Free Republic

"A leading cyber-security expert and former adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says he has fresh evidence regarding election fraud on Diebold electronic voting machines during the 2002 Georgia gubernatorial and senatorial elections."

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Wealthy Americans are hiding about 1.5 trillion dollars in overseas tax havens in a "deceptive" partnership with top foreign banks such as UBS, resulting in 100 billion dollars in lost US tax revenue, a congressional probe was told Thursday. The hearing centered on a 115-page report following investigations into alleged abuses by UBS in Switzerland and the smaller LGT Bank in Liechtenstein amid a widening international investigation into tax scandals involving the two banks. "The evidence we have been able to obtain breaks through some of the wall of secrecy to show that these two banks have...

WASHINGTON -- For a generation, most people accepted the idea that the core of what makes America tick was an economy governed by free markets. And whatever combination of goods, services and jobs the market cooked up was presumed to be fine for the nation and for its citizens -- certainly better than government meddling. No longer. Spurred by the continued housing crisis, turmoil in financial markets, spiking oil prices, disappearing jobs and shrinking retirement savings, the nation and its political leaders have begun to sour on the notion that the current market system is the key to a fair,...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIxK9HWideQ&feature=user

"Malicious ATM intrusions, such as the late-winter breach that resulted in the compromise of Citibank debit card data, are not at all surprising given the vulnerable state of many of the servers and other components involved in processing such transactions, according to some industry representatives. In fact, such incidents happen more often than generally perceived, though very few of them get the same kind of public attention that the Citibank breach attracted..."

A Rasmussen Reports poll released late last week found that only 56 percent of Americans believe in the Declaration of Independence’s assertion that governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed. 26 percent disagreed.

Americans migrate back to the cities By Tom Leonard in New York Last Updated: 2:23AM BST 19/06/2008 Americans are choosing to abandon the suburban sprawl in favour of a more comfortable, cheaper and greener life in the city centre. Americans flocked to the suburbs after the WWII. Soaring energy prices and the sub-prime crisis are driving them back to the cities The mass migration of America's middle classes from urban areas to the suburbs amounted to a demographic revolution in the years after the Second World War. But the so-called "driveable suburb" is becoming increasingly unfeasible as soaring fuel costs...

While consuming too much homemade potato salad, hot dogs, low carb ice cream and diet soda, Mary hates it when I drink that stuff, I watched several Memorial Day tributes on TV. I am in total awe of the extraordinary Americans who have given us the prosperous and free America, so easily taken for granted today. Without question, God has shed His Grace on thee. WWII vet and Hollywood actor Charles Darnay was stabbed eight times by enemy bayonets in combat. He incredibly killed them all. This weekend, Darnay received an award for his bravery sixty years ago. With every...

House prices force Americans to sleep in cars By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles Last Updated: 12:58AM BST 22/05/2008 Increasing numbers of women and elderly people are taking advantage of a scheme in one of America's wealthiest cities that enables the homeless to sleep safely in their cars at night. Organisers of the programme say they are seeing ever more unlikely people living out of their cars in the exclusive beachfront city of Santa Barbara, where the average house costs more than $1 million(£500,000). Many hold down part-time jobs while bedding down for the night in their vehicles. Barbara Harvey,...

Al Goodyear and the Secrets of the Ancient AmericansUSC Professor Discovers 50,000 Year-Old Artifacts in S.C. BY RON AIKEN It was the summer of 1998, and University of South Carolina archaeologist Al Goodyear had a problem on his hands. Fourteen years of digging at an ancient chert quarry outside Allendale had begun to bear fruit: At a site called Big Pine Tree, Goodyear was well on his way to establishing that a substantial Clovis population lived here. If you’ll recall your history lessons from high school, the Clovis people — named such because the first evidence of them was found...

First Americans thrived on seaweed 19:00 08 May 2008 NewScientist.com news service Jeff Hecht How times have changed. Instead of large amounts of meat and spuds, some of the first Americans enjoyed healthy doses of seaweed. The evidence comes from 27 litres of material collected from the Monte Verde site in southern Chile, widely accepted as the oldest settlement in the Americas. Nine species of seaweed, carbon dated at 13,980 to 14,220 years old, played a major role in a diet that included land plants and animals. Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, argues that the seaweeds were...

For more than 200 years, America reigned as the worlds most productive, prosperous, powerful and generous nation on earth. Like all nations, America is nothing more or less than the sum of its people and their belief system. In the case of America, they were once a people who had risked all to gain national independence and sovereignty, individual liberty and personal freedom for every man, woman and child. Generation after generation volunteered the blood of its best citizens to protect individual rights from all who would attack them in the name of some greater common good. The brave who...

WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO TURN ON THE TV AND HEAR ANY U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN GIVE THE FOLLOWING SPEECH? 'My Fellow Americans: As you all know, the defeat of the Iraq regime has been completed. Since congress does not want to spend any more money on this war, our mission in Iraq is complete. This morning I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq This action will be complete within 30 days. It is now time to begin the reckoning. Before me, I have two lists. One list contains the names...

How deep should we look for evidence of first Americans? By Bill Young Three sites in Texas have been discovered and at least partially excavated in the past 15 years yielding evidence of at least one culture older than Clovis. Most of the Clovis sites have been firmly dated to around 12,500 to 13,000 years ago. Not only did these Clovis sites yield projectile points of the very distinct Clovis type, the sites also yielded true blades and very large well- made thin preforms diagnostic of only the Clovis people. The archeologists who have worked at some of these Clovis...

Folks, it is time that we every day Americans say, “enough” to the trashing of everything we hold dear. America needs an American Tea Party, a rally in Washington DC protesting political correctness and the far left movement of our country. Most of us want to say, “Merry Christmas!” Most of us know speaking English is best for all Americans. Most of us are not offended by public prayer. Most of us know partial birth abortion is murder. While I have dear homosexual friends, most of us believe marriage should remain between a man and a woman. Most of us...

  The True Story of how"The Americans" came to be and themagnificent events that followed itsoriginal broadcast ~~~o~~~Listen

"Security is not the most important thing," he said. "What's more important for elections is auditability."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A majority of Americans do not read political blogs, the online commentaries that have proliferated in the race for the U.S. presidency, according to a poll released on Monday. Only 22 percent of people responding to the poll said they read blogs regularly, meaning several times a month or more, according to the survey conducted by Harris Interactive. Political blogs, in which writers, pundits and other participants voice opinions in online forums, burst into the spotlight in the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns. Some of the most high-profile blogs are influential on campaign strategies, media coverage...

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2008 – Air Force Capt. Edward V. Szczepanik thinks his experiences -- both good and bad -- can help the American people understand the challenges servicemembers face in the war on terror. Air Force Capt. Edward V. Szczepanik is one of 12 servicemembers who have deployed in the war on terror who are part of the Defense Department’s “Why We Serve” public-outreach program.  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The captain, a C-17 Globemaster III transport jet pilot based at McChord Air Force Base, Wash., is one of 12 servicemembers who have deployed in the war...

ANYBODY who dabbles in transatlantic affairs has come across one giant stereotype: Americans admire risk-takers, whereas Europeans (at least in the rich, stable parts of the continent) are instinctively risk-averse, expecting the state to shield them from all sorts of dangers, including their own folly. Move a bit farther east to the ex-communist world, especially Russia, and you enter a place where things seem to have gone from one extreme to another: from an all-demanding, all-protective state to a free-for-all where life is full of deadly dangers, about which even the prudent can't do very much. Like most windy generalisations,...

At the time of the World Cup the summer before last, there was a nice cartoon in the papers by Oliphant, with two panels. One showed "Soccer as seen by Americans," a group of dainty chaps prancing lightly across the grass with purses dangling from their limp wrists, and the other, "American football as seen by Europeans," a heap of brutally moronic humanoids using severed limbs to batter each others' brains out. Yes, that sums up this reciprocal perception rather well - and it might have hinted at a contrast going beyond sports. The delicate midfield artists of Barcelona and...

"...electronic voting system shut down across the board..."

“It's a complex fate, being an American,” wrote Henry James, and so it is. But I wonder if it isn't perhaps a touch more complex a fate being a Jewish American. Jewishness may be the only religion that marks you even if you don't practice it. Example: The adolescent son of a dear friend of mine, trying to get out of going to High Holiday services, said to his father, “Why do I have to go to synagogue? Uncle Joe [that would be me] doesn't go to synagogue, and no one is more Jewish than Uncle Joe.” The boy is...

Unlike the sensitive folks over at Media Matters, we NewsBusters are a relatively thick-skinned lot. And no one's ever confused me with Gloria Steinem. So we're not going to overreact to Willie Geist's comment this morning and demand a Matthewsesque mea culpa. However . . . Willie did manage to diss the intelligence of his compatriots on today's Morning Joe. A Friday show tradition is for Geist and MSNBC celebrity correspondent Courtney Hazlett [a personal fave in the genre for her intelligent perspective] to predict which movie will score best at the box office during the coming weekend. Hazlett today...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — All eyes may be on Iowa and New Hampshire, but many of them are rolling. Despite efforts to evict the two states from the front of the presidential calendar, both managed to hang on for another election cycle that culminates with the Iowa caucuses on Thursday and the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8. As a year of media attention reaches its crescendo, voters in other states are saying enough is enough. According to national survey conducted for The Associated Press and Yahoo News, just over half of all voters said New Hampshire and Iowa have...

Shoes off at airport security checkpoints. Forms that are hard to understand. Complaints that go unheeded. Perhaps it's no surprise that a new survey shows Americans are less satisfied with government services than those provided by the private sector. The survey, scheduled for release today, measures an array of federal programs and services for the American Customer Satisfaction Index, produced by the University of Michigan and other groups. The government scored 67.8 on the index's 100-point scale. The score was lower than the overall score for all industries and economic sectors, by 7.4 points, and below the index's rating for...

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (Dec. 14, 2007) – Lance Cpl. Mark Sheldon decorates his work section’s Christmas tree. It is a live tree and was provided by the National Christmas Tree Association’s Trees for Troops program. Sheldon is a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist with 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward). AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (Dec. 14, 2007) – An ornament hangs from a live Christmas tree provided by the National Christmas Tree Association’s Trees for Troops program. AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (Dec. 15, 2007) -- Instead of seeing the brightly colored decorations and twinkling lights found on America’s streets during the...

A majority of Europeans and Americans view China's emergence as a major economic power as a threat, with only the British seeing an opportunity, according to a survey released Wednesday. Europeans were slightly more worried than Americans with 55 percent concerned about China's rise compared with 51 percent in the US, the results of the survey from the German Marshall Fund found.

In its new Human Development Report calling for another $86 billion in aid to the rest of the world, supposedly to fight the effects of climate change, the United Nations acts distressed that people in "rich" countries like the U.S. don't take the theory of man-made global warming more seriously. Its answer ― and this is actually spelled out in the report ― is that too much "editorial balance" in the media has prevented "informed debate" about the need for "urgent action" in the form of higher taxes on energy. The U.N. report complains that, according to one poll, roughly...

Does skull prove that the first Americans came from Europe? By Steve Connor Science Editor 03 December 2002 Scientists in Britain have identified the oldest skeleton ever found on the American continent in a discovery that raises fresh questions about the accepted theory of how the first people arrived in the New World. The skeleton's perfectly preserved skull belonged to a 26-year-old woman who died during the last ice age on the edge of a giant prehistoric lake which once formed around an area now occupied by the sprawling suburbs of Mexico City. Scientists from Liverpool's John Moores University and...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2007 – Since 6 a.m. Nov. 17, thousands of Americans across the country paused to text a message of gratitude to the nation’s servicemembers for their sacrifices through the “Giving Thanks” text messaging program. “It already feels like a terrific, successful campaign, because from the thousands and thousands of messages that have come in already, we’re seeing that the American people really just want a chance to say ‘Thanks,’” said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communication and public liaison, of the America Supports You initiative. America Supports You is a Defense Department...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2007 – For those seeking a quick way to show appreciation for the troops' service far from home this holiday season, look no further than “Giving Thanks,” a new initiative from the Defense Department’s America Supports You program. (Video) America Supports You connects citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad. “This is a simple way to connect our citizens to our soldiers using modern technology,” Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications and public liaison, said of the text messaging program. The program, which already has received nearly...

In honor of Ambassador Munter's Visit to historic Pranjani, Serbia to honor General Draza Mihailovich, his Serbian people, and the American veterans of the Halyard Mission, I'd like to share the story below about an O.S.S. veteran of the Mission returning to Serbia 60 years later to pay tribute to the Serbian and American veterans who played out one of the great, heroic stories of World War Two that has remained largely hidden all these years. THE AMERICAN RADIOMAN RETURNS TO SERBIA TO PAY TRIBUTE TO GENERAL MIHAILOVICH He is among the last of them. The last of the living...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Sixty percent of all Americans strongly want the country to change direction after nearly seven years of President George W. Bush's rule, according to a new opinion poll released late Sunday. The survey by The Washington Post and ABC News indicated that only 24 percent of those surveyed think the nation is on the right track, and three-quarters said they want the next president to chart a different political course. A new direction is wanted not only by Democrats, but also by three-quarters of Independents and even half of Republicans, according to the poll. More than six...

"The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right? The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president. In essence 2/3s of the citizenry just ain't happy and want a change. So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, ''What we are so unhappy about?'' Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2007 – Four airmen, a soldier and a member of the Coast Guard received the “Outstanding American by Choice” award from the chief of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during a ceremony here yesterday. The recipients of the of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Outstanding American by Choice award stand with the office’s director, Dr. Emilio T. Gonzalez, center. From left to right Air Force Capt. Rasul Alsalih, Army Warrant Officer Abida Sultana Shoyeb, Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mitzie A. Robinson, Gonzalez, Air Force Maj. Manuel Dominguez, Air Force Capt. Van T. Thai...

LONDON - Rudy Giuliani was on the trans-Atlantic campaign trail Wednesday, schmoozing with conservative idol Margaret Thatcher and bragging about his international credentials. "I'm probably one of the four or five best known Americans in the world," Giuliani told a small group of reporters at a posh London hotel as onlookers gathered in the lobby to gawk at actor Dustin Hoffman, who was on a separate visit. The former New York mayor is the latest GOP presidential candidate to travel to Britain, meeting the country's new political guard and rubbing elbows with Thatcher, an icon for American conservatives. He also...

By itself, the fact that New York Senator Charles Schumer is from Brooklyn would be ignored as unremarkable biography. It isn't. Schumer's hometown should be "Exhibit A" in any discussion of the Petraeus report, 9/11 and the larger war on terror itself. For Brooklyn, New York is at the very heart of a discussion that fills the spaces between the lines of the Petraeus findings, at once unmentioned and unmentionable. The issue is the American character. And Harry Potter-style, the American character is being treated by terrified liberals like Schumer as if it were the name of the evil Lord...

Report: Bin Laden to Address Americans on Sept. 11 Thursday, September 06, 2007 Terror leader Usama bin Laden plans to address Americans on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in a new video, according to a terror monitoring group. SITE Intelligence Group said an Internet announcement of the plan included a photo of the al-Qaeda leader from the upcoming video — his beard, which in previous messages had been streaked with gray, was entirely dark. A senior U.S. official with knowledge of intelligence affairs tells FOX News that "no one should be surprised to get a message from...

8/23/2007 - ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Approximately 80 Iraqis from the city of An Nasiriyah interacted for the first time with Airmen and Soldiers at the Ziggurat historical monument Aug. 21 at Ali Base. It has been more than 10 years since any Iraqi native has been allowed to visit the Ziggurat of Ur, which is the most dominant landmark on Ali Base, because during the reign of Suddam Hussein the installation was used by the Iraqi army. The Ziggurat was constructed more than 4,000 years ago by worshipers of the moon god Nanna living near the ancient city...

To be American is not just to live in America, or even to just be born in America. Like all nations, America has given birth to many un-American or anti-American citizens, some of whom have been tried, convicted, jailed or put to death for acts against American interests. Not every individual born or residing in America is an American and that is where the problem begins. To Be American To avoid being accused of single handedly defining what it is to be "American," I won’t define the term at all. Instead, I’ll simply rely upon our founding documents to define...

Vito asks, where are all the young Americans to fight off the illegal immigrants?

America is once again a house divided. This time, it is a war between two schools of thought. The first argues that because we face a violent, existential threat to our way of life, we must become less tolerant to pressures from the radical Islamic lobby domestically and more aggressive against our enemies internationally. This group maintains that we are at war with an enemy that is committed to the destruction of our way of life - an enemy that is planning further attacks on American soil - attacks far more devastating than 9/11; an enemy that operates according to...

Rugged American individualism could hinder our ability to understand other peoples' point of view, a new study suggests. And in contrast, the researchers found that Chinese are more skilled at understanding other people's perspectives, possibly because they live in a more "collectivist" society. "This cultural difference affects the way we communicate," said study co-author and cognitive psychologist Boaz Keysar of the University of Chicago. Simple study The study, though oversimplified compared to real life, was instructive. Keysar and his colleagues arranged two blocks on a table so participants could see both. However, a piece of cardboard obstructed the view of...

Are We Rome?" asks a new book, authored by an editor at Vanity Fair magazine. The subtitle is "The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America." It seems, given the dour mood of the country, that this would be a good time to market such a book. And, indeed, as I check its sales clip on Amazon, it seems to be moving at a brisk pace that must please both author and publisher. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., center, greets supports as he arrives at a house party in Las Vegas, Friday, July 13, 2007. (AP...

But just as it has in so many other arenas, America's predominance in height has faded. Americans reached a height plateau after World War II, gradually falling behind the rest of the world as it continued growing taller. By the time the baby boomers reached adulthood in the 1960s, most northern and western European countries had caught up with and surpassed the United States. Young adults in Japan and other prosperous Asian countries now stand nearly as tall as Americans do.

Source: Smithsonian Date: July 9, 2007 Ancient Americans Liked It Hot: Mexican Cuisine Traced To 1,500 Years Ago Science Daily — One of the world's tastiest and most popular cuisines, Mexican food also may be one of the oldest. These chili peppers from the Guila Naquitz cave in Oaxaca Mexico date to between A.D. 490 and 780, and represent two cultivars or cultivated types. A Smithsonian scientist analyzed the chili pepper remains and determined that Pre-Columbian inhabitants of the region hundreds of years ago enjoyed a spicy fare similar to Mexican cuisine today. (Credit: Linda Perry, Smithsonian Institution) Plant remains...

Boy Scouts set up and take down flags in northwest Boise and Eagle for a troop fundraiser. In the realm of delivering holiday cheer before dawn, there's Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and a group of local Boy Scouts. Instead of presents or Easter eggs, the 16 Boy Scouts set up American flags for patriotic holidays, including Independence Day. Early Wednesday morning the crew planted the stars and stripes in 136 lawns scattered throughout northwest Boise and Eagle. The Scouts charge $30 for the service, which guarantees an American flag on President's Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, the Fourth of...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Almost two-thirds of Americans proudly fly the US flag, but such patriotic displays have fallen slightly from a spike after the September 11 attacks, according to a new poll. In 2007 some 62 percent of Americans said they flew the stars and stripes at home, in the office or in their car, according to the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in Washington released last week ahead of the July 4 Independence Day celebrations. But in August 2002, less than a year after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York...

Happy Fourth of July. To mark this Wednesday's holiday, I share a small moment that happened a year ago in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I was at a wake for an old family friend named Anthony Coppola, a retired security guard who'd been my uncle Johnny's best friend from childhood. All the old neighborhood people were there from Clinton Avenue and from other streets in Brooklyn, and Anthony's sisters Tessie and Angie and Gloria invited a priest in to say some prayers. About a hundred of us sat in chairs in a little side chapel in the funeral home.