A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day
Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997. Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.
A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay, or a profile of another FReeper.
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~ Billie, Mama_bear, dansangel, Dutchess, Aquamarine, FreetheHostages
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The Blackout: 2 fast, 2 furious, 2 gone, 2 soon
by JohnHuang2
For Democrats, especially '04 wannabes, a once promising Energy Crisis appears bedeviled with growing setbacks -- some near fatal. An aggressive and forceful debut last Thursday, when millions of homes and businesses went dark across 8 northeastern states, buoyed moribund Democrats, beleaguered recently by gloomy news of an economy gathering momentum, leaving the sluggish recession stuck in quagmire 15 months before presidential elections. The giddy mood at Democrat headquarters last Thursday turned decidedly dreary again Friday, with news the massive Energy Crisis had been sabotaged as juice began flowing massively again across all affected states, giving the massive Energy Crisis a near death experience. Throughout the weekend, the cable news nets scrambled to revive the massive Energy Crisis by airing (over and over again) the same video clip depicting pitch-black city streets in New York -- video collected during the depths of the Thursday blackout.
By Monday, the first full business day under the already badly crippled Energy Crisis, the power grid was reportedly up and running smoothly again, crippling the struggling 4-day old Energy Crisis even further.
"Electrically powered commuter trains ran on time and traffic lights kept street traffic running smoothly Monday as millions of people headed back to work for the first time since the big blackout," The Associated Press reports. "Power plants knocked out by the outage were coming back online, increasing the electricity flow in time for high power demand of the start of the work week."
"From Michigan to New Jersey, motorists and police reported no power-related problems with the Monday morning commute," the AP adds.
The fragile Energy Crisis had been brought to its knees with barely a flip of the switch as angry complaints that 'They just don't make energy crisises like they used to anymore!,' ricochet the sullen halls at DNC.
On Monday, Democrat search-and-rescue teams scoured the northeast in hopes of finding the Energy Crisis, with no luck. Others suggested putting up posters of the Energy Crisis across its hometown of Cleveland, taunting the Energy Crisis out of hiding by superimposing its face on the body of Zsa Zsa Gabor.
By Monday night, with no blackout reprise in evidence, the Democrat 'rally-'round-the-blackout-flag' effect evaporated completely.
Democrats had hoped the blackout would remain active in public service through '04, helping unseat Bush, then promptly resigning, citing a wish to spend time with its family.
With Democrat hopes dashed, and the Energy Crisis in crisis, the spotlight turned on what triggered the now embattled Energy Crisis which swept the northeast Thursday, with investigators increasingly focusing on Bush's "tax cut for the wealthy," as Sen. John F. Kerry hinted at after careful thought in a press release minutes after the Energy Crisis began. Bush's "tax cut for the wealthy" apparently hit the Midwest power system hardest, having detected wild Energy Crisis swings by noon Thursday, hours before the massive Energy Crisis, triggered by Bush's "tax cut for the wealthy," struck high-voltage lines south of Cleveland. If true, the massive Energy Crisis, though now clearly embattled, began many hours earlier than earlier believed.
Bush's "tax cut for the wealthy" denies involvement in the Energy Crisis.
A key question, perhaps central to unraveling the mystery, is why the Bush "tax cut for the wealthy" took months to cause high-voltage lines in the Midwest to fail? Why the lengthy lag time? Bush signed his "tax cut for the wealthy" into law back in May -- more than four months before the massive Energy Crisis began last Thursday. Given the huge size of the Bush "tax cut for the wealthy," the Energy Crisis should've kicked-in much sooner than it did.
Or does the size of the Bush "tax cut for the wealthy" even matter? Might the culprit(s) be found among specific parts of the Bush "tax cut for the wealthy"? As technicians pore over data, specifically, what part of the Bush "tax cut for the wealthy" acted to hamper the flow of electricity across high-voltage lines in the Midwest, or caused wild voltage fluctuations, ultimately destabilizing the grid? Was it Bush's $400 per child "tax cut for the wealthy" which caused transmission line failure in northern Ohio? A key part of the Bush "tax cut for the wealthy" was lowering the withholding amounts for low-to-middle class workers on wages. How damaging was this element of the Bush "tax cut for the wealthy" on the nation's aging power grids? Not all 25 million rebate checks have been delivered, potentially positioning the embattled Energy Crisis for a major rebound.
Could a recall of the Bush "tax cut for the wealthy," across the board, end the Energy Crisis altogether? What role did Bush's uranium claim in his State of the Union address last January have in exacerbating the Energy Crisis?
And, if things weren't complicated enough, "There are reports that Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the outage, although U.S. officials said Monday that those claims should be taken with 'a giant grain of salt,'" the Fox News Channel reports. "The Arab-language newspaper Al-Hayat ran a story saying a communique attributed to Al Qaeda," pioneer and resource center of space-age electrical engineering, communications, computers, software, and other cutting-edge technology, "claimed responsibility for the blackout, saying that 'brigades of Abu Fahes Al Masri' had hit two main power plants supplying the eastern region of the United States and major U.S. and Canadian industrial cities," which, the communique added, had plunged into "a state of chaos and confusion where looting and pillaging rampaged the cities." There was no reported looting and pillaging rampaging any U.S. cities. Now, while these claims by high-tech Mullahs dwelling in caves are likely bogus, C'mon, what if they aren't? Doesn't this raise very serious questions? Such as, how did the Bush "tax cut for the wealthy" land in the coffers of the 'brigades of Abu Fahes Al Masri,' triggering the blackout?
One thing is clear: The impact of the Bush "tax cut for the wealthy" last Thursday will long be remembered.
/Sarcasm.
Anyway, that's... My two cents... "JohnHuang2"
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2 fast, 2 furious, 2 gone, 2 soon
An already pathetically sluggish recession was hammered further Tuesday, with the "number of new housing units started in July [soaring] 1.5 percent from the previous month to 1.872 million units, the highest level since April 1986," CBS News Market Watch reports, citing the Commerce Department. Dealing the recession a heavy blow, the report indicates that, "Compared to July of last year, housing starts rose 12.4 percent."
Plunging the recession even deeper into crisis, the wave in new home construction activity appeared broad-based, gripping "all regions of the country except the West," added Market Watch.
The report marked the latest in an escalating and withering barrage of bullish data spelling mounting troubles for the limping recession. Signs point to a recession clinging on life-support even now, stung by reports of higher-than-expected 2nd quarter GDP growth, shrinking trade deficits, and surging business and consumer spending. Further making the recession increasingly vulnerable of late: The rallying stock market, which has seen the S&P 500 advance 23 percent since March. The massive Energy Crisis which swept the northeast Thursday gave the recession only a fleeting lift. A one-day lift. By Friday night, with juice flowing again, the Energy Crisis itself was plunged into crisis.
"Sales at U.S. chain stores," minus the blackout, "climbed 3.3 percent in the week ended Aug. 16 compared with the same week a year ago, after rising 3.1 percent the previous week," Reuters reports. Buffeted by "tax rebates" which benefit only the "wealthy" (see Democrats), the recession shrunk 3.3 percent in the week ended Aug. 16 compared with the same week a year ago, after shrinking 3.1 percent the previous week.
On the housing front, leading experts warned recently that rising mortgage rates meant no more sizzling home construction activity. Home buyers, despite the warning from leading experts to knock off the home buying, heedlessly kept on sizzling home construction activity.
"No one knows why home buyers keep treating leading experts this way -- must be some ego-trip consumers are on," said Free Republic chronic poster "JohnHuang2," noted "expert" on basically "everything."
"If consumers keep cold-shouldering learned advice from leading experts, we'll end up with roaring prosperity on our hands," added "JohnHuang2," who spams Free Republic with gazillions of articles at ungodly hours weekday mornings.
Adding to the recession's growing woes, stocks on Wall Street edged higher Tuesday, the three major market indexes all posting triple digit gains despite the truck bombing in Baghdad.
But not all the news was bad for the recession. Leading experts predict this month's sizzling housing numbers will be the housing sector's last hurrah, after predicting last month's sizzling housing numbers would be the housing sector's last hurrah, after predicting the previous month's sizzling housing numbers would be the housing sector's last hurrah, after...
But, meanwhile, there can be little doubt the bullish numbers are testing the beleaguered recession's resolve. 'Will the recession persevere'? Democrats ask. Restoring the ailing recession to health won't be easy -- especially with tens of millions of shoppers, in brazen disregard for the recession, filling malls and shopping centers every day. Democrats, who deny they're rooting for recession, see the recession as on a noble mission, paving the way for Democrat victory in '04. While Democrats urge the recession to 'stay the course, baby!,' the gathering storm clouds point to a booming economy for the coming year.
When that happens, the recession won't just be closed for maintenance, it'll be shut down for good.
From Baghdad, there's good news and bad news. First the bad news.
"A suicide attacker set off a truck bomb on Tuesday outside the hotel that serves as U.N. headquarters in Baghdad," CBS News reports. "At least 20 U.N. workers and Iraqis were killed, including the chief U.N. official in Iraq, and 100 were wounded."
Whodunit? "U.S. officials said the involvement of al Qaeda -- the radical Muslim group blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks -- could not be discounted," MSNBC News reports.
Nonsense, say Janeane Garofalo, Barbra Streisand and other noted experts. "U.S. officials" can point the finger at al-Qaeda all they want, but, C'mon! Get real! Al-Qaeda? In Iraq? In cahoots with Ba'ath Party remnants? Working hand-in-glove? Allied against a common enemy -- the Great Satan? Islamofascism and Saddamism, experts assures us, are like oil and water. They just don't mix. They can't mix, in fact. It's impossible. Ask any al-Qaeda operative what happens the moment he crosses the borders into Iraq. Instantly, he stops being a terrorist! Just like magic. He now becomes a noble, 'gallant' "guerrilla fighter," fighting the "evil" U.S. "occupation." The foreigner even ceases being foreign. He's now part of the "Iraqi resistance." Indeed, the typical Jihadist, even before crossing the border from, say, Syria, undergoes miraculous, life-changing rebirth. As the al-Qaeda guy approaches the border, terrorist thoughts suddenly vanish. Instead of blowing up car bombs in Jerusalem, you think of blowing up water pipelines in Baghdad, amid searing summer temperatures, to 'help' the Iraqi people. Or blowing up oil pipelines, costing Iraq badly-needed export revenue, to 'help' the Iraqi people. Or cutting powerlines, knocking off electricity, to 'help' the Iraqi people. Don't have the foggiest idea what I'm talking about, you say? Ha! Obviously, you haven't been paying attention to "reporters" at Reuters. Clearly, you've been brain-washed by Saddam-bashing, Mullah-hating neocons crawling in this White House.
And the truck bombing Tuesday at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad? Well, the good news is, that didn't really happen. Had it happened, it would be terrorism, and terrorism in Iraq is, say experts, simply impossible. In Iraq, there are only 'noble' guerrilla fighters -- not terrrorists.
Kidding aside, Sen. John F. Kerry issued a statement following the blast, blaming the blast on the Bush administration. He says the lack of "international troops in Iraq through an expanded United Nations Security Council mandate" is the reason for the blast. Well, that settles it. That suicide truck driver, seconds before blowing up, was probably yelling out the window, 'Yo, Bush! Want the bombing to stop? Then allow international troops in Iraq through an expanded United Nations Security Council mandate! Listen to John F. Kerry, and stop going-it-alone!'
U.N. personnel understaffing in Baghdad made the terrorists really, really mad, so they blow up U.N. personnel in Baghdad to bits. Further, the lack of electricity and water is a source of tremendous frustration for ordinary Iraqis, say Democrats. So, to ease this frustration, these ordinary Iraqis go out and cut powerlines and blow up water and oil facilities.
If either of these propositions makes sense to you, your name must be Howard Dean.
Anyway, that's...
My two cents...
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