Free Republic

Is this the same “greedy” Wall Street Democrats ALWAYS condemn, but NOW want us to trust with Cap and Trade? Last Friday federal agents arrested a former Goldman Sachs employee charging him with improper access to trading information. Why has this information been buried? Sergey Aleynikov was taken into custody two days after Goldman Sachs informed the government he had stolen the firm’s rapid-fire, stock- and commodities-trading software in early June. Investigation reveals Aleynikov sent the program to a German web site. So far this sounds like mundane industrial espionage of little meaning for the rest of us; but there...

On AOL Politics Daily, long-time White House reporter Carl Cannon bluntly declared that the political press gave Sarah Palin a raw deal in the 2008 campaign, and seriously failed to scrutinize Joe Biden, especially his fact-mangling and odd statements in the vice presidential debate. Cannon summed up: In the 2008 election, we took sides, straight and simple, particularly with regard to the vice presidential race. I don't know that we played a decisive role in that campaign, and I'm not saying the better side lost. What I am saying is that we simply didn't hold Joe Biden to the same...

As Reformed churches worldwide prepare to celebrate the 500th anniversary on 10 July of the birth of Protestant Reformation leader, John Calvin, leaders of a global movement of Reformed churches have issued a statement calling on Christians to commemorate Calvin not as a saint but as a source of inspiration for responding to contemporary social and environmental concerns. In a statement released today by leaders of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) which represents 75 million Reformed church members, WARCs president and general secretary link commentaries by the 16th century lawyer and theologian to the current global economic crisis....

Obama economic adviser Laura Tyson has suggested that the U.S. should consider a new economic stimulus package because the $787 billion bill enacted in February was "a bit too small." Right. That $787 billion came just months after the Bush stimulus of $150 billion (how quaint it seems in retrospect), the $700 billion TARP program, the $60 billion auto bailout, and a $3.6 trillion budget for the next fiscal year among other spending orgies. President Obama has declined to rule out another gargantuan transfer payment from the future to the present. Other Democrats, Roll Call suggests, are less enthusiastic. "Bailout...

Cisco Systems is in the process of cutting between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs. according to an reportfrom Thomas Weisel analyst Hasan Imam. A Cisco [CSCO 18.17 --- UNCH (0) ] representative was not immediately available to comment on the report, which also said that the company could exceed its plan to cut annual costs by $1 billion with job cuts. "Our checks indicate Cisco is aggressively managing expenses as management navigates through the downturn," Imam said in the research report. The analyst said that on top of cuts such as reducing travel budgets and cutting variable compensation he believed that...

Animal welfare activists threaten nation’s agriculture Producers need to tell their story By Elizabeth Barrett July 10, 2009 Clouds loom over agriculture today. According to Roger Berry, the average American is three generations removed from the farm while animal rights groups don’t understand the importance of animal agricultural. “We’re in danger of losing animal agriculture,” said Berry, the field director for the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture. Berry spoke to Gothenburg Rotarians at their noon meeting Monday at the Parlor Restaurant. A-FAN is a non-political organization formed to help Nebraska farmers and ranchers protect and preserve the quality of...

President Barack Obama said Friday the world apparently has averted economic collapse but "full recovery is still a ways off." Obama, speaking at the end of the Group of Eight summit of major economic powers, said world leaders had taken significant measures to address economic, environmental and global security issues. He cited a "widespread consensus we must continue our work to restore economic growth and restore our financial regulatory systems." Obama noted, however, that the leaders failed to agree on all issues, including global warming. "We have not solved all our problems," he said. Those problems include international security.

He garnered some sympathy from two lower courts, but a three-judge appeals panel isn't letting a Minnesota lawyer off the hook from repaying his massive student loan debt. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a bankruptcy court and a district court and found that attorney Mark Allen Jesperson could not discharge more than $360,000 in student loan debt in a Chapter 7 proceeding. The two lower courts had found that repaying the "shockingly immense" debt would create an undue hardship for Jesperson. But the appeals court on Wednesday determined that his "self-imposed limitations," which resulted in a gross...

/begin my summary S. Korean Intelligence: Cyberattack, the Work of N. Korean Military (in a report to legislature) Ddos attacks on major institutions in S. Korea and U.S. were the operation by Institute No. 110 under Reconnaisance Bureau of N. Korean General Staff, according to Kookmin Ilbo on July 10. According to its report to Intelligence Committee at National Assembly, the N. Korean institute staged a mock Ddos attack on Korean Communications Commission and a provincial university last month. The institute develops hacking programs and runs undercover hacking units overseas, according to a lawmaker present at the intelligence committee. /end...

No excerpt allowed from Bloomberg.com, story here .

NAMPA -- More than four decades of tradition were changed this year at the God and Country Family Festival in Nampa. Typically, a military flyover is a highlight of the event, but this year it did not happen. To make a fly over happen you have to get permission from the Pentagon. It hasn't been a problem in the past but this year it was --all because of the word "God."

“Birth control,” [Margaret Sanger] declared in 1923, “is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, or preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives.” Her mission: to stop ”keeping alive thousands who never, in all human compassion, should have been brought into this world.”Sanger was ambitious. She actively advocated for sterilization of the great unwashed - the “feeble-minded, insane… deaf, deformed and dependent,” including “orphans, ne’er-do-wells, tramps, the homeless and paupers.” Talk about a hard knock life.

Image misleadingly seems to show the president admiring a woman's backside. However, it seems Sarkozy is checking out the young girl.

Pres. Barack Obama has made a tactical mistake, one that is characteristic of the man. Suffering, as he plainly does, from a tendency toward self-aggrandizement, President Obama has undertaken to do too much at once, seeking a radical re-ordering of American life: legal, political, economic, constitutional, and cultural. In some of these endeavors he is likely to be successful. On several critical fronts, however, Obama’s overreach has given conservatives an opportunity to put a halt to the worst of the president’s contemplated excesses. It is crucial that conservatives — congressional Republicans in particular — do not squander the opportunity that...

TAMPA, Fla. — Authorities say a bullet from a gun that was accidentally dropped injured a Tampa woman sitting in a bathroom stall. Police say the bullet hit 53-year-old Janifer Bliss in the lower left leg. She was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. -snip-

Democratic U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, his political prospects and personal legacy weakened by controversy, is expected to announce Friday he will not seek election to the seat he was appointed to by Rod Blagojevich after the then-governor's arrest, sources close to Burris said. The decision by Burris, 71, is an acknowledgment that prospects of mounting a multimillion-dollar fundraising effort for a high-profile statewide race are low in the face of widespread public criticism over how he got the job.

I don’t play poker, but I think I get the idea. I think the idea is to win. I think the idea is to have better cards than your opponents and to play your cards better than your opponents. It’s part luck and it’s part smarts. But the idea, again, is to win. For example, let’s say you’re playing a five-card game, nothing showing. You’re dealt the cards, you pick them up, you fan them out. You see an ace, another ace, a king, an ace and another ace. Four aces and a king.Like I said, I don’t play poker,...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will tell Congress Friday that the "enormous scale and the critical role" of over-the-counter derivatives in the financial markets as well as their their "substantial challenges and risks" require greater government regulation. Geithner will also recommend that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Future Exchange Commission share the new oversight powers, according to the testimony, a copy of which was obtained by CNBC.com. "Establishing a comprehensive framework of oversight for the OTC derivative markets is crucial to laying the foundation for a safer, more stable financial system,” the testimony reads.

Israel may give PA commandos go ahead THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 10, 2009 www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443770831&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull The IDF is considering allowing the Palestinians to establish a specially trained counterterror squad - a scaled down version of the IDF's elite reconnaissance units - qualified to carry out pinpoint operations against Hamas terrorist cells in the West Bank, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Such an elite commando force would be able to carry out special operations against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank more effectively than could existing Palestinian security forces. The French have already offered to train such a...

PRINCETON, NJ -- U.S. President Barack Obama averaged a 58% job approval rating for the first eight days of July, down from an average of 61% for June. His approval rating is down most significantly among independents, to 53% so far in July from an average of 59% in June; it has dropped two points among Republicans (from 25% in June to 23% so far in July) and has gone up a point among Democrats, to 90%. In addition to monthly averages, Gallup reports Obama's job approval rating at Gallup.com each day, based on three-day rolling averages. Obama reached a...