Free Republic

At the heart of conversations around water coolers, dinner tables, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Tea Parties is this simple question - by what authority is the federal government doing what it's doing? What's the basis for the out-of-control spending, the bank and auto bailouts, the proposed takeover of healthcare, the specter of new taxes, and the vast and unchecked expansion of federal power?

It has gotten to the point where I wince every time I hear or read someone calling for the “restoration” of “civility” in American politics. Such plaints are either naive or sinister — mostly, I suspect, the latter, since “civility” in the context of politics is a code word which means “putting the muzzle on the opposition.”

The Drudge Report and other conservative sites are highlighting a newly-unveiled logo for the U.S. Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency and complaining that the new logo (pictured at left) is reminiscent of both the Obama campaign logo and an Islamic flag. "the new MDA shield appears ominously to reflect a morphing of the Islamic crescent and star with the Obama campaign logo," writes Big Government's Frank Gaffney. "… Team Obama is behaving in a way that -- as the new MDA logo suggests -- is all about accommodating that 'Islamic Republic' and its ever-more aggressive stance." Critics, meanwhile, are...

It's bad enough that Greece's debt problems have rattled global financial markets. In the world's largest economic and military power, there's a far more serious debt dilemma. For the U.S., the crushing weight of its debt threatens to overwhelm everything the federal government does, even in the short-term, best-case financial scenario -- a full recovery and a return to prerecession employment levels. The government already has made so many promises to so many expanding "mandatory" programs. Just keeping these commitments, without major changes in taxing and spending, will lead to deficits that cannot be sustained. Take Social Security, Medicare and...

The federal government's bailout of Chrysler and General Motors has been a big success. At least, it has been a big success if you're a Ford dealer. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ford sales for the month of December 2009 were up 33.5 percent compared to December 2008, even as Chrysler and GM sales were falling. When the government's auto bailouts were announced, Dick Edwards Ford in Manhattan, Kansas, saw an opportunity. According to Mark Besthorn, the dealership's sales manager: "We just thought about it and decided we wanted to strike while the iron was hot." Days later, the...

U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes announced Monday that he will no longer request federal money to finance projects in New Hampshire that benefit businesses, hospitals, police departments and colleges. Hodes, a Democrat, said the appropriations process also known as earmarking is broken because many lawmakers abuse the system. He cited the poor economy and federal deficit as other reasons behind his newly adopted stance. But Hodes denied that he is forgoing earmarking because he is running for U.S. Senate and stepping away from the controversial issue could benefit him politically, as the state Republican Party immediately claimed. “There’s nothing I can...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The federal government was closed Monday after a record-breaking snowstorm swept across the northeastern United States and put a damper on one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. Just days before Christmas, the eastern seaboard from North Carolina to New England was digging out from the worst blizzard in years, which closed train and bus service, paralyzed air traffic, crippled motorists and left hundreds of thousands of residents without power in some areas. Americans pining for a white Christmas got more than they bargained for, with local officials urging residents to hunker down indoors as...

Because they're more skilled than the private sector. Latest analysis from USA Today finds that the federal government has been creating a lot high paying jobs for itself. Yet, the excuse is that they're hiring more skilled people than in the past: USA Today: "There's no way to justify this to the American people. It's ridiculous," says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House's federal workforce subcommittee. Jessica Klement, government affairs director for the Federal Managers Association, says the federal workforce is highly paid because the government employs skilled people such as scientists, physicians and...

111, to be exact. Here's the full text if you want to open two windows and view. The House Republican Conference has compiled a list of all the new boards, bureaucracies, commissions, and programs created in H.R. 3962, Speaker Pelosi's government takeover of health care: 1. Retiree Reserve Trust Fund (Section 111(d), p. 61) ...

WASHINGTON -- Federal drug agents won't pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines to be issued Monday by the Obama administration. Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law. The guidelines to be issued by the department do, however, make it clear that agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under...

The latest installment of "change we can believe in" is sweeping reform of the financial services industry. Central to proposed Democrat reforms is the establishment of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This agency would have broad authority to oversee and regulate financial service products like mortgages and credit cards and will be responsible to protect consumers from "unfair" and "abusive" products.

DHS strips Arizona sheriff of authority to patrol for illegal immigrants

The Oklahoma congressional delegation wants U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to explain why the Justice Department got involved in a debate by the Oklahoma Legislature this year over making English the state’s official language. The delegation sent a letter to Holder on Tuesday questioning why his Civil Rights division sent a letter to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson in the midst of the English-only debate reminding him that state entities receiving federal funds have to observe certain laws regarding people with limited proficiency in English. The letter, sent by all seven members of the delegation, asks Holder to explain his...

Section 1. Extension of Identified Benefits. The Secretary of State and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall, in consultation with the Department of Justice, extend the benefits they have respectively identified to qualified same-sex domestic partners of Federal employees where doing so can be achieved and is consistent with Federal law.

CNSNews.com) – Both the House and Senate versions of President Obama’s health care reform plans contain passages explicitly excluding illegal immigrants from receiving federal money to purchase health insurance from either a private or government-run health plan. Coming on the eve of a White House summit on immigration, the provisions would mean that some of the 46 million uninsured people living in the U.S. would be legally barred from benefiting from Obama’s government-led restructuring of the American healthcare system. Obama, who pledged on Friday to tackle immigration reform, will host senators and congressmen at the White House Thursday to discuss...

The state of Montana has drawn a line in the sand by passing a new gun law that virtually thumbs its nose at the federal government's encroachment on state and individual rights. If the tea parties were the first shot across the bow of liberal fascism, this is surely the second - and it's being done with heavy artillery. Montana Governor Brian D. Schweitzer, for what it's worth, is a Democrat. Montana fires a warning shot over states’ rights State is trying to trigger a battle over gun control — and make a pointupdated 4:54 p.m. ET April 29, 2009...

May 6, 2009 Sheriff Richard Mack states this in his video and here is an exerpt followed by his video presentation: (more on his website) "My name is Richard Mack....the founding fathers established a system that would keep the federal government impotent. This is the time to reenact that. The 10th Amendment basically tells the federal government if you ever go outside Article I, Section 8 where the Constitution delineates and details what they can and cannot do, if they want to get creative, or if they want to expand the federal bureaucracy, or if they want to expand the...

EVANSVILLE -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is taking President Barack Obama to task for his support of abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research. Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, criticized Obama's positions during a speech at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life's annual dinner Thursday night in Evansville.

Obama's administration is on look-out for "right-wing extremists"...and it putting out the word to law enforcement agencies all across America to be on the alert.Yes, really.The Department of Homeland Security has just put out a groundbreaking report identifying these "extremists", which pretty much look like any conservative who happens to have a beef with Obama and/or big government/liberal policies.This is one of those things that you really are torn about.  As in, you get really angry at how your government and then just reach the point of frustration that you have to laugh.The guy has only been in office for...

AROUND America, taxpayers have had enough. Fed up with excessive spending, planned tax increases and a federal government that first caused the financial bubble through misregulation, and then grabbed power in order to "fix" it, they're hitting the streets to protest. The first march came in Seattle, where a couple of mom-bloggers organized a rally on Feb. 16. Rallies followed in Denver and Mesa, Ariz., on the 17th. Then CNBC talker Rick Santelli delivered his "rant heard 'round the world," calling for a "tea party" protest in Chicago on July 4. The name stuck, and further Tea Parties began popping...