Free Republic

National Public Radio CEO Gary Knell joined the organization last December, knowing there were stone cold realities ahead, after his predecessor and several key fundraisers retreated amid various controversies. Now comes news that NPR is running a $2.6 million deficit for this fiscal year. The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi talks about a meeting Knell held with staffers Wednesday: While he is not gunning to cut staff or programs (“That’s the last thing I want to do”), he admits that with an election and the Olympics, this is a challenging year for expenses. More worrisome is that corporate underwriting is softer...

NEW YORK, December 13, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Planned Parenthood’s main website encourages pre-pubescent children to masturbate. On a section of the site with ‘info for teens’ a Q&A presents the question “Is it normal to masturbate before puberty?” The answer begins, “The myth is that it’s abnormal for children to masturbate. The truth is that masturbation is a perfectly healthy activity at any age.” The news comes as little surprise to Dr. Judith Reisman the researcher who discovered that in the late 1950s sexologist Alfred Kinsey had data relating to masturbation of babies, which was later discovered to have been...

Headlines are proclaiming this week that student-loan debt is rapidly nearing a trillion dollars. Earlier this year, as financial expert Mark Kantrowitz has noted, another landmark was achieved: Student borrowing now exceeds all credit-card debt. While the data here are somewhat murky and questionable, under any accounting they add up to big bucks. There are three worrisome trends. First, student debt is doubling every seven years or so, growing much faster than credit-card balances, home-mortgage obligations, or commercial loans. At some point, this will become unsustainable as debt burdens overwhelm borrowers’ ability to repay (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?) — particularly...

GOP Leader Promises Another Vote to De-Fund Planned Parenthood Washington, DC -- The number two Republican in the House of Representatives told thousands of pro-life activists at the Values Voter Summit today that Republicans will hold another vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood if voters give the GOP control of the Senate next year. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/10/07/gop-leader-promises-another-vote-to-de-fund-planned-parenthood/

Gosh I love John Bolton. He really knows how to put the UN in its place: Well if I were Israel and/or the United States, I wouldn’t pay any attention to a General Assembly resolution. Look, the General Assembly could vote this week to make Disney Land a state and it wouldn’t have any more impact outside of the General Assembly hall for Palestine or Disney Land. When Greta asserted that the Obama administration is doing everything it can to fight Palestinian statehood, Bolton quickly challenged that premise by suggesting that they could threaten to defund the UN over a...

A Republican move to end $48.5 million in funding to the Organization of American States is the wrong tack to take in a region where U.S. influence appears to be eroding. For much of the last decade, the United States has been relatively disengaged from Latin America, getting involved mostly to combat drugs or violence. Now, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved a measure that would further limit the U.S. role in the region. Under the proposal, which would have to be approved by both the House and the Senate, the U.S. would eliminate its $48.5-million contribution to the...

House Republicans launched a fresh attack on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week, blasting Administrator Lisa Jackson for setting aside millions of dollars in grants to foreign countries aimed at reducing global pollution. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a report Monday night detailing what they say is nearly $100 million in “foreign handouts” to countries like China, Thailand and Indonesia to support various environmental programs over the last decade.....But EPA defended its grant program Monday, arguing that the agency must work to reduce pollution around the world. “Pollution doesn't stop at international borders, and neither...

House De-Funds Planned Parenthood, Passes Pro-Life CR The House of Representatives voted today for the Continuing Resolution funding the federal government that contains a ban on abortion funding in the nation's capital. Lawmakers also supported efforts to de-fund Planned Parenthood. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/14/house-de-funds-planned-parenthood-passes-pro-life-cr/

Planned Parenthood performed 332,278 abortions in the United States in 2009, according to a fact sheet the group published last month. That is about as many as the 333,012 people who lived in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The 332,278 abortions Planned Parenthood performed over the 365 days of 2009 equals an average of 910 lives terminated per day–or about 38 per hour, or one every 95 seconds. CNS News also points out that 90 percent of Planned Parenthood’s $363.2 million came directly from the federal government–or from Medicaid, which is a...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) vowed yesterday that the provision to defund Planned Parenthood that passed the House earlier this year is “never, never, never going to pass the Senate.” Schumer made the remarks Thursday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., at a “Stand Up for Women’s Health” rally sponsored by the National Organization for Women, NARAL and Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood: Emergency Rooms Overrun If We're Defunded Washington, DC -- Planned Parenthood officials defending the taxpayer funding the abortion business enjoys are out with a new claim that pro-life advocates find laughable as a supposed reason for federal dollars. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/06/planned-parenthood-emergency-rooms-overrun-if-were-defunded/

Boehner could probably get away with dropping the PP rider from the House budget bill if Reid was prepared to agree to a number close to $61 billion in cuts. But to meet roughly only halfway, at or around $33 billion, and still drop some of the red meat like defunding PP that the base craved? He’s burning the candle of grassroots credibility at both ends. Risky business. Forty-one senators have pledged to filibuster any bipartisan spending bill that includes an amendment to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood, threatening an impasse with House conservatives.The group, led by Sen. Barbara...

The rumored field of 2012 presidential hopefuls is uniting behind a plan to cut all federal funding for Planned Parenthood, aligning them with a group of House conservatives who are insisting that any final budget deal includes a policy rider to defund the organization. With less than week left for congressional leaders to reach a budget deal and avert a government shutdown, the proposed rider that would end all federal funding for Planned Parenthood remains one of the thorniest issues in the budget standoff. Some House conservatives, led by Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), have indicated they're unwilling to compromise on...

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 30, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - House Speaker John Boehner has told White House officials that GOP lawmakers in the lower chamber will not agree to remove a series of GOP-sponsored budget cuts, including one stripping federal funds for Planned Parenthood, from the budget bill, according to a Politico report Wednesday. Capitol Hill appears headed for another stiff battle over abortion funding, which may even become the make-or-break issue in the budget battle, as it did in the long fight over the federal health care reform bill. After weeks of pressure from both the pro-life and pro-abortion lobby, and...

New Ad for De-Funding Planned Parenthood Features Abby Johnson Washington, DC -- Today, the Susan B. Anthony List, a prominent pro-life organization, announced the launch of a $100,000 radio ad campaign in Washington, D.C. in its latest effort to secure passage of a measure to revoke Planned Parenthood's taxpayer funding. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/28/new-ad-for-de-funding-planned-parenthood-features-abby-johnson

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Likely Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain supports ending all federal funding to Planned Parenthood, an abortion business that he said was founded to target African Americans and is continuing that mission. “Here’s why I support de-funding Planned Parenthood, because you don’t hear a lot of people talking about this, when Margaret Sanger – check my history – started Planned Parenthood, the objective was to put these centers in primarily black communities so they could help kill black babies before they came into the world,” Cain told CNSNews.com on Tuesday when speaking at the conservative Heritage Foundation....

Dear Republican Leadership, those little campaign promises that got you elected are being clearly brought to mind. The CR cannot pass without including language to right a wrong. The Democrat's dirty trick of including appropriations to the Obamacare bill cannot be tolerated. The party loyalists are getting fed some pretty murky swampwater on why Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor are insisting on a continuing resolution that funds Obamacare. We elected you to cut and slash like Edward Scissorhands on an overgrown juniper. Istook's testimony is devastatingly clear on what needs to be done. Perhaps this quote from Politico will show...

(snip)I oppose federal funding of public radio and TV on First Amendment grounds: In my view, Congress has no legitimate authority or reason to control, influence, or subsidize any domestic media. But even those who think Congress does have such power should be able to recognize that public broadcasting would be healthier and happier if it broke its addiction to taxpayer dollars. MoveOn.org, the left-wing pressure group, is promoting a petition that urges Congress to “protect NPR and PBS and guarantee them permanent funding, free from political meddling.’’ Yet political “meddling’’ is the inescapable price of taking political dollars. Conservatives...

NPR Hosts: Employees Here Are 'Overwhelmingly Liberal' - But We're Not Biased By Noel Sheppard Created 03/12/2011 - 2:50pm By Noel Sheppard | March 12, 2011 | 14:50 Noel Sheppard's picture In response to this week's shameful exposure of bias at NPR, a couple of its hosts on Friday had an on air discussion about whether or not the radio network does indeed have a political leaning. Shortly after "On the Media" host Bob Garfield said, "If you were to somehow poll the political orientation of everybody in the NPR news organization and all of the member stations, you would...

If NPR is trying demonstrate in the wake of the video scandal that it embraces a diversity of viewpoints and is not the left-wing outlet it has been portrayed to be, its first move after the resignation of president and CEO Vivian Schiller isn’t a particularly good start. After Schiller announced her resignation on Wednesday, the NPR Board of Directors promptly named Joyce Slocum as NPR’s interim CEO. According to a statement from NPR, Slocum’s appointment was part of a CEO succession plan adopted by the Board in 2009. Slocum, however, appears to be just another Democrat. According to data...

WASHINGTON – National Public Radio President and CEO Vivian Schiller is not saying whether she offered to quit or was forced out by the organization's board of directions. Schiller told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she resigned after a discussion with the board. She stepped down a day after a conservative activist posted a video showing an NPR executive calling tea party Republicans xenophobic and racist.

The fallout from the video conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe released Tuesday morning has been devastating for NPR. However, Juan Williams, a former NPR analyst who was fired unjustly even according to NPR President Vivian Schiller, finally had his turn to sound off about the video, which apparently showed an NPR senior executive, Ron Schiller, making some disparaging remarks about the Tea Party, the Jewish people and Williams himself.

While Obamacare is rightly notorious as a fiscal nightmare, less well known is just how massively it transferred power from Congress to the executive branch. In fact, the full scope of Congress’s abdication is still unknown. What is now known, however, is that deeply buried within Obamacare was a $105 billion slush fund that assures its implementation into the future, no matter what future voters think or want. This makes then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comment to the Legislative Conference for National Association of Counties about Obamacare, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in...

As well they should, Nation Public Radio is backing and shuffling fast to cover the public humiliation of the promulgation of a video showing NPR execs playing funding footsie with two putative donors masquerading as representatives of a Muslim Brotherhood front group. NPR is quick to point out that one of the executives, Ron Schiller, left the company a week ago for reasons unrelated to the release of the video. They fail, however, to explain why the other executive present, institutional giving director Betsy Liley, is still with the company. It is Lilely who registers her unequivocal approval at NPR...

A man who appears to be a National Public Radio senior executive, Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement. “The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in people’s personal lives and very fundamental Christian – I wouldn’t even call it Christian. It’s this weird evangelical kind of move,” declared Schiller, who runs NPR’s foundation. In a new video released Tuesday morning by conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe, Schiller and Betsy Liley, NPR’s director of institutional giving, are seen meeting with two men who, unbeknownst to the NPR executives, are posing...

(CNSNews.com) - National Public Radio President and CEO Vivian Schiller said Monday that NPR gets a “tremendous amount of criticism for being too conservative.” At a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Schiller was asked by a moderator: “Do you believe there’s an imbalance at NPR in terms of liberals and conservatives in the newsroom--I think I know which side they’d like to have better represented there--if the answer is yes, what do you propose to do about it?” Schiller said, “You know, every news organization--I’ve worked now with three news organizations, but even every other, people...

As Congress looks for ways to trim the budget, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) represents an opportunity for up to $9 billion in savings. This outfit has become little more than an advocacy group for trendy leftist causes operating on the public’s dime. Many liberal policies being promoted are so unpopular that congressional Democrats can’t muster the votes to get them through the proper legislative process. So they go to the EPA instead. That’s why the EPA announced Tuesday that it had revised the deadlines imposed on certain companies for reporting so-called “greenhouse gas” production. A facility that manufactures paper,...

(CNSNews.com) - Two Republican senators on Friday introduced a bill to stop taxpayer subsidies to public radio and television. Since 2001, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has received nearly $4 billion in taxpayer money for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said with the nation on the brink of bankruptcy, some decisions to cut spending are difficult -- but not this one: "Americans struggling to make ends meet shouldn’t be forced to fund public broadcasting when there are already thousands of choices for educational and entertainment programming on...

JERUSALEM – In partnership with a government fund initiated by Barack Obama, philanthropist and billionaire activist George Soros is investing in a private equity company that just launched in the Palestinian territories. The company, Siraj Fund Management Company, says it was created "for the sole purpose of managing investment funds in Palestine." The new company's website repeatedly refers to what it calls the "country" of "Palestine." There is, however, no such country as Palestine. Siraj is apparently referring to territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority....This week, Siraj Fund Management Company, the first private equity fund in the Palestinian territories, officially...

The third time was the charm for Indiana Rep. Mike Pence’s legislation to defund Planned Parenthood, which passed the House this February and now goes to the Senate as part of a complicated continuing resolution discussion. “We’ve had staff level contact with a number of members of the United States Senate,” said Pence when asked about any discussions he’s had with the other elected chamber on whether his amendment will remain in the Senate or conference version of the final legislation. Pence said he knew when introducing that first piece of legislation to defund Planned Parenthood that it was going...

Ban Ki-moon, the normally buttoned-up Secretary General of the United Nations, swept into Los Angeles during Oscar week playing the role of Hollywood pitchman. His message: Make global warming a Hot issue. "I need your support," he told entertainment industry insiders during a daylong forum Tuesday that focused on recent heat waves, floods, fires and drought, which scientists link to human-induced climate change. ....about 400 writers, directors, producers, agents and network executives attended the outreach events. ....To coordinate with Hollywood, the U.N. has set up an office, the "Creative Community Outreach Initiative" in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, funded...

(CNSNews.com) - A coalition of prominent pro-life conservative leaders sent House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) a letter on Thursday stating their position that an amendment sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind.) that prohibits federal funding of Planned Parenthood must be a “non-negotiable” element in any continuing resolution that House Republicans agree to enact next week to keep the government funded past March 4. “Defunding Planned Parenthood must be a non-negotiable in the Continuing Resolution and we urge you to accept nothing less than this outcome,” the conservatives told Boehner. In its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood said it took...

(From 2005)Unions in California spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat this proposition. It required the union to receive permission every year from its individual members to use dues money for political purposes. This legislation is needed in every state before our entire economy collapses. Tens of millions of dollars, maybe hundreds of millions, can be taken away from the union thugs. ========================================= RESULTS as of Nov 23 4:01pm, 100.0% of Precincts Reporting (17726/17726) Information shown below: Summary | Fiscal Impact | Yes/No Meaning | Official Information | Arguments | Should public employee unions be required to obtain annual...

RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION LETTER regarding union dues Union Dues Exemption Sample Letter Sample Letter Date Name, President Name of Union Address City, State, Zip Dear (PRESIDENT’S NAME): I have been informed that under the collective bargaining agreement between (UNION AND LOCAL #) and (COMPANY), I am being asked to join the union. I am herewith requesting exemption from the above. It is my sincere religious conviction that I cannot join or financially support an employee’s union. This request is not based on any hard feelings toward any individual or to the labor organization. Rather, it is based on principles I...

During the health care reform debate, the American people soundly rejected the Democrats’ desire for a government-run “public option” health plan and forced them to exclude it from ObamaCare. However, be sure to beware, as it still didn’t deter these leftists from including a sly alternative in the law that could rapidly transform into an effective public option. The law requires the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM), the agency that runs the federal civil service, to sponsor at least two national health insurance plans to be offered on the new exchanges that start in 2014. Within the exchanges, the...

Pro-life activists exposed systemic abuses at Planned Parenthood. The media was outraged.

President Obama’s unconstitutional czar-fest may come to a screeching halt now that the U.S. House has voted to block funding for the officials—many of them radical leftists—he assigned to run government without congressional approval. In all, the president has appointed 41 czars who have enormous power to regulate and control the American economy and government without any sort of oversight. The czars answer only to the president even though they manage crucial areas of national policy and that violates the constitutional system of checks and balances and its separation of powers, according to the longest serving U.S. Senator in...

PENDING A vote in Congress this week, public broadcasting could cease to exist. The House of Representatives will consider a budget resolution calling for the elimination of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn funds National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting Service, and public stations across the country, including WBUR and WGBH in Boston. Does the federal deficit need to be addressed? Of course. But gutting public radio and public television is not the answer. (snip) For $1.35 per year per American — less than a cup of coffee — people in cities and towns across the United...

Our contacts on Capitol Hill have confirmed to us that Rep. Steve King will bring his amendment to the House floor to FULLY DEFUND ObamaCare ON THURSDAY or at the latest Friday. THE KING AMENDMENT IS THE ONLY OPTION THAT FULLY DEFUNDS OBAMACARE. Without the King Amendment, Nancy Pelosi's "mandatory" self- funding provisions -- a total of more than $105 BILLION IN OBAMACARE SPENDING -- "will flow to grow ObamaCare like a malignant tumor," according to Rep. King. IT IS URGENT THAT CITIZENS EXPRESS THEIR VOICE ON THE ISSUE OF WHETHER OBAMACARE SHOULD BE FULLY DEFUNDED RIGHT NOW.

TUESDAY MIDDAY--- BREAKING NEWS ON OBAMACARE REPEAL: The House Rules Committee has rejected Rep. Steve King's proposal to FULLY DEFUND ObamaCare, failing to agree to "protect" King's amendment when it comes to the House floor. Bottom line -- Republicans on the Rules Committee refused to play hardball to fully defund ObamaCare. By doing so, they are allowing Pelosi's "mandatory" self-funding provisions -- which many say are unconscionable if not unconstitutional -- to stand! This will force this Congress to approve most of the funding for ObamaCare. FoxNews says King's provision would "cripple all government operations devoted to executing the health...

MoveOn.org has created a petition to pressure congress into stopping their efforts to defund NPR. We can't let them win. Be sure to visit the link attached and let them know what you think! Save NPR and PBS www.pol.moveon.org The Republicans just released their budget proposal, and it zeroes out funding for both NPR and PBS--the worst proposal in more than a decade. Tell Republicans that cutting off funding was unacceptable last time they were in charge, and it's unacceptable now. Sign the petition to save NPR and PBS.

Republicans have had the opportunity to de-fund Planned Parenthood many times over the years and failed. Do they have the will and the courage to pay more than lip service now? In the wake of the Philadelphia Horror and related “women’s health” butcher cases, the momentum to strip the abortion industry racket of taxpayer funding is stronger than ever.

Battle to De-Fund Abortion, Obamacare Starts Next Week Washington, DC -- The battle to stop all federal taxpayer funding of abortions, and to ensure the Obamacare health care reform law does not allow abortion funding, starts in hearings in the House next week. ACTION: Please contact your House members and urge strong support for these two pro-life bills. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/02/04/battle-to-de-fund-abortion-obamacare-starts-next-week

Driving from California to East Texas, my daughter and grandson were 90 miles into the Lone Star state when traffic was stopped at a road block just outside the little town of Sierra Blanca. Drug-sniffing dogs worked down the line of cars. Under treatment for a medical condition for which her California doctor prescribed medical marijuana, my daughter had a small amount in her luggage in the trunk. The dogs immediately sniffed it. She showed the police her medical authorization, but California law didn’t apply in Texas. She and my grandson were arrested, taken to jail and put into a...

When in DangerAnd in DoubtRun in Circles;Scream and Shout Is that to be the Conservative Republican motto for the next couple of years or would we prefer that they actually accomplish something beyond being reelected? The national debt limit and ObamaCare seem to be among the first tests. An increase in the debt limit need not, must not, and simply cannot mean increased spending if our CongressCritters are paying attention. All appropriations bills arise in the House because they have to . . . . The Republicans are now in charge of the House and don’t have to fund anything...

You can add another Republican name to the growing list of those who want to either slash or completely cut out government funding for National Public Radio. The Friday edition of the Daily Caller says Doug Lamborn has introduced two bills into the House that would completely eliminate NPR funding. H.R. 68 calls for the end of all funding to NPR's parent, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, while H.R. 69 would eliminate any government funding for NPR only, by 2013. Lamborn says "NPR claims that less than 2 percent of its total annual budget comes from the federal government. But...

This is a bit of a rant but a timely one since our brand spankin’ new Congress will be sworn in today and start work on January 6, 2011 — perhaps with a reading of the United States Constitution, a wholesome but largely symbolic gesture. We elected the new folks and got rid of lots (but not enough) of the old because we wanted them to do something to end the accelerating spiral rush toward a multicultural Hell on which we have been little more than unwilling passengers, required to go along for the ride but not allowed access to...

Even if the next two years end in congressional gridlock, Republicans hope to build a record that demonstrates to voters in 2012 that they can get it right. The GOP is promising to use the new Congress that convenes Wednesday to cut spending, roll back President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and prevent unelected bureaucrats from expanding the government's role in society through regulations that tell people what they must or can't do. Passing their top priorities may be easier in the House, where Republicans hold a 241-194 majority. It will be harder in the Senate where Democrats still hold...

Top Senate Democrats are warning House Speaker-elect John Boehner they'll block any Republican effort to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Citing better Medicare prescription coverage and other changes in the new law, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his top lieutenants say the overhaul "is too important to be treated as collateral damage in a partisan mission to repeal health care." The letter says repeal would have "unintended consequences" for the part of the law that gradually closes the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap, as well as for other popular consumer benefits. Also signing the letter are Sens....

ObamaCare Repeal Vote, Bill to De-Fund Abortion, Coming Soon Washington, DC -- The new Republican chairman of the panel responsible for starting action on repealing the abortion-funding ObamaCare law says a vote will take place soon. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/03/obamacare-repeal-vote-bill-to-de-fund-abortion-coming-soon/