Free Republic

Go figure. Our arrogant supreme being of “super intelligence,” otherwise known as the President of the United States, also dabbles in financial advice. As the Dow Jones dropped yet again, particularly when b. Hussein spoke to reporters this afternoon after huddling with British PM Gordon Jowls Brown to plot a global economic resurgence (takeover?) with their naughty little fetish, the AmeriEuro, the Great Hypnotist proclaimed that stocks are becoming a “potentially good deal” for those willing to hitch up their britches (since they’re home, beltless and unemployed, anyway) and think long term. Like he (ahem!) is.

In a time when governments across the country are raising every manner of fee to battle nasty budget deficits, one 86-year-old man here drew the line. Ed Leong decided to fight City Hall over badminton. And, soon, City Hall found it too hard to fight Ed Leong. Since January, Mr. Leong has campaigned against new court fees he called "disturbing and unfair" because they particularly affected ethnic Asians, especially Chinese-American players. The retiree collected 200 signatures opposing the charge, presented a petition to Mayor Gavin Newsom's office, staged a rally in front of City Hall and persistently called local politicians...

Barack Obama is already making the Clinton and Bush years seem like the good old days. Close to a trillion dollars are being tossed around in a “stimulus” package that no one in his right mind—and I do not here include the mainstream of the economics profession, which has disgraced itself in this crisis—expects to bring about recovery. Economist Robert Wenzel rightly describes the stimulus as “just the insiders raiding the till while there is still money in it.” Trillions of dollars are likewise being thrown at financial institutions that (if we actually believe in the free market) richly deserve...

If Friday's launch goes according to plan and successfully lobs NASA's new Kepler space telescope into orbit, the mission stands to potentially change the way we look at the universe. Kepler is designed to turn its eye on thousands of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy and look for signs of Earth-sized planets orbiting in a region conducive to supporting life.

Prayer request for Dylan David and family. Just got a message from Eric that Dylan went to the ER within the last hour. MESSAGE: Eric David just said goodbye to Dylan and Jana who are heading in to the ER. He has a fever, his counts are at zero. Blog soon.... 44 minutes ago

While the Obama administration cooks up (boring) bank and auto bailouts, Italy is planning a bailout of its fashion industry. Italian minister of economic development Claudio Scajola promised to present the "first interventions" to help Italy's fashion industry by the middle of the month. Last month the Italian government approved a stimulus package of about $2.54 billion to help the auto and domestic-appliance sectors, ignoring the fashion industry. Head of Italy's Chamber of Fashion Mario Boselli would not stand for this and called out the injustice. “I can understand helping the automotive industry but wouldn’t fashion deserve the same, if...

(The following article is reprinted from an article posted on the web site of state Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley.) “Abortion and Orwell” Feb. 5, 2009 By Senator Sam Aanestad “War Is Peace.” “Freedom is Slavery.” “Ignorance is Strength.” These slogans are spoken in Newspeak, the fictional language of George Orwell’s twisted utopia in 1984. By removing meaning from words and increasing state control over speech -- and thought -- Newspeak is designed to manipulate those who hear it. In California, Newspeak is now spoken fluently by those who seek to advance a political agenda in healthcare by avoiding scrutiny....

Three galaxies are playing a game of gravitational tug-of-war that may result in the eventual demise of one of them. A new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the push and pull in action. Located about 100 million light-years away in the constellation Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish), the galaxy interaction may ultimately lead to the three reforming into two larger star cities.

U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Case of Football Coach Prohibited from Bowing Head During Team's Pre-Game Prayer, Lets Stand Prayer Ban WASHINGTON, DC - In a blow to athletic coaches across the country, the United States Supreme Court has refused to weigh in on the question of whether or not high school football coaches have a right to silently bow their heads as a sign of respect while their student players offer a pre-game prayer.

Just before Christmas, detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department pried open a crate outside a warehouse to find something they had been chasing for months: an 840-pound Brazilian emerald that had been reported stolen. Now, if they could just figure out who owns it. So far, at least five people have come forward to say it's theirs. "It seems like the more we talk to people, the more people claim to have ownership over this thing," said Lt. Thomas Grubb, who heads the sheriff's investigative team on the case. "We haven't determined who's not a suspect, really." Unable...

Colorado Springs, Colo. (March 3, 2009) The exploration, development and use of space is an increasingly international activity. To date, nine countries operate spaceports, more than 50 countries own or have partial ownership in satellites - and citizens of 39 nations have traveled in space. Highlighting the growing international nature of space activities, the 25th National Space Symposium features an international panel discussion with speakers representing non-U.S. agencies from three continents. The 25th National Space Symposium, the premier annual gathering of the global space community, will take place March 30 - April 2 at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs,...

MIAMI -- President Barack Obama told AFL-CIO union leaders Tuesday in a videotaped address that the controversial Employee Free Choice Act will pass, signaling his full backing for legislation that makes union organizing easier. "We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act," President Obama told more than 100 top labor officials in a closed-door meeting at the labor federation's winter gathering in Miami, according to people at the meeting. The bill would make it easier for unions to recruit workers because it would let them join unions simply by signing cards rather than through secret-ballot elections in which companies can...

WASHINGTON – The Senate's majority leader signaled on Tuesday that provisions to ease limits on trade and travel to Cuba were likely to be approved because they were attached to a larger bill that he did not want to stall. "I'm not wild about some of the Cuba provisions in this bill myself," Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, told reporters. "There are a couple of those that I don't like very much, but it's not enough to bring the bill down, in my opinion." With Congress facing a deadline on Friday to pass the massive $410 billion bill to fund...

A bipartisan group is giving the line-item veto another go at it, albeit with some key tweaks, more than a decade after the Supreme Court struck down the procedure as unconstitutional. Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Wednesday will announce the introduction of a Line-Item Veto Act, which would enable the president to strike individual items like earmarks from a spending bill before signing it. The White House has signaled that it is open to the idea. Asked about being given that authority, spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters last week: "Well, I...

[video] You may not have known this, but if you’re a Republican, you’re a Nazi. At least that’s what CNN’s D.L. Hughley says. You hate Jews, Gypsies, blacks, homosexuals, gays and damn near everyone else. You want to ship them all off in railroad cars to be starved, tortured and killed. Then you will dump their emaciated bodies in large piles. In your spare time you’ll invade Canada and Mexico in a mad quest for world domination. “The tenets of the Republican Party are amazing and they seem warm and welcome,” Hughley said with a completely straight face. “But when...

Campus event designed to promote Thursday night rally. Enclosed in a 3-foot-by-3-foot chain-link cage, members of a University of Colorado student group made their case Tuesday that former professor Ward Churchill wasn’t fired for plagiarism, but, rather, for saying the wrong things about 9/11. CU officials reiterated Tuesday that Churchill was fired solely for academic misconduct. The event was staged to promote Thursday night’s pro-Churchill rally at the Glenn Miller Ballroom, which will take place four days before the ex-professor’s lawsuit against CU goes to trial in Denver. CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said the students’ rally did not provide an...

EIU chief Andrew Stern's backing of a divorce for UNITE HERE, and his offer to merge with that union, has provoked off-record grumbling on the HERE side of the divided union. Today, it brought an an on-record shot from a division of the AFL-CIO, which SEIU and UNITE HERE left to form Change to Win. "A guiding principle of American trade unionism is and always has been that one union or federation of unions must not interfere in the democratic processes of another union or federation," said Building and Construction Trades Department President Mark Ayers in his memo. "The fact...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-44 March 3, 2009, Juneau, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin today urged the postmaster general not to increase parcel post and bypass mail rates. In a letter to Postmaster General John Potter, Governor Palin outlined her concerns regarding the rate increases that are to be enacted on May 11. “Alaska has more than 258 airports serving as the primary mode of transportation, and the only means of access for more than 160 remote and isolated communities. Our rural residents have been besieged by a poor subsistence harvest and high energy prices compounded by an exceptionally cold...

The Marine Corps has sacked four top officers of a California-based fighter squadron over the December crash of a fighter jet that slammed into a San Diego neighborhood, the service announced Tuesday.... "The end result was that the squadron elected to fly an aircraft that had a degraded fuel system on the left side of the aircraft," Rupp said. "This is a critical point, and this was collectively questionable judgment on the part of the squadron's maintenance department."

What happens on a snow day.