Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The leading Senate Democrat on military matters said Thursday that he was against sending more American combat troops to Afghanistan until the United States speeded up the training and equipping of more Afghan security forces. The comments by the senator, Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, illustrate the growing skepticism President Obama is facing in his own party as the White House decides whether to commit more deeply to a war that has begun losing public support, even as American commanders acknowledge that the situation on the ground has deteriorated....

The Census Director has sent a letter to the National Headquarters of ACORN notifying the group that it will no longer have a role in conducting the 2010 census. ACORN had previously been tapped to help with low level data gathering.

A plea and a prayer from an ex-pat in Germany to our patriots on the march in Washington. It was five o'clock in the afternoon but it was high noon for the Confederacy. (Douglas Southall Freeman on Picket's charge, at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863) We know you are marching for us as well as for our children and your children. You are not just exercising your rights as free Americans to peacefully assemble and petition your government for redress of grievances, you are doing your duty. You are literally foot soldiers in a very real war to save our Republic....

MINNEAPOLIS – A federal appeals court on Friday cleared the way for Minnesota Vikings Pat Williams and Kevin Williams to play all season, despite the NFL's attempts to suspend them for violating the league's anti-doping policy. The NFL had already said the two defensive tackles could play in Sunday's season-opener at Cleveland because their court fight over the suspensions would not be decided in time. "It's a big sigh of relief to know we're going to get to play the whole season," Kevin Williams said. "We were looking forward to Cleveland not knowing what the future may hold. But it's...

Congressman Tom Price (R., Ga.), an orthopedic surgeon who currently serves as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, gave NRO a call to discuss President Obama's health-care speech. Early on in our conversation, Price raised an important question — one that in our age of anecdote-overload, most of us just let slip through the ears and past the mind. Not Price. As a doctor, he says his ears perked up on Wednesday night when the president cited two examples of the current health-care system failing patients. Here's what President Obama said: One man from Illinois lost his coverage in the...

UPDATE- NARAL Responds to Michigan shooting: “Today’s shootings in Michigan are tragic and our thoughts are with the families so deeply affected by this senseless violence. Although law-enforcement officials still have not commented on the shooter’s motivation, we understand that one of those murdered today was an anti-choice activist.

In Boston, Curt Schilling will always be a hero for helping the Red Sox win the 2004 World Series and ending the “Curse of the Bambino.” But that’s not enough for Massachusetts voters to think he belongs in the U.S. Senate. Just 26% of voters statewide think that Schilling should compete in the special election to replace the late Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy. Fifty-three percent (53%) say he should not run while 21% are undecided. Republicans are evenly divided on a Schilling campaign. Democrats, by a seven-to-one margin, say he should not run. Just 34% of Massachusetts voters say...

It is eight years since 9/11, and here is an unexpected stage of grief: fear that the ache will go away. I don't suppose it ever will, but grieving has gradations, and "horror" becomes "absorbed sadness." Life moves on, and wants to move on, which is painful for those who will not forget and cannot be comforted. Part of the spookiness of life, part of its power to disorient us, is not only that people die, that they slip below the waves, but that the waves close above them so quickly, the sea so quickly looks the same. I've been...

This is OUR week. 7 days of kicking leftist trash and takin' numbers..

Here is video of Glenn Beck remembering 9/11 and asking why Ground Zero is "still just a whole in the ground" after 8 years and "is this the best we can do?" Beck points out the the Empire State Building took only 400 days to build in the 1930s. (Watch Video)

According to MSNBC’s David Shuster on Friday, South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson shouting ‘you lie’ to President Obama was racism on display: “The fact that Joe Wilson is from South Carolina...it strikes a lot of people as awfully close to the idea that maybe there was some sort of racist or bigoted element there.” Shuster went on to add: “And especially then when you look up at the picture and you see older white men, all Republicans, sitting there. Just it gives off a strange vibe.” On Thursday, Shuster claimed that Republicans were: “...all white males with short haircuts. They...

Curbing health-care costs by making health care vastly more expensive appears to pass for logic in Washington, DC. A new proposal circulated today by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus would force most clinical labs to pay a new $750 million annual fee as part of the federal government’s broader effort to pay for its health-care overhaul. It was not immediately clear whether Baucus retracted his original plan to save $100 billion from the $1 trillion cost of the health-care reform by shedding $20 billion in Medicare payments for clinical lab services over 10 years. However, according to The New...

What has been the fallout of Joe Wilson's outburst? $17,000 per hour in campaign contributions, give or take a thousand or so. He has raised $750,000 in less than 48 hours according to a national Republican fundraising committee.

He was known for his outspoken anti-abortion protests all around Owosso. "When I went into town, you'd often see him on his corner," says friend Ron Ackals. And as he was picketing Friday morning outside Owosso High School, prosecutors say 63-year-old James Pouillon was gunned down-- shot up to 10 times-- by a drive-by shooter targeting the man for his message. When 33-year-old suspect Harlan Drake was apprehended at his home, police learned more. "Upon his arrest, he made statements he'd been involved in another homicide that day," says Owosso Police Chief Michael Compeau. That led them to another crime...

SNIPPET: "But this is the only answer I can give, because the terms of the question are out of date. If you're asking whether the United States has defeated al Qaeda, you also have to ask: Which al Qaeda are we talking about? The senior leaders operating somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan? The al Qaeda franchises around the world, most notably in Iraq, Algeria, and Yemen? Or the global ideological following, sparked by al Qaeda, calling itself al Qaeda, but not technically affiliated with al Qaeda? If you ask about winning, you have to also ask...

Popping up on Facebook tonight, was an acquaintance flogging his blog. What was fascinating was what the liberals and netroots seem to think about how we on the Right do business. Consider it, in many ways, a guided tour through a Leftie's mindset. Included is the assumption that the Left can organize via social networks, but apparentely we cannot. As an EXTRA bonus, he even throws up a link to a group of blogs fighting "climate change" It shows me, how much has changed, and how far Blue America has gone from those of us in Red America. And what's...

The average June-August 2009 summer temperature for the contiguous United States was below average – the 34th coolest on record, according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. August was also below the long-term average. The analysis is based on records dating back to 1895.

Go to this site and contribute -- when other congress members see Joe benefiting from listening to the people, maybe they will join the fight! https://www.completecampaigns.com/public.asp?name=Wilson&page=2

Friday, September 11, 2009 Palin's leadership lights up the conservasphere Former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pushing back against the slippery socialist slope that President Obama and the Democrats are determined to toss the nation down, and conservative bloggers are responding positively. Here are some of the latest comments from the conservasphere: American Thinker Blog's Ethel Fenig: "Former Alaskan governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (R) responded graciously, but factually, to President Barack Obama's (D) health care speech with his post partisan gratuitous swipe at her. As she puts it 'so much for civility.'"...

Joyce Baresel was pretty before June 14. Now, she cringes at the sight of her exposed skull as she contemplates more surgeries to repair the gaping wound. All eyes in the courtroom turned to Baresel on Thursday as she made her way to the prosecutor’s table to read her statement. Many were shocked at the sight of her wound, an injury that leaves her sometimes wishing she had died that night. “After two surgeries my skull is still open for everybody to see,” she said. “I can’t wear a gauze over it because they are fearful it won’t heal. So...