Free Republic

Earlier this week, a document I'd written regarding one of our research projects made its way into an article published by Breitbart. It is about ballot trafficking. The report is accurate. Ballot trafficking is one of three investigations undertaken by True the Vote in particular areas of interest. We have not spoken publicly of these investigations for various reasons, but primarily because the work is ongoing and time is short. What follows is a brief statement about the ballot trafficking project, why we did what we did, what we are finding, and what comes next. This is just the beginning....

The mainstream media are reporting that President-elect Donald Trump is givinHe’s not alone: those are some of the only parts of the law that are popular, and many Republicans have long since promised to preserve coverage for those with pre-existing conditions even after Obamacare is repealed. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), for example, proposed a replacement for Obamacare in April that would cover people with pre-existing conditions by moving them into state high-risk pools.g up on his promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, because he said he would be willing to preserve coverage for pre-existing conditions and allowing...

Do you remember the Financial Crisis of 2008? You woke up that morning in September, took a shower, had your first cup of coffee, turned on the news, and heard that, apparently out of nowhere, we were on the thin edge of a financial disaster that would make the Great Depression look like a picnic. Do you remember how you felt, the sense of disbelief, the feeling of real fear? How? Why? It happened because Congress passed a law that allowed the banks to take the risk of mortgage default, and then transfer that risk to someone else. Congress even...

The Israeli military commenced what government officials are calling a “widespread campaign on terror sites and operatives in the Gaza Strip, chief among them Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets” after suffering nearly a week of rocket attacks on Israeli territory. The Israel Defense Forces opened Operation Pillar of Defense with an airstrike on a car carrying the head of Hamas’ military wing Ahmed Jabri. More airstrikes quickly followed and are believed to have targeted other top Gaza-based terrorists and their weapons caches. Update (12:25 PM): The IDF has released video of the strike. An IDF spokesman stated on Twitter that...

Islamic militants fired more than 110 rockets and mortars into Israeli territory over the past four days in attacks that injured eight Israelis, according to a report issued by the Israeli Defense Forces Strategic Division. The unprovoked attacks have been dispersed throughout the Jewish state’s southern territory and have forced more than a million civilians into bomb shelters. One soldier has been critically injured in the barrage. The Israel Project says that 898 rockets have fallen on Israel thus far in 2012—over 200 more than hit Israel in the entirety of 2011. The Obama administration has yet to issue a...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Thousands of Islamists rallied in Cairo on Friday to demand immediate introduction of sharia and called on President Mohamed Mursi to resist opposition to Islamic law. Islamists, Liberals and non-Islamists have locked horns over what civic freedoms women, Christians and minority groups will enjoy under a new constitution being drafted by an Islamist-dominated panel. The constitution is supposed to become the cornerstone of democratic transition after the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak last year. Without it, the country cannot hold elections to replace a parliament that a court declared void in June. The Islamist camp is divided....

A U.N. official said Libya's new rulers had found uranium yellowcake, partly refined uranium ore, that was left over from the former regime's nuclear program, in a southern area. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said Thursday the material was "slightly radioactive" but posed no immediate danger. He didn't know how much had been found. British newspaper The Telegraph reported that at least 10,000 drums were found at the stockpile but they haven't been examined. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that yellowcake is stored in drums at a...

Four days of meetings in Doha, the capital of Qatar, of Western-backed elements backing the overthrow of the Syrian government began in disarray Sunday, following last week’s demand by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a shakeup within the so-called rebel leadership. Clinton gave the Syrian oppositionists their marching orders last Wednesday, declaring that the Syrian National Council (SNC), formed barely a year ago and recognized by Washington as the “legitimate representative” of the Syrian people, had lost US backing. She dismissed the leadership that the US had previously supported as a gang of irrelevant exiles who had not...

CIC (kick) is the power unleashed by computers and the internet in the 21st century. CIC is the exponential force created by combining Creativity, Information, and Communication. You are not imagining the world is moving more quickly. It is. The old linear ideas of the Industrial Age and the 20th century don’t work anymore because they are just … too … slow. One of the most vital things that CIC does is to transfer or distribute power from institutions to their “markets”, that is, to people like you and me. This is happening whether the product of these institutions is...

Across the land, the cry is heard: Throw the bums out! The people are prepared to do exactly that on Tuesday, but there's a catch. There's little to stop today's insurgent from becoming tomorrow's bum. Or, as a pessimist once said, many reformers take office to do good and stay to do well. Take heart, optimists, for there is an antidote to the corrupting disease of permanent poweritis. Term limits. They are a blunt instrument and they work. They do it by forcing the turnover that the power of incumbency too often thwarts. By using gerrymandering, earmarks, favors for contributors...

An immigrant-rights group has released a report (PDF) predicting that 25 states may try next year to pass anti-illegal-immigration laws similar to Arizona's controversial legislation. The number of states considering legislation modeled after SB1070, the bill that Arizona GOP Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law this spring, is apparently growing: Earlier, pro-enforcement groups said 22 states were considering the bill, the Washington Independent's Elise Foley notes. The new efforts are going forward even after a federal judge ruled key parts of the Arizona law unconstitutional and enjoined its enforcement in Arizona in July. That decision is now under appeal before...

Let’s face it: Most Americans don’t have much use for either of the major political parties and think it would be better to dump the entire Congress on Election Day. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65% of Likely U.S. Voters say if they had the option next week, they would vote to get rid of the entire Congress and start all over again. Only 20% would opt to keep the entire Congress instead. Fifteen percent (15%) aren’t sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Of course, the Political Class strongly disagrees. While 84% of Mainstream...

RealClearPolitics tracks the projected Senate make up with toss up races and without toss up races. In the latter case, they make an assumption on which way the toss up goes. Just this afternoon, for the first time, they are showing the Senate races without toss ups resulting in 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. There are 46 Republicans that are fairly solid and 6 toss up races they assigned to either Democrat or Republican. The four toss ups going Republican are CO, NV, PA and IL. Looking at recent polls these seem pretty likely. The best bets to get 51...

Remember when the Tsunami hit Thailand a few years ago? We saw tragic images of children playing on the beach just moments before the wave overcame and engulfed them. With regards to the Tea Party movement and politics in America, the elite media and the establishment political class (both Democrat and Republican) remind me of those children. So we see Democrat strategists crafting messages for political gain. We see the likes of Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer wringing their hands over who will hold committee chairmanships in the Senate. Such chitter chatter reminds me of those poor children who may...

When President Bush made the decision to invade Iraq, many of us said, "You acted precipitously, you should have waited". Now, it comes to Iran, and President Obama is waiting. When not if Iran produces a nuclear weapon, won't many of us say, "You should have acted sooner. You waited too long"? Why the difference in strategy and which approach will prove to be most prudent? This is the way I would explain the difference. There was a lily pad on a pond, which doubled in size each day until, after 30 days, it covered the pond. The riddle is, on what day did it cover half...

Here is a question. Was Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally on August 28th about November 2?   In other words, was the context of the rally in terms of the 2010 mid-term elections?Now, you might say, “That is a trick question.   It was not about politics.   Glenn said so.”I believe you would be correct but probably not for the correct reason.   If I am right (and I believe I am or I wouldn’t be writing this) and if I can communicate clearly in this article,  I believe a light will go off in your head before you...

828 Rally Pics

I will be tweeting live from 828. Headed down to Lincoln Memorial at now (4AM). If you so desire, you can follow at http://twitter.com/pberry1_98.

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) Military Leader, President of the United StatesThe greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.Albert A Bartlett (1923- ) Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Colorado in Boulder There was a lily pad on a pond, which doubled in size each day until, after 30 days, it covered the pond. The riddle is, on what day did it cover half the pond? Most of...

In recent days, the Daily Caller website has released transcripts from the JournoList Listserv.    The JournoList is a private discussion group for liberal journalists and academics. Two items the Daily Caller reported were the efforts by the participants to hide the Jeremiah Wright story by attacking Conservatives by erroneously labeling them racist and the suggestion that the government should shut down Fox News. I want to keep these two examples in mind in the my discussion below.The transcripts are quite shocking yet shouldn’t be once we realize the nature of Old Media. Chapter 11 of The 29th Day: Solutions...