Senate Republicans are drawing out a flap that has made the Obama administration squirm, applying the brakes to Democrats' attempts to quickly tax away most of the bonuses at troubled insurance giant AIG and other bailed-out companies. ...more

March 21, 2009

Gov. Bill Richardson signed legislation Wednesday repealing New Mexico's death penalty, making it the second state to ban executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. ...more

March 18, 2009

What's left in Uncle Sam's economic tool kit? The commitment of $700 billion didn't impress markets here and around the world. Neither did fresh interest rate cuts. Stocks plunged again Thursday. ...more

October 10, 2008

What's left in Uncle Sam's economic tool kit? The commitment of $700 billion didn't impress markets here and around the world. Neither did fresh interest rate cuts. Stocks plunged yet again on Thursday. ...more

October 9, 2008

Edgar K. Browning, professor of economics at Texas A&M University, has a new book aptly titled "Stealing from Each Other." Its subtitle, "How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit," goes to the heart of what the book is about. The rise of equalitarian ideology has driven Americans to steal from one another. Browning explains that certain kinds of equality have been a cherished value in America. Equality under the law and, within reason, equality of opportunity is consistent with a free society. Equality of results is an anathema to a free society and within it lie the seeds of tyranny. ...more

August 11, 2008

When I lived in Pensacola, jokes about local government spanned four centuries and more. ...more

February 11, 2008