Free Republic

Here's the deal, and it's all gone down in the last couple weeks: -My father has prostate cancer. The good news is it hasn't spread beyond the organ, so he is going for the implanted "seeds" for radiation treatment. I hope this will be as good for him as it was for his much-older brother 5 years ago. -My sister has major breast cancer. She's been in some pain with "hard breast" for months, but finally last Thurs (26th) a breast specialist told her to come in for MRI/biopsy Monday, for which the biopsy has confirmed cancer. Next they must...

Cities all across Arizona are being forced to cut their budgets. One of the ways some are saving money is by cutting their work week from five days to four. Mesa has joined the ranks of Buckeye, Avondale and Queen Creek as it begins its four-day workweek pilot program. If its success is anything like Avondale’s, it could become permanent. On Monday Blaine Comeaux, an election specialist with the Mesa city clerk's office, began a new schedule. He admits he is, “Getting used to working longer hours…staying mentally focused the entire day.” Comeaux and nearly 2,500 other Mesa city employees...

In today’s edition, The New York Times (AKA: The Sierra Club Newsletter) has a story on Obama’s move to undo a Bush policy that would have allowed federal agencies to proceed with projects without checking with advocates for the snail darter. Near the end of his administration, President Bush told federal officials they didn’t have to clear it with “scientific experts” in the federal bureaucracy before proceeding with projects that might harm plants or animals protected by the Endangered Species Act. Naturally, The Times was aghast by Bush’s blatant disregard for the welfare of wildflowers — even with the nation...

Isn't this ordinarily known as "theft?" Page Six reports that divalicious Jennifer Lopez recently neglected to return $50,000 worth of Robert Mouwad diamonds after wearing them to a fashion launch in Beverly Hills last week. Here's a pic of here from that event. Note the earrings, bracelet and ring. Lopez, along with her friend Leah Remini, Gwen Stefani and Grey's Anatomy's Ellen Pompeo all wore items by the jewelry designer to the launch of designer Andrea Lieberman's new clothing line ALC. The only difference is that the other three ladies gave back their expensive accessories to Mouwad. Lopez apparently decided...

Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa's "Text Appeal" text message that goes out to college students: Week 15 Feb. 26, 2009 Q: What’s the most popular flavor of edible underwear? A: Talk about a conversation starter! According to a survey of sex shop owners, cherry is the most popular flavor of edible undies — chocolate is the least popular. Other fun flavors include: piña colada, strawberries and cream, forbidden fruit, mint, passion fruit, pink champagne, strawberry champagne, strawberry chocolate, vanilla, green apple, peach, watermelon and strawberry. And since they come in styles for both women and men, anyone can enjoy them!...

Kyrgyzstan's president has told the BBC "the doors are not closed" concerning talks over the US airbase which is due to close. The Manas base is critical to US and Nato operations in Afghanistan. Kurmanbek Bakiyev said negotiations with Washington would have to take a different format, and cover new conditions of use. His latest remarks, the first since announcing the closure last month, have yet to draw an American response. President Bakiyev said the old agreement on the use of the base was no longer valid but Kyrgyzstan was open to negotiation. "We are ready for any new proposals...

Fed refuses to identify to congress who received 2 trillion dollars. This is beside the 350 Billion and the 750 Billion in TARP funds. How low do you go?

All aspects of federal contracting programs favoring minority-owned businesses have been turned upside down by an injunction issued by a judge in San Antonio.

If you had any doubt that we were on “The Road to Socialism,” President Obama’s just released budget should clear up that confusion. In fact, we’re so on The Road to Socialism that Barack Obama’s budget reads like he went to MapQuest and printed out turn-by-turn directions to get us to socialism as quickly as possible. So far, President Obama is really making a big scary mess of things and this budget is a giant step in the wrong direction.

President Barack Obama is in the second month of his administration and Congress still hasn’t passed the Employee Free Choice Act – aka Card Check – to abolish the secret ballot in workplace employee representation elections. So, the Big Labor bosses who spent more than $300 million in 2008 to get the best Democratic president and Congress that dues money can buy are getting antsy. Yesterday Obama offered an AFL-CIO gathering a video message reassuring them that “we will pass the Employee Free Choice Act.” Note that Obama conspicuously said nothing about when he expects Card Check to become law....

A professor in Connecticut reported one of her students to the police after he gave a class presentation on why students and teachers should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. Now, free speech activists say the professor’s actions are what really need to be investigated.Last October, John Wahlberg and two classmates at Central Connecticut State University gave an oral presentation for a communications class taught by Professor Paula Anderson. The assignment was to discuss a “relevant issue in the media,” and the students presented their view that the death toll in the April 2007 Virginia Tech shooting massacre...

Mar 4, 2009 3:09 pm US/Eastern Report: FDIC Insurance Fund Could Become Insolvent ReportingTim KephartE-mailWASHINGTON (CBS4) ― As the current recession continues to deepen, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) said that new emergency fees assessed by the agency are needed because without them, the FDIC could become insolvent in 2009, according to a report from Bloomberg News. The one-time emergency fee was imposed to try and replenish a fund to repay customers for deposits when a bank fails. That fund lost $33.5 billion in 2008, primarily from 25 bank failures in 2008 according to the...

How did we get here? I want to know because I'm not an economist, and although I've tried to put it all together, it doesn't make sense. Here's what I think has happened, but it feels incomplete: Banks loaned money to people who didn't qualify for those loans because of Carter's Community Reinvestment Act. This was stupid, but people (who?) were making money off it, so they didn't stop. Barney Frank defended against regulation of Fannie and Freddie proposed by GWB because he received money from both. The people couldn't pay their loans, so the banks needed to get that...

Welcome To The Glenn Beck Television Thread! All Posters And Lurkers Are WELCOME! M-F 5:00-6:00 PM (EST) 4-5PM CST 3-4PM MST 2-3PM PST Office bound? Click here and watch Glenn live online! The administration speaks up and the Dow dives down. Glenn examines the connection between the White House & Wall St. Why won't the government get out of the way and let the economy correct itself? Watch Glenn tonight at 5pm on the Fox News Channel! Also - yesterday Glenn promised us...

I encourage everyone to visit howobamagotelected. Keith Olbermann forgot to mention himself at the top of this list. Speaking of sportscasters, Keith, ESPN called. They said shut the hell up! I hope that you saw that I was named one of the "Worst People in World" this week by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. Coming from him, it was quite an honor. --John Ziegler "Media Malpractice" creator says in his mailing list update.

Today in Ramallah, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Israel’s demolition of Arab homes in Jerusalem was “unhelpful.” It was to be expected that she would toss the Palestinians a few bones during her visit and, one supposes, she could have said a lot worse. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that homes demolished in Jerusalem were built without permits, a practice that is illegal in most countries. Moreover, as anyone who has visited Jerusalem in recent years can testify, building in Arab neighborhoods of the city has grown exponentially. So the implied charge that no Arab homes are...

“To Know and Believe in God” (The Creed)The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, in a big national survey last year--the Pew Survey found that 92% of Americans say they “believe in God or a universal spirit.” 92%! Well, whoop-te-do. Big deal. That doesn’t really say much. Who is this God you believe in? Allah, the false god of the Muslims? Sorry, I bear witness that there is no god called Allah, and Mohammed is his false prophet. Is this “god” you believe in some depersonalized “universal spirit” or “higher power”? That won’t do you any good, either. Is...

(NaturalNews) It sounds like something from a bad sci-fi movie. People report the sensation of creatures crawling under their skin, mysterious moving fibers appear, and finally bugs and worms pop out. Unfortunately, these terrifying symptoms are all too true. The people having them are experiencing Morgellons, the latest and scariest in the series of bizarre diseases appearing in the last few years, seemingly from nowhere. Morgellons is now reaching epidemic proportions in the U.S. and abroad. Morgellons is a multi-dimensional disease Morgellons starts with relentless itching, stinging or biting sensations. Cotton-like balls may appear on the body with no reasonable...

In the last five months, according to the Federal Reserve Board, the money supply in the United States has increased by 271 percent. It has almost tripled. Have car sales tripled? Home purchases? Consumer spending? Corporate investment? Not only have they not tripled, they have all declined more sharply than they have since at least the recession of 1981-82, and perhaps since the Great Depression. So where is the money? If it isn’t being spent, where is it? It is being parked, squirreled away. Consumers are using it to pay down their credit card balances, pay off their mortgages, reduce...

It was reported with much glee today that conservative talker, Rush Limbaugh, and the Republican Party national chairman, Michael Steele, had a dust up. The reports went on to say Mr. Steele eventually felt a need to apologize for calling Rush’s show “ugly”. Since this is a story that fit a specific journalistic template, the one that states any intramural brawl between Republicans is always news; it received very heavy play on television, radio and in print. What was covered with less enthusiasm or not at all was the admission on Politico.com by President Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel,...