Free Republic

The eight Republicans who voted in favor of the disastrous Waxman-Markey cap & trade legislation surely deserve not to be supported by the Republican Party in the next election. How these individuals could vote for legislation that will ultimately take trillions out of consumers' pockets and will create massive government intervention in the economy is beyond any concept of being Republican. Just for the record, these eight RINO's have helped initiate the following, here and here. And with this damage comes the supposed benefits, which are zilch. These people do not belong in office.

Despite strong opposition from agricultural groups and private property rights advocates, a bill that would expand the federal reach of the Clean Water Act, and that could have sweeping effects on everyday farming activities, passed out of a key U.S. Senate committee last week. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 12-7 to advance S. 787, also known as the Clean Water Restoration Act, which now faces consideration by the full Senate. If adopted, the legislation would give the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers authority over nearly every wet area in the nation, including farm...

Despite the president's claim at a joint appearance this afternoon that "I like Chancellor Merkel a lot," President Barack Obama and Germany's Angela Merkel are widely believed to have a somewhat frosty relationship. The biggest perceived rift between the two? How best to respond to the global financial crisis. Mr. Obama, of course, has pushed through a massive stimulus package and pressed for greater government spending worldwide to end the recession. Merkel, who helms the largest economy in Europe, has resisted such spending; her government has passed only a pair of small stimulus packages in response to the economic crisis....

CASTLE STATEMENT ON PASSAGE OF AMERICAN CLEAN ENERGY AND SECURITY ACT Washington - "My priorities, as I represent Delaware in the U.S. House of Representatives today, begin with the economic opportunities and security for all who live here. We are facing serious challenges in both areas. With state budget shortfalls, rising unemployment and stagnant growth in many of the industries on which we typically rely-- new ideas and bold strategies for the future are required. Simultaneously, our nation's military is spread thin across the world in an effort to confront those who seek to do us harm. One major threat...

Gov. Mark Sanford tried to get back to work Friday, apologizing to his Cabinet, comparing himself to the biblical figure David and retreating to the familiar territory of federal stimulus money and declining state revenue estimates. Friday’s anything-but-normal Cabinet meeting was Sanford’s first official business since admitting Wednesday to an affair with a woman from Argentina. Sanford also reaffirmed he had no plans to resign and that he had only been unfaithful to his wife, Jenny, once. Sanford’s denial of other infidelities can after a Web site run by a former Sanford staffer on Friday named two other alleged lovers....

This week's dunce's cap goes to the 211 democrats and 8 republicans that stupidly voted in favor of the unnecessary 1200 page climate bill change.

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND — South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford said Friday her husband repeatedly asked permission to visit his lover in the months after she discovered his affair. “I said absolutely not. It’s one thing to forgive adultery; it’s another thing to condone it.” Jenny Sanford spoke to The Associated Press during a 20-minute interview in the living room at the coastal home where she sought refuge with their four sons. They were her first extended comments on the affair. She said when her husband, Gov. Mark Sanford, inexplicably disappeared last week, she hoped he was hiking the Appalachian Trail,...

Argentine man said to have sent copies of messages to S.C. newspaper. NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The mystery of who revealed Gov. Mark Sanford’s e-mail messages might finally be solved. A business associate of Sanford’s Argentine mistress said Friday that private messages between the lovers had been sent anonymously to The State newspaper in December by an Argentine man the mistress briefly dated. The associate, who asked not to be identified, is a Buenos Aires television executive involved in hiring the woman, whom he identified as Maria Belen Chapur, a producer at the television network...

The imprisoned-in-their-own-country Iranians, who know they'll likely get bludgeoned bloody, and might even get killed, were nevertheless in the streets by the tens-of-thousands; in peaceful but unmistakable protest making sure the powers that be understood their displeasure. Obama (like Ahmedinejad, an illegal usurper to a seat he by law cannot hold) in 6 months takes America from a nation of laws guided by a Constitution to a banana republic dictatorship (rapidly headed for third-world junk bond status) with Czars, unelected and answering to nobody but His Highness, to run everything from car companies and banks to when and where I...

State Attorney General Jerry Brown joined a legal challenge Wednesday to Pleasanton's 13-year-old limit on housing construction, arguing that the East Bay community is defying state housing laws and adding to urban sprawl, vehicle use and greenhouse gas emissions. "Pleasanton's draconian and illegal limit on new housing forces people to commute long distances, adding to the bumper-to-bumper traffic along (Interstates) 580 and 680 and increasing dangerous air pollution," Brown said in a statement after filing suit in Alameda County Superior Court. He said Pleasanton's housing shortage will worsen if the city adopts a revised general plan that calls for more...

Conspiracy theorists point to an assortment of groups they think secretly run the country -- the gun lobby, Big Oil, the New World Order and even Yale's Skull and Bones society have all been fingered as the shadowy Illuminati who rule Washington. Yet the nation's real power brokers are in plain sight, amid amber waves of grain: the farmers. The farm lobby demonstrates its awesome might every few years with the passage of a new farm bill, which invariably shovels billions in corporate welfare to agribusiness while damaging U.S. trade relationships and in many cases raising consumer prices for agricultural...

Maria Belen Chapur http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uphohZs9nuQ&feature=related Wow, here we go!

PMSpeaker Nancy Pelosi, the Leadership of the House, and Chairmen Waxman and Markey have, through their leadership, secured an important bipartisan victory for the American people. The American Clean Energy Security (ACES) Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation Congress will ever pass. This comprehensive legislation will make meaningful reductions in global warming pollution, spur investment in clean energy technology, create jobs and reduce our reliance on foreign oil. The next step is passage of this legislation by the Senate to help restore America's leadership in the world and begin, at long last, to put in place...

The entire presumption of the Obama-proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency is that banks and mortgage companies are under-regulated by the state. This is why the financial meltdown took place — never mind that the federal regulatory Gosplan includes tens of thousands of pages purporting to regulate the mortgage industry alone. Let's leave aside the unknown costs that will be associated with new regulations — ever more hoops to jump through, more paperwork, more confusing terms for lenders and borrowers alike, more government controls that harm consumers as much as or more than producers. The core problem here is that none...

House Democrats Ram Through National Energy Tax That Will Cost You Monday Through Friday______________________________________________________________________       NO CHANCE FOR PROPER REVIEW: DEMS RUSHED THROUGH 1,200+ PAGE ENERGY TAX BILL Washington Post Editorial: Members Of Congress Can't Analyze National Energy Tax Bill Before Voting On It. "The result is a 1,201-page measure filled with political compromises, directives, subsidies and selections of winners and losers that most members won't be able to analyze before the vote and that leaves us wondering how effective it will be. (Editorial, "Waxman-Markey: Action on Climate Change Is Overdue. But is This The Best We Can Hope For?" The Washington...

I am trying to spell the sound I make inside when I consider our new so called management and see how awful things have become. Any ideas?

Inhofe said the bill, if passed, would constitute the largest tax increase in the history of the country.

South Korea has made public what many have suspected for several years now. If North Korea attacks, South Korea is prepared to go north and attack, or invade, their neighbor. This is no surprise to those who have been observing the South Korean armed forces development after the end of the Cold War in 1991. During the same time, the North Korean armed forces have declined because of a bankrupt economy and no money for replacing obsolete equipment, or for training. Meanwhile, the booming economy in the south led to the growth of domestic arms industry, and the re-equipping the...

TWO generations afterwards, World WarII in New Guinea means simply Kokoda to most Australians. Perhaps also Milne Bay, where the Japanese were first defeated. But the memory tends to cloud at mention of Buna, Gona, the Markham Valley, Shaggy Ridge and Scarlet Beach, Finschhafen - all great Australian victories in impossible conditions - and Salamaua. Yet it was in Salamaua, in the early hours of June 29, 1942, that Australian commandos struck the first blow in the Pacific land war. The raid has been acclaimed as a copybook action for its diligent scouting, meticulous planning and audacious, multi-pronged attack against...

With South Carolina governor Mark Sanford still wondering how to solve a problem called Maria, and GOP biggies falling by the wayside, a Californian may be poised to now take the reins as the leader of the GOP 2012 possible presidential pack. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, now claims the Golden State as his full-time home since he bought a lovely beachfront estate in La Jolla where and wife Ann now reside. [...] Sanford's Maria meltdown has meant that the stash of GOP possible presidential hopefuls and leadeers is shrinking fast -- with some GOPers say Romney now looks...