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George Lardner Jr.: The Supreme Court, Protecting Itself from…From What, Exactly? From Protesters?

The Supreme Court has now decided to close its front doors to the public, citing security reasons. The decision reflects the unfortunate stranglehold that the national security bureaucracy has on the country, a stranglehold that protects no one and nothing beyond the billions of dollars it costs the taxpayers to endure its demands. Remember, for [...]

George Lardner Jr.: A Good-Hearted Wife-Killer? I Don’t Think So

When it comes to domestic violence, the Washington Post doesn’t get it. On Feb. 17, for example, it published a truly appalling piece of reporting about the killing of a Maryland woman by her estranged husband. The killer’s mother turns up in the article as the expert on domestic violence, being oh-so-sorry, for… whom? For [...]

George Lardner Jr.: No 60 Votes Needed Here

Item: The New York Times reported Friday afternoon that “two more Democratic senators” said they would vote against a second term for Fed Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. From there, the Times said this made it unclear “whether there were the 60 votes necessary to confirm Mr. Bernanke.” Excuse me? Sixty votes are not necessary to [...]

George Lardner Jr.: Wasteful Security

Hooray for the New York Times for emphasizing the central lesson of the near disaster on a Christmas Day flight to Detroit when alert passengers and crew members halted a terrorist who was trying to blow up the plane. The billions of dollars spent by the people who profess to be protecting our security had [...]

George Lardner Jr.: No Pardons, No Commutations.

President Obama wanted to hit the ground running when he was sworn in, but there are thousands of federal convicts and ex-convicts waiting for him to wake up and take notice of their requests for pardons or commutations. Of all the powers granted to him by the Constitution, his authority here is complete. Yet he [...]

George Lardner Jr.: Spreading Lies, Rather Than Debunking Them

Here we go again. In a mindless display of he-said, she-said journalism, the Washington Post gave its readers a front-page ad last week for books about Barack Obama, the most prominent being a hatchet job by the notoriously inaccurate “author” who maligned John Kerry in 2004. The New York Times had the day before published [...]

George Lardner Jr.: Where’s the Outrage?

The CBS Evening News on Saturday, July 19, had an important segment devoted to people who were losing their homes because they had been misled into accepting risky mortgages. Yet not once during the program was the question raised about prosecuting the crooks — for that’s what they are — who tricked them into their [...]

George Lardner Jr.: Why Don’t We Know More About What Killed Tim Russert?

Maybe it’s just the fact that I’ve got some plaque in my arteries, too, but Tim Russert’s tragic and untimely death at age 58 raises some unsettling questions that it seems to me the media should be exploring. The first is: Why should we have any confidence in our health care system? Isn’t it time [...]