Free Republic

When Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" in 1983, he was articulating in the boldest terms what had always been an American understanding. The Kremlin had long been fomenting communist revolution the world over, and we had long pursued our policy of "containment." Thus did we fight wars in Korea and Vietnam, facilitate coups d'état against people such as Salvador Allende and support anti-communist rebels such as the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. Of course, plans didn't always come together. There was the Bay of Pigs debacle, and the covert Iran-Contra operation getting front-page exposure. The "police action" in...

In case you haven't seen a TV in the last month, here is some background. Bertha Lewis is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Organizer of ACORN, the largest community organization in the country. Appointed in May 2008, Ms. Lewis oversees the operations of its 400,000 strong membership, which is active in over 110 cities across the country. During the past few weeks while Lewis has been all over the press defending her organization, she has claimed that her first priority is ACORN's Clients, those poor people needing housing, medical care, etc. If she is so concerned about "the little...

A photo and article summary showing Obama's unmistakable love affair with tyrants.

When we consider Carter’s actions both in and out of office, we wonder how we could have made the mistake of electing him in the first place. We can only hope that the current occupant of the White House will not evoke similar thoughts, although just now, things don’t look promising. Jimmy Carter is a national treasure. His inverted moral compass unfailingly points south. If we wish to find a wise and moral path to follow, we need only observe which direction he is going, then go the opposite way. Now, if only I could find a financial advisor who...

He could have said the election’s irrelevant from our standpoint since we have to play the cards we’re dealt; he could have noted, as Obama’s often done in the past, that true power resides in the supreme leader so it’s only his legitimacy that’s at issue; or he could have told the truth and said that all Iranian elections are shams since true reformers aren’t allowed on the ballot. Instead, so desperate are these tools to get Iran to the bargaining table and show Americans some sort of dividend from Hopenchange diplomacy that Gibbs actually acknowledges Ahmadinejad as the “elected...

If Barack Obama disappoints his supporters, they will have only themselves to blame. In January 2007 Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, said he was running for president to revive “our national soul”. He was not alone in taking an expansive view of presidential responsibilities. With the exception of Ron Paul, all the serious candidates waxed grandiloquent about their aims. John McCain said he modelled himself on Teddy Roosevelt, a man who “nourished the soul of a great nation”. Hillary Clinton lamented that America had no goals, and offered to supply some. And let us not forget the man...

he New York Times may have a reputation as America’s premiere newspaper, but it also has a well-deserved reputation among informed Americans as a flunky for every big-government scheme that ever came down the pike. Moreover, New York Times' reporters on the scene in Russia and Cuba repeatedy put out false stories benefiting Stalin and Castro, two of the most tyrannical dictators of modern times. The New York Times’ affair with false reporting on behalf of totalitarianism is far more serious than than Jayson Blair's plagiarisms and fabrications in various stories in 2002-03, or even last year's admission that the...

Iranians are protesting and I suppose that is something lovers of freedom can take pride in but these protests leave me somewhat baffled. The Iranians are contesting the elections under the Ayatollah controlled regime but they are not contesting the regime itself which begs the question: what policies are Mousavi planning to enact that are so drastically different than Ahmadinejad? The answer is his policies cannot and would not stray too far from what the current President is doing because Mousavi, as the rest of the candidates, were prescreened by the "power that be" in Iran. Are they going to...

Inasmuch as Barack Obama fancies himself alternatively the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a closer perusal of FDR’s policies is in order. Beyond the disastrous New Deal, a massive expansion of government bureaucracy and spending which extended the length of the Great Depression; FDR’s dealings with the homicidal Joe Stalin are revealing.

Very funny and very apt for this time. (Click on the link above.)

The "Nationwide Chicago TeaParty" sponsored by the #DONTGO movement, Smart Girl Politics (#SGP), Americans for Tax Reform, Heartland Institute, Top Conservatives on Twitter (#TCOT), and the American Spectator will be February 27 at Noon EST.

Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.): Democrats made the bill available at 11 p.m. on Thursday night. At 9 a.m. Friday morning, the House begins debate on the bill. If members of Congress actually took the time to read the bill, they would have to read through the night at a rate of 626 words per minute before heading to the House floor. What are the odds of that happening? (w/video)

Emanuel: White House not 'amateur hour' Jon Ward (Contact) Defending the White House in the wake of Sen. Judd Gregg's withdrawal as Commerce Secretary, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said it is not "amateur hour" and that the Obama administration is still doing better than President Clinton was at this point. "Some may call it amateur hour. Having been in two separate White Houses, I'm more than — and within our third week given this set of accomplishments — measure them up," said Mr. Emanuel, who served as a senior adviser in the Clinton White House from 1993 to 1998....

(video of shoe throwing) Those wily Chinese always seem to be one step ahead of us lately. Even in implementing the Fairness Doctrine. A protestor recently tossed a shoe at Chinese premier Wen – in imitation of the Iraqi reporter who hurled a shoe at President Bush - during his speech in England. Chinese state-run newspapers and websites reported on Wen’s speech but ignored the shoe-throwing. Independent websites that mention the incident appear to have been censored. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that Britain apologized for an incident but never mentioned what what it was apologizing for. Consider this...

An ACORN insider just told me that the group is planning to send hundreds of activists to Capitol Hill this Wednesday to press lawmakers to approve the porkulus spending legislation that would give the heavily tax-subsidized ACORN a shot at up to $5.2 billion in taxpayer dollars. I wrote a massive profile of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) in the November Foundation Watch, have written several articles about ACORN in the American Spectator, and talked about ACORN on "The G. Gordon Liddy Show" on Feb. 6. Meanwhile, the D.C. Examiner has a good primer by Kristen Lopez...

WASHINGTON -- Convinced tax cuts will not stimulate the nation’s economy, Sen. Dianne Feinstein spoke out Friday against President Barack Obama's economic recovery package. “I’m going increasingly concerned about the bill as to whether it is really going to be a stimulus,” she told fellow Senators during a debate of the bill. Feinstein then roiled through a litany of California’s financial woes. “I come from a state which has more people unemployed today than the population of over a dozen states,” she said. “A state where the bread lines are growing, Where the need for assistance is growing. Where the...

OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL What did president tell Supreme Court? Lawyer in eligibility case seeks records of secret discussions Posted: January 27, 2009 9:47 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh © 2009 WorldNetDaily A lawyer whose case challenging Barack Obama's eligibility to occupy the Oval Office was denied a hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court says she will demand records of a meeting between the justices and the president. California lawyer Orly Taitz, who has several cases pending over the issue of Obama's status as a "natural born" citizen, told WND she will take action soon. Her case was the most recent...

If you have a 401K, you've seen what happens when confidence abandons the stock market. If people didn't trust financial leaders and institutions before, they certainly do not now. Paola Sapienza (Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University) and Luigi Zingales (Un iversity of Chicago Booth School of Business) have created the Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index and they have published the first set of results today. They say their research shows just how deep America's declining trust runs and how strongly it contributes to the country's financial problems. The results do not speak well for confidence that more...

"If we don't get this done we (the Democrats) could lose seats and I could lose re-election. But we can't let people like Rush Limbaugh stall this. That's how things don't get done in this town." {snip} "One prong of the Great Unifier's plan is to isolate elected Republicans from their voters and supporters by making the argument about me and not about his plan. He is hoping that these Republicans will also publicly denounce me and thus marginalize me." {snip} "One more thing, Byron. Your publication and website have documented Obama's ties to the teachings of Saul Alinksy...

The Wall Street Journal reports on what everyone already knows: the federal bailout serves as nothing more than a political payoff machine. As long as lenders have friends in Washington, they’ll get TARP funds, regardless of how they’ve run their bank or their current health as a lender. Barney Frank leads the pack in the new version of pork: Troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston didn’t look much like a candidate for aid from the Treasury Department’s bank bailout fund last fall. The Treasury had said it would give money only to healthy banks, to jump-start lending. But OneUnited had seen...