Free Republic

In the protracted Washington debate over the war in Afghanistan, the most concise analysis so far has come from America’s top soldier: “If we don’t get a level of legitimacy and governance (there), then all the troops in the world aren’t going to make any difference.”Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was speaking two days after Hamid Karzai was declared the winner, by default, in August elections so massively rigged that a U.N.-backed electoral complaints committee threw out about a million Karzai votes. That forced a run-off from which his challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah...

ST ANDREWS, Scotland (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said high unemployment rates show that economic recovery is still perilous and governments need to maintain stimulus as long as necessary to ensure sustained growth. "If we put the brakes on too quickly we will weaken the economy and the financial system, unemployment will rise, more businesses will fail, budget deficits will rise, and the ultimate cost of the crisis will be greater," Geithner said in a statement issued at the conclusion of a two-day Group of 20 meeting. He said that with some growth beginning to become apparent in...

Fort Hood Shootings: Gunman Used 'Cop Killer' Weapon In Massacre At US Army Base The US Army major who carried out the Fort Hood massacre sprayed more than 100 rounds at his comrades using a gun nicknamed the "cop killer." Nick Allen 07 Nov Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, used an FN Five-Seven, a semi-automatic pistol popular with SWAT teams, that can fire armour-piercing bullets. A total of 13 people died in the bloodbath at the Texas military base and 38 were wounded. Hasan had bought the weapon legally at a gun store close to Fort Hood in August and...

Here is video of GOP Members of the House objecting as Democrats begin trying to ram the Health Care Bill through today. Democrats set only four hours for debate.

Forgotten Proof of Islamic Evil on U.S. Soil byPaul L. Williams, Ph.D. thelastcrusade.org Violent crimes committed by Muslim extremists on U.S. soil were not confined to the events of 9/11, the Beltway sniper killings, and the murderous rampage of Major Nidal Maik Hasan at Fort Hood.One of the most horrific incidents of Islamic rage has escaped the attention of the mainstream media and the American people.The mayhem was conducted in the name of Allah and resulted in the deaths of over 280 white Christians.And it occurred in California. The killings began on October 19, 1973 when members of an...

Price Trends / WAR OF THE WORLDS (Round # 2): If you use 120 years of data for your time horizon, and assume prices will return to the average, then our residential property bubble will fall 49% from the bubble peak to the long-run average (see above (a) aka “(x) - (z) / 202” aka “Projected Fall Peak to Trend”). This total projected fall is less than the 60% predicted in my recent post based upon 20 years of data and a trend line drawn with the eye (click here to see that post). Property Values Set to Fall 43%...

John Reed, who originally helped merge Traveller's Group with Citibank with Sandy Weill, is performing a mea culpa for creating megazombie Citigroup (C): Bloomberg: “I’m sorry,” Reed, 70, said in an interview yesterday. “These are people I love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it’s not easy to see what’s happened." “I would compartmentalize the industry for the same reason you compartmentalize ships,” Reed said in the interview in his office on Park Avenue in New York. “If you have a leak, the leak doesn’t spread and sink the whole vessel. So generally speaking you’d have consumer banking separate...

Muggers Attack Two-Year-Old Girl A two-year-old girl was punched in the head by two teenage girls during an attempted robbery in north-west London. By Julie Henry 07 Nov 2009 CCTV of two teenage female muggers who punched a two year old toddler in the head Photo: PIXEL The girl was with her mother when the pair were targeted by two female suspects in Preston Road, Wembley, at about 4.45 pm on Thursday. They demanded money from the mother before punching her in the arm and attacking her daughter. The attackers are described as being of Mediterranean appearance and aged between...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Rep. Michael McMahon will vote against the sweeping health care reform bill, in an expected House vote tomorrow, bucking the White House and Democratic congressional leaders who are heavily invested in seeing it pass. "As a candidate for Congress in 2008, I ran on the platform of reforming our healthcare system while containing costs and improving access for Staten Islanders and Brooklynites," McMahon (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn) said in a press release. "This legislation contains laudable reforms which I support; it allows individuals to keep coverage when they leave a job and young people to remain covered under...

BUCKHORN, Mo. (Nov. 7, 2009) — A Halloween alternative party at Grace Covenant Church of Buckhorn, near Fort Leonard Wood, has raised $2,300 for bullet-resistant vests and other equipment in the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff J.B. King, who is a Southern Baptist, said he and his deputies greatly appreciate the help from the independent charismatic church. “It’s been a godsend,” King said. “During the past four years, this has amounted to a very healthy amount of money. We placed this donation into our equipment fund and it has helped us buy all kinds of equipment for our vehicles; for...

2:15 PM UPDATE: I've learned that 100 people are being laid off across "several divisions" of the A&E Television Networks yesterday and today "as a direct result of the merger". It will make those employees feel so much better that management tells me it's "no one in a decision making role." A&E Television Networks in August acquired Lifetime Entertainment, and everything is now owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst and NBC Universal. Big Media = Big Mergers = Big Mistakes.

Muslims At Fort Voice Outrage and Ask Questions Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times Sgt. Fahad Kamal participated in Friday prayers at the mosque of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen outside Fort Hood. More Photos > By MICHAEL MOSS Published: November 6, 2009 KILLEEN, Tex. — Leaders of the vibrant Muslim community here expressed outrage on Friday at the shooting rampage being laid to one of their members, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who had become a regular attendee of prayers at the local mosque. But some of the men who had befriended Major Hasan at the mosque said the military...

With the release of the jobs report on Friday, the broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment tracked by the Labor Department has reached its highest level in decades. If statistics went back so far, the measure would almost certainly be at its highest level since the Great Depression. In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982.

A cousin of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan said that he began a stricter practice of Islam after his mother died nine years ago, observing the five daily prayers and taking other aspects of the faith more seriously after a loss that affected him deeply. "He became religious after the death of his mother. Before that he was more secular," said Mohammed Mounif Hasan. But "the idea that because he was a Muslim and there was pressure on him and because of the harassment, I don't think that is enough of an excuse," for what happened, Hasan said. "People are deeply...

Floridians so far have received less federal stimulus money than any of their fellow Americans, despite an unemployment rate here that ranks among the highest in the country and a budget crisis that few states can match... Florida received just $505 per person, which ranks last among the 50 states, all U.S. territories combined and Washington, D.C., according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of the Journal’s data. The numbers raise significant questions about the stimulus program, which President Obama said during a February stop in Fort Myers would help curtail the state’s rising unemployment rate. Florida’s unemployment rate of...

NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Gold futures in New York rose to a record above $1,100 per ounce on Friday as the dollar eased in the wake of disappointing U.S. employment data. At 9:48 a.m. EST (1448 GMT) December gold GCZ9 was up $10.20 at $1,099.50 an ounce at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, having topped at $1,101.90 in morning trade. Spot gold XAU= reached a record at $1,100.90 per ounce.

"..They are Americans of every race, faith, and station. They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers. They are descendents of immigrants and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a patriotism like no other. What they share is a commitment to country that has been tested and proved worthy. What they share is the same unflinching courage, unblinking compassion, and uncommon camaraderie that the soldiers and civilians of Ft. Hood showed America and showed the world..." I’d like to speak with you for a few minutes today about the...

Blaming America - Planting Discord in Los Angeles by Ari Bussel Downtown Los Angeles is composed of many districts – jewelry, fashion, toys, flowers, produce and others. A concentration of skyscrapers, uncommon to the Southern California landscape, differentiates it from the vastness of the Greater Los Angeles area. It was during the last decade of constant increase in real estate prices that old buildings, often from utilities or institutions, were converted into affordable lots. Once dangerous and unwelcoming, Downtown went through a process of revitalization, its face today unrecognizable to past visitors. Back in 1984 I elected to go to...

State District Name Rating Phone Party Blue Dog 1st Term  Pennsylvania  4th   Jason Altmire R+6 225-2565 D Yes    New York  24th   Michael A. Arcuri R+2 225-3665 D Yes    Washington  3rd   Brian Baird EVEN 225-3536 D      Georgia  12th   John Barrow D+1 225-2823 D      Arkansas  1st   Marion Berry R+8 225-4076 D Yes    Georgia  2nd   Sanford D. Bishop Jr. D+1 225-3631 D Yes    New York  1st   Timothy Bishop EVEN 225-3826 D      Ohio  16th   John A. Boccieri R+4 225-3876 D      Oklahoma  2nd   Dan Boren R+14 225-2701 D Yes    Iowa  3rd ...

Home » News » Politics Politics Palin rallies state’s abortion opponents Visit is days before her book is released By Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel Posted: Nov. 6, 2009 West Allis — Less than two weeks before the release of her memoir "Going Rogue," former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was on message during a Friday night speech to anti-abortion activists at State Fair Park. "Let's simplify, we're pro children," Palin told thousands of people who attended a $30-a-ticket fund-raiser for the Wisconsin Right to Life Education Fund. In a personal and passionate speech, Palin lauded the state's anti-abortion movement...

Wary of a Kosovo-type fate, Colombo wants to adopt a cautious approach to the issue of political settlement of Tamils, a senior Sri Lankan official told The Hindu here. “We need to move forward on the process of empowerment. But one problem with federalism in a small country is that it is more subject to splitting. Take Kosovo. They [The West] said give autonomy and we will guarantee unity. But two years later they supported independence. Clearly a promise should be a promise. We have to be careful,� said Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights Rajiva...

WASHINGTON, DC - C-SPAN is carrying live the debate on socialized health care in the United States House of Representatives live. Members of Congress have had their phone lines flooded all week as opposition by the American people has mounted. Most of the Democrat members from North Carolina phone lines have either been busy or, once a caller gets the voice mail message, the caller gets a message that their voice mailbox is full and cannot receive any messages. Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, has taken over chairing the House as debate becomes contentious as the Democratic leadership tries...

Often when there is a mass shooting, people who knew the gunman find themselves wondering what warning signs they might have missed. So it is in the case of Maj. Nidal Hasan, a 12-year veteran in the U.S. Army, a native-born American, a trained and practicing psychiatrist — and the man authorities say opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood. Those who look for a ready explanation for the murderous rampage at Fort Hood can choose between two broad narratives: Maybe it had to do with the travails of an Army psychiatrist, dealing with soldiers who had been traumatized,...

How bad is it?

Russian economist and academic Igor Panarin says that there is a strong possibility that the United States will break into six pieces by June 2010, which he says will be the result of a second economic crisis in late November. After Texas Governor Rick Perry mentioned the possibility of his state seceding from the union, Americans started to take Panarin's predictions much more seriously and now the video game 'Shattered Union' is being developed into a major Hollywood motion picture.

LTTE arms moved overland from China to NK for almost a decade by Shamindra Ferdinando Chinese arms consignments for the LTTE had been moved overland to North Korea across the China-North Korea border before being transferred to the terrorist group’s ‘floating’ warehouses on the high seas close to Indonesia, for about a decade, The Island learns. The LTTE had obtained its first Chinese arms consignment way back in 1994/1995 during the then People’s Alliance (PA) administration. On-going inquiries, well informed sources said, revealed that the China-North Korea overland transport of arms for the LTTE had operated for almost a decade...

Jim, thank you for your service to others and this country.

Attention: Insurance Department Re: Loan No. To Whom It May Concern: Wow! Where has the year gone? I can’t believe it’s time for the annual “Fall Homeowner’s Insurance Debacle” again. I keep meaning to put it on my calendar, but each year, I hope that after I fax the information to you in the latter part of September/first part of October when you first send a letter asking for it, you’ll actually get the information to my file and we won’t have to go through the annual “We’ve Purchased Homeowner’s Insurance And It Will Be Charged To Your Escrow Account”...

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America: I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know. This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration. It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor...

AL-BIREH, West Bank, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The grandfather of a U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of shooting dead 13 people and wounding 30 others at a base in Texas said on Saturday he found it impossible to believe his grandson had committed the act. "He is a doctor and loves the U.S." Ismail Mustafa Hamad told Reuters in an interview at his home in the Palestinian town of al-Bireh. "America made him what he is." "Whether he became angry or something else, I don't know... What I do know is that it is impossible that he would do something like...

Celente says we are going into a manufactured depression and in America we will call it obamageddon.

Ever since Obama became a serious candidate for the Democrat ticket in “08”, we have been deluged with various groups of people in America treating Obama like a celebrity. This is nothing new for Americans, after all we have seen different segments of our society display signs of idol worship for many celebrities from rock stars like Elvis Presley to sports heroes like Michael Jordan. However, we have never experienced the type of sycophantic worship for a politician like we see from the left for Obama. Oh sure the nation came together and cried when JFK was assassinated, but...

President Barack Obama will leave the country for a four-nation tour of Asia starting Wednesday despite a host of domestic concerns, including the massacre at Fort Hood, a sharply rising jobless rate, his health care legislation stalled in the Senate and his Afghanistan troop decision still pending. He planned his Nov. 11-19 trip around the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Singapore, but added stops in Japan, China and South Korea. The itinerary reflects the growing importance of East Asia — especially China — to everything from financing U.S. debt and powering the global economic recovery to climate change, disease...

Call Congress Now (202) 224-3121

Artificially engendered humans have long been a science fiction staple - from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Huxley's Brave New World and, most recently, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake and Michel Houellebecq's The Possibility of an Island - their heroes dehumanised figures depicted amid bleak, biotechnologically devastated landscapes. But in the year of Darwin's bicentenary, science fact presses hard on the heels of science fiction. Three decades since Louise Brown, the first 'test tube baby', woke to the world, breakthroughs are now trumpeted almost every month. Chinese scientists recently announced that they had cloned the first animals from skin cells. Earlier,...

Rather than post the entire foolish set of BS, here are the outlines--- and the outright lies "Passage of health-care reform will be defining moment for US" By U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Special to the Arizona Daily Star: Published: 11.06.2009 It was 45 years ago that Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 — a historic measure that for the first time outlawed all racial segregation in schools, public places and employment. We are poised to make another historic decision that for the first time would guarantee access to health care for all Americans. NO, It will guarantee...

The uncle says Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a sensitive man haunted by the wartime disabilities of soldiers he treated. The Army psychiatrist was not political, his relatives in the West Bank say. Hamad described his nephew as a gentle soul who once, as a young adult, mourned for three months after rolling over during a nap and crushing his pet parakeet. During medical school, the uncle said, Hasan switched his major to psychiatry after fainting at the sight of blood while delivering a baby. The young man became more religious after the death of his parents, who were Muslims...

What would you not want to happen if you were pushing legal-marijuana legislation? Oh I don’t know, maybe you wouldn’t want the fact that you were present when your boyfriend was arrested for possession of marijuana come out? That’s exactly what Rep. Barney Frank is going through right now; Frank is pushing the passage of legalized medical marijuana and now it comes out that Barney Frank was at his boyfriend’s house in 2007 when the man was arrested for possession. According to a report out of Boston, Barney Frank was present when his boyfriend, James Ready was arrested for marijuana...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 31% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -7. That's the President's best daily rating in just over three weeks

In 2008 The George Washington University Homeland Security Institute (HSPI) initiated a transition task force to help craft homeland security policies during Obama’s transition period. In May of 2009 HSPI finished its report titled, “Thinking Anew-Security Priorities for the Next Administration.” One of the members of this Obama transition project was none other than the Muslim murderer Nidal Hassan...

Watching the debatat on CSPAN but have no idea what is going on. Except that Pete Sessions and Tom Price are objecting. On the Democratic side a bunch of women congressmen are lining up giving 10-20 second speeches. Sounds like a delay tactic. Anyone know what the heck is going on?

After Sgt. Kimberly Munley stopped the Fort Hood massacre by shooting Major Nidal Malik Hasan several times, she collapsed from her wounds and doctors who treated her were afraid she wouldn't survive. Munley, a 34-year-old former soldier who became a civilian cop on the Fort Hood base, was shot twice in both legs during Thursday's confrontation. Two powerful "cop killer" rounds allegedly fired by Hasan tore through her left thigh, exited and blasted through her right thigh as well. She was also struck in the wrist. Munley, the mother of two girls, was sped to Metroplex Hospital several miles away...

DALLAS — Seventy million dollars worth of federal, state and city funds are pouring into the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Supporters hope the span will be a signature for the city. But it may be remembered for something else, because the key jobs in its construction -- tens of thousands of man hours of work — are going to Italians. On the construction site in the Trinity River bottoms, an American inspector told News 8: "If you don't speak Italian, it's going to be tough to communicate." In broken English, a man who appeared...

The Treasury recently reported that the federal government recorded a total budget deficit of $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009, about $960 billion more than the deficit incurred in 2008. CBO notes, in its latest Monthly Budget Review, that the federal deficit rose as a share of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) from 3.1 percent in 2008 to 9.9 percent in 2009—the highest deficit as a share of GDP since 1945.As shown in the figure below, federal spending and receipts diverged dramatically in 2009, reflecting the weakening economy and the federal response. The increase in the deficit of...

Until the mass murder at Fort Hood intervened, I’d intended to write about Thursday’s bingo night to benefit the Girl Scouts. It was a cold and stormy night. Almost all of the summer visitors are gone. We thought there’d be sparse attendance at the monthly charity bingo game put on by the Rotary Club. But the place was packed, wall to wall. Dozens of Brownies and Girl Scouts in uniform were scurrying about, serving the players. Final figures weren’t available on the spot. From prior experience, however, I’m sure more than $1,000 was raised for the Scouts. How ordinary is...

NOW IS THE TIME TO COME TO THE AID OF YOUR COUNTRYMAN!!!! "Kill The Pelosi/Reid/Obamacare Bill" Call Congress Now (202) 224-3121

Google Dashboard is unveiled revealing just how much information the internet giant stores about its users. Benjamin Cohen asks whether it raises privacy concerns. Google has this morning unveiled the Google Dashboard, a simple way of immediately seeing all of the data the internet giant holds on you and allowing you to delete, if you wish. For years, Google has been under pressure from privacy campaigners due to the huge amount of data the company has stored for many years about nearly every internet user in the world.

"Or worse: When Sarah Palin's memoir, "Going Rogue," hits bookstores later this month, will the ideologically impure be required to read -- and commit to memory -- every golden word? Her publisher might consider culling the highlights into a pocket edition. That way, any Republican caught without a copy of "Quotations From Chairman Sarah" could be summarily expelled from the party." As a fan of The Boxcar Children series, let’s dub this one The Case of the Pol Pot Calling the Kettle a Communist. Let the record show that Eugene Robinson has a way with words, although what way that...

I just called my rep...just to make double sure his NO vote is solid. No live person there. Can't leave a msg either because his mailbox is full ! grrrr

Israel on Friday rejected a United Nations General Assembly resolution urging an investigation into a report saying war crimes were committed in Gaza, and condemned the world body vote as "completely detached from realities". In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said in response to Thursday's vote that Israel "maintains the right to self-defense", and would "continue to act to protect the lives of its citizens from the threat of international terrorism". The resolution, endorsing a report on the Gaza war commissioned by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, was nonbinding and seen as unlikely to force either Israel or Islamist...