Free Republic

“One-hundred-and-sixty-six academic economists signed a letter opposing the government bailout. In a commentary, one of those economists said the talk of Armageddon was scaremongering,” NBC “Today” host Matt Lauer said Oct. 1. Cramer said the experts didn’t know what they were talking about. “Today” host Matt Lauer had cited a commentary authored by Jeffrey Miron, the director of undergraduate studies for the Harvard University Department of Economics. “‘The current credit freeze is likely due to Wall Street’s hope of a bailout; bankers will – don’t laugh yet – bankers will not sell their lousy assets for 20 cents on the...

Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen to rally for Sen. Barack Obama in Philly on Saturday -- for a last minute push to register rockers, young and old to vote. The concert takes place this Saturday and voter registration deadline is the following Monday.

Sarah Palin thinks she is a better American than you because she comes from a small town, and a superior human being because she isn't a journalist and has never lived in Washington and likes to watch her kids play hockey. Although Palin praised John McCain in her acceptance speech as a man who puts the good of his country ahead of partisan politics, McCain pretty much proved the opposite with his selection of a running mate whose main asset is her ability to reignite the culture wars. So maybe Governor Palin does represent everything that is good and fine...

The same day a John McCain surrogate dismissed economic woes from a nation of "whiners," Barack Obama's wife quipped that the $600 tax stimulus check could be used for a pair of earrings.

Summary: AMAZING ANIMATION, Shame they wasted it on rank socialist agitprop

Washington elites, pontificating pundits and media types would be very surprised to know: There is life outside the beltway. Millions of largely invisible, average Americans live there. And these Americans are living lives totally alien to the thousands of so-called experts and talking heads who claim to represent them. For instance: These Americans, (I'll call them 'we' Americans, as I belong to their ranks), aren't waiting breathlessly for the latest word on high from Hillary. We really don't care what she says, having learned long ago that much of what comes out of her mouth is designed for political expediency,...

RUSH: Tim Russert passed away before the program ended, but the news on Friday didn't happen until afterwards.  I actually got the news at about a quarter of three Friday afternoon in an e-mail that said "Not For Reporting" because it hadn't been confirmed.  A very, very, very sad thing.  I knew Tim Russert, and he was just a prince of a guy. But I have to tell you, folks, this orgy of coverage from about four o'clock Friday afternoon on ceased to be about Tim Russert and instead it's been about the media and who they are and how...

PITY the poor word “elite,” which simply means “the best” as an adjective and “the best of a group” as a noun. What was once an accolade has turned poisonous in American public life over the past 40 years, as both the left and the right have twisted it into a code word meaning “not one of us.” But the newest and most ominous wrinkle in the denigration of all things elite is that the slur is being applied to knowledge itself. ...The assault on “elite” did not begin with politicians, although it does have political antecedents in sneers directed...

Recently Barack Obama got into trouble by explaining to an affluent San Francisco audience why the cash-strapped, mostly white, working classes in Pennsylvania and the Midwest do not logically vote for his brand of economic populism, but instead cling to issues that sophisticates can see are extraneous to their economic plight. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. That sentence has been analyzed to death. But a single word struck me —...

The odor of elitism is like onion breath: It’s quick to acquire, hard to mask. Try as he might, Barack Obama cannot camouflage the political stink he exhaled when he dissed small-town Americans as “bitter” Neanderthals “clinging” to their guns, faith, and belief in strict immigration enforcement. It wasn’t the first time the effete Snob-ama revealed himself. In Philadelphia, he passed up the hometown cheesesteak — gloppy, artery-clogging, and blue-collar (yum!) — for a nibble of Spanish-imported, $100/pound ham. In Iowa, he moaned to voters about the price of arugula at Whole Foods. (Fun fact: There aren’t any Whole Foods...

Jonah Goldberg has defined correctly what Americans are upset with in Obama's San Francisco speech. Goldberg said today on Fox News that elitism can be good (for instance, you want the best, most elite surgeon to do your surgery) and using the word "bitter" isn't the problem with Obama's speech; however, the problem comes with Obama's use of the word "clinging" in describing small town America's reverence for God and support of the 2nd Amendment. So, the problem with Obama is not so much elitism but arrogance.

In case you haven't heard the Barack Obama quote surreptitiously taped at an April 6 San Francisco fundraiser, then broadcast on Huffington Post, here it is: Obama noted that in many high-unemployment small towns, jobs have been gone for decades and neither the Bush or Clinton administrations helped restore them, so "it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." You've heard this song sung before. Before he became Democratic National Committee chairman, Howard Dean...

Has Obama written his political epi-gaffe? April 15, 2008 Recommend STEVE HUNTLEY shuntley.cst@gmail.com The ebb and flow of the Democratic presidential race is an amazing thing to watch. Just when Barack Obama starts narrowing the gap in Pennsylvania and appears close to having Hillary Clinton on the ropes, a landmine explodes under him. While it's not the only thing disturbing his campaign in recent days, Obama's major gaffe about small town America poses the most serious threat to what has seemed to be the inevitability of his capturing the nomination. One of his challenges has been connecting with working class...

... Because the manipulable masses are easily given a "false consciousness" (another category, like religion as the "opiate" of the suffering masses, that liberalism appropriated from Marxism), four things follow: First, the consent of the governed, when their behavior is governed by their false consciousnesses, is unimportant. Second, the public requires the supervision of a progressive elite which, somehow emancipated from false consciousness, can engineer true consciousness. Third, because consciousness is a reflection of social conditions, true consciousness is engineered by progressive social reforms. Fourth, because people in the grip of false consciousness cannot be expected to demand or even...

ELDORADO, Texas - The secretive and insular community established near this West Texas town by a radical offshoot of the Mormon Church is considered by the sect's members to be a holy shrine populated by its most fervent adherents and is propped up financially by members of the group living in other states, according to law enforcement officials and former members. Interviews with law enforcement authorities and former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints depict the Yearning for Zion Ranch, which was raided last week by Texas authorities, as an outpost whose adult residents...

  April 13, 2008   This cartoon/graphic is free for noncommercial use in emails, blogs, and forums.  iowapresidentialwatch.com

"John!" called my brother from the living room. "Are you coming out or not?" He and my sister-in-law were eager to start the movie we had rented, but I, lurking in my parents' darkened study, waved them off. While they and the rest of the family were distracted, I had private business to attend to on the home computer. It was December 2001, and I was a New Yorker. Of the innumerable moments of surreality accompanying Sept. 11, 2001's fracturing of our daily lives -- fighter jets circling the city, a pillar of ash rising to the stratosphere, New Yorkers...

"Superclass — The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 379 pages, $26), by David Rothkopf: It's not just trade and finance that's being globalized these days, it's sheer power — the power of about 6,000 distinguished people to get big things done across national frontiers, says author David Rothkopf. Trouble is, he complains, this "Superclass" isn't helping 2 billion powerless people who get along on $2 a day or less. He warns that unless those 2 billion get a voice, globalization will be in danger. The 6,000 are a scattered lot. Americans know...

Democrats Seek Protection from 'NASCAR People' Posted By Bobby Eberle On October 15, 2007 at 6:28 am Who's afraid of NASCAR people? The answer is the Democrats.... so much so that they're vaccinating themselves so they don't catch any rare disease such as NASCAR cooties or the bubba virus. It sounds ridiculous right? Well, it is, but unfortunately, it's true. The issue deals with a memo from the House Committee on Homeland Security which suggested that staff members receive vaccinations against hepatitis A and B in addition to other vaccinations before they travel to Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama and Lowe's...

Program Molds Elite Iraqi Warfighters An Iraqi operator training course modeled after the U.S. Army Special Forces course has turned out its 10th graduating class. By Master Sgt. Melissa Phillips Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force- Arabian Peninsula BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 9, 2007 — For one Iraqi general, the key to building a united, non-sectarian army lies in fostering a mindset of religious and cultural tolerance among soldiers. "I will never forget the American and coalition men and women … who provided the first stepping stones for us to make our country better." Iraqi Brig. Gen. Fadhil Jameel Jameel Barwari...

MIDI SITE for LISTEN PEOPLE Little people, do as we say Not as we do...we are here to show you the way So, little people, know your place and take advice that we are giving We know things that you have got to do Listen to us about how you should be living And you'll find the planet saved for you We're elitists, the authority Follow orders...what a nice place this world will be So, little people, know your place and take advice that we are giving We know what you have got to do Listen to us about...

Could Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards actually be right about something? Not where to go to get a haircut, mind you, I mean about there being two Americas. There is the vibrant America . . . and the stagnant one. There is the America of ever-increasing wealth, innovation, creativity, of a dynamic economy, new jobs, new products and services. Choices galore. Information overload. The abundant work product of freedom. And there is the politician's America: The regulated America, the subsidized America, the earmarked America. The failing America. In one America it is what you produce that gets you ahead. In...

The disbarment of Durham District Attorney Michael Nifong should be just the first step in remedying the gross and cynical fraud of last year's "rape" case against Duke University lacrosse players. -- snip -- The sad and tragic fact is that the civil rights movement, despite its honorable and courageous past, has over the years degenerated into a demagogic hustle, promoting the mindless racism they once fought against. -- snip -- That such people are teaching students at an elite university is a chilling thought. That they promote a campus atmosphere where political correctness trumps the search for truth is...

Senator Lott--"Senator Kennedy, I appreciate the legislative leadership you have been providing. I know it is not easy, you know, and your own colleagues and those of us over here have been beating you up. I mean, your a nice poster child. Thank you very much for what you do. But I'll tell you one thing I have learned the hard way. When it comes to legislating, when you are dealing with Senator Kennedy, you had better bring your lunch, because you are going to get educated, you are going to learn a lot, and you are going to get...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined a broad economic vision Tuesday, saying it's time to replace an "on your own" society with one based on shared responsibility and prosperity. The Democratic senator said what the Bush administration touts as an "ownership society" really is an "on your own" society that has widened the gap between rich and poor. "I prefer a 'we're all in it together' society," she said. "I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none."...

SELLS — Shadow Wolves officer Sloan Satepauhoodle's patience is wearing thin. She's been following tracks of four suspected drug runners for nearly two hours beneath a blazing sun and battling a hot, brisk wind that is sweeping dust over footprints, and blowing away broken twigs or burlap fibers that would provide signs. The latest tracks look too dry. They've probably already made it into the nearby village of Topawa, she says. The lessons her training officers taught her when she began six years ago remain ingrained in her psyche: "Be patient, Sloan, be patient." But, she really wants to make...

Stonehenge Amulets Worn by Elite Jennifer Viegas, Discovery NewsSupernatural StoneStrking GoldApril 6, 2007 — Forget dressing for success: Clothing ornaments thought to confer supernatural power were all the rage among chiefs and other important people in England 4,000 years ago, say scholars. A recent find indicates some of these fashion trends might have originally been designed by Stonehenge leaders. While working two months ago in South Lowestoft, Suffolk, British archaeologist Clare Good excavated a four-sided object made of the mineral jet. It closely matches a geometrically designed gold object found far away at a burial site called Bush Barrow near...

Members of the U.S. Army's elite precision parachute team will be dropping in on Yuma Proving Ground's Cox field beginning Tuesday... ...Weather permitting, about 60 Knights will jump Mondays through Fridays through early March, said Chuck Wullenjohn, YPG spokesman. And this season, as in the past 31 winters, the public is invited to come out and see the Knights practice. Jumps take place typically from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., said Wullenjohn, who advises people to come out earlier in the day when weather conditions are more favorable for parachuting. "They jump frequently throughout the day, so people can come...

Edgar Bronfman is the CEO of the world's fourth largest music company, Warner Music Group. This week, Bronfman admitted to Reuters that his children have stolen music in the past, but he says he handled the situation within the family. Somehow the CEO's children don't have to face the multi-thousand dollar lawsuits facing the middle-class children of Long Island Mom Patricia Santangelo.

Stengel, Maureen, Arianna, Katie, Graydon in Running for Trips to Switzerland For media figures who have previously made the climb to the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, a new peak beckons: In planning the January 2007 edition of the event, Davos organizers are quietly passing around a list of prospective members of an even loftier sub-organization, to be known as the International Media Council. Start polishing up those crampons, David Remnick. The New Yorker editor joins Fareed Zakaria, Graydon Carter and other name-brand media figures on the draft, which runs to more than 100 names. “It’s kind of like...

Iran has shrugged off the threat of sanctions, saying such a move would push already high oil prices higher still, hurting economies in industrialized countries more than Iran. International crude prices remain in sight of record highs partly because of market fears that supply from Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, could be disrupted if the nuclear dispute escalates.

The University of California has issued thousands of low-interest home loans to executives, faculty members and other selected employees but has refused to reveal who received the money. That includes an unidentified UC Berkeley professor who received a $250,000 home loan at one-half of 1 percent interest a year -- far less interest than any bank would demand. ... --snip-- The university provided data showing there are nearly 2,000 active loans totaling $702 million but cited employee confidentiality in refusing to identify the recipients. In dozens of cases, UC wouldn't even reveal the titles of people who received the loans....

The Separation of Press and State By Jenni Vinson May 21, 2005 America was premised on the rule of law. America was also premised on the idea that the nation would fair well with an open, honest and unfettered Press. The nation would have an Executive, Legislative and Judicial branch of government at the National, State and local level and a Press that would bear witness to how these entities carried out their jobs. What the Founding Fathers envisioned was a Press that was completely independent of politics and not beholden to such interests. For the most part, the Press...

Bog bodies found were society's elite 19:45pm 20th June 2006 Research into Iron Age bog bodies discovered in the midlands of Ireland has revealed they were elite members of society who may have met violent deaths as part of kingship rituals. As the bodies discovered in 2003 went on display at the National Museum of Ireland, Eamonn Kelly, the keeper of Irish antiquities, said they were placed along significant boundaries of ancient kingdoms linking them to sovereignty and kingship rituals during the Iron Age. "The bodies fit in, in that they are also offerings, they are offerings to the territorial...

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush issued an executive order Tuesday suspending Miami City Commissioner Johnny Winton from office pending the outcome of criminal charges stemming from an altercation Winton had with police at Miami International Airport last month. Police say an intoxicated Winton struck police at MIA after his flight was canceled May 15. He banged his head against a wall at one point, chipped one officer's tooth and kicked another officer in the groin, officials say. Winton has entered not-guilty pleas to two felony counts of battery on a police officer and a misdemeanor count of disorderly intoxication. The felony...

TORONTO - Seventeen alleged Islamic terrorists were arrested in Canada recently, leaving approximately 50 more terrorist cells to go, according to federal spy agency sources. But even with authorities acknowledging that more arrests are inevitable, there’s one thing that could hinder further takedowns: political correctness. Since the terror busts, some Canadian journalists have been busy spitballing accusations of ethnic insensitivity at each other from the nation’s editorial pages. Obviously, they’d rather be picking the lint out of each other’s navels than worrying about the folks who want to kill us. Meanwhile, the political climate here is so charged that politicians,...

Ever since 9-11 scared the hell out of this wordsmith class, the magazine has devoted itself to explaining that there is no real threat from totalitarian Islam, the misunderstood "other", but instead the danger to the world emanates from the person of President George Bush. Like any shared delusional belief, the community of believers feels special, superior to the unknowing masses, and reassured. While radical Islam is battering at the gates, the New Yorker turns its collective gaze, every week, to the imaginary threats posed by the macho cowboy in the White House. No reason to be concerned about an...

Liberals must come down off our high horses By Chuck Williams It took me nearly one-third of my life to come to a simple conclusion: Liberals are elitists. Now, maybe that's not such a big deal to some, but to me it has become quite bothersome. It's pretty clear to me now that average hard-working Americans, be they red-staters or blue-staters, can smell the stench of elitist, intellectual posturing by so-called liberals and progressives. One of the reasons why this bothers me is because I fear that it will cause us to continue to lose presidential elections. The second thing...

[JURIST] US Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) [official website], chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee [official website], said Tuesday that he intends to draft legislation that would shield congressional documents and materials from being seized in searches similar to the FBI raid [JURIST report] on the congressional office of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) [official website] earlier this month. Speaking during the committee's Tuesday oversight hearing [meeting materials; JURIST report] on the constitutional questions raised by the raid, Sensenbrenner also said [opening statement] that although the constitution's Speech or Debate Clause [backgrounder] will not protect members of Congress from prosecution...

Jesus and Muhammad: Major Differences (1) May 20th, 2006 Aggressive Islam is on the march. Terror attacks; violent protests over cartoons; many pushes to establish Islamic courts in Europe and Canada; demands to silence free speech, to criminalize criticism of the messenger of Allah; the President of Islam threatening to wipe Israel off the map, and writing a long and confused rant, inviting the President of the US to accept Islam; the election of Hamas. These actions are easy to detect and decipher. Islam wants its way, and no one should resist. It is the best religion, after all. But...

If you spend enough time in the marble halls of the state Capitol in Sacramento, no doubt will remain in your mind that the people in charge have created a ruling class. Like the royals of a bygone age, these people don’t just make the rules. They must be treated in a special way and given special things. They must have servants waiting on them hand and foot taking care of their every need. I suspect such behavior exists at every level of government to some extent, no matter who is in charge. But my experience has been that when...

Something is very wrong at our elite universities. Last month Larry Summers resigned as president of Harvard; today Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi will speak by video to a conference at Columbia University that his regime is cosponsoring. (Columbia won't answer questions about how much funding it got from Libya or what implied strings were attached.) Then there's Yale, which for three weeks has refused to make any comment or defense beyond a vague 144-word statement about its decision to admit Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi--a former ambassador-at-large of the murderous Afghan Taliban--as a special student. The three backers of the foundation that,...

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Leading the world's wealthiest and probably most famous university sounds like the plummiest job in academe -- with a staff, a house, and a half-million dollar salary among the many perks. But running Harvard isn't easy. Neil Rudenstine, school president from 1991 to 2001, was forced to take leave of absence for exhaustion in 1994. His successor, Lawrence Summers, announced Tuesday he would resign June 30 after a tumultuous five years, his ambitious agenda to get Harvard's territorial undergraduate and professional schools on same page done in by faculty revolts and brusque management style. Harvard-watchers inside...

H.J. Heinz Co. said Tuesday it was selling its European seafood business to Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking for $506 million. The transaction is subject to customary EU competition review and approval. Pending regulatory approval, Heinz expects to complete the transaction by the end of March 2006. This major transaction successfully focuses our portfolio in Europe on three core categories: Ketchup and Sauces; Infant Nutrition; and Meals and Snacks, said a Heinz spokesman.

Sitting in armchairs waiting for handouts not the best way to get scoops Members of the elite White House press corps this week have acted more like animals that have been kept in captivity for so long that they can’t find news unless it is forced down their open gullets at a daily press briefing. The Cheney hunting accident story embarrassingly revealed this fact, which probably explains the greater-than-normal anger and outrage of White House correspondents over the last few days. “Why weren’t we told?” has been the refrain, not “How did we miss that story?” The White House press...

The German Chancellor uses the World Economic Forum to spell out her vision for a harder-working, less bureaucratic Europe In astonishingly short time, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has emerged as the most dynamic leader in Europe. That at least seemed to be the verdict of the applause meter at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Jan. 25. "You have given us hope for the first time in a long time," Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman and chief executive of Swiss food giant Nestlé (NSRGY ), told Merkel after she delivered the keynote address to a packed auditorium. Merkel called for a...

If you haven't signed up for TimesSelect, The New York Times' online subscription product, don't bother e-mailing the paper's star columnists. Since the Times put the words of its eight Op-Ed columnists behind a paid wall last September, it has also decided that only TimesSelect subscribers should be allowed to e-mail Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, et al. Back in September the Times asked the hundreds of papers who publish the Op-Ed contributors through The New York Times News Service (NYTNS) to stop printing the writers' e-mail addresses with the columns (and to take the columns off their Web...

Elite, U.S. Marine Corps U.S. Task Force is training the Georgian soldiers who will fill more than 530 positions in Iraq. STUTTGART, Germany, Nov. 29, 2005 — U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe will showcase the U.S. European Command's Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program Task Force training program in a "capstone" event Dec. 5-10 in the Republic of Georgia. The event aims to prove the readiness of Georgia's 22nd Light Infantry Battalion prior to its deployment to Iraq. The trained 22nd Light Infantry Battalion troops will form part of the dedicated force called for in UN Security Council Resolution 1546...

Elite Women Made Beer in Pre-Incan Culture Robert Roy Britt Mon Nov 14, 6:00 PM ET An ancient brewery from a vanished empire was staffed by elite women who were selected for their beauty or nobility, a new study concludes. The finding adds to other evidence that women played a more crucial role in ancient Andean societies than history books have stated. It may also in some ways reflect modern drinking traditions in the Andean mountains, where women get drunk as much as men, researchers say. The brewery, on a mountaintop in southern Peru, cranked out hundreds of gallons of...

Curious where those extra tuition dollars are going? One place to look would be the pockets of college presidents. Five presidents have cracked the $1 million compensation barrier, including John R. Silber, the now-retired president of Boston University, according to an annual survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education to be released Monday, and more are sure to follow. Nine earned more than $900,000 - a figure none broke in last year's report. All were at private universities, and the figures are for fiscal 2004, the most recent information available for private schools. More recent data on public universities, for...