Free Republic

President Obama’s thoughtfulness makes him a fat target for Republicans like Sarah Palin. Michael Signer on why Obama needs fire in his belly. “[W]e need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern.” That’s what Sarah Palin told Tea Partiers in Nashville last weekend, triggering uproarious cheers. A few weeks earlier, she had dismissed Obama’s State of the Union as “quite a bit of lecturing, not leading.” Meanwhile, John McCain just borrowed the “lecturer” line to attack Obama in the Financial Times. Palin and her partners seem intent on turning one of Obama’s strengths—his thoughtfulness—into...

During the 2007-2008 presidential primaries, Barrack Obama said that he didn’t buy into the notion that illegal immigrants were hurting black employment. That was when he was trying to receive the favor of those who supported Amnesty, and wanted to give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. All those potential Democratic voters were indicing . But know, black writers, many of who backed Obama’s position on racial grounds, are saying that “potential Democratic voters” are taking jobs away from the blacks. The Root.com features an article by Cord Jefferson “How Illegal Immigration is Hurting Black America”, which laments the impact illegal...

Let me preface this commentary by explaining that I do not watch either Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck. I don't have to. WND visitors send me so many video clippings from these shows, pointing out the good, the bad and the ugly, there's no need for me to devote two hours a day tuned to the tube. Lately, it seems, O'Reilly and Beck have been teaming up – doing each other's shows. Such was the case recently when Beck visited the set of "The O'Reilly Factor," where they exchanged ignorances on what we call "the eligibility issue." One thing this...

Large, fluffy snowflakes fell heavily across North Texas for about 24 hours Thursday, bringing record snowfall that sailed past the previous all-time one-day record. A new record of 12.5 inches of snow in a 24-hour period was set at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (11.2 on Thursday) -- and flakes were still coming down after midnight. The previous daily record was 7.8 inches on Jan. 15, 1964, and Jan. 14, 1917 and the previous 24-hour record was 12.1 inches. The total for this winter, so far, is 15.7 inches, the second highest recorded in North Texas history. The highest recorded snowfall...

President Obama insisted that he and his administration have pursued a "fundamentally business-friendly" agenda and are "fierce advocates" for the free market, rejecting corporate criticism of his policies. "The irony is that on the left we are perceived as being in the pockets of big business, and then on the business side we are perceived as being anti-business," Obama said in an interview this week with Bloomberg BusinessWeek. "You would be hard pressed to identify a piece of legislation that we have proposed out there that, net, is not good for businesses," he added. He predicted that legislation he will...

Jason Pye passes on a video of Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.), a candidate for governor of Georgia, being questioned by minor birther figure Carl Swensson (of “citizen grand jury” fame), and explaining the current status of his request for President Obama to release his birth certificate. Video and transcript after the jump: I think that it is a communication that deserves, at least, his response, first of all, I think — which we have not received. But in essence what I told him is this. When I am asked a congressman, from constituents, hard questions, I don’t shy away from...

NYT THURSDAY: THE BLIZZARDS ARE FROM THE WARMING... DEVELOPING...

WASHINGTON - It's a bipartisan jobs bill that would hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory and placate Republicans with tax cuts at the same time. But it has a problem: It won't create many jobs. Even the Obama administration acknowledges the legislation's centerpiece — a tax cut for businesses that hire unemployed workers — would work only on the margins.

To add to the list of outrageous earmarks in Obama's fiscal 2011 budget, ACORN, the embezzlement-prone, voter-registration-fraud-plagued, leftist community organizing group, is slated to receive nearly $4 billion from a taxpayer-funded slush fund. The money will come from the Community Development Block Grant, one of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's longest-running programs. The HUD Web site cryptically defines the grant's purpose as providing "communities with resources to address a wide range of unique community development needs," not a reassuring description given the group's recent past history of aiding the community through gratuitous missappropriation of funds. Has Congress already...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit took an unexpectedly large turn for the worse in December, loading more foreign debt onto Americans and lengthening the odds against President Obamas effort to spark job growth by sharply boosting exports. The Commerce Department report Wednesday, recording the third straight month of rising trade deficits, showed that exports continued to rebound at a solid pace in the final weeks of 2009, but a surge in oil imports wiped out the gain, leaving the countrys trade balance $40.2 billion in the red. That was up sharply from the $36.4 billion shortfall in November of...

President Obama, struggling to staff his administration after a year in office, is blaming Republican efforts to "delay and obstruct" his nominees in the Senate -- and threatening to counteract those tactics with recess appointments. Over 200 nominations are estimated to still be pending in the Senate, and Obama blames the minority party's "obstinacy," which he says is "rooted not in substantive disagreements but in political expedience." "I respect the Senate's role to advise and consent, but for months, qualified, non-controversial nominees for critical positions in government -- often positions related to our national security -- have been held up...

Among the most wasteful of the spending in- creases hidden in President Obama's 2011 budget proposal is his plan to create an army of government-funded community organizers at the shocking price of $1.4 billion. While the economy reels and many taxpayers are looking for ways to trim their personal spending, the president is demanding a whopping 59 percent boost for the Corporation for National and Community Service and its best-known program, AmeriCorps. It's time to pull the plug on both. The spirit of volunteerism has never been in short supply in America, and there is no need for a federal...

Voters are madder than ever at the current policies of the federal government. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 75% of likely voters now say they are at least somewhat angry at the government’s current policies, up four points from late November and up nine points since September. The overall figures include 45% who are Very Angry, also a nine-point increase since September. Just 19% now say they’re not very or not at all angry at the government’s policies, down eight points from the previous survey and down 11 from September. That 19% includes only eight percent...

Press Release February 7, 2010 Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings Favorite Book for Teens Too Lewd for Seattle Times Newspaper says they can’t print quotes from the book because they are a family newspaper. GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings has been “queering” public schools for years. Supposedly to help kids struggling with homosexual desires feel “safe”. But Jennings didn’t limit his target group to homosexual teens. He wanted to include what he calls “questioning youth”. GLSEN’s “ Try it. You just might like it.” Target group. One of the books Jennings wants placed in every middle & high school is “Two...

The feds may still try the 9/11 terror thugs near Ground Zero, President Obama said yesterday, shocking critics. "I have not ruled it out, but I think it's important for us to take into account the practical, logistical issues involved," Obama told CBS News anchor Katie Couric. "I mean, if you have a city that is saying no, and a police department that is saying no, and a mayor that is saying no, that makes it difficult," Obama acknowledged. The White House asked Attorney General Eric Holder late last month to look for alternatives to a trial in Manhattan Federal...

Obama in 1980 said he was born in Mombasa, Kenya >> a chance meeting in the vicinity of Kalakaua Blvd., one evening in early August of 1980. The former Marine is a highly respected member of the Free-Republic online-community>> "We spoke of where I had been and the world as I saw it. I told him I had been to Africa, Mombassa specifically, and he said to me abruptly, “I was born there.” ----------------------------------------------------- Posted at freerepublic this AM: >>I cant prove it, no one was with me, but I DID meet a young Mulatto male in 1980 about 1...

Democratic strategists say that if President Obama's re-election prospects look shaky, he could dump Vice President Joe Biden from the 2012 national ticket and choose Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential running mate. It's inside-Washington speculation at this point, but the strategists make a good case for such a shift. "Biden was named in the first place to shore up Obama on foreign policy issues, and Obama doesn't need that anymore," says a former Clinton adviser. That's because Obama has learned the ropes and has assembled a strong foreign policy and national security team including Robert Gates as defense secretary,...

The Netherlands has asked the UN climate change panel to explain an inaccurate claim in a landmark 2007 report that more than half the country was below sea level, the Dutch government said Friday. According to the Dutch authorities, only 26 percent of the country is below sea level, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be asked to account for its figures, environment ministry spokesman Trimo Vallaart told AFP. The incident could cause further embarrassment for the IPCC, which recently admitted a claim in the same report that global warming could melt Himalayan glaciers by 2035 was...

USA Today - Link and headline only http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-02-04-border-security-budget_N.htm

AJM: Hello Mr. Hunter. I’m sure you’ve seen the news. Your son, Duncan D., has been getting hammered in the left-wing media and blogs for defending the Military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. DH: Yeah, I’ve noticed that. He must be doing something right (laughs). He’s doing a great job, as evidenced by the frothing attacks from the homosexual lobby, the media and their democrat allies. I talked to Duncan, called him up. Gave him some encouragement and a few ideas. But he’s doing great. AJM: Have you had a chance to write anything up on this? DH: No, I’ve...