Free Republic

Geithner’s fiscal cliff offer might not even be able to pass Democratic SenateTreasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner did what Washingtonians call the “full Ginsburg” on Sunday. The term refers to Monica Lewinsky’s lawyer, William H. Ginsburg, who was the first to appear on all five network Sunday interview shows in one day. Mr. Geithner’s whirlwind tour revealed more of the White House’s endgame for the fiscal cliff negotiations, and it’s evident President Obama is positioning himself to the left of his own party. For the first time, Mr. Geithner revealed to Fox News’ Chris Wallace the White House determination to...

Prominent gender and media studies professors from across the country converged recently to help host what was dubbed by organizers as a “Feminist, Anti-Racist Wikipedia Edit-a-thon” to create or influence dozens of entries on the online encyclopedia.

"Barack Obama won because he recognized a new America." Or maybe an America more fluid, more insubstantial than post-election wisdom is ready to grant. You can't always tell about "new" -- a truth the human race rarely acknowledges. We'll see whether James Carville's and Stan Greenberg's words from a Democracy Corps survey stand up better than the consensus of November 1965, following the Lyndon Johnson-led slaughter of almost every Republican downwind from Barry Goldwater. Johnson, father of the Great Society, was all but run out of Washington on a rail after mucking up the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, as everyone these...

The way in which the New York Times reports good vs. evil is one of the most important stories of our time. Take the war between Israel and Hamas that is taking place right now. This war is as morally clear as wars get. Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to annihilating the Jewish state. It runs a theocratic totalitarian state in Gaza, with no individual liberty and no freedom of speech or press. In a nutshell, Hamas is a violent, fascist organization. Israel, meanwhile, is one the world's most humane states, not to mention a democracy that is so...

Books that portray ‘traditional’ images of mothers caring for their children or fathers going out to work could be barred from schools under proposals from Brussels. An EU report claims that ‘gender stereotyping’ in schools influences the perception of the way boys and girls should behave and damages women’s career opportunities in the future. Critics said the proposals for ‘study materials’ to be amended so that men and women are no longer depicted in their traditional roles would mean the withdrawal of children’s classics, such as Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five series, Paddington Bear or Peter Pan. …

If Europeans could vote tomorrow (6 November) in the US election, they would back President Barack Obama over challenger Mitt Romney, numerous polls have shown. In a survey released last week by British pollster YouGov, 90% of Europeans have said that they would vote for Obama if they could cast ballots. The reason behind it is that they don’t know much about Romney, the 65-year-old former equity investor, and find his ideas leaning too far on the right. … Criticized at home for being too European, Obama collects support on this side of the Atlantic for his policies of expanding...

In the vice presidential debate, the two candidates, both Roman Catholics, were asked about their religious beliefs, how they impact the candidates' political positions and specifically about abortion. This was the response of Vice President Joe Biden: "My religion defines who I am. And I've been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And it has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who -- who can't take care of themselves, people who need help. "With regard to abortion, I accept my church's position on abortion as a -- what we call de fide...

In the vice-presidential debate, the two candidates, both Roman Catholics, were asked about their religious beliefs, about how those beliefs impact their political positions, and specifically about abortion. This was the response of Vice President Joe Biden: My religion defines who I am. And I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And it has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who — who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help.With regard to abortion, I accept my church’s position on abortion as a — what we call de fide...

For at least the last hundred years, the world's most dynamic religion has been neither Christianity nor Islam. It is leftism. Most people do not recognize what is probably the single most important fact of modern life. One reason is that leftism is overwhelmingly secular (more than merely secular: it is inherently opposed to all traditional religions), and therefore people do not regard it as a religion. Another is that leftism so convincingly portrays itself as solely the product of reason, intellect, and science that it has not been seen as the dogma-based ideology that it is. Therefore, the vast...

Dear Askel5, For many years, I thought you were a bit of a nut. A very INTELLIGENT nut, but a nut nonetheless. Your constant harping about Gramscian politics was, to my mind, weird a little paranoid. It turns out you were one hundred percent right. The move to destroy America has been very below-the-surface, highly organized, and extremely effective ... and the model has been, indeed, Antonio Gramsci's.From the work Notes on Saul Alinsky and Neo-Marxism: Remember that the primary influence for Obama's strategy comes from Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals." With that in mind..."Alinsky's tactics were based, not on...

In a swipe at the GOP presidential ticket, senior Obama adviser David Axelrod on Tuesday defended President Barack Obama’s handling of Medicare. “The president … took away subsidies, unwarranted subsidies, to insurance companies, and he used that money to help lengthen the life of Medicare by nearly a decade,” Axelrod said on CNN’s Starting Point, referencing a provision of the new health care law. “So when Gov. Romney says he doesn’t support that, obviously … that’s problematical.” …

A rally will be held Monday night in Crystal Springs, Mississippi after a black couple wasn’t allowed to get married at their church because of their race. Continue reading The Wilsons were told they couldn’t wed at the town's First Baptist Church because it goes against tradition since a black couple had never been married there in its 129-year history. Charles Wilson and his fiance, Te'Andrea, wanted to get married there, but church members got upset. The paster then asked the couple to take their wedding elsewhere. "This had never been done here before, so it was setting a new...

Every fall, it seems, Americans are subjected to the ugly spectacle of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad coming to New York to address the UN General Assembly. There, at the podium, he is placed on a par with President Obama, Prime Minister David Cameron, France's Francois Hollande, and other leaders of civilized states. Ahmadinejad has used this podium to spew his anti-American, anti-Israel hatred. And yet he receives hearty applause from the Islamist delegates seated before him. Iran signed the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights as long ago as 1948. That's when Iran was ruled by the Shah. That UNDHR contains...

Suddenly, Barack Obama wants to ban AK-47 “assault” weapons because they belong only on “the battlefield of war,” even though the LEGAL AK-47s in the U.S. are dressed-up 22-caliber semi-automatic rifles NOT used in war. New York's Nanny Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants America’s police to go on strike until the federal government adopts stricter gun laws, although I would expect that if his own security police went on strike he’d become a little nervous. Lanny Davis, former special counsel to Bill Clinton, told Sean Hannity on the radio Tuesday that the federal government should be tracking the purchase of weapons...

There was a time, within living memory, when the achievements of others were not only admired but were often taken as an inspiration for imitation of the same qualities that had served these achievers well, even if we were not in the same field of endeavor and were not expecting to achieve on the same scale. The perseverance of Thomas Edison, as he tried scores of materials before finally trying tungsten as the filament for the light bulb he was inventing; the dedication of Abraham Lincoln as he studied law on his own while struggling to make a living —...

Rising numbers of children regularly have to go without food due to chaotic parenting and chronic neglect, a charity claimed today. They are unable to concentrate properly at school and risk infections, slowed growth and impaired brain development. Kids Company, a charity for disadvantaged children, believes that as many as one million children are living with ‘food insecurity’ and are unsure where their next meal is coming from. These children typically each just ten meals each week - 11 short of the 21 meals a week needed for children to stay healthy. The charity highlighted a series of cases including...

White House salaries have jumped by nearly $5 million in the three years since Barack Obama became president, official figures show. The 468 people who work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue earn $37.8 million, the White House's annual report to Congress shows. That compares to $33.1 million in George W. Bush's last year in the Oval Office, an increase of 14.1 percent. The report was released at 4.39 p.m. Friday, a notorious time for dumping bad news just before a weekend. By statute it hhad a July 1 deadline. The White House payroll is up nearly 2 percent on last year...

You cannot understand the left if you do not understand that Leftism is a religion. It is not G0d-based (some Left-wing Christians' and Jews' claims notwithstanding), but otherwise it has every characteristic of a religion. The most blatant of those characteristics is dogma. People who believe in Leftism have as many dogmas as the most fundamentalist Christian. One of them is material equality as the preeminent moral goal. Another is the villainy of corporations. The bigger the corporation, the greater the villainy. Thus, instead of the devil, the left has Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, the "military-industrial complex," and...

In unrelated cases that illustrate the high price communities pay for sanctuary policies, two illegal immigrants—both with extensive criminal records—were convicted of first-degree murder this week in different parts of a border state that has longed protected the undocumented. In San Francisco a jury found Edwin Ramos, a renowned gang banger, guilty of three first-degree murder counts for the 2008 killings of a 48-year-old man and his two sons. Ramos had a lengthy criminal record when he murdered the family, but San Francisco sanctuary laws shielded him from deportation. Judicial Watch obtained public records that show police knew Ramos was...

The European Commission will propose tomorrow (18 April) introducing a minimum salary in countries like Germany where it does not exist yet, and raise wages where they are considered too low, according to a draft seen by EurActiv. Having a job is not a recipe against poverty in Europe. Indeed, more than 8% of European workers live with salaries that keep them below the poverty threshold, EU figures show. “The risk of in-work poverty is high, particularly in countries with uneven earnings distribution and low minimum wages, among people with temporary contracts and in low work intensity and single parent...