Lobbyists tend to see opportunity in what others view as calamity. I know, because I did. During the decade I was a lobbyist in Washington, I would often examine legislation to discover hidden business opportunities. When Congress forbade an activity, some businesses would inevitably prosper providing an alternative service. Sometimes, ambiguity in legislative language would create loophole advantages for entrepreneurs. As a lobbyist, one of my jobs was to be one step ahead of the game; to discover the opportunities created, sometimes by congressional error, and provide that valuable information to those in the business or foundation sector that could benefit. Usually, the opportunities were minor and somewhat ambiguous, but sometimes a lobbyist would strike gold.  Last week, Chief Justice John Roberts published the lobbyist equivalent of an El Dorado treasure map.  He is now the hero of K Street.

Since President Lyndon Johnson initiated it in 1965, we've spent $19.8 trillion (in inflation adjusted dollars) on the War on Poverty, nearly three times as much as on all of America's wars combined, Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation told the House Budget Committee in March. Mammoth as it's been, spending for means-tested programs is dwarfed by spending for "entitlements."  Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid account now for 58 percent of the federal budget.  If they keep rising at the present rate, spending on entitlements and interest on the national debt will exceed tax revenues by 2025, the Congressional Budget Office estimated last year. The economy will collapse before we get there.  The only way to prevent this collapse -- and to actually help the actually poor -- is to stop the spending on the unpoor.

San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize. The world financial and debt crisis can, at times, be better understood by looking at a small entity that is suffering from the same diseases as the major countries. The small Central American-Caribbean nation of Belize (the former British Honduras, so it's English-speaking) is, in many ways, a microcosm of Europe and the United States in that its debt has grown to a level where it cannot be serviced without doing great damage to the rest of its economy. Also, the courts in Belize, like those in the U.S., give too much deference to government, which is undermining civil liberties, the rule of law and property rights. All too many judges succumb to the pressures of the political branches of government. I am here in Belize to discuss with representatives of the government and business community changes in policy that should lead to higher rates of economic growth.  They are in a very deep hole,  There's only one way to get out of it for real.

If this is the Arab Spring, why is it snowing so hard? His election would spread democracy and respect for the United States throughout the Middle East, President Barack Hussein Obama believed. "I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Moslems around the world, one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect," the president said in his much ballyhooed speech in Cairo in 2009. It hasn't worked out that way.  Here's why...

Week after week for two or three months now, it's been a no-good lousy week for Zero.  We couldn't expect this to last, so this week we got kicked in the teeth. The bitter irony is that it was done by someone we were sure was one of our own:  John "Judas" Roberts. I don't buy for a New York second the too-cute-by-half tortured rationalizations of Roberts' defenders like Charles Krauthammer or George Will - just as tortured as Roberts' desperate reasoning.  The proof that Roberts is a Conservative Judas goes beyond his ruling on ZeroCare. Why are Roberts' defenders failing to mention his other over-the-top-disgusting ruling yesterday (6/28) invalidating the Stolen Valor Act?  Every pathetic scumbag in America now has the Constitutional right to claim he won the Medal of Honor or wear a Purple Heart pin on his lapel.  It's hard to imagine a more revolting insult to American soldiers and veterans. Why are Roberts' defenders failing to connect the dots between these two rulings and a third this week, when on Monday (6/25) he provided the deciding vote to substantially invalidate Arizona's immigration law? These are all of a pattern.  Judas John Roberts has joined Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan.  He's now on the Dark Side of the Force. There are only three constitutionalists on the court now, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.  Roberts is not brilliant, nor a genius.  He's a coward afraid to stand up to the bullying of Zero.

If you've nothing to say, it's not a good idea to spend 54 minutes saying it. After listening to President Barack Obama's much ballyhooed speech on the economy in Cleveland June 14, Peggy Noonan wrote: "Politicians give 54-minute speeches when they don't know what they're trying to say." Though few others demonstrate it at such length, it's not just the president who has run out of substantive things to say.  For all but a handful of liberals, invective has replaced argument.  Columbia Law School Professor Jerome Michael explained why years ago: "If the facts are on your side, pound the facts," Prof. Michael advised his students.  "If the law is on your side, pound the law.  If neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound the table." There's another, darker reason why liberals rely so much upon name calling.

Tea Party members are going to be very unhappy. Many of the new members of the House and Senate that the Tea Party helped elect are already becoming part of the political class, as evidenced by their votes for continued farm subsidies, refusals to put reasonable limits on the growth of the food- stamp program, support for unaccountable international organizations, and on and on. (To see how any Congressman is voting according to conservative principles, consider conservativevotingrecords.com, byThe Madison Project.) Members of Congress vote for unjustified spending because they think the recipients will reward them with campaign contributions and praise while the majority of the electorate will never notice.  So how do we stymie the spendaholics -- when even Tea Party politicians are getting drunk on spending?