Free Republic

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Republican voters say former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin shares the values of most GOP voters throughout the nation. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 21% of Republican voters disagree and think the 2008 vice presidential candidate does not share their values. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided. By contrast, 74% of Republicans say their party’s representatives in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters nationwide over the past several years. Only 18% of Republican voters believe their elected officials have done a good job representing the base.

Fact-Checking the "Fact-Checkers" By the Editors File this one under "Quit Making Stuff Up." It took us all day, but we assembled the definitive debunking of the 11 Associated Press "fact-checkers." Might we suggest a new profession for these folks? As the always brilliant Mark Steyn pointed out: That's 11 writers for a 695-word report. What on? Obamacare? The Iranian nuke program? The upcoming trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? No, the Associated Press assigned 11 writers to "fact-check" Sarah Palin's new book... Hey, don't be too hard on the AP. CNN is also into fact-checking... SNL skits that are "mean"...

* What can we all do, every day, to make sure we are ready to prevent fraud in the Iowa Caucus in 2012? PLEASE take this seriously. A massive effort was launched on Dr. Utopia’s behalf from Chicago to game the Iowa Caucus. A good portion of Chicago rolled across the Illinois border to vote in Dubuque, Waterloo, Des Moines,you name it to ensure Dr. Utopia won that Caucus in 2008. The caucus centers are chaos hatcheries. Dr. Utopia’s goons, most of whom certainly appeared to be ACORN or SEIU, marched in, took over, and told anyone who wouldn’t stand...

It's no secret higher-education costs have risen three times faster than inflation in the last 30 years. For perspective, President Obama proposes to nationalize one-sixth of the economy to address "skyrocketing health-care costs," which have gone up only twice as fast as inflation in 30 years. But even as more middle-class American families are priced out every year, ivory-tower school officials maintain a bachelor's degree is still a good investment — a bargain, they say — based on the gap between the average lifetime earnings of high school and college graduates. U.S. Department of Education data show the difference is...

"Don't for a second think Obama wants what is best for U.S. He is flying the U.S. plane right into the ground at full speed. Let's roll." @Sen_Schultheis A Colorado legislator has been blasted by local and national news outlets for sending an online Twitter message, or tweet, that criticized President Obama with language some say is a reference to United Flight 93, which was hijacked and crashed during the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Earlier this week, state Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, posted the words, "Don't for a second think Obama wants what is best for U.S. He is flying...

Breitbart has uncovered then Senator Obama claiming while discussing that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that 9-11 mastermind KSM will get a MILITARY trial, not a CIVIL trial and that such was good

By Paul Thigpen, Ph.D. Do Animals Go to Heaven? Responding to a common question from children Not long ago a TCA reader wrote us to ask a familiar question: What should we tell children when a pet dies and they ask whether animals have souls and go to heaven? She reported that she had upset some parents when she told their children (students in her class) that the answer to both questions was no.The answer to the first question -- do animals have souls? -- depends, of course, on how we define "soul." Ancient and medieval writers, both pagan and...

'The Catholic university is called to act...with fidelity to the Christian message exactly as it is presented by the Church'. VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) - University communities cannot be satisfied with merely imparting knowledge; they must also teach students values and profound motivations, says Benedict XVI. The Pope spoke of the role of universities today, taking up the theme of the "educational crisis," about which he has often expressed concern. The Holy Father was addressing staff and students from the Libera Universita Maria Santissima Assunta (LUMSA), which is celebrating its 70th year. LUMSA was founded in 1939 by Servant of God...

Early education is one of the hot topics around the liberal roundtable in the United States, both nationally and globally. The liberal elite are not only discussing ways of forcing children into school by the time they are four and younger, as evidenced by Bill SB122 D-Clark-Coleman in Michigan, but now are looking at zero to three years old early education as an extension of K-12 compulsory education. Their mantra is that babies start learning from day one. In a White House press release dated March 10, 2009, “President Obama is committed to helping states develop seamless, comprehensive, and coordinated...

AIP News exclusive commentary by:  Tom Kovach Yesterday, the Canada Free Press reported that the National Education Association had listed as "recommended reading" the pro-Communist book Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky.  The CFP report did not mention that it was the number-one choice on the NEA's list.To prevent the NEA from later altering its Web pages and backing away from this stance under public scrutiny, I have copied the relevant Web pages and converted them to PDF documents.  First, here is the NEA's "recommended reading" list for its members.  (NOTE:  the page's appearance was slightly altered in the PDF conversion...

It’s Friday. The president is flying off to Asia. Congress is not in session. Perfect time to drop a bombshell on the American people: The Obama administration is bringing 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed to New York City for a civilian trial. No, it’s not a joke. Via the NYT: Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday. The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning. The...

The NEA’s (National Education Association’s, a.k.a. Nefarious Elitist A****’) recommended reading list includes two books by Brother O mentor and communist community organizer Saul Alinsky that advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. The Democrat-controlled teachers’ union praises Alinsky’s Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals as “an inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer!” The following book quotations are from the NEA website: “The Radical does not sit frozen by cold objectivity. He sees injustice and strikes at it with hot passion. He is a man of decision and action. “Society has good...

Thank you, Washington, for Requesting a Demonstrably Good Idea I commend the president for acknowledging today that “there are limits to what government can and should do” to ease our 10.2% unemployment rate – the highest it’s been since 1983. I also applaud his call for suggestions and expression of openness to considering “any demonstrably good idea.” Taking him at his word, I’d like to suggest this one: let’s learn from history and follow the example of the man who occupied the White House in 1983 and was able to transform an even worse recession than the one we’re currently...

Obama ominee claimed primary job is to 'write footnotes in the Constitution' - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced his plans to move forward as early as Monday with a confirmation vote on the pro-abortion appeals court nominee who ruled against praying "in Jesus name" on the floor of the Indiana Legislature. Reid said he plans to pursue a cloture process that would force a Senate vote on U.S. District Court Judge David Hamilton's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit if 60 senators vote for cloture. Republicans have attempted to block a vote on...

In the past year, we’ve interacted with Republicans for the first time in our lives, primarily through people we met via the McCain/Palin campaign and this website. What we’ve found most interesting in that time is how different Democrats and Republicans see elections — which is something many of you out there might not even realize. We grew up Democrat, and every day was a campaign day. The only day we weren’t campaigning for something was Election Day, in which case we were working our lists getting as many old people, drunks, homeless, and the sick to polling places as...

The NEA’s (National Education Association’s, a.k.a. Nefarious Elitist Asses’) recommended reading list includes two books by Brother O mentor and communist community organizer Saul Alinsky that advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. The Democrat-controlled teachers’ union praises Alinsky’s Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals as “an inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer!” ...

Eighth-graders Cassandra and Aliyah Russell of Chicago never imagined they'd be arrested in their school cafeteria, much less for throwing food. Share Police arrest two dozen children at a Chicago school for reckless conduct. But that's just what happened following lunchtime mayhem last Thursday at the Perspectives Charter Middle School, south of Chicago. More than two dozen students, ages 11 to 15, were rounded up by police, arrested and charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct. "They took us to jail, fingerprinted us, mugshotted us, or whatever, all because of a food fight...I was arrested. Handcuffs on," 13-year-old Cassandra told ABC News....

Pelosi "Health Plan" Should Be DOA Today at 8:40am We need to be vigilant in investigating the ramifications of the Pelosi Health Care Bill. Some provisions sound so outrageous as to be considered impossible to fathom, but they’re right there in the bill in black and white. For instance, page 297 of the bill explains the punishment for not purchasing government mandated health insurance. If you don’t buy what the government considers “acceptable health care coverage,” you’re going to be hit with a tax of at least 2.5% of your income. And if you don’t pay that new tax, you...

Democrat Bill Owens delivers his victory speech at his headquarters in Plattsburgh last week. Owens declared victory after Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman conceded the 23rd Congressional District race election night. Now recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference, and will be decided by a count of absentee ballots. The Associated PressDemocrat Bill Owens delivers his victory speech at his headquarters in Plattsburgh last week. Owens declared victory after Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman conceded the 23rd Congressional District race election night. Now recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference, and will be decided...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I apologize up front for this vanity, but this photo is very telling. In the photo, we see our military rendering honors to the Veterans (both deceased and still with us). Why is it that this punk stands there with his hands folded? He makes it really obvious that he could really care less about America and our great Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, Sailors, Coast Guardsmen and Merchant Marines. Why does he fail to salute our Veterans and our great society?

Visits by two men, claiming to be Homeland Security employees, have Middletown officials raising a lot of questions. Police say one man, who was armed and wearing a Homeland Security badge, entered Mayfield Elementary School yesterday morning, before the start of class. Officials say he and another man, also wearing a similar badge, had been to an apartment complex earlier looking for a suspect. At the school, the man claiming to be an agent, asked the principal whether a particular street was within the school's attendance area.

In surveying the cultural carnage in the wake of the worst terrorist attack on a military installation in US history, it bears noting that there have been seismic shifts in America. When America was free of the shackles of Islam, say, fifty years ago, the current response to such an attack by an enemy faction would have been unthinkable. I have watched in abject horror the stunning reaction of elites in this country to this act of war. The denial, the submission, the excuses, the dodging, the self-flagellation, the shame, the deceiving of the American people by the media, the...

I am missing something here. After the attack and murder of 13 innocent people by an apparent imbedded radical Jihadist in the US Army, General Casey said on Meet The Press, "Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse." I have some questions for any military officer who swore an oath on several occasions to support and defend the Constitution. How many innocent Americans have to be murdered by someone who displayed every single modus operandi of...

The latest ridiculous attack on Sarah Palin in Chicago: Oprah’s audience complains they didn’t get any free books Dear Schaumburg Oprah Audience Members: the reason you did not find this book under your seats is because it has not been released yet. Grow up now, please. Seriously, of all the ridiculous things that are said about Sarah Palin, this one takes the cake. Sarah Palin was in town today to tape her appearance on Oprah, which will air on Monday of next week. Next TUESDAY Palin’s book, Going Rogue, drops in bookstores. Apparently, Oprah didn’t explain that to her studio...

We know absolutely no one in Bush family circles and have never met former President George W. Bush or his wife Laura. If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of “Dubya” nearly every day…parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker. Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground...

Recently on ABC television news, one of their videos showed a U.S. Marine hunkered down in Afghanistan complaining on camera that he was not allowed to shoot back when under fire. This situation resulted from Obama’s new rules of engagement from his new Afghanistan commander. General McChrystal explained it to BBC news that they are now advising troops to break off from firefights with the Taliban, "If you are in a situation where you are under fire from the enemy... if there is any chance of creating civilian casualties or if you don't know whether you will create civilian casualties,...

Via Michelle Malkin, a reminder that, in addition to killing 13 people and wounding 30 at Fort Hood last week, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan also murdered soldier Francheska Velez's baby. Velez's cousin told the Washington Post that Private Velez "was supposed to be coming very, very soon. Everyone’s devastated. Everyone’s at a loss for words. She was very young. She wasn't supposed to die the way she died.” Under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, Hasan is "guilty of a separate offense" for causing "the death of, or bodily injury (as defined in section 1365) to, a child, who is...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is taking its first step toward trying to fix the ailing airline industry, mired in a severe economic slump and facing safety worries. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is holding a forum Thursday to discuss the state of the industry and ways government can help provide economic stability for air carriers. The industry has been rocked by repeated crises in recent years, including the 9/11 terror attacks, the SARS virus and the current economic downturn. "U.S. aviation is facing severe economic uncertainty and an open and frank conversation will help begin a continuing dialogue about the...

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//091111/ids_photos_wl/r1535946046.jpg/

Selling candy didn't raise much money last year, so a Goldsboro middle school is selling grades. A $20 donation to Rosewood Middle School will get a student 20 test points - 10 extra points on two tests of the student's choosing. That could raise a B to an A, or a failing grade to a D. Susie Shepherd, the principal, said a parent advisory council came up with the idea, and she endorsed it. She said the council was looking for a new way to raise money.

Police investigators too educated? November 9, 2009 BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter Investigators hired to probe the surging number of allegations of excessive force against Chicago Police officers are too educated to relate to those involved in the shootings, a South Side alderman warned Monday. Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) put the Independent Police Review Authority on notice about its hiring practices as the agency prepared to launch a study to determine the root cause of the 19 percent increase in complaints, most of them since March. “Hiring people with advanced degrees is a wonderful thing in terms of their...

Concentrating on three Latin American countries but also the UK, Germany and the United States, he looked at books used to teach national history, citizenship, and English literature. It was no coincidence, he said, that in all the countries he examined, similar nationalist messages - though in different contexts - changed at similar times over the past 150 years.

Attorney General Eric Holder has agreed to give a keynote speech next week to a Michigan group which includes the local branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations even though the FBI has formally severed contacts with the controversial Muslim civil rights organization. On Nov. 19, Holder is scheduled to speak in Detroit to the first annual awards banquet of Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust, a coalition of several dozen law enforcement and community groups. An online registration form for the event includes the Council on American Islamic Relations-Michigan on a list of “official & participating organizations.”...

I want to see the whole thing. Every American should demand to see the whole damned thing. And then you need to demand to know the names of every higher-ups in the military and the government who read or saw this thing and did nothing about it. I’m talking about the chilling slide presentation that Fort Hood jihadist Nidal Hasan gave at Walter Reed Hospital while a senior-year psych resident in June 2007. The Washington Post publishes details of the slide presentation, though not the original document itself. [Update: Good! WaPo publishes the full slide presentation here.] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2009/11/10/GA2009111000920.html Goodbye, “Do...

Arif Alikhan, currently deputy mayor for the city of Los Angeles, was appointed as assistant secretary for the Office of Policy Development at the Department of Homeland Security. "Muslim Democrats welcome Alikhan’s appointment" At a banquet/fundraiser for the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California last weekend, the first speaker was Arif Alikhan (Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles - in charge of public safety for the city). He bid farewell, as he is going to take a post as Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. Arif Alikhan is a devout Sunni and the son of Pakistani immigrants. Professor Agha...

According to The New York Times, on Saturday evening the President of the United States used a thoroughly disgusting gay-baiting slur to refer to people that previous presidents might have called “My Fellow Americans”. Speaking with congressional Democrats, our situationally unaware, amateur-night chief executive asked, “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care?”Call me an old-timer, but I can remember when U.S. Presidents had class. They might have called their political opponents any number of things in private, but you would not hear of them demeaning American citizens. It...

Twenty years ago, the ultimate symbol of the division between freedom and tyranny was torn down. The Berlin Wall was constructed for one purpose: to prevent the escape of East Germans to the freedom of the West. The Wall’s cold, gray façade was a stark reminder of the economic and political way of life across the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. Ronald Reagan never stopped regarding the Berlin Wall as an affront to human freedom. When so many other American leaders and opinion makers had come to accept its presence as inevitable and permanent, Reagan still hammered...

This was a terrorist attack on America by a U.S. soldier. In a saner country in a saner time, "Major" Hassan would be immediately tried for treason and face a firing squad. ------ Definition of Treason: Main Entry: trea·son Pronunciation: \ˈtrē-zən\ Function: noun Etymology: Middle English tresoun, from Anglo-French traisun, from Latin tradition-, traditio act of handing over, from tradere to hand over, betray — more at traitor Date: 13th century 1 : the betrayal of a trust : treachery 2 : the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender...

Moves to bridge gap in city pension fund; challenge expected Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl plans to propose a 1 percent college-education privilege tax to council today, in a move that's likely to set off a fight with the city's schools of higher learning. College and university representatives met with the mayor on Wednesday and argued against the tax, which would be assessed on a college student's tuition. It technically would not be a levy on the students or their schools, but rather on the privilege of getting a higher education in Pittsburgh. "They weren't pleased to hear that this was...

We are witnessing a national suicide. Fort Hood jihadist's coworkers saw warning signs, but said nothing for fear of seeming bigoted Jihadwatch Details here. So this is what it has come to -- this is the fruit of the long-term efforts by groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and others, to stigmatize and demonize everyone who speaks honestly about the threat of jihad and Islamic supremacism. People are afraid to speak up about what they see, when they know it is wrong. And all it cost this week was 13 dead and 38 wounded.

Speculation could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers and what happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here. Diversity as a casualty would be an "even great tragedy" than the casualties of this act of war on American soil. I cannot believe what I am reading. It was not a tragedy, it was an terrorist attack. This is Obama's military command? Would Patton have recruited nazis into his army?,/u> I ask you. I warned Atlas readers that the dhimmi response to...

The Jihadis will return. We know this, in the same way that we know about death and taxes. Thanks in large part to the weakening of our defensive efforts under the new administration, there will be further attacks against this country's population, perhaps even worse than those of 9/11. (This week's attack by Nidal Malik Hasan serves to underline the threat.) When this attack occurs, we will see an end to all the nonsense. Our present drift regarding terror policy is occurring only because Americans have been encouraged to put unpleasant realities at a distance, to live in a dream...

BBC interview by Gavin Lee with a member of the Killeen, Texas mosque outside Ft Hood, the Islamic Community Center of Greater Killeen, where Malik Nidal Hasan was currently attending. In the interview, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nrvhp#p0051bjj mosque member "Duane" not only refuses to condemn Hasan, but justifies their murder because "they were troops who were going to Afghanistan and Iraq to kill Muslims". Duane : "I'm not going to condemn him for what he did. I don't know why he did it. I will not, absolutely not, condemn him for what he had done though. If he had done it for selfish...

TUCSON, Ariz.—BASIS charter school in Tucson, Ariz., may be the most unassuming high school ever to receive positive treatment from the national media. Nothing about its location (downtown next to a Bank of America and across from Target) nor its building (a rather dated former daycare center) indicates that it could compete with the monolith, state-of-the-art high schools that surround it. Yet not only does it compete with local schools that have vastly more money and resources, according to analyses by Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report, it bests them and schools all across the country. In 2008, Newsweek...

Robert George says Obama didn't wait long after Tuesday's devastating elections to give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships. After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word went out that Obama would speak about the incident prior to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable stations went to Obama. The situation called...

Back in 1980 the US space programme was in the doldrums. Apollo was fading into history and there hadn't been a US astronaut in space for five years. The quirky space shuttle, much diminished from its initial vision, was still waiting to make its maiden flight. But that fall came Cosmos, a revolutionary documentary series with a compelling host. Both the television universe and the real one have never been quite the same. Carl Sagan, by equal measure professorial and childlike, offered space enthusiasts a new paradigm. Buck Rogers was out; refined and groovy cosmic citizen was in. Here was...

I was wondering - I was born in France - may be in France they had german in the military since they love loosing wars and surrender but I was wondering if we had german in the US Army during world war 2 - did they have german in the english Army? Just saying.. The enemy is within and even our own army does not ahve the courage to acknowledge that THE ENEMY IS WITHIN. FREAKING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!!! I AM SICK OF THAT. And soo soo sad. A 21 year old PRAGNET woman, just coming back from Irak, DIED YESTERDAY...

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000...

Political correctness is going to rout this country. The jihadi who mowed down scores at Fort Hood was an adviser to the Homeland Security Policy Institute's presidential transition task force. This was at the same time that the DHS was writing reports that right wing extremists like Grandma, Veterans, tea parties, patriots were the real threat. And Hasan had a jihad history. Enemy in the White House. Fort Hood shooter was member of Homeland Security Panel advising Obama Jihadwatch Of course. Why not? He was a "moderate." Until he wasn't. "Nidal Hasan: Ft. Hood Shooter Participated in Homeland Security Disaster...

YUMA, Ariz. -- A Yuma man is being held on more than $100,000 dollars bond on charges of forgery and sexual conduct with a minor after posing as a high school student, authorities said. Authorities said 22-year-old Anthony Avalos posed as a high school student and was fraudulently attending Yuma's Kofa High School. District officials confirmed Avalos attended Kofa High last year on and off for a total of about 4 months. He returned at the start of this school year enrolled as a senior. Richard Faidley, Ed. D., the associate superintendent for Yuma Unified High School District No. 70...