Free Republic

“I hope you guys are game,” he said, “because I haven’t been putting up with 19 months of airplanes and hotel food and missing my babies and my wife –- I didn’t put up for that stuff just to come in second. I don’t believe in coming in second. The American people can’t afford for us to come in second. We’ve got to win this thing and we’re going to win it with your help.”

Jim Thrasher and his wife were enjoying the California State Fair this weekend until they came upon the Colusa County exhibit. For the African American couple from Sacramento, the exhibit's depiction of "Waldo Watermelon Seed" conjured up painful images of the Jim Crow era.

By Michelle Malkin  •  August 26, 2008 04:41 PM I noted this morning that the Obama campaign’s Chicago-style thug effort to shut down the independent ad on Bill Ayers is part of the larger effort to intimidate conservative donors and curtail the free speech of The One’s critics.It’s getting uglier, people. Obama’s lawyer has sent a second letter to the Justice Department calling for the head of Dallas billionare Harold Simmons, who funded the Ayers ad that the Obama campaign doesn’t want the public to see.Feel the chill: Obama general counsel Bob Bauer today sent a second, sharper letter to the Justice...

ON the afternoon of Nov. 7, 2006, pilots and airport employees at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago saw a disc-like object hovering over the tarmac for several minutes. Because nothing was tracked on radar, the Federal Aviation Administration did not investigate. Yet radar is not a reliable detector of all aircraft. Stealth planes are designed to be invisible to radar, and many radar systems filter out signals not matching the normal characteristics of aircraft. Did it really make sense to entirely ignore the observations of several witnesses? < > On Dec. 26, 1980, for instance, several witnesses at two American...

Dignified, yes, but there is no way that he is a saint Well, at least that's out of the way. The July 21 New Yorker magazine cover of a turbaned Barack Obama, Angela Davis-Afroed, AK-47 accessorized spouse Michelle, Osama bin Laden portrait on the wall, and American flag burning in the fireplace drew predictable howls of protest from the Obama and opponent McCain presidential camps. With the "Politics of Fear" satirical take on the Obamas, didn't the magazine publish what many people are thinking, figuratively, or literally? I'm not satisfied with the complaints that the New Yorker gave comfort to...

Politics: Barack Obama puts the little lady off-limits, imposing a new double standard on presidential politics. At least Hillary didn't say, "Lay off my husband."Whatever else we've thought about Michelle Obama, we've never doubted that this outspoken Princeton- and Harvard-trained lawyer was capable of fighting her own battles. But now her husband says no. Pick on her and you're going to have to deal with him. As he told "Good Morning America" this week, "Lay off my wife." How manly. How chivalrous. How hypocritical. Both spouses of the leading Democratic contenders have been active on the stump, occasionally making news....

On Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama blasted the Tennessee Republican Party for the swipe it took at his wife. A new ad contrasts Obama's wife, Michelle Obama's admission earler this year that "for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country" with statements from people declaring their pride for the United States...

There she stands before the crowd Never in her life has she been proud Bad America is in her thought She said it out loud and got caught Now she spins those truths to lies But her dishonesty is no surprise She campaigns with a phony smile Hating America all the while She’s a woman with a bigoted mind But to challenge her would be unkind And as the race draws to a close What’s our future, no one knows One thing for sure that you can bet When it’s over, many will live to regret The winner of the...

Democrat Barack Obama has a message for Tennessee's Republican Party: "Lay off my wife." Obama, his party's presidential front-runner, and his wife, Michelle, were asked in an interview aired Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America" about an online video last week by the state's GOP taking her to task for a comment some considered unpatriotic. "The GOP, should I be the nominee, can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record," Obama said. "If they think that they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful because that I find...

With Obama we started out, we couldn't talk about his big ears 'cause that made him nervous. We've gone from that to this: Not only can we not mention his ears... We can't talk about his mother. We can't talk about his father. We can't talk about his grandmother unless he does, and brings her up as a "typical white person." We can't talk about his wife, can't talk about his preacher, can't talk about his terrorist friends, c an't talk about his voting record, can't talk about his religion. We can't talk about appeasement. We can't talk about color;...

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., offered up a criticism of the press' coverage of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, during a town hall with seniors in Gresham, Ore., today. Obama, hoping to soon become the Democratic presidential nominee, was asked in a town hall why McCain, the junior senator of Arizona, doesn’t get "tough questions" when he has things like the Keating Five savings and loan scandal in his past. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html Obama chalked it up to the Republican side of the race being settled earlier than the still-ongoing Democratic side and the fact that McCain was...

CHICAGO -- Perhaps no one took greater comfort in the Republican Party's third straight loss of a long-held House seat this week than Barack Obama, who says the results point to clear limits in the effectiveness of attack ads he expects this fall. The Democratic presidential candidate played a prominent role in all three special elections to fill vacant GOP seats, and he landed on the winning side each time. In recent contests in Louisiana and Mississippi, Republicans or their allies ran TV ads linking the Democratic House nominees to Obama, warning that a vote for them was a tacit...

Hillary Clinton Spitting Image Puppet Is the President of the United States a Puppet? We shall see in 2008!Check it out!"

Mitt Romney compared rival John McCain with late President Richard Nixon Thursday, accusing McCain of persistently misrepresenting Romney’s position on the Iraq war for political gain in a style “reminiscent of the Nixon era.” Romney’s sharp criticism spilled over from the GOP debate in California the night before, where he said McCain was resorting to old-style “dirty tricks” by claiming Romney supported a timetable for troop withdrawal. Romney’s campaign announced Thursday it would be going on air in several major states voting Feb. 5, when 21 states hold GOP contests. McCain leveled the troop-withdrawal charge the weekend before Tuesday’s Florida...

The Woman Who Elicited Clinton's Emotion She Was Moved By Barack Obama, But She Moved Hillary Clinton PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Jan. 7, 2008 Clinton Fights Back Tears "CBS News RAW": Hillary Clinton gives an emotional response at a campaign stop in Portsmouth, N.H., when a woman asks her how she stays "upbeat" on the trail. (CBS) It's been a busy couple of days for Marianne Pernold Young, as far as presidential candidates go. She saw Barack Obama speak on Saturday. "But you know, he moved me to tears," Young, a freelance photographer, told CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod....

"The illegal tactics the New England Patriots evidently employed Sunday against the New York Jets -- capturing signals and corresponding audio with a sideline camera -- might have allowed the Patriots to sniff out blitzes had security officials not intervened, scouts and coaches said. "With the computer and video technology, you can dial it up at halftime," an AFC personnel evaluator said. "You can say, 'This is their such-and-such blitz. We'll give you the signal, the code word, and let you know it's coming.'" " (emphasis added).

Fact, Ron Paul came in 5th in Iowa. Might as well be last. His 10% reflects both a LOT of time and money, and a lot of out of states supporters bused in to vote. 10% is NOT something Paul can achieve again, the primary systems deliberately exclude out of state voters. This is it. This is the pinnacle of Paul's reach. --> From here on out, its down hill. Good Riddance.

I May Or May Not Leave Free Republic I'll decide after I finish this bottle of champagne.

What a whiner and crybaby old man is Don Shula. I mean really Don, get over it. No matter how good the Patriots do in 2007-2008 it doesnt effect how good you were. You are still as good as you were before the "perfect season" of the Pats. You are embarassing yourself and football generally by your whining about spygate, etc. PS: If your best team ever played the 2007 Pats, you would lose by 50-3. At least.

DIKE, Iowa - Under fire, Mike Huckabee countered mounting criticism from GOP presidential rivals Thursday by playing the woe-is-me card — and then hitting back by suggesting they lack substantial agendas of their own. "Everything but the kitchen sink is being thrown at me," the Republican leader in Iowa polls complained at nearly every stop. "If the only thing some of these candidates have to run on is what's wrong with somebody else, they must not have much of a platform to talk about." The former Arkansas governor recently soared from behind the pack of GOP presidential candidates to overtake...

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports During an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, former Sen. Fred Thompson, R- Tenn., grew testy when shown clips of conservatives Fred Barnes and Charles Krauthammer saying that the former Law and Order actor could not win. Thompson said such doom and gloom had been a "constant mantra" of Fox News since he got into the race. He complained about the show's decision to show his poor performance in New Hampshire primary polls and pointed to how he is doing nationally (where some polls have him in second), in South Carolina (where some...

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton fired back at her rivals for "throwing mud" on Thursday in a contentious debate marked by sharp clashes with opponents Barack Obama and John Edwards. Clinton, who leads Democrats in national polls, went on the offensive early in the first face-to-face encounter with her rivals since an October 30 debate where her candor and credibility came under fierce attack. "When somebody starts throwing mud at least we can hope it's accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook," Clinton said after Edwards questioned whether she could restore trust in the White House. "She says...

Some pro-life advocates were astonished by the National Right to Life Committee's endorsement of Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson yesterday — a move they say puts politics over principle. Paul M. Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, said the endorsement "makes no sense," and speculated that it had been motivated by money. "I think in all probability the Thompson people were engaged with the National Right to Life people in financial dealing," said Mr. Weyrich, who has endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination. "In the past, the Republican Party has funded National Right to Life,...

11/09/2007 Kerry Spokesman Sets Limbaugh Straight on Swiftboat Smears WASHINGTON D.C. – Kerry spokesman David Wade issued the following statement today in response to Rush Limbaugh, who said on his radio show that Kerry’s Swift Boat attackers in 2004, “were right on the money and nobody has disproven anything they claimed in any of their ads, statements, written commentaries, or anything of the sort.” “At first I thought, that’s not Rush, that’s just the OxyContin talking. Nonetheless, this is a despicable but unsurprising new lie from a man whose closest brush with combat came when customs officials tried to take...

Does the name Aaron Broussard ring a bell? He's president of Jefferson Parish in Louisiana. Think of Meet the Press, after Katrina, in 2005. Mr. Broussard: It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It's so obvious. During that appearance, Broussard told a tale of a gentlemans' mother in a nursing home being told each day from Monday to Friday that someone would come to get them, and her passing away after four or five...

I am 24, live with my parents, can’t find work and am floundering in a sea of debt five figures high. I think of myself as ambitious, independent and hardworking. Now I’m dependent, unemployed and sleeping under the same Super Mario ceiling fan that I did when I was 7. How did this happen? I did what every upstanding citizen is supposed to do. I went to college. I took out loans so I could enroll at Alfred University, a pricey private school. The next year, I transferred to the more finance-friendly University at Buffalo, where I could commute from...

Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. His latest book is Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World. I think Bobby Schindler is right.There have been a lot of stories of late about how supposedly vegetative patients could understand, or of "miraculous" awakenings by people who doctors were sure would never react consciously again. Bobby, Terri Schiavo's brother, has noticed that whatever the condition of the patient whose story is being told, the reports all have a common sub theme--the awakening, comprehension,...

Teacher declares doll hanging from noose in Watchung is racist: WATCHUNG — The owner of a Halloween costume store here said a window display depicting a man hanging from a noose will be removed after a Scotch Plains woman complained, saying it was appalling and racist. Delores Jackson, a fifth-grade teacher at the Charles H. Skillman Elementary School in Plainfield, said the display she saw Sunday in the window at the Halloween Scene store in the Blue Star Shopping Center on Route 22 West depicted a stuffed doll resembling a black man, wearing a labor suit and hanging from a...

The news just keeps getting worse for the Padres. Left fielder Milton Bradley is out for the season, and center fielder Mike Cameron could miss the rest of the regular season and possibly the playoffs if the Padres qualify, according to major-league sources. Bradley suffered a torn anterior-cruciate ligament in his right knee while being restrained by Padres manager Bud Black from going after first base umpire Mike Winters during Sunday's loss to the Rockies. Cameron's problem occurred the inning before when Bradley stepped on his hand while the two outfielders pursued Garrett Atkins' drive to left-center that resulted in...

Dan Rather, whose career at CBS News ground to an inglorious end 15 months ago over his role in an unsubstantiated report questioning President Bush’s Vietnam-era National Guard service, filed a $70 million lawsuit this afternoon against the network, its corporate parent and three of his former superiors. Mr. Rather, 75, asserts that the network violated his contract by giving him insufficient airtime on “60 Minutes” after forcing him to step down as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” in March 2005. He also contends that the network committed fraud by commissioning a “biased” and incomplete investigation of the flawed...

BOSTON, (AP) -- A judge rejected a Harvard student's request Wednesday for extra break time during her nine-hour medical licensing exam so she could pump breast milk for her infant daughter. Sophie Currier, 33, sued after the National Board of Medical Examiners turned down her request to take more than the standard 45 minutes in breaks during the exam. She said that if she does not nurse her 4-month-old daughter, Lea, or pump breast milk every two to three hours, she risks medical complications. Norfolk Superior Court Judge Patrick Brady said Currier has other options, beyond asking the board to...

Well, not only do I have to pay for my house, now I get to bail out these scam Morgtage loans that were offered at no money down to people with no "real" money. Moral: Do whatever you want just make sure when you fail it's big enough to hurt the economy and you're little scheme will be bailed out. I just don't understand our President at all anymore ....

AG says Spitzer's office leaked info By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago ALBANY, N.Y. - New York's attorney general issued a report Monday recommending disciplinary action be considered against Gov. Eliot Spitzer's office for releasing information about a top legislator's use of state aircraft.

About me: Lurker - since 1998 Member - since 1999 In self-imposed exile - since April 2007 The tone of the debate and the attacks on long-time fellow Freepers for the cardinal sin of daring to support Rudy Giuliani in early 2007 around here have really saddened me. Instead of fighting the enemy FR is now imposing an 'ideological purity' test on FR members. The well-oiled train has gone off the rails and Mr. Robinson risks becoming the next Joe Farah - a fellow who started a great website for conservative news and opinions, but who gradually drifted off to...

Iranians stole my iPod, sys freed British sailor AFP April 09, 2007 LONDON: The youngest British captive held by Iran said in an interview published on Monday that the gifts the Iranians gave to the seized sailors were a cheap load of old junk -- and they stole his iPod. Royal Navy Able Seaman Arthur Batchelor, 20, said the suits they were given were "tacky," the CDs and DVDs do not work and there was no sign of his iPod portable media player, worth 160 pounds. The 15 sailors and marines, seized in the northern Gulf on March 23, were...

On the morning of Monday, Jan. 9, 2006, a 21-year-old Army specialist named Suzanne Swift went AWOL. Her unit, the 54th Military Police Company, out of Fort Lewis, Wash., was two days away from leaving for Iraq. Swift and her platoon had been home less than a year, having completed one 12-month tour of duty in February 2005, and now the rumor was that they were headed to Baghdad to run a detention center. The footlockers were packed. The company's 130 soldiers had been granted a weekend leave in order to go where they needed to go, to say whatever...

I've read enough of the posts on this sight to know that most of you people are really dangerous. If someone disagrees with you, you would "Take them out" if you could. It's that "Ultra-conservative, All American Redneck, NASCAR, Pro-Wrestling, inbread country music fan" kind of politics that tries to shut down anyone who speaks their mind against your beliefs that bothers me. I am in favor of gun ownership and the right to bare arms, and it's people like you that I need to protect myself from. This probably won't get posted for the reasons listed above, but even...

Here's the tally so far - this vote sort of looks like the "attitude" that was being displayed here as we were heading for the loss of the House and Senate - third party and undecided, and stay home versus voting for a social R will result in a Democrat in the White House - trust me on this! Please don't let it happen. But, I'm beginning to believe that it will happen. ______ Looks like our true blue conservative did pretty well in our prior poll. Let's now see what happens if we nominate a social liberal who's okay...

Pelosi Calls Bush to Complain of Cheney's Comments on Democrats' Iraq Strategy Wednesday, February 21, 2007 WASHINGTON — ... Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday phoned President Bush to air her complaints over Vice President Dick Cheney's comments that the Congressional Democrats' plan for Iraq would "validate the Al Qaeda strategy." snip "You cannot say as the president of the United States, 'I welcome disagreement in a time of war,' and then have the vice president.. go out of the country and mischaracterize a position of the speaker of the House and in a manner that says that person in that position...

Orange County Judge Dismiss Case Against Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim http://www.knx1070.com/pages/203493.php?contentType=4&contentId=304887 SANTA ANA, CA (AP) -- A judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming the Angels discriminated against men by giving tote bags to women during a Mother's Day baseball game. Orange County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Cannon ruled Thursday that the giveaway was not biased against men and that the May 8, 2005, event was a way to honor mothers. The lawsuit, filed by Los Angeles psychologist Michael Cohn, claimed thousands of men and fans under age 18 were each entitled to $4,000 in damages because they were treated...

Senator Kerry had to choke back tears as he announced, on the floor of the Senate, the end of his long quest for the presidency, but our own eyes are dry. His career, by our lights, has been one of the most disgraceful of his generation. It was begun, in 1971, with his testimony before the Senate, besmirching the honor of the GIs along with whom he'd had the honor to serve in Vietnam and whom he left on the battlefield to meet in Paris with envoys of our enemies. He sought, in his vainglory, to advance the notion that...

National Football League rushing champion LaDainian Tomlinson remained upset by New England's post-game victory celebration after ousting San Diego from the playoffs. The Patriots, seeking their fourth Super Bowl title in the past six years, edged the Chargers 24-21 with help from four San Diego turnovers and a missed 54-yard field goal on the final play of an emotional game. Several New England players hurled their helmets into the air and danced on the middle of the field in celebration, incurring a meaningless 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and the wrath of San Diego star rusher Tomlinson. "I would never,...

Delivering his farewell address today, Sen. Mark Dayton said he was leaving Capitol Hill "with strong feelings of frustration and disappointment," but he thanked his colleagues and the people of Minnesota for giving him the chance to serve six years in the Senate. "I have been unable to pass most of what I believed was most important to Minnesota, to our country and to the world," Dayton, D-Minn., said in his final speech on the Senate floor. "I remain convinced that those policies would improve the lives of most Americans far better than what the Majority here enacted." He lamented...

Hope gives way to disappointment as Palestinians wait for crossing to open Laila al-Hadad Published: 11.27.06, 10:33 My family and I are on our way back to Gaza from the US. We flew in to Cairo last week, and from there embarked on a five hour taxi ride to the border town of al-Arish, 50 km from the border with Gaza. We rest in al-Arish for the night. We carried false hopes the night before last, hopes transmitted down the taxi driver’s grapevine, the ones who run the Cairo-Rafah circuit, that the border would open early that morning. So we...

Thank you for giving us blanket amnesty for illegals. Thank you for courageously abandoning our troops. Thank you for handing victory to the terrorists. Thank you for guaranteeing higher taxes. Thank you for guaranteeing no more conservative judges. Thank you for empowering John McCain. Thank you for bringing back universal health care. Thank you for endless investigations. Most of all, I want to thank you for showing complete disregard for the tens of thousands who spilled their blood to give you your right to vote. Your callous, self-serving apathy has guaranteed the government actions that you so bitterly complained about....

Are we allowed to say it now? Can we drop the happy warrior schtick? In the past six years, we've seen the deficit explode like never before in the history of the country. A flaming bra-burner nominated to the Supreme Court, only to be replaced by a (hopefully) stealth conservative. The most inept State Department in the history of the United States. (Clinton's wasn't incompetent; they were flat-out fifth columnists.) 20 million new illegal aliens, and barely-contained glee that the election-day losses mean we can welcome another 50 million in. And I hate to say this, but when we won...

Dear Rush: Pardon my French, but you’re full of s***! As I listened to your show last week, you chose to criticize and attack conservative Americans like myself who feel the Republican Party does not deserve to win in November. Rush, since when did you become such a shill for the GOP? Choosing the party over the base is a very disappointing move to this long time listener. I’m very disappointed in you, Rush Limbaugh, you’ve lost touch with the reality that is life for the common man in America. I heartily recommend you take pause and reconsider your programming...

Four months ago I was a part of a very high level meeting with the evangelical community’s most influential leaders. We spent an entire day interacting with politicians on the Hill and the current administration’s most trusted advisors. Most of us were shocked that the president had not led the charge to protect marriage more aggressively---after all it was May, 2006. In our view, he had used up a great deal of political capital on social security reform, the unexpected Katrina debacle, the war, and other internal squabbles and fights. Frankly, we wondered if we had been pushed out of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator compared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler and made fun of his name on Tuesday during a congressional hearing on the U.S. strategy to end Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. "Ahmadinejad -- I call him Ahmad-in-a-head -- I think he's a Hitler type of person," Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. "He has made it clear that he wants to destroy Israel. He has made it clear he doesn't believe in the Holocaust. He's a, he's a -- we all know what he is," the senator added....

Bob Laurence, TV critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune, sent a letter to Romenesko setting forth a couple of reasons for the scant coverage given to the kidnapping in Gaza of two Fox News journalists (via Michelle): ... Fox has deliberately set itself apart from other news media. Starting at the top with Roger Ailes, the Fox sales pitch has been to deride other media, to declare itself the one source of the real truth, the sole source of 'fair and accurate' news reporting. As a result, there's not a reservoir of kinship or good will with Fox on the part of the rest...