Free Republic

We noted earlier that real-estate in the northeast--and in New York City especially--hasn't fared nearly as badly as many other places in the country. Specifically, NYC real estate is now down 21% from the peak, according to the April Case Shiller index. That compares to 54% in Phoenix. Ah, but there's a catch. Phoenix real estate has fallen so far so fast that the rate of collapse is finally beginning to decelerate. Not so, NYC. In April, the NYC price decline accelerated to 13% year over year, a new record for this cycle. And it will probably continue to accelerate,...

All eyes will be on Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves on Wednesday as he takes arguments at an all-day hearing for and against giving ousted professor Ward Churchill his job back at the University of Colorado. The hearing is the culmination of a lengthy dispute between CU and the controversial professor, who was fired two years ago. The judge has the option of ruling from the bench at the end of the hearing or issuing a written decision later. Neither the judge’s clerk nor the attorneys in the case would hazard a guess as to when Naves might announce...

Planned Parenthood Internal Probe Follows Abortion-Sexual Abuse Coverup Birmingham, AL -- The Planned Parenthood abortion business in Alabama has responded to new video footage showing one of its staff members hiding a potential case of sexual abuse. The video also shows the Planned Parenthood employee telling a woman posing as a teenager how she can evade the state's parental consent law. See http://www.LifeNews.com/state4271.h

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has cancelled plans to visit Moscow with President Barack Obama and will send someone in her place, a State Department official said Wednesday.

And they says bloggers are news-lite. The latest issue of Details magazine carries this ludicrous headline on the top of the cover: "Can Obama Make You Better In Bed?" Inside is an article suggesting that "from the way we wear our suits to the way we relate to our wives, somehow American men are acting a little more like 44." This is, as you might suspect, the work of a magazine just making wild generalizations about American manhood with bold assertion and zero research. Men may have favored McCain last November, "But it might not matter all that much, because...

******* Maryam Yusefzadeh, a management consultant in Minneapolis, said she objected bitterly to the rule of Iran’s mullahs. She has not returned to Iran since leaving in 1975. “I simply can’t accept some man telling me to cover my head because he can’t control his penis,” she said. “It just won’t fly with me.” The theocratic regime had blatantly stolen the presidential election and was intent on “destroying the people” of Iran. Mr Obama’s softly softly approach, however, was wise. “The good aspect is that he didn’t walk in there like the typical American cowboy bullying his way in.” Western-style...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his effort to end the partisan bickering that is pushing California to the brink of insolvency, is deploying Susan Kennedy, his cigar-smoking, paintball-playing Democratic chief of staff, to get the job done. The 48-year-old Ms. Kennedy has built a reputation as a pragmatic leader equally inclined to work with -- and lambaste -- lawmakers from both parties. Such a regard would have been unthinkable five years ago, when Republicans viewed her as a stereotypical Democrat -- a former director of the state party and top aide to Gov. Gray Davis who lives...

He came to my shop around 10.30am. You could tell straight away that he had just been released. His face was bruised all over. His teeth were broken and he could hardly open his eyes. He was not even into politics. He was just an ordinary 18-year-old in the last year of school. Before the election he came to me and asked how he should vote. He looks up to me. His father is an Ahmadinejad supporter.

State senators didn't balance the budget Tuesday night, but their failure came only after some tense moments and a rare public scolding by one senator of another. At the center were three bills, already approved in a bipartisan fashion by the Assembly, which would have freed up enough cash to temporarily stave off the need to issue IOUs to pay state bills. All 25 Senate Dems ultimately voted for them; none of the 15 Senate Reeps did. For 45 minutes, the clerk dutifully called the roll of the senators who had yet to vote. That consisted of Sen. Abel Maldonado,...

I don't think this woman's situation would be better under Obamacare...

President Barack Obama says he recognizes the heavy price tag of revamping the health care system but that it would be much more costly to do nothing. Obama went to a community college in suburban Virginia Wednesday to again press his case for legislation overhauling the system, saying it's "not too soon" to act on the problem. He spoke as members of Congress continued a Fourth of July week recess away from Washington. The lawmakers will focus anew on the issue when they return next week. Republicans have steadfastly spoken out against Obama's proposed overhaul, saying the country can't afford...

"From the point of view of international law these settlers are as legal as any resident of Manhattan or Shreveport, Louisianna." "On The Rights of Settlers" written by Shmuel Katz is an excellent article that refutes the lies of "illegal" Israeli settlements constantly peddled by Islamists and leftist Dhimmis alike.

alibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} "The worse, the better," Vladimir Lenin is said to have observed. What Lenin meant was that the worse social conditions became in Russia, the more likely he and the Bolsheviks could foment a communist revolution. President Barack Obama's White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recently updated Lenin's maxim, saying, "Never allow a crisis to go to waste." Last Friday, the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives took those maxims to heart when they pushed through their 1,200-page American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act by a vote 219 to 212. The bill is supposed to address...

Pro-Abortion Hispanic Group Admits Sotomayor Set Policy Washington, DC -- The president of a pro-abortion Hispanic group says Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor set policy but was not involved in pro-abortion legal briefs when she was on its board of directors. Sotomayor was on the board of the group now known as Latino Justice. Full story: http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5185.html

Six months into the Obama presidency and the New York Times is already running an autopsy analyzing how he could have been so wrong about the economy. David Leonhardt's bottom line? The administration was deluded by hope. We doubt it. We suspect Obama, Summers, Geithner & Co. just decided that they had to issue rose-colored projections about the unemployment rate and recovery or they would never have a hope in hell of ramming such huge spending increases through. And if the forecasts proved optimistic? Well, by then, maybe everyone would have forgotten. They haven't. At the time, we noted that...

In the weeks just before President Obama took office, his economic advisers made a mistake. They got a little carried away with hope. To make the case for a big stimulus package, they released their economic forecast for the next few years. Without the stimulus, they saw the unemployment rate — then 7.2 percent — rising above 8 percent in 2009 and peaking at 9 percent next year. With the stimulus, the advisers said, unemployment would probably peak at 8 percent late this year. We now know that this forecast was terribly optimistic. The jobless rate has already reached 9.4...

DHS, ICE, Child Svcs, and your government from hell Don’t EVER think, even for a second, “It can’t happen here!”I have known Suzanne, and Calvin McHenry for close to seven years. During that time, Suzanne and I have “spoken” to each other, via Instant Messenger, on a daily basis. We speak by phone 2-4 times a month. These are some of the best people anyone could hope to meet on this earth. Being their friend is both an honor and a privilege.What has happened to them, over the last 30 days, should never happen to a soul on this earth,...

Malden starred in TV's 'The Streets of San Francisco' and made famous the American Express catchphrase 'Don't leave home without it.' He appeared in more than 50 films over his long career.Karl Malden, one of Hollywood's strongest and most versatile supporting actors, who won an Oscar playing his Broadway-originated role as Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire," died today. He was 97. Malden starred in the 1970s TV series "The Streets of San Francisco" and was the longtime American Express traveler's-check spokesman, warning travelers to not leave home without it. He died of natural causes at his home in Brentwood,...

Muslim Mob Burns Down 100 Christian Homes in PakistanJuly 1, 2009, 02:01:44 PMCountry:PakistanMuslim Mob Burns Down 100 Christian Homes in PakistanRiot Incited via Mosque Loudspeakers; Mob Throws Acid on Women and Children07/01/09 Pakistan (International Christian Concern) - This morning 100 Christian houses and churches were set on fire by local Muslims in the city of Kasur South, east ofLahore, Pakistan. The riots were incited by broadcasts from local mosques. This incident issimilar to a February 1997 attack when thousands of Christian houses and churches wereburned and hundreds of Christians were injured.ICC partners received the news this morning and went...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today said he will reinstitute "furlough Fridays" for state workers and ordered a third furlough day each month through June 2010 next year. At a morning press conference, the governor also repeated his refusal to sign any piecemeal budget bills to avoid IOUS and said he will not sign bills on any other subject until he and the Legislature reach agreement on an overall budget solution. "Though the legislature failed to solve our budget problem yesterday, rest assured that solving the entire deficit remains my first and only priority, and I will not rest until we get...