Free Republic

Representative Elise Stefanik (R-New York) gives a good general perspective from a centrist, non ideological, politician. As a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Stefanik is at the center of the impeachment efforts undertaken by HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff. Ms. Stefanik has had enough of the schemes and games and is publicly calling out Chairman Schiff for his manipulation of the impeachment process. This type of push-back is good, because Pelosi and Schiff’s crew are comfortable with the customary GOP push-back from McCarthy, Jordan, Meadows, Gaetz, Collins, Nunes etc. However, the Lawfare crowd is not prepared...

If one child complains that he didn't get as much food as his brother because his frankfurter was cut into four pieces, while his brother's hot dog was cut into five pieces, we laugh. What we often don't realize is that the definitions of "fairness" that adults use are often every bit as arbitrary as those of children. This is why politicians are so in love with the word "fairness." Using that word justifies their attempt to swoop in, ignore merit, overrule the market, and take something from one group of people to give it to another group of people...

... why does he let the creeps succeed? An outright fraud like Barack Obama gets elected, keeps spreading his lies and destruction, and keeps living the high life, with no penalty - on the contrary, all he gets is widespread praise for being so great. Bill Clinton gets worldwide "respect and adulation" as some sort of elder statesman, laughing all the way. Sandy Berger is a brazen thief, yet suffered no penalty. And on and on, every day.... Meanwhile, good people like Sarah Palin are routinely trashed and ridiculed, while their attackers endure no consequences, and are even rewarded -...

...Now comes 2008, a can’t-lose year if there ever was one. A united Democratic Party should be able to win this election in a walk. The economy is terrible and getting worse. The Republicans are demoralized. John McCain is no J.F.K. And the country wants to elect a Democrat. So what are the Democrats doing? The Clintons are running around with flamethrowers, gleefully trying to incinerate the prospects of the party’s leading candidate, Barack Obama. Senator Obama, for his part, seems to have lost sight of the unifying message that proved so compelling early in his campaign and has stumbled...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

On Oct. 1, Michigan launched a new crackdown on "deadbeats"— noncustodial parents who are behind on paying child support. The overwhelmingly majority of "deadbeats" are dads. Custodial parents cheered; father’s rights groups objected. Children were caught in between. But Attorney General Mike Cox doesn’t seem concerned about keeping children as non-combatants in the war between their parents. In conjunction with the website PayKids, a site Cox established to track down deadbeats, Cox announced a contest in which children are to draw pictures "that clearly convey the message of encouraging the payment of child support." The contest’s prize: "The first 250...

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan went to Capitol Hill last week and made a colossal blunder. He told the truth about Social Security. He was right, naturally. The country can’t afford to pay soon-to-be-eligible baby boomers the current level of benefits. Several members of Congress were shocked, absolutely shocked, that Mr. Greenspan would say anything so reckless. They must not read the Social Security statement that’s mailed annually to workers. This year, there’s a message from the program’s Commissioner that notes: "Without changes, by 2042 the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted . . . At that point, there...

Let a thousand voices boom across the airwaves, the Internet and in newspaper columns condemning the assault that Congress and the Supreme Court have inflicted on the First Amendment--on our most essential, fundamental speech: the ability to criticize our elected officials. I join the chorus. However, it is the cynical nature of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that permits us to speak in these ways. We are merely prohibited from communications that could--even ever so indirectly--endanger the reelection of incumbents in Congress. That is the speech that has been criminalized: speech that could threaten the very powerful congressmen, who wrote...

Meet Joe Dirt Stuart K. Hayashi In 2001, comedian David Spade came out with a movie titled "The Adventures of Joe Dirt." It now appears that the film was about Joe Conason, the author of "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth" and an editorialist for the liberal-biased Salon.com. In the person of Brad Pitt, you've already Met Joe Black. Now Meet the Real Joe Dirt. His book purports to expose how right-wingers harness the corporate media to brainwash society. Instead of demonstrating such, however, Joe is too busy flinging his Dirt around. In two...