Free Republic

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) North Dakota's Industrial Commission has invited Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to speak at an oil conference in Bismarck in May 2010.

Planned Parenthood and state health department at odds over script By The Associated Press | Thursday, May 21, 2009 Planned Parenthood attorneys have asked for a federal court injunction to stop the state of South Dakota from imposing sanctions over the requirements in a 2005 law that makes doctors tell women seeking abortions that the procedure ends a human life. Planned Parenthood, which operates the state's only abortion clinic in Sioux Falls, went to court. A federal judge now must decide if the law is constitutional ...

North Dakota's Board of Higher Education has agreed to drop the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux nickname and Indian head logo, a move intended to resolve a decades-long campus dispute about whether the name demeans American Indians. The name and logo, which is a profile of an American Indian man with feathers and streaks of paint on his face, could still be saved if North Dakota's Standing Rock and Spirit Lake Sioux tribes agree by Oct. 1 to give the university permission to use them for at least 30 years. However, tribal officials say that possibility is remote. Unless...

And you thought the John Edwards sex scandal couldn't get seamier. The ex-senator's former lover - furious at being portrayed as a stalker in his wife's media tour - reportedly is taking revenge and will allow a paternity test for her baby after all. Rielle Hunter previously refused to allow DNA testing on baby Frances, born in February 2008. Edwards, even after the admitted affair, insisted he wasn't the father. Her friends said then she hoped they still had a future together and hoped to protect the philandering pol from further ruin. But on the eve of Elizabeth Edwards' appearance...

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) is the swing vote on whether or not Congress will be able to ram through socialized medicine—and he is casting his vote in the next five days. ask him to oppose letting Congress ram through health care reform on narrow partisan lines through “reconciliation”—a process that circumvent the standard procedures in the Senate and limits meaningful debate by requiring just 50 votes, rather than the traditional 60. That would mean a narrow partisan vote would overrule bipartisan opposition on this important issue, the very reason the 60 vote rule exists. Conrad is one of three “conferees”...

It's been said that conservatism has different meanings for different people. It may not be textbook, but without a whole lot of navel gazing, here's what it means to me and what Free Republic is all about: In a word, Freedom! In two words, Preserving Freedom. In a handful of words as stated by our Founding Fathers, to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity! America was founded on the proposition that all men are created equal by God and that our unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are granted directly by God...

Do not believe the nattering nabobs of negativity. The Nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt was a huge success!! What we need now is MORE and LOUDER!! Obama has no clue. Being confronted by millions of fed-up citizens is new to him. He never expected the otherwise docile American people to rise up against his wannabe Marxist/fascist totalitarian regime. He's now lashing out at us through the Dept of Homeland Security as if We the People are his enemy. Well, we are! And he now knows it. And he's scared witless!! And the media has been reduced to the speechless,...

Congratulations FReepers and Patriots! According to Henchster's ongoing tallies, we've surpassed 750,000 participants in our nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt! Woo hoo!! All 50 states fully engaged! Over 600 cities represented and reports still coming in! Huge turnout, huge SUCCESS!! Elected officials take note: DO NOT TREAD ON ME!! Tyranny, usurpation, corruption, overreaching, big spending, high taxing will no longer be tolerated! We the people are FED-UP and we're not going to take it anymore! Ignore us at your own peril! All Congressional seats, all elected offices throughout the land at risk! Revolution is in the air!!

If the Obama administration has taken flak for suggesting that conservative groups might be home to domestic terrorists, it looks like some House Democrat leaders are willing to go even further: But in an interview on Fox TV in San Francisco, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) chalked up the GOP grass-roots effort as “AstroTurf.” “This initiative is funded by the high end; we call it AstroTurf, it's not really a grass-roots movement. It's AstroTurf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class,” Pelosi said....

After the 2010 census has been held, the number of seats held by each state in the U.S. House of Representatives will change. The National Conference of State Legislatures recently estimated what the 2010 reapportionment will mean for each state. Eight states are expected to lose one seat each, in the U.S. House and in the Electoral College. They are Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. States that will gain will be Texas (3 seats), and one each for Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah. If the bill now pending in Congress to expand the...

North Dakota's House has defeated a proposal to prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians, with opponents saying it would unfairly extend state protection to a "lifestyle choice." Representatives voted 54-34 to reject the measure. It sought to ban discrimination in housing, employment and credit on the basis of a person's sexual orientation. North Dakota law already extends the same protection to a number of categories, including a person's race, color, sex, religious beliefs and national origin. Being gay or lesbian "is not something that you're born with, that you have no choice in," said Rep. Robin Weisz, R-Hurdsfield. "It is...

Are you ready for a FReepathon!!? Well, it's a new quarter and a new president and he's everything we knew he would be. In less than 90 days he's managed to take an economic downturn and turn it into an unmitigated disaster for good old American capitalism. Never let a good crisis go to waste! The government is now printing money as fast as they can run the presses. Our federal budget is doubling and tripling and the Fed is running with no controls or oversight whatsoever from the congress, pumping trillions more into the "economy." The government now spends...

ALMONT, N.D. (AP) - In his golden years, Chad Skretteberg plans to tell his grandchildren about the night he carried 32 heavy calves on his shoulders, one by one, through ice-cold, waist-high floodwaters to safety. It's a tale that amazes even him. "I don't know how I had the stamina," says Skretteberg, who at 40 is a wiry 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds. "If I tried to attempt that just any day of the week, I would probably just quit, it's so much work. But in those circumstances, your adrenaline kicks in." On this day, the skies are sunny, the air...

FARGO, N.D. – Weary residents welcomed the Red River's further retreat Monday but faced an approaching snowstorm expected to kick up wind-whipped waves that could threaten the sandbag levees they built to protect their city from a major flood. Engineers weren't worried about the storm's snow because it's unlikely to melt soon. They were concerned, however, that crashing waves could weaken the dikes. The higher the wind speed, the higher the threat, said Jeff DeZellar, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "The forecast that we saw was 25 mph or more, and certainly that's enough wind to...

FARGO, N.D. – Weary residents of this sandbagged city came together in churches Sunday, counting their blessings that the Red River finally stopped rising and praying the levees would hold back its wrath. A brief levee break that swamped a school provided a warning of the kind of threat that still hangs over them in the days ahead. Church services that are a staple of life on Sunday mornings in Fargo took on greater significance as people gathered after a week of round-the clock sandbagging. They sang hymns and held hands, asking together for divine help in avoiding disaster. "At...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Father Gary Benz received a phone call late in the afternoon March 22 that he will likely never forget. An elderly parishioner called the priest, pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Linton, N.D., pleading with him to save her home from the rising floodwaters of nearby Beaver Creek. Father Benz, along with several members of the community, spent the next several hours in the pouring rain frantically sandbagging around her house and pumping out water that was coming in. Late that night police officials told the woman she would have to abandon the flooded house as it...

Good News for Fargo, but Agonizing Wait Video Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwD9OvUJmCY

From a Senate Budget Committee markup meeting; watch the video.

The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is urging President Obama to stay away from flood areas in North Dakota and Minnesota ... for now. While the President might want so survey the region first hand, Napolitano told reporters on a conference call Friday that she would advise the president to wait, given the "extraordinary circumstances" facing the area. "The focus needs to be on taking care of the residents of Fargo, [N.D.,] Moorhead [Minn.,] all those surrounding communities through the most serious part of this flood," she said. "And then we can begin to work on the issues...

The White House said it's actively monitoring flooding in North Dakota and Minnesota, and President Barack Obama has dispatched the acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the region. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Nancy Ward is in Fargo and Obama has personally spoken with the governors of both states and with Fargo's mayor.

<p>FARGO, N.D. (AP) - A CNN journalist and seven other people have been arrested for standing on top of sandbag levees in the Fargo area.</p>

Fargo police ordered mandatory evacuations early Friday after a breach in flood protection created a "significant leak" as the Red River topped 40 feet, breaking a record crest set in 1897. Fargo police Capt. Tod Dahle says the evacuation was ordered shortly after 2 a.m. Friday for all homes in an area south of downtown Fargo. Officers knocked on doors and the city used a phone system to alert residents of the threat. Authorities say there is an immediate threat of rising flood water. Residents are being told to head west. Emergency shelter is available at a high school. The...

We've had two good weeks of gubernatorial fun in the Crystal Ball, reviewing the early match-ups for the 2010 midterm Governor battles here and here. Now it's time to examine the remaining sixteen statehouses, all currently controlled by Republicans. ALASKA--Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK): Assuming Palin runs for Governor again instead of challenging U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), as is likely, Palin is close to a shoo-in for a second term, despite her recent troubles in and out of the state. John McCain had been faring poorly in Alaska until Palin was put on the ticket, and then the GOP won...

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA/GRAND FORKS ND 432 PM CDT THU MAR 26 2009 ..RECORD FLOODING IS EXPECTED IN FARGO THIS WARNING HAS BEEN EXTENDED FOR THE RED RIVER AT FARGO AFFECTING CLAY AND CASS COUNTIES. .CONDITIONS ON THE RED RIVER AT FARGO HAVE GROWN INCREASINGLY DANGEROUS OVER THE PAST 24 HOURS. THE RIVER IS CURRENTLY APPROACHING RECORD LEVELS AND SHOWING NO SIGN OF SLOWING AT THIS POINT. AS THE RIVER EXCEEDS THE PREVIOUS RECORD LEVEL... THE RELATIVE UNCERTAINTY IN FORECAST MODELS HAS INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY. RECORD FLOWS UPSTREAM OF FARGO HAVE PRODUCED UNPRECEDENTED CONDITIONS ON THE RED RIVER. GIVEN...

The Westboro Baptist Church, whose members tour the country protesting at military funerals because they claim America is tolerant of homosexuality, is thanking God for record flooding in North Dakota. “God sent the flood waters to cover the evil people of Bismarck and Fargo, ND, where you flipped off God and raised your hands against His anointed by criminalizing WBC’s gospel preaching against” gays and their supporters, declared a statement released Wednesday by the church, which is in Topeka, Kan. The statement referred to House Bill 1040, a North Dakota state law passed in January 2007 that bars protestors from...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama takes his first stab Wednesday night at the role of fundraiser in chief. The president is the main attraction at two events in the nation's capital for the Democratic National Committee, making for the first fundraising test for Obama since he took over the presidency two months ago.

An ice jam clogging the Missouri River north of Bismarck ruptured Wednesday, sending more water flowing toward the city where flooding already had led to some evacuations. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for a three-county area after the ice jam broke. "What you have now is water rushing from the ice jam that is to the north. We could see a rapid rise of 1 or 2 feet in water levels," said weather service meteorologist Joshua Scheck.

Barack Obama sat with a group of reporters yesterday and attempted to exploit the suffering of North Dakota’s Red River Valley flood victims to help sell his bogus energy plan. Apparently taking a cue from Al Gore while heeding Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s advice to "never let a good crisis go to waste," the president deflected a question challenging his proposed cap-and-trade system’s devastating impact on the economy by blaming the flooding on global warming – sort of. Asked about North Dakotans’ concerns that his carbon trading scheme might harm the state’s vital coal and power-generating industries, Mr. Obama...

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., met with President Barack Obama and key budget advisers Friday to discuss financial reforms and energy issues under review in Congress. Dorgan was one of four Democratic senators invited by the White House to meet with Obama and his top advisers to discuss the federal budget and other issues. Dorgan said they had "a pretty wide-ranging discussion about a good number of issues." The North Dakota senator said he raised the potential for new financial reforms and regulations to help rebuild the economy. Dorgan has sought more accountability into the expenditure of economic recovery funds and...

More than $9 trillion -- in taxpayer dollars -- has been pledged, committed, lent or spent by the federal government in response to the economic crisis. Some say that if the economy continues to deteriorate, trillions more might be necessary to prevent another Great Depression. Yet no one has investigated how this crisis happened. That is irresponsible. A comprehensive investigation is essential to prevent this from happening again.

Released on March 4, 2009 (Next Release on March 11, 2009) The Bakken Formation Helps Increase U.S. Proved Reserves of Oil This Week In Petroleum for January 28, 2009 noted that North Dakota had the Nation’s third largest increase in proved reserves of crude oil in 2007, 70 million barrels (17 percent). Most of this increase came from development of the Bakken Formation. What is the Bakken Formation and why does it matter? What is the Bakken Formation? The Bakken Formation contains a major onshore unconventional oil resource in Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan, Canada. It has three distinct layers,...

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced critical drug importation legislation today that will reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the United States. The Senators said their legislation, the “Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act,” will bring consumers immediate relief and will ultimately force the pharmaceutical industry to lower drug prices in the United States. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would save American consumers $50 billion over the next decade, including more than $10 billion in federal government savings. The bill allows U.S.-licensed pharmacies...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan plan to introduce legislation to create a Senate panel to investigate the causes of the financial crisis, McCain’s office said in a statement Monday. If approved, the committee would also make recommendations about how to avoid a similar crisis in the future.

The U.S. Department of Transportation will make no attempt to stop Sen. Byron Dorgan's effort to kill the Cross Border Demonstration Project, The Trucker learned Friday afternoon. Earlier this week, Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, included language in the Fiscal Year 2009 Omnibus Appropriations bill that the senator said would finally bring to an end “the Mexican long-haul trucking program in the U.S. started by the Bush Administration.” The bill, not to be confused with the stimulus package, allocates federal funds for the remainder of the fiscal year. Sources have told The Trucker that LaHood has indicated he will...

A former Miss North Dakota, who's been working in Iran as a freelance reporter, is being detained in undisclosed location there. 31-year-old Roxana Saberi has reported for NPR, "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer", and Fox News Channel, among others as the Tehran bureau chief for Feature Story News. Her press credentials were revoked by the Iranian government more than a year ago, but she was being allowed to file short stories until her arrest about a month ago. NPR reports the Saberi family decided not to go public with Saberi's arrest until yesterday. Her father, who still lives in Fargo,...

MISS NORTH DAKOTA ARRESTED IN IRAN March 1, 2009 A U.S. journalist has been arrested in Iran, and her father said Sunday she told him in a brief phone call she was detained after buying a bottle of wine. Roxana Saberi, 31, has not been heard from since her last call on Feb. 10, her father, Reza, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "We haven't heard anything," he said. The family decided to go public, he said, "because we wanted to get some information."

Tashiana Johnson, 8, holds a sign for her father,Gerard Johnson of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7 ________________________________________ GULFPORT — A plane carrying 310 Seabees was greeted by jubilant family members Saturday afternoon when about half a contingent of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7 returned from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. A unit spokesman said no casualties occurred among the Gulfport-based Seabees during their battle-zone tour. They were part of 600 Seabees from NMCB 7 deployed to the Middle East. The remainder are expected to return home in mid-March. --------- Snip The Seabees had originally deployed to Iraq, but later...

WASHINGTON - President Obama's $3.6 trillion budget came under criticism from an unexpected source yesterday - Sen. Kent Conrad, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who vowed to give the spending plan a "thorough scrubbing." The blast from within the ranks of Obama's own party comes as Congress is girding for battle over the budget document - which pays for health reform, clean energy and other programs with $1 trillion in tax hikes over the next decade. "I am concerned about the long-term buildup of debt," the North Dakota senator told CNBC. "I'm especially concerned about the second...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Selects-Top-Rural-Health-Care-Advocate-to-Oversee-Key-HHS-Agency/ Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 3:45 pm President Obama Selects Top Rural Health Care Advocate to Oversee Key HHS Agency THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ________________________ For Immediate Release February 20, 2009 President Obama today announced the appointment of one of the nation’s top rural health care professionals as Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Dr. Mary Wakefield, Director of the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota, will oversee this critical agency, which helps to deliver health care to...

Subject: North Dakota Passes Personhood Bill! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:North Dakota Personhood Bill Passes, First In US History. Bismark, ND. Signaling the growing momentum of the personhood movement, North Dakota Lawmakers approved HB1572 with a vote of 51-41. Rep. Dan Ruby introduced the "Personhood" bill, which affirms the rights of pre-born humans and states: "For purposes of interpretation of the constitution and laws of North Dakota, it is the intent of the legislative assembly that an individual, a person, when the context indicates that a reference to an individual is intended, or a human being includes any organism with the genome...

Johnson seeks support for opening Cuba tradeWednesday, February 18, 2009 7:42 AM MST    North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson is urging the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture to renew its commitment to widening U.S. commerce with Cuba. “NASDA has long supported ending the U.S. trade embargo and travel sanctions against Cuba,” Johnson said Wednesday, Feb. 18, as he left for the organization’s midwinter meeting in Washington, DC. “With a new administration in Washington, I believe the time has come to push for the necessary policy changes to restore our place in a potentially valuable market.” Johnson, who...

Just throwing out a handful of ideas for discussion: How to develop local chapters/conservative grassroots groups. Develop a conservative platform and a plan for recruiting, training, supporting and electing conservative candidates. Develop ideas for building an effective nationwide conservative grassroots network. How to combat the Fairness Doctrine? Install offshore servers? Private BBS? Email/Phone/Fax lists? Shortwave radio? Local/personal networking? Working with other conservative groups, political parties? Would a FReeper PAC be feasible? Practical? Effective? Would a FReeper 527 organization be feasible? Practical? Effective? How to infiltrate/influence local political organizations? Select and fund delegates for a national convention should our membership decide...

North Dakota's House of Representatives has passed a bill effectively outlawing abortion. The House voted 51-41 this afternoon to declare that a fertilized egg has all the rights of any person. That means a fetus could not be legally aborted without the procedure being considered murder. Minot Republican Dan Ruby has sponsored other bills banning abortion in previous legislative sessions - all of which failed. He also sponsored today's bill and says it is compatable with Roe versus Wade - the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion. (Rep. Dan Ruby, -R- Minot) "This is the exact language that's required by...

Bob Kyffin February 17 at 11:40pm Praise the Lord! The N. Dakota Personhood bill, HB 1572, passed out of the House Tuesday 51-41. It defines a "person" under N. Dakota law as any member of the human genome, which would extend to unborn children. The Senate is its next stop, so continue to be in prayer! Courageous legislators in Maryland and other states are also running Personhood bills this year. Please write to your legislators and urge them to support these bills -- for most legislators the transition from a regulation-minded pro-life stance to a Personhood-minded pro-life stance is a...

A few weeks ago, I posted a thread asking how many of you would be interested in holding a centralized FReeper meeting somewhere in the middle of the country, possibly on an airline hub so a maximum number of FReepers could attend. Lots of people sounded interested, but only if it were held closer to home and preferably within driving distance. Ok, if one big central meeting is not feasible, I posted another thread asking about regional meetings. Sounds like a lot more people are interested in this, but everyone's asking when one will be scheduled in their area. Well,...

This is the winter of oil's discontents. It is the winter after oil prices whipsawed world markets. A year ago, when oil prices were on their way to all-time highs, wildcatters stampeded North Dakota land offices to search for unclaimed mineral rights in the oil-rich Bakken Formation. In summer, oil boosters slapped bumper stickers on pickups boasting of 'Rockin' the Bakken,' with its 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Now, with oil trading under $40 a barrel amidst a global recession, oil companies are pulling rigs from frozen farm and grazing land. But a small Twin Cities-based startup has a...

Frustration with the federal government’s response to the nation’s economic woes boiled over Saturday as a feisty crowd of about 80 people gave Sen. Byron Dorgan an earful during a town hall meeting at West Fargo City Hall. Dorgan, D-N.D., took a barrage of questions about the proposed economic recovery plan, which emerged from Senate negotiations late Friday with a new price tag of $780 billion after purging $100 billion from the House version. One person asked why the cost of the plan is so high if Congress isn’t sure it will be effective.

Congratulations to all who objected to the appointment of this tax cheating crook and put up a fight! Cracks are forming in the great Obamassiah's defenses. Keep the pressure on!! Click the link above to support our fight against Marxism, or mail checks to: Free Republic, LLC PO Box 9771 Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you all very much!!

If enacted, the Senate stimulus bill would fund over $100 billion in new government construction projects with the goal of providing additional jobs to unemployed Americans. The House-passed stimulus bill contains explicit language to bar employment of illegal immigrants in these construction projects. However, the Senate bill deliberately omits this language. If the Senate version of the bill becomes law, a great number of the workers employed in government construction programs will, in fact, be illegal immigrants. About one out of seven (or 15 percent) of workers employed in construction in the U.S. is an illegal immigrant.[1] Unless strong mechanisms...

In December 2008, Michigan and Rhode Island reported the highest jobless rates, 10.6 and 10.0 percent, respectively; Wyoming posted the lowest unemployment rate among the states. The Rhode Island rate was the highest in its series. (All state series begin in 1976.) Four additional states recorded rates of 9.0 percent or more: South Carolina, 9.5 percent; California, 9.3 percent; Nevada, 9.1 percent; and Oregon, 9.0 percent. Wyoming posted the lowest unemployment rate, 3.4 percent, followed closely by North Dakota at 3.5 percent. Overall, 10 states and the District of Columbia registered significantly higher jobless rates than the U.S. figure of...