Free Republic

Rep. Lamar Smith is pushing ahead in his committee's effort to hold Hillary Clinton accountable for her private e-mail server while she was secretary of state. On Thursday, Smith, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, announced that he is going to hold the Platte River Networks, which set up and maintained Clinton’s server, in contempt of Congress when lawmakers return to Washington following the November election. “Platte River continues to obstruct our committee’s investigation into the possible misuse security of former Secretary Clinton’s private e-mail server,” Smith told a packed press conference on Capitol Hill."

Listening to the self-righteous protestations of the class warriors, one would come away with the impression that the rich don’t pay any taxes. In fact, the top 1% of tax filers paid 37.4% of all federal income taxes in 2010; the top 2% paid almost 50%. Unfortunately, when it comes to real handouts for the rich, liberals are silent. In their dyslexic worldview, a tax cut is a handout and a handout is a tax cut. That is why both Democrats and Republicans are plotting to surreptitiously slip in a farm bill to the final negotiations over the tax rates....

There is a direct correlation between America's downward spiral and the nation's departure from adherence to the U.S. Constitution. During the first hundred years, America experienced growth and prosperity never before imagined by people who never knew what freedom was. It was a rough and tumble century; not everyone prospered. Many people were victimized by profit-hungry capitalists. The answer to this inequity, according to some of the 19th century philosophers, was government management of the affairs of people and their business activities. Proponents of these ideas claimed the name "Progressives." Progressives prevailed at the dawn of the 20th century when...