists take over, one of the first citizens they'll slap in a prison and charge with crimes against the (green) state will be... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Apr 28, 2008)
Grover Norquist is one of the most influential conservative operatives and sharpest political strategists in Washington. As president of Americans for Tax Reform, the... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Apr 21, 2008)
The name Zogby -- like Gallup -- has become synonymous with polling and public opinion research on almost every continent. John Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Apr 14, 2008)
What's the true cost of the war in Iraq? The total, long-term cost of everything from tanks and jet fuel and the interest on the money Washington is borrowing to the cost of... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Apr 09, 2008)
What if in the election of 2000 Al Gore had become president instead of George W. Bush?
Two terms of Commander in Chief Gore is a scary thought. But these days it's getting... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Apr 07, 2008)
With fresh polls showing Hillary Clinton’s huge lead over Barack Obama shrinking in the Pennsylvania primary, it was time to pick the politically savvy brain of Pittsburgh... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Apr 02, 2008)
TO: Barack Obama
FROM: ABH Campaign Consultants Inc.
RE: How to win the Pa. Primary
Welcome again to Pittsburgh, Sen. Obama. Don't worry about those state polls... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Mar 31, 2008)
"Comrade J" author Pete Earley knows his spies. Among the former Washington Post reporter's previous dozen books are "Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring," a... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Mar 24, 2008)
Fans of gun rights and scholarly defenders of the U.S. Constitution alike were left pleased and optimistic by what they heard U.S. Supreme Court justices say March 18... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Mar 17, 2008)
Forbes magazine editor Steve Forbes failed to win the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000. And his pet big ideas -- a flat tax that would let citizens fill... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Mar 16, 2008)
Wait till you see the tar-and-feathering scene in HBO's "John Adams."
Wait till you see an ugly mob of Bostonians grab a British taxman, strip him naked, pour a caldron of... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Mar 13, 2008)
Elizabeth Kolbert of The New Yorker did not appreciate being ambushed by the local press.
But the superstar journalist, though wary, was a good sport when she was gently... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Mar 10, 2008)
When Hollywood's movie-makers and docu-dramatists get their hands on American history, accuracy, reality and truth often are tortured beyond recognition. But starting at 8... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Mar 04, 2008)
You've no doubt seen the stories about strange snowfalls in Saudi Arabia. A brutal winter in China. The heaviest snow cover in North America, Siberia and elsewhere since... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Feb 27, 2008)
William F. Buckley Jr., the leading political and cultural symbol of American conservatism for almost 50 years, died Feb. 27 at age 82 at his home in Stamford, Conn. He had... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Feb 11, 2008)
With the Democrat presidential primary looking like it will have to be decided at the party's national convention in Denver on Aug. 25-28, it’s a good time to revisit the... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Feb 01, 2008)
Economist and syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell says he has lost track of how many books he’s written on economics, history, social policy, ethnicity and the history of... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jan 23, 2008)
Too bad young Barack Obama wasn't as deeply into the drug trade as the Clintons' smear artists would like America's Democrat voters to believe.
Too bad he hadn't been a... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jan 21, 2008)
Holly Fretwell, an economist by training, has done her best to bring some needed critical thinking to the global-warming debate by writing “The Sky’s Not... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jan 14, 2008)
One of several things Democrat John O. Norquist became famous for during his four terms as mayor of Milwaukee was his enthusiastic implementation of a school-voucher system... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jan 08, 2008)
As he heads into the New Hampshire Republican primary after capturing 10 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses, Ron Paul is no longer the mystery he was when he began his... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jan 07, 2008)
Lisa Curtis of The Heritage Foundation was studying Pakistan long before the assassination of Benazir Bhutto hurled that country of 165 million onto our front... more
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Bill Steigerwald (Jan 01, 2008)
It won't matter how high Ron Paul finishes in the Iowa caucuses this Thursday or in the New Hampshire primary Jan. 8 or anywhere else.
He's already won his prize.
Despite... more