Free Republic

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland is the unhappiest city America, according to a new ranking by BusinessWeek magazine. The publication said it ranked 50 of the country's largest metropolitan areas based on a variety of factors, including depression rates, suicide rates, divorce rates, crime, unemployment, population loss, job loss, weather, and green space. The most heavily weighted factors were the depression, suicide, unemployment and crime rates. Leslie Storm, director of Oregon Partnership's crisis prevention line, said calls for help are up 71 percent from January 2008 to this year. Fallout from the rotten economy is the main topic for callers, but...

As the debate over H-1B workers and skilled immigrants intensifies, we are losing sight of one important fact: The U.S. is no longer the only land of opportunity. If we don't want the immigrants who have fueled our innovation and economic growth, they now have options elsewhere. Immigrants are returning home in greater numbers. And new research shows they are returning to enjoy a better quality of life, better career prospects, and the comfort of being close to family and friends

Is this what we have to look forward to? Is this what we will see this summer in New York, Los Angles, Chicago, Atlanta..... http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2009/03/argentinas-economic-collapse.html

March 3, 2009: Israel is now planning to replace its current advanced jet trainer, elderly A-4 light bombers, with its older F-16s. Israel had been shopping for a new trainer, and planned to scrap the remaining A-4s when a replacement was found. But now the plan is to keep the A-4s in use for at least another five years, then phase in the use of older F-16s as trainer aircraft. So now, after four decades of use, Israel is finally getting rid of the last of its U.S. made A-4 Skyhawk light bombers. Israel bought over 200 in the 1960s...

WASHINGTON – Former Sen. John Sununu, a member of the government watchdog panel that oversees the financial sector rescue fund, is joining the board of managers of a firm affiliated with a bank that has received $3 billion from the fund. Sununu last week was named to the board of ConvergEx Holdings LLC, the holding company for BNY ConvergEx Group. The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. holds a 33.8 percent stake in BNY Convergex, but it has no control over the company or its board. The bank was one of nine institutions selected by the Treasury Department last fall...

Kathryn, in all the Rush-bashing, I was more disturbed by Michael Steele's wretched performance. His initial reaction — that Rush's show is "incendiary" and "ugly" — revealed: a) that he never listens to it; b) that he takes his cues from the mainstream media, for whom Rush is invariably "angry". They don't listen either. Rush is a lot of things, but "angry" isn't one of them. If you catch him for 20 minutes, you know he's full of fun, laughing it up, having a grand old time. There are a lot of angry talkshow hosts out there bellowing at the...

Who has more sway in today’s Republican Party -- Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, or Michael Steele? (Who gets to make that judgment? Who -- other than Rush -- should be happy that the White House has cast its vote?) The Great Rush Wars of 2009 are great theater, particularly if you’re a Democrat. The sideshow gives President Obama some breathing room that Wall Street keeps trying to take away from him -- and if Obama gets to run his agenda against El Rushbo, here’s guessing that’s a fight the White House will take. Speaking of taking: Democrats are ramping up...

When one observes the difference between what President Obama says and what he does you begin to wonder if we elected Sybil. His word and deeds are so widely diverse that if he is not suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder then he is simply being a typical disingenuous politician.

We need to slow America down. Slow down, America, and slow down the President and the Congress. Everyone knows that speed kills and haste makes waste. The intent is not to cause pain...but to get America to slow down and think about what we are doing. A funeral procession... No laws broken - just a slow and steady crawl along the highways and byways - don’t stop, just take a leisurely drive - let everyone know that America needs to slow down a little and not rush into anything...and it could be, like the man said, on any given Sunday....

They say talk is cheap. But in fact it can be devastatingly expensive. Among the generation of Germans who were enthralled by Hitler's eloquence, millions paid with their lives and their children's lives for empowering this demagogue to lead them to ruin and infamy. Germany before Hitler was one of the more tolerant nations in Europe. That was what attracted so many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe-- tragically, to their doom. German immigrants who settled around the world have been among the more tolerant peoples-- not angels, a standard that only intellectuals could use, but comparing favorably with most others....

Senators love their earmarks. The Senate refused Tuesday to jettison thousands of pet projects from a large spending bill. The vote was an overwhelming 63-32. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona led the attempt to delete the earmarks. Taxpayers for Common Sense says there are 8,570 congressional earmarks in the bill, worth $7.7 billion.

Deidra Lane, who in 2000 killed her estranged husband, former Carolina Panthers star Fred Lane, was released from prison today after eight years behind bars. Deidra Lane walked out of the Raleigh Correctional Center for Women just before 9:30 a.m. today. She made no comment as she left with her father and oldest daughter in a dark blue BMW.

Melinda Gates told Vogue magazine: "There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household. But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids." Her admission has raised giggles in the technology community, with some members of the blogosphere speculating that Gates' three children – Jennifer, 13, Rory, 10 and Phoebe, 7 – must instead use phones running the Windows Mobile operating system, and listen to their favourite songs on Microsoft's much-criticised Zune music players. Mr Gates, a multi-billionaire, lives in a lodge-like house overlooking Lake Washington. According to reports, the home...

Charitable contributions at Southern California mosques are down by as much as 30% to 50% over the last few years. Blame the climate of fear. That’s what Rafe Husain, a board member for the Islamic Center of Corona Norco, is doing. “People feel tense and uncomfortable,” Husain is quoted as saying in a recent Los Angeles Times article. Just another story about the woeful recession we currently find ourselves in? Mosque-goers are feeling jittery about their dwindling 401k accounts and have decided to fork over less money to the needy? Not quite. What’s got some L.A.-area Muslims in a cold...

Google Drive, or Gdrive as it is better known, has to be the most anticipated Google product so far. When it arrives, Gdrive will likely cause a major paradigm shift in how we use computers and bring Google one step closer to dethroning Windows on your desktop. The service has the potential to eclipse even Gmail, Google's second best-known product after their google.com search engine. That said, it's no wonder users have been ripe with anticipation for years - yes, that's how long the rumors have persisted. Gdrive is basically online storage where Google servers have enough capacity to hold...

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A FT PIERCE WOMAN IS IN TROUBLE WITH THE LAW FOR CALLING 911 TO COMPLAIN MCDONALD'S WOULD NOT GIVE HER A REFUND AFTER RUNNING OUT OF MCNUGGETS. MCDONALDS OFFERED HER OTHER FOOD ITEMS FOR FREE TO REPLACE THE MCNUGGETS. POLICE SAY SHE CALLED 911 THREE TIMES ON SATURDAY TELLING THE 911 DISPATCHER AND OFFICERS THAT HER MCNUGGETS WERE AN EMERGENCY. POLICE DIDN'T SEE IT THAT WAY AND GAVE HER A NOTICE TO APPEAR IN COURT.

Rick Santelli was a little-known CNBC reporter until he went rogue during what was supposed to be a routine broadcast from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade and went absolutely postal about the coming so-called "stimulus" budget and the notion of paying off other people's mortgages. "I'll tell you what," he howled while his shocked news-reader cohorts looked on, "We're thinking about having a Chicago Tea Party...All you capitalists who want to show up to Lake Michigan, I'm organizing!" I can see why Santelli had got to thinking about the Boston Tea Party. I just read the Wikipedia...

The POTUS' oath of office is: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." With the above in mind and with the speech of Rush Limbaugh so recent I want to ask 10 relevant questions that I believe go to the heart of why millions must dedicate themselves tirelessly to win back Congress in 2010 and the Presidency in 2012. NB: If you are not familiar with the Constitution just go...

(Video on Site) http://www.notoriouslyconservative.com/2009/03/video-russian-fighter-jet-sukhoi-su-30.html Wikipedia: The Sukhoi Su-30 (NATO reporting name "Flanker-C") is a twin-engine military aircraft developed by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation and introduced into operational service in 1996. It is a multi-role strike fighter that can perform both air superiority and ground attack missions. The strike fighter is a two-seated, dual-role strike fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions; very comparable to F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is a modernized version of the Su-27UB and has several variants. The Su-30K and Su-30MK series have had commercial success. The variants are manufactured by competing organizations: KNAAPO and...