Free Republic

Bill O’Reilly suggested last night that the Democrat Party may have some trouble if they can’t turn things around. “If the economy does not turn around, you can forget about the Democratic Party. They’re going to just evaporate. The people have been very generous to Barack Obama. The American people have been very generous to him. They’re giving him another chance. If he fails now. Believe me.”

I can’t help but think that America is now like your brother who can’t keep a job, drinks too much, is constantly asking for money, and oh, has a crazy bad addiction that’s destroying his life.You tried just lending him money every time he promised to go straight but he just ain’t gonna’ do it. At some point you accept that he’s going to have to hit bottom. You don’t know what bottom looks like but you know that he’s racing towards it. It might be jail, death, brain damage. Nobody knows. But at some point he’ll hear the thud...

Damage in New York state from Superstorm Sandy could total $33 billion when all is said and done, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday as the state began cleaning up from a nor'easter that dumped snow, brought down power lines and left hundreds of thousands of new customers in darkness. A damage forecasting firm had previously estimated that Sandy might have caused $30 billion to $50 billion in economic losses from the Carolinas to Maine, including property damage, lost business and extra living expenses. Cuomo's estimate will likely push the bill even higher. A damage estimate of even $50 billion total...

In his re-election victory, Democrat Barack Obama narrowly defeated Republican Mitt Romney in the national popular vote (50% to 48%)1. Obama’s margin of victory was much smaller than in 2008 when he defeated John McCain by a 53% to 46% margin, and he lost ground among white evangelical Protestants and white Catholics. But the basic religious contours of the 2012 electorate resemble recent elections – traditionally Republican groups such as white evangelicals and weekly churchgoers strongly backed Romney, while traditionally Democratic groups such as black Protestants, Hispanic Catholics, Jews and the religiously unaffiliated backed Obama by large margins. Vote Choice...

I have thought this over after the election and some other things I have thought about before the election and over the last several years. Question – what seems to be the common denominator for all elections over the past several ones – that either make it close for our side when we win or bad when we lose? It may sound trite or a cliché but to me it is the media. Think about the debates for instance. It seems the liberal media hacks always moderate the debates. Why is that? There were the Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960 and...

Whatever the reason for America's decision, the reality is that taxes and government will continue to consume disproportionate resources to pay off our past excesses. 43% of those that voted, a large fraction of those voting for President Obama, thinks government should do more. Since government ultimately gets money from taxpayers, that means 43% of the voters want things from the other 57% of voters. Politicians call this 57% the 1%. If you are part of the 57% you might consider the following steps to protect your finances. Actually, since the Government won't be able to offer more goodies for...

Barack Obama may consider introducing a tax on carbon emissions to help cut the U.S. budget deficit after winning a second term as president, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. A tax starting at $20 a metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent and rising at about 6 percent a year could raise $154 billion by 2021, Nick Robins, an analyst at the bank in London, said today in an e-mailed research note, citing Congressional Research Service estimates. “Applied to the Congressional Budget Office’s 2012 baseline, this would halve the fiscal deficit by 2022,” Cap-and-trade legislation stalled in the U.S. Senate after...

ELCA presiding bishop shares a post-election message 12-69-MRC CHICAGO (ELCA) - With the 2012 elections coming to a close in the United States, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), offers a post-election pastoral message on video at http://bit.ly/WwGcVT. “Whether you are rejoicing or lamenting the outcome of the elections, or maybe you are just relieved that campaigning is over, we need to ask, 'now what?'” said Hanson. Hanson has served as ELCA presiding bishop since 2001. He was elected to a second six-year term in 2007. From 2003 to 2010, he...

Hey team - I'm going to make a suggestion. That now is not the time to be sloppily bandying about Atlas Shrugged. It's a pretty clear concept, and I don't think it's good to be calling 'not buying newspapers' the same thing as 'shrugging.' It's the left's job to mutiliate words and concepts, not ours. But instead of harping on that, I'm going to take another road. "I don't believe it matters to me- that they're going to destroy it. Maybe it hurts so much that I don't even know I'm hurt. But I don't think so. If you want...

Ran across this on Quora: What is the minimum number of people who would have had to change their vote for Romney to have won? Richard Tabassi, Renaissance Ape, Occasionally Witty Biped Around 1/3 of a million in the right states. [1,2,3,4] EC 18:Ohio[1] Romney needed 103,520 people to win EC 29:Florida[2] Romney needed 50,869 people to win EC 13: Virginia[3] Romney Needed 111,985 people to win EC 6: Nevada[4] Romney Needed: 66,380 to win Total: 332,754 to win Electoral College There might be a combination that get him there in a shorter amount that I am not seeing yet,...

Just a few hours after being re-elected, President Obama encouraged the United States to support new United Nations discussions on a global treaty regulating guns and the gun industry. Supporters of the treaty believe the talks collapsed in July due to the campaign and Obama’s fears that Romney could use it against him. Now that the President has four more years in office, the White House is ready for the discussions to begin again. “While everybody is saying, you know he’s going to compromise. He’s going to get together with the Democrats and the Republicans, he’s going to reach across...

Next time Chloe Teply orders a pizza maybe she'll budget a few extra dollars to tip the delivery driver. Teply learned the hard way delivery men don't like being stiffed when a Des Moines, Iowa, Pizza Hut employee urinated on her doorstep in retribution for the denied tip. 'It's just one of those things where unfortunately, I don't have the money,' Teply told KCRG. Scroll down for video Chloe Teply She forgot about it the delivery until a few hours later when she opened the door and saw a yellow puddle. 'I was like 'Hmmm who was at my door...

What is Project Orca? Well, this is what they told us: "Project ORCA is a massive undertaking – the Republican Party’s newest, unprecedented and most technologically advanced plan to win the 2012 presidential election." Pretty much everything in that sentence is false. The "massive undertaking" is true, however. It would take a lot of planning, training and coordination to be done successfully (oh, we'll get to that in a second). This wasn't really the GOP's effort, it was Team Romney's. And perhaps "unprecedented" would fit if we're discussing failure.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Both sides called it a generation-defining race for the White House: a choice between Democrat Barack Obama's brand of government activism and Republican Mitt Romney's commitment to reducing Washington's role in Americans' daily lives. Obama's victory, however, did not settle that question. Instead, the hard-fought battle for the White House exposed an electorate deeply divided by race, age and party. Tuesday's elections - in which Republicans kept control of the U.S. House and Obama's Democrats held on to the Senate - suggested that bitter partisanship would likely remain very much alive in Washington in the new year....

Astronomers have now discovered over 1,000 planets orbiting other stars, and right now these exoplanets all have boring, license-plate-like names, such as HD85512 and GJ 436 instead of endearing, "real" planet names that might offer hints of what that world could be like. And recall the recent extrapolation of how many habitable planets might be in the Milky Way? A team using the ESO's HARP's spectrograph determined there might be upwards of 160 billion worlds out there for us to find, and perhaps eventually name. How might we come up with that many names? Uwingu, a startup company that is...

Police are searching for six men who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl after forcing her at gunpoint into a car as she walked to school in the Lawndale neighborhood, officials said.

The “Balkanization” of America now requires that office seekers pander to all narrow special interest voters to secure their support. Have we become so selfish and self-interested that we now no longer concern ourselves with what the Founders called “…the general Welfare…”? It’s what happens when a nation fails to secure its borders, allowing in those who not only do not even speak the language but have no understanding of the traditions, mores, folkways and HISTORY of that nation and fail or REFUSE to assimilate. And that millions of them are here ILLEGALLY makes fools of those who stand in...

The largest demographic of Obama's religious coalition supporters is made up of those who have stated they are not affiliated with a religion. The Public Religion Research Institute's 'American Values Survey' pegs that number to be approximately 23%. The largest percentage that supported Mitt Romney came from white, evangelical Protestants, at 37%.The survey also revealed that Obama supporters are younger, more diverse and more accepting of growing minority groups. Compared to the older, largely Caucasian and fundamentally religious group that supported the Republican candidate, analysts are predicting the demographic supporting Obama will translate into more wins for the Democrats in...

(CNN) - Despite a disappointing showing by Republican Senate candidates on Election Day, the man who spearheaded the GOP Senate election effort is poised to take the number two position in the party's leadership behind Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, several GOP aides told CNN. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is expected next Wednesday to be elected by members of the Republican caucus to become the Minority Whip. He will replace retiring Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona. His promotion was essentially solidified Thursday after potential rival Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who as Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference is...

Just curious especially to hear from anyone else who’s planning to do this, about the best countries overseas to retire and work in. My wife and I have done pretty well with our import/export business, worked hard and saved up, and are starting to make retirement plans. We’re not much enthused about giving out our hard-earned and saved money, to support the spendthrift socialist incompetence and excesses of Obama and his successors. So we’re looking to retire abroad, and if possible to even continue some of the business overseas in a lower key, part time context. Our trading is mostly...