Free Republic

Recent polls show a tight contest in the Iowa Senate race to replace retiring liberal Democrat Tom Harkin (D), so leave it to the Daily Beast to hype a video clip it recently unearthed to insist that it is evidence that Republican nominee Joni Ernst as a nut who betrays a "shocking ignorance" [see image below page break] about constitutional law regarding the Tenth Amendment and state nullification of federal law. That's how Ben Jacobs painted the military veteran and Republican state senator, suggesting her answer to a question posed to her at a September 13, 2013 event was an...

Wish I could take credit for that headline but it’s Aaron Gardner’s. Here’s a nice scoop for Eliana Johnson, who somehow got hold of an early memo prepared by Michelle Nunn’s Senate campaign in Georgia after they stupidly posted it online briefly last winter. Of the many gems within, my second-favorite is the one emphasizing “rural” photo ops to show Georgians that Nunn is one of them. She’s a creature of the Beltway since birth, having grown up in Maryland while her dad Sam served in the Senate, but it’s important when trying to inherit a Senate seat as part...

In more good news coming out of the Middle East today, hundreds of thousands of weapons given to Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) by the United States, including machine guns, are missing. According to a report issued earlier this month from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) titled Afghan National Security Forces: Actions Needed to Improve Weapons Accountability, nearly half of weapons issued are unaccounted for. "Controls over the accountability of small arms provided to the ANSF are insufficient both before and after the weapons are transferred. Accountability over these weapons within DOD prior to their transfer to...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Slattery coauthored this piece. When it comes to defending Obamacare subsidies, the Justice Department appears none too eager to take its case to the Supreme Court. Instead, the administration announced it would appeal Tuesday’s adverse ruling by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to… the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. President Obama, it seems, likes his chances with the full court. And why not? He “hand-packed” it himself. The legal issue at hand is whether the IRS has the authority to subsidize health coverage bought through insurance exchanges run by the feds....

Michelle Obama wants the federal government to tell us what kind of food to eat. I actually wouldn’t object if she merely used a bully pulpit to encourage healthier eating. But the busy-body crowd in Washington has a hard time distinguishing between giving advice and engaging in coercion. So we now have legislation that gives Washington the power to interfere with food in local schools. But not everybody is rolling over, particularly when federal rules are coercing states into banning bake sales. The National Journal reports on growing resistance to this absurd example of nanny statism from Washington. Here are...

There is good and there is evil. Good is the healthy state, functioning optimally according to its design. Evil can be defined as a conscious state of disorder, a parasite that thrives on conquering the good. Humans are creatures of a magnificent design. They start out innocent enough, generally attracted to good. But all people seem to be subject to the attentions of evil, sometimes as a victim and sometimes as a participant. The vast majority of humans are kind and interesting, regardless of their culture, religion, race, or party affiliation. And right about the age of six, they are...

Barack Obama famously declared that as a former teacher of Constitutional law, he actually respects the Constitution, unlike his predecessor in the Oval Office. Subsequent events make it fair to wonder exactly how he shows this respect. Some on the Left barely conceal their disdain for the world-changing handiwork of dead white males. Reverence for the Constitution isn’t universal even among its chief custodians. Justice Ruth Ginsburg raised eyebrows when she advised Egyptian civic activists she wouldn’t look to the US Constitution as a model today. She pointed instead to the constitutions of South Africa, Canada, and the European Charter...

Nice try.Economic news tends to be confusing no matter where you get it from, but you really want to avoid getting from the Associated Press – and all the more so from local and regional newspapers who pick up AP stories and then put their own spins on the headlines.You end up, as we did in Atlanta this past week, with stories based on huge deceptions that try to use numbers within the stories to mean what they don’t really mean.The AP ran a story this week headlined: “U.S. economy, though sluggish, may now be sturdier.” That sounds like a...

Israel is not tame. But she is good. If a poacher shoots arrows at a pride of sleeping lions, are the lions to blame for rousing and defending themselves? What does one say of the shooter when he intentionally cowers behind the skirts of his own women and daughters, hoping, indeed praying, that these precious souls will inadvertently perish as a result? One calls him a coward, a fool and a monster. Such are the men of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Authority – terrorists all. They are purposefully slaughtering their own citizenry. There are but two things to blame...

What’s happening in Arizona right now is sufficient to make every conservative shudder. And I’m not talking about the border crisis. I am talking about the state’s largest regulated utility, Arizona Public Service (APS). APS is literally attempting to purchase its regulators in the state’s August 26th Republican primary (early ballots go out this week). If successful, the implications are national, especially for fledgling solar power, and crony capitalism will have a new model that will boomerang on the Republican Party. First, a little background. APS has concluded that too much energy choice via rooftop solar is bad for it....

Israeli jets resumed airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas rocket fire hours after the United Nations Security Council ratified a draft statement early Monday calling for a cease-fire in the region. Israel's military said it struck two rocket launchers and a rocket manufacturing facility in central and northern Gaza after a rocket hit southern Israel. The rocket caused no damage or injuries.

You and I avoid visiting the doctor by eating well. Doctors like Lee Silverman carry concealed in order to care for us when we do need them. Doctors and medical professionals should be allowed to carry concealed. Last week, a psychiatrist named Dr. Lee Silverman technically broke the letter of the law by carrying concealed at work. He courageously saved innocent lives by pulling his trigger on a mad gunman before anyone else scarcely had time to dial 911. On July 24, a 49-year-old patient of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital smuggled a loaded firearm into the Darby, Pennsylvania medical complex. Richard...

The global warming fear mongers are at it again. Twice recently they’ve been caught in the act-- not only are they lying, they're so desperate that they're starting to look ridiculous. “Three years of observations show that the Antarctic ice sheet is now losing 159 billion tonnes of ice each year,” reports the UK’s University of Leeds, “twice as much as when it was last surveyed. A team of scientists from the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, led by researchers at the University of Leeds, have produced the first complete assessment of Antarctic ice sheet elevation change.” Like...

Kristen Bell. You were so great as sassy, wisecracking teen detective in Veronica Mars. And I teared up right along with you about sloths on the Ellen Show. But while your Mary Poppins spoof to pump up support for raising the minimum wage was definitely cute and well-produced, it was a little fact-challenged. Bell’s argument, made in rhyme, boils down to: raise the minimum wage three bucks to bump all workers over the poverty line. Seems simple, doesn’t it? And appealing. Who doesn’t want fewer people living in poverty? Who could object to a “living wage?” But in politics, the...

America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. But as we become bogged down in our many problems, I see, unfortunately, a mentality in which we are becoming increasingly a nation of the unfree – the victim – and the timid, in how we’re approaching these challenges. Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman wrote a column this week drawing attention to the latest dire projections from the Congressional Budget Office. CBO projects the nation sinking deeper and deeper into an ocean of red ink. Under a business-as-usual scenario, the Senator notes, we’ll pile...

Perfect candor wasn't Richard Nixon's strong suit. But he spoke the gospel truth when he described himself as "an introvert in an extrovert's profession." He was one of the most successful political campaigners of the 20th century: winning election to both houses of Congress, serving two terms as Dwight Eisenhower's vice president, and twice winning the White House in his own right — the second time by a 49-state landslide. Nixon spent decades in the public eye, and was indefatigable in pursuit of votes. Yet rarely has a politician seemed less suited for the political life. When he resigned the...

Here's the question, not of the day, but of the month: Who's Winning the War in Ukraine? That may sound like a simple question, but it isn't. That question leads to a second question "In whose eyes?" It also depends on the definition of "war". And it also depends on the definition of "win". And finally it depends on which media source you believe. Military Aspect From a military aspect, I have seen reports from both sides. The Western media portrays Ukraine on the march with the rebels surrounded, and losing ground. Is that accurate reporting? I will let you...

The state of Arizona executed double murderer Joseph Wood this week. The convicted killer was injected with a combination of lethal drugs that eventually caused his death; however, it took too long according to some observers. After being administered the drugs, Wood lingered for almost two hours before dying. Witnesses included reporter Troy Hayden who said the execution was “botched” and that Wood’s last words were similar to “a fish on shore gulping for air.” While Hayden complained that the execution was “very disturbing to watch,” U.S. Senator John McCain noted that it was “terrible” and amounted to “torture.” During...

You won’t know whether to laugh or cry after perusing these stories that will be added to our “great moments in government” collection. For instance, did you realize that American taxpayers were saddled with the responsibility to micro-manage agriculture in Afghanistan? You’re probably surprised the answer is yes. But I bet you’re not surprised that the money was flushed down a toilet. Here are some excerpts from a report on how $34 million was wasted. American agricultural experts who consider soybeans a superfood…have invested tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to try to change the way Afghans eat. The...

Here are Professor Peter Morici's forecasts for upcoming economic data. Forecast Prior Observation Consensus Week of July 28 July 28 Pending Home Sale Index - June 103.3 103.9 104.2 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index 13.0 11.4 12.0 July 29 S&P Case/Shiller Index - May Twenty City Y/Y 9.9 10.8 9.9 Consumer Confidence - July 85.5 85.2 85.5 July 30 ADP Employment Report - July 236K 281 235 GDP - Q2 (a) 2.7% -1.0 3.1 GDP Implicit Price Deflator 1.8 1.3 2.0 July 31 Initial Unemployment Claims 300K 284 305 Employment Cost Index - Q2 0.5% 0.3 0.5 Employment Cost Index -...