Free Republic

John McCain isn’t Ronald Reagan, which is the principal reason I don’t like the guy. He also may be a tad too old to begin the job as POTUS. As with family, I feel free to mention that and not be accused of age-ism since he’s not much older than I am. In addition, McCain had that “Keating Five” stink of twenty years ago in which he was a very minor player, along with four Democrats who played much larger roles in the Lincoln Savings and Loan mess which cost taxpayers $2,000,000,000. For a review of that scandal and McCain’s...

During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. She inherited a city with zero debt, but, despite the increase in taxes,left it with indebtedness of over $22 million... And as governor...Palin proposed a $750 million oil tax increase (bad enough). But it came out of the legislature at over $1.5 billion. According to Alaskan Andrew Halcro, "she signed it saying she thought it was close enough."...

Q: How does information from state and local levels flow to and between the federal agencies? A: The whole system is flawed. The relationship between FDA and CDC is strained; it’s improved but still lacking. It’s not clear who is really in charge. Authority is split up in a way that decisions get bogged down and you don’t have anyone in command. You need that to effectively launch and oversee an outbreak investigation. I’m not sure who’s in charge. We have people identified as being in charge. We need someone that understands outbreaks, not just manages them. In this case,...

Here’s a quick joke for you all… Mahtin goes to pick up his date for the evening. She’s not ready yet, so he has to sit in the living room with her parents. He has a bad case of gas and really needs to relieve some pressure. Luckily, the family dog jumps up on the couch next to him. He decides that he can let a little fart out and if anyone notices they will think that the dog did it. He farts, and the woman yells, “Shep, get down from there.” The guy thinks..(con't @http://boknowsonline.com/2008/03/08/fahtin-mahtin/)

3. The Ground Force One Imagine being able to drive your own one-off supercar, made specifically to your specifications? Bullet-proof everything, quad-turbos, V16s, vertical doors, anything you can dream of, our government will make it for you. Hell, you can even leverage the technology of the military and build your own streetable M-48 armored assault vehicle. One of a kind perks like this are a must to attract the best leaders in the world. 4. Starbucks, Chipotle Inside the White House The job of President of the World is a rough gig, especially considering you can no longer sit down...

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. The Bush Administration, its neoconservative allies, its congressional supporters, and the acquiescent mainstream media need to take this week as an opportunity for critical self-examination. It is time for them to face the fact that they have a problem, an addiction to this war. Here are just a few of the signs and examples: Defensiveness, temper tantrums, resentful behavior – i.e. the labeling of those who oppose the war as defeatists, unpatriotic, “blame America first” types, or saying that they don’t “support the troops” Unexplained moodiness or irritability – i.e....

You cannot have it both ways! Every year in America, this “both ways” mentality gets worse and worse. Somewhere along the line Americans started thinking that we could have all of our rights and freedoms and have expedient justice and results at the same time. Well, I have to tell you: YOU CANNOT. There is a blend of the two that must be championed if we are going to continue being a successful country. The mortgage crisis of late is one of the great disasters caused by this “have it both ways” mentality. The government was constantly pressured by citizens...

Perhaps the most reviled figure in American history is Senator Joseph McCarthy. "McCarthyism" has become the term of choice for false, destructive accusations. Yet a new book shows that Senator McCarthy was right in his allegations. Blacklisted By History: The Untold Story of Senator Joseph McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies by M. Stanton Evans, chairman of the Education and Research Institute, shows that McCarthy was right about there being significant communist infiltration in government, his investigative methods were careful, thorough and of the highest standard, and his adversaries were the ones who practiced so-called "McCarthyism." It is McCarthy,...

Excerpt: TALK OF HILLARY EXIT ENGULFS CAMPAIGNS Mon Jan 07 2008 09:46:28 ET Facing a double-digit defeat in New Hampshire, a sudden collapse in national polls and an expected fund-raising drought, Senator Hillary Clinton is preparing for a tough decision: Does she get out of the race? And when?!Source Drudge Report

Former Senator Fred Thompson is the only real conservative in the race for the Republican nomination, and the only candidate who can unite all three pillars of the Republican Party, namely, fiscal conservatives; national security and defense conservatives; and religious conservatives. The Republican party, given that the nation is divided, cannot afford to alienate any of these pillars, or they will lose in the general election, as a sufficient number of the alienated pillar’s constituents will simply not cast a vote for president when they vote. This is not an attempt to intimidate Republican voters, but merely a recognition that...

Democrat leadership It is amazing that today’s Democrats are thought to have credibility in the war on terror after the last two Democratic Presidents. The Carter presidency was a failure and has caused catastrophic loss of life and de-stabilized the Midddle East. The corruption of Bill Clinton and his administration armed the enemies of America for nothing more than illegal campaign cash. America’s enemies will use the missile, satellite, and nuclear hardware and technology against the our population, government, intelligence agencies, and our soldiers on the battlefield. These two Democratic Presidents have a grave history together. America will pay the...

South Pasadena, California 10/20/2007 - A California “undercover investigator” identifying himself to this reporter as "Agent Egan" entered the Fremont Center Theatre at 8:00 PM curtain time tonight and halted the performance of Pulitzer Prize and National Medal of Arts author Ray Bradbury’s play Dandelion Wine. Bradbury was in attendance awaiting the start of the performance with a theatre full of celebrity guests including The Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner.

This Week...Jesse Jackson is a Racist Pig Oh'Lawdy, pick a bale'a cotton... Oh'Lawdy... livin' in the past  Nope... sorry, not buying it. You will never get me to believe that the great Martin Luther King Jr. would be in Jena, Louisiana, hand in hand with his people, marching in the name of beating the crap out of some innocent white kid. Because if he truly was the man of honor that I've been taught he was, by the media and the Leftist, Teacher Union run government school system... if he really did stand for non-violence, peace and justice... for...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue announced a national boycott of Miller Beer on this morning’s “Fox and Friends.” He explains why today: “Apparently, Miller has decided to side with a small band of depraved and bigoted gays against Catholics (25 percent of the population) and Protestants (60 percent of the nation). This is an ethical and marketing fiasco of colossal proportions. I will announce within the next day exactly what our game plan will be. The collision course that Miller wants with Christians is now on.”

Mr. Meangenes stopped by this morning, and we commenced to jawin' 'bout politics.

Never mind the Democrats. They’ve long been a lost cause. Do Capitol Hill Republicans understand why we are in Iraq? And do they understand that the objective there is not to leave? A September 14 report by Time magazine’s Massimo Calabresi (not related, although I could do worse than to name a kid Massimo) indicates that they view the conflict through the usual prism of domestic politics. And that is not good. Mr. Calabresi’s predictably unnamed sources were upset that President Bush decided to address the nation in prime time on Thursday. Bush used the address to endorse the recommendations...

Only two ways for the U.S. to end the war according to Bin Laden on this sixth anniversary of 9/11 In Osama Bin Laden’s latest video in which he takes full credit for the 9/11 devastation that 19 Islamists dealt to America, bin Laden claims that there are only two ways to end the war and neither way is under the control of General Petraeus, President Bush or the Democrats and Liberals.

What is the best way for terrorists to wreak havoc in the United States? That was the question posed, and answered, yesterday on the New York Times website by Steven D. Levitt, the University of Chicago professor of economics and author of the best-selling book, Freakonomics. Levitt’s advice to al Qaeda, based upon the economic principle of generating the greatest quantity of harm with the least possible input of resources, would be to learn from the Washington D.C snipers of 2002. He suggests arming "20 terrorists with rifles and cars, and arrang[ing] to have them begin shooting randomly at pre-set...

Here at StrikeBackUSA.com we are all for freedom of speech, But we are also cognizant of the fact that freedom is not free. The parasitic marxists that make up the liberal left have been getting a “free” ride for far too long. The “free” ride of which I speak has been paid for by you and I. Whether it be blood or treasure the liberal parasites contribute next to nothing of their own. Communism i.e. liberalism only works (to the extant that it does) by leeching off of the productive members of society. That is why it can never last...

This crap head continues to dig himself deeper every time he opens his big dumb mouth. The TB infected lawyer who ignored medical advice, and refused to go into isolation when ordered to do so, is now saying that he was tricked into going into quarantine.

According to Senator Jim Inhofe, his colleagues are serious about shutting down talk radio, leaving all the talking to those with a federal stamp of approval.

If Bush were a patriot, he would end the third-world invasion of the U.S. He would secure the U.S.-Mexico border with troops, and build a fence across the entire U.S.-Mexico border. If Bush were a patriot, he would support attrition, not amnesty, and he would oppose any guest-worker scheme or path to citizenship for illegals. If Bush were a patriot, he would end all legal immigration from the third world, which big business is using to drive down American wages. If Bush were a patriot, he’d stop telling lies like “jobs Americans won’t do.” If Bush were a patriot, he...

I apologize if this thread is does not belong here. I am currently looking for 2 or 3 people to contribute to my blog, http://www.constitutionallyright.com. Although it has only been online for 6 months, I currently have a google PR of 4, and average about 80 unique hits a day. However with the summer coming, I will be away alot and unable to post everyday. If you are interested in contributing please contact me through my blog, or email me at csignorile at gmail.com, include a link to your blog if you have one. I will add a link to...

U.S. states have been experiencing budget surpluses, mainly because of higher than expected tax collections, The New York Times reported. Lawmakers in more than 40 states have been using the surplus funds for tax cuts and infrastructure repairs, and setting aside extra funds for rainy day emergencies, the newspaper said Monday.

In the storm of life we struggle through myriads of stimuli of pressure, stress, and muti-problems that seek for a solution and answer. We are so suppressed by the routine of this every life style that most of us seem helpless. However, if we look closely to ancient techniques we shall discover the magnificent way to understand and realize the ones around us and mostly ourselves. If only we could stop for a moment and allow this to happen… Let me bow to Indian Maharishi Patanjali with folded hands who helped in removing the impurities of the mind through his...

I and few others have started a new blog, "Heading Right".... [URL=http://headingright.com/]Heading Right[/URL] Notables (I'm not included, because I'm not notable) include: Captains Quarters Fausta's Blog Atlas Shrugged bRight and Early etc... (full blogroll available at the site) Although the blog has been up for a week or so, we'll be kicking things off in style on debate night, May 3rd. We'll be doing a live blog session during the debate. Followed by a round-table 'after action' show on [URL=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/default.aspx]Blog Talk Radio[/URL] following the debate. Current contributors for the after action show are: Ed Morrissey: Captain's Quarters Kit Jarrel: Euphoric...

The MSM is still destroying the White House, the Bush administration and the War on Terror. Today, the Washington Post claims that a memo from the Department of State denies any ties with Saddam and Al-Quaeda. Since 9/11, the CIA is constantly denying every ties between terrorism and Iraq, even when the Iraqi governement claims these evidences are overhelming, like the VP Cheney admitted in 2004 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5233810) and like the deputy prime minister of Iraq repeated after the Senate lies in last september. Even Bin Laden's mentor himself admitted : http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/710goolj.asp?pg=2 Now it is clear that liberals will deny every...

The party of family values currently has a leading candidate with a collection of photos in drag. Maybe a psychiatrist will be able to tap into the side of Giuliani that enjoys that fantasy when he is in the White House. 

A white-collar crime wave is raking Chicago's poorest communities, robbing vulnerable families of their homes and draining billions of dollars from the U.S. economy. During the last five years, as home loans became easier than ever to get and identity theft blossomed, mortgage fraud surged. FBI officials say it now threatens to become a national financial epidemic. Gang members call it "the new street hustle." "If you are still making money selling drugs, you are an informant or about to be busted. Mortgage fraud is the thing to do now," said convicted identity thief Christopher Scott in a prison interview....

The August 3, 1995 edition of the Wall Street Journal carried an interview with former North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin, a member of the North Vietnamese general staff and the man who received the surrender of South Vietnam’s President Duong Van Minh on April 30, 1975. The interview was conducted by Stephen Young, a Minnesota human rights activist. Colonel Tin described the military and political events of the war from his vantage point in Hanoi. What he described was the step-by-step defeat of US forces, not on the battlefield, but in the White House, in the Halls of Congress, in...

A mortgage broker recently left a message on Jennifer Richardson's home answering machine suggesting it was time to refinance again. This time, she didn't call back. Since she bought her one-level ranch in Lewiston six years ago for $73,000, she has refinanced five times and has incurred $58,000 in fees and penalties. She said she now understands that brokers sometimes give people advice that is not in their best interest. "I have been misled and taken advantage of," said Richardson, 36, who works seasonally at L.L. Bean and also as a substitute teacher. "They know it. It's almost like they...

Folks, with all the hoopla surrounding the issue of global warming and the overwhelming, undeniable scientific proof that will soon be coming, dissident voices are being raised. One comes from an unexpected quarter. Australian Cardinal George Pell is one of them. In a recent column, he wrote:We have been subjected to a lot of nonsense about climate disasters as some zealots have been painting extreme scenarios to frighten us. They claim ocean levels are about to rise spectacularly, that there could be the occasional tsunami as high as an eight story building, the Amazon basin could be destroyed as the...

Willard Mitt Romney today announced his candidacy for the office of President in his home state of Michigan. The former Massachusetts Governor was born and raised in the state of Michigan where his father was a Detroit auto executive, three-term Governor, and a 1968 GOP Presidential candidate. FoF is supporting Governor Romney’s campaign for the White House based on his long and shining record of accomplishments in the private, and public sectors.

With rates on many homeowners' adjustable-rate mortgages rising, some who would like to refinance into a new loan are finding they can't. In some cases, that is because their loan carries a prepayment penalty, which would force them to come up with thousands of dollars if they refinance in the first few years. Such penalties are common with so-called option adjustable-rate mortgages, which typically carry a low teaser rate that rises sharply after an introductory period. * * * The challenges are greatest for homeowners whose credit has declined since they took out their last loan and for those who...

The media can and will ignore one point of view in favor of another (while downplaying the less favorable), because they can. Because they disagree. I’m here to tell you, though, that Al Gore’s contributions to society and world peace or no less important than Limbaugh’s. That’s not to say Rush should win, more than Al Gore shouldn’t. But I’m not on the committee, and (God willing) never will be. So, like Henry Kissinger, Mikhail Gorbachev and Jimmy Carter, Al Gore may well win the Nobel Prize. And Limbaugh, like Gandhi and Pope John XXIII, will not.

Today at 7 AM James Baker gave a preview of his Iraq study group report to President Bush. Afterwards the study he will be releasing his report to the general public. It has been widely speculated that the report will blame Israel for the war and for any tension in the Middle East. When I wrote this last night, I was on a plane from my Nashville home to Washington DC. As I looked for a copy of the in-flight magazine in the pouch in front of me, there under an old coffee cup that smelled like whiskey, I found...

Former Washington Huskies football player Scott Greenlaw led the mortgage company he founded to dizzying heights — 400 employees, a sprawling new headquarters and kegs of beer at staff meetings. Now he's selling his house to avoid bankruptcy as creditors line up with lawsuits. Merit Financial was barely shut this spring before founder Scott Greenlaw and his top executives opened new mortgage businesses. But vowing to put the past behind them has turned out to be not so easy. The sudden demise in May of one of Washington's largest mortgage brokerages has left a trail of angry ex-employees, expensive lawsuits,...

My old car works like a freelance writer; it only works when it wants to. The old engine also has a tendency of falling sleep at stop signs, which it just did. But I am used to this, so with the help of a kind gentleman I manage to push the car into a parking lot. It’s a small office of a fortuneteller. The fortuneteller is very nice; she allows me to use her phone and I call my friend for a ride. She even offers me a tarot card reading only for five bucks. While she is fixing her...

By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom November 12, 2006 We are now told by multiple sources inside Vietnam that Mrs. Cuc Foshee will be granted clemency by the Government of Vietnam and will be headed for her home in Orlando, Florida, in the United States today. Mrs. Thuong Nguyen “Cuc” Foshee was arrested and sent to jail without charges in Vietnam on September 8, 2005. An American citizen, Mrs. Foshee married a U.S. soldier and came to the United States in 1973. Just in the last two weeks she was charged and went to trial. She was convicted of...

It's Friday... ...so it's time for a good laugh, especially after this last depressing election cycle.

The real estate market continues to go bust as I had predicted in my first major article on the subject in December of 2005. As it continues to rapidly barrel south, don’t tell the Bush Administration, the Federal Reserve, International Bankers, Mortgage Bankers, Mortgage Brokers, Realtors, home builders or even home sellers. Let’s keep it our little secret. Still, none of them want to hear anything about it. They are, the majority of them, extremely myopic to the truth and material facts of what is really going on in the American economy. SEC regulators should take note if they are...

The smash sitcom Seinfeld was a TV show about nothing. Put another way, Seinfeld and his friends made a fun TV show just because they could and they loved entertaining the rest of us. I think mostly they made it because it was fun to do! Life is like that sometimes. So this is an essay mostly about nothing because I was entertained by many things today and I thought you might appreciate some of them too. In the grocery store I watched an old gentleman come in, buy a gallon of rich chocolate swirl ice cream, and head to...

This is a story about “Secondhand Lions,” (2003) a largely forgotten movie. And my Dad and Ian Fleming (circa 1959). Ian Fleming wrote the James Bond 007 stories. My Dad is nobody. Except to Ian and me he is a gigantic hero. We first meet the film’s main protagonists when they fly a biplane under a freeway overpass and set off a trooper’s radar gun. Then a long forgotten (and disrespected) female relative brings a nine year old over to dump him. One oldster says to the other: “You order a whore?” She disturbs them while they are trying to...

Thailand's interim government has set up an ambitious timetable to achieve both full restoration of democracy and public approval of a redrafted constitution within one year of the military coup that toppled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The coup, which ousted the prime minister while he was at the United Nations in September, elicited a warranted condemnation from Washington. The onus will remain on Thailand's appointed government to faithfully follow the timeline, which outlines the path back from military rule to liberal democracy. The coup arose out of a "political stalemate," claimed Ambassador Virasakdi Futrakul during a meeting with editors and...

There have been many articles lately about attempts by those on the left to silence their opponents. Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe, Peggy Noonan at the Opinion Journal and Victor Davis Hanson at Real Clear Politics, to name three such journalists, claim that the problem that exists is that liberals have been out of office for so long that they have become increasingly angry and frustrated – and that it is this anger and frustration that leads them to try to shut down or shout down any opposing viewpoints than their own. I disagree. I think the whole history...

I guess this story has to start with the fact that I am married into a very beautiful and loving Vietnamese family. East meets West is a daily occurrence for us. Most of our lives are blissfully happy but the cultural differences between us does sometimes make for awkward moments and strange situations. I have a brother in law, for example, that has not really spoken to me in four years. He grew up in rural Vietnam before the war ended in 1975. There was a saying in his village: “To marry outside the village is to marry a dog.”...

The breathtaking U.S. Air Force Memorial, on a promontory in Arlington, Virginia overlooking the troops at Arlington National Cemetery and the pentagon, was just dedicated this last weekend. Already, the Air Force Memorial has changed our landscape. This morning, in a deep fog, the tips of the three spires melted into the clouds and could not be seen. One could make out the graves of the fallen in the distance, and the shape of the pentagon, but the Washington Monument was invisible. The U.S. Air Force Memorial reflects the diversity of Our Nation and our Air Force. It seems strikingly...

President George Bush plans to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference November 17-19 in Vietnam. We applaud this effort by the president to make this historic trip to help foster what we call the “Vietnam Economic Miracle.” Vietnam’s entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the granting of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) by the U.S. are virtually assured in the next month or two, or, for PNTR, sometime next year. We support the president and congratulate Vietnam on these successes in bringing the government of Vietnam into the greater world of economic cooperation and prosperity. But...

When we wrote about “Master and Commander,” we were deluged with comments and many made recommendations of other movies they’d like to discuss. So this is our second effort to connect a major motion picture of some vintage to our current times. In “The Blue Max” (1966) George Peppard plays Bruno Stachel, an ordinary soldier in World War I that strives to become an officer pilot. He finds that, despite his immense and obvious flying skill, he doesn’t always fit in with his aristocratic, class conscious and Champaign drinking squadron mates. One has the impression that Stachel was probably a...

On Saturday, October 14, 2006, the United Nation’s Security Council passed a unanimous fifteen nation resolution condemning North Korea for its nuclear test last week. The Associated Press reported that, “The vote came after the United States, Britain and France overcame last-minute differences with Russia and China.” The Security Council noted North Korea’s “flagrant disregard” of the council’s appeal not to detonate a nuclear device. “The Security Council has adopted one of the most important decisions in recent times on an issue of great concern to the international community, that of nonproliferation,” Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima said after the vote....