Free Republic

If you’re the basic, ignorant wingnut whose only source of “information” is Faux News — and you know you are — then you’re probably unaware that the race for the Rethuglican nomination is already over. Yes, troglodytes, since we are far more enlightened and evolved than you Neanderthals — not that there’s anything wrong with Neanderthals! — we and our compadres in the mainstream media have already selected the top of the ticket for you. No muss, no fuss: Why go through all the tsuris, agony, and expense of the primary season when you can just get it all over...

Herman Cain's speech at RightOnline, 2011, Minneapolis, MN

In today’s article in Bloomberg View I explore reasons for the current weak recovery, and in particular whether there is an analogy with what happened in the recession of 1937-38 which interrupted the recovery from the Great Depression. Several charts elaborate on numbers provided there which argue against such an analogy. The first one relates to fiscal policy. It shows the ups and downs of real GDP growth in the 1930s and the contributions to that growth coming directly from government purchases and other components of GDP. (The data come from this interactive table at the Bureau of Economic...

Newt Gingrich's presidential dreams are in tatters this afternoon after his entire high command resigned in a mass exodus today. The Republican hopeful's campaign manager, senior strategists and key aides in early delegate-selection states all walked out this afternoon, but refused to say why - other than a 'difference in direction'. Rick Tyler, Gingrich's spokesman, said he, campaign manager Rob Johnson and senior strategists were among those who had resigned. 'When the campaign and the candidate disagree on the path, they've got to part ways,' Mr Tyler told the Washington Post this afternoon.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, naturally, isn't attending this year, and his likely successor Christine Lagarde is in China, but the Bilderberg Conference which kicks off in the Swiss resort of St. Moritz on Thursday retains its conspiratorial chic and pulling power. The attendee list of Bilderberg is still pretty much the only thing that is not a closely guarded secret, as 120 of the world's richest and most powerful people meet behind closed doors, this time at the Suvretta House hotel in Switzerland, a venue which not only boasts a "fairytale castle" design, but also its own "Teddy World." U.K. Prime Minister...

Portsmouth, New Hampshire (CNN) - For all the speculation about her motives, Sarah Palin ended the first leg of her unconventional nationwide bus tour by doing something very candidate-like: Meeting a top elected official over coffee at a quaint New Hampshire diner. The potential White House hopeful sat down with Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, one of Palin's so-called "Mama Grizzlies" from the 2010 election cycle, at the Golden Egg Diner in Portsmouth. [snip]Before heading to the airport for a flight back to Alaska, Palin said she plans to take her bus tour out West, following an upcoming Midwest swing...

      QUANTICO NATIONAL CEMETERY — When I was a kid, we called May 30 "Decoration Day." It was an occasion for Boy Scouts to be up before dawn and report, in uniform, to the American Legion hall. There, Cub Scouts would be paired with older Boy Scouts, organized into detachments of a dozen or so and issued bags of small American flags. The groups then "deployed" in station wagons and pickup trucks to local cemeteries and churchyards, where we placed Old Glory on every veteran's grave. Later in the morning, there was a parade down Main Street, led by...

Just caught Beck on the car radio. A quick summary. After Huckabee emailed Beck about Beck calling him a "progressive" on air, Huckabee also followed it up with a piece on his site ridiculing Beck and his "bugga bear" conspiracy theories. Beck played it on the air this morning. After playing Huckabee's comments, Beck detailed how Huckabee (a Christian and someone who he has met, interviewed and knows many people who are friends of Mike Huckabee -- and that his comments are in response to Huckabee's big government politics) isn't a conservative and is someone who raised taxes when he...

Blacksburg, VA, April 11 – Long time New River Valley native Joseph Yost announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination to Virginia‟s 12th District House of Delegates seat. Yost is a dedicated Republican and has been an active member of the Montgomery County Republican Party since 2009. During that time, he has served in various leadership positions including secretary of the Party, precinct captain during the last two election cycles, and Parliamentarian. He also serves as Chair of the Roanoke/New River Valley Young Republicans. When asked what issues he sees as the forefront of his campaign, Yost said, “the needs...

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Government ‘shutdown’ a result of politics Joseph Schillmoeller, Las Vegas Friday, April 8, 2011 | 2:03 a.m. First, let’s put this hysteria to bed. The government “shutdown” being contemplated is not a shutdown at all. Essential services like the Homeland Security Department (including the Transportation Security Administration), the FBI, the CIA, the Defense Department (military personnel) and many other federal offices will be fully operational and functioning. Thus, the use of such doomsday language is disingenuous at best. Second, the reason we are in this situation is due to political strategy. The Democratic Party controlled the...

MIAMI (AFP) – Last year's record hurricane season will be followed by another unusually busy one, with 16 named storms expected this year, US weather forecasters predicted on Wednesday. Forecasters at Colorado State University are predicting that nine of the named storms that form in the Atlantic will develop into hurricanes. "We expect that anomalously warm tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures combined with neutral tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures will contribute to an active season," said Phil Klotzbach of CSU's Tropical Meteorology Project. Weather-watchers at CSU said the unusually busy hurricane activity expected this year, like last year's record storm...

For the second time, Sarah Palin is weighing in on a major Wisconsin election. The former Republican governor of Alaska is endorsing incumbent David Prosser in Tuesday’s contest for the State Supreme Court. Prosser is running against Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg – and a Prosser victory would continue a 4-3 conservative majority on the state’s highest court. Palin announced her support for Prosser on Twitter this morning. It comes a day after Prosser lost one of his honorary campaign co-chairs, as former Democratic Governor Pat Lucey decided to back Kloppenburg instead. Last year, Palin ruffled feathers by endorsing prosecutor...

Bolivia blames capitalism Mexico: Bolivian President Evo Morales said capitalism was responsible for climate change in his speech at the Climate Change Summit Thursday and he insisted on the need for the developed countries to make new commitments to reduce their greenhouse effect gas emissions. “We are sometimes debating only the effects of global warming, and not the causes, and we should be responsible and debate those causes,” said the Bolivian President in the high level segment of the 16th Climatic Change Summit in Cancun. Morales recalled the responsibility of the Governments so that key decisions are adopted to face...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's proposed budget for fiscal 2012 will seek to cut the record federal deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years, White House budget director Jack Lew said Sunday. Lew, speaking on CNN, said the president was also on track to halve the budget deficit by the end of his first term in office, which goes through 2012.

President Barack Obama's second year in office has polarized the US as a 68 point gap divides the two major political camps in the country over his performance, a recent Gallup poll shows. In fact, no president since President Dwight Eisenhower, over 50 years ago, has had a more polarizing second year than Obama. Results revealed that 81 percent of Democrats and only 13 percent of Republicans have expressed their approval of the condition, indicating a whopping 68 point approval gap between the two parties. The poll linked Obama's disapproval rating to the poorly performing economy, adding that "the other...

It's clear why American liberals hate Sarah Palin. It's obvious why she gets under their skin. The woman is on their minds all the time. Palin has emerged as the spokeswoman of the right — a speaker for all seasons and all situations. When Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot by a crazed gunman on Jan. 8, Palin became the designated spokeswoman for the conservative movement in the United States. A few weeks later, after President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union address, sure enough, Palin appeared as the rebuttal voice. The woman is a 2011 phenomenon....

A report by the University of the Pacific’s Business Forecasting Center says that California can expect to see little change in the economic climate for the next three years. The Stockton, California based university’s forecast, released this week, concentrates on Northern and Central California, though it projects a statewide unemployment rate above 10 percent for the next three years. Currently at 12.4 percent, the rate is not expected to dip below double digits until 2014, when the school sees the number at 9.6, currently the national average. California has lost approximately 1.3 million jobs since the summer of 2007, when...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. budget deficit this year will jump nearly 40 percent over prior forecasts, mostly due to the mammoth tax-cut package brokered by President Barack Obama and lawmakers last month, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. The CBO said the fiscal 2011 deficit will hit $1.48 trillion, up from last August's $1.07 trillion estimate, which was crafted before Bush-era tax rates were extended at a cost of $858 billion over 10 years. The CBO "estimates that the act (renewing tax cuts) will increase the deficit by $390 billion in 2011, by $407 billion in 2012 and...

On June 23, 1911 the Miami Metropolis published predictions about the year 2011 from the one and only Tommy "Dumbo Killah" Edison. Edison makes some amazing predictions about a future of golden automobiles, the discontinuation of gold as currency, the rise of steel and the death of the steam engine. I'm especially interested in his prediction about books of the year 2011. Edison claimed that books would be printed on leaves of nickel, "so light to hold that the reader can enjoy a small library in a single volume." On June 23, 1911 the Miami Metropolis published predictions about the...