Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday that he was not bound by a controversial deal negotiated between the White House and pharmaceutical companies, telling thousands of Nevada voters on a conference call that “I have not agreed with anybody to do that.” The drug industry told the White House this summer that it would cut future drug costs by $80 billion in exchange for assurances that any health care legislation would prevent the government from negotiating for lower drug prices. As a result of the deal, the industry is bankrolling an ad campaign touting Barack Obama’s health care overhaul....

IF you read the papers or watch the news, you'll en counter a long list of accom plishments by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. You're less likely to hear, however, that in his death Kennedy proved Rush Limbaugh right. In March, the talk-show host and bete noir of progressives everywhere said that the health-care bill wending its way through Congress would eventually be dubbed "the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill." At the time, the official position of the Democratic Party was outrage and disgust. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee initiated a petition drive demanding that the Republican Party...

Clone Mac maker Psystar filed a new lawsuit this week to sell systems with Snow Leopard.Psystar wants to sell Snow LeopardFlorida-based Psystar is hoping to bring Apple's latest operating system to its line of knock-off Macs. In a complaint filed in a Florida court Thursday, Psystar seeks an injunction and damages due to Apple's "anticompetitive attempts to tie Mac OS X Snow Leopard to its Macintosh line of computers." The filing claims that Psystar is entitled to be able to buy copies of Snow Leopard on the market and install them onto its own computers that it re-sells. The suit...

They Died With Gucci's On /snip Satellite photos show that construction of new facilities continues in the suburbs of the capital, where the elite families live. There is no let-up in the importing of luxury goods, including automobiles. The leaders in the north are determined to go down with their Gucci's on. One thing the elite cannot have is cell phones. The use of such devices was made legal again at the beginning of the year (at least in the capital), and all the swells, and even their college age kids, have them. But not the most senior officials, who...

Why does it appear France is bouncing back more quickly from the recession than the United States? France has long been known for having an economy that suffered from too much government interference, too-high taxes and destructive union activity. Yet it grew 1.4 percent in the second quarter of 2009, while the U.S. economy continued to decline. The United States and Britain have had the largest "stimulus" programs of the major economies (as measured by increases in government spending and deficits relative to gross domestic product) and yet they are not moving toward recovery as rapidly as most other countries...

I see that you have a "Do Not Disturb" sign on your door and forgive me for not respecting your wishes. I am truly sorry to bother you during your vacation at Martha's Vineyard, but I decided to slip this letter under your front door anyway. I hope I did not alarm you into thinking it was your express checkout bill. I know how hard you have been working at reforming health care, running the nation, and bringing about world peace, and I understand how important it is for your mental health that you can get away from work and...

The Obama Administration, the Democrats in Congress and the media are shocked and surprised by the depth of reaction to the proposed overhaul of the health care system and the tax and spend policies of this government. They had assumed that since the President had garnered over 69 million votes in the past election (53% of the votes cast), the American people had given him and his party a free hand to transform the country. Never mind that the votes Mr. Obama received only accounted for 30% of the voting age population in the country and that many voted for...

In his Morning Update Friday, Rush Limbaugh offered a few tips for job hunting liberals. He started off by pointing out that "rules of work" may be a foreign concept to libs. One advice tip was "Companies do not hire you so that you can make money and have health care. They hire you for the work you produce … so that they can earn profits." Another helpful instruction was "Companies do not hire you to offer free broadband service to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or to line up dates. They expect actual productivity from you." Video: Rush Limbaugh - Job...

If you fail to submit... you will meet the tax man.

Healthcare is a personal service, not a group service such as National Defense, Law Enforcement, and Fire Suppression. Each of those entities do not serve the individual, they serve the community as a whole. The police are under no obligation to protect you personally; if you need that, you need to hire someone. Fire departments suppress fire for the good of the area; if your building needs to be sacrificed so be it. Should you need better protection, again, you need to have your own equipment and staff. The Armed Forces? Well, 9/11 should tell you that even with their...

Authorities removed 432 animals from a Citra home Thursday and Friday, to the delight of neighbors who say the menagerie was noisy and unsightly.Almost 200 animals were living cramped inside the home, including more than 150 birds, 37 dogs and two cats. The rest, including 23 goats and sheep, 74 geese, 15 turkeys, some exotic birds, snakes and gopher tortoises, were scattered around the fenced, half-acre lot in a rural area of Citra, officials said.Dawn Stephen, an animal compliance official for Marion County, said authorities became aware of the problem when paramedics were called to the residence to treat the...

Reviewers who shrug at Apple's latest update to OS X are missing the point.BURLINGAME, Calif. -- The reviews for Apple's latest Operating System, OS X Snow Leopard, have been written. And, well, they've missed the point. Most have noted that Snow Leopard offers a few new features, performs a little quicker and then go on to spend a few hundred words delivering the written equivalent of a shrug. "It isn't a big breakthrough for average users," The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg writes. Here's the breakthrough: Apple's ( AAPL - news - people ) OS X, Snow Leopard, which goes...

HARRISBURG – The competency of convicted mass murderer George Banks will once again be in the hands of a Luzerne County judge, but not the one who’s now twice had his rulings overturned by the Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court has ordered a new competency hearing for Banks, 67, convicted of fatally shooting 13 people, including five of his own children, in Wilkes-Barre and Jenkins Township on Sept. 25, 1982. He was last scheduled to be executed in December 2004, but a stay was granted after his attorneys filed a motion arguing he was too mentally ill to understand...

CHAPTER THREE THE NECESSITY OF BUILDING THIS PEACEFUL HABITATION BY DEGREES BANISH FROM YOUR MIND whatever tends to depress and disconcert you, striving always with great mildness to acquire or preserve serenity of soul. For Christ Himself has said: "Blessed are the peacemakers. . . . Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart." Never doubt that God will crown your labor and make your soul a dwelling of delight; all He asks of you is a sincere attempt to disperse the clouds and storms whenever you are molested by disturbances of the senses and passions, that...

'Noel Gallagher has announced he is quitting rock band Oasis because he can no longer work with his brother Liam. Noel, the group's lead guitarist, made the statement on the band's website. He said a series of rows with his brother led to the decision. The guitarist said: "It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight. "People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer." "Apologies to all the people who bought tickets for the shows in Paris, Konstanz and Milan,"...

At the time of this writing, the cortege of limousines is traveling from the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport to the JFK library in Boston behind the hearse bearing the remains of Sen. Ted Kennedy who died of brain cancer Aug. 25. Nevertheless, during this solemn occasion I do not join the legions of sycophantic TV hosts of the government-controlled media and their guests to laud this man, for I find absolutely nothing praiseworthy in him. Continues...================================================================== Writing an obit about Mary Jo's killer without mentioning Mary Jo -- here's how! White House spokesman Bill Burton, asked what his boss thinks...

Democrats and liberal activists are going to extreme lengths to portray opponents of government health care as irrational hatemongers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched this theme by denouncing fictitious crowds "carrying swastikas and symbols like that." When reality does not match their script, Democrats misconstrue facts or have acts of hate staged for propaganda purposes.

It's true that Barack Obama's approval ratings began at the North Pole and are already hovering around the equator. But given what he's said and done, it is quite remarkable, frankly, that they aren't firmly planted at the South Pole. The deceptions and contradictions are astounding. His premises for policy change are consistently duplicitous. He's embarked on a course to deliberately bankrupt the nation; he is at war with mainstream American values; he is undermining our national security during wartime (prosecuting our protectors -- and otherwise); and he's pursuing unprecedented government control of the private sector.

As the nation offers final tributes to Edward M. Kennedy, who will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday, the glowing eulogies have been accompanied by lingering ill will toward the senator from Massachusetts who came to embody modern liberalism. Kennedy reigned as a larger-than-life political figure for nearly half a century, engendering a level of passion matched by few others. Just as he was loved for his unalloyed political views, he was also despised.

Edward M. Kennedy's colleagues say the question that has been building since his death Tuesday is not so much who will replace him -- no one can. It is what lesson his brand of liberalism holds for today's anxious Democrats. Kennedy became a hero to liberals for the certainty and vigor he exuded in pressing their agenda, even when Republicans were in ascendance and "New Democrats" argued for moderation.