Free Republic

President Barack Obama's proposed "public insurance option" for universal health coverage seems logical: A large public insurance fund will provide quality coverage for the uninsured and force competing insurers to lower costs. In practice, though, one needs only look at what decades of government health care have done to ramp up the financial and quality problems endured by Britain and France.

The President of the United States can do better than a guy who sounds like the high water mark of his communications career was finishing third-place in the 1977 southwest Alabama regional high school debate competition.

Health authorities in Sweden have decided not to punish two doctors who mistakenly stitched a 65-year-old patient’s bladder to his large intestine. The faulty operation took place in January at Malmö University Hospital on a patient who had previously had surgery for an inflamed rectum following treatment for prostate cancer.

Whether it's smacking down 9/11 conspiracy theories, the North American Union, or the Birthers, the freaks really come out at night when you start poking holes in their theories. In all fairness to the Birthers, I understand that there are intelligent people of good will, who simply don't see eye to eye with me on whether Obama was born in the United States. Sometimes people, even people on the same side who see most issues the same way, just have to agree to disagree. However, the kookier Birthers, I do have to make fun of -- just a little bit....

It's time to let your voice be heard over at The People Decide on the birth certificate issue.

DALLAS—A man from Arlington, Texas, who worked as a contract security guard at the Carrell Clinic on North Central Expressway in Dallas, has been arrested on felony charges outlined in a criminal complaint, announced Acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Late Friday evening, agents with the FBI arrested Jesse William McGraw, a/k/a "GhostExodus," "PhantomExodizzmo," "Howard Daniel Bertin," "Howard William McGraw," and "Howard Rogers," age 25. McGraw appeared yesterday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wm. F. Sanderson, Jr., for his initial appearance. He was detained until his probable cause and detention hearing set for Wednesday,...

When her Edmonds condo went on the market, Mindy Moore thought she had managed to avoid foreclosure. Moore listed the home in Edmonds for about $30,000 less than she owed on the mortgage. She thought the “short sale” agreement signed with the bank meant the bank would absorb the loss. Then she discovered that her lender, Bank of America, might still come after her for the difference. That means she may have to let the bank take back her property, or file for bankruptcy because she can’t afford to pay up. Experts say the wording, which was recently and quietly...

Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION! All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread.

Presnell also appeared in the film versions of "Molly Brown" and "Paint Your Wagon" as well as "Fargo."

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH Planned Parenthood Shuts Doors on 7 Clinics 'One by one, with hard work and prayer, these facilities are closing down' Posted: June 30, 2009 10:13 pm Eastern By Drew Zahn © 2009 WorldNetDaily Seventy-two years ago Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger visited El Paso, Texas, delivered a speech proclaiming the need for the acceptance of birth control and helped found the city's first family planning clinic. But last week, Analinda Moreno, Planned Parenthood of El Paso's interim executive director, announced all seven of the organization's clinics in the El Paso area would permanently close today....

LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, PATRICIA J. HAYNES, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division ("IRSCID"), JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), RONALD J. VERROCHIO, the Inspector-in- Charge of the New York Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service ("USPIS"), and JAMIE WOODWARD, the Acting Commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance ("NYSDTF"), announced the unsealing of a four-count Indictment charging...

Former Beauty Pageant Queen Sues Over Release of Sex Video Hemingford, NB - Nebraskan beauty queen Melissa Rogers filed suit today over the release of videos believed to have been taken by her former boyfriend, Raymond St. James, during some of the couple’s more intimate encounters. In the suit it is alleged that Miss Rogers’ her modelling career has suffered irrevocable harm causing her to seek more than $1 million in damages plus an unspecified sum for emotional distress. ...

With the California controller getting ready to send out the first batch of IOUs on Thursday, banks in the state are still trying to figure out if they want to buy the warrants from depositors. If they decide not to, get ready for crunch time and most likely the emergence of some kind of distressed debt market that will scoop up the IOUs - at a price - from those desperate for cash. Just because the IOUs are sent to a specific person, business or local government doesn’t mean that they can’t be traded in or simply just traded. Whoever...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Nearly two out of three Americans believe the media gave too much coverage to the death of Michael Jackson and just three percent think it was too little, according to a survey published on Wednesday. Twenty-nine percent of the 1,000 people polled June 26-29 for the survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press believe the coverage of Jackson's sudden death on Thursday at the age of 50 was the "right amount." Thirty percent of those polled said they followed the coverage of Jackson's death "very closely" while 28 percent said they followed...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Harriette Monica Walters, 52, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced this morning in federal court to 17 years, six months of incarceration for her eighteen-year-long, $48 million fraud scheme at the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Channing D. Phillips, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Charles Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia, Special Agent in Charge C. Andre' Martin of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, J. Russell George,...

The L.A. Times had a very interesting piece last week on the unusually close relationship between Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern and President Obama. The story revealed how Stern “enjoys unusual access to the White House,” and how often Stern is invited to attend meetings the administration holds on policy even as other union heads are left out of the loop. The piece does cast some doubt on just how much clout Stern might have with Obama as several of the initiatives he has pushed hard for have yet to come to fruition — but it should also...

Israeli Border Police films itself humiliating Arabs The video isn't long, only 43 seconds in length and was most probably filmed with a mobile phone. Watch it and you'll see a scared Palestinian youth slapping himself - a sad and humiliated look in his eyes - while cameramen chuckle in the background and order him to continue slapping himself.

Here the second derivative is turning down Here's some second-derivative worsening from the restaurant industry: Restaurant Industry Outlook Softened in May as Restaurant Performance Index Posted First Decline in Five Months The outlook for the restaurant industry was dampened somewhat in May, as the National Restaurant Association’s comprehensive index of restaurant activity registered its first decline in five months. The Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 98.3 in May, down 0.3 percent from April and its 19th consecutive month below 100....

Like an oasis in the desert, the 60-vote Democratic supermajority is a mirage. Yes, former comedian Al Franken is now Minnesota's senator-elect -- thanks to the state Supreme Court's ruling Tuesday -- giving Democrats enough members in the Senate to hit a filibuster-proof majority. This is no laughing matter. But that's on a really, really good day. For all intents and purposes, Democrats don't truly have 60 votes in the Senate. With the addition of Franken, they technically have 58. Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., caucus with Democrats but don't define themselves that way. Sanders, a socialist,...

It’s a frequent scene in television crime dramas: Clever police technicians zoom in on a security camera video to read a license plate or capture the face of a hold-up artist. But in real life, enhancing this low-quality video to focus in on important clues hasn’t been an easy task - until now. Tel Aviv University Prof. Leonid Yaroslavsky and his colleagues have developed a new video “perfection tool” to help investigators enhance raw video images and identify suspects.