Free Republic

Here’s a quick and dirty guess: Upper-middle-class families in blue states–those President Obama calls “the rich”–will soon be paying 20% more a year in state and federal taxes. If you pay $100,000 off of a $300,000 income now, look for $120,000 in a couple of years. California spends more than it takes. The state is on the verge of bankruptcy and just passed a budget with $12 billion of new taxes. The trend of higher taxes has not escaped California taxpayers. For each of the last five years, California has led the nation in the outflow of its residents to...

Listening to Hugh Hewitt's third hour of Friday March 20, 2009, and he was interviewing California Assemblyman Chuck Devore who is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Barbara Boxer. I don't live in California, and I don't know Chuck Devore, but I appreciate anyone who is willing to put themselves up to unseat some of these entrenched leftists. According to Devore, she's vulnerable. Anyone have a California list (or any other like minded list), please ping them to visit his website: Chuck Devore for United States Senate 2010 Also, it looks like he posted once on FR...

A top executive of a Wall Street firm that had received federal bailout money was among the donors who contributed to President Obama's 2010 Senate re-election campaign after he resigned his Illinois seat, the Washington Times reported. Bruce A. Heyman, managing director at Goldman Sachs, which received a $10 billion bailout last year, donated a maximum $2,300 to the Obama 2010 fund the day after Christmas, the newspaper reported. In all, the fund received four contributions totaling $4,800 on Dec. 26, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

No. 10: Michigan Michigan is home to two of the most dangerous cities in America, according to the 2008 CQ Press city rankings. Detroit ranks third and Flint ranks sixth. No. 9: Maryland Hugging the nation's high-crime capital, struggling to revitalize Baltimore and growing its gambling industry, Maryland has the second-highest murder and robbery rate. No. 8: Arizona Things are looking brighter in Arizona! Last year it made the top five most dangerous states, now it's down a few notches at No. 8. No. 7: Alaska Alaska is plagued with having the highest number of rape cases. There could be...

The political leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, has credited US President Barack Obama with using a "new language" for the Middle East. Speaking to an Italian newspaper Mr Meshaal also said that an official opening to his Palestinian Islamist movement was only "a matter of time". The interview was published three days after President Obama called for a "new beginning" in relations with Iran.

On the 7th March a group of Pro-Palestinian supporters wearing 'Boycott Israel' T-Shirts entered a French supermarket and started to remove all goods supplied by Israel. Where were the police?

Recently, there has been legislation introduced in the House. HR 875, introduced by Rosa De Lauro, D-Conn, would require every person in the United States who grows food OF ANY KIND to register with the government and follow any and all needful regulations they dream up. http://educate-yourself.org/cn/HR875andS425organicfarmingban13mar09.shtml So guess who the beaches husband works for. Is it Chuckee Cheese? Greyhound? Kodak? Hell, no, her husband works for Monsanto, one of the leading groups pushing towards genetically modded seeds (and the lucrative patents that go with it). Come on folks. Haven't you had enuff yet? This is way, way, way beyond...

<p>A federal appeals court on Friday ordered a judge to reconsider her refusal to block portions of a clean-truck program at the nation's busiest port complex.</p> <p>In an opinion that dismayed environmentalists and labor leaders, the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco ruled that U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder should grant all or part of the American Trucking Assn.'s request for an injunction halting the implementation of new rules that apply to truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.</p>

Video on link.

Honored with Public Service Award, bloggers erupt in outrage The U.S. Navy awarded U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., its Distinguished Public Service Award, triggering an Internet campaign to have Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter withdraw it. Murtha, who publicly accused U.S. Marines of cold-blooded murder in a firefight in Haditha, Iraq, and was caught on camera in the Abscam scandal appearing to negotiate a bribe, was honored by the Navy for his "selfless devotion to the Nation's Sailors and Marines." The award credits him with making sure the military services "were provided the resources necessary to effectively conduct the...

Gov. Deval Patrick’s ratings appear to have taken a serious nosedive following months of tax hike announcements, but one politico said the new SurveyUSA poll might not be reliable. Roughly 68 percent of the 600 people questioned in the poll say they are dissatisfied with Patrick’s job as governor. That’s up 21 points from a poll in January. “I think the poll vastly exaggerates the level of dissatisfaction with Gov. Patrick,” said Tufts political professor Jeff Berry. “SurveyUSA polls are very primitive and you’d have to do a lot more searching questions to really accurately access the level of support.”...

Four states — California, South Carolina, Michigan and Rhode Island — registered unemployment rates above 10 percent in January.

SITTING in the back seat of his mother’s van as she drives through Atlanta suburbs, Jonathan Krohn is about to sign off with a conservative radio talk show host in Florida. In the 40 minutes he’s been on the air, with the help of his mother’s cellphone, this hyper-articulate Georgia eighth grader has attacked the stimulus bill, identified leaders he thinks will salvage the Republican Party’s image, and assessed the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s birth certificate. The show’s host chuckles and asks whether President Obama has called Jonathan “a little fascist.” “The president hasn’t come after me yet,” Jonathan says...

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) does not have the fall-back option of running as an independent should he lose his 2010 primary election, giving the senior lawmaker strong incentive to abandon his party this year. Specter faces an extremely difficult primary race against former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), the conservative firebrand who lost his bid to oust Specter from his seat in the 2004 GOP primary by a mere 17,000 votes (out of more than a million cast).

The Illinois High School Association is being challenged on a policy that bans Christian schools from offering a prayer or any religious message over their public address systems when they host association events on their own property. "It is blatantly unconstitutional for public school officials to come into private schools and enforce a policy prohibiting them from expressing what's central to their religious beliefs," said David Cortman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, or ADF. The ADF wrote this week to association chief Marty Hickman after several private schools complained about the new restrictions. WND left a message...

Three Texas military commanders are being removed from top positions following allegations that they received paychecks from the state and federal government for work done at the same time, according to a report by KHOU-TV in Houston. Gov. Rick Perry is removing Gens. John Furlow, commander of the Texas Army National Guard, and Allen Dehnert, who commands the Texas Air National Guard, the television station reported Thursday. The top commander of the Texas Military Forces, Adjutant Gen. Charles Rodriguez, is also being replaced.

Almost 50 mansions built on spec for the hedge-fund set - and priced from $5 million to upwards of $25 million - sit empty in Greenwich, Conn., where the real-estate market has tanked. "They're going nowhere. Nothing's selling," said Christopher Fountain, who writes a blog called "For What It's Worth" about the Greenwich real-estate scene. Those who still have cash can find spectacular, never-occupied estates in move-in condition, complete with wine cellars for their Bordeaux and Sub-Zero refrigerators for their caviar, including: * A 22,185-square-foot Georgian mansion on 4.8 acres off prestigious Round Hill Road with eight bedrooms, elevator, butler's...

Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) will challenge Sen. Arlen Specter in a primary for the second straight cycle, according to Pennsylvania GOP sources. The Allentown Morning Call reported Thursday that two friends of Toomey’s have said the Club for Growth chief has decided to enter the race. Toomey narrowly lost to Specter in a 2004 primary by less than 1 percent and recently said he was considering another run. The paper quotes Richard Thulin, leader of the Lehigh Valley Republican Network, saying in an e-mail to supporters that "Pat's formal announcement will be forthcoming. "Interesting news," he wrote. "Pat Toomey...

Cornyn: Fla. Senate race 'open field' By POLITICO STAFF | 2/9/09 4:25 AM EST  Pressure Mounts On GOP Supporters The three Senate Republicans who say they’ll support the $827 billion economic recovery plan are facing pressure from both sides of the debate. A group of stimulus opponents led by Free­Republic.com founder Jim Robinson and Move America Forward chairwoman Melanie Morgan plans to protest outside the office of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) at 10 a.m. Monday before moving on to the offices of Maine Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. Meanwhile, the group Americans United for Change is running...