Is it really necessary for taxpayers to spend another dime on the TARP? We've already committed $700 billion, half of which was spent under President Bush and half of which is coming under President Obama. And now, as we wait with baited breath for Treasury-man Tim Geithner's detailed plan to purchase bank toxic assets, the TARP could rise by another $1 trillion or more. But we may not need it at all. Here's why: Out ... [full story]

Three and a half years into the Iraq war, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly appeared on David Letterman's show. He asked Letterman, "Do you want the United States to win in Iraq?" Letterman gave a long-winded answer about the evolution of his thinking on the war. "Do you want the United States to win in Iraq?" repeated O'Reilly. Letterman paused. O'Reilly said, "It's an easy question." "It's not easy for me," said Letterman, "because I'm thoughtful." ... [full story]

Since 2005, Nicole Bernard has been Fox Television's senior vice president for standards and practices. Someone should put her face on a milk carton, because anyone who watches Fox must suspect she's never shown up for work. Exhibit A (and through Z, and back again) is "Family Guy," Fox's animated Sunday night spectacle of mind-numbing garbage . The March 8 episode, titled "Family Gay," was absolutely riddled with revolting scenes that would make people wonder ... [full story]

On March 3, President Obama said something remarkably stupid, wrong and politically tone-deaf. Our Obama-loving media either ignored it — or actually quoted it without comment. He claimed, "The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day to day, and if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong." The Dow has now fallen more than ... [full story]

"The war on drugs is a failure," Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Cesar Gaviria and Ernesto Zedillo — the former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico — wrote in the Wall Street Journal last month. "Prohibitionist policies based on eradication, interdiction and criminalization … simply haven't worked," they wrote. In Mexico, an estimated 6,290 drug-related murders occurred last year. On Feb. 20, Roberto Orduna Cruz had to resign as chief of police of Cuidad Juarez after drug ... [full story]

When a jury found Richard Allen Davis guilty of the murder of Petaluma's 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1996, Davis puckered his lips and extended a middle finger to TV cameras. Later, Davis was sentenced to death, and outraged California voters passed a three-strikes sentencing law. From death row now, Davis still is puckering up and extending his finger at the public — and the public is paying for it. It's 2009, yet it was only ... [full story]

I have known Rush Limbaugh since his old radio days in Sacramento, before he became a GOP god. I've disagreed with him over the years. Last year I took on his bashing of Republican moderates and criticized Limbaugh and other talk-radio hosts when they were too harsh on not-yet GOP nominee John McCain. I've never apologized and we're still friends. If you've watched cable news in the last week, you've seen how the Limbaugh story ... [full story]

In an ideal world, gay marriage would be won at the ballot box. Voters would recognize that they have absolutely nothing to lose by allowing their fellow citizens the same rights to marry that heterosexual men and women now enjoy. Even many prominent conservatives (say, Sarah Palin) have come to recognize that it is wrong, heartless even, to deny gay couples the right to sign up for health benefits or to make critical medical decisions ... [full story]

At Texas A&M University's sporting events, whenever opposing coaches go off on the referees, our yell leaders — we don't have cheerleaders — signal for the fans to do one of our yells, which ends with, "Sit down, bus driver!" As I watched Sen. John McCain stand up and go on one of his rants about earmarks, I wanted to shout, "Sit down, bus driver!" Look, I like Sen. McCain, and to be honest, I ... [full story]

Heeding the advice of Gen. David Petraeus, Barack Obama has committed 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan and will keep 50,000 in Iraq after U.S. combat operations end in August 2010. But are U.S. vital interests more threatened by what happens in Anbar or Helmand than in the war raging along our southern border? Prediction: After all U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea have come home, there will be a U.S. army on the Mexican ... [full story]

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's remarkable inability to say or do the right things to aid our sinking economy, stay the collapse of our equities markets, or even build a competent Cabinet is now the stuff of cartoons, talk show fodder and late-night comedy. Who hasn't heard the one about how "this year's IRS 1040 allows every taxpayer to claim one Geithner or a Daschle, depending on how much tax you don't want to pay"? ... [full story]

Lent is a season of sacrifice and repentance. Most commonly, the discussion of Lenten commitments revolves around our obesity problem, sounding like a recommitment to already dissolved New Year's resolutions about a better diet or more exercise. Sometimes, we can sound like we're more focused on Jenny Craig than Jesus Christ. Christians are supposed to concentrate on denying themselves in some smaller way that resembles the sacrifice of the Savior's death on the cross. This ... [full story]

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron George looked none too comfortable Thursday morning as he heard oral arguments for and against California's ban on same-sex marriage. George had written the 4-3 decision last May that pronounced California's law against same-sex marriages to be unconstitutional. Since then, however, 52 percent of Californians approved Proposition 8, which amended the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman. And it's George's job to uphold the ... [full story]