Free Republic

U.S. Social Security Will Go Bankrupt In 2010 Economics / US Debt Dec 08, 2009 - 03:16 AM By: Gary North For the third time in my life, the Social Security System will go belly-up. The first time was in 1977 – well, almost. To head off the bust, Jimmy Carter got Congress to pass a major FICA tax increase – sorry, "contribution" increase – in order to save Social Security. The rate would be hiked in phases from 2% to 6.15% (times two: employee and employer). He promised: "Now this legislation will guarantee that from 1980 to the year...

WASHINGTON -- White House press secretaries often have a higher public profile than the president himself. They take the blows often meant for the president but they rarely get the bows. The passing of Jody Powell of a heart attack at the age of 65 brought back memories of his years as press secretary to President Jimmy Carter. Powell was like a son to Carter. So it was left to Carter to go to a nursing home to inform Jody’s ailing mother that he had died Sept. 14 while gathering firewood at his Eastern Maryland home. Powell had been Carter’s...

OBAMA: What I reject is when some folks say we should go back to the past policies when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. (Applause.) Another way of putting it is when, you know, I'm busy and Nancy busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else's mess --- we don't want somebody sitting back saying, you're not holding the mop the right way. (Applause.) Why don't you grab a mop, why don't you help clean up. (Applause.) You're not mopping fast enough. (Laughter.) That's a socialist mop. (Laughter and applause.)...

More than a few observers have pointed out that President Obama and the Democrats in Congress seem determined to repeat the errors of the 1970s by returning to inflationary spending, tax increases, auto company bailouts and cuts to the defense budget while coddling dictators who hate America....So it was inevitable that this recycling effort would get around to attempting the most brazen rehabilitation of all: Jimmy Carter was a visionary president!...It was 30 years ago this month that Mr. Carter reached the nadir of his presidency with his famous "malaise" speech in which he criticized the American people for their...

Leave it to Chris Matthews, a former speechwriter to Jimmy Carter, to actually commemorate the 30th anniversary of the former president's infamous "malaise" speech. On Wednesday's "Hardball," Matthews invited on his former bosses from the Carter White House, former speechwriter and now New Yorker senior editor Hendrick Hertzberg and former aide Gerald Rafshoon to mark the event and claim that Carter was vindicated by history as Matthews proudly asserted Carter was "Dead on," about "putting on a sweater, lowering the thermostat," to solve the energy crisis. And Hertzberg did Matthews one better by proclaiming Carter a "prophet." CHRIS MATTHEWS: Rick...

Thirty years after Jimmy Carter's malaise speech, we return to the days of rising joblessness, an unresponsive economy, deference to dictators, gutting the military and an energy policy tilting at windmills... As history repeats itself on the anniversary of the speech MSNBC's Chris Matthews wrote, we wonder if the "Hardball" host, who has worked for four Democratic politicians, is still getting tingles up his legs. The Democratic Party apparently has learned nothing in the past three decades. Will we see a return of the misery index? The only thing that's different is the sweater.

Palestinian Hamas members are helping the Iranian authorities crush street protests in support of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, two protesters told The Jerusalem Post On Tuesday. They made their allegations as rioting on a scale unseen in Iran for nearly a decade continued in the wake of the elections and the allegations that the results were falsified. The protests have now spread from Teheran to other major cities. Mousavi insisted on Tuesday that he would "protect" his supporters' votes "at all cost, even if I am at risk." Shouting from a car roof to a roaring crowd of...

Jimmeh Carter is the most unsuccessful president in the history of the United States of America. If it wasn't for Jimmy-boy malaise would not be a regular part of the political vernacular. If it wasn't for the peanut President the American culture would never heard of Billy Beer. But Carter's biggest contribution to the world is taking the west's best friend in the Muslim World and turning it into the fascist Islamic, soon to be nuclear Iran. And that is Jimmy Carter's legacy Not the books, or the anti-semetic diatribes, or even the Habitat for Humanity Houses in Florida that...

Former US President Jimmy Carter, center, gestures as he speaks to the media at the ruins of the American International School, which was destroyed during Israel's offensive in Gaza earlier this year, in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 16, 2009. Carter says he's trying to persuade Hamas leaders to accept the international community's conditions for ending its boycott of the Islamic militant group. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (R) is escorted by a bodyguard after crossing into Israel from Gaza at the Erez crossing June 16, 2009. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are being "treated more like animals...

Saturday, June 13th, 2009 Today the world is witnessing the demonstrated anger of millions of Iranians against a regime that denies their most basic rights, including the right to choose leaders who could improve their abysmal condition. There is no exit from this condition, so long as one man appropriates onto himself the “power of god” and controls the judiciary, the media, the security forces and, through direct and indirect appointees dictates the only candidates claiming to represent an impoverished and disenfranchised people. Today I stand united with my fellow Iranians and call for the end of the Islamic Republic,...

Iran doesn’t have elections, it has circuses, and this was proven once again on Friday, when the regime announced that Ahmadinezhad had been retained–call him “landslide Mahmoud” please–as president of the Islamic Republic. So much for the remarks of various pundits claiming that Iran was some sort of “democracy.” There isn’t a single educated Iranian who thinks that the official numbers represent anything more than a brazen insult to the opponents of the regime. Supreme Leader Khamenei rubbed it in when he called the outcome “divine,” but the subtlety was no doubt lost on American commentators, who were mostly concerned...

THE evolution in public policy concerning the manufacture, sale and possession of semiautomatic assault weapons like AK-47s, AR-15s and Uzis has been very disturbing. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and I all supported a ban on these formidable firearms, and one was finally passed in 1994. When the 10-year ban was set to expire, many police organizations — including 1,100 police chiefs and sheriffs from around the nation — called on Congress and President George W. Bush to renew and strengthen it. But with a wink from the White House, the gun lobby prevailed and the ban...

The Obama administration has asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit against Iran filed by Americans held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran 30 years ago. The request comes in a $6.6 billion class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. Fifty-two American diplomats and military officials were held captive for more than a year at the end of Jimmy Carter's presidency by a group of Islamist students who supported the Iranian revolution.

TEHRAN – The Supreme Leader said on Saturday that the Islamic Revolution changed the political and power landscape in the world. The Islamic Revolution “turned the Iranian nation into a determined, powerful, dignified and influential nation” in the world with voting rights, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a large group of Air Force commanders and staff ahead of February 10 celebrations which marks the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. The meeting with the Supreme Leader is held every year to appreciate the key role of the Air Force in the victory of revolution in 1979. The Leader pointed to the “determining...

Found on the internet: There are two kinds of people in the Electorate: 1. People who remember how horrible the Jimmy Carter years were. 2. People who are about to find out. To be fair to Carter, though, he got off to a better start.

‘Jimmy Carter’ tag has Obama wincing Republicans are pinning their hopes of revival on painting the president as naive abroad and wasteful at home Sarah Baxter, Washington LESS than two weeks into his administration, President Barack Obama is being portrayed by opponents as a new Jimmy Carter - weak at home and naive abroad - in an attempt to dim his post-election glow and ensure that he serves only one term. The charge has stung because it was made privately by Hillary Clinton supporters during a hard-fought primary campaign and plays to fears about Obama’s inexperience. He is engaged in...

Michael Medved has said that he will interview Jimmy Carter on today's show. He has consistently called Carter "The Worthless One". He has repeatedly dared Carter to come on his show. Apparently, Carter has accepted. It will occur in the second or third hour. Medved's show has just begun. It runs from 3-6 Eastern, noon-3 Pacific. Hopefully, this will come off. If you aren't near a radio, and wish to listen, click the link and then click the LISTEN LIVE button.

Zimbabwe abandons its currency Zimbabweans will be allowed to conduct business in other currencies, alongside the Zimbabwe dollar, in an effort to stem the country's runaway inflation. The announcement was made by acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa. BBC southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says the Zimbabwean dollar has become a laughing stock. A Z$100 trillion note was recently introduced. Until now only licensed businesses could accept foreign currencies, although it was common practice. The country is also facing a deepening humanitarian crisis as well. A cholera outbreak has killed over 3,000 people according to the World Health Organization (WHO). And...

How worthless is Jimmy Carter? Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi, makes the point that when an opposition party seizes control of the White House from its rival, that party almost always holds the Presidency for two terms at least. This means that the odds heavily favor Barack Obama’s reelection in 2012. In the last 112 years, an opposition party took over the presidency eleven times (McKinley in 1896, Wilson in 1912, Harding in 1920, FDR in 1932, Eisenhower in 1952, Kennedy in 1960, Nixon in 1968, Carter in 1976, Reagan in 1980, Clinton in 1992, George W. Bush in 2000)....

By Lisa Schlein Geneva 23 January 2009 The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says a nightmare scenario is unfolding in Zimbabwe as the number of cholera deaths and cases continues to mount. The Red Cross says it is hit with a severe funding crisis and this is hampering its ability to contain the deadly disease. Senior health officer for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Tammam Aloudat, has recently returned from Zimbabwe. He says the cholera outbreak in the country is increasing in scale and it is claiming more lives. "The scenario...

When a group of pundits gathered for a recent Oxford-style debate, the proposition alone was provocative: "Bush 43 Is the Worst President of the Past 50 Years." But when you consider that one of the panelists defending President Bush's legacy was his longtime adviser Karl Rove, the night became even more interesting --snip-- Before and after each debate, the audience is asked to vote on the motion. At the start of the evening, 65 percent of the audience was in favor of the proposition that George W. Bush is the worst American president of the past 50 years; 17 percent...

I know from personal involvement that the devastating invasion of Gaza by Israel could easily have been avoided. After visiting Sderot last April and seeing the serious psychological damage caused by the rockets that had fallen in that area, my wife, Rosalynn, and I declared their launching from Gaza to be inexcusable and an act of terrorism. Although casualties were rare (three deaths in seven years), the town was traumatized by the unpredictable explosions. About 3,000 residents had moved to other communities, and the streets, playgrounds and shopping centers were almost empty. Mayor Eli Moyal assembled a group of citizens...

"Candidate Jimmy Carter said he stood for change." - Associated Press, 11/3/1976 Goodness. What a difference a year makes. In fact, a year after Carter's inauguration night, even some Democrats were rolling their eyes. Come, now: Let's revisit history, shall we? Before President Jimmy Carter's January1977 inauguration: November 3, 1976: "What Will Carter Presidency Look Like?" An AP news analysis, by Louise Cook reminds literates that "Jimmy Carter said he stood for change. He left a long list of promises" like Whatshisname. Consider.  "A streamlined bureaucracy"? Yes.  "A new tax system"? Yes. "A pared-down defense budget"? Yes. "Comprehensive national health and...

Report: U.S. Missteps Led To Shah's Overthrow All Things Considered, October 18, 2008 · Scholars who study the Iranian Revolution of 1979 have paid a lot of attention to the internal factors that precipitated revolt. Now, a new study argues that the United States secretly helped create the conditions that led to the overthrow of its ally, the Shah. Andrew Scott Cooper, who wrote the report using previously classified information, talks about the mistakes that led to the demise of the Shah.

There is only one word for it. That word is "scandal." Begin with the scarlet philosophical thread that takes expression from the following people in their own distinctive styles. William Ayers: "I am a radical, Leftist, small 'c' communist ... Maybe I'm the last communist who is willing to admit it….The ethics of Communism still appeal to me." Jeremiah Wright: "God damn America, for treating our citizens as less than human." Jimmy Carter: In a June 16, 1976 presentation to the Democrats' platform committee, Carter promised that America under a Carter administration would help the poor by putting "Greater effort...

MUTARE, Zimbabwe, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Famine on a scale never before seen in Zimbabwe is quickly and quietly overtaking the country, aid workers said. Emaciated children are dying a rate that is overwhelming rural hospitals and is even spreading to sections of the urban middle classes as a result of an economic catastrophe brought about by President Robert Mugabe's policies, The Times of London reported Tuesday. The newspaper said that an undercover 600-mile journey through Zimababwe's Manicaland province revealed exhausted food reserves and widespread instances of kwashiorkor, marasmus and pellagra -- diseases brought about by hunger. About 5 million...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Former President Jimmy Carter said on Friday the "atrocious economic policies" of the Bush administration had caused the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Carter told reporters on a stopover in Brussels that "profligate spending," massive borrowing and dramatic tax cuts since President George W. Bush took office in 2001 were behind the market turmoil and economic crisis.

<p>Jimmy Carter became our 39th president at the young age of 52. He was a one-term governor from Plains, GA, where he managed the family peanut farm and taught Sunday school. He was also a graduate of the Naval Academy and served seven years in the Navy, leaving as a lieutenant.</p>

The roots of today's mortgage-based financial crisis can be traced back to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which Jimmy Carter signed in 1977. Seeking to address complaints from anti-poverty activists and housing advocates about banks allegedly discriminating against minority borrowers and "redlining" inner-city neighborhoods, the CRA decreed that banks had "an affirmative obligation" to meet the credit needs of victims of discrimination in borrowing. To add a government stick to the process, the CRA decreed that federal banking regulators would consider how well banks were doing in meeting the goal of more multiculturalism in loaning when considering requests by banks...

The Subprime home mortgage collapse...a Primer. It's ALL about the CRA of 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 - This required banks to offer credit throughout their entire market area for “underserved” populations and small businesses. The CRA gave incentives to help low income borrowers become “home owners”. Liberals call this group “low income borrowers”. Conservatives call them a RISK!The CRA was passed by the Carter administration. In 1995 the Clinton administration authorized subprime loans under the CRA. Democrats added these provisions for the securitization of subprime loans and then ENFORCED the lending to high risk individuals. By 2000,...

It may be political poison for U.S. government officials to talk to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the taboo does not extend to NPR. NPR’s Steve Inskeep interviewed the controversial leader this afternoon in New York and pulled no punches. Ahmadinejad is in the United States to address the United Nation’s General Assembly, which is meeting this week. In an often heated conversation, according to the transcript, Inskeep confronts Ahmadinejad on Israel, “wiping countries off the map and chopping off hands” — and the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Ahmadinejad, for his part, denies that Iran has provoked the United States,...

The Clinton administration has turned the Community Reinvestment Act, a once-obscure and lightly enforced banking regulation law, into one of the most powerful mandates shaping American cities—and, as Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm memorably put it, a vast extortion scheme against the nation's banks. Under its provisions, U.S. banks have committed nearly $1 trillion for inner-city and low-income mortgages and real estate development projects, most of it funneled through a nationwide network of left-wing community groups, intent, in some cases, on teaching their low-income clients that the financial system is their enemy and, implicitly, that government, rather than their...

It is long been traditional for living ex-presidents to be invited to address their party’s quadrennial convention during presidential election years. The fact that Jimmy Carter was not invited to give the traditional address was no accident. Nor is it true, as Jimmy Carter has falsely claimed, that it was he who made the decision not to speak to the convention. The Democratic Party, and its leaders, made a deliberate decision not to invite Jimmy Carter precisely because they so fundamentally disagree with the bigotry toward Israel and its Jewish supporters that he displayed both in his mendacious book Palestine:...

Jimmy Carter, Unwitting Crusader for Islamofascism   written by Ken on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 #fullpost{display:inline;}Not since Neville Chamberlain has the world seen as wreckless an appeaser as Jimmy Carter. During the Jimmy Carter nightmare in the 70's, Iran took 52 American's hostage for 444 days and had the most powerful nation on Earth on its knees. Not until a real President, Ronald Reagan, came to office did Iran take the US serious enough to release all American Hostages. Since then we have had to live with Iran as a rogue Islamic state thanks to the peanut farmer, turn...

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama has ruled out hosting a U.S. military base to replace one in Ecuador which is being reclaimed by the Quito government, a senior Panamanian official said on Friday. Panama -- along with Peru and Colombia -- had been tipped as a possible site to replace the Manta air base in western Ecuador, a key strategic asset in Washington's campaign to stop Latin American cocaine from reaching the United States.

Former US President Jimmy Carter urged Washington to establish friendly ties with Tehran, reiterating the need for his country to resume trade relations with Iran, which he described as a "rational" nation. Speaking at the Hay Festival yesterday, Carter also suggested the US should provide nuclear power technology and fuel to Iran as a show of goodwill. "What happens if, in three years' time, Iran has a nuclear weapon," Carter asked. "I'm not sure that is going to happen, but if it does, what do we do? They are rational people like all of us in this room. Do they...

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Thousands of foreigners sought refuge at crowded community centres and police stations in Johannesburg on Monday as the death toll from a wave of xenophobic violence rose to at least 22. Mobs roaming through poor townships around South Africa's economic capital have killed and beaten up immigrants over the past week, with Zimbabweans and other Africans reporting purges by armed locals looking for foreigners. The violence erupted in Alexandra township early last week when two people were killed in an attack, and police said Monday that the number dead had risen to 22 with more than 250...

The United States registered an official protest with Israel against its ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, for calling former U.S. President Jimmy Carter an "enemy of Israel" prior to Carter's recent visit to the region. A senior Foreign Ministry source said Saturday that the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv asked that Gillerman be made aware of the U.S. administration's dissatisfaction with the disrespectful comments about the former U.S. President.

Recent talks between former president Jimmy Carter and a militant leader failed to make much of a difference in Gaza, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Wednesday. Carter's meeting with exiled Hamas militant leader Khaled Meshaal, which drew anger from both the U.S. and Israel, did not produce a cease fire or prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel, al-Malki told Agence France-Presse. "The only thing he achieved was permission on the part of Khaled Meshaal of Hamas to deliver a letter from a detained Israeli soldier to his family. Nothing else," al-Malki told AFP. Also on Wednesday, Carter stopped just...

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of not telling the truth about warnings she said her department gave Carter not to speak to Hamas before a Middle East trip. The State Department has said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, issued the warning before Carter, a veteran of Middle East diplomacy, went on his trip last week. Rice said in Kuwait on Tuesday: "We counseled President Carter against going to the region and particularly against having contact with Hamas." "President Carter...

The decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award former President Jimmy Carter the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002 requires some serious review. The Committee stated that it was honoring the former president "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." But history tells a different story - that of a political neophyte president who, when it came to conducting domestic and foreign affairs, was way out of his depth. According to Michael Schoenfeld of Commentary, who reviewed Carter's book Living Faith,...

Former US president defends meetings with Hamas terrorists, tells university students in Egypt sanctions imposed on Gaza Strip are 'criminal atrocity' after meeting in private with Hamas leaders. 'For every Israeli killed,' says Carter, 'between 30 to 40 Palestinians are killed because of the extreme military capability of Israel' News agencies Published: 04.18.08, 00:27 / Israel News Former US President Jimmy Carter called the blockade of Gaza a crime and an atrocity on Thursday and said US attempts to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas had been counterproductive. Speaking at the American University in Cairo after talks with Hamas leaders from,...

Former U.S. President Carter looks on during his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, not pictured, at the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, April 17, 2008. Hamas says a delegation from Gaza has entered Egypt for a meeting with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The Islamic militant party, which rules the Gaza Strip, announced Wednesday two of its Gaza leaders, Mahmoud Zahar and Said Siyam, are going to meet Carter in Cairo either Wednesday or Thursday. Palestinian fighters protest in the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Beddawi near Tripoli in north Lebanon, against the Israeli violence in Gaza. Jimmy Carter...

JERUSALEM — A U.S. lawmaker introduced legislation Wednesday to strip former President Jimmy Carter's Georgia-based scholarly institution of taxpayer support because of Carter's plans to meet with the top leaders of the Palestinian terror group Hamas.

PHILADELPHIA, (AP) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday criticized former President Jimmy Carter for meeting with leaders of the Islamic terrorist group Hamas as he tried to reassure Jewish voters that his candidacy isn't a threat to them or U.S. support for Israel. The Democratic presidential candidate's comments, made to a group of Jewish leaders here, were his first on Carter's controversial meeting scheduled this week in Egypt. Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain called on Obama to repudiate Carter in a speech to The Associated Press Monday. Obama told the Jewish group he had a "fundamental disagreement" with Carter, who...

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Jimmy Carter reportedly hugged — and kissed — a Hamas leader Tuesday in the West Bank on a Mideast visit that will culminate in a meeting with the terror group's exiled leader in Syria later this week. Carter's embrace of Nasser Shaer, a senior Hamas politician, at a closed-door reception organized by Carter's office was reported by several news outlets Tuesday. Carter has been widely criticized over the trip by both U.S. and Israeli officials, who have listed Hamas as a terror organization. Carter also laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat, whom he...

Jimmy Carter Lays A Wreath at Arafat's Tomb By Julie Stahl CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief April 15, 2008 Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter laid a wreath of red roses at the grave of Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat during a visit to the West Bank City of Ramallah on Tuesday. "He and Mrs. Carter and his son Jeff wanted to pay their respects to President Arafat," Carter's trip director Rick Jasculca told Cybercast News Service. But the former president didn't make any comments there, he said. Dubbed the "godfather of terrorism," Arafat was linked to the...

Israel’s secret service has declined to assist U.S. agents guarding former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit in which Israeli leaders have shunned him, U.S. sources told Reuters on Monday...

As I have written in the past, it is testimony to the mettle of the American Republic that it can, from time to time, suffer fools at its helm. It has endured the drunkenness of Ulysses S. Grant, the socialism of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the constitutional violations of Richard M. Nixon and the alley-cat morality of Warren G. Harding, John F. Kennedy and William J. Clinton. We have managed to survive even the naivete of James E. Carter, the peanut farmer turned politician who proved "The Peter Principle" by rising to his own special level of ineptitude and remaining there...

Obama declines to criticize Carter on Hamas Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:08pm EDT By Caren Bohan INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Friday it was not his place to criticize former President Jimmy Carter for agreeing to meet with Hamas, although Obama said he would not meet with the militant Palestinian group. The former U.S. president's plans to meet with the leader of Hamas during a nine-day trip the Middle East beginning Sunday have drawn criticism from both the Bush administration and close U.S. ally Israel. "I'm not going to comment on former President Carter....