Free Republic

There were several articles which mentioned Reggie Love disembarking Air Force One after Obama upon his return to DC...yet all mention of such has now been scrubbed from the web (except for a few blog notes).I guess Obama decided the time wasn't right to "come out."

In the opaque world of sovereign debt credit ratings, one of the most important issues facing a rating agency is a country’s economic growth. One of the reasons why the United States has had such large deficits is because economic growth for the last decade and a half has been anemic.  I highlight that here because recently I took umbrage with the Congressional Budget Office projections on the U.S. economy and the country’s budget deficit, writing for Townhall about the budget problems we will face once interest rates begin to rise. The “thorny problem with the CBO forecast is that after this year the report is...

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LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A Canadian tourist Tuesday was found dead in a water tank on top of a downtown Los Angeles hotel. Elisa Lam, 21, had last been seen at the hotel on Jan. 26. Police and firefighters were summoned to the Cecil Hotel at 640 South Main St. shortly after 10 a.m., according to LAPD Officer Bruce Borihanh. KNX 1070′s Claudia Peschiutta reports guests were disturbed to learn Lam’s nude body was found inside of one of four large water tanks. A maintenance worker discovered the body after he received reports from hotel guests of low water pressure in the building...

Today the White House credited Michelle Obama's three-year-old “Let's Move” initiative with halting and even reversing a thirty year trend of increasing childhood obesity, a trend that has led to what the Centers for Disease Control has called an epidemic. A press release from the Office of the First Lady announced details of a "two day nationwide tour" at the end of the month to celebrate the third anniversary of the program that promotes exercise and healthy eating habits to young people. The press release also included a short history of the program (emphasis added): Mrs. Obama launched Let’s Move! on February 9, 2010 to unite the country around our...

A group of professors has debunked the research of a sociologist, finding that children with heterosexual parents do better in school than those raised by homosexuals. ... According to Allen, every time a study that claims no harm to children raised by same-gender couples is released, it has been successfully disputed when put under a microscope.

Dads matter. President Barack Obama said it recently in Chicago, a city on track for 600 murders this year, the equivalent of two Sandy Hooks per month. Too bad he still does not understand that his left-wing ideology is the problem. After the Sandy Hook tragedy, Obama, much of his party and much of the media have been calling for further gun control and advocating "common sense" measures such as limiting the number of rounds in a magazine, "universal" background checks and restrictions on "assault weapons." But there is an 800-pound politically incorrect elephant in the room. Most gun murders...

As Country Club Republicans Link Up With The Democratic Ruling Class, Millions Of Voters Are Orphaned On January 1, 2013 one third of Republican congressmen, following their leaders, joined with nearly all Democrats to legislate higher taxes and more subsidies for Democratic constituencies. Two thirds voted no, following the people who had elected them. For generations, the Republican Party had presented itself as the political vehicle for Americans whose opposition to ever-bigger government financed by ever-higher taxes makes them a “country class.” Yet modern Republican leaders, with the exception of the Reagan Administration, have been... --snip-- Similarly the entire country...

DAYTON — A southwest Ohio woman who says she was fired because she voted for President Barack Obama filed a lawsuit against her former employer. 

Patricia Kunkle’s lawsuit accuses Dayton-based defense contractor Q-Mark Inc. and its president of telling employees that if Obama was re-elected, then his supporters would be the first to be fired, The Dayton Daily News reported. 

Brian Wildermuth, an attorney for the company president, said in a statement that Kunkle was laid off for economic reasons — “nothing more.” 

“I am sure you and your readers are familiar with the ongoing uncertainties regarding defense spending, and thus...

The finger pointing and the blame game of Washington gets old, but a messy representative democracy is better than an efficient dictatorship. This past weekend, I toured Washington with my 5th-grade son, Robert, his classmates and their mothers. I've been to Washington more times than I can remember, but each visit fills me with hope and inspiration. It's not just the city, which in the summer is hot, humid and buggy and in the winter can be bone-chilling (as it was this weekend), but it's what the city stands for: a city created to house the federal government of...

A Washington state man put a lot of planning into his cup of coffee and he may have set a record with it. Behold, "The Quadriginoctuple Frap."

Beau Chevassus says it is the costliest cup of coffee available at Starbucks with a price tag of $47.30.

He ordered a 52-ounce venti with 40 shots of espresso, Frappuccino soy mocha drizzle, and basically everything else on the menu. He placed the order on his birthday, so in admiration, the baristas gave it to him for free!

Universal Orlando plans to stop offering medical insurance to part-time employees beginning next year, a move the resort says has been forced by the federal government's health-care overhaul. The giant theme-park resort, which generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue, began informing employees this month that it will offer health-insurance to part-timers "only until December 31, 2013."

Q1: Can you please explain for us how the papal conclave will work? And are there any major aspects of it that will be different this time, because Pope Benedict is still living? –Leah Q2: Who can, and cannot, be elected Pope? –Joseph The Catholic world is still reeling from Pope Benedict’s astounding announcement last week, but the secular media has already been busily declaiming about the possible reasons for the decision, Pope Benedict’s legacy, possible contenders for the job, etc. etc. ad infinitum. In the process, the amount of misinformation that is being disseminated is staggering!

This image pretty much says it all, rape victims have been advied to uninate on themselves, it has been suggested that it is better to make the attacker piss himself. I concur. Check the image here:

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether a personal relationship between an Internal Revenue Service employee and the owner of a computer company produced a series of government contracts worth about $500 million. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press from the committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to acting Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin, Issa writes that he recently has learned about a personal relationship between an IRS employee and Braulio Castillo, the owner of Signet Computers Inc. Signet Computers' website lists company addresses in Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Created by Microsoft and the New York Police Department, the Domain Awareness System, known as "the dashboard," is state-of-the-art crime fighting technology. "The dashboard," instantaneously mines data from the NYPD's vast collection of arrest records, emergency 911 calls, more than 3,000 security cameras, license plate readers and portable radiation detectors and aggregates it into a user-friendly, readable form in the control room.

A potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to the discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom – the report said – were being blackmailed by outsiders. The pope's spokesman declined to confirm or deny the report, which was carried by the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica. The paper said the pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign – the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair. Last May Pope Benedict's butler, Paolo...

<p>The Associated Press on Thursday updated its stylebook so that married individuals will be referred to as husband and wife, regardless of whether they are in a same-sex marriage. The change comes a week after the AP received criticism for an internal memo designating the word "partners" for individuals in same-sex marriages.</p>

The New York Times Company, owners of the Boston Globe newspaper, is once again trying to find someone to take the struggling Massachusetts newspaper off its hands. The Times previously tried to sell the Globe in 2009 but canceled the sale process after it received concessions from is unions (love the irony there). More from Reuters: The sale is expected to come at a big loss. Ken Doctor, an analyst with Outsell Research, estimated that the Globe could fetch about $150 million. The New York Times paid $1.1 billion for the newspaper in 1993. The New York Times is putting...

The Michigan Civil Service Commission’s website boasts: "Invest your talent with the state of Michigan. The rewards are enormous." In fact, for the first time, the average salary and benefit package for state employees surpassed $100,000 a year in 2011-2012. The average combined cost of salary and benefits for a state worker jumped to $104,067 in 2011-12, increasing from $97,883 in 2010-11. James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, did the analysis using the Michigan Civil Service Commission’s certified aggregate payroll. When factoring in inflation, the cost of benefits for a state employee...

A US senator has said an estimated 4,700 people, including some civilians, have been killed in the contentious bombing raids of America's secretive drone war. It was the first time a politician or any government representative had referred to a total number of fatalities in the drone strikes, which have been condemned by rights groups as extrajudicial assassinations.

At least 12 people have been killed and scores injured in twin bomb blasts on Thursday that authorities believe may have been a terrorist attack in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. There has been no official confirmation as to the nature of the blasts, but government officials have said they was carried out by a “well-trained” group and were coordinated. Local media reports that the blasts comes two days after government security agencies sent an advisory to states to tighten security in light of potential threats from militant groups operating in the region related to the recent state executions...

At least 12 people have been killed and scores injured in twin bomb blasts on Thursday that authorities believe may have been a terrorist attack in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. There has been no official confirmation as to the nature of the blasts, but government officials have said they was carried out by a “well-trained” group and were coordinated. Local media reports that the blasts comes two days after government security agencies sent an advisory to states to tighten security in light of potential threats from militant groups operating in the region related to the recent state executions...

Minnesota should have a mandate for using solar energy similar to the one it has for using renewable wind energy, say backers of a pair of bills to be filed Thursday in the State Legislature. The bills would require the state's utilities to produce 10 percent of electricity from solar energy by 2030. A solar standard would raise present utility rates by 1 percent per year, starting with the first year, and be borne by ratepayers, its backers said in a news conference at the State Capitol Wednesday, Feb. 20. But legislators sponsoring the Solar Energy Jobs Act emphasized it...

Brendan O'Neill totally missed the point. He compares the gay radicals of the past who did not want marriage because they saw it as a form of oppression to the LGBT movement of today who demand same-sex wedlock, and concludes that the latter have become bourgeois and integrated, renouncing the radical ideology of the beginning, when Stonewall was young and fighting for liberation from matrimony, not enslavement by it. The point he misses is that the homosexual activists have become more radical, not less. What they demand from society now is a total redefinition of marriage, something that goes to...

When the history of President Obama’s drive for national health care is written, there are several moments that will be looked back upon as having cemented the law in place. There were “conservative” Democrats Ben Nelson and Bart Stupak dropping their objections to Obamacare to get the legislation across the finish line. There was Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the Supreme Court’s liberals to uphold the constitutionality of the law. There was President Obama’s reelection victory, which crushed any feasible path to full repeal. On Thursday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s delivered yet another blow to opponents to Obamacare by...

House Democrats propose a $10 billion transportation package that would gradually raise the gasoline tax to 47.5 cents a gallon within five years. A transportation proposal by state Democrats would raise $10 billion in revenue. The plan would include as much as 10 cents on fuel over five years.

This Wingnut Conspiracy Theory Has a Point This might be a good rule of thumb for presidential policy: if the factual truth of what you are doing is so gob-smackingly ridiculous that it makes whacko conspiracy theories about it sound reasonable, it's probably bad policy. Digby: I suppose it was inevitable: What do you get when you combine the president's ability to secretly kill American citizens and the recent push to restrict gun access? One of the most bizarre anti-Obama conspiracy theories ever—and it takes a lot to win that prize. Various tea party activists, libertarian websites and other conspiracy-minded...

If radical gun-grabbers have their way, your daughters, mothers and grandmothers will have nothing but whistles, pens and bodily fluids to defend themselves against violent attackers and sexual predators. Women of all ages, races and political backgrounds should be up in arms over the coordinated attack on their right to bear arms. In Colorado this week, male Democratic legislators assailed concealed-carry supporters and disparaged female students who refuse to depend on the government for protection. The Democrat-controlled House passed a statewide ban on concealed-carry weapons on college campuses, along with several other extreme gun-control measures that will undermine citizen safety...

The word “pasta” is a little too Italian for Quebec’s language cops. They’d prefer something more in the language of Moliere than Michaelangelo when it comes to menus, even in Italian restaurants. “Pasta” wasn’t the only word that left a sour taste when they recently chewed over the menu at Buonanotte, a trendy Italian restaurant in Montreal. There were several other words that didn’t have enough of a French flavour for the Office Quebecois de la language francaise.

The American Left and the Islamists work together to sabotage American, spreading their social justice (or sharia) values in a way that is inimical to American values, argues Andrew C. McCarthy in his book The Grand Jihad. For the hard left, social justice translates into Marxism and communism. For the Islamist, social justice leads to implementing Sharia and an Islamic state. These two are natural partners, he argues, because of their pursuit of “power” and opposition to American liberties. (McCarthy’s newest book is Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy.) A riveting tale of Islam in America and abroad, in...

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One of the interesting things about recent elections is that Republicans have tended to do better the farther you go down the ballot. They've lost the presidency twice in a row, and in four of the last six contests. They've failed to win a majority in the U.S. Senate, something they accomplished in five election cycles between 1994 and 2006. But they have won control of the House of Representatives in the last two elections, and in eight of the last 10 cycles. And they've been doing better in elections to state legislatures than at any time since the 1920s....

More than 600,000 white British Londoners have left the capital in a decade. Census figures show that between 2001 and 2011 the level of ‘white flight’ reached 620,000. It is the equivalent of a city the size of Glasgow – made up entirely of white Britons – moving out of the capital.

A recently introduced bill in the Illinois state Senate would require anonymous website comment posters to reveal their identities if they want to keep their comments online. The bill, called the Internet Posting Removal Act, is sponsored by Illinois state Sen. Ira Silverstein. It states that a “web site administrator upon request shall remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless the anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate.” The Democratic lawmaker’s bill, which does...

Now that Free Republic is back up and running, I am curious about what Freepers like best and what they miss most when Free Republic becomes not available. For instance, for me, it's often the first place to learn of an event -- sometimes even a half hour before Fox News gets something on the air -- or CNN. I specifically remember the shooting at the school in Virginia, and then there are the earthquakes. Just curious about what other Freepers like most about FR. Husband Quint says that if everybody donated a monthly fee charge to their credit card,...

In his first term President Obama was criticized for trash-talking the one-percenters while enjoying the aristocracy of Martha's Vineyard and the nation's most exclusive golf courses. Obama never quite squared his accusations that "millionaires and billionaires" had not paid their fair share with his own obvious enjoyment of the perks of "corporate jet owners," "fat cat bankers" and Las Vegas junketeers. Now, that paradox has continued right off the bat in the second term. In the State of the Union, Obama once more went after "the few," and "the wealthiest and the most powerful," whom he blasted as the "well-off...

President Obama gave his take on Black History Month during an interview conducted with Al Sharpton this afternoon.

The supermarket took down the sign after shoppers complained it was offensive Some Whole Foods customers are complaining about a sign featuring the president that advertises a sale on chicken. A Whole Foods supermarket in New York has removed a sign that used a drawing of President Barack Obama to advertise a sale on chicken after complaints that the ad was offensive. The sign outside the supermarket on Manhattan's Upper West Side, featuring an apparent caricature of Obama advertising an upcoming sale on whole organic chickens, outraged neighbor Woody Henderson. "There are certain things that have been used to put...

Don't anyone tell Marco Rubio, John McCain or Jeff Flake that nearly 80 percent of Hindus voted for Obama, or who knows what they'll come up with. I understand the interest of business lobbies in getting cheap, unskilled labor through amnesty, but why do Republican officeholders want to create up to 20 million more Democratic voters, especially if it involves flouting the law? Are the campaign donations from the soulless rich more important than actual voters? Without citing any evidence, the Rubio Republicans simply assert that granting 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens amnesty will make Hispanics warm to...

Thank you very much for the hard work. A day without FR is difficult.

Vice President Joe Biden might want to have a talk with his son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, before he makes another public statement about guns. In a Facebook "chat" Tuesday, the vice president said that he had advised his wife, Jill, to fire a shotgun in the air from their Delaware home's porch if she was concerned for her safety.

OK......finally back. What did you do for news or entertainment while FR was down?

For the first time since the waning days of the "fiscal cliff" battle in late December, President Obama reached out to congressional Republican leaders to talk about next week's impending budget cuts known as the sequester. "He placed calls earlier today to [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell and [House] Speaker [John] Boehner," White House spokesman Jay Carney announced today. "Had good conversations, but I have no further readout of those calls for you." Both Boehner's and McConnell's offices confirmed the calls took place but neither would give details about what was discussed.

A new James Bond novel will be released in September, written by Booker Prize nominee William Boyd, the estate of Ian Fleming has announced. The title is being kept under wraps, but publishers Jonathan Cape say the book will feature a slightly older 007, in keeping with the latest film. Boyd has also said his 1960s-set story will mark a return to "classic Bond". He is the third author in recent years to be invited by the Ian Fleming estate to write an official Bond novel.

PORTLAND -- Activists stood beside a 12-story sequoia tree Thursday morning that the city of Portland planned to cut down to make way for a pedestrian and bicycle greenway. The protestors crossed over caution tape and their presence halted the chopping down of the sequoia along with other, less iconic trees close by. Neighbors in Portland's St. Johns area have been battling the city plan to cut down the decades-old tree in Pier Park. The tree at the center of the controversy is a giant sequoia that stands about 120 feet tall and measures 18 feet around.  It's one of...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH:  Folks, I'm sorry here.  I can't help but think that we are all being played for a bunch of fools, a bunch of suckers on this sequester business.  I don't know.  Are you like me?  Do you really think 800,000 people are gonna lose their jobs in the Pentagon because we cut $22 billion?  Do you really think air traffic control's gonna shut down?  Do you really think there aren't gonna be any meat inspectors?  Do you really think that all of these horror stories are going to happen?  I don't.  I feel like I've been here. ...

The 60th vote: Republican Richard Shelby to vote for cloture on Hagel; Update: Deb Fischer too? posted at 2:01 pm on February 21, 2013 by Allahpundit And so, after days of accusations about what Hagel did or didn’t say at Rutgers Israeli control of the State Department, and despite the nominee’s refusal to let reporters pick through his archives, this guy’s actually gaining votes in the Senate rather than losing them. I understand the argument that the president deserves deference in his cabinet picks, even if I don’t agree with it in this case. But if we’re going to cave,...

Man, I am so glad this is back!