Free Republic

Now we know for sure that he doesn’t read Vox.I don’t know whether to take this as a sign that O’s having second thoughts about a mega-amnesty or if it’s just lip service he’s paying to enumerated powers as he gears up to rewrite America’s immigration law, but the seeds of the counterargument to executive action are right here in the second half of the clip. Immigration, he says, is an issue on which there’s actually quite a lot of bipartisan consensus. The parties’ demands overlap substantially; even many Republican voters like the idea of comprehensive reform. It’s just these...

Not content with imposing the highest corporate tax structure in the “free” world, Democrat hacks in the legislature are now asking the Imperial President to unilaterally take action. A group of tax happy corporate protectionists are hoping the President uses his "pen and his phone" to start punishing American businesses that have the audacity to lower their corporate tax burden. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Dick Durbin (D-Ill), and Jack Reed (D-RI), have crafted a letter (yeah… It took three of them) to President Obama requesting that action be taken toward businesses that have sheltered themselves from some US taxes. According to...

Former Washington Redskins tight end and Tea Party-backed candidate, Clint Didier, seeking to replace the retiring Congressman Doc Hastings in Washington State’s 4th congressional district, advanced against a crowded field of Republican hopefuls in Tuesday’s GOP primary. Didier, who won two Super Bowl rings playing in Super Bowl’s XVII and XXII under coach Joe Gibbs, is a farmer residing in Eltopia, WA. Because of Washington State’s somewhat unusual “top-two” primary system, which advances the leading two vote-getters regardless of party status, Dan Newhouse, a GOP establishment-backed candidate and top money fundraiser in the race thus far, will also advance to...

Remember how CO2 is supposed to cause warmer winters, and warmer nights? Well now CO2 also produces cold snaps. No matter what weather you get, there is a citation to blame CO2. Nature (the formerly great science journal) and Northeastern University have produced another permutation of outputs from models we know are broken. The first line in the press release is false and smugly so: “most sci­en­tists — 97 per­cent of them, to be exact — agree that the tem­per­a­ture of the planet is rising and that the increase is due to human activ­i­ties….”  10 seconds on Google would have...

United Nations (UN) chief Ban Ki-moon declared on Wednesday that the organization is ready to help rebuild Gaza but it would be “the last time”. Ban opened a special meeting of the United Nations General Assembly with an appeal for a lasting peace as a 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was holding for a second day. “The senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Israel must end,” he was quoted by AFP as having told the 193-nation assembly. After three wars in Gaza in six years, the UN secretary general warned that...

If you must worry about a new plague, focus on antibiotic-resistant bugs like MRSA and C. difficiles We’re now witnessing the worst Ebola epidemic ever. It’s spun “out of control,” warns one of the world’s most influential newspapers. What’s not to be afraid of? Well, Ebola.

Since I’m an economist, I generally support competition. But it’s time to admit that competition isn’t always a good idea. Particularly when international bureaucracies compete to see which one can promote the most-destructive pro-tax policies. For instance, I noted early last year that the bureaucrats at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) were pushing a new scheme to increase the global tax burden on the business community. Then I wrote later in the year that the International Monetary Fund was even more aggressive about pushing tax hikes, earning it the label of being the Dr. Kevorkian of the...

The Leader of the Free World still has no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to Islamic terroirsm… Wednesday at his press conference at the US-Africa Leaders Summit Barack Obama spewed this nonsense about terrorism. “Part of the lesson we’ve all learned about terrorism is it is possible in reaction to terrorism to actually accelerate the disease. If the response is one that alienates populations or particular ethnic groups or particular religions. And so the work we are doing including the security initiatives I announced today I think can make a big difference in that direction. It’s not...

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller reported that Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, will receive a whopping salary of $242,613 to teach just one course at University of California, Berkeley this fall despite his lengthy record of criticizing rich people and, of course, espousing "income inequality." The salary totals at $20,217 per month. A professor of public policy, Reich's history of leftist economic theories goes without saying. Aside from serving under Clinton, Reich also served on the economic advisory board for then-President-elect Barack Obama in 2008 and made numerous appearances on The Colbert Report, where he...

Samaritan's Purse physician, SIM missionary are recovering in an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital. Dr. Kent Brantly’s condition is improving as he remains in the isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. His wife, Amber, has been able to see him and said he was in good spirits. Dr. Brantly, who contracted the Ebola virus while treating patients in Liberia, is being treated at a special unit set up in collaboration with the CDC to treat patients who are exposed to certain serious infectious diseases. He was flown to the U.S. in a medical evacuation plane equipped with...

“Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies,” as it is widely known on the Internet, states that as any online comment thread grows longer, “the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 100%.” With all due respect to American internet-law pioneer and free-speech advocate Mike Godwin, perhaps the law ought to be renamed after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who might just be the world’s most verbally promiscuous trivializer of the Nazi legacy.“Just like Hitler, who sought to establish a race free of all faults, Israel is chasing after the same target,” Mr. Erdogan recently told supporters at a...

Greve writes: The King and Halbig plaintiffs’ argument is that the statutory language must mean what it plainly says: Obamacare’s machinery of subsidies and mandates requires exchanges to be established by a state. The government and its defenders say that this can’t be right: since only some 14 states have established an exchange, plaintiffs’ position would render Obamacare inoperable for most of the country—and Congress cannot have intended that. “By a state,” they insist, must mean something like “by a state, or the federal government stepping into its shoes.” Needless to say, the plaintiffs and defendants have spun out and...

Interesting pair of commentaries in the Los Angeles Times tell us a lot about the state of the abortion battle and the disarray within the pro-abortion community. First an editorial praises two decisions that struck down Mississippi’s and Alabama’s laws requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. Then an opinion piece by a veteran pro-abortion war horse, Carla Hall, who laments that the infighting over the decision to kind of, sort of retired the “pro-choice” label could deemphasize the obsession with abortion. We’ve already cribbed from the dissent by Judge Emilio M. Garza to debunk the appeals...

The officer on the left pointed his rifle at Mr. Polster, who had broken no laws and had not threatened anyone. Bill Polster is a second amendment advocate and constitutionalist who has been educating people about their rights to openly carry weapons for years. A few weeks ago , Calumet County  Sheriff had said that he would enforce a county ban on guns in county parks, even though the State preemption law invalidated it.   Polster carried in the park, and had a rifle pointed at him by a deputy.   All parties remained calm, and fortunately the deputy did not...

President Barack Obama drew the diplomatic line somewhere at the first ever U.S-Africa summit at the White House this week by not inviting Zimbabwe’s brutal dictator Robert Mugabe. But the guest list still included several other African leaders with only slightly better human rights records. The White House promoted the summit as the largest-ever gathering of African leaders in the United States, with more than 50 countries represented. The red carpet was rolled out for Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who shot or jailed virtually all his political opponents, Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who threatened to ‘cut off the head’...

Guinness "Empty Chair" salutes the character of a community as they honor one of their own who is out of sight, but not out of mind. They remind us that a true test of character is what you do when no one's looking.

Charles Krauthammer tonight slammed President Barack Obama’s response to a question about Russia at this evening’s news conference. While Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel today said a Russian invasion of Ukraine is possible, Krauthammer said Obama showed “extraordinary lethargy, distance, disinterest” on the topic. Krauthammer said Obama basically told reporters that if Russia invades, the U.S. will look at its policy. He also said the U.S. doesn’t yet know if sanctions are working. http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/08/06/krauthammer-slams-obama%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98extraordinary-lethargy-distance%E2%80%99-russia-question

U kraine's Foreign Ministry says NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will visit Kyiv, amid heightened tensions over allegations Moscow is massing troops along the Ukrainian border. The ministry said in a statement that the August 7 visit, at the invitation of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, is intended to discuss an upcoming meeting on the NATO-Ukraine partnership. Earlier on August 6, NATO said a Russian force buildup near the Ukrainian border amounted to some 20,000 troops. In a statement, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said Moscow could use the excuse of a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission to send them into Ukraine. Also...

Bill Clinton has father-son bonding time with pregnant Chelsea's husband Marc as they walk their dogs in New York City The former President and his investment banker son-in-law walked their dogs in Madison Square Park together on a Sunday The pair blended in with the weekend crowd despite being trailed by Clinton's Secret Service detail Marc Mezvinsky and wife Chelsea are expecting their first baby in the fall The couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary on July 31

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.-Mark Twain I was really impressed with yesterday’s session as all the pieces were in place for a serious sell-off. Days with little to zero economic data are perfect test beds for the true pulse of investors. It’s been news and interpretation of news that has sparked confusion and volatility. Yet, most of that interpretation is the spin game pushed by one camp or another. Since the easiest prediction in the world calls for a correction in the next 12 months, the negative bandwagons spill over quickly no matter what the news....