Free Republic

Can someone explain to me who Mark Levin is always taking pot shots at at the beginning of his show? Is it Michael Savage? If so, what's the deal between the two? I rarely ever get to listen to Savage at work.

Yesterday ABC's This Week (10/26/14) profiled George P. Bush, a Texas land commissioner candidate who is a grandson and nephew of the more famous George Bushes.  It was part of This Week's "Closer Look" series, which seems to be intended as a place for upbeat profiles of political heavyweights. But a brief exchange about climate change showed the limits of this kind of journalism. Given its impact on land issues, correspondent Jonathan Karl had good reason to ask Bush about climate change. KARL: As land commissioner, he'll oversee millions of acres of oil and natural gas reserves. But he also...

Conservatism is supposed to mean less government, especially in terms of spending. In Texas, nearly every Republican candidate takes a hard turn to the right to prove just how conservative they have been. This marketing strategy has proved quite successful, considering that Republicans are expected to again dominate our state executive and legislative branches. How has the record matched with the rhetoric over the years? Last year, a massive debate swirled about how much the state was increasing its budget. The Wall Street Journal and conservative/libertarian groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation claimed the 2014-15 budget was increasing by...

I stopped by the Chevrolet Dealership yesterday for a look at the new Silverado 1500 pickup. Just for fun, I took it out for a test drive. I wanted to sense that new "feel" before they become extinct. The salesman (a black man wearing an Obama "change" lapel pin) sat in the passenger seat describing the truck and all its "wonderful" options. The seats were of particular interest. He explained that the seats directed warm air to your bottom in the winter and directed cool air to your bottom in the summer heat. Feeling like messing with him, I mentioned...

Joyce, an 82 year old lifelong black Democrat called C-Span to express her dismay with her party and announce that she voted straight Republican this year. She is dismayed with the Democrats stance on religion, abortion, and the poor effects of Obama’s policies on the black community and the country. “I have noticed in years what the Democratic party has done to my people. Unemployment is higher in the black community….than anywhere else. I cannot say, there’s no way I can continue to say that I was a Christian and stay in the Democrat party. They advocate the killing of...

The Republican Party simply doesn't get it. A new poll this week shows 2012 presidential nominee and 2008 primary candidate Mitt Romney leading the field of potential 2016 Republican candidates. According to ABC News/Washington Post, 21 percent of Republican voters would vote for Romney in the primaries; Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee tie at 10 percent, followed by Rand Paul, Chris Christie and Paul Ryan. Altogether, some 44 percent of Republican primary voters want an "establishment" candidate -- by which we mean a candidate for whom social issues are secondary, immigration reform is primary and economics dominates. The establishment donors...

On November 4th, 2014 (early voting starts October 20), Texans will have the opportunity to vote on one proposed amendment to the state’s constitution. Hardhatters offers our views on Proposition 1. Prop 1 (HJR 1)Ballot: "The constitutional amendment providing for the use and dedication of certain money transferred to the state highway fund to assist in the completion of transportation construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation projects, not to include toll roads."Summary: Proposition 1 will require the Texas Comptroller to transfer 50% of oil and gas tax revenues away from the economic stabilization fund (Rainy Day Fund) to the State Highway Fund....

MADISON, Wis. – Leave it to the Dem-heavy City of Milwaukee Election Commission to ban a 78-year-old poll observer for doing her job, a draconian punishment one election official described as nothing short of partisan “intimidation” in the remaining days before Wisconsin’s tightly contested gubernatorial election. Now, the commission’s executive director has turned in Marguerite Ingold to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, the same agency that has spent the past four years drag-netting conservatives in secret, politically charged John Doe investigations. The reason, according to Ingold: The election director believed this Muskego great-grandmother could have become “violent and stormed...

During his first term in office, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker gained a nationwide reputation for his often polarizing yet unapologetically conservative agenda. He feuded with public employees over their collective bargaining rights and was subject to a recall vote because of it. He enacted income tax reductions and oversaw property tax reductions. He signed a controversial law requiring women to get an ultrasound before getting an abortion, and he enacted a controversial voter ID law now tied up in court. Now, Wisconsin voters must decide whether they're up for four more years of the Walker agenda. If they are, political...

Elections are only a few weeks away, and most polls show that Texas Republicans again will control all statewide offices and large majorities in both houses of the Legislature. On the surface, Republicans should be pretty happy with the results. By just looking at a map of the party makeup of the Texas House, Republicans appear to control vast swaths of the Lone Star State. The devil is in the details; however, as we've provided you numerous scorecards from various organizations showing the voting records of House members in the 2013 Legislative session. Creating a map using these scores (Empower...

Note: This is the first in a series of essays examining the prospects for electing a republican president in 2016 and ultimately reining in the modern imperial presidency through the lens of Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist essays on the executive branch. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a politician making Iowa or New Hampshire his second home must be in want of the presidency. We’ve got more than a few of those these days and can expect the 2016 presidential campaign to begin in earnest minutes after the mid-term elections conclude. Expect the Big Announcement from Hillary some time “around”...

Even before Thomas Eric Duncan, who was being treated in Dallas for Ebola, died on Wednesday and a nurse who was treating him contracted this terrible disease, Republicans were vying with each other to shame the Obama administration into implementing a travel ban against Ebola-affected countries. That wouldn't be an unreasonable suggestion if it could stop the spread of the disease. But the fact of the matter is that it will do the opposite.

Moak Casey & Associates released their newest version of “Tracking the Education Dollar in Texas Public Schools” on behalf of the Texas Association of School Administrators and Texas Association of School Boards. Contrary to public school critics, the 2013 school expenditures reflected 60.8 percent of the $52.4 billion in state funds were spent on direct instruction for the 4.9 million children in Texas public schools. Direct instruction includes teacher salaries and benefits, instructional materials, teacher aides and librarians. Add another 21.4 percent for instructional support, which includes principals, counselors, and nurses. Approximately 14.9 percent of a district’s funds provide transportation,...

Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas share a desire to run for president in 2016, but this week the Republicans differed on an issue of importance to the conservative base — gay marriage. During a recent visit to South Carolina's College of Charleston, Paul told CNN that "people change their minds all the time" on the issue of gay marriage. “The bottom line is, I’m old fashioned, and I’m a traditionalist. I believe in old-fashioned traditional marriage. But, I don’t really think the government needs to be too involved with this, and I think that the...

A new, in-depth analysis of the closely-watched Louisiana Senate race shows that Republicans can cleanly defeat Sen. Mary Landrieu on Nov. 4 — saving millions of political dollars and putting the GOP one step closer to a Senate majority — but they need one thing to happen first: Third-place Republican candidate Rob Maness needs to bow out. In a study exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller, data and analytics firm 0ptimus conducted an opinion-read of 5,711 likely voters to find out if a Republican dropping out of the Louisiana “jungle primary” would make a difference on Nov. 4; if the...

Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, is making good on his vow to support gay GOP candidates in the name of inclusivity this week when he is expected to stump for openly gay Republican candidates Carl Demaio of California and Richard Tisei in Massachusetts. A report in The Hill says Boehner is expected to raise cash for both candidates despite opposition from conservative groups such as the Family Research Council in a bid to expand the 17-seat majority of Republicans in Congress. The Hill noted that Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage were among...

Don't give America to the hard left liberal progressive commie bastard democrats because you can't find purity in the Republican Party A listener to my Constitution Radio with Douglas V. Gibbs program on KCAA AM1050, and regular reader of Political Pistachio, emails me often to challenge what he considers to be my oath to the Republican Party. I have no oath to the GOP. My oath is to God, and my political ideology is that of a Classical Centrist, which is someone that, without compromise, supports the original intent of the United States Constitution. I wish, I have told Nathan,...

Former Dalton mayor David Pennington endorsed Andrew Hunt, the Libertarian Party candidate for governor, on Friday, calling him “the only true limited government candidate in the race.” Pennington lost a bid to replace Gov. Nathan Deal as the Republican nominee in the May primary. Pennington said he wouldn’t tell anyone else how to vote but decided to back Hunt based on his approach to taxes and fiscal policy. Hunt, the former CEO of an Atlanta nanotechnology firm, is in the race against Deal and Democrat Jason Carter. “When Andrew came out for true tax reform — led by an income...

NEW YORK (AP) — As same-sex marriage cases cascade through the federal courts, Republican politicians find themselves awkwardly split into three camps. There's a small but growing number who favor legalizing gay marriage, a hard-core faction that continues to denounce it, and a sizable group in between that seems to wish the issue would disappear. At one end of the spectrum, at least eight GOP members of Congress have endorsed same-sex marriage, and two openly gay GOP candidates for the House hope to join them. In Massachusetts, Richard Tisei has run ads featuring his husband. In California, Carl DeMaio ran...