Free Republic

Obamacare, as critics have dubbed the president's plan to socialize health care, will be flooded with lawsuits if it ever becomes law, according to an organization that works to protect rights and liberties of Americans. In an alert issued this week, Liberty Counsel, run by President Mathew Staver, promised his organization "is prepared to challenge the constitutionality of the bill since Congress has no authority to require every person to obtain insurance coverage and has no authority to fine employers who do not provide the coverage standards that are required in the bill." "In addition," he warned, "the bill still...

I posted a 1981 video of Ronald Reagan reassuring America he is there for us and what he sees as the true meaning of Christmas. HOW BADLY DO WE NEED REAGAN!?!? You will not see any Christmas Tree Ornaments of Mao, transvestites nor with the face of the disgrace & disaster Obama on Mount Rushmore. I added it to The Palins Christmas message posting.

Todd and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! The Palin family is blessed to all be together among family and friends this Holiday – and that is one of the greatest gifts of all. But while this is a beautiful time of the year for families and friends around the world, we recognize that it is a difficult time of the year for so many others – especially this year. May we remember all those who are lonely or in need on this blessed night, and please join us in saying a special prayer for those away...

Gov Palin interview with Greta Van Susteren was probably one of her best interviews, in that interview Van Susteren asked Palin about resignation, quitting, ethic violations and the prospect of dealing with attacks in future political positions. This is to all of those hacks, the misinformed and the haters that hide their true intentions against Gov. Palin, and you know who I'm talking about.......here are excerpts. PALIN: Because it was the best thing for the state of Alaska to be able to progress the conservative agenda up there without the distraction that the new normal in Alaskan politics had become...

She kept it secret for seven months and now she's finally speaking out. On Thursday, Governor Sarah Palin sat down to answer questions about the new addition to her family.

IT’S been a tough year for fashion. The juice has been virtually squeezed out of it. Luxury retailers, after seeing margins erode like Nantucket beachfront, have leaned on designers to cut their prices. To stay afloat, design houses are reducing quality and promoting value. Meanwhile fast-fashion chains are eating their lunch as they reproduce runway looks in six weeks. As a symbol of self-inflicted misery, the listless, half-starved model may be perfect after all. At least the fashion world had Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin to help avoid the impression that, you know, nobody cares about clothes and big dangly...

Sarah takes on Big Oil: The compelling story of Governor Sarah Palin's battle with Alaska's 'Big 3' oil companies, as told by the state's top oil and gas editors, Kay Cashman and Kristen Nelson (Hardcover) Product Description Sarah takes on Big Oil illuminates Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's rise to power, along with her successes and failures in dealing with the industry that is the lifeblood of the state's economy. This book is a must read for those seeking to understand Palin's qualifications for national leadership. Purchasers of Sarah takes on Big Oil qualify for a free, two-year, online subscription to...

Todd and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! The Palin family is blessed to all be together among family and friends this Holiday – and that is one of the greatest gifts of all. But while this is a beautiful time of the year for families and friends around the world, we recognize that it is a difficult time of the year for so many others – especially this year. May we remember all those who are lonely or in need on this blessed night, and please join us in saying a special prayer for those away...

Former Governor Sarah Palin via Twitter said that this morning’s vote to takeover healthcare by the Senate will “ awaken a sleeping giant” and action will be taken. She then says Americans will take action when light begins to shine on big government growth and corruption. c tomrrw's Healthcare Takeover vote=the sleeping giant will awaken&action will b takn by"average"Americans as lite shines on big govt growth - Sarah Palin The Senate joined the House this morning in thumbing their noses at the American people by passing healthcare reform. The bill actually has nothing to do with reform and more to...

As we noted, Governor Palin was in Wasilla on December 22nd signing copies of her record setting book and enjoying the company of those from her hometown and all over Alaska who came out to spend time with her and her family. Tracy Porreca, a conservative Alaskan, attended the event and wrote about the experience on her website: However, not everyone was there with the intentions of being civil and treating others with the most basic respect that human beings extent to each other. Judging by their past antics and writings, Dennis Zaki and Jesse Griffin attended the Wasilla book...

Beware of the Sleeping Giant– Sarah Palin warned the big government democrat-socialists: Tomorrow’s Health care Takeover vote Will cause the sleeping giant to awaken and take action. “Average” Americans will take action as light shines on big government growth and corruption. The democrats have bribed enough senators and will vote tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM EST to take over health care. May December 24, 2009 be the beginning of the end of big government socialism in America. We Will Never Forget.

It’s no cause for celebration, and Sarah Palin’s not the type for schadenfreude, but she was right about the death panels. So right, in fact, that the death panels are receiving some very special and probably unconstitutional protection in the Senate health care bill. The creation of the so-called Independent Payment Advisory Board – the panel that decides who goes without coverage so costs can be cut – cannot be repealed, according to language Harry Reid has inserted into the bill, without a supermajority vote of two-thirds. Death panels? There are no death panels! Stop listening to that crazy cackling...

Interesting how the nonexistent or “Lie of the Year” death panels are popping up all over the place, even the non-nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. I posted a link to the CBOs letter to Harry Reid. “It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved, and if so, whether it would be accomplished through greater efficiencies in the delivery of health care or would reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care.”

There is a right way to cover Sarah Palin and her PR strategy. Greg Sargent, Ben Smith and Matt Gertz double-check Palin’s claim (made on Facebook) that her infamous “death panel” post was a “metaphor” for how health care would be denied to the old or infirm. In the original post, it was pretty clear that Palin was talking about end-of-life counseling, not rationing. Obama himself acknowledged at an August 11 townhall that the "underlying argument" made by Palin was that his health care bill would "mean rationing of care":

It's time to say goodbye. We are pleased to present the final installment of our popular segment, "Things More Fun Than Reading The Sarah Palin Memoir." We enjoyed a final montage: -driving into a tree -walking into traffic -getting decapitated -eating an eyeball from a yak carcass -microwaving your head -drinking your own urine -using a malfunctioning hand dryer -having needles thrown in your face -getting your arm ripped off by a shark -getting stabbed in the neck with pencils -getting stabbed in the eye with a carrot -exposure to high frequency sound waves -and getting crushed by a dumpster.

At what should be the happiest, most wonderfully magical time of the year, a great evil has gripped the nation. The most corrupt Congress in our nation’s history in lockstep with the most corrupt and evil man to ever step foot in the Oval Office are committing acts that amount to no less than treason. As we wrote earlier, in a piece entitled Death of the Republic, some serious maneuvering by Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid slipped some language into the already grossly unconstitutional Obamacare fiasco that would prohibit future Congresses from making changes or repealing key measures of this...

From Sarah Palin's twitter: c tomrrw's Healthcare Takeover vote=the sleeping giant will awaken&action will b takn by"average"Americans as lite shines on big govt growth

Dear Governor Palin, My name is Patricia Melton, and I am the President-for-Life of the Mineral City Coffee Club here in Mineral City, Ohio. I don’t know if you have Coffee Clubs up in Alaska, but you should. I imagine it gets really cold up there, and there’s nothing like a hot cup of coffee and spirited conversation with good friends (and even people you can’t stand) to take the chill out of the air and get a little fire in your belly. This morning, the Mineral City Coffee Club is getting our little care packages ready to take out...

It is perfectly clear that Palin is talking about rationing in general. She specifically made an argument about the government's refusing to pay the cost of health care will lead to rationing care, and she also wrote that her "baby with Down Syndrome" could be affected by such rationing. How would "end-of-life counseling" for the elderly cause the death of a disabled baby? As Ben Smith notes, Palin's spokesperson did cite the end-of-life counseling provision as a specific example of rationing in the bill. But that was just one example, which, Palin argued could put pressure on the elderly. Obama...

. . . Desiccated expertise, of the kind possessed by economists, environmental scientists, and overinformed reporters from the lamestream media, clouds good judgment; Palin's life, by contrast, is presented as one of passion, sincerity, and principle. Going Rogue, in other words, is a four-hundred-page paean to virtuous ignorance . . . Her sarcophagous appetite for flesh and slaughter goes hand in hand with her scorn for vegetarians—more, it seems, because of their presumed social class and education than because of the food on their plates . . . Palin showed her form in her first big race, in 1996, when...

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has won the dubious honour of telling the biggest political lie of the year. A panel of experts ruled her claim the Obama administration was planning to introduce "death panels" was chosen as the most misleading statement of 2009. Palin, 45, made the claim on her Facebook page at the height of the debate over President Obama's plans to reform the US health care system. She wrote: "My parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide whether they are worthy...

Sarah Palin Responds to Winning 'Lie of the Year' By Noel Sheppard Created 2009-12-23 10:40 Sarah Palin has responded to claims that her "death panel" comment concerning healthcare reform legislation is the "Lie of the Year." As NewsBusters previously reported [0], the Palin-hating press have been having a field day since she won this dubious honor from the website PolitiFact last week. On Tuesday, the former Alaska Governor responded [1] at her Facebook page, and did so with skill and aplomb (emphasis hers): Last weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Hundreds stood in line Tuesday for the opportunity to slip a signed copy of "Going Rogue" under the Christmas tree. Sarah Palin headed home for the holidays after a nationwide book tour, but before taking a break she decided to hold a book signing in Wasilla. Palin's father Chuck Heath said it was his favorite book signing. Hundreds showed up, but unlike other stops, a lot of these fans were also familiar faces. It might be too late to send a signed copy of Palin's book and have it show up by Christmas, but that didn't stop...

I’ve argued before, and I will continue to argue, that there is nothing terribly unique about Sarah Palin as a politician other than the way in which her opponents and the media play right into her hands by treating her as if she is somehow uniquely important and/or devious. Today, Dave Weigel documents another set of examples of this, demonstrating the ways in which the media’s (and, for that matter, Palin’s opponents’) insistence on paying attention to her Facebook and Twitter ramblings, making them into major stories, even if with the intention of disproving those ramblings. The entire post is...

I listened to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell on Sean Hannity’s radio show yesterday. He sounded tired and barely able to rally the troops against the Democrats’ government health care takeover. He told Sean’s guest host at the end of an obligatory-sounding critique of Harry Reid that, and I quote, “We’re going to fight ‘em all the way to the finish line.” That’s what he said: “We’re going to fight ‘em all the way to the finish line.” Before the cloture vote on sneaky Sunday, Sen. John McCain had sounded the same message with more energy, invoking John Paul Jones...

Last week, PolitiFact.com announced its “Lie of the Year”: Sarah Palin’s claim that the health care bill might create “death panels” that would kill elderly or disabled Americans. It was a lie, the editors pointed out, because Palin’s claim was based on a mangling (by Michele Bachmann) of false claims by Betsey McCaughey — that the bill would mandate end-of-life counseling, and that rationing would deny care based on “level of productivity in society.” That phrase was Palin’s invention. Palin responded to the PolitiFact article with a post on her Facebook page, claiming that, actually, the CBO’s assessment that it...

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?   [Andy McCarthy] You just can't make up how brazen this crowd is. One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law.Interpol is the shorthand for the International Criminal Police Organization. It was established in 1923 and operates in about 188 countries. By executive order 12425, issued in 1983, President Reagan recognized Interpol as an international organization and gave it some of the privileges and immunities customarily extended to foreign diplomats. Interpol, however, is also...

Allahpundit: Via Weasel Zippers. The money line: “Are you going to keep building your party with Dixiecrats, ex-Democrats, who think the Democratic party is too mainstream?” Savor that last word, as it suggests that a party pushing a signature bill that’s now -20 in net approval in some polls is the one that speaks for the great “mainstream.” The idea of a liberal silent majority goes hand in hand with the idea of the GOP as a radical collective, which is where the confederacy meme comes in here. Nothing new for “Hardball”: Kathleen Parker pushed that smear herself back in...

She took on a corrupt mayor of Wasilla. And won. She took on a corrupt governor of Alaska. And won. Now she takes on a corrupt Speaker of the House, a corrupt Senate Majority Leader and as corrupt president. My money is on Sarah Palin. On her Facebook this morning was this post: Last weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making shady backroom deals to ram through the Democrat health care take-over. The Senate ended debate on this bill without even reading it. That and midnight weekend votes seem to be...

The Left, since the release of Sarah Palin’s book, Going Rogue, and its million plus sales in a matter of weeks, have been wandering the streets in a benighted stupor, tugging at their unkempt hair, and shrieking at whomever will listen with their question of “why”? “Why is she popular, why is she on television, why is she on magazine covers, why, why, why?” “This is Sarah Palin, not Barack Obama, why?” Despite the equitably challenged mainstream media’s shilling Barack Obama like snake-oil out the back of a mountebank’s wagon, and the very same media’s non-stop offensive on Sarah Palin,...

It didn’t take long for Jim DeMint’s outrage over highly unusual language protecting a care-rationing board to generate a response from Sarah Palin. This came just days after Politifact called her statement about “death panels” the “lie of the year,” but the attempt to rule any Congressional motion that changes the rulings of the Independent Medical Advisory Board out of order in perpetuity has highlighted once again this rationing board and its potential impact in a government-run system. And that, Palin writes at her Facebook page, was her point all along: No one is certain of what’s in the bill,...

Excepting her bang-up performance at the Gridiron Dinner this month, Sarah Palin has an infamously fraught relationship with the media. On the one hand, frenzied coverage of her memoir ginned up sales. On the other hand, non-stop scrutiny of her clothing choices allegedly ruined a family vacation. There are costs to being constantly in the spotlight. Now she's taken some measures to control the message. Three Alaska bloggers who crossed Palin while she was governor have found themselves banned from attending her book signings. Jesse Gryphen, Dennis Zaki, and Shannyn Moore--plus an unknown fourth--are blacklisted at Palin events. Gryphen tells...

With a h/t to Sissy Willis for one of these items. First, today via the AP. Can we significantly help solve our energy problems with natural gas? An unlikely source of energy has emerged to meet international demands that the United States do more to fight global warming: It's cleaner than coal, cheaper than oil and a 90-year supply is under our feet. It's natural gas, the same fossil fuel that was in such short supply a decade ago that it was deemed unreliable. It's now being uncovered at such a rapid pace that its price is near a seven-year...

Time magazine may think U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 2009’s “Person of the Year,” but Time is wrong: 2009 was dominated by Barack Obama, even though it wasn’t a great year for him. Obama’s human frailties surfaced. Words, not deeds, are his forte. Critics and fans tended to agree that, so far, his presidency is one of great intentions (if not great expectations). He’s good at saying what he’d like to do, but has difficulty doing (or being able to do) very much. Cheerleaders confuse rhetoric with results. Obama is the most accessible president in recent times. He’s...

Before reading this thread, try clicking this link or reading the excerpt below, from a post by FReeper littlejeremiah:HOW COLLECTIVISTS USE THE DIAMOND TACTIC TO SWAY PUBLIC MEETINGS AND HOW TO THWART THEM by G. Edward Griffin In the 1960s, I came across a small training manual distributed by the Communist Party that showed how a small group of people – as few as four – could dominate a much larger group and sway the outcome of any action taken by that group. It was called the Diamond Technique.The principle is based on the fact that people in groups tend...

Last weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making shady backroom deals to ram through the Democrat health care take-over. The Senate ended debate on this bill without even reading it. That and midnight weekend votes seem to be standard operating procedures in D.C. No one is certain of what’s in the bill, but Senator Jim DeMint spotted one shocking revelation regarding the section in the bill describing the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (now called the Independent Payment Advisory Board), which is a panel of bureaucrats charged with cutting health care costs...

PolitiFact, a misnomer if ever there was one, has named Sarah Palin's statement about health care rationing, which she termed a "death panel," the "lie of the year." Once again for the media and the Leftists, Governor Palin used the term "death panel" as a metaphor for health care rationing. The governor said: The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most...

Last weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making shady backroom deals to ram through the Democrat health care take-over. The Senate ended debate on this bill without even reading it. That and midnight weekend votes seem to be standard operating procedures in D.C. No one is certain of what’s in the bill, but Senator Jim DeMint spotted one shocking revelation regarding the section in the bill describing the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (now called the Independent Payment Advisory Board), which is a panel of bureaucrats charged with cutting health care costs...

Last weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making shady backroom deals to ram through the Democrat health care take-over. The Senate ended debate on this bill without even reading it. That and midnight weekend votes seem to be standard operating procedures in D.C. No one is certain of what’s in the bill, but Senator Jim DeMint spotted one shocking revelation regarding the section in the bill describing the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (now called the Independent Payment Advisory Board), which is a panel of bureaucrats charged with cutting health care costs...

WASILLA -- Sarah Palin got treated like a homecoming queen when she brought her national book tour to Wasilla today. About 1,000 people flocked to the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Palin's hometown to get the former governor and Republican vice presidential candidate's autograph on her best-selling memoir.

PolitiFact.com gave Sarah Palin their “Lie of the Year” award for warning on August 7 that the Democrat’s idea of “cost containment” implied rationing by “death panels.” The self-described fact-checking web site of the St. Petersburg Times claimed Palin was criticizing a provision in the House bill under which “Medicare would pay for doctors’ appointments for patients to discuss living wills, health care directives and other end-of-life issues.” The claim that Governor Palin confused one-on-one counseling between doctors and patients with any sort of “panel” was always ridiculous on its face. Indeed, that claim should itself have been a leading...

Senate Republicans have agreed to end their filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) health care reform bill a few hours early on Christmas Eve, a move that will allow the GOP to technically stick to its promise to force Dec. 24 vote on the measure while still making it possible for Senators to return home for the holiday.

The entertainment media’s treatment of Sarah Palin and her family has been abhorrent. Like their biased and unjust hard news media brethren, entertainment outlets have gone out of their way to tarnish Palin’s image. While tabloids, semi-legitimate entertainment programs and celebrities issue incessant praise for President Obama and his leftist policies, Palin is showered with insults and inappropriate slurs. And let’s not forget the ongoing insensitive questioning about the birth of her special needs son, Trig. Since the end of the 2008 campaign, some of the most glaring examples of the entertainment media’s obsession with anti-Palin coverage have centered on...

Pelosi takes on Palin over 'death panel' claim By Michael O'Brien - 12/22/09 01:18 PM ET House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) called out former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) for having made the "lie of the year" for claiming the healthcare bill would set up "death panels." Pelosi's office circulated a special edition of its "mythbuster" email to reporters on Tuesday touting PolitiFact's determination that Palin's claim about death panels was their "lie of the year." Palin had claimed that seniors and the disabled would "have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based...

Rep. Parker Griffith (D-AL R-AL) might be facing some opposition on right after his party switch, but he is being welcomed to the GOP by one top name: Sarah Palin. Palin posted this on her Twitter account: "Congratulations Alabama!And all Americans concerned about Capitol Hill's current agenda;Rep Parker Griffith just did the right thing.Welcome" Other big right-wing names, such as the Club For Growth and Erick Erickson, are already laying the groundwork for a primary challenge against Griffith by what they would think of as a truly loyal conservative. But so far at least, Palin is greeting the new GOP...

Dingy Harry Reid slipped in a provision into the health care legislation prohibiting future Congresses from changing any regulations imposed on Americans by the Independent Medical Advisory Boards, which are commonly called the Death Panels. It is section 3403 from pages 1,000 to 1,0007 of the Reid substitute. There is established an independent board to be known as the ‘Independent Medicare Advisory Board: PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this section to, in accordance with the following provisions of this section, reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending. by requiring the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare...

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) pointed out some rather astounding language in the Senate healthcare bill during floor remarks Monday night. First, he noted that there are a number of changes to Senate rules in the bill -- and it's supposed to take a 2/3 vote to change the rules. And then he pointed out that the Reid bill declares on page 1020 that the Independent Medicare Advisory Board cannot be repealed by future Congresses...

My fellow Americans you all are overlooking the obvious or refuse to accept the premise that we are not dealing with Americans. I read that it is unconstitutional; it flies in the face of the rule of law; a legal body cannot bind its equal. I agree whole heartily with all of these arguments, but again I repeat, you are denying the obvious. Until you accept the obvious, who we are really dealing with and after accepting that realization you’ll understand what needs to be done next and it has nothing to do with waiting for elections next November. These...

New Poll from MSM.... Bush bashed, Obama praised, while Palin ranks higher than Gore or Biden...our Veep actually ties with "None".

Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) has thumbed through Harry Reid's manager's amendment and discovered some "particularly troubling" rule-change provisions, especially with regards to the proposed Independent Medicare Advisory Board, which he finds could be unrepealable: