Free Republic

Rick Santorum’s victories this week in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota laid bare Mitt Romney’s weaknesses and the GOP’s fading prospects for defeating Barack Obama. Romney’s advantages are money and organization. His well financed machine overwhelmed opponents in Florida, but he chose not to devote many resources to those beauty contests, and without the advantages of money—and massive attack ads—Mr. Santorum bested him by an average margin of 20 percent. Mr. Santorum’s principal appeal is social issues and adherence to Republican economic fundamentalism. That plays well among Republican primary voters, who are dominated by rock-jawed conservatives, even in ideologically diverse states...

A recently released Angus-Reid Public Opinion Poll show that "...most people in the United States agree on the meaning of the Second Amendment, and half endorse the 'shall-issue' prerogative to carry concealed weapons in public." This most recent poll (taken January 17 - January 18, 2012) show that support for legal firearm ownership continues to grow. Fully 85% of Americans believe that individuals have the right to keep and bear arms. This belief matches the United States Supreme Court finding in the D.C. vs. Heller case from 2008. Also, now more than half of the United States are supporting concealed...

[...] And yet, here we are at the end of 2011, with Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and discussion boards still teeming with intemperate quick takes. President Obama has taken considerable heat this year, but isn't it too soon to accuse him of being an ineffectual leader? Isn't that one lesson from the Tucson incident? On a Christmas Day episode of "GPS" on CNN, Fareed Zakaria interviewed Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, who reminded us that it's too early to cast Obama's legacy in stone. Here's an excerpt from their interview: I admire him very much, and I think that his...

It was because he was going to retire anyway, lost a favorite port town in redistricting and had a tough race last time. Was this really why Congressman Barney Frank announced today he’s retiring from the House of Representatives? Perhaps another reason was he’s no longer chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and like a lot of bullies, Mr. Frank found it’s not easy to be stripped of the power to torment and humiliate others. Brilliant, but acid tongued and generally unpleasant, Mr. Frank ruled with an iron gavel, ran over critics with delight and treated committee members and...

Is MSNBC merely a lost leader for the National Debocrat Party? If the Debtocrats stopped their financial support, could the leading talking heads at MSNBC find another anchor job? At a time when jobs, jobs, jobs, are so important, important, important, one needs to fear, fear, fear! Consider Chrissy "Shout-down-all-of-your-guests-who-disagree-with-you" Matthews. Not a lot of hope for a change in him. Maybe as a reporter on labor activities? Hope, and Change, Hope and Change, Hope and Change has just GOT to work someday - - - ? And then there is the gal infected, (terminally, I'm told), with the horrifying...

Dire consequences. In political arena you have options: 1) be on idiot or 2) be absolutely clueless of what’s going on, and then is 3) purposely pretend to be on side of groups, while dismantling fabric of nation. You choose. We are leaving in world upside down, what is right is portrayed as clueless selfish thinking, while what is wrong is being perceived as well organize community and structure of thoughts as well human beings. It is in that context that so many in media as well in political arena, were able to not only destroy essence of what is...

Yesterday, I pushed back on the bothersome Beltway meme that President Obama is invisible in this epic fight over raising the debt ceiling. Today, I want to dispute Peggy Noonan’s assertion that “nobody loves Obama.” Her opinion piece is all the more noteworthy for calling the president “a loser.” There are many legitimate criticisms you could level against Obama, particularly about his governing style or his personality. But calling him a “loser” was uncalled for. The notion that “nobody loves Obama” is something Noonan says she’s “never seen in national politics.” She goes on to write: This is amazing...

If you read online reviews before purchasing a product or service, you may not always be reading the truth. Review sites are becoming targets for "opinion spam" -- phony positive reviews created by sellers to help sell their products, or negative reviews meant to downgrade competitors. The bad news: Human beings are lousy at identifying deceptive reviews. The good news: Cornell researchers are developing computer software that's pretty good at it. In a test on 800 reviews of Chicago hotels, a computer was able to pick out deceptive reviews with almost 90 percent accuracy. In the process, the researchers discovered...

Tea party Republicans, to their credit, want to pass a BBA that would include the supermajority tax limitation. But it has no chance of passing, and absent that rule, political pressure could turn the amendment into a driver for the entitlement state as successive Democratic governments raised taxes, most likely with a European-style value-added tax to balance spending commitments. The new Members who are intent on fiscal responsibility should visit with Congressional historians to discover a root cause of this modern spending catastrophe—the 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, the most laughable title ever placed on a federal law.

EARLY one morning, 50 years ago today, while his wife, Mary, slept upstairs, Ernest Hemingway went into the vestibule of his Ketchum, Idaho, house, selected his favorite shotgun from the rack, inserted shells into its chambers and ended his life. There were many differing explanations at the time: that he had terminal cancer or money problems, that it was an accident, that he’d quarreled with Mary. None were true. As his friends knew, he’d been suffering from depression and paranoia for the last year of his life. Ernest and I were friends for 14 years. I dramatized many of his...

The messiah-nation, gripped by war and fear of the unknown, could finally be coming to its senses. At periodic intervals, the American body politic has shown a marked susceptibility to messianic fevers. Whenever an especially acute attack occurs, a sort of delirium ensues, manifesting itself in delusions of grandeur and demented behavior. By the time the condition passes and a semblance of health is restored, recollection of what occurred during the illness tends to be hazy. What happened? How'd we get here? Most Americans prefer not to know. No sense dwelling on what's behind us. Feeling much better now! Thanks!...

Here is the why Romney will be the republican nominee and why Perry or Cain or Bachmann will not save the republicans. Romney is moving left on global warming and staying the course on Romneycare and you will see him take his natural left positions on other issues as the campaign gets underway. His goal is to attract as many democrat voters into the republican open primaries as possible to vote for him. Meanwhile , Bachmann has been brought into the race by the establishment as well as Cain who has no idea. Perry is coming in too. This is...

Our Lefty Military By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: June 15, 2011 As we search for paths out of America’s economic crisis, many suggest business as a paradigm for cutting costs. According to my back-of-the-envelope math, top C.E.O.’s earn as much as $1 a second around the clock, partly by cutting medical benefits for employees. So they must be paragons of efficiency, right? Actually, I’m not so sure. The business sector is dazzlingly productive, but it also periodically blows up our financial system. Yet if we seek another model, one that emphasizes universal health care and educational opportunity, one that seeks...

Politicians opposed to reform and change have always used fear as a means of persuading the people to forswear choice in the name of stability. Their mantra recalls that of Democritus, nicknamed by Avicenna as "The Happy Philosopher." Democritus' slogan was: "Desire what you have!" However, when change has already happened, its opponents abandon Democritus in favour of Alice, Lewis Carroll's little explorer of the Wonderland. There, the slogan is: "Jam tomorrow, jam yesterday; but never never today!" Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed the use of both stratagems in Tunisia and Egypt. At first, the dominant elite...

India's recent decision not to purchase American warplanes for its $10 billion-plus fighter aircraft programme - the largest single military tender in the country's history - has stirred debate in defence circles worldwide. India's defence ministry deemed the two American contenders, Boeing's F/A-18 Superhornet and Lockheed's F-16 Superviper, not to fulfil the requirements that it sought in a medium-size multi-role combat aircraft. With the Russian MiG-30 and the Swedish Gripen also eliminated, two European planes, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Rafale, are the only aircraft still in contention for an expected order of 126 planes. India had never previously...

Since the mid-nineties, I have nurtured a thesis about the dotcom bubble, tech bust, and the role Microsoft played in it. The opportunity to discuss it has never came up. That is, until Microsoft’s purchase of Skype yesterday. I have long argued that while Microsoft might have begun life as a software firm, it long ago morphed into something that was more a very clever IP/marketing firm with a huge tactical legal advantage that gave rise to a monopoly, rather than a true technology company. Microsoft remains hugely profitable today, but increasingly irrelevant. Their purchase of Skype is an attempt...

I thought it might be fun/interesting to see how people would finish this sentence: I never thought I would live to see the day when,,,,,,,,

Presidential résumés have run the gamut -- from commanding general of the United States Army (Ulysses S. Grant) all the way down to collector of the Port of New York (Chester A. Arthur). Unfortunately, since George McGovern ruined the presidential nominating system in 1971, there has been a new potential item for the presidential CV: navigating the byzantine process of primaries and caucuses better than any competitor. Not all eventual nominees have managed to do this (e.g. Gerald Ford was nearly outflanked in 1976, so was Ronald Reagan in 1980), and with only two presidents has this been a prime...

"I rarely heard a speech by a president so shallow, so hyper-partisan and so intellectually dishonest, outside the last couple of weeks of a presidential election where you are allowed to call your opponent anything short of a traitor. But we're a year and a half away from Election Day and it was supposed to be a speech about policy," syndicate columnist Dr. Charles Krauthammer said about President Obama's speech.

(ABP) -- “It is no longer illegal to carry a gun to church.” Scott Lewis, a Texas community college student, made that point recently as a rationale for his support of pending legislation to allow college faculty, staff and students (above 21 years of age) to carry concealed weapons on campus. He apparently believes that if Texans can bring guns to Sunday school, they can surely take them to them to psych class. While Texans debate the presence of guns at college (and well they should), the possibility of concealed weapons in church is a sharp reminder that many religious...

The founder of an organization that has influenced the Obama Administration's media and information policy, is both reporting on and leading the labor union/socialist occupation occupation of Madison Wisconsin. John Nichols John Nichols founded Free Press, "a national, nonpartisan organization" with Marxist Robert McChesney in 2002 to "engage citizens in media policy debates and create a more democratic and diverse media system". Free Press has contributed former affiliates to Obama Administration positions, including pro Hugo Chavez "Diversity Czar" Mark Lloyd and State Department policy adviser Ben Scott. John Nichols from The Nation and the Madison Capital Times has been a...

Recently DefenseTech ran a piece about the Chinese J-20 “stealth” fighter that points out it may be less troublesome than the initial hype suggested. I put “stealth” in scare quotes for just that reason; we have no idea whether this is a legitimate stealth aircraft or just some fancy sheet metal and paint. We have no clue if they have managed to engineer the sensors and electronic systems needed to fly it or to allow it to go up against our frontline birds. But that really shouldn’t be giving us a warm fuzzy. If they had actually fielded an aircraft...

President Obama’s deal with congressional Republicans on extending the Bush tax cuts that has now been passed by both the House and the Senate and will be signed by him this week suggests a fundamental misreading -- by Democrats and Republicans alike -- of the implications of November’s historic election. Not only that but it suggests as well the failure of the president and both parties to deal in a rational way with the new balance of power in Washington. Coming on the heels of the Bipartisan Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform report, which underscored the need to significantly...

Ace of Spades - Financial Briefing: Quick hitsAll American Blogger - 10 Politicians and What They Could Be Pitchmen ForAmerican Spectator - Out of the WildernessAmerican Thinker - Keep looking Mr. Holder - I'm sure there's somewhere you can hold your civilian terror trialsAmerican Thinker - Deficit Fix: You Get a Second JobAtlas Shrugs - 'DANCING UNDER THE GALLOWS'Breitbart TV - Best Correct Answer on 'Family Feud' Ever?CNS News - Obama Claims Strengthened Hand in Global DealingsDaily Caller - Steele draws challenger for GOP chairmanDoug Ross - World's dumbest blogger not sure why deficit reduction is neededFrontpage Magazine - A...

I am of course disappointed that, unlike 1994, the Republican party didn't take both houses of Congress. This was a "bloodbath?" Please! Needless to say I'm also disappointed with the results in Nevada, Alaska, Delaware, and other such places where Dems who were "sure to lose" did not. However, regardless of who wins Congressional elections, we have the same problem: Congress is in session continually, made up of people who legislate for a living, doing just that. Congress has basically been in session continuously since 1933. Prior to that time Congress was made up of people who did something else...

Hi Free Republic, this is my first post here. I came to Free Republic to seek your opinions in a survey about foreign countries. Would you care to take it? http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CBQ7HJZ

Greed over need. What would Jesus do?

Introduction Doug Mills/The New York Times President Obama discussing economic issues with residents of Albuquerque, N.M., on Tuesday. President Obama went on a multistate tour this week to shore up support for the Democrats in the midterm elections. His approval ratings are sinking steadily and pundits say he seems incapable of connecting to the public's fears about the foundering economy. With voters angry and frustrated at the Democrats for either not doing enough or doing too much, what should Obama's message be? How should he adjust his message to address voter frustration?

My eyes broke through the dried crust between my lashes. I was freezing, curled in the fetal position on my cot with an Army-issue sleeping bag wrapped around my body. I didn’t know where I was. I had never woken up here before. I tried to gain a sense of my surroundings using only my peripheral vision. The room was dark and damp. I looked at the indigo light on my digital watch. 0608. Where was I? … “Gah!” I shuddered like a little girl as a fat drop of arctic water fell on my face from the leaking roof....

Second, Obama asserted that the biggest problem with the Constitution is that its Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments, place limits on government power. He then went further to suggest a horrific concept that should serve as a clear warning signal to anyone who values freedom--he would prefer that the Constitution affirm the rights of GOVERNMENT. This is the smoking gun, the big enchilada, the proof positive that Obama and like-minded Leftists, Socialists, Marxists, Fascists, whatever you wish to call them, do not value at all the concept that citizens should be protected from government power but actually advocate...

Friends – This is the final edition of the Morning Must Reads. On Monday, I start at FOX News where I will be politics editor for the digital side and provide on-air analysis. It’s an exciting opportunity. I have come to really admire the FOX family in my years of making appearances on the network. They love the news business almost as much as they love America. But it is with real sadness that I leave The Examiner. You have no idea the care and effort that goes into the production of the newspaper and all the content for washingtonexaminer.com....

Finding Lost Jobs James F. Davis, July 13, 2010 One of the most exasperating things encountered in discussing government policies is a lack of understanding by many of what causes corporations to move their operations and jobs overseas. They generally do not do it for greed as the purveyors of class envy would like one to believe because it is a very costly and risky enterprise to move overseas. They do it in most instances because our government has made so many cumbersome costly laws, regulations and taxes that drive up the corporation’s costs and selling price of their goods...

Video on web-page.

Psychologist Analyzes Liberals James F. Davis, June 28, 2010 Recently I attended a lecture explaining the “Liberal Mind” by PhD. psychologist, Timothy C. Daughtry. He gave his explanation as to how such a minority (30%) in the United States has been able to impose its politics on the majority. When using the word Liberal below we are talking about the political Liberal. Liberals dominate our institutions, i.e., the schools, universities, media, arts, cinema, nonprofits, government bureaucracies, etc. Anyone challenging their monolithic views is ruthlessly attacked to be silenced. Daughtry stated there are two types of liberals. First are the hard...

I believe it was Jean Giraudoux who first said, "Only the mediocre are always at their best." Barack Obama was supposed to be the best, the very best, and yet he is always, reliably, consistently mediocre. His speech on oil was no better or worse than his speech on race. Yet the Obammyboppers who once squealed with delight are weary of last year's boy band. At the end of the big Oval Office address, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and the rest of the MSNBC gang jeered the president. For a bewildered Obama, it must have felt like his Ceausescu...

[...] In 17 months in office, President Obama has already outdone every previous president in pursuing leak prosecutions. His administration has taken actions that might have provoked sharp political criticism for his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was often in public fights with the press. [...]

Medicare On Life Supports James F. Davis, June 4, 2010 Commentary: Along with millions of other Americans, I received a glossy letter from the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius, titled “Medicare and the New Health-Care Law—What it Means for You.” She wrote “The Affordable Health Care Act passed by Congress and signed by President Obama this year will provide you and your family greater savings and increased quality health care.” This claim is made despite the overwhelming evidence that costs have increased dramatically and quality of service has decreased dramatically in every country in the world...

Andrew Sullivan is not a huge fan of Israel; he is entitled to his opinion. However, his latest column about the incident in the waters outside of Gaza makes up the facts. Honestly, in the case of most of the posts Sullivan writes about Israel, Andrew is living in his own reality, where truth and facts do not matter. The Atlantic columnist begins his latest example of creative writing begins with the first paragraph. Maintaining the siege and blockade of Gaza (because its citizens elected a government Israeli abhors), and strafing it with military might over a year ago, is...

In 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tapped San Antonio lawyer José Villarreal to be the pavilion's commissioner general -- essentially the manager of the U.S. presence and the public face of the U.S. government at the World Expo. . . . While the opportunity to take part in an event that Villarreal's staff modestly calls "the largest event in world history" is certainly understandable, the early reviews of the U.S. pavilion and the U.S. presence are less than stellar.Liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias writes at his Think Progress blog that the U.S. pavilion is "a national humiliation": T]hey really only...

Kosovo Remembered Alma Lama, May 14, 2010 AJC Commentary: Although it made the nightly news so often in the 1990s that many Americans could name it more easily than they could their states’ capitals, to a generation of news junkies in the United States, Kosovo is simply another foreign locale they would be hard-pressed to pinpoint on a map. With the aid of NATO forces, the United Nations (UN) and the United States (U.S.), Kosovo won independence from neighboring Serbia and its autocratic leader Slobodan Milosevic, now deposed and deceased. Now it is an independent country, recognized by most of...

Christians rightly square everything with the principles and precepts of the Holy Scriptures. So, is there Biblical approbation and authority for State secession? Before answering the Biblical question, let me briefly touch upon the Christian reaction to State secession both here in America and overseas. First, overseas. I doubt that there are many Christian pastors and churchmen who would be willing to denounce, denigrate, or declare as illegitimate the nation-state of Norway today. What Christian would advocate cutting off trade or diplomatic relations with Norway? Where is the Christian denomination or Church that would not recognize the right of Norway...

'Only time will tell' on healthcare reform issue Rancho Murieta Commentary By Kathryn Brodrick - Cruelty is the worst of human failings. Brutality, mental or physical, requires that the brutalizer cease to see the target as equally human, but merely as an object. At the same time, it’s a uniquely human trait to find the courage to push aside the urge to be cruel and remain present with the other person as an equal human. Throughout this fight for healthcare reform, we’ve seen a great deal of cruelty. A small minority of those who thought it was a bad idea...

We, the proud few who populate this forum with our minds musings, quips, jest, scantily clad women pics and bluster, on whole, speak our views and love of this country in strong and bold voices. But in the end, what have we truly risked in being so expressive? Perhaps some ridicule, an off color comment or should we step so far a field, banishment from this tiny world of interaction. Would our voices be so loud, our opinions so strong if the recourse were loss of our lands, our livelihood, our freedom, the freedom of our wives and children’s and...

I hate it when David Brooks writes a column on a subject that I have been researching on and planning to write about for weeks. And he did it to me Friday morning, with a great column [1] about “The Wal-Mart Hippies.” His central thesis is that the tea-party crowd is not really conservative at all. “Both the New Left and the Tea Party movement are radically anticonservative. Conservatism is built on the idea of original sin — on the assumption of human fallibility and uncertainty. To remedy our fallen condition, conservatives believe in civilization — in social structures, permanent...

The first flight of Russia's stealthy PAK-FA is the best recent example of the problems examined in the United States Defense Science Board report on “Capability Surprise”, released in September last year. This study is an important step forward in identifying the causes of many past, current and developing strategic failures. A capability surprise arises whenever an opponent makes use of a new capability, or uses an existing capability in a different way, catching the target or victim off guard1. Al Qaeda's use in September, 2001, of passenger laden hijacked aircraft as cruise missiles was a good example of a...

Here is a list of 21 items they are trying to whittle down to a "Top Ten." Idea is to open voting to everyone for a week, take the top 10, and then ask every representative, senator, or those running for one of those offices to sign it from either party. I was impressed with the list, but am having difficulty whittling the list myself. I'd enjoy a discussion on FR to decide on which ones I definitely want in my top ten. DEMAND A BALANCED BUDGET Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds...

It is that time of the year when Presidents rant and rave about the problem of government spending being out of control and they produce budgets that only add to the waste. Barack Obama is no different; in fact, his budgets are the largest seen in US history. Furthermore, his annual deficits are higher than the national debt was just a couple of decades ago. Rhetoric aside, Obama is operating as if it is business as usual.

So the Tea Party had a small convention, or at least one faction did and it finally made the lamestream news stations. I don't think the establishment is taking us for granted anymore. I even see the GOP trying to take us over. Sarah Palin was the keynote speaker on Saturday. I wasn't there so I only got some reports on what she said. I'm sure it was what the tea party members wanted to hear. She is now on the primary campaign trail supporting John McCain in Arizona and Governor Rick Perry in Texas for their re-election bids. You...

United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made some provocative remarks at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee last Wednesday. He said that as the U.S. military is deeply involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, it will not be able to come to South Korea in a timely manner, and that the Navy and Air Force will fill the vacuum left by a delay in committing ground forces in Korea in case of an emergency. Under “Operations Plan 5027,” a scenario for a war of aggression against North Korea, Washington is committed to dispatching some 690,000 troops to the...

The recent Chinese missile defense test is just one of many signs that anti-ballistic missile systems are the “must have” military fashion accessory of 2010. For China the need for such weapons is obvious: the only neighbors they have who lack a real or potential short- to medium-range missile capability are Laos, Burma, and perhaps Mongolia. All of their other neighbors, especially Russia, North Korea. and India, have been building up their rocket forces at a rapid rate. For both Europe and China, any effective BMD requires space-based early warning sensors similar to the US Defense Support Program satellites based...