Free Republic

Obama says economic recovery ‘a long way off’ President wraps up G-8 summit, meets with pope before flying to Ghana [Pic in URL] Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama meet with Pope Benedict XVI on Friday. July 10: President Barack Obama wraps up the G-8 discussion in Italy saying a full economic recover is "still a ways off." July 10: There is much excitement on the streets in Ghana as the African nation prepares for a visit from President Obama and his family. NBC’s Mara Schiavocampo reports. Today show Video Pope meeting July...

Armed revolution isn’t obsolete, even in an era when the weapons systems available to the government are overwhelmingly destructive. Highly destructive weapons systems, if used in cities, kill so many innocents that such actions turn people against the government. Think about what happened at Waco in 1993 and the part it played in the Democratic loss of Congress (and, unfortunately, in provoking Timothy McVeigh). There’s a limit to how much firepower you can unleash without destroying your government’s own base of support. There’s another reason that armed revolution is still not only feasible, but sometimes actually necessary to overthrow a...

A spokeswoman for Gov. Sarah Palin is scoffing at comments by Bristol Palin's former fiance, who says he thinks Palin resigned to cash in on her fame.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "US consumer confidence took an unexpectedly steep slide in June." That's from Reuters. "Unexpectedly!" Every bit of economic news is "unexpected." What were they expecting? A big rebound? Let's go to the audio sound bites. I want to take you back to me on this program, January 9th of this year. RUSH ARCHIVE: We're going to start seeing stories that will not be true, that feature man-on-the-street interviews with people whose lives are starting to get a little bit better, they see the light at the end of the tunnel now, they go on more job interviews...

What follows is a letter written by a retired military Officer to Barbara Boxer. Please give it your widest dissemination. (I searched key word and title BEFORE posting and came up empty,) Babs: You were so right on when you scolded the general on TV for using the term, “ma’am,” instead of “Senator.” After all, in the military, “ma’am” is a term of respect when addressing a female of superior rank or position. The general was totally wrong. You are not a person of superior rank or position. You are a member of one of the world’s most corrupt organizations,...

Chatter abounds around the web about a paragraph calling for a “world political authority” in Pope Benedict’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. John Zmirak writes that it is the only paragraph that he finds troubling. George Weigel concludes that this section and...other statements he finds unacceptable are the result of...the influence of the supposedly ideology-driven Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Weigel suggests that statements influenced by PCJP (as identified by “those with advanced degrees in Vaticanology”) are inconsistent with the rest of the “Benedictine” text. The implication is that we can ignore passages some might find troublesome, such as the...

The passing of pop music star Michael Jackson has been the hot topic and may have even seemed like the only topic covered in recent days by the national media. And for the most part, having that impression was accurate. From Jackson's death on June 25 through the day of his highly publicized memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, the broadcast primetime news programs - ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson," "CBS Evening News" and "NBC Nightly News" allocated one third of their broadcast time excluding commercials (34 percent). (See results here) That's 270...

Wingers these days, despite their shrill bravado, are a dispirited group, reeling from recent political developments that signify the utter repudiation of their worldview. In succession, they've latched on to a number of gimmicks to keep hope from being entirely extinguished. Palin is one of those gimmicks and conceivably the most important. And, although she is a gimmick, she is also the current and past respository of hope for deliverance from a poltical reality that crushes their spirit. Clearly, Palin is aware of this phenomenon and appears anxious to exploit it for either political or economic gain or both. Maybe...

Sunday will mark one year since the death of Tony Snow from cancer. He battled the disease, which originated in his colon before spreading, for more than three years. Snow, a longtime commentator and journalist, anchored at Fox News Channel and later worked for a short time at CNN. In between his TV jobs, he served as White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush. This Sunday, TVNewser has learned, Fox News Channel will mark the anniversary of Snow's death with numerous mentions of him throughout the day, along with thoughts from Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W....

This has been a tough stretch for conservative Christians in America, especially of the Catholic variety. Notre Dame welcomed Barack Obama at commencement with open arms and an honorary degree after a number of bishops and conservative activists decreed that the nation's preeminent Catholic university had forfeited its bona fides with the invitation. The president has said that the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is not a priority, promised that "robust" conscience protections for health care workers are coming, and pushed for a package of abortion-reduction legislation that should be unveiled by summer's end. And just this week, Pope Benedict...

Here is video of President Obama and Michelle meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican today. They took no questions, but officials said the two had a spirited discussion on a wide-range of issues. Michelle was wearing what the MSNBC anchor had a hard time describing, finally settling for, "some kind of religious garb." . . . . . . (Watch Video)

RESIGNED TO REST OF HIS LIFE IN JAIL Madoff will not challenge his 150-year sentence said his lawyer. A report by trustee Irving Picard charged w/ id'ing Madoff's assets "unearthed a labyrinth of interrelated international funds, institutions and entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth" and assets and businesses "of interest" in 11 places overseas. More than 15,400 claims against Madoff were filed as of July 2. Madoff's $7M penthouse, homes in the Hamptons, Palm Beach, and the French Riviera, and several yachts worth tens of $$millions, are being sold to reimburse investors.

Sen. Edward Kennedy's Affordable Health Choices Act “would add to the long-term burden of spending to the federal government,” a chief actuary told members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, fielded questions from committee members following the release of new CBO estimates, which found that expanding Medicaid coverage to include Americans with incomes below 150% of the poverty line under the Massachusetts Democrat's bill would add another $500 billion in Medicaid liabilities between 2009 and 2019. The bill's provision to establish a health insurance gateway, however, would serve to...

China and India have rejected calls from G8 leaders for them to make deep cuts in their carbon emissions. The refusal of developing nations to sign up to a climate change deal overshadowed an agreement between rich nations to limit the rise in global average temperatures. G8 leaders meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, agreed for the first time to work to prevent global temperatures rising by more than two degrees Celsius. The summit also agreed that developed economies should aim to cut their carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. The agreement will force G8 economies to make significant changes...

As the recession takes its toll on big-box retailers, more communities across the country are having to confront not just the eyesore of giant empty stores, but also the loss of jobs and tax revenue that follow. Many are trying to find creative uses for those near windowless monoliths. In Minnesota, one became a Spam Museum. In Texas, an indoor go-cart track. In Illinois, a church moved into an empty Wal-Mart. The new tenants, however, often generate less revenue for local governments. The International Council of Shopping Centers said 6,913 retail stores — of all types — announced closures last...

In much of the Midwest, 2009 thus far has been a year of record rains, lots of snow, and lots of record low temperatures. The bad news is that this year’s weather has presented unwanted challenges to farmers attempting to get their planting done in time, and that flooding has caused terrible hardship in some areas. The upside, besides the fact that it’s yet another anecdotal nail in the coffin of global warming alarmists, is that 2009’s weather thus far has made keeping the grass green a much easier task for most homeowners. When they look outside, they see healthy...

Senator Jim DeMint spoke with Washington News Observer on the shocking response from the Obama Administration in response to Honduras. “I am just at a loss to understsand why the Obama Administration is saying that this was an illegal coup and that the constitutional process was interrupted. The facts don’t appear to back them up.” “When the United States is on the side of Chavez, who hates us, who’s trying to organize the whole region against us, we’ve just got to ask if we’re on the right side. Chavez, Ortega, the Castro brothers are clearly not on the side of...

Washington, DC – Over the last six months the national debt skyrocketed by nearly $3 trillion. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, our national debt will more than double by 2019. Americans will have to pay for this stratospheric spending spree first by begging foreign nations to buy our bonds, and later through higher taxes and inflation. Grassroots anger at the inability of Washington to live within a budget has been building for some time, and began to boil over in late 2007 as the Bush Administration and Treasury Secretary Paulson abandoned their claimed free market principles to bail...

A Florida church is under fire for posting a sign that reads "Islam is of the devil." WCJB reports. • video at site

In a free market, demand is always a function of price: the higher the price, the lower the demand. What may surprise most politicians is that these rules apply equally to both prices and wages. When employers evaluate their labor and capital needs, cost is a primary factor. When the cost of hiring low-skilled workers moves higher, jobs are lost. Despite this, minimum wage hikes, like the one set to take effect later this month, are always seen as an act of governmental benevolence. Nothing could be further from the truth...