Free Republic

The racism charges keep coming at the Republicans. The same day actor Morgan Freeman said the Tea Party was “racist” in its attempts to get President Barack Obama out of office, an MSNBC anchor said the GOP presidential candidates would like to go back to a time when women couldn’t vote and “slavery was cool.” Thomas Roberts’ comments came in response to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum‘s answer during Thursday’s presidential debate about gay service members in the military. Santorum said the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell“ amounted to ”social experimentation” and, if elected, he would re-instate a similar...

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B.o.B and the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles will perform at President Obama's fund-raiser on Monday at the House of Blues. Jesse Tyler Ferguson of "Modern Family" will serve as the MC, and there also will be a music selection by Adam 12. Tickets to the event start at $250, with those paying $1,000 getting into a VIP reception and those paying $10,000 getting into the VIP reception and a photo with Obama.

“You got me!” That’s how Massachusetts Gov. Duval Patrick reacted after local news station WBZ-TV caught Patrick driving in his SUV during “car-free week” — a green initiative launched by the governor himself. “Look, it’s a great initiative for people who can make the most of it,” he told reporters. “I hope they will and I hope during the course of the week to make the most of it, too.” But he also tried to make light of the situation while quipping, “I carpooled this morning with my trooper. We both had to come together.” But some local residents aren’t...

WASHINGTON — As the debate over jobs turns into the latest political tug-of-war, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri walks a careful but candid line. As chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, he has been at odds with President Barack Obama over his administration's response to the soaring unemployment rate in the African-American community. Nearing 17 percent, joblessness among blacks is at a three-decade high and almost twice the size of the overall unemployment rate. The black caucus wants the president to do more. But the group's efforts are freighted with political sensitivities, given Obama's unique role as the first African-American...

President Barack Obama's reelection campaign just sent out this creepy email, with the subject line "Sometime soon, can we meet for dinner," asking supporters to donate to his campaign for a chance to have dinner with Obama. "Maybe I'll get to thank you in person," it says. Obama's team has run a similar fundraising gimmick before — and the email says he plans on continuing it throughout the campaign. We just hope future emails aren't so unsettling.

Is anyone else having issues with Hotmail tonight? I have had problems logging on for about 3 hours. I didn't know if this was isolated to me or if there is a general problem.

Sarah Palin will swoop into Iowa and New Hampshire to speak at tea party rallies this Labor Day weekend, whipping up talk she will announce her candidacy for president. After all, this coming Saturday will mark the third anniversary of her acceptance speech for vice president at the Republican National Convention – a speech which established her as both a conservative icon and a magnet for criticism. Her supporters are certainly encouraging talk she will be a 2012 candidate. Peter Singleton, her Iowa political organizer, told National Review’s Robert Costa last month: “I believe she will run. Labor Day will...

A s my Post colleague Perry Bacon reported in detail this week, Rick Perry has jettisoned the “compassion” that sometimes leavened the conservatism of his predecessor in the Texas governor’s mansion. If Perry’s style resembles anybody’s in George W. Bush’s White House, in fact, it is that of former vice president Dick Cheney, whose just-published memoir, “In My Time,” might as well have been titled “Right Every Time (Even Though I Was Surrounded by Idiots).” Think of Perry as Bush without the charm. But in one area I quibble with Bacon’s shrewd analysis of Perry, whose victory in 2012, he...

Remember when Warren Buffett — a staunch Obama supporter — said that rich people like him would be willing to pay more taxes to help out? If you do, it will probably shock you that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, has back taxes dating back to 2002. The New York Post explains: That’s right: As Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson notes, the company openly admits that it owes back taxes since as long ago as 2002. “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the US Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years...

Just when you thought the campaigns coming out of George Soros’ Open Society Institute couldn’t push the envelope any further, the Soros backed institute topped itself. OSI reportedly just released a new comic book titled Methadone Man and Buprenorphine Babe — which encourages drug addicts to use Methadone and Buprenorphine to combat heroin and other opioid drug withdrawals and even to fight HIV.

Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and senior economic adviser to President Obama appeared on FOX News' "Hannity" to defend the President and the economy. Earlier in August President Obama cited the earthquake and tsuanmi in Japan and the Arab Spring as reasons why the economy has not improved. Goolsbee in his own words: "In the year 2010 which is when most of the clips when the president was saying we were going to grow again. We were growing and over that 17 months we added two-and-a-half million jobs. "Now, at the beginning of this year we get...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush warned the Republican presidential hopefuls against ideological intransigence and knee-jerk opposition to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, saying they risk turning off middle-of-the-road voters. Asked by Fox News host Neil Cavuto if some Republicans go too far in their criticism of Obama, Bush said flatly, “I do. I think when you start ascribing bad motives to the guy, that’s wrong. It turns off people who want solutions.

Sometimes I wonder how liberal media members could possibly live in the same country as I do and hold such startlingly absurd ideas about it. Take for example Fareed Zakaria who on the CNN program bearing his name this Sunday is going to tell viewers that America would likely still have a AAA credit rating if we had a parliamentary system of government with a prime minister rather than a president (video follows with transcript and commentary)

The Obama Administration’s new fuel economy standards will result in the retail price of average motor vehicles to increase over $11,000, according to a study conducted by the Center for Automotive Research. --------------------------------------------------------- The Obama administration’s new fuel economy standards would require automakers to produce cars and light trucks with an average fuel economy of 54.5 mpg by 2025. The Center for Automotive Research says their study is “the result of 11 months of effort and investigation by researchers at CAR in 2010-2011.”

That brings us to this month. In an article last week, Politico ended its story on Bloom’s resignation with a curious quote. In reference to Obama attempting to forge a partnership between manufacturers in several states and academia — in order to revitalize American factories — Bloom apparently saw something Mao-esque in the way government was attempting to support private business, stating the approach would, “let the great thousand flowers bloom in America.” If that sounds familiar, it should. While the correct wording is in fact a “hundred flowers,” there is no question as to where the phrase derives from....

Ron Paul probably shouldn’t expect a presidential endorsement from Florida Rep. Allen West. The Republican congressman had some strong words for the candidate Saturday, two days after Paul suggested during Thursday’s GOP debate that Iran be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon because so many other countries already have them. Speaking at a Tea Party event in Fort Lauderdale, West said he was deeply concerned about U.S. foreign policy, and particularly the threat Iran poses to the rest of the world.

A new Quinnipiac poll finds disturbing news for President Obama and his hopes of reelection in 2012: he’s got a negative approval rating in “the most heavily Democratic large state” in the nation: New York. 49 percent of New Yorkers disapprove of the job the president is doing–and only 45 percent approve. As National Journal notes this morning, it’s the first time Mr. Obama has had a negative result in the Empire State. “The debt-ceiling hullaballoo devastated President Barack Obama’s numbers even in true-blue New York,” said Quinnipiac poll director Maurice Carroll. Obama’s had better days in New York, where...

Los Angeles - Jani Lane, the former lead singer of the metal rock band Warrant, has died in Los Angeles. He was 47. Officer Sara Faden says Lane's body was found Thursday in a Woodland Hills hotel. She had no immediate information on the cause or circumstances of his death. With his long blond hair and tight leather outfits, Lane embodied the excess of 1980s metal rock bands. He joined Warrant in 1984 and wrote such hits as "Heaven," "Down Boys" and "Cherry Pie." He had an on-and-off relationship with the band, leaving it in 1992 before returning and quitting...

At FreedomFest this July, Reason's Matt Welch spoke with Marc Eliot, author of Reagan: The Hollywood Years. The book chronicles Ronald Reagan's journey from sportscaster to actor to union president to politician. Unlike critics who make sport of Reagan's Hollywood output (Bedtime for Bonzo, anyone?), Eliot documents how backlot politics helped transform the once-proud "New Deal Democrat" into the embodiment of Goldwater conservatism. His tenure as head of the Screen Actors Guild was punctuated by episodes such as the time when he received death threats by one of Al Capone's henchmen over a union dispute and his starring role in...