Free Republic

Close this pigpen! Filth-ridden Zuccotti Park is a breeding ground for bacterial infection loaded with potential health-code violations that pose a major risk to the public, an expert who inspected the area warned. “It’s like Walmart for rats,’’ Wayne Yon, an expert on city health regulations, said yesterday. “There’s a lack of sanitation, a lack of controls for hot and cold water,” Yon said. He saw at least 15 violations of the city’s health code -- the type that would easily shut down a food establishment.

ZANESVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Dozens of animals escaped Tuesday from a wild-animal preserve that houses bears, big cats and other beasts, and the owner later was found dead there, said police, who shot several of the animals and urged nearby residents to stay indoors. The fences had been left unsecured at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville, in east-central Ohio, and the animals' cages were open, police said. They wouldn't say what animals escaped but said the preserve had lions, wolves, tigers, giraffes, camels and bears. They said bears and wolves were among 25 animals that had been shot...

ZANESVILLE, Ohio - Several schools announced that they will not have school on Wednesday after exotic animals escaped a Muskingum County animal farm. The schools are: Maysville Local Schools, Zanesville City Schools, Foxfire Community Schools and West Muskingum Local Schools. Police said they had shot at least 25 of at least 48 escaped exotic animals on Tuesday night. Terry Thompson, the owner of the farm, was found dead outside of his home on the animal farm property. Police said the fences had been left unsecured. According to police, the animals escaped at about 6 p.m. from an animal farm near...

This is a must see, Patriots! This is the best adaptation of Animal Farm.

Over the past several weeks, America has seen on grand display in Washington a singular mindset emanating from the White House: We must raise taxes so that we can keep on spending. This week, though, America was treated to something different—a glimpse inside President Barack Obama’s mind, a roadmap of his economic worldview. And what was revealed was a philosophy that is fundamentally at odds with America’s job creators. That insight came during the President’s press conference on Monday in which he broached the subject of raising taxes as part of the debt limit deal: And I do not want,...

This is one part of a running series entitled “Indoctrination Fridays,” a weekly review of leftist propaganda incorporated into public school curriculum, much geared towards elementary students.  For more of the series, please visit PublicSchoolSpending.com.In typical union and socialist propaganda, employers are depicted as cruel and uncaring business owners who never miss an opportunity to cheat and mistreat workers.Big Labor’s “us versus them” worldview is so entrenched that they can’t recognize the fact that most successful companies value their employees, and do whatever they can to retain their best workers. That reality, of course, undercuts the relevance of unions.So what’s a...

As did most of us, I first heard of Theresa Cao when she made her now famous (some say infamous) statement in the House of Representatives’ chamber on 6 January 2011 during a formal reading of the US Constitution. As Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) read the Constitutional requirements for a United States president, Theresa called out from the gallery, “Except Obama, except Obama, help us, Jesus! My name is Theresa.” Unlike what had occurred previously with the Marxist-Leninist Left-wing group Code Pink and Cindy Sheehan merely being escorted out of the chamber when they severely disrupted sessions in the House...

Two lawmakers said Sunday they'll pack heat back home after the deadly attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The decision by Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) raises new questions about whether lawmakers should carry guns for self defense - or need to. "After the elections, I let my guard down," Shuler, an ex-NFL player, told Politico. "Now I know I need to have [my gun] on me." Shuler and Chaffetz won't be the first lawmakers to be strapped. The U.S. Marshals Service can deputize a member of Congress as a special deputy marshal if a threat assessment...

Full Headline - "David Cameron spent £66,000 on TV coaching by Obama's body language expert during election campaign": - "David Cameron spent more than £66,000 flying in Barack Obama’s body language expert to help prepare for the televised election debates, it emerged yesterday." "Detailed receipts show the Tories spent £66,333 hiring the Washington firm SKDKnickerbocker to prepare Mr Cameron for the debates, in which he was widely considered to have been bested by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg." "Consultant Anita Dunn, who advised President Obama on body language, was part of the team flown to London four times to prepare...

Like Orwell’s farm animals, we have awakened to see the new commandments on the barnyard wall.Californians have been experiencing ten days of the wettest, snowiest weather in recent memory. In the usually arid San Joaquin Valley, flooding is ubiquitous. The high Sierra passes are locked in snow well before the first of the year. If the United Kingdom is dealing with the irony of its elites’ recently warning of an end to snow on a now snowy island, out here our version of that embarrassment is water everywhere after Energy Secretary Chu warned us that our farms would blow away...

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit noted over the weekend that buried deep on the HHS website is a list of over 100 companies/organizations that have been granted waivers from the new health care law. Some of the companies on the list are well know, e.g. Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel restaurants and CIGNA health insurance. Others on the list seem conspicuous because of their small size. For instance, how did a company called Captain Elliot’s Party Boats get a waiver for their 10 employees? It turns out Captain Elliot’s Party Boats is the name of a company in Freeport, Texas...

Radio host and author Paul A. Ibbetson's fictional version of Animal Farm with a conservative twist. The delightful tale of Oliver the Squirrel unfolds on this departure from the conservative political discussions found previously in Ibbetson's books. Oliver's Tale is a thinker's piece and while written in the same spirit as George Orwell's Animal Farm it has its own unique social, political, and religious message to be discovered by readers. Surrounded by a colorful cast of animal characters, Oliver experiences a spiritual growth in his relationship with God as he becomes privy to the secret plan of the Gray Skunk,...

The United Federation of Teachers -- one of President Obama's key political backers -- is the biggest beneficiary of a White House sweetheart deal that will exempt certain outfits from complying with new health-care rules, officials revealed yesterday. The quietly approved federal waivers for 30 companies, health insurers, unions and other groups across the country means the UFT doesn't have to gradually phase out caps on annual health coverage like everyone else. The UFT was concerned that could have been a major financial hit on the union. The one-year waiver, approved last month by the Department of Health and Human...

Regulation: Thirty companies and organizations get waivers from the new health care overhaul because otherwise they'd have to raise rates or drop coverage. The president said neither would happen. Hey, where's our waiver? When McDonald's told federal regulators in a recent memo that it would be "economically prohibitive" for its insurance carrier to continue to cover its 30,000 hourly workers unless it received a waiver from the ObamaCare requirement that 80% of premiums for such minimed plans be spent on medical care, alarm bells went off in the White House. Suddenly the "affordable health care for Americans" that House Speaker...

They might not be dangerous, but they're armed. Seeking an added layer of protection, more high-profile celebrities are seeking permits to carry guns in New York City, according to New York's Daily News. Among the big names licensed to pack heat: Marc Anthony, Robert De Niro, Donald Trump, and his son, Donald Jr., Mets third baseman David Wright, and Martha Stewart's daughter, radio host Alexis Stewart. Anthony, 42, has a special permit that allows him to carry a loaded weapon in the city, and has a similar permit for Nassau County, where he and Jennifer Lopez have a $2 million...

The concept of an Elite was described by George Orwell in his book 1984: his portrayal was so graphic it seems our current Socialists borrow as heavily from Orwell as they do from Alynsky. Orwell condemned and ridiculed the Elite: Alynsky described how to use the concept to achieve power and confuse the opposition. Both the authors have been extremely useful in defining the mission for the Elite wannabe, the Rules for Radicals is an effective guide that capitalizes on the absurdity that is the image of the Elite: an image that is still useful in the audacity of...

Recently circulated news stories charging that federal employees are grossly overpaid — allegedly earning more than twice their private industry counterparts — are based on “a flawed reading of statistical data,” according to Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.). In a Sept. 15 speech, Kaufman disputed a USA Today article purporting that federal workers’ pay dramatically outstrips that of their private-sector counterparts. The newspaper’s analysis, which was based on Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data, concluded that, in 2009, federal employees received an average total compensation in pay and benefits of $123,049, while private sector workers made $61,051. The newspaper’s analysis did...

Over the years a lot of suspicion has built up across the country about Washington and its population of opportunistic transients coming to see themselves as a special kind of person, somehow above average working Americans who don't work down in that former swamp. Well, finally, an end to all those undocumented doubts. Thanks to some diligent digging by the Washington Post, those suspicions can at last be put to rest. They're correct. Accurate. Dead-on. Laser-guided. On target. Bingo-bango. As clear as it's always seemed to those Americans who don't feel special entitlements and do meet their government obligations. We...

For years, researchers such as Gerald Celente have been warning that the coming economic collapse is going to spark mob scenes and riots that are unprecedented in U.S. history. Many have scoffed at these predictions and have refused to believe that anything like that could ever happen in America. But if what happened on Wednesday near Atlanta is any indication, we could be on the verge of something really bad. 30,000 people turned out to pick up only 13,000 applications for government-subsidized housing. Some people had waited for over two days just to get their hands on an application. The...

After the U.S. Government took action against several sites connected to movie streaming recently, nerves are jangling over the possibility that this is just the beginning of a wider crackdown. Now it appears that a free blogging platform has been taken down by its hosting provider on orders from the U.S. authorities on grounds of “a history of abuse”. More than 73,000 blogs are out of action as a result. Hot on the heels of recent threats from Vice President Joe Biden and Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel directed at sites offering unauthorized movies and music, last month U.S....

In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists. The legal justification for arresting the "shooter" rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which...

I’m not sure how relevant the CEO of ACORN is anymore, but at least she’s not hiding her stripes. She attended a Young Democratic Socialists meeting in late March and said we are living in a time -- referring to the TEA party movement -- that will dwarf the era of Jim Crow and segregation. Watch the video...

Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees — and, by extension, to themselves. * * * But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.” “My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”...

...Beaverton Middle School teacher Jason Levin's group wants to infiltrate the Tea Party to discredit the organization. But since Levin's name has been associated with the "Crash the Tea Party" Web site, he has been harassed by people who say they belong to that group. Levin told KATU-TV that his phone has been ringing around the clock and his answering machine is recording threats...

Chicago Breaking News reported late last night that former Chicago schools chief and current Secretary of Education Arne Duncan manipulated a system to favor powerful political allies by placing their children in the schools of their choice. The discovery of a list, the existence of which had been long denied by the city, and its composition of mainly high-powered political figures calls into question the appeals system used to reconsider applications that had been denied by the top Chicago-area schools: While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help...

As the Massachusetts blame game unfolds, the president’s unpopular health bill leads the list. But the substantive provisions of the bill were just part of the problem. Perhaps more important, voters were appalled by how the deal unfolded. Consider the pre-election giveaway to the labor unions. Negotiators agreed to exempt union contracts until 2018 from the tax on so-called Cadillac health-insurance plans. That backroom bargain not only outraged the voters, it also violated the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, requiring the federal government to extend equal protection of the laws to all U.S. persons. Of course, not all voters...

I wanted a post about this sign I saw at the Stop the Bill Rally in DC becuase it was done by a teenage girl who is very talented and on top of things.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama ordered federal agencies on Wednesday to take measures to prevent companies that are delinquent in paying taxes from obtaining new government contracts. Obama also instructed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to review the accuracy of companies' reports on their tax obligations to be sure they are truthful. "We need to be sure that when a company says it's paying taxes, that company is, in fact, paying taxes," Obama said. The move is the latest in a series of populist-toned events Obama, a Democrat, has emphasized to generate support for his political and legislative...

Though Republicans oppose the so-called "public option," Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., is proposing the requirement to draw attention to the plan's alleged flaws. Republican Rep. Joe Wilson proposed an amendment Wednesday that would force all members of Congress to receive health insurance coverage through the government-run plan proposed in the House's reform bill. Though Republicans oppose the so-called "public option," the South Carolina gadfly -- who gained notoriety for shouting "you lie" at President Obama during his address to Congress two months ago -- is proposing the requirement to draw attention to what he sees as the plan's flaws. "They...

Despite court prodding and changes in state election laws, 16 Virginia localities have failed to meet a deadline to allow absentee ballots of military personnel serving overseas to be counted on time. Nancy Rodriques, secretary of the State Board of Elections, said she did not know how many ballots will not be counted. The local election districts include the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights and Williamsburg as well as Caroline County. "Words cannot express my disappointment in our commonwealth," said Rusty McGuire of Hanover County, chairman of the Iraqi Freedom Veterans Plate Project and deputy commonwealth's attorney in Louisa County....

Those New Jersey school children singing songs of praise to Obama might remind us of this poem from Animal Farm by George Orwell: Comrade Napoleon Friend of fatherless!Fountain of happiness!Lord of the swill-bucket!Oh, how my soul is onFire when I gaze at thyCalm and commanding eye,Like the sun in the sky,Comrade Napoleon! Thou art the giver ofAll that thy creatures love,Full belly twice a day, clean straw to roll upon;Every beast great or smallSleeps at peace in his stall,Thou watchest over all,Comrade Napoleon! Had I a sucking pig,Ere he had grown as bigEven as a pint bottle or as a...

Per Drudge

"This is the cause of my life - new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American - north, south, east, west, young, old - will have decent quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege."

Here is video of a very emotional Vice-President Joe Biden today talking about the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. Biden quoted Shakespeare, saying "we shall never see the likes of him again." . . . . . (Watch Video)

<p>The death of Sen. Edward Kennedy quickly became a rallying cry for Congress to pass health care overhaul legislation.</p> <p>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office sent an email to reporters at around 2:30 a.m. today, just hours after his death, calling for the passage of health care overhaul. “Ted Kennedy’s dream of quality health care for all Americans will be made real this year because of his leadership and his inspiration,” the statement read.</p>

Senator Ted Kennedy has died.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, longtime Democratic senator and the patriarch of the Kennedy political family, has died after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. The Kennedy family released a statement early Wednesday morning saying, "Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply – died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port. We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this...

A 24-year-old arrested this morning on suspicion of smashing 11 windows at Colorado Democratic Party headquarters tried to conceal his identity while allegedly committing the crime, according to police descriptions. Maurice Schwenkler wore a shirt over his face, a hooded sweat shirt and latex gloves before he and another man fled the scene on bicycles, police said. Schwenkler was apprehended after a short chase. The other suspect remains at large. While Schwenkler does not appear in the state's voter registration database, a person by that name in November 2008 received $500 from a political 527 committee called Colorado Citizens Coalition...

Social Connections, Political Savvy and Boundless Energy Have Made Heather Podesta The It Girl of a New Generation Of Lobbyists The chairman beams. So many people just dying to see him, the business guys, the pols, the lobbyists -- lots and lots of lobbyists. They circle Charlie Rangel -- birthday boy, Democrat and, of course, House Ways and Means chairman -- circles like rings on a tree planted in the party room here at Tavern on the Green. Simple math: the more powerful the pol, the more rings on the tree. This is a very thick tree. Not a problem,...

<p>A Florida teenager could face felony vandalism charges for allegedly gluing posters depicting President Obama as the Joker onto public property, FOXNews.com has learned.</p> <p>Clermont, Fla., Police Capt. Eric Jensen said the state attorney will review evidence to determine whether to charge the unidentified teenager with gluing "dozens" of the posters last week to the city's light poles, public and private buildings, bridge overpasses, road signs and a mailbox.</p>

The current issue of the Globe, (August 17, 2009), one of the most read supermarket tabloids, displays on its cover a photo of a worried Obama with the headline in big type: "Obama birth certificate is FAKE!" The full story appears on pages 30-31. I didn't read the article, and I don't plan to pay more than 3 dollars to buy the Globe to read it. Actually, I am sure that most of the information about the subject is correct, and most of it may have been copied right from the pages of WorldNetDaily. But, in the case of supermarket...

Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-MA) manages to answer the question that Keith Ellison (D-MN) and the rest of her Obama-care supporting colleagues in both the House and Senate have avoided. The crowd, however, didn’t like the response very much, and lets Tsongas know it. At about the four-minute mark, one of Tsongas’ peons constitutents asks Tsongas whether she will commit to adopting ObamaCare for her own coverage and give up her so-called “Cadillac” or “gold-played” Congressional coverage, and that’s when Tsongas suddenly becomes concerned with protecting choice

In a very orderly discussion of the Health care issue on Saturday 8/8/2009 Congressman Doggett was asked about mandating all Congressmen, Senators, government workers and the President to be required to use the same health plan as the American Public. His committee has studied health care for 2 years but says that such provisions are not part of the overall plan. Both sides of the healthcare reform issue cheered when this was brought up to the Congressman.

The White House strategy of turning supporters into snitches when they see "fishy" information about the health care debate may run afoul of the law, legal experts say. "The White House is in bit of a conundrum because of this privacy statute that prohibits the White House from collecting data and storing it on people who disagree with it," Judge Andrew Napolitano, a FOX News analyst, said Friday. "There's also a statute that requires the White House to retain all communications that it receives. It can't try to rewrite history by pretending it didn't receive anything," he said. "If the...

Senator Dodd, yao have a wonderful opportunity to showcase the healthcare system that you are attempting to legislate on the people of the United States. You meet the guidelines of the Obama Healthcare reform for getting end-of-life counselling. You are 65 and have a potentially life-threatening condition. Please submit yourself to evaluation and determine if your life is worth the cost of saving. After all, you've voted in a stimulus package that is bankrupting us and we need to save money any way we can. Oh, and please don't tell me that you're keeping your gold-plated congressional healthcare-for-life package in...

WASHINGTON – The White House is turning to the Internet to hit back at a Web posting that claims to show President Barack Obama explaining how his health care reform plans eventually would eliminate private insurance.

Durbin warns other lawmakers of healthcare town hall 'sucker punch' @ 3:39 pm by Jordan Fabian Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) warned other members of Congress against antagonistic audience members at healthcare town hall events who may be funded by industry interest groups. "I hope my colleagues won't fall for a sucker punch like this," Durbin told the liberal blog ThinkProgress. "These health insurance companies and people like them are trying to load these town meetings for visual impact on television," he added. Liberal news sources have recently featured items about conservative and interest groups efforts to pack lawmakers' town hall...

An Arlington airman whose legs were amputated after a gallbladder surgery went terribly wrong lacks the same basic legal right to sue his surgeon that state and federal prisoners enjoy, a New York congressman says.

Senator Ted Kennedy, who is now 76 years old and was ( diagnosed with brain cancer) in May of last year, is telling the world that nationalized medical care is "the cause of his life." He wants to see it pass as soon as possible, before he departs this vale of tears. The prospect of Kennedy's passing is viewed by the liberal press with anticipatory tears and mourning. But they are not asking the proper question by their own lights: That question -- which will be asked for you and me when we reach his age and state in life...

For much of the Bush administration, the media splashed stories of neoconservative conspiracies and cabals. Exposés about mostly Jewish liberals-turned-conservatives charged that they were adherents of the philosopher Leo Strauss and embraced the Platonic notion of the “noble lie.” In his Republic, Plato outlined an elaborate, ranked utopia, a good city (“Kallipolis”) run by a sort of benign natural selection. The philosopher-kings sat atop hierarchies in which occupations were assigned for the citizenry. To justify arbitrary selections, the rulers would make up “noble lies” about divine edicts, making clear that the occupations chosen for lesser folk were god-given. Once the...