Fundamentally, decisions are the marriage of facts and values, and although any government may have access to the facts, it does not have access to my values.

From tonight’s State of the Union address:
“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said. “Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign [...]

I’d like to claim that I’m not one to pick nits — but I’d be lying. So here is exhibit 10,483 in the “Brad takes part of a post he agrees with and spins it way out of context.”
The base post is about marriage and in support of gay marriage. But I found [...]

Virgina Senator Jim Webb offers up one of the best perspectives on Scott Brown’s win tonight:
Calling the race “a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process” Webb said Democrats need to hold off on further action until Brown is formally sworn in to the [...]

…Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have any choice at all. The first freedom is the freedom to fail…
And when it comes to choosing our leaders in this country… whoooo boy have we failed big time, for a long time.
So fellow gunblogger Tam, being an Ovarian American, got a bit tweaked at a comment over at Travis [...]

Ezra Klein quotes approvingly from Bruce Bartlett’s new book, The New American Economy: The Failure Of Reaganomics And A New Way Forward:
The reality is that even before spending exploded to deal with the economic crisis, the government was set to grow by about 50 percent of GDP over the next generation just to pay for [...]

This is a good sign:
WASHINGTON – A House leader says Democrats haven’t yet lined up enough votes to pass their health care overhaul bill.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland says the vote that House Democrats had scheduled for Saturday could slip to Sunday or early next week.
Hoyer acknowledged to reporters Friday that Democratic leaders don’t [...]

Over the past 30 years, America has seen Presidential scandals ranging from Watergate to Iran-Contra to Travel-gate, Whitewater, the Lewinsky scandal, and the Valerie Plame affair. We’ve learned the truth about some of the truly nefarious actions undertaken by some of most beloved Presidents of the 20th Century, including the iconic FDR, JFK, and LBJ. [...]

The governator sent a letter to the California State Assembly where he, er, told them he would “strike” them. Carnally.
To the Members of the California State Assembly:
I am returning Assembly Bill 1176 without my signature.
For some time now I have lamented the fact that major issues are overlooked while manyunnecessary bills come to me [...]

Economist Bruce Bartlett had a column in Forbes outlining why he thinks spending won’t be cut.
Every time I write about the need to raise revenues to pay for federal spending, some nitwit always demands to know why we don’t just cut spending. That is not a viable option to deal with our fiscal problem.
The first [...]

Juan Carlos Hidalgo asks the question of the day in a post at Cato@Liberty:
What Principle is Guiding Obama’s Honduras Policy?
The Obama administration is threatening not to recognize the result of Honduras’ presidential election in late November unless Manuel Zelaya returns to the presidency beforehand.
The presidential poll was already scheduled prior to Zelaya’s (constitutional) removal from [...]

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear re-argument in a case that could lead to a big change in campaign finance law:
The Supreme Court’s unusual hearing Wednesday on the role corporations can play in influencing elections carries the potential not only for rewriting the nation’s campaign finance laws but also for testing the willingness of the [...]

In the health care debate, the question has somewhat changed within the Democratic party from “what do we want?” to “what can we actually pass?” Because they’re relatively sure there’ll be no help from Republicans, this puts them in an awkward spot, and as Bruce of QandO points out, highlights a point showing how [...]

Over at QandO, Dale Franks suggests that we’re careening towards a fork in the road. If we keep on at our current pace, we will reach that fork. Will we go left or right? Dale suggests both:
I’ve also said before–and every time I do, people like Oliver Willis call me crazy for [...]

At Cafe Hayek, a letter to the editor by Andy Morriss to the Wall Street Journal is posted:
Holman Jenkins asks “Does Obama Want to Own the Airlines?” (Business World, July 8). I am sure he does not. Rather than own them, the president and his congressional allies want to control the airlines — a crucial [...]

As reported (circumspect) by QandO:

One of the district attorneys that participated in the operation that took place this Friday showed reporters an official voting result from the Technical Institute Luis Bogran, of Tegucigalpa, in which the specific number of people that participated in table 345, where there were 550 ballots, 450 of which were votes [...]

One of the most pernicious beliefs held by Americans is the conflation of the state with society. This belief is causing them acquiesce to government actions that threaten the destruction of American civilization if not stopped.
The word society comes to us from the Latin societas, which meant a group of people bound by friendship [...]

I happen to live in Arizonas 5th congressional district; and am currently represented in the house by Harry Mitchell.
Congressman Mitchell and I disagree about a lot of things. Abortion, social security and government health care, school choice and education policy, many economic issues, government intervention and regulations in general, and the overall wisdom of his [...]

According to the Iranian government, the person dying below was a terrorist. No doubt all the people walking around her in apparent unconcern for there were fellow terrorists, and the people she was terrorizing were outside camera range.

She is being called Neda. The person who uploaded the video to Youtube claims that he [...]

Congress has voted to condemn the actions of the Iranian government, and as Reason points out, Ron Paul in typical contrarian fashion is the sole “no” vote:
I rise in reluctant opposition to H Res 560, which condemns the Iranian government for its recent actions during the unrest in that country. While I never condone violence, [...]