Free Republic

Policy-wise, Barack Obama arguably came into his presidency unqualified. His foreign policy naiveté and spread-the-wealth-around fiscal policy mentality has thus far been a disaster. Unemployment continues to rise, North Korea and Iran continue to be pests, Hugo Chavez is emboldened, eco-radicals are taking over the legislative agenda, and Nancy Pelosi is dictating how health care will work in America. A number of friends in the military have told me that as Commander-in-Chief they must respect the office but they do not respect the person. So is Obama giving the office the respect it deserves by at least conducting himself like...

GARCIA, Mexico - A Mexican police chief has been murdered after being on the job for only five days. Brig. Gen. Juan Arturo Esparza is the latest officer suspected of being killed by a drug cartel. He was the police chief of Garcia, a town outside Monterrey. Esparza was on his way to confront drug cartel members who were threatening the city's mayor. Officials say the suspects opened fire on the police chief's car. The chief, two former soldiers, and two police officers were all killed. Five police officers and five other suspects were arrested and are behind bars at...

The House Ethics Committee is trying to figure out how to clear seven crooked Black Democrats. Blacks you must remember are untouchables in Democrat-think. These Black crooks aren’t going down easy. They have a lifetime of experience being crooked Black politicians; they well understand their skin color is their “Get out of jail free” card. They know how to generate White liberal Democrat guilt. Phrases that stoke the fires of guilt One anonymous Black Congressional Caucus member said: “Is there concern whether someone is trying to set up [Congressional Black Caucus] members? Yeah, there is. It looks as if there...

Having purchased, rented, or placed a down payment on all the political influence up for sale in America, leftist troublemaker George Soros now plans to ramp up his war on markets worldwide by creating an “Institute for New Economic Thinking” (INET). “The system we have now has actually broken down, only we haven’t quite recognized it and so you need to create a new one and this is the time to do it,” Soros told the Financial Times last month. Soros said he wants Communist China to run this new financial system. “You really need to bring China into the...

MAJ. GEN. ROBERT SCALES (RET.) "This was a deliberate act of execution."

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread!

Incoming AARP CEO A. Barry Rand contributed $8,900 to President Obama's campaign committees, federal records show. Rand, a retired senior executive at Xerox Corp., Avis Group and Equitant Inc. and the current chairman of Howard University's board of trustees, gave the maximum $4,600 to Obama's election campaign and an additional $4,300 to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising entity of Obama and the Democratic National Committee. Altogether, Rand has given $15,900 to Democratic campaign committees since 1995, according to searches of Federal Election Commission databases dating back to 1990 that are maintained by CQ Money Line and the Center...

To the list of hundreds of schools, hospitals, and community health centers that have received limited allocations of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, you can now add some of New York's largest employers. In the past week or so 13 companies, including Citigroup (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS), have begun receiving small quantities of the vaccine, according to city health authorities.

The ideal of the coolly rational scientific observer, completely independent, free of all preconceived theories, prior philosophical, ethical and religious commitments, doing investigations and coming to dispassionate, unbiased conclusions that constitute truth, is nowadays regarded by serious philosophers of science (and, indeed, most scientists) as a simplistic myth...

We lived in D.C. for 3+ years back in the 60s -- when it was, compared to now, little more than a country village. We frequently visited the National Archives to spent time with and marvel at the Declaration and Constitution. Each time we climbed the steps, I would glance up at the motto over the portico: "WHAT IS PAST IS PROLOGUE." Just a fancy way of uttering the universal truth from Scriptures that "There is nothing new under the sun." I offer THESE words from Mr. Franklin (who admitted to having borrowed them from the Greek Admiral Themistocles) advising...

U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle arrive to play host to an evening of classical music in the East Room of the White House in Washington November 4, 2009.

Workers asked to back fund-raiser WATER DEPT. | 'Charitable equivalent of pay-to play': watchdog Chicago Sun-Times suntimes.com Member of Sun-Times Media November 5, 2009 BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter Employees in the Water Management Department at the center of the Hired Truck and city hiring scandals are being pressured to sell and purchase $50 tickets to the Nov. 19 benefit reception Mayor Daley is hosting on behalf of the United Negro College Fund. Although the cause is laudable, the tactic is questionable. The solicitation is being made on city stationery with employees referred to a city telephone number to...

If you were watching television on Tuesday night as the election returns came in showing Republicans capturing the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, you probably missed seeing the biggest losers of the evening. You may have caught the concession speech of Creigh Deeds, who ran 12% behind Barack Obama's winning percentage of the vote in Virginia, and that of Jon Corzine who, after spending over $100 million of his own money on three campaigns, ran 13% behind Obama's winning percentage in New Jersey and got evicted from Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion in Princeton. But you missed seeing the guy...

No actual thread. Observe members of the Texas State legislature voting multiple times for themselves, for anyone who is absent or *for anyone whose button they can reach quicker than the legislator actually present*. Astounding. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfhO38CPlAI&feature=player_embedded#

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread! Andy Stern, why is he so powerful?? Join us and find out!

MEXICO CITY — The leader of a Mexican farmworkers' organization and 14 other people were killed in a mass shooting in the northern Mexico state of Sonora... Sonora prosecutors' spokesman Jose Larrinaga said the victims include farm leader Margarito Montes, 10 other men, one woman and three minors. Most were believed to be Montes' relatives or employees. Larrinaga said the victims' bullet-ridden bodies were found on a roadside near a farm Friday. The killers apparently used assault rifles, the sort of weapon favored by Mexico's drug gangs.... Montes was the leader of the General Popular Union of Workers and Farmers,...

MEXICO CITY -- Mauricio Fernandez couldn't have been happier. Here he was, being sworn in again as mayor of one of northern Mexico's most exclusive communities, and he had wonderful news to share: "Black Saldana, who apparently is the one who was asking for my head, was found dead today in Mexico City," he told his cheering supporters Saturday in San Pedro Garza Garcia, near Monterrey. The problem was that the barefoot, blindfolded corpse of "Black Saldana" -- whose real first name is Hector -- wasn't found for another 3½ hours, according to Mexico City prosecutors. And he wouldn't be...

Amazing story here.... you really need to read the whole thing. The salient point is here: The county paid JPMorgan and a group of banks $120.2 million in fees for $5.8 billion of derivatives, according to a series of stories published by Bloomberg News in 2005. The payments were about $100 million more than they should have been based on prevailing rates, according to estimates in 2007 by James White, an adviser the county hired after the SEC said it was investigating the deals. That's six times what they should have cost - that is, six hundred percent of market...

Elementary Epidemic: 11 Uncovered Videos Show School Children Performing Praises to Obama By John Nolte Created 2009-11-04 10:29 Big Hollywood has already posted [1] a couple [2] disturbing videos of young school children singing/speaking praises to President Obama, but when eleven more dropped in our email box it came as quite a shock. What seemed like an aberration now appears to be a troubling pattern. Maybe “epidemic” is a better word. Each one of the videos below is creepier than the last because the further down you go, the younger the children — brace yourself for kindergartners – except for...

Could the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights actually subpoena U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.? That scenario is unlikely, but it suddenly has entered the realm of possibility. The Civil Rights Commission is making a full inquiry into a controversy about a voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and several of its members and has escalated its investigation. At its meeting last Friday, the commission voted 5-2 on a motion to authorize Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds to issue subpoenas to a broad range of witnesses and decision-makers relating to the case. The motion specifically listed three separate...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main political rival is questioning the president's commitment to fighting corruption. Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah withdrew days ago from a second-round runoff vote because of concerns over fraud. On Tuesday, he said Mr. Karzai's government lacks legitimacy because of the controversial election process that declared Mr. Karzai the winner by default. Abdullah addressed a news conference in Kabul. It followed a similar conference by Mr. Karzai Tuesday in which the president vowed to "make every possible effort" to eradicate government corruption, but also appeared to reject removing high-level officials in any anti-corruption purge.

Junk Science: The oracle of climate disaster has a new book out on global warming that should be on the fiction list. He asks us to commit economic suicide while he rakes in millions from his green investments. 'Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis," Al Gore's sequel to his 2006 tome "An Inconvenient Truth," came out Tuesday. Printed on recycled paper using low-VOC (volatile organic compound) ink, it will undoubtedly be a best-seller and on the desk of every attendee at next month's climate change conference in Copenhagen. In a press release announcing the book, the Oscar-...

The drama unfolds slowly at first. First-term (anti-bailout candidate) Democrat Alan Grayson questions Elizabeth Coleman, Inspector General of the Federal Reserve. The issue is oversight of the Fed's balance sheet, and the potential multi-trillion dollar loss that would be borne by you. If watching the clip sends you into an apoplectic seizure as it does to me, then please help. We need millions of Americans to become aware of the Fed and its abuses. Monetization of the national debt is occurring daily (quantitative easing), as Bernanke simply creates credit and purchases Treasuries. And we haven't even begun to discuss the...

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread! Today Glenn tells us why healthcare is the key to controlling every aspect of your life, join us won't you!

<p>Good Morning America’s Diane Sawyer conducted a surprisingly tough interview with Al Gore on Tuesday, pressing him on profiting from global warming and whether or not climate change legislation is pointless in light of pollution-spewing countries such as China. She also forced the ex-Vice President to respond to a challenge from Glenn Beck.</p>

Interactive map and links to earmark spending by state.

States Growing Hair On Their PairThe Market TickerTuesday, November 3. 2009 States Growing Hair On Their PairIt's about damn time: Frustrated by the banks’ inability or unwillingness to stop an avalanche of foreclosures, the states are considering lawsuits over the creation and marketing of millions of bad loans as well as the dismal pace of mortgage modifications. Good. As I have repeatedly opined, there is more than enough fertile ground here for lots of lawsuits to spring up and take root. Indeed, let's go down the list of what I believe are the grounds for such suits: * Most of...

Democrats said that the outing of a CIA agent, personnel, whatever, was bad, and said that someone's head in the Bush Administration had to roll. Democrats wanted Cheney, but didn't get him. When the New York Times outs Karzai's brother as supposedly being paid by the CIA to do who knows what, Democrats act as if it is no big deal. What gives?

Russia’s Eternal Military-Industrial Kolkhoz 03 November 2009 By Alexander Golts It seems that professional observers of Russia’s endless political antics have something new to add to their list. People have long ceased to be amazed by the fact that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has a habit of meddling in Russia’s military affairs, national security and foreign policy — all of which belong to the constitutional domain of President Dmitry Medvedev. But the president has unexpectedly stuck his nose into an area that had previously belonged to Putin alone. Last week, Medvedev visited the NPO Mashinostroyenia missile design bureau in Reutov,...

Budget Committee Senator Says Freeze Was Mismanaged. Gov. Bill Ritter promised a hiring freeze last year to help bridge the budget gap, but a CALL7 investigation found that as many as 2,300 employees were hired during the “freeze.” “We have taken a number of steps to shore up our fiscal house: imposing a hiring freeze, stopping several new construction projects and halting non-essential spending requests,” Ritter said in his January 2009 State of the State speech. But a CALL7 investigation found that the number of state employees increased during Ritter’s hiring freeze, and Ritter’s top staff, who were tasked with...

Oct 29, 2009 — “Even the most ardent fan of Charles Darwin might be feeling weary as his anniversary year draws to a close,” remarked Clive Wynn in another issue of Nature celebrating his bicentennial. --snip-- The Editors are not done celebrating, though. They just began a 4-part essay series on how Darwin’s ideas were received around the world...

The House ethics committee is currently investigating seven African-American lawmakers — more than 15 percent of the total in the House. And an eighth black member, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), would be under investigation if the Justice Department hadn’t asked the committee to stand down. Not a single white lawmaker is currently the subject of a full-scale ethics committee probe. The ethics committee declined to respond to questions about the racial disparity, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus are wary of talking about it on the record. But privately, some black members are outraged — and see in the...

More than half the 14,000 jobs created or saved by the federal economic stimulus in Minnesota are in public schools. Federal and state officials are reporting about 7,400 full-time teaching and school support staff jobs linked to the stimulus through the end of September. The U.S. Department of Education issued a report Monday detailing 7,421 stimulus jobs in the state's education system. Minnesota Management and Budget officials counted 7,380 K-12 school jobs created or saved by stimulus spending of $634 million.

Hmmm.... maybe late, but not never! WASHINGTON — In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting. Right. On October 31st of 2007 I said: Realize this folks - some of these "boys" on Wall Street have gone so far with their hubris that they have, effectively, shorted your house! That'd be Goldman, who actually shorted subprime mortgage bonds (so they said)...

Sheila is apparently upset at the banks "pushing back" against reform: Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said on Monday that some in the financial services sector are trying to argue that regulatory reform would stifle innovation and impede economic growth. "That makes me angry," Bair said in a text of remarks prepared for a lecture at Kansas State University. It does? You're not showing it. How hard is this Sheila? You have the authority, along with the OTS and OCC, to walk into any bank in the United States with your examiners, look at every asset...

Paramus man who claimed to be the assistant deputy director of Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s re-election campaign was arrested by East Rutherford police Friday, Oct. 30 for possession of Ecstasy. Jason Shih, 25, was arrested and charged at 11:28 p.m. with possession of Ecstasy, possession of drugs with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school, possession of drugs with the intent to distribute, talking on a cell phone while driving and possession of drugs in a car.

Last week, Bill O’Reilly had me on The Factor to talk about the health care bills. He correctly pointed out that a public plan might obliterate private alternatives. But I was puzzled by the reason he gave: " A taxpayer funded company would have a huge advantage because profit motive is nonexistent." I understand the logic. Last quarter, insurance companies averaged a 2% profit... In theory, a non-profit government insurance company would be able sell insurance for 2% less... But that’s not how the economics work out in real life. The quest for profit actually lowers costs. In categories where...

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread! Glenn will discuss why America's political landscape has become almost unrecognizable, join us won't you!

GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann has put out a call for a march on Washington DC at noon this Thursday to stop the government health care takeover. Meet her on the steps of the Capitol. More from Tea Party Patriots. A little flashback to get you motivated: *** Obamacare protest posters: Print and bring! *** The SEIU is targeting moderate Democrats over health care. What are you doing to combat the Purple Shirts?

This weekend’s feedback is in response to a number of queries about the Church of England (Anglicans) officially apologizing to Darwin. However, they don’t speak for all attenders of this church, since many of them are still faithful to Scripture and are appalled by their ‘leaders’. There are numerous mistakes in the article by the official CoE representative, a Rev. Dr Malcolm Brown, on the official CoE website, and Jonathan Sarfati replies point-by-point...

Four weeks ago, Big Hollywood posted audio of a conference call in which Obama administration officials asked "grant recipients to plug Barack Obama’s domestic agenda." At least six federal laws and regulations were violated when then–NEA communications director Yosi Sergant and White House Office of Public Engagement deputy director Buffy Wicks tried twisting the arms of artists and arts groups interested in getting federal arts grants to produce government propaganda. To protect the scandal from expanding further, the White House threw Sergant under the bus, denied that they were involved issued new guidelines for the NEA and promised that it...

President Obama’s highly controversial Safe Schools Czar, Kevin Jennings, is concerned about the heterosexual indoctrination of children in our public schools. In his bizarre view: “we all know what’s promoted in our schools: Heterosexuality is promoted in our schools. Every time kids read Romeo and Juliet or they’re encouraged to go to the prom or whatever it is, kids are aggressively recruited to be heterosexual in this country. And you know what, it doesn’t work. The reality is that if schools could affect your sexual orientation there would have been no gay people in the first place. But they’re still...

One of President Barack Obama’s top funders, Code Pink’s Jodie Evans, is encouraging the kidnapping of former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura, according to new statements issued this week by Jodie Evans and Code Pink. While it might be tempting to look at this latest effort by Code Pink as an innocuous publicity campaign, Code Pink’s history of working with state sponsors of terrorism and supporting violent protest against President Bush–and their near successful arrest of then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales–is cause for concern. Two weeks after meeting Obama at a high dollar fundraiser in San Francisco, Jodie...

<p>Yesterday, I linked to an anonymous blogger/Goldman apologist who wrote that Tavakoli "has always been more bark than bite. Being provocative is part of her shtick."</p> <p>In August 2007, I publicly challenged the fact that AIG took no write-downs whatsoever for its credit default swaps on underlying mortgage related “super senior” positions. I used the example of its aggregate $19.2 billion in credit default swaps on super senior positions backed by BBB-rated tranches of residential mortgage backed securities. I spoke with Warren Buffett, but only about what I had already told the Wall Street Journal (Dear Mr. Buffett Pp. 164-165, 246).</p>

Of particular significance is the visit by ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson who met with White House political director Patrick Gaspard in March. The purpose of the meeting with Gaspard, a former ACORN employee himself, was not disclosed. Levenson, who is also a registered lobbyist for New York ACORN, is the charming fellow whom Glenn Beck threw off his set May 6 for calling the TV host a racist. He's been helping to coordinate ACORN's public disinformation strategy which relies heavily on lies and misdirection. It is worth noting that Levenson's visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue wouldn't in itself be untoward...

The New York Times neglects to inform its readers that an op-ed writer slamming Israel earns a handsome living courtesy of overseas Arab money. Henry Siegman is a self-styled Middle East expert who has a simplistic view of the Middle East: Israel is always at fault. He has called Israel an apartheid state -- but that is only the tip of the iceberg. In Monday's New York Times he characterizes Israelis as being pathological and filled with hostility toward Barack Obama because he wants to bring peace between Israel and the Arab world. Polls show that only 4% of Jewish...

WASHINGTON — In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting. Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies. Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had...

GOP nominee endorses Democrat after stepping aside under pressure from right By Tony Romm - 11/01/09 03:28 PM ET The Republican in a New York House race that has become a symbol of the divisions within the GOP endorsed her former Democratic rival Sunday, a sharp snub to the third-party conservative who forced her out of the race. Dede Scozzafava, who'd been chosen by local Republican leaders to try to hold the seat for the GOP, instead threw her support behind Democrat Bill Owens -- only a day after she unexpectedly backed out of the tough, three-way special election.

Everything has a fundamental essence, a quality that makes it uniquely itself. Take an orange, for example. It's not only a citrus fruit -- it's an orange-colored citrus fruit. Horticulturists can alter its size, its texture, its sweetness, and even (to a limited extent) its color, but as long as its color is orange, the fruit remains "an orange" because that color is its definition. Change the color, however, and suddenly you have the un-orange, the anti-orange. You have something completely different that no longer contains the essence of the original fruit. Lose the essence and you lose the orange....