Free Republic

If you can’t cover it up anymore, turn it into a joke. President Obama poked fun at the checkered political history of his hometown Chicago on Tuesday, reminding voters in Wisconsin to vote early — but not often.“You can only vote once — this isn’t Chicago, now,” Obama said at a rally in Milwaukee for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke.Obama was brought in to fire up the Democratic base, traveling to a ward in which he carried 99 percent of the vote in the 2012 presidential contest against Republican Mitt Romney. At least it’s not one of those places where...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Go to the sound bites coming next and you'll hear them: They think they've turned the corner. Like on April 15th, everybody's gonna file their taxes. Is Obama gonna do a Rose Garden ceremony to talk about how persuasive he's been and how many people love the income tax? "My God, look at this, folks! Look at how many have complied this year. Look how many people love the income tax, and the income tax is making our country and a transfer of wealth possible. Look at how many millions and millions and millions of people file...

This graphic from Woods Hole in Massachusetts – one of the world’s top ocean science institutions – shows how much more cesium was dumped into the sea off Japan from Fukushima as compared to nuclear testing and Chernobyl [above]: The Canadian government has confirmed in October that Fukushima radiation will exceed “levels higher than maximum fallout” from the nuclear tests. The party line from the Japanese, Canadian and American governments are that these are safe levels of radiation. Given that those countries have tried to ban investigative journalism and have tried to cover up the scope of the Fukushima...

Stardate 20021005.2128 (On Screen): As I think many of my readers know, I used to work for Qualcomm designing cell phones. Qualcomm is the company which invented CDMA, and made it practical, and made it into a market success, and it now dominates the American market, where Verizon and Sprint both use it. There are two other nationwide cellular systems: AT&T currently uses IS-136 TDMA, which is obsolete and has no upgrade path. Cingular uses GSM, a more sophisticated form of TDMA from Europe. And right now I'm basking in the evil glow of a major case of schadenfreude. The...

The U.S. Postal Service tabled its first lady Michelle Obama-inspired physical activity stamp series due to safety concerns, a Postal Service spokesman confirmed to The Daily Caller Thursday. “The stamps are on hold with the printer and we have not made a decision at this point, right now, with respect to how we are going to move forward,” the USPS spokesman told TheDC. Some of the illustrations on some of the stamps in the series, the spokesman explained, feature activities that some might not consider safe — like doing a cannonball into a swimming pool.

Or are you one of their mindless bots who believes you are somehow special? At Liberty's Torch, Weetabix asked me a question whose answer is too long to put into a small comment. Pascal - I must admit up front that a surfeit of current projects has undermined my normal willingness to research - have you any links to further explain the "Malthusian Sustainability nuts?"  The answer is even too long for a single post, but I need try at least this once. For my recent thoughts, the Sustainability label at my blog will provide you many examples of news...

Not since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and prior to that the fall of France in 1940, has there been so swift an erosion of the world influence of a Great Power as we are witnessing with the United States. The Soviet Union crumbled jurisdictionally: In 1990-1991, one country became the 16 formerly constituent republics of that country... The cataclysmic decline of France, of course, was the result of being overrun by Nazi Germany in 1940...What we are witnessing now in the United States, by contrast, is just the backwash of inept policy-making in Washington, and nothing...

Chris Weidman sent a shock wave through mixed martial arts, stopping Anderson Silva in the second round of the main event at UFC 162 to become the new middleweight champion on Saturday night. Silva talked, taunted and dared Weidman to engage him. When the champion lowered his hands early in the second round, Weidman caught him with a short left that sent the MMA star to the mat. Weidman pounced and landed a few more shots that forced referee Herb Dean to stop the fight at 1:18

A very interesting ACA development is taking place in Massachusetts today as the state that “inspired” Obamacare tries to reconcile its current law with the new federal law. Push back in the compliance effort is coming from an unexpected source, the senior Democratic budget writer in the State Senate, Senator Stephen Brewer, presumably with support from the Senate President as well.

WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday Congress should replace "dumb" federal spending cuts before the so-called sequester "causes further damage." In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president said the sequester -- a series of automatic, across-the-board federal spending cuts -- was a bad idea when Congress adopted it and "as the country saw this week, it's a bad idea now." Obama said the cuts are affecting families whose children are being "kicked out of Head Start programs," and "seniors who depend on programs like Meals on Wheels to live independently." "There are military...

President Obama will attend a memorial in West, Texas for those killed in the explosion there last week, the press secretary announced today. Obama will be in Texas anyway for a Democratic fundraiser...

Sweden really is annoying. We've made both Germany and Russia look like fools on battle fields. We haven't experienced war for two centuries by now, but we're prepared for the next one. We once were poor, but today, we enjoy a standard of living that clearly is better than that of the average American or any other country on Earth for that sake. Few Americans could afford a car like the Volvo V70 (best selling car in Sweden) and only a small percentage of the American population own second homes (very common in Sweden). Furthermore, my Sweden is more technologically...

Joshua Green shares an amazing story about the secret negotiations between Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich for a “unity ticket” during the Republican Presidential primary. In the end, Green reports, neither of the two Republican leaders could agree which of the two would be president. (T)he two candidates spoke face-to-face at an energy forum just before the primary. Gingrich made an elaborate historical argument that when the party hasn’t been able to agree on a nominee, it always settles on the senior figure. Santorum wasn’t persuaded, and urged Gingrich to do what was best for the conservative movement.

The California camp ranger carjacked by ex-cop turned fugitive Christopher Dorner last month has filed a lawsuit seeking claim to the entire $1.2 million reward leading to his capture. Rick Heltebrake, who was robbed at gunpoint by Dorner while driving on a Big Bear-area road last month, has filed his suit against the city of Los Angeles claiming that it was his 911 phone call that led to Dorner's cornering. The full-time Boy Scouts ranger's life was spared during that carjacking while allowed to safely exit his truck and later call 911. According to his claim, it was that call...

A country and a people can be measured in its breath and its depth. A government can either choose breadth of control or depth of control—but it cannot have both. Breadth of control allows for governing a large area, but with only limited control and influence over those who live there. Depth of control allows for extensive control over the lives of a population, but such control requires government infrastructure of equal depth that is difficult to sustain or project over a large territory. One is a mile wide and an inch deep. The other is a mile deep and...

There’s only one way to say something like this, and it’s loud and proud and without apology: I wholeheartedly support Mike Bloomberg’s war on sugar. It’s unassailable as policy. Refined sugar is without question the worst foodstuff in the world for human health, and high-fructose corn syrup is little better. We are a fat country getting fatter and fatter, and these mountains of refined sugar that people ingest are a big part of the reason. The costs to the health-care system are enormous, so the public interest here is ridiculously obvious. Obesity is a killer. Are we to do nothing,...

Top Hollywood producer and Obama bundler Harvey Weinstein attend the White House state dinner last night and had nothing but wonderful things to say about the president. "I'm so thrilled he's running for reelection, he's done a fantastic job, and he's the most underestimated president I've seen," Weinstein said, according to the pool report. "He's too humble, and his accomplishments far outweigh his esteem, but people will learn that in time."

Obama says he deserves re-election, job's not done WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says he deserves re-election, despite the nation's economic troubles. Obama said in a pre-Super Bowl interview on NBC that his administration is creating more than 250,000 jobs a month, the most since 2005, and a reversal from the 750,000 jobs the economy was losing three years ago. The president said American manufacturing still needs a boost and "We have got to make sure we are pushing American energy, not just oil and gas, but clean energy." Obama also said the country needed to return to "old-fashioned...

An auctioneer has hired experts to try to verify claims by the owner of the century old instrument that it belonged to Wallace Hartley, the leader of the vessel’s eight-man musical ensemble. If proved, it could become the most valuable Titanic artefact ever to be considered for auction. But the claim is being treated with caution as a result. Hartley and his fellow musicians earned legendary status for their decision to play on as the ship sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912. They are said to have played the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee” after the...