Free Republic

DALLAS — Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison says if Gov. Rick Perry calls an early special election to fill the seat of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison after she resigns, the cost will be his responsibility — not hers. The state says an emergency election soon after Hutchison quits could cost taxpayers up to $30 million, but Hutchison says it won't be that much if Perry follows the schedule. Hutchison is running against Perry for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. If she leaves the Senate in October or November as she has said, state law sets the special election to fill her seat...

When Glenn Beck made his Fox debut, some shrewd conservatives responded with a wink. Maybe the show was paranoid and hysterical. Maybe Beck was none too scrupulous about facts and truth. But why be squeamish? The other side did as bad, or nearly. And see how usefully he mobilized the base! Those shrewd conservatives assumed Beck was working for them. Big mistake. Beck is working for himself – and he chooses his targets according to his own scheme of priorities. The newest target is Cass Sunstein, confirmed yesterday by the Senate as director of the Office of Information and Regulatory...

Just a quick hello and to tell you guys that this town IS FULL OF PROTESTERS. I'm staying at a hotel right at Capitol Hill and everyone I see is a proud protester!!! Everyone is so friendly and talking to each other..like old friends. I just met a group and they were off to meet the Tea Party Express Bus which rolling into town as we speak...I can't wait for tomorrow....I will post from my Iphone!

DETROIT - Toyota's decision to close its 25-year-old California factory where UAW workers build Corolla cars and Tacoma pickups has delivered a seismic, Detroit-like jolt to the once-invincible Silicon Valley economy. The Japanese automaker's first plant closing in North America will add to California's swelling unemployment rolls, and perhaps, help the Golden State better empathize with the industry that it has persistently challenged with regulatory requirements. The closure also will eliminate Toyota's only UAW-represented workforce. ;California has now lost 580,000 manufacturing jobs - a quarter of its total - since 2001. NUMMI's closure next March could erase about 40,000 more....

With a political arms race in full force, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) has raised almost $750,000 in less than 48 hours since his shout of "You lie!" to President Obama during the Wednesday address to Congress, almost matching the Internet-fueled haul of his likely Democratic opponent. A senior GOP official said Wilson, who apologized to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel after the health-care speech but has since refused a more public apology, has turned his own previous sleepy campaign machine into an Web-friendly effort. Just as liberals have poured cash into the campaign of Rob Miller, who lost...

Note: The following text is a quote: Director’s Message to FBI Employees on Anniversary of 9/11 Director Robert S. Mueller, III released the following statement to the Bureau’s workforce Friday morning: Today, we mark the anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. While some memories may fade with the passage of time, the terrorist attacks of that day remain strongly with us. They serve as continual reminders to stay focused on our primary mission of keeping Americans safe from all those who would do us harm. In April, President Obama came to the FBI. Speaking to all employees,...

... Previewing a speech Obama will give on Wall Street Monday, Lawrence H. Summers compared the government's actions to a successful but evolving response to a catastrophic natural disaster. "We are making a clear transition from rescue as the priority of public policy to sustained recovery," he told reporters in a briefing Friday afternoon. "We have moved back from the brink of financial catastrophe." Summers said the Obama administration can "take real satisfaction" from what he said is movement toward recovery but quickly added that the White House recognizes the depth of economic hardship that remains a legacy of last...

No. I am not talking about the idiots in the mainstream media that just can’t bring themselves to report that billions of your tax dollars (stimulus money) is being funneled to an organization that is trying to help criminals cheat the IRS even when told that the criminal activity involves an international sex trafficking ring of girls as young as 13. Yes, all you have to do is donate a small yearly fee to ACORN and they will help you get loans for housing, claim illegal immigrants as dependents and even classify the sex acts of 13 year old prostitutes...

 Obama's Thirty Third Week in OfficeLatest Additions to "The List"The list" for 9/11/2009" The EPA announcedthat 79 applications for surface coal-mine permits in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee might violate the nation's Clean Water Act and require closer scrutiny.  The EPA's action was an abrupt shift from the last big batch of surface mining permits that it's considered during the Obama administration. In May, the agency said it had no concerns with 42 of 48 permits, and blocked sixThe U.S. State Department said on Friday it was prepared to hold direct talks with North Korea to try to coax...

Ohio state Sen. Bob Gibbs is in the 2010 race to unseat Democratic Rep. Zack Space. Gibbs, a Republican, recently filed a statement of candidacy and a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission to initiate a campaign in Ohio's 18th, a mostly rural and culturally conservative area of east-central and south-central Ohio that includes Zanesville and Chillicothe. Gibbs also has set up a rudimentary campaign Web site. Gibbs was elected to the Ohio House in 2002 and served three two-year terms, then was elected to the Ohio Senate in 2008 with 59 percent of the vote in a...

Sheen had earlier written an open letter to the President in which he claimed that there was cover-up by the Bush administration over the 2001 attacks that claimed the lives of several thousand people. The six-and-a-half minute video - released on the eighth anniversary of the disaster - opens with news reports and footage of the incident with Sheen's voiceover: "The questions Mr President, the questions."

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that 79 applications for surface coal-mine permits in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee might violate the nation's Clean Water Act and require closer scrutiny. Many of the 79 applications would remove mountaintops and dump debris in valley streams. The EPA's action was an abrupt shift from the last big batch of surface mining permits that it's considered during the Obama administration. In May, the agency said it had no concerns with 42 of 48 permits, and blocked six. The latest decision is in line with the Obama administration's call in June for a...

(CNSNews.com) – House Republicans on Thursday issued ten “common-sense” questions arising from President Barack Obama’s Wednesday-night speech plugging health care reform. The questions – and the words that prompted them – appear here verbatim: President Barack Obama: “Our collective failure to meet this challenge – year after year, decade after decade – has led us to the breaking point.” Common Sense Question: If we are at the “breaking point,” then why doesn’t your government-run insurance plan start until 2013? President Barack Obama: “There are now 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.” Common Sense Question: On August 20, you...

JERUSALEM – Israeli archaeologists have uncovered one of the earliest depictions of a menorah, the seven-branched candelabra that has come to symbolize Judaism, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Friday. The menorah was engraved in stone around 2,000 years ago and found in a synagogue recently discovered by the Sea of Galilee. Pottery, coins and tools found at the site indicate the synagogue dates to the period of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem, where the actual menorah was kept, said archaeologist Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Note: The following text is a quote: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Holder at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial September 11 Ceremony Friday, September 11, 2009 - Washington, DC Thank you, Craig, for your kind introduction, and for all the work you do on behalf of our nation’s police officers and families. Several months ago, I stood here at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial at the annual candlelight vigil. That night I had the solemn honor of leading the recitation of the names of officers who had been killed in the line of duty. On...

For the past six months Britain’s elite troops have been schooling soldiers working for Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, which for years provided Republican terrorists with the Semtex explosive, machine-guns and anti-aircraft missiles used against British troops during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Sources within the SAS have expressed distaste at the agreement, which they believe could be connected to the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Britain’s relationship with Libya has been under the spotlight since Abdelbaset al Megrahi was freed from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds last month after being diagnosed as suffering from terminal prostate cancer and given...

The White House hits the road for health care reform, and speaks out—proclaiming the town halls didn’t matter. Brand the Wilson flap as “a pimple on the ass of progress” ___ “If you look at the polling, we didn’t lose ground in August,” a senior Obama adviser said. “We lost it in July and June, when Congress was in town.” the AARP released a poll which offered some comfort. The poll, conducted immediately after the speech, showed 72 per cent of independents over the age of 45 saying that some of their concerns were addressed by the speech, with 63...

CHICAGO — If you've got the money, you could be President Barack Obama's neighbor in Chicago. The 17-room house next door to his home in a ritzy neighborhood on the city's south side is on the market. It doesn't have a price tag yet, but the listing agent expects the "Obama factor" to play a role. Homes in the area usually go for between $1 million and $2.5 million. "We're looking for the people that want to live next to the president and they're willing to pay a premium for it," said listing agent Matt Garrison.

Obama declares Gitmo detainees to be 'fetuses' By: Scott OttExaminer Columnist May 22, 2009News fairly unbalanced. We report. You decipher In an effort to shut down the U.S. Naval Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, thereby restoring America's moral standing in the world, President Barack Obama today declared some 240 enemy combatants held at Gitmo to be 'human fetuses'. In an executive order, the president said, "Since I ordered Gitmo shut down, and people don't want us to bring the inmates here, the only way to extract them from the facility is to change their legal status to one that...