Free Republic

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama keeps reassuring the nation that stopping the Gulf oil spill and limiting the fallout on the region are his top priority. Yet so is protecting the country against attack. And getting people back to work. Presidencies usually don't allow for a dominant priority — just a list of priorities. During another hectic week, Obama made this promise: "This entire White House and this entire federal government has been singularly focused on how do we stop the leak and how do we prevent and mitigate the damage to our coastlines." From the Gulf Coast on Friday,...

GRAND ISLE, Louisiana (AFP) – President Barack Obama unveiled a commission Saturday to probe the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the growing environmental catastrophe blackened Louisiana's fragile wetlands and beaches. With the federal government facing accusations of lax supervision of lucrative offshore oil drilling, Obama vowed to hold Washington accountable and warned that the future of the industry hinges on assurances such a disaster "never happens again." As frustration grew that the huge spill gushing from a ruptured well nearly a mile (1,500 meters) below the surface was still not capped more than a month into...

Gavin Newsom loves Twitter. The San Francisco mayor is convinced his hometown microblogging service will change the world. How heartbreaking it must be, then, to read that a key Twitter coder can't wait to escape his "filthy... disastrous" town.

A married man who planned to rendezvous with one of his handful of lovers at an eastern Wisconsin motel instead found himself bound, blindfolded and assaulted by a group of women out for revenge, according to court documents. Four women, including his wife, eventually showed up to humiliate the man, who ended up with his penis glued to his stomach in a bizarre plot to punish him for a lover's quadrangle gone bad, according to the documents filed in Calumet County

Fending off criticism from human-rights and civil-rights groups at a private White House meeting Wednesday, a frustrated President Obama complained about the "mess" he'd been left by his predecessor. The exchange came during an hour-and-15-minute "off the record" session in the White House cabinet room that highlighted growing tensions between the president and his liberal base. While the White House session was billed as an effort by the president to listen to his critics on the left, some of them left disappointed. According to three sources who attended the meeting, Obama reiterated his intention to retain a version of the...

Don’t blame GOP for this messWednesday, April 8, 2009 Hoover most certainly did not ignore the problems. Hoover (contrary to his fundamental beliefs) took action. Unfortunately, as explained in Amity Schlae’s “The Forgotten Man,” Hoover “by intervening in business, signing into law a destructive tariff, and by assailing the stockmarket” did damage on all three fronts. You also are apparently unaware of the massive public projects at federal and state level that Hoover pushed for as part of his program to retain employment and high wages. The Republicans did not have a program of “doing nothing” as you stated. The...

Top AIG managers in Paris quit; move could spark derivative defaults unless replacements found Two of American International Group Inc.'s top managers in Paris have resigned, just days after agreeing to return controversial retention bonuses. The news of more dissension at AIG comes a day after Jake DeSantis, an executive in the insurer's financial products division, publicly resigned in an Op-Ed column in The New York Times. DeSantis said he plans to donate his bonus -- $742,000 after taxes -- to charity. AIG said Mauro Gabriel, president and chief executive of Paris-based Banque AIG, and Jim Shephard, deputy CEO, resigned...

California is broke. But lost in the day-to-day drama over IOUs, furloughs and huge deficits is a basic question many Californians might be asking: Where has all our money gone? A Mercury News analysis of state spending since Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took office in late 2003 found that he and the Democratic-controlled Legislature have spent money well beyond the rate of inflation and California's population growth — $10.2 billion more. Yet the programs that received most of that money are priorities that Californians broadly support or have demanded at the ballot box: tougher prison sentences for criminals, health care...

Democrats Caused The Financial MessTo the editor: I saw a poll last week that indicated that 67 percent of Americans thought that the Democrats were better on the economy and/or fixing our financial problems. How can that be when it's clear that their policies and practices were the primary cause of the mess? Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others did nothing to protect us from those unscrupulous government-sponsored enterprise CEOs who cooked the books and walked away with millions in bonuses and severance pay. Chief among them was Franklin Raines, President Clinton's budget...

Hill sources buzzing. A Senate bailout vote is scheduled tomorrow at 9pm Eastern. No bill details seen yet. How it will go down…There will be up to 6 roll call votes on the following items: (1)Motion to concur on the House message, H.R. 2095, Rail Safety; (2)a Dorgan amendment relating to H.R. 7081, the U.S. - India Nuclear agreement; (3)a Bingaman amendment relating to H.R. 7081, the U.S. - India Nuclear agreement; (4)passage of H.R. 7081, the U.S. - India Nuclear agreement; (5)a Dodd amendment to H.R. 1424, relating to the bailout package; and (6)passage of H.R. 1424, the bailout....

As Congress and the Administration work to prevent the crisis in the financial sector from spilling over into the larger economy, the vultures are swarming. In an Associated Press article yesterday, the following quote is made by Barney Frank, ultra-liberal Democrat of Massachusetts: “The private sector got us into this mess…The government has to get us out of it. We do want to do it carefully.” This is obscene. This “mess”, as Congressman Frank so eloquently put it, is the fault of government pure and simple. And, it is the personal fault of Barney Frank. For him to now hide...

BAGHDAD, July 16 (UPI) -- Iraq Interior Ministry officials said 24 Iranians being held on illegal immigration charges escaped custody in the town of Badra. The jailbreak happened last week but it wasn't until Sunday the ministry acknowledged it, a New York Times correspondent reported Monday.

Republican Rep. Mark Foley announced Friday that he is resigning from Congress — and dropping his bid for a seventh House term — amid revelations about e-mails Foley sent to an underage former congressional page. The announcement created chaos in the race for his seat in south-central Florida’s 16th Congressional District, with just 39 days remaining before the Nov. 7 election in which the Democratic nominee is businessman Tim Mahoney. In wake of the uncertainty created by Foley’s downfall, CQPolitics.com is changing its rating, at least temporarily, to No Clear Favorite from Safe Republican. According to the Florida secretary of...

Lethal barbiturate produced by members of Australian right-to-die association TORONTO -- An Australian physician attending a global conference in Toronto of right-to-die organizations intends to display this weekend what he says is the first do-it-yourself suicide pill -- made by a group of Australians with degenerative and terminal illnesses. Group members, ranging in age from 55 to 94, have taught themselves the chemistry to make a lethal barbiturate whose main component is amylobarbitone, said Dr. Philip Nitschke, executive director of Australia's national dying with dignity organization, Exit International. After a year of trials, they have synthesized the barbiturate into crystalline...

THESE ARE THE SENATORS WHO VOTED TO GIVE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS TO ILLEGAL ALIENS REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL PARTY, THESE POLITICIANS NEED TO BE DEFEATED IN 2006, 2008 OR 2010, WHENEVER THEY NEXT COME UP FOR OFFICE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW; THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION -- THAT IS, UNLESS THEY DO NOT MIND SHARING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY WITH FOREIGN WORKERS WHO NEVER PAID INTO IT AND AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BEING LEFT OUT. Grouped by Home State Alabama: Alaska: Stevens (R-AK), Yea Arizona: McCain (R-AZ), Yea Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR),...

I am curious why none of the media covers the most important aspect of the Malvo shootings. If you look at Newspapers on the dates when the shootings are underway you discover something I find quite interesting. The shootings begin to dominate the news the day before the debate on the Iraq war starts and they catch them the day after the declaration of war??? If you ask most people "do you remember the debate about starting the second Iraq war", they will all answer "yes of course". But if you followup with the question "name one point in the...

I recently received a reply to a post that stated: "This should be beneath a "freeper". Sad." So I asked.. what is it that makes a FReeper? My reply (and I will admit was tasteless) was also questioning. It stirred controversy and was removed? Why Moderators? Can you not tell me? Did it not meet with your "FReeper" mentality? According to all posted guidelines it should be listed but no, you chose to delete it. Yes.. I'm the first one IBTZ, I'm sure you'll nick me for speaking up..

MARINE BARRACKS WASHINGTON (Feb. 24, 2006) -- In 1776, the United States declared its independence from the British government. However, the United States Marine Corps finds itself 230 years later, modifying the traditions of the British Royal Marine Corps and using those traditions as a foundation to create some of their own. H & S Company NCOs of the “Oldest Post” carried on the tradition of formal military dining, or the Marine Corps Mess Night, Wednesday, Feb. 22. First Sergeant Walter C. Baldwin, company first sergeant, H & S Company, said the purpose of the Mess Night, although formal, is...

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (Jan. 19, 2006) -- The commanding officer of 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), gives an order to one of his Marines to dance. Without hesitation the Marine starts “busting a move” to the hip-hop music that blares through the speakers. Normally this kind of order would be considered unlawful, however, this kind of behavior is not only accepted, but expected during the Marine Corps tradition known as the mess night. Usually mess nights are held at officer clubs or other suitable places either on or off base where Marines can suit up in...

Fellow Americans, there comes a time every mans life when we must give up ourselves before we are worthy to recieve. There comes a time in this war on terror when in order to protect liberty, we have to give it up in the mean time for safty. That's right folks. Today, Americans have forsaken the creator for the creation and have decided that they would value our "civil liberties" than protecting western civilization and rich white people from the tender mercies of radical Islamic terrorists. Selfish liberals insist and whine that Bush has no right to spy on Americans...