Free Republic

If the GOPe Were Smart They Would Let Gov. Palin Back Into the Room But this is the “party of stupid” we’re talking about, so I won’t hold my breath.In the wake of the disastrous 2012 election results, there has been a lot of discussion on the right regarding the GOP’s apparent “message” problem. Much of the conversations has focused on immigration issues as a way to bring in new voters. Recently, Charles Krauthammer wrote: I’ve always been of the “enforcement first” school, with the subsequent promise of legalization. I still think it’s the better policy. But many Hispanics fear...

Didn't take long for the defenders of the freebie culture to race in defense of one Susan Rice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dJlCoHDJKUYou see how this works? If they are black you must not offend lest you be deemed a racist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAxlI2Rg2E8Uh oh Senator McCain...you are a RACIST! I mean you dare to allege that this "young african-american woman" isn't very bright? How dare you. Doesn't matter that she went on show after show the day after the attack and mislead the American people. They knew this wasn't some mob protesting a video, hell...I knew it the day after and I'm not very bright...

The resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus over an extramarital affair has raised and will continue to raise a number of questions. First among them (OK, maybe not first, national security being more important, but stay with me) is why should he have resigned? I am always amused when journalists use the words "sex scandal" when writing about such things. Having abandoned most standards for what used to be called "upright behavior," culture now "tsk-tsks" when someone is caught in a compromising position. Bill Clinton didn't have to resign after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He lied about their assignations under...

(Reuters) - In his first public remarks since resigning as CIA director last Friday over an extramarital affair, retired General David Petraeus said he did not share any classified documents with his mistress and biographer, Paula Broadwell. Petraeus also told a reporter for the HLN television network that it was the affair, not any questions over the CIA's role during the September 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that prompted him to step down.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) confirmed Thursday that she will seek the chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee next year but told The Hill that she cannot commit to doing a budget. This opens up the possibility that Senate Democrats will avoiding passing a budget resolution for the fourth year in a row. The last time the Senate passed a standalone budget resolution was in 2009. This past year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said a budget was not necessary because the top-line spending number for appropriations was set in the August 2011 debt-ceiling deal. Murray said that an agreement...

<p>Sources tell FOX 32 News that Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is willing to give up his 2nd Congressional District seat if he's given disability when he steps down.</p> <p>Jackson Jr. was re-elected to his tenth term but last month, sources say, he applied for a disability package--what could be his only income if he resigns. It is expected to take a couple of weeks for Congress to approve or deny the request.</p>

The first three Palestinian missiles reached the Tel Aviv conurbation, Gush Dan, Thursday night, Nov. 15. shortly after a long-range missile was confirmed to have exploded in Rison Lezion southeast of Tel Aviv and sirens sounded in outlying towns of Holon, Ness Ziona, Gan Raveh and Beer Yacov. None have yet reported casualties or damage. The Tel Aviv telephone network has stopped working. The IDF spokesmen reported that units of the elite paratroop and Givati Brigades were mustering outside the Gaza Strip on the second day of Israel's counter-terror operation Pillar of Cloud.

Cessna Aircraft has signed a contract with China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Co. (CAIGA) to form a joint venture company to conduct final assembly of Cessna Citation XLS+ business jets in China for the Chinese market. Cessna’s relationship with CAIGA “taps into what is expected to be the highest growth aviation market during the coming decade,” Cessna said in a statement. Formation of the company is subject to various government approvals. “It’s so exciting,” Cessna spokeswoman Stephanie Harder said of the agreement. Currently she said no Citation XLS+ airplanes operate in China. Cessna remains close to signing a similar arrangement...

Oregon employers cut a seasonally adjusted 2,400 jobs in October as they slashed hiring for a second straight month. Despite news that job growth has slowed to a halting pace, the state's monthly jobs report offered a silver lining: September's job loss wasn't nearly as steep as feared. Estimates last month showed the state shed 7,900 jobs. State officials this morning said the number is closer to 800, or about one-tenth of original estimates. The private and public education sectors saw the biggest upward revisions that month, according to the Oregon Employment Department.

If you believed the earlier media reports about him, he’s either (a) lovesick for Kelley to the point where he tried to seduce her with barechested pics or (b) obsessed with the idea of a cover-up here because of his, ahem, “worldview.” Either way, he’s letting personal/political judgments interfere with his professional duties.Third possibility: Maybe he’s an agent with a good track record who really did suspect that there’s something going on that shouldn’t be swept under the rug. Time for his side of the story: Two former law enforcement colleagues said Mr. Humphries was a solid agent with experience...

10:07 am - November 15, 2012 — Updated: 10:07 am - November 15, 2012 Wake Forest Baptist Hospital to eliminate 950 jobs Associated Press WINSTON-SALEM — Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center says it will lay off 76 employees this week and cut a total of 950 jobs by the end of June. Chief executive Dr. John McConnell said Wednesday most of the cuts are administrative positions, but some faculty members could lose their jobs due to cuts in federal research funding.

By Paul McDougall InformationWeek November 15, 2012 11:37 AM Texas Instruments said it will lay off about 1,700 workers, or about 5% of its total workforce, as part of a restructuring that will see it exit the market for mobile chips that power smartphones and tablets, including Amazon's Kindle Fire. The company said it would instead focus its OMAP (Open Multimedia Applications Platform) business on embedded systems that power business tools and other products that don't evolve as rapidly as mobile gadgets.

Minnesota employers cut 8,100 jobs statewide in October, by far the worst monthly job report of the year. A massive positive revision to the September numbers helped offset the loss, but the state’s employment and economic development agency, DEED, reported major losses in administrative support and lower-paid business services jobs, which shed 4,800 jobs. State government lost 1,900 jobs, mostly in education, and durable goods manufacturing lost 800 jobs. “Employment data for October does certainly reinforce the concerns we’ve expressed here, that the recovery, while it does continue, is a fragile one,” said Steve Hine, DEED’s labor market economist. “We’ll...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. Labor Department Thursday said first-time jobless benefits claims rose by 78,000 in the week ending Saturday. Initial claims jumped out of a relatively comfortable 355,000 claims -- the third lowest week since the recession ended in June 2009 -- to 439,000 with the four-week rolling average up 11,750 to 383,750. The weekly figure has been volatile of late -- rising by 46,000 one week in mid-October, for example, but a one-week jump of 78,000 is a clear setback. First time claims have not been this high since the week of April 30, 2011....

The real Petraeus scandal is why the bureau was rummaging around in his private communications in the first place. For the past week, Washington has been embroiled in an ever-escalating sex scandal involving Gen. David Petraeus, his biographer Paula Broadwell, and a third woman named Jill Kelley, and now, tangentially it seems, Gen. John Allen. The affair between Petraeus and Broadwell was discovered by the FBI and revealed late last week when Petraeus resigned as director of the CIA. But while the salacious details have kept Washington's press corps busy, the details about how the bureau ever got this information...

The Department of Labor has announced that new jobless claims rose by a staggering 78,000 in the first week after the election, reaching a seasonally-adjusted total of 439,000. Over the past year, and in the weeks leading up to the election, jobless claims were said to be declining, dipping as low as 339,000, with the media proclaiming that they had reached the "lowest level in more than four years." Now, suddenly, the news seems far less rosy. From the Department of Labor press release this morning: In the week ending November 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims...

Where were all the dismal jobs numbers before the election? They were there but not reported. Of course the media did not want to give any support whatsoever to the Romney/Ryan ticket. How can this liberal dog and pony show be fair to the millions of Americans who wanted absolutely nothing to do with Obama's agenda? Seceding from the United States may be a symbolic gesture but the frustration and anger with Obama as he unfolds his whack left visions is causing major distress in many Americans. One small business owner in Florida killed himself because Obama won re-election. His...

I recall a general quotation by Ronald Reagan that went something like this: "Contrary to popular opinion, I was not around when the Constitution was created," or, "Contrary to popular opinion I never met George Washington." Can anyone help?

Researchers at US college North Carolina State University claim to have worked out how to allow Wi-Fi hotspots to fling up to 700 per cent more data back and forth, freeing large-scale Wi-Fi networks from the congestion that keeps users waiting for web pages to load and, in worst cases, to think they’ve been disconnected. And the technique’s effectiveness in direct proportion to the number of clients connected to the base-station. Called WiFox, the NCSU system is essentially an algorithm that monitors the volume of traffic an access point is handling. If the access point is building up a backlog...