Free Republic

Joseph P. Kennedy II said today he will not make a bid for the senate seat held by his late uncle Edward M. Kennedy, in a bombshell announcement expected to draw candidates-in-waiting out from the wings. “Given all that my uncle accomplished, it was only natural to consider getting back involved in public office, and I appreciate all the calls of support and friendship that have poured in,” Kennedy said in a statement posted on the web site of Citizens Energy, of which he is the founder. “My father called politics an honorable profession, and I have profound respect for...

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources disclose that Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are working on a wide-raging plan to replicate Iran’s key nuclear installations in Venezuela, possibly in the framework of a new program there on the Iranian and North Korean models. The French news agency AFP, reporting from Tehran Sunday, disclosed Chavez’s suggestion to Iran to establish in his country a “nuclear village” to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. But, according to DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources, the conversation between the two presidents Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 5-6, when they visited Shiite shrines in Meshhad, went as far as to discuss the...

Gen. Stanley McChrystal's report on the situation in Afghanistan is likely to strain relations between the Obama administration and the uniformed military. The arrival of McChrystal's report in Washington is likely to spark its own low-level war of finger-pointing and blame-shifting between civilian policymakers in the White House and McChrystal's staff and defenders in the Pentagon. This strain in civil-military relations could last through the duration of the U.S. military's involvement in Afghanistan and beyond. McChrystal's report is supposedly secret, but anonymous staffers have already revealed its themes to the Washington Post. The goal of these staffers is to protect...

Hello Cincinnati. Hello Ohio. I can't think of a better place to be on Labor Day than at America's biggest Labor Day picnic-with the workers and families of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO. First, give a big round of applause to Charlie. Charlie reminds us that in these tough times, America's working men and women are ready to roll up their sleeves and get back to work.

I was curious and went to check out his background and credentials and found that his Wikipedia entry has already been updated with his recent resignation. While I was there I found this little gem he said about joining the Obama administration: "I couldn't be prouder to be laying my sword on the table along with everybody else in the Obama Love Army, and I'm excited about it." ___ Van Jones See post below for link

Public doubts ‘official’ account of Kennedy death By Editors, The Skunk • on August 30, 2009 • BOSTON — Over 68% of Americans don’t believe the official government story that Senator Edward Kennedy died from a brain tumor, according to a survey released today.

September 04, 2009, 4:00 a.m. A Dangerous DelusionWe go to war to defend our interests, not to encourage democracy. By Andrew C. McCarthy Right after 9/11, Pres. George W. Bush made a succinct demand of the Taliban: Hand over Osama bin Laden and his cohorts or face horrific consequences. The demand, the president emphasized, was non-negotiable. The Taliban refused, insisting that the U.S. produce evidence against al-Qaeda. Because Islamists — not just terrorists but all Islamists — believe the United States is the enemy of Islam, the Taliban also floated the possibility of rendering bin Laden to a third...

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suspected U.S. drone fired missiles into a hideout of Taliban militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region on Monday, killing five militants, intelligence officials and residents said. The attack took place near Mir Ali town, a major sanctuary for militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan's tribal lands on the Afghan border. "The militants have cordoned off the area and no one is allowed to go to the site of the attack," a resident, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters by telephone. An intelligence official said a fortress-like house...

PRESIDENT ASSUMES ROLE OF ISLAMIC APOLOGIST - - AGAIN SORRY, BARACK, BUT MUSLIMS MADE NO CONTRIBUTIONS TO U.S. HISTORYbyPaul L. Williams, Ph.D.thelastcrusade.org At a White House interfaith dinner honoring Ramadan, President Barack Obama said: "The contribution of Muslims to the United States are too long to catalog because Muslims are so interwoven into the fabric of our communities and our country." No member of the national media took Mr. Obama to task for the historical inaccuracy of his remarks, let alone his pandering to the Islamists in attendance, and no one asked the President to list a few of...

Monday, September 7, 2009 1:07 PM By: Ronald Kessler The Obama White House is blaming inadequate vettting for the misguided appointment of environmental adviser Van Jones. But while the White House undoubtedly missed some of Jones’ repugnant statements, it would be hard to imagine hiring anyone who has been in public life without knowing his reputation. Moreover, Jones’ statements are tame compared with those of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whom Obama considered a mentor for 20 years. Jones, who became an adviser to the White House Council on Environmental Quality in March, resigned late Saturday after generating mounting criticism...

Barack Obama declared Monday that modern benefits like paid leave, minimum wage and Social Security "all bear the union label," as he appealed to unions to help him win the health care fight in Congress. "It was labor that helped build the largest middle class in history. So, even if you're not a union member, every American owes something to America's labor movement," said Obama, whose run for the presidency was energized in no small part by unions. Obama asserted that "our recovery plan is working," but repeated that he won't be satisfied until jobs are much more plentiful. Shortly...

Obama: Public option should be part of reform WASHINGTON - President Barack Obamainsisted Monday "the time is now" for healthcare reform as he geared up for a major address to Congress this week aimed at getting his top domestic policy priority back on track. Taking his case for a healthcare overhaul to America's economically hard-hit heartland, Obama sought to seize back the initiative on the divisive issue after losing ground to critics during a turbulent summer. "It's time to do what's right for America's working families, to put aside the partisanship, to come together as a nation, to pass health...

As of this week- Stimulus Spending is at: $20,726,309,285.22 At the link on the upper right will be a listing: *American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Report* Updated as of 9/4/2009. New contracts signed this week are for design and construction of 10 land port of entry buildings for customs and border protection. 6 In North Dakota,1 in Vermont, New Mexico and Montana (The one in Vermont isn't even near the border, in Killingly.)

Here is video of a citizen of Maine calling for the resignations of Maine GOP Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and Rep. Michaud because they voted for President Obama's Stimulus Bill. He made the statement at a Town Hall Meeting with a lot of people - but with no Senators or legislators present. Instead, participants had put chairs at the front with pictures of their legislators in the chairs! The man talked to the pictures in calling for their resignations! That's what itis has come to. The people are so fed up with what is happening they will find...

If the Administration cannot get even simple details right, then how can they cope effectively with the major challenges we confront?Remember the laugh when the White House misspelled Obama's name on an official document relating to Arms Control agreements with the Russians? At the time, it was good for a chuckle. Now, people are starting to wonder if the boys and girls who arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on the Smoke and Mirrors Hopey-Changey express may not be quite up to the job. Take for instance the controversial Presidential address Obama will deliver to schoolchildren on Tuesday. Don't you think...

The Truther petition states the suspicion (really an assertion) that Bush and "other high officials" deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, "perhaps as a pretext for war." Here's how the Times now characterizes it: "... a petition in 2004 questioning whether the Bush administration had allowed the terrorist attacks of September 2001 to provide a pretext for war in the Middle East." As Kaus notes, all that means is that Bush "used" the attacks which had already occurred, minus his complicity, to gin up support for military action. It's a lie. The petition stated that Bush may have had foreknowledge of...

A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea. A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from just five weeks of exploration, the biologists discovered 16 frogs which have never...

Though the Milky Way is taking a good beating from nearby mini-galaxies that sometimes slam into it, our galaxy is not likely to de destroyed by this process as some scientists had predicted, a new study finds. Circling around the Milky Way are between 20 and 25 known satellite dwarf galaxies, which are smaller clumps of stars bound in orbit around the Milky Way by gravitational attraction. Some pessimists predicted the Milky Way was doomed to a grizzly death by dismemberment if enough of these galaxies collide with it. In fact, scientists think many satellite galaxies have already rammed into...

After a summer of healthcare battles and sliding approval ratings for President Obama, the White House is facing a troubling new trend: The voters losing faith in the president are the ones he had worked hardest to attract. New surveys show steep declines in Obama's approval ratings among whites -- including Democrats and independents -- who were crucial elements of the diverse coalition that helped elect the country's first black president. Among white Democrats, Obama’s job approval rating has dropped 11 points since his 100-days mark in April, according to surveys by the Pew Research Center for the People and...

Bowing to a growing uproar from conservatives as well as pressure from White House insiders trying to avoid a costly distraction, President Obama today demoted embattled Environmental Czar Van Jones To Environmental Archduke. “After careful consideration, I have decided that some of Van Jones’ actions do not meet the exacting criteria I have established for the Czar position,” said the President. “First, it appears that Mr. Jones twice signed documents supporting the theory that the Bush Administration was somehow complicit in the 9-11 attacks. Hogwash. That Mr. Jones apparently still clings to a tired old theory when anyone with half...