Free Republic

He's won. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has succeeded in cutting taxes. In Italy. The captain of his nation's ship, who had gripped the helm and vowed to hurl his entire balking government over the side if they refused to stand with him, took a tremendous risk. But last night, the storm ebbed and Berlusconi sailed to victory. Tax cuts, $8.6 billion, are coming at last to high-tax Italy, a country whose previous governments had driven 25% of its economy underground, and much more underwater, with Italy's crushing 43% of GNP tax burden. This portends well for tax-cutting in the...

Scientists recently decoded the first confirmed alien transmission from outer space. It said: "Please send 5x10 (to the 50th power) atoms of hydrogen to each of the five star systems listed below. Then, add your system to the top of the list and delete the system at the bottom. Transmit copies of this message to 100 different solar systems. If you follow these instructions, you are guaranteed that within 0.25 degrees of a galactic rotation you will receive in return sufficient hydrogen stores to power your own civilization until the universe reaches inevitable maximum entropy. This really works!" OK, it's...

LTG James R. Helmly Commanding General, U.S. Army Reserve Chief, Army Reserve "In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity," President Abraham Lincoln saw the need for Americans to pause and give thanks for the "blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies." His original Thanksgiving Day proclamation was issued on October 3, 1863, the same year as the bloody battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Chickamauga. In the depths of despair, Lincoln's thoughts turned not to bitterness, but to gratitude. Once again, our Nation is at war and families and friends of our Army Reserve Soldiers face...

For the second straight week, the local Sunday editorial page was filled with different analysis coming from the left regarding how best to move the Democratic party forward. In one column the writer explained that Democrats have to do a better job of explaining their own vision of morality and religious views to counter the Republican success in that area. In another the writer suggested that the Democrats need to pretty much argue everything better than they have; implying the Democratic/liberal message can win if argued effectively. Several other letters to the editor were similar in the general theme that...

All the caterwauling by talking heads who insist the Democrats can win the presidency in 2008 with a religious Southerner has me laughing. Well, painfully chuckling anyway. The view from The New York Times and so many others that "moral values" jumped to new prominence, driven by ardent churchgoers worried about gay marriage, sounded right to me at first. But then I peered closely at the vote in California and other spots, and was reminded how absurd conventional media wisdom can be. Many seized on exit polls showing that 22 percent of voters said "moral values" were paramount. But as...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

looking for a video that can be emailed to moderates from either party that is humorous but has a good ,clear,convincing message. I'd like something that you can click on once or not at all and it will start to play. It needs to be something fairly short so the dial up folks can watch too.

Last week, Osama bin Laden delivered the following advice to Americans: Your security is not in the hands of [Democratic presidential candidate John] Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands and each state which does not harm our security will remain safe. Doesn’t it make you swell with pride for this madman, this human virus, to endorse American democracy? No wonder Michael Moore holds him in such regard; he’s just a scary version of Jimmy Carter! So long as we vote the right way, and live by bin Laden’s rules, we’ll be secure. Surely, all...

"Permission to fight (against disbelievers) is given to those (believers) who are fought against, because they have been wronged and surely, Allah is Able to give them (believers) victory" [Quran 22:39] "Those who believe, fight in the Cause of Allah, and those who disbelieve, fight in the cause of Taghut (anything worshipped other than Allah e.g. Satan). So fight you against the friends of Satan; ever feeble is indeed the plot of Satan."[Quran 4:76] ..... If the Americans refuse to listen to our advice and the goodness, guidance and righteousness that we call them to, then be aware that you...

GREENWOOD, Ind. -- Some neighbors aren't thrilled with the rock in gun dealer Don Davis's front yard promoting armed protection, but he vows that only a judge can make him move it. The 8-foot ornamental rock, in front of the home Davis recently built near this Indianapolis suburb, depicts an eagle and the U.S. flag. The inscription: ``It's better to own a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not own it.''

(A down home message for Dan Rather in the colorful Texas idiom he so loves) Y'all know what we all been thinkin' out here in Texas, Dan, since you started all this foolishness? We think y'all been pissin' down our necks an' tellin' us it's rain for so long that you boys done got to believin' it yourselves. Heck, we think maybe you been back East so long you got yourself thinkin' us folks out here couldn't hit sand if we fell off our horses; couldn't hit water if we fell outta the boat. Danged if you ain't been treatin'...

2004 September 27 The Great Nebula in Orion Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion is a colorful place. Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion. Long exposure, digitally sharpened images like this, however, show the Orion Nebula to be a busy neighborhood of young stars, hot gas, and dark dust. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula (M42) is the Trapezium - four of the brightest stars in the nebula. Many of the filamentary structures visible are actually shock waves - fronts where fast...

History tells us you need more of a rationale than that to win the White House. The best candidates offer the electorate not just something, but someone, to believe in. Describing the aftermath of Harry Truman's remarkable triumph over Thomas E. Dewey in 1948, the biographer David McCullough wrote: "To such staunch Truman loyalists as Sam Rayburn and George Marshall, to the weary White House staff workers who had been with him all the way, there was never any question as to why Truman won. He had done it by being himself, never forgetting who he was, and by getting...

Monterey, Calif. — If John Kerry is to win this election, he will have to be much bolder about telling the American people exactly what he will do to make the country better. As a wise colleague in the House of Representatives once told me: voters don't care so much about what you believe so long as you believe in something. President Bush has convinced voters that he believes in something even though polls continue to show that a majority believe that he is taking the country in the wrong direction. Mr. Kerry cannot win simply by complaining about where...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's campaign will not change its message despite recent high-level additions, new adviser Joe Lockhart said Friday. "There's nothing that changes the structure of this campaign, the message of this campaign," Lockhart told reporters. "It's about John Kerry taking it to George Bush every day." Lockhart, a former Clinton administration spokesman, was brought on to the campaign last week, along with longtime political operatives John Sasso and Michael Whouley. Media reports indicated the additions pointed to strategic shake-ups within the campaign, which saw its numbers drop against President Bush in the...

Party advisors' discussion on how to forge a 'new direction' for the candidate leads to mixed messages and lost momentum. NEW YORK — Even as he fights to regain momentum in the presidential race, Sen. John F. Kerry faces a debate among advisors over the tone and content of his message, according to insiders and other Democrats familiar with the campaign's discussions. One continued disagreement is over how sharply the Democratic presidential nominee — as opposed to campaign surrogates — should attack President Bush. Also in dispute is how much change would be too much for Kerry to advocate in...

Warning of bomb in text message By Marianne Kearney in Jakarta (Filed: 11/09/2004) Indonesian police were warned about the bomb attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta in a mobile phone text message 45 minutes before the bomb exploded, Alexander Downer, the Australian foreign minister, said yesterday. The message said a western embassy would be attacked unless Abu Bakar Bashir, the Islamic cleric being held on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, was released immediately. Bashir, alleged to be the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the group behind the Bali bombings, is due to be put on trial later this month....

Kerry's message stands strong in unsure times By Margery Eagan Recent Columns by Margery Eagan Friday, July 30, 2004 If you came to the FleetCenter this week, polite but firm officers in crisp white shirts and tight black gloves instructed you to throw out sodas and coffee cups, then pawed through everything you carried, right down to twirling up your lipstick and sometimes, ``please step over here.'' Arms up. Metal detectors out. The occasional German shepherd or photographer carrying a gas mask or policeman in riot gear. All this provided a daily, unsettling reminder. It's a different world now. It...

As the Democratic National Convention begins, the real question is: Can Kerry's team keep his party on message?BostonPOLITICAL CONVENTIONS are like Las Vegas. They are shows. And what's the motto of Las Vegas? What happens here, stays here. That applies to conventions as well. They don't have a large impact on the outcome of elections. Yes, a party's presidential nominee usually gets a bump in polls coming out of a convention, and Democratic candidate John Kerry surely will widen his lead over President Bush. But far more often than not, the bump dissipates rapidly.This doesn't mean conventions are meaningless. They...

Kerry, Edwards, Hollywood, and the Politics of Hate By Andrew L. Jaffee, July 13, 2004 Home   Search   Forum   Terms John Kerry and John Edwards both looked at the same intelligence presented to President Bush, and they voted for the Iraq war. Then both Kerry and Edwards voted against an $87 billion funding package for our troops in Iraq. How could they be both for and against the war? Kerry, the great flip-flopper, has even gone so far as stating, I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it. Several weeks before Kerry voted against the $87 billion bill,...