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With the collapse of Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae, we can see what happens when some people (be they black, white, hispanic, etc) who do not have a good credit rating, live in areas that are dangerous and/or clearly aren't able to make mortgage payments, but allowed to make mortgage payments anyway. Democrats argued that it was bigotted and racist to not allow these people access to a quality home, so they pushed for making it possible, and now when we see what happens when you allow people who cannot afford mortgage payments to make morgage payments:e a tax-payr -...

Has Fred Thompson's entry into the presidential race got you wondering what a Thompson administration might look like? From a federal management perspective, it's an interesting question. Thompson would come into the job with a relatively large amount of experience in overseeing government operations, since he chaired the committee formerly known as Senate Governmental Affairs. In an Aug. 2001 column in Government Executive, Paul Light, now a New York University professor and then a vice president at the Brookings Institution, took a look at Thompson's tenure, taking note of his presidential prospects. At that point, the senator was weighing whether...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Polk County judge has struck down Iowa's law preserving marriage for only a man and a woman. He ordered the county recorder's office to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Six gay and lesbian couples went to court for the right to legally marry in Iowa. Lamda Legal filed a lawsuit in 2005 on behalf of the couples in Iowa, saying they deserve equal protection under the law. Des Moines laywer Dennis Johnson represented six gay couples who filed the lawsuit after they were denied marriage licenses, and he says Hanson's ruling is a moral...

<p>He is not yet an official presidential candidate but former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has already promised voters he'd sign a major overhaul of the American tax system if passed by Congress.</p> <p>Asked last week on camera if he would sign the "Fair Tax" bill if it were passed by the House and Senate, the "Law & Order" actor said, "Yeah, absolutely."</p>

Former Sen. Fred Thompson has begun his unannounced quest for the Republican presidential nomination by telling audiences in New Hampshire that Washington is badly out of touch with the country. As a senior campaign adviser put it to The Washington Post's Michael Shear, Thompson believes that "the politicians have lost their connection with what people really want and what they really expect." Few if any of the other 17 men and one woman vying for the presidency would be bold enough to challenge Thompson's claim. The belief that official Washington is deaf to the people's wishes is a staple of...

The Chairman of the Republican Party on Friday lambasted Democrats and Republicans who helped kill an immigration bill in the Senate and challenged them to come up with a solution beyond "just build a fence along the border." "The voices of negativity now have a responsibility to come up with an answer," RNC Chairman and U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. said. "How will you fix the situation to make peoples' lives better? How will you continue to grow the economy? How will we bring people out of the shadows for our national security and for the sake of being a...