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Fishing license indictment – Thomas Sowell What really needs serious re-examination are laws under which special prosecutors are issued unlimited fishing licenses to go see if they can trip someone up on inconsistencies in their statements about something that was not even a crime in the first place. After any special prosecutor has spent millions of tax dollars and is caught in the media spotlight, the temptation is to find something, anything, rather than say it has not been worth the expense or the bother. …To the liberal media, the accused is "innocent until proven guilty" -- when the accused shares their political views. Otherwise the standard is "the appearance of impropriety." http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2005/11/01/173707.html

Republicans and Civil Rights – Thomas Sowell  Civil rights are not about doing special things for special groups. …No one has a greater stake in various school-choice plans, including vouchers, than blacks have, even though school choice is not specifically racial. Social Security is not a racial policy either, but economists who have studied it have long described it as a system that transfers money from black men to white women, given the different life expectancies of these two groups.  Minimum wage laws have long had an adverse effect on the employment of blacks, especially young blacks, who are more likely to be looking for entry-level jobs. These are the kinds of jobs most often reduced or eliminated when the minimum wage set by the government exceeds what those jobs are worth to an employer. …Few policies have had more devastating local impacts on blacks than severe restrictions on the building of housing under "open space" laws, which lead to skyrocketing prices for homes and apartment rents that take up half the incomes of low-income households in many California communities.   http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2005/11/02/173908.html

Do we really care about children?  Walter Williams By 2030, about the midpoint of the baby boomer retirement years, federal guarantees to Social Security and Medicare will require one in every two income tax dollars. By 2050, they will require three in every four." And by 2070, Social Security and Medicare will consume all federal revenues. …In 2030, will young people in the labor force be willing to see themselves taxed at Social Security rates of 20, 30 and 40 percent to take care of some old people? I don't think that will politically fly, and they might begin to get ideas about euthanasia. In addition to economic strife, Social Security and Medicare are laying the groundwork for intergenerational conflict. Unfortunately, the politics of today don't give us room to prevent these twin disasters. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/walterwilliams/2005/11/02/173910.html

Public Schools – Public Prisons http://www.newswithviews.com/Turtel/joel.htm

Hysterical over Alito – Linda Chavez  Democrats' hysterical predictions notwithstanding, the Supreme Court -- even one dominated by anti-Roe justices -- cannot outlaw abortion. What a reversal of Roe v. Wade would do would be to return this most divisive and emotional issue to the people to decide through their elected legislatures. That's no excuse for opposing Samuel Alito. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/lindachavez/2005/11/02/173911.html

Alito nominated – conservatives hide from base – Ann Coulter Minority Leader Harry Reid dramatically invoked an obscure Senate rule to close the Senate for two hours, putatively in order to rehash old arguments about the Iraq war in closed session. In other words, Reid demanded more transparency in government by shutting the doors, throwing out the public, dimming the lights, and turning off the TV cameras in the chambers of the U.S. Senate. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/anncoulter/2005/11/03/174125.html

Oil prices and profits The oil industry holds a lot of inventory, and we should be glad it does. If an oil company stockpiled a lot of oil at $40 -- before it rose to $60 -- that is going to look almost as good (on the books) as the sorts of windfalls we've seen on home sales in Las Vegas. Since gasoline prices also rise whenever crude does (partly because crude accounts for half the cost), products refined from the cheaper $40 crude will also be unusually profitable for a while. But this is like making money on the house you sold but needing every dollar to buy a replacement home. Prices of oil likewise have to reflect replacement costs, and the resulting one-time surges in inventory profits are not a problem, but part of the solution. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/alanreynolds/2005/11/03/174128.html

The Conservative Revolt over Mier  - Tony Blankley - conservatives respect the law. We have deeply resented its misuse for the last 70 years by clever and willful liberals who would usurp the law for their own policy purposes. We want its rectification, so the true constitution can return from its exile (somewhere in the Wyoming Rockies, along with John Galt, I think).  This was a revolt for excellence. It was a revolt for a faithful scholar of the law. It was a moment of high faith in reason, and in the blessings that will flow from a fair and wise reading of our founding document.   http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/tonyblankley/2005/11/02/173913.html

The left’s hypocrisy about CIA leaks -Morton H. Halperin, director of ACLU's Center for National Security Studies, not only promised to provide legal assistance to people who outed CIA agents, he also publicly stated that covert operations should be banned. Bill Clinton, a man who refused to lower himself to face-to-face daily CIA briefings, tried to appoint Mort Halperin to the Defense Department. …  The political Left's record on national security in general, and the CIA and the Intelligence Identities Protection Act in particular, is crystal clear. It takes gall, real gall, to pretend otherwise. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/brentbozell/2005/11/02/173914.html

The incumbent protection act – John Stossel "I got elected. You may not criticize me."  OK, the incumbents don't put it that way. They say: "There's too much money in politics! We need campaign finance reform." … Only an unusually well-funded candidate can challenge the establishment.  In 1968, Eugene McCarthy drove Lyndon Johnson from office with the help of funds from rich liberals like Steward Mott. Today, McCarthy's campaign would be illegal. … Spending and speech limits are anti-democratic. Gene McCarthy said it well when he pointed out that the Founders pledged their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor" to win the Revolution. They didn't say, "lives and fortunes up to $1,000."  We need more money, not less, spent on politics. What's spent on campaigns now is less than is spent advertising potato chips. Let the outsiders speak.  The politicians should not tell the people to shut up. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/JohnStossel/2005/11/02/173915.html

Feminism and Men – Kathleen Parker The eradication of men and fathers from children's lives has been feminism's most despicable accomplishment. Half of all children will sleep tonight in a home where their father does not live…. Meanwhile, when we're not bashing men, we're diminishing manhood. Look around at entertainment and other cultural signposts and you see a feminized culture that prefers sanitized men - hairless, coiffed, buffed and, if possible, gay… As far as I can tell, real men don't have a problem with smart, successful women. But they do mind being castrated. It's a guy thing. They do mind being told in so many ways that they are superfluous. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/kathleenparker/2005/11/02/173922.html

In support of school vouchers for New Orleans children – Starr Parker Why are the same voices that called Bush "racist" for allegedly foot dragging in New Orleans not calling Weaver "racist" for opposing an efficient mechanism for getting displaced black kids into schools? …However, it seems to me that the great political opportunity for Bush, with blacks and with the nation, is to show real leadership and cut through all this delay by releasing these funds for vouchers by executive order. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/StarParker/2005/10/31/173440.html

The income tax gulag http://www.givemeliberty.org/RTPLawsuit/Update2005-10-31.htm

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