Free Republic

Given the contentious relationship between his followers and many in the conservative movement, it’s safe to say that Rep. Ron Paul’s address to CPAC this year was one of the more anticipated speeches of the political holiday weekend. And Rep. Paul delivered: railing against the “neo-Jacobins” that passed the PATRIOT Act, calling for drastic cuts in military spending, and a passionate repudiation of the Federal Reserve. Opening with a jubilant recognition of the results of last November’s midterms– and, especially, the election of his son Rand to the Senate– the tenor of Paul’s speech was mostly combative towards the more...

I'm posting this to encourage others to make the effort to amplify their influence like I do. Ever since I began contributing to Free Republic, I made a conscious decision to establish commenting accounts at media websites from which original articles were sourced to FR postings, and then cut and paste my comments written for Free Republic to those sites where it made sense to do so. In that way, I felt that I could increase my own tiny influence just a little bit more. I would encourage everyone here not already doing this to consider it for themselves. It...

The American people are becoming increasingly angry about the extraordinary amount of power and influence that corporations have in the United States today. A new Gallup poll found that 67 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the size and influence of major corporations in the United States today. Not only that, the most recent Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index found that only 26 percent of Americans trust our financial system at this point. The mainstream media is acting as if this is a new phenomenon, but the truth is that a dislike of giant corporations goes all the way...

Apparently, America's next big scheduled argument is whether women soldiers should be allowed in combat *snip* As far as I'm concerned, we already have our first female combat soldier, a breathtakingly brave warrior who suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune for the sake of our freedom, every day. Sarah Palin stands alone in America and the world. Name one other public figure anywhere on the globe today who symbolizes the uncompromising fight for liberty....Waiting...Waiting...

Dear FReepers, Many posts have begun to expose the empire built upon corruption, leftwing politics and destruction of liberal democracies by George Soros. Soros has apparently inspired a company of fellow travellers who's role model for untold wealth mimics the radical behavior of George Soros. Yes, Soros is merely the leading figure among a group of vile, evil fraudsters who work together to ruin and destabilize the political process and inspire violent revolutions. In short, Soros and his radical extremists love playing God with the lives of everyday Americans.

The incoming leadership of the new House Republican majority hardly had a chance to relish its dismantling of the Democrats before the Tea Party came calling in the form of Representative Michele Bachmann. Ms. Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican and Tea Party heroine often seen exhorting conservative activists at rallies and on cable television, announced that she intended to seek the No. 4 position among House Republicans. She said she could provide the viewpoint of a constitutional conservative, one she evidently sees lacking in Representatives John A. Boehner of Ohio, Eric Cantor of Virginia and Kevin McCarthy of California — the...

Today New Yorkers, like all Ameri cans, are observing Labor Day -- and many have the day off. Great. No doubt, they earned it. But the holiday -- once meant to extol an honorable movement, affirm worker solidarity and celebrate gains won through collective bargaining -- is an ideal time to look at what has become of the labor movement in recent years. Alas, that doesn't merit celebration. Take a few of the latest developments. In Congress, union giveaways -- like the ever-upward minimum wage -- have helped feed a painfully high jobless rate, now stuck near 10 percent. Union-driven...

Mrs Palin is not running for office, but her vice presidential candidacy in 2008 as an anti-abortion, mother-of-five from a conventional background has played a central role in persuading more women with similar outlooks to step into the limelight. Often controversial, outspoken and resolutely Right-wing, Republican women are beginning to overhaul the image of the party. After its heavy losses in 2008 to the Democrats, the Grand Old Party was written off as too male, too old and too out of touch. A record 140 women have competed in Republican primaries for the House of Representatives and the Senate this...

5 minutes ago Rush tops Stern as the "most important radio talk show host of all time" Rush Limbaugh To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Talkers Magazine, there’s an all-time list of the “Heaviest Hundred.” Calling him “The most important innovator in modern news/talk,” Rush Limbaugh took the top spot on the list. At #2, the talker called “the standard by which younger-demo talk is judged,” Sirius XM’s Howard Stern. Following Limbaugh and Stern to round out the top-10, in order, is Larry King, Sean Hannity, Don Imus, Arthur Godfrey (called the “pioneer of unscripted talk radio”), Dr. Laura Schlessinger,...

"JournoList e-mails reveal how the liberal media shaped the 2008 election" At the link is the first MSM article I have seen that makes the case for part of the role that the MSM played in the '08 Election.

There are some events that you will always remember where you were when they happened. The events of July 3, 2009 is one of those times. It was an average Friday, the day before our nation’s 233rd birthday. It would have been a slow news day, normally, and on this weekend, the 24 hour news channels had coverage of Michael Jackson’s death playing on an endless loop. What would happen that Friday afternoon would knock Michael Jackson right off the TV and send the political world reeling. We got word “something” was about to happen in Alaska. Now as a...

Michelle Obama unveiled the newly-expanded President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition to D.C. school children last week. For years the Council (formerly known merely as the President’s Council on Fitness and Sports) busied itself with pushing Americans to get outside and run around. But as with so many government initiatives under the Obama administration, its goals have expanded. The council now wants to influence your diet and while not a member, Michelle Obama will be working closely with the group to help guide its initiatives.

“Only government can implement policies and subsidies to provide an institutional framework for quality journalism.” Does that statement give you chills? How about this one: “The news is not a commercial product. It is a public good, necessary for a self-governing society. Once we accept this, we can talk about the kind of media policies and subsidies we want.” Or this one? “In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick-by-brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles.”

For a Party with only a few thousand members and supporters, centered in about a dozen major cities, the Communist Party USA has a significant amount of influence. This is achieved by infiltrating and controlling much larger groups, including several major labor unions, sections of the Democratic Party, some Black and “mainstream” churches, the health care and “peace” movements and even Obama’s “private army” Organizing for America! Links to elected officials, including several members of Congress such as John Conyers in Michigan, Hilda Solis and Barbara Lee in California and Dennis Kucinich in Ohio are also carefully cultivated.

John Calvin's 16th century reply to medieval Catholicism's buy-your-way-out-of-purgatory excesses is Evangelicalism's latest success story, complete with an utterly sovereign and micromanaging deity, sinful and puny humanity, and the combination's logical consequence, predestination: the belief that before time's dawn, God decided whom he would save (or not), unaffected by any subsequent human action or decision. Calvinism, cousin to the Reformation's other pillar, Lutheranism, is a bit less dour than its critics claim: it offers a rock-steady deity who orchestrates absolutely everything, including illness (or home foreclosure!), by a logic we may not understand but don't have to second-guess. Our satisfaction...

President Obama is losing friends left and right these days. Moderate Dems to his right are getting queasy over just how liberal and profligate some of his policies turn out to be. Ultra-liberals to his left are miffed he isn't even more liberal. ..President Obama still has one unstinting and stalwart comrade: the unions. After decades in inexorable and well-deserved decline, unions are back bigtime in the Obama-nation. It is an unholy union. It’s bad for business, bad for the economy, bad for our country. Worse, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment, this alliance could lead to bigger government...

WASHINGTON — In the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling that ended most restrictions on corporate funding in elections, a congressional panel was asked Wednesday to enact greater limits on the influence of foreign companies in U.S. elections. At the hearing of a House of Representatives Judiciary subcommittee, experts also sought congressional intervention to restrict contributions from out-of-state corporations. The 5-4 decision last month in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has sparked debate about the prospect of a possible surge in corporate spending on election campaigns. How to sort out who owns or controls a multinational corporation —...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A once-dismissed loose confederation of Tea Party activists opposed to big government, bailouts and higher taxes is causing heartburn for establishment candidates across the country. They swept into Massachusetts with lightning speed when polls began to show that the eventual winner of last week's special election, Republican Scott Brown, had a shot at upsetting Democrat Martha Coakley for the Senate seat that liberal lion Edward M. Kennedy had held almost 47 years.

It's official: Americans admire Glenn Beck more than they admire the pope. This news, at once unsettling and unsurprising, came from the Gallup polling organization on Wednesday. Beck, the new Fox News host who has said President Obama has a "deep-seated hatred for white people" and alternately likens administration officials to Nazis and Marxists, was also more admired by Americans than Billy Graham and Bill Gates, not to mention Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. In Americans' esteem, Beck only narrowly trailed South Africa's Nelson Mandela, the man who defeated apartheid. The 45-year-old recovering alcoholic and Mormon convert has become...

Love him or hate him, Antonin Scalia has had a greater influence on the way Americans debate the law today than any other modern Supreme Court justice. Conservatives hail Scalia as the founding prophet of their true faith — the Jurisprudence of Original Understanding — and the leader of the opposition to moral relativism and judicial imperialism in the age of Obama. [...] It’s hard to write a fair-minded biography of such a polarizing figure, but that’s what Joan Biskupic has done with “American Original.” ... On the court, Scalia has shown a disdain for elites that keeps him not...