Free Republic

Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, was prepared to announce to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas. "We're there," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), as he headed into a special meeting to announce the deal. Democratic leaders spent days trying to hammer out a deal with Nelson, and worked late Friday night with Nelson on abortion coverage language that had proved the major stumbling block. But Nelson also secured other favors for his home state. Asked if he was prepared to...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- On a day when Democrats emerged triumphantly from a meeting with President Barack Obama appearing to have won the vote of Joe Lieberman for their pro-abortion health care bill, they may not be ready to celebrate yet. The Lieberman vote appeared to allow Democrats and Obama to secure 59 votes. The only holdout left appeared to be pro-life Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska who says he won't vote for the bill because it funds abortions. Political observers need to hang on to their hats because pro-abortion Sen. Rolland Burris of Illinois, ironically the lawmakers appointed to...

His voice mail in DC is FULL. But I got right through on his local line 1-860-549-8463Ask how he can vote to cut Medicare for seniors, VA benefits for Veterans and INCREASE fees for retired Military under Tri-Care for Life....pound on the three issues as effecting the ENTIRE country. Ask it of your OWN senators too.

(Reason #)8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)

US eases Taiwan’s fears over China TAIPEI, Nov 24 — The United States has moved quickly to reassure Taiwan, less than a week after President Barack Obama’s visit to China, by sending a senior diplomat to Taipei to allay fears that the island’s interests have been compromised.Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy here, flew into Taipei on Sunday, just five days after Obama met Chinese President Hu Jintao last Tuesday. “President Obama did not in any way change our long-standing position on Taiwan,” Burghardt told reporters after meeting Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng...

Mary Landrieu needs to be harassed for every day for the rest of her term about this. They ought to try to recall her if it's possible in Louisiana to do so. For the whole series of Zero-Themed artwork, go here: " Flickr Archive of Zero-Themed Artwork"

Clearly something must be up with AARP. Why else would the nation's largest lobbying organization, sworn to protect the interests of senior citizens, watch silently as Congress plans to cut Medicare spending by $400 billion to pay for its health reform legislation? Could it be that the interests of seniors and AARP are not exactly aligned? Let's follow the money..... Link to Full Article

The FCC voted unanimously yesterday to move forward with the debate in an effort to formalize net neutrality guidelines. Senator John McCain followed up by introducing a bill that would prohibit the FCC from governing communications.

On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change expert, gave a presentation at Bethel College in St. Paul, MN in which he issued a dire warning regarding the United Nations Climate Change Treaty which is scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. .. Video 4:11 min

Tenured Radical Goes Global Malcolm A. Kline, October 16, 2009 A professor whom Accuracy in Academia has covered extensively is getting ready to take his act on the road. “Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, produces a steady stream of writings that downplays the threat radical Islam poses to America and the West,” Jonathan Schanzer writes in The American Thinker. “His opinions are at odds with the beliefs of most Americans.” “Now, through a project designed to foster an understanding of America in the Arab world, he appears to be at...

The Second RINO senator supports Obamacare and comes out for it today. Code word phrase: "she's open to voting" for sweeping health care legislation this year. Not surprising, but she's got to go. Get the recall started or if she's up in 2010 make her fight really damn hard to keep that seat. And send her a few of these along the way with promises to back conservative GOP candidates, get the national RNC to drop support for her, she doesn't do us any good in the clutch when we truly need her, and fight her with financial support for...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) - Efforts by U.S. Senate Democrats to persuade Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to endorse their climate legislation may take a bit longer. Democrats have spent months reaching out to McCain through Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. The outreach appeared likely to step up after McCain's friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over the weekend became the first Republican this year to sign on to a bipartisan climate-change plan.

I hate to say “I told you so.” But, well, I told you so. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham has signed on to the Democrats’ massive green redistribution scheme masquerading as a planet-saving, national security-enhancing “energy independence” scheme. Can John McCain and the rest of the Climate Change Republicans be far behind? Now, the announcement of Graham’s alliance with Big Government Democrats. In the NYTimes, natch. Kerry and Graham go on to argue that we must buy into their plan because the EPA regulatory power grab will be worse. It’s greenmail: Sign on or else the out-of-control bureaucrats (and the unaccountable...

Barack Obama: Taleban can be involved in Afghanistan future Tim Reid in Washington President Obama is prepared to accept some Taleban involvement in Afghanistan’s political future and is unlikely to favour a large influx of new American troops being demanded by his ground commander, a senior official said last night. Mr Obama appears to have been swayed in recent days by arguments from some advisers, led by Vice-President Joe Biden, that the Taleban do not pose a direct threat to the US and that there should be greater focus on tackling al-Qaeda inside Pakistan. Mr Obama’s developing strategy on the...

This is NOT from the Onion or a Republican media creation. My question is: What in the name of God would convince Ralph Stanley to bastardize his own world-famous signature song like this and further perpetuate big media's image of Appalachian ignorance? Is he that desperate for money or has senility set-in and his fellow Democrats are simply taking advantage of his clouded judgment? I'm not only embarrassed for him but for the entire populace of the Appalachian Mountains as well. Please accept my apology.

The cavalry is here -- and they're in white coats and scrubs: More than a half a million doctors and millions of nurses are joining forces to help pass real health reform. Americans listen to their nurses and doctors when it comes to health reform -- and for good reason. If we can help them amplify their voices, it'll be a huge boost to our campaign for change. So we're working on a new television ad featuring their voices explaining why doctors and nurses so strongly support President Obama's plan -- and asking Congress to pass it. We'll run the...

Purported non Muslim Barack Hussein Obama made a presidential appointment of Muslim Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Arif Alikhan for a top job at the federal Department of Homeland Security. In his new job, Arif Alikhan will be Assistant Secretary for the Office of Policy Development at the Department of Homeland Security. Alikhan has been Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles--in charge of public safety for the city. Why Muslim Alikhan at the Department of Homeland Security you might ask? DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said Alikhan’s “broad and impressive array of experience in national security, emergency preparedness, and counterterrorism will make him...

"A government-supported artist is an incompetent whore!" -- Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land It's been more than 24 hours since BigGovernment went live with their report on how the Obama administration used the National Endowment for the Arts to push their agenda, specifically for health care. I don’t know about you, but this turns the hair on the back of my neck straight up. There is a certain creepiness behind this whole scenario. Take the opposite stand if you will for one moment. Imagine if President Bush, in the run up to the Iraq War, had asked...

Treason!   USA sold us to Russia.   ( http://www.efakt.pl/Zdrada-USA-sprzedaly-nas-Rosji,artykuly,52626,1.html ) (translation from Polish)[The end of anti-missile shield! Americans break promises. There will be neither a US base in Poland nor a radar in Czech Rep.What about our security now?! We've been left on the thin ice.] The strategic ally? The solid rock of our national security? The end of illusions. United States, which could always rely on us, turned its back to us. The President of USA just threw to the garbage bin  the project of building the Anti-Missile Shield in Poland and Czech Rep. The powerful military fascility could strengthen our...

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright spoke at a forum in Omsk, Siberia. Pravda reported that her speech "surprised the audience." No wonder. The Russians in attendance must have wondered how they managed to lose the cold war: Madeleine Albright said during the meeting that America no longer had the intention of being the first nation of the world. Ms. Albright started her speech in Russian. "Hello and thank you! It's a pleasure for me to be here," she said in Russian. Albright wrote in her autobiography that she was trying to learn some Russian during the 1960s. The former...

Arizona Sen. John McCain called Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy "the last lion of the Senate" Wednesday as he remembered the liberal Democrat who was on the opposite side from McCain on most issues. "He was a formidable opponent, valuable ally and a dear friend," McCain said of the Massachusetts Democrat who died Tuesday night of brain cancer at age 77.

This week we discovered that we have been deceived. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's principled rejection of US President Barack Obama's bigoted demand that Israel bar Jews from building new homes and expanding existing ones in Judea and Samaria does not reflect his actual policy. Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Attias let the cat out of the bag. Attias said that the government has been barring Jews from building in the areas since it took office four months ago in the hopes that by preemptively capitulating to US demands, the US will treat Israel better. And that's not all. Today Netanyahu...

The Obama administration is again pushing plans to move terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility into the United States, initially to Michigan or Kansas.  Despite near unanimous objections from every state and nearly every member of the House and Senate, the President appears to be adamant about keeping this one campaign promise that would endanger American lives despite his reckless disregard for all of his other campaign promises. The Michigan option would include a $100 million revamp of the Standish maximum security prison which is slated to close due to the state’s calamitous financial situation brought to you...

Via BNO News: Yonhap: Former U.S. President Clinton will visit North Korea on Tuesday to win the release of two detained American journalists. No link to story yet

MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) - The speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house said Saturday the United States could give up its plans to deploy a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

With unusual ubiquity for a losing presidential candidate, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain has been popping up all over the media these days. So it was probably inevitable that he'd get the same question asked of virtually every breathing Republican in these, the Grand Old Party's Days of Disarray: Will you be running for president in 2012? First of all, McCain's got to win Senate reelection next year. Second, the party's conservatives still don't like him, although as long as he lost in November, they've pretty much shut up about it for now. Arizona Republican Senator John McCain Third, he'd...

I was electrified by Jack Engelhard's Bathsheba Deadline, an original novel. Some novel! It is more a primer for survival as we near the second decade of The Century of Sellout and Terror. As of this writing, this article had over 230 hits on Gather: *********************** The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel Paraphrasing one of Western culture's more infamous 19th Century authors There is a Spirit abroad in the land...neither president nor prime minister...neither pope nor parliament can exorcise it... In its face, the great civilizations of the Western World cower, for they can prevail not against it... ...like the...

A conservative and controversial Evangelical Hispanic group today officially endorsed the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court -- an indication that many right-leaning Hispanics are breaking ranks with other mainstream Republicans on the issue. Called the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, the group is made up of 20,000 Evangelical Hispanic churches, and is best known for its controversial call for illegal immigrants to boycott the 2010 Census. On the group's blog, the leader of the group, Rev. Miguel Rivera, credited Sotomayor for being a " measured jurist with bedrock family values." "She is not...

<p>Congressman McCotter was interviewed this morning on FOX regarding the GM pre-programmed bankruptcy. I was interested that learn that GM car manufacturing will be moved to China, where impressive vehicles like Le Car! will be made and then shipped-back to the US for purchase by reluctant consumers. McCotter noted that not only is this bankruptcy a gift to the UAW, but also a victory for the EnviroNazis who will at last force Americans to buy the small, dangerous, lawnmowers-with-4- seats they have demanded for years.</p>

Yesterday I happened upon a post by a fellow FReeper. In retrospect, I am sorry for responding rudely to their post - and I hope they happen upon this apology. The post was presenting their heartfelt opinion that American industry and our system itself must be allowed to come apart so that something better can replace it. It was a Rand-ian position. The system is becoming oppressive, therefore we must weaken it.

Saying it is time for new leadership, Assemblyman Mike Villines announced his resignation Thursday as head of the house's GOP caucus, effective June 1. Villines' replacement, expected to be Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo Asked about Blakeslee, Villines called him "one of my best friends" and described him as "thoughtful, pragmatic but also very focused on conservative economic issues."

Efforts by Israel to emphasize threats posed by Iran over Palestinian land-for-peace negotiations won't be well received in Washington, diplomatic sources say....." Obama views the region as a whole, and trying to isolate each problem does not reflect reality," .... "It will be a lot easier to build a coalition to deal with Iran if the peace process is moving forward."

The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) praised the Obama Administration today in a press conference held immediately after the White House announced changes to existing Cuba regulations. During today’s press briefing, the White House announced a series of measures that included the lifting of all restrictions on travel and remittances by Cuban Americans to the island. In addition, it lifted restrictions placed on humanitarian gift parcels, going beyond reverting to 2004 regulations and allowing for any U.S. citizen to send humanitarian aid to individual Cubans. The Administration also announced its intent to process licensing requests from telecommunications service and equipment...

Europeans aren’t better than Americans—so I can’t figure out why our president is saying sorry to them instead of explaining what makes our country great. I guess I had it coming to me. I mean, I did insult Old Europe this week when I said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that President Obama’s suggestion that we should celebrate Europe’s union was “ridiculous.” I mocked the idea of celebrating Europe, saying, “What should we do, have a ‘celebrate Europe’ stamp?” What Obama describes as “American exceptionalism” sounds like a political-science professor’s definition of nationalism, not a belief in America’s unique accomplishments and...

CAVUTO: Let me ask you. This comes at a time when there are all sorts of rumors in Washington that you and the president, though you started hitting it off — he had this dinner for you, I think, the night before inauguration, and then he was talking about how crucial your support was on the troop drawdown in Iraq — and then it seemed like the wheels kind of came off the goodwill wagon. What has happened here? MCCAIN: Neil, I am the loyal opposition.I work with the president, as I did on the Iraq issue. I will work...

Can you spell sellout? Charles Johnson and his DailyKos Lite err...Little Green Footballs contributors are commenting on Ann Coulter's CPAC speech: read on.

Here is a what I expect we will see yet. O will sign "peace" deals with Iran and Palestinians as part of the open borders deal to let Hamas and other muslims flood into America. This is EXACTLY how the UK was and is being destroyed.

Democrats began to press Mr. Specter, saying he would get the $10 billion increase only if he promised to vote for the eventual bill. Mr. Specter pushed back, saying he was concerned about the size of the bill and its mix of tax credits and spending. “I really do not make deals,” he said. And while he had promised Mr. Durbin nothing, the Illinois senator had made him a promise. As Mr. Durbin recalled, at a Super Bowl party at the White House on Feb. 1, “I told him, ‘I’m keeping my word.’ ” More hard bargaining was ahead. Mr....

Link only, per FR copyright and excerpt guidelines

...on Wednesday, Senate GOP leader Dave Codgill gave the strongest public word yet that a budget deal has been struck "My deal, one more time, has always been that I would try my best to get it to a position where I felt it was as good as I could get and I was willing to release my members," Cogdill said ... "That's where I am. So I'm not guaranteeing any votes; it's up to them (his members) to make that decision." "But I've negotiated it to the point where I think it doesn't get any better," Cogdill said.

U.S. Senate Republicans are not planning to try and use procedural maneuvers to delay passage of a proposed $789 billion economic stimulus bill, the party's leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said on Wednesday. McConnell said there was a widespread feeling in the minority party that they "ought to vote and move on." He spoke after congressional negotiators said they had reached a deal on the massive package of spending and tax cuts to try and rescue the flailing economy.

BREAKING NEWS: Lawmakers have reached deal on stimulus plan, Sen. Reid announces.

I just got off the phone with my congresswoman - Mary Fallin's office. I asked how many bodies in the house to constitute a quorum for the stimulus vote. After 15 minutes on hold, they gave me the answer - 3/5 or 2/3 - not sure which. Either way, there are enough republicans to block a vote - by simply walking out and demanding a quorum call call on the way out the door. 173 Reublicans = 39.7% - add a couple of Blue dog dems to it.....and it works. Only flippin' chance we have. Shut the congress down. Burn...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Maine's Susan Collins says time is getting short as House and Senate negotiators reach for a final deal with the White House on economic stimulus legislation. Conferees from the two chambers today agreed to pare the measure to below $800 billion. The $838 billion Senate bill that cleared earlier this week had the backing of only three of 41 Republicans -- but that was enough to give it the 60 votes it needed. Collins and fellow Mainer Olympia Snowe were among those who broke ranks with most Republicans. Collins told reporters today that she hopes other GOP...

I went to visit Sen. Arlen Specter to save him from an embarrassing pro-stimulus vote that will damage America's economy and send the nation back to 1970s-style stagflation. Jim Robinson, founder of FreeRepublic.com, and I arrived at Sen. Specter's office with a group of folks who oppose the $1.5 trillion stimulus package, on this past Monday morning. We asked to see Sen. Specter. The office secretary didn't seem to be happy to see us. I could not blame her. We were there to embarrass her boss. Jim, wearing his Navy cap, asked about the senator's whereabouts, but the secretary wasn't...

******BREAKING NEWS*********CBS News has learned Iran's President Ahmadinejad has officially asked for a meeting with President Obama

Grouped By Vote Position YEAs ---61 Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Burris (D-IL) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Feinstein (D-CA) Gillibrand (D-NY) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kaufman (D-DE) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV)...

The Church of England announced Monday it had withdrawn its investments in a controversial company over the weekend following a threat by a group of vicars to publish a letter denouncing the Church's investment, but denied there were any political or ethical consideration in what it called an economically informed decision. The Church of England said Monday that it withdrew £2.2 million ($3.3 million) from Caterpillar Inc. in late December 2008 because of economic considerations. Israel used bulldozers bought from the U.S.-based manufacturer of construction and mining equipment to demolish Palestinian homes. " The Church of England withdrew shares it...

more as it becomes available...