Free Republic

Four homicides over the weekend and two more Monday morning pushed Chicago's homicide count so far this year to double the same period last year. The city has recorded at least 95 homicides since the first of the year, compared to 47 last year, according to data kept by the Tribune. The city has also more than doubled the amount of people shot - about 420 this year compared to 193 last year.

One shudders to think what the late President Harry S Truman would say if he knew his namesake U.S. aircraft carrier was being used as a prop in Barack Obama's phony war against ISIS. The USS Harry S. Truman, and its attendant ships, with 5,000 sailors aboard, left the Naval Station in Norfolk, Va., Monday for deployment in the Persian Gulf, where it will partake in the harassment bombing of ISIS

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the Chrysler bankruptcy. President Obama will doubtless mark the occasion by talking about how his intervention saved the auto company. More noteworthy, however, is how the lawlessness of that intervention created tremendous uncertainty, which still chills the economy today. Todd Zywicki has written an excellent summary of President Obama’s actions in the Chrysler bailout. A shorter version goes like this. Starting under President Bush and continuing under President Obama, the federal government used TARP funds to keep Chrysler afloat. This gave the government effective control over Chrysler. As a result, the Obama administration...

President Barack Obama talked about "climate change" with the U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, today at the White House. Via the pool report: On North Korea: “We will continue to try to work to resolve some of those issues diplomatically even as I indicated to the Secretary General that the United States will take all necessary steps to protect its people and to meet our obligations under our alliances in the region.”

The Federal Reserve Board faces a myriad of interesting questions, but the one of most of the world’s mind is … to QE or not to QE. That IS the question. Chairman Bernanke’s statement to Congress this past week did not say much except that The Fed is standing by in case things get worse. But I will take a wager that QE3 is coming at the next meeting of the Fed’s Open Market Committee (FOMC). But I am not willing to make a big wager, because there are some sound arguments NOT to do any additional quantitative easing. So,...

Shocking Level of Influence Exposed: Union Boss Trumka Talks to White House EVERY DAY and Visits a Couple Times A Week http://www.theblaze.com/stories/shocking-level-of-influence-exposed-union-boss-trumka-talks-to-white-house-every-day-and-visits-a-couple-times-a-week/

Obama Admin Working to Rescind Conscience Rights on Abortion Hartford, CT -- The Obama administration is still working to overturn conscience rights for medical professionals on abortion that were put in place at the tail end of the Bush administration. http://LifeNews.com/nat-6929

For a president under siege, maybe this could help. In an episode of “Mythbusters” on the Discovery Channel to be shown on Dec. 8, President Obama will help determine whether the Greek scientist Archimedes really set fire to an invading Roman fleet using only mirrors and the reflected rays of the sun. Legend has it that during the Siege of Syracuse, circa 214 B.C., Archimedes destroyed the enemy ships with fire, the result of a “heat ray” involving a series of mirrors set up on the coast. But the question has long remained: Did it really happen that way? “Mythbusters”...

President ME has called for a "full-scale attack." Yeah ... aren't you just oh so excited! Obama finally gets it and he's going to launch a full scale attack to get our economy growing again? Sorry ... but I'm really getting sick of this nonsense and the narcissistic boob that's spouting this crap from the Rose Garden. That's right .. notify the Soros myrmidons at Media Matters. I just referred to Obama the Obtuse as a "narcissistic boob." I've had it. I'm fed up. I still have enormous respect for the office of the presidency .. but absolutely none -...

An Army "investigating officer" has banished evidence about the controversy over President Obama's eligibility – or lack thereof – to be commander-in-chief from a pending hearing for a career military doctor who announced he is refusing orders until Obama documents his constitutional status. "In my view our constitutional jurisprudence allows Congress alone, and not a military judicial body, to put the president's credentials on trial," wrote Daniel J. Driscoll in a memorandum determining what evidence the defense for Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin will be allowed to explore at next week's hearing. "It is my opinion the discovery items pertaining to...

It seems as though if they can't play by the rules, they will simply change the rules. New rule? No vote required for passage. Here is the story.

Just in case your survey of the world scene has left you with a residue of cheerfulness, below is a video of a talk given by Lord Christopher Monckton at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, last week that should complete your gloom. The ostensible subject was the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Treaty, scheduled to take place in December. Anyone who doubts that environmentalism has become one of the most potent weapons in the quiver of the international Left should take a look at some of the treaty’s proposed provisions. Basically, it is a wealth transfer scheme in which rich...

Obama's Preferred Future Spy Chief Leon Panetta Supported Communist-Linked Anti-CIA Think Tank By EMERSON VERMAAT January 8, 2009 - San Francicsco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Leon Panetta, president-elect Barack Obama's choice for future chief of the CIA, previously strongy sympathized with the "Institute for Policy Studies" (IPS), a Washington based leftist think tank known for its bitter opposition to the intelligence community, notably the CIA. As a member of Congress Panetta supported the IPS's "Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy Line" in 1983. He was also one of the congressmen who bienially commissioned IPS to produce an "alternative"...

"I am looking at the US economic systems through the lens of a capitalist, versus some of Obama's policies which tend to reflect some elements of socialism," Levi Williams, general counsel for the Broward Repu-blican executive committee, told The Gleaner.