Free Republic

Stephen Roach, the chief economist at investment banking giant Morgan Stanley, has a public reputation for being bearish. But you should hear what he's saying in private. Roach met select groups of fund managers downtown last week, including a group at Fidelity. His prediction: America has no better than a 10 percent chance of avoiding economic ``armageddon.'' Press were not allowed into the meetings. But the Herald has obtained a copy of Roach's presentation. A stunned source who was at one meeting said, ``it struck me how extreme he was - much more, it seemed to me, than in public.''...

Posted on Wed, Sep. 22, 2004 IraqThe candidates offer different visions With six weeks left before Americans choose a president, the war in Iraq has emerged as the overriding campaign issue.The two candidates laid out starkly different views of the war this week in back-to-back speeches -- and offered voters a clear choice.Sen. John Kerry, speaking Monday at New York University, said clearly -- for the first time -- that, knowing what we know now (no Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, no ties with al-Qaida), he would not have waged a war to topple Saddam Hussein. "We have traded...

TACOMA, Wash. -- A veteran reporter for The News Tribune of Tacoma resigned after editors questioned whether sources quoted in some of his stories existed. Bart Ripp resigned two weeks ago, the newspaper said. He had been a journalist for 32 years, the past 15 with The News Tribune as a feature writer, historian and restaurant critic.

Today, January 27th 2004, the world as we know it changed. NASA's Mars rover "Opportunity" sent back to earth near absolute proof of life on mars . . . life of a form NOBODY ever expected. It would be monumental if the rovers geological tools and microscopic cameras sent back evidence of primitive life . . . and they may indeed do just that. But we do not have to wait. "Proof" is right there in panoramic photos received today . . . . DUCKS . . . GIANT MONSTER DUCKS ROME THE SURFACE OF MARS!!! . . . Either...