Free Republic

The Trump administration is set to pare desk jobs at the top of the intelligence community, invoking the argument that its staffs are too large and duplicative, knowledgeable sources say. One of the first targets is the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany and a favorite of President Trump, arrived as acting director in February. Mr. Grenell has brought in Kash Patel, once a close aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican. Mr. Patel principally wrote the 2018 Nunes memo that exposed the FBI’s reliance on the discredited Christopher Steele...

I saw some interviews with federal employees following the shutdown. I noticed that the accents of the employees were Northern, I did not hear a Southern accent. While I only caught the accents of a few people, it made me wonder if the Democrats are stacking the federal jobs with liberal workers from the North.

Chicken Alaska…no, it’s not some savory culinary dish a la chicken alexander but rather a small gold mining town with a population of 17.The members of this town were treated to a rather rude awakening when their little slice of the last frontier was descended upon by a cavalcade of Federal and State agencies.  Or more accurately, the Federal Agencies descended while bringing on some token State agencies in order to make it look less like an invasion and subjugation of state sovereignty.This raid, in which the agencies involved (10) nearly outnumbered the residents of the town (17) is somehow...

Even parts of government that look like a business never get run with the efficiency of a business. Just look at the post office. They buy commercials and tout their services the way private businesses do. They offer a service that customers want. But a real business can't get away with losing billions every year. (I guess in the era of bailouts, I should say shouldn't get away with it.) The post office lost $16 billion last year, despite having all sorts of advantages that most private businesses don't have. They have a near monopoly on first-class mail delivery. You...

Here's more evidence that government "cures" are inevitably worse than the "diseases" they seek to wipe out. Buried in the trillion-dollar stimulus law of 2009 was an electronic medical records "incentive" program. Like most of President Obama's health care rules, this top-down electronic record-sharing scheme is a big fat bust. Oversight is lax. Cronyism is rife. The job-killing and privacy-undermining consequences have only just begun. The program was originally sold as a cost-saving measure. In theory, modernizing record-collection is a good idea, and many private health care providers have already made the change. But as with many government "incentive" programs,...

The political parties throw a lot of glitz at us with their made-for-TV spectaculars, which we call conventions. But the bottom line defining the choice facing Americans this year is stark and clear, and these conventions provide no new insights or information. If you think we're struggling because we don't have enough government, then the Democrats are the party for you. If you think the point of government is to protect individual freedom, and the problem is it has gone way beyond that, then Republicans are the party for you. No visual dominates the landscape of our nation's capital like...

Tractors lumbering down country roads are as common as deer in rural Montana, but the federal government wants to place new driving regulations on farmers and ranchers. “It’s a huge deal for us,” said John Youngberg of the Montana Farm Bureau. After years of allowing state governments to waive commercial driver’s license requirements for farmers hauling crops or driving farm equipment on public roads, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is poised to do away with the exceptions. Regulators are suggesting that all wheat shipments be considered interstate, even when farmers making short hauls to local grain elevators aren’t crossing...

California is being left behind by the new Gold Rush. Despite sky-high prices and the state's rich gold legacy, the industry here is mostly dormant. California trails the leading gold-producing state, Nevada, by a wide margin. A California revival is hardly imminent. Companies trying to reopen old mines in Grass Valley and near Sutter Creek have slogged through years of red tape, and there are no guarantees of success. The Sutter Creek plan is at least a year away, while Grass Valley is several years from reopening. Standing in the way: scarcity of capital and strict environmental standards. * *...

The deficit reduction committee, created by President Obama a few months back to kick the can of his irresponsible overspending down the road a few decades, is out with its trial balloon recommendations for reducing the federal deficit. According to the Wall Street Journal, its ideas include: For businesses, it would lower the corporate tax rate but remove a number of deductions currently available. It would make permanent the research-and-development tax credit. Federal subsidies to agribusinesses would begin to be slashed by $3 billion a year. On Social Security, it would gradually increase the retirement age when people can start...

If you have ever worked at a government job, please tell us some of your experiences good or bad.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about California’s economy? If it’s the high unemployment numbers or the budget deficits in Sacramento, you are not alone. But it’s also true that California, in spite of its problems, remains one of the ten biggest economies in the world and America’s leader in categories like industrial research and development and attracting foreign direct investment. California cannot allow the past few years of recession to threaten our state’s economic standing on the world stage. We must do everything we can to make sure our state remains an attractive place...

President Obama's politicized, profligate U.S. census drive is so desperate for positive press that it has now recruited former Bush senior adviser Karl Rove to do public service announcements. Rove pleads on video: "Please answer the 10 easy questions. They're almost the same ones Madison helped write for the first census back in 1790." Message: If you don't join the census bandwagon, James Madison will have lost! Sorry, Mr. Rove. Playing the Founding Fathers card isn't going to quell conservative criticism of how the Obama administration has exploited the census boondoggle for both economic and ideological gain. For the record,...

Even as President Obama vowed last week that he's "a strong believer" in the free market, he and his DC pals were moving to undermine it. The most troubling sign: The Wall Street Journal's story about a Federal Reserve plan to play a role in setting pay for tens of thousands of bank workers nationwide. That alone makes hair stand on end. But Americans might have shuddered -- or scratched their heads, anyway -- even as Obama was giving his big speech on the need for financial regulation. "We've worked closely with leaders in the Senate and the House," the...

Lawyer gets 5-cent IRS bill, 4-cent refund Detroit defense attorney remains confused over two notices DETROIT - James Howarth is a little confused by two letters he has received from the Internal Revenue Service. The Detroit defense lawyer received one letter in November that said he owed the IRS money — five cents. He was warned that he should pay "to avoid additional penalty and/or interest," the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday. Howarth said he then received a second letter telling him the government owes him money — four cents. He was told he would have to request the refund...

Fred Thompson or Ron Paul? Like Perry and some others, I would rather see a big government Democrat elected than a big government Republican. At least that would bring back some opposition. Republicans in Congress have a much better record of reining in the Democrats' presidents than their own. And as I explain later, I think that one of these two is the only Republican candidate capable of winning the national election. Ron Paul answering the What programs? question by naming three cabinet level departments ... Wow. Good answer. If there was no rest-of-the-world, he would possibly have my vote....

A highly decorated Arab-American sergeant in the US army, who is currently serving as a paratrooper in Afghanistan, faces deportation on his return to the United States because of an irregularity in his immigration papers.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 16 — The United States has failed to obtain a General Assembly resolution focused on rape used by governments and armed groups to achieve political and military objectives. A General Assembly committee has instead adopted a resolution that reiterates past condemnations of rape in general but eliminates language in the American draft making specific reference to rape employed by soldiers and militia members as a tactic for intimidation and in warfare. United Nations officials have identified the tactic as one used frequently by government-supported janjaweed militias in Sudan to terrorize the population of the Darfur region. The...

Whatever you made of the Chancellor’s various sleights of hand on Tuesday, lurking beneath his Budget plans was one inescapable fact. The hungry maw of the NHS is swallowing more and more resources, at the expense of virtually everything else. The defence budget is at its lowest since 1930, despite our dwindling troops being dotted across three continents. Prison overcrowding is at such record levels that Jack Straw will have to release even more inmates early in a few weeks’ time. But the health service marches relentlessly on, having hoovered up two thirds of the increase in public spending in...

Cannot be posted due to copyright issues http://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070913/COLUMNISTS11/709130303/1062/OPINION

Come December 31st, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is set to effectively ban biodiesel in the state’s largest markets. The problem, they say, lies with the fuel’s nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and their contribution to the formation of ground-level ozone in Texas’ eastern counties. According to the TCEQ, biodiesel does not meet the stricter NOx standards recently imposed on diesel and alternative diesel fuels under new regulations. Efforts to clean up the air, led the TCEQ in November 2005 to adopt Texas low emission diesel standards (TxLED) in an effort to reduce pollutants in the state’s smoggiest 110...