Free Republic

As we prepare to enter into the presidential transition period there is one pressing question on the mind of some government employees: will I stay or will I go? (With all due apologies to The Clash.) For most federal workers the change in management won’t have much effect. They are hired through normal channels and have powerful unions to ensure they stay there for as long as they like. But a second class of government employees consists of those who are appointed by the current administration. They generally don’t enjoy the same level of protection and are often replaced when...

Leaked audio of Secretary of State John Kerry reveals he argued for the use of force in Syria and is frustrated that the U.S. can’t do more there. From CNN: Kerry’s comments came at a meeting that took place at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations on the sidelines the UN General Assembly, where Kerry was going from session to session in a frenzied effort to resuscitate a ceasefire that seemed poised to collapse.“I think you’re looking at three people, four people in the administration. I lost the argument. I’ve argued for the use of force. I’m the guy...

Back in the 1960s, as large numbers of black students were entering a certain Ivy League university for the first time, someone asked a chemistry professor -- off the record -- what his response to them was. He said, "I give them all A's and B's. To hell with them." Since many of those students were admitted with lower academic qualifications than other students, he knew that honest grades in a tough subject like chemistry could lead to lots of failing grades, and that in turn would lead to lots of time-wasting hassles -- not just from the students, but...

Has the Black Lives Matter movement (or at least some of its prominent protesters) incited violence against police officers, leading to the tragic series of ambush attacks on law enforcement we’ve seen this year? If your answer is a flat “no” in this case I have to wonder where you’re getting your news. While some protests remain peaceful and law abiding (or at least only illegal in terms of blocking highways), others have featured calls for violence… a call which can easily be interpreted as having been answered as recently as last night. But assigning blame in the public square...

What will my son be taught about Barack Obama? At two years old, he wonÂ’t remember the Obama years, but heÂ’s most definitely going to be taught about them outside the home one day. Liberal bias in schools is well known, and one can only imagine just how slanted curricula will be about the 44th president. When I was in school, I can remember being taught whoppers like: the Second Amendment only applies to militias and/or muskets, the Founders wanted to keep religion separate from the public square, southern Dixiecrats all became Republicans, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt ended the Great...

In case you missed it, Louisiana is underwater and currently experiencing the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Before Sandy, the worst natural disaster was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Thirteen people in Louisiana are dead, thousands are displaced and nearly 90,000 people have registered for federal disaster aid. From the Red Cross: The devastating flooding in Louisiana has forced thousands of people from their homes with just the few things they could take with them. The American Red Cross is there, providing food, shelter and relief supplies to those affected by the largest natural disaster to hit the United...

Between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the broadcast networks of NBC, ABC, and CBS presented several reports on the “massive” and “historic” flooding devastating Louisiana, even comparing storm damage to that suffered during Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Katrina. However, the one thing missing from the coverage was a single mention of the President of the United States, Barack Obama. On Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt proclaimed: “Now to the flooding disaster still impacting tens of thousands of people in the south. That massive tropical system that devastated Louisiana is now bringing new flash flood watches to Texas. This...

This week, President Obama penned a ridiculous piece in Glamour magazine. It dripped with self-regard and oozed with moral preening. Barack Obama, said Barack Obama, is a true feminist. This, of course, might not have been obvious from the fact that the Obama White House has paid women 89 cents for every dollar earned by a man, as of July. It might not have been obvious from the Obama administration's belief that even men can be women, so long as they think it so -- and they can invade women's bathrooms, based on that subjective belief. But Obama, said Obama,...

The Republican National Convention is over, but that didnÂ’t stop the media from going nuts over the plagiarism flap that marred the first night of events. Melania Trump delivered what was a very good speech on the first night of the convention. Yet, there were a couple paragraphs that looked and sounded very familiar. Why? It was because those passages were lifted from Michelle ObamaÂ’s 2008 address to the Democratic National Convention. Team Trump had tripped up, so the media blood sports began. As Guy noted, to make matters worse, it appears as if the original author of MichelleÂ’s speech...

When President Obama entered office, he dreamed that his hope-and-change messaging and his references to his familial Islamic roots would win over the Muslim world. The soon-to-be Nobel Peace Prize laureate would make the U.S. liked in the Middle East. Then, terrorism would decrease. But, as with his approach to racial relations, Obama's remedies proved worse than the original illness. Obama gave his first presidential interview to Al Arabiya, noting that he has Muslims in his family. He implicitly blamed America's strained relations with many Middle Eastern countries on his supposedly insensitive predecessor, George W. Bush. The new message of...

It appears that no matter how many men, women and children Islamists slaughter or maim, few in the West take Islamic terror seriously. This may sound odd, given how much talk there is about terror, but a compelling case can be made for this assertion. 1) The Western elites The elites of the Western world are far more preoccupied with -- and fearful of -- global warming than Islamic terror. They regard those who believe that Islamic terror is the greatest threat to civilization as not merely wrong but bigots. They have labeled such people Islamophobes, but of course, there...

“We cannot forget the past. That’s what the families of the victims have done. And the United States of America wants to continue to be a partner in your efforts…. Each of us have a responsibility each and every day to make sure that wherever we see injustice, wherever we see rule of law flouted, honest witnesses, that we're speaking out…” (U.S. President Barack Obama, Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 25, 2016.)Thus recently spoke President Obama regarding the victims (many of them communist terrorists) of a “right-wing” regime. Now when it comes to the families of victims of Castroism? When it...

A central tenet of President Obama’s argument regarding our national security is that we should not chastise all Muslims. He repeats often that Islam is a religion of peace. What we need to examine is whether that is just something he states over and over again -- hoping Americans will accept it as fact -- or whether that is actually true. First, before anyone jumps off the high board let’s determine the parameters. Almost everyone reading this column and/or across the world wants to believe that Islam is a religion of peace. Except, of course, for some wing-nuts: some people...

There are three things you need to know about modern American politics: (1) the black vote is hugely important to the Democratic Party, but (2) less than half of black voters actually agree with the Democratic PartyÂ’s view of government, and among those who do agree a great many are routinely mistreated by the very politicians they vote for; therefore (3) the only practical way to ensure that the vast majority of black voters reliably and enthusiastically turn out for the Democrats is to avoid debating real issues and focus instead on racial politics.Roughly one fourth of Democratic voters are...

WASHINGTON -- Race is what you make of it. For me I have made race a part of what social scientists once called the "melting pot," by which they meant that differences -- including ethnicity and race -- were all melted down into one great variegated country called America. There might be different heritages and different sub-cultures mixed into the American melting pot, but once mixed together we were all Americans. Of course, however, through the years that American melting pot has been increasingly difficult to maintain, because various leaders -- political leaders, education leaders, social leaders and simple charlatans...

“Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions.” – George W. Bush speaking at the July 12 police officer memorial in Dallas.The answer to where you go next after you’ve hit rock-bottom depends on whether rock-bottom was your goal in the first place.Either way, we’ve arrived. Look around. Turn on the news, if you’ve allowed your last meal time enough to digest.  We’re here…at the bottom…and it’s not pretty. That is, unless tearing America to shreds by creating irreparable division is your intention. Racial division will be President Obama’s legacy. But...

Just wait. In the fullness of time, Donald J. Trump will be blamed for “creating the atmosphere” that led to the Texas cop massacre of July 7. However, at least by the same standards applied to Mr. Trump, Barack Obama should be fingered for encouraging Micah Xavier Johnson to “shoot a dozen Dallas police officers, killing five.” Helped by his cabbie, Gates was seen forcing the front door to his home. To their detriment, Sgt. James Crowley and Officer James Figueroa rushed to the rescue, only to be cursed out by Gates on arrival for their alleged racial bias. Obama...

Welcome to 1968 2.0, the new and improved chaos, featuring a cutting edge assault on our foundational principles by an idiot elite that thinks it can gut the rule of law without consequence. Time to reboot, to wipe the hard drive and reload the factory software coded two-plus centuries ago by those dead white male geniuses. Except I don’t think this country’s elite has the character, nor understands our constitutional technology enough, to do it. I think it fails to appreciate what is going on outside its cloisters, among those weird, patriotic, religious, and – significantly – armed people living...

During a press conference in Warsaw at the NATO Summit, Leah wrote about how Obama once again pressed gun control in the wake of the Dallas attack. On July 7, Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, a U.S. Army veteran, ambushed police during a peaceful protest against the recent string of police-involved shooting deaths against black Americans. He shot twelve officers, killing five, in the worst attack on law enforcements since 9/11. Dallas Police Chief Brown said that Johnson, who was held up El Centro College parking complex, said he was upset by the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and...

Is this the Dallas cop killer at a New Black Panthers march? In 2009 and 2010, lawyers working at the United States Justice Department warned top Obama political appointees and other Justice Department officials about the dangerous threats of New Black Panthers to kill police officers and other whites. I was one of those lawyers who delivered those warnings.Our warnings came in the context of the Voting Rights Act case I and other lawyers brought against the New Black Panthers on behalf of the United States in 2009, a case the Obama administration ultimately abandoned. Both top DOJ officials, including...