Free Republic

MADISON — Critics are blasting Wisconsin legislators after the state's budget committee passed a surprise motion last week that would allow private, home-schooled and online charter students to participate in public school district athletics and activities. The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee passed a motion early Wednesday morning that included the plan. The plan wasn't addressed in the meeting. "For that to be done in a sneaky, behind the scenes fashion and passed at 1:30 in the morning without any discussion ... that's a problem," said Larry Kaseman, executive director of the Wisconsin Parents Association. While nonpublic school students in some...

Gov. Scott Walker has appointed the son of a president of a foundation that supports tea party causes to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. The board oversees the University of Wisconsin system, setting policies and approving budgets, among other vital regulatory duties. Walker appointed Mike M. Grebe, son of Michael W. Grebe, president and chief executive of the Bradley Foundation, to the board. The foundation is an essential part of Walker’s “brain trust.” It’s poured millions into promoting such right-wing policies as busting unions, expanding voucher schools and eliminating social welfare programs. In addition to his association with...

".....Roughly one in five black adults works for the government, teaching school, delivering mail, driving buses, processing criminal justice and managing large staffs. They are about 30 percent more likely to have a public sector job than non-Hispanic whites, and twice as likely as Hispanics.The Labor Department counts half a million fewer public sector jobs than before the start of the recession in 2007...understates just how much the government’s work force has shrunk.... because it fails to account for the normal growth in the country’s population: Factor that in, she said, and there are 1.8 million fewer jobs in the...

TEHRAN, Iran — The chief of an elite unit in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has accused the U.S. of having “no will” to stop the Islamic State group after the fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, an Iranian newspaper reported Monday. The comments by Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Guard’s elite Quds unit, come just after U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter accused Iraqi forces of lacking the “will to fight” in an interview aired the day before. It wasn’t clear whether Soleimani’s remarks came as a direct response to Carter’s, though tensions remain high between the two countries...

At one of the most important events on the GOP calendar, Scott Walker showed his crash course in foreign policy is paying off. OKLAHOMA CITY — Like most other recent GOP presidential forums and meetings, the Southern Republican Leadership Conference this week teemed with 2016 candidates aiming for a breakthrough moment. Nothing like that happened here. But in attending one of the most important events on pre-primary season calendar — one that drew roughly 2,000 conservative activists, mainly from the Republican Party’s Southern heartland — the White House hopefuls revealed a little more about themselves and the paths they see...

Scott Walker and his legislative minions have no respect for local democracy. One of Walker’s early acts as governor was to sign a law that pre-empted Milwaukee’s paid sick days ordinance — which voters had approved by 69 to 31 percent and which the state Court of Appeals had upheld. Dana Schultz of 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, described the state override of the Milwaukee law as “an assault on democracy, local control and working families." The assaults have continued, with Walker and his allies moving again and again to prevent Wisconsin’s towns, villages and cities from acting...

In what is apparently a vogue of Republican state legislators exercising misplaced vendettas against college professors, Iowa Sen. Mark Chelgren recently made headlines when he introduced Senate File 64, “an Act relating to the teaching effectiveness and employment of professors” at Iowa public institutions. Each year, the bill stipulates, any faculty who fails “to attain a minimum threshold of performance” based solely on student evaluations would be automatically fired regardless of rank or tenure. Lest you think that firing professors based on a questionable assessment metric affords them too much dignity, rest assured there is more. Some beleaguered governing body...

Seventy years ago, we celebrated the end of World War II in Europe. That celebration is not the first memory of my childhood but it is one of the clearest. I was a 5-year-old boy in Cape Town, South Africa, proudly displaying a paper Union Jack, the familiar British flag, and watching the victory parade. I often wonder where the flags came from — before offset printing and photocopying — in time for the parade. Someone knew victory was at hand. There was a palpable, universal happiness — though more subdued, I am told, than the outbursts that greeted the...

"............Chillingly, free speech, academic freedom, and the safety of Jews can no longer be taken for granted on college campuses. The deteriorating situation is described and analyzed meticulously in Volume IV of The Black Book of the American Left (subtitled Islamo-Fascism and the War Against the Jews). In the book, author David Horowitz assumes the mantle of fearless truth-teller, as he explores how Islamists and leftists work together to limit freedom of thought and speech, defame the only democracy and reliable US ally in the Middle East, and aid the spread of Islamist ideas and policies.The book aptly begins by...

Nothing quite so blatantly sums up the victory of neoliberalism in 21st-century London, and that city’s relentless commodification of every aspect of its literary and historical legacy, like Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross. If anything, the vulgarity and banality of Platform 9 ¾ are too blatant; it’s a crack in the façade that demonstrates how thoroughly London has become Londonland, a nearly convincing scavenger-hunt simulation of itself, chock-full of royal bones and references to Dan Brown novels. To enter Westminster Abbey – which is still nominally a house of worship for the Anglican Communion, rather than a historical theme...

OKLAHOMA CITY — Ben Carson won the straw poll at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference Saturday, demonstrating his popularity among conservative activists at one of the party’s traditional presidential cattle call events. Carson, a former surgeon who formally launched his underdog campaign this month with an appeal to the GOP’s tea party wing, finished first with 25 percent. He was followed by Scott Walker, who received 20 percent, and Ted Cruz at 16 percent. Chris Christie and Rick Perry tied at 5 percent, with Jeb Bush narrowly behind. Marco Rubio tied with Bobby Jindal and Rand Paul at 4 percent....

A man convicted of killing Washington DC intern Chandra Levy fourteen years ago is expected to get a new trial after government attorneys on Friday said the 'interests of justice' would best be served by one. On Friday, after more than a year of sporadic hearings and legal wrangling, government attorneys made a stunning legal decision and withdrew their opposition to a new trial for El Salvador native Ingmar Guandique, 33. In a four-page motion, they told a judge they were preparing to retry him after doubts have emerged about the testimony of his one-time cellmate. Guandique's attorneys had previously...

Over the last three months, the GOP's Iowa front-runner has become an incredible, shrinking presence on the campaign trail. Sure, he's still touring the country, introducing himself to voters, telling them how unafraid he was to stand up to the unions and liberal protesters he battled in Wisconsin, but he's also ducking out of uncontrolled situations, skipping questions from the press, and spending more time on small or private events, usually packed with friendly crowds. Last week, when he traveled to Israel — usually an occasion to invite reporters or hold a press conference — Walker held no press events....

Earlier this week, outlaw motorcycle clubs engaged in a daylight gun battle in Waco, Texas. This combat involved hundreds of people. The mall where the riot occurred was left resembling a war zone, with hundreds of spent bullet cartridges strewn about, broken bodies everywhere, and police and other local municipal services overwhelmed. By the end of melee, nine outlaws were dead, 18 wounded, and at least 165 people were arrested; 120 guns were recovered at the crime scene. In late April and early May, African-American young people protested the killing of Freddie Gray by the Baltimore police. Those peaceful protests...

On the whole, the Affordable Care Act is working pretty well, getting more people insured and increasing the quality of insurance overall. But on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported an alarming development: Health insurers on many state exchanges are looking to boost their premiums a ridiculous amount in 2016. New Mexico's leading provider, for instance, is seeking a 51.6 percent hike, while Maryland's is seeking a 30.4 percent hike. (Insurers in other states, like Vermont and Indiana, are asking for minimal increases.) Libertarian and conservative outlets are, predictably, citing the rate hike as yet another Obamacare catastrophe. But it's...

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It's Memorial Day, and the forecast is for renewed mocking and derision regarding man-made climate change from the know-nothing, science-averse wing of the Republican Party. President Barack Obama's warning—issued during his commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremonies Wednesday—that climate change represents a national security threat seems certain to provoke that kind of stormy reaction.[SNIP]Among the Republicans running for president, climate change denial is the current mode of thinking for most....it's hard to see anyone in the crowd calling for military preparedness. Mostly, the candidates appear interested in sidestepping the topic (albeit in a disapproving manner)..The result...

For three years, Wisconsin prosecutors have been investigating whether Republican Gov. Scott Walker broke campaign finance laws as he battled a 2012 recall effort sparked by his push for a law that undercut the power of public sector unions. Prosecutors allege that Walker and his aides illegally coordinated with conservative groups that were raising money and running ads to support Walker and his Republican allies. At least one group at the center of the probe, the Wisconsin Club for Growth, has gone to court to stop the investigation. Its fate now rests with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which will rule...

Why Scott Walker FLip-Flopped. One of the few intelligent and worthwhile things that John Maynard Keynes contributed to society is the following quote “When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?” Governor Scott Walker’s information has recently changed. Remember that Governor Walker had the guts to back down the Progressive Establishment in The Democratic Party of Wisconsin. It thus comes as no surprise that he also has the guts to take on the increasingly progressive and less pro-American pro-immigration caucus in the GOP. Walker explains his qualms concerning this headlong rush to replace domestic American...

A number of states are quietly considering merging their healthcare exchanges under ObamaCare amid big questions about their cost and viability. Many of the 13 state-run ObamaCare exchanges are worried about how they’ll survive once federal dollars supporting them run dry next year. Others are contemplating creating multi-state exchanges as a contingency plan for a looming Supreme Court ruling expected next month that could prevent people from getting subsidies to buy ObamaCare on the federal exchange. The idea is still only in the infancy stage. It’s unclear whether a California-Oregon or New York-Connecticut health exchange is on the horizon. But...