Free Republic

The latest line of attack from the left against Ryan. He needs to own it, and agree it was the wrong thing to do; chalk it up to a youngster's misguided party loyalty. The more R&R distance themselves from Bush's Keynesian flights of fancy the better.

"I think the people responsible in the oil spill--BP and the federal government--should take full responsibility for what's happening there," Boehner said at his weekly press conference this morning. Boehner's statement followed comments last Friday by US Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue who said he opposes efforts to stick BP, a member of the Chamber, with the bill. "It is generally not the practice of this country to change the laws after the game," he said. "Everybody is going to contribute to this clean up. We are all going to have to do it. We are going to have...

Democrats unveiled a 26-page proposal on immigration Thursday evening that closely follows a bipartisan draft hashed out by Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) earlier this year. Here are the main points: * Enforce borders: The lawmakers plan to increase the number of border patrol officers and provide them with better equipment to detect fraud and smuggling. They also want to install ground sensors throughout the southern border to make it easier to detect illegal border crossing. * Free up jails: The proposal calls for the deportation of illegal immigrants currently detained in federal and local prisons. Going...

Stupid question: by what logic does Crist justify giving partial refunds to former supporters? If anything, he ought to pay a penalty for taking the money under false pretenses.

Approximately 45% of whites either strongly or somewhat approve of the movement. Of those, only 35% believe blacks to be hardworking, only 45 % believe blacks are intelligent, and only 41% think that blacks are trustworthy. Perceptions of Latinos aren’t much different.

Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, says hospitals mark up prices on medical bills to make up for lower payments the government pays through Medicare and Medicaid. "They're making up for underpayments elsewhere," Umbdenstock said. "Certainly if you're the patient to whom the cost is being shifted you feel you are paying more than you should. The public programs need to pay their fare share. At the same time hospitals are trying to lower their cost of providing care, so that they don't have as great a gap." Consider this: For every dollar the nation spends...

"He'll start us young and get us trained, And we won't have to use our brains. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Barack Hussein Obama." "His critics are obsessed with race, That's how we'll keep them in their place. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Barack Hussein Obama." Over to you.

Looking for a sign from Saturday..the gist was, no matter what this sign says you're still gonna call me a racist.

(CNN) -- An African-American man has pleaded guilty after being accused of impersonating a white supremacist in a fictitious Facebook account to make death threats against an African-American university student...Hart admitted creating the fictitious account in November, pretending to be a white supremacist outraged by the election of Barack Obama as the nation's first African-American president, the statement said.

I'm following persiankiwi, but not much posting. Who do you follow who you think is onsite and reliable?

Mehdi Khalaii explains exactly what this means at the Washington Institute in The Voting Manipulation Industry in Iran. Voting can be easily manipulated in several ways: Collecting birth certificates. In previous elections, reports have surfaced that the Imam Khomeini Committee, a large state charity affiliated with the leader (or, as he insists, supreme leader), Ali Khamenei, "rent" BCs belonging to the poor. It has been alleged that after regular voting hours, those engaged in fraud fill out ballots using the rented BCs. In some elections, polls remained open for many hours after the designated closing time, feeding concern that irregular...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1yJBZzK4M

I have spent most of my life trying to cut taxes. Back in 1977, while a staffer for Congressman Jack Kemp, I helped draft the Kemp-Roth tax bill, which was endorsed by Ronald Reagan and enacted into law in 1981. According to the Treasury Department, this is the largest tax cut in American history. So one might assume that I was out protesting taxes along with many of my friends on April 15. But going to rallies is not my thing; I thought my time and skills were better spent analyzing tax burdens to see what evidence justifies the sudden...

Doctors ... removed the stem cells from the patient's bone marrow in the leg, then separated or purified the stem cells and intravenously returned them to the patient within a few hours. Because they are the patient's own stem cells, rejection was not an issue as is the case with embryonic stem cells. "Research shows that stem cells have an instinctive guidance system and migrate to the area of injury. While the stem cells do not produce new brain cells for this patient, they enhance the repair process in the brain and reduce damage," the doctors said in a press...

On the NYT: Keller predicted that the Times will be "left standing after the deluge." Noting that readers have offered to donate money to keep the Times alive, Keller suggested that GM probably isn't getting similar offers. Commenting on the keep-the-Times alive movement, Keller said: "Saving the New York Times now ranks with saving Darfur as a high-minded cause." On CNN: Keller said it's hard to remember that the letters stand for Cable News Network when reporting is replaced by "juries of commentators" behind laptops on a set that looks like "a parody of a 'Daily Show' parody" of a...

"I want every American to know that the path I'm laying out today is our best chance to make sure that the cars of the future are built where they've always been built -- in Detroit and across the Midwest--..." [26th paragraph of text]

Is anyone talking about waiving the 10% penalty for early withdrawal, and possibly some help on the tax liability? I've heard no discussion of this, and I'm not sure of the possible unintended consequences, but it's personal now, since I'm going to need to do it soon to keep paying my bills. I've already borrowed the max amount, so that's not an option. My business is home construction related, so no banks are interested in loaning me money, and I don't want more debt anyway. Anyone?

Or is he a deeply embedded mole? Or just clueless? "Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban," Sessions said during a meeting yesterday with Hotline editors. "And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes. And these Taliban — I'm not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that's not what we're saying. I'm saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand...

Here is the quote from Voinovich, reported on first today by the Daily Sentinel of Pomeroy, Ohio, during a visit he made to the Meigs County GOP headquarters. The paper reported that: "In relation to Obama, Voinovich told the audience: 'He is left of (Democratic senator from Massachusetts) Teddy Kennedy. With all due respect, the man is a socialist.'" A Voinovich spokesman said what has Voinovich revved up is his belief that Obama doesn't respect states rights, at least not the way Voinovich says they should be treated, under the U.S. Constitution's 10th Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the...

JW: Essentially what that would do is, I’d have to see how much money is available after everything else is paid, to see if I can one, afford a new vehicle, two, outfit it, and then three, pay a good salary. And if I’m being taxed too much, one of those three things is going to get shorted. One, I won’t be able to buy as good a good vehicle or I won’t stock it as well, or the guy I hire – if I’m able to hire somebody – is not going to make as much as he should....