Free Republic

Many Republicans have great affection for Sarah Palin for her style, grit, charisma, tenacity and cool shoes. But now we find that she also has a certain self-assured political demeanor - an intangible - that grants her power. The former Alaska governor is “head of the table” material, a quality shared by such heavyweights as Winston Churchill and Sen. Edward Kennedy, says Jeffrey Lord of The American Spectator. “Wherever I sit is the head of the table,” Mr. Churchill once remarked to a hostess concerned about seating arrangements. “A year after her emergence on the national scene, it is crystal...

Powerline nicely summarizes the problems with (now former) Obama Administration official Van Jones: Who do they have in the White House? A self-proclaimed Communist. A vulgar Marxist twice over. A supporter of cold-blooded cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal. A 9/11 Truther . A racist hater, whose hatred extends to the United States. And insofar as his current job is concerned, we have a man who sees the “green jobs” con as a tool for overthrowing capitalism. We have, in short, the complete left-wing nightmare package.

FAIRBORN - A stolen $500 piece of silver and two dead suspects are what’s left of a bizarre home invasion that led to a four-hour police standoff. Bradley Fugate said he had just opened the front and back doors to let some cool air into his Huffman Avenue home Monday, Aug. 31, when two men came in the back door and put guns to his head. Less than 24 hours later, both of those men were dead, one at Fugate’s home Monday and the other after a Fairborn standoff Tuesday. “I didn’t know who they were, and they kept asking...

Nightline correspondent Vicki Mabrey profiled self-described “financial terrorist” Bruce Marks on Friday, painting his actions in a religious light as a “revival of spirits” and “hopes.” Co-host Cynthia McFadden began the show by rhapsodizing, “The financial terrorist. He’s on the front lines of the foreclosure front using guerrilla tactics on a crusade to restore the American dream.” She continued, “And he’s taking dead aim at the big banks. Is there anything he could do for you?” Mabrey did offer Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) CEO Marks a few tough questions, noting that his organization, which tries to help homeowners...

HOUSTON - A suspected robber was killed and another man was injured in a gun battle after three masked gunmen ambushed a card game in southwest Houston on Thursday, police said. Around 2 a.m., witnesses said the masked men waited for someone to leave the game, which was held inside an unmarked office park unit behind a shopping center. The gunmen burst in through the open door and began robbing patrons, one of whom pulled his own pistol, said Sgt. Juan M. De La Cruz, a Houston homicide detective. A gunfight ensued. One suspect was killed and one of the...

Norton Mattoon Thomas ran for president six times as the Socialist Party candidate. From his own lips: "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism,’ they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation without knowing how it happened ... The Democrat Party has adopted our platform." And that was 1944, 65 years ago. Socialism is nothing except an effective means to control people. Germany’s national socialism of the 1930s went straight for the jugular of the health system also. Control a nation’s health and...

An 18 year old burglar was shot in self defense by the owner of an East St. Louis, IL home. Police reportedly say that just 18 year old Michael Holmes III and another person attempted to break in to a home. The home was being rehabbed by its owner, so that the owner, his wife, and their child could move in to the house. The owner, who is said to be a Navy service member, was working inside the house when the two men are said to have forced their way in. The homeowner opened fire in self defense, killing...

TOKYO, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Japanese voters are expected Sunday to vote the country’s Liberal Democratic Party out of office for the first time in 55 years. The latest Kyodo news poll indicates 35.9 percent of voters are planning to back the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, an increase of 3.3 percent over last week, The Daily Telegraph of London reported Friday. Prime Minister Taro Aso has been portraying his opponent, Yukio Hatoyama, as inexperienced and says he is trying to win over voters with promises that are impossible to keep.

<p>HAVANA, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- A Cuban retiree says the country’s toilet paper shortage has created a lucrative business for seniors -- buying and reselling newspapers as an alternative.</p> <p>The Havana retiree said he and other seniors line up before dawn to buy surplus newspapers from distribution points for factories and offices that have closed for economic reasons and shortages of electricity and raw materials, The Miami Herald reported Thursday.</p>

Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer found wacky leftist radio host Stephanie Miller taking her worship of MSNBC to ridiculous levels, even for a comedian who’s (half?) joking: I was on Ed Schultz yesterday, as a liberal, going to MSNBC - like visiting the Vatican...Hung out with Rachel Maddow for a while. I would have licked Keith Olbermann’s chair again, but he doesn’t let me into his studio...[Whispers about Maddow] She is awesome! Maloney added: Now, imagine for a moment the state-run media’s reaction if a conservative were to equate the FOX News Channel studios with any major religious site...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Recently released documents show harsh questioning of suspected terrorists provided significant information on al-Qaida, former Vice President Dick Cheney said. Cheney released a written statement on the documents that became public Monday, including a 2004 report from the CIA inspector general, CNN reported. “The documents released Monday clearly demonstrated the individuals subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al-Qaida,” Cheney said. “This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks.”

ABUJA, Nigeria, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Nigeria’s latest peace effort has been called a sham by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, an umbrella organization for armed groups. Nigeria’s government amnesty program offers a pardon and a job to militants and their leaders who relinquish their weapons. MEND, however, said the drive is a charade and that the government was purchasing the weapons, CNN reported Tuesday. “In the midst of such sheer deceit, MEND will be compelled to resume with ferocious attacks on the oil industry at the end of our cease-fire on Sept. 15, 2009,” the...

NEW YORK, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A 60-ton steel-beam fragment has been returned to the site of New York’s World Trade Center as part of a permanent exhibit, city officials said. The beam was the last to be removed from the site after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. While it stood, rescue and salvage workers covered it with commemorative messages and photos of those who died in the attack, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The 36-foot fragment, which had been stored in a hangar at Kennedy Airport, was returned Monday in advance of the opening of the National...

EXCLUSIVE: Gen. David H. Petraeus plans to open an in-house intelligence organization at U.S. Central Command this week that will train military officers, covert agents and analysts who agree to focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan for up to a decade. The organization, to be called the Center for Afghanistan Pakistan Excellence, will be led by Derek Harvey, a retired colonel in the Defense Intelligence Agency who became one of the Gen. Petraeus’ most trusted analysts during the 2007-08 counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq. Mr. Harvey distinguished himself in Iraq by predicting that the Iraqi insurgency would spiral out of control, at...

NEW YORK, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Organizers of a National Go-Topless Day rally in New York said dozens of women bared their breasts and marched in the streets for the right to go topless. Event organizer Sylvie Chabot, 54, of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, said dozens of women and male supporters gathered Sunday in Central Park to shed their tops and march on Central Park South to mark National Go-Topless Day, the New York Daily News reported Monday. A 1992 ruling by the state Supreme Court made New York the only state where it is legal for a woman to go...

Most Republicans likely already think Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) is a joke, and Thursday evening he proved it when he took the stage at a Pittsburgh comedy club. [...] some of the material was taken from a previous routine he had done at the Washington Improv in 2007, a joke which back then involved Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden now featured Sarah Palin, John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani (videos in two parts embedded below the fold, sexual content warning,

Chechen fighters are claiming they used an anti-tank grenade to cause a deadly disaster at a dam in Siberia, a letter on a Russian rebel website has said. “Glory to Allah,

Imagine if the Congress passed a law mandating that all school students in America be indoctrinated in socialism? Yeah, I know that is precisely the type of indoctrination that is already going on in many classrooms but the reaction to such a law actually spelling this out would cause demonstrations that would dwarf even those currently going on at the tea parties in opposition to ObamaCare. Well, this is precisely what is currently happening in Venezuela where the Hugo Chavez controlled National Assembly recently passed just such a law. As a result, many previously apathetic Venezuelans are pouring into the...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Former and current U.S. officials say a CIA report details the U.S. agency’s threatened use of a drill and gun in the interrogation of an al-Qaida suspect. The unidentified officials said the report, due for release to the public next week, details how captured al-Qaida commander Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was threatened with a power drill and a gun by CIA interrogators in an attempt to procure information, The Washington Post said Saturday. The anonymous officials said he gun and drill were not used on Nashiri but placed nearby in an attempt to instill fear in...

Maxim Lott at Foxnews.com reported Monday that NBC Universal isn’t just showing its love for Obama on the news airwaves: If you’re a fan of all things Obama, NBC Universal’s online store has no fewer than 29 options for your buying pleasure -- from a shirt with the president’s picture proclaiming “YES WE DID"...to both of his books...to a special inauguration DVD...to a refrigerator magnet of the first couple. And don’t forget the Barack Obama Action Figure -- yours for $15, plus tax. You can buy them online -- or at NBC Universal’s retail store in New York. The items...