Free Republic

It seems the voices of the folks back home are beginning to register with their representatives, especially with midterm elections coming up. The fear of being replaced finally strikes home on both sides of the aisle. Angry Congress lashes out at Obama The Washington Post Fri., Nov . 20, 2009 Growing discontent over the economy and frustration with efforts to speed its recovery boiled over Thursday on Capitol Hill in a wave of criticism and outright anger directed at the Obama administration. Episodes in both houses of Congress exposed the raw nerves of lawmakers flooded with stories of unemployment and...

Climate researchers at the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit may have intentionally and artificially skewed temperature data in studies The field of global warming is a fascinating facet of atmospheric science. Unfortunately, few are approaching the topic from an unbiased perspective -- the majority is dead set on proving it, while other are equally passionate about disproving it, or at least removing the implication that man may play a role in global warming. Both sides have been found to falsify data, withhold information, or otherwise distort views on the topic, reportedly. Notably internal investigations found that the Bush...

As the economy drifts listlessly going into this holiday season, thoughts of sugar-plumbed call options and zombie companies (Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), and Citibank (C)) are dancing in the heads of day traders, fund managers and CNBC. Hooray, hooray, everything is OK! Well, not quite. While Wall Street is feasting on the greatest secular bear market bounce in history, Main Street is experiencing persistent and formidable economic famine, the likes of which, have not been seen the Great Depression – which recorded the second greatest secular bear market bounce in history.

David Farr, CEO of Emerson Electric Co., said federal governmental policies are hurting U.S. manufacturing. He cited cap and trade, health care reform and labor rules as undermining the industry and its ability to expand and grow jobs domestically. He said that his company will continue to focus on growth overseas. Emerson, the maker of electrical equipment and InSinkErator garbage disposals with $20.9 billion in sales for the year ended September, will keep expanding in emerging markets, which represented 32 percent of revenue in 2009. About 36 percent of manufacturing is now in “best-cost countries” up from 21 percent in...

News is spreading across the internet like wildfire today that emails from the East Anglia Climate Research Unit in England (not too far from where I used to live) have been hacked by someone and released on the web. An Australian publication called Investigate Magazine says it has spoken to the head of the organization, Dr. Phil Jones, who has confirmed that his organization was hacked and that these emails appear to be genuine. If that is indeed the case, the material contained in these emails seem to constitute an astonishing acknowledgement of what I and many others have been...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- There are 18 separate tax hikes in the Reid-Obama healthcare bill. One of them caps the amount that can be deferred in Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) at $2500 per year (a similar provision was included in the Pelosi-Obama health bill and written about by Congressman Cathy McMorris-Rogers, R-Was., for National Review Online). There is currently no limit to how much can be saved, though all monies must be used by the end of the year. Employers may put a cap in place for their employees, but this would put a cap in federal tax law...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A new report says nuclear power plants would take too long to build and are too expensive to make any impact on global warming. The report, released by Wisconsin Environment, an environmental advocacy organization, notes scientists believe developed nations must reduce emissions dramatically by 2020 to limit global warming. The report says the first new nuclear reactor in the United States probably won't be completed until at least 2016. Money that would go to new plants would be better spent on renewable sources. State Rep. Mike Huebsch, a West Salem Republican, has pushed to repeal Wisconsin's...

Gold prices, which have already soared to record levels in recent weeks, could get a further boost from a new investor: central banks. Several central banks are joining average investors in betting that weak currencies—particularly the US dollar—could be a friend to the gold trade for quite some time. AP After a weak summer, gold has rallied strongly over the past three months on the belief that that the dollar will continue to fall until the US economic recovery is on more solid footing. For Rob Lutts, CIO of Cabot Management in Salem, Mass., bull markets such as gold's run...

The files leaked Wednesday that are spreading around the world at the speed of Internet are genuine files from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia--and should they prove to be accurate, they paint a clear picture of a group of scientists intent on message discipline, enforcing the party line--to the point where they changed presentations, colluded on peer review and tried to get uncooperative editors fired and boycott journals which didn't adopt a sufficiently alarmist position. If you're just coming to this story, Part 1 and Part 2 are here. Examiner.com has examined these documents and...

Jobs’ Personal, Terse Reply to Developer Written on November 20, 2009 by Liam Cassidy Gotta love that Steve Jobs. He never was one to hold back, and even now, when he’s the CEO of the Universe (or something like that), he won’t be found spouting corporate speak. CrunchGear tells the story of a small software development company called The Little App Factory. It made an app for the Mac called iPodRip, one of those tools for transferring music from an iPod to a computer. A law firm representing Apple sent The Little App Factory a letter, informing the company it had...

People who unlawfully download copyrighted material could be disconnected from their internet accounts as part of the Digital Economy Bill, a major overhaul to the UK's technology legislation. The bill, unveiled on Friday, will oblige ISPs to send notifications to customers who are suspected of infringing copyright. ISPs will also be forced to record the number of notifications a user has received and send this data to rights holders, such as record companies, so they can apply for a court order for the user's name and address. The rights holder can then launch civil proceedings against the infringer. The minister...

Two months ago, there was the "Dog Ate My Global Warming Data" episode. As noted at NewsBusters and at BizzyBlog (original source: National Review Online), we learned that important raw data forming the underpinning of global warming alarmists' claims about the earth's temperatures heating up has vanished. It is longer available and apparently can't be reverse engineered. Today, e-mails hacked from a UK climate research facility appear at a minimum to indicate a willingness by scientists to fudge the data to make alleged warming trends more clear and convincing. At worst, the whole enterprise could be totally discredited. Important and...

Read the full billRead the tax revenue score from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) Read the budget and tax score from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) PDF of this DocumentIndividual Mandate Tax (Page 324/Sec. 1501/$8 bil): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the following schedule (capped at 8 percent of income): ==============> Check out this important piece, at ATR.org...

Scientists at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia are facing a fierce attack from climate sceptics following the hacking of the university's computer. The hacker stole thousands of e-mails and data. Much of it has been posted on the web. And some of the e-mails are causing acute embarrassment. My contacts at the CRU tell me the e-mails are being taken out of context and insist they are part of the normal hurly-burly of conversations between scientists working on some of the most complicated questions of our times. They ask how many of us would feel...

Members of the Project 21 black leadership network have risen to condemn Jesse Jackson for saying of Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL), "You can't vote against health care and call yourself a black man," calling Jackson's statement divisive and likening it to the mental tactics of a antebellum slaveowner. Declining to respond in kind, Rep. Davis told The Hill newspaper, "The best way to honor Reverend Jackson's legacy is to decline to engage in an argument with him that begins and ends with race." Project 21 members were less restrained. "Shame on Jesse Jackson for using the race card in an...

It's official: the organisers of the Copenhagen climate conference conceded last weekend that it cannot deliver a final, legally binding deal. Danish prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the conference host, is hoping for a "political deal", followed by a legal one in 2010. The question now is how specific the political deal will be. Speaking at a meeting of Asian leaders in Singapore, Rasmussen said the Copenhagen agreement should be "precise on specific commitments and binding on countries committing to reach certain targets. We need the commitments. We need the figures. We need the action." His climate minister, Connie...

Ask yourselves why the price of gold is headed to $1500. The answer is that this government has lost control of the currency and therefore the economy. Normally price appreciation is great except when it comes to gold. It means our political leaders have no idea what they are doing and there are going to be very severe consequences. Very! Last November gold was at $700. Now it is at $1100 on its way to $1500. We will all have third rate health care with no jobs. What a future.

Economists say the recession is over, but tell that to the 92,500 Minnesota homeowners who are facing or are in foreclosure. The Mortgage Bankers Association announced Thursday that 6.98 percent of nearly 900,000 Minnesota mortgage holders, or about 62,000 Minnesotans, were behind on their payments in the third quarter. That's a record high. Nationwide, roughly 4.3 million, or 9.94 percent of all loans outstanding, have mortgages that are at least 30 days past due. That's the highest since the association started tracking this data in 1972. Loans in the process of foreclosure rose in the state and the nation from...

As if hyperactive Washington politicians haven't already grabbed enough power by taking over banks and car companies and trying to control everybody's health care, now they are getting closer to centralized bureaucratic control of the entire consumer credit market. Pending legislation to create a superpowerful Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) would take an ax to financial freedom and significantly increase consumer costs. That's not what most people would call "protection." The bill already has made it through the House Financial Services Committee, chaired by Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat. It is expected to reach the House floor shortly after Thanksgiving....

Apparently somebody hacked into climate change researchers’ e-mails and published the exchanges. From the story: Hundreds of private emails and documents allegedly exchanged between some of the world’s leading climate scientists over the past 13 years have been stolen by hackers and leaked online, it emerged today. The computer files were apparently accessed earlier this week from servers at the UK’s University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, a world-renowned centre focused on the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change…So far the veracity of the emails has not been confirmed and the scientists involved have declined to comment on...

E-mails and documents have been taken from the University of East Anglia. One of Britain's leading climate-research centres has had more than 1,000 files stolen from its computers and republished on the Internet. The cyber-attack is apparently aimed at damaging the reputations of prominent climate scientists. The University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) in Norwich confirmed today that e-mails and documents dating from 1991 to 2009 were illegally copied and subsequently published on an anonymous Russian server. A link to the Russian server first appeared on 19 November on a relatively obscure climate-sceptic blog. The server was shut...

As many of you will be aware, a large number of emails from the University of East Anglia webmail server were hacked recently (Despite some confusion generated by Anthony Watts, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Hadley Centre which is a completely separate institution). As people are also no doubt aware the breaking into of computers and releasing private information is illegal, and regardless of how they were obtained, posting private correspondence without permission is unethical. We therefore aren’t going to post any of the emails here. We were made aware of the existence of this archive last...

Officials at a key global warming research center in the United Kingdom have authenticated a series of e-mails and other documents apparently taken from their computer system by a hacker, but they cannot explain what scientists in internal exchanges meant by references to a "trick" that would "hide the decline" of global temperatures nor by instructions to delete contrary data. Author James Delingpole writes in a London Telegraph column the most damaging revelations indicate climate-change scientists may have "manipulated or suppressed evidence in order to support their cause." According to the Australian Investigate magazine, the 62 megabyte Zip file with...

Public shifting blame for recession.....

NEW YORK — For Citibank credit card holders, there is one way to escape the bank's rate hikes currently under way: Meet a monthly spending requirement. Those who meet the spending minimum — in some cases $750 a month — will be able to get a rebate on their total interest charges for that month. The rebate could cover some or all of the interest rate hike. Customers also need to make payments on time to qualify for the rebate. Without giving specifics, Citi said the monthly spending requirements and interest rate hikes will vary depending on the cardholder's credit...

An appointee of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa voted two years ago to direct millions in public pension dollars to a company that invested in his own private equity fund, according to documents obtained by The Times. Elliott Broidy, chairman of Markstone Capital Partners, served until May on the Fire and Police Pensions board, which provides benefits to the city's retired police officers and firefighters. Real estate company CIM Group invested $500,000 in Markstone's private equity fund in 2004, according to an e-mail to the city's pension agency. Three years later, Broidy voted with his colleagues on the pension board...

Video 4:14 At least this guy says he shouldn't be bailed out.

This is what we know: * The University of East Anglia's Hadley Climate Research Unit is the world's preeminent climate research center. It's data played a key role in IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report. * The BBC (and several other news organizations) confirmed that hackers broke into the Hadley CRU and downloaded emails and data files. * The data has been published on the web. * Several bloggers have confirmed that emails sent by the to Cru are contained in the files and are accurate. * The emails, if true, reveal that world's foremost climate researchers, many who are IPCC authors,...

Multiple sources are reporting that several employees at washingtonpost.com are losing their jobs as part of the merger of the site with the main Washington Post newsroom. Several of dot-com's editorial staffers as well as some non-editorial workers are among those who've gotten the ax, according to the sources. City Desk is not printing names just yet. We've contacted several allegedly dismissed employees but have not yet received direct confirmation from them. When asked if the Web site has laid off employees, Washington Post spokesperson Kris Coratti responded with this statement: "As part of the work we’re doing to turn...

State Jobless Rate Rises to 12.5% California's unemployment rate increases in October from September's rate of 12.2%, giving the Golden State the fourth-highest rate in the country. Still, the state gained 25,700 jobs last month. Chart: CA. jobless rate rises to 12.5% By Alana Semuels November 20, 2009 California's unemployment rate rose again in October, once more setting a new post-World War II high, even as the state added jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said this morning. The state's unemployment rate of 12.5% was just a slight increase from September's rate of 12.2%, and gives California the fourth-highest jobless...

Ninety-two percent of the almost 2,000 physicians who responded to a Jackson Healthcare survey of physicians agree with Dr. Chad Hewitt. The number one way to reduce health care costs may be tort reform.

Senate Democrats' health care bill would create a new marriage penalty by imposing a tax on individuals who make $200,000 annually but hitting married couples making just $50,000 more.

Damon Dunn has captured the attention of the California Republican Party, as well as the conservative, independent and youthful voters of the state; many are starting to label him the “future of the Republican Party”. If Dunn is that future, it is best described as energetic, articulate and extremely passionate – and never has voted. Dunn is the 33-year-old Texas ex-patriot, University of Stanford political graduate and very successful California businessman who has now decided to run for Secretary of State as a conservative Republican. The former Cardinal football star, and employee of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, has a story...

Few issues have caused as much of a stir this year as the question of whether illegal immigrants will be included in the Democratic healthcare bill. Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" outburst after President Obama stated in September that illegal immigrants wouldn't be covered is one example of the tension. Eighty percent of Americans are loath to subsidize illegal immigrants according to a June 2009 Rasmussen poll. But there's something that might help solve part of the problem, a campaign by Mexican officials to improve the state of healthcare in their own country. Mexico's healthcare system is corrupt, unwieldy, and...

Hundreds of emails and documents exchanged between world's leading climate scientists stolen by hackers and leaked online Hundreds of private emails and documents allegedly exchanged between some of the world's leading climate scientists over the past 13 years have been stolen by hackers and leaked online. The computer files were apparently accessed earlier this week from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, a world-renowned centre focused on the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change. Climate change sceptics who have studied the emails allege that they provide "smoking gun" evidence that some of the climatologists colluded...

File under: Very Curious Event A London-based official at ICE said that the exchange is cancelling trades on dollar index futures above 76.50, after a spike in the contact that saw it jump to 82.18. The official said they are still investigating the cause for the move. Recent trades showed the contract up 0.7% to 75.89.

Remember it for your grandchildren: Saturday, November 21, 2009—the day of the Transformation of America. That’s the day Global Marxism will begin its inexorable march to take down the Free World, starting with its leader the United States of America. There will be no shots fired, but the aim of the U.S. Senate’s poison arrow is right on target at the heart of humanity. While America’s Marxist President is abroad, Senate Majority House Leader Harry Reid is tying the red ribbon bow on his Christmas present, the Transformation, and Take Down of the United States of America. “Senate Majority...

More than 14 percent of borrowers were in trouble on their mortgage during the third quarter, a new record, according to an industry survey released Thursday, which also suggests that the foreclosure rate is likely not to peak until next year as unemployment rates continue to rise. Unemployment remains a big driver of the problem, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, which conducts the survey. Those with delinquent loans now include a growing portion of people traditionally considered creditworthy and people whose mortgages are insured by the Federal Housing Administration. "The outlook is that delinquency rates and foreclosure rates will...

A moment of fun here for Senator James Inhofe, who declared victory over the global-warming hysterics this week in a speech covered by the Tulsa World. Inhofe got a few laughs from a nearly-empty room by telling Barbara Boxer that the failure of the dire predictions of disaster from last decade to come to pass showed that he had been right all along, and that they could now “stick a fork” in the effort to hobble American productivity through the restriction of carbon emissions: You Tube video U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, perhaps Congress’ most vocal skeptic of man-made global warming,...

Growing discontent over the economy and frustration with efforts to speed its recovery boiled over Thursday on Capitol Hill in a wave of criticism and outright anger directed at the Obama administration. Episodes in both houses of Congress exposed the raw nerves of lawmakers flooded with stories of unemployment and economic hardship back home. They also underscored the stiff headwinds that the administration faces as it pushes to enact sweeping changes to the financial regulatory system while also trying to create jobs for ordinary Americans. President Obama's allies in the Congressional Black Caucus, exasperated by the administration's handling of the...

Velocity Of U.S. Money Supply Is Finally Edging Up Prieur du Plessis November 20, 2009 Despite ballooning Fed reserves to bail out banks, money supply as measured by the growth in money supply with a zero maturity (notes and coins, check accounts, savings deposits and money-market accounts collectively) continues to slow. The slowing growth is contra to what normally happens when the Fed lowers the Federal funds rate. In real terms, the growth rate is also slowing.[snip]

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The dollar held on to its gains against the euro and other higher-yielding currencies Friday morning as revived concerns about how fast the global economy will rebound prompted investors to shun riskier assets. Declines in stocks, gold and oil that began earlier in Asian and European trading continued early in New York as demand for growth-sensitive and riskier assets evaporated. That pushed the greenback to intraday highs against its major rivals. Adding to the overall negative sentiment were comments by the head of the European Central Bank, hinting on removal of credit support lines, as well as...

The email system of one of the world's leading climate researchers was just reported to be infiltrated by hackers. Protected information and email messages sent from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) began turning up on public websites today. Why the CRU was targeted is still unclear--though there's speculation that with the global climate meeting in Copenhagen nearing, opponents of climate action may be going so far as to be doing illegal reconnaissance. The CRU is perhaps the leading authority on human-caused climate change--they played a key role in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate...

The statistics showing when accident and emergency departments discharge or admit patients should worry everyone. What they clearly illustrate is the extent to which healthcare professional’s clinical decision making is tied into the 4 hour A&E target looming over them. This can lead to the complete and utter distortion of clinical care decisions. Often, diagnosis and decision making in medicine is a waiting game. You order tests, you record vital signs. For some patients the decision to be kept in or sent home might be the same regardless of when you were seen. But the huge spike in decision making...

The question of the acceptance of a fabricated illusion of normality versus the cold reality of impending doom and chaos is nothing new as it has been the unfortunate choice for people throughout history, such as the Romans in the time of Caligula, the Soviets in the time Stalin, the Germans in the time of Hitler, the Iraqis in the time of Hussein, and now the Americans in the time of Obama.

Ten months to the day after Barack Obama took office and three years since Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, the American public has begun to get the impression that Democrats are responsible for the economic mess that continues to unfold. A new CNN poll shows that those blaming Republicans has dropped fifteen points in the last six months, while those blaming Democrats have risen 21 points in the same period (via Yid with Lid): Nearly two years into the recession, opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting, according to a...

Days after controversy erupted over new breast cancer screening guidelines, a US health group has said women should wait longer to get their first cervical cancer test. The New York Times reported Friday that the American College of Obstetricians is now advising women to wait until age 21 to get their first Pap smear. The advice is intended to cut down on unnecessary testing and reduce the risk of harmful invasive procedures to remove non-cancerous lesions that may show up on tests but often disappear if left alone, the group said. The new recommendations overturn previous guidance, which suggested women...

NEW HAVEN — - When city officials and environmental groups heard that PSEG Power LLC, an energy company that owns some of the state's most offensive power plants, wanted to build new "peaking" power plants near New Haven's East Shore neighborhood, they became outraged. The three new power plants would be used only during peak electricity times, such as during heat waves, and would burn clean natural gas. Nevertheless, they would be in an area already plagued by polluted air because of its proximity to the city's busy port, the interstate highway and PSEG's New Haven Harbor Station plant. The...

RALEIGH — The Army now says it will allow media limited access to Sarah Palin's appearance at Fort Bragg. Army officials had said they would prohibit coverage of Palin's on-post event, saying it would turn into political grandstanding against President Obama. The Associated Press and The Fayetteville Observer objected, and the military changed its position slightly Thursday night. It will grant a pool of reporters restricted access to Monday's appearance. Fort Bragg spokesman Col. Billy Buckner said members of the media will not be allowed to interview the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and will be barred from talking to...

Stroking a pet can help patients cut their amount of painkillers in half, according to a new study. The research found that patients who had undergone hip or knee replacement operations needed less painkillers if they used pet therapy. It is well known that animal owners are generally healthier than non-pet owners because they can help reduce stress and encourage exercise. In Britain a charity called Pets and Therapy has been taking animals into care homes, hospices, hospitals and children's wards to help patients recover and reduce stress levels since 1983. A conference in America has heard that patients recovering...