Free Republic

Romney vows to lower jobless rate in first term to 6 percentBy Jonathan Easley - 05/23/12 02:01 PM ET Mitt Romney says his administration would lower the unemployment rate to 6 percent by the end of his first term. “I can tell you that over a period of four years, by virtue of the policies that we’d put in place, we’d get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent, and perhaps a little lower,” Romney says in a Time magazine interview. The 6 percent prediction is a bold claim that Romney will surely be held to by Democrats if he’s...

Mexico's leftist presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pushed into second place behind opposition frontrunner Enrique Pena Nieto with just seven weeks to go before the vote, a poll showed on Tuesday. Lopez Obrador, who narrowly lost the 2006 race to President Felipe Calderon, had 20.5 percent support in the poll by Consulta Mitofsky, up 1.4 percent from last week, overtaking the No. 2 spot for the first time in the survey. But the silver-haired former mayor of Mexico City is still trailing Pena Nieto from the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) by more than 17 points. Lopez Obrador is...

In the White House pecking order, Jarrett has more clout than the president’s chief of staff. During the savage internecine warfare between Jarrett and Obama’s first two chiefs of staff — Rahm Emanuel and Bill Daley — Obama sided most of the time with Jarrett, a classic limousine liberal who believes that Obama was elected president in order to engineer social change. Ultimately, Jarrett emasculated Emanuel and Daley and forced them from their jobs. She has also been responsible for much of the incompetence and amateurism that have been the hallmarks of Obama’s time in office. Indeed, Jarrett has been...

Sheriff Joe Arpaio says the decision by Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett to place Barack Obama’s name on the state’s presidential ballot won’t put an end to the investigation -snip- “No, I’m not going to call it quits,” Arpaio told WND. “I’m not calling my Cold Case Posse investigators home from Hawaii, and I don’t plan to end my investigation prematurely.” ...Bennett said last night that he finally received information that proves Obama’s American birth and satisfies Arizona’s requirements for having the president on the ballot, reported azcentral.com -snip- “As with any investigation undertaken by my office, it is...

The USS America, (PCU), LHA-6, the United States Navy's newest Amphibious/Air Assault and Sea Control Carrier nears completion in Mississippi. USS AMERICA, (PCU) LHA-6 She's 45,000 tons of US Navy fighting machine. Can carry up to two thousand Marines and the vehicles and wepaonry to support them, including transport helos, attack helos, and air support Harriers or later, F-35B Joint Strike Fighters. She can also be outfitted for pure sea control duties and operate as a modern "Jeep" Carrier, with 24 or so Strike Fighters, and support helicopters.

A year before George Zimmerman killed a Miami Gardens teenager, he stood before a City Hall community forum with a grievance: Sanford cops are lazy, he told the then-mayor elect. And he should know: Zimmerman, a community college criminal justice major, said he went on ride-alongs with the Sanford Police. “And what I saw was disgusting,” Zimmerman said, according to a recording of the January 2011 meeting obtained by The Miami Herald. “The officer showed me his favorite hiding spots for taking naps, explained to me that he doesn’t carry a long gun in his vehicle because, in his words,...

President Barack Obama has been accused of risking America's national security for political gain by giving Hollywood filmmakers access to secret material on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.   Critics of Mr Obama from the Left also said it was astonishing that an administration that had prosecuted more whistleblowers than all previous governments combined had been caught happily leaking to Hollywood allies      Documents released under freedom of information laws show that Mr Obama's defence department and CIA enthusiastically assisted Kathryn Bigelow, the Oscar-winning director, for her forthcoming film on the raid. Mr Obama's administration even made...

A US soldier accused of plotting an attack on a military base after fleeing his post as a Muslim conscientious objector went on trial Tuesday wearing a surgical mask and manacled to the floor. Courtroom security agents behind him wore protective goggles, an apparent reaction to an incident in which the soldier, Naser Jason Abdo, who claims to be HIV positive, bit his lip and spat blood at law enforcement officers. Prosecutors called the first of 43 witnesses to the stand in a bid to show that Abdo, who fled his post in Kentucky, was gathering bomb-making materials and weapons...

Liberals keep finding new ways to demonstrate their civility and class. NYU graduate student Matthew Epler fashioned polling data for the Republican candidates during the 2012 primary into sex toys called butt plugs – for a telecommunications class. He decided to market his creations, which met with the winking approval of left-wing outlets. The plugs represent the polling data of Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Mitt Romney, rotated around a 3D axis.

At Media Bistro earlier today, the news about the combined average total audience for the Big Three TV networks' evening news was grim enough, coming in at a combined 20.15 million (NBC, 7.52 million; ABC, 7.14 million; CBS, 5.49 million). But the news about the audience in the key 25-54 demographic was, from what I can tell, either an all-time low or darned close to it. I couldn't find an example of one that was lower in searches through previous overall audience low points covered in prior posts at NewsBusters and or my home blog. Last week and other...

Economic pessimism is back: Our new NBC/WSJ poll provides a pretty clear understanding of WHY the two campaigns are pushing the messages we’re seeing on the campaign trail and in their TV ads. For the Romney camp, it wants to channel the public’s economic anxiety and use that as a political weapon against President Obama. And our poll shows that economic pessimism -- after the April jobs report, new worries out of Europe, and stock losses -- is back. Only 33% of respondents believe the economy will get better in the next year, down five points from April and seven...

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) might not have the votes in his own committee to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. A number of Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are wary of moving forward with Issa’s proposed measure, putting the powerful chairman in an awkward position as he attempts to build support for the move. Two of the committee’s 23 Republicans have declined to support the measure at this point, while five other GOP panel members did not respond to repeated requests for comment over the last two weeks. When compared with the 16...

Ave Maria University has become the second Catholic college to announce it will discontinue its student health insurance plan due to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate. In a May 21 statement, university president Jim Towey called the mandate “an affront to our core values.” “Ave Maria University will not offer or pay for health insurance plans that violate our deeply-held religious beliefs,” he said. The announcement comes amid continued controversy over a federal insurance mandate that will require employers and colleges to offer health care plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs, even if doing so violates their religious...

The NAACP's recent endorsement of “gay marriage” drew harsh criticism from within the African American community for misrepresenting civil rights and undermining families. Pastor Derek McCoy, executive director of the Maryland Marriage Alliance, said that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's “unfortunate” stance on the issue will contribute to the “further demise of the family.” McCoy told CNA on May 21 that the NAACP is “endorsing an epidemic” of fatherless households, a “tragic” phenomenon in the United States and particularly in the African American community. On May 19, the association released a statement in support of redefining...

Democrats balk at Obama campaign’s sustained attack on Bain CapitalBy Cameron Joseph - 05/22/12 08:35 PM ET Some influential Democrats on and off Capitol Hill are refusing to give President Obama political cover for his attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital. Despite pushback from more than a half-dozen Democrats, the Obama campaign on Tuesday defended how it has scrutinized Romney’s business background. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a widely respected member of Congress, stopped short of criticizing the president, but made it clear that the campaign should pivot. “It’s done,” she said. “Go on to other things now.” Sen....

4 in 10 Democrats desert Obama in Arkansas, KentuckyBy Josh Lederman and Emily Goodin - 05/22/12 09:12 PM ET Four in ten Democratic voters chose someone other than President Obama on Tuesday in primaries in Arkansas and Kentucky. In Arkansas, John Wolfe — a perennial, long-shot candidate — took 41 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, with 71 percent of precincts reporting. Obama came in just under 60 percent. The Associated Press did not call the race for Obama until close to midnight. And in Kentucky, 42 percent of Democrats chose "uncommitted" rather than cast a vote for...

Enlarge Image Defensive maize. MON810 produces a toxin that protects it from the European corn borer. Credit: Keith Weller/U.S. Department of Agriculture France's latest attempt to keep genetically modified (GM) crops from its fields has been rebuked by a scientific panel at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Yesterday, EFSA issued an opinion dismissing France's argument that a GM maize variety produced by Monsanto might be harmful to the environment or human health. The opinion is the latest blow in a long-running battle over MON810, also known as YieldGard, whose cultivation has been banned in a handful of European...

The founder of the Organic Pastures business in California is reporting that government health officials have begun tracking down the names and addresses of natural-foods customers and showing up at their homes, demanding to confiscate any raw milk they might have. The dispute over raw milk has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, with a judge ruling that owners of cows have no right to the milk their herds produce, and protests being staged by mad moms whose access to such foods is being threatened. The latest report is at NaturalNews.com, which interviewed McAfee. The report said Los Angeles...

(EDITOR'S WARNING: This reader-submitted video includes profanity and other derogatory language that may be offensive to some viewers.) In the days following a two-night melee at the annual Drew Expo carnival last weekend, an event promoter and police are left to consider how to avoid a repeat next year. Erect a $5,000 fence around the festivities? Increase the police presence? Event promoter Jan Wilkins said he’s noticed a steady increase in violence at the carnival over the years, fighting that reached a crescendo Friday and Saturday nights. Wilkins said the yearly problem eats into the carnival’s reputation and financial take-away....

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Leaders of the firefighters’ union in Philadelphia are calling for the resignation of Philadelphia fire commissioner Lloyd Ayers and two of his top deputies following the death last month of two firemen in a Kensington warehouse fire. Local 22 president Bill Gault, who previously criticized as “reckless” the owners of the building in which the firefighters died, today was firing accusations at Ayers and deputy commissioners Ernest Hargett and John Devlin.