Free Republic

I just saw a funny Tweet from @jimnorton, in which he “condemns” Mitt Romney’s father for “murdering roses” when he placed one on his wife’s bedstand every night. (Romney scored emotionally in last night’s speech when he recalled that his mother found out his father had died because the rose was missing.)Thing is, Norton’s jibe is not quite as off the wall as some might think. Switzerland has, for instance, placed the “dignity” of individual plants in its constitution. The government then asked a big brained bioethics commission to explain why individual plants have dignity (they share molecular material with...

A funny thing happened on the way to economic Armageddon: Iceland’s very desperation made conventional behavior impossible, freeing the nation to break the rules. Where everyone else bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net. Where everyone else was fixated on trying to placate international investors, Iceland imposed temporary controls on the movement of capital to give itself room to maneuver.

Former Marine Raub Brandon was taken by FBI and Secret Service last night (8/15/12) for his patriotic Facebook Posts. Now being held in mental hospital...DEVELOPING STORY!! Video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UCQ1VwhdRU&feature=player_profilepage

Pressure is increasing on Uncle Joe to step aside and allow Barack to pick a less embarrassing Democrat for the number two position on the ticket. Until such an event occurs, the Romney-Ryan team will have to prepare for a bout with numb-skulled Joe. Romney's debate experts, tasked with finding the best proxy opponent to practice against, winnowed their choices down to a bag of damp sand and a butternut squash. The verbal feint, thrust and parry abilities were identical for the sand and squash, but in the final analysis, the butternut's penchant for wildly disconnected false accusation won the...

•It seems that recently Rahm came home and found a brown paper bag sitting on his front porch and demanded to know how it got there and what it was from his security detail. After all, there are police guarding his house front and rear 24/7. The police are not supposed to come on the front porch and the 1st watch detail knew nothing about it. Looking inside it was determined that it contained tomatoes and various vegetables. And the Case of the Killer Tomatoes was closed with no evil consequence. And so far as can be determined, just one...

A $348 million contract to maintain the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was awarded this week by the U.S. Department of State to PAE Government Services, which will be tasked with delivering operations and maintenance services for the 104-acre compound. An unspecified portion of that amount will be devoted to providing a residence manager, two cooks, two waiters, and four housekeepers to serve the U.S. ambassador and deputy chief of mission. It also remains unclear how much will be spent on lawn maintenance, though The Peacock Report -- U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor's predecessor site -- reported back in 2005 that...

How's that workin-out... The Congressional Budget Office never did quite buy-into the Obamacare 'savings' spiel; their far-more sober assessment after 'finding out what's in it' produced a federal cost estimate of $944B for the decade (2010-2019).   Yet last week Forbes took a fresh look at the CBO's lastest and found forecasts in a clear uptrend over the last two years, so much so that Obamacare's total decade cost now stands at an eye-watering $1.856 TRILLION, with over $1.3B of that deficit spending, not-at-all paid-for yet. Although the costs have already doubled, the article made it abundantly clear that most of...

Here is my GARDEN SIGN that I put up just after the Supreme Court travesty/gaffe-cision.

It’s distressing that the Michigan Senator chairing the U.S. Senate Agricultural committee doesn’t know that, despite rumors, Michigan’s agriculture does not represent the state’s second-largest industry. In a recent press release on proposed assistance to agricultural industries, Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s office claimed: “Bio-based manufacturing is a key sector of Michigan's agriculture industry, which is Michigan's second largest industry, supporting nearly one out of every four jobs.” But these statistics being used by the Democrat from Lansing are a hypothetical guess using an inflated definition of agriculture and a multiplier factor. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, there are 63,667...

In a recent interview with The Guardian, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, stated that it is not her policies that are driving coal-fired power plants out of business, but rather organic changes in the American electricity market. Scapegoating natural gas, Jackson claims that low natural-gas prices and booming gas production are depressing coal consumption. But what Jackson fails to mention is that explicitly due to the EPA’s stringent regulations that some coal production is now non-econommical. The price coal-fired power plants would have to pay to comply with new, burdensome regulations is so expensive, that many coal mines are forced to...

As it turns out, new research has determined that a judgmental attitude may just go hand in hand with exposure to organic foods. In fact, a new study published this week in the journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science, has found that organic food may just make people act a bit like jerks.

Despite being prohibited by no less than the United States Constitution, cruel and unusual punishment is apparently in vogue at the EPA. Obviously former EPA administrator Al Almendariz meant figurative crucifixion, but his negative attitude betrays an alarming view towards oil and natural gas companies that provide over 90 percent of primary residential energy consumption. Thankfully Al Almendariz resigned when his comments recently came to light nearly two years after he made them. That’s two years of crucifying oil and natural gas companies while Obama wastes money Solyndra and other on failed green collar projects. Green energy provides less than...

Evidently a spending increase just shy of $1 billion is not enough for Governor Martin O’Malley and the Democrat leadership in Maryland’s General Assembly. Today, May 14, lawmakers will return to Annapolis to pass the Governor’s tax hike proposal, allowing Gov. O’Malley to increase spending by over $1 billion from last year’s budget. Under Gov. O’Malley’s proposal, about one in five Marylanders will see their taxes rise. WBAL is reporting that the proposal will set new income tax rates on Marylanders making over $100,000 a year. However, there is a potential House-Senate compromise that could lower the threshold to just...

If jobs are any measure, 14 Michigan "green" companies that were awarded $34.5 million in taxpayer funded grants and loans aren't generating much heat. According to the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the companies have reported a total of 183 jobs. While a final report will not be issued until June, calls and emails to the companies indicate the total number will not be much higher. The state awarded the grants and loans in 2009 and 2010 under its Clean Energy Advanced Manufacturing Program. The money came from federal stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The federal government...

FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 10 AM EDT SUNDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A FREEZE WARNING... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 10 AM EDT SUNDAY. THE FREEZE WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. * LOCATIONS... NORTHERN CONNECTICUT... NORTHERN RHODE ISLAND AND MUCH OF MASSACHUSETTS. * HAZARDS... FREEZING TEMPERATURES. * TEMPERATURES... RANGING FROM THE MID 20S TO THE LOW 30S. * TIMING... AFTER MIDNIGHT THROUGH 10 AM. * IMPACTS... FREEZING CONDITIONS COULD KILL ANY CROPS OR OTHER SENSITIVE VEGETATION.

Hundreds of OWS training workshops took place this month throughout the country, in all 50 states, including small rural areas. Inside one of the training workshops, attendees report that OWS is “specifically instructed to go to any and all Tea Party gatherings, rallies, etc., to be confrontational and create havoc and disruption.” They are being trained to recruit and enlarge their numbers in their assigned geographic locations, to use the correct messaging, to incite any opponents, engage in confrontation, employ tactics to evade police blockades and create gridlock. OWS workshops are extremely organized and clearly well funded. Each workshop had...

Over $200,000 in federal stimulus funds were used to relocate one manzanita bush from a highway median in San Francisco. This feat was undertaken even though the normal practice is simply to bulldoze unwanted vegetation in the path of roadway expansion. “Every life is precious,” explained Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) in whose district the expenditure was made. “Just because the same plant can be bought from a commercial nursery for under $20 doesn’t mean we should wantonly kill one merely because it is unwanted. Luckily, we were able to find it an adoptive home.” The plant’s new home will be...

So, is there anyone left who still doesn’t recognize the absurd upside-down priorities of government driven by political correctness and environmental extremism? If so, get a gander at this news out of San Franciso (where else?): (CNSNews.com) – The government spent at least $205,075 in 2010 to ‘translocate’ a single bush in San Francisco that stood in the path of a$1.045-billion highway-renovation project that was partially funded by the economic stimulus legislation President Barack Obama signed in 2009. Yeah, a couple hundred grand of your tax money to move a bush. “Why?” you might ask. . .

In January 2012 a [then] quiet deal was struck between SOE Software (then the leading US vote tabulation company. Scytl is said to be strongly linked to George Soros. The Obama syndicate members arranged the deal and Obama’s now wholly-owned rubber-stamp Congress agreed to it. That’s right. A foreign company may now, ostensibly and unconstitutionally, determine who wins US “elections.” Of extreme interest, Scytl’s CEO, Pere Valles, was the former VP and CFO of GlobalNet whose headquarters were based in Obama’s then base of operations Chicago. Although apparently scrubbed from Obama’s donor list (as so many negative and potentially negative-to-Obama...

Any serious strike against Tehran would almost certainly trigger a larger Middle East war... and time is not on the Israelis' side: here's how the IDF is likely planning to win, and win BIG: The Assad regime in Damascus has long been one of a number of deterrents to any Israeli military strike on the Iranian nuclear program. They -along with their Hezbollah allies in Lebanon- would likely launch a vicious missile barrage (at minimum) against the world's only Jewish state if Iran was attacked. Israel may possess the world's most comprehensive anti-missile defenses, but considering Iranian proxy Hezbollah now has over...