Free Republic

President Barack Obama's budget has about as much chance of passing the Republican-controlled House as a proclamation applauding JCPenney for standing by Ellen. Since its unveiling, Obama's political opponents have been lining up to denounce the plan that projects a $901 billion deficit for fiscal year 2013. House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan declared that "instead of an America built to last, this is a plan for an America drowning in debt." Presidential candidate Mitt Romney called it "an insult to the American taxpayer." Romney was thinking of himself here since Obama is proposing the "Buffett Rule" that would double...

Not everything about the nomination of Samuel Alito Jr. to the high court inspires shivers and cold sweats..., but nearly so. In one (case), Alito took the side of a Muslim police officer who wanted to wear a beard in conformance with his religion. In another, Alito struck down a school district's antiharassment policy on First Amendment grounds. Alito wrote for the majority that even speech "that listeners may consider deeply offensive" is protected. ...attention has focused on Alito's willingness to let stand a Pennsylvania ...provision that directed women to notify their husbands before obtaining an abortion - far more...

Reality has finally caught up to George W. Bush. The bubble in which the president has been governing has finally burst, or, more aptly, has gotten so waterlogged it is too heavy to drag around. Cindy couldn't do it, but Katrina did. Bush has been shoved awake from his long national daydream to find that, to his surprise, the country cannot be governed effectively by giving high-ranking officials cutesy nicknames and engaging in determined wishful thinking. Welcome to the real world, Mr. President. Any ideas on what to do now? I'm looking forward to seeing this investigation Bush intends to...

What a shame. Saudi Arabia has had its feelings hurt by the way it has been portrayed by American media. To counteract all of these misperceptions, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last month began running television ads trumpeting the "shared values" of our nations, something it tried last year, apparently to little success. Geesh. And the rest of the world thinks America has hubris. For the Saudis to suggest that their narrow-minded autocracy, whose modern office towers don't house ladies' rooms because women are forbidden to work alongside men, is just a smaller United States, is like saying Lester Maddox...