Free Republic

It is difficult to define a whole school of political ideology precisely, but one may reasonably define liberalism (as opposed to conservatism) in the contemporary United States as the genuine concern for the welfare of genetically unrelated others and the willingness to contribute larger proportions of private resources for the welfare of such others. In the modern political and economic context, this willingness usually translates into paying higher proportions of individual incomes in taxes toward the government and its social welfare programs. Liberals usually support such social welfare programs and higher taxes to finance them, and conservatives usually oppose them....

No, the Texas senator isn't likely to capture the GOP ticket. But his brand of conservatism poses its own threat. Since Ted Cruz first announced his candidacy, much has been made of his chances of winning, his arrogance and his extreme conservative views. But most of the controversy over his candidacy centers on his lying. It is no surprise to any of us that politicians lie. We generally assume they stretch the truth to get elected, to denigrate their political foes, and to bolster their images. But Cruz may just represent one of the biggest liars in recent history. In...

San Francisco activist Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate Super PAC Monday announced the billionaire Democrat will wage a campaign to put Republicans on the “hot seat” about climate change and spend “what it takes” for an aggressive new high-tech “war room” to track — and attack — GOP candidates in 2016. The program, based at the NextGen headquarters in the Financial District — with satellite offices in Washington, D.C., and other cities — aims to make climate change a “top tier” issue next year. It will focus its firepower on turning environmental concerns into a “wedge issue,” especially with young voters,...

Full Title: Judge dismisses libel suit by conservative video maker relating to telephone charade at Mary Landrieu's officeWASHINGTON -- A New Jersey federal judge has dismissed a libel case filed by a conservative video maker James O'Keefe, who disputed a news account of his misdemeanor conviction for trying to gain access to then Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office in 2010. New Jersey Federal Judge Claire Cecchi ruled last week that the coverage by Main Justice, which covers the Department of Justice, and the online publication's founder, Mary Jacoby, was protected under the First Amendment because "as a whole," it...

Vice President Joe Biden once told Chinese President Xi Jinping that U.S. leaders only support human rights as a matter of political optics, and that this makes the United States no better than China, according to a new New Yorker profile of Jinping. The New Yorker relates encounters between Biden and Jinping in 2011 and 2012, when both were vice presidents of their respective nations: Biden told me that Xi asked him why the U.S. put “so much emphasis on human rights.” Biden replied to Xi, “No President of the United States could represent the United States were he not...

Mr. Bush, a former Florida governor and likely presidential candidate, was born in Texas and hails from one of America’s most prominent political dynasties. But on at least one occasion, it appears he got carried away with his appeal to Spanish-speaking voters and claimed he actually was Hispanic. In a 2009 voter-registration application, obtained from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, Mr. Bush marked Hispanic in the field labeled “race/ethnicity.” A Bush spokeswoman could offer no explanation for the characterization.

When Republicans criticize Barack Obama’s foreign policy, their critiques usually break down into two broad themes: America’s enemies no longer fear us, and America’s allies no longer trust us. The part about our enemies fearing us is usually a reference to Russia – conservatives believe quite earnestly that Russia’s military expansionism over the last few years is a consequence of Vladimir Putin sizing up the president and determining that he’s a weakling. No less an authority than Peggy Noonan made this very argument just last Friday, lamenting “a Russian president who took the American’s measure and made a move, upsetting...

A pizza parlour that said it will use Indiana's heavily-criticized new religious freedom law to deny services to same-sex couples provoked a massive backlash across the Internet on Tuesday and Wednesday. Indiana's Republican governor Mike Pence responded Tuesday to national outrage over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, by saying he'll "fix" the bill to ensure businesses cannot use the law to deny services to the LGBTQ community. But, not before Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana, chimed in. "If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no," owner Crystal...

Texas Senator Ted Cruz set off a media firestorm last week by becoming the first to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination in 2016. The media has generally described Cruz as a passionate, hard-line conservative and a polarizing figure. Writing for Fox News, Michael Goodwin argued that Cruz has a chance at becoming our next president, calling him “a brilliant man of clear conservative convictions, not muddled by the politics of calculation.” It’s a nice sentiment, but it also effectively illustrates the underlying problem with candidates like Cruz and with our political system in general: being “muddled” by a...

Ted Cruz defended his lack of executive experience this weekend saying that he is not a “community organizer.” The Texas senator explained that unlike Barack Obama, who also ran for president after one term in the Senate, he had accomplished more before becoming a legislator. Cruz pointed to his period as solicitor general of Texas—an answer that was itself a display of the debating talents his supporters say qualify him to be president. Cruz wasn’t answering the question as much as redefining the criteria. A lack of executive experience cannot be overcome by simply not having the attributes of the...

This afternoon, Fact Check.org produced a fact-check that ostensibly criticizes U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) for his contention that there has never been an instance of ground water contamination caused by hydraulic fracturing. Of course, this piece isn’t really about Inhofe at all; but before we get into that, we can’t help but wonder why they are fact-checking Inhofe and not former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson … or Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz … or Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell — all of whom have said exactly the same thing. Rather than a “fact-check,” it reads more like an advocacy...

Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, native of Canada, junior senator of Texas and lover of Wagner, has thrown his hat into the ring to be the Republican nominee for the 2016 presidential election. But it's not his hat that many recoil from so much as it is the head beneath it. Let's talk about the elephant in Ted Cruz's presidential campaign: his face. OK, it's symmetrical in its composition, not too pudgy or gaunt -- all in all, a fine face, really. Some might even say he has the face of an angel. Not me, mind you, but some. Like the...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wasn’t taking any chances the other day when he announced he will seek the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Cruz launched his bid at what for him was the friendliest of venues: Liberty University in Virginia, a Christian school founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. It would have been difficult for Cruz to pick a more receptive crowd for his announcement. And he didn’t disappoint. He asked Christian conservatives in the audience and across the nation to imagine a United States without the IRS, without Obamacare and without abortion rights. Said Cruz: “I believe...

Yep. The power of Twitter has been shown time and time again. What sparked that comment this time? Well, this happened:

RUSH: Ted Cruz yesterday spoke about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, preamble to the declaration, one of the most beautiful things ever written. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is an acknowledgement by the founders of our country, declaring independence from Britain, that human rights are bestowed by God via creation, that the natural state of the human being contains God-given rights. It is the basis, forms the...

In a preview of the 2016 campaign, all five late night comics on Monday night mocked Ted Cruz, hitting the Republican as anti-immigrant, regressive and stupid. CBS host David Letterman didn't bother with a joke. Instead, he lectured, "Here's what I find interesting about Ted Cruz, he was born in Canada. His father fled to the United States from Cuba. Yet, Ted Cruz is against immigration. Isn't that odd?" He then sneered, "Ted Cruz could be president of the United States and if you thought the Secret Service was drinking before –" On TBS, Conan O'Brien hammered, "[Cruz] pledged to...

...The Doggfather’s latest venture, it was announced for the first time, will be an HBO show he is developing with Menace II Society director Allen Hughes and Boondocks writer Rodney Barnes about life on the West Coast during the ‘80s, when gang violence first began to dominate the region’s inner cities, particularly in Snoop’s home of East L.A. “Early in the ‘70s and toward the latter part of the ‘70s everything was beautiful because we had ways to have fun and communicate, and those who were underprivileged, the low economic side of life, the government would provide for us, which...

Twitter users are writing #TedCruzCampaignSlogans to "help" the first major candidate with his campaign -- Hey even though it's from a leftwing site. It rocks.

California State Attorney Kamala Harris may be forced to let petitioners decide if gay people should be executed for having sexual relations. Because Matt McLaughlin, a licensed attorney in Huntington Beach, did everything right by state standards in proposing the “Sodomite Suppression Act,” Harris will likely follow state law and allow a ballot measure to be circulated. The policy would make the “monstrous evil” that is homosexuality a crime punishable by death with “bullets to the head” or whatever form of execution is most “convenient.” If the state fails to do its part in the mass killing of gay and...

It turns out that the person who has been posting "whites only" stickers around Austin, Texas is actually a liberal "social justice warrior" looking to bring attention to the racism of whites. These stickers had been posted around stores in Austin: For days no one knew who had posted them and why could only be speculated. The answer has been solved today: the stickers were posted by Austin lawyer Adam Reposa who did it to point out the "gentrification" of Austin and the displacement of minorities. “They’re getting pushed out, and pretty quick. This area of town is turning into...