Free Republic

Candidates often say things when polling in the single digits that come back to haunt them when they start leading the polls. Last October, Rick Santorum gave an interview with an Evangelical blog called Caffeinated Thoughts, in which he said contraception is “not okay,” and that this would be a public policy issue he would tackle as President. In particular, he said he would “get rid of any idea that you have to have abortion coverage or contraceptive coverage” as a government policy.

The pharmacist seemed sympathetic to my plight. Sadly, he explained that Primatene Mist (an over the counter inhaler for asthmatics) had been taken off the market. I was not surprised. Certainly many doctors have warned people of Primatene’s potential side effects. Oddly enough, medical concerns had nothing to do with its removal. Instead the pharmacist started talking about Global Warming. In denial, I jumped on the internet, hoping against hope that the pharmacist had somehow been mistaken. Instead I found an AP article from late 2011. “Asthma patients who rely on over-the-counter inhalers will need to switch to prescription-only alternatives...

I seem to remember a time when “big government� and “conservatism� were pretty much mutually exclusive phrases. But the lines have been blurring on that for a long time now, a point which came to light significantly during the administration of George W. Bush with the expansion of Medicare and NCLB. This distracted and disillusioned many conservatives, along with the accelerated rate of spending. (It was nowhere near the current pace, obviously, but still enough to put many fiscal conservatives off their feed.)At the Daily Caller, Matt Lewis highlights this debate and how it has swung the spotlight onto Rick...

<p>The president of the United States came to Osawatomie, Kan., last week to deliver a speech of such fascinating awfulness archeologists of the future sifting through the rubble of our civilization will surely doubt whether it could really have been delivered by the chief executive of the global superpower in the year 2011.</p>

Doubts about Mitt Romney’s fitness for the White House disappear when skittish Republicans, conservatives and even evangelicals consider the alternative: another four years of President Obama and his evolving administration.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — They have debated on the same stage five times, but rarely have the contrasts between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry been more in evidence than during separate appearances here Friday night. It was Romney the careful technocrat versus Perry the unplugged preacher. snip One such question came from a man who told Romney that “everything you said in your introduction was wonderful” but who questioned some of the details of the former Massachusetts governor’s priorities. “I’m just not seeing how that adds up,” he said. snip An hour later, Perry took the stage at a downtown hotel...

It has a lot to do with Romney. He is rising as more and more Republicans come to the conclusion that the Republican Party has found its Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor running on competence, not ideology.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yesterday on This Week with Christiane Amanpour, George Will -- this was during the roundtable discussion, George Will discussing Mitt Romney. WILL: It has a lot to do with Romney. He is rising as more and more Republicans come to the conclusion that the Republican Party has found its Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor running on competence, not ideology. RUSH: Did you hear that? George Will characterizing Mitt Romney as the Republican Party's Michael Dukakis. Michael Dukakis, a Democrat loser running for office in 1988, one of the most famous things that Dukakis did was he...

Looks Tough Firing Blanks If you're a Tea Party member, or you have significant sympathies with them, I'd caution you against climbing aboard Rick Perry's TransTexasCatastrophe. The Media is doing everything possible to paint this guy as a bronc-busting, cattle-roping, Texan, but in truth, there are more than a few things you ought to know about him. He's no friend to individual rights, except in an election season, and he's not really the trend-setter he'd have you believe. His record on jobs isn't actually so swift as he'd have you believe, and he's got less in common with the average...

Detroit — General Motors Co. CEO Dan Akerson wants the federal gas tax boosted as much as $1 a gallon to nudge consumers toward more fuel-efficient cars, and he's confident the government will soon shed its remaining 26 percent stake in the once-bankrupt automaker. "I actually think the government will be out this year — within the next 12 months, hopefully within the next six months," Akerson said in a two-hour interview with The Detroit News last week. He is grateful for the government's rescue of GM — "I have nothing but good things to say about them" — but...

In the absence of government, anarchy sets in. In the presence of an all powerful government you have totalitarianism. In both cases a man’s attention must be focused on attending to the immediacies necessary for survival. In the former, dangers can be found around any corner as everyone fends for themselves. In the latter, dangers can be found around every corner as the government controls and sees all. When your entire existence is focused on surviving one day to the next, it’s difficult to focus on things like science, leisure or any of the myriad other things we take for...

In an interview today, the author at the center of a controversy about Amazon’s sale of a self-published pedophile’s guide told TSG that he has sold exactly one copy of the book and revealed that he was involuntarily hospitalized following a “mental breakdown.” Noting that, “I have what they call manic depression,” Phillip Greaves, 47, said that he himself was not a pedophile and that “the best advice I can give a pedophile is accept that masturbation is your best friend.” Greaves’s book, “The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover's Code of Conduct,” last week became available for...

Price increases, health concerns and restrictions on where people can light up lead to a 8.1% drop in sales in the most recent fiscal year. Taking a puff in California is getting to be a drag, with health concerns and high prices pushing cigarette sales in the most recent fiscal year to their steepest plunge in a decade.Californians bought 8.1% fewer cigarettes in fiscal 2009 — which ended June 30 — than a year earlier, according to a report Tuesday from the California State Board of Equalization. Since peaking in fiscal 1980 with 2.8 billion packs, cigarette sales has tumbled...

Earlier this month Xing Xiao pleaded guilty in Alexandria, VA for conspiring to hire a hitman to whack a couple he believed had stolen 15,000 cartons of contraband cigarattes from him, and Antonio Tricamo, an associate of reputed mobster Roberto Settineri, was indicted in Miami, FL for allegedly attempting to sell 250,000 cigarettes without paying the Florida tax. The two cases illustrate the increasing role of organized crime in trafficking black market cigarettes as the federal and state governments continue to impose hefty taxes on the product. Indeed, in New York untaxed cigarattes have long been a lucrative racket for...

Republican leader Mitt Romney said Monday the GOP nominee in the 2012 presidential election will have to bring together divided factions of the party. "Whoever becomes the nominee of our party needs to be, as Ronald Reagan was, a big-top Republican welcoming conservatives of all types in our party," he said during an interview with The Washington Times' "America's Morning News" radio show.

Obama & Dems Ready to Ram Obamacare Down America’s Throat (Video) March 3, 2010 Jim Hoft It’s for the greater good. President Obama is holding a press conference today at 1:45 PM EST. Obama rejected GOP calls to start over on the democrat’s health care bill today, saying the delay could last a decade or more. He brought the lab coat props with him. “We Can’t Walk Away, America’s Waiting For Us To Act, Let’s Get It Done!”

At a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the launch of the ‘Let’s Move’ campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States, an epidemic she said is costly and a threat to national security. “A recent study put the health care cost of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion a year,” Mrs. Obama said. “This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security, as obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.” The ceremony, attended by many officials of President Barack Obama’s cabinet, followed the signing earlier in the day of a...

I'm fully aware that posting or linking directly to the DUmp for the rantings of DUmmies is prohibited and rightly so. We all get a kick out of PJ's and Charles braving the world of the left for humorous topics in their DUmmie FUnnies. I'm always curious to know how my enemy, yes even the small amount represented there, thinks. Every now and again you can spot a trend that you just know is going to gather steam and possibly create a talking point or be added to the left's lexicon of deception. Today I present to you the new...

The effort to get same sex marriage on the California ballot in 2010 took a hit Monday. Rick Jacbos, the leader of the 700,000-member Courage Campaign just told us that after spending more than $200,000 on "qualitative research" into the issue in California that "We do not see a path to victory." So, the Courage Campaign sent a note to its supporters Monday calling for "for more research and time to change hearts and minds before returning to the ballot." Lambda Legal, a LGBT legal organization, said largely the same thing Monday. Jacobs told us that the research -- led...

Washington – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today responded to the “Manhattan Declaration” produced and released by 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders indicating that they will not cooperate with laws that conflict with their beliefs, including those recognizing same-sex couples. The document also references the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) as a threat to religious liberty. Yet ENDA – which prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity – broadly exempts religious organizations. The declaration also argues that religious groups that receive public funds...

Van Jones may have resigned but there are over 30 other "czars" in the White House we need to be aware of and start targeting one by one. Van Jones was easy pickings. His trail was very public, very well documented and contained many easy use statements on videotape from his speaking engagements. I doubt more powerful and possibly more radical "czars" will be as blatant in their public disregard for America and American values. We surround them. Remember, only 1/3rd of colonists were self-described patriots and only 10% of colonists actively took up arms or directly supported the Revolutionary...

Obama and ‘Redistributive Change’ Forget the recession and the “uninsured.” Obama has bigger fish to fry. By Victor Davis Hanson The first seven months of the Obama administration seemingly make no sense. Why squander public approval by running up astronomical deficits in a time of pre-existing staggering national debt? Why polarize opponents after promising bipartisan transcendence? Why create vast new programs when the efficacy of big government is already seen as dubious? But that is exactly the wrong way to look at these first seven months of Obamist policy-making. Take increased federal spending and the growing government absorption of GDP....

August 26, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Obama and ‘Redistributive Change’Forget the recession and the “uninsured.” Obama has bigger fish to fry. By Victor Davis Hanson The first seven months of the Obama administration seemingly make no sense. Why squander public approval by running up astronomical deficits in a time of pre-existing staggering national debt? Why polarize opponents after promising bipartisan transcendence? Why create vast new programs when the efficacy of big government is already seen as dubious? But that is exactly the wrong way to look at these first seven months of Obamist policy-making. Take increased federal spending and the...

Come what may in regard to President Obama’s Health Care reform bill, what will most likely stand out in the process is the national rebellion against the bill’s beltway intrusiveness. Many on the Right have warned for decades of the creeping hand of government--a government that has methodically tightened its grip around a free nation. Through legislation and judicial fiat, the incremental confiscation of basic freedoms and the wealth that often enables those very freedoms, progressive policy has become the prime impediment to America’s promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

I have noticed that many leftist/socialist/communist regimes end in bloodshed. Well save a few, like Poland. Any reasons why that happens and why the end in bloodshed? Nazis Germany-World War II Soviet Union-Christmas Day Coup Fascist Italy-World War II. Benito Mussolini was executed and hanged in public. Salvador Allende-September 11, 1973 Coup Communist Romania-Nicolae CeauÅŸescu got executed Baathist Iraq-America invaded Iraq in 2003

Sen. Dick Durbin was just 10 or 11 when he and his cousin Mike sneaked out behind a garage in East St. Louis, Ill., to have a smoke, Durbin's first. He didn't care much for the taste of the cigarette but, unfortunately, Mike did. Mike died two weeks ago of tobacco-related lung disease. "There he was, on oxygen, smoking the night before he died," remembered Durbin, D-Ill. "He just could not quit. It is a terrible addiction." Durbin's father, also a smoker, died at age 53 of lung cancer. "It was devastating to my family," Durbin said... ~snip" Reid said...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An Obama administration official says the administration will appoint a "special master" to oversee executives' compensation at companies receiving large amounts of government aid, with the power to reject pay plans deemed excessive. The official said the special master will review the compensation for the top 100 salaried employees at firms that receive exceptional assistance under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Among the companies that could be affected would be Bank of America, General Motors and the American International Group. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the program had not yet been...

Why not legalize same-sex marriage? Who could it possibly hurt? Children and the rest of society. That’s the conclusion of David Blankenhorn, who is anything but an anti-gay “bigot.” He is a life-long, pro-gay, liberal democrat who disagrees with the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual behavior. Despite this, Blankenhorn makes a powerful case against Same-Sex marriage in his book, The Future of Marriage. He writes, “Across history and cultures . . . marriage’s single most fundamental idea is that every child needs a mother and a father. Changing marriage to accommodate same-sex couples would nullify this principle in culture and in...

Cass Sunstein sees Web as anti-democratic, proposed 24-hour delay on sending e-mail WASHINGTON – Barack Obama's nominee for "regulatory czar" has advocated a "Fairness Doctrine" for the Internet that would require opposing opinions be linked and also has suggested angry e-mails should be prevented from being sent by technology that would require a 24-hour cooling off period. The revelations about Cass Sunstein, Obama's friend from the University of Chicago Law School and nominee to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, come in a new book by Brad O'Leary, "Shut Up, America! The End of Free Speech."...

Senators have tabled, or killed, an amendment offered by Senator David Vitter (R-LA) to the Serve America Act (S. 277 / H.R. 1388) by a vote of 53 to 43.The amendment would state that no funds within the underlying bill for various service-related programs can go to “ACORN or any of its affiliate organizations in any way.”ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. It’s a community organizing group for “low- and moderate-income people” according to its website.The group’s political committees generally support Democrats. You’ll recall that it came under fire in the media for alleged voter...

Interestingly enough an important amendment brought to the floor today was not in the H.R. 1388 when it passed the Senate today. The first presented by Sen Vitter (LA) wanted to insure that no money be made available to ACORN and its affiliates, on the grounds that it is a organization with possibly suspect behaviour and that including it in the bill would not be able to politicize charitable giving and activities. Saying that the bill doesn’t allow politicized does not necessarily protect the country from ACORN’s “so-called” charitable activities. ACORN has already received considerable funding from the government, for...

Charlie Rangel, one of Congress' Dem professional criminals, was just interviewed by Chris Wallance on "Fox News Sunday." Among other bombshells was his answer to Wallace's question about the AIG bonus kerfuffle. Rangel suggested that, regarding private businesses that take no bailout, he is planning on limiting the pay and bonuses received by ANY business manager, whether the company involved has received any government money or not, to ensure the "fairness" of the system. Barney Frank has already stated as much although we haven't heard much on this from Frank since the beginning of the year. But it seems clear...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined a broad economic vision Tuesday, saying it's time to replace an "on your own" society with one based on shared responsibility and prosperity. The Democratic senator said what the Bush administration touts as an "ownership society" really is an "on your own" society that has widened the gap between rich and poor. "I prefer a 'we're all in it together' society," she said. "I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none."...

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

A coalition of 18 advocacy groups is opposing Arizona Senator John McCain's plans to introduce legislation to ban so-called "527" groups. McCain is preparing legislation that coalition leaders believe would stifle the political speech of groups that, ironically, were started as a result of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill passed by Congress in 2002.

While the White House is taking a hands-off approach to the 2008 GOP presidential primaries so far, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is quietly seeing an administration cheerleading section grow. One insider said that it is built on the fact that Giuliani continues to beat Sen. John McCain in the polls and also because he is offering to stick with several Bush programs, including an aggressive stance against terrorists, and promises to name conservative judges to the court. One Bush official today noted Giuliani's pledge to nominate conservative judges and applauded the New Yorker for making that claim in...

Nobody can discredit the talent, skill and sheer genius of Frank Sinatra. Emerging onto the music scene in 1935, the hoodlum from Hoboken went from the marketplace to the marquee. For six decades this musical rock of Gibraltar wooed audiences from Jersey to Japan, Connecticut to Cambodia. He was a living legend. But like most legends, Sinatra had an Achilles heel. While drugs, alcohol and cigarettes may be addictive, the spotlight is down right infectious, and when one has occupied the spotlight for decades, it is pretty much impossible to vacate it. Sinatra, even though a maverick of music, fell...

Views of Giuliani put GOP to the test His moderate stands on social issues part with conservative base .......On the first day of his five-day California swing, a blog popular with state conservatives, Flash Report.org, posted a YouTube clip from a February 2000 Meet the Press in which Giuliani boasts that no public official in the nation is "more strongly pro-immigrant than I am." For conservatives who want a president who will crack down on illegal immigration, that sort of talk is very troubling. "That's a big mistake," said Linda Sutter, 50, of Crescent City, Calif., who supports Giuliani because...

Rudy Giuliani Has Got What You Need Posted by Mark Radulich on 02.15.2007 It won't matter what Giuliani thinks about about abortion if Iran drops a bomb on us. And quite frankly I'm much less worried about Islamic terrorism with President Giuliani in charge than President Brownback or Clinton.The story right now being bandied about by the mainstream media and the talk radio world is that the GOP has no front-runner for the 2008 Presidential election or that the front-runners are not exactly inspiring anyone. The three most prominent names right now are obviously John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani....

In 1993 it became obvious that if Rudy was to avenge his narrow defeat for Mayor four years earlier, he would need more Democratic voters to cross party lines and support him. His campaign strategists knew I was disenchanted with the incumbent and put a full court press on me to meet with Giuliani. I was the elected head of the Democratic Party in a large Democratic district whose vote could be pivotal if it turned out for the I met him and we talked for about an hour. He impressed me then as he does now with his intelligence,...

[snip] Giuliani transformed a city whose budget and workforce were larger than those of all but five or six states. He and police chief William Bratton famously cracked down first on quality of life crimes like panhandling and public urination. Teenagers who leaped over the turnstiles at subway entrances were arrested — a departure from the practice under Mayor David Dinkins. Giuliani later quipped that the police under his predecessor had become "highly skilled observers of crime." Those turnstile jumpers turned out to possess a huge number of illegal guns, which were confiscated, and criminals throughout the city discovered that...

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has led the field for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination in most polls of GOP voters. His popularity among the party’s mainly conservative base is founded on his image of standing tall and reassuring New Yorkers following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on their city, though some voters also know him for his tough-on-crime persona and efforts to rein in government spending. But there are aspects of Giuliani’s record; his views, especially on volatile social issues; and his personal past that do not thrill conservative activists. In fact, some are inalterably opposed to...

Rudy Giuliani's announcement that he will seek the Republican presidential nomination brings to my mind a book I wrote in the early 1990s, "The Conservative Crack-Up." When I wrote the book, Ronald Reagan's successor, President George H. W. Bush, was ignoring many of the constituent ingredients of the Reagan Revolution, for instance, tax cuts. The various factions of the conservative coalition were disgruntled and threatening to take a walk. Once again liberal pundits were diagnosing the conservative movement as moribund. Ever since the conservative movement's ascendancy within the Republican Party in 1964, these grim diagnoses have been handed down episodically....

A local public relations heavyweight with ties to the Bush family has joined Rudy Giuliani's presidential team. Gordon C. James Public Relations is doing work for the former New York City Mayor's presidential bid. Gordon James has done work in the past for former President George H.W. Bush and current President George W. Bush. That includes inauguration planning, advance and public relations work. James' wife, Lisa, ran the Bush/Cheney 2008 campaign. She also works for the public relations firm and ran unsuccessfully for chair of the Arizona Republican Party last month. Gordon James told The Business Journal he had no...

Rudy Giuliani will prevent a conservative crack-up. Today, after very little effort, Giuliani is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Dick Morris is predicting a Giuliani vs. Clinton race in 2008. Yet some conservatives are dubious of the man who cleaned up New York, returned it to a vigor unimaginable from the 1960s through the 1980s, and then led New York and the country heroically through 9/11. Well, one knows a politician by the company he keeps, and Giuliani has around him the financial people who created the libertarian-conservative Manhattan Institute. He relied heavily on the Institute's policies while governing...

'THAT WAS A PRESIDENT... McCAIN ON MTP WAS A SENATOR... AND HILLARY IS A MONSTER'(Dick Morris on Giuliani) by Mia T, 2.05.07 Will be posting the Giuliani interview here shortly...

Breaking on Fox News. Giuliani Files Statement of Candidacy for President No article yet.

See video for Hillary's plan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1PfE9K8j0g

More voters say they would be comfortable with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as president than other top 2008 contenders, though majorities would also be comfortable with other leaders from both parties, according to the latest FOX News Poll. In addition, of all the 2008 hopefuls — announced or frequently mentioned as a possibility — voters want to hear more from one candidate specifically: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Opinion Dynamics Corporation conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from January 30 to January 31. The poll has a 3-point error margin.