Free Republic

UNITED NATIONS – The arms trade treaty being hammered out by the United Nations is nearing completion, and the current draft shows it could lead to perpetual attacks on the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and American foreign policy, critics say. The document, which critics say has been framed by countries hostile to U.S. interests, allows for future amendments to be approved by just two-thirds of states showing up at an amendment conference. That means it could be agreed to by the U.S., put into effect and then changed over Washington's objections. And even if the U.S. Senate refuses to ratify...

If Republicans want to win big in November, we must do more than show voters how we plan to govern in 2013. We must also demonstrate how we're working right now to stop the last-minute spending spree the Democrats have planned for December. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wants to force a postelection lame-duck session of Congress, in which defeated politicians will no longer be accountable to voters. In that context, he will have more leverage to raise taxes and increase spending against the threat of yet another government shutdown, leaving taxpayers on the hook for more borrowing, debts...

Perry to End Bid for Presidency By JEFF ZELENY 9:51 a.m. | Updated CHARLESTON, S.C. — Gov. Rick Perry of Texas will end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday and endorse Newt Gingrich, two campaign officials confirmed, a decision that could influence the South Carolina primary on Saturday

For a president who campaigned on the fact that he would be the great unifier of America, he has proven to be the exact opposite. Besides the fact that he has pitted political parties against each other in the most intense, ferocious ways since the American Revolution, he has also inflicted policies and programs that are fiscally murdering our country. He instigates social, economic and class warfare at every turn and his administration constantly and unjustly accuses Conservatives of racism. The only way our states have been united lately was when 27 of them filed lawsuits against Obamacare. Here are...

John Boehner’s (momentary) dismissal of Barack Obama as a partner in deficit-reduction talks has the effect of making him a “lame duck president,” Sarah Palin wrote last night on her SarahPAC website — and she’s pretty happy about it, too. Palin praises the leadership of the Republican caucus for sticking to their promises, and then reminds readers about the history of this President and the deficit: This is the same president who proposed an absurdly irresponsible budget that would increase our debt by trillions of dollars, and whose party failed to even put forward a budget in over 800 days!...

After listening to the President’s press conference today, let’s keep in mind the following: This is the same president who proposed an absurdly irresponsible budget that would increase our debt by trillions of dollars, and whose party failed to even put forward a budget in over 800 days! This is the same president who is pushing our country to the brink because of his reckless spending on things like the nearly trillion dollar “stimulus” boondoggle. This is the same president who ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations and demonized the voices of fiscal sanity who proposed responsible plans to reform...

It seems everyone has something to say about the debt crisis / Boehner / President Obama. I was just emailed by an FNC colleague Gov Palin’s Facebook posting ..so here it is: —– Lame Duck President by Sarah Palin on Friday, July 22, 2011 at 7:11pm After listening to the President’s press conference today, let’s keep in mind the following: This is the same president who proposed an absurdly irresponsible budget that would increase our debt by trillions of dollars, and whose party failed to even put forward a budget in over 800 days! This is the same president who...

Now the President is outraged because the GOP House leadership called his bluff and ended discussions with him because they deemed him an obstruction to any real solution to the debt crisis. He has been deemed a lame duck president. And he is angry now because he is being treated as such. His foreign policy strategy has been described as “leading from behind.” Well, that’s his domestic policy strategy as well. Why should he be surprised that he’s been left behind in the negotiations when he’s been leading from behind on this debt crisis? Thank you, GOP House leaders. Please...

After extended wrangling among lawmakers in both countries, the new START treaty between the U.S. and Russia went into effect Saturday at the global security conference in Munich. "The principles of equality, parity, equal and undivided security lay a solid foundation for the modern Russian-American cooperation in various spheres," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, appearing with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to exchange the treaty documents, said, according to RIA Novosti.

Like former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Lyndon Johnson before him, in 1980 and 1968 respectively, Barack Obama will not be reelected in 2012.[2] The twin pincers of a domestic economy in the throes of the “Great Depression II”[3]—which economic historians will describe as such, or by using similar terms 20-40 years from now—and his failed Vietnam-like Afghan war[4] will seal his political fate. Other factors will contribute mightily too, such as the perception that he is “out of touch” just as Jimmy Carter was; and that Obama is a silver-tongued, narcissistic “foreign born” demagogue who is un-American.[5] Perceptions often become...

President Barack Obama’s “shellacking” in the midterm elections and the flurry of legislation he passed afterward hasn’t changed public perceptions about the job he’s done in the Oval Office. The latest poll from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows 46% of Americans approve of the job he’s doing, a two-point drop from a similar poll taken last June, while 44% disapprove. The numbers are similarly static when it comes to his handling of specific issues, from health care to Iraq to the budget deficit. [Snip] The Pew poll of 1,503 adults was conducted largely before...

As attention turns to the 112th Congress -- and the 2012 cycle -- the political ramifications of the sprint to close the 111th Congress are becoming clear. Several members of the 111th Congress may find themselves in competitive Senate races in 2012 and an analysis of their voting decisions during the lame duck session offers a few clues about what is in store for some of 2012's marquee contests. The debate over Pres. Obama's compromise on the extension of the Bush tax cuts, a central focus of the session, shed some light on the 2012 Nevada Senate race. Sen. John...

Ending 2010 with a bang, the unlikable 111th Congress (13% approval ratings) told its citizens that deal making and idea trumpeting carries more weight than the voters, who spoke in the November election, in favor of Republican control. Republicans, being accused by Democrats of being the party of “No” are absolutely correct in saying “No” to bad ideas, and their ascendancy to power come January 1 is proof. By our vote, we have rejected a federal government that disregards the fundamentals of the U.S. Constitution, and is dedicated to creating a nation that is served by a universal, powerful entity,...

Barack Obama is down but not out. You could tell as much from the contrast between his petulant post- election press conference and his peppy pre-Christmas press conference. In the former, he was crabby about accepting Republicans' demands that income-tax rates on all taxpayers not be raised. In the latter, he was celebrating the lame-duck Congress' acceptance of his stands on the New START treaty, repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and even the previously reviled tax deal. Obama has obviously figured out that Americans prefer to see their president describe the glass as half full rather than half empty....

So the year ends with the media pushing the notion that Barack Obama -- having had one of the worst years in presidential history -- has salvaged both his presidency and his re-election chances with his stunning "comeback" in the dwindling hours of the lame-duck session. Don't believe a word of it. If generals are always fighting the last war, then the pundits are always reaching for the last cliché. Did Bill Clinton face a similar dilemma back in 1994, after Newt Gingrich and the Republicans ate his lunch? Did he not come back to marginalize Gingrich and -- that...

Russian lawmakers gave preliminary approval Friday to an arms agreement with the United States, but signaled they would slow progress on the so-called New START treaty to a crawl after it was rushed through Congress earlier this week with some 11th-hour arm-twisting by President Obama.

Riding the lamest of ducks, President Obama just won the Triple Crown. He fulfilled (1) his most important economic priority, passage of Stimulus II, a.k.a. the tax cut deal (the perfect pre-re-election fiscal sugar high - the piper gets paid in 2013 and beyond); (2) his most important social policy objective, repeal of "don't ask, don't tell"; and (3) his most cherished (achievable) foreign policy goal, ratification of the New START treaty with Russia. Politically, these are all synergistic. The bipartisan nature of the tax deal instantly repositioned Obama back to the center. And just when conventional wisdom decided the...

Well. We've just seen, the fruits of our corrupt, lame, spineless and wimpy "Republicans" idea of how to deal with democrats: Surrender. Abject surrender. How deeply disappointing this month has been.

Politics: As the President crows about his accomplishments, a key Republican senator says the GOP has once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a Congress the voters repudiated. Before jetting off to a family vacation in Hawaii, President Obama took time at a year-end news conference to hail what he called a "season of progress" capped off by "the most productive post-election period we've had in decades" after "the most productive two years that we've had in generations." So much for getting "shellacked" in the midterm elections. ObamaCare is still a nightmare that has to be dealt...

The media are eager to dub President Obama the "come back kid." Too eager, probably. He's had a very good month, without question -- but he really would've had no excuse for a bad month. This was a brief and politically peculiar reprieve from the new political reality th new political reality that came upon him and Washington in November. The question going forward will be how he governs when he's living in that political reality. The first peculiarity was that federal taxes were set to rise automatically on Jan. 1 unless Congress acted. Federal unemployment benefits were also due...