Free Republic

Two-out-of-three American voters (67%) lack confidence that Congress knows what it’s doing when it comes to the economy. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 29% are at least somewhat confident in the economic wisdom of the legislature. Those figures include seven percent (7%) who are Very Confident that Congress knows what it’s doing and 38% who are Not at All Confident. Last fall, as the financial industry meltdown burst upon the scene and Congress was asked to approve a $700 billion bailout of the financial sector, two percent (2%) were Very Confident in Congress' handling of...

The cited AP story states: A first television job on “Today” is, in her father’s world, sort of like a run for president as a first attempt at elective office. Hager said that people on the show “have always made me, whenever I’ve been there, feel very comfortable.”Bell said Hager won’t be covering politics. He said he didn’t consider the job as a down payment for a future interview with her father, who has been living quietly in Texas since leaving office earlier this year. Attacks on NBC News by conservatives for the liberal bent of MSNBC also had nothing...

Mike Allen, at the Politico, reported that Governor Palin has received 1,070 invitation since her resignation as the governor of Alaska. Pretty impressive and, of course, the MSM will naturally do its best to ignore this news. This is an important piece of news because the MSM so enjoys attacking Gov Palin at every opportunity. For Example, it was reported that Gov Palin was invited to and will attend the GOP Senate Fundraiser, The Simi Valley Republican Women’s Club and The Change Point Church in Anchorage.

Imagine 400,000 people in upstate New York gathered to protest the Vietnam War and listen to a free rocket concert with likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and Crosby Stills Nash & Young on stage. Well, this was the subject of a program on the History Channel last weekend and now there is a new movie commemorating the event 40 years ago during the summer of 1969. There are some who claim that the grisly Manson murders which occurred just weeks before in California brought to an end the hippie subculture which dominated the 1960s. Others continue...

On a Saturday morning in late August, while country was away on summer vacation and those who closely watch politics were watching Ted Kennedy's funeral, the Washington Post quietly hung up the mainstream media's white flag on the CIA's harsh interrogation tactics. It turns out, they work — who knew? Fortunately, Steve Hayes has stayed on the case and, at the Standard's blog, he's got the story about the story — along with excerpts from the essential report by FDD's Tom Joscelyn (also in the Standard, here) relating the effectiveness of the CIA program and an important op-ed by FDD's...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on last night’s edition of Penn & Teller’s show. The program aired on Showtime which is owned by CBS: The Nazis couldn’t have done better. Having been in this job for over 16 years, I have never seen a more defamatory, obscene and vicious show on TV. And I mean about any religious or demographic group—not just Catholics. The lies about the Catholic Church, to say nothing of the vile language used by Penn Jillette, were positively astounding. Moreover, it never attempted to be comedic—from the very beginning it advertised the show as payback...

The late Sen. Edward Kennedy didn’t say he would fight to ensure there would be no mandate for abortion funding in the health-care reform bill now before Congress, in the letter he wrote to Pope Benedict XVI that was hand-delivered to the Pope by President Barack Obama in early July. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington, read excerpts from the letter at Kennedy’s Aug. 29 burial service at Arlington National Cemetery. The omission of comments regarding abortion is all the more glaring, given that Kennedy stated in the letter that health-care reform is “the political cause of my...

Governor Pat Quinn signed into law the Illinois Torture Inquiry & Relief Act that will establish an 8-member commission to conduct inquiries into allegations by inmates of the use of torture to force confessions by Illinois Law Enforcement agencies. The law sponsored by State Senator Kwame Raoul and drafted by attorneys representing the organization, Black People Against Police Torture stems from allegations of torture launched at former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. Proponents of the legislation, such as Patricia Hill, executive director of the African American Police League, believe that "he next phase is the composition of the commission...

There are several questions that continue to surround the latest revelations in the CIA's EIT program. First, are waterboarding and other EIT techniques in fact torture? Whether these techniques worked or not, was it worth it? Could we have gotten any information from some detainees without using them? Finally, did we get valuable intelligence following the use of these techniques? Most of these questions are tangential. In that, there is no objective way to look at it and so your answer likely depends on your political ideology. Most will continue to be debated long after the release of the lateste...

A small group of local residents has a vision for a portion of the Colorado River that includes shaded places to rest and a return to the native ecosystem. It’s a dream the 80-some members of the Friends of McInnis Canyons hope others will share. For too long, invasive tamarisk trees have dominated the riverbanks along the 25-mile stretch between the Loma boat ramp and Utah’s Westwater section in Ruby Canyon and Horsethief Canyon. As tamarisk beetles work to kill the water-guzzling species, an effort is under way to replant Freemont cottonwood trees to help return the area to its...

In a high-profile 1991 transaction, hockey great Wayne Gretzky and Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall bought the elusive T206 Honus Wagner baseball card for $451,000. The American Tobacco Co. produced the T206 from 1909 to 1911, but only 50 were ever distributed to the public. As early as 1933, the card could supposedly fetch $50 on the collectibles market, which made it the most expensive baseball card in the world. The year 1991 isn't only notable for the Gretzky/McNall purchase. It also marked the peak year for baseball-card sales. According to estimates from Sports Collector's Digest, card sales amounted...

Keep in mind that the ABC that wouldn't run this 30 second ad, is the same ABC that had an hour-long infomercial at the White House supporting ObamaCare.

After a powerful rally in stocks from the March lows, "investors are wondering if September will live up to its reputation as the month in which the S&P 500 (SPX 1,018, -11.12, -1.08%) posts its worst price performance and frequency of decline," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor's Equity Research, on Monday. He said investors "may have a reason to fear a setback in September" considering the month's dismal historical performance. "We don't know whether concerns over the upcoming [third-quarter] earnings reporting season will trigger this anticipated digestion of gains, or if further nervousness emanating from...

Joe Biden asks the American people to help debunk health care myths by creating videos explaining why you want reform.

Former DHS secretary Tom Ridge exposed himself as a weasel nearly two weeks ago when he allowed his publisher to gin up bogus book buzz with a false claim about the Bush administration pressuring him to alter homeland security alerts for political purposes.

"Professor Lisa Jardine said that payments should be considered because a national shortage of donated eggs and sperm was driving infertile couples to seek treatment abroad, where large fees are permitted. British donors can receive only expenses, plus up to £250 for lost earnings. Any such move would have to comply with the 2004 EU Tissues and Cells Directive, which restricts the circumstances in which money can change hands for sperm and eggs. The directive requires that governments “shall endeavour to ensure voluntary and unpaid donations of tissues and cells” and states that compensation “is strictly limited to making good...

President Obama's green jobs czar Van Jones co-founded the communist group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), Glenn Beck said on his TV show Friday. STORM described itself and its activities as: "We upheld the Marxist critique of capitalist exploitation. We agree with Lenin's analysis of the state and the party. And we found inspiration and guidance in the insurgent revolutionary strategies developed by third world revolutionaries like Mao Tse-Tung and Amilcar Cabral." The vehemently anti-American group held a vigil in Oakland, California, “mourning the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world” on the night after Sept. 11,...

If you have ever had a medical checkup, you have probably heard about the Body Mass Index (BMI) that it supposed to have an optimal value around 25. Probably you were told to take your weight in pounds, divide it by the square of your height in inches and multiply the result by 703 to find your BMI. If you are over 40 years old your BMI was most likely more than 25 and your doctor told you to lose weight. The multiplication by the mysterious number 703 tends to lend the measure an aura of scientific authority. However if...

Listen Live: Sound Off Connecticut with Jim Vicevich 9 a.m. to noon ET (Daily Thread)Sound Off Connecticut is a popular conservative/libertarian call in talk show hosted by Jim Vicevich weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon ET. Although based in Connecticut, the show welcomes callers from all over the United States! This is your chance to sound off America! Call into the show toll free (800) 966-9842! Listen to the LIVE AUDIO STREAM at http://wtic.com - it's free and NO registration is required! If you're in southern New England listen over the air to WTIC 1080 AM, the 50,000...

After an August recess marked by raucous town halls, troubling polling data and widespread anecdotal evidence of a volatile electorate, the small universe of political analysts who closely follow House races is predicting moderate to heavy Democratic losses in 2010.