Free Republic

The rationale for the federal government’s “Head Start” program is to give disadvantaged students a boost with their school work. Sadly, though, a recently completed research study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reveals that students enrolled in the program actually do worse than similarly disadvantaged peers not in the program. The biggest deficits show up in math and behavior. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urged that “we should not read too much into these findings. Given our society’s widespread access to computers, calculators, and cash registers that can do the math for us, proficiency in math may not...

Good news Detroit: We’re #1 again! In a head-to-head contest with real contenders like Chicago, New York, Cleveland (At Least We’re Not Detroit!) and Atlanta, Detroit once again grabbed victory through the misery of defeat. Numero uno on Forbes Most Miserable City in America.  Heady stuff for a city on the verge of insolvency and far beyond societal breakdown. Much should be made of the fact that Detroit, along with the other top-10 miserable winners, is reaping the fruits of decades of liberal husbandry. Unfortunately all that carefully cultivated fruit has been left to ferment on the ground. Oddly, few...

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R-LOUISIANA): My recommendation to the president is it's time to stop campaigning. It is time to actually do the job here in Washington D.C. In our second term, for example, last year, we passed one of the most sweeping educational reform laws in the country, giving real choice to our kids, putting right teachers in the classroom. We're forming our tenure laws, letting the dollars follow the child. This year, like my colleague, we're proposing tax, significant tax reform. We've got different ideas about that. We're trying to get rid of the income tax in Louisiana. My...

The never-ending campaign… The Obama campaign is going to bus people in for a protest in Albany. The campaign put a post up on its website advertising the event. Via Free Republic:

The rhetoric about the sequester is mind numbing. To listen to analysts and politicians, the sequester will be like The Titanic striking an iceberg all over again. President Obama warns of thousands of teachers being laid off, beef prices skyrocketing because FDA inspectors will be laid off, etc., etc. As Bill Murray said in Ghostbusters, “Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria…” Absolutely savage spending cuts. But seriously, can you spot the absolutely savage budget cuts that will cause the mass hysteria? It is almost unnoticeable among the leviathan Federal budget that only keeps growing. Another view of...

The economy is in freefall. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Walmart calls their sales “a total disaster.” But don’t panic. Our fearless leader Obama is just back from a “Swing State”…you know, the kind of place where you work on your golf swing. He was consulting on the economy with Tiger Woods and Butch Harmon. While Michelle was playing in Aspen. You wouldn’t accept this storyline if it was a fictional movie script. Too unrealistic. This country under Obama is becoming one big scam. A Ponzi scheme. Obama is the guy running the Ponzi, playing the role of Bernie Madoff. But...

Big Guy’s former political reelection arm, Organizing For America, has morphed into  “Organizing for Action.” It’s still “OFA” so they can keep the cool logo! Now, you might think that this “executive arm of the invisible government,” (h/t Cajun) sounds like a partisan liberal Democratic propaganda organization, butt I assure you it’s not. If it were, it would not be eligible for tax exempt status as a non-profit organization under section 501(c)(4) of the IRS code.  As such, they are not allowed to promote any political party, platform or candidate in the pursuit of manipulating public opinion. With that in...

On Thursday, Michael Connelly, J.D., executive director of the United States Justice Foundation​, said that veterans are receiving letters informing them that the government is about to declare them incompetent to handle their own affairs. As a result, Connelly said, the government will "appoint a stranger" to handle their affairs at their expense, and restrict them from owning firearms. Worse yet, he says, this is being done without due process. “A determination of incompetency will prohibit you from purchasing, possessing, receiving, or transporting a firearm or ammunition. If you knowingly violate any of these prohibitions, you may be fined, imprisoned,...

The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal report that President Obama and at least 8 Senators are now calling for a National ID Card, with a computer chip and other biometric features...

Writing for WaPo, and reported on by Politico, Woodward says that the White House was the initiator of this idea.

There have been two recent developments that should greatly raise the level of concern over the Islamic Republic of Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons. First was the recent North Korean nuclear test. There is no doubt that Iran and North Korea have cooperated for decades on a variety of matters. They have evidently shared ballistic missile technology and there have even been reports from the US Congressional Research Service of North Korean advisers training Hezbollah terrorists in the Bekaa Valley, something that would almost certainly be set up by the Iranian Pasdaran. In the past, when the North Koreans have...

Is Spielberg, an ardent Democrat supporter, warning the American people by showing his outstanding film that bad things can happen to helpless populations? Or is he simply observing the 20-years since the making of a movie about the Nazi destruction of the Jewish people? There is certainly a theme in the film about an unarmed population being overtaken by a military force unafraid to shoot civilians. And so today we have military commanders who have assured Obama that they are prepared to follow illegal orders and also do this very thing. Or am I being paranoid?

In just one week our nation faces yet another manufactured fiscal crisis. This time a refusal to compromise by conservative leaders in Congress would lead to massive, damaging across-the-board spending cuts on March 1, potentially dragging the economy back into recession and hurting American families by slashing critical investments in job training, public health, and public safety. The spending cuts, also known as the “sequester,” are a direct result of a long push by conservatives to take the nation’s economy hostage in order to secure massive, harmful spending cuts. In the summer of 2011, in exchange for agreeing to pay...

Have you seen the reports about the Chinese army being behind hundreds of cyber attacks on U.S. targets? Well, I’m here to tell you it’s true. Just last night my own hard drive was infiltrated and as a result my copyrighted image of Lady M on the Aspen slopes maliciously showed up on the worldwide innertubes early this morning:              I know it was a hack job because I worked on it all afternoon after receiving a special request from SB to get Lady M to pose on the bunny hill in Rosa DeLauro’s capital steps outfit. I...

Today, Americans are spending $900 more annually on gas than they did in 2009.

Barack Obama is warning America of the devastation that the sequester will visit upon the country, including Furloughs of 800,000 civilian Pentagon employees; Meat inspector furloughs from which food shortages will result; Air Traffic Controller furloughs resulting in three-hour waits at airports to clear security; Reductions in embassy protection and border patrols; Cutting the Persian Gulf Naval presence from two aircraft carriers to one; Diminished emergency services; fewer police and firefighters on the streets; Reduced military readiness; Criminals going free because federal prosecutors will have to close cases; Thousands of teacher and educator layoffs Tens of thousands of parents will...

WASHINGTON, DC—President Obama used this week's address to urge Congress to stop the harmful automatic cuts that threaten thousands of jobs and affect our national security—called the sequester—from taking effect on March 1st. The President and Congressional Democrats have already put forward solutions to avoid these cuts and reduce the deficit in a balanced way, and now it's time for Congressional Republicans to compromise by closing some loopholes that protect the wealthiest Americans so that we can reduce the deficit in a balanced way and create jobs for the middle class. The audio of the address and video of the...

The National Rifle Association is using a Justice Department memo it obtained to argue in ads that the Obama administration believes its gun control plans won’t work unless the government seizes firearms and requires national gun registration—ideas the White House has not proposed and does not support. … The memo says requiring background checks for more gun purchases could help, but also could lead to more illicit weapons sales. It says banning assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines produced in the future but exempting those already owned by the public, as Obama has proposed, would have limited impact because...

Let's set the parameters, before you read this article. First and foremost, I am a firm believer in gun control. A good site picture, a steady hand, timed breathing, and a smooth trigger squeeze all contribute to gun control and a tight grouping on your target. Being unfamiliar with your weapon or deficient on any of these components will mean poor gun control and imprecise shooting, which is a waste of ammunition. We all have different views on gun control. Most of the readers believe in the ability of the individual to defend himself against home intruders, strong arm thugs,...

President Obama has been on a blitz while pushing what seems to be an evergreen priority for Democrats these days: "infrastructure investment." In his State of the Union speech, President Obama spoke of Merica's "deteriorating roads and bridges" and proposed what he called a "Fix-It-First" program that would see the government hire construction workers to work on America's infrastructure. This worry is overblown. The Reason Foundation put out a report this week that found America's infrastructure is in fine shape, though there's certainly work to be done. All 50 states lowered their highway fatality rates from 1989 to 2008...