The Hollywood Liberal

With midterms approaching, GOP outmatched by Democrats on campaign funds
The Republican Party’s strategy since early last year of lock-step opposition to the Obama administration’s major legislative initiatives has proved to be less bankable than some party leaders may have anticipated.

Obama welcomes jobs report as rare good news
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Barack Obama on Friday hailed a new government report showing the most jobs created in nearly three years. “We are beginning to turn the corner,” he told employees of a manufacturing plant that received government stimulus money.

FBI warns letters to governors could stir violence
WASHINGTON — The FBI is warning police across the country that an anti-government group’s call to remove governors from office could provoke violence.

Cautious praise for travel screening change
Lawmakers, civil liberties groups and security experts cautiously praised the Obama administration’s decision to abandon using nationality alone as a basis for deciding which U.S.-bound international air travelers to subject to additional screening, but they warned that too little is known to conclude that the revised policy will be effective and not discriminatory.

Administration Issues New Fuel Mileage Regulations

Obama Ready to Drill, or Only Shill?

Why Putin Can’t Crush His Islamists
Ralph Peters, New York Post
It's been an embarrassing week for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, prime minister and de facto czar. On Monday, Islamist suicide bombers struck just a rifle shot from the Kremlin. The worst of the two subway bombings rubbed ex-KGB man Putin's nose in it by slaughtering dozens in the Lyubanka station — named for the notorious security-service headquarters upstairs. And the day after the two blasts killed 39 (with twice that many hospitalized), Islamist terrorists renewed their bombing campaign in Russia's Muslim republic of Daghestan, next to…

New Drilling Rules Part of Unclear Plan
Frank Beckmann, Detroit News
America's confused energy policy got a little murkier this week through mixed signals from the White House, but Americans can be rest assured of one thing — Washington's efforts will cost them more money.President Obama — channeling Sarah Palin's “Drill Baby, Drill” philosophy — announced he was opening areas of the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling. 

Press, Pope Deserve Credit for Confronting Scandal
Peggy Noonan, WSJ
There is an interesting and very modern thing that often happens when individuals join and rise within mighty and venerable institutions. They come to think of the institution as invulnerable—to think that there is nothing they can do to really damage it, that the big, strong, proud establishment they're part of can take any amount of abuse, that it doesn't require from its members an attitude of protectiveness because it's so strong, and has lasted so long. And so people become blithely damaging. It happened the past decade on Wall Street, where those who…