Free Republic

President Obama and his supporters have had a turbulent relationship with Supreme Court. It reached a low point when he said that striking down his massive health care overhaul—which he said “was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress”—would be an act of illicit “judicial activism.” Though the president later backtracked, his allies continue to lament the prospect that the Supreme Court will do its job—most recently in a Chicago Tribune op-ed penned by House Minority Nancy Pelosi this week. The episode harkens back to a nasty chapter in legal history: the clash between the Court and...

Earlier this week Elizabeth Warren was asked by the Boston Globe a seemingly simple and straightforward question about her taxes: In 2011, did she pay the 5.85% rate (which is voluntary) on her Massachusetts state tax form? Since 2001, as I explained in a previous post, residents of the Commonwealth have had the option – if they so choose – to pay a higher tax rate than the 5.3% minimum. And since the former consumer advocate raked in more than $700,000 last year, the Globe believed their inquiry was an appropriate and reasonable one. At the time, however, she refused...

Don't you just love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning? Having criticized her Republican opponent for voting against a millionaires' tax measure, U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren said here Friday that she opted not to pay a voluntary higher tax rate in Massachusetts. "I paid my taxes, and I did not make a charitable contribution to the state," Warren, who worked with the Obama administration to create the new consumer financial protection bureau, said when asked if she paid a 5.85 percent state income tax instead of the standard 5.3 percent -- a choice given to Massachusetts taxpayers....

Barack Obama made an uncharacteristic error, more akin to those of his predecessor George W Bush, by referring to the Falkland Islands as the Maldives. President Obama erred during a speech at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, when attempting to call the disputed archipelago by its Spanish name. Instead of saying Malvinas, however, Mr Obama referred to the islands as the Maldives, a group of 26 atolls off that lie off the South coast of India.

In recent days, if he hasn't been pitching "fairness" and adoption of higher taxes with his so-called Buffet Rule, President Obama has been pandering to women voters.  On April 6, he paraded a group of ladies in front of cameras at a blatant campaign event – funded by taxpayers and hosted at the White House - thinly disguised as an economic forum.   The White House said the purpose was to "highlight ways the administration has helped create ECONOMIC SECURITY for women."  (emphasis added) But, so far as we know, the President failed to explain to the visiting ladies why women...

Amid Democrat attempts to use the Trayvon Martin shooting as a means to push for the repeal of Stand Your Ground laws, it’s been interesting to note how many Democrats have a past that includes support for them. For example, on April 2nd, I had a post on Big Government that highlighted how former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, used her Current TV show to lambaste Stand Your Ground laws, and to blame Republicans for the existence of such laws in the first place. However, as I showed, the dirty little secret is that Granholm signed Michigan’s Stand Your...

Over $200,000 in federal stimulus funds were used to relocate one manzanita bush from a highway median in San Francisco. This feat was undertaken even though the normal practice is simply to bulldoze unwanted vegetation in the path of roadway expansion. “Every life is precious,” explained Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) in whose district the expenditure was made. “Just because the same plant can be bought from a commercial nursery for under $20 doesn’t mean we should wantonly kill one merely because it is unwanted. Luckily, we were able to find it an adoptive home.” The plant’s new home will be...

I became sick to my stomach upon hearing that Sybrina Fulton, mother to murdered Trayvon, had stated this week that she felt that her son’s shooting death was “an accident.” I understand that Trayvon is her baby, not mine, and that a grieving mother should not only be given the space to mourn and emote as she sees fit…but that her emotions during this time can lead her to say things that the rest of the world can’t quite understand or co-sign. I get that. I also appreciate that Fulton had the opportunity to recant her statement later on HLN’s...

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama had a combined income of $789,674 in 2011 but paid a lower tax rate than the president's secretary, who made less than $100,000, the White House confirmed Friday. The Obamas paid an effective rate of 20.5 percent. White House aides would not reveal presidential secretary Anita Breckenridge’s tax rate but confirmed it was higher than the first family's rate. Breckenridge earned $95,000 last year. The Obamas' rate is less than the 30 percent the president wants millionaires to pay under his proposed Buffett Rule.

President Obama’s Secretary Paid Higher Tax Rate Than He Did President Obama today released his 2011 federal income tax, with he and his wife reporting an adjusted gross income of $789,674. The Obamas paid $162,074 in total tax – an effective federal income tax rate of 20.5%. The Obamas also reported donating approximately 22% of their income to charity — $172,130. President Obama has been making a big political push for the “Buffett Rule,” which would require millionaires to pay a minimum of 30% of their income in taxes. To illustrate the point, the president has pointed out that billionaire...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wept and asked God to spare his life during a pre-Easter Mass on Thursday after returning from his latest session of cancer treatment in Cuba. Very little is known about the 57-year-old socialist leader's condition, including even what type of cancer he has. Chavez has undergone three operations in less than a year, and received two sessions of radiation treatment. He says the latest surgery was successful, that he is recovering well and will be fit to win a new six-year term at an election in October. Yet big questions remain about his future, and on...

I can say without a doubt that my past is loaded with youthful indiscretions followed by a condensation trail of beer cans and cigarette butts as I rocketed into my forties. To say I speak with sympathetic experience when it comes to matters of drunken idiocy would be an understatement. With that being said…. What the hell is this little Debbie Wasserman Schultz protégée thinking? Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon has an article with screen captures depicting one Dani Gilbert, a staffer of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, referring to herself as a “Jewbag” and a proud member of “Jew...

The boy raised his hand, eager to answer the question. “What would you know about it?” exclaimed the teacher dismissively. “You’re not our race.”This was not dialogue from a Hollywood movie. According to a woman named Melissa Coon, it was what a teacher at East High School in Kansas City told her 13-year-old son, Allen, when he attempted to answer a question during Black History Month. Coon identifies that teacher as Mrs. Karla Dorsey, who is black; Allen is white.As has already been reported, Allen was a victim of a vicious racial attack last week in which two older black...

Lesson of the day: The word “slut” is acceptable… sometimes. Radio talk show giant Rush Limbaugh has been condemned by nearly every sector of the feminist and left-wing movements for using the term “slut” to refer to 30-year-old contraception activist and Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke — but at Harvard’s “Sex Week” Monday the Harvard affiliate of Law Students for Reproductive Justice championed the term with its own “Slut-Pride” seminar. Law Students for Reproductive Justice, the national body of the Georgetown affiliate for which Sandra Fluke was once president, condemned Limbaugh for such language in early March.

......The two-minute clip shows Hanks hosting the castaway-themed auction in a room decorated to look like a jungle at the £18,000-a-year St Matthew’s Parish School in Pacific Palisades, California. As the blacked-up man takes the stage, Hanks quips that the Right-wing US commentator Bill O’Reilly, who has himself often been accused of racial insensitivity, has arrived....... ..........Hanks, who starred in the 2000 Hollywood film Castaway, recently narrated a 17-minute campaign video calling for President Barack Obama’s re-election. In response to the auction video, Niger Innis, of the Congress of Racial Equality, said: “I call upon President Obama, who has Tom...

It’s wrong when you do it, but it’s OK when I do it. Welcome to the world of political discourse. This was demonstrated after State Sen. Stacey Campfield ignited a firestorm over remarks he made on a radio show about the origin of AIDS and the degree to which it is transmitted, or not transmitted, between heterosexuals. Campfield’s comments led to his being denied service in a Knoxville restaurant, an act for which the restaurant owner received a good deal of acclaim from the political left. A frequently used statement was, “She has the right to refuse service to anyone...

An evergreen guide to what the Left is doing or plans to do is to listen to what they accuse their political opponents of. Along those lines, incandescent in its projection, cynicism, and hypocrisy is the latest mantra emanating from the Democrats of the “Republican War On Women,” based on nothing more than some crude comments (since apologized for) by a talk-show host aimed at a Democrat feminist activist who thinks that the world owes her free (and expensive) contraception and, moreover, that it should be done in violation of the religious conscience of Catholics. Of course, they don’t want...

According to the Washington Post, the Obama White House invited 362 people to its state dinner for the United Kingdom. One familiar face will be gracing the red carpet: Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Beast. For those who don’t remember, Andrew Sullivan is the once-conservative columnist who shifted dramatically to the left over the past few years – and reserved a special hatred in his heart for Sarah Palin and her special needs son Trig. Early on in the campaign, Sullivan suggested that Trig was not actually Sarah Palin’s son – he was Bristol’s son, and Sarah had claimed him...

If offensive slurs are a problem for the left, why does Al Sharpton have a primetime slot on MSNBC? The left has started a war against Rush Limbaugh -- a war it cannot win. Limbaugh said something for which he later apologized, and rather than accept that apology, the left and its media allies decided to exploit the situation, turning it into a crusade to take an opposing voice off the air. Even the White House has jumped on this neo-fascist bandwagon. Not the Obama campaign. The White House. The People's House. This is, pure and simple, a crusade to...

If offensive slurs are a problem for the left, why does Al Sharpton have a primetime slot on MSNBC?