Free Republic

Obamacare -- Just Another Democrat Brick in the 2012 WallBy Patricia Campion 9 hrs ago **SNIP** When the dust settled, Democrats staggered from the election rubble to realize they had received the worst political drubbing in 70 years. On the brighter side, considering the flaccid economy, a growing record deficit, the first credit rating downgrade in United States history, continued stagnant unemployment, having a record number of Americans living below poverty level and dependent on government assistance, a growing list of Solyndra-esque failures, Fast and Furious, the tenuous state of Obama's foreign policy, gas prices rising 83 percent during Obama's...

Geithner: Tax hikes must be part of budgetBy Peter Schroeder - 02/14/12 01:18 PM ET Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told skeptical Republican senators Tuesday that it is simply not possible to correct the nation’s fiscal problems without raising taxes. Geithner defended President Obama’s 2013 budget proposal before the Senate Finance Committee and said the plan is the only option he sees for helping the economy and addressing the deficit without hurting the middle class. "I do not see how you get there if you are unable ... to contemplate and to embrace modest increases in revenue through tax reform," Geithner...

A meeting of the finance chiefs of the 17 euro countries to discuss Greece's second multibillion bailout planned for Wednesday was called off on Tuesday evening after Athens failed to deliver in time on several demands made by its partners in the currency union. The last-minute cancellation of the meeting shows the eurozone wants much tougher guarantees now from Athens before giving it an extra 130 billion euros ($A160 billion) in rescue loans, on top of 110 billion euros granted in 2010, raising fears that the complex deal could still fall apart. Wednesday's meeting was expected to give the green...

The first post-communist country to adopt the euro, the former flagship state of the former Yugoslavia is struggling to recover from the crisis of 2009. And the new - and fragile - Government of Janez Janša is fighting get the country out of the impasse. The Bank of Slovenia is seriously considering a bailout for Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), which suffered losses amounting to as much as 386 million euro over the last three years, Ljubljana’s Finance daily recently reported. Five years after joining the euro, the Slovenian economy faces new trouble. In fact, the post-Yugoslav republic has never really...

Public-sector unions find a candidate to run against Scott Walker.To this day, Wisconsin liberals genuflect at the mention of “Fighting Bob” La Follette, the state’s most revered political figure, who served as governor and U.S. senator and won 17 percent of the vote as a Progressive Party candidate for president in 1924. La Follette earned his place in state lore the hard way, fighting an uphill battle against what he called “the menace of the political machine.” Back then, that meant party bosses who anointed candidates in smoke-filled rooms, blunting the will of the people. La Follette believed that to...

With its political consensus, labour agreements and reforms in progress, Portugal appears to be better off than Greece. But the threat of bankruptcy remains and a fresh turn of the screw is still possible, warns Expresso. In Portugal, anyone who has watched the footage of pitched battles between demonstrators and police in Syntagma Square and heard the reports of political party disputes over the latest austerity package will have no trouble distinguishing between the respective situations of the two countries. In Portugal, we have a political consensus backed by 80% of MPs, and a social agreement [between political parties and...

Romania digs out from 15 feet of snow The Associated Press reports: Snow as deep as 15 feet (4.5 meters) isolated areas in Romania, Moldova and Albania on Tuesday and turned a power plant in Kosovo into a park of dazzling ice sculptures. In a winter harsher than many can remember, energy workers struggled mightily Tuesday to break the ice that has encapsulated Kosovo's main power station in Obilic. Steam from the plant's vents coated its pipes and buildings with ice and snow, turning them into unworldly, unrecognizable objects of art.

Muslim Girl 'Attacked By Siblings For Kiss' Muslim teenager Shamima Akhtar was kidnapped, imprisoned and had her hair cut off after her family saw her kiss a white man on her 18th birthday, a court has heard. [Pics in URL] Kayum Mohammed-Abdul, left to right, Nadiya and Nazira bundled their sister into a car Photo: PA Shamima was bundled into a car by sisters Nadiya, 25, Nazira, 29, and brother Kayum Mohammed-Abdul, 24, outside a Basingstoke restaurant when they saw her kissing work colleague Gary Pain on April 1 last year. The jury heard how an "extremely aggressive and threatening"...

Patton: Just a Taste of a Second Obama Term First, he came for the General Motors bondholders, but the religious leaders were not GM bondholders, so they did not speak up. Then he came for the oil companies, but they were not oil company executives, and again they did not speak up. Next, he came for control of the nation’s health care system, and again they saw no threat — in fact, many of them supported his plan. We were told we had to pass the plan to find out what was in it. Then he came for our freedom...

Emergency powers for president dropped from cybersecurity billBy Gautham Nagesh - 02/14/12 01:55 PM ET A comprehensive cybersecurity bill introduced Tuesday abandons proposals that would give the president emergency powers over the nation's networks. “The nation responded after 9/11 to improve its security. Now we must respond to this challenge so that a cyber 9/11 attack on America never happens,” said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). Public apprehension about the possibility of handing the White House a "kill switch" for the Internet has dogged the cybersecurity debate, fueled by a proposal that would have codified emergency powers...

Photos: Dining with Michelle Obama in Orlandoposted by joe burbank on February, 10 2012 10:36 PM

A Greek default and traumatic ejection from the euro moved a step closer last night after eurozone finance ministers cancelled a crucial meeting, accusing Athens of failing to flesh out austerity cuts. The escalating brinkmanship came as fresh data showed that Greece's economy contracted by 6.8pc last year and at an accelerating 7pc rate in the last quarter, far worse than expected by the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) "troika". The country appears to be in a self-feeding downward spiral that is playing havoc with budget targets, leaving Greece with a...

A man thought to be Iranian has had both legs blown off after attempting to throw a bomb at police in the Thai capital, Bangkok, officials say. Two other explosions were reported in the same busy commercial district of the city, injuring four other people. Police said one blast took place at the house the injured man rented with other Iranians. One of those men also threw a bomb at a taxi in the capital. Last month, the US embassy warned of possible attacks in Bangkok.

CHICAGO (CBS) — A former Chicago alderman turned political science professor/corruption fighter has found that Chicago is the most corrupt city in the country. He cites data from the U.S. Department of Justice to prove his case. And, he says, Illinois is third-most corrupt state in the country. University of Illinois professor Dick Simpson estimates the cost of corruption at $500 million. It’s essentially a corruption tax on citizens who bear the cost of bad behavior (police brutality, bogus contracts, bribes, theft and ghost pay-rolling to name a few) and the costs needed to prosecute it.

Households earning more than $250,000 a year would see the tax they owe on dividends rise to a maximum of almost 40% next year, equal to the higher maximum income tax rate set to take effect in 2013. The current top income rate is 35%. Obama again proposed raising the current 15% long-term capital gains tax rate to 20%

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — President Barack Obama is headed back to Southern California — and so is his street-closing, traffic-delaying presidential motorcade. Obama will be in town Wednesday and Thursday on a fundraising trip through Beverly Hills and Orange County. While details are still not finalized and remain highly subject to change, the closures will be over a smaller stretch of the Southland and are not expected to be as disruptive as during previous visits. The president’s itinerary for Wednesday, Feb. 15, includes: •After 3:00 p.m.: Arrival at LAX •Between 3:45 p.m. and 4:15 p.m.: Helicopter from LAX to VA...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration's corporate tax reform plan will end "dozens and dozens" of tax breaks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday as he defended the White House's election-year call for higher taxes on the wealthy. Within days, the administration is set to unveil a blueprint for revamping the corporate tax system aimed at leveling the playing field for all companies, which pay wildly differing levels of taxes, while lowering the top corporate tax rate. Companies are clamoring for a cut in the top 35 percent corporate tax rate but disagree about how to how eliminate...

MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Hundreds packed the Alabama Statehouse courtyard on Tuesday to rally against the state's tough immigration law, with organizers saying they chose to send a message on Valentine's Day that lawmakers need to love and respect immigrants. People bused in from across the state to demand repeal of the law that aims to be tough on those in the country illegally. Protesters carried signs reading, "Gov. Bentley, don't you have a heart?" "No Juan Crow" and "Una Familia, Una Alabama" while chanting in Spanish and English "no more HB56" (the bill that became the law) and "one family, one Alabama."...

An antiquated voter registration system is to blame for listing 1.8 million dead people as registered "active" voters in the United States, the Pew Center on the States concludes in a new study that shows millions of mistakes in voter rolls across the nation and recommends online sign-up. The study found 24 million voter registrations, or one out of every eight, were no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate. Beside the nearly 2 million dead potential voters, 12 million registrations had the wrong address and 2.75 million voters were registered in more than one state. "The system has been using...

Attorneys for the company filed papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware last week asking for a court order to dispose of up to 3,900 pallets filled with glass tubes that were used to make Solyndra’s solar panels. The lawyers said the company tried to auction the tubes, return them to a supplier and sell the material to recycling companies. But it was too expensive to ship back to the supplier and nobody seemed interested in buying the glass, the attorneys said in court papers. Unable to sell the assets, Solyndra said it would be cheaper just to abandon the...

Scandal: A drug enforcement agent says other agencies knew in 2009 about the Justice Department's gunrunning operation and even tried to interdict the weapons flow. And, yes, it was a gun-control plot. The notion that Fast and Furious was a localized operation run out of the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of which few, particularly the arguably clueless Attorney General Eric Holder, were aware continues to be exposed as the lie it is. "In 2009, I became aware that ATF was walking guns," Tony Coulson, who was in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency-Tucson...

It is certainly no surprise for gun owners to see the New York Times run a story belittling the United States Constitution. After all, the Times has worked for decades to devalue our founding document. "[I]ts influence is waning," opines the Times. It is "terse and old, and it guarantees relatively few rights." The paper faults the Constitution for being difficult to amend and reflective of the times in which it was written. While the Times does not go so far as to claim the U.S. Constitution has been bad for America, it does lament that it is of "little...

We are learning more about the double homicide in Great Bend Township Saturday afternoon. A gun shop owner, Lloyd Thomas is now charged with two counts of First Degree Homicide. We have also learned the name of the second victim. 28-year-old Gilberto Alvarez recently moved from Florida to the area to work for a gas drilling company. The other victim, 30-year-old Joshua Rogers of Hallstead, was Alvarez's friend and temporary roommate. A State Police investigator tells Fox 40 that both men have criminal records,and at the time of the killings one of them was carrying a shotgun. Investigators say the...

New details are emerging about the fatal shooting in Great Bend Township Saturday afternoon. According to court records Lloyd Thomas admitted to police that he shot Joshua Rogers and Gilberto Alvarez and said he was acting in self defense. Investigators are still trying to figure out why the two men who lived nearby in Hallstead were on the Thomas family property. Alvarez had moved to the area from Florida. After working at the New Milford Pump and Pantry, he got a job with a gas drilling company. A friend tells us both men were military veterans, and served overseas. Police...

I think late January and February have been the busiest time for Operation Fast & Furious. The media still doesn’t give it proper coverage, especially this news: On February 4th, Mexico arrests a key figure in Fast & Furious. Not only is he a key person in Fast & Furious, but he was also a top lieutenant to El Chapo. I first found out about it on Borderland Beat, a great website keeping us up to date about the drug war in Mexico. The Los Angeles Times reported it on February 7th and my colleague AWR Hawkins published commenrary on...

BARRY COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A Barry County homeowner says he took matters into his own hands Monday morning and shot a man he claims was trying to break into his home. The incident happened around 7:00 am Monday morning on Boyson Road near 9 Mile Road in Orangeville. Investigators with the Barry County Sheriff's Department are looking at whether the shooting is actually self defense. The homeowner says he shot an intruder, but deputies are looking at who should be charged. “We have to sort out was it self-defense or was it something criminal that either party had...

A Dallas woman says TSA agents repeatedly asked her to step back into a body scanning machine at DFW International Airport. “I feel like I was totally exposed,” said Ellen Terrell, who is a wife and mother. “They wanted a nice good look.” When Ellen Terrell and her husband, Charlie, flew out of DFW Airport several months ago, Terrell says she was surprised by a question a female TSA agent asked her. “She says to me, ‘Do you play tennis?’ And I said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘You just have such a cute figure.’” Terrell says she walked into the body...

ANTIOCH -- A man at home with his young son disarmed and shot to death an apparent home invader Monday night, police said. The resident was in his home in the 4800 block of Wexler Peak about 8:20 p.m. when he heard the doorbell ring but did not answer right away, police said. Moments later, he heard what sounded like someone kicking in his front door. He went to the commotion and got into a fight with a man armed with a gun, police said. In the struggle, the resident took the gun from the male intruder and shot him...

On his Monday show, radio talk show host Mark Levin, author of “Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America,” said “what would happen if we were living in a functioning constitutional republic is articles of impeachment would be drawn up against the secretary of [Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius]” over a slew of charges, most recently the contraception mandate for Catholic institutions. “I’m not trying to be controversial,” Levin clarified. “I’m telling you how it would work if it were [a functioning constitutional republic] . For violating her oath to uphold the Constitution, for violating her fidelity to the rule of...

The Philadelphia Inquirer's big story Feb. 4 was about how a budget crunch at the Philadelphia School District had caused the district to lay off 91 school police officers. Over the years, there's been no discussion of what has happened to our youth that makes a school police force necessary in the first place. The Inquirer's series "Assault on Learning" (March 2011) reported that in the 2010 school year, "690 teachers were assaulted; in the last five years, 4,000 were." The newspaper reported that in Philadelphia's 268 schools, "on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were...

Over the weekend, a drama with potentially horrific consequences for freedom-loving Americans played out half-a-world away. A Saudi newspaper columnist named Hamza Kashgari was detained in Malaysia, reportedly on the basis of an alert by the International Criminal Police Organization, better known as Interpol. Reuters quotes a Malaysian police spokesman as saying that, “This arrest was part of an Interpol operation which the Malaysian police were a part of.” It was apparently mounted in response to a “red notice” (or request for help apprehending an individual) issued by Saudi Arabia. Kashgari was then sent back to Saudi Arabia where he...

The Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) has announced that its President Chakib Ben Makhlouf has visited the Gaza Strip on an extended tour where he visited Hamas facilities, praised Palestinian “martyrs, and visited the grave of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yasine who was killed by Israel. According to the FIOE announcement: Mr Chakib Ben Makhlouf the president of FIOE visited Gaza Strip in an extended tour where he inspected the conditions of Palestinians and their civil institutions after three years since the Israeli war on the strip. During his visit, the FIOE president expressed the commitment of...

WASHINGTON — The nation’s voter registration rolls are in disarray, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States. The problems have the potential to affect the outcomes of local, state and federal elections. Decentralized and paper-based voter registration is prone to error, according to a new report. One in eight active registrations is invalid or inaccurate. At the same time, one in four people who are eligible to vote — at least 51 million potential voters — are not registered. The report found that there are about 1.8 million dead people listed as active voters....

A Johnstown man was shot and wounded when a Penn Run area property owner interrupted him in the course of a burglary early Wednesday, authorities said. The man then fled to Armstrong County, where he reportedly burglarized at least one home and was captured by state police outside a busy convenience store. Clinton Edwards, 27, was held at the Armstrong County Jail with bond set at $25,000 on charges filed by state police at Kittanning. Troopers at Indiana are waiting to wrap up their investigation before filing additional charges, said Trooper John Matchik, a spokesman at the Indiana station. Edwards...

The echoes of his oath of office had barely faded when President Barack Obama added another accolade to his resume. Just nine days after he began his occupation of the White House, Barack Hussein Obama was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, which he infamously won. Although the prestige of the Nobel laureates has declined in recent years (their number includes the murderous Islamofascist Yasser Arafat and the faux-scientist Al Gore), ObamaÂ’s win was hailed by his minions as proof that his ascension from obscurity was the first step toward a modern-day Pax Americana. Unfortunately, much like the votes of...

STAFFORD, VA, February 13, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As Planned Parenthood kicks off National Condom Week tomorrow, it will also be actively engaged in selling sex to children as young as those in grade school with graphic videos and books. The American Life League has compiled a video exposing some of Planned Parenthood’s disturbing materials that are presented to school-age children across the country. “Any parent that sees the video of Planned Parenthood’s material for school children will be horrified,” said Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League. “Planned Parenthood’s business model is aimed at making money from people...

.....First they came for Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs. And the Catholic bishops did not speak out. Now they are coming for the Catholic bishops. Who will speak out now? Not, alas, the United Church of Christ. Let's go back into recent history -- 2009 to be exact. It was a story that involved the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a blatant, full-on attack on the right of free speech and a free press -- the First Amendment. As I wrote here, here, here, here, here, and here three years ago, the Catholic bishops had managed to get their...

Sources close to the Senator Wanggaard Campaign are stating that 130 high school students have signed the recall petitions calling for a recall election. There are 80 confirmed signatures of students who are not old enough to vote. They were verifying additional signatures for eligibility. The group states that they are filing an addendum to the challenge for the recall signatures. It is not confirmed if these students also signed other recall papers for the Governor. More on this story as it develops.

LONDON (Reuters)—A radical cleric once described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe" was freed from a British prison to live under virtual house arrest on Monday after a court ruled that his detention without trial was unlawful. The Jordanian preacher known as Abu Qatada must wear an electronic tag to allow the police to keep track of him, spend 22 hours a day at his family home and is banned from using the Internet and mobile phones. Twice convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement in terrorist plots, Britain says he is still a national security risk...

Greek parliamentarians have voted through an austerity package that keeps their hopes of securing a €130bn bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund on track. But more hurdles have to be cleared before loans start flowing, which are vital if Greece is to avoid a default in March, when it faces €14.5bn of bond repayments, a bill it cannot foot alone. Following are the next steps in the process. This week • Having secured parliamentary approval against a backdrop of violent protest across Greece, Athens must now detail where it will find an extra €325m of cuts demanded...

EXCLUSIVE: A re-branded ACORN branch in California is raising money to help fund an upcoming "Occupy" protest in Sacramento, FoxNews.com has learned. The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment sent out letters this month pleading for contributions of up to $20,000 for buses, food, printing, sound and other supplies for an upcoming event dubbed "Occupy the Capitol."

The FDA has won its two-year fight to shut down an Amish farmer who was selling fresh, raw milk to eager consumers in the Washington region, after a judge this month banned Daniel Allgyer from selling his milk across state lines, and he told his customers he'll shut his farm down altogether. The decision has enraged Mr. Allgyer's supporters, some of whom have been buying from him for six years and who say the government is interfering with their parental rights to feed their children. But the Food and Drug Administration, which launched a full investigation complete with a 5...

LINDEN - Skull fragments, 300 bones of all sizes and personal items - an engraved woman's ring, a purse, a sandal - were pulled this weekend from the depths of an old well east of Linden. By Sunday afternoon, a mass grave in eastern San Joaquin County was taking shape. The grisly discoveries began to surface just as convicted serial killer Wesley Shermantine promised. The death row inmate - in letters to The Record - had called the site "Loren's boneyard" long before county Sheriff's deputies started digging a massive pit next to Flood Road. Shermantine, 45, wrote that Loren...

As part of its expanding efforts to control and constrain Internet usage, the Islamic Republic has trained its sights on Facebook. In late January, regime authorities arrested four administrators of a user group on the popular social networking site. The offending group had launched an online beauty competition in which Iranian citizens of both sexes submitted their photos to the site. In a note on the Facebook group’s page, Iranian cyber police stated that “The four main managers of this group have been identified and arrested on the charge of inciting and encouraging individuals to access vulgar content through the...

And to think, up to one week ago Obama was vehemently opposed to super PACs. Via The Hill: Four Obama administration cabinet members suggested an openness to appearing at pro-Obama super-PAC events. iWatch News at the Center for Public Integrity reports that spokesmen for Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Energy Secretary Steven Chu suggested that their bosses would be willing to raise money for the super-PACs. A week earlier, after previously criticizing the legal ability of super-PACs to raise unlimited amounts money for their candidates, President Obama signed off on some...

The American bishops have, with alacrity, rejected President Obama's proposed "accommodation" on the contraception mandate in no uncertain terms. Their response came before the sun had set on the very day of his announcement. Noting that the "proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions," the Catholic hierarchy virtually guaranteed more political hemorrhaging for the White House. The bishops indicated that they were not consulted in advance of the President's announcement and had just received information about...

n his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives. *snip* Among those cited in the Washington Post report were the following (below):

The coalition government has overcome party rebellions and massive public pressure in passing new austerity measures, but says it still faces "three weeks from hell," it is struggle to avoid bankruptcy. The government is now racing to find a formula for a 325m euros budget gap before eurozone finance ministers meet again on Wednesday. Their approval of the Greek plan is vital for the country to launch procedures for a separate 100 euro debt-relief deal with banks that the government has said must start no later than Friday. Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis "We are facing three weeks from hell," government...

Ana shudders at what could have happened. She has heard about people who walk and die in the desert, who freeze in the mountains and who drown in canals. She knows that some suffocate in semitrailers or boxcars, where they are crammed so tightly they cannot turn. She knows that others are beaten and raped by smugglers, who leave them to die. Every year, migrants risk their lives to illegally cross the 2,100-mile border that separates Mexico and the United States, two neighboring nations that have one of the largest income gaps on Earth. "I was lucky," said Ana, who...