Free Republic

In nominating Thomas Perez to be secretary of Labor, President Obama cited the personal story of Mr. Perez, a first-generation American, as "remind(ing) us of this country's promise." The president's decision is alarming. Throughout his career, Mr. Perez has been motivated by one goal: the advancement of the far left's agenda. It seems unlikely that he is flexible enough to run the Labor Department as the economy changes rapidly. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Perez was Labor secretary in Maryland. The Washington Post reports he was best known for pushing a minimum-wage increase. Mr. Perez staunchly backed unions, and several...

Not a new problem but I'm looking for a solution, other than the obvious one. Comcast puts a pop up ad for their soft ware on every web page I open, "XFinity Constant Guard". It covers about 75% of the page. There is no way to simply exit out of it, all I can do is grab it in the upper left corner and drag it out of sight to the far right side of the page. I went to Comcast in person yesterday and the woman there said, "I should go into my programs and remove it". The rub...

In his 36 years in Congress, corrupt Democrat Chris Dodd reveled in pawning himself off as an expert on everything, especially the housing and financial-services industries, foreign policy and campaign-finance laws. History tells a different story. Mr. Dodd's vanity presidential run in 2007-08 kept him away from his duties as Senate Banking Committee chairman while the economy was imploding; the collapse was rooted in his manipulation of federal housing policies and his blocking of lending reforms that might have forestalled the Great Recession. On foreign affairs, he is known in some circles as "Sen. Wrong" for his reflexive support of...

People who lost their homes to foreclosure, homeowners whose mortgages are under water, and everyone else who suffered economic and employment miseries because of Chris Dodd's dirty dealings while a U.S. senator from Connecticut, will be interested to know Mr. Dodd is doing a whole lot better than they are. Trade publications report he made $2.4 million in his first year as chief lobbyist for the movie industry. That's almost 14 times what he grossed in his last year in the Senate and nearly twice what his predecessor made. But Mr. Dodd seems intent upon running the Motion Picture Association...

Good morning — despite all the doubts of late, we're confident the sun has risen — and welcome to Sequestered America. On your way to work, presuming the economy hasn't collapsed, don't be surprised to see mushroom clouds in the distance from America's exploding nuclear-weapons stockpiles. Which reminds us: If you work at a nuclear-power plant, you might as well stay home since your reactor by now has melted down and is on its way to China. If you are commuting, try not to run over all the old ladies, disabled children, unvaccinated preschoolers, emaciated mothers and infants, Section 8...

Gearing up for the 2014 gubernatorial election, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is desperate to portray himself as a tax cutter. But even if he prevails in ending municipal taxes on vehicles worth less than $28,500, he can't really believe voters would forget he boosted state taxes by $3.8 billion in this biennium and wants to increase them a further $1.9 billion in the next. In reality, his car-tax plan is a small herd of Trojan horses for taxpayers because scant few people actually will see a net decrease in their tax burden, already the third highest in America. First, there's...

The "national conversation" Americans demanded after the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre is fast turning into a diatribe hinged — in some instances unhinged — on government "doing something," no matter how meaningless or expensive. Increasingly, proponents of stricter gun laws and "mental-health reform" claim their demands are rooted in "common sense," a strategy that attempts to pre-empt reasoned debate that surely would unmask them as counterproductive, unaffordable, unenforceable or useless. When the cost of their proposals is challenged, the do-something crowd quickly deploys its "if-it-saves-one-life" excuse and demonizes its critics as enablers of future mass shootings. Still,...

Paul "Skip" Stam, a Republican state lawmaker from North Carolina, is taking some heat for his proposal to ban people on welfare from buying lottery tickets. His bill also proposes to drop "Education" from "N.C. Education Lottery" ads because profits fund many government expenses unrelated to education. Moreover, the state shouldn't use "education" to promote "something that is essentially a scam," he said. It's good to know Connecticut wasn't the only state duped into creating a lottery "for the children" only to see the proceeds diverted for a plethora of political, non-educational purposes. Enforcing Rep. Stam's ban would be problematic,...

Lawmakers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and a number of other states are presenting bills that would require gun owners to buy liability insurance. For the responsible gun owner, it's sensible to have such coverage. Indeed, National Rifle Association members can buy coverage with a $100,000 limit for $47 a year, plus $118 for self-defense coverage. A $250,000 limit costs $67, plus $187 for self-defense coverage. O. Ricardo Pimental, a columnist for the San Antonio, Texas, Express-News, "reached out to a couple of insurance agents who drew a scenario under which gun owners could attach an excess liability or umbrella policy to...

The wealthiest Americans always have had targets on their backs, put there by politicians ginning up class envy to justify ever-more-progressive taxation and wealth distribution. But of late, "the rich" have been subjected to a relentless thrashing at the hands of leftist politicians and "journalists" for being guilty of the crime of first-degree success. The 2012 presidential campaign was all about the Top 1 Percent "not paying their fair share," even though for 100 years they've done the heavy lifting on income taxes. Today, while nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes, the Top 1 Percent account for...

An archaic term, too seldom heard or even contemplated nowadays, is "beyond the pale." Believed to date to the 14th century, it originally had to do with the physical boundaries of English authority in Ireland. Today, it means "beyond the limits of propriety, courtesy, protection, safety, etc.," according to www.dictionary.com. Two notably sordid examples of beyond-the-pale behavior emerged in recent weeks, and those responsible for them seemingly will keep rolling along, free of consequences. On Dec. 25, 2012 (!), a petition was filed on the White House's "We the People" site, calling upon the federal government to declare the Roman...

A proposal to train and arm Washington Community High School administrators will be discussed Monday by the District 308 School Board. Washington Police Chief Jim Kuchenbecker and Superintendent Jim Dunnan devised the plan in the wake of the tragedy last month at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Three administrators would become special part-time Washington police officers with authority to possess a firearm only inside the high school. The administrators would undergo the same firearms training as all police officers, including a 40-hour course and monthly qualification. “We feel this is a sound, logical plan because Illinois doesn’t allow...

Here are some of the Media Research Center's Notable Quotables for the worst reporting of 2012. DENYING THE OBVIOUS AWARD Host Stephen Dubner: "There is a kind of, I think, common analog, I hope I'm not overstating it by saying that it's common, that Fox News is to the right what The New York Times is to the left. I'm guessing you would see that as a false equivalency on a lot of levels ..." Editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal: "The word I want to use here ... begins with 'bull' and ends in 'it' and you can figure out...

The right-to-work movement that has swallowed up Michigan, heretofore the state that seemed least likely to enact legislation that could be construed as anti-union, has evoked a see-no-evil, speak-no-evil, hear-no-evil reaction in staunchly pro-union Connecticut. But the facts don't lie. Right-to-work is the key to curing much of what ails the Nutmeg State's economy, and it belongs on lawmakers' radar screen. The strongest argument for right-to-work is that it is a job creator. The strongest argument against it is that those jobs don't pay as well as comparable jobs in the 26 states that have not passed such legislation. Experience...

With the result of the Nov. 6 election being what it was, it is pretty clear a cap-and-trade tax is just around the corner. The cap-and-trade tax is a tax on the production of carbon dioxide. This will affect primarily the energy-producing industries. They will, in turn, undoubtedly pass the tax down to the consumer. The price of electricity should skyrocket, and gasoline prices are estimated to increase by at least 20 cents a gallon. This will bring the United States in line with the rest of the world, which, obviously, the citizens of this country (well, at least half...

<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- A substantial tax credit that couples or individuals receive when they adopt is set to expire at year's end unless Congress acts, and experts fear that without it fewer families will adopt.</p> <p>At issue is the adoption tax credit -- last year it was a maximum of $13,360 -- that allows low- and middle-income families who otherwise couldn't afford it to adopt. Unlike a tax deduction, which only reduces taxable income, a tax credit actually reduces a person's tax liability.</p>

NEW YORK CITY (BP) -- New York City may be one of the more liberal cities in America, but more than 80 percent of voters there believe public officials should neither prevent Chick-fil-A from opening new franchises nor discourage citizens from visiting it, a new poll shows. The Quinnipiac University survey of 1,298 New York City voters showed that by an 82-12 percent margin, the city's voters don't think that the Chick-fil-A president's stance on marriage should "have an impact on their ability to obtain government permits to do business." Similarly, by an 83-11 margin, voters don't believe elected officials...

IRVING, Texas (BP) -- With 100-plus degree temperatures outside the Boy Scouts of America Museum, the sweating, 7-year-old Cruz Burns couldn't come up with an answer as to why his mom was holding a press conference. "Is all this stuff the adults are talking about just weird?" the journalist asked the Tiger Cub Scout, while 32-year-old Jennifer Tyrrell continued to make her case for allowing homosexuals to serve in Boy Scouts leadership. Staring at the ground, tugging at the scarf of his uniform, the little boy nodded, "Yeah." Burns' participation in an Ohio Cub Scout pack was short-lived. His mother,...

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP) -- Today it is popular among those promoting same-sex marriage to say that Jesus never addressed the issue, that He was silent on the subject. Those who affirm the historical and traditional understanding of marriage between a man and woman often are admonished to go and read the Bible more carefully. If we do so, we are told, we will see that Jesus never addressed the issue. So, the question that I want to raise is, "Is this assertion correct?" Is it indeed the fact that Jesus never addresses the issue of same-sex marriage? When one...

I'm retired but while still employed I bought stock in the company I worked for and my wife still buys stock in the company she works for. We've bought lesser amounts in other stocks from time to time with after tax money but these two are our major investments. This stock was bought with after tax money, in her case through payroll deduction with a 15% company match, no match for me in addition she owns some company stock in her 401K. I understand the 401K is untaxed until she starts withdrawing and she will owe taxes on the full...