Free Republic

The prospects for a better future are nearly hopeless for roughly 20 percent of black people — those who reside in big-city crime-infested and dysfunctional neighborhoods. There is virtually nothing that can be done about it without a major rebuilding of the black community from within. Let's examine some of the aspects of the problem and the dismal prognosis, given the status quo. The most important social unit is the family. Many talk about the "breakdown" in the black family when a far more accurate description is that the family doesn't form in the first place. About 73 percent of...

On the Monday night edition of MSNBC's All In, longtime liberal columnist Jonathan Alter reacted to President Obama's executive actions on gun control by comparing it to President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and remarking how heartbreaking it was for Obama to have met with the families of Sandy Hook victims and "see those six-year-olds stacked up like cord wood." Host Chris Hayes began the segment with a number of soundbites from the President and Republican presidential candidates opposed to the move before remarking: "While the substantive reason to be concerned about guns seems clear, in a country where...

Here's today's political quiz question: What do these five states -- Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, California and Maine -- have in common? Yes, they are blue states ruled by Democrats, but that's not all. These are the states that use the least amount of coal -- 2 percent or less -- for electric power. In fact, almost all the states that are politically liberal and vote unfailingly Democratic are low coal use states. For instance, Washington, New York, Oregon and New Jersey are also in the top 10 states least reliant on coal. Only conservative Idaho is a red state...

Finally, our distinguished president, our Nobel Peace Prize Laureate has spoken out about the infamous scandal of body parts being trafficked. “It is infuriating and I have no patience for it,” President Obama said in a strong show of righteous indignation. But wait, that was in response to a question about the killing of Albino people in Africa. Of course, he is absolutely right in his visceral reaction against trafficking in body parts for pagan ritual purposes in parts of Africa. And the young African leaders—to their great credit—asked the President to lend his moral authority to their effort to...

Edmund Burke famously said, “Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.” This could not be more relevant to the debate raging over the Iran nuclear deal. On Oct. 21, 1994, President Bill Clinton announced a deal with North Korea aimed at ending its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. “This is a good deal for the United States,” Clinton said. “North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program. South Korea and our other allies will be better protected. The entire world will be safer as we slow the spread of nuclear weapons.” Before addressing questions by...

At his press conference last Wednesday, our president of self-regard again linked himself with Ronald Reagan, seeking to equate his supposed success in gaining a deal with Iran not to build a nuclear weapon for 10 years to Reagan's arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union. There is at least one major difference, which causes Obama's analogy to collapse. Reagan regarded the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" and vowed to defeat it. He said not just the Soviet Union, but communism itself, would wind up "on the ash heap of history." Obama hears, sees and speaks no evil against...

On Tuesday, we moved into a new nuclear age. In the old nuclear age, the US-led West had a system for preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It had three components: sanctions, deterrence and military force. In recent years we have witnessed the successful deployment of all three. In the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, the UN Security Council imposed a harsh sanctions regime on Iraq. One of its purposes was to prevent Iraq from developing nuclear weapons. After the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, we learned that the sanctions had been successful. Saddam largely abandoned his nuclear...

If Rip Van Winkle had gone to sleep sometime in the past five decades and awakened today, he would know nothing about the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal. But he would have no trouble following the debate, because he's heard it before. Presidents, adversaries and the world have changed; the arguments have not. It's no surprise that the Republicans running for president find the accord to be lacking in any merit whatsoever. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ranked it among Barack Obama's "worst diplomatic failures." Jeb Bush called it "appeasement." Even Rand Paul, who sometimes diverges with GOP hawks, rejects it. Some of...

Imagine if, on September 12, 2001, I had written a column predicting that within less than 15 years, the president of the United States would be offering the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism a path to nuclear weapons and tens of billions of dollars. You’d have thought me a lunatic. But that’s what President Obama means to do. What’s gumming up the works? Every time Secretary of State John Kerry thinks he has found a creative way to cave in to some Iranian demand, the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, comes up with a new “red line.” Just to be clear:...

Fox News’s Megyn Kelly began Thursday’s edition of The Kelly File by ripping into President Barack Obama and plans for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to regulate and enforce the diversity of neighborhoods (and particularly wealthy ones). A few hours after the major broadcast networks ignored this story on their evening newscasts, Kelly made clear her disdain with the President and referred to him as “[t]he man who changed your health care system forever” that’s “now pushing to change your neighborhood” and especially “if Uncle Sam feels it is not inclusive enough.”VideoCiting the administration’s line that they’re...

When George W. Bush and the GOP got "thumped" over the conduct of the war in Iraq in November 2006, 43 responded to the will of the people, made changes, announced the Surge, and graciously welcomed Nancy Pelosi as the first woman Speaker at the start of his 2007 State of the Union Address. Not much else is remembered from the next two years, except victory in Iraq and a market panic in the fall of 2008 brought about by the popping of the housing bubble. That panic brought us President Obama.Tonight President Obama will give a speech few Americans...

resident Obama is promising to veto key Republican backed legislation in 2015 and 2016. This may represent a generational Republican opportunity to both pass important legislation and gain the friendship and support of working American voters. It may also represent the opportunity to split the Democratic Party between its existing leadership and the Democratic Party’s far left wing. The key is for Republicans to tailor their legislation and their legislative timing to insure that there are parts of every piece of legislation that appeal to working voters. This has to start with the first three pieces of legislation taken up...

It should come as no surprise to Townhall readers that the new Republican congress has no plan to deal intelligently with Obamacare. That’s unfortunate. The worst thing that can happen over the next two years is for president Obama to appear to take the high road – insuring the uninsured and fighting the mean insurance companies – while Republicans rail about the small and trivial parts of health reform. And the worst thing that can happen is the very thing that is about to happen. So here is some unsolicited advice.To begin with, Republicans in Congress have created their own...

Only a madman would gamble with our lives…our children’s lives…and the entire American economy. Why would President Obama play “Russian Roulette” with the future of our country? It’s a gamble no sane leader would take. The life and death issue is Ebola. The President is more concerned with political correctness (and golf) than taking common sense precautions to prevent a deadly pandemic. Why does this President not see his responsibility is to keep the odds as low as possible? There are three simple, common sense actions any President who cared about American citizens would take:

When a man jumped over the White House fence, ran across the lawn and entered the residence, the Secret Service failed and failed again. One of the most conspicuous and surprising failures was that though it had armed agents on the ground and snipers on the roof, no one fired a shot to stop him. In fact, the agency bragged about not using their guns, saying that "the officers showed tremendous restraint and discipline in dealing with this subject." The agents didn't shoot Omar Gonzalez because they "apparently concluded that he was not armed and did not appear to be...

There is a ghost in the White House, a spirit disconnected from this world, whisking from room to room, past staff, uninterested in their conversations. Unfortunately for us, the ghost is the president of the United States. Barack Obama loves being president – the perks, the privilege, the pomp and circumstance. It’s the job that bores him. Unlike community organizing, the Illinois State Senate, or even the U.S. Senate, there’s only one president. They can’t just show up when they want or bleed into the background when they’d rather be doing other things. President Obama loves the campaign trail. He...

In a nationally televised interview that aired Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke of his director of national intelligence, James Clapper, the way a manager at a fast-food joint would speak of a grill cook who just botched a burger. "Our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper," Obama said in an interview with "60 Minutes," "has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria." OK, so now what? Do we get a coupon for a free side of onion rings on our next visit while Clapper is downgraded to deep-fry jockey? When you're the...

Friends, Americans, patriots -- lend me your ears. For once I come not to bury the Republican Party Establishment but to praise it. That's right, it is I, a man who has been excommunicated so many times by the GOP establishment I've lost count, who is now here to tell of their mighty deeds. Just as "only Nixon could go to China," so must the waxing poetic of the GOP's "heroic" exploits come from a malcontent like me. By now you're wondering "what did you do with the real Steve Deace?" But fear not, my brethren, thou still art the...

This week, as I have been predicting for months, President Barack Obama announced that he would be considering unprecedented executive action to provide legal status for millions of illegal immigrants. His goal is not to solve the immigration crisis -- you don't grant legal status to 5 million illegal immigrants, then leave the back door wide open if you're interested in solving the problem. His goal is not to help illegal immigrants -- he instead leaves them in limbo by granting them temporary work permits, rather than blanket amnesty. His goal is trolling. Trolling is a practice whereby a person...

"Sorry to email you late on a Friday, but I need your urgent support," Nancy Pelosi wrote me. The House minority leader went on to explain that "for the first time in history, Congress voted to sue a sitting president." And, "Today: the White House alerted us that they believe 'Speaker Boehner ... has opened the door to impeachment.' "What Republicans are doing to President Obama is historic -- and offensive," she wrote. And then, in a bright bold red text that can't be done justice in black and white, she chided me, "With everything happening right now, I'm...