Free Republic

America is a free country, my father told me in the ‘50s. In Russia, my grandparents’ homeland, people were arrested for speaking against the government. In America, anyone could stand on a street corner and shout, “Down with the president.” We happened to live on a corner. So I stood out by the street sign and the fire hydrant and yelled, “Down with President Eisenhower!” It was the suburbs. No pedestrians. I tried again when a car went by. “Down with President Eisenhower. Down with the government!” No reaction. I yelled louder for the next car: “Up with Khruschev! Communism...

In early July, Charles Ortel, managing director with Newport Value Partners, told Tech Ticker General Electric's stock is only worth $2 per share. Since that appearance, GE agreed to pay $50 million to settle SEC fraud charges and Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to a 'buy' saying the company won't have to split off its financing arm, GE Capital. The shares are up from under $11 to more than $13 today. Regardless, Ortel is sticking to his bearish guns: "Absolutely," he still recommends GE as a short. In fact, "the situation is even more dangerous now," he claims. Ortel's research...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Even as he told the story, Mike Cunning still couldn't believe it himself. The sport fisherman was sitting on the dock at Thunderbird Marina with his 5-year-old daughter when he suddenly heard a splash and saw that his daughter was gone. "The seal jumped up, grabbed her and pulled her right in," he said. Cunning quickly pulled his daughter out of the water, but her hand had already been badly beaten.

David Hogberg of the National Policy Center has an interesting, in depth study of the mess that is Sweden’s single payer healthcare system from 2007 that is very relevant to today’s discussion of Obamacare because much of what Obama wants has already proving a failure in Sweden. “The experience of Sweden demonstrates,” Hogberg says, “that when a nation adopts market-oriented reform for its health care system, the reforms will fail if the market is not permitted to work.” Hogberg discusses some of the detailed changes that Sweden made to its system in the 1980s. These changes were made because costs...

September 3, 2009 The common thread: a bird's eye view of the TEA Party movementBy Paul A. Ibbetson The TEA Part movement, which started for most as a small grassroots effort by disenchanted Americans to voice their disapproval with the government, is now growing to epic proportions. The movement has transcended the bounds of simply being events that people have heard about in faraway places, to events happening in almost every town on any given day. In fact, for TEA Party goers, it's no longer a case of trying to make a single event, but how many events can you...

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) -- Police say a 61-year-old man annoyed with a crying 2-year-old girl at a suburban Atlanta Walmart slapped the child several times after warning the toddler's mother to keep her quiet.

You see it all the time, Democrats in any particular state or county government proposing to raise sales taxes to raise “much needed” revenues -- I say “much needed” because spending cuts are never considered an option for what ails a government budget. But these money-hungry Democrats never once consider the harm they are doing to the businesses in their own jurisdictions especially when surrounding states (or counties) happen to have lower sales taxes than the new, higher level being introduced by Democrat tax hikers. These tax-mongering Democrats simply assume that raising the taxes will raise the revenues and that...

It figures. Barack Obama's communist Green Czar Van Jones is a Truther. He believes the Bush Administration was behind 9-11 and signed the official 9-11 Truth Document demanding a further investigation.

Perhaps it is the Brit’s unseemly penchant to slobber over royals, but a recent photo of President Obama has elicited that ever-so-common, shop-worn, knee-jerk royalesque response in the media over there. (Yes, it’s a words-with-dashes sort of day) The photo of the president at his Oval Office desk while daughter Sasha playfully spies on him from behind a couch has caused the Brit media to raise comparisons to the famous photo of J.F.K at his desk as little John, John plays under it. At least three British news sources and one Australian outlet absurdly claimed that the Obama photo “invoked”...

On Wednesday Glenn Beck continued reporting on the story from the previous day's show which detailed a secret push by the Obama administration to use the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to create (or some would say, maintain) a cult of personality around President Obama.

All of you former Right Up Front readers know of my undying affection and unyielding loyalty to Mitt Romney. Indeed, he is my first choice for the nomination in 2012. Now it looks like the Stormin' Mormon may be testing the waters for an encore run at the GOP knod. Politico's Jonathan Martin has the details. After a few stops in some early primary states and lavish fundraiser at a "trendy" Washington eatery, there are many reasons for any former Romney fan to be hopeful. And who better to go up against a now-obviously undisciplined current White House resident than...

First it was Gov. Paterson. Now the dean of New York's congressional delegation has played the race card -- and just as the governor did, he's using President Obama to do it. Rep. Charles Rangel said Tuesday that "bias" and "prejudice" toward Obama are fueling opposition to health-care reform.

Prominent Indian Christian Politician Dies in Chopper Crash Thu, Sep. 03, 2009 Posted: 11:20 AM EDT Dr. Y.S Rajashekhara Reddy, Chief Minister of Indian state of Andhra Pradesh died in a helicopter crash along with four others on Wednesday while traveling from the state capital Hyderabad to Chittoor district. Under his leadership, the state had appealed to the federal government to amend the Indian Constitution to provide for granting the Scheduled Caste status to millions of Untouchable ‘Dalit’ Christians that will give them many benefits. The 60-year-old chief minister, popularly known as YSR, was going to Chittor for a mass...

This year, the U.S. presidency of the Security Council happens to coincide with this and offers the opportunity for important meetings at the highest levels. Nations, Susan Rice told reporters on Wednesday that the highlight of the U.S. presidency will be a summit-level Security Council meeting on nuclear non-proliferation. It is scheduled to be held on September 24 and will be chaired by President Obama - the first time a U.S. president has led a Security Council meeting. "This session will focus on nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament broadly, and not on any particular countries

Michelle Malkin: Independent TV documentarian Jan Helfeld asks California Democrat Rep. Pete Stark about the national debt and the economy. Stark tells him repeatedly to “shut up,

PICTURES: Italy prepares AMX fleet for possible Afghanistan deployment By Luca Peruzzi The Italian air force has completed a four-week qualification campaign intended to clear its AMX ground-attack aircraft for possible operations in Afghanistan. Ten of the aircraft, upgraded to Italy's latest ACOL standard, participated in a "Green Flag West" exercise at Nellis AFB, Nevada, flying 171 sorties totalling 300 flight hours by day and night. Supported by nearly 180 personnel, including from air force and army special forces units, the aircraft were used for tasks such as convoy escort and urban close air support during the manoeuvres. A total...

Harshad Desai has endured racial slurs and harassment since moving to Panguitch in 1992, so a ruling that he be allowed to substitute teach in Garfield public schools comes as long overdue vindication. But the 58-year-old native of India, a U.S. citizen, doesn't hold a grudge. He says he just wants a shot at teaching, to see if it's something he is good at and likes. Cheryl D. Luke, an administrative law judge for the Utah Labor Commission, determined that Garfield School District officials engaged in racial profiling and prejudice when in 2001, they rejected Desai for a substitute teaching...

The national debt is already $11.7 trillion. Obama's budget deficit, according to the administration, is already $1.5 trillion. The health care overhaul would add another trillion to it. Because of the massive debt and the deficit, the Federal Reserve is having a hard time unloading the debt. Actually, they can't unload the debt, so they are printing money to buy it. And rather than looking for ways to lower the debt, the administration is looking to raise the debt limit. It may be borderline conspiracy theory, but one has to wonder if the goal here isn't reforming health care but...

Choices: Yes. Law-abiding citizens should be able to do whatever is legal. No. It's needlessly provocative and could be dangerous. Current standings: 69.6% - 30.4% in favor, with 24,153 voting

A very interested article by D.K. Jamaal, of The Progressive Examiner, tells us like it is. The left continues, not only underestimate Governor Palin, but to discredit her at every opportunity while losing every single debate. It’s not even 2012, and Sarah Palin, the “lightweight” Caribou Barbie stupid dumb right-wing inexperienced unqualified unaccomplished religious wacko birther enabling nut that came from Wasilla, has already defeated President Obama. She has trounced Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. She has trumped MoveOn, ACORN, and Obama’s mass army of volunteers at Organizing for America. She has out-demagogued the three stooges of MSNBC Keith Olbermann,...