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TownHall.com: Conservative Columnists: Doug BandowQUICK LINKS: HOME | NEWS | OPINION | RIGHTPAGES | CHAT | WHAT'S NEWtownhall.comDoug Bandow (back to story)August 1, 2001The high cost of governmentWASHINGTON - Amid heated Democratic denunciations of the Bush tax cut in the face of a declining surplus, one would think that Congress would kill at least one stupid pork barrel project. Not a chance. Legislators consistently put the political imperative before the national interest. Thus, despite President Bill Clinton's oft-repeated claim that "the era of big government is over," the federal behemoth looks very big indeed. In fact, the Tax Foundation ...

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has accepted an invitation to speak at the National Press Club in Washington - a move that could pose another test of relations between China and the United States. Taiwan's United Evening News yesterday published a letter from Mr Chen to Richard Ryan, president of the Washington-based National Press Club, saying the President "would be most happy and honoured" to speak to the group. The report said Mr Chen was likely to suggest going either next month or in October. Officials at the Presidential Office and Foreign Ministry told the paper Washington was "unlikely" to let ...

ASHINGTON, July 31 — Hoping to push through President Bush's energy plan, Republican leaders said today that they were increasingly confident that the House would vote to allow oil drilling in a swath of protected wilderness in Alaska. The House is expected to take up the energy bill on Wednesday after a day of intense lobbying by environmentalists, the Teamsters and the automobile, coal, oil and nuclear industries. "We're working hard to grow the vote," said Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the majority whip, whose knack at pushing for votes has earned him the nickname Hammer. Mr. DeLay added ...

The heads of the staff association and student union of City University have thrown their support behind spy-case scholar Li Shaomin, saying he should be allowed to resume his job at the institution. City University's 32-member ruling council will meet within a week to decide if a disciplinary panel should be set up to advise whether Dr Li should be sacked following his espionage conviction on the mainland. Dr Li arrived back in the SAR on Monday. The chairman of the University Staff Association, David Mole, and the acting president of the student union, Aaron Hui Siu-kee, said they backed ...

WASHINGTON -- It is astonishing enough that President Bush has retained Bill Clinton's federal prosecutor in Manhattan, one of the Justice Department's key appointments. Mary Jo White, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, now claims veto power over who monitors the Teamsters union. What's more, she has partially succeeded. White actually should have no role whatever in picking the three-member Internal Review Board (IRB) created to look out for the scandal and corruption that has long plagued the giant union. Nevertheless, she killed Justice Department plans to name Joseph diGenova, former U.S. Attorney for the District of ...

MCLEAN, Virginia (Reuters) - More than five months in detention in China did more than deprive academic Gao Zhan of her freedom and the sight of her five-year-old son, it changed forever the way she felt about her native land. "This incident has changed my life and changed my way (of thinking about how to) bring change to China," Gao, a university professor, said in an interview on Tuesday. "I always wanted to be back in China to have a teaching position there to help ... democratising China. I wanted to teach my students about Western thought," she said. Those ...

I have been for some days at the shore, in the company of many of my fellow middle-aged Americans who are wearing not a lot of clothes, and I have a report. My fellow middle-aged Americans, we are some kind of fat. I don't mean we are getting a bit thick around the middle, or that we are pleasantly plump, or that we are zaftig, or Rubenesque (we are Reuben-esque), or settling into our bodies. I mean we are fat, fat, fat. It's true: As a people, we have never been this fat. Probably, no people has ever been this ...

Alliance based on self-reliance By PAUL KELLY 01aug01 THE Australian-American alliance is undergoing a period of transition in which new expectations will be levied upon Australia – a reality about which popular opinion in this country is blissfully unaware. Our obsession with the "deputy sheriff" slogan – words, by the way, that John Howard never actually uttered – is a touching reminder of how obsolete is the popular paradigm in which the alliance is cast. Australians should note the language that US Secretary of State Colin Powell used in Canberra on Monday when he dismissed the "deputy sheriff" label. "We ...

ATTORNEY GENERAL John Ashcroft, in a recent letter to the National Rifle Association, stated that the "text and original intent of the Second Amendment clearly protect the right of individuals to keep and bear firearms." The amendment, in his view, protects this individual right "just as the First and Fourth Amendments secure individual rights of speech and security respectively." Mr. Ashcroft's remarkable statement has delighted the NRA, which put his face on the cover of the July issue of its America's 1st Freedom magazine. According to the Wall Street Journal, the attorney general's view is now being formalized by the ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is expected to continue delaying a decision on American communications satellite exports to China because Chinese leaders have not satisfied U.S. concerns about Beijing's arms proliferation practices, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday. Chinese leaders "knew what they had to say and they didn't say it" during talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell last Saturday, the official told Reuters. "Indefinite delay (by the administration in approving licenses for the satellite exports) is the most probable outcome," he said. Before Powell's visit, Chinese officials were told he was looking for a recommitment to ...

Targeted Hamas leaders had hand in many terror attacksBy Margot Dudkevitch JERUSALEM (August 1) - Jamal Mansour was the senior Hamas commander in the Samaria region and directly in charge of the headquarters hit in yesterday's attack, according to military sources. He held numerous positions in Hamas, and was known for his extreme views. He constantly encouraged escalating violence against Israel, and was a staunch supporter of suicide bomb attacks. Despite constant warnings demanding he cease operations and the numerous times he was incarcerated by the Palestinian Authority, Mansour chose to ignore the warnings and instead focused on terrorist activities. ...

The Democratic Party showed Washington its sense of humor by naming Terry McAuliffe to lead the Democratic National Committee. He hasn't disappointed. He continues making us want to laugh. Start with the concept that the nation's biggest bloviators for "campaign finance reform" picked as their top dog one of the country's most notorious soft money abusers. Consider that the same party whose congressional investigators are breathing heavily over teapot tempests like Karl Rove's tardy stock sales is led by a man who's seemingly always in the shadows of sleazy schemes, like the illegal DNC-Teamsters fundraising swap that killed union boss ...

GOP railroads budget-busting measure July 30, 2001BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST While official Washington's attention was elsewhere, the House Republican leadership last week quietly cleared for floor action a remarkable piece of legislation. It busts the budget, violates President Bush's stated principles and poses trouble for the future. But this outrageous concoction has been introduced by 432 out of the 535 members of Congress. HR 1140, the Railroad Retirement and Survivors Improvement Act of 2001, addresses a $40 billion unfunded liability in the pension fund for the nation's railway workers by cutting payroll taxes and increasing benefits. That removes ...

Ever since the Genoa summit, Democrats and the media (assuming you can tell the difference) have been flagellating the Bush administration for its arrogant conduct of international relations. What's the matter with these Bushies, doing things other countries don't like? At Genoa, more notable for the street riots outside than the deliberations inside, we stood apart while "the world" embraced a Kyoto global warming treaty our leaders found defective. Meanwhile, on we go, pressing for a defense against enemy missiles. Thus our top Senate Democrat, Tom Daschle, accuses the president of "isolating" us from the world. The New York Times ...

Matt Daniels and Bryan Rudnick will never be mistaken for identical twins. One is an evangelical Christian in his late 30s, the other is 23 years old and Jewish. Daniels, who grew up in a single-parent family in Spanish Harlem and went to law school, is married and has a two-year old son. Rudnick, a Brandeis graduate, is single. But both are leaders of the movement to save marriage, which speaks to the institution's universality. As head of the Alliance for Marriage, Daniels recently unveiled an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as the union of a man and ...

OUTSIDE THE BOXHappy Birthday, Dear Tax Cut Ronald Reagan gave us an 18-year boom--and counting. BY PETE DU PONT Wednesday, August 1, 2001 12:01 a.m. EDT Twenty years ago this month President Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act into law. It was the most significant economic policy change in America since the New Deal. It was also the culmination of a long fight. From July 1977, when Rep. Jack Kemp and Sen. William Roth introduced legislation for an across-the-board tax cut, through the 1980 presidential campaign and the first congressional session in the Reagan presidency, the debate on tax ...

Even as Our Betters in France have extradited two American fugitives accused of killing their girlfriends this month, their reluctance to do so only highlights their neurotic need to show themselves superior to all things American. Call it a case of chauvinism, but give French officialdom a chance to show up America, and they'll do so -- even if they have to shelter sickos to make a puny point. The next French tourism slogan could be: Entrez, fugitive lady-killers. This month, the French finally extradited former peace activist and convicted killer Ira Einhorn to Philadelphia. In 1977, Einhorn's girlfriend, Holly ...

TownHall.com: Conservative Columnists: Linda ChavezQUICK LINKS: HOME | NEWS | OPINION | RIGHTPAGES | CHAT | WHAT'S NEWtownhall.comLinda Chavez (back to story)August 1, 2001Bill's coming out party Bill Clinton is having a coming-out party this week. After months spent out of the spotlight, the former president can't stand it any longer. So he's throwing himself a big shindig in Harlem to formally open his post-presidential offices, inviting former Cabinet members and staff, as well as other New York dignitaries. He wants attention, and you can bet he'll get it. Not that he didn't get plenty of notice just after ...

A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last month to aid the struggling entrepreneurial space launch companies would cost the taxpayers $4.4 billion in lost federal revenue, its chief sponsor said last week. California Republican Rep. Ken Calvert told a Space Transportation Roundtable that while the billions would be lost in tax receipts if the bill became law and was used by the launch providers, launch industry growth would also make up the lost revenue "within two years" of its enactment, Calvert claimed. The "H.R. 2177 "Invest in Space Now Act of 2001"" was introduced in the House ...

TownHall.com: Conservative Columnists: Marvin OlaskyQUICK LINKS: HOME | NEWS | OPINION | RIGHTPAGES | CHAT | WHAT'S NEWtownhall.comMarvin Olasky (back to story)August 1, 2001Tough calls on Congressional votes Many members of Congress pretend to be on a pedestal. They claim greater certainty about their votes than they possess, and greater knowledge of what's coming down the road than anyone could have. That's why it was refreshing for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., to acknowledge honestly his qualms about H.R. 7, the House bill concerning President Bush's faith-based initiative that is now heading toward the Senate. On July 19, the morning ...