Free Republic

Joe the Plumber case still dripping Half-dozen agencies access records of Ohio man By Dennis J. Willard Beacon Journal staff writer Published on Friday, Nov 14, 2008 The election is over, but the Joe the Plumber case is not. Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles said his office is now looking at a half-dozen agencies that accessed state records on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. The Beacon Journal has learned that, in addition to the Department of Job and Family Services, two other state offices — the Ohio Department of Taxation and Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers — conducted database searches of Joe...

We attended a McCain rally in Sarasota, Florida on Thursday and picked up some bumper stickers. I just went to the neighborhood convenience store to get some milk, which took maybe five minutes. When I returned to my car, I noticed that my "NObama" bumper sticker read "Obama". Somebody used some kind of blade to cut off the "N" and left a deep scratch as well. And they consider the Democratic Party the party of tolerance. Is this what we are to expect from an Obama presidency? Will even the slightest, most inoffensive dissent be stifled?

Government computers used to find information on Joe the Plumber Investigators trying to determine whether access was illegal Friday, October 24, 2008 8:41 PM By Randy Ludlow The Columbus Dispatch "State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber." Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack Obama. The 34-year-old from the Toledo suburb of Holland is held out by McCain as an...

--SNIP--Obama knows Middle America harbors deep suspicions of him.....he has jettisoned position after position to make himself acceptable. His "flip-flops" testify most convincingly to the fact that Obama knows that where he comes from is far outside the American mainstream. For what are flip-flops other than concessions that a position is untenable and must be abandoned? Thus, though he is the nominee of a party in thrall to the environmental movement, Obama has signaled conditional support for offshore drilling and pumping out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. While holding to his pledge for a pullout of combat brigades from Iraq...

With all the fiery rhetoric coming from the Obama campaign about the nastiness of McCain supporters you might imagine that Obama supporters are just the nicest people in the whole wide world. But you would be wrong. As it turns out, the Obama supporters actually have a history of taking violent action and potentially life endangering actions against McCain supporters. I wonder what John Lewis things of that? Pair arrested after large McCain sign torched in Sellwood yard Authorities have arrested two men after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a 4-foot by 8-foot campaign sign for Republican presidential candidate...

From Hillary Clinton Forum Yesterday, 09:44 PM Maddie Kaddison New Member = <100 Posts Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 99 Poster Rank: #454 Obama's supporters scare me. Here is a comment I just read from this story (the story that Dean Reynolds of CBS wrote about Obama's "stinky" plane etc): Quote: I support Obama, but I disagree on some major issues. One is that we need to use major authoritarian measures against wingnuts and theocrats to save this country. That in particular includes deprogramming institutions and a Gitmo like camp to deal with the worst wingnuts. These people should be...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In the face of an economy in crisis and a deeply unpopular president, some analysts believe the situation is ripe to give Democrats a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate in November. Analysts say Democrats may control the Senate after the November election. Analysts say Democrats may control the Senate after the November election. It's "the perfect storm," said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report.

"Joyce McGautha, superintendent of the Urban Community Leadership Academy, a charter school for students in fifth through ninth grades in Kansas City, Mo., said that the video was probably taken last May during the Junior Fraternity's morning meeting at the school." It turns out the superindendent of the now viral video of Obama Youth is an Obama Supporter. http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=Mcgautha&fname=Joyce

Ministers are considering spending up to £12 billion on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain. GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, has already been given up to £1 billion to finance the first stage of the project. Hundreds of clandestine probes will be installed to monitor customers live on two of the country’s biggest internet and mobile phone providers - thought to be BT and Vodafone. BT has nearly 5m internet customers. Ministers are braced for a backlash similar to the one caused by their ID cards programme. Dominic...

{...}SOME PEOPLE MAY BE OFFENDED BY THE FIRST FEW IMAGES IN THIS VIDEO. PLEASE GET PAST THOSE IMAGES WITH WHICH YOU DISAGREE OR FIND OFFENSIVE. DON'T MISS THE LARGER POINT! THE CONCEPT IS INDOCTRINATION. THE CONCEPT IS IDENTICAL WHETHER YOU AGREE WITH EVERY IMAGE OR POLITICAL IDEOLOGY IN THIS VIDEO OR NOT.

Obama Kid's Sing for Dear Leader....WOW!!!

We have to mark this down in the "this is news?" category, but the Washington Post has decided that it would be newsworthy to report on some guy who has already painted a "President Obama" painting to hang in the White House upon coronation... er, I mean election. No, seriously. This really is news! Heck, why else would they report this if it wasn't real news? Do ya think they're in the tank er something? As if. So, here is the heartwarming story of a propagandist with a lose brush painting what is supposed to pass for "art," a wunnerful...

Reader Ron e-mails that the Obama campaign has issued a decree banning all signs at a rally today at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. It is a public campus on public property.The local newspaper, the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star is up in arms: NOT ALL COUNTRIES guarantee their citizens the right to virtually unbridled freedom of speech. The United States does. Would someone please tell the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama? And the dozing guardians of liberty at the University of Mary Washington?Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, is scheduled to speak at a rally at the...

Children have been banned from reading their football results in local newspapers because it makes them too competitive. Football Association laws dictate that from this season, the results of matches between children aged seven and eight must not be published, league tables must not be kept and prizes must not be given out. Some local associations have chosen to extend the regulations even further, it has emerged, banning league tables and trophies for 9, 10 and 11-year olds as well. Scott Ager, who last season managed Priory Parkside under-9s 'A' team in Huntingdon, was sharply reprimanded after declaring that his...

In her first post-nomination interview, Governor Sarah Palin was confronted by ABC's Charlie Gibson with the following question: "You said recently, in your old church, 'Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from G-d.' Are we fighting a holy war?" The record after this is a little confusing because ABC has edited the video and their transcripts several times, before and after it first aired. ..... Some commentators have noted that Gibson's question and quote were "out of context," but they do not point out the obvious intellectual dishonesty at play. In all likelihood most...

During this US election cycle we are hearing a lot from the pundits and candidates about "heartland voters," and "white working class voters." What they are talking about are rednecks. But in their political correctness, media types cannot bring themselves to utter the word "redneck." So I'll say it for them: redneck-redneck-redneck-redneck.

Liberal without even Trying From the times of the Great Depression through the 1950’s, some people were known as those who were just “passing through” town. During that time, one could pass through a town anonymously. Those days are gone. With fingerprint, information, a certifiable form of identification, a social security number, a speck of DNA or a face recognition photograph authorities have the ability to know everything there is to know about an individual. That individual had better have their legal ducks in a row before passing anywhere. This is but a tiny fragment of an example of those...

Our formerly industrial cities are in desperate need of fresh blood. We aren't having enough babies, and the counter culture spawned in the 1950s and 60s and the music most associated with it is coughing its lungs up... in Spanish retirement villas, old folks homes, indie blogs, dad-rock mags and other urine-reeking bolt-holes where the living dead gather to conspire against the young... Meanwhile, the developing world is bursting at the seams with babies, toddlers and teenagers, many of whom would love to come to the West but can't because of bizarre racist immigration policies and the absurd and morally...

‘Imagine if every child in the country channelled their Pester Power in service of the Glorious Green Future.’ So says James Russell in his recent book How to Turn Your Parents Green. And he’s far from alone in his musings. npower, a large British electriciy supplier, have also been evisaging a world in which kids, renamed Climate Cops, are instructed to ferret out ‘climate crimes’ in their homes, schools and cities and report them to the authorities, that is, in Russell’s words, to ‘nag, pester, bug, torment and punish the people who are merrily wrecking [their] world’, fining ‘transgressors’ for...

I remember back a few years seeing Free Tibet bumper stickers on progressive Saabs and hippie VWs. Tibet is still in China's clutches, Russia is busy slapping around it's former vassal states, but the world is focused on the supposed crimes of George Bush. I can understand the argument that we never should have invaded Iraq, although I think that point is now moot. I can also understand those who think war is wrong and who insist that might doesn't make right. What I can't understand is those on the left who criminalize the Iraq invasion but see nothing wrong...

July 31, 2008 Where in the World is Obama's Missing Thesis? Ed Lasky Barack Obama wrote his senior thesis at Columbia University on Soviet nuclear disarmament. Inquiring people have sought a copy of this thesis to no avail. Columbia says it cannot be found; Barack Obama says he lost it. How likely is that a person so impressed with himself that he writes an autobiography just a few years later would "lose" his senior thesis? After all, a Presidential Library must be filled. And as Jim Geraghty at National Review and others have noted there are a lot of blank...

For those of you who don't keep up with the conservative blogosphere, one of the memes they've been trying to push for the past couple of weeks is this: Barack Obama may give a good prepared speech, but his dirty little secret is that he's actually an empty suit who's totally at sea without a teleprompter. Today, for example, Andy McCarthy, offers up this snippet from an Obama press conference in Jerusalem: Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way...

Bluetooth Big Brother uses mobiles and laptops to track thousands of Britons Last updated at 12:04pm on 21.07.08    Thousands of people in Bath are unaware their movements may have been tracked through their bluetooth mobiles Thousands of Britons' movements have been covertly tracked by scanners placed in streets, pubs and offices for a technology experiment.  The Cityware project run by the University of Bath has secretly placed scanners around the Somerset city, with the first 10 installed 2006. The scanners pick up bluetooth radio signals transmitted from mobile phones and laptops. In a scene reminiscent of the Will Smith...

Do not say black and white Americans live in the same world or you will feel the wrath of Whoopi Goldberg. That is what Elisabeth Hasselbeck discovered on the July 17 edition of "The View." Upon suggesting that, Whoopi reduced Elisabeth to tears. On the news of Jesse Jackson’s use of the "n" word, the conversation quickly developed into the double standard involved between a white and black person’s use of the word. Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg admitted there is a double standard, but added there should be. Sherri Shepherd said she uses the word "as a term of...

July 08, 2008, 6:00 a.m. WikipropagandaSpinning green. By Lawrence Solomon Ever wonder how Al Gore, the United Nations, and company continue to get away with their claim of a “scientific consensus� confirming their doomsday view of global warming? Look no farther than Wikipedia for a stunning example of how the global-warming propaganda machine works. As you (or your kids) probably know, Wikipedia is now the most widely used and influential reference source on the Internet and therefore in the world, with more than 50 million unique visitors a month. In theory Wikipedia is a “people’s encyclopedia� written and edited...

Do note: The question wasn’t whether the end product is biased (say, unconsciously), it was whether the media’s even trying to be objective. Answering no: 68% overall, including 56% of Democrats and 50% of liberals. Our nutroots betters assure us that the press is thoroughly right-wing, so it must be McCain whom people believe is getting a free ride, yes? Not so much: Voters have little doubt as to who is benefitting from the media coverage this year—Barack Obama. Fifty-four percent (54%) say Obama has gotten the best coverage so far. Twenty-two percent (22%) say McCain has received the most...

Obama denies a rumor and questions the question Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday batted down rumors circulating on the Internet and mentioned on some cable news shows of the existence of a video of his wife using a derogatory term for white people, and criticized a reporter for asking him about the rumor, which has not a shred of evidence to support it. “We have seen this before. There is dirt and lies that are circulated in e-mails and they pump them out long enough until finally you, a mainstream reporter, asks me about it,” Obama said to the McClatchy...

City Hall Reporter One set of rules for aldermen, one set for rest of us, he says Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue today decried the "double standard" that prompted Mayor Daley to endorse the idea of temporarily re-opening gun registration in Chicago after a request from Ald. Richard Mell (33rd). "We have retired police officers who have a right to carry concealed weapons across the country, and they're being barred from registering their weapons in Chicago. We've taken one of these cases to Circuit Court. Dick Mell has taken his case to the City Council," the union president...

Among the thousands of drivers who have been issued $40 fines after being nabbed by Montgomery County's new speed cameras are scores of county police officers. The difference is, many of the officers are refusing to pay. The officers are following the advice of their union, which says the citations are issued not to the driver but to the vehicle's owner -- in this case, the county. That view has rankled Police Chief J. Thomas Manger and County Council Member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville), who chairs the Public Safety Committee. "You can't have one set of laws for police officers and...

This needs to be widely distributed.I can't post the video clip so you will have to go the the link. It's a clip of John McCain appearing on Des Moines' WHO radio last July, when on-air talent Jan Mickelson played him Tom Harkin's comments from earlier that month, recorded on the floor of the Senate: And if we leave, there will be a bloodbath in Vietnam. All of the people who supported us will be slaughtered in the streets. Well, it didn't happen.

May 02, 2008, 0:00 a.m. We're Not in Philly AnymoreJeremiah Wright is now disowned, and Barack Obama is forever discredited. By Charles Krauthammer “I can no more disown him (Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown my white grandmother.� — Barack Obama, Philadelphia, March 18Guess it’s time to disown Granny, if Obama’s famous Philadelphia “race� speech is to be believed. Of course, the speech was not just believed. It was hailed, celebrated, canonized as the greatest pronouncement on race in America since Lincoln at Cooper Union. A New York Times columnist said it “should be required reading in classrooms across...

Pelosi Statement on President’s Announcement on Climate Change Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today ahead of President Bush’s expected announcement this afternoon of Administration efforts on climate change: “After seven years of denying the seriousness of the climate crisis and delaying tough action to save the planet, President Bush finally will discuss the subject this afternoon. With just nine months left in his term, the White House has already made clear that the President’s announcement today will not reverse his record on global warming before he leaves office. “The President should encourage the efforts of...

Cultural MarxismBy Linda Kimball There are two misconceptions held by many Americans.  The first is that communism ceased to be a threat when the Soviet Union imploded.  The second is that the New Left of the Sixties collapsed and disappeared as well.  "The Sixties are dead," wrote columnist George Will ("Slamming the Doors," Newsweek, Mar. 25, 1991) Because the New Left lacked cohesion it fell apart as a political movement.  However, its revolutionaries reorganized themselves into a multitude of single issue groups.  Thus we now have for example, radical feminists, black extremists, anti-war ‘peace' activists, animal rights groups, radical environmentalists,...

Muhammad Al-Munajid: Some of these heretics say: "Islam is not the private property of anyone." So what do they want? They say: "No sect has a monopoly on Islam." So what do they want? They say: "We want to issue rulings." Someone who is ignorant, who does not know any Arabic, or who has no knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence wants to issue rulings?! They say: "We reinterpret the texts." There is a very dangerous conspiracy against the religion of Islam in newspapers and in what these people say. A journalist, or one of those lowlifes, wants to... These people are...

ADF attorneys represent a Christian photographer being tried under state antidiscrimination laws for declining to photograph a same-sex “commitment ceremony.” “Christians shouldn’t be penalized for abiding by their beliefs. The state cannot force unwilling people to promote a message they disagree with and thereby violate their conscience,” said Lorence. “The state’s prosecution violates our client’s First Amendment rights. The government cannot make people choose between their faith and their job.” A same-sex couple asked Elaine Huguenin, co-owner with her husband of Elane Photography, to photograph a “commitment ceremony” that the two women wanted to hold. Huguenin declined because her Christian...

'Misspoke' is rapidly on it's way out the door as a fake excuse for minor hyperbole on one end of the extreme and out and out lying on the other. The archive capability of today's technology means that your past sins, real or "misspoke" are there for all the world to see. Every action, every word, every printed stated or thought is accessible as a cross reference against current ones. It shouldn't be a danger to anyone who's memory matches their actions. It's a huge danger for those whose memory about their actions are made up to suit the moment...

Remember the old cliché, “Just when you think you’ve heard it all ...”? Well, you haven’t until you’ve heard this. I honestly thought the corporations that print today’s bibles had finally exhausted all of the possible “special editions.” I mean, what else is there after the “Left Handed, Near Sighted, Dyslexic with In-grown Toenail on the Right Big Toe, Giant Print, Red Letter Study Bible”? How about the “Poverty and Justice Bible”? The former is a joke; the latter is the real deal. But, frankly, I’m not sure which one is more ridiculous. The Bible Society of the United Kingdom...

Senior police officers are increasing pressure for all British citizens to be put on a DNA database. Their call for a national debate on whether everyone should be forced to give DNA samples to the authorities follows last week's convictions of two killers identified using "genetic fingerprints" - and comes as senior Scotland Yard officials have reportedly stated that new DNA evidence "will nail" the racist killers of teenager Stephen Lawrence. Scotland Yard "is confident" that there will be a prosecution and a trial in that case, the Sunday Times has reported. DNA nabbed 'Suffolk Strangler' Steve Wright, left, and...

NBC NEWS STATEMENT REGARDING CHELSEA CLINTON COMMENT: On Thursday's "Tucker" on MSNBC, David Shuster, who was serving as guest-host of the program, made a comment about Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton campaign that was irresponsible and inappropriate. Shuster, who apologized this morning on MSNBC and will again this evening, has been suspended from appearing on all NBC News broadcasts, other than to make his apology. He has also extended an apology to the Clinton family. NBC News takes these matters seriously, and offers our sincere regrets to the Clintons for the remarks.

LONDON (Reuters) - The patio heaters warming drinkers and diners on the pavements of northern Europe are also warming the planet's climate and should be banned, according to a European Parliament report that could be adopted on Thursday. Environmentalists argue that heaters not only pump heat directly into the atmosphere but also climate-damaging CO2, while owners of pubs and bars say they need them to help retain customers driven outside by smoking bans. "Patio heaters are scandalous because they are burning fossil fuels in the open sky, so producing vast quantities of CO2 with very little heat benefit," said European...

Chances are that as you read this article, it is passing over part of AT&T's network. That matters, because last week AT&T announced that it is seriously considering plans to examine all the traffic it carries for potential violations of U.S. intellectual property laws. The prospect of AT&T, already accused of spying on our telephone calls, now scanning every e-mail and download for outlawed content is way too totalitarian for my tastes. But the bizarre twist is that the proposal is such a bad idea that it would be not just a disservice to the public but probably a disaster...

Once again the Cuba page of Wikipedia is under complete control of the left. Unfavored input has been blocked For over a month now the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba which had become far closer to reality has been turned around and now the former pro-Castro bias is being slowly restored ... It seems significant since many undergraduates take their information from Wikipedia that a general note of caution be inserted thank you for your time and attention El Jigue

During this week's Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton said putting together the right kind of stimulus package is "a part of economic justice." The remark reflected a major campaign theme for the New York senator, who has declared she would pursue "a new vision of economic fairness" as president. That slogan should set off alarm bells for anyone who recognizes that economic outcomes result from myriad individual choices. To impose her vision of economic fairness, Clinton would have to override those choices, compromising freedom in the name of equality. Clinton's aim is economic equality, not legal equality, and you really...

During this week's Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton said putting together the right kind of stimulus package is "a part of economic justice." The remark reflected a major campaign theme for the New York senator, who has declared she would pursue "a new vision of economic fairness" as president. That slogan should set off alarm bells for anyone who recognizes that economic outcomes result from myriad individual choices. To impose her vision of economic fairness, Clinton would have to override those choices, compromising freedom in the name of equality. Clinton's aim is economic equality, not legal equality, and you really...

WASHINGTON - A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks. The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses." The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said he could...

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.

The frustration of proving one's age to buy things like alcohol and tobacco does not end when you reach the appropriate legal age. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have a youthful appearance are forever burdened with having to carry a state-issued ID card to every place where we might want to buy alcohol or tobacco. Over the past few years, we've been gradually subjected to another, more intrusive ID-related hassle -- that of electronic drivers license scanning. It's one thing when a government representative scans your driver's license; it's another thing entirely when a restaurant does it,...

If a pair of Transportation Security Administration officers strolling by a Sea-Tac Airport ticket counter wish you happy holidays and ask where you're traveling, it might be more than just Christmas spirit. Travelers at Sea-Tac and dozens of other major airports across America are being scrutinized by teams of TSA behavior-detection officers specially trained to discern the subtlest suspicious behaviors. TSA officials will not reveal specific behaviors identified by the program -- called SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) -- that are considered indicators of possible terrorist intent. But a central task is to recognize microfacial expressions -- a flash...

We start the year in Britain with a challenge to our essential nature, for 2008 might turn out to be the year when we decide to rip up the Magna Carta. Among the basic civil rights in this country, there has always been, at least in theory, an inclination towards liberal democracy, which includes a tolerance of an individual's right to privacy. We are born free and have the right to decide what freedom means, each for ourselves, and to have control over our outward existence, yet that will no longer be the case if we agree to identity cards.

"And, he says, when he had a conversation with a Commission employee, mediator Bob Fagan, about the specifics of the allegation, he was astonished at what he heard. "'I told him that it seemed to be an abuse of the Human Rights Act for someone to try and use it as an instrument of censorship. And when I said that, on the phone, there was a pause and then he said, in a somewhat astonished tone: "But the Human Rights Act is about censorship." Then it was my turn to be silent on my end, because I found that breath-taking....