Free Republic

Well, this Yuletide, there’s a new She Who Must be Obeyed. It’s our Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. Secretary Sebelius is the star of “Harry Reid’s Polar Express.” The new health care bill Harry Reid just dumped off his sleigh weighs in at 19.8 pounds. It’s 2,079 pages of “shalls” and “musts” and “directs” Sen. Reid wants to have it all wrapped up and signed by Christmas. Secretary Sebelius gets all a bureaucrat could want under her tree in this bill. There are 1,697 grants of discretionary authority in Reid’s monster. She Who Must be Obeyed gets...

"Government Distrust and a Dead Census Taker."“...[W]as it part of the recent rage at what right-wing commentators decry as the big-spending, socialistic government of the first African-American President? Al Cross, a former reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal who covered the area for 30 years, believes that the conditions underlying the murder go back much farther and are much deeper — and more local — than the recent spate of ire. (Read TIME's cover story on Glenn Beck.)” Well, now it turns out that Kentucky investigators have concluded that poor Sparkman committed suicide, faking his own death in order to let...

President Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) seems determined to go after a small Catholic college in North Carolina. Readers of First Things, the thoughtful journal founded by Rev. Richard Neuhaus, are familiar with the funny ads regularly run by Belmont Abbey. “Got Monks?” reads the white-on-black ad that encourages serious young Catholics to consider a college where the Benedictine monks seek God and where the students seek truth. But Obama’s EEOC obviously reads that ad as an invitation to “get the monks.” The EEOC’s district office in Charlotte, N.C., is demanding that Belmont Abbey cease and desist violating Title...

As an old football player, I’m only too familiar with the phenomenon of the “Monday morning quarterback.” But the Democratic party, and specifically, the Obama White House political operation, have a new variation: They’re now doing Monday morning analyses in advance of the game. And in the case of the Virginia Governor’s race, the Democrats seem engaged in Friday mourning for their candidate, R. Creigh Deeds. Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bob McDonnell, holds a comfortable lead in every published poll. McDonnell seems to have weathered the worst that the Washington Post could throw at him. The Post dredged up McDonnell’s...

I've been called a lot of things in my long political career. But I've never before been called a racist. I'm reminded of Alfred E. Neumann-the crazy, grinning boy on the cover of the old MAD Magazine. His motto was: What, me worry? What, me racist? How did I manage this unusual trick? Well, two former Presidents-Jimmy Carter and now Bill Clinton-have labeled me such. Why? Because I oppose President Obama's takeover of our health care system. We're celebrating 200 years this December of the great Samuel Johnson who said "patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels." Today, Dr. Johnson...

In the wake of Fox News reporting on the unfolding ACORN scandal, ACORN is now threatening to sue the network. Now that Fox is actually breaking news on this story by showing new videos, ACORN might just do it. Fox News should pray that ACORN does sue, because it would blow the doors off this story, possibly destroying ACORN and erupting into a political scandal in Washington. As bizarre as it seems, ACORN is threatening to sue Fox for reporting on these incriminating videotapes. Glenn Beck broke news with a new tape on Monday, and Sean Hannity might be doing...

In the days of colonialism, they called Africa the dark continent. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton brought her own version of darkness to her African tour. She was in Congo hosting a town meeting. One of the African questioners -- through a translator -- asked what "Mr. Clinton" thought of China's forays into African investments. "You want to know what my husband thinks? Bill Clinton is not the Secretary of State. I'll tell you what I think. I won't be channeling for my husband," Hilllary snapped. It was a waspish performance. Her body English needed no translation. She was more...

A key element of President Obama’s plan for a government takeover of health care is to create what he calls “the government option.” He wants his government option to compete with private insurers. Congressman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) says that this government option will compete with private insurers the way an alligator “competes” with ducks. It’s a pretty safe bet that the ducks always lose. House Democrats are working up a slightly different plan. It’s part of the bill they’re moving through Congress very quickly and trying to pass before the August recess. They know that the more Americans find out...

Last month, the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization affiliated with George Mason University, released "Science Suppressed: How America became obsessed with BPA," a report which accuses the media "of ignoring the extensive research of respected scientists and major health agencies in the United States and around the world, which found BPA was not only safe but played an important role in ensuring food safety."   It also confirms what countless previous studies have said; BPA is safe. If you're unfamiliar with Bisphenol A (BPA), it is a chemical used to make lightweight, versatile, durable, high-performance plastics.  It's...

Why did John Kerry surprise almost everyone by making his involvement in Vietnam the main focus of the Democratic National Convention this year? All candidates have to cope with negative information about themselves. If the negative information is bad enough, they must handle it somehow. Kerry and his team knew most of his fellow Swift boat veterans and millions of others were still furious about his long, savage smear of the U.S. military during his anti-war activities after his return from Vietnam. He saw political danger there. So he took the biggest political gamble of his life. Sometimes, by framing...

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office said a man shot and killed an 8-year-old child Wednesday afternoon and then shot himself. Deputies said Ricky Lee Blackwell picked up his estranged wife and the daughter of the woman's new boyfriend at about 3 p.m. He drove them to the woman's home on Ridings Road in the Cooley Springs community where the child, Heather Brooke Center, planned to swim and play with friends. Witnesses said that's when Center got out of the car and the man put her in a headlock and shot her four times, killing her. "He said...

There has been some curious confusion, even among some conservatives, about whether Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be pro-abortion. Judge Sotomayor is President Obama’s pick to replace pro-abortion Justice David Souter. There should be no confusion. If Ben Franklin were around today, he would have to amend his famous saying on death and taxes to say: “Nothing is certain except death, taxes, and that Judge Sotomayor is pro-abortion.”Although most non-lawyers cannot name possible Supreme Court nominees, there is a long vetting process that begins years before nominations are made. There are groups of legal advocates, both liberal and conservative, that thoroughly...

“So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed.” - President Barack Obama, Cairo University, 4 June 2009 President Barack Obama is a man who chooses his words carefully. When Hillary and Bill Clinton attacked him during the 2008 Democratic primaries, claiming his whole career had been built only on words, he fired back. He quoted the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln at Gettysburg, and Dr. King at the Lincoln Memorial. Are these just words, he asked rhetorically. And what stirring rhetoric it was. That’s why the media is doing us a...

This is a tale of two worldviews. It begins not unlike the opening paragraph of Dickens’ immortal work, A Tale of Two Cities. Schoolchildren once memorized these famous opening lines, back when schoolchildren memorized anything.(snip) President Obama at his Hundred Day White House séance proclaimed waterboarding to be torture. His was a clear, unambiguous, declarative statement. In making that statement, he opened up former President Bush and former Vice President Cheney to criminal prosecutions, here and before an international criminal court. And not just these men, but possibly hundreds of others, including members of Congress from his own party. Cliff...

Behold one of the new "Fairness" Doctrines - "media diversity" - coming soon to a radio station near you. President Barack Obama's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released the names of the thirty-one members of their Advisory Committee On Diversity For Communications In The Digital Age. This May 7 gathering is made up of a laundry list of left-wing grievance groups, with a smattering of radio and television companies included to break up the monotony. Not a single conservative organization is taking part in this Commission - more than a dozen Leftist groups are. A little ironic for a "diversity"...

Last week, many Americans celebrated Holy Week and Passover. Both of these traditions remind us that we must continue to stand for religious freedom for all. I agree with Britain’s Anglican Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali. He says that we Christians should treat our Muslim neighbors with love and with respect. We believe, even if they do not, that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. We believe that they share with us the civil rights that are enjoyed by all Americans. But we also believe, with George Washington, that each one here...

America is not a Christian Nation, so says Christopher Hitchens and is debated by Ken Blackwell

Economic conservatives have aggressively opposed President Obama’s agenda to radically expand government, financed by deficits that run into the trillions. If social conservatives want to protect America’s families and social values, they must join with fiscal conservatives to oppose President Obama and reverse America’s culture of debt. America was built on individual opportunity. This is the core of the economic conservative agenda. The family unit is the core building block of American society. This is the heart of the social conservative agenda. There is a key overlap here that many conservatives—and even their leaders—overlook. Living within your means and managing...

Loyal to Liberty"Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit." (Federalist, #51) My friend Tom Hoefling, National chairman of America's Independent Party, called to my attention today a thoughtful piece by Ken Blackwell (former Ohio Secretary of State and recently among the candidates for chairman of the GOP) about the "politics of division…at play within the conservative movement." In his political career Ken has shown himself to be a man with considerable respect for...

Republican former Ohio Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell endorsed Rob Portman for U.S. Senate today. The former Cincinnati congressman and Bush administration official "is a principled and experienced leader with a solid conservative record," said Blackwell. "He has been a strong voice for sound fiscal policy, and we need him in the U.S. Senate in these tumultuous economic times." While most endorsements are nothing more than campaign window dressing, Blackwell's will at least be noticed. Blackwell is a conservative who still upsets some members of his party with his hard right views on certain issues. He's also...

Ken Blackwell went on Fox News to publicly correct Michael Steele's unfortunate comments on abortion. Many conservatives are left asking- Why is this guy Steele our RNC Chairman again?... I think he just tries too darn hard to be likeable and, along the way, often forgets to stand up for what he believes in. In his fervor to expand the GOP base in these media exploits, he winds up just telling people what he thinks they want to hear. How about a do-over of the RNC Chair election?

I just spoke with Ken Blackwell, a senior fellow at the American Civil Rights Union and a former Ohio Secretary of State, about Michael Steele's comments to GQ. According to Blackwell: "Chairman Steele, as the leader of America's Pro-Life conservative party, needs to re-read the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and the 2008 GOP Platform. He then needs to get to work -- or get out of the way."

Video edited to eliminate certain elements of left-wing drivel.

Barack Obama allegedly intends to be a transformational president like Ronald Reagan. But now President Obama is raising taxes on businesses and retirees, socializing the largest sectors of America’s economy, and decimating state sovereignty and creativity. This is the polar opposite of what President Reagan did in the 1980s, and reveals Barack Obama as the Anti-Reagan. There are parallels between 1981 and 2009. When Ronald Reagan was elected, the country was fatigued and weary. The outgoing president was unpopular and the economy was declining. People voted for change in 1980 by electing Ronald Reagan. But that’s where the similarities end....

Academic publisher suspends publication of ‘too Christian’ encyclopedia CNA STAFF, Feb 12, 2009 / 03:37 am (CNA).- The scholarly publisher Blackwell is being accused of censorship for suspending the publication of the “too Christian” Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization and seeking to destroy existing copies pending a full revision of the text. The encyclopedia’s Editor-in-Chief is filing two lawsuits against the company to require the encyclopedia be published without removing its “Christian content, tone and character.”George Thomas Kurian, Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization (ECC), has circulated a letter protesting Blackwell’s actions, which he calls a “looming crisis” in the...

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being treated for pancreatic cancer. While Americans pray for her recovery, this sad news is a sobering reminder that President Obama is likely to appoint several justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. And in the aftermath of last year’s landmark decision on the Second Amendment, gun owners need to zero in on what these events mean for the future of the right to bear arms. Last year the Supreme Court held in D.C. v. Heller that the Second Amendment secures the right to bear arms for individual Americans. In doing so, the Court rejected...

Last week, Michael Steele made history as the first African-American elected chairman of the Republican Party. Although the GOP is currently the minority party in our two-party system, Chairman Steele takes the reins at a moment of tremendous opportunity. Mr. Steele’s publicly expressed commitment to conservative principles and the platform of the party, led me to urge the GOP leadership to elect him as chairman. January 29 and 30 were rollercoaster days for all of us running to become the next chairman of the GOP. We appeared before the members of the Republican National Committee, making our case about how...

Dawson 62 Steele 60 Anuzis 32 Blackwell 15

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has won the backing of some of America's best-known conservatives in his bid to become Republican National Committee chairman, just days before he and the other hopefuls are scheduled to begin a week of joint appearances to Republican Party audiences. The soft-spoken politician has received public endorsements from across the spectrum of conservatives - social, movement and economic, but some in the party, people who back him and people who don't, fear he may lack the charisma needed to represent the party on television. Blackwell supporters include limited-government champions such as American Conservative...

Former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's bid for Republican National Committee chairman was endorsed this morning by longtime conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, according to a press release from the Eagle Forum, which she heads. "Ken Blackwell is a solid social and fiscal conservative who is dedicated to the principles that brought the Republican Party to power in 1980 and can do so again," Schlafly says in the press release. "He has 13 successful campaigns under his belt. He has run for office himself and knows how to win." Blackwell, a former Cincinnati mayor, is among six Republicans vying...

Following an election that has left Republicans with no clear vision about how to regain power, the normally low-profile race to head the GOP's national committee has turned into a six-man showdown that has opened rifts along racial, regional and ideological lines. As Republicans debate their future, the contest for chairman of the Republican National Committee has become a proxy for the major questions at the center of the party's challenges: how to attract young and minority voters, win outside the South and counter an increasingly powerful Democratic majority. After Chip Saltsman, a candidate for chairman, sent party members a...

Let's run down the list, shall we... 1. Allison Davis, Obama's boss at his law firm, was a player in the extortion attempt in the Board Games case. Davis also partnered with Rezko and received taxpayer subsidies to rehab apartments and homes, getting deal after deal from Mayor Daley. Daley, Davis, Rezko, Blago, and Obama have all worked together to obtain government funding for said "housing development". In exchange, the slumlords have financed Blago and Obama's political careers. 2. Two politicians specifically received donations from the kickback schemes. You guessed it. Blago and Obama. From the first pay-off, 20K was...

President-elect Obama reveals much by nominating Senator Clinton to be his secretary of state, and Senator Clinton reveals much by accepting. Mr. Obama seeks to keep his chief political rival under his direct command, but in doing so he possibly makes her a more potent adversary. This purely political appointment was not the best choice for American foreign policy, and it is a risky one for his administration. During the campaign, Mr. Obama ran on a platform of “change,” and throughout the primaries he criticized Mrs. Clinton’s foreign policy positions on a variety of issues. They clashed on the Iraq...

Blackwell enters GOP chairman race By Reid Wilson Posted: 12/05/08 04:58 PM [ET] The race for Republican National Committee chairman got more crowded Friday as a prominent conservative made a splashy entrance. Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who has strong ties to the party’s conservative wing, is the latest candidate to declare for the position, doing so Friday in an email to RNC members. Touting himself as a strong fundraiser with electoral experience and a vision for the future of the party (as well as a part-owner of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team), Blackwell promised to pull no...

GOP Strength Rests in Its Core Beliefs by Ken Blackwell "It's that time again. Throngs of delirious Democrats are invading the streets and suites of Washington to celebrate their victories in November. "Across town, members of that other party gather in hushed bands, mourning their loss of power, employment and staff. The more prolific have taken the op-ed pages of every newspaper as their pillories, to flog themselves for their defeat. "As a member of that other party, enough is enough. It is time to look forward, not back." I wrote those words for a column in February 1993. Back...

After Ken Blackwell graduated from college, he did a short stint with the Dallas Cowboys, but soon decided playing professional football was not his destiny. Now some longtime Republican activists are seeking to draft Blackwell, Ohio's former secretary of state, into the race for national Republican Party chairman. They believe it is his destiny to lead the GOP. Blackwell is seriously considering running for the position. "You could not find a person better suited to the job," said one of the activists who spoke to me on background.

LOS ANGELES – Mr. Blackwell, the acerbic designer whose annual worst-dressed list skewered the fashion felonies of celebrities from Zsa Zsa Gabor to Britney Spears, has died. He was 86.

An ACORN Falls from the Tree A congressional outrage. By Ken Blackwell As negotiations over Congress’s emergency rescue bill continued over the weekend, repeated rumors leaked out that the Democrats were trying to funnel money to a hyper-partisan organization involved in criminal voter fraud. I’m speaking of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — known by its acronym, ACORN. Although ACORN was cut from the final legislation, it’s important to understand this organization and its long history with, of all people, Barack Obama. And it’s important to see how partisan this emergency legislation has become. As the weekend...

Dear Mr. Schieffer: You have an extraordinary opportunity that is rare in presidential politics. While every presidential debate is potentially pivotal, only rarely has one carried the potential that yours does to change the race in its closing days. Both of the previous debates have been flawed. The first debate was supposed to be about foreign policy, but recent events led to the first half of the debate discussing the economy instead. The second debate was supposed to be a freewheeling townhall, but your colleague Tom Brokaw made it a stifling, over-structured affair that was anything but a townhall. As...

Two years ago, the office of Michelle Obama, the vice president for community relations at the University of Chicago Medical Center, published a glossy report detailing the improvements her office had made in the lives of local residents, in part by increasing ties to minority contractors Center administrators declined to disclose which businesses benefited; the report lists one -- Blackwell Consulting Services. In 2005, the center expanded its bidding process and invited African American businessman Robert Blackwell Sr. to join a competition to upgrade the center's intranet, the in-house equivalent of a Web site. His company, Blackwell Consulting, won contracts...

When state Senator Barack Obama cosponsored legislation creating and increasing subsidies for low-income housing developers in Illinois, and wrote letters to get $14 million specifically for two of them (one was Tony Rezko), his official acts benefited several friends and donors in that industry. A similar thing happened when Obama earmarked $200,000 for Jesse Jackson’s investment fund in Chicago and $225,000 for Father Michael Pfleger’s neighborhood ministry. Those are just a few among dozens of examples of how, when Senator Obama governs, his friends do well. Such arrangements give the lie to Obama’s self-projected image as a reformer who wants...

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 opinion in Boumediene v. Bush will go down as one of the most egregiously-wrong decisions in history. Breaking 200 years of settled precedent, the Court has rewritten the Constitution’s allocation of national security powers. In essence, the narrow majority attacked the actions of a Commander-in-Chief in time of war. It attacked the law as rewritten by Congress in response to a prior decision of this very Court. And. it attacked the Court by aggressively ignoring its own prior decisions. The "logic" of this case sets up a bare majority of the Justices as supreme over the...

Even with Hillary Clinton’s wide margin win in the West Virginia primary, Barack Obama will be the Democrat standard bearer in November. However, Democrats may well have buyer’s remorse. Their rush to nominate Mr. Obama, the least vetted presidential candidate in memory, will likely cost them the fall election. The voters, who many believe, Mr. Obama needs for victory in November are trending to John McCain. Obviously, Team Obama is looking at a different trail to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. West Virginia is thought of as a reliably Democrat state. Democrat Governor Joe Manchin won...

In May, Senator McCain will give a much-anticipated speech on judicial nominations and will speak to the members of the National Rifle Association on May 6 and 16, respectively. These two speeches are smart moves. The Supreme Court is the single most-important issue for millions of conservative voters. A candidate’s choice of judges can seal the deal or be a deal-breaker. And the Second Amendment is a critical issue in this presidential election. Millions of swing voters are solid Second Amendment supporters. When a pro-Second Amendment Republican is up against an anti-gun Democrat, that issue can decide the outcome of...

Now that John McCain has secured the Republican Party nomination, he will decide who should be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee. One name he should consider is Governor Mike Huckabee. Some people are talking up the idea of Mr. Huckabee being Mr. McCain’s running mate. Should that not happen, the RNC chairmanship would be a perfect post for the young, energetic and charismatic governor from Arkansas. About 30% of the GOP base is evangelical. Part of Mr. McCain’s crossover appeal is that he is not one, nor does he pretend to be. But having one as GOP...

Senator Obama recently gave us a disturbing foretaste of the contradictory doublespeak we could expect under an Obama presidency. Last week, a deeply disturbed young man went on a criminal rampage at Northern Illinois University, murdering several innocent people before taking his own life. Mr. Obama spoke out last Friday about the tragic event, and exposed the crucial disconnect between his rhetoric and his politics. Speaking of his determination to do "whatever it takes" to end gun violence, Mr. Obama acknowledged that the Second Amendment secures an citizen's right to keep and bear arms. Noting that some argue that the...

It is time conservatives speak out and demand respect for their civil rights. The U.S. Department of Justice has taken a position in the D.C. gun ban case before the U.S. Supreme Court that puts one of our constitutional liberties at risk. My colleague Sandy Froman recently wrote an opinion piece to protest the amicus curea brief the Justice Department filed on Friday in the D.C. gun ban case, District of Columbia v. Heller. In her Townhall.com column, she explains that the DOJ's position includes only halfhearted support for the Second Amendment. If the Supreme Court were to adopt the...

Et tu, Brute? In the waning days of the Bush Administration, Justice Department lawyers have filed a curious amicus brief in the DC gun ban case before the US Supreme Court. The attorneys took a middle-of-the-road approach to Second Amendment freedoms. They argued that gun ownership is not a “fundamental” right. Instead, they say, it is a right deserving only an “intermediate” level of protection. The brief is a disappointing about face for a Justice Department once lauded for its ardent defense of Second Amendment rights. Attorney General Michael Mukasey owes gun owners an explanation for this late betrayal. In...

I could not disagree more with Barack Obama’s pork spending, tax raising, and defeat-embracing liberal agenda, but a recent attack by the Clinton campaign on Mr. Obama was the worst sort of the politics of personal destruction. It was one based on racial stereotypes. Such an attack is racism in all of its ugliness. Though the Congressional Black Caucus has yet to condemn this vicious racial smear, I can’t help but respond. Perhaps the Black Caucus’ silence is concrete evidence of the silliness of the Left’s notion that racial identity is determined by ideology. You know the logic. Clarence Thomas...

Two polarizing Republican political figures have joined forces to launch an organization that will seek to counter Democratic message groups on a wide range of issues. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) explained in an interview on Thursday that he and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell opted to promote the Coalition for a Conservative Majority (CCM) in conservative-leaning media markets rather than the more traditional method of focusing on swing congressional districts. The markets, which include Houston; Scranton, Pa.; Pittsburgh; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Denver; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Phoenix and Las Vegas were identified by DeLay as...