Free Republic

EPA Blocks Oil Drilling in Alaska There are an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil waiting to be tapped in the Arctic Ocean, off the coast of Alaska. But after spending five years and nearly $4 billion, Shell Oil Company has been forced to abandon its efforts to drill for oil in the region. (Related: 3 Inch Lizard May Shut Down Texas and New Mexico Oil and Gas Operations) With gas at $4 per gallon and higher, one might think that more oil would be a good thing. So what’s the road block? The Environmental Protection Agency. Fox News reports...

Gas prices have more than doubled since Barack Obama took office. His deficit spending makes George Bush look like a rank amateur. 78% of Americans recognize inflation is on the rise. One dollar bill buys less and less. We’re a little bit more pregnant in Libya, but just barely. Our foreign policy is rudderless and often against our best interests. Today comes news that for the first time since the Great Depression, more Americans get government money than give the government money. Americans are dependent on Washington for the livelihoods. Also out late yesterday, CNS News reports that we will...

There’s something fishy going on over there at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). And we’re trying to get to the bottom of it. On April 14, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against DHS to obtain records detailing its investigation of Carlos Martinelly-Montano. This is the illegal alien who is charged with striking and killing a Virginia Benedictine nun in a drunk driving accident on August 1, 2010. Now, as you may recall, Judicial Watch obtained an internal DHS report on the Martinelly-Montano investigation in response to a previous lawsuit. But now we want to get...

Obama seeks $4 trillion cut to deficit, higher taxes for rich ... Backs benefit programs, draws battle lines with GOP ... President Obama pledged to pare the projected deficit by $4 trillion in the next 12 years, vowing to protect the nation's most vulnerable while pushing again for higher taxes for its richest citizens. In a 43-minute speech that mixed appeals for a united sense of purpose with sharply partisan jabs, the president laid out his vision of a country strengthened both by fewer debts and a greater diligence to solving the problems of Medicaid and Medicare. In promising to...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), joined by several other House Democrats, re-introduced on Thursday the Uniting American Families Act, which would permit homosexual and lesbian American citizens to sponsor their partners for legal residency in the United States, saying the status-quo is “humanly cruel.” The New York congressman, who is leading the push for passing the legislation, said there are more than 100 Democrat co-sponsors of the bill, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). He also said that a similar bill is being introduced in the Senate by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The prospects of...

“The President tries to tax, to tax our way out of debt -- placing the burden on those earning more than $100,000,“ Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said on the House floor Thursday morning. “The problem, sir, is a simple one -- that if we were to tax these individuals 100 percent of their income, we still could not cover our deficit this year alone. As a matter of fact, to tax our way out of debt we would need to increase taxes across the board on every man, on every woman and every business by 60 percent. You simply cannot...

STANDOFF CYNICISM No one can say that President Barack Obama and his administration weren't thinking of the American people during the budget standoff with Republicans. Their inconvenience was very much on his mind. According to White House sources, in the weeks leading up to last week's push for a budget deal, the President approved plans that had the White House and federal agencies looking at every federal government resource that entailed public interaction, and whether it could be shut down during a closure of the government -- even if under normal government closures those resources would have or could have...

In an article for the NY Post, my friend, historian Ronald Radosh, informed the world that NYU was hosting a six-hour conference devoted to "Academic Freedom in the 1960s." On the face of it, it sounds like the sort of boring event where most of us are relieved not to know any of the participants, thus freeing us of any obligation to attend. But, according to Radosh, all of the speakers are leftists. Among them are historian Ellen Schrecker, who has argued that while many of those accused of spying for the Soviet Union during the Cold War were guilty,...

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.), who leads the Tea Party Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives and who is considering running for president in 2012, expressed adamant opposition to the spending deal agreed to late Friday night by House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) and President Barack Obama. “Make no mistake: I oppose this negotiated deal,” Bachmann said in a Twitter message sent out at about 11:00 am on Saturday. “It does not: Cut enough spending, stop funding Planned Parenthood, or defund Obamacare.” Bachmann also expressed her opposition to the deal in a...

Washington D.C.-- The following is a statement from Traditional Values Coalition president Andrea Lafferty on the selection of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) to lead the Democratic Party as DNC Chair, after the departure of former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to run for U.S. Senate: "Way to go DNC. You found the candidate who best fit your profile for DNC Chairman: a junkyard dog who is mean, nasty, shrill, able to screech at a moment's notice, aggressive, and of course able to manipulate the facts and always uncompromising. "If there is anyone out there unaware of just how out-of-touch the...

Trends within politics rarely occur in a vacuum. Instead, they develop within a broader ideological and historical context, which accounts for individual elected officials’ political motivations to this very day. Planned Parenthood, for instance, has always enjoyed the support of a notable component of the Republican Party, especially its moderate or Rockefeller wing, comprised of influential Establishment elitists, internationalists, and environmentalists. The seven Republicans who voted in favor of retaining federal funding for Planned Parenthood, in addition to Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe, all hail from this tradition. Beyond their obvious support for pro-choice causes, these individuals...

Washington (CNSNews.com) – James Taylor, recognized at the White House on Wednesday for his musical achievement, told reporters that President Barack Obama has been too modest about his accomplishments. In a White House ceremony, Obama presented Taylor and other artists, authors, poets and entertainers with the 2010 National Medal of Arts. The announcer of the ceremonies said, “His distinctive voice and masterful guitar playing are among the most recognized in popular music and his expansive catalog of songs has had a profound influence on songwriters and music lovers from all walks of life.” Taylor said he supported Obama in the...

Fred DuVal, a friend of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and a member of the Arizona Board of Regents, has proposed a “Civility Institute” to promote compromise among opposing political parties and views. He believes the best way to start is by attempting to define “best practices and corrosive practices” in public discourse. DuVal puts it this way: “How do we nurture robustness on one hand and not in any way chill speech, and keep it in bounds that are not destructive to democracy? Will it change the nature of dialogue? That will be a tall order.” Fox News host Greta Van...

“If they want to make a choice, that’s up to them and it’s with the advice of a doctor and loving parents and a loving family.”(CNSNews.com) - In expressing opposition to the House Republicans' "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said politicians should not interfere with his family’s health and well-being. He also had a message for the GOP, saying, “I won’t attempt to voice my views on your family and let my family alone. Don’t go near my daughters.” “I’m experienced. I’m the proud father of three daughters, two more that my wife brought to...

The national debt is over $14 trillion, the federal budget deficit is $1.4 trillion and, depending on whose estimates are used, the unfunded liability or indebtedness of the federal government (mostly in the form of obligations for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and prescription drugs) is estimated to be between $60 and $100 trillion. Those entitlements along with others account for nearly 60 percent of federal spending. They are what Congress calls mandatory or non-discretionary spending. Then there's discretionary spending, half of which is for national defense. Each year, non-discretionary spending consumes a higher and higher percent of the federal budget....

In the UK, Baroness Warsi, better known as PM Cameron's pet Muslim, delivered a speech lambasting Britons as racists for in any way associating terrorism with Islam. If you have been guilty of trying to distinguish between moderate and radical Muslims, that too is now forbidden. According to Baroness Sayeeda Hussein Warsi, trying to distinguish between head-chopping and non-head-chopping Muslims only helps "fuel intolerance and misunderstanding". Which may or may not be better than Mohammed Asha and Bilal Abdulla, a British doctor and engineer, who filled up their Jeep Cherokee full of fuel canisters and tried to drive it into...

The culture wars continue between the moral and immoral., between truth and deception, between the eternal reality and fleeting vapors of smoke.......we will all have a day of reckoning From the moment the good citizens of this country heard what took place in Arizona, President Barack Obama said nothing to admonish the media or the investigating sheriff for openly defaming innocent people who had nothing to do with the deaths and life-threatening injuries perpetrated by a lone gunman. Obama, who has repeatedly ignored the will of the people for two years now, looked the other way as his cohorts blamed...

As we gather for the 38th annual March for Life, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) joins countless Americans nationwide in giving a voice to the unborn. This year, we stand on the crest of the great national wave of reaction against intrusive government. Last November, American citizens united in this backlash said no to the idea that government should decide matters that belong to private citizens. In the middle of this fierce debate could be found the compassionate voices of America’s anti-abortion majority who protest the most horrific intrusion permitted by the State:...

Help us Recover Combativeness in Defense of the Faith“Enough! Enough!” shouted a three-year old toddler as he chased one of the Islamic terrorists gunning down the faithful at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help that evening of October 31, 2010. In response, the Mujahidin turned his gun on the valiant boy and riddled him with bullets. “Christian dogs” About 200 Catholics were fulfilling their Sunday obligation at the cathedral of the Syriac Catholic rite (an Eastern Catholic rite under the Pope) in central Baghdad. They knew they were at risk because one of the priests in the cathedral,...

A pilot with a major United States airline was confronted at his home in early December by four Federal air marshals and two sheriff’s deputies who were there to confiscate his Federally-issued firearm and his state-issued permit to carry a concealed firearm. His crime? He posted a series of videos to YouTube that showed flaws in the Transportation Security Administration’s screening procedures. The videos — since removed from YouTube — demonstrate how the flight crews are subjected to intensive pre-flight TSA screenings while the ground crews that service the aircraft are able to access secure areas by swiping a card,...