Free Republic

Establishment Republicans are irretrievably in the back pockets of their open-border donors, which is why we’ve never solved our immigration crisis. Naturally, they are well aware of the fact that their voters have no appetite for the importation of illegal immigrants and do not share the priorities of their donors. But they still run on our issues in the primaries and paint their conservative challengers as pro-amnesty. Incongruously, they often use the open-borders money to promote that very message. This dynamic is now playing out in the Florida governor’s race between Adam Putnam and Ron DeSantis. The pro-amnesty agriculture lobby...

A new attack ad against DeSantis has links to the bare knuckled political operative -------------snip--------------- Today an outfit called National Liberty Federation began airing about $290,000 in ads on radio and Fox News TV stations across Florida hammering Republican U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis: -------snip--------- The National Liberty Federation is run by a Palm Beach County resident named Everett Wilkinson, who used to call the group the South Florida Tea Party. Wilkinson for years has worked closely with Roger Stone, hosting a 2011 Boca Raton Trump rally that served as a harbinger of his presidential campaign, vocally supporting more casinos in...

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- According to a report conducted for bar owners in the state, the workplace smoking ban enacted last year led to the loss of 2,000 industry jobs and millions of dollars in wages. Ridgewood Economic Associates of New Jersey conducted the study for New York Nightlife Association based in New York City, and the Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association based in Albany. The report stated that since the state's Clean Indoor Act took effect on July 24 banning smoking in all workplaces, $28.5 million in wages and salary payments and $37 million in gross state product were...

Smoked outSome companies now forbid workers to smoke anywhere on their property -- not on the sidewalk, not even in their cars in the parking lot.01:00 AM EST on Sunday, April 4, 2004BY JENNIFER LEVITZ Journal Staff Writer Everyone knows you can't smoke in the office anymore.But increasingly, you can't smoke outside work either.At Rhode Island Hospital, employees have a nickname for their designated outdoor smoking kiosks: butt huts.The workers, however, could consider themselves indulged that they're allowed to puff on the hospital's sprawling property at all.Because a few miles away at Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, in Cranston, employees who...

Anti-smoking advocates sure know how to hurl insults at those who defend smokers’ rights. In response to an opinion piece of mine that ran recently in a daily newspaper, I received an email from “Harry” in Milwaukee saying if “Bast promises not to smoke within ten feet of me, I promise not to poop on his salad bowl while he’s eating.” Only he didn’t say “poop.”Thanks, Harry. I hope the guys you have lunch with know about your curious habit.Defending smokers isn’t popular, but if you care about jobs, property rights, the rise of the Nanny State, and the use...