Free Republic

It's no secret that one of Mitt Romney's biggest vulnerabilities is the fact that he invented RomneyCare in Massachusetts, thus paving the way for the detested Obamacare. What is surprising is that the WSJ -- which you'd think might overlook that in Romney's case, given their general common ideologies -- would pulverize him on the subject. That's exactly what they've done tonight, on the eve of his big healthcare speech, basically branding him has un-credible and self-serving. They say RomneyCare has been a mess, but that really, up until recently he was bragging about its success. What's more, his new...

The sub-headline indicated )"Improvements in Security Are Cited in Renewed Push for Immigration Legislation.". Ah, ok. We know from Obama's auto-biography that in order to inoculate himself years before his run for President, he cleverly wrote that he "experimented" with cocaine. He didn't elaborate upon what constitutes "experimenting" or of what variety - but from his outrageous contention that there have been -IMPROVEMENTS- in the border and his push to bribe law breakers for votes - just as he bribes union members to the detriment of the rest of the nation, a number of things become lucidly clear: 1. The...

Yesterday, when we posted the full original letter submitted by True Finns leader Timo Soini titled "Why I Won't Support More Bailouts" as presented by the Wall Street Journal in verbatim, we were surprised that the WSJ, traditionally the bastion of various Fed interests (a topic previously dissected in "On The New York Fed's Editorial Influence Over The WSJ"), would allow such a truthy letter to appear on its pages. Today, courtesy of Karl Denninger who pointed out something glaringly disgusting, we were forced to look again at the letter as it now appears on the website of the WSJ....

Those who claim that we can disengage from Afghanistan now that the "emir" of al Qaeda is dead seem to assume the whole organization will disappear with him. It might, but it might not. President Obama has repeatedly provided superficial support for this view by claiming that our "core goal" in Afghanistan is limited to "disrupting, dismantling and defeating al Qaeda." No doubt he put the emphasize on al Qaeda because it is the terrorist group that most Americans worry about the most. But since 2001 it has never had more than a few dozen fighters at a time inside...

The Wall Street Journal, which turned down an offer to use the information gathered by Wikileaks, is launching its own venture that allows people to submit documents and databases to the paper's editors. The initiative, called Safehouse, asks the general population to help open "locked doors." "Documents and databases: They're key to modern journalism. But they're almost always hidden behind locked doors, especially when they detail wrongdoing such as fraud, abuse, pollution, insider trading, and other harms. That's why we need your help. If you have newsworthy contracts, correspondence, emails, financial records or databases from companies, government agencies or non-profits,...

Acura is paying for everyone to have complete access to the Wall Street Journal today. Enjoy.

There has been a lot of discussion concerning where the money really is on conservative blogs, the Wall Street Journal and the Rush Limbaugh show. I heard Limbaugh discuss the subject during his first hour yesterday and I thought his presentation was a bit confusing to listeners.

OPINION APRIL 10, 2011The Tea Party's First VictoryObama opposes spending cuts right up to the time he calls them historic.. This is getting to be a habit. President Obama ferociously resists tax cuts, trade agreements and spending cuts—right up to the moment he strikes a deal with Republicans and hails the tax cuts, trade agreements and spending cuts as his idea. What a difference an election makes. This is the larger political meaning of Friday's last minute budget deal for fiscal 2011 that averted a government shutdown. Mr. Obama has now agreed to a pair of tax cut and spending...

"An Open Letter to Fellow Conservatives" The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives--urged on by conservatives opposed to abortion--has voted to defund Planned Parenthood. On this issue, Republicans and conservatives are dead wrong. My grandmother was a friend and supporter of Margaret Sanger, one of America's earliest, most effective advocates of birth control. I met Sanger several times before her death in 1966 and was impressed b y her intellect and her commitment to many issues, not the least of which was enabling every woman to be "the absolute mistress of her own body" as she put it. I didn't agree...

Two decades after President George H.W. Bush abandoned his "read my lips" promise, some Republicans are chafing at their party's stand against new taxes. A few prominent GOP lawmakers believe they will have to raise some tax revenue if they are to bring Democrats along on a bipartisan compromise to address the U.S.'s long-term fiscal problems. Many Democrats want higher taxes to cover at least part of future budget gaps. That has led to clashes between Republican lawmakers and a Washington advocacy group, Americans for Tax Reform, the self-appointed keeper of the party's anti-tax flame. Grover Norquist, the group's president,...

Accuracy doesn’t seem to be the media’s strong suite these days. It makes you wonder if these “journalists” are incompetent, lazy, or worse; pushing an agenda. We can only speculate the reasons, but the fact is undeniable. Take for instance, the reporting by both the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times from Governor Palin’s speech and Q&A session at the India Today Conclave today. Both of them state that the governor said the following while giving an answer to a question: “Free people that make up a free country don’t wage war on another country.” That is a direct...

The midterm elections turned into a referendum on the economy, the budget, and ObamaCare. Democrats lost their House majority and substantially weakened their Senate majority by spending the 111th Session ignoring the first, refusing to deal with the second, and spending about half of their time passing the third despite widespread opposition to the bill. Meanwhile, joblessness continued without much attention until the election rolled around, and the 9% jobless rate sealed the doom of Nancy Pelosi, if not Harry Reid.What will unemployment be at the next election, and how will it impact voters in 2012? The Wall Street Journal...

In 2010, Megan Sampson was named an Outstanding First Year Teacher in Wisconsin. A week later, she got a layoff notice from the Milwaukee Public Schools. Why would one of the best new teachers in the state be one of the first let go? Because her collective-bargaining contract requires staffing decisions to be made based on seniority. Ms. Sampson got a layoff notice because the union leadership would not accept reasonable changes to their contract. Instead, they hid behind a collective-bargaining agreement that costs the taxpayers $101,091 per year for each teacher, protects a 0% contribution for health-insurance premiums, and...

Nice review of how Judge Vinson struck "down the entire health-reform law on the grounds that the individual mandate was not severable from the rest of the statute." And yes I performed a search on the title words "nuts and bolts"

Newt Gingrich has been touring Iowa lately, attempting to generate interest in a run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, and he’s been going the traditional route of defending farm subsidies, especially for ethanol. Gingrich blasted the media for its skeptical approach to ethanol subsidies, especially the Wall Street Journal, saying that “big urban newspapers want to kill it because it’s working,” and then questioned the WSJ’s values. The editors have responded in an unsigned editorial titled “Professor Cornpone,” and they give Gingrich both barrels: Here’s how he put in Des Moines, with that special Gingrich nuance: “The morning that...

* WONDER LAND * JANUARY 27, 2011 A Presidency to Nowhere High-speed rail and solar shingles are not the answer to America's "Sputnik moment." No president before Barack Obama has been so right and so wrong. When in his State of the Union speech Mr. Obama said, "This is our generation's Sputnik moment," citing the emergence of global competition from the likes of China and India, he was right. Minutes later he proposed to cover the country with high-speed rail and companies making solar shingles. High-speed rail and solar shingles? If that's the president's idea of meeting our Sputnik moment,...

In the past year, 46 states grappled with budget deficits of more than $130 billion. This year could be worse as federal recovery dollars dry up. And yet, for education reform, 2011 could be the best of times. California, to name one example, bridged its $25.4 billion budget gap by cutting billions from public education. It is now forced to cut another $18 billion to fill its current deficit. State executives and legislatures face severe choices and disappointments that could undo political careers and derail progress. On the bright side, public support is building for a frontal attack on the...

For years I had a photocopy of this article/opEd and finally lost it in a move.

Michael Bane is pleased and Paul Helmke is having heart palpitations. The Wall Street Journal just ran a front page story on the American Zoot Shooters Association - and it was favorable. The story notes the contrast between the quest for authenticity of the Zoot Shooters and cowboy action shooting. While zoot suits are more properly associated with the 1940s, the Zoot Shooters' stages are more from the Roaring 20s and 30s.The story notes that some cowboy action shooters criticize them for it. However, "Judge Roy Bean" - co-founder of the Single Action Shooting Society - had this reaction: Among...

At a stroke, Medicare chief Donald Berwick has revived the "death panel" debate from two summers ago. Allow us to referee, because this topic has been badly distorted by the political process—and in a rational world, it wouldn't be a political question at all. On Sunday, Robert Pear reported in the New York Times that Medicare will now pay for voluntary end-of-life counseling as part of seniors' annual physicals. A similar provision was originally included in ObamaCare, but Democrats stripped it out amid the death panel furor. Now Medicare will enact the same policy through regulation. We hadn't heard about...