Free Republic

Information extrapolated and formulated from Blogsphere. The last vestiage of free speech!The subprime predatory lending scheme that engineered the 2008 economic crisisThere are two loan terms in this artcle, one is "micro-finance" and the other is "subprime" loans. Both types of loans are designed to "get rich off the poor" by lending to those who cannot afford them. It has been referred to by some economists as "predatory lending".Though micro-finance loans have been extended to the mortgage industry, subprime loans were already available using the same common "rule-set" for loaning to people with little income and no credit. In...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate a series of incidents in which Muslim women in Georgia were prevented from entering courtrooms because they were wearing Islamic headscarves, or hijabs. In the most recent incident, a Muslim woman was jailed today following a dispute over whether she could enter the courtroom while wearing her hijab.According to the woman’s husband, she was seeking to enter the courtroom in Douglasville, Ga., to deal with a matter related to a nephew’s traffic citation. After she walked through the security area, a bailiff allegedly told...

A blind man has been turned away from a fashionable Indian restaurant because his guide dog offended Muslim staff. Alun Elder-Brown, a recruitment executive, said he was left feeling “like a piece of dirt” after being barred from bringing the animal into Kirthon Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on religious grounds. The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said the decision was illegal under the Disability Discrimination Act and Mr Elder-Brown, 51, is now considering suing the establishment in The Pantiles. It follows a series of successful prosecutions of Muslim taxi drivers who refused to carry guide dogs in their...

The politically correct of the UK have out done themselves today. They have taken an anti-Christmas Muslim teacher and promoted him to a government school inspector. In the past as a group of non-Muslims and Muslim children were signing Christmas songs, Israr Khan's Ofsted stood up and screamed at the crying children "Who is your God? Why are you saying Jesus and Jesus Christ? God is not your God - it is Allah."

ANN ARBOR, MI – A federal lawsuit was filed this morning against U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. and the Federal Reserve Board to stop all bailout funds from going to American International Group, Inc. (“AIG”). According to the lawsuit, the U.S. government, through its ownership of AIG, is not only violating the Constitution, but also promoting and financing the destruction of America using American tax dollars. The basis of the lawsuit is that AIG intentionally promotes Shariah-compliant businesses and insurance products, which by necessity must comply with the 1200 year old body of Islamic canon law based on...

For 130 years they have been part of Christmas, filling the air in towns across the land with music and carols. But one thing is missing from the repertoire of Salvation Army bands this year - the percussion of rattling tins. Members have been forbidden to shake their charity tins - even if it's done in time to the music - in case it harasses or intimidates people. One said she had been told it might also offend other religions. Tin man: Salvation Army collectors have been told not to rattle their tins as it could be construed as religious...

While the mainstream media whines that everyone should just "move on" from the Blagojevich scandal, they continue to harp on any conservative who was involved with McCain-Palin campaign. Los Angeles Times writer Tina Susman took a shot at Joe Wurzelbacher on Monday and compared him to Iraqi journalist and part-time shoe thrower Muntather Zaidi.(my emphasis throughout:) In the few seconds it took Iraqi journalist Muntather Zaidi to wing a pair of shoes at President George Bush, the Middle East got its own version of Joe the Plumber. Just as Joe Wurzelbacher's gripes to Barack Obama during the U.S. presidential election...

What would have happened during the reign of Saddam Hussein if an Iraqi “journalist” (not that such a thing existed at the time) had stood up during a presidential press conference and thrown a shoe at the podium? Let’s see. The offender might have been simply taken out and shot, but you can’t write off the possibility of Saddam’s sadistic sons sticking the guy’s head in boiling acid to make the point a little more forcefully. None of this applies today, because Iraq was liberated by George W. Bush. So when the very same George W. Bush finds himself the...

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi TV reporter who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush was kidnapped once by militants and, separately, detained briefly by the U.S. military. Over time, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a 28-year-old unmarried Shiite, came to hate both the U.S. military occupation and Iran's interference in Iraq, his family told The Associated Press on Monday.

16 Dec 2008, 1450 hrs IST, PTI SRINAGAR: With pressure mounting on Pakistan to act against the sources of terror responsible for the Mumbai attacks, India on Tuesday said Islamabad should follow up its promise to the global community with action. ( Watch ) "I have already said this in Parliament. Words (by Pakistan) must be followed up with action," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters. "We expect that good sense will prevail and we expect that the assurances that are coming (from Pakistan) will translate into action. Because assurances are coming from established leadership of that country, we...

President Bush says he saw his enemy's "sole" during a bizarre attack by an Iraqi journalist who hurled a pair of shoes at him on a farewell visit to Baghdad. Muntazer al-Zaidi, a TV reporter, took off and flung his shoes at Mr Bush during a press conference in the Green Zone yesterday, shouting in Arabic as he did so: "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." The shoes narrowly missed the President's head as he stood behind a podium with Nouri al-Maliki,...

He may be a hero to millions of Iraqis but the “shoe man” has had to spend a second night in detention, during which he nursed a broken arm and ribs as well as cuts to his face, according to his brother. Muntazer al-Zaidi rose to fame on Sunday when he threw his shoes at President George Bush during a Baghdad press conference, missing narrowly, in apparent protest at the actions of US troops over the past few years. His brother, Durgham al-Zaidi, said he was told that Mr al-Zaidi is held by Iraqi forces in the heavily fortified Green...

Sharia courts have operated in Britain for years. But previously they relied on voluntary adherence to rulings and their judgments were not legally enforceable. Enforcement of Sharia court judgments took effect one year after the Archbishop of Canterbury caused a major controversy by declaring that formal recognition of Sharia law “seemed inevitable.” Numerous politicians have expressed concern that the formal backing of Sharia courts marks the beginning of a parallel legal system based on Sharia law, such as exists in Lebanon. Dominic Grieve, shadow home secretary, made clear that he considers the court enforcement of Sharia judgments to be illegal....

The Depression – let’s call it what it is – leaves us, well, depressed. But there is very good news from around the world. Our enemies are collapsing under the strain of dropping oil and gas prices. What we had all hoped conservation and off-shore drilling would achieve, the global economic collapse is accomplishing: the defeat of OPEC, Iran, Chavez, Putin and the weakening of the financial underpinnings of Islamist terrorism. In each of these nations, the hold of the dictator is weakening as, one after the other, they face the consequences of dropping oil prices

A powerful and much needed statement on Al Jazeera about the current "Clash of Civilizations".

PANAJI: On their toes following specific inputs from intelligence agencies about a possible terror strike in Goa, the state police have launched a manhunt for a passenger believed to be a Pakistani student who went 'missing' after he arrived on a British charter flight here three days ago. At present, the only piece of evidence linking the missing passenger Asim Naz is a certificate issued by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education based in Pakistan's Gujranwala region, which was found abandoned near the arrival lounge of the Dabolim airport. Police enquiry has revealed that the certificate was found near...

Christian leaders in the UK continue to bow down to Islam as if they have no concern for their own religion. This time a new multi-faith prayer room in a UK prison is set to open with Islamic foot washing baths installed, but a Christian crucifix with Jesus nailed to it will not be used out fear of offending the Muslim prisoners.

NEW DELHI: Was India very close to carrying out "surgical air strikes" against terror camps in Pakistan and other targets across the border immediately after the 26/11 terror assault in Mumbai? While defence ministry officials refused "to react to speculative reports", sources said "some steps were indeed taken" to "prime" IAF fighter jets for "offensive action" within a day or two of 26/11, but the final government go-ahead did not come. "The moment passed and then the US jumped in with assurances of making Pakistan deliver on Indian demands," said a source. This ties in with a report of the...

Millions of Americans believe that the Sept. 11 attacks were not the work of Muslim fundamentalists. They like to call the strikes "false flag" operations — a conspiracy planned and executed by the Bush administration. Why? Under this unusual theory, the attacks provided Bush and his aides the pretext to launch "international wars" and to enact polices that "led to widespread denials of rights under the pretext of 'homeland security.'" So writes Richard Falk, an emeritus professor of international law at Princeton University — and also a special representative of the U.N. Human Rights Council, charged with investigating Israeli abuses...

An article in yesterday’s New York Times by Public Editor Clark Hoyt, “Separating the Terror and the Terrorists,” is a nauseating example of the paper’s moral relativism applied to the war on terrorism. Hoyt tries to rationalize The Times’ reluctance to apply the “terrorist” label to people who take hostages, blow up bystanders and shoot 5-year-old girls in their beds. Hoyt admits “The Times is sparing in its use of ‘terrorist’” when reporting on Palestinian atrocities. In an effort to be even-handed, the paper has decided to call the murder of Jews inside the 1948 boundaries of Israel “terrorist,” but...