Free Republic

Abortion advocates have got to be scratching their heads. For the first time in decades, they have staunch allies in the top echelons of government and the left-wing majorities needed to advance their agenda. No legislative roadblocks impede their way -- not a president's veto pen, not hostile committee chairs, not unfriendly leadership in the House and Senate. They also have a president who promised to make the Freedom of Choice Act, a bill that would overturn all state-level abortion restrictions, his first priority as the nation's chief executive. More importantly, with Obama the pro-abortion movement has the luxury of...

The senior Liberal was seething over the cellphone from Sudbury, where his federal party had gathered to plot their electoral suicide. “Wanna hear my analogy to this mess?,” he confided. “The car is ready and moving forward. Unfortunately there’s a cliff straight ahead. But the real problem is that the driver is accelerating because he thinks he can jump the canyon.” That head-smashing-in Liberal jump could take place two weeks from today, following party leader Michael Ignatieff’s "zap, we're dead" policy of voting against the government at every opportunity. Yup, you read that correctly. The anticipated early October showdown is...

Band of Mothers founder Bev Perlson is excited to have the 9/12 Tea Party organization join her and supporters, FReeRepublic and Gathering of Eagles/Eagles Up members. I say the 9/12 Tea Party is joining us is because Bev and her supporters have been at the Cannon Building five times previously since December, 2007. Last year she made the week before 9/11 a Band of Mothers yearly event at the Cannon Building. Just like Gen. MacArthur, Bev promised to be back and she is. Band of Mothers will be at the corner of Independence Ave and New Jersey, SW, in front...

The Employment Policies Institute has launched a costly, multimedia campaign to educate the public about the consequences of America's $11 trillion debt, and urge the country to reverse course.--- A nonprofit advocacy group has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to raise awareness about America's soaring federal debt. The multimedia campaign is trying to hammer its message on all fronts. It includes a Web site -- Defeatthedebt.com, which features a rolling odometer showing the red ink at over $11 trillion -- and a startling new TV ad. The ad shows school children pledging allegiance to the national debt. "And to the Chinese...

THE global-warming bill moving through Congress would cost the nation nearly $10 trillion -- while doing virtually nothing to stop warming. The Waxman-Markey "cap and trade" bill passed the House in late June; the Senate's due to take it up late this month. Its biggest problem (among many) is that it relies on the myth that we understand exactly what causes warming and what to do about it -- that the only issue is finding the political will. Yet a major new study published in the American Geophysical Union's official publication, the Journal of Geophysical Research, indicates that most warming...

Republican Pat Toomey and Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak show they both think they are in a better position than Arlen Specter to hold Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seat up in 2010. --- ALLENTOWN -- Two men vying to replace Arlen Specter in the U.S. Senate couldn't hold more opposite views on health care -- and probably everything else -- but that didn't mean they couldn't get together to hold a joint town hall forum on health care Wednesday night. Pat Toomey, a former Republican congressman, and Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak even planned to go for a beer afterward. "It is different,...

According to Obama’s Green Job’s Czar, Van Jones, Republicans “are a**holes.” And guess what? “Barack Obama is not an asshole.” So there you have it in a nutshell. Barack Obama, the non-asshole wearing the white hat, is struggling in his attempt to force his socialist agenda down the throats of unwilling Americans and it’s those asshole Republicans wearing the black hats that are to blame. As I stated in a recent AT article, Americans have been called mobsters, racists, partisan, stupid, un-American, and mean, just to name of few of the accusations pouring out of this administration. And now we...

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. ~Article I, Section 3 of the United States Constitution ~ Through the chance of history and some political maneuvering, the fate of ObamaCare could fall upon the decision of a single man who has never been elected to national office. If the circumstances weren't so serious it would be a comedy of errors that leads us to where we are today. On Monday, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced that on...

Japan's new First Lady Miyuki Hatoyama: 'I went to Venus in a UFO' Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo Japan’s new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, faces formidable foreign policy challenges in dealing with an expansionist China, a nuclear armed North Korea and a sinister Russia. But he need have no concerns about establishing friendly relations with the planet Venus — his own wife is a friend of the Venusians, having travelled there in a UFO in the 1970s. The distinctions of 66-year-old Miyuki Hatoyama do not end there. As well a being a musical actress, cookery writer, clothesmaker and television personality,...

The Scottish Government has suffered a defeat in parliament over its handling of the Lockerbie case. Opposition parties united in a vote to condemn the decision to free terminally-ill Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. The move fell short of a vote of no-confidence in the SNP government.

The people of the United States find themselves in the midst of a severe recession, with unemployment higher than it has been in many years, housing prices cratering, retirement plans collapsing, and their lifestyles constricting. The financial industry collapsed. We had to come to the rescue, pouring our own futures into saving the banks, brokerages, and insurance companies from their own greedy foolishness. The stagnant American automobile industry was imploding, and the people had to bail them out too, further mortgaging the future of their children. Our politicians responded to this catastrophe by spending our future for us, and then...

The Curse of Nye Bevan usually strikes down anyone who badmouthes the health service - as Levi Johnston's claims prove

WASHINGTON -- When President Obama addresses a joint session of Congress next Wednesday to push for health care reform, the speech will come nearly 16 years after President Bill Clinton delivered his own address to Congress on the very same topic. Clinton's push for health care reform ultimately failed, but in the short term, his speech in September 1993 succeeded: Afterward, polling showed the country somewhat open to Clinton's call for mandatory insurance coverage purchased and supplied through tightly regulated Health Maintenance Organizations. Obama's speech, however, will occur after a summer of discontent driven by raucous town hall events, resulting...

Pundits, including perceptive conservative opponents like Charles Krauthammer, have noted the consummate political skill of Barack Obama. There is not much doubt that Obama was able to wage a very effective campaign for the Democrat nomination and then for the presidency in the general election. Bill Clinton was a masterful campaigner too (I had the opportunity to watch some of that first hand.) Ronald Reagan, because in part of his long career in Hollywood, could give "The Speech" a thousand times and each time it was electrifying. The word "charisma" entered our popular political language to describe John Kennedy, whose...

CHAPTER EIGHT CONCERNING OUR FAITH IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT, AND THE METHOD BY WHICH WE ARE TO OFFER OURSELVES TO GOD OUR FAITH and love in the Holy Eucharist must so increase and strengthen as to become almost part of the very fiber of our being. Such faith and love cannot be successfully cultivated without a disciplined will, prepared to undergo all afflictions, tribulations, infirmities, and spiritual dryness for the sake of Jesus Christ. It is not for us to ask Him to change Himself into us, rather should we humbly petition to be changed into Him. Entertain Him not...

'ABC" stands for All Barack's Children. On Sept. 8, young students across the country will be watch ing TV. Yes, they'll be parked in front of boob tubes and computer screens watching President Obama's address on education. Instead of reviewing multiplication tables or diagramming sentences, America's kids will be lectured about the importance of learning. Then the schoolchildren, from pre-K through 12th grade, will be exhorted to Do Something -- other than sit in their seats and receive academic instruction, that is. Education Secretary Arne Duncan dispatched letters to principals nationwide, boasting, "This is the first time an American president...

Purgatory 951. I am interested in your dogma concerning purgatory. Must I be a Catholic before I can understand that invention of your Church? No. You must be a non-Catholic to suspect that the Church did invent it. The idea that there is no purgatory is the invention of Protestants. The reformers corrupted the true doctrine, and many good Protestants, realizing this, are returning to the Catholic religion of their forefathers even as I myself have done. Meantime, if I could discover, or you could show me, when and where the Church invented this doctrine, I promise to spend the...

With this being the end of summer and Congress still on recess, maybe James Taranto was stuck for a topic when he used his Wall Street Journal column to float Dick Cheney's name as a possible Republican candidate to challenge Barack Obama in 2012. Dick Cheney? Take a breath. However unlikely that prospect might seem today, Taranto presents at least one - maybe the single - scenario where a Cheney candidacy might resonate with enough voters to give him a shot at winning the White House. "If the Bush administration's policies really did keep us safe for 7½ years, then...

THE classified status report from Afghanistan by Gen. Stanley McChrystal was censored by the White House before its submission. As a result, it's all bun and no burger. According to multiple (angry) sources, McChrystal -- our top soldier on the ground -- intended to ask for 28,000 more US troops. A presidential hatchet man directed the general not to make the request: Troop increases would be "addressed separately." Worried about his poll numbers, our president's making a bad situation worse. He's given McChrystal the impossible mission of turning Afghan Flintstones into Jetsons, while starving him of means. This violates a...

Over the past few weeks, false claims surrounding health care reform have ricocheted across the country—online, on television and radio, and (loudly) at town hall meetings. Sadly, health reform opponents are propagating bogus information that preys on senior citizens’ worst fears, not only to push them to oppose health care reform, but to cast doubt on the Obama administration’s commitment to the welfare of older Americans. (snip) NEA knows that quality health care is essential to keeping the nation’s educators, students, and retirees active and prepared for learning, teaching, and mentoring. The Association’s vision of a successful health care reform...