Green pork should be a GOP budget target. Dec 20, 2010 WSJ Ethanol isn’t the only heavily subsidized energy source that won a multibillion dollar jackpot in last week’s tax deal. The other big winner was the wind industry, which received a one year extension of a $3 billion grant program for renewable energy projects. [...]

The White House says it won’t submit the free trade pact to Congress. Dec 20, 2010 WSJ Just when you think the White House may head in the right economic direction, someone reminds us why the unemployment rate is still 9.8%. In the latest example, spokesman Robert Gibbs disclosed late last week that President Obama [...]

‘Net neutrality’ sounds nice, but the Web is working fine now. The new rules will inhibit investment, deter innovation and create a billable-hours bonanza for lawyers. Dec 20, 2010 WSJ By ROBERT M. MCDOWELL Tomorrow morning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will mark the winter solstice by taking an unprecedented step to expand government’s reach [...]

Released cables make it clear that the U.S. knew Manuel Zelaya was a threat to democracy in Honduras. Dec 20, 2010 WSJ By MARY ANASTASIA O’GRADY “The last year and a half of the [President Manuel] Zelaya Administration will be, in my view, extraordinarily difficult for our bilateral relationship. His pursuit of immunity from the [...]

Why did Harry Reid beat an embarrassing retreat and yank the $1.1 trillion omnibus bill off the Senate floor? Dec 19, 2010 WSJ By JOHN FUND Why did Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid beat an embarrassing retreat and yank the $1.1 trillion earmark-filled omnibus spending bill off the Senate floor last night? The decision came [...]

Dec 20, 2010 By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown The lame duck Congress and President Obama are retarding the recovery. It’s tough medicine to medicine to swallow– ending unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work for three years– but it is necessary if we want recovery. The official U.S. unemployment rate has [...]

Dec 20, 2010 By David Harsanyi Let’s imagine — for the sake of this discussion I’m having with myself — that forcing people to purchase health insurance is desirable, ethical and a much-needed tool in solving a national crisis. Well, even those indulgences do not make the individual mandate any less authoritarian or dangerous. At [...]

By Michael Barone (Archive) · Monday, December 20, 2010 Elections have consequences. The consequences of the November 2010 elections — and one might add the November 2009 elections in New Jersey and Virginia and the January 2010 special Senate election in Massachusetts — became clear as lights shined over the snow at both ends of [...]

By Burt Prelutsky (Archive) · Monday, December 20, 2010 There are many incomprehensible moments in movies. For instance, in just about every James Bond film, the sadistic villain finally has his nemesis, Agent 007, in his clutches. Instead of just shooting Bond, because a gunshot would be too quick and relatively painless, he sets up [...]

Dec 20, 2010 AFGHANISTAN STORIES: RC-East, Bagram Media Center Kapisa PRT visits Ghayn Valley Written by Kapisa PRT PA  AF Capt. Brandon Rocker, Kapisa PRT civil engr, talks with the principal and teachers from the Abdul Salam H.S., Dec. 15. The PRT was conducting quality control inspections on current projects in the valley. The high school [...]