Free Republic

The Journal of the American Medical Assn. recently published a very unusual article: a scientific study authored by a sitting president of the United States. That’s never happened before. In a sense, it’s cool that President Obama cares enough about science to want to publish a paper in one of the world’s leading medical journals. But JAMA has set a bad precedent. The article, on healthcare reform in the United States, is problematic not only in its content but in the threat it poses to the integrity of scientific publishing. Let’s set aside the debate on whether the specific numbers...

Child migration is surging again. The number of families and unaccompanied children apprehended on the southern border has skyrocketed this year, according to new figures from the Obama administration. The numbers, compiled by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), reveal that child migration is on par with 2014 levels, when a wave of kids –– thousands of them unaccompanied –– arrived at the southern border. The surge of illegal immigration quickly swamped border authorities, immigration courts and health and humanitarian workers, while sparking a political battle on Capitol Hill over the cause and proper response to the crisis. The...

The mystery has always been why any Democrat would have wanted to follow the catastrophic presidency of George W. Bush. To understand why, it’s necessary to revisit ancient history, specifically 2001. Given today’s TV- and Internet-shortened time horizon, that’s almost like invoking the Napoleonic Wars, but bear with me. Thanks partly to his skill at “triangulation” — seeking middle ground between left and right — President Clinton left a legacy of prosperity and balanced budgets. Republicans impeached him anyway. Yeah, yeah, I know. Clinton’s spectacular folly gave GOP hardliners the excuse they’d spent his entire presidency looking for. That’s not...

ThatÂ’s why itÂ’s so essential to pass the unemployment insurance extension that comes up for a vote tomorrow. We need to pass it for men like Jim Chukalas, whoÂ’s with me here today. Jim worked as a parts manager at a Honda dealership until about two years ago. HeÂ’s posted resumes everywhere. HeÂ’s gone door-to-door looking for jobs. But he hasnÂ’t gotten a single interview. HeÂ’s trying to be strong for his two young kids, but now that heÂ’s exhausted his unemployment benefits, thatÂ’s getting harder to do. We need to pass it for women like Leslie Macko, who lost...

Watching Hannity with a guess host. One of the guests mentioned he talked with a "captain of industry" who was a Zero supporter. Supposedly this "captain of industry" claimed he was not voting for new entitlements, higher taxes, redistribution of wealth, and more regulation. Jeez. Sort of funny 100% of Freepers knew exactly who Zero was and is and this "captain of industry" was so ignorant and fool.

Albert Camus was expert at describing a man apart, an existential man The Stranger, who didn’t belong in the society in which he found himself. He didn’t have emotional roots; in fact, this character was haunted by shadows -- the real and the metaphorical. He is the quintessential rebel challenging normative standards. At the risk of drawing literary comparisons, I am persuaded based on his performance that President Obama is a man apart. He seems to equate power with arrogance; pride with willfulness and exceptionalism with dominance. As a consequence, he has changed foreign policy perceptions. The America he leads...

Of the three Presidential debates, Senator John McCain’s best performance came on Wednesday evening in New York. He was feisty, spirited and spent a good portion of the proceedings on the attack – something many conservatives were hoping they’d see with less than three weeks to go before Election Day. In fact, during the face-off, on the great FreeRepublic.com website, the “live debate” thread saw many “Freepers” asking where this John McCain had been hiding all this time. He was good. To be sure, McCain seemed especially comfortable in Wednesday’s environment – seated around a discussion table with both Obama...

Could Become a Political Liability Long-standing ties between a member of Senator Obama's new vice presidential search team and a prominent mortgage executive the senator has pilloried could become a political liability that hampers the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's ability to tap into public ire over the subprime mortgage crisis. James Johnson, one of three people tapped by Mr. Obama recently to oversee the search for his running mate, took at least five real estate loans totaling more than $7 million from Countrywide Financial Corp. through an informal program for friends of the company's CEO, Angelo Mozilo, the Wall Street...

It started in earnest a couple of weeks ago when Hillary Clinton questioned how much Barack Obama's time spent living in Indonesia as a child could actually help him make foreign policy decisions as a commander-in-chief. "Voters will judge whether living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges the next President will face," Clinton said November 20 in Shenandoah, Iowa. "I think we need a President with more experience than that." Then Clinton announced in an interview with CBS that she was sick of being a punching bag for...