Free Republic

THR Film Review-Bottom Line: A titanic entertainment — movie magic is back! A dozen years later, James Cameron has proven his point: He is king of the world. As commander-in-chief of an army of visual-effects technicians, creature designers, motion-capture mavens, stunt performers, dancers, actors and music and sound magicians, he brings science-fiction movies into the 21st century with the jaw-dropping wonder that is “Avatar.” And he did it almost from scratch. There is no underlining novel or myth to generate his story. He certainly draws deeply on Westerns, going back to “The Vanishing American” and, in particular, “Dances With Wolves.”...

The political import of Avatar -- and there's no waving this aspect away because it's right in your face start to finish, and especially in the third act -- is ardently left. It is pro-indigenous native, anti-corporate, anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. Iraq War effort, anti-U.S.-in-Afghanistan (and anti-troop-surge-in-that-country, or strongly against the thinking of President Barack Obama and Gen. Stanley McChrystal), anti-rightie, anti-Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld, etc. Yes, it's very teenaged adolescent in its super-imaginative wacko visions and exuberant energy levels, but politically it's pure Che Guevara (more the Motorcycle Diaries or Che-in-Cuba version than Che in Bolivia), Naom Chomsky, Hugo Chavez, Howard Zinn, Gore Vidal,...

A recent headline in the British Columbian newspaper The Globe and Mail reads “Amy Goodman’s Border Woes Have Americans in a Tizzy.” Really? Because this is the first I’ve heard of it. Don’t know who Amy Goodman is? You’re not alone. As host of the television/radio program Democracy Now! (undoubtedly the most ironic misnomer in the history of news media), her activist-style “journalism” has kept her operating on the periphery of mainstream media. Fact is, a quick Google news search shows that the only U.S. news outlets to report on her “ordeal” have been, well, Amy Goodman for Democracy Now!...

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele gave the only appropriate response on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today, to Senate Majority Leader and member of the anti-war Left Harry Reid comparing critics of health care reform to opponents of abolition: he refused to answer questions about it and told CNBC commentator Donny Deutsch to change the subject. It was a good reaction, because taking it seriously would have mainstreamed an argument, conservatives shouldn’t want to mainstream. Progressives have set the tone of the debate for too long. It’s time for conservatives to fight back and create new rules for the political debate....

The left's police-hating chickens are coming home to roost. While partisan liberals have gone out of their way to blame conservative media and the Tea Party movement for creating a "climate of hate," they're silent on the cultural and literal war on cops that has raged for decades -- and escalated tragically this year. The total number of law-enforcement officers shot and killed this year is up 19 percent over last year, reports the Christian Science Monitor. More officers have died in ambush incidents this year than in any other since 2000. The Lakewood, Wash., massacre on Thanksgiving weekend claimed...

Obama Pleases the NeoconsFirst Published 2009-12-04 Because of the Iraq calamity, other elements of the neocon vision of remaking the Middle East were put on hold. But the neocons haven’t yet given up on the idea of a military strike against Iran. The neocon detachment from reality continues to pervade their wishful thinking. The reality of the disappearing US industrial base and America’s decaying infrastructure do not fit into the soaring rhetoric about US global power, says Robert Parry. President Barack Obama’s escalation of the Afghan War has upset many rank-and-file Democrats who had hoped for a more peaceful strategy,...

History's most notorious Georgian-turned-Russian, the politically astute Joseph Stalin once remarked, "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." The lesson has not been lost on the increasingly notorious Hungarian-cum-American George Soros. A group backed by Soros is gearing up to steal the 2012 election for President Obama and congressional Democrats by installing left-wing Democrats as secretaries of state across the nation. From such posts, secretaries of state can help tilt the electoral playing field. This is, of course, the same Soros, the same hyperpolitical left-wing philanthropist who makes no secret of...

It’s unbelievable, but while the entire Left has decided to ignore ClimateGate, leftist comedian Jon Stewart broke ranks. On his show yesterday, Stewart shattered the silence surrounding the scandal and actually criticized the scientists involved. It’s yet another sign that Conservatives are mistaken to believe that the host of “The Daily Show” is one and the same as fellow Leftists like Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. They had, he said, done tremendous damage to the image of science in general. Laughing an obvious fake laugh, Stewart said, ironically, that the emails in which the now infamous scientists admit they’re putting...

When you think of Canada, which qualities come to mind? The world's peacekeeper, the friendly nation, a liberal counterweight to the harsher pieties of its southern neighbour, decent, civilised, fair, well-governed? Think again. This country's government is now behaving with all the sophistication of a chimpanzee's tea party. So amazingly destructive has Canada become, and so insistent have my Canadian friends been that I weigh into this fight, that I've broken my self-imposed ban on flying and come to Toronto.

We can abandon Afghanistan and it can revert to being an Islamist police state run by the Taliban. It can return to being a safe haven for those who want to destroy America, exterminate the Jewish race, and create a world in which marrying children and mutilating women’s genitals are the norm. War is indeed hell — not that I’m in any way qualified to make that judgment. (Read Karen Northon to get a more informed view. Patriotic heroes like Leo Thorsness also have a thing or two to say on the matter.) But which is worse: war or a...

Are Zero and Mobama PhotoChopped in this image, just plain dumb, or reciting some new leftist creed like: “I pledge undying love to the United Nations of Globalism and to kill all Republicans wherever they stand, one dominion, over everyone, taking liberty and justice from all"? Click the link and let me know (and pay close attention to the wedding rings and Bambi's lapel pin)...

What’s in a name? For decades the Left has attacked the Religious Right for any mention of one name in particular – Jesus Christ. Evangelical conservatives have been told it was wrong to mention Bible verses or the Savior when debating issues of law or politics. Lately it has become clear that the no-Jesus rule only applies to one side of the political spectrum. Most readers of NewsReal or viewers of cable news have probably noticed that Jesus’ name is being thrown out there for everything from supporting President Barack Obama, to ending capitalism, to promoting health care reform. Not...

This is disturbing enough when it comes from individual political left-wingers – but what happens when they are appointed to unaccountable positions of government power, as in the case of the legion of Marxist czars with which Obama has surrounded himself? This very website reported recently that "regulatory czar" Cass Sunstein, at least according to what he's written in his own book, wants to muzzle conservatives for daring to oppose the president – and wants to take sweeping totalitarian measures that would silence free political speech on the Internet in the guise of anti-libel regulations. And who could forget Nancy...

Any time a high profile "conservative" GOP leader, who also happens to be an evangelical, comes out in strong support of Israel, the rabid misguided Israel-hating leftist appeasers always trot out this "slander" against Christians who support Israel. Michael Yglesias did this when Huckabee went to Israel to show support and stand in solidarity with Israel in the face of pressure from Obama. Now this gang of leftists Israel-haters are doing the same thing to Palin. I would encourage the readers to see Erick Stakelbeck's article, Slandering Christian Zionists: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2312376/posts From Rosner's Domain: "Why Sarah Palin said that "more and...

Top Obama donor and fundraiser Jodie Evans met with the Taliban in Afghanistan on a recent trip there, according to a report by Jane Fonda of a discussion she had with Evans last month. The meeting with the Taliban took place just weeks before Evans was videotaped directly handing to President Barack Obama a package of information about her trip to Afghanistan at a high dollar fundraiser in San Francisco.The meeting with the Taliban was kept secret by Evans and her group Code Pink in reports she and the group posted from Kabul and in interviews with the media and...

For the second time since Sarah Palin stepped into the national political spotlight, a photo of the former Republican vice-presidential candidate featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine is sparking controversy. Palin herself blasted the "out-of-context" cover as "sexist" on her Facebook page. ... The reaction to the Newsweek cover has predictably sparked outrage from conservative supporters of Palin and kudos from liberals who oppose her. CBN commentator David Brady called the cover "a new low" for the "biased" magazine, adding that Newsweek has a history of portraying liberal women as "heroes for the next generation," while portraying conservative women...

More mischief from the SEIU? SEIU members think they are entitled to work and make money. Of course, if there is no government money to fund projects and volunteers step in and take up the slack, union thugs are demanding all work stop. It’s not fair! Cry me a river. From Jarrett Renshaw of the Morning Call. In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park. Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him...

When Hemnecher Amen, a student, joined a protest outside the White House recently, it was the latest visible opposition here to US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hardly anyone took any notice. "There's a lot of apathy and a growing disconnectedness to what's going on in world affairs," the frustrated Howard University junior said as around 200 people, including a handful of students, gathered for the march. "Students are more interested in trying to get a job and make money." With the US military several years into two faraway wars, American students like Amen are taking to the streets less...

Groucho Marx once said, ”Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” I doubt that sentiment has ever more true than it is today. The entire Global Warming movement and all the idiocy that goes with it such as Cap & Trade, has become 100% political. There’s literally ZERO scientific evidence that validates the ridiculous CO2 theory that it’s based on. Lord Monckton, in his inimitable way, explained exactly what’s really behind this entire scam to Americans quite succinctly when he displayed his “Traffic Light Tendency” during his recent...

Through the John Adams Project, the ACLU and the NACDL assembled a team of trial counsel, mitigation specialists and investigators to work with the under-resourced military lawyers in their representation of Guantánamo detainees accused in connection with the 9/11 attacks and other cases. The John Adams Project attorneys brought years of experience in criminal defense law, including much needed expertise in capital cases, to the defense effort. The Project’s lawyers, who were formally admitted by the presiding judge as part of the civilian legal team, appeared before the military commissions on their clients’ behalf numerous times and filed over 80...

On Dec. 4, 2009, the radical Hollywood left is poised to release its latest tribute to the men and women of the armed services, entitled "Brothers." The film stars Tobey Maguire as a military man serving in Afghanistan. When he is presumed killed in action, his wife, played by Natalie Portman, has an affair with his brother, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Naturally, Maguire shows up at home with a tremendous case of post-traumatic disorder -- which, if we are to judge from the trailer, causes him to fire weapons at random and physically abuse his wife. "Brothers" follows hot on...

President Obama at Fort Hood today: "It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know — no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor." Really? At his blog today, Andrew Bostom, a scholar of jihadism, cites the following passage from "Reliance of the Traveler," a widely distributed manual of Islamic law produced by al-Azhar University in Egypt, the most authoritative interpreters of theology and sharia jurisprudence in Sunni Islam, the dominant tradition among the world's Muslims:

Reagan deliberately confronted criminal regimes with what they fear most: the publicly spoken truth about their moral weakness.

New Yorks archbishop has got the score only half-right. Bigotry is alive and well -- and it goes far beyond the Catholic Church. When Comptroller and failed mayoral candidate Bill Thompson this week heard a slur spat against Jews on a radio show, his reaction rang out loud and clear into the wilderness: He greeted the bigoted caller with total silence. When actress and social nitwit Janeane Garofalo was asked about tax protesters, she slimed thousands of white Americans as racist "rednecks" -- with brain damage. Again, the reaction was plain: Near total silence.

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has condemned The New York Times -- blasting the Gray Lady and its columnist Maureen Dowd for what he says are examples of unfair, prejudicial and just downright mean anti-Catholicism. Dolan used his blog last Thursday on the Archdiocese of New York's Web site to rail against the Times a day after the paper refused to print his critique as an op-ed piece. He singled out Dowd -- a poison-penned, Pulitzer winner and former Catholic-school girl -- for "the most combustible," "intemperate and scurrilous" "diatribe" she wrote on Oct. 25, which "rightly never would have...

I used to have a job that felt like Divine Grace. Since I was raised secular, it was as close to a religious experience as I had ever had. I was fresh out of graduate school in my late 20s, working with black foster families and relatives in dicey areas of Oakland. Not a day went by that I didn't cry -- and not just because of the sorrowful plight of the kids. I'd never been around people like this before, who loved God, who praised Jesus, who lived to serve him. In retrospect, I think my tears came because...

The Left, champions of strict separation of church and state, have come out in support of an American theocracy. How can this be? Could this possibly be the same political machine that ritualistically goes from town to town scanning courthouses for explicit references to God, or even worse, the Ten Commandments? Or the establishment telling little Susie she cannot pray at school? Or the organization forbidding the reading of scripture, even on a purely non-sectarian, academic basis? Surely we can't be talking about the same ideologues. But there is no mistake. The Left supports theocracy, as long as it is...

The Rochester Operation "Can You Hear Me Now" rallies and march, is starting at the WHEC-TV Studios on 191 East Avenue. The rally will start at 11am on Saturday, 10/17/2007. Here's the map for the rally point: We're starting things off with the Presentation of the Colors, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and a few speeches. We'll then proceed on our march that will follow this route through Downtown Rochester, across the Genesee River, ending at the Gannett Building, for a protest at our local newspaper, the Democrat and Chronicle: BTW, we are conducting a peaceful, but spirited event...

According to most conservatives in South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has officially gone over to the dark side. Under the guise of 'bipartisanship,' Graham has signed on to one of the left's most ambitious plans to impose a socialist agenda in America - government control of the formerly free market through implementation of cap-and trade, the 1,400 plus page Waxman-Markey bill approved earlier this year by the House. The main (scientifically unproven) premise of cap and trade is that the earth is melting and government must step in to save the world. Of course, it will be expensive, but...

On Today's Show... October 14, 2009   The Bloods and Crips Quote Explained: It Was All About Love of the Game Rush restates his respect for the game and its players. (Rush 24/7 Members:  Listen) » January 19, 2007 Rush Limbaugh Show: Original Transcript   Transcript: Smear Campaign Against Rush is an Attempt to Discredit Conservatism It's not about Rush or the Rams. It's an assault on American values. (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen)   » Sam Mellinger in the Kansas City Star: Limbaugh Blitzed in Bid for Rams   The Truth About Jackson, Sharpton, and CNN's Rick "DUI" Sanchez (With Sources) » NY...

Debating Leftists is Like Debating Charles Manson by Leigh Scott Keith Olbermann’s recent hour-long commentary was quite revealing. Like Michael Moore’s “capitalism hasn’t done anything for me” comment, the outpouring of support and sympathy for serial pedophile and admitted rapist Roman Polanski, and President Obama’s shenanigans at the U.N. and G-20, it drove home a simple, powerful point… These people don’t know what they are talking about. They do not know their kiesters from a hole in the ground. They are a few fries short of a happy meal and a few cards short of a full deck. Their phasers...

The following thumbnails describe a very small sampling of the locust horde of Leftist bureaucrats President Barack Hussein Obama has deliberately chosen to help him grasp the helm of America's ship of state, strip it from the American people, and steer it hard to port. The Obama Administration is plainly subverting democracy in America, wildly careening our previous 230-year history of democracy so dangerously Leftward that after a mere nine months we are in terrible danger of sinking.

Americans were justifiably proud last week of their many Nobel Prize winners. Eight of the nine honorees in physics, chemistry and medicine were US citizens, some native-born, some naturalized, a near total American sweep. And their achievements were glorious: better understanding how DNA works, the basis for enormous medical progress; developing fiber-optic cable, revolutionizing global communications; and advances in cell biology, with enormous implications for treating cancer. In each case, these breakthroughs, some made as long as 20 years ago, have proven themselves beyond the laboratory, and already made enormous real-world differences. Next to these marvels, how to explain the...

A new, conservative friend cracks up when she hears my phone message. As a therapist, I'm required to state, "If this is a psychiatric emergency, please call 911." Roaring with laughter, she says, "Robin, the whole country is having a psychiatric emergency!" And she's right, because people running this country are off: off balance, off-world, off-putting, off their meds. Gallows humor, a knot in your stomach when Obama speaks, poor sleep. Your body is telling you that something is wrong. Even out here, things are starting to feel spooky. While it's always weird central in Berkeley, now there's a malaise...

While the English Defense League wants to protect Britishness, the left has vowed to "link arms with the Muslims". Muslims are following their religion in their attempt to takeover the UK. What is the excuse of the left for wanting to destroy their own homeland? Pathetic. UAF Supporters to Mock Dead Soldiers Submitted by Editor on Tuesday, 6 October 2009

At a White House dinner with a group of historians at the beginning of the summer, Robert Dallek, a shrewd student of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, offered a chilling comment to President Obama. "In my judgment," he recalls saying, "war kills off great reform movements." The American record is pretty clear: World War I brought the Progressive Era to a close. When Franklin D. Roosevelt was waging World War II, he was candid in saying that "Dr. New Deal" had given way to "Dr. Win the War." Korea ended Harry Truman's Fair Deal, and Vietnam brought Lyndon Johnson's...

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters is the worst kind of American. In fact, it's hard to count him as an American at all except by accident of birth. It is plain that this Boehlert fellow is against many aspects of the American tradition chief of which is freedom of political speech. Well, perhaps, he's not entirely against that freedom. Instead he's against that freedom for anyone that isn't in wholesale agreement with him and his left-wing cronies. One of his September postings on the extremist, anti-American website AlterNet.org stands as exhibit "A" in the proof of his anti-Americanism, his utter...

For years, claims that UN climate reports represent the consensus of the majority of international scientists have been mindlessly accepted and regurgitated by left-leaning policy makers and the media at large. But in the past week or so, it’s become more apparent than ever that those who’ve accused the international organization of politicizing science and manipulating data have been right all along. This latest disclosure again concerns what has become the favorite propaganda propagation tool of climate activists -- the infamous “Hockey Stick Graph.” The familiar reconstruction, which deceitfully depicts last millennium’s global temperatures as flat prior to a dramatic...

The left is in an uproar today. They got their panties in a bunch over a piece that ran on the conservative newsblog NewsMax.com where it was suggested that Obama's irresponsible actions as president could result in a military coup that would "restore" the Constitution. Not completely without reason, many lefty blogs have lost their tiny little minds over this article. The piece was written by NewsMax blog contributor John L. Perry and talked of a "bloodless coup" where "Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars." Perry wondered if some "patriotic general" might confront the president (or a president...

On Sunday, German voters elected their most business-friendly, pro-American government in decades. Angela Merkel -- the leading grown-up on the world stage -- returns as chancellor. Merkel's Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union (her party's Bavarian branch) actually lost a few seats, but the pro-business, Washington-friendly Free Democrats roared back to life and more than made up the difference. On the other hand, the Social Democrats -- Germany's establishment lefties -- took their worst beating in post-war history. The hard-left Greens fell, too. Only the nut-case Left Party gained a bit of ground, thanks to protest votes.

It seems like everywhere you look these days while driving on the road – especially on college campuses – an odd-phrased bumper sticker with religious symbols spelling “COEXIST” can be seen. This phrase contains the spiritual ideologies of the major world religions. Every letter in the “COEXIST” phrase has a symbol representing a religious system or spiritual ideology: “C” for the crescent and star (representing Islam); “O” being dotted with the Karma Wheel (Buddhism) “E” as energy in the relativity equation (Science); “X” illustrating the star of David (Judaism); the “I” representing the pentagram (Wicca/Pagan); “S” for the Tao symbol;...

Rohrabacher said. “Part of the reason why a lot of Americans don’t have health insurance is because illegals have flooded into jobs and are willing to work for companies that pay more wages and offer no benefits.” “Without that [influx of illegals], companies would be asking for labor and be willing to offer them benefits like healthcare insurance,” he added. Rohrabacher had a bone to pick with elected officials, who seem to have lost sight of just who they represent. “We end up taking care of and being more concerned about people who have come here illegally from other countries...

ACORN, a social justice organization with roots in [New Orleans], battles a string of scandals. The announcement stuck to a wall outside the entrance to ACORN's local office in the 2600 block of Canal Street quietly signals the trouble afoot. In English and Spanish, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now tells walk-up clients that ACORN's housing office has shut itself down for two weeks to immerse itself "in an intensive training program." The sign is a symptom of a tumultuous week in the history of a controversial poor people's social justice movement -- one founded by a New...

It strikes me that there are three forms of "Democrats", and I put that word in quotes because it doesn't really define the whole group. So I have divided the left wing into the three types of people I see and meet in my own experience. Leftists, Democrats, and Liberals...

Very, say longtime watchers of the extreme leftwing group that sprouted out of a radical 60s anti-government movement. For decades ACORN has presented itself as a grassroots network dedicated to improving the lives of the poor. But there's more to ACORN than its do-gooder veneer. Just ask the banks, corporations and politicians who've been the target of ACORN's shameless shenanigans over the past 40 years. Here's how the tiny seed of 1960s radicalism blossomed into a well-funded, national organization with political connections reaching all the way to the White House:

The Aurora man targeted in an anti- terrorism investigation and his attorney abruptly broke off a planned meeting with FBI agents this morning."Mr. (Najibullah) Zazi and (attorney) Mr. (Art) Folsom will not be meeting with the FBI today," Folsom's spokeswoman Wendy Aiello told The Denver Post Saturday morning. "No future meetings are planned at this time."She said they've decided that it is in Zazi's best interest given the progress of negotiations so far, Aiello said."Certainly there are inaccuracies in the reporting over the last 24 hours," she said.In a phone interview with the Denver Post this morning, Zazi, 24, said...

Activist group ACORN started in 1970 to help the poor in Arkansas and quickly went national, growing into a multimillion-dollar conglomerate with a mission so far-flung that schools now bear its name, two radio stations are affiliates and a man it backed is the president. Oh yeah, it's also the unwilling star of a hot Internet video featuring a couple dressed as a hooker and her pimp. SNIP Many Democrats used to advertise their ACORN connections. Now, however, the Democratic-led Senate has voted to cut off its grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Democrat-dominated House...

* When it comes to Dinner with Sarah and Todd, you may not be the winner!Per the Alaska Dispatch:We're crossing our fingers really hard today ... bestselling author Joe McGinniss is a strong contender to win the Ebay auction for a dinner with Sarah Palin. McGinniss is among the top-two bidders in that now-famous Ebay auction for a foursome dinner date with Palin. He's bid $59,999.99 to dine with Our Lady of the North. The ecstatic subject line to an email McGinniss sent to AlaskaDispatch.com Thursday night read, "I'm going for the knockout blow! (mostly because I like the ‘FREE...

.... Would you please sit down and shut up you old fool! Yup. Think about this one for a moment. You're a young black man or woman, you're finishing up your education and hope to have a career in politics. Along comes Barack Obama and you're just elated! The barrier has been broken and a black man is now President of the United States! Your path is clear! But wait! In the early months of Obama's presidency his inexperience starts to show. He fails on several big fronts: Health care, cap-and-trade and the union card-check bill. He tries to convince...

Jaime E. Feliciano, president of the radical Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1000 District Labor Council 784, has been convicted of possessing child pornography. Even before the kiddie porn charges were laid, Feliciano was already a convicted sex offender, the Sacramento Bee reported last year. The paper reported that according to court records, “Feliciano was convicted in 1993 of lewd or lascivious act with a child under the age of 14 years, which is a felony.” Two SEIU locals, 100 in New Orleans and 880 in Chicago, are ACORN affiliates. The chief organizer of Local 100 is Wade Rathke,...