Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator John McCain, a leading voice for reducing carbon emissions, said on Tuesday he will not support the climate change bill being introduced by Senate Democrats, illustrating the lack of bipartisan support for the bill. Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry are expected on Wednesday to unveil their plan for cutting smokestack emissions and building vehicles that pollute less. It calls for a 20 percent cut in U.S. carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2020 and an 83 percent reduction by 2050, according to Senate Republican aides familiar with the Democratic bill. But the legislation...

WASHINGTON -- Have you noticed a climate of hate and mean spiritedness in the land? Whether inspired by racism or not, it certainly exists. This isn’t a unique psychological phenomenon. Remember the brutal anti-unionism of the 1930s, the McCarthy-era anti-communist scare of the 1950s and the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s and early 1970s? President Barack Obama -- the first black U.S. president -- tries diligently to reject claims that racism underlies the public rancor against his health care reform plan and other administration aspirations. He acknowledged recently that there are "some people out there who don’t like me...

He calls for an investigation—of the investigators.. In a letter published nearby, Representative Barney Frank takes us to task for an editorial last week in which we noted his absence from the House's 345-75 vote to defund Acorn, the "community organizing" group that has been caught on video at least five times offering advice on how to evade the authorities while enslaving children as prostitutes. Mr. Frank, whose spokesman tells us he would have voted against the measure (that is, in favor of funding Acorn), has a point. Any implication that he is trying to dodge the matter is mistaken.

Eight Marine soldiers were killed Monday afternoon in an ambush staged by Abu Sayyaf bandits in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, military officials said. AFP public affairs office chief Lt. Col, Romeo Brawner Jr, said troops from the 4th Marine Battalion Landing Team were on their way to their base when they were waylaid by the Abu Sayyaf at Sitio Talatac in Bato-bato village around 1:30 p.m. Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan, head of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 4 (MBLT 4), said his men were able to return fire, resulting to the death of five bandits. “Five died on...

JP Morgan Chase has been challenged to sever its financial support for ACORN. As more video tapes are released of ACORN workers discussing illicit financial schemes, the bank has been called out for funding activities in violation of its own polices. Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), in a letter addressed to JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, warns that continued support could jeopardize the institution’s credibility. “Continued identification with ACORN harms the company’s brand name and reputation, and carries special risks for this company, a recipient of taxpayer TARP funds,” he wrote. “The New...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said she worries that the protests of President Obama's health-care legislation may be of a similar nature to anti-gay rhetoric in the late 1970s in San Francisco, which culminated in the assassinations of two of her home town's political leaders. Pelosi, responding to a question about anti-Obama sentiment, said that partisans on all sides of an issue have the right to voice their opinion. But after pausing, she added: "I have concerns about some of the language that is being used, because I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco....

The Democratic-led House approved a bill Thursday that would overhaul college lending and spend tens of billions of dollars on student grants, community colleges, school construction and early childhood education. The bill would end a program that subsidizes private lenders that provide federally guaranteed student loans. The government itself would make all such federal loans as of July 1, effectively cutting out banks and other lenders as middlemen. That would be a major shift because direct government lending in the last academic year accounted for about a quarter of federal loan volume.

(CNN) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that racial politics played a role in South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during President Obama's speech to Congress last week and in some of the opposition the president has faced since taking office. Former President Carter tells "NBC Nightly News" that racism has surfaced in opposition to President Obama. "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American," Carter told "NBC Nightly News." "I live in the South, and I've seen the...

WASHINGTON -- Do presidents and other public officials lie? Do birds fly? That age-old question was recently evoked when Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted "You lie" after President Barack Obama told a joint session of Congress that his national health care proposal would not cover illegal immigrants. Wilson’s verbal attack was reminiscent of the back benchers in London’s House of Commons where rhetorical bombast is more frequent than in the halls of Congress. Wilson apologized for his blast but that didn’t stop the House from voting 240-179 to rebuke him for a breach of decorum "to the discredit of the...

Former President Jimmy Carter has accused critics of Barack Obama of racism following an outburst by a Republican congressman. Does he have a point? BY TOM CHIVERS President Jimmy Carter says that criticism of Barack Obama shows that there is an “inherent feeling” in America that a black man should not be President. It follows the South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson shouting “you lie!” during a speech by the President to Congress.

The blogging, tweeting, one-woman sensation is cutting a wide swath across the media landscape. BY JAMES RAINEY (snip) More importantly, we should abide Meghan McCain, at least for now, because she has tried to do some good, and tell at least a few small truths, on her initial orbit through the media firmament. Giddy girl-gab notwithstanding, McCain is one of the few voices in the Republican Party to speak out against the extremists who lately have been spinning out dark conspiracy theories about the fate of the nation. She has called for a more civil public discourse. (snip)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. military can pull most of its troops from Afghanistan in the next year as "victory" is not a realistic outcome, a report by the Cato Institute says. Malou Innocent and Ted Galen Carpenter in an authoritative report on the conflict in Afghanistan note that "a definitive, conventional 'victory' is not a realistic option." Washington said its strategy in Afghanistan is focused in part on denying al-Qaida and other militants the opportunity to establish a safe haven in the embattled nation. The authors, however, opine that denying a sanctuary to terrorists does not require...

RUSH: And you enjoyed it for all the reasons that you've mentioned. But we've gotta be really, really careful here, Dana, about this left versus right government thing. You mentioned third party, and we've been through this with Perot. CALLER: I know that. I know that. And I think Perot helped Clinton get in, I don't doubt that. I do believe there has to be a huge movement before people can vote that way. RUSH: But a third party is not going to do anything other but ensure the reelection of Obama and every other Democrat running for office because...

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is the chief proponent of a public option "trigger," but she said Monday that she does not expect one in the Finance Committee bill. In fact, the trigger has barely come up in the Gang of Six talks. "It probably will be a straight co-op at this point," Snowe said. "We did not discuss the trigger to be part of the co-op, at least in the framework we have before us." She said she wasn't abandoning the idea, which Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) panned on the Sunday talk shows. "It may be something down the road,"...

CHARLESTON (AP) – Republican U.S. Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham said Monday that President Barack Obama should act quickly to send additional troops to Afghanistan for the war against the Taliban. McCain, of Arizona, told reporters after a town hall meeting on health care at the military college The Citadel that the president knows what's needed and he should make the decision immediately. "Then we'll work with him to sell it to the American people who are understandably weary of the conflict," McCain said.

The second big bill before Congress is also in difficulties. New York & Houston. Compared with the argy-bargy over health-care reform, this summer’s public conversation about controlling carbon emissions has been a model of restraint. In August, a Zogby poll commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation found that 71% of likely voters in America support the Waxman-Markey bill, a proposal to create a cap-and-trade mechanism for carbon dioxide that cleared the House of Representatives in June. But the bill still faces an uphill climb in the Senate, which resumed work on September 8th.

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Heartland Democratic Presidential Forum 12/07 (forum exclusively for thousands of community organizers including Gamaliel and ACORN people) Heartland Democratic Presidential Forum 12/07 (forum exclusively for thousands of community organizers including Gamaliel and ACORN people) Obama said ACORN and friends, responsible for voting fraud and the subprime crisis, are going to be shaping policy for an obama presidency

Facing fire from his own party over the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, President Obama is getting cover from an unlikely source: Republicans. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia are among a growing faction of congressional Republicans speaking up for the Democratic president as he faces questions of whether to escalate the U.S. troop presence in an increasingly bloody conflict. Mr. Cantor, who has helped lead the fight in the House GOP caucus against much of Mr. Obama's domestic agenda, voiced support Friday for Mr. Obama's willingness to carry the fight to the Taliban...