Will Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) get bounced from power for busting public employee unions? And what message does the June 5th recall election against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) hold for other states struggling to balance their budgets? For the coming showdown between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney?The latest Reason-Rupe Poll reports from the Badger State. Passed last year, Walker's controversial Act 10 restricted collective bargaining rights for many public employees, causing the backlash that led to the recall election. Walker says such actions were necessary to contain costs and balance a budget facing a multi-billion-dollar shortfall. His opponents say that Walker is paying for tax cuts to the wealthy by cutting salaries and spending that help middle-class residents.The Reason-Rupe Poll surveyed 700 Wisconsin ... Continue reading →

Newsweek afterbirther Andrew Sullivan briefly leaves off rescuing abandoned Palin family infants from rocky mountaintops in order to chart my claptrap. According to Sully, my belief that under President Barack Obama America has experienced "vast unemployment, soaring inflation, a moribund economy, record deficits, and a manically ill-conceived energy policy" is not merely wrong. It is so wrong as to make me eligible for a "Malkin Award" (which I had never heard of prior to my nomination but which I assume is a raspberry named in honor of Holy Spirit High graduate Michelle Malkin, of whom I shall not speak well because she went to Holy Spirit High). Points in order: • I believe I am neither the first nor the last to note that U-3 ... Continue reading →

Let's start with an easy one first. Vanderbilt University conducted a poll of Tennessee adults between May 2-9th. It then teamed up with the state's Tennessean newspaper to release the poll on May 20th. Are you kidding me? They released a poll almost three weeks after the first interviews were conducted. As quickly as politics changes, they may as well have released poll results from last year. Its interesting to get a sense of what voters felt three weeks ago, but it isn't exactly news today. Keep in mind, the poll was not some baseline survey covering voters' general attitudes towards government and politics; the kinds of items that trend very slowly over time. Rather, it was about issues very much in the news now; ... Continue reading →

http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=9145Ron Paul's two presidential campaigns have galvanized a mass movement for smaller government, sound money, and an end to our interventionist foreign policy. This genuinely spontaneous movement has featured blimps, "money bombs," the rEVOLution logo, and thousands of college students chanting "End the Fed" at campuses across the country. Somehow the message Ron Paul had been advancing for 30 years caught on in an era of financial collapse, bailouts, unprecedented deficits, and the two longest wars in American history. Brian Doherty, a senior editor at Reason and author of several books on libertarian history, has been covering Ron Paul since 1999. In his new book he looks at Paul's background, his early years in Congress, his 1988 Libertarian presidential run, his recent campaigns, the grassroots ... Continue reading →

A recent Gallup Poll on attitudes toward abortion is making headlines for documenting, as Politico headlines it, "Record low are 'pro-choice'." A record-low 41 percent now identify themselves as “pro-choice,” down from 47 percent last July and 1 percentage point down from the previous record low of 42 percent, set in May 2009. As recently as 2006, 51 percent of Americans described themselves as “pro-choice.” Meanwhile, 50 percent of Americans now consider themselves “pro-life,” one point below Gallup’s record high on the measure. Does that presage a rollback of reproductive technologies, including abortion? Despite what the Nancy Pelosis of the world might fear and the Rick Santorums might desire, it seems really doubtful. People support reproductive choice. As a different Politico story noted, fully 89 ... Continue reading →

In 2003, Reason celebrated its 35th anniversary by compiling a list of "Heroes of Freedom" who we thought had helped to "make the world groovier and groovier since 1968," when the magazine started publishing. "Honorees needed to have been alive at some point during reason's run," ran the intro. "The list is by design eclectic, irreverent, and woefully incomplete, but it limns the many ways in which the world has only gotten groovier and groovier during the last 35 years." Some of the entrants were obvious jokes (John Ashcroft and Richard Nixon, for instance, were cited for their ability to fire people up to protect their rights), some were libertarian superheroes (Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand), and others were just controversial picks, even for our core ... Continue reading →

In 2003, Reason celebrated its 35th anniversary by compiling a list of "Heroes of Freedom" who we thought had helped to "make the world groovier and groovier since 1968," when the magazine started publishing. "Honorees needed to have been alive at some point during reason's run," ran the intro. "The list is by design eclectic, irreverent, and woefully incomplete, but it limns the many ways in which the world has only gotten groovier and groovier during the last 35 years." Some of the entrants were obvious jokes (John Ashcroft and Richard Nixon, for instance, were cited for their ability to fire people up to protect their rights), some were libertarian superheroes (Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand), and others were just controversial picks, even for our core ... Continue reading →

Nick Gillespie | May 23, 2012 Last Saturday, May 19, I was on the MSNBC show Melissa Harris-Perry, talking a blue streak with the eponymous host, Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation, Ezra Klein of The Washington Post, Elon James White, Victoria DeFrancesco Soto of University of Texas, and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.). We covered a lot of ground, ranging from the Violence Against Women Act to European budgets to Trayvon Martin. To read the writeup of the show at MSNBC, go here. To read Mediaite's review of the section about debt debates, go here. Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who ... Continue reading →