Free Republic

Are Hong Kong's liberties gradually being taken away? THROW a frog into boiling water and it jumps out; gently bring it to the boil, and the frog, never noticing the incremental increases in heat, allows itself to be cooked. Is Hong Kong a frog in a pot in Beijing's kitchen? If so, then on September 24th the temperature rose another notch. On that day, Hong Kong's government formally began—by circulating a consultation paper—the process of enacting a controversial set of laws against subversion, sedition, treason and other ills, as required by Article 23 of the Basic Law, the territory's constitution....

Russia's former Imperial capital, St Petersburg, hosts the country's first royal wedding since the 1917 revolution as Grand Duke George Romanov marries his fiancée Victoria Romanovna Bettarini. .....

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., lambasted governors for locking down their states during the coronavirus pandemic. "You know, nobody ever intended that governors would be sort of czars or dictators in charge of the economy ... Governors around the country have imposed restrictions to varying degrees during the pandemic. In Paul's home state, Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear has implemented a mask mandate, limited private gathering sizes, and set minimal capacity for indoor small businesses such as gyms . .. New York Democrat Gov. Mario Cuomo ordered restaurants to again stop indoor dining in mid-December. California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday...

The first glimpse of the upcoming limited series shows us Mirren as the legendary monarch, who was Empress of Russia from 1762 until 1796, making her the country's longest-ruling female leader. The series will show us Catherine toward the end of her rule in the 18th century, when she begins a steamy relationship with Grigory Potemkin (Jason Clarke), a military leader. "When I was young I dreamed of freedom, I dreamed of breaking chains," Catherine can be heard saying in the trailer. "But as you get older, your choices narrow. So instead I gave us an empire, but I knew...

An aide to President Obama boasted to the New York Times about lying and manipulating the media to sell the administration’s Iran policy. Mr. Obama himself proselytized for his health-care plan by saying that, despite mandatory requirements that outlawed millions of individual health plans, you’d be able to keep your existing plan. Nor is there the slightest ambiguity now: His administration deliberately lied to the American people about the origins of the 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya. We could go on. Candidate Obama, in a formal address, explained that Detroit’s financial troubles were due to its...

Washington, D.C. (Vocus/PRWEB ) January 15, 2009 -- The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom said today that Cass Sunstein, the Harvard University Law School professor tapped by President-elect Obama to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has a secret aim to push a radical animal-rights agenda in the White House. Sunstein supports outlawing sport hunting, giving animals the legal right to file lawsuits, and using government regulations to phase out meat consumption. In a 2007 speech at Harvard University, Sunstein argued in favor of entirely "eliminating current practices such as … meat eating." He also proposed: "We ought...

President Obama's weekly remarks Hi, everybody. Thirty years ago, there were 500,000 people behind bars in America. Today, there are 2.2 million. The United States is home to 5 percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Every year, we spend $80 billion to keep people locked up. Now, many of the folks in prison absolutely belong there — our streets are safer thanks to the brave police officers and dedicated prosecutors who put violent criminals behind bars. But over the last few decades, we’ve also locked up more non-violent offenders than ever before, for longer...

Much has been written about Obama’s controversial appointments, not only to the federal bench, but to key cabinet positions, as well as to the unaccountable (and probably unconstitutional) “Czar” positions. Much of the criticism has dwelled on the Obama administration’s lack of vetting when filling these rolls—but that’s not the issue. To the contrary, the Obama team did investigate thoroughly and they choose precisely. When an administration repeatedly nominates hard-left individuals, it’s not a vetting error—it’s a pattern. We should not allow the media to portray these appointments as a series of errors; but rather, we need to realize that...

This past year will be remembered for many things, but let 2013 be hailed mainly for this: It was the year that the genius of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" became clear in America. Efforts to centralize control in the name of "fairness" have led to a society that is ever more at the mercy of a federal power—one that decides who does and does not succeed. The winners are favored special interests, political cronies and wealthy lobbyists. The losers are everyone else.

In his genius for sleaze, Obama saw something else in the position of "czar": a means of overcoming the limitations of the system of checks and balances that would enable him to carry out programs under the radar and without oversight by Congress -- or anyone else either. The czars were tailor-made for Obama's cards-in-sleeve method of government. A more fitting example of the perils of monkeying with the constitutional order could not be devised. Obama has applied the concept of czar with alacrity unknown to previous administrations. He began with 32, shortly expanded to 39, and thereafter to the...

"[Y]ou can have a president you love, but if you don’t have a Congress that’s willing to work, you know, you wind up stalled in so many ways,” First Lady Michelle Obama said Wednesday on Tom Joyner’s radio program. “And I think that Barack has done a phenomenal job working around a Congress that has never been willing to help move the country forward on so many different issues,” she said. “But I think he’s done everything humanly possible to get things passed around the margins. But, you know, just imagine where this country will be when we have Barack...

Do you wonder why the US is in the shape it is…???There are very few of us who know just what all of Obama's Czars do, as they quietly go about their "work" in the nation's capital. This listing of their names and job descriptions should be educational to all Americans, no matter what your political leaning. See who they are and realize what they want to do: Richard Holbrooke - Afghanistan Czar (Deceased)
Ultra liberal anti-gun former Governor Of New Mexico. Pro-Abortion and pro- drug legalization. Wants to dissolve the 2nd Amendment>Ed Montgomery - Auto recovery Czar
Radical anti-business black activist....

President Barack Obama signed a bill Friday evening that would exempt some senior-level presidential appointees from Senate confirmation. Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and cosponsored by Republicans and Democrats, the bill, now law, weakens the power of the legislature and strengthens the executive branch, critics have warned. The bill skated through the Senate three months after being introduced in 2011 and was passed by the Republican-controlled House 216-116 in July. The law now allows Obama and future presidents to name appointees to senior positions in every branch of the administration, from the Department of the Treasury to the Department...

Cass Sunstein, administrator of the powerful Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the White House Office of Management and Budget, will return later this month to his previous post at Harvard Law School, the White House will announce Friday. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79347.html#ixzz22cdcmFyu

I noticed this one from a few days ago. The full text is available of course at the link, but here's a few highlights I got from a scan of the verbiage: Section 2a: There is hereby established the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans (The Initiative), to be housed in the Department of Education (The Department). There shall be an Executive Director of the Initiative, to be appointed by the Secretary of Education (The Secretary). The Initiative shall be supported by the Interagency Working Group established under subsection (c) of this section and advised by the...

I need a quick list of all the Communist and Marxist ties in the Obama administration for use at a meeting tonight. Something beyond his mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, and appointee Van Jones. I know this topic is rich, and I hope other FReepers can help me tie it altogether in one neat package. Thanks in advance.

HYDE PARK, N. Y., May 31 (U.R) - President Roosevelt today began implementing his proclamation of an unlimited national emergency today by naming Secretary of Interior Harold. L. Ickes virtual dictator of the $10,000,000,000 American oil industry. Designating Ickes as petroleum coordinator for national defense, Mr. Roosevelt ordered him to formulate a program to insure "that the supply of petroleum and its products will be accommodated to the needs of the nation and the national defense program." The move followed Mr. Roosvelt's warnbig in a letter to Speak­er Sam Rayborn that oil rationing in the east is a "distinct possilbility"...

A new U.S. regulator Tuesday had harsh words for banks and other firms at the center of a mortgage-servicing mess involving shoddy record-keeping and foreclosure abuses, proving that fixing widespread problems will be a top priority in the months ahead. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, in a speech Tuesday, announced a package of rules the agency is considering that could soon require mortgage servicing firms, led by Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Citigroup Inc. (C), to reach out aggressively to delinquent borrowers, warn them about coming...

Meet Obama's Czars. There Are More Than You Know...and Why Are So Many Anti-Business It's been said that you can know a lot about a person by the company they keep. Two communists (there were three until Van Jones resigned), anti-2nd Amendment, anti-business, pro-blame America first, and the list goes on. This is the change people wanted? God help us. Obama's "Czars" - who they are and their "qualifications" Afghanistan Czar: Richard Holbrooke- Ultra liberal anti gun former Gov.of New Mexico . Pro Abortion and legal drug use. AIDS Czar: Jeffrey Crowley Homosexual. A Gay Rights activist. Believes in Gay...

As proof that we need a strong and powerful President to reverse the damage done to America by Obama, we are developing a list of issues and actions of the Obama administration to demonstrate the dangerous direction our country is in, e.g. rapidly accelerating debt, deteriorating jobs market, shredding of our Constitutional protections from a rogue government, etc. We need to replace the Marxist in the White House that is hell-bent on bringing America to its knees economically, militarily, socially and with respect to its global standing and reverse everything he has done to us.