Free Republic

The cover of Nobel Laureate Al Gore's new book "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis" was intentionally doctored to exaggerate the appearance of hurricanes in the northern hemisphere as well as reduce the amount of ice present in the Arctic. Maybe even more ominously, Florida was so diminished it's almost totally gone. As reported by Florida State University hurricane expert Ryan Maue at the website Watts Up With That, the truth was apparently inconvenient for the Global Warmingist-in-Chief (h/t NBer Blonde): The cover opens and closes half and half - so you only see one hurricane...as in...

Uninsured patients with traumatic injuries, such as car crashes, falls and gunshot wounds, were almost twice as likely to die in the hospital as similarly injured patients with health insurance, according to a troubling new study. The findings by Harvard University researchers surprised doctors and health experts who have believed emergency room care was equitable. "This is another drop in a sea of evidence that the uninsured fare much worse in their health in the United States," said senior author Dr. Atul Gawande, a Harvard surgeon and medical journalist. The study, appearing in the November issue of Archives of Surgery,...

Dan Calabrese notices a scolding tone coming from the Associated Press in reporting its latest polling. It headlines the report by noting that “a grouchy public [is] sticking with Obama,” having seen a 54% job approval rating in its survey — but some bad numbers on the issues. Does the AP report those falling levels of support as a consequence of Barack Obama doing a poor job? No, as emphases from Dan and myself show: The public grew slightly more dispirited on a range of matters over the past month, including war and the economy, continuing the slippage that has...

KILLEEN, Texas (AP) - An apartment complex manager says the man accused of opening fire at Fort Hood, Texas recently had a religious bumper sticker torn off his car. The manager, John Thompson, says a fellow soldier allegedly keyed Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's car and ripped up the bumper sticker. Thompson says the soldier had been to Iraq and was upset to learn Hasan was Muslim. Thompson, who manages the Killeen, Texas complex where Hasan lives, says the bumper sticker read: "Allah is Love." In Arabic, Allah means God.

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was the target of an elaborate hoax by the Yes Men leading some major media outlets to believe that it had reversed its opposition to the Kerry-Boxer climate bill pending approval in the Senate. Now it seems the chamber has officially expressed support for legislation that would cut carbon emissions — but still in confusingly vague terms. Apparently, the organization sent a letter to Senators Barbara Boxer and James Inhofe (full text), the party leaders in the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee where the bill is being amended, supporting climate change...

Reenergized Republicans are savoring victories in two states that President Obama won last year, with party chairman Michael S. Steele celebrating the GOP's first turnabout after three years of Democratic wins by proclaiming a "Republican renaissance." But behind the Republican Party's elation after capturing the governorships in New Jersey and Virginia are troubling fissures within party ranks over how best to lead the GOP back to power in 2010. Conservative grass-roots activists drew national attention to New York's 23rd congressional district by bucking the party establishment and forcing out a Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava, whom they deemed too moderate. But...

This video linked here contains 13 sniper shots upon coalition forces.   Specifically at:   :24 1:21 1:50 2:45 3:23 3:47 4:26 5:03 5:28 6:44 7:20 7:45 8:05 There are several other instances where it appears that there may have been a sniper shot, but it's not so clear as the 13 listed above.   Some will say that we can't tell what this video is really saying because we can't translate from Arabic, etc.  The terrorist symbol in the upper left, coupled with the superimposed image of former President Bush over flag draped coffins leaves little to translate.  This...

By now, Sekou Jackson is used to the questions: Why does he need to leave a work meeting to pray? Don't black Muslims convert to Islam in jail? Why would you even want to be Muslim? "It's kind of a double whammy to be African-American and Muslim," said Jackson, who studies the Navy at the National Academy of Science in Washington. "You're going to be judged." Jackson's struggle may have gotten harder when the FBI raided a Detroit mosque Wednesday, saying its leader preached hate against the government, trafficked in stolen goods and belonged to a radical group that wants...

'Mexican Man' costume offends Latino shoppers, community groups By Sean Maher EMERYVILLE — A costume dubbed "Mexican Man" has offended Latino shoppers and community groups after being discovered at a Halloween chain store. The photo on the costume packaging shows a man with a thick mustache wearing a poncho and a sombrero. Oakland resident Monica Plazola said she discovered the costume last week at the Spirit Halloween store in Emeryville, which she was visiting with her two children, ages 7 and 9. "We were there at the store, with all kinds of costumes, and that was the only one identified...

Snippet - Quote: 12 October 2009 ANTI-CHINA/PRO-UIGHUR AGITPROP CAMPAIGN Considering how much of what al-Qaida knows about warfare they learned from Chairman Mao rather than the Prophet Mohamed, this campaign is ironic at best.

Here we are only nine months into the ubiquitously proclaimed "post-racial presidency," and all that promised harmony among the races has disappeared faster than a Chicago minute. All it took for addled minds to conjure shadows of racism behind every whitey tree in the whole American forest were voices raised in dissent over the President's far-left policies. No sooner had congress' summer recess begun -- without the President's hoped-for passage of Obamacare -- than the racist cries began their assent. Nancy Pelosi threw down the "swastika" gauntlet aimed at townhall attendees, which essentially tarred those citizens with white-supremacy slander. In...

Miss America officials have decided to kill off their beauty pageant. That's not what they're saying, but you tell me what it means when a beauty pageant that professes to champion America's young women issues a news release with "Rush" and "thrilled" in the same sentence: "We are thrilled to have Rush join us for our pageant this year," said the Miss America Organization's president and CEO, Art McMaster. "We know that the 2010 Miss America Pageant will be filled with new twists and exciting opportunities with him as one of our national judges." No, he's not talking about the...

HAMMOND, La. (AP) - A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist.

Civil War Generals, c. 1865 Generally regarded as the world's first commercially successful photojournalist, Matthew Brady was also one of the medium's most accomplished manipulators. In this group portrait of William Tecumseh Sherman and his top officers, he added one figure. For the record, the men are, standing, from left: Oliver Otis Howard, William Babcock Hazen, Jefferson Columbus Davis and Joseph Anthony Mower; seated, from left: John Alexander Logan, Sherman, Henry Warner Slocum and Francis P. Blair. The Original Image: Brady added Blair at the far right. One of Sherman's corps commanders in the critical final offensive in Georgia, Blair...

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell today demanded that CNN and MSNBC prove that radio talk show king Rush Limbaugh uttered a racist quote they have attributed to him as fact after Limbaugh publicly denied having ever said, “Slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back. I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark” on his nationally syndicated airwaves. "CNN and MSNBC must immediately and publicly source when Limbaugh uttered this phrase. He has unequivocally denied it. Now it is up to the same news media that reported...

If you didn't already have reason enough to avoid Keith Olbermann's left-wing screeching on Countdown, here's another one: Tonight (Wednesday), for the first time, he will devote his entire MSNBC hour, sans relief for commercials, to a “Special Comment” -- the kind of high-handed pontificating, laced with mean-spirited and cheap insults toward conservatives, so far confined to the last 8 to 11 minutes of the 8 PM EDT/5 PM PDT program re-run at 10 PM EDT/7 PM PDT. “Special Comment Hour” topic: “Health Care Reform: The Fight Against Death.”

<p>TEGUCIGALPA (AP) — The de facto government of Honduras extended the curfew until Wednesday at 6:00 AM after dispersing with gas and nightsticks hundreds of supporters of deposed President Manuel Zelaya, who remains at the Brazilian Embassy.</p> <p>A defiant Zelaya stated from the diplomatic compound that, for him, the motto is "restitution or death, which is an allegorical phrase that has been used since the French Revolution....we are ready for anything: for risk, for sacrifice."</p>

On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”: On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve. The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how...

In-your-face filmmaker Michael Moore came to Pittsburgh instead of Hollywood last night to show his latest rabble-rousing documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story" to its first American audience, a spirited group of union workers energized by the AFL-CIO convention Downtown. A last-minute change of plans and an invitation from the convention's organizers brought Mr. Moore to the city, where he emboldened a crowd with stories of union struggles and victories, then led what he called a "march in support of single-payer health care" down Penn Avenue. The crowd of 1,400, by organizers' estimates, then filed into the Byham Theater, where Mr....

Obviously, the "main stream" media are hard of hearing and seeing. About 2 million mad-as-hell taxpayers assembling in Washington, D.C. for the largest-ever (most well-behaved ever, most respectful ever) protest did not make it onto their radar screens (or our TV screens). They need our help. Maybe we cannot repeat an assembly of 2 million mad-as-hell taxpaying patriots in one place, but surely those who longed to go and couldn't would love to be a part of Operation "Can You Hear Us Now?" I'll bet for every one patriot who went to D.C. there are 10-20 more who wished they...

President Obama plans to argue Wednesday night in a high-stakes address to Congress that the country's health care system is at a "breaking point," as he urges lawmakers to stop "bickering" and pass comprehensive reform. "The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action," Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery before a joint session of Congress. "Now is the time to deliver on health care." Obama is stressing his resolve to bring lawmakers together and clear away hurdles to passing an overhaul package. "I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I...

Just click HERE, then bookmark page. Use anytime the teleprompter comes on. Note: Also comes in handy for more somber occasions such as Ted Kennedy and Michael Jackson tributes. Invaluable tool for watching the MSM news or taking a break from the New York Times.

Ill will against former Vice President Dick Cheney still runs high in some circles. So high, in fact, that when the University of Wyoming decided to name an international student center after him, Suzanne Pelican began circulating a petition against it last year. One year later, that petition has earned 150 signatures and an Associated Press story. In a story titled “Protest brews over Cheney center at Univ. of Wyo.” AP reporter Mead Gruver writes:

If you tuned in to the soap "One Life to Live" this week, you may have noticed there's been a change of character. One character in particular. Actress Patricia Mauceri says she was fired and abruptly replaced for objecting to a gay storyline because of her religious beliefs. Mauceri played the recurring role of Carlotta Vega on "OLTL" for the last 14 years. But when she objected to how the writers wanted her deeply religious character, a Latina mother, to handle a storyline involving homosexuality, she objected. And for that she claims she was fired. Mauceri, 59, a devout Christian,...

The cult of enviornmentalism is being preached at St. Mary’s Resurrection Elementary School in New Jersey. In this Fox Report below, you’ll see Catholic school children start their day by pledging “allegiance to the earth and all Her sacred hearts”, an allusion to the Sacred Heart of Mary and Jesus. You’ll also hear them sing their song, “Whose the greatest mom of all? Earth Mama!” It’s hard to believe that a Catholic teaches children to replace Mother Mary with Mother Earth as the “greatest mom of all”, because actually, Catholic educators, Mary isn’t just the greatest mom of all, she’s...

Parents are talking about keeping their kids home from school this week. Some so-called leaders are expressing grave concern "for the children" in fear of an impending disaster. And the provocateurs who commandeer broadcast microphones on a daily basis continue to warn of a serious contagion that the nation must fight "by any means necessary." I could understand it if these folk were worried about the H1N1 ("swine flu") virus, but that’s not their concern. The infection they are afraid of is the president of the United States and his possible influence on America’s children. In an age when schools...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.” The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.rest of story at link...

By PUMA Pundit on September 2, 2009 Remember, the Dept. of Education expects your kids to read books on the life of Barack Obama before the monumental speech on September 8th, well here’s a look at two of the books that shall be used: The first book is aptly titled: Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope and here is the description, direct from the Publisher’s Website: Ever since Barack Obama was young, Hope has lived inside him. From the beaches of Hawaii to the streets of Chicago, from the jungles of Indonesia to the plains of Kenya, he...

It's enough to turn your stomach. Or, if you're a New Yorker who lived through the September 11th attacks, give you a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. A new ad purportedly for the World Wildlife Fund features dozens of airplanes converging on lower Manhattan -- featuring the Twin Towers -- with the line "The Tsunami Killed 100 Times More People Than 9/11." The ad was first brought to our attention by Gothamist, but was originally picked up by Adweek.com's AdFreak blog, which reports that the ad is from the Brazilian arm of the WWF. Sure, the 2004 tsunami was a...

Since launching three weeks ago, the White House Reality Check website on healthcare reform has been updated several times to debunk a growing number of alleged myths about the Democrats' plan. But the site is still silent on conservatives' charge that the plan will use taxpayer money to cover abortions. It's a stunning omission, given how much the government-funded abortion allegation has dominated this month's congressional town hall meetings on healthcare reform—and given that President Obama himself has called the charge a myth. "You've heard that this is all going to mean government funding of abortion," he said recently. "Not...

Once again looking to duplicate the 2008 campaign, the Obama administration is bringing in creative types who were key in helping President Obama win in November. Now in the role of government, the administration is using its power to corral these artistic community through the National Endowment for the Arts(NEA). A conference call hosted by the White House Office of Public Engagement, the NEA, and United We Serve happened on August 10th.

Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)(President of the United States) "For the first time ever, everything is in place for the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ."

"This is the cause of my life - new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American - north, south, east, west, young, old - will have decent quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege."

I missed this yesterday at Newsbusters but Treacher, rightly aghast, tipped me to it this afternoon. Never will you see a starker example of MSNBC getting away with the sort of deception for which Fox News would be pilloried, especially in the context of race. If you missed Monday’s post about this, go watch the footage (or look at this photo) and see if you can deduce why they wouldn’t want to show the guy with the rifle from the neck up during this particular segment. For all the well-deserved heat that MSNBC’s primetime line-up has taken for its demagoguery...

MoveOn.org is hosting an event at the Andy Warhol Museum to salute graphic artist Shepard Fairey, who created the Obama "Hope" poster. The artist was busy today working on an installation across the street from the museum.

<p>A Florida teenager could face felony vandalism charges for allegedly gluing posters depicting President Obama as the Joker onto public property, FOXNews.com has learned.</p> <p>Clermont, Fla., Police Capt. Eric Jensen said the state attorney will review evidence to determine whether to charge the unidentified teenager with gluing "dozens" of the posters last week to the city's light poles, public and private buildings, bridge overpasses, road signs and a mailbox.</p>

Robert Reich, the former Labor secretary, scholar and commentator, called Tuesday for a “march on Washington” on Sept. 13 —“Grandparents Day” — in support of a health care bill that offers a public option.(Snip)A group of conservatives have already announced a “tea party” movement march on Washington for Sept. 12. An opposing march the next day, if one were to materialize, could make for an interesting weekend.

Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama, especially as the debate over health care intensifies and a pattern of threats emerges.

Dear MoveOn member, Right-wing mobs aren't just disrupting congressional town halls—their outlandish lies are now making their way into mainstream news coverage, too. We need to set the record straight. The majority of Americans support real health care reform. And no wonder, given the incredible cost of inaction. In Michigan alone, 620 people lose their coverage every day. And for those with insurance, yearly premiums will hit $22,579 in a few years if we don't act. We can't let right-wing extremists ruin the biggest opportunity in a generation to get real reform. Can you send a quick letter to the...

The eminent sociologist of religion Peter L. Berger tells a humorous but apt story about Communist Russia from Soviet times that perhaps reflects what happened at U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff's agitprop Health Care Townhall meeting in Alhambra Tuesday night: "I read somewhere that there was some usual anti-religious campaign by the Communist Party and an agitprop (propaganda) person was sent to a Russian village and gave a one-hour lecture on scientific atheism; all the villagers had to listen to it. At the end of the lecture the Communist Party operative said, "We are very tolerant here. The priest can have...

Like many others I watched the "town hall" meeting in Portsmouth MA with the supposedly randomly selected audience. The second person "randomly" selected to ask a question was a young girl called Julia Hall from Malden MA (asks question at 29m:25s). Julia read the following question off a piece of paper: "As I was walking in I saw a lot of signs outside saying mean things about reforming healthcare. How do kids know what is true and why do people want a new system that can help more of us". This randomly asked question gave Obama the perfect opportunity to...

This is no time for jokes or trivial banter. The stakes are getting higher by the nanosecond. As tensions are inflamed at health care town hall meetings across the country, a dangerous trend of Hitler comparisons, Stalin comparisons, and all-around dictator comparisons to President Barack Obama is taking shape. The most probing question at this juncture might be uncomfortable to some, but it must be asked: Do conservative, hard-right demagogues, whose hatred for President Obama has hardly ever been subdued, secretly hope for--and are hard at work toward--the assassination of the nation's first Black president. The sheer thought that a...

The L.A.Times' Dan Neil is confused. He thinks that the so-called progressive movement is right on all the issues, but he just cannot understand why they can't win the public debate. Neil laments that they have all the "English majors" on their side but cannot win "any war of words." Just what is going on here, he wants to know? He's so frustrated that he took to his keyboard to ask these questions in a Pittsburgh Gazette article from August 9. In his piece, Neil wonders, for instance, why the "progressives" are so inept at debate and cannot convince the...

Obama has a new sequel to the snitches hotline. On the new White House "Health Insurance Forum Reality Check" site, Linda Douglass of the White House Office of Health Reform tries to "debunk" the "myth" that reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors. She says, "To the contrary, reform will expand your choices, not eliminate them." Actually, Barack Obama and Linda Douglass seem to forget that computers keep great records and never forget any of Obama's past remarks in speeches and off the cuff remarks. Obama, speaking at the SEIU conferencre...

Conservative talk radio has never been more angry and extreme than today. You might think that’s a response to the Obama presidency. But even more, conservative talkers are responding to a collapse in advertising revenues. According to Scott Fybush, the proprietor of North East Radio Watch, talk radio has lost 30-40% of its ad revenues over the past two years. Further, in an interview with a talk radio trade publication, Talkers Magazine, late last year, Talk Radio Networks CEO Mark Masters said: “2008 will be known as the year that weak syndicated programs began dying off in droves,” adding that...

A poster depicting Barack Obama as Batman villain The Joker has been called 'mean-spirited and dangerous' by the U.S. President's supporters. The image, which has been adopted by Mr Obama's critics, shows him wearing the white face paint and smudged red lips of the character most recently played by the late actor Heath Ledger. Beneath the picture reads the word 'socialism'. The creator of the image remains unknown, but the website that first published the image crashed yesterday because so many had been attempting to view it. It has since been spotted in Los Angeles and Atlanta after it appeared...

Once again, Utah has measured dead last in the nation in terms of per-pupil expenditures for public education. A Census Bureau report made that official this week. And once again, any objective look at the state's school system would reveal that this is a worthless measure. Oh, it makes for a nice bumper sticker or picket sign when the state Legislature meets. But there is no correlation between per-pupil expenditures and how well students are educated. Go down the list and compare state expenditures to student test scores. They just don't match up. Then consider this: When adjusted for inflation,...

Alfred Hitchcock, the master of dramatized horror-suspense, once told me that the greatest scares came in broad daylight, not in the dark. So it might be with "Food, Inc.," a documentary that opens our eyes to what we have been conditioned to feel was a "safe place" in life. We still go to grocery stores that feature pictures of rustic farms that suggest Americana. We notice that a double cheeseburger is cheaper than broccoli. We are in a rush. We buy cheap and save time. We may be fooling ourselves. "Food, Inc." shows the over-controlled world of food production, a...

BEIJING—Police officers contemplating cheating on promotion exams met their match this week in northwestern China—18 serious-faced fifth-graders walking the beat. The students were decked in blue and white school uniforms, and photos on the local government Web site showed them standing behind podiums and sauntering up and down aisles of various classrooms to monitor 265 police test-takers in Liangzhou county in Gansu province. Of all of the exam takers vying for 66 district-level judge, prosecutor and investigator positions, students identified 25 alleged cheaters, whose test results were disqualified, the report said. "It was exciting. I learned why there must be...