Free Republic

Here is video showing flag-waving Communists and Socialists marching in the streets of Copenhagen in support of radical steps to stop the Global Warming hysteria they believe in. Many held banners attacking "Capitalism," and saying things like "Long Live Socialism." Many communist flags are visible featuring the "hammer and sickle." They marched in connection with the "Climate Change Summit" being held in Copenhagen. . . . (VIDEO)

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...

QUESTION: And my second question is whether the U.S. is surprised at all of the passion, the people reacted before on Honduras. ASSISTANT SECRETARY VALENZUELA: On your second question, your question is a very valid one because there really are strong passions on both sides; there’s no question about that. And it does show a certain degree of ideological polarization in the world, and you see it in many capitals. You see it here in Washington. It became a domestic problem as well in terms of Honduras. You see it very much in Spain and in other places. So I’m...

According to an Associated Press report, “Obama declared that the United States still considers Manuel Zelaya to be the president of Honduras and assailed the coup that forced him into exile as ‘not legal.’ ” So the question arises, why would Obama refer to Zelaya’s ouster as an “illegal coup?” As the AP reminds us, “The term ‘coup’ is defined as ‘a sudden, decisive exercise of power whereby the existing government is subverted without the consent of the people.’ When a country’s legally and democratically elected government ‘removes’ an individual, using the processes outlined in its Constitution, it is not...

If anyone was wondering what communists think of anyone who dares to start a business, run a company, or “make money” in a free-market economy, check out the “Kill the Rich" graffiti on this statute in Greece (scroll down to the bottom of the article to see it larger). Interestingly enough, the Athens statute the leftists chose to deface is of an Orthodox Christian hierarch.

Markey: With End of U.S. Gov. Climate Denial, Real Endangerment Comes from Forces Stopping ActionDecision Based on Mountains of Data, Not Molehill of Manufactured Doubt WASHINGTON (December 7, 2009) – Following the announcement today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that it has finalized the so-called “endangerment finding” and determined that heat-trapping pollution constitutes a danger to human health and the environment, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), co-author of the Waxman-Markey climate bill and chair of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, issued the following statement: “Now that the U.S. government has officially ended its era of...

The US has said it is disappointed by the Honduran Congress's decision not to reinstate President Manuel Zelaya for his remaining two months in office. Honduran lawmakers voted overwhelmingly against allowing ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who was removed from office in June, to serve out his term. Conservative politician Porfirio Lobo won presidential elections on Sunday. Several neighbouring countries say they will not restore ties unless Mr Zelaya is allowed to finish his term. Following the vote in Congress, Mr Zelaya told the BBC: "This decision ratifies a coup and condemns Honduras to continue living in illegality." Of the 125...

FAIRFIELD, Calif. (CBS13) ― An unidentified military veteran was involved in a tense confrontation with anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and the group Code Pink at a rally at Travis Air Force Base on Saturday, November 28, 2009. CBS A Saturday rally led by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan at Travis Air Force Base nearly ended in a brawl when a military veteran physically confronted the protesters. Anti-war group Code Pink demonstrated at the military base Saturday morning in the first of six planned protests against unmanned military drones currently in use in overseas war zones. Sheehan, a well-known anti-war activist...

Enabling the next Fort Hood? Congress's curbs on gun data hurt investigations By Michael Bloomberg and Thomas Kean Friday, November 27, 2009 The news from Fort Hood shocked the nation: American soldiers shot on American soil. Thirteen dead and 38 injured. It was almost too terrible to believe. Almost. Unfortunately, the Fort Hood rampage was not the first time that our military personnel have been murdered in the United States this year. In June, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad shot and killed an Army private and wounded another soldier at a military recruiting station in Little Rock. In both cases, the loss...

Obamacare May Target Gun Owners Jillian Bandes Wednesday, November 25, 2009 Who might be the next victim of Obamacare? Gun owners. Government health care reform "will most likely dump your gun-related health data into a government database…that can preclude you from owning firearms,” said Gun Owners of America, in an email notification to their members, shortly before the health care debate on Saturday. GOA said that diagnoses such as post-traumatic stress disorders or other mental illnesses could be a reason the government uses to charge you more for health insurance under the public plan, or as part of co-op regulations....

The lodge where I stay in Kabul was badly damaged on Oct. 8 when a suicide car bomb exploded 80 meters down the road near the Indian Embassy. Seventeen Afghans working in photocopy shops near the embassy were killed and another 60 wounded. The Indian diplomats were unharmed. No apologies were offered by the perpetrators for the killings. Nobody was hurt at my lodge, but 75 windows were blown out. The next day I was talking with the owner, who, for the third time in three years, had to fork out $3,000 to fix his windows. I asked him what...

Alice Palmer is a Chicago based academic, activist and former friend, employer and political ally of Barack Obama. In the mid 1990s Alice Palmer, then an Illinois State Senator, employed Obama has her chief of staff, when she attempted an ill-fated run for the US Congress. Obama was part of Friends of Alice Palmer, alongside controversial property developer Tony Rezko and Democratic Socialists of America members Danny Davis, Betty Wilhoitte and Timuel Black-also a member of Committees of Correspondence). Later Palmer introduced Obama as designated successor to her Illinois State Senate seat, in the living room of former Weather Underground...

This is the third article to appear on these pages from an IBD subscriber who lived in the Soviet Union until 1980. Click here to read the previous two articlesWhenever I speak about my experiences living in the USSR, my American friends respond that such things can never happen in a democracy like the United States. They don't understand why I am repulsed when I hear the president talk about "sacrificing for the collective good," which sounds so compassionate, as opposed to greedy capitalism. "Sacrifice for the collective good" is one of the founding principles of socialism, where the collective,...

2nd Circuit to Civil Rights Lawyer Lynne Stewart: Go Directly to Jail A federal appeals court says bail for civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart should be revoked and she should begin serving her sentence “forthwith” for passing messages from an imprisoned terrorist to his followers. The New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Stewart’s conviction in an opinion (PDF) released today, rejecting her argument that the First Amendment protected her release of statements by an imprisoned sheik. Stewart was convicted in 2005 of providing material support to terrorists by passing messages from Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman to...

Through the John Adams Project, the ACLU and the NACDL assembled a team of trial counsel, mitigation specialists and investigators to work with the under-resourced military lawyers in their representation of Guantánamo detainees accused in connection with the 9/11 attacks and other cases. The John Adams Project attorneys brought years of experience in criminal defense law, including much needed expertise in capital cases, to the defense effort. The Project’s lawyers, who were formally admitted by the presiding judge as part of the civilian legal team, appeared before the military commissions on their clients’ behalf numerous times and filed over 80...

The South Dakota Family Policy Council sponsored a speech tonight at First Assembly of God in Rapid City by Kitty Werthmann of Eagle Forum in South Dakota. The presentation was entitled “Socialism vs Freedom” and was a part of the SDFPC “Heritage Under Attack” series. Werthmann is the head of the South Dakota chapter of Eagle Forum, and was born in Austria. Werthmann lived for seven years under the Nazi rule of Austria, eventually coming to the United States in 1950 to become a naturalized citizen in 1962. She said conditions in 1930’s Austria were very difficult. Unemployment was high,...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Assailants fired an anti-tank grenade toward the building housing ballots for the upcoming Honduran presidential elections, which are taking place under the shadow of a four-month crisis caused by a coup, police said Friday. The grenade overshot the target, exploding 550 yards (500 meters) from the building in the capital of Tegucigalpa, police spokesman Orlin Cerrato said. Residents in several neighborhoods heard the explosion Thursday night, but there were no damages. Police believe the building housing election material was the intended target because the surrounding buildings are mostly residential. They said the Russian-made, rocket-propelled grenade was likely...

WASHINGTON — Under fire from allies in Latin America and on Capitol Hill, the Obama administration moved Tuesday to try to salvage the American-brokered agreement that had been billed as paving the way for a peaceful end to the coup in Honduras. Instead, the accord seems to have provided the country’s de facto government with a way to stay in power until a presidential election scheduled for the end of this month. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Craig Kelly (traveled) to Honduras on Tuesday for meetings with Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted from power four months ago, and with the...

Scotland - Britain called for consideration of a global tax on financial transactions to insure against another crisis, and urged world finance officials meeting on Saturday in Scotland to agree on bearing the cost of fighting climate change. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told finance ministers from the Group of 20 rich and developing countries it was time to consider a global financial levy, such as a tax on transactions

A new video of Jeremiah Wright has surfaced, showing Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years praising Marxism and discussing his ties to communists in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the Libyan government. Equally important, Wright is being introduced in the video by Robert W. McChesney, co-founder of Free Press, an organization which has come under scrutiny for its links to the Obama Administration and dedication to the transformation and control of the private media in the U.S. In an article in the socialist Monthly Review, "Journalism, Democracy, and Class Struggle," McChesney declared, "Our job is to make media reform part...

The National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities are expected to receive their highest levels of funding in 16 years from a bill President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law by this weekend. Under the Interior Appropriations Bill passed Thursday by the House and Senate, both cultural agencies were slated to receive $167.5 million for the 2010 fiscal year. Last year's budget allocated $155 million. The increase — amid a record federal budget deficit — comes after an aggressive push by lobbyists to show that arts organizations provide thousands of jobs across the country....

BARSUR, India — At the edge of the Indravati River, hundreds of miles from the nearest international border, India effectively ends. Indian paramilitary officers point machine guns across the water. The dense jungles and mountains on the other side belong to Maoist rebels dedicated to overthrowing the government. ..." India’s Maoist rebels are now present in 20 states and have evolved into a potent and lethal insurgency. ..." If the Maoists were once dismissed as a ragtag band of outdated ideologues, Indian leaders are now preparing to deploy nearly 70,000 paramilitary officers for a prolonged counterinsurgency campaign to hunt down...

Some of my best friends have worked for ACORN. They are honest, dedicated and moral individuals who appreciated the mission of this group, which has done so much good for some of our poorest citizens. So I take it personally when Congress reduces ACORN to an object lesson about the purported immorality of some community organizers. ACORN isn't perfect. Both its loose organizational supervision and occasional zealotry of its organizers have led to abuses. But Congress has been extremely hypocritical and biased in cutting off federal funds. When two conservative activists posed as a pimp and a prostitute and with...

Show me who he hangs with and I'll show you who (and what) he is. Sammy writes: The White House has been barraged with requests to release the names of its visitors. Today they release the first 500 visits, all from the period of Jan 20-July 31. Some of the Names you can find on the list are Bill Ayers 2x, George Soros 4x, Michael Moore 8X, the head of the ACORN affiliated Union the SEIU Andrew Stern 20x,Jeremiah Wright, GE/NBC head Jeff Immelt 5x, Jesse Jackson 6x, John Edwards2x, Al Sharpton 2x, and of course television goddess Oprah Winfrey....

Diplomacy: The restoration of a president with dictatorial dreams in Honduras is being touted by the administration as a triumph of "dialogue." In truth, it's just old-fashioned yanqui interventionism. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed Thursday night's agreement in Tegucigalpa as "a restoration of the constitutional order," and praised it highly. "I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that, having suffered a rupture of its democratic and constitutional order, overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue." What worked here, though, wasn't dialogue, but U.S. diplomatic muscle. A last-minute mission from Assistant Secretary of State...

WASHINGTON -- The chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees are asking the Law Library of Congress to retract a report on the military-backed coup in Honduras that they charge is flawed and “has contributed to the political crisis that still wracks” the country. The request, by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., has sparked cries of censorship from Republicans who say the Democrats don't like what the August report said: that the government of Honduras had the authority to remove President Manuel Zelaya from office. Zelaya has been holed up at the Brazilian embassy...

With all the talk about President Obama's "enemies list," including less than flattering comparisons to former President, Richard M. Nixon, I think it's appropriate to add some perspective to the issue. People apply the Nixonian label when searching history for a precedent nearing the level of Obama's attacks against his so-called "enemies list".

“Thought crime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for awhile…but sooner or later they were bound to get you.” George Orwell, 1984 “The fact is we are witnessing an all-out drive to impose thought control that seeks to ban the ability—the right—to think or speak for one’s self. Thinking is becoming a crime.” (Globally Acceptable Truth and the Crime of Thinking, Tom DeWeese, Address to the 10th Annual Freedom 21 Conference, 10/16/09) In an article entitled “Dems Undermine Free Speech in Hate Crimes Ploy,” the Washington Examiner exposes the insidious machinations of House...

MADRID - U.S. President Barack Obama asked Spain to send Cuba a message about reform when he met Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero earlier this month, the newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday. Six days after their meeting on October 13 at the White House, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visited the Caribbean island and met President Raul Castro. "Have (Moratinos) tell the Cuban authorities we understand that change can't happen overnight, but down the road, when we look back at this time, it should be clear that now is when those changes began," Obama told Zapatero, according...

“Two people showed up saying they are responsible for making the consular changes demanded by Mrs. Patricia Rhodes, that of Marta Zuniga and Fernando Espinosa,” said David Hernandez, minister counselor of the consulate of Honduras in Washington. “They came in and locksmiths changed the locks without saying why.” The consulate is now run by people appointed by former Chancellor Rhodes, Hernandez said. Mario Fortin explained that Mrs. Marta Zuniga was named to the consular office by the former president Manuel Zelaya. The actions of former Foreign Minister Patricia Rhodes affects thousands of Hondurans living in the U.S., who now cannot...

QUESTION: Thank you. On Honduras, again? MR. KELLY: Uh-huh. QUESTION: Dialogue is again broken. I know the U.S. supports an electoral solution for that, but positions seems to be divided because the rest of the countries – I mean, the rest of the international community is not really very clear if they are going to recognize the results of this election. So where do we stand? MR. KELLY: Yeah. Well, I’m glad you asked. It is – I don’t know if I would characterize the situation as the talks have broken off, because the latest we heard this morning is...

Here we are only nine months into the ubiquitously proclaimed "post-racial presidency," and all that promised harmony among the races has disappeared faster than a Chicago minute. All it took for addled minds to conjure shadows of racism behind every whitey tree in the whole American forest were voices raised in dissent over the President's far-left policies. No sooner had congress' summer recess begun -- without the President's hoped-for passage of Obamacare -- than the racist cries began their assent. Nancy Pelosi threw down the "swastika" gauntlet aimed at townhall attendees, which essentially tarred those citizens with white-supremacy slander. In...

Back when people were tippy-toeing around the “s” word (“socialist”), and before he was elected, I called out Obama’s basic political inclinations for what they are - communist. Though plenty pooh-poohed this, and called it extreme or unsubstantiated, there was ample proof in Obama’s own writings, his interviews, and the political leanings of his mentors (Saul Alinsky, Frank Marshall Davis), his pastor (Jeremiah Wright) and his friends. It’s absurd to hear people say now that Obama is governing differently than he campaigned. If you think that, you weren’t listening. But those who still harbor any doubts need only look at...

Rosie O'Donnell has confirmed that she and longtime girlfriend Kelli Carpenter are on the rocks. In a new interview with USA Today, she says, "We're a family. We will remain a family forever. And we are working on our issues." The 47-year-old O'Donnell -- who has been suggesting a split on her blog -- wouldn't confirm a National Enquirer report that Carpenter, 42, has moved out of their Nyack, NY, home and into Manhattan. (USA Today notes that Carpenter was not at the house during the interview.) Meet Rosie O'Donnell and other stars' surprise BFFs "We're a family, we remain...

Here is video of Rush Limbaugh today saying that radical statements by those surrounding President Obama actually reveal who President Obama is. Rush said it's not that these radicals just happened to be around Obama. "Obama is Anita Dunn - Obama is Van Jones - Obama is Ron Bloom - Obama is ACORN . . ." Rush makes this statement at around the 4:34 mark of the video. Rush played comments by both Anita Dunn and Ron Bloom praising or agreeing with Communist Dictator Mao Tse Tung. (VIDEO OF RUSH)

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told a group of high school students last June that former Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong was one of her two favorite political philosophers, and you could tell she was speaking from the heart. Her earnest appeal to the teenagers to fight their own wars, as Mao had counseled when challenged within his own party, was clearly meant as a call to activism. "You fight your war and I'll fight mine," she quoted Mao as saying, because apparently Mao was all about personal choice. Of course, Mao's usual response to those who questioned his...

David Swindle Asks: The news just came out that White House communications director Anita Dunn is influenced by Communist dictator Mao Tse Tung. This will no doubt prompt further investigations and challenges regarding Dunn's political views. I recall from Radical Son that when you were still a Marxist and first became acquainted with Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton one of your initial disagreements was over the merits of Maoism. Even as a Marxist you were opposed to Maoism. What do people need to know about this particular school of Marxism? How should we respond differently than if Dunn had...

White House communications director Anita Dunn fired back at criticism from TV commentator Glenn Beck on Friday, saying that a Mao Tse-tung quote Beck took issue with was picked up from legendary GOP strategist Lee Atwater. "The Mao quote is one I picked up from the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater from something I read in the late 1980s, so I hope I don't get my progressive friends mad at me," Dunn told CNN.

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez's government began taking over management of a Hilton-run hotel on Venezuela's Margarita Island on Wednesday. Tourism Minister Pedro Morejon said a 20-year concession granted to the company has expired and the government "has taken legitimate control of an asset that belongs to all the people of Venezuela." Chavez issued a decree last week ordering the "forced acquisition" of the Margarita Hilton & Suites and its marina, though news of the edict did not surface until Tuesday. Morejon said the government has held majority ownership of the hotel since 1995, when a banking crisis forced...

Anita Dunn freely admits that Mao Tse Tung (mass murderer) is her favorite philosopher. She thinks alot about him and is guided by his philosophy. Anita Dunn is the woman that Obama picked to "keep an eye" on FOX NEWS. ...

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...

I first became aware of politics, in the ordinary sense, during the presidential election of 1948. My parents and their friends belonged to the Democratic Party and had voted for Roosevelt. It was what they called their “mass work”—going to where the people were, in order to lead them to something better. This had been the Party line since the days of the Popular Front, when under orders from Moscow the comrades abandoned their “ultra left” position and stopped calling Roosevelt a fascist. “Communism is twentieth-century Americanism,” the Party leader Earl Browder had said, promoting the spirit of cooperation...

Soon after Former President Zelaya was deposed for trying to go around the countries constitution, the "Nobel Peace Prize winner" took a position against democracy, contra to the Honduras Constitution and on the wrong side of history. “America supports now the restoration of the democratically-elected President of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies,” the president told graduate students at the commencement ceremony of Moscow’s New Economic School. “We do so not because we agree with him. We do so because we respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders, whether they are leaders we...

American taxpayers are planning to storm more than 100 mainstream media offices and stations across the nation next week in protest of a media blackout of the growing movement against Obama administration policies. Following sparse coverage of a massive 9/12 march on Washington, talk show host Rush Limbaugh urged citizens to bring their protests to the front doors of major media outlets. "The media [are] no longer reporters. They are repeaters," Limbaugh said on his Sept. 14 show. "There have been hundreds and thousands of protests by conservative groups that haven't been covered, and tiny turnouts by the Left that...

A diplomatic delegation has left Honduras without resolving an ongoing political stalemate over the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. Members of the delegation sponsored by the Organization of American States departed Thursday, following talks a day earlier with representatives of both interim President Roberto Micheletti and Mr. Zelaya. Envoys also met with Mr. Micheletti, who criticized the diplomats for failing to understand why Mr. Zelaya was forcibly removed from office June 28. Additionally, Mr. Micheletti criticized the suspension of aid to the Central American nation.

QUESTION: Can we go to Honduras or -- MR. KELLY: Honduras, sure. QUESTION: It seems by the reports that the Organizational States presence there is not getting any results by the moment. I don’t know if you have more updates. And also -- MR. KELLY: Well -- QUESTION: -- it seems, I don’t know, to me – and also I was reading some reports in so many countries of Latin America that the – it’s surprising that you have there in that meeting the secretary of the hemisphere – acting secretary of the hemisphere Thomas Shannon? MR. KELLY: Assistant Secretary....

Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, has apparently hired a cadre of left-wing, Democrat campaign bloggers to troll through the Internet looking for news stories and blog posts that denigrate the Obama agenda. After such websites are found it is the job of these secret lefty bloggers to leave comments that come to the support of Obamaism in the comments sections. It seems that Eric Holder has created his own little propaganda unit in a valiant effort to become the Bloggi Riefenstahl of the Obama era. As reported at The Muffled Oar, a blog that first broke the story of Holder’s...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Diplomats from across the hemisphere on Wednesday told Honduras' interim government to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya during at-times confrontational talks aimed at ending a standoff that has paralyzed this impoverished Central American nation. Delegations from about a dozen countries met with representatives of Zelaya and the coup-installed government behind closed doors in Honduras' capital, then later held talks with interim President Roberto Micheletti in a confrontation broadcast on local television. Micheletti, his voice at-times bristling with rage, scolded the diplomats for refusing to recognize what he insisted was the lawful removal of Zelaya under the Honduran...

The history of all ancient societies is the history of class struggle. In each of these we find a complicated arrangement of people into various social, economic, and political orders. Ancient Rome had its patricians, knights, plebeians, and slaves. During the middle ages there were three orders; oratores, bellatores, laborares: this translates as "those who pray", "those who fight", and "those who work". In the 20th Century we have manage to simplify class antagonism via two distinctive groups who are hostile towards and in direct opposition to each others. They are known simply as The Left, and The Right. Therein...

Main points: - Look for Zelaya’s daughter, Xiomara Hortensia to take the helm of her father’s party - Foreign and domestic business owners are pressuring the interim government to negotiate - the interim government lifted their emergency powers, somewhat…details needed ------------ Honduras’ constitution prevents Manuel Zelaya from running for a second term. He wants that changed, but the new elections are next month. What if Manuel’s daughter appeared on the ballot for the November 29th run off?