Free Republic

There's a saying, opinions are like a-holes, everybody's got one. Ain't it true. Even here at FR there are vociferous posters on both sides of every issue. Often on all ten sides of an issue. Wouldn't it be great to know who's probably talking sense from the BSers? I think it would. And there's a way to do it, prediction markets. There are a lot of them out there, and no doubt many FR posters participate in them. Many probably do quite well. But there's no way to tie their track record on those markets to their posted opinions on...

Gov.-elect says the voters never got to know herOLYMPIA — After 12 years as attorney general, Christine Gregoire spent more than a year and $6 million to tell voters why she should be their next governor. There was a constant stream of television commercials showing everything from her as a tot on a pony to her position on stem-cell research. But even before the race ended in a dead heat with Republican Dino Rossi, it was clear an important message had been lost. "I don't think in the end voters ever really got to know Chris Gregoire." ... "I'm a...

<p>As the U.S. economic locomotive picks up speed, the 146 members of the World Trade Organization have an opportunity to spark other engines to build global momentum. This week's meeting of the WTO in Cancun is a midpoint on the growth track first laid at the Doha Ministerial in November 2001. Doha established goals for lowering barriers to global trade and development by 2005. At the Cancun meeting we will seek to specify the negotiating frameworks for attaining the Doha goals. Given the diversity and number of participants, this is no small challenge.</p>

<p>What role will U.S. manufacturing play in the national and global economies in the coming years? What jobs will be left for American workers?</p> <p>It's more than an academic question for many company owners. Stan Donnelly, who owns Donnelly Custom Manufacturing Co. in Minnesota, is studying Mandarin in case he has to move his machines to China. Already, he buys molds from China to make his custom-designed plastic parts. To date, Mr. Donnelly has been able to keep production of those parts in the U.S. But as his customers increasingly demand lower prices, he wonders if he will one day need to move production to Asia as well.</p>

<p>That great rooting, snooting noise you hear in the distance, dear taxpayers, is the sound of election-year, farm-state politics rolling out of the U.S. Congress. We all know democracy isn't cheap, but this is ridiculous.</p> <p>Senate and House conferees this week unveiled their final farm bill, a 10-year, $173.5 billion bucket of slop that has even Washington agog. By the time all the handouts and payoffs were complete, the well-fed conferees had agreed to increase agricultural spending by no less than 70%. This alone amounts to one of the greatest urban-to-rural wealth transfers in history, a sort of Farm Belt Great Society.</p>

<p>Conservatives typically wouldn't climb into bed with Democratic Senator Robert Byrd even if he put a paper bag over his head. But there's nothing like a common scapegoat to smooth over political differences, and September 11 has given these foes a shared bugaboo: immigrants.</p>

AGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, March 10 #151; American commanders cautiously declared today that the crux of the battle against enemy fighters in much of the Shah-i- Kot Valley was effectively at an end, and ordered about 400 soldiers back to base aboard a wave of CH-47 Chinook and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters. Given previous setbacks in hunting down remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, American military spokesmen were not ready yet to say that the 2,100-member American-led force had achieved victory after nine days of the biggest ground action of the war. But all the signs, including the exhausted...

ASHINGTON, Sept. 14 — Moving swiftly in America's new war on terrorists, a senior State Department official today met with 15 Arab representatives and gave them a stark choice: either declare their nations members of an international coalition against terrorism, or risk being isolated in a growing global conflict. Click here for the rest of the article.

I write in response to Dorothy Rabinowitz's July 9 editorial-page commentary ">Gerald Amirault Has Reason to Celebrate." The decision of the Massachusetts Parole Board in Gerald Amirault's case, more than most of the judicial opinions that have been written in the various daycare-center and other mass child sex-abuse cases around the country, touches upon the central moral and legal question of whether the defendant was in fact guilty of the crime -- not just whether he had a fair trial, not just whether the process was lawful and fair, but whether a flawed process gave way to the darker forces ...

In Praise of an Economic Revolutionary By Bob McTeer, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. "The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else." -- Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) Claude Frederic Bastiat was born in Bayonne, in the southwest of France, 200 years ago last Friday. This week, I kicked off a conference in nearby Dax, France, celebrating Bastiat's contributions to individual liberty and free markets. The whole world should be celebrating the birthday of this pioneer of free-market capitalism. Bastiat's output was prodigious, especially in the ...

The Outlook Is a steel cartel in the works? To some economists analyzing President Bush's new initiatives for the world steel market, it certainly looks that way. Last month, President Bush surprised the world's steelmakers when he said he would initiate an ambitious multilateral steel agreement that, in essence, would forge a consensus between the world's steelmakers to limit production and push up prices. In other words, with the blessing of the Bush administration, the world's steelmakers are going to manipulate the production of steel for the sole purpose of lining the pockets of the world's financially strapped steelmakers. "If ...

By R. Glenn Hubbard, chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. President Bush's statement yesterday on the administration's ongoing review of climate-change policy offers a wise departure from the current debate over the Kyoto Protocol and a welcome emphasis on science, the environment and economics. As the president observed, a sound policy requires a global effort to protect the earth from long-term climate damage while simultaneously avoiding short-term economic damage. But this is a hard problem: We do not know how much long-term climate change will result from our ever-expanding economic activity -- primarily from the burning of fossil ...

The Outlook Arrests of illegal immigrants are down sharply along the border, as the traditional post-winter flood of illegal Mexican workers returning to U.S. jobs has fallen to the lowest level in nearly a decade. "We're seeing the same pattern right across the border," says Renee Harris, an analyst with the U.S. Border Patrol. "The seasonal pattern is holding, but every month it's lower than last year." So far, the agency has turned back about 750,000 would-be entrants through early May, compared with a million during the same period last year. Border guards expect the trend to continue. Federal officials ...

PARIS -- OPEC is moving toward agreeing on another cut in its crude-oil output next month, even though crude prices are at relatively high levels and major consuming nations are cautioning the group against further supply reductions. The strongest signal of an impending cut came Monday from Saudi Arabia, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' kingpin. OPEC officials familiar with Saudi thinking said the kingdom will support a reduction in output at next month's meeting if one is needed. Current supply and demand forecasts indicate a need for such a cut, these officials said in explaining the Saudi viewpoint. To ...

Enroll Buchanan in Econ 101 Patrick Buchanan turns history and economics upside down to defend his anti-trade views (Letters to the Editor, Aug. 23). While Smoot-Hawley did not single-handedly cause the Great Depression, it didn't deliver the promised relief to U.S. industry, either. By spurring retaliation abroad, it prolonged and deepened the global depression. We would be foolish to go down that road again. Mr. Buchanan gripes about our expanding trade deficit while at the same time denouncing "U.S. capital pouring into countries to build new factories to replace plants shutting down across the U.S." Perhaps a freshman economics student ...

How to Speak the GOP's Language By Ron Unz. Mr. Unz, a Silicon Valley software entrepreneur, was the author of Proposition 227. John McCain's victory in Michigan was impressive, but he would have lost badly if not for the crossover votes of Democrats and independents. The crucial March 7 primaries in California and New York are both closed to non-Republicans, so Mr. McCain must now concentrate on winning GOP votes. One issue can win him the support of Republicans, especially in California, and also broaden his appeal should he make it to November. Mr. McCain should take a strong stand ...

Whatever the strange and combustible fuel that is powering Sen. John McCain's insurgent candidacy, economics has little to do with it. His message is a mix of autobiography, antiestablishment rant, and a seemingly sincere desire to be a president "who can inspire young people to commit themselves to causes greater than their own self-interest." On economics, he says: "America has never been defined solely by our leading economic indicators." But as the McCain candidacy moves from improbability to possibility, McConomics deserves some scrutiny. It's a complicated and sometimes confusing meal, cooked up primarily in the mind and experiences of the ...

REMEMBER the architect of compassionate conservatism? The great unifier of his party&#146;s warring tribes? The political superstar who was going to drive Al Gore back to the family farm? A few months ago George W. Bush could do no wrong. Now he can hardly do anything right. His 26-point victory in tiny Delaware on February 8th has done little to obliterate the memory of New Hampshire, or to dispel the growing smell of disaster that surrounds his campaign. In the dying days of the New Hampshire primary, he appeared on stage with his two best assets, his father and ...

Snack of the week Krispy Kreme doughnuts, a tradition in the South, which replaced Dunkin Donuts on Mr McCain&#146;s campaign bus. Sausage biscuits were also served. Question-we-don&#146;t-want-answered of the week &#147;No, it&#146;s not a joke. I really am Al Gore. How can I prove it to you?&#148; Al Gore, when making a soliciting call to a voter in New Hampshire Turned turtle of the week Having spent $28m, Steve Forbes quits. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Unsettling quote of the week &#147;Remember, all the establishment is against us. This is an insurgency campaign. I&#146;m just like Luke Skywalker trying to get out of ...

ATLANTA -- Jason Scoggins will never graduate from high school, have a class rank or be recommended by his guidance counselor. But Oglethorpe University wants him anyway. Jason, who is 17 years old, was home-schooled by his mother. After he scored 1,570 out of a possible 1,600 on his SAT college-admissions test -- with a perfect 800 in math -- Oglethorpe invited him to compete with other top applicants for five scholarships valued at about $100,000 apiece. Of the 94 prospects in the Jan. 22 contest, eight were home-schoolers, each with SATs above 1,300. The high scores are no fluke. ...