Free Republic

Rasmussen: Number of Democrats in US Falls to Four Year Low... Developing...

The United States is about to lose a key arms-control tool from the closing days of the Cold War -- the right to station American observers in Russia to count the long-range missiles leaving its assembly line. The end of full-time, on-site access will likely ignite complaints in Congress, with insiders from both parties arguing over whether the George W. Bush or the Obama administration is responsible.

From journalist Elizabeth Drew, a veteran and often sympathetic chronicler of Democratic figures, a fiery denunciation of—and warning for—the White House. In a piece in Politico on the firing of White House counsel Greg Craig, Ms. Drew reports that while the president was in Asia last week, "a critical mass of influential people who once held big hopes for his presidency began to wonder whether they had misjudged the man." They once held "an unromantically high opinion of Obama," and were key to his rise, but now they are concluding that the president isn't "the person of integrity or even...

John Harris at Politico tells the tale of the seven stories the Obama administration don't want told, or worse, take hold as the Obama presidential narrative unfolds.  No one knows the importance of the narrative more than Barack Obama who won office creating a winning storyline that, "featured an almost mystically talented young idealist who stood for change in a disciplined and thoughtful way," according to Harris.  The truth, however, was found in the anti-Obama narrative Harris describes, "featuring an opportunistic Chicago pol with dubious relationships who was more liberal than he was letting on." A year into his presidency, seven...

Lift up a rock and another snake comes slithering out from the ongoing University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) scandal, now riding as “Climategate”. Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in CRU’s unfolding Climategate scandal. In fact, according to files released by a CEU hacker or whistleblower, Holdren is involved in what Canada Free Press (CFP) columnist Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball terms “a truculent and nasty manner that provides a brief demonstration of his lack of understanding, commitment on faith and willingness to ridicule and bully people”. “The files contain so much material that...

One day last summer, Gene Mulak, observing carnage in the sand trap, decided it was time to rescue the Leader of the Free World. "Open the clubface more!" the golf pro yelled to President Barack Obama. A rank of bodyguards stiffened when they heard the shouting, but the commander-in-chief continued to hack away, sand flying, recalls Mr. Mulak, a resident professional at the Vineyard Golf Club in Martha's Vineyard, Mass. Mr. Obama waved off the guards and welcomed Mr. Mulak into the pit. The pro says he gave the president tips on his golf stance and his swing, both of...

Following the release by Breitbart's Big Government website of a video showing employees at ACORN's San Diego County office offering to assist in the transportation and exploitation of underage prostitutes from abroad, the Attorney General of California announced an investigation into ACORN's operations. Nights before the visit, ACORN dumped thousands of documents in a dumpster. Breitbart obtained them, says they are shocking evidence of ACORN's illegality and promises to release them bit by bit over time: Documents shared with BigGovernment.com include information exposing not only the inner workings of ACORN in California, but also personal, sensitive information belonging to employees,...

<p>FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin promises to limit her enthusiasm during her visit to North Carolina's Fort Bragg.</p> <p>The former Republican vice presidential candidate planned to sign copies of her new memoir at a post store Monday. Army officials say Palin will not make a speech, pose for photos, or personalize notes in the books she signs.</p>

The growing problem for the Obama administration is that the public has finally caught on that the president's tough rhetoric and soaring oratory don't match reality. "Considering all options" and "wanting more information" essentially mean dithering and voting present on Afghanistan, even after announcing the adoption of a new bold strategy. "Saving jobs" means conjecturing about the effects of massive borrowing and enhancing your figures through the creation of fictitious congressional districts and bogus employment reporting. "Punishing KSM" means giving the liberal community a world platform for legal gymnastics designed to repudiate the past administration and demonstrate that community's "tolerance"...

Does President Obama "uses" the military for photo-ops? President Obama will tell us his comments fit the mood of the crowd, but when I first heard Obama’s comments in South Korea stating hundreds of troops in uniform was a good photo op, my eyes rolled. Our American forces are not a political tool to be used by politicians in constant campaign mode as a photo op. Couldn’t he just thank the troops and say he was humbled by their work effort and thank them for coming out to greet him? Nope. From today’s Washington Times…

Obama, speaking to CBS in Beijing, says he's "furious' about the stream of leaks characterizing the Afghanistan deliberations... CHIP REID: “Firing offense??” THE PRESIDENT: “Absolutely" M What's odd about this is that many of the leaks (though certainly not all) have seemed deliberate, in tandem with Flickr photo releases from the meetings and in line with a message that Obama is considering deeply. And indeed, leaking has been a signature of the transition from the Plouffe/campaign era to a governing era run by Rahm Emanuel, who talks frequently to the press and whose hiring was one of the first major...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Cancer experts fear new U.S. breast imaging guidelines that recommend against routine screening mammograms for women in their 40s may have their roots in the current drive in Washington to reform healthcare. Critics of the guidelines, issued on Monday by the U.S. Services Task Force, an independent panel sponsored by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Quality, say the new guidelines are a step backward and will lead to more cancer deaths. Here are some of their concerns. * Dr Carol Lee, chairwoman of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Commission, said she fears insurers -- both...

Politico: A senior administration official said President Barack Obama was simply observing protocol when he bowed to Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko upon arriving at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday.

Don't Fool Yourself: America Is Now A Communist Nation Politics / US Politics Nov 12, 2009 - 01:39 AM By: DailyWealth At last year's Alliance Conference, I urged folks to buy stocks – vehemently... It was the most bullish I've been in my entire life. But now I feel the opposite way. When the facts change, I change my mind. I never thought we'd see the government running $2 trillion deficits, taking over health care, owning all the banks... The stock market seems to believe the government can solve all of our problems with paper money and bureaucratic mandates. My...

Remember how the Democrats reacted when the Bush Administration started replacing U.S. Attorneys? At least they were actually political appointees employed at the will and whim of the President.

Obama said the White House forum will gather CEOs, small business owners, economists, financial experts and representatives from labor unions and nonprofit groups "to talk about how we can work together to create jobs and get this economy moving again." "We all know that there are limits to what government can and should do, even during such difficult times. But we have an obligation to consider every additional, responsible step that we can take to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country," he said.

Barack Obama is to reject all of the options outlined for increasing troop numbers in Afghanistan in favour of revised plans which include a clear exit strategy, it has been claimed. The report came from a senior administration official close to the high-level deliberations Mr Obama is holding with his war cabinet over the refocusing of the Afghan war effort. The President is said to have raised questions at a meeting on Wednesday that could alter both the size of any possible troop increase and the length of time they are in the country before they can hand over to...

IsraelNN.com) U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns told the Middle East Institute in Washington on Tuesday that the U.S. recognizes the Iranian regime’s “right” to nuclear power, does not seek regime change and is ready for more talks with Iran. "We seek a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interest and mutual respect. We do not seek regime change. We have condemned terrorist attacks against Iran.

Clueless Chris Matthews: "See - we have a problem," Matthews said. "How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al Qaeda. Is that the point at which you say, ‘This guy is dangerous?' That's not a crime to call up al Qaeda, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?" [VIDEO AT SITE]I love it how Dr. Jasser is trying to...

Reporting from Ft. Hood, Texas - President Obama is slated to speak at a memorial service today at this grieving Army base, where a military psychiatrist is accused of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage. The service, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. local time, will be a traditional military affair, with a sermon, a roll call of the dead and a rifle volley. About 3,000 spectators, as well as the families of the 12 soldiers and one civilian killed, are expected to attend. The tribute comes amid new questions about whether the shooting, in which dozens were also...

Hours after the Fort Hood massacre, a grieving nation looked to the president for consolation and leadership. Instead, it got light banter and a "shout-out" before President Obama read a perfunctory statement. The president has always had a reputation for coolness, but in this case, he was utterly detached. He can't blame the scriptwriter for his astonishing lack of empathy.

Yesterday, 13 of our own troops were killed and 30 others were injured in Fort Hood, Texas at a secure U.S. Army base and the president is nowhere to be seen. This doesn't even surprise us, but for the people who still support Obama, you now further understand why we call you 'idiots.' Signs of Trinity church, Black Liberation Theology, Bill Ayers and Marxist professors? Hmmm.... After all, President Obama seemed to make it to Manhattan last month when Goldman Sachs, his number one Wall Street campaign contributor along with several other shadow banking firms attended an expensive DNC fundraiser...

Fort Hood shootings: FBI given gunman's name six months ago The US Army major who killed 13 people in a shooting spree at America's biggest military base had come to the attention of the FBI six months earlier over possible links to extremist comments posted on the internet. By Gordon Rayner and Nick Allen in Fort Hood, Texas Published: 9:59PM GMT 06 Nov 2009 Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a devout Muslim who was trying to buy his way out of the Army, was suspected of being the author of postings which compared suicide bombers to heroic soldiers who throw themselves...

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) - As if going off to war, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan cleaned out his apartment, gave leftover frozen broccoli to one neighbor and called another to thank him for his friendship—common courtesies and routines of the departing soldier. Instead, authorities say, he went on the killing spree that left 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, dead. Investigators examined Hasan's computer, his home and his garbage Friday to learn what motivated the suspect, who lay in a coma, shot four times in the frantic bloodletting that also wounded 30. Hospital officials said some of the wounded had...

While no one yet knows what ignited Major Nidal Malik Hasan's murderous rage Thursday afternoon, Nov. 5, at Fort Hood, the kindling was hiding in plain sight. The Army had ordered Hasan, wrestling with the conflicting demands of being a soldier, a psychiatrist and a Muslim, to the post with the highest toll of Army suicides. Fort Hood is one of the Army's most stressed posts because of its units' revolving-door deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Finally, the Army made clear that Hasan couldn't escape his own pending deployment to Afghanistan, where he'd have to salve the mental wounds of...

Much is being said about President Obama's odd initial reaction to the shooting at Fort Hood. The president gave priority to giving a shout-out before commenting on the massacre. Perhaps he should have taken a cue from President Bush. Mr. Bush's statement after the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 was dignified, presidential, and centered solely around the issue of the shooting a the school. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama's lack of empathy and self-centered nature ruled the day, as he felt the need to give thanks to federal employees and give an odd "shout out" before he even addressed the shooting itself....

YouTube: Fort Hood Tragedy -- Barack Obama Gives Odd "Shout-Out" Before He Comments on Massacre -- FOX News

President Obama called the 22-year ban on travel and immigration by HIV-positive individuals a decision "rooted in fear rather than fact" and announced the end of the rule-making process overturning the ban. The president signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 at the White House Friday and also spoke of the new rules, which have been under development more more than a year. "We are finishing the job," the president said. The regulations are the final procedural step in ending the ban, and will be published Monday in the Federal Register, to be followed by the standard...

President Barack Obama traveled overnight to receive the remains of fallen soldiers whose bodies were returning from Afghanistan. Obama made a midnight trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the first stop back in the U.S. for soldiers who are killed in combat, where he awaited an Air Force C-17 transporting the remains of 15 U.S. soldiers and three Drug Enforcement Agency agents killed in Afghanistan this week. Obama met at a chapel on-base with family members of the fallen Americans, and boarded the C-17 for a short ceremony to witness the "dignified transfer" of the soldiers' remains. The...

A four-hour stop in New Orleans, on his way to a $3 million fundraiser. Snubbing the Dalai Lama. Signing off on a secret deal with drug makers. Freezing out a TV network. Doing more fundraisers than the last president. More golf, too. President Barack Obama has done all of those things — and more.What’s remarkable is what hasn’t happened. These episodes haven’t become metaphors for Obama’s personal and political character — or consuming controversies that sidetracked the rest of his agenda. It’s a sign that the media’s echo chamber can be a funny thing, prone to the vagaries of news...

People can, and undoubtedly will, argue for some time about whether President Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile, though, there's a simpler and more immediate question: Does the Constitution allow him to accept the award? Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, the Emolument Clause, clearly stipulates: "And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State." The award of the peace prize to a sitting President is not unprecedented. But...

The notion that Mr Obama is a weak leader is now spreading in ways that are dangerous to his presidency. The fact that he won the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday will not change this impression. Peace is all very well. But Mr Obama now needs to pick a fight in public – and win it with a clean knock-out.

If Barack Obama had campaigned on what he has actually done in his first 300 days in office, would he have been elected? That's the question so many are asking today. If Obama had told us he would appoint 34 czars, reporting only to himself and not vetted or confirmed in the constitutional way, building a powerful unitary executive branch of government, would he have been elected? What if he had told us that his green jobs czar had been a Communist, that the science czar wrote in a college textbook that compulsory "green abortions" are an acceptable way to...

<p>Every so often, actual breaking news is so absurd that parody is the only answer. After news of President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize broke on Friday, the website, FreeRepublic.com was deluged by its members with Breaking News! parody posts.</p> <p>The faux headlines kept me giggling all day, and a few have already made it into my inbox via e-mails gone viral. Sometimes, ya just have to laugh.</p>

Everybody may have a different Idea of what “safe schools” may mean, but I would imagine many people who would include pedophilia in a list of things that make schools safe, with the exception of President Obama’s safe schools Czar, Kevin Jennings. A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an “older man.” At the very least, statutory rape occurred. Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse. That former teacher, Kevin Jennings, is President Obama’s “safe school czar.” It’s getting hard to...

Here is video of CNN broadcasting the announcement that Chicago is out of the running for the 2016 Olympics. The announcer is disbelieving, saying repeatedly, "Chicago is Out?" Chicago received the least number of votes in the first round despite a full court press by President Obama and First Lady Michelle to get the Olympics for their hometown. . . . (VIDEO)

That's it Folks wow Chicago tossed out in the FIRST round!

Link only, due to Wired's copyright complaints. Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday MachineI'm posting this without any text, because I think it's important. The "Doomsday" machine is apparently real, and still operational. Read the article for more details.

Obama to seal US-UN relationshipBy Harvey Morris at the United Nations Published: September 8 2009 19:59 | Last updated: September 8 2009 19:59 Barack Obama will cement the new co-operative relationship between the US and the United Nations this month when he becomes the first American president to chair its 15-member Security Council.The topic for the summit-level session of the council on September 24 is nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament – one of several global challenges that the US now wants to see addressed at a multinational level. EDITOR’S CHOICE Norwegian criticises UN chief’s performance - Aug-20 UN criticised over...

A New York Times headline yesterday read: “Obama’s Team Is Lacking Most of Its Top Players.” Yes, so much for the Greatest Transition in World History (a point expounded on in the introduction to Culture of Corruption, where I note that for all the hype about Obama’s brilliant, efficient, amazingly genius transition team, Obama failed to beat the pace of the Reagan White House, which had 73 officials confirmed by Day 100 compared to Obama’s 65 — and which avoided the bungles and baggage that Obama’s botched nominees brought with them.) The bottom line so far, the NYT now reports:...

We are witnessing one of the more rapid turnabouts in recent American political history. President Obama’s popularity has plummeted to 50 percent and lower in some polls, while the public expresses even less confidence in the Democratic-led Congress and the direction of the country at large. Yet, just eight months ago, liberals were talking in Rovian style about a new generation to come of progressive politics — and the end of both the Republican party and the legacy of Reaganism itself. Barack Obama was to be the new FDR and his radical agenda an even better New Deal. What happened,...

Anti-Americanism is a relatively recent phenomenon. The elites may have always despised American passion for individual liberties, but most common people admired America for exactly that. Upon gaining independence, a number of nations — from Uruguay to Greece to Togo to Malaysia — modeled their flags after the U.S. flag. Preambles of most Latin American constitutions closely resemble that of the U.S. Constitution, and the Latin American hero Simon Bolivar himself was an admirer of the United States and a believer in libertarianism and free markets, regardless of how his name and legacy are now being twisted by Hugo Chavez....

When I saw this video interview of Bill Burton, White House Deputy Press Secretary, I could not help but be reminded of one of old Saul Alinsky's favorite fake-em-out tricks of the revolutionary trade. Burton is reinforcing Pelosi's earlier claim that people were carrying Swastikas at townhalls, but goes even further and claims that folks are actually "dressing up like Hitler." You got to give ole Saul a little credit. He was one wily deceiver, right after his hero, Deceiver in Spades, Lucifer. Saul Alinsky, crusader for the downtrodden, darling of the Auxiliary Archbishop of Chicago, was just an underachieving...

For years, the Bush administration was criticized for not cleaning up enough of the nation's most contaminated waste sites. The Obama administration plans to do even less.

For years, the Bush administration was criticized for not cleaning up enough of the nation's most contaminated waste sites. The Obama administration plans to do even less. Environmental groups and some Democratic lawmakers railed against President George W. Bush's cleanup record. But this time, they're shying away from speaking out against a popular president who's considered an ally in the fight to clean up the environment. Associated PressFewer EPA cleanups are planned under the administration of President Barack Obama, above. In Obama's first two years in office, the Environmental Protection Agency expects to begin the final phase of cleanup at...

The Air Force tracked online messaging service Twitter, video-sharing site YouTube and various blogs to assess the huge public backlash to the Air Force One flyover of the Statue of Liberty this spring, according to the documents. And while the attempts at damage control failed - "No positive spin is possible," one PowerPoint chart reads - the episode opens a window into the tactics for operating in a boundless digital news cycle. (snip) According to the Air Force One documents released through the Freedom of Information Act, a unit called the Combat Information Cell at Tyndall Air Force Base in...

As the American military comes to full strength in the Afghan buildup, the Obama administration is struggling to come up with a long-promised plan to measure whether the war is being won. ...Commanders in Afghanistan say they no longer pay much attention to how many enemy fighters are killed in action. Instead, they are trying to count instances in which local citizens cooperate with Afghan and allied forces.

 Obama's Twenty Eighth Week in OfficeLatest Additions to "The List"Latest Additions to "The List""The list" for 8/07/2009  HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is hosting a call with health care activists and SEIU members to discuss what needs to happen in order to win health care reform400,000 Seniors To Lose Medicare Advantage Programs Under Health Care Bill The Obama plans to deal with protests... intercepted memoObama still expects unemployment to hit 10 percent this year. Obama , has declared that actions taken by his administration had helped stop an economic freefall and said the U.S. may be seeing the "very beginnings" of...