Free Republic

Activists Gather To Read Mayflower Compact, Sing Songs. About 100 people are expected at the Colorado Capitol Saturday afternoon to sing traditional Thanksgiving songs and to read historic documents from the nation's founding. The sing-along and reading are sponsored by Tea Party activists, who decry federal spending and call for a return to more limited government.

November 13, 2009 at 1:09 pm On local Houston radio 2 days ago a private from Ft. Hood called into the AM talk show on 950AM. Since then the host has verified just to be sure that the man was indeed an injured soldier so as not to be fooled. Anyway, the private was with some others that were not critically hurt in a ward. He called in to offer the “difference” between the visit from President Bush vs the visit from President Obama. As you stated, no one knew President Bush was coming, he just showed up. WITH NO...

An epic overhaul of the nation's healthcare system comes down to a single vote. POLITICO: Two Saturdays ago, Pelosi passed health reform on a squeaker of a House vote. Today, Reid can’t spare a single Democrat as the Senate decides whether to start debate. If not, President Barack Obama’s reform hopes suffer immeasurable harm. That said, things were looking good at daybreak, as Reid can be reasonably confident of 59 votes, with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) a yes vote and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) leaning yes. The holdout: Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who has been a fan of reform generally...

Remember earlier this year when the new era of hope and change was ushered into Washington, D.C. and President Barack Obama made the statement on day one his policies would “represent a clean break from business as usual"? Not so fast says Charles Krauthammer, columnist for The Washington Post and Fox News regular. Krauthammer on the Nov. 20 broadcast of Fox News “Special Report with Bret Baier” explained that a certain provision put into to the Senate version of health care legislation to favor undecided Democratic senators, specifically Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., represents a different brand of politics from what...

Health Care: Government of, by and for the people has apparently become a quaint concept to the World's Greatest Deliberative Body. Ramming socialized medicine through now comes down to cash payoffs. Jonathan Karl of ABC News has exposed what may be the biggest taxpayer-funded bribe in the history of the Republic. Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has been skeptical of her party's proposed radical transformation of the U.S. health system. "I'm not at all surprised that the public option's been sold as free health care," she told MSNBC last month, for instance. "But there is no free lunch." But...

A GOP congressional report accuses the White House of doing favors for Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and prominent ally of President Barack Obama. The report was spearheaded by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The investigation also found evidence that D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee handled “damage control” after allegations surfaced of sexual misconduct against Johnson, her now-fiance. The probe was launched after an AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, was abruptly fired in...

If you are dyslexic or know someone who is,,,best selling author Vince Flynn will be discussing growing up with dyslexia. STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread. Join us won't you!

An appointee of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa voted two years ago to direct millions in public pension dollars to a company that invested in his own private equity fund, according to documents obtained by The Times. Elliott Broidy, chairman of Markstone Capital Partners, served until May on the Fire and Police Pensions board, which provides benefits to the city's retired police officers and firefighters. Real estate company CIM Group invested $500,000 in Markstone's private equity fund in 2004, according to an e-mail to the city's pension agency. Three years later, Broidy voted with his colleagues on the pension board...

Byron York, Washington Examiner:A congressional investigation of the volunteer organization AmeriCorps contains charges that D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee handled "damage control" after allegations of sexual misconduct against her now fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and a prominent ally of President Obama, The Washington Examiner has learned. The charges are contained in a report prepared by Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.The investigation began after the AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, received reports that Johnson had...

November 19, 2009 Politics as Usual? A Glenn Beck case study Today's Show Segment Video-6:15

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker wrote the House Financial Services Committee earliy this month that they opposed a provision, backed by Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) that would expand the congressional Government Accountability Office’s audits of the Fed. The committee, ignoring the pleas from the two, endorsed the provision Thursday. Greenspan and Volcker, in a letter sent to the committee’s chairman and ranking Republicans, warned that the provision threatened the ability of the Fed to foster price stability independent of political interference.

YANKEE, GO HOME by thelastcrusade.org Hamid Karzai, the newly re-elected President of Afghanistan, wants US troops out of his country within five years.Despite the billions of US dollars that have been poured into Afghanistan and the deaths of 922 American soldiers, Mr. Karzai expressed no gratitude to the United States for its part in securing the country and protecting the Afghan people from radical insurgents.To the contrary, Mr. Karzai, in his second inaugural address, called for a national tribal council to seek peace with the Taliban.The peace overture negates the primary purpose of the on-going war, which, according to...

A federal judge in Pittsburgh on Tuesday sentenced an illegal immigrant to time served in jail for his 10th illegal entry into the country. Uziel Jesus Lopez-Jiminez, 28, of Mexico has been deported nine other times between 1998 and 2007, prosecutors said. He was last deported in March, re-entered the country in May or June and was arrested in Beaver County on Aug. 16.

One of the primary tenets of Medicine is Primum non nocere a Latin phrase that means First, do no harm. The Senate version of the Obamacare bill ignores that phrase and is poised to raise health care costs for all Americans, of all income groups, not only through taxes but via fees on health products that will be passed along to consumers. Below is an outline of the unlucky (for America) 13 New Taxes in Harry Reid's Bill:

Ever heard of "Doctors Without Pay?" Believe it or not, the liberal democrat politicians in the House and the Senate have forgotten about paying doctors in their health care takeover plans. By forgetting about paying doctors, these politicized health plans pretend to cost slightly less than a trillion dollars. And then you remember they've forgotten to pay the doctors!!! Do they really expect doctors to work for nothing? I've heard of lawyers doing an occasional pro bono case, and doctors might do the same on occasion. But, can you imagine case after case after case without pay? That isn't likely...

He may have promised to change Washington, but President Barack Obama is continuing one of its most renowned patronage traditions: bestowing prized ambassadorships on big donors. Of the nearly 80 ambassadorship nominations or confirmations since Obama’s Inauguration, 56 percent were given to political appointees and 44 percent have gone to career diplomats, according to records kept by the American Foreign Service Association. The latest nomination came this week, when Beatrice Wilkinson Welters was nominated to serve as ambassador to the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. Welters, a longtime advocate for underprivileged children, and her husband, Anthony,...

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Note to Hamid Karzai: One country's corruption is another country's stimulus package. ... The U.S. government should not throw stones. According to Transparency International's 2009 Global Corruption barometer, the U.S. Congress is the single institution perceived by Americans to be most affected by corruption. The U.S. government reported that $6.4 billion in stimulus money went to 440 nonexistent congressional districts, "creating or saving" around 30,000 phantom jobs. The White House admitted in July that billions of dollars spent in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds might not be traceable.

Attorneys at Scott Rothstein's firm landed a highly privileged meeting with the executive leadership of the North Broward Hospital District in September 2008, the month after Rothstein was appointed by his friend, Gov. Charlie Crist, to the nominating committee for Florida's 4th District Court of Appeals, according to documents that were part of an internal investigation at the district.

AARP, which has given its full-throated support to Democratic health care legislation even though seniors remain largely opposed, received an $18 million grant in the economic stimulus package for a job training program that has not created any jobs, according to the Obama administration's Recovery.gov website. The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), according to the website, is "a work training program for unemployed mature workers who are 55+ and are at or below 125% of the poverty guidelines." So far, $6.5 million has been spent on the program, and it has not reported creating any jobs. In February, the...

Are we seeing the beginning of managed healthcare? Hmmm? STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread! Join us for a head exploding hour with Glenn!

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's choice for a top job with the Treasury Department is having tax problems. A congressional report says Obama's nominee for undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, Lael Brainard, was late in paying real estate taxes in 2005, 2006 and 2007. The report by the Senate Finance Committee staff also challenges the accuracy of a deduction Brainard claimed for running an office from her home. The challenge led Brainard to reduce the deduction on her 2008 return. The committee's top Republican is unhappy that the committee staff had to submit 10 sets of questions...

I never thought I’d find as big a fraud, phony, faker, fibber and hypocrite in high places as President Barack Hussein Obama. But I found one. The president is married to her. Of course, I know that if you criticize the First Lady, the Obamas immediately go into their standard mode, claiming victimhood and racism. Recall when Mrs. Obama made her infamous remark about being proud of America but did so only after her husband was running for president. After getting hit with criticism, the Obamas went on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to denounce “low class” and “detestable” criticism. Mr....

WASHINGTON – More than $98 billion in taxpayer dollars spent by government agencies was wasted, much of it on questionable claims for tax credits and Medicare benefits, representing an increase of $26 billion from the previous year. In all, about 5 percent of spending in federal programs in fiscal year 2009 was improper, according to new details of a government financial report that were released Tuesday. Saying the overall error rate was similar in 2008, officials attributed the $26 billion jump to some changes in how to define improper spending as well as an increase in overall spending due to...

Have you ever seen so much hatred for, and vitriolic criticism of, someone who had only a brief stint on the national political stage? More than a year after the presidential election in which Sarah Palin, as the GOP nominee for Vice-President, campaigned for about three months, she is still being pilloried by the left-wing loons as though she had been elected and were actively engaged in dismantling the liberal establishment. Not a day goes by in which we don't hear or read vicious attacks on a woman who represents the wholesome conservative values of Middle America -- values that...

EL PASO, Texas -- The widespread violence in Juarez is affecting a lot of things in El Paso, including the UTEP athletic program. The basis of UTEP's athletic teams are formed by recruiting student-athletes from across the state and country to study and play in El Paso. And now many of them, especially their parents, are now expressing concern about what is going on across the border. UTEP's campus is located just a few football fields away from Juarez, where thousands have been murdered this year, and that is not easy to hide. "I just recruited a girl from Sweden...

Reason readers learned a few weeks ago about then-President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Tim Geithner's role in crafting a full-payment deal for big banks that had credit-default swaps with the failed AIG insurance company. As Radley Balko noted earlier, Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, has now issued a harshly critical report on Geithner's handling of the AIG bailout. Barofsky's report [pdf] details how the bailout vehicle "Maiden Lane III" was created, and why Geithner quickly decided to pay 100 cents on the dollar to AIG counterparties -- including Goldman...

Obama admited on his campaign web site "fight the smears" that his birth status was "governed by Great Britian." How could this be? Well, his father was a foreign national who a) was never a US citizen and b) passed his British citizenship (actually was a subject at the time) on to his son. Therefore, even assuming Obama was born in HI (yet to be proven), he would have been born a dual national with dual alligiences at birth. The framers wanted to prevent foreign entanglements. This is a national security issue, not a political issue. This country can ill...

Obama and his administration have been caught in another huge lie and, this time, it's a doozey! Remarkably, one of Obama's own state-run media ABC News broke the story. For months now, Obama and his various administration mouthpieces have been extolling the virtues of the dictator-in-chief's "creation" of millions of new jobs! With millions of verifiable jobs having been lost since Obama usurped the position of POTUS and hundreds of thousands more still being lost each and every month, anyone who still maintains the ability to think knows this was a lie. And now another immense ObamaLie has been...

Investigators in New York City raided circulation offices at some of the nation's largest newspapers Tuesday as part of a union corruption probe, a law enforcement official said. Police officers working with the Manhattan district attorney's office searched circulation offices of The New York Times in Queens, the New York Post and the Daily News in Manhattan, and El Diario in Brooklyn, the official said, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Investigators were seeking paperwork related to the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, which packages and delivers newspapers across the region....

Left-wing media matters Cliff Kincaid, November 17, 2009 A professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Robert W. McChesney has said that “media reform” should be part of the march toward socialism in America and that capitalism has to be dismantled “brick by brick.” Van Jones, the ousted communist “Green Jobs Czar” of the Obama Administration, served with McChesney on the board of Free Press, a George Soros-funded organization, in 2007 and 2008. Despite its socialist orientation, Free Press is financially supported by extremely wealthy individuals such as George Soros, the leftist billionaire, and Marcy Carsey, one of the creators...

According to Thomas Bouchard, a US psychologist famous for his research on twins raised apart,[1] even scientists with good reason to believe that the majority are wrong can be silenced. The reason is...

STATEWIDE -- In what could become the highest profile game of political musical chairs in the state, Democratic sources claim they are considering replacing U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg with outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine. It would work like this: Corzine would resign prior to January, when Republican Christopher Christie takes over as governor. A Corzine resignation would allow state Sen. President Richard Codey to serve as acting governor. Then Lautenberg would retire from the U.S. Senate, leaving Codey to name Corzine to fill the seat until a special election. This is similar to a move made when Corzine resigned the senate...

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 9th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the website set up by the Obama Administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. There's one problem, though: There is no 9th Congressional District in Arizona; the state has only eight Congressional Districts. There's no 86th Congressional District in Arizona either, but the government's recovery.gov Web site says $34 million in stimulus money has been spent there.

A shootout at this hospital in Mexico claims two more lives — victims of the country's bloody drug war. The hospital is in Ciudad Juarez — the epicenter of the drug cartel violence convulsing Mexico. Two gunmen burst into the emergency room looking to finish off two rival gang members wounded in an earlier shootout. Witnessess said the pair fired their weapons as they roamed the corridors, looking for their targets. Patients and staff fled the building in terror. Police rushed to the scene, shooting dead two gunmen outside the hospital and arresting several others inside. The men being hunted...

The death of Chicago School Board President Michael Scott was ruled a suicide this afternoon by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, officials said. When police found his body early this morning, Scott was face down in a foot of water along the Chicago River downtown, a .380-caliber handgun under his body, a source said. The 60-year-old Scott, Mayor Daley’s go-to-guy for years, had a gunshot wound to his left temple. He left behind his cell phone on a ledge overlooking the river on the west side of the Apparel Center,...

James Galyean wrote a post on Friday afternoon that I think we probably ought to focus on a bit more. The left is celebrating Barack Obama’s decision to send Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York City for a criminal trial in a civilian court. In fact, since Friday I have gotten a lot of hate mail from leftists saying I must not trust our due process system. The problem, however, is just the opposite. I very much trust our due process system to be exceedingly fair to a terrorist who will put great value in his opening statement. But, that...

An Iowa congressman is questioning the timing of the sudden resignation of a controversial Obama administration official, whose husband has had close ties to ACORN and has recently been named President Obama's White House counsel. In serving as White House communications director, Anita Dunn had created a stir when she told school children earlier this year that Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse Tung was one of the people she admired the most. She also launched a public attack against the Fox News Channel for its reporting on the ACORN prostitution scandal. Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) thinks it is curious that...

Thankfully non-Muslims of the world are slowly waking up to the threat that Islam brings to freedom loving nations. While most of the readers of this site are obviously happy with this, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is not. They are now pushing forward in attempt to try and make it against international law to criticize Islam. As they know that if we cannot name our enemy, we cannot defeat it. In the past the OIC was able to get the United Nations to ban all criticism of Islam in regards to human rights. Will they be able...

The government dumped tens of billions of dollars into General Motors, and then dictated a “political bankruptcy” that trampled the rights of senior creditors in order to cut a sweetheart deal for the Obama administration’s union pals. Americans expected to see that pay off in broader investment and job creation, and that’s precisely what GM has in mind … for Europe. ABC News reports that GM plans to spend billions restructuring its Opel subsidiary rather than its core American businesses, and that has some lawmakers seeing red: Specifically, at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate has soared to levels...

Barack Obama's newly appointed White House Counsel claimed that the voter fraud investigation into ACORN was "an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics." Bob Bauer was named Obama's top lawyer Friday, replacing Greg Craig. Craig is the scapegoat for Obama's failure to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay. Bauer worked for Obama on the 2008 campaign. During that time, he sent a letter to then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey arguing that ACORN should not be investigated for voter fraud. ACORN has admitted to more than 400,000 fraudulent voter registrations in 2008. The community organjizing...

A body discovered floating in the Chicago River near Merchandise Mart this morning is believed to be that of Chicago Public Schools Board President Michael Scott, police said. Police have not positively identified the man, but Scott’s Cadillac was found nearby and Scott’s family had reported him missing earlier in the day....

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) formally requested an investigation by the acting United States Attorney Channing D. Phillips, Esq., into the potentially illegal lobbying activities of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern. In a letter hand delivered to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the Senate Secretary and the House Clerk, ATR President Grover Norquist and AWF Executive Director Brian Johnson wrote: By this letter, we urge you to investigate the activities of Mr. Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), regarding meetings and other lobbying contacts with...

Thanks to some great reporting at WSJ by Elizabeth Williamson and Paul Glader, now we know why General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt has been to the White House five times since President Obama has occupied the place. He wants GE to out do Goldman Sachs and Carlyle Group combined as the biggest pig at the trough of corporate handouts. David Rubenstein looks like an amateur compared to Immelt. From WSJ's report: The financial crisis hasn't been kind to General Electric Co. Its stock has lost almost half its value, the government has stepped in to prop up its enormous financial...

As its financial resources dwindle, radical advocacy group and organized crime syndicate ACORN may have to file for bankruptcy protection before Christmas, ACORN insiders say. "They may have to file for bankruptcy if they don't have several big pending grants approved or get emergency loans," a highly placed ACORN source told me over the weekend. This information bolsters Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) claim last week that ACORN is in turmoil amidst internal power struggles and on the verge of bankruptcy.

McALLEN — There were no doctors, no patients or even a floor at a medical office on the city’s south side, but to Hidalgo County’s largest hospital system it was reputedly worth lease payments of $8,000 a month. The lease allegedly was a sham contract given to disguise an improper kickback to Eugenio Galindo, a McAllen doctor, a whistle-blower contended among his allegations in a lawsuit he filed accusing South Texas Health System of Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Galindo is one of seven Rio Grande Valley doctors whom the U.S. Department of Justice, which joined in the suit at the...

* What can we all do, every day, to make sure we are ready to prevent fraud in the Iowa Caucus in 2012? PLEASE take this seriously. A massive effort was launched on Dr. Utopia’s behalf from Chicago to game the Iowa Caucus. A good portion of Chicago rolled across the Illinois border to vote in Dubuque, Waterloo, Des Moines,you name it to ensure Dr. Utopia won that Caucus in 2008. The caucus centers are chaos hatcheries. Dr. Utopia’s goons, most of whom certainly appeared to be ACORN or SEIU, marched in, took over, and told anyone who wouldn’t stand...

A first-term congressman drew a salary from his campaign for office last fall, his office said. Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) pocketed about $15,000 in campaign funds, the Buffalo News reported Sunday, while his wife was paid $18,000 for her work as campaign treasurer. "Eric did draw a meager salary at the end of the 2008 campaign to cover expenses after campaigning full-time for four years," Massa's spokesman told the News. "There aren't many people who have spent more time or effort working for the privilege of serving the families of their congressional district's than Rep. Massa."

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known by its acronym—ACORN—has filed suit against the federal government over the cut to its funding passed by Congress. The suit alleges that the cuts are both “inequitable” and “unconstitutional.” “First of all, the extensive history of government payments to our organization has created a financial dependency that it is the government’s obligation to sustain,” claimed ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis. “Cutting us off is just as wrong as cutting off the benefits to a welfare mother whose income-earning skills have atrophied while she has been on the dole. Those who depend...

Former Congressman William Jefferson, the New Orleans Democrat with bribery cash hidden in his freezer, was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison, the longest-ever for a Member of Congress on a corruption charge -- yet the CBS Evening News didn't utter a word about it, just as that newscast ignored his August conviction, while ABC's World News didn't bother to mention his party affiliation. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams noted Jefferson's party in this short item: “Former Louisiana Democratic Congressman William Jefferson made headlines a while back when the FBI found $90,000 in cash hidden in his freezer....