Free Republic

Facing a budgetary crisis of its own making, California has begun to issue IOUs instead of cash payments to at least some of its creditors. For the first time since 1992, the state government has too little cash to meet its obligations. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger insisted that the state was “responsible” enough for banks to accept the IOUs at face value: California’s controller will start paying many of the state’s bills with promissory notes as soon as Thursday after lawmakers failed to close the state’s worsening budget deficit, adding a new measure of indignity to a state sinking deeper...

WASHINGTON – Days from his first Moscow summit, President Barack Obama declared Thursday that former Russian President Vladimir Putin "still has a lot of sway" in his nation and needs an in-person reminder the Cold War is over. On next week's trip, Obama will meet not only with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev but with Putin, the prime minister who hand-picked Medvedev as his successor. Said Obama: "I think that it's important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated. ... Putin has one foot in...

Well, that "feel good" moment the Dems hoped for, as well as a July 7th photo op, is down the drain. The Dem controlled Senate was smug in their delight of passing a formal apology for past US generations INRE slavery and Jim Crow segregation.... until it hit the House and a face off with House Black Caucus members, that is. The Senate found that out two weeks ago when it passed a resolution calling on the U.S. to apologize formally for more than three centuries of enslavement and segregation of African-Americans. Senators thought they'd done the right thing. The...

Less than a week before Sen.-elect Al Franken (D-Minn.) is set to be sworn into office, a new national poll shows that 44 percent of voters have an unfavorable view of the former comedian and liberal radio host. A Rasmussen Reports poll released Thursday found that 34 percent have a favorable view of Franken, who defeated former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman to win the seat. Another 22 percent are not sure what they think of him. The poll revealed that Franken generates strong feelings among his detractors. Twenty-nine percent said they had a “very unfavorable” impression of Franken, compared with...

Police don't believe the woman knew the victims Philadelphia Police have arrested an alleged planner of the violent double murder of Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore. Katoya Jones, 25, was arrested Thursday and charged with murder, conspiracy, robbery, burglary, criminal trespass, possession of an instrument of crime. She lives in the same apartment complex as Thal, police said. Thal, 34, and Gilmore, 40, of Ohio, were gunned down inside The Navona at Schmidt's, a trendy apartment complex in Northern Liberties, just after 6 p.m. last Saturday. Investigators believe found four kilos of cocaine and more than $100,000 in cash inside...

Jim Geraghty points out an unusual item from Reuters yesterday, in which the State Department announced that Hillary Clinton would not accompany Barack Obama to Moscow next week. The nation’s chief diplomat will stay home while Obama pursues nuclear reductions with Russia, one of his big diplomatic projects, one in which observers would presume that the Secretary of State would have substantial involvement: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who broke her right elbow two weeks ago, will not accompany President Barack Obama to Moscow next week, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. “Secretary Clinton is not going to go...

   From:   Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA Date:   Thursday 2 July 2009     1 p.m. EDT   Introducing Quality-of-Life Maps for All U.S. (3,141 Counties)   Dear Friends, When I say I love America, Im not talking about just an idea or ideal or a form of government. Im talking about the actual land within the U.S. borders the contours, the vegetation, the critters, the roads, the streams, the towns, the communities, the local cultures and . . . . . THE PEOPLE. Im talking about 3,141 counties where all of America takes place. It is with great joy that...

Vandals toppled 115 headstones and ripped up American flags in Hazelwood's Calvary Cemetery, where some of Pittsburgh's noted political, sports, religious and arts figures are buried, causing an estimated tens of thousands of dollars damage. The vandalism discovered Wednesday morning was the worst in the history of the Catholic Cemeteries Association, which oversees 16 cemeteries for the Diocese of Pittsburgh

NEW YORK, JULY 2, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A foundation announced plans to nominate Pope Pius XII for the "Righteous Among the Nations" honor, traditionally given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Gary Krupp, president of the New York-based Pave the Way Foundation, an organization that promotes interreligious dialogue, affirmed this Wednesday in a statement to ZENIT. He reported that the foundation has the nomination guidelines from the Righteous Among the Nations Department of the Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and will open the case soon. Krupp stated that the foundation has "devoted years to...

I begin by asking all of our readers to pray for Fr. Geoffrey Farrow. He was the pastor of the St. Paul Newman Center at California State University at Fresno until he was suspended by his Bishop and removed from his position. This strong action was required and intended to be remedial, as are all canonical sanctions. Fr. Farrow openly defies the teaching of the Catholic Church concerning marriage and human sexuality. He also openly condemns the Catholic Church in public for her defense of marriage. Let me be clear, Fr. Farrow needs our prayer. We ask the Lord to...

Not only is this old news, but it’s old news I’ve written about multiple times. Why cover it again? Because: It can’t be stressed enough that as bad as the current nuclear standoff with Iran is, it could have been that much worse if a certain nutjob wild card was still part of the international deck. Hussein’s fear of Iran, which he said he considered a greater threat than the United States, featured prominently in the discussion about weapons of mass destruction. Iran and Iraq had fought a grinding eight-year war in the 1980s, and Hussein said he was convinced...

The well-placed and well-connected are set to make trillions off new climate bill; economic collapse about to accelerate The sweeping new bill which just passed the House last Friday, the Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 [2], is ostensibly about climate change, but it is in fact a bill of staggering economic ramifications that is going to accelerate the takeover of the economy by the well-placed financiers who have already plundered the Treasury and the Fed of $12+ trillion and counting [3]. It was rushed through the House in the tradition of such nightmarish legislation as the Patriot Act...

The Declaration of Independence was the birth certificate of the United States of America. The words are still memorized by schoolchildren and can bring a tear to the oldest American eye with little effort. The principles they communicate have informed our history as a free people and inspired our neighbors in other parts of the world to stand up against all forms of tyranny. As we reflect upon the text this weekend we need to remember that our forebears were not declaring their independence from Divine Providence. Rather, they were trusting in the primacy of the Governance of God over...

On Today's Show...   Happy Dependence Day, America! (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen) "For 232 years, America celebrated Independence Day on July 4th. Sadly, for too many, it's just a cookout. Now we have to ask: Are we heading to Dependence Day?   Not if I can help it." -Rush   Comical State-Run Media Tries to Talk Up Tanking Obama Economy CNN and MSNBC see "sliver linings" to 9.5% unemployment and millions out of work.   Obama's Economic Plan is Working: The object is to get everyone scared and in crisis, so they'll beg the government for solutions to health care and...

Many animals and people experience chronic joint pain. In dogs, a common source of joint pain is hip dysplasia, a developmental defect of the hip joint. Implantation of gold into the soft tissues around the hip joints of dogs with dysplasia can relieve pain and lessen stiffness for several years. Joint pain in animals and man may be due to injury, wear or deformity. Hip dysplasia of dogs is a congenital defect that makes itself known during the growth phase, leading to varying degrees of pain and loss of function as the dogs age. Dog owners will as a rule...

TORONTO, JULY 1, 2009 (Zenit.org).- We know today's Gospel story well, perhaps too well! It would have been customary for Jesus to go to the synagogue each week during the Sabbath, and when his turn came, to read from the scriptures during the Sabbath service. His hometown folks listened ever so attentively to his teaching because they had heard about the miracles he had performed in other towns. What signs would their hometown boy work on his own turf? In today's story, Jesus startled his own people with a seeming rebuke that no prophet of God can receive honor among...

The anti-gun crowd has their propaganda machine in full gear in Arizona and Tennessee. Tennessee recently overrode their governor's veto of a bill allowing concealed carry license holders to carry their defensive firearms into restaurants that serve alcohol (provided they do not drink themselves) and Arizona is currently considering similar legislation. "When you're in a bar, you're supposed to be out having fun, so leave the gun at home," said Eileen Conners of Larry's Cocktails, expressing her opposition to the Arizona bill. I'm going to guess her agenda is not only that she doesn't like guns, but also that since...

Cracks in the Clinton/Obama relationship keep moving from behind the scenes to in front of the viewing public. This one over the New York Senate Seat...Oh how I'd love to see a meltdown between these 2 camps...

The planet Mars conjures images of red rocks and arid, dusty plains, but as NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander showed last year, it snows on Mars. The stationary robot observed ice crystals falling to the martian surface near the end of its 5-month mission in the arctic Vastitas Borealis plains last year. Today, scientists detail this finding and others in a set of four papers in the journal Science. The research could help shed light on the past and present action of water on the martian surface and characterize the potential habitability of the red planet. Phoenix landed on the red...

AllahPundit on hotair.com is basically a nervous negative nelly. His pessimism is unrivaled and he obviously has an issue with Rush and Palin. His style is almost a lot like Joe Scarborough. Considering anonymous bloggers don't have any real identities it wouldn't surprise me if allahpundit was actually somebody like Joe. The whole same we have to moderate to get independents mantra crap