Free Republic

In this incredible piece of video, Obama complains that FOX / FNC is on TVs at all military bases he visits. When told that FNC is available, as well as CNN, MSNBC, CW and others on Armed Forces TV so troops can chose what to watch, Obama then asks with a smirk "Well, isn't that the Commander In Chief's choice?" clearly implying that if he is elected president, FNC will be off Armed Forces TV and troops will not be able to watch it! Of course the message to the reporters was, "You had better be good, too." He already...

The federal minimum wage rose by 70 cents yesterday to $6.55 per hour, and left-wing advocates are celebrating the increase as a boon for the so-called working poor. Not to be party poopers, but the reality is that most poor people in the U.S. already earn more than the minimum wage, and most workers who do earn the minimum wage aren't poor. The wage hike is the second of three annual increases mandated by a 2007 law. Next year the federal wage floor will rise to $7.25. This year's increase will touch some 1.5 million workers, in a workforce numbering...

America’s gas prices are continuing to spiral out of control and Washington has done nothing to give our nation’s motorists the relieve they deserve. Record high prices are having a major impact on American consumers and businesses, from the way people travel to the way they do business to the food they buy at the grocery store. Congress has the ability to decrease prices at the pump and get our nation back to $2 a gallon gas – and it means accessing our nation’s available resources and opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) today. Last weekend, I traveled...

MANILA (AFP) - A Qantas Boeing 747 flying to Melbourne made an emergency landing in Manila on Friday after a dramatic mid-air rupture that left a "gaping hole" in its fuselage, officials and passengers said. Stunned passengers reported how the jumbo, which had taken off from London and stopped in Hong Kong, plunged 20,000 feet (6,000) metres in what one said was an "absolutely terrifying" ordeal...

n equities, moving the interest yield on the U.S. Treasury 10-year note to more than 4 percent. The dollar has been strengthening, too, relative to overseas currencies. Also improving the long-term outlook on Wall Street are better second-quarter corporate earnings reports that showed many companies were doing better than expected. McDonald's, AT&T and Pfizer reported upbeat earnings that signaled there's still a lot of resilience in the U.S. economy. Even the financials were showing some life at midweek, despite the credit and mortgage debacle. Wells Fargo and troubled Wachovia, the nation's fourth-largest bank, saw its stocks jump significantly. Even so,...

Americans should be outraged at the latest sweetheart deal in Washington. Congress will put U.S. taxpayers on the hook for potentially hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It's a tribute to what these two institutions — which most Americans have never heard of — have bought with more than $170-million worth of lobbyists in the past decade. With combined obligations of roughly $5-trillion, the rapid failure of Fannie and Freddie would be a threat to mortgage markets and financial markets as a whole. Because of that threat, I support taking the unfortunate but...

A MELBOURNE-BOUND Qantas jumbo jet plunged 20,000 feet today after a 1.5m hole in the fuselage caused a rapid decompression. Witnesses said there was a bang and a rush of wind before oxygen masks fell and the plane began an emergency descent. The plane was about 320km out of The Philippines capital Manila en route from Hong Kong when warning lights alerted pilots to the decompression in the cargo hold. “The aircraft had a rapid decompression and at the same time there's been some damage to the fuselage,” an Australian Transport Safety Bureau spokesman said. “As a result of the...

WASHINGTON -- The housing and financial crisis convulsing the U.S. is powering a new wave of government regulation of business and the economy. Federal and state governments alike are increasingly hands-on in their effort to deal with failing businesses, plunging house prices, worthless mortgages and soaring energy prices. The steps add up to a major challenge to the movement toward deregulation that has defined American governance for much of the past quarter-century since the "Reagan Revolution" of the early 1980s. ... The U.S. has swung back and forth from a hands-on to hands-off regulatory approach over the past 230 years....

Birds falling from sky in west Amanda O'Brien | July 23, 2008 BIRDS are again dropping dead from the sky in Western Australia, sparking fears of a threat to public health, just seven months after more than 5000 birds died from lead poisoning in the regional town of Esperance. Almost 200 seagulls have been found dead in two days in the popular beachside suburbs of Woodman Point and Henderson, south of Perth, sending baffled authorities into a tailspin. Autopsies have failed to explain the mystery.

The U.S. Congress is considering legislation that would require 70 million barrels of crude oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to be released to the open market in an effort to drive down gas prices. That would mean pumping oil out from man-made caverns where it is stored. Only twice in the reserve's 31-year history has oil been extracted for emergencies.

US markets falter following home sales figures Tom Bawden in New York America’s main stock markets tumbled by more than 2 per cent yesterday after new data showed the number of previously-owned homes sold in June fell by more than twice the expected volume to the lowest level in at least ten years. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell by 29.62 points, or 2.3 per cent, to 1,252.57, with builders and financial services groups taking the biggest hit because they have the most to lose from the housing crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 283.1, or 2.4...

TNK-BP: something rotten in the state of Russia David Wighton: Business Editor’s commentary With its tail between its legs, Britain's biggest company is being all but chased out of Russia. BP will try to put a brave face on the retreat of Bob Dudley, still nominally chief executive of TNK-BP, to the safety of St James's Square. But it does not look good. When you wish to assert your authority, the best way to conduct business is not by e-mail from an office thousands of miles away. If BP is to avoid a de facto transfer of management authority to...

Energy: It has become something of an article of faith among those who oppose drilling in the Arctic that it's too much trouble for too little oil. Well, how about 90 billion barrels of oil? Too little for you?That's how much oil is estimated to be in the Arctic region, with at least a third of it under sovereign U.S. territory, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey. Put into perspective, the U.S. "official" estimate for total oil reserves is 21 billion barrels. So by putting our Arctic resources into play, we would more than double our...

Safety Group Urges Airbus Fixes LOS ANGELES -- U.S. aviation safety watchdogs, concerned about severe electrical problems that have blacked out cockpit displays on dozens of Airbus jetliners over the years, urged regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to mandate aircraft fixes and enhanced pilot training to alleviate such hazards. Recommendations released by the National Transportation Safety Board Wednesday cite 49 incidents over the years in which electrical problems caused various cockpit displays on widely-used Airbus A319 and A320 to suddenly stop functioning and temporarily go blank during flight. According to the board, seven of those incidents resulted in...

- Jerry Taylor is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Virtually every claim made by T. Boone Pickens to justify the lavish subsidies he is seeking for his wind energy investments is flat wrong. First, oil imports are not the cause of high gasoline prices. On the contrary, oil imports serve to keep gasoline prices down. After all, we import oil for a reason -- it's cheaper than the domestic alternative. If we were to restrict our energy diet to energy produced in the United States, it would make domestic energy producers (like Mr. Pickens) far richer and energy...

GENEVA (AFP) - Crucial WTO talks hung in the balance Thursday, with top negotiators stressing that progress was needed in the next 24 hours to avert another ignominious collapse. < > The WTO has convened a meeting here of 35 leading trade negotiators with the aim of mapping out a deal to conclude the long-delayed Doha Round of global trade talks. The Doha Round began seven years ago with the aim of helping poor countries enjoy the fruits of freer global trade, but the process has been delayed by disputes between the rich developed world and poorer developing nations. <...

BAGHDAD, July 24, 2008 – In another sign of progress in Iraq, 62 tribes and 68 sheiks have organized four private trucking companies to form the Iraqi Transportation Network. A driver for the Iraqi Transportation Network, an Iraqi-owned and operated logistics network, watches as containers are loaded onto his truck July 15, 2008, at Camp Liberty, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Andrea Merritt  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The sheiks approached the U.S. military with a proposition for the ITN to haul their cargo throughout Iraq, guaranteeing safe shipment and taking financial responsibility for any loss. They...

What is it with Al Gore? Why is he compelled to exaggerate climate change (excuse me, “the climate crisis”), and then to propose impossible policy responses? It’s like he’s inventing the Internet all over again! OK, it’s pretty much standard rhetoric in Washington to say that if you don’t do as I say, there will be massive consequences. But to say, as Gore recently did: “The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk;” and: “The future of human civilization is at stake” — that’s a bit much, even for the most faded and...

Excerpt - SAN FRANCISCO (AFP)--Internet security researchers warned Thursday that hackers have caught on to a "critical" flaw that lets them control traffic on the Internet. ~ snip ~ "We are in a lot of trouble," said IOActive security specialist Dan Kaminsky, who stumbled upon the Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability about six months ago and reached out to industry giants to collaborate on a solution. "This attack is very good. This attack is being weaponized out in the field. Everyone needs to patch, please. This is a big deal." ~ snip ~

Liberals have done a U-turn on conservative billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens. Formerly reviled for funding the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" campaign against Sen. John Kerry, he's now adored by the Left — unfortunately, for trying to gaslight the rest of us on energy policy. This column recently spotlighted Pickens' proposed plan to get America off foreign oil by substituting wind-generated electricity for natural gas-generated electricity and then using the natural gas to replace gasoline. Already having addressed the proposal's flaws — and Pickens' plan to profit at taxpayer expense from it — let's consider how Pickens' marketing shades...

NEW YORK: The race for petroleum resources above the Arctic Circle is likely to speed up in coming years, as the polar ice cap melts and access to oil and gas reserves in many other places around the world becomes more challenging. The lure of the Arctic as oil's next big frontier was vindicated this week as a major geological survey found the region might hold as much as a fifth of the world's yet to-be-discovered oil and natural gas reserves. Many of these new resources, according to the survey, are to be found in Russia. If true, that would...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil's on sale! Okay, not really. At about $124 a barrel, crude is still up substantially from a year ago. But it's down 15% in just a couple of weeks, and the threat of $150 oil has faded for now. The stock market has taken notice. Despite some not-so-great news from many banks, stocks overall have rallied. So why is oil falling? And can it continue to do so? There's a simple answer to the first question: Oil prices are down sharply because oil prices were up sharply. The spike in oil has hurt consumers around...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The government charged an oil trading firm Thursday with manipulating oil prices in the first complaint to be announced since the regulators began a new investigation into wrongdoings in the energy markets. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused Optiver Holding, two of its subsidiaries and three employees with manipulation and attempted manipulation of crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange. "Optiver traders amassed large trading positions, then conducted trades in such a way to bully and hammer the markets," CFTC Acting Chairman Walt Lukken said at a press conference. "These...

The controversy over whether speculators are behind skyrocketing prices of oil deepened on Thursday as US regulators filed charges against a trading fund for manipulating energy futures prices. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged that Netherlands-based Optiver Holding, two of its subsidiaries and three high-ranking employees manipulated prices of crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange at least five times in March 2007. Laying out its case in a series of e-mails and telephone conversation recordings, the CFTC claimed two of the defendants discussed the “fairy story” they would give to regulators in...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a layman’s critique of the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) theory, and in particular to challenge the fairly widespread notion that the science and projected consequences of AGW currently justify massive spending and government intervention into the world’s economies.  This paper will show that despite good evidence that global temperatures are rising and that CO2 can act as a greenhouse gas and help to warm the Earth, we are a long way from attributing all or much of current warming to man-made CO2.  We are even further away from being able to...

Mortgage rates took a big jump this week, to their highest point in a year. There's no single explanation for the rise. The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 35 basis points, to 6.77 percent, according to the Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point. The mortgages in this week's survey had an average total of 0.45 discount and origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index was almost the same, at 6.75 percent. Four weeks ago, it was 6.62 percent. The benchmark 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 37 basis points, to 6.32 percent....

".....the End of the world is already near.....As  this same End of the world is drawing nigh , many unusual things will happen-----climatic changes, terrors from heaven, unseasonable tempests, wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes."    The quotation is from a letter sent by a very famous and influential man to a European head of state. Its author is disclosed at the end of this essay. Climatology is a science. Climatism is an ideology. Climatologists are scientists. Climatists are social or political organizers who abuse climatology in the service of ideologues. Climatology was and still is an investigation of nature. Climatism is the...

Fascism, socialism and communism all offer varying degrees of control. Some believe that others require more government control. The new extreme in control appears to be environmentalism. From www.worldtribune.com: Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, who survived the communist system and now leads a country that emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet empire, is warning of a new form of communism threatening human freedom and progress. “Environmentalism is the new communism, a system of elite command-and-control that kills prosperity and should similarly be condemned to the ash heap of history. I understand that global warming is a religion...

Out here in West Texas we love our guns, we support our troops, and we treasure our freedom. We are an independent bunch and -- pardon me, Senator Obama -- fiercely but not bitterly so. We are proud to have our own things to do with as we choose to, as free people of the freest nation in the history of the world. We also walk around on top of oil: yes it’s far beneath us, but it’s there. And all these aspects of West Texas come together to our astonishment and anger over the fact that our independence is...

SAN DIEGO – The parent company of The San Diego Union-Tribune announced Thursday that it has hired an investment banker to look into the possible sale of the company. Copley Press engaged the New York-based investment banking firm Evercore Partners, which also represented the publishing company in the sale of newspapers it owned in Los Angeles and in the Midwest in 2006 and 2007. In a statement, The Copley Press, Inc., cited the tough times in the newspaper industry as its motivation in deciding to explore the company's strategic options. “The last couple of years have been a difficult period...

His legal troubles behind him, famed investment banker Frank Quattrone was back in his old role Wednesday as corporate adviser and tech industry sage. At the AlwaysOn technology conference at Stanford University, Quattrone opined about market reforms enacted after the dot-com bust, equity markets, the state of initial public offerings and the outlook for innovation in the technology industry. Along the way, he dispensed advice to executives of three start-up companies lucky enough to have an appointment with 'the doctor," as the conference billed Quattrone. "It feels great," he said. "I feel like I'm a kid in a candy store."...

"John McCain understands that high gas prices are squeezing family budgets and putting pressure on the small business, the job creating engine of the American economy. Senator McCain has proposed a comprehensive energy plan that will provide relief to American families through a gas tax holiday and will secure America's energy independence for the long-term through the development of alternative sources of energy and expanded oil exploration here at home." -- Taylor Griffin, McCain Spokesman Today, John McCain Will Talk With Local Small Business Owners About The Economic Challenges They Face And How We Can Create New Jobs In...

Talk Radio Network, the syndicator of Michael Savage's "Savage Nation" radio show, issued the following statement today: On Michael Savage's Autism Comments There have been numerous calls in recent days for Michael Savage, who hosts “The Michael Savage Show” for Talk Radio Network (the “Network”), to be fired or suspended for his brief 84 seconds of commentary concerning autism during the July 16th broadcast of the Show. Promptly after the Network’s management learned of the comments in issue, the Network commenced an investigation into the particulars and the circumstances of those comments. This investigation began with the Network’s CEO, Mark...

Let us bow our heads for a moment... And then raise them in a cheer! The New York Times and its mutant adoptee, The Boston Globe, are going out of business. Slowly. Horribly. Gushing jobs and blood. Screams of dispair from its terrified, shrinking staff. Think "Cloverfield" at a party at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis. Think "I am Legend" starring "Putz" Sulzberger in an empty Times' newsroom. Think "Going My Way?" from The Twilight Zone, starring P. Steven Ainsley instead of Inger Stevens.

In a futile but determined effort to get some representation in the US Congress I tried to contact Senator kennedy's office to urge him to support domestic drilling for oil and gas. First, you cannot contact his office online. All you can do is fill-in blanks of an online form that will be seen by a $ 5.85/hour flunky who will delete it. Second, you cannot chose "energy" or "oil" as the topic. Kennedy won't stand for it. I wrote anyway, as I did to Senator Kerry and Congressman Neal, and will post their replies.

STUART VARNEY, GUEST HOST: A live look at Capitol Hill, House members inside, right now, voting on that $300 billion housing bail-out bill — the president saying, today, he will sign it, even though Democrats tacked billions onto it. My next guest voting against it. Ron Paul is a Republican congressman from Texas. Congressman, good to have you with us. Thanks for being here. REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: Thank you. Thank you. Nice to be with you. VARNEY: OK. Now, you'll vote against it. OK. You don't like this thing. We understand it. But the argument is that, if...

Don't blame Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., member of two influential banking committees - the Senate Finance Committee and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs - for IndyMac's collapse, says CNBC's Erin Burnett. Burnett, host of CNBC "Street Signs," disagreed with a claim by MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough that a letter to regulators from Schumer caused a run on the beleaguered bank IndyMac, which eventually led to its failure and takeover by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. "I don't think Chuck Schumer caused a run on the bank," Burnett said on MSNBC's July 24 "Morning Joe." "This...

If you want to know how out of touch Congress is on the issue of wasteful spending, listen to Florida Rep. John Mica defend his pork projects: "There's no way in hell I would support banning earmarks. That's our job, getting elected and making decisions." Mr. Mica is the most powerful Republican on the Transportation Committee. The idea that bringing home federal dollars is integral to a politician's job and essential to getting re-elected is a favorite of Republicans and Democrats alike. Three months ago, Hillary Clinton told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, "I'm very proud of my earmarks. It's one...

The area north of the Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas, the U.S. Geological Survey announced Wednesday. The USGS said technically recoverable resources are those produced using currently available industry practices and technology. The Arctic accounts for about 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas, the USGS reported.

Dear Friend: Thank you for contacting me regarding high gasoline prices. I appreciate the opportunity to hear your views on this important issue, and I share your concerns. Gasoline prices reached an all-time high this year, and costs for food and other basic necessities are rising drastically. As millions of Americans struggle under this increasing burden, oil companies continue to report massive, record-breaking profits - $123 billion last year alone. This is unacceptable, and I want to assure you that I am working hard to lower prices and protect Americans from price gouging. I am proud to be an original...

California, six other Western states and four Canadian provinces launched plans on Wednesday for one of the world's largest carbon-trading systems, a sweeping effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. The North American program, like a similar market-based system in Europe, focuses on heavy polluters such as electric utilities, oil refineries and large industrial and commercial facilities. Environmental groups immediately questioned whether the plan will be tough enough on polluters, while industry groups said the program lacks details. California officials said the proposal will be an integral part of the Golden State's ambitious goal of reducing...

Harkin: Gas cheaper because of ethanol By Ian Swanson Posted: 07/24/08 11:39 AM [ET] Ethanol is keeping gas prices as much as 40 cents cheaper, according to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), one of the Senate’s top supporters of corn-based renewable fuels. As a result, the Bush administration should deny Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) request that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cut in half the federal mandate requiring the oil industry to blend 9 million gallons of ethanol into the nation’s gas supply, Harkin said. “Ethanol is keeping gas 24 to 40 cents cheaper than it otherwise would be,” Harkin...

Jon asked me to comment on the debate over the "water" bond currently being proposed in the Legislature. Since there really is no water bond being proposed, the debate is a false one. We are already in a water crisis it is true. Democrats have done nothing to alleviate that crisis since sometime in Jerry Brown administration in the 70's, that is true as well. About 6 bonds have passed since 1996 claiming to be water bonds, and they got Republican votes to get on the ballot because somewhere in the language of the bond, someone wrote the word water....

Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co (MNI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported a more than 40 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday as advertising revenue plunged, but shares shot up 5 percent after the company said it still will be able to pay its debt. The results, along with EW Scripps Co (SSP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Lee Enterprises Inc (LEE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) which also reported financial results on Thursday, are the latest sign that a weak economy and fundamental changes in how people get their news continue to hammer U.S. newspaper publishers. McClatchy, publisher...

NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday said it may cut its ratings on Washington Mutual Inc.'s senior unsecured debt into junk territory, after the largest U.S. savings and loan posted a $3.33 billion second-quarter loss. The net loss equaled $6.58 per share as souring mortgages forced it to set aside more money for loan losses. "WaMu's asset quality issues primarily relate to the company's residential mortgage portfolio, but deterioration is also being experienced in the company's credit card portfolio," Moody's said in a statement. "To establish the necessary provisioning for this asset quality deterioration, Moody's...

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proclaimed a statewide drought in June and then urged passage of a $9.3 billion water bond, Democrats and environmental critics became suspicious. They still are. “Last year we did have record low rainfall, but whether or not there is a drought is somewhat debatable,” said the Sierra Club’s Jim Metropulos. “The governor calling it a drought--that carries no legal significance. It’s interesting he calls for a drought, and couple of weeks later, he calls for a water bond.” The Republican governor proposes a $9.3 billion dollar water bond for the November ballot, arguing that passage of...

Senate Republicans have threatened to block nearly all other bills pending before the August recess if Democrats refuse to vote with them on expanding offshore drilling. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said bills that do not pertain to energy can wait until after the August recess, with gas prices now surpassing $4 per gallon. McConnell and top Republicans indicated Wednesday they would oppose any procedural votes to take up other legislation, which require 60 votes to succeed. “We think there is nothing more important that we can do right now than to deal with the Number One issue of...

One year after California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols decided to sell off some energy stocks that showed a potential conflict of interest with her role as a state regulator, records show her diverse investment portfolio still contains many energy interests. Nichols also sold stock in a company that stands to profit from new diesel regulations that the ARB is set to adopt this fall, and other companies that have business before the board, according to financial disclosure documents filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission. But FPPC records show that she and her husband, attorney John Duam, sold...

I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia's compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector. FullCAM models carbon flows in plants, mulch, debris, soils and agricultural products, using inputs such as climate data, plant physiology and satellite data. I've been following the global warming debate closely for years. When I started that job in 1999 the evidence that carbon emissions caused global warming seemed pretty good: CO2 is a greenhouse gas, the old...

Senate Republicans have threatened to block nearly all other bills pending before the August recess if Democrats refuse to vote with them on expanding offshore drilling. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said bills that do not pertain to energy can wait until after the August recess, with gas prices now surpassing $4 per gallon. McConnell and top Republicans indicated Wednesday they would oppose any procedural votes to take up other legislation, which require 60 votes to succeed. "We think there is nothing more important that we can do right now than to deal with the Number One issue of...