Free Republic

Critics of Cynthia McKinney may dismiss her as a loose cannon and a rabble-rouser, but to her supporters, the former Georgia congresswoman is someone with the courage to challenge convention and speak the truth. McKinney, 54, represented an Atlanta-area district as a Democrat from 1993-2003 and 2005-07. A vigorous critic of President George W. Bush, she gave voice to a theory, widely circulated on the political fringes, that Bush knew in advance of the Sept. 11 attacks but allowed them to happen because they would prove profitable to the global investment firm his father was associated with. In her final...

Here is video of Senate Republicans blasting the Democrats' totally non-bipartisan approach to Health Care Reform. Mitch McConnell pointed out that today, President Obama is meeting with Democrats only - not with any Republicans. John McCain pointed out Obama's promise during the 2008 campaign that he would "bring a new tone" to Washington, and work in a bipartisan way to get things done. McCain said it simply is not happening. . . . (VIDEO)

Franklin D. Roosevelt understood what it meant to be a core Democrat and maintaining his party’s ranks. He built winning coalitions around his policies by empowering previously suppressed groups, such as labor unions and urban ethnics. In the process, he created a 40-year dynasty for Democrats. Today’s bunch? Not so much. The problem for FDR’s party is that it hasn’t adapted swiftly enough to two realities – that jobs are the most important issue to the nation, and that the middle class (which Democrats claim to champion) is dissolving under its watch. It seemed that Democrats may be starting to...

In a frantic effort to save his gargantuan plan to throw Senior Adults under the bus in order to give healthcare to illegals and pay for abortions with tax dollars, Barack Obama dashed to the Senate today to urge them to take the ball on in over the finish line.

WASHINGTON — Americans can't take weekends off from worrying about health care and the Senate shouldn't either, Majority Leader Harry Reid said today as he opened a rare weekend session to debate President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. With Democrats preparing to vote on an amendment targeting tax breaks for insurance executives' pay, Reid lashed out at "greedy health insurance companies" that he said make profits by neglecting consumers' health needs. Reid, D-Nev., called the weekend session as he races the clock to complete action on the 2,000-page remake of the nation's health care system by Christmas. With both sides...

Why Bosworth Should Not Go to Pyongyang By Chris Green [2009-12-04 16:48 ] Author of, among other things, “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World,” Gordon Chang has today called for Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. chief nuclear negotiator, not to make the trip to Pyongyang for bilateral talks that he is scheduled to make on December 8th. Writing for Forbes, Chang asserts that for Bosworth to go to Pyongyang at this time is both playing into North Korean hands and completely undermining the policy which Washington had appeared to be adhering to since Barack Obama came to office, namely...

Chairman received donations from firms appearing at hearingAt a hearing in late March, the nation's credit card companies faced the threat of expensive new rules from an unlikely regulator: the House Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). The committee had never before dealt with credit card issues, but Thompson warned Visa, MasterCard and others that Congress might need to impose tighter security standards costing millions of dollars to protect customers from identity theft. Behind the scenes, some of Thompson's staff members sensed a different motive -- an attempt to pressure the companies into making political donations to...

Sen. Lindsey Graham may be under fire from conservatives back home in South Carolina. But the Republican got a personal assurance from President Obama yesterday that the White House is supporting his efforts to craft a sweeping Senate energy and global warming bill. “The president told me personally he was very open, that nuclear power would be part of the mix, that clean coal would be part of the mix, that he’s for offshore drilling in a responsible way,” Graham said today in describing his Oval Office meeting with Obama. “But we have to have a price on carbon,...

Some recent events should have come as no surprise to me, having spent decades observing the illogical workings of the liberal mind. First has been the strange reaction to Climategate, from an administration that boldly proclaimed its intention to demand critical thinking in our science and to base policies on the best scientific thought available. Their reaction to the news that political correctness has infected the science of man-made global warming has been to spin the facts and then to deny the implications of the false data and the burying of any study that did not support the global warming...

A new poll suggests even more trouble for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his home state. Only 38 percent of the 625 registered Nevada voters polled had a favorable opinion of Reid in the poll released by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research that was commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Forty-nine percent of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Reid in the poll with 13 percent remaining neutral. The results follow an aggressive early advertising campaign by Reid.

Contentious exchanges between White House press secretaries and members of the media have been fairly commonplace during the past few presidential administrations. However, the one that took place Wednesday between White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and April Ryan of American Urban Radio, in which Gibbs essentially compared Ryan to a petulant child, is among the most heated (and entertaining) in recent memory. The testy exchange was sparked by Ryan's insistent questioning of White House social secretary Desiree Rogers' role at the recent state dinner, which has been in the headlines because of the fallout from Tareq and Michaele Salahi's...

The unemployment rate and the skyrocketing deficit are the most serious problems facing the nation, something everyday Americans have known for quite a while. However, rather than take quick, sensible action to spur job creation, our elected leaders have been wasting time on ideological issues like health care reform and cap-and-trade, two measures that are not at a crisis level, and two measures guaranteed to increase unemployment. Then on Wednesday, President Obama convened a Jobs Summit to talk about ways to create jobs. Fox News reported that “Obama sought fresh ideas from the 130 corporate executives, small business owners and...

"SEIU is the largest union of immigrant workers in the country..."

(VIDEO BELOW) In an appearance on FOX's On the Record with Greta Van Susteren last night, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) discussed the White House jobs summit and how Democrats job-killing agenda is hurting small businesses and undermining job creation in America

WASHINGTON - On the Senate floor, Democrats are debating Republicans on health care. Behind the scenes, they're debating each other. Those closed-door discussions may be less predictable -- and more consequential -- as majority Democrats struggle to settle controversies within the party that are standing in the way of passage of President Barack Obama's sweeping health care overhaul. The most contentious of these is a proposal for the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies, an approach supported by liberals but opposed by most Democratic moderates and conservatives. Democrats were engaged in urgent talks to settle the government...

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties continues to refuse growing calls to investigate ACORN, a group that has endorsed him and that he has given money to. The panel’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), is so close to ACORN he even provided advice to ACORN’s lawyer on how undermine congressional efforts to defund the group. At a subcommittee hearing yesterday, Nadler seemed upset that another member of the subcommittee, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), dared to ask him to do his job. “Congress has done everything it could do against a...

I’m trying to come up with a yardstick to measure the incompetence of the Obama administration — and failing. And it’s political incompetence I’m talking about. You come into office in the midst of the biggest financial crisis in decades and facing what you at least are telling the public the threat of a general economic meltdown. So what do you do? Focus on the economy? Create jobs? No, you make the centerpiece of your legislative agenda — one that has occupied the center of the national stage since July or August — a massive overhaul of the healthcare system...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-proclamation-critical-infrastructure-protection-month Home • Briefing Room • Presidential Actions • Proclamations The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release December 02, 2009 Presidential Proclamation - Critical Infrastructure Protection Month Click here to download PDF A PROCLAMATION Critical infrastructure protection is an essential element of a resilient and secure nation. Critical infrastructure are the assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, public health or safety. From water systems to computer...

Insults against West Point by MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews are part of a pattern of left-wing denigrations against Americans serving in uniform. It's a motif indicative of an anti-military mind-set that is as dangerous as it is rude. Discussing the West Point audience's response to President Obama's speech about Afghanistan, Mr. Matthews quipped on Tuesday: "I saw a lot of, if not resentment, skepticism. I didn't see a lot of warmth in that crowd out there that the president chose to address tonight. And I thought that was interesting: He went to maybe the enemy camp tonight to make his...

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is calling the leaked e-mails from climate scientists at a British university research unit a "theft" and "crime" that should be investigated, despite calls from Republicans to investigate the contents of the e-mails themselves -- not the way they were leaked. One man's whistleblower is another woman's criminal hacker. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is calling the leaked e-mails from climate scientists at a British university research unit a "theft" and "crime" that should be investigated, despite calls from Republicans to investigate the contents of the e-mails themselves, not the way they were leaked. "You call it...

(snip) “Why did I do this? I want my time to count. I want to be seen as someone who can solve a hard problem by working with my colleagues across the aisle. I want to do something that matters. I can’t think of a better use of my time than to work with Democrats and Republicans to break our dependency on foreign oil, to create jobs for our next generation of Americans that will never go to China. And yes, leave behind a cleaner planet.” (snip)

Also statements by Hans Blix and David Kay about Iraq WMD's (Liberals aren't very smart. They need to be reminded again and again and again).....

With the upper- and mid-ranks of the Democratic Party furiously engaged in an internecine conflict to see who can be the most stupid the most often, the Left's bottom-feeders are being starved of the attention that they so richly deserve. So, leaving aside the big beasts for a moment, let's turn our focus towards some of the lesser-known, but equally hopeless, Leftist minions: First up is Hope Whitehead, who recently clinched the nomination to fill a vacancy in the Missouri House of Representatives . And she has proven that she has the right stuff to be an excellent Democrat because...

Rachel Uchitel, the first woman identified woman as romantically linked to Tiger Woods, is now admitting to an affair with the golfing great, after adamantly denying it, RadarOnline.com is reporting exclusively. Her attorney Gloria Allred has scheduled a press conference for Thursday, saying only in a press release that "at the news conference Ms. Allred will make a statement about Ms. Uchitel’s relationship with Tiger Woods.

Recently Jim Robinson posted two threads declaring Free Republic’s determination to see Conservatives elected and ousting Rino's from government. Jim and a great many Freepers believe that we need to take back control. But the RNC is not hearing us. Activism is called for NOW. 2010 is nearing and we need Conservative candidates to run. The time is ripe and people are ready for another 1994 type election. But we need to make the RNC hear us loud and clear. This is the Rino Free America Project. Get involved. Make them listen. Write a letter and MAIL it. Republican...

Tiger Woods' alleged mistress claims she was lying when she said she did not have an affair with Tiger Woods ... and sources tell TMZ the fight at Tiger's home the morning of the crash was triggered by a series of text messages between Tiger and the woman. Rachel Uchitel has publicly denied she had sexual relations with Tiger Woods, but we've learned she has said she did indeed have an affair with the golfer. And, we're told it was her -- not Jaimee Grubbs -- who caused an argument between Tiger and his wife, Elin Nordegren, that immediately preceded...

WEST POINT -- President Obama's address here last night was the single finest moment of his presidency. It was also the worst. For one of the first times, Americans saw Obama faithfully fulfill his first duty as commander-in-chief. Having rocketed from obscurity to the presidency on an antiwar platform, Obama made the courageous and politically selfless decision to escalate the unpopular war in Afghanistan because he knows it is in the best long-term interests of his country -- no matter the political consequences. It was far and away the most difficult decision he has made in the White House Obama...

This is very important, and those who are concerned that Democrats are going to use the power of the federal government to bailout the struggling and flailing newspaper industry in America should recognize the inherit weakness within Waxman (and fellow Democrats) arguments and strategy to save the liberal newspaper industry in America. Waxman and fellow Democrats say that "quality journalism" is essential to a Democracy, and therefore they must bailout the newspaper industry, given that the media is shifting to online platforms. The flaw in Waxman and fellow Democrats arguments is that they (intentionally or not) use a Strawman: they...

Where is the drastic climate change we keep hearing about? It's the science scandal of the year. A thousand e-mails and 2,000 other documents were swiped from the server of Britain's Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University and posted on the Web. Many were truly embarrassing to the writers, while others have been quoted out of context and falsely used as "proof" that global warming is "a hoax." But in one e-mail, a top "warmist" researcher admits it's a "travesty" that "we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment." (Emphasis added.) Further, "any consideration of geoengineering...

A congressional hearing that was supposed to be a routine recap of global-warming science Wednesday turned into a fracas involving e-mails stolen from some prominent climate scientists. The e-mails were stolen from the University of East Anglia in Britain, from one of the three labs in the world that constructs global temperature records. The private exchanges have become a goldmine for skeptics who argue that global warming is a plot rather than a real man-made problem. At Wednesday's hearing before a House select committee, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) called for an investigation of the e-mails. He said at best, official...

Senator Boxer reacts to the 'climategate' question on leaked emails that appear to suppress the scientific process of peer review, saying hackers should face criminal prosecution. While it is true that computer system hacking is a very serious crime, the content of the email strings from the University of East Anglia exposed in the "climategate" scandal that has since led to the temporary resignation of the university's central climate scientist may very well point to a more devastating crime - one of scientific fraud in the face of wide-ranging global economic legislation. However, Senator Barbara Boxer - the lead Democrat...

President Obama May Not Remember Vietnam Turmoil WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama insists that his decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending in 30,000 more troops is not Vietnam all over again. Well, it sure reminds me of the perils and the price of that unwinnable war in Southeast Asia and the political chaos it wreaked at home. In Afghanistan, the designated enemies are remnants of the weakened al-Qaida network and the native Taliban, which has been growing in strength despite the eight-year war started by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 catastrophe....

After the Senate voted to start the debate on the so-called health-care reform bill, the Democrats held a press conference, patting themselves on the back for the success of their underhanded tactics in thwarting the will of the people. How I'd have loved for some journalist to demand that the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, answer one particular question: "Sir, is it true that this bill won't kick in till 2014 but taxpayers will start paying for it immediately?" Of course, no one in our elite media had the gumption to demand an answer from Democrat leaders. Nor are they...

WASHINGTON -- The rift over economic policy between the Obama administration and the Congressional Black Caucus appeared to widen on Wednesday, when a meeting between several lawmakers and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel ended without an agreement and the lawmakers refused to attend a morning committee vote to overhaul financial rules. The group's effort to block a vote on the financial regulations could have derailed a major White House priority. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) narrowly managed to pass the bill without the panel's 10 Congressional Black Caucus members. Mr. Frank said he spoke...

U.N. Undersecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Sha Zukang, back to camera, talks to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, as Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, left, and Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, second from left, look on at an international conference on technology and climate change in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) (CNSNews.com) – Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, is calling on Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to conduct hearings on a possible conspiracy between some of the world’s most prominent climatologists to, among other things,...

When President Barack Obama entered office in January, the greatest problem America faced was neither the war in Afghanistan nor the recession. It was the imminent crisis of the welfare state. Not only has Obama failed to deal with this crisis, he is pursuing policies that will bankrupt America. In March, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, led by former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, calculated the total value of the federal government's "unfunded liabilities" as they stood at the end of fiscal 2008. These liabilities include the publicly held portion of the national debt plus the amount the government must...

According to AmmoLand.com, data released by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) reported 1,233,982 NICS Checks in October 2009, a 4 percent increase from the 1,183,279 reported in October 2008. So far that is roughly 11,403,417 gun bought this year. The total is probably more as NICS background checks may cover the purchase of more than one gun at a time. "This latest jump in background checks show that Americans are solidly in-favor of keeping firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens," Ammoland reports in an no-byline article. "This clearly shows that the Obama Administration’s OK to...

Fresh off her national “Louisiana Purchase” outrage, Sen. Mary Landrieu has a full dance card back in New Orleans over the next few days. Her companions for the Crescent City one-night stands on the calendar are, shall we say, interesting. On Saturday, Landrieu is set to give the welcome speech at a rather out-of-the-mainstream event – this time, she’ll be addressing the New Orleans premiere of Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. So as we can see, Landrieu is largely supporting a propaganda film in making her appearance and speech at Saturday’s premiere. And her neighbors at the...

Either MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews let one slip tonight, or it was an extremely poor choice of words. Following President Barack Obama's Dec. 1 speech, which he announced his intentions for increasing troop levels in Afghanistan, MSNBC followed with wrap-up coverage of his speech with arguably three of their most prominent on-air personalities - "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann, "The Rachel Maddow Show" host Rachel Maddow and Matthews. Matthews referred to a scene from "Gone with the Wind" about the American Civil War as an example of "excitement" going into a war. He said that was lacking in the room...

People shouldn't think that all ACORN does is help pimps and hookers buy houses, they serve the community in so many other ways, including embezzlement of donated funds, voter fraud, and using tax exempt dollars to help get liberal candidates elected. Yesterday the Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a forum to discuss ACORN and urge the Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Democratic Party's favorite criminal enterprise. Congressmen Smith and Issa presented documentation indicating that ACORN already transferred many of its resources to several other left-wing advocacy and political groups...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Bloomington, Indiana Herald-Times Treats Law-Abiding Gun Owners like Registered Sex Offenders!   Tuesday, December 01, 2009   On November 30, 2009, the Bloomington Herald-Times made the following announcement:“This week, HeraldTimesOnline.com will launch its new gun permit database. You’ll be able to search gun permit records by county, city or town and street."The Herald-Times has begun receiving calls and emails, and their response is a defiant defense of their online gun permit database. Anyone who visits the newspaper website will be able to search the number of permits on a given street or neighborhood....

A senior Army strategist says President Barack Obama plans to conduct nothing more than an "ink spot" strategy in the war in Afghanistan. Speaking last night to the nation from the U.S. Military Academy, President Barack Obama said the war in Afghanistan is not lost and officially announced that he will send another 30,000 U.S. troops to fight it. The first new U.S. forces will join the fight by Christmas, he said, adding that U.S. forces will begin coming home in July 2011. Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis (USA-Ret.) disagrees with the administration's plan, arguing that a counterinsurgency operation cannot be...

DCCC goes after Palin and 'lunatic fringe' By Eric Zimmermann - 11/30/09 03:52 PM ET The DCCC is using Sarah Palin as a bogeyman to raise money, calling her book a "lie-riddled work of fiction." An excerpt from a fundraising email DCCC Executive Director Jon Vogel sent to supporters today: You and I know that the only thing dead on arrival whenever Sarah Palin grabs a microphone is the truth. Only now, her lie-riddled work of fiction called "Going Rogue" is selling like gangbusters - and it's up to us to give it a proper response. The media is closely...

Breitbart unearthed this video footage of former DNC chair Howard Dean speaking in Paris back in April. This clip will make you feel literally ill. In this disturbing presentation, the good doctor confirms many conservative pundits' hunches that Barack Obama's presidency is essentially a perpetual campaign by stating it outright. He expounds that it's a campaign not just to win elections for the Democrat Party–why Dean is in a foreign country discussing strategies for only one party of the U.S. political system is beyond me–but to influence policy indefinitely into the future. But more importantly and despicably, Dean trashes American...

The City of San Francisco is hard up for cash, so they’ve decided to steal it from the Archdiocese of San Francisco because they can – nakedly, in broad daylight, without the slightest plausible legal pretense. The Church is openly hated and condemned in San Francisco for its support of Proposition 8 and its defense of human sexual morality in general. The City can steal from the Archdiocese because the City needs the money and because it makes the citizenry happy to stick it to the evil Catholic Church.Here’s some backstory from a previous post: When you sell a piece...

The president was underwhelming at West Point. On one of the gravest strategic issues of our time, the golden orator of our political scene labored through his compulsories to make the case for why we should win a war that if we lose will invigorate the jihadist cause, put untenable pressure on the governments of Pakistan and India (to say nothing of the tragedy for Afghanistan), potentially put al-Qaeda in possession of nuclear weapons, and increase the risk of future attacks on our homeland. It was not a performance that will give heart to Afghans, countries in the region whose...

Those tingles up his leg that MSNBC talker Chris Matthews gets from President Barack Obama (D) have apparently zapped Matthews' brain. Analyzing Obama's speech at West Point last night with Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, Matthews observed "It seems like in this case, there isn't a lot of excitement. I watched the cadets, they were young kids - men and women who were committed to serving their country professionally it must be said, as officers. And, I didn't see much excitement. But among the older people there, I saw, if not resentment, skepticism. I didn't see a lot of warmth...

In the Iliad, the father of Achilles counsels him to be “both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.” At least since his electrifying 2008 appearance before 200,000 in Berlin, there has been a tendency to credit Barack Obama for the words and to doubt him on the deeds. Across the Media-and-Beltway bio-feedback loop, that doubt has now intensified. Except in this world of instant analysis, of outcomes proclaimed before events unfold, this skepticism would represent an inexplicably premature verdict on a President who is on the verge of overseeing economic revival and the historic achievement of national...

A new survey from Democratic strategists Stanley Greenberg and James Carville finds voters are “pretty uncertain” that President Barack Obama’s policies will work and believe by a narrow margin that Republicans would do a better job on the economy. Carville and Greenberg do not foresee a wave election in 2010 that would return Republicans to congressional majorities, partly because the GOP itself remains damaged from public ill will toward the last Republican Congress and former President George W. Bush. More respondents hold Bush than Obama responsible for the economy and the budget deficit, according to the survey. Still, the findings...