Free Republic

The judiciary is becoming an important election issue. John McCain is warning conservatives that control of today's finely balanced Supreme Court depends on his election. Unfortunately, his jurisprudence is likely to be anything but conservative. The idea of a "living Constitution" long has been popular on the political left. Conservatives routinely dismiss such result-oriented justice, denouncing "judicial activism" and proclaiming their fidelity to "original intent." However, many Republicans, like Mr. McCain, are just as result-oriented as their Democratic opponents. They only disagree over the result desired. Judge-made rights are wrong because there is no constitutional warrant behind them. The Constitution...

Local toll road activist Terri Hall, the Spring Branch home schooling mom who's campaign against toll roads made her WOAI's San Antonian of the Year for 2007,. is taking her populist campaign nationwide. Hall is among the speakers for Saturday's 'Freedom March,' in Washington DC, organized by supporters of former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, and designed to keep alive his message of smaller government and vigilance against encroaching government power. "They wanted someone to speak about the Trans Texas Corridor, and what's happening here, and the eminent domain abuses, and how all these toll roads are tied to corporate...

Together, you and we cleared the first 4 hurdles to putting the END the Income Tax Initiative on the November 4th Ballot. First, we wrote the legal language for the Initiative - and got it legally certified by the Attorney General's Office. Second, we collected 76,085 certified petition signatures to qualify our END the Income Tax Initiative for legislative action - and move it toward the ballot. Third, we survived an under-the-radar, stealth campaign run by the Massachusetts Teachers Union to disqualify our ballot initiative. Fourth, although the Massachusetts Constitution requires the state legislature to take testimony on and vote...

Show Us the Money: Open the Books for all Massachusetts State Government Income and Spending **** An Open Letter to the Massachusetts State Legislature **** from Michael Cloud and Carla Howell Dear Massachusetts State Legislators, On behalf of the 3,000,000+ taxpayers of Massachusetts, For the purposes of transparency and accountability of the Massachusetts state government, We request that you show us the money: open the books for all Massachusetts State Government income and spending. We ask that you post the Massachusetts state government budget - every dollar of all state government income and spending online - on an open, free,...

Apparently, small government Republicans [Huckabee’s] aides are wary of New Hampshire. “It’s all no tax, no government there,” said Bob Wickers, a top strategist. “It’s not ideal.” But they believe that the message of economic anxiety that he preaches will help in Michigan’s primary on Jan. 15 and in states in the South, which have high poverty rates in addition to strong groups of social conservatives.” Mike Huckabee is skipping New Hampshire because it’s too fiscally conservative. Instructive, yes? Huckabee’s brand of identity politics is as dangerous as anyone else’s - after nearly eight years of a fiscally liberal Republican...

Fred Thompson or Ron Paul? Like Perry and some others, I would rather see a big government Democrat elected than a big government Republican. At least that would bring back some opposition. Republicans in Congress have a much better record of reining in the Democrats' presidents than their own. And as I explain later, I think that one of these two is the only Republican candidate capable of winning the national election. Ron Paul answering the What programs? question by naming three cabinet level departments ... Wow. Good answer. If there was no rest-of-the-world, he would possibly have my vote....

What if there was a "just say no" movement on the part of conservative communities to REFUSE federal handouts? What if we just went back to the way it was before? What if we just say thanks but no thanks. Time was all towns lived within their means and just spent what they could afford. Why don't we go back to that?

Today, Oct. 22, marks the 273rd anniversary of the birth of an American icon: Daniel Boone. This death-defying adventurer axed his way through the Appalachian Mountains to settle Kentucky and open the Western frontier. Stamped across his rock-hard life is the trademark of America: the pioneer spirit to cross new frontiers and control one's destiny. Back then, people ran their own lives. Today, our vastly expanded Nanny State looks after us. Is this a good thing? Imagine you're a pioneer of yesteryear. How would you fare with today's nanny on your back? As you prepare your covered wagon for journeying...

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul said today that he could see no possible reason to ever launch military action or initiate a war, vowing instead to battle efforts he said are undermining the individual liberties of people in America. In an interview with Washingtonpost.com's PostTalk program, the Texas congressman said he could see "no reason" to justify military action if he were elected president. He compared the United States to a schoolyard bully and said the country has no reason to flex its muscles overseas. "There's nobody in this world that could possibly attack us today," he said in the...

For the first time in over 30 years I am considering supporting a Republican for president of the United States. This may seem a little out of character for me, but I offer the following reasons that led me to make this decision. First, but not least, is the fact I have always been opposed to one party controlling the Senate, the House of Representatives and the White House at the same time, even if it is my own party. Division of powers allows for more checks and balances. Recent actions seem to validate this concern. The second reason is...

When Eastern Europe broke free in 1989, we all realized just how little thought had been given to the transition from socialism to capitalism. Mises had told us the collapse was coming, and we should have been prepared. As America comes to resemble a command economy, we need a transition plan here too. Yuri Maltsev proposed a "One-Year Plan" for the U.S.S.R. We're not in that bad a shape (yet), so we could do it in 30 days. DAY ONE: The federal income tax is abolished and April 15th is declared a national holiday. The 40% reduction in federal revenues...

As we all look forward to more sputtering news conference antics from Sen. Larry Craig, here's hoping that the Idaho politician will eventually draw on traditional Republican principles and stand up for his right to engage in consensual sex in toilet stalls with men. Craig, a critic of the Patriot Act who weakened some of its worst provisions during last year's renewal vote, clearly understands the need to keep the government from snooping willy-nilly on its citizens. At first flush, the news that the 62-year-old senior senator from the Gem State pleaded guilty Aug. 8 to misdemeanor charges of disorderly...

Former Senator from Tennessee Fred Thompson announced this week that he may dive into the bloody presidential election waters head first, perhaps as early as July 5th. Who is Fred Thompson, and is he a candidate that true small government believers can support? Before quitting this week to pursue his political aspirations, Thompson, 65, played a District Attorney on NBC's “Law & Order” television program. He lives in Northern Virginia and enjoys a membership within the Council on Foreign Relations and is a Visiting Fellow with the American Enterprise Institute. “After two years in Washington, I often long for the...

'Free to lose' isn't good philosophy for the right wing November 19, 2006 BY MARK STEYN Sun-Times Columnist If Milton Friedman had to die, then a week after the defeat of a Republican Congress that had apparently forgotten every lesson Friedman taught in Free To Choose is eerily apt timing. As it happens, had ill health not intervened, Professor Friedman would have been disembarking round about now from a National Review post-election cruise with yours truly and various other pundits and commentators. Instead, we were obliged to sail without him, and in the days that followed I found myself wondering...

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Lawrence W. Reed is one of those people with so much passion for an unusual line of work that he invented a new occupation, and it has helped shape the conservative movement from here to the Himalayas. Mr. Reed runs a conservative think tank school. Twice a year, ideological allies from across the globe travel to his program at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Mich., to study the tricks of the idea-peddling trade. Policy institutes have been central to a national organizing strategy that has long won the right a reputation for savvy,...

Proud to be a Texan Republican In an time where federal Republicans don't seem to remember the party's values, it makes me proud to know that Rick Perry and the Texas GOP stand loyal to them. Texas Republicans still believe that wasteful and excessive spending should be dramatically cut down. Texas Republicans still stand tough against illegal immigration and understand the need to preserve the American way of life. Texas Republicans still hold conservative values dear, yet they oppose excessive government encroachment in folks' private lifes. And, above all, Texas Republicans still believe in the power of the individual,...

GOP needs tough love, not abandonment -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Star Parker, World Net Daily, October 14, 2006 A survey just released by the Pew Center shows that 51 percent of Democrats are enthusiastic about voting in 2006 as opposed to 33 percent of Republicans. This is almost a mirror image of what the picture looked like in 1994. A Pew Center poll also shows a precipitous drop in support for Republicans and the Bush administration among white evangelicals. It's now a little over 50 percent, whereas in 2004 it was closer to 75 percent. Given the realities staring us in the...

I would be willing to bet that if I went onto the street and asked ten random people what the 10th Amendment to the Constitution said, that none of them would know it. Yet, in truth, the 10th Amendment represents one of the most important defining aspects of our government. Unfortunately, it is also the Amendment that our government most frequently ignores. -snip-

I joined the Republican Party a little bit later than most, as a direct result of the messages I heard from Ronald Reagan. When I began my own business, I discovered that most of the things I had been taught in college about government were wrong. As Ronald Reagan said and I quickly learned, government was a lot like a baby; a large appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. I could find precious few government agencies that accomplished their actual mission, and none that did so efficiently. I came to the conclusion that the...

Ray Haynes represents the 66th Assembly District, including portions of Western Riverside County and Northern San Diego County. I joined the Republican Party a little bit later than most, as a direct result of the messages I heard from Ronald Reagan. When I began my own business, I discovered that most of the things I had been taught in college about government were wrong. As Ronald Reagan said and I quickly learned, government was a lot like a baby: a large appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. I could find precious few government agencies...

As 2005 closes, and the next year’s federal budget season opens, fiscal conservatives are up in arms. Though he talks a good line about battling government bloat, our current President has shown an eerie lackawanna when it comes to actually keeping a lid on the federal Pandora’s box. Quite apart from Katrina or the war on terror, there has been a pattern of troublesome spending spikes right from the beginning of the Bush Administration: Dubya’s 2001 education bill (“No Child Left Behind”) was the most expensive in history. His 2002 farm bill was the highest priced ever. His 2003 Medicare...

During his long career in politics, Richard Nixon said many things that were not strictly true. But the biggest misstatement of all may have come in 1958, when he went to Wisconsin to campaign against Democratic Sen. William Proxmire. If Proxmire were re-elected, Nixon told voters, "you will be in for a wild spending binge by radical Democrats drunk with visions of votes." There are worse things than that -- Proxmire, after all, had won the seat after the death of red-baiter Joseph McCarthy, whose reckless smears got him censured by the Senate. But as it turned out, Proxmire was...

It's only taken a decade or so, but suddenly there's momentum in Congress for spending restraint. We'll be watching the fine print, but you can tell Republicans are worried about complaints from conservative voters because for a change they're trying to act, well, like Republicans. In a first good sign, House leaders are rewriting their Fiscal 2006 budget resolution to increase the amount of "savings" to as much as $50 billion over five years. This is far from onerous, but it is better than the $35 billion Congress passed the first time around. In another miracle, they are also moving...

SMALL GOVERNMENT CONSERVATIVES HAVE REVOLTED against President Bush and the Republican leadership of the Senate and the House. Their goal, with hurricane recovery costs soaring, is what it's always been: to hold down spending and restrain the growth of government. It is an impossible dream or close to impossible. The small government brigade is a distinct minority in Congress. Their strength is outside Congress. They reflect the anxiety of the Republican party's base, conservatives and moderates both, over the uncontrolled spending and massive expansion of government following hurricane Katrina. "The base is killing us," a Republican senator says.There's another source...

On September 8, 2005, Wall Street Journal columnist David Wessel announced that "the era of small government is over. Sept. 11 challenged it. Katrina killed it." Wessel's declaration comes nearly a decade after President Clinton declared that "the era of big government is over." But Clinton and Wessel are both wrong, for different reasons. The relative size of the federal government has been remarkably stable for over 50 years. In 1952, the third year of the Korean War, federal spending was 20.3 percent of GDP; in 2005 to date, the third year of the Iraq War, federal spending is 20.4...

Columbia, South CarolinaPERHAPS the most overused political tag these days is "budget hawk." It's embraced by Democrats who want to balance bloated budgets by raising taxes and by Republicans who want to cut taxes but have little appetite for spending cuts. Then there is a budget hawk like Mark Sanford, South Carolina's GOP governor, whose thrifty ways infect his politics as much as they do his personal life. "The governor is as cheap as everyone says he is," says his former press secretary. "It's not part of his image."The aide describes a recent staff retreat at Sanford's 3,000-acre farm near...

In a recent Supreme Court decision, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote, "If the peasants sow the fields poorly, they should be helped – and this particularly applies to the poor peasants – by means of collective cultivation of the large estates. There is no other way of helping the poor peasants." Therefore, "the landed estates must be confiscated immediately." Actually, that was Vladimir Lenin writing in an issue of the Communist publication Pravda on June 2, 1917. I've compiled a small list of quotes for use in this article, but at times it can be hard to remember who used...

In addition to the insurgency, the government said it must also grapple with a bloated bureaucracy. Government spokesman Laith Kubba said that ministries were overstaffed and that a new agency could soon try to cut budgets and subsidies. "Many government ministries can carry out their duties with only about 40 to 60% of [their] employees," Kubba, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, told reporters at a news conference. "There are many senior employees who are receiving high salaries but who do not have a great deal to do." As many as half of Iraq's 6.5 million-strong workforce is employed...

(comments from Rush's website) September 2, 2003 After I finished broadcasting today, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie called the EIB Network. He wanted to talk to me about this Manchester Union Leader report alleging that he'd rejected smaller government in a meeting with the paper's editorial board. During the show I'd said that this story had "taken the wind out of my sails," and needless to say this caused rumblings of displeasure out there. I was unable to take Ed's call, but I asked that his message be relayed to me because I wanted to share it with you...

As legislative leaders search for ways to break a frustrating budget impasse before California runs out of cash this summer, they won't be turning to eight or so Republicans — members of a group proudly and consistently committed to voting "no" when it comes to state spending. They are Sacramento's most stalwart conservatives, lawmakers who promise to vote only for a budget that would veer far, far to the right of anything that stands a chance in this overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature. They came here with one overarching goal: to reduce the size of government. They consider their refusal to compromise...

<p>EDITOR'S NOTE: This year, 90 of the 163 members of the Missouri House are freshmen - a historic shift in power brought about by term limits. To help chronicle that change, the Post-Dispatch has followed Rep. Jodi Stefanick, part of the new Republican majority, through her first legislative session. This is the third article in an occasional series.</p>

An interview with Gore Vidal by Marc Cooper HE MIGHT BE AMERICA'S LAST small-r republican. Gore Vidal, now 76, has made a lifetime out of critiquing America's imperial impulses and has -- through two dozen novels and hundreds of essays -- argued tempestuously that the U.S. should retreat back to its more Jeffersonian roots, that it should stop meddling in the affairs of other nations and the private affairs of its own citizens. That's the thread that runs through Vidal's latest best-seller -- an oddly packaged collection of essays published in the wake of September 11 titled Perpetual War for...