Free Republic

While liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill are working to pass President Obama's plan to overhaul the nation's health care system, few are talking about this essential issue: Will health care reform force taxpayers to pay for abortions for the first time in 30 years? The short answer is yes, because there is no explicit provision in the bill to: • Prevent taxpayer funding of abortions as part of the health care benefit Congress is considering. It is ironic that taxpayer-funded abortions would be considered a "health care benefit" since the baby gets no health care benefit from abortion. •...

I am really enjoying the pundits bewilderment over the calculus of Sarah Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska. I just want to point out that Sarah said she is seeking a “higher calling” and not a “higher office”. Observe also that she does not believe one needs a “title” to be an effective agent for change. Both comments indicate to me that her resignation is not, by design, the beginning of a national campaign for President of the United States. But just for grins, lets pretend Sarah is “crazy like a fox” as Bill Crystal suggests and that she is...

The present deflation is worth putting in context. Below (click to enlarge) is the annual rate of CPI change since 1913: We are in the first deflation since the Great Depression, albeit a mild one. In fact, raw materials prices have fallen just as far, but our consumption basket has shifted to items whose prices are slower to deflate. Note that the great deflation of 1929-1933 is followed by a brief increase in inflation (to a 5% year on year CPI gain) before falling back into negative numbers. This was the result of FDR’s devaluation of the dollar against gold,...

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over...

Yesterday, on July 4th, we celebrated our 233rd Independence Day as a nation. This is the day the Declaration of Independence was signed, but the process of separation from British began years earlier with the Boston Massacre in 1770, where five colonists died. The unease continued in 1773, when the colonists organized the Boston Tea Party to protest a tea tax. The Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 officially began the American Revolution. On June 7, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted for a resolution stating “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free...

... We must at once understand all of the evil political movements of history, the plague of human prejudice, long-standing geopolitical conflict, the effective demise of the American Bill of Rights, among other things. A population can be led, no matter how outrageous the claims being made to lead them. In the midst of the global warming hoax, we have seen incontrovertible evidence of the ease with which at least some followers are driven to fanaticism in support of a purely manipulative cause. ...

Last week, in the midst of President Obama's efforts to push unprecedented expansions of federal regulatory authority through Congress, North Korea's bellicose threats of nuclear annihilation, and the Iranian regime's brutal campaign to suppress political dissent, the American public's attention was focused elsewhere. On June 25th, 2009, the nation plunged into mourning upon learning of the tragic deaths of Michael Jackson—inimitable King of Pop—and Hollywood's original "angel" Farah Fawcett. In the time it took for a commercial break, the coverage of the Iranian protests, the debates about cap and trade and healthcare reform, and the diplomatic efforts to recover two...

Did you get Obama’s email yesterday? I did. It came from the address info @ Barackobama.com, and, as you might expect from the President of the United States on the Fourth of July, it had an “Independence Day” theme to it. Here’s what he wrote to me: Dear Austin (you know how it is with “me and Barack” - we’re on a first-name basis); This weekend, our family will join millions of others in celebrating America. We will enjoy the glow of fireworks, the taste of barbeque, and the company of good friends. As we all celebrate this weekend, let's...

Before Lebanon’s parliamentary elections were over, the world was already turning its attention from Beirut to Tehran, where the presidential campaign was wrapping up. And as the unexpected post-election drama unfolded, ripples from Tehran spread across the globe, raising new questions about that country’s relations with the rest of the world, including Lebanon.

In my opinion, the best part of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address on January 20, 1961, had nothing to do with asking anyone anything. The moment to remember was when he said: “The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe - the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God....

The Obama administration is reacting to the anticipated launch of another North Korean long-range ballistic missile, expected to fly over the Pacific toward Hawaii sometime soon, by putting missile defense on alert. That's a big change from last time. Back in April, in advance of North Korea's last missile test, the administration pretty much pooh-poohed the threat posed by the Taepo Dong launch, characterizing Pyongyang's saber-rattling as bluster. Indeed, from all outward indications, Team Obama did just about nothing but bloviate to defend U.S. territory and interests from the missile that, by almost all accounts, has the potential to reach...

Thanks to vacancies created by last fall’s election, then-president-elect Barack Obama faced the first dramas of his administration: Finding credible, re-electable bodies to fill those seats. Remember the good old days of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and whether or not he could legally appoint someone to replace Sen. Obama? Then there was the near-anointment of Caroline Kennedy to replace New York’s Sen. Hillary Clinton. After much controversy, Roland Burris took Obama’s Senate seat, N.Y. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand replaced Hillary, Vice President Joe Biden’s former chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, took his place in the U.S. Senate, and Michael Bennet of...

Some 233 years ago we made a clean break from the corrupt Old World of Europe. Fifty-six men risked it all to proclaim in the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That sums it up — the grand total of good government. This was the first government...

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- California's campaigns introduce candidates not only to the state's voters but to its immensity. In Bakersfield, Meg Whitman, 52, the former CEO of eBay who is campaigning for the 2010 Republican gubernatorial nomination, learned about carrots. In 1968, the Grimm brothers were selling vegetables at a roadside stand in Anaheim. They moved to Bakersfield and today Grimmway Farms and one rival provide 80 percent of the nation's carrots, partly because the brothers figured out how to make the vegetables pleasingly uniform in shape. Who knew? Whitman didn't, and the story, which she tells enthusiastically and at...

Former congresswoman and current crazywoman Cynthia McKinney is spending a little time in an Israeli hoosegow this week. Only a matter of time, you say? Well, she isn't there because of the time her father blamed her electoral defeat on the "J-E-W-S." Nor, as far as we can tell, is it due to her habit of roughing up cops—although there's no official word about her demeanor when her Greek-flagged Gaza-blockade runner was boarded by the aforementioned J-E-W-S in uniform. McKinney found herself in dangerous waters as part of her new affiliation with the Green Party (she was their presidential nominee...

Since posting this blog entry critical of Sarah Palin on Friday, I have been getting a lot of angry email from right-wing culture warriors. That's not particularly surprising. But what is surprising is the general tone. Many of my correspondents seem to be turning Palin into a sort of political Christ figure, who has been martyred for America's political sins. This email from one George Lyster was typical in this regard: "It's because of incessant criticism from people like you why she is quitting. Attack her, attack her children, attack her grandchildren. No individual should have been treated by the...

Sarah Palin: 'Time-out or flame-out?'The governor's resignation is an act of either liberation or self-destruction. Posted July 4, 2009 7:45 AM by Mark Silva Sarah Palin's stunning declaration of independence from "politics as usual,'' standing up for her "beloved state of Alaska'' while standing down as governor 18 months before the end of her first term, has been interpreted variously as a bold venture into a new realm of political leadership or as an irreversible, destructive act of political self-immolation. "Being right is better than being popular,'' Palin declared with characteristic defiance, standing by the dock of her lakeside home...

The first Independence Day rolled unevenly across the country, prompting spontaneous celebrations and demonstrations. Today, of course, legislation is available for viewing throughout the process. But these days, one can hardly imagine a public declaration of the massive bills that govern our lives. Even Congress and the president can't be bothered to read them.

President Obama was supposed to be “cool.” But he isn’t. He’s square. Not just mildly so, but embarrassingly square. He’s squaresville squared. It’s like you’re having a party with your friends and he’s the cringe-making middle-aged parent who wants to show he digs where the young people are at by grooving around in the middle of the dance floor all night long. How do I know? I’ve been there and I’ve been square. By “there,” I mean I’ve been in places that have tried all the cool Obama dance moves and eventually wised up to what utter clunkers they are....

Palin's 2012 Two-Step For those people who doubted whether the Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) resignation decision yesterday was freighted with 2012 presidential implications, we present two pieces of evidence. First, Palin released a statement on her Facebook page today that not only castigated the media for how they covered her announcement ("How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country," she wrote) but only sounded a distinctly presidential note. Said Palin: I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger...

Theories abound. But some of the people closest to the Alaska governor say she wanted to regain control of a political script that slipped out of her hands the moment she burst onto the national stage. She also wanted to shield herself and her family from the attacks that seem to have been aimed permanently at them in the 311 days since Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced her as his running mate, according to some former campaign aides and other advisers who speak regularly with Palin or her husband, Todd. ...What that stage may be remains the big question looming...

July 2, 2009Exclusive: The General who Invented Baseball William R. Hawkins The 4th of July is celebrated for the Declaration of Independence, and the birth of the United States. Many people will spend the day watching baseball, either major league games or a trip to a local minor league park for a taste of true Americana. This is appropriate because there is a connection between the date and the sport that stems from the fact that the 4th of July is famous for other reasons beyond what happened in 1776.July 4, 1863 was the turning point in the Civil...

The American lawyer Alan Dershowitz is one of the most prolific, high-profile and indefatiguable defenders of Israel and the Jewish people against the tidal wave of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish feeling currently coursing through the west. So a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal giving expression to the rising anxiety being felt about Obama by American Jews naturally arouses great interest. But just like the majority of American Jews, getting on for 80 per cent of whom voted for Obama, he is a Democrat supporter who is incapable of acknowledging the truth about this President. For most American Jews,...

July 4, 2009, finds people all over the world seeking freedom, often at great personal risk. In Honduras, the courts, national legislature and the military took an enormous risk by grabbing President Manuel Zelaya and hustling him off to Costa Rica in what has been called, incorrectly, a coup. It turns out Mr. Zelaya has powerful friends, including President Obama and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, a Zelaya mentor. But Mr. Obama got it wrong. It was Mr. Zelaya who was orchestrating a coup by attempting to force an illegal referendum that would have started him on a path to president-for-life...

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's abrupt and unscripted holiday resignation is an odd way to launch a potential presidential bid and certainly no help for a party battered by scandal and fighting for relevancy. From a folksy figure who catapulted from obscure governor to conservative darling and vice presidential nominee, it's merely the latest move in a political drama that has left Republican elders scratching their heads. --snip-- "If this is her launching pad for 2012, it's a curious move," said John Weaver, a former senior strategist for McCain's presidential bids. "Policy is politics, and she has no real accomplishments as...

What happened to Sarah Palin is a political game changer on the national level. It also may be a preview of what every American may face in a few years. The 18 ethics charges filed since she rose to prominence in Republican circles might be the first time the left has successfully used the Cloward-Piven Strategy to stop an individual politician on the national level. For those who do not know, the strategy was developed in the late 1960s by two sociologists at Columbia. In a nutshell it seeks to "hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy...

If you're a teen in California, want to know about your "right to privacy" and "reproductive health care"? Do you need your parents' permission to get birth control pills? Can you get a pregnancy test without your parents knowing? These are the messages the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is giving teens on its Web site - assuring them of their "right" to unbridled sexual "freedom." Yet the consequences of this libertine philosophy are never mentioned. Sexually transmitted diseases are now so rampant, especially among 15- to 24-year-olds, that Los Angeles County just launched a textmessaging program to...

ORATION, DELIVERED IN CORINTHIAN HALL, ROCHESTER, BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS, JULY 5TH, 1852. Published by Request ROCHESTER: PRINTED BY LEE, MANN & CO., AMERICAN BUILDING. 1852. FREDERICK DOUGLASS ESQ.: Dear Sir-The Ladies of the "Rochester Anti Slavery Sewing Society," desire me to return you their most sincere thanks for the eloquent and able address delivered in Corinthian Hall, on the 5th of July. Anticipating its speedy publication in Pamphlet form, they request that you will furnish them with one hundred copies for distribution: In behalf of the Society, SUSAN F. PORTER, President. ORATION. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens : HE...

"What (Palin) had, more than anything else, was a toughness and a dedication to her position. She blew all that with her announcement today." One of the things that Palin had going for her was that she was, as Cindy McCain described her during the Republican National Convention, a "hockey-mommin' ... basketball shootin' ... moose huntin' ... fly-fishin' ... pistol-packing ... mother of five." She had been nicknamed "Sarah Barracuda," and took on the "good ole' boys" who controlled Alaska politics. However, to all but her most loyal supporters, today's bizarre press conference made her look brittle -- like a...

Add Colin Powell to the ranks of Americans waking up from the Obama induced stupor. The Washington Times is reporting that Mr. Powell has voiced serious reservations in a CNN interview about Obama’s big government agenda and its consequences for our nation and our children. In the CNN interview to be aired Sunday on “State of the Union with John King” Powell cautioned Mr. Obama about "budgets that are running into the multi-trillions of dollars" and "a huge, huge national debt that, if we don't pay for in our lifetime, our kids and grandkids and great-grandchildren will have to pay...

A few reminders about fireworks, taken from the warning labels: 1. Do not hold in hand. This is apparently so nonintuitive it must be stamped on every item; you must wonder how stupid Chinese factory workers think we are: What else do we need to tell these idiots? Also, do not put in pants. Do not sleep with lit fireworks. Do not juggle. 2. Place on level surface. This one mystified us in North Dakota, a land so flat it made the gentle rolling hills of Iowa look like a brutal Himalayan range. Daddy, what does that mean? Well, it's...

Millions of American women are busy with July 4th preparations. They are dusting off picnic blankets, preparing potato salad, and making arrangements with friends and family for firework displays. Few have time to thinking about the meaning of our country's founding and how events today may change our country in important ways. As any school child could tell you, our founders rebelled because they wanted to escape a too-intrusive government. Since then, we have allowed government to expand in ways the founders never contemplated. Presently, our government is expanding once again. American women should consider what that means for their...

WASHINGTON -- It took the Obama administration eight days to figure out whether Iranians being gunned down for protesting a fraudulent election and demanding basic civil liberties deserved to be acknowledged by the president of the United States. It took the O-Team less than eight hours to side with Cuba's Fidel Castro, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega over the ouster of Manuel Zelaya in Honduras. As we now have come to expect, Mr. Obama got it wrong again, but this time, nobody noticed. The U.S. news media, preoccupied with the sudden demise of Michael Jackson, ignored the event...

There is a missing element in all the media attention to the Mark Sanford scandal: How did the South Carolina governor fulfill his public duties? When he told his staff he might take a hike on the Appalachian Trail, it seems he willfully misled them. He was, in fact, not only out of the state, but out of the country. And he did not leave his Lt. Governor in charge. To see how serious this dereliction of duty was, we have only to ask ourselves: What if the tragic collision on Washington’s Metro had taken place on Amtrak in South...

With Americans busy celebrating the 233rd birthday of the USA this week, freedom of speech comes to mind. We Americans are big on speaking freely, but the words we use are quite another matter. In fact, we are becoming a nation of braying sheep, using the same words and phrases over and over again. Benjamin Franklin, a wordsmith if there ever was one, would have some issues with that. "Issues." That is a drastically overused word that is being used to avoid the proper word: "problems." He has "issues" sounds a lot better than "the guy is dramatically screwed up."...

July 03, 2009 Sarah Palin breaks the mold again By Thomas Lifson. At this point there is much speculation about why Sarah Palin abruptly announced her impending resignation from Alaska's governorship. Her critics are already calling her "erratic" but she is consistent in one respect: she cares little for the established ways of doing things when she thinks she has a better course of action. The conventional wisdom holds that you bury news when it is announced at 4 PM on Friday of a holiday weekend. But the comparative news vacuum seems to be only amplifying the echoes reverberating through...

Here's a real dander-raiser on the eve of the 233rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence: Few if any members of the U.S. House of Representatives that last week narrowly voted to pass the outrageous and deceitfully titled American Clean Energy and Security Act actually read the bill. That's the hardly surprising -- but still unacceptable -- conclusion of Jonathan Adler, a Case Western Reserve University legal scholar writing in National Review Online. The legislation, commonly called the "cap-and-trade" bill, would impose an onerous, if not socialist, regimen on just about every aspect of American life at a cost ridiculously...

Sarah Palin's holiday-eve decision to resign as governor blindsided TV commentators and bloggers who scrambled to come up with an explanation. The Daily Beast's presents a roundup of insta-reactions. THEORY 1: VANITY FAIR HURT HER FEELINGS Palin locks horns with the media on a regular basis, and the most recent addition to America’s Palin-bashing oeuvre—Todd Purdum’s 10,000-word Vanity Fair profile—was a doozy. Palin’s closest colleagues ridiculed her with nicknames like “Little Shop of Horrors,” accusations of incompetence and a personality disorder, and leaked personal emails. Alluding to Palin’s notoriously thin skin when it comes to media criticism (last week, an...

Sarah Palin demonstrated once again today that she is one of America's most unconventional politicians following an unpredictable path to an uncertain future. That the Alaska governor has a flair for the theatrical -- and plays by her own rules -- was underscored anew by her stunning announcement that not only will she not seek reelection in 2010 but also that she will resign her office later this month.... ...Yet, it has been obvious that Alaska is a difficult place from which to participate in the national debate -- both because of its physical distance from the rest of the...

To All Humanity: My freedom is yours. You won't be free unless you help me to get my freedom. Don't remain silent while in the dark of night you hear screams of mothers for the lives of their kids. Don't cover your ears when you hear the cries of the children for their mothers and fathers who have been shot by hooligans. They're trying to silence them and me and take away the thirst for freedom when they are done with us they will look for you. Yes, my friend, my freedom is your freedom. Therefore, I beg you, to...

The news of Sarah Palin’s resignation as governor came during my show this afternoon, where we spent most of an hour discussing it with the chatizens and my co-host Duane Patterson. I’ve had a chance to watch the video of her announcement and read through dozens of Twitter messages back and forth attempting to rationalize this, and still, it simply can’t be rationalized on the basis of what Palin said today. It’s easily the most bizarre resignation I’ve seen, and just about senseless. The lame-duck explanation was the most incoherent part of the entire statement: “Once I decided not to...

California's such an easy target these days that even The Gray Lady is drawing a bead on the eighth-largest economy in the world. The New York Times is running a piece Sunday in its magazine on our fair state, titled "On the coast of crazy." The teaser uses words like "cataclysm" and "fiasco." It doesn't stop there: California always seems to produce more spectacle than anywhere else in the country, and that goes for its meltdowns too. Calamity is just part of the equation here, as if God gave California so much glamour and grandeur and great weather that he...

Mark Levin is happy now that he's got a bestseller decrying the tyranny certain to descend upon America under liberal rule, which Sean Hannity touted on his Fox News show last night. The appearance produced some plum bon mots fresh from Planet Wingnuttia: Levin: What's going on in this country is really anti-liberty. The president is -- you know, they just put Bernie Madoff away for life. The president's policies are Bernie Madoff times a thousand. He is taking a wrecking ball to this society. Levin evidently seems to have conveniently forgotten that Bernie Madoff was an exemplar of the...

Is Mark Sanford's behavior contemptible enough to make him King of Heels, or does that (dis)honor belong to John Ensign, Eliot Spitzer or John Edwards? ... Let's compare [them] low-blow by low-blow ...

Knowing that many, many conservatives will absolutely dump on me for saying this, I can't help myself: Sarah Palin's resignation is an appalling dereliction of duty and a highly cynical move to set herself up for a presidental run for which she is manifestly unqualified.

When we celebrate the Fourth of July, we are celebrating one of the most important political documents in the history of the world.  The Declaration is a statement to the world -- the people of the world was the audience -- about the very nature of government and its relationship to men.  Sometimes we appreciate what this document was, but perhaps we need even more to appreciate what it was not. It was not a poll-driven summation of current opinion.  The men who gathered in Philadelphia did respect each other's talents and knowledge, but the document they signed was not...

The great British intellectual G. K. Chesterton wrote that “America is the only nation in the world that is founded on [a] creed.” Think about that for a moment. Other nations were founded on the basis of race, or by the power of kings or emperors who accumulated lands and the peasants who inhabited those lands. But America was—and is to this day—different. It was founded on a shared belief. Or, as Chesterton said, on a creed. And what is that creed that sets us apart? It is the eloquent, profound, and simple statement penned by Thomas Jefferson in the...

Rather than a blow to a career, Todd Purdum’s piece is a spectacular tribute to a force of nature built for another national race. The excuse for the Republican circular firing squad of the holiday weekend is that Weekly Standard editor and party brainiac Bill Kristol claims that pugnacious McCain campaign enforcer Steve Schmidt has been caught gossiping to Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum about Sarah Palin’s rambling and incoherent vice presidential campaign last fall. Purdum, writing with a polite disdain, does flatter Palin as “the sexiest and riskiest brand in the Republican Party,” before he goes on to mention unnamed...

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