The conservative "activist" community here in Washington got itself into a foaming lather last week over the attempt by Senate Democrats to subject their activities to criminal penalties.

Section 220 of the S.1 "lobbying reform" bill required all activists - even bloggers on the internet - who communicate in any way with 500 or more members of "the public" to register and file reports with the government as lobbyists, and face criminal penalties including heavy fines and one year in jail if they fail to do so.

It was a straightforward and outrageous assault on the First Amendment, true blue fascism embedded right in the very first Senate bill in our new Democrat-controlled Congress.  The New York Times had nary a word of complaint, nor did the rest of the major media.

Yet it was simply the latest example of the assault Democrats are making on our 1^st Amendment free speech rights across the board.  For their "lobbying reform" is part of a growing comprehensive effort to silence and criminalize speech liberals don't like.

Since he assumed office nearly six years ago, US President Barack Hussein Obama has been dogged by allegations of managerial incompetence. Obama, his critics allege, had no managerial experience before he was elected. His lack of such experience, they claim, is reflected in what they see as his incompetent handling of the challenges of the presidency.

In everything from dealing with the Congress, to reining in radical ideologues at the IRS, to handling the chaos at the Mexican border, to putting together coordinated strategies for dealing with everything from Ebola to Islamic State (IS), Obama's critics claim that he is out of his league. That he is incompetent.

But if Israel's experience with him is any guide, then his critics are the ones who are out to sea. Because at least in his handling of US relations with the Jewish state, Obama has exhibited a mastery of the tools of the executive branch unmatched by most of his predecessors.

Obama is a master of mendacity, a virtuoso of malciousness.  Consider two recent news stories:

Do you think the Internal Revenue Service and other government agencies should have the right to seize your assets, including your bank accounts, when you have not been convicted of wrongdoing?

The fact is, the IRS and other government agencies do this all the time, and often without even a formal accusation of wrongdoing.

Thus, in criminal cases, the government has to convince a judge and jury beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime has been committed. Under civil asset-forfeiture laws, no such proof is required -- and, as a result, many innocent people have had their property taken by agents of the federal government.

Anyone who is awake knows that the IRS has been politicized -- and thus critics of the administration live in fear that their property will be taken for the mere act of speaking out against the government.  There is only one solution.

Washington politics can be so much fun if you look upon them as the world's best circus.  This week's clown act was hilariously performed by the Breck Boy, John Edwards, announcing his candidacy for the presidency in the 9^th Ward of New Orleans.

It was especially funny for me, as I was in New Orleans at the time for New Year's.  The 9^th Ward was the area most devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.  The day after Edwards' appearance, I drove my son Jackson through it.

Endless block after block after block, street after street after street, the small cottage homes are unlivable and abandoned.  At the most, one home out of every two or three dozen is repaired and occupied.

Even many of these, however, have only cosmetic repairs covering up irreparable damage from mold.  After all, all these homes were under water for weeks.  Thousands upon thousands of homes that have to be torn down are still standing because Mayor Ray Nagin insists they be rebuilt - which they never will be.

What he can't face, what John Edwards can't face, is that the corrupt heart of Democrat control of Louisiana - New Orleans' 9^th Ward - is gone.

It took two years for crumbling oil prices to bring the Soviet Union to its knees in the mid-1980s, and another two years of stagnation to break the Bolshevik empire altogether.

Russian ex-premier Yegor Gaidar famously dated the moment to September 1985, when Saudi Arabia stopped trying to defend the crude market, cranking up output instead.

"The collapse of the USSR should serve as a lesson to those who construct policy based on the assumption that oil prices will remain perpetually high. A seemingly stable superpower disintegrated in only a few short years," he wrote in 2007.

Lest we engage in false historicism, it is worth remembering just how strong the USSR still seemed. It knew how to make things. It had an industrial core, with formidable scientists and engineers.

Vladimir Putin's Russia is a weaker animal in key respects, a remarkable indictment of his 15-year reign. He presides over a rentier economy, addicted to oil, gas and metals, a textbook case of the Dutch Disease.

"Russia is already in a perfect storm," says Lubomir Mitov, Moscow chief for the Institute of International Finance. "Russia is fundamentally crippled. They have outsourced their brains and lost their technology. It looked as if Russia was strong during the oil boom but it was an illusion and now they are in an even worse position than the Soviet Union," he says.