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New “stimulus plan” brewing in Congress
It is actually less of a “stimulus” plan and more of a “get government out of the way and stop inhibiting growth” plan. A bi-partisan…
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Ebell in NYT on new Climategate report — “Establishment circling the wagons and defending their position”
CEI’s Myron Ebell was quoted on the front page of the New York Times today – “above the fold” – discussing the University of…
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Unintended Consequences of Unemployment Benefits
This letter of mine ran in today's New York Times in response to Paul Krugman's July 4 column.
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In Defense of Urban Beekeeping
Beekeeping is an ancient human practice, with some anthropological evidence suggesting that primitive forms of honey bee domestication go back more than 4,000 years. Apiarists…
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“Cell Phone Fear in San Francisco,” my article in Forbes.com
The king is dead. More accurately, Larry King is hanging up his suspenders after 25 years on TV interviewing essentially everybody who was anybody. His…
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Automakers’ new problems – vampires and bears
Toyota complaints keep pouring in to the National Highway Safety Administration, and some are pretty darned bizarre. But most are less so than a Colorado…
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LibertyWeek 100: The Venerable Fred L. Smith, Jr.
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Greenhouse Protection Racket
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Enron & BP: Global Warming as the Great Distraction
In a three–part post over at MasterResource.Org, my colleague Robert L. Bradley, Jr. shows that BP has much in common with Enron. Both companies aggressively sought rents (politically-contrived…
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Friday Regulation Roundup
If you have ever been in a duel, you are ineligible to vote in Mississippi, plus more.
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Making a Difference – A Very Small Difference
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What’s ahead for free trade?
In her column today, Kimberley Strassel throws some light on what’s behind President Obama’s recent endorsement of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement and…
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Fred L. Smith: Is Greed Good?
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CEI Weekly: The Supreme Court Rules Against PCAOB
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's Supreme Court against the burdensome Sarbanes-Oxley act.
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The Rahn Curve
A little government can do a lot of good. A lot of government can do little good.
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Blowout Prevention Act Would Blowout Domestic Oil Production
Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment held a hearing on H.R. 5626, the Blowout Prevention Act of 2010. Although…
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CEI in the News for July 1, 2010
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140 New Regulations in Florida
New labeling rules for horse meat intended for human consumption, plus more.
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California poker players: 1 – Free market opponents: 0
As I wrote yesterday, California was on the verge of passing a bill that would have allowed residents to play poker online at one…
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Liberal Senators Make False Claims About Supreme Court’s Ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, During Kagan Confirmation Hearings
Liberal Senators like Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) are peddling fables about a Supreme Court ruling, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
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Anti-stripper law could create more prostitution
As so many journalists have punned, recently passed anti-stripping legislation makes the “Don’t Show Me” state a far more appropriate nickname for Missouri. Yesterday, Gov.
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USA prevents effective oil spill cleanup
As readers may recall, a brouhaha erupted three summers ago concerning BP’s planned expansion of its Whiting Refinery near Chicago, Illinois. BP had…
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For Whom the Dell Tolls
Less than fifteen years ago, Dell computers were the hot desktop brand. In a rapidly growing market, Dell developed a unique business model which…
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Celebrating Bastiat
Economist Don Boudreaux reminds us that 209 years ago today, the great economic journalist Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) was born. F.A. Hayek in his introduction…
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Supreme Court Dooms Chicago Gun Ban; Obama Judicial Nominees Oppose Gun Rights; Religious Clubs Lose First Amendment Case; Removal of High-Ranking Bureaucrats Made Easier
The Supreme Court doomed Chicago’s handgun ban Monday by ruling 5-to-4 that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments…
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Wayne Crews on Cybersecurity and the Presidential “Kill Switch”
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Blowout Prevention Act — or Oil Production Prevention Act?
That’s the question I address today on the free-market energy blog, MasterResource.Org. This morning, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment is holding…
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Can Businessmen (and Women) Make Good Politicians
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CA to criminalize Internet poker?
That is, unless you play at one of the three state-sanctioned “hubs”. Much like other proposals to “legalize” online poker and other Internet gambling activities,…
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LibertyWeek 99: Sarbanes-Oxley Smackdown
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CEI’s Supreme Court Oscar Speech
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President Obama to push U.S.-Korea FTA
Economic reality is beginning to take the place of anti-trade rhetoric on the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, which has been on hold since it…
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Bio Jet Fuel — the Real $600 Toilet Seat?
The custom-designed $600 toilet seat for P-3C Orion antisubmarine aircraft — often depicted as the epitome of government waste — is an urban legend.
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Liquor store privatization on tap in WA
In Washington state’s November election ballot will have a very interesting twist: dueling initiatives to privatize the state-run liquor stores: Washington Privatize State Liquor Stores…
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CEI Weekly: Kozinski Brings Down the House at CEI’s Annual Dinner
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features the press coverage surrounding CEI's 26th annual dinner, including Judge…
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Life Imitates The Simpsons – again
The Politico reports that Sen. Harry Reid (D.-NV) has hit on a new scheme for passing the chronically unpopular climate legislation that has been…
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Good reporting, bad reporting
Compare and contrast the excellent analysis of Forbes.com’s Dan Fisher with the shallow softball St. Louis Business Journal on the A.G. Edwards case—though…
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Regulation of the Day 143: Your Bedtime
In Japan, your bedtime is official government business.
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Ninth Circuit appeal in Bluetooth – reply brief
CCAF filed its reply brief in the Bluetooth case yesterday.
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A new low for science and the NAS — the “Black List”
In what has to be one of the most disgraceful examples of political, unscientific attacks, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published…
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Five Years After Kelo
Today–this June 23–marks the fifth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s wrongheaded ruling in Kelo v. New London. Here’s my piece on Kelo+5 in…
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Sen. Inhofe demolishes energy independence rationale for cap-and-trade
Sen. James Inhofe’s daily Environment & Public Works Press Blog is a source I check early and often. The posts, which are more like essays than…
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New Federal Interference With Oil-Spill Clean-Up: Feds Stop Louisiana From Dredging Needed to Create Protective Sand Berms
A TV station in New Orleans reports that “the federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand…
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Stimulus Package to Cost $75 Billion More Than Predicted; Plus, Government-Employee Bailout Sought
The stimulus package is going to cost at least $75 billion more than the $787 billion the Obama administration claimed, according to the Congressional…
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Canada sees a good deal in Colombia FTA
Canada ratified a free trade agreement with Colombia on June 21, showing that the U.S.’s northern neighbor knows a good deal when it sees…
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Judge rules Obama deepwater drilling ban “arbitrary and capricious”
Yesterday, Judge Martin Feldman of the Eastern Louisiana District Court lifted the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on all oil and gas drilling in the…
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“Oddly enough, I admired one of the lawyers.”
Bill McClellan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes about the Bachman v. A.G. Edwards case and settlement in today’s paper.
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Judge Blocks Gulf Drilling Ban, Citing Deception by Obama Administration; Obama Continues to Delay Gulf Clean-Up
A federal judge has just blocked the Obama administration from imposing a blanket ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Supreme Court Upholds Controversial Antiterror Law; More Clues About Elena Kagan
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was instrumental in getting President Clinton to veto a ban on partial-birth abortion. She also lumped…
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Bachman v. A.G. Edwards update
You may recall the $60 million settlement that wasn’t to which CCAF objected. Judge Angela T. Quigless approved the settlement and approved the…
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Culture Warriors Are Missing the Point
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Ninth Circuit appeal in Bluetooth – opposition briefs
Earlier this month, plaintiffs and defendants each filed appellees’ briefs defending the district court’s approval of the Bluetooth settlement against our…
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CEI Weekly: The Senate’s Global Warming Circus
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features the vote in the Senate on the Murkowski resolution and…
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Obama Administration Blocks Clean-Up of Oil Spill by Louisiana and Foreign Allies By Imposing Red Tape
The Obama Administration recently used red tape to force Louisiana to stop using 16 barges that were cleaning up the Gulf…
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Friday Regulation Roundup
Arizona spends $1,250,000 to save 250 squirrels, plus more.
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Congress Destroys Free Checking Accounts by Blocking Overdraft Fees for the Irresponsible
Banks can afford to offer free checking accounts with no minimum balance, to responsible people, only because they can charge overdraft fees to irresponsible people. …
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Mordor Looks For More Wealth For Its Orcs
John Gapper has a very good column in the Financial Times today. He issues a timely warning that governments are on the prowl, looking…
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America’s Failed Domestic Ethanol Policy
I had a piece in yesterday’s Washington Times critiquing U.S. ethanol policy. My main points: Price subsidies are generally bad–they encourage overconsumption and distort…
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Obama Uses Oil Spill to Push Failed Energy Policies
In his speech last night, President Obama used the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to push his failed energy policies, such…
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Choosing individual liberty is no gamble.
On June 1st the Oregonian published an opinion piece by the editorial staff, titled “Legalization would be a gamble, too” The basis for the…
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Cell Phone Cancer Scare Refuses to Die
Some people are scared that cell phones cause brain tumors. There are enough of these bedwetters that San Francisco just passed a new law requiring…
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Financial “Reform” Bill Engages in Racial Engineering, While Ignoring Corrupt Mortgage Giants
Congress and the Obama administration refused to do anything about the corrupt government-sponsored mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even though administration…
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Regulation of the Day 142: Ladies’ Night
Ladies’ night bar specials are illegal in Minnesota. They are unfair gender discrimination, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.
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Dewey v. Volkswagen, Water Ingress Settlement objection
The Dewey v. Volkswagen settlement where attorneys are asking for over $23 million for recovering an $8 million reimbursement fund for a small subset…
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FL property insurance: turning a blind eye is not reform
While deregulation is always a good thing, we shouldn’t be fooled into believing that the recent news that Florida’s office of insurance regulation has…
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EPA Overreach
I have an article in the Washington Times today about the EPA’s new status as a rogue agency. It begins: The Senate undermined its…
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My article: “Purveying Pig Flu Panic at the Post”
“Panic is what we want,” Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum wrote last May of swine flu. “Panic is good,” she said, also labeling the disease…
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Obama Blocked Clean Up of BP Oil Spill by Friendly Countries; International Assistance Blocked by Regulations Obama Had The Authority To Waive
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of the…
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Brava, Sen. Murkowski
Last Thursday, by a vote of 53-47, the Senate rejected S.J.Res.26, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval to overturn EPA’s endangerment rule. Although Sen.
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Obama Wants Taxpayers to Cough Up $50 Billion To Bail Out Public-Employee Unions
President Obama now wants Congress to spend $50 billion to keep state governments from laying off government employees. In essence, this is a bailout…
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Regulation of the Day 141: Mandatory Fire Sprinklers
Politicians love it when housing prices go up. That's why Cumberland, Maryland is mulling requiring all new homes to install fire sprinkler systems. Cost: $3,000-$9,000…
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CEI Weekly: Senate Defends EPA Power Grab
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features the vote in the Senate on the Murkowski resolution that…
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Obama Fires Inspector General Who Uncovered Fraud, and Honors Defrauder Instead
Earlier, President Obama fired the inspector general for the AmeriCorps program after he uncovered fraud by Obama crony Kevin Johnson. (Johnson did not…
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“‘Denialism’ has no place in scientific debate,” my letter in Nature Medicine
The key sentence in the letter is this, “‘Denialist’ is an ad hominem argument, the meaning of which is defined entirely by the user,…
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AIG Bailout Had “Poisonous” Effect, Bailout Oversight Panel Says
“American International Group Inc.’s bailout had a ‘poisonous’ effect on the U.S. financial system because it demonstrated the government would protect Wall Street firms from…
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Judiciary Committee Votes to Promote Judge Who Made Excuses for Roadside Strangler, Claiming His “Sexual Sadism” Was a “Mitigating Factor”
On a party-line vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved President Obama’s promotion of a federal judge who tried to block the execution…
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Regulation of the Day 140: Plastic
“Plastics are the future,” a pushy relative told a young Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. Was he giving career advice -- or a warning?…
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No, It’s Not About Oil; Besides, Oil Is Good!
It is a measure of the weakness of the case against Sen. Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval (S.J.Res.26) that opponents keep trying to change the subject.
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Senator Kerry – Wrong on Iran
Senator Kerry just said during the debate on SJRes 26, the “Murkowski resolution” to disapprove EPA’s rule relating to greenhouse gas regulation that the USA…
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No, Sen. Durbin, Choice Not Between Real Science and Political Science
Sen. Durbin claims S.J.Res.26 presents the Senate a choice between “real science” and “political science.” Not by a country mile. See my previous posts on…
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More Demagoguery from Sen. Boxer
Sen. Boxer now compares Sen. Murkowski’s resolution to an attempt to repeal the Surgeon General’s famous report in 1964 linking cigarette smoking to cancer. She…
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CEI in the News for June 10, 2010
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Sen. Boxer’s Demagoguery Knows No Bounds
Sen. Boxer (D-Calif.) is now speaking against the Murkowski resolution (S.J.Res.26). Her demagoguery knows no bounds. She asks us to imagine a hundred Senators, who are not…
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Auto Dealers Demolish White House/Auto Alliance Rationale for Opposing Murkowski Resolution
Today, the Senate will debate and vote on S.J.Res.26, Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval to overturn the legal force and effect of EPA’s…
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Coupon settlement in DC approved in Envision EMI case
“Some 15,000 students paid between $2,380 and $2,729 to attend” 2009 inauguration conferences organized by Envision EMI, which class action attorneys claimed, quite plausibly,…
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BP Supported Obama Stimulus Package, Global Warming Bill, and Corporate Welfare; BP Bankrolled Obama Campaign
Columnist Tim Carney notes that BP, responsible for the massive oil spill, is “a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s…
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Halter’s Loss a Major Blow for Big Labor
Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter’s failure to win his state’s Democratic nomination is a crushing defeat for organized labor, which went all-out in…
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LibertyWeek 96: Donut Day Disobedience
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Explaining Free Trade in Under Three Minutes
Watch Tom Palmer explain free trade in under three minutes.
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Statement of Marlo Lewis on S.J.Res.26, Sen. Murkowski’s resolution to overturn EPA’s endangerment finding
On Thursday (June 10, 2010), the Senate will vote on Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval (S.J.Res.26) to overturn the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s…
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Global-Warming Bill Contains Ethanol Subsidies, Which Cause Famine, Hunger, Food Riots, and Political Unrest
People across the world “are being battered by surging food prices that are dragging more people into poverty, fueling political tensions and forcing some to…
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Cy pres bill in Ohio House
I’ve previously written about the problem of cy pres, charitable donations used to expand the apparent value of class action settlements that often serve…
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Obama Uses BP Oil Spill to Push Corporate-Welfare-Filled Global Warming Bill That BP Once Lobbied For
Talk about chutzpah. President Obama, the biggest recipient of campaign cash from BP, is using BP’s oil spill to push for a global…
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Government-Funded Journalism is More Dangerous Than Corporate-Funded Journalism
The following is part of a conversation I had with a journalist friend (who shall remain unnamed) on the future of the journalism industry, and…
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CEI Weekly: How Deregulation Can Curb Terrorism
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features Iain Murray's article in the American Spectator arguing for reform…
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Media Give Disgraced Politician Eliot Spitzer a Soapbox to Lecture the Public
Eliot Spitzer, who was forced out as Governor of New York after paying prostitutes tens of thousands of dollars and then violating federal finance laws…
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Friday Regulation Roundup
$300,000 of stimulus money to pay for floating toilets, plus more.
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Today’s the Day
Today is National Donut Day. Ordinarily, this would be just another cute calendar event. But nowadays we’re bombarded by government proposals…
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Thank You CBD: Another Reason to Nix EPA Endangerment Finding
Twice during the past six months, the eco-litigators at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) have underscored the political necessity for Congress to overturn EPA’s endangerment finding. Yes, that…
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Obama exploits oil spill to boost support for climate bill
“President Obama tried Wednesday to channel public outrage about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill into support for a climate-change bill, seeking to redefine an…