Free Republic

Now that the Obama administration is attempting to take a victory lap on the U.S. economic recovery, claiming the $787-billion stimulus passed earlier this year was what did the trick, despite a cost of $160,000 per 'stimulus' job, as ABC's Jake Tapper pointed out, it has come at the cost of the U.S. dollar. Since then, the stock market has rebounded nicely. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is off a March low of 6,547 points, even topping the 10,000-mark recently. But what has caused this nearly 50-percent jump? According to CNBC's Larry Kudlow - loose monetary policy by the...

Police are looking for a man convicted of an Arlington rape more than 10 years ago in connection with the recent rape an 11-year-old girl in Oklahoma City. Melvin Urbina, 33, was sentenced to two years in prison for the 1998 sexual assault of an Arlington woman. He was deported to Mexico after his release in 2001. He returned to the United States illegally and worked in Oklahoma City. Police want to question Urbina about the July 25 sexual assault of a girl who was trying to find some extra chairs for the guests at her godfather’s wedding anniversary party...

DALLAS - Dallas FBI agents arrested a Jordanian citizen Thursday afternoon for attempting to bomb a skyscraper in Downtown Dallas. According to the bureau, 19-year-old Mosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested and charged for attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Smadi had been under continuous FBI surveillance and was arrested after he allegedly placed and tried to detonate an inactive car bomb near Fountain Place, a 60-story glass office tower located at 1445 Ross Avenue, the FBI said.

The latest dust-up over President Barack Obama's health care-for-all mission — Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., angrily calling Obama a liar during a nationally televised speech — underscored conservatives' fears that illegal immigrants would benefit from efforts to expand coverage. Obama insisted that the legislation would not give government subsidies to the nation's millions of undocumented residents. But if immigrant-rich California is any indication, considerable numbers of undocumented immigrants participate in taxpayer-supported health plans. Although most federal benefit programs bar those who cannot prove their citizenship, California has been more generous than other states. Its taxpayers contribute more than $1 billion...

The Republican National Committee is asking a federal court to restore the ability of national parties to raise unlimited amounts of money and to spend it to help elect state-level candidates. The case focuses on hotly contested governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia. The 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign financing law (PL 107-155) does not allow national parties to give money directly to state candidates. The RNC wants to change that so it can expressly back the party nominee for governor, advertise and send out mailings on behalf of state or local Republican candidates and make get-out-the-vote calls. The law also...

Think last year’s $700 billion Wall Street rescue package was beaucoup bucks to spend bailing out the nation’s floundering financial system? That’s chump change compared to what the overall price tag could be, a government watchdog says. The inspector general in charge of overseeing the Treasury Department’s bank-bailout program says the massive endeavor could end up costing taxpayers almost $24 trillion in a worst-case scenario. That’s more than six times President Obama’s proposed $3.55 trillion budget for 2010. Much of the bailout’s attention has focused on the Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, which Congress hurriedly passed...

PRAGUE — Europe’s leading human rights group began an investigation on Monday into Serb allegations that Serbian civilians were abducted in Kosovo during the Kosovo war of 1998-99 and taken to Albania, where their organs were extracted for sale before they were killed. The inquiry, by the Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, France, is being led by Dick Marty, a Swiss senator, who previously investigated the existence of alleged secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons in Europe used to interrogate terrorist suspects. The Council said Mr. Marty would meet this week with leading war crimes officials and human rights groups...

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the violence that continues to plague our southern border region by Mexico’s well armed, well financed, and very determined drug cartels. Despite the increased efforts of President Calderon to stamp out these blood-thirsty and vicious drug cartels, violence has increased dramatically, claiming over 6,000 lives in Mexico last year alone. The murderers carrying out these crimes are as violent and dangerous as any in the world. Many have extensive military training and carry out their illegal activities with sophisticated tactical weapons and no regard for human life. Last week,...

"Does it sound campy to say I love gay men?” asks Meghan McCain, sipping an iced tea at the nouveau-chic Hotel Palomar in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle. Campy or not, the lovesick McCain has been ubiquitous this year, sallying forth on late-night TV -- Larry King Live, The Colbert Report, The Rachel Maddow Show -- to scold the Republican establishment for its social conservatism and stump for gay marriage. “If two people fall in love, they should have the option to get married just like I can,” she told Stephen Colbert, pointing out the inherent hypocrisy of a party that...

Meghan McCain—whom some have called the new face of the GOP—likes to call herself a “progressive Republican.” Her Twitter page is full of updates about her devotion to gay marriage: “Marriage equality will not fall to the wayside! I have faith one day there will be equality for everyone living in this country!” That’s fine, I don’t care whether or not she supports “marriage equality.” But as someone her age, I know that gay marriage is one of the causes that young people must embrace in order to gain admission to the liberal in-crowd—and I suspect that’s why she’s doing...

The campaign finance dream team of Sens. Russ Feingold and John McCain is reuniting to block President Barack Obama’s first appointment to the Federal Election Commission and to push him to shake up the embattled agency. In a surprising move that invokes memories of a bitter skirmish during Obama’s annihilation of McCain in last year’s presidential election, Feingold (D-Wis.) and McCain (R-Ariz.) have placed a hold on the FEC nomination of Democratic labor lawyer John Sullivan, POLITICO confirmed Tuesday. Their hold could reverberate in Congress, the White House, the 2010 midterm elections and beyond. In a statement issued in response...

The Court has held that Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (08-205) will be reargued on Wednesday, September 9 at 10 a.m. The Court has issued the following written order: “The parties should address the following question: ‘For the disposition of this case, should the Court overrule either or both Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the part of McConnell v. FEC which addresses the facial validity of Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002?’

President Obama moved the goalposts on getting immigration reform accomplished, saying Thursday that he wants a bill he can sign either this year or early next year. Shortly after the president adjourned a meeting with a bipartisan group of members from both chambers, a number of senators and congressmen from both sides of the aisle demonstrated why next year might be aiming too high. The White House has said that the president would like to see something this year, but a number of skeptics have questioned whether Congress can or will take any floor action in 2009. Obama said he...

SNIPPET: "Police were nearby and took one suspect into custody while another was arrested after a getaway car was followed to a nearby trailer park."

Sen. John McCain started Father's Day on "Fox News Sunday," but he said he'll spend the rest of the day on the phone, chatting with his seven kids. The Arizona Republican said fathers need to give their kids "support, understanding -- and sometimes that support has to be a little tough love." He said that he often felt pressured to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both Navy men, and said that parents should give their children choices. "I hope that I'm a good father," McCain said.

After twice postponing a highly anticipated meeting between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders on immigration reform, the White House is under increasing pressure to get legislation done this year. Winning congressional approval of an immigration measure by December is a steep climb, with the economy, health care and energy higher on the president’s agenda. So far, Obama has promised only to begin the discussion at the summit set for next week. But if the president does not move quickly, he will suffer the same fate as his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who left office acknowledging that failure to...

The conference on the future of U.S. politics, convened at the American Enterprise Institute on Friday, has come and gone, leaving in its wake more bad news for the Republican Party. I know. You're asking: "So what else is new?" The GOP has been taking a beating in the public opinion polls of late. What makes this particular set of portends scary for Republicans is that the conferees were not studying mere polling snapshots. They were dealing with demography—long-term trends regarding various voting groups identified by age, race and geographic location. And in politics, demography is destiny. I'm going to...

Another tunnel apparently dug by drug smugglers has been found beneath the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz. Scioli said it’s the 63rd smuggling tunnel found beneath the border in the Nogales area since October 1995, and the 16th since last October.

Steve Hayes is getting lots of well deserved attention for his report at the Weekly Standard today about how the Obama/Holder Justice Department has quietly instructed the FBI to start giving Miranda warnings to captured alien combatant terrorists — the next logical move in the ongoing effort to move us away from a war approach and return us to the law-enforcement paradigm for dealing with international terrorism.

Al Qaeda eyes bio attack via Mexico border Seeks white militias as allies By Sara A. Carter Wednesday, June 3, 2009 U.S. counterterrorism officials have authenticated a video by an al Qaeda recruiter threatening to smuggle a biological weapon into the United States via tunnels under the Mexico border, the latest sign of the terrorist group's determination to stage another mass-casualty attack on the U.S. homeland. The video aired earlier this year as a recruitment tool makes clear that al Qaeda is looking to exploit weaknesses in U.S. border security and also is willing to ally itself with white militia...

Elections have consequences. Like a stand-up comedian trying to push a catchphrase, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., kept coming back to that statement during an hour-long town hall gathering Tuesday in Marana. Whether it was efforts being made to turn around the economy, President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court or U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi's CIA allegations, McCain told the crowd of more than 200 people at the Marana Municipal Complex that today's America is a direct result of last November's voting. But rather than place all the blame on the ruling Democratic Party, McCain said Republicans were...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1PEdYYv0ig

It is unnecessary for me to tell any of you reading this that the left has a stranglehold over both Hollywood and the mainstream media. It is axiomatic in today’s news world . . . . . that the “news” is delivered to your doorstep with a leftward slant. What are less well understood, however, are the lengths to which the government has gone to protect the left’s monopoly during the last decade and the complicity of the news media in that endeavor. The recent confrontation between General Electric CEO Jeffery Immelt and an O’Reilly Factor producer at GE’s shareholder...

He is overseeing the boldest expansion of government in a generation. Is it a 'new pragmatism' right for the times or dangerous overreach by a young president? BY LINDA FELDMANN WASHINGTON - On the basketball court, Barack Obama likes the old "up and under" move. When he has the ball, he'll fake one way, wait for the guy who's covering him to jump, then duck under him. That observation from Denver sportscaster Vic Lombardi – who lucked into a game of pickup hoops last year with the future leader of the free world – is too juicy to pass up...

A year before Prince William County police say he raped an 8-year-old girl, court documents show an illegal immigrant from Honduras was released by Montgomery County police after being arrested for second-degree assault. Marcos Banegas has been on the run since Feb. 16 when Prince William County police charged him with forcible sodomy and aggravated sexual battery of a Woodbridge girl. But before moving to Prince William where police say he cut hair at a local salon, the 26-year-old was arrested by Montgomery County police. Banegas was accused of “violently” grabbing a stroller, causing the child inside to be shaken,...

PHOENIX — About one in seven of the 1.2 million students in Arizona schools is there directly or indirectly due to illegal immigration, a study released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center estimates. Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer for Pew, figured from 100,000 to 110,000 students are from families in which at least one parent is an illegal immigrant, although the children themselves were born here and are citizens. That's an increase of 20,000 from three years ago.

An international human rights group demanded Thursday that NATO be held accountable for civilian casualties in the bombing of Serbia's state television headquarters a decade ago, calling the attack a "war crime." Sixteen civilians were killed and 16 others injured during the attack on April 23, 1999, on the headquarters and studios of Radio Television Serbia in central Belgrade. Amnesty International called on NATO and its member states to ensure independent investigations, full accountability and redress for victims and their families.... ....The bombing was a part of a 78-day air-raid campaign against then-President Slobodan Milosevic to halt his onslaught against...

Meghan McCain: We Need More Gay Republicans! By David Knowles Apr 13th 2009 10:00AM Here's a question: Can Meghan McCain, the blog-a-lot daughter of Senator John McCain, help bring the Republican Party into the twenty-first century? Well, with her column at The Daily Beast, and during her many television interviews, she sure is giving it a go. Today's screed, for instance, attempts to light a fire under the Republican posterior on the matter of including gay rights in the party platform: If the Republican Party has any hope of gaining substantial support from a wider, younger base, we need to...

Turns out that a McCain did emerge from the 2008 election victorious — not the captivity-surviving, straight-talking, Palin-picking Republican senator from Arizona but his Bud Light-drinking, talk-show-appearing, insouciantly Twittering 24-year-old daughter. “My cab driver is totally vibing me out,” Meghan McCain Twittered to her online devotees Thursday evening. “Just asked me if my cheekbones are real? Wtf, u can have fake cheekbones???” Yep, that’s the one. While John McCain has gone back to being the senior senator from Arizona, Meghan — Columbia grad, former "Saturday Night Live" and Newsweek intern — has crashed the Republican Party like a slightly tipsy...

(CNSNews.com) – In emotional testimony before a House joint panel this week, a Virginia man recalled the death of his teenage daughter in 2007 – a death caused by an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk and who had been arrested twice before the crime, but was not deported. “Two years ago this week, my 16-year-old daughter, Tessa, and her best friend Allison were killed as they were sitting at in intersection waiting for a red light to change,” Ray Tranchant said, as friends placed a photograph of Tessa Tranchant on an easel behind him. Since his daughter’s death, Tranchant,...

After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, they rebelled against God and were made to wander aimlessly in the desert for 40 years on a needlessly roundabout journey to the Promised Land. God kept the coveted prize out of reach until that rebellious generation passed. Today we find an improvident Republican Party lost in the political wilderness. As the GOP seeks to find its own Promised Land – a return to majority leadership – it has, to its own detriment, rebelled against the core conservative principles solemnized within its own party platform. In a “big tent” effort to be...

The Senator from Arizona Tells Hispanics to Look to President Obama for Leadership on Immigration. BY KIRK VICTOR John McCain sounds angry and frustrated that, despite the risks he took in pushing immigration reform, Hispanic voters flocked to Democrat Barack Obama in last year's presidential contest. McCain's raw emotions burst forth recently as he heatedly told Hispanic business leaders that they should now look to Obama, not him, to take the lead on immigration. The meeting in the Capitol's Strom Thurmond Room on March 11 was a Republican effort led by Sens. McCain of Arizona, John Thune of South Dakota,...

To the surprise of no one, Sen. John McCain , the Republican Party’s frequent goad and sometimes hero, continues to go his own way. On Thursday, for instance, McCain broke with his party’s strategy on the fiscal 2010 budget resolution and offered a full substitute proposal. House Republicans were pressing a comprehensive, leadership-blessed alternative to the Democrats’ budget in that chamber, but Senate GOP leaders had decided to attack the Democrats’ proposal amendment by amendment. That didn’t suit McCain. He argued that an alternative should be offered to show the public that Republicans have a vision for the country. His...

In 2006, I conducted a three-part interview with former US Border Patrol Supervisor David J Stoddard. For 27 years, David served in Calexico, California, Vermont, Yuma, Tucson Sector Headquarters and Naco, Arizona and worked in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and other locations. He also provided testimony about immigration reform to Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner's (R-WI) House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims in 1999 and a Congressional subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources in 2002. With the current US-Mexico border crisis — including an actual ongoing war on our southern border — I thought it was time to...

Also Announce That They Will Officially Become Republicans, Will Introduce Additional, Bipartisan, Pro-U.S. Legislation. BY TODD Q. JONES WASHINGTON, Apr. 1 -- U.S. Sens. John McCain (D-Ariz.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) have introduced legislation that would authorize all funds necessary and sufficient to complete the construction of fences on the southern border with Mexico, their offices announced today. The bill, S.65, or the American Immigration Act of 2009, would also authorize additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security to train and deploy thousands of new customs and border agents at key border crossings within six to twelve months. The...

A top adviser to President Barack Obama, whose rejection of public funding for his presidential campaign is widely considered to have killed the Watergate-era reform, is accusing Republican rival John McCain of damaging efforts to revive the system. At issue is an interview the Arizona senator gave Friday to The Washington Times, in which he said that the public financing system, intended to reduce the influence of big money in presidential politics, is “dead.” That comment – according to a blog post by Obama’s personal and political attorney Bob Bauer – “was not helpful” to “the cause of public financing...

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill Tuesday to strengthen national service by increasing funding for thousands of volunteers. The House approved 275-149 the Senate-passed Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. "Just one month ago, in his address to Congress, President Obama called upon Congress to pass legislation 'to encourage a renewed spirit of national service for this and future generations,'" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. "Today, the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act is on its way to his desk to become law." Obama...

A 42-year-old Richfield man, his 9-year-old son and a 12-year-old girl from another family were killed Sunday morning when the SUV they were riding in was hit by a truck that slid across a snow-covered road in Washington County. The man's 40-year-old wife, two of their children and the 12-year-old girl's 11-year-old brother suffered serious injuries and were taken to hospitals, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Department. The three men who were in the one-ton flatbed truck were not injured. ... According to the sheriff's department: The crash occurred just before 9 a.m. on state Highway 164 north of...

Captain Ed Morrissey points out that, according to her Twitter feed, Meghan McCain has found the comedic Holy Grail: (Tweet #1 and #2) To the people at current that created this, I am flattered beyond words. I can officially die a happy woman. Officially the funniest thing I have ever seen in my entire life (and I have seen my fair share). Thanks for correctly animating my bootylicious body :-) LOVE IT!!!

WASHINGTON — A quirky case about a slashing documentary attacking Hillary Rodham Clinton would not seem to be the most obvious vehicle for a fundamental re-examination of the interplay between the First Amendment and campaign finance laws. But by the end of an exceptionally lively argument at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, it seemed at least possible that five justices were prepared to overturn or significantly limit parts of the court’s 2003 decision upholding the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, which regulates the role of money in politics.

In Memoriam 24 March 1999 - 24 March 2009 Ten years ago, NATO commenced the 78-day illegal bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), which was done without the approval of the UN. In the operation, code-named "Merciful Angel", there were 1002 Yugoslav Army soldiers and Serbian police killed; 2500 civilians including 89 children; while 12,500 people were wounded/injured. The estimated damage to property, including factories, schools, bridges, hospitals, roads, railways, etc. is estimated at about 30 billion US dollars. No Western politician or general has been held accountable for the brutal murder of a country,...

King: Does Obama seem like the same guy who ran against your dad? How do you view him? McCain: He's our president and when the election was over and when President Obama won, all negative feelings were gone. I support the president.

In Arizona's Pima and Cochise counties law enforcement officials "are seeing more and more 'rape trees,' places where Mexican drug cartel members rape female border crossers and hang their clothes."

When Republican Sen. John McCain called the recently passed Obama/Democrat stimulus package "generational theft" and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham commented "If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country's screwed," it was amazing how quick these GOP leaders forgot about their own complicity in furthering American socialism the last eight years.

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, have you thought back to the 2008 election? Have you asked yourself who was responsible for that loss? Have you asked yourself who really should shoulder the blame and the burden for the defeat of Senator McCain? A lot of people have been speculating this, a lot of postmortems on the election. Let's go to the BBC. BBC World Service, host Stephen Sackur spoke with former McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and asked Rick Davis on whose shoulders rests the burden of the McCain defeat. DAVIS: We didn't successfully reach out to them. I mean, but...

Now the daggers come out. The paleocons and Obamacons and many others will plunge them into the back of John McCain. This is shameful. The American people have issued a referendum on the 2008 mutation of the Republican Party, whose ticket John McCain had the misfortune to lead. Let's recount briefly: enough bribe taking, page preying, foot tapping felons and filchers to fill the local jail; a record deficit; a financial crisis; a badly managed war; an incompetent response to a hurricane; an incumbent in the White House with record-low levels of approval. Against all this and into a headwind...

Republican Sen. John McCain, engaged in increasingly sharp attacks on rival Barack Obama, pledged that if elected president, he would work closely with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, praising her as an effective leader and an "inspiration to millions of Americans." "I respect Speaker Pelosi. I think she's one of the great American success stories," McCain said during an interview with The Chronicle prior to a fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. "We talk about (New York Sen.) Hillary Clinton and her inspiration to millions of Americans. Speaker Pelosi has been an inspiration as well" in a role...

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate John McCain admitted on Saturday it can be difficult at times to be proud of the United States. “I’ll admit to you … that it’s tough in some respects,” McCain said when asked by a questioner at a town hall meeting how to be proud of the country. “We have not always done things right and we mismanaged the war in Iraq very badly for nearly four years.” McCain’s wife, Cindy, pounced on Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, for saying in February that she was proud of her country “for...

I've never been a fan of John McCain. Not only is he not a conservative, he may have done more damage to the conservative movement than any other Republican over the last few years. Look back at the Gang-of-14, global warming, McCain-Feingold, coddling terrorists at Gitmo, illegal immigration -- on and on and on, and you'll remember John McCain working feverishly with liberals to defeat conservatives. For that reason, John McCain was not someone I backed for the Presidency. My order of preference for President was Duncan Hunter (whom I consulted for), Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and then,...

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain today gave the following remarks at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. In it, he spells out how a McCain presidency will change America. *** Thank you. The hectic but repetitive routine of presidential campaigns often seems to consist entirely of back and forth charges between candidates, punctuated by photo ops, debates and the occasional policy speech, followed by another barrage of accusations and counter accusations, formulated into the soundbites preferred by cable news producers. It is a little hypocritical for candidates or reporters to criticize these deficiencies. They are our...