Free Republic

Thuggery is unattractive. Ineffective thuggery even more so. Which may be one reason so many Americans have been reacting negatively to the response of Barack Obama and his administration to BP's gulf oil spill. Take Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's remark that he would keep his "boot on the neck" of BP, which brings to mind George Orwell's definition of totalitarianism as "a boot stamping on a human face -- forever." Except that Salazar's boot hasn't gotten much in the way of results yet. Or consider Obama's undoubtedly carefully considered statement to Matt Lauer that he was consulting with experts "so...

Energy Policy: The advisory board on offshore drilling says it never endorsed a moratorium, which was added later by the interior secretary. The only thing transparent about this administration is its lies. Experts brought together by the Obama administration to review offshore drilling safety were asked to review recommendations in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. They did not give their blessing to the six-month drilling moratorium announced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and have accused him of deliberately appending their report to make it seem like they did. According to the New Orleans Times Picayune, Salazar's May 27...

I believe it was Jean Giraudoux who first said, "Only the mediocre are always at their best." Barack Obama was supposed to be the best, the very best, and yet he is always, reliably, consistently mediocre. His speech on oil was no better or worse than his speech on race. Yet the Obammyboppers who once squealed with delight are weary of last year's boy band. At the end of the big Oval Office address, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and the rest of the MSNBC gang jeered the president. For a bewildered Obama, it must have felt like his Ceausescu balcony...

I am so excited about the upcoming Restoring Honor rally with Glenn Beck on August 28th in Washington, D.C., right on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Glenn and I will be speaking at the rally, and I hope you’ll be able to join us. You can visit the Restoring Honor Facebook page here for all updates. You can also help us raise funds for some amazing true American heroes by joining me and Glenn for breakfast on August 28th before the rally. Visit this website to bid on a fun morning with both of us, and remember all proceeds...

The threat of sanctions has failed. The empty threat of military strikes has failed. An international coalition of the willing, marshaled by President Obama, is now being ignored. Iran and the nuclear bomb? No, I am writing about Arizona and the immigration enforcement bomb they are threatening the world with. By using the state power to enforce the federal laws that the Feds will not or cannot, Arizona is committing a terrible faux pas and her punishment will be severe: a swarm of dark-suited lawyers from the Department of Justice. Where have you Arizonans been the past 18 months? Are...

President Obama’s approval number dropped to 41% following his lackluster oil spill speech on Tuesday.

Environment: Our growing addiction to alternative energy was killing aquatic life in the Gulf long before the Deepwater Horizon spill. Abandoning oil will kill more and also release more carbon dioxide into the air. President Obama sees the oil spill as a chance to make the planet a greener place by weaning us off fossil fuels and pushing us toward alternative energy. The earth and the Gulf of Mexico have indeed been getting greener lately, thanks to agricultural runoff due to a mandated surge in biofuels such as ethanol. Before the first gallon gushed from Deepwater Horizon, there existed an...

...The FCC is already attempting to assert control over the Internet under Net Neutrality, and now the Department of Homeland Security is looking to wield power as well. Any exercise of this bill could also have drastic economic effects; no one would be held liable for any losses or damages. Bob Dix, a government affairs and infrastructure protection expert, believes that the government is in no position to interfere in dealing with cyber attacks. He rightly argues that businesses are already fighting against cyber attacks and know what they are doing... Read more: http://www.atr.org/pcnaa-internets-next-biggest-threat-a5104#ixzz0rEoUnTyP

When John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane crashed into Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, in July 1999 some observers said he had gotten himself into a "square box," meaning that he had run into the limits of his experience and his imagination. Barack Obama is in a square box, and observers are now beginning to talk about his inevitable crash. There was some question about JFK Jr.'s flying experience. There's no dispute about Barack Obama's executive experience: he has none. In fact, he is the least qualified person ever to be elected president. Prior to being elected,...

The Obama administration will file suit to challenge Arizona's immigration law, an official told Fox News on Friday. The confirmation comes after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with a TV station in Ecuador earlier this month that the administration would challenge the law in court, though officials had long said the issue was under review. Administration officials initially would not confirm Clinton's statement. But an official told Fox News on Friday that while the review is still underway, the decision has already been made that a Department of Justice suit will be filed. The administration at...

I am addressing this post to my fellow citizens of MI-01, fellow activists across the country, and especially to Congressional Democrats and candidates currently serving in Congress. The word is out; Mike Allen at Politico.com had the story yesterday. This administration is going to push the Senate to pass a cap-and-trade bill this summer. Then, with the same arrogance we have seen before from this administration, they are planning on passing a final bill during the lame-duck session of Congress that follows November’s elections—elections where the people will have spoken and expressed their will regarding the type of government they...

HH: We are pleased to begin, this week, with the return of Mark Steyn, who we can find in London tonight. Hello, Mark, welcome back. MS: Hey, great to be with you, Hugh. HH: And I hope your travels have gone well? MS: Yes, yes they have. I only travel to countries where they don’t carry live relays of Obama speeches. And fortunately, there are a few lightly inhabited dustbowls around the world you can still find for that. HH: Well, let’s start with that speech. I was today at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas,...

President Obama met with a group of prominent liberal commentators on Thursday to discuss the Gulf oil spill and the administration's response. The meeting came in the midst of a rare firestorm of criticism from the left over the president's response to the spill. It was surely not coincidence that the journalists seen leaving the White House that afternoon--the New York Times's Gail Collins, the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, and the Wall Street Journal's Gerald Seib--were some of the more prominent critics of the president's Oval Office address on Tuesday

Obama touts 10,000th stimulus project By Eric Zimmermann - 06/18/10 12:07 PM ET President Barack Obama on Friday highlighted the 10,000th project funded by stimulus dollars. In remarks near a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio, Obama argued that the stimulus had put the economy on the road to recovery. "When I was here last, America was losing 700,000 jobs per month," Obama said. The economy is now "growing at a good clip" and has "added jobs for 6 out of the last 7 months." The project in Columbus will use about $25 million to widen sidewalks and create new lanes...

The night he locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama predicted that generations hence, people would look back on the historic day as "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." At the time, his words reeked of hubris. Today, they look positively delusional. President Obama can't stop the oil leak in the Gulf, but he can and should be held accountable for the inept government response to cleaning it up and mitigating its worst effects on the shoreline. And you can bet that if George W. Bush were in...

Sarah Palin, via Twitter, has called out Barack Once again on his demonstrable inability to lead, and the total lack of focus from the Oval Office on what is important. Sarah also takes Obama to task for exploiting the oil spill in the Gulf to try and shove cap and tax down our throats. As Sarah points out, Obama is always claiming he is focused “like a laser” on jobs. Of course when normal people say things like this, you think they mean they are focused on actually creating jobs. With Obama it’s just the opposite. Between the moratorium on...

This guy is the most anti american president ever. What the heck is he doing? everything he does is detrimental to our Nation. He should be brought up on treason charges.

Fifty-seven days. For nearly two months Americans have watched the nation’s largest environmental disaster unfold in the Gulf of Mexico. It may not be at the forefront of every American’s mind as we head into the busy summer months, with the preoccupation of keeping children amused and planning vacations. But the images of helpless wildlife entombed in tarry crude, the heartbreaking stories of countless livelihoods lost, and the irritating nattering of incompetent politicians finally took their toll. The President realized he could not allow the out-of-control oil spill and its ensuing public relations disaster to continue to drag down the...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-six percent (46%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21 (see trends). These results are based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, more than two-thirds of the interviews for today’s update were conducted after the president’s speech to the nation. Tomorrow’s update will be the first based entirely upon interviews conducted after the speech. The Presidential Approval...

Apparently the Hope and change isn't working..