Free Republic

Of all the proposals in President Barack Obama's breathtakingly ambitious agenda to foster long-term economic decline, by far the biggest is the Waxman-Markey energy-rationing bill, which the House of Representatives passed with the narrowest of majorities late Friday evening. This bill by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) and Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is more damaging than the $787 billion stimulus, the proposed huge increases in federal spending and corresponding increases in the national debt, the takeover of GM and Chrysler, and the proposed tax hikes on the wealthy - combined. Enacting Waxman-Markey (H. R. 2454,...

Lions form prides to defend territory against other lions, not to improve their hunting success, a study reveals. In doing so, they act much like street gangs, gathering together to protect their turf from interlopers, says a leading lion expert. The bigger the gang, the more successful the lions are, information that could help conserve wild lions. The discovery helps explain why lions, uniquely among the cat species, live together in social groups. Lions stand out amongst all the cat species for their gregarious nature.

WHILE President Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal to reduce greenhouse gases has been the big topic of recent environmental debate, the White House has also been pushing a futuristic federal project to build a power plant that burns coal without any greenhouse gases. Sounds great, right? Except the idea is a rehash of a proposal that went bust the first time around. More important, the technology already exists to make huge reductions in greenhouse emissions from coal, allowing power companies to begin cutting the carbon footprint of coal today. Instead, advanced-technology coal power sits on the shelf while regulators wait to see...

Excessive Government involvement is what's wrong with our current healthcare system. One prominent example: FDA regulation and Medicare/Medicaid policies are suppressing new drug and device options and increasing healthcare costs. The FDA's approval process for new technologies costs companies between 250 and 800 million dollars. It takes an average of 8.5 years to move through the FDA's clinical and approval phases and there is no guarantee of approval. Out of 5000 compounds discovered in the pre-clinical stage, only about 5 will make it through. The cost of approved and non-approved drugs and devices are passed on to the physician practice,...

Still, even his explanations tend to end with a question mark, like this one earlier this year: “I see absolutely no reason for Texas to leave. But if Washington continues to disregard the states and continues to try to force states to change the way that they govern, who knows what may happen?”

Reuters May 28: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gestures during his radio and television show 'Hello President' in Maracaibo, Venezuela. May 28: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gestures during his radio and television show 'Hello President' in Maracaibo, Venezuela. CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put troops on alert after a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was kidnapped or killed. Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the army's coup...

Open Letter To: President B. Hussein Obama, Corrupt Nancy Pelosi, Dingy Harry Reid, Congress and the main stream media (MSM) President B. Hussein Obama is a liar. You know it, I know it, and anyone who uses alternative media knows it. Oh, and you know it Mr. Obama.

In 2003, The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act was instituted to ensure that American soldiers who were sent to combat positions overseas wouldn't be financially penalized upon their return. For Leon Batie, however, it looks like a year spent in a mud hut in Afghanistan may have cost him his businesses and credit rating. The South Dallas/Fair Park Trust Fund, which helped Batie start his business, is the kind of community-based improvement group that conservatives and liberals can both get behind. From the liberal side, the program is designed to help revitalize a low-income minority community. Conservatives, on the other hand,...

Gee, I thought Europe loved President Obama, especially the Germans. Less than a year ago, tens of thousands of Germans turned out to listen to the then candidate Obama speak in front of Adolf Hitler's favorite monument, the Victory Arch. And his campaign assured us the Rock concert that preceded his speech had nothing to do with the speech, the Germans simply loved Obama as much as the loved David Hasselhoff. That was last year. Now that he is in office the Germans are not as enamored with the new president as they were with candidate Obama. In this week's...

If President Obama's job approval ratings begin to dip, the cause isn't likely to be disapproval of policies so much as the public getting exhausted at an overexposed presidency. Obama speaks two or three times a day, invites news networks (ABC and NBC of late) to take up residence at the White House, appears with foreign leaders and even makes fun of his relentless presence on camera. "'Inside the Obama White House' is my favorite new show: There's just something compelling about the main character," our 44th president told the radio and TV correspondents dinner. "It's wonderful narrative. In fact,...

In a lousy week, Mark Sanford had one stroke of luck: Michael Jackson chose the day after the governor's news conference to moonwalk into eternity, and thus gave the media's pop therapists a more rewarding subject to feast on — or at any rate one of the few stories whose salient points are weirder than Sanford's. Not that the governor didn't do his best to keep his end up on the pop culture allusions: "I've spent the last five days crying in Argentina," he revealed, in presumably unconscious homage to Evita. The plot owed less to Tim Rice and Andrew...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - June 29 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." - 1 Thessalonians 4:14 Let us not imagine that the soul sleeps in insensibility. "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise," is the whisper of Christ to every dying saint. They "sleep in Jesus," but their souls are before the throne of God, praising him day and night in his temple, singing hallelujahs to him who washed them from their sins in his blood. The body sleeps in its lonely bed of earth, beneath the coverlet of grass....

ebay --Here it is again--with Dissertation This Time http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160345324422&viewitem=&sspagename=&salenotsupported bidding starts at $1000 THE TRUTH ABOUT USA PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA II I've written a dissertation about the physical birth (which took place on August 4th, 1961) of United States President Barack Hussein Obama II. This is what you are bidding on. You are welcome to pay for my dissertation via Paypal, as eBay prefers and essentially stipulates. You are however welcome to view my dissertation, in person, before making your payment. Feel free to bring along with you a forensic examiner to authenticate my dissertation. You may refuse payment...

n the latest effort to obtain information that could settle the controversy over Barack Obama's eligibility for office as a "natural born citizen," WND Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah attempted to buy a full-page ad in a Honolulu daily newspaper soliciting assistance in finding documentary evidence of his birth in the city Aug. 4, 1961, as he claims in his autobiography. Despite offering the full rate of $7,168.50 plus taxes for a full-page, color ad on page 2 of the news section of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin next Monday, the copy was rejected – the latest turndown by a...

Hundreds-of-thousands of multi-employer defined benefit union pensions are underfunded. The unions’ only hope is to force more and more companies to fund these massive failing pension plans. The companies will no longer be economically viable if they are forced by the government to fund these failing pension plans.

The Israel Air Force’s F-15 fleet is undergoing an upgrade, with systems that make it better equipped for complex long distance attack scenarios. The systems are being installed in both the F-15 and the F-15I -- a model of the F-15 that was developed by its U.S. manufacturer specifically for the IAF. According to IDF journal BaMachaneh, the F-15I model is currently being fitted with two new systems – one called “Barad Pelada” (“Steel Hail”), and another named Lightning. The Barad Pelada advanced weapons system has been operational in the IAF’s F-16s for almost four years, but had to be...

While the protests in Iran continue , many Americans continue to accept the outrageous laws and proposals that are being crammed down our throats.Wake up people before it's too late!

MOSCOW (AP) — Thousands of troops, backed by hundreds of tanks, artillery and other heavy weaponry, began rumbling through the North Caucasus on Monday, as Russia began its largest military exercises since last year's war with Georgia. The Caucasus 2009 war games are being seen by many experts as a warning shot for nearby Georgia, where the government says it has rearmed armed forces and where NATO recently wrapped up its own exercises.

MIAMI | The Honduran military on Sunday ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya and exiled him to Costa Rica - an action rejected by much of the world, including the United States and its sometimes foe, Venezuela. The apparent catalyst for the coup came last week when Mr. Zelaya decided to go ahead with a nationwide referendum on whether he could purse a second term in office. Honduran electoral law limits leaders to one four-year term. Continues... Have you hugged a Latin American tyrant today? Being America-haters themselves, liberals have always had the hots for America-hating communist dictatorships, so on Sunday...

MEXICO CITY, June 28 -- Soldiers stormed the presidential palace in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa at dawn Sunday and forced President Manuel Zelaya into exile in Costa Rica. The military-led ouster sparked a regional crisis that thrusts the impoverished banana-growing country onto the international stage and revives painful memories of coup-fueled turmoil in Latin America. The coup was condemned throughout the Americas. President Obama joined other regional leaders in calling for a peaceful return of Zelaya to office.