Free Republic

by John HillStand With Arizona The inmates are running the asylum. This Administration has served notice on every illegal alien invader across America: do not be afraid - you are above the law.Eleven illegal aliens who claimed ICE agents "violated their rights" in 2007 raids on their New Haven neighborhood have won a $350,000 settlement from the U.S. government, which also agreed to halt deportation proceedings against the plaintiffs, their attorneys said Tuesday. New Haven is American's most notorious "sanctuary city"- the first in the nation to offer identification cards to illegal immigrants, and critics including the mayor have contended...

Out on the campaign trail, Fed head Ben Bernanke is an unpopular guy. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have both said they would replace Bernanke, not reappoint him. Rep. Ron Paul would swap the whole Federal Reserve monetary system for a gold-linked dollar, making the yellow metal legal tender. And it was Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, before he dropped out of the race, who said more quantitative easing by the Fed would be "almost treasonous." Republicans in Washington are equally unimpressed by Bernanke. Rep. Paul Ryan recently criticized the Fed for bankrolling our huge budget deficits and thereby accommodating...

Santorum’s contraception boom — “We’re all Catholics now,” said Mike Huckabee — won’t hold up. Because we’re not. This race could well go to a brokered convention. If Jeb Bush is proposed, so Sarah Palin should be minutes later. She is now and always has been the singular Jacksonian voice in the original Tea Party phenomenon; the only one who can bring it to the mainstream. Her absence from the primary race has left a vacuum and no substitute has been found. Every other possible or potential leadership hopeful has risen and receded in this long Republican primary season. [....]...

Voter confidence in President Obama’s handling of the economy is at its highest level in a year’s time. That’s in line with the recent upticks in overall economic confidence and in Obama’s job approval ratings as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. Forty percent (40%) of Likely U.S. Voters now rate the president’s performance in the economic area as good or excellent, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That’s up from 36% a week ago and is the highest positive finding since the first week in February 2011. Obama seldom has cracked the 40%...

Ex-President George W. Bush tells auto dealers he'd bail out automakers again

Via Politico: . . . Another illustration of presidential hubris involved the Bush family. The White House put out a picture of a private meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 27 that included former President George H.W. Bush and his son, Jeb, the former governor of Florida. The Bushes were in town for the annual black tie dinner the next night at the Alfalfa Club, a gathering of business and political elites. The two featured speakers, both intended to be brief and humorous, were Obama and Jeb Bush. The president spoke to good reviews. He left before Bush spoke....

DNC Spokesman Claims Democrats Never Used 'Extreme Rhetoric' Against Bush Mark Hemingway January 31, 2012 1:45 PM Via Real Clear Politics, Democratic party spokesman Brad Woodhouse makes a bizarre assertion in response to Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus comparing Obama to the captain of a wrecked Italian cruise ship: "Many Republicans will say didn't Democrats attack George Bush in exactly the same way. what's your response to that?," Bashir asked Woodhouse. "I don't remember anything that equates from official Democratic Party. I mean, of course there are interest groups and people have their say, but I don't remember anything...

MIAMI – When the empire strikes back, it hits hard. The Republican establishment is deploying every weapon and every soldier – even Bob Dole – in an increasingly desperate attempt to pulverize the Newt Gingrich rebellion. Eventually, the shock-and-awe campaign may work. But then what? In the establishment’s best-case scenario, the party is left with Mitt Romney, a candidate whose core message, as far as I can tell, seems to be: “Yes, I made a ton of money. You got a problem with that?” It is remarkable that the well-orchestrated blitzkrieg to save Florida for Romney was designed solely to...

Obama’s plans of hope and change have utterly failed his most ardent constituency. Today, the wreckage is overwhelming.

The guerrilla legal campaign against national security suffered a big defeat this week, and the good news deserves more attention. The victory for legal sanity came Monday when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision to toss out a suit brought by aspiring terrorist Jose Padilla against a slew of Bush Administration officials. Readers may remember that Padilla was arrested in 2002 for plotting to set off a dirty bomb on U.S. soil. He was detained as an enemy combatant, convicted in a Miami court and sentenced to 17 years in prison. But Padilla has been...

President Bush explains his diverse reading habits to NBC's Brian Willaims.

Sarah Palin was just about to drag the Progressive John McCain over the finish line. Then the economy collapsed and Senator McCain suspended his campaign to fly back to Washington and add his, “Me too” as President Bush said, “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.” An economic downturn, a weak contender, and unpopular never-ending wars let Barak Obama win the presidency with vague promises of hope and change. I personally met people who voted for Mr. Obama because they thought he was for lower taxes. Ones who thought he was pro-business. I even met people who voted...

DORAL – At the Hispanic Leadership Conference in Doral, a group watched closely as the Republican candidates battled it on stage at the debate in Jacksonville. While the group doesn’t seem to endorse any one candidate, the cheering was considerably louder when Newt Gingrich walked onto the stage. Before the debate, Former Florida governor Jeb Bush spoke to the crowd, and we asked him why he wasn’t willing to endorse a candidate. (VIDEO AT LINK) “I think first of all, candidates need to earn it. Not that my endorsement would be the end-all-be-all, but I think it’s appropriate for them...

In the 15 states that are likely to decide who controls the White House and the Senate in 2013, Hispanic voters will represent the margin of victory. For the Republican Party, the stakes could not be greater. Just eight years after the party’s successful effort to woo Hispanic voters in 2004, this community — the fastest-growing group in the United States, according to census data — has drifted away. .Although Democrats hold the edge, Republicans have an opportunity. We also have a record of winning Hispanic voters in certain statewide and national elections. Here are four suggestions on how Republican...

Courtesy of one friend, an old pro, three perhaps overlooked points in the sea of analysis of South Carolina and beyond: “I notice that everyone’s citing all kinds of reasons for S.C.: Romney overconfident, Perry's endorsement, Romney doesn't connect, Barnes’s argument that Romney needs a ‘big idea.’ Lost in all this it seems is one name: Sarah Palin. First time she has expressed herself in the race and her candidate wins by 12. If she really comes out for Newt, look out. “Second thought: Paul has potential to give Romney lots of trouble in caucus states. “Final point: Some argue...

Update: Chris Cillizza of WaPo tweets that “Close Jeb Bush ally tells me that no Romney endorsement is in the works.” Jeb’s camp being coy, or is he getting cold feet about throwing in with Romney after tonight’s drubbing?

After reading Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek essay about President Obama, his critics, and his re-election bid, I implore him to ponder just one question. How would you have reacted in 2008 if any Republican ran promising to do the following?

The only serious opposition to this arrogant Ruling Party is coming not from feckless Republicans but from what might be called the Country Party -- and its vision is revolutionary. Our special Summer Issue cover story. As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to the Nation magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors' "toxic assets" was the only alternative to the U.S....

Newt Gingrich got the endorsement of Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, which is not nearly as valuable. If you’re a Republican who wants to be President, you’d rather have a Bush bless your candidacy than a Palin. Which is why Mitt Romney’s strategists and party pros shrug off Newt Gingrich’s endorsement by Sarah Palin’s husband Todd — and look at their shoes when asked whether former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will endorse Romney. “That would be nice,” a prominent Romney counselor squirmed when asked the question directly. But Jeb’s endorsement of a fellow retired governor is a question of when, not...

Endorsements from George W. Bush and Sarah Palin would have the biggest impact on Republican voters, trumping the support from other GOP figures such as John McCain and Donald Trump, according to a poll Friday. The majority of Republican and Republican-leaning voters said in a Pew Research Center survey that endorsements from six prominent GOP figures — Bush, Palin, McCain, Trump, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann — would make no difference in their vote. But of the six political figures listed, an endorsement from Bush was found to have the most positive impact on voters, with 28 percent saying they...

he endorsement from Bush, who despite prodding from members of his famous family and prominent Republicans decided to sit out the 2012 contest, is the latest sign that the Republican establishment is coalescing around Romney after months publicly griping about finding another candidate. Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/01/jeb_bush_to_endorse_romney_before_florida_primary.html#ixzz1jLlczld4

Surprising. The odds of this happening, given the Bush family’s antipathy to Gingrich and Perry, couldn’t have been much higher than 98 or 99 percent. Second look at political dynasties backing establishment candidates? Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush plans to endorse former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney before the Jan. 31 Florida primary, a Florida GOP source close to Bush told BuzzFeed Thursday. The endorsement from Bush, who despite prodding from members of his famous family and prominent Republicans decided to sit out the 2012 contest, is the latest sign that the Republican establishment is coalescing around Romney after months publicly...

Former first lady Laura Bush wishes there were one more candidate in the Republican presidential primary: Jeb Bush. Speaking to a sold-out Sarasota audience on Wednesday, Bush said she had hoped that her brother-in-law and former Florida governor would have jumped into the race this year.

No Child Left Behind turned 10 this week, and former President George W. Bush, who led the effort to enact the landmark federal education law, marked the anniversary with an exclusive interview with TIME education columnist Andrew J. Rotherham. Bush discussed the law and its legacy, criticized both parties for trying to walk away from its hard-nosed accountability efforts and called on President Obama to resist “the temptation to take the easy path.”

Merely a decade ago, the No Child Left Behind Act inspired the country to provide the best education possible to its youth. Yet today, on its tenth anniversary, many say the legislation has not only been ineffective, but it has also been a distraction from what is really needed to fix the education system within the United States. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was seen as one of the most significant domestic accomplishments of George W. Bush's presidency. He signed NCLB into law in Hamilton, Ohio alongside leaders of the education committees in Congress, which included Representative John...

A study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that the United States funded the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations’ authority on alleged man-made global warming, with $31.1 million since 2001, nearly half of the panel’s annual budget. The GAO also found that this funding information “was not available in budget documents or on the websites of the relevant federal agencies, and the agencies are generally not required to report this information to Congress.” In a Nov. 17, 2011 report, “International Climate Change Assessments: Federal Agencies Should Improve Reporting and Oversight of U.S. Funding,” the GAO...

Get a load of what Dear Leader's roadies have to  lug-into an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL to salve his  incompetence and boundless paranoia: Still needs to have the podium... the 'prompters... the lights, black boxes, and don't forget a  Secret Service suit behind to be on the lookout for any terrorist-type Cub Scouts with  TEA-partier parents who may have poisoned their minds with hate. Here's how the last guy did it- you know, the 'dumb' one...

The Senate is famed for its long-winded debates, but on Friday it took Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown just seconds to stop Republicans in their tracks. With the Senate entering the first day of its Memorial Day recess, the Ohio senator was briefly in the chair, before a near-empty chamber, to gavel in and gavel out what is called a pro forma session. Without that procedural move, the Senate would technically be adjourned and President Bush could install administration officials or judges as "recess appointments" — without Senate confirmation. "That's the fastest I've ever done it," said Brown, who like other...

A friend who worked for Ronald Reagan in New Hampshire in 1980 told us recently that Mitt Romney reminds him more and more of the George H.W. Bush who sat on his hands while Reagan ran rings around him. And the friend’s observation was before last week’s refusal by Romney to go one-on-one with Newt Gingrich. How fitting that Romney has now been endorsed by the elder Bush, whose own bland rhetoric and play-it-safe campaign were knocked for a loop by the bold colors and strong conservative philosophy of the Gipper. One wonders whether the Iron Curtain would have fallen...

The Transportation Security Administration isn't just in airports anymore. TSA teams are increasingly conducting searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass transit locations around the country... The TSA's 25 "viper" teams — for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response — have run more than 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year. Department of Homeland Security officials have asked Congress for funding to add 12 more teams next year. According to budget documents, the department spent $110 million in fiscal 2011 for "surface transportation security," including the TSA's viper program, and is asking...

I’ve always been of the opinion that the idea there is such a thing as a Republican “establishment” is something of a myth. The GOP hasn’t really had anything approximating a ruling elite since conservatives nominated Barry Goldwater​ and booed Nelson Rockefeller off the stage at the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco. The idea that Wall Street honchos or intellectuals running national magazines have any power over Republican voters and the party apparatus is based on a misunderstanding of how contemporary American politics works. The only thing that approximates an establishment is the family who produced two U.S....

Anyone remember this from 2008? [VIDEO AT SITE] Q: When Congress offers you a bill, do you promise not to use presidential signage [sic] to get your way? OBAMA: Yes. [Applause] Let me just explain for those who are unfamiliar with this issue. You know, we’ve got a government designed by the founders so that there’d be checks and balances. You don’t want a President that’s too powerful or a Congress that’s too powerful or courts that are too powerful. Everybody’s got their own role. Congress’ job is to pass legislation. The President can veto it, or he can...

https://www.facebook.com/SyrianDaysOfRage https://twitter.com/#!/SyriaDayofRage Syrian victims are screaming for your help. Will you answer?

Former president George H. W. Bush offered an informal endorsement of Mitt Romney in remarks published Thursday, saying that Mr. Romney “is the best choice for us.” The former president told reporters for The Houston Chronicle that he supported Mr. Romney because of his “stability, experience, principles. He’s a fine person,” Mr. Bush, 87, said. “I just think he’s mature and reasonable – not a bomb-thrower.” The paper reported the comments, made this week, on its Web site Thursday afternoon. A spokesman for Mr. Bush confirmed the accuracy of the comments and said they fully reflect the views of the...

(CNN) - Former President George H.W. Bush has joined the ranks of former Republican associates of Newt Gingrich coming out against the White House hopeful. Bush, who occupied the Oval Office from 1989 until 1993, a time when Gingrich was the House Republican whip, told the Houston Chronicle Thursday he was no promoter of Gingrich. "I'm not his biggest advocate," Bush said. In the interview with the Texas newspaper, Bush backed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination. Bush relayed an anecdote from his time as president when Gingrich failed to show up at an important White...

Tonight on Hannity, with Monica Crowley hosting, DemocRAT strategist, Kirsten Powers, admitted that if Jeb Bush did throw his hat in the ring and get the nomination, that she was not sure that Obama could beat him. Just curious what my FReeper friends think. Is the nation “Bush-fatigued” or could Jeb Bush be Obama’s toughest competitor?

Syrian's hold up sign for the world to see, which says "Obama's Procrastination kills us! We miss Bush's audacity. The world is better with America's Republicans." "5,000 Syrians have been massacred by Bashar Assad since March, including 300 children. How are those sanctions workin’ out, Mr. Obama?"

Via Bad Rachel, a picture of Syrian protesters:

There's no doubt some Republicans remain unhappy with the GOP presidential field. They wish other candidates -- Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush -- had entered a long time ago. But the Iowa caucuses are in two weeks. Is there any chance, at this late date, that something could change? All the alternative candidates have repeatedly said they won't run. But there is new speculation focusing on Bush after the former Florida governor turned heads Monday morning when he wrote, in the Wall Street Journal, a campaign-like economic manifesto headlined "Capitalism and the Right to Rise."

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Jeb Bush has a piece Wall Street Journal today, and already Steve Moore from the Wall Street Journal, which published Jeb's piece, was on Fox today doing an interview with Martha MacCallum, and Steve Moore saying, (paraphrasing) "You know what, it doesn't look like any Republican can actually take hold of this thing and run away with it. I mean boy, if Jeb Bush would announce, that's what we need. Jeb Bush to announce, and that would coalesce all these people, Jeb's got this great piece in the Wall Street Journal today, and if that happened, oh,...

<p>A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit alleging conservative political ideology drove a prestigious, selective Justice Department hiring program during the administration of President George W. Bush.</p> <p>The ruling Thursday was a setback for three lawyers rejected for the Honors Program that funneled promising young lawyers into government jobs. They had sued alleging misconduct by Bush political appointees who did the hiring, and violations of the Privacy Act.</p>

Think about it. We talk about the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to assembly. The right to rise doesn't seem like something we should have to protect...

Which of the three should be the foreign policy course that the U.S. takes, given that foreign policy has become a hot topic recently. Should we always intervene on humanitarian grounds? If so, why did we intervene on humanitarian grounds in Libya, but not Costa Rica recently under Obama? Why did we intervene on humanitarian grounds in Kosovo/Serbia, but not in central Africa under Bill Clinton when a couple hundred thousand were slaughtered? If we (for example) intervene to save Muslims from being slaughtered (what Obama said was going to happen in Libya, and what was said about the conflict...

Since it has been an unusual presidential election cycle with various front-runners throughout the horse race for the 2012 Republican nomination, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and New York Times columnist David Brooks say there is the possibility that anything can happen. On Friday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” in their regular weekly appearance, the two laid out scenarios that in any other election cycle would have been thought of as nearly impossible. First, Dionne elaborated on a recent column about why he thinks former U.S. Ambassador to China and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman should not be ruled...

It started when the mayor of Merrifield, New Hampshire, tweeted that he'd gotten a robo-poll asking about a possible Jeb Bush presidential campaign. It's continued, with random granite state citizens getting the same calls. One of them sent over the gist of questions received last night. (These aren't direct quotes, but paraphrases.

Just heard a snippit about 15 minutes ago, they were discussing certain internet posts by some minor public offcials saying Jeb Bush may enter the race.

World-class attorney David Rivkin speaks about the legal issues surrounding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at a debate held by the Center for Study of Responsive Law in Washington, D.C. Introduced by Ralph Nader. Link to YouTube video: http://youtu.be/sqkHOcqiKAg

As I noted the other day, Mitt Romney’s new strategy is to send out surrogates to attack Newt. Tomorrow it is former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, a big name in New Hampshire politics but someone whose name is associated with two of the most major conservative failures in the post-Vietnam war history of the Republican Party. As Matt Lewis points out, Sununu holds a grudge against Newt because Newt tried to stop George H.W. Bush from breaking his “no new taxes” pledge: With former Speaker Newt Gingrich surging in the polls, Mitt Romney has finally decided it’s time to...

In fact that was a campaign promise of G.W. Bush in 2000. But during all eight years of his presidency he never kept his promise. He did the same as his predecessor Bill Clinton and exercised that immoral 'waiver' to not move our embassy from Tel-Aviv to Israel's capital city Jerusalem.If Bush had kept his word and followed through with it early in his presidency, it would have greatly bolstered our closest ally. Both politically and symbolically. But he didn't. He engaged in appeasement. Interpreted as weakness.Not only that, Bush and Condi helped pave the way for Obama's anti-Israel policies.Bush campaigned on...

    In 2008 Barack Obama’s campaign shtick was “change.” That resonated because President Bush was spending too much and the country meant to change Washington. But Obama meant to change the country. In response the Tea Party movement has arisen to implement the real change, putting brakes on that out of control big government growth. Our message to Washington is simple: you have run out of our money, stop excessive spending. You cannot borrow your way out of debt; you cannot spend your way out of deficits. What is President Obama’s response to our message of fiscal responsibility? Shared...