Free Republic

The buy-out industry is under attack for destroying jobs. Its returns to investors are the real problem IF STEVE SCHWARZMAN thought it was valid in 2010 to compare Barack Obama’s “war” against business to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, what can he be thinking now? Private-equity executives must be hoping the boss of Blackstone will keep his opinions to himself. More bad publicity is the last thing the industry needs. Other Republican presidential candidates are competing to see who can say the most damning thing about Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital. Newt Gingrich’s supporters have even made a sort of...

CHARLESTON, S.C. – A new furor rocked politically active Christians today as news leaked that the founder of Focus on the Family, Dr. James Dobson, may have cast aspersions on Callista Gingrich, wife of GOP contender Newt Gingrich, at a key moment before evangelicals voted in Texas to support Sen. Rick Santorum in the GOP presidential primary race. The effect of the disclosure on the race, especially on uncommitted Christian voters, is still unclear. The comment happened at last Saturday’s meeting of influential evangelical leaders who had gathered at the Texas ranch of Judge Paul Pressler to discuss the GOP...

John Bolton announced a few minutes ago that he has endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 election campaign. He believes Romney is the strongest conservative, who is electable. Bolton has informed himself of romney's writings and beliefs, and considers him the best conservative in the race. Greta's show repeats on Fox a 1 a.m.

One of the greatest gifts that America has given to the world is the idea that the leader of a nation should be chosen freely by its people. Well, perhaps the notion did not originate in America, but the Yanks certainly showed the world how to do it. More spectacularly and more originally, the United States pioneered the following novel concept: when the favor of the people transfers from one faction (as Madison called them) or party to another, then the defeated incumbent gracefully steps aside as his victorious opponent peacefully and lawfully takes his place as the new leader....

The Donald is at it again. After citing his possible independent presidential bid as the reason only two GOP candidates agreed to attend his Newsmax-sponsored debate, which he backed out of moderating on Tuesday, Donald Trump is continuing to stoke the rumors that he will launch a presidential bid, this time as a possible Americans Elect candidate. "Thousands of e-mails from folks urging me to seek the Americans Elect Presidential nomination," Trump tweeted from his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account Wednesday morning. Americans Elect is the first online, independent presidential nominating convention that aims to gain ballot access in all 50 states....

President Obama is a socialist and a vapid demagogue who has been educated beyond the level of his intelligence. He is the choice of a puerile and spoiled electorate who want to be taken care of and obtain handouts from a parental figurehead. I can't believe the West won the Cold War. The Cold War was a competition of economic ideologies. In the 1960s, we used to have sincere debates about which economic system was better -- a socialist, centrally-planned economy, or a capitalist, free-market economy. The debate is over. By 1990, even the Russians and Chinese were forced to...

What was it that the prophet Jeremiah said about his mission, or was said about it in the bible? Jeremiah was sent among his people to confront falsehoods; he came to challenge the corrupt powers-that-be. Jeremiah came first to "root up, and to pull down" before building and planting. So might be Herman Cain's role among the nation's African-American communities, should he secure the GOP presidential nomination and win the presidency. President Herman Cain could prove to be a terrifically creative destructive force among the nation's 38 million African-Americans. A Cain presidency would be an incalculable danger to the interests...

The US has pulled terrorism manuals referencing Islam following complaints from terror-linked advocacy groups.eputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole confirmed on Wednesday the Obama administration was recalling all training materials used by the law enforcement and national security communities, in order to eliminate all references to Islam. “I recently directed all components of the Department of Justice to re-evaluate their training efforts in a range of areas, from community outreach to national security,” Cole told a panel at the George Washington University law school. The move comes after complaints from Muslim advocacy organizations, including the Council on American Islamic Relations...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton once again quashed rumors that she's still interested in running for president, this time in an interview with NBC’s Today on Monday. “I'm really old-fashioned. I feel I have made my contribution," Clinton said. "I’m very grateful I’ve had a chance to serve, but I think it’s time for others to step up." Writing, teaching, and working on issues that affect women and girls will be in her future, Clinton assured NBC's Savannah Guthrie; that and relaxing at home. Clinton shrugged off speculation that she should run against President Obama in 2012—or that she...

Hard-Headed Idealist The man who drafted the Bill of Rights later helped Thomas Jefferson conduct a back-channel propaganda war.. Yes, George Washington was the father of our country, but who fathered its politics? Certainly not Washington, who detested the very notion of partisanship and did his best to govern as First Magistrate, above the interests of "faction." His successor, the honest but hyper-irascible John Adams, was temperamentally incapable of cold political calculation, one reason that he was so vulnerable to attack during his single presidential term. Thomas Jefferson, who cultivated an above-the-fray, nonpolitical persona, had a keen private appreciation of...

Does Mitt Romney, an elder and former missionary of the Mormon Church, believe he will one day be a god ... equal to Jesus ... ruling his own planet? Does he agree with Mormon teaching that Jesus and Satan are brothers? That America is the Promised Land where Jesus will return one day to rule from the Garden of Eden, which Mormons believe to be Jackson County, Missouri? And do American voters have the right to know this? When Barack Obama was running for president, he assured us he was a Christian. Pastor Rick Warren brought Candidate Obama to his...

A funny thing happened to Bob Dole in 1996.During his campaign for President, liberals and independents saw him as angry, scowling, humorless & scary. It was only after he had been SAFELY DEFEATED, that they noticed what a warm, wise man he (always) was. It's because they were afraid of him being President. When he was no more a "perceived threat" to them, they became willing to listen to what he had to say and found that they liked him. It's a mega-important point and the reason I bring it up is because......For the first time since her National debut...

Are we better off now then 3 years ago when Obama trash-talked the Bush economy? No. All measures are worse: Poverty, Employment, Income, Health Insurance Premiums, The Price of Gas, Home Values, Deficits, Debt ...

Is it possible that Palin is in a kind of standoff with Evita? I mean... has the abysmal performance of "O", the likelihold of his being ommitted from the next national election and Evita possibly running for the DNC nomination herself, something that has kept Palin from announcing her intentions by now?

Vladimir Putin declared on Saturday that he planned to reclaim the Russian presidency in an election next March that could open the way for the former KGB spy to rule until 2024. The announcement, greeted by a standing ovation at a congress of the prime minister's ruling United Russia party, ended months of speculation over whether he or President Dmitry Medvedev would run. The two have ruled in a power 'tandem' since Putin was forced by the constitution to yield the presidency in 2008 after serving a maximum two consecutive terms, and Putin said they had agreed several years ago...

President Barack Obama faces a litany of bad news. The president’s job approval rating, his favorability, and his rating on the economy have hit all-time lows. To compound matters, three in four Americans still believe the nation is in a recession and the proportion who thinks the country is moving in the wrong direction is at its highest point in more than a decade. President Barack Obama According to this McClatchy-Marist Poll, the president’s approval rating is at 39% among registered voters nationally, an all-time low for Mr. Obama. For the first time a majority — 52% — disapproves of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJEvxgfcOFw The conspiratorial connection that will blow your mind! ;)

This is not the time to play nice with the side who has levied on us the highest tax and debt burden in our history. This is not the time to play nice with the leaders on the other side whose agenda is not economic growth and freedom but the destruction of the very core of our capitalist system. Big government and debt are the goals of the other side. It's time to take a stand and choose sides...there is only one Republican leader with the tough talk and conservative record and ability to deliver the message and energize the...

What if Barack Obama served on the Supreme Court and Clarence Thomas were president? What if some miracle — some “Freaky Friday” Disney moment — on January 20, 2009, the two most politically powerful black men in Washington switched jobs. What then? We know what Justice Obama would have become: Another mediocre liberal drone spitting out the predictably contradictory and vapid decisions that slowly corrode our rights and undermine our nation and our society. Kagan, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, Breyer and Obama are an interchangeable lot. They want to hollow out our Constitution. But what kind of president would Clarence Thomas, a...

I'm a fan of both politics and sports. They're of interest because they have so many similarities. The competition angle is obvious, of course, but the skills, personal qualities and uniqueness of the players in both arenas of combat are what really catch the fans' attention. But I've been focusing on the careers of politicians very closely, simply because the sport of politics is the bread and butter to every one of us. Two members especially catch my eye, for at first glance they seem to have a bit in common. Congressman Allen West and President Barack Obama, when brought...

Here is a very interesting and revealing article (exerpt) about Obama's personality and how it affects his presidency. "Barack Obama is unique in American presidential history. By virtue of his biracial identity and international upbringing, Americans believed they were breaking the mold when they elected the first African American president in 2008. Yet, for all the distinctiveness of his life experiences, there is still something else that sets Obama apart in the hall of presidents - his innate, natural temperament. According to personality psychologist David Keirsey, temperament is the part of our personality that we are born with. It is...

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Rick Perry is running for president, a spokesman confirmed Thursday, a move certain to shake up the race for the GOP nomination much to the delight of conservatives looking for a candidate to embrace. Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the governor would make his intentions known on Saturday while visiting South Carolina and New Hampshire just as most of his presidential rivals compete in a test vote in Iowa. Official word of Perry’s entrance into the race came just hours before eight candidates, including GOP front-runner Mitt Romney, were to appear on stage during a...

In an Austin interview with Mark Halperin, Rick Perry says he has decided he wants to be president, talks about the advice he got from George W. Bush, and says he would compete against Barack Obama in California.

Few Americans needed Standard & Poor to confirm the mismanagement of the United States government and its finances. The downgrading of American credit will raise interest rates on America’s huge debt and ultimately on all Americans. Popular polls say that most Americans blame Congress—but that’s too simplistic. As much as Barack Obama would like to shift that blame onto Congress, the fault lies squarely on the shoulders of President. It is first and foremost a leadership problem that is crippling America—and the leader is President Barack Obama—not the many members of Congress. No matter how many speeches he makes, the...

If Barack Obama loses next November, we'll look back on Sunday -- July 31, 2011 -- as the day he became a one-termer. He demonstrated the one key quality common to all unsuccessful leaders: Haplessness. In the most confrontational partisan moment of his presidency, Obama ended up looking remarkably powerless. He didn't get his way. To put it mildly. The deal he endorsed on the debt ceiling will long be an object of debate for both right and left. There's so much for everyone to dislike in it that people are lining up to rage against it, even though it...

It's a complaint that arises every four years, then quickly fades: the disproportionate power a small number of states have over the presidential contest. California lawmakers want to do something about it - in fact, they've tried for years, but were blocked by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. So just as they did in 2006 and 2008, legislators this week approved a proposal to make California relevant. Here's how it works: California's electoral votes are awarded in a winner-take-all manner. If a presidential candidate wins the majority of popular votes in California, he or she gets all the state's 55 electoral...

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter will make a "major announcement" Saturday about whether he will run for president in next year's election, a person familiar with the plans said Thursday. McCotter's office said Thursday that the 45-year-old will be the keynote speaker Saturday at a festival in Whitmore Lake. "He's going to make a major announcement at that event," the person, who is in contact with the Livonia congressman, told The Associated Press.

...This past weekend Rick Santorum spoke at the National Right to Life Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. He received the strongest and most enthusiastic response from this crowd of men and women who have stood in the trenches in the great human rights movement of our age, the struggle to restore the Right to Life to our youngest neighbors. This is a man who is unqualifiedly and unapologetically Pro-Life. I have written several articles about Rick Santorum since the 2012 US presidential campaign began. I will write more as it unfolds. In one of those articles I bemoaned the "deafening silence"...

One of the most talked about subjects in politics is whether or not Sarah Palin will run for the presidency. It's frankly anyone's guess which direction she will go with her decision and when she will make the decision. However, if Palin doesn't run it will be a disaster for the Republican Party and quite possibly the country*snip*In watching the coverage of the announced candidates, the alarm bells should be clanging violently. *snip*If Sarah Palin doesn't run for president, the operatives in the media and Beltway establishment will have learned a fool-proof method of destroying any political opponent.*snip*When the political...

The American political and media elite have determined, for whatever reason, that the Constitution's eligibility requirements for the presidency are not important. That is the only conclusion one can draw from the misinformation, disinformation and disinterest they have shown to the serious questions swirling around not only the unique case of Barack Obama but also to the definition of "natural born citizen" in future presidential elections. It's not unprecedented that failing republics dumb down eligibility requirements for the presidency. It's not unprecedented that failing republics ignore or obscure eligibility requirements for the presidency. It's not unprecedented that failing republics make...

Republicans want Sarah Palin to be their nominee, but they like Mitt Romney's chances better in a head-to-head match-up against Barack Obama, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee, has the support of 22 percent of Republicans surveyed, with Romney in second place, at 20 percent. Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Atlanta businessman Herman Cain tie for third place with 7 percent each. But of the Republican candidates, Romney runs the closest to Obama, at 38 percent to 51 percent. Obama outpolls former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty by 19 points and Palin...

"It's time to get real, folks. Hope and change ain't working," he said. "Hope and change is not a solution. Hope and change is not a job." May 26, 2011 L.A. Watts Times "To all of those people who say the tea party is a racist organization, eat your words," Cain later said while standing with his arms around a group of presumed tea party supporters. May 31, 2011 ABC News (blog) "One of the biggest problems we have with this country right now is too much government intervention trying to tell businesses how to do what they do best...

I admit that when five of the Republican candidates for president appeared at their lecterns in the first televised debate of the season, I said to myself, oh no. Not another black guy. We’ve already been snookered into electing the first black president who has turned out to be a total flop at managing the country. I watched the entire debate, however, and by the time it was over, I was convinced we should have waited and made this guy our first black president. We should have withheld the honor until a black candidate appeared whose job application showed him...

So which is it: Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin will split the Tea Party vote. Palin will suck all the air out of the room and sideline Bachmann. Bachmann is a mini-me of Palin. Palin and Bachmann are popular because they are pretty (which belies their cold, conservative hearts). Bachmann will remain standing after Palin burns out.Palin and Bachmann will engage in a "cat fight."None of the above.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney doesn’t want Paul Ryan to run for president — he likes the House Budget chairman too much. “I worship the ground the Paul Ryan walks on,” Cheney said Wednesday during a rare public appearance, the Houston Chronicle reported. “I hope he doesn’t run for president because that would ruin a good man who has a lot of work to do.” Support for Ryan’s budget plan, which includes an overhaul of Medicare, has become an early litmus test for the GOP presidential field. The plan was also a definitive issue in the special election in New...

The hand-wringing over the Republican presidential field has not abated much since Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels announced he would not be seeking the GOP nomination, but a new name might soon be entering the fray, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, the guitar-playing, soul-searching libertarian from Michigan. Mr. McCotter has told Politico he’s seriously considering a run and will make his decision in the next two weeks. Never heard of him? Well, here’s a McCotter primer: His jams on a Fender Telecaster emblazoned with red, white and blue , although he has been known to pick up a Stratocaster as well. The conservative...

The decision to merge ministries was made based on a "legal duty" and "structural obligation," said the Iranian president on Sunday, according to Press TV. In three separate decrees on Saturday, Ahmadinejad dismissed Welfare and Social Security Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, Minister of Industries and Mines Ali-Akbar Mehrabian and Oil Minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi from their posts, according to the 53rd article of the country's Fifth Five-Year Development Plan. http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpps/news/ahmadinejad-could-take-over-opec-presidency-report-says-dpgonc-20110516-bb_13229470 Iran, the second largest exporter of crude in OPEC, currently holds the presidency of the cartel -- its first time in that position since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

“So now it’s the duty of the establishment pols and the establishment media to assure us that Cain can’t win . . .”

When I covered George W. Bush’s White House, my job was made easier by the simplicity of the subject. The president had a few defining mantras — Cut taxes! Rally the base! Terrorists hate freedom! With us or against us! — and most of his decisions could be understood, even predicted, by applying one of the overarching philosophies. With President Obama, there is no such luxury. The political right is befuddled as it tries to explain him: First, Obama was a tyrant and a socialist; now he’s a weakling who refuses to lead. The political left is almost as confused,...

"It wasn't my campaign; it was your campaign. It was your investment. It was your time. It was your energy. It was your faith and it was your confidence that is allowing me to try to live up to those values that we share," he said in Chicago last week. "And if you remember that, and if you take ownership for that, and if you are just as fired up now — despite the fact that your candidate is a little older and a lot grayer — then I have every confidence that we are going to be able...

Why was Obama exempt from even the most rudimentary examination of his credentials for office? And why are these same people denying that the Constitution has been violated? And why are they trying to bury the issue and denouncing anyone who speaks of it? Have they all decided that the term natural born citizen no longer applies as a prerequisite for the Presidency? If so, what are the new criteria for eligibility? The American people are waiting for the truth, not just the usual displays of elitist arrogance or feigned ignorance. There is clearly a conspiracy of silence. Is there...

In the coming weeks and months the American public will hear more and more mention of the name Herman Cain as he embarks on a most important journey.  The country he was born and raised in is in turmoil, facing crises of potentially insurmountable proportions on several levels.  Our overall economy is in shambles with the nation's debt level higher than any other nation in recorded history. Born in Tennessee in 1945, many of Herman Cain's most formative years were during a time when American society viewed and treated its members quite differently based on their outward appearance.  At the...

While speaking with Christianity Today, he said he could see a golf course from where he was sitting: "That grass is turning green, and people are going to be out there playing," he said. "But God didn't keep me here to go play golf, and relax, and take life easy. I believe that my life was spared because God had something really big that he wanted me to do. [snip]

Donald Trump is no coward. How else does a man conquer his world the way that Trump has without a steely resolve and fearless valor. Nowhere is Mr. Trump’s bravery in fuller display as in his recent ABC News interview on Good Morning America. Trump was asked the question that has most political Conservatives assuming the fetal position and sucking the big politically correct thumb. Was the president, Barry Hussein Soetoro birth in America? (see 3:25min video) Without batting an eye, Mr. Trump strikes at the heart of the matter by acknowledging the concerted effort by Liberals and Democrat politicos...

"We've said here before that the Republican cast of presidential characters for 2012 isn't very exciting. The GOP, we've said, may have to reach down to the next generation to find a candidate who can wake things up, and we've suggested Marco Rubio, the new senator from Florida. Now, Rubio may be making his move. From The Politico: With a landmark spending debate engulfing Washington, the Florida Republican has, virtually overnight, launched the national profile the conservative movement has been clamoring for. During his first national interview Monday, Rubio pounced on President Barack Obama — from the friendly confines of...

...Santorum does not separate social and economic issues. He knows that the reason we should care about expanding economic opportunity is because we respect the dignity of every human person and want to expand participation. His advocacy of smaller government is not anti-government. He calls for the proper application of the principle of subsidiarity out of respect for the primacy of the family... He rejects the idea that there is any true "right" to an abortion even if the positive law currently protects the act. Every procured abortion is the taking of innocent human life and the denial of the...

In the Illinois legislature, state senator Barack Obama voted “present” 129 times. Today, he seems to be voting present on two major issues — Libya and the budget. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told reporters Thursday that the United States and other nations have “taken a range of steps . . . to squeeze (Moammar) Qaddafi, isolate him, really turn him into a pariah.” But the steps the United States has taken may well have bolstered Qaddafi’s determination to crush the rebellion against his regime. On the one hand, we supported .... On the other hand, we have..... Or at...

Continuing to thwart the United States Constitution and the people’s will, the Obama-Jarrett administration appears to be bribing the states considering eligibility legislation. Already Georgia* and New Hampshire’s eligibility bills will be postponed to 2013, clearly to protect Obama. And although there are signs of improvement in the language of the Arizona bill, what do you want to bet that will be postponed too? The way the bribe is being set up only reinforces our own research that Congress is engaged in the cover up of the usurpation. The goal is to reduce or threaten federal funding for key infrastructure...

Call it an above-the-fray strategy. On hot issues that Democrats and Republicans have found cause to fret about — from spending reductions to state labor disputes — President Barack Obama is keeping a low profile. Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia want him more publicly engaged in budget negotiations in Congress while others want him to denounce Republican proposed program cuts. Democrats like Rep. Keith Ellison want him to go to Wisconsin to stand in solidarity with public unions fighting to retain their bargaining rights. Some lawmakers in both parties want him to take a greater lead against...

The United States Federal Government is actually a creation of the states. Delegates from the states were chosen to find a way to turn all the sovereign, independent states into a nation, and thus, they created a caretaker government. The Constitution lists some 40 or so duties, the number being varied by how you characterize the wording. Each state at the time was considered to be a sovereign state, a whole nation, if you will. But, for purposes of unity, they needed a central government, which could act for those things the states could not do for themselves. Imagine the...