Free Republic

During my more than 60 years of covering national politics, I have never seen a candidate's principles and character so effectively tarnished — after so extraordinarily inspiring a start — as Barack Obama's.

Madison, WI - Seated cross-legged onstage in a large upholstered chair, one of the world's best-known religious leaders delivered his trademark messages of compassion, peace and unity with typical humor, verve and humility Saturday afternoon. In response to a written question from the audience about Tibetan culture being strong enough to still mount widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule this year, he also ventured into the political arena. “I want to make clear. We always respect the Chinese people, not the Chinese government,” he said, to loud applause, adding that the uprisings were pro-freedom, not anti-Chinese. For the more than 7,000...

Dr. Khurana says there may be broader health ramifications than asbestos or smoking. What? Now just think about that. Again, I foresee a huge higher tax on cell phone use and a higher health and life insurance premium. And maybe people (like me) that don't use cell phones unless its an emergency, would rather not be seated in bars and restaurants where cell phones are in use. Ah, can you say ban?

In a scene worthy of a Dan Brown novel, archaeologists a quarter of a century ago unearthed a burial chamber near Jerusalem. Inside they found ossuaries, or boxes of bones, marked with the names of Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Then one of the ossuaries went missing. The human remains inside were destroyed before any DNA testing could be carried out. While Middle East academics doubt that the relics belong to the Holy Family, the issue is about to be exposed to a blaze of publicity with the publication next week of a book. Entitled The Jesus Tomb and co-written by...

BILLINGS (AP) — A Butte-based coalition is predicting farmers in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado are on their way to getting paid for conservation practices such as no-till farming that keep carbon dioxide in the ground Ted Dodge of the National Carbon Offset Coalition believes the Chicago Climate Exchange will soon allow farmers in the three states to bundle their ‘‘carbon credits’’ for sale. The private agency trades greenhouse gases and pollutants much like other exchanges trade commodities. A spokesman for the Chicago Climate Exchange was out of the office Friday and did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment....

DID a clairvoyant help US commandos ferret Saddam Hussein out of his hiding place in Iraq three years ago? Israeli-born celebrity psychic Uri Geller, best known for his spoon-bending antics, says the power of the paranormal led US troops to the fugitive Iraqi ex-dictator.

The documents seized in the FBI raid on the offices of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) remain unread by Justice Department investigators, pending a federal Appeals Court ruling scheduled for August 27. [snip] But we already know a bit about the charges and some of the alleged partners of Congressman Jefferson. Two people have pleaded guilty to bribing him.

THE THIRD PARTY HILLARY NEEDS... TO WINFLIM FLAM SCAM42% WILL VOTE FOR HILLARY. 40% WON'T. SHE NEEDS TO MAKE SURE THE OTHER 18% WON'T VOTE REPUBLICAN... JUST LIKE THE DNC MANAGED TO DO IN BOTH 1992 AND 1996 n 1991 when Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton decided to challenge President George H.W. Bush for the White House, all of the honest in-house polls the Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National Committee took indicated that Clinton would lose to Bush by a margin of 16 points. The polls taken by Bush and the Republican National Committee said the same thing. Bush...

An ABC News poll finds that most Americans oppose gay marriage but markedly fewer — especially those outside George W. Bush's core supporters — would amend the U.S. Constitution to ban it. Opponents, however, are far more likely to call it a make-or-break issue in their vote for Congress — a finding that explains Bush's renewed push for a gay marriage ban. Among all Americans, 58 percent say gay marriage should be illegal, but fewer, 42 percent, say it rises to the level of amending the U.S. Constitution. Among conservative Republicans and evangelical white Protestants, though, opposition to gay marriage...

Governor Mitt Romney has sent this letter to every member of the Senate encouraging them to Vote "Yes" on this landmark peice of legislation--the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA). A few excerpts are below: "Americans are tolerant, generous, and kind people. We all oppose bigotry and disparagement, and we all wish to avoid hurtful disregard of the feelings of others. But the debate over same-sex marriage is not a debate over tolerance. It is a debate about the purpose of the institution of marriage. Attaching the word marriage to the association of same-sex individuals mistakenly presumes that marriage is principally a...

by Mark Finkelstein June 6, 2006 While considerable attention focuses on Ann Coulter's more superficial charms, from a conservative perspective Ann's real beauty is her absolute refusal to buy into liberal logic, no matter how pervasive. That independence of mind was on display this morning during her interview with Matt Lauer. Ann was on to tout her new book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, released today on . . . 6/6/6 - sign of the devil and all that. The first example came in the the context of President Bush's current push for a constitutional amendment that would prohibit gay...

In a year it is wrestling with an out-of-control budget, a war going badly, and one impasse on immigration and another on its own ethics, the Senate is taking time out to debate altering the U.S. Constitution by adding the Marriage Protection Amendment. The amendment is widely predicted to fall short of the needed votes to amend the Constitution for only the 23rd time in its 217-year history _ 13th if you omit the original 10, the Bill of Rights _ and well it should. At its gravest level, the amendment would make a significant incursion into federalism and state's...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue - all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives. "Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all." The president was to make...

In 1964, just one congressman from the Deep South, Atlanta's Charles Weltner, voted for the Civil Rights Act. For all practical purposes, his righteous leadership on civil rights — he also supported the Voting Rights Act — cost him his congressional career. In 1966, he resigned his seat rather than sign an act of loyalty to the segregationist Lester Maddox, as Georgia Democrats insisted. But some analysts believe he would have lost the race for re-election. Doing the right thing is difficult because it often means losing. And the typical politician is willing to lose anything — honor, integrity, dignity...

May 25, 2006, 5:56 a.m.Call It What It Is.The president’s plan is an illegal-immigrant amnesty. By Rep. J. D. Hayworth Am-nes-ty: the act of an authority (as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals. Last week, I had the honor to travel to Arizona aboard Air Force One with President George W. Bush to see firsthand the situation along the Mexican border. President Bush is a good man, and when he is right I am among his strongest supporters in Congress. But on the issue of illegal immigration, he is profoundly wrong.  In...

Inside Scientology Unlocking the complex code of America's most mysterious religion The faded little downtown area of Clearwater, Florida, has a beauty salon, a pizza parlor and one or two run-down bars, as well as a bunch of withered bungalows and some old storefronts that look as if they haven't seen customers in years. There are few cars and almost no pedestrians. There are, however, buses -- a fleet of gleaming white and blue ones that slowly crawl through town, stopping at regular intervals to discharge a small army of tightly organized, young, almost exclusively white men and women, all...

If John Edward’s new book turns out to be as popular as his previous endeavors, we could soon see rosaries for sale at Wal-Mart.With Practical Praying: Using the Rosary to Enhance Your Life, the best-selling author and TV psychic medium is putting himself on the line in an entirely new way. “I had major, major blocks on a personal level,” he said in a telephone interview. “I’ve been very private about my rosary praying.”A book about the rosary wouldn’t be commercial coming from most writers, but Mr. Edward, 35, has such a built-in following of far-reaching fans that his book...

As the Fed continues its inflation campaign, most have yet to come to grips with the reality of America’s uniquely precarious situation. In an act of prestidigitation that would impress Harry Houdini, the Fed is now attempting to hide evidence of the most inflationary monetary policy in its history by no longer publishing data on the growth of M3, while mystifying the public with phony CPI statistics. However, the relentless rise in the price of gold is evidence that fewer people are being fooled by the Fed’s slight of hand. Gold’s recent rise to just under $500 per ounce, gaining...

Why is the FairTax better than our current system? Our present tax system is one of the reasons that people are finding it so difficult to get ahead these days. It is one of the reasons the next generation may not have a standard of living as high as this generation. Cars replaced the horse and buggy, the telephone replaced the telegraph, and the FairTax replaces the income tax. The income tax is holding us back and making it more difficult than it needs to be to improve our families’ standard of living. It makes it needlessly difficult for our...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Number of training hours lost at Barry M. Goldwater Marine Corps Range, Arizona, from dealing with incursions by illegal immigrants, 2004: more than 1,250 Number of training days this figure represents: more than 50 Source: National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2006, Report of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives on H.R. 1815, Report 109-089, 109th Congress, 1st Session, May 20, 2005, p. 309. Special thanks to William R. Hawkins, USBIC

No more federal income tax... if bill passes If you thought the Flat Tax was a good idea that failed, you're going to utterly love the FairTax. The latest "let's dump the Tax Code" idea from Washington's wishful well of best intentions we call Congress, the FairTax bill would abolish all federal income taxes, death taxes, capital gains taxes, and payroll taxes and replace them with a national retail sales tax. No, there is not a space missing between Fair and Tax. FairTax is how Rep. John Linder (R-Georgia, 7th), sponsor of the Fair Tax Act of 2003 has chosen...

Lori Wenzel lives in a nice house in a nice subdivision in Grand Blanc, Mich. She's worked hard to get there. She hired into an auto parts plant, now Delphi East, in 1977 when she was 18 years old, some 28 years ago. Now the Delphi bankruptcy, the largest industrial meltdown in U.S. history, threatens to shatter her world and the world of her coworkers. Delphi's skid into an economic ditch raises a fundamental question: How do U.S. firms compete in an increasingly rough-and-tumble global economy? Historically, U.S. firms have succeeded through innovation and high productivity, not low wages. Indeed,...

Written as a letter to my Congressman: This morning I found myself killing 5 hours near the nemesis of any bibliophile: a bookstore. After dropping my high school son at a state-mandated volunteerism session, I entered the Barnes and Noble on Route 30, ruminating on the many forms of modern day involuntary servitude. I meandered to the History section where a copy of Democracy in America, by Alexis De Tocqueville, caught my eye. At $27.00, it promised to provide entertainment at a rate of $5.40 per hour; a bargain by any other name. I write today to encourage you to...

Tax Reform Panel Flops You Want Real Change? Support the Fair Tax 2005-10-18 Augusta Chronicle, The President Bush gave his tax advisory commission the mission of finding changes that would make the tax system simpler, less costly and foster economic growth. Although the panel's final report isn't due until Nov. 1, advocates of serious tax reform are repulsed by the tentative recommendations so far. Recent suggestions called for getting rid of the Alternative Minimum Tax - a desirable goal - by cutting back on popular tax deductions for home mortgage interest and tax-free employer-provided health insurance. That's not tax reform;...

And, the last comment that I would make before I turn to Senator Breaux for his comments, I think it's fair to say that as we go through this process of developing a better system, better tax system for America, that there will be five areas in which -- five principles, if you will, that will focus our effort. The first is filing taxes will be straightforward and easy to understand. Point two, our tax system will be fair and transparent. Taxpayers will be able to understand their tax obligations, and have confidence that they and their neighbors are all...

Your Support needed for the Fair Tax Bill HR-25 I have seen all the bogs writings and none of them are even close to getting the real priority that faces every American today. It’s not the accountability of some of our politicians or other outspoken nobodies, lobbyist, or world opinion of snake oil to pick a topic. The real test if facing all of you right in the face. Can America from the Grass roots take a hold of the most important piece of legislation of the 21 century? What is it? The “Fairfax” bill HR-25 before Congress. Do you...

A change in a tax affects that area of the economy . . . and beyond. Taxes hurt whatever is taxed. Income taxes hurt income (production). Sales taxes hurt sales (consumption). Higher rates have higher effects. After having read "The FairTax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS" by Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder, I realized that the 'FairTax' proposed by Boortz and Linder would change EVERYTHING. The 'FairTax' is not tax reform, it is tax upheaval. Since it taxes consumption instead of income, consumption WILL fall, and incomes WILL rise. All of the incentives (and...

bureau's take on: The Fair Tax Bill, Newt in 2008? More....

Dear Editor, I've just read a new best-seller, which I highly recommend to you and your readers: "The Fair Tax Book, Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS." The co-authors are "reformed lawyer" and syndicated talk show host Neal Boortz, and Congressman John Linder, R-Ga. Linder is also the principal author/sponsor of The Fair Tax Bill (H.R. 25), currently before Congress. In the interest of brevity (the book is only 180 pages, by the way), I'll quote from the back of the dust jacket. "What the Fair Tax will do for America: eliminate the income tax and the...

Toward a Fairer Tax 2005-09-13 Augusta Chronicle, The Most criticisms of our tax code center on the fact that it's much too complicated, and it favors the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Criticism about the tax code's complexity is accurate, but it may come as a surprise to many that the part about exploiting poor people is nonsense. Despite the "tax cuts for the rich" President Bush passed early in his first term, the wealthiest Americans ended up carrying more of the federal tax load than ever before. According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, up to 40 percent...

NEW YORK (Money magazine) - If you don't care much for talk radio, or you don't live in the South, the name Neal Boortz might not ring a bell. But pay attention: Around 4 million people nationwide catch his radio show. It's No. 1 in Boortz's home market of Atlanta and ranks first or second in numerous smaller cities in red states. His 180-page polemic for radical tax reform, The FairTax Book, made its debut at No. 1 on the New York Times' bestseller list in August. When Boortz came to Jacksonville for a book signing at a downtown hotel...

Comment: 50 Reasons I Support the FairTax (How many reasons can you give for supporting the present IRS tax system?) Those Who Know the Facts Love the Fair Tax www.fairtax.org FairTax and Individuals and Families (Family-friendly tax reform)1. It allows workers to keep 100% of their pay, with nothing withheld the IRS or for Social Security and Medicare payments. 2. It is revenue neutral with the present income tax system, funding the federal budget at current levels. 3. It shifts the tax to consumption. Records show that consumption is more stable than income, therefore the tax revenue stream is likely...

I have a few questions for the FairTax experts to answer! Beyond section 1 of HR25, where it repeals the existing Income Tax legislation, after reading further into the bill...

A taxing idea Tom Wright envisions a world with no IRS, where Wal-Mart, Target, Macy's and the rest of the nation's shopkeepers are the federal tax collectors. And he says close to 600,000 Americans agree with him, including political leaders with the clout to make it happen.Wright is the executive director of Americans for Fair Taxation (www.fairtax.org), a group backing legislation to replace all federal income, payroll and corporate taxes with a 30 percent national sales tax on all new goods and services. Supporters say the tax would free Americans from mountains of paperwork, eliminate loopholes and tax fraud, encourage...

This article is about taxes, which is, without question, the most boring subject in the known universe. So why even bother to bring it up? In an attempt to make April 15 just another beautiful spring day for all Americans, Georgia Congressman John Linder and his buddy, libertarian talk show host Neal Boortz, have devised a "fair tax" plan. This plan abolishes the IRS and income taxes in favor of a national sales tax, which, they say, will be about 23 cents to every dollar. Both sides of this issue have hotly debated how well this "fair tax" would work...

Debate coming up this hour. Watch and freep poll. Which do you prefer: flat tax or Fair Tax? Fair Tax!!

NUMBER ONE ---- AGAIN! The word came in yesterday afternoon. The FairTax Book will remain No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller's List for the second week in a row. Our editor at Regan Books told us yesterday afternoon that it is much harder to make this list the second week than it is the first. Needless to say, we're excited and gratified. Interview requests for Congressman Linder and myself are pouring in, and the crowds at the book signings remain strong. Our greatest hope is that the book generates a buzz and momentum of its own. Across the...

Status of the "Hotel Lost Liberty" project This is a real project. To help the potential financial supporters understand where we our in the process a rough outline appears below. This will be revised as needed. Our ability to proceed can be improved with your financial support. 1. Ask the Town of Weare, N.H. what process must be followed to gain approvals to build a hotel. 2. Obtain plot maps and descriptions of the subject property. 3. Establish an escrow account to receive funds to support pre-approval work and funds to support post approval needs (construction and operating capital). 4....

Lawmakers seek to crack down on illegal immigrants Life for the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants living in the shadows in the United States could soon get even tougher as states and the federal government pass new legislation cracking down on them. In several states, legislators have proposed and in some cases passed bills barring illegal immigrants and their families from receiving health, welfare and other public benefits.Maryland will soon begin cutting off thousands of children of legal as well as illegal immigrants from health care benefits and may also cut immigrant pregnant women off the state's health rolls.Virginia...

Members of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform on May 11 expressed concerns over the FairTax national retail sales tax, a plan that has emerged as an alternative with a major grass-roots push. Panel chair Connie Mack, vice chair John B. Breaux, and other members worried the plan would be difficult to enforce, would be regressive, and would require a high rate in order to take in enough money to fund the government. Breaux raised concerns that the proposed 23 percent (tax-inclusive) rate would not be sufficient to raise the revenue necessary to fund the government. The Joint...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (May 9) - The woman accused of fabricating a story about finding a finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili smiled, gave a thumbs-up sign and mouthed "I love you" to television camera crews during a brief court appearance on Monday. Anna Ayala, 39, also shouted an enthusiastic, "Thank you, judge!" when Santa Clara County Judge Jerome Nadler set bail at $500,000. She is due back in court May 18 and remains jailed on charges of attempted grand larceny and grand larceny. Ayala, who has maintained her innocence, faces a maximum seven-year sentence if convicted of attempted...

Jesus Bermudez, called “Fat (Gordo) Bermudez”, former Vice-Minister of Finance with Tobias Nóbrega, has been detained in Miami and is going to be subject to a trial for a number of violations of the law, among them, attempting to introduce as contraband forty thousand dollars in cash into the US. But things are not as simple as Jose Vicente (the VP) attempted to make it look, when he denied that the plane in which the “Gordo” traveled belonged to CVG. Let’s see. In order to be free on bail, one hundred thousand dollars were paid in a flash. Who paid?...

Old Palafox Street is an aging, two-lane stretch of road running through the middle of Pensacola, Florida. To the east of Old Palafox, the next major road is Interstate 110 and in between those thoroughfares rests the sprawling campus of Pensacola Christian Academy, quickly followed by the even more sprawling campus of Pensacola Christian College. Both campuses are crammed with spotlessly maintained buildings and grounds. They stand out starkly amid the visible economic decline that surrounds them. The area is littered with empty, boarded-up buildings and abandoned strip malls. Less than a mile north of the Academy on Old Palafox...

Before the real news, there's a little interesting background news we should take care of. This comes from the "Be careful who you blame department," because everything is not always exactly as it looks. We've been hoodwinked. Yeah, you, me, all of us. It appears to me that there is a major scam afoot. It's kind of funny, in a sick sort of way; but it is a flimflam nonetheless. First, we know that Dan Rather and his cohorts at CBS have a major bias. Among other things, they "fixed" a certain "60 Minutes" program many years ago to pump...

Recap of last year's appearance (from coasttocoast.com) The Coming of Maitreya "Benjamin Crème of shareintl.org, made an eloquent appearance on Tuesday night's show, speaking of the "incredibly evolved master" known as Maitreya. He described him as a being who is literally millions of years old, and who has for the first time in history come himself to our physical world. Crème, who is 80 years old, says that in the past Maitreya "overshadowed" the consciousness of such great figures as Jesus and Buddha. "They are ignorant, misinformed, and afraid," Crème said of those who claim that Maitreya is the Antichrist....

Last Sunday evening, Teresa Heinz Kerry admonished delegates to the Democratic National Convention to restore a more civil tone to American politics. Then, as soon as she was done, she hurried off the stage to scold Colin McNickle, the editorial page editor of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, telling him to "shove it" for quoting her correctly.(1) Marla Romash, Teresa Heinz Kerry's spokeswoman, told WTAE-TV's Scott Baker, "This was sheer frustration, aimed at a right-wing rag, that has consistently and purposely misrepresented the facts in reporting on Mrs. Kerry and her family." John Kerry has a butler follow behind him everywhere he...

Charles Berlitz, who just died, was known as one of the world's top linguists and grandson of the founder of the Berlitz language schools. Yet his true claim to fame was as author of "truth is stranger than fiction" books that were actually just plain fiction. A Time magazine reviewer summarized all of Berlitz's paranormal works in describing one as taking "off from established facts, then proceed[ing] to lace its theses with a hodgepodge of half-truths, unsubstantiated reports and unsubstantial science." Among his vast repertoire: "The Mystery of Atlantis" (1969), "Mysteries from Forgotten Worlds" (1972), "The Bermuda Triangle (1974), "The...

THE STATE Measure on Consular IDs Advances * The Assembly OKs a bill to require banks and other institutions to accept the cards issued to citizens of other nations living in California. By Dan Morain and Carl Ingram, Times Staff Writers SACRAMENTO — The state Assembly on Thursday approved legislation that would require banks and other institutions to recognize as legitimate the identification cards that consular offices issue to their citizens who may be living in this country illegally. Approved by a margin of 50 to 13, the bill by Assemblyman Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) requires Senate approval. That appears...

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is urging Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft to prosecute Palestinian terrorist Abu Abbas, the notorious mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking who was given a defacto exemption from prosecution by her husband because of the Oslo Peace accords. "I am writing to urge that you coordinate with Attorney General John Ashcroft to bring Abbas to the United States for prosecution as soon as possible in New York," Clinton told Rumsfeld, in a letter posted this week to her Web site. "Since Abu Abbas is responsible for the murder of...

Everyone remembers my excerpts from “The Maestro” earlier this year, talking about how Greenspan was hooked on market action in stocks, the dollar, and gold in the 1980’s. He was found in his office hitting the refresh button on his computer over 200 times a day, according to associates. We know now that Al Green is an expert technician, after watching charts for nearly 40 years now. Can you imagine how uncomfortable he must be when he’s outside the office? Unable to check the status of his Credit and Stock Market Bubbles? I bet he has one of those ear...