Free Republic

...We write on behalf of the millions of taxpayers represented by our organizations to urge you to exercise serious fiscal restraint when you bring the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 to the Senate floor. After recognizing the need for significant spending reform in the debt limit deal, continued efforts to restrain spending are still needed. The Pentagon’s budget should not be spared from scrutiny and we are encouraged by steps the Senate Armed Services Committee took this summer to root out waste and inefficiencies in the DOD authorization bill. While the Senate Armed Services Committee declined to cut substantially...

...The new CAFE standards will further frustrate the American automaker - American car buyer relationship to a point where buyers will be priced out of the new car market due to the costs associated with regulatory compliance. Even the Environmental Protection Agency [1] (EPA) projects increased costs of $2,100 to $2,500 per vehicle by 2025 in addition to the $950 per vehicle increase associated with the model years 2012-2016 standards.More likely, new standards will increase the cost per vehicle by $5720 to $6714 by 2025.Even with the savings pocketed from increased efficiency, the 56 mpg standard would result in a...

Announced two days before the country is expected to fully exhaust its $14.3 trillion in borrowing authority, a deal to end the debt ceiling negotiations has been announced. After Congresional Republicans held firm in their commitment to taxpayers to reject any and all tax increases, the deal forces lawmakers to get serious about government spending that drives the country’s mounting debt. While final legislative language is yet to be fully agreed upon by the full caucuses in both chambers, a strong sketch is emerging on what the deal looks like. The first portion remains the same (as far as we...

Mr. Irey is currently preparing to meet Dr. Orly Taitz and document specialist Doug Vogt in Hawaii in one week on August 8, 2011, at Orly Taitz's request to be part of the team scheduled to examine Obama's long form birth certificate at the Hawaii Department of Health. Paul Irey is a retired pioneer in professional photo typography with 50 years experience. Mr. Irey’s expertise goes back to 1967 when he started Bergan Graphics in Fort Lee, N.J. At one point Bergan Graphics had 60 employees working ‘round-the-clock, so Mr. Irey is no small player in his business. Eventually the...

[Warning: Note the image above of dead birds may offend sensitive vegetarians.] “I don’t agree with people that say English food is no good. I like wild game….and I like the pub feel,” reveals Hollywood actor, Nicolas Cage. “I put it way up high on my list.” Of course, the pro-hunting Country Side Alliance, UK, has been promoting the joys of game, for years now. And, thanks to their Game-to-Eat campaign, wild foods are very much in fashion. Here is one argument to start with: your health. As the Country Side Alliance asserts, “Game is wild, natural and free range...

Diarrhea is a life threatening ailment. In 2009, diarrhea was estimated to have caused 1.1 million deaths in people aged 5 and over and 1.5 million deaths in children under the age of 5. When things get bad in America, and other places that are not use to hardship, many people will realize that they shouldn’t have been nearly as concerned about preparing for others to harm them as much as they should have been prepared to simply take care of themselves. Here is an example; I know of a guy who is use to dining out at expensive restaurants,...

"...We urge the PSC to avoid placing conditions and burdensome regulations on the merged company. Merger conditions – extraneous or otherwise – would be extremely detrimental to the innovative tendencies of the wireless industry. Such conditions would be levied against a single company, picking winners and losers in the market, creating an un-level playing field, and disrupting the merger’s prospects on a national scale. "Today’s wireless market is highly competitive, and it will remain that way following the merger. Over the past decade, there have been five major telecom mergers. Yet, wireless prices have been cut in half during that...

...Buried on page 131 of their 266 page report was the information officials were so eager to hide from the taxpaying public. As Americans struggled to make ends meet in the midst of financial meltdown, the Federal Reserve was shipping trillions of dollars overseas to foreign banks. In one year, Fed officials offered indiscriminate loans of $16 trillion to a host of European banks, as well as Wall Street titans like CitiGroup, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs. The GAO found that 65 percent of those “emergency loan” handouts went to foreign companies and banks. On behalf of American taxpayers,...

...Already, the Senate has shown signs that it will continue to defer its duty to act, pre-emptively deriding the House’s plan to avoid a debt default. If Senators actually refuse to pass the Budget Control Act, the only serious legislative proposal to end the debt limit stalemate, it will illustrate an unprecedented negligence by lawmakers. For the past few months, Senators have dithered over tax hikes and budget gimmicks. Voters and credit markets are tired of the charade – it’s time for the Senate to step up to the plate. 820…Number of days since the Senate passed a budget0…Number of...

here’s just no telling when Armageddon will occur, nor is there a date scheduled, yet, for a zombie invasion. However, all this talk lately about the debt ceiling and a looming financial apocalypse has scared a lot of people. Many of them have done very little to prepare and are wondering, “Is it too late?” You’ll know it’s too late when your pantry is empty, right along with grocery store shelves, no water comes from your tap, there’s no electricity, and fifty zombies are coming up your driveway. Until then, you have time to prepare! Here is The Survival Mom’s...

I noticed while I tried to link a story that I found in The Salt Lake Tribune on Free Republic that Freep rejected the link. I tried again. Reject. I tried another source to link to Free Republic. All is well. The Salt Lake Tribune. Nada!

Same-sex marriage (for now) is coming to the liberal-leaning state of New York. But in Europe, last month, traditional marriage received an even bigger victory, when France’s lower house of parliament rejected a bill that would have allowed homosexuals to marry. Or as the UMP lawmaker Michel Diefenbacher explained, “We are against homophobia but we do not want to alter the image and function of marriage in the collective subconscious.” And, so it was. Tradition prevailed. But thanks to herd politics, a media silence ruled for one result, and a celebration was arranged for another. In all truth, unprofessional campaigning...

...The coalition letter explains that: “The mandate would impact an extraordinarily broad array of businesses of all sizes that offer Internet service to the public for a fee. Americans access the Internet not only at home but also at coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, offices, and at numerous other venues. Requiring all firms that sell Internet access to log temporary network address data would impose substantial costs. As with all burdensome regulations on the private sector, consumers themselves ultimately bear most of the costs incurred by companies in complying with the data retention mandate.” “H.R. 1981 follows in the footsteps of...

The Budget Control Act offers an opportunity for lawmakers to net real spending reform - serious conservatives should not miss their chance.Americans for Tax Reform continues to support the Budget Control Act of 2011 after CBO released an updated estimate of the bill's budgetary impact. The only serious proposal that addresses the country's debt crisis, the Budget Control Act institutes real cuts, establishes enforceable spending caps on discretionary spending and requires a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution in Congress.Most importantly, it fulfills the pledges made by House Republicans throughout the entire debt limit debate: No "clean"...

...The Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation and the National Federation of Independent Business appeared as “friends of the court”, arguing that placing the amendment to the state constitution on the ballot is permissible under the US Constitution because they claim that it does not change the definition of “public use” or grant new rights to property owners, but rather codifies existing definitions in order to protect property-owners from abuse and provide certainty. Karen Harned, a spokesperson for the NFIB legal center, stated that “"It's one thing for government to take private property for long-standing and well-agreed public uses, but it's just...

Will the House Republican plan to solve the debt limit impasse lead to a tax hike? In a word: No.The release yesterday of the House Republican plan to solve the debt limit debate in a two-step process has raised questions as to whether the second step in the proposal will lead to a tax increase. After an initial debt extension of lesser value than cuts enacted, the proposal enacts a Select Committee that is responsible for finding $1.8 trillion in savings before more borrowing authority can be exercised in the spring. The Select Committee will be comprised of twelve members,...

-TWR- Canadian-born writer Mark Steyn’s new book is set to make international waves. Entitled, After America: Get Ready for Armageddon, it’s also bound to inform and humor fans and newbies alike. And who told us Canadian-born men hated capitalism? The Steyn Line, his popular website, also sells Mark’s books, music, special offers, t-shirts, apparels, mugs, and other items. His website announces, “If you enjoyed Mark’s last apocalyptic blockbuster, you’ll appreciate this one even more. From budgets to the border, diversity to disease, manufacturing to manhood, Steyn looks at the American undreaming, and provides a glimpse of the post-American world. There’s...

The Convention adjourned yesterday in order for the Committee of Detail to smooth the resolutions passed to date. Members will reconvene on August 6th. Experienced Constitution writers and legal theorists composed the Committee. There were two Northerners, Nathaniel Gorham & Judge Oliver Ellsworth, two Southerners in Governor Edmund Randolph and former Governor John Rutlidge and a Middle Statesman in the Scots born James Wilson. All were of the Nationalist bent; no small state advocates like Luther Martin or William Paterson were there. Very little is known of the proceedings of the committee. George Mason’s great granddaughter found some of the...

Democratic lawmakers in Washington State sued the state yesterday in a desperate attempt to establish a means of raising taxes on Washingtonians. This myopic lawsuit will overturn Initiative 1053, a voter-approved requirement that two-thirds of the Legislature must approve tax increases. The Democrats falsely and outrageously believe the voter-approved two-thirds requirement unconstitutionally prevents lawmakers from sucking the money out of Washingtonians wallets for government funded projects. This lawsuit bucks the Washington State Constitution and the will of the people of the Evergreen State. According to the Washington State Constitution, Article I, Declaration of Rights, Section 1, Political Power: “All political...

President Obama made yet another address to the country last night (7-26-2011), just three days after he addressed the nation in a press conference about raising the debt ceiling. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very unique and interesting time in our nation’s history. We have never been in a situation like this before, ever. The president is out there making things up as he goes, portraying himself as a sort of “victim” of “circumstance,” in his pursuits to rally his supporters and get what he wants. He is threatening to cut benefits to seniors and veterans to “scare” them...