Melanie Scarborough

2008: The Year Americans Rejected Self-Reliance

Looking back on 2008, one can only wonder: How did we get here? This was the year when the majority of Americans signaled their rejection of the nation’s founding ideals, electing as president the candidate who promised cradle-to-grave welfare, while mocking a vice presidential candidate who championed self-reliance and personal freedom. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev told Richard Nixon in 1957, “Your grandchildren will live under socialism.” This was the year that proved him right. Another adage obtained. We now know that the road to Hell and universal homeownership is paved with good intentions. For years, government has been pressuring banks to factor sympathy...

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Another Sen. Kennedy could be good for the country

Just when it looked like we were about to be free from the curse of the Kennedys comes news that Caroline Kennedy is interested in taking Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. It could be worse: At least New York Gov. David Paterson apparently is not considering appointing one of her drug-addled cousins. And, actually, Kennedy could be a boon for the Senate - if she chose to follow in her father’s footsteps instead of her Uncle Teddy’s. First, she would have to understand her father’s record, which the evidence suggests she does not. If she did, how could she have endorsed Barack Obama as president and compared him to her late father? Historians agree that President...

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Take a Drive on 'Taxation Without Representation' Avenue

District of Columbia Council chairman Vincent Gray may be on to something. This week he plans to put on the council's agenda a proposal to rename the section of South Capitol Street from N Street to Potomac Ave. S.E. "Taxation Without Representation Street" to bring attention to the District voting-rights cause. The added attention is probably unnecessary -- with the slogan emblazoned on every city license plate, it could hardly be more prominent -- but Gray's reasoning is sound: Having to write down those words as the stadium's address will serve as a constant reminder of the issue. Following that logic, I propose renaming the street in front of the Capitol "The Only...

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Only Change is Who Gets the Goodies

Suppose you earn the median income of $50,000 and are walking down the street with your boss, who makes the average salary of a Fortune 500 CEO, $15 million. Encountering a panhandler, the boss orders you to give the beggar almost half of the paycheck you just cashed - then congratulates himself for being such an extraordinarily generous fellow. If you are a conservative, you would be outraged. If you are a liberal, you would be enamored. Apparently, Democratic voters are enthralled by rich people who demand that they give away their money. Consider some of the most popular and prominent Democratic politicians. The wealthiest senator, according to the Center for Responsive Politics,...

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Obama's Honeymoon May be Shorter Than Expected

The next 10 weeks will be the best of Barack Obama's life. He has been elected to the highest office of the greatest nation by 62 million Americans otherwise known as "The People You Can Fool All of the Time." From now through Inauguration Day, they will continue to swoon over him and his promises of "change." But on Obama's first day in the Oval Office, he will begin to disappoint. His acceptance speech on election night was essentially a disclaimer of all the assurances he made for the past two years. Referring to the agenda he had espoused, Obama told his followers, "We may not get there in one year, or even one term." In the course of a day,...

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Last Minute Doubts About Obama

Lines are going to be long at the polls tomorrow, so maybe there will be time to ask Barack Obama's supporters to clarify a couple of things. For one, I'm confused by their notion of "economic justice." Last week, in defending his plan to "spread the wealth around," Obama said that "when everybody's got a little more money at the end of the month -- then guess what? Everybody starts spending that money. They decide, 'Maybe I can afford a new car; maybe I can afford a computer for my child.' They can buy the products and services that businesses are selling, and everybody is better off." Everybody, that is, except the person who earned or saved the money...

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National Portrait Gallery celebrates ... hip-hopper 'art'

If you aren’t angry enough that Congress just stuck you with a bill for bailing out the stupid and the greedy, wander over to the National Portrait Gallery to see another outrageous use of your money. The exhibit “Recognize!” that has been running since February and – mercifully - will close at the end of this month, supposedly “demonstrates the influence of hip hop on portrait artists working today.” The “portrait art” most prominently featured is an exhibit of vandalism: a graffiti mural lining the hallway. Clearly aware that most people don’t view urban blight as art, the museum relies on this contortion: graffiti as a form of...

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Time for Americans to grow up

Today, alarmingly few Americans would laugh at Ponytail Man. Remember him? During one of the 1992 presidential debates, he asked a question as ridiculous as it was pathetic. Characterizing American citizens as “symbolically, the children of the future president,” the man sporting a ponytail asked for the candidates’ “commitment to meet our needs.” Many conservatives pounced on the question as evidence that our national ethos had taken a dangerous turn. What Ponytail Man reflected was the belief hardening in certain quarters that citizens were not responsible for taking care of themselves; it was government’s role to provide. Lamentably, Bill...

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McCain is just the kind of maverick we need

I have never been a fan of John McCain. His preening about being a “maverick” struck me as someone merely taking pride in betraying his party’s principles. Nonetheless, McCain’s contrarian instincts may be just what we need to lead us through the current economic crisis caused by the collusion of Washington and Wall Street. We are in this mess because Congress allowed it, despite spot-on warnings from members such as McCain who predicted what was coming. In 2006 he called to his fellow senators’ attention a report from Fannie Mae’s regulator that some of the company’s employees “deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports...

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Palin exposes several Democratic hypocrisies

"Having five children in six years is the best training in the world for speaker of the House," Nancy Pelosi said after she was elected to that post last year. "It made me the ultimate multi-tasker and the master of focus, routine and scheduling." Asked how motherhood provided an understanding of national security, she said, "Think lioness when you think of women in politics. You threaten our cubs, you're dead." Yet many of the same people who didn't blink at - indeed, applauded - Pelosi's claim that motherhood qualifies her to be second in line for the presidency now harp that the same circumstance disqualifies Sarah Palin from being first. That is just one...

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Obama thinks voters are bitter — and stupid

Sarah Palin clings to both guns and religion, and she is America’s new darling. A fresh face from Alaska and the first woman on a Republican ticket, Palin embodies change. She and John McCain are known for eschewing party lines. Neither is conventional. Contrast that to Barack Obama and Washington graybeard Joe Biden, peddling a refried ’60s agenda, and there can be no doubt which ticket is most committed to shaking up the status quo. It’s no wonder that Obama sounded almost desperate this weekend when he said that for McCain and Palin to represent themselves as agents of change, “they must really think you’re stupid.” But just who is kidding whom?...

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Obama scorns founders’ vision of freedom

When Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination later this week, he will portray himself as a shining example of the Great American Dream. With his impressive rhetorical skill, he will speak of embracing America’s common ideals and securing them for future generations and continuing on that glorious path established by our founding fathers, yada, yada. And he won’t mean a word of it. To the contrary, Obama largely rejects the principles of individual liberty on which this nation was founded. His thinking is more closely aligned with Karl Marx’s than John Locke’s. “In America,” Obama frequently scoffs, “we have this strong bias toward...

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Obama pulled pages from LBJ’s platform

One of the few political topics on which there is near universal agreement is that the Great Society initiatives of the mid-1960s failed. Intended to help poor Americans lift themselves out of poverty, welfare programs allowed the shameless to become permanent wards of the state. Economic poverty was replaced by a more insidious behavioral poverty, as a parasitic and often predatory underclass grew larger and more entrenched. Much to the relief of productive citizens and with strong bipartisan support, President Bill Clinton signed welfare reform legislation in 1996. The lesson learned, after 30 years, was that no amount of money can substitute for personal responsibility. Educational...

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Melanie Scarborough: Pelosi & Co. enabled Bush’s failures

H ouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently pronounced George W. Bush a "total failure," which is like Jesse Jackson criticizing someone for not controlling his tongue. While it is true that the majority of the American people have lost confidence in Bush (his approval rating has fallen to 29 percent), their opinion of Pelosi and her ilk is even worse. Congress now has......

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Melanie Scarborough: The taboo truths Obama and McCain must ignore to become president

N o matter how much Barack Obama blathers about change and John McCain boasts of straight talk, neither could be elected if he espoused traditional values such as self-reliance and personal responsibility. Imagine either candidate saying to the voters:» 1. It is not the responsibility of your fellow citizens to buy health insurance for you and your family. They have enough of a burden paying their own bills. If you don’t have......

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Melanie Scarborough: Watching fireworks from the national holding pen

Celebrating the nation’s birthday in the nation’s capital used to be a happy occasion. Now, it is a sad demonstration of George Washington’s warning that a government untethered from its role as servant will become a fearsome master.The National Mall — designed as a symbol of — openness becomes the national holding pen, marked by the symbol of repressive governments: entry only through police checkpoints. Streets anywhere near the Mall are closed......

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Melanie Scarborough: ACLU failing in defense of civil liberties at vital time

T wenty years ago this month, Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis had a 15-point lead in the polls over Republican George H.W. Bush — an advantage that evaporated after Bush pointed out that Dukakis described himself as "a card-carrying member of the ACLU." To many Americans, that immediately identified Dukakis as a member of the fringe element: One of those......

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Melanie Scarborough: Cost of changing currency not worth overall expense

E ven Americans who barely follow politics have gleaned the evils of influence-peddling. People who can’t find the MiddleEast on a map recognize "Halliburton" as leftist shorthand for cronyism and corruption. Both Barack Obama and John McCain spit out the word "lobbyist" as if it were spelled with four letters. But what most people......

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Melanie Scarborough: Yes, we scan ... but we shouldn’t

W hy don’t we just be honest enough to repeal the Fourth Amendment — "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches" — if we are willing to live in a society where unreasonable searches are routine? The right to be secure in your person is going right out the window as we enter the age of virtual strip searches. With no public debate, the TSA is installing at airports around the country backscatter technology that allow screeners to see......

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Melanie Scarborough: The bad decisions Obama is making long before choosing a veep

We will know more about Barack Obama after we learn his choice of a running mate. But the people he chose to help him make the selection also reveal something about him: namely, that — at least in this instance — his judgment is questionable. What expertise do Caroline Kennedy, Eric Holder and James......

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Melanie Scarborough: Washington is poster child for overzealous policing

Walking around this once-beautiful city is now profoundly depressing. Instead of exemplifying a free society, Washington is now a monument to fear. Closed streets, concrete barriers, guards at every building, police officers capriciously ordering citizens to show their papers and submit to searches.The nation’s capital has the oppressive feel of a police state for good reason: It may well be the most over-policed city in the world.According to the Department of Justice, nationwide there are 36 federal law enforcement......

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Melanie Scarborough: Memorial Day memories make our freedom possible

Memorial Day has come to mean many things for most Americans: The official start of summer, the first weekend by the pool, half-price sales at the mall.Too many of us give too little thought to those this day is intended to honor: The brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice so others can live in liberty.I was privileged to know as a neighbor and friend a man of sterling worth: John Moffitt of Continued...

 

Melanie Scarborough: Gay marriage not physically possible

California’s Supreme Court ruled last week that homosexuals have a constitutional right to marry because to deny them a status afforded heterosexuals was deemed discriminatory. "Reserving the historic designation of ‘marriage’ exclusively for opposite-sex couples poses at least a serious risk of denying the family relationship of same-sex couples … equal dignity and respect," according to Chief Justice Ronald George. But in fact, permitting individuals of the same sex to describe......

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Melanie Scarborough: ‘Colorblind’ government a joke

Ah, the fruits of prosperity. The federal government is so flush with our money that it not only pays for 800,000 "nonessential" employees; our money sends them to training conferences that are worse than nonessential.Defying the ideal of a colorblind society — certainly, a colorblind employment venue — conferences that qualify as training for federal workers include:- Society of American Indian Government Employees Annual Training Conference, Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, Continued...

 

Melanie Scarborough: Additional laws needed to limit peeping government

Imagine trying to go about your business every day, walking around the city with a stranger dogging your steps, hovering within inches of your face and constantly taking your picture.How furious would you be if you complained to police and were told you had to tolerate such behavior because there is no expectation of privacy in public?Reasonable people would argue that there is a difference between observation and intrusion:  One expects to be observed on the street; one does not expect to be stalked.Indeed, the law makes such a distinction.......

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Melanie Scarborough: Leftist activists unsympathetic to polygamist women in Texas

It all comes down to good PR. Sporting their prairie dresses and pompadours, the women of that Texas polygamist sect just aren’t cool enough to attract sympathy from the usual defenders of "non-traditional families." Rosie O’Donnell isn’t running her bilious yap. The American Civil Libeties Union hasn’t filed any amicus briefs on behalf of the plural wives. Brad Pitt hasn’t vowed not to marry......

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Melanie Scarborough: U.S.’s only unregulated killing industry

A judge on Thursday refused to dismiss the five felony and three misdemeanor charges against Daniel Navarro, one of the two workers from a California slaughterhouse charged with abusive treatment of cows. In the weeks since a videotape exposing the mistreatment became public, Congress has held hearings demanding assurance that the strict laws governing animal protection are being enforced elsewhere. To their credit, Americans do not tolerate cruelty to animals. The Humane Methods......

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Melanie Scarborough: FAA crackdown leaves a bitter taste

Imagine taking a test and earning an "A" — but receiving a failing mark because you didn’t follow the irrelevant instruction to use a No. 2 pencil. That is the manner in which the federal regulatory behemoth often operates. Even when no harm is done or the mistake is unintentional, the government levies Draconian penalties for disobeying arbitrary edicts.Last week’s debacle with American Airlines is a case in point. The Continued...

 

Melanie Scarborough: Secret Service goes far beyond ‘reasonable precaution’

If John McCain is elected president, the first thing he should do is fire Mark Sullivan as head of the Secret Service. Last week Sullivan revealed publicly that the Republican presidential contender had not asked for Secret Service protection, even though he is entitled to it by law. Announcing that McCain was unprotected placed the senator in greater danger,......

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Melanie Scarborough: Making the Tidal Basin lot inaccessible hurts everyone

At least this time they didn’t claim it was a "security measure." But the National Park Service’s arbitrary decision to close the main parking lot at the Tidal Basin during Cherry Blossom Festival, when the Tidal Basin gets more visitors than any other time of year, was ridiculous nonetheless. It represents one more instance of the Park Service ignoring the notion that it exists to serve — not inconvenience — the public. The agency’s excuse was that......

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Melanie Scarborough: Bush, Cheney are disregarding democracy

Dick Cheney has been dismissive of other people for so long that his lips curl in a permanent sneer. Still, it was stunning to see his response to an interviewer who pointed out that polls show two-thirds of Americans oppose the war in Iraq. "So?" the vice president smirked, clearly relishing the opportunity to demonstrate his disdain for public opinion. Taken aback, the interviewer followed up, "Don’t you care......

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Melanie Scarborough: Hassling everybody equally

To the consternation of those who believe sentimentality should trump law, the recent crackdown on illegalimmigration in Prince William County, Virginia, appears to be having the desired effect. Anecdotal evidence — such as fewer children enrolled in English-as-a-second-language courses, and Hispanic soccer leagues losing their players — suggests that illegal residents are self-deporting, if only to neighboring counties.If that is, in fact, the case, it is to Continued...

 

Melanie Scarborough: Ashcroft deserves most credit for homeland security

With profuse self-congratulations, the Department of Homeland Security observed last week the fifth anniversary of its creation. And while it is truly remarkable that there has not been another major terrorist attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, that is hardly the result of more expansive and authoritarian bureaucracy. We are not one whit safer because people who couldn’t get work at the post office......

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Melanie Scarborough: Hillary isn’t willing to say no to more government if elected

On a recent edition of "The CBS Evening News," Katie Couric asked the presidential candidates what book — other than the Bible — they would bring with them to the White House, if elected.Hillary Clinton’s answer would have been appealing if it hadn’t been so characteristically disingenuous. "I would......

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Melanie Scarborough: Obama on Obama is scary truth

One can only hope that the majority of Barack Obama’s supporters are not as inane as actress Susan Sarandon, who announced last week that she supports Obama for president and "can’t wait to see what he stands for."No one need be mystified. On his Web site, Obama details precisely where he stands on issues from Iraq to infant education. (Yes, infant......

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Melanie Scarborough: Protect America Act won’t

Here’s the thing about the Protect America Act of 2007, which expired this past Saturday after the House refused to extend it, despite protests from the Bush administration: Nowhere in the law does it mention "terrorists" or "criminals" — or even "evil-doers."It allows communications to the United States to be intercepted without warrant if the sender is "a person reasonably believed to be outside the United States." Obviously, that can be your mother in Continued...

 

Melanie Scarborough: Stop throwing tax dollars at well-funded colleges

When a friend’s daughter was in town a couple of years ago visiting American University, where she had been accepted as a freshman, I showed the girl — a California native — the sights of Washington, D.C.As we crossed the National Mall, she asked me what that big building was at......

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Melanie Scarborough: Now it’s anybody but McCain

If Republicans continue tomorrow on their self-destructive path and cement John McCain’s status as front-runner, they may well be ensuring victory for Democrats in this fall’s presidential election. Barack Obama is going to be on the Democratic ticket one way or the other: If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, she will have to select him as her running mate. He has......

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Melanie Scarborough: Stimulus package could face death by lard

Now is a good time to bring schoolchildren to Washington for a view of hypocrisy in action. Last week, the House, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reached an agreement with the Bush administration on an economic stimulus package. Because Democrats choke on the words "tax cuts" like a cat eating peanut butter, they refer to the checks that would return taxed money to citizens as "rebates." Potato, po-tah-to. The point......

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Under Real ID, privacy will be nonexistent

Welcome to Amerika. With its recent issuance of rules for implementing the "Real ID" law - the requirement that states issue driver’s licenses according to federal dictates and link the information to a nationwide database - the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken another page from the Soviets’ playbook. Stalin required Russian citizens to carry an internal passport ostensibly because "counterrevolutionaries" posed a threat. Amerikans will be required to show their papers to prove they aren’t......

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Melanie Scarborough: Not all segregationists are remembered equally

As a Baptist minister, he considered the United States to be fundamentally off-course, so he organized a political movement to force a shift in the nation’s direction. He traveled millions of miles, wrote books and articles, and became a household name. Soon his "coalition of conscience" had such political strength that politicians couldn’t afford to ignore him. But although he was invited to the White House to confer with......

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Melanie Scarborough: Iowa showing likely hampers Hillary rebound in N.H.

Hillary Clinton hopes to stage a comeback in New Hampshire tomorrow after her dismal showing last week in Iowa, but that may prove more difficult than anyone could have predicted a week ago. She has lost the mantle of inevitably; Clinton is no longer the presumptive nominee. Her lead over Barack......

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Melanie Scarborough: Congress did what?

Before the tryptophan and sugar buzz wears off completely is a good time to look back on what the 110th Congress did for us in 2007.Our representatives passed 155 bills that the president signed into public laws; 64 of those statutes authorize … the renaming of public facilities. Exercising its version of due diligence, Congress not only gave us the Gerald R. Ford post office in Vail, Continued...

 

Melanie Scarborough: Kids can’t recall freedom that they never knew

While shopping the other day, I was vaguely aware of two little girls playing nearby. They prattled happily until one of them evidently did something her playmate considered unseemly, and I heard a tiny voice warn, "You better stop doing that. The police are watching."Although I wasn’t looking at them, I could deduce that the other child was baffled, because her friend went on to explain that "they have cameras everywhere. They can see everything you do." So much for Continued...

 

Melanie Scarborough: Nationals strike out with thug deal

Explaining the rapid growth of criminal gangs in the Washington suburbs, a Gaithersburg police detective said recently that part of the problem is rap stars who glorify violence in their music and videos.Some kids draw the obvious conclusion that a thuggish lifestyle is a path to fame and fortune and join gangs to emulate the rappers they idolize. "These kids need new heroes," he said.Let’s hope they don’t look for one in Continued...

 

Melanie Scarborough: Somebody is lying about FISA

As a technician for AT&T, Mark Klein says he helped connect a device three years ago that copied onto a government supercomputer every phone call, e-mail and Internet search made through the company’s network."AT&T provided the National Security Agency with everything that ordinary Americans communicated over the Internet," Klein said recently on Capitol Hill. "This program included not only AT&T customers, but everyone who used the Internet because AT&T carries messages for other carriers also."President Bush denies that. "We’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of......

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Melanie Scarborough: Virginia Senate race offers a real choice, for a change

Politicians are fond of characterizing their candidacies as historic choices, with the opportunity to elect them and usher in the Age of Paradise, or elect their opponents to preside over the destruction of All That Is Good and True. Today, the party lines are so blurred that such distinctions are minimal at best. Republicans want to spend a lot; Democrats want tospend a lot more. But the 2008 Senate race in Virginia apparently will offer a refreshing contrast between two former governors: Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Jim Gilmore, who......

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Melanie Scarborough: The hypocrisy in our democracy

The United States is demanding that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf lift emergency rule in his country, which he is using as an excuse to suspend the constitution and restrict civil liberties. But Americans’ freedoms also are eroding under the pretext of a national emergency. Perhaps some of those defending democracy in Pakistan should pay closer attention to what’s happening at home.The Bush administration says Musharraf must give up control of the army; some members of Congress are demanding that the United States cut off financial aid to Pakistan until he......

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Melanie Scarborough: Impossible to see who’s on first in government

During the entire course of World War II, Franklin Roosevelt never had more than 11 White House assistants. Compare that to the federal work force today, and it’s understandable that this nation now is $9 trillion in debt.Democrats blame the Bush tax cuts; the administration blames the cost of fighting terrorism. Neither blames the obvious problem: The government spends beyond its means.For example, Cabinet agencies now have so much money and so many employees that they duplicate one another’s efforts. Last week, acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner issued a statement......

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Melanie Scarborough: On politicos who forget the Constitution

After the common threads that tied Americans together began to unravel a couple of decades ago, it became standard practice for presidential candidates to claim they "could unite America."George W. Bush ran on that claim in 2000 and actually succeeded — although uniting Americans in contempt of their president probably is not what he had in mind.Generally, politicians making such a claim mean they will support enough giveaways to appease the left and oppose enough to appease the right. But why the machinations when we already have a unifying document?......

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Melanie Scarborough: Who gave D.C. cops so much power?

Reacting with the hysteria that is now standard — and probably permanent — among police forces in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department recently closed down entire blocks of downtown to manage a few hundred protesters.Ostensibly demonstrating against the policies of the World Bank, the group actually was little more than a hodge-podge of haranguers yipping about everything from global warming to meat consumption. They’re silly, but they haven’t proven dangerous; most of their altercations are with overbearing police.So what justifies police responding as if the District had been......

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Melanie Scarborough: Try getting around on crutches for five weeks

At some point in life — preferably when they are young — everyone should have to wait tables. It instills permanent sympathy for service-economy workers and an abhorrence of people who abuse them.Having spent the past five weeks in a leg cast and on crutches, I’m wondering if everyone should have that experience, too.Like waiting tables, temporary disability teaches the remarkable variance in human quality in this world. Some people have veins filled with Grade A milk of human kindness, such as the lady on the bus who sits opposite......

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Melanie Scarborough: Justice miscarried on the border

Now that the last of the "Jena 6" has been released from custody, perhaps the professionally outraged will turn their attention to the "El Paso 2," who have been even more grievously abused by the legal system.The pair, Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos, were U.S. Border Patrol agents until last year, when they were sentenced to 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively, for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the buttocks as he fled from them.If this story were being hawked as a movie script — the typically tendentious......

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Melanie Scarborough: One Tasered student too many for liberty

We now know that Andrew Meyer, the University of Florida student Tasered by campus police officers after peppering Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., with obnoxious questions, is an attention hound who may have staged his performance for the cameras.But the other students in the auditorium couldn’t have known that as they impassively watched what appeared to be (and probably was) police brutality. Try to imagine that happening on a college campus in the 1960s.In fairness, the Florida students had little time to react at the moment, and many of them have......

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Melanie Scarborough: Norman Thomas is smiling somewhere

As the candidate of the Socialist Party, Norman Thomas ran in every presidential election between 1928 and 1948. He never came close to getting an electoral vote — nor did he expect to — because his party’s views were considered very radical at the time.Among the planks of the Socialists’ 1932 platform were proposals for:» Public works programs» Minimum-wage laws» Unemployment insurance» Subsidized housing» A five-day work week» Abolition of child labor» Health insurance and government pensions for the elderly» Higher taxes on inheritances and incomeQualifying as one of history’s......

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Melanie Scarborough: Where were you in ’72?

In case you missed it, in 1972, the federal government declared you an idiot. That was the year Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Act, explaining that "the complexities of consumer products, and the diverse nature and abilities of consumers using them, frequently result in an inability of users to anticipate risks and to safeguard themselves adequately."Items most people consider dangerous — weapons, vehicles, drugs, etc. — already were regulated by other agencies. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)was created on the assumption that ordinary items could be lethal to......

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Melanie Scarborough: Political correctness has triumphed over common sense

It is impossible to know whether another terrorist attack in the United States is imminent, as government officials warn, or whether the Bush administration merely considers Americans due for another booster shot of fear. After all, a terrorized public is a compliant public — and much less likely to protest a war on terrorism doomed by political correctness.Since Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have wasted incalculable resources to maintain the pretense that no one individual is more likely to be a terrorist than any other. Even though al Qaeda immediately identified......

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Housing vouchers spread the misery

Most reasonable people will concede that public housing projects failed. We’ve all seen the spotless new apartment complexes paid for by taxpayers to help the needy be transformed into filthy, crime-ridden slums.Now, a new generation of leftists carps about "substandard housing" — as if those developments were built in the first place with cracked windows, urine in the stairwells and hypodermic needles on the playgrounds.In fact, irresponsible residents and their guests destroy housing projects, and now — thanks to the federal government — they can do the same thing to......

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Melanie Scarborough: Virginia should sell its liquor stores to pay for better roads

One outcome is certain from the 41 percent increase in transportation funding recently approved by Virginia officials: The additional spending will have almost no effect on traffic congestion in Northern Virginia.Commuting into Washington is a headache not because Virginia’s roads are inadequate, but because the District is one of the few major cities in the country that does not have an internal freeway system. Whereas in other large cities, drivers peel off at various exit ramps — allowing traffic to maintain a near-constant pace — traffic entering Washington from Virginia......

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Melanie Scarborough: Recruiting for the dole will bankrupt taxpayers

Lacking any new ideas and needing to run from the failure of their old ones, Democratic presidential candidates rely on their shopworn standard, class warfare.John Edwards rails about the "two Americas" when he isn’t relaxing in his 28,000 -square-foot home, getting a $400 haircut or collecting $50,000 to give a speech about poverty. Barack Obama talks about the "quiet riots" waged every day by people angry because they don’t think they are getting a big enough cut from someone else’s paycheck.Characteristically didactic, Hillary Clinton says 45 million Americans without health......

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Melanie Scarborough: Too much fear this Memorial Day

Today, America remembers those who fought and died defending our freedom. It is also an appropriate occasion to remember the ideals they fought to preserve.Consider the sacrifice of American soldiers who died liberating France during World War II. Under German occupation, the French were forbidden to have hidden weapons; they could not peaceably assemble or parade in the streets without a government permit. They had to carry identification with them at all times and produce it upon demand.Automobile traffic was scarce in occupied Paris, as the Germans co-opted city streets......

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Melanie Scarborough: Wasn’t there once a federal privacy act?

"No agency shall disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person, or to another agency, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains." – The Privacy Act of 1974In the early 1970s, the nascent computerization of records was a boon for combating welfare fraud: Creating a central database made it easier to track how much money was going to whom.But Elliott Richardson, Secretary of the Department......

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Melanie Scarborough: Mental health records in state database will follow you around

Had Seung-Hui Cho ever been committed involuntarily to a mental hospital or declared legally insane, he presumably could not have bought the guns he used to slaughter 32 people at Virginia Tech. But because Cho had been ordered by a judge only to undergo outpatient treatment, he passed the background check that enabled him to buy guns from a reputable dealer. Now Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine wants to close that "loophole" by issuing an executive order expanding the amount of mental-health information Virginia will send to the feds. Kaine’s remedy......

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Melanie Scarborough: Nanny state hovers over everybody — except those who need it

Since you are reading this newspaper, the odds are good that you are a sane, sober and intelligent adult. Nonetheless, the government doesn’t consider you competent to act in your own best interests. The District of Columbia requires you to wear a seatbelt when you are in a car. If you own a restaurant or a bar, it forbids you to allow patrons to smoke on the premises. The law — not parents — dictates where children sit in the family car, that they wear a helmet while riding a......

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Melanie Scarborough: Denizens of the White House live better than the royals

Angry that President George W. Bush is defying both Congress and the American people with his policy toward Iraq, Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., huffed last week that "this is not a monarchy." That’s like the parent who stuffs her child full of Cheetos and donuts and then complains because she has a 100-pound toddler. What do members of Congress expect when they give a president power and privilege the world’s monarchs can only envy?As queen of 16 sovereign states, Elizabeth II is the world’s most powerful monarch. Yet compare the......

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Melanie Scarborough: Time to ground Uncle Sam’s perk planes

Under the old Soviet system, members of the Politburo, the Party Central Committee, and other top-ranked Communists were insulated from the chronic shortages and long lines that were the bane of their countrymen.The government’s highest officials shopped at special stores stocked with delicacies; they had access to better medicines. Some VIPs were supplied hot meals prepared by Kremlin chefs.In its better days, the United States was appalled by such an undemocratic system. Today, we tolerate our own leaders demanding luxury at the expense of the rest of us.One of the......

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Melanie Scarborough: Social Security provides tax-paid golden disability for job slackers

Congress and President George W. Bush agree on one scourge they’d like to tackle: the outrageous compensation packages given to some corporate executives.Sure, many "golden parachutes" are absurdly lavish — but boards of directors should answer to stockholders, not politicians.Lawmakers’ concern ought to be for their own culpability in squandering money on the undeserving. They could start by addressing one of today’s biggest rackets: Social Security disability payments.Most Americans probably assume that to qualify as "disabled," an individual must be physically unable to work for a living. In fact, the......

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Melanie Scarborough: District children face worse dangers than secondhand smoke

D.C. Councilman Marion Barry never fails to entertain. Barry, who was famously videotaped smoking crack a few years ago, recently proposed making it a crime in the District to smoke a cigarette in a car if a child is present. Certainly children in the nation’s capital need an advocate; they are the worst off in the country — and largely because their parents inflict dire conditions upon them. But with so many children living in genuine danger, cigarette smoke sparks Barry’s outrage? Consider that Washington, D.C., has more children living......

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Melanie Scarborough: An official plane for Speaker Pelosi? Oh, please

Well, that didn’t take long. After campaigning against the "waste, fraud, and abuse" of the Bush administration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now wants to be cut in on the take.The woman who five months ago said, "Democrats are committed to a new direction in the way our government does business so taxpayers’ money is handled responsibly," is dunning the White House to put an Air Force jet at her disposal — reportedly, not only for her use, but for her family’s as well.Pelosi’s office says this is necessary for security.......

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Melanie Scarborough: Saving stem cell babies in the Big Easy but not D.C.

In case you missed it, one of the feel-good stories in the news last week was about a "miracle baby" born in New Orleans - Noah Markham was one of the frozen embryos rescued from a fertility clinic during Hurricane Katrina by 10 policemen in boats.Describing the event as "something to celebrate," ABC News referred to the "risky rescue mission" in which "Noah and hundreds of other frozen embryos were saved."Rescued? Saved? Five days earlier, Democrats in the House of Representatives had cast themselves as heroes for passing a measure......

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Melanie Scarborough: Don’t give citizenship to illegals

Suppose that afterGeorge W. Bush moved into the White House, intruders broke into his Texas home. His house was more luxurious than theirs, so they decided to move in.When Bush returns in ’09, the trespassers argue they are entitled to stay. After all, they’ve been there eight years and haven’t hurt anything — they’ve even taken care of the place — and it’s the only home their children know.Bush insists that is all irrelevant; they have no right to be in his house. He calls the police, who side with......

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Melanie Scarborough: Christmas faith is a strong force for good year-round

For 364 days of the year, newspapers report what goes wrong in the world. On Christmas Day, we celebrate the birth that inspired so much of what’s right. Consider how many instances of enlightenment, progressivism, humanitarianism, and charity are rooted in Christianity. Many of this nation’s most prestigious universities were founded by Christian clergy.Harvard was formed by Congregationalists to train its church’s ministers. When some of the faculty decided the school was ecclesiastically lax, they formed Yale as a more stringent alternative. Baptists established Brown University; Presbyterians started Princeton. Columbia......

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Melanie Scarborough: Too much insecurity, too many security background inquiries

A receptionist is sought by the federal government’s pension benefits office. Candidates must be able to answer a telephone, greet visitors, sort mail and tend to the copy machine. And one other thing: They must pass a "security background investigation."No, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation isn’t a front for the CIA (at least, I don’t think so). Its policy reflects the recent requirement that almost every employee of the federal government have some form of security clearance.Certainly, positions with access to sensitive information should be filled by......

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Melanie Scarborough: Right to travel freely lost to war on terror

The right to travel is part of the ‘liberty’ of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. … Travel abroad, like travel within the country, may be necessary for a livelihood. … Freedom of movement is basic in our scheme of values. — Justice William O. Douglas, Kent v. Dulles (1958)Among American casualties in the war on terrorism is the right to travel by air. That freedom was lost in the hysteria following the Sept. 11 attacks when the federal government......

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Melanie Scarborough: The National Mall should reflect national values

The National Park Service announced earlier this month that it will accept input from citizens in deciding how to refurbish the National Mall. This is what passes for democracy in 21st Century America. Instead of following directives, a bureaucracy announces it will deign to entertain suggestions. But given the agency’s behavior in recent years, even that is an improvement.Recall that the Park Service began using surveillance cameras on the National Mall four years ago before developing or submitting to Congress a policy for how the system would operate. If the......

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Melanie Scarborough: Patriot Act gives Secret Service too much power

House and Senate negotiators are unable to agree on immigration reform in part because the Senate refuses to make illegal immigration a felony. So what sort of trespass are senators willing to fully criminalize and punish? Americans walking on their own public property in defiance of some government gumshoe.In case you missed it: Before voting to make the Patriot Act permanent, Congress inserted a provision that puts the Secret Service in charge of designated national events. Even when no Secret Service protectees are present, agents will have the authority to......

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Melanie Scarborough: Reform mismanagement at Metro first, then we can look at a bailout

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., needs some new material. After saying last year, "We’ve seen bad management contracting on a fairly regular basis" from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, he convinced his colleagues this year to resort to the stale solution of throwing good money after bad.The Davis bill that passed the House earlier this year rewards Metro’s mismanagement with $1.5 billion in new federal money and requires the localities Metro serves to establish dedicated sources of matching funds.Both proposals are way off-track. For starters, dedicated funding is almost always......

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