Free Republic

A mysterious YouTube member named, conveniently, “megwhitmanonvanjones,” has uploaded a May 2009 San Francisco Chronicle video of 2010 GOP California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, in which the former CEO of eBay and former adviser to Mitt Romney and John McCain gushes about suddenly controversial green jobs czar Van Jones. "There’s a guy over in Oakland, I think his name is Van Jones. And he and I were on a cruise last summer in the Arctic, on climate change. And I got to know him very well. And a lot of the work he’s doing to enfranchise broader communities I’m a...

TNR has a profile of Barack Obama's favorite conservative pundit, David Brooks. The thing to know about Brooks is that he's a nearly man. He wanted to be an Ivy League scholar, but had to settle for the University of Chicago. He wanted to be a hardnosed political reporter but ended up a more sedate political commentator instead. He spent his life like a sort of Dickensian figure with his nose pressed against the window, studying the lives of the people he wanted to be. People like David Axelrod: whose career Brooks kept a close eye on after he graduated...

On a Sunday evening in August four summers ago the NBC Nightly News devoted its “In Depth” segment to how Cindy Sheehan was “single-handedly bringing the Iraq debate to Mr. Bush’s doorstep” with her protest in Crawford, Texas. But Sunday night this year, after Sheehan departed Martha's Vineyard without earning any network media coverage as President Barack Obama's wrapped up his vacation there, NBC's Ron Allen began a story: “Hours before President Obama's vacation ended, he treated his girls to ice cream and candy -- the kind of family time the President said he had in mind for the week...

Conservatives in America are playing with fire by inciting violence against the country's first black president "Does the sun ever shine during a Democratic administration?" asked Jon Stewart on a recent edition of The Daily Show, in a nod to the rightwing hysteria over the current White House incumbent. "With Obama in office now, when babies laugh do you hear only the sound of kittens drowning?" Stewart is a comedian, but this is no laughing matter. The lies perpetrated against Obama – that he is a foreigner, a Marxist, a Nazi, a racist, intent on interning the elderly and euthanising...

This morning Geraldo Rivera had a small tantrum on the Fox Morning Show as he tried to defend Obamacare to the rest of the guests who weren't having any of it. I was surprised and disappointed to hear Rivera say that he believes in Obamacare and that opposition to it in town hall meetings is being organized by Obama-hating professional right-wing goons. He then raised eyebrows by offering that Obamacare is disintegrating before the Dems' eyes (despite the Libs' bussing-in violent union thugs, whom Obama describes as "grass roots supporters" of Obama).

It has now become an annual ritual, as predictable as an eclipse: Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker come out before the media to extol the virtues of their son, Suleyman al-Faris, also known as Abdul Hamid. Don’t recognize the names? Perhaps you may remember him by his real name — John Walker Lindh (”Jihad Johnny”), the American Taliban. This year is no exception, and Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker want to talk again to anyone who’ll listen, in an effort to get their son out of federal prison. This year, the story has been picked up by Amy Goodman and...

Colin Powell appeared on CNN's Larry King Show on Tuesday evening. In the wake of his endorsement of Barack Obama, some conservatives have suggested that he leave the Republican Party. Powell's response to King was defiant, "I decide what party I am going to be in." He then offered advice to the Republican Party for improving its electoral prospects. When one takes to the national airwaves and asserts his allegiance and offers his wisdom to the Party, this assumes both political and moral standing. There must be a perception in the audience of good faith that has been earned and...

In reaction to a propaganda video of the Taliban holding an American soldier hostage in Afghanistan, on Monday’s CBS Early Show, terrorism analyst Jere Van Dyk argued: “What they [the Taliban] are saying is that ‘we can treat American soldiers, we can treat prisoners, better than Americans are treating them.’” Van Dyk went on: “…that’s a signal there. He’s wearing nice clothes, he’s being fed, he has a cup of tea there… what they are saying is that ‘we will protect to the death… a guest in our home.’

When the US President is openly being compared to Miikhail Gorbachev, it's time to reevaluate national policy toward historic enemies. Russia may now have a parliament, an elected President, and a free-market economy, but its global aspirations remain the same. President Obama's response in the face of Russia's saber rattling is to offer unilateral strategic concessions. Let's review recent events: o Russia invades Georgia with no compelling American response. o Russia threatens nuclear war with Poland due to the inclusion of Poland in the new US missile defense shield. o Russia cuts off Ukraine's electricity as penalty for Ukrainian support...

Stateline, Nev. - Former Vice President Dan Quayle gives President Obama high marks for surrounding himself with quality advisers on national security and the economy. But he says the verdict is still out on whether his Democratic administration will govern as liberally as he campaigned. "I think his biggest challenge is to tame the left wing of his party," Quayle said in an interview with The Associated Press at Lake Tahoe. "I guess we'll find out how `left' Obama really is because he's going to have to make some very tough decisions where he is either going to have to...

(CNSNews.com) – Vice President Joe Biden told people attending an AARP town hall meeting that unless the Democrat-supported health care plan becomes law the nation will go bankrupt and that the only way to avoid that fate is for the government to spend more money. “And folks look, AARP knows and the people with me here today know, the president knows, and I know, that the status quo is simply not acceptable,” Biden said at the event on Thursday in Alexandria, Va. “It’s totally unacceptable. And it’s completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it the way we have...

RESIGNATION: Daughter's ex-fiance says governor also missed family time. BY SEAN COCKERAM Levi Johnston, the former fiance of Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, on Thursday joined the crowd offering up potential reasons for Palin's decision to step down. Johnston met with reporters to say that he heard her musing about a better life, one in which she could spend more time at home, reduce her stress, and accept the lucrative offers coming her way. Back in December, a month after her election defeat as John McCain's running mate, Johnston said that Palin "had talked about how nice it would be...

Note: The following text is a quote: HE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary __________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release July 7, 2009 REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OBAMA IN MEETING WITH OPPOSITION LEADERS Ritz Carlton Moscow, Russia 6:14 P.M. (Local) PRESIDENT OBAMA: (In progress) -- not simply tolerate dissenting voices but also to respect and recognize dissenting voices. This is one of the elements, along with an independent media and adherence to the rule of law that has helped to solidify our own government during some very difficult times. I said in my remarks recently that the fact that...

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Here we go again. Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore is going offer his solution to societal ills through one of his documentaries. If Moore's past movies are any indication of the coverage he will get, it is sure to be a media hit. Already, Huffington Post blogger and MSNBC daytime anchor Carlos Watson is praising praised Moore's early promotion of the flick. "Michael Moore, the filmmaker, is back and this time he was taking aim at Wall Street," Watson said on June 15. "[H]e did a very funny thing, Sarah, this weekend when you showed his documentary in some of the...

NKorea May Come Off Terror List: White House Wednesday, June 25, 2008 10:50 PM WASHINGTON -- The White House said Wednesday that it could move to take North Korea off a terrorism blacklist "quite soon" after - and if - the North delivers an accounting of its nuclear programs. Washington hoped the secretive Stalinist nation would provide its long overdue "declaration" as early as Thursday, although a senior US official has already said that an inventory of Pyongyang's atomic arsenal will come later. Asked how quickly a full accounting would trigger removal from the US list of state sponsors of...

Geraldo is on his show as we write ... and he has plastered Rush Limbaugh in a "very disgusting" image, of his eyes squinted, fat face bulging, and is portraying Rush in a very negative light. This disgusting display of "fair and balanced" news reporting has just made up my mind ... "no more Geraldo for me", ever again ... even if he is on my favorite show, Bill O'Reilly. I will NEVER WATCH HIM AGAIN ! Geraldo just "USED ANN COULTER", and turned her words around, as if she was bragging about Sonia Sotomayor, which she DID NO SUCH...

Levi Johnston says his relations are improving with Bristol Palin, daughter of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The 19-year-old Johnston tells GQ magazine that the Palins aren't "lying when they say that things are better." Johnston fathered a child with Bristol, the 18-year-old daughter of Alaska governor. But since the couple broke off their engagement, he has complained in national interviews that the Palins were limiting his access to his son Tripp, born Dec. 27. Johnston also claims in the GQ article that Sarah Palin's husband, Todd Palin, offered to buy Bristol a new car if she broke...

An Open Letter to New York Republicans: As I read the news about the recent advances of marriage equality across our country, I think it is easy for many to get distracted by the politics and rhetoric on this issue and lose sight of what is really at its heart: the equality of freedom. No matter how politically charged the discussions about marriage equality may get, the question is really a simple one: Do the rights and privileges we offer citizens include everyone in our country, or only some of us? I believe that allowing gays and lesbians the freedom...

For a while now we've been mildly fascinated by Meghan McCain. When she first popped up in the public consciousness through her "work" on her father's failed presidential campaign, there was something sort of endearing about her. We wanted to like her. But as we've become more and more exposed to her with the passage of time we've come to find her, well, pretty grating, intolerably insufferable, the complete and total embodiment of everything wrong with a whiny-*ss generation of privilege that wants, no expects, everything to just fall right into their precious little laps without having to do sh*t...