[Update:  I got quite a lot of negative feedback about the "tone" of this entry.  I admit I was ticked off when I wrote it and probably should have let it sit for a day or so.   Having said that, I stand by the point, which I think is valid.   However, I do confess to being, as one commenter said, "tone deaf."  ] | Read More »

When I wrote the first Destruction of the Liberal Arts article I did not think it was going to develop into a recurring series.  In the first installment, I wrote about how a student was being verbally assaulted by a professor, and other members of the class, on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 for memorializing the victims.  You can read that article here.  Recently, I | Read More »

This is a very brief diary reflecting frustration with the Republican Party. I used to think that electing and reelecting Barack Obama was the single most tragic event in the history of freedom. I have since decided it was electing and reelecting Priebus as head of RNC. Unfortunately, he seems to have no instincts for national politics, though he seems to have tremendous instincts for | Read More »

During a press conference in support of privatizing Pennsylvania’s liquor stores, Big Labor Boss Wendell W. Young, repeatedly shouted and interrupted speakers at the podium.  Young, who received $287,386 in compensation last year, is the Local 1776 representative for United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents many of Pennsylvania’s liquor store employees. Commonwealth Foundation’s President Matthew Brouillette captured the above video of Young cursing and yelling | Read More »

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/03/the-administrative-state-in-one-photo.php Anybody have a copy of this photo in an aspect ratio that will work as a Facebook cover picture?

(EDITOR’S NOTE:  This is a cut and paste of an article from American Thinker.  It did NOT come from the Washington Post.  No matter what the source, we respect intellectual property at Redstate and do not allow wholesale copying of other people’s work.  This post has been edited to remove all but the first paragraph of the original) I never would have imagined that I | Read More »

Great doctors do the impossible; they save the un-savable. Doctors innovate and create new procedures to cure patients at the risk of criticism from their peers, as well as the risks of lawsuits. Great doctors think beyond the known in order to save a patient because the immediate life of the patient is paramount above all else. So why can’t Washington politicians act like great doctors | Read More »

Paul Ryan released his outline of the GOP budget proposal yesterday and I couldn’t help cringing when I heard the news report: “Ryan’s budget proposal would also repeal Obamacare” (paraphrased). I can’t imagine there’s much in the actual proposal that I disagree with but I’ve always been uncomfortable with the idea of “repeal”. Not in principle mind you. Obamacare is a public-policy black box. In | Read More »

I wrote a piece today analyzing the numbers in the Congressional District 18 race between Allen West and Patrick Murphy.  You can read it here… Who will beat the nation’s ‘most vulnerable Democrat’? FEBRUARY 19, 2013 BY RICHARD DENAPOLI Congressman Patrick Murphy, who recently eked out a victory over former Congressman Allen West in District 18, has now been labeled  the “most vulnerable Democrat.” Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the product of | Read More »

Jennifer Rubin—WaPo’s token conservative—said it perfectly: McCain lost his cool with Rand Paul and sounded like the old man down the street screaming to the new kids on the block, “Get off my lawn!” The real reason McCain and Lindsey Graham embarrassed themselves on the floor of Senate had nothing to do with what Rand Paul said. Rand Paul’s ideas terrify McCain, Graham, and most of | Read More »

As Mark Levin calls him, the “Arlen Specter of South Carolina” is running his mouth against libertarians again. Associating them with anti-war liberals…oh wait, where have they gone? Anyhow, you might remember one of his previous attacks, in which he claimed libertarians have no place in the Republican party. Needless to say he got booed by the audience, and was subsequently smacked down by Governor | Read More »

It’s a very short post, but here’s the news: The Obama Administration, I think, is raising the Big Shiny Object of Iraqi failure just as Egypt is about to fall into the abyss: Judging from the articles at the Financial Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, the pretext creation of “Iraq as Failure” has been ramped up to an extremely high volume. | Read More »

Welcome to the GOP organization meeting for the 2016 election. No, you can’t be part of our group because you support gay marriage. Neither can you because you believe in evolution. Don’t want you either because you believe there are some circumstances where abortion should be legal. Not you either, you think global warming is bad. No need for you, you won’t agree that we | Read More »

I’m listening to Rand Paul right now.  I hope he realizes that if he plays this right, he can break right through into the consciousness of the Low Information Masses.  He needs to add some humor…  The subject is perfect, this is a defining opportunity for him.  Erik if you are in DC, slip him some humorous and on-target lines.

Look, I think we are at war and that means enemy combatants on US soil, regardless of their original citizenship can be targeted as soldiers in a war. Rand Paul invoking the 5th Amendment for enemy combatants is batty to me. However, he is espousing some pretty interesting old ideas that Republicans ought to consider again. It is interesting to note that he is discussing | Read More »

For the last four years, our economy has grown at just 0.8% per year. As a result of this anemic growth, 23 million Americans are struggling to find work, and millions more are being denied a fair opportunity to achieve the American dream. Economic growth these past four years has been a small fraction of historic levels: since World War II, our economy has averaged | Read More »

The title is a paraphrase of a quote from a deceased Democratic Senator, Patrick Moynihan: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”   You can interpret this a few ways, but the most likely to be true (but not the ONLY way that could be) is that there is a correct answer to every question and choosing to believe the wrong one | Read More »

It is somehow fitting that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez left the realm of the living on this day, the 60th anniversary of the death of one of the world’s most murderous dictators, Josef Stalin. While the crimes of Chavez fail to compete with the atrocities inflicted by Stalin, he was guilty of the same crimes of enslaving millions through a failed ideology. Under the guise | Read More »

I am a citizen of the United States of America by birth, but American by choice. Two very important labels that I am proud to wear. Here are a few others that other people have attempted to apply to me: conservative, liberal libertarian, Italian-American  political animal catholic, Mormon moron, american invader, killer pro-life, pro-choice anti-gay, homophobic misogynistic, christian atheist, centrist RINO, republican …and many more. So who cares? THEY do. Why does it matter what | Read More »

This is in response to the front page story on the Dem advance in TX. The comments in the article where veering off the strategic approach I wanted to take – hence this diary. My opinion is that the supposed Dem initiatives in TX is a head fake – a misdirection. We would do well to consider our relative strength in TX compared to other | Read More »

Obamacare Provider Fees were posted in the federal register today. These ‘Obamacare Provider Fees’ are the health insurance plan taxes via Obamacare. The fees total $10 billion+ per year. The full proposal can be found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/03/04/2013-04836/health-insurance-providers-fee These ‘fees’ will be passed on to consumers and will increase an average HC plan by $300/year starting next year. A background story from thehill.com can be found | Read More »

Welcome to the Democratic organization meeting for the 2016 election. No, you can’t be in our group because you support traditional marriage. Neither can you because you engage in a healthy scientific debate about evolution and it’s implications. Don’t want you either because you don’t believe that abortion should be legal in all cases. Not you either, you don’t tow the partisan line on an | Read More »

I have followed the gun debate with some interest.  I am Texan and have lived with guns my whole life.  I also have children and estblished the same house rules for my own kids that my parents established when I grew up. My mother had a few hard and fast rules. Ammo was NOT to be kept with guns at home.  Treat EVERY gun as | Read More »

When I first joined Congress, I knew we had a debt problem and I knew that we spent way too much money. The numbers are almost overwhelming. Billions and trillions of dollars are not something that any ordinary person can relate to. Luckily, I was a high school teacher before I came to Washington. As a teacher, I had to make things understandable for my | Read More »

It’s not getting much love in the comment section – but I wouldn’t expect it to there, not with statements like this! “(Paul, Lee, Cruz and Rubio) are without much doubt the most pro-liberty members of that house).” Read the article at - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-koerner/rand-paul_b_2770800.html   I have to wonder though – how much longer is Robin Koerner going to be writing for them after that article?! | Read More »

Jay Laze, owner of All Around Pizza in Virginia Beach appeared on CNN’s Piers Morgan to defend his new policy of giving a 15% discount to customers who come in carrying a firearm. It is funny to see how opposed to this idea Peirs Morgan is:

An across-the-board 10% cut of all federal employees, equally cut by each department, sub-department, divisions, etc., so that there is equal distribution of cuts in low-level staff, middle-mgmt & admins, and upper-level mgmt/admins/execs, even congressional and presidential staffers). The eventual increase in staff will only be benchmarked to no more than the rate of annual increase in population growth. All federal employees (in all levels | Read More »

The hysteria in Washington over sequestration is both strange and amusing. The president would like us to believe that cutting just over 2% of our $3.5 trillion budget this year will leave kids without vaccines, meat without inspectors, planes without air traffic control and streets filled with criminals and no police to stop them. Republicans, on the other hand, are wasting time blaming President Obama | Read More »

I’ve never told anyone this before; John Kerry saved my life in Vietnam. I haven’t mentioned it till now because doing so requires an admission of wrongdoing on my part – an admission, which, to his credit, John Kerry (whom I’ve always known as “Skipper”) has shielded me from making. The time has come though, to pay back old debts, to demonstrate my gratitude to | Read More »

For centuries, governments have used restrictive gun laws to control their citizens — subjects, really. Whether you’re fighting against slavery, racism or an oppressive government, tyranny is tyranny. We have the 2nd Amendment to protect us from exactly that. The president of the Frederick Douglass Society explains how gun control was used in the south to keep African-Americans from fighting back. They needed to be prevented from defending themselves against a | Read More »

Believe it or not, in an article entitled “Why Are Teen Pregnancy Rates So Low in North Dakota? Fracking.” Slate.com’s xxFactor just admitted the moral bankruptcy of every position of the left. The left’s positions on abusing environmental regulations destroyed the jobs that young men from less advantaged households used to be able to find. Youth unemployment destroyed the foundation of the family leading to | Read More »

You always know the loosing argument because they ignore the opposing side’s best talking point. I’m not trying take Sen. Cruz down a peg, rather, I think he has great potential – but now that your under the spot light, it’s time to step up. This isn’t a Texas BBQ where you can just spout off on anything you want and pass the the mic | Read More »

Sometime before Election Day, before the debates, people already knew Stuart Stevens and his team were in over their heads. From the utter fiasco of Romney’s convention speech, which he stripped down to a thin gruel of bland forgettable pablum (and of course, stripped of any mention of America’s servicemen and women abroad), throwing aside Bush’s micro-targetting programmed wholesale, allowing his Hollywood aspirations to make | Read More »

Good news Detroit: We’re #1 again! In a head-to-head contest with real contenders like Chicago, New York, Cleveland (At Least We’re Not Detroit!) and Atlanta, Detroit once again grabbed victory through the misery of defeat. Numero uno on Forbes Most Miserable City in America.  Heady stuff for a city on the verge of insolvency and far beyond societal breakdown. Much should be made of the | Read More »

ODS (Obama Deranged Syndrome  has taken over the conservative movement.  As the sequester counts down, Republican house seem willfully to stand their ground and take ownership of this economy and government.  This year has the pain train of higher prices, stagnating growth, and obamacare implementation barreling down the tracks and republicans are choosing to plant their flag firmly  in the center of the tracks and take | Read More »

At a time when conservatives across America are looking for a road forward for our country and for our party, there are many paths to heal what’s ailing our movement. Tossing aside our conservative principles and raising taxes on families isn’t one of them. Rhetorically, there is near-unanimous agreement in the grassroots of our movement that Americans are taxed too much already, and that government | Read More »

I heard somewhere recently that when dealing with the future, we need to be deliberate in our considerations on how to move forward. “Designing the future” they called it. This got me thinking a bit about the clash between the non-stop raft of current emergencies and figuring out how to move beyond them. From my perspective, we just seem to be reacting to things that | Read More »

Ahh ingredients! Want to bake a cake? You need the right ingredients. Let’s take a look at what we have in the proverbial fridge: 1. Currency War===G20 meets to attempt to stabilize world printing presses but the plan goes nowhere. The US Federal Reserve is pumping $45B a month, Japan devaluing the Yen, the EU developing their doomsday bailout/recapitalization for their banks. 2. Stagflation–due to | Read More »

Alabama’s bill to repeal Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCS) may be in trouble due to outside pressure on the Senate to do nothing until after the House acts. This is dangerous since we have committed support in the Senate but not in the House. Please contact your reps today and urge them to stay strong in their commitment to repeal. If you’re not familiar | Read More »

So let me get this straight. The President hates the sequester. The GOP hates the sequester. Only in Washington D.C. can two sides agree on something yet fail to come to a compromise. It is obvious that the GOP will get the blame for the sequester happening. It is something the right has to get used to. The President is on a never ending campaign | Read More »

I think we as conservatives should welcome the cuts coming in sequestration.  I think the tilting at windmills and the hyperventilation by the media types is all ginned up.  Do they really think that the government is going to stop because of a few meager cuts?  Do they really think that the government will ever stop intruding into our lives because of a few insignificant | Read More »

To believe the President is to believe that a 2.4% reduction in the rate of spending growth for defense and non-discretionary spending will hurl the US and the world into financial calamity.  And apparently, conservatives across the board, from politicians to media, believe this to be true.  All I hear is how deep the cuts are and how significant their impact will be.  Not only | Read More »

Mark Ferrandino, Democratic Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, claims that sexist remarks made by one of the members of his caucus were taken out of context. The comments, made by State Democratic Representative Joe Salazar, sparked an immediate backlash against the legislator and the Democratic leadership via social media outlets. Salazar’s comments, which trotted out the highly offensive idea that women are incapable | Read More »

President In Title Only….Sadly, this is what America is forced to live with. We dont have someone with great moral convictions that sets his agenda to the wants and needs of the nation. We dont have a military leader that treats our men and women of the Armed Forces with the respect that they have earned. His use of Executive Powers are assinine at best | Read More »

If you haven’t already seen it, here’s Colorado Democrat Rep. Joe Salazar telling women they’re incapable of determining when there is or isn’t a threat against them: And here’s his “apology,” courtesy of KDVR: “I’m sorry if I offended anyone. That was absolutely not my intention,” Salazar said. “We were having a public policy debate on whether or not guns makes people safer on campus. | Read More »

If your state does not have required photo voter ID, request that your governor and secretary of state (especially if republican) do the following:
1.) Work to install a REQUIRED PHOTO VOTER ID law in your state.
2.) Require that your state return to a voting ballot machine or require a complete audit of all of your voting software.
3.) Work to eliminate the possibility for internet registration fraud.
(Letter to send is included.)

* Written with Brian Baker, President of Ending Spending As the eyes of the nation turn to key state races in 2013 – New Jersey and Virginia – the issues of fiscal responsibility and economic growth will be a yardstick for how voters measure candidates. This year, Virginia will play a critical role in the ongoing national discussion of how we reverse the massive growth | Read More »

Virginia’s Republican majority very unfortunately passed the budget busting ObamaCare Medicaid expansion (pushing 400,000 more Virginians into the single payer program), a state sales tax increase to help Virginians through the current hard times, and an expensive but unnecessary Dulles rail boondoggle when DC’s Metro rail service already extends to Reagan Airport. But now, to cap the GOP’s bold moves to re-establish themselves as the | Read More »

  While many state Republicans are trying to do reform the electoral college by allocating votes based on congressional district, here is a better idea: reorganize the states in a fashion so that every state would be of equal population. Such a proposal would do much to address the problem of population nexus points (typically heavily Democrat voting areas) in states dominating the rest of | Read More »

 “We know our economy’s stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong. Tonight, let’s declare that, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, | Read More »

This was posted this morning on TEAParty911.com’s daily briefing. The SENTINEL Newsletter Posted February 16, 2013 TEAParty911.com Editor’s note: This is one newsletter that I  look forward to each and every month. The tagline says it all, “The Trade  Journal of Constitutional Republicans”. I wish every Republican  publication in America was as dedicated to first principles as The SENTINEL. My good friends, editors Terrell and | Read More »

In the classic Hobson’s choice, Maryland’s counties are told that if they “choose” to refrain from submitting a map, or submit a map that the state does not approve of, then the state will penalize them. The counties now must determine whether to submit a map and cede to the state enormous swaths of hard-to-reclaim liberty, or to refuse to submit a map, and have state planners force one upon them, ceding liberty and violating any semblance of subsidiary.

You don’t know me and the likelihood is that you never will, but I owe you a debt of gratitude, one that I should be paying to the President of the United States.  Unfortunately, both Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama have plainly refused to take the battle to our sworn enemies.  We know for a fact that the Iranians helped al-Queda, Iraq for years with | Read More »

After Tuesday night’s State of the Union (5 down, 3 to go!), nothing has changed: Barack Obama remains a Marxist caricature, his presidency vapid by historical standards, and his leadership style exemplar of fecklessness… You wouldn’t know it by the applause in the House chamber, nor by the booming economy that never stopped booming around the Beltway, but this recovery is no recovery outside the | Read More »

Share and “like” if you think we can do this differently.

Valentine for Condoleezza Rice from Peter Dow. Roses Are Red. (YouTube) This is a Valentine Day’s video for Condoleezza Rice from Peter Dow. Photographs of Condoleezza Rice, flowers etc. set to the song “Roses Are Red” sung by Jim Reeves. The video is dedicated as follows – Condoleezza Rice Be my Valentine This day February 14, 2013 And for ever more Love from Peter Dow

Tuesday night Marco Rubio delivered an excellent rebuttal to President Obama and the democrats message of spend, tax and spend some more. He was a great spokesperson for the conservative message. He was confident, eloquent and he was right about what it will take to get this country back on track. Unfortunately, he was also thirsty. It certainly was an odd time to take a | Read More »

A variety of adjectives are routinely used to describe small town politics. In Snellville, GA, the term “divisive” is frequently used, prompting many people to ask, “Why is the City Council so divided?” Opinions vary considerably, depending on which side of the divide you’re standing. However, I believe a couple of comments made by Kelly Kautz the current mayor,  at the February 11th Council meeting, | Read More »

While Iran builds nuclear weapons, President Obama called this week for unilaterally reducing our nuclear weapons. While Iran builds nuclear weapons, Obama nominates a Defense Secretary that Iran has endorsed. While Iran builds nuclear weapons, Obama nominates a Defense Secretary that believes Iran has “an elected, legitimate government.” While Iran builds nuclear weapons, Obama nominates a CIA Director that called for us to be “more | Read More »

The title quote is largely attributed to James Carville during the first Clinton campaign for President. Well, at least it can be said that Carville got one thing right! Of course it’s the economy. It’s always been the economy. It’s always going to be the economy. Why? It’s the economy because without a strong one, there is nothing else. There is no national defense. There | Read More »

If the banking industry had a “biggest losers” award, Bank of America Corp. (B of A) would win – and that’s not a good thing. B of A comes by its image problem honestly, and this may be the only way that “honesty” and “Bank of America” can be paired in a sentence without prompting laughter from bystanders. The company’s sins have been widely reported. | Read More »

I’ve been seeing Dr. Ben Carson’s recent National Prayer Breakfast speech floating around the internet and haven’t paid it much attention. I cranked it up Friday in the car as I was leaving the studio and decided that — about two minutes in — while Dr. Carson is certainly a gifted speaker, I didn’t expect his speech to satisfy my hunger for intellectual stimulation (such | Read More »

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law ‘ObamaCare’. Many conservatives, as he well knows, disagree with this law. President Obama, whether we disagree with you or not: you are our President. You said, if you won, you’d be President of the “100%”. So, now is the time to show that. Every state has the right, under the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment, to have the laws | Read More »

Hi. My name is Drew, and I am a young Republican residing in the great state of Virginia. I am excited to write in my diary here at RedState not only because I value the opinions of fellow Republicans, but because I enjoy feedback on my opinions as well. You’ll learn from my blog that I am like many young Republicans this day and age; | Read More »