Free Republic

House conservatives urged Congress on Tuesday to "take a breath" and consider other alternatives before rushing to pass a $700 billion plan to bail out Wall Street, a measure the White House says must pass by the end of the week. "I must tell you, there are those in the public debate who have said that we must act now. The last time I heard that, I was on a used-car lot," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana. "The truth is, every time somebody tells you that you've got to do the deal right now, it usually means they're going to...

 Washington, DC—Nevada Senator Harry Reid delivered the following statement today at a hearing before the Commerce Committee regarding the safety and security dangers associated with the proposal to ship 77,000 tons of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.  Both Reid and fellow Nevada Senator John Ensign spoke about the Department of Energy's unpreparedness to begin a massive nuclear waste shipping campaign.  Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery: "I want to thank Chairman Inouye, Senator Hutchison, and the members of the Committee for scheduling this important hearing.  It has been a long time since the Senate has looked closely at plans...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. presidential race is a statistical dead heat, with Republican John McCain leading Democrat Barack Obama by two percentage points, according to a poll taken in mid-September. The Franklin and Marshall College Poll showed McCain was supported by 45 percent of respondents, compared to Obama's 43 percent. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 2.7 percent. The survey was taken before President George W. Bush's request for $700 billion to bail out the financial industry

Like many of you, (I think), I have the deepest respect for Dubya. I don't just think, I know that history will treat him very kindly, (what the heck ELSE were we going to do with the middle east, just ignore it?!?). I know that he is a very deeply religious and decent man. (Being religious isn't a requiremnt-- I'm not, in any conventional sense, but it's indicative and explanatory, in his case). Anyway, as much as I support him, he made me want to put my foot through the radio today: "But these are not normal circumstances. The market...

The intensity of the sun's million-mile-per-hour solar wind has dropped to its lowest levels since accurate records began half a century ago, scientists say. Measurements of the cosmic blasts of radiation, ejected from the sun's upper atmosphere, were made with the Ulysses spacecraft, a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The solar wind "inflates a protective bubble, or heliosphere, around the solar system," which protects the inner planets against the radiation from other stars, said Dave McComas, Ulysses' solar wind principal investigator and senior executive director at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "With...

O'Reily with Fr. Beck on show tonight.

VICE-President hopeful Sarah Palin has denied an affair with her husband Todd’s business partner. The Republican candidate is furious over claims she cheated on Todd — dubbed the First Dude — in 1996. The National Enquirer claims she had an affair with his snowmobile dealership partner Brad Hanson. The magazine said it took place when Palin was mayor of home town Wasilla and started because she was “lonely” while Todd was away working on oilfields. The alleged fling ended when Palin, 44, confessed to furious Todd. Palin denies ever cheating on Todd and Republican John McCain’s campaign has threatened legal...

September 25, 2008                                 Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week                        in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Eccl 1:2-11 Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!What profit has man from all the laborwhich he toils at under the sun?One generation passes and another comes,but the world forever stays.The sun rises and the sun goes down;then it presses on to the place where it rises.Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north,the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds.All rivers go...

HEKR JANIN: Syria has deployed military forces along its northern Lebanon border and Beirut officials now fear an incursion is imminent, according to a report in The Times. Damascus has insisted its forces are involved in an anti-smuggling operation along the border, yet the Lebanese Government is braced for the first incursion since Syrian forces pulled out three years ago. Beirut believes the unusual scale of the operation is connected to tensions between the two countries over recent sectarian clashes in northern Lebanon. "People around here are worried. We don't know why the Syrians have arrived like this," said 18-year-old...

It's time. All three senators in the race should be back in Washington doing their jobs (for better or worse.)If McCain has any confidence in Palin, he should let her do her stuff. I'm willing to chance it. I think she'll do well. Can't do any worse than Biden.Go for it, John. Set her loose.

WASHINGTON (CBS) ― CBS 2 has learned the House of Representatives will conduct an inquiry into Rep. Charles Rangel, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The ethics committee of Congress announced they established a subcommittee to investigate Rangel, who has already been in plenty of hot water recently. One stunning part of the determination is that the committee decided to investigate his use of congressional stationery in three separate years to seek donors for a public policy institute in his name at City College. The committee will also investigate Rangel's use of four rent-stabilized apartments leased in...

24 For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit. 25 And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; 26 And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. 27 I say unto...

VIP coffee with Palin at fundraiser? $25,000By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News Updated September 24, 2008 at 7:35 p.m. Gov. Sarah Palin's private fundraiser at Centennial Airport next month will include a $25,000-per-person "VIP coffee" with the Republican vice presidential candidate. The McCain-Palin Victory 2008 Breakfast is scheduled for Oct. 4. It's $1,000 per person for breakfast, according to the invitation. For $2,500 per person, the donor also will get a photo taken with Palin. The VIP coffee, scheduled to begin a half-hour before the breakfast, requires the donor to contribute or raise $25,000. The fundraiser will mark Palin's third...

Barack Obama has a statistically insignificant 48 percent to 46 percent lead over John McCain among registered voters with two percent choosing neither and 3 percent undecided in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey conducted Sept. 19-22. The margin of error is 3 points and the numbers includes leaners. Obama had led by 3 points in August and by 6 points in July. This poll differs from this week's Washington Post/ABC News and Fox News which both had Obama regaining statistically significant leads. more at link

NEW YORK (AP) — The economic crisis and raw politics threatened to derail the first presidential debate as John McCain challenged Barack Obama to delay Friday's event to work on the financial crisis. Obama rebuffed the plea, saying presidents need to "deal with more than one thing at once." The White House rivals maneuvered Wednesday to claim the leadership role in resolving the economic turmoil that has overshadowed their campaign. Obama said he would continue preparing for the debate and consulting with bailout negotiators and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. McCain said he would stop all campaigning and return to Washington...

Al Gore called Wednesday for "civil disobedience" to combat the construction of coal power plants without the ability to store carbon, Reuters reported. The former vice president, whose efforts to raise awareness of global warming have made him the most prominent voice on that issue, made the comment during a session at the fourth annual Clinton Global Initiative in Manhattan.

"It's in this spirit that I reached out and called to -- called to Senator McCain this morning. I initiated the call, after determining that many of the principles that I had set forth were ones that Senator McCain had adopted as well, in terms of how this financial proposal should be structured."

Have you seen this press release??? Check out this press release I just received from my colleague David Lewkowict: Subject: Cynthia McKinney Ready to take McCain’s Podium at Friday’s Debate *For immediate release Wednesday, September 24, 2008 * *Contact: John Judge*, *Cynthia McKinney Ready to take McCain’s Podium at Friday’s Debate* /WASHINGTON, DC/ -- Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney has offered to debate Barack Obama if John McCain’s opts out at this Friday’s presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi, following the Republican nominee’s announcement that he is seeking a delay of the event. “If John McCain wants to bow out,...

The mainstream media and Democratic politicians-is there a difference between the two any more?-have been trying to exploit the mortgage crisis to convince the public that free markets have been discredited. A particularly obnoxious writer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution even goes to far as to demand to know, "What happened to ...[those] who denounced government regulation and read from the holy scriptures as recorded by Ayn Rand?" Well, here we are-or at least, here I am-and I am not impressed by the bluster of the anti-capitalists, because they are the ones who are getting this story completely wrong.

Most historians consider 1839 as the year of the birth of photography. Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre's innovative method of image-making was placed before the French Academy of Sciences in the same year. The words ethnography and anthropology were also coined around the same time. It also signalled the beginnings of archaeology in a professional sense. The potential of using photography as a recording tool in the service of archaeology, engineering, medicine, science and technology was quickly appreciated. As early as 1840, Alexander Gordon lectured to the Institute of Civil Engineers on the advantages to the profession resulting from the discovery...