Free Republic

Akin said he has no plans to withdraw.“I don’t know that I’m the only person in public office who’s suffered from foot-in-mouth disease here, and this was a very, very serious error. On the other hand, there are so many good people in Missouri who nominated me, and they understood my heart,” Akin said.... Akin said no Republicans have called him and asked him to withdraw from the race.“No one has called me and said, ‘Todd, I think you should drop out,’” Akin said. “No one has said that. But I gather people are saying that in the media, but they didn’t specifically call...

“First of all, nobody accused Mr. Romney of being a felon,” President Obama meeting with White House press corps -- 8/20

Breaking: Senior GOP official: Akin advisors making preparations for a withdrawal tomorrow.

President Obama weighed in on the national storm surrounding by Rep. Todd Akin, calling his comments "offensive." "The views expressed were offensive. Rape is rape," Obama said in a surprise appearance at the White House briefing. "And the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we're talking about doesn't make sense to the American people. And certainly doesn't make sense to me," Obama said.

Hearing this from several sources.

s President Barack Obama was departing his impromptu appearance at the White House press briefing on Monday, ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper had some parting words for the president. “Don’t be a stranger,” Tapper said from the briefing room. Tapper’s sentiment seemed to be expressing a consensus among the White House press corps. Prior to this Monday appearance, Obama had not made a solo press conference since June 19. ...more (w/video)...

Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you link back to this source. To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, click here. Branco’s Facebook page is Freedom’s Battle .

"As studies reported by the National Center for the Prevention and Control of Rape indicate, women rarely become pregnant as a result of rape, but it does happen."

There are some very serious issues at stake in this year's election — so many that some people may not be able to see the forest for the trees. Individual issues are the trees, but the forest is the future of America as we have known it. The America that has flourished for more than two centuries is being quietly but steadily dismantled by the Obama administration, during the process of dealing with particular issues. For example, the merits or demerits of President Obama's recent executive order, suspending legal liability for young people who are here illegally, presumably as a...

Crossroads GPS has removed its Senate race ads from the Missouri airwaves in the wake of controversial comments made by Republican nominee and U.S. Senate hopeful Rep. Todd Akin. Politico first reported that Crossroads would pull its ads. The news comes the day after Akin, speaking about his position on abortion in a television interview, claimed that abortion in cases of rape was rarely an issue because “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” The advocacy group had spent millions of dollars on ads in the state to help...

An NRSC source just confirmed to me what various outlets have been reporting: if Todd Akin remains the senate candidate, NRSC will invest no financial resources into the Missouri senate race. Previously, NRSC had planned to spend $5 million. And Crossroads has already taken some TV ads off the air, reports Politico. If Akin does remain in the race, he’s going to be relying, it appears, virtually exclusively on whatever his campaign raises, without any financial help from outside groups.

The surest sign that Democrats know they are in trouble after Paul Ryan's nomination to the Republican presidential ticket behind Mitt Romney is the desperation with which they are trying, desperately, to steer the conversation away from the economy, entitlements, and the Constitution--with the help of the media, of course. This is the substantive debate that President Barack Obama always said he was ready for, and which the media always calls for in high-minded tones, but once it is here they are suddenly trying to change the conversation. The latest distraction is a side show in the Missouri race for...

Now that Mitt Romney has come out with two different statements strongly condemning Republican senate candidate Todd Akin's comments about rape and abortion, the media finds that they will need to gin up another reason to aid and abet Barack Obama in tying these comments to a Romney-Ryan ticket. To the rescue rides the ever-insufferable Carol Costello. This morning, CNN's Costello was almost as giddy to talk about the damage the media wants Akin's comments to do to the GOP brand as MSNBC's Chuck Todd (who could not stop smiling as he concern-trolled). After covering Akin's comments, Costello brought on...

Look, I’m a pretty sunny optimist, but this stretches even my credulity. A pollster in Illinois believes that Mitt Romney can win Barack Obama’s home state, thanks to a mediocre performance in Cook County by the incumbent, and outright hostility outstate: A poll conducted by Illinois-based pollster and political strategist Michael McKeon found Obama leading Republican Mitt Romney by 49 percent to 37 percent in Cook County, the home of Chicago. That puts him ahead by a far thinner margin than expected in a county he should be winning handsomely. Cook is the most Democratic leaning county in the state....

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, today made the following statement regarding Congressman Todd Akin: “Congressman Akin’s statements were wrong, offensive, and indefensible. I recognize that this is a difficult time for him, but over the next twenty-four hours, Congressman Akin should carefully consider what is best for him, his family, the Republican Party, and the values that he cares about and has fought for throughout his career in public service.” Not too hard to read between those lines, huh? Akin hasn’t left yet; if Cornyn were completely behind that stance, he wouldn’t be calling...

Nancy Cordes, CBS: Are you comfortable with the tone being set with your campaign? Have you asked them to change their tone when it comes to defining Mr. Romney. President Obama: Well, first of all I am not sure that all of those characterizations that you laid out there were accurate. For example, nobody accused Mr. Romney of being a felon. And, I think that what is absolutely true is if you watch me on the campaign trail, here's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how to put Americans back to work.

The Former Governor of New Mexico and current Libertarian Party candidate for president Gary Johnson isn’t likely going to become the next president, but that doesn’t mean he won’t have an effect on the outcome of the election come November.Johnson briefly participated in the Republican primaries and debates before switching over to the Libertarian ticket, and per Fox News, Johnson is polling about 5% nationwide, which isn’t particularly bad for a third party candidate. Despite his low numbers, Johnson isbeginning to show a little pull in a few battleground states out west which includes New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado....

Country Star Calls Obama 'a Muslim' By JILIAN FAMA Aug. 20, 2012 Hank Williams Jr. Tells Crowd Obama Is 'a Muslim' Who 'Hates the Military' Controversial country star Hank Williams Jr., who caused a stir last year when he compared Barack Obama to Hitler, is at it again. At the Iowa State Fair, Williams bashed Obama to a crowd saying, "We've got a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the U.S. and we hate him!" To make his anti-Obama message known, Williams recently released a 10-disc album titled "Old School, New Rules." There is no subtlety in...

Obama is having a presser

U.S. Rep. Todd Akin apologized on Mike Huckabee's radio show today for comments he made about rape, and said he will remain in Missouri's U.S. Senate race. "I'm not a quitter," Akin said. "We all make mistakes," Akin said, disowning his previous comments. "The many people who supported me know that when you make a mistake what you need to do is say you're sorry."  Akin said no party leaders have called him and asked for him to drop out. "This was a very very serious error," Akin said. 

Welcome To The Sean Hannity Show Thread! All Posters And Lurkers Are WELCOME! The Show Thread Between EL Rushbo And TGO'S Lounge. Be The First To Post And Win A Sean Hannity Show Thread High Power Blender. Listen To Sean Do Comentary, Talk To Guests And Take Calls From YOU! :)=^..^= Image by Cool Text: Free Logos and Buttons - Create An Image Just Like This

Liberals are the least likely to help the poor. That’s the inescapable conclusion of this new study: states where people participate in religion at a high rate are also the most generous; conversely, the least generous states are also the least religious. Importantly, nine of the ten least generous states voted for Obama in 2008.

As a husband and father of two young women, I found Todd Akin’s comments about women and rape outrageous, inappropriate and wrong. There is no place in our public discourse for this type of offensive thinking. Not only should he apologize, but I believe Rep. Akin’s statement was so far out of bounds that he should resign the nomination for US Senate in Missouri.

"It's time to pass this jobs bill and get America working again," Obama said, griping that it's been three weeks since he sent it to Congress. McConnell, on the Senate floor shortly before the speech, said Obama "is entitled to a vote." He offered it as an amendment to a separate bill dealing with China currency. After Reid objected, McConnell spokesman Don Stewart blasted out a memo to the press suggesting complaints from within Reid's own caucus could be behind his reluctance to move forward. ...While McConnell tried to fast-track the package to the floor Tuesday, Republicans are by no...

The Todd Akin mess By Michelle Malkin  •  August 20, 2012 10:01 AM Ugh.Over the weekend, GOP Rep. Todd Akin — the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Missouri — said some really, really stupid things. (Twitchy has comprehensive coverage. Click here and keep scrolling.) There’s no sugar-coating or whitewashing this. It wasn’t a “gaffe.” It was ignorant, garbled nonsense. Asked about his views on abortion in the case of rape, he claimed that “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Akin’s opponent, incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (who is currently...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 44% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 43%. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided. Today’s update matches the president’s lowest level of support since May. Yesterday was the lowest level of support for Romney since March. On a combined basis, today shows the lowest level of combined support for the two major party candidates since January 27. See daily tracking history.

The reality of trying to shrink government By Lawrence Summers, Published: August 19 With the selection of Paul Ryan as the Republican vice presidential candidate, it is clear that the central issue in the presidential election will be the scale and scope of government involvement in the economy. There is disagreement over what constituted “normal” levels of spending in the past and, indeed, over what constitutes “spending.” But there is a widespread view in both parties that it is feasible and desirable that in the future the federal government should be no larger as a share of the overall economy...

Quick Post

Social Security Administration on Ammo Buy: 589 Bullets Per Agent Is Normal By Penny Starr August 17, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – Tracy Lynge, deputy assistant inspector general with the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General, said the order for 174,000 rounds of hollow point bullets is normal for the agency to use in training its 295 special agents and arming them as law enforcement personnel deployed in 66 offices around the country. The Social Security Administration (SSA) posted a "Request for Quote for Ammunition" on the FedBizOps.gov website on Aug. 7. The request listed the bullets that SSA wanted as...

... Obama’s abortion extremism is such that, as a state legislator, he opposed protection for — I’ll use his words here — “that fetus, or child — however way you want to say describe it” when, contrary to the wishes of the women involved and their abortionists, there was “movement or some indication that, in fact, they’re not just coming out limp and dead.” Babies were inconveniently being born alive, self-styled health-care providers carted them off to utility rooms where they would be left to die. That is infanticide, plain and simple. In Illinois, people tried to stop this barbarism...

According to a new ebook released today by Politico writer Glenn Thrush, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Florida, is the most unpopular of all surrogates for President Obama's reelection campaign. That finding is the product of polling done by the Obama campaign, according to Thrush.

Really, Governor Quinn? Really? Catholic Illinois Governor Pat Quinn took time out recently to do some Islamic praying on Ramadan.

President Barack Obama’s campaign team, celebrated four years ago for its exceptional cohesion and eyes-on-the-prize strategic focus, has been shadowed this time by a succession of political disagreements and personal rivalries that haunted the effort at the outset. Second-guessing about personnel, strategy and tactics has been a dominant theme of the reelection effort, according to numerous current and former Obama advisers who were interviewed for “Obama’s Last Stand,” an e-book out Monday published in a collaboration between POLITICO and Random House. The discord, these sources said, has on occasion flowed from Obama himself, who at repeated turns has made vocal...

Paul Ryan claims fondness for the music of Rage Against the Machine, a leftist and union-backing grunge group. Ryan specified that the music -- rather than lyrics -- forms the attraction. For this, the band's outraged lead singer Tom Morello recently took to the pages of Rolling Stone magazine to denounce Ryan as "clueless." Rage Against the Machine honor Che Guevara as their icon and fifth band member. " We've considered Che a fifth band member for a long time now," gushed Tom Morello, "for the simple reason that he exemplifies the integrity and revolutionary ideals to which we aspire."...

Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, a conservative Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, sparked a furor and earned a rebuke from Mitt Romney’s campaign after saying in an interview broadcast Sunday that women’s bodies can prevent pregnancies in “a legitimate rape” and that conception is rare in such cases. Akin, a six-term congressman running against incumbent Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill, was asked in an interview on St. Louis television station KTVI if he would support abortions for women who have been raped. “It seems to me first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Akin said. “If...

Until yesterday, Todd Akin had a comfortable polling lead in Missouri over incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill in what had been the most vulnerable seat for Democrats this cycle. Suddenly, one has to ask whether Akin has a, er, legitimate chance of beating McCaskill, or even a legitimate chance of avoiding a Torricelli maneuver: Todd Akin on Rape and Abortion, The Jaco Report, 8/19/2012 In the clip, Charles Jaco, of St. Louis Fox affiliate KTVI’s “Jaco Report,” asks Akin whether he thinks abortions ought to permissible in a situation where a woman is raped. While explaining his position, Akin claimed that...

In early 2011, Republican pollster John McLaughlin was at a meeting of Hill leaders, including Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan. Ryan was briefing those present on his soon-to-be-released budget plan. “There was a lot of talk about what they were doing with Medicare,” McLaughlin recounts, “and I remember Paul saying all he was doing was taking the savings from the cuts that Obama had made and was restoring basically the cuts to the seniors for those 55 and older, and then he was changing it where you were going to have premium support for those under 55.” For McLaughlin, that...

Over 400 independent economists signed a statement at the website "Economists for Romney" (http://economistsforromney.com) in support of what they call the Republican presidential candidates' "bold economic plan for America"

Surprise! Donald Trump will get a formal opening-day role at the Republican convention, according to Politico, who talked to “people familiar with the matter�: Trump has generated some buzz with recent posts on Twitter saying he was planning a “big surprise” at the convention next week. But for the first time sources are confirming Republicans will indeed enlist Trump to be part of their opening day act.Trump’s appearance will come on a day with a theme titled, “We Can Do Better,” which appears likely to amount to a coordinated attack on Obama’s time in office.“We are going after Obama,” said...

PRINCETON, NJ -- A majority of voters in key 2012 election swing states say they are not better off than they were four years ago; 40% say they are better off. Swing-state voters' assessments of their situation compared with 2008 have varied little since last fall.

Listen Live: Sound Off Connecticut with Jim Vicevich 9 a.m. to noon ET (Da ily Thread)Sound Off Connecticut is a popular conservative/libertarian call in talk show hosted by Jim Vicevich weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon ET. Although based in Connecticut, the show welcomes callers from all over the United States! This is your chance to sound off America! Call into the show toll free (800) 966-9842! Listen to the LIVE AUDIO STREAM at http://wtic.com - it's free and NO registration is required! If you're in southern New England listen over the air to WTIC 1080 AM, the 50,000...

<p>Obama the capitalism-hating, liberty-hating, America-hating, godless Marxist/communist must be completely destroyed politically!! To allow him another term in the presidency would be to allow the total destruction of America.</p> <p>As much as I detest what the Republican party has become, there is no other party on this earth that can come anywhere close to accomplishing what must be accomplished to keep America from spiraling a Marxist/communist toilet.</p>

There are 600,000 physicians in America who care for the 48 million seniors on Medicare. Of the $716 billion that the Affordable Care Act cuts from the program over the next ten years, the largest chunk—$415 billion—comes from slashing Medicare’s reimbursement rates to doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes. This significant reduction in fees is driving many doctors to stop accepting new Medicare patients, making it harder for seniors to gain access to needed care. Here are a few of their stories. Paul Wertsch is a primary physician in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1977, he and his two partners invested $500,000 of...

In making law, process matters. A lot. When lawmakers eschew regular order to craft legislation, it usually means there’s dirty work afoot. That’s what happened earlier this year, when Congress finagled an extension of federal highway programs and gas taxes. Lawmakers ignored the regular way of doing business, and taxpayers got hosed. Now, conservatives worry that lawmakers are prepping to employ the same sorry shenanigans to pass an uber-expensive farm bill. The regular order passing a bill is simple. The House passes its notion of a good bill; the Senate passes a version it likes, and then representatives from both...

On Thursday, members of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis took a tour of the Bakken area. The trips was planned so that Bank President Narayana Kocherlakota and his staff could gather more information on what is currently happening in the region from an economic standpoint. “Obviously, what’s happening here in the Bakken —we took a tour today between Minot and Williston—is quite special,” said Kocherlakota in meeting with the press after the tour. “Just the level of economic vitality is quite different her relative to anywhere else.” With all the struggles in the national economy, western North Dakota is...

Before yunz head dahntahn to work, or start to red up the house n‘at, join us every morning for coffee (or whatever gets yinz started) and maybe some serious discussion of the issues (or not!) Listen to the Quinn & Rose Morning Show from 6:00 to 9:00 Eastern on: www.wpgb.com (104.7 Pittsburgh, Pa) http://wysl1040.com/ (Rochester, NY) http://www.wncoam.com/main.html (Ashland, OH) http://www.talkradio560.com/ (Frostburg, MD) http://wicofm.com/ (Salisbury/Ocean City, MD WOBX - Outer banks NC http://tunein.com/radio/The-War-Room-with-Quinn--Rose-p34761/ for archived shows And now on 166 XM

TAMPA — They've painted their posters and planned their marches. Now the question is, where are the 15,000 protesters expected to come and shake their fists at the Republican National Convention next week going to stay? ....City rules prohibit just crashing on the sidewalk, and Hillsborough sheriff's deputies have asked local residents and sanitation workers to look out for signs that protesters are illegally squatting in vacant homes. ....... Urban camping:... Closest to the action is Romneyville, a hive of mostly pink tents set up behind the Army Navy Surplus Market on N Tampa Street. Bruce Wright, who runs the...

In four months the debate over America's Fiscal cliff will come to a crescendo, and if Goldman is correct (and in this case it likely is), it will probably be resolved in some sort of compromise, but not before the market swoons in a replica of the August 2011 pre- and post-debt ceiling fiasco: after all politicians only act when they (and their more influential, read richer, voters and lobbyists) see one or two 0's in their 401(k)s get chopped off. But while the Fiscal cliff is unlikely to be a key point of contention far past December, another cliff...

The year 1965 brought us a new program aimed at securing health care for Americans over the age of 65. This program is now becoming the centerpiece of the 2012 presidential campaign, yet many Americans don’t understand the basic financial facts about the plan, or why its sustainability is considered so essential to America’s future. Funded by payroll tax deductions, Medicare was implemented to help pay for medical procedures, hospital costs, and doctor visits. Later a prescription drug benefit was added. Since workers paid for the plan throughout their work years, they naturally felt entitled to this important retirement benefit...

Joseph Biden’s career is chock-full of career-threatening gaffes--had they been committed by a conservative. But last week was exceptional, even for Joe. Telling a largely black audience that Republicans want to “put y’all back in chains” was a burst of verbal flatulence the media just couldn’t deodorize. Hence, the week’s other stinkers also got noticed: He forgot what state he was talking to, what century we’re in, and that Paul Ryan isn’t a governor, but a member of Congress. Small things, maybe, but not as small as the “e” that’s not at the end of potato. But there’s something more...