Free Republic

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which posted hundreds of civilian volunteers along the U.S.-Mexico border over the past five years, has disbanded, citing what it called "rising aggression" in the country and decisions by lawmakers in Washington who have "pushed amnesty down our throats." "The mental attitude of many Americans is turning meaner … and we are concerned that this could cause problems," MCDC President Carmen Mercer told The Washington Times on Monday. "You see aggression surfacing even at the tea party marches. We just did not want to deal with the liability anymore. "We have to protect the ranchers...

Several industry groups are publicly condemning what they claim is the Obama administration’s effort to earmark an ever larger share of highway funds for non-highway projects. They are particularly livid over the administration’s proposal to take $200 million in highway taxes normally distributed to the states and re-direct them into a new Livable Communities program unveiled by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT) in January. “It takes a lot for a group like ours to publicly criticize a Presidential administration this way,” Greg Cohen, president & CEO of the American Highway Users Alliance (AHUA), which represents motorists, bus companies, truckers,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Presidential quips about Washington's supposed lack of winter toughness have disappeared as snow accumulations mounted. Barack Obama had been in office for about a week in 2009 when he expressed disbelief that many schools had canceled classes one day because of ice. "As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled," he said then. "We're going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness." Well, here comes more than a little ice: an estimated 20 to 30 inches of snow in Washington.

The first veto of the Obama presidency was not supposed to be a big deal, but President Obama's rejection of an obscure spending bill late last month is raising some unexpected constitutional questions. Mr. Obama's use of both a "pocket veto" and a regular veto on a stopgap spending bill approved by Congress Dec. 19 has at least one leading scholar questioning the move as a possible stealth White House power grab. The Constitution "simply doesn't give the president a multiple-choice option" on how to veto a bill, said Robert Spitzer, chairman of the political science department at State University...

And so the solstice passes and a new year dawns, leaving “newsmen” everywhere with a dearth of “news” to report (since the government bureaus close down, issuing no new edicts for the “newsmen” to interpret and praise, which should give you some indication of what really passes for “news,” these days.) Traditionally, those in the “news” business respond by taking a stab at predicting noteworthy events of the year to come. We can predict the future quite accurately. Unfortunately, accurate predictions are a bore. The sun will rise 363 more times this year. When I ask for extra salt and...

At around the turn of the century, before or just after World War I, the progressive amendments were passed. Not since the post Civil War era was there ever such a speedy passage of amendments to the Constitution or since. In a period of about 10 years or so, we saw four radical amendments passed and ratified into the Constitution. They are amendments 16, 17, 18, and 19. The era in which they were passed was one of optimism among the American Left and many of the influential leaders. New areas of science were opening up as well as new...