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GOP political consulant Christopher Coffey is telling Fox News that Barack Hussein Obama has not even taken the oath of office, and he is “already distancing himself from his campaign promises.” News reports now claim Obama will focus on providing a huge stimulus package that could cost as much as $700 billion over two years. “There are vague promises of spending cuts to accompany this proposed stimulus. The details of his campaign tax plan are now in flux and earlier promises of a balanced budget seem destined for the back burner,” said Coffey. “In the days leading up to the...

(IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas promoted the 2002 Saudi initiative on Thursday in a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. If Israel agrees to the initiative, “We could have a calm Middle East, a calm North Africa and Israel will live in an ocean of peace,” he said. The Saudi initiative promises that Arab and Muslim countries will normalize relations with Israel if Israel gives the PA all land controlled by Jordan and Egypt between 1949 and 1967, releases terrorist prisoners and accepts millions of foreign Arabs as citizens.

NEW YORK (AFP) - The US economy is in big trouble but policymakers agree on the need for a rescue, President George W. Bush reassured Friday as deadlock on a vast bank bailout plan slammed stocks and international bank lending. "We've got a big problem...we need a rescue plan," Bush said minutes after Wall Street shares dropped in line with a global trend and central banks again injected tens of billions of dollars to avert seizure on interbank lending markets. After a rescue for US savings giant Washington Mutual in the biggest-ever US banking failure, shock waves hit European financial...

How are you going to pay for it? That should be the first words out of any reporter or citizen’s mouth upon hearing any proposal from any politician. They sure are the first words out of a wife’s mouth when hubby comes home and announces he’s buying a new bass boat. Responsible people make financial decisions based upon a budget and try not to spend money they don’t have. We should demand the same from our elected officials.We are in debt, big time. CBS interviewed the Comptroller General of the United States last year, and he didn’t paint a rosy...

DENVER -- When Barack Obama feeds rhetorical fishes and loaves to the multitudes in the football stadium Thursday night, he should deliver a message of sufficient particularity that it seems particularly suited to Americans. One more inspirational oration, one general enough to please Berliners or even his fellow "citizens of the world," will confirm Pascal's point that "continuous eloquence wearies." That is so because it is not really eloquent. If it is continuous, it is necessarily formulaic and abstract, vague enough for any time and place, hence truly apposite for none. If Socrates had engaged in an interminable presidential campaign...

Democrats used to love to bash President Bush for sending America to war without asking Americans to sacrifice. Now that it is an election year, you won't hear the s-word coming out of their lips. The Democratic National Committee draft platform is all goodies. The draft, "Renewing America's Promise," says the party will heed the American desire to "abandon the politics of partisan division" - and they are eager to do so, as soon as they are done blaming Republicans for high gasoline prices, the mortgage meltdown and an "unnecessary war." ... And: "The American people do not want government...

Just a few months ago, images of smiling children, police officers and firefighters filled TV screens and mailboxes across the state, urging voters to support major casino expansions for four Southern California tribes. Gov. Schwarzenegger and other government officials promised that the tribes would help balance the state's troubled budget with an influx of gambling dollars. The casino riches would help protect state funding for schools, police and fire departments, health care and roads, the tribes and their supporters said. Voters approved the deals, but recent signs suggest the promises may not pan out. Deals touted as a sure-fire way...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers Wednesday accused China of reneging on a commitment to improve human rights when it won the right to host the Olympics, saying it had instead intensified a crackdown on dissent. "There were early indications that China was prepared to improve its behavior as the games approached," said Howard Berman, the Democratic head of the House of Representatives foreign affairs panel. But "the hope was short-lived, as China failed to honor these commitments," he said, citing as examples Beijing's "failed" pledges to allow greater press freedoms and improve its general human rights situation. Reporters Without Borders...

Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay Barack Hussein Obama's come to our house to stay

More Republicans are having a field day over the fact that Nancy Pelosi doesn't know the price of gas? Check out the transcript from "Larry King" last night: CNN’s LARRY KING: “I want to get this right. In a 2006 press release, you declared Democrats have a ‘common sense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices.’ Gasoline now, it keeps going up – record high in the history of gasoline. What happened?” SPEAKER PELOSI: “Well, it’s almost three times what it was when President Bush took office. It was $1-something when he took office. Now it’s $2.56, on average,...

This is a funny bullfrog video but it is also typical of what is going on now with the 2008 Election speeches and promises, lots of talk but saying nothing.

Republican presidential front-runner John McCain on Monday retracted his earlier statement he would lose the November election if he did not convince Americans they were winning the war in Iraq. "I don't mean that I'll, quote, lose," McCain told reporters on his campaign bus. "I mean that it's an important issue in the judgment of the American voters." "It's not often I retract a comment," said the likely Republican nominee. McCain, a staunch supporter of the Iraq war, said earlier in the day he would lose the election if he did not convince the American public the U.S. military was...

If a President McCain were to nominate a David Souter clone, the right’s netroots would have a collective conniption fit that would make the Miers fight look like pattycake. We might not win, but we’d at least bleed McCain of enough political capital to give even Warren Rudman second thoughts. All of which suggests that threats by conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter to take their ball and go home if McCain is the nominee make no sense (and I say this as someone who has made similar rumblings in the past). The next President likely will nominate...

At CPAC, Senator John McCain promised: I intend to nominate judges who have proven themselves worthy of our trust that they take as their sole responsibility the enforcement of laws made by the people’s elected representatives, judges of the character and quality of Justices Roberts and Alito, judges who can be relied upon to respect the values of the people whose rights, laws and property they are sworn to defend. This promise was absolutely critical if McCain was to win over conservatives. To be sure, Presidents all too often break campaign promises. Remember George Bush 41’s “read my lips” pledge...

ABC News' Christine Byun Reports: The day after former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's Michigan victory, Republican candidate Fred Thompson called promises made to Michigan voters regarding their economic plight "misleading." "Everybody was flocking up there to Michigan and promising, in effect … the federal government was going to come in there and bail the entire state out. Now, they said it with a straight face and apparently it worked for some of them. That's no way to get elected president on things you could not - and should not – deliver," Thompson told a crowd in Laurens, South Carolina Wednesday.

KABUL, Afghanistan - A Taliban spokesman warned Tuesday that militants would increase attacks against restaurants in Kabul frequented by Westerners, a day after eight people died in a brazen assault on a luxury hotel in the Afghan capital. Afghan officials said they had arrested four men following Monday's assault on the Serena Hotel a heavily guarded and high-profile property frequented by Western workers and officials. Among those detained was one of the attackers disguised in a police uniform. "We will target all these restaurants in Kabul where foreigners are eating," Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told The Associated Press by...

January 12, 2008 -- How about that Hillary Clinton: She's already breaking her campaign promises - and she doesn't even have her party's presidential nomination yet. Clinton yesterday reneged on her vow to explain how she'll "pay for everything" she proposes when she pushed a whopping $110 billion "economic stimulus" package - and offered no fund source to underwrite its cost. Gee, that was quick. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that the former first lady was an apostle of "fiscal responsibility"? "I happen to think in running a disciplined campaign - especially when it comes to fiscal responsibility,...

WASHINGTON - Republican Mitt Romney sought Sunday to deflect charges that he is a flip-flopper, insisting he had learned from experience and could be counted on to keep his campaign promises if elected president. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, also called on his top rival Mike Huckabee to apologize to President Bush. In an article in the journal Foreign Affairs, Huckabee criticized Bush's foreign policy as an "arrogant bunker mentality." Huckabee said no apology is necessary and that Romney should read the article. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," a somewhat defensive Romney acknowledged that he has shifted positions on...

President Bush has endorsed General David Petraeus's recommendation to begin withdrawing 30,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by next summer. Yet the drawdown would only restore troop levels to where they were before the surge began in January 2007. In the final months of 2006, debate in Washington centered on how fast a reduction from pre-surge levels could occur. The Iraq Study Group recommended that approximately half of the 130,000 troops then in Iraq be withdrawn by early 2008. In marked contrast to that and similar proposals, President Bush is now endorsing a step that would mean a return to the...

CANBERRA, Australia, Feb. 12, 2007 – The Iraqi government is doing everything it promised to do under President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s new strategy, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today. Pace is visiting U.S. Pacific Command areas this week. When Bush put forward the new strategy in January, he said much of it was predicated on the Iraqi government coming through with their pledges. “They said they would have three brigades of their army to plus-up the current number in Baghdad,” Pace said. “The first of those brigades is already there, the...

WASHINGTON - It was 2004 and Democrats were into their 10th year as the minority party in the House when they proposed a bill of rights to ensure their participation in the democratic process. The GOP ignored them. Now Republicans, newly demoted to the minority, say they are the ones suffering abuse despite repeated Democratic promises that theirs would be a more open, democratic and inclusive rule. "It seems," said Republican leader John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, "over the last three weeks that the more we reach out and offer our hand of bipartisanship, (the more) it is...

It has become standard practice for parties of the left, or that claim to represent mass constituencies, to make populist and peace-stressing promises and gestures that are betrayed instantly on the assumption of power. Sometimes, as with Tony Blair in 1997, a close reading of the pre-election political statements would make one aware that neither service to ordinary citizens nor peace are likely to be high on the leader’s agenda. Also, a study of the funding and economic and political connections of the incoming U.S. leadership is often a giveaway as to likely political direction. But occasionally the leaders seem...

SACRAMENTO - A beaming Arnold Schwarzenegger began his final four years as governor Friday with a grand inauguration and an ambitious second-term agenda. But ambitious means expensive and this week the governor will begin to reveal how he plans to pay for a massive expansion of health care to millions of Californians, as well as billions of dollars for new prisons and other infrastructure. Money could be tight. California has yet to shake the perennial budget deficits that have dogged Schwarzenegger throughout his time in office. The shortfall is expected to be $5.5 billion - significantly smaller than when Schwarzenegger...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., discuss Medicare and prescription drugs at the Sunrise Senior Center, Tuesday, Oct.3, 2006, in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Pointing toward midterm elections, Pelosi promised to raise the minimum wage while cutting taxes to spur economic growth and help the middle class. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell) AP - Oct 04 8:15 PM

Thoughts on Israel -By Dr. David Reagan, Lamb & Lion Ministries,Saturday July 29, 2006 "Why don't those stubborn Jews just give the Arabs the West Bank so that there can be peace in the Middle East?" The question was directed to me by a grumpy man I was sitting next to on an airplane. Suspecting that the man did not have the foggiest idea what he was talking about, I responded with a question: "Where is the West Bank?" "You know," he said. "Yes, I know, but do you?" "Well, of course I know!" he snapped. "Okay then, where...

SACRAMENTO Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides on Monday said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has failed to deliver on campaign promises to reform state politics and spread distrust of California government by soliciting record amounts of special-interest money. Angelides' attack came as he outlined a four-point plan to toughen lobbying rules, disclose contributions to the governor's office, ban outside pay for top officials and enact conflict-of-interest rules to clean up state government. The state treasurer released the plan at the California State Railroad Museum. It was the same spot where Schwarzenegger stood three years ago in front of a locomotive to help...

British general takes command and promises ruthless strikes on Taliban · 18,000-strong force ready for first land operations · Nato troops take charge of most of Afghanistan Richard Norton-Taylor Tuesday August 1, 2006 The Guardian (UK) A British general yesterday took command of an expanded Nato force in Afghanistan, vowing to "strike ruthlessly" against the Taliban as the west's military alliance prepared to conduct land combat operations for the first time in its 57-year history. Lieutenant General David Richards, commander of Nato's international security assistance force, Isaf, based in Kabul, took over a multinational force in southern Afghanistan where British,...

In Genesis 9:8-17, we read of God's promise to Noah and his family after the Flood. Noah and his family had just come off the ark and had offered sacrifices to God (Gen. 7:2-3, 8:18-21). God then says that He will not destroy the earth by water again (Gen. 8:21-22) and is going to establish a covenant to this effect with Noah, his family, and all the animals (Gen. 9:9-11). God then says that they can know His promise is true because he will "set" His "bow in the cloud" (Gen. 9:13). After a rainstorm, a rainbow can be seen...

George W. Bush on Immigration President of the United States, Former Republican Governor (TX) Our economy could not function without the immigrants We hear claims that immigrants are somehow bad for the economy, even though this economy could not function without them. All these are forms of economic retreat, and they lead in the same direction, toward a stagnant and second-rate economy. Source: 2006 State of the Union Address Jan 31, 2006 Support a humane guest-worker program that rejects amnesty Keeping America competitive requires an immigration system that upholds our laws, reflects our values and serves the interests of our...

As President Bush prepares to address both Congress and the American people in his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, the conservative wing of the President’s base held a press forum Friday at Washington’s Free Congress Foundation on the “Conservative State of the Union.” Leading figures of the conservative movement addressed the state of the movement’s multiple facets, and their disappointment with the current Republican president and Congress over its abandonment of the conservative agenda. Perhaps the most dismayed panelist at Friday’s press forum was Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a leading force in the mobilization...

MONTEREY, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that his administration will work to minimize regulations and improve transportation to help California's ranchers and farmers. "We should be your partner in prosperity rather than a roadblock to success," Schwarzenegger said at the annual meeting of the California Farm Bureau Federation in Monterey. "We should make sure you don't get over-regulated," the governor said. "We should make sure you can operate freely and that you can really do your job, really grow and feed the world." Schwarzenegger said the state needs to build more roads, bridges, tunnels, railroads and ports to...

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistan's president vowed Friday to arrest leaders of banned extremist groups and force foreign students to leave Islamic schools, saying he is in a stronger position to target religious militants than during a 2002 crackdown. "I'm in a totally different environment," said Gen. Pervez Musharraf, whose government has reported arresting nearly 600 suspected militants over the past 10 days and plans stricter oversight of religious schools where extremists are thought to be active. Musharraf, who strongly condemned the recent terror bombings in Britain and Egypt, has been criticized by some Western officials for not being tough enough...

Will the Republicans we elected please stand up June 21st, 2005 I voted for our current president twice for one fundamental reason: he exhibited the unique, personal leadership characteristics, I believed our country needed the first time he ran and continues to need today. He looked at a situation, sized it up, made a decision, told you what he was going to do and then…he did it. His propensity to deliver on promises made some inside the beltway very uncomfortable, I am sure. As I look at where we are as a country today, I see some alarming parallels between...

When reading some of the more right-leaning, pro-Israeli pundits, one would be led to believe that Israel is a nation completely divided over Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement plan,” whereby the Jewish state withdraws from Gaza and some of the West Bank in return for Palestinian promises of “peace.” I share the concerns of the anti-disengagement camp, but do not accept the premise of some of their lot that Israel is on the brink of “civil war.” Just looking at opinion polls of Israelis, one can see that there is momentum for the disengagement plan. The Tel Aviv University Peace Index of...

Jack McConnell has promised to "go further" than the Home Office in outlawing air guns in Scotland. Speaking at his weekly Holyrood question time on Thursday, the first minister said the devolved executive would act "in a measured way" in response to the shooting of a two year-old boy in Glasgow last week. But he pledged to introduce tighter controls on the sale of firearms north of the border if the Westminster government does not do enough to satisfy voters concerns in the wake of Andrew Morton's death. Labour MSP Frank McAveety asked the first minister "what action will be...

HAYWARD, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's all-out campaign to put some of his government-overhaul ideas before the voters is seen by some of his critics as a way to divert attention from his broken promises and unfinished business. The Republican governor wants to ask voters this fall to change the way legislative districts are drawn and teachers are paid. He wants to shift public employee pensions into 401(k)-style accounts. And he wants to create a mechanism to cut spending when it exceeds revenue. But the central promise of Schwarzenegger's governorship - to balance the budget and end the practice...

In the early days of Vietnam I commanded a 150 Marine replacement unit arriving in country by ship. As we entered port the ship's Captain summoned me and ordered a perimeter established around the Seabee compound where we docked. It had been receiving probing attacks by the Viet Cong. When the unit was in position I called my four Staff NCOs and told them to move up and down the line all night to keep everyone alert and their spirits high. I reminded them these were very young Marines and that they had never heard a shot fired in anger....

In the early days of Vietnam I commanded a 150 Marine replacement unit arriving in country by ship. As we entered port the ship's Captain summoned me and ordered a perimeter established around the Seabee compound where we docked. It had been receiving probing attacks by the Viet Cong. When the unit was in position I called my four Staff NCOs and told them to move up and down the line all night to keep everyone alert and their spirits high. I reminded them these were very young Marines and that they had never heard a shot fired in anger....

California has repeatedly given new and improved retirement benefits to public employees. The question now has become what, if anything, it can take back. While the state has wide latitude in scaling back pension benefits for new workers, experts say, it faces far stricter limitations when it comes to current employees. Even some of the measures proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which stop short of altering the basic pension formula in favor of steps such as encouraging workers to leave the retirement system, could trigger a legal challenge. California case law makes it clear that any changes to the pension...

I was asked many times throughout the campaign season, why I rarely criticized the Bush administration in my writings. Like everyone else in America, I had to take a side in the race, and unlike O’Reilly or Savage, who also voted for Bush, I saw no benefit in shooting at my own guy…My answer is just that simple and self-serving. Like everyone else, I had an agenda. Not so much the re-election of the Bush administration, as the defeat of socialist anti-America minded Democrats who in my opinion threaten America’s future more than any outside enemy today. The sad part...

The founding fathers never envisioned direct election of the president by the people. In the beginning the people voted for state representatives and congressmen. State legislatures selected two men to represent the state in the Senate. Each state legislature selected a man (from anywhere in the country) to be president and another (not from the same state) to be vice president. There was no campaign and no presidential candidate to select his own vice president. These names were given to electors who journeyed to Washington to meet with the electors from the other states. This was the original electoral college....

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- It's been a year since Arnold Schwarzenegger became California's 38th governor, and the Hollywood actor-turned-politician remains a phenomenon -- theatrical, unbridled and radiating raw confidence. He smokes giant cigars, calls state government "a mastodon frozen in time" and raises money like a mogul. He whips out old movie lines to make points. He cheerfully mocks opponents in the state Legislature as "girlie men" -- and in this most politically correct of states, he gets away with it. Swept into office on a wave of enthusiasm for his reform platform, Schwarzenegger promised to do things differently. After...

Warsaw, US Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry on Monday promised Poland multi-billion-dollar contracts in Iraq if he is elected president. In the interview with Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Kerry also thanked Poland, a new member of the European Union, for its contribution in "building bridges" between Europe and the United States. "America should give its allies a big role in the stabilisation of Iraq," he said. "In the economic field this will mean that faithful allies are handed reconstruction contracts worth billions of dollars," including in the oil sector, Kerry added. A close ally of Washington in Iraq, Poland commands...

Big Bad John's Magical Mystery Plan Written by Raymond Kraft Sunday, October 24, 2004 Insouciantly supine on the sofa I was listening to one of my very favorite old records, "Magical Mystery Tour," by the Beatles, of course, while nursing one of my famous industrial strength strawberry margaritas and doing my very best to achieve a transcendal state of perfect profundity while meditating on my very favorite song, ''. . . Living is easy, with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see . . ..'' And then I took another long sip of my industrial strength margarita, '' . . ....

        John Kerry's Crack the Vote Address (Satire)Presidential candidate John Kerry addresses thousands of addicts, many holding signs "WILL VOTE FOR CRACK" at a Crack the Vote rally in Washington D.C. on Saturday.My friends, I have a plan. It's a good plan.  I was talking to Marion Barry (the b*tch set me up) just the other day. He asked me what my drug plan was. I told him that the President's drug plan was the wrong plan at the wrong place at the wrong time.  The president refused to change his policy. The President made drug importation...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Conservative activists vowed Thursday to sue the state if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proceeds next week with his $920 million, 20-year borrowing plan to pay off part of one year's pension obligations. Attorneys for the Pacific Legal Foundation said Schwarzenegger's widely expected move would violate a state constitutional ban on governments borrowing more than $300,000 without a popular vote. The foundation represents a Fullerton taxpayers group aiming to derail the idea. Last year, courts cited the constitutional ban in striking down a similar borrowing plan by then-Gov. Gray Davis. "This is a clone of last year's borrowing ploy,"...

How many times is Kerry going to use the $90 Billion from the tax cut?

By now you've undoubtedly heard about his cruel, immoral and embarrassing statement yesterday in Iowa "We will stop juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases... When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going get up out of that wheelchair and walk again." In doing so he proved himself a national disgrace, but really, how different is it than his shameless "channeling" of a baby in the womb during one of his bloodsucking money grabs? Gee, is it any wonder people hate lawyers? Trust me, we deal with lawyers every day, and while most are nice people,...

During the October 8 presidential debate in St. Louis, I noticed that John Kerry kept saying he has a "plan"; a plan for just about everything from saving Medicare to winning the war on terror. He kept repeating the word over and over, and it struck me that if indeed he does have all these plans to make our lives so much better, why hasn't he ever shared them with the U.S. Senate? After all, even though he rarely participates in any Senate business anymore, he is still a Senator. Isn't he obliged to show up every once in a...