Free Republic

Topic: Economic StimulusTotal Allocated Cost: $862,000,000,000 *   In February 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In early 2009, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Recovery Act's combined spending and tax provisions would cost $787 billion. In early 2010, CBO updated its estimate of the cost of the Recovery Act. It now estimates that the Recovery Act will cost $75 billion more than originally estimated - CBO now anticipates that the 2009 Stimulus will increase deficits by $862 billion over ten years. *Source: Committee for a Reasonable Federal Budget  

People Can Opt Out of Listing STDs, Abortions in Gov't-Mandated Electronic Health Records, Patrick Kennedy Says Monday, September 28, 2009 By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter   (CNSNews.com) - Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D.-R.I.) says people will be able to stop doctors from including records of sexually transmitted diseases and abortions in the new national system of Electronic Health Records that was mandated by the stimulus law enacted in February.   The law says that doctors, hospitals and other health care providers must create and Electronic Health Record (EHR) for every American by 2014 or else face deductions in their Medicare payments. The EHRs are supposed...

A lawsuit has been filed by a public interest law firm, Freedom Watch USA, on behalf of shareholders of American International Group who have watched the value of the company plummet by some $214 billion. The class action lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles is a "wide reaching" claim that will do what Congress cannot, said Freedom Watch USA founder Larry Klayman. "Today, the American people, not the compromised ruling elite in Washington, D.C., have begun a second American Revolution to take the country back from the con men on Wall Street, and on Pennsylvania Avenue – who...

At the Beverly Hills office of criminal defense lawyer Edward M. Robbins Jr., anxious new clients are showing up with an unexpected problem. The clients put money in Swiss bank accounts, where it was supposed to stay secret. But now those depositors fear the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department will gain access to their bank records, Robbins said.

Cuban-born author and anti-Castro activist says Barack Obama won't make any inroads with voters in the Cuban-American community by pushing a wealth redistribution message. That community, he says, is all too familiar with the consequences of such a policy.Humberto Fontova has written several books on the communist regime and believes Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is desperate to make inroads among the Cuban-American community in Florida, 76 percent of which favor John McCain in recent polls.   Obama, according to Fontova, has said he wants to ease restrictions on family-related travel to Cuba and on the amount of money Cuban-Americans...

(CNSNews.com) – Internal Revenue Service rules have opened up a back-door through which illegal immigrants can obtain an Individual Taxpayer Information Number (ITIN), which in turn helps them enter the U.S. credit market.   The IRS uses ITINs to process tax payments owed by people who are not eligible for a Social Security Number. It is issued regardless of immigration status to people living both inside and outside the country.   Although the IRS states explicitly that ITINs are not to be used for any purpose other than tax administration, banks across the country are accepting ITINs to open new...

Christians encouraged to take action on funeral flag recitation ban Allie Martin OneNewsNow.comOctober 29, 2007The founder of the American Family Association (AFA) says it's outrageous that a complaint from one person can put a halt to a long-standing tradition at funerals throughout all 125 national cemeteries. Hear this ReportA complaint about religious content has led to a ban on flag-folding recitations by Veterans Administration employees and volunteers at all national cemeteries. At thousands of military burials, the American flag is folded 13 times and volunteers recite the significance of each fold to survivors. The 11th fold glorifies "the God of...

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he will have surgery for prostate cancer, but added it had been caught early and he would remain in office. Mr Olmert, 62, has led Israel since 2006 when Ariel Sharon had a massive stroke that has left him in a coma. That sparked calls for more openness about the PM's health, as Mr Sharon's fall came at critical time for Israel. Mr Olmert is preparing for a regional conference which the US hopes to host to promote Middle East peace. His government's popularity has suffered in opinion polls after several high-profile corruption...

Actress Kathy Griffin's rant at the Emmy awards in which she told Jesus to "suck it" has triggered a petition campaign intended to tell Hollywood "Enough is Enough!" Griffin, the star of the Bravo show "My Life on the D-List," was being honored for the Outstanding Reality Program, overtaking ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" after multiple attempts, when she launched into the tirade.

 "Single-Payer" Health Care Is Anything But Freeby Paul S. Hsieh, MD  (September 17, 2007)   Michael Moore's latest movie "SiCKO" sings the praises of the Canadian "single-payer" socialized medical system. Some Americans want a similar system implemented in the United States.  Defenders of the Canadian system frequently claim that patients don't have to worry about money when they're sick--the health care is free.  But is this really true? No.First, it is ludicrous to think the system is free. Each citizen is forced to pay for his neighbors' medical care in the form of high taxes. (As a percentage of GDP, total taxation is...

News FuzeArticle Launched:KABUL, Afghanistan—A joint U.S. coalition and Afghan operation has left 120 insurgents dead over the past 20 days in central Ghazni province, the Interior Ministry said Monday. Last month, the Afghan army dropped leaflets warning of impending military action in Ghazni—the province where the recent South Korean hostage crisis played out—though the army said the operation had been long-planned and was not linked to the kidnappings.

More on Middle Eastern Turmoil By: Thomas E. Brewton Liberal-Progressive-socialism caused today’s mess, not matter how far back into history we go.Commenting on Mr. Slater Bakhtavar’s essay, Mr. James Veverka states, “Nonsense. Carter was a fool regarding several things but the primary cause of the deep problems of the middle east is the effects of colonialism and the partitions after WW1.”Mr. Veverka neglects to state that this is merely another way of laying the problems of the Middle East at the doorstep of liberalism. Before World War I, most of the Middle East was controlled by the Islamic Ottoman Empire,...

Why Did FDR Invade North Africa?By James Lewis   One of the clichéd questions of the Left is "Why did Bush invade Iraq? We were attacked by Saudi Arabians on 9/1 !" Or so goes the customary narrative.   This mantra is supposed to expose President Bush's stupidity. But in fact The Question reveals the asker's own clueless blunder about war and strategy. The proper answer is to point to other presidents and other wars. Like FDR after Pearl Harbor.    After the "day that will live in infamy" FDR's first land attack took place in Morocco and Algeria, then...

Econ 101: The Problem with Bailouts by Gary Wolfram (more by this author) Posted 09/17/2007 ET The difficulties in the subprime lending market are beginning to generate a chorus for a bailout of the mortgage industry. The media emphasize stories of people losing their homes to foreclosure and potential panic as adjustable-rate mortgages are adjusted up. Yet a bailout, however structured, would be a bad idea. As Sherlock Holmes told Dr. Watson in “Scandal in Bohemia,” one problem is that we see but do not observe. For every homeowner who loses his home and moves into a smaller home or...

Monday, September 03, 2007 Maliki orders investigation into Kerbala bloodletting Compiled by Daily Star staff Hard-line Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Sunday warned the Baghdad government of retaliation if it delays a probe into a gun battle in Kerbala last week in which 52 people died. Shortly afterward, the government announced an inquiry into last Tuesday's clashes, while Kerbala police said that they had arrested some 269 people for alleged involvement in the fighting, which turned a major Shiite pilgrimage into a bloodbath in the southern shrine city. Sadr's warning came just days after he ordered a freeze on the...

Photos of a shirtless Vladimir Putin on vacation in Siberia have stirred numerous debates and set hearts aflutter. But some of the photos of him taken on the same trip -- topless and with a rifle -- were only made available to the Russian media.

Kucinich Meets with Syrian President Sunday, September 2, 2007 6:46 PM DAMASCUS, Syria -- U.S. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, a Democratic presidential candidate, met Sunday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as part of a Middle East peace initiative and fact-finding tour to several countries over the next five days. In the meeting with President Assad, Kucinich is expected to discuss approaches to dealing with the continued violence and instability in Iraq, as well as to discuss the Baker Hamilton report to the U.S. Congress which recommended direct engagement with Syria as part of a new Middle East foreign policy initiative....

Brussels Mayor Warns: 9/11 Demonstrators Are Criminals From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Mon, 2007-08-20 10:56 A quote from Freddy Thielemans, the Mayor of Brussels, in an op-ed piece in the Brussels newspaper De Standaard, 20 August 2007:   I decided to forbid the September 11 demonstration “against the islamicisation of Europe.” […] Since 2001 I have allowed over 3,500 demonstrations. This is only the sixth one which I forbid. […] The right to demonstrate exists only inasmuch as it does not cause a disturbance of the public  peace and order. […] First and foremost the organizers have...

By Randy Hall CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor July 11, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - As the Senate prepares to vote on legislation that would expand the categories of "hate crimes," a group of civil rights leaders on Tuesday called opponents of the measure "right-wing fundamentalists" with "often-bigoted agendas." A coalition of conservative Christians said at a press conference held the same day that the bill is "unjust" and "an attempt to take away the rights of Christians to speak out and express their freedom of speech." "Our effort to expand the coverage of the federal hate crimes statute is based on issues of...

BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS Ban on desecrating terrorist flags challenged Lawsuit filed on behalf of students in anti-terror protest Posted: July 10, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com College Republican member argues with Palestinian supporter at Oct. 17 anti-terrorism rally at San Francisco State University (Photo: Golden Gate Xpress) A lawsuit filed by the Alliance Defense Fund is targeting the speech codes imposed on students by the university system in California after several students were prosecuted for the "desecration" of flags used by terrorist groups. "America's colleges and universities should recognize the constitutional rights of Christian and politically conservative students...