Free Republic

A major new report confirms the worst fears of many: Health care reform will raise the costs for most Americans—by about 18% on average. That is on top of existing inflation of health coverage. Once the plan is fully phased-in (by 2019), a typical family of four would pay an extra $4,000 each year. When combined with existing inflation, costs would rise from today’s $12,300 annual average to $25,900. Of that 111% increase, $9,600 is due to existing factors uncorrected by the legislation, and $4,000 due to additional costs created by the legislation. For single persons, the differential is projected...

Obama White House to 60,000,000 Anglers: We Don't Need You Obama White House takes on 60,000,000 American anglers. (Hawaii Leisure) A recently released White House document could result in the closures of sport fishing in salt and freshwater areas.Shimano reported: Feds to 60 Million American Anglers: We don't need you A recently published administration document outlines a structure that could result in closures of sport fishing in salt and freshwater areas across America. The White House created an Interagency Oceans Policy Task Force in June and gave them only 90 days to develop a comprehensive federal policy for all U.S....

Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any worse (from The Times)... The Obama administration is considering outbidding the Taliban to persuade Afghan villagers to lay down arms as it struggles to find a new approach to a war that is fast losing public and congressional support. Didn't we send troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban? Now the Obama administration is wanting to legitimize yet another terrorist group: Apart from training more Afghan troops, the focus has shifted to accepting a political role for the Taliban, while also trying to weaken them by winning some over. Once again,...

Dozens Rally Against NJ School's Obama Song BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) ― About 70 protesters let their voices be heard outside a school in New Jersey where students sang praise of President Barack Obama. Members of anti-tax Tea Party groups and others joined outside B. Bernice Young School in Burlington Township Monday to denounce what they believe was political indoctrination of students. The school houses children in kindergarten through second grade. The school began getting attention from conservative commentators last month after a video surfaced of a group of second-graders singing a song that praised Obama last school year. Protesters...

China said Saturday it was confident it could ensure the nation's safety after an Al-Qaeda leader called on members of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang to launch a jihad against Beijing. "The Chinese government has the confidence and the ability to protect the safety of the nation, of people's lives and property," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement faxed to AFP. Ma was reacting to a call made this week by Abu Yahia al-Libi, one of Al-Qaeda's top leaders, in a video recording posted on an Islamist website, according to the SITE Intelligence group. "Let...

I've always believed in the existence of monsters. During my 20 years as a cop in NYC, I met quite a few of them, many of whom may still be doing time in prisons around the country. However, they were the garden-variety type of monsters; murderers, rapists, armed robbers and other assorted thugs. But there's another, even lower, level of criminal that exists in communities all across America, even in some of our churches. The creature I'm referring to is the pedophile. A few years ago, I received a 6-page letter in the mail from a woman in East Cambridge,...

This sounds safe... Obama's Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings wrote that killing someone who called you a name was not aberrant behavior. Oh really? Verum Serum discovered this article by Obama's Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings in 1998: We need to own up to the fact that our culture teaches boys that being “a man” is the most important thing in life, even if you have to kill someone to prove it. Killing someone who calls you a faggot is not aberrant behavior but merely the most extreme expression of a belief that is beaten (sometimes literally) into boys at...

The 2009 Wriston Lecture Decline Is a Choice Dr. Charles Krauthammer, Syndicated ColumnistWebpage with embedded video:http://www.manhattan-institute.org/video/wriston/ Direct link:http://70.166.63.240/flv/10-5-09_wriston_lecture.flv ----------------------------- More MI videos:http://www.manhattan-institute.org/video/index.htm...check out, for instance: Economics Does Not Lie: A Defense of the Free Market in a Time of Crisis Speaker: Guy Sorman July 9, 2009

The “Overseas Contingency Program” – more commonly known as the “war on terror” – is back at the center of the political world, thanks to the uncertain prosecution of the war in Afghanistan. As President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Congress and the generals in the field contemplate the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t consequences of Afghanistan, terror has reappeared in the American vernacular. “America is still a salient target and attractive target for terrorists,” said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA counter-terrorism official. And while words like “Islamic terrorist,” “jihad” and “Muslim extremist” have been scrubbed from administration chatter, we remain...

Sen. Lindsey Graham working with Sen. John Kerry on climate bill Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina publicly announced his support for climate legislation on Sunday in an op-ed column with Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. "Our partnership represents a fresh attempt to find consensus that adheres to our core principles and leads to both a climate change solution and energy independence," the two senators wrote in The New York Times. "It begins now, not months from now — with a road to 60 votes in the Senate." Graham's support is a major win for climate supporters, who...

The War: The killing of al-Qaida's 2006 airline bomb plot planner by an American Predator drone is only the latest terror-war victory. From Anbar to Waziristan, they're dropping like flies.Rashid Rauf, mastermind of the 2006 trans-Atlantic airline bomb plot, became the latest al-Qaida casualty when a missile launched from a Predator drone struck a tribesman's house in the village of Alikhel in North Waziristan. If Rauf believed he had found sanctuary there, he was sadly mistaken. There have been at least 20 such strikes in the last three months as the Bush administration seeks to thwart the ability of militants...

The Iraq Army, in an operation guided by the U.S. military, has captured about 150 suspected Al Qaida operatives in the north. Officials said the Al Qaida operatives and loyalists of the late President Saddam Hussein were arrested in a crackdown in October around the northern city of Mosul. They said the mission, titled "Nineveh Wall" and guided by the U.S. military, was meant to disband the core Al Qaida presence in northern Iraq linked to neighboring Syria. Officials said many of the Al Qaida fugitives were in contact with financiers and handlers in Syria. They cited Mohammed Yunis Al...

Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

Former President George W. Bush looks out over the U.S. Capitol as his helicopter departs Washington, D.C. January 20, 2009, for Andrews Air Force Base following the inauguration ceremonies for President Barack Obama. (ERIC DRAPER/AFP/Getty Images) President Bush gave an hour-and-a-half speech Wednesday night at the Wilderness Resort and Convention Center in Sevierville (Hat tip: Brutally Honest): “Every day in the White House was a joyous day for me,” the 43rd president said. “I miss being commander and chief of our military the most. You know you live in an amazing country when we have servicemen that continually volunteer to...

Security: After Iran admits building a second enrichment facility inside a mountain, the Pentagon shifts money from other programs to urgently fund the mother of all bunker-buster bombs. Why the need for speed? At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last month, President Obama announced, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years." U.S. officials said they knew for some time that the facility existed. The announcement was made after U.S. officials learned Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency of Qom's existence. Our knowledge of the facility built in...

Defense: As the failure of engagement with Iran grows more apparent, the administration that has talked very softly may be getting the mother of all sticks ready. Guess we need high-tech Cold War weapons after all.Western intelligence sources have told London's Times that Iran has perfected the means to develop and detonate a nuclear bomb and is merely awaiting word from its supreme leader to produce its first one. Should the order be given, it would take just six months to enrich enough uranium and another six months to assemble the warhead. Time's up. Recently, and perhaps not coincidentally, Defense...

Talk about Cheating. John Boehner announced today that after the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee passed their version of the Obamacare bill, the the Democrats added 70 substantive amendments to the bill without voting on it, and without telling the minority members. WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today expressed outrage after learning that Senate Democratic leaders quietly made more than 70 substantive changes to the text of a health care bill after the legislation was voted on and passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee. The changes were made without...

There are three key issues facing President Obama today. All of these issues have been around for a while yet each issue is being handled in opposition with popular belief. The issues facing the Obama Administration...are the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons, the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and healthcare. As of this morning, despite dozens of speeches from the President, 60% of those surveyed in a Gallup Poll either disapprove of or are uncertain about the President’s and Congress’s proposed changes to the nation’s healthcare laws. Yet, this issue is the one garnering the vast majority of the Obama Administration’s...

War Strategy: When Bush and Petraeus proposed the surge in Iraq, Democrats demanded that the general testify before Congress. So why has the Senate blocked a similar invitation to our commander in Afghanistan? Those with memories longer than the 24-hour news cycle recall that in the dark days of the Iraq War, David Petraeus was summoned to Washington to explain the surge strategy that would eventually lead to victory in Iraq. Democrats hoped for a show trial. MoveOn.org took out a full-page ad in the New York Times labeling the commanding general of our efforts in Iraq "General Betray-us." Then...

War On Terror: From Gettysburg to Fallujah, no-nonsense leadership has proved the key to victory in war. President Obama has chosen a new top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. This is Obama's war. This is his general. During the campaign, candidate Barack Obama said Afghanistan was the right place to fight what is now called an overseas contingency operation. At first glance, with his choice of Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to take over as the top U.S. commander there, he may have picked the right man to fight it. McChrystal is a special ops guru, a former head of the Joint...

Two days ago, British newspaper The Independent reported that a secret cabal of oil-producing Arab states, Russia, and China had conspired to dump the dollar for oil trading, a move which would have seriously weakened our currency and influence abroad. Many publications picked up on this report, written by the notoriously unreliable Robert Fisk, and a round of denials promptly appeared from the named states. Left unexplained by Fisk and the Independent was how these same states, with massive holdings in the dollar (especially China), would benefit in the short or long term by attacking it. However, it once again...

ACORN wants people to register to vote – as long as they’re Democrats. Republican registrations go into the trash. Here is a first-hand account of how it happens. In February 2008, Fathiyyah Muhammad of Jacksonville, Florida, heard that ACORN was paying people three dollars for each voter they could register. ACORN paid her three dollars for each voter she registered, but Fatiyyah Muhammad says that the group threw out her votes and fired her when she brought them registrations of Republican voters. Fathiyyah Muhammad voted for Obama. “I’m a Republican,” she says, “and this was the first time that I...

"More ugly Jew hatred and incitement to kill Jews on Obama's website. It harks back to the Jewish blood libels. Obama's website, hub for Islamic antisemitism." by Bill Levinson Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs has accumulated quite a collection of the most vicious imaginable anti-Israel and indeed anti-Semitic hate speech, all of which was posted at Barack Obama's Web site with the full knowledge and approval of the moderators. We remind our readers that one moderator (Emily) counseled an Obama supporter to use the words "Israel Lobby" instead of "Jewish Lobby." Organizing for America as it is now known sanctioned...

President Obama has painted himself into the proverbial corner in regards to our mission in Afghanistan. On the campaign trail he consistently criticized the Bush administration, accusing them of diverting needed resources from Afghanistan and failing to wage a war of victory within the nation. However, as many of us warned then candidate Obama's rhetoric was based upon a need to demonstrate foreign policy strength rather than sound military strategy. President Obama promised the American people that he would lead us to victory over the Taliban and Al-Quaeda, but months of diverting attention from Afghanistan have culminated in the demonstration...

PARIS — Somali pirates attempted to storm the flagship commanding French military forces in a night attack in the Indian Ocean after mistaking it for a cargo vessel, the military said here on Wednesday. French sailors saw off the attack and captured five pirates in the incident while no-one was injured, military spokesman Admiral Christophe Prazuck said. "The pirates, who because of the darkness took the French ship for a commercial vessel, were on board two vessels and opened fire with Kalashnikovs," he said. The pirates had tried to storm the 160-metre (525-foot) 18,000-tonne La Somme, a fuel supply ship...

The British newspaper The Independent reported today that Gulf oil producers were negotiating with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the dollar in pricing oil with a basket of currencies.[1] According to the Wall Street Journal, Arab oil officials have denied the story, but even the possibility of such a talk weakens the dollar and renews fears about its continued viability as an international reserve currency.[2] In fact, today a United Nations official called for a new global reserve currency to replace the dollar and end our “privilege” to run up huge deficits.[3] We can see the effect of...

For two years as a candidate, Senator Obama called for more resources for the war in Afghanistan and warned about the consequences of failure. As President, he announced a comprehensive new counterinsurgency strategy and handpicked the right general to execute it. Now General McChrystal is asking for additional troops to implement the strategy announced by President Obama in March. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers in harm's way in Afghanistan right now. We owe it to all those brave Americans serving in uniform to give them the tools they need to complete their...

High school teacher keeps job after handing out pornographic 'banned book' - A father of a high-school student is infuriated after he said a teacher provided "banned books" to her 11th-grade students, including at least one with explicit descriptions of homosexual sex acts, rape, masturbation, profane language and even bestiality. John Davis, father of an 11th-grade student at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Va., told WND that English teacher Kathleen Renard provided her personal copy of a book called "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky to one of her English students, and it was passed to his...

"If the tea party web sites were any indication of the possible turn out in April for the Tea Parties which was reported that in "less then 3 three months on Alexa.com Taxdayteaparty.com is in the top 5,000 web sites in the US and Teapartyday.com is in the top 10,000 web sites in the US." which was just under one million strong then the success of a web site introducing a March on the Media event being held on 10/17/2009 may be in the same ranks.

Homeland Security: Provisions of the law that spared New York another 9/11 are set to expire Dec. 31. So why do Democrats want to gut this law and remove the immunity telecom companies have for helping protect America? To borrow a British expression from World War II, it was a very near thing. The capture, arrest and indictment of 24-year-old Afghan immigrant Najubullah Zazi before he could set off bombs made from store-bought chemicals prevented a tragedy of potentially devastating proportions. It wouldn't have happened if the critics of Patriot Act had their way. The capture of Zazi was made...

Today's Hope and Change-- Children in the Warsaw Ghetto 1943 and Children of Palestine Gaza 2009 Click to Enlarge After posting yesterday on the disgusting anti-Semitic hate speech on Barack Obama's website I received this from Rachel P. I was looking at your article, Obama's Website Carries Blogpost That Equates Israel to Nazi Germany. I tried linking through Israpundit directly to the Obama site and I received this Error, “Invalid page requested.” I tried looking through internet archiving sites and they all say that site does not allow you to search their database. I also tried searching through Obama’s website...

42 kilometers away from Harsina (a/k/a Remat Mamre) as the crow flies, a tunnel implodes in Aza. My family and I hear the explosion like a massive thunder clap on a clear, blue day. My daughter-in-law identifies the cause immediately, says she hears them often in Bat Ayin, another 12 kilometers to the North along Highway 60, says sometimes the entire yishuv shakes. Four months out of America and all delusions of longitude have been shattered by a bomb 42 kilometers to the Southwest of my home. News is no longer something I watch on television or listen to on...

At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech. Eye on the UN For Immediate Release: October 5, 2009 Contact: Anne Bayefsky info@EYEontheUN.org You Can't Say That: At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech. This article, by Anne Bayefsky, originally appeared in The Weekly Standard. The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were...

It began before dawn — a devastating, well-planned attack. About 300 insurgents swarmed out of a village and mosque and attacked a pair of isolated American outposts in a remote mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan with machineguns, rockets and grenades. They first stormed the Afghan police post at the foot of the hill in the province of Nuristan, a Taleban and al-Qaeda stronghold on the lawless Pakistan border. They then swept up to the Nato post. The battle lasted all day. American and Afghan soldiers finally repelled them, with the help of US helicopters and warplanes — but at heavy...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The United States has long suspected that much of the billions of dollars it has sent Pakistan to battle militants has been diverted to the domestic economy and other causes, such as fighting India. Now the scope and longevity of the misuse is becoming clear: Between 2002 and 2008, while al-Qaida regrouped, only $500 million of the $6.6 billion in American aid actually made it to the Pakistani military...

MILITARY anger boiled over last night after Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth rebuffed a plea from front-line soldiers for immediate reinforcements in Afghanistan. Mr Ainsworth had asked soldiers who have just endured a gruelling and bloody six-month tour what they needed. Without hesitation he was told: “More troops”. But the Defence Secretary – in Afghanistan with Home Secretary Alan Johnson, ironically to boost morale – merely replied that reinforcements would “take time”. Staff Sgt Kim Hughes, who will shortly return to his family in Shropshire, said: “It’s been a ridiculously busy, ridiculously hard tour. We have lost two guys. “Clearly more...

Barack and Michelle Obama are, among other things, husband and wife. And tonight, they celebrated their 17th anniversary, their first in the White House. The president and first lady went out. At 7:40 pm EDT, the presidential motorcade stopped in front of Blue Duck Tavern in the West End of Washington, between Dupont Circle and Georgetown. "Taste cannot be controlled by law,'' Thomas Jefferson is said to have said -- it says so at the Blue Duck Tavern's Web-site.

Senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired “sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable” atom bomb. (snip) Two years ago, American intelligence agencies published a detailed report concluding that Tehran halted its efforts to design a nuclear weapon in 2003. But in recent months, Britain has joined France, Germany and Israel in disputing that conclusion, saying the work has been resumed. A senior American official said last week that the United States was now re-evaluating its 2007 conclusions. The atomic agency’s report also presents...

Here's his story: "On September 6th, 2009, Dan returned to Kandahar, Afghanistan. With less than 36 hours on the ground, his team received their first mission task targeting Taliban operatives. During the mission, Dan activated a land mine and lost both legs, and sustained traumatic internal injuries. Currently he is at the National Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland where he is fighting a new battle. Like any other challenge in his life, Dan will face this one with courage and dedication. Already, friends and family have witnessed Dan’s unbelievable strength as he begins what will surely be a long and...

President Obama touted the importance of the Afghanistan war during the 2008 election campaign. He consistently accused Bush of ignoring that campaign, and focusing too much on the Iraq front. Obama promised that when he was president, he would take whatever steps necessary to obtain victory in Afghanistan (wait, we can’t say victory anymore, can we?) Since this campaign is supposedly very important to Obama, and he sees it as critical to our national security, one would think that he would want regular updates and strategy sessions with the commanding general in charge of Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal. Yet Obama...

Zbigniew Brzezinski, foreign policy adviser to former President Jimmy Carter and current President Barack Obama, is urging a radical change in US Mid-East policy. “Our long term alliance with Israel has brought us nothing but headaches,” Brzezinski opined. “Jews have been a sore spot in the region since the days of the Roman Empire. Eliminating their presence there would solve a lot of problems.” Brzezinski conceded that his proposed change would not be easy, but suggested that a possible Israeli air strike against Iran’s nuclear capabilities might offer an opening. “Say we have US forces shoot down the aircraft involved...

Sarah Palin’s publisher plans to announce Tuesday that the title of her eagerly awaited memoir will be “Going Rogue: An American Life.” Publication is being moved up from spring to Nov. 17 in order to catch the holiday book-buying season. The former Alaska governor has been in huge demand as a speaker, and continues to harvest a bounty of media attention. A mammoth first printing of 1.5 million copies has been ordered — the same first run as “True Compass,” the memoir of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Palin had a deadline of Sept. 15 for her manuscript and...

The plethora of press reports on the Qom nuclear-enrichment program focus largely on the history of our intelligence and President Obama's joint press conference, passing quickly through what appears to be a compromise of that intelligence to the Iranians. The central question becomes: How did our intelligence become known to the Iranians? Secondary question: Is this CIA payback for the Holder and Pelosi agendas?

We now know that Barack Obama  has sat  for almost a year on the information regarding Iran's "secret" nuclear plant. His hand was forced yesterday by the Iranians who were the ones that went public with the information when it appeared to them that their security had been breached. This led to Barack Obama disclosing the previously withheld information regarding the plant. The Iranians kept the plant secret and Obama aided them by his silence. So much for the transparency promise. What damage has been caused by Obama's withholding this information from the world? Instead of focusing his attention and...

President Barack Obama issued a special Ramadan message to the Muslim world. The president emphasized the importance of what the United States and the Muslim world hold in "common." This is a great approach and concept to bridge the gap between civilizations ONLY if the areas of difference are not destructive. For example, emphasizing common values between the free world and the Nazi regime, such as the building of a strong economy, would not have bridged the gap between the two systems unless the latter had denounced its barbaric and anti-Semitic values. The same principle applies to the current friction...

Details emerged Thursday of 29 year old Michael Finton's attempt to detonate a truck bomb outside of the Paul Findley Federal Building in Springfield. Among Findley's target of the bombing were the federal courthouse and the offices of first-term Illinois congressman Aaron Schock... http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-21037-Illinois-Statehouse-Examiner~y2009m9d25-Congressman-Aaron-Schocks-office-targeted-in-Illinois-terror-plot

<p>Just announced by Jennifer Griffith in a live interview, WH has asked Pentagon for a formal assessment of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, that the Afghan Wart is no longer in our nations interest, blamed the Afghan elections.</p>

Officials Suggest Group Is First Uncovered Here Since 9/11; Zazi in Court Thursday. WASHINGTON -- The terror probe that burst into the spotlight in New York last week may have led authorities to the first active al Qaeda cell uncovered inside the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to officials familiar with the matter. Current and former U.S. officials say the allegations in the case embody their worst fears -- that a legal U.S. resident could quietly leave the country, receive explosives training from al Qaeda in a lawless region of Pakistan, then return to U.S. soil.

News leaked out late yesterday afternoon that President Obama was now considering a plan put forth by Vice President Biden that would dramatically scale-back Afghanistan operations and re-define our objectives of the conflict. This news comes just two days after our the nation's top military leadership on the ground in Afghanistan informed the President that we needed more troops or risked losing the war. We have travelled down this road before. When General Westmoreland requested increased troop levels at the onset of the...

A powerful insurgent group in war-ravaged Somalia has formally pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network for the first time in an apparent effort to accelerate recruiting among Somalis, including emigres in the United States. The group, al-Shabab, made the pledge in a video called "Labaik ya Osama" -- "At your service, Osama" -- released on extremist Web sites Sunday and shown Monday at a public screening in a suburb of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after prayers at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "This is certainly the most overt gesture of support for...