Free Republic

What does it say about your cause that nearly every policy idea you cook up is based in some form or another on coercing the American people? When House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., was recently asked to identify where the Constitution granted Congress the authority to force all Americans to buy health insurance, he replied, "Under several clauses; the good and welfare clause and a couple others." For those of you who aren't familiar with the "good and welfare" clause, it states that "The Congress shall have Power to make Citizens of each State compelled to partake of...

See article below.

On April 21, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Act of 2009--"SIGTARP"--submitted his quarterly report to Congress on his office's activities in relation to the TARP program. The report is a disquieting document that should be read by every American--certainly be every taxpayer. The Inspector General's report documents the stunning and at least partly illegal expansion of TARP from the $700 billion originally allocated by Congress to what is now a $3 trillion complex of programs. This chart shows the various programs that are now included within SIGTARP's oversight, and how they have expanded from the...

As the AIG bonuses debacle grows ever larger and the angry voices grow ever louder, the question for some may be: Who created this mess, anyway? To make a long, long story short: The U.S. government bailed out the ailing insurance giant AIG with $170 billion. Unbeknownst (allegedly) to anyone (until now), AIG is using $220 million of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars for "retention bonuses" for its financial products division, the section arguably to blame for the company's downfall. Today, the House passed a bill, 328-93, that would slap huge taxes on employee bonuses from bailed-out firms. Here is a list...

Some observations of the debacle 1) No doubt about it. The Democrats have a mandate, being defined as anything above 50% of the vote. 2) Sarah Palin will fade into the background, she is a candidate that excites the conservative base and for this reason they will try to neuter and discredit her before the four years are up. 3) Conservatives as always invested themselves heavily into the GOP. They forgot that conservatism is a political movement, NOT a political party and thus they acted accordingly by investing too much in a flawed candidate. 4) No matter how much McCain...

The "bitter" answer, captured on audiotape, came in response to a question about whether Obama could win white rural voters because he is black. He basically said these voters have other grievances more salient than race, which is why they don't vote their economic interests and are vulnerable to wedge issues having to do with God, gays and guns. Clinton surely knows what Obama was trying to say, but seeing her path to the nomination narrowing, she manipulated his words for political gain. Fair enough. She hurts him, but she hurts herself more. Pollster Doug Schoen, who has advised her...

<p>The war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt" despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon's premier military educational institute.</p>

As a liberal, it was a real eye opener to see the role Super Delegate’s play in the DNC. I found this link of Jason Rae, the 22 year old “Super Delegate” on youtube which was originally aired on Channel 2 WISN. The piece is so pathetic that it’s actually hilarious and outraged me so much that I may just pull the plug on them.

<p>The last politician who took advice from the bond market was Bill Clinton. When he pushed for a tax hike back in 1993 to cut the budget deficit, it was under the assumption that bond investors would respond by bringing down interest rates. (The theory here is that deficits are inflationary. Inflation is bad for bonds.) Yet long-term interest rates surged from 6.45 percent when Clinton signed his tax-hike bill on Aug. 10, 1993, to 8.16 percent on Nov. 7, 1994, the day before the midterm congressional election where Republicans won back the House and Senate.</p>

HBO is revisiting one of the most dramatic events in U.S. election history with "Recount," a film about the 2000 turmoil in Florida to be directed by Oscar winner Sydney Pollack. Paula Weinstein is executive producing the HBO Films project, which is targeted to premiere in spring 2008. Written by actor Danny Strong, Spring Creek Prods.' "Recount" chronicles the weeks after the 2000 presidential election and goes behind the scenes of the recounts in Florida to explore the human drama of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary event that would decide the leadership of the country. "It's a very compelling...

Investors are breathing a sigh of relief as Wednesday's stock market rebound wiped away some of the pain inflicted by Tuesday's tumble. They would do well to stay very scared... ...The U.S. stock market, by far the world's largest, has been on a bull run for four years without a major pullback. While the S&P 500 is nowhere nearly as expensive as it was in the late 1990s, neither is it cheap at about 17.6 times the latest 12-months' earnings. ...The housing market, for one, is looking increasingly shaky. Defaults of subprime mortgages are already rising, and Wednesday's announcement of...

On Jan. 18, 2005, top executives of Airbus and its parent company, European Aeronautic Defense & Space, staged the aviation industry's equivalent of a Broadway musical for the A380s coming-out party here, complete with strobe lights, smoke machines and chorus girls. Before a rapt audience, Jacques Chirac, the French president, extolled the colossal, twin-deck jet as an unparalleled symbol of European manufacturing prowess.

Americans who have stretched themselves financially to buy a home or refinance a mortgage have been falling behind on their loan payments at an unexpectedly rapid pace. The surge in mortgage delinquencies in the past few months is squeezing lenders and unsettling investors world-wide in the $10 trillion U.S. mortgage market. The pain is most apparent in subprime mortgages, though there are signs it is spreading to other parts of the mortgage market. Subprime mortgages are loans made to borrowers who are considered to be higher credit risks because of past payment problems, high debt relative to income or other...

After a nasty campaign season in which both sides traded insults and accusations, can they work together in the future? It is a question sure to be directed at Republicans and Democrats, but it might be profitably be asked of feuding libertarians and social conservatives as well. The midterm elections didn't make a peaceful outcome more likely. Instead both sides acquired new ammunition. Reputedly libertarian Arizona narrowly rejected a ban on same-sex marriage (though similar measures passed everywhere else they were on the ballot), rebuffing social conservatives. Minimum-wage hikes passed in six states, which isn't very libertarian -- and neither...

Watching in stunned amazement from the other side of the Pacific, trying to take in the electoral devastation meted out to the GOP, I have only one question (and my inquiry is genuine): How the hell was this allowed to happen?

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,529910,00.html Malmø, Sweden. The police now publicly admit what many Scandinavians have known for a long time: They no longer control the situation in the nations's third largest city. It is effectively ruled by violent gangs of Muslim immigrants. Some of the Muslims have lived in the area of Rosengård, Malmø, for twenty years, and still don't know how to read or write Swedish. Ambulance personnel are attacked by stones or weapons, and refuse to help anybody in the area without police escort. The immigrants also spit at them when they come to help. Recently, an Albanian youth was stabbed...

Airbus A380 a bit too superjumbo Passenger plane is 5.5 tons overweight, customer reports By JAMES WALLACE P-I AEROSPACE REPORTER, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 28, 2006 The Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner is not the only jetliner in development that needs to go on a diet. The double-decker A380, the 555-passenger giant from Airbus that has been delayed for up to two years by what Airbus has said are wiring problems, is about 5.5 tons overweight, a senior executive with an airline that has ordered the plane disclosed Friday. Airbus has not previously acknowledged that its flagship new jet is significantly heavier...

The Dixie Chicks' Oct. 7 concert at Sunrise's BankAtlantic Center has been canceled. No one wants to say precisely why or whether the show will be rescheduled -- at press time a venue official said confirmation is forthcoming, and the Chicks camp in Nashville did not return phone calls or e-mails. But according to Pollstar, the concert industry's trade organization, the Oct. 7 date is now reserved for a concert in Australia. The conservative country music community has had a beef with the Chicks ever since lead singer Natalie Maines spoke out against President Bush and later criticized country fans...

The purveyors of revisionist political history are back at work this week, inspired by the death of Enron Corp. founder -- and convicted felon -- Kenneth Lay to revive the myth that were it not for Enron and Lay, California wouldn't have experienced its 2001 energy crisis. ... --snip-- Attorney General Bill Lockyer had the good manners to remain silent about Lay's death from heart disease three months before he was to be sentenced for lying to mask the failing company's condition. It was Lockyer who in 2001 told an interviewer that "I would love to personally escort Lay to...

Arab and US officials are growing nervous at the prospect of a second congressional uprising against the acquisition of American assets by a Middle Eastern-controlled company in the wake of the Dubai Ports World debacle. Snip ...