Free Republic

In the strange world of politics, where up is down and down is up, Republicans tout as a victory David Harmer's 10-point loss to Democrat John Garamendi in Tuesday's special congressional race. With an 18-point party registration advantage, off-the-charts name identification and double the cash of his opponent, Republicans say Garamendi should have won with a far bigger margin. "Harmer winning 43 percent of the vote in an overwhelmingly Democratic district in the Bay Area does not speak well for the Democrats," California GOP Chairman Ron Nehring said the morning after Tuesday's election. Yes, this is largely spin. Harmer outperformed...

through Mike Gallagher's website. Using the link below, you can input your name, address, etc, and emails will be generated to your Representative and Senators based on your zipcode. There is a letter against health care already in the message box but you can change it. If I heard Mike right, if the Representative's or Senator's email is full, it will automatically be faxed and if the Representative's or Senator's fax machine is full or down, it will be personaly delivered. Since this goes to the Congress member's of the sender, it is especially effective for those that live in...

Scott Brown knows he faces an uphill battle as a Republican seeking to fill Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat. Until last week, when Jack E. Robinson filed nomination papers, Brown was the only member of the GOP seeking the seat, which is also the goal of four Democrats. Although the seat has been in Democratic hands since the 1950s, and more than a decade has passed since Massachusetts voters sent a Republican to Congress, Brown, one of just five Republicans in the state Senate, said there is no inevitability to a Democrat victory. “This isn’t a Democratic seat; it’s a...

North Dakota Republican state legislators and officials have had no better luck than anyone else in prodding Gov. John Hoeven for hints about whether he'll run against Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan next year. Four GOP lawmakers who raised the subject in a meeting with Hoeven in his Capitol office last week said the governor gave them no hints about his plans, although one participant said he believes Hoeven will make the race. "I think he feels a responsibility to do it," said Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier. "Maybe I'm a little optimistic in my thinking, but I do believe he's giving...

Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats in the House are about to pass possibly the worst piece of legislation ever to come out of Washington and force it on the general public of America. The 2009 House version of Health Care Reform for the country. Take note of the word reform, because it actually means takeover, as in government takeover of the health care industry. This is the bill from Hell! Almost 2000 pages of legislative language that glosses over, covers up, and side steps every major issue and concern that has been brought out in the debate....

Please FReep this poll: Do you believe the economy will get better in 2010? Yes, the economy it turning around and things look positive. Yes, things can't possibly get any worse. No, the economy will not truly recover until unemployment begins to drop. No, things will get worse before they get better. The economy will stay the same. No Opinion

Lessons from Virginia for the GOP By Ed Gillespie Thursday, November 5, 2009 After losing Virginia's governorship for the first time in eight years, some Democrats are trying to console themselves that Virginia is at its core a "red" state. This ignores not only that they won back-to-back governorships but also that Democrats defeated a sitting senator in 2006, took control of the state Senate in 2007 and won an open Republican Senate seat and three House seats in 2008 while carrying Virginia's electoral college votes for the first time since 1964. Some in the White House are trying to...

Harry sure changed his mind... fast! We're not going to be held to any timeline, we are going to take the time to get it right [Healthcare] Harry tonight was dragged kicking and screaming back to the center by the ass kicking Dems got tonight. You can bet the Blue Dog's told Harry if the GOP sweeps tonight, we don't want any part of your mess. Dems in the House and Senate ... get ready for that enema that's been needed for some time. Who do you fear more? The voters of Pelosi/Reid

Add your name to the group of 93168 people who have already signed using the Internet! Congress: REJECT Government-Run Health Care The push by President Obama and Congress to revamp our national health care system is intensifying. While health care legislation remains more confusing than ever, there’s one thing that’s crystal clear: It’s time to say NO to any government-run health care plan and NO to mandatory coverage for abortions. Please read the form below carefully and declare your membership with the ACLJ by adding your name to our Petition Opposing Government-Run Health Care. PETITION OPPOSING GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE To...

Today Rush Limbaugh gave out his own list of Top 10 Republican Moderate Moments. You can see a liberal example of the Top 10 at http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/11/top_ten_moments_in_moderate_go.html

Belief in manmade climate change has dropped off in recent years and support for cap and trade measures also is losing steam. This latter trend is picking up speed as it becomes more obvious that climate scientists are sharply divided on whether humans play any role in global warming/global cooling/climate change. However, the U.S. Congress races blindly on with plans to enact sweeping, intrusive legislation, undaunted by either the lack of convincing evidence that human activity affects the environment, or the public’s increasing disaffection with this legislation. ... Each house of Congress has its own version of this legislative misadventure,...

Please FReep this poll.

Until now, the healthcare debate has included very little in the way of specifics. The President, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid all preferred to speak of healthcare in a broad sense. Even the Senate bill was not a true bill, but rather an outline of what should be in a bill. With the House releasing its 1990 page juggernaut document on health reform, we can finally look at some specifics; and with specifics we can judge the veracity of the preceding debate. Throughout the last three months, Barack Obama has repeatedly shown up on our TV screens and told the...

Dear Mr. Steele, It is with regret that I must decline to offer any financial support to the RNC at this time. Although I still consider myself a Republican I cannot support what I believe to be misguided leadership and a total disconnect with the core constituency. Most “career” Republicans would rather support the monster that is the Republican machine than serve their citizenry with honor, sacrifice and duty. Virtues this great constitutional republic so desperately need. America is truly at a crossroad as you have pointed out however, I believe that my targeted financial support of conservative, servant-minded candidates...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Like the song goes, "something going on over there". What's happening in the New York 23rd Congressional District may have national significance. It's looking like a political earthquake in progress, and it has a San Francisco flavor to it....In San Francisco style, a Republican abandoned her own party's candidate and chose a liberal Democrat, saying it was the best choice for her district. (Recall the hundreds of San Francisco republicans who were strong early financial supporters of Democrat Mayor Gavin Newsom and his defunct run for California governor over the Republican candidate.) Didn't make much difference....

Vice President Joe Biden and the woman who ran against him last year did some long-distance sparing today. Biden, at a rally for New York congressional Democratic contender Bill Owens, took a verbal shot at former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who's a supporter of Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman in Tuesday's crazy special election for New York's 23rd district (where Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava has dropped out and endorsed the Democrat). Using energy as an issue with which to score some rhetorical points, Biden said that "the fact of the matter is, Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy is...

We hear a lot today about our struggling economy, even about the failure of capitalism; we are told that our economic system, not just our economy, is broken. However, the notion that our system, that the American system is broken must be rejected. Our economy and our banking system were mismanaged to the brink of disaster by a special interest beholden congress. But is our free enterprise system broken? No, not until politicians silence Middle America; not until the people return the same bad apples back to the congressional barrel. The economic brinkmanship embodied in massive spending bills threatens to...

Rush Limbaugh appeared on "Fox News Sunday" today, and said Sarah Palin is ready to be president. He also predicted a revolt against Democrats in 2010, and a loss for President Obama in 2012: (VIDEO AT LINK)

Cap and Trade will be a disaster for what is left of manufacturing in this country. Right now, the Rust Belt is just rusty. With Cap and Trade, the rust will inevitably turn into dust. And, for what? Because some politically-driven environmentalists have trumped up a phony belief that mankind is completely killing the planet?

This is why Republicans lose elections: Crabill is trying to position herself as a conservative in the 99th House of Delegates district of Virginia, against a popular Democrat incumbant. But at the Northern Neck Republican website, the visitor is presented with Crabill at a Yacht & Country Club with elitist-looking old white women. At a formal tea party. Not the populist, conservative mass movement tea party rallies, but an elitist tea party of rich old white women.

Should Congress be required to post all legislation online with enough time for the public to read bills before the vote takes place? Please Freep this Poll

Reminiscent of the authoritarian regime in George Orwell’s 1984, the Obama Administration introduced some “newspeak” terms into our political debate earlier this year. The “war on terror” became an “overseas contingency action” and “acts of terrorism” became “man caused disasters.” Seemingly innocuous changes in statements appeared to do no harm at the time. Now, however, when one looks at the execution of “overseas contingency actions,” the change in semantics reflects a change in urgency. We have seen Obama drag his feet in Afghanistan while our casualties mount. Rather than denounce “acts of terrorism,” we are striving to understand “entering a...

At a time when our economy is struggling to produce jobs, the left is still intent upon keeping Americans from earning a livelihood. On Saturday, Democratic Representative Gabriella Giffords held a public hearing on a proposed copper mine in her district in Southern Arizona. But rather than being a public hearing designed to share information on the project, some felt it was more accurately a public hearing designed to present only one point of view. Not surprisingly, Ms. Giffords, all four panel members and all but one speaker were against the project. In a letter to the editor, one attendee,...

BOSTON (AP) ― The four Republicans who held the Statehouse Corner Office for 16 years have endorsed Charles Baker for governor next year. William Weld, Paul Cellucci, Jane Swift and Mitt Romney made the announcement Tuesday during a fundraiser for the Massachusetts Republican Party.

Just weeks after overwhelming votes in the House and Senate to protect tax payers by barring federal funding to ACORN, Democrats have found a way to throw a life-line to their de facto campaign organization. Democrats on the House Committee on Financial Services adopted an amendment by Maxine Waters that will allow ACORN and other activists groups to share a regulatory role over our financial institutions.

Why is it that a country that has produced some of the most beloved authors, prolific inventors, and has advanced the fields of science, medicine, and technology, recently found itself at the epicenter of moral and financial decline? Our current president has become the butt of Marxism jokes in the same week that he is appeasing Islam– how sad for America and its people. Yet, I fear it is our people that have become complicit in this deterioration, for more often than naught, we take for granted our freedoms and the responsibilities tied in to those freedoms. One of our...

I am now very afraid of David Vitter. I am also very ashamed. I have publically wondered why the Democrats, the GOP, David Vitter and US Senate hopeful—Congressman Charlie Melancon had not given a statement concerning the very controversial and embarrassing Justice Bardwell incident. The Democrats and Melancon have since made comments denouncing the actions of the Louisiana Justice of the Peace. Today, for really the first time ever, I am serious beginning to question whether David Vitter is not a completely racially insensitive and not playing to the most ugly element of our state’s population for the purpose of...

The Washington Examiner points out that even if your state does opt-out - you're paying for it anyway: Reid acknowledged that a plan to charge a tax on expensive health insurance plans has been changed in his plan to include family plans worth more than $23,000 per year, instead of $21,000. Those taxes and others required to fund the $6 billion public option would be collected from all states, including those that opt out of the plan.

Despite election countdown fervor from pro-GOP David Harmer forces, the National Republican Congressional Committee does not yet view him as a “contender” in his bid against Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi in the 10th congressional district special election on Tuesday. A Roll Call story today reports that the committee elevated nine candidates in its Young Guns program — its targeted candidate initiative — from “On the Radar” to “Contender.”Harmer was not among the nine selected for the second tier. No candidate has yet achieved the highest ranking of “Young Gun.” NRCC spokeswoman Joanna Burgos insists Harmer’s status does not reflect...

All we know for sure is that Carly Fiorina has a busy schedule on tap. Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO, has been exploring a bid for the U.S. Senate, and the buzz is that she will officially announce her candidacy next week to challenge Assemblyman Chuck DeVore in the Republican primary. The Contra Costa Times reported last week that Fiorina is headed to Pleasanton on Friday, Nov. 6 to make a "very important" announcement to the Tri-Valley Business Council. Indeed, Council President and CEO Tobias Brink said yesterday that it "would be my assumption" that Fiorina is planning an...

Corporate CEO salaries have been a target of criticism for a long time, and that criticism increased during the mortgage banking collapse, when bank CEOs also became targeted for doing a lousy job. The heads of large companies do make huge salaries, as shown by this sample from the 2008 AFL-CIO CEO Pay Database: Robert A. Iger, The Walt Disney Company, $51 million; Lloyd C. Blankfein, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., $42.9 million; Mark V. Hurd, Hewlett-Packard Company, $34 million; and Rex W. Tillerson, Exxon-Mobil Corporation, $32 million. There are a few reasons for this criticism, including envy and not...

One candidate in next year's gubernatorial race contributed thousands of dollars to Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry. Another wrote $21,000 in checks to Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore and the Democratic National Committee in 2000. A third was a registered Democrat in the early 1970s and has acknowledged supporting George McGovern as the party's presidential candidate in 1972. All three – Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner and Tom Campbell – are vying to become California's next governor, but not as Democrats. They constitute the entire GOP gubernatorial field, a fact that has some Republicans wondering where their candidates' loyalties...

Is Congress about to sell out the American people in the name of progress and change? The healthcare debate is the epicenter of a larger fight, one that resurfaces every few decades; one that began with the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. The role of the Federal Government in our lives is growing quicker than Congress can print the money to support it. Are there no better options than those that we are faced with today? The current debate is misguided. If you take out abortion funding, it is still a bad bill. If you take out illegal...

When is this pathetic group going to wake up. This website http://www.gop.com/ is a disgrace. And they are going to compete with a computer savvy group like moveon.org? I know what I'm talking about here. I just completed a great site of my own. Granted gop.com is a beta version, but the retards should know you test the site off line before you 'show' it to the public. First the artwork reminds me of communist China - the overall design sucks. Nothing works - you have to sign up multiple times - the links don't work. Of course there is...

Try making sense of President Obama’s foreign policy and you might start wondering what it is that guides this Administration. Most of our leaders have followed a few guiding principles, whether it be promoting freedom and democracy, containing the spread of communism, or resisting terrorism. Whether right or wrong as judged by history, each American President has sent a clear message to the world that America was squarely on the side of freedom. What about Obama? Candidate Obama stressed that he would change the “failed policies of the past eight years.” He said he would do this on the economy...

Just a heads up that it looks like Karl Rove is on GOP.com. Here's a link to his profile Karl Rove

"Why do people hate you?" asked little Terrance to the President of the United States. His answer is the most interesting part of the conversation, however: Well, now, first of all. I did get elected president, so not everyone hates me, nah. I got a whole lotta votes. I wanna make sure everyone understands. Here, once again, we witness the president dismissing honest disagreement and opposition to his ultra left wing government takeover to being "poke(d) a little bit" so that we can "keep him on his toes". Or, as he more succinctly puts it, it's just "politics". Let us,...

Peggy Noonan had a great OpEd in today's issue of the Wall Street Journal entitled It's His Rubble Now. In it she describes the huge disparity in approval ratings and overall demeanor between George W. Bush post 9/11 and Barack Obama post 01/20/09. In the aftermath of 9/11 Bush didn't stand before the American people making excuses. Nor did he stand around pointing fingers at previous administrations, scrambling to find a scapegoat. He stood before international media and vowed to keep America safe and he did just that for the remainder of his administration. Comparatively, Obama seems content to stand...

In his on going effort to demonize Fox News Channel, President Barack Obama and his advisers attempted one of the most egregious abuses of executive power in it's short history - and only one of the firsts, no doubt - by attempting to ban Fox News White House correspondent Major Garrett from interviewing one of the mysterious White House "czars". The White House's "war on Fox News" has even involved senior advisers telling other media outlets that they "ought not treat" Fox as a legitimate news organization: White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN on Sunday that President...

While exiting the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin was asked by a bystander, “What have you given us, a republic or a monarchy?” His answer: “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.” This year the celebration of America’s independence comes at a time when we are in danger of failing to keep that Republic. The continued troubles of auto makers, insurers, and banks in the wake of bailouts shows that throwing money at noncompetitive companies, choked with bad debt and overburdened by labor contracts, is not the answer. What our leaders have done, in the guise of economic stewardship, is...

In a Daily Beast op-ed the former Bush speech writer says Sarah Palin is still the class of the 2012 field, and she's not going away anytime soon. Why? Because the rank and file are fed up with the establishment Republicans who have almost drained all of the "Grand" out of the Grand Old party, and they see Palin as the cure for the disease they carry. A few excerpts: The latest news in Washington is that the conservative Minnesota governor (and potential 2012 presidential contender) has caught the eye of the city’s top Republican gurus. You remember them. The...

Tonight, Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate for the November 3 special election in the 23rd congressional district, spoke to about 100 Republicans at the Lewis County GOP dinner at the Elks Lodge 1605. After a dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, Scozzafava fended off criticism that she wasn't as conservative as third-party candidate Doug Hoffman and urged her supporters to vote for her in order to keep her Democratic opponent Bill Owens from serving as a rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama's agenda in Washington. It was a fairly typical evening--until the speech ended and someone with...

Three Asset Classes That Can Actually Outpace Coming Inflationary Price Increases by: Paco Ahlgren October 19, 2009 This “Excess capacity is temporarily suppressing global prices. But I see inflation as the greater future challenge." - Alan Greenspan, June 25, 2009 "The US economy may witness double-digit inflation in a few years unless the central bank tightens up its monetary policy… Unless we roll in this whole degree of expansion, we will be in trouble… I am not talking 3-5 per cent inflation, I am talking double-digit inflation in the US.” - Alan Greenspan, September 9, 2009 -- Man, the Dow...

The Land of Make Believe. Those words form the title of a great song and the name of some amusement parks. But they also describe President Barack Obama’s perception of the health care reform process. Mr. Obama recently announced from The Land of Make Believe that all of the objections to the health care reform plan have been heard: "This is another milestone on what has been a long, hard road toward health insurance reform. In recent months, we’ve heard every side of every argument from both sides of the aisle." Annuit Coeptis

President Obama visited my home town of New Orleans last week, promising more federal aid and fewer bureaucratic snafus for a city still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. His message was echoed by several senior members of the President's cabinet as they toured the hard-hit region. And yet, I think most of my fellow New Orleanians, while delighted with his visit, were underwhelmed with the President's rhetoric. Too many of us have heard this message before. Instead of promising more federal funding to rebuild New Orleans, I would like to see President Obama promise less. That's right, less!...

California Republicans are seeing political gold in California's water problems, hoping to steal the issue from Democrats and win support from one of that party's key constituencies - Latinos. GOP leaders have put water atop their agenda for next year's statewide campaigns. They are expanding voter-registration efforts in the drought-stricken Central Valley, where unemployment is high and food banks are busy, and encouraging candidates to reach out to Latino voters hit hard by the recession. The strategy was distilled on a 5-foot-high banner at the Republican voter registration table in front of a Walmart store in Dinuba (Tulare County) in...

Many people reading the op-ed piece in The New York Times co-authored by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) titled “Yes We Can (Pass Climate Change Legislation)” might scratch their head at this odd alliance of political personalities. Some would give up reading after a couple of paragraphs, since the article proceeds from the deeply flawed premise that man’s activities produce harmful air pollutants in sufficient quantities to negatively affect Earth’s environment. Those who listen to only one side of the climate change argument hold this position. They accept as fact a theory with at least as...

Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier announced Thursday that he would switch gears and run for the House seat currently held by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), rather than for the Senate. “It’s time to re-energize the people’s House with new leadership and better solutions. The 7th Congressional District represents the right path, right now, to do my part in helping make America better. The people here deserve a better choice,” Frazier said in a statement.

Earlier this week, the Senate Finance Committee approved the health care bill proposed by Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.). Without a doubt, this bill will increase government spending and increase taxes for Americans ..... We need more people to voice their opposition to the Democratic leadership. Will you help us get this message out?

Mr. Hoffman has siphoned so much support from Ms. Scozzafava that their Democratic rival has vaulted into the lead, according to a poll released Thursday. The election is Nov. 3. "I am not your run-of-the-mill politician, and maybe that's why the Republican bosses didn't like me," Mr. Hoffman told a recent health-care forum sponsored by the Upstate New York Tea Party. In an interview, Ms. Scozzafava acknowledged her discomfort at the event. "I knew it wasn't going to be an easy audience for me," she said. The rise of conservative "tea party" activists around the country has created a dilemma...