Free Republic

“Hello, old chap, you got stuck with the big decision, didn't you?" ”Donald wheeled suddenly and said:“Why, it’s you, Andrew! I warn’t noticing.” “Say—I’m swimming in glowing press, I am. Don’t you wish you were? But of course you’d druther work on reopening the economy — wouldn’t you? Even if people gonna criticize you if it ain't picture perfect afterwards.” Donald contemplated the Governor a bit, and said: “What do you call work?” “Why, ain’t that work? ”Donald resumed his hard work, and answered carelessly: “Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know, is, it suits Donald Trump.” “Oh come, now,...

State legislators around the country have introduced more than 200 bills aiming to nullify regulations and laws coming out of Washington, D.C., as they look to rein in the federal government. The legislative onslaught, which includes bills targeting federal restrictions on firearms, experimental treatments and hemp, reflects growing discord between the states and Washington, state officials say. “You have a choice,” said Kentucky state Rep. Diane St. Onge (R). “To sit back and not do anything or say anything and let overregulation continue — or you have the alternative choice to speak up about it and say, ‘We know what...

Medicaid is failing Texans. Recipients are dissatisfied with the care they receive, and fewer doctors are participating in the program. By refusing to expand Medicaid at the whim of the expensive Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Gov. Rick Perry is recognizing that the first step in getting healthy begins with stopping what has made us ill. Let's be clear: the Obamacare expansion of Medicaid being discussed isn't about more help for the poor, it is about expanding the program well past the poverty line and into the middle class. If the only measure of success is found in spending...

...David W. Blight, a professor of history at Yale....: "Why can't we just get over the Civil War in America?" [I]deologically, many of the issues of 2011 are much the same as in 1861. Given the hold the tea party seems to have on the base of the Republican Party, we should take notice when some in the group invoke the Confederate constitution as a model for anti-tax, anti-centralization libertarianism.One can easily find scoundrels and wacko nut jobs in any group, including the Democrat Party and, especially, university faculty lounges. But what animates the vast majority of the Tea Party...

Campaign events tend not to be the first place to look for nuanced constitutional debate; the Lincoln-Douglas encounters are the exception that proves the rule. So what are the odds that a thoughtful debate would occur not just between candidates of rival parties, or even rival wings of the same party, but within the Tea Party itself? Yet that’s just what’s taking place, judging by the latest Republican debate in Ames, Iowa. The candidates there split sharply over questions of federalism and liberty. Interestingly, each side’s vision of the Constitution finds support in the Tea Party’s constitutional rhetoric.

Jul 20, 2011 — Will the Texas governor elbow his way into the crowded presidential race? Longtime Perry watcher Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune talks about why he thinks Perry will run and what kind of candidate he'd be. [snip] We spoke with the Texas Tribune's Evan Smith about the man he has followed since the early 1990s. A former editor of Texas Monthly magazine, Smith says he's convinced Perry will make a run at the White House, and tells us why other Republican hopefuls should be worried.

WASHINGTON -- Our nation confronts a challenge this Fourth of July that we face but rarely: We are at odds over the meaning of our history and why, to quote our Declaration of Independence, "governments are instituted." Only divisions this deep can explain why we are taking risks with our country's future we're usually wise enough to avoid. Arguments over how much government should tax and spend are the very stuff of democracy's give-and-take. Now, the debate is shadowed by worries that if a willful faction does not get what it wants, it might bring the nation to default. This...

<p>White House aides are scoffing at a move in the Arizona legislature to force President Obama to show his birth certificate to get on the state's ballot in 2012 for his likely re-election battle.</p>

"This is real hope," one enthusiastic attendee told this writer during the First Annual Tenth Amendment Summit held in Atlanta, Georgia, February 25-26. Sponsored by Georgia gubernatorial candidate Ray McBerry and the Tenth Amendment Center (Los Angeles), the summit was attended by a capacity crowd of 400 who all seemed to share the same sentiment — and who cheered as each of about two dozen candidates used his three minutes to pledge adherence to the ideals of liberty and state sovereignty if elected to office.

No, it is not 1860 again. But with all the talk of the 10th Amendment, nullification and interposition, states rights and secession -- following Gov. Rick Perry's misstatement that Texas, on entering the Union in 1845, reserved in its constitution a right to secede -- one might think so. Chalk up another one for those Tea Party activists who exploded in cheers when Sister Sarah brought up the dread word in endorsing Rick Perry in the primary. Looking back in American history, however, these ideas, these sentiments, decried as insane inside the Beltway, were once as American as "The Midnight...

Bar-coded licenses promoted in New Jersey Published in the Home News Tribune 12/30/04 WASHINGTON -- Walk into one of New Jersey's 45 motor-vehicle offices to get a drivers license and you're instantly under surveillance by closed-circuit TV and an undercover officer. Even before you get in line, a state worker checks your passport, birth certificate or other required documents. When you get your license, you'll notice a bar code on the back that police officers can read with electronic scanners to verify your identity -- one of 22 security features built into the card. And forget about renewing your license...