Free Republic

The end of welfare reform as we knew it. By Stephen Spruiell When Barack Obama said he wanted to “spread the wealth around,” he meant it. A new study from Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation estimates that Obama’s policies would spend $10.3 trillion on welfare programs over the next decade. Obama started increasing welfare spending immediately after assuming office. The stimulus bill included $220 billion in new means-tested spending, including a little-noticed provision that repealed one of the key welfare reforms of the Clinton era. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act capped welfare dollars to states, ending...

Democrats are still not satisfied with my former colleague Joe Wilson’s apology after he shouted “You lie!” when Obama claimed in his address to Congress that “There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false.  The reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”  If he does not continue to grovel and apologize they are threatening to discipline him for his violation of what Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman calls the “House rules of decorum.”Whether or not he breached House decorum, Joe’s actions were both true and effective.  Obama...

Last night while listening to Glenn Beck, he challenged his viewers with a call to action. He ordered us to get off our collective arses and call the media demanding to know if they will cover the ACORN story. This morning, I called the National News desk of the ComPost - I live in Maryland and work in DC. After numerous rings, I finally got voicemail stating to leave a message and number. My message was if the ComPost - I did not call them that on the voicemail - was going to investigate ACORN. I next called the Washington...

Remember the day the healing took place? Remember the day a black man was elected to office by white Americans thereby proving that any established form of racism in this country was a thing of the past? Of course you do silly, and despite what they’ll tell you… so do Liberals. I’ll be honest, I’ve never met a Racist Conservative in my life. I’ve heard that they’re out there and I’m sure that they exist, but much like a Great White Shark or a decent Joel Schumacher film… I’ve never seen one in real life. Liberals, however, need ongoing racism...

Already squeezed by the invasion of the giant Burmese python, Florida now faces what one scientist calls one of the U.S. state's "worst nightmares. Africa's largest snake—the ill-tempered, 20-foot-long (6.1-meter-long) African rock python—is colonizing the U.S. state, new discoveries suggest.

BALTIMORE (Sept. 15) - A Johns Hopkins University student armed with a samurai sword killed a suspected burglar in a garage behind his off-campus home early Tuesday, hours after someone broke in and stole electronics. Some shocked neighbors said they heard bloodcurdling screams in an area just blocks from the university. Police held the student, a junior chemistry major who turns 21 on Sunday, for several hours, but he was not charged with any crimes Tuesday, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Around 1:20 a.m., the student heard noises behind the home and noticed a door to the garage was open,...

From 2008... Summary: The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has become America’s most prominent leftwing community group. Little-known until now, ACORN has played a major role in the subprime mortgage mess that has undermined Americans’ support for free market problem-solving and set off a worldwide chain of fi nancial troubles. It is also implicated in vote fraud schemes from coast to coast. ACORN aims to give America change that socialists can believe in – by any means necessary. It is deliberately organized to avoid scrutiny. But with an FBI probe underway, millions of dollars in back taxes...

Frank Pizzella Jr. on Tuesday became the third Wilkes-Barre Area School Board member and the second sitting board president to be charged with corruption in five months. A federal grand jury handed down an indictment claiming that, in 2004 – before he was on the school board – Pizzella acted as both go-between and facilitator when a school board member got a $5,000 bribe to help hire someone as a teacher. The indictment reads like a mini spy novel without names, other than Pizzella’s. It outlines an alleged “conspiracy” that took place between Jan. 2, 2004, and Dec. 2, 2004,...

Here is video of Fox News' Griff Jenkins confronting Illinois Democrat Sen. Roland Burris about why he voted to protect funding for ACORN the other day. Burris was one of only seven Senators to vote for ACORN. Jenkins confronted Burris, asking him why he voted against defunding ACORN. Burris bizarrely answered, "I voted for ACORN." Jenkins said, "I know that; I want to know why." Burris would never say more than "I voted for ACORN." As he walked away, Burris said to Jenkins "you've got a problem." Jenkins intends to confront the other six who voted for ACORN as well....

OPEN LETTER TO THE MEDIA The premeditated murder of James Pouillon of Owosso, Michigan, a disabled pro-life activist, father of two and grandfather, affectionately known by locals as the peaceful "sign guy," is being mourned by the nation's pro-life community. Pouillon was gunned down across the street from the Owosso High School while holding a photograph of a baby with the word "LIFE." County officials have accused 33-year-old Harlan Drake of shooting Pouillon several times because he was "offended by the manner of Mr. Pouillon's message." Leading pro-life advocates are questioning the lack of a concerned response from key abortion...

... Harvard is a venerable institution with “a lot of arcane traditions and rituals,” he acknowledged. But in the business of education, Harvard is not a very conservative or traditional place — and in fact has taken dramatic steps over the years “to change the face of education,” said Menand. Behind those steps were a string of Harvard presidents, he explained, beginning with Charles William Eliot, under whose tenure (1869-1909) the institution was transformed from an antebellum college to a modern research university. For one, said Menand, Eliot had the “revolutionary idea” that a bachelor’s degree should be required for...

Millions of Americans are marching, blogging, calling Congress, E-mailing friends, and writing to newspapers to say that President Obama and Congress are expanding government too far, too fast. We need to do more, because it’s clear that they’re not getting the message. The latest example: the House of Representatives is preparing to put the Department of Education into the business of creating educational curriculum for American students. This week the House is scheduled to approve H.R. 3221, an education lending bill that CBO reports will increase the deficit by $50 billion. The bill includes a little-known provision to give...

President Obama continues to assert that no tax dollars will be used to finance abortions in healthcare reform -- but even some in the liberal media say otherwise. The Washington Post and TIME Magazine -- publications which, in the past, have shown support for the president's policies -- acknowledge the healthcare bills in the House and Senate do include government-funded abortion on demand. Douglas Johnson with the National Right to Life Committee recalls the words of candidate Obama. "Barak Obama, when he was running for president, promised Planned Parenthood that his plan would cover abortions -- and that his public...

Two youths beat a businessman to death at a Munich train station on Saturday as he tried to defend a group of children. The crime has shocked Germans, and politicians are calling for tighter youth laws and increased video surveillance. Some are threatening to prosecute passersby who do not act to stop such crimes.

> The giant crop is good news for farmers and livestock producers, who should benefit from lower feed costs, but it probably won't make a big difference to the cost of groceries. Although corn is a key ingredient in countless products, from Coke to corn flakes, most of a product's cost is tied to labor and transportation... >

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 32% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -6.

When American special operations forces (SOF) operating in Somalia killed a terrorist mastermind this past week, media reports focused on the drama and the bombast. The drama was palpable. U.S. SOF used helicopters to attack a vehicle carrying Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a notorious al-Qaida-affiliated killer currently aligned with the Somali Islamist militia, Al Shabab. After the copter attack on Nabhan's vehicle, a commando team landed and retrieved his body. This daring raid sounds like the work of U.S. Navy SEALs, but in complex missions in complicated places like the Horn of Africa, the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) makes...

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". pink • \PINK\ • verb 1a. to perforate in an ornamental pattern 1b. to cut a saw-toothed edge on * 2a. pierce, stab 2b. to wound by irony, criticism, or ridicule * Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. Example sentence: "The sleek curtain requires no sewing; we pinked the edges to add a bit of detail." (Jennie Voorhees, Martha Stewart Living, April 2002) Did you know? Our unabridged dictionary, Webster's Third...

The liberal activist group ACORN rakes in millions of dollars in federal taxpayer dollars a year - at least $53 million since 1994 for its housing programs alone - but that largess is in jeopardy after a hidden-camera video showed one of its workers advising a supposed prostitute how to cheat on taxes and mortgage applications. House Republicans on Tuesday introduced the Defund ACORN Act that would sever all ties between the government and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a day after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to prohibit funding the group in the 2010 housing appropriations...

INTERNATIONAL. Legendary global investor and chairman of Singapore- based Rogers Holdings, Jim Rogers said the Fed and the US Treasury should have let 10 banks fail, not just Lehman Brothers, for the financial system to clean itself up. Speaking to CNBC Wordwide Exchange today Rogers said "All the government officials and bureaucrats loved the fact Lehman failed, because they could all jump in and support banks." "This whole problem was not caused by Lehman Brothers or Lehman Brothers failure. Lehman was an effect not a cause." "The real problem over the past 10-15 years has been that regulators have not...