Almost nothing Obama says can be taken at face value

It turns out that President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget is no more trustworthy than the rest of his administration. His budget, unsurprisingly to conservatives, is not “balanced” and does not deliver on its promise to cut $1.8 trillion in spending over a decade.

How Obama can rescue his presidency from faux scandals

Here’s the White House view of the current trilogy of so-called scandals: Republicans are trying to destroy President Barack Obama’s second term by magnifying bureaucratic miscues and distorting policy realities. This isn’t without some merit.

How a Texas paper brought down con man Billie Sol Estes

Billie Sol Estes, the Texan con man whose exploits rattled the administrations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, died in his sleep May 14. From a penniless background, Estes built up a $40 million West Texas empire of cotton, grain, real estate and fertilizers, and then lost it all when a series of newspaper articles in 1962 revealed that many of his dealings were fraudulent. 1369080474

Bring back managed trade to help workers’ safety

If all it took were official cajoling, public shaming, technical assistance or corporate promises, factory jobs in Bangladesh and other developing countries wouldn’t be so deadly.

IRS tax-exempt rules are the real scandal

It’s strange how “scandal” gets defined these days in Washington. At the moment, everyone is screaming about the “scandal” of the Internal Revenue Service scrutinizing conservative nonprofits before granting them tax-exempt status.

Putin’s power grab trumps nanotechnology

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s changing attitude toward two giant government-led high-tech projects sends a troubling message about his third term in office: Maintaining power is more important than modernizing the economy.

First Amendment protects more than press

The Obama administration announced last week that it is throwing its support behind the press shield law that has been stalled in Congress since time immemorial. Critics insist that the administration, suddenly mired in scandal, is simply trying to curry favor with the news media, but the proposal deserves to be judged on its merits.

How to lose a fight online

In Scottsdale, Ariz., there is a restaurant so far gone that even Gordon Ramsay’s shouting cannot save it. In fact, the owners of Amy’s Baking Company so terrified the man behind “Kitchen Nightmares” that he decided to quit working with them rather than endure them any longer.

The real scandal of Benghazi

Yes, Virginia, there is a Benghazi scandal.

A half-century later, commencement wisdom Wisdom at commencement

In a season of commencement speeches, those trying to impart a measure of wisdom to college grads would do well to consult President John F. Kennedy’s American University speech, given 50 years ago next month.

How nonprofits cane to acquire tax-exempt status

The uproar over allegations of politically motivated investigations by the Internal Revenue Service shouldn’t be surprising given Americans’ long love affair with nonprofits and their strong disdain of partisanship, especially within bureaucracies.

The curious case of the black viral star

We knew it was coming. The formula is practically scientific: Disaster strikes; poor black person foils it (preferably in a roller set) or escapes, then gives a live interview jam-packed with ridiculous quotes that even Beyonc can’t resist; the Internet memes flood Facebook; and the fame countdown starts at minute 15.

Accused U.S. spy’s tool get laugh from Russians

Two wigs, one blond, one dark. Three pairs of glasses. Two knives. Two envelopes containing 500 euro notes. One flashlight. One can of mace. One compass. One paper map of Moscow. One ancient Nokia phone. One letter in Russian, addressed “Dear friend.”

U.S. must fight harder against TB

In 2011, tuberculosis killed 1.4 million people worldwide, almost as many as died from HIV/AIDS. And death isn’t the only damage TB does.

U.S. government spies on reporters all too often

On Monday, the Associated Press revealed that some of its reporters were recently spied on by the Justice Department in what it called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.” The feds secretly obtained AP journalists’ phone records as part of what is believed to be an ongoing investigation into leaks of classified information. But it’s not the first time U.S. authorities have adopted draconian surveillance tactics to uncover journalists’ confidential sources.

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