Conservatives

Ben Smith has an interesting piece in Politico on differences between conservatives regarding the Justice Department’s dismissal of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case and the subsequent investigation by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Conservatives came in first in Thursday’s election in Great Britain, but it’s their failure to win a majority that Republicans should examine for the lessons it teaches.  If the GOP listens, they’ll improve their chance of winning control of Congress in the congressional midterm election on November 2.

The closer Britain gets to election day, the more uncertain things become. One uncertainty, however, seems to have been cleared up - Gordon Brown and the Labour Party are out of contention. 

The first debate resulted in Nick Clegg and the third place Liberal Democrats surging into close competition with David Cameron's Conservatives for first place. And while Cameron got a bit of a boost in the second debate, Clegg was able to maintain his rising status. As for Brown, he's now seeing some of Labour's lowest poll ratings ever, and he seems to be losing any chance of winning the most seats despite finishing third in the popular vote.

On this day, often dedicated to genuflecting to Gaia and her regulatory, busy-body apostles, it's worth remembering that capitalism bought us the luxury of having environmentalists in the first place, and the free market has greened large parts of the world without their help.

Don Boudreaux keeps a running log of his observations of this phenomenon under the heading "Cleaned by Capitalism."

Cato celebrates Earth Day in its way:

The only way for Republican Scott Brown to win is energizing the Republican base while appealing to moderate Massachusetts voters at the same time. So far so good, writes Michael Graham, who sees Scott Brown harnessing the power of, and giving hope to, the tea party movement, despite his relatively moderate positions: