Free Republic

Sen. Mary Landrieu has problems. Years of Reid/Pelosi/Obama far-left politics have come home to roost in her center-right Louisiana. Obamacare, regulation, and an anti-energy dictatorship have turned many LA voters against their Democrat tradition. Barring a masterful performance on her part, or an equally pitiful performance by the GOP (recall Todd Akin from next door), Landrieu will lose November's race. Landrieu comes from Louisiana political royalty, but that dynasty is old-school Southern Democrat. Since the Senator has nothing to lose, her fellow Dems are using her for scientific purposes in their effort to hold the Senate. While Landrieu has voted...

Dictators seem to have an issue with gays. A perspicacious lot, dictators fight some sort of gay threat invisible to regular people. While Christians and traditionalists might decry gay acts, leftist dictators go straight to hating and oppressing gay people. From Nazi Germany to today's Iran, this tiny and largely invisible minority has had a lot of trouble at the hands of dictators. Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is the latest windmill tilter with his laughable oppression talk. After all, when Islamic terrorists are blowing up Sochi, why not oppress the gays? Enter the Village People. Some self-appointed leaders of the...

Among the steadily dwindling justifications for paying a cable bill remains Fox News's Journal Editorial Report. The weekly half hour commentary features the brightest political minds. With faces and personalities meant for print, the brain power of this bunch carries the show. Lead by Paul Gigot, but with a brain after-burner in Kim Strassel, this is a political enthusiast's best TV program. With such high regard, last week's program was the let-down of the year. Dan Henninger starts with a misunderstanding of the Lance Armstrong affair. Henninger opined that Armstrong's cheating was a "miss" of note for 2013. Maybe he...

Today, Rep. Watt (D. NC), the incoming FHA director admitted the housing bubble was orchestrated by the Federal Government, and even after the disastrous housing collapse, he and Pres. Obama want to "roll the dice" some more. That is the logical conclusion to draw from Watt's declaration that irresponsible lending standards will remain the rule. To most of Washington, both GOP and Dem, houses are not objects to be purchased by families who can afford them. Rather houses are tools for social engineering. Deemed a prima-face and incorruptible good, home ownership was promoted for all without considering that they are...

The price of oil is basically the same the world over. This is because fleets of ships and miles of pipelines transport oil from where it is plentiful to where it is needed (although a Carter era law bans the export of US oil). The only difference in oil price is due to its varying quality and the cost to transport it. Not so for natural gas. In the US, gas costs around $4 per MMBtu (million BTU, about a million cubic feet). In England, the price is $8, and in Japan, the price is $16. Why wouldn't someone liquefy...

Revolutions are breaks from the norm; like a hand grenade in a room, their results are unpredictable. The ordinary coup in a third world nation is not a revolution, but rather the norm in power transfers. In a coup, the base rules of thuggary are unchanged, whereas a revolution requires a rewrite of the rules, usually with unintended results. This week, the US Senate opened the door to revolution by suspending decades of tradition regarding Presidential Advise and Consent. While the immediate results are clear – left-wing courts and agencies – nobody who voted to abolish Cloture likely understands the...

The Old Media in the form of the AP planted a doozie of misinformation regarding Bernie Goetz's recent arrest for attempting to sell marijuana to a police officer. The article described Goetz as a "vigilante" and racist, the thugs he shot as "panhandlers," and his gun as "illegal." All of the characterizations are completely wrong and deceptive. Frist, Goetz was not a vigilante, he was only defending himself. In 1984, Goetz was confronted by four youths demanding money. The thug uses a language of tone and body so that while his words may be asking for money, the real message...

Today, the Old Media discovered that Obamacare means many individually insured people will lose their insurance, and they will have to pay more for inferior products to boot. The good folks at Drudge Report read the leftist news on behalf of those with weaker stomachs, and they noted NBC's breathless discovery of Obamacare's dark side. Yes, the Obama Administration wrote regulations designed to force as many people as possible out of their coverage and into plans that share costs with unhealthy and old participants. However, this humble blog reported such problems over three years ago. In September 2010, Shout Bits...

So, a small part of the Federal Government is shut down, for how long I really do not care. Most of the EPA is shut down, so that is nice. Some parks I rarely visit are closed, but the ones I do visit normally close after Labor Day, so I would like to care, but I don't. Maybe the Obama Administration will close the ski slopes I use (they lease their land from the Forest Service), but nothing so drastic yet. Things are about the same, really, so the motivation to write a Shout Bits article is slight at best....

SPOILER ALERT! AMC's Breaking Bad's finale last night vindicated team Walt. While Walt died, the show's premise was always that Walt's days were few. The question was what Walt might accomplish with his remaining life. Certainly not how he anticipated, but Walt did indeed leave money for his family, bring closure to Hank's murder, settle scores with his enemies, and die largely on his own terms. Compared to the moral morass where Hank lived, Walt's dive into crime looks admirable. No doubt Walt's product is highly dangerous and prone to abuse; meth addicts are among the sorriest stories. However, Hank...

At last night's 2013 Emmy Awards, actor Don Cheadle offered a rambling salute to the power of TV. Starting with Walter Cronkite's emotional reporting of Pres. Kennedy's assignation and moving on to other touchstones of leftist history, Cheadle argued that TV is the binding force of modern society. TV tells society what to feel, how to think, and what is OK to express openly. TV is the vanguard and constitution of all that is worthwhile. Cheadle's eyes tracked the teleprompter as if in disbelief of the propaganda he was required to spew. Far from an assertion of dominance, Cheadle's speech...

Today, after careful consideration, I have reluctantly notified Pres. Obama that I am withdrawing my name from consideration as Fed Chairman. I have reluctantly concluded that any possible confirmation process for me would be acrimonious and would not serve the interest of the Federal Reserve, the Administration or, ultimately, the interests of the nation's ongoing economic recovery. I am familiar with Dr. Friedman's work regarding money supply and the Great Depression of the 1930's and 1940's. Further, I am familiar with Taylor Rule and a few other topics. Therefore, my knowledge is at least broad and relevant as past Fed...

As with the Romney campaign, I spent some time knocking on doors in support of the Sen. Morse recall effort. As with Romney, walking through unfamiliar neighborhoods and speaking with complete strangers is an education everyone should experience. Unlike with Romney, the Morse recall campaign is a winner, driven by motivated enthusiastic volunteers. Political observers nationwide know Colorado Senate President John Morse as a leader in passing the state's radical anti-gun laws. Thanks to Morse, nearly every modern pistol is now illegal, parents may not lend weapons to their children, and several hundred manufacturing jobs are leaving the State. The...

Post Zimmerman acquittal, AG Holder more than hinted his department was searching for ways to further prosecute the shooter. The problem with such 'hate crimes' laws is that their systematic application applies in reverse more often than the way Holder wishes; black on white hate crimes are most common. Leftists understand this unwelcome fact is inoperative; hate crime laws are actually political tools. An even handed approach to civil rights might look very different from the DOJ that let New Black Panther voter intimidation slide. What would the Justice Department do if it were honestly seeking to enfranchise those whose...

History is the practice of crafting stories around events so that they seem purposeful. Historians are professionals who defend their stories against other stories they do not like. Case in point is the destruction of Thomas Jefferson's character. Sure, Jefferson did a few things – Declaration of Independence, founded UVA, the Louisiana Purchase – but he was a slave owner and thought little of black people's potential. A responsible historian would tell Jefferson's story by noting that most wealthy Virginians owned slaves, and most people in general thought little of racial equality; Jefferson was a product of his era. Still,...

In the wake of 9/11/01, the US had the sense that airport security was lacking – after all, a bunch of Saudis walked through security with box cutters and committed atrocities. In reality, box cutters were allowed on planes at the time, so even more thorough screenings would not have helped. Indeed, every airplane has many items on board that can be used as weapons (e.g. glassware, silverware, broken mirrors). 9/11 was a failure of intelligence because the government had the information to predict the attack and prevent it. Nonetheless, Sen. Daschle saw a chance to create a massive new...

Media in general do not report things that are not happening; perhaps an artifact of human nature, but important non-events simply are not news. The fact that nobody in the US starves to death for lack of food is a non-event, as is the decreasing rate of cancer or the absence of polio infections. These non-events are actually bigger news than the latest warehouse fire or shark attack, but such is the news business. Another non-event worthy of reporting is the complete death of Occupy Wall Street. Once billed as the future of political discourse, and heralded by many left-wing...

Where is the Fifth Amendment? George Zimmerman has been found not guilty of any crime involving his shooting of Trayvon Martin. The State presented its case, and in the eyes of a properly empowered jury, it came up short. The process does not involve exoneration, but Zimmerman is now free to rebuild his life. NBC news trumped up racial charges, Pres. Obama weighed in with dog-whistle racial comments, and the Sharptons of the world exploited the case for their own cynical means. The DOJ may have minimally funded protests aimed at pressuring the State to file charges against Zimmerman. Still,...

The Old Media's strongest advantage against Pres. Bush (43) was pressing him to admit he had made mistakes. The Left hammered the meme until well after Bush left office. They argued that Bush was too stupid to recognize his mistakes, or he was too arrogant to acknowledge them. In hind-sight, nobody was clairvoyant, and many mistakes were made. Iraq, the war everybody hated and Sen. Reid said was lost, is largely won, and the war's goals achieved. Perhaps the price was not worth the results, but there are results. The war most people including Sen. Obama supported, Afghanistan, is probably...

Hollywood liberal Jim Carrey used to be happy earning $20 million per film by focusing on fart noises. But, like every buffoon who gets lucky, Carrey now wants to be taken seriously. Fresh off a campaign to return the US to the days of polio-wards, Carrey has also decided that weapons of self-defense are evil – unless employed by his body guards. While common-sense adults know that vaccines and responsible gun ownership are vitally good things, there is no surprise when a goofy Hollywood leftist attacks them. This time, however, Carrey has peed in Hollywood's communal well. Carrey has come...