Free Republic

There are no second acts in American lives. ---F. Scott Fitzgerald Apparently writers Nicole Allan and Niraj Chokshi of Atlantic Magazine wish to hold open the possibility of a second act for disgraced John Edwards as they speculate about Is John Edwards Done Forever? Yes, all Sarah Palin has to do is read a few notes from the palm of her hand and this is enough to set off MSM liberals into a group hate rant about the former vice-presidential candidate. However, if you are a liberal the door is always open to you for a possible political comeback even...

Paul Schiffer, Congressional Candidate in Ohio, has taken the pledge of the American Council for Immigration Reform to oppose amnesty in any form for illegal aliens, and to push for the enforcement of America’s laws, with the goal that trespassers in the United States will voluntarily return to the countries where they have a home and a place of their own. Paul Schiffer pledged: “I pledge to oppose amnesty or any other special path to citizenship for the millions of foreign nationals unlawfully present in the United States. As a member of Congress, I will support the full implementation of...

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- This week, I posted a story on Fortune.com saying that a Value Added Tax is fast becoming the only option America has left to solve the current fiscal crisis. In the piece, I said that former Arkansas Governor and leading Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee favors a VAT to replace the income tax. I received numerous angry emails stating that the ex-governor advocates a solution called a "Fair Tax" that's quite different from a VAT.

Critics of Michael Steele's tenure as Republican National Committee chairman are motivated by racism, Steele suggested in an interview published on Tuesday. Speaking to Washingtonian magazine (no online version), Steele wondered why his Democratic National Committee counterpart doesn't get the same criticism he does. "I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation," Steele said. "Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?”

I've been trying, because I'd truly like to see health reform pass, to find something nice to say about President Obama's plans for a summit. Another summit, that is, nearly a year after the first one. Here's the best I could come up with: It can't hurt. Consider it Chicken Soup for the Legislative Soul.When the president used his Super Bowl Sunday interview with CBS News' Katie Couric to launch this Hail Mary summit pass, he explained that "what I want to do is to look at the Republican ideas that are out there. . . . 'How do you...

For American labor, year one of Barack Obama's presidency has been close to an unmitigated disaster. Labor's primary priority -- the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) -- died when the Democrats lost their 60-vote majority in the Senate. Labor's normal priority -- a functioning National Labor Relations Board -- also seems out of reach, with Republicans on Tuesday blocking the appointment of Obama nominee Craig Becker (that's why Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown scurried down to Washington last week to take his seat). Other key legislation for which labor has lobbied, including health-care reform and financial regulations, languishes in the Senate....

Most voters think the country would be better off if the majority of the current Congress wasn’t reelected this November, and their confidence in their own congressman continues to fall. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of likely voters believe, generally speaking, that it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were defeated this November. Just 19% disagree and say it would be better if most congressional incumbents were reelected. Another 18% aren’t sure. The Political Class strongly rejects these views, however. While 78% of Mainstream voters say it would be better...

President Obama brought Republicans to the negotiating table on Tuesday, hoping to stem a steady deterioration in relations between the two parties that has brought business in Washington to a standstill, left the Democratic agenda in tatters and angered voters who are eager to have lawmakers address their concerns. The two-hour session was part of a renewed drive by the White House to create legislation by consensus, regardless of party label. Obama tried the approach after he took office, but it did not take hold. After the meeting, the president paid a surprise visit to the White House press room...

President Obama and leading lawmakers from both parties met at the White House Tuesday to showcase potential areas of cooperation, especially on an initiative to spur hiring, but the gathering also highlighted divisions that have stalled much of the president's domestic agenda. Obama reiterated his hopes for bipartisan compromise during a surprise appearance later...his first news conference since the summer. One of Obama's priorities is a bill aimed at creating jobs. In the meeting with top congressional Democrats and Republicans, the president pitched ideas for boosting small-business hiring, including tax breaks. "We should be able to come together and help...

Jim Tisch, the leader of Loews Corp., said the U.S. did a “good job of killing” the hotel business by lambasting corporate travel and hurt American International Group Inc.’s ability to return bailout funds by curbing pay. “The criticism that took place of group travel was really a death knell for the industry,” Tisch said yesterday in an interview at an office of the New York-based holding company, which owns hotels. “It’s easy for the politician to get the sound bite. What they are doing with those sound bites is putting maids and bellmen out of work.” Loews’s hotel unit...

Military leaders in China called for the sale of U.S. debt securities on Monday, February 8, 2010 in response to arms sales recently made to Taiwan.

A 63 percent majority of Americans, notably Democratic and Independent voters, want Congress to "Keep Trying" to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll. The survey, conducted Thursday through Monday, queried more than 1,000 voters across the country, and also asked which party is responsible for lack of cooperation in Washington, D.C. The margin of error was 3.5 percent. The key question: "Do you think lawmakers in Washington should keep trying to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan, or should they give up on comprehensive health care reform? Sixty-three percent said...

INTERNATIONAL scientists have called for the world's peak climate change body to be revamped or scrapped after damaging controversies that have dogged the expert panel in recent months. The scientists suggest a range of options, from tightening the selection of lead authors and contributors to the International Panel on Climate Change, to dumping it in favour of a small permanent body, or even turning the whole climate science assessment process into a moderated "living" Wikipedia-IPCC. Writing today in the journal Nature, five US, British, German and Swiss climate scientists - all contributing or lead IPCC report authors - agreed a...

New Jersey’s biggest Gay rights organization has voted unanimously to stop contributing to ALL political parties. Since Lincoln was probably the last Republican any Gay organization contributed to, the effect of this lavender revolt is to shut off the money flow to Democrats. This is a stunning and serious turn of events because the Homosexual Community is not about to back away from. Fooled once too often For several years Democrats have made promises to Homosexuals vowing they would fix everything from Gay Marriage to adoption and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. In state after state, where referenda have been held...

CHICAGO -- Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich heads to court Wednesday to answer a revised batch of charges that he schemed to sell or trade President Barack Obama's old Senate seat and swap official favors for campaign money. ..." The new indictment repeats all of the charges against Blagojevich in the earlier version but adds eight new ones -- one count of racketeering, two counts of attempted extortion, two counts of bribery, two counts of bribery conspiracy and one count of extortion conspiracy.

BJ Lawson has decided to run again for Congress!!! BJ is the ultimate "anti" candidate. He ran against David Price in 2008, and polled 37% in an Obama Tsunami. This is better than any candidate has done since the district was re-drawn to ensure Price's re-election by the state political hacks. I was introduced to BJ when I was following Ron Paul's presidential run. He has been called the "hybrid candidate" because he attracted so many traditional Democrat voters, due to his strong stance on issues of personal liberty. His website on issues is still not up, but here are...

Most governors facing unsubstantiated rumors and unspoken innuendo would either say nothing or issue a forceful denial and move on. Not in Albany. Not our accidental governor, David Paterson, bless his heart. If Paterson wanted to tamp down the buzz surrounding him, his truly astounding press conference on Tuesday only added to the din. Obviously upset with unsubstantiated rumors - some in print and others in the blogosphere - that he'd had extramarital affairs since taking office, Paterson went into high-drama mode. There he was, on live television, ostensibly to talk about the looming snowstorm, going on and on about...

In the week since Dan Coats announced he was preparing to challenge Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, Democrats have launched a withering, no-holds-barred assault on the former Republican senator, throwing him off-balance and raising questions about whether his prospective candidacy has suffered lasting damage. The oppo research mill began cranking up within hours of word last week that he was readying a campaign for his former Senate seat in Indiana. First came a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee statement referring to him as a “federally registered lobbyist whose client lists include banks, private equity firms, and defense contractors.” Then Coats was blasted...

Sarah Palin will be in Daytona Beach on Saturday to sign copies of her book, "Going Rogue." The former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee will be at the Volusia Mall Books-A-Million from 7 to 10 p.m., but don't show up without a wristband. A limited number of them will be handed out at the street entrance of the store beginning at 9 a.m. Friday -- one per person,

Senator John McCain has introduced a bill that if passed will drive up the cost of dietary supplements and restrict your access to them. This bill seeks to give the FDA complete and arbitrary control over what supplements you are allowed to have... The bill being spearheaded by Senators John McCain and Byron Dorgan represents the kind of federal regulation that is not only ineffective, but also suffocates innovation in ways that inflict permanent damage to this nation’s economic vitality. The bill supposedly originates from the controversy surrounding the use of steroids by Major League Baseball players. Since some unethical...

ALBANY — The State Senate on Tuesday expelled a senator convicted of domestic assault, the first time in nearly a century that the Legislature has forced a member from office. The Senate voted 53-to-8 to immediately oust the senator, Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat convicted last fall of a misdemeanor for dragging his companion down the hallway of his apartment building. The expulsion leaves the fragile balance of power in the Senate divided between 31 Democrats and 30 Republicans. Because legislation requires 32 votes to pass, Democrats will be unable to approve bills with just the support of their own...

As part of his promised new focus on jobs, President Obama yesterday hosted a bipartisan jobs meeting. But he has yet to propose many pro-employment specifics -- and his overall economic plan remains unmistakably anti-job. Other than a few odd ideas like using TARP funds paid by banks to fund more government programs, Obama's main push is for a "jobs" bill like the $150 billion measure the House has already passed, which includes various tax credits and new spending to supposedly create jobs. But the spending there is hopeless -- it's more of the same ideas that failed in last...

The White House's chief spokesman used a press briefing yesterday on world affairs to -- of all things -- mock Sarah Palin. Clearly tickled with himself, Robert Gibbs showed up with a shopping list scrawled across his left hand. Included in the list of supermarket staples, like "eggs" and "milk," were two of President Obama's favorite themes, "hope" and change" -- a clear swipe at Palin, who was caught with crib notes scribbled on her palm at the Tea Party Convention in Tennessee. Palin -- who calls Obama the "guy with a TelePrompTer" -- had "energy," "tax cuts" and "lift...

Immutable law of Beltway political physics: The only real jobs that a government stimulus stimulates are government jobs. A year after President Obama signed his first almost trillion-dollar economic-stimulus package into law, the federal workforce is at an all-time high. The nation's unemployment rate has swelled to 9.7 percent, but Washington's economy is thriving. More than 2.1 million government workers will be on the federal payroll by the end of 2010. The lobbying industry is booming. USA Today reports that 14 federal agencies have hired 3,000 workers to oversee stimulus spending and have spent nearly $190 million so far on...

Opposition to President Obama's bid to cancel the Constellation return to the Moon program has started to manifest itself among purveyors of popular culture. It has even inspired its first work of literature.

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RICHMOND, Va. -- Democratic former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder is urging President Barack Obama to fire Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, another former Virginia governor. Wilder wrote of Kaine, in a column for the Politico news Web site, that "the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee is the wrong job for him." In an interview with The Associated Press, Wilder cited Republican victories in last month's Senate election in Massachusetts and in gubernatorial races last fall in New Jersey and Virginia. "I'm just disappointed in his leadership," Wilder told the AP. "And there are a lot of people...

I’m not writing her off. No matter how many gaffes she makes, no matter what she writes on her palm, she is not going away. In fact, she may very well be the Republican nominee in 2012, and if the economy hasn’t recovered by then, there’s an outside chance she could win the White House. She is already the favorite among Republicans. A Newsmax-Zogby poll of January 28 had her garnering 22.2 percent of Republican voters, compared to Romney’s 19.4 percent, Gingrich’s 12 percent, Huckabee’s 11 percent, and David Petraeus’s 5.4 percent. She was greeted as royalty at the Tea...

Almost daily, we learn about new problems with the formerly respected UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):  In their 2001 report, they claimed that the 20th century was "unusual" and blamed it on human-released greenhouse gases.  Their infamous temperature graph shown there, shaped like a hockey stick, did away with the well-established Medieval Warm Period (around 1000AD, when Vikings were able to settle in Southern Greenland and grow crops there) and the following Little Ice Age (around 1400 to 1800AD).  Two Canadians exposed the bad data used by the IPCC and the statistical errors in their analysis. The most...

How should we characterize the economic period we have now entered? After nearly two brutal years, the Great Recession appears to be over, at least technically. Yet a return to normalcy seems far off. By some measures, each recession since the 1980s has retreated more slowly than the one before it. In one sense, we never fully recovered from the last one, in 2001: the share of the civilian population with a job never returned to its previous peak before this downturn began, and incomes were stagnant throughout the decade. Still, the weakness that lingered through much of the 2000s...

Smug sages of mainstream politics shouldn't underestimate her ### "No new ideas." That was the most prominent of the criticisms of Sarah Palin's speech at MSNBC's too-cool-for-school "Morning Joe" on Monday. The more general critique of former Gov. Palin's future was that while she certainly had star power, she could never speak to more than a fraction of even Republicans. The proof of the latter point was made with the evidence that many important Washington Republicans could never support her for more than cheerleader to her marginal people. They also pointed out that she had kept out of races in...

WASHINGTON — First John McCain lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race, humbling enough for a politician who had spent a decade pursuing his White House ambitions. Now the Arizona senator is in jeopardy of losing his U.S. Senate seat amid a challenge from within his own party ahead of this fall's midterm elections. McCain, a self-styled maverick who has never been a darling of the American right, is preparing for an unexpected primary election battle against a former GOP congressman who has the backing of members of the anti-establishment Tea Party movement. J.D. Hayworth, who served from...

In an effort to take a bit of a project budget deficit next year of over half a billion dollars, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is considering mass layoffs of city employees. However, most of those laid off would be rehired. But they would have new contracts that call for two and a half fewer hours a week, or 37.5 hours. The plan sounds similar to one instituted in France for all businesses in an effort to reduce unemployment and improve the high quality of French life. That policy has proven controversial, and clearly, so will this one. Not on...

Audi car commercial "hits home" for Gavin Newsom and other city dwellersAudi's "Green Police" Super Bowl ad was clearly out to mock environmentalist fervor -- and it hit close to home in greener-than-thou San Francisco. Perhaps that's because it was the brainchild of Audi's advertising agency, San Francisco independent Venables Bell & Partners. Sitting squarely in the "I am white, middle-class man, hear me roar" school of ads, the Cheap Trick-scored commercial suggested a world in which the type of individual decisions that seem meaningless but in the aggregate make a difference are enforced by enthusiastic law enforcement professionals in...

In Poll, Republicans Gaining Political Ground On Obama Dan Balz and Jon Cohen February 10, 2010 Republicans have significantly narrowed the gap with Democrats on who is trusted to deal with the country's problems and have sharply reduced several of President Obama's main political advantages, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey paints a portrait of a restless and dissatisfied electorate at the beginning of a critical election year. More than seven in 10 Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, and as many say they're inclined to look for new congressional representation as said so...

NEW YORK (WPIX) - PIX News has learned that federal prosecutors are investigating Governor David Paterson's awarding of a lucrative contract to a politically connected group to run a gaming center at Aqueduct Raceway. The embattled Governor who appears to have dodged the bullet of rumors and innuendo that had been circulating over a purported "bombshell" story being prepared by the New York Times, is now part of a probe by the Eastern District U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn. Two reliable sources confirm the investigation is "very fresh," but could not say precisely what it is prosecutors are looking at...

Every time I try to give Michael Steele the bnefit of the doubt, he opens his mouth again. "“I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation,” Steele said. “Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?”" Talking to ABC News later in the day, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee “clarified” what he meant. "“It’s not because of my race, but race is more of a factor than it ordinarily would be — just as it is for Barack Obama,”...

Dean Murray Republican Dean Murray holds a slim lead in the special election in Suffolk County’s 3rd Assembly District, where Democrat Patricia Eddington held office since 2001. Murray had a 186 vote lead and 51 percent with all the precincts reporting, leaving Democrat Lauren Thoden with 49 percent. But 931 absentee ballots were issued in the race, and results of those votes will not be known until the election is certified, which could take a week or more...

In an interview with Greta Van Susteren on FOXNews' On the Record, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) stated that he understand that negotiations are currently going on between the House and the Senate Democrats to reach a compromise Obamacare bill. He asked that any new Obamacare bill be made available at least 72 hours prior to the Obama - Republican meeting proposed for Feb. 25. (no link to interview available yet)

HICKSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) - Republican Michael Montesano has won a special election for a vacant assembly seat on Long Island. Montesano led with 72 percent to 28 percent for Democrat Matthew T. Meng in nearly complete but unofficial results Tuesday night...

SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP) ― The state controller's office on Tuesday found that California taxpayers are on the hook for more state government retiree health benefits than previously thought. Controller John Chiang's office issued a report showing the growing divide between what the state owes retirees for health and dental benefits and what it has saved so far. The gap has grown to nearly $52 billion, about $3.6 billion over last year's estimate. ... "Even as we try to claw our way out of the recession and provide needed cash to the state's coffers, we cannot ignore the promise...

Roske/APHiram Monserrate vows to fight his expulsion from the state Senate. ALBANY - The state Senate voted to boot embattled Sen. Hiram Monserrate on Tuesday night, citing the lawmaker's conviction in the assault on his girlfriend. The vote was 53 to 8 with one abstention. The dramatic vote came after hours of impassioned closed-door debate - the only question seemed to be just when Monserrate would be expelled. Senate Democratic leader John Sampson, wanted to make the ouster effective on June 30, giving Monserrate time to appeal his conviction of misdemeanor assault against his girlfriend. But with Republican support, there...

Michael Steele anmd the GOP just Embarrased the hell out of themselves and the entire committee by holding an event (apparently packed with idiots) IN HAWAII!! John Stewart mocked the hell out of them

Former President George W. Bush is back, popping up on a Minnesota billboard funded by people who aren't happy with the way things are going in Washington. The billboard features a king-sized picture of the former president, with a tagline that reads "Miss me yet?" "It's really got people's attention. It's making them think," said Wyoming Mayor Sheldon Anderson. Anderson, a Republican, says he doesn't know who funded the billboard, but he agrees with it. "I think it's time government stayed out of the pockets of the people and is this billboard getting that message across? I don't know but...

Democratic former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder is urging President Barack Obama to fire Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, another former Virginia governor... snip. "Don't let yourself believe that Massachusetts and Virginia and New Jersey were some aberration," Wilder said, "and I hope Tim and the president will take it in the constructive way it was intended."

Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Mich., will announce his plans to retire at the end of this term tomorrow at a press conference, according to The Hotline: A press release from Ehler's office says the presser "follow[s] speculation about his plans to continue serving" in the House. Several GOP sources tell Hotline OnCall his wife had a heart attack last week, further lending credence to speculation he will step aside. Ehlers joins a growing list of retiring members of Congress, including 17 Republicans and 11 Democrats.

In just about every speech at their 2008 convention, Democrats promised voters that a change in the White House would, in Barack Obama’s formulation, restore “our moral standing” in the world. Replace the unilateralist cowboy at the top with a humbler multilateralist, and the path would finally be cleared to fix vexing international issues such as curbing carbon emissions and dealing with the mullahs in Iran. Like many of the party faithful’s long-nurtured beliefs, this hope has disintegrated on contact with reality. “America is losing the free world,” said a January headline in the Financial Times. While that statement is...

Sarah Palin and The Tea Party movement are making many headlines these days as they fortify their position as the key opposition against President Barack Obama. Make no mistake about it. Sarah Palin is going to run for president in 2012. And, the millions of morons who follow her with every beck and call will vote for her. She'll get a lot of votes. And, she very well could unseat President Obama in 2012. Sarah Palin has now captivated the hearts and minds of conservatives across the country by being the face of the divisive Tea Party movement. She spoke...

Republican candidates lead Democrats by eight points in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot, marking little change since the first of the year. Republicans started the year ahead by nine points -- their largest lead in several years -- while support for Democrats fell to its lowest level in years. Republicans have held the lead on the Generic Ballot for several months now. But in a three-way congressional contest with a Tea Party candidate on the ballot, the Democrat earns 36% support. The GOP candidate comes in second with 25% of the vote, and the Tea Party candidate...

The Republican National Committee is sending out a fundraising e-mail that urges donors to send GOP Valentine's E-Cards to loved ones with online contributions of anywhere from $10 to $100. Click on the photo with Reed, Pelosi, and Zero or choose another one. There are 18 choices! Or go to this link to see all of them: http://www.gopvalentine.com/?e=politics-unit@foxnews.com