Free Republic

"Are women more effective lawmakers than men? That’s the preliminary conclusion of a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University and the University of Chicago, who say that on average, women in Congress introduce more bills, attract more co-sponsors and bring home more money for their districts than their male counterparts do. "

HARTFORD — An official from the White House came to the state Capitol on Monday to deliver a message to the grass roots: The Obama administration wants to help local faith-based groups in their work. DuBois said President Barack Obama wants his office “to be that connection point, the facilitator between the federal government and both faith-based and other nonprofit organizations. This is something that’s in President Obama’s DNA.”

Here is video of Bill O'Reilly last night playing video of a CNN reporter being drowned out by the crowd at the 9/12 March on Washington this past Saturday. As the reporter tries to talk to the CNN Anchor, the crowd is chanting "Glenn Beck" behind her. O'Reilly jokes it may be because they "miss Glenn Beck at CNN so much." . . . (VIDEO)

Patrick Swayze, the actor and classically trained dancer whose role in the enduringly popular "Dirty Dancing" made him a movie star, one who struggled with the alienation of fame and against being typecast as a leading man, died Monday. He was 57.

NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula Explanation: NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This beautiful portrait of the nebula is from the Isaac Newton Telescope at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Islands. It combines a composite color image with narrow band data that isolates light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the detailed folds and filaments. NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet...

The Lordstown-built Cobalt compact car fell 43 percent, despite being the company's most fuel-efficient offering, a distinction that could have qualified some buyers for a $4,500 government rebate on the vehicle.

Wouldn't it be nice, as The Beach Boys sang in another context, if there was such a thing as a liar meter? It would detect when a politician wasn't telling the truth and alert the public. In the absence of such an invention, we are left to challenge our political leadership based on an objective look at the facts. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) may have been out of order when he shouted, "You lie!" in response to President Obama's assertion in his congressional address Wednesday night that illegal immigrants would not be covered by his proposed health care plan. What...

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is a perennial target of this site. The "Human Rights" Group is famous for inventing and/or twisting facts to slander Israel. They tend to only rely on Palestinian sources and never bother to verify. HRW has a simple strategy, Advocacy not Accuracy. Last week it was discovered that HRW military expert, Marc Garlasco the man responsible for many of the bogus Anti-Israel reports, is a big fan of Nazi memorabilia, he has a giant collection. At first HRW didn't think that this was an issue, but last night they announce that the Nazi loving Israel investigator...

After international human rights organizations accused Israel of killing innocent Palestinian "traffic policemen" during the Gaza operation, a detailed investigation shows that a decisive majority of the Palestinian "policemen" were members of the military wings of the Palestinian terror organizations and fighters who had undergone military training. Among the 343 members of the Palestinian security forces who were killed, 286 have been identified as terror organization members (83 percent). Another 27 fighters belonging to units undergoing infantry training raises this total to 313 (91 percent). Lumped under the rubric of the "Palestinian police" are all the security bodies that fulfilled...

Watering Your Seed Today's Scripture "Bless our God, O peoples, give Him grateful thanks and make the voice of His praise be heard" (Psalm 66:8, AMP) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Do you know why praise is so important? When you give God praise, you are putting yourself in a position of power. You are connecting with Him and strengthening your inner man. You are watering the seeds of destiny He has placed on the inside of you. If you are believing God for something specific, all throughout the day just thank Him that the answer is on...

The Senate has voted overwhelmingly to strip ACORN of funding in the Transportation/Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. After ACORN workers were caught on tape in three cities allegedly abetting what they believed was a fraudulent mortgage and sex-trafficking scheme, only seven senators were willing to stand by them:

What To Renounce "We have renounced the hidden things of shame . . ." —2 Corinthians 4:2 Have you "renounced the hidden things of shame" in your life— the things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light? Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind— renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all. Envy, jealousy,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, a community organization under fire in several voter-registration fraud cases.

The aftermath of Joe Wilson shouting out "You lie" at a shameless liar in the midst of a shameless lie about health care has turned out to be one of the most Orwellian moments in recent memory. After Wilson's outburst, liberals, in and out of the mainstream media, rushed to tell us that it was Wilson, not Obama who was wrong. Why, there was simply no way that illegals would be covered! But then, a funny thing happened: the Senate started working to close the loophole that Wilson pointed out. You know, the one that allowed illegal aliens to get...

Many are accustomed to thinking in terms of a 'housing bubble.' But this is only part of the story. In fact, the first decade of the 21st century brought us a real estate double bubble—one in housing, and one in commercial real estate. Many are accustomed to thinking in terms of a “housing bubble.” But this is only part of the story. In fact, the first decade of the 21st century brought us a real estate double bubble—one in housing, and one in commercial real estate. They both involved property prices increasing by an obviously unsustainable 90 percent over six...

Obama advisor champions rationed health careBy Kate Randall 15 September 2009 Ezekiel J. Emanuel is a close advisor to the Obama administration on issues of health care policy. He currently serves as a special advisor on health policy to the director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget and is the chair of the Department of Bioethics at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health. He has authored several books, including most recently Healthcare Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America, which elaborates his plan for restructuring the US health care system. [1] In March, Emanuel,...

The annals of Sino-American relations have seen more than a few celebrity-diplomats: Henry Kissinger, a young Richard Holbrooke, and, of course, the current secretary of state. But, unless the record has been lost to history, none has ascended to this rarefied plane of geopolitics while running the Office of Management and Budget. And yet, there was budget director Peter Orszag rushing to a lunch with Chinese bureaucrats on a Monday in late July. To his surprise, when Orszag arrived at the site of the annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), the Chinese didn't dwell on the Wall Street meltdown...

For the third time is less than 6 days, a video showing ACORN workers giving advice to a pimp and a prostitute was released by the good folks over at BigGovernment.com. This video features New York City ACORN workers giving advice on how to hide prostitution profits in a tin can buried in the back yard, how to lie when applying for a housing loan and ways to shelter the money for tax purposes. The number of hits on Google search at 4pm this afternoon? 58. Some of the news sites that covered the story? * Fox News * The...

They said "The Jay Leno Show" wouldn't feel like going to bed really early, that it would feel new. But it's like going to bed really early. It feels old. For a lot of people, "The Jay Leno Show," which premiered Monday in its game-changing 10 o'clock weeknight format, it might feel perfectly comfy. There was an uncomfy moment with a chastened Kanye West, who 24 hours earlier acted like a jerk by interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards. "What would your mom have said about this?" Leno asked the rapper, who sat frozen at...

Whoever coined the phrase "big things come in small packages" had in mind people such as Mai Cong Haworth. Although she stands 4 feet 8 inches tall, Haworth's petite frame houses a towering sense of patriotism and love of country. She proved that on Sept. 11, 2001, as she sat in front of a television set and wept at the carnage and destruction from the terrorist attacks. Over the past eight years, Haworth has altered hundreds of uniforms, stitching on the badges, stripes, name tags and insignias on the uniforms, following exact placement guidelines for the respective branch of the...