Free Republic

Echoing past economic promises of “green shoots,” “five million green collar jobs,” and “recovery summer,” President Barack Obama said during his Saturday weekly address that 2014 will be a “year of action” on the economy. “This will be a year of action. I’ll keep doing everything I can to create new jobs and new opportunities for American families – with Congress, on my own, and with everyone willing to play their part,” said Obama. Obama’s latest economic pivot comes on the heels of a dismal Friday jobs report that shows the U.S. labor force participation rate has contracted to its...

As Russia prepares to strut its stuff before the world at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the economic foundation of Russian power and prosperity is crumbling, thanks to a strategic weapon developed by the United States. That weapon is fracking, and it is paying havoc with Russia's ability to exercise power on the world stage. Three articles lay out the devastating consequences of this technological revolution developed mostly not by a national laboratory, huge government initiative, or top scientists, but by guys out in the Texas and Oklahoma oil patches. The American Interest sums it up most pithily: North America's shale...

The Associated Press, via Breitbart, reports that Attorney General Eric Holder wants public schools to back off zero tolerance policies that he alleges discriminates against minority students. Putting a chill on discipline and stymieing schools from ousting miscreants means lots of public schools -- particularly inner-city ones -- will do even less educating. Holder 's guidelines aim at halting "targeting minorities," but, practically, will accomplish defining deviancy downward yet again in urban minority-dominated schools -- that's mostly black and Hispanic kids from broken families and single-parent households. The A.G.'s guidelines are another tacit admission that there are enormous dysfunctions in...

It is worthy paying close attention when a certain Saudi prince speaks his mind. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal is sometimes described as the most powerful Arab in the world, thanks to his enormous wealth, business acumen, and influence in the Saudi royal family, which runs the Kingdom as a family fiefdom. Western-educated, he has shown himself to be an effective power broker, owning a 7% stake in News Corporation and donating $20 million each to Harvard and Georgetown Universities, arousing suspicions of undue influence. The good prince let the world know what the real stakes are in the battle over...

<p>One year ago this month, President Obama announced that radical gun control was the top of his agenda for his second term.</p> <p>Although he failed to get any of the gun bans or government registrations passed on the federal level, he was successful in one area. His actions convinced millions of Americans to buy more firearms than any time in history.</p>

The anti-Christian sentiment of Muslims in Libya has now reached a new, official level; the Libyan government has declared its new constitution will be based on Shariah law. The Libyan General National Congress stated, "Islamic law is the source of legislation in Libya. All state institutions need to comply with this." This is a change from the policy under former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who allowed Libya's 300,000 Coptic Christians, 5% of its population, to openly practice their faith. Reports assert that a special committee is examining current laws to make sure they comply with Shariah. Patrick Sookhdeo, international director...

For all the attention Obamacare has drawn in recent weeks, few observers have noted that the law is having the unexpected, yet most welcome, effect of transforming scores of millions of Americans, virtually overnight, into generous benefactors of the less fortunate. A real-world example—representative of countless millions of similar situations—will make this crystal clear: Let’s say that you are a healthy, hardworking 54-year-old single adult in San Francisco earning $45,960 per year—the income level at which federal Obamacare subsidies from your fellow taxpayers are no longer available to help you pay your monthly health-insurance premiums. As a San Francisco resident,...

Despite the federal deficit’s recent decline, it remains large, and the nation’s growing debt threatens to quickly accelerate it to new heights. During the past four years, the deficit has been historically high and federal interest rates historically low. Together, they have overshadowed the rapidly increasing federal debt. Now, with the deficit down from its heights and interest rates up from their lows, a looming menace is becoming clear: The federal government’s increasing debt has created the equivalent of a large, new entitlement-spending program in the form of debt-service costs. No longer a peacetime record, the deficit still remains very...

As various lawmakers push to repeal cuts to military pensions, Representative Paul Ryan (D-WI) continues to defend. the cuts. House leadership indicates no plans to take up any repeal. On December 27, Breitbart News reported that lawmakers from both parties had introduced legislation repealing Ryan's military pension cuts in part or in whole. But according to The Hill, there has been little progress toward reversing the cuts once Congress reconvenes in January. If the majority of leadership shares Ryan's position, the push to reverse is moot because Ryan has made clear he sees "no choice between responsible reforms of military...

For decades, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported that over 30 million Americans were living in “poverty,” but the bureau’s definition of poverty differs widely from that held by most Americans. In fact, other government surveys show that most of the persons whom the government defines as “in poverty” are not poor in any ordinary sense of the term. The overwhelming majority of the poor have air conditioning, cable TV, and a host of other modern amenities. They are well housed, have an adequate and reasonably steady supply of food, and have met their other basic needs, including medical care....

A southeastern North Dakota town narrowly escaped tragedy when a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded nearby, the mayor said Tuesday, calling for changes in how the fuel is transported across the U.S. No one was hurt in Monday’s derailment of the mile-long train that sent a great fireball and plumes of black smoke skyward about a mile from the small town of Casselton. The fire had been so intense as darkness fell that investigators couldn’t get close enough to count the number of burning cars. The National Transportation Safety Board was preparing to investigate. .Most residents heeded a...

The final moments of Mack Brown’s career at Texas were neither triumphant nor tearful. Just quiet. He walked off the Alamodome field surrounded by noise but not saying a word. He gathered his team for his final locker room speech. And one hour later, he was gone. He left the building as Texas’ former head coach, his hellish 16th season finally complete with a 30-7 loss to No. 10 Oregon in the Valero Alamo Bowl. And there was unmistakable finality to this. Mack Brown congratulates QB Case McCoy after a first-half TD, but little else went right for Brown and...

With the end of the year upon us, it is time to honor an American who stood for this nation’s highest ideals in 2013. A week ago, we listed ten nominees. The selection drew immediate comment from Times readers, and suggestions for additional names. One of these gets a very special mention. His name is Marcus Luttrell, the author of “Lone Survivor.” He was a Navy Seal who was part of an operation in Afghanistan called “Operation Red Wing.” He and his teammates were sent on a dangerous mission to capture or kill an important Taliban leader. Their mission was...

It was a heck of a way for President Obama to wrap up 2013. In asking the question at the president’s year-end news conference, Julie Pace of the Associated Press captured several things at once: the reality of a genuinely disappointing year for Obama, a mood of skepticism in the media about him, the inevitability of Beltway scorekeeping and the personalization of nearly everything in politics. Obama, for good reason, avoided a direct answer. But I’d suggest that 2013 was not his worst year. That distinction should be reserved for 2011, when the president emerged from the summer looking weak...

House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has doubled down on his move to cut pensions for military veterans in a USA Today op-ed published Sunday. In the op-ed, Ryan opens up by highlighting the CBO estimate that the deal he cut with Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) would result in at least $20 billion in deficit reduction. “The Bipartisan Budget Act that Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and I drafted will soon become law,” Ryan wrote. “We think it's a small step toward fiscal discipline in Washington. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will...

Senate Republicans were unable to stop military pension cuts when Senate Democrats blocked a vote on an amendment to prevent the cuts by closing a welfare loophole for illegal immigrants Tuesday evening. The two-year budget deal brokered by Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, would cut military pensions by $6 billion over ten years, leaving some Senate Republicans scrambling to stop the cuts. “Removing this unbalanced treatment of our military retirees ought to be one of the key actions we should take before this legislation moves forward. In fact, greater savings than this...

The budget deal that House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) cut with Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) is set to clear the Senate, The New York Times reports. “Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, announced his support for the measure on Monday, appearing to give it the 60 votes it would need to overcome a filibuster threat and bring it to a final vote, which would need only a majority,” the Times’ Jonathan Weisman wrote Monday. “Mr. Hatch joined Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona, Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, Susan...

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan has now accomplished the astonishing task of pushing House Republicans substantially to the left of the Senate GOP. His budget deal, announced Tuesday night, was achieved by shutting conservative Senate Republicans out of negotiations, by resorting to the old trick of spending now while claiming savings later, by ignoring a symbolically important budgetary red line, and by treating as Democratic “concessions” things to which even Democratic budgeteers already had agreed. The chess equivalent of Ryan’s deal would be trading a castle for a mere pawn. No wonder conservatives are feeling rooked. One need not...

A simple “misunderstanding” allowed Google’s top executives to pay between $3.3 and $5.3 million less than market price for fuel to fly a fleet of private jets on both scientific missions and flights to some of the world’s most exclusive beaches. Google billionaires Larry Page, Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin own as many as nine planes and helicopters that they operate at a government-run airbase mere steps from Google headquarters. Run by a secretive holding company called H211, the jets take NASA scientist on an occasional flight, and appear to carry Google's billionaire bosses to Tahiti, Hawaii and a host...

The budget deal announced Tuesday by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) would boost federal spending by around $65 billion over the next two years. This new spending is offset by increasing user fees, boosting pension contributions by federal employees and the military, and other minor changes. Ryan and Murray also say that the deal will reduce the deficit by $23 billion over the next 10 years. This reduction, however, doesn't start until 2022. According to a 4-page summary document of the deal obtained by Breitbart News, "[t]he budget proposal saves $28 billion over ten years by...