THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: At Selma rally, Obama slights Democrats’ racist history

When President Obama marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma he had Republican company. The casual reader/viewer might not know that, because in the wake of an occasion that the president transformed into a Democratic campaign rally some of the Republicans who joined him were relegated to the margins, sometimes even cut out of the photographs.

March 9, 2015

EDITORIAL: Unarmed peacekeeping on the Heights

The United Nations peacekeeper is a lot like the constable in a town with one stoplight. He looks sharp only when nothing is happening. This "peace" is about to end soon on the Golan Heights, the mountainous buffer between Israel and Syria. Iran is sending forces into Syria to back Damascus in its civil war, and a long period of relative quiet along the border is likely to be shattered. The U.N. is forewarned that the day is coming when there's no more peace to keep.

March 9, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Leave social issues to states

Social issues should be decided at the state level. This is the way the Constitution of the United States is written, this was the intent of our Founding Fathers, and this should be the way the laws are observed. States should have the freedom to choose their future way of life, reflecting the values of their majority.

March 9, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Obama’s at-will law changes unconstitutional

Indulge me please, for I am a doddering old fogey who was taught in civics class in the 1950s that our Supreme Court determined the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress. The court, we were taught, did this by applying constitutional tenets to the particular law in question. Pretty easy stuff, I thought back in those simpler days before emanations, penumbras and psychic-like determinations of legislative intent entered the fray and politicized the process ("Supreme Court tries to make sense of poorly drafted Obamacare language," Web, March 4).

March 9, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Streetcars run on wealth

I love streetcars and trains. In fact I will put up with moving across the country at an average speed of 35 miles an hour to get the train experience. This is what happens when you run a passenger train on freight lines; you don't move any faster than the freight. I rode the cable cars in San Francisco, where any local has to fight the tourists if they want to ride.

March 8, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: U.S. must defend Ukraine

Some conservatives have questioned Ukraine's importance to America, as if it were a small, remote country of no strategic value. But in fact Ukraine is Russia's broad gateway to Europe. And Europe is the first target of Russian President Vladimir Putin's coalition of rogue states.

March 8, 2015

EDITORIAL: The humiliation of John Boehner

The humiliation of the speaker of the House is just about complete. John Boehner, who can turn on the waterworks at will, finally has something to cry about.

March 8, 2015

EDITORIAL: Not ready for Hillary Clinton

Dissecting Republicans and their chances for regaining the White House next year is good, clean fun for most pundits and analysts, Democrats nearly all, because it distracts attention from what's wrong in their own party. The conventional wisdom has been that the Democratic superstar would bury anyone unfortunate enough to be nominated by the Republicans. The only concern in Democratic ranks has been that Hillary Clinton would need a practice sprint in the primaries to tone and flex muscle in anticipation of November. If Hillary were a baseball team, her acolytes concede, she could still use a little spring training.

March 8, 2015

EDITORIAL: Cuomo bans fracking, New Yorkers talk secession

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Or leave 'em, depending. Several struggling towns in upstate New York look across the state line at Pennsylvania and are thinking about secession, not from the union but from New York. After years of timid waffling, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said no to fracking, the method of drilling for oil and gas that is making Pennsylvania prosperous. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, could be the key to putting a jingle into the pockets of New Yorkers, and improving the state's dreary and desolate business climate.

March 5, 2015

LETTERTO THE EDITOR: Contrast between Netanyahu, Obama

The contrasts between U.S. President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu were evident this week in the content of Mr. Netanyahu's speech to Congress and the pre- and post-speech attacks by Mr. Obama and his administration ("Obama strikes back, scolds Benjamin Netanyahu for offering 'nothing new,'" Web, March 3). Mr. Netanyahu was admonished for accepting the invitation to speak, but he demonstrated leadership and a commitment to do everything in his power to protect his citizens against the threat by Iran to eradicate Israel.

March 5, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Don’t reward Dept. of Education civil rights office

Civil-rights commissioners rightly objected to President Obama's proposed budget increase for the lawbreakers at the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, where I used to work ("Civil rights commissioners: Rein in education admin. on 'unlawful' bullying, sexual assault policies," Web, March 4).

March 5, 2015

EDITORIAL: Rubio-Lee tax reform proposal

Everybody talks about tax reform but nobody ever gets around to doing something about it. Now two Republican senators, Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, have introduced a proposal that embraces both pro-growth and pro-family concerns and simplifies the mess that is the current federal tax code. It's a start.

March 5, 2015

EDITORIAL: Hillary Clinton can’t dodge email scandal

There's a new chapter in the familiar Clinton dodge, this one written by Hillary. On Monday The New York Times reported that Mrs. Clinton stubbornly refused to use a government email account during her tenure as secretary of state, choosing instead a private account to better hide her emails. This likely violates the U.S. Records Act, and we've seen this kind of Clinton subterfuge before.

March 4, 2015

EDITORIAL: Streetcars felled by rising costs

Nearly everybody likes a streetcar, but most of them live only in the memories of old folks. Once upon a time streetcars ran nearly everywhere in nearly every big city in America, and in a lot of not-so-big cities. Two hundred miles of track, for example, tied Washington to its suburbs in Virginia and Maryland.

March 4, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: David Petraeus got off easy

Gen. David Petraeus' plea deal for giving highly classified information to his mistress shows the shameful double standard that exists today in our legal system ("David Petraeus to plead guilty to removing classified information during affair," Web, March 3).

March 4, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Benjamin Netanyahu right on Iran

House Speaker John Boehner was wise to have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak to Congress in order to address the truth about Iran's evil designs to rule the Middle East ("Obama strikes back, scolds Netanyahu for offering 'nothing new,'" Web, March 3). Prime Minister Netanyahu displayed candid courage in the face of being snubbed by President Obama and Mr. Obama's Democratic minions, while Secretary of State John Kerry was busy capitulating to Iran's one-side negotiations.

March 4, 2015

EDITORIAL: Benjamin Netanyahu lays out deadly challenge of Iran

Benjamin Netanyahu knocked one out of the park Tuesday, and once it cleared the fence the ball beaned a man lurking in the shadows, and bounced into the tall grass. That man in the shadows looked a lot like President Obama.

March 3, 2015

EDITORIAL: Rahm Emanuel’s election struggle

Rahm Emanuel was born in Chicago and has been a very favorite son. The Daley machine sent him to Congress, where he was a faithful liege of Bill Clinton, was President Obama's first chief of staff, got rich working his connections to Wall Street, joined the looting of the federal housing program and returned to his hometown to be elected mayor in 2012. Mr. Emanuel once described his job as mayor as the culmination of a lifelong dream, and said, "I'm loving doing this."

March 3, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Islamism growing in America

Islamism in America is advancing much more quickly than either our intelligence or national awareness. Elements of all transmutations of radical Islamic terrorism's tentacles are steadily rooting themselves into our nation's fabric, into our federal, state and local governments and industries. And they are infesting our nation in stealth ways, beyond our comprehensive detection. We know this from prior terrorist activities and events such as the World Trade Center attacks, including the first, by ground explosives.

March 3, 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Vladimir Putin’s Russia an ever-growing threat

Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down near the Kremlin a day before his planned protest march against President Vladimir Putin's government ("Obama condemns 'brutal murder' of Putin critic Boris Nemtsov," Web, Feb. 27). This assassination is a continuation of the crimes that have been committed since President Boris Yeltsin appointed Mr. Putin to the position of prime minister on Aug. 9, 1999.

March 3, 2015