Free Republic

Energy: The further review the administration said was needed is done, with a Nebraska environmental agency saying it's safe to build the pipeline that will bring oil, jobs and revenue from our friendly northern neighbor. After kicking the Canadian oil barrel down the road, the Obama administration may soon be forced to approve the Keystone XL pipeline or come up with another excuse to block it after a report from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality declared it would have "minimal environmental impacts" on the state and its sensitive aquifers. Friday's report triggered a 30-day deadline for Nebraska Gov. Dave...

Defense: The president's selection as defense secretary has called for direct negotiations with the mortal enemies of our closest ally in the Middle East and said the administration's gutting of defense hasn't gone far enough. If personnel is policy, President Obama's selection of former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to be Leon Panetta's replacement as defense secretary should put the lie to the administration's already tarnished claim to be a strong supporter of Israel. "Not only has he said you should directly negotiate with Iran, sanctions won't work, that Israel must negotiate with Hamas, an organization, terrorist group, that lobs...

Racism: The once-proud NAACP has dissed a new African-American Republican senator as a token who knows nothing about civil rights because, well, he's a Republican — unlike, say, Democrats who opposed the Civil Rights Act. NAACP President Ben Jealous made the claim Wednesday concerning Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. — the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction and the first black GOP senator since 1979, when Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts retired. Indeed, Scott is only the seventh African-American ever to serve in the chamber. Jealous based his claim on Scott receiving an "F" on an NAACP scorecard of...

A pork-barrel feast of goodies for federal agencies to fix museum roofs in D.C. and aid fisheries in Alaska, cooked up in the middle of the night, is not the way to aid hurricane victims or run a government. As if the fallout from agreeing to a bad deal that raises the debt by $4 trillion and accepts a 41-1 ratio in tax hikes to spending cuts weren't enough, Speaker of the House John Boehner has New Jersey's Chris Christie on his case. "There's only one group to blame," the New Jersey governor said of the Sandy relief bill that...

Guns: The mayor of what is at once America's most gun-controlled city and its murder capital wants an assault weapons ban like the one he pushed in 1994. Except it didn't work then, and it won't work now. Nathaniel T. Jackson, 40, an alleged gang member with a long arrest record, was gunned down last week outside a store in Chicago's Austin neighborhood, becoming the Windy City's 500th murder victim in 2012. Up to 80% of Chicago's murders and shootings are gang-related, according to police. By one estimate, the city has almost 70,000 gang members. A police audit last spring...