THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: Tom Steyer’s scheme to lower price of gas goes awry

Tom Steyer, the California billionaire, can't decide whether he's a political "activist" trying to make gasoline more expensive or another overtaxed consumer abused at the pump. That may not make sense, but who said it must? All is fair in love and politics (and love died on the wayside some time ago).

August 19, 2015

EDITORIAL: The test of the winning candidate

Midterm congressional elections, decisive as they may be, are always about the past, usually about a president's performance. Voters get a chance to grade a president and his performance, and by this measure, voters flunked President Obama in 2010 and 2014.

August 19, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: ‘Last to Die’ book review history check

In his otherwise accurate and, I'm pleased to note, very positive review of my latest book, "Last to Die: A Defeated Empire, a Forgotten Mission, and the Last American Killed in World War II," Joseph C. Goulden writes that I "suffered severe wounds in Vietnam" ("Remembering the last American to die in World War II," Web, Aug. 16).

August 19, 2015

LETER TO THE EDITOR: ‘Likeability’ won’t save U.S.

I am now reading that even though Donald Trump is leading the polls owing to his concern for the issues important to Americans and his proposals for dealing with those issues, those who like him say they wouldn't support Mr. Trump in the general election. This is because his "likeability" is lacking.

August 18, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Roger Taney upheld the law

The three aldermen from Frederick, Md., who voted to expel the bust of Chief Justice Roger Taney from their city hall should review Taney's role in Maryland and U.S. history.

August 18, 2015

EDITORIAL: ‘No’ to closing Guantanamo

President Obama is pleased with himself for his diplomatic opening to Cuba. The rest of us wouldn't be pleased with what he wants to close. The president's long-standing goal of shuttering the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay appears to be advancing apace.

August 18, 2015

EDITORIAL: Media tough on Donald Trump, soft on Bernie Sanders

Curiosity, not ideology, is the mark of the best reporters, but with the disappearance of tough editors reporters are allowed to be pundits, and it shows. The best reporters are on the scout for "the story." The early story of the 2016 presidential campaign is the emergence of two unlikely, unusual and off-brand candidates, and how the reporters treat them.

August 18, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Let consumers dictate energy mix

In his column "Free consumers from renewable power mandates" (Web, Aug. 6) Thaddeus McCotter raises a valid point regarding states that have chosen to scale back or freeze their renewable-energy mandates. Such actions don't constitute opposition to renewables. "Rather," As Mr. McCotter writes, "Policymakers are concluding that consumer choice and the market will maximize renewable use more efficiently than government fiat."

August 17, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: John Kerry’s Cuban dissident diss

Secretary of State John Kerry has taken a lot of heat for refusing to invite Cuban dissidents to today's official flag-raising ceremony at the U.S. Embassy ("Cuba dissidents won't attend U.S. Embassy event," Web, Aug. 12). His justification has been that that there is not enough room to accommodate all the guests. This is disgraceful.

August 17, 2015

EDITORIAL: Blaming climate change for wildfires

Mother Nature is a cruel mistress. Persistent drought in the West has triggered wildfires that have burned over nearly 6 million acres so far this year. Blaming global warming, or capricious "climate change" -- sometimes it's hot and sometimes it's cold, and sometimes it rains and sometimes it doesn't -- is tempting for the environmental extremists.

August 17, 2015

EDITORIAL: Hillary Clinton treats her troubles as a joke

Hillary Clinton dismisses her email troubles as a joke -- she was having a high old time with it in Iowa the other day -- but there's no evidence that the FBI agents assigned to her case are laughing. Joking about your transgressions while an FBI team is examining your life and times is not smart.

August 17, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Christians must vote

It has been estimated that less than 20 percent of self-identifying Christians vote. I believe this is the reason self-serving politicians govern our country.

August 16, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Japan had further plans for U.S.

As World War II began, the United States knew Japanese intellectuals included accomplished physicists such as Yoshio Nishina. They knew he was a staunch Imperial nationalist and capable leader; so capable two of his students later won Nobel prizes.

August 16, 2015

EDITORIAL: America returns to Cuba

Gulags and satrapies are required in the nether world where Marxist fantasy survives. How else to keep the peasants in line? Secretary of State John Kerry, looking for love in all the wrong places, took a handful of congressmen to Havana the other day to preside over the raising of the American flag at the reopening of the American embassy, closed in 1961 when Fidel Castro imposed the Marxist yoke upon the neck of the Cuban people. The three Marines who lowered the flag 53 years ago, old men now, were called back to run up Old Glory once more. Mr. Kerry celebrated the occasion as another achievement of Barack Obama's presidency.

August 16, 2015

EDITORIAL: Lessons from Japan’s apology

Apologies are never easy, and apologizing in the name of a nation is hardest of all. Barack Obama still suffers, and no doubt always will, the approbation of many of his countrymen for his apology in Egypt early in his presidency, for what is still not clear, to the Islamic countries of the Middle East. A succession of Japanese prime ministers have put their hand to apologies for World War II. So how would Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's formal speech on the 70th anniversary of the end of The Great Pacific War, as many Asians call World War II, differ from the others?

August 16, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Ferguson police Humvees needed year after Michael Brown violence

The Pentagon's recent demand is the height of political correctness run amok, and it will cost more lives ("Pentagon orders Ferguson to return Humvees," Web, Aug. 12). In August of last year, after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, police confronted protesters with snipers atop armored vehicles because they had intelligence there was going to be violence. That show of force prevented the violence. The media and political left became livid, however, saying the officers were overreacting. So the officers backed down. The next day the looters went wild, just as the intelligence had predicted. In the recent riots in Baltimore the police were held back by the mayor because she did not want to upset the protesters and escalate matters. This let the looters run wild for an entire night.

August 13, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Climate change articles need disclaimers about facts

On an almost daily basis I read in The Washington Times an article in reference to man-made climate change. The Times prints the articles as if this subject were fact. It is not.

August 13, 2015

EDITORIAL: Authentic presidential debate about candidates, not entertainers

America has always been a disputatious nation. The Founders set an early example, with differences between those favoring a stronger federal government and those holding out for personal freedom through decentralization of power.

August 13, 2015

EDITORIAL: Democrats want voter punishment for absent ballots on Election Day

President Obama has endorsed the idea that the United States, like Australia, should require citizens to vote, under pain of punishment if they don't. Hillary Clinton supports various schemes to eliminate voter-identification laws and other "impediments" to voting, Bernie Sanders wants election day to be declared a national holiday (maybe on Saturday). Eric Holder leads a crusade to grant felons the vote, and Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia wants to drop voter registration, and prospective voters could just say that they're citizens and they're entitled to vote. Trust, not verify.

August 13, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Drought double standard for water-waster Californians

A person would be hard-pressed these days to turn on the nightly news without hearing some news anchor or politician righteously lamenting the damage that is being wrought upon the western United States by the current drought.

August 12, 2015