Free Republic

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): "So in the span of four days, [there were] three major revelations about the use of government power to intimidate those who are doing things that the government doesn’t like. These are the tactics of the third world.

Chinese businessman sells canned air to smog-choked citizens Recently, we told you about the horrendous air pollution problems in Beijing that have forced the Chinese government to advise citizens to stay indoors and has residents wearing facemasks in an attempt to protect their lungs from the smog. In the true spirit of Chinese entrepreneurialism, a Chinese businessman has decided to cash in on the "airpocalypse" by selling his own brand of canned air. Chen Guangbiao, a local entrepreneur known for his publicity stunts, claims he's selling the cans of air in part as a way to bring attention to the...

Unemployment is rampant, and that’s just for starters in a country wracked by domestic violence, immigrant abuse, and a sorry standard of living. taly may be rich in cultural heritage and boast the seventh largest economy in the world, but the country’s social statistics are more in line with those of a developing third-world nation. By almost every standard of measure in sectors from women’s rights and youth employment, Italy scores far below the mark. The country has been weighted down by recession, but money is not entirely to blame. In fact, Italy’s economic situation has steadily improved under the...

Africa boasts more cellphone users than all of North America The silver lining of being a developing continent is that you can skip entire stages of technological progress, like going directly from no phones to cellphones without suffering through land lines in between. Africa, for example, now has more mobile subscribers than the United States or Europe, and that means big things for African economies. Like we've mentioned before, beyond its wild growth, the African cellular telecommunications market is a hotbed of innovation. Areas like telemedicine and cellphone-based money-transfer schemes don't just make life easier, they help people live healthier...

A majority of Puerto Ricans voted to change their ties with the United States and become the 51st U.S. state yesterday in a non-binding referendum that would require final approval from Congress. The two-part referendum asked whether the island wanted to change its 114-year relationship with the United States and nearly 54 percent sought to change it, while 46 percent favored the status quo with ninety-six percent of precincts reporting. The second question asked voters to choose from three options, with statehood by far the favorite, garnering 61 percent. Sovereign free association, which would have allowed for more autonomy, received...

Shouting matches and even physical fights break out each time a minibus pulls up to drop off passengers at a crowded bus stop in downtown Harare. It's all about not getting short-changed. Hyperinflation forced Zimbabwe to trash its worthless local currency three years ago in a move that brought much needed relief to the crippled economy but created a surprising new headache: a lack of coins. "Change is a big problem, and at the same time passengers are impatient with us. I have been slapped a few times for not having change for them," said a bus conductor Walter Chakawata....

By Mr. Curmudgeon:Remember President Lyndon B. Johnson's "war on poverty"? In a 1964 speech before a joint-session of Congress, Johnson declared "unconditional war on poverty in America," urging "Congress and all Americans" to join him "in that effort."Johnson insisted his escalated war - on poverty, not in Vietnam - would turn "one thousand dollars invested in salvaging an unemployable youth" into "$40,000 or more in his lifetime." He further stated that for the program to work required massive social programs "organized at the State and the local level ... supported and directed by State and local efforts.""For my part," said...

How to Kill a Parasitic Worm Living Inside of You Parasitic worms are the stuff of nightmares — worms as big as twelve feet long can rummage through your intestines, and then leave in the middle of the night. Urban legends tell tales of tapeworms carried by diet pills. Some of the weird schemes for removing these parasites include a combination of duct tape, candy bars, and bodily orifices. What is the reality behind these parasites? And how can you really get rid of one, without the need for extreme measures? Tapeworms hide in your food Obtaining a beef or...

Why did the Iowa Republican Party decide to announce a Santorum victory, only a day before the South Carolina Primary? http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-21/santorum-declared-iowa-caucuses-winner-by-state-party-leaders.html# It requires no more than 4 days after the announcement of the initial results, to conduct a fully certified recount, because relatively few people vote in the Iowa Caucuses. The reason why they announced Santorum as the winner of Iowa at this time, is to get some supporters of Gingrich to vote for Santorum, in order to split the conservative vote and assure a victory for Romney. American elections have become as corrupt as the elections in Mexico, Colombia,...

The “improving” unemployment statistics being touted by the Obama Administration have been helped along by the nearly one million people who have left the workforce. The ballyhooed 8.5% unemployment rate would’ve been 9.1% if these people weren’t so discouraged that they’ve given up on the idea of ever finding a job. “While I would never expect the Republicans to admit this, the fact is that Democratic policies are enabling a growing segment of our society to join the ranks of the leisure class,” boasted Democratic Nation Committee Chairperson, Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (Fla). “It’s not as if everyone who has a...

LA GRANGE, Texas (AP) — An attorney says a Texas jury has awarded the largest verdict he has ever heard of — $150 billion to the family of a man who died years after being set afire as an 8-year-old.

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Peru's government abused its authority by barring paroled U.S. activist Lori Berenson and her 31-month-old son from leaving the country to spend the holidays in New York City with her family, her lawyer charged Saturday. "Administratively, you can't block a court order," Anibal Apari said after Berenson told The Associated Press that she and her son Salvador were prevented from boarding a flight Friday night despite being granted permission in court.

Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are moving to block the International Monetary Fund from using U.S. money for European bailouts, as talks intensify across the pond over how to stanch the debt crisis. Some U.S. lawmakers want their concerns addressed as part of the feverish end-of-year budget talks. On the House and Senate side, lawmakers have introduced legislation to wall off U.S. taxpayer money from playing any role in averting a European meltdown. "It's time to stop the bailouts and start restoring fiscal discipline to our own economy," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said in a statement, as he and 25...

They might want to check the batteries first. Second-hand pacemakers from dead Americans are being cleaned up and implanted into heart patients in the Third World. And according to doctors the practice is 'very safe and effective'. The pacemakers - small devices which use electrical impulses to regulate the beating of the heart - have been inserted into 53 patients in India who had severe heart rhythm disorders called heart block and sick sinus syndrome.

How The U.S. Will Become A 3rd World Country (Part 1)The United States is increasingly similar to a 3rd world county in several ways and is accelerating towards 3rd world status. Economic data indicate a harsh reality that obviates mainstream political debate. The evidence suggests that, without fundamental reforms, the U.S. will become a post industrial neo-3rd-world country by 2032.Fundamental characteristics that define a 3rd world country include high unemployment, lack of economic opportunity, low wages, widespread poverty, extreme concentration of wealth, unsustainable government debt, control of the government by international banks and multinational corporations, weak rule of law and...

A 23-year-old man charged with killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter appeared before a judge Friday. Police arrested Fredy Alexander Chingo Riz, of Willimantic, on Thanksgiving Day. State police began an investigation Wednesday night after the victim, 3-year-old Athena Angeles, was taken from her home at 112 Hope Street in Willimantic to Windham Memorial Hospital in cardiac arrest. She died at the hospital. Thursday, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner concluded the toddler died of blunt abdominal and chest trauma and ruled the death a homicide, police said. Chingo Riz, an illegal immigrant here from Guatemala, admitted to police he...

Roubini Nailed The Euro Crisis Six Years Ago, And Was Told To Shut Up By Italy's Finance Minister Gus Lubin Nov. 11, 2011, 11:54 AM ROUBINI: There's Only One Thing That Will Stop The 'Upcoming Disaster' In Europe Excellent pickup from Adam Button at ForexLive... Six years ago Nouriel Roubini was speaking at Davos when he was interrupted by a cry of "Go back to Turkey!" by Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti. Here's what Roubini was saying that pissed off the Italian: My current concerns are that, while EMU has lead to a process of convergence of nominal variables (inflation,...

Dear Friend, In this video commentary, I discuss Italy’s current financial crisis. Italy is facing almost inevitable default. It’s too big to rescue. And the implications will be felt right at our kitchen tables. Tune in!

As the world population reaches seven billion people, the BBC's Mike Gallagher asks whether efforts to control population have been, as some critics claim, a form of authoritarian control over the world's poorest citizens.> In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson warned that the US might be overwhelmed by desperate masses, and he made US foreign aid dependent on countries adopting family planning programmes. Other wealthy countries such as Japan, Sweden and the UK also began to devote large amounts of money to reducing Third World birth rates. > Meanwhile, Paul Ehrlich has also amended his view of the issue. If he...

<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A grocery store worker accused of handing out a semen-tainted yogurt sample at an Albuquerque market pleaded guilty Thursday.</p> <p>Under terms of his plea agreement, Anthony Garcia admitted he tainted a sample of the yogurt he was handing out at Sunflower Market in January. He also admitted putting some of his semen on a plastic spoon that he placed with the yogurt.</p>

The Obama administration may turn thousands of government-owned foreclosures into rental properties to help boost falling home prices. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said Wednesday it is seeking input from investors on how to rent roughly 250,000 homes owned by government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration. All of the homes are foreclosures. The U.S. government rescued the two mortgage giants in September 2008 and has funded them since the financial crisis. Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee about half of the nation's mortgages and nearly all new mortgages. Converting the homes into rentals...

The two teenagers met inside an ice cream factory through darting glances before roll call, murmured hellos as supervisors looked away and, finally, a phone number folded up and tossed discreetly onto the workroom floor. It was the beginning of an Afghan love story that flouted dominant traditions of arranged marriages and close family scrutiny, a romance between two teenagers of different ethnicities that tested a village’s tolerance for more modern whims of the heart. The results were delivered with brutal speed. This month, a group of men spotted the couple riding together in a car, yanked them into the...

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) was very disappointed in President Obama’s class-warfare press conference yesterday… describing it on the floor of the Senate as “the kind of language that you would expect from the leader of a third-world country, not the President of the United States.” (Snip) Better yet, prove him wrong, President Obama! Get through a month without deploying a senseless class warfare argument, declaring any new enemies in the American private sector, or castigating citizens for doing the kind of thing prominent Democrats like “Air Claire” McCaskill do on a regular basis. She didn’t just enjoy a tax break

Cruise passengers tell of seven-hour security 'revenge' nightmare Elderly passengers on board a luxury cruise have criticised US immigration officials after they endured a seven-hour security check. Setting off from Southampton on April 12, the cruise has taken in stops in Europe, the Caribbean, Central America, crossing the Panama Canal to travel up the west coast of the United States to Alaska It was billed as a chance to taste the “glitz and glamour” of Hollywood or enjoy VIP treatment in some of the most exclusive shopping areas in the world. But when a group of 2,000 elderly British cruise...

LAGOS (AFP) – Nigerian police have raided a home allegedly being used to force teenage girls to have babies that were then offered for sale for trafficking or other purposes, authorities said on Wednesday. "We stormed the premises of the Cross Foundation in Aba three days ago following a report that pregnant girls aged between 15 and 17 are being made to make babies for the proprietor," said Bala Hassan, police commissioner for Abia state in the country's southeast. "We rescued 32 pregnant girls and arrested the proprietor who is undergoing interrogation over allegations that he normally sells the babies...

RAIPUR, India (Reuters) - Eleven people stormed into a house in a central Indian village and assaulted a woman whom they accused of witchcraft, blinding her and her husband by stabbing them in the eyes with scissors, police said on Saturday. The incident took place on Friday in the Raipur district of Chhattisgarh state. Police later arrested 10 suspects. A family in Khaira village had been having money troubles and health problems, which they blamed on a 45-year-old woman, according to S.S. Baghel, a local police officer. "The accused blamed the alleged witchcraft power of the lady for their problems...

The United States is in the middle of a devastating long-term economic decline and it is getting really hard to deny it. Over the past year I have included literally thousands of depressing statistics in my articles about the U.S. economy. I have done this in order to make an overwhelming case that the U.S. economy is in deep decline and is dying a little bit more every single day. Until we understand exactly how bad our problems are we will never be willing to accept the solutions. The truth is that our leaders have absolutely wrecked the greatest economic...

Africa receives about $11 billion a year in foreign aid from America, and an equal amount in loans from the World Bank. In spite of this largesse, or perhaps because of it, Africa remains the world's least developed region. In this time of fiscal crisis in the United States, as evidenced by Standard and Poor's downgrade on Monday of Washington's credit-worthiness, it is imperative that Congress reduce spending and borrowing. Aid to Africa is one place to start. George Ayittey, a Ghanian economist and a professor of economics at American University, offers persuasive reasons in a paper he gave earlier...

Bring it on, Barry. If you say the GOP wants to make America a Third World country, Republicans can charge you with already having made the US a banana republic. AFP: The attack came a day after Obama savaged Republican budget plans and unveiled his $4-trillion deficit reduction drive that aims to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to preserve key social services.The debate over fiscal policy will prove critical to the 2012 campaign and Obama sought to frame it as a "stark choice" between investing in the future or watching the country fall apart."Under their vision, we...

President Obama stridently attacked the Republican budget passed by the House of Representatives as “anti-American” and warned “it will turn this country into a ‘Third-World’ nation.” “In the ‘Third-World’ countries there are no comprehensive social safety nets,” the President contended. “People must work long and hard to make a living. I’m proud to say that my vision forAmericagoes in the opposite direction. People shouldn’t be forced to take demeaning jobs. We are a rich enough country to be able to free our citizens from this type of wage bondage.” In support of his case, Obama cited statistics indicating that currently...

CHICAGO (AFP) – US President Barack Obama accused his Republican foes of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country Thursday as he rallied support for his reelection campaign. The attack came a day after Obama savaged Republican budget plans and unveiled his $4 trillion deficit reduction drive that aims to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to preserve key social services. The debate over fiscal policy will prove critical to the 2012 campaign, and Obama sought to frame it as a "stark choice" between investing in the future or watching the country fall apart....

It was an average sort of beast — gray, thick shouldered, with fat curling horns — spotted from the window of a moving car. But to Giuseppe Mozzillo, who grew up outside Naples in Italy’s buffalo mozzarella heartland, the animals dotting the Indian countryside looked enticingly familiar. “I said, ‘Wait a minute’,” he recalled. “These are the same buffalo. Their original environment is in India. The milk must be amazing. You must be able to make the best mozzarella in the world in India.” ...When he first arrived he was appalled to discover that the local idea of refrigeration often...

I’ve been thinking about race, and prejudice, a lot over the past week. The world has been quick to condemn John Galliano for his anti-Semitic rant. I condemned him a long time ago, firstly for portraying women on his catwalk as adolescent boys and, secondly, for his wanton, unthinking use of fur.

BHUBANESHWAR, India (AP) -- Indian police detained two people after an angry mob of fired workers burned to death a senior executive of a steel factory, an official said Friday. After learning they were laid off, about a dozen workers attacked a vehicle carrying Radhey Shyam Roy as he was leaving the factory in eastern Orissa state on Thursday, dousing the Jeep with gasoline and setting it on fire, said police Superintendent Ajay Kumar Sarangi.

Global Economy? 23 Facts Which Prove That Globalism Is Pushing The Standard Of Living Of The Middle Class Down To Third World Levels From now on, whenever you hear the term "the global economy" you should immediately equate it with the destruction of the U.S. middle class. Over the past several decades, the American economy has been slowly but surely merged into the emerging one world economic system. Unfortunately for the middle class, much of the rest of the world does not have the same minimum wage laws and worker protections that we do. Therefore, the massive global corporations that...

It's official: Cimex lectularius, better known as the lowly bedbug, has achieved the status of a national epidemic. And starting Tuesday, federal agencies will convene a major summit to address the itchy critter once thought of as little more than a scourge of third-rate motels. The 2011 National Bedbug Summit will be held this week in Washington, and according to a statement Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency, a half-dozen governmental agencies will send representatives in response to "consumer concern about the rising incidence of bed bugs in the United States." The meeting will be held at the (presumably bedbug-free)...

The last three weeks I have traveled about, taking the pulse of the more forgotten areas of central California. I wanted to witness, even if superficially, what is happening to a state that has the highest sales and income taxes, the most lavish entitlements, the near-worst public schools (based on federal test scores), and the largest number of illegal aliens in the nation, along with an overregulated private sector, a stagnant and shrinking manufacturing base, and an elite environmental ethos that restricts commerce and productivity without curbing consumption. During this unscientific experiment, three times a week I rode a bike...

Abandoned farms, Third World living conditions, pervasive public assistance -- welcome to the once-thriving Central Valley. The last three weeks I have traveled about, taking the pulse of the more forgotten areas of central California. I wanted to witness, even if superficially, what is happening to a state that has the highest sales and income taxes, the most lavish entitlements, the near-worst public schools (based on federal test scores), and the largest number of illegal aliens in the nation, along with an overregulated private sector, a stagnant and shrinking manufacturing base, and an elite environmental ethos that restricts commerce and...

Home Secretary Theresa May has announced that the number of UK visas issued to skilled migrant workers from outside the EU will be capped at 21,700 from next year - a reduction of one fifth from current levels. In a Commons statement on 23 November 2010, Mrs May said there would be a new minimum salary of £40,000 for firms using intra-company transfers (ICTs) to bring their own people into the UK for more than a year to do specific jobs. "Controlled migration has benefited the UK economically, socially and culturally, but when immigration gets out of control, it places...

While the recent victory by Republicans in Congress is a good thing, there are certain economic issues that the Republican Party leadership is not talking about. The outsourcing of America's manufacturing sector to China, has wiped out millions of jobs, and killed off the American working class. There are so many things that America used to make - TVs, computers, toys, clothes, Levi Jeans, handbags, cooking pots, pans, wrenches, screw drivers, and the like, that are not made in America anymore. The outsourcing industry in the service sector, is killing off America's middle-class. Accounting services, call centers, computer programming, and...

NEW YORK — November 2 is not here yet, but polling problems have begun. From possibly malfunctioning ballot gear to potential fraud, the 2010 mid-term vote is marred even before Election Day has dawned. •Like jurors who deliberate before a trial concludes, some Nevadans who have tried voting early for Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle instead have seen Democrat Harry Reid’s name appear on their electronic voting machines. Some voters have complained about this apparent glitch, but how many others unwittingly have miscast their ballots? Intriguingly, these machines are maintained in Las Vegas by members of the Service Employees International...

WASHINGTON — Nearly three billion people in the developing world cook their meals on primitive indoor stoves fueled by crop waste, wood, coal and dung. Every year, according to the United Nations, smoke from these stoves kills 1.9 million people, mostly women and children, from lung and heart diseases and low birth weight. The stoves also contribute to global warming...On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to announce a significant commitment to a group working to address the problem, with a goal of providing 100 million clean-burning stoves to villages in Africa, Asia and South America by...

The recent event put on by Glenn Beck this past weekend, showed me a lot about that portion of middle America that has been getting smaller and smaller and smaller. Yet the middle of these Americans seems to be getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Boy Oh Boy the world sure has changed for them! What used to be a porcelain complexioned rosy cheeked European immigrant, has shockingly morphed into a range of brown and yellow skinned slant and slit eyed, bushy and dark browed, beard and mustachioed horde of freaking heathens! It must be very hard for Beck's White...

Legal immigrants are required to have medical screening to ensure that they do not bring any contagious diseases into the United States. Illegal aliens are not screened and many are carrying horrific third world diseases that do not belong in the USA. Many of these diseases are highly contagious and will infect citizens that come in contact with an infected illegal alien. This has already happened in restaurants, schools, and police forces. Malaria was eradicated from the USA in the 1940s but recently there were outbreaks in southern California, New Jersey, New York City, and Houston. Additionally, Malaria tainted blood...

Michael Bloomberg, New York City’s mayor-for-life, has announced that the city will not go ahead with a publicly funded CCT program. A what? “CCT” stands for “Conditional Cash Transfer,” the current fad among anti-poverty campaigners. The name, unusually for social-policy onomastics, clearly describes the program. Cash ($$$$) is transferred (from some funding source, most likely an anagram of PAXTAYERS, to poor people) with conditions (“If you make sure your child attends school regularly, we’ll give you $50 a month”). CCT is not particularly a New York thing; there have been CCTs all over the world since the late 1990s. Nor...

Since 1995 The Heritage Foundation and the Wall St. Journal have measured "economic freedom" the latest news is out and it is not good for America. Is the land of the free fast on the way to becoming a third world nation, economic expert Kevin Price examines the results of the survey and what they mean for you and me.

Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, special advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on financial access, has reiterated her plea to allow people in poor countries easier access to financial services, which she said would play a vital role in changing their economic lives.

This report is almost 1 year old and now the information can be made to the public. This is how a massive smuggling operation kept the fighting going in Iraq and made a lot of Syrians rich.There were no giveaways, balloons or barbecues, but business was booming this month at a "bizarre" Syrian bazaar - a used tank lot at al-Qamishli, located at the point where the borders of Syria, Iraq and Turkey meet. On sale: Russian T-72 tanks. No, not in mint condition, hardly top-of-the-line merchandise, the tank on sale was a Soviet product purchased by the Syrian...

How bad was the last decade? Across the Western world, there's near universal agreement that 2000-2009 has been awful. After all, the "Noughties" were plagued with financial instability and plunging asset values, beginning with the "dotcom" collapse and ending with "sub-prime". Yet that's not the entire story. Not by a long way. You can only conclude the last decade has been disastrous by viewing the world through a narrow lens. Yes, the so-called "advanced economies" have performed terribly. But, then again, they have been subject to self-imposed policy blunders – in terms of fiscal and monetary profligacy and the removal...

BOSTON — A New Hampshire woman who is critically ill with gastrointestinal anthrax most likely swallowed spores while participating in a community drumming circle, state health officials said Tuesday...The woman was among some 60 people who attended the drumming session on Dec. 4 at the United Campus Ministry near the University of New Hampshire in Durham...Investigators found traces of anthrax on two African drums and an electrical outlet in the room where the event took place, Dr. Talbot said, and are theorizing that the woman swallowed spores that were aerosolized by the drumming. The state has not identified the woman...