Free Republic

...Democrats are realizing that Americans do not want a cap and trade bill and the devastating economic effects that would go along with it. In response, Dems are dropping the term cap-and-trade to try and spin the bill in a new way. Senate Democrats hired Drew Westen, an expert at discovering political messaging which tugs at the heart strings of American voters. He told policy makers to create patriotic and national defense themes in order to gather support for energy proposals. These desperate actions are the last ditch efforts of a dying proposal. Reid and the Democratic Congress do not...

...But however much Social Security must be subsidized by the Federal government, lawmakers would never allow those promises to lapse for reasons of expediency. What is much more likely to occur is a general reduction of benefits over time such that Social Security pays for itself with small subsidies. Of course, this strips away the entire point of Social Security: the reason to invest throughout life is so that the balances grow and compound over time rather than simply stuffing the money in a mattress. As Social Security simply becomes a transfer payment from the young to the old, benefit...

As the states and citizens question the constitutionality of the “individual mandate” to purchase healthcare in the legislation for Obamacare, the administration and its legal team have radically changed their tune recently on how they justify the mandate. Originally, Obama claimed that it fell under the power of Congress to regulate commerce, but as that argument has fallen flat, his Department of Justice lawyers have argued differently in filings in the case brought by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Now, they claim that the mandate’s power stems from Congress’s power to tax, apparently extending to the power to tax inactivity. Yet...

MY PRAYER: Day 15 of 140 Father God, I thank you and praise for Your Son, Jesus Christ, who being fully God, willingly became a man and died a cruel death on the cross paying my sin debt in full. I can never thank you and praise you enough. Father God, at this time I lift up the family and friends of PFC Anthony Simmons, who died while serving our country in Afghanistan. I pray that you will keep and comfort his family. Lord God I stand in the gap on behalf of our entire Nation. Lord, I pray that...

...This respect for property has lead America to be the richest and most prosperous country in history. The Framers understood that freedom means nothing if the fruits of ones labor could be expropriated at the whim of a powerful politician or bureaucrat...

Here's another "told you so" moment...

I want to take a minute and talk about “systems”. When I speak of a system, I am talking about any collection of nodes and connections. Examples of systems include computers in a network, employees in an office, and puffs of air in a thunderstorm. A node is an individual unit in the system and a connection is the  interaction between two nodes.Let’s look at some generic systems. Did you notice something about the four node example? It has more connections than it does nodes. In fact, four nodes is the minimum number of nodes needed in a system...

...The takeaway from this is quite simple: the United States can expect a massive increase in the yields of its bonds in 2015 when Moody’s demotes US debt from Aaa to Aa1. Specifically, the US can expect bond yields to rise by approximately one percentage point, meaning a 33% minimum increase in its costs to borrow, and as Norway shows, it could cost far more. Taxpayers should brace themselves, for there will be an additional spike in 2015 to the tune of $133 billion. To put that in perspective, the budget allocates $130 billion per year for operations in Afghanistan...

Default U Bethany Stotts, July 19, 2010 Student loan default rates are much higher than government data originally suggest, reports Kelly Field for the Chronicle of Higher Education on July 11. “Unpublished data” obtained by the education news outlet from the Department of Education show that one in five government education loans that have entered repayment since 1995 have gone into default, she reports. How bad, exactly, is this for the former students? “Borrowers who default on their student loans face significant personal and financial burdens,” writes Field. “They become ineligible for additional federal aid and may have their wages...

Three months into the Civil War, Union forces under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan began a campaign to drive the rebel Confederate forces out of what was then Western Virginia. Due to his extensive political connections, and experiences at West Point and during the Mexican-American war, McClellan was commissioned as Major General in the regular army. It quickly became apparent that McClellan and his forces were formidable. After victories in Barboursville, Ripley, Summersville, Rich Mountain and several others in the region, he ordered regiments under the command of General Jacob D. Cox to move into the Kanawha Valley and reopen...

...Members are silent this week, however, as new evidence has surfaced that overenthusiastic drivers, and not defective parts, caused the now-infamous “sudden acceleration” that was to blame for the recall. No doubt government officials had been hoping to repeat the Audi experience of the 1980s, where that carmaker was almost forced out of business due to the same allegation that their cars would accelerate, unprovoked. The culprit in the 80s? Driver error again. Members, mostly those representing auto union-heavy districts, failed to recall this lesson... Read more: http://www.atr.org/comes-toyota-congress-fails-hit-brakes-a5217#ixzz0tsKv8TFL

Lions, SalafiMedia.Com, Oh My… Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 SalafiMedia.com is one of the leading English-language online promulgators of the next generation of hardline Jihadi-Salafi media. I’d like to focus your attention on their primary logo: a ferocious lion. This specific lion image that they use appears widely across their website and in the videos they post to their website. Here are some examples:

By: Larry Walker, Jr. The Tea Party Movement is made up of people of all colors. There are no racial barriers, anyone can join the Tea Party and has the right to protest against our runaway Government. Yet the NAACP has chosen to condemn the Tea Party for having so called racist elements. Instead of defending the rights of this diverse organization, the NAACP has proven that the words ‘all persons’ does not really apply as stated in their mission statement. Does the NAACP ensure the political rights of all persons? Not those of the Conservative persuasion. NAACP Mission...

...The report also notes that the food and drug industries are the hardest hit by counterfeiting. This has serious health implications because counterfeit drugs can be extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, many of these drugs have infiltrated the supply chain worldwide. Better technology like holograms and tamper-evident seals can save lives. It is important that these companies continue to do well, to counteract governments that are actively pushing for policies that make counterfeiting more prevalent. Take the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement for example. The agreement would reduce counterfeiting globally, but powerful up and comers like India and China are actively working against...

"...[M]any Africans...accumulated enormous wealth and power as a result of the trade of their fellow Africans." "Not only was slavery an established institution in West Africa before European traders arrived, but Africans were also involved in a trans-Saharan trade in slaves along these routes." CONFRONTING THE LEGACY OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE By Zayde Antrim ...While the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, English and French slave traders were often brutal, they were not always working alone -- many Africans were also complicit in this victimization. Precolonial empires such as Dahomey and Ashanti (located in what is now Benin and Ghana), where...

OBAMA BROKE HIS CAMPAIGN PROMISES TO PROTECT RACISTS Obama and his Department of Justice in their zeal to protect the black racists of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) dismissed a lawsuit already won against these thugs for voter intimidation. By doing that, Obama broke so many of his campaign promises. Here is a reprint of our October 2008 article listing Obama's campaign promises on Civil Rights, Crime, Law, and Transparency. Is it OK for Obama to discriminate against whites?————————————Original Post———————————— CANDIDATE OBAMA HAS PROMISED TO: - Have a civil rights division to enforce laws fairly and justly -Have...

Rather than going through the standard nomination process, Obama appointed Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week while Congress was in recess. Appointments of this nature are supposed to stand Senate confirmation. Particularly troubling is the broad authority Berwick is granted in his position as head of CMS, where he would be partially in charge of implementing the new health care law. Moreover, CMS has been particularly helpful in aiding the administration in its propaganda war on the health care bill...

July 10, 2010 "Another eHadi Dies on the Battlefield" SNIPPET: "This week "Abu Salamah" at the Islamic Awakening forum announced the "martyrdom" of one of its members who called himself "Rakan"" SNIPPET: "Kind of sounds like "Abu Salamah" and "Rakan" were akhis that knew each other in the meat world, no?" SNIPPET: "Yet another post for the files of those who believe online terrorists are all just wannabes who pose no threat. The pic above? That's former online jihadi Humam Bilawi just before he killed 7 CIA agents in Afghanistan."

He who fights that Islam should be superior fights in Allah's cause" Muhammad, prophet of Islam

I have heard liberals say over and over again that Obama's policies of more regulation and taxes, more government bailouts and stimuli, and more government programs is the only way that we can hope for an economic recovery. In a very practical and real way, Australia is proving liberals wrong. The IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) shows that Australia remains a world leader in the global recovery, with stronger growth, lower unemployment and much lower debt than other advanced economies. Together with today’s strong employment figures, the IMF’s report shows the Australian economy is still well ahead of the curve...