Free Republic

Good evening, and welcome to the new week's thread.We enter the last 3 weeks of the campaign, 1 debate to go, and a reported very large ad-buy by the McCain campaign.Something, something... must happen soon to re-energize the R ranks and the candidate himself, altho NOT his running mate who continues full steam ahead.In Nobama news, ACORN and his Rezko ties continue to draw some scrutiny, and perhaps by Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago.An oh yes, there's the economy and the markets, both here and worldwide...

Gov. Sarah Palin By Sabra Ayres COX NEWS SERVICE 09/28/2008 WASILLA, Alaska — As a teenager growing up in this small town 30 miles outside of Anchorage, Sarah Heath Palin was known by her friends as an athletic tomboy with a lively sense of humor and easy-going personality. She was the kind of energetic teenager that once spontaneously choreographed a dance to the 1970s pop song "My Sharona" in the upstairs living room of the Heath family home. "She's hilarious and super down-to-earth ... and she's pretty ambitious, that's for sure," said Adele Morgan, a Wasilla friend who has known...

BLACK PASTOR ATTACKS OBAMA This hate filled video says it all................

Integrity in Politics by Dr. Jeff Mirus, August 29, 2008   The selection of Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as John McCain’s running mate has people thinking about integrity again. Palin is a pro-life mother of four who makes no bones about fighting corruption and standing up for the vulnerable. She opposes abortion not only in speech but in personal practice, having resisted suggestions to abort her own Downs-syndrome child. She swept into office in Alaska by exposing and campaigning against serious ethics violations, and she has the highest approval rating of any significant public figure in any state in...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – While many studies have examined cheating among college students, new research looks at the issue from a different perspective – identifying students who are least likely to cheat. The study of students at one Ohio university found that students who scored high on measures of courage, empathy and honesty were less likely than others to report their cheating in the past – or intending to cheat in the future Moreover, those students who reported less cheating were also less likely to believe that their fellow students regularly committed academic dishonesty. People who don’t cheat “have a more...

. . . honor, integrity, honesty, ethics, morals, character, judgement? Recently, rumors at the company where I work have started proving true. Our building will be sold and the manufacturing facility sold to another company. Something new; unusual? Market downturn? No, not really. Just greed. Greed likely performed by an officer of the company who thought it would be okay to misreport our earnings. In other words, they "cooked the books". I'm sure they thought that no harm would come as a result of lying; it made their quarterly earnings look better than they were and earned them a higher...

Commentary - Peter Schweizer: Conservatives more honest than liberals? Jun 2, 2008 3:00 AM (10 days ago) by Peter Schweizer, The Examiner The headline may seem like a trick question — even a dangerous one — to ask during an election year. And notice, please, that I didn’t ask whether certain politicians are more honest than others. (Politicians are a different species altogether.) Yet there is a striking gap between the manner in which liberals and conservatives address the issue of honesty. Consider these results: Is it OK to cheat on your taxes? A total of 57 percent of those...

The headline may seem like a trick question — even a dangerous one — to ask during an election year. And notice, please, that I didn’t ask whether certain politicians are more honest than others. (Politicians are a different species altogether.) Yet there is a striking gap between the manner in which liberals and conservatives address the issue of honesty. Consider these results: Is it OK to cheat on your taxes? A total of 57 percent of those who described themselves as “very liberal” said yes in response to the World Values Survey, compared with only 20 percent of those...

The headline may seem like a trick question — even a dangerous one — to ask during an election year. And notice, please, that I didn’t ask whether certain politicians are more honest than others. (Politicians are a different species altogether.) Yet there is a striking gap between the manner in which liberals and conservatives address the issue of honesty. Consider these results: Is it OK to cheat on your taxes? A total of 57 percent of those who described themselves as “very liberal” said yes in response to the World Values Survey, compared with only 20 percent of those...

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is grappling with growing numbers of public corruption cases and a surge in mortgage fraud investigations, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday, wondering aloud whether Americans are "becoming more crooked." In a speech to the American Bar Association, Mueller asked the assembled defense lawyers for help in "creating a culture of integrity" by reporting evidence of wrongdoing by politicians and corporate executives alike. "Anyone who follows the news these days and sees repeated references to corporate fraud and public corruption might think the nation is in the midst of a moral crisis," Mueller told the defense...

A recent poll in North Carolina showed that only 25 percent of voters think Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is honest compared to 48 percent for Obama and 54 percent for Arizona Sen. John McCain. And Nearly 90 percent say trust is a major factor in deciding who they would vote for. Similar doubts about Clinton's honesty have surfaced in polls by Gallup and Pew Research. These results don’t bode well for Clinton in the upcoming May 6 North Carolina presidential primary. Clinton called this emphasis on honesty short-sighted and unfair. “I’ll grant that honesty seems important to a lot of...

(CBS) It was a tempting sight for struggling landscaper Eli Estrada: a bag filled with $140,000 on a Cerritos street. There was his credit card debt, upcoming wedding and making ends meet with his artificial grass and landscaping business. But turning it over to Long Beach police last month was the right thing to do, he said. The 40-year-old Estrada admits that some days "I think I was nuts," but he adds, "I know in my gut that to keep that money would be wrong." The Bank of America money bag was lost March 11 by Brinks Armored truck drivers. The...

Jerry Zeifman, the Democrat chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee that worked on the Watergate investigation, says he fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people Zeifman refused to recommend to other employers in his 17-year career, “because she was a liar. She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.” Clinton defended her actions in the Watergate investigation as “necessary for the greater good. Look, we...

The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. -- Barack Obama, Huffington Post, March 14, 2008 The key question before Barack Obama today was the one going to his integrity: was he was telling the truth when he claimed in his HuffPo piece of March 14th that he never heard Wright make the remarks "that are the cause of this controversy"? I listened carefully. He dodged the question. View video.

Report: Women Are World-Class Fibbers Sunday , March 02, 2008 Most females lie "more cleverly and successfully than men" about everything from cheating on their spouses and shopping binges to barhopping and facelifts, according to a new book published this week. "Women lie as a survival technique, but also to get what they want," Susan Shapiro Barash, author of "Little White Lies, Deep Dark Secrets: The Truth About Why Women Lie," told the New York Post. Barash interviewed 500 women nationwide and found 75 percent lie about how much money they spend, while more than 60 percent admitted to cheating...

Kids lie early, often, and for all sorts of reasons—to avoid punishment, to bond with friends, to gain a sense of control. But now there’s a singular theory for one way this habit develops: They are just copying their parents. In the last few years, a handful of intrepid scholars have decided it’s time to try to understand why kids lie. For a study to assess the extent of teenage dissembling, Dr. Nancy Darling, then at Penn State University, recruited a special research team of a dozen undergraduate students, all under the age of 21. Using gift certificates for free...

Exactly what was it about Hillary’s recent speech in Selma that made supporters and detractors alike cringe upon viewing the spectacle of the Wellesley College graduate and resident of New York State speaking with a Southern drawl? It wasn’t just the pandering — of which all politicians are culpable. Rather, the resulting criticism seemed more to stem from the fact that the whole episode reeked so tellingly of insincerity. And therein lies one of the most vulnerable aspects of her candidacy: the absence of even a shred of authenticity. Is there any aspect of Hillary’s march to the White House...

Once there was a Pope named Peter? One day Jesus asked two questions to his disciples. The first: Who do men say that the Son of Man is? (Matthew 16:13). The second more personal "But you, who do you say that I am?" Do you believe what the people’s opinion are of him or do you have one of your own. In v.16 Peter spoke up and answered “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus now turned to Peter and made a series of statements. One is where the revelation came from. Jesus tells him that...

We have two cats: Weasel, a grey female calico, and Orion, a male orange and white tabby. Orion is a big, lump of a cat, twenty pounds if he’s an ounce. He’s taught me a lesson for years that I finally realized today. He teaches by example. Orion showed up at the door four years ago in the fall. He was obviously a house cat, not a feral or wild one. He had no collar. We brought him water and food. He wanted to come inside, but we didn’t let him. He was obviously someone else’s cat; we shouldn’t prevent...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - There are probably a million ways Jerry Mika could spend $2 million dollars. Trouble is, he couldn't cash the check. Expecting a $15 refund from the Utah Department of Commerce, the Draper man opened his mail recently to find a $2,245,342 check. "I kept trying to find a way to make it legitimate so I could cash it," he said. "I did think about all the things I could do with the money ... who wouldn't?" Mika returned the check - a mistake that occurred when an employee entered a serial number, not an amount...

The Post editorial noted "a perverse kind of good news" in Hillary's free-trade revisionism: "There's little chance that her position reflects any deeply held principle." And there lies the beauty not just of Clinton on free trade but of the Clinton candidacy itself: She has no principles. Her liberalism is redeemed by her ambition; her ideology subordinate to her political needs. I could never vote for her, but I (and others of my ideological ilk) could live with her -- precisely because she is so liberated from principle. Her liberalism, like her husband's -- flexible, disciplined, calculated, triangulated -- always...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 8, 2007Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- Campaigning in Iowa over the weekend, pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama attempted to moderate his views on abortion and abstinence education. However, he made it clear he has no interest in limiting or reducing abortions and his pro-abstinence stance is tempered by his backing of sexual education.Speaking in the northeast town of New Hampton late Friday, Obama responded to a question in a forum from a Denver resident in the first primary state for a family reunion.The questioner asked Obama to reconcile how society gets upset at someone like Michael...

"After the speech, local farmer Les Nelson cuts through the crowd. He has a crewcut, wears worn jeans, holds out his thick hands, and says: “Kill the terrorists, secure the border, and give me back my freedom.” Thompson looks to him, and says, deadeye, “you just summed up my whole speech.” That quote is part of an excellent in-depth article over at The Politico that picks up on the intangible that is taking place out on the campaign trail between Fred Thompson and the people he speaks to. Fred is coming across as...........

A new study says that on average, more than half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in the garbage. Why is that interesting? According to the study, users are tossing the cartridges when their printers are telling them they're out of ink, not when they necessarily are out of ink. The study by TÜV Rheinland looked at inkjet efficiency across multiple brands, including Epson (who commissioned the study), Lexmark, Canon, HP, Kodak, and Brother. They studied the efficiency of both single and multi-ink cartridges. Espon's printers were among the highest rated, at more than...

Several dangerous precedents were set in the recent kangaroo court conviction of former Cheney Chief of Staff Scooter Libby. To begin with, Libby was tried and convicted for the crime of obstructing justice, ostensibly by providing false information during grand jury testimony. The entirety of the investigation was billed under the heading of determining the identity of the individual who had divulged the employment status of Valerie Plame, who had once been a covert CIA agent. So ambiguous was the nature of the investigation and subsequent trial, that presiding Federal District Judge Reggie B. Walton would not even allow the...

With Hillary and Barack flailing away at each other, third-man-out John Edwards turned up on this morning's "Today." But while claiming he wanted to stay above the fray, he certainly came close to calling Hillary dishonest, all the while laughing off the notion that he might be. Norah O'Donnell played a clip of Edwards saying: "We need a leader who will be open and honest with you, and with the American people. Who will tell the truth. Who will tell the truth when they've made a mistake." Wonder who John might have had in mind? When Meredith Vieira interviewed...

Chuck Norris The truth will find you ouch I was not surprised to read this past week, WND's report about a rural pastor who discovered documents in the Smithsonian Institution's files that reveal a possible cover-up in identifying Ten Commandments displays in the U.S. Supreme Court. Is anyone shocked anymore to discover when one conceals the truth? It has become a normal way of life. Lying isn't the problem – getting caught is. But hasn't history (ours and others) taught us anything about the fact that lies will eventually be revealed and the truth will ultimately triumph? Pick a decade!...

All my life, I tried to be honest," said Osman Chowdhury, a native of Bangladesh. "Today is no different." But the 41-year-old cabbie from Queens did have a message: "I'm proud of what I did so that people know New York taxi drivers are honest." What he did started on Monday evening, when he picked up the woman at a hotel in midtown Manhattan and drove her to an apartment building several blocks away. She gave him $20 to pay the fare and asked for $9 back. Hours later, at about 10 p.m., three other passengers with luggage discovered the...

A taxi driver returned a black bag carrying 31 diamond rings to a passenger who earlier had given him a 30-cent tip on an $11 ride. Hours after Osman Chowdhury dropped off the passenger, he tracked her down through a flurry of phone calls and returned the bag, which she had left in the taxi's trunk. The unidentified woman, who said she was a jeweler, offered a $100 reward. Chowdhury accepted the money to cover the fares he lost while tracking her down. Chowdhury, a native of Bangladesh, told the New York Daily News that he didn't so much as...

John Kerry announced this week that he will not run for President in 2008. I don’t think any capable observers who pay attention to details such as political appeal and fund-raising strength thought that he had a snowball’s chance anyway. But since my long-time acquaintance, John Kerry, has taken himself out of the race, I thought I should do the same. I met John Kerry in Woolsey Hall at Yale, in 1963. I was a junior, and an officer of the Yale Political Union, when sophomore Kerry showed up to join the Union. He was a year older than me,...

Virtually every system of ethics—Objectivist or not—will acknowledge in no uncertain terms that honesty is one of the chief human virtues. What is meant by the term “honesty” varies widely, however. A popular misconception of honesty equates the virtue with always “telling it like it is” and not holding back any of one’s thoughts about a person, idea, or situation—no matter what the consequences of those thoughts. This view and its real-world applications are antithetical to genuine honesty. If we acknowledge that the individual’s life is the standard of all value, then every virtue must be identified in terms of...

Keith Richards' appearance in the second Pirates of the Caribbean sequel descended into chaos after he apparently got so drunk on the movie set, the film's director had to prop him up, IMDB.com reports. The hell-raising Rolling Stones guitarist finally shot his long-awaited cameo as Johnny Depp's father in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End earlier this summer, but he is perhaps unlikely to remember the occasion. Bill Nighy, who plays Davy Jones in the film, told Empire Online that Richards was inebriated by the time the production team retrieved him from his trailer to shoot his scene, and...

Dear Jesse Jackson by Mychal Massie Dear Rev. Jackson: I read with interest your Sept. 12, 2006, article "Goodwill, unity, money have been squandered since Sept. 11," which appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times. I do not object, as such, to your poisonous screed directed at President Bush. I object to the substance that so freely flows from your mouth and that can best be likened unto that which is consistent with encopresis – albeit in your case, the malady can hardly be defined as involuntary. You purport yourself to be a minister – a reverend – a so-called man of...

As ABC prepares to air their mini-series regarding the events leading to the events on 9/11, the left is up in arms over the docudrama's implications that former President Clinton's inaction greatly contributed to the attacks of 9/11. I will save that debate for later. What bothers me most about this whole thing is the whiny rhetoric coming from the left, as they launch attack after attack on ABC, calling for truth and honest representations in the mini-series. 'The Path to 9/11', as it is called, has a number of top democrats crying foul and slinging allegations of political bias...

"Only little people pay taxes." Leona Helmsley said, didn't she? Well, that statement represents reality more than people realize. No, it's not just the taxes that are the issue. The overriding issue making so many people angry these days is the LACK of uniform justice in this country (and the world for that matter). Law after law is passed and who follows those laws? The honest people try. The little people have to. I personally know that in almost all workplaces, people are chafing under oppressive management which sets attendance rules, policy, etc. that the employees are expected to follow...

The feeling of being watched makes people act more honestly, even if the eyes are not real, a study suggests. A Newcastle University team monitored how much money people put in a canteen "honesty box" when buying a drink. They found people put nearly three times as much in when a poster of a pair of eyes was put above the box than when the poster showed flowers. The brain responds to images of eyes and faces and the poster may have given the feeling of being watched, they say. Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the team says the...

The US Chamber of Commerce is on a tour of the US called China Business 2006 Initiative. The purpose of the tour is to encourage exchanges between the little guys. They want to pair up US business executives, legal experts, government officials, academics who have on-the-ground experience in China with local business owners, and community officials who might benefit from opportunities in the Chinese market. For example - China is the third largest buyer of products in Kansas! And the fifth largest buyer of Missouri exports. West Coasters are not the only ones who can do business with China. And...

Customers were startled to find gas priced $.002 a gallon at a Plainfield, Ind., gas station. What would you do if you saw this? Fill up and drive away Tell the clerk about the obvious mistake Fill up, then tell the clerk Drive away and avoid the situation entirely

Luke 24: 49 And behold, I send tthe promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

Is President Bush honest? Total Votes = 138 Yes 37 Votes, or 26.81 % No 101 Votes, or 73.18 %

Love It Or Hate It -- It's your ChoiceOver the past ten years the federal government created about 30,000 new laws and regulations. That's just at the federal level of government."If only there were one law that ruled the world," one person recently quipped.There's several dozen if not a hundred issues where government has overstepped the power granted to it by the people. A person could write a hundred articles, one article per issue, that exposes each government abuse of power and abuse of citizens.What if there was one article that could do the job of one hundred separate articles?...

CHICAGO -- The adage "believe half of what you see and none of what you hear" would seem to be good advice to follow at work. In a recent survey by CareerBuilder.com, 19 percent of workers who were asked admit they tell lies at the office at least once a week. And nearly a-quarter of managers said they've fired an employee for being dishonest. Workers who admit being caught in a lie at work give a variety of reasons for playing fast-and-loose with the truth. Some lie to explain missed days or late arrivals. Others fib to protect other employees...

The Honest Leadership & Open Government Act The Pledge: Sign Here The Democratic Proposal Governor Dean's Letter Read Ongoing Coverage Democrats offer an aggressive reform package to reverse Republican excesses and restore the public trust. Our program for change embodies the following provisions:Close the Revolving Door. Close the revolving door between the Congress and lobbying firms by doubling (from one year to two) the cooling-off period during which lawmakers, senior Congressional staff, and Executive Branch officials are prohibited from lobbying their former offices. Eliminate floor privileges for former Members of Congress and officers of the Senate and House who return...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats appear to be backing away from an all-out assault on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito and throwing the full force of their caucus behind an effort to blast Republicans for a "culture of corruption" in Washington. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid today plans to huddle with his troops behind closed doors to discuss strategy on the two issues. Aides to the Nevadan are publicly denying reports that the Democrats do not plan vigorous opposition to Alito to focus on the key to their 2006 election strategy -- tarring the GOP for ethical lapses and an emerging...

In fact, has Bush ever listened to one of your phone conversations? Unless you have spoken to a terrorist, the answer is no. Do you speak to terrorists? If you do, the answer is yes. Here is how it works. Every president for decades has had the ability to do it. The technology has changed with the advent of cell phones and the advances in computers, but the point is the same. It used to be done with people doing the listening. Then, a clever geek came up with voice recognition software. After that, a computer could do the listening....

(Los Angeles -AP, December 1, 2005) - A Southern California cab driver's simple act of honesty has turned to gold. Two weeks ago, the driver, Haider Sediqi, tracked down a jeweler and returned to him the $350,000 worth of diamonds he left in the back seat of the taxi. As a way of saying "thank you," the jeweler sent the cabbie a $10,000 check and a diamond bracelet. But the honest cabbie was just as impressed with the man's thank-you note. The jeweler wrote that the cab driver had "changed his life." The driver is putting the money in a...

Ronald Halterman A Shelbyville man has been getting his water and sewer bill paid through a federal program designed to help people pay their winter heating and summer cooling bills. And he wants that to stop, so David Crowell, general manager of Shelbyville Power, Water & Sewerage System, has re-examined the situation and has come to the conclusion that to satisfy a customer, the utility bill can be separated. All Shelbyville utility bills, except Ronald Halterman's, will include charges for electricity, water, sewer and taxes. The federal assistance provided to Halterman is for energy such as electricity and, last...

Honest cabbie returns diamonds 18/11/2005 16:22  - (SA)    Los Angeles - Haider Sediqi didn't give much thought to the small, zippered pouch left in his taxicab by the passenger he took to the Los Angeles international airport. The Afghan United States immigrant taxi driver stashed the brown bag in the front, leaving it unopened as he finished his Wednesday shift, and met a fellow driver for lunch. As he walked to a restroom, Sediqi casually asked his friend to check the bag for identification. "Oh, God," Sediqi, 40, recalled his friend saying as he stared into the bag. "Look at those...

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