Free Republic

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The coup-installed president of Honduras backed down Monday from an escalating standoff with protesters and suggested he would restore civil liberties and reopen dissident television and radio stations by the end of the week. Riot police ringed supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya who gathered for a large-scale protest march, setting off a daylong standoff. The government of interim President Roberto Micheletti declared the march illegal, sent soldiers to silence dissident broadcasters, and suspended civil liberties for 45 days. But in a sudden reversal, Micheletti said Monday afternoon that he wanted to "ask the Honduran people for...

The courts should vindicate the First Amendment rights of the reporters and media outlets involved in breaking the ACORN scandal wide open. And they should strike down the oppressive and absurd Maryland law that makes it a crime to record someone’s conversation without their knowledge. -snip- Maryland has a shockingly-broad law that makes it a crime—a felony, if fact—to record someone’s conversation without their knowledge. It then makes it a separate crime to disclose that conversation to a third party if the person disclosing knew or had reason to know that the conversation was illegally recorded. Although the Baltimore prosecutor...

The Law Library of the Congress of the United States has issued an opinion on the removal of Manuel Zelaya as president of Honduras. The conclusion: Zelaya’s removal was legal but his deportation from the country was not. Here is the summary: The Supreme Court of Honduras has constitutional and statutory authority to hear cases against the President of the Republic and many other high officers of the State, to adjudicate and enforce judgments, and to request the assistance of the public forces to enforce its rulings. The Constitution no longer authorizes impeachment, but gives Congress the power to disapprove...

Reporting from Tegucigalpa, Honduras - The de facto government of Honduras suspended constitutional guarantees indefinitely late Sunday, outlawing public gatherings and making it easier for the army to make arrests. The measure, announced on a nationwide simultaneous television and radio broadcast, came on the eve of a potentially enormous march by ousted President Manuel Zelaya's supporters. From his refuge at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, Zelaya called on people to take to the streets today to mark the three-month anniversary of his ouster.

The Post & Email has received tonight a decclassified FBI report admitted in evidence in the case brought against W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller by President Jimmy Carter’s U.S. Attorney General, Mr. Griffin B. Bell. This document was obtained by an American citizen, who wished to remain anonymous, via a FOIA request. Mr. W. Mark  Felt is none other than the informant who spoke with reporters from the Washington Post, exposing the Watergate Scandal:  who went by the name “Deep Throat” a fact that points to his political neutrality in American politics.What is not know about Mr. Felt...

IT'S A RIOT: Young members of anarchist groups hold violent demonstrations during Friday's G-20 finance meetings in Pittsburgh. Politics: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi berated town hall and tea party protesters this month, tearfully warning they'd incite violence. Well, there's been violence all right, at Pittsburgh's G-20. But it wasn't the tea partiers.It takes gall to characterize ordinary Americans, freely exercising their rights of speech and assembly in civic forums, as "mobs" while ignoring a pack of leftist thugs now smashing a U.S. city. But that's what Pelosi did, directing her righteous tocsin to the Norman Rockwell-like gatherings of Americans...

Without regard to one's views about the health care legislation promoted by President Obama and currently being redrafted by Sen. Max Baucus, everyone is entitled to expect that the task will be carried out with competence and integrity — also with dignity and a high regard for the intelligence of the American people. Further, even if everyone agreed that the proposed federal interventions in health care were consistent with "best medical practice" and produced the best possible medical care at the least price, all these federal actions would still have to meet constitutional standards. The controversial tax that both Obama...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — “The lies of Manuel Zelaya” intones a stern voice as a picture of Mr. Zelaya, the deposed president of Honduras, flashes on the screen. Then to the ring of a cash register, images flash by of Mr. Zelaya’s cowboy hat, horses, a private plane, Times Square. While he was president, Mr. Zelaya bought jewels, paid for trips and maintained his horses with money he stole from the Central Bank and the Treasury, according to the television advertisement produced by the de facto government. Headlines from Honduran newspapers pop up onscreen as if to demonstrate the truth of...

Ann Geddes doesn't want a "fair and balanced" workout. But the 49-year-old worker for a nonprofit agency is having no luck getting the channel changed in front of her favorite rowing machine at a Columbia gym. The television happens to be tuned permanently to Fox News. Geddes, a liberal Democrat and former legislative aide to a Howard County delegate, said she can't stomach the conservative lineup that appears nightly as she gets her exercise. Even though the sound is off, the words scrolling across the bottom of the screen infuriate her.

PARIS (AFP) - Iran's exiled opposition movement said Thursday it had learned of two previously unknown sites in and near Tehran that are being used to build nuclear warheads. "Resistance sources have managed to uncover two centres that work directly on nuclear armaments and which were until now kept secret," Mehdi Abrihamtchi of the People's Mujahedeen told reporters in Paris, where his group is based. "They are places for research and production of detonation systems which is a major part of the mullah's atomic bomb project," he said, adding that his organisation had passed on the information to the UN...

The former Cuban leader on Wednesday called the American president's speech at the United Nations "brave" and said no other American head of state would have had the courage to make similar remarks. In a speech at the United Nations on Tuesday, Obama acknowledged that the United States had been slow to act on climate change, but said Washington was now prepared to be a full partner as the world confronts the threat.

In his new book, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage," Best-selling celebrity journalist, Christopher Andersen, has blown a huge hole in the Obama genius myth without intending to do so. Relying on inside sources, quite possibly Michelle Obama herself, Andersen describes how Dreams came to be published -- just as I had envisioned it in my articles on the authorship of Dreams.  With the deadline pressing, Michelle recommended that Barack seek advice from "his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers." To flesh out his family history, Obama had taped interviews with various family members. Andersen writes, "These...

Undoubtedly the funniest interview segment that Barry Soetoro has done to date, the George Stephanopholus interview on Sunday 20, 2009, entitled the “Health Care Blitz on every channel except Fox,” had to be hands down funniest. In it President Barry Soetoro attempted to replace the Webster’s Dictionary with his own Orwellian Worldview and definition of what a tax is. I gleefully yelled at the television screen; No, you lie, you lie, you lie as the president straight faced called George Stephanopholus and Webster’s Dictionary a lie. (see transcript) According to the president anyone who uses a reputable source of meaning,...

The alleged Al Qaeda terror thugs involved in the plot to bomb the city tried to rent a 'Jumbo Sized Super Mover' U-Haul truck in St. Albans, Queens. Another terrorist cell was taken down, but the question remains did they arrest all of them and how many more remain under surveillance or worse, not even known to our FBI? HE WAS OUT TO KILL Detectives were combing Queens storage facilities on Monday for stockpiled explosive chemicals that Al Qaeda terror thugs planned to use to bomb New York, sources said. At the same time, the Daily News has learned...

WASHINGTON — The United States pledged Tuesday to do whatever it can to help Brazil's embassy in Honduras, which was surrounded by soldiers and had its lights, water and phone lines cut off after deposed President Manuel Zelaya took refuge there. "Our embassy in Tegucigalpa is in contact with their counterparts in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa and we're discussing what kind of assistance that we can provide to help them during this crisis," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. "It's a very sensitive situation there on the ground, and I don't want to get into the details of what...

A new Rasmussen Reports poll finds two-thirds of Americans are angry with the federal government. The poll discovered 66-percent are either "Somewhat Angry" or "Very Angry" with the current policies. That contrasts with 30-percent of participants who said they're either not very or not at all angry. Adding to the anger is 60-percent of Americans don't believe either party has the answers. The poll found 90-percent of Republicans are angry versus 44-percent of Democrats. The report concludes that those who are most angry are the least worried about violence.

Are Communists (or neo-Communists) Dangerous? By: David Horowitz NewsReal | Tuesday, September 22, 2009 Visit NewsReal Last Friday night, O’Reilly and Beck had a back-and-forth about communism (inspired by Beck’s takedown of self-proclaimed communist and presidential adviser Van Jones). O’Reilly opined (I hate that word but he likes it, so there it is) that he was afraid of Islamo-fascists but not of communists. Like many Americans, O’Reilly thinks that because the communist party is almost a thing of the past (it exists but is not and will not be big enough to throw its weight around again), the communist idea...

Some Americans are still denial that a guy who appoints avowed communists to his circle of advisors, pursues massive government intervention in the economy, seeks to redistribute wealth, and sides with Marxist dictators like Castro and Chavez against the free people of a sovereign country ... is probably a socialist himself. But the Communist Chinese are under no such delusions. Hat Tip: Knowledge Is Power

Some Republican lawmakers moved swiftly Monday to try and block FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposal that the FCC adopt new network neutrality rules. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) Monday introduced an amendment to an appropriations bill that would prohibit the FCC from spending any funds "to develop and implement new regulatory mandates." The bill was co-sponsored by Senators John Ensign (R-Nev.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), David Vitter (R-La.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and John Thune (R-S.D.). “I am deeply concerned by the direction the FCC appears to be heading,” said Hutchison in a statement. “Even during a severe downturn, America has experienced...

Nadler: Liberals prepared to buck Obama, Dem leadership By Michael O'Brien - 09/21/09 03:13 PM ET Liberals in the House are prepared to buck President Obama and House Democratic leaders if they're presented a healthcare bill without a public option. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Monday he is optimistic that any healthcare bill from the House will include a public (or "government-run") option, and are undertaking a whip count to test lawmakers' commitment to that measure. "The public option is still very much alive only because the progressives have stood together and held our ground and said that, regardless of...

TEGUCIGALPA - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has taken refuge inside the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, Telesur television network reported Monday. Zelaya had announced Monday he returned to Honduras almost three months after he was toppled in a coup, despite warnings he would be arrested. The U.S. State Department confirmed that Zelaya, an ally of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, was back in Honduras but the Central American country's de facto ruler denied Zelaya had returned. "I am here in Tegucigalpa. I am here for the restoration of democracy, to call for dialogue." Zelaya told Honduras'...

At a time of 24-hour news and a proliferation of television and radio talk shows featuring hatemongers and demagogues like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck may stand out as the most unhinged and extremist of all as evidenced by his jihad against anyone to the left of his views, disadvantaged minorities, Muslims, Latino immigrants, and progressive change in some of his most outlandish comments, including: – calling Barack Obama a “racist (who) has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture; I don’t know what it is….This guy is, I believe, a...

Suppose it was revealed that the pastor who had married George and Laura Bush, baptized their two daughters and ministered to their spiritual needs for 20 years was a raving white supremacist who, from the pulpit, preached the separation of the races, claimed that the promiscuity of African-Americans had quickened the spread of AIDS and mused about how America might be improved if black people were sent back to Africa. Or what if Mr. Bush, while president, had appointed an admitted neo-Nazi to a senior advisory post within his administration, a man who openly endorsed the use of child labour...

Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) issued a poorly timed press release this afternoon that nevertheless blasts patriots with both rhetorical barrels.Anti-American, right wing extremists, right wing attack dogs, teab*****s, cruel, venomous, Glenn Beck, Fox News. Stern hurls every eptithet in the liberal handbook except racist. Maybe he's waiting to play the race card until next week. SEIU put out the press release at 1:33 p.m. this Friday, a time when official Washington and the media are trying to shut down for the weekend.Friday afternoon and evening is when pros try to release news they want...

An Internet list includes names of businesses, government buildings and university structures around Pittsburgh that protesters apparently plan to illegally target during the G-20 summit, Team 4 investigator Jim Parsons reported. Many of the 100 sites are in the East Liberty, Shadyside, Oakland and Lawrenceville neighborhoods, away from the site of the global economic summit, which will be held Sept. 24-25 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown.

by Rob NatelsonSpeaker Nancy Pelosi has issued a press release in which she purports to rebut those of us who have expressed doubts about the constitutionality of some health care reform plans. Pelosi (or her ghostwriter) claims: "The 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that the powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states... or to the people. But the Constitution gives Congress broad power to regulate activities that have an effect on interstate commerce. Congress has used this authority to regulate many aspects...

Being “Like Ronald Reagan” The Only Positive Political Description “Progressive” is becoming more of a dirty word, but all political labels – except “being like Ronald Reagan” – are falling into disfavor with many U.S. voters, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. “Liberal” is still the worst and remains the only political description that is viewed more negatively than positively. Being like Reagan is still the most positive thing you can say about a candidate. So says the latest Rasmussen polling on the subject.

William Ayers is a self avowed communist. B. Hussein Obama is a Marxist. Bernadine Dohrn is a communist. The Chicago Axis of Evil. Ayers has made a career out of being a terrorist, first with bombs and now by destroying America’s educational system. Dohrn, one of the co-founders with hubby, Bill Ayers, of the Weather Underground, has lived the life of a terrorist, the more violent of the two (Ayers and Dohrn) according to others. All Obama has done is blow up the American economy, defense, foreign policy, dollar, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and reputation. Obama’s actions have spread like...

ACORN, the new tip of the Cloward-Piven spear In 1970, one of George Wiley's protégés, Wade Rathke -- like Bill Ayers, a member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) -- was sent to found the Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now. While NWRO had made a good start, it alone couldn't accomplish the Cloward-Piven goals. Rathke's group broadened the offensive to include a wide array of low income "rights." Shortly thereafter they changed "Arkansas" to "Association of" and ACORN went nationwide. Today ACORN is involved in a wide array of activities, including housing, voting rights, illegal immigration...

TEL AVIV – There is no moral concern regarding cloning human beings since human embryos, which develop into a baby, are "only a handful of cells," argued President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein. "If scientists will be using and cloning embryos only at a very early stage when they are just a handful of cells (say, before they are four days old), there is no good reason for a ban (on cloning)," wrote Sunstein, who was confirmed by the Senate last week as administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. "It is silly to...

The Boise City Council passed a controversial health care resolution Tuesday night by a four to three margin. Mayor Dave Bieter passed the deciding vote after listening to more than an hour of public testimony. Most of that testimony was against the resolution on the national health care crises. Less than a handful sided with the mayor who'd proposed the resolution. "You're not concerning yourself with city Business at all I don't think you guys need to comment on it," one man told the council just before applause broke out inside council chambers. The resolution reads "The city council of...

Here is video of Fox News' Major Garrett pressing White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about President Obama's use of "Czars" in his administration. Gibbs mentioned that Republicans were OK with Bush having "czars," and said there's a lot of politics going on in criticizing Obama about the use of czars. Of course, Gibbs did not say anything about the fact he is using an unprecedented number of Czars in a way that in essence, seems to be circumventing his own Cabinet, and the need for confirmation by the Senate. . . . (VIDEO)

It doesn’t matter what side of the debate you are on. One thing is becoming clear, and that is that Mark Williams, along with the racist sign holders during protests (and I mean the ones with the actual racist signs, not the protesters in general) are not coming off well. Mark Williams was on the panel of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″, and he didn’t come off looking very good. Not only did he contradict a number of his own points, but he stumbled through the interview, and was actually openly laughed at by the other panelists. It is a trend...

The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.”—George Soros - “George Soros is an evil man. He’s anti-God, anti-family, anti-American, and anti-good.” —Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson - Is it possible to lay the global financial meltdown, the radicalizing of the Democratic Party, and America’s moral decline, at the feet of one man? It is indeed possible. If George Soros isn’t the world’s preeminent “malignant messianic narcissist,” he’ll do until the real thing comes along. Move over, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. There’s a new kid on the block. What we have in Soros,...

"I think Van Jones was not, this was not a big guy in the White House administration. If we're all going to focus on trying to figure out who Van Jones and his past relationships, when you go #600 down on the list of White House staff. Is that the best use of the time of the mainstream media? You know, we'll see. Clearly some on the right had objections to Van Jones and they successfully got the White House to sever ties."

A sign of desperation? Can't see it any other way. The idea that Obama's political opponents are motivated by racism will apparently now be "mainstreamed" into the Democratic party's talking points against conservatives. It's one thing for liberal bloggers and pundits to casually drop the "R" word in trying to smear administration opponents. But it appears that the race card will become an official meme of the Democrats when attacking their opponents.

As public outrage in some parts of the country against President Obama seems to grow louder by the week, some Democrats believe that his sharpest critics are driven by racism. At a fall gathering of the Democratic National Committee in Austin, several Democrats expressed dismay with the anger exploding mostly from white Americans, such as the tens of thousands who marched on the nation's capital Saturday. African-American lawmakers like Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson say the tone of the president's critics increasingly suggests what is motivating their vitriol. "It's hurting the spirit of this country," Johnson said, expressing worry about...

Many have wondered how ANYONE AS EXTREME AS Obama’S “Green Jobs Czar� Van Jones – a self-described “Communist� obsessed with racial conspiracy theories – could have been named to head a federal agency. David Horowitz described the radicalization of the Democratic Party as the appointment’s subtext. Closer to the fore, Jones owed his elevation to another new factor: the unparalleled influence of Valerie Jarrett. To call Jarrett a presidential adviser, even a close adviser, is misleading. She is an alter ego, an inner conscience, a touchstone of clarity for both President Obama and first lady Michelle. In the frenzy of...

Battered from an August filled with taxpayer protests of his health care bill and a rising wave of skepticism about his agenda, President Barack Obama received a flood of praise from the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). In an article titled “The Impossible is Now Possible: Assessing the Obama Presidency,” executive vice chair of the Party, Jarvis Tyner hailed the President’s “drive to the left.” “The health care bill, the stimulus package, the cap-and-trade bill, the elimination of secret elections for union representation—it’s a program we dared not dream possible only a year ago,” Tyner wrote. “But now...

White House senior adviser David Axelrod says that the demonstrations in Washington, D.C., Saturday do not represent the views of the broader public when it comes to health care reform.

Van Jones — unfit for print: The green czar affair should put the final lie to The Times’ ‘objectivity’ (KYLE SMITH, September 13, 2009, NY Post) “This is not an excuse,” the managing editor of The New York Times said after offering the following excuse for completely missing the Van Jones story, except in a blog post: “Our Washington bureau was somewhat short-staffed during the height of the pre-Labor Day vacation period.” Here’s how long-staffed The New York Times actually is. Long after Glenn Beck reported — back in July — that Jones was history’s first communist czar, and even...

Obama: conservative anger is 'coarsening' By Mike Soraghan - 09/13/09 10:42 AM ET President Obama says the angry scenes on televised town halls represents a "coarsening of our political dialogue." In an interview to be aired tonight on 60 minutes, Obama indicated that he didn't think the opposition expressed to his agenda represented the national mood, just the best television. "In the era of 24-hour cable news cycles, the loudest shrillest voices get the attention," Obama said, in the interview which was previewed on Face the Nation. "What I'm trying to figure out is how can we make sure that...

Crist's popularity as governor doesn't always extend to members of his own Republican Party, and that might make him vulnerable as he runs for U.S. Senate. BY ADAM C. SMITH Charlie Crist is swimming in campaign money, and polls consistently show him to be among the most popular politicians in America. But something ominous and unpredictable is brewing in Florida, and a growing number of Republicans are starting to consider the unthinkable: the people's governor could lose his campaign for U.S. Senate. "It's rare that I talk to anyone that's got a good thing to say about the governor right...

A July 2009 congressional report -- titled “Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?” -- accused ACORN of massive fraud, money laundering, and racketeering directed from the highest levels of the organization's management.

Please excuse the vanity. Could anyone verify if Fact Check is legitimate? It was recently discovered that some internet fact checking website was nothing but two liberally biased individuals putting their spin on the information they were checking on and posting it to their site. I thought it was Fact Check. If this is not correct, I apologize for giving the wrong impression, but it would also be an opportunity to set that straight in the responses. If anyone could help me out and provide a link I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come — a situation that would seriously complicate Barack Obama’s ability to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession. “The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.” Summers’ comments came in a briefing with reporters ahead of Obama’s speech in New York City on Monday, marking the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, an event widely regarded as...

I believe I may have an insight into why so many conservatives crazy-hate Barack Obama: He's a liberal. A true liberal. An unabashed liberal. Yes, there's a liberal in the White House -- and most Americans aren't disgusted by that. In fact, most approve of him. (His approval rating is on par with that of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan eight months into their presidencies.) Worse, he's a liberal with an ambitious liberal agenda. And even worse, he might just succeed in enacting it. During Obama's speech before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, he presented a strong...

In his September 9 address to Congress and the nation on health insurance, President Obama said that under his plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance. There is no clause in Article I of the Constitution authorizing Congress to craft legislation forcing individuals to purchase insurance. Mr. Obama attempted to justify his intended federal intrusion on individual liberty by noting that states require drivers to carry auto insurance. Notwithstanding the difference between a requirement imposed on licensed individuals or machines as opposed to a mandate for everyone, he fails to recognize the distinction between federal and state...

Jose Obdilio Duran's '57 Chevy has holes in its mottled floor, a passenger window that can't be rolled up and no inside panels on its doors. But the 71-year-old retiree wants to put the old car to work — applying for one of the first taxi licenses this communist country has granted in a decade. About 60 would-be taxi drivers lined up early Friday at a Transport Ministry office in central Havana to fill out forms for permission to use their own cars as taxis — a rare dose of the free market on an island whose economy is dominated...