Free Republic

Since 52% of American voters were foolish enough to buy the story that Barack Hussein Obama is some sort of "liberal messiah," I thought it would be interesting to compare the belief systems of America's father of liberalism and author of our Declaration of Independence, with the Marxist belief system of the false messiah. And since today's liberals have so much trouble properly interpreting our Founders' simple message to future generations, I am under no illusion that these facts will carry anymore weight with modern Marxists than Article II - Section I of the Constitution, which clearly states that Barack...

The following fhatestimony3 is my testimony to the House Financial Services committee on Wednesday at 9am. I. Introduction Chairman Hensarling and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to testify at today’s hearing on “Examining the Proper Role of the Federal Housing Administration in our Mortgage Insurance Market” and to provide my perspective on the ongoing mortgage debacle, the resulting decline in the private mortgage insurance market and the need to return the FHA’s share of the insurance market back to pre-bubble levels. I am Anthony B. Sanders, Senior Scholar at George Mason University. The Federal Housing...

Over three programs and two days, ABC devoted 15 minutes to a fawning profile of Hillary Clinton. On Wednesday's Nightline, Cynthia McFadden even compared the outgoing Secretary of State to Thomas Jefferson, hinting that Clinton could follow his footsteps to the White House. McFadden lauded, "There was a time not so very long ago when Hillary Clinton was seen as one of the most divisive figures in American politics." Noting Clinton's high approval rating, she announced this view was "changing." VideoIn an interview that, just coincidentally occurred in front of a statue of Jefferson, the reporter embarrassingly hyped, "As Jefferson...

Thursday Jan 17, Tom Brokaw was given time on MSNBC to tell the Founding Fathers the self-evident truths they laid their lives on the line for are farfetched. Are we lucky, or what? Our talking heads know so much more than the men who pledged their lives, their sacred honor to free us from the tyranny of Kings and establish real freedom. Brokaw spoke with Andrea Mitchell. He aimed his remarks at people who believe in the Constitution by saying, in a scholarly formal tone (which passes for derision in his circles), that 2nd Amendment types who say the Amendment...

Congressional Research Service confirms Jefferson's pension should continueBy Bruce Alpert updated December 12, 2012 at 7:27 PM WASHINGTON - A new report by the Congressional Research Service reiterates previous legal findings -- that Congress can't deny pension benefits to former members for criminal conduct covered by a 2007 law if the illegal acts occurred before the law's enactment. That means former Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, now serving a record 13-year prison sentence, will continue to collect his pension -- estimated at $40,000-$50,000 a year. Until 2007, only crimes relating to espionage, treason or several other national security violations could...

Believing a free press to be a vital safeguard of liberty, Thomas Jefferson said, “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” Many believe the inverse of Jefferson's maxim — the people are uninformed, and therefore the government can't be trusted. After all, what well-informed American would knowingly allow politicians to lead us to the monumental economic and budgetary “cliffs” we face? Despite a proliferation of new media, it's increasingly difficult to separate fact from narrative. Combined with rancorous political discourse in which opponents are demonized in order to delegitimize competing arguments and render unnecessary...

The truth is a hard thing to hear and even a more bitter pill to swallow. But until we face the truth, we are doomed to sink lower into the abyss as a society. The truth is that a godless nation is a nation doomed to fall. We as a nation have slowly accepted and pompously come to believe that wisdom begins and stems from us. Secularism is the view that all things religious should be excluded from daily public living, specifically pertaining to political and social concerns. Thanks to secularism, the mindset today is that God and religious opinion...

THOMAS JEFFERSON is in the news again, nearly 200 years after his death — alongside a high-profile biography by the journalist Jon Meacham comes a damning portrait of the third president by the independent scholar Henry Wiencek. We are endlessly fascinated with Jefferson, in part because we seem unable to reconcile the rhetoric of liberty in his writing with the reality of his slave owning and his lifetime support for slavery. Time and again, we play down the latter in favor of the former, or write off the paradox as somehow indicative of his complex depths. Neither Mr. Meacham, who...

Contemporary opinions, including those of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, say the idea of a state’s right to secede died with the hundreds of thousands of bloodied victims of the Civil War, and that the sentiment behind the dozens of petitions on a White House website seeking permission for most of the 50 individual governments to leave the union will be fruitless. But historians would note that even Thomas Jefferson, a “pole star among political philosophers because he based his politics on the eternal, self-evidence, fundamental truths that all men are created free and equal and that they are endowed...

From the days surrounding the American Revolution, Baptists used religious arguments to make political points and political arguments to make religious points, historian James P. Byrd, associate dean at Vanderbilt Divinity School, told a conference at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. At the same time Baptists argued for separation of church and state, they did not hesitate to preach on political topics or embrace patriotic causes with religious fervor, Byrd said, addressing an Oct. 12-13 conference on “Baptists and the Shaping of American Culture.” In a sense, Baptists reflected their culture. Neither Thomas Jefferson nor Benjamin Franklin accepted orthodox Christian...

President Barack Obama made a major gaffe when he recently said that we are owned, or "belong to", government. In the United States the government is supposed to "belong to" the people instead of the other way around as he suggests. We the people are supposed to own the government and tell it what to do. Obama and other elitists believe that government exists to control our personal lives and even tell us how much we can eat or drink. Some government controls are necessary to prevent people from harming others. Government needs to restrict sale of some substances that...

...“One cannot question the genuineness of Jefferson’s liberal dreams,” writes historian David Brion Davis. “He was one of the first statesmen in any part of the world to advocate concrete measures for restricting and eradicating Negro slavery.” But in the 1790s, Davis continues, “the most remarkable thing about Jefferson’s stand on slavery is his immense silence.” And later, Davis finds, Jefferson’s emancipation efforts “virtually ceased.” Somewhere in a short span of years during the 1780s and into the early 1790s, a transformation came over Jefferson. The very existence of slavery in the era of the American Revolution presents a paradox,...

Every year he’s been in office, President Obama has hosted an “iftar dinner” to honor Islam in the White House. The President has also each time led his speech with the outlandish nonsense that Thomas Jefferson held the “first iftar dinner” in the White House. And every time it’s been utter hogwash. This year’s speech was no different in that respect. For the 2012 iftar dinner celebration. Obama said the following: As I’ve noted before, Thomas Jefferson once held a sunset dinner here with an envoy from Tunisia — perhaps the first Iftar at the White House, more than 200...

America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President When one observes President Obama’s unwillingness to accommodate America’s four-century long religious conscience protection through his attempts to require Catholics to go against their own doctrines and beliefs, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Catholic. But that characterization would not be correct. Although he has recently singled out Catholics, he has equally targeted traditional Protestant beliefs over the past four years. So since he has attacked Catholics and Protestants, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Christian. But that, too, would be inaccurate. He has been equally disrespectful in his appalling...

At the age of 5, Jefferson began studying  under his cousin's tutor... At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French. At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages. At 16, entered the College of William and Mary. At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe. At 23, started his own law practice. At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America" and retired from his law practice. At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence. At 33, took three years to revise Virginia's legal...

Jefferson was a man of rare intellectual gifts and many political accomplishments. For modern Christians, Jefferson poses some troubling paradoxes. While it may be appealing to Christians to aggrandize Jefferson, we need to see the man for the enigma he was.

Do you and your family know what is considered by some folks the largest monument to an American?

William Jefferson settles in to federal prison in Beaumont, TexasBy Bruce Alpert, Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune Published: Saturday, May 05, 2012, 9:00 AM Former Democratic Rep. William Jefferson reported Friday to the low-security federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, to begin serving a 13-year sentence, the longest ever for a congressional member. Jefferson, 65, arrived about 40 minutes ahead of the noon deadline set by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III who presided over Jefferson's 2009 trial for corruption and bribery. **SNIP** His downfall began when a disgruntled investor went to the FBI in 2005, expressing concerns that she was being defrauded...

Jefferson ordered to report to federal prison in Beaumont, TexasBy Bruce Alpert, Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune Updated: Thursday, May 03, 2012, 5:29 PM WASHINGTON -- Former Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, will begin his 13-year prison sentence Friday at the low-security federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, according to two federal law enforcement officials.Judge T.S Ellis III, who revoked Jefferson's $50,000 bail two weeks ago, had given the former nine-term congressman until noon to begin his sentence. Following recommendations from both Jefferson's lawyers and federal prosecutors, Ellis had recommended the former congressman serve his time at a minimum security prison, or prison...

William Jefferson should serve his 13-year sentence in a minimum-security prison, judge saysBy Bruce Alpert, Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune Updated: Friday, April 20, 2012, 10:11 PM Alexandria, Va. -- Former Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, must report to prison by May 4 to begin serving his 13-year sentence on bribery and public corruption charges, more than two years after he was convicted and almost seven years after news of a federal investigation of his dealings became public. Judge T.S. Ellis III rejected a motion Friday by Jefferson's lawyer, Robert Trout, and supported by lead prosecutor Mark Lytle, that Jefferson be allowed...