Free Republic

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...

Currency, Bonds Fall as Venezuelan President Eyes More Lenders. BY DAN MOLINSKI & DARCY CROWE CARACAS -- Worries grew Thursday that Venezuela is on the verge of a banking crisis, causing a run on smaller lenders, sinking the country's currency and bond prices, and stoking fears that president Hugo Chávez could nationalize the banking system. Venezuelans and investors are concerned about small banks' solvency following this week's seizure of four banks run by a billionaire close to the government of President Chávez. The populist leader may have fanned the fire when he assured Venezuelans twice this week that he stood...

Attention Fort Hood area Freepers: The anti-American left will be holding a press conference Monday morning at their morale-busting Killeen headquarters, the Under the Hood Cafe to call for America's defeat in the war on terror.Under the Hood is a joint project of the terrorist support groups Code Pink and Iraq Veterans Against the War that is fronted by a disaffected military wife they took under their wing. Its purpose is to prey on vulnerable service members and their families and turn them against America.Code Pink used the terrorist attack at Fort Hood to raise money for Under the Hood....

Most Germans—polls show, despite current economic difficulties, do not regret the fall of the Wall, the collapse of the Communist regime in the East, and the eventual reunification of their country. What doubts there are, however, come from the ranks of the Western Left, who seem to have the ability to regularly air their arguments in the op-ed pages of The New York Times. I read one such report in the paper’s pages while visiting Berlin, written by Katrin Bennhold and titled “Lessons From the Former East Germany.” Bennhold beings by noting that “Like most people, I had slept through...

Far from taking over as the engine of growth from an exhausted West, China is making matters worse. Its "beggar-thy-neighbour" policies continue to play havoc with global trade and risk tipping the world into a second leg of the Great Recession. "The inherent problems of the international economic system have not been fully addressed," said China's president Hu Jintao. Indeed not. China is still exporting overcapacity to the rest of us on a grand scale, with deflationary consequences. While some fret about liquidity-driven inflation, Justin Lin, World Bank chief economist, said the greater danger is that record levels of idle...

Taxes fund environmental suits - Environmental law firms reap billions in fees to fund lawsuits October 15, 2009 The federal government has paid out billions of dollars to environmental groups for attorney fees and costs, according to data assembled by a Cheyenne, Wyoming, lawyer. Karen Budd-Falen of Budd-Falen Law Offices [main@buddfalen.com or 307-632-5105] said the government between 2003 and 2007 paid more than $4.7 billion in taxpayer money to environmental law firms -- and that's just in the lawsuits she tracked. The actual figure, she said, is far greater. "I think we only found that the iceberg exists," she said....

Is the fascination with Nazis in Western culture a product of natural interest, or is it an unspoken pact by novelists and filmmakers to obscure the greater atrocities committed by the Soviets -- most notably under Stalin, who ruled in the same era as Hitler? A recent documentary on the Turner Classic Movie cable channel illustrated the point. Said the commentators, when all else fails in selecting a villain, make Nazis the sinister evil force and success is assured. Yet the idea to create Soviet villains never appears to occur to novelists and filmmakers, except in spy thrillers where each...

One of the left’s favorite (and lamest) rhetorical tricks is to simply reprint one of their opponent’s statements, verbatim, and without comment. You see, the statement’s idiocy and offensiveness is self-evident, and will surely shock the conscience of any “right thinking” reader. No rebuttal required. It’s a lazy, sophomoric ploy. I suppose the left has been our self-appointed cultural hall monitor for so long they’ve lost the ability, or the need, to offer up sound counterarguments. There’s a classic example of this dopey tactic up at Media Matters today. The Media Matters post is nothing more than a video clip...

When the list of donors to the Van Jones "Green for All" organization is examined, one name stands out-the Open Society Institute of billionaire George Soros. The Green for All 2008 annual report is also notable for the pictures of the powerful people who associated with Jones. They include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Al Gore

Before Barack Obama uttered the first word of his speech on nationalizing health care to the joint session of Congress, the New York Times had already done its part to discredit the congressman who would deliver the rebuttal. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., had been ambushed several weeks ago by an agit prop specialist from the Huffington Puffington Post, along with about a dozen other Republicans. The question posed: Do you believe Barack Obama is constitutionally eligible to serve as president? Boustany gave a thoughtful and accurate answer: "I think there are questions, we'll have to see." On that basis, of...

As read on “The Rush Limbaugh Show”: So far CNN has only reported on the breaking story on blatant ACORN CORRUPTION from angles that attempt to extricate the government funded “community organizing” enterprise from the extreme crime we caught on videotape. First CNN pushed the false ACORN line that “[t]his film crew tried to pull this sham at other offices and failed.” To set that record straight please check the Washington D.C. tape we dropped today at BigGovernment.com, which is also being aired on your cable news competitor with curiously higher ratings. Now that ACORN lied to you, Jonathan Klein,...

The White House on Friday dismissed as inaccurate reports from China that the administration will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic by flying the Chinese flag on the South Lawn. China Daily, citing other media reports, claimed the president of the Fujian Association of the United States had been granted permission to hoist the flag "in a ceremony in front of the President's residence." A ceremony, indeed, will take place. But it won't happen on the White House grounds -- rather, on the Ellipse, on the other side of E Street from the presidential residence....

THOUSAND OAKS -- A 65 year old man had his finger bitten off Wednesday evening at a health care rally in Thousand Oaks, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff's investigators were called to Hillcrest and Lynn Road at 7:26 p.m. About 100 protesters sponsored by MoveOn.org were having a rally supporting health care reform. A group of anti-health care reform protesters formed across the street. When someone from the pro-reform side crossed over to the anti-reform side, a fist fight ensued, which resulted in the man's pinky finger getting bitten off. It's believed the man was on the...

After rare US talks, NKorean diplomats hit VegasSTAFF WRITER 3:47 HRS IST Washington, Aug 22 (AFP) After holding rare talks with a prominent US governor, a diplomatic duo from the reclusive state of North Korea is off to see another side of the United States -- Las Vegas. A senior US official confirmed on condition of anonymity yesterday that the two North Korean diplomats had told US authorities they planned "personal travel" in America's casino capital as well as in Los Angeles. The US official declined further details on the travel of the pair, who are accredited at the United...

As NewsBuster Matthew Vadum reported Wednesday, a race-baiting group named Color Of Change -- co-founded by President Obama's "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones -- has launched a campaign to get companies to stop advertising on Glenn Beck's television program. Recent press releases from COC concerning Beck have listed as the contact "Brandon Hatler -- Sunshine, Sachs & Associates." As Variety reported in May 2007, SSA is a powerful New York-based public relations firm with quite an impressive list of clients: Current clients include Ben Affleck, Jon Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jimmy Fallon, the Farrelly brothers, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu,...

Last week I wrote Carol Che-Porter, Rat New Hampshire, if she was going to drop the Congressional Health plan and join the peons if the Goverment Takeover passed. After waithing a week and getting no answer I wrote this follow up letter Dear Congressman: I wrote you over a week ago on the issue of whether you were going to foregoe the Congressional health plan and accept coverage under the Obamma plan if it is voted in. I have not heard from you, so I think that you are going with the former rather than the latter. I am going...

The unlawful federal government's takeover of the financial, banking and insurance industries was just a prelude to the planned complete unconstitutional Marxist takeover of all of America. Your nearly trillion dollar per month spending habits have bankrupted our country. You're running up our taxes and the national debt, saddling future generations with enslaving burdens of taxes and debt that they can never repay. You've taken over car manufacturing companies, illegally wiping out the stockholders, bondholders and distributors and awarding the remaining assets to the labor unions or other political cronies of your choice. You are wasting trillions of our hard...

Post your memories of Jim Thompson here for all eternity.

....Che hardly ever sat for a bad photo--even in death. But of all surviving photographs of him, one in particular stands out: the head-and-shoulders portrait of a bearded, longhaired, 31-year-old Che, wearing a bomber jacket and his trademark beret emblazoned with the comandante star. Casey makes this image the central concern of Che's Afterlife, and in the book's opening chapter he offers a vivid re-creation of the "frozen millisecond" when the photo was taken. The date was March 5, 1960; the location a spot near Havana's Colón cemetery; the occasion a public funeral sponsored by the revolutionary government. The previous...

SPY UNIVERSITIES: EX-FOREIGN ESPIONAGE OPERATIVE REVEALS HOW PROFS., STUDENTS, AND OTHERS, ARE RECRUITED TO UNDERMINE AMERICA International News Analysis Today Updated June 10, 2009 By Toby Westerman U.S. universities are important recruiting grounds for foreign spies, according to a former intelligence operative who has defected to the United States, and issued a report giving a rare glimpse into the intelligence operations of one of America's most determined espionage foes. Jose Cohen Valdes was a Cuban intelligence officer employed in several areas of information acquisition and analysis in Havana, and has documented his nation's penetration of U.S. universities in a report...

BEIJING (Reuters) – Access to the popular social networking service Twitter and email service Hotmail was blocked across mainland China late on Tuesday afternoon, two days before the twentieth anniversary of a bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square. Indignant users filled chatrooms with protest, after access to Twitter was denied shortly after 5:00 pm (0900 GMT) on Tuesday. "The whole Twitter community in China has been exploding with it," said Beijing-based technology commentator Kaiser Kuo. "It's just part of life here. If anything surprises me, it's that it took them so long."

GOP Chairman Michael Steele had opposed the name-changing resolution, and other party leaders have called it "stupid" and "absurd." WASHINGTON -- Republican Party leaders are dropping a proposal aimed at changing the name of the Democratic Party. In a deal reached Wednesday, the GOP will not vote on a resolution asking the Democrats to rename their party the "Democrat Socialist" party.

Headlines in the news have read: "Bodies of soldiers killed by comrade returned to U.S.; one was assigned to Waco unit"---Seeing the media use the term "comrade" in reference to our United States Servicemen is very distressing to me. Growing up, I only observed the term used in reference to Communists. For clarification, I checked The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, and found, "A fellow member, as in a political party or fraternal group; especially, a fellow member of the Communist Party." So, I suppose the main stream media is admitting that we are a Communist country after...

Xxxxx -- Monday morning, an unlikely gathering of health care industry and union leaders emerged from the White House, announcing a historic agreement to lower medical costs and save the average family up to $2,500. This kind of broad coalition would have been unthinkable in the past, when the old politics of division and short-term self interest held sway. But this is a new day. Yesterday afternoon, President Obama announced the three bedrock principles that any comprehensive health care reform must achieve: (1) reduce costs, (2) guarantee choice, and (3) ensure all Americans have quality, affordable health care. And...

Overall, "read my lips" was the first feckless President Bush's biggest mistake because of its unintended consequences on the culture, foreign policy and the national discourse. Among other things, it opened the door to the politics of personal destruction of Bill Clinton and all that entailed, which begat the Republican Revolution of 1994. The second feckless President Bush and moderate congressional Republicans ended up hijacking the revolution, and their borrow-and-spend policies breathed new life into long-ago-discredited liberalism. That led the Democrats back to the White House and gave them solid liberal majorities on Capitol Hill, including very soon a filibuster-proof...

ISTANBUL, May 1 May Day protesters clashed with riot police in Germany, Turkey and Greece on Friday while thousands angry at the government's responses to the global financial crisis took to the streets in France. Rising unemployment across Europe and beyond has added intensity to May Day marches as last year's market crash and banking meltdown rolls into the real economy. There were early morning clashes in Germany and protests in Istanbul swiftly turned violent. Greek police clashed with self-styled anarchists. Turkish riot police fired water cannon and tear gas, firing shots and pepper spray to disperse masked protesters. Young...

April 18, 2009 Obama Defends Himself But Not His Country at Summit of Americas Don't blame me! After Nicaraguan Marxist President Daniel Ortega attacked America for 50 minutes in his speech today, Barack Obama smiled and shook his hand. U.S. President Barack Obama and Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega (L) talk during the official photograph session at the 5th Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, April 18, 2009. REUTERS/Chris Wattie (TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO POLITICS) Latin American leaders continued to pile on the US at the Summit of the Americas on Saturday. Barack Obama defended himself from attacks aimed at...

President Obama shook hands with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez on Friday at the opening of the Summit of the Americas being held this weekend in Trinidad and Tobago. It wasn't immediately clear Friday evening what words were exchanged between the two leaders, but photos released by the Venezuelan government show Obama clasping Chavez's hand and smiling broadly.

I am a rightwing extremist. At least that’s what the new administration would call me. In a sweeping nine-page document sent to state and local law-enforcement agencies last week, the federal government sounded the alarm against “rightwing extremists,” and called on law enforcement to join it in identifying and investigating people who fit a certain profile. Like veterans. And gun owners. And people who believe in the Tenth Amendment. In something from the Stalin side of Orwell, the new Democrat regime in Washington has identified those who disagree with it as potential threats to the state. Put another way: The...

Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if any moonbats have tried to crash any of the tea parties? If so I think it should be put up on youtube and pics should be shown on FR. It would be very funny!

The AIG executives accepting bonuses seems to have drawn a lot of ire from folks on both sides of the aisle. On the left, there is the typical vilification of the rich. To these folks, no one should make millions of dollars - except, of course, their own leaders. They deserve millions because they spend their lives "enlightening" us with their elitist drivel. On the right, I have heard many say the AIG execs have ruled over a failing business model and since we are now bailing them out they deserve no bonus. A simple (on the surface) results-oriented argument....

If you’re interested in studying left-wing social movements like organized labor, civil rights or feminism, there are dozens of universities and colleges that have created special programs and research centers devoted to the subject. But hardly any similar institutions exist in academia for those looking for a place to study the right wing in America and abroad. Now, with backing from an anonymous donor, the University of California, Berkeley, where ’60s-era students stood atop a police car and ignited free-speech protests, is creating a Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements. According to experts in the field it is...

Protests greet Bush's first speech as ex-president Tue Mar 17, 2009 5:00pm EDT CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - More than 100 protesters chanted "war criminal" and flung shoes in Calgary on Tuesday, angry that former U.S. President George W. Bush was in the Canadian city to give his first speech since leaving the White House. At least two demonstrators were hauled away by police after brief skirmishes, as 1,500 business people in the oil patch city waited outside a convention center for an hour to pass through tight security and enter the C$400-a-plate ($315) luncheon. Media were barred from the invitation-only...

Fox's Steve Doocy comments on Mauricio Funes, a former CNN employee, who has been elected President of El Salvador. "He is from a party down in El Salvador that is essentially the communist party," explained Doocy. "He considered himself El Salvador's Barack Obama...I wonder if he is just on a leave of absence from CNN, which, given its political inklings CNN could stand for the Communist News Network, he said.

Unintentionally hilarious. This is a look inside the "minds" of leftists, and just how "e-e-e-vil" they view people who don't agree with them. Most hilarious line: "Still, a very attractive Republican versus a DiStefano or a Blagojevic... mmaybe."

Former Palos Heights Mayor Dean Koldenhoven played the part of President Barack Obama when he made a recent surprise appearance at Chicago Christian High School's senior government class in Palos Heights. After entering the room to "Hail to the Chief," Koldenhoven led the class in the Pledge of Allegiance. It was all part of an assignment that tasked the students, split into six groups, to debate American foreign policy issues under new leadership. Koldenhoven listened as each group stated their view of America's responsibility to nations throughout the world, promoting policies and theories ranging from "hands off" to "global leadership...

NORTH Korea plans to stage its rocket launch between April 4-8, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports It quoted South Korean intelligence sources as saying the North has informed the International Maritime Organisation of the planned dates. The North's official media reported earlier it had informed the IMO of the upcoming launch, which it says is aimed at putting a satellite into orbit. It gave no date. The North gave the IMO, the International Civil Aviation Organisation and other world bodies "necessary information for the safe navigation of planes and ships" as part of preparations for launching "an experimental communications...

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2009 – The United States will continue to sail ships on missions in international waters, a Defense Department official said here today. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the March 8 incident in the South China Sea in which five Chinese ships surrounded the USNS Impeccable -- an unarmed Military Sealift Command vessel – won’t hinder the United States from using international sea lanes. The United States protested the Chinese activity to China’s foreign ministry in Beijing and to the defense attache at the Chinese Embassy here. China rejected the U.S. protests today, and maintains the Impeccable violated...

Just how close to the brink of executive tyranny did the United States come in the panic that swept George W. Bush's administration after 9/11? The answer, it now seems clear, is that we came far closer than even staunch critics of the White House believed. On Monday, the Obama administration released nine legal opinions produced for the Bush White House by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. That heretofore obscure office essentially serves as the president's arbiter of what's legal and what isn't. Among other things,...

"...Jerry Curry said Obama's past association with former anti-war radical William Ayers would prevent him from getting security clearance..."

Anyone know the status of the communist-inspired "...largest mass civil disobedience for the climate in U.S. history" (sic) by the socialist at "Capitol Climate Action"? I saw comments on Twitter that it's been cancelled due to the big March snowstorm here in tropical and globally warming DC, but the rather secretive Communist Climate Action web site says: http://www.capitolclimateaction.org/?tag=snow Snow is no wet blanket Monday, March 2nd, 2009 We’re up and at ‘em here at headquarters. We pushed through the snow, got into the office early, and immediately started taking phone calls from media wanting to know if the event is...

A dwindling number of student activists remained barricaded inside a New York University cafeteria early Friday morning after dozens of supporters scuffled with police outside the building overnight and one person was arrested on a summons. School officials and the police could not immediately confirm whether the person arrested was a student, either from NYU or another college campus. Police said the person was issued a summons for disorderly conduct.

Here we go. Bon Voyage Madam

02.10.09MARINE VETERAN KICKED OUT OF SCHOOL FOR POSSESSING FIREARMS WOU STUDENT TRIED, CONVICTED AND SENTENCED.The WOU student who was falsely arrested and charged with possession of a firearm in a public building, had all his criminal charges dropped by the Polk County DA tonight.The DA admitted no wrongdoing on his part, or on the part of the police who arrested Jeff Maxwell for a "crime" that does not exist.In a statement released to OFF's attorney, the DA said "I believe the Monmouth Police Department issued the citation in good faith and that there was an arguable violation. However, a careful...

This just in: Those demented fascists at the Miami-Dade School Board are banning books again. A careful check of school libraries shows there is not a single copy to be had of Babbette Cole's Mommy Laid An Egg, Or Where Do Babies Come From? You can take that title very literally, by the way; the book includes several colorful illustrations of Mommy and Daddy performing the act that leads to babies -- on skateboards, in a bouncy Space Hopper, in balloons in mid-air. Oh, and because Mommy Laid An Egg is a product of modern, nonsexist pedagogy, equal time...

<p>Just checked the airlines. Looks like we can get reasonably priced tickets to DC. Will arrive Sunday night. Available to protest Porkulus Monday and Tuesday and return to Fresno as a free man on Wednesday.</p>

(sigh) Time to bend over and grab the Vaseline.

President Obama will convene the most ambitious arms reduction talks with Russia for a generation, aiming to slash each country’s stockpile of nuclear weapons by 80 per cent. The radical treaty would cut the number of nuclear warheads to 1,000 each, The Times has learnt. Key to the initiative is a review of the Bush Administration’s plan for a US missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, a project fiercely opposed by Moscow. Mr Obama is to establish a non-proliferation office at the White House to oversee the talks, expected to be headed by Gary Samore, a non-proliferation negotiator in the...

H.R. 1 "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act"i.e.: The US Congress' Spend & Tax Free Lunch Act Well, here is what Obama wants. Read it. Highlight the pork.Then, call your Senators/Congressmen and tell 'em: "No way!"