Free Republic

Each campaign, expecting turnout surge among casual Republican voters, hammers away at conservative credentials. By Jason EmbryAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Sunday, December 13, 2009 Recent statements and strategy decisions have made clear that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison believes it is Republicans — and not independents or Democrats, as some others have suggested — who can lift her to victory over Gov. Rick Perry in the March GOP primary.Hutchison's campaign expects a surge of voters who support Republicans but do not regularly vote in Republican primaries. And to appeal to those voters, she has in recent weeks stressed her support from...

A new federal rewards program dishes out cash to people who turn in friends, relatives and employers for fudging their tax returns. For 24 years Vincent A. Spondello toiled away as an accountant for a group of related companies known as Monex, a large Newport Beach, Calif. precious metals dealer. A trusted employee, he prepared tax returns and was given such tasks as overseeing the destruction of old corporate documents. It turns out that some records that were supposedly destroyed he took home instead. In May Spondello sent 25 boxes of original Monex papers to the Internal Revenue Service--documents that...

Three U.S. banks in Florida, Arizona and Kansas failed on Friday, bringing the year's tally to 133 and taking a $250 million bite out of the federal deposit-insurance fund as the credit crunch claims more victims. Miami-based Republic Federal Bank was closed by regulators, and Boca Raton, Fla.-based 1st United Bank agreed to assume its deposits. Republic Federal Bank had $433 million in assets and $352.7 million in deposits as of Sept. 30, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Its failure will cost the deposit-insurance fund $122.6 million. The bank failure is the 13th in the Sunshine State this...

Hollywood & Howard Zinn’s Marxist education project by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2009 The two most important questions for society, according to the Greek philosopher Plato, are these: What will we teach our children? And who will teach them? Left-wing celebrities have teamed up with one of America’s most radical historians to take control of the classroom in the name of “social justice.” Parents, beware: This Hollywood-backed Marxist education project may be coming to a school near you. On Sunday, December 13, the History Channel will air “The People Speak” – a documentary based on Marxist academic Howard Zinn’s...

An interpretive evaluation of the Copenhagen Climate Change Treaty Draft from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change working group dated September 15th, 2009, Page 122, Item 17, is presented below, and should concern every citizen in the United States. This section shows several anomalies, other than simple spelling errors. It indicates foremost, unclear yet emphatic proposals that if left unchecked will radically shift responsibility from unsuccessful countries to successful countries. It fails to show a method of delivery, or specifics to apply any form of real action, opening the door for both gross interpretation and unjustifiable control. If...

<p>As the science scandal known as ClimateGate grows, the largest U.S. physicists' association is finding itself roiled by internal dissent and allegations of conflict of interest over a forthcoming review of its position statement on man-made global warming.</p> <p>The scientist who will head the American Physical Society's review of its 2007 statement calling for immediate reductions of carbon dioxide is Princeton's Robert Socolow, a prominent supporter of the link between CO2 and global warming who has warned of possible "catastrophic consequences" of climate change.</p>

Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe, who has been charged with mistreating an Iraqi suspect in the bloody slayings of four U.S. contractors,... Law: American heroes are arraigned for allegedly punching a terrorist in wartime. What happens to Tiger Woods isn't vital to our country's future. What happens to Matthew McCabe, Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe is. People are more likely to recognize the names of Tiger's alleged bimbo eruptions than the names of these three Navy SEALs we sent into battle. They are not household names in a nation consumed with Climate Gate, the public option and the antics...

A construction worker who was convicted of a rape that never happened is officially a free man after the judge who had sentenced him to 20 years in prison today dismissed the charges against him — and apologized. "This court had harsh words for you in imposing sentence" back in October 2006, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers told William McCaffrey. "I want to convey my personal regret for having participated, albeit unknowingly, in this injustice," said Carruthers. "Given the startling turn of events, I now retract what I said about you." READ: Fake-rape gal's tale a wicked plot to...

Dear xxxx, On Tuesday, we wrote to you about the vote the U.S. Senate was taking on the Nelson-Hatch amendment to the health care reform bill. As you will remember, this amendment was virtually identical to Stuapk-Pitts ban and would have prevented women from using their own money to purchase private health insurance that provides comprehensive reproductive health care. The good news is that the amendment was defeated by a vote of 54-45. The great news is that both Senators Warner (D-VA) and Webb (D-VA) voted against this egregious assault on women's reproductive health care. While we still have a...

Freep this poll at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm

December 7th, 2009 3:29 pmDirective Number 9 During the Algerian war, the terrorists promulgated an order which with variations would provide the backbone doctrine for information warfare into the 21st century. Dr. Cori Dauber, the author of the SSI monograph “The YouTube War: Fighting in a World of Cameras in Every Cell Phone and Photoshop on Every Computer� describes the ground zero of the modern information Jihad. The Algerians’ “Directive Number Nine” argued that it was better to kill one man where the American press would hear of it than nine where no one would find out. What Khattab realized...

Click to see video, "The Foot Soldiers." Contains some graphic images.Last night the Senate defeated the Nelson-Hatch amendment, which would have prohibited government from paying for abortion in the healthcare reform bill, like the Hyde Amendment currently does. Despite the fact that most Americans do not want their government to pay for abortion with their money, the Senate gave into Planned Parenthood and the abortion lobby. That means that the Senate health care bill -- along with its other problems -- is a baldly PRO-ABORTION bill. We have to STOP it. Please contact your senators TODAY and urge them to...

Apple releases MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.8 Apple releases MacBook EFI Firmware Update 1.4 Apple releases SuperDrive Firmware Update 3.0 Apple releases AirPort Client Update 2009-002 which is recommended for all Macs Click on the Blue or BLack Apple Menu on the upper left of the Menu Bar, then select Software Update. . ." and follow the dialog box prompts to update your Mac if necessary...

As multinational military forces have left Iraq, international petroleum companies have eagerly descended -- seduced by the long-term potential of vast oil reserves off-limits to foreigners for decades. Yet lingering violence, legal questions and political uncertainty make doing business in this country a gamble. In the first international oil auction held last June, widely seen as a failure, the Iraqi government awarded a firm contract to only a consortium of British Petroleum and the China National Petroleum Co. to further develop the Rumaila field over 20 years. Iraq recently forged an initial agreement with a group comprising Exxon Mobil and...

Headline at CBS News:Sarah Palin Almost Gets Tomato in Face, but Jeremy Olsen Has Terrible AimLede:NEW YORK (CBS) Maybe Jeremy Olson should have practiced with a target first before attempting to pelt Sarah Palin with tomatoes at a book signing in Minn. Dec. 7.The above was written at the CBS News page CRIMESIDER: The True Crime Destination From the Producers of 48 Hours MysteryThe article was posted by Carlin DeGuerin Miller.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia is pleased to announce that Virginia's pro-choice license plate will soon be available for pre-order. The proceeds from the sale of these plates will go to Planned Parenthood affiliates in Virginia to provide comprehensive, reproductive health care, like annual gynecological exams and sexually transmitted infection testing. In order to move forward with the license plates, we must pre-sell 350 plates. We hope that you will be one of the many proud Virginians displaying the plate. To see a preview of the license plate, please click here. When the plate goes on sale, it can be...

Per Fox. Title says it all. Gonna happen in time for Christmas. Gutless conservatives have been rightfully excluded from government.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) ― Sarah Palin is bringing her book tour for "Going Rogue" to Minnesota. The former Vice Presidential Candidate and former Alaska Governor will sign copies of her new book at the Mall of America. Palin burst onto the national political stage last year after giving a speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Now Palin brings hundreds of her admirers out to get a glimpse of this maverick of a politician. The excitement surrounding her book tour hits the Twin Cities on Monday. "She seems more real world ... not an average politician," said Jason...

Per Fox. Obama will impose cap and trade through the EPA and executive order. White House spokesman quoted as saying that since the Senate seems unwilling to pass cap and trade, Obama is willing to do so by himself to "address the global warming crisis." This is timed to the Copenhagen fiasco of radical Warmists. I am sure the Senate will stand-up to him. /S

Unconfirmed reports of fatalities but no reports of American casualties PROGRESO —The international bridge here was closed Saturday afternoon after a shooting across the border in Nuevo Progreso. There were unconfirmed reports from witnesses crossing back from Mexico that one to five people were dead after gunfire among soldiers and other armed individuals. Identities of the victims remain unknown. A representative at the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey confirmed there was gunfire in Nuevo Progreso and said the consulate had received unconfirmed reports of two fatalities. However, the consulate had received no notification of any American casualties as of about 6...

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091206/D9CDHPGG2.html. Palin made some nice jokes. She is good!

Sarah apparently rocked the house tonight. From John King: Gov palin speech done. Full of funny zingers. Says if McCain won, Biden book would be "Going Rogaine". 34 minutes ago Palin Gridiron speech Steve schmidt dig\joke: "if I need a bald campaign manager, I guess all i am left with is james carville." 32 minutes ago Gov palin at gridiron jokes normally dem speaker next but: "McCain campaign staff asked if they could have that time for rebuttal." 28 minutes ago Gov Palin opens w joke about first McCain mtg: she has lenghty concerns re goby bailouts and wall st...

The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on 1-15-08. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world. ===================================================== REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER Date : Tue, 15 January 2008 14:30:20 -0500 ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and...

"What should we DO about Islam? What should be our strategy be for dealing with this threat?"

The Tacoma News Tribune ran the comic strip "Jump Start" this Friday featuring a cop being shot less than a week after the cold-blooded murder of four Lakewood, WA police officers. The News Tribune pulled the strip today, but will begin running it again Monday. There was also a police shooting in Rochester, NY, where two officers were shot. Story here: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20091204/NEWS01/91204017/JumpStart-cartoon-sparks-controversy-in-Rochester I would say the news media just doesn't get it.

Day Fourteen and Counting December 04, 2009 08:45 ET Bozell Defends Networks’ Silence on ClimateGate: “Maybe They Just Don’t Know” Alexandria, VA – For the fourteenth straight day, the three broadcast networks have failed to report on the great and growing ClimateGate scandal on their weekday morning or evening news programs. How to explain this? Perhaps it is that ABC, NBC and CBS have not yet heard of the story, despite two weeks of non-stop reporting on and discussion of ClimateGate in a whole host of media outlets. Perhaps the broadcast networks only trust their fellow liberal press outlets, like...

URGENT - REUTERS: Blast rips through cafe in Russian city of Perm, deaths reported - RIA quotes emergencies services.

Universal healthcare has been the wetdream of progressives (now known as leftist Democrats) for over 50 years; they are nothing if not persistent, relentless and almost impossible to get rid of -- but then again the same could be said of toenail fungus. However, it now appears that with such a prize so close at hand, Nazi Pelosi and Harry "Squeaky" Reid are all but willing to see their numbers significantly winnowed down in the next election in 2010 when the angry villagers throw out of office at least some of their senators and congress critters who end up voting...

[Live interview with Donald Trump] "Obama should force the banks to loan (sic) money. That is the key thing. He has to force them to loan money."

The U.S. House of Representatives recently acted to end a national tragedy. According to a recent Harvard study published by the American Journal of Public Health, 44,789 Americans die each year because they have no health coverage. For uninsured Americans, the mortality rate is staggering. In any given year, if you take two Americans who are physically identical -- same height, same age, same race, same weight, even same smoking history -- and one has health insurance and the other does not, the one without health insurance is 40% more likely to die. That’s 122 Americans who die every day,...

U.S. Secretly Arrested Iranian Agent Two Years Ago After Sting and Extradited to U.S An Iranian government agent, who was secretly arrested two years ago and extradited to the U.S. for trying to export high tech American military equipment to Iran, told U.S. undercover agents he was helping his country prepare for a war with the United States that Iran was convinced was coming. The agent, Amir Hossein Ardebili, was secretly arrested overseas in Central Asia in October 2007 and pleaded guilty to charges that he violated the Arms Export Control Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, smuggling conspiracy...

Per Fox: the White House, when asked by reporters why Obama never mentioning winning in Afghanistan in last night's address, replied that "Victory is not a word President Obama is comfortable with." Where to begin? At the very least, Obama is saying that he has no intention of winning against terrorism. I'll leave it to others to more precisely charactize his stance. If his approval rating continues to decline at its current rate, he will be at 18% in Nov, 2012.

Oslo (dpa) -- US President Barack Obama will likely spend two nights in Oslo next week where he is to receive his Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Tuesday. "What can be confirm today is that that he will arrive on Wednesday the 9th, and he will arrive 'late evening' it is said," Geir Lundestad, secretary of the committee, told broadcaster NRK. Obama is due on December 10 to receive his Nobel Peace Prize. He was cited by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." The day before...

Per Fox, Massachusetts hospitals are suing the state for huge losses under RomneyCare/MassCare. Fox says that under Mini-Obamacare, hospitals get as little as 40% of the money due them for the care they provide. Massachusetts is currently running a $3 billion deficit under MassCare, which was instituted in 2006. If you like MassCare, you'll LOVE Obamacare.

On October 30, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, which will lift the ban on allowing people infected with the HIV virus into the United States after January 1, 2010. Currently, under section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), people with HIV are ineligible for visas or admission to the United States unless specifically admitted for medical treatment, or are otherwise granted a waiver of ineligibility. H.R.3792 would also impose intergovernmental and private-sector mandates by requiring public and private medical facilities to comply. CBO estimates that the costs of the...

From the "Toronto Star", by columnist Peter Gorrie: http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/731420--scientists-were-angry-but-they-didn-t-lie Excerpt from article: =============> In one email, the research unit's director, Phil Jones, refers to work by another scientist, Michael Mann, published in the journal Nature: "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series ... from 1961 ... to hide the decline." "Trick" doesn't refer to sleight of hand; it's jargon for a good, useful solution to a research problem. The problem in question relates to the fact that one method used to estimate temperatures over centuries – measuring tree rings – doesn't give...

Gold is the immutable standard of value. Everything I watch is now sinking in relation to gold. And I'm talking about stocks, the Dow, the S&P, almost all the world's currencies, all the world's stock averages, most commodities, bonds, real estate, land, you name it. My old friend, James Dines calls it the "great stealth bear market," and he's been very right.I could include relative strength charts of gold against all of the above items, but what's the use -- you get the idea. Against the standard, gold, the world is deflating, and no amount of paper-creation has been able...

Check out this dishonest, whitewashing article from Reuters that just appeared by journalist "Gerard Wynn": http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSGEE5AP1Y5 "In one e-mail, confirmed by the university as genuine, a scientist jokingly referred to ways of ensuring papers which doubted established climate science did not appear in the AR4." Jokingly? Let's see: "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report," wrote Jones. "Kevin and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!" I'm writing to complain at the following link. I hope some others who read this will consider...

Kentucky Dem Congressman John Yarmuth was just interviewed on Fox. He surprised me by confirming that, under Obamacare, all health care will be rationed based upon the government's double secret Quality Life Years scale. When the reporter asked him to repeat that, he continued with, "If you want any procedure not approved by Obama's Health Care Panel of experts (hip replacement, cancer screening, etc.), "you will have to pay for that yourself." Pretty clear.

Viscount Monckton on Climategate: They are Criminals Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionSend to friendSend to friend VISCOUNT MONCKTON ON CLIMATEGATE: THEY ARE CRIMINALS [The following statement by Lord Christopher Monckton appeared yesterday on the website, ClimateDepot, run by Mark Moranao, former aide to U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.). Lord Monckton's anti-fascist credentials are well-established, his grandfather having served as the lead solicitor in the 1936 removal of Hitler-admirer King Edward VIII.] by Christopher Monckton November 23, 2009 This is what they did—-these climate "scientists" on whose unsupported word the world's classe politique proposes to set up an unelected global government this December...

Obama Shatters Spending Record for First-Year Presidents The federal government spent $3.5 trillion during President Obama's first year in office. This far exceeds the spending for any other first-year president. President Obama has shattered the budget record for first-year presidents -- spending nearly double what his predecessor did when he came into office and far exceeding the first-year tabs for any other U.S. president in history. In fiscal 2009 the federal government spent $3.52 trillion -- $2.8 trillion in 2000 dollars, which sets a benchmark for comparison. That fiscal year covered the last three-and-a-half months of George W. Bush's term...

Recovery.gov won't correct job numbers on $18 MILLION website WH Advisor: People care about creating jobs, not counting them

Many more small banks in several states are being closed than is being reported. The media is NOT reporting on the small banks being closed due to insolvency, only the big ones. Can't get the e-mail information since the bank which is reporting this information to its employees has closed the system and the e-mails can NOT be forwarded or printed.

I was struck with Bernanke’s comment last week at the Economics Club regarding bubbles. He said: ”It is not obvious to me that there are any misalignments in the US financial system”. This comment has already gotten the attention of the media. Two years from now the blogs will be quoting it along with other notable words from the Chairman. Remember the following? Mr. Bernanke regrets having said this. “We (the Fed) do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.” When Mr. Bernanke made those comments back in...

<p>No link for this as I just heard this being reported on FOX News. It appears that some liberal lawmakers, Charlie Rangel, David Obey and a couple of others may be proposing a "War Tax" on the wealthiest of Americans to pay for any upcoming troop surge in Afghanistan.</p>

To the sounds of a crowd chanting her name, Sarah Palin this afternoon greeted her political fans at the Books-A-Million store in Colonial Brookwood Village Mall at Homewood and autographed copies of her new book: "Going Rogue." The former Alaska governor and former GOP vice-presidential candidate drew a crowd that packed the mall two hours before she began signing books about 4:30 p.m. Palin was accompanied by several family members including her father Chuck Heath. A crowd Sunday estimated at one point to be about 1,800 by Homewood police, lined up at the bookstore to qualify for the 1,000 wristbands...

Dear Friends, The Congress is continuing its work to try to get healthcare reform legislation, and I believe the prospects are reasonably good that we will produce a bill. I hope that the bill will have the public option - and a robust public option. We will have a cloture vote tonight and I believe that we should be able to get 60 Senators at least to agree to start the debate. Click below to hear my take on healthcare reform: http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorArlenSpecter#p/u/0/_cjXqFbdAeg It would be my hope that my colleagues would not draw lines in the sand or stay in...

Seeing as they each impact key pillars of what today passes for liberalism, there seems to be more than a few connections between the recent ACORN stings by Giles, O’Keefe and Breitbart, and the recent hacking of the emails of the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, or “Global WarmingGate”, as Charlie Martin dubs it elsewhere at Pajamas. Not the least is that they each sent the legacy media into full gatekeeper mode, hoping to prevent exciting, important news of current events from ever reaching their readers.

http://freebornjohn.blogspot.com/2009/03/kafka-at-albany.html Last June I reported on the allegations of academic fraud levelled by a British mathematician, Doug Keenan, against Professor Wei-Chyung Wang of New York State University at Albany. Dr Keenan alleged that in work that has come to be widely cited in climate studies, work that included the collation of data from temperature measuring stations in China, Professor Wang made statements that "cannot be true and could not be in error by accident. The statements are fabricated." In August 2007, Dr Keenan submitted a report (pdf) of his allegations to the Vice President for Research at Wang's university and...

“Delta Smelt, What’s that (Dead) Flower You Have On…” By justinwashingtontheblogger “Could it be a Faded Rose from Days Gone By?” Lyrics (Polluted) by Justin Washington and Tribute to Tanya Tucker As the plaintiff song wafts in the air, so goes California’s golden dream — because of a small, silver fish resembling a minow with small, beady eyes (somewhat similiar in appearance to US Senate Leader Harry Reid). The EPA, as the teeth behind the Endangered Species Act, has turned off the water spigot to the agricultural Central Valley of California which has been likened to the “bread basket of...