Free Republic

NEW YORK – ACORN has filed a lawsuit claiming that Congress violated the Constitution when it passed a law cutting off federal funding to the organization. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the lawsuit on ACORN's behalf Thursday in Brooklyn federal court. It claims the law was unconstitutional because it punitively targeted an individual organization. Messages for comment left at the White House and the federal agencies named in the suit were not immediately returned.

David Kamerschen is a professor of Economics at the University of Georgia who has fun teaching economics to new students fresh to the field. Lots of people who teach economics, including yours truly, have used a variation of David's illustration over the years. It never fails to hit the mark -- if not Marx. Econ 101 or its equivalent is usually a required course for most college students, most of whom groan when they are forced to take a class in the "dismal science". That's because they never were exposed to real-world lessons in economics when they were in grade...

The Senate on Tuesday shot down a Republican measure that would have frozen federal spending at 2008 levels for the current fiscal year, preferring to stick with an omnibus package that increases spending by about 8 percent. Sen. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat, said during the debate that the spending-freeze amendment would have been the same as "looking backward, going in reverse. It doesn't make sense." Democrats said higher sending was vital to responding to the economic crisis. The amendment, which Sen. John McCain offered to replace the $410 billion omnibus bill that would fund most of the government until the...

CHICAGO (AP) - Thousands of chanting, flag-waving immigrants and activists rallied in cities across the country Thursday, attempting to reinvigorate calls for immigration reform in a presidential election year in which the economy has taken center stage. From Washington to Miami to Los Angeles, immigrant rights activists demanded citizenship opportunities for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and an end to raids and deportations. "We come here to fight for legalization. We're people. We have rights," said Eric Molina, an undocumented factory worker who immigrated to Zion, Ill., from Mexico. Molina, his sister and his 13-year-old daughter...

AUSTIN — The state's new $5 surcharge for strip club visitors will not violate the clubs' First Amendment free speech rights, state officials argued in a court brief filed in advance of a court hearing. The new fee, which was approved this year by the Texas Legislature, is set to take effect on Jan. 1. It's expected to raise about $44 million to be dispersed for sexual assault prevention programs and health care for the uninsured. A state district judge was scheduled today to consider a request made by a group of strip clubs to delay the fee. The Texas...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite low approval ratings and hard feelings from last year's elections, Democrats and Republicans in the House are reaching out for an approximately $4,400 pay raise that would increase their salaries to almost $170,000. The cost-of-living raise endorsed Wednesday evening gets lawmakers back on track for automatic pay raises after a fight between the parties last year and again in January killed the pay increase due this year. That was the first interruption of the annual congressional pay boost in seven years. The blowup came after Democrats last year fulfilled a campaign promise to deny themselves more...

Hello, I am a finalists in an online prize contest for a camera at WhoGets.com. The winner is determined by votes on who deserves to get it most. My reason is: This would be a great gift for my wife for our wedding anniversary on July 4th. Being a college student it is hard to keep the bills paid let along buy nice gifts. We have no camera now and have 2 nephews and a niece plus all sorts of family events that she would love to keep memories of. So if you can find the time to stop by...

Philip Plummer opened the door one morning in October to find an officer from the Belknap County Sheriff's Office standing there. The officer handed Plummer a court summons saying he owed Lakes Region General Hospital more than $100,000 in medical bills. "When I saw how much the hospital said I owed, I almost literally hit the floor," said Plummer, 36, a former Tilton resident who now lives with a relative in Massachusetts. He said he lived in Tilton until just about two months ago, when he moved in with his sister in Massachusetts. "I didn't know until I got served...

On site report from Kristinn at a Cindy Sheehan anti war rally being held at the Independence Mall outside the Constitution Center. , Cindy said that she is determined t not only wants to see George Bush impeached but she wants to see him tried for Crimes Against Humanity. She states is so determined to see this done she says she will live for 1000 years. She went further by saying that even if she were involved in a fiery plane crash she would walk out alive just to see this done. Kristinn yelled out to her as she was...

According to today's news, Indonesians are "angry" at the US for not responding quickly enough with enough aid to help them recover from the most recent disaster (the earthquake) in an unbroken series of disasters. Excuse me? Angry because we have not gone once again to save their sorry butts from the results of their government's corruption, incompetence, illiteracy, and criminality? When did we become responsible for their mess of a country? Apparently I didn't get the memo.

WASHINGTON, May 26 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior officials and career prosecutors at the Justice Department told associates this week that they were prepared to quit if the White House directed them to relinquish evidence seized in a bitterly disputed search of a House member's office, government officials said Friday. Mr. Gonzales was joined in raising the possibility of resignation by the deputy attorney general, Paul J. McNulty, the officials said. Mr. Gonzales and Mr. McNulty told associates that they had an obligation to protect evidence in a criminal case and would be unwilling to carry out...

All my life, I believed in Republican values -- individual responsibility and limited government. Then it happened; I found myself with a small child, unemployed and disabled. I turned to my church, and after years of regular tithes, suddenly I just wasn't their problem. My Republican friends? I was now a pariah to them. My only relief was to turn to government assistance for housing, food, and other needs and I was able to survive with dignity. So chalk me up as one who no longer drinks the GOP koolaid.

Constitutional amendment would have protected Terri Schiavo from starvation death Kevin Fobbs April 3, 2006 Terri Schiavo would be alive today if the Founding Fathers had only thought to add to the Constitution "Food and Water" to the basic inalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. There would be no need of an official Terri's Day. The Founding Fathers did not consider hydration and nutrition because it appeared no civilized nation at the time had deprived their citizens, not even their convicted criminals of that basic right, so therefore the thinking had to be, why include the obvious?...

Despite the amazing technological improvements in aircraft and air-traffic control, winter can still snarl air traffic and result in cancellations, delays, missed connections and assorted other ills. While one cancellation can appear pretty much the same as another, travelers find quite a bit of difference in what airlines owe them in a major snarl. Here's a primer on cancellations and what you can do about them. With one exception, what you get when your flight doesn't operate as advertised is entirely up to the airlines. That one exception is when an airline "bumps" you due to overbooking: when it sells...

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Two Nigerians were convicted Friday in an international fraud scheme that led to the collapse of a Brazilian bank, anti-corruption officials said. Frank Nwude and Nzeribe Okoli were found guilty of working with an official of Banco Noroeste of Sao Paolo to steal $242 million over seven years - a fraud related to promised kickbacks on a bogus Nigerian airport contract. The Brazilian bank collapsed as a result of the fraud. According to prosecution documents, a bank worker was promised $13.4 million in kickbacks from an $187 million airport contract if he paid certain fees up...

War is hell. But it’s worse when the Marines bring out their new urban combat weapon, the SMAW-NE. Which may be why they’re not talking about it, much. This is a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon but with a new warhead. Described as NE - "Novel Explosive"- it is a thermobaric mixture which ignites the air, producing a shockwave of unparalleled destructive power, especially against buildings. A post-action report from Iraq describes the effect of the new weapon: "One unit disintegrated a large one-storey masonry type building with one round from 100 meters. They were extremely...

About a month or so ago, I noticed on Free Republic, a series of pictures posted showing the way the MSM distorts reality. In this situation, I believe it was during the Sheehan story in Crawford where she or some compadre of hers, was kneeling down near one of the white crosses. The way the MSM portrayed the pic, you woulda thought there was a massive crowd around her - but other pics that showed the actual crowd revealed that it was all photographers, media hounds, etc. Can someone give me the site or share those two contrasting photos for...

A state official says that if the Superdome is to be used again as a shelter, the federal government needs to help make it hurricane-proof. Tim Coulon, chairman of the Louisiana Stadium & Expedition District, said he hopes state officials can persuade the Federal Emergency Management Agency and insurance adjusters to pay for things such as enlarged concourses and new restrooms to make the Dome more suitable for evacuations, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. The building suffered millions of dollars in damage from Hurricane Katrina and the 25,000 evacuees who sought shelter there for days after the storm passed. It...

Janice, an African American woman, age 55, is all fired up against the Democrats in Louisiana. Said "I bet you those buses were running on election day!"

Let's face i, governments and unions are agents of THEFT and to a large degree, they are the bagmen of the middle class. They distort the markets for labor and trade so that some people are able to TAKE more resources out of the pockets of the owning class than they are entitled to. It makes me sick. Most of the people in the “middle class” in America have no business having what they have. If the just, God-given market forces were left alone, those thieves would be living in the shacks their productivity entitles them to and the wealthy...

Wisconsin's Democratic governor thinks it's not fair that tangible items get taxed while downloads, like music, ebooks, software, etc., go completely untaxed. So, he proposes to rectify the situation by having Wisconsin's 5% state sales tax apply to Internet downloads. This is kind of like that famous hoax about how the USPS wants to charge people 5 cents for e-mail messages, except it's for real. What a dumb idea....

Students in the Berkeley school district aren't getting written homework assignments because teachers are refusing to grade work on their own time after two years without a pay raise. So far, a black history event had to be canceled and parents had to staff a middle-school science fair because teachers are sticking strictly to the hours they're contracted to work. "Teachers do a lot with a little. All of a sudden, a lot of things that they do are just gone. It's demoralizing," said Rachel Baker, who has a son in kindergarten. Teachers say they don't want to stop volunteering...

Several thousand parents, students, teachers, and other school employees rallied at the State Capitol on Monday evening, calling for more education funding from the state. It was probably the largest education rally at the Capitol in recent years, and it drew more than 175 busloads of participants from such Twin Cities school districts as Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, Osseo and Mounds View. Organizers said people came from as far away as Duluth, Mankato and Rochester. Despite the impressive turnout, participation may have been short of the 6,000 to 7,000 people organizers had hoped for. Although an initial State Patrol estimate...

A Bush administration plan to trim dairy subsidies may put the squeeze on family farmers in the area. The proposal would cut by 5 percent a program that provides federal subsidies when milk prices plunge. That money proved to be vital in recent years when the industry slumped and some farms went under, said dairy farmer Myron Bonzo, 40, of New Sewickley, Beaver County. "Without that safety net, there would have been a lot more farms out," he said. Dairy subsidies are designed to provide farmers with a base income and protect them against price drops, said John Johnson of...

Now that I have turned 60 years of age, I have decided to become a Democrat. President Bush is the essence of evil by tinkering with Social Security. Look, I don't have to pay much into it now, and I don't care how many jobs young people have to work in order to support me in my golden years. I am a Democrat and I deserve it, so let's start telling our kids to work two jobs! I want my retirement, I want free medical care and I want my prescriptions to be paid for by the young workers. I...

I need info. for a report that i have to do this month on Robert E. Lee. I have to wirte at least 1 page on him so any info. at all will be very helpful

Remember the Boston Tea Party? Get ready for the AUSTIN TOLL PARTY. Bumper stickers in Austin read: "AustinTollParty.com Stop The Double Tax Toll Plan". A billboard near the 8th-street downtown exit from I-35 echos the theme. Go to website: http://www.austintollparty.com to get the details. There you will see a map outlining the plan to make all of Austin's EXISTING commuter highways part of a toll road system. The filthy rascals started building toll booths before the plan was "officially" approved by CAMPO. We have uncovered evidence of conflict of interest on part of some appointed politicans on the CAMPO board....

I am trying to locate Bush Cheney signs (as big as possible) to put on my lawn. I went to the georgewbush.com website, and could find no signs for sale, nor could I find info on where to get them. Please help!!!!Thank you,Gargantua

Floridians Who Lost Homes to Charley Frustrated Mon Aug 16, 2004 11:53 AM ET By Jim Loney PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (Reuters) - Relief supplies poured rapidly into southwest Florida after Hurricane Charley's devastating punch but some of the thousands of newly homeless on Monday were frustrated as they faced rebuilding their lives. Charley, which also caused damage in a wide area of central Florida including the area around Orlando, killed 16 people, ripped apart thousands of mobile homes and damaged tens of thousands of buildings. By Monday, more than 2,000 people were still in shelters, according to Florida emergency officials,...

SAVANNAH -- The organizer of the International Festival for Peace and Civil Liberties is seeking $2,000 from the city to recoup losses after few demonstrators turned out for last week's G-8 Summit.

Here's a question to ponder: Are we too generous? Let's mull that one today while catching up with Ann Love. Ann is the young woman we have been following for the last few months as she tries to move from welfare to work. Ann is 27 and the mother of two boys, ages 5 and 7. Their father is in prison for murder. Ann has lived in public housing and pretty much depended on government programs since they were born. When we last visited with Ann, she had completed a job-readiness program and had gone to work in a South...