Free Republic

The U.S. Preventive Task Force caused quite a stir recently when they revised their recommendations on the frequency and age for women to get mammograms. Many have speculated on the timing for this government-funded report, with the Senate vote on health care looming, and cost estimates being watched closely. Just the hint that the government would risk women’s health to cut costs is causing outrage on both sides of the aisle. Even the administration is alarmed at its own panel’s recommendation. One official, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius told women to ignore the new guidelines, keep...

Can Barack Obama turn around an economy that is incarcerated within throes of his policies? Can he reverse the double digit unemployment he created? The answer depends on whether or not a President and his cabinet, which less than ten percent, have any real private-sector employment experience. Less than ten percent of Obama’s 432 member cabinet have ever created, operated, fired, hired, dealt with cyclical economies, filed corporate taxes, or had to deal with the oppressive governmental red tape–that these very bureaucrats create–while operating a business.

Please see a true conservative combating the nihilistic Barbara Boxer. The California Republicans must endorse him. To see video follow the linkAlso go to previous post on Devore vs Fiorina.

I was pleased last week when we won a vote in the Financial Services Committee to include language from the Audit the Fed bill HR1207 in the upcoming financial regulatory reform bill. As it stands now, if HR 3996 passes, because of this action, the Federal Reserve’s entire balance sheet will be opened up to a GAO audit. We will at last have a chance to find out what happened to the trillions of dollars the Fed has been giving out. Finally, the blanket restrictions on GAO audits of the Fed that have existed since 1978 will be removed. All...

Just the thought of sitting atop of several million degrees of molten something or other caused me to start sweating like Dan Quayle at a spelling bee. While stumbling around in a diaphoresis stupor, I pondered: if the earth is millions and millions of degrees, how hot is the sun?

International environmental radicals are in a highly agitated state because of the delay; before the delay, they smelled blood. Diane McFadzien, Climate Officer, Climate Witness Program [sic], said, “At APEC, there was far too much talk about delay. In Copenhagen, governments need to create a legally binding framework with an amended Kyoto Protocol and a new Copenhagen Protocol. Legally binding is the only thing that will do if we want to see real action to save the planet.” [Emphasis added.]

Last Saturday many concerned Americans watched in horror as the House passed the healthcare reform bill. If this bill makes it through the Senate, it would massively overhaul the way healthcare is delivered in this country. Today, obviously, we don’t have a perfect system, but this legislation takes all the mistakes we are making with healthcare and makes them worse. Most of what is wrong with healthcare stems from decades of government intervention and the resulting unintended consequences. But the government’s prescription for the ills caused by intervention is always more intervention. We see this not only in healthcare policy,...

Nancy Pelosi's health care reform bill passed by a margin of 210-205. A razor-thin victory (or was it?), thanks, no less, to her political-genius. The political cost of her bill: a potential sweeping of the 2010 and 2012 elections by the GOP, and another nail in the coffin of Barack Obama's constitutional usurping Hope and Change agenda.

It’s still early to be thinking about 2010 elections, but the Republican Liberty Caucus National Board has approved several endorsements for 2010 already. Liberty fans across the country will be pleased to note that the RLC endorsed Rand Paul in his bid to become U.S. Senator in Kentucky, and Peter Schiff in his bid to represent Connecticut in the Senate. The RLC has also endorsed Jason Shepherd for State Representative in Georgia, Shane Schoeller (Incumbent) for State Representative in Missouri, and Bill Hunt for Orange County Sheriff in California. Our endorsements process has just begun, so please stay tuned for...

California Republican Execs have a chance to redeem themselves ... After two serious fumbles: 1. Teresa Hernandez for Congressional District 32, May 2009, and 2. David Harmer for Congressional District 10, November 2009. How can they shed their Keystone Cops image? Answer: Follow the Jim deMint lead and support Chuck DeVore to replace senator Boxer. Do not support Carly Fiorina, she is the poster girl of affirmative action. The Board at Hewlett Packard (mostly heirs of Wm. Hewlett and David Packard) soon discovered she was unsuitable, because rather than build on HP strengths, she sought to expand via acquisition, mostly...

These are partial results for Libertarians who were candidates in the November 3, 2009 elections. We will post more results as we learn them. In Georgia: Karen Richardson was re-elected to the John's Creek City Council. Chris Neill, running for Mayor of Marietta, got 14%. Richard Segal, running for City Council in Douglasville, got 41%. Jeffrey Sexton, running for City Council in Leesburg, got 22%. Kellie Weeks, running for School Board in Gainesville, got 32%. Dr. Thomas Smoot, running for School Board in Valdosta, got 24%. In Iowa: Roger Fritz was elected Mayor of Roland. Nick Taiber got 46% running...

A Republican Liberty Caucus-endorsed candidate for House of Delegates in Virginia was endorsed by The Washington Post last week. Eric Brescia, who is running in a longtime Democrat stronghold in Arlington, Virginia, impressed The Post. Brescia, who is young, articulate, and has strong libertarian leanings, has run a campaign that may well fit his far-left district during an economic crisis due in part to overspending: his campaign emphasized policies that are socially tolerant and fiscally conservative. The Post said, “[Brescia] is exactly what the Republicans need in Northern Virginia: an independent-minded thinker who has fresh and specific ideas for how...

There has been a lot of talk in Washington recently about senior citizens, mostly about how various healthcare reform models would help or hurt them. But there is another critical issue that has quietly devastated seniors financially over the last few decades. It concerns how the cost of living is calculated. How does the administration justify not giving a cost of living increase to Social Security recipients this year? According to the official Consumer Price Index calculation, life has gotten cheaper for the first time in decades. If the government can show statistically that the cost of living has gone...

With most Americans outraged over the behavior of the Federal Reserve and the part it has played in the bailouts of huge institutions in the financial and automotive industries, Ron Paul introduced H.R. 1207, which would have required a full audit of the Federal Reserve and its activities, which crosses international lines. According to Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, the House Financial Service Committee’s panel on domestic monetary policy, Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., essentially stripped the bill of just about everything that would have required transparency, and pretty much is now worthless as to its original purpose of letting the American...

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson (R) is setting up a new political group to potentially set up a run for the White House. The former two-term governor, known for his libertarian leanings, is setting up a new 527 group, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, over which he'll preside as an "honorary chairman." The move raises the specter that Johnson might wage a bid for the GOP -- or Libertarian Party -- nomination for president in 2012. Candidates often set up groups, more frequently Political Action Committees (PACs) to raise money for or support other candidates. Johnson said...

There are two distinct methods the Democrats have used to write unconstitutional laws. The first is through malice. This method has been employed since FDR by the continuous chipping away with the uncontested usurping of the document by a political sect that harbors a stalwart disdain and insolent disposition regarding the Constitution, its limited constraints on the federal government, and by proxy, the Founding Fathers.

Last week a new bill was introduced in the Senate to audit the Federal Reserve. Some backers of my bill HR1207 and the existing Senate companion bill S.604 were a little miffed at this, but depending on how you think about it, this new legislation poses no great threat to our efforts. With the economy in shambles, people are looking for answers - not just because of lost savings on Wall Street, but because of lost houses on Main Street. Because of the many problems we face, the Federal Reserve and its powers over the economy have come under scrutiny....

The Economist has a thoughtful interview with Reihan. His thoughts on Paul: My suspicion is that non-interventionism is going to enjoy a rebirth among conservatives. As memories of 9/11 fade and casualties continue to mount, a desire for an independent foreign policy with an inward focus—I won't call it isolationism—will reassert itself. Though I'm a firm believer in a more forward-leaning foreign policy (my instincts are more McCain than Paul), this is a good and healthy debate to have. So in that sense, Mr Paul is good for the party. I worry, however, that the Paul movement represents a turn...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says health care is a right; President Obama says health care is a right; the 2008 Democratic National Platform says health care is a right. Republicans say that health care is not a right. Right? Former Republican Senate majority leaders Bill "bought and paid for by the AMA" Frist and Bob "bought and paid for by Big Pharma" Dole support health care reform, but the Republicans in Congress, who have to answer to the voters, are balking. As much as I deplore with every fiber of my being every facet of the federal government’s intrusion into...

Democrat Steve Shannon gets caught not knowing what the Virginia Attorney General's Office actually does, and not only does he consistently evade the question, his staffers harass and try to assault anyone who documents his reactions to questions from reporters who ask him about his evasive non-answers. Clearly, Steve Shannon doesn't understand the office he's running for and his campaign will stop at nothing to try to hide his troubling lack of competence about the job he's asking voters to elect him to.

With a faltering economy, multiple wars, and the approaching demise of the dollar’s reserve status, there are more than enough problems to keep politicians in Washington working day and night. In between handing out cash for clunkers and nationalizing healthcare, the administration is busy sending more troops overseas, escalating existing wars, and seeking out excuses to start new wars. Congress is working on “urgent” legislation to address crises like healthcare reform and climate change. The reforms are so very urgent that legislation must pass swiftly with no time to read the bills even though the new laws wouldn’t take effect...

If you don’t believe that the Republican party leadership works in concert with the Democrat party leadership to protect the financial interests of unscrupulous big business, as distinguished from honorable businessmen, then you need to brush up on your history starting with the trusts and monopolies of the late 1800’s early 1900’s. If you do this and follow the path forward you will stumble upon the very actions of Congress which have resulted in today’s lack of competition in the purchase of health insurance policies. I will spare you the colorful historical details and hit the highlights for brevity’s sake...

It is a cliché that if we do not study the past we are condemned to repeat it. Almost equally certain, however, is that if there are lessons to be learned from an historical episode, the political class will draw all the wrong ones — and often deliberately so. Far from viewing the past as a potential source of wisdom and insight, political regimes have a habit of employing history as an ideological weapon, to be distorted and manipulated in the service of present-day ambitions. That’s what Winston Churchill meant when he described the history of the Soviet Union as...

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Republican Rand Paul has raised more than $1 million for his U.S. Senate campaign, largely from Internet fundraisers that have proven especially lucrative for him. The son of former presidential candidate Ron Paul eclipsed all other major candidates in the third quarter.

tto von Bismarck, the Prime Minister of Prussia from 1862-1890, made a remarkable statement regarding the process of making of laws that is oft quoted by contemporary politicians to mask their inadequacies and philistinism: Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. But Democrats, being what Democrats are, could surmise their methodology of lawmaking with the following updated and apropos quote: Laws are like excrement, it is better not to see them being made, nor admire the result.

I am going to be on TV twice tonight to respond to Lindsey Graham's attack Monday that I am trying to "hijack" the Republican Party, and that our movement is a bunch of "angry white men." Please tune in to CNN at 6:00 pm ET and MSNBC at 6:30 pm ET and help me defend our Constitutional principles from the Neo-Conservatives!

It sometimes seems like many members of the Republican party have forgotten the history of the party and lost track of the principles on which the party was founded. The party was founded in opposition to involuntary servitude and in support of the rights of workers to keep the fruits of their labors. It was founded as a party based on liberty of the individual and liberty from oppressive government and no other beliefs of personal agendas should be more valued by Republicans than liberty. The popular right-wing website RedState, which has a long history of condemning political figures for...

What if tomorrow morning you woke up to headlines that yet another Chinese drone bombing on US soil killed several dozen ranchers in a rural community while they were sleeping? That a drone aircraft had come across the Canadian border in the middle of the night and carried out the latest of many attacks? What if it was claimed that many of the victims harbored anti-Chinese sentiments, but most of the dead were innocent women and children? And what if the Chinese administration, in an effort to improve its public image in the US, had approved an aid package to...

This past week there has been a lot of discussion and debate on the continuing war in Afghanistan. Lasting twice as long as World War II and with no end in sight, the war in Afghanistan has been one of the longest conflicts in which our country has ever been involved. The situation has only gotten worse with recent escalations. The current debate is focused entirely on the question of troop levels. How many more troops should be sent over in order to pursue the war? The administration has already approved an additional 21,000 American service men and women to...

If there's anything Lindsey Graham does for the Republican party, it's that he reminds his constituents that political principles are more important than winning. In these videos, Graham simply has no shame as he continues to defy principle for compromise in the name of "winning." Since when did morality become all about winning? Regardless, the last time I checked Mr. Moderate John McCain didn't exactly excite voters in last year's presidential race other than to vote against Democrats. Honestly, I'd rather have one Republican in office who actually stood behind the Constitution than a super majority made up of two...

In 2002, President George W. Bush helped make us poorer by signing off on higher steel tariffs. In 2009, President Barack Obama helped make us poorer by signing off on higher tire tariffs. Is this supposed to be change we can believe in? Economic analysis shows that trade creates wealth. The law of comparative advantage demonstrates that when we specialize and trade, we produce more wealth using the same resources. Preventing trade means that we use more resources to produce less wealth.

As a state senator, Ken Cuccinelli has made a positive difference in the lives of many Virginians. Sen. Cuccinelli passed a bill to keep Virginia government from unfairly seizing private property. He toughened our laws to keep violent sexual offenders off our streets. He passed a law allowing the government to fire workers who hire illegal immigrants. He passed laws to crack down on gang violence. He fought consistently against tax increases proposed by our governors. He was the deciding vote to ban partial birth abortions.

Now more than ever we need an attorney general who will fight for limited government and stop the expansion of federal programs. As the federal government gets more intrusive in our lives, we need someone like Ken Cuccinelli who will stand up for our rights. Ken has the same belief our Founders did when they established this great nation and cautioned against too much government power and regulation. Ken knows that the government that governs best, governs least.

Those of us who have been waiting for a politician to pick up on the monetary issue are perking up at Governor Palin’s demarche on the dollar. This came last week in a posting on her Facebook page, where she reacted to a report that Gulf oil producers were negotiating with Russia, China, Japan, and France to abandon the use of the dollar in pricing petroleum. She noted the report in the Wall Street Journal that Arab oil officials were denying the story, but reckoned that “even the possibility of such talk weakens the dollar and renews fears about its...

SAN FRANCISCO – Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get as many as three pot-legalization measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over U.S. drug policy. At least one poll shows voters would support lifting the pot prohibition, which would make the state of more than 38 million the first in the nation to legalize marijuana. Such action would also send the state into a headlong conflict with the U.S. government while raising questions about how federal law enforcement could enforce its drug laws in the face...

Political analysts frequently consider what it means to be a libertarian. In fact, in 1997, Charles Murray published a short book entitled "What It Means to Be a Libertarian" that does an excellent job of presenting the core principles of libertarian political philosophy. But almost no one ever discusses what it feels like to be a libertarian. How does it actually feel to be someone who holds the principles described in Murray’s book? I’ll tell you. It feels bad. Being a libertarian means living with an almost unendurable level of frustration. It means being subject to unending scorn and derision...

Dear Friend, It’s been a busy month in the Senate. The conclusion of debate in the Senate Finance Committee means another important step towards providing access to affordable insurance for millions of Americans. We are closer than ever to health insurance reform and I am urging my colleagues to bring to the floor of the Senate strong legislation that will provide quality, affordable access to health insurance for all New Mexicans. In order to help the one in four New Mexicans who are uninsured and the thousands more who are underinsured, I believe health insurance reform must include: • A...

Last week I was very pleased that the Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, HR 1207. The bill has 295 cosponsors and there is also strong support for the companion bill in the Senate. This hearing was a major step forward in getting the bill passed. I was pleased that the hearing was well-attended, especially considering that it was held on a Friday at nine o’clock in the morning! I have been talking about the immense, unchecked power of the Federal Reserve for many years, while the attention of Congress was always on other...

Satellite radio show host Mike Church discusses the Campaign for Liberty, the Republican Party of Florida, Will Pitts, Ron Paul,Tom Woods, Audit the Fed, HR1207, Charlie Crist, Jim Greer, and the Republican Liberty Caucus [Click Here to Listen]

Statement before the United States House of Representatives, September 23, 2009. Government has been mismanaging medical care for more than 45 years; for every problem it has created it has responded by exponentially expanding the role of government. Points to consider: No one has a right to medical care. If one assumes such a right, it endorses the notion that some individuals have a right to someone else’s life and property. This totally contradicts the principles of liberty. If medical care is provided by government, this can only be achieved by an authoritarian government unconcerned about the rights of the...

Ron’s editor, Ben Greenberg, writes to him: END THE FED is debuting on the New York Times bestseller list at #6!!! Keep in mind that the Fall is a much more competitive time in terms of #s than April (when we published THE REVOLUTION last year), so I think this is a very auspicious start. This week and next are the crucial times…there are big, year-making nonfiction books coming out every week from here on out, so it’s a very difficult time to maintain traction, but I believe we can. Of course, The Daily Show and Glenn Beck will help...

I’ve mentioned in the past the importance of electing officials who share our principles of liberty, limited government, and personal responsibility. That’s why I’ve ardently supported Senator Ken Cuccinelli as our next Attorney General. Both Virginia and our nation as a whole could benefit from more leaders like him. I’m pleased to announce that my former employer, Congressman Ron Paul, has taken note of this race as well. From an email earlier today: Dear Friend in Liberty, The 2009 elections in Virginia promise to be very important for the direction of our Country. America has taken a dangerous turn away...

Two weeks ago, both the administration and the Fed announced with straight faces that the recession was over and the signs of economic recovery were clear. Then last week, the president made a stunning decision that signals the administration’s determination to repeat the mistakes of the Great Depression. Much like the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs that set off a global trade war and effectively doomed us to ten more years of economic misery, Obama’s decision to enact steep tariffs on Chinese imported tires could spark a trade war with the single most important trading partner we have. Not only does China manufacture...

For three decades, Rep. Ron Paul has waged a lonely battle in Congress to abolish the Federal Reserve. But he has more foot soldiers across the nation today, particularly after the financial crisis, who are leading the drive for wider congressional audits of the central bank. In his new book — “ End the Fed” — released today, Rep. Paul walks through his critique of the central bank and lays out a strategy (briefly) for eliminating it. We sat down with the congressman to hear his views on a money system backed by gold, the Fed’s challenge of withdrawing its...

The analogue: The Democratic Party begot the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and ACORN subsequently begot Barack Obama; ACORN is also involved in an intimate and symbiotic relationship with the Democratic Party. It also participates in a contrasting and mutually exclusive relationship with conservatism, and the idea of democracy.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), informs Congress that there will be hearings to audit the Federal Reserve and why he supports them.

Part of an interview with Phil Donahue...classic, short and sweet.LINK HERE

Go Judge! His new show Freedom Watch now goes daily on Foxnews.com. Watch the 3 segments now

Far from protecting us and our children, the war on drugs is making the world a much more dangerous place. SO FAR this year, about 4000 people have died in Mexico's drugs war - a horrifying toll. If only a good fairy could wave a magic wand and make all illegal drugs disappear, the world would be a better place. Dream on. Recreational drug use is as old as humanity, and has not been stopped by the most draconian laws. Given that drugs are here to stay, how do we limit the harm they do? The evidence suggests most of...

Last Wednesday the nation was riveted to the President’s speech on healthcare reform before Congress. While the President’s concern for the uninsured is no doubt sincere, his plan amounts to a magnanimous gift to the health insurance industry, despite any implications to the contrary. For decades the insurance industry has been lobbying for mandated coverage for everyone. Imagine if the cell phone industry or the cable TV industry received such a gift from government? If government were to fine individuals simply for not buying a corporation’s product, it would be an incredible and completely unfair boon to that industry, at...