Free Republic

Racial attitudes have not improved in the four years since the United States elected its first black president, an Associated Press poll finds, as a slight majority of Americans now express prejudice toward blacks whether they recognize those feelings or not. Those views could cost President Barack Obama votes as he tries for re-election, the survey found, though the effects are mitigated by some Americans' more favorable views of blacks. Racial prejudice has increased slightly since 2008 whether those feelings were measured using questions that explicitly asked respondents about racist attitudes, or through an experimental test that measured implicit views...

......"There is no more serious issue in a presidential campaign than trust," Obama told a rally of 11,000 people in Florida. "Everything he's doing right now is trying to hide his real positions in order to win this election." That argument was laid out by Obama in Monday night's debate with repeated accusations that Romney has shifted numerous policy positions since the Republican presidential primaries, when he was targeting his party's conservative base............

The Obama campaign is launching a new swing-state ad accusing Mitt Romney of dishonesty in the debate and his own advertising. The advertisement uses footage from Wednesday's debate to continue one of the more contentious exchanges from the debate, over whether Romney's tax plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut. "I'm not in favor of a $5 trillion tax cut," said Romney during the debate. President Obama and Romney went back and forth on the point during the debate, with the president contending Romney would not be able to eliminate enough deductions and loopholes to make his plan to...

Friend -- It's easy to look at the attacks, smears, and lies being told about President Obama and his record and say, "Come on, that's ridiculous. No one could possibly believe that." Trust me: You and I learned the hard way eight years ago this August that in the new world we're living in -- one with 24-hour news cycles, the internet, blogs, the echo chamber, and now the new Citizens United-fueled Republican money machine -- even completely baseless attacks can stick if people don't call them out quickly enough. No matter how self-evidently false the attacks are, or how...

For several tense weeks, our nation has been broiling unpleasantly in the cultural equivalent of polyunsaturated fat. And despite any profits or political points made during this Chick-fil-A debacle, I think we’ve all gotten a bit burned. As everyone now knows, this entire ordeal—from the Mike Huckabee-orchestrated “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” to the “Same-Sex Kiss Day” that came after, the talking heads, the relentless stream of articles and opinion pieces on the controversy, the thousands upon thousands of online comments, the vitriolic tweets, impulsive Facebook statuses, and equally tart replies, the strained friendships, heated arguments with family members, all of it—began...

Senior White House adviser David Plouffe on Tuesday accused wealthy Mitt Romney supporters of trying to "purchase the White House," one day after the presumptive GOP nominee announced a $106 million June fundraising haul that stunned the Obama campaign. “You’ve got a few very wealthy people lining up trying to purchase the White House for Mr. Romney,” said Plouffe on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We’re going to have to have everybody out there who wants the president to continue to a second term to step up and help the campaign.” After seeing Romney and the Republican National Committee (RNC) outpace...

Lesbian Couple FAKED Hate Crime By Painting Their OWN Home With 'Kill the Gays' To Frame Neighbors After Spat Over Dogs 18 May 2012 [Pic in URL] Caught: Aimee Whitchurch, 37, left, and Christel Conklin, 29, right, are accused of forgery, false reporting and criminal mischief A lesbian couple that claimed their neighbors spray painted 'Kill the Gay' on their condo are being accused by the police for doing the deed themselves. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Colorado has issued a warrant for Aimee Whitchurch, 37, and Christel Conklin, 29, for forgery, false reporting and criminal mischief. In October...

PORTLAND, Maine - President Barack Obama accused Republicans of clinging to economic policies that preceded the Great Depression and the more recent economic downturn, saying his rivals are showing signs of "madness." Raising campaign cash in Maine on Friday, March 30, Obama said Republicans want to return to economic policies that would let Wall Street play by its own set of rules and allow insurance companies to roll back health coverage.

Time magazine’s Joe Klein is known for lobbing some bombs at right-wingers. In 2010, he accused former Fox News host Glenn Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of being close to “sedition.” Nearly two years later, Klein still has some tough words for conservatives. On this weekend’s “The Chris Matthews Show,” Klein likened what he saw during recent GOP presidential debates to the 1978 Jonestown Massacre, an event in which more than 900 people died after they were given a deadly concoction of “purple drink mixed with cyanide, sedatives and tranquilizers.” “I got to say, this is Jonestown. These...

Criticisms Convince State To Back Off Projections of Dramatic Sea Level RiseState officials still pushing coastal counties to prepare for a one-meter rise By Sara Burrows Feb. 20th, 2012 RALEIGH — State officials are pressuring local governments to plan for a one-meter sea-level rise by 2100, even though many independent scientists have argued the rise is highly unlikely if not impossible. Even though a state advisory panel no longer recommends regulations based on the one-meter projection, local government officials worry that state regulators will try to implement those rules. Such a policy, they say, would have a devastating impact on...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez attacked the new opposition candidate for the country's highest office as a "low-life ... pig" in a defamatory speech broadcast on state radio and TV late Thursday. As the country's election season gets underway, Chavez said of opposition candidate Henrique Capriles that, "you have a pig's tail, a pig's ears, and you snort like a pig," according to AFP. On Sunday, the 39-year-old Capriles won an overwhelming victory in an opposition primary. He was quickly vilified in a campaign in Venezuela's state-run media, which insinuated he was a homosexual and a Zionist agent....

JournalTimes.com No danger to students, authorities say as investigation continues Deputies: Parkside student confesses to creating list CHRISTINE WON and MICHAEL BURKE christine.won@journaltimes.com, mburke@journaltimes.com | Posted: Friday, February 3, 2012 4:16 pm SOMERS — Following days of reported hate crimes and heightened security at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, a student has confessed to creating the list threatening black students because she wanted greater attention to the issue, according to authorities Friday night. The suspect, whose identity was being withheld for her protection, reportedly told authorities she created the fliers — which listed 13 black students by name and threatened they...

In a fundraising letter sent out this afternoon by the Democratic National Committee, Will Crossley, counsel and voter protection director, asks folks to support his party because, he implies, Republican efforts to suppress voters are worse than Jim Crow-era laws. “Dorothy Cooper was born before women or African Americans in our country could exercise the right to vote. She grew up in a Jim Crow-divided South, and saw the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965,” Crossley writes. “Dorothy is 96 years old. In 70 years, she's missed just one election. And she's never had a problem voting –...

BOSTON—Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney blasted rival Newt Gingrich Tuesday as an “extremely unreliable leader in the conservative world” who has taken positions in this campaign that should give GOP voters pause as they consider their choices for the party’s nomination. Romney, in an interview with The Washington Post, offered some of his toughest criticism to date of the politician whose sudden rise in the polls has made him, at least for now, the front-runner for the nomination. He also had tough words for President Obama and his campaign, saying he would not let them portray him as a tool...

"The Republicans have a problem," says MSNBC's Chris Matthews. "They are consumed by hate, so consumed they can't think positively of whom they may want to lead them."

According to MSNBC host Mr. Ed: 1) Walter Williams is racist: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/06/07/msnbccom-accuses-walter-williams-making-racist-statements-foxs-stosse 2) Rep. Allen West is racist: http://tv.breitbart.com/schultz-on-congressman-elect-allen-west-bigoted-and-ignorant/ 3) The TSA controversy is racist: http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/ed-schultz-tsa-controversy-is-just-racist-right-wingers-wanting-to-promote-racial-profiling 4) Opposing Occupy Wall Street is racist: http://weaselzippers.us/2011/10/11/msnbc-knuckle-dragger-ed-schultz-says-racism-behind-republican-opposition-to-occupier-movement/ 5) School vouchers are racist: http://www.breitbart.tv/this-is-racist-budget-ed-schultz-al-sharpton-claims-school-vouchers-are-racist/ 6) Budgets are racist: http://www.fireandreamitchell.com/2011/03/03/ed-schultz-to-al-sharpton-this-is-a-racist-budget/ 7) Questioning violent rapper Common's invitation to the White House is racist: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ed-schultz-to-al-sharpton-is-there-underlying-racism-behind-fox-news-criticizing-commons-wh-invite/ 8) Using the term "black cloud" is racist: http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/16/ed-schultz-rick-perrys-reference-to-a-big-black-cloud-was-a-racial-crack-at-obama-wasnt-it/ 9) Criticizing Obama's past with anti-Semite Reverend Wright is racist: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/11/20/ed-schultz-palin-racist-criticizing-obamas-connection-rev-wright 10) Pointing out infighting in the Democrat Congressional Caucus is racist: http://bigjournalism.com/kmartin/2010/11/16/ed-schultz-wants-to-silence-rush-limbaugh-due-to-professional-envy/ 11) Using the term "food stamps" is racist: http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2011/05/ed-schultz-food-stamps-just-code-for.html 12) Resisting...

The latest Fox poll offered Republican voters a menu of 11 candidates and found...not only were voters scattered across the conservative landscape, but 1/4 of the Tea Party adherents sampled were still “not impressed” with anyone. It’s hard to impress a movement that only knows what it is against. Now, barring some wild twist of fate, there are two men standing: Mitt Romney, the methodical, thrill-free, ideologically elastic technocrat from Massachusetts, who has made himself the default nominee; and the last hope of the hard core, the Not Mitt: Rick Perry. snip ...whatever you think of his deviations from Tea...

Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher says there is a media "double-standard" over Herman Cain saying blacks have been "brainwashed." Belcher calls Mr. Cain a bigot and a racist and says this incident is a "teachable moment." (h/t TRS) CORNELL BELCHER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: First of all, do you think you're going to invite me on the show and then I'm not going to talk about the ridiculousness of that statement? Two things. One is a great way to sort of get people on your side and win voters is to attack their intelligence. So great job there. Really sensible, Herman Cain. The...

Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher says there is a media "double-standard" over Herman Cain saying blacks have been "brainwashed." Belcher calls Mr. Cain a bigot and a racist and says this incident is a "teachable moment." CORNELL BELCHER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: First of all, do you think you're going to invite me on the show and then I'm not going to talk about the ridiculousness of that statement? Two things. One is a great way to sort of get people on your side and win voters is to attack their intelligence. So great job there. Really sensible, Herman Cain. The second part...

Tempers flared during a town hall meeting on the Dream Act Tuesday night. During the meeting a high school government teacher from John F. Kennedy called the local Tea Party president a Nazi. The exchange was recorded and posted on You tube. "When you get to name calling that just shows that there is no logic to your argument any further. It's all emotion, " said George Rodriguez, President of the San Antonio Tea Party. The teacher's emotion came from a panelist's comment that school administration should deport undocumented students. "So you would have students in this room deported?" asked...