Free Republic

ORLANDO, Fla. — He has zero faith in the incoming speaker of the House, John A. Boehner, whom he calls a “tool of special interest.” He derides the Tea Party’s successes as “bought and paid for by the enormously rich and the selfish.” And he can barely contain distaste for his Republican successor, whose views he sums up as “bizarre fundamentalist.” Representative Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida’s Eighth Congressional District, is leaving office on Wednesday much as he entered it two years ago — as the pugnaciously partisan, verbal-bomb-tossing, liberal folk hero of the 111th Congress.

Long before the tea party movement grabbed half a dozen Senate seats, before its early proponents ever even dreamed of wearing Colonial-era garb in public, there was longtime Texas Republican Ron Paul, the one guy in Congress trying to abolish the Federal Reserve and shrink the government into near nonexistence. Paul won a devoted-bordering-on-cultish following during his 2008 presidential run, one which, obviously, didn't work out. But now Paul is telling the Times that "it’s at least 50-50" that he'll try again in 2012, and this time, with the movement built largely on his libertarian philosophy now a real force...

They really, really want to raise taxes– Obama lackey Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and her democratic colleagues held a press conference today. The liberal senator called for violence if democrats don’t get their historic tax hikes. McCaskill told the press that if democrats were not allowed to raise taxes on the rich, “It really is time for Americans to take up pitchforks.“ ------------------------ Video at the link

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is taking a stand as one of Julian Assange’s few defenders in Washington, arguing that the WikiLeaks founder should get the same protections as the media. Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the Justice Department is examining whether Assange can be charged with a crime for posting hundreds of thousands of leaked government intelligence documents and diplomatic cables. Many Republicans have gone even further in their attacks on Assange, especially former Arkansas GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee, who said this week that the source who leaked to the WikiLeaks founder should be tried for treason...

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman says the only way the U.S. will get its debt crisis under control is by the use of "death panels" and a national sales tax. The national sales tax, referred to as VAT (value-added tax) and widely used by governments across Europe, will help cut the U.S deficit, Krugman argues. Krugman made his comments on ABC's “This Week with Christiane Amanpour” during a roundtable discussion about the economy and the recent findings of the U.S. Debt Reduction Commission. Here's the key excerpt: "Some years down the pike, we're going to get the...

Now that the election is over and the republicans have rode a tsunami of patriotic voter discontent into control of the House of Representatives, the first order of business for the new wave of conservatives and patriots should be to find a new leader for the loyal opposition in the House. The battle may have been won friends, but the war is now just beginning. The House in the next congress is going to face enormous pressure from the combined forces of the still nominally democrat-controlled Senate, the dedicated Marxist Obama and the executive branch, and their staunch allies in...

In a move which has arm-chair Constitutional Scholars scrambling, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), called for a new Amendment to the US Constitution which would finally put up a wall between thinking and speaking. "All this thinking then speaking Conservatives do, is destroying the very fabric of America. I feel it;" Boxer said from a West Hollywood Ashram. "The Constitution I had read to me by The Late Jim Henson, while in the character of Oscar, made it very clear: feel instead of think, and speak from feelings. This speaking from thinking is just inhumane, and I am going to...

Forget all those pleas for civility based on simple respect for other human beings. There's an even better reason to watch what you say about other people online: one of them might just snap and try to kill you. And don't assume simple things like distance or sanity will protect you.

Congressman Ron Paul today released the following statement on the controversy concerning the construction of an Islamic Center and Mosque in New York City: “Is the controversy over building a mosque near ground zero a grand distraction or a grand opportunity? Or is it, once again, grandiose demagoguery?” .“Is the controversy over building a mosque near ground zero a grand distraction or a grand opportunity? Or is it, once again, grandiose demagoguery? “It has been said, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” Are we not overly preoccupied with this controversy, now being used in various ways by grandstanding politicians? It looks...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, called for an investigation of those who are protesting the building of the Ground Zero Mosque on Tuesday. She told San Francisco's KCBS radio: Link to audio

Friedersdorf wants the issue left alone: I assume Trig Palin is Sarah Palin’s son, and that I don’t think we should go down the road of demanding hard evidence on these sorts of questions (even if it meant never finding out the truth in an individual case) — it sets a precedent that would mire future elections in ever more absurd accusations and counter-accusations, all of them focusing attention on the personal history of candidates rather than their professional qualifications and policy positions, a road we’ve gone too far down already, and that benefits the least qualified seekers of office...

President Barack Obama cited the influx of new technology as "putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy" in a commencement address to graduates at Virginia's Hampton University on Sunday. "You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t rank all that high on the truth meter," Obama said. "With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations; information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment. "All of this is not only...

Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida has been called out for lying about the circumstances of his crashing a local Republican meeting last week.Grayson was videotaped disrupting a meeting of Orange County, Florida, Republicans at a Perkins restaurant.The Orlando Sentinel reported on April 9 about the incident and what Grayson said about it:In the video, Grayson reads from a flier that describes a recent Republican infiltration of a pro-Obama group, and a promise to dish those details at this next GOP meeting. Grayson chides the Republican attendees for sinking so low as to spy on the other side. Today, Grayson...

Pelosi and the Tea Party 'Share Views' February 28, 2010 8:15 AM House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has much in common with the Tea Party. The speaker now says she shares views with movement she dismissed last summer as being “Astroturf” -- her suggestion that the grassroots of the Tea Party were a creation of the Republican Party. In a “This Week” interview with ABC’s Elizabeth Vargas, Pelosi said, “We share some of the views of the Tea Partiers in terms of the role of special interest in Washington, D.C., as -- it just has to stop. And that's...

Emmy-winning actor Alec Baldwin blew a gasket Thursday and attacked a photographer while police and a pack of reporters looked on with amazement. "This guy! This guy!" the actor yelled as he burst out of a lobby and grabbed New York Post photographer Tim Wiencis by the collar. Cops immediately pulled the actor off Wiencis and hustled him back inside. A witness said Baldwin was pacing around the lobby muttering: "They are the lowest scum of the Earth. They are the lowest scum of the Earth." Meanwhile, an incredulous Wiencis told cops, "He just assaulted me." No charges were filed...

As we start the new year 2010, the establishment politicians, economists and Wall Street are trying to convince themselves that we have turned the corner and economic growth has once again begun. The predictions that conditions are getting back to normal come from those who never saw the crisis coming and don't have the vaguest notion what caused it. Some of them concede that it could be a jobless recovery. That will establish a new definition for a recovery. Official unemployment is at 10% but even the government knows that if everyone is counted, including those individuals that are too...

Florida Congressman and national embarrassment Alan Grayson (D) is at it again. The Supreme Court made a major decision today in favor of the First Amendment. They ruled that businesses may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose political candidates, and also struck down a big part of the McCain-Feingold limits on business spending on federal campaigns. How did the Congressional nut-job react to the courts decision? As you might expect he acted as if he fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. In anticipation of the decision, yesterday he...

There is evil hate in Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and their Tea Party Patriot supporter’s voices when they campaign to deny affordable health care to every American, all the while extolling the virtues of their Christian faith. The truth is that they are either lying hypocrites, worshippers of Satan involved in a grand plan to destroy America and the Christian faith, or ignorant of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Christians know that their paramour, Jesus Christ, gave two commands to his disciples when asked what the most important commandment was. He said to love God and...

Fred Phelps, the hate-happy pastor of Wesboro Baptist Church, has, rather belatedly, discovered Lady Gaga- and now is calling for a boycott of the hussy's "pretentious prancing." If this weren't so crazy, it would be a masterpiece of absurdist prose: I think we can do no better than to quote the Reverend's press release in its entirety: "Thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed...Will He reserve His anger forever? Will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest." Jer 3:3,5 "Art" and "fashion" are the euphemisms, the guise...

You have seen my coming declared by many in many ways , yet now as mary knew and as Gideon saw me I shall not disappoint , for in this very day and time my appointed "yeah" my Apostles shall declare my promises in love for truly I have already come in and through my children of obedience and living zeal, My righteousness " Alive and unearthed " for truly It is heavenly and eternal for " I AM Risen in you as my great cloud of witnesses dressed in My righteousness" ! Yeah My majesty \o/ Rejoice and declare...