Free Republic

Dear MoveOn member, Health and insurance interests are spending nearly $5 million per week to oppose health care reform,1 fighting to keep a broken system because it benefits their bottom line. But what we've got right now—skyrocketing premiums, denial of treatment, canceling coverage when you get sick—is a disaster for regular people. It's time to call Big Insurance out—because if they win, we lose. And next week, we're going to do it right in their own back yards. We're organizing "Big Insurance: Sick of It" rallies at local insurance company offices across the country on September 22nd. Thousands of us...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday will submit to a panel of three federal judges a plan that would reduce the inmate population at California’s overcrowded prisons by substantially less than what the court has ordered, a move that a top prison administrator acknowledged will place state officials at risk of being held in contempt. Although the final plan will not be submitted until late Friday, administration officials have briefed other parties involved in the court proceedings on its major elements. They said exact projections of how much the prison population will be reduced have not yet been calculated,...

Scuttling a missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland helps smooth relations between the U.S. and Russia. But at what price? Some of America's staunchest allies are the East Europeans — and on Thursday, they expressed dismay at what many see as a slight after decades of their support for the U.S. Among them were some famous names, including Lech Walesa, the former Solidarity leader and Polish ex-president. "I can see what kind of policy the Obama administration is pursuing toward this part of Europe," he said ruefully, adding: "The way we are being approached needs to change."...

The rise of the Left and godless Liberalism in America has been slowly but ever rising since the 1920’s until today, where it is at a fever pitch. The Left has always sought to make war with America’s Judean/ Christian values (moral and spiritual) by imposing their secular and godless immorality on the American culture. They are Constitutional apostates and, like a parasite, they have twisted the U.S. Constitution in support of their Machiavellian agenda. They have been relentless in their pursuit to totally secularize our American Culture and heritage. Iconic leftist leaders such as Margaret Sanger, Roger Baldwin, John...

The huge “9/12” protest in Washington was the latest expression of discontent over President Obama’s leftward policy thrust. The discord is evident from the “Tea Party” movement to the chaotic “townhalls” on “healthcare reform.” The mainstream media and American left are thrown off by this, clearly wanting to dismiss it as a giant, petulant right-wing rant. Some “journalists,” as well as Democratic members of Congress, have described these genuinely concerned citizens in very demeaning terms, from “racists” to “Nazis.” I know why the left is dismissive: First off, it’s difficult to know if the protesters are mostly people who didn’t...

For the first time anyone can remember, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi teared up at a press conference this morning in response to an off-beat question about the current state of political discourse. Visibly struggling to retain her composure, Pelosi recalled a time in San Francisco when emotions ran out of control, obviously referring to the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by an angry former supervisor Dan White on Nov. 27, 1978. "We are a free country, and this balance between freedom and safety is one that we have to carefully balance," Pelosi began. Then out of...

Angry. Bitter. Desperately trying to avoid irrelevance. Clinging to past glories. The average American, the beleaguered taxpayer in the age of Obama? No, welcome to the world of Maureen Dowd. Dowd is the signature columnist for The New York Times and Cardinal Richelieu to the King Moe (a dynastic line that includes Larry and Curly) of its publisher, Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. Dowd faces a new information age in which readers continue to turn their backs on her and her employer of 26 years, leaving a shrinking readership of aging elites from academia, politics and media. Her readers are disappearing...

Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found. The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors' own lobby — the powerful American Medical Association — both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul. It also calls into question whether an overhaul is even doable; 72% of the doctors polled disagree with the administration's claim that the government can cover...

Researchers have warned that two non-native species of python currently slithering free in south Florida could morph into a giant man-eating swamp coil. The capture of five African rock pythons near an Everglades already teeming with the gentler Burmese pythons has experts worried about “hybrid vigor” – a phenomenon that occurs when interbreeding uncorks volatile recessive genes, passing traits such as aggression onto the offspring, the Christian Science Monitor reported on Wednesday. The two species have interbred in captivity. While Burmese pythons aren’t known to eat people in their native habitat, the African rock python, unfortunately, has been known to...

Did you see the movie: “The Matrix”? It’s a science fiction movie that came out in 1999. It’s entertaining and thought provoking and I recommend it. In one of my favorite scenes, the protagonist, Neo, is offered a choice in the form of two pills. The red pill will enable him to forget what he has learned and return to the comfort and security of his blissful ignorance. The blue pill simply offers the truth. It’s a well-done scene and makes you think long and hard about which pill you would choose. On the one hand, Neo has a good...

Talk about winging it! Emmy Award-winning Fox 5 anchor Ernie Anastos dropped an F-bomb live on the air last night while making a bizarre chicken reference during an odd exchange with weatherman Nick Gregory. "I guess it takes a tough man to make a tender forecast," Anastos said to Gregory during the station's 10 p.m. newscast. "I guess that's me," a bewildered Gregory replied. Then, as both men shared a chuckle during the playful banter, the 66-year-old anchorman shocked his colleagues -- and the audience at home -- by saying, "Keep f---ing that chicken."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has become increasingly concerned with the "anti government rhetoric" regarding President Obama's health care plan. First of all, allow me to clarify, it's not an anti-government stance. It is a stance that is based on minimal government intervention let alone a government run by representatives who are not respecting the wishes of their constituents or even pretending to (re-visit Baron Hill). We on the right, are fine with government, as long as they know what they're doing, which obviously is not the case here. Pelosi goes on to state that it reminds her of...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli he Jewish New Year holiday, which begins Friday. He said the U.N. report ignored Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian rocket attacks that preceded Israel's invasion, adding that lessons must be learned for future agreements with the Palestinians. He said world leaders cannot wait for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement to affirm Israel's right to protect itself. "So I am telling international leaders: You are telling us that you support our right of self defense. Don't tell us that after the next agreement, tell us now," Netanyahu told Channel 2 TV. "Reject the findings of...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House has voted to deny all federal funding for ACORN, the community organizing group that has been caught up in several scandals. The House action came several days after the Senate took a similar vote to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN. Republicans, long critics of the liberal-leaning group that advocates for the poor, led the effort to cut off all federal funds. California Republican Darrell Issa, who sponsored the measure in the House, says the "scandal surrounding the criminal activities of ACORN have called into question their role in...

“I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw … I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco,” Pelosi said, choking up and with tears forming in her eyes. “This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and … I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm...

The Justice Department investigation centers on a 2006 decision to award oil shale leases in Colorado to a Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary. Months later, the oil giant hired Norton as a legal counsel. Reporting from Washington - The Justice Department is investigating whether former Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton illegally used her position to benefit Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the company that later hired her, according to officials in federal law enforcement and the Interior Departmen The criminal investigation centers on the Interior Department's 2006 decision to award three lucrative oil shale leases on federal land in Colorado to a...

The United States has provided more than $3bn in aid to Pakistan since President Zardari came to power a year ago, its ambassador in Islamabad says. Anne W Patterson said the money was given in "combined security, economic and development assistance".

And you thought birtherism was just for hillbillies and Republicans! David Weigel heard Camille Paglia on NPR yesterday, where the author of Sexual Personae and UArts professor told a no doubt astonished latte-drinking audience that "there are legitimate questions about the documentation of Obama's birth certificate. I'm sorry, I've been following this closely from the start." Indeed she has; we noticed her railing on the topic as far back as November ("simple questions about the certificate were never resolved to my satisfaction"). Now that they've got a genuine intellectual on board, the birthers just need a popular entertainer to carry...

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- An Indiana appeals court threw out the state's voter identification law Thursday, finding it violates the state constitution's equal protection clause. The law, one of the strictest in the country, requires voters to show government-issued photo ID before they can cast their ballots. The three-judge panel said the law is unconstitutional because it does not apply to two groups of voters, the Indianapolis Star reported. Absentee voters are not required to file affidavits swearing to their identity, and residents of long-term care facilities do not have to show ID if their facility is a polling...

Here is video of President Obama awarding the Medal of Honor posthumously to Sergeant First Class Jared Monti from Massachusetts. (Watch Video)