Free Republic

Republican strategist Karl Rove says the GOP should quit while it's not as far behind as it could be. Appearing Tuesday on Fox News Channel's "On the Record," Rove said Republicans fighting for concessions on Obamacare and entitlements are weakening their position the longer they hold out. "At some point you have to focus on, as Ronald Reagan said, getting as much of the pie as you possibly can get," Rove said. Republicans aren't even going to be able to get 80 percent of what they want now, he said, because they have been weakened over the last two months...

Dear John: If you were hoping to have a quick "date" with the woman standing on the street corner in Sanford, you may want to think again. Starting this week, the Sanford Police Department will send "Dear John" letters to registered owners of vehicles spotted lingering in areas known for prostitution. (snip) Sanford police said Monday that letters will only be generated when an officer is confident the driver is circling the block looking for a prostitute, and not, for example, driving around lost. Automated license-plate readers placed on patrol vehicles will be used to capture images of the suspect...

Prosecutors have dropped a driving under the influence charge against the wife of former Miami Heat superstar Alonzo Mourning.

Britain has relaxed stringent rules for Chinese banks willing to set up in London. Beijing in turn opened up its markets to British-based investors, marking the latest move to establish the yuan as one of the world’s key currencies. “A great nation like China should have a global currency,” said UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, during his official five day visit to China. And the UK is gladly willing to contribute “through the international center of finance: London”. Under the agreed pilot program, China sanctioned London-based investors to buy up to 80 billion yuan ($13.1 billion) of stocks,...

The Ministry of Defense's weapons development administration (Mafat) is targeting a global market worth $2 billion annually. The Ministry of Defense's Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure (Mafat) has set the next challenge for Israel's defense industry: do for unmanned submarines what it did for unmanned aerial warfare. If the defense industry moves quickly and purposefully in identifying this emerging market, and offers a well-functioning unmanned submarine, it could be riding the right wave in a decade from now: Mafat aeronautics division director Dr. Yuval Cohen estimates that the market will be worth $2 billion a year...

ABERDEEN, MD (WJZ/CNN) – Police in Maryland arrested a suspect who allegedly tried to carjack the mother of baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. The incident occurred on Tuesday outside of a bank in Aberdeen, MD, north of Baltimore. Police say a man with a handgun approached 75-year-old Violet Ripken and demanded her car. Ripken pressed the panic button her key ring, setting off the car's alarm and scaring the man away. He was later captured by police.

Bacon might be the least “ninja” ingredient out there. Aside from being bright-ass red, its scent alone has the power to send every fat kid (or fat kid at heart) running from within at least a three mile radius. Still, we wouldn’t want our ninja burgers made any other way. Starting October 25, Burger King Japan is rolling out a black-bunned hamburger called the “Black Ninja.” Like most of the country’s other chromatically-challenged eats, the BN gets its hue from the bamboo charcoal used to make it, which in this case, also happens to impart a nice smoky smell. But...

US defence firms eye $10.8bn UAE, Saudi sales Defence firms in the US are looking to sell military hardware worth $10.8bn to the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The Defence Security Cooperation Agency said it has notified Congress of the possible foreign military sales to the Gulf countries, with Boeing and Raytheon named as suppliers. The proposal includes the first US sales to Middle East allies of new Raytheon and Boeing weapons that can be launched at a distance from Saudi F-15 and UAE F-16 fighters. The Boeing Expanded-Response Standoff Land Attack Missile and Raytheon Joint Standoff Weapon give those nations...

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Military authorities here worry about intelligence reports that North Korea is developing a new ground-to-ship ballistic missile with a range of 300 km which would be impossible to intercept with current weapons. "The North is developing a new ground-to-ship ballistic missile with a range of 200-300 km, an improved version of the KN-02 ground-to-ground ballistic missile," whose range is 140 km, a military source said Friday. "We're trying to verify the report." The North already has surface-to-ship cruise missiles like the KN-01 with a range of 160 km and the Silkworm missile with a range of 100 km. But ballistic...

The Netherlands is seeking answers from Russia after a Dutch diplomat was beaten by unidentified assailants in his apartment in Moscow. The diplomat — identified by Russian media as Onno Elderenbosch, deputy chief of the Dutch embassy in Moscow — was returning home on Tuesday when he saw that the elevator in his building was out of order, Life News reported. After walking up to his fourth-floor apartment, he spotted two men dressed as electricians who were working on a fuse box. The men told him that the electricity seemed to be out in the whole building and said that...

SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean Navy has made a request to build three more Aegis destroyers to bolster defense against its Asian neighbors and North Korea amid increasing military tension due to territorial disputes, a military source said Wednesday. South Korea currently operates three 7,600-ton Aegis warships, but the Navy has sought to increase its fleet to cope with rising regional tension in light of Pyongyang's third nuclear test conducted earlier this year and ongoing territorial disputes between China and Japan. "The Navy made a request for three additional Aegis ships to the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

Tbilisi (AFP) - French authorities have detained a former Georgian defence minister wanted in his homeland on corruption charges, a police source said Tuesday. Davit Kezerashvili, a close ally of outgoing president Mikheil Saakashvili, was detained Monday at the Nice airport just before 1:00pm (1100 GMT), as he was trying to board a flight to Tirana, the capital of Albania, the police source said. "He was stopped by border police during an identity check. The police realised that he was the target of an international arrest warrant," the source said. Kezerashvili will now face an extradition hearing to determine whether...

Indian inflation unexpectedly accelerated to a seven-month high in September, adding to the case for a further increase in the benchmark interest rate. The wholesale-price index rose 6.46 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 6.1 percent advance in August, the Commerce Ministry said in New Delhi on Monday. The median of 33 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 6 percent climb. Gov. Raghuram Rajan, who took over at the Reserve Bank of India last month, raised the repurchase rate to 7.5 percent after vowing to tame inflation, which was almost 10 percent in September based...

".........I am tired of funding Republicans who campaign against Obamacare then refuse to fight. It’s time to find a new batch of Republicans to actually practice what the current crop preaches. The irony in all of this is that Obamacare’s individual mandate is going to be delayed. Just wait. Liberals are already whispering that it has to happen. They can’t get the computers up and running. People aren’t signing up. They whole process is broken. But they also do not want to cave in to the GOP. So they will wait. Barack Obama will wait for the GOP to surrender,...

The war on climate change has produced many dubious “innovations.” Intermittent wind and solar energy sources, carbon markets that buy and sell “hot air,” and biofuels that burn food as we drive are just a few examples. But carbon capture and storage is the Edsel of energy policies. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), also called carbon capture and sequestration, is promoted by President Obama, the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for coal-fired power plants. In September, the EPA proposed a limit of 1,100 pounds of CO2 emissions per megawatt-hour of electricity produced, a regulation that...

The Yomiuri ShimbunThe Japan Tourism Agency is keen to fulfill its mission of making Japan a popular destination by using so-called big data, the collection of massive amounts of digital data. To help develop new tourism spots and routes, the agency plans to collect big data from travelers via the Global Positioning System and their mobile phones or other devices. A working group of experts, soon to be formed, is expected to establish a method by the end of March to analyze the data. The agency plans to collect big data—various information such as messages posted on social media sites—from...

DAEGU, SOUTH KOREA – From oil to nuclear power, via gas, coal and renewables, Asia’s economic growth is increasingly steering the path forward for the global energy industry. “It’s clear that Asia’s emerging economies have entered a historic phase of industrialization and urbanization,” Peter Voser, chief executive of energy giant Shell, said at the ongoing World Energy Congress in Daegu, South Korea. “The pace of change is almost inconceivable.” Shell estimates that energy demand across Asia will double over the next 50 years, with China and India the main growth drivers for at least the next two decades. “This is...

Typhoon Wipha brought strong winds and heavy rain to the Tokyo metropolitan area early Wednesday, shutting down large portions of the region’s transportation network. On Izu Oshima Island in the Pacific about 120 km south of Tokyo, at least 13 bodies were found and around 20 people were missing after several houses collapsed amid record rainfall of 122.5 mm per hour, according to local authorities and police. In Machida, Tokyo, a woman believed to be in her 40s died after being swept away by a swollen river, police said. Several bullet-train runs on the Tohoku, Yamagata, Joetsu, Nagano and Tokaido...

Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae has hinted at the possibility of adapting a cold-war West Germany's policy by buying the freedom of political prisoners and abduction victims in North Korea. West Germany paid hard currency to East Germany to win the release of political prisoners there under a scheme known as "Freikauf." Ryoo told the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee on Tuesday previous administrations here "discussed a Freikauf policy of the kind implemented in pre-unification Germany, and we'll also review the possibility of introducing it." Ryoo was replying to Democratic Party lawmaker Shim Jae-kwon, who asked, "Do you have...

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It was the perfect end to a bizarre day of World Cup qualifying: the United States saved Mexico. The longtime rivals rarely do anything to help the other out, but on Tuesday there was no mistaking what took place. Mexico, which has struggled throughout the Concacaf qualifying tournament, was just minutes away from losing to Costa Rica, 2-1, and failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1982. El Tri’s only hope was that the United States, which was losing to Panama at the time, would somehow rally for at least a tie. The United States...

".......A day that was supposed to bring Washington to the edge of resolving the fiscal showdown instead seemed to bring chaos and retrenching. And a bitter fight that had begun over stripping money from the president’s signature health care law had essentially descended in the House into one over whether lawmakers and their staff members would pay the full cost of their health insurance premiums, unlike most workers at American companies, and how to restrict the administration from using flexibility to extend the debt limit beyond a fixed deadline.............."

Capturing the essence of the 1940s and 50s in modern times is getting harder and harder for photographers. While there are plenty of hot rods out there to shoot these days, fewer and fewer “factory” vehicles can be found. But that’s not the only trouble. With modern construction, vintage buildings are also becoming scarcer by the day. This leads to a whole lot of hassle for those set on bringing back memories of the past through modern photography. But as photographer and car enthusiast Michael Paul Smith, who posts his work on Flickr, discovered, recreating the past may actually be...

Speculation is mounting whether the government has agreed a deal with Washington to take part in the U.S.-led missile defense program in exchange for another delay in the handover of full control of South Korean troops. Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin fanned speculation Monday by telling a National Assembly audit that the military is hoping to buy SM-3 interceptor missiles that could destroy North Korean ballistic missiles. The SM-3 missiles constitute the core of the U.S.-led missile defense shield. All the signs are that the government is growing less reluctant to join the missile defense program, which China is extremely wary...

China has seen a surge in the number of lawsuits against government agencies for their failure to disclose information, according to a report released Tuesday. Administrative cases about government information disclosure in Beijing increased to 551 in 2012 from 10 in 2008 when a regulation came into force, said the report, adding similar growth occurred in other Chinese cities. The report was carried out by the center for public participation studies at Peking University and was based on research in cities including Beijing, Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong Province and Cangzhou in northern China's Hebei Province. The surge in the...

London mayor Boris Johnson rides the Beijing subway Line 1 on Tuesday, October 15, 2013. [Photo: CFP]

As the most profitable entertainment enterprise ever, the video game series Grand Theft Auto has completely enthralled players; and in this case, an Auburn football fan who decided it was time to play out his real-life version. As WDSU reports, on Saturday, September 21st around 2:30 AM, 20 year old freshman lacrosse player and Auburn student Zachary Burgess decided it was time for him to take his shot at GTA, for realsies. He stole a truck, kidnapped a woman, and ended up crashing into nine parked cars – a feat that took zero brain cells and cojones the size of...

Despite the rise in China's consumer prices to a seven-month high in September, economists say inflation doesn't pose a risk for the world's second-largest economy. The CPI rose 3.1 percent in September, well above expectations for a 2.8 percent rise. The outlook for China's economy was called into question again this weekend after trade data showed exports unexpectedly contracted by 0.3 percent in September. Macro-economic data due out on October 18th, including third quarter GDP and industrial production, will provide further insights into the health of the economy.

The first subway running from Shanghai to Kunshan City, east China's Jiangsu province, started its trial operation this morning. The subway is actually an extension stage of Shanghai Metro Line 11, which combined 3 subway stations in Kunshan to the original metro line. After it begins operation, it will only take about 70 minutes to travel from Huaqiao Station in Kunshan to Xujiahui Station in downtown Shanghai, which only costs 7 yuan. The subway will make the journey between the cities easier for residents. It is known that transit cards in Shanghai can be used in the 3 stations in...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed prepared Tuesday to uphold a voter-approved ban on taking account of race in college admissions. The court heard arguments over a 2006 change to the state constitution to prohibit the University of Michigan and other state schools from any consideration of race when they decide whom to admit. The justices' focus was more on whether they could craft a narrow ruling to uphold Michigan Proposal 2 or would have to overrule earlier cases that protect minorities' rights to participate in the political process. Affirmative action supporters say the amendment itself is a form of...

A father and son who fled their village during the Vietnam War 40 years ago have apparently been discovered living in a treehouse deep in the jungle. Ho Van Lang, 42, and his 82-year-old father had reportedly shunned contact with the outside world after his wife and mother of his two children was killed by a landmine A local newspaper reported that they wore loincloths made of bark and used a homemade axe to chop down trees for firewood. They survived on corn that they had grown, plus fruits and cassava roots from the jungle. Inside their treehouse home, five...

It started off as a normal morning at Great Clips in San Jose, with employees snipping away and customers enjoying a trim. Then, just before 10 a.m., a customer with a pale purple Saturn - and a San Jose Sharks license plate frame - slammed into the hair salon at 2980 East Capitol Expressway, according to police Sgt. Heather Randol. The driver was pulled out of the car, but Randol said neither he nor anyone inside the salon was hurt. His name or age hasn't been released. Hairdresser Teresa Phuouc was in the salon at the time. "I don't know...

On a characteristically foggy evening here, a group of predominantly single venture capitalists, tech executives, hedge-fund managers and philanthropists gathered for a cocktail party in a penultimate-floor suite at the St. Regis apartment complex. As guests ate oysters, baby lamb chops and perhaps the world’s smallest cheeseburgers, they were pitched a multiday, intellectually rigorous singles mixer to be held in January 2014 on Necker Island, Richard Branson’s 74-acre Caribbean paradise, “curated” by Kelleher International, a long-running, high-end matchmaking service that is targeting Silicon Valley with particular vigor. Wearing an Alexander McQueen dress and towering Valentino heels as she sold the...

(Reuters) - Relatives offered words of comfort to a teary-eyed woman paying her last respects as an undertaker slammed shut the door of the cremation chamber and flames engulfed the small coffin of a cherished family member. The hastily arranged prayers, cremation and scattering of ashes in Vietnam's capital was for Capi, a 13-year-old dog that died that day after a battle with diabetes. Capi's owner had called Bao Sinh Dog-Cat Resort, a one-stop shop with services rivalling anything on offer to humans. "I'm so glad this place exists. Otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with Capi's body," said...

The irony is rich. President Obama told Maryland college students just days before the launch of his healthcare “marketplace” that it would take just a few keystrokes to compare prices and policy details. “Don’t take my word for it, go on the website,” Obama told a crowd at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, MD, five days before the launch. “See for yourself what the prices are. See for yourself what the choices are and then make up your own mind. That’s all I’m asking.” But the bureaucrats in his administration clearly weren’t listening. They created a website that is...

OTTAWA — It wasn’t long ago that Indonesia was considered a major source of worry. The world’s most heavily populated Muslim country — now with more than 250 million residents — was hard-hit by the Asian economic crisis, which led to dictator Suharto’s 1998 resignation. Then in 2002, a devastating terrorist attack on the resort island of Bali left 202 dead, more than half of them vacationing westerners. Some speculated that the archipelago state, made up of an estimated 17,508 islands (roughly 6,000 are inhabited, though the population is located primarily on five main islands), would break apart, leading to...

Former Australian cattle station manager Michael Sheehy has some singular advice for the Indonesian government if it wants to achieve self-sufficiency in beef: Follow the model of the booming palm oil industry and put cattle raising in corporate hands. As with most of Indonesia's agriculture, the livestock industry is largely confined to low- technology operations - backyard feedlots that mean a higher cost of production and higher prices for consumers as a result. The Indonesian government has used tariffs and quotas to protect local farmers from international competition. This is a short-term measure which, judging by the current beef price...

Over the past 20 years the pace and scale of urbanization in Asia has been unprecedented,” says Jonathan D. Solomon, the curator of Practical Utopias: Global Urbanism in Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo, an exhibition at AIA New York’s Center for Architecture. “Asia today is a vast experiment in what makes a city,” says Solomon, associate dean at the Syracuse University School of Architecture, who lived in Hong Kong for six years before recently returning to the U.S.

(CNSNews.com) – National Park Service (NPS) rangers removed the handles from some 40 public water pumps and closed restrooms in the 184.5 mile- C&O Canal National Historical Park, but they haven’t been able to keep hikers and bikers off the popular trail known as a “cyclist’s dream.” “It’s full every day,” said Gail Hall, who runs Mountain Side Bikes at the trailhead in Cumberland, Md. “They’re bringing in their own water and utilizing the tree-lined areas [of the park] for restrooms. Some towns like Harper’s Ferry even brought in potties to accommodate them. As long as they can pedal, they...

JERUSALEM — The goal was merely to promote clean energy in Israel — but television ads starring a pair of male puppets called "plug" and "socket" have instead unleashed a debate about gay pride. The puppets, named Sheka and Teka in Hebrew, have appeared in ads for the state-owned Israel Electric Corp. for more than a decade. Israelis have long playfully questioned whether they might be gay. But the arrival of a baby puppet in the new campaign set off fresh speculation about their sexual orientation.

This heartening news just came in from the Middle Tennessee Chapter of ACT! For America. The anti-Shariah activists of Middle Tennessee managed to persuade the state textbook commission not to approve the purchase of high school textbooks that sanitize the history and doctrines of Islam. The efforts of these dedicated folks in Tennessee demonstrate that pushback can be effective. But you have to fight smart. You have to educate yourself, and join forces with other like-minded activists. You have to show public officials — who, after all, work for you — that you mean business, and you’re not going away....

#BREAKING: Police arrest airport employee in connection with dry ice explosions at LAX. @ABC News -Headline only. Still developing.

When CNSNews.com asked Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) if he had read all of the 10,535 pages of final regulations published by the administration to implement Obamacare in the Federal Register, he said he had not and described them as “incomprehensible.” “Well, of course, I voted against [Obamacare], and I have not read all the rules and regulations,” Fleming told CNSNews.com earlier this month at the Capitol. “They’re extremely complex. An average person even with a law degree or a medical degree like me can’t understand them,” Fleming said. “They’re incomprehensible.” When asked if he was surprised by the large number...

Pope Francis said it is true that in the past, people with epilepsy might have been mischaracterized as being possessed by demons, but that confusion did not refute the fact that the Devil exists and is so important that he “is on the first page of the Bible” and at the Bible’s end, “with the victory of God over the Devil.” … As for his comments on Satan and other demons, the Pope said, “Some may say, ‘But Father, you’re too old-fashioned. You’re frightening us with these things.’ No, it’s not me! It is the Gospel! And these are not...

So I am thinking of simply leaving the job I work at now and heading to a Southern state, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Northern Florida, Tennessee, etc since I figure that, since I am one of those who does not have a reliable source of family aid of any kind, that this could be my only option. I am considering finding a church that has a sort of communal living situation, a farm, ranch, factory or other such source that could use additional workers and join one of them. I am thinking of it in light of a situation...

The federal government shutdown is here, and that means some places around town are offering freebies. Most of these deals are reserved for government workers only, but some are open to everyone. Furloughed workers receive 50% off weekday bookings to @GoApeUSA until 10/18 with Federal ID! Use code "FEDS50" to book at www.goape.com. by GoApeUSA 7:54 PM Reply Permalink ALL performances of Marry Me a Little FREE this weekend for govt employees with promo code GOVT at bpt.me (govt ID required) by cauldronevents 7:54 PM 2:40 PM TwitterOldDominionBrewhouse @OldDominionBrew Week 3 of the Government Shutdown! Happy Hour ALL DAY at...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the frantic stop-and-go effort in Congress to avoid a debt default and end a government shutdown is "a mess" as a gloomy mood descended over the White House with time running out to a Thursday deadline. Obama, who is to meet Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Wednesday, and his Democratic backers stressed there is still time to avoid a historic default even as efforts to reach a deal in Congress floundered on Capitol Hill. "My expectation is that it does get solved, but we don´t have a lot of time," Obama told...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani super model Fehmina Chaudhry, who recently came from Singapore, has been found dead in a ditch from Bara Kahu area Islamabad on Monday. The 27-year-old model and beauty queen went missing last Thursday while visiting Islamabad to buy property, police said. ASP Yasir Afridi said the dead body of a woman has been identified as Fehmina Chaudhry, who was also a mother of two and was a successful model in Singapore with numerous awards on her credit. Fehmina, a Singapore-based model originally from the Pakistani port city of Karachi, was settled in Singapore and wanted to open a...

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the Republicans DID compromise to avoid a shutdown. They were going to keep the government open, but asked that Obamacare be delayed. Yes, even Planned Parenthood would get their annual funding from the government. Senate Democrats under Harry Reid said no. … Given how the president’s approval rating has sunk to historic lows, this shutdown gives Obama a way to re-energize his stalled legislative agenda. He wasted the most precious moments of his second term on a gun control push that was never going to pass, and he was stuck in neutral until the...