Free Republic

Tuesday, September 30, 2008 Bill Clinton Fibbing on Fannie ... Posted by: Matt Lewis at 8:56 AM Bill Clinton has been getting a lot of press lately for trashing his own party’s handling of the mortgage mess. Last Thursday, he told Good Morning America, “I think that the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by the Republicans in Congress, or by me when I was President, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” Unfortunately, he was fibbing. He actually set the “standards” that forced Fannie and...

As the nasty racist people of the United States of America are on the verge of electing their first ever President of color, new light is being shed on some very dark secrets that the media doesn't want you to know, nor will the politically correct society we live in ever dare allow to come to light. Days after falling behind Senator McCain and new rockstar Sarah Palin in the national polls, Barack Obama has jetted back ahead with the disastrous news of the economy. Obama is being viewed by the media and apparently the majority of the public as...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman skipped Senate Democrats' weekly caucus luncheon Tuesday and will not attend them for a while after angering many Democrats by criticizing their presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama. The Connecticut senator was Democrat Al Gore's vice presidential running mate in 2000, but he endorsed Republican John McCain in this year's contest. Lieberman said through a spokesman that he has an informal policy of skipping the lunches when presidential politics or the Iraq war will be discussed.

My name i'ld like to keep anynomous. I'm 19. I'm an independent, once undecided, moderate. I live in a liberal Maryland, one of my role model's is Martin King Jr., and though I used to be excited about Obama, I just can't think of ever putting him into a mayor office anymore. This may sound like a wierd oxymoron to some, but it's true. I wanted someone to hear my message. Everyone wants to know what the undecided voters wanted, and what effected their choices, well here's my story. My great grandparents came to this country in poverty, due to...

500,000 push for Clinton to run as independent Most everyone has heard the news that Hillary Clinton decided not to decide about ending her campaign. (I can almost hear the sound of Geddy Lee singing "if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice"...)What some of you may not have heard is that she has a fan base that would rather see her run as an independent than see Obama elected.I have no idea how we got on their email list, but we did somehow, and so this morning, we received word that... HillaryGrassrootsCampaign.com is not associated...

It seems like California’s official campaign finance watchdog is barking a little louder these days about the role of money in politics. And its top target: the murky world of interest groups who ostensibly operate independently of the campaigns run by candidates for office. The Fair Political Practices Commission recently began a new effort to shine light on the millions of dollars in “independent expenditures” spent in support or opposition of various candidates. IEs, as they’re known to politicos, gained special prominence after the passage of Proposition 34 in 2000. The ballot measure was marketed as a way to dampen...

America's Independent Party has as its goal the return of our nation to a set of foundational principles. We call them "the American Principles." The word "principle" comes from a Latin root which means "first things." The American Principles are the "first things" that our country should consider – in domestic policy, foreign policy, the internal functioning of government, and in using the "bully pulpit" of public office and the political arena to promote certain societal virtues and behaviors. America's Independent Party recognizes that these "first things" are clearly defined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican who served under President Bush, said Friday he may not back the GOP presidential nominee in November, telling CNN that “I am keeping my options open at the moment.”</p>

At RWU (Roger Williams University), Lou Dobbs repeats tough stance on immigrants 01:00 AM EST on Friday, February 1, 2008 By Alex Kuffner Journal Staff Writer The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez BRISTOL — No, Lou Dobbs did not announce his candidacy for the presidency during a speech at Roger Williams University last night. Despite an audience member holding up a “Lou Dobbs for President” sign, despite the CNN anchorman’s own call for an independent candidate and despite a reference from the university’s leader to an Internet campaign urging Dobbs to throw his name in the ring, he...

He's a hawk on the war, yet independent-minded voters who are sick of Iraq are voting for him anyway. John McCain will likely go down in history as the first GOP presidential nominee who vaulted to the front of the pack despite failing to win a plurality among self-identified Republicans in any of the early state primaries. According to Florida exit polls, the Arizona senator tied Mitt Romney among voters who described themselves as Republican but pulled away to victory with a nearly 2-1 advantage among independents. That formula -- battle to a draw for Republicans, stomp all comers among...

Napoleon resident John F. “Jack” Green is 78 years old and runs about three miles every morning. He also is running for Congress in the 5th District special election as a write-in candidate. “I’m running because I can’t lose. I can only win,” Green said. “How can you lose something you never had?” While Green’s name will not be on the ballot, the names of State Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, and Democrat Robin Weirauch of Napoleon will be. Green said he ran for the same congressional seat six or eight years ago, when no Democrat candidate was running. Green,...

This is why a lot of people wanted Fred Thompson in the race. Who do you trust? Mitt today or Mitt from...whenever he changed his mind on abortion. What? Three years ago? That doesn't smack of a real change of heart more than a political calculation. If the abortion issue doesn't bother you then listen to Mitt run from the "Reagan-Bush" years.

Senator Lieberman gave one important speech yesterday at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, tracing the history of the foreign policy of the Democratic Party. "Confronted by the totalitarian threats first of fascism and then of communism, Democrats under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy forged a foreign policy that was simultaneously principled, internationalist, and tough-minded," he said. Back then, the Democrats were "a party that understood that a progressive society must be ready and willing to use its military power in defense of its progressive ideals, in order to ensure that...

Mitt Romney engaged in a heated discussion about his Mormon faith with a prominent Des Moines talk show host off the air on Thursday morning. The contentious back-and-forth between Romney and WHO's Jan Mickelson began on the air (video link courtesy Breitbart.tv) when the former governor appeared on the popular program that has become a regular stop for GOP presidential hopefuls. But the conversation spilled over to a commercial break and went on after the program ended, where a visibly annoyed Romney spoke in much greater detail about his church's doctrines than he is comfortable doing so in public. The...

Survey of Independents, Who Could Be Key in 2008, Finds Attitudes From Partisan to Apathetic... ...The study is a comprehensive examination of a broad segment of the electorate -- about three in 10 voters call themselves independents -- that is poised to play the role of political power broker in 2008. Independents split their votes between President Bush and Kerry in 2004 but shifted decisively to the Democrats in 2006, providing critical support in the Democratic takeover of the House and the Senate. The new survey underscores the Republican Party's problems heading into 2008. Fueled by dissatisfaction with the president...

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is prepared to spend an unprecedented $1 billion of his own $5.5 billion personal fortune for a third-party presidential campaign, personal friends of the mayor tell The Washington Times. "He has set aside $1 billion to go for it," confided a long-time business adviser to the Republican mayor. "The thinking about where it will come from and do we have it is over, and the answer is yes, we can do it." Another personal friend and fellow Republican said in recent days that Mr. Bloomberg, who is a social liberal and fiscal conservative, has...

[Actual excerpt blocked due to weird legal issues, but here's the link.]

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

Mr Chen set out a "four wants" policy for Taiwanese independence China has hit out at Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian after he made a strongly pro-independence speech on Sunday.Mr Chen said Taiwan should pursue independence, write a new constitution and change its official name from "Republic of China" to Taiwan. China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said anyone wanting to split Taiwan from the mainland was a "criminal". The row came as China opened its annual session of parliament and announced a hike in defence spending. Mr Chen, in a speech to a pro-independence group on Sunday, said: "Taiwan should...

Taiwan needs to "go independent" and Taiwan was the best name for the country to use in seeking entry to the UN, President Chen Shui-bian said last night. "Taiwan will say yes to independence," he said. "Taiwan will be correctly named, Taiwan will have a new constitution, Taiwan will develop. There is no left-right political axis in Taiwan, just the question of independence or assimilation." "The name `Taiwan' is the name of our mother," the president told a 25th anniversary dinner for Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) in Taipei. "[It's] the most beautiful, most powerful name; the best name...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Sen. Joe Biden told South Carolina audiences on Sunday he expects to spend a lot of time campaigning in the state because the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination essentially will be determined by the first Southern primary. "I think it's going to be over after South Carolina," Biden said. "I'm going to be spending a lot of time here." That includes spending time courting independents in a state where voters don't register by party. "If the Democratic nominee cannot attract independents, Democrats cannot win," said Biden. Stumping in the state's rural heartland, the senator from Delaware...

Giuliani touts experience, but personal life may be an issue BY CRAIG GORDON Newsday Washington Bureau January 28, 2007 MANCHESTER, N.H. - Rudolph Giuliani argued yesterday that his record of cutting taxes, improving security and guiding New York through 9/11 are proof that he could do the same as president - offering his strongest signal yet that he's serious about a White House bid. [...snip] Giuliani is trying to bat down questions from top Republicans about whether his White House ambitions are a popularity-fueled dalliance or something more serious. His speech laid out a point-by-point rationale for his possible candidacy,...

WASHINGTON - House leaders are creating a bipartisan task force on whether to establish an independent ethics panel to police the House, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. Pelosi, D-Calif., said Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio has agreed to the idea. The task force has not been set up yet, but it will be expected to report back in March, she said. Pelosi offered no details on what the outside ethics group might look like, saying that would be up to the task force. "There is no question that the ethics process in the last couple of years has lost...

Why I am running? by Edward C. Noonan If you are like me, you have a lot of concerns about the direction this state is headed. Some of the main concerns that top the list include: The Illegal immigration invasion The matter of abortion The moral decline The $460+ Billion state debt The out-of-control welfare state The out-of-control state spending The oppressive state taxes There is nothing worse in trying to solve a problem than not understanding the nature of the problem. The low standards, the out-of-control welfare state, the moral decline, illegal immigration and a $460+ billion state debt...

BURHIZ — The voices and the faces of freedom are making their way onto the airwaves in the Diyala Province for the first time since coalition forces arrived in 2003. The Independence Radio and Television news station, an Iraqi broadcast station in Burhiz, began broadcasting television and radio programs Sept. 22. The station hopes to help build a media infrastructure ran by and for the local public. “I really do believe that (freedom of the press) is the key to a peaceful, democratic Iraq. I think they’re off to a good start here in Diyala,” said Maj. Mike Humphreys, public...

Friedman leads field in individual donations; Perry holds cash lead AUSTIN (AP) - Comedic candidate Kinky Friedman has far and away the most individual donations in the governor's race this year, collecting campaign cash from thousands across Texas and across the country. Republican Gov. Rick Perry leads in total money, followed by independent Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn - both piling up millions of dollars and benefiting from some large contributions of $100,000 or more. With Perry and Strayhorn holding that strong financial advantage entering the Nov. 7 election, Friedman will be working to capitalize on what appears to be a...

CBS 2 has learned the details of a private dinner for the mayor that was held at an apartment building on Manhattan's Upper East Side last month. There, he spent the evening in serious discussions about the viability of a White House run. Sources told CBS 2 Bloomberg brought three deputy mayors with him, and proceeded to talk through every angle of a presidential run. By the end, the group had zeroed in on his running as an independent in 2008. And, the sources said, he seemed intrigued. The dinner was held at the home of Michael Steinhardt, a legendary...

"The Democratic Party, and even the centrists within it, must sever all ties with Al From and the DLC. They must not be allowed access to Democratic Congressional leaders. They must not be allowed a role in the nomination process in 2008. They must not be allowed a presence at the Democratic convention. By supporting Bloomberg, Al From and the DLC have indicated they no longer are interested in participating in the Democratic Party and we should see to it that they get their way."

Latin America: Donald Rumsfeld once observed that Venezuelans had a way of fixing political problems on their own, with no need of U.S. intervention. The dramatic prison break of a union boss may be the first sign. Carlos Ortega's escape Sunday from a Venezuelan maximum security military prison must have sent a shiver through the tyrannical leftist regime of President Hugo Chavez. The tough union boss had crossed Chavez before and was serving a 16-year sentence for leading a vast oil-worker strike in 2002-03. Like Lech Walesa of Poland, Ortega called for independent union leadership at Venezuela's state oil company...

U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, in his first campaign appearance since launching his independent re-election campaign, likened terrorists to Nazis and called for Republicans and Democrats to work together to combat them. "We are at war with a brutal enemy," said Lieberman during a campaign stop Thursday at a Waterbury pizza joint. "How the heck can we be in a battle in which we are fighting as Democrats and Republicans against each other when these terrorists certainly don't distinguish based on party affiliation? They want to kill any and all of us." Lieberman lost by 10,000 votes in Connecticut's Democratic primary...

Candidate Kinky holds court at Bleacher's Cafe RUTH BRADLEY AVALANCHE-JOURNAL When Kinky Friedman walked into Bleacher's Sports Cafe Sunday afternoon, a cigar in his mouth, he stopped for a moment to take a picture with a constituent before taking his place on stage next to a sign reading "Keep Austin weird, make Lubbock Kinky." This is not your typical gubernatorial candidate. And that's the way Friedman wants it. "I think that most of us have come to the conclusion that we could use a non-politician to run the state of Texas," he said, a cigar in one hand and a...

U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman filed papers Monday that will allow him to petition his way onto the November ballot if he loses the primary election, his campaign said. The three-term Democratic senator faces a tough Aug. 8 primary challenge from businessman Ned Lamont. Lieberman, whom fellow Democrats have criticized for his support of the Iraq war and a perceived closeness with President Bush, is popular among many unaffiliated and Republican voters in Connecticut. He announced his intent last week to run independently should he lose the primary. He would have to file signatures the day after the primary. He also...

Frustrated teachers and administrators are being lured by independent schools with the promise of more support and freedom. Amid the continuing growth of charter schools in Los Angeles, hundreds of teachers and administrators have left the city's school system to take jobs at the independently run campuses. In the latest wave of departures, dozens of frustrated Los Angeles Unified School District staffers have been courted away by Green Dot Public Schools — one of the city's leading charter operators. Others who are choosing to leave the district for Green Dot or other charters echo Funes' concerns. Working within the nation's...

Six years ago Joseph I. Lieberman came within a hairbreadth of the vice presidency after the Democratic Party chose him as a moderate face whose support for family values and a stronger military might attract Reagan Democrats and independents. Yet when Mr. Lieberman sought the party's presidential nomination in 2004, rank-and-file Democrats relegated him to the B list, behind Howard Dean and John Kerry, in large part because of his strong support for military action in Iraq. Now Mr. Lieberman faces the prospect of rejection by the Democrats who know him best, the party faithful in Connecticut. Once more the...

CONNECTICUT senator Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2000 who ran afoul of many party members over Iraq, said today he would run in November even if he loses his party's primary. Mr Lieberman, 64, has been facing a growing challenge for the Democratic nomination in Connecticut because of his support for President George W Bush and the Iraq war. Mr Lieberman, the only Jew ever nominated by a major party for president or vice-president, said he would not leave the Democratic Party even if he did not secure its support for a fourth term in the Senate and...

HARTFORD, Conn. - Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman , warily watching his primary challenger advance in the polls, must soon decide whether to start collecting signatures for a possible independent bid this November. "I am not going to close out any options," the senator recently told reporters. But any effort to gather signatures before the primary would be a sign of weakness, indicating that Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, fears that he could lose to businessman Ned Lamont. The effort also would rile Democrats who already question Lieberman‘s party loyalty and his perceived closeness to President Bush ....

HIT, Iraq (June 16, 2006) -- Four months into a year-long deployment in this poverty stricken city of 30,000, U.S. soldiers say they’ve gotten a hold of this insurgent-heavy region, and are confident the Iraqi Army will spearhead operations by year’s end. Iraqi soldiers are leading daily patrols through the town, interacting with the local populace, and even catching a few bad guys – solid proof to their American counterparts that an American-to-Iraqi military turnover in operations is only a matter of time. Just two weeks ago, an Iraqi-led patrol caught two men with 122 mm artillery rounds in a...

Who is David Cloud, one may ask? He is the visible leader of Way of Life Ministries, a literature and (ostensibly) preaching ministry for Independent, Fundamental, KJV-only Baptists. OK, so that's not very important, but my relationship with David Cloud is long and complex. The reason I'm bothering to address him at all might not be readily apparent to any thinking individual, since he's mostly irrelevant to almost everybody on the face of the earth, but it will become apparent as I continue. Allow me to recount my history with David Cloud. When I first became a Christian, way back...

Gettin' ready!!!!

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (April 13, 2006) -- “If the American public could see what these young service members do every day (in Iraq) it would bring a tear to a grown man,” said Lt. Col. Drew T. Doolin, the commanding officer for Combat Logistics Battalion 7. Although he has served as the first Marine aide to the vice president and will soon work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., the pinnacle of his career, he says, has been serving here in Iraq as a commander in war, leading his Marines on a daily basis. The...

After former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay announced last night he would not seek re-election as a member of Congress, former House Republican Steve Stockman, who took criticism for entering DeLay’s race as an independent, said he was right to do so. “I just knew all along he couldn’t sustain,” Stockman told HUMAN EVENTS. He noted his wife predicted in March DeLay would decide to sit out and he had forecasted a June drop out. Stockman explained his being in the race: “It’s really strange. There is one precinct person per county and those precinct persons get together to choose...

An Iraqi soldier from the 1st Motorized Transportation Regiment waves to onlookers as his unit returns to Camp Taji, Iraq, from a supply mission, March 23, 2006. The mission was the unit's first operation executed independently from coalition forces. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Joshua Salmons Iraqi Unit Completes Independent Mission The operation, a supply-delivery mission to the 6th Iraqi army division, was theculmination of months of efforts from the 4th Sustainment Brigade’s Taji-based battalions. By U.S. Army Sgt. Joshua Salmons 4th Sustainment Brigade CAMP TAJI, Iraq, March 27, 2006 — Like parents waiting for their children to return...

Strayhorn, an independent running against Republican Gov. Rick Perry in this year's election, has complained about Secretary of State Roger Williams for weeks and even urged that he be removed from office because of his close ties with Perry. Williams, a Perry appointee, is the state's chief elections officer. Strayhorn's campaign filed a lawsuit in federal court in Austin over Williams' plan to manually examine her petition signature by signature instead of using statistical sampling, which examines only a portion of the signatures. The lawsuit says Williams' plan violates her constitutional rights. [. . .] Independent candidates for governor must...

During a brief stop in Nacogdoches Monday, independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman unveiled his secret campaign weapon to a roomful of supporters, college students and a few who showed up just to be entertained. "I'm the only candidate running for governor who has no political experience whatsoever," he bragged. Judging from the Aggie-style "whoops" and the thunderous applause that followed, that lack of experience may very well be enough to give him a shot at the governor's mansion. Friedman claimed that his two biggest opponents — Rick Perry and Carole Strayhorn — had a combined 59 years of political experience...

CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq (March 15, 2006) -- Iraqi soldiers are right on schedule with training requirements that will allow them to eventually relieve U.S. military forces in western Al Anbar Province, according to Marine officials here. Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division - one of two Iraqi Army brigades in western Al Anbar Province - have spent months now learning the administrative and decision-making processes they’ll need to function as a military headquarters element to the three Iraqi infantry battalions which will eventually be under their charge. Partnered with a Military Transition Team - groups of...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2006 – Iraqi security forces continue to grow in capability and are planning and conducting more operations without coalition support, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said today. Of the 435 company-level or higher operations conducted in Iraq last week, 31 percent were independent Iraqi operations, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said at a news briefing. A very notable victory for the Iraqi security forces was a peaceful Ashura holiday last week, Lynch said. Two million pilgrims participated in the Shiite Muslim festival without any violence or attacks by insurgents, he said. This...

SAMARRA, Iraq (Army News Service, Jan. 25, 2005) – “Iron Rakkasans” are training the future trainers of an independent Iraqi army at sites in Samarra and Mahmudiyah, Iraq. Military Integrated Transition Teams from the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division are providing classroom and hands-on training of basic and advanced courses to prepare the Iraqi soldiers to take over the job of securing their own country. Iraqi army mix of experience The Iraqi army is a mix of seasoned soldiers with years of experience and new recruits right off the street. The classes are a baseline to start...

WASHINGTON - The independent counsel who investigated former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros charged in his final report Thursday that the Clinton administration thwarted his work, drawing the curtain on the longest-ever probe under a post-Watergate era reform law. Officials who worked in the Clinton administration flatly deny the allegations by prosecutor David M. Barrett, who closed a decade-long probe with a report detailing a behind-the-scenes battle inside the government as he tried to look into possible tax violations by Cisneros. Cisneros, who was housing secretary during the Clinton administration, pleaded guilty in 1999 to a misdemeanor of lying to the...

In Monday's edition of the NEW YORK SUN, reporter Brian McGuire and contributor R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., break the first look at the long-anticipated report from Independent Counsel David Barrett, whose investigation lasted 10 year and cost taxpayers $23 million. The SUN outlines the report's details surrounding the alleged illicit activity and cover up that involving former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros before and during his time in the Clinton Administration. The Sun reveals that the Barrett report connects the dots that allege that senior officials of the Clinton Administration hindered investigations by the IRS in both...

Texas State Teachers Association throws support behind Strayhorn BY JOHN REYNOLDS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Republican turned Independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn picked up the endorsement of the Texas State Teachers Association on Tuesday. The group, however, won't be able to help Strayhorn collect the 45,000-plus signatures that she will need to get on the ballot for the November general election. The TSTA is encouraging all of its members to take part in the party primaries, spokesman Richard Kouri said. Because of several high-profile legislative races, "we certainly believe our members should be involved," he said. Strayhorn, currently the state's comptroller, had...