Free Republic

It's the Seven Nation Army against the U.S. Air Force Reserve: the White Stripes have taken "strong insult and objection" to a recruitment ad that aired during the Super Bowl. Jack and Meg White's issue with the TV spot? They claim the music used in the commercial is a rip-off of their 2002 breakout single, "Fell in Love with a Girl." "We believe our song was re-recorded and used without permission of the White Stripes, our publishers, label or management," the band wrote in a statement posted on their official website. "We have not licensed this song to the Air...

“Hariri: Lebanon stands with Hizbullah in any war with Israel” By JPOST.COM STAFF 10/02/2010 05:41 SNIPPET: “The Lebanese government will stand with Hizbullah in the event of a war with Israel, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said overnight Tuesday in an interview with the BBC.”

In an interview with Greta Van Susteren on FOXNews' On the Record, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) stated that he understand that negotiations are currently going on between the House and the Senate Democrats to reach a compromise Obamacare bill. He asked that any new Obamacare bill be made available at least 72 hours prior to the Obama - Republican meeting proposed for Feb. 25. (no link to interview available yet)

Republican candidates lead Democrats by eight points in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot, marking little change since the first of the year. Republicans started the year ahead by nine points -- their largest lead in several years -- while support for Democrats fell to its lowest level in years. Republicans have held the lead on the Generic Ballot for several months now. But in a three-way congressional contest with a Tea Party candidate on the ballot, the Democrat earns 36% support. The GOP candidate comes in second with 25% of the vote, and the Tea Party candidate...

Three months after a rift between GOP party leaders and grass-roots conservatives led to the special election loss of a historically Republican-held seat in upstate New York, another campaign melodrama is taking shape in the same district. Doug Hoffman, last November’s Conservative Party nominee in New York’s 23rd District who is vying again for the seat, is refusing to rule out running as a third-party candidate this year if he fails to win the Republican primary. And his leading backer, Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long, told POLITICO that he refuses to endorse any candidate other than Hoffman — raising the...

KABUL - Thousands of U.S., British and Afghan troops are poised to launch the biggest offensive of the war in Afghanistan in a test of the Obama administration's new counterinsurgency strategy. Military operations usually are intended to catch the enemy off guard, but for weeks U.S. and allied officials have been telling reporters about their forthcoming assault on Marjah, a Taliban-held town of 80,000 and drug-trafficking hub in southern poppy-growing Helmand province.

Hoaxes: Despite failures at Copenhagen, the fraud of the IPCC and the farce of Climate-gate, the administration wants an agency to monitor climate change. Why must we fund one-stop shopping for climate charlatans? As the climate freezes, there's no freeze on federal employment that will grow even more with the establishment of a new agency, the Climate Service office. The new agency was announced Monday by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This ministry of climate change propaganda will operate in tandem with NOAA's National Weather Service and National Ocean...

February 10, 2010 Church May Split Over Women Bishops and Gay Priests, Warns Rowan Williams Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent Members of the General Synod listen to Dr Williams?s address yesterday The Archbishop of Canterbury warned yesterday that damaging infighting over women bishops and gay priests could result in a permanent split in the Anglican Communion. Dr Rowan Williams stressed that he did not “want or relish” the prospect of division. He called on the Church of England and Anglicans worldwide to step back from a “betrayal” of God’s mission and to put the work of Christ before schism. But he...

Second big snowstorm hits East Coast By Jeremy Pelofsky Jeremy Pelofsky 20 mins ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The second major snowstorm in less than a week hit the East Coast on Tuesday, with predictions of 12 inches or more stretching from Washington, D.C., to New York City, forcing schools to close and the U.S. Congress to sharply curtail legislative action. Government offices in Washington will be closed on Wednesday -- the third straight day at a cost of roughly $100 million in lost productivity per day -- and the National Weather Service predicted the U.S. capital could get upwards of...

The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at China's National Defence University and Academy of Military Sciences, interviewed by Outlook Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine published by the official Xinhua news agency. The interviews with Major Generals Zhu Chenghu and Luo Yuan and Senior Colonel Ke Chunqiao appeared in the issue published on Monday. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) plays no role in setting policy for China's foreign exchange holdings. Officials in charge of that area have given no sign of any moves to sell U.S. Treasury bonds over the...

Foothill areas north of Los Angeles are under a flash flood watch as another winter storm approaches, threatening burn areas with more mudslides and prompting mandatory evacuations for hundreds of homes. Showers and thunderstorms are expected to drop between 1/3 of an inch to 2 inches of rain starting Tuesday afternoon through Tuesday night, said forecasters with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Though the storm will be patchy and "showery," forecasters said it could dump more than a half-inch of rain an hour in some areas. Los Angeles County authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders Monday night for more than...

The Department of Health Care Services said Monday it has breached the privacy of 49,352 people who receive adult day-care services from the state. The department said that letters it mailed a week ago to 49,352 Medi-Cal beneficiaries wrongly included each patient's Social Security number on their address labels. The department said the security incident took place Feb. 1, but it was only told about it on Thursday. It started to notify the 49,352 beneficiaries about the problem over the weekend.

Sen. Richard C. Shelby, Alabama Republican, will stop blocking Senate confirmation of about 70 government appointees nominated by President Obama, his office said. Mr. Shelby had placed "holds" on most of Mr. Obama's nominees, delaying the Senate from acting on them, in a dispute over federal spending involving his state. "The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House's attention on two issues that are critical to our national security -- the Air Force's aerial refueling tanker acquisition and the FBI's Terrorist Device Analytical Center," Shelby spokesman Jonathan Graffeo said in a statement Monday night.

President Obama said Tuesday that he's "bent over backwards" to engage Iran in "constructive" dialogue and said the U.S. will move to sanction the country, which has begun enriching uranium to levels capable of making an atomic bomb. Obama told reporters during a rare press conference Tuesday that the U.S. is developing a "significant regime of sanctions" in response to the Islamic Republic's move to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity level in defiance of world powers. "That indicates to us that despite their posturing that their nuclear power is only for, for civilian use that they in fact continue...

Cantor: Health-Care Summit Is On   [Daniel Foster] House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R., Va.) told Fox News that, their objections notwithstanding, Republicans will definitely be attending the health-care summit the president will host at Blair House later this month:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF8E7kmIVs4&feature=player_embedded (h/t Plum Line)02/09 03:04 PMShare

Area firefighters from multiple departments were scrambling to respond to at least two church fires within three miles of each other in Smith County on Monday night — the latest in a rash of East Texas church fires, many of which have been ruled arsons. Firefighters first responded to a fire at Dover Baptist Church, 21166 Farm-to-Market Road 1995, near the intersection with Texas Highway 110 North, where flames were tearing through the roof about 20 minutes after the first witnesses spotted it. Firefighters from various departments including Lindale, Van, Dixie, Winona and Red Springs were on the scene. A...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will introduce a jobs bill on Tuesday that he said would have Republican support. Reid told reporters the bill would be introduced on Tuesday, and that it would include an extension of the tax breaks, known as tax extenders, that expired last year. “As of last night, there will be Republican support for this bill,” Reid told reporters. He added that he doesn’t foresee changes to the bill that would cause it to lose Republican support. Reid also said the jobs bill would include a renewal of the highway trust fund through December. Sen....

Sarah Palin will be in Orlando March 12 for a special speech. This is the date when the 2010 campaigns will begin in earnest, so it will be great, and a very big deal. Am arranging a special section for FReepers. A special two night discounted hotel package will be avaiable for FReepers only on that weekend. Remember, it's warm and no snow in Orlando. Watch FR for details and discounted hotel/travel/tickets.

It's only been a year since a helicopter flew him out of the capital right after the inauguration of President Barack Obama. But some Americans will be pleased to know that George W. Bush is out there, watching over them after all. From a billboard, high above Interstate Highway 35 near Wyoming, Minn., to be exact. And he wants to know if you miss him. Someone has placed a giant photo of the former president on a billboard with the question, "Miss Me Yet?" Until now, the billboard was thought to be a hoax, a clever doctoring of an image...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Even the White House's top spokesman is getting in on the act of mocking former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin for looking to talking points written on her palm during a speech to "tea party" activists. Robert Gibbs showed the words "hope" and "change" on his hand as he started his daily briefing with reporters on Tuesday.

There's still the better part of a year to go, but prospects for some GOP House seat pickups in New Hampshire look pretty healthy: According to a new poll by the University of New Hampshire only 35% of likely voters approve of the job [Rep. Carol] Shea-Porter is doing in Congress. 40% disapprove. 24% are neutral or don’t know for sure how they feel. Even worse, all potential Republican candidates for Congress — even the lesser-known candidates — would defeat her if the election were held today. Former Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta performs best against Shea-Porter, defeating her in a...

Sen. Inhofe’s Family Builds Igloo for Global Warming Spokesman Al Gore in Snow-laden D.C. Tuesday, February 09, 2010 By Christopher Neefus (CNSNews.com) – The family of Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) had some fun at former Vice President and global warming spokesman Al Gore’s expense over the weekend after record snowfall blanketed the nation’s capital. The family spent Saturday and Sunday building an igloo near the U.S. Capitol building, and the Oklahoma senator posted photos of their handiwork on his Facebook page. They added signs to the snow dwelling that read, “AL GORE’S NEW HOME!” and “HONK IF YOU (LOVE) GLOBAL...

Obama: GOP and Dems Together Can Spur Job Growth CHARLES BABINGTON WASHINGTON – Appealing for bipartisanship in a town where it's hard to find, President Barack Obama sat down with Democrats and Republicans Tuesday to spur cooperation on job creation, deficit reduction and health care overhaul. He promised to do his part — but warned he would take Republicans to task if they don't do the same. "The people who sent us here expect a seriousness of purpose that transcends petty politics," Obama said afterward, making a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room. He started his remarks to...

Job openings fell by nearly one-quarter last year as layoffs also soared Finding a job got much tougher last year, as the number of available openings fell by nearly one quarter. At the same time, the unemployed population soared by more than one-third, leaving more laid-off workers competing for fewer jobs. All told, there were 6.1 unemployed workers in December, on average, for every available position, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday. That's a sharp increase from 3.4 jobless workers per opening in December of 2008, and much worse than the 1.7 unemployed people per opening in December 2007,...

Obama's Outreach to Iran Unprecedented, Gates Says The Obama White House has gone further than any administration to reach out to Iran, and is disappointed with the response, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday. The Islamic Republic announced Tuesday that it began enriching uranium to 20 percent purity level in defiance of world powers but under the supervision of inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Iranian state media reported. Gates on Tuesday called the move "disappointing" and said Tehran is violating a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is refusing to sign off on an IAEA-brokered deal that would allow Tehran to...

While perusing some of the review comments to the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, I came across the contributions of Andrew Lacis, a colleague of James Hansen’s at GISS. Lacis’s is not a name I’ve come across before but some of what he has to say about Chapter 9 of the IPCC’s report is simply breathtaking. Chapter 9 is possibly the most important one in the whole IPCC report – it’s the one where they decide that global warming is manmade. This is the one where the headlines are made. Remember, this guy is mainstream, not a sceptic, and you may...

Of the more than $2 billion the federal government has given out to boost the economy and create green-energy jobs, more than three-quarters has gone to foreign-owned companies that dominate the global wind-power industry. This latest finding by the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a nonprofit at American University in Washington, D.C., is illustrated clearly in San Diego County, where about a dozen commercial wind developers have offices. La Jolla is the headquarters for Eurus Energy America, the subsidiary of a Japanese firm that received $91 million in federal stimulus money for a wind farm in western Texas. It plans to apply...

Like Jay-Z and Lady Gaga, Harold Ford, Jr. has a tour rider. The former Tennessee congressman, who is now trying to carpetbag his way to a Senate seat in New York, banks about $20,000 when he gives speeches booked by the Greater Talent Network agency. According to the below contract for an appearance Wednesday at a Missouri college, Ford demands that when his limo driver picks him up, the chauffeur must be carrying a sign reading "H.F.." Presumably, if the Democrat's name was spelled out, hordes of fans/groupies would be alerted to his impending arrival and swarm him (something that...

"It looks like the [warming] empire strikes back. Obama is attempting to engineer a global warming bailout. This is a classic response of the federal government: Bail out a corrupt and dying industry," Marc Morano, editor of the watchdog site ClimateDepot.com, tells Inside the Beltway.

If you’re the President of the United States or one of his political appointees and you’re ideologically opposed to new oil and natural gas development offshore, what do you do when the public registers its overwhelming support for new drilling in public opinion polls?You dance, delay, and deceive. You speak melodious words about seeking the wisdom of the public in making these decisions and then ignore evidence of the public will when you get it, or worse, you hide it.First came the dance. In August 2008, after soaring gas prices and a dramatic shift in public opinion caused President Bush,...

Imam Zaid Shakir came to speak at my school, Claremont McKenna, on December 9th to respond to the “tragedy of Ft. Hood.” Rather than respond to the massacre of American servicemen, Shakir spent the evening indicting the United States – saying “we were born in genocide.” The reason for the Ft. Hood Massacre, according to Shakir? Not jihad or Islamic fundamentalism, but the “pervasiveness of violence in our society” and because of Americans’ “easy access to guns.” Zaid Shakir – Final [1] from The Claremont Conservative [2] on Vimeo [3]. For those wondering who Mr. Shakir is, he’s the go-to...

In an oped in USA Today, John Brennan -- Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism -- responds to critics of the Obama administration's counterterrorism policies by saying "Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda." Brennan writes that, "Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill." In the oped, titled "'We need no lectures': Administration disrupts terrorists’ plots, takes fight to them abroad," Brennan writes that politics "should never get in the way of national security. But too many in...

With Washington, D.C. buried beneath at least 20 inches of snow, and with more in the forecast, common sense would suggest global warming alarmists look elsewhere to make the argument to raise awareness for their concerns. But no, Dylan Ratigan thinks it's ridiculous to suggest all the snowfall totals could cast doubt on the theory of anthropogenic global warming. On MSNBC's Feb. 8 "The Dylan Ratigan Show," Ratigan criticized those who would dare express misgivings about climate change based on the so-called "snowpocalypse." "Here's the problem - these ‘snowpocalypses' that have been going through DC and other extreme weather events...

Author Kurt Andersen came out swinging this week in New York Magazine against democracy in action! He hates the Tea Party Movement in particular. Andersen, a novelist who at one time was New York Magazine’s chief editor, prefers when “a calm club of like-minded wise men (and women) in Washington” is calling the shots, not the people. Andersen agrees with Elitist-in-Chief President Barack Obama who believes the opponents of his far-left policies should just sit down and shut up. Andersen liked the good old days when: the elite media really did control the national political discourse…Until fifteen years ago, presidents...

Democrats in Congress are holding White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel accountable for his part in the collapse of healthcare reform. The emerging consensus among critics in both chambers is that Emanuel’s lack of Senate experience slowed President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority. The share of the blame comes as cracks are beginning to show in Emanuel’s once-impregnable political armor. Last week he had to apologize after a report surfaced that he called liberal groups “retarded” in a private meeting. While Emanuel has quelled that controversy by meeting with advocates for people with disabilities, on Capitol Hill he’s under...

My husband's cousin Paulette called me the morning of January 20 from Massachusetts. Breathless with excitement, her words tumbling out so fast I could barely keep up, she recounted the joy of Scott Brown's win in the special election to the U.S. Senate. Paulette is 66 years old. She and her husband are retired. She has an active social life which includes lots of friends and competitive amateur tennis. She babysits her granddaughter and checks on her 92-year-old father in Florida every day. She told me she'd never been politically active, "except for voting, of course." But all that changed...

Citi plans crisis derivatives Author: Laurie Carver Source: Risk magazine | 08 Feb 2010 Categories: Derivatives Topics: Citi, hedging, liquidity crisis bankrupt Credit specialists at Citi are considering launching the first derivatives intended to pay out in the event of a financial crisis. The firm has drawn up plans for a tradable liquidity index, known as the CLX, on which products could be structured that allow buyers to hedge a spike in funding costs. Like the untraded US rates liquidity index (USRLI), the CLX is constructed as a sum of the Sharpe ratio – deviations from the mean divided by...

Voters are souring on the economy and the government’s remedies, according to February's IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index. It fell 4.1% to 46.8, matching December’s level and the weakest since July. “Persisting high unemployment and a wobbly stock market dampened January’s optimism,” said Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, IBD’s polling partner. Readings below 50 signal pessimism. Confidence in federal economic politics dived 7% to 38.3, the lowest since President Obama took office.

WASHINGTON -- A second major snowstorm in less than a week was blowing Tuesday toward the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. with more flights expected to be canceled. Plows still hadn't touched some roads, utility workers were struggling to restore power and shovels were in short supply. Forecasters predicted the snow would start Tuesday afternoon and continue into Wednesday, along with wicked winds. A foot or more was forecast for Washington and as many as 18 inches for the Northeast travel hub of Philadelphia -- which could cause travel problems as far north as Boston. Some areas are already under...

SAN JOSE – Laura Chinchilla, who was elected Costa Rica’s first woman president over the weekend, vowed in her victory speech to open a dialogue with all sectors of society and improve the quality of health care, education and security. “We do not get a blank check from the people to do anything, on the contrary, they have placed very solemn obligations on our shoulders, (such as) serious and permanent dialogue with all the parties and social sectors,” the 50-year-old Chinchilla said. Chinchilla, of the ruling National Liberation Party, or PLN, garnered 46.8 percent of the vote, with 71.1 percent...

For years, North Carolina's District 7 Congressman, Democrat Mike McIntyre has attempted to publicly distance himself from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. This despite voting twice for the San Francisco liberal to ascend to her position of third in line for the White House. However, over the past several months, the Democrat appears to not only be embracing their relationship, he's touting it in big bold letters. In a recent letter to constituents in regards to healthcare reform, McIntyre lists himself as "MAJORITY LEADER'S ADVISORY COUNCIL - SENIOR WHIP." The claim appears to suggest a close bond with McIntyre...

In an oped in USA Today, John Brennan -- Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism -- responds to critics of the Obama administration's counterterrorism policies by saying "Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda." Brennan writes that, "Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill." In the oped, titled "'We need no lectures': Administration disrupts terrorists’ plots, takes fight to them abroad," Brennan writes that politics "should never get in the way of national security. But too many in...

A small group of West African men who came to the Rockies in search of economic opportunity are embroiled in a dispute with Wal-Mart, accusing it of a raft of discriminatory actions. Most say they were dismissed because supervisors wanted to give their jobs to local people in need of work.

What if Iran's hardline leadership emerges from the current confrontations at home strengthened and emboldened? If so, the nuclear issue will be back with a vengeance. And three recent war games focused on the Iranian nuclear weapons issue suggest that the prospects for halting the regime's progress toward nuclear weapons are not good. The games -- conducted by highly respected Western think tanks -- explored various strategies for preventing the Iranian nuclear threat from becoming real. The results, unfortunately, were uniformly negative. Given that these were serious games played by serious people, officials who deal with the nuclear problem as...

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The group of American missionaries in Haiti facing kidnapping charges for trying to take 33 children out of the country last week made an earlier, unsuccessful attempt at taking dozens of other children, a Haitian police officer said Monday. Laura Silsby, left, and two other members of her missionary group are seen after a recent court hearing in Haiti. The officer did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals. He told CNN that he had stopped the 10 Baptist missionaries, including group leader Laura Silsby, on January 26 as they tried to transport 40...

Pakistani Taliban confirms Hakimullah Mehsud's death PTI, 9 February 2010, 01:11pm IST ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday confirmed that its chief Hakimullah Mehsud had died of injuries sustained in a US drone strike, ending weeks of speculation over his fate. Taliban sources based in the Aurakzai tribal region told TV news channels that 28-year-old Mehsud was severely injured in a drone attack in Shaktoi area of North Waziristan Agency on January 14. The sources claimed Mehsud died recently near Multan city in Punjab province while being taken to Karachi for treatment. His body was taken back to the tribal belt,...

While the liberal mainstream media sings John Murtha's praises, his legacy is nonetheless tainted ad infinitum by his Abscam involvement and his slanderous Iraq war criticism. Dying yesterday at Virginia Hospital Center from complications arising from gallbladder surgery, John Murtha was the exorbitantly long-serving congressman from Pennsylvania's 12th district, having been in Congress for a whopping, almost 40 years. To hear the liberal media tell it, Murtha was a stout defender of the military and noble, yet that conveniently glosses over many episodes in his too-long career that can only bring to mind the word "unethical" at best, or "misconduct"...

Voters are deeply pessimistic about the state of Britain today, believing that society is broken and heading in the wrong direction, a Populus poll for The Times has found. Nearly three fifths of voters say that they hardly recognise the country they are living in, while 42 per cent say they would emigrate if they could. But worries over the pace of social change and dislocation are balanced by the belief that life will get better, according to the survey undertaken at the weekend. It suggests that 70 per cent believe that society is now broken, echoing a Conservative campaign...

A Christian teacher yesterday claimed he was forced out of his job after complaining that Muslim pupils as young as eight hailed the September 11 hijackers as heroes. Nicholas Kafouris, 52, is suing his former school for racial discrimination. He told a tribunal that he had to leave his £30,000-a-year post because he would not tolerate the 'racist' and 'anti-Semitic' behaviour of Year 4 pupils. The predominantly Muslim youngsters openly praised Islamic extremists in class and described the September 11 terrorists as 'heroes and martyrs'. One pupil said: 'Don't touch me, you're a Christian' when he brushed against him. Others...

Iran will make the political decision to enrich uranium to military-grade levels once it has accumulated enough fissionable material for a small arsenal of three to four nuclear devices, according to latest intelligence assessments. Iran, according to the recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, has already accumulated 1.8 tons of uranium enriched to four percent. Iran has announced plans to begin enriching uranium to 20% levels for use as fuel in a research reactor it has in Teheran, which is expected to exhaust its present stock within the year. Although material for the fissile core of a nuclear warhead...