On November 14, 2011, the Supreme Court agreed to review the constitutionality of President Obama’s health-care act. The central question is, What limits does the Constitution — specifically, the Commerce Clause — impose upon the federal government’s exercise of power? This health-care act is the defining legislation of the president’s term, and the issue of limited government is at the very heart of the debate between Obama and his opponents

When Pliny the Younger was a provincial governor in the Roman Empire, he wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan asking whether he should execute Christians who refused to burn incense in worship of the emperor. Pliny, in keeping with the customs of the empire, did not care about forcing Christians to believe that the emperor was a god.

A House subcommittee is set to take up a bill that would restrict travel in the United States for senior Chinese officials, in a protest over China’s one-child “family planning” policy. Republican Representative Chris Smith, a frequent and fierce critic of China’s human rights record, authored the legislation going before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement. Smith’s proposal would empower Obama to deny US entry to any senior Chinese official, or family members of any official closely tied to policies that set back democratic reforms in China

At the Heritage Foundation last week, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan demonstrated why he doesn’t need to be running for President to be framing the debate for 2012. He delivered there on October 26 a breathtakingly beautiful speech on Saving the American Idea, which defines the Spirit of 2012.

**Written by Doug Powers In 2009, a weepy Nancy Pelosi denounced rhetoric she claimed was coming from the Tea Parties, claiming the protest could lead to a climate of violence.

By: Terence P. Jeffrey

Andrew Taylor The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Barack Obama’s jobs bill, facing a critical test in the Senate, appears likely to die at the hands of Republicans opposed to stimulus spending and a tax surcharge on millionaires.

Shorter Obama press conference: Solyndra?

Once upon a time, loud dissent, filibustering in the Senate, and gridlock in the House were as democratic as apple pie.

Who knew three years ago when Culture of Corruption came out that we’d be up to our eyeballs in scandal today.

There are many observations that can be made about President Obama’s remark Monday to ABC News that businesses “don’t have some inherent right just to get a certain amount of profit if your customers are being mistreated.” In and of itself, this comment reveals much about his beliefs and knowledge (or lack thereof) on economics, consumer choice, and the private sector in general. But in the context in which it was made — Bank of America, Citi , and other banks’ recently announced debit-card and checking-account fees for consumers, which they are charging to recoup losses from the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law’s price controls on debit-card fees charged to retailers — what must first be said is that he was lecturing the wrong set of Fortune 500 corporations. The price controls were added to the law by an amendment from Senate majority whip Dick Durbin (D., Ill.).

Richard Goldstone doesn’t know when to quit. Two years ago, the South African former judge led a United Nations fact-finding inquiry into the Israel-Gaza conflict.

**Written by Doug Powers In an email today, Barack Obama’s 2012 Campaign Manager wrote this : “But here’s something you can do: Find Republican members of Congress on Twitter, call them out, and demand they pass this bill.” Obama’s supporters must have responded en masse, because at least one Senate Republican did exactly what they were demanding. Well, he tried to anyway: In a lively spat on the Senate floor Tuesday, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) attempted call up President Obama’s jobs plan for an immediate vote in the upper chamber. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who supports the legislation, blocked the vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama promises to “keep pounding away” at Congress to pass his $447 billion jobs plan. read more

**Written by Doug Powers Clearly this must be Bush’s fault: When a random sample of 1004 adults were asked to compare the 43rd and 44th presidents, 34 percent of respondents said Obama had been a worse president than Bush, while 22 percent said he was about the same. Forty-three percent, a plurality, said they preferred Obama’s handling of the presidency.

The question arises: How effective are weasel words in fighting off weasel words? With its leader having proposed to expand our deflating economy by redistributing another $1.5 trillion from private-sector producers to public-sector gluttons, the Obama Left’s talking point du jour is: “We are just asking the rich to pay their fair share.” The point here is not to rehearse the illogic of that assertion

( Click to watch) Well, another House hearing on Solyndra came and went this morning.

FOR a few days in July Barack Obama and John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, flirted with the idea of a “grand bargain” to hold down entitlement spending while increasing tax revenue. This, they briefly hoped, might unite their parties behind a durable solution to America’s deficit. But if any hope of such a grand bargain remained, it evaporated this week.In a speech in Washington, DC, on September 15th, Mr Boehner flatly declared tax increases “off the table”

Journalism, they say, is a rough draft of history.

Seems like only yesterday the White House was basking in the glow of worldly feminists effusing over the president’s Grrrl Power governance. Flashback : Chaudhury: The criticism of the Obama administration seems to be particularly “male,” you know? When you say ‘why aren’t you fighting back, why aren’t you policing?’ I think we’ve been talking about having women in leadership positions, and Obama’s attitude to leadership is really a very womanly one, you know, which is consensual, which is thought through, which calms the temperature down of the world, and it’s very important to remember that, you know