Free Republic

When Zach Taylor, a retired U.S. Border Patrol supervisory agent, talked about the situation on the U.S. border with Mexico, he didn't pull any punches. Disputing assertions by Barack Obama, the president, and Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security, that the border is "safer than it's been in years," Taylor was blunt in his disagreement: "It's more dangerous than I've seen in my 26 years in the Border Patrol." According to Taylor, ever since the Border Patrol was moved from the jurisdiction of the Justice Department after 9/11 to the Department of Homeland Security, it's become a political tool of...

With the outcome of his own reelection effort 14 difficult months away, President Obama suffered a sharp rebuke Tuesday when voters in New York elected a conservative Republican to represent a Democratic district that has not been in GOP hands since the 1920s. Bob Turner, the winner, cast the election as a referendum on Obama’s stewardship of the economy and, in the state’s Ninth Congressional District, which has a large population of Orthodox Jewish voters, the president’s position on Israel.

“The White House doesn’t create jobs,” President Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, said last week. He’s more right than he knows. The policies the administration and Congress put into place have a profound effect on job creation - a profoundly negative one. Gimmicks like tax credits for hiring veterans and another short-term extension of the payroll tax cut aren’t going to jump-start the sagging economy or do anything to get the unemployment rate below even 9 percent, let alone anything approaching the 5 or 6 percent levels that would be considered full employment.

Thank you, Eric Cantor. Thank you for walking out on useless talks, presided over by Vice President Biden, addressing raising the limit on our nation's debt. According to press accounts, Republican House Majority Leader Cantor called it quits on talks between Democratic and Republican leaders because Democrats refuse to give in on raising taxes. This, I am sure, is true. But we also must understand the deeper and broader issue. We are in nothing less than hand-to-hand combat, fighting for what America is about and what it takes to get this country back on track toward growth and prosperity –...

The unemployment rate is officially at 9 percent. In addition, a broad measure of unemployment – including workers who want a job but have stopped looking and those working part time for economic reasons – rose to 19.3 percent. This is very grim. Let's put this into its proper perspective because a 9 percent unemployment rate doesn't really sink in. What if there were a breaking newsflash on TV while you were watching "American Idol," and the headline was "Everyone in Utah is now unemployed!" You would look at your spouse and say, "Oh wow! This is bad. Those poor...

President Obama recently said that the economic situation was worse than the administration expected when he took office. That's code for "blame Bush" again for Obama's failed economic policies, which have not stimulated the economy. He has chastised the business sector for sitting on more than $2 trillion in accumulated cash instead of hiring people they do not need. That's blaming the business sector for not making stupid decisions to prop up his failed policies. And now that people are feeling the pain at the pump, he blames oil speculators for high gas prices, which are now double what they...

President Obama swore an oath to "... preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." He should have sworn to obey it. Congress, alone, has the power to declare war, and to make all the laws necessary to engage in military conflict. The War Powers Act defines precisely what is required of the president before military action may commence. Obama launched 118 missiles and dropped 40 bombs on Libya without a thought about Congress or the Constitution. He was quite concerned, however, about the United Nations. He hardly noticed the attacks on protesters until the United Nations Security...

The mayhem in Madison, Wis., over the last two weeks has highlighted the determination of organized labor unions to continue to restrict workers rights, and to try to intimidate Gov. Scott Walker and the taxpayers into some more unsustainable demands. Choosing to join a union in one thing. Being forced to do so as a condition of employment is a restriction on a worker's rights. Joining a union or any other organization should be an individual's choice. And the desire of the unions to continue to make unsustainable demands on local, state and federal government, irrespective of the devastating financial...

"Happy Birthday, Ronnie." Those were the words delivered by an 89-year-old Nancy Reagan Sunday under the din of a standing ovation during the 100th birthday celebration of her late husband, Ronald Reagan, the nation's 40th president and an enduring beacon for conservative thinkers. With a strong voice though ever-slight in frame, Nancy Reagan looked strong as she appeared in a red pantsuit and thanked the invitation-only audience at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library, which has held a weekend-long celebration of the late president's 100th birthday.

In hopes of returning to a previous, "better" condition, millions of Americans will resolve to: quit smoking, lose weight, or engage in some other activity to make their life better in some way. Suppose there were an activity in which Americans could engage that would make the entire world better, especially that portion of the world we call the United States of America. There is! We can resolve to restore the original, unique republic created by our founders. George Washington, Ben Franklin, James Madison and the handful of other great Americans who assembled in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787...

Despite the Federal Reserve’s announcement last month of a new round of quantitative easing to help unemployment, the national unemployment rate increased to 9.8 percent in November. Indiana’s Rep. Mike Pence, in light of the Fed’s announcement, is promoting a different solution: simplify the Fed’s job so that it doesn’t have to worry about employment. Pence was among the first to express concerns about the Fed’s employment mandate when news broke last month that the federal government would participate in a U.S. Treasury security-buy, known as quantitative easing.

Congressional leaders of both parties suggested Sunday that they could reach a deal to extend all Bush-era tax rates as early as this week and that it would include an agreement by Republicans to also extend unemployment benefits for millions of jobless Americans. "I think that most folks believe that the recipe would include at least an extension of unemployment benefits for those who are unemployed and an extension of all of the tax rates for all Americans for some period of time," said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican. "I think an agreement could be reached in the...

As the nation agonizes with high unemployment, the lame duck Senate Democrats play class warfare games. Yesterday, in an unusual Saturday session, the Senate refused to go along with a scheme to target tax hikes on employers -- economic insanity -- with four Democrats and one independent joining in a Republican filibuster of a scheme to raise taxes on those families earning over $250,000

“By prosecuting Ahmed Ghailani in federal court,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a May 21, 2009, statement, “we will ensure that he finally answers for his alleged role in the bombing of our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.” “This administration,” Holder continued, “is committed to keeping the American people safe and upholding the rule of law, and by closing Guantánamo and bringing terrorists housed there to justice we will make our nation stronger and safer.”

Two days before the jury at the embassy bombing trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani would reach a verdict, it seemed to be on the verge of a deadlock. A juror sent a note to the judge on Monday asking to be excused. Her decision, she wrote, was “not going to change” and she was being attacked for it by the other jurors at the trial of Mr. Ghailani, the first former Guantánamo detainee to be tried in a civilian court by the Obama administration.

In a May 2009 speech, President Barack Obama announced that Ahmed Ghailani, a Guantanamo detainee suspected of involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, would be transferred to the United States for trial in federal court. The president assured his audience that civilian courts were “tough enough” to prosecute terrorists like Ghailani and that justice would be served.

Do Americans share President Obama's desire to impose redistributive social justice on the well off? In liberal Washington State, of all places, voters gave a definitive answer this Tuesday: No! The resounding rejection of a punitive "Robin Hood" initiative shows that it's not just red-state Republicans who oppose extreme tax hikes on the nation's wealth generators. As Capitol Hill resumes debate on whether to extend the so-called "Bush tax cuts," the White House should pay special heed to the fate of little-noticed Initiative 1098. Its defeat by a whopping 65-35 margin doesn't bode well for Team Obama's class warriors still...

A pair of House Democrats publicly called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to step down from the leadership Thursday and others suggested the same privately, as the California Democrat hunkered down in the Capitol to mull over her future. Pelosi made no public appearances as speculation swirled as to whether she would run for minority leader following the largest midterm rout in more than 70 years.

The Democrats are offended that being the Party of No is a rewarding experience. But they themselves have a different problem. Do you recall, back in the mists, when Arthur Fonzerelli would try to admit he was wrong to the Cuninghams?

Conservative Republican control of the House is step one. Taking control of the Senate is step two, regardless of whether we do it in 2010 or 2012. And step three is electing a conservative president in 2012. It will not be as easy as one-two-three, but it can be done. It must be done to take back our government.