Free Republic

Buried in the late wire news on Friday – and therefore barely registering in the newspapers over the weekend – Treasury announced the rules for pricing its option to buy shares in banks that participated in TARP. The Treasury Department said the banks will make the first offer for the warrants. Treasury will then decide to sell at that price or make a counteroffer. If the government and a bank cannot agree on a fair price for the warrants, the two sides will have the right to use private appraisers. This is a mistake.  The only sensible way to dispose...

As he promised last year, Barack Obama has brought climate change and healthcare reform to the centre of the nation’s attention. As well as evangelising, he is pressing Congress to act. Last week the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill to curb carbon emissions, a measure that, if enacted, would touch every part of the US economy. Both House and Senate have drafted far-reaching healthcare bills, with stunning price tags. Mr Obama aims to keep his promises, which is admirable. Unfortunately, there is a problem. This is not, as many Republicans argue, that neither issue requires forthright action....

President Barack Obama could discuss a second stimulus package to boost the economy if needed, but at the moment no more new money looks necessary, a top White House adviser said on Sunday. "Much of the stimulus is yet to come, and let's see how this works before talking about next steps," senior adviser David Axelrod told NBC Television's Meet the Press program. "Let's see in the fall where we are, but right now we believe what we have done is adequate to the task. If more is needed, we'll have that discussion." Obama pushed through a $787 billion emergency...

....The two men are normally part of the vast corps of immigrant day laborers who gather by the thousands on street corners and curbs across Los Angeles every morning..... As members of Teatro Jornaleros Sin Fronteras – Day Laborer Theater Without Borders – they are part of a Spanish-language theater troupe of day laborers who perform for their fellow workers ..... "In our culture, some guys have never seen a play," said Juan José Mangandi, a Salvadoran laborer who serves as the troupe's director. In the final skit, a group of day laborers were shown hanging around a job site...

As questions mount about the scandal-tarnished Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) – a group that has received millions from the federal government, in spite of accusations of voter fraud and other illicit activities – House Democrats have abandoned plans for a bipartisan investigation into the left-wing “community organizing” outfit. Last week the Washington Times reported that Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) confirmed such an investigation would not happen, explaining that the “powers that be decided against it.”

There's a joke about a man who tells a psychiatrist, "Everybody hates me," to which the psychiatrist responds, "That's ridiculous - everyone doesn't know you, yet." Which brings me to Barack Obama: one of the best-informed people in the American security establishment told me the other day that the president is a "Manchurian Candidate". That can't be true - Manchuria isn't in the business of brainwashing prospective presidential candidates any more. There's no one left to betray America to. Obama is creating a strategic void in which no major power will dominate, and every minor power must fend for itself....

Yesterday, millions were waiting to watch eagerly the Ark of the Covenant revealed. A day passed but it was not made public. “No, the ark is not going to be revealed. Nobody could touch it. If you do so, God will smite you.” Abune Paulos Aba Gebremedhin said. Paulos puts the blame on the Adnkronos journal, which originally posted the news, and rectification later on. "…I am here to say what I saw, what I know and I can testify. I did not say that the Ark will be shown to the world.” Paulos is quoted to say on Adnkronos...

From the Seattle Times: Washington, DC - Congressman Dave Reichert (WA-08) released the following statement today after the U.S. House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act: “Energy independence and our national security are critical issues for America. These issues transcend politics. The future of this country is on the line and we can spare no effort when it comes to  leading on these issues at a global level. “This bill is not perfect, but it is a vital step toward energy independence. America cannot maintain global leadership without innovation and new ideas, and we cannot lead if we...

We have victory in Iraq due to our brave military members, the brave Iraqi's who stood and fought for their country, and President Bush. But where is the MSM on this great day? Iraqi government TV has been playing patriotic music to celebrate the U.S. military withdrawal from cities, towns and villages across the country, officially set to be completed by Tuesday June 30th. Iraqi military vehicles were also covered with flowers to celebrate the event, and military parades, complete with band music, were organized in Diyala and Diwania provinces. The government declared a "Day of National Sovereignty" to mark...

In one of the closest Congressional votes since Barack Obama took office, the Cap-and-Trade energy tax bill was approved by a very thin margin, thanks to the defections of 44 Democrats who voted against the President and the House leadership. The final vote in the House was 219 for and 212 against. All but 8 Republicans stood firm for the American people and voted against this ghastly piece of legislation. All but 44 Democrats voted in favor of this onslaught on our money and our sources of income. 8 turncoat RINOS (Republicans-in-name-only) voted in favor of the Democrat-led battle to...

Twittering away to prevent fraud By Dennis Jay Jun 29, 2009, 1:07 PM EST Iranian dissidents aren’t the only twitterers seeking justice these days. The city of Chandler, Arizona on Friday sent a message to local residents via Twitter to warn about a scam artist trying to stage a pedestrian accident in a city parking lot. A city employee sent out the warning after viewing video footage of the alleged scam from a security camera. The suspect seems to clearly wait for a car to back up and hit her, and then as the car goes forward to pull into...

Link This is SO Persian!

No one needs to tell Disney, which brought the likes of Herbie the Love Bug and Lightning McQueen to the big screen, that cars have personality. Now a study co-authored by a Florida State University researcher has confirmed through a complex statistical analysis that many people see human facial features in the front end of automobiles and ascribe various personality traits to cars — a modern experience driven by our prehistoric psyches. Researchers, product designers and, of course, filmmakers have long toyed with the idea that cars have faces, but this study is the first to investigate the phenomenon systematically....

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Billy Mays, well known for pitching a variety of products in U.S. television commercials, had heart disease but did not appear to have suffered head trauma in a rough airplane landing prior to dying in his sleep on Sunday, a medical examiner in Florida said on Monday. The bearded, black-haired Mays, 50, who gained fame as an enthusiastic TV "pitchman" advertising an array of commercial products, was found dead by his wife at their home in Tampa, Florida. On Saturday, Mays was among the passengers aboard a U.S. Airways flight from Philadelphia that landed roughly at...

Who cares what you think? I mean really...who cares. It does not matter that you and 60+ percent of America see marriage as sacred, important to the fabric of society and to children especially...WHO CARES. Obama does not, and this is a certainty. Under the FALSE pretense of supporting an invented right the Obama Administration has directed all department heads to extend all priviledges to same sex couples as we do to married couples. Now, keep in mind this will NOT be extended to un-married couples but ONLY to SAME SEX couples. They do NOT Have to be married, tis...

As Dan Rather sees it and decrees it, Sonia Sotomayor will make a fine Supreme Court justice. So the former CBS Evening News anchor told MSNBC's Carlos Watson this morning. The pair were discussing the impact of the high court's reversal today of Sotomayor's pro-affirmative action ruling in the New Haven firefighters case. View video here.

(CNET) -- Microsoft recently announced retail pricing for Windows 7 that was at or below comparable Windows Vista prices, while also offering a chance for people to preorder the software at a substantial discount. Microsoft confirmed that a program offering Vista PC buyers a free copy of Windows 7 will kick off on Friday. From Friday through July 11, consumers in the U.S. will be able to buy an upgrade copy of Windows 7 Home premium for $49 or Windows 7 Professional for $99.

I heard about King Corn when Nora Gedgaudas interviewed Curt Ellis, one of the film’s creators. Ellis and his co-creator Ian Cheney decided to learn about the dominance of corn in our food supply by growing an acre of corn in Iowa, then following where corn goes after it’s harvested. The short answer is: it goes into pretty much everything. People like to blame the big, bad food industry for turning us into a nation of corn-eaters, but it was clear to me (and yes, this fits nicely with my own bias) that the problem is rooted in stupid government...

I have spent most of the morning reading the report on GHG’s written by Mr. Carlin and Mr. Davidson of the EPA. http://cei.org/cei_files/fm/active/0/DOC062509-004.pdf

There’s been an awful lot of apologizing for the United States of America here lately. (see videos) And in that same spirit America would like to do some apologizing of her own. First as the model for Democracy in the world we would like to apologize for the corrupt banana republic like 2008 Presidential elections that allowed a U.S. Constitutionally ineligible person to run and subsequently win the presidency of the United States of America. Barack Hussein Obama has run for and won the Presidency of the United States of American while at the same time spending over 1million dollars,...