Free Republic

Almost every country leads the World in some single field. Tiny Sweden does not have the best cuisine on the planet, neither do we Swedes enjoy the highest salaries on Earth and Sweden could not, rightfully, claim to house the World's most beautiful landscapes. Italians eat better (forget about France, Italy has a way better climate for nearly every kind of food production and Italians are even more concerned when it comes to "mangiare bene"; eating well). Danes are paid higher wages than any other people including the Norwegians and the Swiss (but having traveled around some in Denmark, I...

In early April, former Weather Underground honcho Bill Ayers surprised no one on the right side of the blogosphere when he acknowledged a series of facts the Obama campaign had long denied or suppressed. “We served on a couple of boards together, that was true,” Ayers told the Daily Beast. “He held a fundraiser in our living room, that was true; Michelle and Bernardine were at the law firm together, that was true.”

SACRAMENTO -- Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archbishop Jose Gomez and several other Catholic Church officials in California took time from their retreat in Sacramento on Wednesday to make a push for Congress to keep up the momentum on changes to the country’s immigration laws. In a gaggle with reporters, Gomez said reform of the country’s immigration laws is “long overdue.” Gomez, who was joined by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, as well as several bishops from around the state, urged Congress not to delay in passing a bill, saying the bipartisan package of legislation that has come together offers hope...

Senate Republicans say the Labor Department appears to be spending millions in taxpayer dollars to establish labor unions and promote collective bargaining in foreign countries and is asking top Obama administration officials for a full audit. The request was sent by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the leading Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the top Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “At a time when our federal budget is deteriorating rapidly … it is troubling to us that the department appears to be spending millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to establish...

MOSCOW, April 27 (UPI) -- Russian citizens should not be allowed to freely own guns for purposes of self-defense, says President Vladimir Putin. His comments were made after a gunman with a rifle killed six people in southwest Russia Monday, RIA Novosti reported Saturday. "I do not support the idea of free arms distribution in Russia," Putin told a Russian television station. "It is dangerous to artificially stimulate this process." snip

Socialists allowed to keep donors secret By: Tarini Parti April 26, 2013 05:44 PM EDT It’s not every day that the Socialist Workers Party agrees with Republicans. But when it comes to donor disclosure, they’re largely on the same page. While the call for politically active corporations and nonprofits to disclose donors got louder during the 2012 campaign, the Federal Election Commission on Thursday decided to let federal committees affiliated with the Socialist Workers Party and the Socialist Workers National Campaign Committee continue to keep their donors secret. The reason: revealing the identity of the donors could lead to possible...

The number of jobless reached 3.224 million in March, the equivalent of 10.2 percent of the workforce. Unemployment has increased by 11.5 percent in a year, exceeding the record set in 1997. “Moreover, although it cannot admit it, the government does not really believe in the presidential cant about a reduction in unemployment this year,” notes Le Figaro. …

Obama's Marxist socialist government is in a mad rush to destroy the final remnants of our constitution and our traditional American way of life. We love America. We love freedom. We love and defend our constitution. We cherish our God-given unalienable rights. We cherish and depend on our rights to free speech, free press, freedom of religion, freedom to keep and bear arms, freedom to be secure in our homes and personal affairs, freedom to travel, freedom to enjoy the fruits of our own labor. But the socialist don't. The Marxists don't. The Islamofascists don't. The socialist Democrat party led...

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger. And, as two educators have recently learned, it’s also generally good advice to avoid stomping on Jesus and the American flag in public schools. The Florida Atlantic University instructor who asked students to step on the word “Jesus” has been placed on administrative leave on the same day that the high school teacher in South Carolina who stomped on an American flag in front of his students way back in December finally resigned. The incident in South Carolina...

Philosophers always say, define your terms. So what is a quack? Quacks are people who treat any one idea (it may be a bad idea or a good idea) as if it is the entire world. Excess is the problem. A lack of proportion is what makes someone a quack, and what makes quacks a menace. There are poisons which, used in tiny doses, can be beneficial. It’s the dose that makes the poison. Quacks would not understand that. If a few drops are good, they would say, let’s make everyone swim in the stuff. Quackery lies in treating some...

[Summary: To dumb down the public schools, our elite educators often rely on sophistry.] Disingenuous. Paradox. Counterintuitive. Sophistry. Counterproductive. These five words always fascinated me. They suggest unexpected warps in a common-sense grasp of the world. Something is out of kilter, weird, defective, or whacko. American public education in the 20th century--which has been characterized as “deliberate dumbing down”--is impossible to discuss without constant recourse to these quirky words. They point to deception, but done with art and flair. Rod Sterling captured the resulting sense of disorientation: “You unlock this door...Beyond it is another dimension....You’re moving into a land of...

Daniel Hannan cuts through the disinformation routinely spewed by the pundit class to reveal the true historical nature of fascism, albeit as it pertains to British politics. The lessons, however, are applicable here as well. 'I am a Socialist,' Hitler told Otto Strasser in 1930, 'and a very different kind of Socialist from your rich friend, Count Reventlow'. No one at the time would have regarded it as a controversial statement. The Nazis could hardly have been more open in their socialism, describing themselves with the same terminology as our own SWP: National Socialist German Workers' Party. Almost everyone in...

As dozens of riot police fired volleys of tear gas towards crowds of angry youths on Bourghiba Avenue this week, the scene was disturbingly reminiscent of what happened on this very avenue two years ago. Even the chanting was the same: "We want the downfall of the regime!" The target of the crowd's anger may be a different government, but many here feel their efforts in 2011, when they succeeded in removing Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, may have been for nought. Many outsiders, myself included, always believed the Tunisian "Jasmine" uprising had the best chance of succeeding, of building a...

Tuesday, January 29th, 2013, (Santa Monica, CA) — It has been 34 years of marriage, three children, two grandchildren, two homes and three jobs, and Mary and Joseph Peterson have had enough. The two Sacramento natives and college sweethearts have lived in California their entire lives. Now their lifelong stay in the Sunshine state is sadly coming to an end. Mary Peterson, 56, and husband Joseph, 57, lament being only an estimated 250,000 people who are now leaving California annually, in comparison to the hordes more that are storming in (mainly illegally). They also lament not having fully experienced the...

Because the Communists, Marxists, Socialists, Islamists, and Liberals understand Americans, they will be able to use American virtues against us. They have studied us for decades to learn our weaknesses and our strengths. They have been patient. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain by destroying America. They know that we are trusting, to the point of naivety. True Americans believe in hard work and enjoy the feeling that comes from succeeding, and we believe in honesty and respecting others. We also have a tendency to believe in the truth. Because of our standards, we have a tendency...

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wants answers from the US taxpayer supported Export-Import bank about a $2 billion loan to Brazil for offshore drilling. Vitter’s home state is suffering under a moratorium imposed by President Barack Obama. Vitter said Louisianians “are frustrated” and he wants to know “why permitting domestically is nearly stalled…” Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) had questions about ExIM—nine years ago when he asked Congress to reject the reauthorization of ExIm for “economic, constitutional and moral reasons.” Vitter sent a letter to Fred Hochberg, Ex-Im president, on March 17. Vitter asked Hochberg to identify all US companies that have...

I think I have the Progressive/Socialist/Communist movement figured out, and the answer is God. Surprised? Read on. Humans have an instinctive desire to believe in something bigger than themselves—something all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, that can make everything right when nothing seems to go right. Ask any anthropologist or archaeologist, and he or she will tell you that pretty much every culture in the history or humankind has had a set of beliefs regarding a god or gods. We westerners are most familiar, of course, with the ancient Greek and Roman gods, but every civilization from the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians to...

Rosa Brooks serves as Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Michele Flournoy. In May 2010 she also became Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and then Special Coordinator for Rule of Law and Humanitarian Policy. She is running a new Pentagon office dedicated to those issues. She is on leave from her job as a law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Brooks is known as a columnist (most recently with the LA Times) and at the Pentagon her portfolio has included both human rights issues and global engagement and strategic communication. Her mother, Barbara Ehrenreich, is...

This article analyzes the history of labor union violence, and how Rep. Capuano's comments are a perfect continuation of this historical truth. Labor Unions: A History of Murder and Sabotage The New American 28 February 2011 The raging union-led protests in Wisconsin have resulted in many Americans taking a closer, more critical look at labor unions and their political clout and influence in shaping policy. With the ubiquitous announcement from AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka that he is granted an audience at the White House “nearly every day,” the American people have become more skeptical of unions and the role...

If there is one true cancer in the land of education, according to our Education Establishment, it’s the torture known as “drill and kill.”Progressive educators always hated Drill and Kill. It hurts the child, we are told, and is the end of genuine learning.For the last hundred years, our Education Establishment condemned the direct transmission of knowledge from teacher to student. These elite educators are constantly in a rage that students might be forced to prepare for a test in the traditional sense, that is, they know facts. And yet, when it helps their agenda, the commissars will turn on...

During my transcription process of the book Fabian Freeway, I would sometimes go through the footnotes and see what I could verify, when one thing in particular caught my eye. (Chapter 17) The fact that an old-line southern Democrat had been induced to sponsor the basic legislation so ardently desired by all spokesmen of gradual Socialism was an early and notable example of success for the Fabian technique known as permeation. This concept is actually used extensively throughout the book, but for whatever reason, it caught my eye in the current context. The Fabians turned "Permeation" into a policy because...

Government Website For Immigrants: Come To America And Take Advantage Of Our Free Stuff By Michael Snyder November 19th, 2012 A website run by the federal government (“WelcomeToUSA.gov“) encourages new immigrants to the United States to apply for welfare benefits. This website is run by the Department of Homeland Security and it says that it “is the U.S. Government’s official web portal for new immigrants.” So your tax dollars were used to build and maintain a website that teaches immigrants how to come into this country and sponge a living off of federal welfare programs paid for by your tax...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West is refusing to concede, even though the state of Florida says he lost his re-election bid by 2,442 votes. The state reported its complete but unofficial tally on Saturday in the 18th District race. There are still a handful of overseas and military ballots outstanding, but under Florida law, recounts are based on Saturday’s results.

Proof Positive - In My Opinion True Source Found For "Innocence of Muslims." (Obama)This is a Youtube video produced by user Montagraph who speculated that "Innocence of Muslims" was a false flag op. So did I. He has done a lot of work tracing numerous websites connected to the original uploading of the now famous video. His narrative starts out very slow but give it a chance. He does explain it all in detail and has sourced it all with URLs below his vid. Montagraph declines to say that his evidence is definitive so you be the judge. The internet...

The hacktivist group Anonymous “celebrated” the fifth of November (Guy Fawkes Day) through protest marches, defacing websites, and releasing the credit card information of law enforcement officers. The British holiday Guy Fawkes Day was popularized in the 2005 film "V for Vendetta", where a mask-wearing outcast overthrows a future totalitarian society. The holiday commemorates an actual historical event, where Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the British House of Lords in 1605.

It is not even close: In a world poll of the U.S. presidential race, President Barack Obama is the clear favorite over Governor Mitt Romney. By a margin of 50-9 percent, Obama is favored in the poll of 21,797 respondents in 21 countries around the world. "France was the most strongly pro-Obama (72%)," according to the BBC. The only country that would select Romney over Obama is Pakistan, though neither candidate gets more than 20 percent of the support in that country. And the country where Romney polls the highest? Kenya. But even there, Romney's support does not even eclipse...

There was a time when the far left wing of the Democratic Party in San Francisco stood for something. Sure, they could be shrill, exasperating and self-righteous, but they took a stand. Their causes were clear - the homeless, the downtrodden, and those who didn't have a voice in big money politics. The truth is, as infuriating as they could be; those efforts were good for the city. They pushed everyone to think about the bigger issues: affordable housing, thoughtful development and, of course, more pot clubs. That seems like another era. Now we see them booing women who work...

White House press secretary Jay Carney congratulated the Venezuelan people on their recent election, despite exit polls showing the opposition to President Hugo Chavez winning. Carney, speaking to reporters traveling with President Obama on Air Force One, added that the US has its differences with Chavez.

In their August/September issue, Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine selected Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School as one of the “25 Coolest Schools in America.” King Middle School won the honor for its nonprocessed, organic and high-quality lunch menus cooked with many ingredients from the school’s own garden, in which students raise and harvest healthy vegetables. The school’s unique healthy food curriculum began when Chez Panisse owner and activist Alice Waters founded the Edible Schoolyard project in 1995. The Edible Schoolyard program has also had a positive psychological impact on students, school administrators said. “There has not been formal...

The Democrats are done weaving their web in Charlotte, and wow, what a web it was—an intricate lattice of multicolored Silly String that included everyone and said nothing. Did you know that Democrats like the blacks? And the Hispanics? And the gays? And women? We didn’t know that. Now we do. Did you know the Democrats have a plan to make the next four years better than the last four? Really? We didn’t. And after watching their convention, we still don’t. All we know after watching it is that we all need to go forward together. ALL of us. Together....

Israeli archaeologist digs into Sobibor death camp in search of Nazi killing machines Yoram Haimi's biggest breakthrough yet: mapping of what the Germans called the Himmelfahrsstrasse, or the 'Road to Heaven,' a path upon which the inmates were marched naked into the gas chambers. When Israeli archaeologist Yoram Haimi decided to investigate his family's unknown Holocaust history, he turned to the skill he knew best: He began to dig. After learning that two of his uncles were murdered in the infamous Sobibor death camp, he embarked on a landmark excavation project that is shining new light on the workings of...

....Chávez and other thugs (such as Iranian Madman-in-Chief Ahmadinejad) send in busloads of paid agitators to interrupt challengers' speeches and make their own support look more substantial than it is. Barack Obama thought only to send Joe Biden, knowing that the throngs of supporters -- made up largely of reporters, anchormen, and their entourages -- would be provided for him by an all-in-for-Obama media aiming similarly to create a false impression of unflagging popularity. And they surely would have, had a little wind [Isaac] not sapped the brief courage of Delaware's big-talking Cowardly Lion. ....according to a 2011 PewResearch poll...

Dear Diary, Yesterday we spent sacrificing in Miami. And by sacrificin’ I mean we wore recycled. ...Meanwhile, cross country, Big Guy entered a spelling bee at Ohio State University yesterday, putting up very few points for either himself or the school: BO and 3 potential Ohio State graduates demonstrate the epidemic of dyslexia sweeping the country… “O-I-H-I”  - or maybe that’s the entry code for one of those secret trap doors? ...Of course our lapdogs did everything possible to cover the gaffe, immediately putting out word that it was the work of right wing terrorists using their evil powers of...

Peace and Freedom Party presidential candidate Roseanne Barr compared America to pre-war Berlin and agreed that poor Republicans are like the Jewish police, the pro-Nazi units who "collected people for forced labor, guarded the ghetto fences and gates and eventually seized people for deportations," Twitchy reported Tuesday. "[A]merica is currently just like pre war berlin & EVERYONE is a Jew now, (sic)" she tweeted Tuesday. "And poor republicans are the Jewish police," one person responded. "[Y]es," Barr replied. "If you are a low-income Republican, Roseanne Barr considers you the moral equivalent of a Jew who oversaw the deportation of other...

The Senate majority leader continues to stonewall on a sensitive matter. WASHINGTON -- A week passes, and thus far the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has yet to tell us whether he is or is not having sexual relations with a cow. As was reported in this column last week, based on sources in the field, Mr. Reid has been involved with the cow for at least three months, possibly more. My sources cannot be identified for obvious reasons. Even the New York Times would not reveal their identities. The story is that hot. -snip- -snip- As for Mr....

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-02/the-bad-history-behind-you-didn-t-build-that-.html This is a very interesting article that ultimately argues that a society/culture's very attitude toward innovation and entrepreneurialism is what really creates wealth...and this is the very thing Obama sneers at and damages in his BELIEF (not just gaffe, but deeply held belief) that "you didn't build that."

Exclusive: Erik Rush asks how far a 'naked communist' must go before he's exposed For quite a while now, I’ve referred to President Barack Obama as a communist – not a progressive (which he has said he is), a liberal or a socialist – but a communist. It only made sense, given that the man was bred, raised and mentored by communists, employed and was employed by communists, eagerly fraternized with communists and diligently studied communism throughout his entire adult life. Even if one ignores his life before political office, there’s certainly enough remaining evidence of Obama’s communistic bent, most...

At Take Back the American Dream, Van Jones, Paul Krugman, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ai-jen Poo, Sandra Fluke, Gov. Howard Dean, Melissa Harris-Perry, Chris Hayes, Katrina vanden Heuvel and many more will share ideas and forge the strategy to make sure that the 99% is heard.

Former President Bill Clinton mocked Rep. Allen West (R-FL) at a fundraising event for President Barack Obama on Monday night. Clinton mocked West’s claim that House Democrats were communists – he said that “this isn’t the 1950s” and “no one has seen a communist in over a decade.” Clinton praised the work that Obama has accomplished in his first term in office and said that he’s had to accomplish the reforms he has instituted amid significant adversity. “He’s had to get all this done while people as recently as last week were still saying he wasn’t born in America,” said...

Don’t be fooled by the pomp and dazzle of the Queen’s royal Diamond Jubilee flotilla easing past the tourists, celebrity-spotters, and pickpockets on the Thames. Britain is a country rotting from the inside, the first nation on earth that elected to destroy its culture with political correctness.Asks British columnist Rod Liddle, “Who are the people who have made Britain what it is today, the ones who ensured that we became a limp-wristed and decrepit, post-imperial satrapy of incompetence, sanctimony, self-obsession and self-loathing?”Who indeed? (By limp-wristed, Liddle means lacking in conviction, not gay). The short answer is the new aristocracy,...

Clashes between neo-Nazi demonstrators and far-left counter-protesters overnight in the northern German port city of Hamburg left 38 police officers injured, police said Sunday. Security forces were pelted with rocks, bottles and fireworks and responded by turning water canon and pepper spray on the rioting groups who turned out at a march by the far right. At least two parked cars and a police cruiser were set ablaze. Police, who deployed 4,400 officers to keep the peace between the two sides, took 63 demonstrators into custody and formally arrested another 17. Around 3,500 people, mainly from the hard left, turned...

<p>This photo was taken at La Bastille Plaza in Paris, during the election celebration for the comrade socialist president Hollande. See any French flags? Anywhere? Actually, there is ONE towards the bottom right. The other flags are in order of appurtenance, Palestinian (2 flags top right+1 center left), Algerian, Turkish (towards center), Syrian (towards left of pic + below Palestinian flag), Moroccan (w. star in center), and European Union flag. The other flags I can’t recognize, there are also Syndicates or Unions’ flags. That's France in a nutshell.</p>

Barack Obama gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dolores Huerta, an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. During the ceremony today President Obama admitted he stole her slogan “Yes we can!” for his 2008 campaign. (Video at link) ---snip---...Dolores Huerta, an 82-year-old labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers union. Huerta is also an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. DSA describes itself as “the largest socialist organization in the United States, and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International.” Huerta has claimed, “Republicans hate Latinos,” and has spoken fondly of Hugo...

Alec Baldwin has never hid his liberal politics and he isn't starting now. Yesterday, while visiting the Cannes Film Festival, the "30 Rock" star went on a full Twitter rampage against Republicans and Anti-Obama voicers. Looks like his conservative character on "30 Rock" hasn't rubbed off on him in the slightest. The Baldwin tweets started out harmless enough... But something or someone must have triggered his nerves because a full-blown counter-attack against anti-Obama protesters followed... After replying to some commenters and rehashing rumors about running for mayor, Baldwin went full 360 and wrote a haiku about Cannes. Strange.

When friends suggest that the election in November will be close, I half-agree, with a twinkle. Because I don't think it will be close. That's because this lot, as the Brits say, don't have it sorted -- unlike Bill Clinton in the 1990s, who knew how to seduce the middle class. It's a point of pride among urban liberals around the president not to understand the ordinary American. It's been this way ever since John Kenneth Galbraith's bestsellers like The Affluent Society taught liberals how to sneer at the ordinary middle class rather than understand it. Of course, you can...

We've been skeptical of the arguments by some of our brethren on the right that Barack Obama is a quasi-socialist or a crypto-socialist ... or just a plain old socialist. But now the New York Times is weighing in, in favor of the proposition. In an article (Change in Paris May Better Fit U.S. Economic Positions)" the Times reports:"With the victory of the Socialist candidate, (François Hollande), in the French presidential election, the White House has lost one of its closest allies on the Continent, but perhaps gained one with economic policy beliefs more closely aligned with its own....Mr. Hollande...

Congressman Allen West is being hammered for his comments alleging that certain Democratic members of Congress are communists. It's the kind of accusation (West is not backing down) that sets liberals seething in rage. An even worse sin was that West dared to quantify his accusation, attaching a number to the alleged Reds. He said there are "78 to 81" Congressional Democrats who are communists. Naturally, all of this is a huge no-no, reflexively sending liberals into fits and shouts of "McCarthyism!" I want to say three things relating to West's remarks: First, some criticism of West's critics. Second, a...

The mainstream media will attempt to spin French President Nicholas Sarkozy's loss today to Socialist challenger François Hollande as a rejection of "austerity" policies--and to urge American voters to reject the deficit-cutting politics of the Tea Party when we go to the polls in November. In fact, there are important lessons from France--and they are the precise opposite of what the media is telling us. First, to call Sarkozy's policies "austerity" is to insult both austerity and socialism. The French government--like other European governments--sought to close its budget gap primarily by raising taxes, not by cutting the size and cost...

The Socialist Party of America announced in their October 2009 newsletter that 70 Congressional democrats currently belong to their caucus. This admission was recently posted on Scribd.com:

An interview with a socialist at a May 1st rally.