Free Republic

Dear Friends, The Congress is continuing its work to try to get healthcare reform legislation, and I believe the prospects are reasonably good that we will produce a bill. I hope that the bill will have the public option - and a robust public option. We will have a cloture vote tonight and I believe that we should be able to get 60 Senators at least to agree to start the debate. Click below to hear my take on healthcare reform: http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorArlenSpecter#p/u/0/_cjXqFbdAeg It would be my hope that my colleagues would not draw lines in the sand or stay in...

EXCLUSIVE: If tradition stands, the details of the guest list will be revealed only a few hours before the Obama administration's first state dinner tomorrow. The welcome for India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be the biggest social event of the Obama White House. Already the Washington DC press corp is buzzing about the "got-to-be-there" fever.

Dear Senator Mary Landrieu, In the words of Ricky Ricardo, you got some splainin’ to do. This state is clearly against this health care bill and you voted to move it forward despite the overwhelming wishes of your constituents. Avoiding your constituents can not continue to be your response. Reserving and filling the front four rows with people who are obviously for the health care bill at a town hall only serves as an indication that you are more interested in advancing this agenda than serving your constituents. Don’t hide from your constituents over this Thanksgiving break, don’t stay in...

Bishop: Patrick Kennedy Misrepresenting Letter on Communion, Abortion Washington, DC -- Congressman Patrick Kennedy, a pro-abortion member from Rhode Island, says Bishop Thomas Tobin has asked him to stop receiving communion because of his pro-abortion views. However, Tobin says the demand was merely a voluntary request that was issued two years ago and meant to be private. http://www.lifenews.com/state4590.html

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., are proposing new taxes to pay for more U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Two top Democrats say they want to impose a new tax on the wealthy to finance any increase in U.S. troops for the Afghanistan war.

WASHINGTON — The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true. But that happy situation, aided by ultralow interest rates, may not last much longer. Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed. Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging...

The final paragraph: The U.S. political process must stop its infantile wrangling and show cause for the world to believe that it will defend the financial integrity of the country, before discussion of U.S. default — which will otherwise become audible, soon — spooks the whole world.

Last week had to be a bit awkward for Democrats. They labored to pass a health care bill that, among other things, establishes a government advisory panel to curb health care costs with industrywide medical recommendations. And at just the wrong moment, a similar government advisory panel provoked outrage by recommending that women stop getting so many breast cancer screenings. Unruffled, the Democrats pressed on with their 2,000-page health care bill, going so far as to hold a rare Saturday night vote on whether to proceed to debate. There's a good reason they are in such a rush to pass...

China slams US report warning of spying by Beijing Mon Nov 23, 3:58 am ET BEIJING – Beijing on Monday criticized a U.S. government report that said Chinese spies are aggressively stealing American secrets, saying the report was "full of prejudice" and warning that it could damage US-China relations.The annual report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission to lawmakers said last week that American officials believe Chinese spying is "growing in scale, intensity and sophistication" and urges Congress to review the U.S. ability to meet the "rising challenge" of Beijing's espionage. The report "ignores the facts and is full of prejudice and...

Overall, the Register poll seems to be nothing but good news for Mike Huckabee. But that is not the case, because of Palin's numbers....

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

Italy's beleaguered prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, will face fresh embarrassment on Tuesday with the publication of a book written by the call girl who claims to have slept with him at his mansion in Rome. Patrizia D'Addario said the 73-year-old premier changed into white silk pyjamas and dressing gown after asking her to spend the night with him at the end of a lavish party at his palatial residence. She felt as though she had entered a "harem" when she attended the soirée, with 20 glamorous young models and starlets competing for the favours of the prime minister, who she...

The U.S. government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with IOUs on terms that seem too good to be true. But that happy situation - a result of interest rates dropping to extraordinary lows even as the government has had to borrow more and more - may not last for long. Treasury officials face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.

The boy, known as Georgie Smith, has wanted to be a girl since he was a toddler. He said: "I'm old enough to know what I want. What I want is to be a girl." His mother Carole, 41, has criticised the NHS for preventing treatment until Georgie reaches puberty – meaning that his hormones will give him a manly appearance. She wants him to be given hormone blockers now. She told The Sun: "With his puberty suspended, he wouldn't grow to six foot or have big hands." The mother-of-three said that her son wanted to be a girl from...

WASHINGTON: In an extraordinary endorsement of the United States’ economic resilience, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said questions about the American economic model and the setbacks it is suffering are temporary, and the country has the capacity to bounce back. Singh also gave a thumbs up to the beleaguered US dollar, saying ''as far as I can see right now, there is no substitute for the dollar.'' His own feeling, he said, ''is that we have not entered an era of irreversible shift in economic strength of the United States.'' The Indian prime minister’s comments came in an interview...

"The person who made me proudest of all though was my (half-brother), Roy. He was converted to Islam." (DREAMS OF MY FATHER)

Health trusts must do more to help doctors and nurses exercise and give up smoking and heavy drinking, says the Government. NHS organisations will be expected to improve access to intervention programmes such as counselling or gyms as part of a drive to reduce sickness absence, which costs £1.5 billion a year. The first national audit of staff habits has found that high rates of obesity, smoking, absenteeism and poor mental health were having a direct impact on the quality of patient care. The Health Secretary is expected to accept all the recommendations of the final review, drawn up by...

Dozens of student protesters who took over a UC Santa Cruz administrative building after a systemwide tuition increase were removed Sunday morning when police officers in riot gear ordered them to exit the building or face arrest. No arrests were made, and university officials said the operation concluded peacefully. But videos provided by some of the 70 or so protesters show a tense scene, with officers pushing their way through a wall of students chanting "We are peaceful, what about you?" to reach the entrance of Kerr Hall. Anthropology Professor Mark Anderson suffered minor injuries after he was squeezed off...

The hundreds of e-mails being made public after someone hacked into Phil Jones’ Climatic Research Unit (CRU) computer system offer a revealing peek inside the IPCC machine. It will take some time before we know whether any illegal activity has been uncovered (e.g. hiding or destruction of data to avoid Freedom of Information Act inquiries). Some commentators even think this is the beginning of the end for the IPCC. I doubt it. The scientists at the center of this row are defending themselves. Phil Jones has claimed that some of the more alarming statements in his e-mails have been taken...

Some Cities See Rebate Funding for Efficient Toilets Drying Up By KATE GALBRAITH Austin, Texas, has recently received requests for nearly 4,000 efficient toilets, costing nearly $800,000, according to the Austin American-Statesman. The toilets cut water use by 63 percent compared with 1980s models, and have resulted in a 1 percent drop in water usage, the city claims. But the program’s popularity has nearly depleted the $2.3 million allocated for the toilet rebate and some other conservation incentives, the paper reported. In Ottawa, Canada, meanwhile, the city had been offering rebates of up to $70 to replace old toilets, but...

OAKLAND — A man arrested at the West Oakland BART station Saturday was held on battery charges after a thick glass window broke during his arrest, severely cutting the BART police officer at the scene, officials said. BART officials held a news conference Sunday to address the incident because a video of the arrest was posted on YouTube. The video is shot from inside a train and shows Michael Joseph Gibson, a 37-year-old San Leandro man, shouting at other riders. In the video, an officer enters the train, grabs Gibson and walks him toward a wall at the other side...

For years California has courted a reputation as an eco-friendly, green-minded leader, but the state now finds its most basic program of recycling beverage bottles and cans mired in debt and litigation. Dozens of supermarket recycling sites have shut down recently as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislators spar over how to close a massive gap in the program's budget. California's 23-year-old recycling program, managed by the Department of Conservation through fees charged to beverage buyers, has been hurt this year by recession, rising redemption rates and raids of its coffers to help ease the state's budget woes. Schwarzenegger and...

Nine months after President Obama promised that his $789 billion stimulus package would be the most transparent spending bill in history, much of the information available to the public for the Bay Area and the rest of the nation is incomplete or inaccurate. The White House's Recovery Act Web site - www.recovery.gov - shows that $660 million has been awarded to Bay Area transportation projects to create 997 jobs, which amounts to a staggering $661,986 per job. Last week, the site showed that California Congressional Districts 00 and 99 received millions of dollars in stimulus funding even though neither district...

It may come as a surprise to many of his Democratic supporters, but Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Jerry Brown has gone to bat for the National Rifle Association. The NRA's cause: urging the U.S. Supreme Court to guarantee the ability of gun owners across the land to keep and bear arms. Last year, the high court struck down a ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., ruling for the first time that the Second Amendment's right to bear arms applies to individuals who keep a gun at home for self-defense. But the court made it clear the ruling applied only...

Neil Sankey, who has almost 20 years experience serving in Special Branch and the Bomb Squad, is now devoting his energies to proving that Mr Obama is not a natural born US citizen. He joined the Birthers after meeting Orly Taitz, one of the leaders of the group, which disputes Mr Obama’s claim that he was born in Hawaii. Over the past year, Mr Sankey has been integral in some of the most aggressive efforts to remove him from office by claiming that his presidency is illegitimate. He tried to block Obama's inauguration last year by contacting all 538 electoral...

Abortion Activist Judge Hamilton Confirmed with Help of Ten Republican Senators by James Tillman and John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, DC, November 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Senate voted 59-39 yesterday to confirm President Obama's first circuit court appointee, the pro-abortion Judge David Hamilton. Although hailed as moderate by various news sources and dubbed "thoughtful and distinguished" by President Obama, many conservatives have condemned him as a judicial activist who places his own preferences above the law. "As a judge, Hamilton has shown himself to be soft on crime, radically pro-abortion, and hostile towards religion," wrote a group of prominent conservatives upon...

Questions concerning legal ethics are often quite tricky. Other times, however, they’re not, like when certain alleged activities are blatantly criminal. Consider the situation involving made against Paul Bergrin, a New Jersey defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor indicted back in May on a host of charges. (Click here for an earlier LB post on Bergrin.) Among other things, federal prosecutors have accused him of using a restaurant in Newark as a front for a cocaine-distribution network; overseeing a $1,000-an-hour call-girl ring; and ordering the murders of two witnesses.

More allegations that Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was protected by the Obama Administration released today. Did the Obama Administration cover-up sexual misconduct charges for Mayor Johnson, in order to save his election, and the Capitol City millions of federal dollars? A joint report released today by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Finance Committee Republican offers new insight into the political maneuvering at the White House to remove the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Gerald Walpin and revealed explosive allegations (see pages 24-30 of Just Released Walpin Referral Document) of...

Below is a letter I am considering sending to my local newspapers and placing on my blog. I would like to solicite comments/advice/recommendations from Freepers before I send it out.

A federal district court judge has just ruled that two disgraced Pennsylvania state court judges, Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., are protected by immunity from facing legal action for courtroom acts that consisted of over 6000 corrupt decisions, including shipping children to "reform schools" that had paid off the judges.

GLENN BECK, the most listened to Talk Show Host among White House Peeps (4 out of 5 Marxists agree)! Welcome Sick Twisted Freaks! It’s a morning thread, so bring your coffee and doughnuts! FRink Phrases: “Blow your mind” “Fatty fat fatso” “Having an ADD(or ADHD) moment” “That’s FANSTASTIC!” And of course anytime Pat does his Arlen Specter voice is cause to FRink! Feel free to FReepmail any suggestions to add to the list! ENJOY!

Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the lowest level of support measured for the plan in nearly two dozen tracking polls conducted since June. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% now oppose the plan.

“It is a characteristic of all movements and crusades that the psychopathic element rises to the top.” Robert Lindner How much longer will Al Gore get a pass from the mainstream media? A little bit longer if their failure to react to the devastating revelations of files hacked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia is a measure. Their behavior reflects how most, especially from the left, have abetted the scientists who deliberately perverted climate science. We now know Gore’s errors are based on the global warming fraud orchestrated by a few scientists centered round...

The Huntington Planning Commission had a major item on their desk last week. It was a new proposed signage ordinance. The first ordinance was established in 1984. The new proposal had business owners showing up at the meeting, causing the vote to stall. Because of the outcry, the vote has been set to take place in December.

http://www.cnsnews.com/cnsnewstv/v/GdqG6Unz8z

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Part of a series, it connected then presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government. Since then the story of that strategy has found its way across the blogosphere, onto the airwaves of radio stations across the country, the Glenn Beck...

U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, a Democrat who confounded the GOP by winning six consecutive elections in a heavily Republican district, will not seek re-election next year, key Democrats said Sunday. Moore, who represented Johnson, Wyandotte and a portion of Douglas counties, will issue a statement today explaining his decision and outlining his plans. Moore, 64, is expected to finish out his term, which ends in January 2011.

Here's a new maxim: Nothing good ever happens when the Congress is in session on a Saturday night. As you know, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-Nev) cajoled, coerced, and co-opted Senators Mary Landrieu (D-La) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) into adding the 59th and 60th necessary votes to prevent a GOP filibuster of Reid's health reform bill. Reid and Obama Administration officials relied on the time honored method (used by Republicans and Democrats) of getting recalcitrant Members to vote a certain way: Bribery which, in the real world, is a felony but in Washington it is called "hardball." In Sen....

Californians have plenty of reasons not to trust their state attorney general to conduct an honest probe of ACORN and the hidden-camera videos that helped expose the group's criminal inclinations for the world to see. This radical, perpetual office holder who handed out acorns during mayoral inauguration festivities in 1999 -- describing them as symbolizing "seeds of change" -- goes way back with ACORN. The New Left crusader known as Governor Moonbeam when he was the state's chief executive from 1975 to 1983 has had close ties to the group for years, according to a former ACORN official. ACORN endorsed...

Lord Lawson, the former chancellor, has called for an independent inquiry into claims that leading climate change scientists manipulated data to strengthen the case for man-made global warming. This morning Lord Lawson, who has reinvented himself as a prominent climate change sceptic since leaving front line politics, demanded that the apparent deception be fully investigated. He claimed that the credibility of the university's world-renowned Climatic Research Unit - and British science - were under threat.

Of all the changes Barack Obama is trying to bring about, there is one that would have stunned and dismayed his most ardent supporters, had they foreseen it during the presidential campaign. After all his talk of American values and loyalty to the Constitution, Obama is positioning himself to become the man who brought indefinite detention to the United States. Under his leadership, we might soon have in our midst a group of people — accused terrorists currently residing at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — who are permanently imprisoned, yet have never been charged with or convicted...

Obama the Racist?By Kevin Jackson The question was recently posed to me, "Do you think Obama is a racist?"  I answered, "Obama is the best kind of racist to whites, but the worst kind of racist to blacks."  My questioner was perplexed. I began by explaining that Obama's racism against whites is upfront, in your face racism, that he discussed in his book Dreams from My Father: I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites. I found a solace...

Just hours after Sen. Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa released a report Friday on their investigation into the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin, the Obama White House gave the lawmakers a trove of new, previously-withheld documents on the affair. It was a twist on the now-familiar White House late-Friday release of bad news; this time, the new evidence was put out not only at the start of a weekend but also hours too late for inclusion in the report.

Today's report about political developments surrounding the global warming issue is brought to you by the letter "C." 1. C is for "carbon dioxide." Environmental extremists and major news journalists call this gas that is exhaled by all animals, and that is food for plants, a dangerous pollutant. Yet we would all die without it. That makes me sad. 2. C is for "climate change." It used to be called global warming, which many activists with a socialist bent warned would bring more catastrophic weather events, elevating seas, and economic ruin. They said because humans continue to produce greater amounts...

You can't say we weren't warned ahead of time about Obama's globalist and controlling tendencies. As candidate Obama explained in a campaign speech in Portland on May 18, 2008, it would be tough for him to get together with the world's leaders and establish international controls on human behavior if we continue to carry on with our individualistic hankerings to eat cheeseburgers and drive things that are twice as big as the SmartCar. "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times and then just expect that...

A brawl ending in deadly gunfire has fingers pointed at both the officer and the victim. Action News has learned that the man who fired the fatal shot was an off-duty Philadelphia police officer Frank Tepper. The victim is identified as 21-year-old Bill Panas.

Listen Live: Sound Off Connecticut with Jim Vicevich 9 a.m. to noon ET (Daily Thread)Sound Off Connecticut is a popular conservative/libertarian call in talk show hosted by Jim Vicevich weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon ET. Although based in Connecticut, the show welcomes callers from all over the United States! This is your chance to sound off America! Call into the show toll free (800) 966-9842! Listen to the LIVE AUDIO STREAM at http://wtic.com - it's free and NO registration is required! If you're in southern New England listen over the air to WTIC 1080 AM, the 50,000 watt...

Riding into the Oval Office on a tidal wave of support, President Barack Obama’s overreaching policy proposals concerning issues like healthcare and global warming have cost him in the polls. While still maintaining high likability ratings, the U.S. public has begun to differentiate between Obama the person and Obama the politician. Just under three quarters of Americans, 74 percent, told Quinnipiac pollsters they like Mr. Obama, but the president’s policies garnished support from only 47 percent of the country. Such a gap demonstrates that Mr. Obama’s policies are costing him a number of the Independent voters who delivered him the...

For those of us who have tracked Islamic militancy in Europe, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's actions are not extraordinary. Since Muslim militants first tried to blow a French high-speed train off its rails in 1995, European intelligence and internal-security services have increasingly monitored European Muslim radicals. Whether it's anti-Muslim bigotry, the large numbers of immigrant and native-born Muslims in Europe, an appreciation of how hard it is to become European, or just an understanding of how dangerous Islamic radicalism is, most Europeans are far less circumspect and politically correct when discussing their Muslim compatriots than are Americans.

As tragedies go, the Senate's Saturday night vote to proceed with a debate on a vast new health-care entitlement wasn't exactly Shakespearean. The outcome was expected but the writing wasn't as good and the acting was more Jon Lovitz than Laurence Olivier. The only real drama was how much publicity and pork the supposedly fence-sitting Democrats could exact in exchange for a vote that everyone knew was a foregone conclusion. At this stage of the legislative process, Democrats are at ramming speed, determined to pass this destructive legislation at whatever cost before more voters figure out what is being done...