Free Republic

Doug Bandow March 21, 2017 TweetShareShare Printer-friendly version Sen. John McCain has the reputation of a foreign-policy maven. He pays attention to little other than foreign affairs. When he ran for president in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, he admitted that he didn’t know much about economics, which helped doom his candidacy. Unfortunately, he shows no greater sophistication when it comes to his favorite topic. Nor does he brook disagreement, even if well founded. In his view, those who disagree with him are little better than traitors. Especially Americans who believe that Senator McCain’s most important duty is...

Sarah Palin has undoubted political skills. In fact, that's what one should expect from someone who defeated an incumbent governor in the primary and a former governor in the general election. But her common touch and winning speaking style do not mean she is a reincarnation of Ronald Reagan.

It's a lot easier to campaign against the incompetent, big-spending, war-mongering Republicans than to convince the American people that they would be better off if the post office provided their health care. At least, that appears to be the lesson of the current health care battle. Reports the New York Times: At her home on Tom Sawyer Road here the other night, Bonnie Adkins agreed to begin spreading the word that President Obama's embattled health care plan needed help. Ms. Adkins, who for the past two years devoted hundreds of hours helping Mr. Obama get to the White House, hosted...

Judge Sonia Sotomayor appears bound for a seat on the Supreme Court. Even so, Republicans should use her nomination to educate the American people about the dangers of politicizing the judiciary. Sotomayor is a competent jurist who symbolizes hard work, personal achievement and ethnic diversity. However, as Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., argued during the hearing on John Roberts, "the burden of proof for a Supreme Court justice is on the nominee." She has not met that burden. Judge Sotomayor's advocates have emphasized her moderate record on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. But in several decisions she has summarily dismissed...

The latest poll ratings suggest that many Republicans have turned negative towards Gov. Sarah Palin after her surprise resignation announcement. Reports CNN: A majority of Americans think Sarah Palin is stepping down as Alaska's governor for political reasons, according to a new national poll, with a majority of Republicans now saying that they do not believe that Palin would be an effective president. Only 33 percent of Republicans questioned in a CBS News survey released Monday night say that Palin would have the ability to serve effectively as president. Last fall, 71 percent of registered Republicans felt that way.

How the mighty have fallen. Barely two months after the great communicator was inaugurated, he is being compared to ... Jimmy Carter! Writes Tim Shipman in the Daily Telegraph:

My friend Ken Marrero, aka the Blue Collar Muse, reports on conservative/libertarian profiling. Have an inappropriate bumper sticker on your car and the cops are warned that you might be a threat. Writes Ken: Missouri State Police have been alerted to be on the lookout for subversive drivers who may be domestic terrorists or members of militia groups. How can Missouri Law Enforcement know the car in front of them might be carrying dangerous people? Why from their bumper stickers of course! Among the bumper stickers listed as indicative of dangerous, anti-Americans behind the wheel are those supporting Ron Paul...

And then President Obama, and then George W. Bush, and then Bill Clinton . . . Michael Phelps, the aquatic icon who won eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics, has violated the law. When a photograph of him smoking a bongful of marijuana was published, he admitted the crime. The same crime for which the better part of a million people were arrested last year. Shouldn’t Phelps be charged? Along with President Obama and his two predecessors, all of whom, it seems, used illegal drugs? If not, perhaps it is time to have a serious debate about the drug...

America's medical system is an expensive mess, but one reason that's the case is because it doesn't go out of its way to deprive people of needed care to save money. Great Britain spends far less, but you'd better hope that you don't get seriously ill and require extraordinary treatment. The family of a woman with an inoperable brain tumour raised over £130,000 to send her for treatment in America - only to discover that the NHS could have referred her if her local trust had realised it was possible. The case reveals an "information lottery" in the NHS -...

The indictment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich wasn't the only thing happening in Illinois last week. Bank of America was the victim of a concerted shake-down operation that could be replicated around the country. Banks apparently now are expected to give money away to failed borrowers. This could become federal policy when Barack Obama, who supported this new example of Chicago blackmail, becomes president. One of the casualties of the faltering housing market is Chicago's Republic Windows and Doors. Bank of America cut off the company's line of credit in response to falling demand. "If the bank saw some light at...

We stopped paying for government three months ago. Tax Freedom Day was April 23rd. That's when the average American effectively finished paying taxes to government at all levels. But only the average American. Anyone living in a high-tax state, such as Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, had to work another couple weeks for government. But taxes are a poor measure of the total cost of government. Because of sizable and persistent deficits, total public spending is a better standard of what we pay for government. Even that isn't enough, however. Regulation adds another substantial charge to the bill. Americans...

Like a monster in a horror flick franchise, the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), an omnibus treaty originally blocked by President Ronald Reagan, is back! And despite what the doomsday document's delirious spokesmen say, it's about as scary as ever. The convention is being pushed by a mix of activists, who support international law -- any international law -- and businesses, such as the International Association of Drilling Contractors, that see visions of profits dancing in their boardrooms. Treaty critics are being dismissed as ignorant fools or cynical liars.

The wretched state of the Iraq war is likely to make 2008 a difficult election year for any Republican. To win, the GOP candidate will need to represent the so-called "fusion" of traditionalists and libertarians. At the very core should be a commitment to limited government and individual liberty. On this score John McCain fails. He's a courageous man, who endured much while a POW in Vietnam. But the presidency requires good judgment as well as good character. And that McCain lacks. Columnist Dean Barnett complains that "McCain has seemed determined to remind conservatives of every thumb in the eye...

The Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST, is the most important treaty you've never heard of. It would turn over all of the world's unclaimed natural resources to a second United Nations and is moving ever so steadily toward Senate ratification. Back in the 1970s, some Third World governments loudly campaigned for a global socialist economic order of more foreign aid, U.N. regulation of business and collectivist resource development. LOST is a result. It declared all seabed resources to be the "common heritage of mankind," levied fees and royalties on Western mining and oil companies, created a monopoly company...

When unions can’t win collective bargaining agreements at home, they look to U.N. agencies abroad. The AFL-CIO has a preferred legal venue—the International Labor Organization (ILO)—when Congress and the courts don’t see it their way...... Organized labor won last November’s electoral lottery. The unions officially spent $105 million and received in return a promise from the new Democratic majority to push labor’s redistributionist economic agenda. They are desperate to convince politicians to give them what they cannot win in the marketplace. The impact on domestic public policy is clear. Already the House approved a minimum wage hike as part of...

Christian America may soon be the death of Iraqi Christians. Although Islam long has been in the ascendancy in Iraq, the so-called Assyrians, who speak a neo-Aramaic language, predate the rise of Islam. Today, however, the Iraqi Christian community faces possible extermination. The irony is extraordinary: America, a nation with deep Christian roots, has inadvertently loosed the vicious forces bent on destroying Iraqi Christians. Persecuted by Islamic extremists and targeted for their frequent cooperation with occupation authorities, Christians have ever less hope in a nation that has fallen into violent chaos. The Assyrian International News Agency has released a new...

WASHINGTON - The world has moved on since the case of Terri Schiavo, whose husband sought to remove the feeding tube that kept her alive, briefly grabbed public attention last fall. But Terri's life remains at risk. Michael Schiavo, her parents, the state of Florida, and advocacy groups continue to fight over her future. Alas, she keeps losing where it matters most, in court. Terri collapsed in 1990, leaving her profoundly cognitively disabled. Her husband won a $1.3 million malpractice judgment that included money for her medical care, but subsequently refused to fund rehabilitative treatment for her. Along the way...

For more than three decades abortion has been primarily a legal fight centered on the Supreme Court's idiosyncratic interpretation of the Constitution. Political action has invariably been shaped by the prospect of judicial review. That process continues today, with South Dakota's recent approval of a blanket ban in response to the changed membership of the Court. The pro-life lobby has been forthright in its position: abortion is wrong and should be banned. The other side, however, often has obscured its views. Those leading the fight against abortion regulation like to style themselves as pro-choice, but many of them really are...

For good reason, conservatives have long been suspicious of the judicially created "right to privacy." But deployed in the right circumstances, this liberty interest could be used to thwart liberal panaceas. Despite the controversy among conservatives surrounding the issue, the Constitution does protect privacy. Most important, as a document of enumerated powers, the Constitution limited the national government's power to act. (Of course, the Supreme Court has turned the Constitution on its head, allowing Uncle Sam to do most anything not expressly restricted.) Thus, there was little authority for the federal authorities to violate people's privacy. Moreover, the Fourth Amendment...

President George W. Bush took office to the sustained applause of America’s conservative movement. In 2000, he defeated the liberal environmentalist Al Gore, abruptly terminated the legacy of the even more hated Bill Clinton, and gave Republicans control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. A few cynics were suspicious of Bush’s understanding of and commitment to conservative principles, but most on the Right welcomed his inauguration. Five years later, the traditional conservative agenda lies in ruins. Government is bigger, spending is higher, and Washington is more powerful. The national government has intruded further into state and local concerns. Federal officials...