Free Republic

Watching TCM this morning - One of the 31 days of Oscar promos talks about the Oscar being like the Medal of Honor.

February 9, 2010 We're Living In Broken Britain, Say Most Voters Peter Riddell Voters are deeply pessimistic about the state of Britain today, believing that society is broken and heading in the wrong direction, a Populus poll for The Times has found. Nearly three fifths of voters say that they hardly recognise the country they are living in, while 42 per cent say they would emigrate if they could. But worries over the pace of social change and dislocation are balanced by the belief that life will get better, according to the survey undertaken at the weekend. It suggests that...

Why The Need To Lie About “Birthers?” We all, those of us on the ironically enough referred to “right,” understand without any explanation why it is that the Liberal Left and their complicit major Media lapdogs feel a need to demonize and intentionally misrepresent the thrust of what is insultingly called the “birther” movement. According to the ‘straw man’ set up by these disingenuous smut peddlers so that they can easily knock it down, is that this “birther” movement is kooks who insist that there is a ‘vast conspiracy,’ an evil, well-orchestrated cover-up of the fact that Barrack Obama was...

Who could forget how Newsweek editor Evan Thomas practically fell to his knees last summer in adoration of President Obama, declaring on MSNBC: "I mean in a way Obama's standing above the country, above — above the world, he's sort of God." While Barack Obama's own opinion of these reverential flights of fancy is debatable, one conclusion is, I would argue, inescapable. For the true-believing zealots — for the evangelical left — Obama is the duly ordained minister of a glorious, revivalist liberal orthodoxy. He is the enlightened one, the long-awaited prophet, illuminating the path to a long-sought promised land.

Last week, news stories proclaimed that Fox News Channel was the most trusted television news source in the country. The stories were referring to a poll done by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, which asked Americans whether they trusted each of the country's major television news operations. The only one with a positive review was Fox News. CNN did next best, followed by NBC News, then CBS News, and finally ABC News. But if you take a closer look at the numbers, the exact opposite is true. PPP's poll, taken in mid-January, found that 49 percent of Americans say they...

Can someone revoke this jackass' degree? Or perhaps I should award him an honorary degree in lying? Just one paragraph please... Let’s talk for a moment about budget reality. Contrary to what you often hear, the large deficit the federal government is running right now isn’t the result of runaway spending growth. Really Paul? How about some facts instead of lies?

Think about it for a moment. If we are to find a fundamental truth in the story Stone Soup, it is that there is a sucker born every day. Yes, the people of the village were tricked, duped, hoodwinked, bamboozled. Taking this story to its truthful conclusion, the shyster of this story was probably wanted in several counties for soup fraud and conspiracy to market false condiments. The deeper lesson from this story is that deception has almost no limits, or places that it cannot flourish, if it is crafted well.

You see, Rahm Emanuel, the petite ballerina, is Barack Obama’s chief-of-staff. He’s the guy that basically run’s Obama’s agenda. Now granted, even in good times, with a capable president, not an easy job. But most men who have had this job have been able to perform it with a sense of dignity, and even style. But not old Rahm “dead fish” Emanuel.

The Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a prized jewel of our national ecosystem. Congress should work to preserve this environmental sanctuary. I remain strongly opposed to drilling for oil in the ANWR. The House budget does not provide funding for Alaskan oil drilling. As we move toward budget reconciliation, I will work with my colleagues to keep the Alaskan wilderness pristine and untouched.

When her highness of highbrow punditry, Eleanor Clift, pens another of her catty columns for Newsweek, I accept her invitation to party. Ms Clift's commentary provides an ideal opportunity to clarify just what the Tea Party movement is all about. Here, Eleanor unwittingly offers an incredible party favor — the chance to blunt and even bury a number of key points the liberal media elite use to try to define who the Tea Party is. "Is the Tea Party a lasting force?" she asks. Why, yes, Ms Clift, indeed it is. And more than a force, it represents real climate...

With the new year has come new pessimism about the country's direction - especially among once-hopeful liberals, a Field Poll of California voters shows. The malaise cuts across nearly all political and ethnic lines, with overall approval of the country's direction dropping from 48 to 41 percent since October, according to the statewide survey. But the wildest mood swing is among strong liberals, whose optimism fell 19 points (82 to 63 percent), and moderate liberals, whose approval fell 18 points (78 to 60 percent). The percent of Democrats who say the country is on track fell by 11 points (68...

Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has condemned the US and other industrial economies, holding them responsible for the phenomenon of climate change. In an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera, bin Laden criticised George Bush, the former US president, for rejecting the Kyoto pact and condemned global corporations. "This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions - whether intentionally or unintentionally - and about the action we must take," bin Laden said. "Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury - the phenomenon is an actual fact."...

State of the Union analysis - As is so often the case in Obama world, we can find our attention being diverted off of substance and onto style. The President and his parasites work to turn our attention from the true nature of a thing, to the shifting outline of its shadow. It's the dark art of the political pivot, practiced with daring cynicism.

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87. "His writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our lives," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once wrote of Dr. Zinn. "When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be...

Warning: Indoctrination @ work Malcolm A. Kline, January 27, 2010 Although at first blush, polls seem to show that the youth vote mirrors that of society in general, a closer look at changing attitudes among college freshmen shows that they may be, as the liberals used to say, “a product of their environment.” “In December, the number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats fell to the lowest level recorded in more than seven years of monthly tracking by Rasmussen Reports,” that polling firm revealed on January 3, 2010. “Currently, 35.5% of American adults view themselves as Democrats.” “That’s down from...

Barbara Boxer explains what she wants to hear from President Obama in his SOTU speech.

In a stunning development the truck driver from Mass. was sworn in as President of the U.S. while the Obamas looked on

I'm convinced that the media has a huge clunky translation machine that automatically translates the preferred nomenclature of conservatives into liberal speak. I mean, there's always a discrepancy between what conservatives wish to be called and what we are actually called by the media. Reporters might type in "Pro-life" when describing us but when it runs through the media translation machine it whirrs and clunks and whizzes like something out of Star Trek and out comes..."Anti-abortion." There are many other changes the Media Translation Machine makes including:Conservative = Right wing extremistBelieving Catholic = FundamentalistTea Party attendee = TeabaggersPartial birth abortion...

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama's liberal backers have a long list of grievances. The Guantanamo Bay prison is still open. Health care hasn't been transformed. And Wall Street banks are still paying huge bonuses.

To say he simply is a rising Democratic star might be a perversion of astronomy. Ben McAdams is an internationally seasoned securities lawyer with Wall Street cred. He has orchestrated the advance team's global itinerary for two U.S. presidents as well as for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He moonlights as a university professor but maneuvers daily as Salt Lake City's most effective - maybe ever - legislative lobbyist. And the former University of Utah student body president has just taken his oath as a state senator... As such, the devout Mormon -- with his unapologetic progressive politics --...

Reporting from San Francisco - A prominent Silicon Valley executive with ties to the Obama administration has admitted to an extramarital affair after his former mistress plastered romantic pictures of the two of them on giant billboards in three major cities. "I had an 8½-year serious relationship with YaVaughnie Wilkins," said Charles E. Phillips, co-president of Oracle Corp. and a member of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. "The relationship with Ms. Wilkins has since ended, and we both wish each other well." Wilkins, a writer and actress, this week had a three-story-tall sign put up near Times Square in...

LOS ANGELES – Air America Radio, a radio network that was launched in 2004 as a liberal alternative to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative commentators, on Thursday shut down abruptly due to financial woes. The network once boasted hosts such as Al Franken and Rachel Maddow, but struggled from the outset, including multiple management shake-ups, a bankruptcy in 2006 and sale for $4.25 million the following year. Air America ceased airing new programs Thursday afternoon and said it will soon file to be liquidated under Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It began broadcasting reruns of programs and would end those as well...

Obama blasts court decision By Eric Zimmermann - 01/21/10 01:22 PM ET President Obama came out swinging today against the Supreme Court's ruling in a major campaign finance case. In a statement issued by the White House, Obama said the decision "has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics." He added that his administration will work with Congress to soften the impact of the decision. Here's his full statement: With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics....

Made this thread back in 2004 when another Massachusetts liberal lost. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1268795/posts Perhaps it's time to make a "part 2."

Every time one of the talking heads on the liberal Mainstream media hear a charge of biased reporting, they reply with the typical elitist scoff and utter something banal like "I hear that from both sides so it can't be true." Fact is, according to the latest Rasmussen Poll, most American voters believe that the Mainstream Media is more liberal than they are and two thirds of them feel the media has too much influence over government decisions. They feel that media is trying to make the news not cover it. According to the polls 67% of likely U.S. voters...

The RNC chairman is indecisive and at times immature, but there is plenty to respect, including his call yesterday for Harry Reid to step down. Meghan McCain on why she hasn’t lost faith.What is going on with Michael Steele? In the last year, the Republican National Committee chairman has become one of the most confusing and controversial figures in politics. Last week brought yet another example of his troubles representing the party: an outburst during an interview in which he said his critics should “fire him or shut up.” It was alarmingly immature coming from someone who is supposed to...

Could we all agree that we are doomed as a nation if President Barack Obama continues his deficit spending at unprecedented levels? Can you think of any reason, then, to justify this spending? Oh, our president says it's to jump-start the economy? Sorry, that dog won't hunt. So what's his real motive? Obama has been saying from the beginning that his stimulus plan was for the purpose of spurring economic growth -- though when we did have economic growth during the George W. Bush administration, the likes of which Democrats can only fantasize about during Obama's term, they trashed it...

WASHINGTON -- Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) was a hero to the American left, partly because of his 1939 anti-war novel "Johnny Got His Gun." Trumbo's title modified the lyric "Johnny get your gun" from the World War I song "Over There." Trumbo's "Johnny" is horribly maimed in that war. Now we need a novel titled "Berkeley Got Its Liberalism." Pending that, we have Tad Friend's report, in the Jan. 4 New Yorker, on maimed Berkeley. California, a laboratory of liberalism, is spiraling downward, driven by a huge budget deficit. So the University of California system's budget was cut 20 percent. Then...

Let Them Eat Rice Cake Malcolm A. Kline, January 6, 2010 Readers and viewers desert old-time newspapers and broadcast outlets with nearly as much determination and enthusiasm as the peoples of captive nations showed when fleeing their countries as the Soviet Union collapsed. Nevertheless, the response of journalism schools is to groom even more activist journalist-provacateurs. Hence, the University of Washington at Seattle is holding an “unconference” on “Journalism That Matters: Re-imagining News & Community in the Pacific NW” that will cover: * “New information sources; * “Business models; * “Economic solutions and accountability measures that work to create a...

Liberals use three main arguments as to why we should not use profiling to stop terrorism. One, they raise the spectres of Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber and others as examples that spending more time monitoring and checking out those who are of Semitic descent or from the Middle East or those whose passports show that they are from terrorist hotspots, and less time monitoring or harrasing little old ladies, will not work. They use the exception to the rule (McVeigh, the unabomber and others) to try and rule out using profiling. This is faulty reasoning to the core, given that...

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) took a shot at Dick Cheney last night, saying the former Vice President wasn't in any position to be criticizing President Obama. "Well, I think he had his eight years and he's caused a lot of trouble for our country and he perpetuated a war in Iraq that was unnecessary and wrong-headed," Paul said of Cheney on CNN's Larry King Live. "So I would say that it would be best he not be so critical right now."

The Christmas Day terrorist attack on Flight 253 was an actual disaster that never occurred thanks to luck (the bomb's detonators were faulty) and to heroism (a Dutch passenger, Jasper Schuringa, literally jumped over rows of passengers to nab the terrorist, subdue him, and save lives). The averted Christmas Day attack, though, is turning into a political disaster for the Obama administration and the Democratic Left. Political disaster looms because the American people rightly want to know how a terrorist like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, with detonators and explosives in hand, ever managed to get on Flight 253 -- especially after...

When you don't like the message - shoot the messenger. That seems to be the attitude of liberal bloggers and pundits who have opened a new front in their war against conservatives by attacking the prolific pollster. Rasmussen's daily tracking poll of Obama support consistently shows the president doing much poorer than other polls. This is due to the fact that Rasmussen carefully screens respondents for those who are "likely voters" rather than simply polling all adults as Gallup and other pollsters do. This Politico piece by Alex Isenstadt explains further: Rasmussen is quick to point out the accuracy of...

Its not a secret that the liberal/progressive part of American politics has a "softer" image of terrorism than the rest of us. For example, January 2004, when then Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean was asked how we should deal with bin Laden. Dean explained we shouldn't prejudge the issue until a jury had rendered a verdict at the end of a criminal trial. As Andrew McCarthy, who successfully prosecuted the first World Trade Center bombing case has said, rather than respond with vigorous force to protect the homeland, the liberal response was to "swaddle terrorists in the rights of...

"Best (er, worst) of 2009: Hate mail edition" By Michelle Malkin December 31, 2009 12:24 PM SNIPPET: "Language warning, as always, as we head into the sewer for a year-end reminder of the depths of liberal intolerance for your humble “big mashed up bag of meat with lipstick:”"

...“I hope the terrorists don’t think this is a good time to attack,” I said, looking protectively at the White House, which always looks smaller and more vulnerable and beautiful than you expect, no matter how often you see it up close. I thought our guard might be down because of the holiday; now I realize our guard is down every day. ...Before he left for vacation, Obama tried to shed his Spock mien and juice up the empathy quotient on jobs. But in his usual inspiring/listless cycle, he once more appeared chilly in his response to the chilling episode...

Alumni Gifts Empowering Left? Malcolm A. Kline, December 30, 2009 Jane Shaw over at the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy is having second thoughts about her annual alumni gift to her alma mater. “One point in Wellesley’s favor, by the way: its president hasn’t signed the ‘Presidents’ Climate Change Agreement,’ an expensive will-o’-the-wisp effort to ‘take a stand’ on global warming,” she writes. “And English majors are still required to study Shakespeare.” “Are those good enough reasons for me to support Wellesley with my money?” she asks herself. “Probably not.” Jay Schalin, also of the Pope Center,...

The latest numbers from the Census Bureau show that there is a mass exodus of taxpayers happening in all the most liberal states. This means that such states are not only losing urgently needed revenues at the worst possible time, but also representation both in the electoral college and in the House. As I have noted before, studies also unsurprisingly show that these states are the most bankrupt. This is how liberals "help" people. As usual, California topped off the list. Even including the illegal immigrants perpetually pouring into the state, it still managed to lose almost 100,000 more residents...

From FDR’s self serving “New Deal” through the 1960s, there was a legitimate debate about the role of government, particularly the Federal Government, in our lives. Was there an implicit mandate long hidden in our Constitution that sanctioned government redistributing benefits to one group at the expense of another? Even absent a Constitutional “penumbra”, was the need so dire and the disparity so obnoxious that the government should step in anyway? In the thirties and forties, many extremely bright and well educated persons became liberals, socialists, or Communists as part of their belief that government could and should be the...

"The Ghost of Christmas Past" shows you why presents in the past didn't lead to fat kids down the road. NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you visit his web site and please refrain from copying the cartoon within this thread. Thanks, and Merry Christmas!

Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist By Meg Sullivan December 14, 2005 Category: Research While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, almost all major media outlets tilt to the left.... http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Media-Bias-Is-Real-Finds-UCLA-6664.aspx?RelNum=6664

On this epsiode of the Conscience of Kansas radio program I talk with KSDB New Wave director Clifford Watkins. Next, I talk about Tim Carney's new book, "Obamanomics". WE hear from the boys from Red State Update and the from musician and political thinker Roger Weber. I also talk to retired Colonel Mike Angley about his exciting ChildFinder book series.

Take a look at the future of America at the hands of Democratic leadership!

Health reform is shuffling toward its endgame, and even though the bill's popularity resembles George Bush's circa 2007, Democrats seem determined to push the bill through. Browse through certain liberal blogs, or listen to Democratic leadership speeches, and you'll read the same justification again and again: However bad passing this bill might be, politically speaking, not passing it would be much, much worse. I've been skeptical of this line of argument for quite some time. This summer, I showed that Democrats from Republican-leaning districts who supported President Clinton's agenda fared significantly worse in the 1994 midterm election than those who...

President Barack Obama is on a path to becoming the greatest con man in history. He conned the Nobel Committee into awarding him the Peace Prize, even as he continues military occupations and escalates and expands his wars. He conned many peace advocates into voting for him, but now he continues President George W. Bush's military policies. He conned many environmental activists into voting for him, but now his administration promotes nuclear power, persecutes endangered species such as wolves, and promotes an ineffectual, loophole-filled "cap and trade" carbon scheme. He conned many health reform advocates into voting for him, but...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's opposition Liberal Party has taken down from its website a doctored photo of Lee Harvey Oswald being shot and killed in which Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's face was substituted for Oswald's. A Liberal official said on Tuesday the assassination picture, submitted as part of a photo contest in connection with the Copenhagen climate talks, should never have been there. The party on Tuesday also took down another doctored photo of Harper with his fist in a cow's posterior, which it had offered as one of the "best seven" depicting where Harper would rather be than...

The Obama administration's support for an individual insurance mandate without a public option is triggering what appears to be a full-fledged liberal revolt against the Senate's healthcare compromise, and for the first time raises the realistic prospect that reform could die amidst internecine Democratic bickering. An ominous sign resonant of the contentious 2007 standoff over immigration reform: The conservative right and the hardcore left are both beginning to attack the current proposal, terming it a "monstrosity" and lambasting its cost. "Insurance companies win," DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas declared Tuesday. "Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate." If...

A San Francisco-based wireless company is unabashedly mixing its liberal political activism with business, a strategy that has won the praise of President Obama but not the confidence of marketing analysts. A San Francisco-based wireless company is working liberal political activism into its business plan in a unabashedly partisan marketing strategy that experts say could catch on in today's polarized culture -- but also could alienate many potential customers. The company, CREDO, even boasts that it has the support of President Obama as it markets itself as an agent of social change. It pitches its mobile phone services with a...

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is listed as a “career and professional resource” within the women’s and gender studies discipline on the University of Detroit Mercy’s web site. “The Women's Studies Mission is global in its pursuit of equality, justice and humanity for all,” according to the web page, which lists Planned Parenthood as one of nine “career and professional resources” and describes it as the “best known pro-choice organization in the U.S. Provides information about planned parenthood, AIDS, Congressional action, and more.” The web page on which Planned Parenthood is listed “is endorsed by the University of Detroit...

America Under Barack Obama - An Interview with Nat Hentoff - By John W. Whitehead - December 11, 2009 Nat Hentoff has had a life well spent, one chock full of controversy fueled by his passion for the protection of civil liberties and human rights. Hentoff is known as a civil libertarian, free speech activist, anti-death penalty advocate, pro-lifer and not uncommon critic of the ideological left. At 84, Nat Hentoff is an American classic who has never shied away from an issue. For example, he defended a woman rejected from law school because she was Caucasian; called into a...