Free Republic

Paul Krugman has become an embarrassment to the economics profession. Despite his Nobel Prize and despite his previous high regard in the profession, his twice-a-week editorials in The New York Times are causing even progressive economists to treat him as somewhat of a kook.Since 2011, the United States has followed what Krugman correctly calls a policy of “austerity.” For example, the federal budget deficit has declined from 8.4 percent of GDP in 2011 to a predicted 2.9 percent of GDP for all of 2014. All along the way Paul Krugman protested that such policies would prolong the recession and even...

Rick Perry! The man who has been governor of Texas since pterodactyls roamed the plains took his leave at the State Capitol this week. He is not saying anything for sure about running for president. Mum’s the word until springtime. However, he recently told a reporter that if voters want to break from the Obama era, “I am a very clear and compelling individual to support.” Wow, the Republican race is getting to be like one of those crime shows where the detectives have to paste pictures all over the wall so they can keep the suspects straight. So many...

Rocket launcher recovered during investigation in Brooklyn Updated 26 mins ago BUSHWICK -- Police say a rocket launcher was recovered in Brooklyn as part of an ongoing investigation Friday. The weapon was seized by the NYPD from a home on Knickerbocker Avenue in the Bushwick section. Initially, authorities said the weapon was operational, but it is actually inert. Investigators have charged 41-year-old Juan Garcia with weapons and drug possession. Authorities say an investigation that started in the Bronx led police to Garcia's address in Brooklyn. Along with the rocket launcher, brass knuckles and drug paraphernalia were also recovered at the...

WASHINGTON - A new book on the government's secret anti-terrorism operations describes how the CIA recruited an Iraqi-American anesthesiologist in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who was a figure in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. Dr. Sawsan Alhaddad of Cleveland made the dangerous trip to Iraq on the CIA's behalf. The book said her brother was stunned by her questions about the nuclear program because — he said — it had been dead for a decade. New York Times reporter James Risen uses the anecdote to illustrate how the CIA ignored information that Iraq no longer had weapons of...

Risen: No, they haven't printed it, but again, I don't want to get into The New York Times, one way or the other. Mitchell: But did you have concerns about putting it into your book? Risen: I thought about it, you know. I thought about everything. one way or the other, but I thought that this story was so old, that it no longer really mattered. As I said, goes back to the Clinton years. Mitchell: How do you balance your own role finally? You've broken some major stories here, and critics, the administration will say that it compromises American...

So, let’s get this straight. At a decisive moment in history when our nation required a strong and unbiased voice from its’ senior law enforcement official, you Mr. Holder, made it your personal mission to join with other racial antagonist and politicize a tragic event, accusing a young white police officer of a racially motivated killing in what we now know was a justified self-defense shooting of a predatory felon. Your behavior is unbelievable. You sir, have sacrificed your integrity on the altar of political expediency. You, Mr. Holder, are the “coward” and hypocrite you so loudly denounce when speaking...

New York City shouldn’t exist. Its population of waiters waiting to become actors, professors waiting to write bestsellers, muggers waiting to become drug kingpins, welfare cases waiting for American Idol and cyclists waiting to become international humanitarians are the natural constituency of the left. Like every major city in the last fifty years, New York City is caught between a progressive death wish to embrace every single insane policy of the left from midnight basketball for crackheads to a 99 percent tax on everyone who has a job and the common sense competence that keeps it afloat. Every election is...

Jaqueline Kegan, the woman in the love triangle. In New York, a defense of self and others shooting case has been resolved after nearly two and a half years.   Jaqueline Kegan had a son with, and apparently had been living with Paul J. Wells for a considerable time.  The son was 18 years old.  She became romantically involved with Ralph C. Runnalls and they were married a week before the shooting.   Jaqueline was 43, Wells was 55, and Runnalls was 67.  The son convinced Kegan to return home.  The father, Wells, became concerned and borrowed two pistols, a .22...

New York City shouldn’t exist. Its population of waiters waiting to become actors, professors waiting to write bestsellers, muggers waiting to become drug kingpins, welfare cases waiting for American Idol and cyclists waiting to become international humanitarians are the natural constituency of the left. Like every major city in the last fifty years, New York City is caught between a progressive death wish to embrace every single insane policy of the left from midnight basketball for crackheads to a 99 percent tax on everyone who has a job and the common sense competence that keeps it afloat. Every election is...

Not long after Mayor Bill de Blasio sat beside the Rev. Al Sharpton at a July summit meeting on police reform, a political adviser gave the mayor a blunt assessment: You have a problem with the cops. Rank-and-file officers felt disrespected by the mayor, the adviser explained, and were dismayed to see Mr. Sharpton, a longtime critic of the New York Police Department, embraced at City Hall. But Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, rejected the notion that officers disliked him. His message, the adviser later recalled, was clear: Everything was under control. That confidence would last until late last month,...

It’s the high price of the NYPD slowdown. Feuding between cops and City Hall has already cost the city more than $46 million in lost parking-ticket revenue — staggering losses that could take a bite out of critical programs and services, critics charged Sunday. “It’s not a natural disaster — this is man made,” said Glen Bolofsky, president of Parkingticket.com, a ticket-fighting service which crunched the numbers. Because ticket revenue is accounted for in the city’s budget — $518 million a year, according to a November 2014 Office of Management and Budget report — the spectrum of a budgetary shortfall has...

It’s a slowdown showdown. At precincts across the city, top brass are cracking the whip on summons activity and even barring many cops from taking vacation and sick days, The Post has learned. Throughout the city, precincts are being ordered to hand up to borough commanders “activity sheets” indicating the number of arrests and summonses per shift, sources told The Post. “Police officers around the city are now threatened with transfers, no vacation time and sick time unless they write summonses,” one union source said. “This is the same practice that caused officers to be labeled racist and abusers of...

Dec. 23 marked a banner day in the Peyser/Phillips household. My daughter, Eliza Phillips, turned Sweet 16. This was an excuse for her parents to enjoy mountains of cake (and a few nips of Scotch.) But it also brought us a sense of extreme anxiety. For soon my kid will choose a career. But like millions of parents, infamously including Mayor de Blasio, this seemed as good a time as any for me to sit my child down and give her “the talk.’’ I warned her — Do not join law enforcement. This makes me sad. Just as de Blasio...

There’s 35,000 of them, but they’re not an army. So, it’s a new year, and we’re already hip-deep in horrors. I can’t even begin to write about the Charlie Hebdo massacre; I’m not an expert on terrorism or on France, and in general I agree with Dan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor, who’s made a good point recently on Twitter that there are too many of these “what’s it all mean” pieces and all far too soon. Instead, I want to go back to one of the stories we were all arguing about before the Paris massacre: the tension...

(Reuters) - On the sidewalk of a public housing development in Brooklyn, New York notorious for gang violence and drug activity, the words "Fascist pig, go home!" in black spray paint are fading but still legible. These are the Marcy Houses, 27 brick H-block buildings, each six stories high, that are home to nearly 4,300 people, many of whom are black or Latino. The rapper Jay-Z, who grew up in the complex, described Marcy as "a block away from hell," the place where "news cameras never come," in a song called "Where I'm From."

Across New York City, policemen are being put on notice by higher ups, get back to business as usual, or no vacations, or sick days, according to reports. And borough commanders want to see the proof. “Throughout the city, precincts are being ordered to hand up to borough commanders ‘activity sheets’ indicating the number of arrests and summonses per shift…” Said one union source, according to the New York Post, “Police officers around the city are now threatened with transfers, no vacation time and sick time unless they write summonses.”

The civilized world is still reeling from Wednesday's brutal attack against the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo by gunmen seeking revenge for cartoons attacking Islam. Nevertheless, Breitbart.com reported Thursday, the White House announced it would make fighting Islamophobia a priority. "Never mind that most Westerners aren’t Islamophobic, but rather GettingShotInTheFaceForExpressingMyOpinion-Phobic," Ben Shapiro wrote. Speaking with reporters, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the real problem is lack of leadership in defending Islam. "There are some individuals that are using a peaceful religion and grossly distorting it, and trying to use its tenets to inspire people around the globe to...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appears poised for a presidential run and is currently leading the polls among potential Republican candidates for 2016, but the comments he made in 1994 during his first run for Florida’s highest office may come back to haunt him.The Associated Press reports that Bush described himself then as a “head-banging conservative” and used fiery rhetoric — such as claiming he would do “probably nothing” for African-Americans if he became governor — in his ultimately unsuccessful bid. Bush made that statement in response to a question on what he would for African-Americans if elected to office.“It’s time...

It would have given great offense, had anyone known it was there. For the first half of the 20th century, an eight-foot-tall marble statue of the Prophet Muhammad overlooked Madison Square Park from the rooftop of the Appellate Division Courthouse at Madison Avenue and 25th Street. Sixty years ago, the statue was quietly removed, in an episode that now looks, in light of recent events in Paris, like the model of tact, restraint and diplomacy. What had spared the sensibilities of Muslim passers-by from 1902 to 1955 was that “Muhammad,” by the Mexican sculptor Charles Albert Lopez, was among nine...

Of all the statistics from the recent New Year’s Eve in Times Square—1 million revelers, 2,000 pounds of confetti, thousands of police officers, dozens of surveillance cameras—there is one number that stands out: zero, as in zero tickets for low-level crimes. No tickets for having an open container of alcohol, no tickets for public urination, no tickets for double parking, no tickets for furry, costumed characters hassling tourists to take their picture. Add in low-level arrests, and there was just one, for a subway-related offense. And that wasn’t just on New Year’s Eve. That was for the entire week containing...