Free Republic

Our elections serve as an example of free choice and peaceful transfer of power to the world where too many people are denied the right to vote and a new governing authority comes in during a bloody coup. That's why allegations of rampant voter registration fraud and electoral fraud throughout Ohio and the country are all the most disturbing. But what makes me angry - and what makes a lot of my constituents angry - is that an organization at the heart of this controversy is receiving federal tax dollars. For years, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now...

IN POLITICS, cheap shots and invective are occupational hazards. But when have we seen anything to match the frenzy of rage and contempt set off by the nomination of Sarah Palin? Virtually from the moment John McCain selected her, Palin has been under assault. There has been legitimate criticism, of course. But there has also been a gusher of slander, much of it - like the slur that she isn't the real mother of her infant son, Trig - despicable. For someone who has been in the national spotlight for only three weeks, Palin has been the victim of an...

Americans are much smarter than our media or political leadership give us credit for Well, it’s unanimous. For the first time since this endless election cycle started, it appears that people are finally getting sick and tired of hearing about Barack Obama. Recent news reports show that large percentages of Americans believe Obama is completely over-exposed and given far too much praise and positive publicity. It would be nice if the nation could focus on a different subject, perhaps one that actually has some substance, but the mainstream media simply won’t allow that to happen. Instead of providing coverage of...

As he has since January, this week, Barack Obama enjoyed much more visibility as far as the public was concerned than did John McCain. By a margin of 76% to 11% respondents in Pew's weekly News Interest Index survey named Obama over McCain as the candidate they have heard the most about in recent days. But the same poll also shows that the Democratic candidate's media dominance may not be working in his favor. Close to half (48%) of Pew's interviewees went on to say that they have been hearing too much about Obama lately. And by a slight, but...

Sen. John McCain spent a lot of time this week making light of the media's focus on his presidential opponent, Democrat Barack Obama - even issuing "junior varsity" press passes to the reporters covering the Arizona Republican while Obama trekked across the Middle East and Europe with network anchors in tow and releasing a Web video mocking the media's Obama affection. But maybe keeping the spotlight on Obama is a great strategy for McCain. Consider: Polls show Americans are overwhelmingly upset with the Bush administration and the direction of the country. Both are recipes for a blowout for the incumbent...

The domed ones on Capitol Hill have insisted that loosening up on those bans to drill offshore wouldn't make any difference for years and years and years. So how come the price of crude (futures) went down $10 the very day that Bush signed an executive order repealing the ban that his father had put in place when he was in the White House. Just imagine what the price of crude would fall to if congress did its part in repealing the ban that they put into place to appease the environmentalists! And further, I heard somewhere yesterday that the...

No combination of solar, wind, ethanol, biodiesel, or anything else will allow us independence in the foreseeable future. We are in a hole—and still digging. We have oil at a catastrophic $140 a barrel yet no sign of a bipartisan energy policy assured of passage—let alone the forceful execution needed to expand domestic supplies and restrict domestic consumption. Instead, we have the blame game about greedy speculators, careless consumers, and cowardly politicians, inevitable maybe in an election year but a betrayal of the promise of America. In the meantime, as gasoline soars over $4 a gallon, the availability of credit...

Jeff Beatty may be the man to finally beat the Massachusetts liberal. The Democratic Party’s accusation that the Republican Party is only for elitists has resonated with the fishermen, immigrants, construction crews and farmers of the Bay State since the civil war era. In the United States most people are accustomed to electing their leaders. However, in Massachusetts there is a sort of liberal Democratic monarchy which has had a grip on her citizens since the Great Depression. The monarchy, of course, is the Kennedy Dynasty. Joseph Kennedy built a financial empire which quickly expanded into Boston’s political realm. The...

NBC's Tim Russert died of a heart attack on Friday. Only the deaf, dumb and blind can be unaware of this fact. Ever since the unfortunate death of one of the major players in the field of media and politics, non-stop media coverage has drummed this fact home to millions of Americans. Enough, already. This media coverage, still going strong, is becoming quite unseemly.

Same-Sex Couple Sues After Faced With Ultimatum at Mariners Baseball GameAnyone who has attended a Major League Baseball game in the past decade has probably seen a "Kiss Cam" where couples throughout the ballpark are featured locking lips on the big-screen JumboTrons. But controversy over ballpark kissing erupted at Safeco Field in Seattle this week when a same-sex couple claimed they were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, which stadium officials deny. Sirbrina Guerrero, 23, says she and her partner, who requested anonymity, were just "exchanging pecks," not acting any differently than heterosexual couples at the game, when park...

Cardinal George gets what Barack Obama only understood under pressure: The firebrand pastor of St. Sabina parish was removed from his duties there Tuesday, according to a statement released by the Archdiocese of Chicago.In the statement, Cardinal Francis George says he asked the Rev. Michael Pfleger, 59, to "take leave for a couple of weeks from his pastoral duties." The statement said Pfleger "does not believe this to be the right step at this time." "While respecting his disagreement, I have nevertheless asked him to use this opportunity to reflect on his recent statements and actions in the light of...

CNN story. Apparently Obama sent a letter to his pastor but that has yet to be released.

Free Rock Concert Preceded Big Obama Rally in Portland Hugh Hewitt just told me that right before Obama addressed that huge crowd in Portland, the indie rock band the Decemberists played a free 45-minute concert. Now, I'm sure Obama would draw a big crowd either way, but wasn't that worth mentioning in the coverage? From Wikipedia: "Named both in reference to the Russian Decembrist Revolt (which may explain its use of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union as an introduction at many concerts)..." Lovely. I wonder if they played, "Sixteen Military Wives." The video depicts a bully named "Henry...

Wouldn't it be something if Michelle Obama, not the Rev. Jeremiah Wright or John McCain, were the reason Barrack Obama looses the presidency? Instead of "change," the First Lady-in-waiting is sticking with old hurts held closely by certain black communities. They are those who relish the pain suffered by their slave forefathers and mothers. They revisit, over and over, what was; hurts, carefully protected and harbored as badges of honor. None of us on this land are responsible for what happened to their kin, but they don't care. They marinate in crippling history. Why? The reasons reek of the psychology...

On April 25, adult homosexual activists with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) held their annual “Day of Silence” (DOS) propaganda push. During DOS, teachers and students in roughly three thousand middle schools, high schools and colleges across the country are cynically used as culture war pawns in an effort to legitimize conventionally immoral, objectively deviant and demonstrably high-risk sexual behaviors. Kids and teachers are encouraged on DOS to disrupt the school day by refusing to speak in class as a show of support to students who self-identify as “GLBT” (No, GLBT has nothing to do with bacon,...

Dana Milibank has a sober review of Wright’s morning rantings — and what they portend for the Obama campaign. For weeks now Wright has insulted the United States, whites, Jews, Israel, Italians, et al., but confined his media attacks to talk radio and cable news. But at the Press Club he showed disdain for the liberal corps, and that is a felony of a different sort. So expect outraged reporters to strike back. All this will be fatal to the Obama candidacy. Had he set an example of moral outrage at his pastor, Wright would be gone and Obama would...

Since being ejected from the Oval Office in 1980, Jimmy Carter has spent his days conducting rogue diplomacy in global hot spots, dashing from the embrace of one dictator to another and generally making life miserable for sitting American presidents. For this, Mr. Carter is often called our greatest ex-president. Accordingly, his latest round of unauthorized diplomacy with Hamas will surely only enhance his post-presidential resume. But truth be told, no amount of hobnobbing with terrorists or international do-goodery at the expense of American interests will ever erase Mr. Carter's miserable legacy as president. From his disastrous handling of both...

Barbara Walters Pesters Howard Dean: End Dem Race Photo of Scott Whitlock. By Scott Whitlock | April 28, 2008 - 12:27 ET On a day when Senator Barack Obama's controversial pastor would be speaking to the National Press Club in Washington, "Good Morning America" guest host Barbara Walters chose to question Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard exclusively on how soon the Democratic presidential contest can be ended. At one point during Monday's segment, she even hectored Dean about his responsibility to bring unity to the Democrats. Walters lectured, "But that's also your job, Dr. Dean, to get one of them...

When changes were made in FR from what we were all used to I was as annoyed as everyone else. But eventually all the problems were taken care of and settled down, content. But now the tweaking has begun again. First the "pings" section went from just headlines to the entirety of the posts. Then you had to empty your personal ping list or else it's always telling you you've got new pings (and who wants to delete their immemorial pings?). NOW the pings are in different colors and the PM forms look different! It was perfect before this next...

March 9, 2008 The Clintons, a horror film that never endsAndrew Sullivan It’s alive! We thought it might be over but some of us never dared fully believe it. Last week was like one of those moments in a horror movie when the worst terror recedes, the screen goes blank and then reopens on green fields or a lover’s tender embrace. Drained but still naive audiences breathe a collective sigh of relief. The plot twists have all been resolved; the threat is gone; the quiet spreads. And then . . . Put your own movie analogy in here. Glenn Close...

March 1, 2008 Help or hindrance: Doubts grow over Bill Clinton Tim Reid in Dayton Bill Clinton is speaking rapidly, a sense of urgency in his hoarse voice, finger jabbing the air, as he implores this Ohio crowd to believe that his wife is the “best change-maker I've ever seen in my entire life”. The former President, who in 1992 campaigned here as the fresh-faced 45-year-old man from Hope, turned his attention to this year's 46-year-old man of hope, Barack Obama, who on Monday packed an 11,000-strong crowd in Wright State University. “The case Hillary's opponent is making is that...

Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain in 1980. Then he was widely recognized as a champion of a new independent Africa. Now he rightly is seen as a repressive old man desperate to hold on to power at any cost. Mugabe has turned Zimbabwe from the bread basket of southern Africa into a basket case. He has seized land for political purposes, displaced hundreds of thousands of suspected political opponents, trampled freedom of the press, crushed opposition demonstrations and rigged elections. At 83 years old, he is intent on securing yet another five-year term as...

Devices made of heart tissue could screen drug candidates and be used to power implantable robots. In a fourth-floor lab at Harvard University, Adam Feinberg is peering through a low-magnification microscope and using a scalpel to cut out triangles and rectangles from a thin polymer. What's impossible to see with the naked eye is a one-cell-thick layer of heart tissue coating each shape. When Feinberg connects the petri dish holding the triangles and rectangles to a pacemaker, the tissue begins to rhythmically contract, and the shapes come alive--twisting, pinching, and even swimming through a solution. The pieces of "muscular thin...

ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday weighed in on the raging debate inside the Democratic Party over former President Bill Clinton's advocacy on behalf of his wife's campaign, with two choice words for the former president: "Shut up." On ABC's "The View," Sharpton said voters are hearing "race charges, race-tinged rhetoric" in the Democratic primary campaign, and called on the former president to cease. "I think it's time for him to just be quiet," said Sharpton, who was a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. "I think it's time for him to stop. As one of the...

Enough Clinton Incorporated The ageing pitbull sinking his teeth into Barack Obama needs to be restrained Gerard Baker The Democratic presidential primary contest has provided yet more proof, if any were needed, of the validity of Churchill's old quip that, while members of the other political party may be your opposition, your enemies are definitely on your own side. In South Carolina this week, the two leading Democratic candidates squared off in what was by far the most testy and unpleasant series of exchanges of the whole presidential campaign so far. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton spat accusations back and...

It’s cool to be “Green” right now. NBC devoted a week of programming gimmicks to being “Green,” with recycling and environmental efforts taking over some part of all of their hit shows. Meanwhile, Al Gore won a Nobel Peace Prize and Overture studios shipped out sapling trees with their fall preview kits. Just two signs we’ve seen in the last few weeks that being environmentally conscious is suddenly the right place to be. New York City is following in the trend this year with their oversized Christmas tree. The Rockefeller Center perennial will use LED lighting (light emitting diodes) to...

Ron Paul is a seductive mistress. His popularity on MySpace and YouTube is now legendary. It helped him raise more than $5 million in the third quarter of this year's fundraising cycle. Even some among the media elite — on both sides of the aisle — can't resist his charm. Conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan gets downright giddy over Paul. And liberal Hardball host Chris Matthews (who cut his teeth under big government, East Coast Democrat Tip O'Neill) has declared of the libertarian from Texas: "He's my guy! I love Ron Paul!" But do people understand what Paul really stands for?...

San Francisco - the liberal, left-coast city conservatives love to mock - could be undergoing a transformation when it comes to homeless people. Although the city would still be a poor choice for a pep rally for the war in Iraq, indications are that residents have had it with aggressive panhandlers, street squatters and drug users. "Maybe there has been an epiphany," says David Latterman, president of Fall Line Analytics, a local market research firm. "People have realized they can hate George Bush but still not want people crapping in their doorway." Consider the case of David Kiely, who has...

EVER since “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, but that movie hardly endeared him to the animal rights folks. According to them, the most inconvenient truth of all is that raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined. The biggest animal rights groups do not always overlap in their missions, but now they have coalesced around a message that eating meat is worse for the environment than driving. They and smaller groups have started advertising campaigns that try to equate vegetarianism with curbing greenhouse gases. Some backlash...

Stop The Apologizing Already Apologies must be in this year, Danes sorry for looting and pillaging MORE than 1200 years ago hordes of bloodthirsty Viking raiders descended on Ireland, pillaging monasteries and massacring the inhabitants. On Wednesday, one of their more mild-mannered descendants stepped ashore to apologise. The Danish Minister for Culture, Brian Mikkelson, who was in Dublin to celebrate the arrival of a replica Norse longboat, apologised for the invasion and destruction inflicted. "In Denmark we are certainly proud of this ship but we are not proud of the damage to the people of Ireland that followed in the...

Ahhh, c'mon! I swear if I see another article or hear another talking head tell us that finally, yes finally, they are right, that this is it and the stock market is heading for the depths of perdition where it truly deserves to be (what with it being so ridiculously overbought and all that stuff), I will just… well, just…. well, insert your own type of bodily function. Where did all these types come from, another planet? The stock market has gone straight up for 12 months! What? You didn't expect some sort of correction? In all of my 40...

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. -- The Prince William County board voted Tuesday on whether to adopt tougher measures that would target illegal immigrants. The proposed measure requires that immigration status be checked before someone could use public services such as schools, libraries and swimming pools. The bill also requires police to check the residency status of anyone suspected of breaking the law. The measure would also force county police to ask about immigration during routine traffic stops. Authorities said the names of undocumented residents that are gathered would be submitted to immigration officials for possible deportation

Arusha, Tanzania–Africa is a continent of despair and desperation. Here, eight year-olds toting AK-47s massacre whole villages and eccentric dictators feast on the organs of the opposition, believing it'll boost their mojo. Tsetse flies nibble on the eyelids of starving children who sport distended bellies like it's their birthright, not to mention the fact that by the time you finish reading this article, another six Africans will die from malaria, five from AIDS, and seventeen from poverty and hunger. Also, the wildlife is beautiful and the people like to dance and sing. That's Africa, and it's in desperate need of...

The force dubbed "Billary"—the duo of former President Clinton and his leading Democratic candidate wife—argued on Tuesday for a third term in the White House, telling Iowa voters a return to the Clinton years is the best remedy for the Bush era. "Yesterday's news was pretty good," said Bill Clinton, referring to his time in office and taking a jab at critics who call the former first couple old news. In a joint appearance, the Clintons sought to give Hillary Rodham Clinton the advantages of quasi-incumbency while portraying her as an agent of change.

A Mori poll carried out for the commission found that 68 per cent of those questioned thought there were "too many migrants in Britain," a view shared by 47 per cent of Asians and 45 per cent of black respondents. It also showed that 56 per cent of people believed some groups - mainly immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees - receive unfair priority in the allocation of housing, health services and education. The report said the findings showed that people "are very sensitive about perceived free-loading by other groups".

HOUSTON - New testing on the type of ammunition used in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy raises questions about whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, according to a study by researchers at Texas A&M University.

'America's mayor' in strong position for '08 With the 2008 race off to a fast start, there have already been some big surprises (Obama, anyone?). But the biggest shocker so far has to be how strong "America's mayor" is running in the polls. The most recent poll has Giuliani leading the Republican field by five points (with 31 percent to John McCain's 26 percent, according to Real Clear Politics). True, it's early. But the numbers do reflect a deep reservoir of support among some GOP primary voters. Giuliani has a few things going in his favor. For starters, he has...

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he is "not ruling in or out" running for president or vice president in 2008. "I don't know what the future holds for me," Bush told NewsMax as he leaves office this month after eight years as governor. "To be honest with you, the only job in public life that I've been interested in over the last 15 years has been to be governor. It's been my dream come true. I guess it's hard for people to appreciate, but I've never viewed it as a stepping stone to anything else." Bush said he would feel...

Meet George "Sonny" Purdue, the most popular major-state Republican governor in America. In a year of devestating losses, he handily beat his Democratic challenger by a 3-to-2 margin. Gov. Purdue is a vet in two ways: He is a former Air Force Captain and a Doctor of Veterinary medicine. With his wife, Mary, he is a father of four children, and foster parent of eight. He was also a University of Georgia walk-on quarterback, and will appear as a coach in the movie, "We Are Marshall" Since his election in 2002, Georgia has improved from 50th in the nation on...

TOKYO -- In the background of the birth of Intelligent Design theory is the explosive increase over the past half century in our knowledge about cells. Scientists have discovered that cells are filled with tiny molecular machines not even dreamed of during Darwin’s era, when the cell’s structure was unknown. The example of a molecular machine easiest to understand, and researched for long time, is the bacterial flagellar motor. Various kinds of bacteria depend on this machine to generate propellant power. Scott Minnich, Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Idaho and a leading ID scientist states, “The flagellar...

Keep Darwin's 'lies' out of Polish schools: education official 2 hours. WARSAW (AFP) - Poland's deputy education minister called for the influential evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin not to be taught in the country's schools, branding them "lies." "The theory of evolution is a lie, an error that we have legalised as a common truth," Miroslaw Orzechowski, the deputy minister in the country's right-wing coalition government, was quoted as saying by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily Saturday. Orzechowski said the theory was "a feeble idea of an aged non-believer," who had come up with it "perhaps because he was a vegetarian...

I just received this press release. I want to encourage conversation here about its accuracy and significance. PRESS RELEASE Wednesday, October 11th was an historic day in the life of the European Parliament. Polish member of the European Parliament, Maciej Giertych, retired head of the Genetics Department of the Polish Academy of Science, and father of Polish Deputy Prime Minister, Roman Giertych, introduced a public seminar on the General Theory of Evolution to fellow MEP’s. Professor Giertych questioned the value of teaching a continually falsified hypothesis - macroevolution - to students throughout Europe, as well as pointing out its lack...

TOKYO -- Intelligent Design (ID) theory claims that the complexity of life cannot be explained by Darwin’s evolutionary theory, nor can the origin of life or the birth of the universe be elaborated by naturalism (a materialistic theory in science), that tries to explain them by a purely materialistic process. It proposes that they can be far better explained by assuming the involvement of an intelligent designer. With heightened debate over the theory in 2005, numerous articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines. But many of these articles tend to be biased and, like the U.S. liberal media, label ID...

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?verified=1&NNumbertxt=929CD

Irksome to many scientists, creationism refuses to die. According to a recent Gallup poll, 44 percent of Americans believe that humanity did not evolve, but was created in its present form. Darwin's irresistible force seems to have met an immovable object, and the evolutionists appear blind to the reason for the standstill. They mischaracterize the debate as one between science and religion, while the question for most Americans is closer to "which science?" or "which religion?" The way many see it, the sides are neatly laid out: one appeals to scientific evidence, while the other clings to dogmatic faith. This...

This file is to collect links from Free Republic, the blogs, and other sources related to the upcoming DA's election race between Mike Nifong and Lewis Cheek.

Here are two really nice tributes to Steve Irwin. I know there are alot of fans of his on FR, including myself. Videos are here and here.

There are no plans to air video capturing the shocking death of famed "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, but media experts predicted yesterday it will soon be circulating on the Internet.... "It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here," said Stainton, pointing to his chest. "[Irwin] pulled it out, and the next minute he's gone." The tape shows "no evidence Mr. Irwin was threatening or intimidating the stingray," Queensland State police Superintendent Michael Keating said. While Stainton said every effort will be made to keep the video away from...

Philosophers, scientists and other intellectuals close to Pope Benedict will gather at his summer palace outside Rome this week for intensive discussions that could herald a fundamental shift in the Vatican's view of evolution. There have been growing signs the Pope is considering aligning his church more closely with the theory of "intelligent design" taught in some US states. Advocates of the theory argue that some features of the universe and nature are so complex that they must have been designed by a higher intelligence. Critics say it is a disguise for creationism. A prominent anti-evolutionist and Roman Catholic scientist,...

Rep. Waxman asks for details regarding the exclusion of evolutionary biology, a core component of the biological sciences, from the eligibility rules for the Department of Education's new "National Smart Grant" program. Rep. Waxman's letter is reproduced below: August 24, 2006 The Honorable Margaret Spellings Secretary Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20202 Dear Madam Secretary: I am writing to express concern about the exclusion of "evolutionary biology," a core component of the biological sciences, from the eligibility rules for the new federal "National Smart Grant" program. According to a recent account in the Chronicle of Higher...