Free Republic

Just before Thanksgiving last year, a group of former aides to Mitt Romney convened at his salmon-colored Belmont home, many of them gathering for the first time since Romney had disbanded his presidential campaign some nine months before. Romney had invited them for a post-mortem of the election weeks earlier, the type of dispassionate assessment that the Harvard Business School alumnus so enjoyed. But over cookies, they found few of the metrics for success that Romney prized -- Republicans had been decisively thumped at all levels -- and his attention shifted from 2008 to the future.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will cut short its summer break in early September to hear a new argument in a momentous case that could transform the way political campaigns are conducted. The case, which arises from a minor political documentary called “Hillary: The Movie,” seemed an oddity when it was first argued in March. Just six months later, it has turned into a juggernaut with the potential to shatter a century-long understanding about the government’s ability to bar corporations from spending money to support political candidates. The case has also deepened a profound split among liberals, dividing those who...

The British Broadcasting Corporation has been described by Rupert Murdoch’s son as a threat to independent journalism and democracy. James Murdoch, the 36-year-old head of News Corp in Europe and Asia, said the BBC, as part of a state-sponsored journalism network, was threatening the "plurality and independence of news provision." The BBC is funded by the British government through television licenses. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp controls British Sky Broadcasting Group, one of the BBC's main competitors in Britain. Speaking in Edinburgh, Scotland, Murdoch said that British broadcasting policy had failed to keep pace with changes, relying on state regulation rather...

Vote No. Currently the No's are 69%. Let's see if we can break 90%. Here's an easy to click on link. http://greenlagirl.com/saturday-surveys-the-whole-foods-health-care-debacle/#pd_a_1931825

These extraordinary pictures are the first glimpse inside the squalid back garden compound where Jaycee Lee Dugard was kept captive for 18 years. A hand-painted 'Welcome' sign leads the way to a rundown world of tattered tents and outbuildings amid overgrown trees and bushes.The first words Jaycee said to her mother when the pair were tearfully reunited were: 'Hi Mom, I have babies,' it has emerged. The 29-year-old's stepfather also claims that she had developed a powerful emotional bond with her abductor, Phillip Garrido.

Animal pictures of the week: 28 August 2009 Three male Amur tiger cubs, formerly known as Siberian tigers, presented to the public at Utah's Hogle Zoo Picture: AP

Fear that the coming flu season will be deadly has inspired several extreme measures aimed at controlling the spread of the virus. The senate of Massachusetts has passed the so-called “Pandemic Response Bill.” Under the bill’s provisions, persons suspected of being infected may be interrogated and, if necessary, quarantined by state authorities “as they deem most conducive to protecting the collective health of the state’s inhabitants.” The Massachusetts bill would also establish mandatory vaccinations and would impose fines of $1,000 per day and/or possible imprisonment for anyone who refuses to submit or to follow orders given by state-licensed law enforcement...

blockquote>The insinuation -- the vulgar Marxist insinuation -- that my conservative politics is a plot to make money is typical of Conason (indeed, as was the subject of his first attack on me, inspired by my first Salon column). Does anyone wonder why conservatives regard socialism as envy gussied up as a political cause? Although my parents were communists, after adolescence I never was, in either practice or theory.

The Democratic Majority Leader of the US Senate Harry Reid told a Nevada businessman this week at a luncheon, "I hope you go out of business." The Review-Journal reported, via FOX Nation: On Wednesday, before he addressed a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Reid joined the chamber's board members for a meet-'n'-greet and a photo. One of the last in line was the Review-Journal's director of advertising, Bob Brown, a hard-working Nevadan who toils every day on behalf of advertisers. He has nothing to do with news coverage or the opinion pages of the Review-Journal. Yet, as Bob shook...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will cut short its summer break in early September to hear a new argument in a momentous case that could transform the way political campaigns are conducted. The case, which arises from a minor political documentary called “Hillary: The Movie,” seemed an oddity when it was first argued in March. At issue is whether the court should overrule a 1990 decision, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates. The court’s order calling for re-argument, issued in June, has generated more than 40 friend-of-the-court briefs....

TODAY'S election in the African nation of Gabon will make Inge Bongo -- who's living on welfare with her two kids in California and collecting food stamps -- the first lady of that oil-rich African country. But she's afraid to even visit. Inge, the lovely wife of fabulously wealthy Ali Bongo -- whose father, Omar Bongo, died in June after ruling for more than four decades -- still has the scars from the beatings she endured, and voodoo exorcisms carried out by witch doctors who slashed her and put black-magic medicine in her wounds. SNIP "It's shameful to me that...

The Times of London continues to rip to shreds the official explanations from Edinburgh and London over the so-called “compassionate release” of Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the terrorist who killed 270 people, mostly Americans, in the 1987 bombing of Pan Am flight 103. The Scots insisted that the release was consistent with their “values”, while the Gordon Brown government insisted that they did nothing to influence the decision. New documents unearthed by the Times show both to be lying: The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the...

PHILADELPHIA – A former Pennsylvania state senator convicted on fraud charges is scheduled to report to federal prison in Kentucky on Monday. Sixty-six-year-old Vincent Fumo has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for defrauding the Senate and two nonprofits of several million dollars. ... The 66-year-old Fumo was a wealthy Democratic power broker during a 30-year state Senate career.

There is no hiding the fact that last Saturday’s march in rejection of the new Education Bill has unsettled the regime’s nerves. In the span of one week, the regime has jailed 12 peaceful protesters, including tonight the jailing of the “Prefecto” of the Metropolitan District (The highest civil authority below the Mayor), as the Government continues searching for Oscar Perez, one of the organizers of last Saturday’s march, who will be charged for nothing more than…organizing it...And this is now state policy as clearly oulined and defined by the ineffable and fascist Prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who threatened to jail...

Maybe it's because her dad served in the U.S. Marines ... or because her high school mascot is a fierce-looking eagle ... or because she plans to enlist in the Army next summer after graduation to defend her country ... whatever the reason, when Heather Lawrence saw a fellow student refuse to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and recite it with the class, the 16-year-old Junior ROTC member saw a teachable moment and took it. And for that, she's been suspended five days. Lawrence's troubles with administrators at Springstead High School in Spring Hill, Fla., began last Wednesday when...

I have been lurking since 2000, and have not posted before. I haven't seen this posted as an idea, and think that it's a great time to propose this what with the healthcare debate, Rangel, et al.

Rasmussen poll: Replace the entire Congress in November @ 12:50 pm by Tony Romm More than half of voters surveyed in a recent Rasmussen poll say they would prefer to replace every member of Congress this November — a slight decrease in voter dissatisfaction with both chambers since October 2008. More troubling for Congressional Republicans in particular: 69 percent say the party's elected officials are out of touch with their conservative base. Rasmussen cites a number of reasons for voters' increased frustration with their lawmakers, including the "unpopular $700-billion bailout plan in the heat of a presidential campaign and a...

STATEWIDE PINK SLIP PETITION RALLY! TODAY

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said on Sunday that Vicki Kennedy should be considered to replace her late husband in the Senate. Hatch, one of Kennedy's closest friends in the Senate, said on CNN's State of the Union that Vicki Kennedy is well-qualified to serve, even if only until a January special election to fill the rest of the term. "I think Vicki ought to be considered. She's a very brilliant lawyer. She's a very solid individual. She certainly made a difference in Ted's life, let me tell you. And I have nothing but great respect for her," Hatch said on...

Conservatives 4 Palin put together an excellent video on the famous 3:00 AM phone call Obama has been getting weekly.