Free Republic

“Every crisis presents an opportunity.” Sure, it’s one of the oldest clichés in the book. But clichés don’t find their way into “the book” without invoking some elemental, common sense wisdom. Of course, since such wisdom is generally anathema to our elected officials’ way of thinking, expecting them to behave any differently during the current economic malaise than they have in previous downturns is probably wishful thinking. In a nutshell, here’s the predicament government budget writers are facing – the property taxes that provide their main source of revenue are plummeting alongside national home prices, which suffered a record dip...

Sadly enough, this is what life looks like here in grim old Thule: "State environmental protection officials plan to forbid all new development of large shopping centers located outside established retail districts within Norway's cities and towns. The goal is to discourage driving...

As millions of Americans are adjusting their lives and their pocketbooks to the new reality of exploding gas prices, our elected representatives continue toiling endlessly on our behalf. A house subcommittee last week voted down a GOP led measure that would allow the U.S. to open up off shore areas for oil exploration. "The United States can't drill its way out of this problem", our servants endlessy intoned, as they effectively denied Americans the app. 86 billion barrels of oil that lie off our coasts. Oh well, they're the experts. And after all, based on the latest Rasmussen poll only...

Nation's largest utility will be focus as U.S. House committee takes closer look at industry. By Claudia Grisales AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, June 14, 2008 The Pedernales Electric Cooperative will face questions from Congress this month as the U.S. House of Representatives' main investigative committee takes up the controversy that has embroiled the country's largest member-owned utility for the past year. The Oversight and Government Reform Committee plans a June 26 hearing in Washington focused primarily on Pedernales. The chairman of the committee is U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who Time magazine once dubbed the "scariest guy in Washington," partly for...

Here's a great presentation. Every one of the idiots we keep electing to Congress should be forced to watch it at least three times ... then maybe they would get the message. (The end is the best part.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPch2k63uj4

Another typically illuminating interview from The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, this one with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. HERE and HERE. Lots of good stuff in there, but I particularly liked the conversation about Sen. Barack Obama's stated willingness to meet unconditionally with dictators of rogue nations hostile to the U.S. One excerpt: MCCAIN: Senator Obama likes to refer to President Kennedy going to Vienna. Most historians see that as a serious mistake, which encouraged Khrushchev to build the Berlin Wall and to send missiles to Cuba. Another example is Richard Nixon going to China. I’ve forgotten how many visits Henry Kissinger...

Fraud: "deceit, trickery or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage." The HBO movie "Recount" tells the story from the Democratic Party point of view that the 2000 presidential election was improperly won by George W. Bush because of the trickery of his fellow Republicans and the Supreme Court. That has been shown to be untrue by no less a source than the reliably liberal and pro-Democratic New York Times, but facts rarely influence propaganda. Here's a better example of fraud straight from the donkey's mouth that you can bet will never be...

The Boy Scouts of America's Philadelphia chapter has sued the City of Philadelphia in federal court to block the city's May 31 deadline for the scouts to open membership to gays and atheists, or vacate their historic 1928 headquarters off Logan Square. The civil rights lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Center City, contends that the city's ultimatum violates the scouts' rights under the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions. "The City has imposed an unconstitutional condition upon Cradle of Liberty's receipt of a benefit that Cradle of Liberty has enjoyed for nearly eight decades, and that many other organizations that...

Current Issue : Feature Stories POLITICOS TURNED PROFESSORS by Jamal Watson May 15, 2008, Former politicians are turning down lucrative job offers elsewhere to teach students who are interested in, but sometimes cynical about, the political process. While John F. Street, a former two-term Philadelphia mayor, chose to teach at Temple University because of his longstanding relationship with the school, he says he is impressed with the institution’s commitment to the community. Not long after John F. Street had closed one chapter in a long career as a powerful force in Philadelphia politics, he embarked on another chapter. This time,...

The Perils of the Ivy League by Burt Prelutsky Ivy certainly looks nice, but you wouldn’t want to stroll through it. Here in Southern California, it’s common knowledge that most of our rodents hang out in the stuff. If bubonic plague ever breaks out in L.A., the source will be found lurking in the shrubbery. What has me dwelling on ivy is my recent realization that much of what I don’t like about American politics—namely, American politicians—can be traced back to Ivy League schools. It can’t just be a coincidence that four or five universities keep spitting out presidential candidates...

Politicians appear to be on a whistle-stop tour of infidelity. It's the McGreevey-Dann-Spitzer show — and then some. Infidelity is big theater these days, providing both spectacle and cautionary tale to eager onlookers and press alike. Adultery and its attendant behaviors have created a popular culture and cottage industry all their own, driving political strategy, press coverage and — on rare occasions — a few positive outcomes. America is along for the ride — and ready to hear more about the greater implications of infidelity. "We love it. It confirms our worst fears about politicians and confirms our suspicions," talk...

There is currently a pervasive feeling in this country that says, “We the People have no right to demand high standards from our political leaders.” I think we do! These are the people to whom we will entrust the welfare of our country, the future of our children and our freedom. I think that morals and integrity not only count but that they are everything. I don't think they are out of reach. These standards are the baseline from which we have a right to expect our leaders to make their decisions regarding the complex issues of our world. Our...

Little-Known But Exploited Loophole Allows Politicians To Drive, Maintain Expensive Cars, SUVs On Taxpayer Money. Rep. Charles Rangel: 'My Constituents Appreciate It'. You may not realize it, but members of the House of Representatives can lease a car and have it paid for by you -- the taxpayer. And it's not just the car, but gas, registration, insurance … the works. And as CBS 2 HD found out, there's no limit on how much they can spend. Congressman Charles Rangel was recently seen getting out of his Cadillac DeVille, which he leases for $774 per month.... Congressman Gregory Meeks was...

High gas prices can prompt political hysteria in the best of times, but when they soar during an election year, the fumes rising from candidate stump speeches can make a person sick. Of the three candidates and the president they're out to replace, only one is telling the truth about oil -- and he may suffer for his political courage. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) unveiled his nonsensical solution to $4-a-gallon gasoline two weeks ago when he proposed suspending the federal excise tax on gas during the peak-travel summer months. Not to be outdone on the pandering front -- and no...

BEING A LIBERAL politician in America is more difficult than being a conservative politician for one simple reason. To get elected, liberals have to hide their contempt for so many core American values. When Sen. Barack Obama explained to wealthy San Francisco donors that those small-town yokels in Pennsylvania "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigration sentiment or anti-trade sentiment," he expressed a fundamental left-wing belief about non-urban America: It's stupid and reactionary. Sophisticated urbanites respond to economic hardship rationally, Obama was suggesting. But those unenlightened small-town folk, their...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Lawmakers from California to Kentucky are trying to save money with a drastic and potentially dangerous budget-cutting proposal: releasing tens of thousands of convicts from prison, including drug addicts, thieves and even violent criminals. Officials acknowledge that the idea carries risks, but they say they have no choice because of huge budget gaps brought on by the slumping economy. <[>"If we don't find a way to better manage the population at the state prison, we will be forced to spend money to expand the state's prison system — money we don't have," said Jeff Neal, a...

NEWS RELEASE Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms 12500 N.E. Tenth Place Bellevue, WA  98005 PRISON RELEASE IDEA ‘AN OUTRAGE,’ SAYS CCRKBA; ADVISES CITIZENS TO ARM THEMSELVES For Immediate Release: April 4, 2008 BELLEVUE, WA – Reports that state lawmakers are considering the release of thousands of prison inmates across the country to save money amount to a public outrage, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. The Associated Press reported Friday morning that legislators in several states are considering the move to prop up state budgets. One report...

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases. A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959. B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive. C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet. E. A billion dollars...

One of society’s largest problems is that decisions on all matters, be it education, health, national security or any other issue, are no longer rooted in pure logic with a regard for what’s best for society. No longer do we analyze what’s best overall and then seek to implement sound solutions. Indeed, people who try to are often derided for doing so. To be sure, those on the wrong side of any issue often quote facts to support their agendas, but only those facts that suit its side. Contrary to what they may claim, such practice is not logic; it’s...

New Orleans Morial v. Smith & Wesson, Corp., 2000 WL248364 (La. Civil Dist. Ct. 2000) January 2008 – Roy Rodney, lawyer and advisor to former Mayor Marc Morial, pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of failure to file income tax returns. September 2007 – Jacques Morial, younger brother of former Mayor Marc Morial, pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges of failing to file federal income tax returns Restaurateur and Morial pal Stan "Pampy" Barré and former city property management director Kerry DeCay, received federal indictments for allegedly skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars from a massive energy-management contract with...

WASHINGTON - The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East resigned Tuesday amid speculation about a rift over U.S. policy in Iran. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that Adm. William J. Fallon, whose area of responsibility includes Iraq, had asked for permission to retire and that Gates agreed. Gates said the decision, effective March 31, was entirely Fallon's and that Gates believed it was "the right thing to do." Fallon was the subject of an article published last week in Esquire magazine that portrayed him as opposed to President Bush's Iran policy. It described Fallon as a lone voice...

TEXAS CITY — A massive superhighway that Texans have protested at public hearings statewide drew heated opposition among Galveston County residents, who said they feared the toll road would cripple the local shipping industry and do nothing to improve insufficient hurricane evacuation routes. The Trans-Texas Corridor would wind from Laredo to Corpus Christi, wrap around the western edge of Greater Houston, parallel Interstate 59 through East Texas and leave the state in Texarkana. But residents at a public hearing Thursday night in Texas City questioned the real purpose for the road, which would also be part of a national Interstate...

NACOGDOCHES — The rows of extra chairs brought into the The Fredonia's biggest meeting room Thursday night were not enough to accommodate more than 750 people who attended an open house and public hearing on the proposed TTC-69 highway. Texas Department of Transportation officials heard hours of public testimony that continued late into the night overwhelmingly opposed to the construction of new roadways through East Texas. Applause throughout the hours-long meeting never swelled as loudly as it did when the first speaker of the night, state Rep. Wayne Christian, told TxDOT representatives emphatically that "our answer is 'no' on the...

Ever wonder why California legislators - who are all but guaranteed re-election once elected - continue to raise mountains of campaign cash? Well, they need the money for swank hotels and casinos, fine wines, posh golf courses, trips to Hawaii - even jet-ski rentals. You know, the staples of "public service." According to the San Francisco Chronicle, California legislators spent nearly $700,000 in campaign funds within the past three years on junkets and luxuries. Special interests paid the bill so our politicians, their families and their staffers could have a grand old time without paying a penny. According to the...

Ann Coulter wasn't invited to CPAC this year but she's still giving a speech 50 yards away. The speech is only open to 500 attendees but you can watch it live here -- courtesy of uStream. (VIDEO)

TUSCALOOSA, ALA. -- Mike Huckabee has changed his mind and will sign an Alabama senator’s immigration pledge for presidential candidates - an effort to defeat the McCain-Kennedy proposal in the U.S. Senate. In Birmingham last week, Huckabee said he was almost ready to sign the pledge put forth by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., but was on the fence regarding one of its aspects. "Which one?" a reporter asked. Huckabee said it had to do with the 13th point of the 15-point pledge, one to “eliminate the visa lottery program and change current preference categories that guarantee automatic entry for aging...

As the candidates have shown us in the succulent telenovela that is the 2008 presidential race, there are many ways to parry for political power. You can go tough and steely in an orange hunter’s jacket, or touchy-feely with a Kleenex packet. You can ally yourself with an alpha male like Chuck Norris, befriend an alpha female like Oprah Winfrey or split the difference and campaign with your mother. You can seek the measured endorsement of the town elders or the restless energy of the young, showily handle strange infants or furtively slam your opponents. Just as there are myriad...

Dozens of friends and family gathered in Manhattan Wednesday to honor New York National Guard soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan - but not one politician showed up. The soldiers of the legendary Manhattan-based Fighting 69th rushed to Ground Zero on 9/11 to help secure the area and search for survivors. They guarded one of the most dangerous roads in Iraq in 2004. Now about 350 soldiers will head to Afghanistan for a year to help train local police. While not every politician was invited to the Hunter College ceremony - one of nine across the state - the lack of...

U.S. Senate Turns Back On Border Fence By: Joe Murray, The Bulletin 01/02/2008 In a quiet act of defiance, the Senate approved a $555 billion omnibus spending bill that removed legal requirements mandating the federal government fund 854 miles of a double layer border fence spanning America's southwestern border. Advertisement The funding requirement was codified into law when Congress passed, and President George W. Bush signed, the Secure Fence Act (SFA) in 2006. When the spending bill, which combines appropriations for a number of federal agencies, reached the Senate, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) attached S.Amdt. 2466 to the measure...

You say you won't vote for a candidate who isn't trustworthy? I say you're lying to yourself. Several years ago, I wrote a story for GQ magazine in which I admitted that there were certain public figures I disliked because I could not stand looking at their faces. The smirking Pat Robertson, Jimmy Carter and his paste-on grin and the perennially pouting Boston Celtics guard Danny Ainge (now the team's general manager) all fell into this category, as did the truculent scamp Pete Rose and the smarmy Paul McCartney. Despite its juvenile premise, the article had a serious subtext. It...

Even the world's most repressive regimes often have laws on the books that pretend to grant citizens certain political rights. What matters is the extent to which citizens are actually allowed to use those rights — you know, in real life. In Michigan, taxpayers are now trying to recall ten state legislators, and in the process testing how "real life" their democratic rights are. The ten targeted solons come from both parties. Prior to their fateful votes to raise taxes against their constituent wishes, taxpayer groups repeatedly warned them that a recall effort would be launched against them if they...

Washington, DC –Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2007 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes: 1. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release her official White House records. Many suspect these records contain a treasure trove of information related to her role in a number of serious Clinton-era scandals. Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed an...

We have two cats: Weasel, a grey female calico, and Orion, a male orange and white tabby. Orion is a big, lump of a cat, twenty pounds if he’s an ounce. He’s taught me a lesson for years that I finally realized today. He teaches by example. Orion showed up at the door four years ago in the fall. He was obviously a house cat, not a feral or wild one. He had no collar. We brought him water and food. He wanted to come inside, but we didn’t let him. He was obviously someone else’s cat; we shouldn’t prevent...

Half of Swedes think their politicians have low moral standards, a new survey indicates. Journalists and company executives also have a bad reputation. In the survey, conducted by researchers at Gothenburg University, 48 percent of those asked said that politicians' morals were poor or very poor. Only 14 percent responded that morality among the country's elected representatives was of a high or very high level. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's Moderate Party got a lower score than when the same survey was carried out last year. The party has been dogged by a number of scandals involving politicians using black market...

Here is a place that tracks whom is give what to whom. Unfortunately this is legal money only NOT illegal or unreported money. For example there is no way to tell how much China has given to Clinton for example. There is a place to sign up and contribute to this. http://www.maplight.org Enjoy!!

High winds and bureaucratic wrangling kept much needed firefighting aircraft on the ground this week, but whom to blame seemed murkier Thursday than the skies above Southern California. Some legislators accused federal fire officials and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of making a slow-footed response followed by fast dancing and photo ops. Schwarzenegger called the criticism "a bunch of nonsense." But one federal legislator was poised to call for congressional hearings. "We'll wait until the smoke clears until I start raising hell," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach. "We need to put people under oath to find out whether a lack of...

The Chicago City Council voted 50-0 to enact an ordinance banning the distribution of “newspapers, periodicals and directories of any kind on any public way or other public place or on the premise of private property in the city in such a manner that it is reasonably foreseeable that such distribution will cause litter.” The City justified the measure as necessary to reduce litter and rejected criticism that it amounts to censorship. “This is not censorship,” insisted John Zenger, spokesman for the mayor’s office. “Legitimate organizations will still be able to sell their papers in the usual manner. We’re after...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The specter of a hypothetical US military strike on Iran is emerging as a dominant foreign policy theme in a 2008 White House race already haunted by the war in Iraq. The campaign trail is hardly the place for diplomatic nuance and candidates are facing questions they might rather avoid, about how they might deal with the Islamic Republic should nuclear diplomacy fail. The issue has opened a new line of attack for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards, who hope to cut her opinion poll lead by convincing voters she lacks judgment....

"The Nobel Committee's recognition of Vice President Gore shines a bright light on the most inconvenient truth of all -- the selection of George Bush as president has endangered the peace and prosperity of the entire planet," said presidential candidate, former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.). “America can make amends in 2008 by electing me because I will appoint Mr. Gore World Environmental Czar.” Presidential contender Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) applauded Al Gore for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. "I am glad to see that Al’s post-political career has been so successful,” Clinton said. “He has taken the moral high ground,...

..."What people do on their boats, it's like Vegas," Rep. David Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., told the New York Times. Ackerman lives at the yacht club on his houseboat, the Unsinkable-II. The Unsinkable-I sank. At the Gangplank Marina next door, Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and James Traficant, D-Ohio, have both moved from their spots on the water to federal prison cells in bribery cases. In addition to pocketing envelopes of illicit cash, Traficant was found to be "using congressional staff to scrape barnacles off his boat, an activity he described as a male-bonding experience," the Times reported. And crook-bonding. "Protected by...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 4, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A Catholic bishop who made national headlines yesterday with comments saying he would deny communion to pro-abortion Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has gone further. Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis says the nation's Catholic bishops should establish guidelines for a national policy.Burke expressed his views in an essay that appeared in Periodica De Re Canonica, published by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.The Catholic leader says parish priests should ensure that everyone takes communion in a worthy manner, with no one taking it if they have publicly stood against the...

  Home | Previous Page | Source URL: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/sep/07092403.html LifeSiteNews.com Monday September 24, 2007 Priest Blasts 'Usual Suspects' For Votes Against Pro-Life Policy FRONT ROYAL, VA, September 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International, (HLI) today blasted a gang of 16 Catholic senators for their votes on an amendment to HR 2764 to overturn the Mexico City Policy instituted by President Reagan to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from funding overseas abortions. "For the most part it's the usual suspects who claim to be Catholic while their consistent pro-abortion votes amount to...

Why do some politicians vote contrary to the moral teachings of their professed religious faith? (related article) Faith has no place in politics Pressure from special-interest groups They only care about their name being associated with a faith Power and money trump faith Other Who cares? I voted for the other person

WASHINGTON - Question: If government and business leaders do their part to lower the cost of health insurance, should people be required to sign up? Republican Mitt Romney used to answer yes. Now he says no. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton says yes, but this time promises no new bureaucracies. The way these and other 2008 presidential candidates answer the "individual mandate" question says as much about their characters, their strategies and the tricky politics of health care reform as it does about the actual policies. "Individual mandate" is the jargon politicians use to describe health care plans that assume every...

Ms Rabbit wanted to know what "hyperbole" meant. (She thought it was pronounced "hyper-bowl".

Here is how I have viewed politics the past couple decades: Politicians and their political parties cannot legally dip directly into the federal treasury to extract money to fund their campaigns and pay the hefty salaries of their campaign staff members, consultants, strategists, speech writers, poll takers, plus travel expenses, phones, mail, office supplies, signs, bumper stickers, campaign buttons, and whatever else strikes their fancy. There is an alternative legal means the politicians employ. They must first find a way of getting treasury money out of government and into the hands of special interests that will share a small portion...

White House press secretary Tony Snow, during his last day on the job today, lamented the state of modern political discourse and said President Bush is right about immigration and that his defeated plan will one day be the law. "It's almost like watching a child misbehave in kindergarten," Mr. Snow said of blogs, pundits and politicians who are "chasing novelty." Mr. Snow, speaking to a group of about 20 reporters over breakfast at a hotel one block from the White House, criticized Democrats for not denouncing a newspaper ad this week, run by liberal group MoveOn.org, which called Gen....

The problem is that too many politicians have access to classified data, and too many of them cannot resist the temptation to use that stuff for political gain. Too many are leaking too much and getting lots of people killed.

Three young people died in Newark, the latest casualties in illegal aliens' war on America. But don't expect even this bloody outrage to end the complacency of the political elite -- or the mainstream media -- as the alien invasion turns our streets into a slaughter house. On August 13, The New York Times, America's newspaper of wretched, covered the Newark murders in its usual, agenda-driven, fashion. In "After Killings, Sense of Unity Surprises Newark," the Times reported, "Political rivals have promised to work together, young men in gangs have signed pledges to put down their weapons, and a mayor...

Faithful Bishop Who Denies Communion to Pro-Abortion Politicians Appointed to EWTN's Diocese By Elizabeth O'BrienBIRMINGHAM, August 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Rome recently appointed Bishop Robert J. Baker, known for his faithfulness, and especially his courage in officially denying communion to Catholic, pro-abortion politicians, to the Alabama diocese that is home to the world's largest Catholic television and radio network.Pope Benedict XVI chose the 63-year old bishop to head the Birmingham diocese where the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the international television network that was founded by Mother Angelica, is based. Baker has a strong connection with EWTN already, having appeared...