Free Republic

Recommending an end to all cesses and surcharges on taxes, and free pricing of fertiliser and fuel ahead of the Union Budget for 2009-10, the Economic Survey suggested on Thursday aggressive disinvestment and financial sector reforms to bring the economy back to high growth track. "Review and phasing out of surcharges, cesses and transaction taxes (such as commodities transaction tax, securities transaction tax and fringe benefit tax)," it said, prescribing possibly the boldest set of financial sector reforms and lifting of all restrictions on farm sector trade. The survey, tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, also sought reduced...

The “F as in Fat” study presented by the Trust for America’s Health provided statistical information to show that the nation is becoming more obese. The states were ranked 1 to 50, from the highest percentage of obese people to the lowest. States 51 through 57 were, unfortunately, left out of the study. Sorry, Mr. President. News broadcasts across the country scolded their respective localities for their gluttony. Rather than simply take the statistics at face value, however, I wanted to see if there is any relationship between the federal government’s social welfare programs and obesity, a link between Big...

America isn't hiring precisely because of government policy. Small business owners, who are usually the first into and the first out of the job pool, are standing by the fence and watching. They are paralyzed by regulatory uncertainty. If they hire someone who ends up doing poorly, will they be able to fire that person? Will they have to pay their health care bills after they've been terminated? If so, for how long? Who will pay for all these stimulus checks? If it will turn out to be small business, why would they hire instead of keeping costs low to...

You may not know where Barack is going, but you sure know where he’s been – - simply follow the ever-lengthening trail of broken promises. The promise-versus-performance gap grows wider every day. Don’t say we didn’t warn you, Mr. and Mrs. America, that this guy is a shameless opportunist who says whatever it takes to get elected, then does what he damned well pleases. Below are some samples – - feel free to suggest more! PROMISE: “No lobbyists in my administration.” PERFORMANCE: Where’d those %&@#% lobbyists come from? Oh . . . they were appointed by Obama to positions in...

CLICK LINK TO WATCH VIDEO... Helen Thomas, the Associated Democrat Press White House reporter for the last 832 years, called the Obama Administration’s control of the media “Shocking!” Unbelievable. Shocking. I don’t want to go overboard and call in “encouraging.” However, I will note that the Obama Socialist Nationalization of healthcare will be in trouble if they piss off the likes of Helen Thomas and Chip Reed. Helen Thomas admits that the Obama Administration calls reporters the night before press conferences to let them know they will be called on! This White House is so afraid that its own President...

In Troy, New York, where a quarter of the children live below the poverty level and the average household makes less than $30,000 a year, the 29th richest man in the world is being given more than 300,000 taxpayer dollars to open a restaurant. They call it economic development. What it is is a sin. What it is is welfare for the wealthy, proof positive that raping the taxpayer is what the government does best. Meet George Soros. He owns Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. Specifically, his company – Soros Strategic Partners – owns 70 percent of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. He also owns a...

Arizonans will decide next year if they want to outlaw affirmative action programs and any special programs or preferences for women and minorities. the Senate gave final approval to a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit preferential treatment or discrimination by government on the basis of race, sex or ethnic origin. The measure, which already has been approved by the House, now goes on the 2010 ballot. It will be the first time Arizonans get to vote on the issue. A similar initiative drive in 2008 failed when backers did not get enough signatures. But Californian Ward Connerly, who helped craft...

It is the latest sign of the fiscal crisis that is spreading across the nation as the recession has had a dramatic effect on state spending. The 50 US states play a much more important role in the US system than local authorities do in a European context. Together they make up about one-third of all public spending, or 10% of US GDP. Most spending on schools, roads and welfare support is made at the state level. And the states also have an important constraint that the Federal government does not - they have nearly all passed laws in the...

Slaying an afterthought to LR robbery, police say Teens’ accounts of killing differ in affidavit BY JACOB QUINN SANDERS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE All that the four teenage boys wanted to do, Little Rock police say, was rob the old man and scare him a little. Killing him, police said, was an afterthought. According to an arrest warrant affidavit unsealed Wednesday, the four boys, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, met Tuesday afternoon at the corner of Eddy Lane and Lark Place in a quiet, older neighborhood just south of Base Line Road, just to hang out. One asked if...

I am currently considering relocating to the San Antonio area as my company is doing some shuffling with business that leads me in that direction. If anyone who is from that area and/or is very familiar with the "topography" or crime/schools/etc of the area, please respond - I have been to the area several times over the years but have never spent any appreciable time exploring.

A pro-family advocate has posted some very disturbing audio recordings on his website. Brian Camenker of MassResistance.org posted the audio that was recorded several years ago at a Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) seminar, where members graphically instructed students as young as 12 years of age in the how-to of homosexual sex. According to Camenker, Scott Whiteman, who was executive director of MassResistance at the time, attended the seminar with a tape recorder in his pocket. "You know the tape recordings are not [professional]; you know, they look very amateurish. GLSEN could have claimed that they were fake,...

WashPost sells access, $25,000+ By: Mike Allen July 2, 2009 08:04 AM EST For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health-care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff." The offer—which essentially...

  Helen Thomas: “I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”    Obama's administration is arrogant. Who'd thought so?Is slobbering love affair over? I don't think so, the media is too deeply in bed with Obama to turn on him yet, but it's a good start - somebody retained some journalistic decorum, maybe some principals too.No graphic photos, please.   Helen Thomas...

The former communications director for the Senate Environment and Public Works minority staff is outraged that the House has passed the cap-and-trade legislation. The Waxman-Markey Energy Bill, or cap and trade, is now headed to the U.S. Senate after passing the House by a slim margin last Friday. According to Marc Morano of ClimateDepot.com, the bill amounts to one of the biggest tax increases in U.S. history. Morano is also outraged over the sheer amount of corruption surrounding the bill's passage. "This is one of those times where you've just got to scratch your head and marvel at the raw...

WASHINGTON -- Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June, driving the unemployment rate up to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, suggesting that the economy's road to recovery will be a bumpy one. Economists had expected 363,000 job cuts last months, and that the jobless rate would rise to 9.6 percent from 9.4 percent in May. If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994. Out-of-work with no place to land, the...

Independence... For You! "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD...Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that FEAR HIM, upon them that hope in His Mercy" (Psalm 33:12,18). "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" (Leviticus 25:10 as inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia) INDEPENDENCE One of America's greatest historic foundational documents, The Declaration of Independence, was approved on July 4, 1776 by the Continental Congress and signed by John Hancock in the city of Philadelphia. George Washington said that The Declaration marked “an experiment on the practicability of republican government,...

Help me out here. President Obama immediately "meddles" in the affairs of Honduras, denouncing a military coup, the intent of which is to preserve the country's constitution, but when it comes to Iran's fraudulent election and the violent repression of demonstrators who wanted their votes counted, the president initially vacillates and equivocates. Are we expected to accept this as a consistent foreign policy? Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was reluctant to call the removal of President Manuel Zelaya a coup, if for no other reason than it would stop U.S. aid flowing to the impoverished Central American nation. The...

World: Please ask yourself these questions and then ask your own media outlets why they aren't reporting anything from the Honduras newspapers, the Honduran television, or the Honduran man on the street. Why are they not reporting the Honduran bloggers, Twitters, and Facebookers (who are not being censored)? They do that for Iran.

The co-founder of the National Education Association (NEA) Conservative Educators Caucus says the NEA will consider adoption of a resolution supporting homosexual "marriage." The NEA is currently holding its annual convention in San Diego, California. Educator and conservative activist Jeralee Smith called OneNewsNow from the convention to report that the executive council has approved language that will throw the full support of the NEA behind same-gender marriage, homosexual adoption, and other issues surrounding the homosexual agenda. "They will help to overturn legislation that is discriminatory against same-sex couples," she notes. "And then there is one little bullet about [how] they...

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - If Murfreesboro decides to allow guns in parks it could cost the city the annual Spring Fling event and the $3.5 million it brings in from tourism. The executive director of TSSAA said there is no way they would allow the week-long high school sport state tournaments to be played at a park where guns are allowed. A state law allowing people with carry permits to bring guns in parks goes into effect September first. However, local governments can opt out. Murfreesboro's City Council decided last week to postpone voting on a measure to uphold its ban...