Blog
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…
Blog
Can Businessmen (and Women) Make Good Politicians
Blog
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,…
Blog
LibertyWeek 99: Sarbanes-Oxley Smackdown
Blog
CEI’s Supreme Court Oscar Speech
Blog
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…
Blog
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.
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 143: Your Bedtime
In Japan, your bedtime is official government business.
Blog
Ninth Circuit appeal in Bluetooth – reply brief
CCAF filed its reply brief in the Bluetooth case yesterday.
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
“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.
Blog
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.
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
Culture Warriors Are Missing the Point
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
Friday Regulation Roundup
Arizona spends $1,250,000 to save 250 squirrels, plus more.
Blog
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. …
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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.
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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.
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
“‘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,…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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?…
Blog
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.
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
CEI in the News for June 10, 2010
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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,…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
LibertyWeek 96: Donut Day Disobedience
Blog
Explaining Free Trade in Under Three Minutes
Watch Tom Palmer explain free trade in under three minutes.
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
Friday Regulation Roundup
$300,000 of stimulus money to pay for floating toilets, plus more.
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
Temperance Smokescreen and HR 5034
Various parties—from distributors to retailers in states where supermarket sales are banned—claim that alcohol regulations safeguard public health and protect children by limiting…
Blog
States fold/double down on gambling in light of new regs
Blog
Regulation of the Day 139: Mailing Fake Grenades
In which a new regulation actually makes some sense.
Blog
Obama Administration Pushes More Bailouts at Taxpayer Expense; America to Bail Out Corrupt Union Pension Funds
The Obama administration and its congressional allies are now pushing for billions more in bailouts for mismanaged union pension funds, and teachers unions. The union…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 138: Dwile Flonking
H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” He may as well have been talking about regulators.
Blog
BP: A “Serial Environmental Criminal” With Close Ties To The Obama Administration
BP, which is responsible for the terrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has a safety record infinitely worse than other oil companies, which…
Blog
Did Congress Intend for EPA to Regulate CO2 through the Clean Air Act?
On June 10, the Senate will debate and vote on S.J.Res.26, a resolution of disapproval sponsored by Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to stop…
Blog
Internet Gambling Regs in effect…now.
Blog
LibertyWeek 95: Tea Party in a China Shop?
Blog
Divorce Courts Mistreat America’s Soldiers and Small Businesses
Memorial Day is an opportunity to thank our troops, and open our eyes to the disgraceful way they are treated by divorce courts. The bias…
Blog
The Nanny Zone Episode 1
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OJgLJZuwM 285 234]…
Blog
Will Durant on Human Achievement
Blog
Thoughts on “professional objectors”
I’m quoted in a May 23 Maryland Daily Record story on professional objectors (and don’t miss the correction at the bottom of the story).
Blog
CEI Weekly: CEI Sues NASA to Uncover Key Global Warming Docs
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's federal lawsuit against NASA to force them to comply…
Blog
Massive Fare Hike in Washington, D.C. Subway System; Public Sacrifices, Overpaid Union Doesn’t
The mismanaged Washington, D.C. Metro system is pushing through huge fare hikes, not only increasing subway and bus fares, but adding a new 20…
Blog
Myths About Green Energy: The Truth Is, It’s Corporate Welfare That Destroys American Jobs
In The Washington Post, Robert Bryce debunks five myths about green energy: it won’t create jobs, won’t help the environment, and won’t make America…
Blog
Federal Register hits 30,000 Pages
This year’s Federal Register is on pace for 73,459 pages. Like most of President Obama’s policies, this represents less than a one percent change from…
Blog
New York Winemakers Forced to Market Out-of-State
Scott Osborn–proprietor of Fox Run Vineyards located in the Finger Lakes wine region in New York–poured samples of his great wines at the Gainesville,…
Blog
Concessions Can Bridge Budget Gaps
In 1958, Chicago opened the 7.8-mile Chicago Skyway, an elevated tollway linking the downtown Chicago Loop with the Indiana Toll Road. Due to poor…
Blog
Sudden Acceleration in Media Falsehoods Regarding Toyota
“Now that the dust has begun to settle on Toyota’s recall fiasco, it’s being made clear that the toll on human life was greater than…
Blog
Obama Justice Department Sued Over Stonewalling and Cover-Up in Black Panther Case
Judicial Watch is suing the Obama administration over its stonewalling in the Black-Panther voter intimidation case, where the administration has flouted the Freedom of…
Blog
LibertyWeek 94: The Nanny State Diaries
Blog
Congress Expected to Vote Soon on Repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy Restricting Gay Soldiers
“Separate votes” are expected “in the House and Senate later this week on legislation repealing the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ restriction on gays serving…
Blog
More Bailouts for Corrupt Mortgage Giants: “More Aid Expected for Fannie, Freddie”
The bailouts are getting even bigger, for the most undeserving recipients. “More Aid Expected for Fannie, Freddie,” reports The Washington Post. The Obama administration…
Blog
The Two Americas
Blog
California: Leading the Way in Failure
As one might expect of California, successful transportation public-private partnerships (P3s) face many government hurdles. In the early 1990s, the California Department of Transportation…