Free Republic

WASHINGTON - No sooner than the Senate Finance Committee's chairman released his long-awaited health care bill today than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said it's not good enough for Nevada. Reid is concerned about the cash-poor state's inability to boost Medicaid spending as would be required under the bill. “While this draft bill is a good starting point, it needs improvement before it will work for Nevada," Reid said in a statement. "During this time of economic crisis, our state cannot afford to shoulder the second highest increase in Medicaid funding." Reid said he received assurance from the chairman, Sen....

House Ethics Panel Investigates Rep. Maxine Waters Her husband's ties to a bank that received bailout funds put the Los Angeles congresswoman in the spotlight earlier this year. Rep. Maxine Waters a hard-liner for public healthcare option By Richard Simon September 16, 2009 Reporting from Washington - The House Ethics Committee is investigating Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who has come under scrutiny because of her husband's ties to a bank that received federal bailout funds. The panel's chairwoman and ranking member announced the committee is extending by 45 days a determination on whether it will conduct a more thorough...

Israel opposes Kosovo recognition, urges talks Sep 16, 2009 Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Serbia Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic have agreed that new negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina is the only way to achieve a long-term and stable solution for the future status of Kosovo. Lieberman said that direct talks is the only way that a comprehensive peace in the region can be achieved. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, left, and Serbia Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic meet in Serbia September 16, 2009. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, left, and Serbia Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic meet in Serbia September 16,...

"The central point that Ron Paul makes again and again throughout the book, is that not only is the Federal Reserve and the idea of a central bank bad economic policy, it is immoral and criminal. He repeatedly equates the lowering of interest rates with counterfeiting currency."

HOUSTON -- A Houston man said police were called and citations were issued because of his posters of President Barack Obama, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday. Mark Fuhre, 21, admits to hanging the controversial signs which prompted concern for different reasons from neighbors, police and political party leaders. Fuhre said he was detained by police after posting the signs around his Kingwood neighborhood. The signs depict the president with his face painted like the Joker from Batman.

Waters of the earth are about to rise , Some shall meet their maker and their demise , Those that before " Me " have turned and shut their eyes , Yet to my flock , my children I Shall reveal , The opening of a seal , A promise told of long ago , Yet even before I open it now you shall know , Because you daily inquire of ME , Just as David and Zadok you to shall see , My seers , My watchmen through the night , I shall reveal where to be standing through...

Protesters Disrupt UC Regents Board Meeting The Associated Press Sep. 16, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO -- A meeting of the University of California Board of Regents was briefly disrupted by demonstrators protesting layoffs, executive pay and proposals to raise student fees. The regents left the meeting hall at the UCSF campus Wednesday after more than 100 protesters stood up and chanted for about 15 minutes until they were forced out by campus police. Fourteen demonstrators who refused to leave were handcuffed and escorted out of the meeting room. Most of the demonstrators were UC union employees. UC officials are discussing plans...

Letter from Procter & Gamble Exec to Obama. Please read, even if you are an Obama fan. It is legitimate, written by respected, Lou Prichett, formerly of Proctor and Gamble. Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America's true living legends - an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change management. Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as "partnering". Pritchett rose from soap salesman to Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and...

After a banner bounce-back year for Democrats in 2006, many believed the 2008 Senate race was theirs to lose. In 2002, when Coleman was elected with Bush's blessing, 70 percent of Minnesotans approved of the president's performance. By 2008, 70 percent disapproved. A hurricane had flooded New Orleans in 2005, and two years later at the other end of the Mississippi River, an interstate bridge in Minneapolis had collapsed into those waters. Polls showed the state of Minnesota, like the rest of the country, wanted change. The campaign got personal early. Already being knocked around for his jokes and writings,...

Just imagine if after the post-September 11th US attack on Afghanistan, the UN interviewed Taliban and al-Qaida supporters who told lots of lies about the US just to de-legitimize America and to make us look like a war criminal and the terrorists as the victims. And Imagine if the UN published a report based on those tall tales, and called for the US to be punished as a war criminal. That is just what happened to Israel. After suffering years of terrorist attacks at the hands of Hamas terrorists,the United Nations sent South African Judge Richard Goldstone on a fact-finding...

In the old days, countries such as Honduras were pejoratively called "banana republics" because of their reliance on single a crop economy and a strong-arm government servile to a small, wealthy elite. Large American companies could buy their strongmen and effectively make the rules.Honduras is past that, but the United States apparently thinks it is the United Fruit Company and Secretary of State Clinton is Sam Zemurray. Who?Sam Zemurray first owned Cuyamel Fruit (later sold to United Fruit). Worried that taxes in Honduras that would wipe out his company, he smuggled a deposed leader, Manuel Bonilla, back into the country,...

(WXYZ) - Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick could be facing more trouble with the court after coming up short on his restitution payment and paying late on top of that. Action News has learned that Kilpatrick paid $3000 today of the $6000 he is supposed to pay each month. Sources tell Action News that Kilpatrick does not have the money to pay.

The pacifist pansy Jimmy "Peanut" Carter let 53 Americans be held hostage in Iran for 444 days while he stood by and did nothing. The day after he left office and the day Reagan assumed the White House the hostages were set free. Many refer to him as the worst President of all time. Just when you thought his stock could not sink any lower it hit a new bottom.   He recently stated in an interview with NBC's Brian Williams that much of the criticism towards President Barack Obama "is based on the fact that he is a black...

The Obama administration delivered to Congress on Wednesday about 50 measures to determine whether a broad military and nation-building campaign to stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan was succeeding, paving the way for the White House to argue that the American combat effort in the region would not be open-ended. The long-awaited measures were delivered in closed meetings with key members of the House and Senate, just as President Obama emphasized that he would take his time in evaluating a forthcoming request from the military for more combat forces. “My determination is to get this right,” he said, as he met with...

I was just listening to the O'Reilly factor and Bill started saying that he supports a government option for healthcare and that he wants to see one.

Congressional Democrats may yet find a way to abandon the Karzai government to an ignominious fate while minimizing the damage to Mr. Obama's presidency, but the message to the world would be the same as it was in 1975: The United States cannot be trusted, and Washington is willing to abandon vulnerable allies because of short-sighted domestic political score-settling. The shame of Vietnam is still with us, and we may yet see Americans being helicoptered from Kabul rooftops ahead of advancing Taliban forces. There are some things you can step in twice.

The Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza ConflictThe title of the so-called "Goldstone Report" tells you what the UN "fact finders" were looking for. They couldn't completely ignore the years of increasingly long-range and accurate Hamas rockets and mortars terrorizing nearly a million Israelis and couldn't completely ignore Hamas's use of civilians as shields, so next best was to equate aggressor and defender, arsonist and fireman. With excruciating evenhandedness, "the mission concluded that actions amounting to war crimes and possibly in some respect crimes against humanity were committed by the Israel Defense Forces." At the...

Washington, D.C. Favorite Area For Wealthy Young By Patricia Reaney – Sep 16 NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Washington, D.C. has become the favorite area for wealthy young adults, with the nation's highest percentage of 25-34 year-olds making more than $100,000 a year, according to a new analysis. Sixteen of the top 50 counties in the United States with the highest share of wealthy young people are in the Washington, D.C. area. Loudoun county, which is part of the Washington metropolitan area, has 10 percent, or 10,327 young adults, making more than six figures -- more than San Francisco and...

If you plan to attend the protest with Sean Hannity tomorrow and don't know what to wear, print this reversed on a t-shirt iron-on.

The global warming narrative - that mankind's addiction to burning fossil fuels is rapidly changing the climate - may be about to go seriously off message. Far from suggesting the planet will get warmer, one of the world's leading climate modellers says the latest data indicates we could be in for a significant period of steady temperatures and possibly even a little global cooling. Professor Mojib Latif, from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University in Germany, has been looking at the influence of cyclical changes to ocean currents and temperatures in the Atlantic, a feature known as...