Free Republic

This is from a direct-mail fundraising piece from "StateDepartmentWatch.org". They say that the current congress "will decide the fate of eight strategically and economically vital islands in Alaska...and the U.S. will get nothing in return." This is the first that I've heard this claim and I don't know if it's valid.

The U.S. government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with IOUs on terms that seem too good to be true. But that happy situation - a result of interest rates dropping to extraordinary lows even as the government has had to borrow more and more - may not last for long. Treasury officials face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.

Seeing as they each impact key pillars of what today passes for liberalism, there seems to be more than a few connections between the recent ACORN stings by Giles, O’Keefe and Breitbart, and the recent hacking of the emails of the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, or “Global WarmingGate”, as Charlie Martin dubs it elsewhere at Pajamas. Not the least is that they each sent the legacy media into full gatekeeper mode, hoping to prevent exciting, important news of current events from ever reaching their readers.

He promised to end the old Washington games yet plays along with health care gimmicks and lies!It's little more than a year now since Obama was elected. Plenty of time for the not so well informed public to forget the principles Obama campaigned on and the promises he made. Even as he repeated his "eight principles" in his budget message in February, he is set on a course that will violate nearly every one of them. By now it should be painfully clear to all but the most diehard Obamaton that the current "reforms" violate every principle and promise Obama...

The boy, known as Georgie Smith, has wanted to be a girl since he was a toddler. He said: "I'm old enough to know what I want. What I want is to be a girl." His mother Carole, 41, has criticised the NHS for preventing treatment until Georgie reaches puberty – meaning that his hormones will give him a manly appearance. She wants him to be given hormone blockers now. She told The Sun: "With his puberty suspended, he wouldn't grow to six foot or have big hands." The mother-of-three said that her son wanted to be a girl from...

The Jesus Story always ends in overcoming the enemy. Always. Then appropriate that overcoming-yet-to-be in the present tense by exclaiming "Thank you, Jesus."

November 23, 2009 Globetrotting puts 'official' figures into perspective One constant surprise for me is the emotional state of the discussions I encounter about the health of the UK economy Jim O’Neill For much of the period since the end of the summer, I have been travelling around the world for my exciting but demanding job. I have been to Brazil, China, twice, once on a very long trip, Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey and to many places in Europe. One constant surprise for me is the emotional state of the discussions I encounter about the health of the UK economy....

On today's Morning Joe, Larry O'Donnell called the Roman Catholic bishop who barred Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) from taking communion a "political hack." Interestingly, Mika Brzezinski had a totally different take, arguing the controversy was not about the Church but about Kennedy publicizing the matter in a play to his base. Though Bishop Thomas Tobin sent his letter to Kennedy more than two years ago, its contents didn't come to light until Kennedy recently revealed them to a Rhode Island newspaper. View video here.

Nigel Lawson from the London Times describes how the CRU emails have damaged, possibly permanently, the theory of man-made global warming: ...the scientific basis for global warming projections is now under scrutiny as never before. The principal source of these projections is produced by a small group of scientists at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU), affiliated to the University of East Anglia. Last week an apparent hacker obtained access to their computers and published in the blogosphere part of their internal e-mail traffic. And the CRU has conceded that the at least some of the published e-mails are genuine. Astonishingly,...

WASHINGTON: In an extraordinary endorsement of the United States’ economic resilience, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said questions about the American economic model and the setbacks it is suffering are temporary, and the country has the capacity to bounce back. Singh also gave a thumbs up to the beleaguered US dollar, saying ''as far as I can see right now, there is no substitute for the dollar.'' His own feeling, he said, ''is that we have not entered an era of irreversible shift in economic strength of the United States.'' The Indian prime minister’s comments came in an interview...

"The person who made me proudest of all though was my (half-brother), Roy. He was converted to Islam." (DREAMS OF MY FATHER)

Health trusts must do more to help doctors and nurses exercise and give up smoking and heavy drinking, says the Government. NHS organisations will be expected to improve access to intervention programmes such as counselling or gyms as part of a drive to reduce sickness absence, which costs £1.5 billion a year. The first national audit of staff habits has found that high rates of obesity, smoking, absenteeism and poor mental health were having a direct impact on the quality of patient care. The Health Secretary is expected to accept all the recommendations of the final review, drawn up by...

What an idiot.

Dozens of student protesters who took over a UC Santa Cruz administrative building after a systemwide tuition increase were removed Sunday morning when police officers in riot gear ordered them to exit the building or face arrest. No arrests were made, and university officials said the operation concluded peacefully. But videos provided by some of the 70 or so protesters show a tense scene, with officers pushing their way through a wall of students chanting "We are peaceful, what about you?" to reach the entrance of Kerr Hall. Anthropology Professor Mark Anderson suffered minor injuries after he was squeezed off...

“We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God,” Jeremiah Wright preached. And this: “How many children of biracial parents can make it in a world controlled by racist ideology?” I don’t believe Barack Obama saying he never sat under Jeremiah Wright’s preaching rant sermons against America. It is simply impossible to believe that considering Wright’s hatred for America and whites especially.

A car crash victim has spoken of the horror he endured for 23 years after he was misdiagnosed as being in a coma when he was conscious the whole time. Rom Houben, trapped in his paralysed body after a car crash, described his real-life nightmare as he screamed to doctors that he could hear them - but could make no sound. 'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,' said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state. 'I dreamed myself away,' he added, tapping his tale out with the aid of a computer. Doctors...

A listener sent in an email, reminding me of this quote from Dr. Adrian Rogers. Rogers was born in 1931, right before our imperial federal government began its massive FDR induced expansion. In 1996 Rogers wrote "Ten Secrets for a Successful Family." He wrote that "by and large our young people do not know either the importance or the value of honest labor." I think Dr. Rogers got this one right ..... at any rate: The quote: Here you go: "You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working...

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is the Republicans’ best shot at holding onto the Arizona governorship in 2010 against likely Democratic candidate Terry Goddard. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Arizona voters finds Arpaio, famed for his crackdowns on illegal immigrants, leading Goddard, the state’s current attorney general, by 12 points – 51% to 39%.

The hundreds of e-mails being made public after someone hacked into Phil Jones’ Climatic Research Unit (CRU) computer system offer a revealing peek inside the IPCC machine. It will take some time before we know whether any illegal activity has been uncovered (e.g. hiding or destruction of data to avoid Freedom of Information Act inquiries). Some commentators even think this is the beginning of the end for the IPCC. I doubt it. The scientists at the center of this row are defending themselves. Phil Jones has claimed that some of the more alarming statements in his e-mails have been taken...

Some Cities See Rebate Funding for Efficient Toilets Drying Up By KATE GALBRAITH Austin, Texas, has recently received requests for nearly 4,000 efficient toilets, costing nearly $800,000, according to the Austin American-Statesman. The toilets cut water use by 63 percent compared with 1980s models, and have resulted in a 1 percent drop in water usage, the city claims. But the program’s popularity has nearly depleted the $2.3 million allocated for the toilet rebate and some other conservation incentives, the paper reported. In Ottawa, Canada, meanwhile, the city had been offering rebates of up to $70 to replace old toilets, but...

When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it's not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming. There were only a few hours left before Air Force One was scheduled to depart for the flight home. US President Barack Obama trip through Asia had already seen him travel 24,000 kilometers, sit through a dozen state banquets, climb the Great Wall of China and shake hands with Korean children. It was high time to take stock of...

OAKLAND — A man arrested at the West Oakland BART station Saturday was held on battery charges after a thick glass window broke during his arrest, severely cutting the BART police officer at the scene, officials said. BART officials held a news conference Sunday to address the incident because a video of the arrest was posted on YouTube. The video is shot from inside a train and shows Michael Joseph Gibson, a 37-year-old San Leandro man, shouting at other riders. In the video, an officer enters the train, grabs Gibson and walks him toward a wall at the other side...

PARIS (Reuters) - Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans expects U.S. unemployment to peak at around 10.5 percent next spring and hopefully easing to about 9.5 percent by end-2010, according to comments published on Monday. "The best guess would be that we will probably plateau in the spring," the Financial Times quoted him as saying. "I would expect that we'll level off and have the same unemployment rate for a few months probably, before it starts to come down. And it might even go up and down for a couple of months." Evans had been "a little surprised" by recent...

Jihadists have their day ruined after two AH-64 Apaches catch them planting an IED.

Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) is set to announce Monday that he will not seek reelection next year, sources confirmed to The Hill. Moore’s exit will pave the way for a tough open seat defense for Democrats, as the six-term incumbent has resolutely held on to a conservative-leaning district that has often frustrated Republicans. Moore, 64, won the seat from one-term Rep. Vince Snowbarger (R-Kan.) in 1998 and has been a target ever since. Despite his perseverance, Republicans believed they had an opening again with Democrats pushing proposals that could be unpopular in the deep red state.

For years California has courted a reputation as an eco-friendly, green-minded leader, but the state now finds its most basic program of recycling beverage bottles and cans mired in debt and litigation. Dozens of supermarket recycling sites have shut down recently as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislators spar over how to close a massive gap in the program's budget. California's 23-year-old recycling program, managed by the Department of Conservation through fees charged to beverage buyers, has been hurt this year by recession, rising redemption rates and raids of its coffers to help ease the state's budget woes. Schwarzenegger and...

Before today the lowest reported support for Obamacare from the Rasmussen poll was 41%. Today's results show another drop in support for the government take-over of health care, only 38% of Americans now support Obamacare. Opposition to the bill was 56%. According to Rasmussen, half the survey was taken before Saturday's vote, the rest after the vote. support for Obamacare was lower after the vote than before. This may indicate the closer we get to the passage of Obamacare the less America wants it. Intensity remains stronger among those who oppose the push to change the nation’s health care system:...

Featured Term (selected at random):PASCHAL CANDLE A large candle in which five grains of incense have been incased as a symbol of Christ's wounds. It is blessed on Holy Saturday in a special service and is symbolic of the Risen Savior, Light of the World. It is then used in the blessing of baptismal water and remains during the Paschal season in the sanctuary, where it is lighted during liturgical services. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

PHOTO ABOVE: DOES OBAMA EVEN KNOW WHERE HE IS ? I DON'T THINK HE HAS A CLUE. When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy.

PHOTO ABOVE: DOES OBAMA EVEN KNOW WHERE HE IS ? I DON'T THINK HE HAS A CLUE. When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy.

President Barack Obama's December jobs forum may be better at serving his political need to show the White House cares about sky-high U.S. unemployment, than discovering new ways to cheaply boost economic growth. Obama said last week he was interested in measures to speed job creation without spending money and warned that running up more debt could risk a double-dip recession. CNBC.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The White House has already stressed that the Dec. 3 jobs conference will not be about a second stimulus package. Obama is under pressure to tackle the highest U.S. unemployment in a generation, which, at 10.2 percent,...

In the face of a stagnant jobs economy, the media-academia complex is ginning up a second stimulus. Saturday's New York Times reported that the original $800bln stimulus package was both "worthy" but "way too small;" translation: it's time for more spending. Of course, more wasteful spending designed to entrench budget bloat is very unpopular outside of elite circles. Democrats remarkably see their future in extremely unpopular programs like card check, socialized health care, cap and trade, and now more stimulus. Contrary to their Keynesian religion, no stimulus package has ever worked, and the larger the stimulus, the longer the recession....

U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, a Democrat who confounded the GOP by winning six consecutive elections in a heavily Republican district, will not seek re-election next year, key Democrats said Sunday.

BREAKING: San Diego ACORN Document Dump Scandal by Derrick Roach On October 1st, 2009 California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that an investigation had been opened into ACORN’s activities in California, resulting from undercover videos showing employees seemingly offering to assist the undercover film makers with human smuggling, child prostitution and even tax advice to boot. Although ACORN has denied any wrongdoing, some of the employees involved were terminated, and ACORN has publicly stated that they would fully cooperate with any investigations that followed. SanDiegoACORNDocumentDumpScandal-100909-Photo1 Interestingly, the local head ACORN organizer in California, David Lagstein was caught on tape earlier...

Gold hits record above $1,170/oz as dollar slides By Jan Harvey 42 mins ago LONDON (Reuters) – Gold hit a record high at $1,170.55 an ounce on Monday as dollar weakness pushed the metal through key technical resistance levels, fuelling momentum buying after the metal's sharp run higher earlier this month. Spot gold was bid at $1,168.90 an ounce at 8:14 a.m. EST (1418 GMT), against $1,148.20 late in New York on Friday. U.S. gold futures for December delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $22.50 to $1,169.30 an ounce. "Gold has a lot of...

Just saw Mr. Beamer, father of 9/11 Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer, on Fox News. This man needs to run for Congress - campaign slogan should be "Let's Roll!"

Nine months after President Obama promised that his $789 billion stimulus package would be the most transparent spending bill in history, much of the information available to the public for the Bay Area and the rest of the nation is incomplete or inaccurate. The White House's Recovery Act Web site - www.recovery.gov - shows that $660 million has been awarded to Bay Area transportation projects to create 997 jobs, which amounts to a staggering $661,986 per job. Last week, the site showed that California Congressional Districts 00 and 99 received millions of dollars in stimulus funding even though neither district...

In Rasmussen's polling on ObamaCare over the past couple of months, more people have disapproved than approved by a margin of about 6-13 points. So the fact that the boondoggle is unpopular is not news. But today's poll, conducted over the weekend, with half polled before the Saturday night vote in the Senate and half after, shows disapproval by 56-38, a whopping 18 point margin.

So efforts by scientists to re-create the big bang — that moment, if one can speak of a moment, as in time, before there was time, or at least a decent wristwatch, when energy, or some hot gooey primordial stuff, spewed out a burgeoning universe, eventuating in the birth of galaxies, the advent of life, and the eventual cancellation of Charles in Charge — have failed once again. It seems that the quixotic quest to find Higgs Boson, once thought to be the front man for an Air Supply tribute band, but which turns out to be the “God” particle,”...

"Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal." (Excerpt)---"LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL" April 16, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr.

It may come as a surprise to many of his Democratic supporters, but Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Jerry Brown has gone to bat for the National Rifle Association. The NRA's cause: urging the U.S. Supreme Court to guarantee the ability of gun owners across the land to keep and bear arms. Last year, the high court struck down a ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., ruling for the first time that the Second Amendment's right to bear arms applies to individuals who keep a gun at home for self-defense. But the court made it clear the ruling applied only...

China attacks "biased" U.S. cyber-spying report Mon Nov 23, 3:01 am ET BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Monday accused a U.S. congressional advisory panel of bias for a report in which it said the Chinese government appeared increasingly to be piercing U.S. computer networks to gather useful data for its military. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its 2009 report to Congress released last week that there was growing evidence of Chinese state involvement in such activity. But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the report was a twisted attack on China. "This report disregards the...

MONTREAT, N.C. – Sarah Palin on Sunday dined and prayed with the Rev. Billy Graham, who has counseled presidents and other politicians for decades. Graham had never met Palin, who is scheduled to stop at Fort Bragg in eastern North Carolina on Monday to promote her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and members of her family flew into Asheville in the western part of the state, then went to Graham's mountaintop home in nearby Montreat for dinner. Billy Graham said it was an honor having Palin in his home...

The vicar of an Anglo-Catholic has received a threatening phone call warning him of violence if his parish goes over to Rome – and his church noticeboard has been defaced with the words “C of E No Pope” daubed across it in white paint. Fr David Waller of St Saviour’s, Walthamstow, discovered the vandalism on Sunday morning as he prepared for Mass. Then he found the a message waiting for him on his answering machine threatening him with physical violence. But, when I spoke to him a few minutes ago, he didn’t sound remotely intimidated. “The message was distorted –...

The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true. But that happy situation, aided by ultralow interest rates, may not last much longer. Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed. Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging short-term borrowings...

The world's largest ice sheet has started to melt along its coastal fringes, raising fears that global sea levels will rise faster than scientists expected. The East Antarctic ice sheet, which makes up three-quarters of the continent's 14,000 sq km, is losing around 57bn tonnes of ice a year into surrounding waters, according to a satellite survey of the region.

Under the Senate bill approved to be moved to the Senate floor this past Saturday night it will be United States Preventive Services Task Force, deciding what tests and procedures getting covered by the government and private health care plans. The US Preventative Services Task Force is not a new agency. The Task Force is part of the Healthcare Research and Quality Agency (AHRQ). The task force is the 'bean counting part of the Dept. Health and Human Services. AHRQ's mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of health care for all Americans. The Senate bill...

Neil Sankey, who has almost 20 years experience serving in Special Branch and the Bomb Squad, is now devoting his energies to proving that Mr Obama is not a natural born US citizen. He joined the Birthers after meeting Orly Taitz, one of the leaders of the group, which disputes Mr Obama’s claim that he was born in Hawaii. Over the past year, Mr Sankey has been integral in some of the most aggressive efforts to remove him from office by claiming that his presidency is illegitimate. He tried to block Obama's inauguration last year by contacting all 538 electoral...

OLEAN - Gun owners in the area could feel the impact of several anti-gun bills that have passed through the Assembly, including the possible ban of .50 caliber firearms. The summary for Assembly bill 3211A, sponsored by State Assemblywoman Patricia Eddington, outlaws all .50 caliber firearms and larger weapons. According to the proposed legislation, “The .50 caliber weapon is one of the most dangerous weapons in the U.S. military’s arsenal. These weapons are used for long-range tactical assassinations and assaults in the U.S. military. “These weapons of war are readily available on the Internet and in gun stores,” the bill...

Abortion Activist Judge Hamilton Confirmed with Help of Ten Republican Senators by James Tillman and John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, DC, November 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Senate voted 59-39 yesterday to confirm President Obama's first circuit court appointee, the pro-abortion Judge David Hamilton. Although hailed as moderate by various news sources and dubbed "thoughtful and distinguished" by President Obama, many conservatives have condemned him as a judicial activist who places his own preferences above the law. "As a judge, Hamilton has shown himself to be soft on crime, radically pro-abortion, and hostile towards religion," wrote a group of prominent conservatives upon...