Free Republic

LAKE MARY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 News) - Thursday, Governor Crist vetoed the controversial teacher merit pay bill, breaking with conservative ranks. Then the head of the Republican U.S. Senate Re-election Committee issued a warning to Crist telling him his career is over if he tries to run outside the GOP. Dr. Foglesong said, "A person I know in the Charlie Crist campaign has told me Charlie Crist would veto the merit pay bill, and he did. Further, he said he would announce tomorrow, that's Friday, that he would run as an independent."

I recently did some posts noting a developing split in the Democratic party ranks -- a split likely to be greatly accentuated if, as expected, President Barack Obama announces hefty troop increases for a surge-but-we-won't-call-it-that in Afghanistan. But there signs of cracks in the GOP's wall as well -- and here's one of them: Little Green Footballs, long considered one of the conservative mega-sites in terms of its big readership, has a post "Why I Parted Ways With The Right." It's in the form of a list which you can read in full here....

MSNBC's David Shuster said he wanted to "vomit" after the conclusion of Donald Trump's announcement that Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean, will keep her title. Shuster said the decision represents "everything that is wrong with the superficial nature" of pageants. "Donald Trump seemed to be saying lying is okay," he added.

Treasury Department Can Help Fight Global Warming, Says Paulson Tuesday, January 13, 2009 By Josiah Ryan, Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Treasury and other finance ministries around the world should play a major role in fixing climate change, outgoing Bush administration Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Monday at an event sponsored by the environmental group Resources For the Future. The discussion was titled, "How Markets Can Help Address Climate Change and Other Major Environmental Problems." Paulson, who once served as chairman of the Nature Conservancy and co-chair of the environmental group Asia-Pacific Council, has long been involved in fighting...

On Tuesday, I launch Big Hollywood, a big group blog that will feature hundreds of the big minds from the fields of politics, journalism, entertainment and culture. Big Hollywood is not a “celebrity” gabfest or a gossip outpost - it is a continuous politics and culture posting board for those who think something has gone drastically wrong and that Hollywood should return to its patriotic roots. Big Hollywood’s modest objective: to change the entertainment industry. To make Hollywood something we can believe in - again. In order to give millions of Americans hope. Until conservatives, libertarians and Republicans - who...

FIGHTING WORDS Barack to Reality Obama's victory didn't magically eliminate America's problems and enemies. By Christopher Hitchens Posted Monday, Nov. 10, 2008, at 11:30 AM ET Yes, yes, yes. I, too, took pleasure in standing in line and in exchanging pleasantries and greetings with the amazingly courteous staff at my polling station and the many citizens of my delightfully diverse Washington neighborhood. I, too, am still wearing my lapel sticker, with the jaunty words "I Voted." And I found it pretty easy to cast a vote that told the Republican Party, for which I recommended a vote last time, not...

Living in the DC area, Chris Matthews has surely been stuck in traffic more than once behind someone sporting the classic NRA bumper sticker: "If Guns Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Guns." Was Chris was listening too intently to NPR to consider the the truth of that pithy aphorism? You might think so, considering his anti-gun rant that seemed to assume that criminals, rather than law-abiding citizens, will obey restrictions on gun ownership. On this evening's Hardball, riffing off Mitt Romney's Second Amendment defense during last night's GOP debate, Chris took aim at National Review's Deroy Murdock, a Giuliani...

It seems flabbergastingly improbable that President George W. Bush learned of the National Intelligence Estimate concerning Iranian nuclear ambitions only a few days before the rest of us did, but the haplessness of his demeanor suggested that he might, in fact, have been telling the truth. After all, had the administration known for any appreciable length of time that the mullahs had hit the pause button on their program in late 2003, it would have been in a position to make a claim that is quite probably true, namely, that our overthrow of Saddam Hussein had impressed the Iranians in...

But being in the closet uniquely assisted me in politics. From my first run for the state legislature until my election as governor, all too often I was not leading but following my best guess at public opinion. Politics was for me a way to secure the crowd's approbation while maintaining a busyness that obfuscated the desires of my heart. Despite being a moderately liberal governor, my stance on marriage was: "between a man and a woman." The position, in my mind, created a tension with the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community that affirmed my bona fides as a "straight." Only after the...

Say what you will about Christopher Hitchens—his views on Israel, most exhaustively rendered in a book he co-authored with the late Edward Said, leave much to be desired—but he is the most eloquent and passionate opponent of Islamic jihadism writing today. He is also a passionate critic of all forms of religious hucksterism, and offers the most concise and devastating rebuke of Al Sharpton in the current issue of Vanity Fair: “A man who proves every day that you can get away with anything in this country if you shove the word ‘Reverend’ in front of your name.” Anyone who...

"U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) and his wife Elizabeth appear on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" with host Jay Leno (R) during a taping of the show at NBC Studios in Burbank, California, June 25. 2007."

Prominently featured on John Edwards' presidential campaign Web site is a video of conservative commentator Ann Coulter insulting him. And with just a mouse click you can hear the invective and get a chance to donate at the same time. On Friday, Coulter, a writer and columnist known for provocative remarks, told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington: "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I -- so kind of...

When Martha Freeman moved back into the home of her estranged husband in February 2005, she didn't return home alone. Instead, she secretly brought Rafael Rocha-Perez, her lover and the man who would ultimately kill her husband with her assistance, a Nashville prosecutor said in the pair's murder trial Tuesday. "The evidence will show you she had Mr. Perez there secluded away in another bedroom," Davidson County prosecutor Katy Miller told jurors in her opening statement. "It took two people to orchestrate this, and it will be clearly shown that those two people were Martha Freeman and Mr. Rocha-Perez." Miller...

Whispers about John Travolta’s sexuality that have blown through Hollywood for years are getting louder now that the actor was caught kissing another man here in Canada. In photographs published in the newest issue of the National Enquirer, Travolta is seen planting a kiss on the lips of an unidentified man on the steps of his private plane at an airport in Hamilton, Ontario. Travolta, 52, has been flying his Boeing 707 in and out of Hamilton as production gets underway in Toronto on the remake of Hairspray, in which he plays Edna Turnblad. The tabloid noted that Travolta, whose...

SUPERSTAR Tom Cruise has joined the ranks of the unemployed. The Hollywood studio that bankrolls his films is not backing any more Cruise movies until he agrees to a significant paycut. The 44-year-old actor is eager to get back to work to put behind him disappointments such as Mission Impossible: III, but last week his 13-year deal with the Paramount studio was allowed to lapse. Executives say Cruise faces a “financial adjustment and reality check” before he can continue his illustrious career. Cruise fans fears that, unless the hardworking actor learns some humility, an illustrious career which has matured from...

The nation’s oldest and most fabled secret society, the Freemasons, is going public after more than two centuries, and some of its more traditionalist members are shaking in their sheepskins. Faced with a dwindling membership, the society — whose past members include 28 of the 40 signers of the Constitution — decided to relax admission standards. “It’s an insult to the people who are in it,” Jerry Czin, a Mason for 30 years, said. “I don’t believe in going down to a lower denominator.” “You want to set standards,” Mr. Czin said. “I don’t even like the fact that every...

Gay-rights opponent Santorum stands by outed aide BY STEVE GOLDSTEIN Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The senior spokesman for Sen. Rick Santorum, R- Pa., Friday confirmed to a web log that he is gay. According to PageOneQ, an online gay and lesbian publication, director of communications Robert L. Traynham, said that he was an "out gay man who completely supports the senator." Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate leadership has been an outspoken opponent of homosexual rights and a leading proponent of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Santorum, who was traveling in Pittsburgh, released the following...

I'll keep this short and simple. After six years of membership on FR I've decided to resign from the forum today. I'll keep checking my freepmail for a few days and wind down my posts here, so if any of you wish to contact me please do so there and I will provide you with a means to do so. I hope to continue future posting activities elsewhere - perhaps a blog - but only time will tell. It's truly been a blast and left me with many fond memories, but all good things had to come to an end....

Ahoy, mateys, Rosie O'Donnell's going full steam ahead--her cruise line for gay and lesbian families has launched on its maiden voyage. The first cruise of R Family Vacations, a new company backed by the comic and gay-rights advocate, set sail Sunday from New York for a seven-day cruise to the Bahamas. O'Donnell was on hand in Manhattan Sunday to celebrate the first of several gay family friendly vacations planned by R Family Vacations. According to the R Family Website, the cruise is a seven-day adventure that will take its 2,100 passengers from New York to Florida to the Bahamas and...