Free Republic

The Globe's disclosure this week that Mitt Romney put his Irish setter into a dog carrier on the roof of his station wagon for a 12-hour trip to Ontario in 1983 has become a surprising flashpoint in the presidential campaign. TIME.com has been flooded with more than 200 comments from readers complaining of animal cruelty, YouTube viewers have posted videos, and hundreds of blogs are brimming with opinions. For some, the story has become an occasion to consider larger issues of ethics and animal abuse. Romney, who has built an image as a strong manager, is now facing concerns about...

Go ahead. Follow the link to the actual news story in the (sorry excuse for the ) "news" magazine Time. I'm not saying Mitt Romney abused his own dog. Decide for yourself. "Romney's Cruel Canine Vacation"

PolitickerNY has a report out Tuesday that Seamus, the dog Romney famously put on the roof of the car when the family drove to Canada in 1983, may have actually run away once the Romneys reached the Great White North. As any Gail Collins readers will know by now, a 2004 Boston Globe story revealed that Mitt Romney strapped his dog's crate to the roof of the family car, terrifying the pooch in the process. Though it was intended as an illustration of Romney's quirky crisis-management, pet lovers everywhere have let it live on as evidence of candidate's cruelty. PolitckerNY's...

As Mitt Romney considers whether to run for an open US Senate seat in Utah, the person who can most influence him is encouraging him to get into the race: his wife, Ann. Ann Romney — a confidante for nearly all of Romney’s adult life and frequent catalyst for his political ambitions — is fully supporting a campaign for Senate, another strong indicator he will run, according to four people close to the Romneys. Her own battle with multiple sclerosis is not a major factor, with all signs indicating that her health remains strong, the people said.

It might be unseemly to bring this up just as Mitt Romney celebrates his win in New Hampshire on Tuesday night and seems to be a strong front-runner for the GOP nomination. But the story of his putting his dog in a carrier on his car roof for a 12-hour family trip is spreading again on the Internet and disturbs me the more I learn about it. And I am betting the more it gets out, the more votes Romney loses — red, blue and purple. When, in a campaign debate, Romney opposed allowing a non-documented worker who has lived...

Mitt Romney may have a new constituency to worry about: dogs and dog lovers. The group “Dogs Against Romney” held a protest outside the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York on Tuesday afternoon to bring attention to the story of how 25 years ago, Mr. Romney drove from Boston to Canada on vacation with his dog, Seamus, in a carrier strapped to the roof of the family station wagon — a tale that political commentators and opponents have seized on it as a window into Mr. Romney’s character. About a dozen people stood outside Madison Square Garden with...

“The poverty of an aspiring immigrant’s nation of origin is as irrelevant as their race. The sentiment attributed to POTUS is inconsistent with America’s history and antithetical to American values. May our memory of Dr. King buoy our hope for unity, greatness, and “charity for all.”

A recent trend in many states is to outlaw "conversion therapy," where people who are unhappy with homosexual inclinations go through therapy to dispense with those inclinations.  Even though the process is voluntary, liberal states cannot tolerate the idea of someone with same-sex attractions wanting help to get rid of them. In the U.S., state governments are beginning to outlaw conversion therapy in growing numbers.  California became the first to do so in 2012.  Eight other states have banned it in some form since.  In 2017 alone, Nevada, New Mexico, and Connecticut have signed their own bans into law. Now New Hampshire, by...

The Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s lasted less than a decade as a potent political force. But the sentiment that sparked the backlash over the management of federally owned lands in the West has never really gone away. And nowhere does the movement's heart beat more loudly today than in southern Utah. Specifically, in Kane County.But such actions are, he adds, "as much a political statement as a legal matter. It reflects federal-local tensions that have been part of the system from the beginning in the parts of the West where there is a heavy federal presence." Anti-government feelings in...

Interior secretary nominee Ryan Zinke served his country honorably as a Navy SEAL, but in affirming that he would refuse to loosen the federal government’s chokehold on America’s land, he did the U.S. a great disservice. Reasonable people can disagree about how much territory the government should own. As an avid outdoorsman, I’m sympathetic to the conservation ideal. Zinke should know, however, that federal land ownership is often at war with that ideal. There is no reasonable excuse for the federal bureaucracy to control a whopping half of the American West, nearly 30 percent of the nation, and over 60...

"Any perceived benefits from the designation of huge landscape monuments need to be weighed against the impacts suffered by those who have traditionally used the lands," Kathleen Clarke, the former Bureau of Land Management director and now head of the Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office, told a House Natural Resources subcommittee. "Landscapes don't disappear, but jobs and artifacts do." {snip} The testimony comes as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, as ordered by President Donald Trump, is reviewing the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase designations and other national monuments named in the past 21 years. Zinke must report back recommendations by...

BLANDING, Utah (AP) -- Laminated sheets of paper held in place by rocks rest inside ancient cliff dwellings nestled underneath a spectacular red rock overhang in southeastern Utah. "Don't erase the traces of America's past," the signs read. "Please do not enter interior rooms." The weathered signs and a similar warning at the trailhead are the only protections in place for these easily accessible ruins along a canyon hiking path. -snip- Opponents agree the area is a natural treasure worth preserving but fear a federal designation would create restrictions on oil and gas development as well residents' ability to camp,...

This past Monday marked the 20th anniversary of President Bill Clinton using the Antiquities Act to create the 1.5 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. For most Utahns, this date is not a cause for celebration. It’s a source of anger toward what many see as an out-of-touch and overbearing federal government Infamously, the Clinton administration failed to notify the people of Utah prior to announcing the monument designation—probably because the administration knew that nearly everyone in the state was opposed to the idea. Utah’s congressional delegation, state and county leaders, and local residents all warned that a...

Navajo Nation locals joined Utah lawmakers Sept. 21 to express opposition to any attempt to designate land around the Bears Ears site in southeastern Utah as a national monument. The Navajo residents of San Juan County, Utah, joined their elected officials who said the decision on the 1.9-million acre site, which is sacred to the Navajo people, should be left in local hands. “We have managed to protect this enchanted place, and we will continue to do so,” Susie Philemon said. ... Lewis Singer, a Navajo from San Juan County, said monument status would restrict access of Native people to...

A new legal analysis concludes that President Trump could undo the Bears Ears National Monument. The analysis from the Pacific Legal Foundation finds that a president can revoke a national monument if they determine the areas under protection are "illegally large." The analysis was conducted by Todd Gaziano and John Yoo. From E&E News: Yoo and Gaziano argue, however, that even if a president does not have a "general discretionary revocation power," Trump could seek to revoke monuments by declaring them overly large. "The Congress that enacted the Antiquities Act did not intend monuments of that size to be established...

The Trump administration is launching its four-month review of 27 large national monuments designated since 1996 under the Antiquities Act, including two controversial monuments in Utah. That review formally kicks off this weekend with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's arrival in Utah to investigate Bears Ears National Monument, designated by President Barack Obama just a few weeks before he left office, and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. At the urging of Utah's political leaders, President Donald Trump ordered the review April 26, when he called out Bears Ears as a "land grab" that should not have happened.

In a report Zinke submitted to the White House, the secretary recommended reducing the size of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, as well as Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, according to multiple individuals briefed on the decision. President Bill Clinton declared the 1.9 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante in 1996, while President Barack Obama designated the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears last year. Cascade-Siskiyou, which now encompasses more than 113,000 acres, was established by Clinton shortly before leaving office and expanded by Obama in January.

SALT LAKE CITY — President Trump is expected to announce a historic reduction to Bears Ears National Monument on Monday, a sprawling region of red rock canyons in Utah that has been at the center of a national fight over how much land a president can legally set aside for protection. The Trump administration plans to announce that he will shrink the monument by between 77 and 92 percent, according to statements from the office of Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah. It would be the largest reduction of a national monument to date, and it comes as the administration...

During a speech Monday, the president said he is signing two proclamations which will shrink the Bears Ears National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. He called the measures a reversal of federal overreach, and says the move will restore the rights of land to the people of Utah. The president says the residents of the state know how to protect and conserve their own land, and Washington politicians do not. He added, lands must be protected and now will be protected by this new measure.

The President Stole Your Land In an illegal move, the president just reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. This is the largest elimination of protected land in American history.