Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) - The country spiraled deeper into recession to start 2009, forcing widespread cutbacks and layoffs among everyone from blue-collar workers that once churned out construction equipment to white-collar professionals like business consultants and accountants. The Federal Reserve's new snapshot of business activity nationwide, released Wednesday, showed the economic picture darkening over the last two months and revealed little hope for a quick turnaround. "National economic conditions deteriorated further," the Fed's survey concluded. "The deterioration was broadbased, with only a few sectors such as basic food production and pharmaceuticals appearing to be exceptions."

Many economists and Wall Street experts are now agreeing that Obama’s economic plan will only bring trillions of dollars more deficit, the greatest in history, over the near future and likely to continue well beyond that. The amount of federal dollars poured into AIG, the banks, and the auto industry is already well over many times what their stock would be worth in a total buyout. The actual effect of making these companies so in debt to the government has in fact been to render their stocks virtually if not absolutely worthless. The amount of government intervention into the markets...

Matt and Trey return from their post-election break ready to wreak havoc in the Obama Age. Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny and the rest of the South Park residents are back next Wednesday, March 11 at 10pm / 9c for Season 13.

MOSCOW (AP) - If you're inclined to believe Igor Panarin, and the Kremlin wouldn't mind if you did, then President Barack Obama will order martial law this year, the U.S. will split into six rump-states before 2011, and Russia and China will become the backbones of a new world order. Panarin might be easy to ignore but for the fact that he is a dean at the Foreign Ministry's school for future diplomats and a regular on Russia's state-guided TV channels. And his predictions fit into the anti-American story line of the Kremlin leadership. "There is a high probability that...

An Algerian chemist has been found guilty at Bristol Crown Court of contaminating food and wine by using his own urine and faeces. Sahnoun Daifallah, 42, of Bibury Road, Gloucester, was found guilty of four counts of contaminating goods at four businesses in May 2008. Daifallah, who had defended himself, had pleaded not guilty to all charges. Sentencing was adjourned to allow preparation of psychiatric reports. Daifallah is likely to be deported. Judge Carol Hagen said: "I find this a very worrying case and the circumstances are alarming." She warned Daifallah that if he did not cooperate with authorities in...

Do you know as much as a fifth-grade student? Find out if you know enough to pass this quiz. The questions are based on topics commonly covered in fifth-grade and popularized in the new game show, 'Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

On March 3, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., took the Fairness Doctrine and its often overlooked potential threat to Christian radio to the Senate floor. The Oklahoma senator gave a lengthy floor speech and mentioned that Sen. Jim DeMint’s effort to force an up-or-down vote on the Fairness Doctrine issue, which passed 87-11 in the Senate, was a good beginning. “Last week’s vote was the first nail in the coffin of the Fairness Doctrine, but it was not the end of the attempt on the part of some people to regulate the airwaves,” Inhofe said. “Now, I have long been outspoken...

Manassas, VA – Broadcasters and commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage are seen as the de facto leaders of the Republican Party for a simple reason, Richard A. Viguerie said today: "It's because no one else is acting like a Republican leader." "The 'Rushification' of the GOP is the natural and inevitable result of the fact that those who are supposed to provide leadership – Republican elected officials and party officers – are doing little to bring the party back," said Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com. "Nature abhors a vacuum, and...

Negative equity problems worsen as mortgage applications continue to fall. Homeowners in the United States still have a long way to go to dig themselves out of the mortgage crisis. According to a study by First American CoreLogic released Wednesday, one in five homeowners with mortgages owe more to their lenders than their homes are worth. Compounding the problem, is that that rate will increase as housing prices drop in states that have so far avoided the worst of the crisis. About 8.31 million properties had negative equity at the end of the year, up 9.0% from 7.63 million at...

Over the past few weeks, America has seen President Obama, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel and former Campaign Manager David Plouffe channel much of their focus on what they see as a major problem facing America. You might think the object of this affection is the spiraling economy, which has led them to declare war on moderately successful investors and small business owners while they refuse to acknowledge a war on terror. That is certainly a focus. Secondarily, you might think it is the housing crisis, where they are attempting to cram down irresponsible mortgages so that responsible...

After 9/11, the social-democratic political philosopher, Michael Walzer, asked the readers of Dissent magazine a tough question: “Can there be a decent Left?” His essay was in reality an appeal for its creation, since Walzer was smart enough to realize that so many who spoke in the name of the Left that horrific year were anything but. But now, so many years later, little has changed. If anyone has any doubts about this, there is no better place to start than Jamie Glazov’s important new book, United in Hate. Glazov discusses both the philosophical underpinnings of the leftist world-view and...

Dr. Charles Freeman is expectd to assume his new job as chairman of the National Intelligence Council. What's most outrageous, is his position requires no congressional approval. President Obama once again displays his radical, anti-American policy. In a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, Rep. Pete Hoekstra makes these disturbing and sickening points about Charles Freeman. The pre-Democracy protests lasted seven weeks from Hu's death on 15 April until tanks cleared Tiananmen Square on 4 June. In Beijing, the resulting military response to the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or injured. The official death...

Washington's response to the current recession illustrates one of the fundamental laws of political physics: the more that we spend on our mistakes, the less willing we are to admit them. The conventional wisdom is that if government can "inject" enough money into the economy, it can reverse the recession. Unfortunately, the hard and bitter truth is that government cannot inject a single dollar into the economy that it has not first taken out of that economy. .... True, government takes a dollar from Peter and gives it to Paul, Paul has one dollar more to spend and that dollar...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – With former presidential rival Sen. John McCain and other congressional critics of government waste by his side, President Barack Obama changed another Bush-era policy Wednesday, announcing a plan to change how the government awards private sector contracts. “It’s time for a government that only invests in what works,” Obama said when calling for new spending guidelines. “And what’s encouraging is that there is broad, bipartisan consensus on behalf of reform.” Obama reserved special criticism for defense contractors, saying that the majority of the waste “comes from influence peddling and indefensible no-bid contracts that have cost American taxpayers...

We'll celebrate National Grammar Day with Martha Brockenbrough, author of Things That Make Us [Sic] and founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, and John McIntyre, director of the copy desk at the Baltimore Sun who runs the blog

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in a formal address to Congress this morning, announced that Queen Elizabeth has conferred honorary knighthood on Sen. Edward Kennedy, the veteran Massachusetts Democrat who is

A unity government will reportedly not be created, because Tzipi Livni thinks Benjamin Netanyahu does not adhere to the notion of the "two-state solution." But is this the only political solution? This is what Livni and many others around the world think, but it isn't so. Not only is it far from being the single solution, it’s a bad solution, and will likely never be achieved. The idea of "two states" is based on a series of assumptions: First, the assumption that the primary Palestinian national ambition is statehood. There is no basis to this. The Palestinian ethos is based...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is moving to overhaul the way the U.S. government awards contracts for work to be done by the private sector, saying there have been too many abuses of taxpayer money. Obama joined Republican Sen. John McCain, his presidential campaign rival, and other congressional figures Wednesday to put his pen to an executive memorandum. The document essentially commits the administration to new marching orders for awarding such contracts, and Obama said that it could save up to $40 billion to $50 billion a year. One area in particular that is targeted is no-bid contracts, which...

CALABASAS, Calif. — Fairly or not, Countrywide Financial and its top executives would be on most lists of those who share blame for the nation’s economic crisis. After all, the banking behemoth made risky loans to tens of thousands of Americans, helping set off a chain of events that has the economy staggering. So it may come as a surprise that a dozen former top Countrywide executives now stand to make millions from the home mortgage mess. Stanford L. Kurland, Countrywide’s former president, and his team have been buying up delinquent home mortgages that the government took over from other...

Divide and conquer, the Romans believed, and, as the saying goes, when in Rome...(or Milan, as the case may be). So on Monday night, while Naomi Watts was in Italy attending the Dolce & Gabbana show, her husband, Liev Schreiber, was in New York City at the Tribeca Ball. [snip] For dessert, there was a surprise few anticipated: an appearance by Bill Clinton. His presence caused more furor than any amount of Champagne ever could among the group of usually blasé New Yorkers. As guests crowded around him, snapping photos with iPhones and cell phones, Clinton gladly shook hands and...