Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Racing the clock to avoid a government default, President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders reached historic agreement Sunday night on a compromise to permit vital U.S. borrowing by the Treasury in exchange for more than $2 trillion in long-term spending cuts.

Baby boomers -- those born between 1946 and 1964 -- have been described as "the pig in the python" and the "sandwich generation." They lived well, grew up in relative abundance and, some say, expected their Social Security, health care and government support to be there as they grew old. Now, as the future of the country's economy is up in the air, is this group of 80 million aging Americans -- many of whom are sprinting toward retirement age -- the ones to blame for the nation's shaky economic system? (snip) Thomas Firey, a senior editor at the conservative...

This data was originally published in Stanford Magazine. It demonstrates what percentage of the land in each state is owned directly by the federal government.

A group of Senators questioned the general attorney for the National Security Agency Tuesday about whether U.S. intelligence agencies are using cell phone geo location data to track U.S. citizens without their knowledge. According to The Wall Street Journal, the leader of the National Counterterrorism Center Matthew Olson told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that: "There are certain circumstances where that authority may exist."

As federal criminal statutes have ballooned, it has become increasingly easy for Americans to end up on the wrong side of the law. Many of the new federal laws also set a lower bar for conviction than in the past: Prosecutors don't necessarily need to show that the defendant had criminal intent.

(Excerpt: Full article at link above) You have the right to remain stupid, and what you say and do can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion. Unfortunately, the court of public opinion is expanding into a stupid-is-as-stupid-does joke. And it has a president and gang of thieves in the United States government to represent it. So goes the sheeping of America. Welcome to Euro II. With the level of dishonesty, fraud, abuse of power, corruption, rampant irresponsibility, downright criminal behavior and vehement refusal to be accountable, our government has clearly lost its collective mind...

Central bankers urge tax, regulatory reforms, pro-trade policy. WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Top Federal Reserve officials on Monday said the central bank has done everything it can to help a weak U.S. economy. The rest is up to Congress and the White House. In separate speeches, three senior Fed executives said Washington needs to fashion better tax and regulatory policies that encourage businesses to invest in the U.S. and create jobs. They said there is little else the Fed can do to boost domestic growth. "It is absolutely imperative that the Congress and the president attack the long-run budget problems the...

A majority of Americans would recommend pursuing a government career to a close friend or relative just getting out of school, according to a new Washington Post poll on perceptions of federal employees. Fifty seven percent of respondents to the survey said they would recommend a public sector career, while a third of respondents said they would not. (snip) ...a majority of self-identified independents, liberals, moderates and conservatives said they would recommend applying for a government job... (snip) Full results from the poll will be published in Sunday's Washington Post.

I didn't know that the White House Commie had such a thick skin...

Pigs Of Waste - The Nuge Weighs In 84rules August 26, 2010

In these tough and turbulent economic times, we need to look for small things we can be thankful for. For example, I am thankful President Obama is not a lifeguard, as I believe he would toss concrete blocks to drowning swimmers instead of life preservers. Why do I believe that? His economic policies are drowning our economy, leaving many Americans unemployed or underemployed, and he knows it. Mr. Obama can squawk all he wants and blame everyone from President George W. Bush to Tea Partiers to Fox News, but our anemic economy is the result of his willingness to allow...

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work. These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and...

This week the Senate grinches stole Christmas. The Obama Nation is getting Obamacare. It’s easy to blame the sixty Democrats, as the Wall Street Journal does, for "the worse bill ever." It solemnly declares: "These 60 Democrats are creating a future of epic increases in spending, taxes and command--and control regulation." True enough. But what's the root cause of this permanent disaster? Sorry, friends, but it’s not the Democrats, nor the American people who elected them. The real culprits are two Republicans who ran the show the previous eight years: George W. Bush and his "master political strategist" Karl Rove....

Robert Yates, a delegate to the 1787 convention from New York, left on July 10, 1787. He became an Antifederalist leader. Under the nome de plume "Sydney" he wrote in the New York Daily Patriotic Register, June 13 and 14, 1788. TO THE CITIZENS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. Although a variety of objections to the proposed new constitution for the government of the United States have been laid before the public by men of the best abilities, I am led to believe that representing it in a point of view which has escaped their observation may be of...

Let us look to the first article of the proposed new constitution, which treats of the legislative powers of Congress; and to the eighth section, which pretends to define those powers. We find here that the Congress in its legislative capacity, shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, and excises; to borrow money; to regulate commerce; to fix the rule for naturalization and the laws of bankruptcy; to coin money; to punish counterfeiters; to establish post offices and post roads; to secure copy rights to authors; to constitute tribunals; to define and punish piracies; to declare war;...

Mr. President, Don't Mess With Texasby Ted Nugent (more by this author) Posted 03/18/2009 ET You may have noticed I am a big fan of rugged individualism, self-reliance, individual freedoms, liberty, self-determination and defiance -- heavy on the defiance. These are all uniquely American characteristics that are hard-wired into our genes thanks to our amazing, defiant forefathers. You must never forget that our forefathers courageously sailed across an unknown ocean, to an unknown land to establish a country free of tyranny, kings and emperors. They risked their lives, fortunes and families to create America, a radical experiment in self...

I’m a hunter, and proud of it. Most of my best hours are spent in the field, sometimes chasing dangerous game. I’m on the track of one, a bigger more dangerous critter than I’ve ever hunted before: the Obama-Pelosi Porkosaurus. The Porkosaurus is plenty dangerous by itself. It subsidizes unemployment by increasing unemployment benefits. And, as the man said, when you subsidize something you get more of it. It doesn’t spend anything -- not one thin dime -- on the one thing that economists say is guaranteed to stimulate the economy, defense spending. And its whole purpose is to feed...

A pathologist said a 93-year-old Bay City man froze to death inside his home - his body found days after city workers said they limited electricity flowing to the house. Marvin E. Schur suffered "a slow, painful death" inside his home at 1600 S. Chilson St. on Bay City's southwest side, said Dr. Kanu Virani, who performed an autopsy on the body. "Hypothermia shuts the whole system down, slowly," Virani said. "It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning." Funeral services for Schur, a retired pattern-maker who lived alone, are...

With grave suspicion and reservations, I nonetheless rejoice that the fading embers of conservatism may have indeed caught fire once more. That fireball is Gov.Sarah Palin of Alaska, I pray the next Vice President of the United States. Now I know why I have seen no one with any guts in the Republican Party in so long: the governor of Alaska has them all. Her speech last night was clearly a grand slam out-of-the-park home run. America, we have liftoff! By selecting Gov. Palin to be his running mate, Sen. McCain has finally electrified the conservative base -- the very...