Free Republic

On September 15 and 16, 47 talk radio hosts from across the country, including Lou Dobbs, will broadcast continuously live both days from the Phoenix Park Hotel on Capitol Hill as part of Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2009 Radio-thon. They are gathering to remind Congress and the new administration that rampant illegal immigration, efforts to grant amnesty, and taxpayer subsidized health care benefits to millions of law-breakers are hot button issues for the American public. Organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and Radio America Networks' Roger Hedgecock, Hold Their Feet to the Fire's participating talk...

Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 U.S. floated plan to withdraw fighter jets Japan stayed silent in light of North Korea, realignment worries Kyodo News The U.S. government sounded out Japan in early April about pulling out all of the approximately 40 F-16 fighters from Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture, possibly beginning later this year, sources close to Japan-U.S. relations said Friday. As part of the ongoing review of the U.S. defense strategy by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, the United States at the time also told Japan of an idea to remove some of the more than 50...

A British army officer who, after running out of ammunition, used his bayonet to charge a Taliban fighter has been awarded the Military Cross. Lt James Adamson, who is 24 and serves with the Royal Regiment of Scotland, was given the medal for his "supreme physical courage". His actions while on tour in Afghanistan saved the lives of soldiers in his platoon. He said he ran out of ammunition after killing one man, so charged the second. Lt Adamson, who is from the Isle of Man, and part of the 5th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, said: "To be honest...

Serena Williams became unhinged in a shocking display of vitriol and profanity toward a line judge at the most inopportune time Saturday night — right before match point for Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the United States Open. In a matter of confusing minutes, Williams turned what had been a scintillating women’s match into an ugly and improbable spectacle that gave Clijsters, an unseeded wild-card entry making a joyful return to Grand Slam tennis, a 6-4, 7-5 victory she could not even celebrate. Clijsters, a 26-year-old from Belgium who is the mother of a toddler, had frustrated and dominated...

The normally nonchalant Barack Obama looked nonplussed, as Nancy Pelosi glowered behind. Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club — Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy! The outburst was unexpected from a milquetoast Republican backbencher from South Carolina who had attracted little media attention. Now it has made him an overnight right-wing hero, inspiring “You lie!” bumper stickers and T-shirts. The congressman, we learned,...

Someone needs to ask the question. The media liked that question whenever they could turn a unitarian shooting into an attack on talk radio. So it must be a fair question to ask of liberal activists too, no?

Facts Are Stubborn Things Democrats Yank Middle Class Tax Relief from National Energy Tax Bill Wednesday, June 24, 2009 * In the middle of the night, Democrats yanked any energy tax relief for American families from their National Energy Tax bill (the cap-and-trade scheme under Waxman-Markey) and replaced it with a further expansion of their welfare program --- energy stamps. * This change renders the recent CBO analysis of net household cost from the Democrats’ National Energy Tax obsolete, because CBO included the benefits of the previously proposed tax relief in its analysis. * The Democrats’ National Energy Tax will...

KOGELO, Kenya - After Barack Obama was elected to the US Senate in 2004, a delegation from the remote African village where his father was raised journeyed to Washington, seeking financial help. But Obama offered them advice, not money. Now that Obama has moved to the White House, expectations of financial benefit have grown even greater in this tiny hamlet where water is still delivered to thatched huts on the backs of donkeys. “There are still those who are waiting for him to send millions,’’ said Nicholas Rajula, a Kogelo businessman. Dreams alone seem to be sustaining those counting on...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - September 13 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well, the rain also filleth the pools." - Psalm 84:6 This teaches us that the comfort obtained by a one may often prove serviceable to another; just as wells would be used by the company who came after. We read some book full of consolation, which is like Jonathan's rod, dropping with honey. Ah! we think our brother has been here before us, and digged this well for us as well as for himself. Many a "Night of Weeping," "Midnight...

Thousands of conservative protesters from across the country converged on the Capitol Saturday morning to demonstrate against President Obama's proposals for health care reform and voicing opposition to big government, what they say is over-the-top spending. Carrying signs depicting President Obama as Adolf Hitler and the Joker, and chanting slogans such as "'No big government" and "Obamacare makes me sick," approximately 60,000 to 70,000 people flooded Pennsylvania Ave, according to the Washington DC Fire Department. Organized by FreedomWorks, a conservative activist group led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, many of the protestors were affiliated with the Tea Party...

Military will let Afghan detainees challenge their detentionPresident Obama is readying plans that will allow hundreds of prisoners in Afghanistan to begin challenging their detention, possibly as soon as this week, according to reports. The new system will assign a military official to each of about 600 prisoners, most of whom are being held at Bagram Air Base. The official could then gather exculpatory evidence and call witnesses before a board that has the power to decide whether the detainees should be held by U.S. or Afghan officials or be released, according to reports by The New York Times and...

The Green Party invited President Barack Obama’s green-jobs czar to join their ranks, possibly as a future presidential candidate, after he stepped down last Sunday following controversial statements and activities. Van Jones had recently come under fire for making derogatory comments about Republicans, calling them “a—holes,” earlier this year, and likening former President George W. Bush to a “crackhead” in a speech captured on YouTube. The Green Party compared Obama’s restraint in coming to Jones’ aid over the recent controversy to President Bill Clinton’s lack of defense when his African-American nominee for Assistant Attorney General, Lani Guinier, was attacked and...

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has begun putting into place a new program under which hundreds of prisoners being held by the military in Afghanistan will be given the right to challenge their detentions, a defense official said Sunday. Prisoners at Bagram military base are all to be given a U.S. military official to serve as their personal representative and a chance to go before new so-called Detainee Review Boards, to have their cases considered, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss a program that has not been formally announced

Barack Hussein Obama continued his practice of lying to the American people. His topic was the gasping healthcare reform bill HR3200. Obama made a number of assertions that quite frankly were out and out lies; outrageous lies if you are one of the many Republicans who have read the bill. Not so outrageous if you are a Democrat who hasn’t even bothered to crack the cover. Joe Wilson, Republican Congressman from South Carolina called Obama a liar. Mr. Wilson has been forced to apologize for having the bad grace to speak the truth in the hall of Congress. Pelosi’s face...

President Barack Obama is working to reclaim the initiative from critics of his health care initiative and boost momentum to push his chief domestic priority through Congress. Obama kept up a steady weekend drumbeat of cheerleading for his health care plan in a campaign-style rally, on the radio and Internet, and on network television. He planned to continue the pace with more events designed to seize control of the health care debate following his address to Congress last week in which he urged Democrats and Republicans to come together. "I will not accept the status quo. Not this time. Not...

The British tend to forget about the importance of Germany, our most significant European partner. There are, of course, memories of the world wars of the 20th Century. Relatively few British people speak German; we like to enjoy Mediterranean holidays, so we have come to know the French, Italians and Spanish. Yet Germany is a stable Northern democracy and a major trading partner. The sale of Opel and Vauxhall, which make up the the European branch of General Motors, this week demonstrated the significance of German bargaining power Historically, Britain and Germany have had a more significant relationship than many...

TaMara Sheppard of Tacoma started labor around noon and arrived at Puyallup’s Good Samaritan Hospital at 7:30 p.m. before delivering baby Nina Morgan. Sheppard had been scheduled for induced labor on Monday, but Nina Morgan decided to make an early grand entrance. "The last time I looked at the clock (in the delivery room), the little hand was on nine and the big one was on eleven," Sheppard said. Then the doctor told her to push. Recovering in the hospital on Saturday, Sheppard took the prodigious timing in stride. "It never even crossed my mind until my husband said, 'you're...

Documents published last week highlight the former prime minister's concern that the fall of the Berlin Wall could be a risk to Britain's national security. "We do not want a united Germany," Margaret Thatcher told President Gorbachev at a lunch meeting in the Kremlin in September 1989, two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. "This would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the whole international situation and could endanger our security." Among the 1,000 transcripts of Politburo and other high-level papers smuggled out of Russia by...

WHEN SCHOOLS hire coaches to teach children how to play, it shows just how much we’ve destroyed childhood. The Conservatory Lab Charter School in Brighton is paying $23,500 to the national nonprofit Playworks to engage children in old-school activities like jump rope, hula hoops, four square, capture the flag, circle dodgeball, and kickball, according to a Globe story this week. Playworks says its mission is to help children, particularly in low-income urban districts, learn the principles of “fair play and positive conflict resolution’’ through “basic’’ playground games. My issue is not with the Playworks folks or the schools that hire...

An impression of how a controversial future giant aircraft carrier would look in its home base has been unveiled today by the Royal Navy.The computer-generated image has been created to give an impression of the scale of the next generation of warships which are due to enter service in 2015.It shows one of the carriers alongside at Portsmouth Naval Base, Hampshire, where it would take up three jetties.     Ministry of Defence computer generated image of how a controversial future giant aircraft carrier would look in its home base was unveiled today by the Royal Navy. It shows one...