Free Republic

Unsurprisingly, Michael Barone has an interesting and incisive roundup of numbers from last night that go deeper than the top-line results. Some nuggets: * Bergen County, New Jersey, a 56%-42% Corzine constituency in 2005, came within a point or two of voting for Christie. * Westchester County, New York, voted 58%-42% for a Republican county executive after voting almost exactly the opposite way, in a race involving the same two candidates, four years before. * The Virginia Board of Elections has results by CD showing that three Dems who captured seats in 2008 by very narrow margins (the 2nd, 5th,...

Garrett: Why should millions of votes in New Jersey and Virginia matter less than a larger political atmosphere than the relatively smaller number of votes in New York-23? Axelrod: Well, i think you have to look at what those races were. The New York-23 race was the one race that was really a microcosm of the national debate. The other races in New Jersey and in Virginia were really state races very much focused on state issues and Jersey was very much focused on Governor Corzine. But in New York-23 the issues that we're discussing every day in Washington were...

I'm amazed by the soothsayers: Ayn Rand, for instance, who warned us fifty years ago of the risk of dictatorship or civil war if collectivism persisted. Or economist Friedrich Hayek, who wrote in the 1940s that we'll become serfs if we move toward big government. However, what feels most prophetic lately is an obscure movie from the l970s called Little Murders. The writer, Pulitzer-Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer, predicted that the '60s would unleash a feral, primitive society. The movie has a checkered history. It started out as a play on Broadway in the mid-'60s that was such a bomb, it...

A former hareidi religious legislator warned the government on Tuesday to stop “bleeding hearts” from making the country a refuge for non-Jews and criminals. Journalist Yisrael Eichler, a former Knesset Member in the United Torah Judaism party, told Arutz 7 that while non-Jews from poor countries come to Israel, “the media prefers to deal with a screwball who puts up posters” and feel sorry for foreign workers and refugees who are flooding the country...

The past and future of the Leftby Guy Rundle Monday, 28 September 2009 Years ago, I remember seeing a Hinze cartoon in the study of a friend, a Left Labor activist. It showed an inner city 90s teenager — opshop clothes, funny haircut — with a placard “no third runway” about to go off to a demo. “Coming to the airport protest Dad?” she said to an aging figure hunched over a chunky 90s computer. “No thanks, I’ve got to write another article on the death of the left,” said the harried, bearded figure. It was clear that Hinze’s sympathies were with the kid,...

Most thoughtful commentators bemoan the decline of bipartisanship and the coarsening of political discourse in the United States. The president promised to reach out to the opposition and hoped for 80 Senate votes for his stimulus bill. But he disregarded all Republican suggestions for the bill and acquiesced in its Pelosification into a groaning, creaking, Democratic gravy train. I remember, as a very young person, the august comparative tranquillity of the Eisenhower era, when the president requested national air time only for matters of indisputable national interest. He never abused this privilege, and there was no call for equal time....

Despite a United Nations’ report finding that Honduras acted within the parameters of its constitution in removing sitting President Manuel Zelaya, the Obama Administration remained firm in its demand that Zelaya be restored to power. “While we certainly respect the UN’s right to a different point of view, we must insist on the reestablishment of the Zelaya Government,” said President Barack Obama. “His removal was founded on an adherence to formalistic procedures rather than a true expression of the people’s will.” “It is our belief that the popular referendum President Zelaya sought is fully compatible with the core democratic principles...

With Glenn Beck's revelation a few days ago that an admirer of Mao Zedong named Anita Dunn works as communications director in the Obama White House, it's time for a trip down Maoist memory lane. Dunn has been chosen by President Obama to lead his “war” against Fox News. It’s good to know she draws inspiration from a bloodthirsty totalitarian dictator as she helps to lead the Obama administration’s assault on the First Amendment. Dunn, who said that the most accomplished mass murderer of all time was “one of the two people that I turn to most,” is not the...

Rush Limbaugh, America’s Anchor man, The Doctor of Democracy, America’s Truth Detector, the Harmless Little Fuzz Ball has been of late the victim of a vicious barrage of slander and hate. This onslaught was perpetrated by the collective left in this country over his attempt to partner with a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams, an NFL franchise. These attacks have been fueled and fired by two race-card playing charlatans and apostate Christian leaders of the Left, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (see Matt. 7:16, 21-23; 12:33; 2 Tim. 3:1-6). The Liberal, State-Run Media has been working feverishly...

Rush Limbaugh, America’s Anchor man, The Doctor of Democracy, America’s Truth Detector, the Harmless Little Fuzz Ball has been of late the victim of a vicious barrage of slander and hate. This onslaught was perpetrated by the collective left in this country over his attempt to partner with a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams, an NFL franchise. These attacks have been fueled and fired by two race-card playing charlatans and apostate Christian leaders of the Left, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (see Matt. 7:16, 21-23; 12:33; 2 Tim. 3:1-6). The Liberal, State-Run Media has been working feverishly...

(IsraelNN.com) African immigrants are a strategic problem of the first degree, according to Professor Arnon Sofer, an expert on demographics and the head of the the IDF's National Security College. The campaign for taking in the African immigrants was mounted by extreme leftists, Sofer told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service Friday. “They want us to absorb 1,200 sweet children, but where is the red line? 250,000 children of foreign workers? Two million?” The extreme leftists, said Sofer, want to destroy the Zionist state. “They do not want a Jewish state but a state 'of human beings.' They do not understand that...

A little something to think about: Have you too noticed that very few accidents seem to happen around Barack Obama? Sure, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright association blew up in his face; that was just a matter of time and came not from Republicans but from fellow Democrats. One day the Harvard-educated, freshman senator from Illinois thought there were 57 states. He didn't know Canada had a prime minister, not a president. And it took some doing for the man to grudgingly give in to that stupid lapel flag pin thing. The Geithner-Daschle-Solis back-tax deals were also messy. But those gaffes...

OSLO – Members of the Norwegian committee that gave Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize are strongly defending their choice against a storm of criticism that the award was premature and a potential liability for the U.S. president. Asked to comment on the uproar following Friday's announcement, four members of the five-seat panel told The Associated Press that they had expected the decision to generate both surprise and criticism. Three of them rejected the notion that Obama hadn't accomplished anything to deserve the award, while the fourth declined to answer that question. A fifth member didn't answer calls seeking comment....

Straight Conservative Talk from African Americans for All Americans. (I have to thank John for this theme.) This week's post is "Straight Talk Scares the Left." Please check it out. Thanks for your support!

I’m sorry, there’s a lot I admire about Barack Obama, but he doesn’t deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Not while he’s waging a war in Afghanistan, which he’s already escalated, and may be about to escalate again. Not while he still hasn’t pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq, nor while he’s going to keep tens of thousands of private military contractors there indefinitely. Not while he endorses Bush’s heinous policy of “extraordinary renditions.” Not while asserts the right to indefinitely detain people without habeas corpus rights at Bagram Air Base. Not while he fails to successfully prod Israel to give...

Many of the gay rights activists who will hear President Obama speak at the Human Rights Campaign banquet in Washington, D.C., Saturday worked to get him elected. They had realistic expectations of what he could do for them if he won, but they have grown impatient with a president who has said nice things but done little more than extend limited rights to federal employees' same-sex partners. Obama determined that granting health benefits to same-sex partners was beyond his authority. "I don't care what he says Saturday night -- I want to see what he does," Illinois Equality Now founder...

Nearly a month ago many prominent figures in Hollywood and the international world of film signed the Toronto Declaration pushing for the boycott of a film festival that dared to showcase Israeli films. At the end of this month, many prominent figures in Hollywood and the world of film signed a petition calling for the immediate release of the rapist of a 13 year old girl, who also happens to be a major figure in Hollywood and the international world of film, namely one Roman Polanski. It is instructive to watch the same people who lecture Americans on morals and...

I am so sick of the Left being allowed to make the rules. Imagine the absurdity of a competition in which one side is allowed to set the rules against their opponent. The Left tells us what is racist. The Left tells us what we can and cannot say. The Left published a cartoon depicting former black Secretary of State Condolezza Rice as an Aunt Jemima; another depicted Rice as a huge-lipped parrot for her Massa Bush. Neither were considered racist by their creators or publishers, or even widely condemned on the Left. In opposition to black Republican Michael Steele's...

As long as Obamacare passes, the good folks at the extremely leftist site FireDogLake.com don't seem to mind too terribly if that old saw of "free speech" is violated. At least it is easy to come to that conclusion after reading a posting on the FDL main page by a fellow aptly calling himself "Scarecrow." In a piece ridiculously headline, "Defeated: Kyl’s Amendment to Let Insurers Frighten Medicare Enrollees," this "Scarecrow" fellow celebrates the fact that the iron boot heel of government was slammed down on the neck of folks opposing a government policy. Yes, that old useless idea from...

Snippets: (emphasis mine)In a conference call with more than 1,000 rabbis before Rosh Hashanah, President Barack Obama encouraged the religious leaders to use their sermons on the Jewish New Year to promote health-care reform. It is more than ironic that liberal Jews, who call for a complete separation of church and state, saw nothing wrong with the president scripting their sermons. The reason may be that the script came from a modern sort of Jewish holy book, what Norman Podhoretz calls the "Torah of liberalism." What is the Torah of liberalism? Mr. Podhoretz says that the 11th commandment for liberal...

The left says Glenn Beck must be stopped. Beck, a media giant who commanders not just the radio but television, books and even comedy halls nationwide, is starting to collect liberal scalps. And the left, along with their chums in the mainstream media, won’t stand for it. Witness Time magazine’s latest cover story -- “Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America” -- merely the most visible attempt to destroy/silence/marginalize the populist talker. For the last few years the left and the press would take shots at Beck, but never in a concerted fashion. He simply could be ignored, and...

Several remarkable things recently became clear: The left is unable to injure an opponent through a boycott. This must be a horrible shock as the boycott has been a successful labor union and leftist tactic for more than a century. Worse yet, Beck’s ratings rose substantially and, at least one boycotter, GEICO, is losing at least 6500 customers. I personally cancelled my Progressive policy (was previously unaware of the Soros, et al. connection) in response, and I am sure I have company. We conservatives do not preen our “goodness” with public statements; we simply cease to patronize the enemies of...

DURING last year's presidential campaign, when it seemed likely that Barack Obama would win, conservatives would joke, "One thing's sure: After January 20, dissent will no longer be the highest form of patriotism." We had heard that a lot during the George W. Bush years: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." Many on the left thought they were quoting Thomas Jefferson; actually, the words apparently come from Howard Zinn, the contemporary leftist historian. And it's a dumb thing to say: Certainly, dissent can be a form of patriotism. But the highest? Where does that put what Sergeant York and...

The left has launched a massive campaign to destroy Glenn Beck — who right now, and along with Rush, is the most eloquent, fearless and effective warrior standing between Barack Obama and a collectivist state. The politics of personal destruction is what the left does best and in many ways it is all the left does. “Purge” — as in defame and then dispose of your political enemies — is a term that leftists invented in the 1930s when Stalin staged show trials of his political enemies, defamed and demonized them, and then buried them.

World celebrities sing to stop global warming (AFP) – 10 hours ago GENEVA — British rock group Duran Duran and heavy metal band Scorpions are among 55 world celebrities who have joined in recording a song to draw attention to the global warming crisis, organisers said on Monday. The song is part of a mass media campaign on the threats of climate change organised by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, headed by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. The song entitled "Beds'r Burning", which was originally recorded by the Australian group Midnight Oil in the 1980s, can be downloaded from...

President Obama…You Scare Me! September 8th, 2009 by Saul Anuzis AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA Dear President Obama: You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me. You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you. You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support. You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally...

A young mother's premature baby died in her arms after doctors refused to help because it was born just before 22-week cut-off point for treatment. Sarah Capewell, 23, gave birth to her son Jayden when she was 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy. Although doctors refused to place the baby in intensive care, Jayden lived for two hours before he passed away at James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk, last October.

Obama Selling Out --"Say It Ain't So 'Joe'" (Huffington Post can only be linked to)

AS SOCIALISTS, we support the right of oppressed peoples to fight for self-determination unreservedly, just as we oppose imperialism, without caveat. This perspective is generally accepted by the left without question in contexts such as Latin America or Africa, where bitter fights against U.S. and European imperialism have been fought and, in some cases, won. Yet, when it comes to the Middle East and Afghanistan today there is suddenly much less clarity about what radicals and Marxists should be saying. Nowhere is that more evident than in the case of Afghanistan, which has suffered under the yoke of U.S. imperialism...

Liberal Democrats in the House will get their wish: President Obama will meet with them face to face Tuesday or Wednesday to discuss health reform legislation. House Progressive Caucus co-chairs Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) requested a meeting "as soon as possible" in a letter to Obama Thursday, in which they reiterated their pledge to block comprehensive health care reform that does not include a public option and made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that they oppose the "trigger" proposal the White House recently floated. (Under that plan, a public health insurance plan would be created only...

I don't enjoy Sean's radio show. It's too predictable, and he plays the nice guy too much. Any thoughts?

Ah, the ‘60s, the hippie-drenched era recently dredged up as part of the Woodstock 40th anniversary news coverage. What a shame that so much of what the public knows of the turbulent decade is either an exaggeration or outright falsehood. Enter The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties by Jonathan Leaf. The author debunks much of the conventional wisdom regarding the decade, from the culture at play to the Vietnam War. It’s easy to blame psychedelics abuse for the mass hypnosis regarding such an important chapter in American history. But Leaf calmly shares some cold, hard facts concerning the era....

If Napoleon was right about not interfering with an [in this case political] enemy in the process of destroying itself, this could be a time for Republicans to lay low. According to Ed Schultz, the left could be on the verge of an anti-Obama crack-up. On his MSNBC show this evening, Schultz said to the face of a senior admin official that the left is seriously considering dumping support for the president.

Good question. If you accepted the formulation made by Kathleen Parker, stalwart and standard-bearing conservative, you’d think he was a “pragmatist” in “socialist times” — a smooth operator beholden to none, acting decisively and in accordance with what the “times” demand. Namely, socialism. How’s that pragmatic socialist thing working out for the Left? Well, let’s just say that being mentioned in the same breath as Dick Cheney isn’t quite the change BO would be looking for. Enter Greg Palast, who — after lambasting Obama for striking a secret deal with pharmaceutical companies that would, by his calculations, save a whopping...

The cultural treachery of the liberal left. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4FpTvp0tgs

Obama Regresses to Cold War Mythology … and Switches Sides Oleg Atbashian, a writer and graphic artist from Ukraine, currently lives in New York. He is the creator of ThePeoplesCube.com, a satirical website where he writes under the name of Red Square.     The world needs post-Cold War thinking. But Obama is stuck in a world of parochial clichés. (This is Part 1 of a series.) http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama-regresses-to-cold-war-mythology-and-switches-sides/ Why is this president always doing the opposite of what needs to be done?Instead of supporting Iranian protesters, he snubs them. Instead of snubbing the ousted Honduran would-be dictator, he invites him to...

A great many Leftist in America today follow the radical teachings of their mentor Saul Alinsky - including Obama . Little do they know that they are following in the very footprints of his (Alinsky's) mentor and master, i.e., Lucifer (John 8:44). Rules for Radicals is a book by Saul Alinsky which is dedicated to the original radical, Lucifer, who is also known as Satan, the Devil, The Old Serpent, and The Dragon (Rev.12:2,20:2). All other dinky despots have their roots in this arch-villain. In this book is found the following: “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to...

NYU will be short one professor this fall. Thio Li-ann, a professor at the National University of Singapore and a member of that country’s Parliament, was scheduled to teach a course on human rights in Asia and a seminar on constitutionalism as a visiting professor at NYU’s Law School. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, she cancelled her plans last week in response to campus protests of her comments in opposition to homosexuality. More than 740 people have signed an online petition saying that, by hiring Thio, the law school was “acting in opposition to its own policy of...

There is only one good thing about the Obama administration's attempts to nationalize most health care and to begin to control Americans' energy consumption through cap-and-trade: clarity about the left. These attempts are enabling more and more Americans to understand the thinking and therefore the danger of the left. The left has its first president -- with the possible exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- and for the first time controls the Democratic Party and both houses of Congress. In the name of compassion for the sick and the poor and in the name of preventing worldwide environmental catastrophe, it...

Aluf Benn, possibly Israel's smartest journalist, makes a fascinating point about the construction on settlement freeze issue: why is Israel's left so indifferent to it? In the past, the left (which can mean, say, Labor party through Peace Now) has eagerly rallied to U.S. efforts to press Israel for concessions, especially on the territories. Not this time, even though the concession being sought is smaller than many in the past. Benn attributes a lot of this to Obama's failure to sell his program. It is true that he has made no effort to appeal to Israelis on it but I...

Poll: Is the left still fearful of Sarah Palin? A Daily Poll.

Belmont Club July 12th, 2009 4:36 amLeft brain, right brain <a href="http://harvest.AdGardener.com/noscript.aspx?s=167&c=a9b065f5-2460-de11-908e-001a4befa6a0" target="_blank"><img src="http://harvest.AdGardener.com/noscript.aspx?s=167&w=300&h=250&c=a9b065f5-2460-de11-908e-001a4befa6a0" width="300" height="250" border="0" /></a> A 2005 study by the International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining described the state of the political blogosphere in 2004 Presidential elections, at a time when this medium was beginning to be important. It was a period when 9% of Internet users categorized themselves as ‘frequent’ or ’sometime’ readers of blogsites, a number significant enough to warrant attention.  Howard Dean famously issued his information bulletins through them and “the Democratic and Republican parties further signaled the established position of...

Green Left, an eco-socialist current within the Green Party of England and Wales, held its annual general meeting on June 20 in London. It discussed the work of the network over the past year in struggles against war, racism and environmental decay and in winning support for eco-socialism as a solution to the economic and climate crises.

The Note: Little Hurts -- Obama Guards Against Angst on LeftBy RICK KLEIN June 29, 2009 8:04 AM **SNIP** “The conflicting signals from the White House about its commitment to gay issues reflect a broader paradox: even as cultural acceptance of homosexuality increases across the country, the politics of gay rights remains full of crosscurrents,” Adam Nagourney writes in the Sunday New York Times. “The Obama White House in particular is reluctant to embrace gay rights issues now, officials there say, because they do not want to provide social conservatives a rallying cry while the president is trying to assemble...

There is so much misinformation on the subject of global warming and so little consensus -- as to what environmental changes are occurring, whether human behavior is contributing to them, whether they are causing significant environmental damage, and whether the proposed cap and trade legislation would do anything to alleviate any of this -- it is no wonder our freedom-hating majority in the House insisted on cramming it through before they could even read, much less digest, what it contained. It would be bad enough if they passed innocuous legislation to address an alleged problem (man-caused global warming) without first...

Jonah Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism" has a fairly comprehensive section in it about Hitler's hatred and subversion of Christianity in Germany while he was in power. This is important because the Left has tried - with great success - to lump Hitler, Fascism, anti-Semites and Christianity together as part of a "right wing" Nazi "package." This could not be further from the truth, but it continues to work, as when the socialist, anti-Christian, anti-Semite nut and killer von Brunn was labelled "right wing." Jonah has excerpted part of his book dealing with Hitler's plans to destroy Christianity.

Laugh Clowns: Nero Fiddled As Rome Burned ... Now America Suffers as Hillary & Co. Laugh It Up

Written by epublius Saturday, 13 June 2009 13:02 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } For the past decade, the left has been trying to silence the conservative voice, calling for a fair and balanced voice when the majority of the media is clearly slanted to the left. The recent events surrounding Carrie Prejean the former “Miss California,” demonstrates how far the left will go in destroying your reputation and your career if you voice the “wrong” opinion. After weeks of attacks they succeeded in getting her fired. For those who are not familiar with the story, Carrie was asked a question during the...

...wanted to give a heads up to this terrific post by Ric Locke at Protein Wisdom on why the left are completely bats*** crazy angry over Sarah Palin: Stereotype: Womyn® are good Progressive Democrats. Reality: Sarah Palin is a Republican. Stereotype: Only Democrats give power to Womyn® Reality: Sarah Palin is not just a Governor, she’s Governor of a State where the Governor has real power. Stereotype: All manly men are part of Teh Patriarchy, dedicated to preventing Womyn® from achievement and deeply resentful of anything resembling a subordinate position. Reality: Todd Palin is a manly man with a manly...

It might be a little early to state unequivocally, but I’m tentatively going to say that yesterday, the worm turned. The last couple of weeks has been very revealing. The political and media class are in a lather and the people at home are watching. What are they seeing? Crazy people killing. While those of us blogging and the media types are ferreting who is doing the killing and why, the people who have lives are just noting that a lot of crazies are killing. They’re also noticing that normal groups of people are being tagged and blamed for what...