Free Republic

We may be seeing the beginning of the end of the model for civilized governance that has dominated Western civilization since WWII. That model has been provision by the state of all or most of the needs of its people combined with the popular election of the government. Or, in other words, the welfare state plus democracy. What we are seeing in Europe is that that model is inherently unsustainable. The concept of individual rights is the only standard for government action that puts an objective limit on what the government can do. The post-war leaders of Europe were completely...

Green agenda targets slurry bombers As fire rages out of control on the edge of Colorado Springs, threatening lives and property, it is time we listen to those who have warned us about the negative effect environmentalists and President Barack Obama have had on the federal government’s ability to fight fires. Much of what’s burning is the Pike National Forest, which is federal property. Yet it took almost three days to get federal fire fighting aircraft off the ground to begin dumping meaningful loads of slurry to slow the fire’s growth. Because the Forest Service has a shortage of planes,...

Egypt's New President Morsi, Israel's New Neighbor, Issues A Warning

Young US households — those aged 35-to-44 — lost a stunning 59 percent of their wealth during the recession, a government report released yesterday revealed. That’s the stiffest hit of any age group, said the report from the US Census Bureau. The age group — typically struggling with mortgages, tuition bills and rising tax bills — makes up the backbone of America’s middle class. The losses were mainly due to the drop in the value of their homes during the 2005 through 2010 period, the report said

LAS VEGAS — Sarah Palin on Friday condemned President Barack Obama’s new immigration policy as both unconstitutional and cravenly political. “He’s absolutely pandering to a specific demographic that no doubt polls have shown … he would be helped in this demographic if he just makes this move,” the former Alaska governor told POLITICO late Friday as she left the Venetian hotel after a speech to the RightOnline conference. “And I say that because all of President Obama’s actions are based on polls that are provided him that would lead him to believe he can garner support for his reelection bid.”...

At certain pivotal moments in history, societies have needed the contributions of truly great minds to sort through a flood of information and reconstruct it in a manner that can be properly digested by the general population. Shortly before the American Revolution, as the thirteen original colonies pondered their independence from Great Britain, it was Thomas Paine who solidified the debate and presented it to the public with his timeless work "Common Sense." No less of a historical milestone was embodied in the efforts of John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton as they delivered the set of essays that...

Attorney General Eric Holder publicly asked House Speaker John Boehner, House oversight committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley during a Tuesday morning hearing to meet with him one-on-one about Operation Fast and Furious. But the leading congressional investigators said a House subpoena from October 2011 is still pending and the ball is in Holder’s court. “I want to make it very clear that I am offering to sit down, by myself, offering to sit down with the Speaker, with the chairman, with whomever, to try to work our way through this in an attempt to avoid a constitutional

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I watched something fascinating last night. You know, my brother has got a book out. The name of the book is The Great Destroyer. And it is a compendium of virtually everything Obama has done and said that gives away who he is and what's ahead and in store for us if he's reelected. David was to appear on Hannity last night, which he did. But Hannity led off with a focus group from somewhere in Wisconsin with Frank Luntz. And I watched that with my mouth wide open. Did you see that? Any of you see...

New orders for U.S. factory goods fell in April for the third time in four month . . . orders for manufactured goods dropped 0.6 percent during the month. The government also revised its estimate for new orders in March to show a steeper decline . . . The Labor Department on Friday reported that job creation slowed in May for the fourth straight month.

Those lucky enough to still be here to look back at history post Barack Obama will recognize the last sight-piggyback funeral dirge of the once noble Space Shuttle as the Obama Regime’s defining moment. Were an artist to paint a picture of a small boy looking at up at his flying kite as the space shuttle passed over Manhattan yesterday, no portrait of the story of America’s deliberate ruin at the hands of a single politician could ever come closer to the truth. [BIG Snip of text] Few will remember that it was on the fullest moon of the year...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I saw it again today, space shuttle, Enterprise this time, flown from Washington to New York, numerous fly-bys over New York City. It's eventually gonna end up on the Intrepid, the Air and Space Museum, the Intrepid, the aircraft carrier. Do you know the Intrepid, for those of you old enough -- by the way, it's a great place to visit, if you have not been, on the west side of Manhattan. They've got an SR-71 Blackbird on the deck now. It's antique aircraft, World War II-era aircraft, Vietnam-era aircraft. They're gonna have to move some out...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to coordinate the efforts of Federal agencies responsible for overseeing the safe and responsible development of unconventional domestic natural gas resources and associated infrastructure and to help reduce our dependence on oil, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Policy. In 2011, natural gas provided 25 percent of the energy consumed in the United States. Its production creates jobs and provides economic benefits to the entire domestic production supply chain, as well as to chemical and...

The Obama administration appears to be conducting an organized campaign of public pressure to stop Israel from attacking Iran's well-developed nuclear-weapons program. So intense is this effort, and so determined is President Obama to succeed, that administration officials are now leaking highly sensitive information about Israel's intentions and capabilities into the news media. ------ Indeed, the only conclusion to be drawn from Mr. Obama's actions and rhetoric is that he fears an Israeli military strike more than he fears Iran achieving nuclear-weapons capability.

WASHINGTON — Passover and Easter — intrinsically linked in the Jewish and Christian traditions — are being celebrated this weekend. For observant Jews, Passover commemorates the Hebrews' liberation from slavery under Egypt's Pharaoh. For faithful Christians, Easter is a celebration of Jesus' resurrection from the grave and the fulfillment of a new covenant between God and man. Biblical passages in Exodus 12, Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 and John 20 describe these historical events and the reasons for festivities among people of faith. But this year, these holidays are a time of extraordinary anxiety for Christians and Jews...

Yesterday the Obama administration announced a delaying tactic which will put off the possibility of new offshore oil drilling on the Atlantic coast for at least five years: The announcement by the Interior Department sets into motion what will be at least a five year environmental survey to determine whether and where oil production might occur.

“All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing” Edmund Burke Obama against America While American people continue in their attempt to hide from an endless deteriorating reality, yesterday breaking news brought that president Hussein Obama takes "the killing of Afghan civilians by a deranged gunman as seriously as if it were our own citizens and our own children who were murdered.” Furthermore, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the death penalty is a consideration as the military moves to investigate and possibly put the soldier suspected in the mass killings on trial. So, they...

Marines waiting for Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to speak at Camp Leatherneck were ordered by Sgt Maj. Brandon Hall to go out and leave their weapons outside the room. Panetta arrived in Afghanistan Wednesday for a two-day visit amidst heightened tensions after an American soldier was alleged to have killed 16 Afghan civilians. It was an unusual request as it is not customary to disarm for a defense secretary visits. The Marines did as they were told. There were about two dozen Afghan soldiers in attendance who were unarmed. Hall was told to do so by Maj. Gen. Mark...

The Thomas More Law Center, this past Tuesday, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of the Navy. The purpose of the lawsuit is to obtain records believed to show intentional deception by the Pentagon to gain congressional support for repeal of the 1993 law regarding open homosexual conduct in the military, usually called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Erin E. Mersino, the Thomas More Law Center attorney handling the case, explained the reason for the lawsuit, “Based on what we know thus far, the Pentagon engaged in a pattern of deception in its efforts to persuade...

Marie Antoinette, on hearing that French peasants had no bread to eat, suggested, “Let them eat cake.” This quip perfectly captured the haughty indifference which many people attributed to the French monarchy. A few years later, she was punished for her hauteur: execution by guillotine. The famous quote was probably never uttered. Real or not, it’s a handy symbol for an arrogant elite, indifferent to the suffering of the people. When you read in the newspaper that the US has 50 million functional illiterates, the disdainful queen should flash into your mind.During the 1920’s, the American population was moving toward...

"In the Treasury we do not speak of tons of silver. Our unit is the troy ounce." That was the response from some bureaucrat when Leslie Groves, the man who oversaw the Manhattan Project, sought thousands of tons of silver to be turned into electrical wires. Groves got his silver. Why? Because completing the Manhattan Project -- and winning the war -- was America's top priority. For three years, the Obama administration and its cheerleaders have tried to claim that they stand for the same can-do spirit. Administration officials have a rare form of Keynesian Tourette's syndrome whereby they blurt...