Free Republic

The White House announced several long-anticipated overseas appearances by Obama will be "rescheduled indefinitely" following a series of telephone calls between the free democratic republics of North Korea, China, Cuba, and Iran and President Obama's chief staff, political officers, and consultants. "All four countries cancelled" (or "deferred" as Obama's spokeperson later issued in a corrected statement) the long-anticipated but secret Obama overseas campaign rallies following Bibi Netanyahoo's electoral victory in Israel on Tuesday over his more liberal opponents. These cancellations, all blamed on a fear that their next election might be lost following an Obama endorsement, came as a surprise...

CNN's Washington bureau is suffering from low morale and high anxiety in the wake of weeks of layoffs and buyouts — with one employee likening the place to the Redskins’ locker room. In conversations with POLITICO, sources at the bureau spoke of tension in the office as several longtime staffers have been let go while others are being promoted and given raises. On Friday, during the most recent departures, "people were crying all over the bureau," one D.C. employee said.

'We are reaching the end game in Europe. If they don’t launch real QE soon, the consequences are too awful to contemplate,' warns RBS. A key gauge of deflation risk in Europe is flashing red, dropping to record lows on fears of fresh recession and lack of decisive action by the European Central Bank. The sudden lurch downwards came as Bank of America warned that France’s debt ratio could rocket to 120pc of GDP within five years, unless the EU authorities take radical steps to reflate the region’s economy. Italy’s debt could threaten 150pc even earlier. The 5-year/5-year forward swap...

Fears of a global Ebola outbreak spread yesterday as French officials sealed off a building with 60 people inside, an Australian nurse was tested for the disease and airplane cleaners went on strike in New York. In France, police imposed a lock-down on a social services centre in a town near Paris after four people who arrived from Guinea this month fell ill with headaches and fever. Officials in Cergy Pontoise, northwest of the capital, later said that the fears that the four were suffering from Ebola were a false alarm and the nearly 60 others inside were allowed to...

Michelle Obama is everywhere these days -- and the White House plans to keep her in the spotlight through November's midterms. The first lady is pushing a ban on junk-food ads and trumpeting new nutrition labels -- in addition to doing comedy skits with Jimmy Fallon and Will Ferrell -- as part of a ramped-up schedule for arguably the most popular Democratic woman in Washington. With President Obama seen as a potential albatross in competitive congressional races, some Democrats are clamoring for the first lady to take a more active role to fend off the GOP effort to take back...

Three people who came into contact with France's only confirmed case of coronavirus have tested negative for the SARS-like disease, with results pending on two others, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Saturday. Lab results were expected later in the day on a friend or family member of the infected man, who remains in serious condition, and another patient who shared his hospital room, the minister and doctors told reporters in Lille, northern France. A doctor, a nurse and a third health professional who had come into contact with the 65-year-old confirmed to have coronavirus are in the clear

Around the world, scientists are now beginning to examine samples of the virus with a significant question in mind: Could this strain of the disease cause a global pandemic? This international network of scientists keeps constant watch for good reason. In 1918 and 1919, a flu pandemic killed between 20 million and 40 million people, more than the total death toll of World War I, more in a year than the Black Death of 1347 to 1351. More recently, an H1N1 swine flu pandemic was blamed for more than 284,500 human deaths worldwide between April 2009 and August 2010. So...

H.G. Wells may be known as one of the first writers of science fiction but his novel The Island of Doctor Moreau is one of the first modern horror stories and hits upon four of the greatest fears of the Victorian age. His work does this in such a subtle and inventive way that we may need to reevaluate Wells and name him one of the modern fathers of horror fiction as well. The four fears that Wells so intricately weaves into his story are the fear of science, the fear of internal corruption, the fear of reverse colonization, and...

A former North Carolina Democratic Party staffer was sexually harassed by a party official, made a financial settlement with the party and signed a non-disclosure agreement to keep the incident quiet. “If this hits the media, the Democratic Party, our candidates, and our credibility are doomed in this election,” reads one email exchange between state Democratic leaders. An email chain between those Democratic leaders, obtained by The Daily Caller, indicates the executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party, Jay Parmley, and the alleged sexual harassment victim both signed non-disclosure agreements. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/13/nc-dem-official-sexually-harrassed-staffer-party-fears-credibility-doomed/#ixzz1rwtJpJrP

In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following up to five million tweets a day. At the agency's Open Source Center in McLean, a team known affectionately as the 'vengeful librarians' also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms – anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly. From Arabic to Mandarin Chinese, from an angry tweet to a thoughtful blog, the analysts gather the information, often in native tongue. Keeping track: The CIA team follow up to five million tweets a day around...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. companies hired far fewer workers than expected in May and output in the manufacturing sector slowed to its lowest level since 2009, adding to concerns that the U.S. recovery is running out of steam. Economists slashed their forecasts for Friday's payrolls report, considered the best barometer of the world's biggest economy, after private-sector job growth tumbled to just 38,000, its lowest level in eight months. Wednesday's reports were the latest signals that economic growth remained sluggish in the second quarter after hitting a weak spot in the first months of the year. "It fits very...

Ballot measure fears unite Dems, GOP in 3 statesBy David Crary AP National Writer / November 1, 2010 **SNIP** In Colorado, there's bipartisan dread over three measures to ban borrowing for public works, cut the income tax and slash school district property taxes. The proposals would cost the state $2.1 billion in revenue and eliminate tens of thousands of jobs, opponents warn. Similar fears are being voiced in Massachusetts, where a ballot measure would mark down the state sales tax from 6.25 to 3 percent. All three gubernatorial candidates oppose the measure, which would force the state to slash $2.5...

The point that many people seem to be missing in the Florida Senate saga is that this whole mess actually has very little to do with Rep. Kendrick Meek-- it's all about a much broader fear among senior Democrats that they may be about to lose control of the chamber. The real story is how bad the broader electoral map has gotten for Democrats. Top Democratic officials privately are getting increasingly worried they'll lose the Senate. They've reviewed private polling numbers that suggest Sen. Patty Murray of Washington has a razor-thin lead of about two points over Republican Dino Rossi....

Brian Maloney at the Radio Equalizer blog reports what should have been expected: Rosie O'Donnell hates Christine O'Donnell. "So she apparently has said some pretty crazy s--t," Rosie announced on her XM/Sirius satellite radio show Thursday. "Apparently, there's no chance a candidate like this can win. Is that what they're saying? I have a fear that the opposite may be true."(Wild-eyed liberal radio host Mike Malloy denounced O'Donnell as only he can: "And then this freakish, Barbie-doll-looking-woman from Delaware -- where do these people come from?...These are robots, obviously.

THE American economy is once again tilting toward danger. Despite an aggressive regimen of treatments from the conventional to the exotic — more than $800 billion in federal spending, and trillions of dollars worth of credit from the Federal Reserve — fears of a second recession are growing, along with worries that the country may face several more years of lean prospects.

THERE are senior and experienced federal Labor MPs who say quietly and privately that they can see the possibility "that we could lose the election". This is incredible not only because the people are not newcomers unused to dealing with falls in polling and tough periods of politics, but also because no Labor MP at all would have even thought it possible six months ago. The incredible nature of this situation is heightened for Labor because where there was once certainty about how to defeat the Coalition there is now tension within the ranks about what should be done. ........

While Israel and the Palestinian Authority are finally expected to begin US-mediated indirect “proximity” talks in the very near future, concern is growing among some in the Israeli government that the PA is planning to marginalize the diplomatic process and instead unilaterally seek UN recognition for a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines. There is a rising conviction among some in the Netanyahu government, The Jerusalem Post has learned, that the PA is aiming to secure a new UN Security Council Resolution, updating 1967’s Resolution 242, providing for the establishment of Palestine and fudging the refugee issue.

The environmental activism group Greenpeace, no stranger to controversy, is at it again. In conjunction with the start of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Denmark, the group has teamed up with TckTckTck to plaster the Copenhagen airport with advertisements featuring drastically altered images of famous world leaders participating in the summit. Though some industry observers have labeled the campaign "lame" and "dour," the group says the reaction to the ads thus far has been "phenomenal."

After a rough spring that saw as many as 20 to 40 percent of New Yorkers exposed to H1N1, subway riders have resorted to defending themselves with their fists. Violence struck on a southbound D train Monday morning after two women got into an argument over one's refusal to cover her mouth while coughing. It ended with her spitting on the other, a punch, and the second woman dragging the first to the floor of the car by her hair. Here's the play-by-play account, as witnessed firsthand by The Business Insider's Lawrence Delevingne: "No one got the conductor --...

WASHINGTON — White House officials and Democrats in Congress say the fears of older Americans about possible rationing of health care are based on myths and falsehoods. But Medicare beneficiaries and insurance counselors say the concerns are not entirely irrational.