Free Republic

While the deficits caused by the fiscal stimulus package will end in 2011 and will help to sustain a fragile recovery in 2010, the deficits projected for the longer term are a threat to our economic future. The starting point for controlling those future deficits is for Congress to abandon the administration's health-care plan—a plan that will cost more than $1 trillion. The deficits projected for the next decade and beyond are unprecedented. According to an assessment released in March by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the president's budget implies that deficits will average 5.2% of GDP over the next...

Barack Obama will cement the new co-operative relationship between the US and the United Nations this month when he becomes the first American president to chair its 15-member Security Council.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Congressional leaders voiced optimism Tuesday afternoon after meeting with President Obama to plot strategy on health care legislation, while a key Democratic senator wooed Republicans with a compromise plan a day before the president’s address to the nation.“We’re ready to do health care reform, keeping in mind that even before the August recess, 80 percent of health care is already done,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said... When the president delivers his speech Wednesday night, “the American people will be able to put aside some of the ridiculous falsehoods that have been perpetrated and focus...

Rendering of the Antarctica Gamburstev Province (AGAP) project. Credit: Zina Deretsky / NSF An international team of scientists has not only verified the existence of a mountain range that is suspected to have caused the massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet to form, but also has created a detailed picture of the rugged landscape buried under more than four kilometers (2.5 miles) of ice. "Working cooperatively in some of the harshest conditions imaginable, all the while working in temperatures that averaged -30 degrees Celsius, our seven-nation team has produced detailed images of last unexplored mountain range on Earth," said Michael Studinger,...

I got attacked by the Village Voice today for expressing my rather nasty response to the ObamaDay speech to schoolchildren and the accompanying ideological White House-dictated Department of Education lesson plans for kids (e.g., "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals"). I don't particularly mind being attacked by the Village Voice. I mean, at least they spelled my name right, as they say. If anything, what bothers me is the smarmy, "They're unhinged...

Insurer AIG's shares slide on analyst downgrade1 hour, 35 minutes ago (AP:NEW YORK) The near-term sale of American International Group Inc.'s assets will leave little value for common equity holders, a Credit Suisse analyst said Tuesday, downgrading the troubled insurance giant and slashing his price target for the stock in half. Shares slid $3.58, or 8.9 percent, to $36.47 in late trading. Analyst Thomas Gallagher downgraded his AIG rating to "underperform" from "neutral" and wrote in a research note that the government's plan to be a bridge rather than a permanent stakeholder suggests meaningful asset sales or initial pubic offers...

Most of us wouldn’t know by looking at it, but the sun has been in a record breaking mode lately for its lack of activity. It’s a trend that Charlie Perry, a scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey, follows closely. For the past few decades he has been charting the correlation between droughts and floods in the Midwest and the activity of the sun. It is from that research that Perry predicts that the current lack of sun activity could lead to a cooler winter this year and drought conditions around 2043. The sun goes through a cycle of activity...

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, says bringing peace and security to Afghanistan and Iraq represents a major challenge, but one that the US is committed to achieving. In a wide-ranging interview with Al Jazeera's Abderrahim Foukara, Gates spoke about: the US strategy for peace in Afghanistan facing a "war of necessity", the divide between two wars, fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq, Pakistan's role in the region, the "threat" of a nuclear Iran, maintaining allies in the Middle East, and US ties with Latin America.

It would seem that Beck has stolen the crown from Limbaugh. Just a few short months ago, Limbaugh was widely known as the man behind the strings of elected officials in the Republican party but it seems that he has now been replaced by another entertainer. This time, Glenn Beck, a television show host on the Fox cable network that calls itself a news network, often weeps and rails as he talks to his audience. He often contradicts his own words from one moment to the next and yet he has a viewership of some 3 million people, according to...

"Don't think you have a corner on all the virtue...vision in the country."

A teenager kept footage entitled The Torture House on his mobile phone showing a 'horrific' attack he carried out on two younger boys, a court heard today. Ricardo Poli, 18, was with a gang of teenagers when they came across two boys, both 15, forcing them into a disused building.

In the midst of a worsening budget crisis, Vice Mayor Larry Small has been pushing a sensible idea. He wants city government to enter the gun business, which is among the handful of industries making solid profits in this economic downturn. All but one member of the City Council supports Small’s idea, and the council plans to finalize details in coming weeks. Small’s gun sale proposal has been a bigger story nationally than locally, attracting the attention of big media players as diverse as The Los Angeles Times and the Drudge Report. It’s a bigger story nationally than locally because...

At the Norwalk town hall meeting on health care, Rep. Jim Himes (CT-04) takes question in Spanish from Stamord Bishop Emilio Alvarez. Himes was born in Peru and is fluent in Spanish. Town hall crowd reacts when the bilingual "cleric" insists on disrespecting everyone and speaking a language they don't understand. The man speaks perfect English but obviously wants to upset the town hall for his own racist reasons.

Obama bemoans 'the bubble,' extols having a 'home office' Posted: September 8th, 2009 05:20 PM ET From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart WASHINGTON (CNN) — Being one of the most powerful people in the world isn't always what it seems. That's what President Obama told a Virginia high school student Tuesday who asked how Obama's life had changed since becoming the nation's chief executive. "When you announce that you're running for president, a lot more people know you," the president said at a gathering with students before his nationally televised speech to the nation's schoolchildren, "Then, slowly, you get Secret...

Wall Street Journal: "Glenn Beck Counts For More At the Obama White House" Than the Progressive Movement (The Huffington Post can only be linked to) The left is very angry about what they see as Obama's betrayal.

Here is audio of Lou Dobbs giving credit to Glenn Beck and FOX for "having the guts" to focus on Van Jones. He made the comments in conversation with Brent Bozell. (Watch Video)

Something FactCheck said made me start thinking. Personally, I think a pediatrician cuts out more tonsils of newborns than FactCheck checks facts, as I have realized thatFactCheck lies in the most insidious of ways, not with blatant lies but with partial truths and the omissions of facts. One such lie is about the question Q: Does Barack Obama have Kenyan citizenship? A: No. He held both U.S. and Kenyan citizenship as a child, but lost his Kenyan citizenship automatically on his 21st birthday. The Rocky Mountain News sets up a story on the internet to be debunked. As proof that...

Over ONE MILLION copies sold! On the NYTimes Bestseller List for 19 weeks, 12 weeks at #1!Buy it… read it… live it!“Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Van Jones, one of President Barack Obama’s controversial czars, is out. Now, barely two days later, the radical views of another Obama nominee are coming to light. As reported Monday on Fox News by Brian Sullivan, host of Your World, Cass Sunstein, Obama’s choice to head up the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is advocating a plan whereby Americans would automatically have their organs harvested after death. (Sunstein has already raised eyebrows with his extremist views on regulating human behavior and his belief that animals should be able to sue humans). Under Sunstein’s latest proposal, you could become an...

...But can Nancy Pelosi stand for such a half measure, for putting the socialist paradise off for a few years? Her recent actions suggest not. While Obama administration officials have made various and sometimes contradictory remarks about the public option, Pelosi has been consistent. “A bill without a strong public option will not pass the House,” Pelosi said in statement last Thursday. “Eliminating the public option would be a major victory for the insurance companies who have rationed care, increased premiums and denied coverage.” If Pelosi chooses to stick her guns on this, she will destroy any chance the Democrats...