Free Republic

Henry Paulson is about to be given an $800 BILLION dollar blank check in the form of an increased Federal Debt Ceiling which he can spend on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac IN ANY WAY HE CHOOSES, INCLUDING BUYING THE CRAPPIEST LOANS THEY HAVE AND STICKING A ONE HUNDRED PERCENT LOSS, $800 BILLION WORTH, ON YOUR TAX BILL. A huge percentage of the debt issued by Freddie and Fannie - about $1.5 trillion worth - is held by foreign central banks. Paulson is proposing to bail out the Chinese and Japanese governments with our tax money! Paulson SAYS he will...

President John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, exhorted the nation: “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.” This rally to selflessness has been trampled upon by a new class that has sprung up over the past 20 years or so. We are all familiar with environmentalists, but their influence is in danger of being surpassed by the “entitlementalists,” the new breed of Americans who have made taking what their country can ill afford to offer and offering not half...

Fresno, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A California court is scheduled to hold a hearing today in a case of a disabled woman like Terri Schiavo who has been deprived of food and water for nine days. Janet Rivera lost her right to food and water on July 14 when a court-appointed guardian removed her feeding tube despite her family's wishes. Rivera, 46, had a heart attack on February 2006 and she never regained consciousness. She has been on life support for two years Jesus Rivera, her husband, had been his wife's conservator until June 17, when he was replaced for unknown...

I believe it is time for congress to dissolve state governments. Here are my reasons: 1) State governments simply don’t care about the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The majority of laws enacted by state governments violate the rights of American citizens in one way or another. 2) State governments don’t care about their own state constitution either. The majority of laws enacted by state governments violate their own state constitution. 3) State governments look the other way while municipal governments within the state, which are created and controlled by the state government, routinely pass ordinances that violate, the...

A stray cat had kittens in our yard. My wife attempted to barricade the kittens in a contained area to protect them from predators. Short of caging them, this proved impossible. The rambunctious kittens escaped my wife's protection to explore, wrestle and play. With every fall, their climbing skills improved. Mama cat taught “gecko catching 101”. Soon the kittens were supplementing their breast milk with gecko snacks. Had my wife been successful in her intrusive attempts to protect them, the kittens' growth would have been stunted leaving them ill equipped to survive. The kittens scenario illustrates the superiority and compassion...

Mayor Menino, tear down this wall. The firewall of low-level graft and back-scratching hackery for which Boston has become famous. It is the only thing protecting a chump like faux-firefighter Albert Arroyo. Everybody knows the story of Albert Arroyo. One day he claims to be “totally and permanently disabled.” Fifteen days later, he’s a top contender in a body building competition - caught on videotape. And yesterday, Mr. Mayor, the “Hardest Non-Working Man In City Government” ignored the commissioner’s order to show up for work. Arroyo may be known for his bulging biceps and six-pack abs, but right now he’s...

“We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline," Phil Gramm told the Washington Times in an interview last week. "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession." And then he walked away from the microphone. You know what else could be said? We also have a bunch of leaders who thrive on image and political correctness to guide their words and decision making. Since when is it not alright to say what you think or tell the truth? Since now! What was...

Almost anything can happen in an election year, but among conservatives, almost everyone seems to agree that no matter who captures the White House in November, the movement that has ruled the Republican Party since the 1960s and mostly dominated American politics since 1980 has lost its way. Across the spectrum of the right, writers and thinkers have turned their relentless analysis inward, a kind of political EST seminar aimed at self-transformation.

Washington, D.C. - Here's a new reason for taxpayer dismay: There's increasing evidence that companies may be protesting government contract awards as a strategy to negotiate their way into contracts or to derail an award process already in place. ... In February, IBM protested the Federal Bureau of Investigation's award of a $1 billion contract to Lockheed Martin (nyse: LMT - news - people ). Big Blue dropped its dispute two months later when Lockheed announced it would use IBM as a subcontractor.

The constant bad news from the liberal media corporations is very dangerous! I've been finding communist/Stalinist propaganda like this all over the net: Frankly the people ranting against "community" don't realize how they've benefited from it - it was non-profit inventions like the internet, computers, modern electricity, phones, x-rays, penicillin, radio waves, and lightbulbs (Göbel), that make life better today. (*Also* state funding of science, medicine, & university research!) "Conservatives" like to rant about how everything good came from greed, but it's just a huge lie: 1. The computer - “This came from pure scientific thought, and not at all...

I think it's time to let Congress feel our election fury this November. As reflected in the latest Rasmussen Reports, "Just 9 percent (of Americans) say Congress is doing a good or excellent job." It is the first single-digit approval rating for Congress in Rasmussen's history, and it makes Bush's 30 percent approval rating seem like a stat to boast. The study went on to explain: "Just 12 percent of voters think Congress has passed any legislation to improve life in this country over the past six months. That number has ranged from 11 percent to 13 percent throughout 2008."...

Whither The Secular State?Brucelewis.com 20080714 A Christian registrar who refused to carry out gay 'weddings' won a landmark legal battle yesterday. Lillian Ladele, 47, was threatened with the sack [being fired], bullied and 'thrown before the lions' after asking to be excused from conducting civil partnerships for same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs. But yesterday a tribunal agreed that her faith had been ridden roughshod over by equalities-obsessed Islington Council, which had sought to 'trump one set of rights with another'. The groundbreaking decision could lead to firms facing 'conscience claims' from staff who say their own beliefs prevent...

Late on July 7, Serbia got a cabinet after two months of hard coalition bargaining. A total of 127 members of parliament of the 250-seat Serbian assembly approved the government composition that Cvetkovic had proposed earlier in the day along with the cabinet programme, after which the new ministers were sworn in. In the statement, issued on July 8, Obama said that “Serbs have moved through several painful chapters in their long and proud history�. Citizens of Serbia are eager for progress, democratic development and economic growth, Obama said. “In May, voters expressed their desire for a European future, a...

In good times, they were superfluous. Now they're only as good as their U.S. guarantee Are Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) really too big to fail? That's certainly a widely held assumption across much of the political spectrum. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain voiced the conventional wisdom on July 10 when he said, "They must not fail." Democrat Charles Schumer, the New York senator, agreed, saying: "Markets should be assured that the federal government will stand by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." On July 11, shares in the two companies briefly dropped about 50%, but recovered late in...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said in a new interview Friday that the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai had not got out of a "bunker" to rebuild the war-torn country. Obama also said in the interview with CNN to be broadcast in full this weekend that the Bush administration had allowed Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to regroup, by diverting vital US forces to the war in Iraq. "I think the Karzai government has not gotten out of the bunker and helped to organize Afghanistan and (the) government, the judiciary, police forces, in ways that would give...

If the US bails out Fannie Mae bonds as suggested in We're All Homeowners Now, Nationalization of Fannie, Freddie Unavoidable, inquiring mind just might be wondering "Who is the biggest beneficiary?". It's a good question too. Please consider Chinese Government is Top Foreign Holder of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Bonds. As politicians call for taxpayer bailouts and a government takeover of troubled mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, FreedomWorks would like to point out that a bailout is a transfer of possibly hundreds of billions of U.S. tax dollars to sophisticated investors and governments overseas. The top five foreign...

The English Speaking Nations are the Greatest Nations in the World By Christopher CookLet's face it... People are rotten. Governments are rotten. Human history is mostly slaughter, oppression, and privation. True freedom—in the context of civil government that protects that freedom—is a relatively recent phenomenon. English history was made by humans, and by the governments the they empowered or suffered to rule over them. And it is a history filled with the kind of rotten behavior by people and governments that we have seen in every corner of the globe for all of human history. And yet... ...something put the...

Very rarely a well written scholarly book directed to the general reader not only corrects profound misperceptions of historical persons and events but also shows the true origin of a basic part of human social action. Such a book is Defending the Declaration by Gary T. Amos.1 This excellent book belongs in the library of every Christian church, college, school, history scholar and teacher, pastor, attorney, and family especially when home schooling. It should be required collateral reading in American history courses (high school and college) dealing with the origins of America. Last but not least it makes a wonderful...

"Polling stations using electronic voting systems suffered more voting discrepancies than polling stations using traditional paper votes ..."

Driving into Debt? May 23, 2001 Traveling by car these days will cost you more this summer-- at least $1.70 a gallon for gas. That's the average price at the pump this month, up 13 percent from just a year ago. An estimated 30 million drivers will hit the road for Memorial Day weekend. If each one buys just a gallon of gas, they'll have spent about 51 million bucks. Who sets the price? If you think gas prices are high in the U.S., take a look at Europe. There, gas is typically four times as expensive. The going price...

Fertilizer for the Pansy Bed  July 8, 2008 Oh god. There is no hope.The other day I glanced at the web site of the Lake Chapala Society, a social club of sorts for expats around Mexico’s Lake Chapala, an hour south of Guadalajara (where I live). Clicking on “Safety,� I found a long list of reasons why you should never, ever use a firearm to protect your home and family. No. See, you might miss, or be scared, or the intruders might take it away and shoot you, and they might be all mad and hurt you when all they...

Which side are you on? The time is now for an American solution that will secure our families' health and a healthy economy. The first order of business for the new President and Congress in 2009 should be to pass health care legislation that guarantees quality, affordable health care for all. We are asking everyone to tell us which side you are on: - I’m for a guarantee of quality affordable health care for all.- I’m for leaving us on our own to buy private health insurance.Which Side Are You On?

One reason people are unhappy with the way politics and governments operate is that people who run for office are known to “say one thing and do another.” Thus, we have the call for “change.” Candidates for high office make frequent use of that word. Even our House Republican Conference’s recently released slogan highlights that word. Yet, bringing about change is easier said than done. The American people are aware that government is broken and must be fixed. They will demand more than lip service as our problems become more severe. Change, then, cannot simply be a word. It must...

Once again, after listening to the Independence Hall concert by the Philly Pops, visiting Independence Hall, the National Constitution Center, and Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, I am more impressed than ever before about the events that took place there and what was accomplished. Here is the link to the piece I wrote for The Bulletin or click on The Bulletin link near the title, which I think is easier. I still can't figure out how to do it correctly. http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=19834607&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

The founding fathers of this country had a passion to be independent of the persistent tyranny and irresponsibility of the then-king of England, George III. They even delineated many of his abuses toward the American colonies in our nation’s most landmark document, the Declaration of Independence. The founders felt so strongly about these abuses that it led to a revolution against Great Britain, which ultimately led to our independence. Our independence today is not bound by any external sovereign power, although we are under constant threat of a different kind of external tyranny – Islamic fascism. However, our independence today...

Gather around class. On July 4, 2008, the United States of America will celebrate its 232nd birthday. Happy Birthday, you “whippersnapper!” The word “whippersnapper” originated about 100-years, before the freedom-loving colonists told King George to go jump in the lake. To be historically accurate, this dynast’s tea is what the rebels threw into Boston Harbor. Whippersnapper originally referred to a young person, usually male, who was unimportant and insignificant – but presumptuous. That epithet certainly applied to our early thirteen colonies. They were unimportant and insignificant, relative to the mighty British Empire, but they were also presumptuous in attempting to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2dfD0ryMco

Tammy Sue Barkhard, a third-generation Welfare recipient who lives in Tyrone, said that she gets a little misty when she hears the Star-Spangled Banner on July the 4th. It's a special day for her. "I think about George Washington crossing the Mississippi on that special day in July and creating a country that makes no distinction between the slothful and the truly needy," Barkhard said. "It's a good day to reflect on what this country owes me. Plus, a few of my babies were conceived on July 4th, too." Her live-in boyfriend, Dwayne Scott Arrington said he, too, enjoys the...

OK, now go read that headline again. There is no trick to it. I am saying that government is aggregating unto itself the power to tell you, a parent of an 8-year-old child, which of his school classmates he is allowed to invite to his birthday party. And government has decided that if your child doesn't invite every kid in his class, then he isn't allowed to invite any of them. It's about discrimination, don't you know? You see, our wilting flowers, our fragile, unable, emotionally unstable children will grow up to become serial killers if they don't get invited...

Thirty years ago this past week, Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. condemned our nation's selective colleges and universities to live a lie. Writing the deciding opinion in the case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, he prompted these institutions to justify their use of racial preferences in admissions with a rationale most had never considered and still do not believe – a desire to offer a better education to all students. To this day, few colleges have even tried to establish that their race-conscious admissions policies yield broad educational benefits. The research is so fuzzy and...

Honk if you love Hispanics. A license plate that touts "Hispanics Discovered Florida" may soon join the 109 specialty tags drivers can choose from. The idea to celebrate the contributions of Hispanics came from National Hispanic Corporate Achievers, a Longwood group that sponsors minority job fairs. The plate would become a fundraising tool to support job and mentorship programs. Danny Ramos, the group's president, said the tag's message is about cultural pride for Florida's 3.6 million Hispanics -- even if not all of Latin American or Spanish descent identify with the term.

Justice Department officials over the last six years illegally used “political or ideological” factors to hire new lawyers into an elite recruitment program, tapping law school graduates with conservative credentials over those with liberal-sounding resumes, a new report found Tuesday. The blistering report, prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general, is the first in what will be a series of investigations growing out of last year’s scandal over the firings of nine United States attorneys. It appeared to confirm for the first time in an official examination many of the allegations from critics who charged that the Justice Department had...

CorridorWatch, a Fayette County-based group that has been active in opposing the Trans-Texas Corridor plan, wants to go beyond the Sunset Advisory Commission’s recommended shakeup of state transportation leadership. The group, led by David and Linda Stall, recommends that TxDOT answer to an elected six-member board led by a chairman appointed by the governor. CorridorWatch makes it recommendation, along with various other reactions to the Sunset commission staff’s recent report on TxDOT, in written comments submitted as part of the sunset process. TxDOT, like all state agencies, “sunsets” after 12 years unless the Legislature acts to keep it alive. As...

545 PEOPLE Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You...

Inside Washington Watt downshifts from big vehicles to a little hybrid Lawmaker says there are no easy fixes and that we all have a role to play in reducing our gas use. Lisa Zagaroli MCTSen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, right, listens as Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, during a luncheon and discussion regarding the upcoming November elections at the National Press Club in Washington Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006. (CHUCK KENNEDY/MCT) Rep. Mel Watt says he tries to explain to constituents why there are no quick fixes to $4...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Chaos erupted outside Family and Social Services Administration offices in Indianapolis Friday as storm victims lined up to receive emergency food stamps.

Karl Hindle has been working tirelessly for five years and spent more than four hundred thousand dollars investigating his daughter's illegal abduction to the U.S. What he has uncovered is deplorable. The paper trail shows the United States government is in the business of illegal baby snatching and harboring criminals. Emily would not have suffered the loss of her father for the last five years, or the vision in her right eye, if it weren't for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA.) And people like Barbara Grieg of the U.S. State Department who see it as an excuse for misandry...

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report. Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

Trying to fix problems that affect vast numbers of people has an intuitive appeal that politicians and policymakers find irresistible, but several warehouses of research studies show that intuition is often a poor guide to fixing systemic problems. While it seems like common sense to pump money into an economy that is pulling the bedcovers over its head, the problem with most social interventions is that they target not robots and machines but human beings -- who regularly respond to interventions in contrarian, paradoxical and unpredictable ways. "How well does government do in helping the market to improve what it...

A price to pay for alternative fuels Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil. So last fall the Charlotte musician and guitar instructor spent $1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil. He bought soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, spending about 30 percent more than diesel would cost. His reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels: a $1,000 fine last month for not paying motor fuel taxes. He's been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal government.

As usual, the politicians have it exactly backwards. The economy is in the dumps (in no small part due to political malfeasance). Gas prices are going through the ceiling (in no small part due to political malfeasance). Foreclosures are at an all-time high (in no small part due to political malfeasance). The average American family is harder pressed than ever before to make ends meet (in no small part due to political malfeasance). And state budgets have gone bust (almost entirely due to political malfeasance). So, what do the politicians do? They spurn the tottering economy, skyrocketing gas prices, foreclosure...

As a general principle, the government should not decide when a company's or an industry's profits are "excessive." Wealth, innovation and economic growth depend upon businesses earning profits, after all. And the more money a company makes, the more it can expand its operations, compensate employees, benefit shareholders - and pay taxes. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats (and a few Republicans) are stuck in the mind-set of the 1970s, attempting last week to tack a windfall profits tax on Big Oil. Supporters of the tax got only 51 of the 60 votes they needed to proceed. Colorado's senators split on the measure,...

The flooding in eastern Iowa has reached the point of catastrophe. Towns are overwhelmed, businesses destroyed, and crops are gone. A fifth of the corn and soybeans are gone. Fox News is calling it "Iowa's Katrina." Here is a gallery of aerial phtographs at the web site of the newspaper I used to deliver every afternoon, the Iowa City Press-Citizen. The thing is, though, the people of eastern Iowa seem to be stepping up in the Iowa stubborn way. I have seen any number of man-on-the-street interviews, and nobody is complaining. They all seem to be working to solve their...

FEMA gave away about $85 million in household goods meant for Hurricane Katrina victims, a CNN investigation has found. The material, from basic kitchen goods to sleeping necessities, sat in warehouses for two years before the Federal Emergency Management Agency's giveaway to federal and state agencies this year. James McIntyre, FEMA's acting press secretary, said that FEMA was spending more than $1 million a year to store the material and that another agency wanted the warehouses torn down, so "we needed to vacate them." "Upon review of our assets and our need to continue to store them, we determined that...

WASHINGTON (AP) — If Johnny can't read and Sally can't add, it's often because of the color of their skin and their ZIP code, educators and activists said Wednesday. The heads of the New York City and Washington, D.C., school systems joined with civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton and others to press for a shake-up of public schools from coast to coast to narrow the achievement gap between white students and black and Hispanic students. The group called the gap the nation's most pressing civil rights issue. By the time they near high school graduation, black and Hispanic teenagers...

Are You A Fascist? Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 9 June 2008:A Canadian human rights tribunal ordered a Christian pastor to renounce his faith and never again express moral opposition to homosexuality, according to a new report. In a decision dated May 30 in the penalty phase of the quasi-judicial proceedings run by the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal, evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson was banned from expressing his biblical perspective of homosexuality and ordered to pay $5,000 for "damages for pain and suffering" as well as apologize to the activist who complained of being hurt. ... [T]he penalty could foreshadow the possible fate...

AL Gore claims that "good enough for government work" once implied that such work met the highest standards of excellence. Maybe. But in the US Senate's kitchens, "good enough for government work" means any meal that doesn't require a stomach pump. [Snip] As befits a government-run commissary, the Senate cafeteria has a decidedly Soviet attitude toward variety. It has averaged only two new menu items a year over the last decade. The food is so bad, every lunch hour Senate staffers rush to the House side of the Capitol like starving New Yorkers of the future storming the last Soylent...

An official reaction to FEMA's no-ice policy came from U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor who referred to FEMA officials as a "bunch of buttheads." Last week, officials were told that FEMA had decided to only supply ice for use in medical emergencies and life-saving reasons. It's left local officials scrambling to figure out ways to make it available for the general public. During a meeting with Hancock County Board of Supervisors this morning Taylor said he intends to write to FEMA to register his objections to the new policy. He also urged Hancock County supervisors, as well as the city councils...

“[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” —James Madison