Free Republic

A Black Man Became a Walking Red Herring Tonightby Erick Erickson Wednesday, September 9th This was not a speech worthy of a national night of media coverage before a joint session of congress. This was a partisan speech full of rubbing Republicans’ noses in his legislative policy preferences. Americans tonight are suffering pre-traumatic hemorrhoid disorder, knowing Barack Obama’s government is about to rape their wallets, destroy their wages, and force government healthcare down our throats. We were treated to a vainglorious, pompous ass playing politics with healthcare while accuses everyone else of playing politics. And he spent the whole hour...

It doesn't sound as if Jaycee Dugard got to see a sports page. Box scores were not available to her from June 10, 1991 until Aug. 31 of this year. She never saw a highlight. Never got to the ballpark for Beach Towel Night. Probably hasn't high-fived in a while. She was not allowed to spike a volleyball. Or pitch a softball. Or smack a forehand down the line. Or run in a 5-footer for double bogey. Now, that's deprivation. Can you imagine? Dugard was 11 when she was kidnapped and stashed in Phillip Garrido's backyard. She was 29 when...

FARM Kid in the Army (NOW AT BASE BORDEN RECRUIT TRAINING) Dear Ma and Pa, I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Army beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to...

September 10, 2009                                 Thursday of the Twenty-third Week                             in Ordinary Time   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Col 3:12-17 Brothers and sisters:Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,bearing with one another and forgiving one another,if one has a grievance against another;as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.And over all these put on love,that is, the bond of perfection.And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,the peace into which you were also called in...

From a policy standpoint, there was nothing new in President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress tonight. It can only be assessed, therefore, in political terms. I read the transcript rather than watching it, but the speech struck me as reasonably effective. I assume the delivery was standard Obama--smooth, generally flat, occasionally a bit whiny. One striking aspect of the speech was that Obama kept talking about the "plan" that he "announced" tonight--but there is no plan; not in writing, anyway. Not unless Obama meant Nancy Pelosi's House bill, but he didn't seem to, since he made a...

Thousands of Iranian-Americans and others gathered to support the pro-Democracy movement in Iran. Video Here

CNN/Opinion Research is the first pollster to release a poll that is supposed to tell us something about how Americans responded to Obama's speech. If these numbers are right, then conservatives probably don't have very much to worry about. In a sample of 427 Americans who watched Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress, 67% indicated that they favored Obama's healthcare plan. Prior to the speech, 53% from this same sample indicated that they favored Obama's healthcare plan. Unfortunately for Obama, this sample is comprised of 45% Democrats, 37% Independents, and 18% Republicans, a sample that even the most...

Forgive me for the vanity, but what happened to CNSnews.com? Whenever I try to go there I get the following message: "Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)".

A key stage in human evolution may have taken place on the fringes of Europe and not in Africa as has generally been thought, scientists said yesterday. Fossils of an ancient human relative, or hominin, from Georgia dated from 1.8 million years ago suggest that the first of our ancestors to walk upright could have done so in Eurasia, the British Science Festival was told. David Lordkipanidze, director of the Georgian National Museum, said the skulls, fossils and limb bones found at Dmanisi in 1999 and 2001 raise the possibility that Homo erectus, a forerunner of modern humans, evolved in...

Did Obama make a mistake by raising Palin in Healthcare speech? He just raised her profile!

Barack Obama hired Anthony “Van” Jones as a special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Jones is an admitted “rowdy Black nationalist” and “communist” who was also a co-founder of the communist revolutionary organization STORM: Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement. Quick question: how many Marxists, Communists, Domestic Terrorists and raving racialists does the President get to associate with before reasonable people can assume that the president on some level shares their particular vision of America? While perusing the manifesto of this now defunct STORM, several things struck me as...

Eight years later, I am still angry about 9/11. Many people are not. In fact, many people barely remember 9/11. We have resumed our usual activities. This is good – it shows the terrorists they haven’t won. But we may also have resumed our usual patterns of thought. This is not good. The problem with 9/10 thinking is that it leads to 9/11.

Enlarge ImageDramatic but transient. Within 2 months, a novel drug candidate shriveled a man's metastasized cancer (center). One month later, the cancer, now resistant, resurged. Credit: C. M. Rudin et al., NEJM (2009) © Massachusetts Medical Society In the first clinical proof of its kind, a drug has dramatically shrunk cancerous tumors by disrupting a key genetic pathway. But a study targeting one deadly brain cancer, medulloblastoma, ended in disappointment as the patient's once-tamed tumor quickly developed resistance to the drug and killed him. The drug, GDC-0449, was developed at Genentech in South San Francisco, California. It locks onto...

Ben Nelson — Crucial 60th Senate Vote — Defects on Obama Plan News Max ^ | SEPTEMBER 09, 2009 | Jim Meyers Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 2:59:25 PM by RobinMasters Democrats in the Senate may have a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority when healthcare reform comes up for a vote, but at least one Democrat is telling party leaders not to count on him to be the 60th vote. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska told The Hill newspaper: "I'm not going to commit anything at this point in time on procedural votes, neither pro nor con, because it will depend...

What is the mysterious weapons cargo in the China-bound UAE Air Force’s C-130 Hercules aircraft detained at Kolkata Airport since Sunday? Defence and intelligence sleuths say it could be a sophisticated US-made weapons system, which explains the unconcealed concern of the Indian authorities and the silence on the part of the UAE government. UAE authorities applied to the Indian government to get the plane released on Wednesday evening — nearly 72 hours after it was detained. The plane has been given a take-off slot of 9.30am on Thursday for China’s Xiangyang. Sources confirmed that the three mysterious boxes in the...

I’m worried. The leader of the free world apparently flunked economics 101. ... [T]he Pol from Palatine insisted that within the body he addressed there was “agreement on 80% of what needs to be done” (while half of the assembled legislators sat on their hands throughout). That 80% in agreement are all Democrats. The missing 20% are the Blue Dogs Democrats. ... Yes, Medicare is slatted to go fiscally belly-up in a few years, which speaks poorly about government’s ability to supervise health insurance. It surprises only Barack that the public is increasing doubting him when he proposes that the...

All eyes were on Barack Obama entering Wednesday night's address to Congress, but a little-known South Carolina Republican may have done more than the president’s combative speech to unify besieged Democrats around health care reform. The night's defining moment — which Democrats hope to transform into a turning point – came when Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted "You lie!" as Obama claimed his plan wouldn't offer free care to illegal immigrants. Wilson's boorishness — for which he quickly apologized — enraged audience members on both sides of the aisle. It also overshadowed a speech that included some of Obama's harshest...

Mohammed, in all its various spellings, is now the second most common boys' name in the UK, next only to Jack. ==snip== Mohammed was placed 16th with 3,423, Muhammad 37th with 2,068 and Mohammad 65th with 1,100. Figures for five other spellings - Muhammad (496), Mohamed (428), Mohamad (40), and Mohammod (10), were later released. That made a total of 7,576 and put Mohammed and its alternatives ahead of the official second placed name, Oliver, of whom there were 7,413.

McLaren unveiled its new supercar today, a 240mph machine which has been dubbed the ‘F1 car for the road’. The fluidly-styled, gull-winged car is part of an aggressive strategy of expansion for the British racing specialist, which aims to challenge the dominance of Lamborghini and Ferrari. The MP4-12C, known until now only by its codename P11, is scheduled to go on sale in 2011. It will feature many technical innovations gleaned from the company’s racing division, but is intended as a 200mph-plus ‘affordable’ supercar for everyday use. At around £150,000, it will cost more than a Porsche Turbo and a...

Former three-term state Rep. Bill Huizenga jumped into the race the day after Hoekstra announced he’d forgo another term in the House to run for governor. The two men have a long history together, as Huizenga was Hoekstra’s director of public policy for six years and ran three of his campaigns. Michigan’s term-limit law barred Huizenga, a former chairman of the state House Commerce Committee, from seeking re-election in 2008. His jump start for the 2010 campaign has helped him secure a number of early endorsements from current and former legislators in western Michigan. State Sen. Wayne Kuipers has taken...