Free Republic

<p>WUHAN—In an alarming turn of events, workers at a Wuhan research lab were seen adjusting a sign that read “92 Days Since Accidentally Releasing a Virus,” taking down the 92 and replacing it with a zero.</p> <p>“Everything is still great here,” said President Xi Jinping to selected members of the press. “Nothing alarming has happened here... and certainly not for a second time.” Xi was wearing a hazmat suit, but he claimed that was because it was laundry day and that was the only thing he had left that was clean. The American press felt no need to ask any follow-up questions.</p>

Even if you tried to bury your head in the sand, you can still hear the tremor in the ground of the Western carnival that is coming. The music and dancing are getting louder and louder. It is one of human-rights-with-no-holds-barred. It is coming with all the revelry that you would expect. It cannot be ignored. However, one problem with this procession is that it long left its original route. There are no principles to guide it, except the whims of those who are hiding behind its masks and leading it in whichever direction they please. Even those of us...

LONDON (AFP) – World leaders heading to UN climate talks next week must not be distracted by "flat-earth" sceptics who deny humans are to blame for global warming, Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned Saturday. "With only days to go before Copenhagen, we mustn't be distracted by the behind-the-times, anti-science, flat-earth climate sceptics," Brown told The Guardian newspaper ahead of the landmark UN summit in the Danish capital. "We know the science. We know what we must do. We must now act and close the five-billion-tonne gap. That will seal the deal." Government advisor Nicholas Stern estimated that 10 billion tonnes...

Japanese national TV (FNN News Network) ran an embarrassing segment on President Obama and his little "teleprompter" failure embarrassment at the White House.The PAGE LINK is HERE. Go there, then just click the orange box with the arrow, right below the photo of the Teleprompter-in-Chief (TOTUS), and it will stream once loaded. Report about 1 minute long, in Japanese. As with most Japanese national TV videos on the web, this link might be up for a day or so. Catch it while you can.

Will the Obama Administration's plan to save the U.S. economy actually help the markets? CNBC's Rick Santelli on Thursday sparked a revolution of sorts on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. Santelli's televised rebuke has been heard around the world. From The Chicago Tribune to TV Newser, read what others are saying about his rant...College NewsRick Santelli’s rant against President Barack Obama’s new mortgage bailout plan has become an internet sensation amongst those opposed to Obama’s latest economic measure. (Read Full Story)Briefing.comCNBC is really milking Rick Santelli's rousing floor chorus of boos for certain aspects of the housing...

Wall Street markets have been among the biggest cheerleaders for President Obama's economic-stimulus bill, but disappointment is setting in that the White House, while vigorously pushing for a "sugar spoonful" of stimulus, is not at the same time administering the much-needed "medicine" of quickly cleaning up the financial system. Efforts on both of those fronts are needed to spark an economic recovery and, of the two, economists consider the banking cleanup to be the more important for the economy in the long run. But while enactment of a massive $787 billion stimulus plan is nearing completion, thanks to Mr. Obama's...

The LA Times and the MSM foist this inexperience hack on the American people, all the while claiming that the most popular governor in America was too inexperienced for the job, and then act surprised when the guy shows that he doesn't know what he's doing? How very MSM of them.

Some of us have been warning that it was not healthy for the U.S. media to have deified rather than questioned Obama, especially given that they tore apart Bush, ridiculed Palin, and caricatured Hillary. And now we can see the results of their two years of advocacy rather than scrutiny. We are quite literally after two weeks teetering on an Obama implosion—and with no Dick Morris to bail him out—brought on by messianic delusions of grandeur, hubris, and a strange naivete that soaring rhetoric and a multiracial profile can add requisite cover to good old-fashioned Chicago politicking.

Yesterday, just eight days after the inauguration, President Obama had his £576bn so-called stimulus bill passed by the House of Representatives - but without a single vote from any Republican. All 177 House Republicans opposed the bill. None of them fell for that 'bi-partisan' tripe, which is Democrat code for 'do it our way.' Which gives me hope for the Republican Congressmen. Forget about 'change.' They know an old-style, Democrat pork-barrel piece of legislation - that is, a Bill designed to pay off or buy votes from vested interests - when they see one, and they aren't going to back...

We’ve got trouble in River City. And the river is the Potomac. And the city is Washington, DC. Looks like even leftwing puppets Jim Cramer and Chris Matthews are questioning the bill’s meager infrastructure spending. “Take the infrastructure number. Do you know that it’s $30 billion for infrastructure for bridges?” Cramer queried. “The ‘Big Dig’ cost $22 billion…and it only put 5,000 to work…It’s not gonna put a lot of people to work.” “Why in the world aren’t we...

This exchange will race through the conservative blogosphere, and probably on the pro-Hillary sites as well. Last night, Chris Matthews interviewed Texas state senator and Barack Obama supporter Kirk Watson as Obama sailed to a crushing victory in Wisconsin. Matthews asked Watson to name any significant legislative accomplishment by Obama, and the campaign surrogate got stumped: MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "You are a big Barack supporter, right, Senator?" State Sen. Watson: "I am. Yes, I am." Matthews: "Well, name some of his legislative accomplishments. No, Senator, I want you to name some of Barack Obama's legislative accomplishments tonight if you can."...

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin Questions Need to Combat Warming NASA administrator Michael Griffin is drawing the ire of his agency's preeminent climate scientists after apparently downplaying the need to combat global warming. In an interview broadcast this morning on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" program, Griffin was asked by NPR's Steve Inskeep whether he is concerned about global warming. "I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists," Griffin told Inskeep. "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with." "To assume that it is a problem is...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his 2007 State of the State speech to declare his independence from “partisanship,” declare war on the Republican Party, and formally declare his separation from reality. He said we are entering a new era of history — felicitously named by his speechwriters “post-partisan” — conjuring the eerie echoes of the new age psycho-babble so much the rage during the “Age of Aquarius.” The Aquarian age — declared with much fanfare by various hippies, gurus, and The Fifth Dimension singing group sometime in the mid-’60s — was to see peace guiding the planets, love steering the stars,...

During the last presidential campaign cycle, many national and local police organizations, as well as individual officers and commanders, supported the reelection of George W. Bush. Commanders and rank-and-file officers understood the fact that compared to the alternatives, Bush was the right man to serve as Commander-in-Chief in wartime. For instance, the nation's largest organization, National Fraternal Order of Police -- representing over 350,000 officers -- endorsed Bush, as did many local organizations such as the New York Police Department's Police Benevolent Association, Detectives Endowment Association and others. But now there's increasing disenchantment with President Bush on his handling of...

All Things Considered, February 9, 2005 · A reporter for the conservative news site TalonNews.com resigns. The reporter, who went by the pseudonym Jeff Gannon, drew critical attention at President Bush's Jan. 26 press conference when he referred in question to Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality" on the issue of retooling Social Security. Liberal bloggers have disclosed that Gannon, who has little previous journalism experience, was easily granted a coveted White House press pass -- even though he did not work for a traditional or established news organization. He also routinely asked "softball" questions at press...

Fifteen presumed North Korean defectors who had settled in South Korea were arrested for trying to sneak into the U.S. The Los Angeles-based Association of People From Five Northern Provinces said on Sunday it learned that 15 North Koreans were arrested by U.S. Border Patrol as they tried to smuggle themselves into the U.S. from Tijuana, Mexico. But the association¡¯s president Kim Ho-jeong added it remained to be confirmed whether the 15 really were defectors. The 15, who are being held at an immigration detention center in San Diego, California, said they intended to seek political asylum in the U.S....