Free Republic

Sarah Palin says she's done. Done with whining about the media, that is. In an appearance on Fox News, where she serves as a contributor, Palin shrugged off a recent sexual slur directed her way from comedian Bill Maher, saying, "I'm through whining about a liberal press that holds particularly conservative women to a different standard, because it doesn't do any good to whine about it." "Nobody ever promised life was going to be fair," Palin continued in what appeared to be a departure from her usual pattern of forcefully responding to critics, especially those in the media. "And politics...

The college senior in Colorado felt cheated when for $23 per page she ordered a custom-written term paper from a Twin Cities company and it wasn't delivered on time. Never mind that she was cheating by passing off a paper written by a stranger as her own. She complained to the Better Business Bureau about Essaywritingcompany.com, owned by Jordan Kavoosi of Farmington. "I ordered it, and they were supposed to have it back to me within four days," she told the Watchdog. "I constantly emailed. Nobody replied to me. Then (Kavoosi) calls me and says under no circumstances am I...

I was shocked when I saw this number. The gravy train is really over for public employee unions. Citizens are sick to death of their strikes, threats of strikes, whining, caterwauling, and incompetence. It wouldn't be this bad probably, if government, at any level, worked. But Americans look at the cluster fark that government has become and wonder why we are paying these bozos so much? Politico: "A new poll from the Washington-based Clarus Group asked: Do you think government employees should be represented by labor unions that bargain for higher pay, benefits and pensions ... or do you think...

Yesterday we noted the details of a bill introduced by Wisconsin's new Tea Party Republican Governor Scott Walker that would increase payments from public sector employees while eliminating collective bargaining powers for unions (including teachers)—while also introducing unprecedented executive powers to terminate state employees with little due process. In passing, Walker mentioned plans to call in the National Guard, if necessary. It's an announcement that rankled many (maybe intentionally), including the 100,000-member "voice of America's 21st century patriots" organization VoteVets: "Veterans are strongly objecting to Governor Scott Walker's inappropriate threat…."

There have been some real characters elected to Congress over the years. Davy Crockett, for instance, served one term in the House of Representatives, then told his constituents to go to hell and headed for Texas where he died defending the Alamo and became an American icon. And who could ever forget those delightful violin concertos delivered so frequently by Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia? Fortunately, the current Congress is not without its share of fascinating personalities. Take Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who must be moonlighting at the Comedy Club. Seems he had folks rolling in the...

WELCH — The ongoing debate in Washington over the use of federal earmarks could be a bad omen for the Coalfields Expressway and the King Coal Highway, according to project supporters. “As far as earmarks in general, I cannot for the life of me figure out why any congressman or senator would want to stop earmarks,” Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, a long-time supporter of the Coalfields Expressway project in southern West Virginia, said. “Less than 1 percent of the federal budget goes for earmarks. If they can’t bring money home for special projects, we have to rely upon bureaucrats in...

The latest controversy over Transportation Security Administration body scans and enhanced body pat-downs leaves no doubt: America truly is a nation of whiners. A CBS News poll found that 81 percent of Americans support full-body airport scanning. That reasonable view is being drowned out by elements on the left and the right who love nothing better than to proclaim that they are victims. First exhibit: Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who introduced the "American Traveler Dignity Act" to "protect Americans from physical and emotional abuse." Abuse? Have Americans become such babies that a pat-down designed to prevent another 9/11 causes adults...

As many as 1,800 Democratic congressional staffers will soon lose their jobs, with layoffs hitting everyone from entry-level schedulers to six-figure committee lawyers in a mass exodus that will accompany the greatest congressional turnover in 70 years. While results are still being tallied in some races, the damage is clear for Democratic staffers. At least 60 seats have been lost, meaning those offices need to start packing their boxes to clear out in December. POLITICO estimated the likely layoffs based on the average number of staffers per House office, as well as the Democratic committee staffing level, which will most...

Unwilling to delay until tomorrow mistakes that could be made immediately, Democrats used 2010 to begin losing 2012. Trying to preemptively drain the election of its dangerous (to Democrats) meaning, all autumn Democrats described the electorate as suffering a brain cramp, an apoplexy of fear, rage, paranoia, cupidity - something. Any explanation would suffice as long as it cast what voters were about to say as perhaps contemptible and certainly too trivial to be taken seriously by the serious. It is amazing the ingenuity Democrats invest in concocting explanations of voter behavior that erase what voters always care about, and...

To listen to President Obama, you'd think we were in the grip of a never-ending hostage crisis. In sixteen speeches, statements and interviews this year, including his State of the Union address, he has decried the hostage-taking of one issue or another: MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUT EXTENSIONS: "So let me be clear to Mr. Boehner and everybody else: We should not hold middle-class tax cuts hostage any longer." -Speech on the Economy, Parma, Ohio, 9/3/10 AID TO SMALL BUSINESS: "Simply put, holding this bill hostage is directly detrimental to our economic growth." Statement on the Economy. -The Rose Garden. 8/30/10...

Hope I don't get banned but I am sick and tired of free republic acting like nothing is going on!! Either we are under attack or the equipment is inadequate, I hate that there are no posts about the curent issue.

Sorry, Charlie -- your excuses just don't cut it. Though we will say this much: Charlie Rangel's defiant and self-pitying speech on the floor of the House yesterday, in which he sought to defend himself against ethics charges and vowed to fight on, was sure something to behold. All that was missing was a violin. Not that anyone should shed any tears for the ethics-beset dean of New York's congressional delegation, of course. Fact is, little of what Rangel claimed yesterday holds up. Starting, for example, with his whine that the House ethics committee took too long -- more than...

Charlie Rangel is live on Fox news speaking on the House floor.

Robert Gibbs, under fire for his attack on the "professional left," sends over a statement walking it back, conceding it was "inartful," and clarifying that the views he expressed frustration about are not widely held: I watch too much cable, I admit. Day after day it gets frustrating. Yesterday I watched as someone called legislation to prevent teacher layoffs a bailout -- but I know that's not a view held by many, nor were the views I was frustrated about. So what I may have said inartfully, let me say this way -- since coming to office in January 2009,...

Shirley Sherrod, litigant and co-mastermind of the Pigford settlement, which bestowed large checks on 86,000 of the country's 40,000 black farmers, ironically may help usher in a long-overdue post-racial era in America. Publicity, once the ally of the racial grievance industry, is now the enemy of deals done in quiet. After Dan Riehl linked to a law firm that specializes in filing complaints in the Pigford settlement for a 33.5% contingency fee -- Pogust, Braslow & Millrood, LLC, in Conshohoken, Pennsylvania -- their site at http://www.blackfarmersjustice.com seems to have gone offline. Riehl notes this language from the law firm's 2008...

According to Gallup, "White single women, unmarried, widowed, divorced, and separated" voted "overwhelmingly" for Obama. On this Memorial Day, this crucial slice of Obama's base of support without whom he would have been elected owe this nation an apology. Blacks; Hispanics; and Moslems voted tribal politics. But this group was more than liberal, it included a large segment of conservatives and independents who had soured on Bush. Today with $13 trillion in debt- almost $12 trillion of it accumulated in the last six months alone, a burgeoning government; a foreign policy in tatters from Iran, to N. Korea to the...

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele, in hot water for an embarrassing spending scandal involving a Hollywood gay sex club, is responding in a tried, true and tiresome way. Asked on "Good Morning America" if he thought he was being criticized unfairly because he's African-American, Steele bit. "The honest answer is, 'Yes,' " he said, adding that "Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It's a different role for me to play and others to play and that's just the reality of it." Bad move, Mike. Fact is, any party chairman whose national committee reimbursed a contributor...

I just heard a radio ad for Jay Leno's stolen back "Tonight Show" which resumes March 1. He's proudly advertising a Tuesday segment that makes fun of Sarah Palin misspeaking, running clips of her anytime she trips over her tongue. Apparently Jay has very publically chosen sides for the 2012 election. Apparently he also never misspeaks either. His entire disasterously bad interview with Oprah was one giant malaprop--either that or the man is an inveterate liar and sociopath. Sarah Palin ought to be making fun of him. As we know, the man is a big baby who couldn't just walk...

The way they tell it, the Vancouver Olympics has been a complete disaster. Canadians coast to coast are cringing in embarrassment, when they aren’t cowering under the chesterfield, upset by the disappointing results. One gold, two silver, one bronze, so far. For the record, Canada's medal haul to date equals the most the Brits have ever won in a winter games. And when did they reach this height? In Chamonix in 1924. Britain, remember, is a country that shuts down if more than a few flakes fall on the same weekend, and insists on building houses with water pipes on...

According to Politico, President Obama's back is against the wall, so he's "getting in touch with his inner [Spiro] Agnew, hitting the neo-nattering nabobs of cable and the Net." "If we could just -- excuse the press -- turn off the cameras," he told Democratic senators at their annual retreat. "Turn off your CNN, your Fox, your MSNBC, your blogs, turn off this echo chamber . . . where the topic is politics . . . We've got to get out of the echo chamber. That was a mistake I made last year -- not getting out of here [Washington]."...