Free Republic

MIAMI - The champagne-popping days are over for Natalie and David Luongo, who banked enough money flipping a South Florida condo three years ago to stage a $100,000 wedding. Now the couple are spending restless nights wrestling with the question that looms like a guillotine: Should they walk away from the $117,000 deposit they plunked down on another investment condo in the ritzy Miami-Dade enclave of Bal Harbour?

Media Still Using Wrong Number for Uninsured New Census data shows increase in uninsured, yet no distinction made between Americans and non-citizens. It’s like a broken record – the same push for socialized medicine using misreported data from the same government institution. Only this time, the data used is more current. “But there was bad news on this front [the poverty front] as well,” said NBC “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams August 28. “The number of Americans without health insurance has gone up from nearly 45 million in 2005 to 47 million Americans last year.” Williams was wrong. According to...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Toys "R" Us and the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday recalled 27,000 crayon and paint box sets because the printed ink on the outer packaging of the wood cases contains lead. Moreover, the CPSC said some of the black watercolor paint in the set contains excessive levels of lead, which violates the federal lead paint standard. The "Imaginarium" box sets were sold at Toys "R" Us stores and on the retailer's Website from Oct. 2006 through Aug. 2007. The recall involves the "Imaginarium" brand 213 Piece Wooden Coloring Case which includes crayons, pastels, colored pencils,...

To add to the mortgage meltdown miseries, the credit panic, the plunging home sales and the rising foreclosures, here's a new worry: a proposed cutoff of mortgage-interest tax deductions for houses with more than 3,000 square feet. One of Capitol Hill's most experienced and most powerful legislators is drafting a "carbon tax" bill that would do precisely that. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), expects to introduce comprehensive climate-change legislation when Congress returns next month. Besides imposing hefty new federal taxes on gasoline, the forthcoming bill would, in Dingell's words, seek to "remove...

Former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong pleaded not guilty to a criminal contempt of court charge this morning in the same courtroom where he once prosecuted people accused of crimes.

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - August 30 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Wait on the Lord." - Psalm 27:14 It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God's warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in...

The Republican National Committee is expected to sanction Florida for holding its primary on January 29, 2008, but that is not likely to prevent the state from holding the make-or-break contest of the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. The rules are clear, a spokeswoman for the committee, Tracey Schmitt, said. Florida will lose half of its 114 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-Saint Paul next September because it jumped ahead of the February 5 firewall the national party sought to maintain on behalf of the traditional early states. But the chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Jim...

Lawrenceville, Ga. (AP) -- Officials started taking steps to deport a Mexican teenager who was jailed after refusing treatment for tuberculosis. Francisco Santos, 17, has acknowledged to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that he is in the country illegally, Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway said Wednesday. County health officials jailed Santos last week after he refused treatment for an active, contagious case of tuberculosis and threatened to travel to Mexico, a move that could expose more people to the potentially fatal disease. Santos, who lives in Duluth, has since started taking medicine, but he will remain jailed at least...

In the midst of the still-lingering controversy over the truthiness of The New Republic’s “Baghdad Diarist,” more than a few people suggested that war supporters, unable to discredit the real bad news coming from Iraq, targeted the Scott Thomas Beauchamp stories as a weak link. I cannot speak for everyone who supports the mission in Iraq, but I would submit that Beauchamp’s apparent fables and embellishments are not a “weak link” to be attacked, but simply an egregious example of the establishment media’s flawed coverage of the conflict. Accordingly, what follows is an over view of the establishment media coverage...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Mortgages for investment properties constitute a major chunk of defaults in four states with the fastest-rising rates of seriously delinquent loans, according to data released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mortgages on non-owner occupied properties in Nevada accounted for 32% of prime mortgage defaults as of June 30 as well as for 24% of subprime loan defaults, the MBA said. In the rest of the country, non-owner occupied homes accounted for 13% of prime defaults and 11% of subprime defaults. "Defaults are on the rise in most parts of the country, but it should be recognized...

Charges of racism and dirty politics filled the airwaves and jammed phone lines Wednesday after a public showdown between a group of Baptist pastors and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen. The Memphis Democrat's appearance at Tuesday's meeting of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association was a hot topic on talk radio, said numerous pastors who also said they fielded calls all day on the subject. The discussions followed an excoriation of Cohen by some black ministers for his support for a federal hate crimes bill. But the freshman congressman's endorsement of that bill was eclipsed by charges that Cohen cannot adequately represent...

Wasn’t Senator Craig one of the “Singing Senators,” the barbershop quartet (of sorts) from a decade or so ago? Ah, artists . . . Of course, John Ashcroft was one of the Singing Senators, too. Seriously now: President Bush touched one of the sorest nerves in all of America — certainly on the American left. He mentioned the atrocities that followed our country’s cutting off of the South Vietnamese government. Worse than that, he did so in the context of warning of more atrocities if we do the same to the Iraqis. Predictably, the Left — in the form of...

Confidential strategy directives from the National Education Association urge the union's field representatives involved in the collective bargaining process to "attack the chief school administrator" and "mislead" their own members. The confidential NEA documents obtained by OneNewsNow carry the title "NEA Strategy Directives to Field Representatives for Difficult Negotiations." The documents recommend strategies for field representatives who are engaged in negotiations with school districts that are reticent to certify the powerful teacher's union. One strategy the NEA calls "Block the boss" calls on field reps to "Attack the chief school administrator. Charge him with poor mismanagement, poor working conditions and...

Let's cut to the chase: conservative Republicans have only one choice for President in 2008: Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. Unlike the GOP frontrunners, Paul is the real deal. No real conservative could support Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Fred Thompson, or Newt Gingrich. When it comes to historic conservative principles, each of these men is as phony as a three dollar bill. That they are now attempting to cast themselves as conservatives is more than laughable: it is downright hilarious. [ snip ] If one wants a true photograph of how a congressman or senator votes on conservative,...

A day after he was sentenced to 51/2 years in prison, former state senator John Ford and his newly appointed attorney were already working on an appeal. Ford asked a judge Wednesday to order taxpayers to finance copies of trial transcripts needed for his expected appeal -- a request that could cost $8,000 or more. The filing seeks a speedy production of the transcripts and signals that Ford will ask for a seldom-granted bond that would keep him out of prison until the appeal is resolved. "Every case is different,'' said Ford's new attorney, Robert C. Brooks, sizing up his...

The sex lives of judges has been a big topic of Denver media interest this summer. But that doesn't mean that the Denver media aren't interested in publicizing the sex lives of people who aren't famous. KHOW talk-radio host Dan Caplis has promoted an invasion of privacy plan which, while not illegal, shows poor judgment. Sugar House is a Denver nightclub set to open today. The club caters to "swingers" - that is, people interested in meeting like-minded others for casual sex. Presumably, some of the clientele also includes married couples interested in spouse-swapping. Some people in the Sugar House...

TAMPA - A federal grand jury in Tampa is asking for DNA and hair samples from a University of South Florida student jailed four weeks ago in South Carolina on explosives charges, his attorney said. Andrew Savage said in a phone interview Wednesday night that he had no indication why the samples were being sought from his client, Youssef Megahed. *snip* ...Megahed and Mohamed[,] were pulled over for speeding in South Carolina on Aug. 4 about seven miles from the Goose Creek Naval Weapons Station, which houses a military prison for enemy combatants. The men were charged with possession of...

The first-ever Texas GOP Straw Poll is fizzling, with yet another second-tier candidate canceling plans Wednesday to attend this weekend's event. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee – trying to maximize the bounce from his second-place finish at the Iowa straw poll this month – cited an unspecified conflict, weeks after he'd committed to appearing in Fort Worth to woo Texas Republican activists. The best-funded, best-known candidates – former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain – sent regrets months ago. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado decided to take the weekend off. Kansas...

In 1982 Ronald Reagan was in his first term as U.S. president, gas was a $1.30 a gallon, a letter cost 20 cents to mail and Susan Beatty was fretting over the academic needs of her eighth-grade son, who was struggling with school.So, she did something radical for the times, she became a—shhhhh—homeschooler.“People thought we were a little crazy,” Beatty said of an idea that was almost as alien then as the 1982 price tag of $83,900 for a house is to us today.“It’s much more successful (now). Twenty-five years ago it was much more radical,” she said, recalling how...

Speaking in his home state, former President Jimmy Carter all but endorsed former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards on Wednesday, praising the Democratic presidential contender for his stand against poverty and work on behalf of the environment. "I can say without equivocation that no one who is running for president has presented anywhere near as comprehensive and accurate a prediction of what our country ought to do in the field of environmental quality, in the field of health care for those who are not presently insured, for those who struggle with poverty," Carter said. In an interview after his appearance...