Free Republic

TO THE CONGRESS: The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775 - you have had 234 years to get it right; it is broke. Social Security was established in 1935 - you have had 74 years to get it right; it is broke. Fannie Mae was established in 1938 - you have had 71 years to get it right; it is broke. The "War on Poverty" started in 1964 - you have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor"; it hasn't worked and our entire country...

THE U.S. DOLLAR INDEX, which tracks the dollar against other major currencies, fell below its important June low of 78.33 late last week. On Monday morning, it was trading at an 11-month low. The bear trend from March continues with no meaningful support in sight. Roughly two years ago, when the dollar was in its previous bear market run, the dollar index had moved under a multi-decade support level at 80 (see Chart 1).

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is resting her broken ankle

Choose any number, then subtract both the first and second digits from your number.Example: 25-2-5=18...

It's tempting right now to say President Bush will go down as one of the worst presidents ever to dis-grace the White House. But is that fair, or even accurate? Historian renderings of a legacy are often at odds with fluctuating public opinion polls that gauge the heat of the moment. Take Truman. The man had a 22 percent approval rating toward the end of his presidency--due in large part to a highly unpopular Korean War--yet he's among the most popular presidents in history. I'm going to play the devil's advocate and argue that it is at least in the...

The wounds were still fresh from his damaging defeat in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 5 when Mitt Romney was looking for a way to regain momentum heading into the New Hampshire primary. On that cold morning at a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire, Romney stood beside an illuminated sign that unveiled his retooled message: "Washington Is Broken." “We face extraordinarily challenges that we have heard the politicians talk about for decades without getting anything done,” Romney said on that day. “And it is finally time to have somebody go to Washington who is not a lifelong politician...

John McCain's message machine shifted gears today -- after a week or so of offbeat efforts to annoy and exasperate Barack Obama, the Republican's campaign launched a new bid to distance himself from the titular head of his own party. A 60-second McCain television ad airing in several of this year's key battleground states seeks to both remind voters of the "maverick" image that gained him national prominence and undercut arguments that he's a President Bush clone. Indeed, the spot's third sentence offers this starkly negative assessment of the incumbent's second term: "We’re worse off than we were four years...

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today released its latest television ad, entitled "Broken." The ad highlights John McCain's record of taking on the special interests in Washington. The ad will air in key states. VIEW THE AD HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylJkmMR8Fek Script For "Broken" (TV :60) ANNCR: Washington's broken. John McCain knows it. We're worse off than we were four years ago. Only McCain has taken on big tobacco, drug companies, fought corruption in both parties. He'll reform Wall Street, battle Big Oil, make America prosper again. He's the original maverick. One is ready to lead -- McCain....

OZARK, Mo. -- A family wants answers about what happened to their son that left him hospitalized. Early Saturday morning, police found Mace Hutchinson, 16, underneath the Highway F overpass over U.S. 65. Mace ended up in intensive care at a hospital. His parents believe the actions of Ozark police officers contributed to his injuries and slowed doctors’ abilities to speed his recovery. “We called the police. My wife was afraid he was going to get ran over or hit,” said witness Doug Messersmith. Messersmith and his wife were the last known people to see 16-year-old boy walking, shortly before...

Erectile Dysfunction May Signal A Broken Heart ScienceDaily (May 20, 2008) — Erectile dysfunction is always a matter of the heart, but new research shows that more than romance is at stake. Two new studies of men with type 2 diabetes found that erectile dysfunction (ED) was a powerful early warning sign for serious heart disease, including heart attack and death. One of the studies also showed that cholesterol-lowering medications could cut the risk of heart problems by about one-third--and suggested that Viagra and other compounds in the same drug family might offer similar protection. The research, which was published...

Out of frustration with the current primary system several observers and magazines have suggested a single nationwide primary. This would cause as many problems as it fixes, including making money a huge determining factor and (therefore) giving even more power to the MSM to pick our candidates. Several of these commentators have compounded the bad idea of a All-State Primary with the worse suggestion that the Congress mandate it. The proposed plan is not great for several reasons. First off is Constitutionality. The Republican party is not a branch of the US Government which the Congress can legislate rules for!...

A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time. According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second. However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory. The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of...

KIRKLAND, Wash. - Shaun Alexander might still have a broken foot, something he doesn't want confirmed just yet. The Seattle Seahawks' star running back said Monday his left foot, broken for the final four months of last season, may still be cracked as he begins the 2007 preseason. The 2005 NFL MVP doesn't want to know for sure until after his team's veteran minicamp ends Thursday. RB Alexander tracks a pass in Seahawks minicamp. He later talks about being a new dad, the upcoming season and his injured foot.

This morning the Supreme Court came down with two decisions about patent law that both take small, but extremely important, steps towards reigning in some of the worst abuses of the patent system. In both cases, it's disagreed with the position taken by the Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). This isn't a huge surprise, as many observers figured that the Supreme Court's recent interest in all sorts of patent cases meant that the justices weren't at all happy with the way CAFC was moving. This is a good thing, as the past twenty-five years or so of CAFC...

Scientists show we can die of a broken heart By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 12:47am BST 10/04/2007 Scientists have charted for the first time how intense stress caused by bereavement can make someone "die of a broken heart". A British team has found that the regions of the brain responsible for learning, memory and emotion can destabilise the cardiac muscle of someone who already has heart disease. When we are under stress, these "higher regions" of the brain take part in a vicious circle of activity which can trigger harmful rhythms, researchers say. While it has always been...

Forest of Broken Urns Volume 60 Number 2, March/April 2007 by Karen J. Coates Borneo's unexplored past is dying by the chainsaw. Tony Paran sits near a jar that held the remains of one of his ancestors. Soon, the forests that shelter these jars will be logged. (Jerry Redfern) Walter Paran was a lucky boy. Three minutes out his front door lay an old grave in the forest marked by big stone slabs, a broken jar, and human bones. A few minutes another way was a pit where the riches of the dead were purportedly buried. What more could an...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2007 – The Army faces significant challenges in the years ahead, but it is still the world’s preeminent land power and has not been overly strained by the war on terror, Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said here today. Casey, who has commanded in Iraq since July 2004, is President Bush’s pick to be the next Army chief of staff. Speaking at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Service Committee, Casey expressed confidence in U.S. soldiers. “I see in Iraq every day a splendid Army,” Casey said. “I know...

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SACRAMENTO - Throughout his tenure as a politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger has made a lot of promises. From candidate to governor, he has pursued a grand vision with vows to tackle everything from reforming the state pension system and the redistricting process to protecting money for education and increasing the minimum wage. But in the ensuing three years - and as he faces a November re-election bid - many of those promises have been abandoned or ignored. While there is no dispute that Schwarzenegger has kept some of his vows, others that he has vigorously pursued have been blocked by contentious...

JERUSALEM - However hard Ehud Olmert tries to spin it, the UN ceasefire that began this week is a disaster for Israel and for the war on terrorism generally. With an unprecedented green light from Washington to do whatever necessary to uproot the Iranian front line against Israel, and with a level of national unity and willingness to sacrifice unseen here since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, our leaders squandered weeks restraining the army and fighting a pretend war. Only in the two days before the ceasefire was the army finally given the go-ahead to fight a real war. But,...