Free Republic

There is no debate we’re a country in transition. The only debate is what we’re actually transitioning to, and whether we’ll be better or worse as a people for it. Such transitions challenge trusted traditions to prove they’re still relevant. Old alliances are tested. And folks tend to gravitate to new ideas quickly before they’re fully vetted, mainly because they’ve lost faith in the old ideas. In the political arena, nowhere will this attempted paradigm shift be more apparent than the foreign policy debate that could very well define the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Recently, Kentucky Senator...

The American people cheered – starved for any crumb of leadership and faithfulness to constitutional duties – at the news of Governor Rick Perry calling out the Texas National Guard to patrol the Texas-Mexican border. Then, within the hour, Texas officials conceded that the inadequate contingent of 1,000 guardsmen will not actually do anything but stand around. Texas officials now admit that the 1,000 guardsmen will simply be a “visual deterrent” – for appearances only. The Texas government argues that the Texas National Guard will not have authority to arrest anyone under the Posse Comitatus law. But that is absurd....

Over the past three weeks, one Republican has gained more national attention than any other: Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX). He has been everywhere - calling up the Texas National Guard, appearing on network interviews, headlining Sunday shows, touring the southern border with Fox News' Sean Hannity, appearing on The Blaze with Glenn Beck. Perry has penned national op-eds on border security in The Wall Street Journal and The USA Today. Gov. Perry greeted President Obama on the tarmac, met with him in Dallas, and spent the next day on the southern border--a marked contrast with President Obama who spent the...

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas plans to order 1,000 National Guard troops to his state's border with Mexico in an effort to stem the tide of immigrants illegally entering from Central America, dispersing around the country once they've made it into Texas. Critics will call it a stunt and accuse Perry of showboating, but at least he is taking action, while President Obama, who took an oath to defend the country from all enemies foreign and domestic, drinks beer, plays pool and attends fundraisers as our borders are overrun. Enemies are more than adversary nations with weapons. An enemy can...

Why would you spend millions of dollars sending troops to the border who can't actually detain anyone? That's what some Texas sheriffs of border towns are asking in the wake of Gov. Rick Perry's plan to send 1,000 National Guards members to the Texas/Mexico border in the next month, according to the Dallas Morning News. For them, it would be more useful to spend the money on hiring more deputies and police, aka people who are allowed to detain migrants. “I don’t know what good they can do,” Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio told the Dallas Morning News. “You just...

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/4773527/events/3206474 Live coverage of Texas Governor's Press Conference.

Perhaps no state claims the sense of pride that is evident in Texas. Author Mark Davis talks about this shared sentiment in his new book "Lone Star America." This week, he spoke with Townhall about how Texas is excelling and taking the lead on just about every issue from jobs to energy to the Second Amendment. He shared some insight into policies that allow Texas to thrive economically, as well as his thoughts as to which Texans could be in the White House in 2016. Why write this book now? In 30 plus years of doing radio talk shows, conservatives...

Gov. Rick Perry to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to RGV Texas Gov. Rick Perry plans to announce he will activate the Texas National Guard at a news conference Monday in Austin, said state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen. Hinojosa did not have details of the effort, but an internal memo from another state official’s office said the governor planned to call about 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the Rio Grande Valley — at a cost of about $12 million per month. The memo was provided to The Monitor on the condition of anonymity because the information is...

Gov. Rick Perry is expected to announce Monday that he will activate up to 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the Rio Grande Valley, state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, confirmed Sunday night. Perry wants these troops to bolster the work already being done with a surge of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, said Hinojosa's spokesperson, Jennifer Saenz, who added that the governor gave the Rio Grande Valley delegation notice prior to the planned 2 p.m. announcement on border security......... In Iowa on Sunday, Perry told a small group at a VFW hall that if President Barack Obama fails...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is visiting Iowa for the fourth time in eight months, hoping for a second chance to win over Republican voters who delivered him a stinging caucus loss when he ran for president two years ago. Perry, 64, hasn't said if he plans to run again in 2016. But he's clearly considering it and is meeting Saturday and Sunday with veterans and conservative activists in the northern Iowa communities of Algona and Clear Lake. Perry has been raising funds for GOP candidates and seeking advice from political insiders since November. He is signaling he's committed to the...

Iran! Oil prices! Rick Perry! Even if you think you know who’ll control Congress next year, the road to the November midterms will be full of big surprises.From a deal with Iran to an uptick in the employment rolls, a lot can happen to shift the political conversation between now and November. Immigration reform, for example, was supposed to help Democrats in the midterm elections. Clashes on the border between angry Texans and buses carrying immigrant children fleeing gang violence and sex trafficking highlighted the GOP’s opposition, and Democrats thought maybe this was the game changer they needed. But the...

This Rand Paul versus Rick Perry GOP thunderstorm popped up pretty fast, didn’t it? It was a dark cloud on the horizon on Friday, when Governor Perry of Texas published an op-ed in The Washington Post that attacked Senator Paul as a foreign policy isolationist. Paul is reluctant to devote more US troops and weapons to Iraq, and Perry used that position to portray the Kentucky lawmaker as the reverse of Ronald Reagan, as someone who wants to hunker down at home rather than lead the world. ((snip)) Plus, Perry’s behind. It’s early yet, but as our colleague Brad Knickerbocker...

FULL TITLE Rand Paul Fires Back at Rick Perry: ‘Apparently His New Glasses Haven’t Altered His Perception Of The World’ Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Monday fired back at fellow Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who accused Paul over the weekend of standing for “isolationist policies” that “would only endanger our national security.” “There are many things I like about Texas Gov. Rick Perry, including his stance on the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution,” Paul said. “But apparently his new glasses haven’t altered his perception of the world, or allowed him to see it any more clearly.” The new foreign...

At the start of the year, I told a friend to keep an eye on Mike Huckabee.  He just had the look of a man running for president.  After all, didn't Ronald Reagan write columns and do radio commentaries before running?Last month, I was very happy to hear that Mitt Romney was considering another run.  Frankly, I think that he is one of the most qualified people ever denied the presidency. Let me add another one - Governor Rick Perry of Texas.  We didn't see the real Perry in 2012 but we are seeing him now. Over the last few...

exas Gov. Rick Perry slammed President Barack Obama on Fox News Sunday, once again demanding the National Guard, and called on Obama to stop the blame game and get up and lead. Host Brit Hume asked Perry to explain why he wants the National Guard sent to Texas, inquiring skeptically, “What exactly would National Guardsman and women do on the border?” Perry explained that the National Guard acts as a front-line deterrent for illegal immigrants, and is critically important now, because most border patrol agents are stuck taking care of the illegal immigrant children. “The president was not even aware...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday said that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was “curiously blind” to the dangers posed by the terrorist group responsible for the security meltdown in Iraq. The war of words marks the opening of a new chapter of hostilities between the two lawmakers as they weigh presidential bids in 2016. In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Perry said he found it “disheartening” the senator would “suggest that our nation should ignore what’s happening in Iraq.” …

We know this is a planned invasion... But Boehner (Boner) has beat the drum of 'Obama does not uphold or enforce the law." Hint hint: Obama really, truly doesn't... But... The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act Of 2008 will either be "upheld" and "enforced" by Obama - or it won't. Under it, certain children under this Act are placed under the care of the Dept of Health and Human Services, are given the least restrictive environment, are given an attorney and can plead their case before a judge to stay in the U.S. And GWB signed this into...

ABC's Jonathan Karl on Tuesday asked White House press secretary why the letter from the White House to Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) inviting him to a meeting with President Obama regarding the Texas border crisis was from Valerie Jarrett. While it's routine for staff to draft such letters for elected officials, matters of such magnitude and to other elected officials of stature are almost always in the name of the principle. The president's spokesman, when asked why the letter was from Jarrett rather than the President, said "Valerie spends a lot of time maintaining relationships with governors around the country"...

As the political war over minors crossing the border continues to escalate, Texas Governor Rick Perry met with President Obama yesterday and demanded that he beef up border patrols and seek changes to federal law that would expedite the removal of arriving minors. For his part, Obama prodded Perry to rally Congressional Republicans to pass the $3.7 billion in funding to expedite removals and provide care the president has asked for.

Call it Blind Optics. The DUmmies and KOmmies are so desperate to make Texas Governor Rick Perry look bad that they overlook the fact that Obama looks horrible in the photos above and below. These photos were taken by Reuters during the B order Crises meeting yesterday. Normally the Regime would have prohibited these pics of Obama not taking the border crises seriously but apparently they have the same narrow mindset as the DUmmies and KOmmies because they focused in on Perry looking upset and thought that was a "win" for them. Actually it is turning into a bigtime...