Free Republic

Free Republic is a fringe right-wing Christian fundamentalist site... or so they say... and they might even be right. We don't go for any of that godless left-wing big government socialist malarkey. And we do put our faith and trust in God, not government. We are pro-God, pro-Life, pro-Family, pro-Country and pro-Liberty. We do not believe that government or science knows what's best for us or our children. We will make our own decisions thank you very much. Every once in a while some group of posters get together and try to bend Free Republic to their will. Now, we...

House of Lords, 8 December 2009: Lord Turnbull: My Lords, on first reading the Committee on Climate Change’s latest progress report, I found it an impressive document. It was broad in scope and very detailed. But the more I dug into it the more troubled I became. Below the surface there are serious questions about the foundations on which it has been constructed. There are questions in four areas-the framework created by the Climate Change Act 2008, the policy responses at EU and UK level, the estimate of costs and finally the scientific basis on which the whole scheme of...

Yeah, he’s pals with Rush. But even so — he had it coming. Somewhere Chris Matthews is watching this and thinking, in all seriousness, “She can read.”

Sarah Palin will make a surprise appearance on "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" Friday night. Security was thick around the NBC stage Friday afternoon, while the former vice presidential candidate was hurriedly rehearsing a skit. Palin, who ensures high TV ratings wherever she goes, was a last-minute booking for NBC. Sources say members of the NBC audience were led outdoors when first Palin arrived for rehearsals in order to keep her appearance a secret from them. Sarah Palin to appear on 'Tonight Show' By Paul Bond Dec 11, 2009, 07:32 PM ET Sarah Palin will make a surprise appearance...

WASHINGTON - The House passed the most ambitious restructuring of federal financial regulations since the New Deal on Friday, aiming to head off any replay of last year's Wall Street failures that plunged the nation deep into recession. The sprawling legislation would give the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy, create a new agency to oversee consumer banking transactions and shine a light into shadow financial markets that have escaped the oversight of regulators. The vote was a party-line 223-202. No Republicans voted for the bill; 27 Democrats voted against it. While a victory for...

Excluding the Rasmussen and Gallup overnight tracking polls, there have been seven major national surveys released this week. President Obama has recorded an all-time low job approval rating in six of the seven: Quinnipiac 46% Marist 46% CNN/Opinion Research 48% Ipsos/McClatchy 49% CBS News/NY Times 50% Bloomberg* 54% Only one poll - FOX News/Opinion Dynamics - showed in increase in President Obama's job approval rating over the last month. In the current survey, FOX has Obama at 50% approval, up from his all-time low of 46% recorded in last month's poll.

Health Care Shocker: Special Democratic Voting Counties Would Get Protected Medicare Benefits http://www.breitbart.tv/healthcare-shocker-special-democratic-voting-counties-would-get-protected-medicare-benefits/

Is Rep. Michele Bachmann a “lovable little fuzzball”? Those of us who know her on a more personal basis know that’s a pretty good description of Michele personally, but politically,she’s about as tough as they get. Breitbart TV’s B-cast interviews Bachmann, who brings listeners up to date on Barney Frank’s financial-reform legislation, which dropped on the House last week. It’s 1300 pages long, and the vote will be taken — today. It reorders the entire financial-services industry and vastly increases government control over it. Oh, and ACORN, too. Frank bypassed the committee process, according to Bachmann, and she doesn’t see...

The House has passed a sweeping overhaul of financial regulations that would govern Wall Street and reconfigure the power of the agencies overseeing the nation's banking system. The vote was 223-202. The legislation is a priority of President Barack Obama's. It is designed to address the shortfalls that led to last year's calamitous financial meltdown. New powers would give the federal government the right to break up big risky companies. It also would create a consumer agency to police lenders.

Barack Obama’s healthcare reform, the signature policy of his presidency, looks likely to clear its most formidable obstacle by Christmas. Within the next few days, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office will give its fiscal “scoring” of the compromise reached on Tuesday between five moderate and five liberal Democratic senators. IF the CBO were to pronounce the package at least deficit-neutral – a big if, given the body’s ­Jesuitical approach to bud­get accounting – the way would probably be cleared for a rapid vote in the Senate. Since the House of Representatives has already passed its own 1,990-page bill, only a...

cut n paste link here: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20091211/1afedpay11_st.art.htm?loc=interstitialskip

ClimateGate doesn’t just bring down the scientists who wrote the emails, it brings down all the institutions and organizations that were supposed to have exacting standards and ought to have exposed the crimes years ago. The men whose work was so bogus, were lauded by the IPCC, published in Nature and Science, and defended by the National Academy of Science. This evidence of collusion, falsification, hiding data, and consistent deceit blows away the infrastructures of the practice of science. It doesn’t hurt the scientific method, but it destroys the premise that the IPCC expert review means anything, that peer review...

The Obama administration's pay czar is limiting the cash compensation for executives at companies that received the largest taxpayer bailouts to $500,000. The 25th through the 100th top earners at Citigroup, GMAC, American International Group and General Motors also must take more than half their compensation in stock, and at least half must be delayed for three or more years, said Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury Department's Special Master for Executive Compensation.

Apparently his presentation in Copenhagen was interupted so he confronted the protesters the next day. This is a must see classic. Get it viral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8WawButqIc

Michelle Bachmann describes the Bill that Barney Frank is pushing through as the "Financial Services Takeover Bill".

Suspected Jewish settlers today attacked a mosque in the northern West Bank, burning holy books and spraying threatening graffiti in Hebrew on the building, Palestinian officials and Israeli police said. Extremists broke into the mosque in the village of Yasuf, near the city of Nablus, and burned Muslim holy books and prayers carpets, while sprayed slogans on the floor reading “Price tag – greetings from Effi.” The so-called price tag is the Jewish settlers’ policy of attacking Palestinians and their property in retribution for any Israeli government curb on settlement expansion. Effi is a Jewish name. The dawn attack appeared...

U.S. To Back Unilateral Declaration Of Palestinian State? Top official negotiating with Washington on threat to ask for recognition from U.N. By Aaron Klein © 2009 WorldNetDaily TEL AVIV – The Palestinian Authority has been negotiating an understanding with the Obama administration regarding a Palestinian threat to unilaterally ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state outside of negotiations with Israel, WND has learned. According to a senior PA official, the PA's chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, headed a team that held a series of meetings the past few weeks with members of the Obama administration in Washington to discuss...

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday that he expects "significant" new sanctions" to be imposed on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme. "I think that you are going to see some significant additional sanctions imposed by the international community, assuming that the Iranians don't change course and agree to do the things they agreed to at the beginning of October," Gates told a group of US soldiers in Kirkuk, Iraq. Gates arrived in Iraq on a suprise visit on Thursday, following a trip to Afghanistan where Washington is ramping up its military commitment. [...]

The Met Office, Britain's national weather service, "has embarked on an urgent exercise to bolster the reputation of climate-change science" in the wake of a whistle-blower's revelation of widespread misconduct by climate scientists, London's Times reports:More than 1,700 scientists have agreed to sign a statement defending the "professional integrity" of global warming research. They were responding to a round-robin request from the Met Office, which has spent four days collecting signatures. . . . One scientist told The Times he felt under pressure to sign. "The Met Office is a major employer of scientists and has long had a policy of only appointing...

A high-ranking Al Qaeda figure reportedly was killed Thursday in a U.S. drone aircraft attack in north Pakistan. The attack, first reported by NBC News, was officially denied by Pakistani officials, though sources told Fox News that neither Usama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri were among those killed. Pakistani media report six militants were killed in the attack, including four foreign fighters, a classification in the tribal areas that typically refers to Al Qaeda. The attack was part of the expanded use of Predator drones recently authorized by the White House, sources told Fox News, though the drone attacks, which...

The controversial New Orleans fundraiser for Majority Leader Harry Reid is being called off as the Senate is expected to remain in session over the weekend to deal with the healthcare bill, according to an official with his campaign. Reid had been scheduled to attend a Saturday brunch co-hosted by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Democratic consultant James Carville at the New Orleans home of investor David Voelker. But Republicans were mocking the majority leader ahead of his planned absence from the Capitol. "Republicans are prepared to provide a platform for the debate as long as it takes," FoxNews.com quoted...

Today, we announced that Nielsen Business Media has reached an agreement with e5 Global Media Holdings, LLC, a new company formed jointly by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, for the sale of eight brands in the Media and Entertainment Group, including Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, The Clio Awards, Backstage, Billboard, Film Journal International and The Hollywood Reporter. e5 Global Media Holdings has also agreed to acquire our Film Expo business, which includes the ShoWest, ShowEast, Cinema Expo International and CineAsia trade shows. In addition, we’ve made the decision to cease operations for Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews. This move...

NEW YORK (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union has lost a quarter of its yearly donations after a major donor cut off $19 million in annual donations because of economic difficulties. David Gelbaum, a wealthy California conservationist, said he was indefinitely stopping the donations that had made him the New York-based group's largest anonymous donor

Five Northern Virginia residents have been arrested in Pakistan after family members and the Muslim community contacted the FBI with suspicions that the men had gone overseas to perform acts of terrorism. Pakistan Embassy spokesman Nadeem Kiani confirmed the arrest Monday of "five persons in Pakistan," in Sargodha in Punjab province, though there were discrepancies between U.S. and Pakistani officials about the men's names. "All five of the men had U.S. passports and they were taken into custody by Pakistani police on Dec. 7," Mr. Kiani told The Washington Times. "The police had information that there were foreigners in the...

The Labor Department says initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 474,000. That was above analysts' expectations of 460,000. A Labor Department analyst says claims were partly inflated by a surge following the Thanksgiving holiday week, when many state unemployment offices were closed.

Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara estimated that Israel would not be able to attack Iran without the support of the United States. Speaking to heads of the ruling Ba'ath Party, al-Shara claimed Thursday that US President Barack Obama has tried to "restrain" Israel in order to prevent a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. "The Israelis, despite their (vast arsenal), were unable to force the Palestinian people in Gaza to surrender and wave the white flag, he said.

Police conducted a search operation in Tehsil Bhalwal, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Kotmomen and Shahpur and arrested 64 persons, including five foreigners, from hotels and other places.The police said most of the arrested persons belonged to Afghanistan. Our correspondent adds from Washington: The arrest of US-born Pakistanis of banned militant organisation Jaish-e-Muhammad in Sargodha has apparently solved the case of mysterious missing of at least three Pakistani-American students from the DC metro area.Earlier, it was reported here that the US federal investigators were searching for a Howard University dental student and four other Muslim men reportedly missing from the Washington, DC area....

A GOP counter-delegation is forming to undermine the Obama administration's work on an international climate change agreement in Copenhagen, warning that the president is poised to make commitments he can't keep and drawing heightened attention to controversial leaked e-mails. A GOP counter-delegation is forming to undermine the Obama administration's work on an international climate change agreement in Copenhagen, warning that the president is poised to make commitments he can't keep and drawing heightened attention to controversial leaked e-mails. At least a half-dozen Republican senators and representatives are planning to head to Denmark next week, as part of the overall U.S....

President Barack Obama said "the freed-up money can help reduce the record-high federal budget deficit and "invest in job creation on Main Street rather than Wall Street."

Republicans and conservative think tanks are calling for the Obama administration to revoke its declaration that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant subject to EPA regulation on the grounds that the EPA's primary source of information for the finding was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the source of the highly controversial "Climategate" e-mails. Newsmax has verified there are 34 references to IPCC information in the EPA's 25-page "Proposed Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases," which was published in the April 24 edition of the Federal Register (pages 18886-18910). This is the document the EPA used...

The highlight, or lowlight, of today’s rare bipartisan meeting with Congress on the economy. Consider that progress: Remember, this is the same guy who once invited “the folks who created the mess” (read: Republicans, and only Republicans) to stop talking and get out of his way. President Barack Obama told House Republican leaders to “stop trying to frighten the American people” even as he and Democrats said they see a possibility for bipartisan cooperation on job creation legislation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters that Obama made the admonition during a bipartisan meeting at the White House on...

A new tipline targets Sheriff Joe Arpaio The tip line, 1-877-613-2137, is in both English and Spanish. By KFYI News (KFYI News) The U.S. Department of Justice has set up a tip-line as part of its investigation of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The tip line, 1-877-613-2137, is in both English and Spanish and asks those with information about the sheriff’s department to leave their names and numbers. The USDOJ is investigating Arpaio and his deputies regarding possible civil rights violations related to crime sweeps, traffic stops and immigration raids.

We can only hope that world leaders will do nothing more than enjoy a pleasant bicycle ride around the charming streets of Copenhagen come December. For if they actually manage to wring out an agreement based on the current draft text of the Copenhagen climate-change treaty, the world is in for some nasty surprises. Draft text, you say? If you haven't heard about it, that's because none of our otherwise talkative political leaders have bothered to tell us what the drafters have already cobbled together for leaders to consider. And neither have the media. Enter Lord Christopher Monckton. The former...

Obama Breaks Vow on Plans for Repaid TARP Money http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-breaks-vow-on-plans-for-repaid-tarp-money/

The embattled community group ACORN could help regulate the financial services industry under new financial regulatory reforms, said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Wednesday. Bachmann, a consistent opponent of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), said that an amendment given in the House Financial Services Committee could allow the group to sit on an advisory panel that monitors the regulations. “ACORN may have a seat at the table being on the oversight committee regulating the financial services industry of the United States,” Bachmann said at a press conference. “And that would be a cruel joke." Bachmann’s remarks come...

[...] The draft Copenhagen Framework Convention on Climate Change establishes an international oversight body simply called “the government.” As the Convention draft states: “The government will be ruled by the COP [Conference of the Parties],” which will execute “public policies . . . to which the market rules and related dynamics should be subordinate.” Like most big-government schemes, the Copenhagen Convention unleashes new agencies, panels, and other bureaucracies bearing such acronyms as EBFTA, TPRDA, TPRDM, and UNFCCC. The treaty even invokes “the NAMAs and the NAPAs” — sadly, not a reference to a nearly homonymous ’60s pop group. The Executive...

The deliberate setup for the White House power grab is built into the each of the health care bills and, if they fail, little-known twin bills called “MedPAC Reform of 2009” are waiting in the wings. The bills, S.B. 1110 and H.R. 2718, craftily amend the Social Security Act and transfer the Medicare guideline and rule setting processes, from the legislative branch to the executive branch. These bills offer cover to one another in case one doesn’t pass the House or Senate, respectively. Remember, Democrats need to gain executive branch authority by amending the Social Security Act over Medicare regulations...

The Obama administration is warning Congress that if it doesn't move to regulate greenhouse gases, the Environmental Protection Agency will take a "command-and-control" role over the process in a way that could hurt business.

For the past few weeks we've been hard at work putting together what will be the biggest Tea Party Express of them all!From March 27 - April 15, 2010 the "Tea Party Express III: Just Vote Them Out" tour will cross the nation holding tea party rallies in dozens of cities across America, culminating in the grand daddy rally of them all in Washington, D.C. on tax day!We'll be kicking off the effort with another mega rally - on the opposite end of the country, in Searchlight, NV - Harry Reid's hometown (population of just over 500 people).  We're...

WASHINGTON – The federal government improperly posted an internal guide to its airport passenger screening procedures on the Internet in a way that could offer insight into how to sidestep security. The document outlines who is exempt from certain additional screening measures, including members of the U.S. armed forces, governors and lieutenant governors, the mayor of Washington, D.C., and their immediate families. It offers examples of identification documents that screeners accept, including congressional, federal air marshal and CIA ID cards; and it explains that diplomatic pouches and certain foreign dignitaries with law enforcement escorts are not subjected to any screening...

The second leg of Quinnipiac's big national poll dropped this morning -- and it shows a serious erosion of support for Congressional health reform efforts and the president's performance on the issue -- along with an all-time low 46 percent approval rating for the POTUS. Most ominously for Dems: Nearly two-thirds of registered voters polled said extending coverage to 30 million-plus people will result in a decline in the quality of their own health care. That gives plenty of room to the GOP to personalize attacks on the plan, Obama and Congress. The lowlights for Dems: --O approval/disapproval: 46/44 percent....

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday moved to extend the government's $700 billion bailout fund into October 2010 and pledged to deploy no more than $550 billion of it. Geithner, in letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the extension of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) until Oct 3, 2010, would allow the Obama administration to use bailout funds to fight home foreclosures and boost small business lending.

PASADENA, Texas -- A huge explosion rocked a plant in Pasadena Wednesday. It happened before 9 a.m. at American Acryl, located in the 12100 block of Port Road at Highway 146. A thick, black cloud of smoke was visible for miles over the area, and reports from the scene indicated the plant was still burning at 9:20 a.m. A shelter-in-place was issued for Seabrook via an automated message from city officials.

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. government racked up a gaping shortfall in the first two months of this fiscal year after posting a record budget deficit last year, congressional analysts said on Friday. In October and November, the government spent $292 billion more than it took in, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said. That was even worse than the same period last year, when the government was on its way to posting a record $1.4 trillion deficit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The federal budget has been battered by the worst economic downturn since the...

Nearly $6 million in stimulus money was paid to two firms run by Mark Penn, who was Hillary Rodham Clinton's pollster in the 2008 presidential election. Federal records show that $5.97 million from the $787 billion stimulus helped preserve three jobs at Burson'Marsteller, the global public'relations and communications firm headed by Penn.

TEHRAN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Iran would strike back at Israeli weapons manufacturing sites and nuclear installations if the Jewish state attacks the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities, Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declare carbon a toxic pollutant Obama pulls end run As I wrote here yesterday, I believe the feeding frenzy currently taking place at the Copenhagen trough will result in the ultimate global governance of every man woman and child on the planet. A climate treaty may not actually be signed and agreed upon by the 192 countries whose representatives are currently living LARGE on caviar and limousines at the conference, but the rules such a treaty might impose will still take effect. The main reason to believe this will happen is that President Barack Obama has...

The Servant of God John Paul II warned of what happens at the “…level of politics and government…” when “…the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people-even if it is the majority”. He warned that “… democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism. The State is no longer the "common home" where all can live together on the basis of principles of fundamental equality, but is transformed into a tyrant State, which arrogates to itself the...

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, frustrated by the Justice Department's failure to explain the dismissal of charges against New Black Panther Party members who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during last year's elections, has subpoenaed the department demanding records showing how the case was handled. David P. Blackwood, the commission's general counsel, said Tuesday in a letter to the Justice Department that efforts since June to obtain an explanation had proceeded "without any success" and the "dearth of cooperation" had prompted the commission to issue subpoenas. "We are both mindful of the sensitivity of the subject matter involved and...

Tuesday, thousands of people mourned their deaths with a touching memorial service. How did Mike Huckabee honor the victims? He appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" to promote his book.