Free Republic

This morning, http://www.drudgereport.com/ would not "resolve"; that is, the request hunts and hunts for a full page load. Now, www.breitbart.com won't load and http://www.wnd.com/ is loading slowly. Yet, http://www.nytimes.com/ and other left wing sites load fine. Hmmm.....

Conner contends that today's tea party is the modern-day rebirth of the John Birch Society. They share a worldview, she says. The same paranoid distrust of government. The same desire to protect the rich. The same cruel streak that blames the poor for their poverty and seeks to deny government help on that basis. The same willingness to believe all manner of bizarre claims against political leaders they don't like.

April 16, 2000 Marking the first anniversary of the shooting deaths at Columbine High School, President Clinton announced $120 million in new federal grants Saturday to place more police officers in schools and help even the youngest kids cope with their problems. Clinton also unveiled the $60-million fifth round of funding for "COPS in School," a Justice Department program that helps pay the costs of placing police officers in schools to help make them safer for students and teachers. The money will be used to provide 452 officers in schools in more than 220 communities.

The debates have been a contrived farce, ever since the League of Women Voters were replaced by the CPD. Democracy Now looks at how the Democrats and Republicans manage to shut out all third parties from the presidential debates. The Obama and Romney campaigns have secretly negotiated a detailed contract that dictates many of the terms of the 2012 presidential debates. This includes who gets to participate, as well as the topics raised during the debates.

The world's largest hedge fund is not located in the top floor of some shiny, floor-to-ceiling glass clad skyscraper in New York, London, Hong Kong or Shanghai. It isn't in some sprawling mansion in Greenwich or Stamford which houses a state of the art trading desk behind a crocodile-filled moat. Instead it can be found in tiny, nondescript office in Suite 225 located on 730 Sandhill Road in Reno, Nevada

The video of an Obama supporter bragging about having an “Obama phone” has gone viral on the web, but where do these “free cell phones” come from? Check your cellphone bill for the line item listed as "Federal Universal Service Charge". I paid $1.87 last month in this unnecessary tax. Reply with your finding. For more info, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCqU8yarNpc&feature=player_embedded&list=PLBFB75A4E2BDC6DC7#!

Ah, January of 2009. Hope was in the air, but more importantly, gas was under two dollars a gallon. Since then gas prices, have gone up 67 percent and it's an ominously upward trend. Interestingly enough, the Heritage Foundation also took a look at the first 26 months of Bush's presidency -- gas only rose 7 percent during that time frame.

Newt has come full circle for me. From his role in leading the Republican Revolution in the House, he proved to be as fallible as Clinton, falling from grace because of his marital infidelity. However, I cannot argue with his historical interpretation of what has made America great. These five videos present Newt at his finest.

Sometimes aggressive rulers bite off more than they can chew. History gives us many such examples. One of them was Napoleon’s decision to invade Spain in 1808 and put his elder brother Joseph on the throne. That was the first great miscalculation of his career. Could it be that Obama’s decision to “reform” American health care by thoroughly politicizing it will become his Spain — a short-run victory that will in the long run prove disastrous for him?

There’s nothing wrong with having a little fun at Nancy’s expense is there? Here’s a little ditty that is guaranteed to get stuck in your head for the rest of the day today.floppingaces.net

Who manufactured the financial meltdown? It wasn’t only Wall Street: OPEC’s heavy hand is felt but unseen by the media and our politicians. ... snip ... We nevertheless must admit that the original sins are domestic first: financial drunkenness and economic recklessness. Without these plagues, outside forces wouldn’t have been able to shake up America’s stability. But assuming that most capitalist societies travel through rough patches, it is vital to realize that America’s economy is under attack by forces aiming to maintain US dependency on foreign energy, as a means to obstruct the rise of democracy.

Here’s a photo of former Weather Underground terrorist (and friend of Barack Obama) William Ayers in 2001 (when Obama was much older than 8), proudly stepping on a United States flag.

One of the most basic ways in which a candidate can demonstrate the integrity voters are looking for is to build a record of standing up to corruption and waste - and doing so even when it appears in his or her own party, or on the part of his or her own allies or backers. This is not just a matter of honesty and prudence, but of toughness and courage. Let me offer a contrast between the two tickets on this issue - an Integrity Gap that Obama simply can't surmount and can only hope to obscure.

...snip... There´s an important historic reality for people living and working in "capitalist" and "free-market" economic systems. Business is business. This means a CEO (often a major stockholder) of a corporation must deliver a return (dividend) to investors, which is greater than what is offered by a bank or other companies. In order to do so, a CEO must also insure the company´s market participation provides its workers an opportunity to make a "living" rather than an "existence." When neither can be achieved because the costs of operating a business are too high, there is no incentive or purpose...

Decker and a good shell game By Paul O'Connor RALEIGH - Mike Decker knows a good shell game when he sees one, and he's manipulating state and federal law to assure that his political position puts the most money in his own pocket. Rep. Decker, D-Forsyth, switched parties in January and thus created the 60-60 partisan split in the House. That split led to the election of co-speakers, one backed by all Democrats, the other by a minority of Republicans. When Decker switched, Republicans cried foul. They charged that their former colleague - maybe the most conservative member of...

Over the past 15 years, Sen. John Edwards has been delinquent nine times on property taxes owed on his homes and automobiles, most recently on a house his family owns in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington. Edwards, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, paid $11,092.46 to the District of Columbia on Thursday to settle a property-tax bill that was four months late. Jennifer Palmieri, Edwards' campaign spokeswoman , said the family never received a bill for the Georgetown property, which they bought in December for $3.8 million but have not moved into and no longer plan to...

U.S. Sen. John Edwards makes the same vow in his presidential campaign that he did during his 1998 Senate race: No money from Washington lobbyists. "That's one group of people that I take no contributions from," the N.C. Democrat said during a recent Rotary Club luncheon in Manchester, N.H. Edwards' campaign, however, has accepted donations from at least 39 lobbyists in Washington, Raleigh and cities in 10 other states this year, according to an Observer analysis of campaign finance reports. Those donors have given $40,792. .... snip ....Trial lawyers' support comes in more ways than just money. Edwards has...

And Now, The Phipps Indictment RALEIGH -- Former Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps was indicted by a Wake County grand jury Tuesday on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. A former administrative law judge, the third generation of a storied political family of North Carolina, Phipps could not evade criminal charges for what she allegedly did to perpetrate and, later, cover up a pattern of campaign irregularities and illegalities. It seems far longer than just a few weeks ago that many were seeking to explain Phipps' reluctance to resign her post on the grounds that she was protecting...

Sen. John Edwards is a sign of the times. When listening to the election returns on that November morning in 1998, while I was not pleased to hear that the multimillionaire personal injury lawyer had won the North Carolina Senate race, I was not surprised. After all, it was mainly during the 1990s that a new class of the super-rich had come into being: those who made their money not by wealth creation, but by wealth coercion. There are two principal ways to get rich: by getting other people to voluntarily transfer their money to you, or by having...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. John Edwards plans to skip a candidates' forum being hosted by the Rev. Jesse Jackson's organization Sunday that all eight other Democratic presidential hopefuls are scheduled to attend. Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for Edwards, said the Raleigh Democrat has a conflict that will prevent him from participating in the forum, which is part of a five-day Rainbow/PUSH Coalition conference in Chicago focusing on affirmative action. ... snip ...But Palmieri said that Edwards "has a great deal of respect for Reverend Jackson and the decades of work the Rainbow Coalition has done. ... We're disappointed we...