Free Republic

Announcing his budget plans for fiscal year 2013 in an address at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., President Barack Obama characterized the current income tax rates--signed into law by President Bush a decade ago--as a form of government spending. Essentially, the president said that the federal government "spends" when it does not raise taxes. “Right now, we’re scheduled to spend more than $1 trillion more on what was intended to be a temporary tax cut for the wealthiest two percent of Americans,” Obama said. “We’ve already spent about that much. Now we’re expected to spend another $1 trillion....

There are many problems with parroting socialist-first studies, as Wilson does, especially from Scandinavia, where Orwellian speech codes prevent free-thinking academics from reaching the “wrong” conclusions. But I digress. You see, scientific truths always find ways of getting out, eventually, so one can detect a pattern. Take gay marriage and marriage-like unions and think about where children are more at risk. From The Ruth Institute: What types of unions have the highest rates of divorce? •Opposite sex married couples: men and women are so different, it is a wonder they ever stay married. •Male unions: men are naturally less committed,...

The Australian-based Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), the “world’s oldest free market think tank” has come under criticism, for its activist-first positions on freedom. Over at Right Pulse...we read, “The IPA is pushing the homosexual marriage bandwagon, and a long wagon it has become: human rights lawyers, celebrities, publicity seekers, other rent-seekers, anyone with an anti-freedom axe to grind, etc…” It doesn’t make sense. Aren’t there enough fatherless and motherless families, without creating and/or blessing more? Right Pulse challenges, the IPA and its employee Tim Wilson’s pro-gay marriage thinking, as well. “Here in Australia, many faith based adoption agencies have...

The left thrives on language-manipulation, what George Orwell called “Newspeak” in his novel “1984.” It’s not a tax hike; it’s revenue enhancement. It’s not racial spoils; it’s affirmative action. Instead of class warfare or punishing productivity; call it making the rich pay their fair share. It’s not anti-Americanism, it’s historical revisionism. Lib-speak is poison dipped in chocolate – toxins lethal to the economy, the culture and individual liberty. The idea is to hustle the unwary, to make them think they’re buying charity, equity, sweetness and light, when in reality the left is selling variants of a creed that’s failed miserably...

It was a rare confessional moment for Barack Obama. At a Miami fundraiser in mid-June, the president acknowledged that it’s “not as cool” as it was in 2008 to support him. It isn’t just a matter of fewer hip posters and viral videos. It’s a matter of votes. Rekindling the enthusiasm of African-Americans, educated white liberals, Latinos, young people, and union members—the Democratic Party’s most loyal and progressive members—will be a huge challenge. After all, you can only elect the first African-American president once, and the past two and a half years have deeply disappointed many liberals. “I know a...

A Mark Halperin misstep this is not, but Newsweek magazine columnist Evan Thomas had some pretty strong words for President Barack Obama Friday. On “Inside Washington,” host Gordon Peterson asked his panel to suggest a way to overcome the current impasse and get Congress and the White House moving on a budget deal. Thomas offered up a solution, but also expressed his frustration with Obama. “Yeah, because it’s happened before – Obama has got to be President of the United States,” Thomas said. “He has to be two things. He has to make a public case of how bad is...

President Obama gave an important speech yesterday outlining his deficit-reduction plan. I won't comment here on the specifics of his proposals, partly because there weren't any specifics, but also because I want to focus on a single line in his speech. The president said: "My plan will require us to come together and make up the additional savings with more spending cuts and more spending reductions in the tax code." "Spending reductions in the tax code." It has sort of a nice ring to it, until you realize that what he really means is "higher taxes." So, the president wants...

Residents in Surrey and Kent villages have been ordered by police to remove wire mesh from their windows as burglars could be injured. Home owners in the villages of Tandridge and Tatsfield in Surrey and in Westerham, Brasted and Sundridge in Kent have said they are furious that they are being branded 'criminals' for protecting their property. Locals had reinforced their windows with wire mesh after a series of shed thefts but were told by community police officers that the wire was 'dangerous' and could lead to criminals claiming compensation if they 'hurt themselves'.

What is it called when a government creates a state-sponsored “news” agency, again? Ah yes, it’s called government propaganda. And that is what the Obama administration seems interested in creating if the words of Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis’s senior advisor Carl Fillichio can be believed. On Nov. 19 Fillichio attended the annual meeting of the International Labor Communications Association and in his address to the room he laid out a few “revolutionary” plans and policy ideas one of which was to create a new media agency that would act as a sort of ministry of Big Labor information all...

President Bill Clinton answers a question about plans to put a mosque near Ground Zero from Anthony in San Diego, in a special YouTube interview.

Orszag: Obama “not a socialist” Former Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag told Fareed Zakaria on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” that President Barack Obama’s critics are wrong to say that he has a socialist economic philosophy. “President Obama is not a socialist,” Orszag said. The label reflects a “yearning for pragmatic solutions to the problems that we face. And socialist just -- I mean, again, it just does not fit.” Orszag said that given the actions that the Obama administration has taken to deal with the economic crisis, labeling Obama as a socialist is misguided. “One...

Over the past generation, the Left has commandeered our language. It has inverted the terminology of human rights, freedom, morality, heroism, democracy and victimization. Its perversion of language has made it nearly impossible for members of democratic, human rights respecting, moral societies to describe the threats they face from their human rights destroying, genocidal, tyrannical enemies. Thanks to the efforts of the international Left, the latter are championed as the victims of those they seek to annihilate.

Newspeak was created to institute thought control and thereby exert political control through restrictive changes to the language. The term is now commonly used to refer to attempts to obscure the truth, especially in political rhetoric which abounds with instances of it. For example, President Obama's administration has officially replaced "terrorism" with the phrase "man-caused disasters." Terrorist activity, such as suicide bombings perpetuated by Al Qaeda and other Islamic groups, is now benignly called "anti-Islamic acts." In abortion debates, the taking of a human life is reframed as a "woman's right to choose."

How much stupid can you squeeze into one liberal’s head? Three weeks ago American veterans won their long hard court battle to save their memorial cross honoring American soldiers killed in World War I. The case went to the Supreme Court and was finally won by a slim 5 to 4 majority. Anthony Kennedy wrote: “Here one Latin cross in the desert evokes far more than religion. It evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten.” This week we heard the...

During the past several days, the Federal Communications Commission and Verizon Wireless' CEO Ivan Seidenberg have argued extensively over the agency's plan to reclaim spectrum from broadcasters. ... Seidenberg's views are not 100 percent clear to everybody, however, given the fact that the wireless carrier isn't involved in any way with any broadcaster. He also questioned why the FCC wanted to reclaim spectrum from broadcasters instead of cable companies.

Justice Department officials are firing back at Republican critics who have accused them of being soft on terror, saying they are the ones putting American lives at risk. The comments are the first time that Justice Department officials have struck back publicly after being on the defensive for months. In a recent hearing on Capitol Hill and in separate interviews with Fox News, high-ranking Justice Department officials said new efforts by Republicans to ban or limit the use of civilian courts for terrorism suspects would damage the U.S. government's ability to obtain intelligence and thwart potential attacks.

...Diversity is about understanding and leveraging the diverse triggers that motivate different groups to create increased value for employees and their companies. It is about understanding the intrinsic value that a diverse set of individuals bring to our organizations so everyone is included. This inclusive approach is best demonstrated by the richness and depth of employee-resource groups (ERGs) being leveraged across corporate America. If language is to catch up with today’s broader focus of diversity, we should use terms that are clear and precise. The term “traditionally underrepresented minority” (TUM) can be used when referring to African Americans, Latinos, Asian...

NEW YORK – The New York Times is looking into the work of one its reporters following accusations that he plagiarized from The Wall Street Journal and other sources. The paper published an editor's note online Sunday and in papers Monday that said reporter Zachery Kouwe "appears to have improperly appropriated wording and passages published by other news organizations." The Times said Journal editors pointed out similarities between a Journal story from Feb. 5 and Times pieces later that day and on Feb. 6. The Times said a search found other similar examples taken from media outlets like Reuters and...

Lets play a word game. What terms/words we used to use for something, and what word is used now. Examples: Old term - Layoffs New term - Outsourcing Old term - Homeowners Association President New term - Community Organizer Old term - Illegally qualified New term - President of the U.S.,

As you start to read all this, you'll laugh at how incestuous it all gets. Let's start with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which as I've noted in the past is tied in with the Soros foundation. Together, the two worked on something called The Project on Death in America.(PDIA) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2341083/posts And speaking of Mr Soros, he himself(his foundations) have given directly to NPR. Compared to some of the other numbers I'm seeing, it's a small amount of $250,000. But it doesn't matter. Soros money is soros money in my book. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2396058/posts Additional information about RWJF can be found here....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- With polls showing as many as 63 percent of Americans oppose abortions and strong majorities against taxpayer funding of it, abortion advocates are desperate to mainstream abortion. One pro-abortion lawmaker has an amendment to the Senate health care bill to do just that. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5716.html

How’s that for a headline? You’d think we’d know something about geopolitics, tossing around the twenty dollar word like that. But we don’t -- not too much, anyway. We do, however, know more than we’d like to about half-heartedness, as most probably do. And one doesn’t need any specialized education to know what sort of trouble half-heartedness gets everyone into. A little experience in the business of everyday life is sufficient to impart the lessons. We all know what half-heartedness is – we’ve seen it in ourselves and in those we’d relied upon for something at one time or another....

There is full employment — yet no one is working. No one is working — yet the factory quotas are fulfilled. The factory quotas are fulfilled — yet the stores have nothing to sell. The stores have nothing to sell — yet people got all the stuff at home. People got all the stuff at home — yet everyone is complaining. Everyone is complaining — yet the voting is always unanimous. Economic justice: America is capitalist and greedy — yet half of the population is subsidized. Half of the population is subsidized — yet they think they are victims. They...

Reminiscent of the authoritarian regime in George Orwell’s 1984, the Obama Administration introduced some “newspeak” terms into our political debate earlier this year. The “war on terror” became an “overseas contingency action” and “acts of terrorism” became “man caused disasters.” Seemingly innocuous changes in statements appeared to do no harm at the time. Now, however, when one looks at the execution of “overseas contingency actions,” the change in semantics reflects a change in urgency. We have seen Obama drag his feet in Afghanistan while our casualties mount. Rather than denounce “acts of terrorism,” we are striving to understand “entering a...

Phil Elmore had a great opinion piece in WND today where he pointed out the similarities between George Orwell's 1984 and today. We don't just read about the tyrannical, controlling, manipulatively mendacious society Orwell portrayed in 1984- we get to live in it.

In George Orwell’s allegorical novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the picture of “Big Brother” appears constantly in the adoring media. Perceived enemies are everywhere — supposedly plotting to undo the benevolent egalitarianism of Big Brother. Citizens assemble each morning to scream hatred for two minutes at pictures of the supposed public traitor Emmanuel Goldstein. The “Ministry of Truth” swears that the former official Goldstein is responsible for everything that goes wrong in Oceania. In Orwell’s Oceania, there is a compliant media that offers “Newspeak” — recycled government bulletins from the Ministry of Truth. “Doublethink” means you can believe at the same time...

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela is taking dozens of radio stations off the air and putting stricter rules on cable and satellite television, a minister said on Thursday, part of President Hugo Chavez's battle with private media firms. Disodado Cabello, the public works minister who also oversees Venezuela's broadcasting watchdog, said 154 FM radio stations will be taken off the air and shifted into public hands in what he called "democratizing the airwaves." He recently said 86 AM radio stations will also be hit as the government steps up efforts to turn Venezuela into a socialist society. "The use of the...

The Government has been accused of fixing the outcome of public consultations on health policy after it emerged that reviews were flooded with block votes from groups funded entirely by the taxpayer. Earlier this month the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, announced that the display of cigarettes and tobacco in shops would be banned in England and Wales from 2011. He added that people wanting to buy cigarettes from vending machines would in future have to show proof of age to obtain a token to activate the machine, and machines could be banned altogether in the future. Mr Johnson boasted that...

A top White House lawyer called the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin an act of "political courage," according to House Republican aides who were in a meeting with the lawyer Wednesday. Norman Eisen, who is the White House Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform, met with staffers for Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday. Eisen, along with another White House staffer who accompanied him, "wanted to talk broadly about inspectors general," says a GOP aide familiar with what went on at the meeting....

In his essay "The Principles of Newspeak," the appendix to his classic novel, 1984 (published 60 years ago this month), George Orwell describes how the leaders of his totalitarian future have contrived to assure their hold on power by replacing English with Newspeak, a language containing no vocabulary for concepts contrary to the platform of the state-run Party. By controlling language, the Party controls its people's very thoughts. Intuition suggests that language is a product of thought: if we think clearly, automatically we will speak clearly. Orwell demonstrates the opposite, that thought is a product of language. Because we formulate...

Here in America, citizens and other legal residents have every right to stage rallies, protests and demonstrations on any topic that tickles their fancy. But they ought to say what they mean. It's reached the point where some of these characters use so many misleading code words that you need some kind of politically correct secret decoder ring. And I wonder if the folks who cover such events for our newspapers shouldn't provide us with a little of that cryptanalysis. "A coalition of labor, business, faith and immigrant rights leaders gathered in downtown Las Vegas on Monday to launch the...

On Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough nailed the Washington press corps for its sycophantish performance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner this past Saturday night: “like a bunch of teenage girls waiting for a Bay City Rollers concert, waiting to scream at the top of their [lungs].” Mika Brzezinski, agreeing with Joe, lifted the veil on the goings-on behind the scenes, describing an enraptured TV production crew scrambling to get the most flattering shots of the prez and First Lady. View video here.

In the debate over his top environmental goals, President Obama is backing away from "cap and trade." Not the policy. It's the phrase itself, deemed confusing by Democratic pollsters, that has all but disappeared from the president's vocabulary of late. Now when Obama talks about forcing companies to bid at auction for the right to emit greenhouse gases, he is more apt to mention "market-based" proposals and "clean energy jobs," hinting at a rich new employment source. Control the language, politicians know, and you stand a better chance of controlling the debate. So the Obama administration, in its push to...

Michael Savage is banned from the UK. That is not important, the reason why is compelling ... "I think it's important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it's a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won't be welcome in this country," Ms Smith told GMTV. "Coming to this country is a privilege. If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you from this country and, what's more, now...

The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming. The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington. Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about “our deteriorating atmosphere.” Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.” Don’t confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.” EcoAmerica has been...

The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.” Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about “our deteriorating atmosphere.” Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.” Don’t confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.” Asked about the summary, ecoAmerica’s president and founder, Robert M. Perkowitz, requested that it not be reported until the formal release of the firm’s full paper later this month, but acknowledged that its wide distribution now made compliance with...

Top White House adviser David Axelrod on Monday said that President Obama's trips to Europe, Turkey and Latin America in the last three weeks have made anti-American sentiment uncool and "created a new receptivity" to U.S. interests. "What's happened is anti-Americanism isn't cool anymore," Mr. Axelrod said, speaking to an audience of a few hundred at a conference in Washington sponsored by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. "This president has not only engaged the leaders of the world, he's engaged the people of the world," Mr. Axelrod said, arguing that Mr. Obama's approach to foreign policy has restored...

I don’t know whether this belongs in the comic-relief category or the future-threats category, but the Harvard Law School is having a conference to analyze the “free market mindset.” The basic premise of the conference seems to be that people who believe in limited government are psychologically troubled. The conference schedule features presentations such as “How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community” and “Addicted to Incentives: How the Ideology of Self Interest Can Be Self-Fulfilling.” The most absurd presentation, though, may be the one entitled, “Colossal Failure: The Output Bias of Market Economies.” According to the description, the author argues...

Arizona’s Supreme Court Justice has agreed to enforce the Hispanic Bar Association’s demands of banning the terms “illegal” and “aliens” in all of the state’s courtrooms. Claiming that the terms are inflammatory, the president of Arizona’s Hispanic Bar Association, (known as Los Abogados) has asked state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor to stop using them at trials or hearings because they create perceptions of judicial bias. In a strongly worded letter to the chief justice, Los Abogados’ president says attaching an illegal status to a person establishes a brand of contemptibility, creates the appearance of anti-immigrant prejudice and tarnishes...

Subway apologizes for homeschool snub.

And don't call al-Qaida a movement. The Bush administration has launched a new front in the war on terrorism, this time targeting language. Federal agencies, including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counter Terrorism Center, are telling their people not to describe Islamic extremists as "jihadists" or "mujahedeen," according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Lingo like "Islamo-fascism" is out, too.

All cultures are equal. One culture is less equal than others. Members of a minority are never responsible for their failures. Members of the majority are never responsible for their successes. Only the Liberal elite and certain select villains on the Right have free will. Capitalism is bad because it requires empathy. Socialism is good because it requires only sympathy. No statement is ever true or false except this one. Cultural Relativism is a fact. Temporal Relativism is not. A woman has a right to her body, but no responsibility for it. Everyone is a hypocrite. Words speak louder than...

Ministers have adopted a new language for declarations on Islamic terrorism. In future, fanatics will be referred to as pursuing "anti-Islamic activity". Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that extremists were behaving contrary to their faith, rather than acting in the name of Islam. Security officials believe that directly linking terrorism to Islam is inflammatory, and risks alienating mainstream Muslim opinion.

Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in ­connection with the ­terrorism crisis. The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on ­terror” is to be dropped. The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair. However, the change provoked claims last night that ministers are indulging in yet more political correctness. The sudden shift in tone emerged in comments by Mr Brown and Ms Smith in the...

ERLANGEN, Germany, June 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A city court in Erlangen, Bavaria, gave Lutheran Pastor Johannes Lerle a one year jail sentence for the “crime” of comparing abortion to the Nazi holocaust. In response, Jim Hughes, Vice President of International Right to Life Federation has called on pro-life activists internationally to take action on the matter by contacting German authorities to demand freedom of speech and freedom of religion for the pastor (see contact information below story). Pastor Johannes Lerle compared the annual murder of 150,000 babies through abortion in Germany to the murder of thousands of innocent Jews...

Affordable Housing "NewsSpeak" - Papers' Love of Government Makes Private Low Income Housing Sector Invisible The Pasadena Pundit PasadenaNow.com - June 15, 2007 Excerpt: Look at the front page of almost any newspaper in any place in America and you are likely to find a story about some victimized group that is aided by a government housing program or non-profit, using government funds. In Pasadena it is the Desiderio Project and Habitat for Humanity. Or it is the proposed Heritage Square with Danny Bakewell's politically wired low income housing project which will require a multi-million dollar over-market subsidy. Or it...

The more than 32,000 earmarks requested in the Homeland Security spending bill have roiled the House this week, and now Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) wants the word ‘earmark’ to just go away. In a Tuesday press conference about appropriation bills, Pelosi said, “Why don’t we leave here today forgetting the word earmark?” She said they should be called “legislative directives” instead. Five months ago, Pelosi’s House passed a resolution to require that these “legislative directives” be listed within the texts of applicable legislation next to the names of members who requested them, and therefore available to the public. It was...

We can all glean more into the mind of Rudy Giulani with this babble .... "Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do." - Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani [ Interruption by someone in the audience. ] "You have free speech so I can be heard." - Giuliani [ Another interruption. ] Thomas Jefferson and James Madison warned us about people like this. We should chase such tyrants off the stage - the sooner the better.

House Democrats Offer Plan to Ban Use of 'Global War on Terror' Wednesday, April 04, 2007 WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader John Boehner blasted a Democrat-backed plan on Wednesday to ban the use of "global War on Terror" and "long war" in the 2008 defense budget bill. A memo sent to Democratic staffers on the House Armed Services Committee instructed the aides not to use the specific phrases, the Military Times newspaper reported. Boehner accused Democrats of launching an "absurd effort to deny the fact that America is battling terrorism on a global scale," according to a statement released Wednesday...

Now council bans the use of 'political correctness' at workBy CHRIS BROOKE Last updated at 10:41am on 1st November 2006  Cllr Robert Light: Kirklees council leader blamed his political opponents and said the booklet was no longer being used by council staff A council has warned staff against using the phrase 'political correctness' at work because it might offend people. A booklet outlining 'equality' policy to council workers claims using the term at work can be damaging and even linked it to the Ku Klux Klan. See also... Council worker paid £91,000 to fix the lights  The bizarre publication...