Free Republic

When STAT first compared projected U.S. deaths from Covid-19, in early April, there seemed to be a glimmer of good news: A prominent model had just lowered its estimate for total deaths through Aug. 4 from about 100,000 to 60,000, reflecting the apparent success of three weeks of social distancing across much of the country. On Wednesday, April 29, the country blew past 60,000, more than three months before the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projected. (The 60,000 almost certainly undercounts Covid-19 deaths, by about 9,000.) IHME, whose model has been criticized by many epidemiologists, now says the most...

WASHINGTON — National Intelligence Director James Clapper is apologizing for telling Congress earlier this year that the National Security Agency does not collect data on millions of Americans. In a letter to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, Clapper says his answer was “clearly erroneous.” Leaks by NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden have revealed the NSA’s sweeping data collection of U.S. phone records and some Internet traffic every day, though U.S. intelligence officials have said the programs are aimed at targeting foreigners and terrorist suspects overseas. Clapper was asked in March if the NSA gathered “any type of data at...

Google Won't Remove Distorted Michelle Obama Image From Search Engine November 24, 2009 A crudely altered photograph of Michelle Obama, which often comes up as the first result on a Google image search of her name, will not be removed from the company's search process despite protests that the depiction is racist and repugnant. "It's offensive to many people, but that alone is not a reason to remove it from our search index," Google spokesman Scott Rubin said. "We have, in general, a bias toward free speech." The image, which depicts the first lady as having monkey-like features, is posted...

This piece of portable artwork represents the fact that Obama has a narcissistic perception problem with reality. He thinks he's the greatest communist thing since sliced capitalist on a saber. He doesn't know why most people are against his quest for socialist-style health care. He's awesome, he's charming, he's unstoppable. His charisma points are way up there. Problem is, most people are seeing him for what he is. He's a big-time socialist. He's running up never-before imagined trillion dollar deficits without even blinking. Printing money like water with nothing backing it. He thinks we all see him as a Jedi...

Putin: Ally or Terrorist? by William F. Jasper Counting Vladimir Putin as an ally against terrorism ignores his career in the murderous KGB/FSB and his ongoing support for terrorist regimes and organizations. ‘‘Lena Goncharuk, aged 38, said that she was the only one to survive out of a group of six who were ordered out of the cellar where they had been hiding and shot at point blank range. Resting in her hospital bed, her voice barely rising above a whisper, she said she had survived only by pretending to be dead." So reported Paul Wood from the Chechen border...

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, lounging in Hawaii on spring break with his wife and kids, tells a reporter that state lawmakers should follow his lead and take more time off. The Legislature, he says, "doesn't have enough to do." Their full-time status in Sacramento simply gives them too much time to make mischief.</p>

Sunday June 8, 2003; 12:56 p.m. EDT Kristol: Bush Made Misstatements on Iraq WMDs In comments sure to be seized upon by Bush administration critics at home and abroad, one of the leading proponents of the war in Iraq said Sunday that President Bush may have misstated the case that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. attacked. "We shouldn't deny, those of us who were hawks, that there could have been misstatements made, I think in good faith," Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol told "Fox News Sunday." Asked, by whom, the leading Iraq war backer explained,...

I received a forwarded "resume" of President Bush by a leftist "friend" of mine. It was written by a Kelley Kramer, and I guess this is making the rounds. It's so distorted, it's amusing, but, I suppose, plausible to the gullible. Who is this Kelley Kramer and what are his affiliations?