Free Republic

President Obama and congressional Democrats face an uphill climb to reclaim the support of independent voters who vaulted them to the White House and huge majorities in Congress in 2008. At the end of the bitter, intensely partisan battle to pass Mr. Obama's health care overhaul plan, independent voters, once captivated by hopeful campaign promises, are feeling burned and appear eager to oust Democrats in November's midterm elections. "There is an overall sense of frustration that no one is listening," pollster Scott Rasmussen said about a problem that has plagued the political party in power for decades. Mr. Rasmussen said...

There is a quiet anger boiling in America. It is the anger of millions of hard-working citizens who pay their bills, send in their income taxes, maintain their homes and repay their mortgage loans -- and see their government reward those who do not. It is the anger of small town and Middle American folks who have never been to Manhattan, who put their savings in a community bank and borrow from a local credit union, who watch Washington lawmakers and presidents of both parties hand billions in taxpayer bailouts to the reckless Wall Street titans who brought down the...

("Joe the plumber")

THERE were times when last Sunday’s great G.O.P. health care implosion threatened to bring the thrill back to reality television. On ABC’s “This Week,” a frothing and filibustering Karl Rove all but lost it in a debate with the Obama strategist David Plouffe. A few hours later, the perennially copper-faced Republican leader John Boehner revved up his “Hell no, you can’t!” incantation in the House chamber — instant fodder for a new viral video remixing his rap with will.i.am’s “Yes, we can!” classic from the campaign. Boehner, having previously likened the health care bill to Armageddon, was now so apoplectic...

Moran, a thickly built Virginian with a temper that runs hot on occasion, was summoned from his inner office by the noise of angry protesters interacting with his staff, according to the congressman's account. He confronted the protesters, prompting staff to step between them and the activists to ask whether Moran needed "bodyguards" to protect him. "We're not protecting him from you, we're protecting you from him," a staffer explained.

1. A new Quinnipiac national poll provides us a detailed look into the composition of the nascent tea party movement. The conclusion? It looks a lot like the Republican party. Nearly three-quarters of those who identify with the tea party movement say they are Republicans while just 16 percent describe themselves as Democrats and five percent call themselves independents. Tea party types are also far more favorably inclined to the Republican party with 60 percent viewing the GOP in a favorable light as compared to just 20 percent who view the party unfavorably. Just eight percent of tea parties regard...

The man who berated and tossed dollar bills at a man with Parkinson's disease during a health care protest last week says he is remorseful and scared. "I snapped. I absolutely snapped and I can't explain it any other way," said Chris Reichert of Victorian Village, in a Dispatch interview. In his first comments on an incident that went viral across the Internet and was repeatedly played on cable television news shows, Reichert said he is sorry about his confrontation with Robert A. Letcher, 60, of the North Side. Letcher, a former nuclear engineer who suffers from Parkinson's, was verbally...

What does everyone think?

It is unwise to give people the idea that they have nothing to lose. Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Our politicians are failing that test shamefully, and it is up to us to send them the report card. We hope they will get the message from the 2010 and 2012 elections, so that my dream will remain only a dream, and not become a real nightmare when the patient people lose their patience.

America Prepare... For This Is Our Future Short Term If Obama and Pelosi have their way. Yet … 90 million well armed Americans will rise and prevent us from ever being in such a position. Video is here (see link) America Remember in November It will be Impossible to Forget as next up are more Marxist Measures and Takeover such as: Article lists what is next here We are guaranteed higher unemployment, inflation and economic collapse. In November if we have free elections we will eject them all. All Socialists and Communists will be ousted, even with fake ‘community organizer...

On a bright, brisk afternoon in mid-February, with snow still thick on the ground from storms that had battered Washington the week before, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele met with more than 50 members of the Tea Party, the Twitter Age conservative movement that is reshaping the U.S. political landscape. Steele, RNC chairman since January 2009, had invited them to the plush Capitol Hill Club, built as a clubhouse for the party's top brass next door to RNC headquarters. According to several accounts, not long into the meeting JoAnn Abbott, an activist from Virginia who calls herself the 'Tea...

I’m not crazy about congressional Democrats right now. As I write this, Congressional Democrats are engaged in a furious partisan battle to pass their idea of healthcare reform. Alas it is an idea the majority of Americans do not share. It is in fact an idea that the majority of congressmen do not share, which is why President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are twisting arms, bribing, cajoling and threatening all manner of mischief in order to eek out a majority vote – or non vote -- on a bill the people have made clear they do not want....

4:25 p.m. WASHINGTON -- Chaos reigns at the Capitol. It's just hard to say whether it's crazier outside the building or inside. As House Democrats began the final slog toward health care reform—an 11-step process that began at noon Sunday—protesters gathered on the Capitol's south lawn, waving signs and chanting "Kill the bill!" and "Naaaaancy!" Republican members of Congress periodically emerged and waved from the balcony, to cheers. Rep. Steve King (R-NY) dangled a "Don't Tread on Me" flag, while another Republican held up a giant "No!" sign. Some Democrats braved the hordes, as well: Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) ventured...

Tea Party protesters disrupted Speaker Nancy Pelosi's press stakeout at a House Office Building, yelling "you're a disgrace to your office" and one protester yelled a gay epithet at Rep. Barney Frank again on Sunday, adding yet another layer of chaos to an already tense afternoon on Capitol Hill. In a moment of apparently unscripted political theater, Pelosi and Democratic leaders marched arm in arm — with civil rights pioneer John Lewis — across the Capitol complex while protesters yelled at them and police held a barricade. The Pelosi disruption came inside the Cannon office building, where Democrats where whipping...

The level of intense anger at Washington is heating up as several high-profile groups are calling on millions of Americans to slam Congress with phone calls, e-mails and faxes demanding that lawmakers vote "no" on the health-care bill. As WND reported, reforms pushed by President Obama and other Democrats may be approved without ever actually having a direct vote, but could be "deemed" to have been passed and then signed into law by Obama. The process is called the "Slaughter Strategy," named for Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Rules Committee. Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit group that focuses...

Biden: "The proof of the pudding is in the eating."... "We're going to control the insurance companies."

The political commentariat doesn't know what to make of those thousands of Americans who have spontaneously thronged to tea parties and town hall meetings to oppose the big government programs of the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders.Some on the Left attack them as fascists or racists, though evidence of that is sorely lacking. David Brooks in the New York Times compared them with the New Left campus radicals of the 1970s, which comes closer to reality but doesn't quite ring true.Some tea partiers, citing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, compare themselves with the patriots of 1776 and...

STOP OBAMACARE REDEYE EXPRESS TO WASHINGTON, 3-16, FROM OHIO This is our last chance to stop government mandated healthcare and save our freedom. Luxury coach (video entertainment system with 6 screens, reclining seats and a john) leaves from the Flower Factory parking lot located at 929 North Lexington-Springmill Road, Ontario, 44906, (a suburb of Mansfield). It’s across from Lowes. Please park on the south side of the lot. Bus departs at 11 PM on Monday, March 15 Bus arrives at Union Station at about 7:30 AM on Tuesday, March 16 Eat breakfast at the gigantic, excellent food court in Union...

For many Americans the distance between what they believe is best for the nation and what government actually does has become an infuriating chasm that was never meant to exist in a representative government designed to reflect the will of the majority. No other single public policy so reinforces a perception of self-dealing, unfairness and incompetence as the corrupted federal tax code. Bloated beyond decipherability at 67,500 pages of regulations, the income tax system is driven by personal power, lobby profits and, through tax inducements and penalties, a changing menu of citizen and business manipulation. Married people pay higher rates...

A lot of people see doom on the Democratic Party's horizon this fall. Respected political analyst Charlie Cook has even said he believes Republicans will recapture the House this year. But Howard Dean, the former governor who served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee until last year, believes things might not be as bad as they seem. "I think what you're going to see in the fall is not so much an anti-Democratic vote, I think you're going to see an anti-incumbent vote, and I think that's going to include Republicans," Dean said in an interview with Salon on...

The few controversial parts of CPAC 2010 were outweighed by the momentum driving the various factions on the right together - opposition to the federal government's spending, bailouts, and attempted takeover of healthcare. 10,000 turned out for CPAC 2010 this year, 1500 more than last year. With Republicans out of power in Washington and Tea Partiers revolting against the Obama administration's massive spending and bailouts, conservatives are coming together stronger than ever. Although there was a National Tea Party convention earlier this month in Nashville featuring Sarah Palin, attended by 1500, it was clear that Tea Partiers were unified with...

WASHINGTON – It is probably fair to say that U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, D-Pa., started it all. He perceived, long before anyone else, that this will not be the year of the incumbent. Armed with campaign battle scars, a cantankerous personality and fairly long-in-the-tooth seniority (even by Senate standards), Specter has come to symbolize the end of the incumbent. A CNN poll last week showed that only one-third of U.S. voters (a record-low number) think their members of Congress deserve to go back next year. When Specter switched parties last spring, he was brutally honest why: He didn't want to...

An angry "Tea Party" movement that Republican leaders hope to harness to boost their party's chances in the in the 2010 congressional midterm elections could also be a potential blow to GOP outreach to minorities - including Jewish voters. .......... "It's not a danger at the moment, but it bears watching," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "We've seen this before, and it always carries with it the risk the militants and extremists really will get a foothold. All such manifestations are threatening to minorities." In a report last year, the ADL warned that the Tea Partiers...

From The Sunday Times February 21, 2010 Angry voters will force action on runaway deficit Irwin Stelzer: American Account So all is coming right. Sales of existing homes in the final quarter of last year were 27.2% above the 2008 level. Home construction jumped 2.8% in January, to its highest level in six months. The mining, manufacturing and utilities sectors also grew at satisfactory rates as did retail sales. So confident is the Federal Reserve in the recovery that it has raised a key interest rate. Alas, every silver lining has a cloud — in the case of the American...

The universe of House seats that Republicans could conceivably flip into their column is expanding and the number of seats that Democrats would wrest from the GOP is dwindling. That is the finding of a CQ Politics analysis of all 435 districts in the House, which Democrats control 255 to 178, with two vacancies in Democratic-held_districts. To accurately reflect the current political environment, CQ Politics has decided to change the ratings of House races in 27 districts. All but four of the changes upgrade the prospects for Republicans — another sign of the challenge facing Democrats in November and the...

The “Tea Party Nation” held its first national convention on February 4. The enthusiasm surrounding and national media coverage of this event testified to the ever-increasing national strength of the Tea Party movement. This momentum should make the Republican Party very afraid. Similar to the Birther movement, this related manifestation of right-wing extremism represents a political fire that could seriously burn the GOP. First of all, any movement that brings Sarah Palin back into the spotlight is bad for the Republicans. Although her speech to the Tea Party national convention has generated very different reactions, it is undeniable that the...

On-Line Tax Revolt March on Washington Set! A Call to ActionOur campaign has put into motion a powerful On-line Tax Revolt March on Washington, D.C. culminating April 15th in the largest American tax protest event since the Boston Tea Party. It can't come a moment to soon. Over last year there has been a re-awakening of the American tradition of the citizen’s voice in politics and public policy. From coast to coast and in every state people have come together to demand a better government—and a real voice in our government's policies and practices. There is real and legitimate anger...

An estimated 10,000 conservative activists, thinkers, public officials and movement grandees from around the nation convene here today for the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference, the long-running political Woodstock of the Right. There is an obvious exuberance among rank-and-file conservatives that will be on full display during CPAC, and that is Exhibit A for the proposition that one year can make all the difference in the world in American politics. Consider the situation that confronted many of these same attendees at last year's CPAC: President Obama had just been inaugurated and enjoyed remarkably high public approval ratings. Seemingly impregnable Democratic...

MOSCOW, Ohio -- Like many people, Terry Hoskins has had troubles with his bank. But his solution to foreclosure might be unique. Hoskins said he's been in a struggle with RiverHills Bank over his Clermont County home for nearly a decade, a struggle that was coming to an end as the bank began foreclosure proceedings on his $350,000 home. "When I see I owe $160,000 on a home valued at $350,000, and someone decides they want to take it – no, I wasn't going to stand for that, so I took it down," Hoskins said.

To implicate Taxed Enough Already in Joseph Stack's airplane attack on the Austin IRS building, AP reporter Jim Vertuno claims that the 1995 Oklahoma bombing was a tax protest: The tax protest movement has a long history in the U.S. and was a strong component of anti-government sentiments that surged during the 1990s. That wave culminated in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. Several domestic extremists were later convicted in the plot. Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh said otherwise. Like Stack, McVeigh provided a manifesto of his motivations. In "Why I bombed the...

SANDPOINT, Idaho — Pam Stout has not always lived in fear of her government. She remembers her years working in federal housing programs, watching government lift struggling families with job training and education. She beams at the memory of helping a Vietnamese woman get into junior college. But all that was before the Great Recession and the bank bailouts, before Barack Obama took the White House by promising sweeping change on multiple fronts, before her son lost his job and his house. Mrs. Stout said she awoke to see Washington as a threat, a place where crisis is manipulated —...

EXCERPT Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin gave the keynote address. While some media pundits dismiss her, poking fun at her lack of knowledge and verbal gaffes, I believe she must be taken seriously. She is a dangerous populist, who delights her following with crude appeals to patriotism, anger at Washington, resentment at all things "foreign" and her penchant for ridiculing, as "out of touch elites," a wide array of opponents. She may not know history or geography, but to her enthralled base she speaks the truth. Palin has touched the exposed nerve of anger and alienation of some elements...

More than 600 people showed up for a town hall meeting Saturday with 20 state lawmakers to address Nevada’s budget crisis and the upcoming special session of the Legislature. The meeting at the Grant Sawyer State Office Building in downtown Las Vegas filled three rooms and lasted nearly seven hours. More than 100 people shared their ideas about how the state could save money and what programs should or shouldn’t be cut.

The emerging groundswell of what Berkeley Professor of Public Policy Robert Reich recently referred to as the "mad-as-hell" political party reached a tipping point last week in its inaugural national convention in Nashville. Coalescing from a fractious and haphazard collection of right-wing tax-haters, the rapidly evolving Tea Party now includes big-business-hating Democrats and the increasingly powerful independents who are suffering from a significant case of buyer's remorse. Tea Partiers are meeting in homes and church basements from New Jersey to Oregon. In fact, according to the Liberty First PAC website, there are already 10 confirmed Tax Day Tea Party rallies...

Title truncated. Original title below: Video: Barack Obama: Americans Are Tired of Politicians Who “Talk the Talk But Won’t Walk the Walk” ...on Fiscal Responsibility. Yes. He said it with a straight face. Barack Obama tripled the federal budget deficit last year. He will likely top that this year. Just yesterday he signed legislation that authorized the US government to increase the debt by $1.9 trillion. Today, Barack Obama had the gall to lecture America on politicians who, “Talk the talk but won’t walk the walk on fiscal responsibility.”

No, it is not 1860 again. But with all the talk of the 10th Amendment, nullification and interposition, states rights and secession -- following Gov. Rick Perry's misstatement that Texas, on entering the Union in 1845, reserved in its constitution a right to secede -- one might think so. Chalk up another one for those Tea Party activists who exploded in cheers when Sister Sarah brought up the dread word in endorsing Rick Perry in the primary. Looking back in American history, however, these ideas, these sentiments, decried as insane inside the Beltway, were once as American as "The Midnight...

If the tea party movement is the soul of small government and personal responsibility, the Republican Party is the institutional body conservatives need to regain control over government run amok. You can't have one without the other, says Bill Whittle. The transcript of this video essay is below. IMHO: video is better - Bill Whittle's presentation is characteristically passionate; and his passion is contagious. Well, the Tea party movement is not even a year old, and already it is holding its first national convention. I was honored to be asked to speak at the West Los Angeles event on September...

Most voters think the country would be better off if the majority of the current Congress wasn’t reelected this November, and their confidence in their own congressman continues to fall. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of likely voters believe, generally speaking, that it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were defeated this November. Just 19% disagree and say it would be better if most congressional incumbents were reelected. Another 18% aren’t sure. The Political Class strongly rejects these views, however. While 78% of Mainstream voters say it would be better...

Things can get awkward when protesters have to put down their placards and tackle the business of building an organization — networking online and recruiting reliable volunteers, precinct captains and even candidates. The transition is even more uncomfortable when undertaken in the glare of the national media spotlight, as the national tea-party movement attempted to do at its first convention, held in Tennessee over the weekend. As with any protest movement, consensus proved elusive in two days of debate, but they seemed to agree on five key points: 1. Don't Tread on Me The tea-party folks are innately suspicious of...

Voters are madder than ever at the current policies of the federal government. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 75% of likely voters now say they are at least somewhat angry at the government’s current policies, up four points from late November and up nine points since September. The overall figures include 45% who are Very Angry, also a nine-point increase since September. Just 19% now say they’re not very or not at all angry at the government’s policies, down eight points from the previous survey and down 11 from September. That 19% includes only eight percent...

Poll: 75% 'angry' at government By: Andy Barr February 8, 2010 11:27 AM EST Three-quarters of the nation’s voters are “angry” at the federal government’s policies, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey out Monday. Of the 1,000 likely voters surveyed Feb. 5-6, 75 percent said they were either “very” or “somewhat” angry with the “current policies of the federal government.” Forty-five percent said they were “very” angry. Only 19 percent said they were “not very” or “not at all” angry with the government, while 6 percent were not sure. Nearly two-thirds, 60 percent, agreed with the statement that “neither...

"I am not an ideologue," protested President Obama at a gathering with Republican House members last week. Perhaps, but he does have a tenacious commitment to a set of political convictions. Compare his 2010 State of the Union with his first address to Congress a year earlier. In 2009, after passing a $787 billion (now $862 billion) stimulus package, the largest spending bill in galactic history, he unveiled a manifesto for fundamentally restructuring the commanding heights of American society - health care, education and energy. A year later, after stunning Democratic setbacks in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, Obama gave...

FOX News Poll: In 2010 Elections, Incumbents Beware Americans dispense just about as much disdain for Republicans (42 percent favorable; 46 percent unfavorable) as Democrats (42 percent favorable; 48 percent unfavorable), according to a Fox News poll released Friday. As Americans look ahead to the mid-term elections, anything new is preferable to anything old, -- such as an incumbent. And despite recent Republican wins in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey, this is not necessarily good news for Republicans. Americans dispense just about as much disdain for Republicans (42 percent favorable; 46 percent unfavorable) as Democrats (42 percent favorable; 48 percent...

US Tea Party Holds First National Conference The first US national convention of the Tea Party movement has begun, with former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin due to appear as a speaker. The movement brings together people who oppose President Barack Obama's healthcare plan, stimulus package and other issues. Some activists have complained about the $500 (£317) registration fee for the Nashville conference. Barely a year old, the movement gained influence during the healthcare debate. TEA PARTY The movement takes its name from the 1773 protest against British taxation, the Boston Tea Party American colonists rebelled against attempts by Britain to...

January 31, 2010 Angry voters track RINOs and incumbents By Henry Lamb Barack Obama told reporters that he rode the same wave of public anger into office that brought Scott Brown into Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. Not quite. The wave of public anger that elected Scott Brown is focused on Barack Obama and the Congressional Democrats who are pushing his policies. The public anger is more than justified. Both the President and Congress have turned a deaf ear to the expressed will of the people throughout the first year of the new administration. Even after the candidates Obama endorsed and...

I felt the following article on the BBC website, "Why do people often vote against their own interests?", based on the first of two radio programmes collectively called Turkeys voting for Christmas, offered an instructive example for the young writer or broadcaster who aspires to produce material for the BBC. I hope that a few selected quotes will provide some useful tips. Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why is there often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters.Focus now, on that "appears to be", for it is masterful. It - er...

President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will be all smiles as the president arrives at the Capitol for his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, but the happy faces can’t hide relationships that are fraying and fraught. The anger is most palpable in the House, where Pelosi and her allies believe Obama’s reluctance to stake his political capital on health care reform in mid-2009 contributed to the near collapse of negotiations now. But sources say there’s also bad blood between Reid and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, and relations between...

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) insisted that the message sent by Massachusetts voters on January 19 was the same as it had been in cycles past. “I think Massachusetts voters were saying what voters in 06 said what voters in 08 said, ‘Our country’s not working right and we want you to change it.’” Hoyer said that change has not happened as quickly as people would like, but that Democrats should not be held completely responsible. After taking control of Congress in 2006, Hoyer claimed that Republican obstruction prevented a change in economic policies. “President

WASHINGTON (AP) - A once-dismissed loose confederation of Tea Party activists opposed to big government, bailouts and higher taxes is causing heartburn for establishment candidates across the country. They swept into Massachusetts with lightning speed when polls began to show that the eventual winner of last week's special election, Republican Scott Brown, had a shot at upsetting Democrat Martha Coakley for the Senate seat that liberal lion Edward M. Kennedy had held almost 47 years.

WASHINGTON — The remarkable Republican victory in Massachusetts demonstrated convincingly that the deep populist anger fueling the Tea Party movement has migrated from the political fringe to the mainstream, forcing both parties to confront how to channel a growing mood of public resentment to their own ends. Scott Brown’s improbable win was a vivid example of how a candidate with traditional Republican backing — coupled with a strong appeal to activists in the trenches of a grass-roots rebellion — can win even in territory that had been considered out of reach. As the Massachusetts results reverberated on Capitol Hill on...