Free Republic

Just got a call from the spouse - no idea what is up

Call it J.C Penney’s private flash crash. The stock today plunged 19.7% to close at $26.57. That’s even worse than Black Monday 1987. On that day, the stock lost a hair less, 19.2%. It’s unclear if this is the stock’s worst day ever. (Perhaps it suffered an even worse day during the 1930s.) However, it is clear that this is the worst single-day performance in the past 40 years. That’s as far back as our FactSet data goes.*

Bristol Palin thinks it’s laughable that President Barack Obama’s children influenced his decision to support same-sex marriage. “While it’s great to listen to your kids’ ideas, there’s also a time when dads simply need to be dads,” Bristol, the eldest daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, wrote in a blog post titled “Hail to the Chiefs – Malia and Sasha Obama” on Thursday. Obama said on Wednesday that his daughers' acceptance of friends with same-sex parents helped prompt his "change in perspective." In response, Palin writes: In this case, it would’ve been helpful for him to explain to Malia...

I assume, depending on the timing, if he were recalled but resigned before the votes were counted, she would get the reins? Kinda funny to think about.

Democrats and Media now recommend using video cameras to diagnose Patient Injuries

The court’s conservatives sounded as though they had determined for themselves that the 2,700-page measure must be declared unconstitutional. "One way or another, Congress will have to revisit it in toto," said Justice Antonin Scalia. Agreeing, Justice Anthony Kennedy said it would be an "extreme proposition" to allow the various insurance regulations to stand after the mandate was struck down. Meanwhile, the court's liberal justices argued for restraint. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the court should do a "salvage job," not undertake a “wrecking operation." But she looked to be out-voted. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel...

Kennedy apprears to be very critical of Mandate provision. LA times headline "Justices signal possible trouble ahead for health insurance mandate," they note: “Are there any limits,” asked Justice Anthony Kennedy... “If the government can do this, what else can it … do,” Scalia asked? Politico headline, "No Fifth Vote Yet to Uphold," ... "The conservatives all express skepticism, some significant. They doubt that there is any limiting principle.

If there were ever a Republican for President Obama to work with, it was Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. She was one of just three Republicans in the entire Congress to vote for his economic stimulus plan in 2009 and even tried to work with him on health care, but in an interview with ABC's Senior Political Correspondent Jonathan Karl, Snowe makes a remarkable revelation: She hasn't spoken to President Obama in nearly two years. Snowe said that if she had to grade the President on his willingness to work with Republicans, he would "be close to failing on that point."...

The sun unleashed a cosmic double whammy Tuesday (March 6), erupting with two major flares to cap a busy day of powerful solar storms. One of the flares is the most powerful solar eruption of the year, so far. Both of the huge flares ranked as X-class storms, the strongest type of solar flares the sun can have. They followed several weaker, but still powerful, sun storms on Tuesday and came just days after another major solar flare on Sunday night. ... It is the strongest solar flare yet for 2012. ... "First-look data from Stereo-B are not sufficient to...

BELLEVUE, Wash., March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- A federal court ruling in Maryland, that the Second Amendment right to bear arms extends beyond the home and that citizens may not be required to offer a "good and substantial reason" for obtaining a concealed carry permit, is a huge victory, the Second Amendment Foundation said today. Ruling in the case of Woollard v. Sheridan - a case brought by SAF in July 2010 on behalf of Maryland resident Raymond Woollard, who was denied his carry permit renewal - the U.S. District Court for Maryland ruled that "The Court finds...

BALTIMORE — A federal judge has ruled that Maryland’s handgun permit law is unconstitutional. In an opinion filed Monday, U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg says a requirement that residents show a “good and substantial reason” to carry a handgun infringes their Second Amendment right to bear arms. He says it isn’t sufficiently tailored to the state’s public safety interests. Plaintiff Raymond Woollard was denied a renewal of his permit in 2009 because he could not show he had been subject to “threats occurring beyond his residence.” Woollard obtained the permit after fighting with an intruder in his Hampstead home...

John Delaney, the Potomac financier running for the Democratic nomination in Maryland's 6th Congressional District, is worth between $51.8 million and $232 million, which would make him the 9th most wealthy member of Congress if elected, according to a financial disclosure statement released by his campaign Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans are looking to deny child tax credits to illegal immigrants — refund checks averaging $1,800 a family — in an effort that has roused anger among Hispanics and some Democratic lawmakers. The proposal, which would require people who claim the federal credit to have Social Security numbers to prove they're legal workers, is being offered as a way to help pay for extending the Social Security tax cut for most American wage-earners. It would trim federal spending by about $10 billion over a decade. .... Says Leticia Miranda, senior policy adviser of the National Council of...

The 2012 Super Bowl ultimately went against the New England Patriots by 21-17, much like in 2008. Now that the New York Giants have beaten the Patriots in the final minutes for the second Super Bowl in a row, it has made everyone rethink the legacies of both teams. New England should have the greatest dynasty in NFL history and even in sports history by now. While Brady and Belichick still have their three titles, ... they should have six or even seven instead - and that has now started to overshadow the rings they do have. If New England...

The sky is falling on Red Sox nation - again. The Boston Red Sox celebrated their first World Series title in 86 years in 2004. Just three years later, they are conjuring up memories of another historic campaign - 1978. The Red Sox have lost five of their last six games - many in excruciating fashion - to see what was a 14 1/2-game lead on May 29 shrink to just 1 1/2 over the rival New York Yankees in the American League East. Boston squandered a 14-game advantage to New York in late July 1978 en route to the...

Students attending out-of-state colleges could forfeit hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars in scholarships if they register to vote in their college's state rather than their own. Unlike other voters, college students in most localities can choose to vote in their home state or the state in which their college is located. But in many states, including Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, students receiving financial aid from state coffers will lose their grants if they go to school in another state and register to vote there. ''If a student registers to vote, they are declaring themselves a resident of...

Kerry 257 BUSH 271 (MN up for grabs)

Good intro befor ethe show

In three fresh polls on the presidential race in Wisconsin, one shows the state to be tied, one shows President Bush with a statistically insignificant lead and the third shows Sen. John Kerry with a comparably insignificant lead. A poll by American Research Group, based on interviews with 600 likely Wisconsin voters Saturday through Tuesday, found a Bush-Kerry tie at 47 percent, with 2 percent for Ralph Nader and 5 percent undecided. A poll released Wednesday by the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute, based on 623 interviews with likely voters conducted Thursday through Tuesday, showed Bush with 48 percent, Kerry...

DETROIT (AP) -- A new poll of likely Michigan voters published Thursday showed 47 percent supporting President Bush and 43 percent backing U.S. Sen. John Kerry. The telephone poll of 400 people conducted Monday and Tuesday by East Lansing-based pollster Steve Mitchell for The Detroit News, found 1 percent supporting independent Ralph Nader, 2 percent backing other candidates and 7 percent unsure or refusing to say. The 4 percentage point difference between the support for Bush and Kerry is within the poll's 5-point margin of sampling error. An Oct. 11-13 poll of 600 likely Michigan voters found 48 percent backing...