Free Republic

‘Comprehensive immigration reform,” a deal on which is reportedly imminent, has a lot of moving parts — too many, in truth, as with most “comprehensive” legislation. Among the costs of comprehensivism is that debate over such bills often gets bogged down in the many details. Americans seeking to evaluate any deal should ask three questions about it to cut through the noise. First: Will it encourage future illegal immigration? This has always been the greatest risk of proposals to provide legal status for current illegal immigrants: that it will be seen as a reason for others to come here illegally...

42-year-old Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, to an American mother and a Cuban father. By dint of his mother’s citizenship, Cruz was an American citizen at birth. Whether he meets the Constitution’s requirement that the president of the United States be a “natural-born citizen,” a term the Framers didn’t define and for which the nation’s courts have yet to offer an interpretation, has become the subject of considerable speculation. Snip~ Legal scholars are firm about Cruz’s eligibility. “Of course he’s eligible,” Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz tells National Review Online. “He’s a natural-born, not a naturalized, citizen.” Eugene Volokh,...

RUSH: Folks, I'm gonna give you some advice. For those of you who are faint of heart, for those of you who scare easily, for those of you who... Let’s say you live in St. Louis. In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today there are two pictures. There's a picture of a compassionate and caring and very attached and very hurting Obama, hugging a New Jerseyan who's lost everything. Right next to it is a picture of Romney in front of a large gathering waving and doing campaign appearances. Of course, the juxtaposition is Romney doesn't care; Obama cares. If you...

Ever since the first debate in Denver, Mitt Romney has been on an upward trajectory in the polls. While he has leveled off somewhat over the last week, nationally he has turned a four-point deficit into a one-point lead. The lead actually jumps to two points if you include only the eight most recent national (non-online) polls. In those polls, Romney leads independents by an average of 17.5 points, which is a remarkable increase over the past month, and an amazing reversal of Obama’s 8-point lead with independents in the 2008 election. Romney has now been at or above 50...

Just a few weeks ago, Ohio was a state that was considered almost every media outlet to be a solid lock for Obama. ThereÂ’s no need to rehash the actual headlines, but some even suggested Romney give up on Ohio and look elsewhere for a path to victory. Before the first debate, Romney was down 5.6 in RCPÂ’s Buckeye State average. Today he is down 2.5, cutting his deficit by more than half, presumably in large part due to his strong first-debate performance. Here are a few reasons why itÂ’s even closer than that: Democratic turnout advantage from 2008 probably...

If you want more time to get your message out in debates, it’s good to be a Democrat. According to the CNN debate clock, President Obama spoke at greater length than Mitt Romney during both debates, as did Vice President Biden during his debate with Paul Ryan...

Climate Fraud: In an attempt to defend his role in the greatest scam of modern times, Climate-gate's poster child threatens to defend his tarnished reputation in court. First, hide the decline, then hide the deceit. 'Get lost" was National Review editor Rich Lowry's appropriate response to a threatened lawsuit by Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann. NR printed a post by the great Mark Steyn, who graces these pages as well, calling Mann's famous hockey-stick graph "fraudulent." That it is indeed a fraud has been documented by many, including us. Mann was at the heart of the Climate-gate scandal in...

I’m nearing the end of a vacation, so I’ve stayed out of the Corner for the most part. But tonight after we came back from dinner, my wife said “look at this.” On her iPad was the Washington Post’s homepage. One of the headlines reads: Police: Suspect disagreed with Family Research Council “Disagreed”? The suspect shot someone. “Disagreed”!? Why so bombastic? Why not say that the would-be killer “had a different perspective’?

Last month’s Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare left champions of that law breathing a sigh of relief, while its opponents — a majority of the public — were left frustrated. It seemed at first glance as though the chief justice’s tortured opinion had saved the individual mandate, and with it the broader statute. But Obamacare’s champions should take a closer look at what the Court left them with, because on their own terms, the law is now set to collapse.

It was January 18, 2009, and 500,000 people huddled in the cold to watch a concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial two days before the inauguration of Barack Obama. They were treated to the words of some of our great actors and musical artists, people such as Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Beyoncé, and Bono. They were even treated to words from the president-elect himself. As the event came to a close, Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen led the crowd in a rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” a song most of us think we know,...

In his new Social Science Journal study...Mark Regnerus set out to answer the question of whether children who have parents in a same-sex relationship experience disadvantages when compared with children raised by their biological, married parents. The answer, contra the zeitgeist, appears to be a resounding yes. Children with a parent in a same-sex relationship “underperform” in almost every category. Some of these differences may be relatively benign — whether one voted in the last presidential election, for example — but most are decidedly not. One deficit is particularly worrying: Less than 2 percent of children from intact, biological families...

The U.S. government’s secret space program has decided to give NASA two telescopes as big as, and even more powerful than, the Hubble Space Telescope. Designed for surveillance, the telescopes from the National Reconnaissance Office were no longer needed .. They have 2.4-meter (7.9 feet) mirrors, just like the Hubble. They also have an additional feature that the civilian space telescopes lack: A maneuverable secondary mirror that makes it possible to obtain more focused images. These telescopes will have 100 times the field of view of the Hubble, according to David Spergel, a Princeton astrophysicist and co-chair of the National...

<p>I didn’t agree with Derb on many things, from Ron Paul and talk radio to God and science. For his part, he reckoned I was a bit of a wimp on what he called “the Great Unmentionables.” He thought that neuroscientists and geneticists’ understanding of race trumped my touching belief in “culture.” I’m not so sure: Why is Haiti Haiti and Barbados Barbados? Why is India India and Pakistan Pakistan? Skin color and biological determinism don’t get you very far on that.</p>

Anyone who has read Derb in our pages knows he’s a deeply literate, funny, and incisive writer. I direct anyone who doubts his talents to his delightful first novel, “Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream, or any one of his “Straggler� columns in the books section of NR. Derb is also maddening, outrageous, cranky, and provocative. His latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible. We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer. Derb is effectively using our...

Newt Gingrich better hope voters who lapped up his delicious hits on the “elite media” and liberals don’t read the Drudge Report this morning. Or the National Review. Or the American Spectator. Or Ann Coulter. If they do, Gingrich comes off looking like a dangerous, anti-Reagan, Clintonian fraud. It’s as if the conservative media over the past 24 hours decided Gingrich is for real, and they need to come clean about the man they really know before it’s too late. This is just a sampling of what’s hitting Newt:

I'm sure tonight.. I'm going to be thrown off this forum....so what if I do... I'll go down swinging... Buy before I go... I'm speaking my mind.... Gutless wonder Rush Limbaughs....Hey..Charles Krauthammer... Ann Coulter.. Chris Christie...are you listening... Mark Steyn... the editors of NRO... You are all the coward of cowards... You are all covers for Mitt Romney...You are all his Lackeys.... But let me ask you all something... esp you, Ann.... What was Mitt Romney doing in France as a Mormon missionary...? Hmmmmmmm? He speaks Fench.... Tell us Ann Coulter... what was he doing there? Ask him how many...

In last night’s debate among Republican presidential candidates, Newt Gingrich defended his proposal to oust bad judges from office by statutorily abolishing the judicial offices they occupy. In a series of posts, Matt Franck and I will explain why we believe that this particular proposal of Gingrich’s is constitutionally unsound and politically foolish. (Matt and I may have somewhat different thinking on the underlying issues, so the views expressed by one of us should not necessarily be imputed to the other.)In this opening post, I will set forth Gingrich’s proposal to abolish judgeships. At the outset, let me emphasize that...

The Tea Party’s limited-government, constitutional heart is in the right place. But it needs much better guidance about how the Constitution works in wartime. The defense-authorization bill currently under congressional consideration contains some unremarkable, largely redundant provisions about the treatment of enemy combatants. Naturally, the now-familiar alliance of leftists and libertarian extremists — self-proclaimed “constitutionalists” all — attacked with their signature “sky is falling” equanimity. On Wednesday, my column addressed some of the more hysterical arguments posited by Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano. The real action, however, was taking place on the Senate floor, where Tea Party favorite Rand Paul...

Joel Bennett, the lawyer for one of the former employees of the National Restaurant Association who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment, spoke to Wolf Blitzer live on CNN moments ago. Bennett said that in his legal opinion, what occurred between Cain and his client met the legal definition of sexual harassment. But despite repeated questions from Blitzer, he refused to specify what the alleged actions were, and he said his client would not be appearing to shed any further light on the matter. When Blitzer pointed out Cain’s vehement, blanket denial, Bennett replied, “In all my years of lawyering,...

Herman Cain deserves credit for proposing a tax-reform plan that is specific, promotes economic growth, and has captured the imagination of conservatives nationwide. His 9-9-9 plan builds on the insight that one of the chief defects of the current tax code is its bias toward consumption over savings. But his plan’s peculiarities of design, substantive weaknesses, and political naïveté render it unworthy of conservative support.

Join us tonight on Freedom Radio 8 pm EDT as we welcome Mr. Andrew Stiles of National Review Online who will discuss his latest work on the proposed budget plan known as Cut, Cap and Balance. Watch here as Congressman Allen B, West of Florida explains his position on CCB.

The Republican noncandidate flavor of the week is Texas governor Rick Perry. If you squint just right, you could mistake him at a podium for his predecessor, George W. Bush. Except for his message. There might be no more powerful symbol of the death of compassionate conservatism in the Republican party than Bush’s successor and former running mate in Texas stomping all over it with cowboy boots emblazoned with the words “Freedom” and “Liberty.” Bush rose from Texas to the national stage in 1999 talking of his federal education agenda, the courage of single mothers, the power of drug and...

Jim Geraghty just can't stop digging, providing even more foolishness regarding media-based tax credits, not subsidies as regards Sarah Palin and Alaska. But this raises a couple of interesting questions. At some point (I expect and hope) Sarah Palin is going to go out before the American people as a presidential candidate and argue that government can and must do less and spend less. I just grind my teeth knowing that she’s now set up for the easy snickering response: “Yes, that way government can stick to its core duties, which is providing tax incentives to television programs.” First to...

I respectfully dissent from Wendesday’s NRO editorial, which urges that the United States go to war with Libya. The editorial doesn’t put it that way. Indeed, it doesn’t call for President Obama to seek a congressional declaration of war, or at least an authorization for the use of military force, as the Bush administration understood was required before commencing combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In this case, complying with the Constitution is almost certain to result in a resounding “no” vote from the people’s representatives — and if you think getting the Patriot Act reauthorized was uphill, figure getting...

Results from yesterdays poll:

It is wild in Madison: Thousands gathered outside of the state capitol this afternoon to support Gov. Scott Walker. Teachers and firefighters circled the tea party as it rallied. Gadsden flags clashed with union banners in the cold Wisconsin air. It was a beautiful sight — loud, raucous, animated, and sweaty. Andrew Breitbart, Herman Cain, Brad Thor, Tim Phillips, and Joe the Plumber have addressed the crowd. The biggest chants: “enough is enough!” and “recall them all!” Some signs spotted at the rally: – “Stop leeching, start teaching!” – “Walker 2012″ – “Obama: Worry about your own deficit” – “I...

Many of you know that Laurie Mylroie is a Middle East expert and regularly testifies before Congressional committees on terrorism matters. She is an adjunct scholar at The American Enterprise Institute and author of Study of Revenge: The First World Trade Center Attack & Saddam Hussein's War against America. I sent an email to her this past Sunday, 7-13-03 after having seen her on Fox's John Gibson's program on Friday, 7-11-03 during the 5 PM hour. Something she said really caught my attention, so here is what I wrote to her: Greetings Laurie, I found the link to your email...

Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. HEARING OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TERRORIST ATTACKS UPON THE UNITED STATESCHAIRED BY: THOMAS KEAN WITNESSES: LAURIE MYLROIE, AUTHOR; JUDITH YAPHE, NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY; MURHAF JOUEJATI, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY; MARK GASIOROWSKI, LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY 253 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C. July 9, 2003 MR. KEAN: Okay, if we could call the hearing back to order. Yeah, I've got a gavel. I'll use the gavel. (Gavels.) "A senior administration official told me in specific that the question of the identities of the...

Saddam's Fingerprints on N.Y. Bombings The Wall Street Journal By Laurie Mylroie June 28, 1993 Military retaliation from Baghdad was the main administration concern following Saturday's strike on Iraq. Yet U.S. officials should start thinking seriously about the question of retaliation through terror. It is quite possible, for example, that there was a connection between Saddam and recent attempts to blow up Manhattan. It is quite possible that New York's terror is Saddam's revenge. Speculation about the responsibility for last week's bombing plot and the earlier World Trade Center bombing has focused on Iran, Sudan, and the fundamentalist Sheik Omar ...

House Conservatives Persuade Leaders to Slash Spending Further House Republican leaders have agreed to a key conservative demand that they make good on their campaign pledge to reduce fiscal 2011 spending to $100 billion less than President Barack Obama’s budget request, GOP aides said Wednesday. According to a GOP leadership aide, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and other leaders are working with Republican appropriators, the Republican Study Committee and other conservatives on a “unified” strategy to reduce spending beyond the $74 billion in cuts they had already planned. The cuts, which would only apply to non-defense discretionary spending, would come...

The clandestine cargo carried into polar orbit Thursday aboard the first California-launched Delta 4-Heavy rocket was a crucial replacement satellite for the nation's surveillance and security network, amateur sky-watchers say.The sophisticated imaging bird follows a long line of Keyhole-type spacecraft that provide ultra-high resolution imagery for the U.S. intelligence community, according to hobbyists who track orbiting satellites with remarkable precision. Ever since the Delta 4-Heavy rocket fired away from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the amateur observers have been hunting for the new satellite to figure out its identity. The conventional wisdom before the launch said...

UPDATED According to multiple reports, a federal judge in Virginia has ruled that part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — is unconstitutional. The ruling by District Judge Henry Hudson says the law “exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power� by requiring individuals to purchase health care coverage under the “individual mandate.� It is the first federal ruling against the law. “Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market,� Hudson...

When President Bush and a Republican Congress cut income taxes for everyone who paid them, most Democrats were opposed. Once the legislation passed, though, they quickly realized that as a matter of politics they had to support the bulk of the tax cuts. They could not be seen to oppose the reduction in tax rates for middle-income workers, or the expansion of the child tax credit. They remained hostile, however, to the tax cuts on dividends, capital gains, and high incomes. They ran two presidential campaigns on a platform of extending the “good” tax cuts while letting the “bad” ones...

America’s top four space agencies — NASA, the NRO, Space and Missile Systems Command and the Missile Defense Agency — are joining together to improve how they design, buy and build launchers, sensors and satellites. The memorandum of understanding — signed so far by the spy satellite builders and operators at NRO and the SMC folks — will help them “work together to develop and share best practices and lessons learned to take into account the health of the industrial-base, space systems acquisitions and to participate in forums that will improve performance such as the space quality improvement council and...

11/20/2010 - CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla -- The 45th Space Wing launch of a Delta IV-Heavy Launch Vehicle carrying a National Reconnaissance Office payload has been rescheduled to Nov. 21, 2010, at 5:58 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (2:58p.m. PST) from Space Launch Complex 37 here. Following the scrubbed Nov. 19 launch attempt, the launch team examined the port and starboard common core strap-on boosters in the areas where they received anomalous temperature data signatures during Friday's launch countdown. After inspections by engineers, it was determined that the temperature data signatures were caused by issues with two temperature sensors....

New York’s 20th congressional district has a problem. It’s an R+2 district, one that Bush carried 54 percent to 46 percent in 2004, and one that Obama carried by 3 percent, a classic swing district. But their Democratic congressman, Scott Murphy, is one of those so-called “moderate Democrats” who are never moderate when it really counts. He voted for Obamacare, and staunchly opposes repeal. He voted against a ban on federally funded abortions. He voted for cap-and-trade. Murphy likes to talk a lot about his strong views on pay-as-you-go, but he voted to raise the debt ceiling. He voted for...

The entirety of last night’s debate between incumbent Democrat Marcy Kaptur and Republican challenger Rich Iott in OH-9 has been posted, and one of the most interesting part of it was the audience reactions. Kaptur and Iott could not have been more different on the issues, and it showed. One of the most tense moments of audience reactio n came when Iott said (to massive applause) that the bailouts for GM and Chrysler were absolutely wrong, to which Kaptur replied that GM and Chrysler’s bailouts were necessary to save workers, a line which earned her derisive laughter. However, at the...

It appears the Senate campaign of J. D. Hayworth has hit a bump in the road. A big one: Republican Senate challenger J. D. Hayworth appeared in a 2007 television infomercial in which he helped convince viewers that they could rake in big bucks by attending seminars that would teach them how to apply for federal grants that they wouldn’t have to pay back. National Grants Conferences, the Florida-based company that hosted the classes and produced the informercial, has faced criticism from multiple state attorneys general and Better Business Bureaus. Hayworth, a former Arizona congressman who is running against incumbent...

Voter dissatisfaction with Republicans and Democrats is at historic levels, and the tea-party movement is hoping to play kingmaker in the November elections. The country’s current breed of discontent is ideal for the tea parties, because economic concerns are foremost, allowing the movement to sidestep the divisions between its libertarian and conservative wings. As the elections near, however, voters will want to know where the party stands not just on the economy but on social issues. A perfect illustration is drug policy, where conservatives advocate continued prohibition but libertarians argue for legalization. Which way should the tea party lean when...

The proposed cancellation of NASA’s Constellation manned spacecraft program could foster a stronger bond between the civilian space agency and the Air Force, a senior service official said this week. “This is going to drive us to work together,” Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Howie Chandler at an April 28 Air Force Association breakfast in Arlington, VA, when asked if cancellation of Constellation could impact the Air Force. “I think you’ll see us start to do that even more than we have in the past.” To that end, the Air Force is participating in a forum to discuss...

The U.S. military and intelligence community’s space launch manifest is ramping up to an unusually high pace to deploy several first-of-fleet spacecraft that will modernize the nation’s communications, missile warning, surveillance and navigation infrastructures. But uncertainties are clouding the outlook of the liquid- and solid-fueled booster industrial base following a White House decision to terminate NASA’s Constellation program. The Pentagon and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)—which develops and operates intelligence satellites for the U.S.—are in the midst of several studies to help chart a path forward. In parallel, NASA, the Pentagon, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Missile Defense Agency are...

There he stood, a Harvard MBA man, a man of numbers, backing a collapsing equity. Mitt Romney took to the podium in Salt Lake City, the place where he rose to prominence in 2002 as Olympic chief, and urged the GOP delegates to back Sen. Bob Bennett, Utah's three-term incumbent. Despite Romney's pleas, Bennett ended the day with a worthless bronze, dumped from the primary. For Romney, however, the moment was a silver — not a victory, but an impressive showing. When he ran for president, Romney was considered a little too calculating, a little too cool. Since then, he's...

Even as momentum for Iran sanctions grows, containment seems only viable option,” reads a Washington Post headline from April 22. Leaving aside for the moment the dubious character of the first half of that assertion, is it really true that containment is now the “only” option? It is certainly true that nearly everyone in Washington — from administration officials to the permanent civil service to the foreign-policy establishment — believes that, and has believed it for at least a year, if not longer. The intellectual groundwork was laid long before President Obama came into office, in part as a way...

TONIGHT on The Andrea Shea King Show9pm EDThttp://www.blogtalkradio.com/askshow/2010/05/01/the-andrea-shea-king-showYou've seen him on Fox News, PBS' News Hour, and CNN's Larry King Live. Tonight he's with us -- Dr. Michael Ledeen. We'll talk about Iran, Ahmadinejad, and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and for the Navy–Marine Corps Relief Society, two of the most worthy groups in this country. Ledeen is a contributing editor at National Review Online and regularly contributes to the Wall Street Journal and has a blog on Pajamasmedia.com. Dr. Ledeen also is the Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Previously, he served as a consultant...

Butler of Aviation Week & Space Technology reported last week that the super-secret National Reconnaissance Office will be launching new spy satellites over the next two years at the highest rate since the Reagan era. Butler quotes NRO director Bruce Carlson as stating that several "very large, very critical" spacecraft will be sent into orbit by his agency -- presumably systems that collect imagery of surface targets or eavesdrop on the radio-frequency transmissions of potential adversaries. Combined with impending launches of new military-communications and missile-warning satellites, news of the spy-satellite payloads will come as welcome news to the nation's endangered...

We already miss Justice John Paul Stevens — the Justice Stevens of the 1970s, that is: the Stevens whose opinion on why racial preferences in college admissions violate the Civil Rights Act has never been refuted, the Stevens who was skeptical of judicial micromanagement of local law enforcement. That Justice Stevens retired a long time ago, replaced by a down-the-line liberal activist, one whose flippant abortion rulings went nine-tenths of the way toward justifying a right to infanticide. We know that President Obama will nominate a replacement who is also committed to imposing liberal policy outcomes over the objections of...

Many Americans fear that President Obama’s new energy proposal is once again “all talk and no real action,” this time in an effort to shore up fading support for the Democrats’ job-killing cap-and-trade (a.k.a. cap-and-tax) proposals. Behind the rhetoric lie new drilling bans and leasing delays; soon to follow are burdensome new environmental regulations. Instead of “drill, baby, drill,” the more you look into this the more you realize it’s “stall, baby, stall.” Today the president said he’ll “consider potential areas for development in the mid and south Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, while studying and protecting sensitive areas...

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE ANDREW C. McCARTHY MARCH 29, 2010 4:00 A.M. ‘Representing’ al-Qaeda Does helping jihadists lie, plot, and identify CIA agents demonstrate patriotism — or material support to terrorism? Bravely entering the lion’s den — delivering a speech in praise of left-wing, “pro bono” lawyering to a group of left-wing, pro bono lawyers — Attorney General Eric Holder recently declared that “lawyers who provide counsel for the unpopular are, and should be, treated as what they are: patriots.”

They Still Don’t Have the Votes [Jeffrey H. Anderson] The most likely explanation for the breakdown of talks between Rep. Bart Stupak and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not that Pelosi decided she didn’t need Stupak and his crew in order to have enough votes to pass Obamacare. Rather, it is that Stupak — who is increasingly emerging as this drama’s Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart’s heroic character in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) — held firm in insisting on language that would truly prevent taxpayer-funded abortions, and in insisting that such language be passed by the Senate before the bill could...

Thursday, March 18, 2010 The CBO Score, As Reported by Steny Hoyer House Budget Committee Ranking Republican Paul Ryan responds to an NRO query about the news this morning: “The Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that there is currently no official cost estimate. Yet House Democrats are touting to the press — and spinning for partisan gain — numbers that have not been released and are impossible to confirm. Rep. James Clyburn stated he was 'giddy' about these unsubstantiated numbers. This is the latest outrageous exploitation by the Majority — in this case abusing the confidentiality of the nonpartisan Congressional...