Free Republic

Reporting from Los Angeles and Fremont, Calif. - Toyota Motor Corp.'s decision to abandon its assembly line in Fremont marks the end of large-scale auto manufacturing in California, which over the years boasted a dozen or more plants building vehicles ranging from Studebakers to Camaro muscle cars. The Japanese automaker said Thursday that it would end production at the plant March 31, throwing 4,700 people out of work, and return some production to Japan. It's another hard blow for California, a state already grappling with an 11.9% unemployment rate -- its highest since World War II and the fourth-worst in...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - August 29 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Have mercy upon me, O God." - Psalm 51:1 When Dr. Carey was suffering from a dangerous illness, the enquiry was made, "If this sickness should prove fatal, what passage would you select as the text for your funeral sermon?" He replied, "Oh, I feel that such a poor sinful creature is unworthy to have anything said about him; but if a funeral sermon must be preached, let it be from the words, 'Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender...

When I think of recent effective leaders, two names top the list: Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan. Using their sharp personalities, these guys motivated others to work effectively for a cause, and that is what true leadership is all about. Faced with a powerful German Wehrmacht that had rolled over Europe, Churchill showed iron resolve while other British leaders broke down. He simply told British subjects that there would be no surrender, that they would fight to the finish. Churchill's crisis leadership defeated the dreaded Nazis as much as anything else. President Reagan's leadership was of a different sort. He...

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy went to his deathbed looking forward to a reunion with his assassinated brothers - certain he could proudly tell them he had continued their legacy through the president who will deliver his eulogy today, U.S. Rep. William Delahunt told the Herald yesterday. In a dramatic conversation with Delahunt, the ailing Kennedy “talked about a reunion with his brothers, and I’m confident he could say, ‘I did it. I carried the torch,’ ” said Delahunt. “From Jack to Bobby to the Obama moment, Teddy really was the bridge. He carried the torch and never wavered.” The...

Do you want Peter Schiff to run for Senate in Connecticut? If so, Peter has set a fundraising goal... http://www.schiff4senate.com

We must, as a matter of precept, pray for the salvation of heretical Catholics like Senator Edward Kennedy, but we do not have to praise him let alone extol him with the full honors of a public Catholic funeral and all the adulation that attends such an event. There was very little about Ted Kennedy’s life that deserves admiration from a spiritual or moral point of view. He was probably the worst example of a Catholic statesman that one can think of. When all is said and done, he has distorted the concept of what it means to be a...

It's no secret the print newspaper industry is struggling. It's become all too common to hear that papers, like the Christian Science Monitor or the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, have ceased publishing a print edition and gone completely online. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright addressed this challenge and its impact on a government at the Aspen Institute's Forum on Communications and Society earlier this month. According to Albright, the fourth estate was intended to keep government in check and that countries without a free press tend to be authoritarian societies. ...more (w/video)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVZUypdHEkQ Once was a man who had lost all his direction. And soon his friends put it all up for inspection. "Think it's because of the alcohol. You drink alone -- well beyond last call. Donate your corpse or your liver for dissection." He took offense, swore he wasn't such a boozer. "Pile on me, now, since you're all a bunch of losers. Might take a drink, but I keep my job. Out of my sight. You're a hateful mob. Once called you friends, but I'll be a better chooser." "Who thought this up? Who's the saint of spotless virtue?...

Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston will preside at the funeral of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy tomorrow at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (the Mission Church). The Rev. J. Donald Monan, a Jesuit priest who was the longtime president of Boston College and is now the chancellor, will be the principal celebrant. And the Rev. Mark R. Hession, pastor of Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville, will deliver the homily. PROGRAM DETAILS: First Reading: Curran Raclin, stepson Responsorial: Kara Kennedy Allen, daughter Second Reading: Caroline Raclin, stepdaughter Homily: Rev. Mark Hession Intercessory Prayers: Kennedy's four grandchildren,...

BAGHDAD– The withdrawal of American forces from Iraqi city centers is a remarkable moment in Iraq’s modern history. The Iraqi government publicly celebrated that event as never before, linking it to the 1920 revolution against British forces in Iraq, and describing it as “the day of victory.” But Iraqis have their worries: was the American withdrawal real, and can the Iraqi government lead without any assistance? Are the Iraqi forces qualified enough to assume responsibility for Iraq’s provinces? Have the American forces accomplished their mission in Iraq? Now three incidents have taken place within a few weeks. First, north of...

Good morning, and welcome to the Weekend Edition of ATWR.We've arrived at the end of an eventful summer. We know our country is at a crossroads...many of the commentators are wondering what the President will do when he returns to Washington: push ahead with his agenda to total control of healthcare delivery and insurance or backtrack to get more achievable bills thru Congress.Whatever.We know the fight is not over, which ever choice HE makes. There's only one real fork to this crossroads, and it's called the Freedom Road.

This is a quote by a security officer Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at Rep. Jim Moran’s (D-VA) Town Hall meeting on ObamaCare. A protester had an Obama sign he didn’t like.

Less than two weeks before the start of school, about 1,800 teaching jobs in New York City remain open as principals appear to be resisting orders to fill vacancies with teachers whose previous positions were eliminated. Facing steep budget cuts, the Education Department enacted a hiring freeze in the spring, requiring principals with openings to hire teachers who are already on the city’s payroll but who have no permanent position, often because their schools were closed for poor performance. But many principals prefer new teachers. So in an act of quiet defiance, they are allowing jobs to sit vacant, leading...

The Obama administration has developed possible alternative plans for a missile defense shield that could drop hotly disputed sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move that would please Russia and Germany but sour relations with American allies in Eastern Europe. Administration officials said they hoped to complete their months-long review of the planned antimissile system as early as next month, possibly in time for President Obama to present ideas to President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia at a meeting in New York during the annual opening at the General Assembly of the United Nations. But they cautioned that...

Back in March, when Rush Limbaugh suggested that, by the time the debate was over, "it'll be called the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill," he was rebuked by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for his "outrageous" and "reprehensible" remark. Guess what? "I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, [it] will bear [Kennedy's] name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American," says West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, the Senate's most senior member.

In response to the Left-driven boycott of Whole Foods Markets over CEO John Mackey's Washington Post oped opposing the ObamaCare bill, the national Tea Party Coalition is scheduling a "buycott" encouraging members to shop Whole Foods on September 1st.

As Congress prepares to hit the restart button on the health care debate, Senator Olympia J. Snowe does not relish the prospect of becoming a Group of One. “I certainly hope not,” exclaimed Ms. Snowe, about the possibility that she could end up as the sole Republican willing to join Senate Democrats in moving ahead on a broad change in health care. Ms. Snowe and two Republican colleagues, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, have been privately negotiating a health care plan with three Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee in what has...

It’s Friday! Time for our weekly dumping of news you may have overlooked this week. While the rest of the media was covering the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, there were several other news items that may have escaped your attention. As we wait to see if Washington takes a Friday News Dump, lets proceed with the roundup, shall we? Click on the link for the full round-up. Click here to go to full article

A Senate bill, S-773, would offer President Obama emergency control of the Internet and may give him authority to shut down online traffic by seizing private networks. Details of a revised version of the CyberSecurity Act of 2009 emerged late Thursday (August 27th), months after an initial version authored by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). The original version was highly criticized in Silicon Valley as a dangerous government intrusion. The new version of the CyberSecurity Act of 2009 changes the wording to allow the President to “declare a cyber-security emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks. As with the original bill, however,...

"This used to be America," argued a protester outside a health-care town hall meeting in Reston, Va., after a police officer threatened him with arrest for holding up a sign with a picture critical of Barack Obama. The officer's response? "It ain't no more, OK?" A video of the town hall held earlier this week by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., shows an unnamed protester standing on school grounds carrying a sign that read "Organizing for National Socialist Health Care – The Final Solution" and depicted Barack Obama in the Joker's makeup. Officer Wesley Cheeks Jr. then told the protester that...