Written by Michael Medved
The media frenzy about a purported race “crisis” due to white cops killing young black males ignores basic facts. There is no evidence at all of a dramatic surge in police violence against blacks: Justice Department numbers show a steady average of less than 100 such deaths per year.
Of course, every unnecessary loss is a tragedy, but the obsessive focus on deadly confrontations between African-Americans and police creates fear and hostility that only make other confrontations more likely.… Continue Reading
Written by Bruce Walker
The IRS scandal is not much in the news these days, but it is not going away. The more Obama’s minions stonewall this scandal, the more congressional Democrats discount the scandal, the more the leftist establishment media ignores this scandal, the more toxic it will be for the left. In late November we learned that 30,000 of Lois Lerner’s lost e-mails have been found, but these e-mails have not yet been converted into readable form.… Continue Reading
Written by Victor Davis Hanson
The last but long gasp of the Obama administration is characterized not so much by deceit and incompetence as by growing chaos. Everything appears to be coming apart. The chariot of state now veers up and down with a terrified Phaethon clueless at the reins. Whether it is ISIS, Ebola, Putin, or Obamacare, the common strain is not simple incompetence, but a maladroitness born of intolerant ideological fundamentalism.
Have our government agencies ever seemed more corrupt or useless or both, staffed by political cronies and leftist zealots?… Continue Reading
Written by David E. Smith
The Associated Press reports that President Barack Obama’s administration has admitted that premiums for health-insurance plans sold on healthcare.gov will increase in 2015. Here’s the AP:
Obama administration officials are acknowledging that HealthCare.gov premiums, on average, will go up next year.
But the same officials say most current customers can still save money if they are willing to shop around a competitive marketplace.
In a report released Thursday, the Health and Human Services Department says premiums for the most popular type of plan will go up an average of 5 percent in 35 states where the federal government is running the health insurance exchanges.
…
Continue Reading
Written by Curtis Houck
On Wednesday night, ABC became the only major broadcast network to not have covered the controversy over President Obama’s choice to name former soap opera producer and Obama reelection campaign bundler Colleen Bell the new United States Ambassador to Hungary.
The network’s zero coverage of this story came more than a day after ABC’s own chief White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, grilled White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on what exactly did Bell have in terms of qualifications for the job (to which Earnest was visibly stumped). … Continue Reading
Written by David E. Smith
GOOD NEWS: The Illinois House adjourned yesterday for the session (sine die). This means the ERA is effectively dead. Feminists and other Leftists will have to start from square one in the new session, which starts on January 14, 2015, with a slightly more conservative General Assembly.
We expect the Illinois Senate to adjourn today for the session. The Senate sponsor of a terrible divorce bill (worse than no-fault) will not call it for a vote because there are too many concerns with the bill.… Continue Reading
Written by David E. Smith
Governor-elect
Bruce Rauner (R) won a slim majority of the total votes and by 142,284 votes over incumbent
Patrick Quinn (D). Voter turnout was 49 percent, and compared to the 2010 gubernatorial election was down two percent, or 112,353 less voters in the 2014 election.
Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan won decisively with 59 percent of the total vote, beating Republican challenger Paul Schimpf who received little support from the Republican establishment in Illinois.
…
Continue Reading
Written by Brian Hughes
November has been a terrible month for President Barack Obama, between his party losing control of the Senate and seemingly unending bad news for Obamacare.
The last few weeks were the worst stretch for his signature domestic initiative since the botched rollout of Obamacare in fall 2013, stoking doubts about whether the president can ever sell his healthcare policies to the American public.
First, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments on the legality of Obamacare subsidies, a move that could gut the centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act.… Continue Reading
Written by Michael Lucci
Illinois’ sluggish jobs recovery is coming at a tremendous cost. For every post-recession job created in Illinois, nearly two people have enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.
In the recession era, the number of Illinoisans dependent on food stamps has risen by 745,000. Without adequate job creation in the state, Illinois families have had no choice but to depend upon food stamps to put bread on the table.… Continue Reading
Written by Michale Medved
President Barack Obama’s proclamation of executive amnesty for illegal immigrants amounts to an outrageous power-grab and sets a dangerous trap for the GOP. Republicans can’t come across as stubborn defenders of the dysfunctional status quo: even if they rolled back every detail of the new White House initiative, our broken immigration system would still need sweeping reform.
Republicans should seize the initiative by passing their own reform bill, rather than fighting unpopular battles on the president’s terms.… Continue Reading
Written by Jay Cost
For responding to a president who defies his constitutional limits, Congress is said to possess four powers: to impeach, to defund, to investigate, and to withhold confirmation of nominees.
But there is a fifth recourse, which the new Republican Congress might consider in view of President Obama’s executive amnesty for illegal immigrants: the power to censure. In fact, censure could work in tandem with Congress’s other powers, helping the legislature make the moral case for responding to the president’s lawlessness.… Continue Reading
