Free Republic

August 27, 2008, 8:00 a.m. Obama’s AimDespite the rhetoric, the candidate opposes gun rights. By David Freddoso Denver — In 2007, Senator Barack Obama stood up for a gun owner. He endorsed Chicago Alderman Dorothy Tillman in her Democratic primary. Not only was she a gun owner, but she had even pulled a gun on her colleagues during a contentious 1991 ward redistricting hearing, according to eyewitnesses. Tillman, best known for demanding to be served by black (not white) waiters, and for advocating reparations for slavery, narrowly lost her race despite Obama’s support. It would be only a slight...

Joe Scarborough and the rest of the Morning Joe crew actually had my sympathy this morning. Amidst all the infighting at MSNBC, including demands for Joe's head in Olbermann-friendly circles, one could sense that the panel was on its best behavior. During the opening hour, a subdued David Shuster—who had openly fought with Joe just two days ago—was there, but just barely. Scarborough himself could not have been more enthusiastic in his praise for yesterday's DNC proceedings, from Bill's speech to the historic fact of the nomination of an African-American. But if my impulse is to cut the Morning Joe...

Aug 25, 2008 Several Politicians Named as Punishers of the Poor at Press Conference Denver, CO—A coalition of leaders from the African American, civil rights, faith-based and veteran communities this week blasted several Members of Congress as “Punishers of the Poor,” saying that they all scored a perfect zero on an affordable energy voting scorecard. The six politicians who earned top honors as the “worst of the worst” among those supporting higher energy prices—and who were memoralized in a Punishers of the Poor deck of playing cards—are these: Joker: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Joker: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Ace...

A public-interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption announced recently it has obtained newly declassified information from the State Department regarding the threat Osama bin Laden posed in 1996. Judicial Watch says the State Department had previously redacted some information from documents released to the public-interest group in August 2005. But spokesman Chris Farrell says following an appeal to the Department of State Appeals Review Panel, the new information was released this month. Farrell says the new data revealed some important details about what President Bill Clinton was told about the terrorist mastermind during a State Department briefing in...

The ratings for the Democratic National Convention for ABC, CBS and NBC fell by a million viewers compared to the opener for the 2004 convention with headliner Bill Clinton TVWeek is reporting. On the other hand, the cable newsers saw a ratings jump from their 2004 convention ratings. This reveals the further decline in the old paradigm with the big three networks steadily losing their news influence bit by bit to cable outlets. ABC, CBS and NBC brought in 12.1 million viewers in the 10 p.m. hour, down one million from 2004, according to preliminary, fast-national data from Nielsen Media...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- You know a political party is obsessed with promoting abortion when it features two pro-abortion convention speakers. You know Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards is obsessed when she says nothing would make her mother of her granddaughter than voting pro-abortion. Richards' Tuesday night speech followed the one Nancy Keenan gave on Monday to Democrats in Denver. Richards told the audience at the Democratic convention in Denver that her mother, the late Texas governor Ann Richards, had addressed the same crowd 20 years prior.During that convention, the former governor introduced her granddaughter Lily.Though her granddaughter eventually...

First the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl32Y7wDVDs Senator McCain, you should grab this video and play it on every ad you can. This is absolutely shocking reprehensible. He plans to universally disarm our nation. The question is for what, and more specifically “for whom”. UPDATE: Also see new more clearer and longer video here.

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Tuesday that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will unveil “a different message for a different audience” in the general election campaign, as opposed to the one he used to capture the Democratic presidential nomination. But he told a breakfast fundraiser for a fellow Vermont Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy, that Obama still has to rely on campaign workers knocking on doors and taking that message to prospective voters, just as they did during the primaries. “The message is different but not the mechanism,” the former governor and head of the Democratic National Committee said when asked...

Michelle Obama quotes lines some radical Far Left book in her DNC Convention speech. What to make of Michelle Obama's use the terms, “The world as it is” and “The world as it should be?” From whence do they originate? Try Chapter 2 of Saul Alinsky’s book, Rules for Radicals. In last night's speech, Michelle Obama said something that peeked my curiousity. She said: "Barack stood up that day," talking about a visit to Chicago neighborhoods, "and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about “The world as it is” and “The world as it should...

The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee in waiting Barack Obama is threatening TV stations that dare to run a controversial ad that questions Obama's friendship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.Politico quotes an Obama aide as saying this afternoon, "The Obama campaign plans to punish the stations that air the ad financially, organizing his supporters to target the stations that air it and their advertisers."Politico has posted copies of letters the Obama campaign has sent to station managers and a letter the campaign has sent to the Department of Justice demanding a criminal investigation of the group that is...

As frustrated Democrats converged on Denver yesterday, some began chanting "caucus fraud," while others shouted the word "sweetie," a reference to the time Obama called a female reporter by the same name. One Clinton supporter who spoke to ABC News said Obama couldn't be trusted. Another said, "He's shifty and untrustworthy." It was assuredly not the kind of message Obama and his diligently image-conscious team were counting on at the Democratic National Convention. "I'm thoroughly disgusted with the Democratic Party. I believe the magic of Barack Obama was his ability to turn lifelong Democrats like us into McCain supporters overnight,"...

Denver, Aug 25, 2008 / 11:51 pm (CNA).- Tim Gill, a billionaire from Colorado who has funded homosexual activism throughout the United States, spoke at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Delegates Caucus at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, outlining how he has worked to advance homosexual causes in U.S. politics. Gill endorsed undermining rising politicians critical of homosexual advocacy by targeting donations to benefit their opponents on the state level. Gill, who was introduced at the caucus as one of the nation’s largest funders of LGBT “civil rights initiatives,” reportedly has spent $150 million on LGBT issues....

Pelosi: Oil companies should pay royalties By Mike Soraghan Posted: 08/25/08 03:08 PM [ET] DENVER — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated Monday that, if oil companies want to drill offshore, they should not bank on California’s coast and they'd better expect to pay more for the taxpayer-owned crude they do get. “You want to talk about drilling offshore? Let’s talk about profits made by the oil companies without paying royalties,” Pelosi said Monday morning before members of the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention. “They’re taking your oil without paying any royalties.” Pelosi and other Democratic House leaders are...

... Almost certainly, now is not the moment for dramatic further price increases in energy, given the situation of the economy and the way in which consumers and many energy-using businesses are reeling. At the same time, with the economy getting used to far higher energy prices than were considered plausible even 18 months ago, it would be a great tragedy if prices were allowed to decline very sharply when the current crisis passes. So the crucial priority will be to maintain the momentum and incentive for savings caused by the current high-priced energy, whatever happens in the future. Right...

DENVER - For all its spectacle and optimism, the Democratic convention is haunted. Ghosts of elections past are walking the Pepsi Center's corridors this week, greeting old friends, even holding a luncheon. Years ago they won the prize that Barack Obama will claim on Thursday. But their names and deeds are dusty artifacts to young Americans, and to many older voters, they conjure up campaign debacles that helped Republicans paint the Democratic Party as too liberal, wimpy and egg-headed. McGovern. Mondale. Dukakis.

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Outrage Of The Week: The Anti-Hunting NRA?!   Friday, August 22, 2008   The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) is once again trying to confuse hunters into believing two bold lies:  that the NRA does not support hunting, and that AHSA and the Sierra Club do. In a report released on August 21, AHSA makes the ridiculous argument that NRA is anti-hunting because NRA does not support the same candidates that Sierra Club and other environmental groups support.  The problem is, these groups rate candidates on their radical environmental record, not...

The Democrats arrive in Denver this week flush with confidence. And why not? Yes, their rookie Presidential candidate suddenly finds himself in a tight race with John McCain. The party itself, though, has reason to think its moment to govern has arrived again after a generation of divided government or Republican rule. By most standard measures, the country has soured on the Republicans and the GOP President. Thanks to retirements and the election cycle, Republicans in the Senate must defend 23 seats this year against the Democrats' 12, and there are also more GOP open seats in the House. The...

Pelosi censors poster of troops Bruce Fein Friday, August 22, 2008 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-S.F., has done something worse than commit a crime against the First Amendment. The speaker's censorship of nonobtrusive posters featuring men and women who gave that last full measure of devotion in service to their country is a blunder that could alienate 23 million veterans and their families from the Democratic Party. If she is endowed with a crumb of constitutional or political sense, she will reverse course. The tale of Pelosi's folly begins with Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C. He wished to pay tribute to...

Professor Hubbard explains that Obama's claim that he will increase the payroll tax by only 4% cannot be correct. This amount will not generate the revenue necessary to maintain even current levels of entitlement spending: "The new payroll tax hike is more modest than the one Mr. Obama hinted at last fall, which might have uncapped the payroll tax entirely. But it would also do very little to shore up Social Security, since it means that no more than 15% of Social Security's long-term funding gap would be closed. Thus, if Mr. Obama is indeed opposed to reductions in Social...

Why is Obama supported by Democratic Socialists of America? In: Politics and Policy [Edit] [Edit] .Because he supports the ideals of marxism and socialism. Barrack Obama constantly affirms his belief that the government should have the unlimited ability to seize assets from all individuals and business entities and use it as they see fit. He supports socialized medicine, and other government seized control of private institutions. He is possibly the most socialist politician in the land, rivaled only by Hillary Clinton. "Barack Obama Exposed" A Free special report on the real Barack Obama - get your copy today! www.HumanEvents.com Why...

The last few days have seen left wing anti-energy Democrats scrambling to find a survivable position. When we first launched the Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less petition drive at American Solutions, left wing anti-energy Democrats were deeply and decisively opposed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that she was "saving the planet" by stopping drilling. Senator Obama made fun of drilling and announced that inflating your tires would increase energy availability as much as drilling. Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO), a hard line environmental extremist and anti-energy Democrat (and the author in the House of the ban on developing oil...

The cloak of media invisibility is slowly beginning to lift from Barack Obama's most important administrative leadership experience, helming an expensive educational reform effort in Chicago that failed to produce any measurable academic gains, according to the project's own final report. Add in the fact that former Weatherman and admitted terrorist William Ayers (whom Obama described in the Philadelphia debate as merely a "neighbor") was head of the operating arm of the CAC, working with Obama on distributing scores of millions of dollars to grantees in the wards of the city, and you have a topic that the Obama campaign...

Anybody who watched Barack Obama’s sorry performance during Saturday Night’s Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency with Pastor Rick Warren had to come away with the question, “What is this guy doing running for president of the United States?” The worshipping media described his comments as “nuanced,” the word they use to describe “wishy-washy.” It was full of those “on the other hand” answers to Pastor Warren’s probing questions. Obama was anything but wishy-washy, however, when he said that knowing when human life begins was “above his pay grade.” He was just plain evasive, obviously seeking to play down his...

Right now, much of the political world is obsessing over a series of new polls indicating that the gap between Barack Obama and John McCain is shrinking.A just-released Quinnipiac survey, for example, shows McCain cutting Obama’s lead from nine points (50%-41%) to five (47%-42%), while the latest LA Times/Bloomberg sounding pegs Obama’s edge at a mere two points (45%-43%)--down from 12 points (49% to 37%) last month. The new numbers from Reuters/Zogby even have McCain ahead by five (46%-41%). But according to Tom Holbrook, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and author of "Do Campaigns Matter?", these...

Gov. Phil Bredesen said he doesn't believe the information was part of a bigger political plot. "I think it's just somebody who has some time on their hands, which is a problem in its self, who is doing this kind of thing to show that he had access or to answer a question about somebody," said Bredesen. However, Republican Party Chair Robin Smith is skeptical of the governor's response. "The facts that are involved could impact very drastically the outcome of this November's election, so we're not talking about an internal affairs matter of impropriety. We're talking about strong allegations...

Two known Democratic supporters are outraged at their own party after being solicited to buy tickets to Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field next Thursday, CBS4 reports. The seats were distributed for free to the general public. One source directed CBS4 to an unpublicized part of the Obama campaign's Web site where Democratic supporters, reportedly with deep pockets, could buy tickets for $1,000 each. The source told CBS4 he was solicited three times to buy the tickets through the Web site. One source said it was unethical and being kept secret from the public. CBS4 was able to find...

Washington, DC - Today, the National Stonewall Democrats applauded the Obama campaign and Democratic advocates for proposing the most sweeping pro-LGBT national platform in Democratic Party history. The Democratic National Committee has now released the platform that will be proposed to delegates in Denver. For the first time in party history, the Democratic National Platform calls on Democrats to enact policy which opposes discrimination on the basis of gender identity - a key provision advocated by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Democrats. http://www.stonewalldemocrats.org/node/89 "For the first time, the 2008 Democratic platform includes everyone in our community, regardless of their...

In the 19th century Americans took very seriously Washington’s warning against “entangling alliances” which might interfere with the country’s unfolding “Manifest Destiny” of dynamic growth and expansion. A corollary to this belief was that the “Great American Democracy” was a unique-perhaps even divinely inspired-form of political organization vastly superior to the Old World’s tired regimes of aristocratic privilege and downtrodden masses. In the 20th century America entered upon the world stage powerfully and decisively coming to the aid of embattled European democracies and leading them to victory in two World Wars and the Cold War. Launching these extraordinary interventions were...

Members of Congress Love a Good Resolution; Watermelons and Undertakers Fit the Bill WASHINGTON -- The 110th Congress, whose term officially ends in January, hasn't passed any spending bills or attacked high gasoline prices. But it has used its powers to celebrate watermelons and to decree the origins of the word "baseball." Barring a burst of legislative activity after Labor Day, this group of 535 men and women will have accomplished a rare feat. In two decades of record keeping, no sitting Congress has passed fewer public laws at this point in the session -- 294 so far -- than...

SACRAMENTO — Assemblyman Sandre Swanson is convinced that the only way to avoid lengthy budget stalemates in the future is to strip the minority party of what he calls its out-sized influence. The Oakland Democrat is among a handful of East Bay lawmakers who want voters to overturn the constitutional requirement that two-thirds of the Legislature must approve the budget. Now in its 50th day, the budget standoff is threatening to spill into next month as both parties remain far apart on finding a solution to the state's estimated $15.2 billion deficit. "It just has to change, and citizens will...

Still Blocking Vote on the American Energy Act, Speaker Pelosi Crafts “No Energy” Bill Loaded With Poison Pills Dow Jones News: Instead Of Allowing Vote on All-of-the-Above Energy Reforms, Speaker to Load Bill With Killer Provisions “Dooming the Election-Year Effort to Failure” Washington, Aug 18 - All year long, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has blocked a meaningful vote on the “all of the above” energy reforms the American people want – and she’s still blocking one. Congress’ five-week summer break continues to drag on – and there’s been no indication from the Speaker that she will allow an honest...

The problem was the first chart in the report. It showed that 60 percent to 70 percent of companies in the U.S. pay no taxes. That led to an Associated Press story with the startling headline, ``Most Companies in U.S. Avoid Federal Income Taxes,'' and to a frenzy of business bashing by leading Democrats. Byron Dorgan, the Democratic senator from North Dakota, said in a statement, ``It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country.'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi piled on, arguing that the data revealed a fundamental unfairness in the U.S. system,...

A confident Barack Obama raised an extraordinary $7.8 million Sunday at three California fundraisers, most if it in large checks to a Democratic Party committee. “I will win. Don’t worry about that,” he said to the crowd of about 1,300 at his third event of the evening, according to the pool report. He was warmly received by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who called him "a leader that God has blessed us with at this time." Obama echoed some of the themes he discussed when he described Pennsylvanians as "bitter" and stoked controversy three months ago, but did so much more...

As Democrats prepare to nominate Sen. Barack Obama to be the first black president, the Democratic National Committee and its chairman, Howard Dean, have whitewashed the party's horrific and lengthy record of racism. The omission is in the section of the DNC Web site that describes the party's history. The missing history raises the obvious question of whether the Democrats, unable or simply unwilling to put their party on record as taking direct responsibility for one of the worst racial crimes of the ages, will be able to run a campaign free of the racial animosities it has regularly brought...

Two weeks from now, Barack Obama will step out in front of an adoring 75,000 crowd at the Denver Broncos football stadium to be acclaimed as the Next President of The United States. He will hope to evoke memories of John F Kennedy's 'New Frontier' speech in the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1960. Like JFK, a mere convention hall is considered too small an arena for the Messiah. And with brazen opportunism, Obama's acceptance address falls exactly 45years to the day after Martin Luther King delivered his 'I Have A Dream' sermon on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after...

Were you aware that the Democratic Party platform will soon "strongly" support "motherhood"? Many of us with mothers are grateful. Yesterday, a bevy of articles appeared alerting us to the fact that Democrats would offer a pointless embrace of maternity to soften the edges of the party's position on abortion. This, presumably, would grant many social conservatives the space they need to immerse in the warm and tender rays of Hope. Has anything changed policywise on the issue? Has Barack Obama's stance softened? Not yet. And why should it. The right of a woman to choose an abortion is one...

This photo of Obama’s registration for school in Jakarta with the original caption from AP documents Barack Obama as Barry Soetoro and religion as Islam.

Clinton Backers Don't Buy Unity ThemePelosi Calls Agitators 'Less Than Gracious' UPDATED: 6:56 am PDT August 14, 2008 WASHINGTON -- Still sore from an epic primary battle, some of Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters aren't buying the unity theme planned for the Democratic National Convention. They weren't mollified when nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama gave prime-time speaking slots to Clinton and her husband, the former president. Instead, they're itching for a fight and plan to wage one in Denver. One group intends to paper the city with fliers, promote a video detailing what they contend were irregularities in the nominating process and unleash...

Lake County prosecutors have announced grand jury indictments against two campaign workers for Democratic state Senator Terry Link of Waukegan on charges of forgery and perjury. The indictments announced against Jerry D. Knight, 40, of Zion and Kenneth Davison, 50, of Waukegan allege the men included the names of dead voters on Link's nominating petitions. Knight faces 11 perjury counts and one forgery count. Davison is indicted on nine perjury counts and two forgery counts. All are felonies.

There's something about the oil business that turns even intelligent people into frothmouthed loons: they're raping the planet, shafting Joe Sixpack or, from the other side, insisting that the drill in every back yard is the very definition of America. I realise that in the middle of an election that the small still voice of reason isn't going to get much airplay but let's give it the old school try anyway.

In every generation a wizened soul comes along with a dazzlingly original idea that has never before been contemplated. Such a notion arose from the fertile mind of a gifted man-boy named Barack Obama, whose mythic life has vaulted him to the forefront of earthly politics and culture. Now, in a thoroughly annotated investigation, award-winning author, scholar and raconteur Howie Blewitt examines Obama's stellar notion in all of its many facets and ramifications for all of our lives.

In stark contrast with the Kerry campaign in 2004, the Obama campaign is mapping out an aggressive counter-attack against the new Swift-Boat-Vet style book targeting Obama -- including plans to dig more deeply into the author's past statements, plans for increased surrogate action against the book, and stepped up pressure on high-level media executives to let the Obama team have air time to rebut the charges. The plan is taking shape amid new signs that the book -- by Jerome Corsi, who wrote the tome that formed the basis for the attacks on Kerry -- will have staying power and...

Pelosi warns Lieberman for undercutting Obama Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau Thursday, August 14, 2008 (08-14) 04:00 PDT Washington - -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted Sen. Joe Lieberman on Wednesday for making what she called "totally irresponsible" remarks about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and warned that the Senate might retaliate by revoking Lieberman's committee chairmanship. Pelosi also chastised some of Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters for being "less than gracious" toward Obama, although she praised the New York senator for rallying behind the party's nominee after a bitter primary fight. Pelosi's remark in an interview with KGO Radio talk...

Deal: Clinton's Name Will Be Placed in Nomination at Dems Convention August 14, 2008 11:09 AM ABC News' Kate Snow reports: A deal has been brokered between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that will allow Clinton's name to be placed in nomination at next week's Democratic nominating convention, sources close to the Clinton camp told ABC News. "Both sides agree that it is in the best interest of party unity and making sure that everyone's voice and vote is honored to make sure her name is put into nomination," a person close the negotiations said. "It's to honor everyone...

The Democrats live and die by the ad hominem of racism. http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20016813&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

U.S. Inflation Hits 17-Year High As Increases Move Beyond Food, Oil By BRIAN BLACKSTONE August 14, 2008 9:15 a.m. WASHINGTON -- U.S. inflation soared to a 17-year-high annual rate in July, a government report showed, led by gains in food, energy, airline fares and apparel. Separately, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly as expected last week but remained at high levels consistent with a rapid erosion in labor markets.

CLEVELAND — A federal investigation of Democratic Party leaders in Cuyahoga County could pose problems for Barack Obama’s campaign in Ohio, party insiders and political analysts say....

Barack Obama threw his pastor Jeremiah Wright under the bus for dissing Obama as just another politician. He will embrace Leah Daughtry, Wright's female liberation theology doppelganger, at the Democratic National convention for, as DNC Chair Howard Dean's chief of staff, he has "commissioned" her to orchestrate the convention. Daughtry is of the same school as Wright, according to the profile the New York Times ran of her on July 20, 2008. As daughter to Herbert Daughtry, Wright's fellow traveler, Leah Daughtry has preached in her father's church with its "simple wooden cross hung on a brick wall in the...

Democrats ‘Still Don’t Get It’ on Guns Wednesday, August 13, 2008 By Susan Jones, Senior Editor (CNSNews.com) - Beware of what the Democrats are saying about guns in their party platform, a Second Amendment group says. The draft 2008 Democratic National Platform includes the “Utopian fantasy that gun control laws will somehow make neighborhoods safer,” said the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. “While promising to preserve our Second Amendment rights, the party platform demonizes semiautomatic sport utility rifles and wants them banned, calls for anti-gun show legislation and proposes so-called ‘common-sense’ gun laws,” said CCRKBA...

Limousine liberal convention-goers may have to take the bus----Denver does not have enough limos and black cars to go around. "Denver isn't really big on chauffeurs," said Barbara Curtis, Two Step Limousine. Denver has 271 limo companies, most with 2-3 cars. "Companies reserved black SUVs.....apparently the Secret Service had those canceled because they needed them," she said....black cars cost $4,000 for the 4-day convention, limos twice that.