The attacks on Rand Paul�s Christianity because of an alleged college school prank are similar to those on Christine O�Donnell�s presumed �witchcraft� of decades ago. Rand Paul's wife, Kelley, a deacon at the family�s church, has described the onslaughts as a �desperate, shameful attack on our family.� The couple and their three children have attended the local Presbyterian church in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for 18 years.

Four San Diego firefighters won a court battle in the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District when the court upheld a jury verdict at the trial court level against the city compelling the firefighters to participate in San Diego’s 2007 Gay Pride Parade.

California's state and local governments are going broke. Public employees unions have demanded compensation and pension plans that are unsustainable. Politicians have shown incredibly little courage in confronting a very real collapse of confidence in the governments of California.

President Obama is trying to prevent major Democrat losses in November 2010 by accusing corporations of providing large amounts of unaccountable funds to support Republican candidates. Obama also raised the specter of foreign corporations and “oil companies” intruding into our nation’s electoral process. David Axelrod has called such spending a “threat to democracy” and called upon business associations to open their internal records for public inspection.

Last November, Chris Christie ran for governor of New Jersey with a “tough love” approach to government. He promised not to increase taxes. He promised to reduce the size of government, even beyond the standard “cut waste and fraud” approach that nearly every politician promises when running for office. One public expense that Christie said he was willing to support, however, was the planned New Jersey-to-Manhattan rail tunnel.

A review of California welfare recipients shows that almost $70 million was spent by these recipients out of state. This includes $12 million spent in Las Vegas and $1.5 million spent in Florida. These welfare recipients also spent significant amounts of money in Hawaii and on cruise ships. This has drawn heat from California legislators who note that their working, taxpaying constituents cannot afford to go to Hawaii, take a cruise ship, vacation in Florida, or gamble in Las Vegas.

San Francisco is considering a new city ordinance that would prohibit McDonald’s from putting a toy in its Happy Meal boxes unless it also included fruit and vegetables and reduced the calories of the Happy Meal. This proposal is just one of several recent efforts by San Francisco to restrict the freedom of its citizens so that they are healthier. The city has banned the sale of sweetened soda drinks from vending machines on city property and banned the sale of tobacco from groceries.

President Obama and the Democrats in Congress seem determined to play the class envy game in the tax policy of our nation. While Republicans have stood firm in demanding that the Bush Tax Cuts should remain in effect for all Americans, Obama and his allies are resisting what he calls “tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.”

Congressman Mike Castle, a longtime fixture in Delaware politics, who lost his race in the Republican nomination for the Senate seat vacated by Joe Biden, is pondering an independent write-in campaign for that Senate seat. The rationale is a little fuzzy. Castle has been a lifelong Republican, a former governor, a congressman with many terms under his belt, and he ran in the primary of his party and lost. Castle has declined to endorse the Republican who bested him, Christine O’Donnell.

Republicans have announced a new �Pledge to America,� a deliberate reference to the 1994 �Contract with America� which helped propel Republicans into control of the House of Representatives. The 1994 Contract did not bind the Republican Party, but only House Republicans who signed it. The Contract did not promise to pass legislation � the incoming Speaker of the House starting in January 1995, Newt Gingrich himself � pointed out before the election that Republicans in control of the House could not promise to pass legislation, even through the House. The Contract, instead, promised to bring measures up for a vote in the House, a relatively simple and straightforward pledge that was completely honored down to the letter of the Contract.

The Contract also was short. It fit on one page. The new �Pledge to America� is very different.