Free Republic

Colin Powell, one of President Obama's most prominent Republican supporters, expressed concern publicly for the first time Friday that the president's ambitious blitz of costly initiatives may be enlarging the size of government and the federal debt too much. "I'm concerned at the number of programs that are being presented, the bills associated with these programs and the additional government that will be needed to execute them," Mr. Powell said in an interview with CNN's John King. It was released by the network Friday. Mr. Powell, a retired U.S. Army general who rose to political prominence after a long and...

***.....promoting people solely because they are part of a minority group reinforces the belief that minorities are inferior-- until we get away from this ridiculous political correctness, everyone will know those people are in place not based on merit, but by skin color. NAMES REACTED The Bronx *** Had minoritoes passed the tests, would Justice Ginsberg, Sotomayor or the New Haven Mayor have thrown out the tests? New Haven, Conn. *** Do we want a Justice who doesn't understand the basic principles of the document she is entrusted to enforce? There is no place for empathy in a court .......

THERE'S an old joke about a fantastic three- legged pig and a farmer. It comes in many versions. In some tellings, the pig saves the farmer's life. In another, it can talk. The punch line always comes after a visitor asks, "So how come he only has three legs?" "Because," the farmer explains, "you don't want to eat a pig like that all at once." More and more, it seems the Obama administration has just that attitude toward the economic crisis: doling out pork for as long as possible. Recall the White House mantra of "never let a crisis go...

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 15) -- Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) electrified Washington today, resigning from the Senate to campaign full time for the White House (256K WAV sound). "I announce that I will forego the privileges not only of the office of the majority leader but of the United States Senate itself, from which I resign effective on or before June 11th," a choked-up Dole told a Capitol Hill news conference, flanked by Republican lawmakers and a few Democrats. "And I will then stand before you without office or authority, a private citizen, a Kansan, an American, just a man." ......

More unemployment means a smaller carbon footprint, as California greenies succeed in convincing a judge to shut down a needed modernization of California's oldest refinery, the massive 104 year old Chevron Richmond refinery. David R. Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle reports: A judge has ordered Chevron Corp. to stop work on its controversial oil refinery expansion in Richmond, handing environmentalists their biggest victory in a long fight over the project. Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga gave Chevron 60 days to wind up work on the project, which would have given the 107-year-old refinery greater flexibility to...

At this point there is much speculation about why Sarah Palin abruptly announced her impending resignation from Alaska's governorship. Her critics are already calling her "erratic" but she is consistent in one respect: she cares little for the established ways of doing things when she thinks she has a better course of action. The conventional wisdom holds that you bury news when it is announced at 4 PM on Friday of a holiday weekend. But the comparative news vacuum seems to be only amplifying the echoes reverberating through the political world. Does anyone think that Sarah Palin minds the fact...

Los Angeles will end use of coal-fired powerThu Jul 2, 2009 4:33pm EDT By Bernie Woodall LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles will eliminate the use of electricity made from coal by 2020, replacing it with power from cleaner renewable energy sources, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. Consumers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest city-owned utility in the United States with 1.45 million electricity customers, will see higher power bills in the fight against climate change, he added in his inaugural speech for his second four-year term as mayor on Wednesday. California does not have any...

Just as we conservatives get ready to celebrate our patriotism on the Fourth of July, a liberal from a prominent family has been accused of spying for Cuba. Write Mary Beth Sheridan and Del Quentin Wilber in The Washington Post about a retired State Department employee: What Walter Kendall Myers kept hidden, according to documents unsealed in court Friday, was a deep and long-standing anger toward his country, an anger that allegedly made him willing to spy for Cuba for three decades. Ho hum. It's not as if this is the first time. Yet these days it is good old...

WASHINGTON -- It took the Obama administration eight days to figure out whether Iranians being gunned down for protesting a fraudulent election and demanding basic civil liberties deserved to be acknowledged by the president of the United States. It took the O-Team less than eight hours to side with Cuba's Fidel Castro, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega over the ouster of Manuel Zelaya in Honduras. As we now have come to expect, Mr. Obama got it wrong again, but this time, nobody noticed. The U.S. news media, preoccupied with the sudden demise of Michael Jackson, ignored the event...

There is a missing element in all the media attention to the Mark Sanford scandal: How did the South Carolina governor fulfill his public duties? When he told his staff he might take a hike on the Appalachian Trail, it seems he willfully misled them. He was, in fact, not only out of the state, but out of the country. And he did not leave his Lt. Governor in charge. To see how serious this dereliction of duty was, we have only to ask ourselves: What if the tragic collision on Washington’s Metro had taken place on Amtrak in South...

With Americans busy celebrating the 233rd birthday of the USA this week, freedom of speech comes to mind. We Americans are big on speaking freely, but the words we use are quite another matter. In fact, we are becoming a nation of braying sheep, using the same words and phrases over and over again. Benjamin Franklin, a wordsmith if there ever was one, would have some issues with that. "Issues." That is a drastically overused word that is being used to avoid the proper word: "problems." He has "issues" sounds a lot better than "the guy is dramatically screwed up."...

N. Korea test-launches seventh missile off east coast: S. Korea By Sam Kim SEOUL, July 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea test-fired its seventh missile of the day off its east coast on Saturday, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. "North Korea fired its seventh missile at 5:40 p.m.," a JCS official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. "We believe it was from the same missile base on the east coast."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0wr8egTnYw

The Present: I wish those attacking Sarah and her family had to walk a mile in her shoes. She has been attacked without mercy by the liberal socialist left and the elitist RINO right. She has been besieged with petty ethics complaints. She and her family have been smeared by late night TV hosts. Never have I witness such a personal attack on a politician. And where are her defenders? Seems the GOP is just fine with Sarah, her husband and two young daughter taking the full fury of the Marxist propaganda machine. Seems the GOP is just fine with...

Mortgage defaults have surged to record levels amid rising unemployment and falling home prices. Lenders are expected to move quickly to clear up backlogs as moratoriums on foreclosures expire. Reporting from Washington -- Just as the nation's housing market has begun showing signs of stabilizing, another wave of foreclosures is poised to strike, possibly as early as this summer, inflicting new punishment on families, communities and the still-troubled national economy. Amid rising unemployment and falling home prices, mortgage defaults have surged to record levels this year. Until recently, many banks have put off launching foreclosure action on the troubled properties,...

KABUL—Militants exploded a vehicle outside the gates of a U.S. coalition base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, sparking a two-hour gunbattle that ended when American troops called in airstrikes, officials said. Two U.S. troops were killed and four were wounded. More than 30 insurgents were killed by the airstrikes in Zerok district of Paktika province, said Hamidullah Zawak, the provincial governor spokesman. The multi-pronged attack near the Pakistan border came as thousands of Marines in southern Afghanistan pursued the biggest U.S. military operation here since the American-led invasion of 2001, trying to cut insurgent supply lines and win over local...

~snip~ Palin ended 2008 with a striking run of personal successes in high-profile popularity polls. According to a poll by Gallup she was the second most admired woman of the year, after Hillary Clinton. Time magazine chose her as the world’s fourth most influential person, behind Barack Obama, Henry Paulson of the US Treasury and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. Last week she triumphed in an annual poll, commissioned by a property website, as the person Americans would most like to have as their neighbour. She finished ahead of Oprah Winfrey, the television chat show queen, and Michael Phelps, the...

The goal of European diplomacy is to show that if a nation such as Iran takes on one of the EU member states, it takes on all of them. But this is not the Four Musketeers: there are 27 EU nations, all with their own foreign policy objectives. The EU was very quick to condemn Iran for the way it cracked down on presidential election protests last month. But EU co-ordination began to break down with the arrest of nine British embassy staff. Britain won a strong statement under the Czech EU presidency. A British request for the mass withdrawal...

Sarah Palin: What I've Learned The full-length version of our controversial interview with Alaska's governor (first excerpted here last month) reveals the former vice-presidential candidate's perspective on John McCain's choices, her daughter's marriage, God's guidance, and her perceived "hotness."UPDATE: Scroll down for Web-only quotes on wisecracks, American priorities, and more By: Ryan D'Agostino We had flutes and trombones around the house. For my siblings and me, music was important to give us some balance. If it weren't for music, our entire social life, our avocations, all would have had to do with sports. Everything I've ever needed to know...

Russia's energy giant Gazprom has signed a $2.5bn (£1.53bn) deal with Nigeria's state operated NNPC, to invest in a new joint venture.The new firm, to be called Nigaz, is set to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Nigeria.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea fired four missiles off its eastern coast Saturday, South Korea said, in what was likely to be seen as a message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day holiday. The launches, which came two days after North Korea fired four short-range missiles, could further escalate tensions in the region as the U.S. tries to muster support for tough enforcement of the U.N. resolution imposed on the communist regime for its May nuclear test. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said three missiles were fired early Saturday and the fourth at about...

The reputation of diamond as the hardest material around is under threat. Researchers in China and the United States recently determined that two naturally occurring substances surpass diamond’s resistance to scratching and indentation. They calculated that the mineral lonsdaleite—made of carbon, like diamond—is 58 percent harder than its famous cousin. And wurtzite boron nitride beats diamond’s hardness by about 18 percent after being subjected to pressure, which alters its atomic bonds. Still, in the short term diamond will continue to dominate in practical applications such as saws, drill bits, and industrial abrasives, since the newly studied materials are extremely rare....

Our current system, no, but a free banking system on a gold standard, yes. So I argue in this 51-minute talk, taped at Rhodes College in March. Not just a talking head video, this one features some actual walking around! Thanks to co-blogger Art Carden for organizing the event and posting the video.

The incoming head of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog said on Friday he did not see any hard evidence that Iran was trying to gain the ability to develop nuclear weapons. "I don't see any evidence in IAEA official documents about this," Japan's Yukiya Amano told Reuters in his first direct comment on Iran's nuclear program since his election to head the International Atomic Energy Agency, when asked whether he believed Iran was seeking a nuclear weapons capability. Current IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei told the BBC last month it was his "gut feeling" that Iran was seeking the ability to...

With all the bad news and sad state of our nation, this show and song is intended to remind us of better times, great people, heroic efforts, triumph over tragedy...and just the overall greatness of our beloved nation! It's also a call to action for all of us who cherish freedom and hate tyranny with every bone in our body. On Sepember 12 in Washington DC, a national Tea Party will be in full force, and Free Republic will be represented by FReepers from all across our great nation. This song is proposed to be our 'anthem', our 'rallying cry'...WAKE...

American engineers who serve as consultants for the Egyptian military have recently informed Israel that Hamas has succeeded in digging 60-meter deep smuggling tunnels to avoid detection and destruction by the IDF, defense officials said on Thursday. The American engineers, deployed as consultants along the Philadelphi Corridor in Egyptian Rafah, have been using technology that can detect seismic movements to uncover tunnels. But it is more difficult to detect them once they have reached the 60-meter depth, the engineers told their Israeli counterparts. According to IDF assessments, Hamas now has several hundred active tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor, even though...

The Broad Street Bullies - the Philadelphia Flyers of the 1970's - had Kate Smith's "God Bless America," played at all of their home games. And they won...a lot. The team took back-to-back Stanley Cup trophies in the middle of the decade. The team went from nothing to something in a very small window of time. Kate's vocals on the song that defines this country was a sound that at last carried the tough guy's on ice to victory night after night. Also in the 70's, the country faltered under the weight of ten years in Vietnam. Stumbled under the...

My father, Rush H. Limbaugh, Jr., delivered this oft-requested address locally a number of times, but it had never before appeared in print until it appeared in The Limbaugh Letter. My dad was renowned for his oratory skills and for his original mind; this speech is, I think, a superb demonstration of both. I will always be grateful to him for instilling in me a passion for the ideas and lives of America's Founders, as well as a deep appreciation for the inspirational power of words which you will see evidenced here: "Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor"...

WASHINGTON — A civil rights group advised by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in the 1980s brought several discrimination lawsuits that sought to scrap the results of job tests because too few Hispanics scored well, according to new documents that are fueling GOP criticism of the judge. The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund represented Hispanic sanitation workers in New York City who wanted to stop white employees from getting promotions because, they argued, the qualifying exam unfairly disadvantaged minorities. The case unfolded as Sotomayor chaired the organization's board of directors' litigation committee, although there is no evidence that...

With respect to many of the Palinologists below, I think they're getting way too hepatomantic over the entrails. As a political move for anything other than the 2010 Senate race, today's announcement is a disaster. And I'm not sure it's a plus for the Senate - and, even if it were, the manner and timing suggest it was not a professionally planned event and therefore is unlikely to have any grand strategy behind it. So Occam's Razor leaves us with: Who needs this? In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a...

Sarah Palin’s jaw-dropping announcement that she is quitting her job as Alaska governor before finishing even her first term has divided Republican ranks and the wider political community in a very familiar fashion. Many establishment GOP operatives and political commentators of various stripes were withering, both about the decision and the way she announced it—in a jittery, hyperkinetic news conference that rambled between self-congratulation and bitter accusations at the foes she says are eager to destroy her. The performance, by these lights, adds credence to the claims of some associates that Palin—burned by the intense scrutiny on her and the...

The Honduran Supreme Court has rejected a call from the head of the Organization of American States to return deposed leader Manuel Zelaya to the presidency. ... After the meeting, Insulza told reporters that the interim government remains intent on holding on to power until new elections in November. Insulza said the current government in power and all of the other institutions of government have shown no willingness to reverse their course. A spokesman for the Honduran Supreme Court said justices told Insulza that Mr. Zelaya cannot be restored to power because he is facing a series of criminal charges....

The swine flu pandemic may have been caused by an accidental leak from a laboratory three decades ago, scientists have claimed. An investigation into the genetic make-up of flu viruses claims the pandemic may not have occurred, had it not been for the accidental release of the same strain of influenza virus from a research lab in 1977. The Independent reported that researchers believe this strain of the virus had been extinct in the human population for more than 20 years until it was unwittingly reintroduced by scientists. The study in The New England Journal of Medicine said: 'Careful study...

The Chamber of Commerce in Nome says it "cordially invites" Ruth Madoff to move there, "where you can live off the land, far away from the prying news media.

“I am deeply disappointed that the Governor has decided to abandon the State and her constituents before her term has concluded.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — daughter of Frank Murkowski, who was defeated by Sarah Palin in the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary

FRANKFURT, July 3 (Reuters) - German container shipper Hapag-Lloyd (TUIGn.DE) is considering asking for state aid to help it secure its future in the face of a global trade slump, a key shareholder told a German newspaper on Friday. Such a move could not be ruled out, and financial support from the German state would "certainly make sense", Klaus-Michael Kuehne told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He controls around 15 percent of the company.

Fourth of July weekend is a time for celebration and relaxation, but also reflection on the critical juncture our nation faces. The U.S. has been on an "unsustainable cycle of buying and spending" that cuts across all strata of society, says TJ Marta, chief strategist at MartaontheMarkets.com. The problem is that with everyone having a hand out -- from illegal immigrants to Wall Street to state and local governments -- the Federal government has now extended itself to the limits of its ability, and perhaps beyond. Marta sees only two entities with the ability to bail out Uncle Sam -...

The U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency of choice has been a stabilizing force during the current financial crisis, Canada said Friday, downplaying calls to debate the greenback's dominant status. Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty added his weight, at least for now, to Japan's opposition to a Chinese push for a new super-sovereign reserve currency that would displace the U.S. dollar. Flaherty also told reporters he could see the Canadian currency appreciating as part of a worldwide shifting of foreign exchange rates to correct imbalances. He said he did not know whether the U.S. dollar's role as the global...

SAN DIEGO -- President Obama recently reignited the immigration debate when he told reporters that congressional leaders of both parties were ready to "actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now." In the months ahead, keep an eye on two things: the calendar and the issue of guest workers. The calendar: "Right now" might not be soon enough. The conventional wisdom is that the longer Obama waits, the harder it will be to pass any immigration reform legislation. One...

The Huffington Post issued an apology Friday evening for an article about the resignation of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin posted at their website entitled, Palin Will Run In '12 On More Retardation Platform, written by HuffPo writer Erik Sean Nelson.The Daily Dose published an e-mail apology from Mario Ruiz of HuffPo: Due to an editorial lapse, Erik Sean Nelson’s post on Sarah Palin bypassed the normal vetting process and appeared on HuffPost — but was never featured anywhere on the site. Even though satiric works are generally given greater latitude, Nelson’s post falls outside of HuffPost’s editorial guidelines. As such,...

As president, Barack Obama takes care to get pronunciations correct — from heads of state and foreign nations to the director of a small nonprofit in Jersey City. In Obama’s view, pronouncing someone’s name or hometown correctly is a simple way of showing respect, they say. It’s a sort of baseline diplomacy. That’s particularly so in foreign relations, where aides say the president will privately practice pronouncing a leader’s name a number times before saying it publicly. The response to Obama’s efforts as president has been positive, aides say. Pakistanis have told the White House they appreciate it, and some...

Reporting from Baghdad -- Vice President Joe Biden's mission to promote national reconciliation in Iraq was rebuffed Friday by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, who told him that the issue was a domestic Iraqi affair and that U.S involvement wouldn't be welcome. Biden was beginning a two-day visit to Iraq after President Obama appointed him this week as his special representative on dealings with the Persian Gulf nation. His assignment, the White House said, is to work with Iraqis "toward overcoming their political differences and achieving the type of reconciliation that we all understand has yet to fully take place." But...

Palin 2012. Hypothetical narrative. If this is what she runs on — and does it well — then watch the hell out: I’m Sarah Palin, and I’m running to be Citizen-In-Chief. I entered politics to change something. I ran to serve my state, the great state of Alaska, and then for the vice-presidency because I care about this country. I saw first-hand the viciousness and pettiness that have made Americans fed up with politicians, politics as usual, and the destructive personal attacks that also go on far too often. Those sorts of things that public service should never be about....

Online advertising's biggest players to government: Please stay out of our business. Google, AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft, along with a host of other advertising, agency and marketer associations, took another step in pressing their case that the government doesn't need to regulate the collecting of data for ad-targeting purposes by search engines, websites, advertisers and ad networks. They've crafted their own set of rules in the hope of heading off potential regulation in Congress. For months, a wide-ranging group of marketers, portals, publishers and ad networks represented by industry groups -- such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the American Association...

 THE REAL ID ACT 2005 AND THE WOLF DRESSED IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING A.K.A.: THE PASS ACT - S.1261 - - - News Video follows article - - - I have spent the last few days burning up the phone lines discussing the newly proposed “PASS Act”. I have had conversations with organizations around the country about the PASS Act. I have also spoke with staff committee people and others in Washington D.C. about the PASS Act. Both the ACLU and the ACLJ are opposing the Real ID Act and the PASS Act. (The ACLU and the ACLJ are the...

This is a disgusting video of NY Democrat traitors refusing to stand for the Pledge. In fact, when of them tries to stand, he is pushed back down by a fellow dem. See it for yourself and see the traitors among us. The lines are being drawn folks. The Tea Partiers and the Depedents.

The Wall Street Journal’s editors weigh in on Al Franken’s Senate win: The ‘Absentee’ Senator. The Minnesota Supreme Court yesterday declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of last year’s disputed Senate race, and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman’s gracious concession at least spares the state any further legal combat. The unfortunate lesson is that you don’t need to win the vote on Election Day as long as your lawyers are creative enough to have enough new or disqualified ballots counted after the fact.

It's probably very hard to be governor of Alaska. Located an entire day's trip away from Washington, D.C., or New York, my guess is that Sarah Palin felt isolated and out of touch in Juneau and felt that it was important to get back in the game. With President Barack Obama destroying the free-enterprise system, bankrupting the nation, and digging us into a hole of debt it will take a decade to climb out of, Palin undoubtedly felt the need to play a role when health care, our nation's manufacturing base, and so many key areas were at stake. As...

The United States is opposed to enacting a new set of financial sanctions against Iran that are due to be discussed in the G8 summit next week, diplomatic officials in New York reported Friday. According to officials, sanctions against Iran are expected to top the G8's agenda. Sources are also predicting a pointed debate between the heads of the industrialized nations over an appropriate response to Iranian authorities' suppression of reformist demonstrations in Iran led by Mir Hossein Mousavi and other Iranian opposition leaders. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hinted in a newspaper interview earlier in the week that the...

Ever notice? When she’s angry, she starts talking a little faster, her eyes lids narrow a tad, and she talks through lips that are a bit closer together – and that faint frown of hers becomes almost permanent, yet a smile remains. She displayed all of those signs today. She didn’t say it in so many words, but if I don’t miss my bet, Sarah Palin just declared all-out war on the left – and believe me, she can wage that war like no other – as has been well demonstrated. No, she’s not about to run off into seclusion...