Free Republic

This year I took the SMC Republicans to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) where we heard from many conservatives who were all on the 2015 CPAC Straw Poll in which we participated. The top five winners were Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and Jeb Bush. Paul was a hit with the large number of young people at CPAC. He said, “We do a great job defending the Second Amendment, but we have to defend the whole Bill of Rights … we should have speedy trials.” He went on to talk about Kalief Browder who was accused...

Talk radio host and author of “The Liberty Amendments,” Mark Levin argued that Benjamin Netanyahu’s electoral victory sends ” a very, very important message for the Republican Party and conservatives in this country” on Tuesday.

Everyone says President Obama is a feckless commander, weak in statecraft, especially compared to the great leaders of the Western world, such as Reagan and Churchill. I believe this does Obama a great injustice. It's so easy to react the way a great leader would. Sure, Obama could have left a small contingent of American troops in Iraq, preserved America's victory, and prevented the entire region from collapsing into chaos and terror. He could have refrained from issuing empty "red line" threats to Syria. He could call ISIS "Islamic." But anybody could do that -- even ISIS calls itself "Islamic."...

The table that I assembled is in response to vague references that we see and hear like "the BLS said", "the WSJ said", "radio/TV/Blog/column said" . . . the table has links directly to the original data. It's too large to post repeatedly on threads though I do hope to keep it current quarterly (with annualized data) until Election 2016. And change/add columns as needed.

VENICE, Italy — President Reagan, who less than two years ago signed the most expensive farm aid bill in history, called Friday for the elimination of agricultural subsidies worldwide by the year 2000 as a way of promoting better world economic health.At the same time, Reagan said that the United States has made "real progress" in trimming its budget deficit, despite ongoing spending battles with Congress, thereby freeing for private investment abroad some of the foreign capital that has been tied up financing the U.S. debt.Reagan's remarks, made in a speech televised by Worldnet and provided to networks around the...

As soon as a conservative Republican emerges as a serious presidential contender, liberals in the media suddenly yank out the microscopes they’ve been keeping away from Barack Obama since 2007. They could care less what Obama did in college, how he got into college, who paid for his college, who wrote his letters of recommendation, what his grades were, and on and on—but we already know everything about Scott Walker and college. Obama’s media protectors could give a rip that the current president once had a mentor who was a literal card-carrying member of the Communist Party under Stalin. But...

"If and when Congress votes on a new immigration bill -- whatever the "triggers," timetables or other provisos -- the real issue to be decided will be the same as it has been from the beginning. That issue is whether the Republican Party, dazed from a daily pounding by the Washington press corps, will agree to commit political suicide by enfranchising 11 plus million illegal aliens on U.S. soil, the vast majority of whom will soon be casting Democratic ballots." So wrote the great M. Stanton Evans, who passed away on Tuesday. Having been at the forefront of the movement...

Includes both his speech and questions from Sean Hannity. 24 minutes.

Let's see: You're creating the "official trailer" for this year's Conservative Political Action Conference. CPAC is more than forty years old now, so you want to begin your trailer with a tribute to prominent right-wingers of the past. There are quite a few names to choose from; of these, you pick seven. Do you think it should have been possible to pull this off without putting an unvarnished racist in the #2 slot, right after Ronald Reagan? Apparently not:

When conservatives gather Thursday for their annual confab there will be homages to Ronald Reagan everywhere. He’ll be mentioned in speeches, he’ll show up as a life-size cardboard cutout, and on posters and buttons. The event’s big dinner is in his name. At the Conservative Political Action Conference, Reagan is king. And the many Republicans vying to be president will work feverishly to align with him. But do they?

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is scheduled to attend a private dinner Wednesday with longtime advocates of supply-side economics. The gathering, set for the upscale “21” Club in Manhattan, is the latest effort by the potential Republican presidential contender to bolster his relationships with the GOP’s anti-tax wing. It also reflects the interest business-friendly conservatives have in his possible candidacy, in spite of the recent ascent of former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Economists Larry Kudlow, Arthur Laffer, and Stephen Moore will host Walker, according to several people with knowledge of the event. For decades, that trio of friends — all associated...

Birthday - Ronald Reagan, (1911-2004) the 40th U.S. President, was born in Tampico, Illinois. Reagan spent 30 years as an entertainer in radio, film, and television before becoming governor of California in 1966. Elected to the White House in 1980, he survived an assassination attempt and became the most popular president since Franklin Roosevelt. http://api.ning.com/files/vaBRVGKu-A9RXBvuSC2bW9jktb2za5*YNqm-EoauRFt*S0RfHMrvBi6KFKDz8pQXRaIlIBlRw7C37JsI7Ep5rZ2o-gdRA957/RonaldReagan.jpg

Growth: President Obama has taken to touting his "middle class economics" as a big success. That's difficult to believe, given the latest GDP numbers, and impossible when you look at his complete record.

Remembering when we had a real president. Remembering our brothers who gave all. Freedom is not free. Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction. God bless America.

Richard Richards, a key player in Utah Republican politics for three decades, was the first GOP chairman to endorse Ronald Reagan for president and was instrumental in Reagan's successful presidential campaign in 1980. An Ogden native who rose to become chairman of the National Republican Committee in Reagan's first term, Richards died at his home Friday. He was 82... Richards' work on Reagan's campaign earned him the chairmanship of the National Republican Committee in 1981-82.

The field will be crowded. The stakes could not be any higher. So how will Ted Cruz fare in 2016? Jim Antle looks into his crystal ball...Donald Trump, Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz all went to Iowa. This is not the set-up of a joke, but the beginning of the 2016 presidential race. All three are conservative celebrities; the first two are celebrities even in the broader sense. Having any of them at your conservative gathering excites attendees and generates media attention. All three say they are mulling runs for the White House. Cruz is obviously different from Trump...

Go to the link Ronald Reagan on Faith

Wow how far we’ve come. In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Obama, who has supported abortion on demand as the most radically pro-abortion president to date tried to tone down his rhetoric by saying, “We still may not agree on a woman’s right to choose, but surely we can agree it’s a good thing that teen pregnancies and abortions are nearing all-time lows, and that every woman should have access to the health care she needs.” VIDEO ON LINK By health care for women, Obama is referring to abortion. Obama 2015 Reagan 1984 STate of the Union abortion VIDEO...

Pete Souza, Director and Chief Official White House Photographer, has released his 2014 version of “The Year In Pictures.” Would you like to play a game? Identify the book/movie that served as the inspiration for each of the photographs in his album. Extra credit if you can also provide actual quotes from the book/movie. Here are a few I recognized immediately, butt there are tons more to play with, so have a go at it. Girl With a Pearl Earring: “I hear you have been of great use to your master. All that grinding and stirring, eh?” - Van Ruijven Sunset...

In these tumultuous times when real leadership is so needed, it’s good to remind ourselves what it looked like. Reagan always sought to unite, not divide. Let’s be inspired by his life and legacy. Enjoy this video.