The National Review’s John Podhoretz answers the question: I hate to be nasty, but anybody who takes the Ames Straw Poll results seriously is an idiot. A bunch of people spent ludicrous amounts of money to bus-and-truck 14,000 people to a big picnic, and the guy who spent the most bought the win with a [...]

Robert Mugabe, the dictator of Zimbabwe, a new law which broadly expands the power of his government to intercept communications and even read the mail. It is clearly a bold grab for more power, but, as Mugabe’s own spokesman points out, it’s not without precedent in the world: Human rights lawyer Otto Saki  told VOA [...]

Considering both the amount of money he spent, and the fact that two of his top competitors weren’t actively participating, it should come as no surprise that Mitt Romney basically cleaned up in the Ames straw poll yesterday: AMES, Iowa, Aug. 11 — With a convincing victory in the Republican straw poll here Saturday, former [...]

Memo to Mitt Romney: Before you celebrate your victory in the Ames Straw Poll, and the fact that you’re in the lead in Iowa itself and could very well win the caucus in January, consider this fact: A source at the DNC reminded me of an interesting piece of history: the Iowa caucus is a [...]

Here’s Congressman Paul’s speech at the Ames Straw Poll yesterday: and Part II:

The Iowa Straw Poll results are in 1. Mitt Romney –32 percent 2. Mike Huckabee – 18 percent 3. Sam Brownback – 15 percent 4. Tom Tancredo – 14 percent 5. Ron Paul – 9 percent 6. Tommy Thompson — 7 percent 7. Fred Thompson – 1 percent 8. Rudolph W. Giuliani – 1 percent [...]

Today, on NPR, “War Czar” Lt. Gen. Lute was asked about whether he wants to see a return to government slavery, also known as conscription or “the draft”. Here’s his answer: I think it makes sense to certainly consider it, and I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table, but [...]

Some almost-on-the-scene insight from Reason Magazine’s David Weigel: I’m in an airport waiting for my (much, much delayed) flight to Iowa checking the latest on the Ames Straw Poll. While I’d been told by the Ron Paul campaign that there wouldn’t be a big ticket buy, the Paul team sprung for 800 tickets (you need [...]

Earlier this week I wrote about a particularly outrageous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia which essentially held that terminally ill patients do not have the right to use drugs for purposes not approved by the Federal Drug Administration. Today, the Cato Institute’s Roger Pilon, writing in the Wall [...]

A top military adviser is floating the idea of a military draft: Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush’s new war adviser said Friday. “I think it makes sense to certainly consider it,” Army Lt. [...]

This is just too funny for words: NASA Global Warming Data had “Y2K Bug” I say again, the concept of current anthropogenic climate change; except in the case of localized micro-climates; holds no scientific water. Honest scientists will tell you the same thing if pressed (and if their funding doesn’t depend on it), but the [...]

Sorry for all you GWB partisans out there, but, it’s over guys. This is just embarrassing:

A brief pause from politics to congratulate fellow Liberty Papers Contributor Brad Warbiany and his wife Joanna on the birth of their son. Congratulations Brad !

Iowa. South Carolina. New Hampshire. They’re all jockeying to find a way to enhance their influence on the 2008 Presidential race. But now, it’s just getting insane: South Carolina is poised to hold its Republican presidential primary earlier than Feb. 2, 2008, likely in mid-January, a move that is expected to push New Hampshire and [...]

In three days, Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign will face a crucial test at the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll. Admittedly, the straw poll will not be an accurate measure of candidate support in Iowa since at least two of the top three candidates — Giuliani and McCain — have chosen not to actively contest the Ames [...]

In the immediate wake of the bridge collapse in Minnesota, politicians (mostly Democrats) have advocated raising taxes to repair or replace other structurally deficient bridges throughout the country. Apparently, there just isn’t enough money in the treasury at this time to repair these bridges. Why am I skeptical that this is not the case? Assuming [...]

In Venezuela, that is, where Hugo Chavez is taking the necessary first steps toward becoming dictator for life: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has confirmed that he will try to change the law to allow him to remain in power indefinitely. Under the current constitution, Mr Chavez will have to leave office at the end of [...]

I’ve long been an avid reader of Coyote Blog. A while ago, he was talking about government’s propensity to neglect current infrastructure in the desire to get credit for new infrastructure, and the point hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. Here’s what he said: And as I have gotten deeper into public recreation, [...]

That’s what Clarence Page seems to be saying in his latest column in the Chicago Tribune: Of all the interesting little fish swimming beneath the currents of the major candidates in this presidential campaign season, none ismaking waves as surprising as those kicked up by Rep. Ron Paul. The Texas Republican, who embraces a libertarian [...]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled today that terminally ill patients do not have the right to decide for themselves whether a potentially risky, but possibly life-saving, treatment is in their best interest: WASHINGTON — Terminally ill patients do not have a constitutional right to be treated with experimental [...]