Free Republic

More details on the appalling bailout of AIG. [Neil Barofsky's report on the AIG bailout is] must reading for any taxpayer hoping to understand why the $182 billion “rescue” of what was once the world’s largest insurer still ranks as the most troubling episode of the financial disaster. And it couldn’t have come at a more pivotal moment... [T]he actions taken in the deal by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the time, grow curiouser and curiouser.

each Rep allowed one minute to speak.

Councilman Sam Adams easily won the Portland mayoral race, making this city the largest in the U.S. to ever elect an openly gay mayor. Adams avoided a November runoff, with 58 percent of the votes after more than 80 percent of the ballots were counted Tuesday night. Businessman Sho Dozono had 34 percent and almost a dozen minor candidates split the rest. Adams, 44, said his main goals are improving the economy, reducing the dropout rate in schools and preparing for an influx of people to the region

NEW YORK: What are the consequences of a world in which regulators rescue even the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed helped create the titanic credit mess we are in? Will the consequences in the United States be an even weaker currency, rampant inflation, a continuation of the slow bleed that we have witnessed at banks and brokerage firms for the past year? Or all of the above? Stick around, because we'll soon find out. And it's not going to be pretty. Agreeing to guarantee a 28-day credit line to Bear Stearns, by way of JPMorgan Chase, the Federal Reserve...

Democrats have long served as the traditional enemy of Big Pharma, but in this presidential campaign, the left is taking the lion's share of drugmaker money. Democratic senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the top recipients of donations from the pharmaceutical industry, according to The Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit, non-partisan research group in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, donations to Sen. John McCain, who was recently endorsed by President Bush as the official Republican candidate, pale in comparison.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House on Thursday defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi against Republican criticism that her desire to fly in an Air Force transport plane is an extravagance. "This is a silly story and I think it's been unfair to the speaker," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Bush Once Again Ignores Reality In Iraq Today, President Bush once again refused to acknowledge the facts on the ground in Iraq. In a week when major news outlets agreed that Iraq is now mired in a civil war and when U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said that "we are almost" seeing a civil war, President Bush continues to stick by his stay-the-course rhetoric. [Washington Post, 11/27/06; Today, NBC, 11/27/06; MSNBC, 11/27/06] According to the Associated Press, President Bush declared "that an al-Qaida plot to stoke cycles of sectarian revenge in Iraq is to blame for escalating bloodshed, refusing to...

President George W Bush has announced that the US is to boost its aid package to Lebanon to $230m. The money would be used to help rebuild Lebanese homes and infrastructure, he told reporters at the White House. He also called for the quick deployment of a peacekeeping force for Lebanon. "The need is urgent," he said. The international community must designate the leadership of the force and give it a "robust mandate" as soon as possible, he said. A UN resolution calls for 15,000 troops to uphold the week-old ceasefire. Mr Bush said he hoped France would send more...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday called on the U.S. Congress to hold hearings into BP's operations in Alaska following a second oil pipeline rupture at its Prudhoe Bay operations over the weekend that will shut the 400,000 barrel-a-day oilfield. "It is appalling that BP let this critical pipeline deteriorate to the point that a major production shutdown was necessary," said Rep. John Dingell (news, bio, voting record), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a statement. "The United States Congress has an obligation to hold hearings to...

JERUSALEM -- A top Israeli government official said Friday that Israel might release Palestinian prisoners as part of an Egyptian proposal to win freedom for an Israeli soldier held by militants in Gaza. It marked the first time Israel has expressed willingness to cut a deal for the release of the soldier, who was seized June 25 by Hamas-affiliated militants. Avi Dichter, Israel's minister of public security, said that once the Israeli soldier is released and militants stop rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel could release Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture. "The release of the soldier, Gilad Shalit, will be...

WASHINGTON -- With Democrats plotting to make the minimum wage a major issue in this fall's congressional races, House Republican leaders are conceding that they may have to yield to pressure for an increase to the federal standard, which has been frozen for nearly a decade. Faced with elections that could cost them control of Congress, John A. Boehner, the House majority leader, acknowledged Thursday that Republican leaders are likely to reverse course and hold a vote on a proposed minimum wage increase. Though Boehner said it was a ``cynical ploy" for Democrats to make it a campaign centerpiece, polls...

Conservatives, nationwide are getting angry about the loss of principle by GOP'ers in office. Big spending in Washington and Sacramento. The inability to control illegal aliens. Failure to protect jobs and the failure to stop the social agenda of liberals in our schools in finally causing conservatives to say NO to GOP incumbents, even if it means we could lose seats in a legislative body. The thought is simple, why protect a Republican running for office if their voting record will differ little from the Democrats. In Utah, GOP Congressman Chris Cannon could not win his Parties endorsement for re-election--his...

A federal appeals court has delivered a major victory to the gay-rights movement by ruling that Ohio officials can discipline public employees who discriminate, even if the workers say they are following religious beliefs. The decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati is an important legal development because it means employers can enforce workplace policies that forbid bias based on sexual orientation. Had the ruling gone the other way, those workplace policies could have been in jeopardy. It appears to be the first case of its kind from Ohio and it may yet be headed to...

While campaigning to get to where he is now, Jon Corzine boldly promised to increase property tax rebate checks for all eligible New Jerseyans. We've been told the Governor is mulling raising the sales tax from 6% to 7% as well expanding the sales tax include items not currently subject to the levy. Corzine is also said to be considering imposing an income tax surcharge and hiking the cigarette tax a whopping 60-cents a pack. Is the Governor poised to renege on his campaign trail property tax pledge? It is possible. Asked if still intends to fully restore the rebates,...

Two college students arrested Wednesday in a string of nine rural Alabama church arsons told authorities that the first fires were set as “a joke” and later blazes were intended as a diversion, federal agents said. A third college student was arrested later Wednesday in the serial arsons, according to WVTM-TV of Birmingham. Benjamin Nathan Moseley and Russell Lee Debusk Jr., both students at Birmingham-Southern College, appeared in federal court Wednesday and were ordered held on church arson charges pending a hearing Friday. Matthew Lee Cloyd, reportedly a student at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, was arrested midday, the...

Ex-prostitute says he won't bow out of state House race DALLAS (AP) - A man running for state representative acknowledged that he once worked as a prostitute but said he's turned his life around and doesn't regret his past. Tom Malin, who has also sold Mary Kay cosmetics and now markets electricity, conceded that his illicit past could cost him the nomination in the March 7 Democratic primary. "I've made mistakes in my life, and I've stood before my creator and I've accepted responsibility for my behavior," Malin said in Friday's Dallas Morning News. On his campaign Web page, Malin...

Md. Judge Strikes Down Gay-Marriage Ban (AP) BALTIMORE A judge on Friday struck down a 33-year-old Maryland law against same-sex marriage, agreeing with 19 gay men and women that it violates the state constitution's guarantee of equal rights. The ruling by Judge M. Brooke Murdock rejected a state argument that the government had a legitimate interest in protecting the traditional family unit of heterosexual parents. "Although tradition and societal values are important, they cannot be given so much weight that they alone will justify a discriminatory" law, she wrote. The judge immediately stayed her order to give the state time...

Windows OneCare™ Live beta Comprehensive PC health for people who have other things to think about What it is:An automatically self-updating PC health service that runs quietly in the background. It helps give you persistent protection against viruses, hackers, and other threats, and helps keep your PC tuned up and your important documents backed up. What it does for you: • Runs quietly in the background, providing anti-virus and firewall protection • Updates itself to help you keep ahead of the latest threats • Runs regular PC tune ups • Provides one-click solutions to most problems • Makes back-ups...

Nov 19, 2005 — HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam police have arrested British rocker Gary Glitter on a child molestation charge, a state-run newspaper reported on Sunday. The Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper quoted immigration police at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat airport as saying Glitter — whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd — was arrested while trying to board a plane to Bangkok on Saturday morning. Immigration police at the airport declined to comment. The state-run youth newspaper said police escorted Glitter back to the southern resort town of Vung Tau where, according to state-run Vietnamese media, he...

US ex president Jimmy Carter labeled as "completely unjustified" that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has led the acts against US President George W. Bush in parallel to the Summit of the Americas held in the Argentinean city of Mar del Plata, AFP reported. "I think that leading a demonstration against the US president is completely unjustified," Carter told CNN news channel, which aired on live the ceremony closed by Chávez before an audience of 40,000 in a sports stadium. In the ex president's view, Chávez is "a difficult person. I know it for my own experience."