Free Republic

Congressional Black Caucus members are dismissing a $15 billion jobs bill as inadequate, forcing House leaders to rethink their plan to vote on the measure Friday. Leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) told Democratic leaders Thursday that they didn't support a measure they saw more as a "tax bill" than a bill that will create jobs. "I'm offended that it's been called a jobs bill," CBC Vice Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) told reporters. "I will not stand up in the district that I represent... and say we just did a jobs bill. I think people are smarter than that....

Health Care: Remember Cuba's vaunted medical missionaries — those who treated the poor abroad for nothing, supposedly out of selfless motives? A lawsuit shows they were nothing but a communist slave racket. It ought to bear a few lessons for our own country as the role of doctors in the health care debate drags on. Back in 1963, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro launched a much-praised initiative to share Cuba's medical doctors with the poor around the world. The idea, of course, was to appear to be acting on higher motives than the profit-driven doctors in free societies. It was small...

This should be good.

Rome, Italy (CNN) -- Italy's state-owned television broadcaster has dropped a popular chef for sharing a recipe with viewers to cook cat. Beppe Bigazzi told CNN that while he would miss collaborating with the RAI-Uno TV network, he would not apologize for his comments because they reflected historical facts, not just his opinion. He blamed the furor on animal rights activists saying "It's their problem, not mine!"

The House ethics committee's decision to admonish New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel over improper corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean leaves both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the ethics committee itself facing some difficult questions. When then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was admonished by the ethics committee in October 2004, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders went on the offensive against him. “Mr. DeLay has proven himself to be ethically unfit to lead the party,” Pelosi said at a press conference the following day. “The burden falls upon his fellow House Republicans. Republicans must answer: Do they want an ethically unfit person...

I joined my wife to watch the olympics, and suddenly NBC switched from hockey coverage to a Bob Costas set piece and then to a nauseating vignette about this coastal islands logging industry. What gives? what does this have to do about sports? I understand that about 25 years ago the networks/IOC decided that male viewers were inelastic operators and would watch sports no matter how detestable-think synchronized swimming- but that female viewers were the target growth demographic. Out went live boxing coverage, and in went taped "readers digest" excerpts hosted by John Tesh in a variety show studio replete...

Republicans had been hesitant to accept President Obama's invitation to participate in Thursday's White House health-care summit. Their hesitance turned out to be justified. An equal number of Democratic and Republican lawmakers assembled around a table at Blair House, and each had a chance to speak during the seven-hour televised talkathon. But members of the opposition party may not have fully understood that they were stepping into Prof. Obama's classroom, and that they were to be treated like his undisciplined pupils. Obama controlled the microphone and the clock, and he used both skillfully to limit the Republicans' time, to rebut...

The Kola peninsula is a cape in northwest Russia. This region borders Norway and Finland and has direct access to the ocean. Because of its strategic position the Russian army had hundreds of bases were there. During the terrible 1990s, the Russian army's budget was cut so costs had to be also. One way to save was to give up some bases and concentrate bases down to one. So many of the army bases and supporting housing were abandoned. The other way to reduce costs was to pay less to the personnel, so during 1990s many  Russian soldiers and...

The House Republican Conference Press Office has collected some reviews of the health care summit, from sources that are hardly in the Republican camp. These reviews find that the Republicans did quite well. CNN's David Gergen: The folks in the White House just must be kicking themselves right now. They thought that coming out of Baltimore when the President went in and was mesmerizing and commanding in front of the House Republicans that he could do that again here today. That would revive health care and would change the public opinion about their health care bill and they can go...

Cute video of a Little Boy and his dog.

Dear President Obama, "We The People" have stated resolutely we reject your vision for our country. You claim you have not heard us. "We The People" have assembled across America resisting your efforts to subvert our constitution and undermine our liberty. You claim you have not seen us. Since you have not acknowledged our message, let us here present it once more... "History moves toward freedom because the desire for freedom is written in every human heart." Patriots will not stand silent as you attempt to dismantle the greatest nation on earth. "We The People" will defend our liberty, we...

Paper: Investigate Climate Crimes -- 'Potential violations of the Federal False Statements and False Claims acts, which involve both civil and criminal penalties'....

I've updated my blog to include the e-mail from Janice Okubo confirming that they assign birth certificate numbers in the state registrar's office and the day they do that is the "Date filed by state registrar". The pertinent portion from Okubo's e-mail: In regards to the terms “date accepted” and “date filed” on a Hawaii birth certificate, the department has no records that define these terms. Historically, the terms “Date accepted by the State Registrar” and “Date filed by the State Registrar” referred to the date a record was received in a Department of Health office (on the island of...

Televised Meeting to talk about healthcare..........

The President and his lunatic Congress simply won’t listen to the American people. America has loudly rejected ObamaCare and any thought of it. The democrat/communist party just lost what has been one of the bluest of blue seats for half a century, based solely on the fact that Scott Brown, the new Senator from Massachusetts, promised to vote to kill ObamaCare! The democrat/communist party is facing losses in the House and Senate like it has never seen in America’s history. The loses, to use the Obama regime’s favorite buzz word will be “unprecedented!”And yet, knowing this is a suicide mission...

ABC News' Kirit Radia reports: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a swipe at Alan Greenspan today, saying the former Federal Reserve chair’s “outrageous” advice led to a ballooning national debt that Clinton said is now a threat to national security. "I served on the budget committee in the Senate, and I remember as vividly as if it were yesterday when we had a hearing in which Alan Greenspan came and justified increasing spending and cutting taxes, saying that we didn't really need to pay down the debt -- outrageous in my view," she said. Clinton said that the US...

No! Please! Enough already! This winter stinks. We need a break! The massive storm brings a triple threat of rain, snow and wind. The eastern United States, already having a rough winter after a string of mild ones, has been warned to be ready for another storm -- and just where it will have the most effect is proving maddeningly difficult for forecasters to predict. A low-pressure system is slowly heading up the East Coast, mixing with another from the west. It is right on a boundary line for meteorologists. On one side is moist but relatively mild air from...

Mike Hanson plans to hike the 2,174-mile Appalachian Trail end to end, without ever seeing the ground under his feet. On Monday in Georgia, the St. Louis Park man -- who lost his sight at birth -- will start his seven-month trek to Maine, navigating by GPS. He has mastered its use by cell phone and trusts global positioning technology to steer his every step. "It gives me everything I would need to know about the trail but the view," Hanson said. "I will be able to hear and smell what is going on." If he makes it, he'll be...

She was just on Hannity talking about the Healthcare Summit and she was asked about the the notion of a third party starting up. She said NO THIRD PARTY! she made a good point that starting a third party would require creating a whole new infrastructure, when the best thing is for the Tea Party is to pick a party, get in there on the inside and taking it over and it should be the Republican party.....She talked about Reagan and him advocating a revitalized party, the tea parties should be that vehicle to make. No wonder the establishment despises...

Back in one my old philosophy classes I recall lengthy discussions as to the relationship between names and reality, and then spinning around for hours contemplating the brain teaser of what it means to "mean" something about anything. The aftermath: an entire class of young minds slipped further into skepticism, as if the reality each twenty something experienced was completely unknowable. Of course, arriving at the conclusion that ultimate reality is unknowable is... to know something about ultimate reality! Ah, the futility of the sinful mind in its continual construction of Babel towers. Without the presupposition "He is there and...