Free Republic

(YBH) – As the final Colorado vote counts were coming in late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning, confirming that Rick Santorum scored a hat trick against his Republican competitors, it was becoming clear that a sea change is occurring within the GOP race. More than before, it’s now arguable that the inevitability of Mitt Romney’s candidacy is a fallacy. This opinion has been long espoused by Republican grassroots activists across the country. Now there are numbers to back it up. Santorum has now won four out of the eight contests. He has victories in four contests compared to three for Romney....

1. First off, what made you want to run for President in this election? Well, I was sincerely hoping that a better-known Democrat would enter the fray, a candidate of some national stature. My personal preference would have been former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, whose talents are largely being wasted in academia. We need him in Washington. I also believe that Rep. Dennis Kucinich would have been an articulate spokesman for the progressive values that so many Democrats hold near and dear, or possibly economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Jeffrey D. Sachs...

Pat Dollard posted this. It’s an official Barack Obama campaign ad for 2012. Having asked supporters to shove their donations to Obama’s reelection in their relatives faces last week, they’re now asking fans to convert those same people through persistent political harangues at family gatherings.

We seem to be having server issues again, it's a test of willpower to browse the forum.

We’ve just learned that the Missouri Health Insurance Pool has just voted on behalf of the state to accept $21 million dollars from the federal government to establish an health exchange here in Missouri. They are designating John Huff as the director. Didn’t Missourians vote overwhelmingly against Obamacare in 2008 with theirProp C vote? Just like President Obama does all the time, Nixon is taking the executive order route – completely bypassing the legislature. Original story here. In 2010, Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved Prop C, which negated key parts of ObamaCare. Ordinarily, only a legislature can appropriate funds, even if...

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama on Monday issued a statement marking the start of Ramadan, the month devoted to prayer and fasting in the Muslim religion. “As Ramadan begins, Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to Muslim communities in the United States and around the world,” the statement reads. “Ramadan is a festive time that is anticipated for months by Muslims everywhere.”

Presidential nominee Bachmann does not fall in to the GOP /media politically correct must do's; as Obama, and sometimes wishy washy Boehner and Geithner say raising the debt ceiling must happen or the world will crumble. Bachmann risks the unpopular trend and sticks to her guns;getting badgered by OReilly for going against Boehner and the GOP. Go Bachmann! WATCH THE VIDEO

Over the past few weeks, Republican candidates offering themselves as warriors in the crusade against Obama have sprung up as wildflowers in the field: each colorful, each beautiful in its own way. But these are not happy warriors. Each seems to send a sad message. It is the now-familiar tale of woe: our once-great republic reduced to a poverty-ridden husk of its former self, led to destruction by the Obama Administration. I suppose this recitation of the unworthiness of Obama is supposed to affirm a candidate’s “conservative” bona fides. IMHO, it is just a blinding glimpse of the obvious and...

Veterans Affairs It is imperative that America's military men and women receive the support they deserve for the sacrifices they have made. Our members of the Armed Forces have fought to preserve the freedoms we cherish and I believe Congress must be steadfast in honoring our commitment to them. Last year, I supported the largest increase in funding for veterans programs in theVA’s history: over $37 billion for veterans programs. This legislation also adds more than 1,000 new claims adjusters to help ease the backlog of over 400,000 VA benefits claims. Congress must work to alleviate VA bureaucratic procedures, improve...

The White House on Thursday is expected to unveil its proposal to enhance the nation's cybersecurity, laying out plans to require industry to better protect systems that run critical infrastructure like the electrical grid, financial systems and nuclear power plants. The Obama administration also is insisting that companies tell consumers when their personal information has been compromised. According to cybersecurity experts familiar with the plan, the administration's proposed legislation also would instruct federal agencies to more closely monitor their computer networks. Several House and Senate committees have been working on cybersecurity legislation for the past two years, while waiting for...

Which issue facing America today makes you the most angry? War in Afghanistan National security High taxes Government spending and the growing national debt Illegal immigration Unemployment Rising fuel prices Government intervention in our lives Changes to our health care system Other (post a comment)

WASHINGTON--There are multiple reports out today that President Barack Obama has signed a "secret order" authorizing covert U.S. support for Libyan rebel forces.According to Reuters: Obama signed the order, known as a presidential "finding," within the last two or three weeks, according to four U.S. government sources familiar with the matter. Such findings are a principal form of presidential directive used to authorize secret operations by the Central Intelligence Agency

I had the chance to sit in tonight on a blogger conference call with potential 2012 Presidential candidate Herman Cain. It shouldn’t surprise any long-time readers of The Shack when I say I’m a fan of Cain’s as a candidate and as a person. Though he has yet to announce his candidacy, he has formed an exploratory committee and has visited several of the early primary and caucus states to gauge interest in a run and to lay some groundwork if he decides to do so. I had hoped to connect to the call with Skype and record it, so...

These days there appears to be almost nothing that all, or nearly all, Americans can agree on. But this week, fully 90% of the public said that they were hearing mostly bad news about gas prices. That might seem like a no-brainer given the recent surge in gas prices. But reaching the 90% threshold is a rare occurrence in public opinion surveys. In part, this reflects the tendency of polling organizations to focus on current issues about which there are often considerable differences of opinion. Nonetheless, even on issues where one would expect to find near-total agreement, the public's...

I like Sarah Palin, but you already know that. And as I’ve often said, I have no idea if she wants to run for president. The resolution of that question is not terribly important to me. I am more interested in policy substance than in politics, especially when it comes to campaigns that are yet in the future, and I don’t sit around obsessing over whether someone I respect is going to run for this, that or the other thing. Who are you telling to study? But it seems that just about everyone else is obsessed with Palin’s presidential prospects,...

Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on sex charges. The Australian is suspected of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion in an investigation that stems from his encounters with two women during a visit to Sweden in August. Assange has denied the allegations and insisted his sexual relations with the women were consensual. A veteran computer hacker, Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006. It has published almost 500,000 secret U.S. documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Court documents filed by the prosecutor show Assange is suspected

LUBBOCK, Texas -- One of the most conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court and one of the most liberal ones sparred Friday over capital punishment, the direct election of senators and various other constitutional questions during a rare public debate that highlighted their philosophical differences. Antonin Scalia, 74, the longest-serving current justice, appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, and Stephen Breyer, 72, appointed by Democrat Bill Clinton, shared the stage in front of a crowd of thousands during a West Texas event organized by Texas Tech University Law School. They particularly clashed on the question of capital punishment. Scalia...

A day after President Obama got what he called a "shellacking" in the midterm elections, he took full responsibility for the outcome that turned over the House to the Republicans. Pundits will spend the next few days poring over the numbers. But judging from the questions reporters asked at the news conference, the defeat is being cast as a clear message from voters that Obama is going in the wrong direction.(snip)For the last two years, the electorate has been subjected to lies about Obama's religion, his heritage and his agenda. These deliberate falsehoods were designed to scare the bejeezus out...

George Bush finally admitted failure, but not about what many would think. Former President Bush believes his biggest failure was on Social Security reform. Bush wanted to implement a semi-private . . .

With two weeks to go until Election Day, voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on eight of ten important issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen including the economy and health care.

Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe stood on the Senate floor last year to declare 2009 "the year of the skeptic." Turns out he jumped the gun. This year, a host of Republican Senate hopefuls are trumpeting their rejection of climate science on the campaign trail. Christine O'Donnell became the latest to enter the spotlight last week when she rode tea party support to knock off Rep. Mike Castle -- one of eight House Republicans who voted for cap-and-trade climate legislation last summer -- in Delaware's open-seat GOP Senate primary.

A group probing whether President Obama is addressing matters of concern to African Americans will discuss the issue Saturday at the annual conference of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation hours before Obama is scheduled to address conference attendees. Political scientist Ron Daniels formed the Shirley Chisholm Presidential Accountability Commission in late 2008 as a mechanism for black leaders to hold the nation's first black president accountable. Eventually, the group hopes to issue a report card that grades the administration on how well it is doing in closing racial disparities. The commission is named after the first African American woman elected...

What can anyone from Florida tell us about the candidates running for District 3 (FL) US Congressional seat? All 3 seem to look okay online, but two are more vocal in their stand: Mike Yost and Dean Black. They both actually state their beliefs, not just a nice-sounding background. Anyone know either of the two men mentioned, or have good inside information?

With the controversy over the location of a new, $100 million mosque near the spot of the 9-11 attack heating up, leading luminaries of the Democratic Party have come out in favor of going ahead with it as planned. From the White House we have observed President Obama giving his blessing to the project, both in words and deeds. “Building this mosque adjacent to the site of the worst massacre of civilians in US history opens up a dialogue between proponents of Islam and what are termed ‘unbelievers,’” the President said. “And dialogue is what America is all about. That’s...

WASHINGTON - Democrats complain they were blindsided when President Obama weighed in on the Ground Zero mosque and handed the GOP a new club to beat them with. (snip) White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has spent three days on the phone doing damage control with angry Democrats and urging them not to go public against the President, Democratic sources said. Obama went ahead with the Ramadan dinner remarks even though his top political advisers had not reached a consensus on what he should do. Emanuel was one of the skeptics.

For President Obama, there is no vacation from vacillation. By the time he got to the beach this weekend, the controversy over his Friday speech seemingly supporting the proposed mosque at the 9/11 site left him so rattled, he could hardly wait to put on his flip-flops. Even the hastily arranged Gulf vacation itself was more of a placation, as in placating those who complained his family time off had not included the BP-besieged Gulf shores, making his ringing words of support ring hollow. Soon after he arrived he hastened to hollow out his words from the evening before, at...

I mean, it's not an illogical notion, but the political reality and the speed of the media churn make the notion that Democrats can run against Bush this year vanishingly unlikely. Still, the DNC seems to be trying. From communications director Brad Woodhouse: Serious question here - where is George Bush? Why is he not on the Campaign Trail for Republicans? In recent weeks Republican leaders have said they want to return to the “exact same agenda” that was pursed under George Bush (Pete Sessions), that President Bush will be seen in a more favorable light by the public as...

Read reports on the files at:Der SpiegelThe New York TimesThe GuardianIntro by Der Spiegel:Close to 92,000 US documents have been uncovered that shed new light on the war in Afghanistan. In an unprecedented development, close to 92,000 classified documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. SPIEGEL, the New York Times and the Guardian have analyzed the raft of mostly classified documents. They expose the true scale of the Western military deployment -- and the problems beleaguering Germany's Bundeswehr in the Hindu Kush. A total of 91,731 reports from United States military databanks relating to the war in...

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-at-182.html NOTE: The following text SNIPPET is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, February 23, 2010 Department of Justice and USDA Workshops to Explore Competition and Regulatory Issues in the Agriculture Industry to Begin March 12 in Iowa Initial Workshop to Be Held in Ankeny, Iowa, at Des Moines Area Community College, FFA Enrichment Center WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today the agenda and panelists for the first joint public workshop, which will be held on March 12, 2010, in Ankeny, Iowa, to explore competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture...

PHOENIX – The nation's top civil liberties group on Wednesday issued travel alerts for Arizona, saying the state's new law cracking down on illegal immigrants could lead to racial profiling and warrantless arrests. American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Arizona, New Mexico and 26 other states put out the warnings in advance of the Fourth of July weekend. The Arizona chapter has received reports that law enforcement officers are already targeting some people even though the law doesn't take effect until July 29, its executive director said. The alerts are designed to teach people about their rights if police stop...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-medvedev-russia-us-russia-business-summit Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 24, 2010 Remarks by President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia at the U.S.-Russia Business Summit U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 3:08 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, good afternoon, everybody. It is a pleasure to be here with my friend and partner, President Medvedev, and I want to thank him again for his leadership, especially his vision for an innovative Russia that’s modernizing its economy, including deeper economic ties between our...

Deficits? Fascism by the left? Abortion? Foreign affairs? Repealing ObamaCare? How can the Tea Party Movement contribute? Who would be the candidates to take us forward?

The National Rifle Association is suffering a sudden onset of amnesia this week, as the gun lobby cuts a deal to exempt itself from the latest Congressional attempt to repeal the First Amendment. NRA members may soon regret the organization's bid to ingratiate itself with Democrats at the expense of its longtime free-speech allies. The campaign finance bill, sponsored by Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Chris Van Hollen, is the Democratic response to the Supreme Court's January decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which restored the First Amendment right of corporations, unions and nonprofits to make independent campaign expenditures. At...

WASHINGTON — Rand Paul, the Tea Party candidate who challenged the Republican establishment to win the party’s Senate nomination in Kentucky two days ago, criticized a landmark civil rights law on Thursday, landing himself in a potentially damaging dispute over civil rights and race. In doing so, he provided Democrats an opportunity to portray him as extreme and renewed concern among Republicans that his views made him vulnerable in a general election. Mr. Paul, in a series of television and radio interviews, suggested that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was too broad and should not apply to private businesses,...

THE RADAR: 10 Brewing Stories You Need To Watch Right Now Gregory White May. 17, 2010, 1:04 PM Right now, uncertainty is stretching over markets worldwide as micro issues, like the BP oil spill, and massive one's, like the collapse of the euro, rattle traders minds. We've got the most important stories, both long and short term, you need to watch here, with details of where they are and where they might head next. Click to see the stories you must be following >[snip]

RUSH: So this guy running for the Senate, Mr. Kirk, has got to explain why he joined Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh. Mr. Giannoulias, you Democrats need to explain why you are siding against the American people, from the administration on down. Speaking of Elena Kagan, there's some incredible things about her in the news. This is from Investor's Business Daily. I know he needs to explain to voters how his family's bank failed and where the money went, but no he doesn't, because in Chicago everybody expects a Democrat to be corrupt. It's the stupid ones that get caught...

It was a jarring split screen.On one side of the television, members of Congress were bloviating about the need for financial reform to prevent another crisis.On the other side of the screen, Greek rioters were finally dispersing in a cloud of tear gas after their firebombs sent world markets skidding.Down in the lower right corner, the readout on the Dow looked like the altimeter on a nose-diving jet.How funny that anyone would promise to bring security and predictability to a financial world that can be undone by the protests of some uncivil servants in a little country in the corner...

John Allen looks at the background of Pope Benedict's coming trip to Fatima, Portugal. He notes that the five foreign trips the Pope has scheduled for this year-- to Malta, Portugal, Cyprus, Great Britain, and Spain-- "are almost laid out in ascending order of difficulty." Benedict in Portugal: A different crisis, secularism, and 'Marian Cool' As fate would have it, Pope Benedict XVI's five foreign trips in 2010 are almost laid out in ascending order of difficulty. Last month's weekend stop in Malta, arguably the most Catholic society on earth, amounted to the warm-up act, while next week's four-day swing...

Arizona Sen. John McCain's town hall in Tucson Saturday was all about immigration. McCain had sounded a note of support for Arizona's tough new immigration, calling it a “good tool” for law enforcement. But he stopped short of fully endorsing the measure. “I haven’t had a chance to look at all the aspects, but I do understand why the Legislature would act,” he said. Even though it wasn’t clear to him “whether all of it is legal or not,” he said state lawmakers “acted out of frustration because the federal government didn’t do its job.” He spoke of his 10-point...

Sen. John Cornyn, who is spearheading the Republicans' campaign to take back the Senate, is on a roll. . . . But the genial Texas lawyer is facing an unusual challenge—from one of his own colleagues. Firebrand conservative Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, breaking with the Senate's tradition of deference, is endorsing and funding conservative candidates to challenge the party establishment's picks. Just last week, he backed a conservative insurgent in the Colorado Republican primary over a former lieutenant governor. The Republican Party is in play, and the passage of President Barack Obama's health plan has inflamed the intraparty...

Today's last-minute trip to the post office to mail in your return is a reminder of one of life's unpleasant realities: paying taxes. Always important in politics, the tax issue is likely to play a larger role this year than in any midterm election since 1994. A recent Rasmussen survey reported that 66% of Americans believe the nation is over-taxed. There's a reason. Under President Barack Obama taxes are going up—a lot. House Ways and Means Committee Republicans have issued a summary of the 25 tax increases signed into law by Mr. Obama so far. They total $670 billion over...

Three weeks after Congress passed its new national health care plan, support for repeal of the measure has risen four points to 58%. That includes 50% of U.S. voters who strongly favor repeal. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters nationwide finds 38% still oppose repeal, including 32% who strongly oppose it. For the previous two weeks following passage of the controversial plan, 54% of voters have favored repeal and 42% have opposed it. But only 38% of voters think it is even somewhat likely that the health care bill will be repealed. Fifty-one percent (51%) see repeal...

The Southern Republican Leadership Conference wrapped up on Saturday afternoon after three days of speeches dripping with red-meat criticisms of Democrats and President Obama. This is par for the course for any party gathering, especially one where the party holding the shindig is on the outs. But there was also something most unusual about the conference: an uncommon amount of talk and discussion of the United States Constitution. Ordinary people from all walks of life, not a constitutional scholar or lawyer among them, are actually trying to come to grips with the fundamental meaning and purpose of our founding document....

The irony of Justice John Paul Stevens' retirement is that it is likely to change the Senate more than the Supreme Court. Stevens' announcement Friday gives President Obama his second chance to reshape the court. But as with his nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to replace David Souter, Obama's choice would be replacing one of the court's existing liberal stalwarts. That means even if he chooses another liberal like Sotomayor, the court's ideological balance would remain the same. The string of recent narrow 5-4 decisions would likely remain unbroken. But court watchers agree that is not likely to make this choice...

WASHINGTON DC (April 1, 2010) — Tea Party activists may be ardent supporters of economic conservatism but are similar to the overall electorate when it comes to economic priorities, according to the findings of a new report released by The Winston Group today on the political movement. In one of the most extensive looks to date at just who Tea Party activists are, how they think, and the ideas that matter to them, the report found that 17% of the people polled considered themselves “part of the Tea Party movement” and more than four in ten Tea Party members said...

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on nine out of 10 key issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports, but the gap between the two parties has grown narrower on several of them. Following the passage of the health care bill, 53% now say they trust Republicans on the issue of health care. Thirty-seven percent (37%) place their trust in Democrats. A month earlier, the two parties were essentially even on the health care issue. These results are consistent with the finding that 54% of voters want the health care bill repealed. Rasmussen Reports is tracking support for repeal on...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration has issued tough gas mileage standards for new cars and trucks hitting dealerships in the future. The Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency say the final rules will require 2016 model-year vehicles to meet fuel efficiency targets of 34.1 miles per gallon combined for cars and trucks, or the equivalent of 35.5 mpg with credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That's an increase of nearly 10 mpg over current standards.

(Author's note: This is a post from last November, but since I'm new here I couldn't have shared it back then...so I'm sharing it now.) After his meeting with Japan's Emperor I think its pretty clear what his position on American Sovereignity is...but I'm pretty sure we've never had a concise and illustrated appraisal of Obama's positions on the other hot issues of the day...sure we have words...but pictures are worth more than that! The rest contains interactivity that can't be duplicated here so you'll have to see it here

DES MOINES — With the Iowa legislature moving toward adjournment, the year-long battle to overturn the Iowa Supreme Court decision establishing same-sex marriage is moving to a new venue — the campaign trail. Party leaders insist the 2010 election will be about the economy, jobs and protecting Iowans’ priorities: education, health-care, safe communities. The effort to overturn the April 3, 2009, decision legalizing same-sex marriage is unlikely to be “the” issue of the campaign, campaign operatives say, but it will be an issue that, in some races, may influence the outcome. “We don’t have to go out of our way...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's official: Californians will decide whether legal marijuana should be used to plug the state's $20 billion budget gap. California residents are expected to vote this year on whether legalization should be approved to raise nearly $1.4 billion in state revenue. ...."With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move towards regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense," Ammiano said [the bill's sponsor]