Free Republic

Fearful that a failure to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling “could lead to the end of government as we know it,” Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ken) has proposed legislation that would grant President Barack Obama unilateral authority to increase the nation’s debt load. “In an ideal world decisions on how much the government ought to spend should be made by Congress,” McConnell said. “However, the current crisis requires that we think outside of the ‘Constitutional box.’ With the legislative power split between our two Parties there is no chance for an agreement on how to deal with this crisis. Our...

RWBNews: Hitting the debt ceiling means there will be a 44% cut in spending. The decision as to what would not get paid falls on the Treasury Department. The U.S. Treasury will not default Despite all the rhetoric and posturing we see in the media and in Washington D.C., it is safe to say categorically that the U.S. Treasury will not default on its debt after August 2nd, even if the debt ceiling is not raised. Not only will the Treasury be able to pay interest on U.S. debt obligations, but there is money for other essential programs as well....

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's latest attempt to convince some Republicans that boosting the debt limit is necessary does not seem to be gaining traction. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) maintained Wednesday that the government has "numerous tools" available to avoid a default, and that one would only occur if Geithner was unwilling to use them. "Secretary Geithner's approach to dealing with the looming debt crisis is to take his hands off the wheel and let the car careen over the cliff," he said. DeMint's statement comes in response to a letter Geithner sent to him and fellow GOP lawmakers, urging them...

W.H. warns of debt 'calamity' By ABBY PHILLIP | 05/18/11 4:12 PM Updated: 05/18/11 4:56 PM In an effort to clamp down on “misinformation” about the debt ceiling and to ratchet up the pressure on Congress to act, the Obama administration said Wednesday that there is no “Plan B” for the government if Congress fails to raise the borrowing limit. Unlike the budget standoff in March, where a plan would have gone into place if the government shut down, an administration official warned that there is no “secret plan” that would kick in if the government runs out of borrowing...

NEW YORK – Beck’s departure from Fox News marks the welcome removal of an incendiary talk-show host who reveled in apocalyptic shtick and the politics of incitement, writes John Avlon. Plus, the Fox-Beck divorce. The nightly nervous breakdown will not be televised. Glenn Beck is going off the air on Fox News. It is a remarkable reversal of fortune for a man who one year ago was banking $32 million annually, teaching Americans how to fear-monger for fun and profit. But with his ratings down nearly 50 percent and advertisers abandoning the show, Beck’s apocalyptic shtick has been getting rancid...

IT'S not bad enough that thousands of people may be dead from Japan's earthquake and devastating tsunami. No, the media is instead obsessing over a nuclear reactor that has killed no one and probably never will. This scaremongering over the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex is extraordinary. Already anti-nuclear activists, rebadged as nuclear "experts", are out spreading terror. And what's a nuclear holocaust story without Helen Caldicott, actually a paediatrician and anti-nuke hysteric? So there she was, too, on 3AW, warning that if the reactor blew up, "hundreds of thousands of Japanese will be dying within two weeks of acute radiation...

Germany has temporarily shut down seven of its nuclear power plants while it reconsiders its nuclear strategy. Chancellor Angela Merkel said all reactors that went into operation before 1980 would be taken offline, while safety checks would be carried on the country's remaining plants. All safety questions would be answered by 15 June, she said.

Hours after a massive earthquake rattled Japan, environmental advocates connected the natural disaster to global warming. The president of the European Economic and Social Committee, Staffan Nilsson, issued a statement calling for solidarity in tackling the global warming problem. “Some islands affected by climate change have been hit,” said Nilsson. “Has not the time come to demonstrate on solidarity – not least solidarity in combating and adapting to climate change and global warming?” “Mother Nature has again given us a sign that that is what we need to do,” he added. Global Warming enthusiasts have also taken to Twitter to...

Democrat raises fears about GOP budget cuts forcing kids to become criminals. As the fight about cutting federal spending in the budget gets nastier and the GOP and the Democrats dig in their heels, some politicians are getting more extreme in their rhetoric. One of them, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in particular is using fear mongering tactics to make an emotional appeal to whomever is out there in the public and will lend her his ear. According to the Florida congresswoman, if cuts to childcare are made, then moms everywhere all of a sudden won’t be able to send their kids...

Washington: The US National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for parts of New York, New Jersey and other states along the east coast of the United States as a major winter storm bears down on the area on Sunday. A band of frigid weather was snaking up the East Coast on Sunday, promising blizzards and a foot of snow for New York City and New England, while several states made emergency declarations as the storm caused crashes on slick roads. Heavy snow and blizzards in parts of North Carolina were making driving conditions difficult, and there were dozens...

Paul Krugman Says GOP 'Zombies' Are Going to Eat Obama's Brain By Tim Graham Created 12/20/2010 - 3:10pm By Tim Graham | December 20, 2010 | 15:10 Tim Graham's picture Let's hope the editorial page editors at the New York Times aren't too fond of the "No Labels" movement to soften the tone of our national debates. Because columnist Paul Krugman is comparing his conservative opponents to...brain-eating zombies. The column's title is "When Zombies Win." It concludes: Yes, politics is the art of the possible. We all understand the need to deal with one’s political enemies. But it’s one thing...

Time magazine's news judgment is truly puzzling. With just weeks to go before a crucial midterm election, their cover story package is ten pages stuffed with “The Secret World of Extreme Militias.” Voters are poised to sweep a pile of Democrats out of office from coast to coast, and they're camped in Zanesville, Ohio with a right-wing militia that claims 300 members as the nation's number one news story? (Katie Couric tweeted on Wednesday that she was eagerly reading it.) Time editor Richard Stengel announced they gave new hire Barton Gellman six months in the field chasing the whisper of...

Ed Rendell to left on MSNBC: ‘Get over it’ By: Andy Barr October 5, 2010 12:44 PM EDT Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell says discouraged liberals need to “get over it” and support the Democratic Party, before they regret it. “This isn't about President [Barack] Obama,” Rendell said on MSNBC’s “Last Word” Monday night. “It's about whether the Democratic Party, not perfect, but certainly bent on trying to preserve theories in government and progressive practices, is going to be in charge of the Congress or the Republican Party. And it's not the Republican Party of old. This is a scary Republican...

Hector Manrique takes a look around his taqueria and sighs. It's 3:30 in the afternoon, and usually around this time at least five or six tables are occupied by day laborers fresh off work, or schoolchildren and families in search of a torta or taco after school. But today, Taqueria Guadalajara's plastic lawn chairs and tables are empty, and so is the tip jar on the counter. Street traffic in this predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Phoenix, Arizona, is also lighter than usual, says Manrique, who opened the casual Mexican eatery in 2003. Not even a week has passed since Gov....

Recent research from the New York Times / CBS News poll revealed that 18% of Americans identify themselves as supporters of the Tea Party, classify themselves "very conservative" and are very pessimistic about the direction of the country and severely critical of Washington and, of course, Obama. Over 90% of them believe that the country moves to a wrong path and the same percentage disapproves of the president and his administration policy. Already 92% of respondents estimated that Obama leads the country "toward socialism" (an opinion shared by more than half the population in general). Moreover, the expressions of popular...

RUSH: Let's go back, April 24th, 1995, Mississippi, Minnesota. CLINTON 1995: We hear so many loud and angry voices in America today whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible and the rest of us all torn up and upset with each other. They spread hate. They leave the impression that -- by their very words, that -- violence is a acceptable. You ought to see -- I'm sure you are now seeing the reports of some things that are regularly said over the airwaves in America today. It is time we...

This Week in Progressive Media Who is more of a threat, left-wing crazies or right-wing crazies? For its coverage of the Hutaree Militia story, Firedoglake.com carries Rachel Maddow’s extensive reporting of the FBI infiltration and capture of the members of the violent Christian militia group. Maddow tries to gauge the seriousness of their threat, describing the oddly named militia as a “strange combination of absurd and scary” with names “out of a Calvin and Hobbes strip” but spends 10 minutes exploring who they are and the charges against them. Are they representative of other right-wing groups? A guest on her...

"When a state official can deploy not only the vast resources of his office, but hire outside counsel at taxpayer expense to try and block millions of Floridians from finally getting access to health care, it's time to stop and demand some accountability," Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, said at a press conference this afternoon.

Ed Miliband’s adverts banned for overstating climate changeThe adverts' claims 'were not supported by science' TWO government advertisements that use nursery rhymes to warn people of the dangers of climate change have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for exaggerating the potential harm.The adverts, commissioned by Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, used the rhymes to suggest that Britain faces an inevitable increase in storms, floods and heat waves unless greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control.The ASA has ruled that the claims made in the newspaper adverts were not supported by solid science and has told the Department...

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is very influential in the current administration, almost single handedly responsible for defining “domestic terrorists” for the Department of Homeland Security and ratcheting up the racial rhetoric like never before in U.S. history, in the name of so-called “social justice.” In the latest diatribe to come out of the Montgomery Alabama based mini-ACLU, titled - Rage on the Right - The Year in Hate and Extremism—the group lays out their justification for striking fear in the hearts of every Tea Party, 912 and town hall activist, angry over the federal governments mishandling of their...