Free Republic

* Christie has many critics among N.J. conservatives * From subsidies to guns, Christie has liberal bent * Could weight become a factor? Is tough-talking Republican Chris Christie tough enough for the Tea Party? Christie's potential entry into a 2012 White House race dominated by conservatives would electrify the campaign but trigger scrutiny of his record as a Republican governor in heavily Democratic New Jersey. Hailed by conservatives for staring down public employee unions in New Jersey, he may face questions about whether his beliefs on such hot-button issues as illegal immigration and climate change match up with the conservative...

Yesterday I wrote a vignette in jest suggesting what New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie might be yelling at his TV during the GOP debate. Unlike his alter-ego in my vignette, the real Bill Kristol did not call Christie to plead nor drive over to his house to urge him to get into the race. Instead he used his Web site , figuratively speaking, to run over Texas Gov. Rick Perry with an 18-wheeler and drive through Christie’s living room window: With nine candidates on the stage, and answers restricted to one minute, it’s hard to really show your stuff. And...

Serious question: can the supposedly-very-smart Mayor Michael Bloomberg really be this foolish, or is there something else at work? Commenting on the outbreak of gun violence in NYC over the Labor Day weekend, in which 42 people were injured or killed, Bloomberg uttered [at least according to this report] not a word of condemnation directed toward the criminals themselves. Instead, the Big Appler blamed only the proliferation of guns and called for "stricter gun control laws". What is it that drives liberals to condemn the instruments of crime, rather than the criminals themselves? Bloomberg quote after the jump.

In his first extended public apperance since getting out of prison, Plaxico Burress announced Monday in New York City that he has partnered with the National Urban League and the Brady Center to combat gun violence. “I want to see every child have a chance to succeed. I have an opportunity to make a difference,” Burress said via the New York Post. Quickly rehabbing his public image with a partnership like this is a page taken directly out of the Michael Vick playbook. So is the news Monday that Tony Dungy will serve as a mentor to Vick. Magic Johnson...

The line being pushed by the Mainstream Media, who seem all to giddy to point out the closeness of Romney in the polls to Obama, and establishment Republicans alike is that Mitt Romney is moderate enough to win. Just look at the poll numbers! In May, Romney was +10 in favorable ratings in AP/GFK (45-35), and in other polls +4 Reuters (36-32), +8 in NBC (28-20). Nothing mindboggling, but decent nonetheless, and, therefor, he has a shot! And he always is close to Obama in the polls. But the reality with Romney is this: He has not been in the...

In the first town hall of his freshly announced presidential campaign, Mitt Romney yesterday reaffirmed his view that global warming is occurring and that humans are contributing to it, a position that has been rejected in recent years by many Republicans as the issue has taken on a greater partisan tinge. "I don't speak for the scientific community, of course," Romney said. "But I believe the world's getting warmer. I can't prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer. And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that . . ....

President Obama on Sunday called for gun-rights advocates and proponents of gun control to find common ground two months after the shooting which killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The Arizona Daily Star published an op-ed by Obama on Sunday calling for stronger restrictions on gun sales to buyers suspected of mental instability. “A man our Army rejected as unfit for service; a man one of our colleges deemed too unstable for studies; a man apparently bent on violence, was able to walk into a store and buy a gun,” Obama wrote of Jared...

<p>Lautencadever wants to reinstate Assualt Weapon restriction to limit Magazines to 10 rounds.</p>

One of Chris Christie's top political advisers revealed that he is considering formation of a federal political action committee because of the extraordinary interest in the New Jersey governor. Bill Palatucci, often described as Christie's "political godfather," said that not forming such a fundraising committee would be "leaving money on the table." The comments came in an interview with the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, N.J., published Sunday. Palatucci, Christie's former law partner, made the remarks even as he tried throwing cold water on the notion that the governor — who's gotten acclaim from national Republicans — is taking steps designed...

From: pmmchugh@comcast.net Subject: Urgent Action Alert Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 11:01:39 -0500 I've just received word from inside sources in the U.S. Senate. Senate Democrats are planning to execute a sneak attack on gun rights as soon as TODAY! Their plan is to sneak Carolyn McCarthy's Magazine Ban into law as an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Bill, a routine piece of generally non-controversial legislation. And they hope YOU won't notice. That's why you and I need to make our voices heard RIGHT NOW! We need to let them know we're watching them like a hawk! Please call...

Cultists now in charge Gene Lyons Some years ago, I reported on a self-defense/gun-safety class mainly for women at Rice University. There had been several forcible rapes on the Houston, Texas, campus. Students had armed themselves. The instructor was an Army ROTC officer. A Vietnam combat veteran, he found the prospect of undergraduates packing heat unsettling, but reasoned that if they were arming themselves anyway, some training was better than none. Unlike many entrepreneurs teaching concealed-carry classes from sea to shining sea, he urged students to leave their guns at home. He stressed that he couldn’t turn them into infantry...

In the aftermath of the attempted murder of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords earlier this month, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have proposed a cluster of gun control measures ranging from a ban to knowingly carrying a firearm within 1,000 feet of certain high-profile government officials to a proposal to allow members of Congress to carry firearms in the U.S. Capitol. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy formally introduced her own bill on the House floor Tuesday that would ban high-capacity ammunition clips like the one Jared Loughner used to gun down 19 individuals in the Tucson shooting Jan. 8. McCarthy, who is regarded as one...

Acting on behalf of a Georgia resident and honorably discharged Vietnam War veteran, the Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder and the Federal Bureau of Investigation over enforcement of a federal statute that can deny gun rights to someone with a simple misdemeanor conviction on his record.

It is hard to find anyone who doesn't like John Kasich.  The ebullient former congressman from the Columbus Ohio area spent nearly twenty years making a mark in the House of Representatives as an expert of the budget, ran a principled campaign for the GOP nomination for president in 2000 to underscore his concerns on federal spending (prophets are never heeded in time) and then had a great run as a Fox News Channel host and commentator.   Last year Kasich decided to try and help his beloved Buckeye State and launched a run for governor against Ted Strickland, the affable but hapless...

Those who are familiar with this site will recall that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has been on the Seeing Red AZ blogroll since the inception of this website in June 2007. Take a good hard look, because the link will soon be coming down. Yesterday we posted the endorsements U.S. Senate candidate J. D. Hayworth received from former NRA President Bob Corbin and from theGun Owners of America. Yet the NRA, which has previously referred to John McCain as “one of the premier flag carriers for the enemies of the second amendment,” inexplicably gave McCain their endorsement. In endorsing...

PHOENIX (AP) — The National Rifle Association has endorsed John McCain in Arizona's Republican Senate primary.

In a speech to a joint session of Congress, Calderon described efforts to fight organized crime in Mexico, where 23,000 people have been killed in drug violence since he came to power in late 2006 and launched an army offensive. Washington is also aiding Mexico's battle against drug gangs with a 2007 pledge of $1.4 billion for equipment and police training to help fight the cartels that ship some $40 billion worth of illegal drugs north each year. "There is one issue where Mexico needs your cooperation. And that is stopping the flow of assault weapons and other deadly arms...

OCCCWS has learned that Sandra Hutchens and her former husband were sued for more than $800,000 after defaulting on a rental property in 1992. The complaint obtained by OCCCWS (see below for attached documents) alleges that Sandra Anderson, as she was then known, and her then husband continued to collect rents from the sixteen unit apartment complex even after they stopped making required mortgage payments, leading Fidelity Federal Bank to seek the appointment of a receiver by the court to manage the property until it could be sold at foreclosure. To quote documents filed by the plaintiff: “The defendants have...

When Mitt Romney, candidate for president, came to the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2007, he was a fresh-faced over-eager student of Republican politics: He won cheers for a newfound social conservatism, and won a straw poll amid charges he’d packed the hall. Romney ended his candidacy in an emotional speech to CPAC the next year, and in 2009 he used the forum to open a critique of President Barack Obama that he spent the next year refining. The new Romney, received Thursday as the favorite son at the gathering of conservative activists, is a more constant, seasoned, and comfortable...

Ex-Fox News pundit launches House bid in Miss. By Sean J. Miller - 02/09/10 06:13 PM ET Conservative author Angela McGlowan (R) launched her bid to unseat Rep. Travis Childers (D-Miss.) Monday by declaring herself pro-life, pro-gun and pro-small business. "In Massachusetts, the people rose up and reclaimed their seat in the U.S. Senate in an election that's been compared to 'the shot heard around the world,'" McGlowan, a former Fox News Channel contributor, said in a statement. "But that was just the beginning, let the rebellion in the House of Representatives start right here in Mississippi." Childers beat Southaven...