Free Republic

Anne Royalty, associate professor of economics at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), is one of four scholars who have published a critique of Senator John McCain’s proposed health insurance reform plan. McCain’s reform package “would eliminate the current tax exclusion of employer payments for health coverage, replace the exclusion with a refundable tax credit for those who purchase coverage, and encourage Americans to move to a national market for nongroup insurance,” according to the critique abstract. Results of the change will “tend to raise costs, reduce the generosity of benefits, and leave people with fewer consumer protections,” the researchers said....

How We’re Doing: First Polling Numbers By: BJ Lawson As you know, I’m a big believer in transparency in government. That translates into transparency in campaigns, as well — especially since our campaign is supported by so many people. Many have asked for insight into how we’re doing, and tonight we received results from our first poll. We called a sample of 1,105 households across the district, stratified by precinct. Before we hit the results, let’s review our district’s demographics: Democrats: 46% Republicans: 28% Unaffiliated: 26% As you can see, while Democrats far outnumber Republicans, Unaffiliated voters and any swing...

UALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Armed pirates hijacked a Greek ship with 25 crew members off Somalia on Thursday, authorities said, bringing to 55 the number of reported attacks in the lawless sea lane of the African region. ADVERTISEMENT The bulk carrier was headed to Kenya when it was attacked off the eastern coast of Somalia, the 13th ship to be seized in African waters in the past two months, according to Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau. He said the latest incident showed that Somali pirates, who were previously operating in the northern coast in the Gulf of Aden,...

Memo to US Secret Service: Net proxy may pinpoint Palin email hackers Not quite Anonymous By Dan Goodin in San Francisco Posted in Security, 18th September 2008 01:22 GMT Memo to law enforcement investigators tracking down who broke into Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account: Gabriel Ramuglia might be a good place to start. The 25-year-old webmaster and entrepreneur is the operator of Ctunnel.com (http://ctunnel.com/), the browsing proxy service used by the group that hacked into the vice presidential candidate's personal email account and exposed its contents (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/17/anonymous_hacks_sarah_palin/) to the world. While he has yet to examine his logs, he says...

THE Conservatives have smashed through the 50 per cent barrier in the polls for the first time since Margaret Thatcher's heyday, a further blow to Gordon Brown's struggling leadership. An Ipsos MORI poll published today showed the Tories up four points on 52 per cent. The news comes amid reports that another member of the government is set to quit within days over Mr Brown's leadership. Eric Joyce, the Falkirk MP and parliamentary private secretary to John Hutton, the Business Secretary, is reportedly considering resigning after the Labour conference which begins this weekend. And James Purnell, the Work and Pensions...

(09-17) 18:57 PDT LAS VEGAS, (AP) -- Barack Obama sharpened his attacks on John McCain and mocked the Republican's recent calls for reform in two stops in Nevada on Wednesday after days of listening to nervous supporters fret about the Democrat's chances of taking the White House. "Sen. McCain bragged about how as chairman of the Commerce Committee in the Senate, he had oversight of every part of the economy. Well, all I can say to Sen. McCain is, 'Nice job. Nice job,'" Obama said at a rally at a baseball stadium in Las Vegas. "Where is he getting these...

Russia says gets U.S. assurance amid market turmoil Reuters - Thursday, September 18 MOSCOW, Sept 17 - Russia's finance ministry said on Wednesday the United States had given an assurance that its policy toward Moscow is not driven by politics amid the worst exodus of investors in a decade from the Russian markets. (Advertisement) U.S. Treasury Secretary "Henry Paulson assured Russia that the Federal Reserve and Treasury officials are not driven by politics in their relations with Russia in the financial sphere," the Russian finance ministry said in a statement after a phone conversation between Paulson and Russian minister Alexei...

As Spc. Jorge Monjaras peered out the open hatch of an Abrams tank last month, he saw a young insurgent dart out of a crowd and lob a makeshift grenade. A small blast hit his back and burned a fist-sized hole into his body armor vest but left him without a scratch. The explosion was only the blasting cap. The main explosive, a 60 mm mortar round, landed inside his hatch and moved freely at his feet. It wasn’t until the next day when he prepped the tank for a different mission that he realized how lucky he was. To...

Op-Ed Contributor THE audience’s mantra at the Republican National Convention — “drill, baby, drill” — reflected deep frustration with Washington’s decision to lock down tens of billions of barrels of oil under American territory in an era of $4-a-gallon gasoline. Whatever the merits of his argument, Barack Obama’s response that “drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution” won’t make the sting go away as long as it costs $100 to fill the tank of a pickup truck. The crux of the matter is how accelerated drilling would affect gas prices, now and in the long term. And the...

Excerpt- For Scotland's oldest bank, it was the suddenness of its rout that stunned. That and the silence at the top. That and the invisibility of leadership. That and the short-selling frenzy that descended on HBOS shares yesterday, like vultures on a corpse. This was the blackest day in Scottish banking. An appalling day of shock, confusion and disbelief. Many this morning will still be aghast at the speed of the bank's share collapse. Anger and a reckoning will come later. Today, the fate of HBOS, the savings of its 22 million customers, the prospects for its 72,000 staff and...

Ex-SEC Official Blames Agency for Blow-Up of Broker-Dealers 'They constructed a mechanism that simply didn't work' By JULIE SATOW, Staff Reporter of the Sun | September 18, 2008 http://www.nysun.com/business/ex-sec-official-blames-agency-for-blow-up/86130/ The Securities and Exchange Commission can blame itself for the current crisis. That is the allegation being made by a former SEC official, Lee Pickard, who says a rule change in 2004 led to the failure of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Merrill Lynch. The SEC allowed five firms — the three that have collapsed plus Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — to more than double the leverage they were allowed...

Now we know where Obama’s mean, nasty, abusive followers get their marching orders. At a Nevada rally Wednesday, Obama said this to about 14,000 people: “I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face,” Nice. So much for the politics of hope and unity. So much for teaching our youth how to be good citizens and neighbors. So much for teaching tolerance, respect, and bi-partisanship....

In an election where pilots face off against lawyers, one major party thinks we citizens are gifted, and the other thinks we are afflicted. Consider the commentary rising like marsh gas from the swamps of Salon, where Cintra Wilson harbors a visceral dislike for any Christian to the right of her former colleague, Anne Lamott. Conservative pundits have noticed the operatic disdain with which Wilson barbers on about Sarah Palin, but too few remember that Palin is only the latest to feel the lash from the lily pad where Wilson has been trying to work frog princess alchemy on a...

Chiliasm (Gk. “one thousand”) also millennialism (lat. “one thousand”) The belief in a future return of Christ that completes with a thousand year reign on the earth. This reign follows the present age and is followed by the judgment and the creation of a New Heaven and New Earth. This belief was held by most in the early centuries of the Church including Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Commodian, Lactantius, Methodius, Melito, and Apollinaris of Laodicea, but most began to shift in their theology during the fourth century to an amillennial stance (the belief that we are in the millennium). This...

Democrats introduced a 290-page energy bill at 9:45 p.m. Monday night which passed 236-189 Tuesday evening -- just over 24 hours after the bill was filed. The bill reportedly did not go through any committees or subcommittees, and Democratic leaders are not allowing a single amendment to be offered. If passed by both houses, the bill would keep 80 percent to 88 percent of known domestic reserves permanently off limits.

Few media in the U.S. beyond evangelical Christian blogs have taken much interest. But a prominent Israeli newspaper has reported that the son of Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef has become a Christian and apparently now resides in California with church friends. A Palestinian news agency has reported on the conversion and quoted family members who strongly deny it, though they admit he is in California. The left-of-center Israeli newspaper Haaretz broke the story on July 31 with a lengthy interview with the Hamas leader's son, who is named Masab. It included a photo of the 30-year-old man with short...

Excerpt - HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. military aborted an attempt to shoot down an incoming missile with two interceptors Wednesday after the target malfunctioned shortly after launch off Kauai. ~ snip ~

http://www.mikefrancesa.com/wordpress/?p=1190For some reason Barack Obama has never mentioned his three week stay in Pakistan in any of his writings. On the infamous San Francisco trip in which Obama called small town Americans “bitter” he also bragged that he had more foreign policy credentials than Hillary Clinton and John McCain. One of the things he listed on his resume was his extensive foreign travel including a 1981 trip to Pakistan. However since this admission, slip of the tongue, or however you would characterize it, Obama has never mentioned this trip again. Interesting though when you look at Chandoo's homepage, Mohammed Hassan...

Forbes magazine recently named Chicago the country's most stressful place to live in the United States.

I am truly convinced that Sarah is something special folks. I watched her interview with Sean Hannity and parts of the town hall event from Michigan. I thought it was great day for her. It is time the McCain Campaign release her more. I feel like there was a 3 or 4 day period where the MSM did some damage by controlling the conversation and once again trying to frame her to be a light weight. The more she is out there, the more effective her political immune system becomes. I was disturbed when Bill O'Reilly had some cardboard media...