Free Republic

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like thisÂ… The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing The fifth would pay $1 The sixth would pay $3 The seventh would pay $7 The eighth would pay $12 The ninth would pay $18 The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59 So, thatÂ’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the...

Just got this sent to me from an Obama fan - from Politico, other forums apparently. Breaking now. "During the 1990s, while he served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, including one worth half a million dollars. A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank. (See grant number 5180, "West Bank: CPRS" on page 14 of this PDF.) The relationship extends back as far as 1993, when John...

In her game-changing convention speech, Sarah Palin took a swipe at Obama for having been nothing more in his life than a ‘community organiser’. This prompted the Obama campaign to issue a pained defence of community organisation as a way of promoting social change ‘from the bottom up’. The impression is that community organising is a worthy if woolly and ultimately ineffectual grassroots activity. This is to miss something of the greatest importance: that in the world of Barack Obama, community organisers are a key strategy in a different game altogether; and the name of that game is revolutionary Marxism....

Extreme Experience: Septuagenarian CEOs Senator John McCain, who will be 72 when he formally accepts the nod, has sought to turn his advanced years into an attribute (he is wise) and a counterpoint to the message being championed by his 47-year-old rival, Senator Barack Obama (he is for a fresh start). A similar dynamic is at work in business. You might be surprised at how many senior citizens—media moguls, casino kings, Chinese tycoons—are cutting deals, starting new businesses, and generally kicking boomer and Gen Y butt. If 60 is the new 40, then 80 is the new 60. Mellowing with...

Watch out Boys!

On Sept. 7, 2006, Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, stood before an audience of economists at the International Monetary Fund and announced that a crisis was brewing. In the coming months and years, he warned, the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession. He laid out a bleak sequence of events: homeowners defaulting on mortgages, trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities unraveling worldwide and the global financial system shuddering to a halt. These developments, he went on, could cripple or destroy...

EVERY few years, the conflicts of interest so deeply embedded in the Wall Street business model emerge from the shadows for all to see. Coming to light last week, courtesy of Massachusetts regulators, was UBS’s dual roles in the auction-rate securities market, which have had devastating effects on the people and institutions that invested in them. Because every big brokerage firm that participated in this market faced the same conflicts as both underwriters of the securities and managers of the auctions that set their prices, similar ugliness will likely turn up elsewhere as regulators continue their digging..... The problem UBS...

Found this posted on another thread by Bushwacker777. Very powerful - a wonderful reminder of why America is a Republic with an Electoral College instead of a simple-majority Democracy. Just what our founding fathers were worried about.

Did anyone catch Jackie on Fox and Friends this morning? Guy was spot on about Obama and Rev. Wright - plain, hard talking that was hilarious! He said it like it is - Obama is a fraud and has no place being President. And that he and Rev. Wright are liars. Loved it!

Popular imagination has the Great Depression opening with a bang in October 1929. We forget that even by December of that year, the market had no idea what was really in store. After a period of wild, bipolar volatility, stocks had taken two big tumbles (a 12.8% drop on Oct. 28 and an 11.7% fall the next day) while the top bankers and "captains of industry" rushed to shore up the market. By November, the Dow had hit its low for the year at 198, down from the giddy September high of 381. But, the financial pundits and government leaders...

“The sense is that the public image is dominated by the Southern Baptist Convention,” said the Rev. David W. Key, director of Baptist studies at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. “It’s not that the New Baptist Covenant will do the same things as the Southern Baptist Convention does. But it’s about the brand name. ‘Can we create a brand?’ ” The meeting falls only days before the Super Tuesday primaries, and some Southern Baptists who are critical of the gathering have said it could be part of an effort by Democrats to court Christian voters....

Touching Picture.

Kwanzaa itself is a lunatic blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. Indeed, the seven "principles" of Kwanzaa praise collectivism in every possible arena of life -- economics, work, personality, even litter removal. ("Kuumba: Everyone should strive to improve the community and make it more beautiful.") It takes a village to raise a police snitch. When Karenga was asked to distinguish Kawaida, the philosophy underlying Kwanzaa, from "classical Marxism," he essentially explained that under Kawaida, we also hate whites. While taking the "best of early Chinese and Cuban socialism" -- which one assumes would exclude the forced abortions,...

BASICALLY, a crossroads was passed in the Drexel/Milken scandals. Although hundreds and perhaps thousands of men and women were profiting from misconduct, only a few people, including Mr. Milken himself, went to prison. And even he emerged from prison a very rich man (and by what I see here in Los Angeles, a model citizen). Today, in the midst of the mortgage mess, we see people breaching their fiduciary duty and getting away with it. A few may lose their jobs and wander off to a wealthy retirement. But the ordinary stockholders of the banks and mortgage companies are staggered.

Click here to go to the video on YouTube.

C. John Wilder resigned as chairman and chief executive of TXU with the merger. He planned to leave with at least $277 million worth of stock, according to a TXU regulatory filing in July. DALLAS - TXU Corp., the biggest power generator in Texas, officially passed from public to private ownership Wednesday and got a new name as investors closed the $32 billion buyout. ADVERTISEMENT The new owners are investors led by private-equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG, formerly Texas Pacific Group. TXU changed its name to Energy Future Holdings Corp. Donald L. Evans, former U.S. commerce...

Mourners recall Colo. soldier's compassion By Howard Pankratz The Denver Post Luke Milam was a 1999 graduate of Columbine High School in Jefferson County. (MIlam family)The soldiers came today and praised a man who died caring for his brothers. From the commanding general of Marine special forces to a senior chief hospital corpsman, Luke Milam was honored for being a "warrior" who fought bravely in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the 6-foot-4 Milam was far more than a Navy corpsman who became an excellent combat soldier, they said. He was also an exceptional human being driven by compassion. And in a...

Anyone see Gearldo spewing this morning against Michelle Malkin and the "War on Immigration"? He almost had a fit live over what he sees as her hate speech. Essentially said ANYONE with this kind of viewpoint is pushing the agenda of Neo-Nazis and the KKK. What utter crap. I don't ever watch or listen to him - hate when he jumps into my field of view.

Hidden Dimensions - Apple is Outsmarting the iPhone's Competition Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 1:15 PM - by John Martellaro "You can't expect to win unless you know why you lose." - Benjamin Lipson There are people with good sense, industry experience, and a feel for the wireless market who see the iPhone as just another smartphone. One with limitations and some serious weaknesses in terms of big business. I don't think they're looking deep enough, or with an Apple perspective, or with a view to the future. The Apple iPhone is going to make some serious inroads into our...

Anyone catch Ben on CBS Sunday Morning? Wonderful comments on "Who Elected The Media Anyway?" He put it succinctly and plainly - President Bush has done many very good things, our country is in great shape, more people own homes now than at anytime in our history, and that he is doing the best that he can, or that we can expect. The Press on the otherhand is doing their best to impeach him, crucifying Bush in the Press, regardless of what he does. It's time for Americans to wake up.