Free Republic

Our research shows that the growth of self-identified conservatives began in the fall of 2008 with the Wall Street bailout, well before Mr. Obama embarked on his recovery and spending program. The public watched the elite and leaders of both parties rush to the rescue. The government saved irresponsible executives who bankrupted their own companies, hurt many people and threatened the welfare of the country. When Mr. Obama championed the bailout of the auto companies and allowed senior executives at bailed-out companies to take bonuses, voters concluded that he was part of the operating elite consensus. .... As people across...

Minutes after President Obama urged Americans this morning to tweet their support for a Democratic debt-ceiling bill, a New York Times reporter prompted the White House to organize the effort with a special Twitter hashtag. Hashtags use the “#” symbol to mark keywords or topics on Twitter. They often help drive messages by linking similar messages together in a common theme. At 10:55 a.m. the Times’s Jennifer Preston suggested that administration officials might create a hashtag, so tweeting Democrats could jointly target Republicans who are now trying to pass their own debt ceiling plan. Preston tweeted to a White House...

New York Times Co. swung to a second-quarter loss on a write-down tied to its news media group, along with the continuing decline of advertising revenue and higher promotion costs related to the launch of digital subscription packages. New York Times, which also owns the Boston Globe, has signaled that its cost-cutting efforts, which have allowed it to remain mostly profitable despite its top-line declines, may be winding down. Most publishers have seen slower advertising-revenue declines, but the newspaper industry continues to battle circulation losses as readers migrate to the Internet. ... Revenue dropped 2.2% to $576.7 million, reflecting a...

A social activist in Malaysia attempting to shine a spotlight on a magazine publisher that allegedly mistreated an employee has been reprimanded in a most unusual way. In punishment for Fahmi Fadzil's offenses, which include defaming Blu Inc. Media, a judge has sentenced him to apologize to the company 100 times on Twitter. The charge initially stemmed from a claim Fadzil made that a female friend of his was being mistreated by the employer, which he posted on Twitter a few days earlier. The tweets, which Fadzil has 3 days to complete, read as follows: "I've DEFAMED Blu Inc Media...

Imagine a Republican president, giving a speech on tough economic times in which he claimed that the plight of Americans who are hurting is what is on his mind every day as he walks to the Oval Office. Imagine that same Republican president, in that same speech, bragging that he has "a better plane" and "a bigger entourage" than when he was a candidate. Now imagine the howls from the MSM about such president's vainglory and insensitivity. President Obama gave just such a speech today.

Karl Vick’s anti-Israel partisanship continues unabated on the pages and website of Time Magazine. Vick, Time’s bureau chief in Jerusalem, self-assuredly insisted in a May 29 blog post that Israel continues to occupy the Gaza Strip: Cairo after all had control of the coastal enclave from 1948 to 1967, when Gaza was among the vast territory Israel conquered in the Six Day War. And though it remains technically under Israeli occupation, Israel Defense Forces pulled out in 2005... Israel, of course, fully withdrew its soldiers and civilians from the Gaza Strip in 2005, representing a self-evident end to the occupation....

Time magazine's Joe Klein this weekend claimed President Obama has a better relationship with the military than George W. Bush did when he was Commander-in-Chief. Such hypocritically was said on "The Chris Matthews Show" just moments before Klein noted that the military were "very much opposed" to attacking Libya (snip) JOE KLEIN, TIME MAGAZINE: The other thing is there’s still tension between [President Obama] and Petraeus about what exactly, how exactly to close out Afghanistan. I'd say the relationship is pretty good, very, better than it was with Bush

I know what you’re thinking. This is news? But this statistical study covers 50 years of the Times‘ history from 1946-1997. Here’s what author Riccardo Puglisi found: The main finding is that the Times displays a Democratic partisanship, with some anti-incumbent aspects. This is the case, because there are systematically more stories about civil rights, health care, labour and social welfare during the presidential campaign, but only so when the incumbent president is a Republican. The Democratic partisanship hypothesis is con rmed by the fact that (during presidential campaigns) there is no countervailing variation in the

NYT allows access through message board links.

Seven quick thoughts on the Most Important Speech of Obama’s Presidency Since the Last One . . . 1. The prepared text begins, “This debate over budgets and deficits is about more than just numbers on a page, more than just cutting and spending. It’s about the kind of future we want.” I read that and hear, ‘I cannot get the numbers to add up.” Or, perhaps, “It was my understanding there would be no math involved in this debate.” 2. There is a lot of blaming Bush in this speech.

Daniel (jungleman12) Cates, a 21-year-old self-made multimillionaire, lapsed economics/computer-science major and one-day Bubble Trouble champion of the world, was mildly annoyed. A reputedly solid player under the gun had just bet, and Cates needed to figure out if he was bluffing. Cates consulted the stat readout and deduced that the kid’s erratic betting over the past 200 hands was a product of emotional fragility. With no pair, no draw and no hope of winning a showdown of hands, Cates again raised the pot. At a second table, Cates had just made his flush. He put out a value bet that...

...Mr. Lipton’s main target was Tim Phillips, President of Americans for Prosperity: “The visitor, Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, told a large group of counterprotesters who had gathered Saturday at one edge of what otherwise was a mostly union crowd that the cuts were not only necessary, but they also represented the start of a much-needed nationwide move to slash public-sector union benefits. “We are going to bring fiscal sanity back to this great nation,” he said. What Mr. Phillips did not mention was that his Virginia-based nonprofit group, whose budget surged to $40 million in 2010...

It's rare when Chris Matthews is outdone in his praise of Barack Obama but Time's Mark Halperin, on Thursday's Hardball, managed to top the MSNBC host as he delivered a rave review of Barack Obama's performance at the National Prayer Breakfast. After playing a clip of the speech, Matthews merely offered a "That's pretty good" but the Game Change co-author did him one better, going as far to warn any GOP candidate considering a presidential run in 2012 to study the address because it had "a level of sophistication and skill that not one Republican on the field right now...

In his New York Times column "Obama's Gun Play," Charles M. Blow lays out a familiar but inaccurate talking point: we need increased gun control laws because the United States is the murder capital of the planet.  Mr. Blow writes: [T]he U.S. is in a league of its own, and not in a good way. We have nearly 9 guns for every 10 people, and about 9 out of every 10 of our homicides are committed with one of those guns. No other country even comes close. A column is accompanied by a large graphic which illustrates American gun...

WITH the Tucson shootings still in the news, there’s a good chance President Obama will discuss gun control in his speech. How he does it could mean progress or stalemate on the issue. Over the last few weeks, gun-control advocates have focused on banning the type of high-capacity clips that the police say was used by the man accused in the Tucson shootings, Jared Loughner. But even timely efforts to ban particular kinds of weapons face long odds politically, and historically have less success in reducing crime. To get something done with a skeptical Congress, the president ought to shift...

The Recession hits everybody..... I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail. Wives are having sex with their husbands because they can't afford batteries. CEO's are now playing miniature golf. Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen. A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced. I saw a Mormon polygamist with only one wife. If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them. McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer. Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America . Parents in Beverly Hills fired...

According to voter registration records, New York Times Editor Bill Keller is a registered Democrat. Keller has been registered as a Democrat since 1998 with his Manhattan apartment listed on forms as his address.The New York Times has long been criticized by conservatives as politically biased in favor of Democrats. In 2007 a Rasmussen poll found that 40% of Americans believe the paper has a liberal bias.Bob Christie, senior vice president for corporate communications of The Times Company, told The Daily Caller, “in terms of Bill’s affiliations, the fact that he votes is a matter of public record and

A report released on Monday revealed that wait times for availing treatment in Canada have surged 18.2 weeks in 2010. This is for the first time that an increase has been experienced in waiting times in the country since 2007. The report `Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada' by the Fraser Institute brought out that the average waiting time in B. C. rose to 18.8 weeks from 17 weeks in 2009. Mark Rovere, the Fraser Institute's Associate Director of health policy and co-author of the report said, "We're seeing continued government rationing, which is leading to...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration issued new federal rules on Monday that will require many health insurance companies to spend more on medical care and allocate less to profits, executive compensation, marketing and overhead expenses. The rules, intended to benefit consumers, vastly expand federal authority to direct the use of premiums collected by companies like Aetna, Humana, UnitedHealth and WellPoint. While some states have had such requirements, Monday’s announcement is the first such mandate by the federal government and grows out of the new national health care law. “Millions of Americans will get better value for their health insurance premium...

The United States economy added 151,000 jobs in October, a welcome change after four months of job losses but still not enough to make a dent in unemployment. Private companies have been slowly growing their payrolls throughout 2010, according to a Labor Department report released Friday. This private job growth had been overwhelmed by the elimination of temporary Census Bureau jobs and layoffs by state and local governments during the summer and early fall, until October. Private companies added 159,000 jobs in October, while governments cut 8,000 jobs in the month. The month was much stronger than expected — most...