Free Republic

For much of the Bush administration, the media splashed stories of neoconservative conspiracies and cabals. Exposés about mostly Jewish liberals-turned-conservatives charged that they were adherents of the philosopher Leo Strauss and embraced the Platonic notion of the “noble lie.” In his Republic, Plato outlined an elaborate, ranked utopia, a good city (“Kallipolis”) run by a sort of benign natural selection. The philosopher-kings sat atop hierarchies in which occupations were assigned for the citizenry. To justify arbitrary selections, the rulers would make up “noble lies” about divine edicts, making clear that the occupations chosen for lesser folk were god-given. Once the...

Back in 2008, New York Times correspondent David S. Rohde, along with Afghan reporter Taki Luden, were abducted in Pakistan by the Taliban. Because they felt it might adversely affect hostage rescue efforts, the Times requested a news black-out. The Associated Press and other news agencies respected the request and only broke the story recently, after Rohde and Luden had scaled a wall and made their escape. It would be nothing other than a story with a happy ending, except that the Times has time and again ignored the government’s requests that it not report the specific ways in which...

Elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick, they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it's not provided by insurance. Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn't seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he's proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get. The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if "it's my...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Eric Holder says recent violent attacks show the need for a tougher hate crimes law. Holder, speaking Tuesday at a luncheon for civil rights lawyers, noted the recent killings of an abortion doctor in Kansas, a soldier in Little Rock, and a guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. He called the attacks brazen acts committed in once-unthinkable places, and said it is past time for Congress to strengthen hate crimes laws to prosecute violence based on gender, disability, or sexual orientation.

The government is set to announce as early as Tuesday morning which of the country's biggest banks will be able to repay billions in federal bailout dollars in a decision that risks creating a two-tier banking system -- winners and losers. Congress approved the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program eight months ago as financial markets teetered on collapse. Almost ever since, banks have been eager to pay back bailout money and cut the federal strings that come with it. Combined, the repayments could exceed $50 billion. Experts say that figure reflects a measure of stability that has returned to...

Sympathetic media commentators are rushing to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's defense against Republican men, accusing them of sexism toward Washington's most powerful woman. The liberal-leaning Media Matters compiled a video of male conservative pundits making fun of the speaker's rumored use of Botox. Rush Limbaugh took it a step further, saying the best way to limit unwanted pregnancy would be to post Mrs. Pelosi's image in cheap motel rooms. "How do these people handle a strong-willed woman like Pelosi?" MSNBC's Ed Schultz lectured in his Monday show. "Well, they revert to calling her offensive names like 'hag'; they make demeaning...

President Obama will tomorrow announce a "historic" new policy involving new greenhouse gas emission standards and new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for vehicles sold in the U.S., sources tell ABC News. The announcement will involve a broad coalition including state governments -- Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from environmentally-conscious California and Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm from auto-friendly Michigan will be there -- as well as both the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency, automakers, environmental groups, and others. The announcement was first reported by Politico's Mike Allen. The Transportation Department will handle the new CAFE standards, while...

Dear friends, family, loved ones, conservatives, Republicans, libertarians, my brother in law, Sam, and my cousin Joe: I am sorry and you were right. These are not easy words for anyone to utter, much less a leftist from Berkeley, or a recovering leftist, that is. Even though I've been in recovery for 14 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days, leftists are always right in your face, in an I-hate-you-if-you-disagree sort of way. Hence, this letter of amends to all the people I've lectured, scolded, ranted and raved at, and otherwise annoyed during my 30 plus years of "progressive" politics. My...

On Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough nailed the Washington press corps for its sycophantish performance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner this past Saturday night: “like a bunch of teenage girls waiting for a Bay City Rollers concert, waiting to scream at the top of their [lungs].” Mika Brzezinski, agreeing with Joe, lifted the veil on the goings-on behind the scenes, describing an enraptured TV production crew scrambling to get the most flattering shots of the prez and First Lady. View video here.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- A Justice Department attorney said U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., should be immune from a defamation lawsuit filed by a former Marine from western Pennsylvania. Murtha Essentially, Murtha's attorney said the lawsuit filed in September by Justin Sharratt, of Canonsburg, should be dismissed for the same reasons that a federal appeals court struck down a similar suit by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., last week. The court ruled that Murtha couldn't be sued because he was acting within the scope of his employment when he accused Wuterich's squad of killing innocent civilians "in cold blood"...

Much has been written about the struggle of U.S. veterans to get the proper care from the military's V.A. hospitals, but another class of returnees from the battlefront is facing similar difficulties obtaining care for injuries sustained in the war zone: civilian contract employees who suffered wounds while supporting the military's war efforts. In an alarming article co-written by T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and Doug Smith of the Los Angeles Times, insurance companies responsible (under taxpayer-funded policies) for the treatment of civilian workers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan are reportedly routinely denying medical claims for basic care, as well...

Cavuto interviewing several tea party organizers. Cavuto says he has info that a well-organized and well-funded effort is underway to place Obamatrons inside tea party groups to then destroy the demonstrations when they occur through instigating violence and confusion. This in concert with the MSM to film only violence at such events so as to discredit anyone who opposes Obama. The guests are down-playing Cavuto's news, responding that the tea party movement is too large to be stopped in this way, estimating crowds of 10-15,000 at each demonstration on April 15.

The first place that we may witness this civil disobedience is in the form of non-payment of taxes. The most conscientious patriots among us may well decide that they will not under any circumstance help fund a government that has lost its legitimacy. And yes, such an act is considered unlawful and some could be jailed. But according to the philosophy of the men who founded this Republic, there comes a point in time when governments can lose their legitimacy due to their penchant for limiting freedoms and robbing citizens of their hard-earned money in the form of oppressive taxation....

Animal Farm concerns a group of talking pigs who take over a farm, purportedly for the benefit of all its inhabitants, but end up running it for their own selfish ends. Its plot sees the pig Napoleon, based on Stalin, forcing out his rival Snowball, who genuinely works for the good of the farm. Many commentators have concluded that Snowball was based on Stalin's rival Leon Trotsky, who was expelled from the Communist Party in 1927. In his dismissive letter, Eliot wrote that Orwell's view "which I take to be generally Trotsykite, is not convincing". He argued: "We have no...

George Orwell's 1945 satiric novel Animal Farm was performed with a distinctively Palestinian flavor in a debut production this week at the Freedom Theater in the Jenin refugee camp, taking aim at internal politics and the alliance between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In scene one of the play, Farmer Jones assassinates the animals' leader. In scene two, the animals - a few horses, a donkey, a crow, a chicken and some pigs - rally around a revolutionary sow named Snowball, who leads an uprising against their oppressive master. "Intifada!" the animals scream, using the Arabic word for uprising....

<p>House Passes Mandatory National Service Bill http://www.infowars.com/house-passes-mandatory-national-service-bill/ The House passed a bill yesterday which includes disturbing language indicating young people will be forced to undertake mandatory national service programs as fears about President Barack Obama’s promised “civilian national security force” intensify.</p>

http://www.butasforme.com/2009/03/17/obamas-stimulus-bill-explicitly-grants-aig-the-legal-right-to-hand-out-bonuses/From page H1412 of the Final Stimulus Bill, ``SEC. 111. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: "(iii) The prohibition required under clause (i) shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a writte employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009, as such valid employment contracts are determined by the Secretary or the designee of the Secretary." This amendment provides an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009, which exempts the very AIG bonuses Obama is condemning every single chance he gets. The amendment is in the final...

While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009,” which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.

The head of the Chinese parliament has said that his country will never adopt Western-style democracy. Does this matter? Wu Bangguo who ranks second to President Hu Jintao in the Communist Party, told the annual session of the parliament that China would never introduce a system of multiple parties holding office in rotation. Mr Wu said that China would draw on the achievements of all cultures but would not "simply copy" the West. Correspondents say Mr Wu's statement appeared to be a deliberate rejection of calls in China and abroad for greater liberalisation. How important is democracy for people's lives?...

"And let me say this to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little, tiny ... yes, porky amendments. The American people really don't care." - Chucky Schumer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEfICUoWKBw How long can we freedom-loving, God-fearing, rational-based people allow this arrogance to continue? Our country was founded on "We the People" with limitations on government. Now, the government is limiting "the people" out is completely out of control. When in the course of human events ...

President Barack Obama speaks about executive compensation, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009, in the Grand Foyer of the White House in Washington

'Climate change' moralists are always talking about the need to take responsibility/set an example in the face of the imminent planetary apocalypse. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I read this (in the New York Times): WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat. “He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?� said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small...

During our family’s recent vacation to sunny Florida, my wife and I had the opportunity to enjoy the magic of Disney’s Epcot park without our children. We enjoyed the rides and shows and the variety of cultural experiences to be found there. There was one show, however, that irritated me not a little. It was a movie billed as the “Circle of Life-an Environmental Tale” and was hosted by those lovable characters from the Lion King, Simba, Pumba and Timor. Al Gore himself might have nominated it for his Oscar. The film begins with our three heroes enjoying their little...

Eric Holder, President-elect Barack Obama's pick for attorney general, drew applause from liberal Democrats earlier this year when he denounced the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. A review of Holder's public statements, speeches, and testimony when he was a top Justice Department official in the Clinton administration, however, reveals a more nuanced record on privacy. His remarks indicate support for laws mandating Internet traceability, limits on domestic use of encryption, and more restrictions on free speech online. He also called for new powers for federal prosecutors, some of which became law under President Bush as part of the USA Patriot...

Geithner approved 13-5

Barack Obama’s nomination of Timothy Geithner for Treasury Secretary, and the circumstances surrounding it, have raised many issues and questions — not only about the nominee himself, but also about senators and others reviewing it, the media’s coverage, and ultimately his presumptive boss’s leadership. Here are the top ten disturbing aspects of the Geithner nomination, not in order of importance until number one. 10. His performance in his previous job Geithner became president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2004. The New York Fed’s “about” page says that one of its duties is “to ensure a safe...

WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary-designate Tim Geithner said Wednesday he was careless in failing to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes earlier this decade and apologized to Congress. ... As to his failure to pay the payroll taxes from 2001 to 2004 while he worked for the International Monetary Fund, Geithner said: "These were careless mistakes. They were avoidable mistakes."

By July, we will come to feel that 2009 will be one of the most upbeat years in our history, as what used to be the news media∗ begins to get behind America and report on all the mysteriously wonderful things that are suddenly taking place. All the campaign talk of the Great Depression, a Vietnam-like war, and our shredded Constitution will now thankfully subside as the Obama administration assumes office and solves problems with conciliation, dialogue, and multilateral wisdom, rather than shrillness, unilateralism, preemption, and my-way-or-the-highway dogmatism. We will hear that, by historical levels, unemployment is still not that...

If a Martian had attended last week's UN conference on religious tolerance hosted by Saudi Arabia, one of the world's most oppressive states, he would have been a very puzzled alien. On the one hand, he would have seen Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah promoting tolerance. On the other, if our visiting Martian had taken the time to land his space ship in Saudi Arabia, he would have experienced something quite different. Let's say that after settling into his hotel in Riyadh, Marvin went to the nearest public park wearing his best religious regalia, set up his portable shrine, prayed and...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxReTKWXxNg Please spread this video around, 1984 Apple computer commercial mash up of what needs to be done on election day.

October 06, 2008, 9:20 a.m. Shame of the Fact-CheckersBy the Editors American journalists take pride in policing political debates for inaccuracies. During the last few election cycles, many news outlets have institutionalized a “factchecking� feature that grades politicians’ veracity during campaigns. Over the last few months, a number of journalists have suggested that John McCain is running a particularly dishonest and dishonorable campaign and that journalists should not allow the desire to be even-handed keep them from saying so. That judgment, by our lights, tells us more about journalists’ political inclinations than about the campaigns. Neither the Republican nor...

China's Tainted Food Products Only Harm the Average People, High-Ranking Officials Have Their Own Specially-Supplied Food Sources By Sep 20, 2008 - 7:22:49 PM China's Tainted Food Products Only Harm the Average People, High-Ranking Officials Have Their Own Specially-Supplied Food Sources While China's food security crisis has resulted in Chinese people fearing that nothing is safe to eat, a source has revealed that China has always had one special source of food and supply network: that which serves national Communist Party and government officials. This food is specially produced, transported, and examined, according to especially strict standards. On August 18,...

Report: Rangel's Congress Parking Perk Breaks LawNY Dem Has Parked 1972 Silver Mercedes-Benz In House Of Representatives Indoor Lot Sep 18, 2008 2:16 pm US/Eastern NEW YORK (CBS) - Rep. Charles Rangel is under fire again, this time for stashing an old car without license plates in a congressional parking garage. **SNIP** The Post said Rangel's registration on the vehicle, which is covered with a tarp and has no license plates, expired in 2004. House rules require cars to display proper identification including plates and forbid use of the garage for storage. Also, the House Web site says anyone with...

Scientists from Leeds University have discovered that the world was ruled by pig-like creatures for a million years. The “Age of the Porcine” occurred around 260 million years ago - when the creatures called lystrosaurs were the few survivors of a mass extinction. Nearly 95 pct of the living species were destroyed by a series of volcanic eruptions leaving behind pigs in a “golden age” of no predators. They had Earth’s abundant plant-life all to themselves. “We can only speculate on how lystrosaurs survived while the rest died. Perhaps its ability to burrow and hibernate protected it from the worst...

I wonder is there the slimmest of chance to see millions of exalted young people passionately marching for peace in Georgia… It shouldn't be too much of an effort. All they have to do is brush the dust off from the "not in our name", "no blood for oil", "war is not the answer", etc placards, paste Vladimir Putin’s and Dmitri Medvedev’s faces over Bush’s or Blair’s on the "worst ever", "mass murderer" and "real terrorist" placards and voila! ready to march for peace. Preferably in millions, preferably in Moscow, to ram the message through to Putin and Medvedev. I...

I remember back a few years seeing Free Tibet bumper stickers on progressive Saabs and hippie VWs. Tibet is still in China's clutches, Russia is busy slapping around it's former vassal states, but the world is focused on the supposed crimes of George Bush. I can understand the argument that we never should have invaded Iraq, although I think that point is now moot. I can also understand those who think war is wrong and who insist that might doesn't make right. What I can't understand is those on the left who criminalize the Iraq invasion but see nothing wrong...

For those of you who don't keep up with the conservative blogosphere, one of the memes they've been trying to push for the past couple of weeks is this: Barack Obama may give a good prepared speech, but his dirty little secret is that he's actually an empty suit who's totally at sea without a teleprompter. Today, for example, Andy McCarthy, offers up this snippet from an Obama press conference in Jerusalem: Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way...

The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention is using the city's gas pumps to fill up on fuel, avoiding state and federal highway taxes, officials said today. "There's something there that just doesn't seem right to me because, in a sense, you're saying then that the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them, and that concerns me," Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said. The issue came up during the council's weekly meeting with Mayor John Hickenlooper when the Public Works Department requested authorization to be reimbursed by the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee for use of "fueling...

Do not say black and white Americans live in the same world or you will feel the wrath of Whoopi Goldberg. That is what Elisabeth Hasselbeck discovered on the July 17 edition of "The View." Upon suggesting that, Whoopi reduced Elisabeth to tears. On the news of Jesse Jackson’s use of the "n" word, the conversation quickly developed into the double standard involved between a white and black person’s use of the word. Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg admitted there is a double standard, but added there should be. Sherri Shepherd said she uses the word "as a term of...

SPRINGFIELD -- The Greene County sheriff fired a correctional officer who was charged this week with misusing his position for personal gain. A detective says Steven Donovan used a computer system that he didn't have clearance to use -- to clear his name. Donovan is charged with misuse of official information by a public servant. That’s a misdemeanor that could get him up to a year in a county jail if he’s convicted or pleads guilty. The detective says Donovan admits he cleared a warrant for his own arrest from Phelps County on a statewide computer system known as MULES...

There's a splendid controversy brewing at the University of Chicago--at least we'll consider it splendid so long as it has a happy ending, which now seems likely. The U of C may be best known these days as home to the law school where Barack Obama used to lecture on constitutional law (twice a week!), but in simpler times it was most famous as the academic perch of the great free-market economist Milton Friedman, who died in 2006. So when a prestigious university wants to name a research center after its most celebrated (Nobel prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom, etc.,...

SACRAMENTO – Saying that government employees shouldn't be able to evade traffic tickets because they have secret license plates, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer said Monday that he will propose legislation to help traffic enforcement agencies pierce the shield. Spitzer was responding to an Orange County Register investigation that showed that a Department of Motor Vehicles program designed to protect law enforcement from criminals was giving them another kind of protection: They can drive on toll roads without paying, run red light cameras with impunity and park illegally. For example, 3,722 public employees have run the 91 Express Lanes in the past...

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Barack Obama topped a Clinton in another contest on Sunday -- the Grammys. The presidential candidate beat both former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter to win best spoken word album for his audio version of his book "The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream." Clinton was nominated for his book "Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World" and Carter for "Sunday Mornings in Plains: Bringing Peace to a Changing World." Also nominated was Maya Angelou and Alan Alda. Sens. Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are battling for the Democratic nomination...

Add another one to the bizarro world of New York politics. It appears that the names of all four of the dropouts in the Democrat primary still appear on the ballot. Now, just which one of the two remaining candidates would benefit by a split of the vote? The Board of Elections has an excuse: "because the candidates dropped out of the race too late for their names to be removed from the ballot." Fair enough. But wait, Dodd and Biden dropped out before Fred Thompson. Kucinich dropped out before Giuliani, and Edwards dropped out the same day as Giuliani....

Lawyer defends officer's actions He's accused of interfering with daughter's possible arrest The attorney for a Houston police officer accused of interfering with his daughter's possible arrest for shoplifting said Wednesday the 22-year veteran is innocent. Kerry Q. Small, 43, is charged with hindering apprehension, a Class A misdemeanor. The case is a misunderstanding, said Aaron Suder, Small's attorney with the Houston Police Officer's Union. Small, Suder said, did not know that Macy's department store employees at Greenspoint Mall wanted his daughter arrested. Authorities said Macy's security guards saw two young women shoplifting about $400 in merchandise, took them to...

"You owe us you no good cracker! 50 billion dollars ain't enough!"

A judge's daughter accused of intoxication manslaughter could not have avoided the collision that killed her boyfriend because a truck driver had drifted into her lane, an accident reconstruction expert told a jury Friday. Jurors also saw the defendant's father, District Court Judge Pat Shelton, accuse prosecutors of selectively punishing his daughter, saying they failed to charge the truck driver for not immediately stopping after the wreck. He then accused a witness who testified against his daughter of being an illegal immigrant. The jury must decide whether Elizabeth Shelton, a 20-year-old University of St. Thomas student, is responsible for the...

In 1997, the National Association of Social Work (NASW) altered its ethics code, ruling that all social workers must promote social justice "from local to global level." This call for mandatory advocacy raised the question: what kind of political action did the highly liberal field of social work have in mind? The answer wasn't long in coming. The Council on Social Work Education, the national accreditor of social work education programs, says candidates must fight "oppression," and sees American society as pervaded by the "global interconnections of oppression." Now aspiring social workers must commit themselves, usually in writing, to a...

Al Gore III pleaded guilty Monday to possessing marijuana and other drugs, but a judge told the former Veep's son he can withdraw that plea and have the charges dropped if he successfully completes a drug diversion program. What a bargain! Cops say the 24-year-old was going 100+ MPH in his Prius on an Orange County freeway when they pulled him over. Multiple drugs were found in his car.

The ancient art of emotional manipulation. Misinformation crusades. The cult of personality. The dark side of charisma. Validation of double-think. These are some of the tactics used by those who want to control every aspect of your life... your job, your money, your investments, your health, your retirement, and most especially the indoctrination and raising of your children. In order for everyone in our nation to be "equal," we're all just going to have to live our lives according to the agenda of those who know what's best for all of us. Understand...?