Free Republic

While most political junkies focus on the latest twists and turns in the presidential race, a political earthquake in the Empire State has the potential to fundamentally alter how New Yorkers run their elections — and may even impact which party holds power in Washington in 2025. Starting Sept. 22, a provision of the state Voting Rights Act will require certain local governments to seek “preclearance” from the state Attorney General or a designated court to make many election-related decisions — including some that are relatively minor.

In the early 2000s, the city of St. Paul, Minn., cracked down on landlords who ignored rat problems, bad sanitation, poor heating, and so on. But instead of shaping up, the landlords sued the city for violating the federal Fair Housing Act. They argued that St. Paul’s insistence upon habitable homes hurt minorities by forcing the landlords to raise the rent. A federal court of appeals let the lawsuit go forward — holding that killing rats and fixing toilets could indeed violate the law if it somehow unintentionally displaced minorities. When a similar case reached the Supreme Court, Justice Samuel...

In an interview on the FOX Business Network’s Countdown to the Closing Bell, Harvard Economics Professor Greg Mankiw said the President-elect shouldn’t be meddling in the affairs of corporate America, and his decision to do so may not be beneficial for the economy in the long run. “There’s a big difference between being a CEO of a company and being President of the United States. A CEO is basically a central planner for that company. The President of the United States is not the central planner for the U.S. economy,” Mankiw said.

I just finished watching "Eye in the Sky" starring Helen Mirren, the late Alan Rickman, and some other excellent actors. The movie is notable because it clearly illustrates how the military of countries like the U.S. and Britain have to wage war with their hands tied due to political fallout. I was flabbergasted as I watched to see that every single darn move the military wanted to make on some high value, long-sought Muzzie baddies had to be cleared by ever-higher political nabobs, even when mini drone cameras showed them suiting up in suicide vests and likely to leave the...

Top military leaders in the Pentagon and in the field are growing increasingly frustrated by the tight constraints the White House has placed on the plans to fight ISIS and train a new Syrian rebel army. As the American-led battle against ISIS stretches into its fourth month, the generals and Pentagon officials leading the air campaign and preparing to train Syrian rebels are working under strict White House orders to keep the war contained within policy limits. The National Security Council has given precise instructions on which rebels can be engaged, who can be trained, and what exactly those fighters...

We have all heard about the sex gap in voting patterns. This is the phenomenon whereby, in every election, women are far more likely to support liberal candidates than men are. For instance, in 1996, Bill Clinton captured 54 percent of the women's vote but only 43 percent of the men's. And in subsequent elections, the male-female gap has been as follows: in 2000, Al Gore, 42-54; in 2004, John Kerry, 41-51; and in 2008, Barack Obama, 49-56. In fact, even in the watershed election of 2010, during which we heard about the rise of the conservative woman, the fairer...

The former top antiterrorism aide to Rudolph Giuliani has told the U.K.’s Sunday Telegraph that the presidential hopeful is "a control freak who micro-manages decision, he has a confrontational character trait and picks fights just to score points. He is the last thing this country needs as president right now." Jerome Hauer, New York's emergency management director from 1996 to 2000, insists that pre-9/11, Giuliani was instrumental in locating the city's crisis control room in the World Trade Centre complex -- even though it was a known terrorist target after the 1993 truck bomb attack there. Hauer, who now runs...

Spiraling Out of Control By Susan Coll Sunday, March 4, 2007; Page B01 A recent e-mail from Amazon.com made my heart start racing. My order had been shipped, it said, and "Living Abroad in Costa Rica" would arrive any day. I had never heard of this book. Had someone hacked into my computer? I thought of identity theft, credit card fraud -- and then of my 17-year-old son, who was deep into high school senioritis. He confessed to placing the order, defensively reminding me that I allow him to buy books with impunity as part of a mostly unsuccessful campaign...

Kerry believes he will be responsible for the letch security guard at SFO who believes you are carrying explosives in your bra cup. If John Kerry is elected President, then the next time you are going through the security at SFO and your hooters are personally inspected by some letch with large, cold and clammy hands, John Kerry is responsible. After all according to John, the buck stops at the top. The president is expected to micromanage the entire Federal Government, down to the private whose boots do not pass inspection or the postal clerk who persists to give you...