Free Republic

“What a day it was. It may take days or years to really absorb the significance of what happened to America today....When he [Barack Obama] finally emerged, he seemed, even in this throng, so solitary, somber, perhaps already feeling the weight of the world, even before he was transformed into the leader of the free world....The mass flickering of cell phone cameras on the mall seemed like stars shining back at him.” — NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on the January 20 Nightly News. After Eight Years of Bush, Finally Some Smart People in Charge “Brains are in the ascendancy now, absolutely....

US inaugurations: History in quotes Inaugurations give presidents a chance to address the nation, the world and history. Here are some highlights from past inaugural speeches. George Washington Thomas Jefferson James Madison Andrew Jackson Abraham Lincoln Theodore Roosevelt Woodrow Wilson Franklin Roosevelt John F Kennedy Ronald Reagan George Washington: The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. The first US president also announced in the 1789 speech that he would accept...

Somehow we’ve managed to stumble through this most unforgettable of years. Here, in no particular order, are quotations I found interesting. Actor/singer Richard Harris showed up this year in the Harry Potter movie. Some may not recall Mr. Harris’ singing career, but he did in fact rack up a huge hit in 1968 with "MacArthur Park." This was a genuine accomplishment because there were at least two strikes against it from the start. The first was the song’s lyrics made no sense – "MacArthur Park is melting in the dark, All the sweet, green icing flowing down. Someone left the ...

Founders Quote Daily "There exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained." --George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on...

"Free people will set the course of history." George W. Bush "Never, never, never give up." Winston Churchill "Whatever you are, be a good one." Abraham Lincoln "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." Frederick Douglass "Fear is the passion of slaves." Patrick Henry "Liberty is the right and hope of all humanity." George W. Bush "Character, not circumstances, makes the man." Booker T. Washington "If you are going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill "Freedom is the last, best hope of earth." Abraham Lincoln "Hope is no basis for a defense policy." Margaret Thatcher "If you want to lift...

George Washington – The Preservation of the Nation as a Whole Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers,...

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation... Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. -- Federalist Papers, #46 at 243-244. Congress shall never disarm any citizen unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion. Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant. Whenever there is an interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done and not less readily by a...

40) "Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security." -- Obama foreign policy adviser Richard Danzig 39) "I have to tell you, you know, it's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg." -- "Journalist" Chris Matthews 38) "Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks." -- Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings on Sarah Palin 37) "That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair...

By Burt Prelutsky Today, while making my way through a supermarket parking lot, I nearly got clipped when I didn’t hear a car backing out from its space. I assume it was one of those silent hybrids. Once I got done thanking God for providing me with my cat-like reflexes, it occurred to me to wonder why every vehicle doesn’t come equipped with those back-up beepers one finds on trucks. That, in turn, reminded me that a friend recently informed me that she and her husband had just purchased a hybrid and that it ran as silent as a...

Looks like ABC News is starting out 2009 with a partisan bang. On its main page, ABC News is hosting a slide show featuring what it is calling the "All Time Dumb Quotes." Now, these are not all strictly political dumb quotes, to be sure. They also have the empty headed Christina Aguilera, that sharp as a tack Jessica Simpson and other denizens of the Hollywood Mensa club among the 16 featured quotes -- and some of them are doozies, too. But, there are six political quotes five by Republicans and one by Tina Fey making fun of a Republican...

The Top 10 quotes of 2008, as compiled by the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations: 1. "I can see Russia from my house!" — Comedian Tina Fey, while impersonating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on the TV comedy show "Saturday Night Live," broadcast Sept. 13. 2. "All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years." — Palin, responding to a request by CBS anchor Katie Couric to name the newspapers or magazines she reads, broadcast Oct. 1.

The year 2008 was politically the most exciting and unusual in a generation. It hosted a long, divisive and drama-filled campaign season that featured the rapid rise and fall of Rudy Guiliani, Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee, the unlikely rise of John McCain and Barack Obama, and the eventual bitter defeat of Hillary Clinton. It brought us an unusually long and brutal primary with emotional charges of racism and sexism, the rise of the Superdelegate, and the explosion of Sarah Palin upon the national stage. All of this was followed by a rough and tumble presidential campaign whose outcome may...

Quote of the Year Co-anchor Chris Matthews: “I have to tell you, you know, it’s part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My — I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often. ”Co-anchor Keith Olbermann: “Steady.”

A report about why global warming due to carbon dioxide is flawed hypothesis based off of crappy math models. Some of these guys are from the UN's IPCC who left because they so strongly disagreed. Oh, also to give you an idea of how many scientists that is compared to those who think global warming is occurring thanks to carbon dioxide: "The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. " Here's the senate.gov link to where these quotes come from: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2158072e-802a-23ad-45f0-274616db87e6 Here...

At the end of 2006 we brought you the funniest political quotes of 2006. At the end of 2007 we brought you the funniest political quotes of 2007. Now that we’re nearing the end of 2008 it’s time for the top ten funniest political quotes of 2008. That’s the pattern and the premise. No further set-up required. Here’s The List for 2008, the top ten funniest political quotes of 2008.

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him. All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper. In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping...

Quote from Jesse Helms in 1987 to the President. "A careful examination of what is happening behind the scenes reveals that all of these interests are working in concert with the masters of the Kremlin in order to create what some refer to as a “New World Order.” Private organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the Trilateral Commission, the Dartmouth Conference, the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, the Atlantic Institute, and the Bilderberg Group serve to disseminate and to coordinate the plans for this so-called new world order in powerful business, financial,...

Aristotle: “… it is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens: upon the same principle, if it is advantageous to place the supreme power in some particular persons, they should be appointed to be only guardians, and the servants of the laws, for the supreme power must be placed somewhere; CHAPTER XVI [1287a] We will next consider the absolute monarch that we have just mentioned, who does everything according to his own will: for a king governing under the direction of laws which he is obliged to follow does not of himself create any particular...

Media MIA On Emanuel's Crisis CommentBy Seton Motley November 21, 2008 - 08:33 ET Remember the years of media flak President George W. Bush received for his alleged use for political gain of first the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and then the related Afghanistan and Iraq Wars? Will the press be as vociferous now? Incoming Obama Administration Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, speaking on Wednesday on and to the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, stated outright his desire to make political hay with the ongoing travails of the U.S. and global economy: "You never want a serious crisis...

If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their Own hands; they may a point teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation...

Check out Google's new quotes feature, it puts quotes by each candidate side by side on each issue and you can hit a button to spin the quotes and see another quote on the same topic...

RED ALERT Tip: Two quotes from the Obama-Khalidi videotape  You know the videotape that shows Barack Obama toasting PLO terrorist Rashid Khalidi? The one that the Los Angeles Times refuses to release? "The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it," said the newspaper's editor, Russ Stanton... How frickin' stupid do they think we are? Someone gave the Times a videotape so it wouldn't be released? And they can't publish a transcript? I guess that's the kind of...

Obama’s thoughts on how racist the founders and our constitution is. Apparantely it, and America, are deeply flawed. I’m sure Obama wants to fix this through revolutionary, radical change!

The audio recording of Barack Obama espousing his socialist philosophy of “redistribution of wealth� is all over the Internet and Fox News today (although the other media outlets are ignoring it), but there’s another disturbing section on that tape that has so far escaped notice. The link to the audio is here: Chicago Public Radio - Audio Library: Odyssey.At about 15:30, Obama compares what was going on in the United States during the time of Brown vs. the Board of Education to ... Nazi Germany. Yes, really. Here’s the quote: “...just to take a, sort of a realist perspective...there’s a...

Obama Bombshell Audio Uncovered. He wants to Radically Reinterpret the Constitution to Redistribute Wealth!! In a 2001 Chicago Public Radio Interview Obama is discussing the best way to bring about a Redistribution of Wealth!!! This Video Exposes the radical underneath the rhetoric!!! A great video showing this redistribution of wealth started before 2001...as revealed in this radio interview at that time. It is scary how he calls it a tragedy that there was not redistribution of wealth done with the Civil Rights movement.

In a 2001 Chicago Public Radio Interview Obama is discussing the best way to bring about a Redistribution of Wealth. This Video Exposes the radical underneath the rhetoric!

The only poll that counts is the one where you close the curtains and pull the lever. Don't let the Obama Worshiping press run you off. That is their goal: Discourage you, depress you and keep you from voting for an American hero. Read these quotes, then go vote. If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. -Mark Twain Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.... But then I repeat myself. -Mark Twain I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself...

Quotes: Machiavelli – CONCERNING LIBERALITY AND MEANNESSNote the distinction between the terms; either you are liberal or you are mean. This is according to the view of the citizen; either you give to them, or you do not.Some politicians have gone to great lengths to portray the rich as another type of citizen, almost an enemy of the people. In doing so, they now have the masses believing that taking from the rich is a noble cause; especially if they are to receiveservices from this legal plunder. START EXCERPT COMMENCING then with the first of the above-named characteristics, I say...

Joe Biden's Twenty-five Greatest Verbal Hits 25 Joe Biden Quotes: What He said Then Only one way to go for Joe Biden...Twenty-five Joe Biden quotes to compare and contrast with what the Delaware senator told the nation last night in the vice-presidential debate. Check back often for updates. Did we miss any reader's favorite Joe Biden verbal moment? If we did, readers can leave their favorites in the comments at the end of this article. “John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the...

Frederic Bastiat Perverted Law Causes Conflict As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose — that it may violate property instead of protecting it — then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing. There will be fighting at the door of the Legislative Palace, and the struggle within will be no less furious. To know this, it is hardly necessary to examine what transpires in the French and English...

Google Labs launches an addictive little webapp called In Quotes, which searches and compares things politicians have said in the news by keyword.

My favorite movie lines quotes, quips, profound, truisms. I'll start with the dark and work toward the light. A FreeRanging thread, please add your inputs. Okay to link youtube and music links.

At the start, I invite you all to post your favorite Orwell quotes on this thread. Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather...

Your awesome Sarah Palin video of the day: Ron Paul's a "cool guy!" There are many reasons to like Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Here's another reason: Speaking with an MTV reporter about the Republican leadership hopefuls during the primaries, Palin said some really nice things about Ron Paul. Paul, the Congressman from Texas, had a large following in Alaska, placing third with 17 per cent of the vote there (ahead of John McCain, who received 16 per cent, but behind Mitt Romney with 44 per cent and Mike Hucakbee with 22 per cent). "He's cool!," she said, "He's...

note: after a bicycle crash my typing is at 5wpm. MANY thanks to yhaos for providing our quotes this week America seeks no empire built on blood and forces . . . she cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God. . . . . . Calvin Coolidge, inaugural address, March 4, 1925 It is probable that a press which maintains an intimate touch with the business currents of the nation is likely to be more reliable than it would be if it were a stranger to these influences. After all, the chief business of the American...

"The difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick." --Sarah Palin, RNC Speech In a speech full of memorable one-liners and highlights, we picked what we thought were the top 25 quotes from Sarah Palin's RNC speech in Minneapolis, MN. ALSO at DBKP: Video: Sarah Palin's Speech at Minneapolis, MN* A writer observed: "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty, sincerity, and dignity." I know just the kind of people that writer had in mind when he praised Harry Truman. I grew up with those people. They are the ones who do some of the...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God." In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."

Thatcher quotes: "If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing." "My job is to stop Britain going red." "Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State." "To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects." "My policies are based not on some...

POWER OF THIS COURT It may receive and promulgate accusations of all kinds against all persons and characters among the citizens of the state, and even against all inferior courts; and may judge, sentence, and condemn to infamy, not only private individuals but public bodies, etc., with our without inquiry or hearing, at the court's discretion.IN WHOSE FAVOR AND FOR WHOSE EMOLUMENT THIS COURT IS ESTABLISHED It is IN FAVOR of about 1 citizen if 500, who, by education or practice in scribbling, has acquired a tolerable style as to grammar and construction so as to bear printing, or who...

It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth - and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole...

Michelle Obama quotes lines some radicalFar Left book in her DNC Convention speech. What to make of Michelle Obama's use the terms, “The world as it is” and “The world as it should be?” From whence do they originate? Try Chapter 2 of Saul Alinsky’s book, Rules for Radicals. In last night's speech, Michelle Obama said something that peeked my curiousity. She said: "Barack stood up that day," talking about a visit to Chicago neighborhoods, "and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about “The world as it is” and “The world as it should be..."...

Michelle Obama quotes lines some radical Far Left book in her DNC Convention speech. What to make of Michelle Obama's use the terms, “The world as it is” and “The world as it should be?” From whence do they originate? Try Chapter 2 of Saul Alinsky’s book, Rules for Radicals. In last night's speech, Michelle Obama said something that peeked my curiousity. She said: "Barack stood up that day," talking about a visit to Chicago neighborhoods, "and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about “The world as it is” and “The world as it should...

But this year we saw an eloquent, sincere woman speaking of her dreams and aspirations. She gave a speech that sounded real with anecdotes that seemed genuine. Michelle Obama last night became a political plus, not a problem.

What they're saying at the protest/march by 18 Million Voices, which advocates for women's rights and is celebrating Hillary Clinton's achievements. Toni Alves, PUMA (Party Unity My A__) member, San Francisco "I’m marching because of the treatment Hillary received during the primaries. She was treated so unfairly by the media and the DNC,and no one stood up to say anything about it until after they’d asked her to leave. And that was ridiculous. The media totally geared and led this campaign. "Obama wasn’t elected, he was selected. If you look at all the caucus fraud, you’ll see his delegate lead...

structure (not words) changed for clear reading) “No American natural history was more influential during the 18th century than Thomas Jefferson's (1743-1826) Notes on the State of Virginia, though it is, as intended, far more than a simple natural history. At once a description of the land and people of the state and a theoretical discourse on historical, natural, and political systems, the Notes represents Jefferson's conflicted views on the present and future of the new American nation, an integral mix of hope and anxiety. “Jefferson's Notes began inauspiciously during the late autumn, 1780, when François de Barbé Marbois, the...

This gave me occasion to observe, that when Men are employ'd they are best contented. For on the Days they work'd they were good-natur'd and chearful; and with the consciousness of having done a good Days work they spent the Evenings jollily; but on the idle Days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their Pork, the Bread, and in continual ill-humour. Benjamin Franklin (Autobiography, 1771) "I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." Thomas Jefferson "To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying...

Indeed it will, unless you believe the power of The One is such that he can lay low even the mightiest of nations. Then again, “fine� is a subjective term. If, as Condi surely does, you think the west’s six-year tap dance over Iran’s nuclear program is a “fine� way of addressing the problem, replete as it is with ineffectual UN sanctions and time aplenty for Tehran to work out the kinks on mastering enrichment, then yeah — by that standard, President O will be just fine. “I don’t need another job in government with anybody,” she said. “Look, I’m...

In an interview with Politico and Yahoo News released Thursday, Rice was asked if she would feel secure with a president Obama. "Oh, the United States will be fine," she responded. "I think that we are having an important debate about how we keep the country safe," she said, pointing to the Middle East and Iraq.

"Statesmen my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand....The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty." John Adams 1776 - letter to Zabdiel Adams "Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness." Samuel Adams 1778 - letter...