Free Republic

Anatomy of a Government Shutdown “Of course a shutdown is possible because that's what the Republicans are threatening us with on national TV, Meet the Press or one of those dandies or whatever the show was. The Republican leader was asked, and I'm paraphrasing, 'is there going to be a government shutdown?' and he wouldn't respond to the question. So, this isn't Schumer or Reid or Hoyer. Of course it's a possibility. That's what we're trying to avoid." -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid talking to reporters about House Speaker John Boehner President Obama warned of stopped Social Security checks...

Arizona senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain is warning that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s decision not to step down could touch off “a much more dangerous situation,” and he called for the Obama administration to tell Mubarak he must resign immediately. “The volatility of the situation was already very high,” McCain said on Fox News, “and I think it’s been ratcheted up dramatically. “I think the United States had better be more clear in our message to President Mubarak, that we are very clear in our message that he needs to step down,” McCain said. Asked by host...

WASHINGTON - Wasteful spending has been a big topic of discussion in Washington for years, and on Wednesday morning, the Arizona senator who ran against President Barack Obama is trying to help him fight it.

Here's one advantage to being a caretaker mayor: You can make tough decisions without worrying about their repercussions at the ballot box. That's exactly what Mayor Ed Lee has in his quiver as he prepares to make the difficult calls to balance the budget for 2011-12, which now has a $380 million deficit because of a recent $20 million increase in projected pension costs. "I have an opportunity to actually make some long-term reforms, reforms that will last," Lee told The Chronicle's editorial board on Tuesday. "I'm not speaking about any particular politician, but what I generally have felt is...

The tactic Republicans used to win the midterm election was to tie every Democrat in Washington, D.C. to Barack Obama. He and his liberal policies were so unpopular that identifying a Democrat candidate with the president delivered a Republican's victory. At the ballot box, the American people sent liberalism to the woodshed. The nation cast off Obama, as well as Pelosi and much of her progressive Congress. In January, the Republicans triumphantly arrived in Washington, D.C. promising to repeal health care reform, address out-of-control spending, and elevate conservative principles by making the U.S. Constitution the foundation of legislative discussion. It's...

NEW YORK - Sen. John McCain said the American people's message from the last message was clear: Cut government spending. (snip) "I had to campaign for re-election in the last election, and the message is clear: They want to stop the spending, it's out of control, that it mortgaged our children's futures - $14 trillion debt, it's unimaginable. And the consequences of our failure to get spending under control will be a bankrupt America."The size of government has doubled since 1999," he said. "The debt has gone up ... some $5 trillion." McCain said significant cuts are required - and...

WASHINGTON -- Two years after running against President Barack Obama, Senator John McCain says he sees a change. Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," McCain expressed optimism that Obama will lead Democrats and Republicans to find common ground on key issues.(snip) Asked if the push to repeal health care reform is a waste of time -- because Senate Democrats will block repeal and, should it pass, the president would veto it -- McCain said, "We need to have a vote on it because we promised the people we would. We campaigned that we would `repeal and replace'. We have to...

Former Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) places blame directly on Sarah Palin and Republicans for last week's deadly Arizona shooting in an email to supporters on Wednesday. Grayson, a one-term Democrat who was ousted by Rep. Daniel Webster (R) by 18 points in November, is widely expected to run again in 2012. And while the note isn't an explicit appeal for money, there is a "contribute" link at the bottom of the message. "When I opened my web browser yesterday, at yahoo.com, there was Sarah Palin, smiling at me," Grayson writes. "'Oh God,' I said to myself, 'what has she done...

Could the long-icy relationship between President Obama and his 2008 presidential opponent, Sen. John McCain, be thawing? McCain (R-Ariz.) took a significant step toward reconciling with the president in a graceful op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post. If that article marks a genuine fresh beginning, it would be one positive thing to come out of the horrific shooting spree in Tucson eight days ago. McCain and Obama will never be comrades in arms. They have too much history, too much mutual ill will and too many philosophical differences for that. In the two years since McCain went down in defeat against...

YouTube video that prompted the suspension of Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner in September was released Friday by officials at Pima Community College and included rambling statements such as "We are examining the torture of students" and "This is genocide in America." The video, no longer on the website, was released to The Times following a public records request and offers the extended example of Loughner's voice.

The charge: The Tucson massacre is a consequence of the "climate of hate" created by Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, ObamaCare opponents and sundry other liberal betes noires. The verdict: Rarely in American political discourse has there been a charge so reckless, so scurrilous and so unsupported by evidence. As killers go, Jared Loughner is not reticent. Yet among all his writings, postings, videos and other ravings — and in all the testimony from all the people who knew him — there is not a single reference to any of these supposed accessories to murder. Not only is...

Muslim World League launches war on those making movie on Mohammed or companions. One of the largest Muslim non-governmental organizations on the planet is publicly declaring that it has a big problem with you if you are making a movie about the prophet Mohammed or any of his companions. The Muslim World League, which is based in Mecca and receives the lion’s share of its funding from Saudi Arabia, has announced a worldwide ban on anyone even thinking about making a movie that depicts Mohammed or his companions in any way, shape or form. The Islamic ban applies to both...

Complete title: Military Should ‘Expressly Prohibit’ Heterosexuals from Using Separate Showers from Homosexuals After Repeal of DADT, Says DOD Working Group A special Defense Department working group appointed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates has recommended that the military should “expressly prohibit” heterosexuals from using separate showers, bathrooms and bunking facilities from homosexuals when the repeal of the law banning homosexuals from the military goes into effect.The working group has also recommended that commanding officers be left with the authority to exempt individuals from using the same showers, bathrooms and living facilities as homosexuals, but only on a “case-by-case” basis.The House...

<p>If Barack Obama wins reelection in 2012, as is now more likely than not, historians will mark his comeback as beginning on December 6, the day of the Great Tax-Cut Deal of 2010.</p> <p>Obama had a bad November. Admittedly shellacked in the midterm election, he fled the scene to Asia and various unsuccessful meetings, only to return to a sad-sack, lame-duck Congress with ghostly dozens of defeated Democrats wandering the halls.</p>

Dem says it’s wrong to celebrate Christmas if unemployment benefits not extended. On Thursday’s magnificent installment of "Hardball" on MSNBC (which is barely watched by anyone…except the hardest of hardcore libs), Congressman Jim McDermott was on with Chris Matthews, making the case about unemployment benefits extension, when he brought Christianity into the mix. According to McDermott, it’s "simply wrong" to celebrate Christmas and some of its themes like caring about the poor…if Americans do not support extending unemployment benefits. This week was a particularly insane week on "Hardball," as earlier in the week, Democrat senator Sherrod Brown blasphemed that unemployment...

POTUS a little punchy -- comes to press cabin on AF-1 and jokes he's stopping in South Am on way home from Europe to see Chavez ... about 23 hours ago via Mobile Web Retweeted by 56 people edhenrycnn Ed Henry http://twitter.com/edhenrycnn/status/6090501467930624

Vigilante justice has come to Seattle, and the caped crusaders drive a Kia. Seattle police say a group of self-described superheroes have been patrolling the streets at night trying to save people from crime. They call themselves the Rain City Superhero Movement and say they're part of a nationwide movement of real-life crime fighters. The national website -- cited in a police bulletin sent to Seattle officers Wednesday -- states "a Real Life Superhero is whoever chooses to embody the values presented in super heroic comic books, not only by donning a mask/costume, but also performing good deeds for the...

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 16) -- Betty Sugiyama was rushing to catch a train for a shopping trip when authorities say the unthinkable happened: A homeless woman leapt from a bench and shoved her onto the tracks. Witnesses said the woman then calmly returned to her seat as Sugiyama writhed in pain on the tracks with a cracked skull. The 84-year-old Little Tokyo resident died soon after, and the suspect was arrested on murder charges. A sister of Sugiyama who witnessed the attack remained stunned Tuesday that anyone would want to kill her friendly younger sibling, a Japanese-American who had grown...

Say, is that officer carrying the nuclear football armed...? We were all haunted by the thought of the malignant narcissist Americans made the most powerful man in the world possibly driving his country right over the abyss... same as most of them do once they reach the pinnacle of power and the luck runs out. But while many of us knew Obama was a kind of a calculating/power-mad/sinister megalomaniac from the start... now faced with serial failure he simply cannot endure, that frail mental state has decomposed at an alarming rate... rapidly digressing into an antisocial-and-delusional crazy-crazy. Hannity's WH-connected sources...

Charles Johnson of LGF who has veered to the Left with hatred of Republicans and the defense of all things Obama and Muslim like a schizophrenic off his meds, has now completed his journey. Johnson -who once was praised for his support for Israel- has no gone so deep into Obama sycophancy that he now criticizes Eric Cantor's meeting with Netanyahu to buttress Israeli/American friendship in the face of Obama's obvious assault on the relationship. http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/37558_Eric_Cantor_to_Netanyahu-_The_GOP_Majority_Will_Be_a_Check_on_the_Obama_Administration Johnson used to post an Idolitarian contest, for the biggest Leftist fool. No more need for such contests, Johnson now wins by default.