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Jacob Sullum (Dec 28, 2011)
In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network last March, shortly before he announced that he was running for the Republican presidential nomination, Newt... more
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Jacob Sullum (Dec 21, 2011)
Reporters routinely describe Ron Paul's foreign policy views as "isolationist" because he opposes the promiscuous use of military force. This is like calling him a recluse... more
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Jacob Sullum (Dec 14, 2011)
The first time Newt Gingrich disgusted me was in 1995, when the freshly installed speaker of the House proposed the death penalty for drug smugglers. Fifteen years later, I... more
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Jacob Sullum (Dec 07, 2011)
Do you see a problem with a law that authorizes indefinite military detention of anyone the president identifies as an enemy of the state? For President Obama, the problem is... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 30, 2011)
"I don't believe in amnesty," Mitt Romney said in 2006, but "I don't believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country." Although Romney... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 23, 2011)
Clearly what we need is a super-duper committee. Instead of six Republicans and six Democrats, it will have three members from each party, and its deficit reduction plan... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 16, 2011)
A couple of months ago, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Beth Brinkmann was standing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, defending the federal law... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 09, 2011)
Presenting his fiscal plan in USA Today last week, Mitt Romney said he wants to "eliminate every government program that is not absolutely essential." That sounds good until... more
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Jacob Sullum (Nov 02, 2011)
When he took office, Barack Obama promised "an unprecedented level of openness in government." As a major part of that commitment, he pledged fidelity to the Freedom of... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 26, 2011)
Why is Newt Gingrich running for president? Two words: "under God." I exaggerate only slightly. "One of the major reasons that I am running for president," the former House... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 19, 2011)
Next month, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, a 12-member subset of Congress that Congress created to make the hard fiscal choices Congress itself has failed... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 12, 2011)
In their Oct. 7 press release announcing "coordinated enforcement actions" against medical marijuana dispensaries, California's four U.S. attorneys use the adjective... more
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Jacob Sullum (Oct 05, 2011)
After FBI agents took custody of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on Dec. 25, 2009, they told him he had the... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 28, 2011)
On Jan. 13, 2009, Michael Allison brought a digital recorder to the Crawford County Courthouse in Robinson, Ill., where he was contesting a citation, because he had been told... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 21, 2011)
When Solyndra went belly up last month, less than a year after it started making solar arrays in Fremont, Calif., an Energy Department spokesman insisted that the $535... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 14, 2011)
At the Republican presidential debate in Tampa, Fla., on Monday night, Mitt Romney said Rick Perry has needlessly "scared seniors" by calling Social Security "a Ponzi... more
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Jacob Sullum (Sep 07, 2011)
Writing in The Washington Post last March, former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said requiring the Justice Department's inspector... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 31, 2011)
In 1986, Tim Cole, a student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. He was exonerated in 2009, a decade after... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 24, 2011)
After U.S.-backed Libyan rebels entered Tripoli on Sunday, The Washington Post noted that NATO "has been anxious not to be seen acting as the rebel air force in a... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 17, 2011)
Opponents of the federal law requiring Americans to buy government-approved medical coverage face a daunting challenge. Because the U.S. Supreme Court has treated the power... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 10, 2011)
Evidently Rick Perry is a Christian. But does he have to make such a big deal out of it?
"As a nation," the governor of my state declared when he announced... more
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Jacob Sullum (Aug 03, 2011)
Two weeks ago, The New York Times reported that Republicans "want a vastly smaller government." Last week, the Times called the dispute about raising the federal debt ceiling... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 27, 2011)
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican and former U.S. attorney, has never been keen on his state's Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Act, which his... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 20, 2011)
Only in Washington, D.C., would Mitch McConnell's Rube Goldbergian plan to capitulate on the national debt limit without admitting it be taken seriously. The Senate minority... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 13, 2011)
According to the White House website, President Obama enjoys the comfort and convenience of two "highly customized" Boeing 747s with "4,000 square feet of... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jul 06, 2011)
There was a time when Barack Obama seemed more honest than Bill Clinton. While Slick Willie notoriously claimed he smoked pot but "didn't inhale," Obama candidly admitted:... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 29, 2011)
When it comes to monitoring their children's media diets, some parents worry about sex, while others worry about violence. I worry more about inane sitcoms featuring... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 22, 2011)
During the Bush administration, when the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel got into the habit of rationalizing whatever the president wanted to do, Indiana... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 08, 2011)
Jack Kevorkian's first suicide machine, which he called the Thanatron, delivered the same three chemicals commonly used to execute condemned prisoners: the barbiturate... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jun 01, 2011)
Just before midnight last Thursday, a White House autopen signed legislation extending controversial provisions of the Patriot Act that were scheduled to expire the next day.... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 25, 2011)
A few years ago, two police officers were chasing a crack dealer at a Lexington, Ky., apartment complex when they lost sight of him as he ducked into one of two units at... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 18, 2011)
In 1995, when he was speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich told a gathering of Blue Cross/Blue Shield executives that he and his fellow Republicans planned to present "a... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 11, 2011)
Two weeks ago, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire vetoed a bill that would have clarified the rules for supplying medical marijuana in her state. She cited an April 14 letter... more
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Jacob Sullum (May 04, 2011)
According to the official story, Osama bin Laden was killed because he resisted the Navy SEALs who were attempting to capture him at his hideaway in Abbottabad, Pakistan. "If... more
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Jacob Sullum (Apr 27, 2011)
Last week, unveiling a plan to curtail "diversion" of opioid painkillers, Obama administration officials said they aim to "strike a balance between our desire to minimize... more
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Jacob Sullum (Apr 20, 2011)
Preet Bharara seems to be haunted by the fear that someone, somewhere, may be playing poker. Last year, Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, threatened an Australian... more
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Jacob Sullum (Apr 13, 2011)
This year, for the first time in more than a decade, I ventured outside the reassuring realm of TurboTax while preparing my return, looking for a late-arriving form at the... more
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Jacob Sullum (Apr 06, 2011)
In 2003, Paul Ryan was one of 207 Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted for the Medicare prescription drug benefit championed by President George W. Bush... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 30, 2011)
As the Supreme Court heard a First Amendment challenge to Arizona's rules for public financing of political candidates on Monday morning, it became clear that the state's... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 23, 2011)
In December 2007, The Boston Globe asked 12 presidential candidates about military action aimed at stopping Iran from building nuclear weapons. "In what circumstances, if... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 16, 2011)
During a Senate hearing last week, Rand Paul complained about the federal energy standards that will force conventional incandescent light bulbs off the market during the... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 09, 2011)
In the context of federal spending that will total something like $3.8 trillion this year, $61 billion is a rounding error. Yet the Democrats resisting that amount in... more
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Jacob Sullum (Mar 02, 2011)
Last week, Mitch Daniels, Indiana's governor, told The Daily Princetonian that "justice was served" when he was arrested for marijuana possession during his junior year at... more
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Jacob Sullum (Feb 23, 2011)
Mark Ciavarella, the Pennsylvania judge known as "Mr. Zero Tolerance," had a reputation for running his courtroom like an assembly line, spending just a minute or two on each... more
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Jacob Sullum (Feb 16, 2011)
As hundreds of thousands of Egyptians poured into the streets of Cairo, braving riot police, tanks and the government's plainclothes thugs in an ultimately successful effort... more
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Jacob Sullum (Feb 09, 2011)
Ronald Reagan famously summarized the federal government's attitude toward the economy this way: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops... more
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Jacob Sullum (Feb 02, 2011)
Vicky Hartzler, a freshman representative from Missouri, says one of her top priorities is "reining in runaway spending." Yet she exempts one-fifth of the federal budget and... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 26, 2011)
"The challenge for the president," The New York Times reported before Tuesday's State of the Union address, "is to convince independents and centrists of his fiscal... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 19, 2011)
After the recent shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., the psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, writing in The Wall Street Journal, said such crimes are "the inevitable outcome of... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 12, 2011)
Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of shooting 20 people outside a Tucson, Ariz., grocery store on Saturday, probably will never get a chance to create the "new money... more
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Jacob Sullum (Jan 05, 2011)
Last year, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board installed "wine kiosks" in 31 grocery stores. Last month, it shut the machines down for repairs, just in time for the... more