Free Republic

With Afghanistan hearings Tuesday and the annual Pentagon budget bill due on the House floor this week, a familiar face may be missing. Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations defense panel, was hospitalized Sunday night because of abdominal pains. The 77-year old Pennsylvania Democrat had been feeling ill with what he thought last week was swine flu but the hospitalization appears related to his gall bladder. “He’s currently resting and doing well,” his office said.

Just hours after Tiger announced his indefinite break from golf, his biggest sponsor was already talking about his triumphant return. TMZ spoke with a rep for Nike, who told us, "Tiger has been part of Nike for more than a decade. He is the best golfer in the world and one of the greatest athletes of his era. We look forward to his return to golf. He and his family have Nike's full support."

Last year liberals stripped the Patriot Act of enforcement and surveillance of "Lone wolf" terrorists in the US. Schumer: "After 8 years, this has not been fixed". Of course, he was not challenged on this total lie.

STREAMING ON FOX: http://interactive.foxnews.com/livestream/live.html?chanId=5

Every day we hear more news about the sad state of the U.S. economy. I know things are really bad, having read about the millions of people looking for work and personally knowing some who have been laid off over the past year. Last week I learned just how terrible it truly is in human terms, though, when Ted Turner revealed he is down to his last billion, or two, dropping to number 196 on the most recent Forbes 400 list. There are thousands of stories across the country about Americans suffering the effects of layoffs, extended unemployment, and foreclosure....

Some say U.S. senator should focus on emphasizing his conservative record. BY BEN SZOBODY The shouts of "traitor" that rained on Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham last week at a local town hall meeting revealed rifts among conservatives that some analysts say might signal trouble for center-right politicians such as Graham. Political experts say a burgeoning group of right-wing activists long seen as the fringe of the party is growing in influence, fueled by economic fears and populist ire over unchecked Washington spending and magnified by the power of the Internet. Whether they represent a vocal minority or the seeds...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Levi Johnston is going for the ultimate exposure — his bare body. Posing nude for Playgirl is next for the 19-year-old father of Sarah Palin's grandchild. Johnston's attorney, Rex Butler, said Wednesday that a formal agreement has not been reached with the online magazine but adds it's a "foregone conclusion" it will happen.

Statement from Assemblyman Mike Duvall regarding his resignation from office today: September 9, 2009 "I am deeply saddened that my inappropriate comments have become a major distraction for my colleagues in the Assembly, who are working hard on the very serious problems facing our state. I have come to the conclusion that it would not be fair to my family, my constituents or to my friends on both sides of the aisle to remain in office. Therefore, I have decided to resign my office, effective immediately, so that the Assembly can get back to work."

It appears the reason high level Obama appointee Van Jones has such a deep seated hatred for America has been found: He was a nerd who was bullied in school and was "always picked last" in team sports.In an undated interview published at Collage Foundation, Jones spoke of his growing up as a nerd and how he scammed a graduate degree from Yale:When you were younger, what were you interested in? I was mainly interested in journalism and poetry and writing. I read a lot of comic books, James Bonda lot of good guy vs. bad guy type of stuff....

Death, Republican Style It's the GOP that's out to get Granny.

Senator Ted Kennedy has died.

Michael Vic has been signed by the Philadelphia Eagles.

BY CHRIS CASTEEL Published: July 29, 2009 WASHINGTON — The Oklahoma congressional delegation wants U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to explain why the Justice Department got involved in a debate by the Oklahoma Legislature this year over making English the state’s official language. Oklahoma's congressional delegation wants Holder to explain why the Justice Department got involved in a debate by the Oklahoma Legislature this year over making English the state’s official language. The delegation sent a letter to Holder on Tuesday questioning why his Civil Rights division sent a letter to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson in the midst of...

Former President Bill Clinton visited Central Intelligence Agency headquarters today to express his gratitude to employees and thank them for their role in protecting the United States against foreign threats. "I think it's critical to meeting the challenges that we face today and the ones we're likely to face tomorrow. I guess that's the most important thing I can say—that I am grateful to all of you for your service here," Mr. Clinton said. Mr. Clinton was also briefed on counterterrorism and regional hotspots by senior analysts at CIA headquarters. He said staffers are "trying to stop the big bad...

When Sen. Lindsey Graham announced his support for Sonia Sotomayor this week, right-wing radio talk show host Mark Levin said it was a sign that Graham is “unreliable ... as a thinker and a leader.” Wendy Long, counsel for the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network, called it proof that Graham “still lacks courage, statesmanship and an understanding of the Constitution and rule of law.” “May his antics get the attention they richly deserve.” The response from Graham: Enjoy life in the minority. In an interview with POLITICO Thursday, the South Carolina Republican defended his decision to back Sotomayor by laying out...

Watchdog group says $1.2M home to lure celebrities may get Feed The Children in tax trouble BY NOLAN CLAY Published: July 19>, 2009 © Copyright 2009 The Oklahoman A charity known for its heart-wrenching appeals for funds to feed starving children spent $1.2 million in donations on a house a few miles from Hollywood, an investigation by The Oklahoman found. Feed The Children, an Oklahoma City-based Christian relief organization, bought the new four-bedroom house in Burbank, Calif., in May 2007, records show. The daughter of the charity’s president then moved in, records show. The daughter, Larri Sue Jones, 43, told...

Feds subpoena Rep. Visclosky's offices By Roxana Tiron Posted: 05/29/09 12:41 PM [ET] Federal law enforcement officials have subpoenaed the congressional and campaign offices of Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) to get information about a former defense lobby firm raided by the FBI, according to Visclosky. Certain Visclosky employees have also been sent grand jury subpoenas requesting documents related to the PMA Group, a lobby shop with strong ties to the Indiana lawmaker. Visclosky’s former chief of staff, Rich Kaelin, was a high-profile lobbyist at the firm that closed its doors at the end of March. “Federal law enforcement officials have...

Donald Sterling looks good. The 76-year-old billionaire owner of the Clippers always looks good, an occasional tousle of salt-and-cinnamon hair dangling over his expressive, perpetually tanned face. Sweeping into the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles the night of May 14 wearing a black suit and white tie, he directs photo ops before commenting to his companions about a Mag reporter: "Do you know why they're here? They want to know why the NAACP would give an award to someone with my track record!" For more than two years, Sterling has been staring down federal civil rights charges related...

Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the year for more than 100 kindergarteners from Stafford County, Va. They got up early and took a chartered bus to the White House for a school field trip. But when they arrived, all the 5-year-olds got was a lesson in disappointment. The buses from Conway Elementary arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue a little later than planned, and they were locked out. "We were going to the White House, but we couldn’t get in so I felt sad," 5-year-old Cameron Stine said. Parents say they were just 10 minutes late for their...

In an amazing act of unconscionable hubris, in the midst of an economic crisis, President George W. Bush has decided to appear on the Tonight Show. That's right, the Tonight Show. Does he think he's Justin Timberlake? This is a callous waste of resources during a tough economic time. Millions of dollars will need to be spent to transport motorcades across the country, and establish security and accommodations for his entourage in this self indulgent display. Furthermore, our emperor has decided to declare himself tout in chief by blessing his unworthy subjects to his March Madness picks. As if we...

As he empathized with recession-weary Americans, President Obama arranged in the days just before he took office to secure a $500,000 advance for a children's book project, a disclosure report shows. The terms of the book deal were disclosed in a Senate financial disclosure report filed Tuesday.

In his first weeks in office, President Barack Obama shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations, realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies and extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D’Ivoire. Despite the intense scrutiny a president gets just after the inauguration, Obama managed to take all these actions with nary a mention from the White House press corps. The moves escaped notice because they were never announced by the White House Press Office and were never placed on the White House web site. They came to light only...

Despite a lack of attention from both major presidential candidates in last fall’s election, Ann Arbor won't go completely unnoticed by controversial political figures this school year. University alum and 1960s anti-war activist Bill Ayers will be addressing the Ann Arbor community tonight at 7 p.m. at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library.

Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., says he'd be willing to house prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in his congressional district if President Obama makes good on a plan to close the U.S. prison there. As one of his first acts in office, the president circulated a draft Wednesday that would shut down Guantanamo Bay within a year. Murtha only has a minimum security prison in his district. But he says he'd have no reservations about holding detainees there in a maximum security prison. "Sure, I'd take 'em," said Murtha, an outspoken critic of the Iraq war. "They're no more dangerous in my...

CARACAS: President Hugo Chávez, buffeted by falling oil prices that threaten to damage his efforts to establish a Socialist-inspired state, is quietly courting Western oil companies once again.

Life for the First Children By Derrick Z. Jackson Globe Columnist / December 26, 2008 With some minor irony, the longer version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" talks about Santa bringing "curly-head dolls that toddle and coo." So far, these girls, who are about to give curly hair an unprecedented place in American history, have done nothing but warm American hearts. Much has already been made of the potential of Barack and Michelle Obama being the ultimate Huxtable family of the old "The Bill Cosby Show." The incoming First Couple says they expect the First Children to do...

It's one of those things that sneaks up on you in politics, a sense of things happening not quite as you expected. It started in April when our Times colleague Louise Roug called with a quote from Sen. Hillary Clinton.

An important lesson on guilt by association from a man who surely never would have objected if John McCain had once worked with, say, an unrepentant abortion clinic bomber. I can’t decide which part is my favorite: Is it Kayo comparing The One’s knowing, voluntarily association with a terrorist to Palin being saddled months ago with an in-law who was busted just this week? Or is it him using Palin’s own supposed lack of empathy to declare open season on this story, replete with nasty drug jokes from an actual comedian about what Bristol Palin’s baby should be named? It...

In a surprise move, the state attorney general has asked the California Supreme Court to invalidate the gay marriage ban passed by voters last month.

SAN FRANCISCO -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown has changed his position with respect to the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8. Brown filed a brief Friday saying the measure, which amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman, is itself unconstitutional because it deprives gay couples of a fundamental right.

Kerry To Stop Serving as Small Biz Committee Chair By Doug Caverly Gulps greet replacement Landrieu The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship is undergoing a change in leadership. Say goodbye to John Kerry, who was the chairman, and hello to Mary Landrieu, who's next in line. Kerry will now be the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so don't worry about him. Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, may instead give small business owners cause to be concerned for themselves. Robb Mandelbaum notes, "Kerry brought a profile to the committee that Landrieu will find difficult to match. According...

Video at link. As a student here in Chicago, I’ve been waiting since the first day I learned about Blagojevich for this scum to get his day…

Al Franken’s (D) campaign may ask the Democratic-led Senate to intervene on his behalf to allow some disqualified absentee ballots to be counted in his quest to unseat Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). Franken attorney Marc Elias made the case to reporters Monday that as many as 1,000 absentee ballots were improperly disqualified and that the Senate or the courts may need to step in to resolve the issue. “No recount can be considered accurate or complete until all the ballots cast by lawful voters are counted,” Elias said of the recount that became necessary when only about 200 votes separated...

President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials... Article is at the source because of copy rights It's under national news.

Matthews: My Job Is To Make Obama Presidency a Success "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work."

Six days after sitting silently at Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney's side as he acknowledged causing ''pain'' in their marriage, Terry Mahoney filed for divorce Monday. She filed a petition in Palm Beach County Court seeking the dissolution of their 23-year marriage, possession of their Palm Beach Gardens home and ''a full accounting of all funds spent or dissipated by the husband within the last two years'' -- the period since Mahoney was elected to Congress on a ''faith, family and personal responsibility'' platform in the aftermath of the Mark Foley sex scandal. Neither Mahoney nor his wife could be...

As if the topic of Amendment Two, a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, was not emotional enough, now the husband of Terri Schiavo has weighed in.Michael Schiavo, in an email to opponents of the amendment, said, ""The same people who thought they knew what was best for my wife Terri, are once again trying to tell others how to live ...As a former Republican, I think if the people behind Amendment 2 really cared about respecting a legal marriage between husband and wife, they would have respected mine." His video on the matter can be seen at...

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Rep. John Murtha said Wednesday his home base of western Pennsylvania is racist and that could reduce Barack Obama's victory margin in the state by 4 percentage points. The 17-term Democratic congressman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a story posted Wednesday on its Web site: "There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area." Murtha said it has taken time for many Pennsylvania voters to come around to embracing a black presidential candidate, but that Obama should still win the state, though not in a runaway.

...Rep. John Murtha, who represents the 12th District, and 5th District Rep. John Peterson voted in support of the [bailout] plan. Congressman Bill Shuster, of the 9th District, voted against it. In a written statement, Shuster said his "primary responsibility has always been to protect the interests of the people who entrust me to represent them in Congress..." Murtha did not immediately issue a statement and said he would not do so until "we figure out what's going on right now."

Barack Obama played the "me too" game during the Friday debates on September 26 after Senator John McCain mentioned that he was wearing a bracelet with the name of Cpl. Matthew Stanley, a resident of New Hampshire and a soldier that lost his life in Iraq in 2006. Obama said that he too had a bracelet. After fumbling and straining to remember the name, he revealed that his had the name of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek of Merrill, Wisconsin. Shockingly, however, Madison resident Brian Jopek, the father of Ryan Jopek, the young soldier who tragically lost his life to a...

Barney Frank: Sarah Palin’s family life is fair game Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - Updated 5m ago WASHINGTON - Rep. Barney Frank is among the first Democrats to publicly say Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s family background, including the pregnancy of her unwed teenage daughter, should be fair game for campaign discussion. Republicans have stressed Palin’s conservative family values in announcing her selection as John McCain’s running mate. Frank says the disclosure about her daughter undercuts conservative claims that liberalism harms family life. Frank said Palin’s family is "in great turmoil." Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has said he considers family...

Bill Maher calls Sarah Palin a stewardess and says her youngest child looks like John Edwards.

MIDI - JOHNNY ANGEL

Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina said Friday that he had an affair in 2006 with a woman who was not his wife. But he denied that he was the father of her baby, who was born in February, about a month after Mr. Edwards dropped out of the race for president. Mr. Edwards, who no longer holds public office, said in a deeply personal statement that he had lied in previously denying the affair and that he was “ashamed” of his conduct. He said that “over the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was...

Accusing U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler of being more of a Maryland resident than a Floridian, the six-term Democrat's challengers in the Nov. 4 general election say he can't sufficiently grasp area residents' concerns about home ownership costs because he isn't paying local property taxes or rents. The criticism follows news reports that Wexler is the only member of Congress from Florida who doesn't own a home in the district, and therefore pays no Florida property taxes. "When he says he feels for you and understands your pain of high property taxes, well, he may feel for you but he doesn't...

I’ve never seen a better demonstration of the mainstream media’s collusion with terrorists and murderers than this post at the blog of McClatchy Newspapers Jerusalem bureau chief Dion Nissenbaum: Kickin’ it with Samir Kuntar. What the hell is wrong with these people? From the Dion Nissenbaum's blog: "Samir Kuntar is sitting under a photo of himself standing next to Hassan Nasrallah and telling friends that he almost didn’t come home. As Israel was getting ready to free Kuntar last Wednesday, the Lebanese militant told guards that he didn’t want to walk to freedom in a prison uniform. When the Israeli...

Federal officials aren’t supposed to cause bank runs. In fact, much of the New Deal bank regulatory apparatus was set up for the purpose of eliminating such panics. When FDR was hit with a massive set of bank runs shortly after taking office, he gave an address in order to calm terrified depositors, assuring them that the banks would reopen shortly, and that everything would be fine. But Chuck Schumer is no FDR. He doesn’t stop bank runs; he starts them. Or, at least, has started one. The collapse of Indymac bank, the second largest bank failure in American history,...

“There seems to be an abiding anger in him,” one of his senior aides told Todd Purdum. Good lord, does there ever. Not to begrudge the man a little righteous outrage at being the target of a hit piece, but the detail here about him refusing to let go of Mayhill Fowler’s hand is the creepy final act to a campaign performance that passed “bizarre” a long time ago. He’s like Orson Welles here tearing apart the bedroom at the end of Citizen Kane in frustration that no one’s left to admire his greatness. Which isn’t to suggest that what...

(CNN) -- Hillary Clinton's campaign has apologized for "inappropriate" language used by her husband in response to what it called an "outrageously unfair" article about the former president. Bill and Hillary Clinton campaign in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Monday. The article, by Vanity Fair magazine's national editor Todd Purdum, suggested that Bill Clinton's personality had changed since his 2004 heart bypass surgery and said that there were reports of Clinton "seeing a lot of women on the road." Purdum quoted four anonymous former Clinton aides saying that another of his former assistants had conducted "what one of these aides...

Bill grilling McLellan tonite on his show, more parade from the traitor gallery.