Free Republic

“The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.” So declared John Maynard Keynes in 1937, even as F.D.R. was about to prove him right by trying to balance the budget too soon, sending the United States economy — which had been steadily recovering up to that point — into a severe recession. Slashing government spending in a depressed economy depresses the economy further; austerity should wait until a strong recovery is well under way. Unfortunately, in late 2010 and early 2011, politicians and policy makers in much of the Western world believed that they...

Keyes v. Bowen: Petition DENIED

The dispute over Barack Obama's eligibility to be president erupted during the 2008 election campaign and featured among others a lawsuit filed on behalf of Ambassador Alan Keyes against California election officials who did not check whether Obama was eligibile. Now the 2012 campaign is charging ahead at full throttle, and the issue is still alive. That's because the case was before the U.S. Supreme Court for a conference today. A conference is a meeting at which the justices decide which cases they will review. To date, none of the Obama eligibility challenges that have reached the high court have...

----- As I consider McConnell's suggestion, I find myself thinking of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the War Powers Act and the other steps by which the U.S. Congress surrendered its constitutionally mandated initiative... Is McConnell's proposal part of a similar surrender with respect to the money issues? It masquerades as a clever ploy intended to tag Obama with the damaging political consequences of the U.S. government's runaway spending and indebtedness. But it's too clever by half (or is it two-thirds?). McConnell's proposal actually shifts the initiative in money matters away from the body intended to represent people at the...

Herman Cain is certainly aware that the First Amendment withholds from the U.S. government the power lawfully to prohibit the free exercise of religion. But has he thought at all about the connection between that provision and the one that says that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification for "any office or public trust under the United States"? Mr. Cain apparently believes that in today's world Americans have good reason to distrust any follower of Islam. But the Constitution explicitly prohibits officials of the U.S. government from applying religion as a criterion for public trust, whatever...

Shortly before his announcement that he will not seek the Republican nomination for president, Mike Huckabee made a remark that offers a telling insight into the understanding of politics that characterizes the politicians produced by the current twin-party sham. "People speak of Reagan as if he was absolutely steadfast," he said. "He was in his convictions. But you have to govern in a way that is different than you can campaign." The remark, and the fact that Mike Huckabee is the one who made it, confirm an insidious truth about the cynical New Deal political paradigm that structures the activities...

The high court confirmed to Gary Kreep, of the United States Justice Foundation, that the case Alan Keyes, et al. v. Obama, Bowen, Biden, Huguenin, et al. No. 10-1351, was placed on the docket on May 4.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Drake v. Obama, a case questioning whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States and is eligible to serve as president. Wiley Drake, a former vice presidential candidate in 2008 and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes, are two of the lead plaintiffs challenging the validity of President Obama's birth certificate. A lower court dismissed this case ruling that the Court is not the proper place to challenge a president's election.

Orly Taitz, Esq. and Gary Kreep, Esq., argue before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to have Barnett, Keyes et al v. Obama and Drake, Robinson v. Obama be heard and discovery granted. Orly does a fantastic job. Kreep helps.

More than a few commentators noticed the fact that in his speech on the subject, the budget-challenged Mr. Obama referred to tax increases as a way "to reduce spending in the tax code." As one of them pointed out, "The funniest part of his speech … was his contention that tax increases are now spending cuts." But is it right to assume that this is just quirky Obama logic? In fact his language logically and accurately reflects the truth about the income tax, truth I have many times pointed out in speeches and articles over the last 20 years. As...

Fox Business Goes Birther: Alan Keyes On Citizen Vs. Natural Born Citizen Issue And The Courts Evasion Of Obama's Constitutional Eligibility... Video: Fox Business Network Goes Full Birther: Dr. Alan Keyes Lays Out The Citizen Vs. Natural Born Citizen Issue And The Courts Evasion Of The Obama Eligibility Issue. The Fox Business Segment Aired On 4/21/2011... Reminder: Dr. Keyes', et. al., lawsuit against Obama will have oral arguments on May 2, 2011 at 9am, in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Pasadena division, courtroom 1. More details here. The reply brief for review embedded below... Excerpted, more here...

link to video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUTvCiNduv8

Arguments in a lawsuit that has been percolating through the federal court system in California since Barack Obama's election on his eligibility to occupy the Oval Office is going to be heard at the appellate level in just a few weeks. Officials with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today notified attorneys representing several dozen individuals – members of the military, members of state government and even a candidate for president – that oral arguments will be held on May 2. "I can't believe it, but after two years of Obama litigation, for the first time the court of...

I think American voters would do better to think about the influence political leaders exert by their words and actions, instead of treating their speeches (not to mention their sound bites and 60-second spots) as evidence of anything but what they think we want to hear. This came to mind last week as I read the report about Sarah Palin's non-appearance at this year's biggest conservative non-event (or should that be biggest non-conservative, pretending-to-be-conservative event?). She released a statement intended to keep her distance from the individuals and organizations whose non-appearance was meant to convey disapproval of CPAC's trendy surrender...

WASHINGTON – Former GOP presidential candidate and Reagan administration official Alan Keyes has joined the ranks of those calling on House Republicans to reject another hike in the debt limit that will permit the federal government to keep borrowing money to propel its spending programs. He joins Sens. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Reps. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., Ron Paul, R-Texas, and Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., in rejecting House Speaker John Boehner's concession to raise the debt limit, which is expected to be reached toward the end of next month. "We should demand of our representatives in Congress that...

So Obama has signed the legislation his henchmen pushed through the lame-duck session of Congress, intended to force personnel serving in the United States military to accept homosexual activity as lawful and legitimate conduct. Would this legislation have passed without the support of Republican congressmen like Ron Paul and senators like Scott Brown of Massachusetts? Of course, Paul is the guru of some who claim to be staunch advocates of liberty; and without the votes and financial support of grass-roots conservatives throughout the country, Brown would never have won election. *snip* Now, the prime source of visceral conservative opposition to...

Keyes tries to make the argument that Palin is being led astray by some of her advisors. From the article: "Yet the telltale flaw in Palin's supposedly conservative credentials is a proven penchant for relying on advisers who mislead her into decisions that are anything but conservative."

[Alleged] President Barack Obama is on a "political jihad promoting Islam around the world," said Larry Klayman, the founder of the conservative group Freedom Watch USA, at a panel on Wednesday. ----- Panelists called for House Republicans to push the Obama administration for a more "rational" approach towards Iran. Nothing short of removal of the regime is appropriate, said Klayman, which he said is the "modern day equivalent of what we saw during World War II." "We don't know exactly when Iran will have a bomb," said former CIA Director James Woolsey. (Woolsey was also a charter member of the...

All four videos complied and embedded together here. On YouTube: Part OnePart TwoPart ThreePart Four

The AIP response to press inquiries this morning: "We have always maintained that the burden of proof that he possesses the constitutionally required credentials to serve as President rests squarely on Mr. Obama and no one else. For a mere ten dollars, with Barack Obama's assent, the State of Hawaii can and will provide the American people with a copy of his actual long form birth certificate. The fact that Mr. Obama continues to be willing to expend large sums of money, including precious taxpayers' dollars, to prevent the public revelation of such a simple document, has raised serious legitimate...

Judging by the treatment of U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell in Delaware the elite hacks of the sham two-party system are determined that the outcome of the 2010 election should send a clear message to the grassroots Americans who are reacting against the elite betrayal of their nation and its principles: when it comes to running for office people who believe as they do, and have troubles like theirs, need not apply. They especially want to make it clear that anyone who has had problems making ends meet must consider themselves unqualified to run for public office. Considering the difficulties...

Judging by the treatment of U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell in Delaware the elite hacks of the sham two-party system are determined that the outcome of the 2010 election should send a clear message to the grassroots Americans who are reacting against the elite betrayal of their nation and its principles: when it comes to running for office people who believe as they do, and have troubles like theirs, need not apply. They especially want to make it clear that anyone who has had problems making ends meet must consider themselves unqualified to run for public office. *snip* Why should...

According to a recent WorldNetDaily article “former House Speaker and potential GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich used an appearance on Spanish language television to sound off on questions surrounding… Obama’s birthplace and religious faith declaring the president has an “obligation” to figure out why so many Americans doubt his life story”. The article reports that “the former speaker insisted that Obama was “absolutely” born in the United States and is a Christian”. Gingrich’s remarks are an apt illustration of the main reason why it’s so difficult to have confidence in Republican leaders like him. It’s too obvious that everything they...

*snip* America began with a ringing acknowledgement of the existence and authority of God. It began with the assertion of unalienable rights derived from God's authority. It began with an effort to respect that authority by establishing government based on the premise that all legitimate government aims to secure those God-given unalienable rights and must therefore derive its powers from the free and deliberate consent of the governed. Thus, without reference to "the laws of nature and of nature's God" the constitutional liberty of the American people cannot be understood or sustained. The key issue for America's future is not...

Like Pig-Pen’s characteristic pall of dust, a stink of greed and fear hangs about America’s currently ascendant public elite. This is nowhere more evident than in the reaction to the Ground Zero Mosque project. As I showed in a previous post, it’s not hard to demonstrate the absurdity of the argument that disapproving the location of the proposed Islamic “community center” somehow violates religious rights. “Practitioners of a religious cult that sacrifices innocent people cannot cloak their practice of murder as the free exercise of religion. Neither can practitioners of Islamic terrorism who assault innocent people as part of their...

I doubt that most people would be shocked to learn that sometimes the influence of power can interfere with and even derail the course of justice in our legal system.  Behind the scenes, a phone call from a powerful politician, or a corporate mogul often affects the actions or judgments of people whose personal ambitions they are in a position to help or hinder.  Usually though, people giving heed to such considerations have enough sense to cloak what they do with words or actions that give their corruption at least the appearance of probity.  Maybe its the tribute that vice...

*excerpt* As a matter of public policy, the issues on which Ken Mehlman exerted his retrograde influence within the GOP are not about his personal behavior. They are about the truth or falsity of the great principles, the self-evident truths, from which the liberty of the American people derives. If there is no natural right, no natural family, no ways of God reflected in the nature of mankind, then there are no unalienable rights; no principle of justice that requires their security; no authoritative basis for the rightness of government based on consent; no claim to self-government, of, by and...

By design or incompetence, Obama appears to be intent on creating a quagmire in which to dissipate America's military strength and resources. Most Americans have no objection to seeing their loved ones in the military risk and give their lives to fulfill the oaths that preserve the liberty of our people. It is deeply wrong to ask that they do so when the strategy that makes moral and military sense of their sacrifice has been cast aside.   As I indicated in the above quoted article posted at Loyal to Liberty in May 2009, almost as soon as he entered the...

In chemistry a reagent is defined as “a substance used to detect or measure another substance or to convert one substance into another by means of the reaction which it causes.” With this in mind, the Ground Zero Mosque (GZM) project is turning out to be an effective political reagent. In their reactions to it America’s political and other public figures are taking stands that reveal their core priorities and motivations. In my last posting I discussed this in regard to Ron Paul’s slashing attack on the GZM’s opponents, among them the families and friends of those murdered in the...

According to Newsmax “Ron Paul unleashed a lengthy and at times angry statement on his website Friday that supports the rights of Muslims to build what’s become known as the “Ground Zero Mosque.” As they read about it, I’m sure not a few of his admirers will disagree with him. But as usual they’ll dismiss it as another aberrant outburst from someone whose views they otherwise applaud. If Newsmax is right about his feelings, though, it makes sense to ask why he feels anger at the people opposing the GZM project. I think it’s because he accepts the view that...

The title of this post obviously alludes to Herman Kahn’s book, Thinking About the Unthinkable . Kahn is famous for his contributions to strategic thought at the onset of the age of thermonuclear war. With the G-string concealed bias one comes to expect there, the Wikipedia article about him suggests that his influence contributed to “the fallout shelters, evacuation scenarios, and civil defense drills now seen as emblematic of the paranoid 1950s”. Paranoia implies an irrational sense of threat and persecution. Yet given mid-twentieth century realities, the real madness (or is it wickedly calculated deception?) appears evident in the left’s...

This morning I noticed a link to a posting from the FreedomWorks website in which Freedomworks Chair Dick Armey presents their endorsement of David Malpass in the GOP primary for the special U.S. Senate election in New York. I then paid a visit to the candidate’s website, which headlined a recent endorsement by Sue Kelly, formerly a New York Congresswoman, and a prominent so-called “pro-choice” Republican. The quote from her endorsement statement tells us that “David…has the experience and skill set to grow the economy and create jobs.” Such enthusiasm from someone who aligns with the Democrat party’s abandonment of...

I always find it repugnant when Barack Obama pretends to articulate and apply America’s moral values. As products of Saul Alinsky’s finishing school for Marxist protégés, Obama and his crew have no respect for the self-evident truths in which those values originate. It’s not that they have no use for them. On the contrary, they refer to them only when they are useful for ideological warfare. Obama’s reference yesterday to religious tolerance, and America’s respect for religious freedom, is a case in point. According to an AP report, he “is weighing in forcefully on the mosque near ground zero, saying...

When given the chance to register an opinion, the majority of Americans express their desire to keep intact laws and government policies that respect the God-ordained natural family. The people of California did so in Proposition 8. Many of them are justifiably outraged at the decision taken by federal Judge Vaughn R. Walker that purports to invalidate their will. The key to Judge Walker's assault on the constitutional sovereignty of the people of California is found in these words: A state's interest in an enactment must of course be secular in nature. The state does not have an interest in...

A couple of days ago I read a story reporting Brian Bilbray’s remarks about the issue of Obama’s constitutional eligibility to be President. Bilbray denied that the phrase ‘natural born citizen’ has anything to do with birthplace. He asserted that “a natural born citizen is someone who is born in the U.S. or overseas if the birth is registered with the government.” Bilbray’s statements prompted one commentator to ask “Where is this guy from? Is he dealing with a full deck?” But the whole tenor of Bilbray’s obtusely wrong and dismissive statements is consistent with the Republican Party’s derelict response...

Almost all conservatives profess greatly to admire America’s founders. They also declare their allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. Yet some are also vocal in their condemnation of “democracy”, and their conviction that the United States is not a democracy but a republic. When stated with proper precision, I understand and agree with this view. Sadly, such precision is rarely in evidence these days. This was not so when the Constitution was written.

Daily Brief #7 In his vote favoring the confirmation of Elena Kagan, and the statement he made to justify it, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham again marks himself as the kind of politico people must drive from office if they mean to restore and preserve republican, constitutional self-government in the United States. While pretending that Kagan is not the sort of person he would have nominated for the Supreme Court, Graham slyly violated the second of the Bibles Ten Commandments when he suggested that Christ’s articulation of the “Golden Rule� (Do unto others as you would have them do unto...

Daily Brief #6 Every day brings some new evidence that even people who are supposed to be conservatives are unable or unwilling to think through rudimentary features of the Constitution. Today I for example I came across this declaration in a commentary piece at WND. The commentator wrote “I am not pleased to see Sonia Sotomayor or Elena Kagan sitting on the bench, but I would have voted to approve them. That’s because I believe the president is entitled to appoint whomever he wishes, whether it’s Ruth Bade Ginsburg or Robert Bork.� As I read this what came to mind...

In an article I just read at the American Thinker website, Cindy Simpson reacts to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s opinion that “Birthright citizenship I think is a mistake.” She says “Although Graham talked about “changing” the Constitution to outlaw the practice, many experts say the Constitution as written does not authorize birthright citizenship in the first place.” Both Graham’s statement and Simpson’s comment describe the situation in an inaccurate and misleading way. The problem is not “birthright citizenship.” Most American citizens are birthright citizens, meaning simply that at birth, and without need of any process of naturalization , they are natural...

Speaking of unalienable rights, the GOP’s handling of the Kagan nomination thus far offers new evidence that the Party’s current leadership remains obtusely indifferent to the tragic watershed Kagan’s nomination represents for the American republic. In response to a question by from Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, she refused to support the fundamental notion that all people have unalienable rights. With the deceitful pseudo-cleverness now characteristic of those hostile to the principles of the Constitution, she pretended that as a Supreme Court justice she would be obliged to deal only with the rights enumerated in the Constitution. Of course this seemingly...

Back in 2008 I went to Des Moines, Iowa to participate in the debate among candidates for the Republican presidential nomination sponsored by the Des Moines Register. During a radio interview I was doing in that context, the interviewer made a remark (while we were chatting off air, as I recall) that came back to me today as I read Professor Angelo Codevilla’s eye-opening piece, America’s Ruling Class and the Perils of Revolution.  The interviewer bluntly observed that given my commitment to God and liberty, the GOP leadership must look upon me as a traitor to my class. I think...

I just read a piece by Dick Morris, the former high level Bill Clinton operative now seen accepted as a politically savvy “conservative” pundit. In “The End of the Post-racial Presidency” he appears to lament the fact the “Obama is letting his supporters strip away his image of a post-racial president by their increasingly racial rhetoric and his support for radical black activists.” Then he joins the pack of GOP partisans that has gleefully played up “Attorney General Eric Holder’s refusal to prosecute the new Black Panther members so obviously guilty of racial intimidation at the Philadelphia polling places in...

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within hours of one another fifty years to the day after the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence. Was that "a remarkable coincidence" or a providential exclamation point? Though today we think of July 4 as the day on which we celebrate the fateful step that severed Great Britain from the thirteen colonies that would become the United States of America, that act of Congress actually took place on July 2. July 4 was the day the Congress adopted The Declaration of Independence, the statement drafted to explain its action...

I can think of many good reasons why GOP Chairman Michael Steele should resign. His recent remarks casting doubt on the viability of the Obama faction’s continued deployment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan are not among them. Almost as soon as Barack Obama took up residence in the White House he declared an end to the war on terror. He thus destroyed the strategic context for the military activities to which President G. W. Bush committed American forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. In that strategic context Afghanistan was never intended to be the main focus of the war effort....

During the debate over legislation to ban partial birth abortion in the 1990s “the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said an expert panel it commissioned could find no medical reason why the partial-birth abortion procedure would ever be used to protect a woman’s life or health.” In a memo to President Clinton, Elena Kagan wrote that publication of the ACOG’s findings “would be a disaster — not the less so (in fact more so) because ACOG continues to oppose the legislation.” In her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kagan admitted that she was the author of handwritten notes...

“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.� -- George S. Patton “But the greatest insult to our troops in the field, and to the officers who lead them, may be a new battlefield medal designed by the Obama team. It is called the Courageous Restraint Medal and is awarded to soldiers and marines who demonstrate uncommon restraint in combat by not firing their weapons even when they feel threatened by the enemy. Would we be surprised to learn that the preponderance...

Throughout his political career, Obama has consistently declared his view that the Constitution's purposeful restraint of government power is obsolete. ...the White House, he and his faction have signaled their intent to circumvent, undermine or simply set aside the authority of the U.S. Constitution. Both here and in postings on my blog I have repeatedly had occasion to remark upon the design for despotism that has been evident in their actions. Now "eight Republican senators … are warning that the Obama administration is drafting a plan to 'unilaterally' issue blanket amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants as it struggles to...

Reaction to the McChrystal-Obama flap brings to my mind the old saying “There are none so blind as those who will not see.� Despite all the consistent evidence that Obama is the first truly anti-American leader elected to occupy the White House, pundits and commentators go on writing articles and making comments based on the notion that he aims to preserve the strength and serve the best interests of the people of the United States. Meanwhile, in every area of policy his actions consistently damage America’s form of government, its physical security, and its economic and military strength. We...

Slums are not born, they are made. When I was a child, my father (a career Army NCO) would use most of his annual leave during the summer. On several occasions, my parents, next older brother and I bundled into the car and spent the time making the rounds of family who lived mainly in North Carolina (my mother's birthplace), Maryland (my father's) and New York (where both my parents were partly raised, living with near relations). *snip* In these Obama years, we witness the slumming of America's past, of America's liberty, of America's Constitution, of America's decent pride. But...

Even without the exclamation point provided by episodes like Bob Etheridge’s bully boy response to a polite question about his views, the Democrat Party seems determined to prove its fear and loathing for the people whose power it claims to represent. (The term “democrat” is a compound of two words in ancient Greek. It means the strength or power of the people.) In the South Carolina primary Alvin Greene won the Democrat nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Jim DeMint. Greene is an unemployed Army vet who reportedly had a less than distinguished, and still somewhat...