Free Republic

The number of jobs lost in the US last month came in at 467,000, which was much more than had been expected. The jobless rate rose to 9.5% in June, from 9.4% in May, as the US economy continued to struggle. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of jobless people has risen by 7.2 million, the Department of Labor said. The unemployment rate was slightly lower than had been expected, but was still the highest since August 1983. The number of people losing their jobs can be higher than expected at the same time as...

June 9 President Obama called a press conference where he announced, "Several financial institutions are set to pay back $68 billion to taxpayers..." Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has announced the department will use returned funds to provide aid and loans to small banks...Congressional Democrats have run to defend the practice of TARP fund recycling, and even encourage it... This is not only an unethical use of taxpayer money; it is also a violation of the legislation that allowed the Treasury the ability to lend it in the first place. The TARP law states, "Revenues of, and proceeds from the...

Nearly 150 prominent attorneys, of all political stripes have banded together to support one of their own who went to Washington, D.C., to serve as a government watchdog, only to be unceremoniously dismissed by the Obama Administration earlier this month.

No matter how much money any government - federal, state or local - puts into public education, it's never enough in some people's eyes. A July 1 "NBC Nightly News" segment detailed a new use of tax payer dollars in one of the worst performing, financially struggling school systems in the country - the Washington, D.C. public school system. They are paying school children with taxpayer funds, part of a social experiment to improve school participation at the middle school level. --more with video--

Michael Jackson's passing appears to even be attracting the attention of extraterrestrials. Last week our resident ufologist Michael Cohen received an email from a man claiming to have seen a luminous green UFO hovering over Neverland Ranch the morning after the day Jackson died. Since putting out this story we have received about a dozen other emails claiming to have seen UFOs over Neverland in the last week. Some witnesses describe glowing lights while others claim to have seen out and out flying saucers. One grieving Michael Jackson fan claims to have seen the same glowing green light we originally...

Remember the CBO warning that Obama's plan was worse than doing nothing? They were right!Thursday news that 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. I've updated this chart: (Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...

There appears to be a rift developing between President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton. It was bound to happen sometime. Her job has been diluted by four special envoys that report, not to her, but directly to the President. Her cabinet position was a buyoff to gain the Clintons’ support after Obama’s nomination. I reported on a secret meeting between Bill Clinton and candidate Obama in Harlem on 9/11, where no doubt a deal was made.. But deals between political enemies are short lived, especially when their purpose has been served. Obama got what he wanted, her heavily female...

A distraught caller trying to save the life of a 2-year-old Florida girl strangled by a pet python screams "The baby's dead!" in chilling 911 tapes released in the toddler's death.Shaiunna Hare died early Wednesday morning after being attacked in her crib by the snake, which escaped from its aquarium, police said. "The baby's dead!" a sobbing caller from the house screamed to a 911 dispatcher. "Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby." Authorities did not identify the caller and removed the person's name from the recording. "She got out of the...

French investigators on Thursday will present their initial findings into what caused Air France Flight 447 to drop out of the sky in the middle of the Atlantic a month ago, prompting one of history's most challenging plane crash investigations. The Airbus A330-200 plane flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris went down with 228 people on board in a remote area of the Atlantic, 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) off Brazil's mainland and far from radar coverage. A burst of automated messages emitted by the plane before it fell gave rescuers only a vague location to begin their search, which...

Why Be Catholic? 6: Divine Intimacy Posted Jun. 10, 2009 8:19 PM || by Dr. Jeff Mirus || Among all the concepts of God the world has known, only one draws the believer into the most profound intimacy of love. This intimacy is completely dependent upon the unique way in which the Christian God interacts in its three persons, and in which the Catholic God interacts with men. I refer, of course, to the doctrine of the Trinity and its wonderful relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary, leading to the Incarnation of the Son who accomplishes our Redemption through a...

With Iran's hard-line mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unmistakably back in control, Israel's decision of whether to use military force against Tehran's nuclear weapons program is more urgent than ever. This Story Time for an Israeli Strike? End the Spat With Israel In Morocco, an Alternative to Iran Iran's nuclear threat was never in doubt during its presidential campaign, but the post-election resistance raised the possibility of some sort of regime change. That prospect seems lost for the near future or for at least as long as it will take Iran to finalize a deliverable nuclear weapons capability.

The BEA press conference has finished in Paris. I watched on TV however I don’t speak French and I’m not sure at this time what they have told us. If anything new? I did not hear any mention of the toilet leak? Sounds like total BS out of Air France and BEA? As first reported on this site on June 21, 2009 from Le Post: Was Air France Flight 447 Disaster Caused By Leaking Toilet! As shown below, we need to be careful on translation from one language to another... The aircraft was not destroyed in flight, “said Alain Bouillard,...

The top Chicagoans in the Obama White House also earn the top White House staff salaries -- capped at $172,200, according to a list released Wednesday. The $172,200 earners from Chicago: senior adviser David Axelrod, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Susan Sher, chief of staff to the first lady. » Click to enlarge image Lynn Sweet Tina Tchen, the director of the office of public engagement, makes $153,500; Desiree Rogers, the social secretary, earns $113,000. Nate Tamarin -- with the Obama political operation when he was a senator -- draws a $95,000 paycheck as the...

DURHAM -- A federal affidavit submitted by a Washington, D.C., detective tells a chilling story of the abuse of a 5-year-old adopted boy. The child's father, Frank McCorkle Lombard, 42, of Indigo Creek Trail in Durham, is charged with sex offense with a child, and is accused of persuading someone to cross state lines for illegal sexual activity. Lombard, a Duke University administrator, was released from the Durham County jail into U.S. marshals' custody Tuesday and is expected to face a federal judge in Washington within the next week. If convicted, he could face as long as 20 years in...

"The White Rodney King" Originall posted here: "White folks gonna riot and I don't blame 'em!" - From a black man

While I realize my efforts to decode Barack Obama may turn into a never-ending task, I want to focus on another of his rhetorical habit: his ceaseless attempts to portray himself as America's philosopher-king, the person standing not only above country but above politics itself. Obama is, he would have us believe, uniquely able to transcend old, tired, and rutted debates, to think anew, and to bring a fresh, creative approach to the problems of our time. He alone inhabits the upper world. On the stimulus package, Obama accused the bill's critics of employing "phony arguments and petty politics." Speaking...

An unknown life-form has appeared in a North Carolina sewer that some say could be monster aliens hell bent on taking over the world. Read more here and see photos and video of the life-form here.

If the stigma of issuing IOUs triggers a budget deal in the coming days, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger might find redemption in his strategy of quashing a stopgap solution that would have avoided those non-cash payments. But if no budget deal emerges soon, Schwarzenegger will have helped saddle the state with a lower credit rating and have nothing to show for it. As a negotiating strategy, Schwarzenegger is counting on public pressure to mount against the Legislature as California issues IOUs today for only the second time since the Great Depression. The Republican governor could have backed legislation to avert IOUs...

Senator-elect Al Franken (D-MN) on Sen. Inhofe calling him a clown: "I don't know how Sen. Inhofe regards clowns, but it might be an incredible compliment."Franken calls Judge Sotomayor a "mainstream" candidate for the Supreme Court.Franken also says he will support the Employee Free Choice Act. Franken is a strong union supporter. The Senator-elect also hints he will support Obama's plan for health reform.

YOU'D have thought by the media lovefest that the pope had died a tragic death after a lifetime of caring for lepers. But, no, it was the death of Michael Jackson, a drug-addled, creepy-beyond-words, accused pedophile who literally bought his children with the help of two brood mares and, apparently, his dermatologist -- a group of amoral savages who had no problem giving their kids to a man who looked like the Phantom of the Opera and who behaved like a depraved worm. You can call it "adoption," but I call it child-trafficking. OK, I said it -- and it's...