Free Republic

Dems bus kids for voting and ice cream

President Barack Obama has a long history with the U.S.'s largest marxist based organization, Democratic Socialists of America (D.S.A.). With several thousand members (many of whom are also Democratic Party activists and office holders), and considerable influence in academia, the media, mass "community organizations" and labor unions, D.S.A. has the power to direct or influence hundreds of thousands of activists in the "correct" direction. Here is hard evidence that D.S.A. threw its entire weight behind their long time ally Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections. From the Democratic Socialists of America National Political Committee Minutes of Meeting of September...

Politics: Another bank failure is nothing new these days — except if the bank is run by the family of a U.S. Senate candidate who profited handsomely and lent millions to a convicted felon. But then, that's the Chicago way. 'I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," President Obama said in a recent interview with "60 Minutes." Speaking to those bankers, he said: "You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in — in decades,...

Scandal: Sometimes banks are too small to fail, such as when they are in the president's hometown, deal with the president's friends and serve the president's agenda. Or should we perhaps say too connected to fail? ShoreBank's Web site boasts: "Van Jones saves at ShoreBank so his money fights for green jobs just like he does." It proudly notes, "According to former Vice President Al Gore, 'Van Jones demonstrates conclusively that the best solutions for the survivability of our planet are also the best solutions for everyday Americans.' " That may tell us all we need to know about ShoreBank...

Civil Rights: The Justice Department explains that it dropped a Black Panther voter-intimidation case because of lack of evidence. Pay no attention to the thugs outside the polling place. Yet another reason Eric Holder must go. On Election Day 2008, New Black Panther Party members King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Sha-bazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint with civil violations by "allegedly" violating the Voting Rights Act through intimidation, threats and coercion as they stood outside a Philadelphia polling place. It was what Bartle Bull, a former civil rights lawyer and publisher of the left-wing Village Voice,...

Politics: The water spigots are back on, at least temporarily, in California's Central Valley. Turned off to protect a tiny fish, they happen to be in the districts of two congressmen "undecided" on health care reform. One could chalk it up to good fortune or just good constituent service. But in the middle of a contentious health care debate marked by Cornhusker Kickbacks and Louisiana Purchases, we may be forgiven if we find an announcement by the Department of the Interior regarding California's water supply a tad too coincidental. On Tuesday, the Department of the Interior announced it was increasing...

Leadership: The speaker of the House wants to extend a proposed freeze on domestic programs to include defense spending. In a world of growing threats, perhaps she'd also like to cut her travel and bar bill. Last week the Russian air force celebrated the maiden flight of the Sukhoi T-50, Moscow's version of the American F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. We have shut down the F-22 production line, viewing it as an unaffordable and unnecessary extravagance. (snip) Everybody has to make a sacrifice," Pelosi was quoted as saying in an interview with Politico, shortly before Obama announced his proposed discretionary spending...

Free Speech: The Senate votes against transparency as the administration silences a private insurer for exposing the president's health care proposal. Meanwhile, AARP is allowed to tout reform as it awaits payday. We weren't surprised when the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday voted 12 to 11 against allowing two weeks for the Congressional Budget Office to complete its cost analysis of the health care bill pushed by Montana Democrat Max Baucus and to put the bill online in its original wording. Instead, the Senate panel passed another amendment to require the committee to post the full bill online in "conceptual"...

Security: A Senate bill lets the president "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "nongovernmental" computer networks and do what's needed to respond to the threat. Didn't they just collect our e-mail addresses?We wish this was just a piece of the fictional "Dr. Strangelove" that fell to the cutting-room floor, but it's not. It is a real piece of disturbingly vague legislation sponsored by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. Senate Bill 773 would grant the administration emergency powers (where have we heard that before?) in the event of a cyberemergency that the president would have...

1st Amendment: Mark Lloyd, a disciple of Saul Alinsky and fan of Hugo Chavez, wants to destroy talk radio and says free speech is a distraction. The new FCC diversity "czar" says Venezuela is an example we should follow.When Mark Lloyd was appointed July 29 as the chief diversity officer at the Federal Communications Commission, a nation focused on ObamaCare and a deteriorating economy took little notice. But as angry constituents flood town hall meetings and call in to talk radio, a man dedicated to silencing them sits at the right hand of the president. They share a common hero...

WASHINGTON - The FBI's raid on a Democrat's office rippled through Capitol Hill Wednesday, with Republicans demanding that the bureau surrender documents and other items its agents seized under what lawmakers said were unconstitutional circumstances. "I think those materials ought to be returned," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, adding that the FBI agents involved "ought to be frozen out of that (case) for the sake of the Constitution." A day earlier, the Illinois Republican complained personally to President Bush about the Saturday night raid of Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record)'s legislative office, saying it violated the Constitution's separation...

Tensions color Bush, Blanco meeting Gov. Kathleen Blanco canceled a scheduled trip Monday to visit Louisiana evacuees in Houston shelters to stay in Baton Rouge to meet with President Bush. Blanco Communications Director Bob Mann said the governor did not learn about the Bush visit until early Monday morning. “We had no idea the president was coming,” Mann said. Tension between the Blanco and Bush administrations has surfaced in recent days as state and federal officials try to coordinate recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The Blanco administration clearly wanted to express their irritation with the communication about...