THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: Note to Obama: Unemployment is up

The Obama administration keeps reporting supposed good news on the employment front. Americans sense that something is not quite right about the rosy official numbers, and a series of independent reports confirms their skepticism.

February 22, 2012

EDITORIAL: Signs of hypocrisy

Over the past several years, the federal government has poured millions of tax dollars into digital signs that inform drivers of highway traffic conditions. These multimillion-dollar efforts are styled as "intelligent transportation systems," which is a fancy term jurisdictions use to claim they're relieving congestion when, in reality, they just tell you that you're stuck. Businesses that want to use the same technology to get the local economy moving are often told to take a hike.

February 21, 2012

EDITORIAL: Don’t mess with Texas quotas?

Defenders of racially-based preferential treatment argue that affirmative action was part of the original intent of the framers of the 14th Amendment. They should study more history.

February 21, 2012

EDITORIAL: Obama’s gas-price spike

Here we go again. Gasoline prices are rising rapidly and already have shattered the $4-a-gallon mark in California. Industry analysts say the all-time national average record of $4.11 could be shattered this summer. Some stations in Los Angeles are charging $4.93. Americans hired Barack Obama in 2008 partly in hope of finding relief from that summer's pain at the pump. As the agony returns, voters could be primed by November to pull the lever for anybody but Barack.

February 20, 2012

EDITORIAL: Iran: Death for blogging

Iran has an easy way of dealing with people who do things online that displease the mullahs. Kill them.

February 20, 2012

EDITORIAL: A fatal tweet

In America, sending the wrong tweet can mean embarrassment, ostracism or losing your seat in Congress. In Saudi Arabia, it can cost you your head.

February 17, 2012

EDITORIAL: A sand-castle recovery

The Obama administration has been claiming the economy is back on track ever since it declared the "Recovery Summer" of 2010. That 348,000 more people found themselves jobless in the last 30 days is being hailed as good news, but only because that number could have been worse.

February 16, 2012

EDITORIAL: Obama’s unilateral disarmament

President Obama is working to realize the leftist dream of unilateral nuclear disarmament. This will leave the United States pitifully weak and create conditions for catastrophic deterrence failure.

February 16, 2012

EDITORIAL: Iran bombs

The covert war between Israel and Iran is heating up. Over the course of 48 hours, three bombings took place targeting Israeli diplomatic staff. They were similar to the attacks that have taken place over the past few years against Iranian nuclear scientists. The rest of the world may be hoping this conflict will go away somehow, but it shows every sign of escalating.

February 15, 2012

EDITORIAL: Tolling America’s future

Congress turns its attention this week to the five-year, $260 billion reauthorization of the Department of Transportation. Most of the attention has fallen on the House version of the legislation, which also would green-light the Keystone XL pipeline project and open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Democrats are steamed that Republicans would try to revive these job-creating deals.

February 15, 2012

EDITORIAL: The Romney-Santorum footrace

Former Gov. Mitt Romney won The Washington Times/CPAC 2012 Presidential Straw Poll Saturday, with 38 percent of 3,408 voters saying he's their first choice to be the Republican nominee. Former Sen. Rick Santorum wasn't far behind at 31 percent. That's a close call, but a win is a win. Taking home the crown from the Conservative Political Action Conference shows Mr. Romney is making inroads with the skeptical conservative base of the Republican Party.

February 14, 2012

EDITORIAL: Sugar police on the prowl

Mary Poppins, call your office. That spoonful of sugar might make the medicine go down, but it also makes the weight go up and should be kept away from kids - or so say sugar nannies sprinkled across the country. While some simply frown upon consumption of the sweet stuff, the more ambitious want it outlawed entirely. Americans ought to tell these busybodies to keep their sticky fingers off our fridges before the land of the free dissolves into the land of the sugar-free.

February 13, 2012

EDITORIAL: Obama hijacks the Navy

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is back again using a U.S. Navy warship as a vessel of political pandering. At a hurriedly convened Pentagon ceremony Friday, Mr. Mabus announced that the next littoral combat ship, LCS-10, would be named for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona Democrat.

February 13, 2012

EDITORIAL: Twisting long-term bond markets

The Federal Reserve is keeping short-term interest rates absurdly low through late 2014, and that choice is going to cause long-term damage to our economy. Now there are signs that the Fed's policy of driving down long-term interest rates, known as Operation Twist, is wreaking havoc with the long-term bond market as well. Such market distortions are the inevitable result of attempting to achieve the impossible.

February 10, 2012

EDITORIAL: Obama’s free abortion pills

Someone should tell President Obama there's no such thing as a free abortion pill. The White House is trying to douse a political wildfire sparked by an Obamacare mandate forcing religiously affiliated institutions to provide a full range of contraception measures for employees - including pills that induce abortions.

February 10, 2012

EDITORIAL: Speed camera unrest

The District is finally feeling some pushback over its increasingly obnoxious speed camera enterprise. Dozens of the freshly installed robotic revenue raisers have been popping up all over town, and residents are starting to realize their positioning has more to do with "gotcha" than safety.

February 9, 2012

EDITORIAL: Homage to Homs

The violent repression of Syrian activists is accelerating, and there is no international consensus on halting the killings. The Arab Spring has reached its limits in the besieged and bloody city of Homs.

February 9, 2012

EDITORIAL: Clean green fraud

The spectacular failure of Solyndra opened a lot of eyes. Yet the bankrupt solar panel manufacturer is far from the only fly-by-night outfit to take advantage of the current "green energy" fad. No program is more ripe for abuse than the renewable fuel standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

February 8, 2012

EDITORIAL: Obama’s coming choice on Iran

The buzz around a possible military strike on Iran's nuclear program has shifted from whether it will happen to when and how. Events are conspiring to force choices on President Obama that he would rather avoid.