Free Republic

Maybe being "out of touch" isn't a bad thing.

Exclusive: Jane M. Orient, M.D., says political demagoguery is replacing science “From what I understand from doctors, that’s (conception as a result of rape) really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.” – Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo. All decent people, including U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, agree that forcible rape is a heinous crime. Almost all would...

1. The Republicans have a deep bench from which Romney picked: 2. Paul Rahe suggests that the pick represents Romney’s declaration of war, and Professor Rahe is always worth reading. I think Romney has concluded he needs to go big and bold to win. 3. Paul Ryan is a remarkable man. He has made himself a national figure through his mastery of the federal budget. Who’d a thunk it? 4. Like the others on my putative short list, Ryan radiates decency 5. It would be nice to think that the Obama campaign played the murder card a little early, with...

A UN human official is urging the U.S. to turn over control of lands considered to be sacred to Native Americans, including the site of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, unveiled his recommendations in Geneva on Friday after completing a 12-day visit to the U.S. where he met with representatives of indigenous peoples in six states. The fact-finder also had a chance to meet members of the Obama administration and briefed the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, but no member of Congress agreed to meet with him....

Calling solitary confinement "torture," California prisoners and advocates are asking the United Nations to investigate the segregated housing of gang members at prisons throughout the state. "We have California treating several thousand prisoners in much the same way the U.S. government treats enemy combatants held in Guantanamo," said Peter Schey, an attorney representing hundreds of inmates. Schey, who announced the petition at a news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday alongside prisoners' relatives, said solitary confinement was devastating to the physical and mental health of prisoners and was likely to increase their risk of committing more crimes upon release. The...

Gore: 'Our democracy has been hacked' By Daniel Strauss - 03/13/12 10:18 AM ET Al Gore said on Tuesday that America's democracy "has been hacked" and advocated for the use of digital tools to improve the government. Speaking to the high-tech crowd at the South by Southwest technology conference in Austin, Texas, the former vice president said that social media and digital technology should be used to "change the democratic conversation." "Our democracy has been hacked," Gore said, according to CNN. "It no longer works, in the main, to serve the interests of our people." He also urged the audience...

TAMUNING, Guam – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney picked up nine more delegates Saturday, winning unanimous backing at the Guam GOP convention. Republicans on the tiny Pacific island decided to shun traditional paper ballots and all 215 eligible to vote at the convention backed Romney with a show of hands.....

Ordinary people are not putting enough pressure on governments to deliver a legally binding deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the U.N.'s climate chief said. "There is not enough well up from the bottom up. I don't see millions of citizens demanding climate action," Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said at a lecture on Friday. "The reality we have to deal with is the process is very slow and the urgency is every day growing. The only way out is to continue to push on the government side but we can't depend 100...

Gaza Strip - Palestinians tried to block the U.N. chief from entering the Gaza Strip and flung shoes at his armored convoy on Thursday, the second day of Ban Ki-moon's mission to the region. About 40 relatives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails for a range of violent attacks gathered at the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel. Some swung their signs and wooden sticks at Ban's convoy in protest. Three of them threw slippers at his car and another hurled a boot — an insulting gesture. Speaking to reporters, Ban thanked the people of Gaza for their "warm...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Okay, first things first… that is pronounced FOO-cue. Got that? Good. (Although let’s be honest, that’s not how you WANTED to pronounce it!) Suzanne Marques reports from this little hamburger gem (1634 Cahuenga, Hollywood, 90028 323-464-3858) that mixes big American beef flavors with Japanese inspired sauces and toppings. Take the “Lucky Burger” for example. Your typical all-beef patty, American cheese, onion, pickles and bun…but this one has a wasabi mayo and Fuku sauce. Or the “Karai” — one spicy burger topped with pickled cucumbers, avocado cream, and habanero kabyaki. Hot! And if you don’t like beef,...

Newt Gingrich tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer he would consider Mitt Romney to be a potential running mate (VIDEO). The interview is very much in keeping with Gingrich’s “keep it classy” campaign theme so far — and he treaded lightly, sounding neither overly enthusiastic about a VP Romney nor overly displeased with the idea. But why did he take the bait at all? He could just as easily have remained indifferent, have answered with a simple, “I’d have to give it thought.” He won’t win over Romney supporters — and he significantly owes his own surge to the appetite for an...

MSNBC has a new addition to its staff — Sen. John McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain. On his Wednesday program, MSNBC host Thomas Roberts introduced McCain and asked her to address her back-and-forth with presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. “Can you believe that?” McCain asked. “Former Speaker of the House I’m getting in fights with, I can’t believe it.” In a specific incident addressing some remarks McCain made about his presidential bid, Gingrich said, “How would she have a clue?” “I think he’s delusional,” McCain said. “And him calling me clueless I think is so sexist...

That's right. The "Republican take" was none other than uber-ditz Meghan McCain. TOTALLY! Among her pearls of wisdom: "Mitt Romney is, like, the most experienced candidate. He will be the nominee, and it's time that people learned to just deal with it." "We are going through each nominee one at a time like when you're...speed dating". "Herman Cain has never held public office before, and I find that, like, so disturbing". "Romney...Mitt..Romney...the best...Romney...." (ok I skipped the rest because I couldn't take it)

When Barack Obama draws criticism from Republicans and conservatives, it’s about as much of a breaking news flash as Dog Bites Man. We begin to move into Man Bites Dog territory, however, when a mounting wave of unrest comes from his own left flank – a scenario which has not only come to pass, but shifted into a significantly higher gear this past week. One of his latest detractors is found coming from the sector which would normally contain his biggest cheerleaders. This just in from Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast. More dispiriting news, this time about the White...

A poll released from Public Policy Polling (PPP), a firm with connections to prominent national Democrats, found that former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts is leading the pack of Republican hopefuls seeking their party’s presidential nomination in Florida. A PPP poll back in March found Romney tied in Florida with a rival from the 2008 Republican primaries, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, with 18 percent each. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was right behind them with 15 percent. Since then, Huckabee has announced that he is not running for president,...

The euphoric scenes that met the death of Osama Bin Laden will not boost President Barack Obama's re-election hopes, according to Alastair Newton, a political analyst at Nomura in London. “The immediate reaction in the US notwithstanding, 'normal business' will soon be resumed in US politics. There will be no change on the fiscal/debt polarization and contrary to some commentators' reaction, definitely no election boost for Obama," said Newton in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. With little or no operational control over al-Qaeda in recent years, Newton believes Osama's death will have little impact on the terror group's ability...

Pity poor Nancy Pelosi -- the House minority leader is stuck in the past. Speaking to a college crowd last Friday, she admonished her audience: "The fact is, is that elections shouldn't matter as much as they do." Of course not. She just lost one. Hmm: Back in 2006, when she became House speaker, she said the election was "an historic [event] . . . for which we have waited for over 200 years." But if that election was consequential, so was last November's, wherein Pelosi was relegated to oblivion. Still raging at the outcome, this week she scolded the...

Libya has become the first country to be suspended from the UN Human Rights Council, after the rest of the world condemned the Gaddafi regime's "gross and systematic violations" of the rights of its people. The UN General Assembly, which comprises all 192 members, agreed to bar Libya from the council, which aims to "strengthen, promote and protect human rights", on Tuesday evening in New York. The measure was accepted "by consensus", a device used if there is no known opposition. Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General, said: "The world has spoken with one voice". Gaddafi has over the past...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - New York City's bedbug epidemic has spread to yet another landmark in the city that never sleeps -- the United Nations, officials at the world organization said on Wednesday. The pests appeared at places like the Empire State Building and Bloomingdale's before reaching the city's center of international diplomacy on the East Side of Manhattan. The U.N. press office said a bedbug-sniffing dog had confirmed the presence of bedbugs in furniture in the basement of the Dag Hammarskjold Library, where the offices of the team overseeing the U.N. headquarter's $1.9 billion renovation project are housed.

Study: Gay Parents More Likely to Have Gay Kids (Oct. 17) -- Walter Schumm knows what he's about to do is unpopular: publish a study arguing that gay parents are more likely to raise gay children than straight parents. But the Kansas State University family studies professor has a detailed analysis that past almost aggressively ideological researchers never had. When one such researcher, Paul Cameron, published a paper in 2006 arguing that children of gay parents were more likely to be gay themselves, the response from the academic press was virulent, to say nothing of the popular press; the Southern...

There is troubling news on this story. Johnathan and Stephanie went to visit their child today. Details are a bit sketchy at this point, but Cheyenne is reportedly losing consciousness, bleeding out of her private parts, and has not gained weight. Update from the Free Baby Cheyenne Facebook Group: “Pirra Milan EMERGENCY PROTEST AT CONCORD HOSPITAL AND DCYF’S OFFICES!!! JOHNATHAN AND STEPHANIE WERE AT A VISIT. BABY CHEYENNE WOULDN’T WAKE UP! THEY CHANGED HER DIAPER AND BLOOD WAS EVERYWHERE! SHE WAS RUSHED BY AMBULANCE TO THE HOSPITAL! THEY AREN’T ALLOWING THE PARENTS IN!!” Update (2:30 p.m.) Baby Cheyenne is currently...

On April 14th 2009, I was filming in the second floor lobby of Keene City hall. According to an unsigned document on the wall filming is prohibited. I was arrested and cuffed over a silver bracelet seen in the background of the video. I dropped to the floor and as they dragged me around the bracelet was cutting into my wrist causing excruciating pain. Eli Rivera, now running for sheriff, found this rather amusing. This video depicts the events that happened before my camera was turned off. A few months later Activist Kurt Hoffman was taken to the same back...

9/11/10 Koran burning at Ground Zero captured on video.

Barack Hussein Obama rules America by manipulating a deep seated shame pattern in all people. Those who let themselves be cast into the image of victims or villains, are fair game for Obama the deceiver. Obama pits class against class, race against race, religion against religion, party against party. Obama is the great divider and his hate, lies and heavy handed tyranny will destroy America unless we wake up. Some people are fed up with Obama's never ending, race baiting and hate filled slander hurled against all who oppose him.. Obama's America is so full of shame that we shake...

Even if it's just a rumor, the flurry of activity on RonPaulForums.com surrounding it could signify that a movement is still out there waiting to be massively reborn.

As if we needed anymore proof of Ron Paul’s anti-American treachery — and no, I am not speaking of his inclusion in the Democrats’ list of favorite Republicans (though it’s also quite telling), — he’s finally waded into the Ground Zero mosque controversy where — unsurprisingly — he’s chalked it all up to yet another conspiracy theory, fomented by those war-lovin’ neo-cons: “I think it’s a big distraction, a grand distraction from the real issues… To me it should have been a grand opportunity, and you really touched on the opportunity, because it’s really a property rights issue, and who...

I am sick and tired of this site being taken over by Catholics ( of which I am one ) stories or proverbs. This is a news site not a religion site. Go do that somewhere else. I am not opposed to your prostilazion(sp), just not here. We lose credibility if any religious group dictates or can be quoted from this site. As a long term member of this site I regret posting this information, but the site has been buried in Catholic stuff recently and it should be shunted to some separate page.

I want to have a sane discussion on Ron Paul and the growing Liberty Movement. Every time I or other freepers bring up we get people telling us Dr. Paul is crazy or we are crazy to support him and other constitutionalist politicians. When I posted a video on the success of the Free State Movement in New Hampshire ppl responded with "your crazy" and hinting the movement had failed. How could ppl say the movement failed when they've had numerous successes? I see liberals and commies such as this weirdo mock us which I would expect but why the...

Who was it, remind me, who was ahead of the curve on this? Who was it who called on her to gently appeal to the legalization crowd weeks before she ended up dropping that mini-bombshell on Napolitano’s show about marijuana laws being overenforced?C’mon. I have, like, three good ideas a year. Give a man some props. Among Republicans who say they’ve smoked Marijuana:Palin 25 Gingrich 22 Huckabee 17 Romney 17 Paul 8Among Republicans who say they have not smoked Marijuana:Huckabee 24 Romney 23 Gingrich 21 Palin 21 Paul 3 The sample size was only, er, 83 people, but even so,...

The conservative intelligentsia are starting to take Sarah Palin seriously, but I suspect they have not got her quite right yet. Within 24 hours of each other, heavyweights Dorothy Rabinowitz and George Will have published op-eds critical of her. Here’s Rabinowitz: “The Sarah Palin of election year fame has not been much transformed since last we met. For many who look to her as a presidential hopeful, and a voice for their social views, this can’t be encouraging news.” What, specifically, does Rabinowitz object to? In part, the fact that Palin has endorsed Ron Paul’s son for the U.S. Senate;...

Rick Sanchez, who currently hosts the network's 3pmET hour of "CNN Newsroom," will be getting a new show, titled "Rick's List" in 2010. Sanchez's program will now air for two hours, from 3-5pmET, and Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room" will eventually be reduced from three hours to two, airing from 5-7pmET. Blitzer will also fill-in the 7-8pmET slot until John King's show launches early next year. CNN tells us that Sanchez and Blitzer, appropriately, made the initial announcement themselves over twitter in order to get it out to their followers first (both have well over 100,000). Today, Sanchez tweeted: Hey guys,...

The United States has been elected to a seat on the UN Human Rights Council for the first time. The council had been shunned by the Bush administration, which accused it of admitting states with poor rights records and having an anti-Israel bias. But the Obama administration has reversed its predecessor's policy of boycotting the Geneva-based body. The US was one of 18 countries elected to the 47-seat council in a vote by the UN General Assembly. It received 167 votes, far more than the 97 votes needed in the secret ballot. The Obama administration announced in March that it...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iran went on the offensive against the Obama administration on Thursday, accusing Washington's new U.N. ambassador of making the "same tired" accusations against Iran as the Bush administration. In a speech to the Security Council during a session on Iraq, U.S. envoy Susan Rice reiterated charges of Iranian support for terrorism and attempts to develop nuclear weapons, saying the United States sought an end to both policies. "It is unfortunate that, yet again, we are hearing the same tired, unwarranted and groundless allegations that used to be unjustifiably and futilely repeated by the previous administration," Iran's...

Three Republican Senators made the Republican Party irrelevant until at least 2010. Their names are Susan Collins and Olympia Snow (both from Maine), Arlen Specter (of Pennsylvania). After being nearly entirely excluded from the process of drafting the legislation for the Obama American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (or Generational Theft Act, or European Socialist Act, or whatever you want to call it - just don't call it "stimulus"), House Republicans finally showed their backbone by unanimously opposing the bloated fiasco. And all but three Senate Republicans joined their House colleagues by standing firmly against a bad Democrat plan. Only 37%...

Gallup Polls conducted in 70 countries from May to September 2008 reveal widespread international support for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama over Republican Sen. John McCain in the U.S. presidential election. Among these nations, representing nearly half of the world's population, 30% of citizens say they would personally rather see Obama elected president of the United States, compared with just 8% who say the same about McCain. At the same time, 62% of world citizens surveyed did not have an opinion. World citizens are more divided over whether the outcome of the U.S. election makes a difference to their country, with...

Former Reagan diplomat Alan Keyes commented Sept. 23 on the federal government's bailout of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The former Assistant Secretary of State, currently running for president as an independent, said the bailout plan as proposed by the Bush administration would effectively transform our nation into "a socialist society." The following is the text of Keyes' statement: What I have to say about the bailout is that, with a concrete proposal on the table, it becomes much more obvious what is actually going on right now, and I think that we have to confront it. And...

Obama Admits He Wins Contest of Publishing Negative and Irrelevant Ads ... "If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily," Obama said. ...

SPOKANE, Wash. (Sept. 4) - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin seems to have switched colleges at least six times in six years, including two stints at the University of Idaho before graduating from there in 1987. Federal privacy laws prohibit the schools from disclosing her grades, and none of the schools contacted by The Associated Press could say why she transferred. There was no indication any were contacted as part of the background investigation of Palin by presidential candidate John McCain's campaign.

To hell with the New York Times and the Washington Post. It took a while to make this decision, but I’ve finally decided to stop reading these savagely biased publications. With the exception of William Kristol and David Brooks, there’s virtually nothing worth reading on the Times’ op-ed page—and those columns, along with the columns of other occasional conservative contributions such as Matthew Continetti and Ramesh Ponnuru, can easily be accessed through such sites as Robinson and Long. As for the Post, conservative op-ed columnists George Will and Charles Krauthammer can be found on such online outlets as Townhall. There...

Barack Obama has never been shy about comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln. He did so when he announced his candidacy at the Illinois state capitol, where both he and Lincoln served in the legislature. "The life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible," Obama said. "He tells us that there is power in words ... He tells us that there is power in hope." That was, well, audacious, to say the least — and the comparisons have continued, on issues large and small. But the most important similarity, in Obama's mind, is...

Apple and Linux are engaged in battle – a battle to win over disgruntled Windows users. But who will win, and what will the consequences be for the loser? The most commonly held belief amongst Apple and Linux fanboys is that both factions are engaged in some kind of a war with Microsoft. The truth is that if you look at the market share figure for Windows, Mac and Linux, both Mac OS and all the Linux distros that have ever been released are dwarfed by Windows. Any idea that there’s a war going on can be dismissed – it’s...

Bill Clinton: Wife's record not covered By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago Bill Clinton said Tuesday that if reporters covered the candidates' public records better, his wife's presidential bid would be far ahead of her rivals. During a campaign stop on behalf of his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former president said he can't understand why so much of the media coverage of the campaign ignores her experience — and, without naming him, the relative lack of experience of her closest Democratic rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. "One percent of the press coverage was...

Britney Spears lost custody of her children because she failed to produce a California driver's license and allegedly missed a drug and alcohol test, her lawyer said in a published report. "We weren't able to prove compliance with what the judge ordered," attorney Sorrell Trope told People magazine. "Specifically," he said, "the judge ordered that by 10 a.m. (Monday) morning, both parties show valid California driving licenses. I've been unable to produce evidence of that." Trope said another factor was a claim by ex-husband Kevin Federline's attorney that Spears had skipped a test. "There's no evidence that she actually failed,"...

<p>I didn't see a live thread for the Iowa Straw Poll, so I figured I would start one in case anyone else is watching and wants to comment.</p>

You can read the transcript and listen to the audio here:

Schwarzenegger Calls Rush Limbaugh Irrelevant "All irrelevant. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant." - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning on the "Today Show," speaking to Campbell Brown. During the one-on-one interview, the Republican-registered California governor was asked about criticism from Limbaugh and other conservatives that he has become a Democrat in disguise for supporting stem-cell research, mandatory curbs on carbon dioxide emissions and universal health care. Schwarzenegger said he is "the people's servant of California. What they call me - Democrat or Republican or in the center, this and that - that is not my bottom line....

HEEEEEEEERE’s EVIL! Control Congress is LIVE now at 2 PM to 3PM EDT Saturday on WGKA Atlanta 920, an SRN station. Join John Konop and Sherry Reese (aka eeevil conservative) as we fight those turkeys in Congress ON THE FASTEST HOUR IN RADIO! If anyone can herd turkeys, John and eeevil can! Freepers join the show and help John and eeevil heat up the air waves. Listen as eee demands a raise from John, up-front and in 100% CONFLICT diamonds! So much to talk about so little time! Hard to know what to expect of our dear eeevil but...

Tom Daschle, who endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president, said he would consider being Obama's running mate if asked. The Democrat and former South Dakota senator said he had not been contacted by any of the Democrats seeking their party's presidential nomination, and that his endorsement of the Illinois senator doesn't mean he's looking for a spot on the Democratic ticket. "Theres not been any talk about it at all," he said Friday. "I have to say thats not something you can campaign for and its not something that you can plan or expect." Daschle, who explored...

"This is a true story.....Check out this photo from our mess hall at the US Embassy yesterday morning. Sen. Kerry found himself all alone while he was over here. He cancelled his press conference because no one came, he worked out alone in the gym w/o any soldiers even going up to say hi or ask for an autograph (I was one of those who was in the gym at the same time), and he found himself eating breakfast with only a couple of folks who are obviously not troops. What is amazing is Bill O'Reilly came to visit with...

Maybe Katie Couric never really had a chance this year to prove herself as the anchor of "The CBS Evening News." Fans, critics, bloggers, comrades and competitors had a field day throughout 2006, breathlessly complaining about everything under the sun. When rumors initially spread that CBS wanted her, the debate began heating up and seemed to take on a life of its own: Katie Would Be a Fresh Alternative and No, Katie Would Be a Disaster. She'd Lighten Up the News and She's Too Perky for 6:30 p.m. Then, on the air, Katie was Too Serious -- no, she was...