Free Republic

How a handful of Democratic activists created alarming, but bogus data sets to scare local and state officials into making rash, economy-killing mandates.

President Obama held his first press conference in five months yesterday, in a bid to grab some media attention away from the Republican primaries on Super Tuesday. After retailing more of the wonderful Obamanomic ideas that have somehow failed to lift America out of grinding unemployment, soaring gas prices, and general economic malaise, he settled down to some questions, and of course the subject of the dust-up between radio host Rush Limbaugh and leftist agitator Sandra Fluke was broached.

Starting today, anyone with a blog or website can use the new Raise Your Vote widget to register voters right from their site. The new widget is part of the DNC and Organizing for America’s new one-stop voter registration and information center, RaiseYourVote.com.

Critics of Michael Steele's tenure as Republican National Committee chairman are motivated by racism, Steele suggested in an interview published on Tuesday. Speaking to Washingtonian magazine (no online version), Steele wondered why his Democratic National Committee counterpart doesn't get the same criticism he does. "I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation," Steele said. "Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?”

If you've been watching the daily scandals destroy the credibility of the U.N. IPCC, then you might not realize that Cambridge, Massachusetts is in a state of climate emergency. This is not hyperbole, but an official policy order, passed by the City Council in May 2009, "recogniz[ing] that there is a climate emergency" and requesting the City Manager "to direct the appropriate city departments to increase the City's responses to a scale proportionate to the emergency."

A state of emergency was announced in Poland today involving tightened border controls and random police checks as a nationwide hunt was launched for the infamous bronze sign to the former German Nazi death camp Auschwitz after it was stolen.

Today marks a major milestone in government transparency -- and an important lesson in the unintended consequences of such vigorous disclosure.....A lot of people visit the White House, up to 100,000 each month, with many of those folks coming to tour the buildings. Given this large amount of data, the records we are publishing today include a few “false positives” – names that make you think of a well-known person, but are actually someone else. In September, requests were submitted for the names of some famous or controversial figures (for example Michael Jordan, William Ayers, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright, Robert...

The sub-headline over the September 16 article says it all: "The investigation into a cop killing in the '70s leads to a law professor who helped launch Barack Obama's political career." The law professor is former Communist terrorist Bernardine Dohrn, a leader of the Weather Underground known for praising mass murderer Charles Manson.

Voters in this small city decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party.

It is pretty clear why the president is refusing to accept the personal invitation of the German chancellor and attend festivities marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It would smack of American triumphalism - our success in defeating perhaps the most odious of all the odious ideologies of the 20th century. Obama doesn't do "triumphalism." That would place America above other nations - something that he has explicitly condemned. So he will be conspicuous by his absence. And another European ally has been embarrassed by this president.

It seems that Andrew Sullivan’s application for US citizenship hangs in the balance — but not really, and that is the issue. Gawker and other sites report that this past summer, blogger and columnist Sullivan was arrested on national seashore in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for illegal possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor that would incur a $125 for Sullivan, if he was found guilty. No big deal — it happens a lot in that area of our country. The only stumbling block is Sullivan’s pending U.S. citizenship, which might have been adversely affected should he have been brought to court. Enter...

I am working on a project to enable people to get more involved in the political process with the hope that we can start making a difference. To that end I would like to get opinions on what are the top three issues of importance to each of you. Please give me your top three issues. Mine are: 1. Taxes 2. Immigration 3. Government Accountability* * This includes everything from the role of the federal government to having Holder and Rangel dragged off to the cells they should be in. Thanks in advance.

I searched and could not find this posted. Seems the DNC has decided to file suit as of this morning. The Democratic National Committee announced today it will file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court Monday to force Sen. John McCain to stay in the public financing system until he formally accepts the Republican presidential nomination in September. Dems., Seeking to Hamstring McCain, to File Public Financing Suit

LONDON (Reuters) - A Kurdish woman was brutally raped, stamped on and strangled by members of her family and their friends in an "honor killing" carried out at her London home because she had fallen in love with the wrong man.

VIENNA, Austria - U.N. experts have found traces of plutonium near an Egyptian nuclear facility and are investigating whether it could be weapons-related or simply a byproduct of the country’s peaceful atomic activities, diplomats told The Associated Press on Friday. The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned against assuming that Egypt might have contravened the Nonproliferation Treaty by trying to separate plutonium, a substance used in nuclear weapons. The traces could be from a cracked research reactor fuel element or have other origins that have nothing to do with weapons research, they said. “From time to time, these things...

I searched but could not find this listed anywhere. FYI. A new internet scam. In the event you have a relative or a friend ready to pull out their wallet for this do let them know that it is scam. ---------- Dear Brothers and Sisters. My wife Karina was lost in result terror at school of city of Beslan, and 11-years daughter Alina, now to be in the Central Krasnodar hospital, in very heavy condition. At her a gunshot wound and strong burns. The daughter constantly calls mum. I do not know that to me to do. I would not...