by Jim Kouri


News of the death of 77-year old Congressman John Murtha, of Pennsylvania, on Monday garnered the usual coverage afforded a high-profile political leader by the news media and the Beltway elites.

Even Republicans fawned over his long record in the House of Representatives. For example, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said, "Every person who serves in the military has lost an advocate and a good friend. The House of Representatives has lost one of its own."

One can only wonder if Rep. Boehner recalls that Murtha publicly called U.S. Marines "cold-blooded murders" during the height of warfare in Iraq.

By Rich Lowry

President Barack Obama is a budgetary Don Quixote, with Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag his enabling sidekick Sancho Panza.

Obama has donned his armor and picked up his lance to wage a thoroughly imaginary battle for fiscal restraint. He betrays not the slightest sign that his self-styled brave, tightfisted responsibility -- slaying wasteful programs and freezing spending all around him -- is all a dream.

By Marianne Suarez
Civitas Institute

The economy, and jobs, was the centerpiece of President Obama’s State of the Union address last week, unfortunately not in the way many would have hoped. A near unanimous consensus of political analysts and pundits pre-speech pointed to the unequivocal fact that the President had no choice but to move to the center and away from his administration’s failed liberal agenda if he hoped to retain the support of the American people.

As unemployment rates across the country hit record highs and continue to increase, it has become evident that staying the course on a failed government economic stimulus program is not the way forward. The national unemployment rate is over 10 percent, while in North Carolina, according to the latest report by the state’s Employment Security Commission (NCESC), statewide unemployment has reached a record 11.2 percent, and has cost the state $4.8 billion in unemployment benefits alone this year. Contrary to the claim that unemployment is leveling off, this latest report marks a striking 0.5 percent increase in the past month and an overall 3.2 percent increase in the past year.

By John Hood

RALEIGH – Just months ago, it seemed that just about everyone was trying to jump onto the climate-change bandwagon as it hurtled down the hill like a juggernaut.

Newly elected President Barack Obama and congressional leaders championed a proposed regulatory regime they called “cap and trade.” Hollywood celebrities publicly fretted about their carbon footprints (in between jet flights to beaches and ski chalets). Al Gore and Rajendra Paschauri, the N.C. State-trained economist who chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), shared the stage to receive a Nobel Prize. And here in North Carolina, Gov. Beverly Perdue talked incessantly about “green jobs” while a legislative commission met to devise a state policy to combat global warming.

by Jim Kouri

It seems that the king of terrorists, Osama bin Laden, and President Barack Obama and his supporters share more than just a hatred for U.S. military power: They are all "greenies."

The leader of al-Qaeda -- much like U.S.leftists -- blames the United States and developed nations for not halting climate change and said that the global economy should immediately abandon its reliance on the American dollar.

By Rich Lowry

"We want our money back" is a battle cry you'd expect from a tea-party rally. Such lack of nuance. Such grasping materialism. Such us-vs.-them populism.

All the great and good should be expected to recoil from such a grubby sentiment. If it weren't for the fact that President Barack Obama has made the line the centerpiece of his call for a new tax on banks. A year into his presidency, Obama is attempting a brazen misdirection.

By John Hood

RALEIGH – To the extent U.S. Senators from Massachusetts have ever played much of a role in North Carolina politics, it’s been as useful foils for Republicans. Ted Kennedy certainly showed up in more than his share of fundraising mailings by Jesse Helms and other conservative candidates. John Kerry picked John Edwards as his running mate in 2004 in an attempt to compete for Carolinian and Southern votes, a tactic that ended embarrassingly for all concerned. The GOP loved it.

But state Sen. Scott Brown’s improbable, spectacular election Tuesday night to fill out the remainder of the late Sen. Kennedy’s term has ripple effects that will reach all the way to North Carolina.

The Brown victory cannot credibly be spun as a contest settled by local issues or personalities. Everyone knows that the Senate race between Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley was a referendum on President Obama’s agenda for health care reform and other issues. The president certainly recognized it. That’s why he went to Massachusetts over the weekend to campaign against Brown and to link his political fate to that of Coakley.

By Rich Lowry

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab couldn't ignite the bomb in his underwear on Flight 253 on Christmas Day. All he managed to blow up was a worldview.

His failed attempt put paid to the notion that terrorism is the byproduct of a few, specific U.S. policies and of our image abroad. This view dominates the left and animates the Obama administration. It informs its drive to shutter Guantanamo Bay, to get out of Iraq and to cater to "international opinion." If we are only nice and likable enough, goes the theory, the Abdulmutallabs of the world will never be tempted to violent mayhem.

By John Hood

RALEIGH – Back in the mid-1990s, when North Carolina first began to offer large incentive packages in an attempt to land economic-development deals, I wrote that such targeted incentives had never really been about creating jobs. They were about creating job announcements.

The distinction is important, and the passage of time has only made it more obvious.

Within a dynamic market economy, employers create jobs all the time. They create jobs during booms. They create jobs during busts, though fewer ones. But employers also eliminate jobs, more during busts but also during booms. For the economy as a whole, the key statistic is the net — how many jobs are created minus the number of jobs destroyed.

By Rich Lowry

If the 1990s were the decade when history ended, in Francis Fukuyama's famous formulation, the 2000s were the decade it came back and human nature exacted its revenge for our fatuousness.
The 1990s were prefaced by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, an exhilarating burst of liberty for tens of millions. In the 2000s, Russia backslid into a sullen authoritarianism, and the initially stirring liberations of Iraq and Afghanistan proved more inconclusive than advertised.

Major institutions in American life took a battering. The "voice of God" role of the network news anchor effectively ended when Dan Rather immolated himself with his fake Bush draft story. The Catholic Church was caught covering for priests who had abused young people. Baseball players cheated on a vast scale and the league looked the other way.

By John Hood

RALEIGH - RALEIGH – Most large institutions are better than spending money on shiny new programs and favored constituencies than they are at spending money on evaluating their existing programs. The problem is evident at large companies. It’s evident at large nonprofits such as universities and hospitals. It’s evident in the military and the church.

Governments are particularly prone to skimp on evaluation, however, because their managers generate future revenue not by outperforming their competitors or capturing the payoff of innovation but by winning reelection. You can do that with lofty rhetoric, crafty redistricting, and canny fundraising. You don’t have to prove that your past programs have yielded the benefits you promised.

By Rich Lowry

Janet Napolitano is impressed with Janet Napolitano's work. In an instantly notorious statement on CNN, the Homeland Security secretary said "the system worked" when a man boarded a Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with explosives in his underwear that he couldn't quite manage to ignite.

Does "the system" count on all explosive devices smuggled onto international flights not detonating? When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab set himself on fire while trying to blow up the plane and kill its 278 passengers, a Dutch filmmaker leapt on him, ripped a smoldering object from near his crotch and put it out with his bare hands. Or as Napolitano put it, "Everybody played an important role here."

By JOHN HOOD

RALEIGH – Associated Press reporter Gary Robertson recently offered an interesting take on the Democratic field in this year’s U.S. Senate race in North Carolina. It’s made up, he wrote, of candidates looking for second chances.

Secretary of State Elaine Marshall sought the Democratic nod for Senate once before, in 2002. She lost to former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, who went on to lose to Elizabeth Dole – and then lost two years later to the man Marshall now wants to challenge, Richard Burr.

By Rich Lowry

Barack Obama's vibe used to be a cross between JFK and Beatlemania. Now it's fading into "Oh, him again?"

There's nothing wrong with a boring politician. But Obama isn't becoming boring in a stolid, dependable Angela Merkel kind of way. He's not boring like a mannerly George H.W. Bush or a thoughtful Bill Bradley. He's boring like yesterday's celebrity.

He's the teen heartthrob who's grown a little too old. He's the star from "The Real World Denver" -- three years ago. The cruel vicissitudes of the celebrity culture apply to everyone.

By Daren Bakst

We learn in high school civics class that the legislature is the branch of government that passes laws. If only that were how government really operated in real life. In North Carolina, unelected bureaucrats and political appointees have the power to make some of the biggest decisions that affect all of our lives. For practical purposes, they have the power to pass laws.

Similar to Congress and other state legislatures, the North Carolina legislature passes bills that give agencies broad powers. For example, a bill may allow an agency to have great discretion in choosing how and what it will regulate when it comes to the environment.

One way to protect against some of this excessive deference to agencies is to prohibit state agencies from passing regulations that exceed federal standards pertaining to the same issue. These laws, sometimes referred to as “no more stringent” laws, ensure that the legislature, and not some bureaucrats, determine if North Carolinians should suffer a greater regulatory burden than citizens in other states.

By Christine DiPietro

A communication strategy aimed to educate the populous on how to avoid spreading H1N1 influenza cost taxpayers over $500,000. The means: radio and television advertisements created by the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) featuring Gov. Bev Perdue. The message: remember to cough into your sleeves.

The ads, which have are airing on more than 4,000 radio spots and hundreds of television segments, was funded by Public Health Emergency Response (PHER) grants, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The grants – taxpayers’ money – are specifically designed for state health departments to use to educate people on taking action against H1N1 flu.

It costs $2,000 to make each of the advertisements. While the state health department has already received $275,000 from PHER and spent it, the health department is set to receive an additional $455,000 in PHER grant’s for another public service campaign. HHS has already committed $45,000 of the grant for radio ads featuring Gov. Perdue with the Sesame Street character Elmo.

By JOHN HOOD

RALEIGH – I guess it’s cold comfort to say this in a state with thousands of residents underwater on their mortgages, but by national standards North Carolina didn’t experience much of a housing bubble during the past decade. Our trends look nothing like those of states such as California and Arizona where the housing markets look a bit like smoking ruins.

Growth-policy expert Randal O’Toole has the data to demonstrate the point – and an explanation for why some states had huge housing bubbles and other states didn’t.

Let’s start with the data. Back in October, the Cato Institute published a paper from O’Toole that reports several interesting trends. One table shows the average gain in housing prices in each state from the first quarter of 2000 to each peak, and then the average drop in housing prices in each state from the peak to the second quarter of 2008.

Here are some examples of bubble states:

While President Barack Obama is quick to point out America's every blemish, every fault, every injustice and mistake, he has remained silent about the killings, brutality and corruption -- including death squads -- that exists in the birthplace of his father -- Kenya.

For example, the government of the United Kingdom last week issued a travel ban to more than 20 prominent Kenyan citizens accused of corruption, according to a press release from the British Home Office. While the names of those banned have not been published, they are believed to include senior civil servants, politicians and businessmen.

by Jim Kouri

The Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security is currently responsible for the protection of people, facilities, information, and property at over 400 embassies, consulates, and domestic locations.

Since the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in East Africa, the scope and complexity of threats facing Americans abroad and at home has increased. Diplomatic Security must be prepared to counter threats such as crime, espionage, visa and passport fraud, technological intrusions, political violence, and terrorism.

By Rich Lowry


The phrase "doomsday cult" entered our collective vocabulary after John Lofland published his 1966 study, "Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith." Lofland wrote about the Unification Church. His subject could almost as easily have been the Church of Warmism.

Its college of cardinals gathered in Copenhagen amid professions of an imminent global apocalypse that allow no room for doubt or deviation. "The clock has ticked down to zero," declared U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer. Yes, the end is nigh, just as surely as when the Millerites gathered on Oct. 22, 1844, to witness the Second Coming, only to comfort themselves at the end of the night, "Well, maybe next year."

By John Hood

RALEIGH – For as long as there have been state treasurers managing state pension funds, there have been attempts by political insiders to scam some of the money with promises of “creating jobs.” They’ve always been, properly, rebuffed.

Until now.

State Treasurer Janet Cowell has just announced the creation of an Innovation Fund that will invest up to $250 million of pension funds in businesses with “significant operations in North Carolina.” According to reporting by Carolina Journal, the fund has two goals: to achieve a competitive rate of return and to “support the economic well-being of the state of North Carolina.”

At first glance, however, it would seem to be impossible to pursue both goals at the same time. By definition, if the fund’s managers are required to favor North Carolina-based businesses in their investment decisions, then they are required to sacrifice rate of return for economic development. Any political constraint on their choice of business investment inherently reduces the manager’s ability to meet or exceed the performance of other managers who lack such a constraint.

By Rich Lowry

Otto von Bismarck at one point called the prospect of Germany waging preventive war against other European powers "committing suicide out of fear of death."

Little did the Iron Chancellor know that he was forecasting 21st-century Democratic political strategy. Democrats so fear the consequences of failing to pass ObamaCare that they've convinced themselves that embracing $370 billion worth of tax increases and more than $400 billion worth of Medicare cuts is good for them. This will long make for a compelling case study in the Annals of Abnormal Political Psychology.

By John Hood

RALEIGH – I know that Gov. Beverly Perdue and incoming Senate Majority Leader Martin Nesbitt are intelligent individuals. I don’t know why they continue to advocate foolish ideas.

The problem is, again, budgetary. Recent headlines point to another rough fiscal year for North Carolina government. From July to October, state revenues fell 1.5 percent short of the already dreary forecast lawmakers had assumed when crafting their 2009-10 budget. By itself, that doesn’t constitute another crisis, given a budget cushion the governor put in place back in July.

But when you add to that the fact that North Carolina’s unemployment rate is likely to remain sky-high and our Medicaid program is spending money faster than expected, it’s not hard to conclude that when the legislature reconvenes in 2010, it is likely to face another round of difficult decisions.

By Marianne Suarez

One major factor clearly contributing to higher health care costs is state-level mandates. These mandates, a requirement by the government, as well as laws and regulations that follow them, prevent people from purchasing health insurance across state lines – a restriction that greatly reduces choice and insurance alternatives.

When consumers have fewer alternatives, prices go up. One major issue in the national health care debate is the need for greater competition in the health insurance market. The Public Option, supported by liberals, is not the only option, although that is exactly what many on the left want the general public to think. They cite skyrocketing health insurance premiums as the reason to have government-run health care.

In a deregulated market, rising premiums would inevitably bring new insurers to the table offering competitive prices. The opposite has happened in North Carolina where Blue Cross and Blue Shield currently holds a 72.5 percent market share, compared to its 38.8 percent market share in 1999. With that much ownership in the insurance market, it leaves little room for competitive pricing.

By Rich Lowry

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers in a rampage at Fort Hood, is a most unlikely victim of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

He never experienced any combat-related trauma. He had never even been deployed overseas. Yet, he had barely stopped shooting his victims in cold blood, chasing the wounded to finish them off, when the media rushed to their copy of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders."

by Jim Kouri

With the Obama Administration and Democrat leaders in both houses of the US Congress desperately pushing a major overhaul -- many say government takeover -- of US health care, a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police's Fraud & White Collar Crime Committee sheds light on the fraud and corruption already existing in government medical programs. And one can only imagine the amount of corruption that will occur with total government control of physicians and pharmaceuticals

For example, those Americans demanding the US government to allow citizen's access to foreign prescription drugs should heed the concerns of the world's foremost health organization. According to the World Health Organization's definition a counterfeit medicine "is one which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity and/or source.

By Daren Bakst

There’s little support for property rights in the North Carolina legislature. In fact, this past legislative session may have been one of the most discouraging sessions for those that care about this fundamental right.

The two major property rights issues before the legislature, real eminent domain and annexation reform, weren’t addressed. The legislators largely fell into two camps. There were the legislators that simply didn’t want to limit eminent domain and forced annexation abuses. Then there were the other legislators that may like to see reforms but pushed legislation that was so ineffective and actually so harmful that many property rights advocates deemed their “efforts” to be insulting.

By John Hood

RALEIGH – There are plenty of reasons for lovers of liberty to oppose the legislative abomination now lumbering to the floor of the U.S. Senate under the misleading name of “health care reform.”

The bill in its current form will jack up taxes, cost far more than advertised, delay the nation’s economic recovery, violate the U.S. Constitution, and make millions of additional Americans into the kind of governmental dependents that most Europeans now are – and that the Left desires as a means of increasing its political power.

But for me, there’s an additional reason, both personal and professional, why I hope the bill never reaches the president’s desk: it would almost certainly destroy my current health plan.

By Jeff Mixon

Despite recent efforts by the federal government to restrain local law enforcement from using the 287 (g) program to identify illegal aliens for deportation, North Carolina sheriffs are still reporting the presence of illegal aliens who are booked in their jail. The program was created under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and provides state and local law enforcements with training on how to identify, process, and when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity.

In August, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a revised agreement with 12 changes to its participating agencies. The new guidelines have been viewed, by several press accounts, as tying the sheriffs’ hands from reporting illegal aliens for deportation, which was the foundation of the 287 (g) program.

By Rich Lowry

"Hey, Barack. It's me, your heart. It might be all the White House pickup basketball games or the imminent prospect of nationalizing American health insurance, but I'm feeling better than ever.

"Well, at least since the primaries. Remember those students fainting at your campaign events? They'd stand there for hours to get a glimpse of 'the one they'd been waiting for.' Then, BAM! Down they'd go! That was awesome and HILARIOUS!