Free Republic

The late South African economist William Hutt, in his 1964 book, "The Economics of the Colour Bar," said that one of the supreme tragedies of the human condition is that those who have been the victims of injustices and oppression "can often be observed to be inflicting not dissimilar injustices upon other races." Born in 1936, I've lived through some of our openly racist history, which has included racist insults, beatings and lynchings. Tuskegee Institute records show that between the years 1880 and 1951, 3,437 blacks and 1,293 whites were lynched. I recall my cousin's and my being chased out...

The famous quote attributed to Winston Churchill that, "If you're not liberal at 20, you have no heart...if you're not conservative by 30, you have no brain," may need some tweaking given the recent antics of the American left. Having built the credibility of their political movement on the grounds of compassion and empathy, their actions and policy proposals are reflective of just the opposite. Start with my home state of Indiana, whose Republican legislature and governor enacted a law to prohibit taxpayer dollars from flowing into the hands of any health clinic that performs abortions. Through entirely predictable demagoguery,...

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman and South Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz isn't very good at retracting statements. Wasserman Schultz was on CNN Sunday when she said Republicans want to bring states back to Jim Crow-era laws, drawing the ire of the National Republican Congressional Committee. She responded by saying it wasn't the right analogy to use, then immediately made the same analogy without mentioning the name "Jim Crow." Here's what Wasserman Schultz said to CNN contributor Roland Martin on Sunday: "You have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally-and...

While most of the non-LPD (Liberal-Progressive-Democrat) world is alternately fascinated and amused by the political rope-a-dope activities of the various presidential contenders, it is critical that they not lose sight of one simple fact. Regardless of who is ultimately elected President in November 2012, it will be impossible to repeal ObamaCare; restructure Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security; and pass a budget that reduces the size of government -- unless one of two scenarios occur: •a) A conservative/Tea Party/Republican candidate wins the presidency and enough conservative/Tea Party Republicans are elected to the Senate to take the majority and enough conservative/Tea Party/Republicans...

Those who forecast Barack Obama had sealed his second term as president with the killing of Osama Bin Laden look to be wrong. According to a new poll, the 'Bin laden bounce' has already evaporated Obama's approval rating surged to 56 per cent in the aftermath of the terrorist's death but now just 47 per cent think he is doing a good job. But it is domestic policies - notably Obama's handling of the economy - that is driving the frustration of the American public, according to a joint poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC news. Fifty-nine per...

The House overwhelmingly voted down an unconditional increase to the $14.3 trillion debt limit Tuesday, as the Republican majority delivered a symbolic rebuke to President Obama ahead of a meeting at the White House. The vote was 318-97, with 82 Democrats joining every Republican in rejecting legislation that would have authorized $2.4 trillion in additional borrowing by the federal government. Seven Democrats voted present on the legislation. House Republicans scheduled the vote, which occurred after the close of the American markets, to demonstrate to Senate Democrats and the White House that Congress would not increase the debt limit without significant...

Jack Cashill recently detailed what Susan Daniels, a private investigator, has learned about Mr. Obama's Social Security Number. In a nutshell, the president's SSN was issued in 1977 with a Connecticut Area Number (first 3 digits). Here's what the SS official web site says, in relevant part: The Area Number [first 3 digits] is assigned by the geographical region. Prior to 1972, cards were issued in local Social Security offices around the country and the Area Number represented the State in which the card was issued. This did not necessarily have to be the State where the applicant lived, since...

Barry's Bullying Failed with Bibi Our community organizer in chief tried his favorite strategy -- bullying -- on the Israeli Prime Minister last week, and discovered to his evident surprise that veterans of the special operations community are not among those who can be intimidated. Those of us who wondered how Obama would misuse the political capital gained by killing Osama bin Laden were answered on Thursday when Obama took American Middle East policy in a bizarre and dangerous direction. But before we get to that, we need to set the context of Obama's actions. OBL assumed seabed temperature on...

Obama has just given an eager world his fantasy answer for the last sixty years of Arab-Israel conflict. The Great One's long-awaited solution is for Israel to pull back to the cease-fire lines of the 1948 War of Independence, or what Obama, in a moment of historical amnesia, calls "the 1967 borders." People have fought and died over those borders since 1949, not 1967. Make that sixty years of regular warfare. Take a quick glance at the Green Line on the map, and see if you can honestly answer this question: "Would I want my family and children to live...

The American left has long insisted that Democrats have cornered the diversity market, a talking point that, if not exactly true, has proven useful in portraying Republicans as anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-woman, anti-black and anti-gay for decades. Nominating and electing the first black President was undoubtedly a particularly proud moment, one that seemed to confirm Democrats' position on the leading edge of diversity. But maybe the diversity claim serves as nothing more than atonement for all those years Democrats identified as the "white man's party," or for their support of Southern slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow laws. Or...

Yesterday, Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner gave a speech in New York on the debt default crisis, which tried to shift blame for the nation's finances away from the Administration (reported by USA Today: "If Republicans try to impose that plan on this country as a condition for raising the debt limit, then they will own the responsibility for the first default in our history, with devastating damage to the nation." Talk about chutzpah! First, as Treasury Secretary, Geithner is the Administration official most responsible for monitoring the spending as well as the revenue-raising of the federal government. It is...

Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine’s last-minute attempt to return an imprisoned murderer to his native Germany, where he likely would have been freed in two years, is threatening to emerge as a key early issue in one of the most anticipated U.S. Senate races next year. National Republicans are in hot pursuit of records from Mr. Kaine’s last year as governor that they say could shed light on why he tried to return Jens Soering to Germany instead of allowing him to serve a life sentence in a U.S. prison. The former University of Virginia student is serving two life...

So, let's see a show of hands. Who really trusts politicians to do the right thing rather than the self-serving thing? Precisely. An argument being made by a scattering of conservatives against a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced budget is that there's no need to make any fundamental structural changes to the process of government in Washington; electing right-thinking Congressmen who respect the Constitution as is should suffice in restoring fiscal sanity and limited government. Good luck. The argument that the nation can return to the Promised Land of limited government and fiscal prudence by just sending a better caliber...

Orrin Hatch, the senior senator from Utah, didn't mince words the other day on Hugh Hewitt's national radio show. The Democrats, he said, "play politics very, very tough, they play it well, and they don't give a damn about what's right and what's wrong." He was speaking about battles in Washington, but an even more vivid example can be found in Wisconsin, where the Democrats are still trying to overturn the 2010 elections. Blindsided last fall by the election of Gov. Scott Walker, the loss of both houses of the legislature and the US Senate seat held by ultraliberal Russ...

While Michelle Obama may have only recently found a reason to be proud of her country, she has long been proud of rapper Common. Mrs. Obama and her husband do not want to celebrate the National Day of Prayer in the White House, and the latter "forgot" to do a Presidential Proclamation on Easter -- but having Common in the White House is a priority. This president -- and apparently his wife, as well -- does not understand or relate to the views of average Americans. Most of us read Common's lyrics and cannot fathom why the president would allow...

This afternoon, the "May 12 Coalition" will take to the streets of Lower Manhattan with a demand for Mayor Bloomberg: "Make Big Banks and Millionaires Pay." But we'd all pay: The coalition's plan centers on a massive tax hike that would send jobs and wealth away from the five boroughs. The group comprises the usual suspects -- the United Federation of Teachers, the Transport Workers Union, the big health-care unions, the Coalition for the Homeless, etc. No surprise: People who depend on big government want bigger government. The $49.7 billion that Bloomberg will spend next year -- up 11.2 percent...

This news story totally infuriated me. Headline: Van Jones' Political Group Targets 'Celebrity Apprentice'. Text by Daniel Miller, Reuters "An African-American political advocacy group is targeting "Celebrity Apprentice" star Donald Trump in the aftermath of what many feel are racially tinged political comments made about President Obama. On Thursday, the organization ColorOfChange launched a Twitter-based campaign to persuade black 'Celebrity Apprentice' cast members Star Jones and Lil Jon to denounce Trump for what the group terms 'race-baiting.'" I am so sick of these racist so-called civil rights groups bullying people with race. It is an indisputable fact that the liberal...

It's no secret that one of Mitt Romney's biggest vulnerabilities is the fact that he invented RomneyCare in Massachusetts, thus paving the way for the detested Obamacare. What is surprising is that the WSJ -- which you'd think might overlook that in Romney's case, given their general common ideologies -- would pulverize him on the subject. That's exactly what they've done tonight, on the eve of his big healthcare speech, basically branding him has un-credible and self-serving. They say RomneyCare has been a mess, but that really, up until recently he was bragging about its success. What's more, his new...

HONOLULU, Hawaii - A private investigator claims employees of the state Department of Health forged three Hawaiian birth certificates for Barack Obama to "screw with birthers." Takeyuki Irei told WND one document placed the birth at Kapiolani hospital, another at Queens Medical Center and a third in Kenya. The 57-year-old detective, who has been a P.I. since the 1980s, said he was stunned when he discovered that the purported copy of Obama's original birth certificate released by the White House was more or less an exact image of one of the forgeries. Irei said he was provided a copy of...

Senate Republicans blocked a nomination by President Obama for the first time this year on Monday, when they successfully filibustered the confirmation of the White House’s pick for the No. 2 official at the Justice Department. Democrats had argued that acting Deputy Attorney General James Cole, whom Mr. Obama wanted named to the post permanently, needed full congressional backing if intelligence from terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden’s killing is to be fully put to use. But Republicans objected to Mr. Cole, largely over concerns about his suggestions that terrorist suspects should be tried in civilian criminal courts, not military tribunals....