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When a liberal reporter asked Steve Lonegan if “Sarah Palin was too far-right for New Jersey,” Lonegan did what Republican candidates for Senate have not done in recent memory: He went on offense. “I don’t think it’s far right to support small business owners and to support taxpayers who are struggling,” he shot back. “Sarah Palin is a wonderful mother. She was also a wonderful governor and an excellent role model for women.” That’s not how Republicans coming out of the Northeast typically respond when they encounter a hostile reporter. And if you ask Amy Kremer, chair of the Tea...

After months of anguished debate over mass shootings, gun control and Second Amendment rights, the Justice Department finds itself on the defensive after a training manual surfaced that suggests federal agents could face a firing squad for leaking government secrets. The online manual for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — complete with a photo of a turn-of-the-century firing squad — was obtained by The Washington Times from a concerned federal law enforcement official, and it immediately drew protests from watchdogs who said it showed a lack of sensitivity to gun violence and the continuing hostile environment toward...

BOZEMAN — The number of Montana residents with concealed weapons permits has more than doubled since 2008.

This is it folks, the New Jersey special election for U.S. Senate, today, Wednesday, Oct. 16th. After months of campaigning, it all comes down to voter turnout. In response to Booker's plunging poll numbers 2 days before the election, President Obama came out with a video asking voters to turn out for Cory Obama., I meant to say Cory Booker. Although, with his eagerness to follow in his idol's footsteps, many are calling Booker, Obama's clone. In case you haven't noticed, there's a political perfect storm a brewin'; unforeseen events all working together, ushering in a resurgence of Conservatism, while...

In a move that portends a labor firestorm, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and four other city leaders filed papers on Tuesday aiming to put a public pension measure on the November 2014 statewide ballot. If approved, the measure would change the California Constitution to give state and local government authority to lower current employees’ pension and retiree health benefits prospectively.

(CN) - Concerns that a limitation on concealed-carry permits in Orange County, Calif., amounts to an all-out ban did not seem to resonate with the 9th Circuit. A three-judge panel with the federal appeals court met this week to consider a 2012 lawsuit challenging Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchen's policy of "denying law-abiding, competent adults ... state-required licenses to carry handguns in public for the purpose of self-defense." The policy requires gun owners to prove to the sheriff that they have a valid reason to carry their gun for self defense.

Nothing is more important for a startup burning through cash than winning customers and revenue. So problems with the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplaces, also known as exchanges, aren’t just an inconvenience. They’re a threat. Nobody is pushing the panic button. March 31, the end of enrollment, is several months away. Co-ops are well financed with federal loans. Evergreen holds enough capital to be in good shape even if it doesn’t reach what Beilenson calls “self-sustaining” membership of 15,000 or 20,000 in the first year, he said. But with few confirmed customers so far and no revenue, Evergreen and its...

As Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., mulls retirement, a local lawmaker is considering a mounting a primary challenge against him in the Magnolia State. State Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican aligned with the tea party, confirmed to CQ Roll Call this week that he’s considering challenging the six-term senator. “We are keeping all of our options open because we want to do the right thing for the conservative movement,” McDaniel said in a Wednesday phone interview. “No firm decision has been made one way or the other.” Many Mississippi Republican emphasized their support for Cochran to seek a seventh term, underscoring...

We’ve written extensively of late regarding the widening divide between fiscally conservative Republicans and the “neoconservative” fiscally liberal wing of the party – led by U.S. Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn. For our latest on this subject, click here. This week, Republicans in Mississippi (well, Marshall County Mississippi) have taken action against one of their fiscally liberal lawmakers – U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. In fact according to the website Mississippi PEP, they’ve censured him. For those of you unfamiliar with this aging RINO, Cochran is one of several Southern “Republicans” who habitually caves to U.S. President Barack...

Liberal U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.) is getting another challenger … but it’s not one of the big name fiscal conservatives being courted by national limited government groups. Orangeburg, S.C. attorney Bill Connor – who ran for lieutenant governor in 2010 and SCGOP chairman in 2011 (unsuccessfully on both occasions) – is reportedly jumping into the race in the next few days. We’ve written previously on the speculation surrounding Connor’s bid, but multiple grassroots sources tell FITS he is getting ready to pull the trigger. Connor’s prospective candidacy received a major kiss on the lips from The South Carolina Conservative,...

Many people criticize President Obama for spending too much time campaigning, traveling or on the golf course. They are wrong. He spends too much time in a far more removed and unique place: Wonderland. Indeed, he seemingly lives in Wonderland. The problem is that the rest of us live in the real world. Over the last five years it has becoming increasingly clear that Barack Obama and his crew of handpicked officials see America and the rest of the world in ways at variance with reality.

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act eventually could cost the Aiken County School District from $300,000 to $400,000 a year, District Comptroller Tray Traxler told School Board members on Tuesday. Those costs are rough estimates based on the number of employees who may or could average 30 hours of service every week. Each employee formally added to the program could cost the District $3,000 to $6,000 annually as its contribution, depending on whether the employee has a child who qualifies. Probably the biggest headache for Traxler's department is the requirement that the District must provide continuous monitoring of such employees'...

Businesses across the nation, including the Pinellas County school district, are adjusting their health care plans to comply with the Affordable Health Care Act, but one variable may end up costing the school district millions: substitute teachers. By 2015, the act requires the school district to provide health care benefits to all employees who work at least 30 hours a week. Last school year, there were 1,798 part time employees, including substitute teachers, working in instructional and administrative positions, according to the school district. “We have substitutes that work on a regular basis and over a certain period of time...

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...

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...

Over the course of the week, the BizTimes editorial team attempted to log on to the website to learn more information about the new marketplaces. After running into several error messages on various attempts, we were eventually able to create an account, but were not able to fully log in to the online marketplace. Stephanie Smiley, communications director for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), said that she said she did not know of a single Wisconsin resident who had been able to sign up for health insurance at healthcare.gov. "So far, folks are getting caught up in the...

SAN FRANCISCO - One reason the Republicans are so adamantly against Obamacare, is that it's driving individual insurance premiums up. And with the law now kicking in, the bills are coming due. In looking into this, we talked to health insurance companies, and representatives of Covered California, agency implementing the Affordable Care Act in California. What they told us may be a bitter pill to swallow, for those who will pay more. Cynthia Jaynes thought her family would benefit from the Affordable Care Act. The author of several young adult books says her family will see a minimum 11 percent...

“The Health Insurance Marketplace is Open!” the home page on the Health Care.gov website breezily announces, but for most of the 14.6 million people who have tried to log in over the last two weeks, that promise proved a chimera. Computer problems caused by a perfect storm of complexity, inadequacy, and opposition have plagued the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. It’s not as if there were no forecasts of impending disaster. The New York Times reported that “deadline after deadline was missed.” Over the last 10 months, while HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius continued insisting that all was well, senior...

Is the Affordable Health Care Act making health care unaffordable for some people? Some customers of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of Oregon’s largest insurance providers, say that's exactly what's happening. They say they are finding their health care plans are dramatically changing under the Affordable Care Act. “Policy holders are seeing almost double their monthly premiums,” said a KATU viewer named Larry in an email. He said his wife’s premium will increase by $300 under the Affordable Care Act. The issue, according to Regence spokesman Jared Ishkanian, is you’ll have to pay for those benefits even if you...

Obtaining health care is no laughing matter. Yet the only way to cope with practical implications of the Democrat-sponsored Affordable Care Act is comic relief. Would Democrats rather commit political suicide than try to fix massive flaws in a bungled rollout of a mangled law? Forget about delaying Obamacare for a year, perhaps we should delay it until Democrats can pass a critically scored sanity check. A divisive law, that few read, and that a thin majority shoved down our throats deserves the date it will eventually get with the electoral version of “death panels”. It is a monstrosity which...

There is nothing more pernicious than the illusion of liberty surviving, or even flourishing, alongside growing government power. It doesn’t work that way, not once you get past the transition from anarchy to lawful government. Personal liberty does not exist in a state of anarchy, because individuals can be defrauded, robbed, and killed at will by lone predators and organized gangs. Some degree of government power must clearly be exercised to secure liberty. But when a government the size of America’s federal system grows larger, it occurs only at the expense of liberty, and the contraction of the private sector....

GDANSK, October 15, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Sunday, thousands of Poles joyfully marched for life and family with multi-colored banners and flags through the streets of the city where the Solidarity movement was founded. This was the fourth March for Life and Family to take place in Poland. Each year it is co-organized by Human Life International - Poland. The march began at the symbolic monument to the Shipyard Workers victims of communism, which displays three crosses with crucified anchors. Some of the marchers carried long strips of cloth on which was inscribed the full text of the Vatican document,...

PAYSON, AZ - Republican Rep. Brenda Barton of Payson compared President Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler on her Facebook page Monday in a post urging county sheriffs to revoke authority from the National Parks Service “thugs” who are enforcing the federal shutdown on national parks lands. “Someone is paying the National Park Service thugs overtime for their efforts to carry out the order of De Fuhrer… where are our Constitutional Sheriffs who can revoke the Park Service Rangers authority to arrest??? Do we have any Sheriffs with a pair?” she wrote. Fuhrer is a German term for leader that is...

Brilliant observation by WND’s David Kupelian – The ‘gay rights’ movement is a trojan horse for totalitarianism. He explores this in the October issue of Whistleblower available here. A “Trojan Horse” is “any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or space.” (Wiki) WND Story here. David Kupelian says, “this particular issue – this revolutionary sexual anarchy movement, which more than any other ideology, including Marxism, Islam or atheism, has the potential of permanently corrupting our nation’s core ‘operating system’ called the family – is the one issue that almost everybody...

It kills me when I hear anti-gunners exclaim how they are against guns because they have a right to feel safe.A right to feel safe?Are you kidding me?I looked through the entire thesaurus looking for a word that could capture how disgustingly self-entitled that statement is.The word I came up with can’t be written in this article so use your imagination.You don’t have a right to feel safe anymore than I have a right for Zoe Saldana to be in love with me.It’s ridiculous to think you have a right to feel safe, with that line of reasoning we should...

Heritage Action For America, an influential conservative group, on Tuesday urged House Republicans to vote against their leaders' latest bill to fund the government and raise U.S. borrowing authority. The private group said that the legislation, which was scheduled to be voted on late on Tuesday, fails to "stop Obamacare's massive new entitlements from taking root." The group is warning lawmakers that it will look at their positions on this legislation in considering whether to encourage candidates to run against them in Republican primary campaigns next year.

Apparently, it’s become fashionable to wonder whether fissures in the GOP might eventually grow into a schism, with tea party candidates mounting independent challenges to the GOP in the 2014 elections. Last night, David Frum went a step farther, writing that a tea party exodus might actually help Republicans by freeing them of Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz, allowing the GOP to slide back to the political center. It's a centrist fantasy. If Republicans think they have a pathway to victory without the tea party, they’re sorely mistaken. The tea party is not some small, fringe element of the Republican...

Eleven million American adults with mental illnesses do not have health insurance, making it very difficult for them to get treatment. It is difficult for these Americans to get health insurance because their applications are often rejected due to their pre-existing condition of mental illnesses. Thankfully, the Affordable Care Act has many provisions that aim at trying to fix this problem. Here are some of the ways Obamacare is working to bridge the insurance gap that exists for adults with mental disorders:

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan will withhold money from Xerox Corp. because a technical problem crashed the state's debit card-style food stamps program over the weekend...

My sources tell me House Republicans have postponed tonight’s vote on their plan to end the fiscal impasse. “The votes aren’t there,” says a leadership aide. “We’ve been amending the bill all day, but we’ve been unable to get people around this strategy.” This development leaves Speaker John Boehner with few options as Thursday’s debt-ceiling deadline nears, and it throws the action back toward the Senate, which has been working on a bipartisan package.

LINK ONLY PER FR POSTING RULES. Gist: Official from Michigan Department of Insurance cannot confirm that anyone has enrolled.

The Obama administration’s internal projections called for strong enrollment in the states in the first year of new health insurance markets, according to unpublished estimates obtained by The Associated Press. The draft, dated Sept. 20, broke down the figure of 7 million among states. It estimated the expected enrollment in California, for example, at 1. 3 million people in 2014. The estimate for Texas was 629,000 and for Florida, 477,000. The report estimated 340,000 people would enroll in Washington state, and 218,000 in New York.

A 59-year-old small business owner from Selbyville spent over seven hours between phone calls and the computer, but her patience earned her the distinction of being the first person from Delaware to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. When everything was done Baker said she found coverage for about $700 /month. She and her husband had been paying $1600/month. He now has his own insurance, which is written through a private carrier. Baker wouldn't describe the type of plan she eventually signed up for, but said she didn't qualify for subsidies.

Tirge Caps, a blogger at Daily Kos, says that in 2013, pre-Obamacare, he pays $150 a month for a health insurance plan from Kaiser. His wife pays $168. However, under Obamacare, their rates will nearly double, to $284 and $302, respectively: Read the comments section to see how Tirge’s compadres reacted to his situation.

HONG KONG - Perhaps the only people who have managed to find a silver lining in the ongoing US government shutdown are Chinese intellectuals. Of course, Americans view the impasse as a sign of political dysfunction. But to many Chinese commentators, it also reveals certain strengths. Since the shutdown began nine days ago, Chinese social media have been full of wistful, almost admiring remarks about how the shutdown could only happen in a democratic country with a resilient economy and responsive political representation. "The government's closed - is this bad?" wrote Chen Zhiwu, a user on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo....

France's National Assembly on Tuesday voted for a revamp of the country's debt-ridden pension system amid protest marches in Paris and other cities over the controversial measure. The reforms will raise the pay-in period for pension contributions, meaning employees will need to work longer to be eligible for full pensions. Protestors in Paris marched to the National Assembly under a banner calling for "the creation of jobs, retirement at 60 and salary increases."

It may be one of the most serious missteps of the federal government shutdown. A review by McClatchy finds that lawmakers, former intelligence officials and national security experts say they were shocked that the administration furloughed the bulk of federal workers at 16 intelligence agencies, many of them tasked with the most important job in the government: safeguarding lives. Some accuse Obama administration officials of deciding whom to send home based on politics, seeking to dramatize the impact of the shutdown as part of a plan to blame Republicans. But others say the process was surprisingly haphazard – a moving...

Fitch Ratings on Tuesday put the U.S. AAA credit rating on watch for a potential downgrade because of the standoff over raising the nation's debt limit. The company said it still believed the debt limit would be raised soon, but the "political brinkmanship" was risking a default.

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition… it’s America’s Clean-Up Hitter! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Barney Frank spent 32 years in the U.S. House before retiring in January. In recent years, he helmed the House Financial Services Committee during the 2008 financial crisis, became the first member of Congress to marry a same-sex partner while in office and helped lead the charge for a ban on anti-gay firings (so far stymied) and post-crash financial reform (that law now bears his name). He’s currently writing a book. In a Monday afternoon interview, Frank predicted the endgame of the debt-ceiling showdown and defended his push in Congress for an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would have left out...

Grim-faced senators left their party lunches Tuesday fearful that Washington was poised to do the unthinkable: Blow past the Thursday deadline to avert an unprecedented default on the U.S. debt. After House Republicans drew a stern rebuke from the White House for moving their own proposal, Senate leaders abruptly broke off their talks, leaving Washington with no clear path to avert a growing national crisis. Even if the House fails to pass a bill and a deal is eventually reached in the Senate, any one senator can object and delay a final resolution until after the Thursday deadline when the...

President Barack Obama has "full confidence" in Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius despite the troubled launch of the U.S. government website for signing up for his signature healthcare insurance program, the White House said on Tuesday. Americans trying to shop for health insurance at healthcare.gov under Obama's healthcare law have been frustrated by error messages, long waits and system failures, with many failing to make it through the system despite repeated tries.

The media, members of Congress, and the President of the United States have gleefully disseminated misinformation about what would happen if we do not raise the debt ceiling by October 17th. The biggest blow these lies encountered was when Moody’s, one of the nation's top credit rating agencies, released a memo on October 7th stating: “We believe the government would continue to pay interest and principal on its debt even in the event that the debt limit is not raised, leaving its creditworthiness intact...The debt limit restricts government expenditures to the amount of its incoming revenues; it does not prohibit...

Updated, 4 p.m.: Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah did not attend Tuesday’s party luncheon where a number of ideas to avert default were discussed, according to a senator present at the meeting. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. — who has referred to the tea party conservatives as “wacko birds” and has repeatedly called their plan to link defunding of Obamacare to the government shutdown a “fool’s errand” — outed the two no-shows. Cruz and Lee pose two of the most serious threats (outside of maybe the entire House GOP caucus) to getting a debt limit...

Question: If Ted Cruz and John Boehner were both on a sinking ship, who would be saved? Answer: America. Harsh? Look around you at what is happening to America and you will see harsh. I am not talking about closed parks and monuments. I am talking about the funds cut to nearly 9 million mothers and young children for food, breastfeeding support and infant formula. That is harsh. Making a war against babies is harsh. And for what? Because Cruz, Republican senator from Texas, has grown so drunk on the sound of his own voice and so besotted with illusions...

The Obama administration has been mighty pleased with themselves and the various ways in which they have stepped up their climate-change game with impunity, mainly through aggressive regulatory maneuvering (most recently with their new plans to essentially regulate new coal-plant construction out of existence paired with their forthcoming plans to regulate existing coal plants next year). The Obama administration has been discouraging the Supreme Court from providing a platform for the inevitable legal challenges to their emissions-capping agenda, but to no avail: The highest court in the land decided to hear out the consolidated arguments against the Environmental Protection Agency’s...

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has suspended talks with Senate Democrats to give House Republicans more time to work on their own play to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown. According to a source familiar with the discussions, McConnell has suspended talks to give House Republicans room to work. But neither side has much time to craft a new solution, with a possible default looming on Thursday. The Treasury Department has warned it will not have the flexibility to pay all of the nation’s bills on Oct. 17. House Republican leaders on Tuesday announced their own...

Lurking at the very bottom of Conn's summary of the House's (final?) counter-offer to the Senate is this intriguing nugget: If the bill passes, House Republicans may adjourn leaving Senate Democrats and President Obama with a final take-it-or-leave-it offer. First, "if the bill passes" is an open question, though it's sounding like House Republicans have mostly rallied around the Speaker's plan. They opened their meeting this morning by singing "Amazing Grace," then telegraphed their next volley. Whether they have the votes to pass it without any Democratic support -- Pelosi will likely whip hard against it -- remains to be...

Let's begin with a complication: The House Republicans' counter-offer is still in flux, with conservative sweeteners (regarded as poison pills by Democrats) in the mix to be tacked on before a vote. Changes, added demands, and recalcitrant members could alter the landscape considerably over the next few hours. All that being said, the GOP's basic framework is awfully close to Reid's plan. And yet: Reid went thermo-nuclear on the potential House proposal -- sight unseen -- because it reportedly differs slightly from his preferred route. He's busy negotiating with Senate Republicans, who, last I checked, are in the minority. House...

When Mary Porter enrolled last year at East Central Community College in Rolla, Mo., she landed a job at a fast-food restaurant and worked full-time for minimum wage to pay the bills. Things were looking up for the budding college student, who had grown up a ward of the state’s foster care system. But earlier this year, Porter’s hours were cut. Her employer cited the Affordable Care Act as the reason, she told The College Fix. “Then they told us that they couldn’t afford to pay us health insurance,” said Porter, 22, who is no longer allowed to work more...