Free Republic

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We have the unemployment news that we are now at 9.1% unemployment. We have next to no growth. We have massive unemployment. We're in the midst of a housing disaster, oppressive regulations. All of this and the regime is demanding massive tax increases. We face a threat of reduction in the nation's credit rating. We have systemic, historic deficits and still today you can read certain stories or go to certain networks and hear them talk about the recovery! There is no recovery. If this isn't a depression, then what is? And the sad thing is, what's...

Tea Party revels in newfound clout: ‘When we’re cutting, we’re winning’By Matt Viser Globe Staff / April 9, 2011 WASHINGTON — Americans learned yesterday the full power of the Tea Party, with newly elected conservatives calling the shots in the House rather than railing against government from the sidelines. For many in the movement, pushing the government to the brink of closure was a crowning achievement, an emphatic statement that spending must be reined in — and now. “When we’re cutting,’’ said Representative Nan Hayworth, a New York Republican, “we’re winning.’’ “It’s a victory for the American people,’’ declared Representative...

A day after he was booed and heckled at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Charlie Sheen took the stage Sunday night in Chicago and received a standing ovation on the second stop of his 20-city road show. The crowd cheered when the curtain opened and revealed a smoking Sheen. Some in the crowd chanted "Detroit sucks." People who lined up outside the historic 3,600-seat Chicago Theatre before the show said they had low expectations after what they heard about Sheen's performance Saturday night. "Not really a trainwreck, just a little bit sad and more than a little bit tedious," wrote...

The incremental approach is working and embarrassing Democrats. Why should the GOP risk a government shutdown? Some of the most disgruntled folks in Washington these days are conservative Republicans in Congress. They believe their party has abandoned the cause of deep spending cuts that spurred the Republican landslide in the 2010 midterm election. They say their leaders are needlessly settling for small, incremental cuts. Moreover, this demand for bigger cuts and defunding of liberal programs—immediately—comes from prominent members of the House, not just excitable freshmen. "This is our mice or men moment," according to Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Allowing...

Charlie Sheen, just days after being fired from CBS' "Two and a Half Men," has fired back with a $100-million lawsuit on behalf of himself and the show's crew against Warner Bros. and Chuck Lorre, the studio and executive producer of the show, respectively. The suit, filed Thursday morning in Santa Monica Superior Court, charges that Sheen was only fired from the show because he had recently criticized Lorre both on radio and television. Warner Bros., in a letter to Sheen's attorney Martin Singer, had said Sheen was fired because he had become a liability on the show and his...

A coven of real-life warlocks are BOILING at Charlie Sheen -- claiming the actor's constant use of the W-word is disrespectful to the entire male-witch community ... TMZ has learned. After Sheen declared himself a "Vatican assassin warlock" during a radio interview last week ... an actual, practicing warlock from Salem's Coven of the Raven Moon in Salem, Massachusetts told us he's "fuming" over the statement because it's a "blatant offense against our ways." The warlock -- named Christian Day -- tells us he plans to take action against the actor ... not legal action -- but magical action. Day...

(Reuters) - Congress on Wednesday sent President Barack Obama a stopgap spending bill that averts an imminent government shutdown but does nothing to resolve a bitter debate over the federal budget. By a vote of 91 to 9, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a two-week funding bill that cleared the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Obama is expected to sign the measure, which includes $4 billion in relatively noncontroversial cuts, into law before current funding expires on Friday.The bill keeps the government running until March 18, which lawmakers say is probably not enough time to find common ground between the Republican-controlled...

An adult bookstore in Michigan that offers pornographic movies and sex toys has also sold a winning lottery ticket worth $128 million, MyFoxDetroit.com reports. Uptown Bookstore in Highland Park, Mich., sold Saturday's only winning Powerball ticket, according to the station. The ticket was the only one to match all of the numbers of the multimillion-dollar jackpot -- 7, 12, 23, 34, 38 and 33. The winner has not yet come forward. According to Powerball rules in Michigan, winners cannot remain anonymous when they claim their win.

I'm a relatively new FRepper and this is my first vanity post. (I hope I am doing it right.) I am interested in hearing the pros and cons of winning the Senate. Republicans can remain in the same position they are today (under 50, but more than 40), a tie of 50 (with Biden having a vote in case of a tie), or a majority (but 60 is not possible). It seems to me that the Rats will have the ability to block any legislation in any case. Does that provide a good setup for 2012, where the Rats are...

Dear Carl Paladino, Yesterday was certainly the best day of your short political life, with the Quinnipiac poll putting your longshot Republican candidacy for governor within a mere six points of Andrew Cuomo. Even more important, the poll had Cuomo under 50 percent -- a frightening bit of data for him. Cuomo spent a year patiently constructing the edifice of an all-but-certain governorship in a state with a huge Democratic advantage. But by doing so, he made himself appear to be the incumbent -- in what promises to be the worst year for incumbents in modern times. So you have...

A New York Times political race profile gave Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Walz a 96 percent chance of regaining his seat in Minnesota’s First Congressional District. The profile breaks down the district and the second-term congressman’s voting record, and shows the area leaning Democratic. This comes shortly after Walz’s Republican opponent, state Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield, was elevated to Young Gun status by the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Woman sues after 'winning' $500,000 scratch-off ticket is called misprintBy Anika Myers Palm, Orlando Sentinel May 20, 2010 An Ocala woman wants a jury to decide if the Florida Lottery was wrong to dismiss her winning ticket as a misprint. Ann Marie Curcio claims the Lottery is in breach of its contract with buyers because it will not pay $500,000 she says she is owed for her winning Gold Rush ticket. "We don't believe that there is a sufficient excuse for the Lottery not to pay it. . . . There are no disclaimers on the ticket," said Larry Walters,...

The Israeli government is walking a fine line as it tries holding out against the Obama administration’s demand for a building freeze while simultaneously fending off charges that it is not interested in making peace with the Palestinians. The predictable result is confusion. The Netanyahu government’s defiance of the American diktat is contradicted by news reports about a de facto suspension of planning for projects by Israel in those parts of the city under Jordanian occupation between 1948 and 1967.

Hearts was invented by Napolean Bonohearts as a time waster while living on the island of Elbow! The game is quite easy to learn and unlike bridge the score of 100 wins without all that complicating counting.

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. The GOP has become expert at this approach. We need to change the GOP approach. We need to select the best minds to start now and brainstorm everything we do wrong and everything the left does better...and change our approach to our future or we are doomed!

A CANDIDATE SMART ENOUGH TO SEE AND DO SOMETHING Gordon Sumner, Mark Hill, Larry Elgin The brilliant Dane, Bjørn Lomborg, in his terrific 2001 book “the Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World” (Cambridge) points out that the rise of the modern world has been entirely dependent upon the development of energy and, for the most part, of oil. Since the 1973 OPEC embargo struck the world with the affliction of monopoly striking at the heart of the success of the entire industrial world our leaders on both sides of the isle have persisted in ignoring this reality....

The strategic imperative of “straight talk” Gordon Sumner, Mark Hill and Larry Elgin We have pointed out that at the time of the Great Depression it was not FDR’s early measures from the centralized command of a greatly enlarged federal government that brought us out of the depression and led to a renewed wealth, prosperity and leadership of the free world, rather it was the preparation that led up to our entrance into World War II against the Axis powers and the focus and increase in productivity that resulted and lasted well into the 1960’s. But it was the focus...

THE WILL TO WIN THE WAR INCLUDES THE ECONOMY “It is,” he would say, “the answer to all our problems.” When we would discuss the inventors and their inventions that had strategic importance, particularly for taking the oil weapon away from the other side in this war that was then looming and then came upon us when we finally were forced to respond to the attacks, Admiral Tom Moorer would inevitably make this point. It reflected his own experience in high command and as one who was a young naval officer and pilot during the great depression and through World...

US deaths in Iraq fell in October to their lowest monthly level of the war, matching the record low of 13 US fatalities suffered in July. Iraqi deaths fell to their lowest monthly levels of the year. Eight of the 13 Americans died in combat, most of them in northern Iraq where al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgent groups remain active. The US suffered 25 deaths in September and 23 in August. The sharp drop in US fatalities reflects the overall security improvements across the country following the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida and the rout suffered by Shiite extremists in fighting...

How has Moslem opinion and support of Terrorism changed since the WOT began? I ask this question because I think it has the greatest bearing on whether we are winning or not. Let me explain, I remember Rumsfeld saying at the beginning of the war in Iraq that we needed better metrics in order to find a better strategy in Iraq, which we were losing at the time, he never did find them. It was eventually Gen. Petreus that developed the winning strategy, but a strategy that’s working in one theater of the War, doesn’t answer the real question of...