Free Republic

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) -- President Barack Obama stood, eyes closed, in a personal moment of silence before the tomb of slain Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, whose fight for the poor during El Salvador's bloody civil war made him a national hero - and an international figure in human rights. The visit Tuesday in the final hours of Obama's five-day swing through Latin America was a symbolic gesture that some called U.S. recognition of Romero's cause. Obama toured the national cathedral with Monsignor Jose Luis Escobar Alas, the current archbishop, and paid respects to a man ordered...

Alas it is Alahs!Thursday , May 14 , 2009 - If your hangdog husband cries “Alas” every time his football team loses, know that he is suffering from ‘Alahs’... Wives and girlfriends of fanatical football fans are probably inured to their partners turning into characters from a Bret Easton Ellis novel whenever their team loses. But supporters of the Gunners may have displayed symptoms of what is being dubbed “Arsenal Lost At Home Syndrome” (ALAHS) after the team were soundly beaten 3-1 last Wednesday night by Manchester United. Despite the name, the syndrome can affect supporters of any losing team....

At the Cross, piano 1. Alas! and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for sinners such as I? Refrain: At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away; it was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. 2. Was it for crimes that I have done, he groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree! (Refrain) 3. Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut its glories...

Our hollow prosperity-------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 15, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern PATRICK BUCHANAN © 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc. Now that the U.S. trade deficit for 2005 has come in at $726 billion, the fourth straight all-time record, a question arises. What constitutes failure for a free-trade policy? Or is there no such thing? Is free trade simply right no matter the results? Last year, the United States ran a $202 billion trade deficit with China, the largest ever between two nations. We ran all-time record trade deficits with OPEC, the European Union, Japan, Canada and Latin America. The $50 billion deficit...

Many feared George W. Bush would nominate a Supreme Court justice in the mold of David Souter, Anthony Kenney or Sandra Day O'Connor – Republicans in name only, with no real principles or convictions, the kind of people who would be swept up by the Beltway culture to become, at best, unpredictable votes in future rulings. It appears that fear has been unfounded. In fact, in nominating Harriet Miers, Bush, who pledged to seek out candidates in the mold of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, has found someone with more in common with the likes of activist Ruth Bader Ginsburg....

George W. Bush has just rung the death knell for his presidency. For the Supreme Court of the United States, a president under fire for cronyism has chosen the ultimate crony. For the highest court in the land, a president criticized for a lack of gravitas has chosen a woman who the president's own former speechwriter describes as "a taut, nervous, anxious personality." For one of the nine highest legal positions in the entire country, this president has ignored dozens of candidates with impeccable credentials -- top law school honors, judicial clerkships, distinguished careers in academia, lengthy experience arguing cases...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. U.S. Trade Flows Number of full containers that arrived in Port of Los Angeles, July, 1999 (imports): 176,444 Number of full containers that arrived in Port of Los Angeles, July, 2005 (imports): 352,417 Number of full containers that left Port of Los Angeles, July, 1999 (exports): 66,948 Number of empty containers that left Port of Los Angeles, July, 1999 (exports): 78,280 Number of full containers that left Port of Los Angeles, July, 2005 (exports): 97,457 Number of empty containers that left Port of Los Angeles, July, 2005 (exports): 194,116 Percentage of...

Friday night, the Bush presidency was in grave trouble. TV reporters at the New Orleans convention center and Superdome were fairly weeping for food and water for the visibly suffering thousands, on the fifth day after Katrina hit. Saturday, the cavalry had arrived. All day, the truckloads of troops, helicopters and relief columns moved in. By nightfall, the convention center and Superdome had been evacuated, and reporters who had been howling only hours before were cheering. By Sunday, responsibility for the disaster was being shifted by Bush aides and media allies to the mayor of New Orleans and Louisiana Gov....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. JESUP --- Why the Central America Free Trade Agreement? Why should anyone want to integrate the United States with Mexico and Canada, and destroy everything we know and love? Our country is so different in freedom from other countries in the world. The Council on Foreign Relations has a 59-page document establishing a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a "common outer security perimeter." This plan calls for massive U.S. foreign aid to the other countries. It demands we implement "the...

[...] It's progressive politicians who should be paying more attention. More than a hundred years ago, Charles Dickens's cockeyed optimist, Wilkins Micawber, explained to David Copperfield that the difference between happiness and misery involves the positive or negative difference between income and expenses. [...] As the government confirmed once again last week, rising costs have outpaced stagnant wages in ten of the last 12 months. [...] The Bush administration is in an ideological straitjacket. But progressive politicians have several issues they should raise, particularly long overdue increases in the minimum wage and the earned income tax credit -- kitchen table...

The New GOP Betrays America Diane Alden Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005 The biblical truth "Hope deferred makes the heart sick" described my state of mind on July 27, 2005. That was when the House Republican leadership stopped the clock on the CAFTA vote because they didn't like the way it was going. It gets more and more difficult to write about politics. The hope some of us placed in Republicans was misplaced. We had hope they might make a small attempt to lead this nation back to constitutional government: limited government. Hoping Republicans will be conservative, constitutional or less venal...

The United States continues its descent into the Third World, but you would never know it from news reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' July payroll jobs release. The media give a bare-bones jobs report that is misleading. The public heard that 207,000 jobs were created in July. If not a reassuring figure, at least it is not a disturbing one. On the surface, things look to be pretty much OK. It is when you look into the composition of these jobs that the concern arises. Of the new jobs, 26,000 (about 13 percent) are tax-supported government jobs. That...

The June payroll jobs report did not receive much attention due to the July 4 holiday, but the depressing 21st century job performance of the U.S. economy continues unabated. Only 144,000 private sector jobs were created, each one of which was in domestic services. Fifty-six thousand jobs were created in professional and business services, about half of which are in administrative and waste services. Thirty-eight thousand jobs were created in education and health services, almost all of which are in health care and social assistance. Nineteen thousand jobs were created in leisure and hospitality, almost all of which are waitresses...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. EMPORIA, Kan. - Days after merging with a rival, the owners of a Kansas radiator plant said Monday the factory will close in September and leave 130 people unemployed. The Modine Manufacturing Co. plant opened in Emporia in 1973 to build sheet-metal radiators for Ford Motor Co. On Friday, Modine's aftermarket division merged with Transpro Inc., a Connecticut-based competitor, to form Proliance International Inc. The merger will move production to two existing plants in Mexico, and the Emporia facility will be sold. Two regional plants and branch distribution centers in Denver...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Proponents of so-called "free" trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which I opposed, have long promised endless riches for U.S. workers, farmers, businesses and economy. They've been wrong on all counts. Failed U.S. trade policies have led to the export of millions of high-paying American jobs; decline in U.S. living standards; soaring trade deficits; and a significant erosion of U.S. sovereignty to international trade bureaucrats. Despite this unbroken record of failure, the House is expected to vote before August on an agreement the Bush administration negotiated to...

Washington -- DURING the cold war, as the Soviet economic system slowly unraveled, internal reform was impossible because highly placed officials who recognized the systemic disorders could not talk about them honestly. The United States is now in an equivalent predicament. Its weakening position in the global trading system is obvious and ominous, yet leaders in politics, business, finance and the news media are not willing to discuss candidly what is happening and why. Instead, they recycle the usual bromides about the benefits of free trade and assurances that everything will work out for the best. Much like Soviet leaders,...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The proposed trade pact is fatally flawed in its present form A current radio commercial urges Alabamians to oppose CAFTA "because CAFTA rhymes with NAFTA" and references the opposition to NAFTA of H. Ross Perot, the erstwhile presidential candidate who once claimed President George H.W. Bush was plotting to disrupt Perot's daughter's wedding. No, that ad doesn't give you much meat to chew on. Anyone who would oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement (or CAFTA-DR, now that leaders in the Dominican Republic have come aboard) on the basis of that...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. As data gathered in the real world of international rivalry continues to show an expanding U.S. trade deficit that will likely hit $700 billion this year (up from $617 billion last year), a great wailing is heard from the Defenders of Free Trade. Their libertarian economic faith is immune to facts, either from present observation or historical experience. That's what makes it a secular religion. Nothing better reveals its reliance on superstition and ignorance than how readily its adherents resort to falsehoods to defend its dogma. Consider two recent columns that...

SUMMARY: Registration fee rankles some medical marijuana proponents, but hardly is unreasonable. Adam Smith famously said there's no free lunch, meaning everything costs something. Were he in Montana today, Smith might add that there's no free pot, either. A story first published in the Dec. 22 Missoulian and since found careening around the world through the Internet quoted a backer of Montana's new medical marijuana law complaining about the registration fee for people signing up to make use of marijuana to alleviate pain and other symptoms from serious illness. That fee is $200. "Extortion," declares one participant in the marijuana.com...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. MOUNTAINTOP, Pa. - A Luzerne County perfume factory is closing at the end of the year, leaving 200 people out of work. New Dana Perfumes Inc., the maker of fragrances including Tabu, English Leather and Love's Baby Soft, will close its plant in Wright Township, said Peter Schreiber of Dimeling, Schreiber & Park, the Philadelphia investment firm that bought the perfume-manufacturing operation in July 1999 Dana Classic Fragrances Inc., which holds the trademark to the names and formulas and markets and sells the perfumes, will continue to operate - but officials...