Free Republic

Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time reading about the Bundy Ranch Saga, looking into the area in Nevada where the Bundys live, and asking Google a bunch of questions I wanted answers to. While researching, I happened upon a press release from an environmental group, and decided to call the person listed as the "contact" person. The leftist environmentalist and I had about a 45 minute conversation over the phone about the Bundy Ranch, Nevada, and the history of what has been happening there, from his perspective. It was a long time to be on the phone,...

The Obama administration signaled its shame* over a nakedly political decision to indefinitely delay the Keystone Pipeline by burying the news on Good Friday afternoon. The decision was bought and paid for by wealthy green ideologues and green energy rent-seekers, anxious to cash in on subsidies for solar panels, windmills, and other expensive projects that are guaranteed a positive return by taxpayer money.

Seven months after being subpoenaed by Congress, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy conceded that her agency does not have - and cannot produce - all of the scientific data used for decades to justify numerous rules and regulations under the Clean Air Act.

The Department of Justice requested $2 million for "gun safety technology" in its 2014 fiscal year budget. Attorney General Eric Holder explained this request to a House appropriations subcommittee on April 4th. According to The Washington Free Beacon: "I think that one of the things that we learned when we were trying to get passed those common sense reforms last year, Vice President Biden and I had a meeting with a group of technology people and we talked about how guns can be made more safe," [Holder] said. By making them either through finger print identification, the gun talks to...

President Obama was doing his favorite thing this week: talking to crowds of adoring young people who already agree with him while acting like he persuaded them about something. They also seemed to give Obama the impression that he’s a really funny guy. On Wednesday, he told a crowd of 1,400 at the University of Michigan that he visited a local deli, Zingerman’s. He proceeded to tell a long story about ordering the small Reuben sandwich, which he said was “killer.” That description got a good laugh. Then he explained how he thought the sandwich was too big, so he...

But now they’re baaaack. According to organizer David Swanson, “Awareness has grown, education has spread, and ideas have sunk in. People now know that we can’t lift up the poor without pulling down the plutocrats. It’s understood that we can have democracy or billionaires, not both. The notion of shifting priorities is even making headway; behind the screaming of ‘no cuts!’ and ‘less spending!’ there’s a steady, rising voice – ebbing and flowing like the ocean – insisting that we can move the money from the military and the oil corporations and the bankers to green energy and schools and...

TV journalist Lisa Bloom has just written a book about the Trayvon Martin case. Curious to find out more, I watched her interview with Cenk Uygur of “The Young Turks.” She started out by explaining that she wrote the book to demonstrate Zimmerman’s guilt, and show that the jury got it wrong. Instead of presenting new evidence, or a more compelling interpretation, she ignored exculpatory evidence, mangled the facts, made bogus inferences, and omitted much..

The headline and first paragraph at an Associated Press item on a union strike authorization vote in Las Vegas are both far more vague than they could or should be. Though the rest of Ken Ritter's coverage at least identifies the union involved, it completely fails to get to the heart of the matter, which is that Obamacare is causing huge increases in their employers' cost of providing health care coverage.

Checking out Rembrandts and checking in with European allies, President Obama seems blind to the rubble around him. The U.S. leadership vacuum has left NATO as ravaged as a post-World War II battlefield. In May 1945, a sizable force of Allied bombers flew photographers over European cities to document the destruction of what was then, and remains, the worst war in history. Their images of urban craters and flattened buildings are permanent reminders of the evils of totalitarianism. One can't help wondering, if Barack Obama had been on board, whether he would have looked down and remarked on the day's...

On Wednesday First Lady Michelle Obama heads to China, reportedly on a mission to charm the Chinese government. She will be traveling without the president, but with her two daughters and her mother. As Reuters describes it: U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to steer clear of controversial issues such as human rights when she visits China this week but her trip could help advance a top item on her husband’s foreign policy agenda: deepening Washington’s ties with Beijing.

According to Investors Business Daily (IBD) online posting of March 14, 2014, “Obama Cuts Military Pensions, Exempts ObamaCare Subsidies” that is what will happen; i.e., “cut by 10 percent the military pensions of those who served their country while giving public employees a break by exempting their ObamaCare subsidies from sequestration.”

Adam Kredo reports for the Washington Free Beacon that Obama is planning to cut America’s key reconnaissance fleet by 25 percent:

South Africa’s peace icon Desmond Tutu on Friday urged the United States to reject Canada’s Keystone XL pipeline, saying the “carbon bomb” would upend the US role fighting climate change. “The verdict on whether to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline could, in just one stroke, confirm or condemn America’s prospects for climate leadership,” said the letter, released by the advocacy group Avaaz.

Just last week, Secretary of State John Kerry pronounced Climate Change the greatest threat to the international community. And this week, with Russia’s seizure of Crimea, the international climate has changed. The man is a prophet! Let’s not forget that John Kerry’s keen insight into Russian character and motives goes a long way back. Kerry rode into the U.S. Senate on a sled called the Nuclear Freeze.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he knows his recent comments about the Koch brothers -- wealthy Republican donors -- have stirred controversy. "But I will continue to shine a light on their subversion of democracy," Reid promised in another vituperative speech on the Senate floor Tuesday. "This is about two very wealthy individuals who intend to buy their very own Congress -- a Congress beholden to their money and bound to enact their radical philosophy."

....In my opinion, the Russian power brokers were laughing up their sleeves at American naivety. I believe what Russia wanted was a breathing spell, a respite from the relentless arms race America was obviously winning, a chance to bring their resources back home and update an aging military whose last action had suffered a sound defeat in Afghanistan.

President Obama issued a $3.9 trillion budget proposal for 2015 on Tuesday that contains heavy new investments in infrastructure upgrades, education and job training. The package, released about a month late in the wake of a two-year spending plan adopted by Congress and signed by the president in December, received little support in the Republican-controlled House – which is expected to release its own proposal shortly – and may not even get much consideration in the Senate.

Democrat Governor Jerry Brown opposed marijuana legalization during an interview on Meet the Press Sunday. By advertising and codifying the drug, Brown feared its acceptance and use could lead to a less alert and less competitive population. The problem with anything, a certain amount is okay. But there is a tendency to go to extremes. And all of a sudden, if there's advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? The world's pretty dangerous, very competitive. I think we need to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day,...

The District of Columbia has finished presenting its case on why Mark Witaschek is a danger to society for possessing a single shotgun shell and muzzleloader sabots in his home. This outrageous legal battle shows how far unelected, anti-gun liberals will go to attempt to destroy a man’s life. When Attorney General Irvin Nathan’s prosecutors rested on Tuesday, they established simply that Mr. Witaschek did not have a registered gun in the city, so he violated the firearms laws by having ammunition.

Editorial cartoons often aren't pretty, to paraphrase Steve Martin's observation about the perils of comedy. But one found in the Opinion section of today's New York Times is downright ugly. The cartoon, alluding to this year's brutal winter, suggests U.S. Department of Commerce "Strategies for Dealing With the 2014 Icicle Surplus." Among them are using icicles as "locally sourced hydration devices," "temporary doorsteps," and "brainteasers for dogs." Then comes a suggestion that one immediately looks at again, in disgust and disbelief -- icicles can also be used as "self-destructing sabers for dispatching climate-change deniers." (Entire cartoon shown after the jump)...