Free Republic

There has been much talk of the 8 year BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) from the left but I think it's time we admitted there are DS's on the right and we have to look no further than our own backyard here at FR to find the most glaring example, McCain Derangement Syndrome. McCain wasn't my preferred candidate. In fact, I'd have to go all the way back to Reagan to find my own preferred candidate victorious. But you never get everything you want in politics so many times you have to work with you got and make the best of...

This is a must see video. Colin Powell and Condi Rice were traded in the "racial draft" to Whites

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, spokesman of Neturei Karta International, issued the following statement on the eve of the arrival of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "It has been our honor and privilege to meet with President Ahmadinejad, as well as other Iranian leaders, several times in the past. In addition we have had the pleasure of visiting Iran on different occasions. At each encounter with the Iranian leadership, we have emphasized to them that, despite media hysteria and the statements of some misinformed Jews, we have found the Iranian people and their leaders to be friendly and respectful." "Likewise, although...

It occurs to this poster - for the election of 2008 each of the parties - has fallen under the control of the caricatures, each is accused of by the other: Democrats, really are becoming the far-left bug eyed Marxists, they're accused of being by Republicans. Republicans, really are beholden to a few big businesses, to which they pledge open borders and so-called "free trade".

The Bush administration forecasts a $410 billion federal budget deficit for this year, an indication that, as the US saving rate is approximately zero, the US is not only dependent on foreigners to finance its wars but also dependent on foreigners to finance part of the US government's domestic expenditures. Foreign borrowing is paying US government salaries--perhaps that of the president himself--or funding the expenditures of the various cabinet departments. Financially, the US is not an independent country. A troubled currency and financial system and large budget and trade deficits do not present an attractive face to creditors. Yet Washington...

For years, William Zammer Jr. has relied on 100 seasonal foreign employees to turn down beds, boil lobsters and serve cocktails at the restaurants, golf course and inn he owns on Cape Cod and in nearby Plymouth. This summer, however, the foreign workers will not be returning, and Mr. Zammer, like other seasonal employers across the nation, is scrambling to find replacements. “It’s a major crisis,” he said. “We’re very short on work force. We’ll be looking at opening a little later, closing a little earlier, looking at how we do our menus.” Mr. Zammer is caught up in a...

The movement to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham with a fiercer opponent of illegal immigration gained strength on Monday when Columbia native Buddy Witherspoon brought his campaign for the Republican nomination to Hilton Head Island. Witherspoon is a dentist and three-time elector in the electoral college and a representative at the Republican National Committee since 1996. He espouses traditionally conservative positions against abortion, gay marriage, gun control and higher taxes. But the key issue of the campaign -- and one that has many in South Carolina looking for a replacement for Graham -- is immigration. Opponents accuse Graham and other senators...

Most at NYU say their vote has a price By: Lily Quateman - Washington Square News November 14, 2007 07:29 PM EST Two-thirds say they'll do it for a year's tuition. And for a few, even an iPod touch will do. That's what NYU students said they'd take in exchange for their right to vote in the next presidential election, a recent survey by an NYU journalism class found. Only 20 percent said they'd exchange their vote for an iPod touch. But 66 percent said they'd forfeit their vote for a free ride to NYU. And half said they'd give...

Mike Huckabee says he is the “conservative who is not mad at anybody,” but that doesn’t mean some people aren’t mad at him. As Huckabee has done better in the polls, criticism of him has increased. “The far left and the far right curse the ground on which I walk,” Huckabee told me Monday. “That is a great place to be. I am where far more of the country is.” Some fiscal conservatives are beginning to worry that Huckabee might actually do well in the caucuses and primaries — if not well enough to win the nomination, then well enough...

Charleston Daily Mail Secessionists from South and New England to meet The Associated Press Wednesday October 03, 2007 CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions -- New England and the South -- are sitting down to talk. Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully. That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence. "We believe that...

WASHINGTON -- With a nationwide farmworker shortage threatening to leave unharvested fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict how foreign laborers can legally be brought into the country. The effort, urgently underway at the departments of Homeland Security, State and Labor, is meant to rescue farm owners caught in a vise between a complex process to hire legal guest workers and stepped-up enforcement that has reduced the number of illegal planters, pickers and middle managers crossing the border. "It is important for the farm sector to have...

In a press release issued, former Governor Mike Huckabee took issue with the Tancredo campaign's characterization of him as a pro-amnesty politician. Unfortunately for the Governor, the facts support the label. Fact #1. As Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee denounced an immigration bill (Arkansas Senate Bill 206) that "would have required proof of citizenship to register to vote and would have required state agencies to report suspected cases of people living in the country illegally." (Doug Thompson, "Immigration Bill un-christian..governor says"Arkansas News Bureau 1/28/05) Fact #2. As Governor, Mike Huckabee offered a proposal to give state funded scholarships and state...

With only a small fraction of the border fence between the U.S. and Mexico complete, California congressman and Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter is warning President Bush the construction mandated by the Secure Fence Act is falling drastically behind schedule. "Unless construction is promptly accelerated," Hunter wrote in a letter to Bush, "deadlines for the completion of fencing will not be met." Hunter's letter was written Monday to be delivered to the White House during the Security and Prosperity Partnership third annual summit that concluded Tuesday in Montebello, Quebec. His criticism that the Bush administration is making no significant progress...

Being Mike Huckabee By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, August 19, 2007 Whose yardstick do you use to measure the impact of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s second-place showing in the Iowa Straw Poll? The Democrats’. “If he had money, he would be our worst nightmare,” says Democrat strategist John Lapp. Lapp, who helped bring down Republicans in 2006 as executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said “the real threat of Mike Huckabee is that he is a happy warrior, a down-home guy comfortable in his own skin. Right-wing conservatism with a smile.”

In a sign of serious Republican disarray, Sen. Mel Martinez, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, has just lambasted his party's two top presidential candidates over immigration positions which most Americans regard as reasonable. The junior senator from Florida is wrong on more than the substance. This is a case of Mr. Martinez putting his own personal views and his loyalty to President Bush above the serious responsibilities of his chairmanship... And he may have just undercut the man for whom Mr. Martinez's job requires a vigorous defense next year. The irony here is that Mr. Martinez did this...

ST. PETERSBURG - Sen. Mel Martinez, the head of the Republican National Committee, took a swipe Tuesday at the leading Republican presidential candidates for not offering solid solutions to America's immigration crisis. In his remarks, Martinez did not directly refer to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but he later suggested both candidates, who were critics of the controversial Senate immigration proposal, had mischaracterized the plan. He also urged audience members to pin down the Republican candidates on immigration when they come to St. Petersburg for the YouTube/CNN Republican presidential debate Nov. 28... Martinez's...

WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. (CNS) -- In late July, carloads of curious Catholics caravanned north from their church to a mosque in the next county. Three dozen Catholics who regularly attend Mass at the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement's Graymoor Spiritual Life Center in Garrison accepted a Muslim visitor's invitation to attend services at Masjid Al-Noor, his mosque in Wappingers Falls. Entering the two-story white frame building, the visitors placed their shoes alongside their host's on wire racks lining one wall of the foyer. The women, already modestly covered from chin to ankle, pulled on scarves to cover their hair. The...

Breda - The Dutch Roman Catholic bishop Tiny Muskens is urging the faithful of all religions to call God Allah in order to foster mutual understanding. The bishop of the city of Breda says God does not mind what he is called and points out that Allah is the Arabic word for God. The bishop, who is retiring in a few weeks, added he did not expect his ideas to find immediate acceptance. He expects it could take 100 or 200 years. Bishop Muskens has previously defied the Vatican by calling for the acceptance of married priests and the use...

...Day's story is a revealing way for McCain to open his book, for the success of the decision is far from obvious. In the very long run, it proved right—Day lived through the war, was an inspiring figure for McCain and others in captivity and ultimately came home to his family—but it was a very long run indeed. The lesson McCain takes from Day's experience is that you make the best call you can given the facts of the moment, and then you take your chances, come what may. Sometimes things work out sooner, sometimes later, sometimes never—and in the...

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday backed a scaled-down proposal that imposes strict rules to end illegal immigration but doesn't include a path to citizenship. The move away from a comprehensive measure is an about-face for the Arizona senator, who had been a leading GOP champion of a bill that included a guest worker program and would have legalized many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. It failed earlier this year. "We can still show the American people that we are serious about securing our nation's border," McCain said in a statement,...