Free Republic

[Editor’s note: The Nobel Peace Prize is supposed to recognize and reward contributions to world peace. But, for decades, the Prize Committee has made the award a tool of left-wing politics and UN chicanery, risibly awarding the prize to recipients including the late Yassir Arafat, a terrorist, global warmist Al Gore and now President Obama, in recognition of what they believe are Obama’s good intentions and not for anything he has accomplished to date. HUMAN EVENTS believes there are people who actually do contribute to our nation’s peace and prosperity far more than the Nobel recipients. From this year forward,...

Now officially part of the mob, I attended the town hall meeting yesterday of Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) in Hagerstown.  (Included below are two brand new videos.) Maryland is as “blue� a state as you can find.  (Barack Obama got almost 700,000 more votes than John McCain in 2008).  But anger at Obamacare -- and the senators and congressman pushing it -- appears to have turned a lot of blue voters red-faced. Obama won the State of Maryland in the Presidential general election last year by over 26 points -- Obama-Biden receiving 61.9 percent of the vote to 35.5 percent...

TIME FOR SECESSION Human Events ^ | 10/15/52 | Frank Chodorov  By Frank Chodorov If I were governor of a state, or even a legislator, I would put my weight behind a secessionist movement; not secession from the Union, but secession from Washington. I would do so exactly because I favor the Union, as originally conceived and my advocacy of secession would be based on the same reasoning that prompted initiation of the Union, namely that divided authority is a good guarantee of freedom. The Union was—it still exists on paper—a voluntary association of autonomous states, each invested with...

There are times when back to back posts on Free Republic strike the eye as if planned, but one must figure they were not. This thread is devoted to occasions where two or more FR posts occur in sequence that literally fit together. The example to follow was created by using the [CTRL] + [PRT SCR] function and then pasting into Photoshop for a quick cropping. (Sorry if sloppy.) I'm counting on other Freepers to keep an eye out for these occasions. If someone else has already started this work, please point me to the same and I'll post this...

Liberal opinion is engaged heavily now in belaboring Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh for calling the Prophet Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a racist. The proximate cause for this charge is the following statement by Judge Sotomayor to an audience at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 2001: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." Well, possibly the bigotry inhering in that line does not rise to the level of...

Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered. (Psalm 40:5)

President Obama on Tuesday nominated Judge Sonya Sotomayor to be on the Supreme Court. Here are some provocative statements she has made in the past. “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” "I simply do not know exactly what the difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.” “I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from...

President Obama’s two overseas trips -- Europe and Latin America -- make him appear more like a diplomatic tourist than the leader of the free world. He met heads of state, made speeches, attended summits, conducted town hall meetings, but accomplished nothing that furthers U.S. interests abroad. Obama’s agenda -- described succinctly by his spokesmen on the eve of each trip -- was shut out by the leaders with whom he met. Obama’s only accomplishment is to portray himself as a chameleon-like leader who takes an anti-American tone to please his foreign hosts. Presidential candidate Obama promised to demonstrate a...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at a June breakfast for reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, took a bold position on whether government should resume regulating political speech on the radio. “Do you personally support revival of the Fairness Doctrine,” asked John Gizzi, political editor for Human Events. “Yes,” said Pelosi. While this declaration was little noted in the mainstream media, it sent shock waves through the conservative blogosphere. If the new Barack Obama administration were to make moves now to revive the doctrine, however, it surely would become one of the most hotly debated issues in America. Nicknamed the...

The number of ex-Guantanamo detainees who have gone back to terrorism is much larger than the government is letting on. A senior intelligence official, who has access to some of the country's top secrets, tells HUMAN EVENTS that some Pentagon analysts actually believe 102 former enemy combatants have returned to terror -- not 61 as publicly reported by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). That would mean that of 520 terrorists released from the Guantanamo Bay prison, nearly 20 percent returned to the practice of killing to achieve their radical view of Islam. The number is gaining importance in light of...

In an event billed as a “distinguished speaker series” event, Ann Coulter faced off against Bill Maher last night at Radio City Music Hall in New York. In front of 6,000 hissing New York City liberals -- alternately absorbing and answering vulgar, sexist and racist insults from “comedian” Bill Maher -- Coulter battled back against audience shriekers, an unfunny Maher and “moderator” Mark Halperin of Time Magazine in a “debate” that would have been more accurately billed as a cage match and shown on Pay-per-View tv. The tone was set at the very start. The audience was asked whether they...

A hidden effect of the November 4 elections and the national events that preceded them during this past year is perhaps best called the “John Galt Effect� in honor of Ayn Rand’s famous character in Atlas Shrugged.  It is occurring to a very significant extent. Our technological civilization stands upon the shoulders of many generations of free Americans and the great accomplishments that they bequeathed to us. Among those Americans and their counterparts in other countries have been a small special group of people whose unusual genius, work ethic, and love for their specialties were especially outstanding. These men,...

The Senate today passed a massive $838 billion economic stimulus package while Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner gave only scant details on the next step of the financial bailout package. Wall Street was not impressed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell sharply, down over 300 points by mid-afternoon. Three Republican senators - Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania - joined with the Democratic majority in passing the stimulus package on a 61-37 vote. The bill will now have to be reconciled with a House version that relied more on spending programs and less on...

February 12, 1999 was the day social conservatism died in America. On that bitter day, President Bill Clinton was acquitted in his impeachment trial. The United States Senate determined that his perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinsky scandal did not warrant his removal from office; the Senate’s view was shared by two-thirds of the American people. With that decision, traditional American morality bit the dust. Four days after Clinton’s acquittal, the late Paul Weyrich wrote an open letter to the American conservative movement in which he declared: Cultural Marxism is succeeding in its war against our culture....

There are many reasons to oppose the so-called stimulus bill and none of them are partisan. An obvious one is the haste with which Congress is acting on a bill that is in excess of 700 pages and spends hundreds of billions of dollars. It is being rushed through both the legislative process with little or no input from the minority party legislators, much less the general public. The so-called Senate compromise was not available to most Senators until past 11 pm on Saturday night and yet a vote is expected by Tuesday at the latest. Even if the Keynesian...

The mainstream media will never give him a break, but conservatives should probably be comfortable with new RNC Chairman Michael Steele. On CNN, Don Lemon asked the CNN political reporter, “Is the RNC pandering, is Michael Steele legitimate?” In an appearance on my radio program on Monday, Steele said “the Republican party is called racist when they don’t reach out and pandering when they do.” He went as far as to tell a reporter that asked him if he was legitimate to come back when he had a real question. If only the questions about his credentials were coming from...

Contact: Gregg Jackson, www.greggjackson.com; John Haskins, 818-397-7714 MEDIA ADVISORY, Jan. 27 /Christian Newswire/ -- Radio host and bestselling author Gregg Jackson and a growing list of other conservative leaders, lawyers and activists are calling on Eagle Publishing to dismiss editor Jed Babbin and take immediate and decisive steps to restore the credibility of Human Events. Among the names widely known in social conservative and pro-life circles are Dr. Ted Baehr, President of Movieguide; Ambassador Alan Keyes, former Reagan appointee and presidential candidate; Dr. William Greene of RightMarch.com; Coach Dave Daubenmire, talk show host and author; and Brian Rohrbough, President of...

Yes, I know you guys and gals don't like vanities, but I need advice, and I don't who else to ask. Anyway, does anyone here subscribe to Human Events? How is it different from the online version? Is a subscription worth it? Which one is better: Human Events, National Review, or American Spectator? Those are the only ones I know.

Sen. John McCain's 2006 demand for regulatory action on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have prevented current financial crisis, as HUMAN EVENTS learned from the letter shown in full text below. McCain's letter -- signed by nineteen other senators -- said that it was "...vitally important that Congress take the necessary steps to ensure that [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac]...operate in a safe and sound manner.[and]..More importantly, Congress must ensure that the American taxpayer is protected in the event that either...should fail." Sen. Obama did not sign the letter, nor did any other Democrat.

Dear Colleagues, Our nation has been confronted by a serious crisis in our financial markets. The President and this Congress were right to act with all deliberate speed in addressing this crisis. We now have a deal that promises to bring near term stability to our financial turmoil, but at what price? Economic freedom means the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail. The decision to give the federal government the ability to nationalize almost every bad mortgage in America interrupts this basic truth of our free market economy. Republicans improved this bill but it remains the largest corporate...

“Optimism about housing values also led to a boom in home construction. Eventually, the number of new houses exceeded the number of people willing to buy them. And with supply exceeding demand, housing prices fell, and this created a problem.” -- President George W. Bush, explaining the origins if the housing meltdown in his emergency address of September 24, 2008 The now deflated Housing Bubble had many causes. These include promiscuous lending practices, low interest rates, federal policy aimed at turning human credit hazards into homeowners, the baby boomers entering their prime earning years, and HGTV. The bursting of the...

“It's a terrible idea. It's undemocratic. It's bad economic policy, and it's bad social policy. And it has a very little chance of solving the problem in a meaningful way.” -- Allan Meltzer, Carnegie-Mellon University Beware of politicians or business leaders who say, “I’m a firm believer in the free market, but…” “But” thinkers have come out of the woodwork during this financial crisis: Conservative economist Bruce Bartlett proposes tax increases…..Patrick Byrne, the new CEO of the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation who calls himself a “classical liberal,” demands that Congress impose a transactions tax on every stock market transaction...

Vice President Dick Cheney recently blasted the Russians for supporting state-sponsors of terrorism. "Russia has sold advanced weapons to the regimes in Syria and Iran,” Cheney said in remarks to the The Ambrosetti Forum, a European security conference in Cernobbio, Italy, on Sept. 6. “Some of the Russian weapons sold to Damascus have been channeled to terrorist fighters in Lebanon and Iraq." But we have to connect the dots from Russia and its ongoing arms sales (from assault rifles to air-defense systems) to both Syria and Iran; to the relationships between sometimes-unlikely allies like Syria, Iran, Lebanon-based Shia Hizballah even...

RedState.com reported last week they had uncovered the transcript of Barack Obama’s 2002 floor speech in opposition to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act (“BAIPA”). The transcript makes clear Barack Obama opposed the BAIPA not because, as he claimed, it would encroach on abortion rights, but because the law would “burden the original decision of the woman and the physician.” It was too much of a burden, according to Obama, to ensure that a child, born alive, get medical care to sustain the child’s life. Understanding both the timeline of Obama’s votes against the BAIPA and the language of the...

In the showdown between House Republicans and Speaker Nancy Pelosi over an up-or-down vote on increasing American oil supply by opening up offshore drilling, Pelosi blinked before a national TV audience on Larry King Live Monday night. When asked by King about bringing Congress back into session for a vote, Pelosi responded in part, “[Republicans] have this thing that says drill offshore in the protected areas. Well, we can do that. We can have a vote on that.” Before her book tour flopped, Pelosi haughtily informed Republicans that they needed to “imagine” a vote. As monumental as that capitulation to...

I'm a writer whose credits include The Atlantic, The American Spectator, the Claremont Institute and Doublethink Online. I'd be grateful to anyone willing to discuss their opinion, positive or negative, of Human Events. A piece I'm researching requires me to better understand who reads the publication and what conservatives generally think about it. I can be reached by e-mail at conor.friedersdorf@gmail.com

Code Pink 'Bundles' for Barack by Catherine Moy Posted: 04/14/2008 The co-founder of the radical anti-war group Code Pink has “bundled” more than $50,000 for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and pro-troops groups are demanding that he return the money.Jodie Evans, a Code Pink leader, gathered at least $50,000 from friends and associates and donated it to Obama’s presidential campaign, according to information compiled by the nonpartisan watchdog group, Public Citizen.Evans and her son, a student who lives at her Southern California address, each also gave the maximum individual allowable donation of $2,300 to Obama’s campaign.The donations have raised...

On a gray Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill Sen. John McCain addressed several hundred members of Vets for Freedom -- the largest Iraq and Afghanistan veterans' organizations in the country. In DC's upper Senate Park, McCain and other pro-victory Senators and Congressmen rallied for success in Iraq. The event was timed to support the same day U.S. Commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker returned to Washington to present their latest progress reports. Washington was one of VFF's last stops in the three-week National Heroes Tour, on which members spoke to and encouraged crowds...

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net) A right-wing American weekly newspaper will distribute free copies of a book that insults Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and associates Islam with terrorism, Washington-based news agency America in Arabic reported. The neo-conservative, Republican-oriented Human Events newspaper will distribute Robert Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion (2006), America in Arabic said. The book -- regularly priced at 30 dollars -- is released by Regnery, which has published a string of controversial neo-con books and is a division of Eagle Publishing, which owns Human Events. Well-known British writer Karen Armstrong, author of Muhammad: A Prophet...

On Tuesday night the magnitude of the Barack Obama wave became clear. The MSM pundits’ eyes lit up and they seized the moment to -- guess what -- predict doom for John McCain and the Republicans in the general election. “How would McCain possibly compete against such an eloquent man?” “Look at the giant screaming crowds!” One even went so far as to agree that McCain was right that Obama’s rhetoric was fluff but that it “didn’t work to run against hope.” McCain currently trails Obama in the polls and the huge turnouts in the Democratic primaries suggest that McCain...

Hillary -- The Movie by Aryeh Spero January 30, 2008 A lucky few New York conservatives gathered by invitation in Times Square to view a private screening of the New York premier of "Hillary -- The Movie." It was a private showing because a three judge panel in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., recently ruled that it is akin more to a campaign ad and thus subject to campaign finance laws. David Bossie of Citizens United, producer of the movie, countered that it should be granted the same status as the Michael Moore film,” Fahrenheit 9/11”, which was...

Posted on January 12th, 2008 By Sean Hackbarth in Conservative, Announcements   [Human Events‘ editor Jed Babbin wrote this guest blog. –Sean] Since we endorsed Fred Thompson on Friday, Human Events has had a huge reaction –overwhelmingly positive – to the editorial from our readers all across the country. Here are some excerpts from the nearly 500 (and counting) comments: “Human Events made the right choice. Now conservatives everywhere are counting on the good people of South Carolina to do the same,” Kelly S., Florida.“Great editorial endorsement. Many conservatives are always trying to distinguish themselves among other conservatives with...

We begin by recalling the profound words of Ronald Reagan at the Conservative Political Action Conference Feb. 15, 1975: “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.” We believed that then, and we believe it now. The issue for us -- and for the conservative community -- boils down to which of the candidates is most representative of the fundamental conservative principles we believe in. The answer is Fred Thompson.

I have always viewed National Review as the established voice of conservatism. If you are an opinion leader on the right, you read National Review. At the same time, I've viewed Human Events as the voice of the base within the movement -- the middle class and blue collar conservative men and women who show up to vote in fly over country. Perhaps that is why it was Ronald Reagan's favorite newspaper. I should say here in the interests of full disclosure that they, as of last year, became our sister organization. Human Events also falls under the Eagle umbrella....

And he just got an endorsement from Human Events, which you can read here. (Full disclosure: I have written for HE in the past and expect to do so in the future. I had nothing to do with the endorsement but I fully back it for the reasons discussed in the endorsement.) Interestingly enough, this comes in the wake of an excellent performance by Fred Thompson in last night's debates in South Carolina. He was clearly the most intellectually impressive candidate on the stage. As a reward, Thompson came under a ridiculous series of attacks from Joe Scarborough and Mike...

He won’t spill! Sean Hannity tried to pry it out of him to no avail. Taking calls for almost an hour Fred Thompson and Jeri Thompson were on Sean Hannity’s radio show today. While many of the candidates practiced and prepped for tonight’s debate, Thompson took questions from callers and Sean Hannity and played coy regarding a major endorsement he will receive tomorrow. He said he thinks he has “a fair chance” here in South Carolina. He went on to say “South Carolina is where I stand.” He said he had a strong conservative consistent record which plays well here....

This just came in to me from Will Lacey, Chairman of the Fred Thompson Campaign. ============ Today Fred was endorsed by the highly influential Human Events, the weekly conservative periodical. Human Events has advocated the conservative cause for years. It has been on the front line of conservative vs. liberal battles and consistently has led the charge. You may recall that I worked for President Reagan in the White House and I know for a fact that he read every issue. Here's a key line from their endorsement: "We conclude that Thompson is a solid conservative whose judgment is grounded...

On the War: HUMAN EVENTS EDITOR Jed Babbin (JB): In this presidential campaign, one of the biggest issues, of course, is the War in Iraq. In the June 5th Republican debate, talking about another subject, Mayor Giuliani went off-topic a little bit, and he said, “…We need to look at nation-building as part of what we need to teach our military.” Nation-building seems to be either the biggest benefit or the biggest problem in Iraq. What is your view of nation-building? As a military exercise, is that a proper strategy for America? GOV. MITT ROMNEY: Well, I’m not an expert...

A SURVEY by the conservative weekly Human Events, participated in by over 2,000 subscribers and other people on its e-mail lists, showed they narrowly preferred former Sen. Fred Thompson for the Republican presidential nomination. Thompson had 25 percent, followed by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani at 20 percent, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 19 percent and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 13 percent. Outcomes for other candidates were Reps. Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter, 8 percent each; Rep. Tom Tancredo, 5 percent; and Sen. John McCain, dead last at 2 percent. McCain's low standing could be attributed...

Today, a bicameral group of Senators and Congressman presented a positive alternative to the current majority in Congress.  Members of Reagan21 are committed to the advancement of a new and invigorated Republican Party fighting for Reagan’s principles of liberty and a 21st Century vision for America, including individual freedom, free enterprise and common-sense values.  The Partnership’s goal is to give Americans a positive choice in public policy by advancing the integrity and optimism of the Republican Party. Senator Tom Coburn:“At a time when Congress’ approval rating is at an all-time low, it is vital that elected officials regain the trust...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

It’s been nearly a year since Democrats stormed into Congress with campaign victories all across the board in the 2006 midterm elections. By picking up 30 seats in the House of Representatives and five seats in the Senate, the Democrats regained control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994. Furthermore, the Democratic Party gained control of the majority of governor’s mansions and state legislatures for the first time in a long time. So you would think that after all those years of impotence, all their newfound power, and a craving to get back at George W....

Fred Thompson Defends McCain-Feingoldby John Gizzi Human Events Posted: 09/22/2007Mackinac Island, MichiganFred Thompson finally made clear his position on the statist campaign finance restrictions embodied in the McCain-Feingold bill. And conservatives are clearly not going to be pleased. When the former star of TV's "Law and Order" series and newly-minted presidential candidate spoke to reporters on the porch of the Grand Hotel here, I asked Thompson whether he was proud of his role in enacting the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation in '01. "Yes," replied the former Tennessee senator without hesitation. "You will recall that the central part of the...

Fred Fizzlesby John Gizzi Human Events Posted: 9/23/2007 Mackinac Island, Mich.Going back to when Fred Thompson first began exploring a bid for the presidency earlier this year and his first speech before the Lincoln Club of Orange County, California, through his address to the American Legislative Exchange Council in Philadelphia where he was on the same billing as presidential rival right up to his dinner speech this evening to the Michigan Republican Leadership Conference here, there is a strong case to be made that the former television actor just doesn't live up to the advance reviews. Sure, Thompson can deliver...

<p>Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose political acumen is acknowledged even by Democratic detractors, said something last week that had liberals reflexively nodding.</p> <p>Pointing to the unpopularity of the Iraq War, the excessive federal spending of recent years and the general disenchantment of the conservative base of the Republican Party, Gingrich set very long odds on Republicans retaining the White House in 2008. "You just look at the dynamics," he told the National Journal, "and you have to say the odds are probably 80-20" in favor of the Democrats.</p>

Early in my career as a political speechwriter, a young but wise campaign manager explained why candidates from the same party too often tear each other to pieces in the primaries. He told me that when all the candidates of your party are shooting at the probable opponent from the other party, your frontrunner is going to get shot in the back. I thought of that analogy the other day as I read about Rudy Giuliani’s potent political attacks on Hillary Clinton. Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democrats’ presidential nomination, stuck George Soros’ giant left foot in her mouth attempting...

Politically and in wartime, taunts have served an important purpose, to rally the troops and to pull just a few more drops of gas out of a nearly national gas tank. Remember John Paul Jones’ famous retort to the British “I have not yet begun to fight.” Remember Division Commander General Tony McAuliffe’s response to a German surrender demand at Bastogne, “Aw Nuts”, Douglas MacArthur’s “I Shall Return” and President Bush, standing on the rubble of the World Trade Center saying, “I hear you. And the people who did this will hear from us.”

We’ve never done this before. Most of the other conservative journals often pass the plate, but this is our first venture into internet fundraising and if the Postal Service hadn’t blindsided us, we probably wouldn’t be doing it now. Mark Twain once remarked that, “No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” To give you an idea of how bad it is in Washington these days, you -- and we -- aren’t even safe when Congress is OUT of session. Congress didn’t commit this particular act of BIG GOVERNMENT excess. The Postal Service did....

Top Ten Conservative Issues for 2008 by Michelle Oddis 05/14/2007 Dear HUMAN EVENTS Reader, Are the ten (so far) Republican presidential aspirants talking about what America really cares about? We thought that some of them seem to “get it” and some don’t. Until the primaries, none of us get a vote, but we thought you should have a voice. A couple of weeks ago, we posted a survey in which we asked “What are the Top 10 conservative issues for 2008?” H.E. presented 28 issues in random order to evaluate how we can serve our readers better. Here is what...

Kwanzaa: A Holiday From the FBI by Ann Coulter President Bush's 2005 Kwanzaa message began with the patently absurd statement: "African-Americans and people around the world reflect on African heritage during Kwanzaa." I believe more African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth of Christ than some phony non-Christian holiday invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge. Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks. It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI stooge, Ron Karenga, aka Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga was a founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist...