Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) - The Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday threatened to sue conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh for writing in a column that the civil rights leader played a role in two New York race riots. In a column published by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday about his derailed bid to become part-owner of the St. Louis Rams, he accuses Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson of making comments that helped get him booted from a group that was trying to buy the NFL team. Limbaugh derided Sharpton as having played "a leading role in the 1991 Crown...

A study in contrasts: President Obama's Rosh Hashana message compared to message for EID-UL-FITR and Ramadan #1 ROSH HASHANAH THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release September 17, 2009 www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Videotaped-Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-occasion-of-Rosh-Hashanah/ Below is a transcript of the President's videotaped remarks on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah. To watch the video or read translations of this message, please visit: www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Warm-Wishes-for-Rosh-Hashanah/. REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE OCCASION OF ROSH HASHANAH As members of the Jewish faith here in America and around the world gather to celebrate the High Holidays, I want to extend my warmest wishes for...

Here is video today of Fox News breaking away from President Obama's Town Hall Meeting in New Hampshire, and saying it appeared the crowd assembled was more of a "campaign stop." The fox analyst said it is clear the atmosphere was very "friendly," and that it had been prepared by staff that way. Fox carried the President's opening statement and the first few questions, all of which were total "softballs," including one from what looked like a nine year old girl. . . . . (Watch Video)

Newsmax CEO and Editor Christopher Ruddy appeared on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show with nationally syndicated radio show host Mike Gallagher. O'Reilly and Ruddy sparred over whether Obama should release his birth certification.

BEIJING -- George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, said Saturday he has confidence in China's economy and believes it is recovering fast from the economic downturn. Soros made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua after meeting with Chen Feng, chairman of China's HNA Group. Soros has invested 50 million US dollars into Hainan Airlines, a subsidiary of the group. Soros said China's economic growth had benefited from globalization, and China benefited from the financial crisis because it was not directly affected. "Its financial institutions are largely unaffected," Soros said, noting that with a good balance sheet, China was...

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

Isn't it time for him to go home yet? It is good, in theory, that the new President of the United States is taking so much time to tour Europe. He arrived in London last Tuesday, has been to Strasbourg, Prague yesterday and now he's off to Turkey. It shows, I suppose, that he cares about the outside world and that is 'A Good Thing'. But his long stay means that we are hearing rather a lot from him, way too much in fact.

Vice President Joe Biden told a joke about Barack Obama's birth certificate at the Gridiron dinner in Washington, D.C. last night.The joke was reported by Mike Allen at Politico in his article about Biden's intentionally funny speech (as opposed to his usual foot in mouth routine.):"You know, I never realized just how much power Dick Cheney had until my first day on the job. I walked into my office, and you know how the outgoing president always leaves the incoming president a note in his desk? I opened my drawer and Dick Cheney had left me Barack Obama’s birth certificate."Numerous...

Gaudete, gaudete, gaudete! Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice! A few years back, under another screenname, I was banned from this site for bashing Catholics. Today I are one, and just went to my first Gaudete Sunday mass as an adult. While unintentional, I realize now that I was being something a couple of steps above a boor, and probably deserved it. I would like to apologize to backhoe, Jimrob, and everybody whom I may have hurt, and ask humbly for forgiveness and acceptance. I'm not around the forum much anymore, and my contributions are less than minimal, but I just wanted to...

Obama's Cabinet: Start With Al Gore __ By Richard Cohen Tuesday, November 11, 2008; A19 If there is a single appointment Barack Obama could make to signal how dramatically things will change in Washington, it would be to name Albert Gore Jr. -- former House member, former senator, former vice president, former presidential nominee and current Custodian of the Planet -- as secretary of state. For all the other aspirants to the job, sorry -- this is an inconvenient truth. Can you imagine a bolder statement about a new direction when it comes to global warming and the general care...

--SNIP-- Anyone who has watched Joe Biden over 35 years in the Senate might have a little bit of trouble recognizing the guy who is running to be Barack Obama's Vice President. Oh, yes, he looks like the same fellow. But traveling with Biden during this campaign has sometimes been like reporting on a politician packaged in shrink-wrap. While his windy, off-point pontification was the stuff of legend among his Senate colleagues, Biden is now leashed to a teleprompter even when he is talking in a high school gym that is three-quarters empty. The exposure hound who in recent years...

BIDEN: "This election year the choice is clear. One man stands ready to deliver change we desperately need. A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States...BARACK AMERICA!!!"

It's hard for Obama supporters to play the age card any longer, as their potential veep is all of six years younger than McCain. His mouth will be an absolute time bomb. Will he refer to Delaware as a "slave state" again? Will he discuss who's behind the counter at 7-11s? I'm reminded of a Rudy Giuliani response when Biden took a shot at him - "Joe's a good guy, we all criticize each other during this time... But for Joe Biden to talk about qualifications - he's never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run...

In choosing Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate, Barack Obama has acknowledged his own shortcomings while recognizing that the election he and his people thought a cakewalk a few months ago is now a battle royale along the lines of the 2000 and 2004 contests. Republicans would do well not to celebrate too much over this choice. On the surface, it may appear to be a mistake - an almost comically bad selection by Obama due to Biden's well known (and well documented) verbal gaffes. And, as Politico points out, this should worry the Obama camp: But...

Richard Dawkins is that rare specimen, a public intellectual, a knight of the mind who goes into battle against the ignorance and foolhardiness of the populace. Unlike the French, who worship their public intellectuals, giving them pet names such as les intellos, and airing them regularly on serious television and in print, the British like to shove academics into a musty corner, or laugh at them. This was not always the case: the Victorians, with their public lectures and royal societies, gloried in debate and celebrated the thrills of fresh knowledge. The nearest we get to this now is celebrating...

Former U.S. presidential candidate Al Gore delivers a speech on America's future energy needs in Washington July 17, 2008.

People got very excited in 2004 when NASA's rover Opportunity discovered evidence that Mars had once been wet. Where there is water, there may be life. After more than 40 years of human exploration, culminating in the ongoing Mars Exploration Rover mission, scientists are planning still more missions to study the planet. The ­Phoenix, an interagency scientific probe led by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, is scheduled to land in late May on Mars's frigid northern arctic, where it will search for soils and ice that might be suitable for microbial life (see "Mission to...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, with talent on loan from G-d, at the cutting-edge of societal evolution, with half his brain tied behind his back — just to make it fair, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling,...

President Bush has won the Battle of September. When he turns over the presidency on Jan. 20, 2009, there will likely be as many U.S. troops in Iraq as there were when Congress was elected to bring them home in November 2006. That is the meaning of Gen. Petraeus' recommendation, adopted by President Bush, that 6,000 U.S. troops be home by Christmas and the surge of 30,000 ended by April. Come November 2008, there will likely still be 130,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Will this make America safer, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., asked. "I don't know," answered the general. An...

The recent and tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota raises many questions in Americans' minds about our aging infrastructure, and what is being done to maintain it. Questions such as: "Was I-35 an isolated accident or are we approaching days when crumbling bridges and bursting pipes will be regular features on the evening news?" The poor ratings on the inspection report of that bridge, and similar deficiency findings on as many as 25% of our bridges suggests the latter. Estimates on what it will cost to bring deficiencies in our infrastructure back up to par range from massive to astronomical. Billions...

What's in a name? For Chris Matthews, a lot. Discussing foreign policy on this afternoon's "Hardball," host Matthews advanced this astonishing theory. HARDBALL HOST CHRIS MATTHEWS: Do you have a sense, though, well certainly I have it, that just by his name, Barack, ah, Barack Hussein Obama, by his background, having grown up in Indonesia which is a largely Muslim country, that he would have a feel perhaps other presidential candidates don't have of how to connect with that part of the world, the billion people, that we seem to have such a problem connecting with and avoiding war with....

Hi Bill, I've been a subscriber to Free Republic for about two years. I've been involved in a lot of Freeper discussion groups and have led several threads, including one where I identified myself as a black Freeper, with no blatantly racial kickback. What the Freeper spokesman should have mentioned is that the discussion threads are SELF-POLICING...when someone gets out of line, my experience has been that somewhere down the thread, THEY WILL BE CALLED ON IT. Free Republic is first and foremost, a meeting place for conservatives. The discussions run overwhelmingly along ideological lines, that at times have racial...

NASHUA, N.H. - Aiming to create the first generation in which all Americans serve their country, Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd is offering a range of initiatives to encourage — and in some cases compel — community service. "All Americans should serve our country," the Connecticut senator said in remarks prepared for delivery Saturday. "Endowed as we are with so many gifts, is it too much to ask that we each give something back to this remarkable place?" He proposes making community service mandatory for all high school students, doubling the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 and expanding...

Republican (in name only) Senator Chuck Hagel, darling and hero of the leftist media, appeared on 'This Week' yesterday. It was there that he used the "I" word....impeachment. Hagel's all upset about the war and says some see impeachment of the president as an option to stop said war. Of course, Hagel is running for president...and whenever he criticizes George Bush the media considers him the most important, solid, hard-core Republican ever. This is all despite the fact that 99% of Americans outside of Nebraska have never heard of Chuck Hagel and couldn't pick him out of a lineup. The...

That's it. Nothing following.

Six years after Donald Rumsfeld agreed to a second tour of duty as secretary of defense, to rebuild the military, Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker told Congress his Army "will break" if not relieved of the present burdens. Colin Powell says the Army is "almost broken." This week, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there is a significant risk that the United States today may be unable to respond quickly and fully to another crisis should it arise. Howls erupted across the spectrum for more billions for more men for the Army and Marine Corps....

<p>Senator Chuck Hagel has career advice for a new generation of Americans. “If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes. ... Don't hide anymore; none of us.” – Slate Magazine.</p> <p>I’ve sold before to make both ends meet. I’ve sold water filters, men’s clothes, housewares and fast food that will up-armor your arteries. I don’t talk this talk to brag; retail selling is often the bottom rung on the employment food chain. It’s what you do to help pay for school, or because your resume doesn’t support more responsible employment.</p>

Chairman Joe Biden of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was trying to uphold two resolutions yesterday: one criticizing the [...]administration's Iraq policy and the other Biden's own resolution to himself -- to stop talking so much.[...] Biden's other resolution failed, by a voice vote -- Biden's voice.The Delaware Democrat and presidential hopeful ran the hearing more like a talk show host than a chairman: inviting the other senators to speak and then commenting on each senator's remarks.He opened the hearing with a 3,000-word statement in which he used the word "I" 88 times, including a lengthy discussion of the types...

HAPPY MONDAY!

A West Point Cadet sends this along with the photo below: I'm a cadet at West Point, and tonight at our game against the Air Force Academy, a big sign emerged, and it was shown to the Corps of Cadets, who cheered wildly, and then shown to the Air Force cadets, who also cheered.

A Statement from John Kerry As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and never intended to refer to any troop. I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended. It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy. I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion...

In a venomous broadside, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's firebrand Left-wing leader, described President George W Bush as a "devil", "sick man" and an "alcoholic".The comments, to the United Nations General Assembly, and later away from the podium, were dismissed by American Republicans and Democrats alike as the offensive outpourings of a publicity-hungry demagogue. But Mr Chavez had his eye on a different audience - and indeed electorate. For Venezuela is making a strong bid to secure one of Latin America's seats on the UN Security Council. That would give his hand-picked envoys the platform to act as champions of an emerging...

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>

Right. That’s it. Entre nous c’est terminé. After 42 happy years I am getting a divorce from America. From the very emerging of my childhood consciousness I have been aware that in the eyes of billions of people around the world I have won first prize in the lottery of life. I possess it, the thing competed for by everyone from Rupert Murdoch to the most desperate Mexican wetback, and I have it by simple dint of my nativity, on the Puerto Rican Health Scheme, in New York General Hospital, NY, NY. I am entitled to an American passport. I...

WILLIAM Jefferson Blythe III was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Ark. After his mother remarried, he took the family surname, Clinton. Clinton was a good student. He enjoyed playing the saxophone and even considered a professional musical career. While in high school, a fortuitous meeting with President John Kennedy led him to choose a life of public service.

Young viewers just don't watch The O'Reilly Factor like they used to. April marked Bill O'Reilly's lowest-rated month in the 25-54 demographic since August 2001. His 415,000 demo viewers in March was a new low, but O'Reilly managed to lose a few more in April, averaging 412,000 in the demo. Here's his post-Katrina track: Sept: 1,115 / Oct: 518 / Nov: 468 / Dec: 460 / Jan: 472 / Feb: 458 / Mar: 415 But this trend started long before the hurricane. for O'Reilly, April's numbers reflected his lowest demo rating in almost five years. Among total viewers, O'Reilly delivered...

The controversy over the control of U.S. harbors is pitting Bush against his conservative base. Can the Democrats capitalize on this in the upcoming election? Feb. 24, 2006 - He must have thought last week was bad fending off Dick Cheney’s quailgate. Who would have thought that this week Mr. War President would be preoccupied putting out a firestorm in the base of his party on national security. It is quite a moment. The controversy over letting a company owned by an Arab government control the management of six American ports is one of those rare issues that put Bush...

On my way home from work, while listening to my favorite local Christian station, 89.7 WMCU "Spirit" FM... The DJ mentioned that today was Senator Edward Kennedy's birthday...74 years "young", I quote. I nearly hurled.

On CNN today, Bill Bennett hit back at the American media, especially CNN, for refusing to show the Danish cartoons that sparked the current controversy. During the lead-in, CNN showed a number of anti-Semitic cartoons from Middle Eastern newspapers as part of a feature story on double standards in the Arab world. But when the segment turned to a debate between Bennett and Arab American Institute president James Zogby, Bennett criticized CNN for its own double standard — showing the anti-Semitic cartoons as part of a news story, but refusing to show the Danish cartoons:

Paper: White House Knew About Levees Early By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 41 minutes ago WASHINGTON - Twenty-eight government agencies, from local Louisiana parishes to the White House, reported that New Orleans levees were breached Aug. 29, the day Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, documents released Thursday show. A timeline of e-mails, situation updates and weather reports, pieced together by Senate Democrats, indicates the Bush administration knew as early as 8:30 a.m. EST about levee failures that would ultimately lead to massive flooding of the city and its surrounding parishes. Senate Democrats said the documents raise questions about whether...

WASHINGTON -- I cannot rid from my mind the name Alioto, Judge Samuel Alioto. That is the name of Judge Samuel Alito as pronounced by the delightful Senator Edward Kennedy, or is it Eduardo Kennedino? No, it is simply Teddy, and he is as entertaining as any U.S. senator since the days of the soused Southerners, who would tipple their way through the dreamy days on Capitol Hill, rousing themselves for histrionic oratory in the mid-afternoon and then slumping back into their seats, awaiting the late afternoon hour when they would all gather in one or another's chambers for a...

What started out as a frontpage supermarket tabloid story in the National Enquirer regarding Senator Ted Kennedy's "love child," is slowly but surely gaining some traction in the mainstream news media. After the story of appeared in the Enquirer, the Boston Herald in Kennedy's own backyard ran a similar story. Now the largest circulation newspaper in the Big Apple, the New York Daily News -- a decidedly liberal news organization -- is running a follow-up story. According to a column in the NY Daily News, Ted Kennedy's alleged love child, Christopher Allen, appears to have corroborated The National Enquirer's claim...

Allan Penn Daniel C. Dennett. Q: How could you, as a longtime professor of philosophy at Tufts University, write a book that promotes the idea that religious devotion is a function of biology? Why would you hold a scientist's microscope to something as intangible as belief? I don't know about you, but I find St. Paul's and St. Peter's pretty physical. But your new book, "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon," is not about cathedrals. It's about religious belief, which cannot be dissected in a lab as if it were a disease. That itself is a scientific...

Teddy now realizes that he is vastly overmatched, trying to question Alito, so he is now asking for help. ROTFLMAO We should probably try and help him out huh? LOL

I decided to end my self-imposed exile from posting due to information that I received this past weekend from ‘a little birdie’ in Washington, which I subsequently had confirmed by another ‘insider’ if you can call him that. You know I won’t tell, so don’t bother asking me for names, links, or further information. I trust these individuals, and have received accurate information from them before and shared it here on Free Republic. Of course, all are free to either accept or reject what I am about to share, but if you know anything about the Dog, I don’t change...

I'm new to the forum and the reason I joined is because of a thread started around 2001 concerning my paleontological research in the Las Cruces area and my discovery of Late Paleozoic Fossil Footprints. In thread 6 (2001) there is a picture of Don Patten and his "amazing human footprint in 100 MYO limestone. I was impressed with the fact that you all clearly could see it as a fake. The troglodite kneeling next to this fraudulent track is not me but Patton, though thr caption clearly suggests that it is me in the photo. In the evolution (!)...

Another Massive Failure of Leadership Posted on September 7, 2005 The media clearly has had enough. They have finally refused to protect President Bush and support the Administration’s spin on yet another massive failure of leadership. Click on the following link below to view the news clip.from MSNBC: http://media.putfile.com/OlbermannSwings

Conservative lawblogger Stephen Bainbridge is getting a lot of what they call in Washington “strange new respect” for his strongly-worded criticism of the President’s international and domestic policies. While liberals like Kevin Drum’s commenters are quick to gloat about Bainbridge’s lament, and more tellingly, some Bush backers have accused Bainbridge of recycling leftist cant, Bainbridge has rather solidly made a conservative — not leftist, not paleocon — case against President Bush: It’s time for us conservatives to face facts. George W. Bush has pissed away the conservative moment by pursuing a war of choice via policies that border on the...