Free Republic

Contemporary American politics is conducted in the shadow of historical myths that inform our present-day choices. Unfortunately, these myths sometimes lead us terribly astray. Case in point is the popular idea that America’s economic tradition has been economic liberty, laissez faire, and wide-open cowboy capitalism. This notion sounds obvious, and it fits the image of this country held by both the Right, which celebrates this tradition, and the Left, which bemoans it. And it seems to imply, among other things, that free trade is the American Way. Don’t Tread On Me or my right to import. It is, in fact,...

Time and Tide The national Democrats and their principal ally in the popular press have signaled their plan for holding back the electoral tide on November 2: They will attempt to demonize John Boehner.Monday, September 13, 2010 By Rich Galen The national Democrats and their principal ally in the popular press have signaled their plan for holding back the electoral tide on November 2: They will attempt to demonize John Boehner. I believe they will find, as King Canute proved nearly 1,000 years ago, that no ruler (or Speaker of the House) is so strong that she can hold back...

NEW DELHI — Indian academics have long dreamt of resurrecting Nalanda University, one of the world's oldest seats of learning which has lain in ruins for 800 years since being razed by foreign invaders. Now the chance of intellectual life returning to Nalanda has come one step closer after the parliament in New Delhi last month passed a bill approving plans to re-build the campus as a symbol of India's global ambitions. Historians believe that the university, in the eastern state of Bihar, once catered for 10,000 students and scholars from across Asia, studying subjects ranging from science and philosophy...

Remember 2008's Pumas? They were the Hillary die-hards, after it was clear that Obama was going to win the nomination and Hillary kept at it anyway. The first two letters of Puma stood for party and unity. The next one was my. Got it? Christine O'Donnell, the tea party candidate for Senate in Delaware, says they're back and they're with her: "I do want to point out that we have broad based support, we've got a lot of Hillary Democrats working behind us -- with us -- because they're frustrated with what this administration is doing," O'Donnell (R-DE) said this...

If you tried to help a "protected" Obama constituency, you had better hope that your best efforts didn't fail. The Gestapo will have you in its crosshairs. This is not the Gestapo of the thirties-Germany variety so vividly portrayed by Hollywood long after the bright shiny black uniforms and man-sized flashlights of the SS became extinct and irrelevant. Tom Perez — control freak Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General, heads the Justice Department's (DOJ) "Civil Rights" division. On September 3, the department filed a suit against "America's toughest sheriff" Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. The reason? The sheriff is actually...

WASHINGTON – First lady Michelle Obama is prodding the nation's restaurants to add more healthy options to menus, label those items more prominently and market nutritious foods to kids. Speaking to the National Restaurant Association on Monday, Mrs. Obama pleaded with restaurants small and large to take a little butter or cream out of their dishes, use low fat milk and provide apple slices or carrots as a default side dish on the kids' menu. Mrs. Obama said that Americans are spending half their food dollars outside the home and eating a third of meals in restaurants. She asked the...

A lawsuit brought by a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner and four others that sought to hold Jeppesen Dataplan Inc responsible for aiding the CIA in flying them to secret interrogation sites was dismissed Wednesday by an appeals court. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco "reluctantly concluded" in a 6-5 vote that the possibility of exposing national security issues during trial superseded the complainants right to have their day in court. Jeppesen was described in a 2007 report as the CIA's aviation services provider. The complainants claim they were taken from the U.S. to foreign locations where they...

NASHUA, N.H. -- Is it really possible that the toughest sheriff in America is considering a presidential run? He at least won't rule it out. "I guess that's what they say in politics. You never say never, so who knows?" Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said at a Republican luncheon Sunday in New Hampshire. New Hampshire is where politicians who want to be president often visit because of its early, crucial presidential primary. Arpaio, often a lightning rod in the West for his tough stance on illegal immigration, also draws protesters on the other side of the country.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 12, 2010CONTACT: Levi Russell at (509) 979-6615 or via email at: Levi@FrontLineStrat.com POLL: Christine O'Donnell Takes Lead Over Mike Castle in Delaware Senate Race(WILMINGTON, DE) - Confirming poll results from a Tea Party Express commissioned poll last week (which showed Mike Castle leading Christine O'Donnell by just a 43%-41% margin), a new poll shows Conservative Republican Christine O'Donnell continuing her surge in the Delaware U.S. Senate race. A new Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey released Sunday evening shows O'Donnell has in fact now surged into the lead over liberal Mike Castle. The poll results were as follows: Christine O'Donnell:...

Harare(ZimEye)-The Zimbabwe Republic Police on Saturday failed to take the six arrested American doctors to court citing in-completion of investigations. Police on Thursday arrested six American HIV/AIDS doctors for allegedly operating an unlicensed clinic in Belvedere, Harare, and dispensing medicines without a pharmacist’s supervision and were expected to appear in court on Saturday. Jonathan Samukange of Venturas and Samukange Legal practitioners representing the arrested doctors told journalists Saturday evening that he spent the whole day waiting for the police to complete their papers that they were supposed to file to the courts. “Superintendent Njodzi who is the chief investigating officer...

ouch. A bad wake up call. linked only.

FLOTUS urges restaurants to change menus By Elise Viebeck - 09/13/10 12:39 PM ET First lady Michelle Obama is urging restaurant owners to consider "reformulating" menus to address childhood obesity. 

In a speech Monday morning to the National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C., Obama called on restaurants to offer a wider variety of "healthy choices" as part of her "Let's Move!" campaign. "I'm not asking any of you to make drastic changes to every single one of your recipes or to totally change the way you do business," she said. "But what I am asking is that you consider reformulating...

In this video you will see an officer giving a motorist a ticket. From the police car cam you see a gasoline tanker truck coming towards the scene in the other lane. The driver loses control of the semi as it jackknifes and falls onto it's side and slides into the police car and the car the officer is ticketing. Fear not because everyone was able to get out of the way, and except for a few cuts and bruises the driver of the truck was fine also. Follow the link below to see the video of theTanker Crashing...

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) made perhaps his riskiest endorsements yet this weekend, backing Christine O'Donnell (R-De.) and Ovide Lamontagne (R-N.H.) in their respective Senate races. It all begs the question: What's the endgame here? DeMint advisers insist he has no aspirations for leadership in the Senate or a run for national office but that seems hard to fathom given his level of involvement in races to date. Behind the scenes, opposing camps sound pretty convinced that DeMint will at least take a hard look at running for president in 2012. With the current GOP primary electorate trending toward tea party...

Welcome To The Sean Hannity Show Thread! All Posters And Lurkers Are WELCOME! The Show Thread Between EL Rushbo And TGO'S Lounge. Be The First To Post And Win A Sean Hannity Show Thread High Power Blender. Listen To Sean Do Comentary, Talk To Guests And Take Calls From YOU! :)=^..^=

A British teenager who sent an e-mail to the White House calling President Obama a "pr*ck" was banned from the U.S. for life, The Sun reported Monday. The FBI asked local cops to tell college student Luke Angel, 17, that his drunken insult was "unacceptable." Angel claims he fired off a single e-mail criticizing the U.S. government after seeing a television program about the 9/11 attacks. He said, "I don't remember exactly what I wrote as I was drunk. But I think I called Barack Obama a pr*ck. It was silly -- the sort of thing you do when you're...

In a further sign of division in the Colorado governor's race, several prominent Republicans have formally endorsed a third-party candidate over their party's own nominee. Wednesday, the Tancredo campaign released a list of over 20 endorsements by prominent Republicans in Colorado and around the country including former Congressman Bob Beauprez. Other endorsements came from Rep. Steve King of Iowa, Colorado State Senators Ted Harvey, Greg Brophy and Josh Penry, who recently served as the campaign manager for Jane Norton’s failed senatorial bid. Tancredo has also picked up the endorsements of State Representatives Spencer Swalm, Steve King, Marsha Looper and Cheri...

Golden Globe-winning actor Kevin McCarthy, who played the doctor trying to save his neighbors in the sci-fi film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, has died. He was 96. McCarthy died Saturday, a Cape Cod Hospital spokesman told The Associated Press. The cause of death or any other details were not released. McCarthy's career began on the stage. His 1938 Broadway debut in Abe Lincoln in Illinois earned him membership in the Actors Studio. McCarthy was chosen to play Willy Loman's son, Biff, in the London production of Death of a Salesman, a role which McCarthy also played in the 1951...

by Gil Ronen Published: 09/13/10, 2:31 PM / Last Update: 09/13/10, 5:03 PM The Israel Air Force Base at Tel Nof near Tel Aviv is holding a four-day drill to prepare for a possible attack by Iranian proxies Hizbullah and Hamas. In the event of war, Israel expects the terror militias to target IAF bases in a bid to prevent jets from taking off. Israel's legendary air force is seen by experts as its prime asset in a war against Iran and its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza. The drill was covered by IAF Magazine – a sign that the...

--snip-- Mr. Rendell became one of the few big-city mayors ever to share a podium with Mr. Farrakhan, a circumstance that was all the more unusual because Mr. Rendell is Jewish and Mr. Farrakhan is widely regarded as anti-Semitic. Representatives from the city's leading Jewish and Roman Catholic organizations were invited to participate in the rally, but all declined