Free Republic

If you think Washington's debate over whether to bail out General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC is acrimonious, wait until the debates over energy and climate change policy start. The auto bailout debate has become a proxy for the coming clashes over energy strategy. Some green-conscious Democrats argued that Detroit's car makers should be compelled to use federal subsidies to accelerate improvements in mileage. Others from both parties questioned how companies that have mostly lost money on small cars and hybrids will suddenly find ways to make them profitable. With the collapse of the proposal last week, the specifics may...

PARIS, Dec. 16 -- Police found five sticks of dynamite in a landmark Paris department store Tuesday after an unknown group warned that bombs were hidden there and threatened more attacks unless France withdraws its military forces from Afghanistan.

I feel sort of cheated - like discovering that your spouse has been sneaking out the back door with a pack of Pall Malls. It doesn't fit the character type either. McCain, yes. The guy was a two-pack-a-day smoker for 25 years and looks like a man desperately in need of a fix. But Obama? Mr. Coolunderfire? I guess part of it is the way we characterize smokers and smoking in this day and age. What was once accepted, if not encouraged - the Flintstones did a commercial for Winstons in the old black-and-white days of television - is now...

"SNL Part II: On The Air", from the paragraph titled "High Times": "... One of SNL's early masterpieces , a sketch called "The Final Days" that chronicles Nixon's downfall, was written by writers Al Franken and Tom Davis while they were on LSD. ... But it was just this kind of humor that made Saturday Night so popular with the youth culture."

A message to observant Christians, you should know that if there ever is a Palestinian State you can say goodbye to holy sites Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Ascension. Christian holy sites and populations are endangered whenever Palestinians gain control. Christian towns and churches, including the sacred Church of the Nativity, have been used as bases for Palestinian snipers and launching-sites for terrorist attacks. Many historically Christian towns that came under Palestinian control through Oslo — Bethlehem being only the most famous example — quickly lost their Christian majority as those citizens steadily fled Muslim oppression...

There are fears that Venezuela, Bolivia, and Argentina may be tempted to follow suit, setting off the sort of stampede seen across the region in the early 1930s. Ecuador's firebrand president, Rafael Correa, said his country had disavowed $3.9bn (£2.6bn) of "illegal" debts contracted by earlier regimes. President Rafael Correa gave the order not to pay the interest "I gave the order not to pay the interest, and to go into default. We know very well that we are up against real monsters. There are great risks in this, but we are ready to accept the consequences. If we have...

Sena, BJP want 'fitting reply' to Pakistan Meena Menon NAGPUR: The Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Opposition in Maharashtra on Tuesday said the covert war by Pakistan must be given a fitting reply. While Leader of the Opposition in the assembly Ramdas Kadam called for war, BJP’s Gopinath Munde demanded bombing of the terrorist training camps in Pakistan. The Opposition took on the ruling coalition for its lapses in dealing with the terror strike of November 26 and demanded an immediate change in the top police personnel who head the State and the city of Mumbai. Describing the terror attacks...

Toyota Motor Corp. is shelving its plans to build the popular Prius hybrid in Mississippi as the slump in the auto industry continues to hobble the Japanese carmaker known for it emphasis on fuel-sipping vehicles. Toyota’s plant under construction in Blue Springs was scheduled to begin production in 2010, marking the first time the gas-electric Prius, which has been on sale for more than a decade, would be built outside of Japan and China. But Mike Goss, a spokesman for Toyota’s U.S. arm, said Monday that despite investing $300 million in the plant so far, the automaker is delaying production...

Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) told federal investigators that Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked for a $25,000 campaign contribution during Blagojevich's 2002 run for governor and may have exacted retribution when the money did not arrive, a political source close to Jackson said Tuesday. After Blagojevich (D) won, he considered and rejected Jackson's wife, Sandi, for the job of state lottery director, the source said. Later, the governor saw Rep. Jackson at an event in Washington and, according to the source, told him he bet Jackson regretted not paying up. *snip* Impeachment committee members remain uncertain what evidence U.S. Attorney...

A 105-year-old singer whose past as a singer in Nazi Germany has dogged his reputation for decades is back in the spotlight after telling a Dutch television show Adolf Hitler was a "good guy." The Dutch-born Johan Heesters, who now has Austrian citizenship and is still popular and performing in Germany, was asked by a Dutch journalist what he thought of Hitler. "A good guy, that's what he was," he said on the clip shown Thursday on the current affairs show "De Wereld Draait Door" ("The World Keeps Turning"). His wife, Simone Rethel, immediately corrected him, saying that Hitler was...

December 17, 2008                                  Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gn 49:2, 8-10 Jacob called his sons and said to them:“Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob,listen to Israel, your father. “You, Judah, shall your brothers praise–your hand on the neck of your enemies;the sons of your father shall bow down to you.Judah, like a lion’s whelp,you have grown up on prey, my son.He crouches like a lion recumbent,the king of beasts–who would dare rouse him?The scepter shall never depart from Judah,or the mace from between his legs,While tribute is brought to him,and he...

Agency Program Backs Loans to Aid Rural Development; No Money Down -- Even Now ____ Tightened lending standards are leaving builders and real-estate agents scrambling for new ways to move cash-strapped buyers into homes. One increasingly popular option: an obscure home-loan program offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Created in 1991 as a way to boost homeownership in rural areas, the program is being tapped by home buyers in overbuilt exurbs who are attracted to the no-money-down terms.

State governments will face budget gaps of as much as $30 billion for 2009, according to a survey of state officials released Monday. The shortfall comes despite a collective 0.1% decrease in projected spending from 2008 spending levels, the state survey said. To put that in perspective, state spending has grown by an average of 6.3% over the past 30 years. “It is not a pretty picture, and it warns of worse times ahead,” said Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers. The figures, based on preliminary 2008 data and projected 2009 data from enacted...

The Assembly has voted down the budget proposal before them along an initial party-line vote. "We're going to remain in session for a while," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass pledged after the vote. Here's some of the high-(or low)lights of the debate: Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico said he hopes that every year the Legislature won't put together the budget with "scotch tape and chewing gum." "Every year, I'm disappointed," Torrico said. Thirty minutes into the debate, he chided his GOP colleagues, saying he was "shocked" that no Republican had even "dared to even raise your mic." GOP leader Mike Villines...

Fear is mounting among Germans that their language is being eroded by waves of English and other foreign jargon After years of post-war Anglicisation and Americanisation, seven out of 10 Germans speak some English. But experts say there is a growing backlash against the widespread use of foreign terms in the age of globalisation, technology and immigration. Business leaders are growing tired of English "management speak". A fortnight ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party voted to enshrine the German language in the nation's constitution -- seen as a pointed gesture toward the large Turkish, Arab and African communities. And German...

This weekend, John McCain was less than committal about supporting his running mate, Sarah Palin, should she seek the presidency in 2012. His words were interpreted as a slam against Palin, but it's nothing compared to the intra-party warfare some have launched against her. The trashing of Sarah Palin continues. Some of the shots have been downright ugly, such as the “Retarded Republican Babies for Sarah Palin” t-shirts. Equally notable, however, is the odd one-two punch of liberal journalists and moderate Republican leakers pounding Palin as a right-wing extremist and dummy. This tandem is responsible for some of the phony...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco judge struck down a state law Tuesday that requires low-income women to live in California for six months before qualifying for state-funded care during pregnancy and immediately after childbirth. The 1991 law violates the Constitution by penalizing women who exercise their right to move to California, said Superior Court Judge Patrick Mahoney,

A new state commission says the Alaska governor ought to get a $25,000 a year raise. Asked to figure out how much Alaska should pay its top officials, the group recommends pay hikes for the lieutenant governor, department heads and legislators too. “We need the best people we can get to do some pretty tough jobs against some often incredibility well-financed, single-minded corporate and individual interests,” said Rick Halford, a former legislator and chairman of the new State Officers Compensation Commission. Deciding how much to pay themselves is always a thorny proposition for politicians who answer to an ever-skeptical public....

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures erased earlier gains and closed down 2% Tuesday, as the Federal Reserve's comprehensive easing steps and gloomy economic outlook overtook expectations that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will cut member nations' production quotas. The Fed slashed its key interest rate to a range of zero to 0.25% Tuesday afternoon, effectively cutting its key rate for overnight lending to banks by between 0.75% and 1%. It said "the outlook for economic activity has weakened further," adding more worries over falling energy demand. "Since the Committee's last meeting, labor market conditions have deteriorated, and the...

Will the Blagojevich scandal damage the incoming Obama administration? Given Rod Blagojevich’s profane railings against Barack Obama, revealed on federal wiretaps, few observers believe — although none know for sure — that the Obama camp engaged in any pay-for-play dealings with the governor, and therefore few see any legal problems for Team Obama resulting from the criminal investigation. But that’s not the only way the incoming administration might be caught up in the Blagojevich affair. The probe is being conducted, after all, by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the man who prosecuted one of the most intensely investigated and politically-charged perjury-and-false-statements...