Free Republic

I offer this Foolproof Christmas Shopping Strategy for Guys who need to get serious now that we have only two shopping weekends before Christmas. Guys have a natural aversion to shopping in general and malls in particular. Malls have millions of gift items on the shelves and this causes guys a massive problem when attempting to select that perfect gift for a significant other. I have analyzed this problem and have developed a solution that will work well for any guy regardless of budget or last minute time constraints. The strategy is based upon a category system. With millions of...

The Libertarian/Tea Party insurgent voting bloc of 2010, that swept the GOP into office in mind boggling historic numbers, is still out there in force. But this bloc is resistant to being sampled in the polls, and this causes the polls to be skewed towards Obama.

Arizona’s Joe Arpaio, known as “America’s Toughest Sheriff” for his treatment of criminals, has been sued by the Obama Administration but is running for re-election this year. He may already have had the last laugh, as his investigators probing President Obama’s birth certificate have come up with sure-fire proof that the document has been tampered with. (snip) The reason for the fraud is what takes the scandal to another more dangerous level. The evidence suggests that Obama’s birth document was altered not just to conceal a family scandal but to conceal Obama’s relationship with a Communist who was considered by...

He blasted Wall Street, big business, big banks, big oil, "excess profits," "corporate profits" and "fat contracts," "millionaires" and the "wealthy." He called out the "corporation executive" for not paying his "fair" share. He attacked "GOP" tax cuts that "spare the rich" and "benefit millionaires." He trumpeted the public sector over the private sector. He advocated wealth redistribution from greedy "corporations" to "health insurance" and "public works projects." He favored taxpayer-funding of universal health care. He supported government stimulus to rescue America from (allegedly) another Great Depression. He wanted to rid America of "huge funds" finding their way into the...

In his war on American exceptionalism, President Obama has turned the sights on exceptional Americans. If you've built a successful business, it wasn't your dream or your sweat — somebody else made it happen. The unbridled disdain President Obama has for the entrepreneurs who work hard and risk everything was made plain when he told supporters in Roanoke, Va.: "If you've got a business — you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

Urban Decay: When more Americans are killed in the president's hometown than in Afghanistan, even the media take notice. When will the president notice the carnage in the city run by his former chief of staff? People are dying fast and furiously in Chicago, so much so that it caught the CBS eye and prompted "Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley to sit down Monday night with Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's former chief of staff and mayor of this monument to progressive decay,(snip) Heaven Sutton, 7, who was killed as she tried to dodge bullets fired from the guns of gangbangers....

The United Nations is putting the finishing touches on an Arms Trade Treaty that transcends borders and may even trample our Constitutional right to bear arms. Every indication is that the president will sign it. Like the New Start and Law of the Sea treaties before it, as well as the Kyoto Protocol and Agenda 21, the Arms Trade Treaty being finalized at the U.N. this month is one of those feel-good, can't-we-all-get-along pieces of parchment whose net effect is to accomplish little except to eat away at American sovereignty and freedom.

The Obama Record: In pursuit of a world without nuclear weapons, the president finalizes plans to decimate our nuclear deterrent and reduce our warhead count beyond even treaty commitments. (snip) President Obama has decided that indeed we are going to tempt them with weakness. According to an Associated Press report on conversations with current and former administration officials, Obama is finalizing plans, perhaps to be released later this month, to cut the U.S. nuclear arsenal to between 1,000 and 1,100 warheads with the goal "in the longer term, (of) eliminating nuclear weapons."

Fifth Column: The FBI is investigating more than 100 Muslim soldiers and military contractors with the potential to carry out Fort Hood-style attacks. The administration has kept a lid on the growing threat. It's covering up the truth about an alarmingly widespread Islamist penetration of the military. The dangerous fifth column was discovered more than two years after Army Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 and wounding 29. The administration whitewashed the jihadist massacre as a run-of-the-mill case of "workplace violence." Now it's trying to postpone Hasan's trial until after the election...

One thing that always amazes me with the left is their idiotic drive to believe in a biased number over brutal reality. Last week the monthly unemployment numbers came out and we are supposedly on a glide path to economic repair because the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1%. The sad fact is the 8.1% unemployment number is a sad joke.

John Podhoretz and Patterico highlight a close connection between Barack Obama and Khalid Muhammad. Obama, as we know, was a disciple of Derrick Bell; in the video that Breitbart.com released a few days ago, he urged his listeners to open their hearts and minds to Bell’s teachings. So, what were Bell’s teachings? Bell was a fervent admirer of Louis Farrakhan and Khalid Muhammad of the Nation of Islam. Podhoretz quotes a 1994 interview in which Bell said, “We should really appreciate the Louis Farrakhans and the Khalid Muhammads while we’ve got them.” Our readers are well aware of the repellent...

It is a true pity that Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22, is no longer with us. He deserved the chance to observe his character Milo Minderbinder, come to life. Minderbinder is Heller's prototype of deceitful, arrogant authority gone so awry he undercuts the very reason for his post and its operations. I'm talking about our own Attorney General Eric Holder under whose watch arms were shipped to Mexican drug gangs, U.S. agents laundered the cartels' drug money, and hundreds of Mexicans and one -- perhaps two -- federal agents were murdered with the illegally sold guns.

It has to do with a “green energy” company called BrightSource Energy Inc., which develops solar energy products (or intends to someday, anyway). In 2010, BrightSource was in deep trouble. It was $1.8 billion in debt and was losing money hand over fist–a $71.6 million loss on a mere $13.5 million in revenue. A company destined to go down the drain, one would think. But no! The Obama administration bailed out BrightSource to the tune of a cool $1.4 billion in loan guarantees.

If there is a single face of the financial crisis, it is probably Barney Frank, Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac’s chief Congressional patron, who shouted down all warnings and resisted all efforts to bring those agencies under control. It is probably too much to hope that Frank will be evicted from Congress any time soon

Our supposed “Hope & Change”, post-partisan President who was elected in 2008 has now morphed into a far left zealot who has gone into ‘divide America and win at all costs’ manic overdrive. Hate the rich, hate the middle class, hate Christians/Catholics, hate business, hate profits, hate success, hate Israel … The White House has become a pathetic distillation of the worst of the left – and somehow expects this to win them votes in 2012. It is stupendously stupid as well as tone deaf political move.

Obama’s ignorant roosters are coming home to roost. The primary fallacy with the left is they are far more impressive intellects in their own minds than in reality. (snip) Obama is never going to survive his mountain of screw ups, built up by his legion of liberal egomaniacs

We haven't been very critical of President Obama's response to events in Egypt, but the current trend in Scott Rasmussen's Presidential approval index suggests that most Americans haven't been impressed. Ever since November's election, negative attitudes toward President Obama have been softening. His overall approval rating among likely voters has risen a bit and, even more noticeably, the "strong disapproval" that is recorded in the approval index has moderated. If that trend had continued, it seemed that the approval index could even go positive. But look at what has happened in recent days:

The corruption of the Department of Justice under Barack Obama and Eric Holder is one of the saddest of many sad stories that have emerged from the Obama administration. Under Obama, the Department has been politicized to a degree this country has never experienced; certainly not in its modern history.

Karl Marx classified people according to their relationship to the means of production. That was, perhaps, a plausible approach in the 19th century. Nowadays, however, it makes more sense to classify people according to their relationship to the trillions of dollars that flow from the productive private sector to the parasitic public sector. One could argue, with a great deal more force than Marx was able to muster, that 21st century America has a ruling class. It consists of those who direct and profit from the trillions of dollars that our government, at its various levels, extracts from working Americans....

Here is what President Obama said Friday night at the White House iftar dinner in front of a room full of Muslims regarding the Ground Zero Megamosque (GZM): (snip) Obama carefully read his speech, including this statement. When he got to this passage, he spoke slowly, with some vehemence and condescension. Regarding these remarks, as the late, great William Buckley used to say, a few observations. 1. Obama's tone was not one calculated to persuade. He both hectored and belittled those who oppose the GZM. If you respectfully beg to differ with Obama, it is hard to like the persona...