Free Republic

Does anybody know if there is any effort going on to reverse the open primary system that gave us John McCain? According to Wikipedia the following states have open primaries: * Alabama * Arkansas * Georgia * Idaho * Indiana * Michigan * Minnesota * Mississippi * Missouri * North Dakota * South Carolina * Tennessee * Texas * Vermont * Virginia * Wisconsin I've run a google news search and come up with blanks.

ADDISON — A crowd estimated at 3,000 people assembled in the parking lot of an Addison restaurant Friday to protest the Obama administration's health care plan. Organizers of the Tea Party Express caravan said it was the biggest crowd since they began a cross-country, grass-roots marathon last month in Sacramento, California. Many attending the lunch time rally outside the Cape Buffalo restaurant carried signs reading "ObamaScare: It's to die for," "Hands off our Medicare & guns" and "'We're not going to pull the plug on Grandma' — THEY JUST WON'T PLUG HER IN." This is an outgrowth of "tea party"...

BRUSSELS (AFP) – The World Trade Organisation has judged European subsidies paid to Airbus illegal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a source "familiar with the matter". But European sources who declined to be named told AFP that the interim ruling released by the WTO indicated that the US complaint was only partially upheld. The Journal reported from Brussels that the WTO concluded that every launch-aid package given to Airbus for the development of its A380 double-decker long-range airliner was an illegal subsidy. The conclusion was contained in a report of around 1,000 pages, with hard copies only...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama supports abortion and has done everything possible to expand the number of abortions during his brief tenure as president. While Obama may not have racist motivations for backing abortion, black pro-life advocates are saying that is the outcome. Two African-American pro-life leaders are saying that, because abortions disproportionately target the black community, expanding abortions brings a racial result.Day Gardner, the president of the National Black Pro-Life Union, tells LifeNews.com that Obama's abortion promotion is evident."In less than nine months he has overturned the Mexico City policy -- which means American tax dollars...

Alarmed by Israeli plans to build new housing units in settlements and dimming prospects for American peace efforts, the Obama administration on Friday put out a rare and harsh public rebuke of its main Mideast ally. The White House said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's settlement plans were "inconsistent" with commitments the Jewish state has made previously and harmful to U.S. attempts to lay the groundwork for a resumption in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. "United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stop," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said...

Russia, Poland and history. Mr Putin regrets Sep 3rd 2009 From The Economist print edition It is hard to imagine modern Germany haggling with Poland about opening wartime archives, let alone over who started the war. With Russia, it is different. Vladimir Putin’s visit to Gdansk, where a ceremony this week marked the first shots of the second world war in September 1939, was both a step forward and a depressing sign of continuing difficulties. Polish officials struggled to stay polite before the Russian prime minister’s arrival. In June the Russian defence ministry website argued that Poland had caused the...

UNIONTOWN, Pa. -- State police have charged a self-proclaimed Civil War buff with accidentally firing a 2-pound cannonball through the wall of a neighbor's home. Fifty-four-year-old William Maser says he was firing a cannon Wednesday evening when the ball ricocheted and hit the house about 400 yards away.

Ashcroft liable for detentions, court finds By Tony Romm - 09/04/09 04:18 PM ET Former Attorney General John Ashcroft may be sued and held liable for wrongly detaining witnesses after the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. In its decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Abdullah Al-Kidd, a U.S. citizen detained as a material witness for two weeks, may sue the former attorney general for breaching his constitutional rights. Al-Kidd claimed during the case that his brief imprisonment caused him to lose a scholarship and crippled his chances of finding employment, according...

JERUSALEM – Van Jones, President Obama's controversial environmental adviser, signed a petition calling for nationwide "resistance" against police, accusing them of using the 9/11 attacks to carry out policies of torture. The petition was organized by the October 22nd Coalition, an anti-police organization whose mission statement was drawn up by leaders of the radical Black Panther Collective for Social Progress. The movement organizes yearly national anti-police demonstrations, accusing police of "brutality, detentions, domestic spying, profiling and other attacks on human and civil liberties." The protests are held under the banner of the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality,...

Well, some in the media weren't ignoring avowed Communist and Barack Obama Administration "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones after all. The New York Times' Thomas Friedman was lauding him.

When I received my invitation in the mail from Jim Moran himself that mentioned his Health Care Town Hall would include special guest Howard Dean I knew I had to go. I wanted to get front and center, which meant taking a 1/2 day from work to get there early. Doors were scheduled to open at 6:00, and Ron, our local Tea Party organizer alerted us that Moran was bringing in tons of his troops to fill the rafters with "be there by 5:00" marching orders. Word was that this initially was only open to folks from Moran's district but...

Putin's 'Polish Syndrome' September 04, 2009 By Vladimir Nadein Ten years of absolute power and 10 years of unlimited sycophancy have not failed to leave their mark on Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He has completely lost the ability to listen to others or to hear himself. This isn't a problem in Russia, where he controls everything. And it isn't generally a problem in the West, where when people don't fully understand you, they just nod and smile as long as you don't try to take away their morning roll. But Poland is not the West. The West knows communism,...

It's been nearly seven months since CNBC reporter Rick Santelli took a stand against the Obama administration, which inspired the tea party movement - and the White House hasn't forgotten. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked by CNBC Washington correspondent John Harwood why the administration decided to go after Santelli after his Feb. 19 call for a metaphorical revolt over President Barack Obama's economic policies. ..more (w/video)..

Our children in Florida are threatened if they don't attend Obama's diatribe. What part of "ain’t [America] no more, okay?” did YOU not understand? (Officer Wesley Cheeks) http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/04/broward-county-fl-schools-no-you-cant-opt-out-of-obama-speech/ From M Malkin School Source website: http://www.browardschools.com/info/obama.htm

When one spends one day thinking logically about issues like healthcare and the economy, arguing that maybe, just maybe, it would be a good thing for our government to live within its means, one is often dumbfounded by the amount of foolishness that one hears in response. Then one is encountered with the True Liberal Outlook on what it is to be of a Right persuasion.

I’ve caught some heat since election night when I made my first reference to the person whom I expected would turn out to be our first punk president. As I noted in a related February column, there was plenty of pre-election justification for concern that the most powerful elected office in the world was about to be occupied by, at the very minimum, a “a young, inexperienced person” who lacks major elements of maturity one would expect in someone about to take on such a serious responsibility. Normally, these traits would be acquired in one’s life as a result of...

BOOK REVIEW : The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. By Richard Dawkins. Simon and Schuster; 480 pages; $30. Bantam Press; £20. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk A SCIENTIST on a flight across America falls into conversation with his neighbour, who turns out to be gratifyingly interested in his research on wild guppy populations in Trinidad. He probes deeply the scientist’s methods, his findings and setbacks. Then comes the big question: what is the theory underlying the work? Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, replies the scientist. The rest of the journey passes in chilly silence. This anecdote...

The United States has no alternative to oil to meet its massive energy needs and should recognize its energy interdependence with the Middle East, Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal wrote in an article on Friday. U.S. President Barack Obama has been pushing to boost green energy which cuts emissions of heat-trapping gases and reduces the use of fossil fuels. In his election campaign, Obama raised some potentially disturbing issues for the Saudis, such as ending dependence on Middle Eastern oil. In the article translated into Italian and published by Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Turki said energy independence was...

The administration of President Barack Obama, whose official blogger while Obama was a candidate came under attack for hanging a Communist Party flag in his Harvard apartment, apparently has given permission to raise the emblem of Communist China over the south lawn of the White House. The plan, reported by several English-language Chinese media outlets, has raised concern among those who are working to guard the United States from outside influences that could be threats. According to the Global Times English-language edition, the national flag of the communist People's Republic of China on Sept. 20 will be raised for the...

"Fox News is reporting that a former University of South Alabama student has been indicted in Mobile, Ala., and faces charges he is a terrorist linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network."