Free Republic

A pro-family activist believes there is a huge battle looming between libertarians and social conservatives in the Republican Party. He says this battle was highlighted by a survey he conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, regarding the homosexual agenda. More than half of the nearly 9,000 conservative activists at CPAC last week in Washington were under the age of 22. Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says most of the young people he surveyed at CPAC were against the legalization of same-sex "marriage," but notes there was a lot of confusion about the issue...

Crude oil prices had a good week last week, closing up $5.82 to $44.76 a barrel on the futures market. This rise amounted to a healthy 14.95% increase, although oil prices had actually advanced higher during the week, but fell on Friday when both the details of the Obama administration's budget impact on the energy industry became clear and the nation's GDP estimate for the fourth quarter was revised sharply lower. For the week, the oil price rise was driven by a number of factors -- surprising strength in domestic oil inventory data, a positive report about OPEC's cutback compliance...

BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co (NYSE:GE - News) CEO Jeffrey Immelt acknowledged on Tuesday the company's reputation had been "tarnished" and said the entire finance industry would need to be rethought due to the global economic meltdown.

Two Wisconsin lawmakers from opposing parties are joining former GOP presidential nominee John McCain in pushing to give President Barack Obama line-item veto power. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Middleton, and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, are teaming up with the Arizona senator for what they say is a strategy to hold the line on federal spending and prevent wasteful earmarks. They plan to introduce the bill tomorrow.

(IsraelNN.com) MK Rabbi Dr. Michael Ben-Ari gave his first speech to the Knesset on Monday. Ben-Ari discussed the economic hardship being felt by many in Israel as well as the costs of making concessions to Arab enemies. Arab MKs left the hall during his speech, leading Ben-Ari to express satisfaction at what he called “my first great achievement in Knesset.” Ben-Ari reminded those assembled of the suffering in Hatzor Haglilit, where workers are protesting the closure of the factory that provides many of the town's jobs. “As we gathered here, all of us beautifully dressed, in splendid garments, in Hatzor...

FIVE MINUTES TO FREEDOM! A FIVE-MINUTE HANDBOOK FOR GUN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS INTRODUCTION I've been a gun rights activist for nearly 10 years. I wasted a lot of time for the first 5 years because no one gave me the rule book you are now reading. Maybe that's because no one had written it. This is the stuff I wish I had known starting on day one. If you've just arrived at this party, the next 5 minutes you spend reading this might save you 5 years of otherwise wasted time and energy. If you've been in the gun rights game...

Did anyone just hear during the short Q&A with Obama & the British PM, Obama's comparison of the stock market to daily political polls? Is he freakin' serious?

What worked at one time in this country's history is an education model that not only transformed the United States, but it also brought about a completely different world. That model was created for the agricultural and industrial eras, ones we are far removed from yet we continue to educate our children based on the horse-and-buggy and the Model T mentality. This is the system Ms. Rhee is trying to fix and I want to bury it. There are few of us in the battle for our children's minds and hearts in hopes of educating them with new paradigms of...

When someone proposes an initiative ballot measure, the attorney general gives it an official title and summary. There's always been much political angst, as well as legal wrangling, over the wording of controversial issues. . . . When the Legislature places a measure on the ballot, however, it often bypasses the attorney general by specifying the ballot title and even indirectly designating those who write ballot pamphlet arguments. In other words, the Legislature, in league with the governor, tries to fix the election by fixing how measures are portrayed. Cases in point are the six measures that the Legislature and...

ALBANY - Gov. Paterson is running - and not just for re-election. The governor, in a soon-to-be published interview with Runner's World magazine, talks at length about his love of - and difficulties with - jogging. Paterson, who is legally blind, even posed for this picture in his Albany office - knobby knees notwithstanding - wearing a T-shirt from the Achilles Track Club, which encourages disabled people to become athletic. Noting that he had relatively recently taken up jogging, Paterson said, "Running has given me the chance to be athletic.

Well, President Obama really does have some success at new jobs creation that he can proudly point to as evidence that his "stimulus" is working. Apparently, Democrat staffers are fleeing the Hill for K Street, that swanky address where so many lobbying firms have taken up residence in D.C. Not only have Democrat aides been finding some great new jobs in lobbying firms, but they’re getting premium salaries, to boot. These Democrat aids turned lobbyists are commanding $350,000 to $450,000 salaries on K Street. Chris Frates of Politico is reporting that Democrat aides are "hot commodities" as new employees for...

The Sunday New York Times described an expected sea change in international global warming policy. The story noted that President George W. Bush, "pressed by the Senate, rejected" the Kyoto global warming protocol in 2001, but now President Obama is eager to negotiate a robust international global warming treaty to be signed in Copenhagen in December. Prominently missing from the 1,584-word story was any mention of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. That's a surprising omission considering that Gore negotiated the treaty for Clinton in 1997, and that Clinton never asked the Senate to ratify the pact, which...

If the San Francisco 49ers intend to search everyone attending home games, they're going to have to prove it's a reasonable act. In a case being watched closely by professional sports teams nationwide, the California Supreme Court on Monday ruled for the first time that searches at private entertainment venues, such as stadiums, could violate privacy rights. But the court remanded the suit filed by Daniel and Kathleen Sheehan for further proceedings. The couple owns 49ers season tickets and objected to pat-down searches outside San Francisco's Candlestick Park as a violation of their privacy rights. The high court decided that...

What stands out most clearly, amidst all the panic inducing talk and extravagant promises, lately spewing from the mouths of Federal office holders & Central Bankers, is of a desperate need to keep America dependent upon credit--easy credit;--that what is most feared, in the seats of economic power in contemporary America, is a period in which people restrain expenditures for new goods and services, pay down debt and actually try to provide for the cyclical, as well as disaster driven, downturns that have always been part of the economic history of human nations. The boom can last only as long...

Democratic Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona have joined a quiet revolt in the House that could slow some of President Obama's fast-moving priorities. The two are among 49 Democrats from congressional districts that backed Republican Sen. John McCain 's 2008 presidential race and whose support for the Democratic majority's progressive agenda is increasingly not assured. A dozen of them were among 20 House Democrats who voted against the $410 billion discretionary fiscal 2009 spending package (HR 1105) on Feb. 25. Another group later forced House leaders to sideline a contentious bill (HR 1106) to allow...

The White House has decided to run against Rush Limbaugh. For weeks now, El Rushbo has been riding a publicity wave, fueled by an unerring sense of showmanship and his bald-faced declaration that he wants President Obama to fail. The media, finding Limbaugh far more fascinating than Mitch McConnell or John Boehner, have staged endless debates over whether the radio talk show host is the new leader of the Republican Party. The conventional strategy in such cases is for the administration in power to avoid talking about a mere radio critic. That would elevate him to the level of the...

"Amid the worst economic contraction since 1982, bond yields should be plunging...but that's certainly not the case since mid-January as Treasury bonds continue to decline in value," says Investment Director Eric Roseman, "If the economy is so badly fractured then why are bond yields rising?" "Since the beginning of the year the yield on the benchmark ten-year Treasury bond has surged almost 100 basis points from 2.25% to 3.03%. The 30-year T-bond has declined even more as yields have climbed from 2.68% on January 1 to 3.71%." "The obvious answer to this bond market enigma is supply and demand." "The...

A new President is traditionally given a honeymoon period by the majority of the American people. In normal times, the American people look to a new President with good wishes, and give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to policy within the first three months or so of an administration. These, however, are not normal times, and I wonder just how far the patience of the American People will extend. Those who rave about Obama’s sky-high approval ratings are not looking at the historical record. Afer a little more than a month in office, Obama’s approval ratings...

As the 16-month-old disintegration of the post-World War II financial system seems to be accelerating to a climax, Pope Benedict XVI is preparing a major papal encyclical outlining the principles behind a just and stable economy

COLOGNE, Germany-A building housing Cologne city archives shook and then collapsed into a pile of rubble Tuesday. Many people inside were able to flee to safety, but nine people are reported missing. The collapse, which occured about 2 p.m., also dragged down part of a neighboring building.