Free Republic

Michael Moore Makes Friends in GOP-Leaning Town By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS September 30, 2009 TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- Seated on a platform in a blocked-off street, the founder of the Traverse City Film Festival grinned as Mayor Michael Estes hailed him for boosting the local economy and cultural scene --''with almost no government assistance!'' Who was that free-market champion? Michael Moore. Yes, THAT Michael Moore. The Oscar-winning firebrand whose ''Roger & Me'' attacked General Motors, whose ''Sicko'' extolled government-run health care. His latest film, ''Capitalism: A Love Story,'' which opens nationwide Friday, blames deregulation for the financial meltdown and...

CHICAGO -- Young Americans showed their collective power when they helped vote President Obama into office. Inspired by his message of "change," they knocked on doors, spread flyers, voted for him by a 2-1 margin, and partied like rock-the-vote stars when he won. Since the election, though, that fervor has died down _ noticeably. And while young people remain the president's most loyal supporters in opinion polls, a lot of people are wondering why that age group isn't doing more to build upon their newfound reputation as political influencers. "It's one thing to get excited about a presidential candidate. It's...

The Justice Department's ethics office had recommended pursuing alleged prisoner-abuse cases, which could expose CIA employees and contractors to prosecution for their treatment of terror suspects. DEVELOPING After months of consideration, Attorney General Eric Holder plans to appoint a special prosecutor to examine allegations that terror suspects were abused at the hands of their CIA interrogators. The decision, confirmed by FOX News, comes as the Department of Justice releases a 2004 report from the CIA's inspector general detailing allegations of harsh interrogation practices. Several details in the review had already been reported. FOX News confirmed over the weekend that the...

<p>Attorney Taitz filed a NOTICE OF MOTION AND MOTION to Expedite authentication, MOTION for Issuance of Letters Rogatory for authenticity of Kenyan birth certificate filed by Plaintiff Alan Keyes PhD.</p> <p>Barry's Kenyan B.C.??</p> <p>Possible Malware Warning! 2009-08-05 The Orly Taitz website is currently compromised. It contains a hidden iframe that links to a Chinese malware site (security-alerts.cn.) I strongly suggest that you disable all JavaScript before visiting. The exploit was NOT detected by Norton AntiVirus 2009 nor AVG (both with current definitions)! It's fresh, folks. Beware!</p>

There are now modified photos of the COLB that broke here yesterday. The changes are so slight, that no one is noticing them. The original one posted in breaking news: One of the modified ones: The changes are so subtle, you can barely tell which one you are looking at. This modified one is showing jokes like: The Font of the Certificate=Schmutz (A Schmutz is a chump, as in you are a chump) #5733=The number of the Certificate, is code for : "Problem with Windows REGISTRY", a sly reference to your claim that Obama does not appear on the Hawaii...

'Cash for Clunkers' Program Blasts Through Funds

This is a 100% TRUE story about a question I posed to Janice Okubo and the Director of Health for the State of Hawai’i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics... ..and this just happened YESTERDAY. Coincidence? That's why I call YESTERDAY: The Day I Asked a Question and Got The MOTHER of All Answers 1) An Original Birth Record is what most people have 2) An Amended Original Birth Record is the exact same thing except it’s issued to adoptees–their original is then sealed and only opened on court order. Legally, it’s treated and accepted as an EQUAL to...

This is in follow-up to my post on Tuesday: "The Day I asked a question and got the MOTHER of all answers" The implications of the following account is that the President's REAL NAME did not appear on any ballot, in any state. That's just one of MANY implications. Let me preface by saying an AMENDED birth record could indicate that the President was adopted by either Lolo Soetoro and/or His grandparents, the Dunhams. My story: I have serious reasons to believe that Janice Okubo and/or Director Fukino, Department of Health in Hawaii are under duress. Something is preventing Director...

Is China really a modern country? Can China be a modern country? Paul Midler’s book leaves you wondering. After studying Chinese at college, Midler lived and worked in mainland China through the 1990s before returning to the U.S.A. to take a business degree. In 2001 he went back to China, setting himself up as a consultant to American importers dealing with Chinese manufacturers. This has given him profound insights into the Chinese way of doing business. In Poorly Made in China he shares those insights. After reading his book, you will find yourself thinking carefully before putting Made in China...

Below is the theme song for the left in America: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qcHohp4 Which is embedded at the site where I post my blogs. I remember last year asking the lefties that would constantly want to bash Bush what the heck they were going to do after the 2008 election. All these guys wanted to do, day in and day out, was talk about WMD, how they felt Bush was a dictator and a liar and blah, blah, blah. My response was, "well, he's going to be gone soon. What then?" No reply, just more Bush bashing! I figured, and maybe even...

Why Obama Is Losing a Faith By Michael Gerson Wednesday, April 1, 2009; Page A21 A number of Catholic thinkers set out a "pro-life, pro-Obama" position -- disagreeing with Obama's pro-choice views but trusting in his moderate instincts and conciliatory temperament. So far, Obama has done little to justify this faith. His initial actions on life issues -- Obama's Catholic supporters would feel betrayed and discredited -- and rightly so. The Catholic hierarchy and Catholic health professionals would feel assaulted by the president -- and they would be correct. And President Obama would not need to worry about future invitations...

He garnered the majority of Catholic votes in the 2008 election, but a number of Catholic groups now say President Obama is showing a complete lack of regard for their beliefs. They count his decisions to lift restrictions on abortion and stem cell research among the most offensive. "As far as the Catholic church goes, there's no bigger priority for Catholics than human dignity and human life," said Cathy Ruse, senior fellow at the Family Research Council said. "And the Obama administration has just been an assault on those values again and again in just two months."

The U.S. Department of Health reports that the sucker birth rates have more than doubled. Phineus Tiberius Burnham, who heads up the department's birthrate analysis unit, said that the number of suckers born every minute is increasingly exponentially. "Latest reports indicate that there are now two or three suckers born every minute," said Burnham. "And it shows no signs of stopping." The northeast has seen a jump in the sucker birth rate. California's sucker birth rate stands dangerously close to overwhelming the entire population of newborns. "We may change our reports to follow only non-sucker births in California," said Burnham....

President Obama addressed the National Prayer Breakfast this morning and used the opportunity to discuss the launch of the White House office of faith-based and neighboring partnerships. Obama stressed the inclusion of secular groups into his faith-based office by giving examples of his own life story. Could this office be a conduit for further government funded community organizing? The transcript of video highlights is below. This is not only our call as people of faith but our duty as citizens of America and our duty as citizens of the world. And it will be the purpose of the White House...

Federal regulators have green-lighted the first trial of an embryonic stem-cell treatment in humans. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the go-ahead for Geron Corporation to start a phase I safety trial of its therapy GRNOPC1 for spinal cord injuries, the Menlo Park, Calif.–based company announced today. It first sought permission for the trial four years ago and spent much of the last year trying to satisfy the FDA’s concerns about it. "This marks the beginning of what is potentially a new chapter in medical therapeutics—one that reaches beyond pills to a new level of healing: the restoration...

If Europe wants to phone America on the Gaza crisis, who does it call? Not George Bush, who has two weeks left in the White House. And not Barack Obama, who has been mute on Israel’s military action, although the world looked to him immediately the conflict filled the screens. “Nobody at home in Washington”, ran one US headline on the turmoil. “President-elect Obama is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza, but there is one president at a time,” said Brooke Anderson, his chief national security spokeswoman. This is disingenuous. Even if silence is meant only as...

Pictures of the new currency that will supposedly replace the US dollar have appeared on the Russian Internet. The United States is reportedly working on the new currency, the amero, which will be common for the USA, Mexico and Canada. The unstable financial situation in the world, the collapsing oil prices and the growing foreign debt of the United States may eventually crush the US dollar as the world’s major currency. Needless to say that the US authorities reject the rumors and promise to keep the dollar afloat. Amero notes have no portraits of US presidents on them and resemble...

Blessed with a nest egg of nearly $1.5 million, a Woodland Hills parish donated almost all of it, leaving just $1,000 in its savings account. An Encino church offered a $100,000 interest-free loan. And a Boyle Heights parish decided it could spare $500 after ruling out the idea of raising money with tamale sales. With gifts large and small, parishes across the sprawling Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles are answering an appeal from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony to help the archdiocese dig out of the financial hole resulting from its multimillion-dollar legal settlements with victims of clergy sexual abuse...

Rush Limbaugh:Referred to as "The new face of Fascis" Denver-- Following Rush Limbaugh's broadcast calling for violent riots in Denver, city officials issue a warrant for his arrest. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper called Limbaugh a "dangerous domestic terrorist" that should be locked up. No stranger to controversy talk show host Rush Limbaugh made comments calling for riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention this summer. As part of his "Operation Chaos" Limbaugh is expecting Republican rioters to burn cars, burn houses and kill children. "Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats,"...

Taking the advice of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's top planning appointee, a Valley Village woman has sued the city over a new rule that allows developers to build taller, bulkier buildings if they include affordable units. Last month, city Planning Commission President Jane Ellison Usher sent an e-mail to community groups, criticizing the recently adopted density bonus ordinance and laying out a legal strategy to challenge it. On Thursday, homeowner Sandy Hubbard filed the first lawsuit using Usher's suggestions. A group of home and business owners is also considering a lawsuit. Usher and community groups have complained that the density bonus...

The New Hampshire Union-Leader has a new term for Granite State voters who gave Hillary Clinton her surprise victory over Barack Obama: suckers. In a scalding editorial, the state's most significant newspaper rips Hillary for breaking a pledge she signed in New Hampshire not to campaign in states that broke the scheduling rules or to seek to have their delegates seated. They bluntly call her a liar: COURTING VOTERS in Iowa and New Hampshire, last August Sen. Hillary Clinton signed a pledge not to "campaign or participate" in the Michigan or Florida Democratic primaries. She participated in both primaries and...

Fred Thompson quits presidential race Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson quit the Republican presidential race on Tuesday, after a string of poor finishes in early primary and caucus states. "Today, I have withdrawn my candidacy for president of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort," Thompson said in a statement. Thompson's fate was sealed last Saturday in the South Carolina primary, when he finished third in a state that he had said he needed to win. In the statement, Thompson did not say whether he would endorse any...

Feeling guilty about the amount of carbon dioxide your upcoming flight will pump into the atmosphere? Soon you might be able to fork over some extra cash at Denver International Airport to invest in projects intended to help negate your share of the environmental damage caused by air travel. DIA is looking to become one of the first airports in the nation to offer passengers the ability to buy carbon offsets in its concourses. The offsets would pay for renewable energy and power-saving projects that help cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. The airport is soliciting proposals from companies interested...

MAKKAH, 30 December 2006 — Consider it the “drive-thru window” of the Haj for Muslims on the go. According to various Haj tour operators, known as tawafa organizations, a new Haj Express service is increasingly popular for busy, blue-collar Muslims with limited vacation time to fulfill their duty to God. Haj Express offers five-day packages, which offers a quick in-and-out option for those that don’t have a couple of weeks to spare looking at historical sites and buying Islamic kitsch as gifts for friends back home. Yasin Mahmoud, an Egyptian Haj operator, said the new service has been popular with...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Jill Cody used to feel guilty whenever she drove her car or flew on an airplane. She worried about pumping heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. But the San Jose professor found a way to ease her conscience. She paid a San Francisco company called TerraPass to offset emissions from her car and air travel by investing in wind power and reducing farm pollution. "I'm part of the solution, not the problem," said Cody, who sports a TerraPass decal on the decade-old Lexus she drives about 6,000 miles a year. "Now...

Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin yesterday tried to rally support among black Democrats in Prince George's County, while Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele campaigned with county Democratic leaders who broke ranks this week to endorse him. Mr. Cardin appeared with Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson and about 30 other lawmakers in Hyattsville, aiming to keep a diminishing lead in the polls. In his first public show of support for Mr. Cardin, Mr. Johnson ... But the rally turned sour later. State Sen. Nathaniel Exum, Prince George's Democrat, berated Mr. Cardin for excluding him and other local delegates from speaking...

Suicide bombers follow Quran, concludes Pentagon briefing Tasked with pinpointing motivation, analysts find terrorists 'rational actors' following 'holy book' Posted: September 27, 2006 © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com With suicide bombings spreading from Iraq to Afghanistan, the Pentagon has tasked intelligence analysts to pinpoint what's driving Muslim after Muslim to do the unthinkable. Their preliminary finding is politically explosive: it's their "holy book" the Quran after all, according to intelligence briefings obtained by WND. In public, the U.S. government has made an effort to avoid linking the terrorist threat to Islam and the Quran while dismissing suicide terrorists as crazed heretics who...

CANTON, Ohio - A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as more than $14,000 for a now outdated phone. Ester Strogen, 82, of Canton, first leased two black rotary phones — the kind whose round dial is moved manually with your finger — in the 1960s. Back then, the technology was new and owning telephones was unaffordable for most people. Until two months ago, Strogen was still paying AT&T to use the phones — $29.10 a month. Strogen's granddaughters, Melissa Howell and Barb Gordon, ended the arrangement when they discovered the bills....

CHICAGO, Illinois -- Living in Boston these past two years I have had many opportunities to visit the Old Granary Burying Ground, where several Boston Massacre victims are enjoying their final rest alongside John Hancock, Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. During my sole semester in the Emerson College Master's program last fall, these little forays became a near daily ritual. At this point I have tagged along on more of the free tours of the graveyard than I can count. In all that time, however, I don't believe I ever heard as much talk of Samuel Adams as I did...

Another name for lollipop by Mychal Massie There's a stench in the air that's covering the countryside. It isn't from farmers spreading manure as fertilizer. It isn't from factories, exhaust emissions or municipal landfills. The stench is the flatulence being produced from the decadent character of those who will say anything and promise anything to get elected or re-elected to national office. It's election time, and the landscape is littered with those who think you are dumb enough to believe whatever they say are the problems, believe whatever they claim it takes to address said problems, and that they are...

op stars donated to Sen. Hillary Clinton By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer 32 minutes ago If Hollywood has a "DaVinci Code," Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has cracked it. Top stars such as Tom Hanks, Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson donated to the New York senator in recent months, generating the kind of cash usually associated with a major box office opening — or a potential presidential bid in 2008. Clinton, who doesn't face much of a challenge in her re-election, received $4,200 from "The DaVinci Code" star Hanks, the Academy Award-winning actor, and his wife, Rita Wilson. The...

A former Republican congressman narrowly beat his Democratic rival early Wednesday for the right to fill the House seat once held by imprisoned Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a race closely watched as a possible early barometer of next fall's vote. Republican Brian Bilbray emerged victorious after a costly and contentious race against Democrat Francine Busby, a local school board member who ran against Cunningham in 2004. With 90 percent of precincts reporting, Bilbray had 56,016 votes or 49.5 percent. Busby trailed with 51,202 votes or 45 percent. "I think that we're going back to Washington," Bilbray told a cheering crowd of...

WASHINGTON Bush III? Or has the dynasty run its course? Those are the questions some Republicans are asking themselves as political talk bubbles up yet again about President George W. Bush's brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, and his interest in the White House. The chief driver of the mini-buzz is the current occupant of the White House, who has said twice this month that his younger brother would make "a great president." No one is suggesting, the president included, that the younger Bush will run in 2008, and Governor Bush, whose second term is up at the end of...

Seventh day adherents might just ponder that they resolutely hold to the day which was a main mark of the Old Covenant, identifying God's Old Covenant people who placed their trust in the sufficiency of that particular covenant to save them. The Christian, on the other hand, prefers to be associated with the Day of the Lord which identifies them as followers of Jesus Christ whom they look to as Saviour, Lord and Master - and who is fully sufficient for salvation. Despite all of the above, if Christians prefer to assemble on the seventh day (Saturday) they do no...

Polls: Citizens losing sympathy for illegal immigrants By Laura Crimaldi Monday, May 1, 2006 New national polls show Americans are feeling less sympathy toward undocumented workers and have serious doubts the government can fix the country’s massive immigration problem. Recent Zogby International polls show the immigration protests in March left three in five adults feeling less compassionate toward undocumented workers. Even 46 percent of the Hispanic respondents said they are less likely to be sympathetic to the cause of immigrants as a result of the protests. The Zogby poll also shows 18 percent of respondents believe Congress and President Bush...

<p>Legal, good. Illegal, bad. That's the whole immigration mess summed up.</p> <p>I know I'm vastly over-simplifying things here, but I think it's time we see this issue for what it is: more heat than substance. The heat is that somehow a nation concerned with its borders has forgotten its past. It hasn't.</p>

OMAHA, Neb. -- A product claims it will give red-light cameras a run for your citation money, but does it work? Is it legal? Television station KETV tested Photoblocker, which Monte Bowman plans to start selling in Council Bluffs, Neb., on Tuesday. It's a product that's supposed to make a car's license plate invisible to red-light cameras. That city has seven cameras mounted at five intersections. If a car runs a red light, a flash goes off and the camera takes a picture of the license plate. Then, the vehicle's owner gets a $65 ticket in the mail, regardless of...

CURSES FOILED AGAIN FOR STERN By DON KAPLAN Howard Stern may be coming down with a Sirius case of the bleeps. High-level executives of the satellite broadcaster are developing an internal standards-and-practices document that will set boundaries for Stern and other shock jocks, The Post has learned. “It’s something that’s being taken very seriously," a Sirius source said. Stern's new show also is being broadcast on a time-delay, giving him the opportunity to censor the program which he already has done.

EVRY, France (AP) - Prostrating himself and touching his forehead to the ground, Mathieu Pawlak put his demons to rest. Once a practicing Catholic tormented by a spiritual void and the searching questions of youth, Pawlak embraced Islam and, he says, found peace. "I'm the same on the outside, but inside everything has changed," said the 25-year-old restaurant cook who converted 4 1/2 years ago. He took a Muslim name, Abderrahman, and last year married a Muslim woman who cloaks herself in a dark veil. "I found the way that Muslims pray to be truly profound. It links the body...

I've come to see the pork chop. "Here it is," says Kevin Goodman, 43, as he reaches amid the coffee-table clutter in his Boca Raton apartment, presenting me a plastic bag with a cooked pork chop in it. "Looks like a dog," I confirm. The item in question is officially called "Smiling Pork Chop Dog," and in the plethora of weird items for sale on eBay, the online auction site, it has managed to rise in the ranks of the bizarre. This is no easy feat, considering that the dog head of pork is competing against a shower drain hair...

BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese general said Beijing might respond with nuclear weapons if the United States attacked China in a conflict over Taiwan, news reports said Friday. While the general has no policy-making role in China, his comments could add to tensions with Washington at a time of U.S. worries about China's military buildup and the proposed takeover of the oil company Unocal Corp. by a Chinese state-run company. "If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition into the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," Maj.-Gen. Zhu Chenghu, a...

Nine percent of U.S. Internet users have lost money on e-mail scams, according to a survey of 791 users conducted by market research firm The Radicati Group. The study was conducted online in April and commissioned by Mirapoint, a vendor of e-mail appliances that block spam and viruses. "We didn't expect it to be nine percent, we expected it to be a lot lower than that," says Marcel Nienhuis, a senior analyst with Radicati. Nienhuis defines an e-mail scam as "any e-mail whose intent is to trick somebody out of money." The survey, however, left it up to respondents to...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's trade surplus for June swelled five-fold from a year earlier as exports grew much faster than imports, offering more ammunition for foreign critics who argue that Beijing should let the yuan rise in value. The June surplus grew to $9.68 billion, exceeding forecasts of $8.0 billion and towering above the $1.8 billion surplus recorded for June 2004.

IN 1913, THE ARRIVAL IN AMERICA of a simple idea drastically revolutionized the Art World. The occasion was the Armory Show in New York, the first exhibition of Modern Art in this country, and the simple idea was this: The proper role of the artist is to express himself. That was utterly new. It turned all the preceding centuries of Art History on their head. Fast-forward to the end of the same century: that same simple idea, that the proper role of the artist is to express himself or herself, was being taught as gospel in virtually every college...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I want to go back to this Hillary Clinton (news| website) and Newt Gingrich website) relationship here and give you three sound bites to put this in perspective. Newt has been making some appearances on the media to explain himself. Among other things he's saying is, "Hey, look. I mean if we can't put differences from ten years ago aside move forward jointly, there's not much hope for the country." I understand. Both Hillary and Newt want to be seen as unifiers because the country here is "a partisan cesspool." It's just constantly divided. It's getting worse...

With the help of a dime-size adhesive tag on a vehicle's windshield and cutting-edge technology that detractors equate with Big Brother, police soon could track Texas cars and trucks — if a legislator's bill makes it into law. Though the bill hasn't made it out of the Texas House of Representatives' Transportation Committee, it already has generated outrage among technophiles and privacy advocates who believe the technology, once introduced, will creep into other law enforcement areas. "Why don't they just tag us like cattle and be done with it?" said Scott Henson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Texas...

Former national security advisor Sandy Berger wasn't trying to conceal information when he stuffed five copies of a top secret terrorism report in his pants and socks during two trips to the National Archives in 2003 - before taking the documents home and cutting three of the copies "into small pieces." That was the claim yestderday of Noel Hillman, chief of the Justice Department's public integrity section, as he tried to explain to Washington, D.C. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson why Berger should be let off the hook with a minor fine and no jailtime. Story Continues Below Berger "did not...

You can find candles with just about every fragrance imaginable, from blueberry to ocean mist to hot apple pie. Now there's a candle that lets you experience the scent of Jesus, and they've been selling out by the case. "We see it as a ministry, " says Bob Tosterud, who together with his wife came up with the idea for the candle. Light up the candle called "His Essence" and its makers say you'll experience the fragrance of Christ. Bob Tosterud and wife Karen say the formula is all spelled out in Psalm 45. "It's a Messianic Psalm referring to...

A few years ago, a Houston, Texas, woman went with her mother to a Benny Hinn crusade. Her mother was suffering from lung cancer and hoped to be healed by Hinn – and she got her chance, even being allowed to go on stage in front of thousands and be healed. At least, that's what she thought. The mother gave hundreds of dollars to Benny Hinn's organization and quit taking her medication. Soon after the crusade, she was dead – another of "faith-healer" Benny Hinn's followers gone. Of course, the initial thought when someone sees the extravagant crusades of Hinn...