Free Republic

Wireless Market, Generic Drugs Reviewed as Justice Department Steps Up Enforcement The Department of Justice has begun looking into whether large U.S. telecommunications companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. are abusing the market power they have amassed in recent years, according to people familiar with the matter. The review, while in its early stages, is an indication of the Obama administration's aggressive stance on antitrust enforcement. The Justice Department's antitrust chief, Christine Varney, has said she wants to reassert the government's role in policing monopolistic and anticompetitive practices by powerful companies.

Wind Farm Interference Showing Up on Doppler Radar During the last several years, New York State has been a leader in supporting the growth of wind energy. As a result of this effort, there have been several "wind farm" projects developed across the region. In western New York, some of the bigger projects include the towns of Sheldon, Wethersfield, Eagle/Bliss in Wyoming county. These farms are located between 20 miles and 35 miles directly southeast of the Weather Surveillance Doppler Radar located at the National Weather Service office in Cheektowaga (KBUF) in northern Erie county. The towers are on top...

Former CIA Operative Regrets Waterboarding Suspected Terrorists SPECIAL REPORT He is known among family and friends as Stephen, but after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks he went to work for the CIA as a deep cover operative even going so far as to change his name to “Steve”. He served in the front lines in the Global War on Terrorism in such hotspots as Al Khandahar and Herat. Whenever Special Forces or intelligence agents brought a suspected terrorist to Steve it was his job to break them…FAST. More at link.

The attractive risk/reward tradeoff of the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) has more than 100 buyside participants pounding on the gates of the Federal Reserve, but its potential positive impact on the economy is still under debate. From the perspective of the stock market, PIPP is at least a non-negative factor, with major US equity rising as much as 20 percent after losing roughly 30 percent from its peak in October 2007. Nevertheless, with potentially $950 billion in charges stemming from legacy loans and securities at the epicenter of the current crisis, PPIP carries a disproportionate amount of the burden among...

hina, Russia and Brazil will use this week's G8 summit in Italy to push their view that the world needs to start seeking a new global reserve currency as an alternative to the dollar, officials said on Tuesday. As leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations and the major developing powers traveled to Italy for a three-day summit starting on Wednesday, it seemed unlikely the currency debate would get a specific mention in summit documents. But both G8 member Russia and emerging power Brazil -- which like China and India is a member of the "G5" that joins the...

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security..." The Declaration of Independence The Legislature, Supreme Court,...

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut advertising executive who police say is holding his ex-wife hostage has told a reporter he wants a priest brought in to give the woman her last rites.Richard Shenkman said in a phone call Tuesday to a reporter with The Day of New London that he will release his ex-wife from his South Windsor home if police meet several demands.One demand was to provide a priest to give Nancy Tyler her last rites. A priest is at the scene.Police say the 60-year-old Shenkman kidnapped his ex-wife in Hartford from a parking ramp this morning.Shenkman's...

A couple of silly Internet polls, asking some Palinesque questions: ...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration found recently that feed byproduct samples from dozens of corn-ethanol plants were contaminated with antibiotics. With that news, producing fuel from grain is looking like a danger to human health, in addition to being wasteful and inefficient. Growing corn is a leading cause of soil erosion, water depletion and pollution. Corn-ethanol plants further stress water supplies by consuming 4 gallons of water for every gallon of fuel produced. To the list of ethanol's environmental insults we add pharmaceutical pollution. There's nothing inherently wrong with getting help from biological processes to meet industrial needs. But...

Frustrated Ohioans are starting to blame President Barack Obama for the state's economic problems, according to a statewide poll released today. Obama's approval rating is in a free-fall in Ohio, considered by many political observers to be the most important swing state in a presidential election. A new survey by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute shows that only 49 percent of the state's voters approve of the way Obama is handling his job, 13 points lower than the 62 percent who gave Obama a thumbs up in a May 6 Quinnipiac poll of Ohioans. The 49-44 percent approval rating represents...

My son was moving around the tv channels while munching lunch and he noted all the cameras, all the microphones being shoved in people’s faces, all the hucksters selling tee-shirts, buttons. Jackson’s funeral will be on the Jumbotron at Times Square, and at three other public venues in New York City. Performing for the ever-present cameras, people smile and say, “I’m all broken up; Jackson will always be in my heart.” Everyone sounds like a politician, these days. Americans have learned the art of the superficial, meaningless soundbite. Jackson will always be in their hearts, even if he hasn’t been...

London, July 07(ANI): Heroes star Hayden Panettiere’s character will turn lesbian in the next series of the hit show, sources say. “It’s just girly fun at first. But it might progress into something more serious. It depends how viewers respond,” the Daily Star quoted a source as saying. In the next series, the 19-year-old is expected to develop a relationship with her college roommate. Panettiere recently made news after she parted ways with her beau T4 presenter Steve Jones after a brief fling. The actress insists that she couldn’t handle a long-distance relationship. (ANI)

LANSING, Mich. -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm has ordered that U.S. flags in Michigan be flown at half-staff Wednesday to honor a soldier who died in Iraq last month.

THE navy is shocked - shocked! - that healthy young men cooped up on its ships look at the healthy young women by their side and want to, er, rock their boats. In fact, so shocked is the navy, apparently run by old and devoutly Christian aesthetes who still undress in the dark, that four sailors from HMAS Success have been removed from their ship at Singapore. Their crime? To have run a contest to sleep with the most women on board. Yes, stifle your gasps. You've never seen anything so horrific since the last time you went to a...

The European Union is considering a voting structure for its new apparatus of financial regulation that would make it almost impossible for Britain to block measures, even if they pose a major threat to the City of London. EU leaders agreed in June to create three supra-national bodies with a full-time staff to oversee banking, insurance, and securities. These will have binding powers to impose rules for the first time, limiting the UK's Financial Services Authority to "day-to-day" management. It had been assumed that the three bodies would take decisions be by qualified majority voting (QMV), the standard procedure for...

Since the dawn of time, people have found nifty ways to clean up after the bathroom act. The most common solution was simply to grab what was at hand: coconuts, shells, snow, moss, hay, leaves, grass, corncobs, sheep's wool -- and, later, thanks to the printing press -- newspapers, magazines, and pages of books. The ancient Greeks used clay and stone; the Romans, sponges and salt water. But the idea of a commercial product designed solely to wipe one's bum? That started about 150 years ago, right here in the U.S.A. In less than a century, Uncle Sam's marketing genius...

While countries struggle, muddling their way through stimulus packages and bailouts, China is being touted as everything from, “the best current place to invest,” to being, “the engine that will pull the globe out of its recession.” These entreaties and prognostications are sprinkled with reminders of the power it wields over America, given the huge dollar reserves that it holds. If I may quote Tony Soprano, “forget about it.”China has asked rather politely, that the U.S. maintain its creditworthiness. No kidding? That plea was less a wish that the U.S. not skip town on its debt (devalue the dollar dramatically),...

I'm feeling very juvenile here and inspired to start a commotion by having all our cell phones ring "Oh, Sarah, you're the poet in my heart. Never change, and don't you ever stop." http://artists.letssingit.com/fleetwood-mac-lyrics-sara-2w51z4f

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - When it comes to systemically significant financial institutions, when is a mega-bank too-big-to-fail? This is a key question facing lawmakers on Capitol Hill as they contemplate an Obama administration proposal that seeks to set up a process to dismantle insolvent Lehman-like mega-financial institutions in a way that doesn't cause massive, collateral damage to the markets. The White House proposal, which would partially pay off investors in the failing institution as a means of calming the markets, is under fire from Republicans and some Democrats on Capitol Hill who argue that such a move would cost taxpayers additional...

Smith, who moved to Florida since losing to John Sununu in the 2002 GOP primary, is now looking at running for the open seat left by retiring Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).