The End of Fidel Castro? ( General ) by David Boaz
NPR has a report this morning that it's looking more and more like Fidel Castro is terminally ill and will not return to power. NPR and Reuters both suggest that younger brother Raul Castro may open up the economy and even the political system to some extent.
Meanwhile, after 47 years of tyranny, some leftists still revere the Cuban dictator. A "colossal portrait" depicting Castro as "a champion of civil rights" will be unveiled in Central Park on November 8.
Posted on October 25, 2006 Posted to Cato@Liberty
Nightmare Politics
If you're not into fantasy football and the like, policy buffs around the country can now play Fantasy Congress, a website created by students at Claremont McKenna College. As the New York Times explains,
Just as in fantasy football or baseball, each player picks a team ââ?¬â? in this case, 4 ...
Posted on October 23, 2006 Posted to Cato@Liberty
Nightmare Politics ( General ) by David Boaz
If you're not into fantasy football and the like, policy buffs around the country can now play Fantasy Congress, a website created by students at Claremont McKenna College. As the New York Times explains,
Just as in fantasy football or baseball, each player picks a team — in this case, 4 senators and 12 House members of varying seniority levels — and competes with other players in a league typically managed by a friend or a co-worker.... Players accumulate points as the legislators they have chosen go about their business on Capitol Hill. A House member or senator earns five points for introducing a bill or an amendment, and more points for negotiating successfully each step in the legislative process.Yikes! Yes, that's right: In this nightmare Congress, much as in the real one, you "win" by introducing laws and getting them passed. No points for keeping your mitts off our money, or for failing to rush in with a legislative pander after every headline or "Dateline" story. And so yes, that means that the top-scoring House member is Mr. Pork, Don Young of Alaska. "Don Young's Way" is not just a bridge in Alaska, it's pretty much the story of Washington. And now the story of Fantasy Washington. Hat tip: Ryan Posly.
Posted on October 23, 2006 Posted to Cato@Liberty
Big-Government Republicans for Lieberman
In the Wall Street Journal, Dan Henninger writes admiringly of Sen. Joe Lieberman and the Republicans who are flocking to Connecticut to campaign for him, notably Jack Kemp. The Boston Globe adds that many Republican donors close to the White House are donating to Lieberman: former Bush campaign manager Joe ...
Posted on October 23, 2006 Posted to Cato@Liberty
Preparing Children for Adulthood
From the Washington Post:
Recess is dangerous. There's all that name-calling, roughhousing and bullying. And the fast running! Why a child might trip, fall, even -- and perhaps more important -- sue.
Given such perils, Willett Elementary School, south of Boston, has cracked down on tag and other "chasing games." Pia Durkin, ...
Posted on October 23, 2006 Posted to Cato@Liberty
Preparing Children for Adulthood ( General ) by David Boaz
From the Washington Post:
Recess is dangerous. There's all that name-calling, roughhousing and bullying. And the fast running! Why a child might trip, fall, even -- and perhaps more important -- sue. Given such perils, Willett Elementary School, south of Boston, has cracked down on tag and other "chasing games." Pia Durkin, the district superintendent, told the Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, Mass., that children's energies should be better directed toward "good, sound, supervised play."So they'll be prepared for good, sound, supervised lives.
Posted on October 23, 2006 Posted to Cato@Liberty
Big-Government Republicans for Lieberman ( General ) by David Boaz
In the Wall Street Journal, Dan Henninger writes admiringly of Sen. Joe Lieberman and the Republicans who are flocking to Connecticut to campaign for him, notably Jack Kemp. The Boston Globe adds that many Republican donors close to the White House are donating to Lieberman: former Bush campaign manager Joe Allbaugh, former ambassador Mel Sembler, former Sen. Don Nickles, "and the heads of several Texas-based corporations." Republican strategists tell the Globe that Karl Rove's publicized phone call to Lieberman was a signal to Republican donors and politicians.
What are these Republicans doing? They're subordinating every tenet of the Republican philosophy to the war in Iraq. That's the only issue on which Lieberman is in line with Republican or conservative principles. Lieberman has a lifetime rating of 17 from the American Conservative Union. But maybe he's getting better? No, his rating was 8 in 2005. On government spending, the National Taxpayers Union rates him 9, slightly worse than Dodd, Feinstein, or Boxer.
Lieberman votes against tax cuts and spending cuts. He's coauthor of a bill to implement the Kyoto Protocol. He votes for gun control and mandatory seat-belt laws, and against tort reform. He votes to restrict political speech (the McCain-Feingold act) and to punish people for "hate crimes."
It's understandable that Republicans don't want Ned Lamont in the Senate. But to campaign for a lifelong big-government liberal simply because he supports President Bush's increasingly unsupportable war in Iraq is to declare limited government across a wide range of issues less important than this failing war.
Posted on October 23, 2006 Posted to Cato@Liberty
Libertarian Voters Hit the Headlines
Suddenly, a week after David Kirby and I published our study "The Libertarian Vote," journalists and politicos are taking note of libertarian voters, along with disgruntled economic conservatives and social conservatives. In a story on our study, The Economist writes:
AMERICA may be the land of the free, but Americans who favour ...
Posted on October 20, 2006 Posted to Cato@Liberty
What’s a libertarian to do?
Americans who favour both economic and social freedom have no political home this election.
Posted on October 20, 2006 Posted to The Guardian
Libertarian Voters Hit the Headlines ( General ) by David Boaz
Suddenly, a week after David Kirby and I published our study "The Libertarian Vote," journalists and politicos are taking note of libertarian voters, along with disgruntled economic conservatives and social conservatives. In a story on our study, The Economist writes:
AMERICA may be the land of the free, but Americans who favour both economic and social freedom have no political home. The Republican Party espouses economic freedom — ie, low taxes and minimal regulation — but is less keen on sexual liberation. The Democratic Party champions the right of homosexuals to do their thing without government interference, but not businesspeople. Libertarian voters have an unhappy choice. Assuming they opt for one of the two main parties, they can vote to kick the state out of the bedroom, or the boardroom, but not both.And that, of course, is why our study found that the 15 percent of American voters who are libertarian swung sharply toward the Democrats in 2004. Although they usually vote Republican, they're not committed to the GOP. And they realized that the Bush Republicans have not been delivering fiscal responsibility, federalism, or any of the other policies that libertarians and other voters expect from Republicans. If you think I have a starry-eyed view of some halcyon past when the Republican Party actually believed in small government, check out this Washington Post article that says that gays "hold a tenuous, complicated spot within the ranks of the GOP, whose earlier libertarian, live-and-let-live values have been ground down by the wedge issue of opposition to gay rights." Read more...
Posted on October 20, 2006 Posted to Cato@Liberty
RSS