Free Republic

Whoa, I've been banned at FR since...what was it, 2011? I take a glance at FR to see if there are any interesting articles posted, and it says I have mail, which I don't think I had access to. No messages to me from FR. But when I go to post, no more rude comment informing me my posting privileges are revoked. Was there a general amnesty or something? I was banned (apparently) for my stubborn backing of the the eventual 2012 GOP Presidential nominee.

UPDATE (12.53am): Sources at RPV are telling me that the 2,000 signatures do not have addresses on them… meaning that they cannot be verified. Newt Gingrich may very well be off the ticket in Virginia, folks… Rumor has it this evening that one of the petition gatherers was not qualified to circulate petitions… which technically disqualifies those signatures in Virginia. This would mean that the only two campaigns that qualified in the Virginia primary will be Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. However… and there’s always a however… former State Senator Marty Williams back in 2007 was accused of having a...

Twice in his speech in Waterloo, Iowa, the Texas governor drew laughs with gender stereotypes that might not play well elsewhere. DES MOINES, Iowa -- ...as two turns of phrase from the now-Republican governor of Texas last night to a GOP dinner in Waterloo, Iowa, suggest that the way Perry talks about women and deploys his masculinity on the stump will bear watching in the months ahead. First, Perry invoked the old "girls have cooties" stereotype at the start of his Waterloo speech: I was about eight years old, and my momma decided I needed to have some musical influences...

Segment with State Senator Sam Slom | April 26, 2011 Rick Hamada: Glad we are back chatting about news and information and you my friend are right in the center of all of this, with conversation with John Temple and previously with Civil Beat but also I mentioned and talked about a full page on WND.com and Drudge, and all of this we’d would love for you to go and just cut to the chase. Sam Slom: Well, I will cut to the chase. And I did hear Mr. Temple this morning. You and I have known each other for...

"Well I've been told very recently, Anderson, that the birth certificate is missing," Trump told CNN's Anderson Cooper Monday. "I've been told that it's not there or it doesn't exist. And if that's the case it's a big problem."

11) The myth: Barack Obama wasn't born in the U.S. The facts: CNN has investigated these claims by "birthers" who say the nation's 44th president was not born in America and thus is not eligible to be president. The Obama team and the state of Hawaii released a certification of live birth that documents the president's birth on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu. This is not the original birth certificate but is a valid legal document. In Hawaii and other states, original birth certificates are not released when requested later. The certificate, officials say, allows a person born in Hawaii...

Get set for a constitutional crisis in America. It’s not a certainty, but it’s certainly a possibility following the decision of the Arizona state senate to enact a measure to require a presidential candidate to present a birth certificate before he or she can get listed on the presidential ballot in the Grand Canyon State. It comes at the start of a presidential campaign in which President Obama is brushing aside demands that he authorize the release of an original certificate of his birth at Hawaii. This is the issue that Donald Trump has been trying to stir up at...

Obama doesn’t tell you what he’s thinking. He keeps his motives to himself. Cherished long-term ideological goals are advanced as pragmatic fixes to concrete problems in the present. Now we’re seeing the familiar domestic pattern in foreign policy as well. Few Americans realize that Obama has had a longstanding interest in multilateral efforts to combat war crimes and genocide. Obama would like to see a more constraining international legal regime on war crimes, even at the cost of national sovereignty, not to mention the blood and treasure of the countries doing the enforcing. In general, Obama has said little about...

The Battle of Obama’s Healthcare is looking to go down in history as a major confrontation between the power of federal government and the self-determination of individual states. And that eternal tension between what used to be called state’s rights and the coercive inclinations of federal authority has been at the heart of the most momentous struggles in national history – not least the civil war which tested the strength of the Union to breaking point. Barack Obama’s health reforms have been challenged by a startlingly successful rebellion in Missouri. A state ballot referendum on Proposition C which prohibited federal...

The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty by Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven From the Monday, May 2, 1966 issue of The NationHow can the poor be organized to press for relief from poverty? How can a broad-based movement be developed and the current disarray of activist forces be halted? These questions confront, and confound, activists today. It is our purpose to advance a strategy which affords the basis for a convergence of civil rights organizations, militant anti-poverty groups and the poor. If this strategy were implemented, a political crisis would result that could lead...

So far, not many birds have been harmed by the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the slick has yet to hit land. But many more brown pelicans, like this one, and birds of other species are likely to become covered in oil. A German biologist says that efforts to clean oil-drenched birds in the Gulf of Mexico are in vain. For the birds' sake, it would be faster and less painful if animal-rescue workers put them under, she says. Studies and other experts back her up. "Kill, don't clean," is the recommendation of a German animal...

Born AgainWhy the "birther" myth refuses to die.By Christopher BeamPosted Wednesday, April 21, 2010, at 7:08 PM ET President Barack ObamaThe "birther" myth is the political equivalent of a horror-movie villain: Not only does it refuse to die, but every time someone tries to kill it, it only comes back stronger.The latest incarnation: a bill approved 31-22 by the Arizona House of Representatives on Monday that would require 2012 presidential candidates to offer proof of citizenship in order to qualify for the ballot. The proposal has little chance of becoming law. For that to happen, the state Senate would have...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Looking out from the harbor here, it's easy to imagine a mortar lighting up the night sky as it hurtled toward Fort Sumter and signaled the start of the Civil War. It's also easy, standing inside the walls of the island garrison, to view today's nullification battle over health care less as a frivolous political game and more as a serious threat to the Constitution. "The last ray of hope for preserving the Union peaceably expired at the assault on Fort Sumter," mourned President Abraham Lincoln. Painted on the wall of the fort's small museum, those words...

President Obama prefers to interact with questioners on his own terms. That means almost no prime-time news conferences -- he hasn't given one for more than nine months. Instead, he obviously favors any forum that allows him to give long, discursive answers without being subjected to follow-up questions.A prime example came last Friday during his appearance at a North Carolina battery manufacturer. A woman named Doris asked the president during a Q&A session whether it was a "wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care" package. "We are overtaxed as it is," she concluded.That set President...

The Coakley campaign just advised an urgent press conference with campaign lawyer Mark Elias to "discuss integrity of election."The campaign is complaining of "multiple independent reports of ballots being given to voters pre-marked for Republican Scott Brown."Greg Sargent has two of those reports, and isn't making all that much of them; in general, it's worth being extremely wary of these election-day claims from both sides. They're made every election for clear political reasons (as they are being made by both sides today), and virtually always evaporate on Wednesday.

For a brief shining moment, late in the 2008 campaign, Democrats thought that they might own the Internet. For decades, they had watched their Republican rivals exploit alternative media to raise money, organize voters and whip up outrage. In the 1970s, conservatives pioneered direct-mail fund-raising. In the early 1990s, they ruled the talk-radio dial. Early in the Bush era, they dominated cable news.But the Internet was going to be different. Direct mail, talk radio, the cable shoutfests — these were inherently conservative technologies, pitched to senior citizens and middle-aged suburbanites. The Internet was for the young, the hip, the multicultural,...

A poll taken Sunday afternoon while President Obama was in Massachusetts campaigning for Democrat Martha Coakley against Republican Scott Brown for the open Senate seat in that state showed Brown leading his Democratic opponent by 9.6% (51.9% to 42.3% with 5.7% undecided). The poll, conducted via telephone for Pajamas Media by CrossTarget, was of 574 Likely Massachusetts Voters and has a margin of error of +/-4.09%. CrossTarget used the exact method – Interactive Voice Technology (IVR) – it used in a similar poll for PJM on Friday. The previous poll showed Brown ahead by approximately 15%. A poll released Sunday...

Health reform is shuffling toward its endgame, and even though the bill's popularity resembles George Bush's circa 2007, Democrats seem determined to push the bill through. Browse through certain liberal blogs, or listen to Democratic leadership speeches, and you'll read the same justification again and again: However bad passing this bill might be, politically speaking, not passing it would be much, much worse. This bill may encourage a few Democratic policy wonks to run to the polls, but this trickle will be nothing compared to the flood of angry Republicans and Independents. And this is all analysis conducted before election...

Sen. Mary Landrieu got something. Sen. Joe Lieberman got something. And now, Sen. Roland Burris of Illinois is hinting that he, too, wants something. It’s Christmastime in the Senate, and with 60 votes needed to pass healthcare legislation, any lawmaker can be king or queen for a day. All it takes is sitting on the fence for a bit. Lieberman understood the power he had and made it known that he could not back a bill unless it dropped any expansion of Medicare to those younger than 65. Leaders backed away from their compromise and Lieberman is inching closer to...