Free Republic

(CNN) -- I was talking to a close family friend during my vacation in Florida, and he was criticizing the governor there for taking the stimulus money that came from the federal government. "Florida should just cut government spending, and not use the Feds as a crutch," he said with great vehemence. Now, this family friend is not a wealthy guy, but he lives a comfortable life, made more comfortable by the fact that he gets a nice monthly pension check from the state. I didn't dare suggest to him that perhaps cutting back on his monthly pension might be...

With the election just a week away and Barack Obama pulling away from John McCain, tiny tendrils of trepidation are starting to drift over the liberal members of the commentariat and the political press corps. If McCain wins, ample boilerplate exists from which to form their disposable Wednesday, Nov. 5, stories about his victory: "He took risks and they paid off … courage of his convictions … left for dead one time too many … the pundits eat crow … how could the pollsters have gotten it so wrong—again! … Will his White House harbor Straight Talk or double talk?"...

Republicans simply have to deal with problems that don't plague their opponents. It's not just a different in parties but a difference in identity, species, playing field and entire standards for what is or is not possible. Let's take a few examples which are about as clearly delineated as possible: 1. Republicans will never have the wind at their back in the form of media acceptance or reptition of their message, themes or facts. Aside from AM talk radio, which is a verbal media and doesn't get quoted by other media outlets because there is no written record for the...

Rate the speech. What did you think? Mods, kills this if necessary. But I didn't see anything posted AFTER the speech ended.

The McCain Campaign isn't competent enough to start it so it's up to Free Republic (again). We need to name the other 7 ObamaNation States! Obama lives in a different America than the rest of us. His has 57 states in it. What are those other 7 states? That is the job for you, Freepers. Let's name those states. And the winning states will be sent to the McCain Campaign so they can get a clue as to what it's like to be a Conservative or even be in the Republican Party (for those of us who are). And maybe...

A new system for mapping carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. will help regulators figure out exactly where these emissions are coming from and how best to reduce them. Among human-produced gases that contribute to climate change, carbon dioxide is public enemy number one. A group of researchers at Purdue University, led by atmospheric scientist Kevin Gurney, created the interactive mapping system. Called Vulcan, the system tracks the hourly output of carbon dioxide—emitted when fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline are burned—from factories, power plants and other sources across the country. Vulcan shows carbon dioxide emissions at a scale...

Randi Rhodes, an afternoon host for the progressive Air America radio network, was suspended Thursday after repeatedly insulting Hillary Rodham Clinton at an event last month. Ms. Rhodes used vulgar language that likened Ms. Clinton to a prostitute at an event sponsored by KKGN, the Air America affiliate in the San Francisco area, on March 22. A video of Ms. Rhodes’ remarks was published to the video-sharing Web site YouTube on Tuesday, prompting condemnations by some bloggers.

As President Bush more robustly promotes his Iraq policy, he should confront directly those who dismiss Saddam Hussein's ties to terrorism and, thus, belittle a key rationale for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bush's critics employ a flimsy argument that nonetheless enjoys growing appeal among a largely hostile press corps. Since Hussein did not order the September 11 attacks — the fuzzy logic goes — he has no ties to terrorists, especially al Qaeda. Therefore, the Iraq war was bogus, and Bush should be defeated. snip.... Bush and his national-security team should repeatedly devote entire speeches and publications — complete with documents,...

STUDIOS love magazine stories that breathlessly hype their summer popcorn movies, so you would think that Warner Bros. might have been happy with Alonso Duralde's cover story about "Superman Returns," which gushed, "Superheroes — let's face it — are totally hot." There was a twist: Duralde's "Superman Returns" story was not in Entertainment Weekly or Newsweek or Premiere. It ran in the May 23 issue of the Advocate, the prominent national gay magazine, next to the headline: "How Gay Is Superman?" Man of Steel has been missing from the movies for 19 years, and now that he's scheduled to fly...

Becoming U.S. Senate minority leader has hurt Sen. Harry Reid's popularity back home, according to a Review-Journal poll. Since he was re-elected in 2004 and took the party post, the percentage of Nevadans who view Reid favorably has dropped by 10 percentage points, while the number who view him unfavorably has increased 14 percentage points. Analysts say it's obvious Reid's new status, which requires him to spout the Democratic party line aggressively and also take the brunt of Republican attacks, has turned off home state voters who saw him as independent. Some are surprised at the magnitude of the shift....

Many Banks Giving State Extensive Customer Data Privacy: Law demands records of 'deadbeat parents,' but small firms hand over information on all account holders. Scores of California banks, thrifts, credit unions and life insurers have begun turning over confidential information about their customers--including account balances and Social Security numbers--to state officials in an effort to comply with a new federal law designed to catch parents who fail to pay child support. The program, which took effect this spring, requires financial institutions nationwide to help locate so-called deadbeat parents by searching their customer databases every three months for matches against state-provided ...