Free Republic

Every once in a while I come across an article that sheds light on what a boondoggle the green initiatives of the Obama Administration are. The latest evidence comes as General Motors tries to prove high consumer demand for the Chevy Volt as it tries to meet its goalof 10,000 vehicles sold in 2011. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the town of DeLand, FL is buying five Chevy Volts. That is not the disturbing part of the story. The article reports that the town is using taxpayer money it has received from a $1.2 million federal grant that is earmarked...

A prominent Obama administration trade advisor is one of the central players in a series of scandals and ethical rows that have reportedly placed him in cahoots with corrupt Congolese warlords and other questionable figures. Kase Lawal, an oil mogul with longstanding ties to the Clinton family, was appointed in 2010 as a member of Obama’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Since his selection to the trade board, Lawal has become enmeshed in a pact to purchase large quantities of illegal gold from a violent Congolese warlord, according to a U.N. investigation and various reports. The crooked gold...

May 1881 US explorers approached Jeannette Island and Henrietta Island and claimed them for the United States. According to some US individuals, including the group State Department Watch, eight Arctic islands currently controlled by Russia, including Wrangel Island, are claimed by the United States. However, according to the United States Department of State no such claim exists. The USSR/USA Maritime Boundary Treaty, which has yet to be approved by the Russian Duma, does not address the status of these islands nor the maritime boundaries associated with them. The Obama Administration is reportedly giving away Wrangell, Bennett, Jeannette and Henrietta islands...

The Washington Post headlines a piece by Ann Gerhart with the question, “Birth control as an election issue? Why?� It’s the wrong question, but first let’s see how Gerhart sets this up: Decades ago, near the end of the Age of Aquarius, a Republican congressman from Texas argued passionately that the federal government should pay for birth control for poor women.“We need to take sensationalism out of this topic so that it can no longer be used by militants who have no real knowledge of the voluntary nature of the program but, rather, are using it as a political stepping...

Looking for another reason for an artificially low unemployment rate? Consider disability fraud, people claiming disabilities they do not have such as mental illness. Prior to the great recession 33% of applicants claimed mental illness. The number is 43% now. There was fraud before, of course. There is even more fraud now. Please consider Jobless disability claims soar to record $200B as of January Standing too many months on the unemployment line is driving Americans crazy — literally — and it’s costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. With their unemployment-insurance checks running out, some of the country’s long-term jobless...

President Obama’s budget for 2013 is pure Obama. How do we know? Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, was once asked how to become a budget expert. “You have to read the budget,” he said. To know Obama, it’s similar. You have to read the speeches and look over the budgets. For the past year, they’ve told the same story. No, the real Obama is not a pragmatist or a frustrated moderate or a well-intentioned but weak politician forced by political circumstances to take positions he’d rather not. Only sympathizers, notably media types, believe any of those notions. The...

Former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum recognized the constitutional threats posed by Obamacare early on. So he insisted Florida take the lead in crafting a court challenge to the health care law, a challenge which has been joined by 25 other states. In doing so, McCollum weathered the scorn of the left, which branded him as a political hack willing to waste taxpayer dollars pushing a case based on legal nonsense. While different courts have rendered different judgments on the legal challenges, they’ve left no doubt that the constitutional arguments against Obamacare are far from spurious. On the contrary, the...

Today, the Virginia Senate took action on four pro-gun bills previously passed by the House of Delegates. Of particular note, was the Senate passage of House Bill 48 by a 24 to 16 vote. This bill was amended by the Senate Courts of Justice Committee to address concerns that HB 48 would negatively impact your right to self-defense. This bill was previously in Criminal Code 18.2 but put into the Civil Procedures section, 8.01. In addition, the following language was added: This section shall not be construed to limit, withdraw, or overturn any defense or immunity already existing in statutory...

COLUMBUS, GA - A new bill introduced this legislative session aims at amping up your second amendment rights. "I can potentially defend myself and my wife in more places, which I like. I like having the ability to pretty much carry wherever I want just in case," Phillip Huckaby, an instructor at Shooters of Columbus, says. If House Bill 981 passes, it would allow Georgians to carry concealed weapons in places like bars, public schools, college campuses and government buildings. "Gun laws are pretty lenient right now, and with this new legislation they want to make even more areas available...

DENVER (AP) -- House lawmakers approved a bill to forbid the state from seizing Colorado residents' firearms during a declared state of emergency. Republican House Leader Amy Stephens says the bill is about emergency preparedness. The proposal passed the Republican-led House Monday with bipartisan support but it's likely to be defeated in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

RICHMOND – Employees would be able to keep guns in the vehicles in the parking lots of local government buildings as long as they are locked up under a measure passed Monday by the Senate Courts of Justice Committee. The bill sponsored by Del. Brenda Pogge, R-James City County, was moved to the Senate floor on a 9-6 party line vote. The proposal passed the full House of Delegates earlier this month. Schools, jails, juvenile detention are exempted from the measure, which prohibits localities from barring employees keeping firearms in a locked container in their vehicles in publicly-owned parking lots....

TUSCALOOSA | Eddie Fulmer took exception to the City of Tuscaloosa’s ban on firearms on city property. Alabama’s constitution forbids local governments from enacting gun-control legislation. But in April 2010, the City Council enacted an ordinance that stated anyone carrying a firearm on city property would be treated as a trespasser. “That’s taking away a man’s right to self-defense,” said Fulmer, a Tuscaloosa firefighter. “That’s the city exercising gun control and taking away our right to self-defense.” Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said that most government facilities and courthouses had “reasonable security measures” in place and that he felt this was...

EDMOND — Dozens of firearm-related bills filed by Oklahoma lawmakers seek to, among other things, expand the state’s open carry laws, expand where guns may be legally kept and expand the scope of the self-defense law. On Feb. 14 the House Judiciary Committee passed House Bill 2988 by Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow. The bill gives legal authority to use deadly force against dangerous individuals at a place of worship. Ritze said the bill was inspired by several recent cases in which violence or threats involved places of worship in the state. In November, Edmond’s Fairview Baptist Church and pastor...

The United States of America is becoming more like Nazi Germany every single day. In fact, the Nazification of America is almost complete. The parallels between Nazi Germany and the United States of today are going to absolutely shock many of you. Most Americans simply have never learned what life was really like back in Nazi Germany. Under Adolf Hitler, Germany was a Big Brother totalitarian police state that ruthlessly repressed freedom and individual liberty. Under Adolf Hitler, Germany adopted socialism, dramatically increased government spending and raised taxes to astronomical levels. Under Adolf Hitler, abortion became legal in Germany, the...

........."If you believe that freedom is at the core of what it means to be human, then theWarmists and what they stand for are instinctively repulsive to you. On the other hand, if you believe that human society must be organized into a moral collective for the betterment of all, then theWarmist idea provides a wake up call compelling us to form into ranks and goose step in recycled rubber boots into the green future. It’s an exaggeration, but that’s what debates over the proper role of man tend to become. We don’t fight wars over temperature gradients. The passions...

......................."So. Media Matters, we learn, is having weekly strategy calls with the White House, they meet with Obama aide Jarrett and ex-aide Dunn, who returned to the White House for the meeting after she departed. Anita Dunn also "became a regular presence" in the Media Matters offices, the then-president of Media Matters "lunched with her, met with her and chatted with her frequently on any number of occasions." And what else? What raises the specter of Tony Ulasewicz? This. From Media Matters' Karl Frisch: "We should hire private investigators to look into the personal lives of Fox News anchors, hosts,...

Oklahoma City - According to Republican Presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, defeating Obama at the November poll is a matter of urgent national security because he is the "most dangerous president in modern American history." CBS News reports Gingrich said this while discussing the threat of Iran before a large and enthusiastic crowd of about 4,000 people in a basket ball arena at the Oral Roberts University campus on Monday. Gingrich said defeating Obama was "...in fact, a duty of national security...Because the fact is, he is incapable of defending the United States.” USA Today reports he...

........Winning Our Future's claim is more specific. That ad says Romney "supervised," and was not just a "director" of the company. Winning Our Future spokesman Rick Tyler directed us to a recent Forbes article about the issue. Forbes reported much of what was in the Boston Globe, including Romney's defense and what prosecutors said Corning did to uncover the fraud. Forbes wrote "it would be reasonable to conclude that while the illegal activity was going on under Mr. Romney's nose, Romney would, himself, bear only some responsibility for perhaps not being as on top of things as one might hope...

Democrats warn: Don't get cockyBy JONATHAN ALLEN | 2/21/12 4:27 AM EST Democrats have plenty of reason to feel good right now: The economy’s improving, the president’s numbers are up, their prospects for holding the Senate have brightened, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is confidently predicting that she’ll have a shot to regain the speaker’s gavel next year. Television screens and news pages are full of stories about new Democratic momentum. But on the ground level, Democrats’ newfound optimism is heavily salted with caution. The confidence is tempered by the knowledge that the political environment can change in...

Screengrab from the YouTube video posted by hackers on the justice ministry website, 3 February 2012 The police's cybercrime unit on Monday announced that it had identified those behind the hacking of the justice ministry's website on February 2, naming the pseudonyms of three highschool students as their main suspects. Police say they have already arrested an 18-year-old in Athens and are drawing up charges against two teenagers aged 16 and 17, respectively. They said the three were part of a group styling itself Greek Hacking Scene (GHS) that had accepted responsibility for the attack on the ministry's site in...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2 to 1 decision written by the liberal Judge Stephen Reinhardt overturned the votes of seven million Californians. They ruled that California's Proposition 8 defining marriage as between a man and a woman was unconstitutional. The entire ruling rests on the most feeble of cowardly Constitutional arguments in upholding the baseless lower district court opinion. It misconstrues precedent and has the strongest of logical weaknesses. Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum in response on February 12, 2012 rightly said that "I think judicial tyranny is a serious issue in this — in this...

Has the economy improved since Barack Obama became the president of the United States? Of course not. Despite what you may be hearing in the mainstream media, the truth is that when you compare the U.S. economy on the day that Barack Obama was inaugurated to the U.S. economy today, there is really no comparison. The unemployment crisis is worse than it was then, home values have fallen, the cost of health insurance is up, the cost of gas is way up, the number of Americans living in poverty has soared and the size of our national debt has absolutely...

Proof that he’s sputtering or much ado about nothing given the realities of modern campaign finance? He had $19 million in the bank at the end of December and raised another $6.5 million on top of that in January. (By comparison, back in January 2008, The One raised $36 million. Obvious difference, though: The economy was vastly better then.) Fast forward a month and there’s only $7.7 million left, which means his cash flow right now is completely unsustainable unless he either (a) discovers a brand new supply of wealthy donors to tap very quickly or (b) starts funding his...

I am not going to speculate about anything this morning. No guesses about what the Finance Ministers might do on Monday, no simple addition or subtraction that the data used to forecast Greece’s return to a 120% debt to GDP ratio is a falsification of the numbers, no mention that only nineteen cents of any bailout for Greece would actually go to the country; I am not going to discuss anything except what the European Central Bank has actually done and what we now know with a one hundred percent (100%) certainty and the horrifying implications of their actions. The...

Free Condoms.. For 12 year old's Several Valley counties are now offering free condoms for kids as young as 12 years old. The federally-funded 'teen mail-order condom program' is aimed at kids 12-to-19. By going online they can order free condoms that will be delivered to their home. Some parents are not happy. California Family Health Council is behind the website TeenSource.org. " Their Condom Access Program allows teens between 12 and 19-years-old to order a free pack of 10 condoms, lubricant and a health brochure EVERY MONTH..."

Wyoming --(Ammoland.com)- Tell them to vote no on HB-70 Court Security – a bill disguised as a court security measure – when in fact it specifies a change to current law making “Any COUNTY BUILDING containing a district or circuit court” a gun free zone. Make no mistake this is an under the radar push to create additional gun control in Wyoming. Imagine walking in to the county center to pay for a vehicle license or a permit fee while forgetting to leave your firearm in the car, only to be reduced to “criminal status” with jail time and fines...

The Operation Fast and Furious scandal is one that the establishment media refuses to cover fully, conservative media icon Andrew Breitbart said in a recent interview with The Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas. Fast and Furious happened, Breitbart explained, “for the purposes of creating a narrative that they could use in America to try and thwart our Second Amendment constitutional rights. I don’t think the most sinister screenwriter could imagine a government that would abide by that, let alone the media to cover that up.” Watch the full interview with Breitbart here. Mrs. Thomas does not necessarily support or endorse the...

It’s been one of the mysteries of Japan’s ongoing nuclear disaster: How much of the damage did the March 11 earthquake inflict on Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors in the 40 minutes before the devastating tsunami arrived? The stakes are high: If the quake alone structurally compromised the plant and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then every other similar reactor in Japan is at risk. Throughout the months of lies and misinformation, one story has stuck: “The earthquake knocked out the plant’s electric power, halting cooling to its reactors,” as the government spokesman Yukio Edano said at a March 15 press...

On front page of website, no registration required.Shockingly, neither Carter nor the present occupant of the White House are choices...

Las Vegas (CNN) -- One minute, he's checking a cat's mouth for gingivitis. The next, he's carefully bandaging a dog's bloody, broken nail. This could be any hard-working veterinarian tending to ailing animals. But the embroidered name on his crisp white medical coat bears a familiar name: Dr. John Ensign. He's better known as former Nevada Sen. John Ensign, who abruptly announced his resignation 10 months ago amid a high-profile sex scandal. "I built this," Ensign told CNN in an exclusive interview inside West Flamingo Animal Hospital, where he now works. "It was the first 24-hour animal hospital in Las...

Why do cities like Buffalo decline, and what role should government play in promoting recovery? In his State of the State Address this month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced $1 billion in incentives to attract new investment to the beleaguered city by Lake Erie. “We believe in Buffalo,” he said, “and we’ll put our money where our mouth is.” Too bad Mr. Cuomo ignores the factors that help keep areas like Buffalo inhospitable to new investment—namely steep tax rates and the high cost of government. This is an old story for Buffalo. Ever since the city began losing its...

So let’s figure the actual percentage of Americans working, overall. January 2009: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Workforce Participation rate when Obama took office was 65.7%. That means 34.3% of the workforce wasn’t even trying to participate, through discouragement, disability or whatever case applied. Add to that the 7.8% unemployed, and you reach a figure of 57.1% of the American workforce actually working. October 2009: At this point, the “low point” of the Obama recession, the participation rate was an even 65% just in time for unemployment to hit an even 10%., 55% of the American work...

Currently, the American legal and regulatory system is set up to bind as many people to employers as possible. The government wants you to be a wage slave and sets up a regulatory framework that keeps as many of us as possible yoked to bosses and management. The IRS doesn’t like the self-employed, fearing they many conceal income. Banks and credit card companies view such people with suspicion, and it is notoriously difficult for start ups and part time enterprises to have access to formal finance. Many services are hard for the self-employed to get on terms like those made...

Criticisms Convince State To Back Off Projections of Dramatic Sea Level RiseState officials still pushing coastal counties to prepare for a one-meter rise By Sara Burrows Feb. 20th, 2012 RALEIGH — State officials are pressuring local governments to plan for a one-meter sea-level rise by 2100, even though many independent scientists have argued the rise is highly unlikely if not impossible. Even though a state advisory panel no longer recommends regulations based on the one-meter projection, local government officials worry that state regulators will try to implement those rules. Such a policy, they say, would have a devastating impact on...

House Republicans plot repeal of Obama education regulationsBy Pete Kasperowicz - 02/20/12 05:00 AM ET House Republicans are looking to move legislation as early as next week that would repeal two Education Department regulations that the GOP say intrude on the authority of states to set education policy. The Protecting Academic Freedom in Higher Education act, H.R. 2117, was placed on the Rules Committee agenda late last week, a signal that the committee will soon meet to write a rule for floor consideration of the bill. The legislation would reverse two Education Department rules from 2010, one of which sets...

In a potential Election 2012 matchup, the president leads Mitt Romney by a 46% to 42% margin. If Rick Santorum is the Republican nominee, the president leads 47% to 44%. Matchup results are updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update).

GOP hopes ‘Solyndra economy’ becomes Obama political epitaphBy Andrew Restuccia - 02/20/12 01:20 PM ET One year after it began, House Republicans are not letting up in their investigation of the $535 million loan guarantee to the failed solar firm Solyndra. Though the probe has not uncovered evidence of cronyism at the White House, the GOP sees an election-year advantage in pummeling President Obama on Solyndra, and hopes to turn it into a symbol of what they say is a failed administration. House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans marked the Solyndra investigation’s one-year anniversary on Friday with a new catch-phrase...

President Obama served eight years on the board of a charity that is a top donor to the embattled Media Matters for America progressive activist organization. Obama is also tied to numerous other top Media Matters donors and fundraisers, including a foundation run by the finance chairman of his 2008 presidential campaign, Penny Pritzker, WND has learned. Last week, the Daily Caller released a list of grants to Media Matters. A WND review of the donor list found a number of deep ties to Obama. Get Aaron Klein’s “Red Army: The Radical Network that must be defeated to save America”...

U.S. and Mexico ink oil deal involving maritime border in Gulf Oil prices jumped to a nine-month high above $105 a barrel as Iran on Monday reportedly threatened to extend an embargo on Britain and France to other European nations. A day after Tehran said it halted crude shipments to France and Britain, the head of Iran’s state oil company said if other European nations continued “hostile acts,” it would stop exporting oil to them as well, according to the Associated Press, which cited a semiofficial Iranian news agency. But the European Union could handle a sudden end to imports...

Bob Janjuah, a noted investment strategist for Nomura International, has written an analysis, appropriately titled “Bob’s World: Monetary Anarchy,” wherein he offers his own unique take on the current state of the markets. Janjuah’s report, which first appeared on Zero Hedge, claims that we are in a bubble. What’s worse, according to his analysis, is the fact that the markets have also become so manipulated and rigged by policymakers that it’s near impossible to predict where things are headed. He also notes that all over the eurozone, as well as in the U.S., the rule of law has been disregarded...

COMPLETE TITLE: Senator Scott Brown Exposes NOAA’s Illicit $300,000 Party Boat (Video) ### Last week, U.S. Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) filed a Freedom of Information Act request for an Inspector General report on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) illicit purchase and use of a $300,000 luxury fishing boat. The request was granted, and Senator Brown spoke from the Senate floor to reveal the numerous abuses detailed in the previously unknown findings of the Inspector General. The following are the Senator Brown‘s remarks as prepared for delivery on the Senate floor: Here’s the transcript: I rise today to inform...

The eventual Republican nominee should offer a clear alternative to President Obama's foreign policy. Accomplishing this means not only telling the truth about worsening foreign threats, it also means challenging the Washington foreign policy establishment and restoring broken tools of national power. Among the contenders, only Newt Gingrich has the temperament - and the battle scars - to be trusted to wage and win the struggles looming ahead. Telling the truth about the threats we face differs fundamentally from Mr. Obama's approach. The president has said repeatedly that "the tide of war is receding." From the time he first said...

The Obama Administration said Friday it is declining to defend the government in yet another lawsuit challenging federal laws limiting recognition of same-sex marriage. Attorney General Eric Holder sent Congressional leaders a letter formally notifying them that the Justice Department will not defend a case challenging the constitutionality of a federal law preventing same-sex spouses of military personnel from receiving veterans' benefits.

This is Not Just a “Culture War,” It’s An Attack on The First Amendment Posted by Ron Futrell Feb 8th 2012 at 6:30 The media is calling the Barack Obama attack on the Catholic Church a “culture war.” Culture War. The words and graphics are everywhere. It was the ABC News headline one morning, “Candidate’s Culture War” is what the graphic said. As if this is some sort of battle between Obama and the Republican candidates. Yes, it is that, but it us much, much more.This is also a fight much larger than “culture.” Culture is something that defines...

21 March 2010 The Gospel of Life and Health Care Reform Here is the homily I preached at St. Mary's, Greenville on 21 March 2010, the Fifth Sunday of Lent: On 25 March 1995, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, Pope John Paul II promulgated the encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae, on the value and inviolability of human life. Today, four days before the fifteenth anniversary of that glorious defense of the Gospel of Life, the Congress of the United States, led to this moment by the President of the United States, is poised to enshrine in American law a savage assault...

We feel the enormity of an important election on the horizon. As we wait, who out there understands the immense importance of knowing how government in America was meant to work? Why wouldn’t any thinking citizen want to know why our Founding Fathers created our government the way they did, deciding what government was supposed to accomplish, how our leaders were expected to lead? The “Founding Fathers” sound so far away. But their relevance is not, because present-day “progressive” politicians want to sweep away the principles of the fathers so a new structure can be imposed. What’s so great about...

Nationally, gas prices are $3.53 a gallon, up 25 cents since Jan. 1, and likely headed to $4.25 a gallon by late April. Republicans have demanded more oil production at home, as well as building the Keystone XL pipeline across the middle of the U.S. to allow oil from Canada to reach Texas refineries. Obama rejected the plan, but one of his spokesmen, Robert Gibbs, said the president is looking to increase domestic energy production. "Just on Friday, the Department of Interior issued permits that will expand our exploration in the Arctic. The president has increased our fuel efficiency and...

The House Homeland Security Committee hosted a hearing Wednesday afternoon called “An Examination of the President's FY 2013 Budget Request for the Department of Homeland Security” with DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. The Congressmen in attendance were Peter King (Committee Chairman) of New York, Lamar Smith of Texas, Dan Lungren of California, Mike Rogers of Alabama, Michael McCaul of Texas, Bennie Thompson (Committee Ranking Member), Loretta Sanchez of California, Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Yvette Clarke of New York, Laura Richardson of California, Danny Davis of Illinois, Chip Cravaack of Minnesota, Patrick Meeham of Pennsylvania, Scott Rigell...

Memo: From Leni Riefenstahl To: President Barack Obama Schatzi, it's been over a year since I last wrote you. Please forgive me. It's been so hot here I can barely stand to touch the keyboard. Not that I don't appreciate the green energy projects you funded to cool off this place, but dear, you know even with the trillions you spent, those projects just keep going under. Yes, I know it helped put billions in the pockets of your donors, but hell is not freezing over you know and we could use energy for the air conditioners. Anyway, I forced...

"I am staggered at how easily the concepts of Democracy and the Rule of Law – two of the pillars of the modern world – have been brushed aside in the interests of political expediency." SNIP---- I am not well equipped to navigate bubbles where tactical views and secular views are all thrown into the melting pot together, where there is no visibility, where – as one client put it to me recently – we have Monetary Anarchy running riot, where the elastic band between the ‘real’ economy and the current liquidity-fuelled markets is stretched further and further beyond credulity,...