Free Republic

PHOENIX - Republican John McCain, reaching out to both independents and green-minded social conservatives, argues that global warming is undeniable and the country must take steps to bring it under control while adhering to free-market principles. In remarks prepared for delivery Monday at a Portland, Ore., wind turbine manufacturer, the presidential contender says expanded nuclear power must be considered to reduce carbon-fuel emissions. He also sets a goal that by 2050, the country will reduce carbon emissions to a level 60 percent below that emitted in 1990. "For all of the last century, the profit motive basically led in one...

With Joe Scarborough away, the cats did play during the opening segment of today's Morning Joe . . . WILLIE GEIST [facetiously]: David, I know how you like to speak for Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the rest of that group. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: He's going to the [CPAC] convention. GEIST: You're the voice of that community, but can you make sense out of this? Are they willing, the conservatives, the Limbaughs, the Hannitys of the world, to concede the election, to not have John McCain be president, to take Hillary Clinton over them, just to take a principled stand? View...

Principles used to mean something in this Country. One of the reasons our Country is in the mess it's in, is because we've lost our way, and abandoned our principles. What lessons do we teach our Children, our Families, our friends, and our peers, if we, so easily, abandon what's important, and what has made us this great Country, and what the Founders fought for. Did they not teach us that principles are worth every human effort possible? Did they not set out before us a Document that, in great explication, perfects our Principles? FRed Thompson called his campaign the...

The lay of the political presidential landscape is looking pretty strange these days. One prominent Republican candidate is essentially advocating that too much drive is a bad thing, so vote for him! Others have incredible drive, but would use it to take the country down questionable paths of populism or personal ambition. Some of the candidates possess excellent leadership skills, but would lead us down dark paths of dependency upon government or paths of social experimentation. You might say: I know who is for the Status Quo, for they have no fire in the belly; but why is that a...

The author posits these as the necessary 6 conservative principles: A preference for limited government A desire to means-test or otherwise target government benefits A concern about the behavioral consequences of assistance. Conservatives believe that no-strings-attached assistance has often been a catastrophe -- creating even more dependency and a fertile ground for social problems A deference to mediating institutions. Everyone seems eager to harness family, church and other voluntary associations Respect for private choice, often in the form of markets. Humility bred from disappointing experiences -- and the likelihood of unintended consequences. ...When a problem seems bad enough, people often...

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said Sunday "the political pendulum is swinging" against his party, and Republicans needs to work harder to win over independent voters. "Everybody knows what's at stake next year, but I wonder if we've come to terms with the difficulty we've got as Republicans, and the fact that we're going to have to do a lot of things very well to prevail," the former Tennessee senator said. What the Republican Party needs, Thompson said, is to nominate a candidate like himself who can "go before the American people and ask for the vote...

Our government, we're been told, is one of laws, not of men. Yet, our politics have fast become a politics devoid of ideas and focusing instead on personalities. Patrick Ruffini, writing on Hugh Hewitt's blog, recently declared, "policy is boring and politics is interesting." A journalist told me something similar a while back. And heretofore the campaign coverage has aligned with that fact. The truth is, we've had a campaign of irrelevancy with red herring being the fish of the day. We've talked about John Edwards' haircut, Hillary Clinton's cleavage, what some Huckabee supporter said about Catholicism, and the smack...

The majority of threads created, the majority of posts written... From the knee-jerk and oft-times erroneous reports regarding illegal Immigration and the Politics behind it...to the divisions drawn up as a result of have so many phony hack politicians thinking that they can become a President...to the Terry Chiavo case...to Libertarians posing as Conservatives down to the moronic slander railed against President Bush... I can only conclude that the so called Conservatives here at Free Republic have gotten off track. Do all of us [Conservatives] have valid opinions? Of course. Do all of us [Conservatives] have legitimate concerns? Of course....

As a very political year approaches an end, and a new presidential election cycle looms, it’s a good time for conservatives to step back from partisan politics and reflect on their cause. What do conservatives believe? Here are 10 principles worth pondering. 1. God’s Law Governs Nations as Well as Men. The Ten Commandments should not only be enshrined in our courthouses, they should be engraved in our hearts and minds as guides to all behavior, public and private. As the Founders acknowledged in the Declaration of Independence, laws and policies that violate the natural law are abuses of government...

People should not be so cavalier about this last loss and how there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats.

[Final two pharagraphs] So in the nature of things conservatives and libertarians can conclude no friendly pact. Conservatives have no intention of compromising with socialists; but even such an alliance, ridiculous though it would be, is more nearly conceivable than the coalition of conservatives and libertarians. The socialists at least declare the existence of some sort of moral order; the libertarians are quite bottomless. It is of high importance, indeed, that American conservatives dissociate themselves altogether from the little sour remnant called libertarians. In a time requiring long views and self-denial, alliance with a faction founded upon doctrinaire selfishness would...

Some day a great biography will be written about Arnold Schwarzenegger, a born-again American who proved able to remake himself in whatever ways proved necessary to succeed. Properly explored, however, there may be pathos in Mr. Schwarzenegger's story, as well as triumph. Because it begins to appear the story of the current governor of California -- or should that be "Kauli-fornia"? -- helps crystallize the story of the one place in the world where that success story was possible: America. Most of the story is well-known. With little else to work with, Mr. Schwarzenegger made his own body the tool...

In a word, yes! Living in America (legally or illegally) does not make one an American. Accepting, adopting, understanding, believing in, living, promoting and defending real American foundational principles, (the American dream), makes one an American. Nothing less will do. One who works to stop others from smoking can’t be called anything short of anti-smoking. One who works to stop others from owning guns would certainly and appropriately be deemed anti-gun rights, or anti-Second Amendment. If you work to stop abortions, you are certainly anti-abortion and if you work to undermine fundamental American principles, you are obviously anti-American. Does this...

Why does the president call the secretary of state "Condi"? And what exactly is his philosophy? Thursday, July 27, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT Why does President Bush refer in public to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as "Condi"? Did Dwight Eisenhower call his Secretary of State "Johnny"? Did Jimmy Carter call his "Eddie," or Bill Clinton call his "Maddy," or Richard Nixon call his "Willie" or "Hank"? What are the implications of such informality? I know it is small, but in a way such things are never small. To me it seems a part of the rhetorical childishness of the...

What are the key principles that explain Mankind, Society and the Universe best? If you were to give a few general principles, easily stated, what would they be? I have been thinking of how to explain things simply to the next generation, ie my kids, and I have just been reading Bastiat's "The Law", a book that has clear and cogent thinking about how Government ought to work. Bastiat explained that Governments overstepped their bounds when they engaged in 'legalized plunder' which all forms of protectionism and socialism fall prey to, and that all errors in Governance flow from violation...

WASHINGTON - Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the dominant Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course. Meeting with reporters near Capitol Hill, Brin said Google had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country. Google's rivals accommodated the same demands — which Brin described as "a set of rules that we weren't comfortable with" — without international criticism, he said. "We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide...

President George W. Bush's poll numbers -- even among Republicans who are hapy about tax cuts and the judicial appointments -- scream trouble. Trace the dismal numbers to three things -- the war in Iraq, spending, and Bush's perceived soft stance on illegal aliens. Let's go over them. As to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration argues that mainstream media ignores good news and focuses on the bad. General Barry McCaffrey, who worked as a division commander in the first Persian Gulf War before becoming President Clinton's drug czar, recently returned from Iraq. McCaffrey reported his findings in a...

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2006 – Nobody likes war and every U.S. conflict since the Revolutionary War has had its critics, but some things are worth fighting for, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today on the "Rush Limbaugh Show." "There have always been people who have opposed wars. Wars are terrible things," the secretary said on the syndicated radio program. But if the United States had bowed throughout its history to critics and opponents of war, he said the country wouldn't exist as it does today. "We wouldn't have won the Revolutionary War and we wouldn't have been involved in World...

So the Democrat leaders in the California Legislature, Fabian Nunez and Don Perata, want the governor to put pressure on Assembly Republicans to support their version of an infrastructure bond package. "He is the leader of the Republicans," Núñez said of Schwarzenegger. "One would think the governor has the responsibility of getting the Republicans on board to support whatever views he negotiates with the Legislature." As usual, the speaker fails to grasp the fundamentals of representative democracy. California Civics Lesson Number 1: The two-thirds vote in each house for state-wide bond measures is there for a reason. This is long-term...

SACRAMENTO -- He may be assured of his party's nomination for re-election, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will find out next weekend how much he really has to do to win back the hearts and minds of the party's faithful. The California Republican Party's convention in San Jose presents a key opportunity for Schwarzenegger to quell a simmering revolt from angry conservatives who feel he has drifted too far to the middle since his special-election defeat in November. Conservatives are frustrated by several recent moves, including the hiring of Democrat Susan Kennedy as his chief of staff, his support for a...