Free Republic

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow launched an error-riddled attack against the John Birch Society in her December 18 show, nominally because the John Birch Society has become a sponsor of the upcoming February 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

The John Birch Society Announces CPAC 2010 Cosponsorship JBS to provide leadership, educational presence at nation's top conservative gathering APPLETON, WIS.—December 15, 2009—The John Birch Society announces it is cosponsoring the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2010, to be held in Washington DC, Feb. 18-20. JBS will have a double booth with half dedicated to offering educational and promotional materials and the other half housing a TV studio that will stream live video from the booth and broadcast onto JBS LibertyNewsNetwork.tv, a website that will feature archived JBS video and live video streams. Last year, more than 8,000 attendees were...

Many years ago, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. famously stated, “Competition is a sin.” He preferred a monopoly, the very antithesis of economic freedom, in order to increase profits. A monopoly accomplishes for its creator the opportunity to gouge the public, a consequence generally well-known, and generally despised. There is, however, one commodity existing as a monopoly that the public does not loathe, the creation of money. This monopoly seems to most Americans to be the only way to proceed. They are unaware that our nation once had competing currencies and this competition led to honesty in the field of money....

New York Republican congressional nominee Dede Scozzafava withdrew last weekend from the special election that will take place Tuesday and endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens, in a race where a third party candidate, Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, has become a major contender. Yes, you read that right. In one of the most Republican districts in New York, one that borders Canada, Scozzafava ran up against a mass revolt by mainstream Republicans who charged that her long list of liberal credentials made her a “RINO” or Republican In Name Only. The 23rd congressional district race is this year's only congressional...

Recently declassified documents obtained by Wired magazine reveal a massive Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data mining operation. It already possesses over 1.5 billion records from government and private-sector sources. That figure is expected by the FBI to balloon to over 6 billion within a few years. And it is not just terrorists they are after.  According to the documents, the National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) is being used to pursue multiple types of non-terrorism domestic investigations. It is also meant to be able to sort through the data — everything from health and travel records to credit card...

Many prominent young bloggers say its time conservatives altered their fortunes and cast off those intellectual dead weights who stir up irrational fear. Time to throw off those whose intellectual bankruptcy has left the conservative movement with no credibility in the eyes of the American people. No, they’re not calling for the removal of those writers and political leaders who told us that if we didn’t give the Treasury $700 billion to distribute to corporate America, the world as we know it would end, thus undermining free-market economics. Rather, the talk from young political guns Patrick Ruffini and Jon Henke...

"This isn't a policy speech. It's a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school," an Obama administration spokesman told the Cable News Network in response to the uproar over the president's planned webcast and TV speech to the nation's schoolchildren on September 8. "The goal of the speech and the lesson plans is to challenge students to work hard, stay in school and dramatically reduce the dropout rate." But many parents have denounced the planned speech as an exercise in propaganda and "brain washing" and some have said they will keep their children out of school that day....

Meacham: So how bad is it, really? Your title doesn't quite declare conservatism dead. Tanenhaus: Quite bad if you prize a mature, responsible conservatism that honors America's institutions, both governmental and societal. The first great 20th-century Republican president, Theo- dore Roosevelt, supported a strong central government that emphasized the shared values and ideals of the nation's millions of citizens. He denounced the harm done by "the trusts"—big corporations. He made it his mission to conserve vast tracts of wilderness and forest. The last successful one, Ronald Reagan, liked to remind people (especially the press) he was a lifelong New Dealer...

People used to say politics makes strange bedfellows. These days, calling any kind of bedfellows strange might qualify as a hate crime. It is probably safer to say that the political highway allows for frequent U-turns, as politicians discover that policies and programs they once decried as ruinous to the republic are now true and righteous. This is nowhere more apparent than in the announcement by the Republican National Committee of a brand new "Health Care Bill of Rights for Seniors." The statement calls for legislation to protect Medicare from cuts, ensure that seniors may keep their current coverage, prohibit...

A friend of mine warned that the April 15 tea parties may be infiltrated by the left. Indeed, it would be easy to subvert the tea parties by either using them as Trojan horses to promote conservative-sounding candidates whose intent is to infiltrate, or at least compromising with the left or New World Order. How do we defend ourselves? First we must identify the enemy, which is not necessarily a person or group. It is just as likely to be an idea or trend. Currently there is an insidious trend for even "conservative" media and politicians to avoid mention of...

lthough he officially abandoned his presidential bid last summer, Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s star continues to brighten. Once shunned by the mainstream media and marginalized by the national leadership of the Republican Party, the modest pediatrician-turned-congressman has become something of an éminence grise these days, feted and fawned over by the likes of Fox News, which once dismissed him as a quack. The reason? Dr. Paul’s unexpected fundraising prowess during his presidential campaign turned more than a few heads, and the bestseller status of his book The Revolution: A Manifesto attracted further attention. But besides the growth of his Campaign...

Parts 2 and 3 are below. McManus is President of the Birch Society and he narrated the really cool documentary making the rounds about American government. Interesting to note all the gold China is buying right now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dQWmCZDU2c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoPjPgnIgok

Thanks to President Barack Obama, the family of Sgt. Brian McDonnell of the San Francisco Police Department may finally get justice. The Weather Underground, led by Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, police believe, murdered McDonnell when they detonated a bomb at the city's Park Police station on February 16, 1970. So during the 2008 presidential campaign, when Obama was revealed as a disciple and associate of Ayers, the bomber's past was resurrected, and now, the San Francisco Officers Police Association and the group America's Survival are publicizing the case to bring Ayers and Dohrn to justice. Says a letter from...

Glenn Beck, Fox News' deranged media personality, has been telling a national television audience that the Obama administration might be setting up secret "concentration camps" to lock up conservatives. The president, Beck believes, may be using FEMA in this conspiratorial drive towards "a totalitarian state." Beck, who has already voiced his affinity for the John Birch Society, is also distributing Birchers' literature to his audiences. If he were just some random right-wing blogger, it would be easier to laugh this off.

Governor Mark Sanford (R) of South Carolina has been a vocal critic of President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan and in the process has become one of the most prominent fiscal conservatives in the country. Recently, he made national news when he announced his plan to accept the stimulus funds but sought a waiver from the President to use 25 percent of it to pay down state debt rather than spend it on suggested programs (the other 75 percent is determined by formulas). If Obama doesn’t grant the waiver, Sanford has said he will reject it. Before Sanford was governor, Sanford...

What began early last year as a "credit crunch" and an "economic downturn" is now being characterized as a "long, severe recession." Once upon a time, such a crisis was known as a "depression" before Americans became squeamish about such stark language. As with our reluctant semantic retreat from "credit crunch" to "recession," the reality of another Great Depression will probably not be acknowledged until years after the fact. But America and the rest of the modern world, by doggedly pursuing the same mistaken policies of the 1920s and '30s, have made a full-blown depression — lasting years, not months,...

Yesterday, January 22, saw a veritable army of pro-lifers participate in the 35th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. This demonstration of public sentiment was first held in 1974 to mark the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. In that decision, of course, the Supreme Court ruled that all state laws prohibiting abortion were unconstitutional. Since then, an estimated 50,000,000 babies have been killed in the womb in the United States. As we observed yesterday, ever since the Roe v. Wade (and the less publicized Doe v. Bolton) decision, the primary strategy among pro-life people...

President Barack Obama opened his presidency with an inaugural address laced with glittering generalities designed to get heads nodding in agreement, but outlined no specific agenda anywhere in the speech. What is he for? The speech outlined a complete catalogue of things he wants to accomplish as president. He wants to ...•    reaffirm our enduring spirit•    carry forward … the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness•    pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America•    create new jobs•    lay a...

A report released this month by the U.S. Joint Forces Command is warning of the potential for “rapid and sudden collapse” of the Mexican government due to the corrupting influence of criminal gangs and drug cartels. The Joint Operating Environment 2008 document (pdf) also lists Pakistan as the other of two large and important states that “bear consideration,” explaining that these would be “worst-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world."“The Mexican possibility may seem less likely [than the possibility that Pakistan's government collapsing], but the [Mexican] government, its politicians, police, and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained...

Don't pay any attention to your frozen thermometer. Never mind that your city is shivering under a record-setting cold wave, paralyzed by another record-setting snowfall. Do not think twice about your mounting heating bill, electricity blackouts, or reports that heating oil deliveries for your area are not available. Even if your teeth are chattering, concentrate only on one thing: global warming, Global Warming, GLOBAL WARMING. Just wrap yourself in a blanket and re-watch Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. And remember, be very, very afraid ... of global warming.That seems to be the message coming from much of the overheated "mainstream"...

This topic reminds me of the story about the national politician who campaigned on a party platform promoting the Welfare State. His stump speech was filled with promises of all the government services that he would fight for, if the voters would just elect him to Congress. He promised to meet all of the people’s needs relating to childcare, education, nutrition, housing, transportation, healthcare, pensions, and good-paying jobs for every citizen. Finally, at one town hall meeting, a boy raised his hand and asked, “Why would we need jobs?”  Yes, just as when we were children, everyone wants to ride...

Neoconservatives are elated with Obama's appointments, recognizing that the new guard is very much like the old.  Some traditional conservatives were hoping that with Bush leaving office and Obama coming in, the neocons would be put out of power, but sadly, they're not going away that easily. Contrary to the public's perception of President-elect Obama as the peace candidate, he has been extremely hawkish in his appointments. The selection of Joe Biden as a running mate was a sign that the globalist and hawkish wing of the Democratic Party (where the neocons originally hailed from) was going to be strongly...

On January 5, the nation's new media learned that President-elect Barack Obama would nominate former congressman and Clinton administration official Leon Panetta as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Obama's choice reportedly caught some veteran Democratic senators who had not been briefed of the decision off-guard, and some voiced their skepticism that that Bill Clinton's former chief of staff and director of the Office of Management and Budget possessed sufficient experience in the intelligence field to handle the job. The New York Times reported on January 7: "Mr. Panetta's lack of experience had drawn the sharpest criticism on...

The rise of the neoconservatives within the GOP has not only discredited the Grand Old Party but tarnished the image of conservatism. The Republican party suffered an overwhelming electoral defeat this past November. The establishment media were all too quick to proclaim that conservatism is dead and we're now at the dawn of a liberal age. Peter Beinart, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), wrote in Time magazine that we are facing the dawn of a "new liberal order." In making this proclamation, Beinart overlooks the fact that the public was not voting...

“And now for a world government.” That is the title of an important op-ed by Gideon Rachman that appeared in the Financial Times of London — important both for the showcase in which it appeared and the smug admissions it makes.  The Financial Times (FT) is notable not only for the distinctive salmon-colored paper on which it is printed, but for who reads it. It is the main competitor of the Wall Street Journal for the position of top “must read” daily economic newspaper for global business, financial, and political elites. “I have never believed that there is a secret...

President-elect Barack Obama's "Blueprint for Change" calls for "affordable, accessible health care for all." After a quote from a speech he gave in Iowa City explaining that we have an "obligation" to "turn the page on the failed politics of yesterday's health care debates," he outlines his plans "at a glance." According to the brief summary, 45.5 million people aren't covered, costs have doubled over the last eight years, and not enough money is spent on preventative care. The legislation Obama plans to sign into law by the end of his first term would somehow reduce the cost of healthcare...

Good old-fashioned communism, once discredited, is now finding new adherents among those too young to remember the fall of the Berlin Wall. [snip] . . . In Japan, for instance, economic stagnation, depressed wages, and a workforce that is 44 percent part-time only has created fertile ground for the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), now the nation’s fourth largest political party. Treating this at Telegraph.co.uk, Danielle Demetriou writes: New recruits [for the JCP] are signing up at the rate of 1,000 a month, swelling its ranks to more than 415,000. Meanwhile a classic proletarian novel is at the top of the...

Monday, 10 November 2008 06:32 "Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration." That was the lead sentence in an article entitled, "Dems Target Private Retirement Accounts," published in the Carolina Journal on November 4th. With those alarming openers, the article has gone viral over the last week — at least among those who advocate less government interference in their economic lives. Unfortunately, the Carolina Journal is only telling half of the story —...

About 150 Muslim workers have been fired from a Grand Island meatpacking plant in a dispute over prayer... Plant officials at the JBS Swift meatpacking plant are bringing in Cuban workers to replace them...

Madison - Former Republican presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas will keynote Saturday's session of the 50th anniversary of the Appleton-based John Birch Society. Paul will be one of three speakers at the 8 p.m. Saturday event at the Best Western Bridgewood Resort Hotel in Neenah, according to spokesman Bill Hahn. Also speaking at that event will be Hilliard Welch, son of Society founder Robert Welch, and Society chief executive Arthur Thompson. A physician and an icon among some conservatives, Paul calls himself "America's No. 1 defender of liberty." He did not win any Republican presidential primaries, however....

In a picture supplied by Sarah Palin's family to the Associated Press, Palin appears with some rather odd reading matter: The magazine of the ultraconservative John Birch Society. The picture, dating to 1995, when Palin was a member of the Wasilla City Council, ran beside a profile of Palin in Saturday's New York Times. The magazine, The New American, is sitting on top of her calendar on her desk, unopened....

H.R. 3221*, the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, was passed by the House 272-152 on Wednesday, July 23, 2008. (*The government website may not yet be updated following yesterday’s vote.) The Senate is expected to vote on the housing bill on July 25th or 26th. Enactment of this legislation would be a victory for socialism and big government, but a travesty for U.S. taxpayers and limited government. This one-time energy bill was transformed into a vehicle for mortgage foreclosure prevention, then very recently revised again to include plans for preventing the failure of Fannie Mae and...

In 1943, when Germany had virtually no sources of petroleum to fuel its Luftwaffe, U-boats, and Tiger tanks, its scientists (arguably among the best in the world at that time) didn’t turn to solar and wind power. Evil does not equate to naïveté. Hitler’s technical advisers turned to another energy source to keep their Wehrmacht running steadily for several years without petroleum. They used the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert coal into diesel fuel and employed the Bergius hydrogenation (or liquefaction) process to convert coal into aviation gasoline and high-quality truck and automobile gasoline.

The UN Human Rights Council said the UK must "consider holding a referendum on the desirability or otherwise of a written constitution, preferably republican". The council has 29 members including Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Sri Lanka. It was the Sri Lankan envoy who raised concerns over the British monarchy. The resulting report said Britain should have a referendum on the monarchy and the need for a written constitution with a bill of rights.

Coal in Your Car’s Tank by Ed Hiserodt In 1943, when Germany had virtually no sources of petroleum to fuel its Luftwaffe, U-boats, and Tiger tanks, its scientists (arguably among the best in the world at that time) didn’t turn to solar and wind power. Evil does not equate to naïveté. Hitler’s technical advisers turned to another energy source to keep their Wehrmacht running steadily for several years without petroleum. They used the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert coal into diesel fuel and employed the Bergius hydrogenation (or liquefaction) process to convert coal into aviation gasoline and high-quality truck and automobile...

In recent weeks the thundering Ron Paul freight train has kind of derailed. Even though Paul announced that he was ending his campaign on March 8, his supporters are apparently convinced that he's still a viable candidate, despite his repeated public statements that they should move on and try to do some good working within the GOP. Nonetheless, many of them are pushing for a final surge and a surprise (and entirely delusional) victory at the GOP convention this summer. Admittedly, Paul is still making a lot of speeches and pushing his agenda, so maybe that's contributing to their confusion,...

Do you know the difference between a conservative and a neoconservative, or neocon? This is not just a question of semantics. It’s far more important than that. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that the future of our country depends on understanding the crucial differences between the two philosophies – and rejecting the latter. All of this was brought home to me most forcefully when a longtime friend sent me a copy of the speech he delivered at the Constitution Party’s annual convention in Missouri last week. I’ll tell you more about John F. McManus and the organization...

I found an on line full text. "FDR once said "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." He was in a good position to know. We believe that many of the major world events that are shaping our destinies occur because somebody or somebodies have planned them that way. If we were merely dealing with the law of avenges, half of the events affecting our nation's well-being should be good for America. If we were dealing with mere incompetence, our leaders should occasionally make a mistake in our favor. We...

The Senate is once again trying to pass the much-opposed DREAM Act of 2007. Earlier this year [0] the DREAM Act (a scaled-down approach to amnesty) was added to the defense authorization bill (H.R. 1585) for Fiscal 2008 as an amendment but never reached a floor vote. Eventually the DREAM Act was pulled from the bill, but supporters of the act warned that they would try and introduce it again. That time has now come! The DREAM Act will likely be offered as an amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill (H.R. 3043) and could be up...

Republican Presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul is making a name for himself by emerging as an antiwar republican in the 2008 race for the White House. While those of us who oppose the mindless war in Iraq welcome all voices of opposition, there are some troubling questions arising about Mr. Paul. Paul has been consistent in his opposition to the war, but he hasn’t been very vocal or visible about that opposition. Most Americans knew nothing about Mr. Paul before this election season or had no idea that such an animal as an antiwar republican even existed. Where was he...

A recent article in USA TODAY sought to ask, and answer, the question of, "Who Speaks for America's Evangelicals?" That's a reasonable question to ask given the recent passing of Jerry Falwell and the decreasing influence wielded by the Christian Coalition and its founder, Pat Robertson. The older guard of Protestant evangelicals were very much in the hip pocket of the Republican party, but the new leaders are striking what appears, on the surface at least, to be a different pose. The USA TODAY article pays special attention to The Purpose Driven Life author, mega church pastor and now "global...

Ron Paul was right during the Des Moines Republican debate when he said that our going into Iraq had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. And Mitt Romney was wrong when he interrupted him. At the Republican debate in Des Moines, Iowa, on August 5, Congressman Ron Paul made clear that our going to war against Iraq had nothing to do with going after al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that attacked us on 9/11. "The neoconservatives promoted this war many, many years before it was started," Paul said during the debate. "It had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. There was no al-Qaeda...

At the inaugural ceremony, Prime Minister Mugabe’s call for reconciliation between blacks and whites came as a welcome surprise to those who had for years dismissed him as “a Marxist-terrorist trying to gain power through the barrel of a gun.” … The unexpected size of his majority gave Mugabe an unequivocal mandate.... All in all, the election and handover represented a triumph of democracy in the face of considerable external pressure. — Andrew Young, President Carter’s Ambassador to the United Nations The excerpted statement above by Andrew Young provides a small sampling of the outrageous commentary on Robert Mugabe’s ascension...

... the conversation is far more revealing about Romney’s conservative political beliefs, something frequently called into question by his centrist turn as governor of Massachusetts. That’s because Romney’s argument with the Iowa talk-radio host starts with the two discussing their shared affinity for W. Cleon Skousen. “You and I share a common affection for the late Cleon Skousen,” the radio host says. The former governor agrees, affirming Skousen was his professor and when the radio host professes his fondness for Skousen’s book The Making of America, while he acknowledges he hasn’t read it, Mitt quickly says “That’s worth reading.” Who...

Air pollution. Water pollution. Soil pollution. Noise pollution. Pesticides. Toxins. Chemical residues. Thankfully, we have the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect us against these dangers. Right?  Without the EPA regulators and federal legislation (Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, etc.), we’d be drowning in carcinogens, suffocating in smog, and suffering health- and life-threatening bombardment from innumerable sources. At least, it is probably fair to say, that is the perception of many Americans who are not old enough to have known (or who are too old to remember) LBEPA, life before EPA.  The EPA was created by an...

George Detweiler On July 11, shortly after submitting this article, Mr. George Detweiler unexpectedly passed away at his home in Twin Falls, Idaho. George was a great friend and patriot who, in addition to writing articles for THE NEW AMERICAN in defense of constitutional principles, was also very active in the John Birch Society, this magazine’s parent organization. He headed the society’s campaign in defense of the Constitution and served on the society’s Council and Executive Committee. A successful lawyer, he earned his J.D. at Georgetown University and served as assistant attorney general for the state of Idaho before...

Thankfully even the most heavily used bridges almost never collapse. Bridges near the ocean with salt water spray are particularly vulnerable to weaknesses caused by corrosion yet they too rarely collapse. In fact the handfull of bridges that have collapse are a result of earthquake, poor engineering (this reveals itself almost immediately after construction) or some other easily identifiable factor. We are now in the second day and no one yet has a clue why the bridge collapsed. This is extremely peculiar. The design was not exotic and the location of the bridge was not in any area prone to...

A troll has been spotted on a number of blogs and forums, going by the name of Jim Robinson....

NEW YORK A feature piece in this coming Sunday's New York Times Magazine on Republican candidate for president, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, portrays his followers as including a wild mix of "wackos" on both ends of the political spectrum. Paul, a libertarian, has been gaining media and public attention of late. The cover line reads: "A Genuine Radical for President." The headline inside: "The Antiwar, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, Anti-medicare Candidacy of Dr. Ron Paul." The article closes with the author, Christopher Caldwell, attending a Ron Paul Meetup in Pasadena. The co-host, Connie Ruffley of United Republicans of California, admits she...

Opponents of U.S. sovereignty plan to sneak their agenda around Congress Red China to monitor non-Chinese shipments within U.S.? Wes Vernon July 9, 2007 The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) — whose U.S. operation conducts its business in secrecy in the bowels of the U.S. Department of Commerce — is plunging ahead with a program that may end America as we know it. We can argue all day over to whether this is another case of "unintended consequences." (This column does not buy that.) The SPP appears to lead ultimately to a North American Union (NAU) or "community." Under that...