Free Republic

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A judge said Friday that it was legal for Oakland city and elected officials to mislead voters about a 2004 ballot measure that promised to hire police officers, saying that his hands are tied by an appellate court ruling. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch said the key factor in deciding whether the city of Oakland should be allowed to continue collecting taxes authorized by Measure Y is the language of the ballot measure itself, not what was said in chapter headings or in election materials distributed to voters. Marleen Sacks, an attorney who lives in...

Is his campaign dishonest or disorganized? Obama's flip-flopping June There's nothing wrong with a politician changing his mind. They all do it, and constancy in the face of error can be as harmful as flip-flopping. Yet the month of June saw Barack Obama abandoning positions at a clip so brisk it should give even his most stalwart supporters pause. In the wake of last week's Supreme Court ruling overturning Washington's handgun ban, for instance, the Obama campaign disavowed a 2007 statement it had made about the constitutionality of gun laws as "inartful." After claiming in May that he would debate...

Jay McKinnon, a self-described Department of Homeland Security-trained document specialist, has implicated himself in the production of fraudulent Hawaii birth certificate images similar to the one endorsed as genuine by the Barack Obama campaign, and appearing on the same blog entry where the supposedly authentic document appears. The evidence of forgery and manipulation of images of official documents, triggered by Israel Insider's revelation of the collection of Hawaii birth certificate images on the Photobucket site and the detective work of independent investigative journalists and imaging professionals in the three weeks since the publication of the images, implicate the Daily Kos,...

Think Progress has a post titled McCain: I ‘Don’t See How It Matters’ That I Don’t Know The Price Of Gas. Wow, that sounds pretty bad. Let’s take a look: In a telephone interview with the Orange County Register earlier this week, John McCain acknowledged he was unaware of the price of gas. Jeez. That’s really awful. But let’s take a look at the actual exchange that Think Progress is citing: WICKSOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost? MCCAIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve...

An older article, but relevant today in light of the Dobson-Obama dust up! Christians of ALL races must be on guard against the deceivers who will try to convince us Obama's extreme agenda is compatible with a biblical faith!Burns Strider. Joshua DuBois. Shaun Casey. Eric Sapp. Mara Vanderslice. Not household names, these five professed evangelicals may hold the key to Democratic victory in the 2008 presidential election. Their mission: Convince white evangelical voters that a liberal agenda is consistent with the Bible and that the expressed Christian devotion of Democratic candidates is authentic. Three of the five are official religious...

Democrats are finding more excuses to ignore the promise they made when they took over Congress that they wouldn't pass laws increasing the budget deficit. Now they're willing to do it again for a $16 billion extension of unemployment aid and a doubling of education benefits for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. They've already swelled the deficit by $200 billion since December with tax relief for the middle class and rebates for nearly everyone. In a federal budget exceeding $3 trillion — and with President Bush requesting almost $200 billion this year for the two wars — their latest...

ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: Senator Hillary Clinton knocked Republican presidential contender John McCain and the Republican party for politicizing the issue of Senator Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Wright, but tip-toed around her reaction to her Democratic opponent's handling of the matter. “I have said that that that was a personal decision of his I answered one question about it that made it clear I would not have stayed in that church under those circumstances," Clinton told reporters in Graham, NC. "But, I regret the efforts by the Republicans to politicize this matter and I believe that if Senator McCain...

Here’s some advice for the myriad of fawning pro-Obama pundits with visions of Camelots and Great Societies dancing in their heads: Stop dismissing Hillary Clinton. Her Pennsylvania victory is real and significant, she has additional opportunities in upcoming primaries, and she’s still in the race because, well, she’s still in the race. For weeks, it’s been evident that the number to watch for assessing Clinton’s chances is not the pledged-delegate count. It’s not the national opinion polls, either the spread against Barack Obama or the fall hypotheticals against John McCain. It’s not the number of state contests that each candidate...

Last week's Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama really depressed me. And not just because the moderators spent the first 40 minutes on "gotcha" questions with no relevance to the problems we face. ABC News' Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos gave such short shrift to foreign policy queries, you'd think we had no overseas problems. Never mind that George W. Bush will leave behind a Mideast mess worse than any I've seen. Even more frustrating: On the few questions involving Iraq, there was no effort to get the candidates to flesh out their thinking. Both Democrats are more...

Friday, April 18, 2008 As this unusual campaign season has unfolded, we’ve seen the candidates ratcheting up their politically expedient rhetoric in an attempt to distinguish themselves as the “candidate of choice” for every constituency, while testing the far reaches of credibility in the process. We’ve heard blatantly anti-gun politicians claim to be supportive of the Second Amendment. We’ve seen hypocrisy, and we’ve heard double-speak and insults to our intelligence. When it comes to campaign rhetoric on the Second Amendment, we’ve seen a change in the way many anti-gun politicians campaign. Rather than talk openly about their desire to ban...

Anyway, here is what Obama has actually said that an encomiastic main stream media will never put together for you: 1) "I opposed this war from the start" (speech August, 2002). 2) "I did oppose the war, yes, but after, when the invasion was finally launched, when I saw Saddam's statue topple and watched Bush atop the USS Abraham Lincoln, a banner behind him saying 'mission accomplished', I began to suspect that I might have been wrong (page 295 Audacity of Hope). 3) "What would I have done [about Iraq]. I don't know" (2004 Democratic Convention) (NY Times July 23,...

TOP 14,500 RICHEST FAMILY The Clintons left the White House burdened by debt but have earned $109m (£55m) in the past eight years, putting them among the 14,500 richest families in the country and presenting a stark contrast to the impoverished families championed by her campaign. AIRFORCE 2 The former president reeled in at least $12.6m - and a possible further $2.7m last year - from a business partnership with his friend Ron Burkle, the supermarket magnate and financier. Bill Clinton has his own room in Burkle’s mansion in Los Angeles and travels so frequently on Burkle’s private jet that...

Barack Obama still remains a favorite among Democrats despite the recent exposure of his relationship with controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, now infamous for his anti-American jeremiads. Real Clear Politics national poll averages still place him two percentage points above Clinton with 45% to her 43%. Obama’s Rev. Wright controversy surfaced in the media on March 14. A Pew Research poll conducted between Feb 20-24 placed Obama ahead of Clinton 49% to 40%. The next Pew Research poll was conducted March 19-22, after the Wright controversy hit the airwaves. Obama’s numbers didn’t budge: he remained at 49% while Clinton actually dropped...

Radical liberal elites gather at the National Press Club on Thursday to honor other liberal radical elites who have distinguished themselves in disservice to America. The Nation Institute gives out "Ridenhour Prizes" in memory of Ron Ridenhour, a "journalist" who brought the My Lai "massacre" to the attention of the world during the Vietnam War and helped to establish the liberal template of the American soldier as a mass murderer. This years' "Courage Prize" goes to Bill Moyers, a liberal icon who established state-financed media that includes NPR and PBS. Past recipients: Jimmy Carter, Gloria Steinem, Seymour Hersh and Daniel...

All McCain voters are selling the rest of us TRUE CONSERVATIVES out! Enough! Show you have the values of your convictions and leave the BLUE BLOOD REPUBLICANS in Washington, crawling on their knees for forgiveness!

A Team You Can't Trust By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, March 31, 2008 Bill Clinton made a significant admission in Corpus Christi, Texas this month - saying he had decided to pardon Puerto Rican terrorists back in 1999 "based on the stuff I was given by the staff." But Ron Kolb, the citizen whose questioning prompted the ex-president's comment, rightly pointed out that the FBI and Justice Department had opposed the pardons. The clear conclusion is that it was Clinton's political staff who pushed for clemency - with the obvious goal of helping Hillary Clinton's bid...

While the media is tearing apart Hillary Clinton for “misremembering” a sniper incident (you know how often that kind of stuff happens in our day to day lives, so its no big leap to believe her) they are ignoring some other tall tales. The Obama tax files from 2000 on have been released and well, lets just say that somehow, someway, they managed to scrape by on a meager couple hundred grand. Of course making so little they couldn’t find any extra for charity either. From The TaxProf Blog: What is surprising, given the recent controversy over Obama’s membership in...

An interesting recent claim about al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) says it is a totally homegrown and separate entity from the al Qaeda (AQ) that Osama bin Laden heads. Sen. Chuck Schumer, on Tuesday’s “Larry King Live” said, "The al Qaeda the president is talking about is different than the al Qaeda of Mesopotamia, which is the al Qaeda that's in Iraq. The al Qaeda that bin Laden is in charge of is a totally separate organization." And AP’s Jennifer Loven, in an article on the same day, claimed that AQI “"is mostly homegrown ... ". She further claims that,...

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2008 – Information gleaned from 48 foreign fighters detained in Iraq offers insight into al Qaeda’s methods, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman told reporters during a briefing today in Baghdad. “The foreign detainees told similar stories about what happened to them once they were smuggled into Iraq,” said Navy Rear Adm. Greg Smith, director of Multinational Force Iraq’s communication division. “These 48 men told us they were lured here with the promise they would be killing Americans … but they were disappointed that most of the violence they saw was directed at the Iraqi people … fellow...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2008 – Congressional leaders honored U.S. troops who have served in Iraq and elsewhere around the world during a bipartisan remembrance ceremony here today in the Capitol Rotunda. During the ceremony, which marked the upcoming fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, the Congress members extended praise and appreciation to all U.S. servicemembers, emphasizing that their support for the troops transcends political lines. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, speaker of the House, opened the ceremony by lauding servicemembers who responded without delay when their nation called. “When sent into battle, they performed their duties effectively with bravery, dignity...

Babies not as innocent as they pretend By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent Last Updated: 12:01am BST 01/07/2007 Whether lying about raiding the biscuit tin or denying they broke a toy, all children try to mislead their parents at some time. Yet it now appears that babies learn to deceive from a far younger age than anyone previously suspected. Behavioural experts have found that infants begin to lie from as young as six months. Simple fibs help to train them for more complex deceptions in later life. Until now, psychologists had thought the developing brains were not capable of the difficult...

Report: Women Are World-Class Fibbers Sunday , March 02, 2008 Most females lie "more cleverly and successfully than men" about everything from cheating on their spouses and shopping binges to barhopping and facelifts, according to a new book published this week. "Women lie as a survival technique, but also to get what they want," Susan Shapiro Barash, author of "Little White Lies, Deep Dark Secrets: The Truth About Why Women Lie," told the New York Post. Barash interviewed 500 women nationwide and found 75 percent lie about how much money they spend, while more than 60 percent admitted to cheating...

Texas Monthly's Evan Smith interviewed HRC today and they had an extended exchange about Florida and Michigan. Smith: "... The talk is that you agreed not to seat the delegation." HRC: "That’s not the case at all. I signed an agreement not to campaign in Michigan and Florida. Now, the DNC made the determination that they would not seat the delegates, but I was not party to that. I think it’s important for the DNC to ask itself, Is this really in the best interest of our eventual nominee? We do not want to be disenfranchising Michigan and Florida. We...

<p>Mitt Romney says he "saw" his father "march" with Martin Luther King Jr. Rudolph Giuliani claims he is one of the "five best known Americans" in the world. According to John McCain, the Constitution established the United States as a "Christian nation."</p>

After one year of Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, public approval ratings for Congress have sunk below their level when Republicans were in control. A Post poll this month put the approval score at 32 percent, the disapproval at 60. In the last such survey during Republican control, congressional approval was 36 percent. So what are the Democrats to make of that? They could be using this interregnum before the start of their second year to evaluate their strategy and improve their standing. But if Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House and leader of their new majority,...

Top Story in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico 20 December 2007(TRANSLATION from Spanish)"A Thin Fence in Certain Zones El Paso--The double metallic fence that was supposed to be constructed between the United States and Mexico, will be "thinned out" to only a single fence in "more practical and effective" areas, instead of specific zones, with conditions placed on consulting local and state governments as well as the landowners before being erected."(Original): "Adelgazan" El Muro En Algunas Zonas (El Diario - 20 dic 01:30) AM El Paso— El muro metálico doble que se pretende construir entre Estados Unidos y México fue "adelgazado"...

A recent poll conducted by the Gallup organization discovered that Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to rate their mental health as excellent. According to a November Gallup Health and Healthcare poll, “fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43 percent of independents and 38 percent of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education." “It makes perfect sense when you think about it,” said Gallup Vice-President Aaron Keene. “Given the dismal history of government performance in so many...

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Rudy Giuliani says he wanted to deport all 400,000 illegal immigrants from New York City when he was mayor, but ended up welcoming most of those who were “causing me no trouble.” In an interview for the new book “Meet the Next President,” Giuliani lamented that the Immigration and Naturalization Service deported only 700 to 1,500 of the city’s 400,000 aliens each year during his mayoralty. Giuliani said it was obvious the INS was not about to increase deportation “from 700 or 1,500 to 400,000.” “If they could, I would have turned all the people over....

AMES, Iowa (AP) - Campaigning for his wife, former President Clinton says that when they were starting out he was so struck by her intellect and ability he once suggested she should just dump him and jump into her own political career. That didn't happen, of course, and on Monday he gave an Iowa crowd his version of why it didn't. "I thought it would be wrong for me to rob her of the chance to be what I thought she should be," said Clinton. "She laughed and said, 'First I love you and, second, I'm not going to run...

I have listened to FNS (and others) lately and get just livid when the dem side of a discussion B/T a dem and a conservative takes place. For example, today on Cavuto Jonathan Hoenig and some lib dink gal turned into a filibuster by her. She would ramble for 30-45 seconds at a time, and when Hoenig finally got in, she would interrupt after 5 seconds and launch into another incoherent babble. I see/hear this happen EVERY time the opportunity exists and libs talk over any and all diverse opinions. I wish Cavuto had just told her to STFU or...

A little-noticed aspect of an appellate court decision could sharply limit investigations of members of Congress and hamper ongoing corruption probes, the Justice Department said this week in a motion seeking an emergency stay of the ruling. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was handed down in August in the case of Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), but its effects complicate other investigations, including those stemming from the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Justice Department lawyers said in their motion that the appellate ruling represents an "unprecedented expansion" of the "speech or debate"...

Over the years its critics repeatedly attacked the Bush administration for letting its political ideology, and not the realities on the ground, guide its Iraq war policy -- with disastrous results. Now it appears the critics are guilty of the same sin. -snip- NBC's "Meet the Press" devoted its entire show Sunday to an interview with Barack Obama, but Tim Russert didn't bring up any of the progress achieved by the military in his questions. The closest Obama came to acknowledging that anything good was happening in Iraq came when, in describing his plan for ending the war while keeping...

Earlier today, the port side of the blogosphere erupted in righteous indignation as reports that Air America radio host Randi Rhodes got mugged began to swirl. Many bloggers started blaming a nameless conservative mugger, and then began extending the indictment to the entire conservative movement. It served their prejudices to think that conservative meanies would lay in wait for Rhodes just to keep her from speaking Truth to Power, etc etc etc. The only fly in the ointment? Rhodes never got mugged at all (via Michelle Malkin): Air America radio host Randi Rhodes is temporarily off the air, but claims...

Head-scratching over Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's presidential aspirations goes on everywhere, even in his own family. In a recent puff piece for the new book, "Letters from Nuremberg," older brother Thomas Dodd Jr. told The New York Times, "I don't know what the thinking is on this thing, but he sure is enjoying it.'' Mr. Dodd shares his name with his father, the late Sen. Thomas Dodd, whose reputation "Nuremburg," edited by Christopher Dodd, seeks to redeem. The book is based on letters the elder Dodd wrote to his wife in 1945 and 1946 while he was a prosecutor at...

There's no dishonesty like liberal dishonesty, just like there's no intolerance like liberal intolerance. There's nothing they won't excuse and no excuse they won't deploy. Their piety is a big aspect of that.” http://richardlarsen.townhall.com Intellectual dishonesty is lying about one's own beliefs. Liberals, and those on the left generally, are more inclined to this form of deceit than conservatives. Charles Murray wrote: In their heart of hearts, intellectual elites, especially liberal ones, have two nasty secrets regarding IQ. First, they really believe that IQ is the be-all and end-all of human excellence and that someone with a low IQ...

Salon has posted a story about how a “shadowy” group of “Religious Right” leaders met in Salt Lake to discuss what to do if Rudy Giulliani becomes the GOP’s nominee. “Sept. 30, 2007 | WASHINGTON — A powerful group of conservative Christian leaders decided Saturday at a private meeting in Salt Lake City to consider supporting a third-party candidate for president if a pro-choice nominee like Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination. The meeting of about 50 leaders, including Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, who called in...

<p>A Tacoma man who falsely claimed he was a decorated war hero when he took the stage at demonstrations held in opposition to the U.S.'s role in Iraq was sentenced this morning to five months in prison in U.S. District Court in Seattle.</p>

Many Americans pride themselves on being discriminating foodies, avoiding excessive salt, sugar and fat. However, discriminating listeners we are not. We’ll scarf down anything as long as it sounds good or vaguely logical. The once straight-talking America prefers truth-lite, and we’re big into sound-bites. Spin is slathered on with a spatula to make less marketable concepts palatable, even tasty. Presidential campaigns gave our brain cells a vigorous workout that kept us intellectually fit. Candidates waxed eloquent, but astute voters knew candidates accentuate the positive and sweeten the poison. No more. Rudy Guiliani told us “illegal immigration isn’t a crime.” There...

This story has been going on for a few days in Aurora, Illinois. It seems Planned Parenthood told a teeny, tiny white lie to the City Planning Board of Aurora about what use a new building they were constructing near a residential neighborhood would be put to. In fact, they even misled city officials as to who they even were, and those officials are none too happy about it. The city granted a building permit to a company called Gemini Office Development LLC to build what was being called a “medical office building.” It turns out, however, that Gemini Office...

Planned Parenthood concealed its ownership of a huge new abortion facility scheduled to open soon in a Chicago suburb, and pro-life advocates – and at least one city official – are questioning whether the abortion provider can mislead officials without repercussions. "There's always legal ramifications," Aurora, Ill., Alderman Richard Irvin told the Chicago Tribune while standing with some of the estimated 1,200 pro-life protesters who assembled over the weekend to protest the existence of the structure that had been depicted by owners as an office building. He was not on the board when the project, proposed by a company identifying...

The New Republic magazine recently ran into big trouble for publishing a first-person account of military savagery in Iraq. The author, Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp, used the pseudonym "Scott Thomas" to write of the debasement of war that he claims he saw in the cauldron of Iraq. But it was soon discovered that one of the gruesome "wartime" incidents the private described -- the author, desensitized by war, mocking a disfigured woman -- took place in Kuwait before his unit actually went into Iraq. And when, post-publication, The New Republic rechecked Beauchamp's other suspicious anecdotes and assured its readers they...

Here is a photo posted in Yahoo news photos that caught my eye: Well, actually, it's not the picture itself, but the caption that made me laugh: An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City. At least 175 people were slaughtered on Tuesday and more than 200 wounded when four suicide truck bombs targeted people from an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq, officials said.(AFP/Wissam al-Okaili)

Imagine going to get your car repaired, paying for it, and then finding out the work was never even done. With the help of insiders, NBC4 uncovered an apparent scheme at stores that are part of a nationwide chain with 30 million customers a year.NBC4 shelled out a lot of cash at repair shops across town. But were the repairs paid for really done? "Does this happen to customers a lot?" NBC4's Joel Grover asked a former employee of America's biggest Lube and tune chain, Jiffy Lube. "Every day," the insider replied. To conduct the investigation, NBC4 wired two test...

BBC admits fake winners on charity appeals   Dan Sabbagh, Media Editor of The Times, and Philippe Naughton   The BBC suspended all phone-in competitions today after admitting that it had put fake winners on air during its flagship charity appeal programmes, Children In Need, Comic Relief and Sport Relief. On each occasion, the "winning caller" heard on air was a member of the production team posing as a viewer. The World Service pop programme White Label, the TMi show on CBBC and BBC 6 Music’s Liz Kershaw Show also duped viewers in a similar way. Mark Thompson, the...

The entire left wing neo-communist media has gone mad with anger at the Scooter Libby commutation. Anderson Cooper promises "it will get lots of coverage here". David Shuster fills in for Chris Matthews, and his one-sided coverage has been well documented on FR. But even CNN's coverage, complete with Clinton apologist Jeffrey Toobin ("astonishing" "I was shocked" "Pardons are poison for Presidents"), doesn't come close to the over the top ranting of Keith Olbermann. Olberman's 'fair and balanced' coverage featured Joe Wilson IV (liar, liberal, Kerry campaign operative), John Dean (weasel), and the statement of Patrick Fitzgerald. But he didn't...

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday scolded senators for failing to pass an immigration bill with new border and interior enforcement tools, refused to commit to spending the $4.4 billion in border security President Bush said is needed, and said the onus is now on Congress to pass something. "We're going to say to the members of Congress who think they have a better way that they should produce legislation and pass legislation, which they have not done for the past two years," Mr. Chertoff said on "Fox News Sunday." "They've tried 'enforcement-only.' That didn't pass. We've tried 'comprehensive.' That's...

BAGHDAD - Reports of 20 beheaded bodies found south of Baghdad earlier this week were untrue and may have been fabricated by insurgents aiming to incite violence and revenge killings, the U.S. military said Saturday. On Thursday, many international and Iraqi media outlets — including The Associated Press —reported the discovery of the bodies, quoting unnamed Iraqi police. The decapitated bodies had allegedly turned up on the banks of the Tigris River near Salman Pak, 15 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Petition website created to recall Florida Senator Mel Martinez. The primary goal at RecallMel.com is to protest the Senator's change of position on Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants. The website is attempting to gather signatures to effect a special recall election of Senator Martinez or work to get him to return to his original stated positions on Illegal Immigration. Orlando, FL (PRWEB) June 27, 2007 -- The site www.RecallMel.com was launched June 18th 2007 by central Florida IT Tech Mr. Dewey Wallace to protest what he views as a reversal of Senator Martinez's campaign promises of no Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants....

Par Ridder, the publisher at the center of a legal fight between Minnesota's metro dailies, acknowledged in court testimony Monday that he took confidential computer files and a folder of noncompete agreements - including his own - when he left the St. Paul Pioneer Press for the Star Tribune. In videotaped testimony, Ridder admitted copying documents from his Pioneer Press computer and transferring them to his new computer at the Star Tribune, then sharing some of the documents with key Star Tribune executives. "I had profit numbers, revenue numbers, expense numbers," and sensitive information on advertisers and personnel, he said....

When the Democrats took over the House of Representatives, one of first statements out of the mouth of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (and other Democrats) was that this new Congress would be the “most ethical ever.” Now, it seems that they are changing their tune in their zeal to keep their pet pork projects away from the eyes of the American people. As noted in the Washington Times, Democrat leaders in the House are reversing the work of Republicans regarding what is known as “earmark reform.” The 2006 legislation would: allow lawmakers to vote on individual earmarks, specific funding requests...