Free Republic

There is a pastime among liberal pundits — the latest is Nicholas Kristof — to quote a new center left global ranking (with unbiased titles such as “The Social Progress Imperative”) and then to decry that the United States is behind its major industrial competitors in things like “Internet Access” and “Ecosystem sustainability.” The subtext of these rants is that an illiberal, reactionary U.S. does not spend enough on government entitlements to promote parity, equality and social justice among its citizenry. These pessimistic rankings increase the angst about the American condition when viewed from scowling perches in Washington or New...

If President Obama means what he says about wanting an immigration system that reflects American values, helps the economy and taps the yearnings of millions of Americans-in-waiting, he is going to have to do something about it — soon and on his own. It has been frustrating to watch his yes-we-can promises on immigration reform fade to protestations of impotence and the blaming of others. All Mr. Obama has been saying lately is: No, in fact, we can’t, because Republicans and the law won’t let me. Mr. Obama is correct when he complains that long-term immigration repairs have been throttled...

He was correct. Prescient even. But one politician's invective directed at President Obama early in his administration seems to have been forgotten. On Sept. 9, 2009, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., interrupted a speech by the president to a joint session of Congress by shouting, "You lie!" The incident resulted in a formal rebuke to the congressman, essentially along party lines, by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. Wilson may have been indecorous, but he was right, and the president has continued to deceive. The whopper of his presidency is, of course, likely to be: "If you like your doctor, you will...

In testimony to Congress last week, military leaders told Congress that military personnel are understanding as to why they must take pay cuts. The officials told Congress that troops are ready and willing to sacrifice their pay. The officials said that pay cuts must come first over making cuts to equipment and training, and that the troops understand this best. ____________ Senior Pentagon officials told Congress on Tuesday that troops are willing to sacrifice portions of their pay and benefits if it means keeping and improving the training and equipment needed to do their jobs. Vice Adm. William F. Moran,...

Teasing an upcoming story Tuesday on a left-wing smear campaign against conservative donors Charles and David Koch, CBS This Morning co-host Norah O'Donnell proclaimed: "Battling the Koch brothers, Democrats are fighting back against the family that spent more than $150 million trying to shake up Congress." Introducing the segment, fellow co-host Charlie Rose announced that "one of the best-known families in big-money politics is once again in the spotlight."

Bill Maher took on Paul Ryan‘s recent comments about black culture and while he didn’t necessarily agree with Ryan, he did find it striking that prominent black people have made the same point he did but haven’t been attacked by the left... Maher then read a quote from Paul Ryan about how lazy kids are these days and how they need to aspire to be more than “ballers” and “rappers”… except that Ryan didn’t say it. Michelle Obama did. Maher asked, “Is something less true if a white person says it about black people?”

Leland Yee, a Democratic state senator and candidate for secretary of state in California, has been a longtime champion of gun control. This week he was arrested on numerous charges, including conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and conspiracy to illegally transport firearms. Yee, a prominent foe of assault weapons, allegedly took bribes to set up a meeting between an undercover agent and an international arms dealer to broker the sale of automatic weapons and shoulder-fired missiles. A lengthy FBI affidavit also describes Yee’s ties to a Chinese triad and his desire to help out Islamist militants.

Over seven decades, the United States and Saudi Arabia forged a strategic alliance that became a linchpin of the regional order: a liberal democracy and an ultraconservative monarchy united by shared interests in the stability of the Middle East and the continued flow of oil. But with President Obama arriving in Riyadh on Friday, the rulers of Saudi Arabia say they feel increasingly compelled to go their own way, pursuing starkly different strategies from Washington in dealing with Iran, Syria, Egypt and the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region. “Their view of Mr. Obama is that his entire...

One of the 70 authors of a draft U.N. report on climate change said he had pulled out of the writing team because it was "alarmist" about the threat. Richard Tol told Reuters he disagreed with some findings of the summary to be issued in Japan on March 31.

The nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy as Surgeon General is on ice until after November’s election, and top Senate Democrats say that decision was made in the White House. Democrats’ decision to back off the nomination in the face of NRA opposition has prompted much hand-wringing on editorial pages and the left, along with some back-biting over the last week. Amid the fallout, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s staff has privately worked to emphasize to concerned allies that the decision to pull the plug on Murthy came from the White House.

Recycling her tried-and-true American dream story, Michelle Obama gave Chinese schoolchildren the same stump speech she delivers everywhere she goes, from Ireland to Chicago. The FLOTUS has used her hard-knock life tale to justify more vacations for herself than her husband has golf balls.

Though the Obama administration repeatedly insisted that its March 31 enrollment deadline for Obamacare’s first year was “firm,” many observers predicted that the administration would combat lagging sales of health law-sponsored insurance plans by extending that deadline. Sure enough, on Tuesday night the White House indicated that it would be postponing that drop date in order to squeeze as many people as possible into the program. Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post broke the story. Goldstein reports that the revised deadline “will apply to the federal exchanges operating in three dozen states” and extend for two to three weeks.

GENEVA (Reuters) - There has been no reverse in the trend of global warming and there is still consistent evidence for man-made climate change, the head of the U.N. World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Monday. A slow-down in the average pace of warming at the planet's surface this century has been cited by "climate skeptics" as evidence that climate change is not happening at the potentially catastrophic rate predicted by a U.N. panel of scientists. But U.N. weather agency chief Michel Jarraud said ocean temperatures, in particular, were rising fast, and extreme weather events, forecast by climate scientists, showed...

Why do liberals hate Sarah Palin? She has made far fewer gaffes than has Joe Biden, whose verbal mishaps have often been racist in nature. Is dropping your g’s worse than saying “corpse-men“? She does not believe that Canadians speak Canadian in the way the president thinks Austrians speak Austrian. Her life story is inspirational — working mom, without inherited privilege or capital, a successful pre-2008 tenure as an Alaska politician.

Sean Smith, a 34-year-old information management officer…emailed a friend: “Assuming we don’t die tonight. We saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures.” Hours later, he was dead.—Chris Stephen “US consulate attack in Benghazi: a challenge to official version of events”

The executive director of Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers is facing up to two weeks in jail on a contempt of court charge for stuffing an anonymous tip in his mouth instead of handing it over to a judge Friday.

We have a huge problem with ministers of most churches learning intellectually, the bible and the truth, then repeating it to their followers. This is a false and weak representation of God and the very reason we are losing our nation and world!

One imagines that the reason the IRS has changed its tune and will now supply all the emails Congress requested eight months ago is that they’ve had the opportunity to go through them and have found nothing incriminating. But the value of of examining all of Lois Lerner’s emails during the months in question has to do with the two-track approach to the IRS investigation that Republicans have initiated. The first track is an examination of the targeting scandal and all the related issues associated with IRS actions. The second, and equally important, track, is getting to the bottom of...

Sunday’s Academy Awards event showcased Hollywood’s finest. Beautiful people in beautiful clothes saying lovely things about their industry – a politically “progressive” business that gives nearly all of its political contributions to Democrats. Democrats, of course, purport to believe that “the rich” do not pay their “fair share” in taxes. Democrats also believe in gender equality, that women should receive “equal pay” for “equal work.”

Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the architects behind Obamacare, is now claiming that “insurance companies as we know them are about to die.” Critics of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law have long alleged that one of the real goals of law was to put private insurance companies out of business.