Free Republic

9/11/01 will remain one of the worst days in American history. Along with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, the date of September 11th will not be forgotten by Americans who lived through that awful day. Yet, it must be noted; nine years later we still will not define those responsible. I do not support any conspiracy theory (governments are too incompetent to carry out any conspiracy), but it must be said that nobody in power correctly identifies our enemy and his nature. President Bush called them "evil-doers", and they were that. President Obama called them the...

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has advertised the controversial Ground Zero mosque as an Islamic outreach to the community, a cultural center open and intended to unify all religions. Today, he still stands by that assertion, even as his proposed mosque continues to exact the opposite effect before it’s even built. Now, harsh critics, such as Chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, William Murray, are presented with even more perplexing information in the form of Sharif El-Gamal (pictured), the mysterious developer behind the mosque. Reportedly a waiter by profession who suddenly “came into” the kind of money to spearhead a $100...

ew York is the third-to-last state to reach Cost of Government Day, the day on which taxpayers are finally done paying off the cost of local, state and federal spending and regulations. New York celebrates their Cost of Government Day today: September 10. While this is the first time New Yorkers have had to wait until September to pay for the size of their government, they are no strangers to laboring long into the year to achieve that dubious goal - both in 2009 and 2010 only two states have had later Cost of Government Days than the Empire state:...

The Federal Communication Commission’s multi-billion dollar Universal Service Fund (USF) has a rocky history of waste and abuse. Yet, a new proposal by the Commission would make it even worse, directing up to $400 million in universal service support to subsidies for just two network providers. And, yes, their names are literally written in the FCC’s proposal. The newly outlined “health infrastructure program” is intended to help rural health care providers to connect to broadband networks. The FCC’s plan is to subsidize up to 85% of the cost for health care organizations to connect to broadband networks, but only if...

...This is all well and good, except that it brings to light yet another of Senator Kerry’s many flip flops, as Kerry’s stance on the current net neutrality issue illustrates a pro-government regulation, anti-free market mindset. “The overarching policy goal of the 1996 Act is to promote a market-driven, robustly competitive environment for all communications services,” reads the 1998 letter. “Given that, we wish to make it clear that nothing in the 1996 Act or its legislative history suggests that Congress intended to alter the current classification of Internet and other information services” In the 12 years since Kerry committed...

...Having spent hundreds of millions of dollars helping Democrats build their huge majority over the past four years, organized labor is frustrated by the absence of a tangible victory — they have no single piece of legislation to hang their hat on. Sure, Obama issued executive orders favoring unions in construction and federal contracting, scuttled pending free trade agreements with allies, appointed numerous union-friendly officials to prominent positions, funneled billions in stimulus dollars to unionized workers, and coddled the UAW during the Chrysler bankruptcy process, but labor wants more. Due to their falling popularity with the American public, labor unions...

...Democrat Presidents: John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama on tax cuts and their impact on the economy. Read more: http://www.atr.org/video-jfk-vs-obama-tax-cuts-a5379#ixzz0z3DQ2bnk

The Cordoba Initiative’s planned thirteen-story Islamic community center which will be constructed at only 600 feet from Ground Zero, and the ensuing political turmoil that it has created, demonstrates the exact point of ideological battle—that is the civilizational clash—between Islam and the West. Much of the media has gone off the deep end, painting any opposition to a mosque near Ground Zero as typical American Islamophobia.... Meanwhile hate crimes against Jews continues to outstrip those against Muslims by 6 to 1 with hardly a yawn from the media. Regardless, there are several very important questions on this issue that need...

Over the past week, several political-insider wizards of smart have deemed Republican senatorial hopeful Christine O’Donnell unelectable – almost taking it to the point of vitriolic screeds you’d expect to hear from left-wing commentators, which would probably appear as a guest on MSNBC in their prime time lineup. Their issue: In an interview, O’Donnell had claimed she could be the potential target of political opponents and that she had to be extra careful when she would go home at night. “They’re following me,” she told The Weekly Standard. “They follow me home at night. I make sure that I come...

To "refudiate" or not to "refudiate." Merriam-Webster has declared Sarah Palin's made-up verb its 2010 "Word of Summer." The respected publisher says the pseudo word is the one most-often searched by users of its online dictionary. Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and former governor of Alaska, used it twice in July, once on a news show and later in a Twitter posting where she called on peaceful Muslims to "refudiate" the plan to build a mosque near ground zero in Lower Manhattan. Palin deleted the non-word, replacing it with another tweet, saying "peaceful New Yorkers" should "refute the...

From his hospital bed Captain Howard Prince had a clear view of the TV screen as President Lyndon Johnson came on to address the nation. It was March 31, 1968, and the war in Vietnam was going badly. Prince knew. He’d been downrange, fighting in the rice paddies and marshes of Southeast Asia.

Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made news Tuesday when he announced that he would try to pass an energy bill during the lame-duck session. This comes as a surprise to most as Reid pulled his energy bill right before recess began as he couldn’t muster up the requisite votes. Even more surprising is that Reid said a key component of his lame-duck bill would be a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), a contentions policy amongst Members. RES requires that a percentage of a state’s energy production be derived from “clean” energy sources, generally understood as wind and solar. Government imposed RES are...

Last week, President Obama's tax reform commission came out with their long-overdue report--buried on a Friday during the August recess. One area of the report worth exploring is the section on "return free" tax filing--a polite way of saying that the IRS would do your tax return for you, calculate your balance due or refund, and leave it up to you to take on City Hall. This is a bad idea because it puts the IRS in a conflict of interest. The IRS has an interest in maximizing the legal amount of tax owed. Taxpayers have an interest in minimizing...

Since coming into office, the Obama Administration has taken an antagonistic stance against America’s oil and natural gas producers--energy sources that power our country-- barring exploration along most of our coastline and threatening to levy job-killing tax increases. In an attempt to push back against this anti-growth agenda, the American Petroleum Institute has organized nationwide Rallies for Jobs throughout the month of September--the first of which are held today in Texas. The message of these rallies is clear: higher taxes mean fewer jobs. Responsible for more than 9.2 million well-paying jobs across the country, oil and natural gas production is...

...Obama’s fuel efficiency standards are economically burdensome. Emphasizing clean energy in the Recovery Act proved inefficient and is yet to save 700,000 jobs, as the Obama Administration said it would, or jumpstart the American economy. Subsidizing clean energy stops job growth and reduces overall economic productivity... Read more: http://www.atr.org/all-join-green-cause-a5358#ixzz0yIyYUDaU

...The Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats have said that they want to raise taxes in the top two income tax rates in January 2011. Under their plan, the 33 percent rate will rise to 36 percent, and the 35 percent rate will rise to 39.6 percent automatically in January. These rates affect families and small business owners earning at least $200,000 per year Unlike corporations, small businesses usually don’t pay their own taxes. Rather, business profits flow through to the business owner. The business owner pays taxes on her small business by adding the profits to her income tax form....

First Entry-Introduction Letter to Granddaughter about Kaitlyn-9/6/2005 9/8/05-Folk Wisdom from the Storm; New Lyrics to the Battle of New Orleans 9/9/05-All Katrina Gossip-Sean Penn/Michael Jackson 9/12/05-Debit Cards/Hillary's Katrina Commission 9/14/05-Email from FEMA 9/15/05-Ophelia 9/16/05-More Sean Penn 9/20/05-Katrina Kills Natalee Holloway 9/22/05-What Will Become of New Orleans? 9/27/05-Rita!!! 10/18/05-The TRUTH About the Convention Center 10/25/05-Ray Nagin All Atwitter 11/1/05-WILMA/Katrina and Pets 11/15/10-Katrina evacuees murder Good Samaritan12/6/05-Katrina Changes Political Climate in Louisiana 1/7/06-Myths of the Hurricane Katrina now shattered 1/18/07-Major Crime Wave in New Orleans 9/17/07-Two Years AFTER Katrina...Still Not So Much 11/5/07-After Katrina Louisians Elects REPUBLICAN Governor! 9/18/08-Gustav and dig...

With the spill off the Gulf largely contained, the Administration has launched a commission to investigate the root cause of the tragedy. Now that the heated emotions surrounding the spill are beginning to subside, the presidential commission has an enormous opportunity to objectively access the failures that led up to the spill—and just as importantly—to chart a sustainable, cheap, and safe course for America’s energy production. Given the Administration’s antagonistic track record with America’s oil and natural gas producers, many Republican Members looked at the commission with weary eyes. Addressing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Senator Barrasso (R-Wyo) highlighted many of...

Freepers, I remember a live video of a group of Katrina evacuees who had come to Houston in a school bus. As the bus arrived, all the usual Media suspects were lined up waiting to interview the people as they got off the bus. The first question asked was, "What do you think of Bush abandoning you, etc." (The Media meme). The answer shocked everyone as the woman first off the bus hollered, "Bush? That Ray Nagin left us there to die! Kathleen Blanco left us there to die." (etc.) She finished by saying, "They sure sent the busses around...

...The problem, to borrow from the great Yogi Berra, is that this is just "deja vu all over again." Every few months the CBO essentially releases the same report they've been circling for the past 18 months, just with a few new numbers punched in. Even CBO's director, Doug Elmendorf, has been explicit regarding the fallacy of the CBO report, admitting that the legally-required exercise is one that is designed as a self-fulfilling prophesy to report the success of the "stimulus." This is because the numbers in the CBO reports are achieved by using models based on the same fuzzy...