Free Republic

Republican Dede Scozzafava endorsed her former Democratic opponent Sunday in the race for an upstate New York congressional seat, one day after Scozzafava dropped out of the contest. Scozzafava dropped out after Conservative Party candidate Dough Hoffman experienced a late-in-the-game surge. But on Sunday, Scozzafava backed Democrat Bill Owens -- the announcement was made in a statement send out by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same," she said. "In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He...

The lies exposed.

The U.S. Senate has passed the homosexual hate-crimes bill and will now send it to President Obama to sign it into law. This bill is a trojan horse to legitimize the creation of more laws that will completely obliterate the 1st amendment of the United States. Many homosexual organizations say this is a victory, however they are just being used to further infringe on Americans rights to free speech. In a 68-29 vote, senators passed 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes the hate crimes measure that adds “sexual orientation� and “gender identity,� as well as disability, to the current...

Meg Whitman, the 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate already on the defensive for her embarrassingly poor voting record, once endorsed and actively supported Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, one of the most proudly liberal politicians in California. Whitman not only endorsed Boxer and donated the maximum $4,000 to the junior California senator's 2004 re-election campaign, but the former eBay CEO also served on an exclusive committee of Technology Leaders for Boxer in her re-election battle against Republican California Secretary of State Bill Jones, according to election records obtained by The Chronicle. Whitman, in a 2003 Boxer campaign statement, spoke strongly on Boxer's...

Some notables in the new media have referred to this band of 37 as a shadow government that is free to operate without any scrutiny. The old media certainly is not asking about what the czars are actually doing.

A Constitutional Lawyer and has read the entire health care bill and has some comments, not about the bill, but about the effects on our Constitution. It's a broader picture than just health care reform. All of you and those to whom you communicate had better situp and pay attention; Once this sort of thing happens, it will be irreversible.

Dr. Lawrence Hunter of the Social Security Institute has a ringside seat of what is really happening in the ObamaCare negotiations and it is not anything like any of us would expect. Serious pressure is building and the momentum is on our side. However, without the knowledge of what is actually happening behind the scenes, the grave we are digging for ObamaCare could actually become our own graves. Our collective effort could all be for naught if we allow the construction of any scaffolding for a public option. Liberals are very patient about realizing their agenda. They will build upon...

HEALTH CARE’S silly season is upon us. If we can be sure of anything, it is that President Barack Obama and his congressional allies will do whatever they can to hide the cost of their health plan. Lucky for them, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, has shown the way. In 2006, Romney enacted a health-reform package strikingly similar to what Democrats are pushing through Congress, including individual and employer mandates, private health-insurance subsidies, broader Medicaid eligibility and a new health-insurance “exchange.” Lately, Massachusetts officials have been forced to raise taxes and cancel some residents’ coverage to pay for...

The compelling part is that Jacob Hacker, the man who "shopped" this plan to Congress (according to NPR), states unambiguously that his plan -- and he should know -- is expressly designed to displace private insurance. "It's not a Trojan Horse," he says, "because it's right there!" I.e., it can't be a Trojan Horse if it's so obvious about its purpose.

Father of ‘Public Option’ Says It's Not a ‘Trojan Horse’ for a Single-Payer Health-Care System (CNSNews.com) – SNIPPET: "Hacker said that he hopes the public option, if adopted, would eventually lead to a government-managed system--but it wouldn't happen overnight. In a 2008 video obtained and aired by Fox News Channel, Hacker not only suggested that his plan would lead to a single-payer system, but said it would do so openly, in a gradual way, he admitted. “Someone once said to me, ‘Well, this is a Trojan horse for single payer.’ I said, ‘Well, it’s not a Trojan horse, right? It’s...

Group's ‘mainstream’ Islamist convention last weekend featured hate speech and Hezbollah Defense A top aide to President Barack Obama provided a keynote address at last weekend's 46th Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) national convention, a gathering that attracted thousands of people and also featured anti-Semitic, homophobic rhetoric and defense of the terrorist group Hezbollah. In her remarks, Senior Advisor for Public Engagement and International Affairs Valerie Jarrett noted she was the first White House official to address ISNA. She spoke in general terms about interfaith dialogue and cooperation. She praised her hosts for "the diversity of American organizations, and...

Most Republicans have just finished what might be called the spring of their discontent. Not much went right in the first half of the year; not much to cheer about. But not Mitt Romney. For this unsuccessful 2008 Republican presidential contender, it is hard to imagine how events could be moving more decisively in his favor in 2009. One can almost hear him wondering: Why didn't things break this way last year? Let us count the ways that the world has conspired to help Mr. Romney. At a time when the Republican Party is straining to find new leaders, other...

Why Medicare-style insurance will kill our health care system President George W. Bush concocted the connection between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein to justify the Iraq invasion. Now President Barack Obama is concocting an equally fantastical theory to justify a de facto government takeover of health care.He is claiming that the way to slash health care costs and achieve universal coverage is by creating a Medicare-style government insurance plan that is open to everyone. In the world that Obama and other universal health care advocates inhabit, Medicare allegedly has done a far superior job than private plans of keeping a lid...

Now that Obama is the president, fasten your seat belts. During his first year in office, and particularly during his first hundred days, we are about to witness the most prodigious output of legislation since 1981-2 (under Reagan), 1964-5 (under Johnson), and 1933-36 (under Roosevelt). The combination of top heavy Democratic majorities in Congress and a mood of public fear bordering on panic over the financial crisis and the looming depression will speed his legislation through a compliant Senate and House. We will enter his Administration as the United States, buoyed by an aggressive free market economy. We will exit...

No often means yes in Washington, but we hear from Sen. John McCain's posse that he is not considering a 2012 rerun of his failed 2008 presidential campaign. (W beat him in the 2000 primary, remember.) Word came this week that he is mulling over another try, but a key insider says, "Ridiculous."

Last month we talked to Mitch Zak, spokesman for the Whitman for Governor campaign. The conversation took place after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order to lay off 5,000 state workers and before he proposed cutting state employee wages by 5 percent: On charges that Whitman dislikes state workers or is pandering to conservatives who want to dismantle state government:Meg's committed to reducing the bureaucracy by 10 percent. We're not suggesting that these are bad people or bad employees, but that the government can't afford the bureaucracy. On criticisms that making a 10 percent cut across the board would be difficult or...

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is armed with money and the support of well-placed Republicans for a possible run against Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer next year. But she's also got something that has dogged other wealthy political neophytes - a spotty voting record. Fiorina, 54, of Los Altos Hills, who recently acknowledged that she is "seriously considering" a run, has voted in about 1 in 4 of the national, state and local elections in which she was eligible to cast a ballot since she registered in the Bay Area as a Republican in 2000, according to Santa Clara County...

Arizona Sen. John McCain wants Meg Whitman to be California's next governor. The former eBay chief executive has not formally declared her candidacy, but a spokesman said Wednesday that she will pick up the 2008 Republican presidential nominee's endorsement at an event in Orange County on Friday. "We are thrilled to have someone of his stature as part of the team," spokesman Mitch Zak said. Whitman is one of several Republicans maneuvering to get into next year's race to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is prevented by law from seeking a third consecutive term. McCain is one of the party's...

Last year I supported Sen. John McCain for president. Despite these efforts, the American public chose Barack Obama as the person they wanted in the White House to confront the worst financial market turmoil since the Great Depression and the worst recession in a generation. Regardless of whom they voted for Nov. 4, he is our president, and every patriotic American should hope he succeeds in ending the economic problems that now beset our country. Soon after his inauguration, the president signed legislation aimed at stimulating economic growth. Many good and decent people opposed this measure, and some even offered...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Meghan McCain warned a group of gay Republicans Saturday that there was "a war brewing in the Republican Party" – a war between the past and the future. "Most of the old school Republicans are scared s***less of that future," she told a gathering of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gay and lesbian party members. The 24-year-old daughter of former GOP presidential candidate John McCain pushed back against critics upset over her comments to CNN that she wanted President Obama to succeed, and played down her recent headline-grabbing feuds with conservative commentators Ann Coulter and...

Republican in Name Only? Try the future of the GOP. The following is Meghan McCain's address to the Log Cabin Republicans Convention—a group that promotes gay issues within the GOP—on April 18, 2009. Thank you all for having me here tonight. I am thrilled to be able to speak to you this evening to share some of my experiences from the campaign and observations on where our party is today. And I’m proud to tell you there is a special role for the Log Cabin Republicans to play in our future. The last two years of my life have been...

It's Not About Homosexuality--Not Really by Paul R. Hinlicky — April 14, 2009 It is not only, or perhaps even primarily, about homosexuality. My whimsical lament “I Think I Want a Divorce” got quite an echo in “this church”; apparently, the bone-deep disenchantment articulated in the piece has been building up among theologically serious Christians in the ELCA for many reasons for a long time. Slowly we are waking up to reality. The truth is that Luther is being overshadowed by Zwingli, so to say; plainly put, homosexuality is being used as a wedge issue by the religious Left. This...

This week, I will be speaking at the Log Cabin Republicans' national convention in support of the gay community and its role in the future of the Republican Party. Of all the causes I believe in and speak publicly about, this is one of the ones closest to my heart. The Log Cabin Republicans’ mission "is to work within the Republican Party to advocate equal rights for all Americans, including gays and lesbians." The group is centered on core Republican values, such as limited government, individual liberty and responsibility, an economy based in free markets, and a strong national defense....

The mistakes liberals like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are making can teach Republicans how to regain power—and how to hold onto it. In recent weeks, I’ve been critical of some of the most hard-core ideological elements of the GOP. As a consequence, some have requested I leave the party altogether, and say that I am now an unwelcome member. Let me be clear: No one wants the Republican Party to succeed more than I do. I spent nearly two years on the road during my father’s presidential campaign, in my early twenties, surrounded by hygienically deficient, middle-aged political strategists...

Rosanna Pulido debated Democrat and Green Party candidates last night on Chicago Tonight.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said Wednesday that Republicans shouldn’t oppose President Obama as a reflex and should praise him when he succeeds. Speaking at the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSC) spring dinner, Romney was thick on criticism of Obama, but also said Republicans shouldn’t root against the man Romney might well face in the 2012 presidential election. After offering a few choice words for Obama’s early conduct in office, Romney suggested it’s OK to hope things go well under the new president. “I also think its important for us to nod to the president when he’s right,” Romney...

Now Ms. Meghan McCain is anything but a young Britney Spears type "air head" celebrity. She is a 24 year old, 2007 graduate of Columbia University. She has already written regularly for Newsweek Magazine and has been an active political blogger since her father, Senator John McCain, began running for his party´s 2008 nomination. She admits that she has only been a "real Republican for less than a year," and she is anything but a die-hard GOP conservative. She is a "moderate" that currently supports gay marriage, stem-cell research and in 2004, she voted for the Democrat, John Kerry. What...

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has no illusions about the 2008 White House race. "God bless them," McCain said Thursday at the Heritage Foundation when reminded of the tens of millions of people who voted for him last year. "Over 50 million people voted for me and Sarah Palin - mostly for Sarah Palin," McCain said to an eruption of laughter. But "there was a sizable majority of the other party returned to Congress. And, elections have consequences. Elections have consequences. And these consequences we are seeing now in full display."

Fact: Meghan McCain is the most visible political person in the country under 25 years of age right now. With appearances on Rachel Maddow, The View, and now Larry King Live, the 2008 presidential campaign (and her blogging during it) has given her a sizable podium. Some have criticized her for her centrist, socially liberal views--Laura Ingraham compared her to a plus-sized model--and earlier this month she gave a name to the brand of moderate Republicanism to which she ascribes: "progressive Republican." Last night, on Larry King Live, she talked more about what that means: "I consider myself a progressive...

Is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - the former bodybuilder and action hero - getting ready for the next big starring role in his larger-than-life political career? For Californians who read political tea leaves, some signs are starting to emerge: A few months ago, the Republican was on the campaign trail for presidential candidate John McCain, lambasting Barack Obama as a guy with "skinny legs," "scrawny little arms" and socialist ideas. On Thursday, there he was standing next to President Obama - hugging him and praising him as the nation's economic savior and reformer. The governor regularly dismisses talk of another political...

Orly Taitz, a lawyer representing several before SCOTUS on Obama's eligibility was interviewed March 17, 2009 on the Rolleye James show. Program archived in 'Where can I hear her.'...... See post 1 for another link where the show has been broken down into segments on YouTube. Two of the five are about 13 minutes total alleging Supreme Court clerks have been removing court challenges from the docket - justices not aware they had gone to conference.

You hate McCain. You hate reason. Pick on Meghan all you want. All you peepole on here hate anybody who disagrees with you. Go ahead, make fun of me. You half no lives , dont YOU!. Keep up with your nasty and hateful comments. Hateful and ignorant peepole you are. I am ashamed to be an American. Youre greed is so evident and, well, screw you hateful peepole!

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is under fire from social conservatives for telling GQ magazine that abortion is an "individual choice" and homosexuality is not. Despite declaring to GQ that women have the right to choose an abortion, Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Steele has issued a statement saying he has always been pro-life and supports a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade. Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs for Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action, says in Steele's interview with GQ, he "sounded like he was on the payroll of Planned Parenthood." "I'm encouraged that Michael...

Millions of people, not limited to just Americans, are asking this question. Who is this man? Where did he come from? And, where is he taking the United States? Too many questions, and not enough answers. Truly the man is a mystery, an enigma. He is a contradiction at multiple levels, and for someone that claims his administration will be one of transparency and accountability, all this make him a paradox. Obama suddenly burst on the conscience of America less than four years ago, and more recently the world. Before that, he was a little-known state Senator from the Midwest....

Blackstone Group LP CEO Stephen Schwarzman said up to 45% of the world's wealth has been destroyed by the global credit crisis in little less than a year and a half," he told the Japan Society. "This is absolutely unprecedented in our lifetime." ......He put part of the blame on credit rating agencies. Rating companies have been the focus of intense criticism for granting top "AAA" ratings for complex bonds that later plummeted in value, resulting in subsequent rating cuts, in many cases to junk status. "Once you bought into ... the Triple A paper and it turned out was...

On Nov. 5, 2008, Americans woke up to a very real Marxist coup — although most didn't realize it. I sat down and cried while a huge crowd gathered and were cheering. I intuitively knew something was very wrong. After watching Barack Hussein Obama aggressively pursue his agenda as president, I now understand why. Most Marxist coups rely on deception — and that was certainly true of this one. Just about everything Obama said during the campaign was a calculated lie. His handlers and key supporters were equally willing to lie and deceive to gain advantage. Once Marxists seize power...

Chuck Todd at First Read flags up some fascinating comments from Vice-President Biden on his visit to Nato: “5 percent of the Taliban is incorrigible, not susceptible to anything other than being defeated. Another 25 percent or so are not quite sure, in my view, the intensity of their commitment to the insurgency. And roughly 70 percent are involved because of the money, because of them being -- getting paid.” Biden goes onto say that the “idea of what concessions would be made is well beyond the scope of my being able to answer, except to say that whatever is...

I used to get a real kick when some leading African-American Democrats would claim President Bill Clinton was the first African-American president because he "displayed almost every trope of blackness": "single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas?" Then along came Barack Obama and Bill Clinton was just another racist for comparing Obama's candidacy to Jesse Jackson's in the early part of the presidential race. Conservatives have been resoundingly condemned as religious bigots for suggesting that Obama is the first Muslim president. After all, his Kenyan father and grandfather and Indonesian adopted father were all Muslims. Obama was...

Arnold: GOP out of touch California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested that his party is out of touch with average Americans on the issue of health care. “You've got to listen to the people. If the nation is screaming out loud, ‘We need health care reform. We want to have universal health care. We want to have everyone insured. We want to bring the costs down. We want everyone to have access.’ I mean, that's what they want; that's what you do,” Schwarzenegger said on ABC’s “This Week.” Arguing that California Republicans were out of touch with the majority of...

Link only, per FR copyright and excerpt policy

Once upon a time, a white teenager from Kansas got pregnant by her black Kenyan boyfriend, Barack Obama Sr., or was it her husband? Whatever. (I say whatever because we’ve never seen either marriage or divorce certificates). Some say the couple was in Kenya visiting relatives when the birth of their son, Barack Obama Jr., occurred. No matter. (I say no matter because we’ve never seen an authentic birth certificate). By the time the baby was two years old his father abandoned him for his other wife and child in Kenya.

The cover of Newsweek proclaims: "We Are All Socialists Now." In the Feb. 16, 2009, issue, Newsweek editors Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas write: "Whether we want to admit it or not the America of 2009 is moving toward a modern European state." They blame President George W. Bush for laying the groundwork with his $700 billion bailout – which opened the door to Obama's trillions more. Bloomberg reported yesterday, "The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government's commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion … enough to send a $1,430 check to every...

BYO popcorn, beer and barf bags.

This week brought home the terrible price our nation is paying for we Republicans’ tolerating greedheads in our own party’s leadership. First, we have the rather obvious lack of, shall we say, virtue in President Barack Obama’s top three Cabinet picks. There was Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, being confirmed as Secretary of State. When she was first lady, she was at the center of the Travelgate criminal investigation. After that and all the other criminal investigations of the Clinton White House subsumed under the label “Whitewater,” a special prosecutor reported that Mrs. Clinton had almost certainly lied under oath to...

On Monday, January 19th, America commemorated the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. His dream of an equal America is in many ways personified in Barack Obama, whose inauguration as our first African-American president took place the following day. Obama's triumph is a monumental achievement for black Americans. It is also a watershed for America as a whole, a final repudiation of an era when black men and women were not afforded the inalienable rights endowed to all persons by God as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. But while Obama's ascendance to the White House has been almost uniformly...

BY DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK WASHINGTON — Not long after Senator John McCain returned last month from an official trip to Iraq and Pakistan, he received a phone call from President-elect Barack Obama. As contenders for the presidency, the two had hammered each other for much of 2008 over their conflicting approaches to foreign policy, especially in Iraq. (He’d lose a war! He’d stay a hundred years!) Now, however, Mr. Obama said he wanted Mr. McCain’s advice, people in each camp briefed on the conversation said. What did he see on the trip? What did he learn? It was just one...

You know that I've written and said a number of things since the election about how hopeful I am that Barack Obama can do exactly what he promised to do in terms of leading us past the stupid, pointless partisan bickering of the Clinton-Bush years. As you know, that was probably my biggest motivation for endorsing him in the primary here -- and for endorsing McCain as well, as the one guy on the GOP side able to transcend the partisan garbage that has so sapped our nation's ability to cope with anything -- from war to peace, from foreign...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced Gov. Janet Napolitano to his fellow senators Thursday, saying she has a "no-nonsense" attitude that will serve her well as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. McCain introduced Napolitano to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which questioned the Arizona Democrat about her credentials. McCain told committee members that Napolitano has served Arizona as a United States Attorney, Attorney General and governor and that, in 2005, she was named one of America's Top Five Governors by "Time" magazine, which stated, "Positioning herself as a no-nonsense, pro-business centrist, she has worked outside party...

A desire by both men to secure their places in history might forge an unlikely pairing. BY RICK SANTORUM Obama also faces the reality of needing at least one Republican senator to join him to break filibusters. Many speculate that three moderate Republicans will provide the necessary Senate votes and the imprimatur of bipartisanship. . . . . . But I believe Obama has an ace in the hole among Senate Republicans. This unlikely ace can deliver not only the GOP moderates needed to break a filibuster, but also the stamp of bipartisanship: the 2008 GOP standard bearer, John McCain.....

President-elect Barack Obama will host a dinner honoring Sen. John McCain, the Republican he tromped in the election, the night before his inauguration, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced yesterday, saying the gesture demonstrates Obama's "commitment to bridging the bipartisan divide." The dinner will be one of a series that night: Gen. Colin Powell and Vice President-elect Joe Biden also will be feted. "In these times of great challenge and great change, leadership requires rising above the same old narrow partisanship," Obama said on the PIC Web site. "Each of these distinguished Americans has spent his life in service to his...