Free Republic

This week the Senate grinches stole Christmas. The Obama Nation is getting Obamacare. It’s easy to blame the sixty Democrats, as the Wall Street Journal does, for "the worse bill ever." It solemnly declares: "These 60 Democrats are creating a future of epic increases in spending, taxes and command--and control regulation." True enough. But what's the root cause of this permanent disaster? Sorry, friends, but it’s not the Democrats, nor the American people who elected them. The real culprits are two Republicans who ran the show the previous eight years: George W. Bush and his "master political strategist" Karl Rove....

Barack Obama gave himself a B+ on Oprah Winfrey’s White House Christmas Special on ABC, but the American public is far less generous. The latest influential Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll of likely US voters gives Obama a thumping 56 percent disapproval rating – an F grade by any measure. 46 percent strongly disapprove of the president’s job performance, while just 25 percent strongly approve. That’s a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21 percentage points, a staggering figure for a president just 11 months into his term of office. These are historically low approval ratings for a US president, that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday set a Christmas Eve vote on final congressional approval of a bill to provide a two-month increase in the federal debt limit. The measure, passed last week by the House of Representatives, would increase the debt limit, now at $12.1 trillion, by $290 billion. Senate Democrats may approve the measure largely by themselves because most, if not all, Republicans are expected to vote against it, Republican aides said. Democrats control the Senate, 60-40.

At a recent event in the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi, I found myself with my arm around his waist and his arm around my shoulder, posed for a photo opportunity. George W Bush, the much reviled former President of the United States, was in an expansive mood that evening. Aside of his “base” in America, this was fawning that had to be seen to be believed. He is the unquestioned hero of India’s elite. A senior member of the ruling Congress party said he would recommend him for the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award. In his early...

Manmohan Singh’s recent state visit — the first hosted by the Obama administration — has been almost universally criticised in India for being, although high on symbols, everything from a fizzle to a failure. The critics, in this instance, may be exaggerating. If the yardstick of success is replicating the July 2005 achievement, then this summit indeed pales in comparison. The 2005 visit was epochal because it removed the last major structural impediment to better US-Indian strategic relations. Since then, however, bilateral ties have become broad and diverse, spanning a variety of issues where both agreement and disagreement persist in...

Next year's election will be a tough fight for the party in power, but it's got a plan. BY ANDREW MALCOLM & JOHANNA NEUMAN It's an axiom in U.S. politics that the party in power in the White House loses seats in off-year elections. So every Democrat is girding for the fight in 2010. But Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told reporters last week that Democrats have a plan: Remind voters of George W. Bush. (snip) A bash-Bush strategy didn't work too well for Democrats in the New Jersey and Virginia governor's races...

"The Past Eight Years™ has now become the excuse du jour for anything that’s wrong today. It’s the Team Obama© mantra that’s been picked up by editorial writers and columnists, TV talking heads and Democrats everywhere. So let’s look back on “The Past Eight Years™.” ...Forget about zippers that would not stay up and stained blue dresses; remember Y2K? That was the computer code that would disable our entire world: planes would fall from the sky, bank accounts would be wiped out, elevators would stop working and your microwave oven would be turned into a bulky paperweight. People hoarded cash...

Harder to buy US Treasuries Created: 2009-12-18 0:13:35 Author:Zhou Xin and Jason Subler IT is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday. The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, referred to the overall situation globally, not specifically to China, the biggest foreign holder of US government bonds. Chinese officials generally are very careful about commenting on the dollar and Treasuries, given that so much of its US$2.3 trillion reserves are tied to their...

Here's a final set of numbers from our new NBC/WSJ poll that we find fascinating: 57% say the Iraq war has been successful, versus 40% who say it has been unsuccessful. It's a reversal from July 2008, when 43% said Iraq was successful, and 53% said it was unsuccessful.

"The Road," John Hillcoat's adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same title, has been receiving conventionally varied reviews this season. The Los Angeles Times described the apocalyptic film—depicting a man and his son clinging to survival in a future America devastated by an unnamed catastrophe—as "no more than a reasonable facsimile, an honorable attempt at filming an unfilmable book." The Guardian praised "a brutal portrait of a dying planet stalked by starving, desperate men." People who recall the reviews of the novel a few years ago will notice something missing in nearly all of the movie analyses, and...

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee concluded its last scheduled interest rate meeting of 2009 Wednesday with no change in rates and a pledge to keep borrowing costs exceptionally low for an extended period. In leaving its benchmark rate in a range of zero to 0.25 percent, the Fed acknowledged both improvement and continued weakness. “Household spending appears to be expanding at a moderate rate, though it remains constrained by a weak labor market, modest income growth, lower housing wealth and tight credit,” policy makers said in a statement. “Businesses are still cutting back on fixed investment, though at a...

Dick Cheney Must Be Behind It! Computer experts have recovered 22 million Bush White House e-mails previously thought lost or destroyed (22 million!) and Bush foes who had filed lawsuits to have them handed over are jubilant. WASHINGTON (AP) - Computer technicians have found 22 million missing White House e-mails from the administration of President George W. Bush, according to two groups that are settling lawsuits they filed over the failure by the Bush White House to install an electronic record keeping system. Bush haters have been devouring the e-mails like a pack of ravenous wolves.  One Cheney e-mail...

At least someone in America isn't feeling a credit squeeze: Uncle Sam. This week Congress will vote to raise the national debt ceiling by nearly $2 trillion, to a total of $14 trillion. In this economy, everyone de-leverages except government. It's a sign of how deep the fiscal pathologies run in this Congress that $2 trillion will buy the federal government only one year before it has to seek another debt hike—conveniently timed to come after the midterm elections. Since Democrats began running Congress again in 2007, the federal debt limit has climbed by 39%. The new hike will lift...

President Obama has lost his 2012 bid for re-election. He has made key decisions in three areas that, unless he alters his approach (not likely), could well guarantee a Republican victory: an embarrassingly rolled-out, badly-compromised health-care reform bill; his continuing slavish subservience to those on Wall Street that took the country into the economic toilet; and his sad imitation of CheneyBush's imperial campaign in Afghanistan. (Obama's only hope for 2012 may depend on Sarah Palin getting the GOP nomination. Even better if Glenn Beck or Dick Cheney is her running mate -- been mentioned seriously. The Democrats can only hope...

And The One gave himself a B+, but he deserved an A+ -- for being commie enough to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And lo in his supreme moment of narcissism, his eyes turned up in his head and he reached backwards into his past and he relived the day on the eve of last Christmas, as he was then, before the troubles began, before he was even less popular than Tiger Woods….

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. government must craft a plan next year to get its ballooning debt under control or face possible panic in financial markets, a bipartisan panel of budget experts said in a report on Monday. Though the government should hold off on immediate tax hikes and spending cuts to avoid harming the fragile economic recovery, it will need to make such painful changes by 2012 in order to keep debt at a manageable 60 percent of GDP by 2018, according to the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform. Without action, investors could lose confidence in the...

More than half of the nation’s unemployed workers have borrowed money from friends or relatives. An equal number have cut back on doctor’s visits or medical treatments because they are out of work. Almost half have suffered from depression or anxiety. About four in 10 parents have noticed behavioral changes in their children that they blame on their struggles. Joblessness has wreaked both financial and emotional havoc on the lives of many of those out of work, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll of unemployed adults, causing major life changes, mental health issues and struggles to maintain even...

Two nonprofit groups say that computer technicians have found 22 million White House e-mails from the administration of President George W. Bush. WASHINGTON -- Computer technicians have found 22 million missing White House e-mails from the administration of President George W. Bush, according to two groups that are settling lawsuits they filed over the failure by the Bush White House to install an electronic record keeping system. The two groups made the announcement as they settled lawsuits that they filed against the Executive Office of the President in 2007. But the public might not see any of the e-mails for...

The first year of the Obama administration is almost in the books, and pundits across the political spectrum are assessing its accomplishments. Any assessment must be placed in context of the overall political and class balance of forces, in Congress and within the multi-class, socially diverse coalition that carried Obama to the White House. The success, breadth and extent of President Obama’s new policy direction depend in particular on the strength and unity of the people’s forces and their ability to gain allies and mobilize at the grassroots and influence Congress. The Obama administration must work with and unite a...

The title of that article above, from the LA Times, is titled: WMD Not Point Of Iraq War. Of course it wasn't. It was One of MANY reasons for that war, one of which....and the most important in my opinion...was Saddam's support of terrorists. After 9/11 we could not allow this tyrant to continue to support our enemies while thumbing his nose at the entire world for the previous 13 years. As the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Phase II investigation report on pre-war Iraq Intelligence stated: Conclusion 10: Statements in the major speeches analyzed, as well additional statements, regarding...

Despite the biased media's attempt to paint a negative picture of Sarah Palin, her recent public appearances, including Oprah's, have served to convince Americans that she really is a pretty down-to-earth, very intelligent lady. She is, despite the constant attacks, becoming more and more popular with the American public. Her popularity, however, doesn't revolve solely around her political views. People are beginning to see that she is "real". She is not the "air-head" that the media has tried to portray. Left-wing idealogues will never embrace her, even if it benefits them, - even so-called "feminists" who turned their backs even...

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs defended the Obama Administration’s continued efforts to blame the previous Bush Administration for current domestic and foreign policy problems. “If we say it’s Bush’s fault, if the media report it’s Bush’s fault, and if the public believes it’s Bush’s fault, then who’s to say it isn’t Bush’s fault?” Gibbs reasoned. “After all, as Dr. Phil tells us, ‘there is no reality—only perception.’” Of course, TV’s pop psychologist “Dr. Phil” isn’t the most famous advocate of the idea that perception is the reality. That title would have to go to chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels,...

If anyone had any doubts whatsoever that the Republican Party has lost its way and is no longer a true friend to the core conservative values of individual liberty and limited government, those doubts should be put firmly to rest considering the current debate in Washington over the proposal for socialized health care coming out of the far left. It is no wonder that conservatives, people who actually believe in the Constitution, are upset with Republicans who time and again run out to stand before the cameras and at Tea Parties to proudly proclaim how much they understand us and...

<p>HAMMOND, Ind. - A former Purdue University graduate student convicted of threatening to kill President George W. Bush and others in Internet postings has been sentenced to more than four years in prison.</p> <p>Thirty-eight-year-old Vikram S. Buddhi, an Indian national who was living in West Lafayette, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Hammond to 57 months in prison and 3 years of probation.</p>

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

With Bush and Cheney one knew there were at least 2 grown men in the White House. Now it's like the bunch of bratty kids are running things. ps. weather added to topic cuz Bush had the weather machine with which he solidified his grip on hurricanes as WMDs.

George W. Bush's State of the Union address must have baffled anyone who voted for him based on his pledge to cut the size of government. That speech has been properly and efficiently pilloried by Joseph Stromberg, Alan Bock, and others. The speech was both Wilsonian and Clintonian, which is to say that it proposed a political solution for all human problems and backed this idea with a promise of massive increases in federal spending on just about everything. But should we really be so surprised? Contrary to popular myth, every Republican president since and including Herbert Hoover has increased...

Obama claimed that the economy was "teetering on a potential crisis"...and pointed a finger at President Bush, accusing him of poor fiscal management. "History will not judge President bush kindly," Obama said...arguing that Bush appeared nonchalant over the potential crisis in remarks last week. "When I saw the president in his press conference, almost lighthearted and joking about some of these issues, I think it did not instill the kind of confidence in the American people and certainly it didn't instill any confidence in me that the Administration is taking the situation seriously," Obama said. He also argued that a...

Bush initiates TARP funding program - bad (Bush's Fault) Economy gets worse - bad (Bush's Fault) Bankers and Wall Street get bailed out - bad (Bush's Fault) Banks pay back some of the bailout dollars to apply to the deficit - good! Obama uses the repaid dollars as a jobs-maker (slush fund) - great! SO Bush's Fault = Obama's Great?

This has got to be embarrassing for President Obama, his administration, and the Democrat Party. Obama is outpolling former President George W. Bush by only six percentage points according to Public Policy Polling. The meaning of this close gap is significant since George W. Bush left office with the lowest approval rating of any prior president, 22%...

Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama's declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they'd rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that's somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country's difficulties instead of giving him space because of the tough situation he inherited. The closeness in the Obama/Bush numbers also has implications for the 2010 elections.

December 10, 2009 Palin on Obama Speech: 'I Liked What He Said' December 10th From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart (CNN) – Sarah Palin had some rare praise Thursday for President Obama after the president delivered his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo. But the former Republican vice presidential nominee added that she would like to see the president act more like his predecessor, George W. Bush. "I liked what he said," Palin told USAToday in an interview after the speech. Palin said the president's remarks had a familiar ring. "I thumbed through my book quickly this morning to...

It seems Hoax and Change doesn't sit well after a few months!I've already done a story this week on Obama's huge drop in job approval in the latest polls. He's at a lower level of approval at this point in his presidency than any predecessor in modern times. So this new twist from Public Policy Polling won't surprise many: Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama's declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they'd rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed...

Public Policy Polling: Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama's declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they'd rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that's somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country's difficulties instead of giving him space because of the tough situation he inherited. The closeness in the Obama/Bush numbers also has implications for the 2010 elections. Using the Bush card may not...

The Norwegians weren't applauding the peace-prize acceptance speech President Obama just gave in Oslo and I know why. The speech in many ways could have been written for, and delivered by, a man they loathe: George W. Bush. Sure the speech had the pleasant stuff about banning torture and the value of negotiations, and Obama gave a nod to Martin Luther King, whose own Nobel speech in 1964 was a paean to pacifism. But Obama wanted to make it clear that he was NOT Martin Luther King. He was a commander in chief leading two wars, confronting an implacable terrorist...

Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama's declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they'd rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that's somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country's difficulties instead of giving him space because of the tough situation he inherited. The closeness in the Obama/Bush numbers also has implications for the 2010 elections. Using the Bush card may not be particularly effective...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama had a golden opportunity to become a peacemaker compared to his hawkish predecessor. But he has let that opening evaporate by escalating the war in Afghanistan. Now he is called a "war president" -- a dubious title that former President George W. Bush personally embraced after starting two devastating wars, one in Afghanistan, the other in Iraq. In both cases, the U.S. is touting its exit plans. In Iraq, Obama has declared a victory and plans to pull out many troops next year, though leaving thousands behind to secure the Baghdad government. In Afghanistan, Obama...

The long hard hours required to work in a new administration must be getting to poor ole Baghdad Bob Gibbs. The alternative explanation for this face-palm video clip is that the man is seriously off his meds and doesn't have a clue what words actually come out of his mouth. If this is a multiple choice exam, I choose D. All of the Above. Though Gibbs has long been an absurd spokesmen for this rather absurd administration, he is becoming increasingly belligerent and bizarre as he tries to rationalize the policy positions of this administration. Perhaps that is a job...

It's a bit hard to believe, but that's what a Public Policy Polling survey suggests: that only half of Americans would rather have President Obama in the White House than his predecessor, while 44 percent would prefer George W. Bush to still be president. Here's PPP's Tom Jensen: "Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama's declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they'd rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that's somewhat of a surprise and an...

Many actions of Major Nidal Malik Hasan prior to the Ft. Hood massacre should have made it apparent to many that he was an Islamic jihadist yet he was left to remain among our American military patriots. Major Hasan gave a bizarre lecture to the medical staff while at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in which he said the Quaran teaches that infidels should have their heads cut off and set on fire. During other instances, Major Hasan had stated to other military personnel that Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans in retalliation for the war...

Republicans like to point to Ronald Reagan for inspiration. However, we have to resign ourselves to the fact that Ronald Reagan is dead. Worse, his legacy was killed off by his own party, the same Republicans who say he inspired them. The only lasting legacy to George W. Bush was the nomination of two constructionist judges and a fading response to terrorism. For eight years, we saw GW insist more on getting along than being right. Even the war in Iraq was fought on the cheap, probably out of fear of the cost of waging war, which defies the logic...

The other day, I wrote that President Obama has "run out of both charm and ideas." I was too kind. To judge from the string of whoppers in his dreary jobs speech yesterday, he's also run out of facts. And he's still whining about the problems he inherited and blaming Republicans. He might as well be barking at the moon. That's sort of what he is doing, because the American people are tuning him out at a stunning pace. The latest Gallup Poll gives him a record low 47 percent approval. Only 26 percent in another poll say he deserves...

This recent BBC News header[1] was typical of the news headlines worldwide on the story: Michelle Obama racist image sparks Google apology Apparently, the image referred to was a photograph of Mrs Obama that had been manipulated to give her the facial features of a monkey. I say “apparently”, because the mock-up photo no longer appears as the #1 ranking on Google’s list of image search results for “Michelle Obama”.[2] It is very clear however from the news reports of the “race row”[3] that in the last days that the picture was Google-accessible, it stirred many people. Such was the...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The former chairman of the Republican National Committee says that new immigration reform efforts will give his a party a chance to soften its tone on the issue. Ed Gillespie said Tuesday the GOP should present itself as anti-illegal immigration but not anti-immigrant in the debate. Gillespie said he thinks some of the party's harshest voices were the loudest the last time Congress debated immigration reform. Gillespie, who also served as counselor to former President George W. Bush, said Republicans need to do a better job of reaching out to minorities.

BDS is still going strong in our MSM. Take for example this article from Newsweek in which the author blames the recent depressing movies coming out of hollywood on you know who: (h/t Big Hollywood) There are grim movies, and then there are movies that should list the Grim Reaper in the credits. No Country for Old Men, the 2007 Oscar-winning drama, falls into the latter category, but it's as cuddly as a hamster compared with The Road, the latest adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel. The Road is set in a post-apocalyptic world where everything and almost everyone is...

NEW DELHI - Former president George Bush came to India last month in what marked his first overseas visit since leaving office in January - and was very warmly received. It's not hard to see why: Bush broke through to India in ways that will likely pay lasting dividends for the United States, for India and for global security. His success ought to be understood and studied by President Obama and his supporters, who never met a Bush foreign policy decision they didn't loathe. In 2005, Bush marked a new chapter in the relationship between the world's oldest constitutional democracy,...

With President Barack Obama's decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending 30,000 additional troops to battle Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, he has put his imprint on the war on terror, and at the same time, given up the Democrats' most famous fallback position: blame George W. Bush. Couple that with the economy and we are seeing the end of the president's first year in office coincide with him having to accept the full responsibility for the condition of the country. Obama rode into office on the "blame Bush" tidal wave as the nation sickened of everything he touched....

How Bush(43) and Obama(44) are different.

Washington (CNN) – A leading Republican strategist and one-time aide to former Vice President Cheney said Sunday that President Obama’s recently announced decision to send an additional 30, 000 troops to Afghanistan is “a reassertion of the Bush doctrine.” “The [Bush] doctrine is no safe havens [for terrorists intent on harming the United States] and we go after those that provide a harbor [for such terrorists]. That’s the doctrine,” Republican strategist Mary Matalin explained Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. Obama’s decision to surge additional troops into Afghanistan is “solid policy,’ in Matalin’s view and “a reassertion of the...

Critics of Cynthia McKinney may dismiss her as a loose cannon and a rabble-rouser, but to her supporters, the former Georgia congresswoman is someone with the courage to challenge convention and speak the truth. McKinney, 54, represented an Atlanta-area district as a Democrat from 1993-2003 and 2005-07. A vigorous critic of President George W. Bush, she gave voice to a theory, widely circulated on the political fringes, that Bush knew in advance of the Sept. 11 attacks but allowed them to happen because they would prove profitable to the global investment firm his father was associated with. In her final...