Free Republic

Following the Sarah Palin playbook of never admitting error, the ex-governor’s minions are busy flooding the Internet with ’proof’ that Palin did not misspeak when suggesting that Paul Revere warned the British that they would not be taking arms from the colonists during his ride where he, apparently, rung bells and fired muskets. The effort to back up Palin is based on taking bits and pieces of facts surrounding the historic event that, when cut and pasted together, work to make Palin look a little less befuddled than her actual statement would indicate. While I give them credit for the...

The White House Press Office has refused to give the Boston Herald full access to President Obama’s Boston fund-raiser today, in e-mails objecting to the newspaper’s front page placement of a Mitt Romney op-ed, saying pool reporters are chosen based on whether they cover the news “fairly.” “I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters,” White House spokesman Matt Lehrich wrote in response to a Herald request for full access to the presidential visit. “My point about the op-ed was not that you ran...

The politician who once best exemplified the idea of a "maverick" independent has shifted so far to the right that he is now tied for the title of the Senate's most conservative member, according to National Journal's 2010 vote ratings. According to a comprehensive examination of 96 Senate votes taken in 2010, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., along with seven of his colleagues, voted most often on the conservative side. His 89.7 composite conservative score ties him with stalwarts like Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and gives him a more conservative score than Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. (snip)...

According to a post at DUmmieland, The Democratic National Committee just e-mailed reporters: "We’re continuing to see high turnout across the East Coast and moving into the plain states ahead of the lunch time voter rush. Reports of higher than expected turnout in highly Democratic areas continue to come in. Across the country, volunteers are hitting the doors and making phone calls, reaching out to voters and getting them to the polls."

Top Republicans in Washington and in the national GOP establishment say the 2010 campaign highlighted an urgent task that they will begin in earnest as soon as the elections are over: Stop Sarah Palin. Interviews with advisers to the main 2012 presidential contenders and with other veteran Republican operatives make clear they see themselves on a common, if uncoordinated, mission of halting the momentum and credibility Palin gained with conservative activists by plunging so aggressively into this year’s midterm campaigns. There is rising expectation among GOP elites that Palin will probably run for president in 2012 and could win the...

Surviving the Tea Party’s takeover of the GOP: One of the more profound changes in American politics is how much more conservative the nominees inside the Republican Party have become. The Tea Party and Jim DeMint are now closer to the representing the center of the GOP, not George W. Bush and his “compassionate conservatism.” This has presented longtime Republican moderates/centrists with a dilemma of what to do, and we’ve seen three different responses so far, which were on display in some form this past Tuesday. One path was demonstrated by John McCain, who decided to shift his positions (on...

A RINO can be extremely dangerous when he uses Moral Equivalency to advance his political schemes, and a discerning conservative should know how to identify a RINO by his tactics. According to Websters Online Dictionary, Moral Equivalence is: “…a term used in political debate, usually to criticize any denial that a moral hierarchy can be assessed of two sides in a conflict, or in the actions or tactics of two sides. It could be considered a form of the rhetorical fallacy of equivocation.” In plain terms, when a politician uses Moral Equivalency he is attempting to equate an immoral position...

If I had my druthers, the never-ending conflict between Israel and Palestine would be but a small news brief in American newspapers. But since we police the world, we must always monitor our global police scanner, where not only Israel's conflicts, but those of North and South Korea, the nation of Georgia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, and pretty much everywhere else is the United States' business because we insist on making it so. What many Americans bizarrely consider national "defense" is actually an aggressive and enduring offense, and yet we are always surprised when other nations get offended. Last week,...

At the heart of the debate over illegal immigration lies one key question: are immigrants good or bad for the economy? The American public overwhelmingly thinks they're bad. In a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 74 percent of respondents said illegal immigrants weakened the economy, compared to only 17% who said they strengthened it. Yet the consensus among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower prices of everything from produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets....

For true conservative victory, simply voting Republican won’t do Barack Obama is the most socialist president in American history. Before Obama, George W. Bush was the most socialist president in American history. Before Dubya, it was Bill Clinton, then Bush Sr., Reagan, and so on. Each successive administration, by and large, has presided over a federal government that has assumed more power and spent more money than the last. [...] Conservatives who continue to make the case that Obama is worse than Bush are right, but the fact that Rush and like-minded pundits and politicians are unable to find fault...

PREVENTING MORE BAILOUTS * Objective: Lawmakers want to squash the idea that some financial firms are "too big to fail" and avert anymore bailouts like AIG's (AIG.N) and Citigroup's (C.N). PROTECTING CONSUMERS * Objective: Democrats want to put a stop to abusive home mortgages and deceptive credit cards. Objective: Obama wants to ban risky trading unrelated to customers' needs at banks that enjoy a competitive edge in the market because they have some form of taxpayer support.

I recently read a member post that argued that one must sometimes support the lesser of two evils. The author explained it with a metaphor, by saying that, on the one hand, if offered two unhealthful foods, one could refuse to eat either of them, but if being forced to choose between an unhealthful food and poison, one would have to take the unhealthful food to avoid the poison. Likewise, he argued, having no choice but John McCain or Barack Obama, he should have voted for John McCain rather than the third-party candidate. It is a popular, understandable belief; an...

Oliver Willis notices Scott Brown defending the Massachusetts health care plan -- which he supported -- and trying to make the case that it's really quite different from the federal plan with which it shares key features. "They're two different programs. What we have here is a free-market enterprise where we're providing insurance in various levels to people in Massachusetts. The plans in Washington are a one-size-fits-all plan," he said.

WASHINGTON – Budget deficits are in the stratosphere. Unemployment has hit 10 percent. The health care overhaul is incomplete. Still, Americans appear to like President Barack Obama and the way he's doing his job. The latest Associated Press-Gfk poll shows the president's popularity holding steady, with 56 percent of those polled approving of the way he's taking care of the country's business. His marks for handling the 8-year-old war in Afghanistan have jumped by double digits, with more than half now approving, since he capped a three-month strategy review by announcing a big troop increase.

If you’ve been following the health insurance reform debate, you probably have a number of questions about how health insurance reform will help you and improve the quality of care you receive. With all the talk about health insurance reform, it can be difficult to sort out fact from fiction. We want to be sure you have the facts and answer your questions. Today, I’ll be moderating a webcast with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and other top HHS officials where we’ll discuss how health insurance reform will benefit all Americans and take on some of the myths...

Meghan McCain writes that she was disappointed in Arlen Specter’s decision to bolt the GOP. No matter what some Republicans say, he’s exactly what the party needs. The frenzy over Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to switch parties has only just begun. As usual whenever there is major political news, my email inbox exploded with reader reactions. One in particular stood out: “You are not a new face for the Republican Party. You are the problem with the Republican Party. If you'd like to be a feel-good liberal, there's a party for you. Do like Specter and stop wrecking the GOP....

Pelosi: There's no Al-Qaeda in Iraq... CNN coverup?

WASHINGTON -- Deteriorating security in Iraq and bureaucratic wrangling between the State Department and the Pentagon have undermined the US government's effort to train provincial governments, according to a report to Congress released yesterday by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. The training, done by "provincial reconstruction teams" of soldiers, aid workers, and diplomats, is meant to coach local authorities in Iraq on how to deliver basic services to their municipalities, and to take over duties from the US-led coalition, such as running elections and making decisions over local budgets. The teams were considered such a critical part of...

"The principal sin of the neoconservatives is overbearing arrogance. It is not so much that they have been wrong. It is that nobody has ever convinced them that they've ever been wrong." I didn't say that. Oh, I said stuff like it a few times, but that particular quote come from David Keene, who is the chairman of the American Conservative Union. Like a lot of people on the rightish side of the political spectrum, he bought the rhetoric, he accepted the brilliance of Donald Rumsfeld's idea for a brand-new downsized "smart" army, he hung in there when things appeared...

WASHINGTON — Hands in his pockets and a far-away look in his eyes, Harold Ford Jr. stares out from the cover of next week's Newsweek magazine, which calls him the Democrats' best hope for taking the U.S. Senate. The October 30 cover story, "The Path to Power," follows the Memphis Congressman through a day of campaigning that begins at a church service in Chattanooga, and describes the centrist Democrats' effect on various audiences. "Two weeks before the midterm elections," the story says, "the Democrats' fate lies not in the hands of the party's much-dissected antiwar left but with a handful...

When The Washington Monthly reached me at my office recently, a voice on the other side of the line meekly asked if I would ever consider writing an article supporting the radical proposition that Republicans should get their brains beaten in this fall. “Count me in!” was my chipper response. I also seem to remember muttering something about preferring an assortment of Bourbon Street hookers running the Southern Baptist Convention to having this lot of Republicans controlling America’s checkbook for the next two years. Maybe that’s because right-wing, knuckle-dragging Republicans like myself took over Congress in 1994 promising to balance...

Tennessee, Montana and Ohio contests key to party's ambitions. WASHINGTON -- Democrats are slightly ahead of Republicans in three election battleground states that will help determine control of the Senate, a series of polls released today showed.In Montana, Democrat Jon Tester had the support of 47 percent of registered voters, while incumbent GOP Sen. Conrad Burns had the support of 40 percent.In Ohio, Democrat Rep. Sherrod Brown had 45 percent of registered voters, while incumbent Republican Sen. Mike DeWine had 43 percent.In Tennessee, Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. had 43 percent and former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, the Republican Senate...

Three retired U.S. Army Officers address a congressional committee on the war in Iraq in starkly harsh words Monday. “I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq,” retired Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste told a forum conducted by Senate Democrats. A second military leader, also a retired two-star general, Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, assessed Rumsfeld as “incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically.” A third officer, retired Col. Paul X. Hammes, joined Batiste and Eaton in testimony before the Democratic Policy...

DeLay has given Harris significant fund-raising helpBy JEREMY WALLACE jeremy.wallace@heraldtribune.comSarasota Herald-Tribune (aka "the SHT")9/30/05 When House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted this week, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris lost a key political ally. Harris spoke at a 2002 fund-raiser put together by the Texas political group that’s central in the investigation into whether DeLay helped solicit illegal campaign donations. As keynote speaker, the Longboat Key Republican was there to talk about her role in the 2000 presidential elections. Since then, another political action committee DeLay created has given Harris at least $15,000 in campaign money and DeLay has helped her...

The Never Ending DNC Media Propaganda MachineNovember 14, 2004noDNC.comDedicated to cataloging, exposing, and educating the public about DNC and media corruption and propaganda Media outlets who offer "news" rely on one thing to stay in business--, whether or not they are believed. Credibility is the underpinning of the "news" as opposed to opinion and commentary. The same holds true for polling organizations that sell their services to the "news" organizations. This election has shown a transparent attempt by various media and polling organizations to mislead and deceive the American public. The 2004 election has proven that saying the media outlets...

FORCED GAY MARRIAGE ON EVERY STATE IN THE NATION!THE Election Story that the National Media is trying to bury!October 29, 2004 On September 24, 2004, in an obvious case of judicial "forum shopping," the Federal District Court received a legal complaint challenging the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (a pdf copy of the actual filed complaint can be seen by clicking here, courtesty of domawatch.org). Kerry and Edwards have a stake in the outcome of the gay marriage issue at a legal level because one of the democratic party's most vocal constituencies is the homosexual lobby. During the campaigns, they...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Foundation of Bush's Fortune Questioned 1991 SEC Memo Surfaces, Bush Not Cooperative A new GOP/White House strategy went into effect today and it takes its tactics from the old Cold War - MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). It worked to keep Soviet nukes holstered and it was Democrats who they hope to similarly intimidate. "GOP leaders warned us that if we dare use this stuff against them they would slam us with Global Crossing," a Democratic Congressional aide told us weeks ago. Those missiles have been launched. Indignant cries of "You should...