Free Republic

A Less Than Opaque Look At Mel Watt's Motivations To Kill The "Audit The Fed" Bill /snip The Tom Woods' congressional testimony last week Friday in favor of the 'Audit the Fed' bill had two very curious turns, he set off extremely hostile questioning from two congressmen, by the hearings Committee Chair Barney Frank and Representative Mel Watt. Every other Congressman that questioned Woods, and Fed General Counsel Alvarez, was seemingly concerned about where the money the Fed is printing is actually going. But not Frank and Watt. I discussed Frank's hostility, here. Watt was even more hostile. It looked...

"It ain't over till it's over," said the philosopher Yogi Berra. As every sports fan knows, momentum can change in a hurry. The opponent can make a costly mistake that opens the door, a key play can give your team the edge, or you may simply catch a lucky break that changes the course of the game. In what has become the defining issue of the moment, President Obama and the Democrats are attempting to paint passage of ObamaCare as inevitable, and survey ratings that many Americans expect some form of ObamaCare to pass. There are many hurdles to be...

The Iranian regime is increasingly unstable and its collapse has become a real possibility. Economic and international pressure, fractures in the regime, and the increasing hostility of the majority of the population to the government are factors that could prove fatal to the theocracy. As the Iranian government’s pillars continue to shake, a new generation of leaders is poised to fill the gap and take the country in a more positive direction. Let us take a closer look at this new generation of leaders to gauge what may ensue if the tyrannical theocracy falls. The most talked about leader is...

"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell President Obama has been agitating for the authority to criminalize political opponents since he took office. First there was the raft of DHS reports profiling conservatives as terrorists. Then came the push for a new fairness doctrine, subsequently refined to be achieved in diversity regulations to be imposed on local radio stations. Following these attacks on free speech was the much debated hate crimes legislation, considered by many to be a back-door path to silencing critics of the administration. But, while dangerous to...

"Thousands of people have gathered at a mosque in Guinea's capital, Conakry, to identify those killed in Monday's opposition rally against military rule ... Soldiers used live rounds against huge crowds of protesters on Monday ... Eyewitnesses have told human rights groups of soldiers raping women in the streets during the crackdown ..."

Here we go again. We've seen this scenario many times before: 1. Politicians propose legislation sure to cost the productive classes billions more of their money; 2. Seeing little benefit from the proposal, citizens show their anger in opposition to it; 3. With help from the legacy media, controversy and confusion ensue among the public; 4. Politicians create focus groups and polls to identify opportunities for "clarification" of the plan; 5. Highlighting obscure details as solutions to real problems and vilifying those who oppose them, supporters spin their message through every available media outlet; 6. The public grows weary of...

Racism is driving anti-Obama protests, says Carter Philippe Naughton The former American president Jimmy Carter says racism and fear is driving the wave of anger directed at Barack Obama as he tries to drive through comprehensive reform of the US healthcare system. The 84-year-old included in his analysis the heckling of a Republican lawmaker, who shouted out "You lie" at President Obama during his speech to Congress last Wednesday. “I think that an overwhelming proportion of the intensely-demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, he’s African-American,” Mr Carter told NBC...

Over rising opposition, Libyan leader Muammar el-Qadaffi has canceled his proposed Bedouin tent campout in Englewood, New Jersey. The Libyan leader will instead stay in New York City as he awaits to address the UN General Assembly next month.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Iranian opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi announced the formation of a new social and political movement on his Web site on Saturday, following through on a promise made last month and defying a renewed government campaign of intimidation aimed at him and his supporters. The movement is not a political party — which would require a government permit — but a “grass-roots and social network” that will promote democracy and adherence to the law, Mr. Moussavi wrote in a statement on his site. It is to be known as the Green Way of Hope,...

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley confirmed Monday that a new housing development in east Jerusalem had been a topic of conversation last week during a meeting between senior US diplomats and Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren. Crowley said US opposition to construction in east Jerusalem and settlements in the West Bank had not changed. "We have made our views known to Israel," he told reporters. "Our views are not new either: that this kind of construction is the type ... of issue that should be subject to permanent-status negotiations."

Finally, we’re starting to see him sweat. President Barack Obama made his personal icy cool the trademark of his campaign, the tenor of his White House and the hallmark of an early run of successes at home and abroad. But as the glamour wears off and a long, frustrating summer wears on, he is being forced to improvise, stooping to respond to political foes and adjusting his tactics and demeanor for the trench warfare of a legislative agenda. The root of the change is one that faces every president: Economic and international realities that resist political charm. Iran and North...

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has told Mousavi to pursue his demands through the electoral system and called for Iranians to unite behind their Islamic government, an extraordinary appeal in response to tensions over the presidential vote. But Mousavi appears unwilling to back down, issuing on his Web site a call for a mass demonstration Thursday. "We want a peaceful rally to protest the unhealthy trend of the election and realize our goal of annulling the results," Mousavi said. He called for his followers to wear or carry black in mourning for the alleged election fraud and the deaths of...

One day after signing the $410 billion omnibus funding bill into law, along with provisions ending the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck demonstration project, the Obama administration has announced intentions to restart the program as soon as possible.

Rush Limbaugh ‘just an entertainer?" Well, Mark Twain was an entertainer. But he was also one of the finest satirical voices in our history, a searing mocker of our national conscience at the time of slavery. He made people laugh until it hurt, but his aim was fundamentally moral. For the Chairman of the Republican Party to call Limbaugh "just an entertainer" is both inaccurate and political suicide. Michael Steele saw that quickly, and apologized. ‘Nuff said. Steele allowed himself to slip on CNN's carefully scripted banana peel, but he knew better. Most of our media Neanderthals don't.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's call to raise taxes on high earners and greenhouse gas polluters met fierce opposition Tuesday from congressional Republicans and also a few Democrats. "I would never want to adversely affect anything that is charitable or good," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said of Obama's call to limit high-income taxpayers' itemized deductions for charitable donations and mortgage interest. Republicans said the president's plan to charge fees to industries that spew greenhouse gases amounts to a stealthy tax increase for all Americans that will far exceed the new $400...

Liberty is punch drunk. Every day she absorbs a frenzy of body blows from the Obama administration that are sure to result in knockout, of not permanent hospitalization or a coma. Liberty is not the only lady under assault. Truth has been mugged and muzzled. She cannot be heard. We no longer have a free press. The media is silent about the excesses, abuses, cronyism, and outright corruption of the Obama administration. The media has traded its traditional role of watchdog for lapdog. It uses its bandwidth lavishing praise and worship in a sickening display of, well, a sickening display....

For example, Dr Eugenie Scott of the staunchly anticreationist National Center for Science Education (NCSE) revealed their agenda when she said: “ … I would describe myself as a humanist or a nontheist. I have found that the most effective allies for evolution are people of the faith community. One clergyman with a backward collar is worth two biologists at a school board meeting any day! … What we [such clergy and atheists] have in common is that we want to see evolution taught in the public schools … .”4

We are used to hearing hysterics from the left about the fearsomeness of the "Republican Attack Machine," even though evidence of its existence has been scarce. This is unlike the "Democrat Attack Machine," a term you will never read in the mainstream media, but which keeps humming along destroying innocent conservatives on a near-daily basis. But assuming there ever was anything resembling a Republican version of this machinery, it must be in the shop undergoing repairs right now. Check out the frightening display of partisan unity when Barack Obama met with Congressional Republicans today: Mr. Obama walked into a meeting...

On Obama's agenda, according to his White House website, is the goal to "encourage diversity in media ownership." Obama elaborates on the site that his aim is to "encourage diversity in the ownership of broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets for expression of diverse viewpoints, and clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation's spectrum." The plan apparently aligns with longstanding Democratic suggestions to resurrect the "Fairness Doctrine." The policy was abandoned in 1987 under President Reagan when there were 75 radio talk shows in the U.S. Reagan opposed the policy because it required...

Reporting from Beirut -- Black clerical turbans bobbed up from the sea of long, curly hair and fashionable berets. Venezuelan leftists sought an interpreter to speak with Egyptian nationalists. Iranians handed out DVDs celebrating the assassin of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and baseball caps that carried a quote from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: "Israel must be wiped out." Many snoozed during former U.S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark's speech about American foreign policy in the 1950s. But all perked up when the Shiite militia Hezbollah's No. 2, Naim Qassem, delivered a fiery keynote speech slamming the United States and Israel's war against...

Bandera local farmers and rancher charge that the I-69 Trans-Texas Corridor Tier One Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) has failed to meet important environmental standards. Barbara Mazurek, Bandera County Farm Bureau President says that these failures are indicative of the problems that exist with the entire Tran-Texas Corridor (TTC). “Because these environmental standards have not been met, the Texas Department of Transportation should seriously consider alternatives to its current model,” Mazurek said. According to Mazurek, there are three main reasons that the DEIS is flawed. • It limits its analysis to alternatives that fit the TTC “vision” of a multimodal...

The House passed a $14-billion, stopgap bailout of the automotive industry on Wednesday night. But in the Senate, Republicans have the votes to prevent it. And despite urging from the exiting Bush administration, they appear poised to do so. This is big. Normally, lame-duck congresses concern themselves with far less consequential matters. The addition of seven or eight more Democrats in the next Congress may come weeks too late to prevent the bankruptcy (or, in the worst case, failure) of General Motors. In the hours leading up to the critical votes, NRO spoke with Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), a...

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela's growing opposition and President Hugo Chavez's left-wing party shared the spoils from weekend elections, jostling for political advantage in the OPEC nation Monday. The multi-party opposition eroded Chavez's dominance of regional politics, winning six top posts that govern almost half of the population, although his Socialist Party took a 17 state races -- a clear majority. The results complicate Chavez's plan to change the law to run for reelection in 2012. The opposition defeated that move in a referendum last year and gained further ground Sunday on the popular anti-U.S. president who came to power in...

Texas politicians who support toll roads won't have Sal Costello to kick them around anymore. Costello and his family moved to a small town in Southern Illinois this summer. He announced it on his blog Sunday, quietly, an adverb seldom associated with Costello in the past. Costello, if you're new around here or have forgotten, was a Southwest Austin graphics designer who in 2004 made a warp-speed trip from obscurity to notoriety after politicians pushed through a plan to build seven more toll roads. The plan included putting tolls on three roads that were already under construction using nothing but...

Toyota, BMW, Hyundai Workers' Senators Oppose Rescue

A San Antonio lawmaker filed a bill that would repeal the establishment and operation of the Trans-Texas Corridor. It’s not the first time he’s done so. In the 2007 legislative session, Rep. David Leibowitz filed an identical bill, but it languished in the House Transportation Committee without a hearing. Leibowitz spokesman Rob Borja said the legislation may have a better fate the second time around. At least four of the nine committee members will change this session, including the chairman. “Probably most important is there will be a new chairman, because the old chairman Mike Krusee wouldn’t let any bills...

What actually happens? Is it a matter of just filling out forms or seizure of your money?

DC politics is controlled by an exclusive power club. The real "us -vs- them" is "We the People -vs- the DC Powerful." The entrenched DC powers are a bipartisan collection of moneyed backscratchers and button-holers who do a lot of winking and nodding. They also know how to circle the wagons. Note how Fannie, Freddie and the rest of the gang escaped unscathed from the ruins they created. All that "Republican versus Democrat" stuff is just for the rubes watching CNN and Fox. Both parties are branches of the same powerful DC tribe, and they all subscribe to a modified...

David Harsanyi commentary: Robust dissent, not unity, needed in Washington Thursday, November 6, 2008 3:23 AM By DAVID HARSANYI DispatchPolitics Unity? No, thank you. Unity: n. the state of being one; oneness -- especially when your chosen political party happens to win an election. Barack Obama is now my president. Though I wonder whether irascible Democrats who rode around with those snazzy bumper stickers reading "He's not my president" for the past eight years realize the irony of their call for national harmony. Let's hope there's none. Winning elections is one thing; governing is quite another. It is impossible to...

Born to Russian-Jewish parents in Chicago in 1909, Saul Alinsky was a Marxist who helped establish the dual political tactics of confrontation and infiltration that characterized the 1960s and have remained central to all subsequent revolutionary movements in the United States. Though Alinsky is generally viewed as a member of the political left, and rightfully so, his legacy is more methodological than ideological. He identified a set of very specific rules that ordinary citizens could follow, and tactics that ordinary citizens could employ, as a means of gaining public power. His motto was, "The most effective means are whatever will...

Yesterday I made a decision that will affect my personal buying habits and choices. I have realized that American unions do so much political harm these days and I have decided to do whatever I can to avoid purchasing any union made product or service. Since they have done so much to push socialism in this country, I figure it's high time that entrepreneurial rugged individuals like myself stop supporting them. Many of us avoid Chinese made items while ignoring our own domestic Marxists. It's time for a change they weren't expecting.

//***********************   FreedomMarch.org is a new nonprofit political activist group dedicated to the effective action needed to protect America from the disturbing trends indicated by the last election. Several hundred volunteers have already joined, (100+ in the last four hours) and we attracted national media to negative Obama issues twice during October. Our goals are as follows: FreedomMarch.org will sponsor or participate in many activities including:* 1. Expose Obama, and preclude him from taking office. 2. Demonstrations - virtual online and onsite 3. Telephone, email, and fax campaigns.4. Public awareness activities 5. Communication and civic education6. Legal actions 7. Influence the electoral college. We plan...

What do you do if you honestly just do not feel that you can support this man? He flies in the face of everything I believe in. In everything my family believes in. How do you support someone who is in stark opposition to your core principles and beliefs? This isn't cute or funny to me. It's scary. The Black Panther deal yesterday was scary. Hearing thugs happily proclaim how they voted more than once was scary. And no one seems to care. A conservative radio show that I listen to regularly is opening the phone lines only to Obama...

<p>Oh please! There is is no moral equivalence, here. I will NOT congratulate Obama as if I am the “loyal opposition� who simply apposes his ideas. I will NOT congratulate a man who promises as his first act in office to slaughter millions of unborn babies! The Freedom of Choice Act be damned! I will NOT congratulate a man who threatens to take away our freedoms. Welcome to the Fairness Doctrine and to the new “civil defense force� (whatever the Hell that turns out to be); will the 2nd Amendment fall after he destroys the 1st? I will NOT congratulate a man who buys the presidency with an obscene amount of money (Soros?) and a “Mainstream Media� which is no longer “mainstream.� (Let's just call it PRAVDA). And NO! I will NOT congratulate a man who threatens to tax me out of my house and my life savings so that he can “spread the wealth around.� Nor will I congratulate a man who threatens to weaken the country my father fought and bled for in World War II, a highly decorated 85-year-old veteran who had to endure some thug who this week tore down his McCain/Palin sign which he had placed so proudly in his front yard. If the Left can oppose and destroy conservatives when they are elected merely on the promise of protecting the American Dream, what is the Right to do when a leftist is elected promising sweeping change that would destroy that Dream? Evil must be opposed, not congratulated. This morning, a colleague chided me when I called it Evil. I told him that I had wept lat night for the coming slaughter of the unborn. Yes, it's Evil. The word was good enough for Ronald Reagan. And it is good enough for me.</p>

"So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause." Sorry, I couldn't help but be reminded of this scene from "Revenge of the Sith." I only hope that Obama isn't as bad as Emperor Palpatine. Just think, in Star Wars, it took an evil emperor to give way to Luke Skywalker (Jindal? haha) and Princess Leia (Palin?)! Hope is not lost, my friends, keep your faith where it belongs and try and look at things optimistically. If things get bad, there's no one to blame but Obama which will only guarantee us victory the next time around!

Atlas Shrugged has been on my mind a great deal these past few weeks. I don't hold with Ayn Rand on everything -- her view of what constitutes "morality," for example, is in complete opposition to my closely held religious faith. And she could have used a good editor; the damn book could have been half its size but just as effective. However, Rand did have incredible foresight into the political and socioeconomic ills that were occurring around her and that abound, nearly unchecked, in our world of 2008. Apparently, I'm not the only person who has been thinking along these...

As it appears that Obama has won this election, following Fox News calling both Ohio and PA for him, I think it is now time for the businessmen and women who run this country to make it quite clear what the consequences are to those people who sold out their freedom for empty promises.Small business owners, your taxes are now going to be raised. You now will face the difficult choice of either cutting your costs by laying people off, or by passing the increased costs of taxation on to your customers. This time I want you to take the...

Congratulations to Barack Obama. America has transcended race and this is a historic election in that regard. It is now time for all of America to move beyond the politics of race relations and unite in common as one people. This election should finally put the race-baiters such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton out of business. Conservatism has been put in exile. The decision America made tonight was a poor one. The answer for Republicans cannot be to despair and surrrender America to this onslaught of liberalism, but rather to return to Republican principles and remain steadfastly dedicated to...

8 years ago our beloved W (Dubya) was elected and now we have an H (Aitch). I am in total shock that our United States elected someone we know next to nothing about. With so many unanswered questions why did it not matter to almost 55% of Americans? I am in shock that Murtha was re-elected. I am in shock that the polls were right. Now is the time to not over-react, but to begin laying a foundation for a future victory. What issues are good ones for a grass roots movement? Abortion? Faith? Flat Tax? Property rights? It is...

We are now the opposition and as such the historic responsibility to maintain the Republic has now fallen to us. Capitalists, conservatives, and all free thinking citizens do not despair for, all is not lost. While the days ahead may appear foreboding and uncertain, there is hope, and it lies within each of us. The fire of freedom that burns in the bosom of each and every citizen must not be squelched by the developments of the recent past. Yes, it would appear at first glance that this great nation has taken a whiplash inducing turn to the left, but...

10/10/08 FOX News Poll: Americans 'Bail' On the Bail-Out Friday , October 10, 2008 By Ernie Paicopolos Rarely has a set of events impacted a presidential election as much as the recent financial crisis and the subsequent relief efforts by the federal government. According to a new FOX News poll, Americans are not at all supportive of the proposed solution. A 53 percent majority thinks government involvement is not part of the solution at all, but part of the problem. This view is more intense among Republicans (69 percent) and independents (59 percent)—though a large minority of Democrats (40 percent)...

State transportation officials are poised to issue billions of dollars in debt to help speed road construction, a move that will keep Dallas-area projects on schedule for now but will do little to shore up the state's long-term road-funding crisis. The Texas Department of Transportation will likely begin issuing $1.5 billion in bonds within 60 days, pending the recovery of the nation's upended credit markets, and is taking steps to borrow another $6.4 billion over the next few years. Historic turmoil in the credit markets is already costing the department hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra interest payments each...

The Pineywoods Sub-Regional Planning Commission met Thursday to hear a presentation by the commission's president, Hank Gilbert, who said the plans to move the Trans-Texas Corridor to the current U.S. Hwy. 59 location may not come to fruition. The Texas Department of Transportation initially planned to build a new highway system, which would have been as large as 1,200-feet wide, that would run through rural areas of East Texas, including Nacogdoches County. However, TxDOT scrapped those plans in June and announced a new proposal to build the TTC along the existing route of U.S. Hwy 59. But Gilbert, of the...

Last week police confiscated a small arsenal of illegal guns, ammunition and other assorted weapons from the Marstons Mills home of Kenneth Webster. On July 1 police also removed several guns and knives that had been on his person and in his car. In total, more than 50 weapons were taken from Webster including a sawed-off shotgun, an M14 automatic rifle and a sniper rifle. When he was arrested on July 1 Webster reportedly told police that he had a constitutional right to own those guns. If that sounds scary, here's something scarier. There are a lot of people out...

Executives from the state highway department are again defending themselves at the Capitol against people who say they are using taxpayer money to advance an agenda in favor of toll roads in Texas. At the heart of the issue are claims that TxDOT has hired lobbyists, using taxpayer dollars, to push in favor of projects like the Trans-Texas Corridor. Part of that is the "Keep Texas Moving" website. "Marketing is undertaken to inform drivers in the Austin area about the opening of new toll roads, toll road locations and incentive periods, and about the benefits of paying with an electronic...

Member of the Texas Sunset Commission today recommended 'radical' changes in the administration of the Texas Department of Transportation, including placing the troubled and controversial agency into a four year legislative 'receivership' and abolishing the Texas Transportation Commission, which runs TexDOT, and appointment of a Transportation Commissioner who would be answerable to the Legislature, 1200 WOAI news reports. But Sunset Commission member Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon (D-San Antonio) suggested going one step further. "What I am hearing form the public is that they are wanting to see an elected commissioner," she said to loud applause from the TexDOT opponents who...

Toll road opponents today will ask the Sunset Advisory Committee of the Texas Legislature to abolish the Texas Department of Transportation, saying the agency has become too corrupt and too dysfunctional to fix, 1200 WOAI news reports. "We want to see elected leadership at the helm of Tex-DOT," says long time toll road opponent Terri Hall, the founder of the citizen action group Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom. "We are done with this unelected beaurocracy that is just an arm of private road building companies and the lackeys of this governor." The idea of eliminating TexDOT and establishing a...

AUSTIN — The Texas Transportation Commission on Thursday selected San Antonio's Zachry Construction Corp. and a Spanish toll road developer to plan a superhighway from Texarkana to Brownsville. The $5 million contract calls for Zachry American Infrastructure and ACS Infrastructure to create a financial plan for the Interstate 69 segment of the Trans-Texas Corridor. "This team represents the best in the balance of local and global expertise necessary to complete a project of this scope," said David Zachry, chief operating officer of Zachry Construction Corp. The private developers' plan calls for seven new loops around Corpus Christi and other cities...

The controversial project known as Interstate 69/TransTexas Corridor became a little less so last week after the Texas Department of Transportation announced it would recommend utilizing existing highway routes rather than building new ones. The announcement comes after months of public meetings during which residents along the path of the proposed path of Interstate 69/TTC voiced varying concerns. TxDOT has designated four priority corridors to address the state's transportation needs in the next decade. "The preliminary basis for this decision centers on the review of nearly 28,000 public comments made on the Tier One Draft Environmental Impact Statement," TxDOT Executive...

HARARE (AFP) - The Zimbabwe opposition's number two was charged with subverting government on Thursday and faces a potential death penalty, as more violence was reported before next week's presidential run-off. Tendai Biti, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general, faces four charges including subverting the government, election rigging and "projecting the president as an evil man." MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who faces President Robert Mugabe in the June 27 run-off election, dismissed the charges as "frivolous." The charges stem from documents prosecutors say Biti authored discussing plans to rig the March 29 first-round parliamentary and presidential vote,...