Free Republic

a mind numbing amount of numbers, but here is the money quote! "Obama appeared to enjoy a 2 week bump, or at least a lull, where his official numbers didn’t change, and the count with leaners bumped him over the 300 mark again for 2 weeks, however, both of those numbers are now heading back down again. Obama now has his lowest Electoral College total since June 24th, before I made my methodology change, while the count with leaners is close to where it was 2 weeks ago, and back under 300. The only comforting news for Obama may be...

The Abilene Paradox, a particular type of pathological groupthink, occurs when group members unanimously agree in their hearts to proposition A, but vote publicly with unanimity against it. In the defining fable, a Texas family on a hot summer's afternoon, one-by-one voice enthusiasm for Dad's idle suggestion to drive two hours to Abilene for dinner. Not one of them, including Dad, wants to do it, but each feels the need to support the other members' consensus. Sure enough, they go, and between the sweltering car ride and the awful meal, everyone's expectations of failure are vindicated.

The profound failure of inner-city public schools to teach children may be the nation's greatest scandal. The differences between the two Presidential candidates on this could hardly be more stark. John McCain is calling for alternatives to the system; Barack Obama wants the kids to stay within that system. We think the facts support Senator McCain. "Parents ask only for schools that are safe, teachers who are competent and diplomas that open doors of opportunity," said Mr. McCain in remarks recently to the NAACP. "When a public system fails, repeatedly, to meet these minimal objectives, parents ask only for a...

The Democratic Party that existed during my childhood and through early adulthood bore little or no resemblance to what it has become. In earlier times being a Democrat identified one as a proud, God-inspired American with intense traditional values, true love of country, belief in a strong, cohesive family unit, hard work, self-reliance, dedication to constitutional norms, equality and respect for others. Today, however, the party I once knew seems to say forget religious beliefs, forget the right to defend one's self, forget about hard work, just let working taxpayers provide, and disavow longheld moral decency standards as being irrelevant...

Republican presidential candidate John McCain received a warm welcome and standing ovation from a Hispanic veterans group Friday as he sought to highlight his credentials to be the country's commander-in-chief. Speaking at Denver's Grand Hyatt hotel, McCain said he and rival Barack Obama faced a choice 18 months ago when the situation in Iraq had deteriorated. In prepared remarks, the Arizona senator called it a "real-time test for a future commander-in-chief. America passed that test." McCain advocated sending more troops to Iraq before the Bush Administration decided to follow that strategy. Obama has opposed it and said again this week...

Nancy Pelosi called Bush a total failure in prepared remarks yesterday. This is outrageous. I thought it would be nice to tie up her phone lines this morning and give her some feedback. The young man who answered seemed a bit exasperated. San Francisco, CA - (415) 556-4862 - Washington, D.C. - (202) 225-4965

I was particularly pleased with this post, assessing the pattern of Obama's career. Stemming the tide of urban decay in Chicago’s worst neighborhoods in the late 1980s was beyond even the most tireless efforts of one man. “Sisyphean” is the term that keeps coming to mind, but I would note that what Obama actually accomplished – “a successful effort to convince the city of Chicago to locate a jobs placement office on the far South Side and his part in a drive to push the city to clean asbestos out of a housing project in the same area [Altgeld Gardens]”...

Once Again, ItÂ’s About Associations and Judgment by Frank Salvato July 3, 2008 There has been much ado about Barack ObamaÂ’s associations and the judgment used in maintaining and entering into those associations. ObamaÂ’s associations with Jeremiah Wright, Williams Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis, the Progressive-Left activist group ACORN and his ideological association with Saul Alinsky are all perfect examples of his judgment, his willingness to associate with radical and troubled individuals and organizations. Is it fair to judge Barack Obama by his associations and the judgment used in acquiring and maintaining those associations? Sorry Mr. Colmes, all is fair...

Only 12 percent of Americans now have confidence in Congress, the lowest percentage in the 35 years that the Gallup Poll has tracked the number. Americans now view Congress less favorably any of the 14 other American institutions tracked by Gallup, including big business, newspapers and health maintenance organizations. Even as President Bush’s approval rating languishes at a record low, more than twice as many Americans have confidence in the presidency — 26 percent — than have confidence in Congress. The Democrats have controlled both houses of the Congress since January 2007. It remains to be seen whether the Democratic...

From The Sunday Times June 15, 2008 Cubans flee island over ‘sham’ reforms Optimism within Raul Castro’s Cuba is fading as his new freedoms make little impact on the poor Tony Allen-Mills ON a routine patrol off the Caribbean resort of Cancun earlier this month, the crew of a Mexican naval vessel spotted unusual activity aboard an arriving yacht. When officers inspected the boat, they found 33 Cuban migrants on board. The Cubans were heading for Miami by a roundabout route - instead of braving the short but heavily policed crossing from western Cuba to Florida, they were planning to...

Honorable Sir, I just received a survey and request for a donation in the mail with your name on it from the Republican National Committee. THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE QUESTION IN THE SURVEY ABOUT OUR ENERGY SITUATION AND THE HISTORY OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY STONE WALLING AGAINST ENERGY PRODUCTION WITHIN UNITED STATES TERRITORIES FOR DECADES. The RPN and John McCain need to grab that issue like a dog grabs a bone and chew it right into the 2008 national elections. The survey I received from the RPN was one more piece of evidence that the Republican Party has completely misread...

"Sen. Edward M. Kennedy admitted yesterday that Barack Obama is running out of time to sew up the Democratic presidential nomination but remains “hopeful” the Illinois senator will overcome Hillary Clinton’s late surge." "Kennedy and Sen. John F. Kerry are both supporting Obama in his battle against Clinton (D-N.Y.). Kennedy said despite Obama’s recent slips, he remains the best choice for the Democratic party and the country. “He still offers the best opportunity for new leadership in this country,” Kennedy said. Obama and Clinton were both in North Carolina last night. Obama has been leading in recent polls in North...

If global warming or ozone depletion or whatever, really are consequences of the actions of the human race considered collectively, but not of the actions of any given individual, including any given individual private business firm, then the proper way to regard them is as the equivalent of acts of nature. Not being caused by the actions of individual human beings, they are equivalent to actions not morally caused by human beings at all, that is to say, to acts of nature. The intellectuals were totally unprepared for the world-wide collapse of socialism that became increasingly evident in the last...

Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki - who ordered the assault and put his prestige on the line by supervising it in person - has emerged with his authority severely weakened. His army and police took a battering and failed to capture any ground, with several commanders and units going over to the Sadrist militias they were meant to be defeating. And the Bush administration's effort to portray Iraq as a place that is gradually calming down thanks to the "surge" of an extra 30,000 US troops looks far less convincing to an increasingly sceptical US public. Finally, there is the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland, according to a report released Tuesday.

To soothe the bruised egos of educators and children in lackluster schools, Massachusetts officials are now pushing for kinder, gentler euphemisms for failure. more stories like thisInstead of calling these schools "underperforming," the Board of Education is considering labeling them as "Commonwealth priority," to avoid poisoning teacher and student morale. Schools in the direst straits, now known as "chronically underperforming," would get the more urgent but still vague label of "priority one." The board has spent parts of more than three meetings in recent months debating the linguistic merits and tone set by the terms after a handful of superintendents...

When Moqtada al-Sadr extended his cease-fire in Iraq last month, many wondered what he had in mind. Did he intend to bide his time, purge his movement of dissenters, or simply withdraw from public life to study Islam in Iran? Almost two weeks ago, Sadr himself provided an answer. He failed: “I have failed to liberate Iraq, and transform its society into an Islamic society.” – Moqtada al-Sadr, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, March 8, 2008Moqtada al-Sadr — the radical cleric dubbed “The Most Dangerous Man in Iraq” by a Newsweek cover story in December 2006 — has just unilaterally extended...

Salvaging Our North Korea Policy.... By JOHN R. BOLTON There are signs, albeit small ones, that the Bush administration may be reaching the end of its patience with the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. These signs could prove illusory. But as it nears its end, the administration has a serious responsibility: It must not leave its successor with an ongoing, failed policy. At a minimum, President Bush should not bequeath to the next president only the burned-out hulk of the Six-Party Talks, and countless failed and violated North Korean commitments. Since they were conceived in spring 2003,...

The president believes leaders of free countries should support morality and calls it a "sad day" when a leader such as New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is found to have been patronizing prostitutes, possibly in violation of federal law. But he won't get into what other people think of Spitzer's activities. White House assistant press secretary Tony Fratto responded to questions from Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, on the New York situation that has dominated headlines for days. "Would it be accurate to say that our president realizes the great importance of any leader of a free...

The days of a "one-size-fits-all" NHS are over, Alan Johnson claimed today. The health secretary used Labour's spring conference in Birmingham to set out the government's promise of a more personal health service. "People should have more choice over when they are able to see their GP. I hope that GPs will agree to provide extra appointments at weekends or evenings," he said. "This is not just for the benefit of commuters who struggle to see their doctor. When surgeries in Canary Wharf opened early in the morning, their first patients were not city hot shots, but hourly paid manual...

The Russian team saw their chances in the women's relay at the Biathlon World Championships melt into the snow when one athlete's rifle refused to fire. Now the disappointed Russians are dumping their German-made rifles in favor of trusty Russian weapons.

Pakistan army failures 'put the West in peril' By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad Last Updated: 2:31am GMT 11/02/2008 The West remains at constant risk of large-scale al-Qa'eda terrorist attacks because the Pakistani military requires years of training before it will be able to combat militancy, a Western military official has warned. Pakistan has deployed about 100,000 troops to the tribal region where about 1,000 have been killed More than six years have elapsed since the September 11 attacks on the United States but the Pakistan army remains unequipped and untrained for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations, the official told The Daily...

Charles Hill talked to the Yale Daily News about the disappointing finish he experienced as a member of Rudy Giuliani's team, Hill, one of the policy stars Rudy attracted for his advisory boards in the presidential primary campaign, agrees with the conventional wisdom that the Florida strategy was a mistake. However, he argues convincingly that it was a secondary strategic error: The candidate’s focus on Florida — at the expense of campaigning in the early primaries — was a mistake, Hill said in an interview with the News on Friday. But it was also part of a larger failure on...

JAKARTA (AFP) - - Indonesia's ex-dictator Suharto, who ruled the nation with an iron fist for more than three decades, suffered multiple organ failure on Friday and lost consciousness, his doctors said. Suharto, an authoritarian ruler for 32 years until he was forced from power in 1998, entered hospital a week ago suffering anaemia and low blood pressure, as well as heart, kidney and lung problems. He improved after dialysis and transfusions but his condition has since fluctuated, dramatically worsening late Friday as his extended family rushed to his bedside and the media crowded hospital corridors. "At 5:00pm (1000 GMT),...

Hillary Clinton's campaign, anticipating probable defeat here in New Hampshire on January 8, is gearing up for an extended trench-warfare battle against Barack Obama. The former First Lady is planning to fight Obama in South Carolina on January 26, and in the gargantuan nationwide primary on Tuesday, February 5 -- with contests in 19 states, including New York, California, New Jersey, Georgia, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Colorado. If she remains competitive, Clinton's plan is to continue to compete in Louisiana on February 9, in Virginia and Maryland on February 12, in Wisconsin on February 19, in Ohio on March 4 --...

House and Senate Democrats are moving forward with a risky budget plan they hope can produce an outcome acceptable to congressional Republicans and President Bush, one that combines war funding without strings with added domestic spending backed by both parties. The strategy relies in part on running the clock on lawmakers anxious to get out of town, and in part on the willingness of Senate GOP leaders to persuade their House counterparts to come to the table. That could be a tall order, as House GOP leaders appear increasingly in lockstep against any domestic spending increases above Bush's top-line. Regarding...

...There has been appropriate international outrage over the treatment of Gibbons, from virtually everyone except American “feminists.” Multiple Muslim groups in the U.K. have condemned the sentence. Even the popular little boy in Mrs. Gibbons’ class who suggested the name for the bear came to her defense, explaining that he named the bear after himself.

Enrollment in the state's new subsidized health plan is growing so quickly that the state could face a funding gap as large as $147 million by the end of the fiscal year, according to a state projection. An aggressive outreach campaign by the state, hospitals, community groups, and advocates, including an extensive push in the last few weeks, has put enrollment on a path that could reach nearly 180,000 by June 30. Even if signups slow, the program will probably still be over budget - a victim of its own success - because the state has already enrolled nearly as...

PELOSI'S PRESCRIPTION FOR FAILURE November 9, 2007 -- Next time Nancy Pelosi tries to play politics with funding for U.S. troops in Iraq, she might want to check the newspaper first. Pelosi announced yesterday that House Democrats would bring a vote, possibly as early as today, to insert a host of mission-hampering conditions into an appropriations bill needed to sustain the American effort. Her bill would designate $50 billion over the next four months for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan - provided that President Bush immediately begin to draw down forces in Iraq, with all major combat operations to...

Democrat failures have triggered a 14% approval rating - literally the lowest Congressional approval rating in recorded history. The Democrats have already mired themselves in a storm of trouble. Speaker Pelosi and her party believe that they know how to run your lives better than you; they believe that the best ideas are found in Washington. They couldn't be more wrong. http://www.therealdemocratstory.com DEMOCRATS' RECORD OF FAILURE: Health Care. In January, Democrats took the reins in Congress, portraying themselves as agents of change who would restore trust by ending pork-barrel politics in Washington. But after the first 100 days of...

Falling numbers of state dentists in England has led to some people taking extreme measures, including extracting their own teeth, according to a new study released Monday. Others have used superglue to stick crowns back on, rather than stumping up for private treatment, said the study. One person spoke of carrying out 14 separate extractions on himself with pliers. More typically, a lack of publicly-funded dentists means that growing numbers go private: 78 percent of private patients said they were there because they could not find a National Health Service (NHS) dentist, and only 15 percent because of better treatment....

Jimmy Carter, America’s most powerless, indecisive President, who allowed a mob of uneducated Iranian students to hold Americans hostage for more than a year, says he wouldn’t have done anything differently. Speaking with XM Radio’s Bob Edwards on Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter (you know, the guy who gave the “malaise” speech) told the radio host that he “would not want to have changed anything” during his presidency. Well, okay, maybe one thing. Referring to the Iran hostage crisis, Carter said, “I have a specific regret in not having one more helicopter when I wanted to rescue our hostages. If...

Jimmy Carter says in an interview that he wouldn't have changed a thing about his presidency. He claims that if he had only had "one more helicopter," he could have freed those hostages and thus won re-election. But he adds, if he had won a second term, he probably would not have the Carter Center today. So he says, it's a good thing. I'd love for him to explain this logic to the people he ignored for 444 days.

Norwegian companies insult foreign clients, lose business contracts and are reluctant to expand into new markets because of the poor English language skills of employees and business leaders, according to a new survey. "Norwegians think their English is much better than what it really is," philologist Glenn Ole Hellekjær said. More than half of the Norwegian business leaders in a recently conducted survey admitted that they had insulted foreign business partners because of insufficient knowledge of the English language, newspaper Aftenposten reported Wednesday. The survey, conducted by philologist Glenn Ole Hellekjær on behalf of The Norwegian Centre for Foreign Languages...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2007 – Failure in Iraq would empower extremists and have “enormous” consequences for the Middle East and the United States, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today during his appearance on two television news talk shows. Appearing on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace and This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Gates said the consequences of failure is a forgotten theme in Washington’s debate about Iraq. “No matter how you feel about how we got to where we are, the consequences of getting this wrong for Iraq, for the region, for us, are enormous,” he told said....

He says blacks have a particular duty to serve but no one excluded PHILADELPHIA — The city's embattled police chief, acknowledging that police alone cannot quell a run of deadly violence, has called on 10,000 men to patrol the streets to reduce crime. Sylvester Johnson says black men, in particular, have a duty to protect more vulnerable residents. He wants each volunteer to pledge to work three hours a day for at least 90 days. "We are definitely encouraging black men to be involved in it," Johnson said Thursday. "We have an obligation to give back. We have an obligation...

In one of the highest-profile instances of a central bank coming directly to the rescue of a commercial bank in the current credit crisis, the Bank of England agreed to provide emergency funding to Northern Rock PLC, the United Kingdom's fourth-largest mortgage lender. Northern Rock shares plunged at the opening of the trading session, falling 21% after the lender confirmed it will get a short-term credit line to offset a "severe liquidity squeeze" that cut off its access to capital. (See related article.) If current conditions persist through year-end, "there will clearly be an impact on Northern Rock's 2007 asset...

Two failed bridges. Two scarily similar scenarios. Last week, the Interstate 35W span over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed under the weight of rush-hour traffic and construction crews. Federal investigators now wonder whether the design of steel plates joining beams is to blame. Eleven years earlier, the eastbound I-90 bridge over the Grand River in Lake County (Ohio) failed. The reason: the same steel plates, called gussets. They had corroded, then buckled after crews blasted them during painting preparations. But while the Minnesota catastrophe has shaken the nation and prompted warnings to states to inspect other truss bridges and...

August 03, 2007 (Computerworld) -- In December 1999, NASA's long-awaited Mars Polar Lander space mission came to an abrupt and disappointing end when the spacecraft apparently smashed into the surface of the planet as it attempted to touch down. It was never heard from again. Saturday morning, however, some of the experiments that would have been performed on that mission eight years ago, plus new exploratory projects, will be launched to Mars on the Phoenix Mars Lander. The spacecraft is expected to land on the planet's surface 122 million miles away on May 25. Phoenix is scheduled to launch from...

~~~Snip~~~ That student, Indira Fernandez, had missed dozens of class sessions and failed to turn in numerous homework assignments, according to Mr. Lampros’s meticulous records, which he provided to The New York Times. She had not even shown up to take the final exam. She did, however, attend the senior prom. Through the intercession of Ms. Geiger, Miss Fernandez was permitted to retake the final after receiving two days of personal tutoring from another math teacher. Even though her score of 66 still left her with a failing grade for the course as a whole by Mr. Lampros’s calculations, Ms....

Six months on, the defining characteristic of the new Democrat majority in Congress has been failure: failure to lead, failure to communicate, failure to organize, failure to deliver. It's normal for a caucus long out of power to have some tough sledding when relearning how to run the place, but this crowd is taking incompetence to a new level. Forget about the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) right now are riding at the head of the Gang That Can't Even Shoot. The collapse of the immigration bill is...

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2007 – President Bush today said he will wait until the top commander in Iraq issues his assessment of progress there before deciding the way ahead for the region. “I believe that it’s in this nation’s interest to give the commander the chance to fully implement his operations,” Bush said, speaking to about 400 people in a town-hall-style meeting in Cleveland. Bush said he believes the United States eventually can reduce its troop presence in Iraq to the number necessary to preserve the country’s territorial integrity, ensure al Qaeda doesn’t gain safe haven from which to launch...

Scott Rasmussen’s first law of politics is that America’s politicians aren’t nearly as important as they think they are. That law was clearly demonstrated earlier today when the United States Senate finally surrendered to the American people on immigration. Politicians may make things messy for a while, but over the long haul it is the American people who determine the nation’s fundamental policies.

China's Brilliance BS6 is a recent entry into the European market, positioned as a premium-style import sedan at a budget price. Well, after seeing the videos of the car undergoing crash testing using Euro NCAP guidelines at the ADAC (Germany's AAA, essentially) test center, one thing's certain: buyers get what they pay for. The BS6, as currently constructed, appears to a complete piece of crap. The horrifying 40 mph offset frontal crash test video shows damage that can be described as catastrophic at best. The A-pillar collapses and folds up like a cheap suitcase, forcing the driver's door to pop...

Roseanne Barr's show has gone off the air again. The comedienne broadcast the final edition of her "Roseanne Talk Live" radio show for KCAA 1050 AM on Friday. She started the show, which aired from 5 to 6 p.m. on weekdays, on March 15. Station officials said Barr pulled the plug on her show. "She needed a rest and went off to Hawaii," said Todd Rowan, the station's sales director. He said for now the show is on temporary hiatus. The Emmy-winning actress, who previously starred in her own top television show, broadcast her weekday radio gig with sidekick Johnny...

Steve Powers, who just retired after 45 years as a New York radio and TV newsman, has seen a whole lot of changes in the news game since he was a young reporter meeting President John F. Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden..... snip- AIR AMERICA CUTS NEWS: The progressive network Air America is eliminating its news service at the end of June. The decision was "based solely on economics," according to a staff memo from COO Scott Elberg. "We spent the last three months looking at all the options," his memo said. "In the end, it didn't work."...

MSM In No Rush to Reveal Hillary Flunked Bar Exam Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 1, 2007 - 08:26. If George W. Bush had gone to law school and later flunked the bar exam, you can imagine that fact would have become a virtual part of his name in the MSM, as in "George Bush, who failed the bar exam, today criticized a law that . . ." But it came as news to me when Carl Bernstein mentioned on this morning's "Today" that Hillary flunked the Washington, DC bar exam back in the '70s. OK, I'm not the...

Diplomacy: It's often asserted that while Jimmy Carter's presidency was marred by error and incompetence, the peace deal he brokered at Camp David was an unmitigated triumph. Time to pop that bubble, too. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Profile In Incompetence: Eighth In A SeriesMore on this series -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carter's effrontery in calling George W. Bush "the worst" president can be traced in part to his supposed success in negotiating the Camp David accords. Signed in March 1978, that deal came about after Carter used the power of the presidency to get Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to talk...

The Democrat Majority 110th Congress is a Failure by J.R. DieckmannDate: May 29, 2007 Editor Note: If you think your congressional representatives have been burning the midnight oil on your behalf, you need to read this piercing new commentary by FSM Contributing Editor J.R. Dieckmann who exposes the frivolous nature of this Congress. Hint - they are not making America safer. The Democrat Majority 110th Congress is a Failure   By J.R. Dieckmann   Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are praising themselves on the accomplishments of their Congress after the first 5 months in charge. The fact is that the...

Leadership: So Jimmy Carter calls the Bush administration "the worst in history." This from the man who wrecked the world's greatest economy and made a nuclear Iran and North Korea possible. Profile In Incompetence: First In A Series We didn't think we'd see the day when a president-elect of France would be more appreciative of America's role in the world than one of our own former presidents. But here is Carter telling the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that President Bush's "administration has been the worst in history," one that has "endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war even when our own security is...