Free Republic

Politico says: Just a few years after the Republican Party launched a highly publicized diversity effort, the GOP is heading into the 2008 election without a single minority candidate with a plausible chance of winning a campaign for the House, the Senate or governor. At a time when Democrats are poised to knock down a historic racial barrier with their presidential nominee, the GOP is fielding only a handful of minority candidates for Congress or statehouses - none of whom seem to have a prayer of victory. Macsmind reminds us that's not true: There's Lt Col Allen West, an African American,...

Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch, one of the country’s most prominent Democrats, says he may cross over and back Republican Sen. John McCain for president. In an exclusive Newsmax interview, Koch says McCain “has no equal” when it comes to opposing Islamic terrorism. Though Koch says he disagrees with most of McCain’s positions on domestic issues, he could support him because of his strong national security credentials. Koch carries significant weight with many Jewish Democrats in New York and across the country. He also has a history of playing the maverick and crossing party lines. He has backed...

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...

I don't think the Wall Street Journal wants their stuff copied so here is the link: While the media offers mostly images of violence, and many Americans have grown weary of the war in Iraq, I bring hopeful news to Washington this week as I meet with the administration and members of Congress. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121124572497705757.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Barack Obama is whining about the GOP attacking his wife Michelle: Barack Obama has a simple message for Republicans looking for a target: "lay off my wife." The Democrat who each day strides closer to his party's White House nomination showed a flash of steel Monday, in trying to shield Michelle Obama from the campaign trail crossfire. "These folks should lay off my wife," Obama told ABC News, hitting out at a Tennessee Republican Party ad questioning the patriotism of his wife, a driven Ivy League-educated lawyer and mother of their two daughters. "If they think that they're going to...

On the other hand, if John McCain wins, he will institute most of the same policy prescriptions. He will steal your money to fight phantom problems like "global warming." He will do away with tax cuts he opposed in the first place. He will approve federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. He will promote amnesty for illegal aliens. He will sign legislation attacking constitutionally protected political speech. He will nominate judges who will get the easy approval of the Democrats in the Senate. It's really difficult for me to see any substantive difference between McCain and Obama or McCain...

Florida District 22 congressional candidate Lt. Col. Allen West (R-Plantation) is demanding that Congressman Ron Klein (D-Boca Raton) “come clean about his use of taxpayer funds to pay for campaign-style mailings.” “This is government waste at its worst. Ron Klein’s only commitment is to staying in office,” said West. “This is a clear abuse of the trust placed in Mr. Klein by the voters of FL 22. Karen Thurman, chair of the FL Democratic Party, said it best: “The people of Florida are suffering...Your campaign coffers are not.” The mailing that started it all was a recent targeted direct mailer...

There once was a time where liberal men were tough and would fight for their positions. Think FDR standing up to Hitler and Hirohito, JFK staring down Khrushchev or even LBJ with the creeping communism of Soviet Russia. Juxtapose that with what we have today. We have Obama who whines so incessantly as to seem like more of a woman than Hillary. We have potential VP nominee John Edwards sending his cancer-stricken wife out to fight his battles as well. These are the faces of the liberal movement today. The opposition throws statements they've made back in their faces and...

House GOP leaders have taken the blame for last week’s devastating loss in Mississippi, but in some Republican circles the real culprit is former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss). Lott created the House opening by opting to leave Congress late last year before tougher lobbying restrictions went into effect. After his departure, Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) was appointed to serve out Lott’s unexpired term, which created the need for the special election to fill Wicker’s seat. Republicans were irked that Lott would retire early just to serve his own financial interests. But that’s only the tip of the anger iceberg for...

Heard all over the Island are these two jingles. The one linked above is Hillary's (composed and sung by famed salsa singer Willie Colon). Barack Obama's catchy jingle was composed by Miguel Orozco of www.amigosdeobama.com and can be found on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOPuRoAmVNc

WASHINGTON - John McCain's latest campaign angst, this time over his ties to lobbyists, is putting the Republican in conflict with his carefully honed, decades-old reformer image. It's also giving Democratic rival Barack Obama an opening to paint him as nothing more than a creature of Washington. "The fact is, John McCain's campaign is being run by Washington lobbyists and paid for by their money," Obama argued Monday in Billings, Mont. — far from the Beltway. "I'm not in this race to continue the special interest-driven politics of the last eight years, I'm in this race to end it." McCain,...

Five McCain campaign staffers and volunteers have now been shown the door over their lobbying activities and/or status as foreign agents. WaPo reports on the latest: Tom Loeffler, the national finance co-chairman for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, resigned yesterday because of his lobbying ties, a campaign adviser said. He is the fifth person to sever ties with the campaign amid a growing concern over whether lobbyists have too great an influence over the Republican nominee. Last week, campaign manager Rick Davis issued a new policy that requires all campaign personnel to either resign or sever ties with lobbying firms...

Why NBC is "in the tank" for Barack Obama: The second largest company in the world is General Electric. GE owns NBC. It also builds nuclear power reactors. Is it any wonder then that NBC favored Obama from the start? According to the LA Times, “Obama is the largest beneficiary of money from companies that have a stake in nuclear energy’s future.” Are we surprised then that Tim Russert prematurely called Obama the Democratic nominee? Or that Russert allowed Obama to ramble on about how great nuclear power is on Meet the Press? Take a look at Obama's Exelon connection...

Go to the blue box--Blog Talk Radio-- at the top of the right column. Move the time to 30 minutes into the show and enjoy listening to Col. Allen West, an American hero and REAL LEADER who tells it like it is! Col. West's platform IS what all Republicans should be running on.  If you want to help Col. West, go HERE. Allen West(Rep) for U.S. Congress Welcome to Allen West's campaign for Florida's 22nd Congressional District! This site will give you the opportunity to learn more about Allen and his vision for the future of America. Please take a...

In a number of areas, Senator John McCain is praised for moderation that he has not in fact shown in his votes. It is true that by comparison to many of the angry right-wingers that have dominated the Republican Party with Senator McCain's general support he is less extreme and he has from time-to-time shown an amiability that contrasts with the snarling demeanor of some of his co-partisans. But all this shows is that it is possible to be prejudiced all of the time and pleasant some of the time when it comes to the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual...

(English-language translation) “Even if I am alone, and I am willing to accept that,” former Governor Pedro Rosselló González will stand by his values and beliefs on what the [pro-statehood] New Progressive Party (PNP) should be. As he indicated, the party promotes values and beliefs that are very different from his own. The Senator and former PNP Chairman, who lost the gubernatorial nomination to fellow party member Luis Fortuño in the past primaries, understands two different, “irreconcilable” viewpoints faced each other during the primaries. On his side, there are the theory of people’s empowerment, promoting statehood in every election as...

(English-language translation) The [pro-statehood] New Progressive Party (PNP) has filled the vacuum the [pro-Commonwealth] Popular Democratic Party (PPD) has left now that [the latter] is veering towards the pro-sovereignty left, former PNP Chairman Pedro Rosselló González pointed out to EL VOCERO. But filling this vacuum towards the center is not without cost, the former Governor warned, since, along the way, the PNP set aside promoting the solution to the [island’s political] status, a matter that, Rosselló said, he cannot separate himself from. During an analysis of the parties and their most recent activities, the incumbent Senator maintained that the PPD...

The names of over 31,000 American scientists that reject the theory of anthropogenic global warming are to be revealed Monday. ... this will occur at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Item likely vital to finance case. A laptop owned by the former campaign manager that Gov. Bill Ritter publicly disowned has been reported stolen, raising unanswered questions about its contents. Ritter accused Greg Kolomitz on April 15 of writing himself and his company $83,250 worth of unauthorized checks. The governor also produced an audit finding Kolomitz improperly paid $217,164.56 in campaign bills with money donated for the Democratic governor's inauguration. Three days later, on April 18, Kolomitz reported to Denver police that his Dell laptop had been stolen from inside his locked Colfax Avenue political consulting firm... "Unknown suspect(s) took...

American liberals are getting increasingly frustrated with the use of the term “democratic socialism.” But I’m getting increasingly fed up with the improper use of the term “liberal.” John McCain is a liberal. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, like all modern Democrats, are something quite different. For the record, the term “liberal” originally referred to people like Thomas Jefferson, indicating their undying reverence for “individual liberty” and “personal freedom” above all other notions and their opposition to government power. People who believe in empowering government to strip liberty and freedom from individuals in the name of some greater common good...

Obama might really be in trouble with the Islamic world. How would you like to have this kind of target hanging around your head. While most of us agree he is hiding his true religion even to the point where we think he is a Stealth Canidate or a Manchurian Canidate he carries a big burden in the faith of his family. We all know the Islamic folks are crazy but this is a ref from a book published in 1994. --------------------------------------------------- THE PUNISHMENT OF THE APOSTATE ACCORDING TO ISLAMIC LAW Publisher's Request 11 Preface by the Author 12 I...

I know Obama is getting record crowds, estimated as high as 75,000 in Portland, OR.  But is curiosity the same thing as support?  Are these massive crowds going to vote en masse? Obama is a draw, but is he selling liberalism like never before or are liberals simply coming out like never before? Given some of his more ludicrous statements one has to wonder how many Americans are ready for his hard core liberal stances: Pitching his message to Oregon’s environmentally-conscious voters, Obama called on the United States to “lead by example” on global warming, and develop new technologies at home which...

Byrd endorses a shining young statesmen Tribune-Review By Salena Zito Well, his state may have gone Clinton, but he didn't. In a statement released by the Obama campaign, Sen, Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., announced his endorsement of Senator Barack Obama saying:

John McCain is America's favorite kind of candidate. With his record of extraordinary patriotism and his distinctive Senate tenure, McCain is a nominee whom voters from both parties — and independents, too — could easily support. But he has been dealt a terrible hand: a tanking economy, an unpopular war, a Republican incumbent whose approval ratings are at their all-time low and a gloomy national mood, with 82 percent of Americans saying in a Washington Post-ABC News poll last week that the country is on the wrong track. Political scientists add all that up and predict that the Democrats are...

Last week, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates admitted to a policy defeat when it comes to Iran -- the US has no “leverage” complained the secretary. “We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage … and then sit down and talk with” Iran, Gates said. The reality is that fear of certain and violent decapitation is the only leverage the mad mullahs are likely to understand. But Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, says he knows how to deal with rogues like Iran. He proposes to talk and without pre-conditions and presumably with no leverage....

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Barack Obama set his sights on November's general election Saturday as he campaigned in Oregon, where he hopes to declare victory in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama has said Tuesday's primaries in Oregon and Kentucky could mark the end of his drawn-out battle with rival Hillary Clinton, and his campaign pressed home that message by announcing a symbolic return to Iowa that day. Iowa was the scene of the Illinois senator's first victory in the 2008 presidential nominating race, and his campaign noted Saturday it is "a critical general election state that Democrats must...

Obama's Excremental Economics by Thomas Brewton May 16, 2008   As prolongation of the 1930s Depression and stagflation in the 1970s demonstrated, Senator Obama's announced policies are a prescription for economic disaster. Keynesian economic doctrine, not under that name, but in substance, is back in the news in a truly menacing way. Senator Obama proposes to repeat the policies of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal that turned an ordinary two-year recession into an eight-year disaster, with unemployment rates continuously in the high teens.  The key elements of Senator Obama's proposed economic policies, as in the New Deal and the stagflation of...

American liberals are getting increasingly frustrated with the use of the term “democratic socialism.” But I’m getting increasingly fed up with the improper use of the term “liberal.” John McCain is a liberal. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, like all modern Democrats, are something quite different. For the record, the term “liberal” originally referred to people like Thomas Jefferson, indicating their undying reverence for “individual liberty” and “personal freedom” above all other notions and their opposition to government power. People who believe in empowering government to strip liberty and freedom from individuals in the name of some greater common good...

Yeah .. Barack Obama did over the weekend what ever single Democrat presidential candidate in our lifetimes has done. He went to talk to a group of wizened citizens and told them that if John McCain became president their precious Social Security benefits would be threatened.

The United Nations has taken it upon itself to investigate the American presidential campaign. Why does the UN have such an interest in our election? Because since Barack Obama is black and will be the Democrat nominee, the United Nations wants to investigate whether racism plays a role in the presidential campaign. Excuse me, but just when did the UN get the authority to become involved in our national elections? Will this be enough to generate a groundswell of opinion against this rancid organization? Probably not, and that's sad. It's time for the UN to go .. go anywhere but...

LOS ANGELES — Have we gone from the "Year of the Woman" to the "Year of the Sweetie"? So it appears. It's not the "sweetie" part that gets me, and I suspect a lot of other women. It's the concern that, not to sound trite, some of the guys out there, maybe including the probable Democratic nominee for President, just don't "get it." If you can remember that far back, this was supposed to be another one of those "Year of the Woman" elections, the first time a woman was entering the race as the frontrunner for her party's nomination,...

Sen. Barack Obama ripped into a Republican ad today that targets comments made by his wife, Michelle, and called the GOP tactic "low class" and "detestable." The senator and his wife discuss the race for the White House. The Illinois senator told "Good Morning America" that he expects hardball tactics from the Republicans if he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. "But I also think these folks should lay off my wife," he told "GMA" as his wife chuckled beside him. Obama told "GMA" that he believes he will win a majority of the Democratic delegates once the votes are counted...

Eleanor Clift's latest online column for Newsweek assumes that white male "Reagan Democrats" are racist and sexist, or at least they're sickened by appeals by too much focus on the "rights" of blacks and women.

Why is it that Republicans are so easily outmaneuvered by Democrats? Why do Republicans so readily fight among themselves? Why is it so difficult for Republicans to advance their policy agenda? Here's why. Having forgotten our roots, modern Republicans can be thrown on the defensive on nearly any issue. Democrats control most of the media, but they also write most of the history books, thereby controlling what even Republican activists think they know about our Grand Old Party. What we must do is to draw upon the strength and clarity to be found in the GOP's heritage of civil rights...

Democrats haven’t done too well trying to win the White House by whining about Republican “attacks.” But now they’re fixing that. If whining doesn’t work, whine faster, louder and more often. Democratic train wrecks Michael Dukakis and John Kerry insist to this day that if only they had “responded to the attacks” fast enough, they would have won. Like his vanquished predecessors, Barack Obama remembers every part of the evil-Republicans-attacked-and-we-didn’t-respond narrative incorrectly. Both Dukakis and Kerry complained that their patriotism was under attack by Republicans, even though no one can find a single example of a Republican attacking the patriotism...

Patriotism is commonly defined as one’s love and devotion of country and the willingness to make sacrifices for it. Barack Obama gave a speech in Charleston, West Virginia, where he made an exception to his self-imposed policy of not wearing a flag lapel pin, and according to the Chicago Tribune, defended his patriotism. According to Obama’s campaign web site, he justifies his patriotism by citing his maternal grandfather’s enlisting in the army after Pearl Harbor, and his marching across Europe with Gen. Patton. He also mentions how his grandfather taught him to say the Pledge of Allegiance and love his...

Conservatives don’t love John McCain, but unless they’re considering abandoning their cause with Atlas Shrugged proportions, there’s no way in hell they’ll vote for Barack Obama. Sometimes, things have to get worse before they get better. And with that idea in mind, the conservative movement really is America’s crutch. The most specific example is economics, as conservatives constantly preach lower taxes and greater individual freedom. One would think that the Bush tax cuts, which have yielded continued economic growth (yes, our economy is growing, despite the lies you keep hearing), and the burgeoning economy during the Reagan Administration would provide...

WASHINGTON — John McCain and Barack Obama, the two leading presidential candidates, have set out sharply contrasting views on the role of the Supreme Court and the kind of justices they would appoint. Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.), in a speech two weeks ago, echoed the views of conservatives who say "judicial activism" is the central problem facing the judiciary. He called it the "common and systematic abuse . . . by an elite group . . . we entrust with judicial power." On Thursday, he criticized the California Supreme Court for giving gays and lesbians the right to marry, saying he...

Barack Obama has painted himself as someone new, as a “change” in U.S. politics, and as a Washington outsider who is uncorrupted by politicians’ ethical deficiencies, divisiveness and hypocrisy. Yet in the period since the launch of his presidential campaign (which today is more than half as old as his entire Senate career up to that point), Obama and his wife have managed a larger magnitude of hypocrisy than a dozen Washington politicians combined. And the power couple has not even reached the general election yet. Taxes and Riches. Michelle Obama has done her fair share of complaining about the...

Obama called a reporter 'sweetie.' Gasp. The pundits are divided on whether he should attend sensitivity training to correct his thinking or whether his coerced apology will suffice. The debate swirls, the opinions proliferate. The lesser pundits anxiously await the position paper from the National Organization of Women before commiting themselves to a firm stance on this vital issue. The rest of the world news takes a back seat. Welcome to another national conversation. Non-stop news coverage of experts, pundits and elites opining on someone else's opining. As in, "What he really meant to say was...", and "He said that...

Obama tells critics to leave his wife alone Mon May 19, 2008 8:50am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said on Monday that Republican critics should stop picking on his wife Michelle. "These folks should lay off my wife," Obama said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America." Obama was referring to a four-minute video posted on YouTube by the Tennessee Republican Party last week during a visit by Michelle Obama that portrayed a remark she made in February in an unflattering manner. Michelle Obama's remark that "for first time in my adult lifetime I'm proud...

It's time for the final poll for Vice President. After nearly 19,000 votes over the course of several rounds, it comes down to this: For VP: is your choice Michael Huckabee or Mitt Romney. Voting runs through June 1, 2008. VP Stakes: Final Round Who is your Choice for VP? Michael Huckabee Mitt Romney Current Results

It is the essence of democracy that people should be able to decide the moral rules that govern the nature of a community. If people don't have that power, then they are living under an autocracy. True, this majority rule is not unlimited. It is limited by what the government has the power to do. Consequently the majority cannot, in general, vote to seize the homes and accumulated savings of rich people. Leaving aside exceptional cases, government cannot mandate how parents how should raise their children. These kinds of power lie outside the scope of government in a free society....

Dr. Zoo typing for Jim: Howdy everyone. Looks like I made it through the surgery OK, bad leg is gone. So far, so good. Hope to be able to get out of this bed pretty soon and get back to work. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers and well wishes. Freepers are absolutely the greatest. The VA hospital is the best place to go for this kind of stuff.

I often find myself in discussions with Obama supporters in which I need to know Obama's policy positions. So, I've listed some of them here along with websites where you can get more information, in case you find yourself in the same situation.. I've tried to list positions I know many Freepers would disagree with. I know some of us agree with some of these, that's inevitable. (There are many goals I agree with, I just don't think government is responsible for getting us there.) I also know I've missed a lot - Obama is often quite vague on policy,...

When President Bush addressed the Israeli Knesset last week, he hit the nail directly on the head with his remarks about some who would seek to appease terrorists. Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along." "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it...

Not too cynical, just right.

In a delicious piece of irony, many dispirited Republicans, devastated by Tuesday’s special election loss in Mississippi, now believe their savior to be John McCain — a not-so-constant conservative many of them also have long intensely disliked. The logic: McCain, the vaunted maverick, can move the party away from President Bush and reinvent a Republican brand that, at the moment, is in tatters. “The public is prepared to believe that McCain is a different kind of Republican,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Frank Donatelli, McCain’s point man at the committee. “This is not some political idea that was cooked up.”...

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain warned gun owners on Friday that his Democratic opponents Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would threaten their right to bear arms, as he sought to rally conservatives' support in the November election. The right to bear arms in the Constitution's second amendment is considered sacred by many U.S. gun owners. Both Obama and Clinton tout their support for it, although they also say ways must be found to keep guns from falling into the hands of criminals or those who are mentally ill. But the Arizona senator accused the two Democrats...