Free Republic

Yesterday, the EPA announced its new regulations on Auto Emissions raising the new MPG standards that were established less than a year ago. Their regulatory authority is based on their declaration under the clean air act, that CO2 is a pollutant. According to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson the new auto regulations are just the start. Just as the health care bill regulates the way you make personal choices about your body, the EPA will be adding energy consumption taxes to regulate what were once personal and corporate choices about the way energy is consumed. It doesn't matter whether...

We turn to the Wall Street Journal for the math on what it will cost to raise taxes on corporations’ retiree prescription drug coverage. This is the provision that has caused several corporations to take markdowns recently. The bottom line: by closing this “loophole” — which was originally created to dissuade companies from dumping retirees’ prescription costs into Medicare Part D — the government could lose more than five times what it brings in. The Employee Benefit Research Institute calculates that the 28% subsidy on average will run taxpayers $665 in 2011 and that the tax dispensation is worth $233....

SAN FRANCISCO – Computer-security researchers say new "smart" meters that are designed to help deliver electricity more efficiently also have flaws that could let hackers tamper with the power grid in previously impossible ways. At the very least, the vulnerabilities open the door for attackers to jack up strangers' power bills. These flaws also could get hackers a key step closer to exploiting one of the most dangerous capabilities of the new technology, which is the ability to remotely turn someone else's power on and off. The attacks could be pulled off by stealing meters — which can be situated...

I love lists, indices, and other interesting compilations of information. However, a recent report by the Heritage Foundation called the Index of Dependence on Government was very disturbing indeed. The numbers this report certainly makes one look and they should be most alarming to even the most casual observer. The index looks at several indicators when it comes to the growth of dependence on government. For example, how much have federal social programs grown? To what degree have such programs "crowded out" what were once social obligations and services carried out by the family, community organizations (e.g., churches), and local...

Householders could be fined up to £1,000 if they fail to comply with complex new rules on refuse sorting. Food scraps, tea bags and vegetable peelings thrown into the wrong dustbin could land them with hefty penalties under government plans to be unveiled today. Families could end up with five different bins and receptacles - including compulsory slop buckets for food waste - and be forced to sift through rubbish for anything that can be recycled, reused or converted into electricity. The proposals are the brainchild of environment secretary Hilary Benn

As part of his continual campaign to sell the unpopular Obamacare proposal to the American People, President Obama visited a school on Wednesday to give (what was promised to be) his final argument on the Progressive version of reforming health care: ..... So whatever state regulations were in place, we’d get rid of those and so insurance companies could basically find a state that had the worst regulations and then from there sell insurance everywhere. And that somehow that was going to be helpful to you. All this would do would give insurance companies more leeway to raise premiums and...

How to stop them? Generate Huge Opposition and GROW it by dissemination! We are pleased to say that about 16 health freedom and consumer groups have followed our lead and taken p this battle. That is wonderful. Our momentum and leadership are what you, and the other groups, rely on. Our numbers are what the decision-makers respond to ...http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/cat=4

Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesn't just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent, self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit. F.A. Hayek, an Austrian economist living in Britain, wrote "The Road to Serfdom" in 1944 as a warning that central economic planning would extinguish freedom. The book was a hit. Reader's Digest produced a condensed version that sold 5 million copies. Hayek meant that governments can't plan economies without planning people's lives. After all,...

The week before he was elected president, President Obama made the bold statement that, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” No doubt, at the time, most of us would have written this off as the usual overblown rhetoric of a politician pumped up on his own favorable poll numbers. Instead, it turned out to be a warning. We don’t have time or space here to recap all of the “changes” brought about in the first year of the Obama administration, but among the biggies were the federal government takeover of major components of...

Somehow we as citizens get used to hearing the word "crisis," and, naturally, we feel that something should be done about whatever it is this time that is causing the next in the long line of so-called crises. However, why is the assumption that government should be the solution? Why are other solutions not sought after? Take John Stossel's recent show on obesity (two clips): As one can see, Meme Roth uses all of the standard demagogic arguments for government action. Our kids are our most precious asset and parents are just too stupid to take care of them. Second,...

Jan 8 2010 12:54PM Paralyzed In An Idiotic Fiscal Freezer In this essay, we review current news opinions and offer our predictions as to where things go in 2010-2012. Normally, we do these for only one year but some of the more important events will overlap from this year into 2011-2012. Also, certain current trends are difficult to date-pinpoint in 2010 with precision. Please do not be despondent over these ideas as a few can bend your mind and produce sleepless nights. Rather, take them with a grain of salt and instead focus on the bright side. We should see...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would be awarded unprecedented new powers under the proposal, including the authority to decide what medical care should be covered by insurers as well as the terms and conditions of coverage and who should receive it. The HHS secretary would also have the power to decide where abortion is allowed under a government-run plan, which has drawn opposition from Republicans and some moderate Democrats. And the bill even empowers the department to establish a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation that would have the authority to make cost-saving cuts without having to get...

President Barack Obama will announce a $3.4 billion investment of stimulus funds to modernize the electric grid at an event in Arcadia, Fla., Tuesday, administration officials said. One-hundred private companies, utilities, manufacturers, cities and others will receive grants of between $400,000 and $200 million to help build a nationwide "smart energy grid" that will cut costs for consumers and make the nation's electrical system more reliable. The grants are expected to create tens of thousands of jobs - the administration did not say exactly how many - and also lay down the infrastructure to create a new renewable energy industry,...

Hitler and his Nazi party were sub-human mass murderers, they were also Fascist. While all fascist governments are authoritarian, and by definition severely limit the freedoms of its people have, not all fascists are Nazis. Fascism is a subset of socialism just like Communism, Maoism, and Marxism. Fascism is seen as the medium between boom-and-bust-prone liberal capitalism , with its alleged class conflict, wasteful competition, and profit-oriented egoism, and revolutionary Marxism. Democrats and other Obama supporters have a tough time differentiating between Nazis and Fascists, so for propaganda's sake they brandish anyone who uses the "f" word on the POTUS...

Nine months into the Obama Administration, the White House communications strategy is coming into clear focus. Demonize, harass and ultimately aim to silence opposition, while endlessly repeating the administration line, with the full cooperation of the old media. Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director, along with Senior White Advisor David Axelrod and Chief of Staff lead the attack. Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel continues to pile on. This administration has seemingly adopted the Joseph Goebbels' (the infamous Nazi Minister of Propaganda under Adolph Hitler) strategy that history has labeled ‘the big lie.' Hitler was a master of manipulating large numbers...

Moderate Democrats — always courted and often feared in big roll call votes in the House — have backed down from a key fight over financial reform. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has persuaded a bloc of moderates to withdraw an amendment that would have watered down a consumer protection agency bill and shield banks from tougher state laws. Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) agreed to pull her amendment with a promise that Frank would continue to work with her to change the bill, though when that change would be made remains uncertain. This amendment, which would have...

In his weekly column and recent New York Times Magazine story, “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” Paul Krugman blasts economic theory, argues against free markets and says that the country needs more taxpayer-funded “stimulus,” not less. He also faults economists for not predicting the crisis. In an essay on his web site, John H. Cochrane, finance professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, wonders “How did Paul Krugman get it so wrong?” An excerpt: It’s fun to say we didn’t see the crisis coming, but the central prediction of the efficient markets hypothesis is precisely...

Course, this is IMHO>>>>>Watch out! If this "merger" goes through, Comcast is huge, as big as say BofA. Economy gets worse, Comcast needs bailout, Gov bails them out and Wah Lah, Government now owns what we watch on TV.

While Americans are under the illusion that the government cannot take away their right to use the Internet, an effort by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-VA) is underway that appears to permit President Obama to seize control of the private-sector during whatever he deems to be a cybersecurity emergency