Free Republic

Memo to Republican Leaders: Republicans should exploit the HUGE advantage they have in education. Everybody knows, deep-down, that it's liberals who are screwing up the schools. Let's start shouting this from the rooftops! Every day! The linked article, published almost a year ago, gives all the basic points. Please pass this along to candidates, campaign managers, etc. (I have 100+ articles on the web explaining how the Education Establishment is dumbing down the country. I can usually explain what various policies actually achieve, versus what is promised.)

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord - There are many threats to the United States on the horizon i. Some of them include: Nuclear Annihilation - A nuclear exchange over Taiwan with China which is building both missile defense ii and civilian fallout shelters iii. Earthquake – If the Lord wanted, could he not send an earthquake powerful enough to bring crippling destruction to the West Coast? Terrorist Attack – As we saw by the Christmas bomber, we are no safer since 9/11, given we still don't screen for Muslims at airports. Also, the Department of Home Security considers a...

From The Sunday Times February 21, 2010 Angry voters will force action on runaway deficit Irwin Stelzer: American Account So all is coming right. Sales of existing homes in the final quarter of last year were 27.2% above the 2008 level. Home construction jumped 2.8% in January, to its highest level in six months. The mining, manufacturing and utilities sectors also grew at satisfactory rates as did retail sales. So confident is the Federal Reserve in the recovery that it has raised a key interest rate. Alas, every silver lining has a cloud — in the case of the American...

I believe the Republican resurgence in 2010 will retake control of Congress. In fact, I think that the above statement is a given. Why am I not happy? I am far from happy. I am fearful. The Republicans are coming to town without a clear plan, without direction, without expressed objectives, without a timetable, and perhaps worst of all, without a leader. It is essential for our national recovery that an easily understood, step by step plan be put forward, promoted, and thoroughly explained. Who will lead? The GOP must lead forward. If we fail, the country will plunge into...

Republicans believe there are three words so powerful that they might reshape the political order in an economically-beleaguered corner of the country: War on coal. With Democrats holding total control of the federal government and a cap-and-trade bill still looming, the GOP is fanning widespread coal country fears that the national Democratic Party is hostile to the coal mining industry, if not outright committed to its demise. Those efforts are putting a group of coal state Democrats at risk as Republicans leverage the tremendous economic anxieties surrounding the future of an industry that is a vital part of their states’...

SPRINGFIELD -- The GOP gubernatorial front-runner Wednesday proposed changing the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriages, make it more difficult to pass state tax increases, impose term limits on lawmakers and overhaul the process of redrawing legislative boundaries. "I'm trying to give the government back to the people," said Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington), when asked what the package says about him as a candidate for governor. The same-sex marriage prohibition would prohibit gay marriages and civil unions. Brady is proposing a 10-year limit on Illinois House and Senate members, who face no constraints now, and a two-thirds vote requirement in...

To clarify, so you support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants? I do because I understand why people would want to be in America. To seek the safety and prosperity, the opportunities, the health that is here. It is so important that yes, people follow the rules so that people can be treated equally and fairly in this country.

The best stock market rally in 74 years may have ended on Jan. 19, the same day Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat held by Democrats for 57 years. We don't know yet whether the alarming move down in stocks since then is simply a correction or something more serious. But the coincidence of these two history-making events raises troubling questions—especially since a Republican resurgence, on the face of it, would seem to be good for business and good for stocks. [snip]Just 24 hours after Mr. Brown's upset win, the White House let it be known that...

If future generations of Americans are going to have a bright future, we're going to have to get a handle on spending. Either we get these deficits under control and start paying off our debt or we're not going to remain a great nation. Moreover, given that Social Security went into the red last year and that program, combined with Medicare, represents a 100 trillion dollar unfunded liability that’s going to be coming due over the next few decades, this is an issue that’s not going away for the foreseeable future. So, with that in mind, fiscal conservatives in DC...

Three decades after Ronald Reagan catapulted the catchphrase "welfare queen" into the political lexicon — and 14 years after President Bill Clinton helped "end welfare as we know it" — welfare has suddenly become a steamy political issue in the California governor's race. GOP candidate Steve Poizner, the state's insurance commissioner, first raised the issue in October, declaring that welfare should be a "transitional assistance program, not a permanent way of life." And last month Poizner's opponent, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, made welfare reform the subject of her first ad focusing on a single policy issue. In the radio...

Whenever you hear a party say our candidates will do fine because midterm elections are just a series of local contests, you know there’s trouble. And we’ve been hearing that from too many Democrats. All politics now is national. The Republican strategy for 2010 has been both conscious and clear for months. The GOP wants Obama to fail and the economy to fail. At every turn they are determined to obstruct. This reached the point a week ago where seven Republicans in the Senate, including John McCain, voted against a bill they had cosponsored -- simply because Obama had endorsed...

Rand Paul explains what the Tea party is about to CNN lackey

Economic growth to remain 'muted,' analysts estimate The U.S. government will in 2010 record its second-biggest budget deficit since World War II, the Congressional Budget Office estimated Tuesday, while economic growth will probably stay "muted" for the next few years.

With a spate of retirements, defections and defeats, Democratic candidates are falling like flies. It seems a good year to be a Republican. But there's still a big problem: The brand is still damaged goods -- and too many Americans have no notion of what the GOP stand for. Most likely, Republicans can gain seats in 2010 by doing nothing, but many voters still wonder whether a "party of 'No!'" can govern if handed the baton? Can negativism really lead to long-term success? - snip - David Gregory, host of "Meet the Press": Gregory: Does the Republican Party, in this...

HONOLULU (AP) - A high-tax, big-government Democratic bastion for five decades and President Barack Obama's birthplace, Hawaii would seem a curious place for the Republican National Committee to hold its winter meeting. But riding high after Republican Scott Brown's surprise victory in last week's Senate race in another Democratic stronghold, Massachusetts, 168 RNC delegates are arriving Wednesday unconcerned about this isolated island state's past political proclivities. On the heels of Massachusetts plus GOP triumphs in New Jersey and Virginia governor's races last fall, Republicans are invigorated after national elections that saw them lose control of Congress and then the White...

The Hill: Two House Democrats in tough re-election races are asking Congress and President Barack Obama to extend the Bush administration tax cuts. Reps. Bobby Bright (D-Ala.) and Mike McMahon (D-N.Y.) asked members in a “Dear Colleague” letter Thursday to support extending the tax cuts, which passed in 2001 and 2003 and are set to expire this year, for at least another two years. Specifically, Bright and McMahon are asking lawmakers to sign a letter to Obama asking him to include the tax cuts in his budget plans for 2010.

Sen. Scott Brown’s epic victory in Massachusetts on Tuesday night dealt a crushing blow to Obamacare, cap-and-trade, card check (and other union favors), and most importantly, all the tax hikes that are lingering on the table. But does Washington really understand the Scott Brown message? President Obama thinks his “remoteness and detachment” are the problems. This is nonsense. Obama’s tax hikes and spending explosion are what caused the populist tea-party revolt that was punctuated by Scott Brown’s extraordinary victory. And that leads to the next question. Are the Republicans listening? Do they really understand why Scott Brown was victorious? If...

NRO's Robert Costa interviewed Scott Brown strategist Eric Fernstrom who revealed something from their internal polls which no pundit to my knowledge has observed. The key issue for Massachusetts voters was not healthcare or spending. It was national security and the treatment of enemy terrorists. If the White House polls bear this out, Eric Holder's decisions on trying the terrorists in civilian courts and the botched handling of the Christmas underwear bomber should mean a shake up in the Department of Justice and Homeland Security. Is there room under the bus for Holder and Napolitano?

Scott Brown on Abortion * 2005: Conscience-based opt out of post-rape contraception. (Jan 2010) * Provide info about emergency contraception to rape victims. (Jan 2010) * Support legalized abortion, but not partial-birth abortion. (Jan 2010) * Supported by right-to-life groups for stem cell stance. (Jan 2010) * Authored bill for 24-hour waiting period for abortion. (Jan 2010) * Abortions should always be legally available. (Nov 2002) Scott Brown on Budget & Economy * AdWatch: $2 trillion spending spree puts us deeper in debt. (Jan 2010) * No new regulation of the financial markets. (Jan 2010) * People are angry over...

When you look back over the surges of enthusiasm in the politics of the last two years, you see something like this: The Obama enthusiasts who dominated so much of the 2008 campaign cycle were motivated by style. The tea-party protesters who dominated so much of 2009 were motivated by substance. Remember those rapturous crowds that swooned at Barack Obama's rhetoric. "We are the change we are seeking," he proclaimed. "We will be able to look back and tell our children" that "this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to...