Free Republic

Rep. John Murtha (D., PMA Group), on the stimulus, yesterday: "We haven't seen any results." According to the Washington (Pa.) Observer-Reporter, Murtha said he would not have created the stimulus package the way Pres. Barack Obama designed it. Perhaps he would have preferred the funds be given directly to his family members.

American International Group Inc (AIG.N), the insurer rescued by a series of federal bailouts, may have zero equity value due to the risk of more credit default swap losses and the disposal of key assets at low valuations, Citigroup said. Shares of the company fell 22 percent to $10.22 in early trade Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have lost more than 90 percent of their value in the last year. Potential markdowns in AIG Financial Product unit's regulatory CDS portfolio may result in collateral calls that would again put pressure on AIG's liquidity, "Such collateral calls...

Now it’s official, as far as the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute is concerned: The present crash is the worst U.S. economic slump since the Great Depression. And that’s even before the June jobless numbers came out. “This recession has become the longest and deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression,” EPI director Larry Mishel and co-author Heidi Shierholz wrote, noting that as of May, it was in its 16th month. June makes it 17. “In order to see how this recession stacks up against previous post-war recessions, we compare labor market indicators at the start of recessions to their values...

Michael Jackson, famously known as the ‘Moonwalker´ for his legendary dance moves, now has a crater of the moon named after himself. In an out-of-the-world tribute to the ‘King of Pop´ the Lunar Republic Society named the moon crater after Jackson’s name, Contactmusic reported. The crater, previously named Posidonius J, is located in the Moon’s Lake of Dreams and is close to a 1,200-acre parcel, which was purchased by the pop star. Jackson, died last month at the age of 50 after a suspected cardiac arrest. His fans and family members bid their final farewell to the pop legend in...

Collaborators in the Pursuit of Freedom / The 1974 School Massacre – An Afterthought (2009) I ask myself: Has Israel learned nothing during its 61 years as a modern state? In my previous Postcard, I recalled the 1974 Maalot Massacre in which 105 children were taken hostage in a school. A soldier, three members of one family and 22 boys and girls were murdered on that day, 35 years ago. In front of my eyes, the black and white photos of the ninth, tenth and eleventh graders pass, 18 young women and four young men on a school trip, their...

Sarah Palin is that most exotic of American creatures: an Alaska original, raised and ripened in an environment remote, extreme, unfamiliar — and free. A land of self-invention, where no one bats an eye at a mom-deckhand-governor-whatever-comes-next. Ever since John McCain introduced his running mate last year, Palin has been like a modern-day version of the captive specimens hauled back to Europe by explorers of old. Like Squanto in London, she speaks the language — if not always the idiom — of the audiences she fascinates. But she remains, on some level, unknowable. ~snipWhether that is true or not, Palin's...

While the administration has been praised for its rapid reorganizations of GM and Chrysler, it has also been blamed for placing itself and its officials in situations with conflicts of interest. The U.S. government stepped in to save GM by becoming its largest creditor and majority investor, positions that inevitably clashed with its role as regulator and referee of its pending deals with outside investors. "Whenever you have a group that is regulator, owner and funder, there is a massive conflict of interest," said David Logan, associate dean at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. One of...

Thank you Tom Perriello By John Barnhart Thank you Tom Perriello — for stabbing the working people of the 5th District in the back. On June 29, 41 House Democrats had the courage to stand up to Supreme Leader Nancy Pelosi. They voted against her cap-and-trade energy bill. Congressman Perriello was not one of them. He voted for this nightmare, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives by seven votes.

A proposal from a long-time congressional foe of the Federal Reserve that could give lawmakers sway over monetary policy has won the support of a majority in the House of Representatives, alarming officials at the U.S. central bank. The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, put forward by Republican Representative Ron Paul of Texas, now has 250 co-sponsors in the House. It will get air-time on Thursday during a congressional hearing on Fed independence that will feature testimony from the Fed's No. 2 official, Donald Kohn. Public anger over the trillion dollars the Fed has put into play to battle...

Many of us worried that Barack Obama would give away missile defense in Eastern Europe for nothing at all, save a photo op with Vladimir Putin and a chance to proclaim peace in our time. After signing a meaningless warhead-reduction treaty with Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, though, Obama remained firm on missile defense. He told a graduating class from Moscow’s New Economic School that if Russia stopped Iran from building nuclear weapons, we’d rethink the need for the missile defense system:

With the growing unrest on the massive debt that the Democratic Congress and the Democratic president have heaped on us, our children, and our grandchildren there remains talk of yet another "stimulus" package. The first package has been ineffective, the federal budget as passed is loaded with pork and earmarks, the Cap & Trade passed by Congress (with the help of 8 Republicans don't forget), the talk of nationaized health care, and now more money we don't have as a second stimulus is getting beyond believable. Yet, the best idea to stimulate the sluggish economy, which is getting more sluggish,...

In this Columbia Conservative Examiner exclusive, we have a chat with Mike Yost, conservative Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Yost is running in a district that is heavily Democratic--a meandering, side-winder snake-like area that was heavily gerrymandered to favor liberal Democrats and minorities. But this year there is a much better chance for a conservative to win. The key will be GOP financial support and the support of conservatives all across the nation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought today to avoid diving back into the controversy over what she knew about harsh interrogations of terrorist detainees and when she knew it, despited being armed with more ammunition on her side. In May, she acknowledged for the first time that she knew by early 2003 that the Central Intelligence Agency had subjected terror detainees to waterboarding, but saw little recourse to challenge the practice except by achieving Democratic control of Congress and the White House. In defending herself, she also accused CIA officials of misleading Congress about the extent of the use of waterboarding,...

I very troubling photo of the troubled "King of Pop"

Yes, the president is an idealist. He’s a peace and love man of the highest order trying to remake the world. But idealism without intellect is a waste of time and energy, at best, and has the potential to create multiple catastrophes. When Barack Obama speaks, the emanating sound is that of a high school valedictorian who thinks he knows so much more than he actually does — but is too young to realize how little he knows. That quality may be endearing to his supporters, but it’s infuriating to those of us who prefer that the president of our...

CHEBOYGAN, MICH.: An Ohio man has admitted biting his girlfriend's 2-year-old son to teach him that biting people is wrong. Michael Schweibinz, 23, of Columbus, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Cheboygan County Circuit Court to second-degree child abuse.

The story begins with an Oceanographer named Roger Revelle. He served with the Navy in World War II. After the war he became the Director of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute in La Jolla in San Diego, California. Revelle obtained major funding from the Navy to do measurements and research on the ocean around the Pacific Atolls where the US military was conducting post war atomic bomb tests. He greatly expanded the Institute's areas of interest and among others hired Hans Suess, a noted Chemist from the University of Chicago. Suess was very interested in the traces of carbon in the...

People from Mississippi are fat. With an adult obesity rate of 33%, Mississippi gobbled its way to the "chubbiest state" crown for the fifth year in a row, according to a new joint report by Trust For America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Alabama, West Virginia, and Tennessee aren't far behind, with obesity rates over 30%. In fact, eight out of the 10 fattest states are in the South. The region famous for its biscuits, barbecue and pecan pies has been struggling with its weight for years — but then again, so has the rest of the country....

... Buffett, a supporter of President Barack Obama during last year's election campaign, said a second economic stimulus package might be needed. The Obama administration says it does not see a need for a second stimulus yet. "I think a second one may well be called for. It is not a panacea. A stimulus is the right thing. You hope it doesn't get watered down," he said. He likened the first $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress to "half a tablet of Viagra and then having also a bunch of candy mixed in --- it doesn't have really quite...