Free Republic

We will see.Growing up of Mexican descent in the Southwest, I noticed that politicking often involves the cause of alleviating the suffering of the poor. The Democratic Party has successfully convinced the minority masses in the Hispanic community of their deep desire to lift them out of poverty. Liberal policies of forced equality and equal outcome, hurting the rich and sympathizing with the plight of the poor, have given Democrats the political influence that has turned the Hispanic community into an accessory that they often wear around their political neck during election time -- sparkling for everyone to see their...

(NaturalNews) Given that the massive health care reform bill just passed by the House was one of the largest pieces of legislation in U.S. history, you might wonder why you didn't get to vote on it. When it comes to federal legislation, your vote doesn't count in America, didn't you know? You are dictated to by a small band of the political elite who may or may not represent your interests (or even the interests of your fellow citizens). Those people are called members of Congress. And as you'll read here, they are essentially obsolete. Society no longer has any...

Saturday's vote to create a massive government-run health-insurance program is to Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats what the Battle of Gettysburg was to the South. It will be remembered as the high point of their unswerving efforts to demand government solutions to every big problem. It was their most daring stab, deepest into enemy territory. And the creeks will fill with the political blood of the dead who charged blindly into the angry enemy fire. Long from now, gauzy-eyed liberals will tear up at the memory of those who pressed forward through the mindless carnage despite knowing full well the...

There are lies, there are damned lies, and there are the statistics that Democrats have ginned up to try to sell ObamaCare. The most recent example comes from statistics, bandied about by their media mouthpieces this week, purporting that infant mortality rates in the U.S. are proof that the healthcare system is sick and needs Drs. Obama, Pelosi and Reid to cure it. Big Media reportedly breathlessly this week that the U.S. ranks 30th in infant mortality rates. They preached that that standing reflects the quality of the country's healthcare system, that we fall short of other countries and need...

I'm amazed by the soothsayers: Ayn Rand, for instance, who warned us fifty years ago of the risk of dictatorship or civil war if collectivism persisted. Or economist Friedrich Hayek, who wrote in the 1940s that we'll become serfs if we move toward big government. However, what feels most prophetic lately is an obscure movie from the l970s called Little Murders. The writer, Pulitzer-Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer, predicted that the '60s would unleash a feral, primitive society. The movie has a checkered history. It started out as a play on Broadway in the mid-'60s that was such a bomb, it...

A four-hour stop in New Orleans, on his way to a $3 million fundraiser. Snubbing the Dalai Lama. Signing off on a secret deal with drug makers. Freezing out a TV network. Doing more fundraisers than the last president. More golf, too. President Barack Obama has done all of those things — and more.What’s remarkable is what hasn’t happened. These episodes haven’t become metaphors for Obama’s personal and political character — or consuming controversies that sidetracked the rest of his agenda. It’s a sign that the media’s echo chamber can be a funny thing, prone to the vagaries of news...

WHEN Marcus Bachmann came home that Saturday evening in 2000, he checked the telephone answering machine and was mystified by the many messages congratulating his wife for something. "Michele," he said, "do you have something to tell me?" She did. The state senator from her district in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul had been in office for 17 years, had stopped being pro-life and started supporting tax increases, so that morning she skipped washing her hair, put on jeans and a tattered sweatshirt and went to the local Republican nominating caucus to ask him a few pointed questions. There, at the spur...

Although liberals sometimes blurt out the truth in public, mostly they pretend their nostrums make sense. Three specific examples of how liberals refuse to face facts: Michigan is an economic basket case. As noted in the Wall Street Journal, the Democratic governor pushed through a tax increase on business in 2007. This is standard liberal practice -- pretending that a tax on business has no effect on the taxpayer. But all taxpayers are consumers and business can only pay taxes with revenue from its sales to consumers. Still, Michigan liberal politicians adhered to the standard formulation and referred to the...

As liberal ideas have continued to lose at the polls over the last two decades, Democrats have become the party of utopian rage as they persist in replacing real political debate with effusive attacks on conservatives while promising to create an idyllic society for Americans. Barack Obama epitomized these politics when he built a movement offering hope as his main political platform. To bolster this emotionalism, Democrats have resorted almost whole-heartedly to conjuring up visions of racist conservatives opposing the first black president primarily because of his skin color. The marketplace of ideas has been stifled by identity politics. Whereas...

OSLO — President Barack Obama on Friday won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said. “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.” Obama’s name had been mentioned in speculation...

President Obama is following the advice of that great philosopher Woody Allen, who once said that “eighty percent of success is showing up.” In health care legislation, foreign relations and, now, the Olympics, Obama believes his very presence is enough to bend the world to his whim. But even Allen allowed for 20% of something else. I’m guessing good ideas and effort. The decision by the International Olympic Committee must have particularly stung. On behalf of his hometown of Chicago, which had invested $50 million in its bid, Obama traveled halfway around the world to swoon IOC officials in Copenhagen.

We're making the president of the United States look pathetic - and the Republicans are laughing along with us. It's been a terrible week for tough love. One of the worst. First the Goldstone report was left to twist in the wind by the Obama administration, by Europe, by J Street and by the ghost of the Israeli peace camp. Then, at Tuesday's "summit" in New York, President Barack Obama gave his clearest signal yet that he was caving in to the Netanyahu government on the peace process, dropping the idea of a "freeze" on settlements for the softer, kinder...

I went to the Tea Party -- or as it was known alternatively, the Taxpayer's Protest Rally -- in Washington, DC on September 12. It was self-evidently an authentic grass roots event, and a rewarding experience. But I was troubled that the large crowd was overwhelmingly white and largely middle aged and above. There were a fair number of blacks, but barely any Asians or Latinos. In addition, most young people were children accompanying parents and grandparents; not too many young adults were in attendance. Now, unlike the bean counters in our government and universities, I am not particularly adept...

Dropouts Seek a Boost From Equivalency Exams Numbers Seeking a Degree Swell -- But Gains May Be Limited A growing number of Americans are taking high school equivalency tests in their hunt for any leg up in a bleak labor market. Adult-education centers across the country report backlogs and waiting lists for prep courses cramming dozens of topics and years of lessons into weeks or months. But the potential for a better job and pay that drives many to seek a General Educational Development diploma comes with a caveat: The certificate generally is of limited value unless students use it...

“This is not an excuse,” the managing editor of The New York Times said after offering the following excuse for completely missing the Van Jones story, except in a blog post: “Our Washington bureau was somewhat short-staffed during the height of the pre-Labor Day vacation period.” Here’s how long-staffed The New York Times actually is. Long after Glenn Beck reported — back in July — that Jones was history’s first communist czar, and even after Gateway Pundit reported, on Sept. 3, that Jones had signed a wackadoodle 9/11 “truther” petition, The Times sent two reporters to Boston (in a story...

Earlier this year the Revere School Committee dropped a bombshell on the community. Without any warning, they voted to distribute contraceptives and the "morning after pill" to students in Revere High School. As Kathy Magno, an activist in Revere, told us, this was done without any notice to the community. There were no public hearings. No sub-committee meetings about it. It wasn't even on the agenda that day. Massachusetts Law appears to mandate that school committees run these ideas by a committee of the town's citizens before implementing them. And every town we know of (except Revere) has traditionally had...

Eight years ago today, our homeland was attacked by fanatical Muslims inspired by Saudi Arabian bigotry. Three thousand American citizens and residents died. We resolved that we, the People, would never forget. Then we forgot. We've learned nothing. Instead of cracking down on Islamist extremism, we've excused it. Instead of killing terrorists, we free them. Instead of relentlessly hunting Islamist madmen, we seek to appease them. Instead of acknowledging that radical Islam is the problem, we elected a president who blames America, whose idea of freedom is the right for women to suffer in silence behind a veil -- and...

President Obama wants to rewrite the calendar. As far as he's concerned, the year has progressed from June to July to September. August is to be forever erased from our minds and our hearts. His speech to a joint session of Congress was delivered as if the late unpleasantness of last month never happened, or as if it were all simply "bickering" and "games" on the otherwise smooth, consensual path to reordering one-sixth of the nation's economy in one fell swoop. "Now is the season for action," Obama intoned. In other words, please don't bother me with your inconvenient Congressional...

Having spent much of the past thirty years of my life in the advertising industry, the flaws of President Obama's health care message are apparent and massive. Most people outside the ad business will tell you that commercials try to beat you over the head to make you buy what you don't need or want. In truth advertising that doesn't address the public's needs or wants does not work. On top of that, if a consumer keeps being exposed to a message that does not meet a need, they begin to tune it out quickly; it's called wear-out. Finally if...

Writing at The Huffington Post, John F. Kerry inadvertently reminds us of a fate worse than global warming.... that would have been a Kerry victory in 2004. To make his case for apocalyptic global warming, Mr. Kerry implores his readers, "don't take my word for it." Frankly, that's not a problem for me. Consider It has been some 1700 days since Kerry promised full disclosure of his military record by signing Form 180. For those who took John Kerry's word in this particular instance, his window of opportunity for restoring his personal credibility has long since closed. Kerry's op-ed recycles...

THE most ominous domes tic event of the 1970s was the collapse of self-gov ernment in New York City, which before being put into receivership by the state was liberalism's laboratory. Since then, California has been the slate on which liberalism boldly writes its recipe for decline -- high taxes, heavy regulation, subservience to public-employee unions and environmentalism that is simultaneously apocalyptic and chiliastic. Because California's calamitous present -- creative accounting as a rickety bridge to the next budget crisis -- might prefigure the nation's future, next year's gubernatorial election is portentous. An intriguing candidate is Tom Campbell. Colorful he...

A decisive shift in the political battleground has taken place, and few analysts have noticed. Sun Tzu, the Chinese warlord who assembled the psychological philosophy widely known today as The Art of War, knew what he was talking about, and would have been a formidable political strategist. With the exception of the queen, the game of chess assigns each piece very specific tactics, and very specific limitations. The queen can project its power in any direction and distance, thus rendering it a formidable piece. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the pawn. With the exception of its opening...

If the Kennedy Era in American politics is over, instead of just taking a breather (Joseph P. Kennedy II has been mentioned as a possible candidate for his Uncle Ted's Senate seat), what did it mean? Character failings are not irrelevant to how well one serves the public; it was because of Chappaquiddick that Ted Kennedy was defeated by Robert Byrd as Democratic party whip in the Senate in 1971. But defenders are so quick to dismiss these issues, so let's stick to policy instead, and see if the liberal argument that Kennedy's political work made up for his personal...

A key House liberal suggested Thursday that party moderates who've pushed for changes in health care legislation are "brain dead" and out for insurance company campaign donations. Moderate Blue Dog Democrats "just want to cause trouble," said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who heads the health subcommittee on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. "They're for the most part, I hate to say brain dead, but they're just looking to raise money from insurance companies and promote a right-wing agenda that is not really very useful in this whole process," Stark told reporters on a conference call. Kristen Hawn, spokeswoman for...

WHILE offering condolences to the Kennedy family at this sad moment, it's important to note that Ted Kennedy's life was not as simple or heroic as is now being portrayed. On the cable channels yesterday, his fellow Senate graybeards were lamenting the passing of what was invariably described as Kennedy's "collegial" Senate, where voices were seldom raised and partisan bickering ended when the gavel came down to end the session. All of which would have come as a surprise to Robert Bork, the Supreme Court nominee of whom the collegial Ted said in 1986: "Robert Bork's America is a land...

"The grand delusion of contemporary liberals is that they have both the right and the ability to move their fellow creatures around like blocks of wood -- and that the end results will be no different than if people had voluntarily chosen the same actions." - Thomas Sowell "The minute the president signs a health care reform bill, his approval will go up. Secondly, within a year, when all those bad things they say will happen don't happen, and all the good things happen, approval will explode." - Bill Clinton "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a...

'I AM a pessimist by nature, which is why I have spent my life as a journalist in stead of trying to be a leader, which requires optimism." So wrote Robert Novak, who died Tuesday, in his 2007 autobiography, "The Prince of Darkness." He surely anticipated the problems now facing President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders, optimists all. Not that Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are the only optimists who have been flummoxed by the obviously spontaneous outpouring of opposition to Democratic health care bills. Among those optimists are almost all of the Washington press corps and a large...

The slow, ugly death of health care reform reflects the left's deep crush with crises. Government, of course, is a necessary evil. Even Marxists dream of a distant future in which the state will "whither away." Global Warming is a crisis, even though there is a profound disagreement among scientists about which direction the climate is changing and whether people can have any significant impact upon any change that is taking place. Periodically we are informed that there is an infrastructure crisis -- roads, bridges, water lines, school buildings, etc. are wearing out because they are getting older. The largely...

A reflection of the first seven months of the Obama presidency reminds me of the 1950's sitcom Father Knows Best. The sitcom originally debuted as a radio show in 1949 and was entitled Father Knows Best? - ending with a question mark that was later removed when the show transitioned to television. But which was the more appropriate title for the show? As The Museum of Broadcast Communications reflected: "Indeed, careful viewing of each of the series' 203 episodes reveals that the title was actually more figurative than literal. Despite the lack of an actual question mark, father didn't always...

WHAT if America tran scended race, and Barack Obama wasn't invited? The question comes to mind as cries of racism grow ever louder from Obama's supporters. No one should be surprised. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, liberal Democrats have to accuse their opponents of racism. Indeed, somewhat to their credit, fighting racism -- alas, even where it doesn't exist -- is one reason they became liberal Democrats in the first place. And that's the great irony of the Obama presidency. It was Obama's supporters who hinted, teased, promised or prophesied that Obama would help America "transcend race." But now,...

WASHINGTON -- Liberal supporters of President Obama were up in arms yesterday over signs from the White House that it was ready to pull the plug on a key aspect of its health-reform plan -- creation of a government-run insurance program. "You really can't do health reform" without the so-called public option, said Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a medical doctor. In a statement that cited strong House support for a government-run plan, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, "A public option is the best option to lower costs, improve the quality of health care, ensure...

There's more than justice to the nationwide backlash against President Obama's healthcare putsch. There's a delicious irony. The President, a down-to-his-toes rabble-rouser, has admirably roused the American rabble. Except not quite as intended. He and the rest of the statist vanguard have run headlong into a cosmic law: the Law of Unintended Consequences. Not even the late master rabble-rouser and con artist extraordinaire, Saul Alinsky, could account for the unaccountable. But the gaping difference between the President and the rascally Alinsky is that Alinsky had sort of a genius for playing the angles. In other words, Alinsky could hit curveballs....

THERE are more conserva tives than Republicans and more Democrats than lib erals. That's one of the asymmetries between the parties that helps to explain the particular political spot we're in. The numbers are fairly clear. In the 2008 exit poll, 34 percent of voters described themselves as conservatives and 32 percent as Republicans; 39 percent described themselves as Democrats, only 22 percent as liberals. The result is that the two parties have offsetting political advantages. Democrats tend to win on party identification. Republicans tend to win on ideology. Democrats don't have to appeal to as many independents as Republicans...

Evil political wizard Karl Rove seems to be tasting blood. His analyzes the president's stuff for Obamacare in the Wall Street Journal and concludes that the pitcher is in a jam. There are no polling data or focus groups on earth that can help Mr. Obama out of this jam. He has set in motion events he appears unable to control and commitments he cannot keep. It can't be that bad. With his stratospheric intelligence (especially compared to the notoriously deficient President Bush) the president's supporters can still be confident that he'll pull a rabbit out of a hat. The...

"My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks" -- Barack Obama, meeting with the CEOs of the nation's 13 largest banks, Mar. 27, 2009 Today, the only thing between the President and members of Congress and the Obama's metaphorical pitchforks is the restraint and good character of the American people. We're upset. A wave of populist resentment is growing. Start with the $700 billion bailout of the banking industry last October, featuring the hysterical shrieking of the Secretary of the Treasury. Former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson's hysterical behavior caused the bottom to fall out of the...

Obama and Democrat Congressional leaders uncorked the bottle and the peoples' Genie is out. He's not happy, this Genie. In normal times, he sits there quietly inside the bottle. Sometimes watching. Mostly not. He finds politics boring, if not disgusting. He sat and watched in silence as the TARP bill passed. Told the sky was falling, he looked up and saw it wasn't. But he shrugged, trusting the bipartisan nature of the effort. Then, as TARP rolled out, he stood up. The bailouts plowed a furrow across his forehead; his eyebrows lowered; his gaze intensified. But he stayed inside the...

The use of logical corollary, a fancier way of saying connect the dots, has eluded the defenders of ObamaCare. Critics of those who have exposed ObamCare's contradictions and incoherencies are either unwilling to connect the dots or too stubborn (dare I say stupid) to acknowledge what the dots really mean. Connecting the dots in this case doesn't require unusual skills, much less a background in symbolic logic, merely perseverance in reading the text of HR 3200. Let's start with Sec 123, the formation of the Health Benefits Advisory Committee, and Sec 124, the creation of the Health Choices Administration and...

Let's face it, most pundits on the left and right (including an amateur like me) produce columns which are largely interchangeable with the rest of their camp. They rarely introduce new insight or change someone's mind. That's not to say we don't try, but it's often an elusive goal. Recently, a headline over a column in my local paper and raised my hopes that I had stumbled across one of those mind-changing columns. Read the health care bill: It won't kill you - by Connie Schultz Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer and...

I have become increasingly infuriated over the condescending and outright insulting reporting of the "Birther" issue in the news media. As such, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to locate a news article describing the concerns about John McCain's eligibility that existed back before the primaries and compare the tone of the reporting to a more recent article that describes the current concerns about Barack Obama's eligibility. As I am publicly decrying bias, I should take a moment to describe where my own bias lies. It is important to note that I really believe the birth certificate issue...

The President announced today the 16 recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilan honor. The President praised the recipients for breaking down barriers and lifting up their fellow citizens: "These outstanding men and women represent an incredible diversity of backgrounds. Their tremendous accomplishments span fields from science to sports, from fine arts to foreign affairs. Yet they share one overarching trait: Each has been an agent of change. Each saw an imperfect world and set about improving it, often overcoming great obstacles along the way." The awards will be presented on August 12. Here is a...

Why a website defending government? Because for decades, conservatives have been attacking government and not enough has been done to defend it. Ever since Ronald Reagan declared in 1981 that "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem," Republicans have been waging a political war against this institution. Their core message: the free market is good and government is bad.

Krauthammer's take from last night's All-Stars Panel on Special Report with Bret Baier: On Eric Holder possibly appointing a prosecutor to investigate Bush-era interrogation techniques: If he does this, it is a terrible mistake. What we heard today, that [the special prosecutor] will only be for rogue interrogators who went outside the law—presumably, you know, [for] sadists who wanted to have a good time out of the rubric of interrogation. I'm not sure there are a lot of those. What will happen is once you appoint a prosecutor, as we know from past history, he's out of control. There are...

Note: The following text is a quote: News American Forces Press Service Top Defense Lawyer Calls for Military Commissions Reform By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, July 7, 2009 – Closing the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and reforming military commissions will enhance national security, the Defense Department’s chief legal advisor said today before Congress. Echoing President Barack Obama’s recent call to reform the Military Commissions Act of 2006, General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he welcomes the opportunity to help change military commissions into...

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has violated nearly every campaign promise, demonized individuals outside her political party, usurped presidential authority in her hunger for power in the Middle East, violated the Logan Act and impaired America's safety by personally killing the Protect America Act. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the rest of partisan Democratic and liberal leadership must be held accountable for acts in which they promote their self interests to the detriment of America.

The soaring costs of a college degree are prompting colleges to consider a three-year degree program. Britain has long granted a degree for three years of college. I would like to suggest a one-year degree program. And I don’t mean an associate’s degree. Here are some hard facts most colleges will never tell you and most parents could not tolerate hearing. The general requirements of the first two years at most colleges are what high school should have been. That is what junior should have learned had he not been busy getting high, getting drunk, and being socially promoted. Better...

With all the heavy thinking and breathing going on over "what it means to be Republican," let me provide some light thinking and breathing on the subject. With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy. (But not to Colin Powell.) If you supported, endorsed and voted for the Democrat for President, you might not be a Republican. If you supported, endorsed and voted for the Democrat with the most liberal voting record in the Senate, even to the left of self-described socialist Bernie Sanders, you might not be a Republican. If you refused to vote for the Republican, a war hero and former...

There may be political lessons for the GOP to be drawn from the world of superfluous bureaucracies. Every three years American hospitals turn themselves inside out preparing for the visit of inspectors from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, or JCAHO (pronounced jay-koh). A passing grade from JCAHO is indispensable. The JCAHO website explains: Congress passes the Social Security Amendments of 1965 with a provision that hospitals accredited by JCAH are "deemed" to be in compliance with most of the Medicare Conditions of Participation for Hospitals and, thus, able to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. In...

The unfolding spectacle of which leftist cipher should be appointed by Obama to replace departing leftist cipher, David Souter, on the Supreme Court underscores just how purely ideological justice in America has become. At first blush, conservatives might have taken some hope from Obama's promise to look for "those on the outside" to be on the court: there is no more underrepresented group in government or politics than conservatives, and there is no group more subject to the unfair application of the law than conservatives. The left, of course, does not care at all about the qualifications of any nominee....

On his second day in office, President Obama ordered the Pentagon to mothball Guantanamo within one year, purportedly to reclaim the "moral high ground." That earned applause from the anti-antiterror squadrons, yet it is now causing all kinds of practical and political problems in what used to be known as the war on terror. This mess grew even more chaotic this week, when Democrats refused the Administration's $50 million budget request to transfer some of the remaining 241 Gitmo detainees to a prison likely to be somewhere in the U.S. and perhaps to a new one built with taxpayer dollars....

What does the future hold for Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter? A lot of uncertainty, soured relationships, and possible disaster. And that's just with his new-found friends in the Democratic Party. There's no doubt Senate Democrats wanted Specter's help with the president's agenda this year. His vote in the Democratic column could mean significantly better chances for the Obama administration's proposals on health care, energy, and education. So Specter's support will be valuable to his new party in the short run. The long run is another matter. Go behind the news conferences and photo-ops, and Specter's fellow Democrats aren't exactly welcoming him...