Free Republic

ON Friday the United States Supreme Court will meet to decide whether to hear Bluman v. F.E.C., a First Amendment challenge to a federal law that prohibits noncitizens living in the United States (but who don’t have green cards) from making contributions to American political candidates or from spending money on independent speech to influence elections. The lead plaintiff, Benjamin Bluman, is a Canadian lawyer who lawfully lives in New York City. He is legally prohibited from paying for leaflets he planned to distribute urging the re-election of President Obama. The case raises fundamental questions about the scope of the...

A few not to be missed articles or blogs have appeared in the past few days. The first is by the conservative New York Times columnist, Ross Douthat. Most people, especially those who still buy the print edition, see his regular featured column. But fewer people read his blog, which appears only on the paperÂ’s website, and for that, one usually has to search to find. Two days ago, Douthat wrote about the myth spread by many Democrats and liberals: that conservatives and Republicans want to institute a theocracy in America. As Douthat points out, [A] spate of recent articles...

No American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has won a second term in office when the unemployment rate on Election Day topped 7.2 percent. Seventeen months before the next election, it is increasingly clear that President Obama must defy that trend to keep his job. Roughly 9 percent of Americans who want to go to work cannot find an employer. Companies are firing fewer people, but hiring remains anemic. And the vast majority of economic forecasters, including the president’s own advisers, predict only modest progress by November 2012. The latest job numbers, due Friday, are expected to provide new cause...

As the four of us headed toward the eastern gate of Ajdabiya, the front line of a desperate rebel stand against the advancing forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, a car pulled up alongside. (snip) When they did, rebels and journalists fled in a headlong retreat. If Ajdabiya fell, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces would be on the doorstep of Benghazi, the opposition capital, and perched on a highway to the Egyptian border, from where we had entered Libya without visas. (snip) If he died, we will have to bear the burden for the rest of our lives that an innocent man died...

Democrats Cry Foul Over GOP's Attempts to Tie Fuel Prices to EPABy ELANA SCHOR AND SARAH ABRUZZESE of Greenwire Published: March 11, 2011 House Republicans' move to join the two most politically volatile threads in the Washington, D.C., energy debate -- gas prices and U.S. EPA rules -- sparked Democratic charges of deception yesterday and silence so far from the Obama administration. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) amplified the GOP gambit as he laid out a new project, dubbed the American Energy Initiative, calling for more domestic fossil-fuel production, new nuclear power plants and an end to EPA's authority over greenhouse...

The New York Times is preparing to introduce multiple subscription packages for access to the paper's website and other digital content, kicking off the biggest test to date of consumers' willingness to pay for news they're accustomed to getting free.

A theatrical production of unusual pomposity will open on Wednesday when Republicans assume control of the House for the 112th Congress. A rule will be passed requiring that every bill cite its basis in the Constitution. A bill will be introduced to repeal the health care law. On Thursday, the Constitution will be read aloud in the House chamber. And in one particularly self-important flourish, the new speaker, John Boehner, arranged to have his office staff “sworn in” on Tuesday by the chief justice of the United States.

Representative John A. Boehner, soon to be the Speaker of the House, has pledged to fly commercial airlines back to his home district in Ohio. But that does not mean that he will be subjected to the hassles of ordinary passengers, including the controversial security pat-downs. As he left Washington on Friday, Mr. Boehner headed across the Potomac River to Reagan National Airport, which was bustling with afternoon travelers. But there was no waiting in line for Mr. Boehner, who was escorted around the metal detectors and body scanners, and taken directly to the gate. (snip) And so on Friday,...

We are going to have fun with this one. The New York Times hosts a section on their website called Teaching and Learning with The New York Times. Here they post suggested lesson plans and guides for teachers. Their latest plan is called: Preserve, Protect and Defend? Considering Violent Protests and American Values. You guessed it - it is based on the right-wing, hate-filled, violent protests in the wake of ObamaCare's passing. Here is how the lesson is described: Students consider the recent public displays of political anger directed at members of Congress to examine differing conceptions of America by...

NEW YORK – The New York Times is looking into the work of one its reporters following accusations that he plagiarized from The Wall Street Journal and other sources. The paper published an editor's note online Sunday and in papers Monday that said reporter Zachery Kouwe "appears to have improperly appropriated wording and passages published by other news organizations." The Times said Journal editors pointed out similarities between a Journal story from Feb. 5 and Times pieces later that day and on Feb. 6. The Times said a search found other similar examples taken from media outlets like Reuters and...

New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita addresses hot-button issues the way he might meet an opposing running back: directly. So Fujita was not shy Tuesday about entering two Super Bowl debates that have little to do with his team’s game Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts. At issue are two Super Bowl television commercials, one about abortion, the other about gay rights. The first ad — which will be shown on CBS — is an antiabortion message from Focus on the Family that includes Tim Tebow, the former Heisman Trophy winner from Florida. The other ad — which was rejected by...

In a federal budget filled with mind-boggling statistics, two numbers stand out as particularly stunning, for the way they may change American politics and American power. The first is the projected deficit in the coming year, nearly 11 percent of the country’s entire economic output. That is not unprecedented: During the Civil War, World War I and World War II, the United States ran soaring deficits, but usually with the expectation that they would come back down once peace was restored and war spending abated. But the second number, buried deeper in the budget’s projections, is the one that really...

WASHINGTON — The additional tax cuts and public works spending that President Obama has proposed to spur job creation would add $100 billion to this year’s deficit, bringing it to nearly $1.6 trillion, according to an administration official. A deficit of that size for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 would be about $150 billion greater than last year’s deficit, which was the highest since World War II. Measured against the size of the economy, a $1.6 trillion shortfall would equal almost 11 percent of the gross domestic product. Economists generally consider annual deficits above 3 percent to be...

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration, in its latest progress report on the $787 billion stimulus program, said both the overall economy and employment continued to be in better shape at the end of 2009 than they would have been without the government’s help. The council’s report, the second of the quarterly assessments mandated by Congress, said that in the fourth quarter the stimulus plan’s tax cuts and spending added about 2 percentage points to the gross domestic product, which is the size of the economy as measured by the total goods and services produced. Though unemployment reached 10 percent at year’s end—two...

Of all the falsehoods and distortions in the political discourse this year, one stood out from the rest. "Death panels." The claim set political debate afire when it was made in August, raising issues from the role of government in health care to the bounds of acceptable political discussion. In a nod to the way technology has transformed politics, the statement wasn't made in an interview or a television ad. Sarah Palin posted it on her Facebook page. Her assertion — that the government would set up boards to determine whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care —...

Report Shows Tight C.I.A. Control on Interrogations By SCOTT SHANE and MARK MAZZETTI WASHINGTON — Two 17-watt fluorescent-tube bulbs — no more, no less — illuminated each cell, 24 hours a day. White noise played constantly but was never to exceed 79 decibels. A prisoner could be doused with 41-degree water but for only 20 minutes at a stretch. The Central Intelligence Agency’s secret interrogation program operated under strict rules, and the rules were dictated from Washington with the painstaking, eye-glazing detail beloved by any bureaucracy. The first news reports this week about hundreds of pages of newly released documents...

In what almost seems a gleeful pronouncement, The New York Times trumpeted America's powerlessness over the recent capture by pirates of a captain of a U.S. run freighter on the high seas. With an April 9 headline that blares, "Standoff With Pirates Shows U.S. Power Has Limits,"

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Lost in the overall cratering in the stock market yesterday in reaction to Tim Geithner's awful "soiled the bed" TARP II presentation yesterday -- New York Times Company stock closed at $4.23. As of 3:30 PM today, the stock was up 12 cents. Yesterday's close is the stock's lowest point since the company went public in July 1986, and is down over 50% in real terms during that time:

Americans have watched in horror as President Bush has trampled on the Bill of Rights and the balance of power. The list of abuses that President-elect Barack Obama must address is long: once again require the government to get warrants to eavesdrop on Americans; undo scores of executive orders and bill-signing statements that have undermined the powers of Congress; strip out the unnecessary invasions of privacy embedded in the Patriot Act; block new F.B.I. investigative guidelines straight out of J. Edgar Hoover’s playbook. Those are not the only disasters Mr. Obama will inherit. He will have to rescue a drowning...