Free Republic

Glenn Beck said the problem is corruption. On Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets across the country, upset with the direction of the government, insisting that the people and the Constitution be respected, Glenn Beck said the problem was corruption. He said that it’s not about party, it’s not about the deficit, it’s not about health care or Van Jones or even cap and trade. He said it’s about corrupt politicians from both parties in Washington. And I think he’s wrong. I think it’s about philosophy and principles. I think it’s about a federal government...

Mayor Richard Daley often talks about how Chicagoans want a decisive, visionary leader who can get things done without "endless politics," and that promise of iron control has become key to the city's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. But with the pivotal Olympics decision three weeks away, Daley finds himself in one of the most troubled periods of

IF THE sinking Maldives aren't enough to galvanise action on climate change, could losing a classic beer do it? Climatologist Martin Mozny of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute and colleagues say that the quality of Saaz hops - the delicate variety used to make pilsner lager - has been decreasing in recent years. They say the culprit is climate change in the form of increased air temperature. Mozny's team used a high-resolution dataset of weather patterns, crop yield and hop quality to estimate the impact of climate change on Saaz hops in the Czech Republic between 1954 and 2006. Best-quality Saaz...

This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen. video follows...

On Sunday, the home page of the Washington Post website buried the 9-12 rally in tiny type, while the rotating photos at the top of the page were all local stories. On Monday, one of those rotating photos highlighted a Post story on the front of the Metro section on how people attending the Black Family Reunion think that tens of thousands of Americans came to Washington not because they love freedom, but because they hate black people. Metro reporter Yamiche Alcindor began: On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters thronged to the U.S. Capitol to angrily accuse President Obama...

... Most recently the worldview that I am describing has colored much of the conservative outrage at the prospect of health care reform, which some have called a "redistribution of health" from those wise enough to have secured health insurance to those who have not. "President Obama says he will cover thirty to forty to fifty million people who are not covered now--without it costing any money," fumed Rudolph Giuliani. "They will have to cut other services, cut programs. They will have to be making decisions about people who are elderly." [...] In these disparate comments we can see the...

AS I watched President Obama address Congress on his health insurance plan on Wednesday night, I was struck by his anger, his contradictions and his big omission. The omission was a recognition that America offers the best health care in the world. In his speech, Obama cited the recent death of Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy. Bad example. When Kennedy was struck with an inoperable brain tumor, he did not seek treatment in France, which we are told is the best health system in the world. (Just don't get sick in August; all the French doctors are on the beaches.) Kennedy...

Word For The Day, Monday, 9/14/09 In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". muliebrity;noun 1. womanly nature or qualities. 2. womanhood Etymology: 1585–95; < LL muliēbritās womanhood, equiv. to L muliēbri(s) womanly (deriv. of mulier woman) + -tās -ty 2 Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-) Practice makes perfect.....post on.......

In his remarks to 15,000 hand picked stogies in Minnesota on Saturday Obama repeated his usual lies and half truths. Appealing to these socialist simpletons Obama said, “We have public colleges and private colleges. The public colleges don’t put the private colleges out of business” implying it would be the same with public versus private healthcare plans. Of course the crowd clapped like hungry circus seals without questioning this lame and ridiculous “analogy.” Nobody in his hand picked crowd reminded Obama that Americans aren’t forced to go to college, so if a private college raises tuition its students aren’t forced...

It has become a familiar chain reaction: Talk-show hosts whip up a noisy controversy, which hits higher decibels as it spreads to the establishment media, which costs some unfortunate soul his job. But now the middleman -- the journalistic gatekeepers of yore -- may no longer be necessary. By the time White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned over Labor Day weekend, the New York Times had not run a single story. Neither had USA Today, which also didn't cover the resignation. The Washington Post had done one piece, on the day before he quit. The Los Angeles Times had...

<p>Despite what they say, the left doesn't really like "black" people. They seem to prefer the "non-threatening" types and for the sake of this argument, the wannabes won.</p> <p>Liberals in the entertainment business have already told us who their preference is. Look at almost all the black singers and actresses out there today.</p>

Maybe there's a reason why the media have either denigrated or completely ignored the Sept. 12 march in Washington, D.C. - they were highly critical of their job performance as well. Aside from protesters taking on CNN reporter Lisa Desjardins, as NewsBusters Matt Sheffield pointed out, there were also other pockets of backlash against media evident at the march, which were captured on video (pardon my shoddy camera work). ...more (w/video)...

Credit scores have been getting a lot of attention lately, as lenders tighten credit standards and contend with new legislation that has, among other things, reined in how credit-card issuers can raise rates. Meanwhile, several firms, preying on our insecurities, are pushing credit scores and credit-score-tracking services for a monthly fee. For all the attention they generate, though, credit scores are largely misunderstood. For instance, your precise score matters only when you're in need of new debt, like a home, auto or education loan or a new credit card, which should be a fairly rare occurrence. You don't have just...

Awesome video of 9/12 Teaparty as a music video for song "We The People" by Due South. AWESOME!!!

Here is raw video from the 9/12 rally where some ACORN people were escorted out of the protest area because they were selling "Don't Tread on Me" flags to the crowd. A 9/12 Protester followed them until they were out of the area, shouting constantly "These are ACORN; They are Frauds." Capitol Police also followed them part of the way to make sure they left the protest area. At one point, the ACORN folks reacted with anger at the protesters following them and exposing them to the crowd as being from ACORN. A minor altercation took place. The end of...

Listen Live: Sound Off Connecticut with Jim Vicevich 9 a.m. to noon ET (Daily Thread)Sound Off Connecticut is a popular conservative/libertarian call in talk show hosted by Jim Vicevich weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon ET. Although based in Connecticut, the show welcomes callers from all over the United States! This is your chance to sound off America! Call into the show toll free (800) 966-9842! Listen to the LIVE AUDIO STREAM at http://wtic.com - it's free and NO registration is required! If you're in southern New England listen over the air to WTIC 1080 AM, the 50,000 watt...

Eight years after the tragic events of 9/11, most Americans still know nothing about Islam. Moreover, our political leaders now refrain from even associating terrorism with Islamic radicals at all. To commemorate 9/11, President Obama spoke wistfully at a memorial service at the Pentagon. He called Americans “to serve our communities, to strengthen our country and to better our world.” He never once made mention of Islam, the religion Obama had praised in his White House Ramadan dinner, a dinner called to “celebrate a great religion, and its commitment to justice and progress.” Despite the President's efforts to re-educate Americans...

The scandal surrounding the left-wing activist organization ACORN has spread to New York, with employees at its Brooklyn office caught on video helping supposed ladies of the night get loans for their dream houses of ill repute. Rather than reminding the women that prostitution is dangerous and illegal and advising them to change their careers, counselors at the social-services group shockingly offer suggestions on how they can launder their earnings. -snip-

The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows. Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate. In the initial survey in this series about the news media’s performance in 1985, 55% said news stories were accurate while 34% said they were inaccurate. That percentage had fallen sharply by the late 1990s and has remained low over the last...

For Arabs, Israel's "occupation" of Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza in 1967 and subsequent settlement is only part of the problem. The real issue is Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 as a Jewish state. No "peace plan" - even the most extreme which requires Israel to withdraw from all territory conquered in 1967 - will solve the Arab/Muslim problem of allowing a nominally Jewish state to exist in any form. From the Arab perspective, therefore, there are two overlapping "occupations:" one in 1948 and the other in 1967. Resolving one while legitimizing...