Free Republic

The current troubles of the Obama presidency can be read back into its beginnings. Rule by personal charisma has met its proper fate. The spell has been broken, and the magician stands exposed. We need no pollsters to tell us of the loss of faith in Mr. Obama's policies—and, more significantly, in the man himself. If Barack Obama seems like a man alone, with nervous Democrats up for re-election next year running for cover, and away from him, this was the world he made. No advisers of stature can question his policies; the price of access in the Obama court...

(CNSNews.com) - In his first-ever address from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama said he was going to “inform” the chairman of BP that he must surrender the company’s money to an independent party that will distribute it to people and businesses determined to have been harmed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The president’s declaration raises a serious constitutional question about his authority: Where does the president get the lawful power to order any private-sector company—BP or any other—that it must surrender its money? Should not courts and normal legal proceedings determine who is responsible, who has...

Obama urges business heads to push Congress in support of climate and energy bill *snip* Obama made the plug during a meeting Friday with his Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which includes the heads of General Electric, Caterpillar and Oracle, along with labor leaders and economists. He told the group the climate bill — which would cap global warming emissions — is good for business and that members of Congress need to hear that. "Individual members of Congress may be worried about the implications, at least short term," of voting for the legislation, and hearing from businesses would be reassuring, Obama...

On Wednesday, President Obama had something of a Howard Beale moment. Speaking to a group of Democratic senators, the President exhorted his listeners -- and, by extension, all Americans -- to break the cable news habit. "If everybody here turned off your CNN, your Fox, just turn off the TV, MSNBC, blogs, and just go talk to folks out there, instead of being in this echo chamber where the topic is constantly politics," Obama said, things would be an awful lot better in Washington. His appeal threatened to alienate some of his loyal supporters in the media -- MSNBC actually...

Note: Videos included. THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2009 AT 3:37 PM "My Education, My Future" Posted by Jesse Lee At noon on Tuesday, September 8th the President will be welcoming America’s students back to school – after all, sometimes they need a little extra motivation after a glorious summer. The President has spoken often about the responsibility parents have for their children and their education, but in this message he’ll urge students to take personal responsibility for their own education, to set goals, and to not only stay in school but make the most of...

"ABC" stands for All Barack's Children. On Sept. 8, young students across the country will be watching television. Yes, they'll be parked in front of boob tubes and computer screens watching President Obama's address on education. Instead of practicing cursive, reviewing multiplication tables, diagramming sentences or learning something concrete, America's kids will be lectured about the importance of learning. And then the schoolchildren, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, will be exhorted to Do Something -- other than sit in their seats and receive academic instruction, that is. Education Secretary Arne Duncan dispatched letters to principals nationwide, boasting, "This is the...

A school principal has apologized for showing a video at an assembly that a politically conservative group leader is calling "radical, leftist propaganda." Children at Eagle Bay Elementary School in Farmington were shown a short video called "I pledge" on Aug. 28. The video opens with an image of President Barack Obama and part of a speech in which he says, "Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other." The video then features celebrities making pledges about how...

Emperor Caligula Obama has requested that Mr. Ed. be appointed to replace senator Kennedy. The Massachusetts legislature is working diligently in order to change the law and accomodate the emperor's request.

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THE BLOG TUESDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2009 AT 6:55 AM Facts Are Stubborn Things Posted by Macon Phillips Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things." Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions. In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-Fiscal-Year-2010-Budget/ THE BRIEFING ROOM Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 10:43 am Remarks by the President on the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE FISCAL YEAR 2010 BUDGET Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Room 350 February 26, 2009 9:55 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Before I begin, I have some good news to report. Starting today, the recently unemployed will benefit from a COBRA subsidy that will make health care affordable. At a time when health care is too often too expensive for the unemployed, this critical step will help...

Anyone not alarmed by the state of the U.S. economy is not paying attention. As our Dear Leader begins his term, the theory of very big government has the support of an alarmingly broad political consensus. Despite the obvious dangers—devastating inflation and the ruin of the dollar—the United States seems pledged to a debt-funded spending spree of gargantuan proportions. In opposing this trend, critics face the problem that the perils to which they point sound very theoretical and abstract. Perhaps Zimbabwe prints its currency in multi-trillion units, but that’s a singularly backward African dictatorship: the situation has nothing to do...

First Amendment: Beyond the various threats that President Obama has said require confrontation — financial, military, nuclear, climate — another danger looms large: Those in his party who want government to muzzle dissent.A lot has changed in the two decades since the federal government stopped requiring broadcast licensees to provide varied viewpoints within their programming. Talk radio, for instance, has become a counterweight to the liberal establishment media. Blogs have allowed anyone and everyone to become a pundit with no limit to the number of readers who can be reached. And Fox News has overwhelmed CNN and the Big Three...

A parent in the Clark County School District of Las Vegas, Henderson area reported today that his son, who is in 1st grade, came home yesterday saying that he didn't want to go back to school anymore. When asked why, the boy said that during the Pledge of Allegiance the teacher put up a large image of Obama next to the flag. Thinking that the boy might be exaggerating, the man asked his son if he was sure, and suggested that by "large" he might mean an 8x10 photo of the president. The boy apparently said "No, it is a...

President-elect Barack Obama's 3 million campaign volunteers got re-enlistment notices this week. Campaign manager David Plouffe, in a mass e-mail sent Wednesday to former workers, asked how much time they can spare for four missions integral to Obama's effort to transform his victory into a broader political movement. The volunteers' options are, Plouffe wrote: -Campaign for progressive state and local candidates -Undertake grassroots local efforts to advance Obama's agenda -Train others in Obama's organizing techniques -Focus on local political issues. "Obama's building a political machine," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution, a center-left Washington research group.

Ya gotta hand it to them. The Associated Press knows how to cut out all the extraneous background noise and get right to the important issues of the day. Barack Obama will surely be in the center of the vortex of some of the most important decisions in the world during the next four years and even his preparations for taking office are vitally important as a marker to what he might do in office. There are wars and rumors of wars, disasters and relief efforts and historic decisions will soon be made. But no decision is so important, as...

An effort is afoot to have November 4 declared a national holiday. “A man from humble beginnings, born in a stable in Kenya, schooled in a madras in Indonesia, honed by the mean streets of Chicago, and has lifted himself and this nation to an ecstasy of hope for fundamental change, deserves the recognition of a national holiday in his honor,” said Reverend Ed Nauseam, chairman of the “Obama Holiday Committee.” “Only one other man has accomplished as much in so short a period of time and He has a national holiday every December 25. Justice demands as much for...

In all my life I have never seen such intense emotion surrounding a leader as that evoked by Barack Obama.  Even Ronald Reagan, the Gipper himself, didn't enjoy the kind of prostration of the will offered to the president-elect by hordes of followers.  Yet, while people the world over are imbued with "hope" and chant Obama's slogan "Yes, we can!" -- for instance, the French are using their translation of it, "Oui, nous pouvons!" -- some of the intense emotion is of a very different species. It is fear. In all my life I have never seen an American politician...

CPUSA And Obama Platforms Are Identical Forget for the moment about Bill Ayers and Obama’s other Communist friends and mentors of the distant past. Just behold the current ‘Election 2008' brochure from the Communist Party Of The United States (a pdf file):    (Click on images to enlarge) Election 2008 Help Make History Turn Our Country Around A new day is dawning. Our country is at a turning point. This is a time of great possibility. Issued as a public service by the Communist Party USA A new day is dawning. Our country is at a turning point. This is...

Nov 14 - A song based on a Christian prayer and aimed at uniting the world behind Barack Obama is creating waves on the Internet.