Free Republic

I'm doing 'God's work'. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs The Sunday Times gains unprecedented access to the world's most powerful, and most secretive, investment bank John Arlidge Number 85 Broad Street, a dull, rust-coloured office block in lower Manhattan, doesn’t look like a place to stop and stare, and that’s just the way the people who work there like it. The men and women who arrive in the watery dawn sunshine, dressed in Wall Street black, clutching black briefcases and BlackBerrys, are very, very private. They walk quickly from their black Lincoln town cars to the lobby, past, well, nothing, really....

One of the most interesting questions about the health care overhaul now moving through Congress is how it would affect young adults. That legislation would force most or all Americans to purchase health insurance (an "individual mandate") and would impose price controls on health insurance ("community rating") that would limit insurers' ability to offer lower premiums to low-risk enrollees. Those provisions would drive premiums down for 55-year-olds but would drive them up for 25-year-olds—who are then implicitly subsidizing older adults. According to the Urban Institute, many young people could see their premiums double, whereas premiums for older adults could be...

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Homeland Security secretary says she is working to prevent a possible wave of anti-Muslim sentiment after the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. Janet Napolitano says her agency is working with groups across the United States to try to deflect any backlash against American Muslims following Thursday's rampage by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim who reportedly expressed growing dismay over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The shootings left 13 people dead and 29 wounded. Napolitano was in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday for talks with security officials and...

It's been three days since the Muslim terrorist, Major Malik Nadal Hasan, calmly executed 12 soldiers and one civilian, and wounded 38 more people at Fort Hood, while chanting "Allahu Akbar" -- Arabic for "God is great." Our politically correct society has been excuse-making since -- except for those among us who are actually praising the jihadii's actions. Right away, the empathetic Obama, who wasted no time in saying a Cambridge (MA) police sergeant "acted stupidly" when he arrested Obama buddy, Skip Gates," urged Americans not to jump to conclusions, and not to dwell on the suspect’s religion. He added,...

Hurricane Ida continues to strengthen as it approaches the Yucatan Peninsula and Gulf of Mexico. The government of Mexico has issued a Hurricane Warning from Playa del Carmen to Cabo Catoche. The late season hurricane is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico later Sunday at a Category 2 storm. Links:Public AdvisoriesDiscussion Updated Every Six Hours FL and East GOM Buoy DataVisible Image SatelliteOther satellite imagesForecast ModelsStormPulse Category Wind Speed Barometric Pressure Storm Surge Damage Potential Tropical Depression < 39 mph < 34 kts     Minimal Tropical Storm 39 - 73 mph 34 - 63 kts     Minimal...

In retrospect, the signs of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's growing anger over the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seem unmistakable. But even people who worried his increasingly strident views were clouding his ability to serve the U.S. military could not predict the murderous rampage of which he now stands accused. In the months leading to Thursday's shooting spree that left 13 people dead and 29 others wounded, Hasan raised eyebrows with comments that the war on terror was "a war on Islam" and wrestled with what to tell fellow Muslim solders who had their doubts about fighting in Islamic...

William Jefferson sentencing of 27-33 years recommendedBy Jonathan Tilove November 06, 2009, 9:04PM Prosecutors on Friday night issued a memorandum recommending that former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson be sentenced to between 27 and 33 years in prison. Jefferson, 62, will be sentenced by federal Judge T.S. Ellis III on Nov. 13. The prosecution's sentencing memorandum suggests that Jefferson, who served 18 years in Congress, may have hidden resources and "poses a significant risk of flight,'' and ought to be immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service after sentencing at the Alexandria, Va., courthouse. If Ellis follows the...

'Chuck' bucks have run dryJust 3G in donations for 'Rangel' school By MELISSA KLEIN and ISABEL VINCENT Last Updated: 6:42 AM, November 8, 2009 Donors have contributed just $3,315 to the Rangel Center at City College since the Harlem congressman became enmeshed in scandal last fall. The center -- which critics have derided as a "monument to me" -- needs $30 million to renovate a derelict building in Harlem and fulfill its mission to prepare minority students for public-service careers. But data provided by the college shows Rangel's pet project has amassed just $6.6 million in pledges, and only $650,000...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 30% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10 (see trends).

Muslims Pretend to Be Nice People

Click on the link to view the video.

Details here. So this is what it has come to -- this is the fruit of the long-term efforts by groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and others, to stigmatize and demonize everyone who speaks honestly about the threat of jihad and Islamic supremacism. People are afraid to speak up about what they see, when they know it is wrong. And all it cost this week was 13 dead and 38 wounded.

"Muslims at Fort Hood voice outrage," by Michael Moss for the New York Times via MSNBC, November 7: KILLEEN, Texas - Leaders of the vibrant Muslim community here expressed outrage on Friday at the shooting rampage being laid to one of their members, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who had become a regular attendee of prayers at the local mosque. But some of the men who had befriended Major Hasan at the mosque said the military should examine the policies that might have caused him to snap. "When a white guy shoots up a post office, they call that going postal,"...

Tonight, Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao (LA-2) voted in favor of the comprehensive health reform bill, H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Of his vote, Cao said: “Tonight, I voted to keep taxpayer dollars from funding abortion and to deliver access to affordable health care to the people of Louisiana. Cao said: “I read the versions of the House [health reform] bill. I listened to the countless stories of Orleans and Jefferson Parish citizens whose health care costs are exploding – if they are able to obtain health care at all. Louisianans needs real options for primary care,...

Louisiana Republican Congressman Cao releases statement after voting in favor of Democratic health care reform bill WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Louisiana Congressman Anh "Joseph" Cao on Sunday morning released a statement after he voted as the only Republican in favor of the Democratic health care reform bill. The health care reform bill, dubbed the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" (H.R. 3962), passed the U.S. House of Representatives in a 220 - 215 vote. "Tonight, I voted to keep taxpayer dollars from funding abortion and to deliver access to affordable health care to the people of Louisiana," Cao said...

“... America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles -- principles of justice and progress; tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings...”Those remarks were uttered by President Barack Obama on June 4th of this year. And I wish I could believe that they were accurate. Obama was, of course, speaking at Cairo University, and making good on his campaign promise of “delivering a speech from the capitol of a Muslim nation.” Yet, despite the immense power of Obama’s oratory skills (and his incredible confidence in his skills), he...

If all the adults worldwide who Gallup surveys show would like to migrate actually picked up and moved where they wanted, Gallup's Potential Net Migration Index (PNMI) suggests many developed countries could be overwhelmed and many developing countries could sit relatively empty. The Potential Net Migration Index is the estimated number of adults who would like to move permanently out of a country subtracted from the estimated number who would like to move into it, as a proportion of the total adult population. The results are based on nationally representative surveys of more than 260,000 adults worldwide. The higher the...

Mashpee, Mass. -- From a blustery perch over a Cape Cod beach, Chuckie Green gestures toward a stretch of horizon where he says construction of the nation's first offshore wind farm would destroy his Indian tribe's religion. The Wampanoag - the tribe that welcomed the Pilgrims in the 17th century and known as "The People of the First Light" - practice sacred rituals requiring an unblocked view of the sunrise. That view won't exist once 130 turbines, each over 400 feet tall, are built several miles from shore in Nantucket Sound, visible to Wampanoag in Mashpee and on Martha's Vineyard....

Yesterday, we showed you this report by The Washington Independent that a whopping 95 percent of Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman's cash came from outside the district. Today, the Independent crunched some more numbers and found that Democrat Bill Owens also got most of his cash from outside the district -- 86 percent of it. Only $121,596 of Owens' total (as of Oct. 15) $843,441 came from the district. The biggest donor, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, contributed about 11 percent. By contrast, $12,360 of the $265,341 Hoffman raised by that same date came from inside the district. His biggest donor...

Despite the shine of the national media spotlight, fewer north country residents voted in the 23rd Congressional District race this year than voted in either of the district's two previous contested campaigns.About 48,074, or 34 percent of the 141,019 registered voters in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties cast their ballots for the congressional seat on Election Day. The turnout is lower than the 63 percent of voters that cast ballots in 2008 and 43 percent in 2006. Turnout was higher last year, in part, because of the presidential election. In 2006, there was a gubernatorial race.“Those percentages are certainly...

The National Republican Congressional Committee just released a new Web ad, "Which is it, Hoffman?" that spotlights Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman's alleged dithering about his positions on certain issues.Here's the transcript:"Doug Hoffman is running for Congress. He is opposed to civil unions. Actually...Oh. Well, he is against big government bailouts. Not before! Geez! Well Doug Hoffman lives in the 23rd...uh...this guy doesn't even live here? Why are we...? Doug Hoffman is running...from himself."Mr. Hoffman, according to a recent Siena poll, is unknown by almost three-quarters of voters in the 23rd Congressional District. The NRCC is likely using this ad to...

A U.S. Army spokesman says the man authorities say went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood has been taken off a ventilator but still remains in intensive care at a military hospital. Spokesman Col. John Rossi told reporters on Saturday at Fort Hood that he is not sure if Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is able to communicate.

Mark Ndesandjo in his first in-depth interview on allegations of abuse by their father. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just might be near the end, but there will be a transcript.

Italians reacted with outrage on Tuesday after a European court ruled that displaying crucifixes in the country's schools violated the principle of secular education. Italy's education minister condemned the judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, saying that the Christian cross was a symbol of the country's Roman Catholic religion and cultural identity. Mariastella Gelmini, a member of the conservative government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, argued that "no one, and certainly not an ideological European court, will succeed in erasing our identity," Other ministers said they were appalled by the ruling, calling it "absurd," "shameful" and "offensive." Generations...

Joe Sullivan was sent away for life for raping an elderly woman and judged incorrigible though he was only 13 at the time of the attack. Terrance Graham, implicated in armed robberies when he was 16 and 17, was given a life sentence by a judge who told the teenager he threw his life away. They didn't kill anyone, but they effectively were sentenced to die in prison. Life sentences with no chance of parole are rare and harsh for juveniles tried as adults and convicted of crimes less serious than killing. Just over 100 prison inmates in the United...

Tuesday 4pm It may have been the first, small clue that an apparently ordinary week at the world's largest army base was about to become something horrifically different, when neighbours saw Major Nidal Hasan escorting a visitor into his flat. Other residents at the Casa del Norte apartment complex were surprised to see the mild-mannered army officer accompanied by another man in Islamic dress. Alice Thompson, 53, who manages the two storey block of simple dwellings with her husband John, told The Sunday Telegraph: "It was very unusual because he had never had anyone round before. His visitor had long...

An elderly man enters a crowded museum carrying a rifle and begins shooting. A young man in Arkansas pulls the trigger outside a military recruiting office. Another man opens fire in a Kansas church. Three chilling, unconnected slayings in less than two weeks. One gunman was a white supremacist, one a militant Muslim, one a fervent foe of abortion. Each suspect had a history that suggested trouble. Each apparently was driven to act by beliefs considered by some as extreme. Each shooter fits the description of a "lone wolf" terrorist, a killer whose attack, authorities say, is harder to head...

To hear President Obama tell it, he's been busy creating jobs since taking office. The $787 billion stimulus package, he said last winter, would "save or create 3.5 million jobs." The White House is touting reports from recipients of stimulus funds asserting that they have created or saved 640,000 jobs so far. Yet the national unemployment rate has now hit 10.2 percent, helping explain why Republicans won the governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey last week, just a year after the party's 2008 drubbing. And Obama declared Friday that more action is needed. "History tells us that job growth...

Gov. Still Plans To Run Despite President's Request He Not Brings President Clinton's Former Deputy Chief Of Staff On BoardEmbattled Gov. David Paterson is pulling out all the stops to save his job. He plans to mount a major ad blitz to tell New Yorkers about all the good things he's done for the Empire State. The election may be over, but the political ads aren't. The governor is now taking to the air waves to convince New Yorkers he deserves to stay in office. "What it's geared to do is talk about his very good record over the last...

          WHY DO WE STILL HAVE SCARS? One of the greatest truths we can know in life is that God is always able and willing to forgive us for our shortcomings. All we have to do is ask for His forgiveness. And if God is willing, then we too, should forgive ourselves. Yet one of the greatest ironies concerning forgiveness is that the painful memories the scars of our past remain with us. We may wonder, "What's the sense in receiving forgiveness if the scars from the painful memory remain?" Maybe the question should be,...

A brother of the man authorities say went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood says the Army psychiatrist is peaceful person — and hopes he will be treated fairly by the legal system. Eyad (ee-YAHD') Hasan said in an e-mail statement released Saturday that he hopes authorities will give his family information on Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's condition. He also says he hopes his brother is allowed the right to an attorney when he gains consciousness.

As a candidate and president, Barack Obama has had one core message for the middle class: I won't raise your taxes. The White House has pledged that only the wealthy — families earning more than $250,000 — would face a boost in income, capital gains, or other taxes. For the 97 percent of Americans below that level, no increases are in store. But as Congress inches closer to forging a massive package of health-care reforms, it's increasingly clear how difficult it will be to keep that pledge. To pay for the near trillion-dollar health-care system overhaul — not to mention...

Live Threads of the Healthcare Debate that could be voted on this weekend. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2380972/posts?q=1&;page=251 http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN_wm.aspx Different reports are coming in about what some of the Arkansas Representatives will do. John Boozeman is a solid NO vote. Rep Berry has "concerns regarding how the plan is paid for", but Obamacare is often changed to give the apperance of not costing as much. Mike Ross has expressed concern over public option, but that is also not a definite NO. According to David Meeks, Rep Snyder's office had said that he wouldn't for a bill that "funds abortion", however Obamacare supporters had claimed...

TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) The State of Florida is looking for help finding something you'd think would be hard to lose; approximately 18,000 buildings, owned by the taxpayers of Florida, that state officials can't quite put their fingers on. What's more, state officials say they don't have the people to hunt them down, so they want to use tax money to hire an outside company to find each building Florida has misplaced. The plan was made public by Linda South, Secretary of the Florida Department of Management Services. Earlier this year, legislators handed her the job of locating surplus state-owned properties and...

Governor-elect Chris Christie made a surpise appearance at the New Jersey Family Policy annual dinner. Gov Christie thanked the audience for all of the work done on behalf of New Jersey families. Christie told the New Jersey Family Policy group about his own family and his kids and spoke about their shared values. Governor-elect Chris Christie said he prepared his family for the possibility of a loss that was not to be. He huddled with his family on election night before going on stage to accept the election results. His family all shared their love and celebration. Governor-elect Christie graciously...

Leaders of the vibrant Muslim community here expressed outrage on Friday at the shooting rampage being laid to one of their members, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who had become a regular attendee of prayers at the local mosque. But some of the men who had befriended Major Hasan at the mosque said the military should examine the policies that might have caused him to snap. “Ultimately it was Brother Nidal’s doing, but the command should be held accountable,” Mr. Benjamin said. “G.I.’s are like any equipment in the Army. When it breaks, those who were in charge of keeping it...

ELIGIBILITY - To be eligible for a grant or contract under paragraph (1) an entity shall be an accredited school of medicine or osteopathic medicine. PREFERENCE - In awarding grants or contracts under this section, the Secretary shall give preference to entities that have a demonstrated record of at least one of the following: (1)Training a high or significantly improved percentage of health professionals who provide primary care. (2)Training individuals who are from disadvantaged backgrounds(including racial and ethnic minorities unrepresented among primary care professionals) (3) A high rate of placing graduates in practice settings having the principal focus of serving...

WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Less than two weeks before the release of her memoir "Going Rogue," former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was on message during a Friday night speech to anti-abortion activists at State Fair Park. "Let’s simplify: We’re pro children," Palin told thousands of people who attended a $30-a-ticket fundraiser for the Wisconsin Right to Life Education Fund. In a personal and passionate speech, Palin lauded the state’s anti-abortion movement for legislative advances achieved over time. "We were told to sit down and shut up," Palin said. "Wisconsin, you went rogue." Palin spoke movingly of her youngest son, Trig,...

President Barack Obama said Friday that flags at the White House and other federal buildings will be flown at half staff until Veterans Day in recognition of the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

Barack Obama has tried to calm racial tensions in the US after the Muslim community voiced fears it would face a backlash from the Fort Hood killings. The president's intervention follows two days after Muslim army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on colleagues at the military base in Texas, killing 13 and wounding 30. Hundreds attended a candlelit vigil last night at Ford Hood, the country's largest army camp, while the investigation into the incident is continuing. Major Hasan, 39, whose spree was stopped when he was shot four times by Police Sergeant Kimberley Munley, remains in a...

Some moderate Democrats still are “really anguished” over voting for the energy bill, Rep. Jason Altmire told Fox News, and they “would be reluctant now to vote for health care and take a second vote that might be unpopular in their district.”With Republicans raising the volume of their protests and House Democratic leaders uncertain if they have enough rank-and-file support, some moderate Democrats sense that passing a health care reform bill will be as difficult as the House’s energy bill, which was approved by a slim margin June. That has caused quite a bit of hand-wringing among the Democrats. Some...

Blue Coat Systems (BCSI) this morning said it will cut about 10% of its staff under a new restructuring plan. The company currently has a little under 1,500 employees. The company also said it will acquire S7 Software Solutions, a software R&D firm based in Bangalore, India, for about $5.25 million in cash. Blue Coat said it will shift some engineering positions from Sunnyvale (which is where the company is based) and Austin, Texas to Bangalore and other locations. It is closing offices in Riga, Latvia; South Plainfield, New Jersey; and Zoetermeer, the Netherland.

LTTE arms moved overland from China to NK for almost a decade by Shamindra Ferdinando Chinese arms consignments for the LTTE had been moved overland to North Korea across the China-North Korea border before being transferred to the terrorist group’s ‘floating’ warehouses on the high seas close to Indonesia, for about a decade, The Island learns. The LTTE had obtained its first Chinese arms consignment way back in 1994/1995 during the then People’s Alliance (PA) administration. On-going inquiries, well informed sources said, revealed that the China-North Korea overland transport of arms for the LTTE had operated for almost a decade...

Ever since Obama became a serious candidate for the Democrat ticket in “08”, we have been deluged with various groups of people in America treating Obama like a celebrity. This is nothing new for Americans, after all we have seen different segments of our society display signs of idol worship for many celebrities from rock stars like Elvis Presley to sports heroes like Michael Jordan. However, we have never experienced the type of sycophantic worship for a politician like we see from the left for Obama. Oh sure the nation came together and cried when JFK was assassinated, but...

Before Keith Olbermann accused Rep. Michelle Bachmann of fomenting a rebellion, MSNBC's David Shuster had already hiked the old hyperbole trail. Sitting in for Ed Schultz on The Ed Show, Shuster insisted the rally opposing President Obama's socialized medicine bill "had all the trappings of a proverbial orgy of bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism, and hate!" In fact, one sign alleged contained "a reference to right-wing claims that the president is secretly a Muslim terrorist!" (Emphasis Shuster's.) As usual, he could not produce these references to racism, anti-Semitism, or Obama-secretly-got-Islamic-terrorist-training-ism. Even the Huffington Post with its "12 Most Offensive Signs from...

The Hole at the Heart of Our Strategy We’re scrupulously non-judgmental about the ideology that drives terrorism. By Mark Steyn Thirteen dead and 31 wounded would be a bad day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, and a great victory for the Taliban. When it happens in Texas, in the heart of the biggest military base in the nation, at a processing center for soldiers either returning from or deploying to combat overseas, it is not merely a “tragedy” (as too many people called it) but a glimpse of a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of what we have...

Investigators believe that the gunmen had "political and religious motives." Meanwhile, Obama is set to give a major speech in Cairo in which, among other things, he's going to point out Muslim many contributions to America. "This individual appears to have been upset with the military, the Army in particular, and that's why he did what he did," Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said in a phone interview. "He has converted to Muslim here in the past few years," Hastings said. "To be honest we're not completely clear on what he was upset about. He had never been in...

The plan to attack the Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey this year, they wanted to "kill as many soldiers as possible!" Five Muslim immigrants accused of scheming to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix were convicted of conspiracy Monday in a case that tested the FBI's post-Sept. 11 strategy of infiltrating and breaking up terrorist plots in their earliest stages. The men could get life in prison when they are sentenced in April. The five, who lived in and around Philadelphia for years, were found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel. But they were acquitted of...

When Nick Griffin told BBC One’s Question Time that he found “the sight of two men kissing in public a bit creepy”, he may have been thinking about a traumatic adolescent experience. In an interview with The Times, Mr Griffin claimed that a former deputy leader of the National Front (NF) offered sex to him when he was still a teenager.

As many people know by now, or are waking up to this morning, yesterday 39-year-old Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, went on a shooting spree at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas killing 13 and injuring at least 30. While Hasan is in critical condition and unconscious, some are speculating that the motive for the shooting was concern over his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. Regardless of motive, there are several lessons that we can take away from this incident. First of all, Hasan, by himself, was able to wreak havoc at a secure military installation while...