Free Republic

A think tank founded by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former House speaker and other perks, according to records and interviews. The Center for Health Transformation, which opened in 2003, brought in dues of as much as $200,000 per year from insurers and other health-care firms, offering some of them “access to Newt Gingrich” and “direct Newt interaction,” according to promotional materials. The biggest funders, including firms such as AstraZeneca, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Novo Nordisk, were...

Results from new poll of GOP primary voters from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling: Newt Gingrich (28 percent), Herman Cain (25 percent), Mitt Romney (18 percent), Rick Perry (6 percent), Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul (5 percent), Jon Huntsman (3 percent), Rick Santorum and Gary Johnson (1 percent). One particularly interesting note from PPP: “There’s reason to think that if Cain continues to fade, Gingrich will continue to gain. Among Cain’s supporters 73 percent have a favorable opinion of Gingrich to only 21 percent with a negative one.”

The Republican Party seems to be struggling to find a candidate it can unite around. One impediment may be a mindset common among some of my fellow Tea Partiers, a false dichotomy that if you are in government you are part of the problem, and if you are not in government, you are part of the solution -- whatever those problems or solutions may be. Herman Cain says, "The folks in Washington have held public office. How's that working out for you?" It's a catchy comeback. But is government tenure, whether recent or not, the reality of the problems in...

If slow and steady really does win the race, Newt Gingrich could well end up being the Republican nominee for president. Thus far, this campaign season has been defined by flash-in-the-pan fortunes. Michele Bachmann was first out of the blocks and won the Iowa straw poll, but this seemed much like a house of straw when Texas governor Rick Perry entered the fray and became her Big Bad Wolf. But then he blew his own house down with a series of disastrous debate performances, allowing the Cain Train to pull into the station. This brings us to where we are...

While Mitt Romney has remained a constant in polling for the Republican presidential nomination at around 25-28%, inconstancy has been the constant among his opponents. Michele Bachmann became the first to ride a wave to Romney’s relative polling position, only to fade when Rick Perry entered the race. Now Perry has faded after a series of awful debate performances and Herman Cain has taken his place for the last six weeks. If Cain can’t maintain his momentum, who will be the next Not-Romney? Byron York reports from Iowa that it may well be Newt Gingrich: For days, there’s been talk...

ART WORKS: A Poster Contest to Support American Jobs Call for Submissions: The Obama campaign is seeking poster submissions from artists and designers across the country to convey why we support President Obama's plan to create jobs now, and why we'll re-elect him to continue fighting for jobs for the next four years. You can make your poster about that broad theme, or focus on a specific aspect: why we've got to rebuild and modernize our roads and bridges, help veterans find work once they've returned home from service, support the small businesses that are the engine of our economy,...

The news outlets CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and Newsweek have come under fire by Philadelphia’s incoming Archbishop, for a lack of “trustworthiness” where matters of religious faith are concerned. According to Archbishop Charles Chaput, the media do not “provide trustworthy information about religious faith. ” His comments were made Wednesday during an address on religious freedom before some 10,000 pilgrims at the Catholic World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain. Archbishop Chaput told the group of young faith-goers, “in the United States, our battles over abortion, family life, same-sex ‘marriage,’ and other sensitive issues have led to ferocious public...

No longer constrained by campaign advisers who insisted on such conventions as “message discipline,” Gingrich fulminated against President Obama, the news media, activist judges and assorted other liberal bogeymen for 41 minutes here Thursday night. It was classic Newt – slashing attacks, an array of ideas, and a few plugs for his website. All jumbled together with little cohesion. The former speaker, it seems, is very much enjoying the post-consultant phase of his candidacy. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57183.html#ixzz1PVO4yauY

Scott Brown is living up to his early billing to be an independent senator, voting "yes" with a few other moderate Republicans on cloture on the jobs bill. Here's Brown's statement, issued as he headed in to vote against the great majority of his party. “I came to Washington to be an independent voice, to put politics aside, and to do everything in my power to help create jobs for Massachusetts families. This Senate jobs bill is not perfect. I wish the tax cuts were deeper and broader, but I am voting for it because it contains measures that will...

Predator drones flown from base in Pakistan, U.S. lawmaker says Sen. Feinstein's surprise disclosure likely to complicate joint campaign against Taliban militants Greg Miller | Washington Bureau 7:06 PM CST, February 12, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. - A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an airbase inside that country, a revelation likely to embarrass the Pakistani government and complicate its counterterrorism collaboration with the United States. The disclosure by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on...

....Giving Obama a pass on his tissue-thin record, his long association with dangerous people and questionable activity, such as his dealings with fundraiser Antoin Rezko and the huge foreign money he took, shows the media cannot be trusted. Their earnings will plunge. And if Americans discover that they've been sucker-punched, because Obama's inexperience causes economic and political chaos, they'll be on Obama like a virus and will be astonishingly vicious. Live by the sword ...

Earlier this year, Michael J Psak ran for the US Senate Republican Primary and lost. There are several reasons why he shouldn't ever run or be elected to office. He was once accused of sexual harassment and fired from one of his trucking jobs. He hid from his disclosures several hundred dollars that he owed Phil Collins, a volunteer coordinator who worked for him and didn't reimburse him for gas money. He also hid what he owed another one of his campaign staff on his federal disclosures, a sum of $2,000 to Gary Karlin, a former fundraising chairman and webmaster....

When the Democrats took over the House of Representatives, one of first statements out of the mouth of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (and other Democrats) was that this new Congress would be the “most ethical ever.” Now, it seems that they are changing their tune in their zeal to keep their pet pork projects away from the eyes of the American people. As noted in the Washington Times, Democrat leaders in the House are reversing the work of Republicans regarding what is known as “earmark reform.” The 2006 legislation would: allow lawmakers to vote on individual earmarks, specific funding requests...

While Al Gore is commanding all the attention of those searching for the "un-Hillary," there's another candidate who is quietly doing the work it actually takes to run for president. While Al Gore continues to protest that he isn't running, there's another candidate who is privately making no bones about his future prospects. While Al Gore has yet to acknowledge that he lost, there's another candidate who is belatedly addressing the mistakes that caused his defeat. The "un-Gore," "un-Hillary" is John Kerry. He is doing everything Gore isn't doing to prepare for a presidential run in 2008. He is running...

The old media are in critical condition. In its May 23 edition, Newsweek writers Michael Isikoff and John Barry reported that American military personnel at Guantanamo Bay had flushed the Muslim world's holiest book, the Quran, down the toilet – a report that led to blistering condemnations and a call for a holy war in the Arab world, violent anti-American protests in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Pakistan, et al., and 17 deaths and over 100 injuries so far. Mark Whitaker, the magazine's editor, wrote in a follow-up issue that he regretted "we got any part of our story wrong," but not that...

HILLARY AWARENESS DAY - Friday Jan 14th 2005 - HR is pleased to announce that a formal on line web-conference will be held on the above date. There will be many topics presented, hand out material and formal discussions. Registration for the event is free and those wishing to attend must be pre-registered to post and participate. Information on the link.

17.12.04 | The following question, written by Senator Iñaki Mirena Anasagasti Olabeaga, has been presented to Spain's Senate. I, IÑAKI MIRENA ANASAGASTI OLABEAGA, Senator for Bizkaia and member of the Parliamentary Group of Basque Nationalist Senators, under the rights established in the current Regulation of the Senate, present the following QUESTION for its written answer by the Government. In the Venezuelan press the following information has aired these days with respect to the ambassador of Spain to Venezuela, D. Raul Morodo: "Just arrived in Caracas as Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain, Raul Morodo Leoncio, gathered the personnel of the...

Don't hate me for it, but I occasionally visit the enemy blogs and I came across a posting that mentioned that Zogby was on the Daily Show and when asked who would win, he claim Kerry. He claimed that Kerry's numbers were up. This surprised me only because just yesterday we all read Novak article in which he (Novak) claimed that Zobgy told him that Busg would win. What gives? Do we care? I'm inclined to believe not...

Putin: Ally or Terrorist? by William F. Jasper Counting Vladimir Putin as an ally against terrorism ignores his career in the murderous KGB/FSB and his ongoing support for terrorist regimes and organizations. ‘‘Lena Goncharuk, aged 38, said that she was the only one to survive out of a group of six who were ordered out of the cellar where they had been hiding and shot at point blank range. Resting in her hospital bed, her voice barely rising above a whisper, she said she had survived only by pretending to be dead." So reported Paul Wood from the Chechen border...

Every election has pros and cons to vote. Here is the con. Just the top ten con against Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). Kerry is wrong for our Country. Bush is not all right, but right enough, and most of all, more trustworthy, to earn your vote. We are a Nation at war, abroad and at home, fighting our fourth World War (WWIV) and engaged in our second American Civil War (ACW II). We must win both struggles. WW IV defines American Civilization’s Imperial era with a victory or defeat in a long, long, long global war against Islamist Terrorism. ACW...