Free Republic

I was just watching Fox News and they have looks at the latest Fed Data and it turns out that 92% of Banks are fine and issuing credit to safe and moderately safe credit applicants. This is a bailout for business and consumers with Bad credit! This is a bailout to encourage the issuing of more loans and credit to HIGH RISK individuals and businesses. Isn't that what got us into this mess in the first place?

Many of you have written that congressional voice mail boxes are full. Unfortunately there is not much I can do if no one is answering the phones. I suspect that is because we have concentrated on too few. We need to man the phones and start targeting EVERYONE in Congress. Phone every legislative representative in your state. If those fill up, pick another state, even a small one. Tell them it is still no deal, Leave a short message so others can leave one. Fill every in box in the country.This is the correct message now. "If you vote for...

Stop the Housing Bailout!!!         This site is dedicated to stopping the government's planned bailout of the housing market.   A bailout requires responsible Americans to pay for the acts of greedy bankers, mortgage brokers, flippers, and over-extended home-borrowers. In other words, the government wants you to pay for the blunders of others who knew, or should have known, better.          Equally as important, a bailout would permanently price out of the housing market all those responsible Americans who have been patiently saving to buy a house that they can actually afford. The current housing correction is necessary to...

The McCain Campaign announced a rally set for Monday morning in suburban Lee's Summit, Missouri. Both Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin will appear at the John Knox facility there at 0830. Tickets are not required but the facility's capacity is limited and attendees will be seated first come first served.

PROVO CANYON — A Wasatch County sheriff's sergeant died Thursday morning after collapsing during a routine traffic stop. G. Scott Hathcock, 48, of Heber City, had pulled a car over on U.S. 189 in Provo Canyon and had just stepped to the window of the car to ask for documents when he collapsed, said Summit County sheriff's deputy Josh Wall. The people in the car as well as a passer-by performed CPR until paramedics arrived minutes later, Wall said. However, medical personnel were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Officials don't yet know the...

A 17-year-old South Carolina boy on an church outing was killed Saturday when he was struck by the popular "Batman the Ride" at Six Flags Over Georgia. It was the second Batman ride-related death at the Cobb County park.

Global warming may 'stop', scientists predict By Charles Clover, Environment Editor Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 30/04/2008 Global warming will stop until at least 2015 because of natural variations in the climate, scientists have said. Researchers studying long-term changes in sea temperatures said they now expect a "lull" for up to a decade while natural variations in climate cancel out the increases caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Melting icebergs: The study predicts the IPCC's 0.3ºC temperature rise for the next decade may not happen The average temperature of the sea around Europe and North America is expected to cool slightly...

'The Day She Died, She Knew She Couldn't Talk To Police,' Mom SaysDELAND, Fla. -- A Central Florida woman whose 17-year-old daughter was killed in a murder-suicide apparently committed by her ex-boyfriend said the teen was told by police to stop calling for help or she'd be arrested. Police said Clay Coffner shot his estranged girlfriend, Natasha Hall, in the head outside her DeLand home Friday before turning the gun on himself. Hall's mother, Sherry, said her daughter was concerned about Coffner and informed police. In fact, Hall said her daughter called police so much that on Jan. 15 they...

Looks slow, so I thought I'd post a mini-gallery of some of my recent 'Stop The ACLU Ferret' cartoons which I draw for the Sunday Funnies at Stop The ACLU.Enjoy!

Little Green Footballs reported late in the day Friday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still on his way to GROUND ZERO Monday. (I personally never bought the partial transcript from 60 Minutes anyway...) We're rolling out the wagon to "greet" him. Liberty St. and Broadway 9am - I will be there.

It's been more than a week now since a mass murderer struck on the campus of Virginia Tech, and as the NRA joins the debate on policies and laws, there are a few things I want to point out. It wasn't 24 hours after the horrific shootings that the politicians started flapping their lips. Congressman Jim Moran suggested that somehow the tragedy was the fault of Republicans and President Bush. Barack Obama compared the evil events in Blacksburg to outsourcing jobs overseas. Senator Dianne Feinstein called for a new dialogue on gun control. Mayor Bloomberg spoke of the events in...

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's attorney general on Wednesday demanded U.S. authorities do more to stop guns and drug money from heading south and fueling the drug violence in Mexico that left more 2,000 dead last year. Eduardo Medina Mora told a business forum that the vast majority of arms used by the soldiers of drug cartels, including assault rifles and grenades, are smuggled from the United States. "It's truly absurd that a person can get together 50 to 100 high powered arms, grenade launchers, fragmentation grenades, and can transport this cargo to our country," Medina Mora said. "It's a task...

AMMAN, Jordan - A prominent Iraqi Sunni leader said Friday that the insurgency in Iraq could end if the U.S. showed determination to stop the influence of pro-Iranian Shiite militias there. "The Americans must act seriously and abolish those militias, confiscate their weapons, arrest their criminals and at the same time stop the Iranian influence which is penetrating all of Iraq, including the government," said Sheik Majeed al-Gaood, a prominent tribal leader in Anbar province, the heartland of the Sunni insurgency. Al-Gaood is a leading member of a Sunni family that plays a major role in tribal politics in Anbar....

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 16, 2007 – Two Afghan citizens prevented a terrorist attack this morning when a vehicle loaded with explosives attempted to crash through the front gate of Camp Phoenix, a U.S. base here. “Without any regard for their personal safety, a local Afghan security officer and an interpreter immediately recognized that this was a terrorist attack,” said 1st Lt. Cathrin Fraker, a spokeswoman for Task Force Phoenix. “Together, the two prevented the driver from detonating his explosives after they failed to explode during the crash. With the assistance of the U.S. security forces, they dragged the terrorist...

MUDIQ, Iraq, Nov. 21 2006 — Iraqis now drive on safe roads thanks to the Marines who set up vehicle checkpoints here on a daily basis. That credit goes to Marines of Jump Platoon, Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. "It's making it harder for insurgents to move any contraband through the main routes of travel," said Sgt. Robert E. Mitterando, platoon sergeant for Jump Platoon. "If you were a car thief or burglar and you saw your friend getting 'rolled up,' you'd think, 'Damn, these guys mean business. We're not playing around. If you work with...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2006 – Iraqi security forces teamed up with American GIs to defeat two nearly simultaneously launched enemy attacks in the Mosul area Oct. 12. U.S. soldiers from Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, attacked and destroyed a terrorist mortar cell after Forward Operating Base Marez received indirect fire. Two terrorists were killed, one wounded and one detained in the attack. The GIs also found a significant weapons cache in the area that contained three 82 mm mortar tubes with 18 mortar rounds and a 120 mm mortar tube...

Banned: Police ordered to stop calling young tearaways 'yobs' By Ben Leapman, Home Affairs Correspondent (Filed: 01/10/2006) They are the menacing youths who hang about in gangs, causing trouble. For decades they have been known as "yobs". It has been rare for anybody to have a good word to say about them. But now, it seems, police officers are going to have to find a more "polite" way to describe the nation's troublemakers, because Scotland Yard has banned its officers from using the word "yob", for fear that it might alienate young people. The edict has the backing of Sir...

SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - European nations should pay 10 billion euros ($12.7 billion dollars) a year to Africa to help it stop migrants seeking a better life flooding northwards into Europe, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Saturday. In a speech to an African Union (AU) ceremony, Gaddafi added that African and European leaders should meet soon to discuss the phenomenon, which has soared to unprecedented levels and touched off internal political disputes in many European states. "In our final statement we will ask Europe to pay 10 billion euros per year if it really wants to stop migration toward...

BAGHDAD, Aug. 12, 2006 – The coalition commander responsible for operations in the Iraqi capital is optimistic about what he has seen since operations to quell sectarian violence here started. Army Maj. Gen. James Thurman, commander of Multinational Division Baghdad, said forces have been concentrating on four major hot spots. He spoke to reporters traveling with Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is visiting troops in Iraq. Essentially, the concept calls on coalition and Iraqi forces to cordon off an area and search each street, house by house, Thurman said. Doura – a mixed...

WASHINGTON – One of the architects of the Reagan Revolution is calling on fellow conservatives to withhold support of the Republican Party establishment – including most GOP incumbents in Congress this year. In "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause," Richard Viguerie, the man who invented the idea of using direct mail as a means of going over the heads of what he considered to be a biased establishment press, says it's time for radical action to save the Republican Party from itself. His plan includes the following actions, which would spell...

8/1/2006 - CORALVILLE, Iowa (AFPN) -- Tears don’t fall lightly from a colonel, especially in front of more than 120 other Airmen. But when Col. John Clarke presented Pamela Vineyard a plaque, representing a weeklong bike ride across the state of Iowa, the tears were evidence of the inspiring and amazing example of her strength and character. Her strength and character were tested, along with 101 other Air Force cyclists and 10,000 others in the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, or RAGBRAI, a more than 450-mile bike ride spanning a week. It had been more than 20 years...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered to halt attacks on the U.S.-led military if the Iraqi government and President Bush set a two-year timetable for withdrawing all foreign troops from the country, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The demand is part of a broad offer from the groups, who operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces have become increasingly violent and the attacks there have regularly crippled oil and commerce routes. The groups...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Flush with intelligence, the U.S. military moved quickly Friday to take advantage of the power vacuum left by the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, carrying out nearly 40 raids in an effort to stop his terror network from regrouping. A U.S. military search of the destroyed safehouse where the al-Qaida in Iraq leader was killed Wednesday yielded documents and information storage devices that are being assessed for potential use against his followers, a military officer said. An M-16 rifle, grenades and AK-47 rifles also were found, according to the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because...

Many gun owners fear that Ohio's open carry requirements in a car are going to get someone killed one day. Just last week, another incident played out that demonstrates just how dangerous the mindset of "man with a gun equals criminal" could be for law abiding gun owners. Recently, a concealed handgun license holder was pulled over in Oregon, Ohio (near Toledo) after leaving a gas station. He was ordered out of his vehicle by police conducting a "felony traffic stop", eventually had to crawl out of his window (his doors were locked and he was ordered to keep his...

Kenya orders Italian to stop ruining historic site Posted Mon, 22 May 2006 Nairobi - Kenyan authorities have moved quickly to protect one of the country's historical sites along the Indian Ocean coast by ordering a foreign investor from Italy to immediately stop developing a piece of land where an ancient ruin with historical values stands. The piece of land holds the ruins of an ancient mosque where a prominent Chinese sailor, Zheng Hess, prayed when he visited the historical town of Malindi in 1415.The ruins of Khatiba mosque lie less than a kilometre from the Indian Ocean shores in...

FREEP this Survey by the governor's office... Please take the time to do this... It took me about 30 seconds! And is so critical! Debbie To my California friends: This is so simple...all you do is listen to the menu, press 4 buttons and never have to talk to a soul...and it has the potential to help defeat this bill if we all stick together...Some of you, may well, have already done this...but just in case not, I wanted to alert you to the opportunity... Hey friends- Regarding SB 1437 Homosexual Curriculum Ed. Bill This horrendous Bill passed the Senate....

LYNCHBURG, Va. - Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), looking to heal a rift with the religious conservatives who undermined his 2000 White House bid, told students graduating at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's university Saturday that Americans have a right to disagree on issues but should maintain respect for each other. The Arizona Republican specifically referred to disagreements over the war in Iraq during his commencement address at Liberty University. He noted that the war "has taken innocent life," but he said he has stood his ground in support of it because he believed "my country's interests and values...

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. (May 4, 2006) -- “I heard the whole thing. I knew what had happened, but I couldn’t believe that I was actually hearing it,” said St. Cloud, Minn. native, Sgt. Alan D. Lane. “It got black real quick. Not knowing what was going on, I got out of the vehicle. I couldn’t see hardly at all from my right eye and I had this ringing in my ears. I was just checking my body not really believing I was in one piece.” Lane, Marine Wing Support Squadron-272 explosive ordinance disposal technician, was awarded...

HYDERABAD, India (AFP) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) can boost the fight against climate change by curbing funds for fossil fuel projects and supporting renewable energy, environmental watchdog Greenpeace International says. In a report titled "Irrelevance or Leadership," Greenpeace said if the ADB continued to fund coal-based projects it could fail in its mission to reduce poverty and promote development. "The main cause of climate change is our reliance on fossil fuels -- coal, oil and gas -- to produce energy and the solution is to shift to clean, renewable energy such as biomass, geothermal power plants and wind...

WASHINGTON -- Lacking assurances from Russia and China that they would approve UN sanctions, the U.S. administration is trying to deny Iran technology, assets and especially weapons to slow down a suspected nuclear weapons program. As part of that campaign, a top U.S. State Department official on Friday urged Russia to drop its plan to sell Tor anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. "We hope and we trust that the deal will not go forward because this is not the time for business as usual with the Iranian government," said Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who has been trying to line up...

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Want Tax Reform? Stop Paying TaxesMarch 27, 2006 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here's my idea. In addition to illegal immigration, many of us in this country are fed up with the federal tax system. We're just fed up with it. But over the years we've been intimidated into obeying. We call on our patriotism tendencies and our desires to do the right thing and so forth, but admit it: We're also scared to death that that's the one thing the federal government will not stop looking for until they find it, and that's every tax cheat in the country. But yet...

The Senate is now considering legislation that would impose controls on the unprecedented flood of illegal immigrants pouring into the United States. I urge readers to write to their senators and ask them to put a stop to illegal immigration. There are now 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. They are avoiding taxes, getting free health care (in emergency rooms), getting free education, being protected by law enforcement, and availing themselves of other social services -- and letting the American taxpayer foot the bill. Illegals are "driving municipal budgets deep into the red."The world has 6 billion people. The...

KIRKUK, Iraq (Army News Service, March 20, 2006) – Iraqi Police and Bastogne Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division captured two terrorists Saturday after an improvised explosive device detonated on a combined patrol near Kirkuk, damaging one of the patrol vehicles. The Bastogne Soldiers from two 101st Airborne battalions detained 46 suspected insurgents during numerous cordon and search missions with Iraqi Security Forces in Kirkuk and Hawijah, Iraq, last week. IED suspects nabbed In the IED attack Saturday, Soldiers and policemen avoided injury, officials reported. The troops immediately searched the area, capturing the two suspects. Mariwan Rahim, who came up...

Bus stop an execution site … 1500 years ago By Richard Macey November 26, 2005 Allen Madden and Dr Denise Donion of the University of Sydney with Octavia Man. Photo: Edwina Pickles HIS crime will probably never be known. But "he sure trod on someone's toes", said Allen Madden, cultural and heritage officer for the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. In January, when EnergyAustralia workers laying cables in Ocean Street, Narrabeen, found human bones beneath a bus stop, they called police. The remains have since been identified as those of an Aborigine who died up to 1500 years ago. Next...

Vermont may sue to stop tire burn November 6, 2005 By Darren M Allen Staff Writer MONTPELIER — If New York environmental officials choose to disregard Vermont's opposition to plans by International Paper Co. to burn up to 72 tons of shredded tires at its Ticonderoga, N.Y., paper mill for a two-week test, Vermont will likely take the matter to court. Gov. James Douglas and his administration, in cooperation with the Vermont Attorney General's Office, are prepared to exercise every legal avenue at their disposal, the governor's press secretary said last week. "Gov. Douglas has asked the Agency of Administration...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, 2005 – Despite a desperate media battle in Iraq, terrorists are failing to stop Iraqis from advancing on the political and security fronts, a senior military official in Baghdad told reporters Oct. 30. "To the terrorists, the media is a vital force multiplier," said Air Force Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, director of strategic communications for Multinational Force Iraq during a briefing at the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad. That's why terrorists targeted Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, a base for many media outlets, during an Oct. 24 car bombing, Alston said. He called the bombing a signature al...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2005 – U.S. soldiers with 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, killed one enemy and detained two others who were to trying to plant roadside bombs today in the Waza Khwa district of Afghanistan's Paktika province, military officials reported. The soldiers were patrolling from a forward operating base toward the Terwa Afghan border police site when they came across four individuals. U.S. forces killed one of them when he tried to escape and captured two others. The fourth man escaped. The soldiers discovered two signal mirrors and blasting caps on the dead terrorist. They questioned the detained...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2005 – President Bush opened a major speech about the war on terror today by praising the military and crediting veterans for the solid example they've set for today's troops waging a fight he said the United States won't abandon. "We will never back down, we will never give in, and we will never accept less than complete victory," Bush told a servicemembers, veterans and business leaders in Norfolk, Va. The president emphasized that the United States is not to blame for the violence it has suffered at the hands of terrorists. "No act of ours invited...

10/25/2005 - ABOVE IRAQ (AFPN) -- Tuskegee Airman Col. Richard Toliver (left) chats with Maj. (Dr.) Vanessa Williams as their C-17 Globemaster III makes its final approach to Balad Air Base, Iraq. Five of the original Tuskegee Airmen -- the first African-American aviators of World War II -- are visiting the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing at Balad. The unit is a descendant of the "Red Tail Angels" of the Tuskegee Airmen's 332nd Fighter Group. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Andra Higgs)

Rejecting the advice of his own government efficiency commission and a nearly unanimous vote of the state Assembly, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this month vetoed a sensible bill that could have helped nudge California back on the road to fiscal sanity. --snip-- The bill - AB 518 - didn't get much attention in the Legislature and no headlines when the governor buried it. By itself, it wouldn't have balanced California's budget. --snip-- The bill would have required the state Department of Finance to compile five-year forecasts of projected spending in each department. --snip-- The authors of Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review,...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 2005 – Increased numbers of Iraqi security forces and government-implemented precautions combined to thwart insurgents' desire to stop the Iraqi Oct. 15 constitutional referendum, a senior U.S. military officer said today in Baghdad. Roughly 63 percent of registered voters -- about 10 million Iraqis -- went to the polls to vote on a new constitution, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, said. Officials reported "a significant reduction in the number of attacks" during the referendum compared to during the Jan. 30 elections, Lynch said. For example, he said, there were 299 attacks...

Dear Friends & Supporters: Our newsletter is running a bit behind for various reasons but it will be ready to go in a couple days, my apologies for those of you who have been anxiously awaiting it. There will be a lot of information in it. The following is copied from my home page which you may view if you have any difficulty reading it here. I will be on WRWL radio with Pastor Ernie Sanders to discuss the ACLU and our plans to cripple them. Pastor Sanders has the longest running radio show in Ohio (28 years per his...

'Help! Mom!' casts liberals as villains By Cheryl Wetzstein The Washington Times Published October 16, 2005 WASHINGTON -- Katharine DeBrecht, a married mother of three, wanted to make a point about the importance of conservative values. So, she penned a children's book -- "Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!" -- to stand up to the "liberal agenda that's being thrown at our kids from the left." **SNIP** Liberals have lambasted the book as "brainwashing" and "Nazi propaganda." The Democratic Underground Web site listed Mrs. DeBrecht as one of its "Top 10 Conservative Idiots" last month. "If ever there...

President Bush's push to give the military a bigger role in responding to major disasters like Hurricane Katrina could lead to a loosening of legal limits on the use of federal troops on U.S. soil. Pentagon officials are reviewing that possibility, and some in Congress agree it needs to be considered. Bush did not define the wider role he envisions for the military. But in his speech to the nation from New Orleans on Thursday, he alluded to the unmatched ability of federal troops to provide supplies, equipment, communications, transportation and other assets the military lumps under the label of...

Small brain did not stop Hobbit having big ideas By Nic Fleming and Roger Highfield in Dublin (Filed: 08/09/2005) A fossil of a diminutive human nicknamed "the Hobbit" does indeed represent a previously unrecognised species of early Man, according to a new technique that suggests it was a cultured little fellow. Sceptics had argued that the Hobbit, discovered in Indonesia and first announced last year, could have been an individual who suffered from microcephalya, a disorder that limits brain growth. The fossils' discoverers had suggested that the Hobbit was either a pygmy form of a known species or a previously...

Jefferson downplays stop at his New Orleans house By WILL SENTELL wsentell@theadvocate.com Capitol news bureau During a National Guard-led tour of his hurricane-ravished district, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson asked to stop at his New Orleans home, a guard spokesman said Wednesday. Lt. Col. Pete Schneider, public affairs officer for the Louisiana National Guard, told news reporters that the guard was assisting Jefferson in his check of damage Sept. 2, four days after Hurricane Katrina struck. Guardsmen were getting around the Democrat's congressional district in a truck designed to navigate the high waters that crippled the New Orleans area for days...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran will never again suspend conversion of uranium ore, but it is willing to pursue talks with the European Union about its uranium enrichment program, Tehran officials said Sunday. A spokesman also notched up the rhetorical battle with Washington, declaring that Iranians have the means to defend themselves should President Bush act on his warning that military force could be a final option if Iran doesn't halt its nuclear program. The comments came as Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, nominated hard-liners for all his key ministries, signaling the likelihood of an intensified confrontation with the United States...

Senator vows to try to stop China-Unocal deal By Richard Cowan 2 hours, 42 minutes ago A Democratic senator said on July 15 he would try to get the Senate to pass legislation blocking the sale of Unocal to Chinese oil company CNOOC as it was against U.S. national interests. Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said he was considering attaching his proposal to a foreign operations spending bill being debated by the Senate on July 15 and next week or to another bill. An aide delivers a message to Senator Dorgan (R) at the start of a hearing, November...

TUCSON, Ariz. (July 11) - A high school in Vail will become the state's first all-wireless, all-laptop public school this fall. The 350 students at the school will not have traditional textbooks. Instead, they will use electronic and online articles as part of more traditional teacher lesson plans. Vail Unified School District's decision to go with an all-electronic school is rare, experts say. Often, cost, insecurity, ignorance and institutional constraints prevent schools from making the leap away from paper. ''The efforts are very sporadic,'' said Mark Schneiderman, director of education policy for the Software and Information Industry Association. ''A minority...