Free Republic

Dem: Gov. Christie angling for VP nod with healthcare vetoBy Sam Baker - 05/11/12 09:50 AM ET Democrats say New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was simply angling for the GOP’s vice presidential nomination when he vetoed a bill to implement part of President Obama’s healthcare law. Christie vetoed legislation Thursday to create an insurance exchange — a new marketplace for consumers to compare and buy healthcare coverage. The Affordable Care Act directs each state to establish an exchange by 2014. “This was very clearly a message to Mitt Romney saying, ‘Pick me, pick me,’ ” Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) said...

Even if ObamaCare survives Supreme Court scrutiny next spring, its trials will be far from over. That's because the law has a major glitch that threatens its basic functioning. It's so problematic, in fact, that the Obama administration is now brazenly trying to rewrite the law without involving Congress. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act offers "premium assistance"—tax credits and subsidies—to households purchasing coverage through new health-insurance exchanges. This assistance was designed to hide a portion of the law's cost to individuals by reducing the premium hikes that individuals will face after ObamaCare goes into effect in 2014. (If...

I can still see his eyes and his twinkling smile as I walked him to the bus, with his rucksack over his back and a pair of ‘kafkafim’ (shower shoes) tied on and dangling from a piece of string. It was Sunday night, the first week of June 1982 and once again Israel was at war. After incessant shelling from the PLO in Lebanon forcing the people in northern Israel into their bomb shelters all weekend, Israel had finally had enough. AT 5 a.m. on June 5, IDF forces crossed the border into Lebanon. That evening, Rav Amital z”l, the...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Looking dazed, a thin and pale Gilad Schalit emerged from a pickup truck Tuesday under the escort of his Hamas captors and the Egyptian mediators who helped arrange the Israeli tank crewman's release after more than five years in captivity.Click here for article

A £1bn flagship government project for fighting climate change – the construction of a prototype carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at Longannet in Scotland – is on the verge of collapse, it emerged on Thursday. Talks between the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) and Scottish Power have run into deep trouble and the electricity supplier is expected to pull the plug on the government-promoted scheme, which hoped to bury carbon emissions from the coal power station in the North Sea.

The Obama Administration is setting up the rules and regulations to establish a federal Health Insurance Exchange in every State. This will put all insurance and health care delivery under federal control. The Exchange could best be called a "lobster trap". Once installed, it'll be almost impossible to get out. The deadline for your comments is next Wednesday, September 28. Please take this opportunity to say NO.

Not content with having invented the internet, the great Climate Science communicator Al Gore appears to have developed still more miraculous skills of late: the ability to turn 17,000 into 8.6 million – just like that. The figures refer to the number of "views" for Gore's special "24 Hours Of ManBearPig" which this column helped celebrate the other day. Gore claims that as many as 8.6 million flocked to his thrilling festival of climate fear; but a nasty cruel man called Charles the Moderator at Watts Up With That? has "done the math" and reckons the figure is probably more...

Republican lawmakers who oppose the federal health care overhaul are questioning Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton's authority to move ahead with a state health insurance exchange using dollars from Washington. Sen. David Hann said today that Dayton is bypassing the Legislature by taking a $4.2 million federal grant to design a major feature of the federal law. Dayton has been a strong supporter of the health care overhaul since taking office in January.

HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) — Foreign students working at a candy warehouse protested conditions and pay Thursday, chanting on Chocolate Avenue under streetlights shaped like Hershey's Kisses, arguing that they were employed under the guise of a cultural exchange but toil away in what amounts to a sweets sweatshop. The State Department said it was investigating. More than 100 students gathered in touristy downtown Hershey, home to the nation's second-largest candy maker, complaining of hard physical labor, steep pay deductions for rent that often left them with little spending money, and no cultural enrichment.... *** The students earn about $8 an...

Fox Chief White House Correspondent DECORAH, Iowa – President Obama got into a heated back and forth with a Tea Party activist who demanded to know at the end of a town hall meeting here whether or not Vice President Biden had called members of the Tea Party “terrorists” during the debt ceiling debate. In public, Obama did not directly answer the question from Tea Party activist Ryan Rhodes about Biden. But Obama fired back that he knows better than anyone what it’s like to be slammed for his political views and was not about to accept a lecture on...

<p>DECORAH, Iowa – President Obama got into a heated back and forth with a Tea Party activist who demanded to know at the end of a town hall meeting here whether or not Vice President Biden had called members of the Tea Party “terrorists” during the debt ceiling debate.</p>

Stop the presses. Barely did we have time to report that European regulators failed to impose a coordinated short selling ban, that Bloomberg reports that the countries most impact by the market plunge are about to impose standalone short-selling bans. These are Belgium, Italy, Spain and France. In other words, it really is on and the 2008 Lehman PTSD flashbacks may now resume. Until we get a headline that says it isn't. The rescue of the Borsa Italian is now more schizophrenic than that of Greece. As a reminder, in the previous post the FT quoted Abraham Lioui, a professor...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s (R) exchange with a few hecklers turned into something of a shouting match while he was stumping Thursday in Iowa. Romney faced aggressive inquiries with a liberal bent at the top of the question-and-answer segment of his soapbox speech, which was organized by the The Des Moines Register and broadcast on C-SPAN. He also waged a defense of low taxes for corporations with a response — “Corporations are people, my friend” — on which Democrats quickly seized.

For five years, Israel has practically begged Hamas to accept hundreds of terrorists in exchange for the return of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Hamas has consistently refused to make a deal, and has just as consistently refused to budge even one inch from its opening position, demanding the release of some 1,400 terrorists in exchange for Shalit. It's time for a new approach, says Ron Kehrmann, father of Tal Kehrmann, who was killed in 2003 when terrorists bombed a bus she was riding on in Haifa. And as one who has lost a child to terrorism, Kehrmann has paid...

The dollar doesn’t have much clout these days. The greenback has lost 12 percent of its value against foreign currencies since the chaotic period after the failure of Lehman Brothers in 2008, and nearly 5 percent since the end of 2010. Economists are debating the end of the era of the dollar, while news organizations paint it as a 98-pound weakling. Our so-called “fiat” currency, backed only by the full faith and credit of the government, no longer commands respect. So wouldn’t we be better off without it? Imagine you woke up tomorrow and the dollar had vanished. The Federal...

I, the undersigned citizen oppose HF 497 (Gottwalt-R), HF 1204 (Murphy-D), and SF 917 (Berglin-D) because the bills would establish an Obamacare Health Insurance Exchange which will: Enact federal 'command and control' structure in Minnesota. Create 'Lynchpin' of Obamacare. Establish an IRS 'Policeman' for Insurance Mandate. Embed a 'Defacto' Federal Exchange into Minnesota. Establish a Permanent Exchange in Minnesota even if Obamacare is Repealed or Ruled Unconstitutional.

Sparing no arrow from his rhetorical quiver, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia fired away in dissent of Monday's 6-2 ruling that puts a Michigan man back on the hook for a drug murder and casts doubt on the reach of a hallmark opinion penned by the court's longest serving member. Scalia called Monday's decision a "mistake," "patently incorrect," "incoherent" and a "gross distortion of the law." Over time, all members of the high court have been subjected to Scalia's caustic writings. This time it was Justice Sonia Sotomayor who was responsible for articulating the court's position--joined by five of her...

Rarely are currency exchange rates as good for the American dollar as that of Asian countries. In Asia, the American dollar carries a lot of clout and with the recent devaluation of the USD; it is a good thing that these countries offer an excellent trip for so little cost to Americans.

The Senate bill won’t do much to rein in the insurance costs for the individual market based on data from the Congressional Budget Office and America’s Health Insurance Plans. The CBO today released an analysis (pdf) of the lowest-cost option for insurance on the health exchange in the Senate bill, known as the “Bronze Plan”:

(I received this in my inbox.) To provide you with a clear understanding ... PLEASE PASS IT ON. TO PROVIDE YOU WITH A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PLANS BEING PROPOSED: Healthcare: Questions and Answers (regarding: H.R. 3200, Americas Affordable Health Choices Act): 1-QUESTION: Will health reform force all Americans out of their private insurance plans and into a government-run plan? Answer: No. You will always have a choice. If you like your insurance, you can keep it. H.R. 3200 builds on the employer-based coverage we have today. If your employer offers health insurance, you will continue to get your coverage...

".....Abortion rights supporters say that would have the effect of denying coverage for abortion to millions of women who now have it through workplace insurance and are expected to join the exchange......."

Brazil and China eye plan to axe dollar By Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo Published: May 18 2009 18:24 | Last updated: May 18 2009 23:31 Brazil and China will work towards using their own currencies in trade transactions rather than the US dollar, according to Brazil’s central bank and aides to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president. The move follows recent Chinese challenges to the status of the dollar as the world’s leading international currency. Mr Lula da Silva, who is visiting Beijing this week, and Hu Jintao, China’s president, first discussed the idea of replacing the dollar...

4/16/2009 - ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFNS) -- A Royal Australian Air Force pilot assigned to the 90th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron has had the opportunity to fly the Air Force's premier fighter, the F-22 Raptor, as part of a foreign pilot exchange program. Squadron Leader Matthew Harper is an F-22 instructor pilot and the 90th EFS flight commander in charge of scheduling and training. Squadron Leader Harper began his three-year assignment here in the spring of 2008. The pilot exchange program has been an important part of the military relationship between the U.S. and Australia for many years, according...

This story comes from Bloomberg -- which we cannot excerpt. However, we can provide our own summary of the general gist of the article which is that one of the pirates has claimed both sides have agreed to a prisoner exchange -- our captain for four of their outlaws. The article goes on to warn that as of right now, this is by no means a done deal. You can read the article HERE.

CNBC's Rick Santelli this morning at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange With tongue only partially in cheek, a CNBC analyst on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange this morning responded to President Obama's proposed $275 billion deficit-financed homeowner bailout plan and other massive spending measures with a call for a new "tea party." Rick Santelli, in a nearly three-minute rant that drew approving hoots and comments from nearby traders, said the Obama administration's promotion of bad behavior must be causing the founding fathers to roll over in their graves. "We're thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July," Santelli...

BEIJING (AFP) - China on Tuesday launched its first environmental exchange in Beijing, aiming to eventually provide a platform for emission quota trading, the parent company and state media said. The Beijing Environmental Exchange will be a trading platform for environmental protection technology as well as sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand emission permits, the China Beijing Equity Exchange said in a statement on its website. --snip-- It is the first environmental equity trading institution in China and will initially focus on environmental technology business, with an aim to finally incorporating carbon emission trading, said Tuesday's Beijing Evening News. It...

State Department diplomats are taking full advantage of their new rules prohibiting the use of “jihad,” “jihadist,” and “mujahedeen” to describe Islamic extremists and terrorists, which they apparently have taken to mean that there are no jihadists in light of the exchange programs they have recently sponsored for the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT) — an organization currently under active federal grand jury investigation for terrorist support activities. [HT: Global MB Daily Report] The IIIT exchange programs have been conducted under the State Department’s International Visitor’s Program. According to reports published on IIIT’s website, the State Department sponsored a...

British Council to send pupils on Afghanistan exchange By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent British children are to make exchange visits to war-ravaged Afghanistan and Iraq under a classroom twinning scheme. The plan is the latest step in a dramatic change in outlook for the British Council as it prepares to mark its 75th anniversary next year. Promoting ties with Muslim countries has emerged as a top priority and is closely linked to the Government's efforts to fight terrorism. Swapping the Playstations and duvets of modern Britain for the dirt floors and brick beds of Afghanistan will depend on security...

Zimbabwe abandons fixed official exchange rate By Byron Dziva In Harare Last Updated: 1:52am BST 07/09/2007 Zimbabwe injected a partial element of reality into its chaotic economy yesterday, abandoning its fixed official exchange rate of 250 Zimbabwean dollars to the US currency. It fixed the new rate at Z$30,000 to the US dollar, an official devaluation of more than 99 per cent, but still well above its true value — on the black market US$1 fetches around Z$260,000. The official rate is used for government transactions, but is also a hugely lucrative opportunity for senior officials in Robert Mugabe's regime,...

SALT LAKE CITY - Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd on Saturday criticized rivals John Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who were overheard discussing among themselves their hope of limiting the number of Democrats in presidential debates. The private exchange was picked up by several broadcasters on an open microphone after an NAACP forum in Detroit on Thursday. All the Democratic contenders took part in the program, including Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich. "I'd remind them that the mike is always on," Dodd told reporters on Saturday after addressing a state convention of Utah Democrats. "Celebrity...

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.- A woman in Hot Springs has been arrested after she allegedly exchanged blasts of pepper spray with two police officers. Police said Lawanda Diane Clay, 38, produced a can of pepper spray when two officers were investigating a disturbance complaint Sunday. Clay refused to drop the can, and Cpl. Carl Holland used his own pepper spray on her, police said. Clay responded by allegedly spraying Holland and then the other officer, Patrick Langley, police said. Holland hit Clay twice in the leg with his night stick and she dropped the spray and was handcuffed.

Reuters is reporting an Iranian statement promising the release of the British hostages as a "gift to Britain." See: http://neveryetmelted.com/?p=2392 also

WASHINGTON — The battle to be the 2008 Democratic candidate for president went negative Wednesday, as leading contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama got into a virtual shouting match. With more than a year and a half remaining before the next presidential election, the campaigns exchanged heated words after Clinton suggested Obama return funds to Hollywood bigwig David Geffen, who insulted Clinton in a newspaper article. "We aren’t going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with...

“Within recent years the dollar’s prestige has dipped below its exchange rate”, affirm sociologists from the Public Opinion Fund. 1500 people living in 100 settlements of 44 regions of the country participated in the poll; the survey showed that the native ruble is 12.5 times more preferable than the American currency. As long ago as 2002 every third respondent believed in the strong position the greenback occupied, but the number of dollar-worshippers reduced 7 times by December 2006. The ruble, at the same time, took the opposite path and doubled its admirers’ number: from 37 to 63%. This tendency is...

Before November 1, 1990, the dollar cost 63 kopecks, but there was no opportunity to buy it at such a rate. November 1 of the year 1990 established a commercial rate of 1.8 rubles per dollar. The first trading session was opened on April 9, 1991, in one of the premises of the USSR State Bank, where a blackboard had providently been brought in order to record deals. Following the only concluded transaction (for 50 thousand cashless dollars) the ruble was for the first time ever rated commercially. The real exchange rate of the US dollar against the ruble made...

Israel, Palestinians to swap prisoners within 48 hours: report Israel will release 1,400 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for its soldier taken hostage in Gaza since late June, the Qatar-based al-Sharq daily reported on Monday. According to a deal, which will take effect within 48 hours, Israel will release Hamas ministers and lawmakers and reopen crossing points into Gaza, the report said. Israel will also stop assassinations and return tax revenues owned to the Palestinian National Authority, it added. In addition to the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was seized by Palestinian militant groups on June 25, the Palestinians are...

See for example this thread first. To the folks at Montana State-- Those kids are a little bit late From Egypt, you say? And they've "lost their way" ? Let's call them "From Al-Qaeda, with Hate"

SEOUL, South Korea - Soldiers from North and South Korea exchanged fire along their border late Monday but no one is hurt, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The clash happened just before sunset when North Korean soldiers fired two bullets toward South Korean guard post in the eastern part of the Demilitarized Zone and South Korean soldiers immediately fired back six rounds, the top commanders said.

LONDON -- When Spanish stock-exchange operator Bolsas & Mercados Espanoles lists shares on its own market today, opening itself to investors for the first time in its 170-year history, it will do so under one condition: You must ask permission to buy more than 1%. The Spanish government put the requirement in during May as BME, based in Madrid, was gearing up for its market debut. Under the rule, no investor can build up a direct or indirect stake of more than 1% in BME without consent from the country's market regulator, the Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores, or...

Treasury Secretary John Snow is getting pounded in the U.S. for his refusal last week to brand China a "currency manipulator." We'd say it may have been his finest hour... Congressmen on the protectionist left and right, Big Labor and Big Business all gave Mr. Snow the business... New York Senator Chuck Schumer bellowed that the Administration "put geopolitical concerns ahead of economic concerns." Uh, no, Senator. The Administration was doing precisely the opposite and putting economic concerns ahead of narrow domestic politics. By far the easier short-term course would have been to declare China a "manipulator" in an election...

LONDON: Crude oil traded above US$74 (US$1 = RM3.61) a barrel before a United Nations hearing on Iran's nuclear programme, amid concern oil supplies will be disrupted from the country. The US, UK and France will ask for the United Nations to demand that Iran halt its uranium enrichment programme. Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil supplier. Iranian authorities "would have their own embargo; they wouldn't send their oil to certain countries," said Deborah White, an analyst with Societe Generale SA. "To cut oil exports will certainly not be their first choice. They need the money." Crude oil for June...

SINGAPORE, May 3 (Reuters) - Oil rose to almost $75 a barrel on Wednesday, near record highs as mounting tension over Iran's nuclear plan compounded worries of global supply disruptions amid forecast of falling fuel stocks in the United States. U.S. light, sweet crude traded up 34 cents at $74.95 a barrel by 0331 GMT, extending a rally for a fourth successive day after a jump of 91 cents on Tuesday. Prices were within striking distance of their all-time peak of $75.35 a barrel on April 24. IPE Brent crude matched Tuesday's record of $74.97 a barrel, but was later...

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash., April 3, 2006 – Foreign exchange pilots from Australia assigned here are helping their U.S. counterparts carry out global air refueling, airlift and humanitarian assignments. The exchange program selects the best pilots in the Royal Australian Air Force with a minimum of 1,500 flying hours. Although instructional experience is not essential, it is a highly desirable factor to be selected for the three-year program, officials said. "They are sending us their best qualified pilots," said Air Force Maj. Dennis Bernier, 93rd Air Refueling Squadron assistant director of operations. "They are all outstanding pilots and huge...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein testified Wednesday for the first time at his trial, and the judge closed the court after the ex-dictator's speech calling for Iraqis to end sectarian violence and fight U.S. troops instead. Even as the judge repeatedly yelled at Saddam to stop making what he called political speeches, the deposed leader read from a prepared text, insisting he was still Iraq's president. "Let the (Iraqi) people unite and resist the invaders and their backers. Don't fight among yourselves," he said, praising the insurgency. "In my eyes, you are the resistance to the American invasion." Finally, Chief...

Motley Fool A Dubious Sign of the Times Tuesday March 7, 3:17 pm ET By Tim Beyers I've long wanted to own stock in New York Times (NYSE: NYT - News) for several reasons. I love the paper. I'm a big fan of About.com. And then there's sentimental angle: I'm a New York native. But there's one big reason why I'm not buying the stock. A check of the proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday reveals that chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and CEO Janet Robinson both received hefty bonuses despite meeting less than 60%...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The U.S. military released five Iraqi women detainees today, a move demanded by the kidnappers of an American reporter to spare her life, but an official said the release was coincidental. The women were freed from U.S. custody and delivered to the home of a senior Sunni Arab politician in Baghdad, where they were returned to their families, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene. They were later driven away in taxis. Armed men who abducted Jill Carroll on Jan. 7 in Baghdad have threatened to kill the freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor...

Drew DeCorsey (middle) poses with some friends she made while in China. Chinese Immersion: DeCorseys take trip to OrientWednesday, August 24, 2005By Brandon Otte,Staff WriterA month-long trip to China was all it took to make Jordan Elementary School Principal Stacy DeCorsey appreciate her school a little more.DeCorsey and her family went to Linyi, a city in one of the most populous country in the world, as part of a group of teachers working with Chinese children on their English language skills."There were people everywhere," she said.The group taught English emergence. They worked with the students on their English conversational...

VOLKEL AIR BASE, Netherlands -- Training young pilots to push the F-16 Fighting Falcon to its operational limits is a job Lt. Col. David Stine loves as much as flying. Even better is doing both those things with the Royal Netherlands Air Force, he said. That is just what he has done for three years as an exchange pilot at this busy fighter base. The colonel is a training instructor pilot with the Dutch air force’s 306th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron. He said the job is satisfying and has an important purpose. “From the start, I try to instill in...

Verkhovna Rada speaker Vladimir Lytvin during his meeting with representatives of Kherson shipbuilding yard on Aug 12 made a harsh declaration that the real level of consumer inflation exceeds 2-fold data of state statistics committee (SSC). According to Lytvin, inflation makes up 15% ytd whereas SSC in the beginning of August put it at just 6.7% y/y in Jan-Jul. Such a declaration by the speaker may be regarded as a political move, taking into consideration the informal start of March 2006 parliament election campaign. But there is one thing that gives extra credence to Lytvin's words. Speaking actual real inflation,...

A woman in Morag threatens to employ violence against herself and her children -and Noga Cohen of Kfar Darom, three of whose children lost their legs in a terrorist attack, attempted to mollify her. The woman, named Ofrah, a 17-year veteran of Morag in southern Gush Katif, screamed at an army officer who arrived to deliver the expulsion notices: "By what right do you come and throw me out of my house? Did I hurt anyone? Did I do something? You're coming in the name of the law, in the name of the government - I'd like to see Ariel...