Free Republic

For a moment, imagine that there is a privately-owned organization in the United States that can create U.S. dollars out of thin air whenever it wants and can loan that money to whoever it wants to. Imagine that this organization is able to act with the full power of the U.S. government behind it, but that nobody in the organization is ever elected by the American people, and that for all practical purposes the organization is not accountable to the president or to Congress. Imagine that the organization is able to make trillions of dollars of secret loans to banks,...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Row, row, row your boat, just not down Main Street in Manayunk. That’s the message police are sending after arresting two men who used a raft as an alternate means of transportation down the flooded street Sunday. CBS 3 reporter Dray Clark caught up with Pete and Pat, best friends and roommates from Manayunk, who paddled their way down the water covered street. “I thought, Main Street floods a lot, go get a raft and float down,” said Pat, who admitted the idea was his. “We thought it would be a good time and it turns out...

I’ve been blissfully off the grid for the past few days, cycling in Western New York. (Allegany State Park is absolutely gorgeous. Made me be glad to be paying taxes in New York State.) I could forget about the debt ceiling fiasco, 9 percent unemployment, the tea party, runaway health spending, global warming, the NBA lockout… But back in the real world, I learn from newly minted GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry what’s wrong with America—that middle income Americans don’t pay enough taxes. Really. We’re dismayed at the injustice that nearly half of all Americans don’t even pay any income...

When Standard & Poor's reduced the nation's credit rating from AAA to AA-plus, the United States suffered the first downgrade to its credit rating ever. S&P took this action despite the plan Congress passed this past week to raise the debt limit. The downgrade, S&P said, "reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics." It's those medium- and long-term debt problems that also worry economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, who served as a senior economist...

Is the United States "number one"? Many Americans take deep pride in their nation and the truth is that the U.S. has a lot going for it. The United States has the largest economy in the world. The United States also has the most powerful military on the entire planet. The United States has produced most of the greatest movies that the world has ever seen. But the United States is also number one in a lot of categories that are not go great. If we ever want to turn this country around, we need to be very honest with...

CINCINNATI — In the first ruling by a federal appeals court on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, a panel in Cincinnati handed the administration a victory Wednesday by agreeing that the government can require a minimum amount of insurance for Americans. A Republican-appointed judge joined with a Democratic appointee for the 2-1 majority in another milestone for Obama’s hotly debated signature domestic initiative — the first time a Republican federal court appointee has affirmed the merits of the law. The White House and Justice Department hailed the panel’s affirmation of an earlier ruling by a federal court in Michigan;...

(CNSNews.com) – ForAmerica, a conservative activist group, has produced a video challenging House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) not to be “chicken,” and to support the group’s “Cut, Cap, and Balance” pledge – cut the deficit, cap spending, and balance the budget. The pledge would commit signatories to oppose any increase in the congressional debt limit (currently $14.29 trillion) unless substantial cuts in spending are made to reduce the deficit next year. Also, enforceable spending caps must be enacted to put the federal government on a path to a balanced budget, and Congress must...

(CNSNews.com) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday that a deal to raise the legal debt limit, which he expects to be completed in the next few weeks, will be only a short-term “down payment” on solving the nation’s debt problem, and that it would be "irresponsible" to reduce the massive federal deficit anticipated over the next ten years with spending cuts alone. What is needed, he said, is a longer-term deal on a “balanced framework” that includes “revenue increases through tax reform.” Geithner said negotiations with Congress over such a longer-term plan could be completed within the “next few...

Homeowners facing foreclosure can now tap into a $1 billion program of emergency loans to help tide them over a temporary financial crisis, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced. Beginning today, homeowners in 27 states can file preliminary applications for the Emergency Homeowner's Loan Program (EHLP). Eligible homeowners can obtain interest-free loans of up to $50,000 to help cover mortgage expenses for up to two years. The program is available to homeowners who have seen their incomes fall and who could lose their homes to foreclosure due to circumstances beyond their control, including involuntary unemployment, underemployment,...

HOPES OF a “Greek miracle” calmed investor nerves yesterday, and lifted the Irish index in line with its Continental counterparts. Markets opened down, but they steadied after German chancellor Angela Merkel retreated from demands that bondholders should shoulder a substantial part of the cost of a Greek rescue. Expectations of a “Greek miracle” grew after the chancellor’s meeting with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and sparked a rally across European markets, a Dublin broker said. Dr Merkel confirmed she would work with the ECB to resolve the Mediterranean nation’s sovereign-debt crisis. “We would like to have a participation of private creditors...

Link only. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a2e3d988-9748-11e0-9c9d-00144feab49a.html#axzz1PO8nsDZ9

Observers said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s cost-cutting bill to limit collective bargaining would prompt a Waterloo — and they weren’t kidding. But it’s not still not clear who’s who in the fight. Yesterday, the state Supreme Court upheld the controversial bill. Today, unions representing public workers in the state filed a lawsuit in federal court. From the wires: The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, claims the controversial measure is unconstitutional because it creates two classes of public workers in the state — those covered by the new rules and those exempt from them....

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. military says two American soldiers have been killed while conducting operations in southern Iraq. Tuesday's statement didn't give details on the operations, saying only the two were killed Monday. They were not identified pending notification of next of kin. The new deaths bring to 4,462 the number of American service members who have died in Iraq since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. And it brings to eight the number of U.S. troops killed in June so far. Shiite Muslim militias have stepped up attacks on U.S. forces with the...

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty turned out a blockbuster economic-growth plan this past week, including deep cuts in taxes, spending, and regulations. It's really the first Reaganesque supply-side growth plan from any of the GOP presidential contenders. And he caps it all off with a defense of optimism as he charges ahead with a national economic growth goal of 5 percent. That's right: 5 percent. Pawlenty calls this target aspirational. Okay, fine. But deeper down, he's basically saying no to the declinists and pessimists who seem to populate the economic landscape these days. Big government doesn't work. Let's try something...

The global and domestic landscape is one of turmoil, indecision, and uncertainty. Everywhere one looks there is chaos and potential disaster, whether in the financial, economic, or political sphere. Since the beginning of the post-World War II era there has been one constant that has been the stabilizing force in the world: the stature, power, and influence of the United States. In a matter of a few short years the Obama presidency has deliberately and overwhelmingly eroded America's pre-eminence, which has resulted in global instability and domestic unease. Barack Obama assumed the office of the presidency as a man brought...

Via the Daily Caller and Politico, if jabs like this are already being thrown before Palin’s even in the race, how brutal will things be in six months when the two of them and Herman Cain are battling for the grassroots vote in Iowa? Good lord. It’s going to be a long, hot, nasty summer, my friends. “Sarah has not been serious over the last couple of years,” Rollins told Brian Kilmeade on his radio show, Kilmeade and friends. “She got the Vice Presidential thing handed to her, she didn’t go to work in the sense of trying to gain...

A Tucson, Ariz., SWAT team defends shooting an Iraq War veteran 60 times during a drug raid, although it declines to say whether it found any drugs in the house and has had to retract its claim that the veteran shot first. And the Pima County sheriff scolded the media for "questioning the legality" of the shooting. Jose Guerena, 26, died the morning of May 5. He was asleep in his Tucson home after working a night shift at the Asarco copper mine when his wife, Vanessa, saw the armed SWAT team outside her youngest son's bedroom window. "She saw...

New inflation figures were released by the government last week, and the news was not good. The headline inflation number was 3.2% in the 12 months that ended in April. That is more than a percent above the Federal Reserve’s “target” rate of 2% and the first time it has been more than 3% in over than 2 ½ years. Of course, the accounting gimmicks used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) understate true inflation, so things look better than reality. Nonetheless, in the latest report from economist John Williams of Shadowstats.com, even the government’s own “official” numbers will...

Food for thought.

It’s likely that Robert Watson, the minority leader of the Rhode Island House, is now regretting his incendiary comments during a speech to the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce last February. Watson caused a commotion when he made clear his feelings that Rhode Island lawmakers were wasting their time debating marijuana decriminalization. According to Watson, making pot decrim a priority would be a good idea “if you are a Guatemalan gay man who likes to gamble and smokes marijuana.” Watson’s hypocrisy was revealed this week after he was stopped at a police checkpoint Friday and charged with – what else?...