Free Republic

Saturday's vote to create a massive government-run health-insurance program is to Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats what the Battle of Gettysburg was to the South. It will be remembered as the high point of their unswerving efforts to demand government solutions to every big problem. It was their most daring stab, deepest into enemy territory. And the creeks will fill with the political blood of the dead who charged blindly into the angry enemy fire. Long from now, gauzy-eyed liberals will tear up at the memory of those who pressed forward through the mindless carnage despite knowing full well the...

New Delhi, Aug 1, 2009: Will cash for clunkers destroy second hand car market in the US? Many people are asking the question ever since the cash for clunkers program was introduced by the Federal government just a week ago. Yesterday the Federal government put its stamp on extension of the program and the increased funding for people who wanted to get rid of their gas guzzling clunkers. The US House gave its nod to the extension of the program and 2 billion dollars more in funding. This will give some hope to clunker owners who thought that they may...

Press reports late Thursday said the government's Cash Allowance Rebate System could already be out of money, hitting a major speed bump and possibly causing dealers some drama. ... CARS works this way: Owners of a 1984 or newer vehicle getting 18 mpg or less in combined highway/city ratings can trade in their so-called "clunkers" for more fuel-efficient new cars (in some cases only a few extra miles are required). For their trouble, owners get $3,500 to $4,500 of taxpayer money and their old vehicles' engines are destroyed so they won't end up back on the road. That last part,...

Hundreds of thousands of Americans could die over the next two years if the vaccine and other control measures for the new H1N1 influenza are not effective, and, at the pandemic's peak, as much as 40% of the workforce could be affected, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is admittedly a worst-case scenario that the federal agency says it doesn't expect to occur. But the broad range of potential deaths highlights the unpredictability of flu viruses in general and this swine flu virus in particular because it hasn't behaved the way researchers have...

Rarely in history has a President of the United States acted so quickly, so poorly, and so ineffectively. Not even the infamous Jimmy Carter can hold a candle to how President Obama has handled situations on the ground in Iraq, the Military Base in Guantanamo, or relations aboard the Apology Express in Europe. But no, though the "Commander in Chief" stumbled and fell throughout those mentioned, they are not the worst things he has done. No, our Chosen One has done much more egregious things that will almost definitely cripple the lives of all involved. In his very young Presidency,...

Green shoots are bursting out. Or so we are told. But before concluding that the recession will soon be over, we must ask what history tells us. It is one of the guides we have to our present predicament. Fortunately, we do have the data. Unfortunately, the story they tell is an unhappy one. EDITOR’S CHOICE Tight rules helped mitigate crisis in Brazil - Jun-16 Economists’ forum - Oct-01 Opinion: The three steps to financial reform - Jun-16 In depth: Global financial crisis - Sep-04 Economics: How the world economy might recover its poise - Jun-15 Two economic historians, Barry...

Bob's World: Mini-May turn? 05/13 10:59:08 Turning to mrkts, some moans 1st: A - UNEMPLOYMENT - the double digit peaks will happen late next yr. Unemployment is ugly & evil - it MATTERS and impacts ALL of our spending/saving/behaviours. Yet I am shocked at how many 'commentators' keep telling me it does not matter, it lags, its all priced in, blah blah blah. It is so sad to hear this nonsense, which is 'sold' as credible mrkt thinking. B - PHONEY MONEY - as absurd is the shrill chorus that is busy spinning that fact that coz central banks are...

Do you think that the crash is over, as certain former bears do? This question arises as we have breached the first downside target, of Dow 7000, based on my proprietary investment value model that was first published in thestreet.com October 24, 2007. It was less a forecast than an evaluation. The Dow has now vindicated this model by reaching "fair value," as one would expect from a simple definition. Does that represent a base for a new bull market? Or is it just one more stop to the nether regions?

Something unusual about Oprah Winfrey. New hair-do.

So here we are - the end of March 2009. We've been in a recession since December 2007. The stock market began rallying a couple of weeks ago, despite economic news that still looks as bleak as ever. So is this time to start buying undervalued blue chip stocks, following the play book that has worked so well over the past 25 years of buying good, quality stocks on dips?

I know its cheesy but it only took a few minutes in Macromedia.

Boy, 11, charged with killing pregnant woman The victim — 8 months pregnant — was found shot in her farmhouse Feb. 21, 2009 WAMPUM, Pa. - Police in western Pennsylvania say an 11-year-old boy has been charged in the death of a pregnant woman who was found shot in a bedroom of her farmhouse. Police say the boy is charged with criminal homicide and criminal homicide of an unborn child in the killing of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk. The victim was 8 months pregnant. Lawrence County police issued a statement saying the boy had been arraigned and sent to the...

OBAMA PLANS TO DESTROY AMERICA ORCHESTRATED CRISIS TO HASTEN FALL click here MUST READ!!!

From crisis to catastrophe. Off a cliff. Dark, darker, darkest. Mortal danger of absolute collapse. Armageddon. President Obama and top Democrats on Capitol Hill are deploying these and other stark predictions of doom and gloom to push through their economic-stimulus package. In terms not heard in Washington since the late 1970s under President Jimmy Carter's watch, the new president has sought to terrify Americans into supporting the $800 billion-plus bailout bill.

...In our present state one successful narrative is that we're doomed and that it's all the fault of the bankers; or the variant is that we're doomed and it's all the fault of the politicians and the bankers.... ....One problem with this is that, excepting icons of overpayment such as Sir Fred Goodwin and Jonathan Ross, we haven't actually been orgiastically greedy, or particularly personally profligate. At least, I haven't. My money's gone on a mortgage on a house I love, on theatre tickets and on books, not on wenching or roistering. As Anatole Kaletsky has often told us, the...

DO YOU PEOPLE OUT THERE HAVE ANY NOTION OF THE PESTILENCE YOU HAVE CALLED UPON OUR HEADS? ... Bottom line on the obama effect: 1. Israel is now alone: Unless you believe the Israelis will rely on someone who entered Pakistan on an Indonesian passport as an adult for its security. War with Iran by Israelis inevitable. Same will never be approved by the Dalibama. Israel must act alone or accept an Iranian Nuclear presence. I don’t believe an existensial threat of this type will be accepted by the Holocaust survivors, and I can’t blame them for feeling this way....

"FAIRFAX, Va. - Gerry Connolly's election to the House of Representatives may spark two more elections. Connolly intends to stay in his current position as chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors until he is sworn in to Congress. At that point, the Board of Supervisors will have to get a judge to set the day for a special election to replace Connolly. Should one of the current board members run for his post and win, another election would have to be called to fill the new chairman's old job."

The final word on the 2008 election. Can a Commander in Chief who voted to cut troop funding while your brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, nephews, nieces, grandchildren who serve The United States in the millitary be trusted to save us from the burgeoning Islamo-fascist threat? While our heroes were dodging bombs and bullets, Obama was dodging

CNBC Dr. Doom: Bailout Won't Help Markets Much Tuesday October 21, 1:35 pm ET The $700 billion US financial rescue plan might give the market a temporary boost, but| eventually stocks will fall again, Marc Faber, the analyst know as "Dr. Doom," told CNBC. Faber, editor & publisher of “The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report”, said he doesn’t believe that the recent efforts to ease the global credit crisis will help. “It will work temporarily in the sense that some confidence is coming back into the market,” Faber said about the bailout plan. “First we’ll get the bounce from an...

On the October 13 CNN "Newsroom" program, European political editor Robin Oakley pontificated to Sens. McCain and Obama on how the U.S. can be more liked by people in Europe: "While we're on the symbolism, let me remind you how many Europeans see U.S. voters -- as a trigger-happy bunch with a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other.... Does either of you senators have any serious plans to reduce the number of guns available in the U.S. or even dare to suggest it? That really would impress the Europeans, that you stand for change."

Time was, the Baltimore Orioles' manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign.In the closing days of his 10-year quest for the presidency, McCain finds it galling that Barack Obama is winning the first serious campaign he has ever run against a Republican. Before Tuesday night's uneventful event, gall was fueling what might be the McCain-Palin campaign's closing argument. It is...

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US dollar rallies as extent of worldwide recession becomes clearer By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Last Updated: 10:13pm BST 08/08/2008 The psychology of global markets has shifted hugely over recent days as it becomes clear that Europe, Australasia and parts of Asia are sliding into recession. The US dollar has launched its best rally in half a decade, reflecting a recognition that half the world is in even worse shape than the US. In fact, America is the only G7 country to eke out modest growth this summer. The US dollar index - currencies watched closely by traders -...

RGE Monitor MEDIA ALERT: Nouriel Roubini predicts the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the worst U.S. Recession in the last few decades. New York, July 15, 2008- In a series of recent writings on the RGE Monitor Nouriel Roubini - Chairman of RGE Monitor and Professor of Economics at the NYU Stern School of Business - has argued that the U.S. is experiencing its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and will undergo its worst recession in the last few decades. His analysis leads to the following conclusions: This is by far the worst financial crisis...

The United States appears to be on a downward spiral from which there is no apparent escape. Our very way of life is being severely threatened in the interest of fairness, multiculturalism and liberalism in general. Tradition, culture and national identification mean nothing anymore because so-called progressives -- the new term for liberals -- are bent on molding this country into an unidentifiable glob of feel-good socialism. One need only look at recent events in order to verify my concern. The country is flooded with illegal aliens who have no fear of apprehension or deportation and in fact are aided...

PARIS (AFP) — Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice cap, spewing plumes of fragmented magma into the sea, scientists who filmed the aftermath reported Wednesday...

The top ten likely effects as the bear market bites Patrick Hosking: Business Commentary There is now no doubt about it. Even the cheeriest of optimists would have to acknowledge that we are in the grip of a pronounced bear market. The FTSE 100 has slumped by more than 500 points in the past month and from the peak of last October is down by 18 per cent. At one point yesterday it dived to 5,470, close to the nadir of the Bear Stearns panic in March, although it managed a half-hearted rally at the end of the day. One...

So much for that second-half rebound. Truth be told, that was always more of a wish than a serious forecast, happy talk from the Fed and Wall Street desperate to get things back to normal. It ain't gonna happen. Not this summer. Not this fall. Not even next winter. This thing's going down, fast and hard. Corporate bankruptcies, bond defaults, bank failures, hedge fund meltdowns and 6 percent unemployment. We're caught in one of those vicious, downward spirals that, once it gets going, is very hard to pull out of. Only this will be a different kind of recession --...

<-----------------------------------------snip-----------------------------------------> ~ EXCERPT ~ There is evidence that fall campaigns, which tend to focus voters on big-picture issues, usually help Republicans. In 1976, Gerald Ford was seen as a goner during the summer but rallied to finish only two points behind Jimmy Carter. A dozen years later, Michael Dukakis led George H.W. Bush in June and July. He lost by eight points in the fall. In 1992, Bill Clinton had a 10-point lead around Labor Day. He won by only five and a half points. Even Bob Dole closed a 12-point Labor Day gap to only eight points by November...

"Dear Friend, I've taken the liberty of enclosing a McCain 2008 bumper sticker for you. I'm hoping I can count on you to display your sticker right away as part of our effort to build momentum and excitement all across America."

US slump to prop up India as next offshoring hotspot 14 May, 2008, 0750 hrs IST,Chiranjoy Sen, TNN BANGALORE: Belt-tightening by global technology giants—a fallout of US economic slowdown—is likely to reinforce India as the most preferred offshoring destination. Top technology firms are actively moving part of their workforce from the US, UK and European markets to lower-cost destinations. They cite availability of local talent, better delivery and conducive enviroment as key offshoring reasons. While they may not admit it, firms would be looking at stepping the gas on offshoring to curb bloating costs and to lift margins. Networking and...

Discussions of the current political situation and comparisons between the 2008 election and earlier contests frequently overlook a crucial fact. As a result of changes in American society, today's electorate is very different from the electorate of twenty, thirty, or forty years ago. Three long-term trends have been especially significant in this regard: increasing racial diversity, declining rates of marriage, and changes in religious beliefs. As a result of these trends, today's voters are less likely to be white, less likely to be married, and less likely to consider themselves Christians than voters of just a few decades ago. The...

First, the bad news: the inner solar system is unstable. Given enough time, Jupiter's gravity could yank Mercury out of its present orbit. Two new computer simulations of long-term planetary motion — one by Jacques Laskar (Paris Observatory), the other by Konstantin Batygin and Gregory Laughlin (University of California, Santa Cruz) — have both reached the same disturbing conclusion. Says Laughlin, "The solar system isn't as stable as we'd thought." Both teams have found that Jupiter's gravity can increase Mercury's orbital eccentricity over time. Mercury's path around the Sun is already nearly as elliptical as Pluto's. But Jupiter can make...

It’s not a script for the next science-fiction thriller, but renowned British scientist James Lovelock is giving human civilization less than 32 years before all hell breaks loose because of the effects of global warming. Lovelock said the impact of climate change is irreversible regardless of what mankind does. “By 2040, the world population of more than six billion will have been culled by floods, drought and famine,”

Everyone here is flummoxed about why the president is in such a fine mood. The dollar’s crumpling, the recession’s thundering, the Dow’s bungee-jumping and the world’s disapproving, yet George Bush has turned into Gene Kelly, tap dancing and singing in a one-man review called “The Most Happy Fella.” “I’m coming to you as an optimistic fellow,” he told the Economic Club of New York on Friday. His manner — chortling and joshing — was in odd juxtaposition to the Fed’s bailing out the imploding Bear Stearns and his own acknowledgment that “our economy obviously is going through a tough time,”...

"Decline in Home Prices Accelerates" — Page One headline, The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 27 Gloom. Doom. Calamity. Home prices are tumbling. We're bombarded by somber reports. But wait. This is actually good news, because lower home prices are the only real solution to the housing collapse. The sooner prices fall, the better. The longer the adjustment takes, the longer the housing slump (weak sales, low construction, high numbers of unsold homes) will last. It's elementary economics. Pretend that houses are apples. We have 1,000 apples, priced at $1 each. They don't sell. We can either keep the price at...

If John Chambers and some other corporate chieftains put on more than a few pounds in coming months, U.S. network news channels and the pundits they interview regularly on economic issues will be considered partly to blame for the increase in executive body mass. Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems Inc., has been cutting back on his exercise and trending towards foregoing his rigorous early morning workouts because of the depressing pile of negative economic and stocks market news churned out daily by cable business channels. "I think we are actually talking ourselves into this [economic] slowdown," Chambers told...

California and Bay Area cities must start planning now for new and costly systems to control increasing runoff from urban storms, springtime floods from swollen rivers and rising sea levels as they invade lowlands, all as a result of global warming, climate scientists and water experts warn. . . . But Barnett maintained that models of warming in the future mean "a coming crisis in water supply for the Western United States." And in an interview he put it more dramatically: "We're headed for a train wreck," he said.

I don't think it was just us that was surprised yesterday in what happened in New Hampshire. You know, it's amazing. I went back last night and I said to one of our researchers, I said, would you do me a favor: Go back and find as much as you can on the parallels of other elections. When was the last time we had an election like this? Well, the last time we had an election like this was 1928. 2008 is the first time since 1928 that there is no incumbent President or incumbent vice president running for either...

It’s impossible to open a newspaper without being told how awful the American economy is. Yet it’s just as hard to open your eyes without seeing how outstanding the American economy is. Consider an AP report from Dec. 4. “Hiring practically stalled in December, driving the nation’s unemployment rate up to a two-year high of 5 percent and fanning fears of a recession,” it begins. Yawn. At this point it’s probably impossible to count how many warnings of recession we’ve endured. Today the threat is rising unemployment. Last month it was the collapse of subprime mortgages. And in the years...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Sales of existing homes fell to a record low in October, according to the latest reading on the battered housing market by an industry trade group released Wednesday, as even the largest drop in home prices ever wasn't enough to revive moribund sales. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of homes by homeowners fell to an annual pace of 4.97 million in October, down from the revised 5.03 reading in September, which was the previous record low since the trade group started tracking sales on that basis in 1999. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had...

Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell last week as rates on some adjustable loans soared to their highest levels in more than two months, according to data from an industry group Wednesday. RELATED LINKS Comments Lift Sentiment Stocks Open Higher Durable Goods Orders Fall for Third Straight Month Mortgage Applications Fall as Rates Soar The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity declined 4.3 percent to 652.5 in the week ended Nov. 23. Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages that include many jumbo loans climbed 26 basis points to 6.24 percent, the highest since the height...

The Socialist Democrat’s Creed – “Doom and Gloom from Womb to Tomb” I wanted to address the negativity that some Americans have made such a large part of their way of life. I have observed that more Americans thrive on negative news about America. These Americans previously predicated negative news. The negative news appears to provide some ego satisfaction when it occurs. On closer observation, I discovered a link between the liberal’s thirst for celebrating all things negative about America and the media’s quest to satisfy that thirst. The liberals and the media also express a desire for America to...

The euro, worth 83 cents in the early George W. Bush years, is at $1.45. The British pound is back up over $2, the highest level since the Carter era. The Canadian dollar, which used to be worth 65 cents, is worth more than the U.S. dollar for the first time in half a century. Oil is over $90 a barrel. Gold, down to $260 an ounce not so long ago, has hit $800. Have gold, silver, oil, the euro, the pound and the Canadian dollar all suddenly soared in value in just a few years? Nope. The dollar has...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumers, battered by a steep downturn in housing and a severe credit crunch, slowed spending growth in September to the weakest performance in three months. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that consumer spending rose by 0.3 percent in September, slightly lower than the 0.4 percent increase that analysts had been expecting. Incomes grew by 0.4 percent, matching the August gain, and in line with analysts' forecasts. Video More video The latest in business news with the CNN.com business bulletin. Play video Economists are worried that consumers, the main support for the economy, may cut back on their...

LAWRENCE — Mario DeJesus struggled under crushing mortgage payments for two years. Now, about to lose his home to foreclosure, he has no money left to move his family into an apartment. Altagracia Portorreal sleeps uneasily since teenagers broke into the vacant home next door, abandoned by a neighbor who couldn’t keep up with the mortgage. Bienvenido Chalas is cutting the hours of employees who clean carpets and refinish floors as foreclosures drag down the housing market that supports his business. DeJesus, Portorreal, and Chalas are three faces of the foreclosure crisis sweeping the north side of Lawrence, a crisis...

The American economy, God bless it, isn't listening to all those doom-and-gloom predictions that we are marching headlong into a recession before the end of the year.   The professional pessimists who persistently peddle their predictions on the network news and business shows have been warning us all year that the economy is headed toward the cliff. Many of them were at it again this week — hoping against hope their cataclysmic forecasts will come to pass.  The lead economic story in The Washington Post Sunday began this way: "The economy is slowing, the dollar is falling. Wall Street is laying...

"For the time being, the sense is the sky is not falling."

LONDON – The fate of the world economy hinges on what happens to house prices in America and that may not be a good thing, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said on Monday. Speaking at the Reuters headquarters in London, the former Fed chair delivered a gloomy prognosis on the state of the global economy – U.S. house prices are likely to fall further and they could drag the rest of the world with them. * * * “The critical variable in this judgement is the price of homes in the United States,” said Greenspan, who ran the U.S....

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said if he wasn’t elected president, the population of African-American males is likely to either wind up in prison or dead. At an MTV/MySpace.com forum Thursday, Edwards responded to a question about inner-city kids partaking in violence by saying there was no “silver bullet” to fight the problem. “We start with the president of the United States saying to America, ‘we cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem. And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating — pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African-American male population in America....