Free Republic

Hints have begun trickling out of Washington D.C. that the Obama administration has realized that it went too far in attacking Israel, and may now be looking to take a step back. With general opposition from Israelis, street protests, and a forceful rejection from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the failure of Obama’s approach is fairly obvious. But that doesn’t mean that Israel’s Obama problem is over. Not by a long shot.

The "Blame 13" chorus is at it again. You can always count on it to sing "It's all Proposition 13's fault" during difficult economic times. The story has gone national, with columns in Time magazine and the New York Times taking shots at Proposition 13. The attacks are probably best summed up by an editorial cartoon picturing Proposition 13 as the beginning of the end for California civilization. Let's get the facts straight. Despite the cap instituted by Proposition 13, property taxes have increased dramatically in California. According to Board of Equalization data, property tax revenue has increased 800% since...

Eleanor Clift of Newsweek writes: "The great asset he (Obama) has is the collapse of the Republican Party. They have neither a credible message nor messenger. They’re railing against big government, when the core issue is the failings of capitalism. They call for smaller government and berate Obama for moving toward socialism when people are not hungering for tax cuts. They’re looking for jobs so they can pay taxes. Instead of developing alternative policies, they’re back to attacking FDR. He won four elections."

A website MyWay.com is reporting of tensions mounting in the Northern California City of Antioch, California over an influx of low income tenants moving into the area. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081230/D95D896O0.html. These problems were predicted by this writer in the Antioch Press in August 17, 2007(see below): What the article fails to report is that Antioch was subject to an unfair allocation of low income housing imposed on it by the Association of Bay Area Governments. This writer reported on the unfairness of Antioch's low income housing allocation in an article published in the Antioch Press on August 17, 2007. Below is the...

Wondering if anyone else having problems with FR. I'm logged in, but no new articles and jumbled time on dates are coming up on threads posted from as early as Friday AM.

In response to the charge the conservatism is not providing answers to the troubles of the moment—and in response to the “reform conservatives” who are trying to fix that, Andrew Sullivan writes: Conservatism is not, to my mind, about solving problems, which is why it remains a very problematic governing philosophy for modern Americans. It is about a modesty toward what problems government can ever solve. Its responses to emergent questions will not be an attempt to "solve" them, but to ameliorate them with a narrow set of tools. And the narrower the better. The particular charge Sullivan is answering...

Proposed Law Looks to Wipe Out Problem TALLAHASSEE (CBS4.com) ― A proposed law currently making its way through the Florida legislature might help you with what can be an embarrassing problem. Here's the bottom line, the bill would be a mandate that all eating establishment must have enough toilet paper when you go into the restroom. The only problem is the bill doesn't dictate how much toilet paper is "enough." State Senator Victor Crist, a Republican from Tampa, felt the problem was so important, a law must be passed to protect the backsides of anyone in Florida. The measure will...

SACRAMENTO - As the nation prepares to celebrate Problem Gambling Awareness Week, the head of California's small program is preparing to move on. Steve Hedrick, director of the state's Office of Problem Gambling, will be joining the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in its division of addiction and recovery services. Hedrick presided over the formative years of an operation that has subsisted on a meager, $3 million budget and drawn persistent criticism for being ill-equipped to deal with a problem believed to afflict more than 1 million California adults and their families. On Hedrick's watch, the office conducted the...

So, John McCain has a conservative supporter warming up the crowd for him who takes some shots at Obama Bill Cunningham, who hosts “The Big Show” with Bill Cunningham, a local program here that is also syndicated nationally, was part of a line of people lauding Mr. McCain and revving up the crowd before his appearance here before several hundred people at a theater here. He lambasted the national media, drawing cheers from the audience, for being soft in their coverage of Mr. Obama compared to the Republican candidates, declaring they should “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama.” He...

It's a hard thing to pin down, Barack Obama's Jewish problem. But in the halls of the AIPAC Policy Conference yesterday, there was no denying that the members of the pro-Israel group -- largely Democrats, though they tilt right -- feel a real, if kind of inchoate, skepticism about the Illinois senator. Now, an Iowa Democrat and AIPAC member, David Adelman, has written Obama a letter asking for clarification of Obama's remark to the Des Moines register that "nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people," a statement Adelman writes he found "deeply troubling." Adelman, a Des Moines lawyer, said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ This is a MUST SEE video for anyone interested in the immigration debate, whether you are a citizen, an illegal alien or a Congressman. ... all » This clip from the longer video, Immigration by the Numbers, features Roy Beck demonstrating the catastrophe of the huge numbers of both legal and illegal immigration by Third World people into the modern nations. He uses standard statistics and simple gumballs to show this disaster in the making. Video was done by roy beck: http://www.answers.com/topic/roy-beck Full video on google: http://video.google.com/videoplay?doc...

Fred Thompson gives "a very incoherent and not very concise stump speech," peaked months ago, and is the campaign's "biggest dud." Mitt Romney has "an authenticity problem"; he is "almost too mechanical about the issues." John McCain faces "enormous hurdles," and the "irony" of his quest is that he may just be repeating 2000. Mike Huckabee has "the obvious problems--being from Hope, Ark., and quite frankly having the last name Huckabee." The craven Republicans are "terrified about losing the presidency after losing Congress." All this comes from Terry McAuliffe, longtime Democratic Party mover, maven and moneyman, who's obviously hoping for...

Michael Moore's riveting new film "Sicko" is about to become the X factor in California's health care debate - casting an unforgiving spotlight on all those proposals from Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger and some legislators who think we can solve the health care crisis by handing over more money to the insurance companies. Lack of insurance is not the problem - it's the insurance industry itself. A Zogby/UPI poll in February found that 42 percent of Americans said their insurer had refused to pay a medical bill. A USA Today/ABC poll in March found one in four Americans had trouble paying...

U.S. growers produce nearly $35 billion worth of marijuana annually, making the illegal drug the country's largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined, an advocate of medical marijuana use said in a study released on Monday. The report, conducted by Jon Gettman, a public policy analyst and former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also concluded that five U.S. states produce more than $1 billion worth of marijuana apiece: California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington. California's production alone was about $13.8 billion, according to Gettman, who waged an unsuccessful six-year legal battle to...

On May 14, 2005, PAX-TV's Faith Under Fire broadcast a debate that I took part in against Mahdi Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American Society's (MAS) Freedom Foundation. Bray had selected the debate topic in advance, and chose to argue about "The United States of Islam?" -- that is, whether American Muslims wanted to see Islamic law sharia) implemented in the United States. While I unwaveringly agreed that most American Muslims don't want to see the United States ruled by Islamic law, I nonetheless jumped at the chance to debate this topic against Bray. After all, the Chicago...

The farm-produced fuel that is supposed to help wean the United States from its oil addiction is under scrutiny for its potentially corrosive qualities. E85, a blend of 85 percent corn-based ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, could be eating away at metal and plastic parts in gas station pumps, Underwriters Laboratories, the private product-safety testing group, said this month. BP, the British oil company, said Thursday that it would delay the expansion of E85 at its U.S. outlets until the laboratories certified an E85 dispensing system.

Cosmic rays may solve global warming problem By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 04/10/2006) Cosmic events could help soften the impact of global warming by triggering cloud formations, suggests research published yesterday. A team of Danish scientists concluded in the Proceedings of the Royal Society that making clouds is plausible, using the Sun's magnetic field. The Sun has been at its strongest for more than 60 years and a period of high solar activity could be approaching its end. "This would produce a cooling effect that could counter part of the global warming predicted for the next century," said Dr...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2006 -- A group of American seamstresses is working to apply an old-fashioned skill -- sewing -- to help today’s wounded veterans. The nonprofit group “Sew Much Comfort” includes more than 2,000 people who sew specially made clothing for wounded servicemembers, who often find clothing off the rack doesn’t accommodate a variety of medical devices. Sew Much Comfort is a member of the Defense Department’s America Supports You program, which highlights grassroots and corporate efforts to support U.S. troops and their families. Several of the groups set up tables at the end of the America Supports...

WASHINGTON - Capturing the immigration debate in political ads this campaign season — without upsetting Hispanics — is proving tricky for the parties and candidates. An ad criticizing Stephen Laffey, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record) for the Republican nomination in Rhode Island, set off grumbling in the Latino community. The ad criticized Laffey, mayor of Cranston, for allowing city police to accept ID cards issued by the Mexican government as identification. Chafee's spokesman had no comment about the ad. Laffey's campaign called it an insensitive attack on the mayor's attempt to empathize with "people...

SAN FRANCISCO The majority of Californians view illegal immigration as a "very serious" problem, although most say they oppose deporting those already living in the United States, according to a new statewide poll released Thursday. The Field Poll showed that 53 percent of voters in the state see illegal immigration as a very serious problem, and another 30 percent see it as somewhat serious. Republicans tended to take a stronger view, with 69 percent seeing it as a very serious problem, compared to 46 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of nonpartisans, according to the survey. An overwhelming majority, 80...