Free Republic

President Calderon doesn’t like the new Arizona law. Let me remind him that the USA is not Mexico. Drug cartels are not deciding the court cases and are not running the country. The drug kings are not calling the judges: Ola, take care of the matter. The US legal system will weigh on the legislature fairly and President Calderon should patiently mind his own business while the procedures in the courts take place. May be Calderon thinks he doesn’t have enough problems in his own country so he decided that fixing ours is a Mexican priority. We don’t think...

The late night jokes about President Bush are part of the history of the nation that was seeking comfort and somebody to blame after Katrina. Let’s take a trip back in time and check if the same jokes can give us comic relief today when Louisiana is facing new environmental disaster. "Finally today convoys of troops and aid started to arrive along the Gulf Coast. Five days after the hurricane hit. Kind of makes you miss the innocent days when Bush only sat on his ass for seven minutes. It only took him four days to make a plan,...

The WH seems to be busy with mostly political campaigning these days. The messages concerning the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico seemed to instill confidence that things are under control. We were led to believe that the oil spill was mostly a problem of the British Petroleum. Really? If a spot can be seen from the space it is likely the spot is important enough for the National Security to be paying significant attention. The erratic info coming from the WH made people confused – as the time progressed we learned the oil spot is five times...

Checkbook tax is bad, but you’ve heard nothing about the future of your checking account if you haven’t heard about the Progressive Consumption Tax that the Obama Debt Commission is considering.... The PCT is supposed to replace the income tax, but not to be confused with the Fair Tax (which is a sales tax). Here is how PCT works: At tax time you state your income. Then you subtract the amount that you have saved and pay tax on the difference (the consumption). So if you spend all your income – you pay tax on all your income. The more...

The American Suburbia is identified as the main battleground for the 2010 elections. The GOP strategists feel they have a chance to steal the heart of the folks living in metropolitan areas but outside central cities. There are few factors that make the recession hit the suburban voters pretty hard. The census migration analysis shows that the suburban residents are less likely to move comparing to the central city crowd that is generally younger and with lower home ownership rates. So in time of recession when the mobility is often the key to finding a job the suburban voters...

The Committee for Responsible Federal Budget team claimed today that President Obama joined the Spending Challenge with the following comment: My first priority is to figure out how can we reduce wasteful spending so that, you know, we have a baseline of the core services that we need and the government should provide, and then we decide how do we pay for that. Let me pop the balloon for the CRFB. The only wasteful spending that Obama cut so far were 100 million dollars in pencils and paperclips savings. I am all for cutting goodies for bureaucrats, however this crusade...

“If I can call a rally for stronger laws for puppies I will draw 100 000 people to Washington just like that” Snap! That was the Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell this morning on FOX accusing the tea party of being not able to draw a crowd bigger than a thousand people in Washington DC. Besides the fact that his numbers on tea party attendance are wrong it is amazing to witness Rendell who is usually appealing to the folks of all political backgrounds turn into fierce campaign against a grassroots movement to which about 60% of the Americans sympathize. Seems...

Yes, these are the Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, Elmo, Rosita and cousin Jesse at a joint event at the Pentagon. Sesame Street had a great initiative producing materials in support for the veteran’s families with young children coping with the death of a parent. The creative team addressed the issue tastefully and hopefully the children who need support in very difficult times will feel that people around understand them – even Elmo and his friends do. Let me make it clear: I like...

The Brits had their Joe Wilson moment in the second TV debate before the elections when the Conservative leader David Cameron accused the PM Gordon Brown in weasely tactics: Those leaflets you've been getting from Labour, those letters you've been getting from Labour, are pure and simple lies. Apparently the liberals across the pond are using the same fear mongering propaganda as their American progressive friends: trying to scare the folks that the Conservatives will take away their beloved social perks. This (unfortunately for the UK and the USA) is not true. No leader has emerged yet that is...

The authorities in Hawaii should take extra measures consulting with the national archives to make sure Barack Obama’s birth certificate is preserved in perfect condition for the future generations to see. The Obama’s BC is one of the most expensive pieces of paper in the world today. The value of the document that everybody wants to see is growing every day. The President and his campaign spent millions of dollars for lawyers to prevent the public from laying their eyes on it. Mona Lisa is fading with jealousy over the price tag of the Obama birth certificate. Legislatures all over...

The unemployed American who is filing his/her 867th on-line job resume is told these days that President Obama is winning on Financial Reform. The mother that is trying to find an answer for her son’s question (Where does Daddy work?) is made to believe that Obama is waging a war against his friends and main contributors on Wall-Street. The teenager who went to a Job Fair just to be told by smiling Human Resources reps to apply for the job on-line is lead to believe the bad guys who caused the unemployment are being punished. In fact President Obama left...

Iceland to Europe: Do you lava me like I lava you?The last wish of the Icelandic economy was to have its ashes scattered over Europe. UK is grounded and this time it is not by Obama.Hiring volcanologists! Call UBL. Eyjafjallajokull is erupting only twice a year: April through September and October through March.Gordon Brown asked for cash, but there is no C in the Icelandic alphabet. My house is covered with dust with a stench of sulfur. Do you live in Iceland? Nope… still married. Redundant aircraft was spotted miraculously flying over the North Pole. Santa? Nope… the Russian Aeroflot...

Senator Scott Brown will be occupying his seat at the Capitol safely for the next six years. The Rock Star of the tea party movement is a star no more... We knew the Brown guy is a liberal on the social issues. But the conservatives gave him a pass on that hoping he will be grade A on fiscal responsibility. Nope. The hopefuls were spanked again when Senator Brown announced that he will be joining the bipartisan effort on extending the unemployment benefits again... The bill will extend not only benefits but will add 19 billion dollars to the deficit....

The US Congress is a redundant body. Two hundred years ago “We the people” had to send our representatives to Washington DC because it was just not possible to fit all of us under the Capitol roof. Today we don’t really need representatives. We can easily vote on any piece of legislature electronically while eating chips on our couch. Technologies give us the chance to abandon the sleazy politicians and to govern through a Virtual Congress where every registered voter is a Congressmen or Congresswoman or Congress-something-in-between. Here is how the Virtual Congress can work. Every bill proposal can be...

Some economists are pulling their hair over Obama’s proclamation that he will keep the Bush tax cuts for the people making less than $250 000. What’s up! Remember how every liberal talking head told you that the Bush tax cuts are for the rich and how the Bush tax cuts got us into unsustainable deficits. Forget about it! Turns out the Obama decision to keep the evil Bush tax cuts for the folks making less than quarter a million dollars a year means keeping the tax-cuts for the 95% of the households that currently receive them. I guess the Bush...

Van Jones is no longer in the White House but his legacy is still there. The annual Earth Day is fast approaching so let’s take a look at a video that was left for us and the future generations at the whitehouse.gov from the self proclaimed communist Van Jones. The former special adviser of President Obama is exploring the idea of green roofing... According to the characters in the story the green future is possible – all you need is “bunch of dirt and bunch of people“ ...and government subsidies for weatherizing your home, of course. The young lady in...

Notice the bush growing inside the rusty playground equipment, the skeleton of the former slide and all the trash around it. Hundreds of people look at it from their window everyday and keep complaining that they pay taxes and the city is not cleaning. Actually the city is hiring folks to clean the neighborhoods. Meet the tax-dollars at work (or more like the tax-dollars at rest). The city government is always trying to put people to work this is why they hire some uneducated folks to do public service (kind of workfare). The city bought them safety jackets and...

Russian media has gone wild over the case of the 7-year-old that was sent back to Russia by American adoptive parents. It is a perfect example of the ex-communist tendency to project the misbehavior of the one individual on the whole society. The collectivist mentality of the Russians makes them blame the USA as a whole for the incident – not just the individual who committed the crime. This bulling has to stop. If we play the game the way Russians do, we should remind the world of the horrible way Russians treat orphaned and abandoned children. Especially the...

Will the Bush Tax Cuts expire? More dithering… May be, may be not, may be some… The folks from the Tax Policy Center are issuing paper after paper in Desperate Seeking of Revenues. Their ideas can be sum up with this: - Let the Bush Tax Cuts expire; - Get rid of the tax deductions; - Impose national Value Added Tax (VAT); - Mix and match all of the above. The pain is in the details. Progressive Version: It is expected most of the Bush Tax cuts to expire – Obama may keep some to be able to add it...

Former President George W. Bush released a statement today expressing how deeply he is saddened by the news of Polish President Lech Kaczynski's tragic death. President Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush have fond memories of visits with Kaczynski and his wife and want to express their condolences to the families of all the people killed in the crash. The archived George W. Bush White House web-site contains over 96 news entrees of meetings between the two Presidents. Poland is one of the US closest allies. It is a different story with the new US President. Obama's White House...