Free Republic

Since the time of Hitler, civilization has never been so close to the brink of total catastrophe. This American election will decide whether civilization as we know it will survive. As much as economic questions are currently front and center, with blame to go all round, this is not an election primarily about corporate greed, or individuals living beyond their means, or government neglect of economic oversight. Nor is it about whether we should have gone into Iraq where, like it or not, American boots on the ground have begun to create an emerging democracy. This election is about whether...

US judge orders Chinese Muslims at Guantanamo freed 07 Oct 2008 16:40:00 GMT Source: Reuters WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the release in the United States of 17 Chinese Muslims who have been held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, a landmark ruling that dealt a major setback to the Bush administration. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina read his ruling from the bench at a hearing to consider the appeals by the members of the Uighur ethnic group, who are seeking their release from the military prison and and asking to come...

NBC is furiously erasing its tracks. Any attempts to upload the forbidden SNL bailout skit skewering George Soros and his left-wing subprime schemer friends Herbert and Marion Sandler will likely be squashed. So, I transcribed the whole comedy sketch for you and provided screenshots for the 7-minute video that has disappeared from NBC and Hulu. (Pat Dollard’s blog has posted the full clip on its server. Thanks to Ms. Underestimated for the .wmv file.) THE SCRUBBED SNL VIDEO FROM 10-4-08 ((it wouldn't work on Firefox for me, but did on Explorer))

Congressional passage of a $700 billion Wall Street bailout – legislation that was supported by many Republicans and signed into law by President Bush last week – is an indicator that conservatives have abandoned free-market economics, said a group of scholars at the liberal New America Foundation on Monday. A spokesman for the conservative Heritage Foundation, however, told CNSNews.com that while many conservatives supported the bailout, they did so because steps were needed to protect the country from the financial crisis that was caused by a violation of free market principles. “What remains of the free market today?” asked James...

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve announced a radical new plan on Tuesday to jump-start the engine of the financial system. The Fed said in a statement that it would begin to buy large amounts of short-term debt in an effort to stimulate the credit markets, which have all but dried up. Under the program, the Fed said that it would buy the unsecured short-term debt that companies rely on to finance their day-to-day activities. “This facility should encourage investors to once again engage in term lending in the commercial paper market,” the Fed said Tuesday in a statement. “An improved...

US WARPLANE FORCED TO LAND IN IRAN.

ORONO Maine's new beverage taxes, at the heart of Question 1 on this November ballot, will cost Maine businesses and households as much as $40.7 million annually in higher taxes on beer, wine and nonalcoholic beverages, according to new research by University of Maine economist Todd Gabe. These taxes, imposed by Public Law 629, also would result in the reduction of $17.5 million in beer, wine and soft drink net sales revenue. Including multiplier effects, the total economic impacts are an estimated reduction in sales revenue of $26.3 million statewide, with a loss of 395 full- and part-time jobs that...

...the reason no one focuses on Obama's "community organizing" is because few understand how it fits into the big picture. focus, trace, read [click acorn] - revisit if necessary - but do understand why a) Obama has gotten to where he is and why he threatens to continue that meteoric rise - with your tax money - straight to the white house and b) how Obama, his advisors & the dems are linked to the biggest financial meltdown since the Great Depression.

Critics of Senator Barack Obama make a strategic mistake when they talk about his “past associations.” That just gives his many defenders in the media an opportunity to counter-attack against “guilt by association.” We all have associations, whether at the office, in our neighborhood, or in various recreational activities. Most of us neither know nor care what our associates believe or say about politics. Associations are very different from alliances. Allies are not just people who happen to be where you are or who happen to be doing the same things you do. You choose allies deliberately for a reason....

The mainstream media are currently excusing Barack Obama's friendship with unrepentant terrorist, Bill Ayers, in a couple of ways. They either claim that Ayers was just a "neighborhood friend" of Obama and/or that Ayers was merely some benign 60s radical while conveniently avoiding mention of his terrorist activities in the Weather Underground. The first point that Ayers was just some neighborhood friend of Obama is undercut by the working relationship between the two as we saw in yesterday's NewsBusters blog by Clay Waters quoting Ed Morrissey of Hot Air: ...Obama worked as CEO of the project that Ayers helped found,...

You’ll want to double-check the logo at the bottom left corner during this report. It really is CNN and Anderson Cooper fact-checking Barack Obama’s claims to have barely known William Ayers — and calling it dishonest. Stanley Kurtz even gets to make an appearance on a network other than Fox for this report (via Dirty Harry’s Place):

‘You’ve got only a couple thousand bucks in the bank. Your job pays you dog-food wages. Your credit history has been bent, stapled, and mutilated. You declared bankruptcy in 1989. Don’t despair: You can still buy a house.” So began an April 1995 article in the Chicago Sun-Times that went on to direct prospective home-buyers fitting this profile to a group of far-left “community organizers” called ACORN, for assistance. In retrospect, of course, encouraging customers like this to buy homes seems little short of madness. Militant ACORN At the time, however, that 1995 Chicago newspaper article represented something of a...

On Oct. 6, Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin accused Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists." She was referring to Obama's occasional association with Bill Ayers, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor who co-founded the militant group, the Weathermen. Palin was not the first to mention the Obama-Ayers connection. The Obama campaign regularly points out that Ayers committed his crimes when Obama was only eight. The Weathermen formed as a radical offshoot of the 1960s student activist group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). A manifesto, which circulated around a June 1969 SDS convention, took its title from Bob...

The government is weighing a plan to buy massive amounts of unsecured short-term debt in an effort to unclog credit markets in the U.S., a report says. The Federal Reserve is working with the Treasury Department on the plan to buy commercial paper, a short-term financing mechanism that many companies rely on to finance their day-to-day operations, the Associated Press reports, citing a person with knowledge of the plan. The plan calls for the government to come up with a backstop that would provide companies with a new place to get cash. Under the plan, the Fed could become a...

Mpower pictures and Vivendi are starting to hear complaints about sabotage of An American Carol by employees of theaters that are carrying the movie. So far, ten theaters have been implicated in outright fraud regarding this movie. Obviously, the producers and distributors would like to get to the bottom of this and find out the extent of any fraud, but they need our help to determine whether the problem is systemic, or confined to a few theaters in a nationawide release. What we know: in at least ten theaters nationwide, customers were sold tickets they were told were for An...

قطاع غزة‎ Video clip has been around a bit, but may have been lost in the shuffle and news cycle(s) during the Democratic primaries. Now that this issue is heating up, it is appropriate for Free Republic.Here it is again.Unfreakingbelievable.Link to VIDEO.

Jerome Corsi, anti-Obama author, detained in Kenya (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) A leading American neo-Conservative author has been detained by immigration authorities in Kenya as he tried to launch a book smearing Barack Obama. Jerome Corsi, of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fame, was this morning being held after failing to reckon with Obamamania. He had been planning to launch his book, entitled The Obama Nation Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, before travelling to one of Nairobi’s slums to donate money to the Senator’s half-brother George, who was found living in squalid conditions two months ago. But officers swooped hours...

Icelandic internet bank stops British customers making withdrawals after it admits: 'We can't safeguard your cash'Icelandic internet bank stops British customers making withdrawals after it admits: 'We can't safeguard your cash' By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 9:56 AM on 07th October 2008 More than 200,000 British investors in the Icelandic internet bank Icesave were today unable to make any deposits or withdrawals from their accounts. Customers hoping to access their account were met with a message on the bank's website this morning which said that Icesave was not 'currently processing any deposits or withdrawal requests'. There was no...

Phil J. Berg filed an amended complaint today in Berg v. Obama. The amended complaint adds the Pennsylvania Department of State, the Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortes (in his official capacity), the U. S. Sentate Committee on Rules and Administration, and Senator Diane Feinstein (in her official capacity as chairman) for their failure to exercise due diligence with respect to Barack Obama's contitutional qualifications to be elected and serve as President of The United States, and for his inclusion on the ballot in Pennsylvania as a candidate for President of the United States. The amended complaint also bolsters...

NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan official says the American author of a book critical of Barack Obama has been detained while his immigration status is checked. Jerome Corsi wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality." Senior immigration official Carlos Maluta says he is being held at immigration headquarters after police picked him up from his hotel Tuesday.

Democrat Barack Obama has a 2-point lead in the U.S. presidential race on Republican John McCain, whose choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate helped shore up support for both candidates, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday. Obama leads McCain among likely voters by 47 percent to 45 percent, within the poll's 3.1 percent margin of error.

Video of Obama in his own words from various interviews regarding Chicago Annenburg Challenge and who hired him. Bill Ayers, infact, Ayers built the foundation with a 50 Mill grant then hired Obama, the ACORN community Organization attorney (Obama) to run it. It was one of his only job resume points he pointed to while running for US Senate.

Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN. The militia, which has been intensifying its attacks on the U.S.-led coalition that toppled it from power in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, has been involved four days of talks hosted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, says the source. The talks -- the first of their kind aimed at resolving the lengthy conflict in Afghanistan -- mark a significant move by the Saudi...

Taking Obama to the woodshed!

Barack Obama & Khalid Al-Mansour (VIDEO)

A picture of Joyce McGautha superintendent of the Urban Community Leadership AcademyUrban Community Leadership Academy 1524 Paseo Boulevard Kansas City, MO 64108 816-483-8035Principal: Joyce McGauthaGrades: 5-9Sponsor: University of Central MissouriClick Below to listen to Joyce McGaetha the school superintendent admit she knew the kids  were being taped and didn't see a problem with it. She is just upset it was posted on youtube. Joyce%20McGauthe%20on%20Stigall%20100608.mp3Here is the original video: Obama Youth Regiment LYRICS:"Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega, Alpha, Omega,""Because of Obama, I'm...

(CBS) CBS News Investigative Producer Laura Strickler wrote this story for CBSNews.com with additional reporting from Sarah Fitzpatrick and Ariel Bashi. CBS News has learned that two donors to the Obama campaign that gave a total of $7,722 appear to have made their contributions under fake names that look like they were written by a mouse running across a keyboard: Dahsudhu Hdusahfd of Df, Hawaii with the following employer CZXVC/ZXVZXV and Uadhshgu Hduadh listed as living in Dhff, Florida listed their employer as DASADA/SAFASF. CBS News did not find any records of these last names, towns or employers anywhere else....

CBS/AP) Asian stocks showed signs of life Tuesday after a global market sell-off, with several markets climbing into positive territory or paring losses after opening sharply lower. Australian stocks jumped after the country's central bank cut interest rates by a bigger-than-expected 1 percentage point to 6 percent in response to the unfolding global financial crisis. The S&P/ASX-200 index rose 2 percent to 4,634 after opening down 3.7 percent. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index erased some losses after briefly falling over 5 percent to below 10,000 for the first time in almost five years. By midday, it was trading about 1.7...

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." *snip* According to the note obtained by NBC News, a "recently discovered audio recording of al-Qa‘ida training sessions conducted several years ago provides instruction to potential suicide terrorists on...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Morgantown-based anti-abortion group has filed a legal objection in federal court to West Virginia's new political advertising laws, claiming they wrongly prevent the organization from advocating its position to potential voters. On Tuesday, West Virginians For Life Inc. filed a 51-page complaint asking U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston to declare the new election laws unconstitutional. The filing asks Johnston to grant an injunction preventing election officials from enforcing the new laws, which went into effect Oct. 1. Shirley Stanton, the group's president, said the new law wrongly defines the group's efforts as "express advocacy," or...

Lehman chief on hot seat Fuld grilled on bankrupt firm's bonus plans worth millions By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS Associated Press Oct. 6, 2008, 10:47PM WASHINGTON — The now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Bros. arranged millions in bonuses for fired executives as it pleaded for a federal lifeline, lawmakers learned Monday, as Congress began investigating what went so wrong on Wall Street to prompt a $700 billion government bailout.The first in a series of congressional hearings on the roots of the financial meltdown yielded few major revelations about Lehman's collapse, and none about why government officials, as they scrambled to avert...

CLEVELAND - Volunteers supporting Barack Obama picked up hundreds of people at homeless shelters, soup kitchens and drug-rehab centers and drove them to a polling place yesterday on the last day that Ohioans could register and vote on the same day, almost no questions asked. The huge effort by a pro-Obama group, Vote Today Ohio, takes advantage of a quirk in the state's elections laws that allows people to register and cast ballots at the same time without having to prove residency. Republicans have argued that the window could lead to widespread voter fraud because officials wouldn't have an opportunity...

Michelle Obama hit two fundraisers in Chicago Monday night. The first was at the Douglas Dawson Gallery of art on the Near West Side. *snip* She told the crowd her husband understands the problems of average Americans -- "He gets it. We've got one candidate who gets it and one candidate who's trying to get it." With only 29 days left in the campaign, she asked people not just to contribute but to convert their friends and cross state lines to help bring neighboring battleground states into her husband's column. - Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan "even Pennsylvania." "Tell people your...

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has a narrow 3-point lead in the U.S. presidential race on Republican John McCain less than a month before the election, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Tuesday. Obama leads McCain among likely U.S. voters 48 percent to 45 percent in the national poll, which has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. Four percent of voters said they were still undecided. The survey, the first in a series of daily tracking polls that will sample public opinion until the November 4 election, showed Obama with an advantage among the crucial...

A U.S. Army soldier was brutally beaten by other soldiers in his platoon earlier this month following two incidents in which a drill sergeants allegedly used anti-Semitic slurs to address the soldier. Pvt. Michael Handman, 20, who has just completed his fifth week of basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, was recently released from a hospital where he was treated for a concussion, facial wounds, and severe oral injuries following the attack, according to the boy’s father, Jonathan Handman. The soldier’s father said he received a disturbing telephone call last week from his son’s commanding officer “to tell me that...

Last year, the nation watched in horror as the death toll mounted in the rampage at Virginia Tech. More than 30 college students were mowed down by a mentally-ill student. The perpetrator, Cho Seung-Hui, legally purchased the two guns... --snip-- In 2006, according to FBI statistics, there were 14,831 homicides in the United States. Almost 70% were committed with a firearm, and nearly half were committed with the type of handguns that the city of Washington attempted to ban. (All handguns were banned. Longguns were to be made useless except as clubs.)--snip-- "He had a semiautomatic weapon with a clip...

The mainstream media has justified ignoring this story based on a “conspiracy theory” chain email making the rounds from some African missionaries. Politifact.com examined the email—which claims Obama gave $1MM to Odinga’s campaign—and declared it “a pants on fire”. However, the underlying (more important issues) are verifiably true. In August and September 2006, Senator Barack Obama traveled to South Africa, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Chad and Kenya as a congressional delegation of one (Codel Obama) (“Codel Obama” The Hill 9/7/2006) While in Kenya, Obama consistently appeared at the side of fellow Luo Raila Odinga (“your agent for change’), who was running...

<p>I read occasionally of former Weatherman Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn, both now not only accepted, despite their bombing campaign against America in the 1960s and 70s, but successful , establishment educators whose opinions on social issues are taken seriously. Every time I see Ayers’ name I shudder with fear and rage and realize that I will never be able to erase the mark he left on my life one evening 40 years ago.</p>

I am not a big fan of Bill O'Reilly, but why is he doing the job of the Main Street Media by himself? Why are the Republicans so mute? TUNE IN NOW! BOR is going to talk about the romantic involvement with a Fannie Mae executive. We know the drill folks, but tune in while SOMEONE in the media is bothering to cover the facts.

Over the weekend, I watched a hilarious, dead-on, and surprisingly honest skit on Saturday Night Live about the craptastic bailout and its Democrat roots. The skit called out Fannie/Freddie and featured Nancy Pelosi dragging out various sob-story “victims” — who turned out to be a parade of deadbeats and schemers. I was going to post the video for you tonight, but I can’t. The video has been pulled. Vanished into thin air. Where did it go and why? I have a theory.......

A weeklong period in which Ohio residents could register to vote and immediately cast a ballot has ended with turnout that didn't quite match the expectations of election officials - or the campaign predictions that preceded it, the AP reported. As of Monday evening with polling sites still open, projections are that about 3,500 to 4,000 voters in the state's four largest counties would have taken advantage of the policy, which survived multiple court challenges

San Francisco (AP) -- The words "bride" and "groom" will reappear on all marriage license applications issued in California starting next month, state health officials said. In a notice posted on its Web site, the California Department of Public Health says it is making the change because many couples still wanted the option of identifying themselves in traditional terms. When same-sex marriage became legal in the state on June 16, the health department issued new gender-neutral marriage forms with the words "Party A" and "Party B" where "bride" and "groom" used to be.

No story just a headline. Citigroup Files Lawsuit Against Wachovia, Wells Fargo Seeking More Than $60 Billion in Damages

Looking at hugh panic in global mkts right now. This is vey series. Australian dollar off almost 8.6% on the day against the USD. One bank said they are seeing literally NO BIDS in the Australian dollar, which is huge considering that you can usually trade several million with the click of a mouse.

CBS Poll: Presidential Race Tightens Survey Shows Obama Leading McCain 47 Percent To 43 Percent Among Registered Voters Nationwide Following V.P. Debate (CBS) In a sign that the race for president has returned to about where it was before the first presidential debate, the Obama-Biden ticket leads the McCain-Palin ticket 47 percent to 43 percent among registered voters in a new CBS News poll. The Obama-Biden ticket led by a wider margin, nine percentage points, in a CBS News poll released last Wednesday, before Joe Biden and Sarah Palin faced off in the vice presidential debate. Obama-Biden led by five...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

The defeat next month of the state proposition that seeks to prohibit same sex marriages could mean hundreds of new jobs and millions of dollars in personal, business and government revenue from same-sex weddings over the next three years in Sonoma County, according to a study released today. The report was prepared by Sonoma State University’s Center for Regional Economic Analysis and was paid for by a grant from the Horizons Foundation, a philanthropic social justice organization serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in the Bay Area. Details of the report were highlighted by Robert Eyler, Chair of Sonoma...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― A new CBS 5 poll finds that California's Proposition 8 has picked up support in the wake of a television ad campaign that features footage of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaiming same-sex marriage is here to stay "whether you like it or not." The poll conducted for CBS 5 by SurveyUSA indicates that support for the measure to ban gay marriage has grown among voters in the state over an eleven day period — most especially among young voters. According to the poll, likely California voters overall now favor passage of Proposition 8 by...

The Federal Reserve is working with the US Treasury on plans for a dramatic move into unsecured lending in the hope that this extreme step could help bring credit markets back to life. As well as unsecured lending to banks, this could lead to the Fed directly purchasing commercial paper or funding a special purpose vehicle set up to do this. Any unsecured lending would be a radical departure for the Fed. Central banks the world over almost never make unsecured loans, and the Fed has never done so in its history. It would allow the Fed to address two...

There is a story circulating around the blogosphere that American Samoa Delegate to the U.S. Congress, Eni Faleomavaega, undertook a secret mission to Indonesia last year to get Barack Obama’s school records sealed.