Free Republic

The Santa Fe Complex, a combination science/arts think tank and business incubator, will close on Friday, ending a four-year city-subsidized economic development experiment. After putting $340,000 into the project, the city in March sent the complex a letter expressing its concerns about the nonprofit’s own revenue production and denying payment on a $25,000 invoice, although the group’s contract with the city remains in place, said Kate Noble, special projects administrator with the city Economic Development Division. But Santa Fe Complex founding director Stephen Guerin said the city funding is gone for good. ~~snip~~ The idea of the Santa Fe Complex...

(CBS News) In his first interview since he lost his primary earlier this month, Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar said he had no plans to campaign for Richard Mourdock, who beat him. "For the time being, I don't plan an active campaign," Lugar said on "Face the Nation." The 80-year old lawmaker, known for reaching a landmark post-Cold War agreement on weapons reductions with Russia, has served in the Senate for 36 years. He lost to Tea Party-backed State Treasurer Richard Mourdock by 20 percent during the May 8 primary. Lugar told host Bob Schieffer that Republican voters in Indiana...

In August, Tampa, Fla., will become a Bermuda Triangle of conservatism. The city will host three events in the span of a week, all centered around the Republican National Convention, which will nominate Mitt Romney as the GOP’s presidential candidate. There’ll be a little something for every kind of Republican. For the establishment types, the GOP convention will be held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, Aug. 27-30. Conventions bring tens of thousands of visitors to a city, and the 2012 RNC will flood Tampa’s streets, hotels, and restaurants with politicians, party officials, consultants, strategists, reporters, and elected Republican delegates....

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ RAPTOR REFUELING A Hawaii Air National Guard F-22 Raptor moves into position to take on fuel from a Stratotanker during a recent mission over the Pacific near the Hawaiian Islands, March 27, 2012. Air Force Academy cadets on spring break were aboard the Stratotanker to observe the refueling procedure. DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Michael R. Holzworth Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. MARINE NAVIGATIONS U.S....

Young illegal immigrants, saying President Obama has done little to diminish the threat of deportations they face despite repeated promises, have started a campaign to press him to use executive powers to allow them to remain legally in the The campaign is led by the United We Dream Network, the largest organization of young immigrants here illegally who would be eligible for legal status under a proposal in Congress known as the Dream Act. The young people are among the most visible activists in a growing immigrant movement. Their push to focus pressure on the White House reflects deep frustration...

Amid the controversy over the spread of Stand Your Ground gun laws and their role in the death of Trayvon Martin, gun rights activists are pushing for even fewer restrictions on firearms through a status they call “Constitutional Carry.” •Constitutional Carry would sanction individuals to carry weapons concealed or openly with no permit •Push for federal law to force states to honor other states’ looser gun laws •Next step is “Diplomatic Carry” allowing gun owners to pack heat in schools, shops, etc On a RINO Hunt Activists in Michigan have taken to the streets, proclaiming that they are hunting politicians...

In his recent speeches on the campaign trail and at official functions, President Obama typically touts the fact that over the past two years, the economy has created more than 4 million new jobs, with more than 1 million in the past six months alone. At a fundraiser last month, he called this "extraordinary progress." But the economic recovery that Obama has presided over has been far from extraordinary. It hasn't even been ordinary. In fact, it's come in well below average on several key indicators compared with the previous 10 economic recoveries, dating back to 1949, according to an...

‘The information is going to be breathtaking when it’s released’ PHOENIX – After Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Cold Case Posse lead investigator Mike Zullo (r) announced there was probable cause to believe the long form Certificate of Live Birth for President Barack Obama posted on the White House website on April 27, 2011 was a forgery, constituents pressed Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett to request proof of legitimacy before placing Obama on the 2012 ballot. Bennett, who made it quite clear during myriad recent interviews that he’s not a “Birther” and does not subscribe to the...

THIS is the sickest show on earth — a North Korean circus where rollerskating animals in gaudy costumes are forced to perform up to three times a day. The Sun’s shocking pictures expose the despotic regime’s everyday cruelty that will outrage animal lovers. Glum muzzled bears are put through humiliating routines walking on two legs or on skates for an audience of mostly soldiers. Baboons wearing co-ordinating outfits perform faultless slam-dunks in strictly choreographed basketball games. Secretly filmed during our week-long stay in the Communist state, the show highlighted the brutal mindset of the ruling classes. The audience clapped in...

A 1 a.m. flight to assess the extent of the Whitewater-Baldy fire in the Gila National Forest concluded that 18,260 additional acres burned in the previous 24 hours. At 170,272 acres, it is now the largest fire in recorded New Mexico history, surpassing last year’s Las Conchas at 156,293 acres. It is also the largest fire currently burning in the country. At 266 square miles, the blaze is nearly 80 square miles bigger than the city of Albuquerque. The fire is still zero percent contained and burning in all directions, officials said in their morning news release on InciWeb. More...

JERUSALEM, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Geneticists at an Israeli hospital said they have found a unique Jewish genetic mutation among an American Indian tribe, indicating that they are descendants of Jews expelled from Spain 600 years ago, local Haaretz daily reported on Wednesday. The findings of the study, conducted at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, show that a group of Indians from the State of Colorado bear the so-called "Ashkenazi mutation," on the BRCA1 gene - a marker unique to European Jews. While such so-called "secret Jews," or "Anusim" in Hebrew, whose families assimilated into various north and...

@SethAMandelYesterday, Alana noted the latest fallout from Cory Booker's critique of the Obama administration on "Meet the Press" and the subsequent, utterly ridiculous "hostage" video he recorded after the Obama campaign reminded him that independent thinking is strongly discouraged in the Democratic Party. Booker's communications director, Anne Torres, resigned, citing “different views on how communications should be run.”It wasn't clear whether Torres objected more to Booker's defense of capitalism or the cringeworthy apology video–which would have been embarrassing for any communications shop to have on its record–or whether this was merely the last straw in a simmering dispute (possibly about...

Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Islamic organization that openly calls for restoration of the caliphate -- that is, the political union of Muslims worldwide in a single Sharia state ruled by the caliph. This means that the group is dedicated to subverting and destroying all governments not ruled by Islamic law, and as such it is banned in many countries. But not in the U.S., which has never shown any awareness on an official level of non-violent efforts to impose Sharia. They're once again coming to the Chicago area to hold their Caliphate Conference: it will be held on June...

Former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross said May 29 that Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has warned the U.S. that if Iran obtains nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia will also try to acquire them. “If they get nuclear weapons, we will get nuclear weapons,” Ross recalled King Abdullah telling him in 2009. According to Haaretz, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington, had warned senior NATO military officials that an Iranian nuclear bomb “would compel Saudi Arabia…to pursue policies which could lead to untold and possibly dramatic consequences.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A Virginia man who allegedly made comments suggesting President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder should be removed from office by violent means was arrested Wednesday and charged with illegally obtaining a fully automatic AK-47. Court documents describe Douglas Howard Story, 48, as a white supremacist who came under investigation by law enforcement after posting on an Aryan Nation Web forum that he was buying an AK-47 and wanted to modify it to be fully automatic. According to an affidavit, a confidential source working with the authorities reported in August 2011 that Story had written he was...

Republicans are scoffing at Democrats’ attempts to explain why President Barack Obama’s failed green-tech investments are unimportant but Mitt Romney’s few failures at Bain Capital, an otherwise wildly successful private equity firm, are a scandal. Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter tried out the new tactic during a May 30 appearance on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown,” when she was asked about the president’s support for Solyndra. “The president’s not picking winners and losers, he’s making strategic investment to promote clean energy,” she said. “Mitt Romney’s role at Bain Capital was to make profits for his investors and for himself. … There...

MAY 30, 2012 The Chicago Way Obama’s coterie of insiders is worth a closer look this time around. By John Fund Every president comes to Washington with a coterie of outside advisers, friends, and fixers they’ve picked up during the course of a career. Eventually one or more of them becomes controversial. Richard Nixon had Bebe Rebozo. Jimmy Carter had his brother Billy and Bert Lance. Ronald Reagan had Mike Deaver. Bill Clinton had many trailing after him — they became the menagerie implicated in Whitewater and Monicagate. But Barack Obama’s inner circle has almost completely escaped close scrutiny since...

At a time when breastfeeding in public is already controversial, pictures of two military moms doing so while wearing their uniforms is sparking outrage. The photo is part of a local breastfeeding awareness campaign by Mom2Mom of Fairchild Air Force Base, a support group launched in January by Crystal Scott, a military spouse and mother of three. Among the intimate close-ups of smiling young mothers cuddling their adorable babies, the images of the two airmen stand out. Related: Moms react to the "Time" magazine's "Are You Mom enough?" breastfeeding cover

OTTAWA — A man who once dated notorious sex-killer Karla Homolka now stands accused of murder himself after the grisly discovery of a torso in Montreal, whose severed foot and hand were mailed to the Conservative and Liberal party offices in Ottawa. Montreal police have confirmed that Luka Rocco Magnotta — also known by the aliases Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov — had dated Homolka. . . . An extensive online profile depicts Magnotta as an alleged former stripper and porn star, who gained notoriety for posting videos of killing kittens online. Various glamour shots show a young man, who is wanted...

Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski said Wednesday he had written a personal letter to President Barack Obama urging him to do more to correct the record after Obama referred to "a Polish death camp" in a White House ceremony on Tuesday. "I hope we will jointly act to make up for this unfortunate mistake. I believe that every error, every mistake can be corrected if it is given adequate consideration," Komorowski said in remarks posted on his official website. The phrase shocked Polish leaders and echoed across media in Poland, where the remark was seen as suggesting that Poles — not...

What Is Rhabdomyosarcoma?By Carol Bengle Gilbert | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 55 mins ago Journalist Dan Rather says he learned from a single source close to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that Chavez is suffering from end-stage rhabdomyosarcoma. The unnamed source told Rather Chavez is likely to live a couple of months at most, not long enough to see the results of Venezuela's Oct. 7 presidential election. Chavez is on the ballot along with Henrique Capriles Radonski. Chavez completed a round of radiation in Cuba two weeks ago. In February, the South American leader had a pelvic tumor surgically removed, the...

There's nothing like a backwoods blood feud to excite television viewers on Memorial Day. The first part of the History network's miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys" was seen by 13.9 million viewers on Monday night, more than 17 million when the immediate repeat was added in, the Nielsen company said. The numbers held up for part two on Tuesday, which was watched by 13.1 million, Nielsen said. Those are huge numbers in the cable television world. No scripted series on the broadcast networks last week came close. By contrast, Fox's series finale of "House" last week reached 8.7 million people. "Hatfields...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bennett-l-gershman/trayvon-martin-witnesses_b_1549128.html

"Ken is the most inspiring public figure in Virginia's recent history... Ken Cuccinelli never sidestepped an issue because it was too hard... I am proud to announce my endorsement of Ken Cuccinelli to be the next Governor of Virginia." ~Senator Black I strongly endorse Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in the race for Governor. Ken is the most inspiring public figure in Virginia’s recent history. I endorsed Cuccinelli when he first ran for office because he is a passionate man of principle. That was one of the best decisions I ever made. From State Senator to Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli never...

(Reuters) - A convicted killer who hanged himself on California's death row did so using an extension cord for an appliance in his cell and had not previously been considered a suicide risk, a prison spokesman said on Wednesday. James Lee Crummel, 68, was found hanging in his one-man cell at San Quentin State Prison near San Francisco on Sunday, five months before Californians are due to vote in November on a ballot measure aimed at repealing the state's death penalty. Crummel had been sentenced to die for the 1979 murder of a teenage boy. San Diego County Deputy District...

The latest Times Sunday Magazine featured a 5,000-word story keyed to the Wisconsin recall election pitting Republican Gov. Scott Walker against Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, who Walker beat in the actual election in 2010. Contributor Dan Kaufman proposed to explain how Wisconsin politics got so rancorous: "Land of Cheese and Rancor – How did Wisconsin get to be the most politically divisive place in America?" Yet he left out a lot, including the nasty tactics against Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who was compared to Hitler by the left-wing union protesters who took to the state capitol, after Walker moved to...

Virgil H. Goode Jr., a Republican from Rocky Mount who represented the 5th District in Congress for six terms, has joined the conservative Constitution Party - but he says that doesn’t mean he’s quitting the GOP. “I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive,” Goode said. Goode was the keynote speaker the Constitution Party’s spring National Committee banquet Friday in Minneapolis. At the event, Goode paid the party’s $35 membership fee. Goode said that he has not quit the Republican Party and is current on his membership dues with the Franklin County GOP. The Constitution Party, Goode said, has staked out several...

Marquita Burch, 26, is charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence after police found the body of the child she was babysitting her nephew, one-year-old William Cunningham. Burch originally told Covington police Friday night that the child was missing from a park, but later changed her story and directed officials to a Cincinnati apartment on Winton Road where Cunningham's body was discovered in a hallway closet. According to Derek Gustafson, Burch's attorney, the boy suffered and accidental injury after falling down a set of stairs. Burch gave the boy ibuprofen before putting him to bed, only to find him dead...

A crude oil pipeline that will run 485 miles from Cushing, Okla., to Southeast Texas should be under construction by late summer and operational in late 2013. TransCanada, the builder of the Keystone Pipeline, is looking for workers, vendors and suppliers to help support the $2.3 billion project. On Tuesday, TransCanada conducted a registration workshop in Beaumont, similar to others it has sponsored in other areas along the route. "We'll need supplies, goods and services," TransCanada spokesman Jim Prescott said, listing fuel, tires, oil and welding sticks. And, he said, "We anticipate it will create about 4,000 direct construction jobs...

"It's all change at Bilderberg this year, with a new chairman, new media and Occupy Bilderberg knocking at the gates."... "Aside from the US presidency, the big debate of Bilderberg 2012 is likely to be: what in Hades do we do about Greece? The Eurozone is Bilderberg's biggest project, but it's been looking distinctly shaky of late. What's to be done? You can feel the unwillingness of Bilderberg to countenance a 'Grexit' ..." 'A consensus is slowly emerging that, whether a Greek exit is to be averted or weathered, there will have to be a greater level of integration in...

An Upstate man is in custody, accused by the FBI and local law enforcement as being part of a “domestic terrorist group” that broke into and took over a foreclosed home, according to a release by the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office. The home is listed as being valued at $2,599,000. A realtor checking on the home found a notice, apparently posted by the extremists, saying that they were taking possession of the home. The Sheriff's Office release said, “On April 24, a deputy responded to a report of a burglary at 112 White Violet Way in Sunset. A lock on...

After the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001, the Californian government created a program through which residents could purchase "We Will Never Forget" memorial license plates in the understanding that they would be making a contribution toward helping 9/11 victims' families and law enforcement. 15 percent of the proceeds were to be alloted to scholarship funds for Californian victims' children, while the other 85 percent was to go to anti-terrorism efforts.Unfortunately, bureaucracies have an uncanny knack for messing up even the most well-meaning of ideas. I'm pretty sure that, in private-sector circumstances, this would fall solidly under the category of...

Poland had earlier insisted that Washington must do more than simply express the "regret" offered by another White House spokesman late on Tuesday, hours after Obama's use of words deemed offensive by Warsaw.... Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Obama's words had hurt all Poles and he expected more from Washington than just regret. "I am convinced that our American friends can today allow themselves a stronger reaction than a simple expression of regret from the White House spokesman -- a reaction more inclined to eliminate once and for all these kinds of errors," Tusk told reporters in Warsaw. "Today,...

Motorists face having to pay increased road tax as the Treasury considers plans to claw back hundreds of millions of pounds in revenue that will be lost as drivers opt for greener cars. The Daily Telegraph has learned that government officials have begun private discussions with the motoring industry and drivers’ groups about an overhaul of the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) rules. The talks come as ministers try to prevent a fall in tax revenues as more motorists choose smaller, cleaner cars that incur a lower rate of duty. Labour has accused the Coalition of planning a “stealth tax” on...

Currently Facebook's forward P/E is around 53, but as shares of Facebook [FB 28.19 -0.65 (-2.25%) ] sink to new lows on almost a daily basis, the market is starting to question that valuation. And that led us to wonder, where would Facebook trade if it had the same valuation as say Apple -- or as Google? Fast breaks it down by the numbers.

"...the road to peace leads through Damascus..."

Yes, it's the WaPo/ABC poll, and no, they don't have the internals published on line, at least not yet. Their advance data shows Mitt Romney narrowing the gap on Barack Obama overall, and especially among women, where Romney made some dramatic gains: Republican women are rallying to Mitt Romney — their party’s now-certain presidential nominee — boosting him to his best-ever showing on a fundamental measure of personal popularity, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.Overall, Romney’s favorability rating still trails President Obama’s, but the gap is far narrower than it’s been. In the new poll, 41 percent of...

Senator Hatch promised the crowd of business leaders that if he were re-elected and became Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, he would be well-positioned to help take down the Affordable Care Act. "If we take over in the majority, we're going to try and repeal Obamacare, and see if we can get it right," he said. Hatch and Wyoming Senator John Barrasso said they were currently focused on repealing provisions of the law including a tax on the medical device industry and on health insurance providers. Democratic Utah state Senator Pat Jones is on the Salt Lake Chamber's Health...

By the way, speaking of Texas, a major Democrat has bitten the dust. Here it is. A major upset. "In a major upset, longtime US Rep. Silvestre Reyes has lost the race for the Democratic nomination to retain his congressional seat in far West Texas. "Reyes lost narrowly to former El Paso city councilman Beto O'Rourke. Reyes appeared to be closing the gap," but he came up short at the end. He's 67 years old, first elected to Congress 1966, and he received a rare primary endorsement last month from none other than The One, Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm,...

So argues John Merline at Investors Business Daily, who analyzed the trajectories of post-WWII recoveries to gauge where job growth should have taken the American economy. Merline prepared this argument in response to claims made by Barack Obama on the campaign trail about creating more than 4 million jobs in the past two years, a convenient starting point for Obama that we’ve noted in the past. It's actually just under 4 million in the private sector since May 2010 (3.829 million), which averages out to about 160,000 a month. That would barely be enough to keep up with contemporaneous population...

Every journalist not in the re-election tank has been shredding President Obama's recent claim that spending growth has been modest on his watch. But kudos in particular to the Associated Press for hitting several White House accounting gimmicks in a dispatch last week. Team Obama has lately been arguing that the astronomical spending blowout of fiscal 2009 was President Bush's fault and that outlays have since climbed only moderately. This means ignoring that Mr. Obama's $831 billion stimulus was enacted during that notorious fiscal year that straddles both presidencies. And AP cataloged various other distortions embedded in the Obama claim....

Steven Cooksey says all he wanted to do was help other diabetics get healthy, but a North Carolina agency tried to censor his online healthy food advice column, saying he was not a licensed dietitian. Cooksey filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court, saying the state violated his free speech rights. “When did it become illegal to tell people to eat meats and vegetables?” Cooksey said in an interview with The Associated Press. “How is it illegal to tell people not to eat grains? We’re talking about healthy eating. This is wrong.” The North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition and several...

He's not just any Democrat. This is a guy who gave a seconding speech for O's nomination four years ago at the convention and was the southern regional co-chair for the DCCC. With those credentials, the PR value to the GOP of having him dump his old party to become a Republican would be huge under any circumstances. Factor in the symbolism of a young black Harvard-trained pol abandoning the Dems in the middle of Obama's reelection campaign and you've got a GOP folk hero in the making. From his blog post announcing his party switch: But parties change. As...

Mayor Rick Murphrey’s views on tax policy, the national debt and social issues like same-sex marriage have led the lifelong Democrat to switch his party affiliation to Republican. Murphrey and his wife, Sandra, filed new voter registration forms on Wednesday, Cleveland County Deputy Elections Director Meloni Wray confirmed. The seven-term mayor said his conservative political views more closely match those of the Republican Party. “As we look at both parties and focus on the upcoming election, we want to be in a party that is focused on reducing the national debt and that is lowering corporate taxes so industries can...

ANNAPOLIS — The group leading a petition effort against Maryland’s same-sex marriage law says it has more than twice the number of signatures needed to send the law to referendum one month before the state-mandated deadline. The Maryland Marriage Alliance said Tuesday it has collected more than 113,000 voter signatures seeking a statewide vote on the law, which was passed in February by the General Assembly and is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1. Petitioners have until June 30 to collect 55,736 valid voter signatures to force a statewide vote in November. One-third of those signatures — 18,579 —...

Andre Rieu (Holland) his orchestra choir did a tribute to Frank Sinatra with My Way on his (Stradivarius) violin. Radio City Music Hall New York A most beautiful rendition I have ever heard of "My Way!" Wonderful tribute.

Member of Parliament Canada NDP Yvon Godin as to possibly why Canadians are murdering other Canadians and mailing the body parts to the Conservative Party of Canada Headquarters : But it could also be a reflection on the times, said New Democrat MP Yvon Godin. "It's very upsetting," he said. "It could be just one crazy person that did it but at the same time we have lots of people unhappy in our country, the way the country is going," he said. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/ottawa-cops-investigate-after-foot-sent-to-tory-hq-2nd-body-part-found-in-mail-155625225.html VIDEO OF MP YVON GODIN "SHOCKING" STATEMENT , " We have lots of people unhappy in our...

....if you don't re-elect President Obama in 2012. Cue the violins (actually, it's maudlin piano music in the video) and prepare your heartstrings to be painfully strummed: [VIDEO AT SITE] or HEREVideo content (as opposed to "substance"): Dear President Obama, I'm a mother of two young daughters: Daisy is six and Caroline is almost ten. My six-year-old would like to be a doctor for dolphins and my ten-year-old dreams of becoming a jet fighter pilot. Caroline is so committed to her dream that she sets her alarm at 5:00 every morning so she'll be prepared for her military service. I...

All of Europe is looking to Ireland as the country prepares to vote on Thursday in a referendum on the unpopular fiscal compact for greater budgetary discipline. If the Irish reject the new treaty, it won't just be a major blow to its main advocate Angela Merkel. It could also spark panic on the financial markets. Scaremongering with Merkel: People pass an anti-fiscal pact placard in Dublin Though past referendums on European Union issues in Ireland have proven to be problematic, this time things are expected to go off without a hitch. When the Irish vote on the EU "fiscal...

Anti-abortion groups turn 'war on women' charge against DemocratsBy Elise Viebeck - 05/30/12 04:50 PM ET Groups opposed to abortion rights are turning charges of a GOP "war on women" against Democrats who are opposed to legislation meant to ban sex-selective abortions. Democrats hoping to grow a gender gap among female voters tilted toward their party have repeatedly hammered Republicans for engaging in a war on women over issues such as contraception rights. Now opponents of abortion rights are using the phrase ahead of a House vote Thursday imposing fines or imprisonment on doctors who perform abortions they know are...