Free Republic

Glenn Beck responds to DNC ad targeted at him. Beck also talked with Byron York about ACORN and said "don't miss tomorrow's show because there's more." (Video)

A group of Serbian paratroopers jumped with their Israeli counterparts on Saturday in a festive solidarity parachute jump near Beersheba. An IDF paratrooper exercise (illustrative). Photo: IDF SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World The group of 10 paratroopers from Serbia's 63rd Airborne Brigade arrived here on Friday for a weeklong visit that will include a ceremony at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem and a visit to the Israel Air Force's Tel Nof Base. On Wednesday, the group will hold another solidarity jump in the North and will wrap up its visit to Yad Vashem. According to Jovan Culibrk, one of the...

The recent resignation of Van Jones, one of President Obama's cronies, from a midlevel position in the administration over some virulently leftist and anti-U.S. statements is but the latest indication of the disconnect between this president and the American tradition and people. Although not directly related, the Jones imbroglio tends to confirm what we have been saying of the president's efforts-conducted in an almost coup-like fashion - to foist on the country a plan that would have the government take control of health care out of the hands of private companies and prescribe anti-business standards governing whom to cover. It's...

House Minority Leader John Boehner spent much of last week trying to persuade a stubborn Rep. Joe Wilson to apologize to the House — telling associates he needed to “get to” Wilson before the weekend to elicit an apology. But as the days dragged on, Boehner had to back off: Wilson’s spine was stiffened by $1.5 million in campaign contributions, the Democrats’ anti-Wilson rhetoric had become increasingly extreme, and the South Carolina Republican was rapidly accumulating support from the conference’s dominant right wing. “At some point, he realized he had no choice but to get behind Wilson because that’s where...

A heckler was escorted by uniformed officers from President Obama’s speech to students at the University of Maryland College Park on Thursday after he briefly interrupted the president’s defense of his health care program. The young man, wearing a grey polo shirt and a beret, began yelling from his second-row seat at the university’s cavernous basketball arena. “Obama you’re a liar. Obama, your health care kills children. Abortion is murder,” he yelled. As the man was being escorted out, another man in the crowd grabbed his beret and tossed it, earning himself a police escort out of the arena. The...

Last Wednesday, 7-year-old Emma Watson of Craigmont, Idaho, finally got her wish to meet Pope Benedict XVI. Register readers will remember first meeting Emma through this story. Nearly aborted, Emma was born with mosaic Turner syndrome and hypoplastic left heart syndrome and has undergone five open-heart surgeries for palliation of her congenital heart condition. She has wanted to meet the Pope since age 3. Originally scheduled to meet the Pope in February, that trip had to be canceled because Emma had to be hospitalized for intestinal bleeding. The trip was made possible through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which granted 13,425...

FREEP the Nationwide Moveon.org Rally - September 22nd! One of my Obamabot friends forwarded me this information from an email distributed by Moveon.org: moveon writes... "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... Blue Cross/Blue Shield Offices, 8200 I-10 West (Map) San Antonio, TX 78230 Tuesday, September 22nd, 11:30 AM The rally in San Antonio is part of a national day of action to shine the spotlight on the insurance industry. And with Congress moving quickly toward voting on health care, we...

House Passes Student Loan OverhaulSept. 17, 2009 WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The U.S. House approved legislation that would overhaul the student loan market by setting up the federal government as the lone provider of college loans. The House vote was 253-to-171, largely along party lines, The Wall Street Journal reported. Under the legislation, private lenders would be blocked from the market for originating loans, but private banks and lenders still would be able to bid for a limited number of contracts to service loans after they are made by the government. The bill is another plank of the ambitious domestic agenda...

Clock Ticking On First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Lawmakers, industry debate efficacy of continuing $8,000 allowance "It was a wow moment," says Charles Curtis, of finding out about the credit. He and his wife are trying to buy a New York City apartment with an $895,000 all-cash offer. As days tick off the calendar, the life span of the much-ballyhooed tax credit for first-time homebuyers is drawing to an end — unless Congress decides to extend it. There have been more than a dozen bills introduced in Congress to prolong the life of the tax credit past the Nov. 30 deadline,...

22 governors sent a letter to President Obama pushing for an extension in unemployment benefits this week. This article explains why the administration is ignoring their requests due to the raise in the unemployment rate that would result from an extension...more of Obama's games http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-21037-Illinois-Statehouse-Examiner~y2009m9d17-Tough-road-ahead-as-Quinn-lobbies-for-extension-of-unemployment-benefits

A protester screaming "You lie!" was removed from Obama's health care speech today. Maybe Joe Wilson started a trend... Or, maybe Obama did with his constant misrepresentations? Thousands of University of Maryland College Park students mixed with the general public inside the Comcast Center today to hear President Barack Obama put in another pitch for his health care reform proposal. But as Mr. Obama was speaking, a heckler shouted out "you lie" from the stands. The president apparently did not hear the heckler's remarks because he said to the crowd "what's going on guys?"

The United States is stuck in a 1960s flashback. In an interview on Monday, President Obama rejected comparisons between the war in Afghanistan and the Vietnam conflict, saying "you never step into the same river twice." The Amu Darya is not the Mekong. There are superficial parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan, especially at the tactical level. The new joint counterinsurgency doctrine addresses many of these aspects, and it is noteworthy that Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversaw its development, wrote his doctoral dissertation on Vietnam. The Pentagon is well aware of the battlefield lessons of our country's only military defeat....

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Former state House Majority Leader Tommy Burnett, whose political career survived his first federal conviction but not his second, has died. Legislative and court officials said Burnett's son, Fentress County General Sessions Judge Todd Burnett, told friends and family that his father, age 67, died Thursday in a Nashville hospital.

“The Constitution of the United States was created by the people of the United States composing the respective states, who alone had the right.” - James Madison Today marks the 222nd anniversary of the formation and signing of our Constitution. The United States Constitution is one of the greatest founding documents in history because it charted a bold new path in the realm of political theory. Not only does the Constitution establish checks and balances within the federal government, it also divides power among the federal government, the states, and the people. The Founders understood that it is the nature...

Some might say Reagan wasn't very presidential in handling the guy at this campaign event in 1980, but then again he wasn't the president . . . until the next day.

Many of us had ‘hoped’ for some simplification of the Internal Revenue Code, which has grown from 14 pages to over 17,000 pages since its inception. But it doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon. H.R. 3200 will increase the burden of the income tax code by making the IRS the primary enforcer of Mandatory Health Insurance. Did you hear that? You get your ‘mandatory’ health insurance, but you had better file your tax returns, and file them timely and correctly. Not only that, but you will have to determine what kind of health insurance you have and...

The Constitution of the United States was created by the people of the United States composing the respective states, who alone had the right.” - James Madison Today marks the 222nd anniversary of the formation and signing of our Constitution. The United States Constitution is one of the greatest founding documents in history because it charted a bold new path in the realm of political theory. Not only does the Constitution establish checks and balances within the federal government, it also divides power among the federal government, the states, and the people. The Founders understood that it is the nature...

WASHINGTON: Scientists have come closer to engineering drug-free cannabis plant after identifying genes that produce psychoactive substance in marijuana. University of Minnesota researchers have identified genes producing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance in marijuana, which could lead to new and better drugs for pain, nausea and other conditions. The study showed that the genes are active in tiny hairs covering the flowers of Cannabis plants. In marijuana, the hairs accumulate high amounts of THC, whereas in hemp the hairs have little. Hemp and marijuana are difficult to distinguish apart from differences in THC. With the genes identified, finding a way...

Tom Donnelly goes big picture on the administration's missile defense capitulation at the new Center for Defense Studies blog(which is THE WEEKLY STANDARD blog's new favorite blog) under the apropos headline "A Bad Day for Freedom." He leads with a quote from former Czech PM Mirek Topolanek, this "is not good news for the Czech state, for Czech freedom and independence.” Donnelly goes on, This is a neat summary not only of the Czech Republic’s strategic position, but also that of all of America’s allies, be they in eastern or western Europe, the greater Middle East, South or East Asia....

The Highland Park house featured in the 1986 film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is on shaky ground. The Rose House and Pavilion in Highland Park is on the Chicagoland Watch List of endangered landmarks for 2009-2010. The list, released Wednesday by advocacy group Landmarks Illinois, includes three homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, a collection of homes built for turn-of-the-century golfers, and Marlon Brando's high school.