Free Republic

Yet another Obamaoid has joined the Ann Romney-bashing brigade. Hilary Rosen, with her "never worked a day in her life" line, was infamously first. As documented at NewsBusters, the president of NOW subsequently derided Ann Romney as lacking in "life experience" and "imagination". Then, feminist author Michelle Goldberg attacked Ann as "insufferable," her writing as "creepy," and even compared her to Hitler and Stalin. Latest to join the all-women lineup of Ann bashers: Betsey Stevenson. A former top economist in the Obama administration, appearing on Chris Hayes's MSNBC this morning, Stevenson accused Ann, along with Mitt, of "really having no...

Systemic risk. I guarantee that most ordinary folks have no idea that if trucks stopped rolling all across America, within a short period of time nearly all Americans would all be in a life-threatening situation from major delivery shortages. 70% of all freight that is moved in the U.S. is done so by truck. You (we) depend on that ‘stuff’ for our survival. A major disruption in truck travel would immediately impact seven major industries, and would bring America to its knees within days due in part to “just in time manufacturing”, zero-inventory, and the fact that our modern way...

Systemic risk. I guarantee that most ordinary folks have no idea that if trucks stopped rolling all across America, within a short period of time nearly all Americans would all be in a life-threatening situation from major delivery shortages. 70% of all freight that is moved in the U.S. is done so by truck. You (we) depend on that ‘stuff’ for our survival. A major disruption in truck travel would immediately impact seven major industries, and would bring America to its knees within days due in part to “just in time manufacturing”, zero-inventory, and the fact that our modern way...

This activist thinks women have the right to “bare” more than just arms. “I want people to know . . . it’s legal for a woman to be topless,” Johnston said. Moira Johnston, 29, drew a lot of attention during a topless protest yesterday in Union Square Park — and that’s exactly what the dancer wants.

LARGO — Last summer, Mike Zwalley put a $65,000 solar energy system on his roof. The system — a 30-gallon solar water heater and 44 black panels that convert sunlight into electricity — cut Zwalley's electric bill from $300 to $400 per month to $10 to $20. About two months after Zwalley installed the system at his waterfront home off Indian Rocks Road, his next-door neighbor planted three cypress trees, each about 10 feet tall, along his property line. Zwalley, a 58-year-old car salesman, was not happy. He had asked the neighbor, Wade Gibson, not to plant the trees there....

Proposed US Military buildup under a conservative U.S. Administration circa 2012-2024 CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE The following plan is based on a major US economic turnaround based on sound Free Market principles geared to US interests, energy independendece, a balanced budget, stabilization of Social Security & Medicare & eliminating unessary and wasteful entitlements & entire federal agencies. It is also based,under a conservative leadership in Washington, on adopting lower corporate and individual income taxes so the revenue to the treasury expands and increases significantly which will fuel the buildup necessary to remain technologically superior by two generations...

The Ministry of health and social development has submitted to the Government Bill, radically restricting smoking in public places, said on Sunday the site of the Ministry. The main restrictions-prohibition of smoking in public places, including workplaces, as well as to European prices. The document provides for the ban on smoking in all catering establishments, government buildings, workplaces (indoor), elevators, educational, medical, cultural and sports institutions, all means of public transport, train stations and ports. Therefore, smokers will leave only their own House and the street. The tobacco control activists stress that even the most modern ventilation and specially designated...

Why does the state of California seem to be so incredibly hopeless? These days California can't seem to do anything right, and if you live in California things just got a whole lot worse. Governor Brown has announced that the state budget deficit for this year is going to be much larger than projected, that more government services are going to be cut and that voters are going to vote on another round of tax increases in November. Meanwhile, unemployment is sitting at 11 percent and extended federal unemployment benefits for workers in the state are ending. Because California...

Nancy Pelosi Defends Dems Rev. Wright Fundraising Appeal ABC House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi defended the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on “This Week” for sending a fundraising email that attempted to capitalize on the apparently dead advertising plan to link President Obama to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The plan has been repudiated by Mitt Romney as well as the head of the super PAC reported to have been considering backing the plan. “Why would we have any regrets?” asked Pelosi, dismissing Romney’s rejection of the proposed advertising campaign. During our interview, Pelosi cited a previous attack by Romney on President Obama...

Italy Deploys 20,000 Law Enforcement Officers to Protect Individuals and Sensitive Sites The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports Italy deploys 20,000 to protect sensitive targetsItaly increased security Thursday at 14,000 sites, and assigned bodyguards to protect 550 individuals after a nuclear energy company official was shot and letter bombs directed to the tax collection agency. Under the enhanced measures, Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri deployed 20,000 law enforcement officers to protect individuals and sensitive sites. In addition, 4,200 military personnel already assigned throughout Italy will be redeployed according to new priorities. Authorities will also increase intelligence to "neutralize" the risk of...

You get to be the sex you think you are (and everybody else has to acknowledge it). I am used to surprises from the New York Times—a newspaper so far from me culturally and politically it might as well be a daily bulletin about life in a parallel universe—but last August I read a personal essay in the “Modern Love” space of the “Styles” section that really brought me up short. “My Husband is Now My Wife” (quite a tabloidy title for this genteel newspaper) was about the deeply ambivalent day the author escorted her husband to a hospital for...

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In Athens, the homeless are on the streets in growing numbers, soup kitchens feed twice as many people as a year ago, and the poor are diving into garbage bins in search of scrap they can sell. Greece is close to breaking point as it struggles with austerity targets set by creditors, but this is just a foretaste of the nightmare of unrest, hunger and even anarchy that could engulf the debt-crippled nation if it is forced out of the euro. If the exact economic impact of such a move is hard to nail down - newly issued drachmas devalued...

Where the weather cooperates, the United States--with the East Coast being the exception--will be treated to a spectacular solar eclipse late Sunday. For the best views of Sunday's "Ring of Fire" eclipse, head to places from northern California and neighboring southwestern Oregon to the Texas Panhandle.

Al Gore's New GirlfriendBy Erin McLaughlin | ABC OTUS News – Fri, May 18, 2012 It's been nearly two years since Al and Tipper Gore announced their separation after 40 years of marriage, and now Mr. Gore has a girlfriend. The Nobel Laureate and former vice president is seriously dating Elizabeth Keadle, a friend close to Liz confirms to ABC News. She's described by The Washington Post as a "well-heeled Democratic donor from Southern California in her 50s with a background in science and a devotion to environmental causes." **SNIP** For her part, Tipper Gore has been largely out of...

On May 17, Otis McDonald spoke at an Illinois NAACP office about the issues of gun rights. The chapter president invited Otis to speak because he felt it was important to let his fellow members hear both sides of the argument, especially considering that African Americans traditionally support guns less than whites do. A lot of you probably won't recognize Otis' name, but he was the lead plaintiff in the McDonald vs Chicago US Supreme Court case. The Court ruled that the Second Amendment also applied to the states, because as Justice Samuel A. Alito put it, rights that are...

A newly republished 1995 commentary of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger linked the breakdown of marriage to the rise of the acceptance of homosexuality, warning of the rise of “pressure groups” that could manipulate public opinion on such issues. The future Pope Benedict XVI said it is not a coincidence that the growing social acceptance of homosexuality should be “accompanied by a serious crisis in the area of marriage and the family.” Societal changes in the wake of the 1960s “sexual revolution” resulted in sexuality being more detached from marriage, and rejection of Catholic teaching on homosexuality made the pastoral care for...

--a tree-hugger gets caught--- Brian Brademeyer is charged with painting over markings to trick Forest Service crews into cutting down trees. Black Hills environmentalist Brian Brademeyer has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of illegally marking trees to be cut in a U.S. Forest Service timber sale. Brademeyer agreed prior to a proceeding scheduled for Thursday in federal court to pay a $475 fine, plus a $25 processing fee. The maximum penalty for the charge, a federal petty offense, was $5,000 and six months in jail. Contacted by email Friday, Brademeyer confirmed that he was paying the $500 but did...

UFT President Mike Mulgrew was caught “in flagrante delicto” with a guidance counselor at William Grady HS, where he taught before becoming the union’s boss, a bombshell lawsuit charges. The accusation that Mulgrew was seen having sex with a co-worker in a woodshop at the vocational school, and that it was hushed up, comes in a rambling 73-page suit filed in Brooklyn federal court last week by Andrew Ostrowsky, a math teacher at Frank Sinatra HS of the Arts in Manhattan. Ostrowsky, 35, names Mayor Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, Mulgrew and the UFT, claiming the teachers union conspired with...

TRIPOLI, Libya – The former Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, has died in Libya, his brother told AFP on Sunday. "He died an hour ago," Abdelhakim al-Megrahi said, putting the time of death at shortly after 1:00pm local time. The UK Foreign Office could not confirm the report Sunday, however it said it was "seeking further information." Megrahi, 60, was convicted in a Scottish court in 2001 for his role in the December 1998 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Most of those killed in the bombing of the Boeing 747...

Son: Libyan convicted in Lockerbie bombing is deadBy LEE KEATH and RAMI AL-SHAHEIBI | Associated Press – 5 mins ago BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer who was the only person ever convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, died Sunday nearly three years after he was released from a Scottish prison to the outrage of the relatives of the attack's 270 victims. He was 60. Scotland released al-Megrahi on Aug. 20, 2009, on compassionate grounds to let him return home to die after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. At the time, doctors predicted he...

Did you know the government publishes a quarterly list of every individual who renounces his or her citizenship? The Wall Street Journal's infographics team decided to crunch the data and came up with a chart tracking the growth of how many Americans no longer wish to be so. The results are fairly striking:  WSJ.com The accompanying article by Laura Sanders notes that in 2010, Congress passed a law requiring foreign financial institutions to certify that U.S. taxpayers aren't hiding money in them as a condition for being allowed to do business here.

Explanation: What's happened to the setting Sun? An eclipse! In early 2009, the Moon eclipsed part of the Sun as visible from parts of Africa, Australia, and Asia. In particular the above image, taken from the Mall of Asia seawall, caught a partially eclipsed Sun setting over Manila Bay in the Philippines. Piers are visible in silhouette in the foreground. Eclipse chasers and well placed sky enthusiasts captured many other interesting and artistic images of the year's only annular solar eclipse, including movies, eclipse shadow arrays, and rings of fire. Today parts of the Sun again will become briefly blocked...

"But, in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes."Ben Franklin If Ben Franklin were around today, he would likely amend the above statement to include the certainty of government regulation.  A new report by the Heritage Foundation says that in today's America, regulation costs are a far greater burden than taxes.  If the current trend of rapidly increasing regulatory burden by the Obama Administration continues, it will hasten the death of the once great American free-market economy. According to a newly released Heritage Foundation analysis, the annual cost of federal regulations ($1.752 trillion) is...

Van Jones represented the extreme left-wing in the Obama Administration as the Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation aka Green Jobs Czar. I might go so far as to say he represented the Trotskyite wing of the administration before he resigned. Thus when someone that far to the left rips Attorney General Eric Holder over Operation Fast and Furious it is news. The lead story at The Daily Caller today is about a radio interview that Jones had with a conservative radio program. In that interview, Jones made the comment: “I believe that if this was happening across...

White House photographer David Souza has done it again. From The White House flickr: Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom, President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, and others watch the overtime shootout of the Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich Champions League final, in the Laurel Cabin conference room during the G8 Summit at Camp David, Md., May 19, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) Seeing as Bayern Munich lost the shootout, we hope Angela Merkel isn't gong to push for double austerity out of some sense of...

A new exhibit is coming to the National Firearms Museum this June, the Theodore Roosevelt Collection. Teddy Roosevelt is famous for his love of shooting, hunting, and battle. He was an avid gun user and collector, and a great fan of Winchester lever-action rifles, and one of his most-used and prized Winchesters will be a part of it. That Rifle is a Model 1894 likely chambered in .30-30, which he often called his "Little .30." Roosevelt instantly became a fan of the cartridge when it was first introduced. He was such a fan of their rifles that he tried every...

I think when we express a desire to be in, or go back to, simpler days, we're really wanting less thought.

Despite the government losing records for a full day of testimony in a gun conviction case involving a former FBI agent, the United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit has denied a 30-day extension for his attorney “as moot.” A late-April order in the case of USA v John Shipley, sent to Gun Rights Examiner recently by a confidential source, was reviewed this morning by this correspondent. It raises serious questions about the fairness of the proceedings and both the actions and motives of those behind the prosecution. Longtime readers will recall Shipley’s name surfaced in this column in July,...

Household electricity bills will rise by as much as a quarter to pay for wind farms and other forms of renewable energy, according to a new report. The study challenges the Government’s claims that energy bills will actually fall in the next eight years because of energy efficiency savings. This week the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will publish its draft energy bill, setting out how it plans to reform the electricity market and reduce the cost to households. DECC has insisted that energy bills will begin to fall from next year and will be reduced by seven...

Democrats lost the veterans vote by big margins in the last two presidential elections, but Obama campaign officials said Thursday they intend to reverse that trend by arguing that Mitt Romney would cut veterans’ benefits. “It really seems like Romney just doesn’t care about our veterans community,” said Rob Diamond, the Obama campaign’s outreach director for veterans and military families, in a conference call with reporters. He said the presumptive Republican nominee cut veterans services as governor of Massachusetts and supports a House GOP budget that would “slash” veterans funding by $11 billion. “If Mitt Romney wins this election, those...

I'm looking for a summer job as a Pile Driving Analyst (PDA) operator. I know this is a political website, but I know there's a bunch of successful businessmen and engineers who visit this site.

The biography provided by Barack Obama to his literary agent specified his birthplace as "Kenya". And, over the course of 17 years, despite multiple revisions by Obama, the Kenyan birthplace remained a fundamental part of the bio on the agent's website. Was Barack actually born in Kenya? I seriously doubt it, even though Michelle Obama has publicly stated that Kenya is her husband's "home country". Contemporary newspaper listings in Honolulu, for example, list the time and place of his birth. While this isn't ironclad proof, to be sure, it's good enough for me. No, my suspicion is that Mr. Obama...

I’ve explained before that “high-speed rail” is a boondoggle, and I’ve also posted a thorough presentation on the topic from the folks at Reason about this issue. But some politicians can’t resist throwing good money after bad on these money-losing schemes. The latest example is from the People’s Republic of California, where Governor Jerry Brown is acting as if he wants the state to become a basket case.Here are some passages from the Wall Street Journal’s editorial on the topic.The good news in this debacle is that the state’s fiscal woes will make it nearly impossible to complete Governor Jerry...

Commentators and officials said Wednesday that the United Nations had cemented its position as a discredited global laughing stock after the UN “Food Envoy” criticized Canada — one of the wealthiest and healthiest nations in the world — for alleged inequality, poverty, and obesity. Critics of the global body and top Canadian policy makers promptly lambasted the organization for wasting scarce taxpayer resources “investigating” the nation and demanding reforms even as millions of people around the world starve. UN “Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food” Olivier De Schutter presented his demands for Canada in a dubious report released Wednesday...

p>The Talk Shows May 20th, 2012 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; former White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.THIS WEEK (ABC): Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; David Axelrod, adviser to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign; Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee...

When times get tough, the tough . . . switch currencies. A fascinating report by Eric Garland in The Atlantic tells of the upswing in “local currencies.” In the United Kingdom, the Brixton Pound is being floated, engraved on its paper notes the likes of “David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust era.” Pegged to the British pound, it serves mainly as a scheme to promote local business and trade, though maybe it’s a tad more than mere boosterism. Bavarians are also “enthusiastically using the local currency as a protest” — the local currency being the “Chiemgauer.” And “similar currencies have...

President Barack Obama’s embrace of same-sex marriage was a major moment for gay-rights advocates — historic, emotional, a cause for celebration and more praise for an administration with a strong record on these issues. But they’re already starting to ask what’s next. There’s no shortage of items on the wish list: Repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. Extending Social Security benefits for gay partners. Changing regulations on deporting immigrants in same-sex marriages. There’s the one that’s sparked the most anger and confusion because it’s seen as an easy fix — an executive order banning LGBT workplace discrimination. There’s a new...

A top apparatchik of the only regime in the Western Hemisphere to herd thousands of men and boys into forced labor camps at Soviet-bayonet point for the crime of fluttering their eyelashes, flapping their hands and talking with a lisp was just granted a U.S. visa to lecture Americans on “Gay Rights.” "Work Will Make Men Out of You" read the sign at the Cuban prison-camp’s gate, right over the barbed wire and next to the machine gunners posted on the watchtowers. The initials for these camps were UMAP, not GULAG, but the conditions were quite similar. The venue for...

Members of the Afghan army are forging secret alliances with the Taliban, threatening to undermine the ability of Afghan authorities to maintain control just as NATO troops prepare to hand over power to the country's security forces, Britain's Sunday Times reported. In Ghazni province an hour from capital Kabul, Afghan army lieutenant Mohammad Wali admitted to the newspaper that he and a local Taliban commander were working together. (The Sunday Times operates behind a paywall) "We lost seven men in an ambush when I first arrived at the base," Wali, who commands 18 men, told The Times. "So I thought,...

If you want to know how out of control the “disability” problem is, turn to Page 18 of the U.S. District Court detention order for Anthony DiNunzio, brother of the Cheeseman and alleged acting boss of the New England Mafia. “DiNunzio has been collecting disability income for the last 15 years.” He’s 53, so he’s been on the dole since he was 38. And he’s the No. 1 guy in what was formerly known as the Patriarca Crime Family.

More than a decade after Zimbabwe’s government began seizing sprawling white-owned commercial farms, a new fight is brewing here over who will profit from the nation’s vast bounty of platinum, chromium, nickel and diamonds. In a move rooted in politics, the party of the aging president, Robert G. Mugabe, has begun pressuring companies operating in the country to comply with a law requiring that black Zimbabweans own more than half their shares. Mr. Mugabe has ruled the country since its independence in 1980 but has seen his popularity recede considerably in recent years. He won fewer votes than the opposition...

In the weekly GOP address, Wisconsin's U.S. Ron Johnson takes the president to task for the failed Obama economic policies: "We are all disappointed by the failure of President Obama’s economic policies… His budget busting stimulus plan grew government, grew our debt, but failed to grow our economy." Senator Johnson starts by noting that it has now been more than three years since Harry Reid’s Democrat-controlled do-nothing Senate passed a budget and points out that Obama has done nothing to encourage the Senate to pass a budget. This week in the Senate, the President's budget lost by a vote of...

Syrian National Council head Burhan Ghalioun announced he would step down amid allegations the Muslim Brotherhood secured his re-election Syrian opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun announced Thursday that he is resigning from his post just two days after being re-elected by a vote of 21-19. “I will not allow myself to be the candidate of division, I am not attached to a position, so I announce that I will step down after a new candidate has been chosen, either by consensus or through new elections," he said in a statement. Ghalioun, who has led the dissident Syrian National Council by consensus...

Two weeks ago, US Congressman Joe Walsh published an op-ed in the The Washington Times in which he called for the US and Israel to abandon the two-state solution. After running through the record of Palestinian duplicity, failed governance, terrorism and bad faith, he called for Israel to apply its sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. In his words, Israel should "adopt the only solution that will bring true peace to the Middle East: a single Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is the only country in the region dedicated to peace and the only power...

Best political humor from around the USA this week... More at Reaganite Republican...

This week the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Maureen Dowd, meanwhile, is castigating the Church via her own little Feast of Condescension, filled with her usual sour soundbites and tasteless morsels.As usual, she opens with a dubious assertion, upon which she then clumsily builds her house of snark and sand: I ALWAYS liked that the name of my religion was also an adjective meaning all-embracing. By "my religion" she must mean faux Catholicism or catty secularism as the name "Catholicism" does not mean "all-embracing". The Greek word katholikos means "throughout the whole", or universal, as the...

The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that Skechers USA Inc. will pay $40 million to settle charges that the shoe company made "unfounded claims" about its Shape-ups. "Shape up while you walk," one ad proclaimed. And: "Get in Shape Without Setting Foot in a Gym." Kim Kardashian endorsed the rocker-bottom sneaks. She said they worked so well she got rid of her personal trainer. The FTC found Skechers' weight-loss and tone-up claims to be overhyped. Overhyped? It's a good thing Washington politicians never overpromise; otherwise, one might think the FTC should go after politicians who mislead voters before it targets...

In the last three weeks, she has sparred on national television with Democrats over Republican policies toward women, been called a "lying mouthpiece" by a liberal blog, and chided former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the world of conservative politics, Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers has arrived. McMorris Rodgers has represented Washington state in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2005 but spent much of that time in relative obscurity, even while rising in 2009 to become the only woman among the senior Republican leadership in Congress. That low-profile was raised in March, with three words that still make McMorris...

Some courageous American leaders are trying to prevent another California budget disaster. But if Big Labor gets its way, the preventative measures will be abandoned. So numerous are the examples of true statesmanship outside of Washington, that I can’t name all the individuals involved. But here are three state-wide elected leaders you should know about, whose efforts to save their states – and our nation – are absolutely not going unpunished. The most high-profile among them is Scott Walker, the Republican Governor of Wisconsin. After taking office in January of 2011, Governor Walker proposed the “Wisconsin Budget Repair bill”...