Free Republic

Fifteen years ago, my family and I arrived in the United States, having fought for two decades to escape the dictatorship of the Soviet Union. We left behind a tyrannical system, determined to control every aspect of its subjects’ lives. Now, the same forces appear to be at the forefront of our national debate on health care. At the heart of this debate lies a very simple question: will we preserve the freedom of every individual to determine his or her best interests, or will government seize for itself control over the health care of every American? Having experienced and...

Fort Hood shootings: FBI given gunman's name six months ago The US Army major who killed 13 people in a shooting spree at America's biggest military base had come to the attention of the FBI six months earlier over possible links to extremist comments posted on the internet. By Gordon Rayner and Nick Allen in Fort Hood, Texas Published: 9:59PM GMT 06 Nov 2009 Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a devout Muslim who was trying to buy his way out of the Army, was suspected of being the author of postings which compared suicide bombers to heroic soldiers who throw themselves...

Gen. Stanley McChrystal's proposal to send 40,000 additional U.S. combat troops to Afghanistan "goes too far, too fast," Sen. John Kerry warned Monday. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said that three conditions must be met before the Obama administration decides to deploy more troops to the region: assurance that the Afghan forces are reliable enough to partner with U.S. troops, assistance from the country's local leaders, and the cooperation and support of the Afghan people.

Misery Index All Over Again http://www.wiseandfrugalgovernment.blogspot.com/ During the Dark Days of the Carter Administration, through the bleak haze of stagflation (for the under 50 crowd stagflation is: a period of slow economic growth and high unemployment (stagnation) while prices rise (inflation)--sound familiar?) we were told America's best days were past. Not that Jimmy Carter's message was that direct. He was dignified as a Presidenct should be; he used subtle language; he set a good example. When oil prices shot through the roof, Carter was a picture of calm, addressing the nation before the comforting flame of the presidential fireplace, dressed...

It's happening right before our eyes!!! (1) "We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism.” (2) “I can prophecy that your grandchildren in America will live under socialism. Our firm conviction is that sooner or later Capitalism will give way to Socialism. Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you." (3) “The United States will eventually fly the Communist red flag. The American people will hoist it...

All passengers on board a cruise ship that ran aground in Antarctica were transferred Wednesday to a sister ship... Passengers from the Ocean Nova were transferred to the Clipper Adventurer, also operated by Quark Expeditions, to be carried to Ushuaia, Argentina, the city closest to Antarctica. The Ocean Nova went aground Tuesday in Marguerite Bay near San Martin, an Argentinian base in Antarctica. The vessel was carrying 106 people, 65 passengers and 41 crew, Quark said. Divers from a Spanish naval vessel found no visible damage during a preliminary inspection ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday offered North Korea a peace treaty, normal ties and aid if it eliminates its nuclear arms program and stressed her desire to work more cooperatively with China. Speaking ahead of a trip to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China next week, Clinton also said North Koreans deserved political rights, urged Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and, in a comment that may irk Beijing, said Tibetans and all Chinese deserved religious freedom. Searching for a way to end North Korea's nuclear programs is likely to be...

The latest news (aside from the SuperBowl) is that the Republicans in Congress have attempted to have their castration reversed. That's right: for some reason, they finally decided -- after the election, and therefore too late -- to act like conservatives: the House has rejected the Stimulus Bill in a bipartisan fashion, with not a single Republican vote. Let me repeat that. Not a single Republican vote. Do you realize what that means? It means that, after the $700 billion dollar "emergency bailout" (Epic FAIL!), the Congress has received such an earful from its constituents, that even after the shellacking...

As President-elect Barack Obama quickly selects officials for his administration, attention is starting to turn to the potential obstacles they face in Senate confirmation hearings. The Associated Press, citing a Democratic source, reports that John Podesta, a leader of Obama's transition team, had told Senate aides on Friday that Obama hoped for a speedy confirmation so the new administration could get to work quickly thereafter. But past controversies involving some of his picks could make for bloody hearings. The latest list of Obama's expected Cabinet selections includes Hillary Clinton for secretary of state, Timothy Geithner as his Treasury secretary, Eric...

MOST EVERYONE in Sacramento agrees that there is no easy way to balance a state budget that is at least $14.5 billion in the red. They also understand that they cannot ignore the fiscal dilemma. Here's the situation: California's budget deficit for the next 18 months is at minimum $14.5 billion. Revenues are short even though Californians are paying the highest percentage of their incomes in state and local taxes than ever before. The state's and nation's economy is slowing down, further threatening revenues. Even with a slower economy, there is no good reason why California is in such a...

A former congressional national security investigator wants to remind readers about Maggie Williams, a longtime aide to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who recently was hired back by Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign after the New York Democrat was hit with charges of racial insensitivity toward her top rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Miss Williams, who is black, was never prosecuted on federal charges related to the 1996 Justice Department investigation into illegal campaign contribution from China, after she accepted $50,000 in 1995 from Chinese agent Johnny Chung. Mr. Chung told Justice investigators he was the main conduit to the 1996...

Alan Keyes, a Republican whose two previous runs for president ended in failure, is making a third try for the White House. The Maryland conservative announced on his Web site that he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Friday to make his candidacy official. He joins a crowded Republican field of nine candidates and is scheduled to participate Monday night at a debate involving lesser-known candidates in Florida. Keyes, a former State Department official under President Reagan, made unsuccessful presidential runs in 1996 and 2000. He also has been a Senate candidate from Maryland, and, in 2004, he...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – After two previous runs for U.S. president, former Reagan diplomat Alan Keyes has announced he's again seeking the White House in the 2008 election, and he'll take part in Monday night's Republican presidential debate here. Keyes told syndicated radio host Janet Parshall he's "unmoved" by the lack of moral courage shown by the other candidates, among whom he sees no standout who articulates the "key kernel of truth that must, with courage, be presented to our people." He added, "The one thing I've always been called to do is to raise the standard ... of our...

A mine collapse in Emery County may have trapped six miners inside the Genwal Mine near Huntington Caynon. The Emery County Sheriff's Office says the six miners are unaccounted for and emergency workers are currently trying to free the miners. County officials say they do not know what caused the cave in at the mine.

The brain cranks out memories near its center, in a looped wishbone of tissue called the hippocampus. But a new study suggests only a small chunk of it, called the dentate gyrus, is responsible for “episodic” memories—information that allows us to tell similar places and situations apart. The finding helps explain where déjà vu originates in the brain, and why it happens more frequently with increasing age and with brain-disease patients, said MIT neuroscientist Susumu Tonegawa. The study is detailed today in the online version of the journal Science.

NVASION USA Illegal detained in death of 'Christmas Story' director Bob Clark, son die in collision with SUV driven by Mexican Posted: April 6, 20075:16 p.m. Eastern © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com 'A Christmas Story' director Bob Clark holds the famous 'leg lamp' from his holiday classic in this 2003 photo (courtesy Warner Home Video) An illegal alien suspected of causing a traffic accident and killing movie director Bob Clark, whose "A Christmas Story" has come alongside "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street" as a perennial holiday must-watch, has been placed under an immigration hold by federal authorities. The...

WASHINGTON — Members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said "parents and children have nothing to fear." Asked about the alert notice, the FBI's Rich Kolko said "there are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern," although law enforcement agencies around the country were asked to watch out for kids' safety.

RUSH: (story) "Russia, in March, will start delivering nuclear fuel for a plant that it is building in Iran, the head of the state company in charge of the project said Monday." Now, I thought that Iran was a country rich in oil and in fuel. The head of the outfit here, Sergei Shmatko, "said during a trip to Tehran that he and Iranian officials had discussed financial problems related to the completion of the nuclear plant in Iran's southern port of Bushehr... Shmatko said his company would start preparations in January for nuclear fuel deliveries to Bushehr, and begin...

The Last Youth Standing - What the West and Islam share are elites detached from their own demographic realities Mark Steyn - November 20, 2006 I was watching Mansbridge One on One the other day. Don't ask me why. May have been an "encore presentation." Or more likely an encore presentation of an encore presentation. For a 24/7 news network, there's an eerie timelessness about CBC Newsworld: one would be only mildly surprised to switch on and find Mansbridge One on One with Lester B. Pearson or Sir Charles Tupper. Anyway, this week, the one he was on was the...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua ? Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist revolutionary who fought a U.S.-backed insurgency in the 1980s, has won Nicaragua's presidential election, according to results released Tuesday. With 91 percent of the vote counted, Ortega had 38 percent of the vote compared to 29 percent for Harvard-educated Eduardo Montealegre. Under Nicaraguan law, the winner must get 35 percent and have a 5 percentage point lead to win the election outright and avoid a runoff. Montealegre immediately recognized the results, but said he and his party's lawmakers would spend the next five years ensuring that Ortega stayed true to...

RESEARCHERS believe they have found a key insight into deja vu, the eerie sensation of seeing something that has already been experienced, the New Scientist magazine reports. Experiments suggest that deja vu can be triggered independently, without a real memory to prompt it, the British weekly magazine reports in its latest issue. Recognising a familiar object or scene is believed to unleash two processes in the brain. First, the mind searches through its memory archive to see if the contents of that scene have been observed before. If so, a separate part of the brain then identifies the scene or...

Iran may force badges on Jews, Christians TEHRAN, May 19 (UPI) -- Iran's parliament passed a new law this week that would force the country's Jews, Christians and other religious minorities to wear color-coded ID badges. Iranian expatriates confirmed reports the Iranian parliament, or majlis, has approved a law that would require non-Muslims to adhere to a dress code which mandates they wear "standard Islamic garments," according to Canada's National Post. The roughly 25,000 Jews living in the Islamic Republic would have to attach a yellow strip of cloth to their clothing, Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would...

Duke underestimated the rape allegations against members of the lacrosse team in part because Durham police initially said the accuser "kept changing her story and was not credible," according to a university report issued Monday. The day after the March 13 team party where a 27-year-old black woman claimed she was raped, Durham police told campus officers that "this will blow over," the report said. It said that the woman initially told police she was raped by 20 white men, then said she was attacked by three.

Officers Claim Brass Interfered in Investigation of Rep. Kennedy Incident... Police labor union officials asked acting Chief Christopher McGaffin this afternoon to allow a Capitol Police officer to complete his investigation into an early-morning car crash involving Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.). According to a letter sent by Officer Greg Baird, acting chairman of the USCP FOP, the wreck took place at approximately 2:45 a.m. Thursday when Kennedy's car, operating with its running lights turned off, narrowly missed colliding with a Capitol Police cruiser and smashed into a security barricade at First and C streets Southeast.

Dear Mr. Robinson and Fellow Freepers, Moderating for FR may indeed be a "thankless" job, and in general I appreciate the job they've done over the years, but... In recent days I have been suspended twice -- once for posting to a certain well-known Freeper who has obviously been given preferential treatment by FR's Moderators; another for supposedly mentioning that same "elite" Freeper in posts to others. I'm not the only one this particular complaining Freeper has demanded he NOT be posted to -- though he often posts long rambling controversial rants and vanities about which he expects and savors...

Philosopher George Santayana's famous maxim that "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it" should be engraved on large slabs of Sierra granite and permanently affixed to the wall of every office in the state Capitol - and quickly, because a much-weakened Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a reality-oblivious Legislature may replay one of California's worst political blunders. A half-decade ago, as California's dot-com bubble began to burst, those holding stock or stock options in shaky high-tech companies liquidated (or at least the smarter ones did). The state experienced a huge, one-time surge in personal income tax revenues from the...

THE ROGER HEDGECOCK SHOW KOGO/AM 600 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA THE RADIO MAYOR OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FRIDAY OCTOBER 7TH , 2005 FLASHFAX SPECIAL EDITION ROGER faults President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for lack of war winning strategy. KOGO radio talk show host Roger Hedgecock, a long time supporter of President Bush and the war on terrorism and a constant supporter of American troops and their families, stunned his audience on Thursday October 6th, 2005 when he equated the current prosecution of the war as "Viet Nam-like." Attached is the complete audio segment which opened his 3p - 6p...

The war on the other side of the world isn't going so well, and opposition at home is starting to grow. But the administration says we have to stay the course.Meanwhile, shocking images of loss and destruction in a major American city, including a breakdown of law and order with ugly racial overtones, have been broadcast around the world.The President, conscious that his image as a can-do Texan is eroding, decides on dramatic steps.Taking to the airwaves, he announces a massive federal response. Washington will provide as much money as needed to rebuild the affected urban areas.Funds will pour in...

Russian opposition delays referralConfrontation grew Tuesday over a U.S.-European push to haul Iran before the UN Security Council, with Tehran threatening to limit UN inspections, resume ultra-sensitive fuel work and saying it could even be forced to quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Speaking in Tehran, Iran's pointman on nuclear issues, Ali Larijani, also said Tehran would base its business dealings with individual countries - especially in the oil sector - on whose side they took in the dispute. He was speaking as Britain, France and Germany lobbied members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to haul Iran before the...

Senate just passed Cedillo's SB 60 - Drivers Licenses for Illegals. Assembly passed it last night. It now goes to the Governor

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- 34-year old Scott Thomas married Liza Thomas in 2001. They bought a home and had a baby boy. But one September day, paramedics found Scott on his kitchen floor with several hairline fractures down the left side of his head. Scott spent two months in a coma. Scott's mom, Pamela Patton, says Liza had plans to put Scott in Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, so she filed for temporary guardianship in November and won. For months, Pamela took care of Scott in her home, and worked with him every day. "He watches you, he listens, he smiles,...

As Yogi Berra once famously said after his teammates, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, hit back-to-back homeruns in consecutive games: “It’s déjà vu all over again.” I’m getting the same feeling about something less awe-inspiring: that is, the way political pros and media types consistently get culturally motivated voters wrong. Since the elections, there have been many attempts to understand the so-called “values voter.” Some people, like the editors of Time magazine, created a “Who’s Who” of influential evangelicals. The unspoken assumption is that millions of Christian voters take their marching orders from these leaders. Others, especially abortion and gay...

ST. LOUIS -- A killer whose life was spared last year when Illinois' governor emptied out death row could again face a death sentence -- this time in Missouri -- if convicted of murdering his boss in St. Louis. Thomas Umphrey, 43, was sentenced to death in 2000 for kidnapping and killing a woman in Illinois. In January 2003, outgoing Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of the state's 167 death row inmates to life in prison because of grave doubts about Illinois' criminal justice system. Authorities believe that six days before the slaying in Illinois, Umphrey killed his boss...

Election Challenge likely on Jan 6th If you haven't been following John Kerry closely, get ready to hear of surprising developments. The vote-defrauded, potential president-in-waiting has just indicated through his lawyer that the validity of George Bush's reelection is no longer a given. On 23 December, 2004 Kerry's lawyer confirmed to MSNBC's 'Countdown' that John Kerry will be seeking (likely on Monday 27 Dec.) to expedite court proceedings in an ongoing recount suit by the Green and Libertarian parties. That might sound like just another "count every vote" exercise by the Kerry campaign, were it not for two important details....

Democrats may be experiencing a sense of deja vu as they again search for a leader in a crowded field of candidates with no clear favorite to win. A year ago, the hopefuls were vying for president. Now, a new crop is running to lead the Democratic National Committee. DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe is stepping down after four years of leadership in which he dug the party out of debt, oversaw the move to a modern headquarters and created an electronic database of voter profiles. But the Democrats didn't win the White House, and the new chairman will be charged...

In the summer of 1856, Nathaniel Hawthorne visited a decaying English manor house known as Stanton Harcourt, not far from Oxford. He was struck by the vast kitchen, which occupied the bottom of a 70-foot tower. "Here, no doubt, they were accustomed to roast oxen whole, with as little fuss and ado as a modern cook would roast a fowl," he wrote in an 1863 travelogue, Our Old Home. Hawthorne wrote that as he stood in that kitchen, he was seized by an uncanny feeling: "I was haunted and perplexed by an idea that somewhere or other I had seen...

Omega Letter Christian Intelligence Digest The Boston Bizarre Commentary on the NewsTuesday, July 27, 2004 - Omega Letter Editor Democrats are gathering in Boston for their national convention - with John Kerry expected to be crowned as their nominee to run for president. With just 100 days left before polling day, Kerry told the New York Times enough time remained for him to prove his credentials on national security. "I'm just quite confident that as the next months of the campaign go on, I am going to have the ability to be able to make it clear to America...

An item in Friday's Arutz-7 report is forebodingly reminiscent of a warning issued two years before Egypt's surprise attack against Israel on Yom Kippur 1973. Arutz-7 reported on Friday that U.S. Representative Tom Lantos (D-Ca.) warned that Egypt is building up its military in preparation for a future war with Israel. The House International Relations Committee member said that Egypt's military build-up and exercises are "ominously geared toward an Israeli enemy," and that Egypt recently supplemented its navy with 11 new battle units and other weapons procurements - despite the fact that Egypt has no serious enemies in the region....

Most of us old enough to have been reading newspapers and watching television in the mid-1980s remember when the Soviet-backed Marxist-Leninist junta “Sandinistas” were battling the anti-communist guerrilla army of “Contras” in Nicaragua. And who could forget the overblown Iran-Contra affair, the attempt to arm the Contras through a deal to swap arms for hostages with the mullahs in Iran. What might be hazy in the memory after 20 years, however, is the Keystone Kops, I-want-to-play-president role of the freshman senator from Massachusetts, John Forbes Kerry. Still humming his “Give peace a chance” mantra from Vietnam days, Kerry jumped into...

President George W. Bush’s increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader’s state of mind. In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as “enemies of the state.” Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in...

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is turning to some familiar and controversial territory to try to shave the costs of running government: inviting private firms to do it better and cheaper.</p> <p>In his State of the State address, Schwarzenegger offered his first concrete plan to turn to the private sector to help extract the state from its budget hole, urging lawmakers to reverse a state law restricting school districts' ability to farm out tasks such as bus driving and groundskeeping to private companies.</p>

Consider: The way we define 'human' determines our view of self, others, relationships, institutions, life, and future. Choose wisely...there will be results. In an effort to diminish the multiple and persistent dangers and abuses which have characterized the affairs of man in his every Age, and to assist in the requisite search for human identity, it is essential to perceive and specify that distinction which naturally and most uniquely defines the human being. Because definitions rule in the minds, behaviors, and institutions of men, we can be confident that delineating and communicating that quality will assist the process of resolution...

French police arrest two suspects for knocking over rabbi and spitting on him as he took walk with his son (AP)

If he is attacked by the Americans, Saddam Hussein will respond with an attack on Israel, just as he did in 1991 - this is the assessment in the United States. It must also be taken into account that in this case, the Iraqis will use weapons of mass destruction. According to one assessment presented to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, if Israel incurs heavy losses in an attack by weapons of mass destruction, it will retaliate with atomic weapons on Iraqi targets. Such a grave Israeli response is not automatic, but would depend on the losses it suffers....