Free Republic

Barack Obama is a bank robber. To his other honors and achievements, he now adds this. He is a thief, seizing assets in the name of the revolution. And thereby demonstrating how far we have fallen from the vainglorious boast of our anthem. “The home of the free,” we used to sing. “The home of the free,” we used to be.But that was a year ago and such notions as freedom and private property have all gone into the memory hole. Marx and the collective have overtaken Jefferson and the right of possession. And so it was that, without firing...

Harry Reid should resign. I’m not kidding. This is too much. The embarrassing old bird should pack up his bags and go back to whatever desert valley he crawled out of. He should be removed as Senate majority leader and he should give up elected office. Harry Reid should resign. But not for what he said about Barack Obama. Not for commenting on the color of the president’s skin or the way he talks. The hubbub over that is just political opportunism, an illustration of how both parties play a ridiculous game of gotcha, ignoring things that matter to feign...

Here is a question of principle. Do you take the free money? When Comrade Obama comes calling, and he’s passing out cash, do you take it? Are you a hypocrite if you denounce the administration’s free spending, but take the administration’s free handouts? That’s an issue many people face. If you’re a conservative, and you believe that debt is killing our country and that welfare is bad, do you participate in Cash For Clunkers? Do you let the government help you buy a refrigerator or insulate your house?Do you drink of the poison you believe is killing your country? The...

It's a death sentence. Our first taste of Obamacare -- the government as the arbitrer of what health care we do and don't need -- will kill thousands of women. It is a death list by another name. A federal task force has declared that for most women mammograms are unnecessary before the age of 50 and should only be administered every other year after that. Further, breast self-exams are no longer recommended. In a fight with a horrific disease in which early detection is the most-effective tool, America's women have been told by their government to forget about it....

Few words have been more popular in recent years than "diversity." And few concepts have been more destructive. Destructive of our social fabric, destructive of our moral well-being, destructive of our ability to make judgments. In schools, non-profits and government programs across the nation, diversity has been held up as a great and noble prize. Some objective to be fought for and given prominence. It has become the top priority in institutions from colleges to corporations. And it has become a philosphy handed down like the word of god from the pulpits of education, business and government. And yet it...

Should they get the Purple Heart? The soldiers who were shot Thursday at Fort Hood, the ones who were killed and the ones who survived -- should they get the Purple Heart? It’s the medal, generally speaking, that we give GIs who are wounded by enemy action in combat. Often, when dignitaries come through military hospitals, they will award the Purple Heart to recuperating soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors. If you are hit by an IED, you get the Purple Heart. If you are shot in a firefight, you get the Purple Heart. If you get a shrapnel wound from...

What a con. The opt-out clause they’re putting on the public option in the Senate, what a bald-faced con. This is a fraud with a capital F. I’ll explain, but first let me define the terms. The “public option” is Democratspeak for the government getting into the insurance business. It taxes you, it collects a premium, and then it gives you crappy health care -- after a long wait. “Opt out” is something new they thought of over the weekend. It says that the public option would be, well, an option, and that individual states could opt out of it....

In 1939, Hitler sold out Poland. Yesterday was Obama’s turn. In one of the most stunning betrayals of modern diplomacy, Barack Obama announced yesterday that the United States is abandoning Poland and the Czech Republic. They are on their own against Russia. And in what could not have been a coincidence, he did it on the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland. An invasion that led to two generations of Polish slavery and the widespread slaughter of Polish citizens. Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. Barack Obama lost it. The first bricks of the new Berlin Wall have...

I don’t like soda pop. It’s bad for you, it’s a waste of money, it rots your teeth. I don’t like soda pop. So I don’t drink it. That’s how freedom works. If you like soda pop, you drink it. If you don’t like soda pop, you don’t drink it. It’s a great system. But Obama wants to screw with it. In an era in which the federal government seems intent on taking both your freedom and your money, the new target is soda pop. Get ready to get hosed. If you resist, you are a racist. This week, in...

Joe Wilson speaks for me. In the chamber dedicated to the voice of the people, the voice of the people was heard. In the face of deception, in a flash of discourtesy, truth was spoken. “You lie!” Joe Wilson blurted, taking the words out of the mouths of millions of Americans watching at home. It was an observation both jarring and true. In point of fact the president was lying, he was engaging in deception, and out of 435 representatives of the people, just one had the instinctive impulse to say so. Joe Wilson speaks for me. Society’s worship of...

You don't understand, Mr. President. It's not about pre-existing conditions or people without coverage or the price of health care. It's about the proper role of government, and that's about freedom. The answer is, "No." We don't want you to save us, we don't believe in your plan, we don't trust you to do it for us. We'd rather be free. That's what they don't discuss on the evening news. Amidst all the sob stories about expensive pills and death panels, completely overlooked is the principle involved -- and that is that government should not compete with or replace private...

It’s fairly simple, really. Tens of millions of American parents don’t trust him. The upset over this morning’s presidential address to schoolchildren isn’t about the partisan divide, it’s about the president’s arrogance. After seven months of crammed-down-your-throat Obama agenda, half the country has had a bellyful. After seven months of being told that they don’t matter, half the country is returning the sentiment. They don’t trust him with their children not because they’re paranoid, but because he’s not trustworthy. He has shown himself to be an enemy to their values and beliefs – to be hostile to their families and...

In recent days we've learned some new things about the CIA interrogation of terrorism suspects after September 11. We've learned that it was a lot more than just waterboarding. It was also threats. Like the time they put the drill upside the suspect's head and told him that if he didn't tell what he knew they were going to give him the Black and Decker treatment. Or when they told the man who blew up the sleeping sailors aboard the USS Cole that if he didn't cooperate they were going to make him watch while Israeli commandos raped his mother....

It’s not Cash for Clunkers – it’s Welfare for Car Buyers. And it’s not “popular,” people are “greedy.” The fact that people are lining up for free money shouldn’t take anyone by surprise and the fact that a government welfare program has run out of money isn’t anything new. Cash for Clunkers is a catastrophe. In spite of the gleeful TV anchors and high-fiving politicians. Cash for Clunkers is an effort by the Marxists to spread welfare addiction into the middle and upper classes, similar to a drug dealer handing out free samples to junior-high kids. And the only thing...

I told you so. Years ago I said the next target was food. In its tireless quest for power and money – done in the name of protecting you – the government has gobbled ever-larger chunks of the economy. Tobacco, health care, communication, energy, banking, the automotive industry. And now food. A national soda-pop tax has been proposed, the Urban Institute wants to go after food producers and family budgets the way it went after tobacco companies and smokers, and food is about to be called a hazard to your health. Ostensibly, because you’re fat. Actually, because the government wants...

The talking heads say we need a dialog on race. After the deal at Harvard, where the president assured us – before he “calibrated” his words – that “the police acted stupidly,” all the smart people on television assured us that this incident proves we need to talk about race. The assertion is both politically correct and preposterous. It is one more string of meaningless words that are nothing more than a call for yet another racial-sensitivity browbeating. Because there is no dialog about race in America, there is a lecture. The word “dialog” implies two-way conversation, but the vicious...

Used to be, the cops and the president were on the same side. That’s before we got change we could believe in. Now the cops are on their own. Now officers can do their duty, according to the law and their training, and – without even knowing all the facts – the president of the United States will call them “stupid.” More specifically, he will say they “acted stupidly.” Which is pretty stupid in itself. The nation’s chief law-enforcement official has taken on the nation’s law-enforcement officers. And all across the country, some folks are asking themselves: If the president...

The NAACP has an idea. A big idea. It was announced this week at the civil-rights organization's 100th-birthday celebration. It is going to help the NAACP serve its members and black America. Or so they say. It's called the "Rapid Report System." Essentially, it is an effort to use technology and the Internet to seek out and collect reports of police misconduct. Put simply, the NAACP is asking people to use their cell phones to video record their interactions with the police. If you see a cop, whip out the camera. And send the video to the NAACP. "Nationwide, more...

I don’t play poker, but I think I get the idea. I think the idea is to win. I think the idea is to have better cards than your opponents and to play your cards better than your opponents. It’s part luck and it’s part smarts. But the idea, again, is to win. For example, let’s say you’re playing a five-card game, nothing showing. You’re dealt the cards, you pick them up, you fan them out. You see an ace, another ace, a king, an ace and another ace. Four aces and a king.Like I said, I don’t play poker,...

In Troy, New York, where a quarter of the children live below the poverty level and the average household makes less than $30,000 a year, the 29th richest man in the world is being given more than 300,000 taxpayer dollars to open a restaurant. They call it economic development. What it is is a sin. What it is is welfare for the wealthy, proof positive that raping the taxpayer is what the government does best. Meet George Soros. He owns Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. Specifically, his company – Soros Strategic Partners – owns 70 percent of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. He also owns a...