Free Republic

The other morning I was watching a documentary on Fidel Castro made in the late sixties, less than a decade after the “revolution”. The film crew was allowed to follow him around the countryside as he met with the Cuban people. He rode around in his jeep wearing his trademark green uniform, he and his army escort bouncing over muddy roads. He was doing what statist politicians have always done-listen to every problem, no matter how trivial, and promise to fix it. He promised roads to every village and milk to every family. He vowed to root out corruption and...

The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States has raised many expectations all over the world. In the United States, the voters chose a young, mixed race, brilliant president. He is expected to keep his promise of correcting the errors of the president who preceded him. Some excessive terms have even been used, for example the assertion that the time has come to "rebuild" the United States, or to reorganize the international order. This shows the influence of Saul D. Alinsky (1909-1972), one of the intellectual guides of the new president and Hillary Clinton. There has...

 During his first 100 days as President, Barack Obama has pushed an audaciously liberal agenda which, if enacted, would have radical consequences for America for decades. With Democrats enjoying monopoly control of the House and Senate, the news media have a professional duty to scrutinize those policies, and give audiences both sides of the story — not just the perspective of a powerful Chief Executive. Unfortunately, a Media Research Center analysis of ABC, CBS and NBC evening news coverage of President Obama’s first 100 days in office shows network reporters have failed as watchdogs. The networks have raised few doubts...

Dear friends, family, loved ones, conservatives, Republicans, libertarians, my brother in law, Sam, and my cousin Joe: I am sorry and you were right. These are not easy words for anyone to utter, much less a leftist from Berkeley, or a recovering leftist, that is. Even though I've been in recovery for 14 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days, leftists are always right in your face, in an I-hate-you-if-you-disagree sort of way. Hence, this letter of amends to all the people I've lectured, scolded, ranted and raved at, and otherwise annoyed during my 30 plus years of "progressive" politics. My...

On Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough nailed the Washington press corps for its sycophantish performance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner this past Saturday night: “like a bunch of teenage girls waiting for a Bay City Rollers concert, waiting to scream at the top of their [lungs].” Mika Brzezinski, agreeing with Joe, lifted the veil on the goings-on behind the scenes, describing an enraptured TV production crew scrambling to get the most flattering shots of the prez and First Lady. View video here.

Media watchdog Brent Bozell tells Newsmax that the national media are so slanted to the left that they have been "pamphleteers for the Obama administration." Bozell, founder and president of The Media Research Center — which tracks liberal bias in the media — also said that the major TV networks have refused to call Obama a socialist or even a liberal even though he is "the most radical left-wing president in the history of the United States." See Video: Brent Bozell explains how the mainstream media supports Obama’s socialist agenda - Click Here Now|

On his 100th day in office, President Barack Obama started campaigning for reelection in 2012. He went to a small town in Missouri, a red state he didn't carry last year, and boasted that "we've begun the work of remaking America." Indeed, he has begun to do exactly that with trillions of dollars turned over to the executive branch of government by the legislative branch. A few days later, the announced resignation of Supreme Court Justice David Souter gave Obama the additional power to use the judicial branch to remake America into Obama-nation. When asked what sort of a justice...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - President Obama's budget recommendations unveiled yesterday are being criticized by the National Right to Life Committee for recommending the re-introduction of taxpayer-funded abortion in Washington, D.C. The White House submission urges the House and Senate to repeal a law known as the Dornan Amendment that prevents tax-funded abortion, except for cases of rape, incest, or threat to the mother's life, in the District of Columbia for several years. Because Congress holds legislative authority over the District of Columbia, the district's budget must be appropriated by Congress through an annual appropriations bill. The White...

The French have an odd notion of boycotts. My good friend Scott Johnson at Power Line discovers this video of a “boycott” action in France organized, apparently, by Europalestine.com, or at least publicized by them. Take a look at the uniformed thuggery that takes place in a French grocery store: [video at link] Boycotts are perfectly legitimate free-market forms of protest — but this isn’t a boycott at all. A boycott is an organized effort to stop buying products or services from some offending source. This is an organized theft ring and nothing more. Unless they’re paying for those groceries,...

Our Congress with the help of Republicans is squeezing out private charity with paid "volunteers." They are paid - AmericaCorps - but called volunteers; it sound so good. What do they work on? What the politicians want; you have no say. And they tripled its funding. But what if there aren't enough volunteers for paid "volunteer" service. Force! It might be unconstitutional under the 13th Amendment's ban on involuntary servitude. But Jim McDermott (D, Washington) wants your children to serve his favorite causes. Robert Knight at Townhall ... Mandatory national service has reemerged in HR 1442, the "Congressional Commission on...

The same Homeland Security Department office that categorized veterans as potential terrorists issued an earlier report that defined dozens of "extremists" ranging from black power activists to abortion foes. The report was nixed within hours and recalled from state and local law enforcement officials. Whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, Cubans and Mexicans, along with tax-hating Americans were among several political leanings listed in the "Domestic Extremism Lexicon" that came out of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) in late March. The lexicon lists definitions for key terms and phrases used by Homeland Security analysts "that addresses the nature...

According to one of the Census workers, who spoke with me on condition of anonymity, they must GPS mark the coordinates “within 40 ft of every front door” in America and they are supposed to complete that mission nation wide, within 90 days, by the end of July 2009.

Remember the Soup Nazi on the Seinfeld sitcom? If you annoyed the chef, he would yell, “No soup for you!” When I hear the mindless reasoning of Obama supporters, I want to scream, “NO VOTE FOR YOU!” All of our spending as a nation up until this point in time is dwarfed by Obama's spending in only 100 days. And yet, he promises fiscal responsibility. Our great grand kids will be paying his debt. Various areas of private sector freedom are being infringed upon as Obama boldly goes where government has never trespassed before. My goodness, he fired the CEO...

I am all for an identifiable Catholic presence in the public square. That said, this group is becoming more and more divisive: Catholic Democrats. Here is their latest defense of Notre Shame, which involves the denigration of Amb. Mary Ann Glendon. My emphases and comments. Catholic Democrats Deplores Ambassador Glendon’s Undiplomatic Withdrawal from Notre Dame Commencement Decision Not in Step with Majority of Catholics  [This group is more interested in polling data than Catholic teaching.  For them the "majority" gets to decide what is right when it come to Catholic identity.] Who Support the President’s Social Justice Policies Boston, MA...

Click the source link to see our four-year-old-in-chief making fun of the tea party protesters. Obama should be grateful folks were just holding tea bags, signs and flags instead of what most of them felt like holding.Obama was at a town hall appearance in Missouri today when he made fun of Americans.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new national poll suggests that President Obama is personally more popular than his policies. The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, released Monday, also indicates that 63 percent of Americans approve of how Obama is handling his duties as president. One in three questioned in the poll disapprove. The survey, released two days before Obama marks 100 days in the White House, indicates that three in four Americans feel Obama has the personal qualities a president should have. But when asked whether Obama agrees with the respondent on the issues, that number drops to 57 percent. "Americans have...

On his 100th day in office, President Obama will be "crowned" in messianic imagery at New York City's Union Square. Artist Michael D'Antuono's painting "The Truth" – featuring Obama with his arms outstretched and wearing a crown of thorns upon his head – will be unveiled on April 29 at the Square's South Plaza. According to a statement released about the portrait, "The 30" x 54" acrylic painting on canvas depicts President Obama appearing much like Jesus Christ on the Cross: atop his head, a crown of thorns; behind him, the dark veil being lifted (or lowered) on the Presidential...

“If you got health insurance, then you can keep it . . . and we won’t do anything about that,” at least that was what President Obama promised during the campaign last year. Well, add that to a very long list of broken campaign promises, including: cutting government spending, reducing the deficit, and “no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.” Just as bad, on Friday it was revealed that Obama and the Democrats have no problem pushing through Senate votes on these radical health care changes that strip away normal procedural protections...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cautioned Israel's right-wing government on Thursday that it risked losing Arab support for fighting any threats from Iran if it shuns Palestinian peace talks. Signaling U.S. impatience with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reticence over peace talks, Clinton said Arab nations had made clear to her that Israel must be committed to the Palestinian peace process if it wants help countering Iran. "For Israel to get the kind of strong support it is looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can't stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts. They...

Don't you just love your shiny new iPhone, with all its oh-so-cool applications? One for Facebook, one for Sudoku, one for Texas Hold 'em Poker, one for shaking a baby until you kill it. This is no joke. On the iPhone app store - until yesterday, when it was apparently pulled - you could find Baby Shaker. Buyable for 99 cents, the game shows a picture of a baby and plays crying sounds. Shake your iPhone hard enough and the crying stops and two X's appear over the baby's eyes. Is there an app to recover the humanity you lose...

"As American soldiers sacrificed blood in Afghanistan and Iraq to defend liberty, President Obama shrank from defending liberty here in the Americas," Romney wrote. "Vice President Biden was right that the new president would be tested early in his administration. What the world learned was not good news for freedom and democracy. The leader of the free world has been a timid advocate of freedom at best. And bold action to blunt the advances of tyrants has been wholly lacking." The former candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination said Obama may have failed in his early foreign-policy tests, but...

At last week’s Summit of the Americas, President Obama acquiesced to a 50-minute attack on America as terroristic, expansionist, and interventionist from Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. His response to Ortega’s denunciation of our effort to free Cuba from Castro’s dictatorship was that he shouldn’t be blamed “for things that happened when I was three months old.” Blamed? Hundreds of men, including Americans, bravely fought and died for Cuba’s freedom, heeding the call from newly elected president John F. Kennedy.....

Soros told Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes that he developed his character as Nazi collaborator in Hungry. He took that learning and became convicted Insider trader, a guy who made 10 billion dollar off the British people through currency speculation, terrorist supporter and Israel hater. After the last election George Soros, met with a group of Mega-rich liberals to ensure that they get to control the country after the 2008 Elections. What they ended up doing is giving $100 Million dollars to key liberal organizations in major battle ground states(see Obama's Liberal Shock Troops ). Here's the scary part--it worked....

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is calling on the Obama administration to apologize to veterans over a recently released Department of Homeland Security report warning that “right-wing extremists” will attempt to “radicalize returning veterans.” “The last people on earth we need to worry about are our veterans,” McCain said during an interview Monday night with Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren. “It’s insulting.”

NOTRE DAME, Indiana, April 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Nine more bishops have publicly acknowledged their disapproval of the University of Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama to speak and receive an honorary law degree at the school's commencement exercises May 17. Bishop Paul Coakley of the diocese of Salina, KS, told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) today that he has written a personal letter to Father Jenkins expressing his "deep disappointment" at the invitation.  Citing his grave concern over the President's support for anti-life policies, Bishop Coakley told LSN that he reminded University president Fr. John Jenkins of the USCCB directive that forbids...

Next time someone asserts that what the Republican Party needs to do is get back to its fiscally conservative roots, as if that's an alternative to being socially conservative, understand that such people will never be useful in undoing the damage on American freedom and prosperity wrought by the Obama administration. We don't need Chinese fascism; we need freedom. Such fiscal conservatives got us into the mess that Obama is exploiting to take our freedoms away... because they were the very people who created the financial collapse that brought Obama to power, and resolutely refuse to abandon their schemes. In...

This despicable video needs to be seen by as many people as possible. The basic gist of it is... "Dean Smith, I'm having a problem with one of my students. See... he's a war criminal, oh I mean veteran & he is not unquestionably swallowing our leftist propaganda hook, line & sinker. He's very confrontational & disruptive... he challenges my assertions in front of the other students, asks that I provide objective data to back up my claims, and he actually has the nerve to espouse ideas that run contrary to our ideology. I'm at my wits end & don't...

When asked by judge Perez Hilton, an openly gay gossip blogger, whether she believed in gay marriage, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, said "We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised." Keith Lewis, who runs the Miss California competition, tells FOXNews.com that he was "saddened" by Prejean's statement. "As co-director of the Miss California USA, I...

President Barack Obama is to make his first visit to the Central Intelligence Agency in an attempt to calm an uproar among America's spies over his release of secret memos about interrogation techniques. The White House said he would address staff at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia about the "importance of the CIA's mission". His visit came as it emerged that the highly controversial technique of "waterboarding", a type of simulated drowning, was used 266 times on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, two senior al-Qaeda prisoners. Last week, Mr Obama released four memos, running to 126 pages, written...

SHEIK Taj Din al-Hilali: "The Western people are the biggest liars and oppressors and especially the English race," the Mufti of Australia said in Arabic during the extensive interview in Egypt, his birthplace. [source]On the racist gang rape spree by Arab Lebanese people|Lebanese in Australia targeting specifically white girls, From the Sydney Morning Herald 2002 Racist rapes: Finally the truth comes out, So now we know the facts, straight from the Supreme Court, that a group of Lebanese Muslim gang rapists from south-western Sydney hunted their victims on the basis of their ethnicity and subjected them to hours of degrading,...

Lebanon has a long and varied history, but schools steer clear of teaching about the country's recent past, as the BBC's Natalia Antelava found out when she visited a school in the capital, Beirut. Kristina and Ali sit side by side in their history class and together they learn about the Phoenicians and the Romans, the Greeks and the Ottomans. But when it comes to Lebanon's more recent, turbulent past - their school teaches them nothing. Modern history is not part of the curriculum in Lebanon and, just like thousands of other children, Kristina and Ali - who are both...

Those of us who support the grassroots efforts known as TEA Parties need to be careful not to allow those who disagree with us to redefine us. We are hearing now that assemblies are the tool of the Republican Party, right wing billionaires, Fox News, and single-issue fringe groups. The buzz today is to characterize these efforts as being all about taxes and hard-hearted greed of those who refuse to help those who are less fortunate. If we allow them to define us, we will lose. We need to remember what the demonstrations are all about because in spite of...

From the book "The HUB: From the Revolutionary War to the Big Dig": "In 1773, the ministry of Lord North passed the Tea Act in an attempt to rescue the British East India Company from bankruptcy, the result of a combination of poor management and an enormouse surplus of unsold tea. The act would allow the company to ship its tea directly to North America without paying the usual English export taxes, and then sell the high-grade tea directly to the colonials without going through American middlemen." Can you say "Corporate Bailout?" Click here for source. (Read on as well....

Before we even learn the name of the Somali teenage pirate we are reportedly about to bring to trial in the United States, and with Al Qaeda reportedly urging the sea-faring criminals to become genuine terrorists, its time for a brief refresher course on America and its long, rich history hounding and being hounded by with pirates. The following is courtesy of historian George C. Herring’s George C. Herring’s masterful work, “From Colony to Superpower, U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776,” which is part of the Oxford History of the United States.... Even into the 1830s, when America had better established...

Just my opinion but I think Obambi will be the Last Black President this country ever sees, or at least for the next hundred years or so.

A great and dangerous myth exists that Herbert Hoover was a do nothing president and that his laissez faire attitude toward the economy resulted in the prolonging of the Great Depression. The myth continues that it was the activist policies of Franklin Roosevelt that finally turned the economy around. This myth is so prevalent that the current President, in his inaugural address, touched on the myth as a source of inspiration during the current downturn. "[We] saw a nation [during the FDR era] conquer fear itself, and a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we...

With a voice as smooth as a newborn’s bottom, the storyteller captivated his audience with little-known tales about Abraham Lincoln. His energy began to build as Lincoln’s train picks up speed, and when it entered the station and the air breaks flared, “Pssssshhhh,” Jim Woodard brought down the energy, but kept the interest level high. “Worldwide Folktales & Legends” was just one of the 55 lectures, performances, discussions and demonstrations available to students as a part of Multicultural Day on April 15 at Moorpark College. “This is one of my favorite venues to come to,” said Woodard. “The audience was...

"A demand for these drugs in the United States is what is helping keep these cartels in business ... more than 90% of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States," President Barack Obama said Thursday. However, Fox News debunked this claim weeks ago: "It's just not true. In fact, it's not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S."

While President Obama may believe America is arrogant, I think he is totally wrong. America is not arrogant; it is ignorant.

Picture this: Obama pulls into a city in America, like a gangster into a blighted neighborhood, with a long convoy of government Limos, while scores of beggars and worshippers scavenging around in their government provided Segways (while their city erodes around them), eagerly stop to glorify their King. This is the future Obama sees for us. This is how little this thug thinks of us. This is what awaits us, unless we stop him.

Vermont has legalized gay marriage. This is not a surprise in itself. Vermont for the last generation or two has been a far-left fiefdom that has elected avowed socialist Bernie Sanders again and again to Congress. But coming on the heels of the Supreme Court in Iowa shoving gay marriage down the throats of America’s heartland, coming on the heels of the gay mafia in California pushing the state Supreme Court to try and overturn Proposition 8, it is an ominous sign. There is a rising tide of pink fascism in this country, and it comes as a result of...

Total Public Debt Outstanding$11,146,566,832,297.30    April 3, 2009$10,626,877,048,913.10   Jan. 20, 2009   $519,689,783,384.20       73 days $2,598,448,916,921.01 of projected debt in first year.$10,393,795,667,684.00 of projected debt in first term. So far, I'mBroke OhBummer has over-spent the budget:$7,119,038,128.55 a day $296,626,588.69 an hour$4,943,776.48 a minute$82,396.27 a second

Part I: Non-ContradictionChapter X: Wyatt’s TorchSynopsisDagny and Hank visit the county seat and discover that the Twentieth Century Motor Company is tied up in litigation with two owners vying in court for possession. Mark Yonts of the People’s Mortgage Company of Rome, Wisconsin, an S&L known for easy credit, had sold the company to a concern in South Dakota and had used it again as collateral for a loan from a bank in Illinois. When his S&L collapsed, he disappeared after stripping the factory of its assets. All records are gone due to a courthouse fire. They visit Mayor Bascom...

April 02, 2009Obama bows down to Saudi KingClarice Feldman I am quite certain that this is not the protocol, and is most unbecoming a President of the United States.

“In the words of Scripture,” Barack Obama announced at his inauguration, “the time has come to set aside childish things.” So why does the President of the United States embrace the most childish interpretation of political discourse ever put forward on a national stage? Politics is about making choices. We either cut spending or we grow spending. We either have less regulation or more regulation. We either strengthen defense or we weaken it. Obama seemingly understands this. He has repeatedly referred to the “hard choices” we face as a nation. Yet despite his “hard choices” rhetoric, Barack Obama’s favorite political...

At a time when people are having trouble holding on to their houses, Barack and Michelle Obama have sensibly decided not to use taxpayers’ money to renovate theirs. New presidents are allotted $100,000 to overhaul the White House residence and the Oval Office, and the Obamas hired Hollywood decorator Michael S. Smith (known, per his site, for mixing “Old World classicism with very contemporary settings”). But the First Couple isn’t spending that money. They “are not using public funds or accepting donations of goods for redecorating their private quarters,” says Camille Johnston, director of communications for the First Lady. Nor...

What if an American President campaigned as a pragmatic centrist, promised tax cuts to 95% of the American people and pledged himself to a new era of government honesty, openness and bipartisanship, but never had any of those intentions? The result might be a cabinet full of tax cheats, political cronies and lobbyists, and a president peddling an overstuffed budget of liberal dream-schemes at a time when the American economy can least afford an extra nickel for folderol or fiddling. Meanwhile Rome is burning. President Obama rolls the dice and grabs a can of kerosene. This president's budget, plus the...

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

We heard a lot about those who were unable to "make it in America" during the 2008 campaign. Despite the clear record of opportunity that America has delivered for more people across every race and from every nation in the history of this earth, we were reminded again and again from then candidate Obama that poor people existed. We were told a lot of things about them as well. We were told that they were inept in their efforts to help themselves. We were told they were too dumb to make clear choices. And we were told constantly that the...

That's a stunning indictment of President Obama and one of the more overt pieces I've read about the complete lack of trust the left now has in Obama. Yes, he will still have his die-hard supporters who will never admit they were wrong in backing such an amateurish candidate, yet every day we are seeing another major backer question whether or not Obama is up to the job. By throwing in a Hillary quote they throw a little salt in the wound as well by showing that not only us on the right were correct in our assessment but that...