Free Republic

Republicans are discovering just how effective an opposition party can be in Washington. Their strategy is simply to aggressively and relentlessly oppose the liberal agenda of the president and the Democratic Congress. As a result, Barack Obama's agenda is in jeopardy, and the president is disconcerted, less popular and on the defensive

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell (R) stands alongside US Vice President Joe Biden (C), US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd L) and National Security Advisor James Jones (L), as US President Barack Obama speaks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (not pictured) during meetings

(CNN) -- The homeless Florida woman who made a tearful plea for help from President Obama earlier this year is still jobless and might be homeless again. Henrietta Hughes caught the nation's attention in February when she asked for help during one of Obama's town hall meetings. After her plea, Hughes was given a free home to live in temporarily. But she is still struggling to find a job and might soon lose that home, CNN television affiliate WINK reported Thursday. Hughes, who is in her 60s, goes to an employment center in Fort Myers in hopes of finding a...

Dave Eggers preceded his memoir “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” with a section titled “Rules and Suggestions for Enjoyment of this Book.” It’s a brilliant attempt to disarm the reader and preempt criticism. Among its warnings, referring to chapter four: “The book thereafter is kind of uneven.” (Disclosure: Eggers edited my work at two magazines in the ‘90s.) Barack Obama shares Eggers’ talent for managing expectations. “There will be false starts, there will be setbacks, there will be frustrations and disappointments,” Obama said upon his arrival in Washington. “I will make some mistakes.” In other words, don’t expect much....

Remember those staged photos of Bill and Hillary Clinton dancing on the beach once upon a time? You have to wonder. The Obama 'pec' photos were taken on a public beach. Some accounts said the photographer had approval to take those shots. All of a sudden, the bad buzz about links between Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Barack Obama was gone for a while, replaced by good buzz about presidential pecs," noted Tim Graham of the Media Research Center. "There's some bathing-suit bias, too. When beauty queen photos of [Alaska Republican Gov.] Sarah Palin surfaced during the presidential campaign, the...

Justice Samuel Alito was the featured keynote speaker at the American Spectator’s annual Robert L. Bartley dinner at Washington’s Mandarin Oriental hotel last night. Along with taking a crack at the new vice-president elect (h/t Politico), he also joked about the famous 2008 Obama campaign mantra of “Hope and Change.” (Eyeblast.tv has the audio uploaded here:)

The United States appears to be on a downward spiral from which there is no apparent escape. Our very way of life is being severely threatened in the interest of fairness, multiculturalism and liberalism in general. Tradition, culture and national identification mean nothing anymore because so-called progressives -- the new term for liberals -- are bent on molding this country into an unidentifiable glob of feel-good socialism. One need only look at recent events in order to verify my concern. The country is flooded with illegal aliens who have no fear of apprehension or deportation and in fact are aided...

<p>BOSTON (CNNMoney.com) -- For those in the real estate industry and for those looking to buy or sell a home, it could take until 2009 to catch a break.</p> <p>That's the forecast from Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), who will present his outlook to an auditorium full of real estate professionals on Wednesday morning.</p>

<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Builders continued to slam the brakes on new homes in September, as the government's latest reading on the battered market out Wednesday showed housing starts and permits were weaker than expected at levels not seen for more than a decade.</p>

<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The meltdown in the mortgage market in August dried up the supply of buyers for homeowners looking to sell their homes, as an industry group report showed the lowest level of homes under contract on record.</p>

<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The binge that many housing markets went on in the early- to mid-2000s is over, and some of the hottest markets like California are now experiencing the worst hangovers.</p> <p>But other areas, especially many that recorded slower home price growth earlier this decade, have seen little increase in foreclosure rates, according to the latest data released Tuesday from RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosure properties.</p>

<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- American consumers are defaulting on their credit cards at a sharply higher rate compared to last year, in what could be another consequence of the recent subprime mortgage market crisis, according to a report published Tuesday.</p>

<p>Waiting to see big banks piling into the mortgage business a la Bank of America (BAC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating)? Don't hold your breath.</p> <p>BofA surprised Wall Street last week by making a $2 billion bet on struggling Countrywide (CFC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating). The news, announced after the close last Wednesday, gave Countrywide's sinking stock a one-day reprieve.</p>

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers said Sunday it was too early to declare the financial markets crisis over and said chances had risen sharply of an economic downturn in the United States. ADVERTISEMENT Despite interventions by the US Federal Reserve last week which appeared to reverse heavy selling pressure over the collapsing US housing debt market, Summers said the risk of recession was its highest since the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. "We certainly saw some repair and some return to normality this week, but I think it would be far premature to...

<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo said on Thursday the U.S. housing downturn is likely to lead the country into recession, but that the largest U.S. mortgage lender will survive.</p> <p>In an interview, Mozilo also said that to promote liquidity, the U.S. Federal Reserve should cut the rate it charges banks to borrow.</p>

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bond remained higher Friday despite a surprisingly strong durables goods reading as credit worries continued to trouble investors. The dollar fell against the euro and the yen. Video More video Luke Newman joins CNN to explain how a private investor can build a balanced portfolio in uncertain times. Play video The 10-year benchmark note gained 8/32, or $2.50 on a $1,000 note, to yield 4.62 percent, down from 4.64 late Thursday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. Bernanke: The un-Greenspan The closely watched three-month Treasury bills, which have been the focus of the market...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Countrywide Financial, the nation's biggest home lender and one of those most affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, found itself the target of stinging criticism Thursday from an organization trying to help homeowners in peril. The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America said Countrywide (Charts, Fortune 500) was not doing enough to help people who took out subprime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) over the past few years and now may lose their homes. Subprime loans are issued to borrowers with poor credit histories who often lack the funds to make large down payments. Justin Urquhart Stewart of Seven...

As the carcasses of subprime mortgage-backed securities lie rotting on Wall Street, the buzzards are circling heretofore untouchable prey: the rating agencies. Critics say the ratings industry was too late in downgrading mortgage-backed securities, echoing cries after past crises involving Enron, WorldCom and Russian debt, among others. But the current episode comes with a different twist: Rather than merely third-party observers, some sources say Moody's (MCO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating), Standard & Poor's and their smaller rival Fitch Ratings played active roles in structuring MBS and related securities. Therefore, they could be deemed underwriters and exposed to...

Remember when Wall Street would obsess over the next leveraged buyout candidate, and hedge fund masters of the universe could raise ungodly war chests with just a handful of phone calls? What a difference a few months make. Lately, hedge fund implosions have replaced the LBO parade as the market's signature event. Investors have seen huge setbacks at funds run by Bear Stearns (BSC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating), UBS (UBS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) and Goldman Sachs (GS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating), among others, as the credit environment has grown fraught...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Fallout from the mortgage mess and lower home prices may have started to creep into the credit card arena, judging from July payments and some initial moves by issuers to tighten the screws on cardholders. After falling for three consecutive months, delinquent payments on credit cards -- defined as more than 30 days late - increased slightly in July, to 4.64 percent from 4.62 percent in June, according to CardWeb.com. A year ago, the delinquency rate was 4.18 percent. The amount of credit card debt consumers are paying off, meanwhile, has fallen. The portion of outstanding...