Free Republic

Michael Lewis’s new book, Boomerang, is about the parts of the globe that were downgraded by the credit crisis, and my hometown of Vallejo, California, concludes his world tour like a telegraph from the end of days. From Lewis’s book, I learned that I grew up in what is now the third world. “Which city do you pity most?” Lewis asks two mayoral aides in San Jose, capital of Silicon Valley. “Vallejo!” they laugh. snip Mare Island built the world’s first aircraft carrier deck for $500 and the first cruise-missile submarine for considerably more. It held the record for fastest...

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is protected by her bodyguard at the protest. FRANTIC scenes of the Prime Minister being rescued helter skelter by riot police from a baying crowd are a blight on Australia. Carted like a mannequin under the arm of her bodyguard, losing a shoe, Julia Gillard's predicament on Australia Day led news bulletins around the world. Now we know it was Gillard's own media adviser who sparked the violent protest at The Lobby restaurant in Canberra. But Friday night's press release announcing the resignation of Tony Hodges, 28, left too much unanswered. Did the PM's office fan...

The year-and-a-half-old ABC “scoop”, in which Newt Gingrich’s ex boasts her one interview could end her one time hubby’s political career, is more about the contemporary media than it is about a presidential candidate. The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz said a mouthful when he posited that Marianne Gingrich does not say anything in the new interview that she hasn’t said in the past.The Esquire already ran with the same story in September 2010, if anyone cares. Notice how quickly the story of another election-year smear has morphed over to WHEN ABC will air it.

When signs of a severe economic downfall emerged more than two years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama was quick to point a finger at the man he hoped to replace. Seventeen months into his administration, the message is often the same, and Republicans say it's time for him to drop the Bush bashing and take ownership of the problem. "Nothing makes a president look weaker than pointing the finger at past administrations," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. "By blaming somebody, it looks like you are playing politics and people just want jobs. They don't care about whose fault it is. Playing...

Scott Letzter thought when he moved away to college that he had left his childhood home for good. His plan was to graduate, launch his career and live on his own. But at 24, Letzter is living at his parents’ house in Johnsburg, still sleeping in the bedroom he had as a child. “I thought I would have more of a steady job, something that gets me on the right path to what I would call a career,” Letzter said. “I don’t really feel like there’s any job security.” Letzter is part of a growing demographic called Boomerang Kids, adults...

You remember this passage: Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame. Well, during the campaign and the first sixty days since, the POTUS's image has only been damaged by memorable individuals (with lots of video available for broadcast): Rev. Wright William Ayers AIG hearings clips Barney Frank Chris Dodd And of course the Pres and his minions's back and forth Add the frequent pop-ups of Biden, Pelosi and Reid and you have convinced the likes of...

Captain Cook's boomerang has returned - and could bring its owner £60,000.

Former Chief of Staff: Sharon's Disengagement a Disaster 15:56 Jul 06, '06 / 10 Tammuz 5766 by Ezra HaLevi Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Moshe Yaalon, IDF Chief of Staff until the implementation of the Gaza withdrawal, said Thursday that the entire Disengagement was conceived to save PM Sharon from legal troubles. “The Disengagement was not the result of thorough strategic analysis but the result of [then-prime minister, Ariel Sharon’s] political distress," Yaalon said in an interview to be published in full by Haaretz this weekend. “It was a disengagement from reality and a disengagement from the truth." Though such a claim...

The revelation that The Washington Post's Bob Woodward may have been the first reporter to learn about CIA operative Valerie Plame could provide a boost to the only person indicted in the leak case: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Legal experts said Woodward provided two pieces of new information that cast at least a shadow of doubt on the public case against Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, who has been indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

After at least five years of media hype warning that a tectonic societal shift was slowly taking place, it has hit home. Millions of parents who used to worry vaguely about what they'd do when their kids fled the nest are now fretting about the opposite: how to get them to leave. An estimated 18 million fledgling adults are now out of college but not out on their own. Parental nests are packed with offspring whose costly college educations so far have not equipped them to assume the traditional markers of adulthood: moving out on their own, finding jobs good...

From Merriam-Webster Online:re·con·nais·sance - "a preliminary survey to gain information; especially : an exploratory military survey of enemy territory." I spent a BIG chunk of Friday night on a recon mission -- right in the belly of the beast, and HERE are my recommendations: 1 - RALLY START POINT: Hollywood & HIGHLAND(NOT Hollywood and WHITLEY) We will have to promote the "Thank you, Hollywood" billboard in some other way. It is just TOO FAR away from the "main event" at Hollywood & Highland. 2 - PARKING: 1718 N. Cherokee Ave.(just north of Hollywood Blvd, near Musso & Frank's Grill) Parking...

Calling all creative FReepers (and lurkers)!The L.A. Chapter needs YOUR advice. As many of you know by know, the Hollywood Resistance Force(also known as the L.A. Chapter of the Free Republic Network)is planning a "Rally For Responsibility" outside this year's Academy Awards. FReeper rantblogger has suggested that we bring GIANT foam hands to the rally,with the index finger painted PURPLE... ...to show OUR solidarity with the brave Iraqi voters,and to remind the leftists in Hollywood that if they had THEIR way,Iraq would not now be free. image from the thread "Giving terrorism the finger!"

. You are cordially invited to join TED HAYES and the "Hollywood Resistance Force" as we: FReep OSCAR! [again]outside the Academy Awards ceremony onSUNDAY (2/27)fromNOON to 5 pmnear the Kodak Theatreat Hollywood and Highland, in HOLLYWOOD

Let Hollywood know that with Freedom of Speech comes RESPONSIBILITY. Outside the 77th annual ACADEMY AWARDSin Hollywood, California February 27, 2005 - 12 noon Corner Hollywood and Whitley3 blocks east of Highland. -RETURN HOLLYWOOD TO AMERICA--TAKE BACK HOLLYWOOD- We need some volunteers to show up and hang with Ted Hayes and Ron Smith at the corner of Hollywood and Highland at 6AM. Contact Ted or Ron for details. The rest of you can show up at 12 noon at Hollywood and WHITLEY to march three blocks west on Hollywood to the corner of HIGHLAND. Southern California CONSERVATIVES: Please JOIN...

Watch the HILARIOUS new short filmby FReeper AnnaZ called "Boomerang"about the Citizens United's "Thank you, Holllywood" billboard. click here for the Windows MediaPlayer version

<p>With the help of some really magnanimous people -- most specifically the generous and talented Jeffers M. Dodge -- I managed to revisit my Unspun ways.</p> <p>Hope you enjoy it!</p>

British claim on boomerang By Paul Mulvey in London May 7, 2004 A BRITISH historian has claimed to have uncovered the world's oldest evidence of the returning boomerang – in Yorkshire. Terry Deary says his research indicates a rock carving on Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire is of a four-armed boomerang which dates back as far as 4000BC. The carving on what is known as the Swastika Stone was first discovered in the 1870s and has long been considered by experts to be a swastika motif which was common in ancient Greek and Roman art. But Deary believes ancient Britons...

Dems’ charge against Medicare ads boomerangs; ad firm has Dem ties By Sam Dealey Democratic lawmakers renewed their calls yesterday that Bush administration ads touting changes in the Medicare law enacted last year be halted until their propriety is investigated. The minority lawmakers question both their timing and accuracy, and point to a Republican-oriented firm’s production of the ads as evidence that the media campaign is merely an extension of President Bush’s re-election drive. “The administration chose to use the media team that is part of the Team Bush re-election,” said Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) at a press conference. “They...

Boomerang Diplomacy Friday, December 12, 2003; Page A36 YES, OF COURSE, President Bush's latest initiative on Iraq is arrogant and self-defeating. But that's not the most remarkable aspect of his decision to exclude companies from a number of countries that are important U.S. allies from bidding on reconstruction contracts. After all, a spiteful unilateralism has characterized the administration's handling of postwar Iraq all along, and it's an important reason why the United States must now face daunting military and political challenges nearly on its own. What's really strange about the administration's latest slap at Germany, France, Canada and other countries...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 20 Cold Wind from the Boomerang Nebula Credit: R. Sahai and J. Trauger (JPL), NASA/ESA Explanation: A cold wind blows from the central star of the Boomerang Nebula. Seen here in a detailed false-color image recorded in 1998 by the Hubble Space Telescope, the nebula lies about 5,000 light-years away towards the grand southern constellation of Centaurus. The symmetric cloud appears to have been created by...

Betsylew Ross Miale-Gix, 43, of Brier, Wash., in this undated photo, was arrested Sunday, June 30, 2002, in Windsor Locks, Conn., after arguing with a security screener at Bradley International Airport, state police said. Miale-Gix, a world-class competitive boomerang thrower faces a criminal charge after trying to bring boomerangs through a security checkpoint. (AP Photo/US Boomerang Association)