THE WASHINGTON TIMES

EDITORIAL: Snow job

Wednesday's five-inch layer of snow paralyzed the nation's capital and served as a potent display of nature's fury. A blanket four-times as thick pushed a number of northern cities like New York and Newark into the record books with the heaviest January snowfall ever. The storm's aftermath provides a lesson that should linger long after the chilly nights have passed: Depending upon government to solve our problems inevitably ends in disappointment.

January 27, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama’s WTF presidency

In his State of the Union address, Mr. Obama rolled out “winning the future” as his latest signature theme and political brand. He employed the expression or variations on it 10 times, mostly to justify continued government activism. “We can't win the future with a government of the past,” he proclaimed, before outlining more of the many ways he thinks Washington should dominate American life.

January 27, 2011

EDITORIAL: Solar shingles won’t save America

Whether it's "solar shingles" or smart grids, President Obama just can't imagine a world in which government isn't deciding how to spend your money. Despite Mr. Obama's best efforts Tuesday to dress up the classic tax-and-spend agenda as "investment" in the future, merely freezing the current budget maintains a course that only can end in fiscal ruin.

January 26, 2011

EDITORIAL: Bring back D.C. vouchers

The best message from Tuesday's State of the Union address came from students sitting in the speaker's box. Three recipients of D.C. Opportunity Scholarships, which the Obama administration has been euthanizing, attended the speech to ask for the program's reauthorization. Yesterday, House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut Independent, introduced legislation to give a new lifeline to them and other needy, highly motivated students.

January 26, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama’s spaced out speech

President Obama's announcement on Tuesday that “this is our generation’s Sputnik moment” came across as puzzling. Had al Qaeda sent a suicide bomber into space? But it turned out to be just a clumsy metaphor.

January 26, 2011

EDITORIAL: What Brown can’t do for you

After a 28-year absence, Jerry Brown has returned to the California governor's mansion with a mission to make America's most broke state less broke and more green. He might as well try singing "California Dreamin' " to the tune of "The Impossible Dream." Since being sworn in Jan. 3, Mr. Brown has declared a fiscal emergency and pressured the state legislature to close a $25.4 billion budget gap. His plan to balance the once Golden State's ledger contains a 50-50 combination of spending cuts and tax hikes.

January 25, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama finally notices the troops

On Monday, President Obama unveiled a comprehensive plan to coordinate and promote government efforts to assist military families and veterans in need. The president praised his own administration's "unprecedented commitment" to the issue. The commander in chief added that first lady Michelle Obama would appear on "Oprah" to "urge every American to join a new national campaign to support our military families." The first couple's newfound interest in this worthy cause is welcome, but private initiatives that are making a difference deserve equal attention.

January 25, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama’s reformer disguise

President Obama last night assumed the guise of a reformer intent on reining in the federal bureaucracy. After presiding over a $3.4 trillion increase in the national debt and after saddling consumers and business with thousands of new rules and regulations, it remains to be seen whether he can deliver on this promise. Fortunately, Congress is not going to wait to find out.

January 25, 2011

EDITORIAL: Infanticide for hire

Hundreds of thousands braved yesterday's chill to mark the bitter anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. For the past 37 years, the annual event has drawn a peaceful, prayerful crowd dedicated to the true civil rights challenge of our era: ending the termination of human life for profit.

January 24, 2011

EDITORIAL: Institutionalizing the Constitution

Liberals were partly right when they criticized House Republicans, saying the new requirement for a constitutional justification for each new piece of legislation was mere posturing. The sniping, however, came from the wrong angle. The problem isn't with the requirement, but with its loopholes and lack of enforcement teeth.

January 24, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama’s crony capitalism

President Obama is continuing his outreach to American business, though the principal business he wants to reach out to is General Electric. Mr. Obama seems to have decided that what's good for GE is good for America, or at least for himself.

January 24, 2011

EDITORIAL: Justice Department undermines FDNY

Firefighters live to rescue, but political correctness is undermining this important mission in the Big Apple. Currently, 406 of 8,654 budgeted positions at the Firefighters Department of New York (FDNY) are unfilled because a federal judge and the Justice Department insist rescuing ability must bow to racial quotas.

January 21, 2011

EDITORIAL: Lessons from 9/11’s Stairwell B

Josephine Harris was ill and almost skipped work but instead downed some Alka-Seltzer and toughed it out. It was Sept. 11, 2001, and she worked in the World Trade Center. That's where she was, on the 73rd floor, when an airplane hit.

January 21, 2011

EDITORIAL: TSA on the hot seat

It was only a matter of time before the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) campaign of groping and intimately photographing frequent flyers would come back and bite the agency. That time has come. House leaders have put a frequent traveler in charge of the Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations.

January 20, 2011

EDITORIAL: Glum and glummer

It says a lot about the sorry state of the U.S. economy when 404,000 people losing work is reported as positive news. Last week's initial jobless claims came in "better than expected," but there was nothing good about it for the hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed.

January 20, 2011

EDITORIAL: Rum and smoke

Another freezing winter has many Washingtonians daydreaming about heading south to put their toes in the sand and a drink in their hand. All is not paradise in paradise these days, however, and even a refreshing Bahama Breeze cannot be had without a hurricane of controversy. That's because one of that cocktail's main ingredients is rum, and there is an ongoing rum war being fought between Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

January 20, 2011

EDITORIAL: A Kumbaya Congress

The kumbaya quest for peace and love in American politics has hit a new low. Sen. Mark Udall, Colorado Democrat, has proposed that as a symbolic stab at the "nasty partisanship" in government, members of Congress should abjure the tradition of sitting in party blocks during the State of the Union address and instead intermingle. Perhaps they all should hold hands while the president is speaking too.

January 19, 2011

EDITORIAL: Al’s missing link

There are those on the left who look at tragedy and spot opportunity. Such is the case with terrible flooding that struck Australia last week, killing at least 22. On Tuesday, former Vice President Al Gore asserted that the root cause of the destruction was not torrential rain, but mankind. "As the earth warms, scientists tell us that we will see more and more extreme weather conditions," Mr. Gore wrote on his blog, citing an ABC News report on the disaster. "Each of these occurrences further underscore [sic] why we need to take immediate action to solve the climate crisis."

January 19, 2011

EDITORIAL: NASA extremist advocates U.S. decline

Imagine if a former military officer, a traditional-values conservative now an attache at the State Department, wrote for a largely foreign audience to urge an international boycott of U.S. goods. The aim was to ruin the American economy to protest the new policy of allowing open homosexuality in the armed forces. Media outlets and politicians would be screaming for his dismissal. Free speech is one thing, but nobody on the taxpayer dole in a position of responsibility would be allowed to call for the destruction of our economy. One way or another, the man would be forced out.

January 19, 2011

EDITORIAL: Gas-fueled vertigo

Drivers are getting dizzy at the pump. That sick feeling is deja vu from 2008, when prices spiraled higher with every fill-up. In recent months, costs have climbed steadily through $3 and are headed toward four bucks per gallon. Americans have President Obama and his anti-energy apparatchiks to thank for this gouging.

January 18, 2011