Political Commentary & Opinion
Analysis, commentary, and opinion essays on politics and policy from The Daily Signal’s contributors and experts.
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opinion
A Second Health Care Worker has Ebola. It’s Time for the Government to Prove It Can Handle This.
Concerns over the U.S. response to Ebola heightened when medical officials confirmed that a second individual involved with delivering treatment to the original Ebola patient contracted the disease. Getting treatment procedure right is absolutely vital. It’s critical for reassuring the American people public officials have the ways and means necessary to prevent an outbreak of… -
news
19 Times the Government Withheld Documents It Didn’t Want You to See
Lost and missing government records are not isolated to one administration or political party. The list below includes 19 examples of public files that went missing, were withheld or lost and then found. It includes the most recent example of former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Raymond Maxwell’s account of Benghazi documents, which The Daily Signal revealed last… -
news
Tennessee Woman Jailed for Overgrown Yard
A Tennessee woman has been jailed because of her overgrown yard. Karen Holloway was cited by Lenoir City during the summer when she started to struggle to keep up with her yard work because of what she called “personal, family issues.” “With my husband going to school and working full time, me with my job,… -
opinion
Houston Tries to Force Pastors to Provide Sermons to Government
Everything is bigger in Texas, and that includes government intimidation. When the Houston City Council passed an ordinance that some claim would allow men into women’s restrooms, and vice-versa, voters got mad. Many pastors got mad too–and they helped organize a petition drive to remove the law from the books. They reportedly got more than… -
opinion
Ebola Cases, Already Rampant in West Africa, Expected to Double Every 3 Weeks
Ebola’s devastating impact throughout West Africa—along with several cases in Europe and the United States—has garnered global attention, but the affected countries are now suffering from a hidden impact of the outbreak. Non-Ebola deaths are skyrocketing in West Africa because of the increased strain on an already weak medical and emergency response capability. According to… -
opinion
This Is a Serious Problem: 1 in 5 U.S. Residents Speak a Language Other than English at Home
One in five United States residents now speak a language other than English at home. That was the headliner coming out of a report released this month by the Center for Immigration Studies. The report is based on data from the 2013 American Community Survey that shows those speaking a language other than English reached… -
news
Account of Clinton Aide’s Benghazi Document Sifting Familiar to Career Public Servant
To Sonya Gilliam, a recent account of improper sorting of Benghazi-related documents at the State Department brought back vivid memories of her own encounters with high-level government officials who withheld, deleted or destroyed public records. And one name stood out for its familiarity: Cheryl Mills. A former deputy assistant secretary of state had told The Daily… -
news
Live Action Rallies Pro-Lifers Outside D.C. Planned Parenthood
Speakers from several pro-life organizations gathered at a Washington, D.C. Planned Parenthood on Tuesday to protest abortion and the organization’s taxpayer funding. Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the country and received $500 million in taxpayer funds last year. Lila Grace Rose, the founder and president of Live Action, a pro-life advocacy group,… -
news
Huckabee Blasts GOP for Failing to Defend Traditional Marriage
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee delivered an impassioned plea for Republicans to defend traditional marriage during the opening monologue of his Fox News show Saturday. Huckabee blasted the Supreme Court’s recent decision to forgo any cases on same-sex marriage and encouraged the GOP to join him in opposing such “judicial tyranny.” -
news
MSNBC Host Feels ‘More Terror’ Over Police Than ISIS or Ebola
Melissa Harris-Perry is more scared of the police than she is of ISIS or Ebola. During an MSNBC panel discussion about people “losing faith” in community, Harris-Perry said she feels “more terror” when she sees “blue lights” than when she thinks about Ebola or ISIS: “Like, it feels to me like — and it could… -
news
Left-Wing Group Launches Ad Blaming GOP for Ebola Outbreak
A new ad from a left-wing advocacy group that blames Republicans for the Ebola outbreak is set to debut in battleground states this weekend. The Agenda Project’s ad, titled “Republican Cuts Kill,” intersperses what they characterize in their video’s description as “disturbing footage of the Ebola outbreak” with various Republicans saying the word “cut.” The… -
opinion
Turkey: Pressures U.S. to Crack Down in Syria—and Sits on the Sideline
As the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS or ISIL) tightened the noose around the predominantly Kurdish Syrian city of Kobane in recent weeks, Turkey has remained conspicuously missing in action. Despite its professed opposition to the brutal ethnic-cleansing campaign mounted by the Sunni Arab Islamist extremists of the Islamic State, Ankara has done precious little… -
news
Second US Ebola Patient Identified as Young Texas Nurse
A 26-year-old nurse named Nina Pham is the health care worker at a Dallas hospital who tested positive for the Ebola virus after helping to treat a man who later died of the disease, her family told a Dallas radio station. WFAA reported that Pham, a 2010 graduate of Texas Christian University’s nursing program, is the first person known to contract the… -
news
First-Time Filmmaker Seeks to Expose IRS in Political Documentary Debuting This Week
Craig Bergman had just hit the road to produce his first political documentary about Agenda 21—the United Nations’ controversial sustainable development plan—when news of the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservatives broke in May 2013. “When I saw this scandal, I said somebody has to seize this and seize it right now. So I said,… -
opinion
I Came to America Speaking Spanish. And I Oppose Bilingual Classes.
New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and Milady Baez, the chief for “English-language learners,” are looking to increase dual-language programs, in which students receive instruction in both English and a second language. This is bad news for the kids and for New York City. I know from personal experience. Start with the big picture:… -
opinion
Police Beefed Up Capabilities Because a Crime-Weary Nation Wanted Them To
The mid-summer clash between unarmed protesters and heavily armed police in Ferguson, Mo., sparked a renewed discussion on the militarization of domestic law enforcement. Critics were quick to lament the ubiquity of armored vehicles and semi-automatic assault weapons at the disposal of officers not just in Ferguson but throughout the nation. Why has militarization of law… -
news
Convenience Stores Burning Over Cigar Crackdown
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn.—These days, where there’s smoke—or smokes—there’s fire. This time the conflagration started when local governments began raising prices on small stogies and cigarillos sold in Twin Cities convenience stores. Brooklyn Center this summer implemented Minnesota’s first ordinance aimed at reducing the affordability of flavored mini-cigars. “We know these products are targeted at young… -
news
Government Workers Take Break From Regulating to Carve Jack-o’-Lanterns
NASHVILLE—Halloween is fast approaching. And at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, officials want to boost morale by teaching workers to carve jack-o’-lanterns. Why are employees of a taxpayer-subsidized agency worrying themselves with pumpkins? Agency spokesman Eric Ward said Michael’s Arts and Crafts employees are offering the free demonstration to agency employees during lunch breaks…. -
opinion
What We Should Learn from Watching Hong Kong Demonstrations
No matter how adventurous your teenage years were, chances are you had nothing on Joshua Wong. Labeled “a threat” an “extremist” and “an infiltrate” by authorities in Beijing, the 17-year-old was arrested, assaulted and released last month for his role in leading the demonstrations underway in Hong Kong. It’s easy to shrug off the images… -
opinion
5 Ways To Get the Deficit Under Control
This week, the Treasury Department releases the actual deficit figure for fiscal year (FY) 2014 which ended on September 30. At about half a trillion dollars, this year’s deficit adds more than $4,000 to the per-household national-debt burden. What’s worse, the 2014 deficit marks a low point in the ten-year projection. The total deficit over…