Free Republic

Need evidence for Darwinian evolution? Just make it up. That’s the lesson of Donald Prothero’s book, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007). Prothero is a professor of geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles. On November 30, he teamed up with atheist Michael Shermer (founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine) to debate Stephen Meyer and Richard Sternberg of the Discovery Institute. Shermer wrote the foreword to Prothero’s book, calling it “the best book ever written on the subject.” In fact, “Don’s visual presentation of the fossil and genetic evidence for evolution is...

<p>TIJUANA, Mexico — Tijuana's public security spokesman says a fleet of brand new patrol cars has been burned in a Molotov cocktail attack.</p>

McALLEN — U.S. federal authorities continue to question a man who was kidnapped from a local coffee shop and held for ransom in Mexico for nearly a week. Raul Alvarado’s abductors allegedly demanded a ransom of $30,000 and two luxury vehicles. But it remains unclear whether any payments were made before Mexican police discovered him bound and beaten in a Reynosa stash house Friday. Alvarado, 36, of McAllen, told Mexican officials that he had intended to meet a business contact from Reynosa at the Starbucks Coffee near the intersection of Expressway 83 and South 10th Street on Nov. 23, when...

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, more commonly known as ACORN, has earned its notoriety. The New Orleans-based far-Left nonprofit network has been implicated in embezzlement, tax evasion, voter registration fraud and other criminal activity. In response, the Senate, House of Representatives, Census Bureau and IRS each have decided to cut off ACORN funding. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) may or may not join them, but an audit issued this month by its Office of Inspector General isn't likely to help the group's case. The audit, conducted at congressional behest, examined the size and nature of DOJ funding to ACORN and/or affiliated...

The Senate moved forward yesterday on debate of H.R. 3590, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the first-time homebuyers credit in the case of members of the Armed Forces and certain other Federal employees, and for other purposes. You read that right.   The bill being used as the shell for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) first attempt at a government takeover of health care is in the form of H.R. 3590, an unrelated tax bill.  The House-passed health care bill (H.R. 3962) is still sitting undisturbed on the Senate Calendar should Reid need it...

The storyline is hauntingly familiar: terrorist detainees were moved to a major city to await trial. While there, fellow Islamic terrorists decided to make a daring and dastardly attempt to gain their release, not by attacking the well-protected courtroom or the heavily guarded detention facility (they are bloodthirsty but they are not stupid), but by going for a more tantalizing target. Thirty-five bomb-laden Muslim terrorists stormed a crowded middle school full of parents, teachers, and children. By doing so, they immediately gained what they desired most: the eyes of a watching world paralyzed with fear at what they might do....

Dubai and California, how alike are they? 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 of GLENN BECK!

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

Four and a half years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was OK for the city of New London, Conn., to force 15 working-class families out of their homes to make way for a riverfront hotel and office complex. The high court decided taking the homes by eminent domain was allowable so the city could enhance its tax revenues. The Supreme Court was the last resort for the families, who thought their homes and neighborhood should not be sacrificed on the altar of the corporate gods. Just how did all that litigation turn out for New London, its residents...

As Thanksgiving festivities wind down we contemplate all we have to be thankful for as free Americans! We head into the Christmas season wishing for leadership in Washington that reflects our commitment to the values and ideals that have built the freest and most prosperous and generous nation on earth. Heading into December and Tuesday’s announcement of our nation’s strategy in Afghanistan, I ask the President to reassure us that the administration is in this War on Terror to win. And I’ll pass along the following from Harold B. Estes, a 95-year-old member of the Greatest Generation: “I realize you...

A little over a week ago, the Putnam County Courier joined the list of regional newspapers that have begun asking serious questions about Porkulus job accounting. The Courier goes as far as to call the “saved or created” claims of the Obama administration “Recovery.con,” in its headline. Michael Brendan Dougherty finds many of the same kinds of fraud that newspapers around the nation have in the claims by the White House of stimulus success:

Medical identity theft is on the rise and expected to worsen. The problem has grown during the recession as more uninsured people use the coverage of a friend, relative or even a stranger to get care. Of particular concern is the fact that most of the fraud is committed by people who pay medical workers for patients' information. In one case, a front-desk clerk at a medical clinic in Weston, Fla., downloaded the personal information of more than 1,100 Medicare patients and gave it to a cousin, who made $2.8 million in false Medicare claims.

This week, the website WikiLeaks.org released half-a-million pager messages sent on 9/11. It wasn’t the first time the site has generated comment or controversy. The two-year-old WikiLeaks has rapidly made a name for itself by posting, often anonymously, secret documents and classified reports. It also posted the e-mails (which were either hacked or leaked) of research scientists from the Climate Research Unit of East Anglia University, who in private messages undermined global warming data. Here, editor JULIAN ASSANGE explains the site’s philosophy ...

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based. It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years....In a statement on its website, the CRU said: “We do not hold the original raw data but only the value-added (quality controlled and homogenised) data.”

Despite the fact that Congress enacted a law barring any more government funds—including funds authorized by previous legislation—from going to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice has determined that payments can be made to ACORN under contracts signed prior to the ban. David Barron, the acting assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel pointed out that “these pre-existing contracts are open-ended. They can be extended and re-loaded with money for as long and as much as the Administration deems warranted. Though congress has blocked any new...

Unreal. Team Obama may allow US soldiers to be tried in the Hague for war crimes. The Wall Street Journal reported, via Jihad Watch: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “great regret” in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague. The ICC’s chief prosecutor, though, has no intention of waiting for Washington to submit to the court’s authority. Luis Moreno Ocampo says...

“The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves...” – Shakespeare The “fault,” at this juncture, is giving credibility to Al Gore. It was understandable that Bill Clinton would sell Al Gore as a presidential timber. When he was picked for Vice President, I chalked it up to Clinton’s attempt at getting a life insurance policy. With Al Gore in line for succession to the Oval Office, who was going to want to harm a President William Jefferson Clinton? The Democrats have such a perverted sense of reality. The point is, after reading Al Gore’s, Earth in...

We have a few more weeks, folks, to gather our thoughts and political weapons, and then 2010 is upon us. It will be a mad dash to the finish line, and we have a lot of priorities: Kill healthcare, kill Cap & Trade, pursue terrorists wherever they hide, win primaries, and stand atop Capitol Hill with the Conservative Flag in November. Horowitz is an old warrior. He's a good place to start.

Spitting and drooling on MSNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews said, "President Obama has his chin out on just about every hot issue out there.... He’s exposed and vulnerable. His poll numbers are dropping. Is he just too darned intellectual? Too much the egg head?" Tingles notwithstanding, where do you suppose Matthews got that notion? It can't be because of Obama's lofty scholastic achievements. Not only has he adamantly refused to release his transcripts, he's spent upwards of $2 million, employing every legal trick in the book to hide them. It can't be because of Obama's scholarly papers. In the 13 years...

HUNTSVILLE, AL, Nov. 25 Christian Newswire -- Two creation films called "inappropriate" were denied the opportunity to be shown in government facilities this week--which marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species". While the intelligent design film "Darwin's Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record" has not been granted permission for a showing in California, "The Mysterious Islands", a new 90-minute Vision Forum film that challenges Darwin's evolution by taking audiences back to engage the enchanted Galapagos Islands, has enjoyed a victory and will premiere as previously scheduled tonight, Nov. 25, at 6:30 PM, at...

3 Trees Said to Prove Warming! --snip-- That's another thing, folks. People said, "I don't get why you believe in God, Rush. Your belief in God, how does that tell you that global warming is a hoax?" Well, belief in God is a very personal thing, but I happen to believe in a loving God of creation -- and I just intellectually cannot accept the fact that a loving God which has created all this beauty and has blessed this country -- I cannot believe that a God like that -- would punish the human being he created for progress,...

CNN correspondent Max Foster’s short report about Richard Dawkins on Tuesday’s Situation Room played more like a commercial which promoted the militant atheist’s new book. Despite Dawkins’s past inflammatory statements about Christianity, Foster only labeled him “an outspoken critic of creationism....[whose] atheist views have put him at the center of controversy” [audio clip available here]. Anchor Suzanne Malveaux’s introduction for the correspondent’s report highlighted the 150th anniversary of the printing of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species,” and how Dawkins was a “controversial successor [to Darwin] carrying the torch for evolution.” Foster gave a very basic description of Dawkins’s...

"This is not a smoking gun, this is a mushroom cloud" - That's how world-renowned climatologist Patrick J. Michaels described revelations contained in a 61Mb ZIP file that shows the systematic attempts by climate "scientists" to lie, manipulate evidence, and go to extraordinary lengths to stop the publication of any information or data which did not support the man-made global warming theory. As Andrew Bolt puts it, this scandal could well be “the greatest in modern science”. In this leaked files are 1079 emails and 72 documents that thoroughly expose the lie underpinning Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth". Remember this, as...

More details are now coming out from the lawsuit filed against the California Science Center by the American Freedom Alliance (AFA), filed in the Superior Court for the State of California for the County of Los Angeles (Central District). AFA's lawsuit contends that the California Science Center engaged in viewpoint discrimination when cancelling AFA's contract to screen the pro-intelligent design (ID) documentary Darwin’s Dilemma at the Center’s IMAX Theatre on October 25th. As discussed below, AFA's complaint contains e-mails from California Science Center staff revealing that the Center cared more about how it would be perceived by ID-critics in the...

For the first time ever, Arizona needs to borrow money to pay its bills. State Treasurer Dean Martin estimates the state will need to borrow $700 million to get it through revenue shortfalls through June 30. As of Tuesday, Martin said the state went over $500 million in IOUs .

A lawsuit has been filed against the California Science Center by the American Freedom Alliance (AFA) for cancelling the AFA’s contract to screen the Darwin’s Dilemma documentary on October 25th. According to AFA’s press release: American Freedom Alliance (AFA), a non-profit group, has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against a popular science museum for cancelling an event exploring the topic of intelligent design. The group says its free speech rights were violated when the California Science Center (CSC) abruptly reversed a decision to allow the showing of a pro-intelligent design documentary at the museum’s IMAX Theater. The program was...

Goldmine of black market in Russian data By Charles Clover in Moscow Published: November 24 2009 17:59 | Last updated: November 24 2009 17:59 Gorbushka Market, just outside central Moscow, does a thriving trade in any electronics good you could want: mobile phones, plasma television sets, the latest DVDs, and, if you ask to see them, software peddlers will show potential clients a list of “databases”. These consist of CDs with names such as “Ministry of Interior – Federal Road Safety Service”, “Tax Service” and “Federal Anti-Narcotics Service” and cost about $100 apiece. Each contains confidential information gathered by Russian...

Oversight: After an unjust firing and campaign of character assassination, the former AmeriCorps inspector general has been cleared of acting improperly. Now where does he go to get his job and reputation back? On June 10, Gerald Walpin was fired with one hour's notice as the watchdog of AmeriCorps in violation of a federal law requiring Congress to be given a heads-up 30 days in advance. He then fell victim to a campaign of character assassination. When pressed for a reason for the sudden and improper dismissal of a federal watchdog, the White House responded with a letter to Sens....

Oversight: If the White House really believes that AmeriCorps' inspector general was "confused" and "disoriented," how about open congressional hearings where the American people can see for themselves?The storm that erupted after the firing with one hour's notice of Gerald Walpin, the inspector general overseeing AmeriCorps, has not died down. Pressed for an explanation as to the reasons for the firing and why the law requiring Congress to be given notice and reasons 30 days in advance was not followed, the White House has resorted to old-time Chicago-style political smears.

One woman has not forgotten September 11th, 2001. Debra Burlingame, sister of Chic Burlingame, pilot of AA Flight 77 that was crashed into the Pentagon, wants the world to know she is not happy with President Obama’s and AG Eric Holder’s decision to try the 9-11 terrorists, including KSM, in Federal Court in New York. She’s has formed the 9-11 “Never Forget” coalition, and making arrangements for a nationwide protest on December 5th. The Coalition formed to fight the decision of President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to try the 9/11 co-conspirators in New York City’s federal court,...

Is the asshat in chief using the war in Afghanistan to redistribute the wealth? 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!

The United States Government is rapidly becoming a fascist dictatorship where Big Brother dictates and observes the daily lives of its citizens on an overgrowing basis.

A former field director for the political advocacy organization ACORN was sentenced today in district court to up to three years of probation. Christopher Edwards, who in August pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime of compensation for registration of voters, a gross misdemeanor, received a suspended jail sentence and a $500 fine. He has agreed to testify against ACORN and one of its former regional directors, Amy Busefink. The Nevada attorney general’s office has accused ACORN and Busefink of operating an illegal bonus system. Tying money to or setting quotas for collecting voter registration cards...

Corruption in congress.....has it reached it tipping point? COME ON AMERICA...STAND UP, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Be part of the 100 year plan! 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!

Alexandra Kerry is off the hook in her DUI case and won't face any criminal charges, Los Angeles prosecutors said Monday. "We reviewed the arrest report and have declined to file criminal charges due to insufficient evidence," says L.A. City Attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan. The daughter of Sen. John Kerry was pulled over in Hollywood on Nov. 19 for an expired registration, her father's spokesperson said.

BREAKING: San Diego ACORN Document Dump Scandalby Derrick Roach On October 1st, 2009 California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that an investigation had been opened into ACORN’s activities in California, resulting from undercover videos showing employees seemingly offering to assist the undercover film makers with human smuggling, child prostitution and even tax advice to boot. Although ACORN has denied any wrongdoing, some of the employees involved were terminated, and ACORN has publicly stated that they would fully cooperate with any investigations that followed. Interestingly, the local head ACORN organizer in California, David Lagstein was caught on tape earlier this month...

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Part of a series, it connected then presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government. Since then the story of that strategy has found its way across the blogosphere, onto the airwaves of radio stations across the country, the Glenn Beck...

. 9/11 SCOTT "Let's Roll" BEAMER's Dad called for "Regime Change USA-2010/2012" on FoX this morning.

It should be obvious by now that Barack Obama’s disastrous Cloward-Piven economic policies were not meant to lift the economy. After all, ask yourself, what would Obama be doing differently today if he intentionally set out to destroy the American economy? He’s tripled the national deficit in less than one year. He’s increased the national debt to $12 Trillion. And he’s nearly doubled the unemployment rate since the Bush years. Even Saturday Night Live and Chris Matthews can’t ignore it any longer. Jim Simpson at The American Thinker reported today on Obama’s Cloward-Piven economic plan: It is time to cast...

It's called "pink sheeting," a practice employed by union bosses to bully their membership to vote the "right" way. The practice consists of forcing employees to reveal deeply personal information about themselves -- such as abusive relationships, addictions, or legal trouble -- so that these items can be used against the employees at a later date to elicit cooperative behavior. Union members are denouncing the practice of pink sheeting while union chiefs, particularly those of the hotel employees union UNITE HERE, are either denying that they use the method or saying that the practice has been stopped. Read the rest...

How nine Houston men were assaulted and robbed in the ranchlands of Mexico MEXICO CITY — Like generations of Texans, nine Houston hunters traveled each autumn into northeastern Mexico's wildlife-rich ranchlands for a few uninterrupted days of shooting game, far removed from the workday world. But that ended abruptly last month after the men were rounded up, robbed and terrorized by well-armed marauders. The nine were wrapping up an afternoon of white-wing dove hunting about 100 miles south of the Rio Grande when a dozen men, armed with assault rifles, roared into the grain field in pickup trucks. The businessmen,...

A listener sent in an email, reminding me of this quote from Dr. Adrian Rogers. Rogers was born in 1931, right before our imperial federal government began its massive FDR induced expansion. In 1996 Rogers wrote "Ten Secrets for a Successful Family." He wrote that "by and large our young people do not know either the importance or the value of honest labor." I think Dr. Rogers got this one right ..... at any rate: The quote: Here you go: "You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working...

“It is a characteristic of all movements and crusades that the psychopathic element rises to the top.” Robert Lindner How much longer will Al Gore get a pass from the mainstream media? A little bit longer if their failure to react to the devastating revelations of files hacked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia is a measure. Their behavior reflects how most, especially from the left, have abetted the scientists who deliberately perverted climate science. We now know Gore’s errors are based on the global warming fraud orchestrated by a few scientists centered round...

LA GRANDE -- Three years ago, multimillionaire hotel chain owner Mark Hemstreet and his wife, Shannon, faced 19 citations for alleged game violations on their Wallowa County ranch. The allegations, brought by Oregon State Police fish and wildlife officers, included shooting a bull elk without a valid elk tag, falsely applying for resident-of-Oregon hunting licenses while living elsewhere and lending a big-game tag. Then the case fell apart. Now state police have agreed in a settlement to pay $295,000 to Mark Hemstreet, 59, and his longtime friend and political ally Gregg Clapper, 59, of Portland. State police brought charges against...

Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase. On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state. And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the financial "fix" she had arranged for Louisiana. "I am not going...

Chicago, Ill. -- The president of the Chicago Police Sergeants' Association has been caught stealing over $600,000 in union funds, authorities say. Sgt. John Pallohusky, 53, spent the stolen funds on gambling trips, lavish dinners, and online stock trading. He spent more than $163,000 on Ameritrade and $75,000 at restaurants including Ruth’s Chris, Smith & Wollensky, Kinzie Chophouse, Petterino’s, Gibson’s and Lawry’s, the arrest warrant said. This is just another example of the illegitimacy of unions, really. This guy has been doing this for two years. Did no one miss all that cash for two years? Were there no other...

Thirty-two black males, most of whom are alleged members of either the Rolling 60 Crips or Black Gangster Disciples, have been arrested in Denver, CO for allegedly engaging in violent and racist muggings against whites and Latinos. The attacks are "part of a trend spreading across the country" as reported by Kirk Mitchell for The Denver Post: As part of the trend, black gang members videotape the assaults in trendy tourist districts and sell them on the underground market as entertainment. * * * "They knock a young white guy out with one blow to see if his knees will...

Here are a few things bargain-hungry consumers need to know before they hit stores before dawn the day after Thanksgiving. Here's a Black Friday reality check: Of the hordes of pre-dawn shoppers who line up for hours outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving, most will not bag the best bargains that appear in merchants' circulars. Look at the fine print that appears next to an advertised "doorbuster deal" at the bottom of the page in this year's circulars.

Yesterday they underlined this message by pointing to reports showing that Mr Obama had failed to convene a single policy meeting of the Senate European subcommittee, of which he is chairman. There was also strikingly robust criticism from an independent Washington think-tank about a “disconcerting void” over transatlantic relations in Mr Obama’s foreign policy, as well as from a former British Minister for Europe. Mr Obama’s advisers say that he has an “intuitive grasp” of world affairs because he spent part of his childhood abroad. “The benefit of my life of having both lived overseas and travelled overseas is, I...

Gov. Charlie Crist’s office is “looking into” the possibility of removing embattled attorney Scott Rothstein from the state’s Judicial Nominating Committee. Rothstein has offered to surrender his license to practice law. But, he may remain a member of JNC unless, or until, he’s charged with a felony crime. Gov. Charlie Crist named Rothstein to the JNC in August 2008. “Typically, the governor would only step in when felony charges are filed against a public official,” said Sterling Ivey, Crist’s spokesman. “Whether we will act before that point in this case is not clear yet. Our legal office is looking into...