Free Republic

SNIP SNIP Local government planning should, first of all, protect the private property rights of its citizens. The legitimate function of local planning is to facilitate the safe and coordinated exercise of the free market in real estate and commerce. Social engineering, on the other hand, is the result of professional planners creating a vision of what they think a community should be in the future. What the landowners may want is not a factor in the design. What the planners think the broader community will want, such as open space and protected wildlife areas, outweighs private property rights or...

Romney, indeed, is the perfect foil for the Obama campaign, first because he is the very epitome of a Republican born rich who got richer by moving money around -- a millionaire plutocrat who just can't relate to "ordinary" Americans, and second because he is yet another Republican political/dynastic legatee. Think about it: We've gone from one Bush trying to outdo his Senate father by becoming president, to another Bush trying to outdo his president father by winning two terms as president, to a McCain trying to outdo his admiral father and admiral grandfather by becoming president... and now to...

The “improving” unemployment statistics being touted by the Obama Administration have been helped along by the nearly one million people who have left the workforce. The ballyhooed 8.5% unemployment rate would’ve been 9.1% if these people weren’t so discouraged that they’ve given up on the idea of ever finding a job. “While I would never expect the Republicans to admit this, the fact is that Democratic policies are enabling a growing segment of our society to join the ranks of the leisure class,” boasted Democratic Nation Committee Chairperson, Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (Fla). “It’s not as if everyone who has a...

Kindergarten through 2nd grade. That’s the grade at which the National Education Association (NEA), the Future of Sex Education Initiative and a coalition of sex-ed groups want children to start learning the names of body parts and alternative family structures.The recommendations are outlined in the National Sexuality Education Standards released on Monday to school districts nationwide. Although they are non-binding, having the weight of the NEA behind the recommendations could give them the gravitas needed to quickly — and quietly — be implemented around the country.CitizenLink Education Analyst Candi Cushman says it’s important for parents to understand that this is...

TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me find this. This is from TheHill.com. You are not going to like this. Let me just read it to you. It is by an Jonathan Easley (I always like to put the journalist's name to the story), and we're gonna assume that it's true. We don't know if it is or not. It's in the mainstream media. "On the heels of his decisive victory in the New Hampshire primary, Mitt Romney took the attacks on his private sector record used by GOP rivals and turned them against President Obama. Romney's critics have...

Obama: Republicans Want to Emulate China, Roll Back Minimum Wage, Prevent Unionization By Fred Lucas January 10, 2012 Subscribe to Fred Lucas's posts (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama accused Republicans of wanting to make America more like China, of seeking to roll back the minimum wage and of wanting to prevent collective bargaining and said the GOP wants to “get rid” of clean air and water rules. Obama made the comments Monday at a campaign fundraiser at the Capital Hilton in Washington on the eve of the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary. “Republicans in Congress and these candidates, they think...

The Obama administration will be asking Congress to raise the debt limit in the coming days, White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Tuesday. "I'm confident it will be executed in a matter of days, not weeks," he told reporters. The notification by the administration — which had been scheduled for last month — was delayed because Congress has been holding only pro forma sessions.

Geraldo: You Shouldn't Become Parent Unless Licensed By Government By Jack Coleman Created 01/09/2012 - 7:55pm Think your government has more than enough on its hands? Geraldo Rivera wants it to do so much more. On his new WABC radio show Friday, Rivera cited an incident that day involving a Brooklyn mother suspected of killing her 3-year-old daughter, saying this (audio clips after page break) -- I swear to God, you talk about sickos, you talk about sickos. You should need to have a license to have a child. You should be vetted. I think I can't stand these stories....

2011 was a year of worldwide turmoil and great change. I expect -- and to a certain degree fear -- that last year was the warm-up act to 2012 which, both internationally and domestically, seems likely to be one of the most consequential years in recent history. *BREAK* On the global scene, some of 2011's most significant events pose very different short- and long-term results. For example, the Arab Spring initially appeared to be a move toward freedom in an historically repressive part of the world but is now drifting toward other forms of tyranny. The Middle East remains likely...

I thought this would be interesting to share with all fans and supporters of Rubio here and all those who think only leftist Democrats and leftists disguised as Republicans supported this bill. Thought it would be interesting to see a Conservative perspective of support for the bill, admist all the claims that this was something done by Obama to start to create a Communist regime. This has been posted in replies to other posts before but I thought it was deserving of its own thread, so here it is.

Via CBS 19 News: The School Board in Charlottesville is clearly out of line, and not fooling anyone with their lame explanation for how kids came to sing a class warfare song at an assembly. Indoctrinating other people’s children with their political message is a tactic leftists use all the time. Conservatives shouldn’t stand for it, and need to continue to sound the alarm about this story.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) - Struggling to reverse a slide in his standing, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich said Sunday he'd been "Romney-boated" in Iowa and suggested his GOP rival would buy the presidency if he could. The sharp words against Mitt Romney, a multimillionaire many times over who is in strong contention to win Iowa, come two days before voters here weigh in on the Republican field. It was part of a stepped-up effort by Gingrich to contrast himself with Romney, and the candidate said he would adopt an even more aggressive strategy when the race moves to New Hampshire,...

MARK STEYN DECEMBER 24, 2011 Elisabeth’s Barrenness and Ours Who celebrates a birth nowadays? Our lesson today comes from the Gospel according to Luke. No, no, not the manger, the shepherds, the wise men, any of that stuff, but the other birth: “But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.” That bit of the Christmas story doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it’s in there — Luke 1:13, part of what he’d have called the backstory, if...

Despite the steady stream of negative economic numbers, conservative Washington Post columnist George Will thinks that President Barack Obama‘s election prospects aren’t so dire. “All of the numbers say that the president won’t be,” Will said of the President Obama’s election prospects on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday. “But if the president carries the John Kerry states, he has 245 electoral votes. He needs 25 more. Don’t count the president out.” ABC political analyst Cokie Roberts went further, saying that she thinks the odds are in favor of the president’s reelection. ...more (w/video)...

Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's campaign attacked Virginia's GOP primary election system on Saturday for keeping him off the state's March 6 Super Tuesday ballot. The state party said that Gingrich, who lives in Virginia, had failed to submit the required 10,000 signatures to appear on the ballot. The Gingrich campaign responded that "only a failed system" would disqualify Gingrich and other candidates. It said Gingrich would pursue an aggressive write-in campaign, although state law prohibits write-ins on primary ballots. Gingrich campaign director Michael Krull said in a statement: "We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an...

Anti-whaling activists said they had intercepted the Japanese harpoon fleet far north of Antarctic waters Sunday with the help of a military-style drone. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society spokesman Paul Watson said the unmanned long-range drone, launched from the anti-whaling ship the Steve Irwin, had located the Japanese fleet and relayed the coordinates back to the activists. Watson said Sea Shepherd, a militant activist group which annually shadows and harasses the Japanese whalers, had caught up with the fleet at 37 degrees south, 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) above Antarctic waters. No whales had been killed so far, he added. "This is...

Sierra Club, Audubon settle with SWEPCO on Turk power plantPosted by Max Brantley on Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 10:16 AM The Sierra Club and Audubon Arkansas have announced a settlement with SWEPCO, the utility building the Turk coal-fired power plant in Hempstead County. This ends legal challenges to the plant and will be reflected in a consent decree to be filed in federal court later today in Texarkana. Nicholas Akins, CEO of American Electric Power, SWEPCO's parent, said in a release: “The provisions of the agreement are consistent with our commitment to renewable energy, energy efficiency and overall environmental...

~~snip~~ "A Gingrich campaign official prior to the move by the Republican Party of Virginia said the problem is how the rules are set up, arguing that the party is, for apparently the first time, cross-checking the addresses that signature-givers gave against the electronic voter database file for accuracies. A name without a proper address match was tossed, the official said."

Leaders of three troops of Girl Scouts quit their posts and disbanded the troops after the organization’s Colorado chapter said it would allow a transgendered 7-year-old to join. The troop leaders, all affiliated with a Christian school in Louisiana, resigned in protest of the Colorado chapter’s decision to allow participation from any child who identifies as a girl, The Christian Post reported. Controversy erupted when Felisha Archuleta tried to enroll her son, Bobby Montoya, who identifies as a girl, in a Girl Scouts troop in Denver. When a local troop leader refused, saying Bobby wasn’t allowed to join because he...

A total of four Democratic officials and political operatives have now pleaded guilty to voter fraud-related felony charges in an alleged scheme to steal a New York election. The latest guilty pleas expose the ease with which political insiders can apparently manipulate the electoral system and throw an election their way, by the forging of signatures of unsuspecting voters that are then cast as real votes. "The phrase they use is: 'making sure they vote the right way,'" said a source close to the case, which is unfolding in Troy, N.Y. "It is not a Democratic or Republican thing. ......

Budget documents from 20 Colorado school districts show taxpayers spent more than $5.8 million over the past five years for the activities of teachers unions ... Some districts pay all or part of the salaries of full-time union leaders, salaries of teachers on leave to attend union-sponsored training and meetings and hiring substitutes for teachers who were attending union events. Critics of the practice say taxpayer money is being used to benefit unions, not children.

Newt: The idea that you're going to wage a bombing campaign that accurately takes out all the Iranian Nuclear program I think is a fantasy. It would be a gigantic mess, enormous collateral civilian casualties.

The 20th century will be remembered for the totalitarian monsters of various stripes who conceived, planned and executed programs of selective mass extermination of humans. I think that all Leftists, without exception, including the meekest of democratic socialists, have been implicated - knowingly or in consciously cultivated ignorance – as apologists for, or accomplices and abettors to the crimes of the totalitarians. I am stating this categorical proposition so bluntly rather late in life, although I have been convinced of its verity for as long as I can remember being able to recognize the evidence, i.e. since my teens. I...

Hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") is the process used by the energy industry to extract immense deposits of oil and natural gas from deep geologic formations that only a few years ago were unreachable. It involves injecting a solution of water and chemicals far underground, typically thousands of feet below groundwater supplies. Fracking was first used in Oklahoma in the 1940s and in the years since has been employed in more than a million oil and gas wells across the nation. There is not a single independently documented instance of groundwater contamination by fracking anywhere in the country, a fact that was...

Americans' hostility toward members of Congress is at a record high, a new Gallup Poll found. Seventy-six percent of those surveyed said most representatives do not deserve to be reelected, the highest number in the 19 years Gallup has asked the question and six points higher than in August, just after the contentious debate over raising the debt ceiling. Only 20% said most members should be reelected, a record low. "If voters' current sentiments toward Congress prevail through next November's election, it is possible that control of the House would flip back to the Democrats," wrote Frank Newport, editor in...

Rick Santorum was right about the rank hypocrisy of GOP candidates who seek Donald Trump’s endorsement but will not appear at the NewsMax debate because Trump is the moderator: “Many of my opponents jockeyed to be the first to fly up to New York and use Donald Trump for a photo op and no doubt try and secure an endorsement. But when Donald wants to moderate a debate – they refuse to attend. That’s what’s so wrong with politics today – hypocrisy,” Andrew Breitbart makes an even more important point. The boycotting candidates do not hesitate to go on MSNBC,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I don't want to be an I told you so, but I told you so, and I told you so five weeks ago. Gallup, every week, puts out their own unemployment numbers and Gallup has been signaling that this day unemployment below 9% was coming. They've been blatantly saying so, based on their own unemployment data which is not related to the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. It's their own surveys; and in the last five weeks, occasionally they will say that their numbers that they come out with on a Wednesday or Thursday indicate that we're...

On December 12th, Occupy Denver seemingly plans to "shut down" the WalMart distribution center in Loveland on December 12th. Please, if you are able, join us this Saturday for the Free Markets - Free People Rally in the State Cap in downtown Denver. Word is 500 or so occupiers from Springs and Pueblo plan to come counter protest us. We do not know this to be accurate, but that is the word we are getting. So we can use all the bodies we can get. It will be cold out, so do dress warmly. Despite the given time frame, we...

House GOP leaders are considering tacking legislation to advance the Keystone XL pipeline to attract Republican votes for a package to extend a payroll tax holiday that would hit American workers with an average $1,000 tax hike on Jan. 1 if it is allowed to expire at year's end. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) met behind closed doors with rank-and-file lawmakers Friday morning, but opposition to continuing the payroll tax break still runs high among conservatives in the House, showing the difficulty Boehner will face in drawing backing for the measure. The prospect of adding the legislation to advance...

Over 100 million smartphones are tracking their owners’ every step, Android developer Trevor Eckhart claimed, thanks to software that comes preinstalled on phones from most major carriers. During a security demonstration revealed on Monday, Eckhart showed how software developed by Carrier IQ tracks virtually everything a user does -- going as far as logging individual keystrokes and button presses. The company claims it helps its customers improve quality and performance “by counting and measuring operational information in mobile devices.” Security experts call it spyware.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas - Every day students in Texas public schools pledge allegiance to the flags of the United States and Texas. But when a teacher in a Rio Grande Valley high school assigned students to stand and pledge allegiance to the Mexican flag and sing Mexico's national anthem, one student refused. The resulting controversy has one East Texas lawmaker wanting changes in the state's curriculum on how culture and patriotism are taught in schools. 15-year-old Brenda Brinsdon entered her sophomore year at McAllen ISD's Achieve Early College High School just wanting to do well in her classes.

Is it me or are we really going to hell in a hand basket? I'm sick of of all the BS and why don't we all do TAKE BACK AMERICA rally in the the October 2012 time frame? Seriously.. We had the Tea Party, we had gathering of Eagles, we had the Glen Beck, rally, why noy a SERIOUS TAKE BACK AMERICA RALLY in October 2012? Bring the silent majority to the front, HAMMER the opposition just before the elections?

Stocks closed in negative territory in thin, shortened trading Friday as investors were reluctant to go long ahead of the weekend and amid ongoing worries over the euro zone. The Dow and S&P posted their worst Thanksgiving week since the Great Depression on a percentage basis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased their gains to finish lower, led by H-P [HPQ 25.39 -0.39 (-1.51%) ] and Chevron [CVX 92.29 -1.46 (-1.56%)]. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also ended lower, logging a seventh consecutive decline. Some traders are watching for 1,150 on the S&P as the next key level. The...

To get to city hall, you drive up I-75, past the empty Silverdome where the Detroit Lions used to play, and into a nondescript concrete municipal building. The city clerk was laid off a few days ago, but the door to her office hangs open. The mayor, Leon Jukowski, gives me a brief tour of the desks where people no longer work. Cubicles sit empty, little tchotkes and calendars left behind when their owners were laid off. “At one time we had 800, 900 city employees,” says Jukowski. “We have 150 now. And we have the same services that we...

What we instead need are more free markets and more liberty – for history has shown that this is the way for our country’s restored greatness – both as a nation but also for the general populace. To that end, we will be rallying on December 3rd at 11:30 a.m. on the West Steps of the Colorado State Capitol to show support for free market capitalism. Additionally, we will be having a charity drive for a charity to be determined to help show that voluntary contributions – not forced altruism at the hand of the government – is the most...

“Workers of the World Unite” Karl Marx, the infamous German political philosopher had a vision. Marx, together with Joseph Engles predicted and even called for the dismantling of capitalist economic systems worldwide into a socialist and ultimately classless communist World. 24thState will be asking the question of the late Mr. Marx, “How is that working out for you?” CP USA In a series of columns, we will expose the 5th column in the United States. We will name names and expose the ties from David Axelrod, who just visited St. Louis referring to some GOP presidential contenders as “nutty folks“,...

OK we're not allowed to source to Bloomberg, but this one is worth alluding to, just with a few facts: America and the commie Chinese began "trade talks" today. That means, America once again gives crap away, with nothing in return. The "trade talks" (which mean America gives crap away, with nothing in return) are being held in the commie Chinese city of Chengdu; ironically in a hotel with a clothing store named "Amornini". Which features, according to the article summarized for this thread: "a bird logo that closely resembles that of the Milan-based Giorgio Armani SpA fashion house. "...

IT’S THE CORRUPTION, STUPID General George Washington was the first President of the United States and had warned against warring political "factions" Barack Obama leads the most corrupt Administration in U.S. history. Nevertheless, rather than addressing his corruption directly, the Republican Party ignores it, hoping to defeat Obama in the 2012 election by highlighting the “policy” differences between the political parties. That decision should surprise no one. The Republicans are less corrupt than the Democrats only because they are more inept at the task. November 6, 2012 will be less an election than an auction of the nation’s wealth, callously...

Canada is counting on China to be a key investor in Alberta's oil sands projects and a big customer for crude that would flow through a proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline. Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is half-way through his visit to China to drum up customers for the country's forestry and oil sectors. And he told reporters in a conference call from Shanghai Wednesday that he's spent a lot of time talking about increased Chinese investment in Alberta's growing oil sands. "On the oil sands our interests are aligned. China wants to diversify its sources of oil and we...

So, yeah. We all suspected the White House was going to punt on this one, but now we've got the official excuse story as to why they're choosing to delay the approval of the Keystone pipeline. The Obama administration said Thursday it is delaying approval of a massive oil pipeline until it can study new potential routes that avoid environmentally sensitive areas of the state of Nebraska, an action that likely puts off a decision until after the 2012 election. The announcement by the State Department means Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. will have to figure out a way to move the...

Once again, the real news in France is conveniently not being reported as it should. To give you an idea of what’s going on in France where there are now between 5 and 6 million Muslims and about 600,000 Jews, here is an email that came from a Jew living in France. Will the world say nothing – again – as it did in Hitler’s time? “I am a Jew — therefore I am forwarding this to everyone on all my e-mail lists. I will not sit back and do nothing. Nowhere have the flames of anti-Semitism burned more furiously...

The tar sandhills near Mills in north central Nebraska, through which the Keystone XL pipeline is planned to be built. The woman seated before the row of suited state legislators in her red Husker team hoodie was choking on tears. She had grown up on a farm in Nebraska. Her parents had grown up on farms, in the days before electricity and running water, and now she said generations of toil and sweat could be destroyed in an instant by a $7bn pipeline project. A leak from the pipeline, which would run from the tar sands of Alberta to the...

I’m a day late on this but it’s too intriguing not to blog. You can read the actual letter, which is exceedingly tame, on Mike Simpson’s website. Among the signatories: …Ron Paul. The bad news? If this happens, some people might be paying a little more. The good news? We’ll never have to read another “time for a grand bargain” column from Tom Friedman again. Dude, I think we should take the deal. A group of 40 House Republicans for the first time Wednesday encouraged Congress’s deficit reduction committee to explore new revenue as part of a broad deal that...

Senate votes down Obama jobs measure By Josiah Ryan - 11/03/11 03:26 PM ET For the third time in four weeks, Senate Republicans on Thursday voted in unison to block a piece of President Obama's jobs package. The GOP senators were joined by one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) in rejecting a procedural motion on legislation that would spend $60 billion on transportation infrastructure programs. The vote was 51-49. The spending was offset with a new tax on income earned above $1 million that Republicans oppose. Many Republicans, including Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), said...

Texas Governor Rick Perry raised more than a few eyebrows when his campaign floated the idea that there might be better “time management� agenda items than flying around to an endless series of primary debates. Speaking as one of the people who has to watch – and write about – all of these dog and pony shows, I admit that I had a bit of sympathy for the concept. But it drew a lot of additional fire on his campaign, and now it seems that we’ll at least be seeing Rick at some of them. Rick Perry plans to participate...

Equality: The Girl Scouts of Colorado says it's working to support transgender children, their families and the volunteers who serve them I had no idea! Silly me...when I grew up I thought there were distinctions between boys and girls; but this isn't that. It's about "inclusiveness" for fear of being stigmatized with the dirty-word labels, sexist/bigoted/racist/xenophobic/homophobic: The Girl Scouts of Colorado has flip-flopped on a decision not to let a 7-year-old boy join their organization, now saying he is welcome even though he’s not a girl. Bobby Montoya plays with Barbie dolls and My Little Ponies. He’s a boy, but...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated at a press briefing Thursday that the House Republican leadership is not ruling out the possibility that it will support a balanced budget amendment that does not cap federal spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product or require a supermajority in Congress to increase taxes. The legislation to increase the federal debt limit--that Boehner negotiated with President Barack Obama in August--requires both houses of Congress to vote on a balanced budget amendment before the end of the year. However, the legislation does not specify what type of balanced budget amendment must be considered...

After a series of poor debate performances in the early months of his presidential campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is backing off the upcoming GOP debate schedule, committing to just one of the next three events between now and Nov. 15. Perry has struggled in the five debates he has attended since he joined the race in mid-August. At one, he fumbled an attempt to cast rival Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper. At another, bickering between Romney and Perry drew criticism that the candidates were acting juvenile. Perry hinted at his frustration with the debates earlier this week when he...

With the most recent GOP presidential primary "debate" just concluded, it's clear that the frontrunner is none other than ... you guessed it, Barack Hussein Obama. The incessant bickering bullpucky and petty assaults among most of the GOP wannabes is undoubtedly a source of great glee for the Obama campaign.

...The orders do tremendous harm to the economy as well as to people’s lives by preventing them from using their property the way they had intended. This is one reason that the Physical Property Rights ranking by the International Property Rights Index (IPRI) has shown a decline in recent years for the United States. The great harm that each and everyone one of these “administrative compliance orders” causes has recently been brought home by a couple from Idaho. Mike and Chantell Sackett purchased .63 acres of land for $23,000 in 2005 to build their dream home. Despite being 500 feet...