Free Republic

The U.S, Senate race between George LeMieux and Adam Hasner continues to heat up, with LeMieux issuing a snarky release blasting Hasner for calling attention to LeMieux’s French heritage. Specifically, Hasner is distributing a bumper sticker that says “LeMieux: It’s French for Crist.” It’s part of Hasner’s effort to hang Crist, the moderate former governor who lost to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio last year, on LeMiuex, who at various times was the governor’s chief of staff, the “architect” of his campaign and Crist’s appointee to the U.S. Senate.Today, LeMieux issued a release calling attention — “In Case You missed It”...

Mike McCalister, who got 10% of the vote in the Republican primary for Governor last year, continues to lead the GOP Senate field in Florida.  He's at 17% to 13% for George LeMieux, 9% for Adam Hasner, and 3% for Craig Miller with 58% of voters undecided. That has to be seen as very good news for Bill Nelson.  McCalister's chances of winning the nomination in the end are close to nothing.  But the fact that he's leading is reflective of a pretty weak pool of Republican candidates and also a lack of enthusiasm for any of those folks from...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Monday night to send a temporary spending bill to the House to avoid a government shutdown, Democrats and Republicans appeared to have reached a final-hour resolution to an impasse over disaster aid. The vote in the Senate was 79 to 12 to fund the government through Nov. 18, giving the two sides more time to haggle over long-term spending levels. The Senate also approved an even shorter-term spending bill -- funding the government into next week -- by a voice vote to give the House time to reconvene and approve the followup legislation.<snip>"Senate Democrats have...

Mark Wilson/Getty Images Herman Cain speaks prior to Florida's straw poll at the Orange County Convention Center on Saturday in Orlando. Cain was a clear winner in the non-binding poll. The big news of the weekend was the improbable victory in the Florida GOP Straw Poll (dubbed "Presidency 5") by former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain. The subsequent coverage has focused less on Cain's chances for winning his party's presidential nomination — thought of as anywhere between none and none — and the disappointing second-place finish of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who had expended a lot of time and...

WASHINGTON — Businessman Herman Cain says his victory in the Florida Republican straw poll was authentic and wasn't a statement by voters against Texas Gov. Rick Perry.Cain tells NBC's "Today" show the weekend test balloting was "not a protest vote."Cain says his performance shows "the voice of the people is more powerful than the voice of the media."

SITREP -September 23rd 2011 It’s another week in Washington.  How about that?  We started off the week passing a few pieces of legislation – a couple notable ones:  H.R. 2646 – Veterans Health Care Facilities Capital Improvement Act, H.R. 2944 – U.S. Parole Commission Reauthorization Act, both of which are pretty self-explanatory and H.R. 2401 – The Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act (TRAIN Act for short). The TRAIN Act mandates that the President assemble an inter-agency estimate of the cumulative and incremental cost of federal EPA rules and regulations. If you take away giant examples...

House Republicans have found the path to passage for a short-term bill to fund the federal government: Add language intended to embarrass the Obama administration. Following a lengthy closed-door meeting, House Republicans emerged with a strategy to keep intact the continuing resolution the House defeated on Wednesday by adding a $100 million offset targeting the government program involved in the loan guarantees awarded to the failed energy company Solyndra, the solar-energy firm backed by more than $500 million in government loan guarantees and previously supported by President Obama. The company has since declared bankruptcy and is the focus of a...

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. -- Motorcyclists are allowed to use the new freeway HOT lanes toll-free so many are wondering why they have to register with The State Road and Tollway Authority. They also want to know who is paying for the thousands of transponder devices that are being sent to them if they’re not required to mount the Peachpass on their motorcycles.

September 21, 2011 Author Joe McGinniss has been out this week promoting his new book about Sarah Palin — a book widely condemned for gossipy allegations by anonymous sources. The book is getting attention in part because Palin might be running for president.This summer, Palin certainly looked like a presidential candidate as she rode through Iowa and New Hampshire in a red-white-and-blue bus, but as time ticks away the pressure is building on Palin to make her candidacy official. ... The race is absolutely wide open — it remains wide open. - Peter Singleton, Organize4Palin Technically, Palin can put off...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he backs immigration reform, announcing last month an initiative to ease deportation policies, but he has sent home more than 1 million illegal immigrants in 2 1/2 years — on pace to deport more in one term than George W. Bush did in two. The Obama administration had deported about 1.06 million as of Sept. 12, against 1.57 million in Bush's two full presidential terms. This seeming contradiction between rhetoric and reality is a key element of debate over U.S. immigration policy, and stakes are high for 2012's presidential election as Obama faces criticism...

After pumping $2 trillion into the system, pushing interest rates to the floor and making a bold promise to keep rates low for two years, the Federal Reserve is running out of options.<snip>“It's a pretty critical meeting for the Fed,” said Jeffries market strategist David Zervos, a former Fed adviser. “It's one of those meetings where we know there's going to be a change. It's not just the perfunctory ‘Let's meet and greet and let's make a statement that we're vigilant and we know what we're doing.”<snip>As the U.S. economy falters, Europe has presented Fed officials with an even greater...

Siemens withdrew more than half-a-billion euros in cash deposits from a large French bank two weeks ago and transferred it to the European Central Bank, in a sign of how companies are seeking havens amid Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.The German industrial group withdrew the money partly because of concerns about the future financial health of the bank and partly to benefit from higher interest rates paid by the ECB, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told the Financial Times.In total, Siemens has parked between €4bn ($5.4bn) and €6bn at the ECB’s facilities, mostly through one-week deposits, this person...

WASHINGTON — It's not just millionaires who'd pay more under President Barack Obama's latest plan to combat the deficit. Air travelers, federal workers, military retirees, wealthier Medicare beneficiaries and people taking out new mortgages are among those who would pay more than $130 billion in new government revenues raised through new or increased fees. These fees are advertised as "savings" in administration budget documents.

TO: House RepublicansFR: Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor, Whip McCarthy, and Chairman HensarlingDT: September 16, 2011RE: The President’s Jobs Proposal In August, we released our fall legislative agenda focused on implementing two key aspects of our jobs agenda, the GOP Plan for America's Job Creators: regulatory and tax relief for America’s small businesses, entrepreneurs and employers. This week, we completed action on the first of those items: blocking the federal government's National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from unilaterally telling businesses in what states they can and cannot open up for business. Also, this week the President sent Congress his proposed jobs...

On the surface, it’s been a relatively slow week in Washington legislatively. Don’t let that fool you though. There is a serious debate going on behind the scenes about what Congress can do to work with the President to support job growth.It goes without saying that there is a deep philosophical difference in how the parties view the government’s role and capability in “creating jobs”. At the center of it is the fundamental question of whether the government can, in fact, create sustainable jobs, or whether it merely creates the environment for businesses to create jobs.I think the difference is...

OK. I've answerd my share of Tech questions over the years. Now, I'm faced with a project and looking for words of experience from others. Any recommendations (either positive, or to avoid) for OCR software for Linux. I run Ubuntu 10.04LTS on my desktop and laptop. I have 100+ pages, some typewritten, some from wordprocessing where the electronic versions are no longer available, which I need to convert to something that can be published on the web (probably on a WordPress site). Other than typing from the source pages, what are good options for OCR software for Linux. Are there...

I was going to title this "CEO's Writing Blank Checks," until I clicked through some of my links and read the statements. I've been watching this "American Jobs Act" that the Presidential Teleprompter scrolled on about last Thursday in front of a joint session of Congress, and on national television. At the time of the speech, the words "American Jobs Act" did not appear anywhere on the whitehose.gov website. Indeed, when Obama got down to reading the last occurance of "Pass this bill!" there was still no mention of the phrase "American Jobs Act" on whitehouse.gov. It was around 8pm...

I watched the speech tonight. As speeches go, it was interesting. Mr. Obama repeatedly mentioned his proposed "American Jobs Act." He was telling about all these magical, wonderful things that were in the "American Jobs Act." He went on to basically demand, "Pass the bill." Congress can't pass a speech! I'd like to read the bill before I call my Congress Critter one way or the other. During the speech, a Google search for the phrase "American Jobs Act" on the whitehouse.gov website. Returned no results at all. By the end of the speech, it returned a single link to...

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin (who has yet to announce her candidacy) have both come out hard against incendiary comments Teamsters union boss James Hoffa made against the Tea Party and GOP during a raucous Labor Day Rally in Detroit. <snip> In response, Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman told her supporters in an email: "Hoffa and his well-funded liberal allies are scared of our momentum, and will do anything to try and silence our voices. But, we won't go quietly into the night. Will you follow this link and make a donation to help me defend myself against...

Live Poll ARE REPUBLICANS AT WAR WITH THE MIDDLE CLASS?