Free Republic

February may be our shortest month, but it’s filled with notable events. This month, we celebrate Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year and Washington’s Birthday. We also commemorate President’s Day as well as every lover’s favorite, Valentine’s Day. February has also been reserved as Black History Month. After doing just a little digging, I was struck by the significant role the Republican Party played in not only emancipating slaves in the antebellum South, but also in accepting and elevating them into American society. I was also amazed by how often the Democratic Party thwarted the GOP’s efforts.

And we're the ones, the old-fashioned conservatives, we want to deny people a good time, we want to deny people fun, we want to deny people all these things in life. So we have yet another example of life in America under the thumb of an ever-expanding state with central planning, otherwise known as "well-intentioned liberalism." From violating religious rights where there is no power permitted to do so, to mandating the purchase of products, to now mandating insurance companies sell certain products at a price that's also mandated, from czars, to denying the right to travel, it's all here....

In 1831, Henry Clay formed a new political party. He called it the Whig Party. His goal was to ensure Jeffersonian democracy and fight President Andrew Jackson, a Democrat. Over the course of the next 20 years, the Whig Party achieved several presidential victories. But as slavery assumed more and more national importance in the political debate, the Whig Party began to shatter. Southern Whigs were slave owners; Northern Whigs were industrial gurus who hated slavery. In 1849, the Illinois Whig leader, one Abraham Lincoln, quit politics completely in frustration with the party's inability to come together. With the Compromise...

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie appeared on Meet the Press today to do damage control for Mitt Romney and to explain why Newt Gingrich would not be an ideal Republican nominee despite his strong victory in South Carolina last night. He claimed that Gingrich’s past actions have embarrassed the Republican party, and Mitt Romney was more suited to be the nominee because of his record and how he conducted himself in office as opposed to Gingrich. David Gregory asked Christie to explain what about Newt Gingrich’s politics or his character disqualified him from being the Republican nominee against President Obama....

In an interview today on CNN’s John King, USA, chairman of the Tea Party Express Amy Kremer spoke with CNN anchor and chief national correspondent John King about the Tea Party’s influence in the 2012 GOP presidential race. "Well, I will tell you that Tea Party Express, we will be endorsing by South Carolina. And I believe that South Carolina is going to be a game-changer and going into Florida." Please credit all usage of the interview to CNN’s John King, USA Highlight from Full Interview THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL...

Under fire for allegedly hosting a secret Halloween theme party featuring movie star Johnny Depp at the White House in 2009, President Obama's spokesman punched back, calling reports about the party "irresponsible" and denying that the White House tried to hide the event from the public. "There are outlets that have reported this as a secret party, which is just silly -- it's irresponsible reporting to suggest that you would have a pool report and the press at an event that's secret" White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said today during the press briefing, adding that photos of Johnny Depp...

It was the tea party the Obamas just couldn’t resist. A White House “Alice in Wonderland” costume ball — put on by Johnny Depp and Hollywood director Tim Burton — proved to be a Mad-as-a-Hatter idea that was never made public for fear of a political backlash during hard economic times, according to a new tell-all. “The Obamas,” by New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor, tells of the first Halloween party the first couple feted at the White House in 2009. It was so over the top that “Star Wars” creator George Lucas sent the original Chewbacca to mingle with...

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Minnesota Republicans elected political consultant Pat Shortridge as their new state chair Saturday as the party deals with debts that could total $2 million. Shortridge, a former top aide to former U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, defeated businessman Todd McIntyre and Terry McCall, the party's 2nd District chairman, at a meeting of the party's State Central Committee in St. Cloud. Shortridge won on the first ballot, with 66.5 percent of the vote. McCall received 30 percent and McIntyre 3 percent. "It's about reinvigorating and galvanizing our activists . to restore their confidence in what we're doing," Shortridge told the...

Yet for folks like Bill Evelyn, a founder of the State of Georgia Tea Party, the revolution has only begun. Having learned lessons from the past two years – including the necessity of vetting big-office candidates and trying to channel endorsements to avoid splitting tickets – the loosely organized tea party movement has thrown its anchor in the muddy trenches of local politics, reviving the GOP's moribund precinct nomination system, grooming candidates from the ground up, and setting into motion an audacious ground game patterned in part on the Democrat playbook of door-to-door canvasing and kitchen-table convincing.

(Reuters) - A co-founder of the conservative Tea Party Patriots group was arrested at a New York airport on Thursday for gun possession, authorities said. Mark Meckler, 49, was charged with..............

At tonight's Hanukkah party at the White House, President Obama seemed to slip a little off script when he told party goers that "we never need an excuse for a good party." All his guests laughed. From the official White House transcript: So while it is not yet Hanukkah, let’s give thanks for our blessings, for being together to celebrate this wonderful holiday season. And we never need an excuse for a good party. (Laughter.)

You may recall a few weeks back when the Richmond, VA Tea Party, angered that the Occupy Richmond protestors did not have to pay fees or incur other costs for use of the same city park that the Tea Party members shelled out $8500 to use for their rally, sent an invoice to the city government demanding a refund. Now, in retaliation, the city has informed the group that they are to be audited.

Remember a few weeks back when a Tea Party group in Virginia made a fuss about fees they paid the city for meeting space? Their argument, with which I agree, was that it was unfair for them to be charged thousands of dollars in fees when the city of Richmond was allowing occupiers to use public land without permits: It’s not fair, the City of Richmond’s picking and choosing whose first amendment rights trump someone else’s first amendment rights and we thought – well that’s fine, then they can refund our money. If that’s how they’re going to run the...

Spanish voters on Sunday are expected to dismiss the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and usher in the conservative People's Party (PP) and its leader, Mariano Rajoy. Mr. Zapatero’s Socialist party (PSOE), which has been in power for eight years, has borne the brunt of public blame for Spain’s increasingly perilous economic situation, which has tainted the party’s leadership candidate, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. Meanwhile, Mr. Rajoy has been coasting toward an expected landslide victory without saying much about how he plans to reverse Spain’s economic course... The situation is bleak for the eurozone’s fourth-largest...

As partisans on the left and right try to co-opt and compare the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements, both sides ignore that they aren’t really that different at all. Both, in fact, hew to the same conventions as all mass movements. And as the 2012 presidential candidates — including President Obama — attempt to form their positions on each one, they’d all be wise to put them in perspective. In Eric Hoffer’s seminal 1951 work, “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements,” the similarity is drawn with startling clarity. The work of a self-educated gold...

Link only - Occupy Wall Street's Planning A Big Party At Mayor Bloomberg's House On Sunday

I am an American Black Conservative (ABC). Since April 15, 2009 I have spoken at over 30 citizens’ movement events, which have included Tea Party rallies, prosperity conferences and other conservative gatherings. At those events I have yet to find the racists and extremists that the liberals continue to say exist. In fact, I and my message of “Take Back Our Government” have been enthusiastically received. Not to be boastful, but to illustrate my point, last Saturday at the Virginia Tea Party convention of over 2,300 attendees, I received no less than five standing ovations during my 20-minute keynote address....

OKLAHOMA CITY – So, how excited were the good, conservative folks at the Jim Thorpe Sports Hall of Fame Museum when Republican Mitt Romney arrived there Friday morning for a fundraising event? They weren't really. There was polite applause and a "Wow, it's the GOP presidential frontrunner - in the buckle of the Red State Bible Belt! Gee whiz!" reaction. Yeah, there was some "enthusiasm, but it was more subdued than you would have guessed.This reporter came in expecting throngs. Perhaps a lot of them were "busy" or didn't have the spare $20.12 for a ticket. Regardless, Mitt Romney was...

"I hope you can see the logic of this idea, please understand that we must avoid being used by the elites to simply revitalize their parties."

A uniform goal, no binding party alignment and no focus is lost from the main causes below. Focus on moving the conversation forward and bring in the 99 percent into the fold.

This is an exciting time! Thousands of mainly young people have been occupying Wall Street for three weeks already, and the “Occupy Movement” has spread to more than 200 other cities. On Oct. 6 the actions spread to our nation’s capital. The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) will hold a national teleconference to discuss it: Arturo Cambron The Communist Party and the Occupy L.A. Movement Tuesday, October 11, 8 pm Eastern Teleconference number: 605-475-4850 (please note this is the corrected number. ignore previous.) Access code: 1053538# A big challenge for the CPUSA and left, progressive movements is to link these demonstrations...

LABOR may have finally bounced off rock bottom but Australia's oldest political party and its leader are still facing a historic loss of public confidence and electoral failure. A three-point rise in the Newspoll primary vote for the ALP has avoided the unthinkable for the Gillard government of going to 25 per cent or below to have less support than the combined vote for the Greens and various odds and sods, but the broader view of this survey of public opinion about Labor - as well as the personal standing of Julia Gillard - is devastating. The electorate has not...

New photographs obtained exclusively by BigGovernment.com reveal that Barack Obama appeared and marched with members of the New Black Panther Party as he campaigned for president in Selma, Alabama in March 2007. The photographs, captured from a Flickr photo-sharing account before it was scrubbed, are the latest evidence of the mainstream media’s failure to examine Obama’s extremist ties and radical roots.

Out of the hundreds of out-of-work employees, vendors, investors and other creditors in the bankruptcy of government-backed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, one name stands out: the California Democratic Party. Why California Democrats would be creditor to a company that received more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans to build a solar-panel plant isn’t clear. Even party officials say they’re not sure. The California Democratic Party’s communications director, Tenoch Flores, said the organization was not owed “any funds in any form” by the California-based company. He said he was unclear why the party would be listed as a creditor in...

Rep. Bert Jones, a Reidsville lawmaker who ran in 2010 as an unaffiliated candidate, is now officially a Republican, according to the State Board of Elections database. "Welcome," said Jordan Shaw, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis. "He's been an invaluable freshmen member of the House." Jones, a Dentist and former county commissioner, ousted incumbent Democrat Nelson Cole in 2010. As an unaffiliated candidate, he had to collect signatures to get on the ballot and would have had to follow the same procedure in 2012 if he wanted to run as an unaffiliated member again. By registering as...

Rep. Bert Jones, a Reidsville lawmaker who ran in 2010 as an unaffiliated candidate, is now officially a Republican, according to the State Board of Elections database. "Welcome," said Jordan Shaw, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis. "He's been an invaluable freshmen member of the House." Jones, a Dentist and former county commissioner, ousted incumbent Democrat Nelson Cole in 2010. As an unaffiliated candidate, he had to collect signatures to get on the ballot and would have had to follow the same procedure in 2012 if he wanted to run as an unaffiliated member again. By registering as...

A battle over Social Security launched last week between the top two GOP presidential contenders doesn't show any signs of quieting down as candidates prepare for round two at the first-ever CNN/Tea Party Republican Debate on Monday night. The debate, which will take place at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, will also give the six other candidates on the stage a chance to change what many are portraying as a two-person race between Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. It all started Wednesday night at a debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley,...

It appeared that the event's organizers, a new group called Tea Party of America founded by Ken Crow, had provoked an unnecessary controversy by a last-minute decision to add former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell to the rally schedule. Someone unearthed a quote from event organizer Crow saying of Palin's presidential prospects: "I know for a fact she ain't gonna run." The quote prompted Dave Weigel of Slate to exclaim: "That's the guy bringing Palin to Iowa for an event that reporters are attending because they wonder whether Palin will run!" Palin supporters wondered why Crow was publicly expressing such...

A Republican member of the House Tea Party Caucus on Wednesday countered recent inflammatory remarks by members of the Congressional Black Caucus against the Tea Party. "I'm a TEA Party caucus member and have spoken at two tea party rallies. I am also NOT a racist. Maxine & Andre - get a grip," Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) tweeted. Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) both directed harsh remarks at the Tea Party movement last week. Carson accused the Tea Party members in Congress of wanting to see blacks "hanging from a tree." Waters said at an event...

Yesterday, on the front page of Redstate.com, Erick Erickson lashed out and wrote a blog smearing Jamie Radtke with completely false attacks by publishing libelous pejoratives in hopes of damaging her reputation. Erickson wrote his column in response to a report on another blog that he had told Radtke, “My bosses are HUGE [George] Allen friends, not just fans. They are socially connected. So I’m having to tread carefully in this.” Erickson, after confirming that he had made the statement, wrote a vicious blog that defamed Jamie’s character. “Erick’s blog goes beyond the pale,” Radtke stated. “He crossed the line...

The Obamas' summer break in Martha's Vineyard has already been branded a PR disaster after the couple arrived four hours apart on separate government jets. But according to new reports, this is the least of their extravagances. White House sources today claimed that the First Lady has spent $10million of U.S. taxpayers' money on vacations alone in the past year. Branding her 'disgusting' and 'a vacation junkie', they say the 47-year-old mother-of-two has been indulging in five-star hotels, where she splashes out on expensive massages and alcohol. The 'top source' told the National Enquirer: 'It's disgusting. Michelle is taking advantage...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The newly established Jewish Tea Party of New York will hold its first official event Wednesday, a Staten Island Stands With Israel event co-hosted by the Staten Island Tea Party. "It is time for Americans to stand and proclaim their support of the only true democracy in the Middle East," said group founder Ilya Galak, editor of Citizens Magazine, a publication that caters to the borough's burgeoning immigrant Russian population. The event will be held at 7 p.m. at the Staaten, West Brighton. Said Galak: "Israel is a staunch ally of the United States in a...

Fresh off three days of barnstorming in the Midwest, President Obama will spend the morning at the White House in two closed-door meetings, first with his senior economic advisors in the Oval Office then with his national security team in the Situation Room. In the afternoon, Obama heads to the island oasis of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, where he’s expected to spend the next 10 days vacationing with his family.

PEOSTA, Iowa — A day after clashing with a tea party activist, President Obama Tuesday told crowds here that it was "a faction in Congress" that was to blame for blocking economic progress. At a rural jobs forum, Mr. Obama ticked off a list of pending bills that he said would create jobs. "The only thing that's preventing us from passing the bills I just mentioned is the refusal of a faction in Congress to put country ahead of party," the president said in a thinly veiled reference to House Republicans backed by the tea party. "That has to stop."

Tea party activists confronted Barack Obama in Decorah, Iowa tonight during one of his stops on his Magical Mysery Tour. The tea party activists asked Obama about Joe Biden’s comments that tea partiers were “terrorists.” Obama refused to answer the question.

Tea Party members are primarily “freaked out white men” who pose the greatest political threat to Democrats in 2012, according to banking analyst Meredith Whitney. Speaking in the broader context of a discussion on CNBC regarding the Standard & Poor’s downgrade of US debt, Whitney said the dissenters represent the type of problems that have led to the current predicament in Washington. “Call it Tea Party, whatever you will, the fringe element is I characterize (as) freaked-out white men who are unemployed and have been unemployed for three years and they’re scared to death,” she said. “Three to four million...

Ohio University, set in an Appalachian town known for its rowdy Halloween bashes, has been named the nation's No. 1 party school, pushing the University of Georgia down a slot in the 2011 Princeton Review survey released Monday. Rounding out the top five are No. 3 University of Mississippi, No. 4 University of Iowa and No. 5 University of California Santa Barbara. This year's student survey found that, overall, California does not know how to party. UC Santa Barbara was the only school in California to make the top 20 list. The Princeton Review survey is part of its 2012...

The percentage of Americans who expressly state that they are supporters of the Tea Party movement is currently about as large at 22 percent of the population as the 21 percent who say they are liberals, according to recent but separate Gallup polls. Meanwhile, at 41 percent of the population, according to Gallup, self-described conservatives outnumber both Tea Party movement supporters and liberals by nearly 2-to-1. In separate polls done on July 27 and August 2, 23 and 22 percent of respondents told Gallup they considered themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement. These polls (each of which was conducted...

The Communist Party USA is amping up its rhetoric as it prepares to confront the “Tea Party” and the GOP in the coming months. Ohio Communist Party leader Rick Nagin sets the tone in today’s Peoples World: The best thing that can be said about the distasteful debt ceiling deal is that it is behind us and hopefully the real challenges and issues facing the American people can now be frankly addressed. The AFL-CIO leadership, which met with President Obama the day after the agreement was reached, correctly said the deal ignores and undermines the nation’s ability to confront the...

In a discussion with Meet the Press host David Gregory and Tom Brokaw on Monday's NBC Today about the debt ceiling deal, co-host Ann Curry contemptuously wondered: "...do you think that members of the Tea Party Caucus know how to govern or are they – do they understand that standing up for a cause is not the same as governing?" [Audio available here]Interestingly, Brokaw rejected Curry's argument: "Well, I don't think that you can separate the two. The fact is that they were elected to pursue the goals that they took before their constituents and

Angle has now released a response, which, among much else, reminds McCain that in the end the Hobbits actually won the day and saved the world. The former Nevada GOP senate nominee called herself a "TEA Party Hobbit."

Liberals worry embrace of McConnell proposal could harm Dem PartyBy Mike Lillis - 07/15/11 12:35 PM ET Some liberal House Democrats on Friday voiced concerns that their leadership is embracing Kentucky GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell's debt-ceiling proposal to the detriment of the party. The Democrats fear that McConnell’s plan — which would empower President Obama to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally in three steps over the next 17 months — would focus all the public blame for enacting an unpopular policy onto Obama and the Democrats, while the Republicans walk away unscathed. “McConnell is a very clever guy,” Rep. Peter...

BUDAPEST — A leader of Egypt’s top secular party says the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were “made in the USA,” the Holocaust is “a lie” and Anne Frank’s memoir is “a fake” — comments sure to roil the post-revolution political debate in the Arab world’s most populous country. Ahmed Ezz El-Arab, a vice chairman of Egypt's Wafd Party, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with The Washington Times last week while in the Hungarian capital attending the Conference on Democracy and Human Rights. He denied that the Nazis killed 6 million Jews during World War II.

Bashing Michele Bachmann is not a new sport among pundits, which I pointed out after she formally announced her presidential bid. But the heightened interest in the Minnesota congresswoman has inspired some particularly harsh and strongly worded rhetoric. Matt Taibbi especially goes off in a recent Rolling Stone article: ... But that's not what this post is about. I promised readers in last week's Bachmann post, which rounded up negative opinions about the "tea party" candidate, that I'd present a counterargument. And I am here to deliver. The problem is that the positive opinions I found come either with a...

Video of my remarks at the Independence Day, 2011 Monmouth TEA Party rally. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB92pT2fMDA

Earlier today, a grand jury convicted former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, on 17 of 20 counts of corruption. 11 of of the guilty verdicts related to attempts to profit from the "sale" of the U.S. Senate seat Barack Obama vacated when he became president. At USA Today's On Deadline blog (as of its 5:33 p.m. update), Michael Winter failed to identify Blagojevich or any other politician involved as a Democrat. Neither did the video found at Winter's article. This is not surprising, because the video came from the "see no evil Democrat" Associated Press.

JULIA Gillard admits Australia is a long way from consensus on climate change - and says the debate may become ever tougher for Labor - as new polling reveals her behind Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister for the first time. ..... Ms Gillard said today the polling was a result of her plan to put a price on carbon, and that while it was a tough reform "it may get even tougher, before it gets easier". “I believe that once carbon pricing is in place people will see how the system works and the benefits of it,” the Prime...

Sarah Palin 7,692 21% Herman Cain 7,681 21% Michelle Bachmann 5,143 14% Ron Paul 5,106 14% Mitt Romney 3,441 10% Gary Johnson 1,979 6% John Huntsman 1,828 5% Rick Santorum 1,605 4% Others 5%

In May, 45% of Americans identified as Democrats or said they were independent but leaned Democratic, compared with 39% who identified as Republicans or leaned Republican. The six-percentage-point Democratic advantage represents a slight increase from the four-point advantage Gallup measured in April, which matches the 2011 average to date. These results are based on more than 30,000 interviews conducted in May as part of Gallup Daily tracking. Though the changes in party affiliation are small on an absolute basis, they are meaningful because of the large number of interviews in each month's sample. Longer term, the current six-point Democratic edge...

Some 1,500 people showed up outside the house of a Hamburg girl celebrating her 16th birthday on Friday, after she posted an invite on social networking site Facebook but mistakenly listed the party as a public event. "Unfortunately, she forgot to mark the celebration as private," police spokesman Mirko Streiber told news agency DPA. The girl, named as Thessa, cancelled the party after 15,000 people RSVP'd to her "sweet sixteen" birthday bash via Facebook. Police broke up the party at 1:55 am on Saturday morning. More than 100 officers were at the scene. Six revelers were arrested on suspicion of...