Free Republic

WHAT WILL RON PAUL DO? By Roger Stone In 1977 as Treasurer of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, I went to Houston Texas to work in the Special Election campaign of Ron Paul, the first time he was elected to Congress. I have long admired his faith in and consistent support of the US Constitution and the proper limits of government. I have also always admired his willingness to go against the grain and sometimes tell the unpopular truth. Congress Paul was a little disingenuous when he told the Washington Post that he would decide about an independent candidacy...

What Barack Obama has going for him in 2012 is, well, put it this way: human nature. Witness the French. Witness the Greeks. Part of being human is wanting all you can get without paying any more for it than absolutely necessary. In the context of 21st century governance, this translates into a popular plaint heard throughout Europe and the United States: Namely, suffering is for the birds! The French and the Greeks, worn out by government austerity measures intended to bring their resources more in line with their enormous debts, threw out their governments over the weekend. Sometimes sacrifice...

Editor's note: This piece was written by Mike Proto. New Jersey is on the cusp of taking its biggest leap towards planting the roots of Obamacare in the Garden State. Last March, the state Legislature passed a bill that would establish the law’s bureaucratic health care exchanges and now time is running out to stop it. If Gov. Christie does not veto the New Jersey Health Exchange Act by May 10, Obamacare will become entrenched in New Jersey as state law. Since taking office in January of 2010, Governor Chris Christie has established a persona as a no-nonsense, straight talker,...

In the competition for the creepiest campaign material of 2012, we might already have a winner. It is "The Life of Julia," the Obama re-election team's cartoon chronicle of a fictional woman who is dependent on government every step of her life. The phrase "cradle-to-grave welfare state" originated with Clement Attlee's socialist government in post-World War II Britain. Back then, it was meant as a boastful description of a new age of government activism. Subsequently, it became a term of derision for critics of an overweening government. In the spirit of Attlee, the Obama campaign revives the concept of "cradle...

..."The overwhelming majority of Americans do not understand that Obama's first term was dedicated to putting in place executive power to enable him and the administration to fulfill the campaign promise of "transforming America" in his second term regardless of which political party controls Congress. That is why his re-election team is virtually ignoring the plight of incumbent or prospective Democratic Party office holders... "The most significant accomplishment of Obama's first term is to make Congress irrelevant. Under the myopic and blindly loyal leadership of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats have succeeded in creating an imperial and, in...

It should come as no surprise that the Republican National Committee has been “covertly” supporting Mitt Romney throughout the primaries, as POLITICO recently “revealed.” It was the worst-kept secret in Washington Reagan, the über outsider, called for a “new Republican Party” back in 1977. Reagan wanted the GOP to shed its country club, corporate boardroom image and become a genuine conservative movement, focused on the individual. Reagan’s words threatened the status quo of the scions and heiresses of the country club and corporate boardroom set. The former California governor and his conservative followers were never accepted by these insiders [...]...

The abortion industry racks up profits by dumping expensive procedural complications on hospitals, legitimate physicians and the public. Many abortionists lack staff privileges at local hospitals, so when women having abortion complications go to an emergency room, the enormous costs are shifted to others. Missouri ended some of that cost-shifting in 2005 by prohibiting abortions unless the provider has hospital privileges within 30 miles. As a result, one of its only three abortion clinics closed shop, presumably because its abortionist lacked staff privileges at a local hospital to handle complications and abortions in Missouri then declined. Last month Mississippi became...

“Justice delayed is justice denied” is a maxim generally attributed to 19th century British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone. We’ve heard that phrase often, and the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is based on this principle. “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial,” it provides. Let’s place “speedy trial” on the back burner for a moment as we consider Saturday’s arraignment of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Here’s a brief timeline of the life of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of 9/11, since his capture and custody at the military prison...

....You know the drill. Pick a target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it. Obama's re-election team has set it sights on the Tea Party. Of course, it's not the first time the Tea Party has been in Team Obama's crosshairs. Just last month, while appearing on CNN's State of the Union, David Axelrod told Candy Crowley that Republicans in Congress "were in the thralls of this reign of terror from the far right that has dragged the party to the right." So if one of Obama's top advisers is prepared to liken his political adversaries to terrorists then you...

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country," President John F. Kennedy famously said in his inaugural address. In his bid for re-election, the hope-and-change president, Barack Obama, clearly has decided to ditch JFK's country-first approach. The Obama-Biden campaign is all about what this country can do for voters. Last week, the Obama campaign introduced "The Life of Julia," a slide show about a fictional American that contrasts and compares the programs and services that would be available for her from age 3 under an Obama administration with those that would...

   http://www.in.gov/apps/sos/primary/sos_primary12         A. Closing the Polling Places: Indiana state law requires counties to begin counting votes cast at the primary election immediately after the polls close at 6 p.m., prevailing local time. In accordance with prevailing local time, the polls in the 12 counties of Gibson, Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton, Perry, Porter, Posey, Spencer, Starke, Vanderburgh, and Warrick close at 7 p.m., Indianapolis time. The polls in the remaining 80 Indiana counties close at 6 p.m., Indianapolis time. In most counties, ballots are counted first at local polling places by precinct election officials. These officials then travel on election night to...

How Europe's crisis resolves itself as yet remains unknown. But with Sunday's returns from France and Greece, the mega-trends on the Old Continent are unmistakable. And for the European Union, they are ominous. Nationalism -- be it economic nationalism or ethnic nationalism -- is ascendant. Transnationalism and multiculturalism are in headlong if not irreversible retreat. The European project is itself imperiled. To be sure, no one should underestimate the commitment of Europe's elites to the vision of One Europe as challenger to the United States. In the capitals and corporate headquarters of the continent, these elites are, almost to a...

"Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr." is another of the Harvard professor's wonderful television series for PBS. This is "must-see TV" and a more than worthy sequel to three previous projects Gates has hosted about how some of us came to be what and who we are. In this latest 10-part series, Gates explores the genealogical and genetic history of a diverse group of people, from entertainer Harry Connick Jr. and Pastor Rick Warren to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Brown University President Ruth Simmons. There are less famous people, but the famous get you hooked...

The theme song of a popular TV show from the last decade featured the lyric "I worry all the time. If you paid attention, you'd be worried, too." It's a wise posture when analyzing the slow-motion crisis that is Europe. European governments are toppling like clock towers in an earthquake. The Dutch government fell on April 23, when it failed to agree with the opposition on an austerity plan. On May 6, Socialist Francois Hollande defeated France's Nicolas Sarkozy. Greece's ruling coalition has been shattered -- the vote splintered among dozens of small parties. Turning the rascals out is a...

President Obama formally kicked off his re-election campaign in Richmond, Va., and Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, and his theme was certainly not, shall we say, "it's morning again in America" -- President Ronald Reagan's optimistic re-election slogan in 1984. Obama's central message was more like: "Hey, I realize things look bad, and I'm not going to pretend you want four more years of this. But just think how much worse it would have been without me and how much worse it's going to get if you get rid of me." Interestingly, mainstream media journalists Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake were certain...

There's a reason it took the country so long to pull out of the Great Depression under FDR, why Americans became acquainted with the Misery Index under Carter, and why we've had the weakest economic recovery from a recession in U.S. history under Obama. Liberal economic policies just don't work. In fact, the only time left-wingers have taken charge in the last 40 years without decimating the economy was during the Clinton years when Republicans in Congress balanced the budget and spent 6 years strong-arming Clinton to keep him from molesting the economy like one of his interns. This is...

Every week there is a new “controversy” manufactured by the Obama administration in order to avoid answering the tough questions on the only question that really matters. This week’s manufactured controversy doesn’t even rise to the level of controversy, but still, journalists are anxious to slurp up and then vomit back the gossipy gruel being doled out by the White House.If the administration manufactures much more news, they’ll have to get a waiver from the EPA under the MACT Act for the noxious and toxic emissions they are producing every week.  On Sunday, vice president Joe Biden suggested that he-...

Last week, I showed how the Republican Party likely would lose the presidential election in November if it were to use conventional campaign tactics. However, I also explained an unconventional strategy that could usher in victory for the GOP and our republic -- a tactic used by President Abraham Lincoln. This week, I want to elaborate more on Lincoln's concept of a team of rivals -- and who could be a part of it -- and also share with you the inspiring dream my wife, Gena, had that we both hope comes true. For those who missed Part 1, a...

By the end of today we will know which Democrat will be running against Gov. Scott Walker in the June 5 recall election, and if the polls are right it will be Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Barrett’s campaign will shift into high gear, and for the next month we will be bombarded with campaign ads addressing assorted issues carefully chosen to distract us from the most important issue: Barrett’s promise to “use any vehicle I can” to reinstate collective bargaining privileges to public unions. But Barrett also promises to “reunite” Wisconsin. Now let’s think about that. Do you believe Wisconsinites...

Is there something fishy about algae? Is it the revolutionary new fuel source opportunity the Obama administration represents it to be? Last February, in a University of Miami campaign speech intended to pacify prospective pump price-panicked patrons, the president said: "We're making new investments in the development of gasoline and diesel and jet fuel that's actually made from a plant-like substance, algae...You've got a lot of algae out there, right? If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we'll be doing all right. Believe it or not, we could replace up to 17% of the oil...