Free Republic

In the last few weeks, numerous Hawaii healthcare industry leaders have stepped forward to create deniability for themselves in the upcoming Hawaii Health Connector/Health Exchange disaster. Those who are implementing Obamacare in Hawaii are now putting themselves on the record explaining that Obamacare will mean higher insurance premiums, fewer doctors and nurses, and shuttered hospitals. Here are their statements, accumulated in one place so that it can be clearly seen that many of those who are in charge are predicting failure: HMSA Chief Predicts Obamacare 'Rate Shock' for Hawaii Maui News May 9, 2013: If Hawaii consumers think health care...

As the weakly protected U.S. diplomatic compound in eastern Libya came under attack the night of Sept. 11, 2012, the deputy head of the embassy in Tripoli 600 miles away sought in vain to get the Pentagon to scramble fighter jets over Benghazi in a show of force that might have averted a second attack on a nearby CIA complex. Hours later, according to excerpts of the account by the U.S. diplomat, Gregory Hicks, American officials in the Libyan capital sought permission to deploy four U.S. special operations troops to Benghazi aboard a Libyan military aircraft early the next morning....

Current TVOver the last decade and a half, former Vice President Al Gore has amassed a personal fortune that rivals former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s, Bloomberg’s Ken Wells and Ari Levy report. Gore wasn’t even a multi-millionaire when he ran for office against George W. Bush in the 2000 election, but several recent moves have put his personal fortune at a point where it “may exceed $200 million,”...

The horrific crash of a 747-400 at Bagram (here) has yet to be fully investigated and claims are already being made that it was a stall caused by a loose cargo that caused tail of the aircraft to drop and the nose to rise depriving the wings of lift. Maybe. The Bagram 747 crash has many similarities to the even more horrific crash of AWACS flight Yukla-27, (here) which was caused by the aircraft striking at least two Canada Geese in the Runway Kill Zone (RKZ) as discussed on an earlier post on this blog (here). Terrorists familiar with the...

Penny Pritzker will be nominated this morning to be the next U.S. Commerce Secretary... She ran candidate Obama's wildly successful fundraising operation in his 2008 presidential bid — even as her brother J.B. was a key adviser to nomination rival Hillary Clinton..... ...Ms. Pritzker, whose family controls Hyatt Hotels Corp... hitched a ride on Air Force One from San Francisco to Portland with the president. In the general-election campaign, she raised at least $500,000 and spent election night with Mr. Obama. She served on the president's Council for Jobs and Competitiveness and his Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

Twitchy reports that on Tuesday night, the left launched a Twitter game with the hashtag #SarahPalinFilms. Via a verified account, this was Netflix's voluntary contribution: -- #SarahPalinFilms "Iron Sky" nflx.it/11AZvLR twitter.com/netflix/status… — Netflix US (@netflix) May 1, 2013 -- One review of "Iron Sky" describes the film this way: The film tries to make the connection between the Nazis and the current state of American politics via a US President character that embodies the Sarah Palin brand of politics, but it’s done in bad taste and this is where the satire fails.

Spain's unemployment rate soared to a new record of 27.2% of the workforce in the first quarter of 2013, according to official figures. The total number of unemployed people in Spain has now passed the six million figure, although the rate of the increase has slowed. The figures underline Spain's struggle to emerge from an economic crisis which began five years ago. On Friday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will unveil fiscal and policy measures aimed at halting recession in the eurozone's fourth-largest economy. "These figures are worse than expected and highlight the serious situation of the Spanish economy as well...

"Sweet Caroline" is an iconic part of Boston Red Sox tradition. ..... Secretary of State John Kerry, who served as a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1985 to 2013, could not properly name the song. Instead Kerry called the song "Sweet Adeline" while thanking the New York Yankees fans rendition as a tribute to the victims of the Boston bombing.

Barack Obama’s rage — whether it’s real or playacting, I’m undecided — continues. Today Organizing for Action’s Jon Carson sent an email to the group’s vast mailing list. It begins with a lie, saying “Yesterday, 45 senators chose to ignore their constituents and stand with the gun lobby.”‘ Obama is allowing for no possibility that any of the senators who opposed the background check amendment were acting in accord with their constituents. None. The email continues: “And because of Senate rules, this minority was able to stand in the way of a bipartisan measure to expand background checks for gun...

A visibly infuriated President Barack Obama surrounded himself with tear-stained parents of Connecticut school shooting victims Wednesday after the Senate voted down a measure designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and declared it a "pretty shameful day for Washington." The Senate, which is controlled by the president's own party, handed him a stinging first defeat for his second term by voting down a bipartisan compromise to expand background checks for gun buyers. The disappointment was all over the faces of Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, their mouths turned into deep frowns as they appeared in...

President Obama gave the Senate a scolding in the Rose Garden this afternoon, declaring today’s defeat of the Manchin-Toomey background check amendment “a pretty shameful day for Washington.” He blamed “politics” for the failure of the legislation and, while standing alongside Gabby Giffords and tearful Newtown families, dismissed charges that he had used people as props for “emotional blackmail.”

President Obama angrily blamed the defeat Wednesday of his centerpiece gun-control proposal on lies spread by the National Rifle Association, calling it “a pretty shameful day for Washington.” “The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill,” Mr. Obama said in the White House rose garden about 90 minutes after the vote. “It came down to politics.” As he spoke, Mr. Obama was surrounded by family members of victims of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting. Also with him was former Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, wounded in an assassination attempt. Senators voted 54-46 late Wednesday to expand background...

With Vice President Joe Biden presiding over the Senate, an amendment to expand background checks on gun purchases failed to pass through the body, falling by a mostly partisan vote of 54-46. President Barack Obama will speak at the White House at 5:30 p.m. on the failure, the White House said. -snip- In addition to Heitkamp, the other three Democrats voting against the measure were Sens. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).

The Obama administration says China is increasingly frustrated by the provocative actions of North Korea and Secretary of State John Kerry will try to convince leaders in Beijing that Pyongyang is, as one senior administration official said, “putting China’s own interests at risk.” Briefing reporters on Kerry’s plane as he flew from London to the first stop on his four-day Asian tour, that official and a senior State Department official said the administration is urging China to use its leverage with the North “otherwise it is very destabilizing.” Specifically, the officials said the United States wants Beijing to “stop the...

Sen. Rand Paul R-Ky. delivered an effective speech at Howard University, even though he rhetorically stumbled at points. The audience was mostly silent through Paul’s prepared speech, which highlighted traditional Republican policies such as school choice, free markets, and limited government. Paul’s more libertarian ideas, however, appeared to resonate with the audience, as they applauded for his views on reduced jail penalties for non-violent drug users and a more humble foreign policy. “Republicans are often miscast as uncaring or condemning of kids who make bad choices,” Paul said. “I, for one, plan to change that.” Paul admitted that Republicans had...

LUDINGTON, MI – Seventeen neighbors of the Lake Winds Energy Park wind farm south of Ludington have sued Consumers Energy Co., alleging that noise, vibrations and flickering lights from its 56 towering turbines are causing sleeplessness, headaches, dizziness and other physical symptoms as well as economic loss. The neighbors filed their lawsuit April 1 in Mason County Circuit Court. They seek monetary damages in excess of $25,000 and a court order for Consumers to “cease and desist in their activities” and to “abate the intrusions.” Consumers Energy declined to comment on the case on Monday. But the company will issue...

Even Joe Klein is seeing the handwriting on the wall: ObamaCare is in big trouble! Klein is blaming it on incompetence but I have a couple of words for Joe and other startled liberals who can't believe what they are watching. ObamaCare is in trouble because it violated a couple of rules that a nice counselor taught me at a high school Junior Achievement class in Wisconsin. First, don't bite more than you can chew. In other words, who in their right mind thought that bureaucrats could take over 1/6 of the US economy competently? How arrogant are these people?...

A government contract does not make Medicaid any less a government program. Likewise, Exchange health plans will be under government contract. Only "federally-qualified" plans get contracts. Benefits offered are federally-approved. And health plans must share their data - and yours -- with the federal government. These health plans also receive payments directly from the federal government. And unless the federal government says yes to your application for Exchange coverage, you cannot receive Obamacare. Here's more proof that Exchanges don't offer "private insurance." First, all Exchanges must use the same 21-page federal application form. Second -- here is what I just...

The storm is brewing in the healthcare system. Even Democrats are concerned. Recently, I have been criticized for blaming the impending failure on President Obama. President Obama would rather blame the impending failure on congress. A reader wrote; “President Obama is a nice guy. He is trying very hard. Give him a chance.” It is true. He seems like a nice guy. My criticism is not personal. The fact is his philosophy and tactics are responsible for the mess. As time goes on it seems more likely that Obamacare will not work out. There are multiple reasons for the impending...

J.C. Penney Co Inc said on Friday said it fully backs its partnership with chat show host Ellen DeGeneres after a conservative group urged the retailer to reconsider hiring DeGeneres as a spokeswoman because she is a lesbian. -snip- Penney's decision to hire DeGeneres spurred conservative group One Million Moms, a division of the American Family Association, to slam the company for not being "neutral in the culture war." "Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families. More sales will be lost than gained unless they...

When I first read it, I thought this New York Times report from late last night was just late to the party. The Society of Actuaries had already released its analysis of the damage that ObamaCare will do to health-insurance costs, and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had already admitted that prices would go up as government forced people to buy bigger comprehensive policies. CNN even went so far as to ask whether Barack Obama and his administration had “misled� voters over the costs of ObamaCare.This study, though, is actually separate from the SoA’s analysis. The state of California commissioned this...

Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Sunday to stop Iran from flying arms across Iraqi territory to the beleaguered Syrian regime, but found him unwilling to give ground...

Tina Fey, like other Hollywood-created stars including Lena Dunham, is showing herself to be a box office bust. Her newest film, Admission, in which she stars as an admissions officer who falls into romance with typecast normal person Paul Rudd, clocked in at a mere $6.6M on its opening weekend. “Red States may be holding a grudge over your SNL Sarah Palin impressions,” writes Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood. But this isn’t Fey’s first tepid box office response. She has a long string of them.

Ynet is reporting that by order of the Agriculture Ministry, the magnolia tree brought from the US by the president and planted by Obama and Peres earlier this afternoon is being dug up. Really. Plants cannot be brought in from abroad “without undergoing a check” by the ministry, the report quotes the bureaucrats as saying. If this were April 1, we’d assume this was a wind-up. As the Netanyahu-Obama talks near their mid-evening break — there’ll be a press conference in 20 minutes or so, and then a working dinner — Ambassador Michael Oren is asked whether, for all the...

What futurists in 1988 imagined Los Angeles would be like in 2013 With the year 2013 a quarter of a century away, the Los Angeles Times in 1988 asked 30 futurists and other experts what they thought life in their city would look like in 2013. They may have overshot the sophistication of our robots, but many of those predictions for 2013 have come true—or at least come close. Reporter Nicole Yorkin wrote the futurism pieces for the April 3, 1988 issue of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, compiling the information from her various interviews. The articles include illustrations by...

Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox all fell to the mercy of the hackers Thursday. That is, in a controlled environment. Security firms Vupen and MWR Labs were able to crack the browsers during a condoned bug-hunt, with one company winning $100,000 for finding a huge hole. The Pwn2Own competition is an event at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver. The competition was created by HP’s DVLabs as part of its Zero Day Initiative: an attempt to get more people to find and report bugs as opposed to exploiting them for personal gains.

Less than two months into his second term, President Barack Obama's approval rating has dropped and Americans blame him and his fellow Democrats almost as much as his Republican opponents for a fiscal mess. A Reuters/Ipsos online poll released on Wednesday showed 43 percent of people approve of Obama's handling of his job, down 7 percentage points from February 19.

It’s one Man versus The Chicago-Bloomberg Machine in #IL02 It looks like Paul McKinley (R) will hold onto the nomination to run against Robin Kelly (D) in the special election to replace Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. in the Illinois 2nd Congressional District on April 9. While McKinley only has a 23-vote lead, it appears that all the votes are in. McKinley has declared victory. Kelly is the fiercely anti-2nd Amendment Chicago machine candidate backed by NY City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s SuperPAC, which spent over $2 million in the Democratic primary to get Kelly elected. Many people are writing this off...

America's new top diplomat is already facing trouble and confusion as he begins a two-week trip whose major focus is on coalescing international action on Syria. With John Kerry in London Monday on the first leg of his nine-country tour of Europe and the Middle East, administration officials were scrambling to salvage a planned meeting between the new U.S. secretary of state and the leaders of the Syrian opposition coalition scheduled for Thursday. Following a Monday meeting in London with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, Kerry condemned the Syrian regime's use of rockets to attack civilians in Aleppo but declined...

Minnesota should have a mandate for using solar energy similar to the one it has for using renewable wind energy, say backers of a pair of bills to be filed Thursday in the State Legislature. The bills would require the state's utilities to produce 10 percent of electricity from solar energy by 2030. A solar standard would raise present utility rates by 1 percent per year, starting with the first year, and be borne by ratepayers, its backers said in a news conference at the State Capitol Wednesday, Feb. 20. But legislators sponsoring the Solar Energy Jobs Act emphasized it...

The reputed gang member accused of gunning down 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton last month was on the street even though he had been arrested three times in connection with break-ins and trespassing while on probation for a weapons conviction in recent months, the Tribune has learned. In two of those arrests, including one just 2 1/2 months ago, Cook County probation officials failed to notify prosecutors or the judge that Michael Ward had been arrested on the new misdemeanor charges and allegedly violated his probation.

Sure, Nate Silver was on-point during the 2012 election, but before you place your bets behind the bespectacled number genie, remember that he predicted that this would be a Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl — and that he's gotten a little better at the politics game than anything else. But in a column for The New York Times Magazine published online today, Silver breaks down his latest mumbo-jumbo over S.R.S. rankings and something called the Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, which is exciting if you're a statistician groupie — just not if you're a Baltimore Ravens fan. In the end, Silver seems to...

Nate Silver, the New York Times' stats blogger who gained national acclaim for his political forecasts, has made a prediction for this year's Super Bowl matchup: Patriots vs. Seahawks. Silver appeared on ESPN's First Take to explain how he arrived at his prediction. Most of the segment was devoted to the choice of Seattle as the NFC representative.

Nate Silver is betting on the 49ers to win today's big game. The statistician and blogger has combed through data from previous Super Bowl games and noticed a trend where teams with the best defense ultimately over teams with better offense. "The reasons that exceptional defenses fare so much better in the Super Bowl are still somewhat murky, but this factor bodes well for this year’s 49ers, whose defense belongs in the elite group," writes Silver.

I subscribe to the general theory that a President - Republican or Democrat should be able to have the people running his Departments, Commissions and Agencies that he wants. Unless there is some overriding disqualifying reason to reject him or her, the Senate should abide by the terms of Article II, Section 2 that says the President, "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Officers of the United States." The nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense is an excellent case in point. I may not agree with Hagel...

A former director of the Minneapolis FBI office sent a letter this week to members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee denouncing B. Todd Jones' performance as U.S. attorney in Minnesota as they prepare to consider his nomination to director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Donald E. Oswald, 54, a self-declared Democrat and supporter of President Obama, said he felt "morally compelled" to alert the committee about what he describes as Jones' "atrocious professional reputation within the federal law enforcement community" in Minnesota. "He was, and still remains, a significant impediment for federal law...

Russia is terminating the agreement on cooperation with the United States in the fields of law and drug enforcement, the Russian government said Wednesday, Jan 30, according to RIA Novosti. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a relevant order to terminate the deal, the government said in a statement on its website. “The order was initiated by the Russian Foreign Ministry, as the above agreement is out of line with today’s realities and has exhausted its potential,” the statement said. The agreement was signed on September 25, 2002. As part of the deal, the United States provided financial assistance to...

Mitt Romney promised that he won’t vanish from politics during a meeting in Washington Friday morning with a group of former campaign donors and aides. Two people at the meeting told Politico that Romney said he will help Republican candidates in upcoming elections.

Barack Obama’s top political aide used an Inauguration Day interview to sketch out a provocative political strategy intended to split the Republican Party in time to impact the 2014 midterm elections. “The barrier to progress here in many respects, whether it is deficits, measures to help economy, immigration, gun safety legislation … is [that] there are factions here in Congress, Republicans in Congress, who are out of the mainstream,” White House advisor David Plouffe said on CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley.” “We need more Republicans in Congress to think like Republicans in the country who are seeking...

KALAMAZOO, MI -- What a difference four years make. In 2009, a reported 2,500 people crowded into Miller Auditorium to watch history being made as Barack Obama was sworn in as the first African-American president of the United States. On Monday, the auditorium looked very different. Just 30 people braved the blowing snow and unplowed roads to watch the inauguration ceremonies on a giant screen.

The Sheeple are upset at not being able to see or hear the inauguration via the jumbotrons. #Screenworks #Jumbotron

WASHINGTON — District of Columbia officials have lowered their turnout estimate for Monday's presidential inauguration. The district's homeland security director, Chris Geldart, said Sunday that officials now expect between 500,000 and 700,000 people to attend.

WASHINGTON -- Four years after making history by becoming the first African-American president, Barack Obama will kick off his second term on Monday with a scaled-back inauguration that reflects the tempered expectations for his next four years in office. Lingering high unemployment, bitter political battles and a divisive re-election campaign have punctured the mood of optimism and hope that infused Obama's 2009 inauguration after a sweeping election win. This time, Obama's inauguration will feature smaller crowds and a reduced slate of inaugural balls and parties to match the more subdued tenor of the times. When Obama raises his right hand...

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Police in Bulgaria detained a man after he pointed a gun at an ethnic Turkish party leader as he was delivering a speech in the capital. No shots were fired. The video from the Saturday event in Sofia shows the man climbing the podium where Ahmed Dogan, the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, was speaking on Saturday, and pointing the gun to his face. Dogan struck the man before other delegates wrestled the assailant to the ground, and police took him away.

"By far, the toughest part of my job was going to those funerals, going to those homes and going to those classrooms," he told a conference of the nation's mayors who met with Duncan earlier in the day to discuss education.

SAN ANTONIO -- A man is dead and another is recovering in the hospital after police say they were shot while trying to steal an SUV from outside a home in an affluent neighborhood. San Antonio police said the shooter, who was visiting family at a home in the 600 block of Lightstone Drive in Stone Oak, heard the men breaking into his Toyota 4Runner around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. The 25-year-old man stepped outside with a gun, confronted the men who were rifling through his vehicle and opened fire, according to a police report. He later told police that he...

support on Saturday for international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi but insisted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's exit cannot be a precondition for a deal to end the country's conflict. A Foreign Ministry statement following talks on Friday with the United States and Brahimi, whom the Syrian government has labelled "flagrantly biased", reiterated calls for an end to violence in Syria, where more than 60,000 people have been killed since March 2011. At the meeting in Geneva with Brahimi and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov "expressed unfailing support for Brahimi's mission as the U.N.-Arab...

Sean Hannity continued the national debate over gun rights tonight with a particular focus on the New York newspaper that published the names and addresses of every gun owner in multiple counties. Guest Leo Terrell was particularly fired up on the issue, and when it looked like he was about to really rage at Hannity, he simply covered his ears with his hands to avoid listening.

The intentions of the Journal News’ editorial board in publishing a highly controversial “interactive gun map” are further occluded by an inconvenient fact. According to Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato, in Rockland County a large number of the names and addresses on the map are not even correct. Piperato said, “I’d figure about 25 percent of the addresses are not accurate.” He explained that when persons change their address or pass away it is supposed to be reported to the County Clerk’s office, but the county has no means to vigorously enforce this regulation. Thus pistol permit and other permit...

This is just too funny. Twitter users are freaking out over their smaller paychecks today. Enjoy the comments at the link: https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=paycheck&src=typd