Free Republic

A key part of the Fifth Circuit’s decision to keep the freeze on President Obama’s amnesty programs was the 25-page dissenting opinion written by the panel’s lone Obama appointee. Not only does it point to how the bloc-voting liberal justices of the Supreme Court will ultimately treat the case, it almost wholly focuses on the threshold issue of “prosecutorial discretion”: an executive-branch power that, if expanded to include mass grants of amnesty, would remove the last vestige of authority that Congress and the courts have in preventing immigration anarchy at our nation’s southern border. The “essential point of disagreement” that...

The Obama administration is expected in the coming days to announce a major clean water regulation that would restore the federal government’s authority to limit pollution in the nation’s rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands. Environmentalists have praised the new rule, calling it an important step that would lead to significantly cleaner natural bodies of water and healthier drinking water. But it has attracted fierce opposition from several business interests, including farmers, property developers, fertilizer and pesticide makers, oil and gas producers and a national association of golf course owners. Opponents contend that the rule would stifle economic growth and intrude...

Linky only.

In 1919, Rudyard Kipling wrote in The Gods of the Copybook Headings, “As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man / That…the Sow returns to her Mire / And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire.” Likewise, it appears that conservatives return to their disastrous past policies. In outlining his foreign policy plans for America, Jeb Bush recently stated, “I love my father and my brother…But I am my own man – and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences.” He went on to say, “I...

One in five Germans believe that a revolution would be the only way to truly reform society, a study released by the Free University of Berlin on Monday shows. Anti-capitalism, anti-fascism and anti-racism were all are prominent positions according to the study entitled “Against state and capital—for the revolution”, which has revealed a public much further to the left than previously thought. In the report, 20% of the people surveyed agreed with the statement that “Living conditions won’t be improved by reforms—we need a revolution”. A similar percentage of people said they saw the rise of a new fascism in...

Suspected dissidents disappear after midnight visits to their homes; chilling screams can again be heard from Idi Amin's infamous torture chambers, reopened after a quarter of a century of disuse. From the few that escape come tales of punishment beatings and even mass executions. Welcome to President Yoweri Museveni's Uganda. One of Britain's favourite African states in recent years has, almost unnoticed in the West, become a sinister land where a corrupt regime uses its secret police to rule through fear. The reasons for this transition are not hard to fathom. Mr Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986, when his...

Mary Noriega heard there would be chicken. She hated being herded “like cattle,” she said, standing for hours in a line of more than 1,500 people hoping to buy food, as soldiers with side arms checked identification cards to make sure no one tried to buy basic items more than once or twice a week. But Ms. Noriega, a laboratory assistant with three children, said she had no choice, ticking off the inventory in her depleted refrigerator: coffee and corn flour. Things had gotten so bad, she said, that she had begun bartering with neighbors to put food on the...

During His State of the Union address, Obama clearly stated His view of the purpose of His presidency. to follow the Constitution. It's too old and too slow. Here it is: "to do what I believe is best for America.” He presumably means an America as she would be after His radical transformation has been completed. He constantly tries to transform her in His own image. Following the Constitution -- not trying to evade Article II limitations on the Executive Branch and not trying to diminish the Article I role of Congress -- is best for America. A dictator would feel otherwise. The Constitution was designed to prevent the rise of dictatorships in America. Obama's...

Regulation: Cures for cancer and Ebola having been found, the federal ubernannies have decreed that sprinkles should no longer adorn kids' ice cream because they contain the trans fat that liberal groups once pushed for. Come the New Year, the Food and Drug Administration, ignoring the principle that in most cases it's the dose that defines the poison, will issue new regulations designed to remove even trace amounts of hydrogenate oils, commonly known as trans fats, from our diets. Trans fats have been in our foods since the 1950s to increase shelf life and improve taste. A small amount appears...

I have long been reporting on Castro-ruled Cuba and, indeed, was there not long after Fidel Castro had taken over the country. What became clear, as the number of Castro’s political prisoners increased, was that his revolutionary Cuba was a dictatorship, like the regime he had ousted. After I wrote that, a member of his administration rebuked me for my rank ignorance. I responded by saying that he knew that if I were a Cuban in Cuba, I would be in prison. Later, at the United Nations, I was one of a number of reporters interviewing Che Guevara, the young,...

In-your-face Treason: We did the right thing with our recent elections. But--as predicted--Obama will not recognize them. He and his criminal syndicate are--and have been--completely lawless After the landslide elections on 4 November 2014, Obama was said to be even more furious with the “stupid American voters” than usual. And, with his now usual arrogant bravado he is—with his recently announced coming actions—saying to the American people “Your petty little elections mean nothing to me. I’m beyond your laws as well as your wants and needs. Once I’m fully ensconced in and with my dictatorship and can openly eliminate anyone...

Using the Nazi analogy to discredit political opponents is a popular game that seems to work best as a substitute for honest criticism. Although such comparisons usually do little more than expose one’s ignorance of the actual history of the Third Reich, it doesn’t mean that valid comparisons don’t exist. Within the right context, similarities can be drawn, Godwin's Law be damned. Actually, there’s only one good reason why the subject should ever be brought up in the first place. Nazi Germany was a fundamental transformation of a parliamentary democracy that became a one party dictatorship. Just as important, it...

Conservative radio host Mark Levin warned the American public during a Fox News television appearance that President Obama has nothing to lose in his last couple years in office and will press forward with aggression and fervor to realize his agenda. Mr. Obama will go “full Mussolini” after the November elections wrap, in comparison to the past few years, when he’s been mostly a “statist,” Mr. Levin said.

This installment reveals how Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt acted like a king and dictator even as he managed to be dangerously incorrect on nearly every decision he was required to make. Emperor and Dictator From his first days as Chief Executive, Franklin Roosevelt pushed aside the Constitution in order to act as an emperor and dictator rather than an elected President. Upon taking office, Dictator Roosevelt made private ownership of gold illegal and sent government agents to invade private homes and businesses searching for gold to confiscate with fervor the Spanish Conquistadors would be proud of. Before Roosevelt’s illegal Gestapo...

President Barack Obama told his Cabinet on Tuesday to 'be creative' looking for areas where he might be able to govern by executive action given gridlock in Congress that is hampering his agenda. In a White House meeting, Obama brought together the top officials in his government a day after conceding that a deadlocked Congress will prompt him to act on his own authority where he can on an immigration overhaul. Obama said he wants to work with Congress where possible, "but if Congress is unable to do it," then he said his Cabinet officials and agency heads should look...

Seeking to mobilize a global front against anti-gay violence and discrimination, Vice President Joe Biden declared Tuesday that protecting gay rights is a defining mark of a civilized nation and must trump national cultures and social traditions. Biden told a gathering of U.S. and international gay rights advocates that President Barack Obama has directed that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender men and women around the world "I don't care what your culture is," Biden told about 100 guests at the Naval Observatory's vice presidential mansion. "Inhumanity is inhumanity is inhumanity. Prejudice...

Obama has a plan to ruin the seafood supply chain with regulations and it’s gonna cost ya. Secretary of State John Kerry has found a new cause now that he’s fresh off his mid-East failures. He is directing federal agencies to work on developing a program to combat seafood fraud upon orders from the imperial president. This follows up Mr. Obama’s proclamation that he would implement his climate change agenda using a pen and a phone. It also follows Mr. Obama’s seizure of a huge swath of the Pacific Ocean for the government, making it inaccessible for drilling and fishing....

On Sunday’s “State of the Union” on CNN, House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) explained to moderator Candy Crowley why the Obama administration’s deal to secure American prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl’s release for five Guantanamo detainees was a bad deal and broke law. According to Rogers, this sends the wrong message to terrorists around the world. “[W]e have other means to use, and remember, they came to Congress about a year ago and we're thinking about doing these negotiations. And by the way, they didn't get a very warm reception from either party in the national security...

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said the U.S. did not negotiate with terrorists in the process of exchanging the transfer of five terrorism suspects for the release of the only American prisoner of war in Afghanistan. “We didn’t negotiate with terrorists,” Mr. Hagel said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I said and explained before, Sergeant Bergdahl is a prisoner of war. That’s a normal process in getting your prisoners back.” Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. special forces by the Taliban Saturday, with the government of Qatar serving as a go-between. Qatar is taking custody of five...

From children working hard in the fields to a group of soldiers pushing a broken-down bus, these are the photographs that North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, didn't want you to see. Taken by photographer Eric Lafforgue during what would prove to be his final visit to the rogue state, the images reveal the shocking extent of the hunger, deprivation and oppression suffered by the people who live there. Lafforgue, who has now been banned from North Korea, took the pictures while in the company of state-approved guides and was asked to delete each of the images but managed to...