Economic Freedom

WASHINGTON -- When the political parties gathered for their nominating conventions four years ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke was largely unknown. Now, after the Fed's unprecedented actions to deal with the financial crisis and Great Recession, he's become a central villain for people who blame Washington -- particularly the Fed -- for the nation's economic trauma. "Ben Bernanke is a traitor, a dictator. He's rotting out our republic," South Carolina state Sen. Tom Davis, a Republican, said to a standing ovation and chants of "End the Fed" during a rally in Tampa on Sunday of thousands of supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Thousands of Afghans have fled to Southern California from their war-torn homeland seeking peace and freedom, building new careers, homes and lives. They are adjusting to American life and are grateful for the freedom they have found. Still, they remain devoted to helping their homeland gain its freedom, said Hasan Nouri, an Afghan community leader.

Recently, I searched for the word "freedom" on the Web. The results confirmed what I had long suspected: Once the rallying cry of the dispossessed, "freedom" has come to mean free market economics, the right to bear arms and a general hostility to government. Most Internet sites associated with freedom belong to anti-government libertarians, groups promoting the sanctity of private property and the ideology of free trade, and armed patriot and militia organizations.

Rick Santorum went shopping between his first stop on Wednesday at an oil services firm in Harvey, La., across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, and his second, speaking to tea party activists in this Republican stronghold on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. He stopped at a Toys R Us and bought four Etch-A-Sketches. Santorum, handed a political gift by one of Mitt Romney's campaign advisors, made the most of it campaigning in Louisiana, where he is hoping a big win on Saturday will fire up his insurgent candidacy after he finished far behind the GOP front-runner in Illinois on Tuesday.

In its most recent annual ranking of "business friendly" states, Forbes magazine had some blunt advice for investors: "Utah and Colorado have maintained strong business climates. Forget about California. " Californians like to dismiss such assessments of the Golden State and instead point to its natural beauty and quality of life. They tend not to worry what people in other states think. But they should. California is no longer the economic miracle it once was. Silicon Valley no longer has a monopoly on high-tech talent and innovation.

Today, Congress is taking up, once more, the thorny issues of extending normal trade status (despite the misnomer, "most-favored-nation") to China. A growing chorus of voices in Congress and in the conservative movement say, "No, it is time to draw the line." Many of those voices are friends whose views I respect and admire. I have come to a different conclusion.

The rain had washed away his daughter's smile by the time George Shi reached the parking lot. Gently, he glued a new flier over the old one, smoothing each crease, until her photo and his message again shone clear: REWARD: $200,000 to anyone who helps find her killer. It is all Shi can do, nearly two years after his daughter, Donglei Shi , was strangled and her body dumped in an Alhambra park, leaving behind a case with no witnesses and little evidence. Donglei, also known as Kyral, was Shi's only daughter, the older of two children.

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Tuesday promised the country's major ethnic groups greater political, economic and cultural autonomy in response to growing demands that they be allowed to make more of their own decisions without asking Moscow's permission.

Robert Novak, the longtime syndicated columnist and television commentator who was at the center of a furor late in his career as the first journalist to disclose the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, died today. He was 78. Novak died at his home in Washington after battling brain cancer, his family told the Associated Press. Novak was diagnosed with a brain tumor in July 2008. He told friends his doctors were not optimistic, but he opted for surgery anyway, telling them they were being too conservative.

President Obama, pushing a key part of his overhaul of financial regulations, sent to Congress a draft bill that would create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which he said would better protect Americans from unscrupulous practices and make financial products easier to understand. Under the 152-page bill released Tuesday, the new agency would bring together what the administration called the "fragmented" system of responsibility for consumer protection.