Free Republic

Barack Obama apparently hoped that a private meeting with GOP governors would help push House Republicans to compromise on the sequester. The meeting backfired in that regard, at least partially. The private meeting so incensed Nikki Haley that she could barely contain herself afterward at the US Chamber of Commerce afterward, and while she expressed frustration with both sides, she delivered a withering shot at Obama for refusing to make even slight cuts in federal spending: “I could not be more frustrated than I am right now,” Haley told reporters after the meeting. She said that when she asked Obama...

Then there is the recent news that Big Labor may now be feeling buyer’s remorse regarding the very bill that they were most responsible for inflicting on the innocent public: ObamaCare! So what are unions now going to push for? Perhaps for repealing this stupid law and replacing it with something more sensible? Quit dreaming! No, the unions are now pushing to get their lower-paid workers covered by the subsidies the law intended for just those who have no health care insurance at all. In other words, the unions are once again trying to rip off the taxpayer to cover...

Woo hoo!! Working on the last $4k!! We can do this!! Click the link above or by mail to Free Republic - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Let's get'er done!! Thank you all very much!! FReepers are absolutely the greatest!! God bless.

It’s an iPad and smartphone world. Yet we’re stuck with an immigration system formed in the age of black-and-white TVs. Whereas the success of yesterday’s Fortune 500 companies — like U.S. Steel and Amoco — once depended on resources, today’s Fortune 500 companies — like Google and eBay — depend on access to talent. Even so, there’s been no substantive reform of our immigration laws for nearly 50 years. It’s now more difficult than ever for foreign-born workers to come, contribute, and thrive in the United States. For the time being, America remains the destination of choice in the global...

"You know, the one thing about being president is, after four years, you get pretty humble. You'd think maybe you wouldn't but actually you become more humble--you realize what you don't know," Obama said."

In an interview with the Detroit Metro Times, United Auto Workers President Bob King suggests that the forced unionization of home-based caregivers is more important than Michigan's becoming a right-to-work state. “[T]here was a whole series of legislation that [Snyder] said was not on his agenda that he signed,” King told the Metro Times. "There were [university] research assistants being denied collective bargaining rights. There were home health care workers, who were given some really strong assurances that collective bargaining rights would not be taken away from them. “And that’s much more serious, honestly, than right-to-work; denying them the right...

President Barack Obama approaches Friday's budget deadline with a far stronger reputation than Republicans for seeking bipartisan unity, a new NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll has found. The survey shows that 48 percent of Americans credit Obama with emphasizing unifying themes, compared with 43 percent who sayhe takes a partisan approach "that does not unify the country." By contrast, Americans by 3-1 say the Republican Party takes a partisan approach (64 percent) rather than a unifying one (22 percent). A 49 percent plurality of Americans said the Democratic Party takes a partisan approach, outpacing the 37 percent who said Democrats...

So not only did Michelle Obama hijack the Oscars, she stuck it (again) to the tax payers as-well. You’ll be happy to know that the cost of Michelle Obama’s hideous Oscar dress designed has an estimated price tag of $8,990.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center bombing. It also marks three weeks since the attempted murder of Lars Hedegaard, the intrepid Danish champion of free speech. These events are not unrelated. Back in 1993, there was a tireless effort to limn the WTC bombers as wanton killers. They were, we were to understand, bereft of any coherent belief system, unrepresentative of any mainstream construction of Islam. In reality, though, they were devout Muslim operatives who belonged to a jihadist cell formed in the New York area by Omar Abdel Rahman — whose notoriety as the shadowy...

Florida man is facing a misdemeanor charge after allegedly battering a teenage relative with a Taco Bell burrito. Police allege that Erik Brown, 36, throttled the 16-year-old boy in the face with the burrito during a February 15 domestic dispute at a Port St. Lucie residence. The victim told cops that he was having a “verbal altercation” with his mother and Brown, his brother-in-law, when Brown “asked his mother to bring him the burrito,” according to an arrest affidavit. Brown then allegedly threw the burrito “with force” at the victim, striking the boy in the face with the fast food...

Your key to winning conservative activism is simple: know, grow, and go. After you learn what’s going on and learn the tools you need, you’re ready to take productive action at the right time. We use emails, our blog, and our activist website to let you know what needs to happen when. Take Action! Your activism dashboard: create a profile on our activist website and use your dashboard to stay up to speed on the latest conservative fights on Capitol Hill. Action Alerts: posts we use to let you know when to take action. Post Your Action Story: send us...

FORT HUACHUCA — For nearly a half century the 11th Signal Brigade headquarters has been associated with this southern Arizona Army post in some form or another, first as the 11th Signal Group which arrived in 1966. But on Feb. 18, the Department approved the relocation of the approximately 100 personnel headquarters to Fort Hood, Texas. The local announcement was made Monday. However, the brigade’s 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, consisting of nearly 500 people, will remain on Fort Huachuca, according to the 11th’s public affairs noncommissioned officer Staff Sgt. Kelvin Ringold. The brigade headquarters returned from a deployment to Afghanistan...

At a 2006 conference in Washington, D.C., then-Senator Chuck Hagel laid out an appeasement policy that he claimed was the only sane option for the United States.The conference, hosted by the New America Foundation, was devoted primarily to Iran sanctions, which were coming before the U.S. Senate again the very next day for renewal.Sen. Hagel’s entire presentation was devoted to blasting the notion of sanctions and economic pressure as tools of diplomacy.“Great powers are secure enough to engage,” he said. “We need to engage Iran and Syria, and find those common denominators.”Sen. Hagel claimed that U.S. sanctions on Cuba were...

In an interview with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts aired this morning, First Lady Michelle Obama recalled the tragic death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton who was shot and killed in Chicago after performing during the President’s Inauguration celebration in Washington D.C. “She was caught in the line of fire because some kids had some automatic weapons they didn’t need,” the First Lady explained. “I just don’t want to keep disappointing our kids in this country. I want them to know that we put them first.” Chicago police reported, however, that Pendleton was shot by a man who “opened fire with...

How did the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania get along from the beginning of the Republic in 1787 until 1978 — 191 years — and yet manage to educate its kids without the existence of the U.S. Department of Education? And, being one who is a graduate of both a Pennsylvania public high school and a Pennsylvania private college (Franklin and Marshall College, as it happens, dates from 1787) — how did the Commonwealth manage to educate the bulk of those kids well? Kids from all economic backgrounds, all races and both genders? The response will surely come — as it does...

Human longevity has improved so rapidly over the past century that 72 is the new 30, scientists say. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, said progress in lowering the odds of death at all ages has been so rapid since 1900 that life expectancy has risen faster than it did in the previous 200 millennia since modern man began to evolve from hominid species. The pace of increase in life expectancy has left industrialized economies unprepared for the cost of providing retirement income to so many for so long

What does a guy who whined endlessly about unlimited big money groups do? Become one of them. Barack Obama has become Karl Rove. The left has been highly critical of Rove and his American Crossroads organization and now Obama has formed a mirror image group of his own, but this entity is vastly different. Rove isn't President. "Obama for America" has transformed into "Organizing for Action" Washington (CNN) – As President Barack Obama begins his second term in the White House, the remaining structure of his re-election campaign will re-launch as a new political organization with a mission to advocate...

<p>In a highly unusual move, federal immigration officials have released a wave of detainees from immigration detention centers around the country in an effort to save money as automatic budget cuts loom in Washington, officials said.</p> <p>The government has not dropped the deportation cases against the immigrants, however: The detainees have been freed on supervised release while their cases continue in court, officials said.</p>

BEIJING—The head of Yum Brands Inc.'s China operations made a rare appearance to take aim at the country's food-safety issues and win back customers after allegations of quality oversights at the company's KFC restaurants caused consumer confidence and sales to tumble in its largest market. Yum is aiming to prevent food-safety problems by cutting its ties with suppliers that source their chicken from small farms that are hard to regulate, said Sam Su, the chairman and chief executive of Yum's China division, in a press briefing Monday. But the fundamental problems that sparked consumer concern over the quality of the...

Illinois State Senator Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) has introduced legislation that would require Internet websites to remove anything posted by an anonymous poster if someone complains about the content. Under the proposed bill, to avoid having his content removed a poster would have to attach his legal name, IP address, and home address. “As it stands now, pretty much anyone can post anything he wants,” Silverstein complained. “If he does it anonymously someone who is offended by the posting has no recourse other than to try to rebut it in his own post. This may be acceptable for a person who...