Free Republic

Statewide, median sales prices fell by a stunning 26% from year-ago levels in February, with home prices dropping at a rate of nearly $3,000 a week, the California Association of Realtors reports. Further, the CAR says the Fed's interest rate-cutting campaign "will have little near-term direct effect on the housing market."

No sooner had Luis Plata sat down then he started talking about the Irish economic transformation -- from impoverished ugly duckling to swanky swan of Europe in just two decades -- and why a similar growth model is just what Colombia needs. Some of the necessary policy adjustments are already under way in Bogotá, he said, and with any success, the reforms can be deepened. But the big question mark is whether the U.S. Congress will approve the pending Free Trade Agreement. The FTA, Mr. Plata explained, is as important to Colombia's growth as European Union membership has been to...

Some social conservatives even dismiss his achievement in reviving New York before 9/11. An August story on the Web site Right Wing News, for instance, claims that Mr. Giuliani governed Gotham from "left of center." Similarly, conservatives have been feeding the press a misleading collection of quotations by and about Mr. Giuliani, on tax policy and school choice issues, assembled to make him look like a liberal. Mr. Giuliani may be the most conservative candidate on a wide range of issues. Far from being a liberal, he ran New York with a conservative's priorities. Government exists above all to keep...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is teaming up with ArvinMeritor, an auto component supplier, to develop a diesel-electric hybrid truck that may be the first of its kind in North America. The companies said in a news release this week they had agreed to develop a dual-mode, diesel-electric drivetrain for a class 8 truck, called the "workhorse of the U.S. long-distance trucking industry" by ArvinMeritor. "We've been working on development of hybrid drivetrains for some time," said Carsten J. Reinhardt, president of ArvinMeritor's Commercial Vehicle Systems business, in the news release. "This class 8 project is a major step in our continuing...

In a speech last week, Al Gore took another swing at the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance program, which monitors international communications when one party is affiliated with terrorists. Specifically, Mr. Gore argued that George Bush "has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently," and that such actions might constitute an impeachable offense. The question he raises is whether the president illegally bypassed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But the real issue is national security: FISA is as adept at detecting--and, thus, preventing--a terrorist attack as a horse-and-buggy is at getting us from New York to Paris. I have...

It's hard not to listen to the reviews of the Democrats' performance in the Alito hearings and come away thinking that much of our party is living in a parallel universe.Most of the political establishment has concluded that the Democrats were: (a) ineffectual; (b) egomaniacal; (c) desperately grasping at straws; (d) downright offensive; or (e) some combination of the above. The American people, outside of those living in deep-blue enclaves, either were not paying attention or concluded that Sam Alito seemed like a pretty decent guy who was more than qualified. And if they saw anything about it on TV,...

The nation's strongest laws against sprawl are beginning to buckle here in Oregon under pressure from an even stronger, voter-approved law that trumps growth restrictions with property rights. In a collision between two radically different visions of how cities should grow, claims under Oregon's new law are pitting neighbor against neighbor, rattling real estate values, unnerving bankers and spooking politicians. The property-rights law, which was approved overwhelmingly by voters last fall and is known as Measure 37, is on the brink of wrecking Oregon's best-in-the-nation record of reining in sprawl, according to state officials and national planning experts.

THE MIDDLE EAST MEDIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE Special Dispatch Series - No. 777 September 3, 2004 No.777 Middle East Analyst on the Important News about Iraq In an article in the English language daily Arab News, Middle East analyst Amir Taheri discusses the democratic developments in Iraq. The following are excerpts from the article: [1] The Media has Been Obsessed with Al-Sadr "For the past month or so, while the media have been obsessed with the activities of Moqtada Al-Sadr and his fighters in Najaf, much of the really important news about Iraq has gone largely unreported. "This is not to...

<p>CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that opposition groups seeking a recall referendum to vote him out of office were receiving "millions of dollars" of U.S. funding.</p> <p>Renewing charges of U.S. involvement in efforts to oust him, the left-wing leader said he would present documents showing that this financing was being channeled through "institutions created by the U.S. state."</p>

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli helicopter gunships killed a senior Islamic militant and at least four other people in a missile strike on a car in Gaza City on Thursday, medics said. They said Meqled Hamid of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group spearheading a three-year-old uprising against Israel, was killed in the attack. Ambulances rushed to the scene in Gaza's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood. An Israeli military spokeswoman said a Jihad militant had been targeted. "I can confirm that the air force struck a car carrying a senior Islamic Jihad member responsible for the death of Israeli soldiers and civilians," the...

BNEI BRAK, Israel - In the first such attacks in two months, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed three bystanders at a bus stop and an Israeli helicopter killed a senior Islamic militant and four other people. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the bombing in a call to The Associated Press, saying it came in retaliation for the killing of two of its members last week. The group identified the bomber as Said Hanani, 18, from the village of Beit Furik, east of Nablus. The attack occurred during rush hour at Geha, a major intersection...

The 12-second flight 100 years ago this morning reached a height of just 10 feet, less than the 63-foot height of a Boeing 747, and covered just 120 feet of ground, less than a 747's 195-foot wingspan. But the Wright brothers' fourth and final flight that day in North Carolina lasted 59 seconds and went 852 feet. So by sunset, the 20th century's themes -- farther, faster, higher, now -- were, so to speak, in the air.

Ahead lies Saddam Hussein's trial. In preparing for it, the president's men should keep several incidents in mind. One is the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby as Dallas police paraded him before the cameras. No matter the demand of the Iraqi Governing Council for custody of Saddam, U.S. forces should detain him. For, should something happen to Saddam, the Arab world will never believe we did not murder him to keep him from testifying.

Israel is a “thunderously failed reality” that “rests on a scaffolding of corruption, and on foundations of oppression and injustice.” Were these words spoken by an American leader, he would be denounced as an anti-Semite. But these are the words of a former speaker of the Israeli Knesset who cries for his country. “The countdown to the end of Israeli society has begun,” writes Avraham Burg, “the end of the Zionist enterprise is already on our doorstep.” “Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow...

Sitting in the dripping Wrigley Field rain Friday, Nancy Valerio may have best summed up that gnawing feeling building inside the guts of title-starved Cub fans. "I'm going to have ulcers," fretted the 54-year-old, lifelong Cub fan from Lake in the Hills. Relief, however, wasn't being sold Friday at Wrigley. After hours of soggy anticipation, the off-and-on rain finally washed out what was to be the first game of the regular season-ending series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game, weather permitting, is to be rolled into a double-header today, escalating the tension for fans desperate for a playoff berth. They...

Pressure mounted on Sen. Tom McClintock to withdraw from the gubernatorial race Tuesday as Sen. Minority Leader Jim Brulte endorsed rival Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Brulte joined other GOP leaders in voicing fears that McClintock and Schwarzenegger will split the Republican vote and ensure victory for Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. The endorsement dealt a blow to McClintock, especially since Brulte has long been a supporter. Brulte co-chaired McClintock's campaign for state controller last year and raised significant amounts of money for him. But Brulte noted that McClintock continues to place third in statewide polls. A survey released last week by...

In the clearest sign yet that the Republican Party is coalescing behind actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, three influential party leaders Tuesday ratcheted up the pressure on state Sen. Tom McClintock to abandon his bid to be governor. The state's ranking Republican, Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte, said McClintock's candidacy threatens to put another Democrat in the governor's office. The man who bankrolled the recall petition drive, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, pointedly called on McClintock to drop out of the race. And the former head of the party, a fellow conservative, is asking county chairs to endorse the more moderate Schwarzenegger...

By Cheryl Felicia Rhoads A UPI Outside View commentary LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- I am a pro-life conservative Republican, and I support Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor. A non-actor, state Sen. Tom McClintock, a Republican who also wants to be governor, and his conservative supporters love to suggest a comparison to the story in the movie Seabiscuit. This leaves me feeling like Cher in Moonstruck, admonishing an infatuated Nicholas Cage to "Snap out of it!" Even though, as fans of this 1987 film know, Cage does win Cher's heart, I cannot help but believe that McClintock supporters are living...

Update: DARPA pulls funding for OpenBSD Project leader says move is retaliation for anti-war comments By Grant Gross April 18, 2003 The U.S. military has pulled funding from a project involving the OpenBSD open-source operating system, according to the operating system's project leader, and he suspects it was in retaliation for anti-war comments of his that were published in a Canadian newspaper. Theo de Raadt, leader of the OpenBSD project, said he found out Thursday that the remaining funding had been pulled on a $2.3 million Portable Open-Source Security Enhancements project at the University of Pennsylvania , run through the...

<p>French President Jacques Chirac, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov have said France and Russia will vote against a resolution requiring Iraq to disarm by March 17.</p> <p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With announcements Monday from Russia and France that they would veto a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution that could express international support for a war against Iraq, the White House said it might accept further changes before presenting the resolution for a vote.</p>