Free Republic

STUTTGART, Germany — The soldiers from the 554th Military Police Company filed into the food court Tuesday afternoon, looking businesslike and ready to chow down. The unit, scheduled to deploy for Afghanistan this spring, was told they were getting a free pre-deployment pizza party from the local Pizza Hut at Panzer Kaserne, which wanted to show its appreciation for the MPs’ regular patronage. But the party was just a ruse. The target for the schemers from Army and Air Force Exchange Service and Pizza Hut was an unsuspecting noncommissioned officer from the MP outfit. The party was just a ploy...

"Under my plan of a cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Businesses would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that cost onto consumers." Senator Barack Obama Speaking on his energy policies San Francisco Chronicle January 17, 2008 Great. You'd think that Team 'O" would have thought of this before they announced their program. ** Cap and trade will likely cost $700 to $1,400 dollars per family per year. Barack Obama admitted in an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle during the campaign that cap and trade energy policy would "cause electricity...

The issue: A proposal to give the state school superintendent the authority to ban Indian nicknames and logos in schools. Our view: Education and dialogue are working; local school districts don't need an edict. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the saying goes. To some degree the same applies to racism. The issue is the long-standing debate over whether American Indian nicknames, logos and mascots are racist. State Rep. Jim Soletski, D-Green Bay, apparently believes so, and he has proposed a bill to make the state superintendent of public instruction judge and jury with the power to fine...

It is truly ironic right now that one of the things Republicans are trying to reclaim is fiscal responsibility, because most GOP lawmakers in the Congress never really embraced it. But there on the Senate floor Monday afternoon was one GOP member who has always been against earmarks, always taken on the establishment, always tweaked members of both parties about excess spending.

Armed to the hilt, they came from land and air, determined to restore order to Mexico's most violent city. Nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers and armed federal police poured into the border town of Ciudad Juarez last weekend. The city - just across from El Paso in Texas - has been ravaged by drug gangs. Just this month 250 people were killed there by hitmen fighting for lucrative smuggling routes.

February was another dismal moth for carmakers as every major producer saw sales drop from 35% to 53%. The sales rate of 8.9 million cars sold was the worst February performance in 40 years as a dismal economy warded nervous consumers away from showrooms. Car sales fell 41% for the month; General Motors (GM) was the biggest loser, with sales falling 53%. Ford Motor (F) also took a big fall, as sales dropped 48%. Toyota 's (TM) U.S. sales fell 40% and the company has asked the Japanese government for $2 billion to help its finance arm write car loans....

Two incidents on Madison’s West Side in which small dogs were killed by coyotes in the last three weeks have prompted city officials to schedule a public meeting with wildlife experts who will talk about living safely alongside the wild animal. Madison Ald. Mark Clear, 19th District, said one of the dogs was killed in early February in the Highlands neighborhood just north of Old Sauk Road while the other was killed in Parkwood Hills, south of Old Sauk Road. Both neighborhoods are adjacent to Owen Conservation Park, a 120-acre wooded park on Old Sauk that is home to five...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown raised the prospect of a global "new deal" to fix the finance industry within months, setting the stage for April's G-20 economic summit with President Barack Obama. Brown, taking a welcome break from political problems back home, claimed his prize as the first European leader to meet Obama in the Oval Office, and won a statement from the US leader that US-Britain ties were unbreakable. Obama agreed the world needed to work collectively to head off future financial crises, but did not give a specific, public endorsement of Brown's calls for a sweeping...

Deferred maintenance, faulty decisions by controllers and the pilot of a fighter jet contributed to an aircraft's fatal crash into a San Diego, California, neighborhood in December, the Marine Corps announced Tuesday. The commander of the fighter squadron involved in the crash, its top maintenance officer and two others have been relieved of duty as a result of the crash investigation. The pilot has been grounded pending a further review, Maj. Gen. Randolph Alles announced. Grace Yoon, 15 months, was killed after a military jet crashed into her home.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) has proposed H.R. 1068, a bill that would impose a 0.25 percent transaction tax on trading stocks, options and futures. The move would kill trading, folks. If you want our markets to remain the most liquid on the planet, then you need to oppose this nutjob. If you want to turn our markets into the same illiquid CDOs and CMO markets that have crushed 99 percent of the banks and financial institutions in the United States, then by all means support this idiotic legislation. To oppose it, follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/c9lawe

A new CNN poll shows Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin leading potential 2012 GOP primary opponents. The survey of 429 Republicans showed Palin at 29%, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 26 percent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 21 percent and Louisiana Gov. Gov. Bobby Jindal trailing the field with 9 percent. The poll has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Obama sent his newly-minted economic gurus to Capitol Hill Tuesday to sell his $3.6 trillion budget to Congress. White House Budget Director Peter Orszag started his testimony by telling members of the House Budget Committee that the spending outlays aren't as much as they seem. "This budget is not a big spending budget," Orszag said. "Unlike what has occurred in the past, we pay for new initiatives in energy, education, and health care." Much of the money to pay for those new initiatives will come from taxes. Orszag testified that half of the health care reform...

Who will Obama blame for the economy now? The Dow has declined 25% this year. Why is that? The reason is investor and consumer sentiment are at record lows. Although Obama's poll numbers are still at a normal level for a new President, the country thinks we are still going in the wrong direction. The stimulus bill did nothing to change that perception. Most people realize there was very little in the stimulus bill about stimulating the economy. Most of the money went to social programs and Democratic special interest groups. The money allocated for infrastructure improvements won't be spent...

For an academic macroeconomist, Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps can sound shockingly in touch with the real world. In a recent interview, he described the possible implications of the large government-spending programs in President Obama’s stimulus package: “There’s . . . a chance that the perceived increase in the role of government of this sort will have some unanticipated effects on the animal spirits of entrepreneurs.” In fact, not only the stimulus package itself, but the higher taxes that it will require—both tax increases explicitly proposed in the president’s budget and the expectation of large future tax increases because we’re paying...

LONDON (Reuters) - A university in Liverpool has launched a Master of Arts degree in The Beatles, the city's most famous sons, and called the qualification the first of its kind. Liverpool Hope University says on its website that the course entitled "The Beatles, Popular Music and Society" consists of four 12-week taught modules and a dissertation. "There have been over 8,000 books about The Beatles but there has never been serious academic study and that is what we are going to address," said Mike Brocken, senior lecturer in popular music at Hope. "Forty years on from their break-up, now...

<p>FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Authorities say a Florida woman called 911 three times after McDonald's employees told her they were out of Chicken McNuggets. According to a police report, 27-year-old Fort Pierce resident Latreasa L. Goodman told authorities she paid for a 10-piece last week but was later informed the restaurant had run out. She says employees refused to give her a refund, saying all sales were final. A cashier told police she offered Goodman a larger portion of different food for the same price, but Goodman became irate.</p>

NEW YORK – Bernard Madoff has agreed to give up the rights to his disgraced investment business and his company's prized artwork and entertainment tickets as he faces another appearance in a federal courtroom Wednesday. Prosecutors requested the hearing Tuesday so Madoff can appear in court with his lawyer, Ira Sorkin, because they believe the attorney may have conflicts of interest in the case. Sorkin also represents Madoff's wife and several others in relation to the Madoff case. The attorney said there is no conflict of interest and the issue can be completely resolved if Madoff tells the judge Wednesday...

HYANNIS, Mass. -- Police have accused a 13-year-old of masterminding the slaying of his 16-year-old half brother so he could take over a drug operation they are alleged to have inherited from their father. Jordan Mendes was found shot, stabbed 27 times and dumped into a pit, where his body was torched. District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said Mendes was a "significant drug dealer." Authorities said Mykel Mendes, a seventh-grader, was jealous of the money his half brother was making selling OxyContin and cocaine and wanted to take over. A 13-year-old friend and a 20-year-old cousin also are charged with murder.

Gordon Brown's attempts to portray himself as a global leader in a time of crisis have been dealt a blow by White House planners - and Washington's worst snowstorm in years. Downing Street officials discovered last night that Prime Minister would not, as had been widely reported, hold a joint press conference with President Obama after their talks at the White House today. Instead, the White House press office announced what it called a "pool spray" - a few shouted questions from selected agency reporters as the two men sat down for talks and photographers clicked away. After representations from...

The pot has issued the kettle an ultimatum: tax dodgers beware. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was forced to fork up $34,000 in unpaid back taxes, told the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday that the Obama administration will be going after people who avoid and evade taxes. In prepared remarks before Congress, he said the president is intent on "tackling tax shelters and other efforts to abuse our tax laws, including international tax evasion efforts." Geithner himself never used a tax haven to avoid payment, but did neglect to pay Medicare and Social Security taxes while he was a...