Free Republic

Over the weekend, Democratic leaders spoke of an historic moment as health care reform legislation passed the House of Representatives. But that legislative victory failed to significantly move public opinion. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. Most (52%) remain opposed. Only 25% Strongly Support the plan while 42% are Strongly Opposed.

The Fort Hood attack is the third instance this year in which American military personnel in the United States have been targeted by people reportedly opposed to U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism experts said. Investigators are seeking to determine the motivations of the Fort Hood suspect, Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, in part to understand whether his alleged actions fit in with what experts see as an emerging pattern of plots developed by U.S. citizens or residents rather than foreign attackers. Federal prosecutors in September charged two North Carolina men for allegedly conspiring to kill personnel at...

Republican Chris Christie continues to hold a three-point advantage over incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine in New Jersey's down-to-the-wire race for governor. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state, conducted Thursday night, shows Christie with 46% of the vote and Corzine with 43%. ... In this year's only other gubernatorial race, Republican Robert F. McDonnell has now opened a 13-point lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds in Virginia.

Michael Steele, substituting for Bill Bennett on this morning's Good Morning America, played a clip of Obama claiming that his Health care proposal would not effect the budget deficit. Michael Steele immediately responded by shouting "LIAR."

The Clinton's are desperately attempting to introduce Racism into the Democrat primary while at the same time attempting to make sure that offended African-Americans do not abandon the Democrats – that is the Clintons – in the General Election. The Clinton Camp has been running scared as they have watched Obama rise in their treasured polls. They have responded by attempting to play to the basest element within the Democrat Party – Racism. This risky, immoral strategy first reared its ugly head when Hillary claimed that Obama has not “done the necessary SPADE work” to warrant his consideration for the...

After John East, a stalwart conservative from North Carolina, entered the U.S. Senate in 1981, wags began referring to Jesse Helms as "the liberal senator from the Tar Heel state." We are reminded of this tale as Republican activists rush to encourage, if not yet fully embrace, the presidential candidacy of Fred Thompson, the former senator from Tennessee. The Republican base is evidently unimpressed or uninspired (or both) by the conservative credentials of the top three Republicans (John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani) seeking the 2008 presidential nomination. Mr. Thompson's most-oft-cited conservative credential is his 86.1 percent lifetime (1995-2002)...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said the world would witness the destruction of Israel soon, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Ahmadinejad said last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah showed for the first time that the "hegemony of the occupier regime (Israel) had collapsed, and the Lebanese nation pushed the button to begin counting the days until the destruction of the Zionist regime," IRNA quoted him as saying. "God willing, in the near future we will witness the destruction of the corrupt occupier regime," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying during a speech...

Why don't Bush, McCain, Lyle, and Jacoby treat their homes like they wish to treat this nation? Bush defends the perimeter of his ranch in Crawford. If Bush extended the same security to his ranch, he should be willing to let whoever wishes to enter come in and freely rummage through his premises. When Bush returns to his ranch and finds a dozen unknown people in his ranch, he will not only refuse to press charges, but will allow them to stay.

The Immigration Bill’s focus is the status of current illegal aliens and discounts mitigation of ongoing illegal immigration. This emphasis has made this legislation unsalvageable. Legislation which addresses the disposition of the current illegal population must be deferred until the Federal Government can guarantee the integrity of its borders. Otherwise, a benevolent provision of a version of amnesty will elicit a flood of new illegals eager to be the beneficiaries of such magnanimity. This Immigration Bill fundamentally contradicts the rule of law. One of the Federal Government’s primary mandates is to secure the National Defense. Federal inability to prevent violation...

PENNSYLVANIA Army Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class B. Charles Good Pennsylvania Silver Star recipient Army Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class B. Charles Good Then-Staff Sgt. Good and his team were on a mission on Oct. 31, 2003, to halt foreign fighters who were infiltrating Iraq from Syria. Their convoy drove into the enemy-friendly town of Sadah when one of the vehicles was hit by a RPG. Eight members of the team went after the enemy fighters, while Good and two others provided security. A soldier was hit, and Good provided cover fire while the injured soldier was loaded into the...

White House hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) harshly criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) trip to Syria during a speech on foreign policy Tuesday. Speaking at the George Bush Presidential Library Center in College Station, Texas, Romney embraced the courage of President George W. Bush before decrying “the divisiveness, the bitterness, the smallness, the disunity” of foreign-policy politics in Washington. “And then the Speaker of the House helped dignify a state sponsor of terror,” Romney said, in excerpts released by his campaign. “At this time of war, her action stands as one of the most partisan, divisive...

It's probably a good rule to do the opposite of anything the Iranian theocracy wants. Apparently, this government is now doing its darnedest to be bombed. So, for the time being, we should not grant them this wish. In the last three years, the ranting adolescent theocrats in Tehran have alienated the United Nations' Security Council to the point of earning trade sanctions. That's a hard thing to do, given the U.N.'s bias toward the former third world and the way China and Russia value petroleum and trade above all else. Prior to capturing last month 15 British Navy personnel,...

We used to have the expression "motherhood and apple pie," to describe things that were so far beyond controversy, that no one in his right mind would think of challenging them. It was a way to say that certain things are simply part of our nature, and thus not within our power to change. Also: beautiful, if properly understood, by a mind that accepts human life as a gift of God, rather than as a cat's cradle of rights issues. Of course, anything that is beautiful can also get ugly. I don't know where apple pie stands today (were the...

From all indications, the last two years of the Bush Administration will promise concerted, if not singular, attention upon the American commitment in Iraq. No serious effort to address other important issues of our day is on the horizon. Social Security, School Choice, Health Care Costs, Tort Reform, forget it! Savage Libby, Gonzales, Rumsfeld, Cheney, or DeLay with scurrilous, hyperbolic accusations, no problem! But, dare to challenge the mission in Iraq and face the vehement wrath of the veto hammer. This is Bush’s Thermopylae. This is Bush’s last stand. If he fails here, then everything else will matter very little....

Susan Estrich once complained that “the Clintons were sucking all of the oxygen out of the room.” This sentiment was expressed long before Hillary’s unstated desire to become a candidate was finally confessed. During the 2004 campaign for the Presidency, there were whispers that the Clintons were scheming to undermine the Kerry Campaign, along with the Democrat Party, in order to grease the skids for Hillary in 2008. This duplicitous endeavor departed from the realm of subtlety when Bill Clinton proclaimed that he too thought that Iraq possessed WMD - countering the attempt by Kerry to pin the WMD issue...

Stop me if you've heard this before, but the other day the Rev. Al Gore declared that "climate change" was "the most important moral, ethical, spiritual and political issue humankind has ever faced.'' Ever. I believe that was the same day it was revealed that George W. Bush's ranch in Texas is more environmentally friendly than the Gore mansion in Tennessee. According to the Nashville Electric Service, the Eco-Messiah's house uses 20 times more electricity than the average American home. The average household consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours. In 2006, the Gores wolfed down nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours. Two hundred twenty-one thousand kilowatt-hours?...

I must confess no small reluctance to address the mania surrounding global warming since it rightly belongs to the purview of science. But since the Ecophobes, who have eagerly fabricated this red herring, have misused Science (assuming it was used at all) to advance a cause that will serve as a distraction from the Left’s failings everywhere else, I thought that I might be forgiven if I broached the subject. The most notable aspect of the Gore film is that its premise is based upon a lie which is then followed by several deceptions. The film begins by bilking its...

The Left is amazingly predictable. They have consistently been against every war from WWII to Iraq. Under circumstances when they find themselves in a small minority, they will feign concurrence but they are only being consistent by adopting the coward’s path of least resistance. Their hearts, however, remain uncommitted. The recent evidence of Iranian complicity in the destabilization of Iraq, although long overdue in its publication, is overwhelming to the objective mind. The Iranians have brazenly pursued their hostile objective, short of sending 100,000 soldiers across the Iraqi border, to kill American troops and to destabilize the elected Government of...

December 12, 2006 -- IF you love Barack Obama, as almost everybody interested in U.S. politics does right now, ask yourself this simple question: What do you know about his opinions on any subject? You probably remember he gave a masterful speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention. You recall how he spoke and that it was he who spoke: a poised and handsome black man with a deep voice that's reassuring and commanding at the same time... ... He's already become king by acclimation. Why would he tarnish his crown at this moment by getting into a bruising battle -...

The widely touted Iraqi Study Group has been revealed to be a disappointing hodgepodge of suggestions which, in part or as a whole, do not constitute a coherent strategy or serve to promote American long-term interests. In a case of life imitating art, waiting for Godot was much more meaningful than the arrival. When the ISG “recommendations” that have been tried or have currently been implemented are removed, we are left with several mediocre ideas that are overwhelmed by the preponderance of a few that are patently absurd. The myopic suggestion of conjoining stability in Iraq to Israeli “land for...