Free Republic

Outgoing Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe's office says he plans to pardon his son over a felony marijuana conviction. Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the two-term Democratic governor planned to pardon his son, Kyle, who was convicted in 2003 of felony possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. DeCample said the pardon recommendation would be included in the final pardons issued by the governor early next month.

“This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO (Congressional Budget Office) did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. … So it’s written to do that,” Gruber said, suggesting “it would not have passed” if the law “made it explicit” that healthy people would “pay in” and the sick would get money. “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” Gruber continued. “Call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to get the thing to pass. I wish...

The University of Pennsylvania which had originally posted this has now pulled down the video from their site. But this is an attempt on the part of Jonathan Gruber and company to pull their pants up after they got caught. I think it's comical that these people still believe they can say whatever they want in public, but then flip out if anyone quotes them. It also appears that the Snopes.com mafia has been called in to cast doubt upon the incident as conservatives have reported it. They call this claim a Mixture of true and false. Here's their lame...

President Obama has come out in support of reclassifying internet service as a utility, a move that would allow the Federal Communications Commission to enforce more robust regulations and protect net neutrality. "To put these protections in place, I'm asking the FCC to reclassifying internet service under Title II of a law known as the Telecommunications Act," Obama says in a statement this morning. "In plain English, I'm asking [the FCC] to recognize that for most Americans, the internet has become an essential part of everyday communication and everyday life." "The decision is still up to the FCC" There's been...

The federal committee charged with creating nutrition guidelines for Americans is calling for fat interventions at workplaces.During a presentation at the sixth meeting of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) on Friday, the committee said government needs to take “bold action” to fight obesity.The solutions included “comprehensive” obesity interventions in “health care, the community, public health facilities, and work sites.”“The public should monitor body weight and engage with providers in evidence-based approaches aimed at achieving and maintaining healthy body weight,” the panel said in a presentation on “Food and Nutrient Intakes, and Health.”The committee, which is responsible for creating...

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- After speaking out against statements of Pope Francis that appear to be very lenient toward homosexuals in the church, Cardinal Raymond Burke has been removed from his position as leader of the Vatican's highest court. The pope has worked on a draft of the synod of bishops that included welcoming homosexual people into the Catholic church, to some degree. That part did not make it to the final draft, but it did stir things up in the church. Around this time, Cardinal Raymond Burke told Buzzfeed "the pope is not free to change the...

You won't see the news in the mainstream media. After all, this is not a priest. 44-year-old Stefan Johansson, former President of the RFSL (Riksförbundet för homosexuellas, bisexuellas och transpersoners rättigheter), or the National Association for the Rights of Homosexuals, Bisexuals and Transsexuals, was sentenced on 24 October to five years in prison and ordered to pay 60,000 euros for pain and suffering caused by rape, pimping and paedophilia. Founded in 1950, the the National Association for the Rights of Homosexuals, Bisexuals and Transsexuals is Sweden's largest organization of its kind, with more than 6,000 members. The RFSL was...

More than a dozen members of Congress were defeated on Tuesday night. But taxpayers will still have to keep sending most of them checks. Members of Congress are eligible for a pension after just five years in office, so that means senators qualify for one after a single six-year term. But most can't start drawing full payments until age 62. North Carolina's Kay Hagan, for instance, lost her first bid for reelection. For senators and representatives with only six years in office, the annual pension is about 10% of annual pay -- in Hagan's case, that's $17,400 a year based...

For those who say network scheduling isn’t a big deal anymore thanks to DVRs, we turn your attention to what happened Thursday night on ABC. In a very jarring transition, the adorable end of the annual special “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” segued into “Scandal,” which happened to kick off with a very steamy sex scene. On Monday, the watchdog group Parents Television Council unleashed an angry statement at ABC condemning the abrupt shift in kid-centric programming to a very much not age-appropriate scene. After all, families are known to gather around the cartoon every year and may not...

Schools found ‘indoctrinating pupils about gay people’ will face being closed down under new rules designed to promote ‘British values’, the Government confirmed today. The Department for Education insisted it was ‘nonsense’ to suggest teachers would have to give lessons on gay rights. But a spokesman insisted Ofsted, which has introduced the new rules the wake of the Islamist Trojan Horse plot to radicalise pupils in Birmingham, was right to ensure schools were not breeding grounds for homophobia. A spokesman said: ‘Ofsted are rightly ensuring that schools do not indoctrinate pupils about gay people - or any other people -...

In a new campaign to reportedly raise awareness of "privilege," the University of San Francisco is handing out fliers telling anyone who is white, straight, Christian, or "able-bodied" that they are privileged and need to "check their privilege." The campaign was put together by three professors at the college and Student Life. The fliers also claim that if you believe that your gender identity and biological gender are the same (that is, if you consider yourself a male and you are biologically male), you are privileged as well. No matter who you are, no matter what your situation in life,...

Former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton said she learned all she needed to know about Sen. Mary Landrieu by watching her work to get funding for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Clinton recalled she and Landrieu's experience in the U.S. Senate together during a get-out-the-vote rally at the Sugar Mill in New Orleans on Saturday. She touted Landrieu's leadership and how she prioritized Louisiana's women and families while urging the crowd to vote Tuesday. Clinton and Landrieu served in the Senate together from 2001-2009. Clinton said her greatest memories of Landrieu came in the aftermath of Katrina. She remembered Landrieu...

Ever heard of Electronics for Imaging? We hadn't either until this morning, but it's apparently a multimillion dollar, multinational, public corporation based out of Fremont, California. And the United States Department of Labor just caught EFI red-handed in an investigation, which found that "about eight employees" were flown in from India to work 120-hour weeks for $1.21 per hour. EFI apparently thought it was okay to pay the employees the same wages they'd be paid in India (in Indian rupees). Here's the unbelievably crazy sounding quote EFI gave to NBC's Bay Area affiliate: "We unintentionally overlooked laws that require even...

FULL TITLE: Two boys, 13 and 14, 'raped two sixth-grade girls for hours in the auditorium of their Bronx middle school' A 13-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy have been arrested for raping two sixth-grade girls for nearly two hours in the auditorium of their middle school, police have said. The two young girls, who are just 12 and 13, were lured into the area at the Urban Science Academy in the Bronx on October 16 and attacked for at least two class periods, officials said. Although the students were missing from class for hours, no teacher or security officer...

PASADENA (CBSLA.com) — The estranged partner of a Pasadena high school science teacher is accused of unlawfully accessing the man’s account and sending hundreds of nude photos to students and adults on his email list. The emails contained a nude photo of John Muir High School teacher Richard Rosa. After an investigation, it was determined that Rosa was out of the country at the time the emails were generated. Authorities determined Rosa’s estranged partner, David A. Galvan, 38, accessed Rosa’s account and sent the emails because he was angry over their relationship ending. In addition to sending the email to...

A federal grand jury will meet in downtown Orlando Wednesday to hear testimony about whether Trayvon Martin's civil rights were violated when Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot him in the chest, according to court paperwork.. A U.S. Department of Justice attorney from Washington, D.C., Mark Blumberg, has issued at least one subpoena for Wednesday in the case. Blumberg would not comment on the grand jury session, but the federal panel is to meet at 9 a.m. at the federal courts building on Central Avenue in downtown Orlando to hear evidence in the case. It's not clear how many witnesses...

Scandal: Documents obtained by a government watchdog group list emails between the attorney general and his wife regarding a White House statement on the "gun walking" scandal the White House wants kept secret. The release of the government's Vaughn Index of documents that the administration withheld from the House Oversight Committee's investigation of Fast and Furious may not be the October surprise that the Obama administration hoped for. It raises more questions than it answers and shows the absurd extent of the administration's cover-up. On July 18, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates ordered the Justice Department to produce, in...

Speaking to a mostly white college audience: "“This progress has been hard but it has been steady and it has been real,” Obama said at Northwestern University on Oct. 2. “And it’s the direct result of the American people’s drive and their determination and their resilience, and it’s also the result of sound decisions made by my administration. So it is indisputable that our economy is stronger today than when I took office.” Obama griped to party donors several days later that his accomplishments are a mystery even to his most loyal supporters. “Most of you don’t know the statistics...

In a Tuesday email to supporters entitled, "Carl DeMaio Wants You to Vote For Him, But He Totally Disrespects Your Vote," the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has followed through on a promise to "actively oppose" the candidate the GOP establishment has branded a "New Generation Republican." The email endorses voting for the incumbent Democrat, Scott Peters, even though he is "wrong on the issues."

A former CBS News reporter who quit the network over claims it kills stories that put President Obama in a bad light says she was spied on by a “government-related entity” that planted classified documents on her computer. In her new memoir, Sharyl Attkisson says a source who arranged to have her laptop checked for spyware in 2013 was “shocked” and “flabbergasted” at what the analysis revealed.