Free Republic

There is nothing that expressly forbids a line-item veto. It is a common business practice. It is time for Trump to just DO IT. Refuse to spend on useless things. Obamacare, for example, is a multi-trillion -dollar failure.

by John HillStand With ArizonaSneaking it in late on a Friday afternoon on a very busy news day, the U.S. Department of Justice quietly told the Texas Secretary of State that the state's Voter ID law - passed this past Spring - "lacked enough information for the government to render a decision." More specifically, the DoJ wants more information about the "group of , 605,576 registered voters who do not possess a valid ID". What kind of information? Why ethnic information, of course. But they only seem interested in Hispanic would-be voters, not Black ones... The department specifically asks the...

In 1898, this city was years ahead of the rest of the American South, building an inclusive, interracial political culture. It had a burgeoning black middle class. A new era of hope dawned in North Carolina. But the losers in the 1896 elections, the white Democrats, sulked on the margins, threatened by political irrelevance. Their sense of entitlement to governance had just been rejected by white progressives and black voters. "Take back the state," became their battle cry. And they did just that. On Nov. 9, some Wilmington whites issued a White Declaration of Independence, proclaiming "that we will no...

In the state's continuing war against the consumption of alcohol, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley signed a new law on Monday that will not only make it harder to buy kegs of beer, but will also diminish the legal rights of defendants to challenge illegally or incorrectly obtained evidence by the state in regards to driving under the influence charges. The new law also makes it a crime to have any alcohol in the system of anyone under 21 years of age and allows police officers to demand a chemical test of citizens under 21, whether or not they are...

LONDON (Reuters) - A blistering four-year rally in crude oil shows no sign yet of running out of steam and crude could top $80 a barrel this year, boosting fuel costs for consumers and businesses, analysts said on Tuesday. London's Brent crude hit an all-time high of $72.20 a barrel on Tuesday and U.S. crude oil hit a record $70.88, on concern that Iran's nuclear standoff with the West could cut oil exports from the world's fourth largest exporter. "Under the wrong circumstances, you could easily see $80 being broken or even higher than that," said Kevin Norrish, an analyst...

Note: although this is a blog, it ought to be news but the liberal media simply ignores it. As I have said before, many Republican bills get killed in the subcommittee and committee system therefore many Republican bills never get a vote on the floor. Today a bill slipped through that Naifeh didn't want out of committee. Some legislators did not show up for the vote and a pro-NRA bill (conceal carry) slipped through the sub-committee system. Speaker Naifeh flipped out! His people did not want to have to vote on this bill. Some might risk losing their perfect NRA...

DAMASCUS, Syria (Reuters) - Twenty years ago Ahmed Shukmarra went to Lebanon as one of tens of thousands of Syrian soldiers, believing his presence would help halt a civil war in Syria's small neighbor. Today he sees no reason why roughly 14,000 soldiers, part of a force first deployed in 1976, should stay in Lebanon, particularly given increasing pressure from Washington and the United Nations (news - web sites) for them to withdraw. "We went there to stop Lebanese from fighting but why we are still there ... This I can't understand," said 43-year-old Shukmarra, who left the army and...

I'm for war. I know I'm not supposed to say that. War is hell. War is unpredictable. War is evil. It is all those things. But war is sometimes better than the alternative. What do we now think of people who argued for "peace" when Hitler was retaking the Rhineland? We think they were fools. As Churchill said: "One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by...