Free Republic

/begin my translation N. Korea Incessantly Repeating Kim Jong-il Footage & his Communiqué Two Days in a Row A few dozen radio broadcasts, and on the newspaper headline (Seoul, Yonhap news) Ham Bo-hyun: N. Korean media continues to re-broadcast the report on Kim Jong-il's tour on a military unit and his Communiqué on both Oct. 11 and 12. His health has been the subject of speculation over a month. (The state news agency) KCNA first reported Kim Jong-il's inspection of all-female anti-aircraft company under KPA Unit 821 on early morning of Oct. 11. Since then they had been re-broadcasting it...

London shares dropped more than 400 points in early trading this morning after a seventh day of devastating falls on Wall Street triggered panic selling across Europe and Asia. Within minutes of opening, the FTSE 100 index fell almost 10 per cent to its worst level since 2002, but within 30 minutes shares staged a mild rally which left the index of Britain's leading companies off 253 points at 4050. Bank shares took the brunt of the pain as markets gyrated with Barclays off 15.6 per cent, and HSBC down 4.3 per cent. BP fell 8 per cent and Royal...

October 6, 2008 Markets tumble as banking fears spread across Europe Philippe Naughton Britain's blue chip companies lost £60 billion in value in just a few minutes today as investor confidence crumbled and political leaders battled to avert the threat of recession. The FTSE 100 index of leading shares fell by some 250 points in the first six minutes of trade, following sharp losses across Asia, and drifted down to reach a four-year low of 4,670.9 by late morning, 6 per cent down on Friday's close. For policymakers and central bankers, it was a nightmare start to the week –...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Barack Obama's allies warn that John McCain's attacks on the Democrat'a character will lead to the political equivalent of mutual assured destruction: fire your big weapon at your own peril.

Not everyone gets the Wall Street-Main Street connection. But they should, because both streets intersect on every block in America. “In the sense that if the credit market dries up on Wall Street, capital will be unavailable on Main Street,” said University of Arizona political science professor Robert Maranto. “So no car loans, house loans, business loans and the like.” In the short run, Maranto explains, there is no reason to panic, but over two years it would lead to higher unemployment. Maranto also reminds that most of Middle America's savings are plowed into the stock markets, “so if the...

Preface. In reading the history of nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities; their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first. We see one nation suddenly seized, from its highest to its lowest members, with a fierce desire of military glory; another as...

so how many more banks will fry

The financial world breathed easier Friday, as the full force of the U.S. government was employed to stop what had become a full-fledged global panic. Now comes the equally crucial job of protecting taxpayers -- and restoring markets -- after a historic federal intervention. There's little doubt that this week we were watching the modern equivalent of a 1930s bank run. Instead of lining up at bank windows, investors were unloading financial assets on their PCs. Credit markets had seized up, to the point that even routine daily settlements had stopped until banks had the actual securities or cash in...

Much has been written and millions of words expended on the current financial panic, most of it utterly wrong because it's made by people who don't have a clue about the workings of the financial markets. And, yes, that especially includes people in the media. Todd Zywicki, at Volokh posts: Did Eliot Spitzer Contribute to AIG's Demise? to which we get the predictable response for the invincibly ignorant: [Responding to a comment made by someone who works for an AIG insurance subsidiary] Poor you. Maybe if your industry had a few less greedy crooks, you wouldn't have to be so...

Seldom has there been a larger contrast between the style of a candidate and the strategy of his campaign. Barack Obama is cool, firm and permanently unruffled. It is precisely this quality of steadiness that has made him seem a credible prospective president with the thinnest of résumés. But Obama's campaign is rootless, reactive and panicky. At every stage since securing the nomination, it has seemed fearful of missteps and unsure of its own organizing principle. So it has invariably adopted the Democratic conventional wisdom of the moment. Obama's first major decision was his running mate. He could have reinforced...

The retooling of the Obama message is the focus of this Washington Post story: "After a string of tactical successes by McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, over the past two weeks, the Obama campaign sought to regain its footing on Monday. The shift followed a series of internal meetings, including a rare Sunday evening session at the campaign's Chicago headquarters that Obama attended. Advisers reinforced the division of labor in the days ahead: Obama will articulate the campaign's broader message of ‘change’ and outline how the Democratic ticket will govern, while Biden will deliver attacks against...

Derivative traders open session to reduce Lehman risk Sun Sep 14, 4:04 pm ET NEW YORK (Reuters) – A rare emergency trading session opened Sunday afternoon to allow Wall Street dealers in the $455 trillion derivatives market reduce their exposure to a potential bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers. U.S. regulators and bankers were making last-ditch efforts on Sunday to prevent toxic assets from ailing Lehman Brothers (LEH.N) spilling into global markets and rupturing investor faith in the international financial system. "This is an extremely, and I stress extremely, rare event. It also speaks to the more general notion that, in...

Bloomberg is link only. Emerging-Market `Panic' May End as Profits Spur 20% Stock Gain There is a bright side to the dismal market, if you have some money to spend.

THE high-heeled, moose-hunting governor of Alaska has sent Barack Obama’s campaign into a state of panic as support for the Democratic presidential candidate haemorrhages in the battleground states he must win to reach the White House. Sarah Palin, 44, continued to scythe through Obama’s support among women by taunting the first potential black president for declining to choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate and by declaring that questions about juggling work and family were “kind of irrelevant” in the modern age. The mother of five, who has been called Xena, the warrior princess, said in a television interview: “I...

A secret video of the current happenings in the Obama war room, of election strategy. (Humor) Inside the Democratic Party War Room

Democratic jitters about the US presidential race have spread to Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress are worried that Barack Obama’s faltering campaign could hurt their chances of re-election. Party leaders have been hoping to strengthen Democratic control of the House and Senate in November, but John McCain’s jump in the polls has stoked fears of a Republican resurgence. A Democratic fundraiser for Congressional candidates said some planned to distance themselves from Mr Obama and not attack Mr McCain. “If people are voting for McCain it could help Republicans all the way down the ticket, even in a year...

The Obama campaign has tonight again demonstrated that it will try to silence voices with which it does not agree. This should chill all Americans, for it offers a preview of the tactics to which a President Obama might harness the power of the federal government. The means chosen include harassment of television stations running the 527 group Ayers ad, a demand for a Justice Department investigation, and just last night, disruption of a radio talk show in Chicago that dared have Dr. Stanley Kurtz of National Review, who has been examining the archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, in...

Will we run out of some of the basic elements fundamental to modern technology? This is a question that has recently lit up the blogosphere. In particular, the elements Indium and Gallium are frequently referred to as "threatened." The herd latched on to an eloquent post on Asimov's Science Fiction, which was itself a rehashing of a New Scientist piece, which took its cue in part from an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (which, oddly enough, does not discuss either Indium or Gallium). Regardless of the convoluted history, is there anything to really worry about...

The Aids scare was one of the most distorted, duplicitous and cynical public health panics of the last 30 yearsFinally we have a high-level admission that there is no threat of a global Aids pandemic among heterosexuals. After 25 years of official scaremongering about western societies being ravaged by the disease – with salacious, tombstone-illustrated government propaganda warning people to wear a condom or "die of ignorance" – the head of the World Health Organisation's HIV/Aids department says there is no need for heterosexuals to fret. Kevin de Cock, who has headed the global battle against Aids, said at the...

[How to fix health care? When it comes to the current state of heath care services in the United States, there are no easy answers. However, most people I've spoken to — both within and without the industry — agree that the way we are providing health care services in America now just isn't working, and that something must be done. Both Democrat presidential candidates are touting a public/private system of universal health care; the Republican candidate favors tinkering with the current system. Other proposals include getting rid of all government involvement in the health care industry, full-on British/Canadian-style socialized...

Warning panics China quake zone People in Sichuan are jittery after dozens of aftershocksPeople slept on the streets or drove to open ground and hospitals evacuated patients in towns and cities after the warning was broadcast on TV. The 7.9 magnitude quake struck on 12 May. More than 71,000 people are dead, buried or missing. China has begun three days of mourning exactly one week after the quake hit. Multiple aftershocksOn Monday, a statement from the National Seismology Bureau was read out on television, triggering the panic. People in cities across the quake-hit area rushed out of their homes carrying...

Oh, dear Lord. The hapless Republican establishment has gone and made a public embarrassment of itself again. Can your hearts take much more of this? Mine can’t: Hoping to get things moving in a positive direction, House Republicans will on Wednesday begin rolling out their own policy agenda, trying to showcase their differences with Democrats on issues such as health care, the economy, energy and national security. In a memo to be sent to Republican members today, the leadership hints at a new slogan building on the change message that has already been shown to have political resonance with a...

Petrol panic looms as protesters threaten blockade, strike closes major refinery and oil hits new high By PAUL SIMS - More by this author » Last updated at 12:27pm on 21st April 2008 Fears are growing today that Britain could lurch towards another fuel crisis. As forecourt prices hit record levels and oil went above $117 a barrel, campaigners said they were secretly planning a series of blockades in an attempt to bring the country to its knees. Angered by the Government's planned 2p rise in fuel duty, they pledged to recreate the chaotic scenes which saw tens of thousands...

A deposit in an FDIC-insured bank or savings institution is one of the safest ways to protect your money. Bank failures are uncommon (only three banks failed in 2007). Also, the overwhelming majority of depositors have accounts that are fully within the FDIC's insurance limits. However, "if a bank fails, any deposits that exceed the FDIC's insurance limits are not protected by FDIC insurance," said Kathleen Nagle, Associate Director of the FDIC's Consumer Protection Branch. "That's why it's important for consumers to be aware of their insurance coverage and how they might ensure that their deposits are fully protected." Here...

Futurist and trends forecaster Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, predicted the 1987 stock market crash, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the Asian economic implosion of ‘97, the decline of the dollar beginning in 2005, the meteoric rise in gold prices in an age of currency volatility, and the turn of events that may be the blessing of our era, the subprime mortgage crisis. Because of this habit of prescience, Celente has appeared regularly on CNN and Fox and MSNBC, his “Trends Reports” widely quoted in newsprint, on Oprah Winfrey, on Good...

Hillary Clinton's most senior advisers are in a state of "panic" about her presidential prospects and are plotting to enlist Democrat leaders in Congress to thwart her rival Barack Obama's ambitions. The Clinton camp is braced for Mr Obama to win a series of primary elections over the next three weeks, which they fear could hand the Illinois senator unstoppable momentum in the race for the White House. Mr Obama has begun calling those "super delegates" - 795 congressmen and senior party officials who could break a dead heat - who are committed to Mrs Clinton, asking them to change...

Equities sank on Monday, tracking sharp losses across Asia, after financial stocks seen as being exposed to the bond insurance market were stung. By the close in London, the main European indices were . The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 5.1 per cent to 1,288.80, Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax shed 6.7 per cent to 6,825.63 . The CAC 40 in Paris lost 5.8 per cent to 4,798.66, and London’s FTSE 100 sagged 4.6 per cent 5,633.8. These were the worst one-day falls since September 11, 2001. The Eurofirst 300 and the CAC 40 were in technical bear-market territory, having fallen more...

Amid the daily market turmoil, and to help prevent a crash, it helps to step back and remember how we got here. With the benefit of hindsight, everyone can see that the U.S. economy built up an enormous credit bubble that has now popped. Our own view -- which we warned about going back to 2003 -- is that this bubble was created principally by a Federal Reserve that kept real interest rates too low for too long.In doing so the Fed created a subsidy for debt and a commodity price spike. The price spike contributed to "excess savings" in...

Panic selling shuts £2bn fund · Scottish Equitable acts after slump · Fears that other funds are at risk Patrick Collinson The Guardian (UK) Friday January 18 2008 The fund, invested in London office blocks and shopping centres across Britain, apparently no longer has sufficient cash reserves to meet demands from investors. Photograph: Martin Argles One of Britain's biggest property funds was forced to shut its doors to withdrawals yesterday after the slump in commercial prices triggered panic selling by small investors. The move prompted fears of a Northern Rock-style run on billions of pounds invested in once high-flying funds...

The scope of Barack Obama's victory in Iowa has shaken the Clinton machine down to its bolts. Donors are panicking. The campaign has been making a round of calls to reassure notoriously fickle "superdelegates" — elected officials and party regulars who are awarded convention spots by virtue of their titles and positions — who might be reconsidering their decisions to back the candidate who formerly looked like a sure winner.

One day, Aspen could be known for its golf courses, not its skiing. At least, that's one of the scenarios floated by Aspen officials studying global warming and how it could one day affect the lush Colorado city. "A lot of our economy is based on tourism and skiing," said Kim Peterson, global warming project manager for the city of Aspen. "So we've talked about what we do as a community. Do we put golf courses up?"

Most anybody in the mortgage business will tell you that August was a month that will live in infamy: The market was in turmoil, as doubts about the stability of subprime loans spread to other sectors of the mortgage world. How bad was it? A survey of mortgage brokers suggests that one in three consumers who recently signed purchase contracts canceled in August -- up from just 4 percent three years ago, according to the research firm that conducted the survey for Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade journal. The cancellation rate undoubtedly was fed by two scenarios playing out: Many...

PHOENIX - It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die. Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future. "This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water...

Northern Rock customers withdraw £1bn By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 10:13pm BST 14/09/2007 About £1 billion was withdrawn by panicking Northern Rock customers on Friday, as fears for the bank's future sent shock waves through the City and caused its shares to crash. The company's phone lines were jammed for most of the day, its website crashed and the 72 branches were besieged by thousands of worried customers after it admitted having to ask the Bank of England for emergency funding. The scenes came as the financial turmoil that has engulfed the money markets in the past...

NEWARK, N.J. - Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., struggling like other home builders, is offering six-figure discounts on some of its properties this weekend as it attempts to draw interest in a slumping market. The sales blitz involves dropping prices by more 20 percent on some of its prime real estate. The largest discounts are on the most expensive homes, including a 3-bedroom condominium by the Hudson River in West New York, which has been reduced $240,000, or 22 percent, to $862,000 this weekend. A 25-percent discount is being offered on a 2-bedroom home in Jackson Township, N.J., which lowers its price...

Thousands of people in northern Norway were left without telephone and internet connections earlier this week after a clumsy moose destroyed a switching station.

State Sen. Carole Migden caused a panic among fellow drivers last May when she drove out of control in her state-issued SUV for 30 miles on Interstate 80, according to 911 tapes released late Friday. A series of callers between Berkeley and Fairfield, where Migden's wild ride finally ended after she rear-ended another car, described her as coming perilously close to hitting other vehicles, weaving back and forth across multiple lanes of traffic, and careening repeatedly off the center median barrier. One caller described motorists putting on their vehicles' hazard lights in an apparent attempt to warn others away from...

Man Claims Panic Led Him to Chop Up Dead Pal's Body, Stuff It In Barrel Wednesday, July 25, 2007 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A man charged with improperly disposing of a corpse claims he chopped up his friend's body, stuffed the parts in a metal drum and rolled it into a river in a panic after the friend died of a drug overdose, police said. The drum, with the body parts inside, was found floating in the Pequonnock River in Bridgeport last week. Felix Rivera, 23, was charged Tuesday with improper disposal of a dead body after he told police his...

May 25, 2007 - Before getting fired up over your Memorial Day barbecue, take a moment to contemplate the capacity of your grill. It might be stainless steel and heat tolerant, but it may also be a conduit for cancer, E. coli, salmonella and unhealthy doses of sodium. Bottom line: barbecue chicken may be great for holiday get-togethers, but it's only healthy if you properly prepare and cook the meat, eat in moderation and have some fruits and vegetables on the side.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks plunged Tuesday as troubles for subprime lenders kept piling up and U.S. retail sales came in weaker than anticipated, leading investors to brace for a wilting economy. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 150 points.

Two new reports indicate that the global warming problem may be more widespread than heretofore thought. One report from National Geographic News asserts that temperatures on both Earth and Mars have been rising. Data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey mission in 2005 disclosed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps” near Mars’ south pole are shrinking. The other report indicates that cosmic rays from exploded stars are decreasing. This is causing fewer clouds to form and allowing more sunlight to hit the planet, raising temperatures. Former vice-president and internationally acclaimed climate expert, Al Gore, cited the reports as further...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's drugs laws are driven by "moral panic" and should be replaced by a more flexible approach that recognises most drug users harm neither themselves nor those around them, a two-year study concluded on Thursday. Drug use should be treated as a health issue and not just as a matter for police and courts, said a commission formed by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). It said the current Misuse of Drugs act was "not fit for purpose" and should be scrapped. "Current policy at best gives mixed messages and at worst is dishonest ... It is...

Martians Attack Boston! By J. Neil Schulman It’s a history lesson worth remembering today. On October 30, 1938 on the CBS Radio Network, Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater of the Air presented a dramatic Halloween radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic science-fiction novel, The War of the Worlds. Howard Koch’s audio-play updated Wells’ classic story from Victorian England to contemporary America, and used the medium of radio to best effect by telling the story as if it were a series of radio news broadcasts. It was brilliant radio theater. Unfortunately, late-tuning-in listeners scanning across the radio dial and finding a...

Humans have already left such a deep footprint on the environment that the effects of global warming will last for the next 1,000 years, according to a draft copy of a new report. The Globe and Mail obtained an early version of the climate change study being prepared by the world's leading scientists, and reported that little doubt remains that the planet is getting hotter. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release the report on Friday at a news conference in Paris, while a simultaneous conference will be held in Ottawa.The report says heat waves, droughts and rain storms,...

Deadly fever spreads Kenya panic Butchers now display health certificates Panic has gripped parts of Kenya after 53 people died in the past week of Rift Valley Fever, with the disease spreading to densely populated areas. Medical officials say 148 people have died since the outbreak began in December. Infections are now being confirmed in central Kenya. The fever is common in livestock but is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes and consuming infected animal products. The last epidemic in Kenya was reported during the El Nino floods in 1998. The government has, however, moved to allay fears that the disease...

Posted: 9:22 AM, Jan. 15, 2007 BOISE, Idaho (P) - Five-hundred high school students will be able to attend for free the January 22nd speech by former Vice President Al Gore in Taco Bell Arena at Boise State University. SunCor Idaho made a two-thousand five-hundred dollar contribution to The Frank Church Institute, which is sponsoring the event. Students from area high schools can present a school activity card at the Select-A-Seat box office at the arena to get a ticket. One ticket per student will be given for the sold out speech. SunCor Development Company is based in Arizona and...

New York's Worst Hurricane Fears Confirmed in New Study NEW YORK, New York, October 26, 2006 (ENS) – The 2004 movie The Day After Tomorrow painted an apocalyptic vision of a New York City battered by hurricanes, tidal waves and floods induced by global warming. A new study being presented at a science meeting this week provides a detailed picture of sea level rise around New York by the 2050s and paints a scenario similar to that dramatized by the big budget blockbuster. Rising sea levels combined with the storm surge of a category three hurricane would leave much of...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 — New electronic voting machines have arrived in Yolo County, Calif., but there is one hitch: the audio program for the visually impaired in some of them works only in Vietnamese. “Talk about panic,” said Freddy Oakley, the county’s top election official. “I’ve got gray-haired ladies as poll workers standing around looking stunned.” As dozens of states are enforcing new voter registration laws and switching to paperless electronic voting systems, officials across the country are bracing for an Election Day with long lines and heightened confusion, followed by an increase in the number of contested results. In...

After more than a dozen hurricanes battered the Atlantic Ocean last year, scientists are wondering what - if anything - might be causing stronger and more frequent storms. Some have pointed to rising ocean temperatures, brought on by global warming. Others say the upswing is simply part of a natural cycle in which hurricanes get worse for a decade or two before dying down again. Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have put forward an intriguing theory that introduces a whole new dimension to the debate. Writing today (Oct. 10, 2006) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the scientists...

Climate change, naturally induced by tiny shifts in Earth's rotational axis and orbit, periodically wipes out species of mammals, a study published on Thursday says. Palaeontologists have long puzzled over fossil records that, remarkably, suggest mammal species tend to last around two and a half million years before becoming extinct. Climate experts and biologists led by Jan van Dam at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, overlaid a picture of species emergence and extinction with changes that occur in Earth's orbit and axis. The Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle: it is slightly elliptical, and the ellipticality itself...