Free Republic

The response on this book tour has been overwhelming. We are truly humbled, and I thank you. I've been told that yesterday there were supporters in Noblesville who stood in long lines for hours in the cold and rain, and the book signing event ended without a chance to say hello to everyone who showed up. I am so sorry. We are working on a solution for those who were left behind. I apologize. - Sarah Palin

Republican activist and free market think-tanker Grant Bosse formally declared his candidacy today in New Hampshire’s 00th Congressional District after news that the Obama administration has attributed a majority of the state’s stimulus jobs to that non-existent district. Bosse is in New Hampshire has only two congressional districts, neither of which are numbered “00.” “Even a fake district needs real leadership,” said Bosse while appearing on WGIR’s Charlie Sherman show on Friday morning. “The people overseeing the stimulus actually found more fake congressional districts than there are real congressional districts. So if we run in all 440 phantom congressional seats...

DISGUSTING: Despite legislation passed by Congress to make it possible to sue foreign governments that sponsor terrorism, in a filing in federal court, the Justice Department is arguing that giving the money to the victims "can have significant, detrimental impact on our foreign relations, as well as the reciprocal treatment of the United States and its extensive overseas property holdings."

Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 and saw the Soviet Union falling apart. He first announced a vague reform plan that proposed increased productivity, technological modernization, and some reform of the Soviet bureaucracy. That achieved little, so in 1986 he moved on to perestroika, designed to encourage initiative and reduce inefficiency. That didn't do much so in 1988 he introduced glasnost, which brought in some freedom of speech and a new law that encouraged private ownership of businesses. That good idea came too late to keep the Soviet evil empire from disintegrating in 1989 and collapsing in 1991. The...

Last time former Georgia Democrat Congressman Cynthia McKinney made national news was in 2006, when she struck a Capitol police officer after the supposedly racist bastard had the audacity to stop her for failing to show I.D. But before that embarrassing display, McKinney had amassed a list of anti-white, anti-American, and anti-Semitic remarks. She is truly the embodiment of left-wing hate. The mainstream media is very good at reporting supposed right-wing anti-Semitism, like last month when two South Carolina Congressmen made the mistake of stereotyping Jews as being frugal with their money. But radical leftist anti-Semites—especially non-white ones—Louis Farrakhan comes...

Two Clayton County teachers arrested for fighting over the same lover on Facebook no longer work together. Rex Mill Middle School teachers Chaka Cobb and Ebony Smith were charged with misdemeanors last month after getting into a physical fight in front of students. Employment records obtained by the AJC on Wednesday show Smith resigned in lieu of termination. Cobb is currently serving a 19.5-day suspension without pay, according to the records. She is scheduled to return Dec. 4. Smith was charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct. Cobb was charged with disorderly conduct. The fight started after the women learned...

An unlikely trio explored several Baltimore schools Friday as part of an effort to highlight education reform and challenges, and called on Maryland to give charter schools more autonomy. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich repeatedly emphasized the need for changes to the state's charter school law, which he called "too restrictive," as he, the Rev. Al Sharpton and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan toured three city schools and spoke with students, administrators and others about their schools -- and what sets them apart. "I hope that everybody in Maryland will call the governor, will call the legislators, and will let...

A 12-year-old girl is prohibited from bringing aspirin to California public schools without a note from her mother or father – but in many California districts she may sign herself out of classes, leave her junior-high campus without parental permission, secretly have an abortion and return to school before the end of the day – and her own family may be none the wiser. Parents and educators across the state have been in heated debate over school policies allowing children to be excused during class time without parental notification for "confidential medical services" such as abortions, birth control, and drug...

| The formal introduction: Mike Adams is a professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and a syndicated columnist. The informal: He is probably the most outspoken Christian conservative professor in the United States now teaching at a state university. He's gone from passive writing to fiery prose, and from an incendiary lifestyle to one centered on true ideas. Q: Tell us about your 1.8 GPA in high school. I can't believe you brought that up! That was off limits! Q: How hard did you have to work to get a 1.8? My goal was to graduate with a 1.0,...

Hillsdale College is getting into the public school business. The college plans to establish a charter school in the near future and possibly create more, should the first prove a success, said administrators. They have not yet chosen a location for the first school. "It is an opportunity to break the mold. The idea here is that we're going to seize upon the charter school concept to do something similar to what we do with our private school [Hillsdale Academy]," Associate Professor of Education Jon Fennell said.

The goal is to create an academic home where a variety of disciplines, including history, psychology, religious studies, anthropology and political science, can be brought together to focus on hate. It's the same sort of effort that led to the creation of disciplines like black studies or women's studies, Mohr said. Such academic efforts are not without controversy. Some skeptics fear they are little more than attacks on the dominant power structure. "This stuff tends to be one dimensional and presumes the guilt of an archetypal white male," said Glenn Ricketts, spokesman for the National Association of Scholars. Indeed, De...

The Washington Times is reporting that The Obama administration on Tuesday had Obama's National Security Council (NSC) take control of congressional briefings on the Fort Hood killings and asked Democratic leaders to delay a probe, as top Republicans said intelligence shortcomings blamed for failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks are re-emerging. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said that the NSC had taken over the briefings "due to the high visibility of the issues surrounding the tragic event at Fort Hood," and that Democratic leaders agreed to postpone any congressional action on the shootings. "This...

Sarah Palin supporters need to make sure every nursing home, hospital, and private school in Iowa gets a free copy of Going Rogue Today, we bought our copies of Going Rogue here in Chicago. Not knowing we were buying them, several friends bought extra copies when they bought theirs, and so we’re going to have extra books later tonight. Tomorrow, we are taking three of those to the assisted living centers/nursing homes here in Boystown to donate them to the little libraries they have there. Old people are the most dependable, regular voters out there…and they typically default vote Democrat....

In my interview with Governor Palin yesterday evening, we touched briefly on some current events, including President Obama's trip to Asia and the place of the tea-party movement in the Republican party. Some highlights: 1) I asked Palin about the anti-tax-and-spending tea parties. "I love the tea party movement," she said. "It's beautiful, it's healthy. It's part of that good healthy competition that's needed in a political party." She contrasted the somewhat tumultuous state of the GOP to what's going on in the Democratic party today. "It seems like the Democratic party is filled with more sheep-like individuals, who go...

I’ve read some misguided partisan ranting before, but the piece, “Gone Rogue” (how original) by Newsweek’s Evan Thomas is in a class by itself. That it passes for a news story is telling of how detached the elitists in media really are. Nothing exceptionally newsworthy is going on (a book tour!), yet we are witnessing a foaming hysteria from all fronts of the liberal establishment. And, we must ask: Why? Sarah Palin is merely promoting her book. The degree to which the left fears Palin is astonishing. The former governor isn’t even talking about running for office and yet Newsweek...

Have you ever seen so much hatred for, and vitriolic criticism of, someone who had only a brief stint on the national political stage? More than a year after the presidential election in which Sarah Palin, as the GOP nominee for Vice-President, campaigned for about three months, she is still being pilloried by the left-wing loons as though she had been elected and were actively engaged in dismantling the liberal establishment. Not a day goes by in which we don't hear or read vicious attacks on a woman who represents the wholesome conservative values of Middle America -- values that...

Union blocks teacher bonuses By Edward Mason  |   Wednesday, November 18, 2009  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage Photo by Matthew West Grinchlike union bosses are blocking at least 200 of Boston’s best teachers from pocketing bonuses for their classroom heroics in a puzzling move that gets a failing grade from education experts.The Boston Teachers Union staunchly opposes a performance bonus plan for top teachers - launched at the John D. O’Bryant School in 2008 and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates and Exxon Mobil foundations - insisting the dough be divvied up among all of a school’s teachers, good and bad.“It’s insanity,” said Jim...

Obama File 90 Alice Palmer Re-examined-Was Obama's First Political Boss a Soviet "Agent of Influence"? Obama file 89 here Alice Palmer is a Chicago based academic, activist and former friend, employer and political ally of Barack Obama. In the mid 1990s Alice Palmer, then an Illinois State Senator, employed Obama has her chief of staff, when she attempted an ill-fated run for the US Congress. Obama was part of Friends of Alice Palmer, alongside controversial property developer Tony Rezko and Democratic Socialists of America members Danny Davis, Betty Wilhoitte and Timuel Black-also a member of Committees of Correspondence). Later Palmer...

Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) issued the following statement regarding the postponement of a full Committee briefing on information related to the Fort Hood shooting: Here's the full text: "Due to the high visibility of the issues surrounding the tragic event at Fort Hood, the President has instructed the National Security Council to assume control of all informational briefings.

Some Indiana University professors have proposed a novel way to give struggling inner-city students a fresh start: send them to boarding school in Africa.“The core idea is to pull kids out of an environment where they cannot thrive and put them in one where they can,” said law professor Kevin Brown, who leads the group behind the idea. The project is still in its planning phase, and its backers admit it faces legal and financial hurdles. But the professors want to establish a school in the West African nation of Ghana where Indiana teachers would instruct some of the state's...

Left-wing media matters Cliff Kincaid, November 17, 2009 A professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Robert W. McChesney has said that “media reform” should be part of the march toward socialism in America and that capitalism has to be dismantled “brick by brick.” Van Jones, the ousted communist “Green Jobs Czar” of the Obama Administration, served with McChesney on the board of Free Press, a George Soros-funded organization, in 2007 and 2008. Despite its socialist orientation, Free Press is financially supported by extremely wealthy individuals such as George Soros, the leftist billionaire, and Marcy Carsey, one of the creators...

Michael Scott made his living in Chicago politics as one of Mayor Richard Daley's guys out front. The mayor put him on a series of public boards, from the Park District to the Chicago Board of Education. He made a decent living in real estate, and for 30 years he did what all front guys do: Talk to reporters, sit in front of news cameras and lend his face to the mayor's policies and enterprise. What's strange is that this very public man found an extremely private place to die. The place where Scott was found early Monday, with a...

Anita Mellott's column, Homeschool Encouragment looks at "Blessings" as we approach Thanksgiving.

Institutionalized Child Abuse Life in an American Fourth Grade: Teaching Kids to "Respect Other Views" by Making Them Not Have Any of Their Own By Barry Rubin thelastcrusade.org First came the reading list of four books: one about an African-American, one on an Asian- or Hispanic-American, one on a Native American, and one--amazingly enough--a free choice. Then came the first book read in class on an African-American runner. By the way, it should be understood that all these readings are not about a group of youngsters from all races, religions, and creeds, playing together while getting along but rather...

At 9 am ET today, Americans for Tax Reform and the Alliance for Worker Freedom will deliver a letter to both chambers of Congress and to US Attorney Channing Phillips in Washington DC, demanding a federal investigation of Andrew Stern, president of the SEIU. They will claim that Stern, who stopped registering as a federal lobbyist in 2007, has continued his lobbying efforts. They claim to have compiled evidence of Stern’s lobbying from the recently released White House visitor logs, media reports — and Stern’s own Twitter feed, in what has to be a first for the social networking service....

That’s certainly the conclusion one can draw from two stories over the last couple of days. Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), who pushed Barack Obama to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to the US for criminal trials, says that criticism of the decision is “un-American”: Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) has strong words for the Republicans opposing Attorney General Eric Holder’s plan to bring five 9/11 suspects to New York City to face trial. “They see this as an opportunity to demagogue,” he said. “They will seize on any opportunity to do that, and that means they’ll even take a stand that’s un-American.”...

Days after announcing another huge layoff, Al Gore's Current TV referred to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a "Gun-Ho" and a "TWILF." These disgraceful, sexually-charged epithets were part of an attack on prominent conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, and came in the form of a cartoon ironically titled "The Stupid Virus":

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Republican voters say former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin shares the values of most GOP voters throughout the nation. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 21% of Republican voters disagree and think the 2008 vice presidential candidate does not share their values. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided. By contrast, 74% of Republicans say their party’s representatives in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters nationwide over the past several years. Only 18% of Republican voters believe their elected officials have done a good job representing the base.

Fact-Checking the "Fact-Checkers" By the Editors File this one under "Quit Making Stuff Up." It took us all day, but we assembled the definitive debunking of the 11 Associated Press "fact-checkers." Might we suggest a new profession for these folks? As the always brilliant Mark Steyn pointed out: That's 11 writers for a 695-word report. What on? Obamacare? The Iranian nuke program? The upcoming trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? No, the Associated Press assigned 11 writers to "fact-check" Sarah Palin's new book... Hey, don't be too hard on the AP. CNN is also into fact-checking... SNL skits that are "mean"...

* What can we all do, every day, to make sure we are ready to prevent fraud in the Iowa Caucus in 2012? PLEASE take this seriously. A massive effort was launched on Dr. Utopia’s behalf from Chicago to game the Iowa Caucus. A good portion of Chicago rolled across the Illinois border to vote in Dubuque, Waterloo, Des Moines,you name it to ensure Dr. Utopia won that Caucus in 2008. The caucus centers are chaos hatcheries. Dr. Utopia’s goons, most of whom certainly appeared to be ACORN or SEIU, marched in, took over, and told anyone who wouldn’t stand...

It's no secret higher-education costs have risen three times faster than inflation in the last 30 years. For perspective, President Obama proposes to nationalize one-sixth of the economy to address "skyrocketing health-care costs," which have gone up only twice as fast as inflation in 30 years. But even as more middle-class American families are priced out every year, ivory-tower school officials maintain a bachelor's degree is still a good investment — a bargain, they say — based on the gap between the average lifetime earnings of high school and college graduates. U.S. Department of Education data show the difference is...

"Don't for a second think Obama wants what is best for U.S. He is flying the U.S. plane right into the ground at full speed. Let's roll." @Sen_Schultheis A Colorado legislator has been blasted by local and national news outlets for sending an online Twitter message, or tweet, that criticized President Obama with language some say is a reference to United Flight 93, which was hijacked and crashed during the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Earlier this week, state Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, posted the words, "Don't for a second think Obama wants what is best for U.S. He is flying...

Breitbart has uncovered then Senator Obama claiming while discussing that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that 9-11 mastermind KSM will get a MILITARY trial, not a CIVIL trial and that such was good

By Paul Thigpen, Ph.D. Do Animals Go to Heaven? Responding to a common question from children Not long ago a TCA reader wrote us to ask a familiar question: What should we tell children when a pet dies and they ask whether animals have souls and go to heaven? She reported that she had upset some parents when she told their children (students in her class) that the answer to both questions was no.The answer to the first question -- do animals have souls? -- depends, of course, on how we define "soul." Ancient and medieval writers, both pagan and...

'The Catholic university is called to act...with fidelity to the Christian message exactly as it is presented by the Church'. VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) - University communities cannot be satisfied with merely imparting knowledge; they must also teach students values and profound motivations, says Benedict XVI. The Pope spoke of the role of universities today, taking up the theme of the "educational crisis," about which he has often expressed concern. The Holy Father was addressing staff and students from the Libera Universita Maria Santissima Assunta (LUMSA), which is celebrating its 70th year. LUMSA was founded in 1939 by Servant of God...

Early education is one of the hot topics around the liberal roundtable in the United States, both nationally and globally. The liberal elite are not only discussing ways of forcing children into school by the time they are four and younger, as evidenced by Bill SB122 D-Clark-Coleman in Michigan, but now are looking at zero to three years old early education as an extension of K-12 compulsory education. Their mantra is that babies start learning from day one. In a White House press release dated March 10, 2009, “President Obama is committed to helping states develop seamless, comprehensive, and coordinated...

AIP News exclusive commentary by:  Tom Kovach Yesterday, the Canada Free Press reported that the National Education Association had listed as "recommended reading" the pro-Communist book Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky.  The CFP report did not mention that it was the number-one choice on the NEA's list.To prevent the NEA from later altering its Web pages and backing away from this stance under public scrutiny, I have copied the relevant Web pages and converted them to PDF documents.  First, here is the NEA's "recommended reading" list for its members.  (NOTE:  the page's appearance was slightly altered in the PDF conversion...

It’s Friday. The president is flying off to Asia. Congress is not in session. Perfect time to drop a bombshell on the American people: The Obama administration is bringing 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed to New York City for a civilian trial. No, it’s not a joke. Via the NYT: Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday. The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning. The...

The NEA’s (National Education Association’s, a.k.a. Nefarious Elitist A****’) recommended reading list includes two books by Brother O mentor and communist community organizer Saul Alinsky that advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. The Democrat-controlled teachers’ union praises Alinsky’s Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals as “an inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer!” The following book quotations are from the NEA website: “The Radical does not sit frozen by cold objectivity. He sees injustice and strikes at it with hot passion. He is a man of decision and action. “Society has good...

Thank you, Washington, for Requesting a Demonstrably Good Idea I commend the president for acknowledging today that “there are limits to what government can and should do” to ease our 10.2% unemployment rate – the highest it’s been since 1983. I also applaud his call for suggestions and expression of openness to considering “any demonstrably good idea.” Taking him at his word, I’d like to suggest this one: let’s learn from history and follow the example of the man who occupied the White House in 1983 and was able to transform an even worse recession than the one we’re currently...

Obama ominee claimed primary job is to 'write footnotes in the Constitution' - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced his plans to move forward as early as Monday with a confirmation vote on the pro-abortion appeals court nominee who ruled against praying "in Jesus name" on the floor of the Indiana Legislature. Reid said he plans to pursue a cloture process that would force a Senate vote on U.S. District Court Judge David Hamilton's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit if 60 senators vote for cloture. Republicans have attempted to block a vote on...

In the past year, we’ve interacted with Republicans for the first time in our lives, primarily through people we met via the McCain/Palin campaign and this website. What we’ve found most interesting in that time is how different Democrats and Republicans see elections — which is something many of you out there might not even realize. We grew up Democrat, and every day was a campaign day. The only day we weren’t campaigning for something was Election Day, in which case we were working our lists getting as many old people, drunks, homeless, and the sick to polling places as...

The NEA’s (National Education Association’s, a.k.a. Nefarious Elitist Asses’) recommended reading list includes two books by Brother O mentor and communist community organizer Saul Alinsky that advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. The Democrat-controlled teachers’ union praises Alinsky’s Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals as “an inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer!” ...

Eighth-graders Cassandra and Aliyah Russell of Chicago never imagined they'd be arrested in their school cafeteria, much less for throwing food. Share Police arrest two dozen children at a Chicago school for reckless conduct. But that's just what happened following lunchtime mayhem last Thursday at the Perspectives Charter Middle School, south of Chicago. More than two dozen students, ages 11 to 15, were rounded up by police, arrested and charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct. "They took us to jail, fingerprinted us, mugshotted us, or whatever, all because of a food fight...I was arrested. Handcuffs on," 13-year-old Cassandra told ABC News....

Pelosi "Health Plan" Should Be DOA Today at 8:40am We need to be vigilant in investigating the ramifications of the Pelosi Health Care Bill. Some provisions sound so outrageous as to be considered impossible to fathom, but they’re right there in the bill in black and white. For instance, page 297 of the bill explains the punishment for not purchasing government mandated health insurance. If you don’t buy what the government considers “acceptable health care coverage,” you’re going to be hit with a tax of at least 2.5% of your income. And if you don’t pay that new tax, you...

Democrat Bill Owens delivers his victory speech at his headquarters in Plattsburgh last week. Owens declared victory after Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman conceded the 23rd Congressional District race election night. Now recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference, and will be decided by a count of absentee ballots. The Associated PressDemocrat Bill Owens delivers his victory speech at his headquarters in Plattsburgh last week. Owens declared victory after Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman conceded the 23rd Congressional District race election night. Now recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference, and will be decided...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I apologize up front for this vanity, but this photo is very telling. In the photo, we see our military rendering honors to the Veterans (both deceased and still with us). Why is it that this punk stands there with his hands folded? He makes it really obvious that he could really care less about America and our great Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, Sailors, Coast Guardsmen and Merchant Marines. Why does he fail to salute our Veterans and our great society?

Visits by two men, claiming to be Homeland Security employees, have Middletown officials raising a lot of questions. Police say one man, who was armed and wearing a Homeland Security badge, entered Mayfield Elementary School yesterday morning, before the start of class. Officials say he and another man, also wearing a similar badge, had been to an apartment complex earlier looking for a suspect. At the school, the man claiming to be an agent, asked the principal whether a particular street was within the school's attendance area.

In surveying the cultural carnage in the wake of the worst terrorist attack on a military installation in US history, it bears noting that there have been seismic shifts in America. When America was free of the shackles of Islam, say, fifty years ago, the current response to such an attack by an enemy faction would have been unthinkable. I have watched in abject horror the stunning reaction of elites in this country to this act of war. The denial, the submission, the excuses, the dodging, the self-flagellation, the shame, the deceiving of the American people by the media, the...

I am missing something here. After the attack and murder of 13 innocent people by an apparent imbedded radical Jihadist in the US Army, General Casey said on Meet The Press, "Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse." I have some questions for any military officer who swore an oath on several occasions to support and defend the Constitution. How many innocent Americans have to be murdered by someone who displayed every single modus operandi of...