Free Republic

(snip) The bad news for Obama four years later is that the first weeks of the general-election campaign have demonstrated that Mitt Romney and his top staff are not going to play by the same rules as the McCain campaign. On April 11, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen appeared on Anderson Cooper’s CNN program and scoffed at Ann Romney’s value to her husband in helping assess the economic challenges of women voters by declaring that “she never worked a day in her life.” Some campaigns might have questioned how much they could do with an off-key insulting comment from a talking...

President Obama has seen his standing among Catholic voters, a crucial segment of the electorate, slip in recent weeks, and a looming confrontation with Catholic activists could make it worse. Democrats want voters this year to focus on what they have branded a war on women, but the flip side of the debate — the so-called war on religion — is not going away anytime soon. Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called for two weeks of public protest in June and July against what it sees as growing government encroachment on religious freedom. The protests are...

BEVERLY — A Lowell man arrested Friday with nearly a half-pound of heroin was also carrying an EBT card belonging to a known drug user — a card that may have been collateral for a drug debt, police and prosecutors believe. Campeo A. Diaz-Carela, 43, is facing a minimum mandatory 15 years in prison if found guilty of trafficking heroin over 200 grams, the charge he was arraigned on yesterday in Salem District Court. Diaz-Carela was also arraigned on charges of giving police a false name, after initially producing identification that showed him as Abisay Montanez, 36. Among the documents...

Though the tea party wasn’t particularly enthused about Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy during the primary, one tea party leader who was present at the inception of the movement says the tea party will get behind the former Massachusetts governor going into the general election. “Absolutely, the tea party can and will support Mitt Romney in the general election, and with great energy in the door-to-door ground game,” said Michael Patrick Leahy, co-founder of The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition and author of the recently released book, “Covenant of Liberty: The Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement.” “It’s important also to...

“Saturday Night Live” alum Jon Lovitz sounds like he’s pretty fed up with President Barack Obama. “This whole thing with Obama saying the rich don’t pay their taxes is f---ing bulls---. And I voted for the guy and I’m a Democrat. What a f---ing asshole,” Lovitz recently said on his podcast “The ABC's of SNL." The episode was recorded in January and released on Sunday.

Germantown firm's floating stairs allows doggy paddlers to get back on boat The target market for Jim Perkins' upstart manufacturing company consists of swimmers with hairy backs who often stink when they get wet. Perkins has developed, built and begun marketing a set of floating plastic stairs designed to help dogs easily and safely climb back into a boat after going for a swim. The inspiration for the new business venture: his golden retriever, Katie. "I certainly didn't expect that the dog would cause me to pursue a second career," said Perkins, 57, a retired engineer who spent most of...

'I've had my phone tapped': Susan Sarandon claims 'government is watching her'... and reveals she was denied White House security clearance Actress and left-wing activist Susan Sarandon has claimed she was recently denied security clearance for a visit to the White House - and that the government has been tapping her phone. The Oscar winner, who has vehemently condemned the war in Iraq, made the claims on Sunday during a Q&A session at the Tribeca Film Festival - an 11-day event in New York's Lower Manhattan. One audience member asked whether Sarandon, who was answering questions alongside documentary filmmaker Michael...

It's no secret that the Obama campaign and its surrogates will continue to portray Mitt Romney at too detached from the lives of ordinary Americans to be elected president. "Governor Romney's a little out of touch," Vice President Joe Biden told Face the Nation's Bob Schieffer in early April. Or as actress and Obama supporter Jane Lynch put it recently about the nominee-to-be, "the guy does not know how to relate to people." But it's a theme the Obama campaign ought to think twice about before advancing. That's because President Obama himself exhibits a striking inability to connect with an...

It was inevitable. Mitt Romney is going to sell-out conservatives in his party in order to win the general. And if he wins, he'll sell them out again in order to be re-elected.* Zeke Miller and McKay Coppins reporting for Buzzfeed have found the first issue on which Romney is trying to put some distance between himself and the conservative wing of his party. Allahpundit, one of the most perceptive conservative bloggers, also detects the hint of conflict between the GOP candidate and the GOP Congress. Mitt Romney told reporters today that he supports efforts to extend low interest rates...

The number of Mexican migrants to the United States dropped significantly while the number of those returning home increased, bringing net migration from Mexico to a statistical standstill, according to a report published Monday.

Lots of workers pour their hearts and souls into their work, but it's the rare employee who actually surrenders an organ to save a boss' life. But that's exactly what Debbie Stevens (pictured at left) did last year, and now the onetime secretary is challenging her former employer for firing her shortly after the operation was complete. The 47-year-old mother agreed two years ago to donate a kidney to her boss, Jackie Brucia, 61, a controller at Atlantic Automotive Group, who needed an organ transplant, the New York Post reports. Stevens, of Long Island, agreed to do so "because she...

April 22, 2012 Environmentally Sound Energy Independence Sarah Palin On this holiest of days for EcoLiberals, how about if Americans celebrate Earth Day with responsible energy development that leads to greater independence and conservation? There’s no better way for President Obama and his administration to celebrate Earth Day than to embrace a real, environmentally sound commitment to energy independence instead of relying on foreign countries that lack environmental safeguards. One aspect of the “all-of-the-above” approach I have been discussing for years involves, of course, the necessity to “drill, baby, drill.” It’s no secret that throughout America, including the very wealthy...

The gap between Socialist candidate for French president Francois Hollande and incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy has tightened to just 1%, it emerged in the early hours on Monday. With about 75% of votes counted, Hollande had 27.9% support, followed by Sarkozy at 26.7%. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen garnered 19.3% of this early vote, Jean-Luc Melenchon on the extreme left had 10.8% and centrist Francois Bayrou had 9.8%. The results set the stage for a May 6 runoff between Hollande and Sarkozy. Under French law, if no candidate wins an absolute majority, the two top candidates faceoff. Analysts have said supporters...

When a former U.S. president comes to visit, there’s more to it than rolling out the welcome mat — and there will be two presidents here this week. “There’s definitely a lot of preparation work on the front end,” Palo Duro Canyon State Park Superintendent Cory Evans said. Bill Clinton will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday at West Texas A&M University’s First United Bank Center. Then George W. Bush will bike the trails of the state park Thursday through Saturday with 20 “wounded warriors” picked for their bravery and sacrifices in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If so, HOW?

Gov. Mitt Romney stepped on a landmine by appointing Richard Grenell, an out, loud and proud homosexual, to be his spokesman on national security and foreign policy issues. Grenell has for years been an outspoken advocate for homosexual marriage. In fact, word is that he left the Bush administration because President Bush would not formally acknowledge his homosexual partner. Since, as the saying goes in D.C., personnel is policy, this means Gov. Romney has some ‘splaining to do. This clearly is a deliberate and intentional act on his part, since he was well aware of Mr. Grenell’s sexual proclivities and...

James Lovelock, the maverick scientist who became a guru to the environmental movement with his “Gaia” theory of the Earth as a single organism, has admitted to being “alarmist” about climate change and says other environmental commentators, such as Al Gore, were too. Lovelock, 92, is writing a new book in which he will say climate change is still happening, but not as quickly as he once feared. He previously painted some of the direst visions of the effects of climate change. In 2006, in an article in the U.K.’s Independent newspaper, he wrote that “before this century is over...

John Edwards’s favorability rating stands at a dismal 3 percent, according to a new poll released as the criminal trial of the former presidential candidate is set to begin on Monday. His favorability has plummeted since 2007, when 30 percent of people had a positive view of him, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll. Meanwhile, his unfavorability rating has seen a spike from 30 percent in 2007 to 41 percent today. Edwards — whose reputation was damaged after it was revealed that he had cheated on his wife Elizabeth Edwards (she eventually died after battling cancer) — has...

I know there are a lot of Joel Rosenberg fans on this site. He has a new fiction book coming out in June. The first chapter is available here. http://www.joelrosenberg.com/implosion.asp

The Solar thing just got a little more interesting.......REALLY! The Tonopah Solar company in Harry Reid's Nevada is getting a $737 million loan from Obama's DOE. The project will produce a 110 megawatt power system and employ 45 permanent workers. That's costing us just $16 million per job. One of the investment partners in this endeavor is Pacific Corporate Group (PCG). The PCG executive director is Ron Pelosi who is the brother to Nancy's husband. Just move along folks.....nuthin goin on here. EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW HOW THEIR MONEY IS BEING STOLEN SO FORWARD THIS TO EVERYBODY.