First Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) surrenders his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee amid an ethics investigation. Now Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) proposes an idea that she hopes will help her make good on her promise to help lead “the most ethical Congress in history”— a party-wide ban on earmarks
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Reason.tv: Pork Party House: Where DC insiders go for tax-subsidized fun!
New York Democrat Eric Massa, who announced last week that he will resign from the House, claims he’s being forced out by an administration hell-bent on passing a health care bill.
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In Which a Battlestar Galactica-Inspired Sexual Innuendo May or May Not Decide the Fate of Health Care Reform
Here is another pin in the bedraggled balloon of hope that Barack Obama would de-escalate the war on drugs: The total amount of marijuana seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration nearly doubled from 1,539 metric tons in fiscal 2008 to 2,980 metric tons last year. The numbers were disclosed as part of the DEA’s budget request for fiscal 2011
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Decriminalize, Double Seizures, Whatever
Economist Arnold Kling is on the job : The Democrats get a D+ because they supported a Medicare cost-cutting commission. That might lead to health care rationing, which would reduce costs.
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Grading the Health Care Summit
There’s a guy running for governor in Michigan on the nerd ticket. Republican Rick Snyder’s campaign to challenge incumbent Democrat Jennifer Granholm focuses on the cluster of nerd superpowers: intelligence, planning, and persistence.
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One Tough Nerd
That’s the verdict from a long and persuasive post by SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein, who predicts that President Barack Obama’s next Supreme Court pick will be Solicitor General Elena Kagan. Here’s a snippet: The President will want a highly qualified nominee, obviously. Beyond that, the calculation for the White House will be almost entirely political. Rahm Emanuel will have overriding control – if not minute-by-minute involvement – just as he did with Justice Sotomayor. And as with that previous confirmation, the calculus will be one of the political costs and benefits of the highly qualified candidates at the political moment in time
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Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan?
It’s no stunner that after a year in office, President Barack Obama is getting hammered by people who have no use for his policy on firearms. But as Steve Chapman writes, the surprise is that the people attacking Obama are those who favor gun control, not those who oppose it.
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New at Reason: Steve Chapman on Barack Obama and Gun Control
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Glenn Instapundit Reynolds weighs in on last week’s Tea Party Palooza: Tea partiers are still angry at federal deficits, at Washington’s habit of rewarding failure with handouts and punishing success with taxes and regulation, and the general incompetence that has marked the first year of the Obama presidency. But they’re no longer depressed. Instead, they seem energized.
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Glenn Instapundit Reynolds on Tea Party Party in Nashville
From our March issue, Editor in Chief Matt Welch examines how Barack Obama’s own allies provide unwitting insight into the president’s skills as a master salesman.
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New at Reason: Matt Welch on Obama’s Political Salesmanship
Republicans threaten to boycott Obama health care summit unless Obama scraps bills currently pending in Congress. Toyota recalls the Prius. New York Gov.
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Reason Morning Links: GOP Threates to Sit Out Health Care Summit, Toyota Recalls Prius, Thirdhand Smoke
