Free Republic

Why is the Department of Defense harassing a Navy SEAL for telling the story of Cairo, the dog he trained and cornered Bin Laden on the raid into Pakistan? Will Chesney, a 13-year Navy SEAL veteran who served as both an assaulter and dog handler, recently co-authored “No Ordinary Dog: My Partner From the SEAL Teams to the Bin Laden Raid” alongside journalist Joe Layden. The book tells the true story of Chesney’s military working dog, Cairo, and their career together through training, combat, and retirement. St. Martin’s Press published the much-anticipated memoir on April 21, 2020. It became an...

In today’s Britain, a rare public figure can bring together Brexiteers and Remainers, Conservatives and Labour. Yet the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg did just that on a visit to London in April, when she was feted by British politicians from across the political spectrum. In an address to Parliament, Thunberg said she spoke for the children who had been betrayed by politicians and voters who had failed to prevent climate change. She also claimed to speak for the unborn billions of people who will bear the brunt of a rapidly warming world. “I am 16 years old,” she said....

Mitt Romney’s op-ed Wednesday in The Post is being widely praised by the usual suspects in Never-Trump Land. This should be your first clue as to how wildly out of touch the senator-elect is with Republican voters.

Republican voters in South Carolina’s fourth congressional district will go to the polls in mere hours to pick between two conservative stalwarts in the GOP primary, but only one choice will effectively go on to represent South Carolina conservatives in Washington. Both former state Sen. Lee Bright and current state Sen. William Timmons are sound defenders of liberty. Without question, either leader would be better than ninety percent of the sitting Members of Congress. Each candidate supports President Trump, champions lower taxes and reduced federal spending, and publicly defends the Second Amendment. However, in terms of style, the candidates are...

Lonegan: New Jersey Utility Payers Deserve Their Own Tax Cut Asks NJ Utility Companies to Follow National Trends & Lower Rates Hackensack, NJ -- Steve Lonegan, Republican candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District, has just sent a letter to PSE&G, Jersey Central Power & Light (JCPL), and Orange & Rockland Utilities requesting they reduce New Jersey residents’ utility rates on an expedited basis due to the cost savings realized from Congress’ sweeping tax relief bill. “New Jersey rate payers deserve a break and the state utility companies can now afford to provide one,” Lonegan said. “This is...

Behind the high-minded rhetoric surrounding many government programs, there often (or even usually) lies some grant of special privilege to a powerful business interest. The most well-known example, of course, is ObamaCare’s individual mandate creating a guaranteed market for insurance companies. However, the most common hiding place for corporate welfare is the Pentagon. Hawkish politicians love sticking gifts to big corporations in the yearly National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). So it is no surprise to find an example of cronyism in the Fiscal Year 2018 NDAA, which the Senate is expected to vote on this week.

Top Democrats in Washington hate President Donald Trump and are determined to stop him. That is, until their corporate lobbying clients — like the major airlines — need to pressure Trump to get rid of “unfair competition” in their industry. Then, all of a sudden, they become populist nationalists.

Millennials live on the Internet. We were born and raised surfing the web, using Snapchat and Instagram and, of course, playing games online. It is almost a birthright. Keeping the Internet free and clear of oppressive federal government red-tape and regulations is critical to keep innovation and growth in this space. Some on the left see the web as the “wild west” that needs the guiding hand of government. A former commissioner of the Federal Elections Commission has repeatedly argued for federal control over the web. Ann Ravel, and others like her, want websites like the Drudge Report, YouTube and...

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark-up H.R. 372, the so-called Competitive Health Insurance Act of 2017 introduced by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), to make crony GOP donors’ regulatory dream a reality. The Gosar bill would throw conservative principles to the wayside by amending the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 to bring health insurance companies under federal antitrust oversight…

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott read the hate mail he has received for supporting President Trump’s attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions on the Senate floor Wednesday evening.

Jesus had his Judas, General George Washington had his Benedict Arnold, and the 9/11 victims’ families have their betrayers in Republican Senators Lindsey Graham (S.C.), John McCain (Ariz.), and Orrin Hatch (Utah). The Senators are attempting infanticide of the 10-weeks-old Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) which was enacted with their support to assist the 9/11 families in obtaining judicial redress for the 9/11 terrorist abominations. To paraphrase attorney Joseph Welch’s rebuke of Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings, have Senators Graham, McCain, and Hatch no sense of decency in putting the interests of the misogynist, religiously bigoted,...

Years of fiscal irresponsibility have caught up to Puerto Rico. Its government has long lived beyond its means and today the bills are coming due, but the island’s economy has also been hampered by costly local and federal mandates. Rather than reward Puerto Rico’s spend-happy politicians with a bailout as legislators are currently contemplating, Congress should remove impediments to economic growth so that the island can prosper. As the third-largest issuer of municipal bonds in the United States, Puerto Rico has racked up $73 billion in debt under the mistaken notion that borrowing and spending are the path to prosperity....

Since the early days of the Republic, the question of how gambling is regulated has largely been a right reserved for the states. However, this week members of Congress will discuss legislation that would overturn state laws pertaining to gambling within their borders and create a federal ban, preventing states from legalizing online gambling in the future. They claim it is to protect minors, those with addictions, and states that do not want online gambling available to their citizens. This measure will achieve none of those goals. Rather, it will undermine federalism and drive problem gambling underground. Proponents of the...

After spending millions of dollars to help elect a Republican House and Senate, Capitol Hill sources report Las Vegas gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson received a private briefing with Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee in the second week of January. The meeting sends a strong signal that the billionaire, who is one of the most generous contributors to Republican candidates and campaigns—ever, will not retreat away from his desire to outlaw legal and regulated Internet gaming by the states. Sources familiar with Adelson's lobbying describe the meeting as both a strategy session and an update for the gambling mogul....

In 2011, concerned about the growing debt crisis, Standard & Poor, the venerable credit rating firm, downgraded the U.S. bond rating for the first time from “Triple-A” to “AA-plus,” a move that sent shockwaves through the financial markets raising troubling questions about the government’s growing debt. The move hit a nerve with a White House gearing up for a massive re-election campaign. Then Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called the Chairman of McGraw Hill, the owners of S&P, declaring that the government would hold S&P “accountable” and their conduct would be “looked at very carefully.” Geithner wasn’t bluffing. The Obama Administration...

Off-the-shelf fix for veteran hospital waiting lines “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and his widow and orphan”. This Abraham Lincoln quote on a plaque in front of the Veterans Administration building is a succinct mission for the VA. Our veterans have earned our best efforts toward this end. Congress recently acted in a rare bi-partisan fashion to ease the scandalous backlog. Nine million “Veterans Choice” cards allow access to care outside the VA for veterans living at least 40 miles from a VA facility or on very long wait lists. I applaud the efforts of...

Washington’s most notorious lobbyist told Human Events that the effort by gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson to outlaw online gambling is corruption. Adelson has crossed the line, but he is not alone, said Jack Abramoff, a former Washington operator and author of “Capitol Punishment: The hard truth about Washington corruption from America’s most notorious lobbyist.” Abramoff served 43 months in federal prison for activities related to his lobbying. In addition to his media and speaking appearances, he comments on Washington events and people at his website: abramoff.com. Adelson is the CEO and chairman of Las Vegas Sands, a $14 billion-a-year gambling...

As states like New Jersey, where it is now legal, and Massachusetts, where there is a move to legalize online gaming, Adelson is convinced that online gambling competes with his brick-and-mortar poker rooms. To this end, he is calling on the Congress, and specifically his Republican friends, to outlaw his competition. The ask has put Republicans in a precarious situation where they are forced to choose between philosophical principles, like federalism, and their opposition to crony capitalism against the obligation to hear out and support Adelson. Texas Gov. J. Richard “Rick” Perry, for instance, was once one of the leading...

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are an oasis in the desert of government-run health care. That is why President Obama’s health care bureaucrats are intent on killing HSAs. According to a recent Wall Street Journal piece by 2021, health care spending will be almost one fifth of the whole U.S. economy. In nine years, the government share will be about half. By 2021, health-care spending is likely to be nearly a fifth of the U.S. economy, at 19.6% of gross domestic product, up from 17.9%, or roughly a sixth, in 2010. The government share of the spending also would be greater,...

Women with breast cancer are the first to be sacrificed at the alter of rationing