Free Republic

There has been a lot of talk in the blogs and in local and national news about the heckling and boos that Eric Cantor received when he gave his speech at the 7th District GOP convention this past Saturday. Many felt it was unseemly and disrespectful. I personally don’t like booing even when a referee makes a bad call, but I think you can better understand the response from this past Saturday if you have context: Eric Cantor has made it abundantly clear to all his constituents that town hall meetings are beneath him. His consultant, Ray Allen, once told...

Big Journalism has learned that the Occupy Washington DC movement is working with well-known media members to craft its demands and messaging while these media members report on the movement. Someone has made the emails from the Occupy D.C. email distro public and searchable. The names in the list are a veritable who’s who in media. Journolist 2.0 includes well known names such as MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan, Rolling Stone’s Matt Tiabbi who both are actively participating; involvement from other listers such as Bill Moyers and Glenn Greenwald plus well-known radicals like Noam Chomsky, remains unclear.

The rich are not the problem, the greedy are not the problem, the crooked are not the problem - the problem is the system that brings them about. If the system is ours, the system means by the people, of the people, for the people, then now it is time to take it back. Now it is time to demand that it would be changed.

We're better than those damned Russians and their Putin; we have democracy! Well, maybe not. Quote: Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism. Lots of big words in that paragraph. Let's distill it down -- the argument presented is that America is really no different than...

A first of its kind US oligarchy study yielded a rather troubling discovery and the results of the study are definitely cause for concern for most Americans. The US oligarchy study was conducted by researchers from Princeton and Northwestern Universities and the study showed that the United States is not a republic in substance, but rather an oligarchy where the rich rule and the majority of Americans have virtually no impact on policy decisions, today's report from FDL explained.

FROM THE 'DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND': A new low for the far left: a post titled, "Why I Hope the Bloodshed Continues in Iraq." I kid you not.  DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND DECIDES TO EDIT: Hmmm. After I linked to a truly hideous posting celebrating bloodshed in Iraq, they take the page down. I should have copied the page. First CBS. Now DU. Shine a light on them and they scram. - 11:42:12 AM  THE POST: Here's what Democratic Underground didn't want you to see: I Hope the Bloodshed Continues in IraqWell, that should bring the bats out of the attic with fangs dripping....

For Immediate Release: Contact: Rosanna Pulido April 14, 2014 Rick Biesada tel. 773-771-3927 Chicago, IL – The head of the Illinois Minuteman Project and former Republican candidate for Congress, Rosanna Pulido, announced that her group, along with The Chicago MInutemen Project group and grassroots organizations, is holding a “SAVE THE AMERICAN WORKER RALLY” at 1:00 pm Tuesday, April 22, at the corner of Michigan and Van Buren Streets in downtown Chicago. Pulido said the rally is being held to protest a gathering of well-heeled Republican politicians, lobbyists, and corporate CEOs pushing amnesty for illegal aliens at the nearby Chicago Club...

Guess who's all of a sudden standing up for law and order? Why, it's radical environmentalists, who despite their general disdain for lawful behavior have felt compelled to speak out in support of the Bureau of Land Management's attempts to round up Cliven Bundy's cattle and ultimately force the Nevada rancher to abandon his family's century-old business. Martin Griffith at the Associated Press relayed the comments of one such group in a Sunday report in the aftermath of the BLM's abandonment of its roundup efforts, in Griffith's words, "after hundreds of states' rights protesters, some of them armed militia members,...

It is the most important question being asked of dozens of New Yorkers lined up as potential jurors for the trial of Cecily McMillan, an Occupy Wall Street activist accused of assaulting a police officer: what do you think of her protest movement? Unfortunately for those keen on the swift procession of justice, a series of Manhattan residents who presented themselves at the criminal courthouse this week declared that they strongly disagreed with it – and could not promise to be impartial about one of its members. “I’m involved in Wall Street things. I’m on the Wall Street side, not...

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the current bull market on Wall Street, making it one of the longest and strongest in history. Yet U.S. stock ownership is at a record low and less than half of Americans trust banks and financial services. And in the last two weeks, the New York attorney general and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in Washington have both launched investigations into high-frequency computerized stock trading that now controls more than half the market. The probes were announced just ahead of a much anticipated book on the subject by best-selling author Michael Lewis called...

This worked so well for France that Belgium had a real estate boom with the new tax on millionaires was announced. And New Jersey learned that millionaires have a tendency to leave when confronted with higher taxes. But Illinois? Well, per Michael Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, Illinois is different: “Well, if they’re in Illinois today, they’re probably so much in love with Illinois that they’re not going to leave,” he said, according to the Tribune–a backhanded acknowledgement of how poorly the state is already doing.Madigan may also be encouraged by California’s example, where millionaires have largely...

Recently, an associate offered the following observation with regard to the likelihood of war in the immediate future: “The big guys like to play chess with the world. It's the biggest game. The bankers need ups and downs and wars to make money. The military needs wars to exist. The politicians need both to exist.” Whilst he was reiterating a concept we have discussed on many occasions, it occurred to me that I have never seen the subject defined so succinctly, nor so informatively. Let’s break it down: The bankers need ups and downs and wars to make money Just...

President Obama entered office promising to restore the sanctity of science. Instead, a fresh war against science, statistics and reason is being waged on behalf of politically correct politics. After the Sandy Hook tragedy, the president attempted to convert national outrage into new gun-control legislation. Specifically, he focused on curtailing semi-automatic "assault" rifles. But there is no statistical evidence that such guns -- semi-automatic rifles that have mostly cosmetic changes to appear similar to banned military-style fully automatic assault weapons -- lead to increased gun-related crimes. The promiscuous availability of illegal handguns does. They're used in the vast majority of...

Mayor de Blasio made a call to a top NYPD spokeswoman about the arrest of a pal who was key to helping him in the black vote last year – and the guy was spared a night in jail. Bishop Orlando Findlayter, pastor of New Hope Christian church in Queens, was pulled over at 11:21 p.m. Monday in East Flatbush, Brooklyn for making a left turn without signaling, according to the Wall Street Journal. When cops ran his license, they found two warrants issued on Jan. 16 for failing to appear in court for prior protest arrests. He was arrested...

Get specific. That’s the message conservative intellectuals and strategists have for the Republican Party as it faces an assault from President Obama and Democrats on issues resonant with struggling voters such as the minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits. Obama’s income inequality push comes as the tide appears to be rising for the left on economic and social issues, something evident in everything from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s election to the legal selling of marijuana in Colorado. Some conservatives fear that the party has failed to make its case on how its policies can improve the lives...

New York’s new Occupy mayor, Bill de Blasio, took office this month with a stern, if hazy, vow to right the imbalances of economic inequality in New York City, which other speakers at his inauguration called “Dickensian” (Harry Belafonte) and a “plantation” (Brooklyn pastor the Rev. Fred Lucas Jr., delivering an invocation).But he can’t fix income inequality, nor should he. Given that there will always be some who are just starting out or lack the wherewithal to succeed, it’s the wealthy who are responsible for the gap between rich and poor. And it’s those same wealthy whom de Blasio will need to...

Time to invite Occupy back to Wall Street. There is no question but that New York’s new mayor, Bill De Blasio, owes his landslide victory in the November election to the Occupy Movement. It was Occupy Wall Street’s minions, hemmed in by thug-like NYPD officers armed with sidearms, clubs and pepper spray cans, who in 2011 abruptly changed the national conversation about capitalism, introducing the concept of “We are the 99%,” and focusing attention on the enormous enrichment of the top 1% of Americans at the expense of the other 99% over the past several decades, as a direct result...

While campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul praised the Occupy Wall Street movement, comparing it to the Tea Party movement. "In many ways, I identify with both groups," Paul said. Both groups are fed up with problems in Washington and "the two-party-system," Paul said while speaking at an insurance company in Des Moines. Praising the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement is an unusual move for a Republican presidential candidate, but Ron Paul is, of course, an unusual Republican presidential candidate. He jumped to first place in the Iowa caucus polls partly because of support from people...

Des Moines - While campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul praised the Occupy Wall Street movement, comparing it to the Tea Party movement. "In many ways, I identify with both groups," Paul said. Both groups are fed up with problems in Washington and "the two-party-system," Paul said while speaking at an insurance company in Des Moines. Praising the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement is an unusual move for a Republican presidential candidate, but Ron Paul is, of course, an unusual Republican presidential candidate. He jumped to first place in the Iowa caucus polls partly because of...

UPDATE: Ron Paul told voters today that America's obsession with war is hurting the economy. Ron Paul is one of the few Republicans who said he agrees with both the Tea Party and Occupy protesters. The Republican candidate defended both movements at a Q&A session with Patch editors in Concord today. When asked about Occupy Wall Street, he said it was unfair to dismiss the concerns that are being expressed by the protesters. He added that, much like the Tea Party, there are always individuals who make the movement look bad. While he supports public anger towards government and banks,...