Free Republic

I've been reading FR for years now but haven't ever commented. I genuinely enjoy the commentary. Sometimes it's intelligent. Sometimes it's terrible. But it's always entertaining. But I have a few questions: Why does it take so much money to keep FR going? I have numerous sites that cost a couple hundred dollars a year to keep going. Why is there censorship? Posts and comments at deleted. If they are bad or objectionable, why delete them? Why can't you self police this?

If you are a mom and pop blogger, getting hit with a Federal lawsuit out of the blue has got to be terrifying. Many of those being sued by RightHaven LLC do not have deep pockets and are afraid that they will lose everything. Clayton Cramer reported that some of those being sued will probably have to declare bankruptcy. Fortunately, its seems that the victims and those opposed to RightHaven's tactics have started to organize. Realizing that information is key, a new website has been established called RightHavenLawsuits.com. They say their mission "is dedicated to gathering together and posting for...

She's appeared at Tea Party rallies across the country and long been considered the movement's de facto leader, but a new CNN poll out Friday suggests Sarah Palin isn't the group's clear favorite for the White House.

The debate agitating many in New Jersey right is whether or not the state’s Governor, Chris Christie, is actually doing much to reform the state as it needs to be. I have to say that I wasn’t impressed with him during his campaign for the Republican nomination against Steve Lonagan. Having no interest in the politics of politic, he sounded like a big government Republican to me. With that in mind, I was nicely surprised by the turn that Christie’s campaign against Corzine took and by some of his policies. He talked about small government, the need for reforming New...

Full text below as copy is from ADN which can only be excerpted.

It is good to criticize fanaticism, esp. BLIND fanaticism, but be equally weary of the fanatical Palin haters that parade around this site. Regardless of how some mask their true wishes for Palin in "constructive critic" guise, there are plenty of writers and thinkers out there who offer honest critique of Palin while having her and our country's best interests in mind and therefore want her to come out WINNING. Most of the FR trolls who post the latest Palin hit-piece of the day could care less for Palin and take joy everytime she supposedly "falls." To these types, Palin...

One of the most flogged excuses by both Palin and her supporters for her resignation as Governor of Alaska was that ethics complaints were "bankrupting" her. But the Independent Council Report issued in conjunction with the decision on her Legal Defense Fund says otherwise. Not only does it show the State of Alaska offered to make payments for her legal costs it shows that even bfore the election the Palin campaign was making alternate plans to not only get the McCain campaign to pay for them but to hit up the Rnc AND set up a legal defense fund. When...

Information in this post is gleened from two sources; http://www.facebook.com/notes/sarah-palin/the-cost-of-legal-warfare-a-few-words-about-todays-defense-fund-agreement/401885808434 http://www.adn.com/2010/06/24/1339431/settlement-of-ethics-complaint.html Yesterday, Sarah Palin's legal defense fund was judged to be in violation of State ethics laws. I have followed this controversy and to be fair, I found the objections to it to be a little thin, but most of us don't live in Alaska and are not famliar with the subtle tones of their ethics laws and issues. I will say this, IMO most if not al of the problems with it could have been avoided early on but Palin in concert with her advisors made several bad decisions...

Video of someone 'Attempting' to heckle Sarah Palin. She response and the crowd loves it.

PHOENIX (AP) — John McCain and Sarah Palin are scheduled to campaign together in Arizona next week for the first time since they conceded the presidential election in Phoenix in 2008. Palin and McCain will be at a rally and picnic in Tucson on March 26, followed the next day by a rally in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.

Why was a founding member of the FreeRepublic LLC 501(c) board banned by a modmin/admin who is no more than a volunteer sitting at home on a ego trip? How many thousands of archive pages were just fractured due to this foolishness? Not only should a full explanation be given to the public, the admin who approved this measure needs to be publicly named, and publicly defend the position. THis is the most abject failure of the modmin system that John Robinson devised in the history of FR since the rebuild in 1999. If the admin powered individual was anyone...

Please read about Breitbart's opening salvo against John Podesta and Media Matters. This is not paranoia. Media Matters, a Soros outfit, is hiring "interns" to come on conservative forums and try to sow division, slow down momentum, forment confusion. And they are better at it than they used to be. They don't curse and swear like liberals on their own forums do.

As the Long-Discussed Energy Project Finally Advances, Discoveries of Fields Outside the State Threaten Chances. The discovery of huge new natural-gas fields across the contiguous U.S. is threatening Alaska's plans for a pipeline to export gas to the lower 48 states. Two rival consortiums, each backed by major energy companies, are competing to build the pipeline, designed to carry gas from Alaska's North Slope to continental markets. Alaskans hope that gas will help offset falling oil production, as transported here from the North Slope. .But even as the project is poised to get off the ground after decades of discussion,...

This is a response to the plan by Obama and his advisors like Cass Sunstein to “cognitively infiltrate” groups they wrongfully designate as targets. So the leftists think they’re gonna pull off an Alinsky-style revolution, for the purpose of overthrowing the United States Constitution? There are many here who will support and defend the United States Constitution, and who will reject the tactics of Saul Alinsky, Cloward-Piven, and all of communism. There are many here who take communist icons at their word, considering them as enemies of the United States. These enemies can be defeated. Sinister characters, with neither the...

...Palin endorses John McCain? Top ten... 1) She's just "playing the game". Standing on principle and voting the RINO's out is fine as long as it doesn't interfere with Sarah becoming prez. 2) If Sarah says supporting RINO's is okay, that's good enough for me. The Messiah is infallible and what do I know?. 3) She's not being inconsistent, she's making a tactical retreat, but hey that's politics. 4) A smart move by the smartest woman in the world. 5) She didn't want to but the dims threatened to file an ethics complaint if she didn't. 6) She's not quiting,...

Loved this... "While some conservatives are sure to be disappointed by the donations to two pols they consider to be Vichy Republicans, the relative few who will be genuinely outraged probably weren't that firmly entrenched in the Palin camp to begin with. On the other side of the coin, the donations will quite likely sit well with moderates and independents, two demographic groups which Sarah Palin knows she must improve her standing with in order to win a general election." So if you are against helping RINO's get reelected, you "probably weren't that firmly entrenched in the Palin camp to...

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele lashed out at his GOP critics on Friday, saying that God made him chairman because of the strength of his belief in the party and that naysayers are afraid of his message of change. "A lot of people think that this is about me. It is not about me," Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, told the Christian Broadcasting Network. "When this job is over, I will go back to doing something else. But God, I really believe, has placed me here for a reason, because who else and why else would you do...

I think it is a good Q. Huck was polling at least 8-10% of GOP voters, it's interesting to know whether those votes now go to the other evangelical Sarah, someone else or whether it puts Hucksters in the undecided column!

Intro and Chapter 1Chapter 2 On Aristotle Palin begins her second chapter with a quote from Aristotle. I think I must be going mad, but I cannot remember this quotation either. Where is it? I cannot find a reference in any book I own . . . but then I am writing this as I read her book. Can someone help me? Did Aristotle say, ” Criticism is something we can avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, being nothing?” I want a reference to the text. It is surely not possible that in less than one hundred pages that Palin...

Chapter 2Chapter Three Palin runs and wins an election for governor in this chapter. The pace of this book reminds you of how young Palin really is for national life. She truly is an outsider. She hates “deals” and “power brokers.” Post-Obama and the Great Recession it would be foolish to dismiss this authentic rage. She sounds most herself when she hitting corrupt special interests that lock people out of decision making. She sounds least like herself when repeating 1980’s Republican bromides. Palin is a populist of the heart, but too sensible to let her populism take her to the...