Free Republic

Topical Take Wednesday, 23 June 2010 Ross Perot turns 80 this weekend, ... Here's what I had to say about him in the Telegraph at the time of his second White House run in 1996: Back in 1992, Texas billionaire Ross Perot emerged from obscurity and began blasting both Republicans and Democrats for treating the budget deficit `like a crazy aunt we keep in the basement'. One wouldn't have thought crazy aunts in the basement were a widespread problem, even in the remoter parts of the Ozarks, but the analogy apparently struck a chord with millions of Americans, and suddenly...

"I blame the central banks," growled the bond trader, stabbing the air with a forkful of raw steak. "If Alan Greenspan hadn't kept interest rates so low at the start of this decade, we wouldn't be in this mess. Talk about refilling the punch bowl when the party guests are already as drunk as skunks!" "We told you we were not in the business of identifying bubbles, let alone trying to puncture them," replied the central banker, nibbling at a lettuce leaf. "We warned you that credit spreads, emerging-market yields and volatility in stocks and bonds were all too low,...

State error led banks to ignore the lessons of history and overdose on too-cheap money, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Three years ago, the world's top watchdog warned that the global economy was veering out of control. Defending orthodoxy against the easy debt policies of the Greenspan era, America had embarked on an unprecedented experiment. The US savings rate had fallen to near zero for the first time since the Slump. The current account deficit had reached levels that were incompatible with the dollar's role as the anchor of the global system. The rising powers of Asia were preventing adjustment by holding...

Just on Kudlow & Company, while debating Ann Coulter, Quentin Hardy claims that Obama was top of his class (presumed at Harvard). Is this another example of a liberal lying scumbag, or is he accurate?

ndyMac Bank, a prolific mortgage specialist that helped fuel the housing boom, was seized Friday by federal regulators, in the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history. IndyMac is the biggest mortgage lender to go under since a fall in housing prices and surge in defaults began rippling through the economy last year -- and it likely won't be the last. Banking regulators are bracing for a slew of failures over the next year as analysts say housing prices have yet to bottom out. The collapse is expected to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. between $4 billion and $8 billion,...

· Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war · Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years · Threat to the world is greater than terrorism Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.. A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. The document predicts that...

As the war in Iraq moves toward a conclusion, the expectations are that the end of the war will bring at least a pause in international tensions. We do not believe this will be the case. Given U.S. war goals, crises -- inside Iraq, with nations along Iraq's border and between Europe and the United States -- can be expected to flow directly from war termination, whenever it comes. As we have said, Iraq is a campaign in a much larger war and not a war in itself. We now will see what that means. Analysis Stratfor has argued that...

Dear Mr. Fulton, Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding the status of AT&T's support for the Boy Scouts of America. The AT&T Foundation has a general policy of not making direct grants to organizations that receive funding through the United Way. For this reason, we have not made a national grant to the Boy Scouts for many years. Some of our local managers have made small grants to local Boy Scout troops to support the volunteer efforts of AT&T employees in the communities where they live and work. All recipients of AT&T Foundation grants must attest that they comply ...

Any woman who thinks she might give George W. Bush the benefit of the doubt and vote for his so-called compassionate conservatism, should consider how much compassion he showed Betty Lou Beets. Most people have never heard of Beets. She was a hearing- impaired, learning disabled, brain-damaged great grandmother who spent her childhood being sexually abused by her father. She lived in poverty and violence, moving from one abusive home, one abusive man, to another. After years of physical and sexual abuse, and no help from law enforcement, she killed her husband. Beets was convicted in a trial that was ...

Strieber interviews Cmdr Donaldson now.

Three Punks and Elian

What do these three places have in common? As historical events Wounded Knee, Waco, and Little Havana share several conspicuous similarities. They all involve politics, incompetent and overbearing agents of the federal government, vilified minorities, siege mentality and children. And each were covered by a horrifically irresponsible mainstream media. Let’s take them one at a time starting with Wounded Knee. South Dakota – 1890 Toward the end of the 19th century American Indians were making their last stand as an independent people. Various cultural phenomena arose, and one of them was the "Ghost Dance" movement. Most of the Indian peoples ...