Free Republic

"Leaders of high moral character are indispensable in the preservation of liberty. But in a democracy, is not the character of its leaders essentially a reflection of the character of its people? Leaders are elected by the people, albeit through an imperfect system that often obfuscates candidates' character, ability, and intent. Nevertheless, if the people elect leaders who lack the character to apply self-restraint, then the people are ultimately responsible for the results. To borrow a phrase from the technical world: "garbage in, garbage out." When candidates lacking character are elected, the results are predictable. The marble halls of Washington,...

- By Ian RansomThere's little doubt that many are disgusted by the subterfuge that accompanied the passing of the "Pelosi Care" bill. If you're like me, you might even feel a tad sick, even after the encouraging signs of revival in VA, NJ and, yes, NY 23, where the GOP lost a battle so that authentic conservatism might soon win the war, as it were. Sarah Palin's response to the bill via Facebook, however, is inspiring enough for all of us and remains a potent warning. Her point about how the nation is speeding to the point of unrecognizability is...

Generation Cynical Sarah Carlsruh, November 6, 2009 “Cynicism exists. It’s toxic,” said Michael Josephson at an October 29th presentation on “High School Character” at the National Press Club. Josephson is president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics (JIE), which recently released its study on the link between high school attitudes and subsequent adult conduct. In its study, the Institute found that “younger generations are significantly more likely to engage in all forms of dishonest conduct than those who are older.” This raises the question, is the study measuring the increasing moral degradation of society or simply the fact that older...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary -------------------------------------------------------- For Immediate Release October 19, 2009 NATIONAL CHARACTER COUNTS WEEK, 2009 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION In communities across America, people are working together to see our country through challenging times -- educating our children, caring for the sick, and extending a hand to those in need. They remind us that the true character of our Nation is revealed by the good we do when the moment is...

(IsraelNN.com) Judge Richard Goldstone, whose recent United Nations Human Rights Council investigation purported to find evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza, once indicted a fictional Serbian character and a dead man for war crimes as well. As in Gaza, those indictments were also allegedly based on "eyewitness testimony." The problem for NATO forces in tracking down the serial rapist was that Gruban from Bijelo Polje, also known as Gruban Malic, is a fictional character. established by the United Nations in 1993. In 1995, one year into his term as chief ICTY prosecutor, Goldstone presented an indictment of several Serbs...

TAKE ACTION... Filling out the form on the right and sending a letter to the Department of the Interior is the next stage of the "Drill Here, Drill Now" campaign. Here’s why:

Suborned in the U.S.A.The birth-certificate controversy is about Obama’s honesty, not where he was born. By Andrew C. McCarthy Throughout the 2008 campaign, Barack Hussein Obama claimed it was a “smear” to refer to him as “Barack Hussein Obama.” The candidate had initially rhapsodized over how his middle name, the name of the prophet Mohammed’s grandson, would signal a new beginning in American relations with the Muslim world. But when the nomination fight intensified, Obama decided that Islamic heritage was a net negative. So, with a media reliably uncurious about political biographies outside metropolitan Wasilla, Obama did what Obama always...

Obama's biggest character flaw James Lewis The President of these United States recently expressed his love for "the Urdu poets," a piece of inspired BS that nobody in their right minds believed for a second. But then the P was narrowcasting to Pakistan, he thought, and Americans weren't supposed to be listening. Yet character is revealed in those little snippets of Obama's mind -- his glorious fantasy life, his everlasting hope that somebody will fall for another piece of schtick, and his essential fraudulence as a human being. Obama's biggest audience is himself, and no doubt he preened and pranced...

Candidate Palin has character problemGREGG ERICKSON Last Modified: June 27th, 2009 06:42 PM **SNIP** That's why it was so refreshing when Sarah Palin, a woman who had stood up against corruption in the Murkowski administration, made openness and transparency in state government a central theme in her 2006 campaign for governor. In November 2006 Palin defeated Murkowski. As Palin's first Juneau press conference as governor was breaking up, she called my wife and me aside. With apparent sincerity she asked us why we had had so much trouble getting public records from previous governors: "Why wouldn't they want you to...

I have to still believe in Santa Claus or how else would I be able to explain my receiving the following email. It was written by Muleshoe ISD’s Special Education Director, Brian Arnold. I read the email and then opened the attachment and found the message that he had written to the staff of Muleshoe ISD on the eve of school dismissing for the summer. A tear comes to my eye each time I read Mr. Arnold’s message. I knew immediately I wanted to share this with you but that permission had to be granted. I requested and received not...

The purpose of the Church and of Catholic education is to turn us into little Christs, to continue the process of our transformation in Christ that began in our baptism. How can Catholic schools help to develop, in both students and staff, the character of Christ. Sanctity is not reserved for a few. Jesus, by His Incarnation and death on the Cross, merited the means of salvation and sanctification for all who believe in Him. He did not give the precept "Be you perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" to a chosen group of persons. . . . He...

Last night, quite late in the evening, and on the show, the girl who has pledged to sell her virginity for the highest bid, convinced her to not "give it up" if a higher bid - individual or cumulative comes in to top the present $3.7 million offer that has been registered. Having done MANY interviews declining similar offers, Natalie Dylan (not her real name) has agreed to remain a virgin, and give ALL of the proceeds (that she had previously agreed to use towards graduate school) instead--to stopping the horrific practice of child sex trafficking.

The news reports seem to vary from day to day. Either condom-based sex education works, or it doesn't. Either abstinence should be the focus, or it shouldn't.But, according to government-supported research at the Heritage Foundation, one thing is clear: Teens who abstain from sex share some characteristics.The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health identified eight personality and behavioral traits that were associated with both abstinence and academic achievement:• Future orientation, with a focus on long-term goals. • Willingness to postpone current pleasures for larger future rewards. • Perseverance, as in the ability to stick to a task or commitment. • A belief that...

When famous soprano Leontyne Price was hailed by an opera critic as, “perhaps the greatest black opera singer of all time, ” she responded with, “What’s black got to do with it?” Exactly. Her fierce dedication, discipline, training and hard work – in a word, her character – not color, defined her. Yet news & feature editors around the country today are still rummaging through their archives for old columns to recycle in commemoration of February as “Black History Month.” Expect articles on the usual suspects: Frederick Douglass, WEB DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr., and my favorite, Booker T. Washington....

Looking for this week’s classic American tale? Forget the rise of Barack Obama. It’s the fall of Flight 1549. There, lined up on the wings of a sinking plane like kids patiently waiting for the school bus, was the real America. Not to name any names, but there are those who believe American society is broken, that our national soul needs healing, that our citizens lack the character to even set our own thermostats. But I believe that the nation this unnamed person will be sworn in to govern on Tuesday is a much better place than many of his...

Don't let it be misunderstood. Those who serve in our nation's military espouse values that confuse the left, confound their purpose, and leave them unable to understand, much less resonate with our service men and women. This week I saw why.

On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood before more than two hundred and fifty thousand people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in what is now EO (Enemy-Occupied) Washington DC. He said, in part: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. “But one hundred years...

DON'T CLOSE THE BLINDS Just please read and ask yourself what will you do when they come to your door? The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation. My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our...

I get a big kick out of Democrats insisting that the Republicans should concentrate on the issues instead of focusing on Barack Obama’s own words and affiliations. They call it negative campaigning. It reminds me of 1948 when the crowds would exhort Harry Truman to give the Republicans hell: “I don’t give them hell,� he replied, “I just tell the truth and the Republicans think it’s hell.� According to the Democrats, nobody is supposed to mention Obama’s hostility to his own white relatives; his black hate-mongering religious mentor; his political alliance with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers; his work with Saul...

Barack Obama and his supporters have tried to claim that his associations with people like Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, James Meeks, John Lewis, Alcee Hastings, Bill Ayers, Mahdi Bray, and Nihad Awad, and his connections with organizations like Trinity United Church of Christ, ACORN, the Muslim American Society's (MAS) Freedom Foundation, and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), were all innocuous. When people question Obama's character vis-à-vis these relationships, his campaign and followers retort that he is being unfairly accused using guilt by association. In fact, Obama has had long-standing relationships, and/or relationships of convenience, with such people/entities, and...

<p>Yesterday Rush said the reason the "they" commitee (as in Noonan and company) doesn't like Sarah Palin is because of her grammar and speaking. She drops her "g" when saying good morning. You know this really has me pissed, who do these hippocrites think they are. Are they afraid of BEAUTY because anyone can learn to speak.........Beauty, Elegance and Grace are attributes they lack and Sarah has.</p>

Click on the link, then click on LISTEN NOW link to hear Marine pilot who was shot down 1 year before McCain http://www.wticam.com/

As the media turns over every rock in the past of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, there has been shockingly little vetting of Barack Obama’s background. Although candidates should not be judged solely by their behavior as adolescents, an examination of their overall past is fair and important, especially as we pick our next president. And former schoolmates can help provide character clues, such as the former Obama schoolmate who told Newsmax that she is surprised he is running for president.

WASHINGTON -- Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association. But associations are important. They provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Obama. With the economy overshadowing everything, it may be too late politically...

A recent Republican campaign ad sarcastically described as Barack Obama's "one accomplishment" his supporting a bill to promote sex education in kindergarten. During an interview of a Republican spokesman, Tom Brokaw of NBC News replayed that ad and asked if that was something serious to be discussed in a presidential election campaign. It was a variation on an old theme about getting back to "the real issues," just as Brokaw's question was a variation on an increasingly widespread tendency among journalists to become a squad of Obama avengers, instead of reporters. Does it matter if Barack Obama is for sex...

I picked up a copy of Time magazine yesterday, in which a columnist declared that issues of "character" were a "distraction" in the Presidential race. Obama actually said the same thing in his North Carolina press conference, that the Reverend Wright affair has been a "distraction." Isn't this what liberals usually say when their own characters come under public scrutiny? What a heap of pure poppycock!

An African-American from Generation X, two White Guys from the Silent Generation and a woman from Generation X. Arguably, the greatest diversity the U.S. has ever seen in its leading general election candidates for the Presidency. I think that’s a healthy thing. The progress our nation has made on the topic of diversity is, surely, the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. But, he taught us not to judge people based on observable differences – e.g. the color of skin (or the age of skin or the shape of skin). Rather, his instruction was to base judgment on content of...

Integrity in Politics by Dr. Jeff Mirus, August 29, 2008   The selection of Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as John McCain’s running mate has people thinking about integrity again. Palin is a pro-life mother of four who makes no bones about fighting corruption and standing up for the vulnerable. She opposes abortion not only in speech but in personal practice, having resisted suggestions to abort her own Downs-syndrome child. She swept into office in Alaska by exposing and campaigning against serious ethics violations, and she has the highest approval rating of any significant public figure in any state in...

Character development is a process; it is not automatic. When we received Christ, we got all of His character. You have the ability with Christ in you to have all of His character traits coming out of your life. We received this character and then we begin to do what Paul said in Colossians 2:6, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” Or in other words, as you’ve received His character in you, now live out His character in your words, in your deeds, in your actions. We’ve got to go after character by...

. . . honor, integrity, honesty, ethics, morals, character, judgement? Recently, rumors at the company where I work have started proving true. Our building will be sold and the manufacturing facility sold to another company. Something new; unusual? Market downturn? No, not really. Just greed. Greed likely performed by an officer of the company who thought it would be okay to misreport our earnings. In other words, they "cooked the books". I'm sure they thought that no harm would come as a result of lying; it made their quarterly earnings look better than they were and earned them a higher...

GATES MILLS, Ohio -- President George W. Bush made a pit stop on his way back to the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Tuesday evening. After leaving a fundraiser in Gates Mills, his motorcade passed a home with a sign asking the president to stop by -- so he did. Bush got out of the car and spent a few minutes with Ruth Harris, who was celebrating her 91st birthday with her family. Bush sat in a chair next to Harris and said "91 years old -- how special." When neighbors noticed what was happening, they soon surrounded the president for...

It's pretty amazing when you think about it. War hero John McCain has been in the public eye almost his entire adult life. He's run numerous campaigns, served in Congress for 25 years, and is in his second run for the presidency. Yet, there is so much of his life that reveals an absolutely sterling character, but remains largely unknown to the public. And in spite of the tremendous political advantages that publicity could confer, McCain instinctively keeps that information private. Although as a presidential candidate he may be forced to overcome this reticence, he honorably shies away from using...

Return to the Article June 30, 2008Obama's Callous IndifferenceBy Peter Kirsanow Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen declares that Barack Obama is " 'likable enough' -- in fact, so much so that he is the most charismatic presidential candidate I have seen since Robert F.Kennedy." Well, even though I've  never spoken with Obama, I don't like him very much  (I did testify with him [and a few others] once about a bill he'd sponsored on voter intimidation, but at the time he didn't impress me as unlikable, just a little intellectually lazy) . This hasn't always been the case.  Until...

He’s so old that his young-enough-to-be-his-daughter trophy wife, for whom he dumped the woman who loyally waited for him while he was a POW, is old.

One thing that was going for Barack Obama this endless primary reason, what justified his entire and only claim to the presidency was the belief that he embodied a new type of a politician, the one above politics. Never mind the oxymoronic and improbable premise of such a formulation - this is what his near-worshippers and supporters went for. It must be clear to everyone by now, except for his most hard-core acolytes, that his candidacy represents nothing of the sort. [1] He is not merely a regular politician (those of us who value politics realize that there is nothing...

It's amazing what some people will do for 30 pieces of silver. Scott McClellan was given the signal honor of being the spokesman for the president of the United States, a distinction few Americans have ever achieved. Being the spokesman for the world's most powerful political figure is no small thing, and I'm sure that the men and women who have held the post view their service as an honor more given that deserved. It doesn't appear as if McClellan sees it that way. He is not the first press secretary to be forced out of the job, and he...

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2008 – The 1st Marine Division’s 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines’ is focusing on Afghan people, not on fighting terrorists, the battalion commander said May 16. “What’s unique about our mission is that we’re doing a police training and mentoring mission, as opposed to coming in here kinetically like a lot of our past exploits have been, especially in Iraq,” Marine Corps Lt. Col. Richard Hall told online journalists and “bloggers” in a teleconference. The 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, deployed at the end of March for this mission to assist Afghanistan’s Regional Security Command South with their focused...

I picked up a copy of Time magazine yesterday, in which a columnist declared that issues of "character" were a "distraction" in the Presidential race. Obama actually said the same thing in his North Carolina press conference, that the Reverend Wright affair has been a "distraction." Isn't this what liberals usually say when their own characters come under public scrutiny? What a heap of pure poppycock! Character is the primary issue in every Presidential election. Period. And we, the voters, have an inalienable right to know the specifics, as much as can be discerned, of a candidate's character.

I picked up a copy of Time magazine yesterday, in which a columnist declared that issues of "character" were a "distraction" in the Presidential race. Obama actually said the same thing in his North Carolina press conference, that the Reverend Wright affair has been a "distraction." Isn't this what liberals usually say when their own characters come under public scrutiny? What a heap of pure poppycock! Character is the primary issue in every Presidential election. Period. And we, the voters, have an inalienable right to know the specifics, as much as can be discerned, of a candidate's character. But don't...

“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.” So said British statesman Edmund Burke in his famous 1774 speech to the electors of Bristol. Similarly, James Madison wrote in Federalist 57 that voters should choose the candidates “who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society.” Wise counsel, albeit forlorn in today’s campaign world in which most people—especially primary voters—back the candidates who are most shameless in sacrificing their judgment to the voters’ opinions. Burke...

I think a significant problem that Obama has, which will come to light, is a personal characteristic of his seeking to to avoid difficult choices and take an EASIER way out of a situation. Here are just five examples. (1). As a child and young man, he was called Barry, not Barack. That was EASIER for him and for the people who knew him. (2). In 1988, at the age of 27, he became a Christian to enable a career in politics and to enable a relationship with Michelle Robinson, who later became his wife and the mother of his...

Wealthy Democrats are preparing a four-month, $40 million media campaign centered on attacks on Senator John McCain. And it will be led by David Brock, the former investigative reporter who first gained fame in the 1990s as a right-wing, anti-Clinton journalist. The planned campaign is the product of a shakeup in the top ranks of the struggling independent Democratic groups. Brock, now best known as the ex-conservative founder of the liberal group Media Matters, last month quietly assumed the chairmanship of what's expected to be the main vehicle for independent Democratic attacks on McCain, now called Progressive Media USA. The...

Obama’s denunciation of Wright’s bigotry amounts to too little too late. The time to stand up to him wasn’t now, when his association with Wright is sinking his hopes for the White House. The time to have stood up to Wright was when Obama was just another member of his church. If he truly believes in what he says he believes, he should have walked out of Wright’s church or grabbed Wright’s microphone and told his fellow churchgoers that Wright was wrong and that they mustn’t hate. In twenty years of attending Wright’s church, why didn’t Obama once stand before...

The victimization continues. The Trinity United Church of Christ accused the media of character assassination today in response to the coverage of repeated instances of controversial rhetoric coming from its pastor and confidante of Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright. But does it count when the victim provides the poison himself? The Chicago church attended by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) issued a statement Sunday contending that coverage of his pastor’s inflammatory statements amounted to character assassination and “an attack on … the history of the African American church.”Obama condemned inflammatory statements by the church’s retiring pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.,...

PARIS - Partial results showed President Nicolas Sarkozy's backers losing in Paris and other key French cities Sunday in the first round of municipal elections seen as a referendum on the increasingly unpopular conservative. Official results of the total vote nationwide showed candidates from Sarkozy's UMP party and its allies with 45.5 percent and the Socialists and their allies with 47 percent. The total was not broken down by city, but projections based on partial results by the polling agencies Ipsos and TNS-Sofres showed Socialists on track to take over key cities previously held by the right, including Strasbourg, Reims,...

Story.

HARACTER COUNTS; some- times it counts in the count. In Florida, Arizona Sen. John McCain yesterday won the Republican primary, overcoming big disadvantages favoring former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. What disadvantages? Let us, well, count. Mr. Romney built a huge campaign apparatus in Florida over the last year, while Mr. McCain, since his campaign nearly expired last summer, was able to do very little organizationally in the Sunshine State. Many Floridians voted early--before Mr. McCain picked up the endorsements of Florida U.S. Sen. Mel Marinez and the state's governor, John Crist (to say nothing of Sly Stallone). The number of...

Here is my impression of the character of each candidate, arranged alphabetically: Rudy Giuliani is strongly temperamental, strong on courage, highly intelligent and has good insight. Moderately to highly self-serving which impairs his ability to choose right over wrong. Liberal to moderate with more liberal background. Mike Huckabee is strongly temperamental, weak on courage, highly intelligent and has moderate insight. Highly self-serving, which impairs his ability to choose right over wrong. Able to deceive through high creativity. Liberal but hides this fact from a lot of people. John McCain is excessively temperamental, strong on courage, moderately intelligent and has low...

Fox this evening has been discussing Huck-a-boom’s “Sneak attack ad” and earlier this afternoon CNN showed the Huck saying that he wanted people to turn to the television when the President was speaking and believe that the President would tell him the truth. After the clip the CNN correspondent observed that Huckabee was “Gifted at saying things in subtle ways.” In my view, its not generally subtle if a CNN correspondent can note it. It was in fact an overt attack on Romney. Mike Huckabee has not been shy about telling us all that he has “character,” that he is...

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE "Freedom comes to us as the fruit of our responsibility. Only after we have done all we can to create, nurture, protect and utilize our duty to care for Life may we possibly discover a moment of true freedom," to taste the rewards of our labours. ...