Free Republic

Plains Justice is an environmental law center founded in Cedar Rapids a couple of years ago largely to fight the proposed coal plant in Waterloo. But Tuesday's news that those plans are off the table was not cause for celebration at the center. Instead, it has attorneys shifting their focus to the proposed plant in Marshalltown. Plains Justice president Carrie La Seur saw this day coming. "Looking at the Waterloo plan it just didn't seem possible that private investors would have an appetite for that kind of risk," said La Seur. A similar proposal by Alliant Energy to build a...

When Tribune Co. (OTC: TRBCQ) owner Sam Zell took the publishing and media giant private about a year ago, little did he know that his move would completely backfire, leading to a bankruptcy just under a month ago. With way too much debt, one of the nicer possessions in Zell's closet has been the Chicago Cubs. Outspoken billionaire Mark Cuban wants to buy them, but at a discount to Zell's asking price of course. Cuban's balking at the approximately $1 billion price tag that seems to be the asking price for the Cubbies. Cuban probably is thinking that Tribune and...

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communications has issued an instruction on using open source software products at state agencies. Accordingly, by June 30, 2009, 100% of servers of IT divisions of government agencies must be installed with open source software; 100% of staffs at these IT divisions must be trained in the use of these software products and at least 50% use them proficiently. IT divisions at government agencies comprise the IT departments of ministries and government agencies, provincial and municipal Departments of Information and Communications. Open source software products are OpenOffice, email software for servers of...

Does anybody have the name of the website that tracks what movies gross over time?...... Thanks in advance..........

Forbes Magazine did a recent interview with Pimco Total Return Bond Fund manager, Bill Gross. In it, he explained why he is moving away from Treasuries even though other investors are piling in --snip-- 1. A continued above-average allocation to agency mortgage-backed securities – now yielding close to 6%. 2. An overweight position in bank capital – bonds and preferred stock in companies where the Treasury has an equity stake. With Uncle Sam as your partner, default seems remote. 3. A focus on the frontend of the yield curve. The Fed will stay low for an extended period of time...

Bernard Madoff, who stands accused of bilking sophisticated investors out of $50 billion, is reported to have told two of his executives that his business was "a giant Ponzi scheme." Perpetrators of Ponzi schemes lead clients to believe their money is invested and that their profits are the fruits of the money manager's savvy. But in fact, the "profits" are merely revenue provided by the next group of dupes. Eventually, when no more new dupes can be found, the scheme crashes. Political leaders say Madoff's alleged crimes show what's wrong with the country. President-elect Obama said the "massive fraud that...

Barack Obama has dubbed his behemoth fiscal stimulus proposal the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." But if truth in advertising were required of White House plans, only one title would fit the trillion-dollar-plus-and-growing bill: The Generational Theft Act of 2009. President-elect Obama was at his most candid when he told the country Tuesday that we face massive deficits for the foreseeable future. "Potentially we've got trillion-dollar deficits for years to come," he said, "even with the economic recovery that we are working on." But one word is glaringly out of place in that warning. It's the word "even." Washington will...

THE SITUATION IN MEXICO: A. The Mexican State is engaged in an increasingly violent, internal struggle against heavily armed narco-criminal cartels that have intimidated the public, corrupted much of law enforcement, and created an environment of impunity to the law. • Thousands are being murdered each year. Drug production, addiction, and smuggling are rampant. The struggle for power among drug cartels has resulted in chaos in the Mexican states and cities along the US-Mexico border. Drug-related assassinations and kidnappings are now common-place occurrences throughout the country. • Squad-sized units of the police and Army have been tortured, murdered, and their...

A one-time motel in a small central Maine town could soon be offering an eye-opening way to start the day — topless coffee shop waitresses. The Vassalboro Planning Board on Tuesday will consider a business permit request for a topless coffee shop on busy Route 3. The one-story building has also been the home to several other business ventures, most recently Mac Daddy's Pub at the Fat Cat Grille, which closed three or four years ago. Neighbors have mixed opinions. Some say Vassalboro is a rural town and that a topless coffee shop would bring the wrong crowd. But others...

Growing up, my grandmother lived with us. Her name was Mary and one day she met a man named John. While everyone else was either at work or school, John came to the door of our house in Queens when my grandmother was home alone. John had an Italian last name and spoke Italian. John didn’t just speak Italian. John spoke the Sicilian dialect that my grandmother spoke. He said he knew my father. Mary invited John upstairs for coffee. My grandfather died before I was born, and just like in the movies, my grandmother wore black until the day...

Watch Philip Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, unveil Apple’s latest innovations at Macworld 2009. See the video-on-demand event right here, exclusively in QuickTime and MPEG-4. Watch the Keynote AddressWatch the Keynote Address in HD

It's not your imagination. Apple Macintoshes are turning up in businesses beyond the creative departments, increasingly becoming a normal part of the IT fabric. One recent IT survey by researcher Information Technology Intelligence shows that 23 percent of respondents had at least 30 Macs in their businesses, 12 percent had at least 4,000 Macs -- and 68 percent said they would let users choose Macs as their work PCs in the next year. A Forrester Research survey of larger enterprises showed that Macs now account for 4.5 percent of deployed systems. (Both IDC and Gartner report that Macs now make...

We stormed the Macworld Expo '09 showroom floor immediately after the Philnote to get our hands on the only tangible product Apple announced today: the new unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro. Clearly, the built-in, longer-lasting battery technology that Apple designed for its largest notebook was the cause of its delayed release, as the rest of the notebook line was revamped in October. The new unibody structure and aesthetic that the 15-inch MacBook Pro and 13-inch MacBook gained a few months ago looks great on the 17-inch, so check out a few photos and some brief first impressions. Strangely, the 17-inch...

There is no doubt the U.S. economy has hit a rough patch over the last several months. As is often the case when economic problems make headlines, pundits rush to declare that capitalism is “in trouble,” or “is ailing” or even “has failed.” This reaction to economic bad news is as old as capitalism itself. It is also consistently wrong. What the pundits fail to realize is that economic problems, from the recent housing and credit crisis to things like the Great Depression, are far more often, if not always, the result of attempts to intervene into the free market...

Apple's Steve Jobs: "Hormone Imbalance" Has Caused Health Problems Computer executive posts statement to quell questions on his condition By Larry Greenemeier APPLE CHIEF EXECUTIVE STEVE JOBS: seen here in June 2007 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, is suffering from a "hormone imbalance" for which the 53 year old says he has already begun treatment. Image courtesy of Acaben Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs posted an open letter to customers on his company's Web site today in which he says that he's being treated for an unspecified "hormone imbalance" that has caused severe weight loss and kept...

He then sang "I left my heart in San Francisco." Crowd loved it .. A very classy way to end the keynote. Lots of good feelings .. Enough to forget about the absence of Jobs? Probably not, but I'll go and ask the faithful. 10:34 A.M. Wrapping up the keynote portion of our day with .. Whoa, Tony Bennett. Singing to a happy crowd. "the best is yet to come." Nice. I'll try to go get more photos up close of products... 10:30 A.M. New from iTunes: 8 million songs soon to be offered DRM-free. That number expected to rise...

Live Coverage of Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller's Macworld Expo 2009 Keynote Welcome announcement. Please silence iPhones...
 Still waiting for Phil...
 Phil Schiller takes the stage to healthy applause. (The protest failed).
 Phil: Thank you so much.
 Talks about successful openings of Apple Retail Stores around the world.
 No black mock turleneck. Blue jeans and a blue button-down open at the neck. Casual Phil.
 3.4 million visitors pr week to Apple Retail Stores.
 9.7 million Macs sold last year.
 Phil has 3 things for today.
 Phil announces iLife '09.
 iPhoto 09: Faces: face detection; automatically finds...

Dear fellow Conservatives , With the introduction of the 111th congress, I ask you to take a moment of your busy work day to see what we are trying to accomplish to help get this country back on the "right" track. Please visit our web site and see what we have accomplished in the last six months. I guarantee it will be worth your time. Sincerely, David Beckham owner of "A Conservative Cafe". www.conservativecafe.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtOtV-gE3YQCoronet Films (also Coronet Instructional Media Inc.) was a producer and distributor of American educational films from 1946 to the early 1970's founded by David A. Smart. The company produced instructional short films aimed at young teenagers and high school students which were produced by dozens until the mid-1950s when production tapered off. Social guidance on topics such as dating, family life, courtesy and citizenship were typical themes of the films with occasional educational topics such as the solar system and the human body. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronet_Films

Wait Listed by Jail "The recession is driving America's city governments into an epic fiscal storm. Unlike earlier downturns, all three big revenue sources--income, property and sales taxes--are falling together. Cumulative budget shortfalls are already in the tens of billions of dollars. ... This recession seems sure to be so serious, say urban finance experts, that many cities will be forced to go well beyond their familiar tight-times reductions in park and library budgets. A growing possibility: to cut into that historially inviolate sector--police officers and firefighters. ... How to do it? There's an oft-neglected candidate: corrections. Because of politically...

Is the Comex Doing Fractional Reserve Delivery of Gold? An acquaintance who works for a small precious metals fund sent this to us today, asking if we had ever heard of anything like it. The short answer is no, but this is not a strong area of specific expertise, and we never attribute to a bad intent what we can attribute to sheer incompetency, especially when dealing with large organizations. When one is promised specific bars with specific serial numbers of a specific size and weight one week, and they are not available the next week when you confirm that...

Albert P. Carey, President and CEO Frito-Lay North America 7701 Legacy Drive Plano, Texas 75024 Dear Mr. Carey, I would like to make a proposal for Frito Lay to consider. Please bear with me as I 'Lays' the ground work. If your not aware, New York State is offering 1.2 Billion dollar subsidy for a chip fabrication plant to be located in Saratoga New York. We the citizens of New York, are led to believe this is an effort to bring new jobs to the State –roughly 1,400 jobs. The State has been in lengthy discussions with Advanced Micro Devices...

It’s hard to walk down the aisle of a liquor store without running across a bottle bearing someone’s name. We put them in our cocktails, but how well do we know them? Here’s some biographical detail on the men behind your favorite tipples. 1. Captain Morgan The Captain wasn’t always just the choice of sorority girls looking to blend spiced rum with Diet Coke; in the 17th century he was a feared privateer. Not only did the Welsh pirate marry his own cousin, he ran risky missions for the governor of Jamaica, including capturing some Spanish prisoners in Cuba and...

Reporting from Sacramento -- That 52-inch, flat-screen television on the family room wall may have a terrific picture, but there's a big drawback: It's an energy hog. State regulators are getting ready to curb the growing power gluttony of TV sets by drafting the nation's first rules requiring retailers to sell only the most energy-efficient models, starting in 2011. ______________________

You'd be forgiven for never hearing of designer Alfred Shaheen. Yet he inspired one of the most colourful, amusing and unforgettable styles of fashion ever known - the Hawaiian shirt. Sadly the pioneering textile manufacturer has died at age 86, his family have confirmed. As tourists from the US to Hawaii after World War II, many began to bring home colorful but cheesy looking shirts and sundresses that would be cause for much amusement among friends. Shaheen began to change that in 1948 when he opened Shaheen's of Honolulu and began designing, printing and producing "aloha" shirts, dresses and other...

A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees. Polish tabloid Super Express said the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town.

A woman who claims her 120-pound dog is protection from childhood memories of sex abuse is in a big-bucks battle with NYC Transit over whether the animal can ride the rails. Estelle Stamm, 65, won $10,000 from the city after two cops gave her a ticket for bringing the pony-sized dog into a subway station. Now she's going for $10 million in a federal suit that argues Wargas, her service dog, is protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act. "These sons of bitches don't like to be told what to do," Stamm told the Daily News as she waited for...

Can the US economy afford a Keynesian stimulus? January 5, 2009 Economic policy is based on a collection of half-truths. The nature of these half-truths changes occasionally. Economics as a scholarly discipline consists in the periodic rediscovery and refinement of old half-truths. Little progress has been made in the past century or so towards understanding how economic policy, rules, legislation and regulation influence economic fluctuations, financial stability, growth, poverty or inequality. We know that a few extreme approaches that have been tried yield lousy results - central planning, self-regulating financial markets - but we don’t know much that is constructive...

CONTROVERSY: GOOGLE tries converting every book ever written to digital... Developing...

Reporting from Sacramento -- That 52-inch, flat-screen television on the family room wall may have a terrific picture, but there's a big drawback: It's an energy hog. State regulators are getting ready to curb the growing power gluttony of TV sets by drafting the nation's first rules requiring retailers to sell only the most energy-efficient models, starting in 2011.

Someone in the world of editorial columns recently predicted that a “bailout backlash” would begin in the year 2010. Could we arrange for that backlash to get started a little sooner - - like, now? It’s understandable if Americans aren’t paying attention to the machinations of government at the moment. Most of us just wrapped-up a somewhat anxious holiday season, and gladly said goodbye to a difficult 2008. But the new Congress launches this week, and the new President takes office in less than three weeks. And if you’ve been angered by the ways the current President and Congress have...

"For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John 2:16) I was watching TV last night with my family (if you are curious, it was The Smoking Gun presents: The World's Dumbest). The show is a "countdown" of video clips of accidents or mishaps invovling a common theme, punctuated by commentary from a bunch of B-list actors and ex-celebrities (Danny Bonaduce from The Partridge Family, Leif Garrett, Tonya Harding, Gary Busey and some others(*)). It...

General Motors Corp. is counting on the 2010 Cadillac SRX crossover vehicle to lure luxury car buyers with new design and performance features.

After months of tortuous trading, Wall Street rang out its worst year since the Great Depression yesterday, leaving shareholders $6.9 trillion the poorer. It hardly mattered that the market finished the last day of the year with a modest gain. The losses in 2008 were so broad and deep that every sector in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index took a double-digit hit, and the financial sector lost more than half of its value. The Dow Jones industrial average, an index of 30 blue-chip stocks, and the S&P, a broader index watched by market professionals, were down 34 percent and...

Second record loss in two months for Microsoft; Apple posts record gainWindows lost nearly a full percentage point of market share for the second month in a row in December, pushing Microsoft Corp.'s operating system to a new low, an Internet measurement company reported yesterday. Meanwhile, Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X posted a record gain that brought it close to a 10% share for the first time since Net Applications Inc. began tracking operating system use. In December, 88.7% of the people who browsed the Web sites that Net Applications monitors did so using machines powered by Windows, a 0.94...

This excursion wasn't as exciting as other excursions had been, but it was okay. And it served its purpose; as mentioned elsewhere and everywhere else, when I was a little lad, I had been deeply impressed by an eastern European Yiddish folk-tale, in which it was shown that if one spends New Year's Eve under the roof of, and accepts the hospitality of, a poor man, God makes one rich in the coming year. Being single with no dependents, no responsibilities other than cats, no bills, no commitments, no hard-and-fast "office hours," I can do things like this.

Fish farming has had a bad rap, but will continue to grow quickly, may be the only way to meet rising demand for seafood and isn't necessarily an environmental problem, a U.S. scientist says. The catch from traditional fishing fisheries has remained about constant for 20 years, but production from aquaculture has risen 8.8 per cent per year since 1985, James S. Diana of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor said in an assessment published Friday.

There is no such thing as “clean coal,” environmentalists insist. Burning coal to generate electricity emits soot particles that cause respiratory problems, lung cancer and heart disease, killing 24,000 Americans annually. It’s the kind of claim that eco-activist Bruce Hamilton says “builds the Sierra Club,” by generating cash and lobbying clout for his and similar groups. It’s also disingenuous, unethical and harmful. Since 1970, unhealthy power plant pollutants have been reduced by almost 95% per unit of energy produced. Particulate emissions (soot) decreased 90% below 1970 levels, even as coal use tripled, and new technologies and regulations will nearly eliminate...

There are many places to fish for lobster in Massachusetts, but Interstate 395 is not one of them. [snip] The story is about more than contraband seafood. It is a tale of lobsters on a death-defying journey, one marred by tragedy and for some, redemption. First, thousands of lobsters onboard the overturned truck narrowly missed becoming road kill. And then, those that did not become two-for-one boiled lobster specials were rescued by state environmental police, who returned them to the sea. Their journey began on July 27, when a tractor trailer carrying 11,000 pounds of fresh lobster from Canada crashed...

(AP) Porcupines are becoming a prickly pest for Telluride-area residents. Residents said the rodents are chomping on the bark of spruce trees, yard trees, and have killed 50-foot-high native trees. The damage is estimated at more than $100,000 in the Mountain Village above Telluride. Porcupines also favor salty and sweaty items, so plywood treated with a sodium-based substance has become attractive to them. They've also munched on shoes, vehicle tires, and tool handles. Mountain Village resident Vicki Irwin said she's never seen the porcupines be so aggressive. Some possible reasons cited for the porcupine's behavior are a harsh winter last...

Krugman: Keep spending! December 29, 2008 – 6:12 pm As the Obama administration prepares its trillion-dollar “stimulus” package, economists like Paul Krugman are providing rationalizations for why such a package is necessary. In his column today, he expands his spend-anything-to-get-the-economy-going-again argument, excoriating indebted states and municipalities for cutting back. He makes it clear that his preferred solution would be for the Federal Government to take over state budget items currently facing cutbacks. Naturally, he says nothing about where this money is supposed to come from. Regular readers of this blog know there are only two places the money can come...

When Obama makes good on his promise to the Unions and the EFCA is pass, there will be more to worry about then just the card check issue. This law will allow a panel of arbitrators to dictate a “first contract “lasting 2 years.

Economist Robert Higgs writes that a number of economists who have called themselves “free market” endorsed one statist scheme after another that lead the U.S. economy into the tank. Although he won’t mention names, nonetheless, they are legion, including one of Ronald Reagan’s chief economic advisors who now believes falling home prices have caused the recession.

While thousands of dogs and cats are being given up by pet owners across the U.S. as times become harder, chickens are gaining popularity as household pets... The rising popularity of the feathered creature is due to the chicken's ability to provide eggs, pest control, fertilizer and eventually meat. To address zoning regulations, homeowners are working to amend local laws ... Some cities like New York, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle already allow chicken to be raised by urban residents

Investor's Business Daily Speaks About TMLC's Case Against the Treasury Dept and AIG Friday, January, 2, 2009 The Investor's Business Daily, an influential national business newspaper, shared it's view on AIG's Shariah-compliant business practices and the federal government's financial support of it in Tuesday's editorial section. Citing TMLC's lawsuit and recent press release, the editorial calls on AIG to "divest itself... Shariah business practices if it wants to keep its public bailout money." Further, the Investor's Business Daily states: "Financial crisis or not, it's hardly in the economic interest of taxpayers or the U.S. to own part of a business...

Fiscal Insanity Virus Rapidly Spreading The Globe (Part 1) Warning: A dangerous new virus, FIV, is rapidly spreading the globe. /snip Scientists have dubbed the disease, FIV, the Fiscal Insanity Virus. FIV is more contagious and far more dangerous than the common flu virus now making its rounds. The primary symptom of FIV is irrational, often delusional fear of deflation. The virus has an uncanny ability to seek victims in positions of authority. Those afflicted with the virus start taking (or promoting) fiscally reckless actions guaranteed to damage the host country. /snip The ZIRP Symptom Those severely inflicted with FIV...

This year, things fell apart. Mere anarchy was loosed upon the world of investment banks, markets, homeowners and workers. And people wrote a lot of derivative poems about it. Among those moved by the financial carnage was Todd Federman, a 25-year veteran of Wall Street. In the wee hours at home in Livingston, N.J., Mr. Federman crafted "Subprime," a poem inspired by the children's song, "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." It begins: No money down, two years interest free, Buying a house was no problem you see. And so the young man along with his spouse,...

AS THEY SAY IN CRIME NOVELS, they are rounding up the "usual suspects." In the stock market, there also are usual suspects and changes in their relative performances will tell us when the bear is firing up his getaway car. When leadership by traditionally defensive sectors gives way to leadership by traditionally aggressive and cyclical sectors, it is a good indication that the market is turning the corner. Currently, such defensive areas as consumer staples and health care are still in the lead and that tells us what we already knew -- the market is still hurting.

Past Financial Crises Suggest Pain Far From Over Economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have been publishing various findings from a large-scale data set they have constructed of past financial crises. They have looked back as far as 800 years, but not surprisingly, most of their output has consisted of analyses of modern crises (you can find some earlier discussions here and here). /snip Their work has shown that financial crises are more severe and protracted than "normal" recessions. In some of their previous presentations, they had parsed out financial crises in advanced economies versus those in developing countries, and...