Free Republic

The Arizona Republic is a Gannett rag (owners of the ultra-liberal USA Today) -- so we can't even excerpt the article. However, you can guess the gist of the piece from the headline, and you read the story itself here.

WHEEE! ONE: Doting daddy and Alaskan "First Dude" Todd Palinlovingly cradles baby Trig, who has Downs syndrome, on The Carousel in Central Park. TRIG AND TODD CENTRAL PK. FUN WITH BABY AS MOM JOINS WORLD LEADERS While Sarah Palin huddled behind closed doors with global leaders, hubby Todd and baby Trig took off for some real fun - on the famous carousel in Central Park. Todd - known as Alaska's "First Dude" - was spotted on the famous ride as he joyfully cradled Trig in his arms. The 5-month-old Trig has Downs syndrome. Daughters Piper, 7, and Willow 13,...

Russia’s military intervention in Georgia has provoked a storm of negative reactions in the United States and Europe. To most Americans—and apparently to spluttering Bush administration officials—Moscow’s actions came as an unpleasant surprise. Pundits and policy experts immediately began to speculate about the Kremlin’s motives in Georgia and beyond. To Russophobes the answer is clear: the evil empire has been reborn and is on the march. They issued shrill warnings that Moscow’s dust-up with Georgia was just like the Soviet Union’s invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Some even invoked the threadbare 1930s analogy, with Russia playing...

Once again, the emotionally charged issue of abortion has penetrated a presidential campaign, especially among Roman Catholic voters. The bishop of Scranton, Pa., home to a strong conservative Catholic population, has forbidden Sen. Joe Biden, a Scranton native, from receiving communion in his hometown. Biden, like 14 other Democrats in the Senate, is both pro-choice and Catholic. So the bishop decreed that the party's vice presidential candidate was not welcome at the communion rail. These Senate Democrats and many other Catholics—including this writer—do not necessarily favor abortion, but we do not feel our religious views should be foisted on others...

As panicked politicians prepare to fork over $1 trillion to rescue Wall Street......one villain has slipped notice: illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks and open-borders Bush policies.......cities hardest hit by the foreclosure wave happen to be some of the nation's largest illegal alien sanctuaries. Half of the mortgages to Hispanics are subprime. A quarter of all those subprime loans are in default and foreclosure. The National Council of La Raza and its Development Fund received millions in federal funds to "counsel" on obtaining mortgages with little to no money down; the group almost succeeded in attaching a $10M earmark for itself in...

Bush at U.N.: 'We Must Stand United' Iranian President Rails Against Zionist Bankers By BENNY AVNI | September 24, 2008 Delivering a speech redolent of classical European anti-Semitism, the Iranian leader accused Zionists of controlling the banks and was embraced yesterday by listeners at the General Assembly. He exchanged a long hug with the Assembly president and was feted afterward with mostly friendly questions from handpicked reporters. Mr. Ahmadinejad's speech — in which he accused "Zionists" of domineering Americans and Europeans through their banking and political activities, and predicted the rise of a "righteous and perfect human being" in their...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - World leaders demanded urgent steps to contain the global financial crisis and a sweeping reform of multilateral institutions, including the Security Council, during the UN General Assembly's annual debate. A ministerial meeting of six major powers trying to scale down Iran's nuclear ambitions, scheduled for Thursday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, was meanwhile called off after Russia said it would not take part. But on the first day Tuesday of the 192-member Assembly's debate, the world's financial meltdown took center stage, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon stressing the need to "restore order to...

As the cost of the credit panic becomes clearer, Americans are furious and have every right to be. The political and financial classes created this mess, and now taxpayers are being asked to save the day. We wish there were a way around this outcome, but the price of doing nothing now is likely to be far higher both for taxpayers and the cause of free markets. The reality is that last week we had a global panic that included a flight from even basic financial assets like money-market funds and commercial paper. This was not Hank Paulson's invention. Panics...

An act sponsored by 25 representatives asking the government to reconsider its ban on incandescent light bulbs has been stalled in committee – and the leading sponsor is faulting Democratic leadership. The Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act highlights growing concerns over the safety and environmental impact of compact fluorescent bulbs, or CFLs. Before the sale of incandescent bulbs is banned, the representatives are asking the comptroller general to prove replacement with CFLs will be cost-effective, reduce overall carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent in the United States by 2025 and that the bulbs will not pose a health risk...

Campbell Brown: McCain Sexist For Sequestering Sarah Palin

N. Korea notified IAEA that they will reload nuclear materials(into the reactor) next week.

"Clean and quick," whistled Henry Paulson past the mortgage crematoria. The Treasury secretary's hope for expedited passage of his bailout plan may be realized, but clean and quick won't describe its implementation. You wanted a bailout; you got a revolution. This column has advocated injecting the money at the level of the collateral -- buying and demolishing the least-wanted, market-souring homes in the subprime hot zone of Florida and the Southwest. This solution really would be clean, quick, would minimize the subsidy to bad actors, could be turned off as soon as it had served its purpose, and would involve...

Barack Obama and John McCain began intensive rehearsals yesterday for the first presidential debate on Friday, which both men hope will break the stubborn weeks-long deadlock in the opinion polls. Obama has abandoned all but a handful of campaign events to devote almost four days to training for the clash, setting up a debates camp in Tampa, Florida. His performances on a mock-up of the debate stage are being videoed and scrutinised for his answers and facial expressions. McCain is fitting rehearsals in between an almost full campaign programme. The Obama-McCto ain clash, which is expected to attract the biggest-ever...

Barack Obama has seized the reins of economic discontent, vaulting over John McCain's convention gains by persuading voters he both better understands their economic troubles and can better address them. Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are locked in a tight political battle for the White House and,... Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are locked in a tight political battle for the White House and, as Congress consider a historic trillion dollar Wall Street bailout, it's the economy that has emerged as a critical issue in the presidential election. (ABC News) More PhotosConcerns about the economy have spiked since...

Federal investigators have opened preliminary probes into the financial troubles of four high-profile companies that are at the center of the current financial turmoil that the Bush administration says requires an unprecedented proposed taxpayer-funded bailout to clean up. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's preliminary inquiries are focusing on whether fraud helped cause some of the troubles at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and American International Group Inc., according to senior law-enforcement officials. Lehman and AIG declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie and has both companies in conservatorship,...

One of the aspects of the Paulson bailout bill that was not clear until today is that the Treasury has no intention of running a true action for the toxic assets on bank balance sheets. An auction would tend to set very low prices on the current value of mortgage-backed paper. Based on the few transactions which have taken place in the past, this might be as low as 30 cents on a dollar. It has been widely assumed that banks would need to take large write-downs on the devalued assets, creating the need for them to raise more capital...

The financial system is the heart of our economy and it is in trouble. If we do not fix it soon, we risk a serious recession. The Bush administration appears to understand the urgency, but the draft legislation it put forward over the past week is cause for concern. Under the administration plan, the secretary of the Treasury would have unprecedented and unfettered power to spend $700 billion in purchasing mortgage-related assets from U.S. and possibly foreign financial institutions. The definition of "financial institution" seems to be expanding to include hedge funds and other investors. While Congress clearly understands the...

WASHINGTON — Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election. Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and...

Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the Black Value System written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. We believe in the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered. They must reflect on the following concepts: 1. Commitment to God 2. Commitment to the Black Community 3. Commitment to the Black Family 4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education 5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence 6. Adherence to the Black Work Ethic 7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and...

...As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Well, Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did, that's who. They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions...