Free Republic

From the moment Barack Obama appeared on America's national political stage, he was always going to be a controversial figure. A half-white, half-black man with the poise and rhetorical flights of a Kennedy. A Harvard graduate abandoned by his Kenyan father to be raised by a single white mother. A man with the middle name Hussein running for the White House in post-9/11 America. Yet, what few could have imagined was the degree of animus he would stir within America's own black community - and, in particular, its African-American leaders. This week, it was revealed that the Rev. Jesse Jackson,...

Obama Natural born citizen or not? (From Hillary Clinton forum and PUMA members--http://www.hillaryclintonforum.net/discussion/showthread.php?t=20436) Watch this first: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HSht5DobAno Then watch the updated version: http://youtube.com/watch?v=qXNLLAk9gek (content from HRC forum post follows) Today, 05:27 PM indigo Silver Member = >250 Posts I just posted an article credited by the Associated Press on Barack Obama’s citizenship Makes me wonder how much research Donna Cassata, the AP Political Editor in Washington did to make her undocumented remarks I now propose that the producer of these videos has done far more research on documenting Obama’s birth than Ms. Cassata ever thought about doing. My opinion -...

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wants people to know that Democrats like oil drilling. A lot. They're just very picky about where. "Democrats are saying let's drill. Let's explore. Let's get energy for Americans from America and have it for Americans," Hoyer told reporters Tuesday. He was announcing that Democrats will unveil an energy production bill Thursday. Asked a minute later if the proposed bill would allow new offshore drilling, Hoyer told IBD no. ... "We want oil and gas companies to drill on the leases they've been given," Reid said.

New York tax filers reporting more than $375,000 a year in earned income may end up paying nearly 60% of their wages in taxes to the government under a Barack Obama presidency, economists who have analyzed his plan said. The Democratic presidential candidate is proposing not only raising the federal income tax, but also adding a Social Security tax for those Americans earning more than $250,000 a year. For New Yorkers, that could mean that if the current Social Security rate is applied, the marginal tax rate, or rate on every extra dollar earned, could rise to 58%. "This is...

I was just watching the news for a few minutes. First spoke algore about how we need to have all non-carbon electricity in 10 years. Then spoke Pelosi saying predictable things. But the next thing I saw is what causes my gorge to rise and I had to grab the remote before I became physically ill. It was McCain saying these words: "I have long admired the Vice President's work in the area of....."Is he trying to make people who already have misgivings aplenty about him either stay home or vote for somebody else? Does he really believe what he...

Barack Obama and his media comrades are engaged in an active effort to put his radical left-wing wife, "quintessential American" Michelle Obama, off-limits. That's what his effort to defend her yesterday was about. Republicans should not be intimidated by Obama and his media machine into not raising legitimate questions about Obama's beautiful but angry wife. It's simple. If we want to elect a Republican president, we must paint Barack Obama as the radical leftist he is. If Obama is even marginally acceptable to the American people, he will win, given the harsh political terrain Republicans face. A key part of...

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wants people to know that Democrats like oil drilling. A lot. They're just very picky about where. "Democrats are saying let's drill. Let's explore. Let's get energy for Americans from America and have it for Americans," Hoyer told reporters Tuesday. He was announcing that Democrats will unveil an energy production bill Thursday. Asked a minute later if the proposed bill would allow new offshore drilling, Hoyer told IBD no. "There is not offshore drilling" in the bill, the Maryland Democrat said. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is similarly off-limits. Instead it focuses on...

The board of a nonprofit organization on which Sen. Barack Obama served as a paid director alongside a confessed domestic terrorist granted funding to a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a "catastrophe" and supports intense immigration reform, including providing drivers licenses and education to illegal aliens. The co-founder of the Arab group in question, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, also has held a fundraiser for Obama. Khalidi is a harsh critic of Israel, has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror and reportedly has worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was involved...

The judiciary is becoming an important election issue. John McCain is warning conservatives that control of today's finely balanced Supreme Court depends on his election. Unfortunately, his jurisprudence is likely to be anything but conservative. The idea of a "living Constitution" long has been popular on the political left. Conservatives routinely dismiss such result-oriented justice, denouncing "judicial activism" and proclaiming their fidelity to "original intent." However, many Republicans, like Mr. McCain, are just as result-oriented as their Democratic opponents. They only disagree over the result desired. Judge-made rights are wrong because there is no constitutional warrant behind them. The Constitution...

WMNF Evening News Wednesday Listen to this entire show: Tags: John McCain, Barack Obama, 2008 election, NAACP, school vouchers A campaign surrogate for John McCain told WMNF today that Barack Obama should be "disqualified" to run for president because of his admitted past drug use. More on that in a moment. But first, John McCain received a polite reception in front of the NAACP at the group's annual meeting in Cincinati today. Whether that will transfer to any votes coming from those in attendance is a different story. The GOP nominee spoke to the nation's oldest civil rights organization, spotlighting...

A just philosophy of government is predicated upon the understanding that the family is the first government and that all other government must first be at its service. In his marvelous apostolic exhortation on the family ("The Role of the Christian family in the Modern World") the Servant of God Pope John Paul II affirmed the social and political role of the family and called for the development of a “family politics”. Catholics, other Christians, other people of faith and all people of good will should embrace this challenge to develop just such a "family politics". It is time to...

Election: There's little doubt voters want more drilling if even congressional candidates are starting to trek to Alaska to urge more oil development. Seven are there now. That's a wake-up call to Congress.Congressional challenger Craig Williams of Pennsylvania spoke to us Wednesday by phone from Deadhorse, Alaska. He and six other Republican candidates think there's enough voter disapproval with Congress' failure to do anything about gas prices to win this election, even in a season when Democrats are believed to have the advantage. "We've got a Democratic Congress doing absolutely nothing. Even the Republicans (before them) didn't do anything. So...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is proposing the most radical overhaul of American health care policy in a decade and a half, says Michael Tanner, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute. McCain would move us away from a system of employer-based health insurance. He plans to provide all Americans with a $2,500 refundable tax credit for individuals and a $5,000 credit for families, regardless of how people obtain their insurance. Most notably, McCain would allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines, a practice now prohibited, says Tanner. Health insurance is largely regulated at the state level, and the...

It’s the pain everyone feels from coast to coast: sky high gas prices. This week, President Bush moved to lower those prices by calling for lifting the ban on offshore oil drilling. It’s a move that could have long term impacts, but Bush admits it won’t produce any oil in the short term. So, what’s he up to? “Talk is action in Washington,” said WSLS Political Analyst Dr. Bob Denton. Denton says by stepping up to the mic, the president shows he gets it. “It reinforces the image that I am a leader. I am listening. And, I am doing.”...

"I don't want to send another generation of American children to failing schools." (Barack Obama, Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Des Moines, Iowa, November 10, 2007) The signature initiative of an Obama campaign for a second term would be nationalizing public education, kindergarten through grade 12. If it happens, say goodbye to the Independent School District (I.S.D.) as we've known it. The Obama campaign document entitled "The Blueprint For Change: Barack Obama's Plan For America" continues to be ignored by the old media news. The section entitled "Plan To Give Every American Child A World Class Education," was profiled earlier in much of...

Fitzgerald: Why Obama makes people nervous It would be silly for Barack Obama and his advisers not to recognize that there are many people in this country who are anxious about his Muslim background, his Muslim name, and his Muslim supporters getting out the vote for someone whom, they, at least, in this country, and abroad, are convinced is deeply sympathetic to Islam and to its aims. This does not go away by declaring oneself a Christian. And it does not go away after the election, whether Obama wins -- in which case the anxiety only increases -- or if...

Speaking at a Town Hall Meeting in New Mexico today, July 15, 2008, Sen. John McCain vowed to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice for his crimes against America . . . (see video) This is the kind of grit and determination we need in a President. John McCain has the resolve and strength to do what he says he will do. This is the McCain who needs to keep showing up at every appearance on the campaign trail, and on television.

Obama "Pivots" on the IssuesJack Kelly Tue Jul 15, 7:30 AM ET During his eight years in the Illinois state senate, Barack Obama voted "present" 130 times. That's an astounding 12-13 times a year in which he said, in effect, "I'm here, but I'm not going to take a stand on this issue." Given that record of bold leadership, I'm surprised Sen. Obama acted as he did on the legislation Congress passed July 9 to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Sen. Obama had pledged to filibuster FISA if it contained a provision to provide retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., tops Sen. Barack Obama as the choice for commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, an ABC-Washington Post poll indicated. Seventy-two percent of respondents said McCain, the likely Republican presidential candidate, would be good commander-in-chief of the military. By contrast, 48 percent said Obama, McCain's likely Democratic challenger, would be a good commander-in-chief.

(Fortune Magazine) -- Fellow Americans, choose your revolution. One way or another, we're getting a new health-care system. The old one is obviously broken. The U.S. now has 47 million uninsured, and costs are out of control. The Department of Health and Human Services predicts that if things continue as they are, health spending will almost double by 2017 to $4.3 trillion, or one-fifth of GDP, vs. 16% today.