Free Republic

MOSCOW, July 30 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow dismissed on Thursday comments by a U.S. administration official suggesting that Russia could become a member of NATO. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon said on Tuesday that Washington would consider Russian membership in the military alliance, which was founded in 1949. He said NATO should be open to European democracies, adding that "if Russia meets the criteria and can contribute to common security, and there is a consensus in the alliance, it shouldn't be excluded." Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said Gordon's comments "are not serious enough" and that the U.S....

When a word comes too close to actually identifying an inconvenient reality, secular progressives spring into action. The offending word is either redefined or reduced its first letter, thereby signifying that polite society will no longer accept it. You've heard of the N word, the B word (think Hillary) and now comes the S word. By its abbreviation, the S word, formerly known as socialism, infers a negative connotation. A negative connotation richly deserved due to the incontrovertible fact that socialism has failed every where it has been tried. In a nutshell, socialism is an economic system where property is...

AMERICAN THINKER The announcer introduces me to the audiences of thousands, “Singer/songwriter of the national America Tea Party Anthem, Mr. Lloyd Marcus!” I enthusiastically enter the stage, “Hello my fellow patriots! I am not an African American ... I am Lloyd Marcus ... AMERICAN!” The mostly white crowds go wild with applause and cheers of approval. I feel their relief and gratitude of a black man who loves his country and is not hostile or resentful toward them. I am traveling across America on the Tea Party Express Tour. We began August 28th in Sacramento, CA. Our 34 city...

It is being reported that the late Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) apologized for his role in the Chappaquiddick “incident” in his memoir. In the book, Kennedy acknowledged that “in some small way not entirely clear to me even 40 years later, I may have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.” The memoir defended the late Senator’s “deferral of admission of responsibility” as “a necessary sacrifice for the national interest. My political enemies would have gladly used it to divert me from my mission to succor the indigent, the improvident, and the irresponsible during my long career of public...

An Italian tourist is facing up to 15 years in a Brazilian prison for kissing his eight-year-old daughter on a public beach. The businessman, 48, who has not been named, was arrested following a complaint from an elderly Brazilian couple who thought he was overly affectionate towards his daughter. Despite protests from the girl that her father had done nothing wrong, the man is being kept in custody.

Many Republicans have great affection for Sarah Palin for her style, grit, charisma, tenacity and cool shoes. But now we find that she also has a certain self-assured political demeanor — an intangible — that grants her power. The former Alaska governor is "head of the table" material, a quality shared by such heavyweights as Winston Churchill and Sen. Edward Kennedy, says Jeffrey Lord of The American Spectator. "Wherever I sit is the head of the table," Mr. Churchill once remarked to a hostess concerned about seating arrangements. "A year after her emergence on the national scene, it is crystal...

September 5, 2009Van Jones Mystery Solved? More on Communists in the White House Cliff Kincaid The Obama Administration refuses to say how communist Van Jones was hired as the “Green Jobs Czar” and who recommended him. The administration refuses to say who knew what about his communist background. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), where Jones is employed, told me, in response to a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, that it had no documents about his hiring or communist background. But some possible explanations for the mysterious appointment are now coming into focus.   On...

theodp writes "Writing in Washington Monthly, Kevin Carey has seen the future of college education. It costs $99-a-month, and there's no limit on the number of courses you can take. Tiny online education firm StraighterLine is out to challenge the seeming permanency of traditional colleges and universities. How? Like Craigslist, StraighterLine threatens the most profitable piece of its competitors' business: freshman lectures, higher education's equivalent of the classified section. It's no surprise, then, that as StraighterLine tried to buck the system, the system began to push back, challenging deals the company struck with accredited traditional and for-profit institutions to allow...

coondoggie writes "The aspiration that jets may someday fly at over six times the speed of sound took a very real step toward reality recently, as the US Air Force said it successfully married the test aircraft, known as the X-51A WaveRider, to a B-52 in preparation for a Dec. 2 flight test. The X-51A flight tests are intended to demonstrate that the engines can achieve their desired speed without disintegrating. While the X-51 looks like a large rocket now, its applications could change the way aircraft or spaceships are designed, fly into space, support reconnaissance missions and handle long-distance...

The FairTax grassroots campaign will go to Washington, D.C. on September 11th with a peaceful "Storm the Hill" morning protest at the IRS and in afternoon visits to Congressional offices. Planned entirely by state and local leaders and promoted by new social network web site, FairTax Nation, the rally and Capitol Hill visits will make clear to Washington insiders and the national media that FairTax citizen support ranges from the young to the old and from conservative to liberal. Citizens from across the nation who support enactment of now pending FairTax legislation will exercise their rights as citizens to insist...

Fredericksburg, Va. (CNSNews.com) – During a town hall meeting at the Fredericksburg Expo Center, Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) said there is “no place in the Constitution” that mentions health care or education, or even gives individuals the right to own a telephone. “[L]isten, there is, there is no place in the Constitution that specifically says health care,” Warner said to a government high school teacher at the event, who asked him if the Constitution explicitly gives the government the right to run the health care system. “There’s no place in the Constitution that specifically says education,” said Warner. Moreover, he...

Obama Selling Out --"Say It Ain't So 'Joe'" (Huffington Post can only be linked to)

White House to fly Red Chinese flag On September 20, 2009, a ceremony will be held in front of the US Presidents residence to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The national flag of the People's Republic of China will be hoisted at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. Obama has already given his permission for the event.

...According to barackobama.com ! http://blog.heritage.org/2009/09/01/obamas-team-crosses-the-rhetorical-line/

There were angry clashes in a city centre today as right-wing protesters fought with anti-fascist campaigners in a busy shopping street. A planned demonstration by The English Defence League in central Birmingham descended into violence as the group charged along New Street, close to the city's main train station. More than twenty men have been arrested. 'There were about 250 people in total, fighting and Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211414/Anti-fascists-clash-right-wing-protesters-Birmingham.html#ixzz0QFxinqVM

Hi, all-- I'm putting together a writing course with the theme "Propaganda and Power," focusing on the relationship between the act of defining and/or denouncing propaganda and the resulting questions of authority and legitimacy. Our literary readings will be from Orwell and Huxley, but I'd also like to include some material from the Obama administration to show my students that Big Brother is alive, well, and raising their taxes. I know a lot of what Obama says can easily be classified as propaganda, so I'm looking specifically for material that comments on the legitimacy of other news/opinion sources or actually...

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City man who crawled under an SUV to change the oil was crushed to death after the vehicle fell off its jacks. . . . Witnesses said onlookers had warned the man not to go under the car because the jacks looked weak.

Generation OOn September 8th, King Hussein Obama the First addressed the nation’s school age children in an unprecedented internet broadcast. Before we provide the text of His Majesty’s remarks, please review the following memo provided by His Majesty’s minions to the nation’s teachers so they could put his words of wisdom in proper context. Menu of Classroom Activities President Obama’s Address to Students Across America (PreK-6) September 8, 2009 Before the Speech• Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama. Teachers could motivate students by...

Here’s the score from an Independence shoplifting case that involved a bag of meat, a wild ride atop a car’s hood and a gunshot wound: • The alleged shoplifter, Loucinda M. Carroll, 41, of Independence, has been charged with second-degree robbery. • The store’s manager, who was struck by Carroll’s car, landed on its hood and held on during an attempted getaway, was unharmed. • And the bystander who shot Carroll will not be charged because he felt he and the manager were being threatened, authorities say. Carroll suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The incident began at 6:49 p.m. Saturday at the...

The next generation of online education could be great for students—and catastrophic for universities.Like millions of other Americans, Barbara Solvig lost her job this year. A fifty-year-old mother of three, Solvig had taken college courses at Northeastern Illinois University years ago, but never earned a degree. Ever since, she had been forced to settle for less money than coworkers with similar jobs who had bachelor’s degrees. So when she was laid off from a human resources position at a Chicago-area hospital in January, she knew the time had come to finally get her own credential. Doing that wasn’t going to...