Free Republic

Long notes Doheny called Scozzafava “terrific” in a July 23, 2009 Watertown Times article and pledged to do “everything I can for her and more.” He subsequently contributed $2,400 to Scozzafava’s campaign – the maximum allowed by law.

People need to stop their obsession with Obama’s flaws, real or imaginary. He may in fact be narcissistic, incompetent or tone deaf. SO WHAT? He wins. He wins all the time, everywhere about everything. He and his cronies have poured sugar into America’s gas tanks, thrown sand in America’s geartrain, poisoned our collective well and monkey wrenched everything that is not nailed down, glued in place and painted over! Quick show of hands. Does anyone believe a Rasmussen Poll of the Kulaks in 1930 Soviet Union would have shown overwhelming support for Stalin’s Policies? SO WHAT? It did NOT MATTER!

Consumer Spending Across All Income Groups Down in August by Dennis Jacobe, Chief EconomistSeptember 9, 2010AugustYear-over-year self-reported spending is down compared with July 2010 and August 2009 PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' self-reported average daily spending in stores, restaurants, gas stations, and online averaged $63 per day during August -- down $5 from July, and down $2 compared with August 2009. Consumer discretionary year-over-year spending is thus running just slightly below the depressed "new normal" rate of a year ago.[snip]

Public pension debt looms as budget busterBy Rep. Kathy Chase September 09, 2010 2:00 AM Maine faces a deepening crisis in its public pension system, as burgeoning costs threaten to squeeze out other government programs and vastly complicate the process of putting together the next state budget. The root of the problem is the "unfunded actuarial liability" (UAL) in the accounts that pay pensions to retired teachers and state workers. The $4.4 billion shortfall, which was announced in July, has set off alarm bells in the Statehouse. Budget experts are now pondering the impact of pension payment obligations that have...

With comprehensive health reform signed into law by President Obama a little less than six months ago, a high-ranking delegation of health care experts from Minnesota and Washington, D.C. will meet in Berlin, Sept. 14-20, for a seminar on health care policy that compares the U.S. and German systems. This is the second consecutive year that the University of Minnesota's Center for German and European Studies has organized this trip. This year's focus is on health insurance. The new legislation calls for the creation of state-based health insurance exchanges and Minnesota is positioning itself to maintain its national leadership role...

Have you forgotten how it felt that day? To see your homeland under fire And her people blown away Have you forgotten when those towers fell? We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden Have you forgotten? -- Darryl Whorley, "Have you forgotten?"

From Servitude to Bondage By: Larry Walker, Jr. War has oft been used as an excuse for raising taxes, and tax hikes have sometimes led to war. Prior to the imposition of the income tax, the federal government’s primary source of revenue was through tariff duties. Tariffs were taxes imposed on certain imported goods which were produced by cheap foreign labor. Protectionists demanded higher tariffs to protect Northern industries from cheaper imports. Southerners favored lower tariffs as a means of encouraging foreigners to import their cotton and other agricultural exports. Some historians say that it was the bad blood over...

THOMASTON, Ga. (AP) - An Upson County couple is suing a grocery store chain in federal court, claiming that the husband found a used tampon in his bowl of cereal. According to the complaint, Thomas and Lynn Roddenberry said they bought a box of Chocolate Chip Crunch cereal from the Save-A-Lot store in Thomaston in October 2008. A day after buying the cereal, Thomas Roddenberry said he discovered the tampon in his bowl after taking a bite of the cereal.

President Barack Obama's motorcade drives towards the White House past Tea Party protesters on Pennsylvania Avenue as he returns from playing basketball at Fort McNair in Washington, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

EXCERPTS Pool arrived at Fort McNair at 9:21 a.m. Your pooler did not see the president as he exited. Am told by White House staff that Reggie Love is playing basketball with the POTUS today - that's the only name your pooler has so far. No sign of any NBA all stars this time. (snip) Motorcade departed Fort McNair at 11:18 a.m. Arrived at the White House at 11:35 a.m. As we drove through the National Mall, your pooler could see a crowd of about 100-200 on the Capitol steps to the right and small groups to the left setting...

1:15 of reasons NOT to vote for Cuomo.

Yeah, um, let’s read the quote in context .....

Horizon Bank Fails; 2010 Total at 119By Philip van Doorn 09/11/10 - 10:42 AM EDT BRADENTON, Fla. (TheStreet) - Florida regulators on Friday shut down Horizon Bank of Bradenton, bringing the total number of bank failures for 2010 to 119. The failed bank was included in TheStreet's Bank Watch List of undercapitalized institutions, based on second-quarter regulatory data provided by SNL Financial. Horizon Bank was undercapitalized since the second quarter of 2009, when a $6.9 million net loss pushed the institution's Tier 1 leverage ratio down to 4.04% and its total risk-based capital ratio to 6.66%. These ratios need to...

The Republican party's candidate in Delaware says he won't be caught off guard by the Tea Party in the final days before Tuesday's primary. Mike Castle, the moderate Republican congressman whose Senate bid has the support of the state GOP, is trying to avoid becoming the next Lisa Murkowski. Sen. Murkowski, the Republican incumbent in Alaska, was ousted by a Tea Party challenger last month. Soon after her defeat, she phoned Castle with a warning, the congressman tells CNN. "I actually received a call after the election saying, 'Mike, you need to be prepared, they'll come at you hard,' "...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) on Sunday strongly criticized Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam seeking to build an Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero. “He seems by his actions to be more interested in confrontation than in healing,” Giuliani said on NBC’s "Meet the Press." The former mayor alleged that the plan is hurtful to the vast majority of family members of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Giuliani also said the imam has not been transparent about the project’s financing, and cited Rauf’s 2001 comment on CBS’s 60 Minutes that “United States...

Two traditionalist Anglican clerics have announced they are to be received into the Catholic Church. Giles Pinnock, the vicar of St Mary-the-Virgin in Kenton, north London, told parishioners on Saturday that he was leaving the Church of England for the Catholic Church, while Robin Farrow told parishioners at St Peter’s in West Blatchington, East Sussex, in his Sunday homily that he was converting to Catholicism. Fr Pinnock said: “The particular decision to leave this parish has been harder than the joyful decision to be received into the Catholic Church – although the two are of necessity connected, and as the...

Should Tiger be included on the Ryder Cup Team? Is he a former PGA phenom? Without question. Did he have an exceptional 2010 season? No, he had a decidedly lackluster 2010 season. Was he the first African-American golfer to achieve superstar status and retain it over several seasons? Aha! I think that could be the key! When we put together an Olympic hockey or soccer team, we don’t select a player who is the first Croatian-American who plays a mediocre hockey or soccer game, and who happens to be grappling with some emotional problems. No, we go for the guys...

I recall the Standard's John McCormack getting pushed into the gutter once, shame he hasn't had the wherewithal to lift himself out of it, yet. It strikes me as odd that some are so willing to assist Mike Castle in what amounts to the politics of personal destruction against his challenger, Christine O'Donnell, yet none of these supposedly Right-side publications have any interest at all in exposing Mike Castle's alleged corruption during his many years in Congress. In 2006, the Washington Post pointed out the cost to taxpayers of sweetheart deals struck between elected officials like Castle and lobbying firms...

Build it or We'll Keeeeeel You! Imam Ralph came right out and said it to Soledad O'Brien when she asked him about the possibility of moving the mosque site:  Rauf gave a reply that boils down to a threat. Rauf said that if his Cordoba House does not get built on his chosen site near Ground Zero, “The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack.” As for the message Rauf’s words might impart to the many Americans who oppose his project, his warning doesn’t sound like bridge-building. It sounds like blackmail. (Forbes - Claudia Rosett) Doctor...

Benedict XVI’s trip to Britain will feature strong ecumenical moments, but the focus will be more on what Christians can do together than on issues still dividing them, the Vatican’s top ecumenist has said. Archbishop Kurt Koch, the new president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said there were problems in the Anglican-Catholic dialogue, “but it is important to speak about what we have in common”. When Pope Benedict and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, lead evening prayer together on September 17, he said, “the Christian communities will be challenged to work and pray together to...