Free Republic

The Biden administration has delayed its ban on menthol cigarettes after strategists warned President Biden that it could negatively impact his support among black voters. Leaders in the black community claim that the ban would foster an underground market and cause police to target black smokers in a disproportional manner, the Washington Post reports. Since the black community has drastically dwindled its support for Biden over the past few years, the president's administration isn't taking any chances despite updated health guidance from the FDA and CDC. According to data from the CDC, 81 percent of black smokers opt for menthol...

This winter was not a good one for farmers in the Fertile Crescent. A punishing drought hit most of Syria and northern Iraq during what’s normally the wettest time of the year. In the mountains of eastern Turkey, which form the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, snow and rain were less than half of normal. The region has seen one of the worst droughts in decades. Drought is becoming a fixture in the parched landscape, due to a drying trend of the Mediterranean and Middle East region fueled by global warming. The last major drought in this region...

President Obama has ordered his officials to step on the gas and clear as much of his regulatory agenda as possible during the twilight of his time in office. The clock is ticking, creating a sense of urgency in the administration to crank out his new rules without delay. Just a year into the president’s second term, experts and former administration officials say it is do-or-die time for scores of regulatory initiatives across the federal government that could shape his legacy. So Obama is spurring agencies on. “He has directed his entire administration to move as quickly as possible in...

Romney stumbled on Libya because the GOP is reliant on a right-wing media machine that has no ideas, just scandals Why did Mitt Romney embarrass himself on Libya in this week’s debate? One possibility: Because he, and the Republican Party in general, have opened up an alarming policy deficit between themselves and Barack Obama and the Democrats. What I mean by that is that Romney, Republicans and conservatives have, in case after case, simply given up on crafting viable public policy. That wasn’t always the case. When Ronald Reagan took office, conservative think tanks were ready with a host of...

The Tea Party movement did the nation a great service in 2010 by focusing on the problem behind much of what’s gone wrong in America: government, and too much of it. It’s refreshing to see that the sentiment lingers about this nation under God dedicated to preserving our God-given rights. “Voters believe too much government power is a dangerous thing and put a very high value on protecting the rights of the individual,” says ...