Free Republic

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, MARYLAND — Flanked by two fighter jets and in front of a giant American flag, President Trump on Friday signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that officially created the Space Force, the sixth and first new military branch since 1947. “For the first time since Truman, we will create a brand new American military service,” Trump said. “You will witness the birth of the Space Force. That’s a big moment and we’re all here for it.”

... In return for more spending, Mrs. Clinton could have offered serious structural reforms: repeal of Davis-Bacon, time limits on environmental reviews, serious cost-benefit analysis, and so forth. Such a package would have been irresistible. Instead her plan simply asserts that Mrs. Clinton will “break through Washington gridlock” and “cut red tape”—promises made and forgotten by every presidential candidate in living memory. If the Sierra Club sues to block her worthy commitment to “upgrade our dams and levees,” will she really short-circuit the legal process, and how? The rest of Mrs. Clinton’s economic agenda is a thousand-course smorgasbord of government...

Marijuana legalization advocates in Oregon have launched a $2 million-plus ad campaign starring a 33-year police veteran. The new ad, embedded below, features Pete Tutmark, a former patrol sergeant and sheriff’s deputy. Tutmark criticizes what he calls a “broken” system that diverts resources from important crime-solving to drug arrests and urges his fellow Oregonians to vote yes on measure 91 this fall, which would legalize and regulate recreational marijuana use. “Last year in Oregon, there were 13,000 citations and arrests for marijuana,” he says in the ad. “That takes time, time better spent solving murders, rape cases, finding missing children....

High hopes for tax money isn’t as expected as the state’s legal marijuana industry isn’t bringing in as much money as anticipated. In fact, tax revenue is way below expectations. When voters approved recreational marijuana sales the state predicted it would pull in more than $33 million in new taxes in the first six months. The actual revenue came up more than $21 million short. The problem is that buying pot is less expensive on the streets where people don’t have to pay taxes or fees. Medical marijuana is also less expensive than recreational pot, so those with medical cards...

--snip-- Some eager, inexperienced consumers have overindulged on the pot-infused food and then shown up in emergency rooms sweating and paranoid. Edibles were linked to the death of a Wyoming college student in Denver. "There's been anecdotal evidence that some of the new consumers in the legalized market were not very well informed in terms of how to safely take that product," said Lewis Koski, Colorado's marijuana enforcement director.

It was naughty of Winston Churchill to say, if he really did, that “the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Nevertheless, many voters’ paucity of information about politics and government, although arguably rational, raises awkward questions about concepts central to democratic theory, including consent, representation, public opinion, electoral mandates and officials’ accountability.

What if California had not 120 legislators, but 240 of them, with each Senate and Assembly district required to elect two representatives – a man and a woman?B.C. Keith wants voters to ponder that question. The Sacramento woman has until May 29 to collect the valid voters' signatures – all 807,615 of them – that she needs for her petition to be placed on the ballot. Keith told The Bee back in November that she sees her idea as a solution to gender inequality under the dome. Currently, 34 women serve as legislators, which means that 72 percent of the...

The America Family Association has organized ten powerful economic graphs that put financial facts and figures into visual form. Sometimes you can quote economic statistics to people until you are blue in the face and it won’t do any good, but when those same people see charts and pictures suddenly it all sinks in. As you examine the economic charts below, pay special attention to what has been happening to the U.S. economy over the last 30 or 40 years.

The Alliance to Save Energy joined its honorary Board chair, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and her colleague Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) in unveiling a bipartisan bill that its sponsors say will help our nation regain its economic footing and global leadership by deploying energy efficiency widely across the US. “At a time of extremely acrimonious partisanship on Capitol Hill, Sens. Shaheen and Portman have reached bravely across the political divide to help American consumers and businesses that are reeling from rising energy costs,” commented Alliance President Kateri Callahan. She continued, “The Alliance applauds Sens. Shaheen and Portman for their statesmanship...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100823/ap_on_bi_ge/us_tainted_eggs

This is weird. The NAACP and La Raza slammed Obama today over his historic unemployment rates. And, The New York Times reported the story. Weird. With unemployment among blacks at more than 15 percent, the N.A.A.C.P. will join several other groups on Tuesday to call on President Obama to do more to create jobs. The organizations — including the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group— will make clear that they believe the president’s $787 billion stimulus program has not gone far enough to fight unemployment. They will call for increased spending for schools and...

No excerpt allowed from Bloomberg.com, story here .

In recent times, that is, during June of 2009, President Barack Obama has recoiled at efforts at fighting the oppressors in Iran. He has allowed the political situation in Iran to escalate into the crisis it is today. At the time of this writing, protests in the streets have broken out over the rigged election. The red flags should have been flying in the Commander in Chief’s face already. Iran has been advancing their nuclear weapon program at a dangerously rapid rate, constantly waving the fact at the West. The rest has been very well documented. Political corruption has been...

Democratic Response of Senator Jim Webb To the President’s State of the Union Address **Exclusive** Tue Jan 23 2007 19:10:01 ET [EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:45pm ET] Good evening. I’m Senator Jim Webb, from Virginia, where this year we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown – an event that marked the first step in the long journey that has made us the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth. It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President’s message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made a star turn this morning at former President Bill Clinton’s conference on global challenges, calling for a concerted attack on the “feminization of poverty” by destroying cultural, political, and economic barriers that trap women and children in desperate conditions. Before a standing-room-only audience in a ballroom of the Sheraton hotel in midtown Manhattan, Mrs. Clinton gave opening remarks at the conference session “Women and the Power of Economic Opportunity” then moderated a panel that included President Bush’s former secretary of agriculture and three leaders in the development and anti-poverty fields. “Far too many women are...

WASHINGTON -- Advocacy groups called Tuesday for a ban on young children riding all-terrain vehicles, saying a surge in deaths and injuries show the industry's efforts to enforce safety rules have failed. Representatives from consumer, children's and environmental groups cited statistics showing injuries to ATV riders under 16 have nearly doubled in the last eight years. "Self-regulation by the ATV industry has led to larger and faster ATVs and more children being killed and injured," said Rachel Weintraub, assistant general counsel to the Consumer Federation of America. ATVs are motorized machines that can traverse off-road terrain. While popular for recreation,...