Free Republic

President Barack Obama is getting no shortage of advice on what to say in his health care speech to Congress, and much of it conflicts. Liberals want him to issue a call to action in his Wednesday address, clear and bold. Conservatives hope he'll back away from his push for sweeping changes this year and break health care legislation into smaller pieces. Everyone is hungry for specifics about Obama's stand on major elements of the package. The biggest challenge he faces is taking ownership of legislation that until now has been shaped by political conflicts in Congress. Lawmakers return this...

Reckless disregard for the safety of self or others Impulse control problems Irresponsibility Inability to tolerate boredom Pathological narcissism Shallow affect Deceitfulness/manipulativeness Aggressive or violent tendencies, repeated physical fights or assaults on others Lack of empathyLack of remorse, indifferent to or rationalizes having hurt or mistreated others A sense of extreme entitlement Lack of or diminished levels of anxiety/nervousness and other emotions Promiscuous sexual behavior, sexually deviant lifestyle Lack of personal insight

FORT HOOD — Under a searing sun, breathing clouds of dirt and gulping metallic-tasting water, some of the nation’s best defense geeks tried to impress the infantrymen and tankers of the U.S. Army. They converged on a remote part of Fort Hood last week with robots that responded to voices, giant trucks that didn’t need a driver, three-dimensional light and range detectors, unmanned track vehicles with machine guns, all of it for an event billed as Texas’ — certainly the Army’s — first Robotics Rodeo.

Venezuela's Chavez drops in on Venice film festival VENICE, Italy (AFP) – Hugo Chavez stole the show at the Venice film festival Monday as he paid a surprise visit for the screening of veteran US director Oliver Stone's documentary on the Venezuelan president. The leftist leader was expected to walk down the red carpet at around 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) to attend the official screening of "South of the Border", a look at Chavez's role in the bottom-up change sweeping South America. Reports began to circulate last week that Chavez would make an appearance, which appeared increasingly likely when a...

Following Ban on Burqa and Headscarf by Colleges in Southern India, Indian Islamic Scholar Says: 'The Burqa is Not a Part of Islam – It Is a Part of Culture' In the southern Indian state of Karnataka, Sri Venkatarama Swamy (SVS) College in Bantwal and the Government College in Appanagri district have banned the wearing of the Islamic headscarf and the burqa on campus, according to an Urdu daily.The Government College stopped 50 Muslim girls from attending classes for wearing burqas, while SVS College restricted a 19-year-old Bachelor of Commerce student from attending classes until she conforms to the college...

Seeking 'not to let a crisis go to waste', left-leaning politicians and old-style Keynesian economists want to remedy the alleged failure of capitalism with a rising tide of big government. Let the budget deficits rip, empower the unions, socialise healthcare, increase trade protection, go green, and socialise the financial and industrial base. The irony, as Charles Rowley and Nathanael Smith show in this timely monograph, is that the Keynesian policy prescriptions that are serving as the pretext for this programme have already been tried. Expansionary fiscal and monetary policies by the Bush administration and the Greenspan Fed were implemented to...

A dog with a lot of common sense!

Following August 19 Baghdad Bombings, Syrian Daily Teshreen Warns Obama: The Syria-Iran Alliance, Which Is Cultivating the Resistance, Has Won a Great Victory – And Will Not Wait Until Hesitant Obama Reaches a Decision In an August 22, 2009 article in the Syrian government daily Teshreen, Nasser Qandil, a former Lebanese MP who is close to Syria, wrote that some in Washington were acting to worsen the security situation in Iraq. Their aim, he said, is to extend the U.S. military presence in the country, which will harm U.S. President Barack Obama in his next election campaign; to promote the...

It was nearly seven months ago that President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus package to jumpstart the receding economy. But more than 200 days later, only a fraction of the hefty package has been spent and unemployment continues to plague the country. On this labor day, unemployment stands at 9.7 percent, the highest it has been in 26 years. Nearly 216,000 jobs were lost last month, and in some states, unemployment figures have reached double digits. The Obama administration says the stimulus money has helped curb layoffs and offered more help to those who are unemployed in the form...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is tapping a member of his auto industry task force to advise him on manufacturing. Obama chose a Labor Day union picnic as the backdrop to announce his selection of Ron Bloom as senior counselor for manufacturing policy. Bloom planned to travel to Cincinnati with Obama for an afternoon announcement at the AFL-CIO event. Bloom was senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as part of the auto industry task force since February. Bloom, a Harvard Business School graduate, previously advised the United Steelworkers union and worked as an investment banker. Bloom will work with...

Idiot Congressman.

Congress returns this week, and here's hoping that its members, Democrats in particular, learned a little something from this summer's town hall meetings. The lesson to be drawn from these occasionally raucous events is that America is on the verge of--or already knee-deep in--one of those moments that periodically roil the country and rearrange our preconceived notions about public life. And not a moment too soon. Popular outbursts serve as a check on, and corrective to, our elites' behavior. The people know things the elites forget or don't want to remember. The political class is supposed to serve the people,...

The resignation of White House green jobs adviser Van Jones could ultimately embolden conservatives who are critical of the Obama administration for its reliance on "czars" -- the nickname for special advisers who do not need congressional approval. Jones resigned late Saturday following mounting criticism over his past statements and associations. The tipping point came when it was discovered that he signed a petition in 2004 supporting the "9/11 truther" movement, which believes the Bush administration may have been complicit in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. But even before his resignation, critics said the controversy surrounding Jones was indicative of...

South Phila. Native: ‘I Am A Believer In The Voting Rights Act’ Rep. Frank Wolf R- Va., told The Bulletin in an exclusive interview, that he fully intends to learn why Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department voluntarily dismissed a lawsuit — for which they already obtained a judgment — against two members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense for violation of the Voting Rights Act that occurred last Election Day in North Philadelphia. Mr. Wolf is the ranking member of the House subcommittee, which has jurisdiction of the Dept. of Justice (DOJ). He is an unapologetic staunch...

A great side salad to serve with barbeque, hamburgers, hot dogs or sandwiches.

Now that White House "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones has resigned, what's next? Inevitably, the American mainstream media - ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, et al - must be held to account for sitting on the sidelines as this major story kept building without them, went viral on YouTube, and then became so large that a key appointee of President Obama was forced to step down. But with their decision to ignore the Jones story, they may have actually done Mr. Obama far more harm than good: Who vetted this guy? How did...

Here is a great piece of video work in which the old "Dragnet" star Jack Webb, and his partner lecture - President Barack Obama - about the virtues of America. This video is built off of an original "Dragnet" episode. It's a perfect parallel to the same kook philosophy of the 1960's that wanted to throw everything out about America as bad and "remake" the nation. Their advice to 1960's radicals then, is totally applicable today. NOTE: At the end, Webb says, "Don't try to build a new country; make the old one work - it has for over 400...

On August 26, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly was asked what the US thought about the dispute between Iraq and Syria. His answer shockingly recalls the last time a US government made that mistake. First, some background. Iraqi leader Nuri al-Maliki visited Syria on August 18 to discuss the two countries' relationship. He offered Syrian President Bashar Assad a lot of economic goodies in exchange for expelling 271 Iraqi exiles involved in organizing terrorist attacks against their country. Assad refused. Maliki left. The next day, huge bombings struck Baghdad, directly targeting the Foreign and Finance Ministries. More than 100 Iraqis...

+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES 6 Sept.'09:"Iraq boosts security on Syrian border amid bombs row".Mohammad Ameen, Agence France Presse QUOTE: Iraqi P.M.:"90 percent of foreign terrorists who infiltrate Iraq did so via Syria" EXCERPTS:BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has sent extra troops to secure the border with Syria and on Saturday(5 Sept) hit out at countries he says are giving terrorists the shelter needed to mount attacks inside Iraq. Maliki signalled no let-up in a worsening row with its neighbour for allegedly harbouring bombers who wrought devastation on Baghdad last month, and broadened his attack to include other nations. "We...

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll Monday, September 07, 2009 Email to a Friend ShareThis Advertisement The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -13 (see trends). Sixty percent (60%) now believe the President is at least as ethical as most politicians. On health care reform, 83% say that proof of citizenship should be required before anyone can receive government subsidies. Just 13% of Americans consider Labor...