Free Republic

When Afraid, Attack is the Mantra. So who is afraid of Sarah Palin, and why are they afraid? Two weeks ago we saw Barack Obama select Joe Biden, a senator with decades of experience as his vice presidential running mate. Senator Biden's experience has been advertised as the reason he is such a good running mate. In today's papers, details about how he fought for Israel. How did he fight? By casting votes in the Senate. By talking to his colleagues about how to vote. Using this logic, I have been fighting for this nation for decades myself, talking to...

You need to go read the original post first. Here's the link: America, the new serfdom.Are you one of the few Americans who knows your American rights, knows the value of them, and knows how to defend them? Let's find out. 1) Explain the connection between rights and freedom. 2) Explain in legal terms how a right creates freedom. 3) Explain why a courtroom is the best place to claim and assert your rights. 4) List 10 of your fundamental American rights. There are way more than 10. I'm just asking for 10. 5) Cite the legal authority for those...

Good morning.Gustav heads inland s. of NOLA, and the R convention plans are on hold, day by day.

Central Planning is sold to a hopeful people as a way to solve societal problems, to right wrongs, and bring about perfect justice and equality. Central Planning promises you everything you are entitled to. As a bonus, goods and services produced by others are added to the list of commodities that everyone has a "right" to. Suddenly everyone is entitled to healthcare, housing, education, food, et cetera. It might sound nice that the state will magically provide all these wonderful things, but these rosy promises mask a dehumanizing, ugly reality. The other side of these entitlements is that now the...

Good morning!The Dems' Crazy Convention gets underway. How much of it can you stand to watch? I need a volunteer to watch my share...let me think of some inticement for this huge sacrifice...Fay - the Storm which Won't go Away - continues its tour of the South.

Liberal without even Trying From the times of the Great Depression through the 1950’s, some people were known as those who were just “passing through” town. During that time, one could pass through a town anonymously. Those days are gone. With fingerprint, information, a certifiable form of identification, a social security number, a speck of DNA or a face recognition photograph authorities have the ability to know everything there is to know about an individual. That individual had better have their legal ducks in a row before passing anywhere. This is but a tiny fragment of an example of those...

Governments tend toward tyranny. Governments are comprised of selfish humans with personal desires for money, job security, and increased authority over fellow citizens. A citizen working for a government has opportunities to rule over and oppress fellow citizens, they would never have outside their government position. Therefore, government becomes a magnet for selfish power-seeking individuals. By their sheer size and superior firepower, governments tend to overrun and ignore personal rights. The machine capriciously devours it's victims. The Declaration of Independence declares that governments exist to protect the rights of citizens. The Constitution for the United States of America further states...

August winds down as we head into the last months of the '08 political season. Russia's withdrawal from Georgia is murky and ambiguous as is the US response to the situation. Pakistani President Musharef resigns today , and a TD moves over Cuba headed toward FL.

INVITATION BIBLICAL LAW CENTER NATIONAL SEMINAR “THE LORD, THE LAW & THE LIBERTY” Faith Baptist Church, Paris, Texas – August 25 and 26, 2008 The 24th Annual Unregistered Baptist Fellowship National Meeting will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, October 13-15, 2008. Click Here for more details Dr. Dixon releases new book, The Trail of Blood Revisited: Christ's True Church, Its Past, Present and Future. Order today! Now in an updated 4th Printing! 170 pages, suggested donation $8 for single copies; $7 each for 2 copies; $6 each for 3 or more copies; $4 each for 60 copies (case lot). Includes...

Behind the attempt to regulate the Internet is an attempt at destroying our God given constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and an attempt to suppress the spread of opinions, news, and ideas. For the Multi-national corporations and it's leftist CEOs there is a need for greed and to limit our choices they way they do with Television. The chance to monopolize the Internet and the video games industry is met with the support of none other than RINOS as well as the far left. Hillary Clinton, John Mccain and to some extent even Obama have expressed support for regulating...

Today we update North Carolina where there's a bit of a surprise. * North Carolina: Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole's leads Democratic challenger Kay Hagan 46 percent to 41 percent with Libertarian Chris Cole drawing 7 percent and 5 percent undecided in a SurveyUSA poll conducted Aug. 9-11. This is the first time SurveyUSA included Cole in its poll, and it observed: "Hagan is flat, Dole is down. Cole gets 11% of male votes today, siphoning key votes Dole needs to win. Cole gets 12% of young votes today, siphoning key votes Hagan needs to win. Cole gets 9% of the...

Good morning!The non-partisan National Tax Policy Center has examined Obama's economic plans for us and predicts they would add 3.4 trillion dollars to the national debt. Not exactly fiscal responsibility is it?The Russian/Georgian war moves into its second, dangerous week.

The Republican Party suffers from a pervasive and inexplicable failure to identify some key points of distinction between themselves and their Democratic opponents on issues that speak clearly and forcefully to the public consciousness - and to run with them. I.e. to put and keep those issues in the spotlight of the campaign. The latest case in point: Racial preferences - i.e. Affirmative Action. Many "red meat" Democrats as well as most Republicans see these measures for what they are - state-sponsored racism - plain and simple. More deeply - an attempted end run around the most basic tenet of...

Good Monday morning to all.A tropical storm approaches the Texas Gulf Coast.Obama has agreed to 3 structured presidential debate forums. RIP Alexander Solszenitsyn, witness & survivor of the horrors of the Soviet Gulag.

Text of Address by Alexander Solzhenitsynat Harvard Class Day Afternoon Exercises,Thursday, June 8, 1978I am sincerely happy to be here with you on this occasion and to become personally acquainted with this old and most prestigious University. My congratulations and very best wishes to all of today's graduates. Harvard's motto is "Veritas." Many of you have already found out and others will find out in the course of their lives that truth eludes us if we do not concentrate with total attention on its pursuit. And even while it eludes us, the illusion still lingers of knowing it and...

Good morning!Our job: Make sure Obama has another bad week!And call your Senators and Reps to protest the Dems's No Drilling/High gasoline price Policy!

You might have thought the demented Americans with Disabilities Act — a bonanza for lawyers that requires any public facility to be designed with handicappers in mind or be sued out of existence — would be the last word in otherly-abled totalitarianism. Not so. Visitability is a concept that makes the ADA downright libertarian by comparison. The initial objective of Visitability proponents is to impose on every home a zero-step entrance, interior doors at least 32" wide, and at least one wheelchair-accessible bathroom on the ground floor. Once they've managed to have this mandated, we'll see where they go from...

A pro-Second Amendment group is taking the unusual step of asking for financial help for the family of a gun owner caught up in a bizarre prosecution for a malfunctioning firearm. David Olofson is a U.S. Army veteran, Army Reservist and a gun enthusiast who loaned his personal 20-year-old AR-15 semi-automatic rifle to a neighbor who had expressed an interest in learning to shoot. A semi-automatic weapon fires one bullet each time the trigger is pulled. But – as Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, explains – when the neighbor took the gun to a range, it...

Good morning.Supposedly a 9 point poll bump has boosted O on his return from his overseas tour.

Steve Shippert, of ThreatsWatch.org just sent this email out on a small email ring of bloggers. It is simply and truly incredibly important, and eloquent. I beseech every blogger to post it on their blog. If all do, it will redound widely, and be widely heard, as it must be, if we care for our nation, our children's future, everything we value in life and liberty. This must get out. It can really shape the debate in this country, and sway many. In every election, there is a moment when it happens, and Shippert's message is that moment. PLEASE, everybody...

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul have ramped up plans for a local counterweight to the GOP's national convention in September. Not content with a planned rally at the University of Minnesota's Williams Arena on Sept. 2, the Paul forces now plan a three-day "Rally for the Republic" that will climax in a 10-hour extravaganza at Target Center in Minneapolis. "It's getting exciting," said Marianne Stebbins, a longtime GOP activist who ran the Texas congressman's campaign in Minnesota. "We realized [Williams Arena] wasn't big enough for everything we wanted to do." Although Paul was a long-shot candidate who came...

[note: You won't read this in five minutes] Nile Gardiner, Ph.D.: Good morning. Welcome to the Heritage Foundation and the fifth Margaret Thatcher Freedom Lecture.The Margaret Thatcher Lecture series began in Sep­tember 2006, with a major speech by former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky on the subject, "Is Free­dom for Everyone?" It was followed by lectures on economic freedom and religious freedom by Hernan­do de Soto and Michael Novak, and by Ambassador John Bolton's lecture "Does the United Nations Advance the Cause of Freedom?"Our distinguished speaker today is Victor Davis Han­son, who will address the theme, "In Defense of Liberty: The...

Address on behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater Rendezvous with Destiny October 27, 1964 This speech is a verbatim transcript of "The Speech" given as a portion of a pre-recorded, nationwide televised program sponsored by Goldwater-Miller on behalf of Barry Goldwater, Republican candidate for the presidency whom Ronald Reagan actively supported. 4,626 words Thank you very much. Thank you and good evening. The sponsor has been identified, but unlike most television programs, the performer hasn't been provided with a script. As a matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own ideas regarding the choice that we face...

The judiciary is becoming an important election issue. John McCain is warning conservatives that control of today's finely balanced Supreme Court depends on his election. Unfortunately, his jurisprudence is likely to be anything but conservative. The idea of a "living Constitution" long has been popular on the political left. Conservatives routinely dismiss such result-oriented justice, denouncing "judicial activism" and proclaiming their fidelity to "original intent." However, many Republicans, like Mr. McCain, are just as result-oriented as their Democratic opponents. They only disagree over the result desired. Judge-made rights are wrong because there is no constitutional warrant behind them. The Constitution...

Imagine a society where simply speaking out of turn or saying the "wrong thing" was openly discussed as a crime against humanity, and where sceptics or deniers of the truth were publicly labelled "criminals", hauled before the press and accused of endangering humanity with their grotesque untruths. Imagine a society where even some liberals demanded severe restrictions on freedom of movement; where people campaigned for travelling overseas to be made prohibitively expensive in order to force people to stay at home; and where immigration was frowned upon as "toxic" and "destructive".

When Lady Thatcher revived the British economy, she was reviving profound social virtues that the British had once exemplified to the world—the Thatcherite “vigorous virtues” described above. In 1979, they seemed utterly destroyed by 50 years of statism and socialism. In fact, they had merely been driven underground by government over-regulation and intervention. As James C. Bennett has observed, it took only a few years of Lady Thatcher’s application of free market solutions for these virtues to become vigorous again. Once that happened, it took only a few more years for those revived virtues to transform Britain from the sick...

Local toll road activist Terri Hall, the Spring Branch home schooling mom who's campaign against toll roads made her WOAI's San Antonian of the Year for 2007,. is taking her populist campaign nationwide. Hall is among the speakers for Saturday's 'Freedom March,' in Washington DC, organized by supporters of former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, and designed to keep alive his message of smaller government and vigilance against encroaching government power. "They wanted someone to speak about the Trans Texas Corridor, and what's happening here, and the eminent domain abuses, and how all these toll roads are tied to corporate...

In a thread on a UK site, Katherine of London wrote: "Do any of you actually know what Marxism and socialism are? Americans seem to throw these terms around..." - - - It's all about sovereignty, ma'am. The assumption in old Europe was that God granted sovereignty as the divine right of kings (cf. Filmer: Patriarcha, 1680). The assumption among statists is that sovereignty inheres in the state (cf. Hobbes and Hegel). The axiom of the Declaration of Independence is that sovereignty is an endowment to the individual from his Creator. It is then Men who institute government for the...

The Islington Council, by trying to force a civil marriage registrar to participate in homosexual domestic partnership ceremonies, perpetrated a "violation" of her dignity and "created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment." In unexpectedly strong language, the Central London Employment Tribunal has ruled that Lillian Ladele, a Christian civil marriage registrar, cannot be forced to act contrary to her conscience in conducting homosexual domestic partnership ceremonies. The panel ruled, "Islington Council rightly considered the importance of the right of the gay community not to be discriminated against but did not consider the right of Miss Ladele as a...

Think there's no such thing as too much parking? Take a look at Tysons Corner, where there's more parking than jobs, more parking than office space, more parking than in downtown Washington. That must change, said advocates and politicians seeking to transform Virginia's largest business hub from suburb to city. Reducing parking, charging for parking and finding new uses for the acres of parking that separate Tysons' buildings and the people inside is at the heart of plans to remake the area.... "Who wants parking spaces to be the hallmark of a development?" said Clark Tyler, chairman of a Fairfax...

The Israel Herald has a long but interesting article, U.S. and Israeli militaries discuss attack on Liberty in which it links a current discussion on the USS Liberty with a possible attack on Iran. It speculates, So where does the Liberty fit in? What discussions could have possible brought the Liberty attack to the fore? If indeed Israel is planning an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, could it be that the U.S. has warned the Jewish state it would not tolerate a repeat of what happened to the Liberty? What other explanation could there be for discussing an incident both...

The flame of which America is the white-hot heart is the living fire of the West. But who knew I would find one of the most moving descriptions of what the United States represents in one of my youngest son’s books? Rick Riordan has created Percy Jackson, son of a human woman and Poseidon, the (Greek) God of the Sea. In The Lightning Thief, Percy discovers what it means to be a half-blood; that the gods truly are immortal—and they are living in America: Explains Charon the Centaur: “Come now, Percy. What you call ‘Western civilization.’ Do you think it’s...

Leading defense officials from the United States and Israel, meeting in Israel this week, raised the controversial attack on the U.S. ship USS Liberty, by Israel, in June 1967. The attack has caused considerable controversy over the years despite both governments being reticent to publicly discuss the affair. It is rare that defense officials from either side discuss the attack which killed 34 U.S. service personnel, and wounded 171 others. In talks this week however between the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Michael Mullen, and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, together with other senior Israeli...

In the course of human events it is necessary, now and again, to dissolve our political bands with the ninnies who keep abandoning our founding principles. It used to be self-evident that our government’s role was primarily to protect certain unalienable rights, such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It used to be that our government did the bidding of the people – that any power it derived was solely through the consent of the governed. It used to be our country believed in limited government – that government at its best was a necessary evil and should...

This blood libel of Israel, Jews, and John McCain’s father is sanctioned by Barack Obama’s official campaign It has been established [http://husaria.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/obama-campaign-sanctioned-anti-semitic-and-other-hate-speech/] that Barack Obama’s official campaign site exercises editorial control over the content of my.barackobama.com, and is capable of finding and removing “offensive” and “disrespectful” material within two days. The following has been online for almost three weeks. It accuses Israel of deliberatly murdering the crew of the U.S.S. Liberty, American Jews with divided loyalties of complicity, and John McCain’s father of complicity in a cover up. The following entry is sanctioned (tolerated) by Barack Obama’s official campaign... Now,...

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2008 – A California-based group will fulfill the promise of a major milestone today, as a soldier at Fort Lewis, Wash., receives a free Jeep Liberty. Army Spc. Michael Gallagher, a vehicle commander from Company A, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Lewis, Wash., opens a care package given to him by Operation Gratitude on Forward Operating Base Warhorse, Iraq, Jan. 22. Gallagher received Operation Gratitude's 300,000th care package, which contained the keys to a 2008 Jeep Liberty. Photo by Army Pfc. Kirby Rider   (Click photo for...

McCain and the U.S.S. Liberty By Tony Wicher - Jun 12th, 2008 at 12:11 pm EDT Also listed in: 5 groups LIKE FATHER LIKE SON. THE COVER-UP CONTINUES ON THE USS LIBERTY April 12, 2008 — crescentandcross When Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., Commander in Chief, United States Naval Forces, Europe, ordered the cover-up on the attack of the USS LIBERTY GTR-5 it was a sure act of treason perpetrated on the American people and the crew of the LIBERTY to hide the true facts surrounding the unprovoked attack by the Government of Israel on our ship, the USS LIBERTY....As...

Liberals, who hate guns almost as much as they hate cars, got a well-deserved lesson in Second Amendment rights when the Supreme Court spit in their face by ruling that the Constitution really does guarantee the right of Americans to own guns. The ruling, which struck down the District of Columbia’s laws almost totally restricting handgun ownership, affirmed the traditional view that the Second Amendment means exactly what it says when it guarantees “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”

Good morning everyone! And a safe, enjoyable weekend to all...Did y'all catch the lovefest between O and Hill?And what about "no-bounce" Obama? Maybe that's why they staged that special event in Unity, N.H....There's a lot of discomfort and questions out there about the Senator from Ill, and McCain and Co. need to exploit their opening. Will they?

While much of the U.S. Constitution invites legitimate debate as to the “Framer’s Intent,” the twenty-eight words which comprise the Tenth Amendment are as unambiguous as they are forgotten. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” One of the clearest and most compelling proofs that our Founding Fathers indeed envisaged a limited federal government, the Tenth Amendment is a vital safeguard against an overreaching central authority. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most routinely discarded pieces of our...

[Heritage Lecture #1090 -- Delivered April 24, 2008] ... It is likewise an honor to be here tonight and to speak to you of responsibility, because I'm keenly aware of the fact that in this room tonight we have an entire army of crusaders for freedom. ... I admire you and thank you for the hard work that you do. You and your colleagues do this because you love and are dedicated to the simple idea of human liberty. You see it as your birthright, and you fight on its behalf. You understand that man precedes the state, and that...

On Wednesday, June 18, a district court in the German state of Hesse sentenced Jurgen and Rosemary Dudek each to three months in prison simply because they homeschool their seven children. HSLDA condemns this court ruling in the strongest possible terms. Good parents who love and care for their children should never be sentenced to prison for doing what is best for their children. Germany is a Western nation and should know better. HSLDA will be helping the Dudeks with their appeals, but German courts have so far consistently ruled against homeschoolers. More information will be forthcoming as this story...

  June 23, 2008 Obama's next takeover...    This cartoon/graphic is free for noncommercial use in emails, blogs, and forums.  iowapresidentialwatch.com

Hi everyone.Price of crude oil is climbing again as the markets open this morning.Comedian George Carlin has died.And the main campaign season is underway as the candidates and their surrogates appear on talk news shows, in ads and across the country before groups. It's going to be a long summer....

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.

SEA Jails Amish Criminals A Sign of Very Bad Things to Come You may never have heard of the SEA, and may not believe it when I tell you what it is. I am not making this up. The SEA is the "Sewage Enforcement Agency." The, "Cambria County Sewage Enforcement Agency," protecting society from two dangerous Amish outhouse operators, apprehended them for violating Pennsylvania state sewage laws. They "were sentenced Thursday to 90 days in jail." Their crime? "Andy Swartzentruber and Sam Yoder do not have permits for outhouses at a school and have been disposing of waste "improperly." The...

Note: To All Fifth Columnists is an open letter written by Ayn Rand around the beginning of 1941, when she was encouraging conservative intellectuals to form a national organization advocating individualism. She desired for the letter be issued by such an organization. You who read this represent the greatest danger to America. No matter what the outcome of the war in Europe may be, Totalitarianism has already won a complete victory in many American minds and conquered all of our intellectual life. You have helped it to win. Perhaps it is your right to destroy civilization and bring dictatorship to...

June 19, 2008 Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government Broad, invasive provision touches nearly every aspect of American commerce. Contact:  Adam Brandon Phone:   (202) 942-7698 Email: abrandon@freedomworks.org Washington, D.C. -  Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to...

Responding at samizdata.net to a Guardian [UK] editorial, Johnathan Pearce discusses some opinions on liberty: Excerpt: At the most basic level, the Guardian has conflated the idea of liberty and the idea of power. There is "negative liberty", which says that liberty is the absence of coercion, and "positive liberty", which blurs the idea of freedom with the ability, or power, to do things, or have things one wants, such as food, shelter, good health, nice weather, and so on. The late, great Isaiah Berlin skewered this reasoning years ago...  And don't overlook the comments. The one by "toolkien" (June...

Texas farmers and ranchers are hoping that the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) recent announcement to make use of existing roadways in its plan for Interstate 69 is a positive sign when it comes to the ongoing battles with the Trans-Texas Corridor. “We are glad to see that TxDOT is beginning to listen to what so many members of our organization have said for the past four years,� said Kenneth Dierschke, president of the Texas Farm Bureau. Some 28,000 Texans — many of whom are members of the state’s largest farm organization — aired grievances during public meetings held at...