Free Republic

State rape: the horrors of government By DOUGLAS OLSON Truly, some of the dumbest, most incompetent and uncaring, most venal people in the world work for government, penetrating every level and infesting every nook and cranny. Once in, it is almost impossible to get them out, no matter how ludicrous or damaging to others their official decisions and proclamations may be — as the following sad and outrageous examples illustrate. To protect and serve Earlier this year, after convicting a man of working while also collecting welfare, a German court sentenced him to 720 hours of community service and put...

Sex and the Stupid Republicans By DOUGLAS OLSON "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy." — Gov. Edwin Edwards (D-La.) For the third time in two years, a Republican candidate has dropped out of a pending election because of a "sex scandal" that involves no sex at all! Not only has Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) quit in panic and fled to the relative safety of an alcohol-rehab program, but the GOP seems determined to sacrifice Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and its own chances of retaining...

. . . Useful Idiot. In 1999, the Clinton Administration settled a “black farmer” lawsuit against the government by agreeing to a demonstrably corrupt settlement that has since cost taxpayers well over $1 billion for claims that were virtually all phony. (Harvest of Lies, a book detailing this fiasco, is available from Representative Government Press, see page 23.) That was not sufficient for Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), who has held a series of shamelessly slanted hearings over the past two years to promote the idea that the government should pay out another $4 billion for over 70,000 mostly phony new...