Free Republic

The legacy of 9/11 can’t be fully measured even now, but perhaps the most damaging aspect can be found in our national discourse. Taking the long view, it is possible to see the roots of today’s political dysfunction — the hate, fear, anger and resentment — firmly planted in the soil at Ground Zero.

The state Senate has approved legislation today that would make it a crime to openly carry an unloaded handgun in public. Assembly Bill 144, by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, targets the "open carry" movement, marked by gatherings of people displaying their firearms in public places to protest gun-control laws.

An inquirer asks, ‘How do you know Obama is lying?’ to which I replied, ‘When his lips are moving.’ OK, that’s a bad old joke; but strangely, it fits so well with that foreign operator who plays with our money out of our White House. The problem today is to even remotely know when he is telling the truth. I don’t think even he knows when that rare occurrence happens. His entire existence is based on lies, misconceptions and outright deception. He has spent millions of dollars, perhaps even government funds, otherwise known as our tax dollars, to deceive the...

With a bit of Chicago-machine swagger about him, Bill Clinton, a “war room” veteran, is back in the spotlight and stumping for Obama. Speaking to Campus Progress last Wednesday, Clinton asked the crowd of young progressives, “Are you fighting?” Taking talking points almost directly from the mouth of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz (D.-Fla.), the former President asserted, “There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the voter Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit a franchise that we see today." Likening Republican policies aimed at preserving voter...

Here, too, college reflects the way things work in the adult world (unless it’s the other way around). For the elite, there’s always another extension—a bailout, a pardon, a stint in rehab—always plenty of contacts and special stipends—the country club, the conference, the year-end bonus, the dividend. If Al Gore and John Kerry represent one of the characteristic products of an elite education, George W. Bush represents another. It’s no coincidence that our current president, the apotheosis of entitled mediocrity, went to Yale. Entitled mediocrity is indeed the operating principle of his administration, but as Enron and WorldCom and the...

Detroit — General Motors Co. CEO Dan Akerson wants the federal gas tax boosted as much as $1 a gallon to nudge consumers toward more fuel-efficient cars, and he's confident the government will soon shed its remaining 26 percent stake in the once-bankrupt automaker. "I actually think the government will be out this year — within the next 12 months, hopefully within the next six months," Akerson said in a two-hour interview with The Detroit News last week. He is grateful for the government's rescue of GM — "I have nothing but good things to say about them" — but...

THE FRONT-RUNNER for the Republican presidential nomination, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, will formally declare his candidacy in New Hampshire today. Romney received 17.4 per cent of intended votes in the “Real Clear Politics” average for the April 10th to May 26th period. But the Gallup polling institute calls him “the weakest front-runner in any recent Republican nomination campaign”. Romney’s announcement has been upstaged by the antics of the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who launched a “One Nation” roadshow wearing a black leather jacket and storming into Washington on the back of a Harley Davidson motorcycle on May 29th....

Trend: Dropouts might lose drivers licensesBy Sara Lenz, Deseret News Published: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 2:34 p.m. MDT Lawmakers around the country are looking at a new way to keep kids in school — not letting them get a drivers license if they drop out. Although Minnesota's law states that students only have to stay in school until they are 16, lawmakers there are considering a bill that would not allow school dropouts to get their license, the StarTribune reported on Tuesday. "Driving is not a right, it's a privilege, and it's perfectly within bounds for the state government to...

A new Gallup poll reveals that voters who identify as more conservative, do not have college degrees and who make less than $24,000 annually are more likely to support former Alaska governor Sarah Palin over Mitt Romney for president in 2012. Romney, on the other hand, has evidently fared better with voters who describe themselves as “liberals to moderate”, have received degrees of higher learning and who make at least $90,000 a year. The split drives home the challenges facing any would-be GOP candidate: Catering to the party’s base without completely alienating those on the fence, and appealing to voters...

By Suzanne Eovaldi, staff writer Starting her day with rashers of free range turkey glasses of red fruits juices and a ten minute workout on the Vibration Exercise Machine which she uses on advice from “Aunt Agony to the stars”, Liverpudlian Wilma Proops is giving our First Lady a toned body. What with the heavy schedule of White House entertainment and full plate dinners, Michelle Obama is taking care of herself in all of the right ways, especially after having served her guests $150 lb Waygu beef entrees.

The University of Chicago has decided to destroy the boyhood home of Ronald Reagan in Hyde Park. That's the University of Chicago I know and do not love. When I wrote of the violence and corruption my friends and lovers endured in Hyde Park in the late 60s, I was taken to task because the Hyde Park the Obamas inhabited was different from the Hyde Park I described. Fair enough. But some said that it was not only different, but also better, by which they mean, let's tell the truth, richer and whiter. Several commenters got it right, however, so...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's newest Representative Renee Ellmers said the deadly shooting rampage in Arizona has made her concerned for her own safety. Ellmers said she has a concealed carry permit and plans to carry a handgun at public events. However, even in light of the shootings she said she will not support restrictions on certain ammunition. "I think it was an isolated incident and has more to do with the individual who committed the crime than the actual ammo he was using," said Ellmers. North Carolina Congressman Health Shuler has also said in recent weeks he will carry...

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When people fear the government, there is tyranny." -Thomas Jefferson It's said the composers of the Constitution intended to constrain the central government by charging it with protecting the rights of the citizen. This was clearly a lapse in judgment, a pratfall actually, the kind requiring many tankards of the previous autumn's cider. Since those wonderful days of yesteryear, generations of our best and brightest have not merely alienated our inalienable rights, they've criminalized most of them. The work has been exacting and exhausting but it's yielded a dark parallel to the...

It just happened again. I spend a fair amount of time at my local coffee shop. I like to do my writing outside and, besides, it gives me an opportunity to try and initiate political conversations with the people who pass by, my hope always being to begin to enlighten them as to what conservative really believe (and not just what the Leftist media tells them.) Today the conversation turned to Sarah Palin and my new acquaintance blurted out “Oh I hate her.” Not yet knowing my politics, I’m sure that, being her in Los Angeles she expected to hear...

It’s healthy, even natural, for Americans to feel populist resentment against elites that base their status through inherited wealth and family connections. But it’s toxic, misguided and profoundly stupid to focus public hostility on leaders who achieved their positions through education, diligence and ability. Recent sniping between Sarah Palin and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Charles Krauthammer highlights the crucial distinction between rebellious attitudes that attack unfairly arrogated power and privilege and a trendy neo-populism that attacks brains. When Krauthammer dared to suggest that the former Alaska governor looked less than “presidential” while shooting caribou with Kate Goselin on her hit TLC...

“She is a gifted politician, just in terms of getting people to connect with her on an emotional level in person,” says Taibbi. “It’s something that if you’re an experienced campaign journalist you can just see.” Question: Will Sarah Palin run for President in 2012? Matt Taibbi: Absolutely she is going to run for president in 2012 and... I don’t think she is going to win, but I think she is a very good bet to win the nomination. I think what we saw in the last election was the Tea Party is now in this kingmaking role and the...

Outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has commuted the prison sentence of the son of a former state Assembly speaker, cutting his sentence from 16 years to 7 years in the 2008 killing of a Concord man. The move came just hours before Schwarzenegger was to leave office. In 2009, Esteban Nuñez, son of Fabian Nuñez, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of Luis Dos Santos, 22, during a fight in San Diego. He and co-defendant Ryan Jett were sentenced to 16 years in prison, the maximum sentence. Santos, who was attending San Diego Mesa College, was killed in...

A huge majority of Washington's insiders say Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate, isn't qualified to be president, a Politico poll indicates. Eight-six percent of respondents considered members of the political establishment said they don't think Palin is qualified to hold the office, compared to 64 percent of the general public, results of the Politico poll released Wednesday said. Eleven percent of political establishment respondents in Washington said they believe Palin is qualified to be president, compared to 23 percent of the general public, the survey indicated. In addition, 79 percent of those classified as Washington elites said...

Well, the bubble of Obama supremacy has finally exploded in all our faces and is now lying in tatters, with little giblets of its former hot-air glory spread from here to kingdom come. The candidate who played his "Peace is just an Obama speech away" tune to the easily bamboozled left has just been dealt the final blow that crashed the big, fat hot air balloon. The very first test case was just last week: a former Gitmo detainee, brought to NYC to be tried as a civilian with all the rights of a genuine American citizen, was found guilty...

Probably not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as the President of the United States of America. While lesser mortals – the Pope, Queen Elizabeth and so on – are usually happy to let their hosts handle most of the security and transport arrangements when they venture beyond their home shores, the United States creates a mini-America on the move to ensure that nothing is left to chance. Today, Barack Obama arrives in India at the start of a ten-day tour of...