Free Republic

Gallup Polls conducted in 70 countries from May to September 2008 reveal widespread international support for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama over Republican Sen. John McCain in the U.S. presidential election. Among these nations, representing nearly half of the world's population, 30% of citizens say they would personally rather see Obama elected president of the United States, compared with just 8% who say the same about McCain. At the same time, 62% of world citizens surveyed did not have an opinion. World citizens are more divided over whether the outcome of the U.S. election makes a difference to their country, with...

Former Reagan diplomat Alan Keyes commented Sept. 23 on the federal government's bailout of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The former Assistant Secretary of State, currently running for president as an independent, said the bailout plan as proposed by the Bush administration would effectively transform our nation into "a socialist society." The following is the text of Keyes' statement: What I have to say about the bailout is that, with a concrete proposal on the table, it becomes much more obvious what is actually going on right now, and I think that we have to confront it. And...

Obama Admits He Wins Contest of Publishing Negative and Irrelevant Ads ... "If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily," Obama said. ...

SPOKANE, Wash. (Sept. 4) - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin seems to have switched colleges at least six times in six years, including two stints at the University of Idaho before graduating from there in 1987. Federal privacy laws prohibit the schools from disclosing her grades, and none of the schools contacted by The Associated Press could say why she transferred. There was no indication any were contacted as part of the background investigation of Palin by presidential candidate John McCain's campaign.

To hell with the New York Times and the Washington Post. It took a while to make this decision, but I’ve finally decided to stop reading these savagely biased publications. With the exception of William Kristol and David Brooks, there’s virtually nothing worth reading on the Times’ op-ed page—and those columns, along with the columns of other occasional conservative contributions such as Matthew Continetti and Ramesh Ponnuru, can easily be accessed through such sites as Robinson and Long. As for the Post, conservative op-ed columnists George Will and Charles Krauthammer can be found on such online outlets as Townhall. There...

Barack Obama has never been shy about comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln. He did so when he announced his candidacy at the Illinois state capitol, where both he and Lincoln served in the legislature. "The life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible," Obama said. "He tells us that there is power in words ... He tells us that there is power in hope." That was, well, audacious, to say the least — and the comparisons have continued, on issues large and small. But the most important similarity, in Obama's mind, is...

Apple and Linux are engaged in battle – a battle to win over disgruntled Windows users. But who will win, and what will the consequences be for the loser? The most commonly held belief amongst Apple and Linux fanboys is that both factions are engaged in some kind of a war with Microsoft. The truth is that if you look at the market share figure for Windows, Mac and Linux, both Mac OS and all the Linux distros that have ever been released are dwarfed by Windows. Any idea that there’s a war going on can be dismissed – it’s...

Bill Clinton: Wife's record not covered By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago Bill Clinton said Tuesday that if reporters covered the candidates' public records better, his wife's presidential bid would be far ahead of her rivals. During a campaign stop on behalf of his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former president said he can't understand why so much of the media coverage of the campaign ignores her experience — and, without naming him, the relative lack of experience of her closest Democratic rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. "One percent of the press coverage was...

Britney Spears lost custody of her children because she failed to produce a California driver's license and allegedly missed a drug and alcohol test, her lawyer said in a published report. "We weren't able to prove compliance with what the judge ordered," attorney Sorrell Trope told People magazine. "Specifically," he said, "the judge ordered that by 10 a.m. (Monday) morning, both parties show valid California driving licenses. I've been unable to produce evidence of that." Trope said another factor was a claim by ex-husband Kevin Federline's attorney that Spears had skipped a test. "There's no evidence that she actually failed,"...

<p>I didn't see a live thread for the Iowa Straw Poll, so I figured I would start one in case anyone else is watching and wants to comment.</p>

You can read the transcript and listen to the audio here:

Schwarzenegger Calls Rush Limbaugh Irrelevant "All irrelevant. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant." - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning on the "Today Show," speaking to Campbell Brown. During the one-on-one interview, the Republican-registered California governor was asked about criticism from Limbaugh and other conservatives that he has become a Democrat in disguise for supporting stem-cell research, mandatory curbs on carbon dioxide emissions and universal health care. Schwarzenegger said he is "the people's servant of California. What they call me - Democrat or Republican or in the center, this and that - that is not my bottom line....

HEEEEEEEERE’s EVIL! Control Congress is LIVE now at 2 PM to 3PM EDT Saturday on WGKA Atlanta 920, an SRN station. Join John Konop and Sherry Reese (aka eeevil conservative) as we fight those turkeys in Congress ON THE FASTEST HOUR IN RADIO! If anyone can herd turkeys, John and eeevil can! Freepers join the show and help John and eeevil heat up the air waves. Listen as eee demands a raise from John, up-front and in 100% CONFLICT diamonds! So much to talk about so little time! Hard to know what to expect of our dear eeevil but...

Tom Daschle, who endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president, said he would consider being Obama's running mate if asked. The Democrat and former South Dakota senator said he had not been contacted by any of the Democrats seeking their party's presidential nomination, and that his endorsement of the Illinois senator doesn't mean he's looking for a spot on the Democratic ticket. "Theres not been any talk about it at all," he said Friday. "I have to say thats not something you can campaign for and its not something that you can plan or expect." Daschle, who explored...

"This is a true story.....Check out this photo from our mess hall at the US Embassy yesterday morning. Sen. Kerry found himself all alone while he was over here. He cancelled his press conference because no one came, he worked out alone in the gym w/o any soldiers even going up to say hi or ask for an autograph (I was one of those who was in the gym at the same time), and he found himself eating breakfast with only a couple of folks who are obviously not troops. What is amazing is Bill O'Reilly came to visit with...

Maybe Katie Couric never really had a chance this year to prove herself as the anchor of "The CBS Evening News." Fans, critics, bloggers, comrades and competitors had a field day throughout 2006, breathlessly complaining about everything under the sun. When rumors initially spread that CBS wanted her, the debate began heating up and seemed to take on a life of its own: Katie Would Be a Fresh Alternative and No, Katie Would Be a Disaster. She'd Lighten Up the News and She's Too Perky for 6:30 p.m. Then, on the air, Katie was Too Serious -- no, she was...

They call themselves Main Street Republicans, moderates consigned to the back alleys of politics by their own party. But despite a severe bruising in the fall election, this minority within a minority finds itself with new avenues to explore, including working more closely with Democrats. The Republican Main Street Partnership, a leading voice of GOP moderates in Congress, lost seven of its 48 House members to Democratic challengers in the November election. Two other senior members, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., are retiring. The group also saw Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., one of its eight Senate members...

Jimmy Carter’s Jewish Problem By Jason Maoz For those with eyes to see, there were hints as far back as the 1976 presidential campaign of the trouble to come. Early that year, Harper’s magazine published “Jimmy Carter’s Pathetic Lies,” a devastating exposé of Carter’s record in Georgia by a then little-known journalist named Steven Brill. Reg Murphy, who as editor of the Atlanta Constitution had kept a close eye on Carter’s rise in state politics, declared, “Jimmy Carter is one of the three or four phoniest men I ever met.” Speechwriter Bob Shrum quit the Carter campaign after just a...

Is it Cindy's man hands, or Medea holding up a sign made by a dyslexic minion? :)

Are We Alone? A Tête-à-Tête Between Neil deGrasse Tyson and Peter Ward Despite decades of concerted effort by radio astronomers working on the project known as SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, we've had no sign of beings elsewhere in the universe that match or exceed us in smarts. That's just one of many pieces of evidence that paleontologist Peter Ward, coauthor of Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, points to when claiming that intelligent life beyond Earth must be exceedingly rare. Since many other scientists believe advanced life is common out there—Carl Sagan estimated...

For an event that would turn a page in American history, former president Jimmy Carter has agreed in principle to host former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami for talks during his visit to the United States starting this week. Carter's term as president was dominated by the rupture in relations after the 1979 Iranian revolution and the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days until the day he left office. Iranians made the overture for the meeting, and the Carter Center in Atlanta is working on the possible timing, said Phil Wise,...

Republican calls president 'derelict' in duty: 'This is not Ellis Island, this is an invasion' Author Pat Buchanan says President Bush should be impeached for failing to stop the invasion of illegal aliens across the U.S. border with Mexico. "I think he's committed an impeachable offense in refusing to enforce the immigration laws and in failing to uphold the Constitution by defending the states against this invasion," Buchanan told radio talk-show host Curt Smith this weekend on National Public Radio stations in upstate New York. "When you have 6 million people apprehended on the border and several million got in...

In reference to this FreeRepublic thread , I open this poll with the following question:Since the Berkely City Council think of themselves as the usurpers of the legislative branch of the U.S. Government, should the members of the Berkely City Council be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors", or for treason against the United States?Only one response allowed per pollee, please.

Conservative Republicans held such hopes when Pres. Bush was heralded into office and the Republicans gained control of the Congress. That was then, this is now. According to recent polls, conservative republicans are perplexed by the non-conservative actions of this president and the Republican-controlled Congress. As I probed this latest confusion I found that I, and millions of other citizens, are f-o-s-s-i-l-s. According to Wikipedia Encyclopedia online, we are "Paleo" or "Old" conservatives. We are living fossils, 'about-to-become-extinct' hangers-on of the Grand Old Party which no longer appears to represent traditional conservatism. The Republican Party in its essentials has been...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters marched Saturday through Manhattan to demand an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq just hours after an American soldier died in a roadside explosion in Baghdad -- the 70th U.S. fighter killed in that country this month. "End this war, bring the troops home," read one of the many signs lifted by marchers on a sunny afternoon three years after the war in Iraq began. The mother of a Marine killed two years ago in Iraq held a picture of her son, born in 1984 and killed 20 years...

This is the most egregious display of hate I have ever seen. You have to watch the flash intro ---WE HATE GRINGOS! Pitiful, just pitiful.

LOS OLIVOS, Calif. -- State regulators said Friday they will go after Michael Jackson in court if he fails to meet a Tuesday deadline to pay $100,000 in penalties and $306,000 in back pay owed to nearly 50 workers at his Neverland Ranch. "If they don't comply then we file suit to get a judgment," said Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the California Department of Industrial Relations. The ranch operators have until the close of business Tuesday to pay up. "It's pretty clear that they owe this money," he said. "We've got all these wage claims. People are telling me...

Why the Peaceful Majority is Irrelevant By Debris Trail FrontPageMagazine.com | March 1, 2006 I used to know a man whose family were German aristocracy prior to World War Two. They owned a number of large industries and estates. I asked him how many German people were true Nazis, and the answer he gave has stuck with me and guided my attitude toward fanaticism ever since. "Very few people were true Nazis" he said, "but, many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis...

Jeddah. Former US Vice President Al Gore stated Iran’s regime presents threat to the whole world, AFP reports. “Iran is governed by corrupted politicians and religious leaders and presents a threat to the whole world’s future”, said Al Gore during Economic Forum in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. According to him corrupted Iranian government together with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israeli views are “a signal for the threat Tehran may pose”.

U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) stands alone in a Capitol Building elevator after a Democratic party-led bid to block Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito January 30, 2006. The Republican-led Senate on Monday defeated a Democratic bid to block Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito -- clearing the way for confirmation of the 55-year-old conservative who could move the high court to the right. REUTERS/Jason Reed

VIDEO FREE FOX News Video:•Last-Ditch Filibuster Effort•Filibuster OptionSTORIES •Obama: Dems Rely Too Much on Filibusters•Bush Urges Up-or-Down Vote on Alito•Alito Filibuster Squabble Causes Dem Dissent•Senate GOP Moves Toward Alito Confirmation•Kerry, Other Democrats Threaten Alito Filibuster•Alito Picks Up More Dem Supporters•Fixes Considered for 'Broken' Supreme Court Confirmation Process WASHINGTON — More than a dozen Senate Democrats supported ending debate on Sam Alito Monday, setting up a final confirmation vote for the Supreme Court nominee on Tuesday morning. On a 72-25 vote, senators succeeded in passing the 60-vote threshold to prevent a filibuster and allow a simple majority vote Tuesday. At least...

John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, warned Tuesday that the United States might bypass the United Nations to solve some of the world's pressing problems if the organization is unable to make management changes that will make it more effective and prevent a recurrence of corruption. Bolton's remarks come as the Bush administration is encountering stiff resistance from poor countries to United States-backed initiatives aimed at streamlining the United Nations' management practices. The influential Group of 77 developing nations recently issued a letter sharply criticizing plans by Secretary General Kofi Annan to establish an ethics office...

The nomination of Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court raises a lot of questions about the judge's attitudes toward federalism, privacy and civil rights. But it has already answered one big question about President Bush. Anyone wondering whether the almost endless setbacks and embarrassments the White House has suffered over the last year would cause Mr. Bush to fix his style of governing should realize that the answer is: no. As a political candidate, Mr. Bush had an extremely useful ability to repeat the same few simple themes over and over. As president, he has been cramped by the...

THE U.N. Security Council has received the Mehlis report, which points to high-level Syrian involvement in the February assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. What will it do about it? Let us imagine the best-case and the worst-case scenarios. Best case: The council calls on Syria to cooperate with the investigation until those responsible are brought to justice — and Syria agrees, even allowing Detlev Mehlis, the U.N. investigator, to interrogate the suspects in circumstances of his choice. Worst case: The council decides that there is enough evidence to prove Syrian guilt and decrees sanctions. Then, perhaps, Syria defies...

Come Monday, Sept. 19, fans of New York Times columnists Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, and David Brooks will have to break out their credit cards. Sept. 19 is the launch date of TimesSelect, a new subscription service designed to diversify the newspaper's revenue stream beyond traditional Web site advertising. The popular Op-Ed columnists are the main selling point behind the $49.95 a year subscription. (The service will be free for the paper's home delivery subscribers). The paper's news, features, editorials, and analysis will remain free, as will interactive graphics, multimedia, and video. TimesSelect subscribers will also have the ability to...

MILWAUKEE - (KRT) - NAACP Chairman Julian Bond bashed President Bush and other conservatives Sunday, warning they have tried to seduce black clergy, created ``fraudulent'' civil rights organizations and backed federal judicial nominees who come from a ``dim and gloomy legal netherworld where few Americans wish to dwell.'' Officially kicking off the NAACP's 96th annual convention, its first in Milwaukee, a fiery Bond told delegates they have won great accomplishments but must continue to fight widespread discrimination

Schiavo-like Woman in Recovery Miracle A severely brain-damaged Kansas woman who couldn't talk or feed herself after a car accident two years ago has inexplicably regained those abilities, confounding the predictions of doctors. Tracy Gaskill, 30, began speaking and swallowing about three weeks ago, family members and medical personnel told the Associated Press. Gaskill had suffered head trauma and internal injuries after her car rolled over on a highway in September 2002.

According to MoveOn, apparently the GOP party platform is to end the right to privacy, pollute the air, put arsenic in the drinking water, reduce wages to pennies on the dollar and let employers do human experimentation. The also think we are trying to appoint judges who will rules that Social Security in unconstitutional. These are your modern Democrats. Totally disconnected with reality. ========================== We may only have eight days to stop right-wing Republicans from seizing absolute power to appoint far-right judges. We've created a powerful new ad, "Smashing the Courts," that exposes Republicans^? attempts to break the rules of...

IN THE MILITARY U.S. Army court-martials captain for mercy killing Medic 'spazzed out' over suspected Iraqi terrorist with mortal head wound -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: March 30, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com As brain-injured Terri Schiavo enters her 13th day of starvation in Florida after nearly a decade-long court dispute over her fate, a U.S. Army captain is being court-martialed in Wiesbaden, Germany, and facing 20 years for the mercy killing of a suspected Iraqi terrorist under battlefield conditions. The tank commander, Capt. Rogelio Maynulet of Chicago, is being tried on a charge of assault with intent to commit murder...

ALARM - Annan takes up on her account the idea of a Security Council to 24 New York (the United Nations) - the secretary-general of UNO Kofi Annan begins again on his account, in a report/ratio on the reform of the United Nations, the idea to make pass the Security Council from 15 to 24 members. ALARM - Kofi Annan proposes a code of entry in war New York (the United Nations) - the Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, proposed, within the framework of a reform of UNO, a code of entry in war in which...

WASHINGTON – It was not a good evening for Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the NAACP, and the Congressional Black Caucus at the Heritage Foundation Thursday as a panel concluded these reputed icons "have utterly failed to provide moral leadership in the Black community and have become the tools for extremist political agendas."

Copied in full from Hennessy's View St. Louis, Missouri--The International Federation of Journalists,a union representing more than half a million journalists world wide,today announced plans to protest Blogs--online journals on the WorldWide Web."Unprofessional armchair writers who call themselves journalistshave destroyed numerous careers and the lives of respected membersof our organization. It's time we stopped this dangerous trend towardinformation run amock," says Arnold Amber of the Newspaper Guild ofCanada.In a written statement, union president Chris Warren says, "DanRather and Eason Jordan had their lives turned inside out by probing,nosey, busybodies who have no more qualifications to write than acomputer and broadband internet...

DU Forum - Bush to Blame for 9/11 They still can't manage to let the facts sink in, they think Bush somehow planned and carried out 9/11. This is the Modern Left for you, the reason the divisions that exist in this country is because of them. They stomp around, calling for a revolution and blame the entire right for causing 9/11. The call the people killed little Eichmanns. The make incessant and nonsensical references to Hitler (how many times does Godwin's Law need to be invoked until they're shut up). This is the future of the left, aligned more...

So the left has outed what they call a right-leaning partisan hack in the press corps. The tack this on to the *ONE* columnist that they've outed for being paid to support Bush's policies. (Sorry, Gallagher doesn't count, they were wrong there). My point is, who cares? I've watched these press briefings and had to stop because of my desire either to put my foot through the television, or to repeatedly bang my head against a table to try to bring myself down to that level. The press corps ask the same irrelevant questions over and over and over and...

Ever hear of how republican's always call the liberal left "Whiner's"? Well, take a look at Wa. State, ...who are the Whiner's now? LOTS OF LAUGHS! Boy, the shoes on the other foot now! I think it's great, don't you? These people deserve it..! Has anyone seen the comedian on HBO, who gave a discription of a "Republican"? Wow was that great, and very very true.

First, go to the outrageous opinion piece, published in our local rag, yesterday at http://www.jonesborosun.com/archivededitorials.asp?ID=871 Following is my response to this desperate-to-be-relevant jerk: Gaping Irony Rarely have I seen such a well-reasoned, insightful opinion column in "The Daily Fishwrap" as our esteemed editor's "Behind the news" of January 11. In "He crossed gaping line", our editor excoriates TV/radio host, and opinion columnist, Armstrong Williams, for having accepted a sizeable stipend from the Department of Education for promoting the Bush Administration's -- and Teddy Kennedy's -- No Child Left Behind legislation. Not mentioned in the piece was that nothing illegal was...

NEW YORK - America's feminist leaders and their critics agree on at least one current political fact: These are daunting times for the women's movement as it braces for another term of an administration it desperately wanted to topple. "The next four years are going to be tough, so we must be tougher," National Organization for Women (news - web sites) president Kim Gandy recently told supporters. "Our health, our rights, and our democracy are teetering on the brink."

One does not expect honor from those operating in an illegal system. And let's face it, if our Constitution is supposed to be the "law of the land," the federal government we have now must be the most successful illegal operation in the history of this nation. The U.S. Supreme Court has said many times that when we look for an explanation of what is meant (what was intended by the authors) in the Constitution, one should turn to The Federalist Papers as an expert source for guidance. That being so, we see that we now have a government greatly...

You are cordially invited to attend A screening of the film FAHRENHEIT 9/11 Followed by a Q&A with filmmaker MICHAEL MOORE Moderated by Jeremy Kagan of the Directors Guild Monday, November 29th at 7:30pm At The Egyptian Theater 6712 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood YOU MUST RSVP By phone or email Please mention you are a guest of *********, and include your name, contact number or email address and if you will be bringing a guest (one max) with you. rsvp@lisatabackconsulting.com or (323) 822-4158 (due to the short notice on this event, the outgoing message on the RSVP message line may...

Former President William Jefferson Clinton formerly opens his Presidential Center, which will hold the papers from his two term presidency.Attending the ceremony will be President George W. Bush, former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, along with First Lady Laura Bush ,Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rosalyn Carter and Barbara Bush.