Free Republic

At the age of 18, Mitsuhiro Matsushita already has a good idea of his ideal future. After he graduates from university a few years of work will be followed by marriage to an industrious wage earner. When children arrive it will be Mitsuhiro who stays at home looking after them, baking cakes and biscuits and living the traditional life of the Japanese housewife. None of this would be noteworthy but for one thing. Mitsuhiro is not a conventionally minded Japanese woman, but a thoughtful, articulate and fashionably dressed young man. And far from being a marginal eccentric he is a...

It's Barbara Boxer's big moment on Capitol Hill, and Republicans want nothing to do with it.The California Democrat, who heads the Senate's environment committee, wants to begin marking up her long-awaited climate-change legislation on Tuesday. But Republicans are planning to boycott the meeting.Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top-ranked Republican on the environment committee, said Republicans will boycott the meeting because the issue has not been studied enough. Among other things, he wants the Environmental Protection Agency to do more analysis of the bill, which would place mandatory limits on the emission of greenhouse gases. Boxer today urged Republicans on...

Someone is attacked by a complete stranger every 30 seconds in Binge Britain, figures revealed last night. When Labour came to power, only a third of violent crimes were carried out by an attacker the victim did not know. That has now jumped to half as random violence - fuelled by alcohol and round the clock opening - has become commonplace.

ROME (CNS) -- Dissident theologian Father Hans Kung criticized Pope Benedict XVI for his recent opening to discontented Anglicans, charging the pope was "fishing" for the most conservative Christians to the detriment of the larger church. Father Kung said the invitation to traditionalist Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church went against years of ecumenical work on the part of both churches, calling it instead "a nonecumenical piracy of priests." The pope's basic message is: "Traditionalists of all churches, unite under the dome of St. Peter's!" Father Kung wrote in an editorial Oct. 28 in the Rome daily La Repubblica....

WE FIGURED HIM OUT! By Ben Stein Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed? Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths: The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pig in a poke in 2008. They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith. They ignored his anti-white writings in his books. They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister, Jeremiah Wright. They ignored his refusal...

In little noticed remarks, Michelle Obama stated at a public event that her husband's mother, Ann Dunham, was "very young and very single" when she gave birth to the future U.S. president. Her comments further undermine the official story as told by Barack Obama – that Dunham was married to his father, Barack Obama Sr., at the time of birth. The remarks were made by Michelle Obama during a July 2008 round table at the University of Missouri. Obama was responding to criticism of her husband's presidential campaign speeches about fatherhood and faith-based initiatives. Michelle Obama explained her husband understands...

<p>Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill. Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program — even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid’s has said the Senate bill will. "We're trying to do too much at once," Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now." Lieberman added that he’d vote against a public option plan “even with an opt-out because it still creates a whole new government entitlement program for which taxpayers will be on the line." .................</p>

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a7T5HaOgYHpE

SPIEGEL: Mr. Krauthammer, did the Nobel Commitee in Oslo honor or doom the Obama presidency by awarding him the Peace Prize? Charles Krauthammer: It is so comical. Absurd. Any prize that goes to Kellogg and Briand, Le Duc Tho and Arafat, and Rigoberta Menchú, and ends up with Obama, tells you all you need to know. For Obama it's not very good because it reaffirms the stereotypes about him as the empty celebrity. Krauthammer: No. The UN is worse than disaster. The UN creates conflicts. Look at the disgraceful UN Human Rights Council: It transmits norms which are harmful, anti-liberty,...

George P. Bush, or "P" as he's known to some, is thought to be the biggest hope for a fourth generation of Bush family political leaders, with some suggesting that he might run for statewide office in Texas at some point in the next four to eight years. But, as The Daily Beast points out today, any future George P. Bush political ambitions will have to be put on hold as his Navy Reserve unit is set to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan in the coming weeks. Lt. Junior Grade Bush, 33, joined the Navy Reserve in 2007 as...

Kabul, Oct 25 (AFP) Furious Afghans torched an effigy of US President Barack Obama and hurled stones at police today during a mass protest over allegations that Western troops set fire to a copy of the Koran. A crowd of around 1,000 demonstrators, mainly university students, marched through the streets of the capital Kabul before massing in front of the national parliament building and hurling stones at riot police as well as an armoured vehicle which blocked them from going down one street. Police responded by firing into the air, dispersing the crowd for a brief period before they massed...

I am re-posting because I provided the incorrect URL for National Review. Sorry about that.

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – A janitor was charged with murder Saturday in the slaying of a priest whose body was found in the rectory of his northern New Jersey church. Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said that 64-year-old Jose Feliciano stabbed and cut the Rev. Ed Hinds 32 times on Thursday after the pair argued. Bianchi would not provide further details about the argument. The 61-year-old Hinds was in his clerical robes when he was killed while in the rectory kitchen of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Chatham. Hinds' body was found at about 8 a.m. Friday after he failed...

Is Chris Matthews feeling pressure to keep up with the Olbermanns when it comes to flinging invective at conservatives? On this evening's Hardball, discussing Dick Cheney's statement—-made at a dinner at which he received an award—that Pres. Obama is dithering on Afghanistan, an apparently incensed Matthews sputtered [unexpurgated in the original]: "What G-D award . . . are they giving these guys?"

OCTOBER 22, 2009 The Chicago Way The Chamber of Commerce is only the latest target of the Chicago Gang in the White House. KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way. –Jim Malone, "The Untouchables" When Barack Obama promised to deliver "a new kind of politics" to Washington, most folk didn't picture Rahm Emanuel with a baseball bat. These days, the capital would make David Mamet, who wrote Malone's memorable movie dialogue, proud. A White House set...

They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way. –Jim Malone, "The Untouchables" When Barack Obama promised to deliver "a new kind of politics" to Washington, most folk didn't picture Rahm Emanuel with a baseball bat. These days, the capital would make David Mamet, who wrote Malone's memorable movie dialogue, proud. A White House set on kneecapping its opponents isn't, of course, entirely new. (See: Nixon) What is a little novel is the public and bare-knuckle way in which the Obama...

Pres. Obama has described Fox News as "operating basically as a talk-radio format" rather than as a "news outlet." When NBC's Savannah Guthrie raised [in a segment of her extended interview of the president aired on Today this morning] the issue of White House attacks on Fox News, PBO first tried to play the statesman, resorting to the old dodge about "the American people" being more interested in jobs and the situation in Afghanistan. But when politely pressed on the issue, PBO didn't hesitate to fustigate Fox. View video here.

On NY-23, I'm with Fred Thompson and Jack Fowler: A Conservative can win in a three-way race, and Doug Hoffman is deserving of your support. Newt really needs to re-think his support for Dede Scozzafava. This isn't RINO but DIABLO - Democrat In All But Label Only. It's not one of those "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" bi-swinger deals — not when you're pro-"stimulus", pro-cash-for-clunkers. And the reductive argument that her sole redeeming value - a willingness to vote for John Boehner as Speaker — is reason enough to support her is silly in a special election. If he's ever Speaker,...

Considering the name of this blog, we took great concern with the left Eye of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, which appeared puffy on Wednesday while she testified to a Senate committee.

Tapper Asks Gibbs Why It's Appropriate For White House To Decide Who's A News Organization By Noel Sheppard Created 2009-10-20 18:44 On Tuesday, another prominent media member challenged the White House strategy of attacking the Fox News Channel. This time up at the plate was ABC's Jake Tapper who asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs during today's gaggle: It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a...

Revised Formula Puts 1 in 6 Americans in Poverty Hope Yen, Associated Press Writer – Oct 20 WASHINGTON – The level of poverty in America is even worse than first believed. A revised formula for calculating medical costs and geographic variations show that approximately 47.4 million Americans last year lived in poverty, 7 million more than the government's official figure. The disparity occurs because of differing formulas the Census Bureau and the National Academy of Science use for calculating the poverty rate. The NAS formula shows the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent, or nearly 1 in 6 Americans,...

Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas on Monday advised the Obama administration to stand down and avoid fighting with Fox News and its correspondents. In an interview with MSNBC, the columnist -- who is promoting her new book on presidents and their campaigns -- also stressed the White House ought to "stay out of these fights." "They can only take you down. You can't kill the messenger," said Thomas, who has covered every president from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama. Whether the White House takes her advice, however, is another story. Just this weekend, Senior Adviser David Axelrod charged...

Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia. In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution. More specifically, the group's members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities....

But the ultimate tipping point for me came a few months ago when David Keene made some statements about Sarah Palin after her resignation that sounded like they could have easily come from Keith Olbermann and not an extremely influential conservative leader. Keene claimed she was “whining” about media coverage, “bitter,” “resentful,” had “bailed out” on her governorship, and was not ready for the “major leagues.” He also mocked her inability to appear at this year’s CPAC (not that I am implying this had anything to do with his motivation!). As someone who has dedicated their lives over the past...

Not Evil Just Wrong is a feature length documentary directed by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer. It examines how extreme environmentalism is damaging lives of vulnerable populations. This show will feature a panelist discussion after the premiere of the movie.noteviljustwrong.com

SCHROEPPEL, N.Y. (AP) -- An intruder has been shot and killed during an apparent burglary attempt in upstate New York. The incident happened Saturday in the town of Schroeppel near Syracuse. Oswego County sheriff's officials said 39-year-old Timothy Hartigan was killed after Deanna Candee and her son Adam Candee came home and found an intruder. The sheriff's officials said that during the struggle that ensued, the 48-year-old Deanna Candee got her pistol and shot Hartigan once. Hartigan was pronounced dead at the scene.

Here is video of Al Sharpton and Pat Buchanan talking with Chris Matthews about Rush Limbaugh being dropped from the group interested in buying the St. Louis Rams. Sharpton said that Limbaugh is "trying to make this like this is some kind of wounding of American Conservatism, he was rejected by his own partners ultimately."

The New York Times reported this week that Lou Dobbs of CNN and leader of The Independent Nation met with Roger Ailes of Fox News last month. Unnamed people familiar with the meeting told the Times, "Mr. Dobbs is a potential hire for the Fox Business Network."

Bo Snerdley is the screener on the Ruch Limbaugh show A unique and insightful contribution from Mr. Bo Snerdley concerning recent events involving Rush and the NFL VIDEO

A year ago, the city of Berlin was so important to Barack Obama that he conducted a campaign event there. This year, though, the 20th anniversary of the fall of Berlin’s most notorious Cold War symbol and the end of the Iron Curtain doesn’t interest the leader of the free world. Der Spiegel reports that Obama has taken a pass on the celebration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall.

OCTOBER 16, 2009 The Race Card, Football and Me My critics would have you believe no conservative meets NFL 'standards.' Article RUSH LIMBAUGH. David Checketts, an investor and owner of sports teams, approached me in late May about investing in the St. Louis Rams football franchise. As a football fan, I was intrigued. I invited him to my home where we discussed it further. Even after informing him that some people might try to make an issue of my participation, Mr. Checketts said he didn't much care. I accepted his offer. It didn't take long before my name was selectively...

Robert Reich has finally responded to the audio of him telling "brutal truths" to an audience at Berkeley which your humble correspondent chronicled here in NewsBusters on Tuesday. Here are the gems delivered up by Reich as to what he claims an honest candidate for president would say about health care if he didn't worry about getting elected: "We're going to have to, if you're very old, we're not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life to keep you maybe going for another couple of months. It's...

I go to three different internet sites and cannot get FOX News or FOX Business any more..... Looks like David Axlesaahole got fox off the INTERNET..... No more truth, just lies and liars.......I will never watch the others.....

"I am not the only one who sees a strange anomaly in the Oslo committee awarding Mr. Obama the Nobel Peace Prize last week. Considering that his actual nomination had to have taken place before February 1st when he was not even two weeks in office, he could not have possibly done anything to merit this award and he certainly hasn't done anything since! In fact, the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize is the shameless leader of the war against unborn children around the world; his alliance with Planned Parenthood testifies vocally to his pro-death agenda, not to...

Jarrette Schule was cutting down trees on his rural property Tuesday in Comal County when he noticed a green metallic tube on the muddy ground. “I had never seen it before,” said Schule, a 34-year-old Web developer. “I looked at it, and it kind of looked like a missile launcher.” Schule took a closer look. It was a long, forest-green metal tube. A decal on it read: “Guided Missile and Launcher, Surface Attack.” The discovery was the start of a surreal journey for Schule. Somehow, an unarmed anti-tank weapon — or a very good fake — wound up on his...

A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. "I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else." Bardwell...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) - The Wall Street Journal has surpassed USA Today as the top-selling daily newspaper in the United States.</p> <p>The Audit Bureau of Circulations won't be releasing its latest figures until Oct. 26, but the Journal said Wednesday that it gained about 12,000 subscribers in the April-September period, compared with a year earlier. That puts its average Monday-Friday circulation at 2.02 million.</p>

Seems like a shame that only the early birds might get to read this thread..as in the replies: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2362878/posts

Kenyan-born Obama all set for US Senate Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations. The allegations that horrified fellow Republicans and caused his once-promising candidacy to implode in four short days have given Obama a clear lead as Republicans struggled to fetch an alternative. Ryan’s campaign began to crumble on Monday following the release of embarrassing records from his divorce. In the records, his ex-wife, Boston Public actress Jeri Ryan,...

Rush Limbaugh is expected to be dropped from a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, according to three NFL sources. Dave Checketts, chairman of the NHL's St. Louis Blues and the point man in the Limbaugh group attempting to buy the Rams, realizes he must remove the controversial conservative radio host from his potential role as a minority member in the group in order to get approval from other NFL owners, the sources said. Three-quarters of the league's 32 owners would have to approve any sale to Limbaugh and his group. Earlier this week, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim...

A recent Washington Post survey estimated the black turnout in Virginia’s governor’s race at 12 percent, which would be about a 40 percent drop from last year’s general election. Other polling has shown both its and New Jersey’s black population unmoved about the off-year election. The question at this point isn’t so much whether black voters will turn out at 2008 levels, but how big the drop will be — and then, whether it carries into the 2010 midterms. Tom Jensen, a spokesman for the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama called on Congress Wednesday to approve $250 payments to more than 50 million seniors to make up for no increase in Social Security next year. The Social Security Administration is scheduled to announce Thursday that there will be no cost of living increase next year. By law, increases are pegged to inflation, which has been negative this year.

The US is expected to announce a significant surge of up to 45,000 extra troops for Afghanistan after Gordon Brown said that 500 more British troops would be sent to the country. President Barack Obama's administration is understood to have told the British government that it could announce, as early as next week, the substantial increase to its 65,000 troops already serving there. The decision from Mr Obama comes after he considered a request from General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, to send tens of thousands of extra American troops to the country. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock...

Russia and the United States have tentatively agreed to a weapons inspection program that would allow Russians to visit nuclear sites in America to count missiles and warheads. The plan, which Fox News has learned was agreed to in principle during negotiations, would constitute the most intrusive weapons inspection program the U.S. has ever accepted. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said publicly Tuesday that the two nations have made "considerable" progress toward reaching agreement on a new strategic arms treaty. The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires in December and negotiators...

NEW PORTLAND, Maine – It was the last way John Bernard would have wanted his voice to gain prominence in the national debate over the war in Afghanistan. The retired Marine had been writing to lawmakers for weeks complaining of the new rules of engagement he believed put U.S. troops at unacceptable risk in the insurgency-wracked country. He got little response. Then Bernard's only son, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard — a Marine like his dad — was killed in an insurgent ambush in Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province, the latest victim of a surge in U.S. combat deaths. ----- Bernard's...

A piggy-back race with dwarfs dressed as jockeys has been slammed by critics as offensive and derogatory.

LAKEVILLE, Mass -- Police along with the Secret Service are investigating after a local country club discovered a swastika carved into the green. Lakeville County Club workers discovered the vandalism early Monday morning. Carved into the green on the 18th hole was a swastika next to President Barack Obama's name.

LAKEVILLE, Mass -- Police along with the Secret Service are investigating after a local country club discovered a swastika carved into the green. Lakeville County Club workers discovered the vandalism early Monday morning. Carved into the green on the 18th hole was a swastika next to President Barack Obama's name. The vandals snuck in at night and carved their message of hate, according to the owner of the country club. "We don't know if they did it with some type of cleated shoe, or they had some type of tool and this time of year to have that happen, it's...

US President Barack Obama's recent decision to cancel the deployment of an anti-missile defense (AMD) system in Eastern Europe was met with approval by the Russian authorities. In exchange, speaking at the recent G-20 summit in Pittsburgh last month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev changed his position regarding sanctions against Iran. While Russia had, until recently, vetoed UN Security Council resolutions against the Iranian nuclear program, Medvedev suddenly hardened his rhetoric, mentioning sanctions as a possible course of action. Either way, it is quite clear that Russia, which borders Iran on the Caspian Sea, does not fear the emergence of its...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill recognizing gay marriages sanctioned in other states during the nearly five months such unions were legal in California. Schwarzenegger says the action is consistent with a state Supreme Court ruling upholding the marriages of same-sex couples who tied the knot in California before voters approved Proposition 8.