Free Republic

Ted Cruz is among the most hated men in Washington, reviled by leaders of both parties as an ideological hard-liner loyal only to the far-right of the conservative movement. But racing down an Iowa highway on a snowy weekend morning, a solemn Cruz suggested some of his Republican rivals for president have amped up their rhetoric too much, especially on policy toward people who are in the U.S. illegally. "Tone matters," Cruz, the son of a Cuban immigrant, told The Associated Press in an interview between campaign stops. "Are there some in the Republican Party whose rhetoric is unhelpful with...

Insurance cancellations are fueling a political backlash against President Barack Obama and Democrats supporting his health care overhaul, but they may be a silver lining for the law itself. It's Economics 101, a little-noticed consequence of a controversial policy decision. And there are winners and losers. Millions of people who currently buy their own health insurance coverage are losing it next year because their plans don't meet requirements of the health care law. Experts say the resulting shift of those people into the new health insurance markets under Obama's law would bring in customers already known to insurers, reducing the...

Initial Reaction and Election Impact The establishment report of +114,000 jobs was pretty much about what most expected. The four-month average is a mere 120,000 a month (a very weak set of establishment numbers for this point in a recovery). However, the household survey surprise shows the unemployment rate fell three-tenths of a percent to 7.8%. On the surface, this is a solid showing, and 100% certain to boost the Obama campaign. I suggest these numbers will overshadow a horrendously weak performance by the president in the debate. That said, a closer look shows the entire drop in the unemployment...

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell challenged President Obama’s claim to support trillions in serious spending cuts as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling – cuts the president says show he’s ready to anger Democrats to get a deal. In a sharply worded speech on the Senate floor today, McConnell labeled the Obama cuts a sham. “We all saw how it worked,” he said. “The administration leaked to the media, without any details, the idea that it was willing to go along with trillions in spending cuts.”But the cuts are largely illusory, McConnell indicated. Obama hoped “the budget...

I caught the CBS News evening report tonight for the first time in about 2 decades. They led off with a report of Sarah Palin's speech in Wisconsin, and they of course provided liberal spin. They claim there were far more liberals (i.e. union thugs) than Tea Partiers (claiming the thugs surrounded the smaller Tea Party crowd). But something caught my eye during the report, specifically when they did a pan of the "liberal crowd"...but they pulled a Dan Rather by using video footage from some liberal rally prior to the April 5th Wisconsin Supreme Court election.How do I know...

Religion News 23 November 2010, 14:07Russian Orthodox Church okays use of condoms Moscow, November 23, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church has said the use of condoms is acceptable following a similar statement made by Pope Benedict XVI of the Catholic Church last week. "The Foundations of the Social Policy of the Russian Orthodox Church distinguishes between abortive and non-abortive contraception. Priests can allow people to use the latter," head of the synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said in an interview with Interfax-Religion. However, Father Vsevolod added that it does not mean that the Church...

Pope Benedicts XVI's change of heart on condoms marks a significant break with the damage done by one of his predecessors' most romantic, wicked and wrong-headed policies. The idea of an absolute ban on condoms makes no sense even within the framework of Catholic teaching. Since the purpose of the ban on artificial birth control is to make conception possible, it makes no sense at all in situations in which conception is utterly impossible. That is why Benedict chose a male prostitute as his example of someone who might use a condom to fight disease. The really interesting question is...

In a break with his traditional teaching, Pope Benedict XVI has said the use of condoms is acceptable "in certain cases", in an extended interview to be published this week. After holding firm during his papacy to the Vatican's blanket ban on the use of contraceptives, Benedict's surprise comments will shock conservatives in the Catholic church while finding favour with senior Vatican figures who are pushing for a new line on the issue as HIV ravages Africa. The comments were made in a book-length interview with a German journalist, Peter Seewald. In the case of a male prostitute, says Benedict,...

MoD fury at leak claims A British soldier shot dead an eight-year-old Iraqi girl as she played in the street, it was claimed yesterday. The explosive allegation was made at a press conference about the secret "war logs" from the US military released by the whistleblowing Wikileaks website. Lawyer Phil Shiner said the murder happened while soldiers were handing out sweets to children. He said: "The tank stopped at the end of the street, she's there in her yellow dress, a rifleman pops up and blows her away." The claim came among revelations that secret reports by the US military...

LINK HERE will take you to Japanese YouTube clip of major Japanese TV network JNN/TBS and their short report on Glenn Beck D.C. event last weekend.In a word?ゲロ！ (BARF!)

Trying to counter perceptions that the trip failed to bring about solid results, advisor David Axelrod says, 'Things don't change overnight.' Reporting from Seoul - Even before President Obama boarded his home-bound flight for Washington, capping a grueling weeklong Asian tour, the White House was scrambling to combat perceptions that the trip failed to produce concrete results. Compared to Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, the U.S. is putting its alliances "on a firmer footing" and has "reasserted our leadership in the region," the White House said in a statement released to reporters hours before the president's flight home.

NEW YORK, Oct 05, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Hillary Clinton would beat Sarah Palin head-to-head by a 2-to-1 margin if the 2012 presidential election were held today, according to women voters. A national telephone survey of 600 registered women voters was conducted by Blum & Weprin from September 25 through October 3, 2008. The poll, commissioned by SheZoom.com, a new women's internet media company, is titled 'Palin vs. Clinton - You Decide.' The survey (with a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points) queried women in all 50 states on their personal and political preferences pertaining to the...

WASILLA, Alaska- Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so. According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn't fully support her and...

Some wag wanted to make sure that as we, the media, build Sen. John McCain up, we also tear him down. In that vein, here's a clip of McCain actually saying what that oppo floating around has him saying. Again, it's one thing to read it, it's another thing to see it and hear it. BTW: Is this the first YouTube war between different candidates' supporters? Video Link Here MCCAIN: “But we all know, and it's obvious, that if we repeal Roe v. Wade tomorrow, thousands of young American women would be performing illegal and dangerous operations. I want us...

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign appears to be getting more and more love from California voters, he's not getting nearly as much from some Republicans. Just take the California Republican Assembly, a group that supports GOP conservatives. It has recently launched a Web site - www.cravictoryteam.com - to help Republican activists get materials and data to communicate with GOP voters. But one name - Schwarzenegger's - is missing from the site's list of "our candidates." And the same name is missing on the endorsed list of candidates on the CRA's own Web site. Otherwise, every statewide Republican candidate is on...

Thousands of children, teens prepare for apocalyptic battle against 'evil' Hizbullah leads a youth movement that instructs tens of thousands of children and teenagers in military tactics and indoctrinates them with radical Shia Islam beliefs – including the waging of a final, apocalyptic world battle against "evil," according to materials found by Israel during last month's war in Lebanon. "Hizbullah established its Imam Mahdi Scouts to attract Shiite children and adolescents, to influence their hearts and minds and to prepare new generations of youth indoctrinated with radical Shiite Islam, which propounds the idea of the return of the Mahdi (messiah)...

A Republican won a special congressional election in Southern California yesterday – so why does the Times make it sound as if the Republicans got beat? Chief political reporter Adam Nagourney’s online filing Wednesday morning on last night's electoral victory by Republican Brian Bilbray begins: “A Republican former congressman slipped to victory in a special election here Tuesday, staving off what would have been a highly embarrassing Democratic victory in a solidly Republican district. National Republicans poured in nearly $5 million and dozens of campaign workers to help hold the seat for their party.”

WASHINGTON — Along with the war on terror and the economy, stem-cell research has emerged as an issue in the presidential campaign. Sen. John F. Kerry has repeatedly attacked the Bush administration for "banning" the research, declaring that "here in America we don't sacrifice science for ideology." In promoting the promise of stem cells at the Democratic National Convention, Ron Reagan said we must choose "between reason and ignorance, between true compassion and mere ideology." In response to such criticisms, First Lady Laura Bush accused Democrats of giving false hope to the sick and defended her husband, saying that the...

Elton John has said stars are scared to speak out against war in Iraq because of "bullying tactics" used by the US government to hinder free speech. "There's an atmosphere of fear in America right now that is deadly. Everyone is too career-conscious," he told New York magazine, Interview. Sir Elton said performers could be "frightened by the current administration's bullying tactics", The singer likened the current "fear factor" to McCarthyism in the 1950s. "There was a moment about a year ago when you couldn't say a word about anything in this country for fear of your career being shot...

Sorry for the vanity post here but listening to Rush this morning and how "on" he is regarding the Clark/60 Minutes infomercial I thought there ought to be discussion thread. He has nailed it.