Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- Four years after making history by becoming the first African-American president, Barack Obama will kick off his second term on Monday with a scaled-back inauguration that reflects the tempered expectations for his next four years in office. Lingering high unemployment, bitter political battles and a divisive re-election campaign have punctured the mood of optimism and hope that infused Obama's 2009 inauguration after a sweeping election win. This time, Obama's inauguration will feature smaller crowds and a reduced slate of inaugural balls and parties to match the more subdued tenor of the times. When Obama raises his right hand...

Today we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Isn’t it odd, with all of the great quotes from him, that we rarely hear many of them referenced. “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.” “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” “The time is always right to do what is right.” “Our lives begin to...

What was Black Unemployment Rate in 1968 (MLK passing)? Was it lower than what it is under Newsweek's messiah?

Rapper Lupe Fiasco was thrown offstage and escorted off the premises of a Washington, D.C. concert hall during a pre-inauguration concert Sunday night, after going on an anti-war, anti-Obama rant, according to concertgoers. Josh Rogin, a reporter with Foreign Policy magazine, tweeted late Sunday, “Lupe Fiasco just got thrown off stage here at the Hamilton Live after he went on an anti-Obama diatribe mid set.” “So Lupe played one anti-war song for 30 min and said he didn’t vote for Obama,” he continued, ”and eventually was told to move on to the next song…Lupe refused to move to the next...

During the past week, whenever I found myself alone in the car during good drive-time talk radio (i.e., Rush), I did something unusual: I didn’t listen. Instead, I turned to mindless pop music. I was thinking about this peculiar behavior on my part, because I truly love Rush. I think he’s a radio genius, someone who understands perfectly the lines between entertainment, news, and analysis. He’s also one of the sharpest political thinkers out there. No wonder the Left hates him. But still…. I didn’t want to listen. Analyzing my bizarre retreat from Rush, I realized that my problem is...

A perplexed Andrea Mitchell on Thursday highlighted a new NBC poll finding high favorability numbers for the National Rifle Association, results she deemed "surprising." The veteran journalist proclaimed: "The NRA brand has been fairly toxic in many of the debates, the gun debates especially since Newtown, but their membership base is broad and deep." One reason the brand has been "toxic" is because of relentlessly negative coverage from reporters. Yet, NBC political editor Mark Murray explained, "Despite a lot of the criticism the NRA has received in the month after the Newtown shootings, the NRA has a 41 percent favorable...

:52 in, the president tells his daughter, "I did it". Did what? Recite the oath without giggling, burping, fainting? Or did the narcissist in chief just say he alone is responsible for being re-elected?

To think that twenty young children massacred in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14 would become catalysts to accelerate the continuing disintegration of American society was unconscionable on December 14th - and it remains unconscionable. While the nation fell into shock followed by grief, many wrote on the web, "Obama's gonna take away guns!" The narcissism of "2nd Amen" cultists is without boundaries it appears; to wit: the NRA rallies. The goal to divert attention away from those child victims of guns in order to refocus it on themselves (the firearms industry and their plebian Constitutionalists), to protecting gun-owner "rights" and...

Let’s pretend that in the spring of 2012 Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, John Engler of the Business Roundtable, Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity, and Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association began to organize an assembly of right-leaning groups. Let’s pretend that in the months since there had been not one but two meetings where these luminaries joined with representatives of Christians United For Israel, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Tea Party Express, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and the American Petroleum Institute to discuss strategy and promote a series of “structural...

This matters in a political battle and the NRA can take advantage of there popularity relative to Obama with any wavering members. Newsbusters: Despite constant hammering by the national news media, the National Rifle Association has a favorability rating of 54 percent in the latest Gallup survey, slightly higher than President Obama's rating of 53 percent. While those figures are within the poll's margin of error, they show that the NRA's popularity is in the same range as that of the Democratic president who issued 23 executive orders to accomplish goals the gun-rights group has promised to combat in "the...

When President Obama takes the oath of office for the second time, he will also usher in a new era in American power politics. Whereas the old left-wing definition of “who rules” focused on large corporations, banks, energy companies and agribusinesses, the Obama-era power structure represents a major transformation. This shift stems, in large part, from the movement from a predominately resource and tangible goods-based economy to an information-based one. In the past, political struggles were largely fought over how to divide up the spoils generated by the basic productive economy; labor, investors and management all shared a belief in...

In recognition of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, indelible contributions to America and the world, let us honor him this week with recognition and reverence of his most memorable admonition; “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Perhaps no more pure, noble or aspirational words were ever spoken during the civil rights movement in our country. It would do every citizen good to read Dr. King’s entire 1963 “I Have a...

Street vendors and souvenir stores across Washington, D.C. are selling posters depicting President Obama as Jesus Christ — and one national news publication called him the “Second Coming.” The poster, which does not have the official endorsement of the White House, features an image of the president in prayer with the headline, “Prophecy Fulfilled.” “Barak is of Hebrew origin and its meaning is ‘flash of lightning,” the poster notes, referencing a passage in in the Old Testament book of Judges. Hussein, they allege, is a Biblical word meaning “good and handsome.” “So you see, Barak was destined to be a...

As was revealed in a breathtaking New York Times opinion piece today, many of Barack Obama's top advisers feel alienated from him. There is a sense within the White House that President Obama's theory of government is that "he is the government". Apparently, President Obama has personalized the presidency to such an extent that it is now seen as more about the man than about the position. Certainly that is not how the American Founding Fathers viewed the presidency. The author of this article, David Rothkopf, characterizes the president as a poor manager who is also aloof and a poor...

Say you're in for the next phase of this grassroots

"You know we can't just drill our way to lower gas prices. If we're going to take control of our energy future, and can start avoiding these annual gas price spikes that happen every year when the economy starts getting better, world demand starts increasing, turmoil in the Middle East or some other parts of the world, if we're going to stop being at the mercy of these world events, then we need a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy - oil, gas, wind, solar, and nuclear, and biofuels, and more." President Obama made these...

President Obama’s announcement last week on his plans to make sweeping changes to our nation’s gun laws by presidential executive order is yet another example of his continual disregard for the United States Constitution and the separation of powers it set forth to protect the American people from government by fiat. Putting aside for a moment the misdirected emphasis on gun ownership, as opposed to mental illness and cultural glorification of violence to curb gun crime, President Obama’s actions represent another attempt to circumvent Congress – a Congress elected by the people but controlled by Republicans – to establish public...

Senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett on Sunday predicted more minorities and women would be tapped for positions in the president’s Cabinet. “His cabinet, when he's finished -- and he's far from finished -- will have diversity, including women, including people of color,” said Jarrett in an interview with CNN. “He believes he makes his best decisions when he is surrounded by people who have different perspectives and give him their best ideas,” she continued. “And so, one picture does not speak a thousand words in this instance. I spent a lot of time in the Oval Office, and I'm in...

This Newsweek cover is just laughable. And offensive if you ever get around to stopping laughing. Yes, this is how they think of Obama in their hearts but in the end, this is just stunt journalism. This is the same as DC killing Superman back in the 90's. They've ceased caring about what they're writing about. Everything is good or bad simply based on how many heads turn to look. It's a stunt. They've clearly ceased to care about journalism in any way, shape or form. They don't care if what they do is impressive or a car wreck as...

Five suspected members of the Islamist group which held foreign and local workers hostage at an Algerian gas plant have been arrested, reports say. The reports came a day after the Algerian authorities said all 32 hostage-takers had been killed at the In Amenas gas installation.